Monthly Archives: January 2012

Larks on a String: Jiří Menzel and Bohumil Hrabal defeat totalitarianism with spirit.

What a week in film I’ve had!  What a week anyway – but I have been so lucky as to have seen some of the most incredible films this week. I watched Larks on a String today, and all I can say is thank god I own it, because it is a film that I […]

Tokyo Kid Brothers – Throw Away The Books, Let’s Go Into The Streets (1971)

I’ve had the pleasure of listening to some outstanding music in the past seven days, some of it contempo, some of it retro. Among the gems on my ipod at the moment, are Tokyo Kid Brothers – Throw Away the Books, Let’s Go Into the Streets. Glorious, psychedelic japanese freakout music from 1971 that is […]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: David Fincher goes Hollywood on Sweden

It isn’t the downer it appears to be when I tell you the best part about this film is the opening credits. A nightmarish, amorphous vision in liquid monochrome, with an eardrum-frazzling score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. I was so excited by the opening credits I forgot i was a bit miffed that this film […]

Madam Bovary: Claude Chabrol takes on a classic

For many years Madame Bovary belonged to that classic box of literature labelled ‘unfilmable’.  The main reason for this is the complex nature of the novels structure. The power of this novel lies not in the plot, but in the characters relationship to what happens to them. Flaubert’s novel is hailed as one of the […]

Hobo Cubes – Modern synth with a touch of inner peace.

I know we all love Hobo Cubes. I know they are popular. At least in the avant-garde scene theyr’e popular. Well, there’s a reason for that. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Hobo Cubes, or are, but love them like I do, here is a bit of a smapler from Soundcloud and around […]

Samla Mammas Manna’s Maltid: Prog Rock the way it was meant to be.

Samla Mammas Manna was a Swedish progressive rock band, often characterized by its virtuoso musicianship, circus references and sillyhumour, similar in many ways to the song-writing styles of Frank Zappa. They were one of the founding members of the Rock in Opposition (RIO) movement in the late 1970s. In 1979 they were Fred Frith‘s backing band on his solo album, Gravity (1980). Musically they bore resemblance to some bands of […]

Beware of a holy whore: Fassbinders take on film

I really really enjoyed this film! in researching Fassbinder, I have read that he was heavily influenced by Jean-Luc Godard and I can only assume that to be the case, because Godard is all over this fantastic film – however Fassbinder has the smarts and the eye to take Godard just that little further. In […]

The Weeknd: Thursday

For my money – of which this wonderful artist requires none – this is the best of the 2011 trilogy of albums launched upon us from The Weeknd. While the first album was breakthrough, and I really did get the whole fear factor etc, I found it so ‘bad’ it got a little preachy for […]

The Trial of Joan of Arc: Bresson answers Dreyer with sound

The Trial of Joan of Arc by Robert Bresson tells the story of Joan of Arc during the final period of her captivity and her execution in 1430.  As with all Breasson films, there is no back story to the lives of the characters, but in this case, one is not necessary. This story is […]

Taj Mahal Travelers: soul-ploughed lust to thrill to.

Takehisa Kosugi was Born in Tokyo in 1938, and graduated in 1962 at the Tokyo University of Arts.  Kosugi founded the Japanese equivalent of the Fluxus movement, called “Group Ongaku”, a group devoted to improvisation and multi-media performances. In 1969 he formed the Taj Mahal Travelers,  a psychedelic-rock group that played lengthy improvised jams that can be summarized […]