Archive Page 14

Rock it!

Written for Instinkt magazine last week, here is another re-post of my “Creaking” column, in Czech.

Na Facebooku teď několik kamarádů oznámilo oprášení gramofonu, což je přesně to, co jsem udělal i já už před rokem a s dlouhou pauzou jsem se k tomu teď vrátil. Ze všech těch desek na mě vykoukla monstra s historií vepsanou v drážkách. Bílej vinyl prvního EP Ecstasy Of St. Theresa “Pigment” je a bude deska, kterou pustím pokaždý, když dojde na mejdan. Zčásti pro tu barvu, zčásti proto, že to je nebojácná deska, která vznikla v době, kdy kapely jako My Bloody Valentine poslouchaly teenage buchty s barevnejma tkaničkama při prvním pettingu zatímco dneska se z tehdejší Ekstáze ježí chlupy i nejotrlejším – holt lidi měknou a hloupnou. Disintegration (The Cure) a Life’s Too Good (Sugarcubes) jsou povinný kusy, stejně jako zážitek pustit si Depeche Mode, Talking Heads nebo Devo zase z desky. Pochopíte rozdíl mezi singlem a koncepcí elpíčka. Náhodou zachovaná kolekce kompilačních desek Breakdance (západní obdoba džezgymnastiky) od německý značky WEA je ale ultimátní hudební porno ve všech významech toho slovního spojení. V době, kdy jsem je dostal, jsem je neocenil, byl jsem ještě nezkažený, ale dneska je to ten největší odvaz, kterej byste mohli pustit nagelovanejm Italům v Chapeu Rouge nebo pražskejm úchylákům v Zeru stejně tak jako s kamarády proměnit svůj byt v retro-dancehall bizarních parametrů. Kdo netuší, ať si vzpomene na znělku “Cvičme v rytme” a kdo v tý době byl ještě rozdělenej na dvě pohlavní buňky, ať okamžitě koukne na videa níže. Let the music play!

A tady jedny Sugarcubes.

Effect tornado.

I love The Tornadoes, an instrumental beat band from early ’60, I respect some of the studio products bearing the name of Joe Meek, the famous producer of this band, who created soundscapes from outer space never heard before and revolutionized the way people, engineers and producers, started to work in studio. No doubt I adore Telstar, the biggest Tornadoes’ and number one UK and US hit. And I can’t imagine my life without Electro-Harmonix effect pedals which I use for everything from guitar and synths to voice.

Finally, when you can hear Telstar performed on guitar through EHX pedals sounding exactly like the original recorded on Clavioline, prehistoric vacuum tube synthesizer, it is a grateful and extraordinary experience. And seamless source of inspiration for studio chemistry.

This is the original mono recording of The Tornadoes, produced by Joe Meek. All sounds contained in the recording are intended.

And this is the remake on guitar and chain of EHX pedals. Warning: Don’t look at the guitar. It’s really ugly!

Good job indeed.

Last night we were watching The Bank Job, a true story based 2008 crime drama by Roger Donaldson, coincidentally with the last British news just running into press in the same time.

Yes, British imperium as well as the American, has a lot to hide and must play a higher games than we, mortals, do play everyday. We do the little lies, they do the important ones. In contrast to actual “oil justice” case, which injects literally oil into blood of every honest citizen and Lockerbie survivors especially and puts UK government and secret services into a public doubt, The Bank Job describes with a slightly romantic license a forty years old unbelievable story of a bank robbery on behalf of preservation of royal family credit and national security.

It tells a story which in the end of the day is, lets say, slightly uplifting having in mind what’s going on in todays world. Starts as a traditional robbery story, with couple of losers in need having a chance for a change, but reasons and results are quickly multiplied and in less than two hours climax into justifying scenery where the British old-time Robin Hood complex is totally fulfilled raising questions about guilt of “small” criminals in comparison to “big” criminals. The happy ending (omitting several main characters’ death) and breathtaking robbery-story describes a job booked through beautiful Martine by MI-5 or 6 to get rid of couple of nude/porn pictures of the british princess allowing wiping out one black activist, a serious danger, being a pimp and pusher in the same time. Corruption everywhere and against it stands a bunch of little swindlers with Terry in front having stronger fundamentals that the holy kingdom. Superb casting, beautiful cars, stylish outfits, the real british criminal feel. Quality evening entertainment with a little bit of “lateral after-thinking” if you wish.

Music updated.

