Gimme Something To Watch: Dan Graham’s Holy Mountain & DopesmoQatsi
Let’s draw a simple Venn diagram: in one circle we’ll place fans of stoner metal legendary Sleep, the other will be assigned to people who enjoy mindfuck movies. If by any chance you happen to be at the intersection of those two groups, boy, you’re in for a treat.
Reddit is the so called “front page of the internet”, which means it can be a terrifying and awe-inspiring place to be all at once. Despite its much maligned status, some of the dopest stuff I’ve found online was shared there. Like Dan Graham’s masterpieces, shared by the man himself to the stoner rock subreddit.
Dan Graham’s Holy Mountain
You may or may not be familiar with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s work. One of his most famous films is 1973 The Holy Mountain, a mindfuck of a film depicting the journey of a man that bears an uncanny resemblance with Jesus Christ through a surreal landscape. Tarot; John Lennon and Yoko Ono funding; Allen Klein (The Beatles’ manager) handling production and a lot of controversial shots have all contributed to the film’s cult status. It is rumored that Sleep’s second full-length is at least partially inspired by the 70’s film.
Astutely, Dan Graham proceeded to do something great. Something for the kids. He put together the first 40 minutes of Jodo’s film along with the first 40 minutes of Sleep’s Holy Mountain, to an outstanding result. Witness the thickness below. If 40 minutes is too much for you to handle, there is a YouTube playlist in which the video is cut to 6 smaller pieces – stab here to watch it. If you never watched the original film, it is split up in two – just stab here & here. This is all NSFW, so be careful.
DopesmoQatsi
This excerpt is taken from his original reddit post:
I realized a few months ago that Sleep’s Dopesmoker goes along fairly well with one of my favorite movies, Koyaanisqatsi. I had some free time and tweaked the speed of different shots of the movie so that it lines up even better with the music. It was actually pretty easy because most of Koyaanisqatsi is fast/slow motion shots of nature or people. When I tried to post it on youtube, the copyright holders of Koyaanisqatsi blocked it, but I really wanted to share DopesmoQatsi with people who would enjoy it.
For those that don’t know, Koyaanisqatsi is a masterpiece in its original form and everyone should see it, maybe before even watching DopesmoQatsi. It is a series of video shots and Phillip Glass music that come together in such a way that it tells a sort of story and evokes introspection into modern life, capitalism, and the fate of humanity (at least in my opinion). I can’t recommend it enough, I’ve watched it probably 15 times and each time I see something new, a new connection, a new minor detail of a shot, or something like that. Watch this movie.
Even though the visuals are basically the same, with Dopesmoker as the music to the film, it’s a different experience in my opinion. My wife said “With the Phillip Glass music, the movie is shouting a message in your face like ‘Look at this!!!’, but with Dopesmoker, its like “Let’s have a conversation about this.” I don’t think that just because the visuals are the same that I shouldn’t be able to share it with people who will appreciate it.
You can download DopesmoQatsi via torrent. I’ll be seeding.
Are there any other film + metal mash-ups that you know of? What combinations would you like to see?
Sound off, flushers.
