fireflies

Video for the ethereal Still Corners song "Fireflies."

art by claudio parentela

via Claudio Parentela

la crique

Ridin' these late summer days with a breezy mix tape from Zimmer.

Tracklist

1. Michael Jackson – Rock With You (The Reflex Revision)

2. Le Crayon feat. KLP – Give You Up (Darius Remix)

3. Mayer Hawthorne – Her Favorite Song (Oliver Remix)

4. T-Pain – Can’t Believe It (Figgy Remix)

5. Drake – Hold On, We’re Going Home (Beat Mass Tropic Remix)

6. Cyclist – Shine (feat. Maiko Watson)

7. Mike Mago – The Show (Lane 8 Remix)

8. Freiboitar – Imagination (feat. Shari Callista)

9. Indian Summer – Foreign Formula (Cosmo’s Midnight Remix)

10. Chela – Romanticise (Gold Fields Remix)

11. Fleetwood Mac – Family Man (Flight Facilities Edit)

12. Love On The Beat – We Run

13. Erlend Øye – La Prima Estate

14. Heavenly Beat – Complete

15. Holy Models – Swimming Pool

Download here.

love is a bourgeois construct

Loving the new Pet Shop Boys single!

Here are a few remixes below.

photography by wolfgang ludwig

Still life photographs by Wolfgang Ludwig.

tu(n)esday!

Strong...





Sons & lovers...





Carpe diem (free mp3)...





Everything about her...





Black crown (free mp3)...





Falling...





Look into my eyes (free mp3)...





Walking lightly...





Sounds of silence...





Night life...





Summertime sadness...





La la la...





Waiting game...

lose yourself to dance

The radio edit..





& a fun teaser for Daft Punk's (featuring Pharrell & Nile Rogers) "Lose Yourself to Dance." A nice late-summer jam.

disco tech!

Some fun reworks by Disco Tech of classic songs.

lookin' for the magic

Some thrills, bits of black comedy and a kick-ass heroine shape Adam Wingard's You're Next, a 2011 home invasion horror flick released smartly this late-summer by Lionsgate (the eerily coy trailer featured Lou Reed's "Perfect Day") after festival buzz. Wingard situates his tale in a rambling English Tudor in a remote woodsy landscape where husband (Rob Moran) and wife (Barbara Crampton) are celebrating their 35 year anniversary by gathering their family together. Once the patriarchs and their kin--all nervous and forlorn and somewhat combative with one another--and their unwillingly-dragged-there significant others sit down for dinner, they are suddenly attacked by bow and arrow wielding assailants in dime store plastic animal masks.

As he showed in his cheeky retina cam freakout for V/H/S 2, Wingard is best at creating mood and having some fun with the material.  The familiar slasher conceit opening is set to a disarming wavy 70s power pop tune (Dwight Twilley's "Lookin' for the Magic" which is remade by band Mind the Gap for the End Titles) played on repeat on a CD disc changer.  Like much of today's best terror cinema, like this year's spook house spectacular The Conjuring, the movie drips with nostalgia for the VHS horror rental era. There's also a few electro-rock digs in the effectively simple score (by Mads Heldtberg, Jasper Justice Lee, and Kyle McKinnon).  

I was able to forgive the sloppiness of the plot and Simon Barrett's script (the film does lose its way and tension once the intruders are unmasked) thanks to its nervy humor, fearless survivalist-trained Aussie final girl (played by Sharni Vinson), the well-honed setting, and the general sense of filmmaker and cast comradeship the film exudes (Wingard's cast includes indie-horror prince Ti West and many "Mumblecore" cohorts plus Chopping Mall / From Beyond starrer Crampton as in-joke).

I wish the movie lingered around more through the mansion a la Ti West's House of the Devil, but I think there's likely more than meets the eye on first viewing.  The shaky cam gets carried away and too obvious during the kills when the movie feels at its best mimicking the steady appearance of that stately manor.  But we do end up being treated to a pretty spectacular death via blender. ***


-Jeffery Berg

okay

Holy Ghost! always brings it.

nirvana

Lovely new track from Sam Smith.  Can't wait for the album!

paint a smile on me

Cool tune from Black Yaya.

short term 12

Hawaiian-bred Writer / Director Destin Cretton based his moving and striking new film Short Term 12 on experiences working at a facility for troubled, at-risk youth.  Originally he made a short with a male as the story's lead supervisor but while working on the feature, he changed it to center upon a female named Grace.  Portrayed by Brie Larson (Rampart, "United States of Tara," The Spectacular Now), in an aching, warm and believable performance, Grace and her boyfriend Mason (an excellent John Gallagher Jr.) are counselors for foster kids in a sunlit, one-story cinder block building. Nate (a funny Rami Malek) is a nervous fish-out-of-water, new addition to the staff. The kids include bottled-up Marcus (Keith Stanfield) struggling with past abuse and dour, insecure young Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever) who ends up rattling the usually resilient, thick-skinned Grace.

Shot on RED Epic by cinematographer Brett Pawlak, the somewhat unsteady camera often follows Grace dauntlessly moving room to room (closed doors and sharp objects aren't allowed); therein, for her and the audience, lies the fear that one of the kids, many who are impulsive, may harm one another or themselves. It's lit with a honeyed, yellowish glow that adheres to the contradictory aspects of the storyline and of its complex characters; it's a look that manages to be dingy and raw but also warm and hopeful. The quiet, unobtrusive score by Joel P. West is an opus of strummed guitars, strings holding out lengthy notes and subdued piano chords.  Cretton's script feels natural, dotted with quickly-paced disarming little moments, but also focused and well-structured.

I quickly realized the subtlety and strengths of Short Term 12 when Grace and Mason are first seen together at home after a day of work.  They acted so differently in these different environments; at first I thought Grace's boyfriend was someone who looked just like Mason but Larson and Gallagher are so harmonious and natural and the direction is completely unadorned.  To prepare for the role of Grace, Larson researched material on the film's subject matter but also delved into her character: "I'd go into a corner and drink a lot of black coffee and get myself feeling really ill and say, 'I'm going into the pit.'" Gallagher's Mason adds balance and shades of humor--you can see why the two are in a relationship and sometimes, why they would be drawn to their occupation.  The sufferings of the characters are sometimes brought out metaphorically and with resonance by the cast: Dever's harrowing Octopus story monologue and Stanfield's rap solo. Deft, unsentimental and evocative throughout, the film refreshingly doesn't harbor upon obvious tropes and never vocalizes easy conclusions: it's often a film about what's unspeakable.  Yet underneath, there are many traumas, including Grace's past abuse, and the sometimes sad predicaments of the kids.  The story almost veers into melodrama in the latter half when the tragedies are tripled, but Larson and the restraint of Cretton's direction steer the ship steady.  ***1/2

-Jeffery Berg

tu(n)esday! by melissa presti

Iffy Orbit - The Fourth Dimension





Volcano Choir - Comrade

Sir Sly - Found You Out





Brolly - Hollow Home Rd

Vance Joy - From Afar





Swim Deep - Honey





Robert DeLong - Happy





Twin Peaks - Irene





Deaf Havana - Mildred

...and happy first #1 UK single to the love of my life, Ellie Goulding!

step together

Ooooh yea.

photography by alexandra höhn

via Alexandra Höhn