She Past Away's "X" and West Coast Tour: Feb 3 - 7

An overview of the concurrent, interrelated, and offshoot genres of the original synthwave and post-punk sounds from decades past and their 21st century contemporary revival have been mapped by Vice in their, "A Brief History of Musical Waves from New to Next". Assembled in compilations like the now-classic, “The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume One” which focused on the coldwave and minimal wave strains, and the the recent genre overview presented in “No Songs Tomorrow: Darkwave, Ethereal Rock, and Coldwave 1981-1990”, offer an all-inclusive cornucopia of variables within the subgenre. Taken together, these compilations represent an overarching map of a sound that was born of the settling dust of the tumult of post-punk's upending of the topography of rock and noise music. Expressed through a more uneasy, existential, often edgier and sexually charged sound than their more commercial compatriots, darkwave retained its post-punk values while utilizing the same technology, and dancier, more upbeat tempos of new wave. The balancing act of its particular brand of starkly minimal, angular, existential electronic dance pop of alienation and heartbreak is presented by The Guardian in, “‘The Body was the Drums, the Brain was the Synthesiser’: Darkwave, the Gothic Genre Lighting up Pop”.

A cross-section of artists within this subgenre, Molchat Doma, The KVB, Xeno & Oaklander, Kite, The Soft Moon, Twin Tribes, Drab Majesty, and Boy Harsher, express a spectrum of variations on an aesthetic of darkly romantic, sexually fetishistic, and imperially fatalistic thematic concerns. In describing Boy Harsher's sound as a "moving choker-collar muscle-mash" which "contains a dark power, an atavistic pull", the music press has rightly depicted the central components from which the variables pivot and deviate around. The Turkish duo She Past Away, comprising Volkan Caner and Doruk Öztürkcan, have developed their own particular strain within this sound. One that leans more heavily into the earliest post-punk baritone ruminatuions of bands like Bauhaus, and the dissonant asceticism of Joy Division and Suicide, with musical lines that express a harder, more angular post-punk affinity. Announcing as much in interview, "We are a Gloomy Punk Band in Essence", She Past Away's sound is ironically best represented in the sprawling double disc assembly of remixes by their contemporaries heard on "X". They return domestically with a second leg of their most recent tour on the album, with a date at Seattle's The Crocodile.

:::: Films of 2025 ::::

TOP FILMS OF 2025 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
-----------------------------------------------------------
Bi Gan  "Resurrection"  (China)
Albert Serra  "Afternoons of Solitude"  (Spain)
Lucile Hadžihalilović  "The Ice Tower"  (France)
Miguel Gomes  "Grand Tour"  (Portugal)
Sho Miyake  "Two Seasons, Two Strangers"  (Japan)
Jafar Panahi  "It was Just an Accident"  (Iran)
Oliver Laxe  "Sirāt"  (Spain)
Mascha Schilinski  "Sound of Falling"  (Germany)
Kleber Mendonça Filho  "Secret Agent"  (Brazil)
Liu Jian  "Art College 1994"  (China)
Masao Adachi  "Escape"  (Japan)
Urška Djukić  "Little Trouble Girls"  (Slovenia)
Paul Thomas Anderson  "One Battle After Another"  (United States)
Joshua Safdie  "Marty Supreme"  (United States)
Richard Linklater  "Blue Moon"  (United States)
Kelly Reichardt  "The Mastermind"  (United States)
Kristen Stewart  "The Chronology of Water"  (United States)
Lynn Ramsay  "Die My Love"  (United Kingdom)
Lucrecia Martel  "Landmarks"  (Argentina)
Matthias Glasner  "Dying"  (Germany)
Shih-Ching Tsou  "Left-Handed Girl"  (Taiwan)
Mary Bronstein  "If I had Legs I'd Kick You"  (United States)
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne  "Young Mothers"  (France)
Boris Lojkine  "Souleyman's Story"  (France)
Mark Jenkin  "Rose of Nevada"  (United Kingdom)
Gabriel Mascaro  "The Blue Trail"  (Brazil)
Gabriel Azorín  "Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes"  (Spain)
Rungano Nyoni  "On Becoming a Guinea Fowl"  (Zambia)
Dea Kulumbegashvili  "April"  (France)
Shinji Somai  "Moving"  Restored Rereleased (Japan)
Jacques Rozier  "Maine-Ocean Express"  Restored Rereleased  (France)
Robina Rose  "Nightshift"  Restored Rereleased  (United Kingdom)
Mike Figgis  "Megadoc"  (United States)
Mstyslav Chernov  "2000 Meters to Andriivka"  (Ukraine)

