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Sam Kuzel – Angel Of The City

bryan.eddy@newretrowave.com — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 19:14:15 +0000

Angel Of The City is an independent film made as a nod to 80s vigilante/action movies. I have not watched the entire thing, but as part of this assignment I did watch a couple of trailers. The film looks promising, and I’m excited to see it in its entirety. But what I’ve been asked to do is talk about Sam Kuzel’s soundtrack for the film, and the soundtrack is more than good enough to discuss on its own.

On its own, the music is high-quality and I can tell a lot of effort went into authenticity. There are plenty of recognizable bits of 80s style. Kuzel is clearly influenced by John Carpenter’s film scores, and he definitely could’ve picked a worse soundtrack writer to emulate. Notably, the second track, “Posturing,” seems to be a nod to Escape From New York, with a steady arpeggio and bass tone creating the backbone of the track. The overall tone is appropriately gritty and grim, suitable for the city night backdrop that seems to dominate the film. While definitely retro, the music doesn’t completely avoid the modern; there is a crispness to even the softer tracks that makes the listener aware they are listening to something new. A group called Wind-Up Fascist contributes a track called “Doublethink,” and while it’s not awful, I’m going to be honest – I didn’t much care for it. The vocals seem, well, lazy, but the musicianship overall isn’t bad. I’d say Wind-Up Fascist needs some more time to gestate, to polish their sound, and they could do well.

Clumsily inserted rock tracks aside, this soundtrack is colorful and illustrative, well suited to its subject matter, and very professional-sounding. I’d give it a solid 7 out of 10, more than acceptable and worth examining by itself. Sam Kuzel has produced something worth being proud of here, and I look forward to viewing Angel Of The City in its completion.

COMMUNITY RATING

REMEMBER THIS… #4 [Rated MA]

JimBootstrap — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 16:30:00 +0000

Remember This…?

Episode #4: The
lost art of VHS or the ways analog has programmed my thinking patterns.

It’s
that time to Remember This… and continue the stroll down memory lane while
examining the current theme loosely revolving around that wonderful black box you
had in your living room; the one with the warm slit and the dust cover just
begging you to insert some rigid plastic rectangular VHS tapes inside it. Push
play here.

“The Homecoming Queen’s
Got a Gun” is a 1984 song by
American singer–comedian Julie Brown parodying 1950s’ “teen tragedy”
songs.

Instead
of romancing those dirty things filled with more random data than a mnemonic
courier, let’s talk about what we actually recorded on them. The smut, the MTV,
the sporting events, the aerobic shows, political speeches [yeah sure] and
whatever else you could cram into your TDK. Let’s focus on the smut first.

This
was before the internet and chances are if you never saw it then you might
never get the chance. Remember feeling curious on those days your parents
weren’t home and you started rummaging through their personal drawers and
closets? Didn’t you feel like Indiana Jones? The fixed cable box if you had one
never quite worked after a while and all you had was that fuzzy scrambled
signal and the hint of nudity just behind the static line. Sometimes you had
friends and when you had them, you might even trade tapes and watch them with
the sound off. Those were the days, the days when biological functions were
both science fiction and a circus sideshow. You had them unmarked, or scratched
in some way, so you could recognize them. They were hidden behind your drawer,
in your closet, inside a shoe box or in the garage. If you didn’t want to watch
a scene you had to sit there and fast forward or rewind. Two hour tapes became
six hour tapes and so one. Scenes were cut and paste together like a William
Burroughs production; fake tits and cocaine pricks that were only overshadowed
by the wooden acting and Aqua Net hair. Those weren’t skeletons in your closet;
they were the stains of youth after dark.

Remember
Public Access television? Before podcasts or whatever the new thing is nowadays we
had a set of channels (free channels) on our televisions where anyone could get
a half or an hour long show on the rotation. It didn’t matter if you had talent or
not because we all know most Americans don’t. Anything you could imagine was on
it and people took advantage of it with ease. Because you favorite custom VHS
tapes were in a way a microcosm of what Public Access was (some cases still
is). It was low budget but entertaining. While your family watched Dallas, you
were watching random insanity and self-exploitation. And it was beautiful as it
happened.

Here are some examples
of the insanity I am talking about. I am going to make you
experience the thinking process and patterns of a tape head… an insomniac tape
head. I’m going to take you on a journey through my mind and my youth. You’ll
recognize some of the places and some of the things but in here they are sexy
and mutilated and without guilt. TALK HARD.

–Sam Haine.

– Viewer Discretion Advised Then Dies.

