The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Term-time holidays

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Personally, I’m against parents taking their kids out of school for holidays. Nevertheless, I can certainly understand the temptation, and there’s an awful lot of persuasive rationale involved.

That said, what really annoys me is the part played by travel companies. The school-holiday price hike is accepted as a fact of life, but it’s blatant exploitation. If we’re allowed to have laws that stop parents taking their kids out of school, then why not one that stops this practice?

Thoughts?

Sorry, Clan Of Xymox fans, but this thread masquerading as ‘Unsung 4AD Bands’ is really just an excuse for me to post a YouTube clip of The Wolfgang Press!

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I saw these guys supporting The Pixies in Birmingham and they were ace — way better than the complacent main act. Luckily I’d caught them as they cast off their brittle, arrhythmic post-punk beginnings and began a move towards dubbier, more prog house territory. Mixes from Adrian Sherwood (Christianity) and Sabres (11 Years) sealed the deal. What a band!

Any other unsung 4AD bands?

Coldcut Vs On-U Sound Klaxon

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Of interest to some, I think.

“It’s tempting to ask why no one thought of it sooner. Coldcut (Matt Black and Jon More) and Adrian Sherwood – kingpin of the legendary On-U Sound label – are the perfect sonic match; two pioneers of British music united by a maverick spirit. These artists have a deep intertwined history- On-U Sound is printed in Coldcut’s genes in the music they grew up with. Coldcut x On-U Sound’s ‘Outside the Echo Chamber’ via Ahead Of Our Time (Coldcut’s first label) – is an album of freshly-minted, electronic dub-pop. The first offering of which is ‘Divide and Rule” (premiered via Clash) where Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Junior Reid and Elan breathe political fire and sonic glee into an exemplary dub, backed by a remix by Glasgow-based soundsystem Mungo’s Hi Fi.”

Tracklist 1. Vitals feat. Roots Manuva 2. Metro 3. Everyday Another Sanction feat. Chezidek 4. Make Up Your Mind feat. Ce’Cile and Toddla T 5. Aztec Riddim 6. Kajra Mohobbat Wala feat. Hamsika Iyer 7. Divide and Rule feat. Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Junior Reid and Elan 8. Make Up Your Mind feat. Elan 9. Robbery feat. Rholin X 10. Livid Hip Hop * Dubs on » Continue Reading.

Bill Paxton RIP

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What a shame to read of the death of Bill Paxton. Not only was he was my wife’s favourite actor, but he had a very, very cool CV: The Terminator, Aliens, Near Dark, just for starters, while his directorial debut, Frailty, was a much underrated horror-thriller. RIP Private William Hudson.

IMDB shuts down message boards

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Sad and mystifying decision. Unlike almost every other message board ever (this one excepted) they were actually useful. I’ve spent many a happy hour working out what Kill List or Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy was all about via threads on the IMDB message boards. I can’t see this kind of info going elsewhere, despite what the owners say.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/06/imdb-shuts-down-message-boards

Genre chain

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So anyway. There I was thinking about the different phases or genres of music I enjoyed growing up, how one led to the other and how they formed a little map of my life, when I thought it would be a great wheeze to form a chain of albums to represent these different phases.

Why? Nostalgia, I suppose.

First, you have to decide on your different phases – as many or as few as you like. They could be ‘Thrash, Death, Doom, Nu-Metal, Grime’. Or ‘ZTT, PWL, R&B, TSB’. Mine are:

Post-Punk, Goth, Indie-pop, Baggy, Hip Hop, House/Techno.

What I’ve picked (based on my mood today rather than some kind of definitive best-of) is in the comments below. I’d love for you to have a go, too, but will fully understand if you think it’s a pointless confusing faff.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v662/strontiumdawg/image002.gif

A PR’s Purpose.

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Bit of a public relations nightmare for Dreamworks and anybody else behind ‘A Dog’s Purpose’. Footage has emerged that seems to show the mistreatment of a dog during the shoot. It’s not a good look for a film that purports to celebrate the special bond between humans and animals, and while all involved say they’re shocked and saddened and looking into the matter fully, the film’s premiere has been cancelled as PETA calls for all right-thinking folks to stay away. The saying that there’s no such thing as bad publicity probably doesn’t apply in this case.

As well as wondering how on earth they can come back from this, I wonder if this sort of thing is far more widespread than we know. How many film crews are currently examining their consciences. Horses in particular seem to get a hard time on film.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/20/a-dogs-purpose-premiere-video-german-shepherd

The Ponytail, And Other Issues Of Personal Space In Public Places

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With the film about to start, our local cinema invites its patrons to relax, sit back and enjoy the show, illustrating this concept with a picture of a young woman whose ponytail is flipped over the back of her seat.

Evidently the cinema approves of this practice. Indeed, they seem to be encouraging it. Nevertheless, it has caused a difference of opinion between myself and Mrs Bangs. Although we’re are agreed that doing this would be wrong on a flight or even on a train journey, both of which involve the need to interact with the back of the seat, we differ on its acceptability in the surroundings of a cinema. One of us say, No, it’s wrong; the other says it wouldn’t bother them.

What do you think?

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi

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Year: 2016 Director: Michael Bay

Two and a quarter hours long, about two of which is real-time combat, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi is one for all those who found Black Hawk Down a little bit slow and lacking in action.

