I recently discovered (through The Onion AV Club’s New Cult Canon series) Lynne Ramsay’s film Morvern Callar. Samantha Morton plays the title character, a young Scottish woman whose humdrum life is overturned by her boyfriend’s suicide. Following her initial paralysis and avoidance, Callar places her name on his unpublished manuscript and sends it off to a publisher. Collecting his assets, she sets out on an impromptu holiday to Spain. The film’s soundtrack—featuring music by Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Broadcast, Ween, Can, Stereolab and the Velvet Underground—punctuates her existential journey of clubbing, random impulsiveness and quiet confusion. By the end, Callar seems to find solace from her soul-searching and inherited success.
Tag Archives: recommended
Portishead: Third
Third, Portishead’s first new music in more than ten years, is being released on April 28, 2008. If you’re industrious, you can preview an advance copy that’s floating around. Portishead cornucopia: Homepage, MySpace, Wikipedia, iTunes, Amazon MP3.
Indie Classics sale on iTunes
Snap up some classic albums by indie artists for only $7.99 each. My picks of the litter:
- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel,
- If You’re Feeling Sinister – Belle & Sebastian
- Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie
- III – Sebadoh
- Pause – Four Tet
- Autoditacker - Mouse on Mars
- 94 Diskont – Oval
- Music Has the Right to Children – Boards of Canada
- Dummy – Portishead
- Vocal Studies and Uprock Narratives – Prefuse 73
- What Would the Community Think – Cat Power
- Either/Or – Elliott Smith
- Quiet is the New Loud - Kings of Convenience
- Chinatown – The Be Good Tanyas
Recommended: recent acquisitions
![]()
- Amina – AnimaminA EP (iTunes, Amazon) and Kurr (iTunes, Amazon)
- Dubmood – Atari-Ska L-Attack (Internet Archive)
- His Name is Alive – Detrola (iTunes, Amazon) and Xmmer (iTunes, Amazon)
- Ida – Lovers Prayers (iTunes, Amazon)
- Keren Ann – Keren Ann (iTunes, Amazon)
- Miles Davis – The Peacocks (Amazon)
- Miss Kittin – Batbox (iTunes, Amazon)
- Pole – Steingarten Remixes (iTunes, Amazon)
- Ras Amerlock – Farther East (Internet Archive)
- Samantha James – Rise (iTunes, Amazon)
- Sia – Some People Have Real Problems (iTunes, Amazon)
- Various – The Dub Club Night (Amazon)
- Various – New (dub) Excursion (iTunes)
- Various – Resume (iTunes, Amazon)
- Vector Lovers – A Field EP (iTunes) and Piano Dust (iTunes)
Currently reading: Looking for Jake
I am about halfway through China Mieville’s Looking for Jake: Stories. I enjoyed his novels Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council, and this compilation presents 14 short fictions which combine elements of fantasy, horror and sci-fi. To me, Mieville’s writing style is reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges, H.P. Lovecraft, Samuel R. Delany, Kelly Link and Shelley Jackson.