A new online home

So... I'm moving my online home frome the blogspot I got fed up with to the clean and less esthetically challenged wordpress. Make sure you update you subscriptions and bookmarks.

[choice pick] Terry Fox - Culvert

UbuWeb posted a link earlier this week of what is (presumably) the C side of a 2LP of 2008, John Cage/Terry Fox - HighFidelity. I had the pleasure of finishing the gatefold sleeves of the to 1000 copies limited remastered recordings of some rather experimental recording sessions in the middle of a lake. The album contained one vinyl of John Cage material and one with Terry Fox material, entitled Mureau. Copies were hard to come by so the link hunting continues for the rest of the release. Some outtakes from the gatefold can be found here.

The recordings and catalogue were released in conjunction with the exhibition HIGH FIDELITY Artists' Records in the Marzona Collection.

Mureau was originally released as a cassette on Edition S Press (S Press Tape No. 14). It was recorded at the S-Press studio in Hattingen, Germany, on October 3, 1972.
Culvert was a 24 hour performance, with Bootz Hubbard and Bill Gilbert participating the 1st two hours. It was recorded at Clark Fork River, Missoula, Montana, USA, 1977. -discogs

Direct link Culvert (via UbuWeb).

Calvaire; The Ordeal

"Ah Belgium... Home of the weird, the sick and the sexually perverted!" -Coventry

The notorious bar dance scene.



Official trailer

Calvaire, a.k.a The Ordeal is mainly a Belgian production and – being a Belgian myself – I'm rather proud of that, although it also once again illustrates that the only cult and controversial horror films coming from this country pretty much all revolve on sexually perverted characters! Lucker served us the diary of a necrophiliac and the ultra-rare film Vase de Noces (which I haven't seen yet) handles about the sexual relationship between a farmer and his pig. At several points in the film, Calvaire hints at bestiality as well and the least you can say about all the characters, even the unimportant ones, is that they're heavily struggling with their hormones all together. The honest and hard-working singer Marc Stevens is on his way to a Christmas gig when his van breaks down on a rural road near a remote village. A loyal young man guides Marc to Paul Bartel's godforsaken hotel and that's where the madness really begins. Bartel is obtrusive and overly friendly at first but gradually his traumatized mind begins to mistake Marc for his own adulterous wife who left him. For Marc begins a nightmare in which he's dressed up in woman's clothes, tortured and forced to have sexual intercourse. Even when he manages to escape into the forests he isn't safe, as all the local rednecks are deranged deviants as well.

The subject matter of Calvaire sounds pretty devastating, but it actually comes across as a black comedy most of the time. It's an absurd film with disturbing undertones and grisly images, yet the surreal atmosphere and the overuse of stereotypes almost makes it a comical experience. You can summarize this film as being a demented and typically European interpretation of classic backwoods-thrillers such as Deliverance and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The hillbillies are crazier, the situations are more grotesque and the perversion is a lot less subtle. Especially considering Calvaire was the debut project for most of the crew members involved, the film is exceptionally well-made! The cinematography is stunning to observe most of the time, with beautiful images of large and ominous forests, and the interior filming locations are dark & creepy. The acting performances are a bit weak sometimes but still endurable. Regretfully, the script also features a couple of tedious moments and it leaves quite a bit of questions unanswered when the film is finished. Nonetheless, Calvaire is destined to be a cult favorite in the near future (if it isn't one by now) already and fans of odd, offbeat cinema can't afford themselves to miss it! -imdb

Full length found on YouTube.


