Musings on the byways of popular culture
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I’m not sure when this went up but I’ve only just found out about it and it might be of interest to some here.
The BBC have posted online 16,016 downloadable WAVs from their sound effects library. It makes for some fascinating, eclectic listening. If you were dedicated you could probably create your own Goon Show or Archers episode….
Hope the link works! Knock yourself out!
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What does it sound like?:
I’ve raved about this film on these pages before, and I’m well aware it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It baffles, irritates and delights in equal measure. I think it was one of last year’s top movies.
Anyway, I was surprised and pleased to see this second volume of soundtrack music when I did my weekly lunchtime ramble to Fopp today. It’s got a lovely cover and looks like a really nice little package.
I love the soundtrack to Baby Driver, and the volume 1 CD was one of my top compilations last year. This mops up a lot of the tracks that were missed from it, from REM’s New Orleans Instrumental to Sky Ferreira’s version of the Commodore’s Easy. More importantly, the compilation style matches the film itself a lot more than before, so you get key snatches of dialogue and sound effects, along with remixed versions of the songs (by young upstarts like Dangermouse and Kid Koala) as they appear in the film itself (jumps and scratches, a drum machine remix of Tequila, ambient noises, Focus by Hocus Pocus with synchronised machine gun noises, etc) so the experience of listening to it » Continue Reading.
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I know this probably isn’t the proper place to ask this, but I’m not a member of any audio forums and I suspect many people on this blog are hobbyist musicians like myself.
I’m toying with the idea of augmenting my modest home studio a little bit, and looking at getting a patch bay set up to finally cure the need to crawl behind things unplugging them all the time. But it’s only just struck me that this will end up multiplying my cables exponentially.
So I’d like to stock up on a load of XLR and TRS cables and patch leads. I usually just buy stuff in Maplin or somewhere similar. But they are pretty expensive if you are buying more than one or two.
Is there a cost effective way to do this? If you are a home musician, where do you buy yours? Is there somewhere online you can get a bulk deal?
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Ok, here’s a question. And the trick here is I don’t want a technical answer, I want it in layman’a terms, an idiot proof answer that will make me go ‘aaaah! I see!’ after all these years.
I can just about ‘get’ how a mono record stylus would make sounds – the tiny bumps in the record vibrate the needle and those vibrations are then amplified into sound – check. That does me, I don’t want to hear any more about mono sound.
But how do you get STEREO sound, two completely different sounds, from a single needle on a single groove?
I need a snappy answer here, something I can pass off as my own knowledge if I need to at one of my many dinner parties.
I’ve had people talk to me about a river with two sides, I’ve heard talk of ‘sum vs difference’ and whatnot…. but can someone just EXPLAIN how it works?
Honestly I wish someone had just lied to me and told me there are actually two separate tiny needles, not one. I probably would have died happy and I wouldn’t even have bothered to check.
Can anyone put me out of my » Continue Reading.
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Year: 2018 Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson is back. And it’s business as usual as he scratches another little odd corner of the twentieth century to see what kind of story he can unravel.
Daniel Day-Lewis is back on the roster as well, more than a decade on from There Will Be Blood. This is apparently his swansong. He’s Reynolds Woodcock, a society dressmaker in ’50s London (see? A little odd corner of the twentieth century) and a strange fish indeed. He’d probably be said to be on the autistic spectrum today. Fussy and petulant, he treats his models and clients (the rich and the royal) like mannequins – his detachment from them, his inability to relate to them, is probably the thing that allows him to craft them and sculpt them like works of art. His ladies, in turn, love him. Love the attention he gives them, objectifying and humiliating it may be. He’s handsome and charming, but quite sexless. He’s also obsessed with his dead mother and dominated by his sister (Lesley Manville – a fantastically fuming hard stare of a performance).
But this isn’t a film about Woodcock alone. The focus is his relationship with » Continue Reading.
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I’m sitting at work just now, and this morning a colleague started humming a little tune – well, more of a riff or hook – “ba bara ba ba baba baraba….”
It was driving us made trying to work out what it was. Then she identified that it was the opening horn riff from a tune from the musical Hairspray – “You Can’t Stop the Beat”.