No other event was as consequential or significant to the course of the arts and culture in the United States as the results of the 2024 presidential election. Subsequently, there is little reason or relevance for this annual entry to engage in the traditional discussion and consideration of the finer points of last year's cultural landmarks. Particularly as it was also a year in which we lost dear friends, loved ones, and artists who defined our era. Instead, this dispatch is an opportunity to reflect on what The New York Times wrote on the brink of these new times in which we find ourselves. "Voters in liberal strongholds across the country, from city centers to suburban stretches, failed to show up to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris at the levels they had for Joseph R. Biden Jr. four years earlier, contributing significantly to her defeat by Donald J. Trump." Which poses the question, "Why Was There a Broad Drop-Off in Democratic Turnout in 2024?". The Times continues in "How Democrats Lost Their Base and Their Message", wherein the 2024 conservative populist pitch bumped Democrats off their traditional place in American politics. "The overarching pattern is clear. In election after election, Democrats underperformed among traditional Democratic constituencies during the Trump era. Sometimes, it was merely a failure to capitalize on his unpopularity. Other times, it was a staggering decline in support."

"Together, it has shattered Democratic dreams of building a new majority with the rise of a new generation of young and nonwhite voters. It tapped into many of the issues and themes that once made these voters Democrats. This overarching pattern requires an overarching explanation: Mr. Trump’s populist conservatism corroded the foundations of the Democratic Party’s appeal." On reflection the question then becomes one of investigating the complex factors involved in, "How the Democrats Lost the Working Class", and the consequential “History Lesson Democrats Need to Relearn". In the hope of reclaiming this position within the American political landscape, there has been a reassessment of whether or not it is the case that, "The Democrats’ Main Problem isn't Their Message". The New York Times offering a platform to the thinkers, upstarts, and ideologues vying for control of this discussion and new direction for the Democratic Party. In this series of essays, Timothy Shenk has posited that "The Democrats Are in Crisis. Eat-the-Rich Populism is the Only Answer." as a perspective within the assembled voices chronicling, "The Fight for the Future of the Democratic Party".

:::: Albums of 2025 ::::

TOP ALBUMS OF 2025 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali Malone & Drew McDowall  "Magnetism"  (Ideologic Organ)
Lucy Railton  "Blue Veil"  (Ideologic Organ)
Jakob Ullman  “Solo I / Solo IV”  (Another Timbre)
Kevin Drumm  "Sheer Hellish Miasma II"  (Erstwhile)
Eiko Ishibashi  "Antigone"  (Drag City)
Masma Dream World  "Please Come To Me"  (Valley of Search)
Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling & Andreas Werliin "Ghosted III" (Drag City)
Wardruna  "Birna"  (By Norse Music)
Faetooth  "Labyrinthine"  (Flenser)
Nijiumu  "When I Sing, I Slip... into that Void..."  Reissue  (Black Truffle)
Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin  "Stygian Bough Volume II"  (Profound Lore)
SWANS  "Birthing"  (Young God)
Pyramids  "Pythagoras"  (Flenser)
Moin  "Belly Up"  EP  (AD 93)
Olan Monk  "Songs For Nothing"  (AD 93)
Rat Heart  “Dancin’ in the Streets”  (Modern Love)
Circuit Des Yeux  "Halo on the Inside"  (Matador)
Cate Le Bon  "Michelangelo Dying"  (Mexican Summer)
Lovesliescrushing  "Bloweyelashwish"  Reissue  (Numero Group)
Julee Cruise & Angelo Badalamenti  "Fall • Float • Love"  Reissue  (Cherry Red)
Maria Somerville  "Luster"  (4AD)
Anna von Hausswolff  "Iconoclasts"  (Year0001)
Just Mustard  "We Were Just Here"  (Partisan)
Aya  "Hexed!"  (Hyperdub)
Los Thuthanaka   "Los Thuthanaka"  (Los Thuthanaka)
Blawan  "SickElixir"  (XL Recordings)
Feeo  "Goodness"  (AD 93)
Carrier  “Rhythm Immortal”  (Modern Love)
Youth Code  "Yours, With Malice"  (Sumerian Records)
Sa Pa   "Ambeesh"  (Short Span)
Filmmaker  "Dehumanization"  (VEYL)
Billy Woods, Elucid & The Alchemist  "Mercy"  (Backwoodz)
SML  "How You Been"  (International Anthem)
Makaya McCraven  "Off The Record"  (International Anthem)
Natural Information Society  "Perseverance Flow"  (Eremite)
Otis Sandsjö, Petter Eldh & Dan Nicholls  "Y-Otis Tre"  (We Jazz)
Superposition  "II"  (We Jazz)

