Movies...

A couple of quick reviews I forgot to post at the time of watching...

The Lovely Bones is a pretty good book. I generally don’t read fiction but wanted something easy to read and picked it off the shelf, finding it nicely written and quite different from most of the other popular novels on offer at the time. The book is pretty graphic but also balanced out with some ethereal aspects and that is one of the main reasons it works in my opinion.
The film removes all the specifics of the darkness that the book so intimately describes – and for that reason above all else, it falls down at the first hurdle. The beauty and colour and otherworldly elements are all present, Peter Jackson being a master of communicating those things – but making it a more ‘PG’ screenplay kind of shifted the balance away from the poetic aspects of the original story, and for someone who has no idea of the source material it may come over as a little overly romantic or even cheesy.
That said, it’s still well made and the main plot changes work well on screen, even if they did leave a little too much subplot on the cutting room floor.
And while we’re talking about books...

The book of Eli – What a waste of a great idea. I hate to say that about a film starring Denzel and Gary Oldman – but I think the Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society / From Hell) let a potentially great idea escape them with this one. I won’t spoil it by elaborating on this – you find out the basis of the story about halfway through – but after it was over I couldn’t help but think about how much deeper they could’ve gone with the initial premise. It’s a nice looking, well made action film with a small twist and good performances – but had they rewritten the original script and maybe extended it out for another 30 minutes – they could’ve had a classic cult movie on their hands rather than something most people won’t really remember in 5 years time.

Aesop Rock. Cargo. January 30 2008.

An unwelcome pattern seems to be forming at Definitive Jux Gigs...

While mid-set at Dingwalls last year while promoting his latest album ‘I’ll sleep when you’re dead’, label head EL-P was interrupted by a drunken middle class white boy, who invaded the stage and proceeded to wave to the crowd before being ‘asked politely’ to leave by the Jux crew (he was pushed off the stage).
Jump forward to Cargo, East London, 11.15pm on a cold January night, and Aesop Rock is in full flow hyping the crowd on his most requested encore track, Daylight – and that’s right, Aesop, Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz are joined onstage by a drunken middle class white boy. Totally breaking the MC’s flow.
I mean stopping the track dead.
Suffice to say no one was impressed, and the show went on to end on a high note after he had shuffled away.

But onto the tunes… the set mainly consisted of material from None Shall Pass, one of the best hip hop albums (or if you really want to play professional reviewer:
Alt-Hip Hop albums) of 2007. Big Wiz was amazing as always, and the larger than life Rob Sonic had his moments in the spotlight.
However it was Aes Rizzle who carried the whole night, even with the booming sound quality being just about passable in the tiny room. Even after admitting they were all suffering from massive jetlag, the energy from the stage had been absorbed by the crowd by the end of the night.

The set up was also well planned and executed, projections of music videos to accompany tracks, weird stock footage from the 1950’s somehow connected to Big Wiz’ turntables, being cut up during the DJ’s solo spot.
In fact all the tings sadly missing from the recent GZA / Liquid Swords debacle at KOKO, where the stage was empty – save for a rapidly disappearing bottle of Cognac next to the 1210’s.

After last years Mr Lif gig at Jazz Café, and the aforementioned EL-P at Lock 17 - this was a solid showing from real performers that continued to confirm that Def Jux are as much a hardcore touring crew as they are makers and innovators of top end studio tracks.
Now if we can only get some kind of Cannibal Ox reunion sorted.
www.definitivejux.net

D.