For the 35th episode of Exit Music For Films, we first hear a cut from Mogwai’s score to the 2006 experimental documentary on a football match, concentrating on Zinedine Zidane. We also have a few longer tracks in the mix, from the movies Shame and Shutter Island, respectively. Lastly, one song from the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack from a few years ago is played, in “honour” of what would have been Maurice Sendak’s 84th birthday (June 10th), if he were still alive.

Playlist:

Mogwai – Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait OST (2006) – Half Time
Clint Mansell – Requiem For A Dream OST (2000) - The Beginning of the End - Performed with The Kronos Quartet
Harry Escott – Shame Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2011) – Unravelling
Molly Nyman & Harry Escott - A Mighty Heart (2007) - The Port of Entry
Alexandre Desplat – Argo OST (2012) - Scent of Death
Ahmad Zahir – The Kite Runner OST (2007) - Tanha Shudam Tanha
Ingram Marshall – Shutter Island Motion Picture Soundtrack (2010) - Fog Tropes - Performed & Interpreted by John Adams & Orchestra of St. Lukes
Karen O & the Kids – Where the Wild Things Are OST (2009) - Hideaway

Intro Music: Giorgio Moroder – Midnight Express Soundtrack (1978) – Chase

Background Music:
After 1st & 2nd sets: Howard Shore – Crash (1996) – Crash
Rest of the show: Howard Shore - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey OST (2012) - An Ancient Enemy

MP3 Download Link (Length: 59:39)

OR

Stream on Mixcloud

Really, the North Sea Radio Orchestra couldn’t have picked a more appropriate venue. For the music of this retrofitted, romantic-progressive chamber ensemble, St Clements fits like a glove. It shares those hints of modestly-mingled English eras of scaled-down splendour, the atmosphere of nostalgic time travel and aan affectionate polish of traditional heritage. Once you’re inside, both of them also tempt you to blissfully engulf yourself in a luxurious dream of old England – open fields, spinneys, bright stars, sunlight and green thoughts – while all around you the ruthlessness, frenetic urban pace and concrete encroachment looms and sprawls. This may all be an imaginary, selective stance. On a superficial level, you could also get suspicious of well-spoken contemporary white musicians in London warding off angst by cooking up a hand-crafted pre-industrial daydream. But this does the NSRO a disservice. You could accuse them of forcing their innocence – and maybe yours as well – but whatever else they’re doing here is done entirely without malice.

Twenty people settle onstage and get a grip on their violas, cellos, trombones, bass clarinets or whatever. Familiar London art-rock faces abound. Conductor-composer Craig Fortnam and the ensemble’s soprano singer Sharron Saddington used to bob up and down on the fringes of the Cardiacs scene, first in the psychedelic tea-party of William D. Drake’s short-lived Lake Of Puppies and then in the bumptiously charming folk-pronk of The Shrubbies. James Larcombe (Stars In Battledress’ elegantly-tailored smoothie of a keyboard player) is soberly fingering a chamber organ. His brother and bandmate Richard is boosting the numbers in the eight-strong choir, right next to the wild Persian afro of onetime Monsoon Bassoon-er (and current Cardiac) Kavus Torabi. Out in the audience, the aforementioned Mr Drake sits next to Tim Smith, his old friend and former boss in Cardiacs. Across from them, there are various Foes and Ursas and Sidi Bou Saids. There’s a sense of occasion. We get a beautifully designed arts-and-crafts-styled programme to take home. It’s a long way from Camden pub gigs.

This isn’t solely because of the surroundings. North Sea Radio Orchestra might carry their assorted historical splinters of psychedelic rock, folk, and even punk along with them, but they are unabashedly classical in intent. Even the twistiest and most abrasive of the art-rockers in the lineup are sporting the sober concentration of churchgoers, and Sharron has traded her former outfit of cosy specs and jumpers (though not her artlessly warm smile) for a modest diva gown. Craig, his back turned, conscientiously conducts the ensemble. When he sits aside to strum a little polite guitar, he has to crane his neck round anxiously, making sure that the music is still running smoothly.

He needn’t worry. Despite the shades of complex tonality which inform the NSRO’s compositions (Frank Zappa, Benjamin Britten and Tim Smith have all left their mark on Craig’s inspiration), the music flows readily. Sometimes it’s a simple organ drone as a base for Dan Hewson’s trombone expositions. At the other end of the measure, there’s the rollicking Occasional Tables: a dancing interplay between clarinets with a gloriously drunken, attention-switching Frank Zappa/Henry Cow approach. With its mediaeval echoes, and an additional infusion of the peculiar darkness of post-Morton Feldman Californian conservatoire music, it’s given an edge by the astringent, atonal vibraphone shiver (and by Craig’s strict, almost military turn on bongos).

Intriguing as these are, it’s the NSRO’s orchestration of poems which connect deepest with the audience. Mostly these are Tennyson settings (with a sprinkling of Thomas Hardy and other contemporaries) but even Daniel Dundas Maitland’s modern Sonnet looks back to ornate Victoriana. So does Craig’s music, swirling its Early Music and contemporary classical influences together to meet halfway in a polished Victorian never-never land of intricate miniatures and toymaker’s details. Sharron’s vocals – sometimes piping, sometimes emoting in keen, theatrical wails – make for exquisitely brittle sugar-sculpture shapes, while rivulets of strings and woodwind launch themselves from the melody.

The heavenly sway of Move Eastward Happy Earth sets Sharron’s winsome soprano against the lazy, streaming clarinet of Nick Hayes and against Ben Davies’ slow waltz of trimmed-down piano. The choir (with a hearty, clever enthusiasm that reminds me of nothing so much as Gentle Giant) leaps in for stepped, skipping choruses and glorious vocal resolutions. For The Flower, drifts of strings slip from the vocal line and weave busily like something out of Schubert’s Trout Quintet. Onstage, everyone who isn’t smiling looks happily dazed, as if drunk on the sunny harmonies.

