Music I've been listening to lately

     

     Been listening to a lot of cool stuff lately. I've been getting more and more into free-jazz. So I've been listening a lot to people like Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Peter Brotzman, Ken Vandermark, Albert Ayler, and this chick from Chicago named Matana Roberts. Those are all pretty heavy duty free-jazz artists. But I would say mainly Peter Brotzmann is the free-jazz guy I've been listening to the most. He really has a lot of personality to his playing. When he plays a note on the saxophone, you can really tell its him playing. Also, some of his playing nods to Coltrane when he's really feeling it. A great free-jazz composer I've been listening to is Wadada Leo Smith, a great trumpet player who plays in free contexts.
      Other things that have attracted my attention is video-game music. My favorite video game theme is the Brinstar theme from Super Metroid, an old super nintendo game. Also, I'm really into the music of the nintendo jrpg Xenoblade Chronicles. There's a lot of guitar in the music of that game, guitars with a lot of distortion, very progressive tracks with synthesizers, bass, and drums. The guitar riffs are very intricate and precise, very heavy-metal but more of a Japanese style of heavy metal rather than the death metal stuff of America. Also, I'm really into the music from the Legend of Zelda, Super Smash Brothers, and Final Fantasy 7. I got into the game music because it reminded me of playing these old games as a kid, and also you can't always just listen to jazz.
     Lastly, I've been listening to metal and death-metal stuff as well. In terms of death metal, I just picked up the new Faceless album, Autotheism. It's a pretty good effort from a band that keeps reforming with new members. There's a jazz vibe to the album, and there's clean vocals to add to the screaming. In addition I've been listening to Tosin Abasi's (guitarist of the instrumental metal band Animals as Leaders) sideproject T.R.A.M, a jazzy sort of rock band that has a guy that plays saxophone and flute. It's a great band and of all the music I've been listening to lately I would recommend T.R.A.M the most. Their first and only album is pretty darn good. Also, last week I picked up the new St.Vincent album and this CD by this band called Angra, a Brazilian metal band. So yeah, free-jazz, video-game music, and death-metal.

Art Ensemble of Chicago Baptizum

The Art Ensemble of Chicago's album Bap-tizum is a great live recording. Much of the Art Ensemble's best work is done in live concert settings rather than behind the recording console in a studio. This album has everything an Art Ensemble fan could dream of. The beginning of the concert features chaotic shouting and screaming from Malachi Favors (bass). This line-up features all the original members of the Art Ensemble including Joseph Jarman (sax, reeds, percussion), Lester Bowie (trumpet, percussion), Roscoe Mitchell (sax, reeds, percussion), Don Moye (drums, percussion), and Malachi Favors (bass). The album was recorded live at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1972.

       What is so great about this album is that it has everything that the Art Ensemble would be known for to this very day in 2014. The music has the Black jazz sensibility, humor, blues, post-bop,, and a hip style of free-jazz that was just beginning to be noticed back in 1972. This isn't your suit and tie jazz band and you can tell just by hearing it. The album got great reviews and I would say it is a must have for free-jazz fans and Art Ensemble of Chicago fans.
     For me the highlight of the album was a tune called Ohnedaruth, which is the longest piece on the album, consisting of 15 minutes and written by the whole band. It features shouting, lots of percussion, wild thunderous drumming, and tons of free playing by the horns, especially the trumpet.  And who could forget their closing song that the group still uses to this day to end concerts, Odwalla. Its a great ending piece that is very catchy and boppish with the melodic lines. If you want to get into free-jazz this might be a little extreme to start with but if you like this, then you will learn to love free-jazz that is very, as my friends have said the group, "out there", kind of like the name of the Eric Dolphy album.

