Farrell replacing Ledger in movie? & other: June 2008

Wednesday 25 June 2008

Rocking off the planet

Weird, spooky, brash - and that's just the bandmates. Scott Kara reports
Cedric Bixler-Zavala may sing about a smiling hangman, guillotine smirks and bed sores on The Mars Volta's latest album, but his main muse is Helen Mirren.The 62-year-old actress is the inspiration behind the progressive-art-metal-funk of the song Ilyena (taken from her real name, Ilyena Mironov) off The Bedlam In Goliath, the band's fourth and most aggressive album yet."I called it Helen Mirren because of the kind of Gregorian chant type vocals I was doing and they reminded me of the way it sounded when she was in Excalibur ... or Caligula, which is great too," says the singer from Venice Beach, in Los Angeles, where the band is based.While he's more inspired by her early roles, he also rates Mirren's Oscar-winning portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in 2006. "I know a lot of people just know her from The Queen, which is great, she kicked arse in that, but there's things like Excalibur and The Long Good Friday.

"She's just always someone whose work has struck me really deeply, like The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover, she's phenomenal in that and I hope we can make our music move someone the way she has moved me with her performances."The Mars Volta, whose core members are Bixler-Zavala and guitarist and producer Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, return to New Zealand on June 26 for a show at the Logan Campbell Centre in support of their fourth album, The Bedlam In Goliath.Typically, and as the album title suggests, the band combines metal, rock, funk, noise and improvisation into a crazed mix - like the fractured nine-minute epic Cavalettas, the exotic Soothsayer and menacing opener Aberinkula.Besides Mirren, Bixler-Zavala - a devoted movie fan who often draws inspiration from films - says his other influences include actress Joan Crawford, skateboarder Mark Gonzales and oddball movies.His latest discovery is 1970s Filipino film For Y'ur Height Only."The main character is a dwarf and it's probably the best comedy I've ever seen. He's called Weng Weng, his acting is horrible, but he gets the girl, flies through the air and jumps out of the window with an umbrella and he's, like, the man." For Bedlam, there was a more sinister influence and it wouldn't be a Mars Volta album without an elaborate tale about how the album came to fruition. Debut album De-Loused in the Comatorium, from 2003, was written about the life and death of artist and band friend Julio Venegas; 2005's Frances the Mute was based on writings from a diary a former bandmate found in a repossessed car; and Bedlam's story starts when Rodriguez-Lopez bought a ouija board in Jerusalem as a present for Bixler-Zavala.

Wednesday 11 June 2008

Coldcut

Artist: Coldcut

   Genre(s):
Other
   Drum & Bass
   Acid Jazz
   Trip-Hop
   Electronic
   Easy Listening

Discography:

True Skool

Year: 2006
Tracks: 6

Sound Mirrors

Year: 2005
Tracks: 16

Ninja Tune (ZEN12173)

Year: 2005
Tracks: 3

Mr Nichols

Year: 2005
Tracks: 2

Everything is Under Control

Year: 2005
Tracks: 3

Solid Steel

Year: 2004
Tracks: 1

Re:volution

Year: 2001
Tracks: 3

Sampler (Zen39Cdpromo)

Year: 2000
Tracks: 6

Best Trips

Year: 2000
Tracks: 13

Let Us Replay!

Year: 1998
Tracks: 12

More Beat + Pieces

Year: 1997
Tracks: 6

Let Us Play

Year: 1997
Tracks: 12

Atomic Moog 2000 (Cd5)

Year: 1997
Tracks: 7

Coldcut 70 Minutes Of Madness

Year: 1995
Tracks: 35

Philosophy

Year: 1993
Tracks: 14

Some Like It Cold

Year: 1990
Tracks: 8

What's That Noise?

Year: 1989
Tracks: 13

DJs Jonathan More and Matt Black, aka Coldcut, blush wine to acclaim in the mid-'80s through production and remix go for a number of modern stone, rap, and dance outfits, including Yaz, Lisa Stansfield, Junior Reid, Blondie, Eric B. & Rakim, and Queen Latifah. While that connexion has pegged them as a production of the U.K. acidic planetary house and rave scenes, the pair's larger commitment has been to urban breakbeat styles such as hip-hop, ambient dub, and jungle; the three of which take established the bulk of their recorded output since their first base mid-'80s white-label EP, Hey Kids, What Time Is It? Comprising project titles like Hedfunk, Hex, DJ Food, and Coldcut, More and Black experience assembled an empire of U.K. breakbeat and observational hip-hop through their Ninja Tune/Ntone labels and been a consolidative force in resistance experimental electronic music through their eclecticist radio show, Solid Steel, and clubhouse and turn dates.

More than and Black got their start, non surprisingly, as radio DJs, working at the sea rover station Network 21 during the first half of the '80s, and latching onto the snowballing club scene mid to late-decade. Their title to early celebrity, Hey Kids, What Time Is It?, was modeled on the cut'n'scratch lazy Susan esthetic of resistance deck heroes care Grandmaster Flash and Double D & Steinski. Widely regarded as the U.K.'s first breaks track record and an influential force in bringing personal identity to London's nascent lodge culture, the record -- released as a U.S. import billed to DJ Coldcut to avoid sampling judicial proceeding -- opened as many doors for More and Black as it did for DJs, delivery scores of production and remix work their way. The attention (and sales royalties) also allowed them to set up their Ninja Tune and Ntone labels, which together have been home to some of the to the highest degree acclaimed and influential artists of London's post-rave subway system view, including DJ Food, Drome, Journeyman, 9 Lazy 9, Up, Bustle & Out, and the Herbaliser.

Although Coldcut was their earliest nom de pluck, following a befogged constrict with Arista, the name remained in legal channels for the following few years. The intervening period found the pair no less active, releasing a flood of material under different names and continuing to work with young groups. The Coldcut name returned to More and Black in 1995, and the geminate noted with a mix CD as contribution of the Journeys by DJ series dubbed 70 Minutes of Madness. The tone ending was credited with delivery to wider attention the sorting of freestyle mixture the couple were ever known for through their wireless render on KISS FM, Solid Steel, and their steady clubhouse dates, a style that has since interpreted off through clubs like Blech and the Heavenly Sunday Social. In 1997, Coldcut lastly released another full-length, Allow Us Play! Two years subsequently, the partner off followed up with the remix album Let Us Replay! Numerous shuffle CDs appeared ahead they returned in 2006 with the fresh album Good Mirrors, a slick album that recalled their debut.