And so it continues, with parts of the NSRO dropping in and out to suit the music. For Thumb Piano, Craig trims it down to a revolving arpeggio of guitar harmonics in trio with the blues-tinged fluting of Hayes’ sweet’n'wild clarinet and Katja Mervola’s pizzicato viola. Harry Escott provides a cello improvisation, impressively-voiced chordal melodies sliding on top of a slithering bass drone. James Larcombe sketches out a collage of beady, kaleidoscopic chord progressions in his studious organ solo. The chorus, for their part, sing lustily in a London melting-pot of diverse accents. For the canon setting of Yeats’ He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven, the whole orchestra sings its way through Craig’s pop-folk melodies.

When the whole ensemble is running at full strength, St Clement brightens with music. Shelley’s Skylark, in particular, is profoundly ambitious – semi-connected cello lines swing like foghorns, thick Michael Byron-ish string parts disgorge dominant melodies, and the chorus is a rich blur of voices, pumping resolution into Hardy’s words. But best of all is a generous Fortnam orchestration of a piece by his former bandleader William D. Drake – a setting of William Johnson Cory’s Mimnermus In Church. With Richard Larcombe stepping out from the chorus to duet with Sharron, and the North Sea Radio Orchestra performing at its fullest stretch, the results are captivating. The voices of Sharron and Richard move around each other in dusty, reedy, yearning harmonies (he floating up to countertenor) while strings, piano, clarinets and brass open out like a delicate night-bloomer, fragrantly illustrating Cory’s salute to flawed and transient life in the face of a perfect yet chilly heaven. “All beauteous things for which we live by laws of time and space decay. / But O, the very reason why I clasp them is because they die.”

Yes, in pop culture terms it is music for an ivory tower, or for a detached oasis where you can secrete yourself away from the world. Only a mile or two to the west, I’m sure that electric guitars are roaring out rock, garage clubs are spinning off beats and bling, and someone’s delivering tonight’s definitive urban hymn. But emerging into the City of London – all higgledy-piggledy with glass skyscrapers, Renaissance guildhalls and mediaeval street names, a ragbag of congealed history in parallels – I couldn’t care less.

Like the best musicians, North Sea Radio Orchestra tap into timeless things (beauty, transient joys, the shift of seasons). But like the stubbornest, they also know the colours and shades of the times which they’ll want to employ, finding a way to make them mean something whenever and wherever they’re played. And though an antique church and a Victorian altar cloth made a beautiful frame tonight, this music – at its peak – would’ve sounded good even if the whole ensemble had been balanced atop a Docklands trash-heap.

North Sea Radio Orchestra online:

I challenged both these “firsts” by arguing that Fitz-James O’Brien’s character Harry Escott nicely qualifies as an occult detective.  He debuted in 1855, after all, and he remains first on my Bibliography.

Why do I bring this up?  Well, I see that Paula Guran’s introduction to the recently released Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations mentions Harry Escott’s two cases — then says “The occult detective had been born.”  I don’t know if Guran had stopped by here or not.  Rhonda Knight, however, says her series on early occult detectives appearing at Worlds Without End was helped by my Bibliography.  That’s pretty neat.

This comes at a turning point in how I go about unearthing occult detective stories.  At first, I simply hunted through what others have said online about occult detectives.  This had spotty results because several of the stories named lacked either the occult or a detective — or both!  My next method involved combining search terms — such as supernatural & detective or ghost & crime or psychic & doctor — at sites such as Making of America, HathiTrust, or Google Books.  I’ve found some good stuff as a result, but I think I might be exhausting what these sources — or this method — can offer.

Montague Rhodes James, OM, MA, FBA

My next move will be to interrogate likely suspects.  For instance, M. R. James is one of the leading authors of ghost fiction from the late-19th and early-20th centuries.  Perhaps among his many stories resides a character who fits the bill as an occult detective.  The possibility led me to an interesting discussion on this very topic.  Of MichaelG’s list of James’ not-quite-occult-detectives, Mr. Davidson in “The Uncommon Prayer-Book” looked most promising.  Alas, I fully agree with MichaelG’s stance that Davidson comes close but ultimately fails to pass the test.  Mostly, it’s due to a sudden shift of personnel in the investigation.  The story is worth a read, though, to see how close it comes to a work of occult detection.

That online discussion goes on to discuss the tricky issue of choosing who qualifies as a “true” occult detective.  MichaelG makes this astute comment:  “If they only appear in one story, then that story should strongly imply that they have other untold stories in either their past or their future.”  I’m a bit more relaxed regarding what I’ve come to call the “novice detective,” those investigators who confront the supernatural for the first time.  I don’t think we need proof of subsequent cases for them to qualify as having investigated occult phenomenon with methods of detection usually found in detective fiction.  Prominent among these methods are an active pursuit of a solution to the mystery, empirical analysis, the questioning of key participants, and a certain objectivity in the case.

It’s handy when a character does have a series of cases — implied or otherwise — as does O’Brien’s Harry Escott.  However, to best trace the development of the occult detective character type, we need to include the fledgling occult detectives, too.

Despite the slick presentation and fast-paced script provided by writer/director Eran Creevy Welcome to the Punch lacks any real weight or presence despite its impressive roster of actors; James McAvoy, David Morrissey, Mark Strong, Andrea Riseborough & Peter Mullan, amongst others, providing reliably above-average work even when covering up the occasional lapses into cliché, predictability or downright absurdity.

¡BLAM!

