Mix mix mix

Maxim Lany by 10 Days Off

Deep mix at Soundcloud from 10 Days Off named after fellow Belgian the wicked Maxim Lany.
Image of NYC from the soopoib Only This Nothing More

Celebrity

So I watched this Woody Allen film for the second time. Loved it even more the second time. Amazed it only got 6.2 on imdb cos for me it's a full 10. Allow me to be a Londonish Truffaut and give you reasons why.

1. The art not the man.

Nobody with any sense can forgive the real Woody for having sex with his adopted daughter (ok, he married her and stuff but it's still a moral crime for most people). However, Woody is a great film maker being unswervingly honest about his beliefs, his passions and therefore his self.

Is the self a false construct of memories and fantasies? Sure, but we need it if we are to live with ourselves in this post-capitalist capitalist universe.

2. Choosing Ken

Ken Branagh, thin-lipped, tousle-haired Englishman, obsessed with Shakespeare and as English as Hamlet himself. An excellent choice to play the 'Woody' character. He does well, being from the Olivier school, though he may have picked up a few tricks from the Cassavetes / Strasberg / Stanislavsky school.

An aside - real acting is not pretending it is feeling. For example, Tom Cruise is usually crap and Steve Buscemi (in reality he was a fireman in 9/11, in medialand he was Mr Pink and Buddy Holly in Tarantinoland, he was Tony's cousin in that great postmodern gangster epic The Sopranos and his first role a musician dying of AIDS - clearly a bit of a top man) is always great.

Another aside - what rescues Enter The Void from being slightly unsatisfying is the performance of Cyril Roy. Noe, clearly a nutter like Kubrick is an excellent film maker but has no time for morality. So he hired a genuinely hip, cool bloke to be the friend of Oscar. When Cyril / Alex walks down the street (such a great scene - we are there) with Oscar and cries and fucks in the film, he is not acting, just being himself. Just my opinion, don't sue.

Also, regarding Ken's Englishness, I notice Woody tips his hat to the political stand the aesthetes make over here by calling movies films. Everyone in this film says film not movie. Just as Godard pointed out in Elogie d'Amor that in English there is no word for what Spanish speakers call Estadounidense. Thus when we say American we kind of insult Brazilians, Mexicans, Canadians, Jamaicans, Columbians...

3. It's a story about the breakdown of a marriage, but there is (refreshingly) no moral message.

When Ken meets Winona, (Leaving Famke, his new bit) the soaring old-school strings can be read by the Right as ironic and by the Left as post-ironic. Something for everyone.

4. It's a story about how religion can get in the way of sexuality.

Woody is Semitic rather than Jewish (I think). I don't know how much he knows about the 'old religion' but we all know he's been in therapy for ages. Whether it's Freudian, Jungian or Californian we don't need to know.

5. It's a story about a 'mid-life crisis'

Symbolised excellently when Ken gets Charlize in his car and then drives (absurdly) straight into a shop window with a big expensive clock in it.

6. There's a Felliniesque element to it

There are moments when the simple beauty of the images and hum of the conversation remind me of 8 1/2. For example, at the house of Joe the family man who seduces Ken's ex.

7. There's a theory that all art is a projection of the self.

Ken faints when a critic critises his work. I would analyse this as Woody saying his work is his life, his gift to the world. Also, more significantly it's the 'in therapy Woody' saying 'don't worry what other people think, do your thing'

8. Woody still does comedy but the US is divided into Right and Left.

A good right-wing joke (laughing at sexual prowess) is the pro choking on the banana.

A good left-wing joke (controversial, absurd) is in the Springeresque green room the Rabbi saying 'did the skinheads eat all the bagels?'

9. Nice circular format.

HELP. Great.

10. Leo.

Leo di Caprio, a girlboy who Scorsese has unconvincingly casted has a hard man here parodies himself, smashing up hotel rooms, having orgies. It's the only way he can show Gretchen he loves her whilst also enjoying his bromances and other lady love.

