Music From The Weird Part Of Youtube: Tanzen

 You ever click on a random thumbnail and find something awesome.

 I have, frequently. 

This is not one of those moments.

In truth I am still not entirely sure what i just watched and whether somebody is taking the piss or not.

Today's slice of oddness comes from Belgium and this came as a surprise a everything about the song jsut screams "German". Between the minimalist synth-disco, the marching beat and the Germanic vocals it sounds like Rammstein leaving the guitarists at home and making a dance record.  The differnece being that with Rammstein you'd know they were being all Teutonically sardonic and humourous. With these guys I'm not sure...

What really pushes Tanzen into the realms of oddness is the video, starring as it does a quartet of  blank-faced  girls dancing in formation, 80s school-disco style, while the lead singer molests statues and mutters random oddness. 

(Correction: I just noticed that one of the dancers is a bloke. Still odd though)

 What do you think?  Am I being trolled or are Belgians just like this normally? 

That's all folks. 

Music That Gets Under My Skin.

 Music is very important to me.

I can't play an instruments and I've been reliably informed that I can't sing either. That doesn't matter. 

I can't honestly say I appreciate music in any kind of intellectual sense. Talk of things like time signatures and key changes might as well be in French for all I know. I'm aware that something is being discussed but I can't seem to make the Concepts fit into what I'm listening to. That doesn't matter either. 

To me music is a lot more basic, maybe even instinctive. Me hear, me like or me don't like. 

I am convinced that if you're listening to a song and thinking "Hmm. Nice use of polyrthythms" then somebody is doing something wrong. Or to put it another way, a good song should hit you somewhere behind the eyes and go all the way down your spine to your toes. 

Sometimes a song manages to make an impact that even manages to surprise me. It's not just making my toes tap but elbows its way into my brain and hogs the sofa.  "Comfortably Numb" is a great example. I can't listen to those bass notes before the solo without feeling something soar inside me. "Send her my love" by Journey makes me well up. "Metal Gods" make me want to kick a wall over. 

You get the idea. 

The last year or so I've been broadening my musical horizons beyond Rock &Metal and dabbling in Synthwave, a music genre that gets misty eyed about a 1980s where the sun shone, everybody was beautiful and synths were the way forward.  That's where I found this particular track. 

The song itself is a synthy, atmospheric instrumental that would have sounded perfect on the soundtrack to a 1983 drama and somebody has paired it up with clips from the 1984 movie L'Annee Des Meduses, starring the magnetic Valerie Kaprisky as a sexually adventurous teenager looking for her next romance. It works so well, you'd think the song was created for the movie. And for some reason, the combination hit me hard. 

I honestly can't explain it.
I am up at 4am making a blog post about the song though so you can tell I am impressed.

Anyway, enough rambling. Here's the video I've been wibbling on about.

Hopefully you don't mind the censored nipples. This was a 1980s French film after all. 

Band site here: https://soundcloud.com/thefirstcontact

Video created by Neros77

I haven't seen L'Annee Des Meduses but just from what I have seen it's NSFW. 

Let me know if you like the song and if there's anything that gets under your skin. 

That#'s all folks. 

Cheapo DVD Review: Western World (2015)

When US Marshall Moses White is called to the town of Dogwood Pass to track down a ruthless killer, he runs into a lot more than he bargained for. A corrupt mayor and an unhinged sheriff stand in the way of justice and Moses might just have to shoot his way out. After all, in Western World it's kill or be killed.

 Yes, that frankly odd movie title is a cynical attempt to cash in on Westworld.

 Serious question. Is anybody ever going to fall for something so obvious?

 Oh wait...I did, didn't I?

In my defence I was curious to see whether the film described on the DVD cover and the film on the disc bore any resemblance to each other.  The answer being "Yes. And at the same time...no."

 While the DVD blurb is technically accurate it leads the punter to expect a violent, action-packed gunfest which this film definitely isn't.   How about we bring up the original title?

Oh look at that. We're now looking at completely different movie experience, aren't we. 

 Western World is, in fact, a rather talky, low-key murder mystery with a stetson on.  Possibly a bit too talky, in fact.  The action is minimal, bar a brief explosion of violence right at the end.

 About half-way through I started wondering if I was watching an episode from a TV series because it that kind of feel to it.. The sort of thing you'd find on one of the minor channels late in the afternoon.  

 As a TV episode it would be OK, I suppose. Moses White is a likable character so could easily carry a few episodes. The acting is respectable (mostly), the ending music is actually quite decent and the story gets to where it's going without any great surprises.  

However, as a DVD that I paid proper money for I found myself a little disappointed. If I hadn't bought it second-hand from CEX I might even be a wee bit grumpy because when all is said and done "Western World"  doesn't deliver enough entertainment to justify paying DVD prices. 

 If you really like westerns where everybody talks a lot then you might like this. But maybe wait for it to pop up on Netflix first.  

How much did I pay for this: £1

Was it worth it:  Debatable. It wasn't bad but not especially good either.