#justin and anna's voices are so beautiful especially when they sing together

[local-writer]

"It's just the hardest thing to love you but not know how," I think this is the part of the song 'Perfect For Me' that hit me the hardest- this was so relatable, wtf are they putting such deep songs in a kids movie for ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 10, Number 6, Part I

Infinite River

We’re halfway through the year and swamped with mid-year activities (look for our round-up next week), but the records continue to pile-up and we continue to make time for as many as possible.  This month, the slush pile yielded a wide range of music, from Burkina-Faso-ian griot to microtonal composition to snarling black metal to improvisation and jazz. 

Our reviews are split in two parts because of Tumblr's arbitrary limits on sound samples. See Part II here. Contributions included Jennifer Kelly, Bryon Hayes, Andrew Forell, Christian Carey, Jonathan Shaw, Bill Meyer, Jim Marks, Justin Cober-Lake and Alex Johnson.  Happy summer!

Avalanche Kaito — Talitakum (Glitterbeat)

Another of those cross-cultural, Afro-European collaborations that are so often great—see recent works by Chouk Bwa & The Ångströmers, Ndox Electrique and Group Doueh/Cheveux—Avalanche Kaito sets Burkina Faso griot to a rattling, pummeling noise punk beat.  I like “Lago” best, where a clatter of mixed percussion and serrated, distortion crusted guitar dart in and around a keening call and response.  Near the end of a recent long-distance drive, I listened to it 14 times in a row without wearing it out.  Still the title track is fantastic as well, its guitars stabbing in like Fugazi, its drums boxy and agitated, its spatter-painted words dicing the beat into eighths and sixteenths.  The “Kaito” in the band name comes from grioteer Kaito Winse.  The Avalanche comes from the falling-down-the-stairs-but-still-on-beat mix of strident punk and West African syncopation.

Jennifer Kelly  

Ayal Senior — Ora (Medusa Editions)

Toronto��s 12-string warrior Ayal Senior workshopped the songs that became Ora at a monthly residency he has at the Tranzac Club, a haven for the city’s most adventurous musical minds. His comrades Kurt Newman (pedal steel, electric guitar) and Andrew Furlong (bass) joined him on the journey, and together they slowly worked the sonic skeletons into fleshy bodies of song. The trio brought scene veterans Blake Howard and Jay Anderson on board to add drums and percussion when they laid the sounds to tape. Their flourishing rhythms complete the image: five beams of light passing through the prism of Senior’s celestial vision. The guitarist bills Ora as the spiritual successor to 2022’s Az Yashir, yet while that record embraced a post-COVID sea change, Ora is bathed in the light of tranquility. Senior’s folk devotionals draw warmth from the presence of his pals, taking on raga and kosmische adornments as they languidly unfurl. These hymns are beauty incarnate, guitar-centric mantras in service of the cosmic mystery that surrounds us all.

Bryon Hayes

Beams — Requiem for a Planet (Be My Sibling)

Beams is an alt.country ensemble, playing rock and folk instruments in delicate, otherworldly ways.  The voices especially — Anna Mērnieks-Duffield primarily but fleshed out in harmonies by Heather Mazhar and Keith Hamilton—float in translucent layers, mixing eerily with the meat-and-potatoes sonics of guitar, bass and drums.  As the title suggests, Beams main subject is the earth itself, its fragility, its rising temperature, its trajectory towards unlivability.  Yet though there are lessons here, in songs like “Heat Potential,” Beams steers clear of polemics.  “It’s All Around You,” especially envelopes and enfolds. Its string-swooping, gorgeously harmonized arrangements lift you up and out of the mess we’re in.  “Childlike Empress” with its well-spaced blots of keyboard sound, its ghostly, tremulous singing, is an eerie elegy for the world’s natural beauty.  The album is its own thing, but it might remind you of certain twang-adjacent Feelies side projects, Speed the Plough and Wild Carnation especially. 

