32_Borrowed_Beats_October_08_Edition - Spring Beats

The October Long Weekend is the unofficial start of summer. What started out as a cruisey mix for headphone space on the beach quickly disintegrated into big tunes of the summer. This edition didn’t follow the script at all, and the play list developed on the fly. I think it went pretty well except for that one mix-in towards the end. But I’m sure you’ll forgive me that, eh?

Enjoy,

G

I’ve mentioned the guys over at Schitz Poppinov before. Their music blog is one of the best Ive come across, and is an excellant source of new choice chewns. But they like to take a sideways glance at things every now and then. Whether it be a sideswipe at Gene Simmonds, how cool Australian music is right now, or to give a history lesson.

Trevor Horn (sic) was one of the originators of the dynamic 12-inch remixes which were the best at the time … and still are the best. Most 12-inch remixes back then were either just extended verions of original songs and/or default disco/DJ arrangments which were too boring to listen to in an of themselves.

Trevor Horn’s 12-inch remixes were uniquely long (anywhere from 8 to 13 minutes in duration) and told stories which took the listeners through long instrumental journeys at the begenning of tracks until the climax is reached (around the 5/6 or 7 minute mark). After the climax, the original or alternate full vocal version of the track takes over from that point on to the end, lasting additional 3.5 to 5 minutes in length.

Like a novel, each of Horn’s remixes starts off with the long RISE to hit the CLIMAX at the top. Once climax is reached, the track would SUSTAIN the music with the original/alternate vocal version until it DECAYS and fades out in the end. Mostly importantly, it was the rolling basslines which DRIVE the listener (in the passenger seat) from begenning to end. 

They even knocked up a nice little graph for us more graphically literate.

For the traditionally literate, read more here. And remember to rage hard.

Clement Picon wins Radioheads ‘Reckoner’ Video competition with this beautiful and evocative short.

David Holmes - The Holy Pictures

David Holmes returns with an album about his life in Belfast. (For our American friends, that’s in Northern Ireland) Since the release of ’Lets get Killed’ in 1997, Holmes has concentrated mostly on scoring movies. He’s probably most famous for the Oceans series. Not surprisingly then that ‘The Holy Pictures’ has a distinct soundtrack feel. 

Lush atmospherics swirl around heavily distorted guitars. Standard Holmes affair apart from the fact that Holmes also contributes lead vocals. Album opener, and first single ‘I heard wonders’ could be a Primal Scream track, and that’s not a bad innings for this first time vocalist.

David Holmes has always had a special place in my heart. The cool-as-fuck Irishman penned one of my favourite albums of all time in ‘Lets get killed’ so I had big hopes for ‘The Holy Pictures’. While it hasn’t made it on to the ‘must have’ page, ‘The Holy Pictures’ is a solid album, bespite being a touch inconsistant at times. You could blame that on the 10 years plus gestation period Holmes cites in interviews, or maybe driving basslines and cinematic scores are uncomfortable bedfellows. 

THINK: OST to a Soderbergh movie about Belfast
READ: Holmes Myspace
WATCH: I heard Wonders
BUY: The Holy Pictures at Amazon