BLOW UP Magazine reviews new Trakwerx DVD releases

Jackson Del Rey

Tarzan Of The Apes • DVD Trakwerx • 60:00 ca.

Cult With No Name

Lightwerx: The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari • DVD Trakwerx • 51:00 ca.

AA.VV. (The Trakwerx Collectiv)

Lightwerx: Georges Melies • DVD Trakwerx • 15t-71:00 ca.

Dopo “Nosferatu” e “Battleship Potemkin” Philip Drucker/Jackson Del Rey si misura di nuovo con la colonna sonora di un classico del cinema muto, passione e ossessione che il polistrumentista che fu mente dei Savage Republic fa benissiomo a coltivare, visti i risultati. Anche per “Tarzan Of The Apes” (“Tarzan delle scimmie”, Scott Sidney 1918, il primo Tarzan cinematografico di sempre) il criterio valutativo e lo stesso dei due film precedenti: la musica e splendida se considerate a se ma forse non adattissima a farsi commento delle immagini, dalle quali Jackson mutua il senso pratico e immediato fornendone una sorta di parlato senza parole: la scene di tensione e lotta tramite tamburi battenti e crescendo imperiosi, quelle di dramma e mistero con suoni tesi e notturni, quando gli alberi sono mossi dal vento con un synth che lo emula, e cosi via. Si dira che sono le stesse modalita utilizzate da qualunque commentatore sonoro, solo che la personalita musicale di Del Rey e cosi forte da superare e surclassare le immagini, che restano letteralmente mute di fronte alla potenza visionaria messa in atto dal musicista, quasi che siano esse a dover commentare I suoni – insomma, come in un videoclip. Jackson per l’occasione recuper e campiona anche frasi dal primo album della sua vechcia band (“Tragic Figures”) e si dichiara “influenzato dal Prog Rock (in questo caso i Genesis), Nino Rota, il soul degli anni ’70 (guardavo sempre Soul Train e non American Bandstand) e la chitarra spagnola, a cui si deve aggiungere la mia passione per il noise elettronico; e ora se solo potessi avere a disposizione un’orchestra di 30 elementi…vabbe’, sara per la prossima volta”. Insomma, un DVD che si sdoppia e raddoppia: un classico del cinema e un (nuovo) classico della musica registrata: due al prezzo di uno.

E invece un classico dell’espressionismo tedesco, “The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari”, che i due Cult With No Name (Erik Stein “voce e piano ritmico”, Jon Boux “piano e voce ritmica”) rivedono in maniera affatto personale. Gli assassinii e il mistero, l’aura di follia e di allucianazione (accentuata dalle originalissime scenografie) che avvolgono il capolavoro diretto da Robert Wiene nel 1920 si straniscono ancor piu nell’impatto con la musica e le canzoni, alcune anche cantate, dello coppia londinese. Col solo ausilio di due pianoforti e pochi effetti elettronici curati da Jeff Brenneman, i CWNN trasportano la cup atmosfera mitteleuropea dell’originale in un mondo stralunato che stride fortemente con i loro melodismi musicali accentuando l’idea di un universo onirico e schizofrenico, del tutto staccato dalla realta del suo stesso accadere. “Magnifica” e l’unica parola che si puo utilizzare per un’operazione che, a differenza della precedente e in maniera apparentemente paradossale, lega alla perfezione con le immagini.

Infine “Lightwerx: Georges Melies”, omaggio collettivo al grande regista – nonche illusionista e prestigiatore – francese reso da una serie di band e musicisti che sonorizzano quindici cortometraggi realizzati tra il 1898 e il 1910. Assieme a Jackson Del Rey, 17 Pygmies, Cult With No Name, Meg Maryatt e Smoldering Ashes ci sono gli sconosciuti Jo Gabriel, Tommy Santee Klaws, Gods Of Electricity, Lea Reis, Sparkle Girl, Stephan Graham e Kulfi che danno ciascuno una propria colonna sonora di film come “Le Voyage Dans La Lune”, “Le Danse Infernale”, “Voyage a Travers L’impossible”, “L’homme a la Tete de Caoutchou”, “Le Locataire Diabolique”, Le Diable Noir”, “Le Melomane”, ecc. ecc. seguendo tratti del tutto diversi: paraindustrial, noise, ambient, rock, pop, sperimentale, elettronica. Alcuni pezzi si coniugano perfettamente alle immagini ma nel complesso piu che un omaggio a Melies ne viene fuori una bella compilation da ascoltare in contemporanea alla visione (i pezzi migliori sono quelli di Del Rey); che comunque non e un limite. (24) Stefano I. Bianchi