Jennifer Kelly

DELTAphase — Synced (Falling Elevators)

Process. DELTAphase founder Wilhelm Stegmeier contacts a disparate group of musicians and provides them with a key, beat, tempo for seven pieces of music and allows them complete stylistic and compositional freedom. Each of 10 musicians contributed to one or more of the seven pieces, without knowing who else was involved. Stegmeier, seeking synchronicities and serendipity, collates and adds to the contributions and collages them within the given parameters. Result. The musicians, Merran Laginestra, Beate Bartel, Thomas Wydler, Brendan Dougherty, Lucia Martinez, Antonio Bravo, Andreas Voss, Eleni Ampelakiotou, Dominik Avenwedde, Kilian Feinäugle and Stegmeier come from classical, jazz, electronic and post rock backgrounds, and the music occupies liminal interstices between and across genres. There’s lots of layered percussion, electronic backgrounds and guitar interplay from the squalling electric duel on “Phase Lock” to Bravo’s jazzy riffing on “One by One” which also features Laginestra’s  impressionistic piano. That combination is a standout on an album that can occasionally meander into cul-de-sacs. Remote collaboration has become a commonplace since the pandemic but the caliber of the musicians here and Stegmeier’s skill in pulling their contributions together make Synced a fascinating exploration of compositional process.

Andrew Forell      

   

Taylor Deupree — Sti.ll  (Greyfade)

A recent microtrend involves making acoustic realizations of electronic compositions, the latest being a new version of Taylor Deupree’s lauded 2002 electroacoustic recording Stil. Sti.ll follows suit, with a reworking for acoustic instruments by Deupree and Joseph Branciforte. The bespoke Greyfade book that accompanies Sti.ll is handsome and contains a QR code to download the digital recording. The acoustic versions can sometimes fool you into thinking that you are listening to the original synth sounds, which is part of the game. “Stil.” is nearly twenty-minutes long, for vibraphone and bass drum. The vibes play both textural passages and, simultaneously, repeating dyadic melodies. The bass drum errs on the side of gentle effects rather than thwacking. Another standout track is “Temper,” for multiple clarinets and a shaker. The composition moves through a series of repeated intervals, descending fourth, ascending minor third, et cetera, with harmonic underpinning from the other clarinets and constant pulsation contributed by the shakers. Hard for clubbing, but these pieces would work quite well in a concert.

Christian Carey

Emma dj — Lay2g (Danse Noire)

Paris based Finnish producer Emma dj has the tendency to get distracted by novelty which interrupts the flow of this set and disrupts individual tracks often enough to leave the listener frustrated. If that’s the point, all well and good, but I suspect it’s not, which makes you wonder if this is all in service of the producer rather than the audience. That’s fine if there’s challenge in the music, which here, there is not. He collides bits and pieces of dance punk, chiptunes, video game soundtrack and the detritus of underground sub-sub genres into a messy mélange — a potluck casserole thrown together for a class reunion no one’s attending. It’s particularly annoying for the moments when, by design or serendipity, Emma produces a dish worth eating like “RR.dnk” for instance that sprays warped synth stabs against cowbell hi-hat, thumping kick drum and a stumbling bass line without succumbing to the over seasoning of vocal samples, jokey blips and burps or overwrought exhortations to dance. With a little more focus and balance, he may well produce something pretty good but this is only halfway there.

Andrew Forell

Incipient Chaos — S/T (I, Voidhanger)

There are times when some listeners just want a record of snarling, muscular black metal — thematics and scannable cultural politics be damned. If that sounds good to you, this new self-titled LP from French band Incipient Chaos rages and rips with all the right sorts of aggressivity. It seems that one takes chances with one’s ethics (if not one’s immortal soul) doing this sort of impulse listening in black metal: Is this NSBM? Does anyone have the skinny on that? Do we need to dig into the various “Is this band sketch” subreddits and descend into that 9th Circle of gossip-mongering and reaction? Lucifer smiles; so does Advance Publications. Is that a distinction without a difference? Meanwhile, we can note that Incipient Chaos has released this record on a politically reliable label, and while it’s unusual not to get a lyric sheet from I, Voidhanger (uh oh…), that may just be typical black metal shtick: the words are obscured because they are sooooo evil. Whatevs. The riffs are strong, if not world-changing, and the compositions have drama, if not overwhelming tragedy. Check out the guitar-centric middle portion of “Ominous Acid,” which is hugely satisfying. The down-tempo opening minutes of “Dragged Back from the Abyss” will remind you of the best of Aosoth. It’s all a lot of…fun?

