Gwigwi Mrwebi - Mbaqanga Songs

 I heard somewhere that it's autumn. That time of the year when you do all the shit you do during every other time of the year except now everything around you is dying. Or birthing; for you South Hemispherians. To complete the dying process of everything here's a complimentary album for you to enjoy while being alive or in the process of dying.

Gwigwi Mrwebi comes from a land that has no seasons. The only weather forecast he has is either incredibly hot or impending mauling by lions. To compensate for the lack of anything in his country Gwigwi Mrwebi decided to do some jazz. So Gwigwi Mrwebi packed his shit and came to London to record some authentically awesome jazz from Africa. You don't really get the chance to experience some authentic African production but you do get to experience its players (I couldn't find any information from which country they actually are).

The album was recorded in 1967 which makes it an interesting blend of old and new. It has those light bebop solos here and there, swing melodies and a bit of soul and funk in it. There's a bit of everything in here but it also gives that exotic feeling. You'll know what I mean hopefully when you hear the thing. I can't really explain it. In any case, the main emphasis here is on melody so most songs are very easy to digest even if you're not into jazz. Just some good melodies and great rhythm. Good stuff.

Download.

Rainer Maria - Look Now Look Again

Rainer Maria was an emo/indie rock band from the US. They released this album back in 1999 which was a follow up to their (equally good) debut album in 1997. I'm not really into this sort of thing but somehow I stumbled upon this song so I decided to check these guys out and I was actually pleasantly surprised by this because I never really thought this kind of music would interest me. It's nothing special but I really like how it sounds and feels throughout the whole album.

The post-rock riffs, female vocals and instrumental crescendos really do their magic here. The singer sounds sincere although the lyrics aren't really something exceptional. Maybe that's just me but they are standard "I'm fucked up, everything is fucked up etc." so they aren't really impressive or noteworthy but are enjoyable to listen and can be overlooked.


Download.

Pharoah Sanders - Karma

Another great album from the early era of Sanders career. This one is fairly similar to the previous album I posted so if you liked that one you'll definitely like this one as well. Karma is actually the first (haven't checked but I'm pretty sure it is) and the most known album from this series.

The difference between the two is that this one contains much more free jazz in itself. Now I know this might turn off some people but actually this album is very accessible for people who aren't used to free jazz. This is mainly due to the fact that the rhythm section is consistent and does not divulge in any overly long dissonant solos or strange patterns. Basically you have this lively African drumming with Sanders furious sax solos burning everything in sight but the magic of it is that's it's not all the time just soloing. In contrast to most free jazz records that sound really depressing and nihilistic this one sounds very positive and uplifting for some reason. Probably because of the yodeling.

Some call this a spiritual successor to A Love Supreme and I kinda agree. The bass lines in the opening are quite similar and the overall theme of the album is along the same lines although A Love Supreme is far less err ambitious with its instrumentation.

Great stuff.

In glorious flac:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Takashi Hirayasu & Bob Brozman - Jin Jin/Firefly

This album was the product of an somewhat unusual collaboration. Okinawan koto player (among other things) and an American guitarist one day decided to record this album. Bob Brozman seems to be a totally bros man going around the world and playing with various people. This particular record is perhaps the best collaboration that I've heard from this guy.

Essentially it's one of those albums that makes you feel good. It feels like as if these two guys just met on the street and started jamming, playing solos and singing. Singing is done by Takashi and are fitting this record perfectly while most of the solos are from mister Brozman. All of the songs are catchy three to four minute jolly good melodies and merry vocals. It's simple and effective, just what folk should be.

Download.

Hideo Yamamoto - Koroshiya Ichi aka Ichi the Killer

If you're into Japanese or extreme cinema in general you probably heard of or watched Ichi the Killer. A wonderful adaptation of this manga directed by Takashi Miike and starring Tadanobu Asano.

