Moody Music

Posted by robonobo on April 6, 2012
Posted in: Music. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 4 comments

I am a muso to the core. I cannot go through a single day without either listening to, thinking about, writing about, playing or feeling music. Music gives me emotional context in my life, both in a nostalgic sense and in an ‘of the moment’ zen sense. It can magnify, inhibit, or completely change my mood, and to me is the greatest blessing in an unfathomable, wondrous and occasionally cruel existence. Music is all about emotion. The idea that a sound can speak to the soul is a fantastic one, and the music of melancholy provides the listener with some of the most profound and intimate experiences. Here is a list of ten albums, that I believe are the greatest collections of melancholic and moody music available in our modern age, in reverse order of magnificence.

10) Biosphere – N-Plants (2011)

There is not a massive amount of electronic music on this list, but ‘N-Plants’ deserves a mention here. I have already discussed the merits of this fantastic piece of work (link) and as a testament to how great an album it is, I can only look at the evidence of how many times I have listened to this album. It places the listener into an addictively dark environment. The incredible story behind the prophetic nature of this album is also quite staggering. That Geir Jennsen completed this troubling concept album exploring the uncomfortable reliance between society and nuclear power by exploring Japanese nuclear power plants, just weeks before the Fukushima disaster is quite amazing. The ‘in-utero’ atmosphere is simultaneously cathartic and sinister. Many other electronic albums feature tracks that blow one away and feature great works of technical achievement, but often, weaker tracks fill out such albums before they reach a terminus. With ‘N-Plants’, all the pieces fit together well. Beyond electronic music, it’s probably the greatest concept album ever written.

9) The Bends – Radiohead (1995)

With their first album, ‘Pablo Honey’, Radiohead revealed themselves to be a promising indie act, but it was ‘The Bends’ that showed that they were a band that were truly something special. I was in a band myself at the time (Noisegate), and this album was constantly looped in the band household. This was partly due to the vocalist’s obsession with the album. It was a genuine relief to some in the house when ‘OK Computer’ was released in 1997. It meant that we would at least have an alternative audio option. ‘The Bends’ starts strongly, features no weak tracks and ends with the haunting ‘Street Spirit’, which is in some respects the melancholy exiled cousin of ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, with a moody arpeggio driving the emotion in the track. ‘Street Spirit’ was also the last track that Radiohead released before ‘OK Computer’ was released, the album that saw Radiohead bloom into an experimental confidence that defied the commercial expectations of mainstream music and saw Radiohead at home with a unique electronic-guitar cross-over sound. The album made number 2 in Virgin’s top 1000 albums of all time. But as the top album was ‘Revolver’ by the Beatles (who I can’t stand), I think we can give it to top spot there!

8) Rain Dogs (1985) – Tom Waits

Waits emerged onto the Jazz scene in 1972. A pianist, singer and raconteur with a charming demeanour, growling poetry and prose about the rusty, smoky, grease-smeared, bourbon-stained, tapestry of American urban subculture. ‘Rain Dogs’ saw Tom complete the move away from his more jazzy homeland that he started with ‘Swordfishtrombones’, into a new, experimental and exotic style. The instrumentation is more diverse, with double bass’s, gongs, bottles, saws and accordions linking up together. Even Keith Richards gets a cameo role with some sharp and wonky guitar moments. The songs and poems on board tell diverse stories about Jewish heritage, such as ‘Cemetery Polka’, seedy urban life, the traditional Americana sound, and even piratesque maritime fantasy with the fantastic opening track, ‘Singapore’. The album is culturally rich, eclectic and entirely satisfying and for me was a great entry album into the body of work of one of America’s greatest and most legendary musicians.

7) LA Woman (1971) – The Doors

‘LA Woman’ is both the story of a man in crisis, and the backdrop of a golden era of spirituality fracturing into ruin. The album marked the end of Jim Morrison’s active involvement with ‘The Doors’ and with popular culture, before his self-prophesised looming death cut his strings in a hotel room in Paris, 1971, just three months after the album release. Morrison, whose poetry has been both admired and mocked, managed to bring his surreal and dark rhetoric to the masses by wrapping it neatly in metaphorical pop tunes and droning, psychedelic ballads. The album is an incredible mixture of modern era blues mixed with psychedelic music with a distinctive Eastern sensibility, much down to the keys laid by the virtuoso keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, on his Fender Rhodes. There are four twelve bar blues songs. Possibly the most impressive being a rendition of Howling Wolf’s ‘Crawling King Snake’. Morrison was notoriously obsessed with snakes, giving himself the alterego of ‘Lizard King’. The most striking and haunting track is its finalé in ‘Riders On The Storm’. A timeless song, which possibly represents the finest moment that The Doors had as a musical unit. The album exists as an oasis of profound togetherness for a band that was ripping itself apart with the excesses of alcohol, sex and drugs.

