The Voice of Energy 2021 Wrap Up
One last missive before the clock strikes midnight and 2021 comes to a close. It's been another long, weird year, but I was still able to get a lot done. Wrote a lot. Watched a lot of films. Didn't read enough books, but that's something to work on in '22.
Below you'll find a run down of some of the writing from 2021 I'm proudest of, and then a list of all the films I watched this year. Do with this information what you will.
WRITTEN
Album Reviews
Ryley Walker: Course In Fable (Dusted, April 22, 2021)
Daniel Bachman: Axacan (Dusted, May 20, 2021)
FACS: Present Tense (Dusted, June 15, 2021)
David Bowie: The Width of a Circle (PopMatters, June 4, 2021)
Buzzcocks: Complete UA Singles 1977-1980 (Pitchfork, Jan 16, 2021)
Stereolab: Electrically Possessed (Switched On Vol. 4) (Pitchfork, Feb 27, 2021)
Japan: Quiet Life (Pitchfork, March 9, 2021)
Features, etc.
Pauline Anna Strom’s Music Created Portals to New Worlds (Bandcamp, February 17, 2021)
“This was taking the ambient form and mystifying it even more and putting it in a more primitive space,” Werth says, speaking from his Brooklyn apartment. “The music was colorful, but kind of in an off-color way. It felt intimate and homegrown. It didn’t have the grandiosity of a Tangerine Dream record. It was more private and more mysterious.”
Those last adjectives could easily be used to describe Strom as well. When Werth got a hold of the reclusive musician with the hopes of reissuing her work through RVNG, she was suspicious of his intentions and still carried some disappointment at giving up her musical career some years before. “Part of it was trust building and getting to know each other,” Werth says. “And part of it was slowly accumulating evidence that it should be released.”
Musician Darrell Grant Takes an Emotional Stroll Through the History of Portland’s Black Churches (Willamette Week, June 9, 2021)
Come Sunday is a powerful tribute not only to the rich community that once thrived in the King, Alberta and Humboldt neighborhoods, but also how much the city’s Black population has lost. With rapid development and discriminatory housing practices pushing Black residents out of North and Northeast Portland, many churches have declined or disappeared. It’s that reality that has Grant choked with emotion.
“As I say at the end of the soundwalk,” Grant says, “as you walk through these neighborhoods, you wonder what they would look like and how they would be occupied if we hadn’t had all of these actively discriminatory policies, like every single possible barrier to it being a Black neighborhood.”
Ambient Electronic Duo Liila Met in a Buddhist Monastery Three Years Ago and Fell Into a Curious Kind of Relationship (Willamette Week, Sept 21, 2021)
“There’s this aspect of ourselves—as we’re really meeting each other. That’s what was developing [while we were] sharing the intimacy and intensity of living in a Zen center. I think a lot of very particular relationality developed in that setting; that then comes out in what we make together.”
The seven tracks on Soundness of Mind bear out Davis’ theory. There’s no clear delineation to reveal which musician is playing a particular instrument or creating a particular sound. The balmy drones, keyboard trills, and steely plucks of various acoustic instruments seem to come from everywhere—a blur of sound that is somehow both soothing and energizing. The album is also marked by a playfulness that’s reflective of the joy that is at the heart of Whiteley and Davis’ creative practice.
Mitch Easter: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview (Aquarium Drunkard, Aug 10, 2021)
AD: It has to feel so gratifying to have these records that you made some 35-40 years ago still getting talked about.
Mitch Easter: It’s really amazing, and I don’t take it for granted at all. There’s so much chance with all this stuff. The fact that it happened at all. The fact that we got along and we made things that people actually enjoyed. There’s so many ways it can all go horribly wrong. You really cannot exactly plan on this stuff or force it to happen. The fact that it was so casual makes it even better. There was none of this having to follow up a big hit or any additional pressure. The expectations were all reasonable. “Let’s just hope we do something good.” It was an ideal time for them and me.
Merry Clayton: 'Gimme Shelter left a dark taste in my mouth' (The Guardian, Apr 8, 2021)
The devotional tone of Beautiful Scars brings Clayton full circle from where she started singing: at the New Zion Baptist church in New Orleans. From as early as the age of six, she was a star of the church choir, earning the nickname Little Haley for her mimicry of Mahalia Jackson, the pre-eminent gospel singer of the time. Jackson, a friend of Clayton’s minister father, would frequent the parish when she visited New Orleans. “I would always find my way to nestle up right up under Mahalia wherever she was sitting,” says Clayton. “I would lean up against her and take a little nap because I would have been up since seven o’clock that morning.”
Los Lobos: ‘La Bamba gave us an identity crisis’ (The Guardian, Aug 3, 2021)
As their sound evolved to once again incorporate electric instruments and rock rhythms, the band found their way to the other side of the LA River and the thriving punk and roots rock scenes of the early 80s. Getting gigs with fellow artists such as the Blasters (from whom they pinched saxophonist Steve Berlin) and Latino punk group the Plugz, Los Lobos wowed and angered audiences. At one notorious gig, they played a set of acoustic Mexican standards when opening for post-punks Public Image Limited. The crowd responded with spit, jeering and projectiles. “The pennies and the dimes started coming in, and then the quarters started coming in,” Rosas told author Chris Morris in the biography Los Lobos: Dream in Blue. “I remember they threw this big wad of wet paper, and it hit Dave in the face.”
