Floating Room, the musical project of Portland-based multidisciplinary artist Maya Stoner, has announced a new EP. Shima, which will follow last year’s Tired and True EP, arrives on November 12 via Famous Class Records. Today, Floating Room has shared a self-directed video for its first single, ‘Shmianchu’. Check it out below.
Of the new song and video, Stoner said in a statement:
This is a really fun music video for a song about some extremely un-fun topics. My people, the Indigenous people of so-called Okinawa, Japan, identify as Shimanchu which translates to “Island People.” Every day I watched as Asian people here in America were beaten and murdered and the silence surrounding it all was deafening. Meanwhile, in my ancestral land, Japan was and still is letting the U.S. build a military base using soil that contains the bones of my ancestors. A third of our people died brutally during the war and were an innocent civilian population caught between belligerents—“attacked by tigers at the front gate and wolves at the back” is how some Okinawans describe it. The construction of this new base is desecration of the highest magnitude, committed by both the U.S. and Japan, two equally abhorrent global empires. When I wrote this I was “left stranded alone in my rage,” as Cathy Park Hong writes. I can count the number of Shimanchu people I have met in Portland on one hand, so I have always been an island, but never in my life had I ever felt so alone. Writing this song allowed me to feel empowered in my isolation and through catharsis momentarily escape.
I had been wanting to make a DDR music video for a while because it’s a game my siblings and I loved as kids. It’s funny this ended up being the song the idea was used for, because in hindsight there’s something very Asian American about it.
Shima EP Cover Artwork:
Shima EP Tracklist:
1. See You Around
2. I Wrote This Song For You
3. Firetruck
4. Shimanchu
Converge and Chelsea Wolfe have announced a new collaborative LP titled Bloodmoon: 1. The album, which is based on a series of performances at 2016’s Roadburn Festival, also features Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky and Wolfe’s bandmate Ben Chisholm. It’s out digitally November 19 via Epitaph and on vinyl June 24 via Deathwish. Today’s announcement comes with the release of a new single called ‘Blood Moon’, which is accompanied by an Emily Birds-directed video. Check it out below and scroll down for the album’s cover artwork and tracklist.
“The project stretched my vocals in new ways. It’s so different than what I normally sing over that I was able to open up and be vulnerable with my vocals,” Chelsea Wolfe said in a press release. Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon added, “Our dynamics are pushing and pulling in all different directions on this record, and I find that to be creatively rewarding.”
Converge’s last full-length album was 2017’s The Dusk In Us.
Bloodmoon: I Cover Artwork:
Bloodmoon: I Tracklist:
1. Blood Moon
2. Viscera of Men
3. Coil
4. Flower Moon
5. Tongues Playing Dead
6. Lord of Liars
7. Failure Forever
8. Scorpion’s Sting
9. Daimon
10. Crimson Stone
11. Blood Dawn
Death Valley Girls have released a new single called ‘It’s All Really Kind of Amazing’ (via Suicide Squeeze Records). The track comes with an accompanying video created by Bradley Hale. Check it out below.
“Being in a body, experiencing reality as a human, is endlessly challenging,” the band’s Bonnie Bloomgarden said in a statement about the new song. “There’s so much darkness, suffering, sorrow, and division, it’s hard to get past. Sometimes, and often for too long, I just stay in the darkness, forgetting there’s anything else. And then sometimes, my guides remind me to look around, sometimes, just look around, at this Earth, at its infinite beauty and intricacy, and simplicity, and sometimes I can feel it, that it’s all really kind of amazing.”
Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine’s first collaborative album is billed as less a “cinematic exegesis” than a “rambling philosophical inquiry,” according to press materials, which isn’t necessarily the most enticing description for a record whose 14 tracks are loosely inspired by a selection of films you may or may not have seen. But A Beginner’s Mind is much more than an incoherent exercise in film commentary disguised as songwriting, and nor does it serve its source material in the same clear-cut way as Stevens’ own soundtrack work for films like The BQE and Call Me By Your Name. Instead, the project is more devoted to the Zen Buddhist concept of shoshin, literally “beginner’s mind,” which prompted the pair to go into each film with an open, empathetic mind and cast out any preconceived notions concerning good and evil.
Musically, A Beginner’s Mind has all the sonic markers of Stevens’ indelible folkier material while also evoking De Augustine’s 2019 record Tomb, a perfect match that makes as much sense on paper as it does on record. It’s also refreshingly lighter turn for Stevens, whose releases in the past couple of years alone include the five-volume instrumental collection Convocations, which was recorded in the wake of the death of his biological father, the ambitious but messy The Ascension, and Aporia, a synth-wave journey made with his stepfather, Lowell Brams. But though A Beginner’s Mind returns to the style that has defined much of his and De Augustine’s discography, the guiding principles that marked its creation also make for a looser and endlessly pleasant listening experience, free from the emotional weight of albums like Carrie & Lowell.
