M&M #6

The Knife – Silent Shout (2006)

Olof Dreijer and Karin Dreijer Andersson are a brother and sister act from Sweden (the new epi-centre for music creativity) and they fucking rock. With a buoyancy, they roll over the swells of consciousness and transport you under their murky depths. Though it's strictly computer generated music, they create a myriad of worlds for us to experience. Sometimes their voices blend together in distorted harmony and at other times they bounce off each other like children in a schoolyard stomp. Drifting off in a sleepless dream in a bath one night, the song 'From Off to On' serenaded me with deep bliss and juiced my cerebral heart. I relish their dark tower that they've built with their own magic, releasing everything under their own label. The Knife are masters in this modern world. Maybe we should all move to Sweden and simply breath the air.


The Lives Of Others - Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (2006)

In 1984, the Stasi (East German Secret Police) controlled the lives of everyone. When the Minister of Culture becomes obsessed with one of the leading actresses in the country Agent Wiesler is ordered to conduct surveillance on her boyfriend, a prominent playwright, in order to find something nefarious on him so that he might be removed from the equation. As Wiesler listens to the lives of these people and begins to question his purpose on the case, he finds himself going against all of his training and covering for the couples inappropriate doings. As the evidence mounts against all of them Wiesler continues to alter reality until a final fatal conclusion. The movie portrays a time when communist Germany was beginning to falter and decades of manipulation eventually created a terribly oppressive environment. When the the rule of law becomes corrupted how can an honest man continue to support it? Winning awards all over the world last year, this movie is a must watch.