2011  -  Certificate 18  -  USA
Rating Details: Strong sex and sex references
7.5 out of 10

I’m having a water meter fitted at home.  No longer will I pay Thames Water £36.60 a month for the few drops of H2O that I use every day.  (Apparently it has to dig up half the town to fit it, but who cares?)  No longer will I feel guilt if I wash-up, flush the toilet, have a shower or do some washing, as I’ll simply stop doing all of those things.  This will save me money and, more importantly, save the planet too.  Who would have though becoming a lazy, housework-averse, smelly slob would actually be more community-minded than keeping your whites white and your home clean?  The next time I see someone washing his or her car I’m going to go up to the criminal (and let’s face it, you can’t do much worse than destroy the whole planet), and tell them just how selfish they are.  They may as well just get a gun and start killing people.  Indeed, a clean 4×4 has a lot in common with a minigun.  In a mostly unrelated incident, the first thing I did this morning was knock an almost entirely new toilet role into the toilet, while I was using it.  I managed to knock it off the holder and in an effort to stop it falling on the floor, only managed to redirect it into the bowl instead.  (My hands were pretty full at the time.)  For the second time in about a month, I enjoyed the taboo experience of urinating onto something that’s not really meant to be treated in that way; (last time it was my mobile phone).  In a not dissimilar way, this is a film about a successful guy with an addiction to sex.  We also get to see him using a toilet in a similar fashion to me, although minus the bog role and with a ‘physical presence’ that made me feel somewhat inadequate.

This film has a story and a plot of sorts, but if you’re the sort of person who likes a story that sort of has a purpose, then you may not find it that satisfying.  On the other hand, if you like films with a vibe and an atmosphere, then you might quite enjoy it.  Depending on your world view, I guess you’ll either consider Brandon is ‘the man’ or a ‘total loser’.  (If it helps you, please feel free to insert a pair of diametrically opposed euphemisms of your choice in place of the two I’ve just used, perhaps more suited to your age and social background.)  This is actually a very good movie.  I didn’t really want to like Brandon, but somehow he manages to come across as a decent guy with two sides to his life; one a success at work and the other an uncontrollable addict that he keeps bottled up by routine and ‘rules’.  Then his somewhat messed up sister arrives on the scene.  I felt quite sorry for him actually.  This probably has a lot to do with how Michael Fassbender portrays the character, which is in a quite understated way.  The story does leave a lot of unfinished business and unanswered questions in its wake, but really, it’s the mood of the film that makes it work.  Mostly depressing (like most of what I watch), it’s a visually and emotionally entertaining portrayal of a guy with a problem, a guy with a problem that he then tries to do something about.

I really love how the music is used in this film, a mixture of mainly 80s pop, Johann Sebastian Bach and some great incidental stuff by Harry Escott.  It also seems to be part of the trigger that makes Brandon try to change his behaviour.

No cats, decapitation or chainsaws.

Recommended for perverts, obviously.

Top badass moment?  Twice in under two hours, we see Brandon make ‘meaningful’ eye contact with attractive women on the Subway.  I’ve spent hundreds of hours on the Tube and never managed that; in fact I’ve only seen it happen once between anyone.  Somehow that’s badass, or jealousy, I’m not sure which.

Shame at IMDB (7.3/10)

North Sea Radio Orchestra: ‘North Sea Radio Orchestra’ demo EP

He could use some backup, to tell the truth. This time, budget constraints mean that the NSRO’s flexible little company of clarinets, piano, violin, organ, cello and harmonium (plus Craig’s own nylon-strung electric guitar) gets squeezed into a recording vessel too small to give them justice. It’s a measure of the music’s innate charm that it transcends these cramped conditions, aided in part by the loving assistance of head Cardiac Tim Smith at the console.

Music For Two Clarinets And Piano, in particular, strides out in delicious pulsating ripples as it evolves from a folky plainness to an increasingly brinksman-like disconnection. The clarinets hang off the frame of the music like stunt-riders, chuckling and babbling cheerfully at each other, held up by bubbling piano. The keyboard trio of Nest Of Tables also overcomes the plinking tones of the necessarily-synthesized vibraphone and harp to embark on a long, waltzing journey over a stack of tricky chords: leaning on the piano, the benevolent spectres of Tim Smith and Kerry Minnear nod approval in the background like a pair of proud godfathers. Organ Miniature No. 1 (written and delivered by SIB’s James Larcombe) manages to find a convincing meeting point for relaxed Messiaen, strict chapel and the better-groomed end of Zappa.

For many it’ll be the three Alfred Lord Tennyson settings which encapsulate the heart of the North Sea Radio Orchestra’s appeal. Featuring the soprano vocals of Sharron Saddington (Craig’s longtime musical and romantic partner), they’re as tart and sweet as freshly pressed apple juice. Somehow they manage to dress the poems up in artful, beautifully-arranged chamber flounces and frills without swamping them in too much chintz. It’s a fine line, which the NSRO tread by matching Tennyson’s blend of mellifluous personal introspection and cosmological scenery with similarly perfumed and illuminated music. Soft but increasingly detailed puffs of chamber organ gently rock Sharron’s summertime lament on The Lintwhite, from where it’s cradled in its bed of harmonium. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Craig chooses to orchestrate The Flower (a fable of beauty, nurture and prejudice which conceals a sharp judgmental barb) with a muted brass arrangement reminiscent of another sharp musical fabulist, Kurt Weill.

The crowning glory is Move Eastward Happy Earth, where Sharron sings a hymnal wedding waltz over joyfully welling piano. Refusing to sing in either classical bel canto or pure pop, Sharron comes up with her own tones in a full sweep of approaches between urchin, candyfloss and diva: here, she carols in a kind of beautifully-mannered choirboy ecstasy. She’s backed up by an exuberant miniature chamber choir who sweep between yo-ho-ho-ing madrigal accompaniment and full-throated burst festive celebration via a set of boldly harmonised canons. It’s a little trek through the bluffness and friendly beauty of English music – all clotted cream and cider.