I just updated the Music tab and added one breakthrough German hit written for a commercial from the past. Enjoy with care.

Sketch 4

This sketch isn’t a burst of musical inspiration. Rather, it’s inspired by a piece of software. My favorite TAL owner/engineer Patrick Kunz came up with another brilliant and free software synth, NoiseMaker. Again, Rolandesque in my opinion, but this time with really generous specifications and incredible sound results making this synth another workhorse besides TAL U-no and above all the almighty TAL Bass-line (for more info read this post). Build on his previous soft-synth Electro, this mono/poly synth with three oscillators and two LFOs, reverb, 2-stage Juno chorus and bitcrusher for instant lo-fi creates sounds similar in many ways to it’s predecessors, already mentioned Electro, U-no (Juno) and Bass-Line (SH-101) but thanks to its polyphony and independent LFOs you can easily create sounds very similar to 100.000 CZK and critically vintage Roland Jupiter. Don’t expect miracles but you’ll be surprised. I found it absolutely inspirational and I felt in love with sounds of this synth immediately. Later on I discovered some bugs with reverb and LFO sync, but nothing what should stop one from using it on a daily basis in a studio or live. Comes for Mac and PC, 32 and 64 bit versions. AU and VST. Recommended for everyone who thinks that analogue synth sound in software version is still better than having a hardware workstation packed with last up to date super sounds.

This demo is created entirely on TAL NoiseMaker hosted by Logic 9 with couple of Logic plug-ins and TAL Tube on the bass synth line.



I like music videos with bands in it.

Really. It’s all about the band and not about the director’s exhibition which is so often so wrong. And there’s nothing bad about it if the band has an attitude as these boys. Nothing breakthrough but a solid music video reminding old days when the music was the main part and the exotic location was the idea.

Film Spa, part 3.

Today, some of the most controversial hits of the 45. IFF KV. Plus trailers in this and previous posts.

Mr. Nobody

For sure one of the most talked-about film of the festival, very controversial, very big. At the beginning I should admit that despite I HATE the movie, there are qualities and some conceptions that really catch me in the first let’s say 30-40 minutes. As the trailer shows, inside of the overinflated story of Mr. Nobody, probably the most opulent European film ever made, there was a place for couple of fantasque and dummies-friendly philosophical ideas. The freedom of choice, the duty of choice, dreams, value of life, immortality. The whole film takes 155 minutes and almost the same number of parallel story lines being told forward and in reverse. It could be a huge film achievement quite easily apart from the fact that it isn’t, in my very honest opinion. In reality you can judge the film either as a brilliant cinematographer’s showreel with an ability to win any advertising pitch for a great looking commercial or as an uncontrolled bullshit being drawn back by self-admiration and twittle-twattle muse. Imagine Gondry-esque plot and storytelling plus enormous loads of money, brilliant ads-like cinematography, stunning CGI, breathtaking postproduction, even more narcissism than you saw in La Science des reves (y’know Gondry is French, but Jaco Van Dormael is Belgian) minus talent. People love it. And I say, yes, go and watch it and make your own opinion.

45%

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

Simple, stupid and brilliant. This parody on camping-students horrors like Friday 13th is pure entertainment with the script being written tightly, with no logical gaps. The cast, the camera, the dialogues, the SFX (blood, body parts), the grading – everything is right. Plus the twist which makes this parody a little outstanding: it’s not these creepy local rednecks, be aware of the students – they are the pure evil. It is what it is and as it is it’s RECOMMENDED.

85%

A Serious Man

I don’t want to talk too much about this one because this one isn’t easy. It’s an entertaining bitter and black comedy from the masters of the genre: Coen bros. I’ve been dragged into the story of “Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel through multiple sudden incidents” (imdb.com) and I liked it despite the tempo is not fast and not even steady. If you don’t get the connection of the overture and the film itself, you will be disappointed, or left a bit unsatisfied in the end. Now, after few weeks, when I already know that a damnation is the name of the game, the picture of the whole film in my brain is brighter and I see the story clearly as superb as fatal. In my defense I must say I knew right after the screening that I should give it some time and it paid off. One of my favorite Coens movies.

85%

Film Spa, part 2.

