Watched zodiac last night, it’s a great movie. All round strong performances (especially mark ruffalo), some beautiful cars and a wonderful,subtly fx-heavy recreation of 70’s san francisco. The soundtrack is also right on the money-it’s one of those soundtracks that gets you jumping on google as soon as the credits roll- perfectly capturing that hippie-gone-bad vibe of the late sixties/early seventies. It’s got donovan’s freaky ‘hurdy gurdy man’ as the main theme and this killer from ‘three dog night’ (which has been sampled by somebody, but I can’t quite put my finger on it) for the intro.
Suffice to say-(if you haven’t already)-you need to see this, but in the meantime….
hard as it might be to believe there was a time when i was quite innocent. now, here in my thirties, i’m feeling mighty jaded and a little deflated.
driving to la rochelle earlier this year we passed a phenomenon i’d forgotten about.
on the side of the road black silhouettes, some with a red lightning flash at the head, would occasionally puncture the verge of the slick, macadamed surfaces which cut swathes through the fields of the charante-maritime. after a few kilometres of pondering how they resembled discarded props from a fairground ghost train ride and just before they settled into my accepted background of inter city france it dawned on me that each one stood for a death on the autoroute; a real person now cut-out of the communities their macabre mannequins are left to guard. Read more »
So this will be the last thing we write about Prince on hl for awhile, (I promise) there still plenty of good stuff on basilika including a wonderful picture of him riding pegasus which I can’t quite bring myself to move from off the top)
In the hunt for that infamous shot I came across this little snippet via questlove’s myspace
prince took a liking to common in mid 2000, and let com use his studio while he was away on tour. he also agreeed to play some music as well. we took this opportunity to fulfill a lifetime fantasy: recording at paisley park. by this point P had pretty much shipped all his vintage gear from his classic period to the basement.—the same gear i begged engineer femi jiya to dust off and let me have a go at. we made this song shortly before “star 69″ on EC–but because it sounded too much like a prince song….we thought it would deter him from contributing to the album so we passed.—but come interlude time i couldn’t hold back and still put it on the album.
A here is the track.
A nasty 96kbps myspace rip, I’m afraid, but still so, so heavy.
our recent server problems aside it looks like this weekend is going to be another doozy - and one of those where the last thing you really want to do is stay in and watch a movie. luckily the recent batch of trailers i’ve been foraging through in the depths of my summer cold hibernation are all slated for autumn/winter release - its an odd, odd thing to be wrapped in blankets, dressed in fleece leisurewear and have people call you to tell you how glorious the weather is outside while you shiver and dream of a log fire, like watching the world go by from a different continent or something, but i digress.
be kind, rewind - the new michel gondry (trailer here) has me all in a whirl - jack black and mos def remake 80s movie classics after black’s magnetic brain wipes all the cassettes in the video store where they work. frankly, i’d have paid £8 to hear someone explain the premise to me in a cinema so the idea of getting to see that pitch executed by le bateau-des-reves gondry, has me tickled pink.
in the search for bkr(as the cool kids aren’t calling it)’s trailer i also happened across one for former wes anderson cohort, noah boambach’s sophomore effort. margot at the wedding appears to be a similarly fraught examination of family ties as the squid & the whale - and while i’m not as over the moon psyched about it as anderson’s upcoming darjeeling limited, matw (man, even i’m not finding this particularly funny… sorry) has got a solid cast, beautiful cinematography and looks like a worthy contemplatative arthouse feature. what took me most during the trailer however was the lilting diaphenous cover of crosby stills & nash’s our house. in a beautifully cyclical sweep the soundtrack’s version is performed by phantom planet, who’s drummer, jason swartzman appears as one of the three brothers in darljeeling limited, as well as having played max fischer in anderson (& baumbach’s) rushmore.
since we’re all lined up for another dappled, balmy summer weekend it seems only fitting that hickory smoke and torn denim of our house be the soundtrack to that. have a lovely weekend.
When she was child, sometimes she would go missing, her mother used to find her playing with boys in the sand and drag her home screaming.
It’s the responsibility of a child to challenge the boundaries imposed on their world by their parents, to find the defining lines that mark out where love begins and where it ends, the role of the parents to drag us from our wants and desires, back home, to the reality of right and wrong, action and consequence, life and death.
The autumn sun illuminates the trees, the golden leaves shining like a city on a hill. A promise for tomorrow and reminder of the quiet that awaits my return. It’s cold, yet bright- I can see all the world laid out before me.