Perhaps that last idea is as fancifully romantic of me as is Tennyson’s own image of the spinning planet, racing him on towards his marriage day. Or perhaps underneath it all I’m being as phoney as John Major, last decade, waxing corny about a vintage Albion of cycling spinsters and cricket whites on the village green. Dreams of English innocence and cleanliness can end up trailing their roots through some pretty murky places unless you’re careful. Nonetheless, for three-and-a-half minutes North Sea Radio Orchestra could restore your faith in its well-meaningness – all without a trace of embarrassment, or recourse to snobbery. They earn their right to their genuine dreamy innocence, and (for all of their blatant nostalgia) to their sincerity too.

Shoebox recording or not, here’s a little piece of wood-panelled chamber magic for you.

North Sea Radio Orchestra: ‘North Sea Radio Orchestra’ demo EP
North Sea Radio Orchestra (no catalogue number or barcode)
CD-only EP
Released: 2002

Buy it from:
Best obtained second-hand.

North Sea Radio Orchestra online:

Howard Shore’s 2012 output will probably be more remembered for his return to Middle Earth scoring Hobbit I, and so to Metric and their latest album, Synthetica, than for their collaboration on David Cronenberg’s latest oddity. Shore’s worked with Cronenberg many times before (his score for The Fly is a particular favourite), and so too with Metric on some other Robert Pattinson movie (Twilight: Eclipse), but here they capture Cosmopolis’ cool sheen as well as imbuing the film with all the emotion and warmth missing from the text. And the appearance of rapper K’Naan on ‘Mecca’, despite sounding initially silly and simplistic, especially in the context of the film, has been lodged in my brain ever since. Swirling, pulsing, electric, and totally awesome.

2. The Master – Jonny Greenwood

Having made his mark with his exceptional, dark and foreboding work on There Will Be Blood, Norwegian Wood and We Need to Talk about Kevin, Greenwood’s music for Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest may be his lightest, most hopeful-sounding score yet. That’s not saying a lot, as there are still unsettling elements, harsh, clipped woodblocks that keep you on edge, but there is something freeing and fluid about the way the strings heave and sigh too. Another great achievement.

3. Prometheus – Marc Streitenfeld

As flawed as Prometheus was, the one component that fully sold a sense of exploration and wonder was Marc Streitenfeld’s score. In this day and age of incessant Hans Zimmer mimicry, where big ominous blasts and the sound of an orchestra crumbling mid-recording are the blockbuster default settling, it’s nice to hear a score with a distinct theme,  that feels as grand as the themes the film itself tries to tackle. Wide-eyed and awe-inspiring, Streitenfeld’s music here is reminiscent of TV Star Trek themes at their very best, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

4. Dredd – Paul Leonard-Morgan

A meaty gritty adaptation of everyone’s favourite law-dispenser deserves such a score as this. Crunchy beats for the action, glorious dreamy flourishes for the “slo-mo” sequences, with hollow dusty electro-industrial soundscapes adding an ambient backdrop. Combined with Anthony Dod Mantle’s impeccable cinematography, it’s a great marriage of sound and vision. Bonus points for having Matt Berry’s theme from Snuff Box make an appearance too.

5. Shame – Various Artists

Though having the one-two punch of Blondie’s ‘Rapture’ and Tom Tom Club’s ‘Genius of Love’ is obvious soundtrack gold for me, and sure Carey Mulligan’s rendition of ‘New York, New York’ is a showstopper (in the film that is, not so much listened to separately and cold), it’s Harry Escott’s compositions amongst the assorted jazz and classical that really stand out. Like a big, brooding wave ready to crash, it’s the soul of a film focused on someone desperately looking for one (a soul, that is, not a film, ya dummy).

6. Skyfall – Thomas Newman

Director Sam Mendes brought in regular collaborator Thomas Newman (just as well as regular Bond composer David Arnold was on Olympic duties), and while the Bond tunes is present and correct, and the action scenes are filled with fairly indistinct bluster and bombast, he adds a lot of personality elsewhere. There’s a melancholic tinge that permeates throughout the quieter moments, and it feels far more of a complete cinematic score of its own than the typical collection of themes and stings that Bond films can sometimes end up being.

7. ParaNorman – Jon Brion

ParaNorman’s quirky charm lends itself well to Jon Brion’s sensibilities, but alongside the breezy guitar strumming, there’s also 80s-horror-inspired synth for when the dead rise from the grave. It works a treat, and there are nice unconventional appearances from The White Stripes and Dizzee Rascal too.

8. Le Voyage Dans La Lune – Air

Air follow in the footsteps of Pet Shop Boys with Battleship Potemkin and Giorgio Moroder with Metropolis – though a bit more of the former than the latter – with their soundtrack to George Méliès’ iconic 1902 film in the restored colourised version that premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Spacey, trippy goodness.

9. Moonrise Kingdom – Various Artists

It’s a Wes Anderson film, so you might expect, as much care and attention has been put towards the music as the visuals. Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra in both diagetic and non-diagetic contexts, and neatly mirrored in Alexandre Desplat’s own compositions, sits side-by-side with Hank Williams and Françoise Hardy, but it all fits together very nicely indeed.

10. Wrong – Tahiti Boy & Mr. Oizo

I’ve not seen Quentin Dupieux’s follow-up to Rubber – it’s played various festivals since premiering at Sundance, but not yet in the UK as far as I am aware – but being that Dupieux is also Mr. Oizo (of Flat Eric fame), his team-up with Tahiti Boy on the soundtrack to his latest film is a delightful mix of cool squelchy beats and sunshiney muzak.

Tracks from all 10 of my favourite soundtracks of the year can be found on the Viewing Gum Soundtracks of 2012 Spotify Playlist, alongside a few other choice selections.

