LOKA – FIRE SHEPHERDS (NINJA TUNE)
April 12th, 2006 by rui
Way back in 1969 there was this amazingly wierd and tripped out cop movie, staring Karl Malden, Gene Hackman and Richard Rountree as a group of twisted San Franciscan police men sent to go undercover into the seedy Go-Go scene to try and trap an elusive hippy mobster, played by a very young Clint Eastwood. The film explored a dark side of police corruption, the erosion of the hippy culture by big business and a tremendous amount of drugs, sex and violence as well as one of the greatest psychedelic car chases known to man. To capture the essence of the film, Quincy Jones teamed up with Lalo Schifrin to compose, score and conduct possibly one of the greatest soundtracks to mankind.
Sadly, the film, due to the nature of the content and its overall and very clear message of dissillusionment with the american dream, never got shown, and it along with the amazing soundtrack – some of Jones and Schifrins finest work known – have sat on a shelf for 36 years… until now…
None of that is true.
But, while I listen to Loka’s debut LP “Fire Shepherds”, that’s what my brain is telling me happened, because the truth – that this has been made by a couple of guys from Liverpool – simply can’t be true. You can’t make music this good/complex/alive/cinematic anymore. Sure it wigs out in places, almost into Bitches Brew style vamps, but it never loses it’s way – drives and twists and makes you want to see the film that this was inspired by, but there is no film to see. But maybe you can help that (or so says the press release)…
“Ninja Tune will be collaborating with Signals Media Arts (a digital video and multimedia festival and resource) in hosting a competition to create a video of each track on “Fire Shepherds”. The best made video for each track – as chosen by the festival, Ninja and Loka themselves – will be screened at Signals yearly festival between October 10th and 15th 2006. Moreover, the overall winner will receive:
a £1000 cash production budget plus upto £200 worth of Signals facility and equipment hire
a wax sack of Ninja records
a day workshop in the studio with Ninja Tune AV artist VJ Mox
and the chance to be shown at film festivals across the globe.
“Initially people will be asked to submit a synopsis by April 21st 2006 and the lucky few will be notified by Mat 5th with thh deadline for final video by Augustr 18th. Much more info and excerpts of tunes to base ideas on are available at:
www.signals.org.uk/ninjatune (IE required)”
Just remember that the psychadelic car chase was my idea, ok?
Marky
a.k.a Mach V (SoxaN)
‘Fire Shepherds’ by Loka is out now in Ninja Tune