Jonathan Shaw

Infinite River — Tabula Rasa (Birdman)

First came the space, now comes the rock. Infinite River’s first couple recordings had a definite COVID-era vibe to them. The Detroit-based ensemble started out as a trio, with Joey Mazzola and Gretchen Gonzales playing guitars and Warren Defever contributing tambura and a place to record. But a bliss-oriented drone might make less sense in a time when you can get out and play shows than it did when clubs were shut down and people didn’t want to go out than it does when stages are available and Steve Nistor, who drums for Sparks, is available to join in. Last year, Bryon Hayes invoked  Windy & Carl and Mountains when describing Infinite Rivers’ Prequel; “Sky Diamon Raga,” the track that kicks off Infinite River, is more like an arena rock dream of Chris Forsyth’s “The Paranoid Cat.” Much of the time this record feels rather like the Raybeats negotiating production ideas of the 1990s and 2010s, which means that the guitar tones will have you scratching your head to remember what’s being reference and how it’s been changed, but that the snare drum takes up entirely too much sonic real estate. Tellingly, the best moments come when the production is dialed back and the melodies take over, as on a Ventures-does-Coltrane interpretation of “My Favorite Things.”

Bill Meyer

Will Laut — Will Laut (Wavetrap)

Producer Ivan Pavlov AKA COH has collaborated with John Balance and Cosey Fanni Tutti, and the sounds of Coil and Throbbing Gristle are clear influences on his new EP with singer William Laut. Shot through with the feeling of dancing towards doomsday, Laut’s haunted murmur wavers just on the right side of cynicism and sleaze as he sings of living through hate, looking for the redemption of love or at least an opportunity to forget even for a few moments. COH lays down a minimalist carpet of synths and drum machines that use TG’s  “United” and Daniel Miller’s “Warm Leatherette” as templates. Most effective are the slow burn sarcasm of “Cryptoman” and the weary tango of “Wine of Love.” These are songs Brecht and Weill might have written if they had access to cheap keyboards and a primitive drum machine. Noirish, knowing and smart, the four songs on Will Laut are a speakeasy floorshow for the modern world. Highly recommended and hoping to hear more from this duo.

Andrew Forell

Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard and Quatuor Bozzini — Colliding Bubbles: Surface Tension and Release (Important)

Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard is a composer based in Copenhagen. On his latest EP he joins forces with the premiere Canadian string quartet for new music, Quatuor Bozzini, to create a piece that deals with the perception of bubbles replicating the human experience. In addition to the harmonics played by the strings, the players are required to play harmonicas at the same time. At first blush, this might sound like a gimmick, but the conception of the piece as instability and friction emerging from continuous sound, like bubbles colliding in space and, concurrently, the often tense unpredictability of the human experience, makes these choices instead seem organic and well-considered. As the piece unfolds, the register of the pitch material makes a slow decline from the stratosphere to the ground floor with a simultaneous long decrescendo.  The quartet are masterful musicians, unfazed by the challenge of playing long bowings and long-breathed harmonica chords simultaneously. The resulting sound world is shimmering, liquescent, and, surprising in its occasional metaphoric bubbles popping.

Christian Carey

[twistednuns]

February 2020

I managed to use my iPad as a second monitor for my computer. So tech savvy. Yay me!

Joking about developing a sex-based cardio programme with Manu. Powerfucking! Might help against aggression as well.

A late night phone call with Tom. Not saying much.

Making a huge pot of my grandmother’s signature veggie stew.

More Bon Appétit test kitchen videos. Chris recreating tacos. Claire making Ben&Jerry’s. Priya making her mum’s Indian curries.

Writing a letter to Lena. Drawing upside down bats (which makes them look like they’re having a wicked dance-off). Just the act of writing. I thoroughly enjoy looking at my handwriting.

