The ever industrious Damon Albarn is on another side of the globe, again working with new people, sounds and styles. Monkey: Journey to the West is an “Operatic” adaptation of a Chinese folk story dating back to the Ming Dynasty. Albarn collaborated with Chinese director Chen Shi-Zheng and Gorillaz’ Jamie Hewlett on the production, which also includes the talents of numerous Chinese acrobats and musicians.
Samples of the recently released soundtrack (based on the production pieces) can be found on the official site here. Among them are the particularly charming song here:
Previously, Albarn collaborated with numerous Malian musicians on Mali Music. Perhaps unknown to most, he also lent a strange and haunting soundtrack to Ravenous, an odd film about cannibals in the early American West.
Short-lived but successful Swedish hardcore band, Refused, broke up about a decade ago. The band couldn’t reconcile their own success, and major-label status, with their anarchist leanings and lyrics. After the break-up, some members started a project called TEXT, which culminated in a single self-titled album release from Buddyhead records. The album is dense, and difficult, some of the songs best being categorized as math rock.
…and Slate has a great article about the album, and the mercurial Jeff Mangum. The Salinger of Indie Rock. I wrote about this album earlier; there’s no need to rehash all of that. I always found the title track to be stark, haunting and hopeful.
I think that, for most people, the thought of political speeches conjures images of a dry, reserved and, well, boring delivery and message. I think that the past 8 years of terrible oration by President Bush has only strengthened America’s sense of disconnection and general apathy with the political machine. This is one of the reasons that I find Barack Obama’s speeches so fresh and moving. Barack Obama made a stirring concession speech when he lost the New Hampshire primary to Hillary Clinton. His words pull from Cesar Chavez’ speeches and the hopeful “Si Se Puede” slogan adopted by UFW in the early 70s. His message (which will be discounted by many as “naive”) contrasts greatly with the that of his opponents on both sides of the aisle. It is apparent that he finds that hope is a far greater motivator than fear. I hope that the electorate will prove this to be true.
I know that only a tiny fraction of the American population actively watches and participates in the primary election cycle, which is why it’s great that Obama’s NH speech was repackaged as a pop-culture pill that will entertain - and hopefully move - even the most disillusioned Americans.
The original speech is available here.
The transcript is available here.
