Monday, April 19, 2010

Shonen A




I came across this cd one late night, or early morning and decided to play it. I was intrigued by its simple but yet attractive cover. I was also motivated to play this album by noticing that it was a collaboration between German musician Hans Platzgumer, and Japanese Ca Mi Tokujiro. During this time I was listening to a few German and Japanese acts, so I wanted to hear what both of this musicians could give me in this album, Shonen A. To recapitulate the album I found this link;

http://www.intermedium-rec.com/recordse/cd010.html

It gives a detail explanation of the album, and a bit of history on Hans and Ca Mi and like it mentions, the story is quickly told. I do not speak German or Japanese but as I listened to this more and more, my curiosity grew.

A complete and full combination of electro, house, techno, chants, instrumentals, and psychedelia, gives us listeners 19 tracks to enjoy. The voice that leads us could not have been more perfect. I recommend this album to anybody with open ears, and a couple of hours to enjoy this great album.



There is very little info on the web and I am not sure if you can find it on sale. I will not deny a copy of this to anyone that wants to give it a try. I am hoping I find some time to listen to more from both artist. Both of them have an extensive list of works, I am sure at the same level of Shonen A or better! if you find this, I hope you enjoy it!



Daniel Salazarj

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

This officially has taken another route! I will be sharing a few films and videos I have done and also recommending some new music that will come my way. This can be old stuff (anywhere from the 50's and 60's) or new stuff coming out. I am officially starting this today with this recommendation!

http://www.amazon.com/Minimal-Wave-Tapes-Various-Artists/dp/B002ZMMNCY

The Minimal Wave Tapes Vol. 1 came to me while djing at KTRU Rice Radio. It is an amazing album that compiles the best Minimal Wave artist from around the world. Here is something I found online about it;

"Stone Throw Founder Peanut Butter Wolf has always had a love affair with that 80's new wave, Post punk and DYI Sound. Here he scours the Archives of New York's own Minimal Wave, a small indie label dedicated to reissuing lost and rare gems from around the World."

and...

If you wanna buy it directly from the people putting this album together the link is here (also available in Vinyl)

http://www.stonesthrow.com/store/album/various/minimal-wave

This album is both a genre of underground DIY electronic music from North America and Europe in the late 1970s and 80s. The Minimal Wave Tapes is the first official anthology (on CD, LP and digital) of Minimal Wave music from this label. This label is devoted to bring back these recordings and show them to the world. Most of the songs were originally released on limited edition cassettes or vinyl by the artists themselves, and only a handful of people knew about them. They’ve been remastered from their analog source tapes and compiled here by Minimal Wave's Veronica Vasicka and Stones Throw's Peanut Butter Wolf.

Here is something interesting about Veronica Vasicka (taken from Zach Kelly @ pitchfork);



New Yorker Veronica Vasicka has spent the past five years painstakingly and lovingly building Minimal Wave, a label that specializes in digging up and reissuing electronic DIY music from the late 1970s and 80s. From taking full control of the mastering process to creating packagings that border on the fetishistic, Vasicka has uncovered forgotten forays into independent new wave and synth-pop. Aptly dubbed "minimal wave", the genre's stock characteristics-- ticky-tacky drum machines, analog synthesizers, amateur vocal experimentation, lo-fi production-- seem more relevant than ever now, as a recent rash of DIYers have been toying with unpolished variations of everything from disco to IDM, using little more than a MIDI synth and a microphone. Thankfully, Stones Throw founder Peanut Butter Wolf-- who has devoted a great deal of time spotlighting leftfield niche records himself-- had the good sense to see the "obsessed freak" (his words) in Vasicka. "I always wanted to do an album of this kind of stuff, but I don't want to try and compete with someone like Veronica who does it better than I ever could."

For those seeking a substantial once-over, Minimal Wave Tapes, Vol. 1 serves as a great introduction. Most of the releases on the imprint are vinyl only, so PB Wolf combed through Vasicka's vast collection (the two co-produced the project) and hand-picked the group of tracks that show up here. Though Vasicka has released compilations in the past, Tapes is the kind of primer that makes the overwhelming (and for the listener, rather expensive) process of weeding through these acts (hailing from Belgium to Spain to the States and beyond) a little easier. And though there is a commonality at work with the music featured, the genre variations that arise throughout the compilation-- ranging from punk-funk to early techno rumblings to chilly goth textures-- help orient the listener with what they might like to delve deeper into. Almost every track shares an exploratory, homemade feel in either production or the varying degrees of musicianship at work, and though it makes things sound a little lop-sided at times, it's an exciting peek into the experimental, underfunded aspect of a burgeoning trend.