WATCHED
(key: * = theatrical screening; italics = film I've seen before)
Across to Singapore (1928)
Adrienne (2021)
After Life (1998)
A.K.A. Serial Killer (1969) *
Almost Famous (2000)
The American President (1995)
Amir Hamza the Lover and the Dancing Zebra (1977) *
The Amusement Park (1975)
Amy (2015)
Annette (2021)
Another Round (2020)
The Ants and the Grasshopper (2021)
Apollo 13 (1995)
Arrebato (1979)
Association of Ideas (1973) *
Asylum (1972)
Atal-Matal (1974) *
The Aviator (2004)
Azor (2021)
Bacarau (2019)
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021)
Bad Trip (2021)
The Banishing (2020)
Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar (2021)
Barbarella (1968)
The Beatles: Get Back (2021)
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Black Widow (2021) *
Blithe Spirit (2020)
Bloodthirsty (2020)
Blue Hour (2021)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Boys from County Hell (2020)
Butt Boy (2019)
Candyman (1992)
Candyman (2021) *
Caveat (2020)
The Celluloid Closet (1995)
Change of Sex (1977) *
Chess of the Wind (1976) *
Coalition (2004) *
Contact (1997)
Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)
Crash (1996)
Cutter's Way (1981)
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2005)
Deep Cover (1992)
Dementia 13 (1963)
The Devil Queen (1974) *
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Dog Star Man (1965)
Doors (2021)
Drive My Car (2021)
The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916)
Dune (2021) *
Eating Raoul (1982)
The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
Eighth Grade (2018)
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021) *
Eternals (2021) *
Everything in the End (2021)
Excellencies (2011) *
The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
Flower Storm (1972) *
The Forever Purge (2021) *
499 (2020)
Free Guy (2021) *
The French Dispatch (2021) *
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) *
Ghost World (2001)
The Go-Between (1971)
The Godfather (1972)
Golden Voices (2019)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
The Green Knight (2021)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Haack... The King of Techno (2004)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Happily (2021)
He Who Daydreamed and He Who Acted (1971) *
High Fidelity (2000)
Hive (2021)
Hospital (1970)
House of Gucci (2021) *
House of Hummingbird (2018)
A Human Condition (1974)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959)
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Inferno (2019)
The Inheritance (2020)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Italian Studies (2021)
Jackass: The Movie (2002)
Joan of Arc (1900)
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
Julie & Julia (2009)
Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992)
Just Don't Think I'll Scream (2019)
Karen Dalton: In My Own Time (2020)
The King's Man (2021) *
The Kids (2021)
Lamb (2021) *
Last Film Show (2021)
Last Night in Soho (2021) *
L'Avventura (1960)
La Piscine (1969) *
Larry Flynt For President (2021)
LFG (2021)
Licorice Pizza (2021) *
Listening to Kenny G (2021)
Locked Down (2021)
Luzzu (2021)
Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over (2019)
Madly in Life (2020)
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
The Matrix: Resurrections (2021) *
The Midnight Sky (2020)
Minari (2020) *
Monday (2021)
Moneyball (2011)
Monster Hunter (2020) *
Munich (2005)
The Muppet Movie (1979) *
My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To (2020)
Myth of a Colorblind France (2020)
The Natural (1984)
The New Deal for Artists (1976)
Nico, 1988 (2017)
Nightmare Alley (1947)
Nightmare Alley (2021) *
Night Moves (1975)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Nobody (2021) *
Nomadland (2020)
No Man of God (2021)
No Time To Die (2021) *
Notting Hill (1999)
No Sudden Move (2021)
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
Oil City Confidential (2009)
Old (2021) *
One Night In Miami... (2020)
Othello (1951)
The Others (1969) *
Our Mother's House (1967)
Padatik (1973) *
The Perfect Candidate (2019)
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Pig (2021) *
The Pillar of Fire (1899)
Plan B (2021)
A Playground for Baboush (1971) *
Poser (2021)
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Promising Young Woman (2020)
The Princess and the Pea (1976) *
Psycho (1960)
Queen Marie of Romania (2019)
Rear Window (1954)
Raging Fire (2021) *
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Red Rocket (2021) *
Remember My Name (1978)
Respect (2021) *
Richard's Things (1980)
A Rifle and a Bag (2020)
Rise Up (2021)
Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm (2020)
Rory Scovel: Live Without Fear (2019)
Rosita (1923)
The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959)
Sacrifice (2021)
Sator (2019)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Scars of Ali Boulala (2021)
Serendipity (2001)
Settlers (2021)
Shadows (1959)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) *
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Shoplifters of the World (2021)
Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue (2018)
Siah parandeh (1973) *
Sign of the Lion (1962)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Sin (2019)
Skull: The Mask (2020)
Slaxx (2020)
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
The Souvenir Part II (2021) *
The Sparks Brothers (2021) *
Spencer (2021) *
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) *
The Star Prince (1918)
Stillwater (2021) *
Summer with Monika (1953)
Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021)
Sweat (2020)
The Swordsman (2020)
Tenet (2020) *
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
That's Entertainment! (1974)
That Thing You Do! (1996)
Thirst (1949)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Tiger (2021)
TINA (2021)
Titane (2021)
Torn (2021)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) *
True History for the Kelly Gang (2019)
True Mothers (2020)
24 Hour Party People (2002)
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Valley Girl (1983) *
The Velvet Underground (2021)
Vive Le Tour! (1962)
WarGames (1983)
The Wayward Cloud (2005)
West Side Story (1961)
West Side Story (2021) *
What Happened Was... (1994)
When I Get Home (2019)
Whispers (1980)
Women Hell Song (1970)
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021) *
Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (2021)
Wrath of Man (2021) *
The Wrong Box (1966)
Wu Hai (2020)
You Go To My Head (2017)
You Will Die at Twenty (2019)
Zola (2020) *
TMI? Probably. But who else am I going to share this information with? My mom? Your mom?
Reply if you have questions or want to have a long email conversation about how Licorice Pizza was a letdown or goddamn foxy James Taylor was in Two-Lane Blacktop.
See you in 2022.