on life, music etc beyond mainstream
You are currently browsing the blog archives for the day Montag, 27. November 2017.
2017 27 Nov.
Uwe Meilchen | Filed under: Blog | RSS 2.0 | TB | Tags: Jahresbestenliste | 12 Comments
2017 27 Nov.
Manafonistas | Filed under: Blog | RSS 2.0 | TB | Tags: Jahresbestenliste | 4 Comments
A list of one‘s favourite new releases in music is very, very personal, otherwise you are trapped by zeitgeist, fashion, blinded by common sense. When you have access to a lot of new stuff, you can easy peasy come up with fifty, sixty very good albums that make your year. One tricky thing is, really staying to the ones you love, not to the ones that are of fucking general importance. Another tricky thing is to order these beloved musics by numbers. Love and numbers? And here we are, again, in the zone of the personal. There is a reason we love – at a certain point in time – a record on no. 9 a tiny little bit more than the one on no. 10. Let’s call it the „angel in the details“. Or „the mood of the day“. Nothing can here really tumble up or down the ladder in the first or last place. It‘s all so good! Jeff Tweedy‘s solo recital is my no. 31, Gregs! It‘s big fun to post our lists, even some good days before Nikolaus, in an ancient coffee house in Prague! (m.e.)
MICHAELS TOP 30
GREGORS TOP 30
2017 27 Nov.
Michael Engelbrecht | Filed under: Blog | RSS 2.0 | TB | Comments off
Ich habe mich in diesem und letztem Jahr kundig gemacht über die Mikrodosierung von LSD, die m.E. in Zukunft eine grössere Rolle spielen wird, zwischen emotional klug angegangener Bewusstseinserweiterung und fortschrittlicher Psychotherapie / Psychiatrie, als dies gemeinhin angenommen wird. Noch immer hat man die Verteufelungen von LSD im Hinterkopf, die Historie von Timothy Leary, und wird die Substanz gemeinhin in einen Topf mit Schreckensdrogen wie Heroin, Kokain und Meth. Ayelet Waldman (die Frau an der Seite von Michael Chabon), hat in ihrem interessantem Buch, das auch die Geschichte der amerikanischen Drogengesetze gekonnt darlegt (als gelernte Rechtswissenschaftlerin eine leichte Übung, die Frau schreibt auch Mystery), aufgeräumt mit manchem tradierten Widersinn und einen reflektierten Umgang mit LSD und der Mikrodosierung des Stoffes angemahnt. Essentiell ist die Prüfung der Ware auf astreine Qualität, ein genaues Studium des Procederes, alles, was leichtsinnigem „Versuch und Irrtum“ widerspricht. In Kalifornien kommt man natürlich über die vielen New-Age-Adepten leicht an das Zeug heran, ich muss dafür schon nach Tschechien reisen. Ganz faszinierend ist der Umstand, dass mein Album des Jahres (wie ich vorgestern herausfand) nicht zuletzt unter mindestens temporärem „LSD microdosing“ entstand – ich kann allerdings garantieren, dass, wenn man Zugang zu meinem persönlichen Favoriten des Jahres 2017 findet, grüner Tee vollkommen ausreicht, um die tieferen Schichten der Musik auszuloten, auch heisser Kakao und alkoholfreie Longdrinks, argentinischer Mate, ein halber Liter Wasser, Hirsebrei, oder Grünkohl mit Mettendchen. Schöne Grüsse vom Weihnachtsmarkt in Prag!
2017 27 Nov.
Michael Engelbrecht | Filed under: Blog | RSS 2.0 | TB | 1 Comment
No doubt, a lot of films are spriraling down after catching you at first with clever trickery. Even so called „art films“ often give away their secrets all too quickly. I’ve not seen a lot of movies in 2015 that stayed in my mind, but these films still make a difference. Some of them I saw again and again, and I‘m grateful to have my infamous „electric cinema“ and can see them on a big screen with excellent surround sound.
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY is one of them. Erotic Cinema still has something to offer, and here we are, in the territory of seduction, devotion and surrender. There is a lot of darkness to dwell in, literally, dimly lit spaces that add to the spell of desire. Immersive. A MOST VIOLENT YEAR is another example for a „genre movie“ that transcends its rules and history. Far away from being a rip-off of film noir classics from the 70’s, it’s a masterpiece in reduction. You have to think a lot to nail down a „gangster drama“ with a similar amount of non-action. But it never leaves me off the hook, and, en passant, contains – surprise! – one of the most captivating „hunting scenes“ in modern film stories. EX MACHINA is Science Fiction of highest order, a chamber piece placed in a high-tech laboratory surrounded by wild nature. Here, too, „action“ is a foreign word; everything relies on camera, dialogue, soundtrack and sudden twists of perception. In one of its (instant) classic moments, you get a perfect example of how to transport a 70’s disco song into a scenario of controlled madness. Apart from that, Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury composed a soundtrack with sending-shivers-down-the-spine qualities. Another kind of creepiness: IT FOLLOWS can be labelled „horror movie“, but that is misleading, too. Situated in the decaying outskirts of Detroit, this film only uses some of the genre’s old motives to explore teenage angst, friendship and love in a world that mixes time zones in the most peculiar ways. A richly textured „edge-of-the-seat-experience“ with Dostojevski’s „The Idiot“ revealing a striking sub-text at the end … (all films on BLU RAY and DVD).
2017 27 Nov.
Manafonistas | Filed under: Blog | RSS 2.0 | TB | 1 Comment
ALBUM Recorded over three weeks at The Premises Studios in London, ‘First Light’ features eight violins, four violas, two cellos, two double basses and the odd flash of trombone, all constantly shifting above, below and either side of Michaelson’s staple vocal style.
VINYL Earthy and alien at once, the eight compositions on Eros in Arabia conjure an imaginary geographical space where divergent cultures converge. Channeling Ituri forest chants, Javanese gamelan, Bedouin plaints, Rajasthani folk, and European electronic music, Horowitz dances around borders and eras to spellbinding effect.
MOVIE Though Lee and Helen Morgan’s story is easily learned with a quick Google search, I’d rather leave it unspoken, out there in memory’s snowdrift, something strange and indescribable, like this sad but still beautiful film (on Netflix) itself.
BOOK [Bosch] knew there were two kinds of truth in this world. The truth that was the unalterable bedrock of one’s life and mission. And the other, malleable truth of politicians, charlatans, corrupt lawyers, and their clients, bent and molded to serve whatever purpose is at hand.
SERIES Simon and Pelecanos were well aware of the fact that they’re two white men recreating a world in which women were brutally oppressed, so they took care to include female collaborators like writers Megan Abbott and Lisa Lutz, and director Michelle MacLaren. Maggie Gyllenhaal is also a producer on the show.