6) Grace (1994) – Jeff Buckley

This album stands testament to the phenomenal talent that was Jeff Buckley. Buckley, son of musician Tim Buckley, was an artist that started to gain attention playing the café scene in Manhattan. With an incredible vocal range of four octaves, he was able to get low tenor notes, whilst being able to access unbelievably high notes with a confident falsetto that gave his voice an occasional feminine quality. This is highly evident on the album through tracks such as ‘Corpus Christi Carol’. A cover version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ is a real highlight on the album. When cynical pop entrepreneur, Simon Cowell decided to go for the UK Christmas number one single slot, with an over-produced saccharin-sweet version of ‘Hallelujah’ in 2008, a public backlash campaign prompted a rerelease of Buckley’s superior version. However, in an event that made me lose any kind of faith in mainstream taste, Burke managed to win out.

Buckley’s genius as both a composer and performer is on clear display in ‘Grace’, the album that turned out to be his only complete studio album before he died in a tragic swimming accident at the age of 30 in 1997.

5) The Trinity Session (1988) – Cowboy Junkies

This album is simply haunting and beautiful. The members of Cowboy Junkies arrived at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto on 27th Novemeber 1987, and recorded an album of covers and original material. Instead of the typical studio processing that one hears on nearly all musical recordings, all we hear is the pure sound of a band playing in a church, and a capture of the natural ambience of the building itself. The lead single from the album was a cover version of ‘Sweet Jane’ by The Velvet Underground. The track was featured on the movie ‘Natural Born Killers’, and Cowboy Junkies went viral from there on in. There is some stunning work on the album. I was lucky enough to watch Cowboy Junkies perform a 20 year anniversary performance of this album, and to witness it was quite spine-chilling. The album reminds me of my daily drive home over freezing Cheshire country roads to Manchester, in the days when I first discovered it. Stunningly atmospheric and nostalgic. This album is a pure must-have.

4) Fleet Foxes (2009) – Fleet Foxes

The NME dismissed Fleet Foxes after this album was released, tagging them as “hippies who sing acapella”. As a raw description, this is partly what Fleet Foxes appear to be, but in no way is this necessarily a criticism. There is a nostalgic, baroque sensitivity to their song-writing style. One that is culturally aware of America’s heritage in folk music through acts like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. There is also a nod to the folk music of historical England. It is this remarkable song-crafting style, coupled with the pure and simple vocal talents of Robin Pecknold that make this new and young musical act a genuine delight to listen to. I’m not really the sort of bloke that is familiar with the activity of crying, but after having listened to this album, I genuinely sensed teary eyes as I started to listen to the ‘Sun Giant’ EP that followed the album’s release. Fleet Foxes are something special. A blast from the past in an era of autotune, dance routines and pouting popstars living the high life. The band have spoken about the confusing spat with the NME. Pecknold said “Being interviewed by the NME is like being interrogated for a crime you didn’t commit.”, after an interview in which the NME angled entrapping questions at the band concerning their thoughts on downloading music. The NME continue to vent their irrational spleen over Fleet Foxes, as is evident in the 4 out of 10 review of their latest album (link). But seems more a case of a bunch of naive rookie hacks having an office joke about a band that probably don’t wear enough makeup or have trendy enough hairstyles to fit in with their wanky Shoreditch hipster inspired ideas of the zeitgeist in music.

3) Dummy (1994) – Portishead

‘Dummy’ won the Mercury prize in 1995, and is probably one of the most deserved winners in the history of the award. The band consisting of Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley were no rookies when they put together this project. Rather, they were experienced professionals with a deep understanding of music production, and with great musical taste. They emerged from the Bristol trip-hop scene of the 1990′s with a sound that paid hommage to the grandiose drama present in the music of John Barry, together with a feel for 1980′s hip-hop beats. ‘Dummy’ has a running time of just over 45 minutes. However, a listen to the album seems to be over in a much shorter period, as the songs work through one by one, sumptuously transitioning from one dark place to the next. ‘Dummy’ is an absolute timeless classic and masterpiece. Incredible that this album is almost twenty years old, although it already sounded like an old classic when it was first released. That a band could draw together so many genres and different groups of people to one album, with such a sensitive and sensual sound, probably helped give it it’s unofficial title of ‘the best bedroom album of all time’. It manages to blend soul, old r+b, hip hop, electro, jazz and old movie music. And check out the video for ‘Glory Box’. Extremely surreal!

2) She Hangs Brightly (1990) – Mazzy Star

‘She Hangs Brightly’ was my favourite album for a long time. Probably till I discovered my number one choice below! Mazzy Star are not a band that have garnered much attention in the UK, but instead have amassed a fiercely loyal cult following. The heart-breakingly charming vocal tones of the Hispanic-American singer, Hope Sandoval have claimed the devotion of many, as can be seen from the fan website, Mazzy Star Boulevard. Sandoval worked with guitarist, David Roback on this, the first of three studio albums, before the fading of his romantic relationship with Sandoval prompted a hiatus, that was not broken for twelve years. During which time, the artists worked on other projects. Sandoval toured and recorded with former My Bloody Valentine drummer, Colm Ó Cíosóig as the band, Warm Inventions. Sandoval has continued her incredible Americana-infused dream pop sound now over five albums, three from Mazzy Star and two with The Warm Inventions, and it all started here. Instantly, from the bat, ‘Halah’ introduces the listener to the quintessential sound that is a natural and easy mixture of melancholy and optimism. There’s a bluesy influence going on in many of the songs, and a cover of ‘Sailin’ written by the old school blues musician, Memphis Minnie. Possibly, my favourite track on the album is ‘Blue Flower’. It’s a simple rock ‘n’ roll sound, and it’s sexy as hell. Giving that a close run for the money though is the title track of the album which points more towards Mazzy Star’s influences in the psychedelic heritage of what was then their Californian base. ‘She Hangs Brightly’ could easily be a lost Doors track, and it’s a song that gives me the shivers. Any time I listen to this album, I’m always impressed and cannot get away from how wonderful it is.

