Skronk-Jazz a la Maroc

"Sudani" is a collaboration between Jazz saxophonist Patrick Brennan and a group of Moroccan Gnawa musicians, recorded in Morocco in 1999. This is a cracker of a fusion record, featuring a very natural combination of Brennan's post-Coleman, post-Coltrane sax with powerful, authentically hypnotic Gnawa roots music. Highly recommended for adventurous listeners.

For more info: http://www.sonispheric.net/sudani_project.htm.

Joint Security Area

National tragedy begets personal tragedy. "Joint Security Area" is an investigation of one such tragic event and its aftermath, portraying individual soldiers violently torn between their personal needs and the national political agenda they serve. It's a gripping police procedural, threaded with powerful humanism.




The film's milieu is the titular area forming the border between the Koreas. A shooting incident takes place late one night in a Northern sentry post, leaving two Northerners dead and a Southerner wounded. How did a Southern soldier end up in a Northern station - was it a kidnapping, a maverick attack, or something else? Was someone else present in the hut on that fateful night, as evidenced by a missing bullet? A Swiss national with Korean roots is assigned by the on-site international peace-keepers to solve the mystery, and thus calm a Korean peninsula tense in the wake of this cross-border aggression.

"JSA" features excellent acting by top-class talent such as Song Kang-ho ("Memories of Murder") and Lee Byung-hun ("A Bittersweet Life"). Edko's Region 3 DVD is good value, e.g. http://www.hmv.com.hk/product/product.asp?sku=220425.

Korean Boxing Movie with a Serious Emotional Punch

I watched this film recently, and it so surpassed my expectations that I just had to blog about it. "Crying Fist" is about two down-and-out people who enter a national boxing competition as a way to regain status and self-esteem. The elder contestant is played by the ubiquitous, and excellent Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) in a tremendous performance! All of the acting is great, and I defy anyone to get to the end of this film without getting swept up by the emotionally powerful climax.



The quality of the UK DVD is pretty good, and it's available at absurdly low prices (< £1) via Amazon UK marketplace.

Highly recommended!

Haiti's Manic Groove

I've really been enjoying this late 70's album by Haiti's Ibo Combo. It's an ongoing mystery to me as to why this and similar (so-called Konpa, or Compas) music from Haiti hasn't caught on, at least with the beat-heads and "deep-crate diggers" of the world. I reckon it's just a matter of time, and have long mulled over producing a compilation to speed the process.




Many uptempo Konpa tunes have a breathless, manic quality, just one of the elements that sets this style of music apart from other styles originating in the African diaspora. Ibo Combo's "Engendré" has the usual exciting mix of hot rhythms, horns, choppy guitar, and exciting vocals, solo and in chorus, but the album is particularly well done and quite distinctive. It features an unusual number obviously inspired by the Spaghetti Western soundtracks of Ennio Morricone, and also a cover of a tune by Ti Paris, a brilliant Haitian folk musician .

The CD is available from antilles-mizik. Ibo Combo's "Café" is another excellent recording, available from the same shop.

An Irish Lament

"Lament" is the title of this 90's Real World concept album, and it consists of mournful contributions from the cream of Irish traditional musicians. The intention of the disc is to "commemorate in music the dead of the violence in Northern Ireland", and it is a worthy, beautiful effort.




There's a mix of vocal and instrumental music here. The singing is mostly in Gaelic, but any lack of verbal understanding is immaterial - there's a language here that transcends words. A wide range of instruments lends a very pleasant variety to the disc: accordion, fiddle, pipes, whistle, harp, etc., all superbly played. Contributing musicians include Davy Spillane, Christy Moore, Sean Potts (The Chieftains), Paddy Glackin (Bothy Band), and Tony McMahon.

I've been listening to this disc a lot recently - it's really quite special.

Pitch-black Comedy from Denmark

"Adam's Apples" is a story about belief and redemption set in a small Danish town. Adam, a thuggish, taciturn convict, is paroled to a church community run by an eccentric but charismatic preacher (Mads Mikkelsen, now of Bond fame). He is at first horrified by the seeming hypocrisy of the motley community, made up mostly of ex-cons like himself, and he takes pleasure in showing up his fellows. But subsequent events radically challenge his view of the world.


I found the film fresh, original and thought-provoking. It's well-shot and the acting is flawless. The mode of humour really is quite dark - which is no doubt a warning for some, and a recommendation for others!

Film Movement's DVD transfer is super - a great picture with no noticeable compression artefacts.