Category Archives: Music

Planet of the Aces

Animation, Cult Movies, Directors, Music

Victor Field sees composer extraordinaire Danny Elfman cut loose at the Royal Albert Hall

Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction stands in for Helena Bonham Carter
Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction stands in for Helena Bonham Carter

Until Monday 8 October 2013, I’d never have thought that I’d celebrate a first at the same time as Danny Elfman, but there you are. That night was the first time I’d ever attended a world premiere concert, and that night marked the first time he’d had a concert devoted to his music for film rather than as a member of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.

Danny Elfman’s Music From The Films Of Tim Burton (surprisingly not sponsored by Ronseal) premiered to a packed audience at the Royal Albert Hall before going to Leeds, Glasgow and Birmingham, and hopefully the punters there had as glorious a time as most of those attending the RAH.

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Welcome to MercuryFest 2013

Music, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

By Jim Eaton-Terry

World-conquering pop juggernaut Speech Debelle
World-conquering pop juggernaut Speech Debelle

I love awards.  Film, music or books, they combine the fun of a race with the joy of a list of things to work through.  for years I’ve been holding my own private OscarFest every spring,  trying to watch all the major nominees ahead of the ceremony.    Given that I don’t like watching any sport, outside of an election year it’s my one chance to bet on something and cheer for the winners. Some years it’s a delight, some years it’s a trudge, and the less said about the year we ended up watching Cold Mountain, The Last Samurai, Mystic River, House of Sand and Fog and 21 Grams in a 48 hour period the better.

This year, though, I’ve gone  a little further.  With Spotify, YouTube, and a library card, I’m planning to plough through the whole Mercury shortlist and the Booker Longlist, and handicap each ahead of the ceremonies.  Assuming I can get through it all, check back here in October for BookerFest.

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Mostly Pop August 2013

Mostly Pop, Music, , , , , , ,

by Mr Moth

Gaga duvet

Lady Gaga – Applause

This is more like it. After the frankly lacklustre Born This Way (the singles were… OK, but frustratingly short of the brilliance The Fame/Monster threw out with unthinking abandon, and the album tracks were terrible), this first shot from Artpop promises much.

Supposedly rush-released following leaks – at which point Gaga declared a POP EMERGENCY, and who are we to argue? – Applause barrels into the room and bashes you with hooks until you beg for mercy and no more hookings, please. Your eyes hurt from the hooks. Handclaps, crowd noise, a bit where is goes quiet then comes back in… textbook. Magic. And isn’t it nice to have a pop star who really loves pop and wants to interrogate it? Who lives an examined megastar life? The self-awareness, the wit, the flamboyance and a load of cracking tunes make Gaga the most important pop star on the planet right now, and that’s before I get to the video.

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His Words Have Impact

Music, Politics, Uncategorized

Beginning Extremists Week on Mostly Film, Sarah Slade looks at the musical output of the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard

What happens when you drink the Kool Aid
What happens when you drink the Kool Aid

Say what you like about Scientology, but L. Ron Hubbard’s sci-fi belief system has attracted some pretty talented musicians. Beck; the late, great Isaac Hayes; Chick Corea and…er…Leif Garrett have all taken the wisdom of L. Ron into their lives and, who knows…maybe even jammed with the great man. You see, Ron’s musical talent is an aspect of his life that I had never heard of before, but there it is, on his website – Ron, the Music Maker. I wish I had the time to read Ron’s words on Country Music, an analysis of Rock Music, Composing on The Road, or even Space Jazz, but I think we’d be better off cutting to the chase, and listening to the man’s music.

Thanks to some bloke off the Internet, you can download and experience the full majesty of the 80s classic Road to Freedom yourself, but, to spare your engrams, I’ve done it for you. Continue reading His Words Have Impact →

Mostly Pop July 2013

Mostly Pop, Music, New Releases, , , , , , , ,

by Mr Moth

Icona pop 1

Before we start, I’d just like to check that everyone waited patiently for the Icona Pop single to complete its extraordinarily long transit through the guts of the pop animal and bought it the moment it came out. I recommended it back in, like March. That’s all. OK, on with the reviews!

