Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2023)

Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 99, 100, 101 ... 136, 137, 138  Next
View previous topic :: View next topic
Author Message
AfterHours



Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

  • #991
  • Posted: 09/05/2022 21:36
  • Post subject:
  • Reply with quote
TiggaTrigga wrote:
What about something instrumental, especially something that doesn't have a clear emphasis on a certain instrument - would there be a main character in those pieces?

I'll give some examples:
-1/1 (Music for Airports) - Brian Eno
-In Doubt - Peter Gabriel
-What Does Your Soul Look Like, Part 4 - DJ Shadow
-Hallogallo - Neu
-Freeform Freak-Out (the 1st one) - Red Krayola


I may have to take these 1 or 2 at a time, especially with the DJ Shadow and Gabriel, because I don't instantly know them off the top of my head as well as the others (without revisiting to answer your question).

For Hallogallo, the most important (in terms of a human element driving it) is to recognize the "gnawing" and "turning/shifting" gently melodic, contemplating and "stream of conscious" figurations of the guitar "solo" throughout, kicking in more prominently around the 50 second mark or so. It is actually mimicking a human voice, but it is a human voice that is repressed, in a bit of a stupor, as as if "entrapped" or "oppressed" from releasing and expressing itself, as if trying to say something but cannot (analogously, as if it's trying to mouth or gnaw its way through an invisible barrier throughout the track). Throughout the track there are additional iterative guitar patterns that suggest further gnawing and the various effects all suggest a sense of continual mental anguish (trapped, yearning for release). Furthermore the famous motorik drums further suggest a gnawing sense of (subtle) danger/suspense, and (particularly) during climactic (always robotic, mechanistic) persistent drum strikes or rolls a heightened sense of frustration. All combined, with its iterative, gnawing, anguished and persistent rhythm and atmosphere, there is a certain hypnosis/trance to the music which further adds to the overall purpose and effect the music is expressing. The motorik drums and driving propulsive rhythm also suggest a trance-like state of (numbing) dance or movement, further enhancing the sense of trance/hypnosis being inflicted.

The aspect that probably makes this all easy to miss (and only hear it as "instrumental effects" or purely "atmosphere") is if one doesn't realize it is music being expressed through impressionism (where only essential elements, "contours", key details, are being drawn to suggest a picture but not give us one fully formed). Each of the above elements are being musically expressed impressionistically, not "descriptively" in "detail" -- suggested just enough to be noticed as an abstraction, with only the "blueprint" (one might say) of what should detail these elements being outlined by the artists -- but never explicit or vividly. Shown extraordinary restraint and abstract/impressionistic genius. This is all to suggest the hidden or subliminal nature and impact the heavy industrialization and commerce of modern society is having on the soul, upon humanity, on human nature, a soul that is ensnared in its grip and is losing its individuality and ability to be and express itself.

Each of the tracks add more development upon these similar concepts/themes/emotions, with guitar figuration instrumentally taking on a gnawing "vocal" character or the "human" contemplative nature, a soul crushed, oppressed into profound solitude and anguish (even when more intensified, like in certain climaxes or throughout Negativland, always abstract, impressionistic). And/or (such as the alternating tracks 2, 4, 6) with the effect of "real" human voices scattered or deep in the background (2, 4, the violent/orgy beginning of 5, to the foreground in 6) trying to make their way through the "murk/fog" usually with an impending sense of doom, danger gnawing away through guitar (?) or at times maybe other non-guitar (?) effects, "paralleling" the human voices or further amplifying their oppression, anguish and solitude (perhaps suggesting that the "voices" are "outer" anguish, and the guitar effects are more "inner" anguish). The last track comes the closest to a real (more colorful and vibrant) sense of humanity reaching through, a bit like as if (metaphorically) a live birth (or maybe better, awakening from a coma) has taken place after so much oppression, but (hauntingly) it also sounds as if the crushed individual, is yet also dying, verging on grief, in an utter stupor, that can't think of speak or pronounce words, despite his strain and effort to touch, feel, communicate. Much is left "impressionistic" and abstract, and ambiguous (so these details aren't necessarily 100% literal, just giving you an idea to help place you into or approaching the ballpark of what it's doing expressively, from which you can draw your own conclusions. For instance, track 4 (beyond the gnawing anguish of the guitar) sounds like they are suggesting the movement of water on a boat (very impressionistically, abstractly) and the echo-y/whisper noises perhaps (impressionistic, abstract) suggestions of seagulls, but it is very ambiguous and mysterious (and isn't necessarily meant to be "read literally" in a vividly detailed sense), so you may agree with me, you might not. Whatever you draw from it and the other tracks, these points should help you see more character and humanity and a more definite creative purpose or author arising from the suggestive impressions of their art (if you weren't hearing such already) and that is the main point in regards to your question.
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings
Back to top
  • Visit poster's website
  • View user's profile
  • Send private message
AfterHours



Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

  • #992
  • Posted: 09/06/2022 06:31
  • Post subject:
  • Reply with quote
EXPLANATION: WHAT IS THIS LOG??? Go here: https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...094#571094

For my criteria page, go here: http://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/vi...hp?t=15503

To visit my Main lists, go here:
Greatest Classical Music Works: https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=15098
Greatest Albums (Rock & Jazz): https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=15276
Greatest Films: https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=15558
Greatest Paintings: https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=15560
Greatest Works of Art: https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=16117

Bold = Newly added
Bold + Italics = Was already listed but recently upgraded/downgraded

Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week(s): 9-5-2022 - 9-25-2022
Sistine Chapel: Ceiling and The Last Judgment - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1512; 1541)
Spiderland - Slint (1991)
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (1997)
Neu! - Neu! (1972)
North by Northwest - Alfred Hitchcock (1959) ...Watched in movie theater on the big screen...
Music For Airports - Brian Eno (1978)
The Modern Dance - Pere Ubu (1978)
La Dolce Vita - Federico Fellini (1960)
Guernica - Pablo Picasso (1937)
Brazil - Terry Gilliam (1985) [The Final Cut, 142 minutes]
Even the Sounds Shine - Myra Melford (1994)
King of New York - Abel Ferrara (1990)
The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails (1994)
Original Sin - Pandora's Box (1989)
Laughing Stock - Talk Talk (1991)
Ecology of Souls - Kenneth Newby (1993)
Hex - Bark Psychosis (1994)
David - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1504) [Sculpture]
Wheat Field With Cypresses - Vincent van Gogh (1889)
History Will Absolve Me - Billy Woods (2012)
Breathless - Jean-Luc Godard (1960)
Raging Bull - Martin Scorsese (1980)

Top 10+ Albums/Movies/Visual Art for the Week(s) - Rated 2.8/10 to 6.7/10
Friday - F. Gary Gray (1995)
Menace II Society - Allen Hughes and Albert Hughes (1993)
Above the Rim - Jeff Pollack (1994)

NEWLY LISTENED - ROCK/JAZZ ALBUMS - RATED:
History Will Absolve Me - Billy Woods (2012) Unofficially between 7.1 - 7.4 ... Need another listen or two...

FAMILIAR SONGS/TRACKS/MOVEMENTS - RE-RATED:
Touching - Paul Bley - Improvisie - Track #2 (1971) 7.6/10 to 7.7/10
Allegro con brio - Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 in C minor - 1st Movement (1808) 7.4/10 to 7.6/10
Improvisie - Paul Bley - Improvisie - Track #1 (1971) 6.5/10 to 7.4/10
1/1 - Brian Eno - Music for Airports - Track #1 (1978) 6.8/10 to 7.3/10
Good Morning Captain - Slint - Spiderland - Track #6 (1991) 7.2/10 to 7.3/10

FAMILIAR FILMS - RE-RATED:
Breathless - Jean-Luc Godard (1960) 7.5/10 to 7.4/10
Pierrot le Fou - Jean-Luc Godard (1965) 7.5/10 to 7.4/10 ... update from months ago, just forgot...
Andrei Rublev - Andrei Tarkovsky (1966) 7.1/10 to 7.3/10 ... update from months ago, just forgot...
Raging Bull - Martin Scorsese (1980) 7.1/10 to 7.0/10
Friday - F. Gary Gray (1995) Not Rated to 6.3/10
Above the Rim - Jeff Pollack (1994) Not Rated to 4.8/10

