I love this record.

Me too - it was the one that turned me on to HG's stuff in the first place (the Goebbels / Harth and Cassiber discs came later, and have both dated a bit in my ears), and I was a huge fan for a few years, checking out the shows he did on a more or less annual basis at Nanterre Amandiers just outside Paris. Ou bien le débarquement désastreux was great on stage, better than the album version. Max Black was a bit lacklustre, but the Eisler stuff is fine.
A little out of touch with his recent projects.. anyone recommend anything I might not know about?

Marc, thanks for the writeup.

This sounds very interesting and I look forward to picking it up. Think he did some work with Alfred 23 Harth, no?

This CD keeps popping up in the used bins (under New Music more often than jazz), and I keep looking at it & thinking "Hmmm...Rothenberg, Cherry, Lewis, Lindsay...sounds interesting, but...there's a lot of other stuff higher on my wish list."

Based on Marc's review, though, I'm going to grab the next copy I see.

What about the Goebbels/Harth duets? Worth checking out? Anybody have an opinion?

I bought a commercial cassette(!) of this work when it first came out. I liked it pretty much. Several years later, I picked up more Goebbels, though, and it didn't seem very good to me at all. I couldn't tell if it was him or me or what.

Now, however, I don't care too much for "Man in the Elevator" either, so I guess it was probably me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duo_Goebbels/Harth, Cliff. "Frankfurt Pekin" is a pretty good place to start.

i had this cd briefly in the late '90s and don't remember being impressed by it at all. i may not have been "ready" for it - it's a mature offering and at the time my head was drowning in australian war metal - so i might just check it out again. it seemed rather "soundtracky" to me, i.e. subtle and containing lots of holes.

on the subject of soundtracks, i have been checking out more classic soundtracks lately, particularly ones from the '70s. there's lots of great, modern, dissonant music in this vein, particularly "the andromeda strain", "the french connection", "the taking of pelham one two three" and the original planet of the apes series.

oddly enough, only recently did i start really acknowledging film soundtrack music as more of a stand-alone experience after being bombarded by the aural cacophony of "there will be blood". although i don't think that soundtrack contains any particularly great music, i was shocked by how grim, loud and dissonant it was for mainstream movie.

soon after i was knocked out by the harrowing chamber music inserts from robert altman's "3 women" and decided to pursue listening to more music in this contextual wrapper. unfortunately the music from "3 women" was never released.

ww

after being bombarded by ... "there will be blood".

I was actually looking forward to seeing that film, and then I saw it, and then I realized who the director was, and then I was better able to articulate what I found disappointing and annoying about it ... similar things to what bothers me about the rest of his films I've masochistically chosen to endure. I'll stop here as this is totally tangential.

I just want to see "There will be Blood" because the actor who played Ricky in "American Beauty" is in it. He was so great in that film.

I love the soundtrack of the first Planet of the Apes film - amazing stuff from Jerry Goldsmith, even including some vaguely Partch-like use of percussion. You can really hear the influence of some of the 20th century modernist heavies on it, and I credit it for probably being the first place (along with 2001) I heard music like this as a youngster. I found a copy of the Apes ST in the used bin of a video store 15 or so years ago, and it is indeed a treasured find.

Anybody know if the soundtrack to Ken Russel's "The Devils" was ever released as a CD? Some incredible dissonant/wild shit on there from the Fires of London ensemble. Anyone know who was in that group? I'm lookin' at you, Dan...

***I just want to see "There will be Blood" because the actor who played Ricky in "American Beauty" is in it. He was so great in that film.***

"Thank you for trying to teach me, sir. Don't give up on me, Dad."
_________________

Back on tangent, I thought the Greenwood's soundtrack for TWBB was superb, particularly the polyrhythmic percussion thing going on during the oil fire. Awesome.