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For Love’s Sake

Asian Cinema, Cult Movies, Directors, DVD, Music,

By Spank The Monkey

For Love's Sake

At the Cannes festival last month, you could see – and hear, thanks to some conspicuous booing – the breakdown of the love-in between Western critics and Japanese director Takashi Miike, as his latest thriller Shield Of Straw got very short shrift indeed. Does this mark the end of Miike’s career as the go-to director for Asian weirdness? I suppose it depends on whether you trust the judgment of the sort of wankers who think that yelling at projected images will improve them.

Perhaps it’s the end of the respectable phase of Miike’s career – after a couple of years of working on the sort of serious drama that attracts festival programmers, he’s going back to just doing whatever takes his fancy. That’s not to say the boo-ers are wrong, though: in a career that’s getting close to hitting the 100 feature mark, he’s made a couple of undeniable stinkers. But no single film in his canon gives you any idea what the ones either side of it will be like. We can go back in time just one year – to June 2012, and the Japanese theatrical release of For Love’s Sake, now available in the UK – for a good example of that.

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The Perfect American

Animation, Music, Theatre, ,

By Spank The Monkey

The Perfect American

I don’t go to many first nights at the opera. As I settled into my seat at the Coliseum for the UK premiere of Philip Glass’ The Perfect American, his new piece about the final days of Walt Disney’s life, I suddenly flashed back to a first night I attended twenty-five years ago. That was also at the Coliseum, and it was for another Philip Glass opera. The Making Of The Representative For Planet 8 was his adaptation of a Doris Lessing sci-fi novel, and I can remember precisely one thing about it.

Roughly three-quarters of the way through Planet 8, there was a brief pause in between sections. Outside, there was a sudden commotion, and a police car could be heard roaring down St Martin’s Lane, its siren NEE-NAW-NEE-NAWing at full volume like they used to back in the eighties. The orchestra paused, waited for the noise to die down, and then launched into the next part of the opera. This being Philip Glass, it started with a simple repeated bass figure on the strings, just a pair of notes separated by a minor third. It went nee-naw-nee-naw. The audience laugh that followed was extraordinary – a sudden burst of guffawing, which was just as suddenly truncated as everyone remembered that the composer of both of those notes was sitting in the room with them.

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Mostly Pop April 2013

Mostly Pop, Music, , , , , ,

Azealia Banks, yesterday.

Hello! Mostly Pop here again. This month we have artists looking back, looking forwards and some just staying right where they are, unable to do anything but repeat their horrific mistakes over and over. So prepare to dance like a fool, tap your foot like someone’s Dad and, if you’re anything like me, curl into a corner, gibbering at the shock of the genuinely new. How do you feel about disarranged body parts and pleather gimp cows? Nervous?

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Mostly Pop March 2013

Mostly Pop, Music, New Releases, , , , ,

Swift

Welcome back to Mostly Pop! Last time out it was all a bit tedious because it was old men trying to be pop stars even though their career was about ten, fifteen, thirty years ago and they’re mostly rock stars gone soft. Enough of that. We’re 4/5 female this time and it’s all about POP POP POP, in your face. No ballads, all bangers. Get comfy, turn your speakers up and click through as I attempt once again to not get too confused and angry in the face of music intended for people twenty years my junior.

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Mostly Covers – Let’s Get Down to Bushness

Music, , , , , , , , , , , ,

by TheTramp

When you said 'let's cover Kate Bush', this wasn't what I had in mind...
When you said ‘let’s cover Kate Bush’, this wasn’t what I had in mind…

Usually on Mostly Covers I fixate, sorry focus, on one great song and some of the more interesting interpretations of that song by artists; some great and some not so great. This time I am changing the format. This time I am looking at one artist and focusing on five of her better known songs. That artists is Kate Bush and those songs are; Wuthering Heights, Running Up That Hill, Cloudbusting, Babooshka and Hounds of Love.

Why, you may well ask, the change in format? Well in honest truth it is because I am greedy and yearn to share.I could, it is true, have focused solely on Wuthering Heights, which has generated the most cover versions (take a gander on YouTube if you like, there are hundreds and the majority are at best karaoke or, if you’re a little less kind, just plain old godawful), but I just couldn’t resist sharing a few other favourites that I felt were worthy of your attention.  So here I am indulging myself, and I hope you, by providing you with a schmorgasboard of my favourites, with a couple of “special” curiosities as well – after all Mostly Covers wouldn’t be Mostly Covers without them.


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