>>Nostalgia For Infinity

Del.icio.us links for October 17th - 23rd:

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Whoops, apparently I have neglected to post these for the past few weeks. Sorry!

Del.icio.us links for May 9th through May 29th:

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According to the short biog on their label’s website, Hang the Bastard “sound like Eyehategod, Electric Wizard and Sabbath learning Slayer riffs whilst listening to Integrity and Ringworm“. Alas, I’ve never listened to Electric Wizard, never heard of Ringworm, am only passingly familiar with Eyehategod and Integrity, and don’t care for Slayer – although I do dig Sabbath, mostly since being genuinely blown away by how good a show they put on live. Still, by the sounds of things I’m about the worst person to review this record, but hey, I’m always up for a challenge…

So, throwing aside for a moment sub-genre definitions, what you have here is really aggressive and speedy chugging metal, replete with heavy palm mutes and fat riffs loaded with low-end sound, and some occasional sweet lead strung over the top – plus the occasional bit of synth. A little while ago, before writing this review, I described the band as “big, brash stoner metalcore” which I don’t think is too unfair; from the comically grotesque imagery (in the artwork and in those lyrics I’ve been able to make out – digital review copy, unfortunately) to the fact that the music sounds like it would knock you down, pick you back up and press a joint into your hand before flailing off to thrash its fucking neck some more.

That said, you’d be absolutely wrong if you took my use of the stoner label to mean that this record is meandering or self-indulgent. So don’t think that. This is an album which demonstrates restraint; the integrity of the song takes primacy over individual showing off.

In terms of individual songs, I’d pick out ‘Hell’s Teeth’ which boasts some particularly sick riffage, ‘The Blackest Eyes’ for its synthy intro and kick-arse vocal interplay (chanted group vocals from the rest of the band interposed with throaty roars from the singer), and the sinister-sounding tremolo guitar in ‘Genesis’, which also boasts some classic metal-esque soloing – without straying into masturbatory territory, of course.

Probably my favourite song present is the closer, ‘Farewell Leicester Square’, which is a good tune to end on. It alternates smoothly between mournful guitar licks and solos and chugging riff-heavy segments replete with the machismo that characterises most of this record, before ending with feedback and sampled bong-smoking.

I have an earlier EP by Hang the Bastard, last year’s Raw Sorcery, and while that’s a decent slab of metal itself it lacks the kick, variety and sheer power of Hellfire Reign. And while I’ve not grown up with metal and metalcore (a pre-requisite if you want to know what you’re fucking talking about – it’s hard as hell to properly grasp these scenes as an outsider or Johnny-come-lately) I’ve heard enough to say with confidence that this is a strong album from a promising band. I can’t wait to see them live and watch them let rip.

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Apparently I’ve never written about Interzone here on Nostalgia For Infinity, which honestly surprises me a bit as it’s the magazine I’ve been subscribed to longest (about six years now, since Andy Cox took over as editor). It’s the only SF magazine I read regularly, thanks to a mix of factors: its persistently cool design and artwork makes it something I’m rarely ashamed to be seen reading (unlike, say, fishboobs), its fiction tends to be an alluring mix of strange, characterful, thought-provoking and oddball whether the stories themselves are brilliant and mediocre, and it has some great non-fiction writers (Nick Lowe and David Langford contributing since the early days). There are issues I care less for, but it’s not for lack of effort of the part of IZ’s writers, editors, artists and other contributors.

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Re/Action self-describes as a feminist magazine dedicated to reviewing and analysing pop culture, devised as a frustrated response to the inherent assumption in most mass media that its default audience is white, male and hetero. In the words of Homer Simpson: “I’m a white male, age 18 to 49. Everyone listens to me, no matter how dumb my suggestions are.”

Two disclaimers: firstly one of Re/Action’s editors is a friend of mine, as are several contributors, and secondly I’m a white heterosexual male aged 18 to 49.

The Winter 2010/2011 issue is the magazine’s first, and demonstrates a generally tight adherence to its editorial agenda – without exhibiting too narrow a focus. Its pleasing to see articles ranging across much of the media spectrum, from an interview with Internet Forever’s Laura Wolf – “I’ve found it hard to adjust to being in a band that is not overtly DIY or feminist in nature” – to the perhaps obvious article on where Sex & the City went wrong, or the less obvious article about writing women for games.