Canny enough to namecheck Black Hawk Down as an obvious antecedent, 13 Hours is similarly based on a real-life incident, in this case the 2012 ‘Battle Of Benghazi’, with our plucky, outnumbered grunts facing down wave upon wave of marauding jihadists rather than Somali militia. Real life serves the makers well, shifting the action from a consulate location, where the film’s skill at evoking the sheer noise and confusion of war leaves you wondering, like the grunts, what the fuck is going on, to a second setting where, without wanting to give anything away, things settle down a bit, though with no let-up in the action. There’s a car chase scene which is just wow. More gunfire, night vision, sniper scope and RPG action than you can shake a stick at.

Director Bay, returning to the kind of form he first showed in The Rock, consistently finds new ways of framing the action, producing startling » Continue Reading.

Wolf Creek 2

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Year: 2014 Director: Greg McLean

The original ‘Wolf Creek’ in 2005 ruled my world with its slow, stealthy build-up, brilliant use of environment, brutal kills and none-more-nihilistic outlook. The story of backpackers meeting grisly ends at the hands of an Outback serial killer, it didn’t do much that was new, but did it with a brio, cynicism and nastiness rarely seen since ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’.

Fast-forward to 2014, when I was among those curling my lip at the very idea of ‘Wolf Creek 2’. It had been a long time. And after all, ‘Wolf Creek’ didn’t need a sequel. It is what it is. Reviews decrying it as a workaday retread lacking those very things that made the original unique served only to reinforce my ‘Wolf Creek 2’ prejudice, and I waved it off the boat.

Click forward two more years to October 2016, when among a treasure trove of birthday gifts was a box set of the ‘Wolf Creek’ TV show, something I didn’t even know existed until that moment. The idea of a series treatment of ‘Wolf Creek’ intrigued me way more than a straight-up sequel, particularly since the cover shows a kick-ass chick with a » Continue Reading.

20 Years Of Ironman

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It’s a tough call to choose your favourite Wu solo joint – between 1993 and 1997 every release was gold. For me, however, the top three are GZA’s ‘Liquid Swords’, Raekwon’s ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx’, and Ghostface Killah’s ‘Ironman’, which celebrated its 20th birthday on October 20. There’s not a bad track on the album but the opening, ‘Iron Maiden’ is truly stunning. Better still, this clever chap on YouTube has added the right footage to the film dialogue samples. Happy birthday, Ironman!

Derrick May Is Back, Back, Back

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I’m not 100 per cent sure, but I think this may be the first ‘proper’ thing that Derrick May has done since System 7’s ‘Mysterious Traveller’ album in, eek, 2002, while the press release goes even further to say, and I quote, it’s ‘the first record May has worked extensively on for the better part of two decades’. Crikey.

Either way, it’s a pretty heavenly slice of techno the way mother used to make, and has all the hallmarks of the master. I can’t stop playing it.

Banco De Gaia – The 9th Of Nine Hearts

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What does it sound like?:

It’s been a while since there was a genuinely essential Banco De Gaia album. His formula of Whirl-Y-Gig Dub meets Eastern chanting has somewhat calcified over the years, making the last decade a bit of a fans-only experience.

This, however, is something a bit different. The ‘old’ Banco is still very much in evidence: dub, tick, eastern chanting, tick, but there’s evidently been some kind of in-house shake-up, a recalibration of approach, because he sounds fresher, more full of beans than he has in an age. Put it this way, for the last ten years each album has rendered at least one jaw-dropping track and a bunch of filler, but this is soup-to-nuts gobsmacking. Whether it’s the frugging dub of ‘The Princess And The Sky Goat’, the blowsy prog rock of ‘Burn The Witch’, the irresistible exotica of ‘No Hablo Italiano’ — each song seems of a piece, moving the album forward in ways that genuinely delight the ears and stab at the emotions. I’ve tinkered with labels for i: ‘psychedelic dub’ is the one I was going to propose, but the truth is it skitters away from pigeon-holing, and just is. Give » Continue Reading.

Can a band change your life for the worst?

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We often talk of bands changing our life, and usually mean it in a positive, or meaningful, open-your-mind type of way.

But what about the opposite? Occasionally I wonder if I bought into The Smiths’ I’m-lonely-and-unloved aesthetic a bit too enthusiastically, but that just made me a bit of nobhead rather than effecting any profound alteration. Perhaps it’s simply impossible for a band to change your life for the worst? Maybe bands don’t *really* change your life at all?

Any thoughts?

National Treasure

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Last night on Channel 4. It’s been heavily publicised for its strong cast, in particular a return for Robbie Coltrane, as well as its topical subject matter — that of an old school entertainer being accused of historical rape.

Personally I thought it showed promise without being an especially strong episode. It was a little self-conscious: a strange colour palette, the lighting on Andrea Riseborough, Andrea Riseborough’s performance, the are-they-speakers-or-are-they-extractor-fans? decor… And there were a couple of odd, implausible interludes. Did you really believe that he would spend the night with his fancy woman at that exact moment? Do lawyers really come rushing into your home in the early hours? These moments had me doubting the veracity of the police interview, which seemed to be made up of random, but connected personal questions. At first I’d thought, ‘Wow, this must be how they do it.’ Now, I’m not so sure.

On the plus side, Julie Walters and Coltrane were ace, I really liked the music and like I say, I thought it showed promise for the future. No more long dream monologues, though, please.

Any other thoughts?