Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Black Earth (2002)

Let's get a few facts cleared out: Bohren & Der Club of Gore is a German band that expands on the after-midnight horror jazz originally proposed by Angelo Badalamenti in his work for David Lynch's Twin Peaks. You like getting lost in the woods at night? Well, this is a record to drive home that feeling of evil hiding behind the trees and bushes. With that in mind, Bohren... are not a band to listen to during your spring break, and certainly not in any kind of sunshine. Put Black Earth on at 3 a.m., though, and boy do you have a surprise in store for you. There are few records out there that are truly unsettling and this is definitely one of them. The slow vibe that trudges somewhere between Miles Davis and Black Sabbath, the screaming instruments that break through the walls of silence like H.P. Lovecraft creatures, the sense of a serial killing being committed, they're all there waiting to flush out all hope and happiness you might be holding in your heart. And yet, this is gorgeous music, the soundtrack to all terrible beauty you have ever encountered in the long night walks to your home, the kind you leave on repeat 'till the waking hours of a new day. So, sit down in that comfy chair you have with a large cup of coffee in your hands, take out all the lights and drown yourself in Black Earth: trust me when I say this >>> there are few better things you could do today.

>>> Bohren & Der Club of Gore download

Note: If you get a chance to see the band live, do it by all means. The guys are incredible at transferring the mood of their recorded music to any surrounding they are given.

Episode 20 - Dead, Wrapped in Plastic

We're going back to David Lynch's Twin Peaks, boys and girls, so let's rock!

Originally aired on October 23, 2009, ep. 20 is in many ways the most interesting show we've had so far, which is, of course, due to the richness of our subject matter. Just how do you go from the shot of a dead girl with bluish lips wrapped in plastic to an FBI agent stuck in a netherworld marked by heavy red curtains and highly bizarre forms of communication - while discussing donuts, coffee and Tibetan philosophy - is beyond me. The Twin Peaks project is by no means perfect but at its best it is so much more than entertainment or art: when it gets going, Twin Peaks becomes a living entity of its own.

The question of who killed Laura Palmer is, of course, secondary to all the characters that inhabit Twin Peaks with their outworldly quirkiness and surrealism. By the beginning of the second season of the show it becomes clear that the whole affair is more than a simple murder case, and whatever a Gordon Cole's "blue rose" case is supposed to be, it is this aspect of the mystery that we are drawn to. After all, how many shows can introduce a ghostly giant that delivers cryptic clues - while the main character of the show is bleeding profusely - and maintain their air of coolness?

Another important trait of Twin Peaks is that it is heavily layered. In addition to playing with the genre of a mystery show as well as most of the existing TV tropes at its time, not excluding a meta soap opera show, the series incorporates a long list of symbols from different literary, philosophical or religious backgrounds, and fits them in one brilliant puzzle. My favorite is the white horse that appears in the Palmers' living room not long before another murder takes place.

It is a common complaint that Twin Peaks doesn't have a real ending. In the last minute of the show we see the hero, FBI agent Dale Cooper, become possessed by the villanous spirit known as BOB, which means that a lot of evil is about to be unleashed upon the town of Twin Peaks (and beyond). The film never resolves this open ending of the show either, which is why it was hated so much upon its release in 1992, and was even booed at Cannes! The interesting thing is that the film does provide an ending or at least an explanation of the show and the fates of the key characters; it is just that it is not straightforward enough to shoot down all guessing but at the end of the day, do you think that David Lynch would want it any other way?

These and other discussions take a large chunk of our episode but it doesn't mean we've forgotten about the music. Angelo Badalamenti hijacks this episode either through his original score for the series and the film or through the music for Julee Cruise's haunting songs. We also have to mention Bohren & Der Club of Gore which have been carrying the Badalamenti legacy for the last 15 years, never missing a single tone.

>>> Stream the episode away!

>>> Download the whole thing and don't look back!

Twin Peaks Essay

As promised last Friday, here's an interesting Twin Peaks essay I found 'round the internet that question some of the most fundamental aspects of the series and film. Plus, here's a list of quirky items from the series that someone somewhere put together, and if that's not enough for you, check out the clip below or bow your head in shame!

