mumbling into the void

Soulwax – All Systems Are Lying

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This is the second time I have talked about a Soulwax Album in this space. The first was about their 2005 remix album called Night Versions. Night Versions was the album that got me into Soulwax, when I first picked it up, nearly 20 years ago now.

For those new to the Belgian band Soulwax, the group is built around the core DJs and multi-instrumentalist Dewaele brothers Stephan and David, plus a rotating mix of members. Soulwax creates music that falls into an array of different genres, including disco, alternative (is that still a thing?), indie, punk, electronic, new wave, and more. Soulwax’s music comes off as a celebration of all of these different styles, yet also seems to push forward and innovate. Being inventive while paying homage to what came before may sound like a hard combination to pull off, but the Dewaele brothers and Soulwax make it look easy.

I love you, Pumpkin
I love you, Honey Bunny

An iconic movie quote. In an alternate universe, those lines would have come from some children’s animated film. Something like Winnie-the-Pooh or even Toy Story, perhaps. In our universe – one which includes writer/director Quentin Tarantino – these famous lines are said in a film that includes a washed up boxer wielding a samurai sword, an Old Testament quoting hitman, and a coffee appreciating cleaner. And so very, very much more.

Most people likely have a few movie soundtracks that they consider iconic. Pulp Fiction is one for me, and I am sure I am not alone. I remember my Dad purchasing it on Compact Disc after he had seen the movie in theatre. He brought the soundtrack home and immediately popped it in the ghetto blaster that resided in our kitchen.

I was 14 or 15 at the time, and I was transfixed from those first spoken lines and then the frenetic pace of the opening song – Misirilou. I listened to the soundtrack front to back numerous times before I ever watched the movie.

I originally posted this in a wine newsletter in April of 2024.

Prince and the Revolution – Purple Rain Soundtrack

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Geoff likes to use the movie La Dolce Vita when writing about Italian wine, which makes sense. For me though, the term reminds me of my father. My Dad wrote a newspaper column titled La Dolce Vita for more than a decade for the Creston Valley Advance / Black Press. The subject of the column was most often wine.

Here is a link to one of his columns from nearly twelve years ago. As you can see, the grape doesn’t fall far from the vine: I come by my love for wine (and whisky) naturally, and possibly genetically, through my parents – especially my dad.

Another thing I stole from my father is some of his taste in music. That is why I have chosen to highlight Prince and The Revolution’s album Purple Rain. The album is a soundtrack for a movie of the same name, which itself is an emotional and quirky showcase for the talent and egotism of the late great Prince himself.

I remember listening to this album on tape as a kid, riding in the back seat of our car, on our regular family trips from Creston to Calgary and other parts of Alberta, where our relatives resided. This Album – along with a few others – I never got tired of hearing. We were probably listening to it on a road trip back in December of 2012 when my dad was thinking about writing his column on how misunderstood and misrepresented Chardonnay can be.

Music to Read Words By: Nine Inch Nails – Just Like You Imagined live @ Henry Fonda Theater, LA 9.08.09

The bench scraped the tile as he adjusted it, pulling it in under him. Stationing his body closer to the keys. His station. He and the piano were relegated to the lobby now. No longer lounging about.

Long ago he was Ambiance, sometimes even forefront. He staged things from on high, sometimes with other fellow musicians. Now he was background noise at best. The hustle of people around him, keeping the sound he made out of mind. Out of time. From another era.

The Lounge. For more than a decade, /up until the renovation, that was his home. I’d it was still there, it would have been full of his patrons, sitting down and listening as he played. The Lounge was no more though. The dim lighting and cocktails tables taken away to make room on the floor for VLTs. It was a form of entertainment he could not understand, but it made the hotel a lot of money. Or so he heard. The doors held tinted glass that kept out the outside world, but when the doors were opened the electronic, inorganic buzz and jingle of the machines could be heard. The noises from the Casino were the worst kind of cacophony to his own ears, but the siren sound seemed to entice people to enter and seemingly never leave. At least not during the Piano Man’s shift.

Music to Read Words By: Big Sugar – Joe Louis/Judgement Day Live

The door shut behind his son quietly, leaving him alone once more.

10 years ago – no – 5 years ago even – his son would have punctuated his leaving by slamming the door with so much force that it would have rattled the frame that held it and reverberated through the walls. Meeting with his son used to result in the boy having so much anger, so much potential energy that it absolutely had to be expended on a non-living object or else. The anger had dissipated though, and all that was left was a grudging resignation and a door quietly, softly shut to end the everlasting argument between father and son. The door was now treated with reverence. Respect even. At least compared to how father and son treated each other.

Music to Read Words By: Devin Townsend – Genesis (Live)

Work in progress.