Using the Salted Coconut handscrub by Lush. Especially now that I wash my hands so often when we’re working with clay at school. I feel like the peeling triggers some pressure points on my palms.

That Saturday productivity high. Cooking and preparing heaps of stuff, cleaning the windows, doing laundry.

Painting my nails like an expressionist artist.

Some portrait studies. Accidentally drawing Sirius Black.

Being really motivated to improve my Spanish. Working with Lorena, the Duolingo app and even starting my own grammar/vocabulary book.

This ultra quirky ASMR video. Also: watching videos with Erin an her boyfriend Chris. It’s amazing how well they work together. How you can almost feel their connection, how similar they are.

Carrot cake oats.

Seeing the The Darkness live again, this time with Margit. Justin’s outfit and personality, singing along, especially to Time of my Life, the band’s traditional first song after the show.

Meeting Chris. Having a Bramblette cocktail at Pusser’s. I like that place. Feels very old-timey with a rowing boat right under the ceiling. We made out in front of a tiger slide in a toy store window on our way to the next bar.

Peeling fresh carrots.

Pickling onions and making kimchi. My fermentation game is strong these days!

Looking through Dominik’s sketchbook. I loved the tree whose bark resembled a mole burrow with its underground tunnel system.

The flu. Yes, really. Fewer pupils at school. Quiet times. I’m actually surprisingly healthy. I’d guess my probiotics must play a role here… Who knows.

More sourdough experiments. Writing about it (DELICACY - a haiku. Oven-warm sourdough / salted butter, alpine cheese / and a strawberry).

Finding a really interesting list of SanFran hippie era book recommendations at the end of Robin Sloan’s Ajax Penumbra: 1969. In the mood to read Maya Angelou, Tom Wolfe, Jack Kerouac, Richard Brautigan.

Even more beautiful books: I really enjoyed Die weiße Stadt by Karolina Ramqvist, a feminist author from Sweden, and the graphic novel version of To Kill a Mockingbird. But two books that literally (well, figuratively obviously) blew my mind were Circe by Madeline Miller (mythology, loneliness, animals and plants, magic and monsters, some desperate kind of feminism, independence and strength) and Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (magical realms, university setting, psychological depth, unexpected twists and turns). I haven’t read anything comparable in a very long time and I desperately hope that there’s more to come from these authors.

A beach collecting all the world’s single socks in The Magicians. Oh and of course seeing them break the moon. What a sight. The show is super confusing, obnoxious and absolutely fabulous at the same time. Best example: the Freaky Friday szene in which Margo and Eliot switch bodies. I love how the actors took on each other’s speech patterns and behaviour.

A new addition to my colour vocabular: celadon (a greyish green; there is a type of ceramics you’ll only see in this colour which is not surprising since the shade provides such an interesting contrast to the the earthy, rusty orange of burnt clay.)

Manu telling me that he had rarely seen people with more joy in their eyes than me (“Ich habe schon Freude in deinen Augen gesehen! So ein Leuchten kann man nicht simulieren.”) after complaining about being bored and lifeless. / Making curry with or, well, for him the other night. Drinking Liqueur 43 with cinnamon and milk. Playing the Jackbox party games for which you can use your phone as a controller.

Finding myself in a well-known sitation from the past. Lying in Frank’s bed in the early morning hours, not that tired yet, when he starts talking about his life and his depression. In English, obviously, because that’s our emotional filter. Relating, since I feel quite similar. Coming up with a suggestion for a reciprocal support system. Let’s see what we can do for each other.

Looking at travel photographs. The sea, the cenotes. Longing to go back to Mexico or Australia. Diving. Taking it all in.

Dreaming of my grandmother talking about her biggest regrets in life. Weirdly she was in a little bundle under a coffee table, much like Voldemort in the last Harry Potter movie.

My weird, weird brain. How both pleasure and pain enhance my sense of smell and increase my brain activity, almost causing hallucinations and fixations on ideas. Like geometric shapes in gloomy off-colours and a beige silicon-like surface the other night. All I could think of was a benchscraper.

Blue eyeliner.

Brainstorming three-letter-words with Frank since I’m thinking of getting personalised Nike Blazers. Sad cat. Yes but. Dat ass. Why tho.