The simplicity of the duo’s approach is almost as essential to the album’s success as its organically collaborative nature: Stevens and De Augustine decamped to a friend’s cabin in upstate New York for a month-long songwriting retreat, where each night they would watch films ranging from All About Eve to Night of the Living Dead to the direct-to-video Bring It On sequel Bring It On Again. The fact that the films served as both a source of comfort and potential inspiration is evident in the album’s endearing, heavenly melodies and poetic but unpretentious lyrics, which can mostly be enjoyed and appreciated outside the confines of narrative thanks to the duo’s effervescent, undeniable chemistry. Opener ‘Reach Out’ is an early highlight that manages to channel the beauty of its source material (Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire) while creating something all the more transcendent and fragile in its humanity. Even when the reference points are immediately recognizable, like on the tender piano ballad ‘(This Is) The Thing’, the lyrics ruminate on broader philosophical questions (“This is the thing about fiction/ How everything feeds on its paranoia”) without ignoring – and in fact, sharply drawing from – the film’s particular sociocultural resonance.
Though not experimental in the way that some of Stevens’ more ambitious, electronic-focused releases have been, A Beginner’s Mind leaves a lot more room for the kind of playfulness that has been lacking in his recent output. ‘Back to Oz’ is driven by a lively rhythm section that makes it stand out among the album’s serene arrangements, while the cinematic ‘You Give Death a Bad Name’ attempts to deliver some of the underlying political messages of George A. Romero’s work through a cheeky Bon Jovi reference: “Shot to the heart, God bless America/ Failed from the start, what are you waiting for?”
Throughout, you get the sense that none of this would work were it not for the subtlety and earnestness Stevens and De Augustine naturally bring to their performances, their angelic voices weaving into each other to seamless and stunning effect. “I just wanted you to know me/ I just wanted to love myself,” they sing on ‘Cimmerian Shade’, a gorgeous ode to Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme, to whom the album is dedicated. “Beauty resides where your spirit dwells.” What A Beginner’s Mind evokes is less a “rambling philosophical inquiry” than a casual and frequently poignant conversation between two artists escaping into and trying to make sense of other people’s art, briefly allowing their voices to be subsumed by their subjects before emerging with something uniquely their own.
Cadence Weapon has won the 2021 Polaris Music Prize for his album Parallel World. The prize is awarded annually to the best Canadian album “based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales or record label,” as determined by a 11-member grand jury. This is the Edmonton-born rapper’s first Polaris Prize Win, having previously been shortlisted for his albums Breaking Kayfabe (2006) and Hope in Dirt City (2012). Parallel World beat out shortlisted albums by Betasamosake Simpson, Mustafa, TOBi, The Weather Station, and more.
“I want to show everybody, all the young artists listening right now, and watching this, you don’t have to be from Toronto,” Cadence Weapon, aka Rollie Pemberton, said while accepting the award. “Your experience is valuable and your art matters. The prairies got something to say.”
Last year, Backxwash won the Polaris Music Prize for God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him out of It.
After their relationship ends, Lina (Nadia de Santiago) must stop focusing on Nico (Álvaro Cervantes) and their memories together to devote her energy to herself. Her gaze will be a minute less on the past during the course of the series and more on the present, giving new meaning to the expression “time heals all wounds.”
The Time It Takes will stream on Netflix from the 29th of October.
Like Australia’s literary scene, the country’s cinema tends towards the haunted, often using the stolen landscape as a setting for troubled characters trying to disappear into the wilderness. However, more recent films use the land almost as a character – something that drives the story and informs the characters’ journeys. In the real world, Australia is perceived as a quiet, laidback nation, but in media, the country is haunted by its dark history, an obsession with true crime, and the ever-present threat of its harsh natural landscape.
Here are five haunting Australian films from the country’s growing cinematic catalogue.
The Dry (2020)
Based on the eponymous novel by Jane Harper, The Dry debuted on Australian screens in early 2021 to positive reception. The Robert Connelly-directed adaptation follows Federal Agent Aaron Falk as he returns to his hometown when his childhood best friend is found dead alongside his wife and children.
However, Aaron’s visit to his drought-stricken hometown soon turns into a murder investigation. The townsfolk are suspicious of Aaron and treat him like a suspect in the case, forcing him to recall his youth with his friends. As Aaron unravels the mystery at hand, another one buried in his memory comes to light.