NEWLY WATCHED FILMS - RATED:
Menace II Society - Allen Hughes and Albert Hughes (1993) 6.3/10 ... It has a heightened vulgarity, bluntness and brutality to it that certainly exceeds the violence and realism of Boyz in the Hood (which it is often compared to), but I'm not sure that qualifies it as the superior film. Boyz in the Hood has a bit more character, vibrance and charisma to it that makes it hard to take one's eyes off the screen and one tends to care about what happens and to who a bit more than here. While 6.3 is possibly a little low (that maybe a revisit some day will change), it is hard to ignore that it seemed a bit unfocused in terms of thematic/plot development and kind of lagged at times and the film is quite reliant on its vulgarity and brutality to hold interest (would be better if there was more depth conveyed beyond this to add to said interest). It has a finale that is predictable in terms of its outcome, in the point it makes, but its sheer brutality lends power to it that may elevate the film into a higher rating (I almost gave it a few points higher). As an aside, this film owes something to Goodfellas (in the presentation of its narrative) and one can look to that work to see how much more Scorsese does not just technically (much more of a tour de force of editing, cinematography) but with his material and characters and multi-faceted tones (comedy, horror, crime, etc) without sacrificing development, vulgarity, brutality, depth..

TOP 50 WORKS OF ART OF THE YEAR (2022)
Sistine Chapel: Ceiling and The Last Judgment - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1512; 1541)
Lorca - Tim Buckley (1970)
Rock Bottom - Robert Wyatt (1974)
St. Peter's Basilica - Michelangelo Buonarroti, Donato Bramante, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1626) [Architecture]
Brazil - Terry Gilliam (1985) [The Final Cut, 142 minutes]
Guernica - Pablo Picasso (1937)
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (1997)
The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Velvet Underground (1966)
The Beethoven Frieze - Gustav Klimt (1902)
Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth (1988)
Spiderland - Slint (1991)
Persona - Ingmar Bergman (1966)
North by Northwest - Alfred Hitchcock (1959)
Desertshore - Nico (1970)
Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock (1958)
Possession - Andrzej Zulawski (1981)
Improvisie - Paul Bley (1971)
Touch of Evil - Orson Welles (1958)
Citizen Kane - Orson Welles (1941)
Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino (1994)
Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major - Franz Schubert (1828)
Isenheim Altarpiece - Matthias Grunewald [includes sculpture by Nikolaus Hagenauer] (circa 1512-1516)
The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa - Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1652) [Sculpture and Architecture]
The Gates of Hell - Auguste Rodin (1889 "Expressionist" Version) [Sculpture]
Laughing Stock - Talk Talk (1991)
Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor - Ludwig van Beethoven (1822)
Marquee Moon - Television (1977)
The Doors - The Doors (1966)
Blue - Joni Mitchell (1971)
Symphony No. 5 in C Minor - Ludwig van Beethoven (1808)
Symphony No. 6 in A minor "Tragic" - Gustav Mahler (1904; 1906)
Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon - Pablo Picasso (1907)
Europe After The Rain II - Max Ernst (1942)
2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick (1968)
Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese (1976)
Sandham Memorial Chapel: The Resurrection of the Soldiers & War Murals - Stanley Spencer (1929)
Violin Concertos Nos. 1-4, "The Four Seasons" - Antonio Vivaldi (1723)
Symphony No. 4 in E Minor - Johannes Brahms (1884)
Symphony No. 8 in B Minor "Unfinished" - Franz Schubert (1822)
Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor "Appassionata" - Ludwig van Beethoven (1805)
The Sacrifice - Andrei Tarkovsky (1986)
St. Matthew Cycle: The Calling of St. Matthew; The Inspiration of St. Matthew; The Martyrdom of St. Matthew - Michelangelo Caravaggio (1602)
The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci (1497)
Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major - Ludwig van Beethoven (1820)
It's Such a Beautiful Day - Don Hertzfeldt (2012)
Apollo and Daphne - Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1625) [Sculpture]
Medici Chapel: The Sagrestia Nuova - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1555) [Sculpture and Architecture]
I Lie Here Buried With My Rings and My Dresses - Backxwash (2021)
Pieta - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1499)
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings


Last edited by AfterHours on 09/26/2022 17:54; edited 14 times in total
Back to top
  • Visit poster's website
  • View user's profile
  • Send private message
TiggaTrigga





  • #993
  • Posted: 09/06/2022 11:21
  • Post subject:
  • Reply with quote
I mean, the DJ Shadow one definitely isn't necessary. I was just trying to think of instrumental examples that are more soundscapes wherein the "main character" isn't clear (assuming there even is one). The "main character" in that song is probably the bass anyways.
Back to top
  • Visit poster's website
  • View user's profile
  • Send private message
AfterHours



Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

  • #994
  • Posted: 09/06/2022 23:33
  • Post subject:
  • Reply with quote
TiggaTrigga wrote:
I mean, the DJ Shadow one definitely isn't necessary. I was just trying to think of instrumental examples that are more soundscapes wherein the "main character" isn't clear (assuming there even is one). The "main character" in that song is probably the bass anyways.


