"very quiet now, we have found our frame."

 Delphinium's title acts as a pretty efficient synopsis, but we'll start there anyways.  The experimental short, written and directed by Matthew Mishory, focuses its lens on the childhood of artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman.  I have to admit that while recognizing Jarman's name in the lexicon of iconic artists (specificaly as a pioneer in gay activism), I had little to no exposure to his work prior to seeing Delphinium.  My experience was therefore unique, in that only later while admiring one of his paintings or a scene from Jubilee, did I retroactively piece together allusions Matthew had made to Derek's work.

The centerpiece of Delphinium (and much of Jarman's own work) is the stunning use of Super 8.  The beautiful image above is one of the film's Super 8 moments.  The rich color and grain transports you back in time, and highlights the rapturous visions that young Derek had as a child.  The contrasting crispness of the digitally shot scenes helps exaggerate the harsh realities of Derek's adolescence. 

Another effective parallel to Jarman's work, is Mishory's use of theatrical set pieces, and false backdrops.  The layered set keeps the viewer fluctuating between reality and artifice - calling into question our suspension of disbelief. 

Delphininium has been featured in film festivals across the globe, and recently won the  Easton Kodak Grand Prize for Best Short Film at this year's US Super 8 and DV Film Festival.  Visit the official site and facebook page for screening info.  Also, be on the lookout for Matthew's upcoming feature, Portland.

10. Phaseone - White Collar Crime

Phaseone put out my favorite mixtape of the year - a collection of new material and the remixes (Burial, Radiohead, Animal Collective) that put him on the map.  You can download the entire mixtape for free here.

9.  The Antlers - Hospice

 The Antler's music is understated and at times a little slow, but every song on Hospice has an amazing undercurrent of beautiful, drony melodies.  I don't feel like enough people were talking about them this year.

8.  Wavves - Wavves

Ah, to be a bratty punk rock kid. Wavves is crunchy surf/skate/punk music for Gen Naught.

7.  Washed Out - Life of Leisure EP

The album cover says it all.  Impossible not to enjoy.

6.  Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

Spencer Krug has yet to release anything bordering on disappointing (and the guy puts out a lot of music!), and Dragonslayer keeps that winning streaking going.  At this pace Wolf Parade is becoming the side project of Sunset Rubdown, and not the other way around.

5.  Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

Grizzly Bear have proven to be the most musically adept band of recent years.  There music lives on a different level then any other indie band I can think of.  And it's no gimmick.  Chris Taylor plays clarinet, bass, flute and sax because it adds to the richness of the music, not for show.

4.  Girls - Album

Girls was the standout album of the year.  It came out of nowhere and doesn't follow the technology trends found in most recent releases.  It's closest to Wavves in ethos, but just coming from a different sonic approach.

3.  Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion / Fall Be Kind EP

From a play count point of view, Animal Collective should be #1 on this list.  They're definitely the Radiohead of the naughts.  That's been the case for a while, but 2009 was an especially good year for Avey Tare and company.

2.  Memory Tapes - Seek Magic

If I were to point to one sound as the future of music, it would be Memory Tapes.  Digital music with an analog heart.  The cold sounds of The Bloody Beetroots (and the like) had a short stay in the consciousness of music lovers.  I was blasting "Rombo" as loud as anybody, but at the end of the day music is about human connection.  Memory Tapes is that perfect balance between laptops, guitars, voice and beats.

1.  Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

 Dave Longstreth has been threatening to release a masterpiece for a few years now.  All his experimenting was going to one day culminate into a earth shattering record, and Bitte Orca is that album.  For that and a lot of other reasons, it's my favorite album of the year.

Download a sampler of all 10 artists

Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means by William Vollmann

This book took Vollmann twenty years to write, but it was well worth the wait. RURD is a 7 Volume treatise on the nature of violence. I pick a copy of Vol I and II at the library (the boxset is out of print and about $600), but he also published a much condensed version of the text for easier access. It's currently on Amazon for 7 dollars, which is about a penny a page - pretty good deal.

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

Bolano spent the last decade of his life slowly dying of kidney failure. During that time (the 1990's) he wrote the bulk of his work, including his most widely read and arguably best work of fiction, The Savage Detectives. It tells the oral history of two Spanish literary Quixotes in search of a lost poet. The book is full of youth, humor, and freedom. Thanks to his suburb translator, all his works are now available in English.

The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth

The Ghost Writer marks the beginning of Roth's decade long Zuckerman Bound Trilogy. It's a great starting point for anyone unfamiliar with Roth's massive catalogue of fiction. Nathan Zuckerman is an alter ego to Philip Roth, and shows up in many of his best works, including American Pastoral and The Human Stain. At under 200 pages, The Ghost Writer is a great weekend read.