Before this discovery, it had struck me as odd that the league of early occult detectives–Flaxman Low, Luna Bartendale, Carnacki, Sheila Crerar, John Silence, and quite a few others–all seemed to be British.  Surely, hidden in dusty, old magazines, there must have been one or two Americans, right?  After all, a lot of magazine fiction was published from the mid-1800s into the early-1900s.  I went searching for Harry Escott’s compatriot.

Alexander M. Reynold’s occult detective in training, the Chief

And I found what I was looking for!

A short story called “The Mystery of Djara Singh” was published in the November 1897 issue of Overland Monthly.  Written by Alexander M. Reynolds, this tale features a New York cop, referred to only as “the Chief,” who reluctantly comes to accept that there are more things than are dreamt of in his philosophy of criminal methods.  In fact, someone appears to be astral projecting, passing through walls, and making off with the loot!  By the end, the likely suspect is identified–but not apprehended–and the Chief is last described as “studying occult philosophy and speculating about the advisability of introducing to the police department a corps of trained spiritualists.”  It feels like the start of something longer rather than a neatly tied up short story.

So far as I can tell, though, no subsequent adventures of the Chief appeared.  Searching for more information, I came across a wonderful site called Fantastic Victorania, which includes a description of the Chief.  (You’ll have to scroll down or do a word search for it).  There, Jess Nevins shows that I’m not the first to claim that this character belongs among the occult detectives.  Nevins adds that, despite a few other publications, Reynolds seems to have passed into literary obscurity.  I found that Reynolds wrote an intriguing “future history” titled “The Mind Motor” and a sequel, “The Banker of Nations,” both destined to be “published in 2096.”

1897, the year “The Mystery of Djara Singh” was published, was important for occult detectives.  Bram Stoker’s Dracula was also published, and its vampire-hunter extraordinaire, Abraham Van Helsing, is often seen as at least a prototypical occult detective.  Now, this is sketchy, but 1897 also seems to be the publication year of “The Mystery of the Felwyn Tunnel,” a story in the John Bell series by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace.  Bell gets tossed in with the occult detectives occasionally, even though he has a persistent habit of debunking anything supernatural about the cases he investigates.  In this respect, he’s more like Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles or “The Sussex Vampire.”  I confess I haven’t devoted much time to charting where exactly “The Mystery of the Felwyn Tunnel” comes in respect to the other Bell stories.

This I do know:  E. and H. Heron’s Flaxman Low is routinely cited as the first occult detective proper, and this character first appeared in 1898, a year after the Chief.

Master criminal Djara Singh, a precursor to Fu Manchu

It is unfortunate that there only seems to be one story featuring the Chief.  This one story becomes even less worth boasting about when we consider its “Oriental” master criminal.  The astral-projecting, bank-robbing Djara Singh foreshadows Yellow Peril foes such as Fu Manchu.  Overland Monthly, which printed the story, was a western U.S. magazine, and anti-Asian sentiments were especially prevalent there since the Gold Rush.

Nonetheless, the Chief stands beside Harry Escott as proof that occult detectives had a presence in the U.S. before they blossomed in Britain after the turn of the century.

Perhaps even a few more are waiting to be unearthed.

YBS staff, including Michelle Concannon, third from left, along with volunteer Dart Lifeboat Crew Kev Murphy and Buster Hart watching volunteer tractor driver Monty Halls at the end of his half hour stint on the rowing machine.

A fundraising Rowathon at Dartmouth’s Yorkshire Building Society branch has brought in £238 for the RNLI.

The event, held during a special fundraising day at the branch on August 9, inspired employees, volunteer crew and even lifeboat tractor driver Monty Halls to put in huge amounts of effort.

Fittingly for an event held during the Olympics every person who jumped onto the rowing machine, which sat in bright sunshine on the South Embankment outside the branch, wanted to post an impressive distance in their half-an hour slot.

During the eight hours the rowing machine was whirring away, the volunteers and staff rowed an incredible 60 miles.

Branch manager Michelle Concannon challenged who has herself run half marathons and completed skydives this year in aid of the RNLI – Yorkshire Building Society’s charity of the year – said she was delighted by the result of the fundraising day.

“The day was a great success, we had lots of fun!” she said. “People really went for it and tried to go a long way in their stints. We held a raffle for the RNLI and a competition to see who could guess the distance everyone would row during the day. We are delighted by the amount we have raised during the event, and across the whole year too – the RNLI is a wonderful charity and Yorkshire Building Society are pleased to support it.”
Dart RNLI Fundraising Committee Chairman Harry Escott said: “The Dartmouth branch have done so much this year to bring in funds for the RNLI – Michelle and her team can be rightfully congratulated as they have made a real difference this year. Thank you to them!”

Harry Escott, Ian Barnett, Ian Feetenby and Martin Jackson with the Dart Lifeboat at the recent RNLI fete, at which the special fundraising CD “Call for the Lifeboat” was launched.

The Dart Inshore Lifeboat will benefit from sales of a new CD recorded by Kingsbridge band Storm UK.

The five-track CD “Call for the Lifeboat” was recorded by band members Martin Jackson, Ian Feetenby and Ian Barnett in just two weeks after a friend of Ian Feetenby suggested the band’s music could help the lifeboat.

The CD’s title track was written especially for the CD and all the tracks have some connection to the sea.

Martin said it had been a great experience.

“We are delighted to support the Dart Inshore Lifeboat,” he said. “We have been playing together for a while, and love making music – but to help raise funds for such a worthy cause is brilliant. The writing and recording process was a lot of fun too – and we have produced a CD of which we are very proud. We hope it brings in lots of funds for the lifeboat.”

Dart Lifeboat fundraising committee chairman Harry Escott said: “We are so pleased that this wonderful local band has decided to support us with a specially produced CD. We played it at our recent fete, where the CDs were first on sale, and the reaction was tremendous – people loved the music and the CD sold very well. Thanks to Martin, Ian and Ian for this wonderful gesture to help raise funds for the lifeboat.”