(I’d post a youtube link if I could – but I can’t, I’m sitting at work.)
Now…
I KNOW this hook, but I’ve never knowingly watched Hairspray or listened to the soundtrack. I’m absolutely SURE they’ve nicked this from an old song. From browsing the Hairspray soundtrack it sounds like a lot of the tunes are nicked from 60s songs, but changed just enough to avoid copyright.
So the question is: What is the song I’m thinking of?? I’m going out of my mind here. I have this little horn riff going round and round in my head and I can’t work out what it is. I’m sure it’s something Motown or similar? Some kind of driving, upbeat instrumental tune?
Heeeeelp!!
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What does it sound like?:
Colin’s recent mega posts on the Pentangle have persuaded me to finally polish up this review and stick it here. I feel like a rogue pupil who keeps neglecting his homework, because I offered to review this weeks.. er… months ago. Sorry for the delay folks.
Anyway, consider Colin’s magnificent essay the official Pentangle story. This the short version, based on me dipping in and out of this box set over many weeks.
Housed in a beautiful little box (I’m reviewing a download copy, but I checked out the physical version in Fopp) this efficiently titled collection just might be the most satisfying way to get a handle on this most wayward of bands. It feels like every couple of years there’s a new Pentangle “best of” or anthology in ever more ugly sleeves (and this band NEVER had great sleeves even at the best of times), so it’s a joy to find them so lovingly packaged for once.
The booklet has a wonderful little “in their own words” history (which I found rather moving – you really get a sense of how much these were just five plucky youngsters making it all up » Continue Reading.
If you don’t dance to this you’ve got no soul.
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I DARE you not to laugh at this. This has really made me chuckle this morning.
https://mobile.twitter.com/michaelmphysics/status/944247904415383553
https://mobile.twitter.com/michaelmphysics/status/944247904415383553
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This might be of some interest to some people here! I found it quite engaging, but also quite sickly after a few minutes – like the Love album, it’s too dense with all the different songs mashed together.
It’s a fan project someone has put together (whoever she or he is, they deserve a medal for dedication alone), imagining what a Beatles album would sound like if they hadn’t split up. But instead of just putting existing solo songs side by side, they’ve remixed and mashed them up all together. So you get the horn riff from Admiral Halsey used as a hook for Im Losing You, that type of thing.
Essentially it is what it would sound like if you compared my twin obsessions of Beatles and Avalanches. The result is like a black mirror reflecting something that sounds good in principle but makes you woozy.
Odd, but worth a listen.
http://thebeatlesneverbrokeup.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=53
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In the hope that I’m not misusing the Noticeboard feature, here’s my latest music show / mixtape / DJ mix on Mixcloud. Self indulgent, but fun – I told myself I would do this again if I got more than ten listeners last time, and I got 77 (and counting?) so someone must be listening somewhere out there.
Anyway, it’s a seamless mix of eclectic tunes which kicks off with the Allman Brothers, drops by to say hello to Lorde, allows Donovan a bit of Barabajagal and finishes by worshipping at the altar of The Greatest Guitar Solo Of All Time.
Well worth half an hour of your time I think!
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I find it very depressing. Casts a shadow over everything he’s done. What was he playing at?
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Year: 2017 Director: David Bruckner
The setup to this is very reminiscent of The Descent (a group of friends commemorate the tragic death of one of their number by taking a trip into the wilderness). Only this time it’s a group of cocky lads and it’s a hike through the wilds of Norway.
You get lots of great character friction as the tension builds straight away. It’s clear they can’t quite believe they decided to forsake a weekend of carnage in Amsterdam or Ibiza instead of getting back to nature.
Taking a shortcut through a creepy forest, things descend rapidly into full-on nightmare mode.
I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed by this (anyone who likes horror that is). It’s got all the conventional thrills, spills and scare jumps you might expect, but also a dash of humour and an ingenious sense of weirdness.
There’s a line early on where they take shelter from the rain in an abandoned cabin: ‘So this is the place we all get murdered then’. A lovely, knowing moment: we all know we’re on a horror film (audience and characters alike) but we don’t know WHAT KIND of horror film yet.
As the film keeps » Continue Reading.