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Easily one of the greatest living authors, McCarthy is currently in a Renaissance of sorts (not that he ever had a low period). In 1985, Blood Meridian was McCarthy's fifth novel and it's initial reception was mild from both critics and readers; however, it is now known as his masterpiece and the beginning of his time as a household name. Meridian is a dark and brutal tale of Indian hunters in the border towns of Mexico in the mid 19th century. It reads like a Western-Horror story written by Milton. If they ever need someone to rewrite the Old Testament, Cormac McCarthy would be the first choice for the job.

Das Kapital by Karl Marx

It's unfortunate that the name Marx strikes people with such visceral reactions. Especially since most people have never read the work they are hardwired to hate. The Communist Manifesto is a quick, passionate, drunken treatise that caused a chain reaction that no one could have expected. I don't really have much interest in it; however, Captial has so far (I'm just diving into it) proved to be a pretty dynamic economic education. I have Adam Smith's Wealth of the Nations cued up right after, so I should have two sides of the same coin pretty well examined by the time I'm done.

Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen

Edgar J Watson is a complicated man, and that's what drew Matthiessen towards him thirty years ago. Set in Southwest Florida during the late 19th century, Shadow Country is a retelling of Matthiessen's trilogy on the semi-historical outlaw and murderer, EJ Watson. The sort of folks who would choose the isolated existence of the undeveloped Everglades marshland during that time, come to life under the command of Mattheissen's writing. Those who read the trilogy probably don't have much reason to go back, but to new comers like myself Shadow Country has been a great journey.

Although I wish I put these mixes out more frequently, I'm still pretty happy to have made it to Episode #8.  Seven is supposed to be the perfect number, but I always thought 8 had the most going for it.  Two of my favorite albums came to mind when I was trying to name this thing.  The first being Interstate 8 (an early Modest Mouse record and song) and the other being Figure 8 (by Elliott Smith).  I went with the former but used the concept of a Figure 8 with the Philip Glass bookend - so it should play on loop pretty well.  Enjoy!

Download the mixtape HERE

Interstate 8

0:00  Philip Glass - Glassworks Opening (part 1): If you want to get to know Philip as a person a little better, definitely rent Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts. 

1:13  Bibio - S'Vive: Alongside Memory Tapes and Washed Out, Bibio's Steven Wilkinson is part of the evolution into warmer sounding laptop production.  I'm calling it electro with a soul.

4:10  Sunset Rubdown - Idiot Heart: Dragonslayer is one of my favorite records of the year.  The lack of Wolf Parade news doesn't bother me, when I have a growing Spencer Krug catalogue to listen to.

9:54  Joakim - Lonely Hearts:  Don't remember where I found this, but it's got a good groove.

12:53 Girls - Lust For Life: Also in the top 5 albums of 2009.  Raw, beautiful, kinetic, heart breaking, fun…

14:56 Major Lazer - Can't Stop Now: This album had it's highs and lows.  This is one of the highs.  Very high.

17:41 Saintseneca - God Bones: Matt Rubin is a friend and professional recommender.  He recently put out Saintseneca's 7" on his resurrected label Paper Brigade.  It's fantastic and you all need to support independent music and buy it! 

20:05 Washed Out - Hold Out:  Washed Out is another example of bedroom recordings that utilize technology in all the right ways. 

23:10 David Sinclair Robison - Good of the Lord: I've known Dave for a long long time, and I've never seen him without a guitar in his hands.  Dave has a true gift for melody and tone that is very apparent in this song. He recently finished his first full length album and you should head here and listen to it.

26:05 Abe Vigoda - Don't Lie:  Evidence that LA has at least some cool bands.

28:53 Blind Man's Colour - The Warm Current's Pull:  Looks like Animal Collective, sounds like Animal Collective, but not Animal Collective.

33:57 The Dodos - Fables

38:05 Surkin - Next of Kin:  I've tried to put this in the last few mixes to no avail.  So now it's kinda old, but still a jam.

41:43 Volcano Choir - Island, IS: Another solid output by Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.

45:40 Radiohead - Videotape (Phaseone & Frank Heat Remix)

50:12 Philip Glass - Glassworks Opening (part 2)

As I'm sure you all know, Polaroid has shut down their production of analog Instant Film. Since that announcement, film lovers around the world have been looking for a hero to rescue this sacred format.  Well, will a little luck The Impossible Project may be that savior.  The name doesn't sound too promising, but their mission does.

Here's their mission:

Impossible b.v. has been founded with the concrete aim to re-invent and re-start production of analog INTEGRAL FILM for vintage Polaroid cameras.

