Author Archives: lisathatcher

I think I need to start smoking: or how to be an artist without a Gauloises hanging from your mouth.

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I was rather disturbed to find out recently that some folk I admire are giving up smoking. I was startled to say the least. No matter what anyone says, smoking remains the hallmark of cool. It’s as synonymous with art as booze, and as chic as any Euro fantasy. Besides my obvious initial concerns (the loss of […]

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Love love love Archaia

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Holy WOW I love this album! ARCHAÏA were formed in the mid-seventies by MAGMA fans who wanted to do something different: play music using percussion only (no drums) and make full use of the guitar. They have alternately been compared to JADE WARRIOR, ARACHNOID, HELDON, MAHAVISHNU, KING CRIMSON (circa “Red”), UNIVERS ZERO and of course, […]

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

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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 […]

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

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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 […]

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

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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 […]

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Madam Bovary: Claude Chabrol takes on a classic

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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 […]

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

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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 […]

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

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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 […]

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Beware of a holy whore: Fassbinders take on film

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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 […]

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The Weeknd: Thursday

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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 […]

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