The movie itself was a fairly truthful adaptation when it comes to characterizations and main goals but naturally the plot of the movie finished rather soonish. Despite that it still felt like a complete journey. The manga is like the movie but with more of everything. The characters are much more fleshed out, each has a backstory and there are themes here which weren't explored in the movie. For example necrophilia wasn't even alluded in the movie (if I remember right, I haven't seen the movie in quite a while) and it has a prominent sub plot in the manga.

The overall plot is still pretty much the same on the other hand. Aside from how the end plays out of course.

Ichi The Killer is about a lot of themes but it's main storyline is about a guy called Ichi that goes around killing yakuza. He apparently thinks they bullied him in his childhood so he decides to chop them down with razor blades on his boots. Naturally he's guided by someone else called Jiji, an old man with somewhat questionable but still good goals. Jiji has his own henchmen who go after Ichi and clean up the mess and they plan to clean out a particular yakuza gang. Whats interesting about the plot is that there are essentially two main protagonists, the good guy and the villain. Both get equal time in the spotlight up to the point that you forget that there's the other guy as well. Some might consider this bad but I think it's balanced just right and it works well.

When it comes to gore and violence there's, of course, plenty of it and even more of it than in the film. This is obviously so because the movie has much more restrictions while the manga has only the limitation of the authors imagination. And his imagination goes to a lot places. In that department I think this is enough to satisfy most gore hounds.

Artistically speaking, eh, I wasn't really that impressed. A lot of drawings seem soulless and they sometimes lack the polish they deserve but this is probably because there are a 10 volumes and shit had to be done to publish it in an orderly fashion. The whole design and style actually reminds me a lot of Gantz (minus the gigantic boobies that are often featured in Gantz) so if you like how Gantz looks you'll have no problem here either. I just kinda like it when an artists tries different things and this just doesn't happen here. Nevertheless it's highly enjoyable and I firmly believe you'll breeze through these 10 volumes.

Part 1, 2 and 3.

Blade Runner Soundtracks (most of them)

Blade Runner is one of those movies that everybody either saw of heard of it. It was a peculiar little film that I find very dear to my heart. It's perhaps my favorite movie of all times. I won't talk about the movie in great detail mostly because it would just go on and on. What I want to talk about it is its soundtrack. There are a lot of versions and interpretations of it so I'll just share every version I have.

If you're not familiar with the soundtrack I would suggest that you start with the initial 1994 release of the soundtrack as it contains most of the compositions that were in the movie and is performed by Vangelis. 

I'll start chronologically.

Okay, so back when Blade Runner got out and made a name for itself the soundtrack never really was released by itself. Or more exactly it wasn't released in its original format. Vangelis was the guy who made it but in fact the first official soundtrack was done by an orchestra adapting scores that Vangelis made for the film.

I'm not sure why they did it but this is the end result:

New American Orchestra

Orchestral adaptation of music composed for the motion picture by Vangelis

1982

Despite the lengthy title it really is what it says. Vangelis songs adapted by an orchestra and it feels actually quite natural. I thought this would be terrible but it's enjoyable. The tracks are made with orchestral instrumentation which makes it a thrill to listen if you already know the Vangelis soundtrack because of the apparent lack of keyboards. The only non full orchestral song is the End Titles which seem really out of place here since it combines keyboards and funky guitar riffs. To further annoy the listener they included another version of the same track. But yeah, for the most part it gives a new insight at the songs. The best part of this release, in my opinion, is that it features One More Kiss that's sung by a female vocalist (that sounds better than the original version). Its runtime is barely past 30 minutes so to no surprise this pissed off a lot fans who expected a Vangelis full hour album which in turn caused numerous bootleg releases (a theme I'll address at the end of the post.

Tracklist for this would be:

1. Love Theme (4:12)
2. Main Title (5:01)
3. One More Kiss, Dear (4:00)
4. Memories of Green (4:50)
5. End Title (4:17)
6. Blade Runner Blues (4:38)
7. Farewell (3:10)
8. End Title Reprise (3:08)

Download.

