Skull Disco's Shackleton, The Sight Below & Daega Sound at Nectar Lounge : March 5

Skull Disco label maven and post(?)-Dubstep producer extraordinaire Shakleton plays a rare West Coast live set
here in Seattle after reports of him stunning audiences at Mutek Montreal last year. Of particular interest to my
person; Rafael Anton Irrisari will be opening in his The Sight Below moniker promising a Chain Reaction/Basic
Channel inspired set of Dub Techno and the opening act of Daega Sound spinning select and VIP Dubstep cuts.
Shackleton's characteristic mix of ethnic hand-drums, 90's style ambient gloom, radio noise and vocal snippets,
massive basslines and some of the sparsest production heard in the post-Techno world are a heady mix. The
austerity of his arrangements opens space around the various elements creating an aural vacuum that the
booming percussive detonation resonate within, shocking the head and body as the higher-end percussive
details ride over in a speeding pseudo-psychedelic blur. This is complex, abstract stuff for the dance music
world, but simultaneously engaging to the body in the way the very best 'techno' is. My only hope/concern
for this night is if the soundsystem at Nectar is up to the task! One for the dance music community (and
anyone interested in the further extremes of BASS) not to miss!

Link to official Skull Disco label site

Link to Decibel Festival event site

Link to The Wire's "From Rave to the Grave" Shackleton/Skull Disco article

Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, Anand Tucker's "Red Riding" Trilogy at Northwest Film Forum : Feb 26 - Mar 4

Seeing the promotions for this film nearly omnipresent in New York last month thanks
to IFC - it's an ideal coincidence to find it here in Seattle upon my return. "Red Riding",
a trilogy of films adapting David Peace's fictionalized crime investigation/Yorkshire serial
murder novels, each film by a different director, each set in a different time period, as
the grinding, meticulous, bureaucratically compounded investigation comes up against
corruption, money and the powers that-be (both within law enforcement and without)
that want to bring it to a standstill again and again. Realized in the best tradition of recent
detective cinema (think David Fincher's career highlight; "Zodiac") as a complex puzzle of
events wherein we the viewer know as much (or as little) as the historic and/or fictional
character's dedication (read obsession) drives them to seek justice and resolution within
a tangled labyrinth of facts, fabrications, dead ends, lies and hidden connections over the
course of decades of investigation, where with the passing of time, truth becomes more
and more obscured.
From the IFC site: "Sure to be one of the cinematic events of the year, "Red Riding" is a
mesmerizing neo-noir epic based on factual events and adapted for the screen by Tony
Grisoni from David Peace’s electrifying series of novels. 1974 - (directed by Julian Jarrold)
centers on a rookie journalist investigating a series of child abductions and murders with
possible ties to corrupt police, business, and politicians. 1980 - (directed by James Marsh)
finds the police and the public still baffled that the “Ripper” remains at large and may have
inspired a copycat killer. In 1983 - (directed by Anand Tucker), Detective Maurice Jobson
notices a number of powerful similarities between the abduction of another young girl and
cases he had investigated back in the ’70s - for which a man was convicted and sentenced."

Link to Northwest Film Forum's "Red Riding" Trilogy site

Link to IFC Films "Red Riding" Special Roadshow Edition site

Link to IFC Films "Red Riding - 1974" site

Link to IFC Films "Red Riding - 1980" site

Link to IFC Films "Red Riding - 1983" site

Portland's International Film & Jazz Festivals : Feb 11 - 28

This year's Portland Jazz Festival features a number of names worthy of the drive or train ride down to
PDX. Rune Grammofon artist In The Country, ECM's Christian Wallumrod Ensemble and the legendary
man himself, who needs no label-affiliation introduction; Pharoah Sanders, among others. Check the lineup.
Also, happening during coinciding weeks, the Portland International Film Festival includes enough quality
cinema to clench it, PDX is the place to be in February 2010. New ones by; Luca Guadagnino's "I am Love",
Ken Loach's "Looking for Eric", Hong Sang-soo's "Like You Know it All", Bong Joon-ho's "Mother", Corneliu
Porumboiu's "Police, Adjective" and Jacques Audiard's "A Prophet". Northwestern-ites, I'd say this makes it
more than worth the drive/the train down there being particularly gorgeous now that we're entering pre-Spring.

"Link to Portland Jazz Festival"

"Link to Portland International Film Festival"