Mad Max: Fury Road

     Mad Max: Fury Road is a great movie, even better than the Avengers in my opinion. Way better. This movie is an exercise in cinema. Meaning that there's very little plot, the acting is emotive, and the action of just non-stop. In fact, you could say this whole movie is nothing but one big chase.
     First of all, the movie starts with our hero, Max out in the desert with his car eating a lizard. He gets captured by these skinny bald headed guys and gets brought back to the Citadel, a major city in this dystopian universe. They cut his hair and we see that his hair is going to get donated to people there. I found it weird how they didn't just shave off his hair so he'd look like them. Anyways, Max fights and tries to escape but they end up man handling him and chaining him up again. It then cuts scenes to where there's this old guy with long white hair wearing some kind of armor, and some kind of mouthpiece over his face. He speaks to all the people in the Citadel from the top of the place, like some kind of Furor or Adolf Hitler, which that's basically who he is in this picture. Basically this guy controls all the people in the Citadel and is their King, telling them that he will take them to Valhalla.  He controls the water, the breeding, and God knows what else in the place so he's the ruler of everyone there. Later, we find out that his brothers are also kind of big shots running people. And then we have the main storyline of the whole movie. This woman took the King's wives, including his pregnant wife, and is taking them to her home village. Thus begins the long chase that is the whole movie.
     Next, once the King finds out his wives are gone he goes out with a ton of his bald headed men and rides out on the Fury Road to get them back. There's tons of action, firefights, and music. The King's entourage even included men playing big drums, and a guy playing a double necked guitar with a ton of amps behind him, which was one of my favorite scenes in the movie. This is all happening while they're driving on the road, making for an exciting picture. So after Max fights the wives and the woman driving the truck, they find out working together to battle the King's guys trying to drive them off the road is the best idea. Once they find out that the woman's village is no longer there, and that the green trees that used to be there have been replaced by desert and crows, they come to the conclusion that they should go back to the Citadel, and make an attempt to take it, thus getting the water and everything else that comes with it. So they fight their way back, kill tons of the bald headed freaks, and even kill the King. Once they get back to the Citadel, they are recognized as heroes by the people and are brought up to the high place within the citadel. Cut scene. Fin.
     Lastly, the good thing about this movie is that even though it was lacking in plot and dialogue, the dialogue was emotive and the actors were definitely feeling it (I'm really feeling it!). After a while the fire fights and the off-road driving got old though, for me at least. But they chose to go with the more action oriented style, and it really payed off. I would say this movie has just as much action scenes in it as the new Avengers, maybe more. Also, it was interesting that this movie isn't really about Max at all. It's all about the woman driving the truck, with the mechanical arm. Once they get back to the Citadel, she and the rest of the living wives go up, but Max gets lost within the crowd. So, she's going to be in charge, not Max. Also, I found it messed up that the pregnant wife ends up getting run over. And the King has a guy slice her up to check the baby, and of course it was dead. Kind of messed up in my opinion. Pretty great movie though, I would recommend it to anyone who's into action flicks, car flicks, or the original Mad Max series. What a lovely day. 
    

