Louise’s Choice: December

What’s that? You want to know what’s been going in our minds this week, reverberating our synapses and sending broader vibrations throughout our bodies and by extension our souls? Today’s choice picks come from EB editor Louise Brailey.

The Horrors – Higher Box Set

It’s no secret that I have a musical predilection towards skinny dudes in tight, black trews. This set features all the singles and videos plus remixes of songs from The Horrors’ last full-length Skying. The remixes ease out and elucidate many of the influences that lay at the heart of that incredible record. JTC gives an acid redux of “You Said”, a natural development for those who remember Tom Furse’s acid house set at a strip club during Land of Kings Festival back in 2009. Daniel Avery’s instrumental of “Monica Gems” is loopy and rich, underpinned by dubbed-out bass licks as guitar squees are coaxed into vertiginous swirls of sky-skimming psychedelia. Peaking Lights, Blanck Mass and Andrew Weatherall all have a pop too. An incredible release, and it comes as a box set which practically screams Christmas present. That’s a hint, by the way.

The Birthday Party – “Junkyard” from Pleasure Heads Must Burn

With the excellent news that Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (skinny dudes/black trousers DO YOU SEE?) are releasing their fifteenth album Push The Sky Away in February 2013 I was irresistably sucked into a wheeling recommended-video YouTube vortex, revisiting many of the grainy videos that fed my early obsession with the band. This is one of my favorite videos from The Birthday Party-era that’s freely available on YouTube, partly because my hero, my godhead Rowland S. Howard looks so timelessly cool in it.

Lore (Dir. Cate Shortland)

My first real life, terribly paid gig in the meeja was writing and editing the film and arts section of a now long-defunct London magazine. I still moonlight as a film critic when I can, and recently had the opportunity to interview the upcoming German actor Saskia Rosendahl for a magazine that wasn’t Electronic Beats. She plays the lead in Lore, the latest film by Australian director Cate Shortland who also did Somersault. It’s a quietly devastating coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the 1945 Allied defeat of Germany. Ok, so it’s hardly an easy ride but it’s an incredible, moving work and worth checking.

Published December 06, 2012. Words by Louise Brailey.