Sunday 14 November 2010

Big in Japan



Got rickrolled into listening to this track from a tweet by True Panther Sounds claiming it to be a collaboration between James Ferraro and Oneohtrix Point Never. Despite the fitting connection, it turned out to be the 1984 song Loverboy by Britain's biggest selling Black artist of all time, Billy Ocean.

I also wasn't disappointed, as the video is just incredible, watch it now. It's an insane mix of Ocean warbling in front of a green screen blissfully unaware of the fantasy/tical world around him, seemingly made up from the rejected Star Wars sequel costumes and the weirdness of the The Dark Crystal. The song itself leaves a little bit to be desired but has its charms none the less. Love to know what the record label/general public thought.

Speaking of The Dark Crytal, Jim Hensons terrifying masterpiece, the first ever live action film billed as not having any actors in it, is scheduled for a sequel. Due for release in 2011, The Power of the Dark Crystal is based on Henson and co-writer David Odell's ideas for the film formed in the late 80's. The film's been caught up in pre-production hell since 2005 though and fansites (http://powerofthedarkcrystal.blogspot.com/) have had to struggle with whatever information they can grab onto, currently it seems the film's being produced by an Australian company called Omnilab.

Below's an unofficial teaser trailer for the film, featuring some production sketches, though whether it'll ever be released and scar as many childhoods as the original did to mine, remains to be seen.