After the initial "official" soundtrack more than 10 years passed before the actual soundtrack was released. This was in 1994 and it is probably the most widespread version of this soundtrack.

Vangelis

Blade Runner

 1994

The soundtrack itself is really Vangelis at its heart. Heavy keyboard music that just screams of 80s music. Thankfully it's not that kitsch as his other soundtracks due to the nature of the movie. Because the movie was so melancholic and dark there really is no room for any happy jittery music. Most of the tracks are very atmospheric and slow to fit the theme and he got it just right.

Along with the songs that were used in the film Vangelis also added a bunch of songs that were made for the movie but never ended up in it. Even with all these tracks there were still a lot of unpublished tracks. Despite that this is probably the best release if you want the standard version of the movie soundtrack and the length is at reasonable 57 minutes. Did I ever mention that this is the perfect music while going to bed aside from Stars of the Lid?

The tracks are:

1. Main Titles (3:42)

2. Blush Response (5:47)
3. Wait for Me (5:27)
4. Rachel's Song (4:46)
5. Love Theme (4:56)
6. One More Kiss, Dear (3:58)
7. Blade Runner Blues (8:53)
8. Memories of Green (5:05)
9. Tales of the Future (4:46)
10. Damask Rose (2:32)
11. Blade Runner (End Titles) (4:40)
12. Tears in Rain (3:00)

This is the first cd of the Blade Runner Trilogy so just download that instead.

Vangelis

Blade Runner Trilogy

2007

As far as the original releases go this is the definitive collection of the soundtrack released along with the collectors edition of the movie. Accompanied by the exact same 1994 soundtrack on the first CD there are two extra CDs included. 

The second CD includes a lot of previously unreleased material that were and were not used in the movie. Probably the most notable from this bunch is "Tears In The Rain" which is now called "Fading Away" and is the same but without the voice. So it's more ambient bliss by Vangelis. A lot of these songs were not meant to be "songs" but ambient passages in the movie which makes this pretty much ambient music devoid of long synth solos and crap like that.

The third CD is music that was inspired by the movie. This whole CD feels like a filler to ramp up the price tag of the Movies Collector Edition. There are some good tracks but for the most part I didn't really enjoy it. Maybe you will.

Download:

 Mp3: Part 1, 2 and 3.

Flac: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Booklet scans.

Bootlegs

Esper Edition

As I have mentioned earlier there are a lot of bootlegs that were released ever since the movie got out. Roger posted the Esper edition in the comments a while back when I originally posted the 1994 version of the soundtack. It contains two CDs with a fair share of the music that can't be found on the originals. I'd say that this is the most complete bootleg version. Although there are a lot of rereleases of the Esper version so I'm not really sure which version is this one.

Wikipedia notes that there's an updated Esper edition called The Retirement Edition with improved sound and better versions of various songs. It also has more material that spans over 5 cds. If someone has it please share it!

Download it 1 and 2.

Deck Art Limited Edition

This is the second bootleg version that I have and it's probably the strangest. It's just one big track that goes on for about an hour with tracks seamlessly joined and chronologically sorted with the scenes of the movie. So it's like an audio journey of the movie, for the most part. It does not contain much new stuff (aside from maybe the longest versions of the Japanese traditional themes and some weird Arabian music) but it's very enjoyable if you know the movie and the soundtrack well. A cool little novelty. Apparently it's from Japan.

Part 1, 2 and 3. It's in flac.

Again, if someone has (of if you can find it) the previously mentioned The Retirement Edition of the Esper bootleg please share it because I would love to hear it. 

I don't know why I love this soundtrack so much, don't give me that worried strange look. :D

Lycanthrophy & F.U.B.A.R.

Hello everyone, I'm back after a short break due to exams. Now let's get back to grinding.