No other event was as consequential or significant to the course of the arts and culture in the United States as the results of the 2024 presidential election. Subsequently, there is little reason or relevance for this annual entry to engage in the traditional discussion and consideration of the finer points of last year's cultural landmarks. Particularly as it was also a year in which we lost dear friends, loved ones, and artists who defined our era. Instead, this dispatch is an opportunity to reflect on what The New York Times wrote on the brink of these new times in which we find ourselves. "Voters in liberal strongholds across the country, from city centers to suburban stretches, failed to show up to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris at the levels they had for Joseph R. Biden Jr. four years earlier, contributing significantly to her defeat by Donald J. Trump." Which poses the question, "Why Was There a Broad Drop-Off in Democratic Turnout in 2024?". The Times continues in "How Democrats Lost Their Base and Their Message", wherein the 2024 conservative populist pitch bumped Democrats off their traditional place in American politics. "The overarching pattern is clear. In election after election, Democrats underperformed among traditional Democratic constituencies during the Trump era. Sometimes, it was merely a failure to capitalize on his unpopularity. Other times, it was a staggering decline in support."

"Together, it has shattered Democratic dreams of building a new majority with the rise of a new generation of young and nonwhite voters. It tapped into many of the issues and themes that once made these voters Democrats. This overarching pattern requires an overarching explanation: Mr. Trump’s populist conservatism corroded the foundations of the Democratic Party’s appeal." On reflection the question then becomes one of investigating the complex factors involved in, "How the Democrats Lost the Working Class", and the consequential "History Lesson Democrats Need to Relearn". In the hope of reclaiming this position within the American political landscape, there has been a reassessment of whether or not it is the case that, "The Democrats’ Main Problem isn't Their Message". The New York Times offering a platform to the thinkers, upstarts, and ideologues vying for control of this discussion and new direction for the Democratic Party. In this series of essays, Timothy Shenk has posited that "The Democrats Are in Crisis. Eat-the-Rich Populism is the Only Answer." as a perspective within the assembled voices chronicling, "The Fight for the Future of the Democratic Party".

Bi Gan's "Resurrection" at SIFF Cinema & AMC 11: Jan 23 - 29 | "The Delirious Cinematic Artifice of Bi Gan" | The New Yorker

Reporting from Cannes this past summer, in his review of Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan's Special Prize-winning third feature Peter Bradshaw writes for The Guardian on the boldly ambitious, visually astounding embrace of the heightened meanings and unreal dreamlike sense left in the wake of, "'Resurrection''s Fascinating Phantasmagoria is Wild Riddle about new China and an Old Universe". Through conjuring a boundary-pushing tale that evokes both moviemaking and also being an episodic journey through Chinese history, with "Resurrection", the director brings audiences into his "Hallucinatory Voyage Into Cinema". Yet this historic perspective is changed, in that the history is seen through the vantage of an alternate reality in which human beings have discovered their propensity for immortality, if they abstain from dreaming. The consequence of which is that for those who sleep and dream, it is as though they are consumed and burn down like a lit candle. Bradshaw writes on the film's enigma, and if the resurrection in question offers any clear transformative sense. Or instead in "The Delirious Cinematic Artifice of Bi Gan’s “Resurrection”, it is simply a witness to the journey of its shape-shifting dreamer, who becomes lost in a densely allusive maze of stories and genres. From the director's interview with Film Stage, "Cinema Will Not Come to an End": Bi Gan on Resurrection", it is possible to interpret this labyrinth as cinema itself in its auditorily sumptuous soundscape supplied by M83, and its mesmerizing, flickering images as seen on screen at SIFF Cinema and AMC Pacific Place 11 next month.

