Category Archives: Film/Video

Video of the last time I played with TP

Taking a quick break from getting ready for this Friday’s gig, I was just looking for video of TP in action. I happened upon this clip from the last time we played together, back in 2000 at Gabes in Iowa City (glow sticks and all). The video starts with a glimpse of Ryan Burns, who passed away a few years ago. It’s nice to think that this video captured him at his happiest. He loved seeing TP.

Vladislav Delay stuff

I’ve been meaning to write up this album for a while now, as it’s not leaving my mp3 player any time soon, but I’ve just caught up on some reading and noticed that it’s already received an excellent treatment from Toby @ Bleep 43.

In case you missed my tweet the other day, there’s also a fantastic video for Toive up on Vimeo that is totally worth checking.

I’ll surely have more to report on Vladislav Delay later this month, following their gig @ Union Chapel on 12 November (tickets still seem to be available).

Space

Here’s a couple of videos with a space theme. The first is the Portsmouth Sinfonia masacring Wagner’s Thus Spake Zarathustra (the music from the opening credits of 2001). The second is a recording of space shuttle launch STS-124 from the sonic perspective of a solid rocket booster. The result is a strange, hypnotic noise/music, which is slightly marred by glitches but still completely worth a go.

We do what we’re told

My friend Stelios uncovered this mashup of Blade Runner and Peter Gabriel, which is pretty beautiful I reckon.

Deckard (Harrison Ford) retires the replicant Zhora (Joanna Cassidy). Footage is from the 1992 Director’s Cut edited with Peter Gabriel’s “We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)” from the album “So”.

Here’s the link. Unfortunately embedding is disabled. It’s worth checking the HD version if your bandwidth permits.

Arthur Russell: Wild Combination

Went to the ICA today to see the Arthur Russell documentary, Wild Combination. Really liked it. I got really emotional towards the end. Had to put up a heroic effort to fight back the tears. All of the video of him was quite affecting as well. It would be hard to do this as well as they did without getting soppy, but they pulled it off really well. It definitely was a bit short on the disco side of things, but I didn’t mind so much. The footage of The Loft was pretty cool. Had no idea there’s still literally thousands of hours of his recordings that have never been released. Would love to hear more of that. Anyway… Iowan boy done good. Out on DVD on November 3.

The Depeche Mode 101 Rose Bowl Concert

It’s good. It’s basically just the CD with video accompaniment though. So buy the DVD for the whole package, buy the CD/vinyl for your routine listening needs.

I still think this is such a perfect time capsule of (pockets of) American infatuation with Depeche Mode. There are moments in almost every song that have a huge affect on me. PIMPF in particular invokes a direct emotional response as soon as it’s playing. It is the musical invocation of anticipation.

As I watch it I get grand ideas (as I am prone to do) abut throwing these tracks in to DJ sets. I would love to hear the 101 version of Stripped on a Funktion 1 system to kick off a DJ set, or Everything Counts to end one. I just wish people who are brave enough to include DM in their DJ sets would reach beyond the obvious. The last thing we need is DJs playing the DM equivalent of Blue Monday (and might I add what an absolutely worthless selection that is as a DJ). I would be happy for many months if someone surprised me and dropped Blue Dress in the middle of a set.