1) Anna Calvi (2011) – Anna Calvi

From the first listen to Anna Calvi’s debut album, I was instantly hooked. Calvi’s introduction guitar instrumental whisks the listener into a vintage Americano fantasy world. Calvi is a gifted guitarist, with a style that combines flamenco technique with the sensibilities of 1950′s American rock ‘n’ roll. Further more, to bolster her great talent is the striking sound of her remarkable voice, as the instrumental opening track, ‘Rider To The Sea’ ends, leading to ‘No More Words’. A warm and sultry voice with a haunting vibrato, in combination with that killer vintage guitar sound and used within an array of songs that each have their own identity, but sit together well as a collection. This is indeed another album like ‘Dummy’ and ‘She Hangs Brightly’, that runs through seamlessly, and despite its 40 minute running time, seems to conclude in a much shorter time period. Calvi is greatly talented, and this album points to a career that will no doubt provide fans of her music with many more dark, elaborate and sophisticated moments. The album was nominated for the Mercury prize, but lost out to PJ Harvey’s second Mercury win with ‘Let England Shake’. Indeed, Calvi is sometimes reminiscent of PJ Harvey, as is evident in songs like ‘The Devil’. How Calvi was not recognised by the top Mercury award and how Ed Sheeran managed to beat her to the Brit Awards title of best newcomer is more an indication of musical trends rather than any real objective appreciation of the most exciting musicians of the moment. You need this album in your life! (Buy it now!)

The Herbaceous Threat

Posted by robonobo on March 16, 2012
Posted in: Books, Movies, Science Fiction, TV. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

This article is written in tribute to Elizabeth Sladen, the actress known for her role as Sarah Jane Smith in the Doctor Who series. She sadly passed away on April 19th 2011.

For some reason, beyond my control, I am inexplicably drawn to the concept of plants going mean. Themes involving the botanical world getting even with the human race create an awesome and creepy back-drop for any piece of science fiction. I was first drawn to this weird genre in the 1980′s with the sinister TV adaptation of John Wyndham’s ‘The Day of the Triffids’. The original book, written in 1951 still remains one of my favourite reads (I seem to continuously blog about it!). It’s a novel that remains a seminal text in horror and science fiction through works such as ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ (1956), through to the heavily triffid-inspired ’28 Days Later’ made in 2002 and the recent adaptation of the original triffid tale made by the BBC in 2009. In 1960, Wyndham went on to write ‘Trouble with Lichen’. A great concept book where the plant-life featured isn’t the enemy itself, but rather human society’s reaction to it is what threatens civilization.

Doctor Who – The Seeds Of Doom (1976)

The original inspiration for this article on strange vegetation came from a watch-through of Tom Baker portraying the Doctor in ‘The Seeds of Doom’. A suitably cheesy title for a proper alien vegetable romp. The four-part serial concerns the events surrounding the discovery of a pair of alien pods. The pods are found to be harbouring an alien parasitic plant life-form, very much akin to Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’. The difference being that victims of parasitic infection take on the strange behaviour of transforming into nasty mansion-sized plant monsters.

The Ruins (2008)

Many other tales explore the strangeness of weird botanical life forms, such as ‘The Evil Dead’ (1981), ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ (1960, 1986), and even horror-master, Steven King’s portrayal of the alien spore-infected hick portrayed in ‘The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verill (1982)’. If there is one movie that really captured my imagination, and is worthy of a big mention, it’s the fantastic low-budget horror movie, ‘The Ruins’. This film features a bunch of annoying American gap year students that decide to escape the so-called beaten trail whilst travelling in Mexico, and end up discovering an ancient Mayan pyramid. Unbeknownst to them though, the structure is infected with a vicious parasitic plant. The locals know all about the danger, and as soon as the travellers mistakenly start investigating the pyramid, the locals go to great lengths to quarantine them. Thus we get to witness the play-out of their slow creeping deaths, as the carnivorous weeds take the tourist unawares. Truly nasty stuff! ‘The Ruins’ is generally poorly received. I’m not entirely sure why! It’s a simple story that doesn’t try too hard. If the viewer cannot buy the concept of a group of annoying American young adults being horrifically defeated by a bunch of scraggy weeds, then they are missing the whole point of the film. For me, it’s hard to deny that this film, as humble as it may be, is in my top ten favourite films. However, I am yet to meet anyone that praises this film as I do! The film suceeds in achieving what all good horror films should strive for. Namely, to produce an emotional reaction. ‘The Ruins’ delivers big-time, as while the characters are annoying, subtley gory scenes involving the characters attempting to remove parasitic plant invasions manage to emote such strong feelings of revulsion, one can almost feel the pure pain horror of what the characters are going through.