In the body of the director's filmmography, the connective tissue to his most recent foray can be seen in Bi Gan's remarkable arthouse debut which swept up Locarno's Best New Director prize, ranked in Film Comment's Best Films of 2015, and was hailed as one of the most assured directorial debuts of the decade by both Film Comment and Cinema-Scope. Ostensibly the story of a middle aged doctor and ex-con searching for his young nephew, "Kaili Blues" offers up an increasingly dreamlike elegy for bygone Miao traditions, and the sweeping changes seen throughout the landscape of mainland China. Most striking is the emphatically experimental detour in it's middle passage into a "Dreamy Trek with Otherworldly Beauty", as the narrative proceeds into an extended exercise in cinematic time and space. Delivered through extended shots and images that are achingly melancholy, and teasingly cluttered, "Kaili Blues: A Dream Without Limits" describes the subtropical province of Guizhou, a mountainous, lush region of sporadic human habitations. The film's sensibility for the subject, and setting of this abstract chronicle of persons lost and a past revealed, is best expressed in Mark Chan's Short Take for Film Comment; "one of the rare moments in recent cinema where ostentatious screen-craft proves equal to the task of channeling a multitude of these inexpressible sorrows".

Again, finding itself included in Film Comment's Best Films of the year,  Bi Gan returned in 2018 with a sophomore leap into neo-noir centering around the fading embers of a mysterious romance told in the key of early Wong Kar-Wai. In this dream of a movie, much of it told through almost omnipresent voiceover, "Long Day's Journey Into Night" centers around the return of Luo Hongwu to his hometown in Guizhou province, to find the woman he’s loved and never forgotten. This most noirish of storytelling devices circles around a set of recurring concepts, whether journeys, romantic encounters, the abstraction of recollection, time, (or during one startling technical sequence) cinema itself, all expressed with the same half-remembered quality. Mention should be made of the strength of the film's independent components. Particularly Liu Qiang’s set design, an explicit selection of Cantonese pop, and the ethereal electro-acoustic score supplied by Lim Giong and Point Hsu. Most significantly, during the film's initial sequence the sensuous and atmospheric cinematography of Yao Hung-I and Dong Jinsong, setting the tone for the extended set piece that culminates this highly stylized and oneiric cinematic voyage, not unlike that seen in "Ressurection", whereafter "Long Day’s Journey Into Night Follows its Own Woozy Dream Logic".

Cate Le Bon's "Michelangelo Dying" & North American Tour: Jan 12 - 31

Rumaan Alam writes in The New Yorker on his obsessive listening to Cate Le Bon's shift toward a prophetic lyrical presence heard on her newest, "Michelangelo Dying", in which he sees an evocation of Laurie Anderson's acclaimed "Big Science" album of the 1980s. In "The Uneasy Prophecies of Cate Le Bon", further parallels can be found in that of the production and guitar sound of Robin Guthrie and Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser, the soaring vocal incantations of Björk and Kate Bush, and the liquid, flowing, non-euclidean pop structures and production of Brian Eno. The pedigree, and it's parallels with formative artists of the 1970s and 80s is made explicit in "Ride", the album's penultimate track, a duet with Welsh art-pop songwriter and violist John Cale, who had his beginnings in none other than The Theatre of Eternal Music and The Velvet Underground. Coming from a Welsh tradition of the surreal, the singer-songwriter is forever trying to capture that which cannot be said, and in channeling the art-pop lineage of these inspirations and peers, "Cate Le Bon Evokes Pop Outliers", in her "Choosing of Absurdity". The newest work is striking in its shift away from such sensibilities. Speaking with NPR, Le Bon relates that after a long relationship ended painfully, she swapped the desert of Joshua Tree for south Wales, and set to work on her most emotionally direct record yet, "‘The Breakup was Like an Amputation that Saves You’: Cate Le Bon on Healing From Heartache and Her Heavy New Album". In conversation with Vogue a month before her North American tour with a night at Seattle's Neptune Theatre, “I had this image of something industrial and angular,” Le Bon shared from her home in Cardiff, Wales. “I was sidestepping, trying to outrun sitting with heartache. But I kept veering back towards what "Michelangelo Dying" became". An album which has its origins in wanting to craft a work which fit into the hard edged electro-industrial sounds on the 1990s, has instead manifest as a plaintive, soaring, paean to the end of love, "With Her New Album, Michelangelo Dying, Cate Le Bon Takes on Heartache".