Son of Babylon

For me definitely the most breath taking film of the festival. Imagine The Road being a little bit less dangerous but way more real and hopeless. A few weeks after Saddam’s fall in Iraq. A grandmother and her grandson, a 12 years old boy, both Kurds, on a thousand kilometers long journey to find their son/dad in a Saddam’s prison. When the story turns rapidly into a landless and never-ending search for at least a sign of the sons/dads identity, when the only wish remained is to know for sure that he is dead but getting no certainty, the journey becomes literally deserted. The grandmother becomes inconsolably sad, the son is perplexed and exposed to unlimited misery all over. The grandmother dies on a back of a car hallucinating while he faces the road in front of him with tired and forever changed eyes. Thanks to amazing actors and to the character of a willful boy this incredibly sad story has its own entertaining potential and surprisingly, you will have a laugh in some scenes. The dialogues are temperate but greatly written and every single character in the film is not only “real” but important and highly interesting. Some friends said that it’s too much calculative and emotionally hijacking. I don’t think so at all.

85%

La Isla Interior

Why all Spanish movies want to look like another Almodovar? This one is much closer to a telenovela than to a festival film and despite some very fine moments and interesting plot, the film itself feels hollow and constructed. Schizophrenia, sexual abuse in a family, wrong and ill people. Maybe it was all too much, maybe it was just because the same day I saw Son of Babylon, but I felt distant. And I didn’t bought it. It is not a bad film in comparison to an overall production in Europe, it’s just nothing you would need to think twice and then talk about.

45%

More to go: Mr. Nobody, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, The Gift and A Serious Man

Film Spa, part 1.

Apart from almost continuous drinking in past two weeks I prescribed myself an intense film treatment. Started two weeks ago in Prague, then taking place at IFF Karlovy Vary and ending in bed last night. Here is a brief recap of “drugs” used during this exhausting period. Part one, first four out of ten. Some of them still at cinemas around you (including Šary Vary, a IFF KV after-party).

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Directed by Wes Anderson, it is an amazingly entertaining story as you would expect from this talented genius. Well told, superbly executed. I love it, because “I am a wild animal”! And, last but not least, it is not a 3D CGI animation.

100%

The Ghost Writer

Roman Polanski knows a lot about politics, law and crime finishing this piece from his house arrest. The main character, a ghostwriter working on a memoirs of a former British prime-minister, “arrested” on an island close to U.S. east coast, put himself into a serious but hidden danger for a reasonable (?) money and observes he is caught in a trap. The only thing he doesn’t know is that it is a deathtrap. A brilliant thriller with great atmosphere, amazing locations and very good casting proving that the Art and commercial filmmaking can go hand-in-hand. Nevertheless Polanski didn’t escape fully cliche of the genre, he created another great story which is visually stunning thanks also to Pawel Edelman, the D.O.P. of the movie.

80%

The Man From Hong Kong

It was directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith back in 1975. Trenchard was present at the festival in Karlovy Vary and this screening was introduced by the director himself. Mr. Trenchard spoke out his love for the saggy cinematography, he was honest and witty and he wished the audience good luck when he discovered that the sold out big auditorium of Thermal hotel is full of people like me- The Man From Hong Kong virgins. However it’s not possible to approach this film seriously, we’ve been entertained from the very first scene at Uluru rock and we’ve never thought that a rogallo can be such a critical weapon when fighting against a narco-mafia. With no doubts it is a classic of its genre – a kung-fu Bond-like movies of the Australian provenience in the “B movies” category. You know it is worth to see it again if you already saw it before and if not and you are not a film-critic, I just recommend this one for you for one of the sunday afternoons. Btw, some of the sex scenes are really, lets say, very 70’s!

70%

Black Narcissus

Another piece of the history shown at IFF KV, remastered, as a part of a retrospective dedicated to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. They created this Technicolor movie in 1947 and its simple story leads from England to Himalaya where a bunch of nuns is trying to set up a monastery and educate and cure natives. It is very, lets say, straightforward screenplay full of temptation, danger, understanding, love towards God, love towards humankind or specific representatives of humankind, hate and many funny situations which help the story to swallow. Surprisingly, it’s not boring at all and the film has three strong highlights: one (or two, up to personal taste) beautiful nuns, stunning Technicolor picture with very artistic cinematography and interesting and for that time revolutionary set design as the whole mountain adveture is shot in studios in England with an amazing technical result.

60%

Next time: Son of Babylon, La Isla Interior, Mr. Nobody (tweak me!), Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, The Gift and A Serious Man. And some unseen recommendations.

Gossip (true).

Ahoj Beth!

