Low In Europe
Plexi
Listening to Low is one thing but watching a grainy black-and-white documentary about rock’s least exciting band on tour in Europe is so shin-knawingly dull it verges on the comical. There’s a funny bit when… sorry, no there isn’t. I mean, at one point they stay in the same hotel as Napalm Death. Imagine that—Low and Napalm Death in the same building. Who’d’ve thought? But the two groups show mutual respect. What else? We learn that German audiences are reserved and that even though Low visit all these historical and important cities, they rarely get a chance to look around because their schedule’s so tight. It’s off the fucking hook, in a really boring way.
BOGDAN TOPOLSKI
Richard Pryor
Live & Smokin’
Revolver
Haha, this guy’s funny. He was the first black guy to tell jokes about cocaine (in the 70s) and he sweats a lot on stage. Is there a connection? You’ll want to skip the totally superflous and annoying “documentary” which has fucking Richard Blackwood talking about how much he was influnced by Richard Pryor. Umm, don’t you mean Lenny Henry? After that though you’re on a rib-tickling ride to Laughterville.
SYLVIE MARX
Berlin Super 80
Music & Film Underground West Berlin 1978-1984
Monitor Pop Entertainment
Pfadfinderei & Modelselektor
Labland
Dalbin.com
Back in 1978 when the wall was in full effect, West Berlin, as it was known then, was packed with skinny new wavers who wore black and smoked cigarettes and took speed so they could stay up all night having Super 8 parties while inventing industrial music. It was a genuinely wild and fertile time (and I’ve not actually seen that much footage of it apart from this little package.)
Berlin Super 80 is a worthwhile document from, and about, this period. There’s a DVD of short experimental Super 8 films, a CD featuring bands like Malaria and Einstürzende Neubauten, and a book which tries to explain it all. Fast-forward to the 21st century Utopia that Berlin is today and the place is littered with trustafarian graphic designers who spend months creating fonts no one needs and magazines nobody reads that they only print 250 copies of so their friends can go: “Das ist nice”. People like Pfadfinderei, who do fancy visuals in clubs—but who goes to clubs to look at the visuals? Labland is nice to gaze at but personally, I like narrative in my films, so watching a red block morph into a fucking tree into a cow while the music goes click-bleep-click-fizz makes me angry. Just keep it simple and tell a good story.
THEYDON BOIS