Just to put a cap on this topic, got to give a mention to the radio-play, ‘The Destruction Factor – The Seeds of Creation’ by James Follett. The play, produced in 1978 for the BBC, centres around a new lab-developed plant species developed as a means of eradicating famine in the third world. A story that pre-empts the recent paranoia about genetically modified crops, or so-called frankenstein foods. The plant has the lethal side-effect of generating excess oxygen resulting in spontaneous fire incidents, and with its rapid propagation, it’s global spread proves hard to control.

Barcelona In Photos

Posted by robonobo on March 10, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

I took a trip to Barcelona in September 2010. I hadn’t gotten round to sorting out the hundreds of photos I took till now. I’ve boiled down the images to ten stills that I think capture the modern Barcelona.

Right at the centre of Barcelona is the square, Placa Catalunya. This sculpture is one of the many statues and fountains that decorate the square. The bull is clearly a symbol of Catalonia, with the tradition of bull-fighting going way back.

Santiago Calatrava is one of Barcelona’s finest architects. A Modern answer to Antonio Gaudi. His fantastic Torre De Calatrava stands proudly on the hill overlooking Barcelona on a prestigious site next to Barcelona’s impressive olympic stadium.

Gaudi designed the magnificent Park Guell on a hillside overlooking the city. An extremely decorative and sculptural park and garden. I found myself using it as a very picturesque running route, and I wasn’t the only one.

Parc De Collserola was a great find. Located about 12 miles north of Barcelona, near Cerdanyola Del Valles, it quickly became my regular run route. Rather than show off a landscape, I enjoyed this natural form, affected by the toyfulness of a young couple.

The political tension between the Catalan community and the Spanish people is clear in this graffiti, also found in Parc De Collserola.

Barcelona is a city that attracts plenty of football tourism. The souvenir shops are as packed with FC Barcelona merchandise as much as cheap plaster effigies of the Sagrada Familia. I was lucky enough to stumble into the stadium site on a Champions League night, and found myself watching Barcelona’s golden generation of players thrash Olympiakos 4-0.

The cranes surrounding Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece are as much part of the landscape as the mighty Sagrada Familia itself

This stunning stained glass window inside Gaudi’s church makes a fantastic play of colour upon the interior walls of the cathedral.

Antonio Gaudi’s work is on display all over the city. This detail mosaic adorns a fantastic dragon sculpture on the roof of the exuberant family house, Casa Battlo

Barcelona is clearly a city of the modern. The Museum of Contemporary Art is a fantastic collection of Barcelona’s modern artwork as well as being an architectural statement in itself

The city is a fantastic mix of new and old with the wonders of its gothic quarter sitting very close to its various displays of modernity. I only scratched the surface with my week long visit.

Time Lines

Posted by robonobo on February 26, 2012
Posted in: Books, Movies, Science Fiction, TV. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

One popular and recurring theme within science fiction is the concept of time travel. Since HG Wells wrote ‘The Time Machine’ back in 1895 through to even recent years, such as Audrey Niffenegger’s book, ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’, it’s a common thread.

Ray Bradbury – A Sound of Thunder (1952)

Bradbury’s classic short story, first published in 1952 in Collier’s magazine, is one of the best earlier examples of a time line scenario. The story, set in 2055, involves events concerning a hunter called Eckels. The character uses the services of a company’s time travel facilities to go dinosaur-hunting. To say too much more about the nature of the story would spoil its impact, but its a wonderful tale, and no doubt one that has inspired time-travel films, such as ‘Back To The Future’ and ‘The Butterfly Effect’. The story was adapted into a movie in its own right in 2005, starring the oscar-winning talent of Ben Kingsley. However, after the production company went bankrupt, and the subsequent release was delayed, the movie completely tanked. I haven’t seen the film myself, but I should definitely chalk this one up as homework.

As well as an excellent adaptation as a radioplay as part of the ‘Ray Bradbury 13′ series, the story was also made for the late 1980′s TV show, ‘Ray Bradbury Theatre’, but the book remains the strongest telling of the tale.

Doctor Who – City Of Death (1979)

In my opinion, Doctor Who tends to be a bit crap. However, with the vast amount of writing talent and over the years it has been aired, there have been some fantastic storylines. ‘City Of Death’ is one such example. To discuss this, I need to issue a SPOILER ALERT, so be warned! Douglas Adams (of hitch-hikers fame) worked alongside Graham Williams and David Fisher to produce a script involving a time line. The story involves an alien known as ‘Scaroth’ who is marooned on Earth. The Doctor discovers that Scaroth is attempting to create a time machine in order to travel back in time and to prevent the event in which his space ship crashed onto the planet. The twist here is that his crash was the event that kick-started life on planet Earth, and so for Scaroth to turn back the clock would mean the irradication of life on Earth. It’s quite an amusing concept, and one that lead to ‘City of Death’ achieving the highest television ratings for a Doctor Who episode when more than 16 million people tuned in to watch it in 1979. Adams himself was taken with the story to the extent that he reskinned the tale for his book, ‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’.

