Some more vintage electronic French pop to round out the week on Dangerous Minds. Some folk may not know the name Pierre Henry, but they definitely know his music - well they would know his music, were it not for the fact that what they are hearing isn’t actually him. I’m talking of course about the Futurama theme tune, and how it is a blatant rip-off of Henry’s classic ‘Psyche Rock’ from 1967 (more specifically, the Fatboy Slim remix).

Now, don’t get me wrong I love Futurame, but it’s to Matt Groening’s eternal shame that he did not just stump up whatever cash was required to purchase the original track. What we now have in its place every week is a lame facsimile, that some people even confuse with the original track. Oh well. That’s entertainment!

Regardless, The Art of Sound is an excellent French (subtitled) documentary directed by Eric Darmon and Franck Mallet from 2006 that follows Pierre Henry as he collects unique sounds for his compositions, sets up an even more unique live concert in his house, and generally looks back over a career in music that spans over fifty years. It’s intimate and revealing, and its central figure comes across as quite the character.

No, scrub that - Pierre Henry is the shit. He went from being a pioneer of musique concrete with Pierre Schaeffer in the 1950s to creating psychedelic sound-and-light shows in 1960s Paris that could match anything dreamt up by Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead. He composed music for abstract ballets that still sounds genuinely psychedelic and like nothing else today. He may come across as crabby and extremely eccentric in this film, but I still hope I end up as cool as this guy if I get to be his age. I mean, you have to be pretty awesome to attract a steady fanbase to abstract electronic recital shows in your own bloody house, right?
 

 
BONUS!
More psyche-pop magic, this time with Henry & Colombier’s “Teen Tonic” (1967) set to footage of the 1960s German TV fashion Show Paris Aktuel by YouTube uploader Cosmocorps2000:

Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier “Teen Tonic”
 

 
A reminder about the Kenneth Anger opening party (which is confusingly being held a week after the exhibit actually opened to the public) tomorrow night at MOCA. Featured will be a live musical interlude via Anger and Brian Butler’s Technicolor Skull project.

Technicolor Skull performs their first West Coast appearance at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles on November 19, 2011, as part of the opening reception for Kenneth Anger: ICONS. This exhibition will showcase the films, books, and artwork of one of the most original and enigmatic filmmakers of post-war American cinema. This coincides with the release of Technicolor Skull’s self-titled recorded debut, a one-sided, bloodred 180 gram 12” vinyl LP limited to 666 copies.

Technicolor Skull is an experiment in light and sound, exploring the psychic impact of a magick ritual in the context of an improvised performance. With Brian Butler on guitar and electronic instruments, and Kenneth Anger on theremin, their collaboration is a performance contained inside a ritual of unknown origin, tapping into occult stories that extend musical language into initiation. Hidden messages escape through gesture and light, manifesting as a one-time-only event.

The record will be available directly from www.technicolorskull.com and at the MOCA store.
 

Image via Tee Fury

Last week I posted one of the BEST things I have ever posted here, certainly one of the best Beatles posts ever on Dangerous Minds, but for whatever reason, it didn’t get shared that much.

This video clip, however, by the same director, Oscar-winning animator Charles Braverman, probably will get shared. It’s the outstanding opening montage he made for the dystopian sci-fi classic Soylent Green in 1973.

I think it’s quite relevant to today’s activities, don’t you?

Isn’t it about time for Hollywood to remake this with Mark Wahlberg or something?
 

 
This Friday in Los Angeles, Cinefamily and Cinespia present Michael Snow’s 1967 experimental film masterpiece, Wavelength. There will be two screenings that evening: the film as it is normally screened in repertory movie houses; and accompanied by a new live score created by members of The Jesus Lizard, LCD Soundsystem and The Melvins:

Elemental, uncompromising, physical and yet completely intangible – explaining Michael Snow’s 1967 Wavelength is like explaining light itself. The 45-minute tracking shot is one of the most influential experimental films of all time, elegantly cutting to and straight through the essence of the filmic experience. This is a purely formal world, where the unalterable path of the camera – not human concerns like story or time – is what forms the experience.

Originally scored to a simple sine wave drone, Michael Snow’s 1967 Wavelength converted the tenants of ambient, experimental music to the visual realm. For this special evening, sound artist J.R. Robinson – who has exhibited his ambient tonefields in museums around the world – will pay tribute to Snow’s pioneering visual experiment with an original sonic creation by his ensemble Wrekmeister Harmonies, accompanied by a list of friends and collaborators that includes members of LCD Soundsystem, The Melvins, Jesus Lizard, Priestbird, L.A.’s Big Business and Qui, and, of course, a projection of Wavelength itself!

