Old Movie: Killer Meteors

I've always loved the way that kung-fu movies seek to capitalize on the star power of the few names that are recognizable to Western audiences. Whether this is the product of desperate marketers at a time when obscure martial arts films didn't command the attention that they can now in Western markets or the industry itself needed this mechanism to move units just as much there I can't say. What I can say however is that giving Jackie Chan top billing in this movie is almost as ridiculous as the action since his role as Wa Wu-Bin is tiny to say the least.

The Killer Meteors (1976; also billed as Jackie Chan vs. Wang Yu and Karate Death Squad) follows the story of Mi Wei, known as the "Killer Meteor" thanks to his secret weapon of (surprise!) the same name. Mi Wei is approached by Wa Wu-Bin when he discovers that his wife has poisoned him and he needs the antidote. Unfortunately for both of them, Wa Wu-Bin's wife is guarded by 5 of the world's "greatest fighters," each with their own unique power.

Like all movies of this particular genre of kung-fu the action is ridiculous and fun, with lots of obvious editing tricks. While that might be a turn off to some I am always intrigued to see the ways that filmmakers work around small budgets and a lack of technology. If you enjoy kung-fu, and perhaps more importantly enjoy slightly ridiculous kung-fu I definitely recommend this one. It reminds me a lot of some of the lesser known but still awesome Shaw Bros. movies like Chinese Super Ninjas (the title alone is amazing in it of itself) or 5 Deadly Venoms (reviews forthcoming).

For more info and to purchase click on the image above.

Rating: 9.0

New Music: BPC Camping 3

Bpitch Control has been around since the late 90s and was founded by Ellen Allien in Berlin. Since then, Ellen has compiled three albums of representative tracks that show the direction the label has headed as well as highlights some of the notable artists. Camping 3 is the latest in this series.

For those of you that have followed this label (as well as others like Kompakt) this album doesn't bring many surprises. One of the new elements at play here (as evidenced by the opening track by Jahcoozi and the later track by modeselektor) however is a more obvious hip hop influence. While this isn't too shocking considering the cross-pollination that has been happening of late across these genres, its an interesting turn for a label that has been pretty steadfastly in the euro-techno camp. Long-time label members Paul Kalkbrenner and Sascha Funke offer solid tracks with "Der Senat" and "I Love my Tent" respectively. I enjoy the work Ellen Allien has done with Apparat quite a bit, and the track "Red Planets" doesn't disappoint, offering the strongest selection on this album.

Overall this is a decent selection, albeit a relatively uninspired one. I feel like Ellen and crew are sticking too close to the status quo on a number of these tracks to really grab my attention as something I would want in the regular rotation. For newcomers to the label its a good introduction, but there are better places to start if you are interested in either more specific sub-genres or particular artists on the label.

If you are interested in more information on this album, click the album picture above to be taken to Amazon's product page.

Rating: 6.0

First Post

Welcome to Esoteric Foofaraw!

It's my hope that this blog will become as regular a habit for you as it will become for me. I spend nearly all of my free time searching for and enjoying new media, and this blog is the next logical extension of the habit. It's my goal to regularly post on new things that I find in an effort to share my discoveries with you. Hopefully you will all feel compelled to jump on board with comments as well.

Just to give you an idea of what to expect here, this is what I foresee as regularly posted items:

• Movies (new US releases, DVD releases and foreign film reviews)
  
• Records (I'm always on the hunt for records so I'll share what I find here)
  
• Books (Whatever I happen to be reading at the time)
  

There will be other things added as I feel compelled to post on them, so don't think that the above is all there is!

I'm working on my first real post now; look forward to seeing it soon!