Anna von Hausswolff’s “Iconoclasts” & North American Tour: Mar 16 - 26

For the last decade, Anna von Hauswolff, the daughter of Carl Michael von Hausswolff co-founder of the imagined country of Elgaland-Vargaland, has dealt in a solemn funereal music composed for the pipe organ of reverb decay-laden drone released on labels like City Slang and Southern Lord. Recordings like "Live at Montreux Jazz Festival" elucidate this space between a traditionally classical instrument, and her approach which shares affinities with contemporary doom metal and drone rock. It is in this zone that her studio albums yoke their eerie timbre, producing a "Doomy Epic from a Supernatural Talent", in its weave of drone-inspired 'funeral pop', with added weight and sonic gravitas from producer, Randall Dunn. Her previous album, "All Thoughts Fly", was a collection of instrumentals performed on a replica of a 17th century baroque organ in a cathedral in Gothenburg, Germany, and followed on a set of collaborations with rock titans SWANS, and doom metal band, SUNN O))). So it is that much more of an unexpected turn that the 'funeral pop' component of her music would come fully to the fore, swathed in more straightforwardly melodic structures, and the voice taking the place of the dominant instrument over that of the organ. For which von Hausswolff has enlisted the talents of an artist that Jazzwise lauded; “The music is intentionally puzzling, teased from a meltdown of tropes from jazz, groove and electronic dance music", in the multi-instrumentalist and saxophonist Otis Sandsjö. This meeting of von Hausswolff's dronescapes, and the structural punctuation of Sandsjö's hard-hitting jazz-rock, comprise the framework for "Iconoclasts" song-based album of instrumental dirge and soaring lyricism. Further rejecting some of the characterization of her doom-organ iconography, "A ‘High Priestess of Satanic Art’? This Organist Can Only Laugh", von Hausswolff brings this new pop-focused sound of an "Exhilarating, Euphoric Goth Songcraft" to a string of dates across North America, including two nights at San Francisco's Brick & Mortar. Photo credit: Philip Svensson

Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin, Boris, Primitive Man and Rain City Doom Fest at The Crocodile, El Corazon, Chop Suey & The Clockout Lounge: Nov 17 - Dec 13

The last decade has seen an explosive abundance in the national and international tours spiraling out of the global metal, doom, hardcore, and noiserock scenes. The bands that represent these sounds have now come to encompass melodicism and atmospheres lifted from shoegaze and spacerock, eruptions of heavy psych rock, industrial drumming, synth exploration and electronic atmospheres, and pure experimental noise. This winter sees a representative cross-section of all things metal in Japanese psychedelic and noiserockers Boris return to The Crocodile, for their 20th anniversary performance of their classic album, "Pink", in their ongoing pursuit of "Noise is Japanese Blues". The following week, in their "Search for a Better World", Primitive Man deliver the first live representations of "Obervance"'s explorations of sludge and doom at Chop Suey. In December, all things doom, black, noise, sludge, hardcore, grindcore, post-rock, stoner, and heavy psych are to be heard in a lineup that includes Ragana, Acid King, Mizmor, Tithe, and Electric Citizen in Rain City Doom Fest at El Corazon. The festival is representative of the expansiveness that is to be heard in 21st century metal, as documented by The Quietus in their "Untrue And International: Living in a Post-Black Metal World", with complimentary curation from this sphere found in the excellent selections of The Quietus' Columnus Metallicus. In recent years, Bell Witch, the Northwest's prime purveyors of weighty atmospheres have undertaken a series of even more tectonic works for the Profound Lore label. The first of these was a collaborative album with Aerial Ruin in 2020's, "Stygian Bough Volume I", and the beginnings of an epic trilogy, titled, “Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate”. This month, "Stygian Bough Volume II" arrives alongside an accompanying west coast tour and night at The Clockout Lounge. The Quietus spoke with Bell Witch on the eve of "Clandestine Gate"'s release, bridging such concepts as about the cyclical nature of existence and taking their time with process and creation, such as the first entry in their new triptych of albums, "Same as it Ever Was: Bell Witch Interviewed".