The Dart RNLI Fundraising committee has also been celebrating a successful Flag day on Friday August 3 – collecting £1,103.

The CD is on sale at a price of £5 and all of the money raised will go to the Dart Lifeboat. They are available from Tony Kirkland on 01803 732877 or Harry Escott 01803 834296. CDs will also be on sale at the following events from the RNLI sales gazebo; the Stoke Fleming Horticultural & Sports Show, at Dart Lifeboat Station during Dartmouth Regatta and Kingswear Regatta September 9.

Sainsbury’s Colleagues visited the Dart Inshore Lifeboat Station on Dartmouth’s Coronation Park to meet Richard Eggleton, the crewman they are supporting this year through their fundraising activities.

 The colleagues, who visited with Dart Lifeboat Station with  Fundraising committee chairman Harry Escott on July 27, met Richard after choosing the RNLI on the Dart as their charity of the year.

Each year Sainsbury’s in Dartmouth choose a charity, which is nominated by local people. Nominations are invited and then the three most popular charities are asked to give a presentation to the “Colleague Council” at the store who then choose which charity they will be supporting with fundraising throughout the year.

The council responded to Harry’s appeal at the RNLI presentation to support the training of a crewmember – and kitting them out too.

Richard Eggleton is the newest member of the Dart RNLI Crew – he signed up after moving to the town with his wife and young family last August, and has already gone out on two call outs.

Training a crewmember costs on average £1,500, and buying all the kit each crewman uses – dry suit, helmet, lifejacket and so on – costs £1,160.

After choosing to support the Dart RNLI, Sainsbury’s sent their colleagues to meet Richard and have a tour of the station.

Jan Wilding said: “We have very clear criteria for the charities we support. We were delighted to support the Dart RNLI because it fulfilled all of them, especially the desire to see a definite outcome from the fundraising. Knowing that we are helping to train Richard and make sure he has the best possible lifesaving equipment is a wonderful outcome and we were all delighted to meet up with him and Harry and see the lifeboat station.”
Harry Escottt said: “We are so pleased that the colleagues at Sainsbury’s in Dartmouth have decided to support us and Richard’s training. Although the RNLI is a national charity it is very locally organised. The recent spate of shouts shows there is a clear need for a lifeboat on the river Dart and Richard is an excellent addition to the 20-strong crew. We will update the colleagues on Richard’s progress through the year and let them see what their fundraising activities are supporting.”

All by Fiona Apple. (On Saturday I just went up and down her entire discography. As far as I’m concerned she has only one bad song, and that’s her feature on Johnny Cash’s cover of “Father and Son.” Don’t bother looking it up, it’s pretty awful. Even Boyzone did this better, if you can believe it.)

“Fear Fun” by Father John Misty. (Josh Radnor is new on Twitter, and so far he has been giving out one awesome music recommendation after another, among them this great folk album from former Fleet Foxes drummer J. Tillman.)

“Shake a Bone” by Son of Dave. (Ever since hearing the title track in the – highly recommended - “Breaking Bad”-playlist, I’ve been fascinated by Son of Dave, whose style I wouldn’t dare describe with mere words. It’s nothing like I’ve ever heard before.)

“Shame (Soundtrack)” by Harry Escott, Glenn Gould, and others. (Skip past the never-ending rendition of “New York, New York” – it hardly worked in the movie, where it was supposed to be unbearable; there’s really no point to it at all if you can’t at least look at Carey Mulligan or Michael Fassbender – and you get a few Goldberg Variations, some jazz, some pop and at it’s heart Harry Escott’s beautifully haunting score, which I have been listening to over and over last week. If you’re sad – and I was – this will take your sadness, blow it up, fill the room, the city, the world you’re in, and, then, release it.)

Shame (2011)

  Directed by Steve McQueen (‘Hunger’) and starring Michael Fassbender, ‘Shame’ is a bold, beautifully shot film about a highly-paid worker in New York, Brandon Sullivan (Michael Fassbender), who suffers from sexual addiction. While Brandon is able to shuffle work and (his idea of) play reasonably successfully on a daily basis, his daily routine starts to spin out of control, and his life priorities are put to the test, when his sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), decides to pay him a visit and stay for a few days in his apartment.

  Like ‘Hunger’, ‘Shame’ is a film about human endurance and extreme forms of human behaviour. Essentially, it is a film about a battle of a mind over body. The most fascinating thing about the film, however, in my opinion, is the character of Brandon. He seems cold, detached and emotionally void. However, it is clear that this is only the facade. There is a lot going on inside Brandon. He is self-conscious about his ‘deficiencies’, feels high levels of shame and frustration as to his addiction, but also has genuine desire to lead a normal life (he bins his porn collection and his porn ‘infected’ computer and also tries his hand at romance and intimacy). As it seen from the scene where Sissy performs Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’ in a bar, Brandon is capable of a real, deep emotion. The problem for Brandon is that he thinks he is going to lose control (which he desperately needs and gets through the performance of sexual activities) when he decides to venture into the territory connected with something as unpredictable as human relations and emotions attached to that. When Brandon’s sister arrives to New York and ‘imposes’ herself on her brother and his lifestyle, Brandon is forced for the first time to confront his problem and deal with it. This reminds of ‘American Psycho’ (2000), a film based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. In ‘American Psycho’ and in ‘Shame’, there is this image of a middle-aged, modern man, who seems to ‘have it all’, but who also labours a dark secret inside, a secret he is too ashamed to admit to anyone.