A lot of the music here is the underground response to the the well-selling synth-pop of the Second British Invasion. Oppenheimer Analysis' Andy Oppenheimer and Martin Lloyd bonded over the Human League and Soft Cell, and their "Radiance" echoes that chic, disaffected club feel. Certainly one of the poppier contributions here, it proceeds Crash Course in Science's "Flying Turns", a queasy, corroded chunk of Gang of Four-- acerbic, noisy but equally compelling. And while you can hear a little Kraftwerk just about everywhere, there's a wealth of varied personality that rescues these simple efforts from sounding too repetitive or indistinguishable. Most of the more memorable submissions fare better thanks to fuller construction and actual hooks, like the Joy Division-modeled "Just Because" by French trio Martin Dupont, or the English outfit Das Kabinette's "The Cabinet", which Ladytron can pretty much thank their entire career for.

But what might be one of the coolest things that Minimal Wave Tapes accomplishes is how nicely it frames the current synth-pop renaissance, reinforcing the idea that there's room in the garage for sequencers and Korgs as well as guitars and drums. Hopefully we have a little time until we start hearing traces of Bene Gesserit's brand of goofy spoken word or Duex's "Sprockets"-approved robo-schtick, but for now, there's plenty of really catchy touchstones being explored under early synth-pop's umbrella, many of which can be found in resurrected form over at Minimal Wave's site. And thanks to the parallel lines being drawn by Vasicka and the good folks over at Stones Throw, we might not have to bother with all that crate-digging to enjoy and experience it.

— Zach Kelly, February 17, 2010


So go buy it and enjoy!!


Daniel Salazarj

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Abrazos Rotos de Pedro Almodovar

“E visto otras peliculas de Almodovar que tenian mas contenido y estaban mas compactas, esta no es asi” Al acabar de ver la pelicula, escuche esta frase de una de las personas en la sala sobre la mas reciente obra de Pedro Almodovar “Abrazos Rotos”
Abrazos Rotos, pelicula de Pedro Almodovar, nos relata una historia sobre cuatro personas, y los lios amorosos que ellas viven. Como siempre muy al estilo Almodovar, la pelicula es hecha en un estilo muy film noir, con colores vivos, bellas tomas, un trabajo de editacion muy simple y bello, y siempre creando una nueva forma de crear una escena de sexo.

La historia al principio nos introduce a Mateo, quien comparte el cuerpo con Harry Caine (Lluis Homar), quien apezar de ser ciego, es un escritor de cine y trabaja con la ayuda de Judit (Blanca Portillo) y su hijo Diego (Tamar Novas). Mateo nos expresa que hace tiempo empezo a usar a Harry Caine como pseudonimo, no nos relata el por que, ni nos da detalles, y asi nos presenta al primer misterio de la pelicula. Por que este escritor que vive en la oscuridad se hizo llamar Harry? Por que cambio de identidad? Poco a poco los demas personajes se desenvuelven y se introducen a la historia, atravez de el mismo Harry y sus memorias. Memorias del pasado, 1994 para ser exactos, que se basan en el set de una pelicula, Chicas y Maletas, en la cual Mateo es el director, Magdalena (Penelope Cruz), actriz principal, Ernesto Martel (Jose Lius Gomez), productor de la pelicula, y Ernesto Martel Jr o Ray X (Ruben Ochandiano), hijo de Ernesto Martel.

La primera de las memorias dentro de esta serie de eventos es un anuncio en el periodico donde se informa que Ernesto Martel a muerto, Ray-x busca a Harry para escribir una pelicula juntos y termina siendo el hijo de Ernesto, y una foto de Magdalena dentro del armario de Harry que nos hace preguntarnos mas acerca de esta historia y añade otro misterio a ella. El hijo de Judit, Diego, termina sufriendo una sobredosis la cual lo lleva al hospital. En el hospital Diego es cuidado por Harry, y en una simple conversacion empieza a relatarnos la historia, una historia de amor, desgacia, celos, poder, y culpa.