After "Nosferatu" and "Battleship Potemkin" Philip Drucker/Jackson Del Rey is measured anew with the soundtrack of a classic silent movie, passion and obsession that multi-instrumentalist who was the mind of Savage Republic has grown well and seen the results. Even for "Tarzan Of The Apes" ("Tarzan of the Apes, Sidney Scott, 1918, the first Tarzan film ever) the criterion of evaluation is the same as two previous films: the music is beautiful when viewed in itself but perhaps not very suitable to make a comment on the images, from which Jackson’s mutual practical and immediate sense provides a kind of speaking without words: the scenes of tension and struggle through drums crescendoing masterfully, that of drama and mystery with sound themes and nocturnes, when the trees are moved by the wind with a synth that emulates, and so on. Some may say that they are the same way as from any soundtrack, except that the musical personality of Del Rey is strong enough to overcome and surpass the images, which remain silent in the face of power put in place by the visionary musician, as if they have to comment on the sounds - in short, as in a video clip. Jackson on occasion recovered samples including phrases from the first album of his old band ("Tragic Figures") and states that it is "influenced by Prog Rock (in this case early Genesis), Nino Rota, the soul of the '70s (I always watched Soul Train and not American Bandstand) and the Spanish guitar, which must be added to my passion for electronic noise, and now if I could only have available a 30-piece orchestra...next time". In short, a DVD that splits and doubles: a classic film and a (new) classic music recording: two for the price of one.

Next a classic of German Expressionism, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, the duo Cult With No Name (Erik Stein “voice and rhythmic piano”, Jon Boux "piano and vocal rhythm") retell it in a personal way. The murders and the mystery, the aura of madness and hallucination (accentuated by the very original designs) that wrap the masterpiece directed by Robert Wiene in 1920, stranger still is the most impact with the music and songs, some even sung by the London pair. With the help of only two pianos and a few electronic effects contributed by Jeff Brenneman, the central European atmosphere CWNN carrying the cup of the original in a distraught world that jars sharply with their musical melodies emphasizing the idea of a schizophrenic dream world, completely detached from the reality of his that was going on. "Magnificent" and the only word that can be used for an operation that, unlike the previous one and in an seemingly paradoxical way blends perfectly with the images.

Finally "Lightwerx: Georges Melies”, collective homage to the great French director - as well as illusionist and magician – rendered from a number of bands and musicians who scored fifteen short films made between 1898 and 1910. Along with Jackson Del Rey, 17 Pygmies, Cult With No Name, Meg Maryatt Smoldering Ashes there are strangers Jo Gabriel, Tommy Santee Klaws, Gods Of Electricity, Lea Reis, Sparkle Girl, Stephan Graham and Kulfi that give each its own soundtrack in films like "Le Voyage Dans La Lune", "Le Danse Infernale", "Voyage a Travers L'Impossible", "L'homme a la Tete de Caoutchou", "Le Locataire Diabolique", “Le Diable Noir", "The Melomane", etc, etc...following traits quite different paraindustrial, noise, ambient, rock, pop, experimental, electronics. Some pieces combine perfectly with the pictures but overall more than an homage to Melies out comes a beautiful compilation to listen simultaneously to the vision (the best pieces are those by Del Rey), which however, is not a limit. (24) Stefano I. Bianchi