Sweet Country (2017)
Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country is a masterclass in cinematography as well as impactful storytelling. Based on a true story of an Aboriginal man being arrested for murdering a white man in 1920s central Australia, the film has a distinctly Western tone – though, of course, the film is set in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Sam Kelly is a middle-aged Aboriginal man working on the farm of Fred Smith, a kindly preacher whose acquaintances include Harry March, a WWI veteran and alcoholic. Harry becomes involved with Sam’s family, hurting and threatening them while looking for one of his workers, a young Aboriginal boy named Philomac. After an altercation, Sam kills Harry in self-defence and is put on trial for murder.
Breath (2017)
Based on the novel by Tim Winton, Breath is set along the coast of 1970s Western Australia, where two teenagers meet a mysterious man known as Sando. Among other things, he teaches them how to surf and take risks. Pikelet, the protagonist, learns that he’s a former surfing champion, but he’s even more intrigued by his wife, Eva. Things take a dark turn as Pikelet spends more time with Eva, and less time with his best friend Loonie.
The film flows naturally, fuelled by powerful energy and mystery, much like the ocean that provides a backdrop for many of the story’s key moments. The settings have a darkness about them that will feel familiar to Australian viewers – particularly because of the role that the natural settings plays in all of these characters’ journeys.
Lion (2016)
Based on the true story of Saroo Brierley’s separation from his biological family in India, Lion tells a heartrending but ultimately uplifting story of a young man’s quest to discover his true identity. As a five-year-old boy, Saroo is separated from his brother at a train station. Eventually, he ends up in an orphanage. From there, he is adopted by an Australian couple and leaves India.
He grows up in Australia, never quite fitting in, but content for the most part. When he reaches young adulthood, Saroo begins questioning his origins with more scrutiny. He then begins a search – using Google Maps – to trace his journey back to his home village in India. Because the film is based on real accounts, the emotional story leaves an even more lasting impact on viewers, who may question the systems that allowed Saroo to be separated from his family so easily in the first place.
Storm Boy (1976)
Adapted from Colin Thiele’s 1964 children’s novel, Storm Boy is a timeless film set on the coast of South Australia. A sense of isolation and despair pervades the film, which makes it more suitable for older viewers than the 2019 remake, but the heart of the story remains the same.
Storm Boy (or Mike) lives with his father in Coorong, a lonely but beautiful coastal town, where he adopts a pelican and secretly befriends a young indigenous man named Fishbone. The film’s meandering pace is balanced out by its short runtime (88 minutes), but the sense of foreboding and loneliness is accentuated by its haunting soundtrack.
The first trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, titled Licorice Pizza, has been unveiled. It stars Alana Haim, the youngest of the HAIM sisters, along with Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie, Cooper Hoffman (son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman), Tom Waits, and Maya Rudolph. According to its official synopsis, the film is “the story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.” Watch the trailer, which is set to David Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars’, below.
Licorice Pizza is out in limited release on November 26 and will expand nationwide on December 25. It will mark the director’s ninth feature, following 2017’s Phantom Thread.
Paul Thomas Anderson has directed several music videos for HAIM, most recently last year’s ‘Man From the Magazine’ visual. He also shot the cover image for their latest album, Women in Music Pt. III.
Arca has shared a new Spanish-Language track called ‘Incendio’. The single was co-produced with Omar, while its cover artwork was created by Frederik Heyman, who also worked on Arca’s ‘Nonbinary’ video. Check it out below.
Later today, a new film curated by Arca and directed by longtime Aphex Twin collaborator Weirdcore will premiere via Dice.fm. The 55-minute performance will air at 3 pm ET (8 pm BST) as part of the C2C Festival, with proceeds from tickets benefitting Casa Rifugio Marcella, a temporary shelter for trans and nonbinary people who are victims of discrimination and violence.
Arca released her album KiCk i last year, which was followed by the four-part Madre EP in January. More recently, she remixed Lady Gaga’s ‘Rain on Me’ for the latest edition of Chromatica.
Tool have announced a 2022 tour that will take them through the US and Europe. “It is with great pleasure I get to announce our return to the road,” drummer Danny Carey said in a statement. “These past 18 months have been trying to say the least but from great trials come great lessons and great rewards. We are genuinely looking forward to sharing them with you.” Check out the list of dates, including shows with Blonde Redhead and the Acid Helps, in the tour poster below.
Tickets go on general sale this Friday (October 1) at 10 am local time here. Tool released their first album in 13 years, Fear Inoculum, back in 2019.
