Darker Than Dark Music and Film/TV In 2010's Rearview Mirror

[MuthaWit]

 

Hola, Loved Ones!

 

Hope you cats had a great holiday season.  I had a fantastic time hanging out with family and friends(old and new) in ATL.

 

2011 has begun and I’m’a dip back into last year one mo’ time in a minute to offer my perspective on what I thought were the most interesting musical selections and films to cross my desk.  Have to say upfront that 2010 tasted pretty mild on the special sauce menu in terms of engaging art.  Kanye West has pretty much dominated most of the lists and headlines of the mainstream magazines and blogs.  “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” was an okay record but I was much more taken with the economy of the music (edited length of the songs) and lovely visuals of Kanye’s 34:32 “Runaway” short film.   That video was a powerful
statement of how much Kanye has diversified as an artist but the actual record was a sample by numbers exercise.  It was catchy and BIG sounding/marketing in the way that most strong pop is but mad disposable.  After digesting “MBDTF” in this chickenbone like year I am fully prepared to declare that Kanye West is the first decade of this Century’s Phil Collins. 

 

Dang.

 

Last year was darker than a mugh, y’all.  In general the songs/albums/film from my list is overcast with, for lack of a better expression, a serial haze.   Perhaps it’s the consequential depression of the current recession screaming that monsters, suicide, androids, murder and loss are dominating the pop cultural zeitgeist.  Think I’m lying?  Frequent the words and images of Lady Gaga, Sons of Anarchy, Black Swan,  Jay Leno(the bloodbath with Conan) and other media leaders and you’ll gather what I mean. Even dadgum Beyonce is getting in on the red plasma spillage.  Artists are hella pissy right now and on edge.  Songs on my list feature clashing chords, vocals doing strange atonal things and just enough lovely lo-fi orchestral detail to prick my ears consistently.  This is not art to lull you to sleep unless you want to consider NOT waking up ever again. 

 

Dang.

 

Okay, here we go.

 

Music:

Flying Lotus (album):  Cosmogramma

If I was concerned with firsts and lasts when it comes to music list I would go out on a limb and call “Cosmogramma” album of the year.  Los Angelean Steven Ellison a.k.a. Flying Lotus reached deep into his bag unearthing Donkey Kong aggression, freaky African derived Bankhead bounce drums and digitally
recombinant symphonic flourishes akin to his Aunt Alice Coltrane’s work(kudos to Miguel Atwood Ferguson for string arrangements).  I found myself smiling extensively during each pass through this album.  Y’all should really get into it.

 

Fat Transfer (album):  my heart, the cave

Tieraney Carter a.k.a. released a slew of free records in 2010 with “my heart, the cave” being the zenith of the peep.  Her dirty records sound like they were hacked from ancient field recordings of over heliumated blues (wo)men returned to earth after a prolonged alien abduction wherein Bossnova classes were mandatory.  There are beautiful moments on the record where I find myself listening with one eye strained closed to focus my concentration on the slogging beats, gentle guitar and high pitched vocal melodies that betray a love of 50s and 60s pop.  It’s sexy music for sociopaths.

 

Finneyerkes (album):  Without End

Sometimes you come across a group that just pushes a pleasure button that is a unexplainable.  I’ve let some folks hear “Without Ed” and they don’t seem to or care to get IT.  This is peculiarly generous life affirming music.  That fact that it isn’t light up the party fare is demonstrated by the lines “this is the knowledge that it will happen again/the smell of witches burning/and sound of God's unraveling./This is the moment when you find out how useless you really are.”  The atmospheric guitars and vocal static drone on until they merge with the lingering tinnitus ashes in your head.  Good times.

 

Dearling Physique (single): Discipline Your Hands

URB ALT favs Dearling Physique will be dropping their album “Deadeye Dealer” this month.  They blessed us with the elegantly post-rock dance track “Discipline Your Hands” in 2010 as the leadoff single.  Frontman Dominque unleashes the frigid hounds of Minneapolis in a subversively pop yet avant garde electronic banger for that freaky aerobic exercise class you always felt a little too square for.  Straighten your wigs and dance, dadgummit.

