Recorded music:
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STARS OF THE LID – AND THEIR REFINEMENT OF THE DECLINE
Yes it sounds almost identical to “Tired Sounds”, but refinement is right – everything on this 130 minute set sounds almost perfect.

CHRIS HERBERT – DILUTED
A fantastic hour-long collage of sounds, melodies and textures that manages to outshine the magnificent out-of-nowhere debut, ‘Mezzotint’.

P.J. HARVEY – WHITE CHALK
I come and go when it to comes to actually bothering to get around to buying Harvey’s LPs, but this one is exactly what I’ve been wishing for since I first heard Polly Jean sing.

ASTRAL BLESSING – ST. FROCH
Their untitled LP on Mad Monk is incomparably fantastic – as good as so-called “freak folk” gets – but this one ain’t bad: total zone-out head-nodder.

AXOLOTL – MEMORY THEATRE
Yes, it’s a compilation of previously ultra-limited cuts, but for abrasive-meets-gorgeous noise swells it really doesn’t get any better than this. Sorry Chris.

RADIOHEAD – IN RAINBOWS
I’d pretty much given up on Radiohead making any music that I could be bothered to listen to any more, but for a free download I had to give it a chance – and how glad I am that I did. The best thing they’ve done, ooh, since the start of the millennium.

SHELLAC – EXCELLENT ITALIAN GREYHOUND
Okay, after all the excitement after years of waiting, let’s be perfectly honest now: it’s a bit shit, isn’t it?

Live Music
——————
ROSCOE MITCHELL at Dirty Three ATP
Now I know why Warren Ellis called his kid Roscoe. Almost an hour of solo alto sax and clarinet skronk performed to 100 hung-over indie dilettantes at about midday in the middle of a Butlins. It was transcendental, transfixing and fucking immense.

TARA JANE O’NEILL at Dirty Three ATP
Was pretty amazing too, for the few that bothered to stick around for her.

FLOWER/CORSANO DUO at The Maze, Nottingham
What Ollie said.

GRINGO 10TH ANNIVERSARY at the Art Organisation, Nottingham
A lovely day in the sun.

STARS OF THE LID at the Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
Bolstered by a string trio (violin, viola, cello), they somehow managed to be even more affecting in the flesh than on record.

Film
————
ZODIAC
The classiest film of the year by a mile, and possibly David Fincher’s finest hour to date. Yes, it’s far subtler and much cleverer than Seven. It even turned around my opinion of Mark Ruffalo’s acting skills 180 degrees – he is incredible in this.

AMERICAN GANGSTER
Ridley Scott is almost 70 and still doesn’t seem to get the respect he deserves. Sure, he’s done the odd turkey but his powers as a visionary filmmaker in this post-Kubrickian environment are unparalleled. This is almost a minor work by his standards, but is as good a mafia movie as anything up to the first couple of Godfather films.

SUPERBAD
Fuck American Pie and modern day frat-pack bore-fests – this is the funniest and most touching adolescent comedy since Porky’s. It’s almost on a par with American Graffiti and Dazed and Confused.

THE DARJEELING LIMITED
Rushmore I liked, Royal Tenembaums I did not, The Life Aquatic I missed because I was out of the country. However, going to see this on a whim produced a surprise winner: beautiful design, whimsical characterisation, smirk-inducing dialogue and all-in-all a strangely touching ambience. Low key, but distinctly lovely.

EASTERN PROMISES
Not as good as A History Of Violence, but nicely understated and brutally effective. And yes, the fight scene is fantastic.

DEATH PROOF
Well worth a yuck or two, especially if you’ve had a beer or three beforehand. I could have done with the Grindhouse edit to cut down on the excessive ‘girlfriend’ talk though.

IN THE HANDS OF THE GODS
This passed through cinemas in a quiet fortnight in the middle of the summer and is out on cheapo-DVD next week, but it’s well worth seeking out. A no-budget documentary ostensibly about 5 “freestyle-footballing” lads trying to busk their way to Buenos Aires to meet their idol Diego Maradona, it’s an engaging and emotional protrait of young men growing up very painfully in the face of trying to realise an almost impossible dream. Nice soundtrack too.