Haven't seen TWBB yet, but I loved the soundtrack (and the movie) of PUNCH DRUNK LOVE, which is very obtrusive and disorientingly polyrhythmic at times.

of course, fires of london was the ensemble led by peter maxwell davies. he was on a roll back then. be sure to check out "eight songs for a mad king" too . ..

ww

Maxwell Davies wrote that soundtrack. It's indeed great--as is the Penderecki opera on the same subject.

By the way there were atonal (including serial) soundtracks long before the 1970s! I believe Rosenman just died, e.g., and who could forget the great Les Baxter.

And, of course, Henze wrote some great sountracks!

Lookin' at me, Rob? I know about as much about The Fires Of London as the next man! They were hot back then.. Weasel's right, Mad King is great. Has that Russell film been reissued on DVD yet? I see a few of his things are coming out.. just bought Women In Love on Amazon. Would like to see The Devils again. The Penderecki opera is OK, but not one of my favourite KP pieces. Would like to see it live though.

Just pickin' on ya Dan - you being a Brit and a general fount of knowledge and all...

I've not had much luck tracking down "The Devils" on DVD. A dj for the college station here in New Orleans did a public screening of a (presumably import) dvd of it and "Haxan" at an old theater in Chalmette back pre-K before Chalmette got smacked by the flooding. As I recall, it had scenes (intense ones at that) not in the US VHS version.

But thanks for the info on Fires of London - WW + DW... I'll check out "8 Songs for a Mad King"

Pick away, Rob. Always nice to hear from you. (You remind me of that great joke of an American who meets a Brit at a party.. "Oh you come from England? Do you know John in Manchester?"
I see on IMDB that Russell's film is still not out on DVD. Here's hoping it appears before too long. Meanwhile, if you are ever in France (it's a little country roughly three thousand miles east of Florida, Rob), don't bother going to Loudun. Fucking miserable place. No wonder they ended up going in for devil worship.
What the ferk has all this got to do with Goebbels? Not much, but what th'hell

I see a few of his things are coming out.. just bought Women In Love on Amazon.

That's the one with the long nude male wrestling scene, isn't it? I couldn't make it all the way through that one. It really is a product of its time.

"the devils" is definitely available on DVD - i think i rented it from netflix about 2 or 3 years ago.

ww

Women In Love was barely watchable even in the 70s. No pun intended.

I don't know what y'all find so objectionable about There Will Be Blood, music or otherwise. Worked for me, and I hate nearly everything.

i just thought There Will Be Blood was okay. It didn't bother me, but i wouldn't want sit through it again in the next 10 years or so (which puts it in good company with about 95 percent of all movies in the universe.)

I think we live in an era where people seem to really want certain movies to be instant "classics". with all the hype and hoopla, this seemed like one of them. it's just an okay movie try as the press and film establishment might to crown it as such.

ww

ww, I felt the same way about No Country For Old Men...hyped to the nines. Certainly not the best from the bros Coen. Despite all the virtuosic violence and Javier Bardem's monolithic creepiness and Woody Harrelson's big hat, I felt it was just okay but also felt, What was the point of all that?

I like No Country for Old Men quite a lot. Like the Big Lebowski it holds up to repeated viewings and seems to get better.
I was sure glad to have on my ipod for my last plane flight when they showed that soiler "August Rush" for the second flight I was on.
Talk about real pile of shit.
(Sarah, I'll get your bootleg copy back asap!)

Thanks for the info Weasel, will try & hunt that DVD down. A product of its time, no doubt (I take it by that you mean it's now dated Sarah), but so what. Haven't seen There Will Be Blood but enjoyed the Coen film very much (what is your favourite Coen movie then Weasel?). I thought it was a good adaptation of the book, well shot and well acted. But, hey, vive la difference, what.. some of you cats out there in Cali dig Beaudrillard, and I can't stand him. "What's the point of all that" certainly comes to mind.

Dan - i recall hearing a variation of that joke from comedian Robert Klein: "Are you from New York? Do you know a guy named Tony?"