 

Janelle Monae (album):  The Archandroid

Kansas transplant bursting out of the ATL music scene , Janelle Monae offered a hip orchestral pop maneuver that befuddled many and chauffeured more than a few through her time travel shenanigans.  The songs sometimes groove in a self-consciously familiar MJesque way but my fancy was struck everytime she and her production partners ushered things into James Bond/John Barry territory as with “Sir Greendown” and “BahBopByeYa.”  These songs really allow Janelle the opportunity to display a wonderfully melodic vocal sensitivity.  ‘Cept for a lil window dressing, her android future throughline seems lyrically sublimated on this album.  Janelle seems confident on this promising debut to now leave the story open for us to fill in the blanks.  Here’s to the future. 

 

Baths (album): Cerulean

I can already hear the "WHAT?!" with this selection.  LOL  Like a spirit parting lips as green smoke Bath's album snuck up on me with a languid arsenal of Rhythm & Blues grooves and Post Foetus melodies.  "Lovely Bloodflow" was the "F*ck You" I was inclined to throw up a middle finger to for 2010.  Will Wiesenfeld has finally proffered a voice that can possibly bring pop cred to LAs irrevocably unquantized beat scene.  He'll take your girlfriend because he's ironically(?) channeling Steely Dan, Prince, ABBA and Toro Y Moi in such a glitchily gay way.  Cool sideburns too.

 

Gonjasufi (album, first 9 songs):  A Sufi and A Killer

Nine tracks into Sumach a.k.a. Gonjasufi’s first album I was thinking “This is something other and powerful.”  Up to that point it was easily one of the highlights of my listening year.  I wanted it to end
there in a 9 song place where he’d managed to merge Bad Brains hardcore histrionics, ever-so-nasty distorted beats, West Coast funk counter-insurgencies and Perry Como on acid crooning.  Alas the
album continued on for 10 more songs.  Yow!  Still and all Gonjasufi offers kickbutt spiritual music to a generation that finds religion in Madden and Facebook.  I really want to hear him work out a live band.

 

Frakers Farm (single):  Bonjour

Shortly before Christmas this year I was treated to a private listen of Lance and Landon Fraker's(the duo behind Frakers Farm) brilliant LP "Moose Love Sugar."  It was an experimental, bluesy, funny and contemporary passage of music that I'm excited for people to hear in 2011.  My ears are always partial to production that feels outside of time i.e. the sound doesn't adhere to the rules or types of a given trend.  The first single(at least what I consider the single) from the album is the song "Bonjour."  It's a loping slab of South Georgia psychedelia and dare I say Hog Hop?  Yeah, I dare say it.  "I like'em all." 

 

Twin Shadow (single):  Castles In The Snow

This is the dadgum song I could never get out of my head in 2010.  It’s George Lewis, Jr.’s perfect pop offering.  RAWK!  Postscript: "Tether Beat" ran a close second to "Castles" in the Twin Shadow sweepstakes.

 

Jneiro Jarel featuring Micah Gaugh (single):  Going Home

The featured track on Jneiro Jarel’s Android Love Mayhem EP, “Going Home” gives shine to one of my favorite artists out there, Micah Gaugh.  These cats are a great tag team when formatting Jneiro’s signature jerky technoid beats with Micah’s somewhat detached yet always melodically compelling vocals.  This is where the Androids truly come alive.  More of this, JJ.

 

Film and Tv:

 

The Social Network

I am always hesitant to believe the hype when EVERYONE co-signs a films greatness but I have to say that David Fincher wrought an immensely thoughtful and entertaining gem with his historical upending and
bending of the various truths around the creation of Facebook.  Yes, I’m cattle.