Říkala jsi včera, že se naučíš česky, tak píšu ve svym rodnym jazyce. Můžeš to brát jako lekci zdarma. Vzhledem k tomu, jak dlouho jsi včera cvičila “díky moc”, si sice tuhle zprávu přeložíš tak za rok, ale alespoň to budeš číst s odstupem.

Nejen včera celý den jsem zase poslouchal tvou poslední desku Music For Men, abych se znovu přesvědčoval, že ty a tvoje kapela máte fakt výjimečnou energii, a tak jsem do Sasazu mířil s velkým nadšením a očekáváním. Nemá smysl chodit kolem horký kaše: Vaše vystoupení bylo zklamáním. Kapela nepodala nikterak převratně elektrizující výkon, dokonce jsem do půlky koncertu váhal, jestli to s tebou dohrajou, nebo jestli náhodou nepojedou na hotel okamžitě. Taky se ukázalo, že ta vaše fúze funku a indie rocku trochu padá na hubu tím, že si ty věci jsou hrozně podobný stavbou. To se dalo asi zachránit, kdybyste set přetavili v jednu jedoucí non-stop party a dali tak důraz na to, co vám jde nejlíp: že se na vás skvěle tancuje. Jenže to bys nesměla mít ty svoje nekonečný a po chvíli už vážně hodně trapný kecy mezi písničkama. Kapela byla během druhý půlky už docela rozjetá, ale ty jsi vždycky spolehlivě zabila tempo svým jazykovým kurzem.

Čím víc jsi mluvila, tím víc jsem přemejšlel, kdo tě poslouchá. To ne ty se svou kapelou, ale já tam byl včera špatně. Publikum Evropy 2 doplněné o hosty přilehlé restaurace, kteří zřejmě dostávali lístek zdarma k dražším menu (když přijedou autem nad milion), si tvůj koncert užili maximálně (a nejen oni, abych nebyl nespravedlivej ke složení publika). Pro ně jsi byla vážně zajímavé zviřátko a vzhledem k tomu, že většina z nich byla poprvé v životě na “alternativním” koncertě, byli opravdu paf. (Je fakt, že publikum fungovalo výborně a vytvořilo skvělou atmosféru.) Tys nenechala nic náhodě, a abys je ujistila, že k nim patříš, zazpívalas několikrát za koncert takový “záchytný body” v podobě úryvků Lady Gaga, Outkast a Whitney Houston (I Will Always Love You na konci mě osobně dostalo do kolen a přemýšlím ještě dneska, jaks to vlastně myslela, protože v kontextu celku mi to jako vtip nevyznělo.). Občasným prděním do mikrofonu a následným zjišťováním, jak se “phart” řekne česky, ses bez nadsázky nominovala do nějaké hodně vtipné české ranní rozhlasové show. Za naprostý higlighty v dobrém slova smyslu (vidíš, chci ti pomoct při čtění občasnými anglismy) považuju vystoupení Pumlíče a přistání Pavla Kučery v jeho kosmickém modulu. Asi to děláš dobře, holka, protože po tobě šílí celej svět, ale hlas jako Aretha Franklin nemáš a Kylie z tebe asi taky nikdy nebude. Takže nezbejvá než buď poradit, abyste se vrátili k muzice a celej koncert vám šlapal jako včera odpálený Heavy Cross, Men In Love nebo naprosto strhující, byť ojedinělá, Standing In The Way Of Control. Nebo můžete doufat, že tvoje obézní queer image bude ještě nějakou dobu zabírat i s průměrným koncertním výkonem. Protože desky točíte vážně skvělý. O tom není pochyb. Ostatně jsme se o tom přesvědčili všichni na afterparty ve Friends, kde ty vaše fláky už zase zněly od DJskýho pultu naprosto neodolatelně. Po zkušenosti ze Sasazu jsem ale radši odešel dřív, než jste dorazili vy. A tak ses ke mě včera se svou hudbou a kouzlem osobnosti nedostala blíž než na kilometr. Což vzhledem k faktu, že jsme si v jednu chvíli mohli podat ruku, docela zamrzí. Navíc za ty prachy.

Měj se hezky a příště se do toho víc obujte! Není se čeho bát. Zajděte třeba na Rapture nebo !!!, určitě je znáte.

M.


Martin Destroyer

prikryl@me.com
directors@mods.cz
prostitutes@theprostitutes.org

Skype: martindestroyer
iChat: prikryl@mac.com

RSS The Prostitutes

  • An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.

Flickr Photos