STACK Jun #128

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with synthesisers,
which, in the hands
of people like
Donna Summer,
established not just
his own reputation
and hers but
the genre which
became disco.
Moroder was also
the producer of
Sparks' glorious
Number One
Song in Heaven,
Blondie's Call
Me, Irene Cara's What a Feeling (the theme to
Flashdance) and a number of soundtracks, most
notably those for Midnight Express and Scarface.
He's been sampled, honoured, cited as a major
influence and has his name on more hits than
you might imagine – he even did an eight minute
remix of Coldplay's Midnight. He never really
went away, but now he's most definitely back,
and that album title is tongue-in-cheek – because
he certainly must feel more than a little of that
particular phenomenon these days.
084 JUNE 2015 JB Hi-Fi
visit NEWS MUSIC
Adored native hip hop hero Seth Sentry has
announced his return to your speakers and
headphones, with news of a brand new album
Strange New Past, the follow-up to 2012's
smash This Was Tomorrow.
The manic MC, whose live shows have
become nationally renowned, is also embarking
on a national tour that will last nearly four
months – one of the longest tours in Australian
hip hop history. He'll be joined by Dylan Joel
and Ivan Ooze in support on all dates. The tour
starts with The Come Together Festival on June
6 at Sydney's Luna Park. Strange New Past
was created in Melbourne, with Seth joined by
long-time collaborator Styalz Fuego. The first
two singles – Run and Hellboy – both point to a
slightly more personal and reflective direction
for the MC, with Run being inspired by his
need to escape a small-town upbringing. His
latest single Hellboy is a rapid-fire recollection
of mischief and mayhem, while the track's
elaborate production scales hitherto unclimbed
heights of sophistication and musical impact.
Seth sentry's strange new past
After carrying off the AMP in 2012 for their album
Hyperparadise, Hermitude casually unleashed the follow-up
entitled Dark Night, Sweet Light in late May. It hit number one
nationally. Any lingering impression that the Blue Mountains duo
are some kind of cult phenomenon has been swiftly dashed with
the success of the album, that's been released via Elefant Traks,
the duo's home since day one. Elefant Traks is also the base of The
Herd, Urthboy (aka Herd frontman Tim Levinson) and Joelistics.
After garnering serious international recognition for their live shows,
the pair (El Gusto and Luke Dubs) have proven they're at the
forefront of Australian electronic music. Watch this space!
continued
with
Q1/ You've previously documented Hollywood producer
Robert Evans and The Rolling Stones; why Kurt Cobain?
The great thing about this story is you look for the universal,
the something that personalises it, and set it against these
backdrops – you look for the personally individual, set against
a sea of millions – but you can never be intimidated by the
material or the subject.
Q2/ The music of course plays a role in Montage
of Heck, but it's not strictly chronological. How did
you think about how songs related to the images?
The first week or two in the screening room was spent
listening to the entire catalogue, from first recording to last.
And I kind of deconstructed the lyrical value of a song, and the
musical value of the song, and tried to determine where in the
narrative it fit.
Q3/ How much did you relate to Cobain as a person?
I tried to make the film as entertaining and intimate as
I could, but it’s a story ultimately about a different time and
place. With Cobain I had an opportunity to tell a story about
my generation for the first time. I’m the same age as Kurt; we
grew up with the same cultural influences. I don’t know if Mick
Jagger would know who Speed Racer and H.R. Pufnstuf are, but
when I saw those in Kurt’s drawings, I was filled with joy.
Q4/ When the did the more crucial elements of the story
reveal themselves?
I listened to a story of Kurt talking about losing his virginity,
and suddenly it was like the end of The Usual Suspects:
everything came into focus. That word ‘ridicule’ – "I couldn’t
handle the ridicule so I went down to the train tracks" –
everywhere I looked, it started to emerge.Floyd the Barber : “I
was shamed/ I was shamed/ I was shamed.” Kurt was ashamed
by the divorce, really. Then the narrative – that subtext – really
came into focus.
Q5/ The film is extremely intimate, because Cobain
documented so much of his life. Was it a heavy
responsibility?
The movie does not even come close to encapsulating the
iceberg of documenting Kurt’s childhood. The Super 8 film of his
childhood was so revelatory I was conflicted... there was all of
this ephemera. Wendy saved ticket stubs from the first time Kurt
went to see a football game, aged 3. Everything was saved and
collated: I think Kurt got some of that from her. He kept a diary
of his life: it just wasn’t necessarily the journal. The diary of his
life was his art. This is not a movie from the outside looking in
– it’s a movie from the inside looking out.
It’s Kurt’s interior journey: the only reason
we were able to achieve that is because
he was so expressive in different forms
of media, visually and aurally.
Brett morgen Director
Cobain: Montage of heCK
Cobain: Montage of Heck is
out now via Universal/Sony.
Moroder returns
with DÉjÀ Vu
At 74, the pioneering producer Giorgio
Moroder should be slowing down, but in fact
he's started again. His new album Déjà Vu will be
his first in 30 years and the renewed interest in
him was doubtless prompted by his appearance
on Daft Punk's 2013 Random Access Memory,
in which he spoke over an archetypal Moroder
piece entitled Giorgio by Moroder. Among the
album's guests are Sia (on the title track), Charli
XCX, Mikky Ekko, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears,
Kelis... and on the album – in a nod to him
connecting with a young audience again – is the
track 74 Is the New 24. “This is dance music,
it’s disco, it’s electronic, it’s here for you,” he
says of the album. “Once you listen... you’ll
feel it… déjà vu.” Italian-born Giovanni Giorgio
Moroder moved to Germany in his mid-20s and
immediately began making a name for himself
as a producer in the mid-'60s. With lyricist Pete
Bellotte, he began working almost exclusively
Deja Vu is out June 12 via
Sony Music.
Dark Night, Sweet Light is out
now via Elefant Traks/Inertia.
Strange New Past by Seth Sentry is available
now via Inertia. He tours with Dylan Joel and Ivan Ooze
June 6 - Sept 12.
Hermitude's Sweet triumph