Italy's BLOW UP Magazine reviews 2 Trakwerx CD releases

AMERICANA

17 Pygmies

The Outlaw J.D. Ray •  CD

Trakwerx • 11t-44:30

Smoldering Ashes

Songs In The Key Of Mountain Birds Blue • CD • Trakwerx • 12t-38:00

Nuovo album per il mai dimenticato Philip Drucker aka Jackson Del Rey, a suo tempo tra le menti dei Savage Republic e da qualche anno nuovamente attivo con il suo progretto collaterale (e oggio principale) 17 Pygmies nonché come abilissimo autore di colonne sonore. Come e piu delle altre, quest’uscita dei Pygmies e all’insegna del-l’eccentricita: un concept basato su “ambizione, decadenza, amore perduto e ritrovato, le basi di ogni tragedia”  e ambientato negli USA di “un’epoca imprecisata dopo la Guerra Civile ma prima del ‘900”, secondo le parole del responsabile principale che, adottato il nom de plume di Blind Lemony Pledge Fresh Jackson e accompagnato da Maggie Mae (Meg Maryatt) e Rib-Eye (Jeff Brenneman) alle chitarre acustiche e D-Bone (Dirk Doucette) alla batteria, mette in riga dodici monocrome, lentisime ballate country e le impacchetta nel consueto capolavoro d’artigianato DIY: una confezione cartonata e infiocchettata manco fossimo nel 1880. L’atmosfera complessiva e simpatica e il suono piacevole ma di canzoni realmente memorabili non ce ne sono molte (si ricordano le buone She’s Gone e Half Moon Bay); il consiglio per Philip sarebbe di dedicarsi alle colonne sonore, dove sortisce risultati veramente eccellenti (vedi sezione DVD in questo stesso numero). (6)

A un anno e mezzo di distanza da “Nervous Constellations” tornano anche gli Smoldering Ashes, outfit dei due Pygmies Jeff Brenneman e Dirk Doucette con Veronica Ashe alla voce e Tory Troutman al basso. Non cambia molto rispetto all’esordio: ballate pop-rock a mezzo tra roots americane, evanescenze da chanson francese (Move The Clouds) e modulazioni wave (Shake an Etch-a-Sketch) condite da piccole tentazioni avant fino a sfiorare cose che rimandano persino ai Savage Republic (Birds No Cage). Decisamente meglio del primo disco. (7) Stefano I. Bianchi

Loose English Translation:

AMERICANA

17 Pygmies

The Outlaw J.D. Ray •  CD

Trakwerx • 11t-44:30

Smoldering Ashes

Songs In The Key Of Mountain Birds Blue • CD • Trakwerx • 12t-38:00

New album to never forget Philip Drucker aka Jackson Del Rey, in his time in the minds of Savage Republic and over recent years with its active collateral projects (that is main) 17 Pygmies as well as skilled author of soundtracks. And this is more than the others, the Pygmies and the banner of eccentric output: a concept based on "ambition, loss, love lost and found, the foundation of every tragedy" and set in the U.S. of an "age unknown after the Civil War but before the '900", in the words of the chief who adopted the nom de plume Lemony Pledge Fresh Blind Jackson, accompanied by Maggie Mae (Meg Maryatt) and Rib-Eye (Jeff Brenneman) on acoustic guitar and D-Bone (Dirk Doucette) on drums, brings twelve slow monochromatic country ballads packaged in the usual DIY masterpiece of craftsmanship: a cardboard and beribboned box that you would find in 1880. The overall atmosphere is friendly and sounds nice but really memorable songs, there are not many (remember the good She's Gone and Half Moon Bay); the council for Philip would be to dedicate to the soundtracks, which yielded very excellent results ( See the DVD section in this issue). (6)

A year and a half away from "Nervous Constellations" Smoldering Ashes is back, too, the two Pygmies members Jeff Brenneman and Dirk Doucette with Veronica Ashe on vocals and Tory Troutman on bass. Not really changed at onset: ballads, pop-rock cross between American roots, reminiscent of French chanson (Move The Clouds) and modulation wave (Shake an Etch-a-Sketch) served by small temptations to touch things on until that point even the Savage Republic (No Birds Cage). Definitely better than the first disc. (7) Stefano I. Bianchi

17 Pygmies "Your Smilin' Eyes" Sepiachord's Song of the Day

Sepiachord posts 17 Pygmies new song from "The Outlaw J.D. Ray" - Your Smilin' Eyes - as SONG OF THE DAY on their livejournal page

Available now in

Miuzik.it reviews 17 Pygmies "Ballade of Tristram's Last Harping"

Nuovo album – che segue “Groundhog Day To Hallowen To Be Exact” – per la formazione statunitense all’interno della quale ritroviamo Jaxon Del Rey, un tempo nei Savage Republic.

