Sunset Mission & related thoughts

November 25, 2010

It's pretty amazing how music shapes moments and, at the same time, how the way we get to know albums and songs influences our taste for them. Today at the end of the work day I came across this post in which Chino Moreno, Deftones' band leader and one of my teenage icons, lists 13 of his most influencial/favourite musical works. I had to run so I've only digged until the third album he mentions, Sunset Mission by "Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore". As a big influence, I've always taken Chino's view (interviews, musical taste reflected on his career, etc.) pretty seriously, so I've rushed to google the album and get a copy, which has gone straight into my iPhone.

I'm now back to the appartment they've put me in Amsterdam for this week (a beautiful old building by the Amstel) after a beer with a friend in one of those low-light cozy bars in the Pijp, for which Amsterdam is pretty good at. Of course, on the walk back I've had Sunset Mission on my ears; and it couldn't have been a better fit. In the post, Chino talks about how he loves movie soundtracks, and you can taste that flavour in here: the atmosphere created by the blend of jazz and suspense makes whatever you're doing while listening the scene of a story, a movie in which you're the main character instead of the spectator. All of a sudden,  closed vintage shops, rooms seen from the street through windows and the city lights reflected on the river have created a page on a graphic novel or a shot from a Twin Peaks moved a few thousands kilometres away. Pretty amazing. I particularly like how he labels the album as 'metal' when in fact it's pure jazz and ambient. Parental advisory: only for night animals.