 

True Blood, Season 3 episode 3 “It Hurts Me Too”

I think True Blood is corny as hell most of the time.  The acting is often awful.  The special effects chessy.  And Tara cries ENTIRELY too much.  Someone remove that chicks tearducts.  But the episode where Bill hate-sexes his vampire ex/maker, Lorena, while twisting her neck around until it breaks and contorts like a noodle is the absolute craziest thing I have ever seen on television.  Russell Edgington, the Vampire King of Mississippi, owns the season but this was the best episode of True Blood since it’s inception. 

 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Devastating in sexual provocation and depravity.  Dark in a very anti-mainstream manner.  Dense in information and storytelling technique.  Diverse in the type of characters offered as protagonists and antagonists with none being more alluring than the genius computer hacker punk bisexual babe, Lisbeth
Salander.  She is one of the coolest looking characters to appear on the big screen since the cats from the Matrix.  “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”  just made it to my consciousness in 2010 so I'm ignoring the fact of this Swedish films late 2009 release.  Based on the trilogy of books by crime author Steig Larsson it's unrelentingly bleak and unafraid to show us the ugliness of man.  No surprise then that David
Fincher(7even and Fight Club) is giving it the Hollywood remake.

 

Dexter, Season 5 episode 6 “Everything is Illumenated”

It’s inevitable that Detective Deborah Morgan will find out that her adopted brother, Dexter, is a serial killer with a heart of gold.  The producers/writers of the series have great fun toying with the viewers anticipation of that eventuality by creating scenarios where it ALMOST happens.  Dexter’s attempt to salvage Lumen’s bloodily bumbled revenge execution of one of her rapists in a warehouse draws Deb dangerously close to the murder scene.  The tension in the few seconds separating the discovery of brother and sister is remarkable and great television.  I gotta admit after so many discovery close calls over 5 seasons I'm beginning to feel like I'm watching a warped reimagining of Gilligan's Island.  Are these mughs ever going to get off this island?

 

Black Swan

Nobody uses the film medium to relay the intricacies and obsessions of process like director Darren Aronofsky.  "Pi" showed us the inner workings of the mind made real in leaving breathing technology filtered through the ancient Jewish law.  "The Wrestler" pulled away the curtains to express the extremes that "athletic entertainers" will go to create a bloody good show.  "Requiem for a Dream" revealed the fact that addiction in all of it's manifestations fails as a beauty product.  And now "Black Swan" declares you can dance if you want to but it's a lie that all the critics love you in New York.  This film allows us to be voyeurs in the physical and emotional collapse of a ballerina.  It hurts.

 

The Walking Dead,  Season 1 episode 1.

2010 recession era Atlanta is a great metaphor for zombie culture and the dead in this series on FX do get their grub on.   I watched the 6 episode season and frankly the first show was the only one that made me feel any real tension.  My heart went out to the father who wanted so dearly to remove his wife from the ranks of the undead by putting a bullet in her head.  His inability to do so said much about how deep love can indeed run.  Dang, I’m a romantic.

 

 

Kanye West:  Runaway

Spreading his wings in a very cool way.  Dug it.  See comments above.

 

 

That’s all I got, y’all.  You can prolly tell I didn’t see a ton of movies this year.  Wasn’t drawn into many of the trailers that I saw but seeing Mr. Seldom Seen’s list gives me something to look forward to.  I’m gonna delve into the work that I’m anticipating in 2011 soon.  Thanks for reading and have a good’ne til then.

 

Dang why am I feeling like going to listen to some John Denver music right now?  

 

Happy New Year!

[Kambui]

(Laughing) Nothing's happened, guys. I usually stay away from year-end lists, but I will make an exception...

 

song currently stuck in my head: "who needs forever" - astrud gilberto

[MuthaWit]

Dang, Kirby you make a great point in your association of zombies with pop cultures cannibilism.  To take it further it's  more like pop culture is composed of cannibals with bulemia tendencies.  Ingesting the form but upchucking the nutrients.  