Source Code (2011)

‘Source Code’ is the second movie to come from British director, Duncan Jones. Jones, aka Zowie Bowie (for reasons of nepotism), continues down the sci-fi path for a second time, after having debuted with the subtle space thriller, ‘Moon’. In these two movies, Jones demonstrates evidence of his retro influences. This being an appreciation for the more cerebral side of science fiction, clearly inspired by the conceptual science fiction films of the 1970′s period. Movies such as ‘Solaris’ and ‘Silent Running’ attained strong back-bones by exploring out-there concepts, and rather than relying on special effects, built their stories around strong central characters exploring surreal themes. The film also benefits from the continuing lineage of recent films, particularly, James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’, also ‘Groundhog Day’ and ‘Deja Vu’.

‘Source Code’ is a strong film, very much because of the depth of the character roles played out by the acting team. Jake Gylenhall plays a satisfying lead role as a helicopter pilot, Captain Colter Stevens, confusingly reassigned to a mysterious counter-terrorism mission on a Chicago commuter train. The fantastic Jeffrey Wright, best known for his appearance as Felix Leiter in the rebooted Bond franchise, portrays a serious-headed government scientist, Dr Rutledge, who appears to be controlling Colter’s whereabouts in time and space. His performance does well to depict a man constantly distracted from the main course of events by an unknown higher agenda. Michelle Monaghan plays a romantic interest, almost a cynical inclusion and possibly shoe-horned into the plot to satisfy the criteria of the movie’s shareholders, seeking to appeal to a wider demographic than the action/sci-fi fans. Interestingly, and counter to what the movie intended, I thought that there was a better chemistry occuring between Colter and his military liaison, Captain Goodwin, portayed by Vera Farmiga. This culminating in a cheeky moment of misunderstanding when Goodwin asks after a moment of flirting, ‘Are you asking me out?’.

The most interesting aspect of the movie is the focus on Colter attempting to figure out the circumstances surrounding how he got from a helicopter mission to what seems to be a secret military time-travel experiment on a doomed train. The action rotates between an apparent simulation of the bomb-laden train, to the military scientific reasearch centre and to Colter who seems to be trapped in some kind of contraption-packed holding cell.

SourceCode = Avatar + GroundhogDay + (0.5 (DejaVu + Speed + (12 * Monkey))) + 5% Cheddar

SourceCode != SilverStreak * TimeCop

An amusing cameo in the film is put in by Scott Bakula, who is the phone voice of Colter’s father. A clear and knowing nod to the time-travel tv show, ‘Quantum Leap’. It’s a movie that holds together very well, and knows what its gameplan is. Where film’s like ‘Inception’ possibly try too hard to push a concept, ‘Source Code’ manages to frame its central theme well, despite the inevitable mild cheddar conclusion.

The Nuclear Issue

Posted by robonobo on February 21, 2012
Posted in: Movies, Music, Politics, Science Fiction. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

Mutually assured destruction was a key topic half a century back (link). The notion that the build-up of international arms might result in strikes, counter-strikes and a bleak nuclear winter for everyone was nestled in the global subconscious. Events of recent months have brought around a renaissance of this basal fear. In what appear to be efforts by Iran to enhance its capabilities to provide energy from nuclear power (a reasonable and clean solution for any modern country to achieve), foreign office statements and the media of the West appear to be cranking up the nuclear dogma machine and suggesting that Iran is preparing for a possible strike on Israel or the West (Turkey).

Even the ineffective United Nations have made the suggestion that Iran may be working on a nuclear deployment system. British foreign minister, William Hague has publicly spoken of this so-called threat, and has used literal cold war rhetoric in his public comments (link). It’s unthinkable that the US and the West should launch hostilities against Iran, when in reality, they are a country that would not pose a role as a first aggressor. However, the US military commander, Martin Dempsey, was forced to visit Israel in January 2012, as it was reported that Israel was seriously considering a pre-emptive strike on Iran (link).

What may be behind the hint of hostilities is the control of Iran’s vast oil reserves. Currently, their biggest customer is China (link). As such, China will see no advantage in an invasion of Iran. On the other hand, the West has everything to gain, in order to appropriate this vital commodity, which is currently being sold directly to the US’s number one economic opponent. If there is to be a new cold war, it will be an economic war between the USA and China, where middle-men like Iran prove to be the proxy battlegrounds through which the countries wage war. Very similar to the invasion of Indo-China and Afghanistan during a cold war supposedly between the USSR and the United States. Iran are no angels for sure. Some of the nonsense to have emerged from the mouth of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is frankly strange and worrying. From holocaust denial, to September 11 conspiracy and outright criticism of homophobia, he’s a deeply troubled character (link). And Iran’s human rights record isn’t exactly spotless. However, there is still no sound ground here for all-out war.

