SOUNDTRACK: MARKETA IRGLOVA-Tiny Desk Concert #174 (November 10, 2011).
Marketa Irglova came to the world’s attention in the film Once, where she duetted with Glen Hansard. They formed The Swell Season and made some beautiful music together. But he has another band and she has done some solo work, like in this Tiny Desk. Incidentally, watch the video, but listen to the audio. For some reason the sound in the video is all wonky and weird, but the audio is fine.
This concert is a little surprising because Irglova plays a synth, rather than a piano, and she is accompanied by Iranian singer-percussionist Aida Shahghasemi whom she met in New York. And Shahghasemi and her drum (called a daf) are actually a bit more interesting than Irglova.
Irglova has a nice voice, and I have really enjoyed a lot of her music, but I found these songs to be a little long and a little undramatic. However, once you accept that she’s not going for drama, these songs are mellow and lovely.
The opening song, “We Are Good,” has an interesting main riff on the keyboard and her voice blends nicely with the music. The end section has a very nice melody as it builds and builds. But as I mentioned, it the daf that is so fascinating. The drum itself looks like an Irish bodhran (or any other hand-held drum, I suppose), except it has a much bigger diameter and is very thin. It also has a series of dangling items on the inside, which bring about a lot more percussive qualities.
“Dokhtar Goochani” is a traditional Iranian song sung in Farsi. Shahghasemi sings the song while Irglova plays. With the keyboard, the song doesn’t really sound very Middle Eastern until Irglova joins in on harmony vocals in the chorus, when it takes on a very cool quality. And the drum and percussive sounds in the middle are really enticing.
After this song, Shahghasemi talks a bit about her drum and says that it can be much louder than she’s playing it here. It’s a traditional Kurdish drum with “jangles” which she explains is usually made of goatskin, but this one is synthetic because the humidity doesn’t affect it as much.
The final song, “Let Me Fall In Love” is about the idea of being in love, with lyrics that are a bit didactic, but whatever. I really like the middle section where the two women harmonize quite beautifully. But again the song is a little long.
[READ: October 25, 2015] Sleaze Castle
The cover of this book is crazy. The full title appears to be:
Markosia/Gratuitous Bunny Comix
Sleaze Castle : The Director’s Cut
Part Zero: “Tales from Sleaze Castle”
Reprinting “Takes from Sleaze Castle” #1-#4
Screenplay by Terry Wiley & Dave McKinnon Art Direction by Terry Wiley
And then a drawing of a woman with what looks like a magic wand and another woman standing by watching her.
And then there’s a whole list of “Starring” (these names are actually characters in the stories)
and then Film Sound Track Album by MWOWM available on Gratuitous Bunny Audio #GBA3
That’s a lot to take in and it made me wonder if the comic would be that busy. And it is. This book is a wonder to behold. Self published in 1992, this book is just chock full of story, with an astonishing amount of detail included in the drawings–nods to other comics, musical appreciation and all kinds of fun things to look at. It took me a pretty long time to read this because there was just so much to see and read. It was a lot of fun. Even if the plot was a little confusing.
This book collects the original books and adds material (which is not at the end of the story necessarily (so art quality varies).
The book opens on a planet far away. A blonde woman is talking about the trip she will take which will last for ten minutes their time.
Then we jump to the Prologue set in Jo’s house. Her sister Petra is giving her a hard time. Jo wants to take her watchman to school (she is a film studies graduate student) but it was Petra’s new present. So they are fighting of course. The amazing detail starts here with books on Jo’s shelves and all manner of other things to look at. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 