Sim, nós sabemos que o título do blog não é mais que um roubo indecente do nome de uma faixa de Refused. Mas, além de encaixar bem, é um título bonito, não é?
Não sei se viram as declarações do Presidente da Republica. É claro que não tem nada a ver com arte, mas, foram umas declarações tão... estranhas, que roçam o absurdo. Tal como muitos dos meus posts.
O sentido de timing do PR foi péssimo ; só vai criar instabilidade, especialmente agora, logo após a vitoria do PS. Vai criar um debate, vai ocupar o pais e desviar as atenções do que realmente interessa. É pena ; eu até simpatizava com o senhor.
( Como é óbvio, está comic não tem nada a ver com o conteúdo do resto do post. Mas não me parecia bem postar algo sem imagem. E eu gosto desta. Por isso... )
Foi o que fizeram os Muse quando foram "convidados" a fazer playback num programa italiano. Resolveram trocar de instrumentos e o resultado foi este:
Hilariante! Eles estão a gozar à grande com toda a situação. O vocalista está na bateria, o baixista na guitarra e nas teclas e o baterista na voz e no baixo.
Yep, sou fanboy. Deve ser das melhores faixas pop que já ouvi até hoje. Épica, com aqueles trompetes/trombones. Catchy, com aqueles back-vocals... Enfim.
O grande Capitano Pimenta ficaria orgulhoso de ver o seu "titulo" tão bem empregue...
Eu adoro Satoshi Kon. Como tal pensei em fazer uma série de curtas análises sobre as obras realizadas por este senhor. Logicamente vou começar pelo princípio, ou seja, por Perfect Blue.
O filme conta a história de Mima, uma rapariga que se cansou de ser uma estrela Pop no seu grupo CHAM e está determinada em tornar-se numa actriz de topo. Pelo caminho terá que se subjugar às exigências da profissão e aprender a lidar com os actos que pratica. No entanto, esta alteração na sua vida vai ser bem mais estranha do que ela alguma vez poderia esperar.
Perfect Blue é um thriller psicológico que vai muito provavelmente deixar-vos confusos. A forma como Kon conta a sua história é deveras surreal, pois a barreira entre o sonho e a realidade vai começando a desintegrar-se à medida que o filme vai avançando. De tal forma, que deixamos de ter noção se o que se passou realmente aconteceu. Quando pensam que viram algo incrível, na cena seguinte provavelmente vão ser surpreendidos de outra forma. A ironia por detrás das cenas em que Mima está a actuar é duma perspicácia notável, ficando tudo ainda mais distorcido. A transição das cenas está feita de tal maneira que dá a sensação que tudo é uma ilusão e Satoshi Kon é um mestre a contar este tipo de histórias.
Tal como acontece com outros dos seus trabalhos, Perfect Blue é bastante simbólico. A crítica ao mundo do showbiz está bem patente e embora o final não seja perfeito, vai certamente deixar-vos a pensar.
A banda irlandesa revelou recentemente que está a preparar uma tour pela América que irá decorrer ainda este ano. Depois de uma pausa de cerca de sete anos, a banda de "Linger" parece estar pronta para regressar ao activo. Eu adoro a voz da Dolores e estou radiante com esta notícia. Aconselho a quem não conhece que ouça o "Everybody Else is Doing It..." (1993) e o "No Need to Argue" (1994), dois fantásticos álbuns para quem gosta de rock alternativo com raízes celtas.
Em 2010 será a vez da Europa. Portugal é aquele país ao lado da Espanha han, não se esqueçam.
É levantada a questão : por onde deveria começar esta critica? Deveria começar com a entrada ( atrasada, claro está ) no cinema? Ou nos meses de antecipação que os trailers/teasers causaram? Ou deveria começar p'lo Sacana-mor, Quentin Tarantino, e pelos seus devaneios, sempre entre a vénia e o plágio, o tributo e o sorriso trocista?
O que dizer? Que "Inglorious Basterds" é o seu melhor filme desde o "Pulp Fiction"? Que IB é ( mais ) um enorme tributo ao cinema, no seu exagero e nos seus abusos?