This last is particularly interesting to me, primarily as games are a subject I’m deeply immersed in but also because before I’d reached this article I was mentally compiling notes for something very similar. D’oh! Still, Kirsten Campbell has done a better job than I would have, opening with an anecdote of her own blindness to gender parity in writing, questioning how this may have occurred, quoting various writers and games producers to paint a picture of why gender unbalance and sexist portrayals of both women and men are rarely addressed within the industry, and concluding with various arguments as to why this should not be the case. It’s a good piece that hits all the requisite notes, although I do wish it had been longer.

I’d level a similar criticism at the reviews section: needs more. Maybe it’s a side-effect of my days reading punk ‘zines with review pages printed at ridiculously small sizes to jam in more content per inch, but three short or one long review per A4 page is a bit disappointing. The reviews are good, with the longer ones displaying more feminist analysis than the quickshot pieces, but they are so very few. The bulk of what’s reviewed is also rather mainstream with only a few more obscure selections (including NFI faves Iron Chic, hooray). Whilst I’m hesitant to play backseat editor, I wonder if an approach that coupled deeper feminist criticism of mainstream releases with suggestions for alternatives that avoid similar mistakes might be more in keeping with the editorial agenda? Or perhaps just more reviews would be nice, introducing more obscure music/films/TV as a positive side-effect. Oh, and books are conspicuous by their absence, which is rather a shame.

Anyway, criticisms concerning length and review coverage aside, Re/Action is well worth a read. There are other great articles which I’ve not yet covered, including a fascinating piece about the rise of “scary girls and monstrous mothers” as horror archetypes (Sarah Dobbs), an article about the presentation of women in hip-hop videos and how things are changing (gist: slowly – article by Kat Stevens), & an amusing and illuminating piece about the absence of gay characters aged between 30 and 70 in most TV comedy and drama (Andrew Mickel).

The latter article’s presence is great, indicating an outward- rather than inward-looking feminism in Re/Action’s political and cultural focus. It’s also a good article in itself, highlighting the worst crimes in gay stereotyping as well as those shows and writers who have gotten it right. A similarly-structured article by Anna Martin discusses objectification and feminisation of men in various summer blockbusters, and helpfully includes various box-outs articulating key concepts like objectification and feminisation. The latter is great as it serves as a useful entry point for those unfamiliar with the dialogues, arguments and ideas that constitute the history of any social or critical body of theory.

For the most part Re/Action succeeds in being an accessible yet informative collection of cross-media criticism and reviewage, both providing entertainment and provoking thought. It would be interesting to see longer, more in-depth pieces included – although this may just be my own predilection for exhaustive cultural criticism shining through – as well as more content overall. I do wonder whether there’s a conflict at the heart of Re/Action, with its expressly feminist stance (not mentioned on the cover, in fairness) a potential turn-off for non-feminists, but its generally quite light application of feminist theory and ideas proving dissatisfying to those with more prior knowledge. But there I am guessing at the audience, a somewhat pointless endeavour, rather than commenting on the magazine itself, and the latter I think is a great piece of work. I look forward to future issues.

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It’s been irritating me for weeks: just who does Ghost Robot Ninja Bear vocalist Oscar Albis Rodriguez remind me of? So far I’ve only been able to prod my finger towards the vocal stylings of Propagandhi and No Use For A Name, and neither comparison holds much water. Goddamnit, who is it I’m thinking of?

Well, whatever. Whoever it is I am trying and failing to remember, it doesn’t change the fact that Ghost Robot Ninja Bear play cool, fast-paced, jagged yet melodic ‘post-hardcore’. To be honest I’d be more comfortable describing this as ‘post-punk’ but thanks to the 1980s and the arty offshoots of punk rock that’s not possible. Thanks a bunch, 1980s.

Anyway, one small shred of truth in the above (inaccurate) comparisons is that Ghost Robot Ninja Bear are rocking a fairly 90s sound that’s very akin to the best of the melodic punk/hardcore of the era, but with musicianship that’s more accomplished and songwriting that isn’t entirely constrained by the genre. For example, 4th track ‘Carousel’ has some inexplicable death metal vocals thrown in before a spot of moody guitar picking. The vocals work but their inclusion is a bit odd. But so what? It works, and that’s all you need. Opener ‘One Pedal to Another’ is built around some cool tremolo guitar and slower melodic verses with faintly haunting lead, whereas ‘Blood the Tango’ and ‘Staring at the Clocks’ deploy rhythms that segue easily between stop-start and thumping, holding them together with some quality vocal lines.

Small Brown Bike are another band who seem to be mentioned quite a bit in reference to GRNB and I can see the similarities; sonically the two bands aren’t much alike but they’re both ploughing interesting furrows along the turf of melodic punk rock. Polar Bear Club aren’t a million miles away either, although GRNB are not quite so saccharine or po-faced (and I write that as a big fan of Polar Bear Club).

