⚪
The body is probably the best instrument ever made, and Indigenous peoples figured out centuries ago that even human bones could themselves be used as a fantastic sonic and spiritual tool. This Substack article details Austrian artist (and self-confessed graverobber) Zoe DeWitt’s work with them on records and during live performance in the 80s onwards, exploring themes like mortality, gender, magic and the occult. Her work fits in alongside some of the more acclaimed art and music being made around the same time by the likes of Throbbing Gristle and Coil.
I always love hearing ANOHNI talk and this is a great conversation with author Naomi Klein that covers transness, climate change, and trying to find artistic (or any) purpose in a world that’s burning up and burning out in front of our eyes. Her most recent live show that I caught this summer was an immersive mixing of music and filmed interviews with environmental scientists grieving - some even openly weeping - for the loss of coral reef and ocean ecosystems.
Adam Curtis’ documentaries are a must watch for me and his latest ‘Shifty’ is a trawl through 1980s Britain and the movement of power and influence from state to private business, which we’re now seeing manifest in terrible ways in the 2020s. Adam always has a smart sense of when to offset serious subject matter with surreal archive material and funny lost footage from the BBC vaults. via BBC iPlayer
‘Magic Farm’ is a woozy, psychedelic film from Amalia Ulman that I really enjoyed, about a group of self-absored and mostly unlikeable NYC video journalists who travel to South America to do a subcultures trend report - completely oblivious to the bigger and more important environmental story that’s happening around them. It feels purposefully a little hard to get your teeth into, and saturated colours and filming techniques really dial up the strange dread of the movie. via Mubi
Last week I was lucky enough to play a live show at Berlin’s legendary Tresor club and step inside for the first time. It made me dive into the wider history of the club and the scene it grew from, and this documentary in all its grainy 480p glory does a really good job of explaining about its creation, and the social and musical energy in Berlin that it was born from. via Youtube
⚪⚪
I always love stumbling across Bandcamp treasure and ‘At Least Wave Your Handkerchief At Me - The Joys and Sorrows of Southern Albanian Song’ is a recent favourite, detailing traditional Saze songs and joyful dances from when then were waves of migration from rural Albania into cities. ‘Tana’ is a beautiful highlight, about a shepherd whose flock is stolen by bandits that allow him to play his flute for the last time before killing him.
FLOATING are a duo from Sweden who take the jangly, reverby sound of 80s post-punk and merge it pretty effortlessly with death metal, and their album ‘Hesitating Lights’ has been in regular rotation for me the past couple of weeks.
For those of you who use Spotify I also update my studio playlist.
⚪⚪⚪
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.