(left) MIDNIGHT BLUE –
The infamous almost X-rated show that ran for nearly 30 years on Manhattan cable. This is part 1 of an interview between the late publisher and pornographer Al Goldstein with Otto & George, the adult-themed comedy team composed of comedian Otto Sol Petersen (July 29, 1960 –
April 13, 2014) and his dummy George.

CONCRETE
TV– Concrete
TV is a NYC-based public access show that aired on Channel 67 combining sex,
violence and art into video collages set to music. This half hour program is
produced by Ron Rocheleau, known as Concrete Ron. It is shown Friday
nights at 1:30 AM. Episodes are heavily thematically based in 1980s video,
hearkening back to the early MTV days, in a mash-up art style.

The Dangers of the live cable access program

“New York Hot Tracks” [with retro commercials] – A syndicated music television series which aired from 1983 to 1989, and
achieved the number one music variety show spot in the United States.

SANDY KANE BLEW SHOW – Ex-stone age stripper turned AA qualifier turned cable icon who sings song parodies and lights her inverted nipples on fire while exchanging banter with her vibrator.

That concludes this session of Remember this, Retro Lovers. And until the next time keep your finger on the rewind button. Or call 555- KVETCH.

Sleepless and Retro-Minded in Rambles.

JimBootstrap — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 14:09:00 +0000

3:23am

It’s late night and leading into early morning; this
year’s October has just begun. The cold sniffles have got me by the balls and I’m
trying to make this into an interesting thread before the sun catches me awake past
my deserved bedtime. The days are getting shorter with age. The memories
are still burning but the lighter is gathering some rust and needs maintenance.
I’m halfway through choosing my third movie of the evening. I’d decided to have
a retro cyberpunk binge viewing session; beginning with Blade Runner (1982),
followed by AKIRA (1988). The last selection of my trilogy isn’t even retro, it’s
a recent release called Who Am I – No System is Safe (Kein System ist sicher) a
German thriller about a hacker group grinding on the road to infamy. It’s the
closest I’ll get to a Hackers remake.

3:30am

Well that was futile. I couldn’t even find the damn
flick. I’ve been hunched back into my leather chair listening to my 80’s
playlist of songs and staring at my Hunter S. Thompson poster for five minutes;
why did I ever buy Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) on DVD?

Mindlessly chopping away at the keys, typing in
whatever random thoughts turn over from the deck of my subconscious. It’s
perfect because this is when the carnival starts, the merry-go-round in my
brain, no different from the one in the LOST BOYS (1987). Spinning in circles
with gaudy decals and out dated bulbs… Let’s see where my fingers take me.
Clicking through my playlists and double backing like a screwed and chopped
sleuth. I took another listen to Trevor Something’s – Trevor Something Does Not
Exist album. Then I give Timecop1983’s new album a good listen and it results in
my immediate enjoyment. Before I know it the blue haze is creeping up outside
my window and I have forgotten most of the ideas I initially had a few minutes
ago.

5:45am

After, finally removing my boots I can feel it
coming. Sleep is almost here. I ended up drinking some chilled Modelo’s and
instant chatted with a vaporwave artist from Ontario, Canada named SYLLABUS (facebook/vaporwave.is.dead) about his
recent release. We kept jonesing about childhood like a deleted scene from a high
school reunion on how cool it once was to leave your house and go to the store
to pick up cassette tapes at the local music shop. Remember Cassingles? We even
agreed that Return of the Living Dead (1985) zombies could kick the asses of the
walkers on a certain cable shows. “Good people”, is all I can say.

6:14am

I made a nice little Cyberpunk themed playlist for
myself called Blade Runner Nights with some bits from different artists; a few
NRW and some from elsewhere or yesteryear. The title could’ve been better but
the carnival is slowing down. Writer’s block has me in her grip these past
couple of days. All I can do is wait and
tease these syllables a little bit here and there. Probably put on some Joe
Frank monologues or something before bed. UP ALL NIGHT is down for the count
again. A head full of cold sickness and a napkin stuffed up my decommissioned Charlie
snout. Maybe I’ll have a dream like a Michael Mann film. Maybe, I’ll dream of
women with crimped hair, maybe not. Maybe I won’t dream at all and just fade.
Maybe but I hope not. Only thing left to do is just lay back and close my eyes
and fall into it. Before, I become just another internal monologue from a
sleepless flashback artist and lo-fi delinquent.

– Sam Haine

(Above photo courtesy of Hainesville)

SAM HAGGBLAD HAS SOMETHING SPECIAL IN STORE FOR THE 2014 RETRO SCENE!!!

NewRetroWave — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 02:35:00 +0000

WATCH THIS SPACE FOLKS!!!

MORE NEWS TO COME!!!

NRW