Makes sense... Keeping these relatively short... (doesn't mean more couldn't be said)

Music for Airports 1/1: The piano playing could be said to be "connecting the contours of space (like that of a room)" (analogous to connecting the "dots" of a constellation in the night sky, thus forming the space this makes up between those points). There is, first and foremost a vast, still, emptiness of space, evoked, where one might say, all the "clutter" (mental and physical) is being removed to allow one silence in thought to recollect oneself from the noise and distraction of modern living (in a sense -- not necessarily "literally" -- it is meditation by way of music). The "dots" of the piano notes might be said to be reflecting on and gently touching on the impressionistic or abstract simplicity of the space in order to tone it down to its ultimate simplicity. The piano's melodic lines (played by Robert Wyatt btw) are phrased as if "posing questions/existential quandaries". In other words, they are phrased to move along as if the motion and trajectory of a thought (or sentence) and then raise upward into a higher note at the end of the musical phrase (like that of a question as opposed to a statement), and then "hang" there in (often enlightened, epiphanic) quandary. In parallel to this musical phrase are gentle, swelling or lingering, slow-motion, introspective, lugubrious effects to enhance the dream-like, still-life quality and sense of existential quandary. This all has quite a transcendental effect, like that of a mantra, dissolving the stress and pain and tension of materialism (noise and clutter) that likely surrounds one (even in ones' listening environment) and allows one to be swept away into the metaphysical (more or less Buddhist in intent). The repetition (and very subtle variations of effect) aid this sense and purpose that the music has (allowing one to focus, then re-focus, long enough to "lose" the environment and materialism surrounding one).

Free Form Freakout: Remember the first half freak outs are part of a "single" continuous piece of inter-connected music and noise (so the freak out alone is not necessarily a separate "unit" of music, it is part of a continuous musical environment being composed). The freak outs are primarily setting the stage for the vocalist to traverse monumental psychedelic and apocalyptic "trips" through (very) chaotic, unstable environments, that are (as Scaruffi points out) "falling apart as they move" (move = the music is moving forward, while the structure is collapsing in chaos and stabilizing, collapsing in chaos and re-stabilizing, etc)
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings
Back to top
  • Visit poster's website
  • View user's profile
  • Send private message
TiggaTrigga





  • #995
  • Posted: 09/08/2022 00:05
  • Post subject:
  • Reply with quote
These explanations make sense. In Doubt is the only one I'm still confused about but luckily it's a short song.
Back to top
  • Visit poster's website
  • View user's profile
  • Send private message
homelessking





  • #996
  • Posted: 09/08/2022 00:59
  • Post subject:
  • Reply with quote
AfterHours wrote:
ever-evolving analytical dive/immersion (like that of a conscious entity/individual)

Can you elaborate on this? I've always heard the album as not much more than a drumming assault so I'm not quite sure what analytical here means
Back to top
  • Visit poster's website
  • View user's profile
  • Send private message
AfterHours



Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

  • #997
  • Posted: 09/08/2022 19:29
  • Post subject:
  • Reply with quote
TiggaTrigga wrote:
These explanations make sense. In Doubt is the only one I'm still confused about but luckily it's a short song.


Re: In Doubt ... I'd have to revisit the whole album in sequence to better assure myself of my thoughts, though the following is either accurate or probably at least close. But just revisiting it alone at this time and not having listened to the whole album in maybe 2 years or so, I would say that it is basically a transitional song, representing an internal quandary/mental state (of Jesus himself, his followers, his antagonists...), both yearning and doubtful (and suspenseful, or suspended in doubt, questioning or testing of faith, the sort of mystery and suspense that envelopes much of the album). The lower pitched "moans/growls" are probably "inner" voices, the internal struggle, eventually developing into a higher pitched (more yearning) "inner voice/struggle" at the end.