Twin Peaks quirks:

Ben and Jerry Horne, ecstatically praising their baguettes, mouths full of bread and Brie (one of several scenes in which characters talk with their mouths full); a fish in a percolator; Lucy’s extremely convoluted phone transfers; Josie Packard’s malapropisms; the malfunctioning fluorescent light in the morgue as Cooper examines Laura Palmer’s body; Nadine’s quest for completely noiseless drape runners; Cooper’s announcement (not surprising, given his coffee consumption): “I really have to urinate”; the dental plugs stuck in Dr. Jacoby’s ears; Deputy Andy covered with post-it notes; the small figurine wearing an eye patch in Nadine Hurley’s mantelpiece collection; Cooper’s realization, immersed in a Double R dessert that “This must be where pies go when they die”; Albert’s insults (“Look! It’s trying to think!”); Cooper’s face-to-face with a llama in a veterinarian’s office; Ben Horne’s adjournment to the bathroom (during a tryst with Catherine Martell) to “wash little Elvis”; Cooper’s self-reflexive finger-snapping to Angelo Badalamenti’s non-diegetic theme music as he sits on his bed after awakening from his dream; Gordon Cole’s deaf incoherence; party-animal Icelanders; the Log Lady’s “sticky pitch gum”; doughnuts splattered with Waldo the Bird’s blood; Audrey’s abilities with a cherry; Dr. Jacoby’s collection of cocktail umbrellas; the Log Lady’s recognition that Major Briggs has “shiny objects on his chest”; Agent Cooper’s inquiry (while lying on the floor of his hotel room after having been shot) whether the bill he is asked to sign by the “world’s oldest bellhop” “includes a gratuity”; a wood tick impaled on a bullet; Leland Palmer’s singing (“Mares Eat Oats,” “Come On, Get Happy,” “Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” etc.); blows to Deputy Andy’s head (from a ricocheting rock thrown by Cooper and from a loose floor board at Leo’s); difficult readjustment of hospital stools; telekinetic removal of cream corn; seething, repulsive hospital food; Major Briggs’s version of Bobby’s future; Ben and Jerry toasting marshmallows (instead of a smoked cheese pig); Albert and Sheriff Truman’s collar-grabbing face off (“I love you Sheriff Truman); Dr. Jacoby’s golf-inspired mantra; Cooper’s cowlicks; Andy’s sperm count; Leo’s birthday party; the horse in Sarah Palmer’s vision; Leland’s living room golf; Ben and Jerry’s jailhouse bunk bed memories; a transvestite DEA agent who “puts his panties on one leg at a time”; the Pine Weasel’s attack on Dick Tremayne; Ben Horne’s rewriting of the Civil War; Nadine’s destruction of Hank Jennings…

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me OST (1992)

What can be said here that hasn't been said before? Well, even though Angelo Badalamenti's score to David Lynch's Twin Peaks prequel sounds like your standard midnight jazz at first listen, there is nothing on this planet that achieves a similar emotional impact, not even on the other two Twin Peaks soundtracks. The well-known melancholic synth of "Twin Peaks Theme" and "Falling" is enriched here with thick layers of noir jazz, industrial elements, and even beat poetry, gradually growing into a mutant sound that is paranoid and evil just as much as it is seductive and infinitely sad. People have called the music here "horror jazz" and I can only concur on this term.

>>> Check out the torrente here but if you run into the CD make sure you get it!

Sycamore Trees

For me, this scene is the most beautiful TV moment ever and the essence of Twin Peaks. Written by Angelo Badalamenti with lyrics by David Lynch and sung by Jimmy Scott, the track "Sycamore Trees" is the definition of nameless melancholia, which on the other hand, is my definition for late October through the entire November. Of course, melancholia is rarely the topic of good horror stories but in real life, it can be much more devastating and, ultimately, beautiful.

Note: The lyrics to "Sycamore Trees" are actually from David Lynch's dream project called "Ronny Rocket", a script he wrote after Eraserhead. Here is the script text:

GIRL:
I got idea, man... you take me for a walk (she moves closer to the guy) under the sycamore trees (closer) the dark trees that blow, baby. In the dark trees I'll see you and you'll see me...I 'll see you in the branches that blow in the breeze... I'll see you under the trees.