    In terms of the film giving an explicit, detailed account of the disorder by the name of sexual addiction, it cannot get any better. As Brandon indulges in the sexual activities, he thinks he is in control. Perhaps bad things were happening to Brandon when he was younger, which were outside his control, and now he takes a special delight in being in control of situations which give him immense pleasure. However, deep down he knows that he lacks control because he is unable to stop. Brandon’s urges reign over him. He is the man trapped in a circle of sexual indulgence, in desires of his own body and in a fear of exposure. He projects outside confidence, but inside he is constantly competing for control and relief.

    Another interesting character in the film is Brandon’s sister, Sissy. Both Brandon and Sissy seem to share the same troubled past (probably revolving around sexual and/or emotional abuse), as Sissy tells Brandon: ‘We’re not bad people, we just come from a bad place’. However,their copying mechanisms seem to be different, although arguably as ‘extreme’ in nature. If Brandon is after sex and control, Sissy craves love, intimacy and emotional connection. If Brandon is capable to satisfy easily his momentary sexual urges, for Sissy it is much more difficult, as in order to be completely happy she needs someone who loves her to be near her. This is why, I think, Sissy is more ‘damaged’ than Brandon in every way. What is so moving in the film is that Brandon feels his sister’s pain and he is unhappy and guilty that he is incapable of providing her the brotherly love she so desperately craves. Brandon knows well the gap which he created between himself and the rest of the world, especially his sister, and tries desperately to bridge it.

      The advertising banners and posters in the film’s underground scenes captured my attention. This sounds trivial, but it is only so on the surface. For example, we see a poster on the tube, which reads, ‘Improving Non-Stop’ (no doubt referring to the underground works), when Brandon leaves the underground train after his homosexual and heterosexual encounters. In Brandon’s context the slogan ‘Improving Non-Stop’ can be interpreted differently, e.g. Brandon just improved his sex technique/endurance or the poster slogan is mocking him because Brandon just succumbed to his urges once again rather than combated them. When Brandon first sees the red-haired woman stranger on the train, there is a poster near her which reads: ‘How is it possible’. It is not impossible that this is exactly what Brandon thinks when he sees the lady stranger for the first time.

    Michael Fassbender gives a brave and brilliant performance in ‘Shame’. The actor exposes himself both emotionally and physically. Fassbender’s acting is so masterful that we truly feel Brandon’s dilemma, his desperation over his addiction, his frustration as he is unable to put a stop to it and his pain on seeing his sister crushed again and again before his eyes with him being totally unable to help her in anyway. The facial expression adopted by Fassbender as his character watches his sister sing ‘New York, New York’ in a nightclub, is priceless. It conveys everything he feels deep inside, but is unable to express. Fassbender also makes the audience sympathise with Brandon.

   The fact that the Oscar Academy chose to ignore Fassbender’s role in the film only proves further how meaningless its nominations have become over the years. At least Fassbender’s outstanding performance in ‘Shame’ was distinguished at the Venice Film Festival in September 2011, where Fassbender won the best actor award. Carey Mulligan also does a very good job portraying emotionally disturbed Sissy Sullivan.

   The main score to ‘Shame’, ‘Unravelling’, composed by Harry Escott, is so hauntingly beautiful as to easily rival any musical masterpieces composed by Hans Zimmer. ‘Unravelling’ fits the picture perfectly, reflecting Brandon’s shameful desires, growing frustration with his addiction and aspirations to lead a normal life. The music has its low and high ‘points’, taking the listener from deep depression and hopelessness of Brandon’s addiction, to sporadic glimpses of hope as the character tries to battle his way through his daily urges.

   Given the time it took to film ‘Shame’ – less than a month, the film becomes an outstanding achievement of Steve McQueen, the director. Special attention should be drawn to the exceptional camerawork. In some scenes it is quite unusual. As the camera is sometimes absolutely still and shoots from very interesting angles, the film sometimes has an almost documentary, objective feel to it, ‘detached’ from what is going on. This way the camera does not ‘judge’ Brandon or anyone else in a scene, but just portrays people and their situations as they come.

    Finally, ‘Shame’ can be compared to ‘A Dangerous Method’ (2011) directed by David Cronenberg. Arguably, if ‘Shame’ possesses all the depth and intelligence needed to portray, and deal with, such a controversial screen issue as sex, ‘A Dangerous Method’ totally lacks it. ‘Shame’s silences speak volumes, while overly talkative scenes of ‘A Dangerous Method’ hardly even constitute a ‘cure’ for the film’s numerous drawbacks. ‘A Dangerous Method’ never shows naked emotion, but perhaps it should. ‘Shame’ is explicit, ‘naked’, ‘raw’, and definitely rings the truth unlike ‘A Dangerous Method’.

    ‘Shame’ is an emotionally charged and tragic film about a life of a sexual addict with a thought-provoking ending. Bold, original and absolutely beautiful, ‘Shame’ is undeniably an outstanding piece of cinematography to become a cult masterpiece in no time 10/10 

Besides, if Congress goes ahead with its plan to give itself the power to censor great swathes of the internet in order to prevent citizen activism during times of social strife which are probably around the corner… erm, I mean, combat the ev0l of piracy, obvs… then I’d better get this shit up now because most of this post is made up of publicity photos and clips from YouTube and I’ll have to “police” myself in future to make sure none of this stuff ever appears again. Thanks for ruining the best thing in the world, Overlords. Like you haven’t done enough damage already.

DOWN WITH SOPA! DOWN WITH PIPA!

* This is a lie. He wasn’t crazy about Strong really.

