The Brain
  a weekly digest from the staff of brainwashed
V01I09 - 10041998

SITE
EXCLUSIVE
On this, the first week of October, we proudly premiere the SONG OF THE WEEK at the Coil site. Starting this month, once per week we will present a full Coil song in MP3 format which is not available on any Coil CD nor are there any plans to release it on one.

ON THE ROAD
Windy & Carl are heading out - check out their slightly face-lifted site. The music info has been updated as well with help from Windy and Carl themselves.

Also on the road are many of their colleagues at Kranky as well as the Legendary Pink Dots, Labradford are holding the Festival of Drifting in England, so take a look see who's coming nearest to you!

ACTUAL PRODUCT
Meat Beat Manifesto are releasing "Actual Sounds + Voices" this coming Tuesday all-across the USA on Nothing. Sound samples are available. Chris Miller has been viciously working on updating the discographies. Tour details are coming into focus soon.

MUSIC
IN BRIEF

HANG THE DJ
U.N.K.L.E. & DJ SPOOKY each released a highly anticipated full-lengther this past week, adding a new chapter to the book, "Excellent DJs/Producers Can't Write", the former can become a footnote in the book "Brits Should NEVER Rap". It's a tradition that dates back to Eno, Daniel Lanois, and others - they have great albums with production, but let them to do their own stuff, and it's void of any original musical idea or interesting compositional concept. If you like whiny British singers, you'll probably enjoy UNKLE, it features the flavor-of-the-month singers from The Verve, Radiohead, and Prodigy as well as the lamest Beastie rapper, Mike D; Spooky on the other hand can't stop talking about himself. We know you're good, but you don't have to tell us that. Stick to producing and remix guys, please, and offer us an instrumental version of these discs. - Jon Whitney

PAINT A PRETTY PICTURE
STARS OF THE LID/JON McCAFFERTY
Per Aspera Ad Astra
McCafferty is an 'experimental line painter' (see the cover of REM's _Green_) and a behind-the-scenes presence at NYC's famed Other Music shop. Stars of The Lid are widely hailed as the premier Stateside sound-spinners. In this unlikely syzygy, SoTL interpret McCafferty's movements while at work in his studio, and McCafferty creates an original piece of artwork (the album's cover) under the influence of SoTL's interpretations. With recordings from McCafferty's studio woven into the Stars' rich drone and the Stars' musical flux inspiring McCafferty's artwork, _Per Aspera Ad Astra_ is that rarest of prospects - the pefect commingling of artistic consciousnesses. SoTL broaden their palette to include strings ("Anchor State: Part One") and offer their tenderest and most melody-saturated suite of transcendental womb-works to date.- Gil Gershman, guest contributor and professional reviewer

HERE COMES THE FLOOD
PJ Harvey has released her second album with Flood at the production helm. "Is This Desire?" sort of crosses the streams of the Flood-drenched sounds of "To Bring You My Love" with the bluesy guitar based album with John Walker that followed. Some astounding tracks, but it's more easily digestible than the last few efforts from Polly Jean. Quite a surprise as I've come to expect the worst after everything else I've heard this year. - Jon Whitney

As always, check out the latest update of NEW RELEASES brought to you by Greg and Feedback Monitor.

MOVIES
REVIEWED

LA CASA DALLE FINESTRE CHE RIDONO
One of the finer terror tales, a real gem from the director of the intriguing _Zeder_ ("Revenge of the Dead"). Hired to work his magic on a church fresco destroyed in a fit of madness by its painter, an art restorer finds himself in a little town where everyone seems to be harboring a big secret. Thin plotwise but brilliantly presented, with dialogue so sharp and penetrating that it alone could carry the story. But that would be at the expense of the film's visuals, all of which conspire - almost subliminally - to convey an atmosphere reeking with death, depravity and decay. In a slow, lyrical manner the quirks and curiosities of the town take on a sinister pall as the viewer, like the doomed hero, is drawn into the age-old web of mania and unthinkable perversion. - Gil Gershman, guest contributor and professional reviewer

DARK WATERS
Another little village/big secret yarn, this one about the horrors which unfold around daughter Sarah's investigation of her father's death. He was the priest in a convent located in a tiny Russian seaside village, and the suspicious circumstances of his demise (impaled by a massive cross in the flooded sanctum during a freak thunderstorm) reveal a sinister sect of nuns, a visionary painter imprisoned in the convent cellar and hints of a reality far more terrifying than Sarah's gruesome dreams. For a pastiche of borrowings (and sometimes outright thefts) from Lovecraftian myth and any number of Italian and Spanish horror films (Dario Argento's _Inferno_, Michele Soavi's _La Chiesa_, Jess Franco's evil nuns, Juan Lopez Moctezuma's _Alucarda_, to name the most obvious points of allusion), Mario Baino's film is surprisingly memorable. Visually breathtaking and intensely atmospheric, _Dark Waters_ maintains a dreamlike surreality as Sarah comes closer to confronting the terror which is her fearsome destiny. Recently reissued here (as _Dead Waters_), this excellent film has been rescued with uncommonly fine dubbing and is highly recommended to any Euro-phile splatterhounds. - Gil Gershman, guest contributor and professional reviewer

FEEDBACK
HUH?
Subject: what is the url ?

What is the brainwashed page? I'm looking through frames. It would be much appreciated.

uhm, I accept the fact that most AOL users don't know what they're talking about but I don't understand what this is asking!


Subject: what did you use?

heya jon...

what program(s) did you use to create your album collection list?
looking at your source code, it seems there are places you tabbed text, which seems odd if you used a text editor. was it converted from a dbase program?

just wondering...looking for alternative ideas of software to use to maintain my label list

Thanks alot.

-Ari

plain text

LINK
OF THE
WEEK

WHAT WILL THEY THINK OF NEXT?
It's amazing what people will invent and patent. Like this object for example. Just keep in mind necessity is the mother of invention. - submitted by Vernon Jones

WHAT'S ON
MY TURN
TABLE?

JON'S PLATTER
Mouse On Mars - Instrumentals
v/vm / Third Eye Foundation - split 12" ep
Mouse On Mars - Glam
Nurse with Wound - Insect & Individual Silenced
Tricky - Divine Comedy
Tortoise/Derrick Carter - 12.10

- Jon Whitney

  © 1998 Brainwashed, all rights reserved.

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