Czech Republic has been growing a really good grindcore/fastcore scene for quite a while now. They have some really great fests and some really thriving bands. I had the pleasure of watching Lycanthrophy live a few years ago and it was one of the best grindcore gigs I ever attended. Stunned by the gig I decided to buy this little 7'' since I had to have something by them. It's a nice little short 7'' with both bands having their representative sound on it.

The charm of Lycanthrophy is their vocal female/male duo that quickly changes between the verses accompanied by some really tight arrangements of fast and furious grind. Riffs and such aren't really exceptional here but the drumwork on the other had really drives the whole thing into space.

Fubar is yet another, surprisingly, grindcore band which I haven't seen live but they sound very fun on this record. They are far much noisy and raw when compared to Lycanthrophy but it's still great fun. The bass on their side is actually so loud I can hardly recognize the guitar. Which is great because it kinda reminds me of a more organized Godstomper.

In any case, a great thing to listen if you're into grindcore. If not then move along. ;D

Download.

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

Length: 01:41:59
Format/Subtitles: .MP4 / English .srt subtitles
Audio: Japanese
Director: Hiroyuki Okiura
Writer: Mamoru Oshii
Year of release: 1999
Wikipedia

Despite the mp4 format the video quality is great, the size is after all 1.6 gb so don't worry about quality.

In order to recuperate from my Valkyria adventure I decided to revisit another anime movie that I dearly liked. The movie itself is essentially a military thriller and a nice insight into the mind of a soldier (unlike some animes that I might mention, oh - ho - ho, pretension etc.) but there's very little actual combat (something of a Mamorus trademark).

The story is set in a dystopian alternate timeline where Japan didn't do very well after singing the defeat with the Americans. So in the turmoil and chaos of rebuilding the nation a wide migration to the cities occurred and so a lot slums appeared. Naturally a lot people started breaking the law along with forming various anti-government guerrilla factions etc. Shit hit the fan. Cops on the other hand didn't know what it's like so they did the only natural thing to do which was - more cops. But these were a special breed of police force on par with the military called Panzer Cops (according to wikipedia, but translations vary).

So these guys basically didn't fuck around, carried heavy weapons and arrested everyone with machine gun bullets. In the middle of all this comes our protagonist who's in one of those brigades doing his job like everybody else. As with all jobs unexpected yet expected things (I don't want to spoil it too much so I won't say what) happen and yeah, he needs to deal with it.

Since the story is written by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost In The Shell etc.) you can expect it to be much more than just what I wrote. As usual with his way of storytelling there are a lot of things happening at the same time and not much is being said - they are being showed through subtle actions and reactions of characters. But there is much more plot exposition here through words compared to the rest of his work so it's not that hard to follow what's going on unlike some other of his works. This is probably because of the director who carried the whole movie out.

The movie deals with a lot of problems of morality and the line where we just stop and rethink why are we serving whatever system we are serving and why the hell are we doing this. There's a very noticeable feel of depression and nihilism between the two main protagonists throughout the whole movie. On the surface they just don't really give a shit anymore about who's right or wrong. It wears people down and they portray it really well. It's an internal struggle whether you'll plunge completely into the beast or resurface as a human and live a more normal life.

The movie has a lot of great ideas and messages and it portrays them very well thanks to the combined job of the director and the writer. Both aren't new in this so they know what they are doing and they do it marvelously in all aspects. This is also very apparent in the art style which is somewhere between Akira and later Mamoru Oshiis work. Since the plot is set in post-war Japan there really is not much space to be imaginative but they manage to make all the backgrounds compelling and believable as locations. Lots of short alleys, mass built buildings and blue collar outfits that everyone seems to wear. It all looks very believable and it's enjoyable to look but also depressing as well.

I would love to go into much more detail with this movie but I don't want to spoil the plot for those who didn't watch it so all I can do is share the links and hopefully you'll find this movie as great as I did.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.