Avengers: Age of Ultron

     The new Avengers: Age of Ultron movie was a blast. Let me give you the good, the bad, and the nerdy. This movie is all about how Tony Stark wants to create an AI that will "save the world" because he doesn't believe that the Avengers can defeat any really tough enemies. What if aliens attack again like the last movie? Anyway, so Tony Stark, aka Iron Man creates this AI and the AI activates itself after Stark and Bruce Banner (Hulk) have been working on it for a long time. The AI is called Ultron and lets just say it knew everything about the Avengers before it even met them in person. It's goals was to initially save the world, but he went beyond Stark's initial plans and wanted to destroy all humans and start a new. Kind of simple minded right? So that's the main plot and story of this action fest.
     First off, Ultron kind of has jokey comments to make and even reminded me a bit of the Joker from the Dark Knight. Ultron is basically just a tall platinum robot, he doesn't really look all that cool nor interesting. Moving on, Ultron teams up with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to take out the Avengers. Those two agree to help him because they have a grievance with Tony Stark, a Stark missile hit their town and many people died. Later, they join the fight with the Avengers when they find out that Ultron is trying to kill people instead of help them. This movie is mainly all action and the action is pretty good! The fight with Ultron, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch against the Avengers leaves the Avengers in the dust mainly because Scarlet Witch uses her telekinesis to get into the Avengers' heads, making them see visions, leaving them in a cloud of confusion. Then, the Hulk ends up going crazy in a town in Africa, and Iron Man is the only Avenger up that can stop him. That was a pretty fun fight. Iron Man had to call something down from space, a giant Iron Man Suit that could compete with the Hulk. Needless to say, that town was leveled.
     Next, the Avengers seek refuge at a safe house until they can figure out what to do against Ultron. They were basically defeated at that point. Then Ultron decides he needs to keep evolving so she has this Korean Avengers scientist Cho create a body for him to use. But the Avengers come to stop him while he's being uploaded into the new body. I kind of couldn't tell weather his new body was going to be human-like or if it was just another metal thing. Anyways, the Avengers take the body and its brought to Stark's lab, where Stark and Banner work on producing the Vision, an AI designed to take out Ultron! Once they have the Vision on their side, they decide to take out Ultron for good and boy is the fight a good one.
     Later, they fight Ultron at some eastern European city. Ultron's goal was to lift the city up into the sky and drop it, the impact would have killed billions. But in order to actually defeat Ultron, they had to destroy each and every single Ultron body that he had. He had his main body doing all the bad super-villain stuff, but he also had probably hundreds or thousands of other smaller bodies that they had to fight as well. Basically, they were fighting for a long time. At this point Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch join sides with the Avengers, because they knew Ultron was actually against the human race, not trying to help. The Avengers end up getting everyone out of the city and the piece of the city that was floating in the air is destroyed thanks to Iron Man and Thor. The cool part is when The Vision tells the last Ultron body that he thinks the human race is beautiful and stuff. Then Ultron says that he's hopelessly naive. Then the Vision says "Well, I was born yesterday." Then he blasts the Ultron apart. Cut scene. Fin. After the credits we see Thanos with the Infinity Guantlet and he says,"Guess I'll have to do it myself." Pretty cool eh?
     Lastly, it was a good movie although the plot was simple minded. The action fills up most of the movie, leaving pretty much no room for much of a plot. There was an interesting romance between Banner and Black Widow, aka Scarlet Johannson. In the beginning Black Widow was actually able to calm the Hulk down by putting her hand on the Hulk's giant hand. That was an important part because it shows that the Hulk can actually be controlled and not just a rage monster. Also, the movie was kind of made better because I went to see it with four of my good friends that I have met here in LA. Good movie, but I think the first one was better, and I think the next one will be better too if it involves Thanos.
    

Fate/Stay Night

     Fate/Stay Night was an enjoyable anime about magic users, Magi, using Epic Heroes called Servants to battle each other to the death in the hope of winning the Holy Grail to get any wishes they want granted. The anime focuses on a guy named Shirou Emiya and his Servant Saber. Emiya only wants to fight to end the fighting. He's interested in protecting people and even not making Saber fight unless he ultimately has to. He teams up with a master Magi girl named Tosahka to protect each other and fight against the other Servants and their Masters.
     First off, this anime is really slow and takes a while for it to really get going. I think it took a good four or five episodes before the anime really got beyond just telling the introductory story and into the main plots. One of the highlights of the show is that the female Servant Saber was actually King Arthur, or Arturia in her own time. She uses her blade, Excalibur against other Servants and she was actually one of the most powerful servants. Until they ran into this little girl with blonde hair, Illyavasiel Einzbern. She had an Epic Hero from Greece named Hercules and he could not be defeated unless he was killed twelve times. Pretty epic right? The way they defeat him is that Tossahka's Servant, Archer, goes one on one with the big brute Hercules and kills him several times before he actually gets mauled to death. By the way, this anime is mildly violent, there's blood and people die but its not graphic. Then, Tosahka uses her magic gems on Hercules, killing him yet again. But it was Saber's Noble Phantasm, or special move that kills Hercules seven times in one strike. Her Noble Phantasm is her swords scabbard.
     Next, other parts of this anime that was interesting was the ending. There was this Epic Hero from the last Holy Grail Wars that was still somehow in the world physical because he was "eating" human souls to keep his physical body in that current world. Usually after the Holy Grail Wars are over, Servants return back to their own time I guess until summoned for the next one. Anyways, there was this Epic Hero named Gilgamesh, the first true King of the world when the world was still one. Gilgamesh was very cool and stylish. When not fighting he wore a white coat with fur on it. When fighting he had this red armor on. His specialty was that he had hundreds of great epic weapons at his disposal. He was just super cool because he was using all these interesting weapons. Oh, and also he had a thing for Saber, saying that she was his. In the end Saber ends up winning the fight because of her scabbard. The thing that was powerful about Excalibur was the scabbard, not the actual sword itself. In the end Emiya has Saber destroy the Holy Grail. It was decided earlier the show that they would destroy the Holy Grail because they heard that if they actually ask for wishes, the world could be destroyed just like ten years ago when the last Holy Grail Wars occurred. Anyways, in the end Saber says that she loves Emiya and goes back to her own time. Once she's back she has a female knight of hers to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake.
     Lastly, this anime was pretty good. But it was just so slow, especially the beginning. There is a movie called Unlimited Bladeworks that I have to see that goes along with the anime. I would recommend this to any anime fan.  