É tudo valido. ( Já agora, não sou o maior fã de Tarantino. Se alguém me perguntar qual o meu realizador favorito, chuto uns 17 nomes antes de responder "Quentin Tarantino". Mas sei reconhecer o seu enorme talento, quando bem direccionado ( poderia agora dizer que em Kill Bill 2 não o foi, mas isso é uma outra historia ) ) .
Não vou ocupar linhas a resumir o enredo ; suponho que, com o hype, já toda a gente saiba, em linhas gerais, do que trata o enredo.
Algures entre o filme de guerra classico e o western spaghetti, o que torna IB tão especial são os seus personagens ( extravagantes e absurdos, e, ao mesmo tempo, tão familiares) e as situações ridiculas em que se encontram , ora a prestar homenagem a Sergio Leone, ora a "gozar" descaradamente com o seu legado. Vou , também eu, plagiar e dividir a review em 3 partes.
O herói ( Brad Pitt ) , a rapariga ( Mélanie Laurent ) e o nazi ( brilhantemente interpretado pelo até então desconhecido Christoph Waltz ).
Moloken.São suecos, tocam algo que fica entre o sludge, o doom e o post-metal. Estrearam-se nestas lides com o belo EP "We all face the dark alone", em 2008. Lentos,sujos e feios,os 15 minutos que compõem o EP são do melhor que já ouvi dentro do género. Agora, em Setembro de 2009, a banda lança o LP "Our Astral Circle". Que melhor desculpa podia eu querer para falar com a banda?
Pereira - Please introduce yourself, your band and explain to us what Moloken is all about.
Jakob - I’m Jakob, the drummer in Moloken. The band represents a mix of different influences and ideas from the early 90’s death/doom scene, the progressive rock from the 70’s, the alternative hardcore scene and many other things. I guess what defines us is that we use the bass in an unconventional way in how Nicklas plays, and how we intertwine that with minimalist guitar stems and our usage of pounding heaviness of controlled chaos.
P-You guys released recently your debut LP, "Our Astral Circle". Can you tell us about the recording process and the thoughts behind the songs?
J-We entered the XL studio the day after the gig at House of Metal 2009 was done, and continued to work there for eight more days, after which the recording was finished the material was sent once again to Sven Engdahl to do his magic thing in the mixing process. Musically the record has a variation of songs, some being very slow and perhaps soft, another one being fast and violent, and another one being introspect and dark. The common link behind these compositions is our notion that nothing is to be given a certain value unless we want it so. In other words: We tend to play with our own expectations – what might seem to be a good intro or a good verse might turn out to be something completely different in the end. It all depends on how we approach the material and how we play it together, as Moloken by nature is a collective effort. The lyrical themes of Moloken have a broad variation of expressions and thoughts. What unite them is the mixture of human fear and fascination of the unknown and different negative impressions that surrounds life and the world we live in.
P- What are your plans for the rest of 2009?
J - We’re going to have a release party in Umeå the 3rd of October on Droskan, and between the 17th till 31th October we’re on our Europe tour, which visits Belgium, Germany and Sweden. In November we’re going to arrange a festival in a small town outside of Umeå, the Holmsund Deathfest festival.
P - How is it going for a young band like yourselves; is it easy to "survive" nowadays in Sweden, playing Doom/Sludge?
J -If you mean survive as in terms of living off your music, then no, it’s certainly not easy. It’s not even possible. If you mean survive as in terms of managing to get gigs and support, then sure. Almost anything is possible, as long as you’re willing to work for it. There are many bands in Scandinavia that creates excellent music but never gets anywhere due to their own lack of interest or peoples nature of having multiple projects going on at the same time, which results in less focus on their supposed-to-be main band. That’s my opinion, anyway.
P - What are the main differences between your EP "We All Face The Dark Alone" and "Our Astral Circle"?
J- When we recorded Our Astral Circle we had a clear picture of what we wanted to do. The sound is more raw and natural, which meant a big step away from the sound we had on the EP. The guitars and drums sound much better than on our EP (which we recorded on a weekend) plus that the Bäckström brothers really performed excellent vocals on the album. We’re all very proud of this album and how it sounds!
P-I know that there were some line-up changes in the past. What happened?
J-A couple of weeks before our gig at House of Metal 2009 Johan Öman announced that he was planning on leaving the band after the recording of the album were done. We accepted his decision and were glad that he stayed and did his guitar lines in the recording process, and not left us “high and dry”. Luckily we found a replacement guitarist in the eminent Patrik Ylmefors just a couple of weeks after Johan’s departure.