Best Director: David Cronenberg – A Dangerous Method

Honorable Mentions:

Andrea Arnold – Wuthering Heights

Steve McQueen – Shame

Lars Von Trier – Melancholia

Jeff Nichols – Take Shelter

Asghar Farhadi - A Separation

Best Directorial Debut: Joe Cornish – Attack The Block

Honorable Mention: Sean Durkin – Martha Marcy May Marlene

Best Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi – A Separation

Honorable Mentions:

Kenneth Lonergan – Margaret

Christopher Hampton – A Dangerous Method

Scott Z. Burns – Contagion

Bridget O’Connor / Peter Straughan - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

John Logan / Gore Verbinski / James Ward Byrkit – Rango

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki – The Tree of Life

Honorable Mentions:

Robbie Ryan – Wuthering Heights

Anthony Dod Mantle - The Eagle

Sean Bobbitt – Shame

Amelia Vincent – Footloose

Rodrigo Prieto – Water For Elephants

Best Digital Photography: Roger Deakins – Rango

Best 3D Photography: Robert Richardson – Hugo

Best Editing: Paul Hirsch – Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Best Soundtrack: Cécile Corbel – Arrietty

Honorable Mentions:

Hans Zimmer - Rango

Harry Escott – Shame

John Powell / Hans Zimmer – Kung Fu Panda 2

Cliff Martinez – Drive

Michael Giacchino – Super 8

Best Original Song: Star Spangled Man (Alan Menken / David Zippel) – Captain America: The First Avenger

Best Costume Design: Eiko Ishioka – Immortals

Honorable Mentions:

Alexandra Byrne – Thor

Wendy Partridge - Conan The Barbarian

Anna B. Sheppard - Captain America: The First Avenger

Paco Delgado / Jean Paul Gaultier – The Skin I Live In

Trish Summerville – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Best Visual Effects: Digital Domain, ILM, Legend 3D and many many more - Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Honorable Mentions:

Modus FX, Tippett Studio, Scanline VFX and again, many more – Immortals

Prime Focus, Animal Logic, Pixomondo and… you know what I’m going to say – Sucker Punch

ILM, Hammerhead, Entity FX, and dear God, how many FX houses are there in the world? - I Am Number Four

Digital Domain, Buf Studios, Stereo D, etc. etc. etc. sorry guys – Thor

Douglas Trumbull, Prime Focus, Double Negative, but mostly hey check it out, it’s Doug Trumbull! – The Tree of Life

Best Sound Design: Nicolas Becker – Wuthering Heights

Honorable Mentions:

Erik Aahdahl / Ethan Van der Ryn – Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Koji Kasamatsu – Arrietty

Oliver Tarney / Mark Taylor – Sherlock Homes: A Game of Shadows

Ren Klyce - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Peter Miller / Adam Kopald – J.R. Grubbs / Addison Teague – Rango

Best Production Design / Art Direction: Dante Ferretti – Hugo

Honorable Mentions:

Mark “Crash” McCreery – Rango

Bo Welch / Maya Shimoguchi – Thor

Chris August – Conan The Barbarian

Scott Chambliss / Christopher Burian-Mohr / Daniel T. Dorrance - Cowboys and Aliens

Tom Foden / Michele Laliberte - Immortals

Worst Director: Paul Johansson - Atlas Shrugged: Part I

Dishonorable Mentions:

Madonna – W.E.

Rob Marshall – Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Lone Scherfig - One Day

Paul W.S. Anderson – The Three Musketeers

Ivan Reitman – No Strings Attached

Worst Screenplay: Madonna and Alex Keshishian – W.E.

Dishonorable Mentions:

John Aglioloro / Brian Patrick O’Toole – Atlas Shrugged Part I

David Nicholls – One Day

Elizabeth Meriweather / Michael Samonek - No Strings Attached

Jason Lew - Restless

Tom Hanks / Nia Vardalos – Larry Crowne

Worst Cinematography: Dion Beebe – Green Lantern

Dishonorable Mentions:

Hagen Bogdanski – W.E.

John Mathieson – X-Men: First Class

Masanobu Takayanagi – Warrior

Adriano Goldman – 360

Ross Berryman – Atlas Shrugged Part 1

Worst Editing: Danny Tull – W.E.

Still more to come even after all of this excessive listmaking. Hey, I can’t help it if I don’t get a chance to write for the rest of the year. There was a huge build-up of opinion inside me and this is the slow release, like air leaking out of a zeppelin.

Producer Iain Canning and composer Harry Escott discuss Shame

Steve McQueen’s second feature film Shame was chosen to open Cardiff’s Soundtrack Film Festival this year. The film is an exploration of isolation, sex addiction and self-destruction, and often uses its powerful soundtrack and orchestral score to reflect and emphasise the main character’s inner struggle.

Soundtrack Film Festival focuses on the connection between film and music, offering a celebration and exploration of the combined mediums; the significant use of music in Shame therefore made it the ideal choice to kick start the festival’s third year.

The screening was followed by a short Q&A session with Oscar-winner producer Iain Canning and composer Harry Escott, who discussed the film’s integral use of music.

They revealed how the music was not only used to complement the film’s visual impact, but also to emphasise a sense of discomfort in certain scenes.

In one particularly disturbing sequence, the main character Brandon (Michael Fassbender) robotically engages in a threesome with two women in a desperate attempt to escape his own sense of discontent, as well as the damaged relationship he shares with his sister.

The scene is accompanied by bright lights and a high-pitched, orchestral backing track, which serves to highlight Brandon’s desperation and the audience’s discomfort.

Shame is an excellent example of how film and music can complement one another. Steve McQueen has worked carefully with both musicians and composers to ensure that the soundtrack is more than just an afterthought – it is integral part of the film’s impact and message.

Shame will be released in January – for a full review, click here.

Barnard, a contemporary of Dunbar’s, cleverly merges Dunbar’s thematic concerns into her own, exploring the inarticulate rage that fuels racism and the plight of communities buffeted by the effects of Thatcherism. ‘The Arbor’ not only provides an overview of Dunbar’s life and work but puts it into historical context; the urge to dramatise her life presaging the public confessional that is a central component of the blogosphere.

You might want to look behind you.