Yeah, a masterpiece it is. Fuck the movies.

Image And Word Stuff

Jahsonic's always worth a look. It informs us the work of Nathanael West is now in the public domain. I remember reading his books when I was digging alternative American literature a lot. It's ok stuff.

My lady’s eyes appear to be

Like brimming pools of ecstasy,

Deep wells, from which the twinkles flow

Unceasingly as on they go

To charm me with their witchery;

Mayhap an easy prey they see,

Enmeshed by their dexterity;

I can’t protest; they thrill me so—

My lady’s eyes.

Although they gaze alluringly,

Appealing with such potentcy,

Oft times in them I see a glow

Which warns me that I should go slow,

For then, you know, I really see

My lady lies!

—Rondeau by Nathanael West

I have subversively coupled this with another image which I found at I Love Graffiti. Sleep tight.

Joan Miro

Great exhibition at the Tate Modern right now.

Bongwater - Jimmy / Lesbians of Russia

Heaviness

Mogwai - New Paths To Helicon Part 1

First heard this on John Peel when I was about 15. Was amazed by its beauty and otherworldniness but wasn't quite ready for it. Now one of my very favourite tracks.

T Recs

Just a couple of things I think you might like...



This album, complete with titillating cover and lost in translation title is never going to get a waffly deconstruction show but it is a well lovely bit of trio jazz. Act quick cos Quimsy likes to take his links down (link is in comments). Here.



And cool French geezer gilb-r uploaded some excellent obscure nuggets here.

Detriot - Moonstarr

Detriot by Moonstarr

These days I like my techno and house a bit deeper but this is a classic from my Gilles P days - Moonstarr's Detriot (intentionally mispelt apparently!)

Image by Amy Grappell at Contemporary Art Daily

What Does Boogie Mean?

Enjoy this fantastic clip from Billy Wilder's 1941 film Ball Of Fire where Gary Cooper is cast against type as a bumbling academic who falls for Barbara Stanwyck's utterly smokin' gangster's moll / nightclub singer. Gene Krupa has a great cameo as himself here. I hope you enjoy the 'hip' slang as much as I do. Wait for the end where the 'wild man' GK does a match trick. Killer!

Sounds

So many fine mixes at Allez Allez tho the one by Men & Machines (April 06 2011) is one of the most outstanding (partiularly love the Maxim Lany track)- tracklist...

brain machine – alchemia
superpitcher – moon fever
this heat – 24 track loop
chris & cosey – useless info
emperor machine – aimée tallulah is hypnotized
robert rental and the normal - live at west runton pavilion, 6-3-79
gatekeeper - giza
naum gabo – wet job
ricardo villalobos - dexter
tres demented – demented drums version
egyptian lover – dance (long drum version)
carlos ‘gogo’ gomez – brazilica
arto mwambe – one lonely knight (extended live mix)
justin vandervolgen – clapping song
joachim spieth – up
maxim lany – cuncambias
the hours – ali in the jungle (beg to differ dub)
pete heller – nu acid
brian eno – the big ship

Image is from R.H.Quaytman at Contemporary Art Daily

Tom Greenwood Mix

Getting well into Soundcloud. Just popped in to see JOMF head Tom Greenwood recently uploaded a mix. It is as satisfyingly weird and underground as you would have good reason to expect.

Tom Greenwood - Jackie O Motherfucker Mix by FIRE RECORDS

Image is from Christopher Green at Tiny Vices

Mix

Kind of an experimental mix - where my head is right now...