Flying squirrels. Watching them wobble through the air. How they look like cute exhibitionist when they’re extending their limbs and thus stretching their, well, let’s just call it wings.

The fact that red cabbage has an intricate pattern like brain convolutions when you cut it open.

Talking to Sonja for the first time in over two years. What a strange person. Interesting, too. At least in homeopathic doses.

Ripe strawberries and nectarines. Oh my god. I love fruit.

Meeting Eve at Pub Quiz. She identifies as female, loves swing dance, used to be an animator and I love her style. Also, I realised that really like Betty. And Dennis wasn’t mean to me for once. I love my nerd friends <3 And I learned that Starbucks was named after the first mate in Moby Dick! Also, coincidentally they asked a question about the city where To Kill a Mockingbird takes place (Maycombe, Alabama) after I had read it the week before.

Inviting Lorena to the Botanical Gardens. I always feel very happy and very much myself when I’m there. I sometimes wish I was a gardener. Lorena was late so I walked along the Spring Path outside and it might have been the first time I’ve seen a brussels sprouts plant. Inside I learned lots of Spanish words and marveled at the incredible butterflies. The huge yellow one right behind the entrance was my favourite. Its delicate feelers were fascinating.

Washing my hands at the Keg’s bathroom. Looking into the mirror. Suddenly thinking of the perfect karaoke song… Rescue Me by Bell Book and Candle! I kept singing it for days on repeat. My neighbour must hate me (nothing new here) especially since my voice is too low for the chorus.

It isn’t hard to see how such attachment patterns can undermine mental health. Both anxious and avoidant coping have been linked to a heightened risk of anxiety, depression, loneliness, eating and conduct disorders, alcohol dependence, substance abuse and hostility. The way to treat these problems, say attachment theorists, is in and through a new relationship. On this view, the good therapist becomes a temporary attachment figure, assuming the functions of a nurturing mother, repairing lost trust, restoring security, and instilling two of the key skills engendered by a normal childhood: the regulation of emotions and a healthy intimacy. // An interesting article on attachment styles and why theraphy works; it makes me want to learn more about attachment theory. This School of Life video is a nice addition as well.

That dream. About a book shop modeled after my picture of Penumbra’s 24-hour bookstore. There was an old man in a very narrow but high-ceilinged room full of books. There was no light source except for moonlight or some street lights. There were loads of stairs, very steep, leading to the back of the house. Upstairs the man would set out cat food and on the rooftop there was an old sailing boat. One day the man decided to open the door to the roof and let visitors see the ship, much like a museum; perhaps to attract customers. However, in the next night a cat-shaped ghost appeared who reminded me quite a lot of Kot Behemoth character in Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. The ghost was not amused about the old man’s decision and took away his key, a big golden one adorned with a red ribbon.

Toasted sesame makes pretty much every dish so much better.

Watching High Fidelity with gorgeous Zoe Kravitz (I adore her effortless style and her outfits), getting in the mood for making a playlist and listening to more music in general. There are all these great songs out there I forgot about.

Remembering the xkcd storm chaser comics.

Making a wicked good batch of Pho for Tom.

Spending a nice evening with Alex at Shamrock. Singing along to American Boy by Estelle. Confirming the hypothesis that the nerdy, quiet ones usually have a freak streak. That moment in the morning. Eye contact and kegel exercises.

Karaoke with Margit and Betty. Meeting Manu’s doppelganger. Same type, looks, voice. Eerie.

Making a BA Gourmet Makes meme for Steffen after he had passed his law examps. Strangely Gaby kinda looked like him after I was done with it.

Saturday morning in bed. Reading comics and graphic novels. Fresh bedclothes, surrounded by books. Since it was February 29 I thought about leap years and asked a few friends what their inner seven-year-old would have done that day (based on the thought experiment that your birthday was on February 29 and you’d age in 4-year-steps which would divide your age by 4 obviously).      

I came up with: visiting grandma / eating Cini-Minis / falling asleep with my face buried in a cat / beating my neighbour Anna at Memory / drawing while listening to a Bibi Blocksberg cassette.