RATATOUILLE
Another irritatingly perfect Pixar film. Nice to hear Patton Oswalt in the lead role though.

HOT FUZZ
Had my mum cackling like a witch, which is very hard to do, especially with so much foul language bandied about. Somehow both funnier and less substantial than Shaun of the Dead.

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Yeah, it was alright, but nothing special. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; when will they stop giving out Oscars for actors just doing an impression of a real person? (see: Charlize Theron, Jamie Foxx, Nicole Kidman, and now Forest Whitaker)

KNOCKED UP
Incredibly uneven comedy, with moments of brilliance and horror interlacing some otherwise pretty dull scenes and characters. Left me feeling very confused about what kind of film I’d just seen.

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE
The absolute epitome of ‘barely adequate’. Slightly better than recent car-crash seasons of the series, but absolutely nowhere near the brilliance of, ooh, about nine years ago-era Simpsons. It really did need a “we’re in a total cash in”-type musical number just to properly rub it in your face.

SPIDERMAN 3
This was dire. The “characterisation” of the villains was cringe-worthy, Maguire and Dunst were eminently punchable throughout and the endless special effects were coma-inducing. Please, no more.

DVD
—-
THE FOUNTAIN
I think Darren Aronofsky’s third film spent, ooh, about a fortnight in UK cinemas before it disappeared into obscurity in late 2006. A fortnight I vainly spent trying to persuade anyone to go and see it with me. Thank god for DVD then, for this film is absolutely incredible, beautiful and utterly heartfelt. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a film where someone has so obviously poured so much of himself into it. It’s very easy to be very cynical about such an obvious love letter to his wife (Rachel Weisz, starring alongside Hugh Jackman), but if you forgo the sneering it could possibly be the most touching film you’ll ever see.

BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT
At last! Not that it’s particularly different to the so-called “Director’s Cut”, but the transfer is eye-poppingly good, and a 3 and a half hour documentary is the very definition of exhaustive. Definitely worth getting the 5-disc version, complete with multiple different versions of the same film, if you’re as much of a BR/Phildickian geek as me.

General Highlights
——————
CORMAC McCARTHY – THE ROAD
This book is the motherfucker. As good, yet at the opposite end of the spectrum to, his other masterwork, Blood Meridian. Look out too for the Coen Brothers’ adaptation of his previous book, No Country For Old Men, in UK cinemas from 18th January.

ELECTRICAL GUITAR COMPANY
Made me an amazing, matchless, instrument. It’s a bugger to keep clean though.

THE ROCK BANDS CREVECOEUR AND SINCABEZA
Are two bands full of some of the loveliest people I’ve ever met, let alone had the pleasure of touring with, and are both compelling live acts.

MOVING OUT OF SNEINTON AND INTO A NICE FLAT
No crime! No noise! No setting fire to my wheelie bin! No dog shitting on my kitchen floor! Space for all my junk! Living with my girlfriend! 2 minute’s walk from a guitar shop, a couple of decent second-hand record shops and a decent pub or two! Nottingham isn’t all that bad.

COOKING
I love my knives. I love meat. I love eating. It’s all good. Especially steak.

£3 DVDs FROM TESCO
2001. Jaws. Casino. The Shining. Barry Lyndon. Total Recall. A Clockwork Orange. Yes!

AMAZING MUSIC MADE BEFORE I WAS BORN
Funkadelic. Harmonia. Fela Kuti. Sly & The Family Stone. Leonard Cohen’s first 4 albums. Obscure 1960s recordings of various African bands (on Mississippi Recordings’ Lipa Kodi Ya City Council LP, which really was my album of ’07). Pre-1980s Neil Young. Donna Summer. Marvin Gaye. Aretha Franklin. AC/DC. Cluster. Thelonius Monk. Even Led Chuffin’ Zep. I even dug out my mum’s copy of Abbey Road when I was home for Christmas and it sounded great.

FINDING A COPY OF JOHN COLTRANE’S A LOVE SUPREME IN A CHARITY SHOP FOR 50p
It’s a crime.

Posted: 01|3|08 at 7:17 pm. Filed under: end of year.
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