Wavelength with original audio track, 7:30pm/Wavelength with live Wrekmeister Harmonies score, 10:00pm/Cinefamily, 611 N Fairfax Avenue

 
A LEGO stop-motion version of “Nigel’s Guitar Room” from This Is Spinal Tap.

Nigel Tufnel: Look… still has the old tag on, never even played it.
Marty DiBergi: [points his finger] You’ve never played…?
Nigel Tufnel: Don’t touch it!
Marty DiBergi: We’ll I wasn’t going to touch it, I was just pointing at it.
Nigel Tufnel: Well… don’t point! It can’t be played.
Marty DiBergi: Don’t point, okay. Can I look at it?
Nigel Tufnel: No. no. That’s it, you’ve seen enough of that one.
 

 
(via Cherrybombed)

 
Michael W. Dean and Kenneth Shiffrin’s 2005 documentary on writer Hubert Selby Jr. provides a wealth of insight on the author of Last Exit To Brooklyn and Requiem For A Dream from Selby himself as well as many of the artists he influenced.

Narrated by Robert Downey Jr., Hubert Selby: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow, features interviews with Lou Reed, Darren Aronofsky, Nicolas Winding Refn, Richard Price, Jerry Stahl, Nick Tosches, Gilbert Sorrentino, Henry Rollins, Amiri Baraka, among others.

Selby lived a hard life of drug addiction, poverty and debilitating illness, which he not only managed to survive but transform into writing that stands alongside William Burroughs Jr., Dostoevsky and Charles Bukowski. He engaged the muse right up to the end of his life. His story is stirring, inspiring and more than a little heartbreaking.
 

 
Saul Bass was a genius. His title designs for films have influenced graphic artists and fontists for decades.

Ian Albinson put together this montage of Bass’s indelible creations for films that have become classics and a few that are primarily memorable for their title sequences.
 

 
Derek Jarman’s The Angelic Conversation plays Super 8 imagery against a selection of Shakespeare’s sonnets, in its “exploration of love and desire between two men”.  Jarman descibed the film as:

“a dream world, a world of magic and ritual, yet there are images there of the burning cars and radar systems, which remind you there is a price to be paid in order to gain this dream in the face of a world of violence.”

The sonnets are read by Judi Dench, and the soundtrack is by Coil.
 

 
Bonus footage of Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson, along with David Tibet, Othon Mataragas and Ernesto Tomasini, performing soundtrack to ‘The Angelic Conversation’ from 2008, after the jump…
 
With thanks to Muriel Couteau
 

 
Morrissey has allowed high-street department store, John Lewis to use a cover version of “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” on the chain’s £6 million Christmas advertising campaign. The track has been covered by Slow Moving Millie (aka Amelia Warner, ex-wife of Colin Farrell, apparently), which follows on from last year’s take of Elton John’s “Your Song” recorded by Ellie Goulding.

According to the Daily Telegraph Morrissey is “delighted” that the chain was using the track. Craig Inglis, John Lewis’s marketing director, is quoted as saying:

“We know our audience holds The Smiths and bands from that era in high esteem.”

“It’s a magical feeling when you find that perfect present for someone; there’s a great sense of anticipation from the moment you buy it to the moment you give the gift on the big day.

“That feeling is exactly what we’ve tried to capture with this year’s Christmas campaign.”

Ruth Paterson, head of marketing at Rough Trade, the record label which released most of The Smiths’ work, said she was entertained by the collaboration.

“I do like the idea of a really good song by a really good band being played in Middle England’s living rooms,” she told The Times.

“I’m sure that wasn’t the song’s intended purpose, but I think that’s a good thing.”

As Morrissey edges towards a pensionable age, the “substantial pecuniary boost” this ad will bring will no doubt be greatly appreciated - though perhaps not by his fans, as if that will matter.

After Morrissey and Christmas, who’s next? And what other advert involving high street business and alleged hip musician would make for the most unlikely pairing? Suggestions, please.
 

 
The Dove (De Düva) is an Academy Award-nominated short parody of Ingmar Bergman’s films, made in 1968. They used to show this a lot in the early days of HBO. The short lampoons elements of Bergman’s Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, The Silence and Smiles of a Summer Night.

Professor Viktor Sundqvist (co-director George Coe) is being chauffeured to a lecture at a university, when a dove shits on the car’s windshield. He decides to make a visit to his childhood home ala Wild Strawberries .

In a flashback, Viktor and his sister challenge Death (screenwriter Sid Davis) to a game of badminton in exchange for Death sparing her life. A dove shits on Death and he loses the game.

The ridiculous fake Swedish is a mix of English, Yiddish and adding “ska” to certain words, as in “It will take a momentska” or “sooner or lateska.”

The Dove (De Düva) is notable for being the first appearance of the great comedienne Madeline Kahn.