4
Will disco ever die?
54 sounds death knell
By Jonathan Carter
FEATURES FILM CRITIC
It's late in the era of 1970s
nostalgia. The general 70's nos
talgia that began a few years ago
is inevitably concluding and now
has a sort of late 70's/early 80's
disco theme that influenced
Boogie Nights, The Last Days of
Disco, and now 54, from first-time
director Mark Christopher. Un
fortunately, instead of sending
70's nostalgia out with a bang,
the predictable and dull 54
merely sounds its death knell.
The title refers to Studio 54,
nightclub and center of the uni
verse for the subculture of drugs
and decadence that arose during
the 70's. The film follows ordi
nary guy Shane (Ryan Philippe),
a * J
who catches the eye of the club's
owner, Steve Rubell (Mike
Myers), and gets a sought-after
job tending bar at 54. Soon he
descends into its dangerously ex
cessive world. Along the way he
meets others trying to make it:
Anita (Salma Hayek), who
dreams of being a singer, her hus
band Greg (Breckin Meyer), who
wants to be a bartender at the
club but is too short (and also re
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Features
fuses to be Rubell's 'special
friend'), and Julie (Neve
Campbell) a soap star who wants
bigger and better roles. Most of
them idolize Rubell, another ordi
nary guy who had some luck, but
Rubell knows that his precarious
empire could collapse irreparably
at any moment.
54 tries to be a 90-minute en
semble piece, and obviously that
doesn't work. Character conflicts
(and actually, some characters,
like Julie) come and go quickly,
pointlessly, and without resolu
tion. The conflicts might have
been thrown in so the characters
wouldn't appear as complete
cliches, but most of them had such
brief parts that I couldn't even tell
if they were cliches. The only
character who has enough
screen time for
development is
Shane, but he's
banal and
unaffecting
and ends up
seeming like a
nonentity even
though he's the
main character
and narrator.
For all
that the real
Studio 54 stood
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for, 54 is a pretty tame movie. Its
scenes of drugs and Sex have be
come all but commonplace in Hol
lywood, and the film doesn't go the
extra mile to elicit any shocked re
action from the audience. Near
the film's end, Shane comments
that the corporations that took
over the club "made everything
safe and dull, the way corpora
tions do." Looks like something
similar happened to this movie.
Pigface: new album "will
almost make you dizzy"
By Daniel Snyder
STAFF WRITER
rating* * *
A New High in Low saw
Pigface moving into many differ
ent musical directions while con
tinuously maintaining an indus-
■' '-v -J £;>'
trial-based sound.
With Below the Belt, the re
mix companion to .4 New High in
Low, Martin Atkins continues to
experiment with the main concept
he initially set out to achieve, an
industrial band with interchange
able members. The result, an
other Pigface album which bears
little resemblance to previous ef
forts.
Below the Belt begins with
Curse Mackeys's remix of "Radio
Bagpipe." The track commences
with the pounding of a very steady
and synthetic bass drum en
wrapped in a swirling and very
distorted bagpipe. As the track
progresses, other strange and
spacey sounds begin to revolve
around the beat before all fading
out only to reveal a synthetic or
chestra playing a very low-key yet
wonderful melody underneath the
layers of constructed noise. Then
the orchestra stops and the noise
resumes. This is a sign of things
to come.
The better tracks on the al
bum include Lee (Sheep on Drugs,
Bagman) Fraser's remix of "More
Methylated," Quoit's remix of
"More," and Resident Phase
Shifter's remix of "Metal Tanger
ine."
"Kiss King," remixed by
James Galus, is truly incredible.
Galus takes all of the brilliant el
ements of the original, Atkins'
powerful drums, Ogre's hypnotic
sitar, Mary Dee Reynold's sensual
vocals, and sonically enhances
them with a bassline so fluid, it
really makes the song move.
The remix of "Nutopia" by
New York's Hanzel und Gretyl is
equally tremendous. They add a
much more upbeat drum beat but
keep many of the original vocals.
Lyrically, the song pays homage
to the late Allen Ginsburg, "I saw
the best minds of my generation/
THE GUILFORDIAN
SEPTEMBER 11,1 998
Running on empty/Super glued to
the t.v./Dreaming of prosperity...."
Hanzel und Gretyl sincerely do the
song justice.
But it is Bagman's remix of
"You Kn0w...." that really got me
excited. Bagman is a master at
piecing together wicked jungle
COURTESY OF INVISIBLE RECORDS
beats (his first album, Wrap, is
better than a lot of Goldie's tunes),
and the interpretation here of "You
Kn0w...." will almost make you
dizzy. Break after break, the
drums are relentless. And then
Please see Pigface, page 6
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