P- You have toured in the past; how was it? Have you ever played outside Sweden? If no, can we expect that in the near future?
J-We did a two weeks tour last fall, which took us to Norway and Sweden. This was our first tour, and we really enjoyed it, at least most of it. Besides the normal problems of logistics and provisions we met all sorts of people, in which some later on has helped us with gigs and support, and for that we’re very grateful. In the future we’d love to come and visit other countries besides the northern regions of Europe, and also visit other continents!
P-Your sound has some unique and fresh characteristics, like the role of the bass guitar, the dual vocals... What inspires, what influences you to write a Moloken song?
J-For my own part, I’m always in search of new ways of expressing myself both musically and lyrically, and if I’ve accomplished that through my contribution in the band, then I’m as happy as ever. But I’m also trying to develop my understanding of other music styles and ideas alien to me, so playing in a band, which encases many music styles, has its advantages. But in terms of music, I think that the common feelings I personally want to create is mental darkness, madness, confusion and alienation of things that is considered to surround your world. I think it’s mainly because of my own musical preferences, but also because of my state of mind, affected by long years of exposure to horror literature. J And off course all of these artistic visions gets filtered and analysed by the band. We might be a group of individuals, but we work as a collective.
P-What have you been watching/reading/listening lately?
J-I’ve had the opportunity of reading Michael Focault’s Discipline and Punish, which describes the elder traditions of corporal punishments and later on the development of rehabilitation penalties that was formed by social paradigms in the 19th century, but especially the ideas behind The All-Seeing Eye and its effect on the prison system and society in general. I’m also an elder-culture-geek, which is why I read a book about the creation of the city-state Assyria, Gudens Skygge by Mogens Trolle Larsen, and how the administration and organisation changed this society. When it comes to movies then I’ve seen Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex, a German movie about the creation of The Red Army Faction in West Germany and its development during the 70’s and the 80’s. Musically I’ve been enjoying Virus’ latest album The Black Flux. It has become one of my personal favourites, maybe of all times. Besides that I’ve also been listening to SleepytimeGorillaMuseum’s In Glorious Times. It’s not very rhythmic oriented, at least not as the percussions were on the album before, Of Natural History, and it’s not as polyphonic as on the before-mentioned album or on the debut, Grand Opening And Closing. But it’s still very dark and weird music and I like it.
P-The Post-Metal/Sludge/Doom scene is becoming a bigger scene, with bands like Isis and Neurosis getting more and more recognition and drawing attention to the genre as a whole. What do you think of this?
J-The majority of this attention might be good. For example the creation of bigger networks, bigger institutions, that hopefully will be flexible and appreciative of new ideas and ways of corporation between borders and scenes. The downside can be that commercial interests might want to interfere in the musical creative process, or that marketing deliberately mislabels a musical product, like a boost-effect created by hard marketing rather than based on the consumers’ preferences.
P-What is the origin of the name "Moloken"?
J-Kristoffer came up with the name of Moloken, which is an old Swedish word for gloomy, or downhearted.
P-When can we expect you to play in Portugal?
J-As soon as we can come in contact with someone interested in booking us for a gig there, hopefully next year.
McDonalds.Pássaros.E a imensidão do Oceano Atlântico.
Depois do deathcore dos Shot at Dawn, o Art is Fucking Dead volta à musica mais atmosferica com os norte-americanos Lights Out Asia. Depois do (excelente) "Eyes Like Brontide" , o trio prepara as gravações do seu quarto LP.
A aguardar com expectativa, claro...
Pereira - Please introduce yourselves and describe the essence of Lights Out Asia.
Lights Out Asia - Well, this is Chris Schafer… and LOA is pretty simple. We are three friends that have enjoyed playing music together for over a decade in multiple forms. Having music as an outlet is fantastic, but being able to share it with people of all walks is even better.
P -I am aware that you guys are in the studio right now. How is it going?
Chris: It's going well. We have always been a very detailed band as far as how we record and production. This time we seem to be going just a bit more slowly on this album just because we are probably paying attention to a great amount of details. We are all perfectionists and this helps us a ton but sometimes it hinders speed in the process.