I've been thinking a similar thing as WW lately about people/press/industry really pushing for recent movies to be accorded "classic" status...the eventual result being pawn shops and such bogged down in an overload of discarded DVD's of these masterpieces. And that's just one example. I often find with a lot of recent films that after viewing them I found them interesting, diverting, or impressive on some technical or artistic level, but have no desire to see them again. This is even the case with directors of high caliber, like Cronenberg (last one I wanted to see more than once was Existenz...)

oh yeah, this doesn't have f-all to do with the CD above... just the nature of the tangential discussion. Can someone start an Oliver Reed thread so we can talk more about "The Devils" and "The Brood" etc...?

When I described being "bombarded" by There Will be Blood, I didn't mean to imply that I couldn't stand it. I actually thought it was okay, but that it was ... bombastic - the editing felt awkward (i.e. from scene to scene, in service of the narrative), some of the dialogue seemed more aimed to provide "quotable lines" at the disservice of the film. I did find it the most tolerable film I've seen by that director, though again, that's just me. I have a dear friend that I respect that genuinely likes Magnolia. But compared to Chinatown, which I like a great deal, but isn't one of my favorite movies ever, well, There Will Be Blood was lacking. I feel like that director relies too much on film history and the viewer's probable past viewing, that he somehow sees these prior classics (e.g. Altman's ensemble films, Chinatown, etc.) as the "backstory" of his movies, that he can riff on the punchline without properly telling the joke.

Re Women in Love: Well, I didn't make it through the whole thing, so I don't want to be too dismissive, but yes, I do feel it is "dated," though it does date from several years before I was born. However, probably half of my favorite films were made around then (late 60s - early/mid 70s), that is to say, a lot of the stylistic hallmarks of that time period are things I really enjoy in a film.

Re Baudrillard: Well, Dan, he did provide convenient supporting arguments for my Master's Thesis, though I couldn't stand him my first few years of undergraduate study.

Re: Cronenberg: There are a quite a few I will see repeatedly: Videodrome (which Existenz felt like a remake of) I used to watch every year ... less so now, though a lot of my desire for repeat viewings of his films is spurred by seeing new movies that take similar subjects and don't handle them as well/interestingly.

If it were in my power to start an Oliver Reed thread, I so would. The Brood is another of my favorite Cronenberg movies, though I'm partial to horror movies about "bad breeding."

I love Cronenberg. Videodrome is great. Naked Lunch is another great one (talk about a great soundtrack!). I like his newer stuff too. I thought the steam bath fight scene in Eastern Promises was a really good example of an exciting yet non-glamorized action scene.

I really liked No Country. I was able to see it before I got hit with any of the hype. I can understand how a lot of hype tends to make you dissapointed in the actual product once you see it. Nevertheless, I thought No Country really excelled in a lot of respects. Besides really good acting, I thought it did a fantastic job of a) showing rather than telling, b) avoiding film cliches, c) soundtrack (that is: NO soundtrack!), d) leaving so much unresolved and unexplained....GREAT!

I confess both that I'm old enough to have seen Women in Love back when it came out and that I think it's a very good movie.

coen brothrers, favorite??? well, i haven't seen "blood simple" so the vote is still out.

djll - yeah, ditto your sentiment on "no country for old men". just thought it was fine. somebody explained to me that the "point" of the movie is that tommy lee jones appears primarily in the beginning and end to symbolize that he should have been taking care of all this business that goes down, but he thinks he's too old now. uh . . . okay. i guess i can accept that. ha ha ha. it was fine or whatever - don't need to see it again for a long time.

ww

"coen brothrers, favorite??? well, i haven't seen "blood simple" so the vote is still out."

Amazing film. My second favorite Coen flick after the Big Lebowski.

The man in the elevator was sent to the subterraneans...

I gaze here but have never posted, but I just want to say to the author that I was listening that same night on Jim Wilke's NPR Jazz show with my girlfriend after making love. The long excerpt played was grabbed my attention. This was quite a diversion for Jim who is a conservative Jazz fan. It seemed to tickle him.

"Love in an Elevator", anyone?