Therefore Impossible b.v. has acquired the complete film production equipment in Enschede (NL) from Polaroid, has signed a 10-year lease agreement on the factory building; and has engaged the most experienced team of Integral Film experts worldwide.

The Impossible mission is NOT to re-build Polaroid Integral film but (with the help of strategic partners) to develop a new product with new characteristics, consisting of new optimised components, produced with a streamlined modern setup. An innovative and fresh analog material, sold under a new brand name that perfectly will match the global re-positioning of Integral Films.

Go visit their site and see how you can help!

Somehow I was in the dark about Tom Ford directing his first feature.  This 2 minute trailer for A Single Man, based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwod, looks beautiful and mysterious.  One thing is for certain, the wardrobe with be impeccable!  The film depicts 24 hrs in the life of an Englishman visiting LA, who's lover Jim has died.

The discussion touching upon the dichotomy of Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali, who just passed away on August 12^th, in the various Coltrane ensembles of the ‘60s doesn’t have a natural end. And in effect, the two were so stylistically removed from each other that the debate about whose playing better fit Coltrane’s is pretty much moot. Both possessed a unique acumen behind the set as each was able to fit their bosses playing for a time.

Elvin Jones, though, might be a better known figure in general – despite the fact that Ali went on to perform with a huge list of folks including Thurston Moore for a few odd dates. After working on Coltrane’s early sixties output, this drummer, who eventually figured he wasn’t any longer the proper foil to the sax players increasingly disjointed fair, struck out on his own. Leading groups comprised of folks that are/were already legends as well as assembling some combos comprised of players that were just making a name for themselves, Jones began exploring music beyond acoustic jazz.

As the ‘70s dawned, with funk and soul making its impact on jazz, Jones found himself attempting to incorporate those elements into his work. Maintaining a brisk recording schedule, Jones put together ensembles, recorded and very frequently found himself amongst a new crop of players for his next session. The 1976 album Main Force and its ‘77 follow up, Time Capsule, for instance, only share a single performer in common. Despite the revolving door, though, Jones and company were able to concoct a set (mostly comprised by tunes written by alto sax player Bunky Green) that made use of jazz, funk and even a bit of what would become smooth jazz courtesy of soprano saxophonist Frank Foster.

There are those moments when a listener must wonder why? Parts of “Digital Display” prompt that thinking, but during brief passages on that offering, the band swings so hard it almost doesn’t matter. Elsewhere, though, the polyglot percussionist helps his band pull of some stringently devised compositions – the title track most noticeably.

But where there’s a Coltrane band alumni, there’s sure to be a grip of interesting work with the album’s closer, “Spacing,” providing such moments. The broadest drum solo is provided here as well as bringing to a close an album the found Jones achieving what he wanted with a group of performers that would, at some point, sit in with the drummer again. Time Capsule isn’t the highlight of Jones’ catalog, but it’s a telling piece of history from the decade after Coltrane changed the genre.

The life of rappers, who at one time had to sell tapes outta trunks, has been irrevocably changed by the digitized America. That’s not a new and novel concept at this late date, but what is becoming more and clearer is that if you can do it on the internets, you can do it in front of a real crowd – for the most part. So regardless of what one might think of Asher Roth (or the fact that his face was on pretty much every bus stop in Los Angeles during the beginning of the summer), he illustrates the point pretty well.

But there are legions of folks out there doing the same thing – they just don’t all happen to be from Pennsylvania and enrolled in a bachelor’s program. Regardless, QuESt has been at it, following roughly the same path as some other digital phenoms for what’s gotta seem like years. The Florida based emcee aligned himself with the iLLRoots crew and producer/web-wrangler Mike Waxx. The relationship has yielded a series of mix tapes that have been mostly positively received by the (pretend) internet press. But a scant few months after the release of his last project, QuESt returns with Broken Headphones.

The rapper’s love of all things D.A.I.S.Y. Age is well documented at this point – but this newest release seems a bit detached from that. The production is probably what separates Broken Headphones from not just QuESt’s idols, but his back catalog. It’s an updated sound given the ‘90s style production that Distant Travels Into Soul Theory sported. That’s not meant to figure that the beats here are lackluster – just different.

But much in the same way that Distant Travels Into Soul Theory dealt with the travails of relationships – one specifically – this new release seems to do much the same thing. It’s an odd corner for a rapper to find himself in when he so clearly finds merit in some of the more cerebrally powerful emcees of that bygone (‘90s) era. QuESt surely isn’t done. There isn’t even a proper album under his belt as of yet. If he wants to get there, though, his rhyme book needs to hold a bit more than songs about ladies no matter how beautiful each might be.