P - Can you tell us the main ideas about the album that you are recording?
Chris: I'm not sure we think that far ahead. We just write in the moment and then it all happens. I wish that there was some profound system that we used as our template, but it is just song to song, at least at the beginning.
Stats (Mike): We do start to develop an album "concept" once we have five or six songs that are close to finished and are pleasing to us. This is where we are at right now in September 2009. Then we start throwing around some song titles, artwork ideas, and general themes. And something inevitably begins to take shape, some thread begins to connect everything, but the process is so subtle that it's something that is almost out of our hands. The albums sort of come together on their own, once we've built the parts.
P - What are your influences, when writing a song?
Chris: For me it is mostly my personal life, but outside of that it's movies, trains going past my home or, for instance, the huge thunderstorms we had back in the summer. Recently I've been sitting in my back yard and this cardinal just sits on the power line singing in a very patronizing way. It is there every day. I have some ideas on writing about this bastard bird.
Stats: You're an insane person. Love it! I am influenced by the music I hear in my head, although it never comes out right. Chris and Mike usually make it turn out much better. I am also very influenced by Chris and Mike's ideas, and I hear something they write and it sounds great and I feel bad that I didn't come up with something so brilliant. So I bury it deep down and browse some more synth patches. Seriously, though, I am inspired by a lot of things, including other bands and little snips of soundtracks or even traffic noises. Sometimes you just sit down and start moving your appendages and something comes out from nowhere. It's great. A lot of time it's crap, though, which is why it's helpful to be in a group.
P - Do you have any dates planned, or tour planned, for the rest of the year?
Chris: Not yet.
P - You released your latest album, "Eyes Like Brontide" last year, on n5MD. How was the reception ?
Chris: Very good. People have had great things to say about and its always nice to hear good feedback. We hope it continues. It was a fun album to write and see come together from start to finish.
P - Can you tell us the main concept behind that album ?
Chris: Brontide was a darker side of LOA, in a sense. Dark would mean frustration, aggression, a general feeling of loss or how terrible I would feel if I ate McDonald's. Brontide didn’t have a real main concept, but consciously had a flow that fit well with each song.
Stats: I agree with this assessment. Brontide to me had to do with feelings of isolation, uneasiness, unanswered transmissions and such, or like how you feel when you look up at the sky and feel very small or hear thunder echoing from very far away. You're both connected to and disconnected from your world. I guess that's the "concept." Whether we executed that concept is up to the listener to determine, and for all we know they may have a completely different concept, or none at all, and still enjoy the album. Music is weird like that. We'd rather have our music be open to different experiences than be "this is what the songs mean, this is how you interpret them, now buy our records."
P- Your sound is quite spacey and distant, yet introspective. Can you describe to us what gear do you use to achieve your sound?
Stats: Nothing magical or unusual. We use guitars, laptops, samples, keyboards, microphones. The best gear is whatever inspires you with its sound, or whatever gets out of the way and makes it easy to work. I like "friendly" gear, gear that lets you get in and start cranking away at knobs and sliders and you can feel how the sound changes. I like gear that also gives you something unexpected from time to time. The unexpected is a big part of soundscaping for us. So we like friendly gear that gets out of the way but also sometimes insists on doing its own thing, as long as that thing is interesting. There's lots of gear like this today, I don't think you need to have stuff nobody else has in order to have your own sound. You just need your own ideas and a healthy sense of experimentation.
That being said, we used to do all our beats in Powerpoint, except for one song that sampled the couch.
P - What have you been listening, watching and reading?
Stats: I've been listening to "Endtroducing..." by DJ Shadow all summer long. I've always liked it, but for some reason it's really grabbing ahold of me again recently. I've also gotten into "Untrue" by Burial, which is this amazing atmospheric dubstep thing that resurrected a lot of the late 1990's UK gloom that is sorely missed. And both of these albums use samples and atmospheres to construct these dark environments that are rich and detailed and full of soul. So, yeah I'm either two years or like eleven years out of date... I'm also a big fan of Marconi Union right now, and Yagya is a big LOA after-practice favorite. Also Marsen Jules and Ametsub. As far as watching goes, it's football season. What I read is too geeky to print.
P - When can we expect you guys to play a show in Portugal ?
Stats: We'd love to, unfortunately we have a hard time fitting all of our gear into the kayaks.