“Ballade Of Tristram’s Last Harping” è una piacevolissima raccolta di tracce classicheggianti, oneste, costruite e rifinite con gusto, accarezzate da un pop-rock psichedelico scintillante, aggraziato e ammaliante (quando interviene alla voce Meg Maryatt è tutto un fiorire di violette).

Da uno come Del Rey - che un mezzo innovatore in passato lo è stato – è lecito aspettarsi ben altro? Credo di sì, anche se - come spesso accade a chi è riuscito ad elaborare formule sonore originali –  a volte la maturità può portare con sé voglie di equilibrio e tranquillità.

“Dig It! (Quentin’s Theme)” è l’unico episodio che si discosta dagli altri: stranito, caleidoscopico, sgusciante, quasi in botta funky. Tuttavia il disco non dispiace affatto, anzi.

(Trakwerx)

(4/5)

LOOSE ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
New album – that follows "Groundhog Day To Halloween To Be Exact" – for the American formation in which we find Jaxon Del Rey, a time in the Savage Republic.  

"Ballade Of Tristram' s Last Harping" is a delightful collection of classical tracks, honest, constructed and finished off with taste, caressed from a pop-rock psychedelic shimmering, graceful and enchanting (when the voice intervenes Meg Maryatt is a hive of violets).  

From one like Del Rey - that half innovator in the past it has been – you would expect something else?  I believe yes, even if - as often happens to those who succeed to develop resonant formulas of original sound – at times the maturity can carry cravings of balance and calm.

  
"Dig It!  (Quentin' s Theme)" is the sole episode that is distant from the others: bewildered,
kaleidoscopic, slippery, almost funky hit.  Nevertheless the disc does not displease completely, in fact.
 
(4/5)

Massimiliano Drommi

- 12-1-2010 

click HERE to listen to audio samples

click HERE to purchase CD - $9.99 or go to iTunes

Miuzik.it reviews 17 Pygmies "Celestina"

Accantonata la sigla The 17th Pygmy e ripristinato il nome originario 17 Pygmies, l’ex Savage Republic Jaxon Del Rey (e compagnia bella) si fa sentire nuovamente con un concept album che trae ispirazione dall’omonima commedia rinascimentale di Fernando De Rojas.

Il disco è un’incursione all’interno di spazi interstellari e galassie sconosciute; un’'elevazione' che sa di celestiale e beatitudine.

Le modalità espressive utilizzate in “Celestina” sono proprie della colonna sonora: gli episodi qui raccolti – che sono sia
strumentali che cantati – espirano e trasudano tipiche sensazioni filmiche, ciondolanti, pervasivi, fascinosi e velatamente notturni.

Orchestrazioni dai sussulti malinconici e romanticismi atmosferi (la passionale “Celestina II”); polverosi inabissamenti trance-rock (“Celestina IV”); ambientazioni dalle tinte scure (“Celestina V”); rimandi ai Cocteau Twins (“Celestina VI”); sgretolamenti noisy (“Celestina VIII”) e arabeschi psichedelici (“Celestina XI”).

Si percepisce a più riprese che i 17 Pygmies sono la creatura di Del Rey, eccome.

(Trakwerx)

(5/5)

Massimiliano Drommi

- 12-1-2010

17 Pygmies - CELESTINA - CD
The 17th Pygmy has set aside and restored the original name 17 Pygmies, former Savage Republic member Jackson Del Rey (and attractive company) has done it again with a concept album that draws inspiration from the homonymous renaissance tragicomedy of Fernando De Rojas.  

The disk is a foray into interstellar space and unknown galaxies; an 'elevation' that tastes of heaven and bliss.  

The modes of expression used in "CELESTINA" is the soundtrack: the episodes here collected – both instrumental and sung – breathe and exhude typical film feelings that ooze, dangling, pervasive, enchanting and veils nocturnal.  

Orchestrations from the melancholy starts and romantic atmospheres (the passionate one "CELESTINA II");
dusty sinking trance-rock ("CELESTINA IV"); settings from the dark colors ("CELESTINA V"); references to
the Cocteau Twins ("CELESTINA VI"); smashings noisy ("CELESTINA VIII") and psychedelic arabesques
("CELESTINA XI").  

It is perceived on several occasions that the 17 Pygmies are the creature of Del Rey, indeed.  