David Lynch & Mark Frost's "Twin Peaks: The Return" at The Grand Illusion Cinema, The Beacon, Northwest Film Form & SIFF Cinema: Nov 13 - Dec 16

"David Lynch, Twin Peaks, and the American Art of Television", took a decades-long and circuitous path through which, "Twin Peaks Got Lost, and Found Its Way Back" with the series reconceived in 2017 in the midst of the abundance of cinematic, high-production-value, longform television. Rather than a recreation of the concerns, technical form and approach of the groundbreaking 1990 original David Lynch and Mark Frost Twin Peaks network television series "‘The High Point of TV as a Medium’: David Lynch’s Twin Peaks May Never be Bettered", the Twin Peaks: The Return miniseries advanced the art beyond the standards of what one would expect even in the current environment of longform streaming content. Dispensing with much of its self-referential observations on network soap opera television, "In ‘Twin Peaks: The Return,’ an Old Log Learns Some New Tricks", instead exhibiting the director's love of classic film, expressed in the series' cornucopia of references to cinema history, "David Lynch Weaves Film History into ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’".

As it aired, The Return delivered a weekly viewing that watched like nothing else, before it or since, producing more of an experience than just television, "Beautiful, Grandiose, Cryptic, and Punishingly Tedious: That's Why 'Twin Peaks: The Return' is So Beguiling". For those who followed the weekly installments of the miniseries on Showtime, there was an ebullient assembly of critical interpretation, enhancement and viewing aids, documented by Criterion via their ongoing "Twin Peaks Returns" column. Expertly insightful weekly recaps could be found on Mubi, The New York Times (concluding with a serving of weekly "donuts") and The Guardian, for those who were looking to delve deeper. Now nearly a decade since "David Lynch Returned to Twin Peaks", the miniseries remains a work to unlock and decode, offering up thematic and technical wonders to savor and rediscover. These lasting qualities earned it the Best Film of the Decade status on the iconic cinephile publication, "Cahiers du Cinéma Named ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ the Best Film of the Decade, TV Be Damned". This month, the theatrical presentation of this most cinematic of series will see screenings in Seattle, showing at The Beacon Cinema alongside The Grand Illusion Cinema programming the totality of the series in episodes at Northwest Film Forum and SIFF Cinema. Notably, with parts 7 and 8 "There's a body alright" and "Gotta light", presented in 4K at SIFF Cinema with an introduction by David Lynch scholar Greg Olson.

Earshot Jazz presents Makaya McCraven at Madame Lou's: Oct 26

Among the numerous variables on all things jazz, this year's Earshot Jazz Festival lineup features one of the prominent voices in the new Chicago scene issuing from the International Anthem label. Featuring two sets, an early and late show at Madame Lou's, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Makaya McCraven leads his band in their Seattle date on the current west coast tour. McCraven is among a 21st century body of musicians effectively "Rewriting the Rules of Jazz", who have produced bountiful collaborations and an array of top-notch albums. Most notably releases from the aforementioned International Anthem label, New York's Eremite, and the UK's scene represented by Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Recordings have expressed new directions and a willful genre-expansive attitude to the fundamental parameters of what can be considered jazz. McCraven has been a pivotal figure in this Chicago scene since the earliest of the releases issuing from him and a set of regular collaborators heard on his "In The Moment" from 2015. Featuring nineteen rhythmic jams that were born of improvisation, this wasn't a cacophonous free jazz, but instead a new body of groove-oriented spontaneous soul jazz that was culled from 48 hours of recordings spanning 28 shows. A multitude of live chops on display alongside dense processes, synth lines, and rhythmic programming, that album acted as a foreshadowing for the more-intensive studio construction that is his debut for the legendary Blue Note label.