Alex said he’d have been outside all day, building a snow igloo. Not noticing his mum telling him to come to dinner. If the weather had been bad he would have played with his dinosaur collection. His inner 7-year-old was a hopeless dreamer who got agitated whenever his parents had a fight. Who came home late from school every day because he forgot about time when he was talking to his friend next to a hedge with thorns that looked like tiny airplanes.

Lena said she would have been outside all day long, playing in the mud with the neighbours’ kids. Of course.

[prancis-film-reviews]

Trolls 2 - World Tour (2020) Review:

SING IT TOGETHER, LOUDER THAN EVER! TROLLS 2 IS LIVELY AND COLORFUL 🤩

written by: Prancis

It's pretty disappointing to see this movie at home when you're suppose to enjoy watching it at the cinema because of its visually-stunning animation and fun songs. Sadly, we're still in quarantine and can't go elsewhere. Instead, this was released (maybe forcely) through streaming last March 11 when its original release was scheduled, April 10. But anyway, that won't pretty much change the fact that this movie still satisfied me the way the first movie did. This sequel might not be as emotionally-driven or better than the first one, but still it was rather good.

This sequel's definitely even more visually-stunning than the first one. As you can see, we get to see a bigger vision of what the trolls' universe looks like from the Pop trolls' land, to Techno, to Classical, Country, Funk, and to the Rock trolls' land—All of them have different, captivating visuals and essence. They're all colorful, beautifully and cleverly animated. Which is the thing that I admire the most in the film. I really love the visuals.

My favorite place is the Funk one. It looks like Bikini Bottom from SpongeBob but with better colors and they even have their own technology...😂

The song covers on this one is obviously cannot be compared to the first one. The songs were good, their chosen soundtracks featured in the film were a good choice, but not really as memorable and better than the songs from the first one. Remember when True Colors was such a hit? We heared it almost everyday on the radio? Yeah, it was all because of the first film. It's songs have better impact to the audience. The first one definitely have better songs compared to this one but still, it was all good. I really admire Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake's voices tho...😭😭

Let's talk about the plot.

This film heading to the end was so damn fast; It doesn't feel like a one-hour movie. One time you're having fun jamming to the song, then a character argument comes (always Poppy and Branch), it introduces new setting and characters after, argument comes again, back to the songs then repeat 'till it reaches the climax. It moves so damn fast you will definitely wish it could be longer...😭

The plot about the evil Rock troll 'Barb' collecting the music strings to feed her desire to make Rock the only genre that shall exist is hilarious. Since this movie came out after Avengers: Infinity War, we can assume that this film's plot is really similar to that and that being said, it's inspired from that: collecting 6 artifacts, wanting to change the world? Yeah, it's the same. But I don't have any issues about that tho. I just find it funny..😂

Well obviously, we can all agree that this film is intended for children satisfaction. I was a fan of the first one and I happen to love this sequel as well; but there are people out there who hated the film because it's too plot-driven or it has a lot of scenes where it's just all about having fun and music jamming rather than focusing to the character development and all that shit. If you're not a fan of the first one, you obviously won't enjoy this film as much as the fans did—little and reasonable disappointments are expected. It's not a bad thing tho 'cause I couldn't agree more when they're actually right. We only see a few serious character conversations because the film is so busy satisfying the audience with pleasing, funny scenes and amusing cover songs and dancing.

The film still did a great job tho we have that kind of issue. Everything paid off when we realized the beauty and the message of the film. It all paid off when the film gave us a heart-felt ending with a good character development from Poppy, Branch and to Barb as well.

The final 20 minutes the film was so fun and emotional. They were at a huge concert stadium with all the 6 different trolls. It was Barb's plan to held a concert after she succeeds in collecting the 6 strings and make everyone love one music only which is Rock.

Eventually she failed. Something came up (not gonna talk about it) and Poppy broke all the strings which leads us to the most beautiful scene of the entire film: Everyone were sad and their colors fade. Everyone went silent when the 6 strings broke and their music was gone. Suddenly, Cooper's heart beat were beating loud and everyone heard it. His brother did a beat box, one did tapping and clapping and eventually turning out to be a music coming from within them realizing that music is not just about its physical instruments but also with the heart. That shit was so emotional. Everyone started singing and I lost my shit...😭😭 It was so beautiful!! That scene alone carried the entire film. Lol, just kidding!