(Trakwerx)
(5/5)
Massimiliano Drommi
- 12-1-2010

Italian Magazine Rockerilla interviews Cult With No Name

English Translation:

Rockerilla-Italian-Magazine
CULT WITH NO NAME

Sorprendenti ed eleganti

di Matteo Chamey

- So ethereal, your sound is a mixture of experiences, I feel something spiritual... What's your religious creed or your state of mind creed?

Erik Stein -  It's certainly a mixture of all sorts of experiences and influences, but then that is the only possible thing 'modern' music can be these days. There are no new types left to create, only ones left to steal from and abuse.

Jon Boux - Very good to hear! I grew up with a great deal of "church" music and played a great deal of organ music early on, so hymns and religious songs were my beginnings. Although the religion didn't stay with me, the music has and I am heavily influenced by classical composers that focus on religious music - Arvo Part, John Taverner, Gabriel Faure.

- You combine piano with vocals and rhythm elegance and refinement, this is a reflection of your life?

E.S. - We just try to play to our strengths. Elegance and refinement can be beautiful, but they can also indicative of obsessive qualities ... the endless (and pointless) pursuit of perfection. We were friends long before the band started, which means we're very relaxed in each other's company. The atmosphere you create in is bound to get recorded alongside the very notes themselves.

- What's your musical influences?

E.S. - I suppose if you were to look at our individual and collective DNA, it would include The Stranglers, Brian Eno, OMD, Tuxedomoon, The Residents, early Elton John, The Blue Nile, The Nits, Arvo Part. I think you can hear bits of all of them, and many many others, in what we do. Two important differences between us are that I collect obscure post-punk records (the more obscure the better) and Jon has this minimalist classical thread.

J.B. - I have Erik’s eclectic tastes to thank for a great deal of music that I’ve got into since CWNN formed. In fact, when I think of it, some of the acts that I’ve found through Erik now influence me a great deal, particularly The Nits. I guess I do give the music its more ambient / minimalist slant – I’m greatly influenced by sparse piano music in the vein of Roger Eno and Harold Budd.

- Two and some LP Various Artists LP, what do you want to transmit with your music?

E.S. - There's no particular message we want to get across. Music is a terrible way to communicate messages anyway.

J.B. - I love the idea that once a record is out there, the listener takes ownership and can put their own interpretation on the song. Erik doesn’t always tell me what his lyrics mean but they all speak to me in their own way and perhaps even in a way that he didn’t set out to do – that’s the power of music and song.

- You are not the classical UK band, you have a really deep cultural baggage, the sound of piano is the most classical element for music, give us one reason to listen your music.

E.S. - We're definitely not a typical UK band, I agree. My heritage is actually German and Jon's is French! A lot of our influences are non-British, which I think has contributed to us sounding like we're from 'elsewhere'. The world is so much more interesting than the world you live in. One reason to listen to our music? Because we're not Oasis, but sound like 'una oasi'.

- The song "Hands, Two Touch" is something great, it sounds like Gary Numan ..

E.S. - Thanks for the compliment. I can see what you mean actually, the way my voice sounds in the chorus. Interestingly enough, a very good friend of ours said that he thought it sounded a bit like 'Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails. Gary Numan is a big influence generally, although I'm not so into the heavy industrial music he makes now.

www.cultwithnoname.com

Mick Mercer reviews Lightwerx: Georges Melies

THE TRAKWERX COLLECTIVE
LIGHTWERX: Georges Méliès
Trakwerx

A dvd to give Steampunk fans wet dreams this is a 15 film/soundtracks offering of cinematic history with artists paying tribute to one of the most important silent era film pioneers, in case anyone thought it was an obscure George Melly import. I will review this in depth in THE MICK, as I can include more visuals there, but here you get a hint of what is involved, and it’s a fascinating release. While I would normally avoid really ancient films down to the lack of conventional excitement you can only view something like this with total retrospective respect for just what this man was doing at the birth of cinema, like a midwife gone mad.

‘L’Impressionniste Fin De Siecle’ gives a clue to Melies’ past, as he was once a magician, and here we see a man performing tricks, as Jo Gabriel provides gentle fluttering keys which turn briefly jaunty in turn with the crafty visual display. We appear to enter the underworld, complete with gauze-draped ladies and chubby male dancing demons during ‘Le Danse Infernale’, for which Tommy Santee Klaws deems relaxed acoustic and piano as accompaniment in a Buckleyesque style, although how lyrics of love quite fit this story of rumbustuous weirdoes I have no idea.

