Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project Pres; Black Sabbath & Monster Magnet

This week on my Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project; Black Sabbath and Monster Magnet.

You wouldn't normally think of Sabbath as subject for some artsy film mashups but there's a couple.

BLACK SABBATH ~ "EMBRYO";


This one uses one of the earliest short clips from Edison Studios circa 1894.

BLACK SABBATH ~ "FX";


For this little effects noodle I used some Edison Studios footage taken from the 1901 Pan-Am Expo in Buffalo which was incidentally where President Willaim McKinley was shot.

MATMOS ~ "FX";


This cover of the Sabbath song was from a Black Sabbath cover album and I used some more Edison Studios footage, this time of the aftermath of the San Fransisco earthquake and fire of 1904.

MONSTER MAGNET ~ "INTO THE VOID";


This epic cover came from yet another Sabbath tribute. Uses a Polish film based on the Gogol story "The Portrait".

MONSTER MAGNET ~ "EGO THE LIVING PLANET";


With their 1995 album "Dopes To Infinity" album Monster Magnet produced the greatest album Black Sabbath never made. More footage from the Edison Studios footage of the San Francisco Earthquake for this instrumental.

MONSTER MAGNET ~ "MASTERBURNER";


For this track I used a short art film made by Yoko Ono as part of Flux Films, a Dada art Collective in 1967.

MONSTER MAGNET ~ "KING OF MARS";


This video used another art film, by Robert Breer from 1970

BLUE CHEER ~ "MAGNOLIA CABOOSE BABYFINGER";


Before there was Black Sabbath there was Blue Cheer. This vid uses some test footage from a horror film from the British studio Hammer Films in the 1960's

Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project Pres; Ramleh

Ramleh were one of the bands to emerge from the early Dada-Industrial scene of Northern England led by the likes of Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire (who also made a series of vids for to be scene here and here) and Clock DVA (ditto here). Starting in 1982 they have continued (with an ever shifting lineup) to today releasing records on various small indie labels. Ramleh differ from the other bands mentioned in that while these bands would embrace electronic and even dance music, Ramleh have continued to work within the original Noise-Rock framework of traditional guitar, bass and drums drenched in screeching feedback, distortion, droning echo, shouted vocals (if any) and long, apparently free-form jams.

RAMLEH ~ "FAG-ENDERS";


For this track off the 1994 "Homeless" I used an early silent animated film by Winsor McCay, the father of animation, who incidentally I've also written about here. Note that the "Fag" in the title probably refers to the British slang term for cigarettes but I can't be 100% sure since the vocals are completely indecipherable.

RAMLEH ~ "CHICKENHAWK";


This track from "Homeless" uses a weird early sci-fi film from the great French director Abel Gance ("Napoleon") which includes some hallucinogenic camera tricks.

RAMLEH ~ "MAGIC TIGER";


This track uses another early French film, this time from George Melies which includes some early hand-tinted colour.

RAMLEH ~ "THUMB BUSTER";


This track uses a short art film made by Yoko Ono for the Fluxus Film art collective in New York in about 1967

Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project Pres; Monoton

More from my Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project. This week; Monoton.
German electro group Monoton was actually Konrad Becker who released a debut album in 1982 of dark atmospheric drones called "Monotonprodukt 07". The album was quite obscure at the time but it has since been cited as an influence on later electro-minimilists and was re-released in 2003.

MONOTON ~ "FIRE";


This video uses an early 1908 DW Griffith film "The Lonely Vila", about a home invasion. I also used this film for a Cabaret Voltaire video but couldn't decide which I liked better so I kept both.

MONOTON ~ "NEW";


This video uses one of the early Edison Studios shorts from 1898.

MONOTON ~ "WHEREAMI";


This one uses another Edison Film, "Uncle Josh In A Haunted Hotel" from 1900. Uncle Josh was a recuring character of a rural rube who has adventures in the big city as the subject of a series of Edison shorts. This one is notable in having a supernatural theme.

MONOTON ~ "SINGSANG";


This video uses an ealy french film "Arab Sorcerie".

MONOTON ~ "SOUND SEQUENCE";


This video uses a short art film by Joe Jones made for the Flux Films collective in 1966.

MONOTON ~ "VIBRATIONS";


Another art film from the Flux Collective, "Exit" by George Brecht.

MONOTON ~ "SHORT WAVE TRANSMISSION";


For this one instead of using a vintage silent film I used a modern silent short "Locked In" by Mathew Zellner that I thought needed a soundtrack.