Re: 1/1 Music for Airports ... One key point I forgot to mention that I was reminded of upon revisiting the album is that all the notes could be said to be played in such a careful, light, "lunar", gentle and "impressionistic" way so as to give the impression of both the gentle touch (of material/space) and, simultaneously, a detaching from the same things into the ethereal, mental, spiritual, metaphysical. This is, technically, the (rather profound, moving) development across the whole album in that all notes, instruments, voices, effects have this "detached" connotation so that the whole "physical" sensation of the music rises just as instantly/simultaneously into the "metaphysical" sensation as soon as it is touched. They are "brought into being" but just as soon (or almost just as soon for those notes that linger a little longer) as that, are detached, gone, never completely emphasized or "substantiated", "not being" just as soon as it is on the cusp of "being". This creative endeavor is of course in perfect alignment to its (more or less, Buddhist) aims. This, in essence, seems to be why its repetition can remain so compelling and have such a miraculous timeless, regenerative, quality to it. The more one becomes enamored or immersed by it, does not seem much like repetition (especially of the arduous variety), but much more like a regeneration, of healing, therapeutic, a dissolving and detachment from the material -- away from each note and passage just as soon as it is established only to return and rediscover (because the music is also, always in states of contemplation and/or epiphany, guiding and conversing with the listener towards the same). It is also a fascinating metaphor of the very dichotomy it presents: music detached, while (beguilingly) of that not supposed to be "analyzed" or "delved into" (virtually "background" music), but also contemplative, epiphanic, luring one in. This push and pull provides the anchor to the very exercise and dichotomy that one is processing while listening to it.
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings
Back to top
  • Visit poster's website
  • View user's profile
  • Send private message
AfterHours



Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

  • #998
  • Posted: 09/08/2022 20:01
  • Post subject:
  • Reply with quote
homelessking wrote:
Can you elaborate on this? I've always heard the album as not much more than a drumming assault so I'm not quite sure what analytical here means


It's no doubt an (often relentless) assault, but always "thinking" / "conscious" (closer to jazz improvisation, as opposed to assaults that might be more "haphazard" or "spontaneous" or purely to impress). Because of how much staggeringly technical, angular, precision is on display, how "geometric" and "mathematical", the music seems from the mind (or a group of minds) where, despite its vigor and intensity, is all being very exactingly and elaborately "thought up" (like Slint, though more abstract), so each passage takes on this connotation (of seeming analytical, worked out, conscious, as it progresses). Combined with how the passages tend to traverse through a "stream of conscious" of ever-changing, shape-shifting (without losing their drive, focus), both goal-oriented and emotionally driven, progression of psychological states, of afflictions, of devastation, of violent episodes (etc), it becomes more meaningful, conceptual than most instrumental assaults that might have or approach a similar vigor/intensity (though almost never of the same technical display). If memory serves, the height of all this might be track #2 and #4, but all of it is struck (to greater or lesser degree) by the same notions, again, more so than most technical displays (and the technique alone, is itself, staggering).
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings
Back to top
  • Visit poster's website
  • View user's profile
  • Send private message
TiggaTrigga





  • #999
  • Posted: 09/08/2022 22:45
  • Post subject:
  • Reply with quote
I'll definitely have to re-listen to Music for Airports with those notes in mind. As when I heard it initially, I honestly thought it was really mediocre (I was fairly bored out of my mind). Though obviously he had a certain vision when making that album. But at face value, I just couldn't/can't appreciate it.
Back to top
  • Visit poster's website
  • View user's profile
  • Send private message
AfterHours



Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

  • #1000
  • Posted: 09/08/2022 23:09
  • Post subject:
  • Reply with quote
TiggaTrigga wrote:
I'll definitely have to re-listen to Music for Airports with those notes in mind. As when I heard it initially, I honestly thought it was really mediocre (I was fairly bored out of my mind). Though obviously he had a certain vision when making that album. But at face value, I just couldn't/can't appreciate it.


I can understand that. The album is so utterly simple that it's easy to miss what is remarkable about it (but not so simple as it seems to pull off with such exactitude, balance that Eno has).

To put it perhaps more succinctly than in the above replies:

In every note and/or passage it captures a miraculous double-meaning through sheer simplicity or essence, a transcendent, ambiguous, alternating state between "feeling" and "letting go". There are multiple details in the above replies that should still be given strong consideration when listening, especially recognition of its passages as going through the thought-motion/phrasing of "contemplative questions/existential quandaries", but this here is maybe the most economical and easily grasp-able statement of its genius upon listening again if one were to revisit after not appreciating it.
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings
Back to top
  • Visit poster's website
  • View user's profile
  • Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic
All times are GMT
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 99, 100, 101 ... 136, 137, 138  Next
Page 100 of 138


 

Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Similar Topics
Topic Author Forum
Sticky: Music Diaries SuedeSwede Music Diaries
Sticky: Info On Music You Make Guest Music
Sticky: Beatsense: BEA Community Music Room Guest Lounge
Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art... AfterHours Music Diaries
Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art... AfterHours Music Diaries

 
Back to Top