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While we're dealing in French decadence, here's one from another end of the spectrum. I recently gave the cult sci-fi classic Fantastic Planet a whirl on the DVD player. Having long regarded it as one of those movies meant to be watched under the influence of whatever psych drugs you fancy, I realized it's pretty damn freaky/psychedelic/disturbing all on its own. Maybe my mind is just apt to get deep inside a story of cosmic genocide in a crazy weird organic alien landscape, but I found it affecting in more ways than I probably should. And in no small part due to the very baked and desolately minimal soundtrack.
When Dungen burst onto the scene (in the US at least), frontman Gustav Ejstes seemed a man out of time. Or at least one so devoted to the range of vintage psychedelic practices that one would think he had spent his whole life in a very particular academy. Since we pretty much live an environment of neighboring nostalgia bubbles, there's no point anymore in picking at people for lack of originality. Given that, I was totally sold on the songwriting and presentation, which was as faithful to Ejstes's notion of the ideal late '60s as it is a reminder that the music was never as tight as he imagines it. I'm glad his imagination keeps going, album after album. The work is a real comfort to me, especially now as I struggle with what seems like trench warfare against this cold that is brutalizing my nose and throat.
I miss having the kind of life where summers were the slowdown time. The last few years, summer's been full-on work overload, with all the uncertainty and anxietiy that carries with it. I'd complain if someone else had made my choices for me. The nice thing is that stress creates its own spaces of escape. And happily, lots of tunes have acted as my little magic carpet. Here's one from the Boredom's drummer Yoshimi's excellent side band. A dream in sound with a landscape full of misty forests and weird waterfalls.
I miss having the kind of life where summers were the slowdown time. The last few years, summer's been full-on work overload, with all the uncertainty and anxietiy that carries with it. I'd complain if someone else had made my choices for me. The nice thing is that stress creates its own spaces of escape. And happily, lots of tunes have acted as my little magic carpet. Here's one from the Boredom's drummer Yoshimi's excellent side band. A dream in sound with a landscape full of misty forests and weird waterfalls.