Rant over for now! What interests me in this post is our perception of the use of nuclear power, as portrayed in our creative media.

The China Syndrome (1979)

March 16th 1979 saw the release of ‘The China Syndrome’. A well-budgeted film featuring a strong cast (Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas). One of the things about the film that drew me to a rewatch was the subject matter. In the wake of the recent level 7 nuclear alert at the Fukushima plant in Japan, it’s fascinating to watch a doomful film that maps the drama of what is very much a reality today.

The main plot surrounds a scenario in which a faulty gauge at a nuclear power station results in the staff making some potentially catastrophic adjustments to the system. All this plays out in the media through reporters Kimberly Wells and Richard Adams, portrayed by Fonda and Douglas. As the public relations officer at the plant attempts to calm down the media storm, Lemmon’s nuclear scientist, Jack Godell, emerges as a whistle-blower.

One of the biggest ironies to emerge from the release of the movie lay in the fact that 12 days after it hit the movie theatres, the on-screen events played out for real in the Three Mile Island accident (link). On March 28th, the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island suffered a partial core meltdown. In particular, the accident was caused by a technician misreading a gauge relating to the reactor’s coolant system. A remarkable case of life imitating art.

The movie stands up well. It was nominated for several academy awards at the time, but emerged trophyless. Nevertheless, the story, performances and camera-work are all good. The film is both well made and gets the right balance of factual basis and narrative interest. Indeed, at the time, it created a scenario in which the general public became very aware of the scientific facts behind what was going on at Three Mile Island. It’s interesting that the movie is described as being within the science fiction genre, as the science is all solid, and indeed the events depicted are at this stage precedented, after incidents such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. This makes the film more of a scientific drama than truly science fiction in retrospect.

Biosphere – N-Plants (2011)

At the start of February 2011, the Norwegian ambient techno artist/producer, Geir Jenssen started working on a concept album. Jenssen became fascinated by the concept of capturing the atmosphere of Japan’s many nuclear power plants. He produced an album from his explorations. Each track on the album is named after and dedicated to a specific plant. The work represents an incredible and atmospheric journey through a sterile and industrial audio landscape. There is a thinly concealed, sinister underbelly of malignancy, an ominous ambience, which lends great power to the ghostly environments we are placed in. Jennsen wanted to hint at the idea that while these plants represented the height of technology and an unseen contributor to our modern way of living, they also present a great danger.

The album was completed on February 13th 2011, almost a month before the plant at Fukushima experienced its core malfunction (link). In very similar circumstances to ‘The China Syndrome’, we have a case where life has imitated art. The album was well received by critics, the consensus being that it was probably Jenssen’s neatest project since 1997′s ‘Substrata’. Personally, ‘Patashnik’ was always my favourite Biosphere album, with its charactersitically spooky ambient tunes all dedicated to outer space, but then I guess I’m biased.

Final Thoughts

Despite the negative connotations associated with the disposal of nuclear waste, and history’s tragedies at the hands of nuclear accidents, nuclear power is still a relatively clean source of energy. Society is still evidently troubled by our use of nuclear technology. The link between using nuclear science for energy creation and using it to create weapons could be at the core of people’s fears.

Space Rock

Posted by robonobo on February 15, 2012
Posted in: Music, Science Fiction. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

I’ve been putting together a spotify playlist of some of the most stand-out ‘Space Rock’ tunes I can find.
I don’t know that space rock is really a clear genre. More a case of music that involves something to do with spacey stuff… Pretty vague!
Here’s the list: link
So here’s the run-down on the bands involved:

  1. Spaceships Are Cool – Space Monkey!
    The quintessential space rock band, that describe themselves as sci-fi sunshine pop. These guys are great live from theremin to synthesizer, and rock shows with astronaut costumes and blinky lights. Check these guys out for sure!

  2. Ziggy Stardust – Space Oddity
    Possibly the most notorious science fiction concept act of all time.

  3. Radiohead – Sail To The Moon
    Radiohead are not exactly a space rock act, but this track from ‘Hail To The Thief’ cooks up some great steampunk-esque imagery.

  4. 30 Seconds To Mars – The Mission
    Hollywood b-lister, Jared Leto’s part-time job. Most of their tracks seem to have very little to do with space, but this one’s on the money!

  5. Blur – Trouble In The Message Centre
    This is one of the weirder tracks on Park Life, possibly the definitive album of the original Brit Pop band. Definitely worth a listen!

  6. Queen – In The Space Capsule
    Flash Gordon is not a classic film, but the soundtrack is classic. The supergroup of the 70′s and 80′s got their hands on an Oberheim OB-X synthesizer to make this one of many great sci-fi tunes on the album.

  7. Biosphere – Seti Project
    Biosphere is the recording name of the Norwegian producer and musician, Geir Jenssen. He often devotes tracks to science or science fiction related themes. Superb and spooky ambient techno!

  8. Kraftwerk – Spacelab
    Possibly the most important band in the history of electronic music. Their tracks still refuse to sound dated, and despite their sterile image, they always managed to create very catchy tunes.