Abrazos Rotos es una combinacion de film noir, comedia, y melodrama con un poco de suspenso, y refleja varias cosas. Una de ellas es el reflejo de las drogas dentro de la sociedad, y hasta cierto punto el libertinaje de poder consumirlas en lugares publicamente. Harry menciona una frase despues de tener sexo con una mujer que acaba de conocer, “Ya me a pasado todo lo que me tenia que pasar, ahora me toca vivir”. Reflejo de un hombre que apezar de ser atractivo, es ciego y le a dejado de importar eso y otras cosas como perder el amor de su vida y tener que cambiar de nombre e identidad, y eso lo llevan a dejar de creer en amor. Simplemente le gusta disfrutar de la vida, ya sea teniendo sexo o acariciando las flores de su jardin.
Almodovar relaciona el cine dentro del cine, sus historias siempre han tenido una relacion cercana al teatro o al cine, y las vidas de los personajes que la viven. Almodovar nos acerca asi mas a sus personajes, envolviendonos en la historia atravez de una pelicula, dentro de otra pelicula. Asi nosotros como personas viendola, nos dejamos llevar y nos acercamos mas asi a los personajes, ya que ellos mismos asi como nosotros son gente normal y dejan de estar dentro de la pelicula para ser personas como tu y yo. En una escena la cual sucede antes de la sobredosis de Diego, en la cual Judit, su madre, se prepara para viajar, se lleva con ella un libro. Un libro de Tonino Guerra, quien es uno de los mas grandes escritores del cine Italiano, en especial del Neorealismo Italiano de los 40s y 50s. Almodovar nos demuestra su amor por el cine y sus influencias, siendo el un cineasta independiente y que estudio simplemente viendo cine y apreciando la belleza de este mismo. Asi mismo peliculas como 8 ½ de Federico Fellini, Elevator to the Gallows de Louis Malle, y el momento en el que Mateo y Magdalena se encuentran abrazados viendo el film, Viaje a Italia de Rossellini, nos reflejan esto mismo. En esta ultima, Mateo toma una foto de los dos abrazados en el sofa, completamente contradictorio a la parte que veian en la pelicula, en la cual una pareja es testigo de el descubrimiento de los restos de una pareja abrazandose despues de ser catapultados por la lava de Pompeiia y el desastre de su volcan. En este caso, el abrazo de Mateo y Magdalena no seria para siempre como el de aquella pareja, seria un abrazo roto. No solo son cosas como estas las cuales hacen que el contenido de esta pelicula sea rica en detalles, pequeñas enseñanzas de cine, y lo cual es contradictorio a el decir que la pelicula no tiene contenido tan grande como otras, como lo hizo aquella espectadora en la sala. Esta cinta nos envuelve con sus tomas y el desenvolver de ellas. Nos hace sentir el amor de dos personas enamoradas, y al igual que en la vida de todos nosotros, pueden llegar a ser rotos por razones inexplicables.

La pelicula nos mantiene en un mismo nivel, una linea recta, pero divertida, en un timing que casi no cambia pero nos lleva, y esto para el espectador puedo ser dificil.

Abrazos Rotos es Almodovar, su amor por el cine asi como el mio, la combinacion del septimo arte con la vida cotidiana, el reflejo de la sociedad. Nos demuestra la diferencia del buen y el mal cine dentro de esta misma pelicula, sus propias versiones de otras peliculas, y como un hombre que borro o trato de borrar su pasado, tardo 14 anos para afrontarlo y CORREGIRLO, no ignorarlo. Asi Mateo termina siendo un mejor personaje, una mejor persona. Asi Almodovar le explica a su pais que no puede ignorar su pasado de la dictadura Fascista y debe corregirla, asi Almodovar nos dice a cada uno de nosotros que no debemos borrar nada, si no simplemente hacerlo mejor, como Mateo y Magdalena, todos tuvimos esos abrazos que aunque el deseo de que sean para siempre, avecez se rompen. Harry, un hombre ciego viviendo en la oscuridad, sobre pasa todo obstaculo. Abrazos Rotos no es solo lios amoros si no el deber de terminar todo lo que empezemos, aunque sea a ciegas.

Daniel Salazarj
Cinema Exposé

Monday, January 11, 2010

2010

Desde Enero 11, del 2010, Y empezando a las 22:54 se abre este blog. El blog tratara de mi critica sobre el cine y solamente cine. Leanlo y compartenlo como yo lo comparto!

This blog was made on January 11th, 2010, near the hour of 20:54. This space will be dedicated for film criticism, mostly in Spanish but in some cases (I will try to get most of them) in English. If you will like to help translate I will love you a lot! first post coming up in the next few days. Read, enjoy, and share!