This week I bought a beautiful album, Rimur by Trio Medieval and trumpeter Arve Henriksen. Discrete, tasteful and restrained: three Norwegian women sing ancient folk songs and Mr Henriksen decorates their vocals with exquisite modern jazz noodlings.
Another triumph for ECM. I just adore their restrained Teutonic minimalism.
Which is the exact opposite of what this thread is about.
I want to talk about stuff that is BIG, BRASSY, UNBASHFUL and BOOMBASTIC.
It’s about Ken Russell, Boney M, Marcel Proust, George Clinton, Cecil B. De Mille, Timbalada, Dario Argento, Tyrolean brass band music, J Pop combos Momoiro Clover Z and AKB48, James Joyce, Giant Giant Sand, The Mad Dogs and Englishmen Tour, Werner Herzog, The Leningrad Cowboys, Micheal Bay, James Joyce etc etc.
If you think that less is more, it will be nothing for you. I want to hear about your favourite megalomaniacs and madmen who believe that more is more. And even more is even better.
Films with thousands of extras, gore delivered by the tankerload and more explosives than Bonfire Night. Bands with more musicians on stage than there are people in the audience. Novels that go on for thousands of pages.
Turn the volume up to 11. Order yourself a giant pizza with extra everything. Put on a Cecil B De Mille movie. And set the controls for the heart of the Beanyverse. …..
Lights. Camera. Excess!
Kaisfatdad says
And now some examples.
The German Woodstock der Brass Festival. Not only are there two large brass bands on the stage. Half the audience are wielding trombones and tubas and are tootling along in a magnificent Teutonic cacophony.
Boney M live in Moscow. The Mighty M themselves plus a whole army of camp Cossacks doing the Can Can and bouncing round the stage to the strains of Rasputin.
The Leningrad Cowboys needed some backing vocals for their cover of Sweet Home Alabama. They called in the Red Army Choir.
As can be seen from ths scene from Lisztomania, Ken Russell should have filmed a few Jane Austen novels. They share the same restraint, tastefulness and understatement.
Japanese girl group AKB48. There were only five Spice Girls. Here there are 15 lasses on stage dancing and making merry fun. A J Pop vindaloo! Scary, Posh, Baby & Co are a chicken korma by contrast. Magnificent pop magic.
And finally the film that triggered Brexit: La Grande Bouffe (The Big Pig Out). A group of European gents gather to eat and shag themselves to death.
Kaisfatdad says
Howe Gelb decided that his band Giant Sand was not big enough so added several more musicians and created Giant Giant Sand. And a very agreeable sound they made too.
Not in the same league though as George Clinton who had a space ship, a 20 man strong band, dry ice and disco balls.
But in comparison to Cecil B De Mille, a man who gave a new meaning to the word epic, George comes across as an introspective singer songwriter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH2M9_NFWhk&list=PLVdP5AUdUnAHycxeOh5lWQlV4rZdvPEj5
The stories about him are extraordinary: a greater tyrant than the Pharaoh of Egypt. One bloke’s job was simply to carry his director’s chair. And heaven help him if it wasn’t in place when the maestrp wanted to sit down.
Kaisfatdad says
On the subject of Parliament/Funkadelic, this was quite an interesting read.
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/parliaments-george-clinton-untangles-his-funkadelic-life-and-gets-straight-down-to-business-20141219-12arai.html
And if we are talking epic, I have to mention the New Zealand Ukelele Festival. Over 2000 kids strumming along and singing together. Mr Celebration has attended and speaks very highly of it.
Kid Dynamite says
I am not sure if a one man band meets the thread requirements, but I was listening to this one the other night, and thinking how gleefully demented and over the top it is. It certainly ticks the bombastic box, like Sparks on really bad drugs. Or really good drugs, depending on your point of view.
(This is a fan video made with clips from PSA films and so on. It’s very well done, but also pretty NSFW)
Used to pack the dancefloor in the alternative clubs of Plymouth circa 1992!