 

Okay, that's gross!

[Kirby]

Fat Transfer is really good. Damn.

[Kirby]

I avoid too much darkness, like Dexter, True Blood and The Walking Dead. I get that they're a good TV, but I don't think subjecting oneself to too much violence is a good thing for you spiritually. Zombie's freak me out. Beyonce and Lady Gaga represent the music of our time (commercial music that is) - pure sensation devoid of meaning, pop culture eating itself. Wait, that's like . . . Walking Dead. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MuthaWit]

Get'im, MrSS!  LOL

[Mr Seldom Seen]

Kambui, I actually expected you to post your favorite music list from last year before Mr. Fielder did. What happened, brother? Too many songs stuck in your head? I'm still waiting for it....

[Kambui]

Of course, cool choices.

 

Man, I've GOT to see that Zombie series! The Social Network was much better than I expected.

 

Why I never wrote about Fat Transfer is beyond me.  I am a big fan of hers...

 

song currently stuck in my head: "i only know (what i know now)" - james blake

[MuthaWit]

Dude, nothing is more frightening than Zombies that can actually move fast and handle weapons (no matter how clumsily).  Gotta see "La Horde" now!

[Mr Seldom Seen]

Thanx for the music recommendations. '10 began strong with the likes of Charlotte Gainsbourg, but as the year progressed I was like, 'who got next'? So you've definitely given me something to check out. As for film, I've covered that area myself but I will post an amended list simply because during the holidays I caught up on a LOT of movies, a few I need to mention on the Best lists, but I am divvying up the list into Best Film, Best Foreign Films, and Best Documentary because the past year was a banner year. TV was my year for Damages. Glenn Close and company (particularly Martin Short) really showed out in season 3. While I feared this would have been the show's final season (DirecTV picked it up for 2 more seasons) I really felt violated when it was announced my top show ever Law & Order would not return for what would have been it's final record-breaking season. I am truly addicted to True Blood, mainly because of the ever intriguing Bill-Sookie-Eric menage a trois. But I have to agree after a near-flawless debut season it continues to grow corny so much so I barely recognize some of my favorite characters this season, such as Sam and especially Tara (Eggs must have hit her spot hard for her to carry on like this). But I do give these characters the benefit of the doubt because so much has occurred to them in so little time (producer Alan Ball confirms the timeline for the past three seasons is only six weeks). And if season 4 follows book 4 of the Sookie Stackhouse novels as announced, with Fiona Shaw cast as the head witch in charge, True Blood will redeem itself with a kick-ass, crazy as batshit season! And as good as episode 3 was my standout episode is #8 ("Night on the Sun"). Sookie got her heart broken by Bill but later showed her bones when she threw down with Alcide's were-ex Debbie Pelt. Lafayette got a surprise visit from his crazy mama. Bill and his progeny Jessica reunited and got a little Matrix-style training in. Eric got his revenge against Russell when he took out Talbot, a.k.a Martha Stewart with fangs. And Bill got his swerve on at the end of the show (again!) when he and Sookie go down and dirty for some nasty necrophilia. However, honorable mention to episode #9 ("Everything Is Broken") because nobody reads the news quite like Russell Edgington does! I did not expect Dexter to top it's Trinity season. But this season did at times keep me on the edge of my seat. And I did like the inclusion of Lumen (though a lot of die-hard Dexter fans did not). Am I the only one who notices the sloppier Dexter gets the luckier he gets? Dexter Morgan is a dangerous cat but I thought Peter Weller had him down for sure. I did tune in to The Walking Dead, not because friends of mine claimed they were extras, and I am most definitely looking forward to the new season (what happened to Merle??). But these zombies have nothing on the ones in one of the movies I watched over the weekend called La Horde (a.k.a. Legion of Evil). It did not make any of my lists but it is worth checking out.