These reissues are commercially motivated and add little to nothing to the band’s story, even for new listeners Software’s albums sound good already and each has its own immersive vibe. In 2017 group member Peter Wergener put out a batch of remastered Software compilations, each themed: Sacral World, Ocean World, Erotic World, etc. Their later music goes further afield, as far as the dreaded saxophone and even monkish chanting - their 1995 Heaven-to-Hell sounds like an EECS major’s tribute to Vangelis’s 1975 Heaven and Hell - but the early stuff is perfect of its melodramatically austere kind. The German synthdweeb duo SOFTWARE is, for me, the archetypal ‘Berlin School’ project: endless portentous minor-key analog synth arpeggios with goofy sfnal album/track titles (CHIP-MEDITATION PART II, ELECTRONIC-WORLD, DIGITAL-DANCE, etc.), working at the lab-tech end of the ‘New Age’ spectrum. Software, remastered ‘World’ compilations.We eat heroes.Īttention conservation notice: It is what it is. I’m reminded (in another key) of Keith Jarrett’s frankly insane remonstrations with concert-hall audiences, his requirement that listeners not only observe and tolerate but participate in his weird austerities as the price of approaching or incarnating his genius, the ‘language of the flame.’ Well: ‘You’re not wrong, Walter, you’re just an asshole.’ It’s a curse to know the true cost of things and a heroic task to demand that others pay their share. Sitting in the parking lot this morning listening in private I actually cried out in disbelief. Having completed that leg of the journey, can we now not proceed but resume? Suck in a deep breath and go right back under? The music is one of God’s glories but that mediated moment, the demand it makes, I experience (however briefly) as something almost nonmusical, the composer’s uncomfortably personal insistence on a private expression against ‘common’ sense. So on record, with no break for audience and players to shift about as in the room, the too-familiar opening notes of the second movement - the scherzo, also in D minor - arrive as a kind of perverse test. Although this is not a film that can be found in the ranks of great films of the genre, it is definitely a nice popcorn cinema that is fun and shows on many levels what so many modern productions lack: passion for the genre, a feeling for atmosphere and the courage not to take yourself too seriously.The opening movement of this 99-year-old pop chestnut is its own world in 15 minutes and enough to wear out ordinary human beings, my own fallen self included. Director Dec's feature film debut comes as a bit of a surprise. The quiet narrative style is impressive, the mixture of frightening scenes and a good horror staging, which can be found in quieter moments, the conveyed film feeling, which through cinematography, lighting and scenery seems like a journey through time to better times in film history and the short playing time, the one really good pacing favors such a storyline. This is interesting with its intersection of religious horror and modern technology, which often proves to be quite real horror of its own kind. The film might open up one or two secondary storylines, but doesn't let them distract it from its path, instead integrating them for the most part appropriately into the main storyline. Facinelli also plays his role as a secondary antagonist appropriately, if not particularly multifaceted. Byrne and Segura show that they have a little more experience in the film business and are small highlights in their very comedic supporting roles. Jordan Calloway is okay, if a bit pale, and Talitha Bateman is at times a little over-the-top in her role. Elizabeth Lail in particular plays her role of a rather shy but quite powerful woman very believably. The effects are well done, the supernatural is well staged and the humor relies on lovingly written supporting characters who shine with dialogues that you can hardly find anywhere in films these days. The balance that director Justin Dec finds and implements in this film is an increasingly unusual sight. The basic idea (minus the cellphones and apps) could also have originated in the 90s, the jump scares aren't over the top and feel appropriate, the brutality of modern exaggerations gives way to the classic approach of not showing too much, but certainly not too little. This horror film does a surprising amount right, despite the attacks that modern times are not only inflicting on entertainment arts and pop culture.
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