In the same setting, the characters had their character developments: Poppy learns to listen. Branch learns to understand. And Barb learns to love all kinds of music and have friends. Then all music unites. In conclusion, the ending was so satisfyingly good!

Thinking about what I love about the film, I think it was because I was so captivated by the idea that an animated movie that I loved—now have a sequel about all genres of music in one film. I really love music and I have no issues with languege barriers or where it's from and how it sounds like. I listen to a lot of genres without prejudice and this film happens to feed my satisfaction by having all of my favorite songs and genres into one film. One thing I still couldn't believe that finally, ugh finally, K-pop is featured in a mainstream film and Red Velvet was chosen—One of my favorite girl groups. I was so happy about this that's why I was so excited to watch it. Red Velvet even did the voice over and I'm here for it...😭 Also, I'm glad that since the focus of the film is mainly to the 6 genres, It's good that Reggaeton, K-pop, Jazz and Yodele are present 'cause I love these genres too especially K-pop and Reggaeton...💕

Musical genres having their own people, their own visuals and land, kingdom or whatsoever, is definitely one of the things I love about the film too. It's such a clever imagination at some point...

I'm gonna rate this film a 7 / 10 👍

I really loved it! The movie was visually-stunning and amazingly fun and satisfying but I can't get over of how the plot moves—It bothers me. At some point, this film have some things that are a bit off also. But I can agree on the fact that this still did a great job of maintaining the fun and making the audience relate to the film. Anyways, thank you for reading!! 😉

Movie Info:

Rating: PG

Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, & Musical

Directed by: Walt Dohrn

Release Date: March 11, 2020

Watch the trailer here!

[tune-collective]

Justin Timberlake Bows Down to Bill Withers at Songwriters Hall Event

Justin Timberlake Bows Down to Bill Withers at Songwriters Hall Event

A rollicking panel with Max Martin and Shellback had more than its share of unscripted moments.

Justin Timberlake literally got on bended knee before legendary singer-songwriter Bill Withers and credited his stone-cold classic “Lovely Day” with inspiring his smash hit “Can’t Stop the Feeling.” “It’s very serendipitous that this man is sitting with us here today,” said an effusive Timberlake.

It was one of many unscripted moments at a revealing and rollicking panel discussion and screening of Trolls for which Timberlake was film’s executive producer of music. The evening was presented by the Songwriters Hall of Fame West Coast Committee for an audience of SHOF and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences members at the 20th Century Fox Studios in West Los Angeles where it was also revealed that Timberlake would perform “Can’t Stop the Feeling” at next week’s Oscar ceremony.

The dynamic panel also included a rare appearance by superstar producer Max Martin, a nominee for this year’s Songwriters Hall of Fame, and his fellow producer Shellback (Karl Johan Schuster) who together with Timberlake created the music for Trolls.

Following introductory remarks by Songwriters Hall of Fame West Coast committee chair Mary Jo Mennella and Universal Music Publishing Group president and SHOF board member Evan Lamberg who recounted “Can’t Stop the Feeling”‘s runaways success and welcomed Timberlake to the stage by saying “other than Michael Jackson, I think he’s going to go down as the greatest entertainer of our generation.”

This, however, was followed not by JT’s expected entrance but by the surprise appearance of Withers who unexpectedly took the stage. The soul crooner’s sudden walk-out elicited delight and awe from the hundreds who had braved a massive Los Angeles rain storm and gave Withers a standing ovation. This also meant that Timberlake marched out while Lamberg recounted Withers’ storied career — a moment that previewed the loosey-goosey nature of the discussion.

