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#Post#: 289--------------------------------------------------
RIVER OF CRIME (Project of the Week for 27th of February)
By: moleshow Date: February 27, 2017, 2:41 pm
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zaggin on yall with this one. go hog wild.
#Post#: 297--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (27th of February): RIVER OF CRIME
By: moleshow Date: March 4, 2017, 9:01 pm
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one thing i must say about River of Crime is that it deserves
more attention than it gets... the stories, especially.
i notice that folks tend to say that the instrumentation is what
makes it shine. i disagree!
the stories really sorta freak me out, honestly. in a good way!
i was, for some reason, shocked to find out that the crimes
talked about in the episodes were real things. i don't have much
to say about the actual episodes, strangely enough. they sort of
speak for themselves. the narrator is quite the fascinating
individual, though. his obsessive tendencies are fun to consider
when observing themes in Residents works. generally, if a
narrator is present and telling us of an experience or
experiences, there is generally something that they fixate on.
this seems to really start with God in Three Persons and kind of
goes on from there... like in Freak Show, Bad Day on the Midway,
Gingerbread Man, briefly on Demons Dance Alone, Animal Lover,
Tweedles!, Voice of Midnight, The Bunny Boy, even in the RCB
trilogy!
but the narrator here has a peculiar relationship with his
fixation. not only does he believe that crime is drawn to him,
but his life has been spent with crime coming closer and closer
to him. his friends (and presumably his family) are all
criminals, or connected to crimes. yet he himself is not a
criminal. his obsession is not a delusional or misguided one,
i'd say. out of anyone, he is perhaps the most justified in his
fixation!
the whole project is another instance of trying a new format
just to try it. while not everyone will or should agree, i think
they did a good job with it. it's a yes from me!
#Post#: 298--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (27th of February): RIVER OF CRIME
By: CheerfulHypocrite Date: March 5, 2017, 4:48 am
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Prince Rupert's Castle
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everton_Lock-Up
is almost at the
highest point in Liverpool. It is, as local apocrypha has it,
that Prince Rupert laid siege to the now vanished Liverpool
Castle. In 1888, Everton Football Club adopted the Castle -
actually a Gaol - as the symbol of their Football Club.
Meanwhile, not a half mile down the road, Spring Heeled Jack
appeared on the rooftop of Saint Francis Xavier's Church in
Salisbury Street. A demonic presence with something of
technology and something of pandemonium about it. Indeed Spring
Heeled Jack has been the subject of Internet Radio or Podcasting
HTML http://wtc.innersanxtum.com/the-strange-case-of-springheeld-jack-episode-one-the-ghost-of-clapham-common/
One of the big problems of radio storytelling is the need for
many voices. Voice Of Midnight achieves more with substantially
less story than The River Of Crime. Which is a shame, The River
Of Crime has the potential to become a criminologists The Golden
Barge By Michael Moorcock but it fails. The River is an
outstanding analogy that Moorcock uses as exposition for a very
human hero, Tallow. Tallow ruins the lives of everybody he
meets. The River Of Crime does no such thing.
Instead, The River Of Crime is an experiment. Like many
experiments, it fails. The Spring Heeled Jack stories are
polished and have a completeness that The River Of Crime does
not achieve. There are too many loose ends. The notions of
collecting crimes, of crimes being attracted to a person, of
crimes being a river are all powerful and yet, The Residents
fail to build anything of these. Which is compensated for by a
veneer of American, 1950's Pop Culture.
The truth is that The Boy Who Collected Crimes declaring It was
the best day of my life is the kind of cultural exuberance that
River of Crime needs more of. True, The Residents created an
online community event and experimented with new physical
distribution methods, but those achievements vanish behind the
ordinariness of the final product. Which is what The River Of
Crime is: a product.
The music is professional and tight. It does not wander off into
the cul-de-sacs of The Commercial Album or explore tonality as
Fingerprince. It is a professional performance with a polish and
a definite feel of walking on, performing, walking off. There is
nothing broken or open to speculation in the presentation. Like
the Narrator all of the loose ends have been gathered up and
filed and sorted. It is The Residents' equivalent of an
advertising hoarding.
Each Episode is too self contained. Wrapped inside the
competence of great musicians doing great music and the Narrator
doing his part. It sounds like someone was working for a living.
Great work if you can get it; but, work. Which, apart from the
new means of online distribution and the videos at the Museum Of
Modern Art
HTML https://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/8/192.
One of the big problems of radio storytelling is the need for
many voices. Voice Of Midnight achieves more with substantially
less story than The River Of Crime. Which is a shame, The River
Of Crime has the potential to become a criminologists The Golden
Barge By Michael Moorcock but it fails. The River is an
outstanding analogy that Moorcock uses as exposition for a very
human hero, Tallow. Tallow ruins the lives of everybody he
meets. The River Of Crime does no such thing.
Instead, The River Of Crime is an experiment. Like many
experiments, it fails. The Spring Heeled Jack stories are
polished and have a completeness that The River Of Crime does
not achieve. There are too many loose ends. The notions of
collecting crimes, of crimes being attracted to a person, of
crimes being a river are all powerful and yet, The Residents
fail to build anything of these. Which is compensated for by a
veneer of American, 1950's Pop Culture.
The truth is that The Boy Who Collected Crimes declaring It was
the best day of my life is the kind of cultural exuberance that
River of Crime needs more of. True, The Residents created an
online community event and experimented with new physical
distribution methods, but those achievements vanish behind the
ordinariness of the final product. Which is what The River Of
Crime is: a product.
The music is professional and tight. It does not wander off into
the cul-de-sacs of The Commercial Album or explore tonality as
Fingerprince. It is a professional performance with a polish and
a definite feel of walking on, performing, walking off. There is
nothing broken or open to speculation in the presentation. Like
the Narrator all of the loose ends have been gathered up and
filed and sorted. It is The Residents' equivalent of an
advertising hoarding.
Each Episode is too self contained. Wrapped inside the
competence of great musicians doing great music and the Narrator
doing his part. It sounds like someone was working for a living.
Great work if you can get it; but, work. Which, apart from the
new means of online distribution and the videos at the Museum Of
Modern Art
HTML https://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/8/192
leaves very
little to recommend The River Of Crime. A marvellous concept
that simply avoided becoming something of the graveyard by being
in the right place at the right time.
It is not a bad thing. The five episodes are enough. Like the
twelve episodes of Fawlty Towers. The sheen. The finish. The
competence. It is all too good. Unlike the stumbling thuds of
You, Yes Yes Yes which manage to be more than their parts, The
River Of Crime is a potboiler that falls towards the centre
instead of floating beyond. The sounds are no longer building
blocks of tape cutting but the digital cut and paste. The
effortlessness of trying something new because technology allows
it begins to show.
Unlike The Voice Of Midnight where the story grew, The River Of
Crime is a story that diminished. Hiding behind the music. Which
is not the worst thing to happen. But I like stories. Stories
that are bigger than the distillation of It was the best day of
my life. Stories that seep into the landscape only to emerge
again later. Which never really gels with The River Of Crime.
Perhaps a few dozen more listens might make it all fall
together. Perhaps.
#Post#: 389--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (27th of February): RIVER OF CRIME
By: moleshow Date: April 20, 2017, 12:35 pm
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