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Year: 2017 Director: Dennis Villuenieve (spelling??)
Well now. This is a big event for me. The first film had a powerful effect on me and continues to draw me in for regular viewings. How does this long belated sequel stand up?
I won’t put any spoilers here – I’ll save that for the comments.
It’s achingly ‘worthy’, that’s the best way I can put it. Dennis Villenueve is a safe pair of hands as a director, and seems to intuitively understand that peculiar mix of futuristic dystopia and hard-boiled gumshoe feel that constitutes the Blade Runner world. The visual expansion of that world is expertly and sensitively handled – he keeps things moody and smoggy, with a stately, slow-moving camera. No complaints from me on that score.
The soundtrack is also as immersive as the first film, wisely using the same sound palette with a smattering of callbacks to the old key themes.
Overall, you can’t fault the effort that’s gone into this project. It clearly seems to have been a real labour of love and reverence.
But I have to say it left me a bit cold. It doesn’t help that it’s deathly dull. Slow-moving, with ponderous and brooding » Continue Reading.
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Even though I recognise it’s sometimes unhelpful to categorise and generalise, I’ve always loved this thing about putting western culture into Generations. You know, the Silent Generation, the Boomers, Generation X, Millennials… It ‘feels’ generally accurate.
I can definitely sense, for example, a generational shift with these Millennial upstarts. A keener social conscience bordering on political correctness, curtailed economic prospects, the ubiquity of technology and culture…
I’m firmly of the Generation X cohort. Born in 1973, I have an acute sense of disappointing my parents, I worship the pop culture of the 60s to 80s, I love Slackers and Fight Club and Star Wars. I’m cynical and nihilistic at heart. I’m insular and I get irony instinctively.
However, reading up on the supposed traits of my generation, I’m bemused to discover that Generation X are apparently happier and content in middle age, and have excelled as entrepreneurs to create a satisfying work-life balance. I sure missed the boat on that one.
Do you believe in these Generation categories? What Generation do you identify with? What do you think Millennials will be like as they reach middle life? And what do you think will come next?
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I love this Noel Gallagher story about Bono. I need to make the normal pedantic disclaimer that I’m not really a fan of Noel’s music, but by Jove he has a way of telling a story.
It’s the little details that make this special – the Irish Prime Minister, Bono in a dressing gown, Noel trying to work the telly in a hotel room….
http://www.nme.com/news/music/noel-gallagher-bono-got-drunk-together-tour-2144472
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Someone I know “liked” this on Facebook. Hmmmmmmm.
I’m kind of wary about posting it here, as gender arguments can be fractious. But… I don’t know, I just find it really patronising. For those who can’t be bothered reading it all, a feminist artist called Emma has written a comic strip about how men in general unfairly expect women to bear the brunt of household chores and organisation. Not only this, but men make it worse by taking the “well you should have asked me to do that if you wanted it done!” stance, because it forces women into bearing the “mental load” for either doing things themselves or telling their men to do them.
I kind of get what she is saying. Imbalance in hygiene/cleanliness/organisational standards in a relationship can be an issue, sure. But a concept like the “mental load” sounds to me like the worst kind of passive aggressive twaddle – at worst, an excuse for a control freak personality. And then to turn this into a gender issue??
The worst bit is near the end, when she pre-empts men (like me) who are reading the strip and thinking, “I’m not like these men she describes”… apparently, » Continue Reading.
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One of the things that annoys me at work more than anything else (and in fact in life in general) is playing phone tennis with someone – you call them and miss them, they call you and miss you because you are way from your desk for a minute, and so on.
I hate phone tennis. And I’m definitely an email person. To me, emails are perfect because they allow you to put your message out there (your carefully drafted, polite message) and give the recipient time to consider a response and reply at their convenience.
I’ve decided there are two types of people – verbal people and writing people. I’m definitely the latter. And I have little patience for people who, after a long email conversation, will need that actual verbal conversation at the end of it to put a full stop on it and finalise what’s been discussed. I’m the opposite – I can have a long verbal conversation (to me, just waffling around the subject) and then I’ll ask you to put in writing what’s been agreed, just to confirm it.
Are you an email person (yay- efficient, logical, decisive) or a phone person (boo – waffling, » Continue Reading.