Calvaire @ IMDB
Fabrice Du Welz (director/co-writer) @ MySpace
Vincent Cahay (score) @ MySpace
Calvaire @ Amazon

The Mars Volta @ Rock Werchter 2009

Apparently Lady Linn is more important than The Mars Volta, which I find rather disturbing, so it's only the first half hour of their set. But it's in a decent quality so here it is... The Mars Volta @ Werchter '09.



download

On - Your Naked Ghost Comes Back at Night

7.5/10

On is a peculiar collaboration between Chicago-based percussionist and electronic artist Steven Hess and the French minimalist experimental composer Sylvain Chauveau. This collaboration's trademark is one that you won't encounter much: it defines the entire sound of the album without any interference of these two artists. The material is processed, or produced if you will, by a third party. The improvised recordings (done in the Acme Studio in Chicago in 2003) for this album where handed over to the Norwegian Helge Sten, who made this his last effort as the legendary Deathprod. Several years after the initial 2004 CD release on the French DSA label, this hailed material finally found its way to a proper vinyl release on Type Records.




It's needless to say that an album as critically-acclaimed as Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night belongs in the catalog of a label that holds more treasures of this kind. Released in their signature cardboard sleeve with only a few impressions of birds illuminating its cover, the album marks the milestone of the fiftieth release of this excellent UK label. But it takes more than audiophile nerd-talk and vinyl fetishism to acquire a score that denotes a "great release." On earns this easily with seven exercises of hypnotic drones and reverbed crackle.

The opening tracks ease the listener into the one hour death ambient listen with a mid-range focused piece where little spikes of crackle and consistent vibrant rumblings search their way over and through Deathprod's layers. Slowly transforming recordings form into a haunting choir of feedback, chanting over the omnipresent layers. As the album blooms towards the middle, the focus shifts to a deeper and more disturbing, yet minimal, dark ambient. On each listen I imagined myself being lowered in a well that becomes sealed, like some cruel medieval punishment. The banging hammers on the surface, sealing me in, swirl down the old stones and hit the water before I hear them as a rumble of gated reverb. The fourth track, "Oh Run Slowly", focuses on the higher end of the audible spectrum, as if it was the celebration to my new found home, ringing in an eternity of drone. Like a soundtrack to my sonic epiphany, it lightens the heavy mood that manifests more and more as the albums evolves.

The closing half of Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night delves into the more hypnotic flavor of drone induced by the little rhythm of Deathprod's effects over the broader, slowly oscillating backdrop. This is where the true aficionados of this experimental niche will prevail over the easy listening, esoteric crowd that gets off on the plethora of introspective-sounding ambient releases. The nuances in the music become more subtle and are mostly found in the minor differences invoked by disturbances (or tweaks) in the resonating sound waves as they flow through an almost constant aural space. These minor fluctuations in audible shape are allowed to bloom by the less attention-grabbing opening half of the album, offering lengthened drones that will keep the attentive listener on the edge of his seat with every recurring swell. The seventeen minute closing track is an ideal soundtrack (or tribute even?) for gazing at Mark Rothko's work (or any seemingly objectless art for that matter).

If you were to give this album a listen without knowing its background, I'm sure you'd find that there is something about this release that makes it stand out from its competition. MGR's hypnotic mantra-feeling, mixed with Einstuerzende Neubauten's experiments - and my own excursions - in the catacombs of bridges aren't comparisons I'll easily be making with one of the many laptop ambient fiddlers that crowd the depths of MySpace, yet Your Naked Ghost Comes Back at Night earns it. Considering that this album finally found a decent home at Type, and a release on the best medium for music that mankind knows, makes it all that more precious.


written for and published by The Silent Ballet
On MySpace
Type Records
Buy

Prime Kut Sunday's IV - Musterd Gas and Roses edition

1. MGR - Nova Lux







2. MGR - Wavering on the Cresting Heft






3. Barge Recordings Split MGR/XELA - Shipping Gold/Calling For Vanished Faces

BBC Top Gear - Bugatti Veyron top speed test

RIP Wall of Fame

For several years I've been keeping a collage of all kinds of memorabilia on my wall. It began with a gatefold sleeve of an old compilation of spaghetti westerns with some epic soundtracks and over the years several clippings, festival programs/wristbands/tokens etc were added and moved around with me a couple of times. Over the years it got neglected so now the time has come to take it down. Since it illustrates a significant period of time in my life I though it would be a shame to throw it all out without having anything left over - a few pics were in order.


slideshow