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Moby recommended Silver Apples by Silver Apples in Music (curated)

 
Silver Apples by Silver Apples
Silver Apples by Silver Apples
1968 | Electronic, Psychedelic
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I did an Apple iTunes show at the Roundhouse, and they asked me 'if you could have anybody in the world playing with you, who would it be?' And I said 'oh, Silver Apples'. I'd seen him play the Knitting Factory in New York, and I thought that if I asked him to play with me his response would be a resounding 'no', but he was really enthusiastic and happy to do it, he's just this cool guy with a nice hippy girlfriend. Everything about them, the fact that he invented his own equipment, and he did kind of single-handedly invent electronic dance music. You listen to 'Oscillations' and maybe someone would challenge me on this, but I think that's the moment when... before that, electronic dance music didn't exist. It's got the four on the floor kick, all the different synth textures, even the subject matter, singing about technology. That's techno in 1968. Silver Apples came out of that Lower Manhattan performance art scene, starting as them playing music for artists on LSD dancing in lofts. There's one song that they've done that I've always wanted to cover, the song 'I Have Known Love', and every couple of years I go back to it and try and cover it, but every version I've tried to do of it is terrible. At some point in my life I want to try and find someone to do it with because it's a really beautiful song... Maybe I should just accept the fact that the original is perfect and it doesn't need to be covered."

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Kathleen Hanna recommended Annie by Charles Strouse in Music (curated)

 
Annie by Charles Strouse
Annie by Charles Strouse
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I first heard this record when I was eight or something. I think my mum gave it to me and I listened to it everyday. It replaced The Jackson Five's Dancing Machine that I used to dance to all the time before that. Then I started running home to this Annie album instead. I had so much fun singing along to it and I learnt all the songs. Then I got the leading part in the musical Annie in my school, so it was really the start of my career. I didn't think so much about the lyrics but I knew that my home life was not very happy. I mean, even though I felt very loved by my mother and always had a connection with her, and we have a really similar sense of humour, the song 'Maybe' really connected with me, it was my favourite one to sing. You know: "Maybe my parents could be like this, or maybe they could be like that." My sister always told me I was adopted, which wasn't true but I wished it was because my dad was so mean that I would always be like, "Maybe he's not really my dad". So I really related to that song, imagining actually having a happy childhood. Imagining having parents who were happy and in love and really loved me. I related to that sense of longing but I didn't really know why. I didn't think, "It's because my dad is abusive and drunk"; I didn't think that far ahead, I just sort of intuitively connected to that song."

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Moana (2016)
Moana (2016)
2016 | Adventure, Animation, Comedy
Moana (pronounced MoWAHnah) is a spirited and determined young daughter of an overprotective father who happens to be the chief of Motunui Island.

On this idyllic, mystical Polynesian island, Moana (voiced by Hawaiian actress Auli’i Cravalho),grew up listening to her grandmother’s stories about the legendary demigod Maui and how he stole the Heart of Te Fiti, condemning his people to an uncertain fate.

Ever since she was an adorable toddler, the ocean has called to her. Her name means “ocean” after all. However her father forbids her from even considering the notion of sailing beyond the reef that protects Motunui.

But when Moana’s island starts showing signs of disease that threatens her people’s livelihood, she is convinced she can save her island by returning the Heart of Te Fiti. Against her father’s wishes she sets sail in search of Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson)in hopes of saving her people.

Pixar and Disney have long mastered the art of emotionally compromising their audience with characters and storylines that pluck at your heartstrings. Yet I was still surprised at how much Moana moved me. With her touching relationship with her grandmother, her deep respect of her culture, and her dauntless temperment, Moana quickly became my favorite Disney heroine.

From the gorgeous animation, the pitch perfect voice acting and the beautiful music, I really believe Disney has made something special with Moana that will deeply resonate with islanders and those who love the islander culture.

If you’re a Hamilton fan, you’ll easily recognize Lin-Manuel Miranda’s voice and his lyrical signature in the many memorable songs. So don’t be surprised if you leave the theatre singing “You’re welcome.”
  
    VoixTek Voice Training

    VoixTek Voice Training

    Music and Entertainment

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    Vocal Warm ups – Voixtek™ – by Ron Anderson for Iphone The Voixtek™ App is the simplest to...

Happy Feet (2006)
Happy Feet (2006)
2006 | Animation, Comedy, Family
Gets a pass exclusively on how weird it is - seriously, this thing is bananas. In fact, it's theoretically amazing: a cutesy dancing penguin movie gradually morphs into a surreal trek through racism, religion, existentialism, and environmentalism where Robin Williams has a thick Mexican accent and I'm still not sure how I feel about them giving the lady penguins those pseudo-titty mounds. For all intents and purposes this should be something I sing the praises of as a great, underappreciated freakish gem... but its oddness is all it has, since there's approximately zero emotional thrust to anything else here. Elijah Wood is totally nondescript as Mumble and I don't really care about any of the other characters either; not to mention it has no sense of pacing so the last act comes and goes in an anticlimactic flash. Miller's signature visual kinetic energy is cool as hell at least, but then the story is also utterly naïve - I'm pretty sure a viral video of a bunch of penguins dancing isn't going to stop humans from pillaging their ecosystem. And at this point I know I'm looking too deeply into this shit but in this happy penguin world where singing makes them who they are and keeps them alive or whatever that was all about, is it so hard to fathom that these things should be way less bigoted towards dancing? Like you're all out here jamming to Fat Joe but then tap dancing is where you draw the line? Okay I'm done now, still a nice movie for what is essentially the more eccentric 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘨 (2016) with not-as-good animation (but better cinematography).
  
Sing (2016)
Sing (2016)
2016 | Animation, Comedy, Musical
I admit, I went into this with low expectations. It looked like a karaoke kids movie from an animation studio that I do not rate that highly. But what do I know?

Illumination studios have managed to rack up a “Stinker” on this blog with The Lorax (3D) (2012), which was filled with songs which did not seem to go with the movie and maybe that was in my mind when I first saw the trailer for this, but I must admit, that I was wrong.

The story focuses around a Koala Bear (Matthew McConauhey) who owns his dream theatre in New York, but it is about to fail big. He ends up setting up singing contest in order to try and save it and a verity of animals from this this Zootopia styled world inhabited solely by animals, are entered into the competition.

The writing was good, strong and simple. The characters had enough depth, the song choices were good and the antics surrounding Matthew McConauhey’s efforts to keep his theatre open against the odds were genuinely funny.

It was also nice to see that several character tropes were not pandered too, such as the house wife pig (Reese Witherspoon) goes to elaborate lengths to take part, by automating her house to get her litter of piglets to school and her middle management husband to work, all of whom take her for granted so much that they fail to even notice that she is not there.

But instead of attacking her housewife status and saying that she was being hampered by this “boring” life and should be a singer and follow her dreams as many films would suggest, this simply asks for a balance. That impressed me… a lot.

Well worth a watch and defiantly one for the whole family.