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| Somebody's Miracle | |
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I saw a film the other day - Broken Flowers -
a Cannes award winner featuring some of the bigger names
of the movie world, including Bill Murray playing himself. Again. Really,
his deadpan shtick is amusing, but it's been done to death.
Well I think so anyway. So the experience of sitting through
it once more was akin to two hours of Chinese water torture.
It was painful. And yet, there were many in the theatre who
loved it. Who burst into outrageous laughter at every innocuous
gag. Which got me thinking. Film, perhaps more so than any medium,
is so subjective. Because you are sitting there for such an
extended period of time with no interaction and no capacity
to escape from the moment, a great deal revolves around the
experiences, the moods, the sense of anticipation that you bring
to the occasion. I was feeling a little flat that
night; therefore my perception of the film was no doubt tainted.
The couple in front of me certainly wasn't. In fact, they were
having a great time of it, munching away and whispering throughout
in conspiratorial tones. More power to them. Just don't sit
in front of me next time. |
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| Table For One | |
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The feature artist
this week is Andrew James Jones, Welsh born
but now residing in London. He has a book - Leaks - available
and a website
full of his unique illustrations. Speaking of which, check
out the work of Marco.
Simply brilliant. As is the photography of Australian Matthew
Sleeth. Away from the arts, I interviewed the young Australian
actress, Abbie
Cornish, recently. She was the star of the beautifully
ethereal movie, Somersault, which featured
an amazing soundtrack by electro-pop group Decoder
Ring. I asked her if she had ever considered
a musical career? 'I love to play music. I think anything
creative, whether it's filmmaking, painting, dancing, or music,
is an ideal way to explore and express oneself, and for me,
doing these things, as well as being with my family and friends,
is when I feel most happy'. What styles of music are you
into? 'I have a wide range of taste. Some of the first
albums I was exposed to were from Neil Young, Led Zeppelin,
Joni Mitchell, a lot of seventies rock and roll. The first
cd I ever bought was Ani Difranco's Living
in Clip. I remember hearing 'Untouchable Face' on the radio
then spending the next few days tracking it down'. |
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| Alternate Cuts | |
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On You Are Real, Australian duo Stewart
& Melville channel the spirit of 10cc, Supertramp
and Pink Floyd, in the process creating one of the more
adventurous and compelling albums of the past few years.
It's a real sonic journey, kicking off with the synth and
vocoder driven intro - 'U R Real' -
and moving across all ten windswept, heavily treated and
melodically twisting tracks. The psychedelic tone of the
production offsets the rather straight compositional nature
of the album. It's not so much the songs that captivate
but the bold and progressive package in which they're wrapped.
The second song, 'Friends', is a good case
in point - a standard chord progression, dressed to
kill. Indeed, one gets the impression that the epic nature
of this album will scare conservative radio programmers,
so you'll probably have to discover it for yourself.
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| Things of substance | |
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Where Diverse differs from many of the other hip-hop artists out there is in his effortless blending of genres (musically) and his propensity to take complex lyrical rhythms and make them understandable to those who don't necessarily possess a thesaurus much less a transcript of what's been said. He is being rightly hailed as the hottest new talent out of Chicago. And there are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, his musical backing is deeply rooted in old-school funk, which gives it a wonderful edge. Then there's the subtle production touches, which embraces soulful harmonizing, trippy instrumentals and a number of guest performances from Lyrics Born, Mos Def and Vast Aire. And finally, Diverse is fresh and dynamic in his approach, clearly respecting the work of his predecessors while never staying too wedded to any particular style. |
| And Finally | |
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