Não consegui arranjar tempo para escrever a segunda parte do artigo sobre o US Open mais cedo, mas mais vale tarde do que nunca. Vou então reflectir sobre o que se passou no quadro masculino.
Em primeiro lugar, embora não tenha tido tantas surpresas, é importante dizer que as maiores baixas na fase mais adiantada do torneio foram o americano Andy Roddick e o escocês Andy Murray, afastados na 2ª e 4ª ronda respectivamente. Eu não estava de todo à espera, uma vez que estamos a falar do vencedor do torneio de 2003 (Roddick) e o finalista do ano passado. Excepto este dois casos, correu tudo como se esperava até à final. Eu sinceramente já esperava que Rafael Nadal fosse eliminado nas meias-finais, uma vez que estava debilitado fisicamente e Del Potro foi imperial no resto do torneio. De qualquer forma, foi uma boa prestação de Nadal que conseguiu até chegar muito longe para quem esteve parado por lesão durante dois meses. Federer também fez um percurso bastante bom, derrotando Novak Djokovic nas meias-finais e fazendo um dos shots mais incríveis do torneio.
Mas a maior surpresa de todas foi mesmo o triunfo de Juan Martin Del Potro sobre o campeão que é Roger Federer. Foi uma partida extremamente bem disputada. O suíço entrou no jogo muito agressivo, demonstrando o seu arsenal de pancadas e impedindo o argentino de entrar no ritmo que ele tanto gosta. A solidez do jogo de Federer e o nervosismo que se fazia notar em Del Potro, por esta ser a sua estreia em finais de torneios de Grand Slam, ditaram que Federer ganhasse mesmo o 1º set por 3-6 de forma relativamente fácil. O início do 2º set parecia ir pelo mesmo caminho, com Federer a conseguir quebrar o serviço a Del Potro, mas o argentino conseguiu quebrar de volta, elevando claramente o seu nível de jogo. No tie break, Del Potro, de apenas 20 anos, apresentou-se muito mais confiante acabando mesmo arrecadar a segunda partida por 7-6. Agora voltavam a estar empatados e ambos os jogadores sabiam da importância do próximo set. O jogo estava completamente relançado, com Del Potro finalmente a conseguir impor o seu jogo e Federer a ter de estar mais concentrado para evitar cometer erros desnecessários, como aconteceu no 2º set. O 3º e o 4º sets foram os melhores do encontro. Jogos cheios de emoção com os dois jogadores a jogarem o seu melhor. Del Potro estava decidido a lutar pelo título e apesar de ser um jogador extremamente sereno, não deixou de interagir com o público. Público esse que se fez ouvir, como é habitual em Flushing Meadows. O 3º set foi para o suíço por 4-6, enquanto que o 4º foi para o argentino novamente por 7-6, adiando-se a conclusão do encontro para o set final. Ao contrário do que sucedeu em Roland Garros uns meses antes, também contra Federer, Del Potro soube manter-se dentro do encontro embora mostrasse sinais evidentes de cansaço. Quem ninguém pensava que fosse ceder fisicamente foi Federer, mas foi isso precisamente que aconteceu. Federer mostrou-se apático no último set, fazendo erros atrás de erros e cedendo o seu primeiro jogo de serviço. Com 5-2, Del Potro parecia ter tudo para ganhar se conseguisse manter o seu jogo de serviço. Mas tal não foi preciso, pois Federer cedeu pela segunda vez o break, fazendo com que o argentino se tornasse no novo campeão do US Open. Após quatro horas de jogo, Juan Martin Del Potro caiu no chão, não conseguindo evitar as lágrimas. Del Potro conseguia finalmente o seu primeiro título do Grand Slam e não há dúvida que o mereceu. Foi o jogador mais consistente, em termos físicos e mentais, lutando contra o cansaço físico e contra o barulho ensurdecedor do público presente. Nenhum argentino conseguiu ganhar o US Open desde a vitória de Guilhermo Villas em 1977, o que tornou este triunfo ainda mais importante.
Del Potro é um jogador a ter em atenção nos próximo anos. É jovem e ainda pode evoluir muito. Ele já provou que é um jogador de grande nível e penso que eventualmente vai conseguir ser nº 1 mundial, é uma questão de tempo.