Darker than Black Thoughts

     

     Darker than Black is a recent anime that came out in 2007. Let me break it down for you. A mysterious anomaly called Heaven's Gate appeared in South America, followed by Hell's Gate in Tokyo, changing the sky and destroying the landscape. The real sky and stars disappeared and were replaced by a different sky. During this time, people with special powers called Contractors appeared. Contractors are named by their Messier catalog number. Contractors are called contractors because for their powers they all have to pay a price each time their power is used. One woman had to kiss someone. Another had to drink alcohol. Another had to eat cigarettes. The main character is a Chinese guy that goes under the name BK201 but other-times just as Hei. Also, when Hei is doing contractor work he wears a black jacket, a white mask, and goes under the name by the police as the Black Reaper. He's pretty much the epitome of a cool character in an anime. These contractors are known to be cold blooded killers, using their powers to overcome their enemies.
     First, the anime is divided in two sections; the first season involving Hei trying to find his sister and his general work as a contractor, and the second season involving Hei rescuing and training a young Russian girl named Suo that just became a contractor. Although Hei is the main character of the anime, a lot of attention and focus is given to a young police woman who is trying to expose the syndicate, an underground organization that uses contractors for assassinations. Hei works for the syndicate and performs many jobs, killing high ranking officials and anyone who the syndicate wants dead. Hei's special power is that he can send electricity through his hands. He also uses a kind of weapon that is like a dagger but also has a rope to it, giving him a long range attack. The first season is twenty-four episodes and so much happens. The main storyline is that a girl from Hei's past has the power to go back in time, but each time she does she grows older. She's trying to prevent the government from using a weapon that will kill every contractor in the world. In the end Hei ends up helping her. Although at first, he was against her because she wouldn't tell Hei the whereabouts of his younger sister. In the end, Hei ends up saving the world, by saving the world I mean saving the contractors, and life in a world where contractors exist goes on.
     Second, the other part of this anime is the second season. This involves a Russian girl named Suo, and her brother Shion. Shion was born a contractor and has the ability to make copies of stuff, but his price is that he can't use his legs. Also, their father named Palichenkov was a scientist that worked on research involving the Gate. One day, while Paslichenkov is working at University, his children are there with him and there's an explosion, killing Suo. But Professor Palichenkov uses Shion's ability to make a copy of Suo and give her implanted memories, so its as if she never died. They played God in that case and it all works out fine until Suo finds out she's a copy. But everything really goes crazy when a government agency that the police woman from the first season works for raids her house looking for Shion. Suo is left on the run but Hei finds her and captures her. He ends up in a fight with an interesting contractors. She's a woman with a kind of lightsaber type sword with blue energy. Her price is that she has to kiss someone every-time she uses her power. She's one of the coolest characters in the whole anime, also her hair is really cool. Anyway, Hei kidnaps Suo but Suo ends up loving him, in a caretaker kind of way. Somehow Suo also becomes a contractor. Her power is that a long gun with a super long scope comes out of her body and she fires it at people. But the main focus is that Yin, a doll that Hei worked with in the syndicate now has a power that is killing contractors. A doll is someone who isn't truly human, but has cognitive speech and gives out valuable information. In this world though, dolls are more or not used as playthings. But the girl from the first season that could go back in time predicted that if Yin and some other character meet, then the world would end. So the whole point is to stop Yin from meeting that other character. But in the end it was kind of confusing because when Hei finally meets with Yin nothing is explained or happens. Instead we realize that everything we learned about Suo is erased, and she's back to being a schoolgirl in class with her friends, her parents are alive, but she says its as if she's forgotten something. And the police woman ends up being an even higher ranking job, and the people in the future even call her and her organization the syndicate. Oh yeah, and they also show hover cars. Interesting stuff but they don't really explain what happens. Obviously the world didn't end but we don't find out what happened to Hei. Maybe that's what Gemini of the Meteor is for. Its the sequel. It premiered in Japan in 2008. I'll have to check that out for more information.
     Lastly, it was a great anime and the fights were interesting because each contractor had their own set of special powers. There were some brutal bloody moments but it wasn't really about the fights or the violence, it was always about where the storyline was going to take you rather than lets have a big rival fight. Also, the artwork is great in this. Also, there's a talking cat that turns into a talking flying squirrel. Check this one out, you won't regret it! 