  9. Orbital – Doctor?
    One of many bands to have taken inspiration from Kraftwerk, and rode the wave of the rave scene. This is their reinterpretation of the theme to a popular timelord based TV show.

  10. Slowdive – Souvlaki Space Station
    A one-off track by the classic shoegaze band, Slowdive. The band that Ritchie (Manic) Edwards famously namedropped when he said “We will always hate Slowdive more than Hitler”.

Automan

Posted by robonobo on February 15, 2012
Posted in: Science Fiction, TV. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

December of 1983 saw American television auteur, Glen A. Larson, broadcast his new project. It was directly inspired by Steven Lisberger’s inspirational Tron movie which had proved a big hit with the kids. Larson, of Battlestar Galactica and Magnum PI fame, figured on capitalizing. He had the canniness to avoid potential litigation through the show’s similarity with Disney’s IP, by involving the producer, Donald Kushner. Kushner had been an operating producer on the Tron venture. The result was Automan. Where Larson’s other shows, such as the Hoffmeister-fest, Knight Rider rode runs of up to 90 episodes, Automan managed a more humbling 13 wrap-parties. Of course, that is only one less than the episode run of Joss Whedon’s fantastic Firefly. Rewatching the pilot, courtesy of youtube, its realistic to say that the show was probably canned because it was crap.

The pilot show is an absolute hoot to watch, in the shit-tastic sense. The awful dialogue, penned by Larson himself, in combination with the grotty sets and cheap special effects make for quite an entertaining venture. Of course, in the 1980′s, people’s expectations of quality in their tv-programming were much lower than the standards we have today, so the show didn’t seem so stand-out shabby at the time. It’s even harsh to pick an argument on the special effects front, as the first two movies to incorporate computer animation, (Tron and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) were only released the previous year.

The main plot concerns a police invesigation into the activities of a private security company called ‘Global Guard’. A suitably sinister adversary, and easy to relate to the modern day operations of Blackwater. Police officer, Walther Nebicher is the nerdy hero of the show. A computer programmer, looked down upon by his commanding officer, Captain Boyd, and by his peers. Nebicher is pathetic and has such low self-esteem that he desperately complains to his attractive blonde co-worker, Roxanne Caldwell that, “You think I’m crazy, that’s why you won’t go out with me”. However, his computer exploits have culminated in the creation of a sophisticated hologram program, that manifests itself as the remarkable Automan. Automan steps into the real world to Walter’s surprise. A lantern-jawed, so-called perfect version of a human being, portrayed by the limited, beefcake actor, Chuck Wagner. In his own words, he absurdly states, “On a scale of 1 to 10, think of me as 11″, in true Spinal Tap-esque fashion. His abilities are unsurpassable, with a sleuthing brain inspired by Sherlock Holmes and James Bond. His good-looks are attributed to a collection of celebrities of the period. Namely, Robert Redford, Christopher Reeves, Burt Reynolds, Richard Burton, Lee Majors and Tom Selleck. An interesting portrait of the 1980′s view on the epitomy of the perfect man. And of course, he drives a Lamborghini Countach; the dream car of the day. One quite bizarre aspect of the show is the underlying sexual tension between Automan and Walter. While Walter is clearly a man who rarely gets laid, Automan is never short of compliments for his creator: “You have a poetic mind, I like that…”. This strange, bromantic link was to reappear in the far more successful Knightrider.

In a swamp of terrible acting and dialogue, the one bit of credit goes to the portrayal of the bad guy, and boss of Global Guard, played by Patrick McNee of The Avengers fame. His lines and delivery stand out as he runs away with the wittiest lines of the whole show (surely an adlib departure from Larson’s primitive scribblings?). Larson can be let off the hook for this rubbish, if amusing show, just on the kudos he attains for being the brains behind Battlestar Galactica. The show that set a standard when its rebooted form proved to be one of the greatest sci-fi tv shows ever made. Somehow, I don’t think that Automan is going to sneak in a cheeky reboot reappearance…

Crush Bandicoot

Posted by robonobo on February 14, 2012
Posted in: Art, Games, Science Fiction. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

Was checking out my old portfolio site at andydavis3d.com and remembered an old project from years back. In 2004, I was working as an artist at Magenta Software, Liverpool. We had just completed work on the game, ‘Stuart Little 3′, and we were looking to pitch for a new game idea. The makers of ‘Crash Bandicoot’ were looking to create a new character that was Crush Bandicoot’s evil twin. The game was to feature zany open-world sci-fi environments, and lots of bouncy platform action and crazy vehicle gameplay.

