Odessa Stomp Reviews are In

Many thanks to all the musicians who gave up their time to do the show and the punters who came along.

The line-ups were:

Saturday - Quaoub - Kenny Davis Jr - Toy Death

Monday - The Mumps - Quaoub - Toy Death 

I received the following responses to Saturday's show. This one from Adrian: 

I just wanted to say thanks for what was another great show today. I thought Quab complimented the film excellently, and having seem him before at the Chauvel (I can't remember exactly what it was for, but it was also as an accompaniment to a silent film), I have to say that he was much better this time. I quite liked the second performer, though it wasn't until the steps sequence where I thought he really complemented the film well. His style reminded me a lot of Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert. And I was totally unaware that Toy Death were going to be playing today, but I  have been meaning to check them out for over a year now, so it was a really pleasant surprise -- and what a surprise it was (I thought they were excellent). I actually heard about them through a description of a CD I bought last year, which was Suspended Animation by a group called Fantomas (which features Mike Patton of Faith No More, Mr Bungle etc. on vocals, Dave Lombardo from Slayer on drums, the guitarist from The Melvins etc.), and is an amazing kind of a mash-up of heavy metal/noise. The description of the CD (from Red Eye Records) was that it sounded like Toy Death getting raped by Bugs Bunny (if you're ever interested in listening to the CD, if you haven't already done so, I can burn a copy of it). So yeah, it was really great seeing them and I thought overall the show was wonderful.

-Adrian

And from the indefatigable Pia Santaklaus:

Thanks for yet another splendid Cinematheque curatorship. Today’s BATTLESHIP POTEMPKIN feature was very well done. It is the most absorbing presentation of this classic movie I have yet experienced.

 

Tell me that today’s screening, on the anniversary of the Potemkin uprising (14 June 1905), was not a coincidence. Fantastic...

 

The clever use of 3 completely individual musical presenters in 3 separate stages (approx 25 minutes each) was a stroke of brilliance. It moved the movie along, colouring it (so to speak) with a variance of flavours.

 

The opening soundtrack provider (Quaoub) did a beautiful job. His guitar and voice lent a melancholy and emotive revolutionary minimalism.  I couldn’t help but hear shades of Leonard Cohen, hints of Neil Young and sweeps of Nick Cave in his voice. Quaoub’s vocal timbre also made me imagine that if Harrison Ford (or Han Solo) were to time travel into an alternate universe with a guitar on his back, forward into 1968, that that's what he’d sound like. (Ha) Quaoub's guitar playing could put one into a mild trance. Good stuff.

 

The second musician (Kenny Davis Jr) deserves great praise for his appropriate, dreamy, perfectly invisible piano playing. It sounded improvised and absolutely perfect. Of the 3 musical acts, this one had the anachronistic subtlety needed to let the movie reveal itself. A masterful, masterful effort...

 

The third musical performance (Death to Toys?) was hilarious and seriously brilliant. So screamingly out of context and yet so completely right! Using gadgets, ‘toys’, light-sabers and magic midi machines, they created an abstract sound that accelerated the entire mood of the picture and set the blood pulsing. It was exactly what the movie needed at that stage. Clever! Great!        

 

I loved this movie. It seems so modern with the very fast editing of shots and angles.

The movie shone today. I noticed the good use of metaphor. My favourite being the ever-growing stairways showing the ever-growing revolutionary consciousness...Tiny ladders and hatches on the ship lead to long, narrow sandstone stairways on the land, lead further to enormous, wide overrun grand stairs of population.

 

My best to you and all those great musicians.