01. Fix To Fall LOOP
02. Death Drums ECHOBOY
03. On The Subway REITZELL & MANNING JR
04. We Dream Free (Edit) KIERAN HEBDEN & STEVE REID
05. I’m Falling (Paris Bordeaux Mix) CHARLES WEBSTER
06. Titoro BOBBY MONTEZ
07. Track? AIRTO FOGO
08. Pyar Do Pyar Lo JANBAAZ
09. Message From Kenya ART BLAKEY & SABU MARTINEZ
10. Comin’ Home Baby MEL TORME
11. Cause Is Alright CLARENCE G
12. I Feel Joy MOODYMANN & TAJ BELL
13. Science Mystery V.D.B JOEL
14. Nincompop – LALIPUNA / TLS
15. You Made Me Do It AGO
16. Wide Vice KERRIER DISTRICT
17. Never Known Love THIEVES LIKE US
18. Let’s Go Downtown NEIL YOUNG
19. Take It Easy My Brother Charlie SOM TRES

Get it here at Mediafire.

Image is by the great Wim Wenders, named 'Dusk in Coober Pedy, South Australia, 1978'
which I found at Junk For Code.

Trees

Was struck by the simple beauty of these images by Daniel Farber at Beverley Kaye Outsider Art

Fuck Buttons - Surf Solar by Robogeisha

Dub Biznizz

Be

'The Way is like an empty vessel
That yet may be drawn from
Without ever needing to be filled.
It is bottomless: the very progenitor of all things in the world...
It is like a deep pool that never dries
I do not know whose child it could be.
It looks as it were prior to God'

Text is from Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist by D.T. Suzuki (Routledge) - a translation of Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching.
Image is from Aleana Egan at Mary Mary, Glasgow, featured on Contemporary Art Daily

Beautiful Neil

Like Bobby D, Mr Young has taken his tracks of Youtube (or the Blue Meanie record companies have - calm down, dear)
Anywayz, what a fuckin awesome tune. Sometimes Neil's a bit of an old misery guts innit? But here he's rockin out like a full-on mutha.
Lyrics are sad, beautiful, inspiring, the music rolls and soars. Man has fire in his belly. Respect.

I'm The Ocean by Neil Young

I'm an accident
I was driving way too fast
Couldn't stop though
So I let the moment last
I'm for rollin'
I'm for tossin' in my sleep
It's not guilt though
It's not the company I keep

People my age
They don't do the things I do
They go somehwere
While I run away with you
I got my friends
And I got my children too
I got her love
She's got my love too

I can't hear you
But I feel the things you say
I can't see you
But I see what's in my way
Now I'm floatin'
Cause I'm not tied
to the ground
Words I've spoken
Seem to leave a hollow sound

On the long plain
See the rider in the night
See the chieftain
See the braves
in cool moonlight
Who will love them
When they take another life
Who will hold them
When they tremble
for the knife

Voicemail numbers
On an old computer screen
Rows of lovers
Parked forever in a dream
Screaming sirens
Echoing across the bay
To the old boats
From the city far away

Homeless heroes
Walk the streets
of their hometown
Rows of zeros
On a field
that's turning brown
They play baseball
They play football
under lights
They play card games
And we watch them every night

Need distraction
Need romance and candlelight
Need random violence
Need entertainment tonight
Need the evidence
Want the testimony of
Expert witnesses
On the brutal crimes of love

I was too tired
To see the news
when I got home
Pulled the curtain
Fell into bed alone
Started dreaming
Saw the rider once again
In the doorway
Where she stood
and watched for him
Watched for him

I'm not present
I'm a drug
that makes you dream
I'm an aerostar
I'm a cutlass supreme
In the wrong lane
Trying to turn
against the flow
I'm the ocean
I'm the giant undertow

I'm the ocean
I'm the ocean
I'm the giant undertow
I'm the ocean
I'm the giant undertow
I'm the ocean
I'm the ocean
I'm the ocean
I'm the ocean
I'm the ocean
I'm the ocean

Cheese Please

Sexy Sushi

Ended up in fashionable Koko in Camden last Sat and discovered Sexy Sushi... Wow. This band are incredible!! True true spirit of punk here. Incredible energy. Lead singer is so charismatic. If she's straight (unlikely) or bi I hope she locks me in her cupboard for a year!! This performance captures them pretty well. 11 out of 10, easy!

Beau cats

200th post! Loving this work by Harmony Korine.