To wit, Withers, the panel’s Songwriters Hall of Fame moderator, didn’t launch immediately into a discussion of his panel’s impressive music bona fides or Trolls but rather spoke about shoes. Timberlake and Withers, it turns out, were previously on a panel together in which the 78-year-old enviously recalled the pop singer’s stylish shoes stealing the show. “That bothered me,” he said, so for this panel he was more prepared. “I went deep into my closet and this time I broke out my 1956 Stetson Detroit pimp shoes,” Withers said proudly. Timberlake, who similarly recalled the meeting, said he decided to wear his modest Adidas Stan Smiths “out of respect.”

The word Timberlake repeated most often when describing his good fortune with the film and the smash single was “serendipity.” He dropped it when describing the call from Dreamworks and meeting with the former powerful studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg who asked him to do all the film’s music. And he used it again when at the same time he was rekindling his relationship with the great producer Max Martin for his next record and whom he hadn’t worked with since his *NSYNC days when he was 15-years-old (i.e. “a hundred-thousand years ago,” as they kept repeating).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0K8uYEZWw

Timberlake, who voiced the role of Branch in the animated film, said his reaction to first seeing the fantastical animated outtake was, “Whoa, look at their hair! Am I high right now?” But he especially admired Trolls’ message for young girls. Two of the film’s protagonists are heroic and brave females: Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick) and Bridget (Zooey Deschanel), who doesn’t conform to traditional notions of beauty.

Another serendipitous scenario involved the former head of of Troll‘s movie studio. “I have a very good relationship with Jeffrey Katzenberg who has been the head of Dreamworks for years and years and years and years,” said Timberlake. “It felt like this was something that he wanted to be his swan song at the company [Katzenberg stepped down as head of Dreamworks Animation last August after it was acquired by Comcast]. And the movie and what they were doing with it and how cutting edge it was and how funny and irrelevant they were making it felt like a really great opportunity.”

For producers Martin and Shellback, who were in the preliminary stages of planning to work with Timberlake on his next record the timing also proved propitious. “It was an opportunity to do something not so serious,” Martin said, “it was fun.” 

  As laid back and loose as creating the soundtrack may have been, the Oscar-nominated trio said they “felt a lot of pressure” to create a hit song for the movie’s crescendo. This because Trolls is filled with classic jams such as Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September,” Lionel Richie’s “Hello,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” and the film’s emotional catharsis that is Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” that is hard to compete with.

Withers compared the pressure and competition the trio felt to create “Can’t Stop the Feeling” with what he felt opening for Donny Hathaway. “Donny was a bad dude,” Withers noted. “He was not reticent about saying ‘You better bring it tonight because I’m coming for you.” To which Withers would respond in kind. “People make each other better,” he concluded.

Withers asked if the trio faced any major changes by A&R people, an acronym for “artist and repertoire” whom the soul great disparaged as “antagonistic and redundant,” to much applause. Though the trio said there weren’t any major changes there were some lyrical adjustments. Timberlake recalled Katzenberg along with the film’s director and producers coming by the studio to read a scene in which Katzenberg himself read the part of one of Trolls‘ Bergen characters. Timberlake imitated him reading it in a monster-like voice saying “Hmmmm, do you really think this will make me happy?”

Timberlake, as the film’s executive producer of music, fondly recalled working with the cast that included Gwen Stefani, James Cordon and Ariana Grande. “There was a moment I had with Anna Kendrick who is a phenomenal singer and fantastic actress,” Timberlake said. “She was singing the song at a certain pace and I was in the control room and she was in the booth and I’m saying ‘a little more like this.’ And she goes, ‘You know I feel like I’m just singing it like you and that makes you think it’s really good.’ And I said, ‘well yeah.’ But that’s the example of the relationship I had with all the actors and they all can sing their guts out. I had a very easy job when recording and producing all of them.”

As for what’s next, Timberlake mentioned he had just finished working with Woody Allen, while Martin and Shellback weren’t sure what they could mention but said they would be working with Timberlake on his next album. JT, interrupted and said, “These guys are humble, they’re working with Pink and Taylor Swift and all your favorite artists. Whoever you like that you know and whoever you like that you don’t know, in the next three years — that’s them.”

Source: Billboard

http://tunecollective.com/2017/02/21/justin-timberlake-bows-down-to-bill-withers-at-songwriters-hall-event/