I set to work creating a bunch of environments for the game as well as a few concept sketches. This one turned out to be my favourite:

While Crush was deemed to be this nasty twin, I was thrown in to sketch out some ideas for the game’s nemesis character, Dr Neocortex:



Also got the chance to have a go at one of the test environments for Crush to run around in:

We didn’t end up winning the pitch, but it was a lot of fun to work on. This was one of only three science fiction games that i got the chance to work on. The other two being ‘LEGO Star Wars’ and ‘Wipeout Pulse’. Would have been a cool idea for a game, although I guess, ‘Ratchet & Clank’ is probably the game that has filled the gap in the market for sci-fi platformers…

The Thing

Posted by robonobo on February 14, 2012
Posted in: Games, Movies, Science Fiction. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Late summer 2002 saw developers, Computer Artworks release a computer game, ‘The Thing’. The game was released twenty years after John Carpenter’s magnificent movie, ‘The Thing’, which came out in 1982 (do the math…). Interestingly, Carpenter’s seminal sci-fi horror classic was not the genesis of the story. The root of the story goes back to the 1938 novella by John W. Campbell, ‘Who Goes There?’. The great Howard Hawks, director of movies such as’Scarface’ (1932), ‘The Big Sleep’ (1946) and the Monroe Vehicle, ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ (1953) wrote and directed a movie adaptation of Campbell’s novel in 1951. It proved to be a great success and thus started the ball rolling for the Thing franchise. Arguably, it was Carpenter’s remake which brought the grim monster into the modern era with his most impressive use of latex effects in a pre-CGI age of movie-making. While Hawks’s movie was bordering on family-friendly, Carpenter’s take on the story had more of a nasty, revolting face that made the film appealing to a more mature audience. Even though many horror films of the 1980′s seemed to spawn endless strings of sequels, ‘The Thing’ remained dormant for quite some time. It wasn’t until Computer Artworks’s PC game that this story was to rear it’s monstrous abomination of a head once more. The game arguably made Hollywood realise that in the CGI era of the 21st century, this story needed retelling. In the volatile world of games development, the Computer Artworks studio was to close down, as the development of a sequel game was in it’s embryonic stages. The concept artwork became a first step for what was to become the new Thing movie, which was finally released in 2011.

‘The Thing’ (2011), despite bearing the same name as the 1982 movie, is in fact a prequel to it. A wise decision, as Carpenter’s fantastic film did not need a literal remake. The new film does well to set up the groundwork for the 1982 film, as it introduces us to the Norwegian research team that Kurt Russell’s character group discover in later events. The film begins as the Norwegian scientist, Dr. Sander Halvorson recruits paleontologist, Kate Lloyd to a mysterious and confidential project based in Antarctica. Lloyd signs up for the trip on the conceit that she is given no details of the case and is prepared to abandon everything she is doing on a whim. The project turns out to be the investigation of a mysterious life-form found at the site of what appears to be a vast, subterranean UFO crash site. The said specimen is encased in a block of ice, and is extracted from the site to be taken to the team’s Antarctic research lab. The first moment of horror is excellently directed as one of the team drills into the ice-block in order to extract a tissue sample. The sound of the drill in combination with the anticipation of what might happen when the tip touches the beast within create a fantastically teeth-grating moment. The film has Lloyd (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) playing a Ripley-style role, in that she is the cautious voice of reason, and holds her own within a small male-dominated team. There is a Kurt Russell styled character in the mix too, in the form of the American chopper pilot, Carter, portayed by Joel Edgerton. The most satisfying pay-off moment involves a classic moment of fantasy horror, as the creature nestles over a prone member of the team and begins to absorb the poor bloke’s terrified face. The effect reminded me of some of the nasty shenanigans going down in the comedy horror movie, Society (1989). The movie flows from set piece to set piece, without ever threatening the majesty of the original. Understandable, considering that Carpenter’s movie was possibly one of the greatest films of the 1980′s.

Future Music

Posted by robonobo on February 13, 2012
Posted in: Music, Science Fiction, TV. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Predicting the future of music is a near impossible task. In 1979, they figured that the music of 500 years into the future would sound like this:

All they managed there was crap techno accompanied with ballroom dancing (and oddly, ‘pills’). If there was any future-peering here, the only nail hit on the head would be the preview of the rave scene ten years into the future, but Buck Rogers dancing to techno music and taking pills is hardly going to point to what we will have five hundred years in the future.

I think that future music won’t be far removed from what we have now…. 4:4 time signature (like we’ve had for thousands of years). Alternatives to 4:4 are a distraction more than anything else. We only have to look at Dave Brubeck’s fantastic ‘Take Five’ album to listen to the power of alternative time signatures, but deviations from the norms here don’t figure for a mainstream basis for the future of music. Use of drum and bass elements to create rhythm, and diatonic scales to create melody.

Certain musical acts have hit upon ways of creating music in a dissonant style that suggests a musical sophistication beyond our current era.

  • Future Sound of London
  • Autechre
  • Aphex Twin
  • Biosphere
  • Kraftwerk

Where in reality, future music will most probably continue to adopt real acoustic instruments, the common theme with these kind of acts is their heavy use of synthesizers, and often the use of inhuman or sterile, passionless voices. This idea reinforces the notion that we have of our own future being a dystopian one.

The bit we can’t predict is the cultural difference. Our modern, contemporary and cosmopolitan world has resulted in r+b being the predominantly favourite form of modern music (much to my regret), proving a hit on many different continents. Ultimately, future music will never get around the mainstream desire for ballads, love songs, and feel-good rhetoric. Luckily, there’ll always be a left-field scene to react against that sentiment.