‘Lune A Un Metre’ is crazy, where a wizard we have to get used to seeing accidentally conjures up an angry moon which is forever eating and vomiting things, wizard included. Luckily there’s a commendably strern Margaret Dupont (Groucho fans will know) figure to tell it to fuck off out of it mate, or gestures to that effect. Jackson Del Rey himself, the driving force behind this project, having already done new Noesferatu and Battleship Potempkin scores, mixes doomy orchestral synth with a saucy oboe as well as a weird vocal declaration of lurve himself, so I assume it’s catching. Gods Of Electricity go for clattering ambient sounds throughout ‘Mobilier Fidele’ where we set inanimate objects moving, with furniture filling a house unaided. Lynda was on hand to point out to me the sort of things young Georges was doing which hadn’t been encountered before, such as close-ups, perspective, dissolve features etc. I nod dumbly and peer at the screen. (I like to think I do it well.) Clattery ambient they may be, but the Gods Of Electricity also have a cunning percussive rhythm going at times, like an undercover Gene Krupa on manoeuvres.

‘Princess Nicotine’ finds 17 Pygmies plucking and a plunking, with some lighter oboe and delightful keyboards, all of it seriously serene, with just a hint of suspense and unnecessary vocoder as we watch a fatuous oaf smoking a pipe, with the aid of some tiny girls who poke fun at him, and one deliberately flaunts her arse, which must have been way ahead of its time. Then again, it was Paris, I daresay, the capital of filth back then.

Cult With No Name are thoughtfully austere for their handling of ‘Le Melomane’ in which some hot chicks stand by obediently as their conductor removes his head and throws it up repeatedly onto some empty sheet music above him, and there his heads stay, becoming music notes. The tune appears to be God Save The Queen slowed down. Meg Maryatt also keeps things stark with keys and strings, adding jocular, wiggly electronics in ‘La Cornue Infernale Alchimiste Parafaragamus,’ where that annoying wizard creates something unexpected in a laboratory experiment which ends in his death, and here Meg adds some vocal weirdness to match the imagery.

‘Voyage A Travers L’Impossible’ is a mini-epic of a film, and totally mental, as people go off on a voyage of discovery in a train with rockets attached, meaning they can visit the Sun, which eats the train, so the music of Lea Reiss also shifts from swirly synth fun with a hazy female vocal glow, to some serious hip hop rasping bass and Industrial rock guitar, and it’s good to finally hear someone introduce solid modern sounds into their approach, because it doesn’t all need to be chintzy or delicate.

‘L’Eclipse Du Soleil En Pleine Lune’ is again wizard-afflicted, as he teaches dull pupils about the sun and the moon and the stars flit about, in what is the only dull film, in comparative terms, as so much of it takes so long to do anything, sleight of hand replaced with over-sized boxing gloves. Sparkle Girl runs backwards vocals through scattered ambience and film spool noise for it. ‘L’Artiste Et Le Mannequin’ sees 17 Pygmies pop in for a mellow blend of polite strumming as an artistic temperament snaps and he attacks a woman with a broom. There’s a weird noises alert for Stephan Graham’s appearance, and suddenly The Clangers are among us for ‘Le Diable Noir’, in which a man is turned insane and thrown out of his apartment having set fire to the bed while chasing out the devil, who he also attacks with a broom, clearly the Edwardian’s weapon of choice. Tommy Santee Klaws opts for slow guitar in a dying light and garbled vocals as the colour-tinted ‘Eruption Volcanique a La Martinique’ goes about its business like a miniature Gerry Anderson landscape, with so much smoke at one point you can barely see anything else.

‘L’homme a La Tete De Caoutchouc’ finds Melies blowing his own head up really big with the aid of some handy bellows, as Kulfi brings us an arthritically throbbing arty-punk mess. Smoldering Ashes have ragged indie charm in mind for ‘Le Locataire Diabolique’, in which some nutter occupies a barren room in a hotel, fills it with furniture and guests from his magic triangular suitcase, and even pops a disgruntled policeman inside a piano.

