05/10/07
DL MEDIA
HAVANA CARBO/Through a Window-Like a Dream: Here’s a set you simply won’t know what to do with. A different kind of world beat set, Carbo goes deep into the Latin vibe but does it through a world wide scope. Simply an enchanting adult listening date, this is some top notch, pure music that is unaffected by fashion or fad. While it seems to have it’s heart in cabaret and saudade, it’s far from depressing. Always interesting and engaging, it’s just the thing a musical sophisticate has been looking for to reaffirm his faith in listening to new records. A winner.
2225 (Modl)
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
BALKAN BEAT BOX/Nu Med: So, assume everyone in the Mediterranean region didn’t hate each other, had contemporary sensibilities and knew how to work electronics, then you would have a sense of what’s coming out of this beat box. After blowing the roof off a bunch of festivals last year, this crew amps up their mixmaster even higher to take it to the next level. Grabbing ancient vibes and mixing them with young ideas, you get a wild ride that brings you into the realm of one-world beat and opens the ears accordingly. Giddy, wild stuff that seems just right to get the summer started with.
106 (J-Dub)
YARRR! PUBLIC RELATIONS
MASONS/Let You Down Easy: One man cult band comes back from a long lay off with an accidental record a fan encouraged him to make. Loaded with the kind of skewed observational songs that the slightly malcontented love, prime mover Kraig Jordan digs into the chest of songs that have been rolling around his head and drawer since his last set a long time ago. With a bunch of like minded pals with varying degrees of marquee value on board, the latest was delivered. Never falling into the twee trap, it’s that kind of middle class nuttiness that college kids can’t seem to get enough of.
(75orless)
DVD SUPPLEMENT
WARNER HOME VIDEO
THE PAINTED VEIL: Break out the Haagen-Dasz, light some scented candles, put this on the dvd player and your girl friend will never notice you slipped out the door to watch the basketball play offs with your pals, especially if you leave a voice recorder on set to emit some periodic sympathetic sounds. The tortuous tale of a shattered marriage in Shanghai and the route the couple travels to get back together from a Somerset Maugham story. Sumptuously shot and well acted by Naomi Watts and Ed Norton, this is a supreme chick pic of love’s strum and drang that makes sane people wonder ‘why bother?’ Thanks for the night out, WB! She’ll never know.
58557
THE FOUNTAIN: Hugh Jackman has already done the romance through time thing in a comedy, so here he turns it to sci-fi as he goes through 1,000 years worth of travails to save the woman he loves (Rachel Weisz). A very character driven pic, Jackman earns his acting spurs (erasing any doubt you may have after one too many comic book roles) and powers this sci-fi for chicks romance. With smart talent working over time above and below the line, we seem to be entering a new era of chick pics that have more going for them than immediate, empty calories.
28376
Volume 30/Number 191
May 10, 2007
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
(c)2007 Midwest Record