Bizarre (1987

Purple Films - Prince: Sign 'O' the Times (1987)
WEB-DL | 1280x720 | .MKV/AVC @ 2655 Kbps | 1h 24mn | Audio: English AAC 128 kbps, 2 channels | Subs: None | 1.65 GiB
Genre: Documentary

Strangely enigmatic, charismatically compact, and always decked out in the most colorfully bizarre outfits, pop star Prince has an undeniable talent for both songwriting and performing. On SIGN 'O' THE TIMES, he shows off the latter, giving a no-holds-barred performance at the Rotterdam Music Hall and his Paisley Park Soundstage. The "Sign 'O' The Times" album represented the pinnacle of Prince's career, with its blend of songs and music styles. In front of a live crowd at the Rotterdam Music Hall, Prince and his band bring to life his Grammy Nominated Album of the Year "Sign 'O' The Times". This groundbreaking film has now been completely digitally restored, enhanced and remastered. Directed with the raw energy of the Minneapolis Rocker himself, the movie is punctuated with specially filmed, dramatic vignettes appearing occasionally between songs. On its original release this film was more or less declared to be the "Greatest Concert Film" ever made. Prince and his 1987 entourage whiz, slide, jump and bounce around the stage during the collection of 14 classic songs.

The use of the word gold in the album title is ironic, since a collection of outtakes and leftovers is generally considered to weigh in well under the gold scale. With a group such as the evolving Coil collaboration, however, there's the chance that a well-conceived collection of archive material could have quite a positive impact, whatever the relative status of individual tracks in terms of what projects they were first created for. Rejected material can become a highlight out of a combination of whatever unusual aspects already exist in a piece as well as the dramatic impact of a newly conceived program flow. Gold Is the Metal is a great example of this since the individual tracks continually present challenges to the listener combined with a sonic magnetism…

The use of the word gold in the album title is ironic, since a collection of outtakes and leftovers is generally considered to weigh in well under the gold scale. With a group such as the evolving Coil collaboration, however, there's the chance that a well-conceived collection of archive material could have quite a positive impact, whatever the relative status of individual tracks in terms of what projects they were first created for. Rejected material can become a highlight out of a combination of whatever unusual aspects already exist in a piece as well as the dramatic impact of a newly conceived program flow. Gold Is the Metal is a great example of this since the individual tracks continually present challenges to the listener combined with a sonic magnetism…

Good performances of Rossini overtures of the kind taken for granted by a previous generation whenever men like Beecham, Gui, Serafin, or Toscanini stepped on to the rostrum are something of a rarity these days. Too often, conductors, orchestras, and engineers turn poor Rossini into what Scott Goddard once called that "obese old gallant". (Not always very gallant, either.) Happily, in these pieces as in much else besides, Claudio Abbado is a cut above the average.

Straight To Hell Returns - by Alex Cox (1987)

A gang of bank robbers with a suitcase full of money go to the desert to hide out. After burying the loot, they find their way to a surreal town full of cowboys who drink an awful lot of coffee. The townspeople are hostile to the outsiders at first, but seem to accept them once they've killed a couple of people. After a while, a mysterious man named Dade arrives, who seems to have unpleasant business to settle with the robbers. A free-for-all shoot-em-up ensues.