This meeting of a new scene and sound, with the longest running legacy in American jazz is the locus of the New York Times "Makaya McCraven Sees the Future of Jazz Through Layers of History" feature on the musician, and their wider overview, "Chicago and Jazz at Play, Ideally.". His interview for The Guardian, "‘Evolution is Part of Tradition’: Musician Makaya McCraven on the Future of Jazz" maps the last decade in which McCraven cemented his status as one of the most individual voices in contemporary jazz, pioneering his technique with a group of local collaborators to create the albums, "Universal Beings", "Highly Rare", and his astute reconfiguration of Gil-Scott Heron, "We're New Again", straddling improvisation and influences culled from neo-soul, and hip hop's mentality and approach to sample splicing. All of which became more explicit on his deeper foray in beat sciences with the "Ingenious Hard-bop Homage" of 2021's "Deciphering the Message". The album contributes another facet to McCraven's growing discography; the ability to assimilate and reconfigure some of the legendary height's of jazz past, into a liquid, changeable new form of his own making. Which is also expressed more obliquely in its immediate follow-up, the lush homage to the 1970s elegiac orchestrations of that era, what The Guardian called "A Generous Unspooling", heard on "In These Times". Four new collaborative EPs are on the horizon featuring Jeff Parker, Josh Johnson, Ben LaMar Gay, Theon Cross, and Jeremiah Chiu to be released later this year on the vanguard Nonesuch Records.

The Grand Illusion Cinema presents All Monsters Attack: Oct 2 - 31 | The Month of Scarecrowber at SIFF Cinema: Oct 7 - 28

For the first time in nearly two decades, Seattle's annual Halloween season cinema offerings will not have a central locus at The Grand Illusion Cinema in the University District. This year, their sister organization, the one-of-a-kind 150,000 title resource in that is Scarecrow Video launched their Sustain Our Scarecrow campaign. Wherein the last video store and film archive of its kind in the world is at a pivotal intersection in which, "Scarecrow Video Needs to Raise $1.8M or Face Possible Closure". A nucleus for genre film in the Northwest, annually Scarecrow Video steps up with their curated Halloween section of domestic and international horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and psychotronic selections. Another annual tradition, their Psychotronic Challenge returns now in its tenth installment, challenging viewers to select a new theme category for every day in October from the trivia cues on offer. Similarly, The Grand Illusion Cinema is also in a state of flux as their building has been sold and is imminently to be developed into high-cost housing. "After 53 years, Seattle Theater Maintains its Grand Illusion … for Now, and as such they are in a donation drive to fund their search for a new location. Subsequently this year's edition of their seasonal programming, the incomparable All Monsters Attack, will be hosted at the partner cinemas, Northwest Film Forum, SIFF Film Center, Here-After, and Central Cinema, across the city.

Highlights this year include Henri-Georges Clouzot's arthouse psychothriller, "Diabolique", the annual tradition of the William Kennedy memorial screening of David Cronenberg's body-horror techno thriller, “Videodrome”, and James Whale's classic Universal Monsters franchise entry, "Bride of Frankenstein". There's also the extreme discomfiting physicality of Lucky McKee's cult sleeper, "May", Park Chan-wook's third film in his revenge trilogy on 35mm, a selection of Japanese video and cult horror, and The Sprocket Society's presentation of 16mm gems curated as their Secret Vault of Torment. Independent of Scarecrow and The Grand Illusion, The Beacon Cinema in Columbia City also has a selection of genre and horror on offer. SIFF Cinema's seasonal offerings focusing on disorienting frights, crepuscular surrealism, and discomfiting atmospheres are programmed by the staff at Scarecrow Video, which SIFF have appropriately dubbed the month of Scarecrowber. This year's theme, "When There Is No More Room In Hell, The Dead Will Walk The Earth", features Robert Fuest's absurdist, musical, "The Abominable Dr. Phibes", medieval horrors return in Amando de Ossorio's rarely screened "Tombs of the Blind Dead", Hajime Sato's extraterrestrial enigmas, "Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell", and the gothic, psychedelic, Czech cinema coming of age kaleidoscope of Jaromil Jires' "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders".