The Rock Blogger

(The following review is by Tyson Stewart - warning: may contain spoilers!)

It used to be that first shot of a film that had the camera slowly creep toward a skyscraper window in the middle of town meant we were about to delve into the secret and shady dealings of well-off folks. This time, however, the window explodes and a group of thugs in clown masks fling a wire to the building next over, exit, and proceed to rob a bank in downtown Gotham. Seems to me, the new Batman movie is all about that very 80s type of conflict between the well-groomed and the social rejects (those who act and look a bit different): that is, it’s a conservative movie at heart that reinstates the Other as Foe.  Heath Ledger’s Joker is an embodiment of the later. Director Christopher Nolan, speaking with Elvis Mitchell, insists The Joker must stink, as he is part of punk youth culture and, thus, mustn’t be too concerned with personal hygiene. The Dark Knight makes it clear from the outset that its main dilemma will be between the individual and the social. The social, here, comes out looking much gentler, much more naive than all the strong-willed individual characters. Why else the Machiavellian turn of giving the dumb public their hero at the end?

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Odawas. Raven and the White Night. 2007. 3.5 stars.

Odawas play wispy psychedelic folk songs that are tinged with subtle symphonic and harmonic elements. While their sound fits nicely along the dreamy shoegaze of bands like Grouper, Odawas’ take is slightly more complex, and also more confounding. They certainly don’t seem to like sticking in one place for too long, as their ethereal acoustic moments can take flight into bluesy jam-rock solos (”Getting to Another Plane”), often sounding like a bizarre cross between Neil Young’s Crazy Horse and the haunting melancholy of Jeff Buckley. When they do decide to settle down on a singular vision, they have incredible emotional clarity, like on the heartbreaking “Alleluia’ where gentle whistles and mournful vocals take on a hypnotic effect.

There are odd left tuns taken as well, like the bombastic orchestral intro of “The Maddening of Raven” or the speech giving samples on “Love Is… (The Only Weapon With Which I Got to Fight)”, accomapnied by electric instrumentation. These tracks point towards some overarching narrative or theme for the album, but they don’t seem to blend with the more cryptic and fluid sounds of their pared-down acoustic counterparts. Once again, the band’s often unnerving sense of dread and tension is better expressed in the quiet, rustic corners of their songs, where their humble tones lead to humbling passages.

Fortunately, the band’s shining moments outnumber the confusing ones, and they frequently take on the astral quality that shapes and defines the modern psych-folk movement. So if you are looking for something heady, trippy and pastoral, Odawas will be sure to satisfy. Once you get past the stranger fixtures of this record, the eclectic musicianship and experimental edge will lift you up. How high you go may depend on the environment in which you take this in.

Odawas “Alleluia” - set to Reuters’ best photos of 2007

A quietly breathtaking video that features a reading of Schopenhauer’s writings on noise and the determent of thought in the modern world. The audio is paired with stunning images from the film Koyaanisqatsi which uses time -lapse photography to reveal the almost computerized flow of bodies within a massive city. Schopenhauer’s ideas are illustrated with incredible lucidity as you watch cars stream through the night streets like blinking blood cells.

From YouTube:

Excerpts from Arthur Schopenhauer’s "Studies in Pessimism"

Read by D.E. Wittkower

Soundtrack: Richard Wagner - Rheingold