This 4-track EP is a collection of the two singles and accompanying b-sides released earlier this year, so if you’ve already got those then this is strictly for completists. However, if you missed them then do give this a try as the chops and unique personality on display really do demand it.

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It’s so nice to see an intelligent movie for a change. I can enjoy a dumb action flick or a sentimental tear-jerker as much as the next slob, but smart movies seem really rare if you don’t really watch many movies.

Critical reaction has been mixed. I like to think that all the people with different opinions to mine are narrow-minded or less clever than I am, because that way I get to feel intellectually superior even though I position myself as an everyman “reviewer” rather than some hoighty-toighty ivory tower “critic”.

This review is not the kind of nonsense I feared it would be when I first started writing it. I was afraid it would be another review where I’m dreaming I’m writing it and then I wake up but I’m really still dream-writing and only dreamed I woke up, but then I really wake up, but no, really I’m still dream-writing, ad infinitem (sic). This is a little bit like the movie, but most of the story challenges the audience to follow a very complex plot, rather than trying to trick the audience into falling for special-effects razzle-dazzle. There are dreams within dreams, but most of the time the audience knows when that is happening, even though this review may not really back that statement up.

So, does Inception make sense? I’m not sure. It makes more sense than most action films. It is not stupid. But it is complicated, and I’ll have to see it a couple more times before I decide if it plays fair. This sort of analytical laziness is fine because I’m a reviewer and not a critic.

On the other hand, any screenwriter who knows enough physics to understand that inside an elevator you can’t tell gravity from acceleration has my respect, because I like things that correspond with what I already know even when they’re mostly insignificant when discussing works in this medium.

This is not Leonardo DiCaprio’s best work but there are excellent actors in smaller parts, especially Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy. I’m going to assume you know the roles they play and not discuss them any further.

And Inception is popular, proving wrong the conventional wisdom that nobody wants to see films that make you think like the famously unsuccessful Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Vertigo, Seven Samurai, Fight Club, City of God, or Nolan’s own Memento. Inception is already #3 on the IMDB all time greats — a little too soon but a good sign for the future of smart science fiction films, or at least an indicator of how fickle people can be when it comes to recent blockbusters.

Imagine Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan. Then keep imagining it, and pretend you’re dreaming, because I’m not going to explain this bizarre conclusion to my “review”.

[Disclaimer: I've not seen Inception. I'll probably check it out on DVD as it sounds interesting. I also have nothing against Rick Norwood. He's probably a really nice guy doing cool stuff, but this is not a good review by any stretch of the imagination.]

I first heard Michigan three-piece Victor! Fix the Sun just a few weeks ago by way of 2007′s Retractable Claws, and this album actually came out late last year, but the two records have impressed me enough that I wanted to write a little about the newest one.

If Retractable Claws was reminiscent of Fugazi’s stop-start, experimental post-hardcore noodling, Person, Place or Thing extends its influences to the likes of ex-labelmates La Dispute (were they less histrionic) and Minus the Bear (were they more into screamo and shoegaze). The six songs on this latest release cherry-pick the best elements of post-hardcore to produce something uniquely V!FTS’s own. Taut drums, guitars and bass shift comfortably between carefully structured math-rock rhythms and frenetic screamo thrashing with an occasional foray into the minimalist ambience of the This Will Destroy You / Explosions in the Sky schools of post-rock. In places they even remind me of Brighton’s own Projections – a short-lived indie/post-rock project from Blood Red Shoes’s Steve Ansell – with lengthy, looping, ‘gazey riffs married to yelping vocals.

Opener ‘My Friend the Guru’ ably demonstrates the band’s strong grasp of dynamics as elements of the song shift into the fore and back again, with enough diversity enclosed within to feel like this is actually several distinct pieces seamlessly fused together. But it’s second track ‘We Come From the Northwoods’ that’s my favourite track here, a small epic at over seven minutes in length – half the tunes here are over six minutes long – with some precise guitar lead and tight as fuck drumming in its latter half that has me particularly captivated. Despite the clichéd nature of the repeated line “we’re never going home” the song has an intensity that resonates.

Despite a somewhat daft and, dare I use the hated term, pretentious moniker, Victor! Fix the Sun are an impressive band that seem to be particularly driven to experiment and innovate. Person, Place or Thing is an excellent record, even for those tired of the dozens of mediocre or merely competent post-hardcore bands out there, and I eagerly await whatever the band do next. I just hope they retain the raw passion exhibited here alongside their obvious musical and songwriting chops.

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