Even in decay-all things remain beautiful in your light.
JUSTICE “Phantom part II-soulwax remix” via busy p’s blog for fader.
Man I love this clip, it reminds me of drunken nights at basilika.
Me and illa going nuts behind the decks, loving the music as much as (way more than) the crowd, oh and that mix sounds amazing.
Speaking of basilika, prince week continues a pace with loads of exclusive versions of our favourite unreleased or hard to get tracks. Word to DC for joining in the fun.
Also on the firemusic network,jez at innersounds is posting like a maniac, (God knows where he gets the energy) including this monster from hl fav moodyman.
The LA Times reviews William Gibson’s new book Spook Country,which I would have pre-ordered from amazon alreday if I wasn’t half way through about 12 books already-maybe it’s the motivation I need to clear the decks.
And (via Serif) this wonderful collection of 60’s/70’s book covers.
i suppose it’s unsuprising that the horse latitudes has developed a mild obession with all things nautical, piratical or maritime.
afterall, we got our name from the place on the sea where there’s nothing to do but have faith; wait for the winds to pick up and carry you home.
and much as the word, ’scandinavian’ will make me pay more attention to any particular subject more recently so does the word ’sailor’ - though my greatgrandfather was captain of this awe inspiring console (and the attached oceanliner) so maybe its always been in my landlocked blood.
i’ve posted an i love you sailor track before but i keep coming back to them. they’re a happenstance find, friends of a friend adrift in the myspace ocean for love, not money. this was the hook that dragged me in, lilting and breezy, kindly and warm, it sounds like a song playing on a distant radio while you sleep the day away in the dappled sunlight of a lime tree arbour.
apologies for the way it cuts off, it was aquired by not entirely conventional means, but there’s more than enough here to want to be the sailor they’re in love with.
It was so good being with so many people that I didn’t know but with whom I had all these shared memories and, as much as you don’t want it just to be about nostalgia, it’s the past that draws you and the the past that will always be Prince’s worst enemy. I guess it’s a good problem to have, a peerless back catalogue, the greatest live act around for the best part of a decade, how do you compete with that ?
Well you don’t really and that’s just gonna have to be fine.
When I was growing up Prince was barely even human. He was this other being, someone to whom the normal rules didn’t apply- the man who feel to earth. He didn’t do interviews, he put freaky record out after freaky record all sounding like nothing you’d ever heard, all drawn from a magical place, Paisley Park, that no-one else could go, like sly stone and willy wonka had some secret love child.
And maybe sly stone is a good a reference point as any, there is something unforgiving about music-the nowness of things seem so massively important.
So he played some hits, he did his thing in a way that, even now, no-one else could dream. It helped us remember all the good times (and bad) to which his songs have provided the soundtrack and, more importantly, it was obvious to us all that he is entirely human, (the guitar solos whilst performing spilts/ the crazy dance moves are long gone) and, strangely, that was a relief. That I could let go of this semi-religious awe and enjoy him for what he is-a supremely talented individual. Prince-Climax (Ulysses82 redub)
despite reaching epic guardian reader dinner party soundtrack proportions i still love jose gonzalez. his soft swedishness and understanding of the subtle formula of a truly pleasing cover version being two things which keep me going back to him like an old flame you’re fond of and who’s arms you can’t shake.
having surfaced earlier this year to re-release the beautiful if ubiquitous ‘veneer’, and later on zero7’s most recent long-play outing he’s back with a new album ‘in our nature’ in september.
since it looks like the weather’ll hold and doubtless getting your hands on a disposable barbeque in central london will be more of a logistal challenge than dancing in the aisles at a prince gig, here’s a new track from jose gonzales for your weekend. best enjoyed with a nice chilled glass of rosé and some gourmet picnic fare…
jose gonzalez - down the line removed at record company’s request
It’s had a holding page for a good 3/4 months but hl sister site basilika is back with brand new design and fresh purpose. The music will be good as ever but with greater emphasis on original productions and edits. To celebrate it’s return, basilika is hosting a special inaugural Prince-athon; an outlet perhaps for the excitement of the front row/first night/aftershow tickets I am currently staring at (more of that tomorrow).
In the meantime take a gander at the bounty of minneapolis based goodness that will be sneaking out over the course of the week and if your going to any of the gigs this month have a great time.
