NewBeats

The Doors
The Doors
Elektra/Rhino
By David Chiu

The Doors’ debut album, released exactly 40 years ago, arguably provided the template for postpunk and Goth music of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Frontmen like the Cure’s Robert Smith, Joy Divison’s Ian Curtis, and Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch owe a debt to the man who embodied sex, drugs and rock and roll—the Lizard King himself, Jim Morrison. The Doors’ music was such a marked contrast to the sounds and sensibilities of the times. Hippie celebration was not in this group’s vocabulary; the band treated sex or death or both as a release.

All the elements that made the Doors great were perfectly in place: Morrison’s urgent persona, Robby Krieger’s masterful guitar playing, Ray Manzarek’s baroque keyboards, and John Densmore’s jazzy drumming. The fact that a majority of the songs on the debut have endured on FM/classic radio speaks about its popularity and influence: “Break on Through,” “Soul Kitchen,” the Euro-bent of “Alabama Whisky Song,” the glamorous “Twentieth Century Fox,” and the acid-trip of “Crystal Ship.”

The key highlights, naturally, are the two songs that defined the aura of the band. The first is the group’s Number One single, “Light My Fire” (dig the interplay between Manzarek’s and Krieger’s solos). The other is the epic finale, the Oedipal-laced violent drama of “The End”—it still terrifies the soul. In addition to its bonus tracks of “Moonlight Drive” and “Indian Summer,” this newly reissue also restores “Light My Fire” to its original speed where it sounds much brighter than before. The Doors ranks up there with the essential ‘60s classic albums of Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper, and Tommy. Love and darkness never coexisted so eloquently and dangerously than on this record.
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Legendary punk rocker and poet Patti Smith played at the Bowery Ballroom this past Tuesday (Apr. 24). Photos below were taken from the first of three shows scheduled at the New York City venue. Smith's new covers album Twelve (Columbia) was released that same day. A review of the album in NewBeats is to come. Photos by David Chiu.








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Black Book
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Starring Carice van Houten and Sebastian Koch
Review by David Chiu

Black Book, the latest film directed by Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Total Recall, Showgirls), recalls the classic World War II suspense film thrillers, depicting the resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Holland.




For Verhoeven, Black Book is a departure from his several Hollywood movies known for their sex, violence, dark humor and cartoonish behavior. More accurately, it recalls one of his earlier movies depicting that time in history, Soldier of Orange (1977). Black Book is also the first time the director made a film in his native Holland in 20 years.

The movie begins in 1956 in the then-newly created state of Israel. After an encounter with an old friend from the war, Jewish school teacher Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) recalls her time in Holland during World War II. Her story flashbacks to 1944 when Rachel, a singer, hides in a safe house. What that house is bombed, she and her family reunites as they travel on a boat with other Jews for safe passage. The journey halts abruptly as the traveling party is ambushed and massacred by Nazi soldiers who later pillage their belongings. Rachel escapes by diving into the water.

She is later rescued by the Dutch resistance and is taken under the wing of its leaders Hans Akkermans (Thom Hoffman) and Gerben Kuipers (Derek de Lint). Soon Rachel, who dyes her brown hair blonde and changes her name to Ellis de Vries, is recruited to infiltrate Gestapo headquarters. On board a train, she meets Muntze (Sebastian Koch), a Nazi official who is smitten by her. Rachel uses that attraction to her advantage as she gains access to headquarters. She gradually falls in love with Muntze as she learns that he’s been secretly negotiating with the resistance for a truce in the war’s waning days. Followed is a series of shocking betrayals that put Rachel's and Muntze's lives in peril.

Carice van Houten as Rachel is an absolute stunner through her acting and beauty (She definitely recalls the 1940s starlet). Sebastian Koch portrays the benevolent Muntze with heroic sensitivity and charm, the total opposite of the usual Nazi bad villain. Other strong performances come from Hoffman as Akkermans, de Lint as Kuipers,Waldemar Kobus as the evil Fraken, and Halina Reijin as Rachel’s friend Ronnie.

Director Verhoeven doesn’t depart entirely from his usual sense of shock. There is the sex (Rachel dyes her pubic hair as she prepares for her rendezvous with Muntze), violence (shootings, though more realistic than sadistic), and over-the-top theatrics. What emerges importantly is a solid suspense thriller that keeps you guessing two-thirds of the way. There is also a sense of poignancy such as the romance between Rachel and Muntze. Black Book is one of the director’s best works in recent years. He should film more in Holland and leave Hollywood behind for a while.

video trailer courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics/youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIklvGsU7bM
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King Crimson
The Condensed 21st Century Guide to King Crimson 1969-2003
DGM
By David Chiu

If you were very hesitant to shell out the big bucks for the previously released two 4-CD boxed sets by the legendary prog rockers, you can still be satisfied with this simple 2-CD introduction. Condensed 21st Century Guide… documents the group’s always shifting line-ups and distinct musical phases, from its 1969 Mellotron-laced origins to the ‘90s and beyond metal clatter—all anchored by Robert Fripp’s piercing guitar playing. After listening to this sampler, you’ll find yourself digging into the original and best albums (i.e. In the Court of the Crimson King, Discipline, Red, and Larks Tongues in Aspic). Good.
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The Alan Parsons Project
I Robot
Eye in the Sky
Arista/Legacy
by David Chiu

Not exactly the greatest of the progressive/art rock bands, the Alan Parsons Project—fronted by keyboardist/producer Alan Parsons, songwriter/vocalist Eric Woolfson, and a rotating cast of singers and musicians—was at least one of the more commercially successful ones. It’s probably because unlike their hard-core peers, the Alan Parsons Project manages to blend the genre’s orchestrated pomp with some actual pop-friendly sensibilities. I Robot (1977) and Eye in the Sky (1982), now reissued with bonus tracks, are fine examples of the band's approach. I Robot conveys a futuristic chill thanks to the instrumental title track, although the disco-influenced “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You” is a stylistic departure from the rest of the songs. Eye in the Sky could be viewed as more accessible—it contains the enduring hit title track as well as the opening track Sirius, which could be heard at sporting events.
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Electric Light Orchestra
Balance of Power
Epic/Legacy
By David Chiu

ELO’s final album before 2001’s Zoom, Balance of Power (1986) doesn’t rank up there with previous triumphs such as A New World Record and Out of the Blue. It relies mainly on synthesizers rather then the strings that have been Jeff Lynne and company’s calling card. But Lynne’s penchant for sunny melodies and hooks breathes some life into the original album’s ten songs . from the exuberant “Heaven Only Knows” to the finale “Send It.” Underneath the music’s poppy veneer is a sense of melancholy and loss reflected in numbers like the charming “So Serious,” “Getting to the Point” and “Sorrow About To Fall.” The strongest track on the album is the prophetic “Calling America,” a commentary about communication. It’s apparent from the lyrics that Lynne was ready to pack ELO up, at least temporarily—he would eventually do so to become a much in-demand producer. Balance of Power is not classic ELO as we know it, but it is also definitely not an embarrassment in the group’s catalog. (The album has been reissued with bonus tracks).
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