We close with the well known ‘Le Voyage Dans La Lune’, a veritable Jules in the Vernian crown: judges, wizards, hefty dames, it has it all. Men go to the moon, which they clearly don’t find as exciting as anticipated because they immediately settle down for a good night’s sleep, which Jackson Del Rey (for it is he!) has created electronic snoring for. His soundtrack here relies heavily on static and sonar bleeping but starts with the Apollo 11 countdown that includes the wonderful line from Houston that ‘guidance is internal’ which could be a nerd’s equivalent of silence is golden. We get “the Eagle has landed”, and end with “one small step”, which is entirely fitting for Georges in his overall impact, so music and film work superbly together, modernity and antiquity locked in a heavenly embrace, as the Houston team inadvertently admit to an interest in porn by gasping, ‘you gotta bunch of guys about to turn blue’ which you’d think they might have kept to themselves. Meanwhile on the moon the intrepid explorers turn out to be just what you’d expect, killing the first alien they encounter, and returning to Earth on their rocket, which descends into the sea by parachute. How psychic was he?

The music is rarely intrusive, which is probably the point, and hard to judge in some ways. Without the films it’d be a pretty random compilation, that’s for sure, but with these brilliant glimpses into the past it all hangs together like some suicide pact with a sense of swing and this dvd is not just stunning, but dead cheap, and will prove absorbing to more than just film nuts, I assure you.

-- Mick Mercer

Click HERE to purchase DVD

Cult With No Name composes film score

Varyingly described as 'clever, subtle, sophisticated', 'simply unforgettable' and (their all-time favourite) 'the anticoldplay', it’s fitting that London duo Cult With No Name have now turned their attention to cinema, for their first DVD release. And it’s even more fitting that the German expressionist classic gets the CWNN treatment.

Released in 1920, and directed by Robert Wiene, 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' remains one of the most influential films of all time, it's dark imagery and surrealist set design subtly, and usually not so subtly, constantly referenced in film and music for generations to come.

Cult With No Name’s compulsive and compelling soundtrack extends their ability to instantly create evocative moods over 51 breathtaking minutes. As the bleak story unfolds, each piece seamlessly drifts and merges into the next, along a journey that takes in warm ambience, nerve-shredding distortion, popular (and maybe even unpopular) song, and vast, expansive futurist soundscapes. It's a story of magic, murder, mystery and ultimately, madness.

Lightwerx (a division of Trakwerx Records) proudly gives you Cult With No Name's 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'...and invite you to think outside the box.

Lightwerx: Georges Melies

Lightwerx: Georges Méliès is our homage to the groundbreaking French film director, Georges Méliès (1861-1938). Containing 15 magical short films with original scores from Trakwerx artists such as Jo Gabriel, Tommy Santee Klaws, Jackson Del Rey, Gods Of Electricity, 17 Pygmies, Cult With No Name, Meg Maryatt, Lea Reis, Sparkle Girl, Stephan Graham, Kulfi and Smoldering Ashes, you will hear wildly varying musical interpretations from noise, alternative, experimental and progressive to hip hop and Americana.

Visit our last.fm page to hear audio samples and learn more. A few of the shorter videos will be uploaded to last.fm over the next couple of weeks.

To purchase the DVD go to our MMG, Inc. Shop. $9.95 plus shipping.

Call It Folk writes about The Outlaw

Music blogger Call It Folk writes about the 17 Pygmies new release "The Outlaw J.D. Ray".

From Blackwater, TN, comes a new CD release from 17 Pygmies, a group fronted by J.D. Ray, in various incarnations, since 1982. J.D. of 17 sent over some songs from their newest concept project "The Outlaw J.D. Ray". Jackson Del Ray and his posse use post-civil war folk music and pre-WWII blues as the backdrop to a story of ambition, deceit, and of course love lost and found (you know, basic tragedy stuff) and of course, redemption. Released on the indie label Trakwerx. Meg Maryatt sings heavenly on Captured in Amber, add slide guitar and some tender banjo background for an obvious pick for CIF. Like the songs on Tom Russell's concept album, "The Man From God Knows Where", these songs stand on their own despite being part of larger story. This is great Americana. Among other film score projects, 17 Pygmies perform a tune called Stay With Me, a Jackson Del Rey score set to the 1918 silent film "Tarzan of the Apes", based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' story, directed by Scott Sidney.

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