Parasyte the Maxim

    

Parasyte the Maxim was one of the great new anime that came out in America recently. I saw it on the website crunchyroll, which has tons of Japanese anime with subtitles. This anime is about a teenage boy named Shinichi Izumi, who lives in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo. One night a worm-like parasite tries to burrow through Shinichi's ears to get to his brain, but because he was wearing headphones, makes an attempt to go his arm instead. So Migi, the parasyte takes over Shinichi's right hand and they attempt to coexist and talk, and help each other out to survive in this world where parasites have become commonplace in Tokyo. Not only have they become commonplace, but they are man-eating killers who can disguise themselves as humans. A lot of stuff happens in this anime, I'll try to break it down.
     First, the main thing that happens in the beginning is that a parasite attacks Shinichi at school, killing tons of his classmates, in an attempt to kill Shinichi. Shinichi and Migi have to work together to kill their foe, and they end up killing him. This anime is not for the light-hearted, its very gory and bloody.
      Next, another main part of the storyline was when Shinichi learns that his mother was killed by a parasite while she was out on vacation with Shinichi's father. What happens is the parasite actually figures out where Shinichi lives and stabs Shinichi right through the heart, killing Shinichi instantly. But he doesn't die there. Migi does something to grow a part of him where Shinichi's heart used to be. It was quite something. If Migi didn't do it, he would've died. The parasite Migi plays an important role in this anime, and he's just as important as Shinichi.
    Then, Shinichi finds out that one of his teachers at his school Ryoko Tamiya is a parasite but she says she doesn't want to fight, that she wants to join forces with him and be friends. Little does Shinichi know, that she is part of an elite parasite group where they make decisions about human feeding grounds, and other nefarious parasite stuff. Eventually their club gets wiped out and Shinichi has to fight for his life against their leader, Gotou.
     In addition, there's more to this anime than just fighting parasites and bloody bodies. There are other important characters like Shinichi's girl friend Satomi Murano. The more Shinichi gets caught in the world of parasites, the more he becomes cold, less human, and out of touch with Samtomi. Also, there is another girl who gets infatuated with Shinichi. However, she ends up getting killed by a parasite and Shinichi ends up killing the parasite in a fit of rage. Then, there is the loss of his mother. And Ryoko ends up getting killed protecting her baby in her arms. She gets shot by the cops despite holding a human baby in her hands. Despite her being a parasite, her baby ended up somehow human, which I never quite understood. Also, the relationship between Shinichi and Migi was like brothers. Despite Migi being a burden on him, Shinichi ended up loving Migi.
     Lastly, the fights in this anime are intense. They keep the anime interesting and on your toes while watching. The last fight at the end versus Gotou is an incredible anime fight, where Shinichi barely wins because he doesn't have Migi to help him. Instead he ends up stabbing Gotou with a stick, a stick that has poison in it, thus weakening his state. He didn't know that the stick would poison Gotou, so he thought he was going to die, but fought him anyway, pretty cool right? He did it because he wanted to weaken Gotou before he got to kill any more people. The police end up raiding Tokyo and killing most of the parasites but the main question that doesn't get answered in the end of the show is where do the parasites come from? And what is their purpose of existence? This is kind of only answered through the dialogue of Ryoko. But we never truly learn if the parasites are aliens or what. All in all it was a great anime and I'd highly recommend it to any anime man. The latest anime that I've been watching is Darker than Black, I'm on the second season and it is fantastic.