Kaisfatdad says
That fit the bill perfectly. And you are right: one does not need a cast of thousands to be boombastic. Certain actors, for example, Steven Berkoff comes to mind, are so gigantic in their body language and voice, that they fill the whole stage.
Here is a taste.
Kid Dynamite says
Not even on nodding terms with restraint
hubert rawlinson says
Does this count
“Kardoma fills the stage with flags” unfortunately there appears to be little information on the internet.
He did what it said on his playbill.
Kaisfatdad says
That really intrigued me, Hubert.
Leonard Crompton Clifford (1891 – 1959) aka Kardoma was probably something of a household name back in the day, “Fills the stage with flags” was the description always given of his act.
http://www.jonathanallen.info/flagtricks/about.html
I’m glad this thread has given him a few extra seconds in the limelight.
Alias says
Inspired by the never less than OTT Sun Ra Arkestra, Jerry Dammers 24 piece Spatial AKA are too big to tour regularly but absolutely essential live. The BBC videos from Later which had them in space age garb are unfortunately blocked on Youtube, so here is a song everyone knows.
Ghost Town
Kaisfatdad says
What a wonderful sound they make! I found this short clip of them in their inter-galactic togs.
And this amateur one which gives some idea of what a big show they put on.
Jerry Dammers and Sun Ra was a rather surprising connection, But then again, they both push the envelope, so perhaps it’s not so odd.
Mike_H says
And here’s the present-day Sun Ra Arkestra giving it some at the Union Chapel last year.
They were there again last Friday and I was there. Glorious.
Kaisfatdad says
The Arkestra are looking and sounding as magnificent as ever. It’s wonderful that they are still going strong, I read an article in Mojo or Uncut recently about what life was like working with Sun Ra. They all lived in the same house in a cult-like way and he ruled things with an iron fist that De Mille would have been envious of. Band members could be summoned to rehearsals at all times of the day and night.
There are several bandleaders and directors like him being mentioned on this thread. Extremely charismatic and both loved and hated. Fela Kuti probably belongs on that list too.
Thingking about movies, I remembered the term “Grand Guignol”: used to describe spectacular, OTT horror movies. But I then realised, I had no idea where it came from.
A quick Google later and I discovered that it was the name of a much-renowned Paris theatre in Pigalle which specialised in garish depictions of sex and violence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Guignol
This short clip shows some of the posters and gives the background.
One director that came to mind in that context was Dario Argento. I saw his Suspiria in a West End cinema complete with a stereo sound system that really did the Goblin soundtrack justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUv8U7EVttE
And from Profundo Rosso
Shame that British prog bands didn’t get the chance to work together with a horror director like this, but there was of course the use of Tubular Bells in The Exorcist.
Rigid Digit says
Polyphonic Spree – This album credits 35 people
Shared royalties may prove small
Kaisfatdad says
Sweden’s ginormous and cacophonous Fire Orchestra certainly fit the bill for this thread, So many of them on stage it’s no idea to even try and count. Another band where touring is really not an economical option.
Alias says
Trinidadian steel band The Lever Brothers Gay Flamingoes had 30+ members. This is their fantastic Fela Kuti medley of Egbi Mi O and Black Man’s Cry:
Mike_H says
These girls make a good ol’ racket.
(The Tuts – Let Go Of The Past)
Vulpes Vulpes says
Turn it all up to twelve and this is what happens:
Kaisfatdad says
The Lever Brothers Gay Flamingoes Steel Orchestra (as in Unilever – their sponsors) has to be my favourite band name of the week. Here’s a piece about their history.
http://www.panonthenet.com/spotlight/2012/flamingoes.htm
Meatloaf certainly belongs on this thread. Boombastic to the bone. There’s something almost operatic about his intensity. Which brings us neatly to Wagner whose epic bombast was a sea change in the world of opera.
No music more appropriate for the epic that is Apocalypse Now!