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It’s all too mind blowing for me to attempt to write up a proper review, but I loved it. I thought it was perfect. If this work ends up as Lynch’s last film/TV project, it will be an incredible end to a fascinating career. A head spinning, cantankerous, unique, chilling vision – astonishing for a man now in his seventies.
From the internet storm today, I gather the finale has been quite controversial. But to the people who were perplexed, I want to ask what did they expect? Anyone who has seen Lost Highway and Inland Empire must have known what to expect.
Anyway, I loved it.
You?
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Year: 2017 Director: Christopher Nolan
What an incredible film.
You know how Christopher Nolan’s last few films have fallen into a similar pattern? You get a long, slow buildup with lots of talking and philosophising, then eventually you get three or more storylines reaching a simultaneous peak with multiple, cross-cut suspense sequences? While effective on a technical level, it was all starting to seem a little contrived. And bordering on pretentious.
Well, in a stroke of genius, Dunkirk ditches the buildup and plugs you straight into the cross-cut suspense stuff. I was absolutely hooked within seconds. Forget back-story, forget character-building, forget dialogue, forget quasi-intellectual theorising – Nolan strips all that out. This is just an edge-of-your-seat struggle for survival, with the bare minimum of context and explanation.
It’s Nolan’s tautest film since Memento by quite some way, and should hopefully cement his reputation as the A list director he’s always threatened to be. With a constantly building succession of cliffhangers (all scored by Hans Zimmer’s trademark pulsing slabs of orchestral music), it’s the most buttock-clenching piece of cinema since Captain Phillips.
The colour palette is creamy and vivid, the sound design is a masterpiece of sustain and release (waves lapping, » Continue Reading.
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Baby Driver and Guardians of the Galaxy are two films this year which have reminded me how sweet it feels to compile a bunch of eclectic tracks into a mixtape. Ditto the CD swap thread here (although I didn’t join in with that and kind of regretting it).
Let’s do a mixtape together!
The rules.
– No theme. That’s just pretentious. It just needs to flow from one track to the next. You need to keep the listener listening.
– It’s a C90, so we are having two sides of 45 minutes each. (46 at a push).
– I’ll start. You all have a think about what track to put next – first person to post the next track has got it. And so on until we fill both sides.
– To prevent time wasters and comedians, there’s a three veto rule. If any track gets three vetos before someone suggests the next track -its getting recorded over. But once someone has suggested the next track it’s too late – we’ve moved on and you can’t veto any more.
– This might end in chaos, or indifference, or a beautiful mixtape!!!
– Or you might all veto my starting track » Continue Reading.
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We’re almost halfway through the 18 episode run, and I absolutely adore it. The contrarian in me loves the fact it seems absolutely calculated to turn off casual fans.
Gone is that comforting, hokey feel. Gone is the warm glow, gentle humour and constant bubbling lounge jazz.
Instead, the horror and weirdness have been turned up to 11, there is still no sign of a discernable, traditional plot, and most of the original cast have been reduced to mere cameos (some only seconds long).
It was getting strange enough, but then episode 8 went off on some entirely unexpected path. No spoilers from me – you need to experience it for yourself.
The music has been uniformly brilliant and often shocking. We’ve had Nine Inch Nails, Take Five and Green Onions.
I’d never dare have hoped it would have been this good. I expected a watered down thing at most – Lynch tamed for TV. But this is more out there than Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire combined.
Anyone else still a fan?
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I kind of admire the fact that he’s never going to change, is he? I think he genuinely doesn’t understand concepts like copyright.
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Lots of worrying reports. What’s going on?
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Against my better judgement, I got up at 2am to catch the new Twin Peaks.
I don’t think I was prepared for how… different it is. Too early to tell yet whether I’m going to like it or not. The tone of the original is COMPLETELY gone. And it’s ugly as anything: Not ugly in a scuzzy, dirty way, but just flat and HD in a way that doesn’t suit the lushness we were always used to.
And it’s as slow as death.
But there’s that unmistakable sense of creeping dread that is pure Lynch. I’ve got the feeling I’ll be hooked within a couple of episodes. I can’t wait to see where it goes.
