CiTR -- Exploding Head Movies

For your Thanksgiving episode, you get some leftovers. gak's on the road but after August's podcast server outage, he's dug up two lost episodes (615 + 616 from August 2022) and mashed them together into an odd pre-recorded hybrid so podcast listeners can enjoy a condensed version of profiles tied to The Northman, Das Boot & The Neverending Story whilst the radio folks hear less crackle and snap b...

October primarily means a horror month in the lead to Hallowe'en but with the Vancouver International Film Festival bringing Michael Abels to town for a talk, we'll profile his score to Jordan Peele's latest scary film Nope. We'll also do the usual film listings, tributes to the recently deceases, acts in town and some Iranian noise in support of protestors. 1. James Devane: Sudden Oak Death (Beau...

In tribute to French new wave director Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022), we hear an array of music from his definitive Nouvelle Vague films from the 1960s. We also mark the upcoming National Day for Truth & Reconciliation, finally hear the 2022 Polaris Prize winner and prepare for the 41st annual Vancouver International Film Festival starting later this week. 1. Pierre Kwenders: Coupé (José Louis and t...

With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022), we pay tribute to her as a person whilst wondering what a monarchy means in the 21st century. We'll profile Alexandre Desplat's score to the 2006 film The Queen as we juggle other queens amongst the usual round of other topics, including Polaris Prize nominee (and winner) catch-up, recent Emmy news and other things going wrong around the world in...

Wanna hear a story? As late summer soldiers forth in the northern hemisphere, we'll profile Mica Levi's beguiling score to the 2020 Twitter-based film Zola. We also pay tribute to Olivia Newton-John, Jim Seals from Seals & Crofts and play catch-up on the 2022 Polaris Prize nominees. Are there weird starts to songs and gaps in others? Why yes, sigh. Time to prepare backups to backups amongst every...

In honour of the actress Nichelle Nichols (1932-2022), we'll deep into the first two Star Trek films and their scores by Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner. We also have various summer songs also in mind as we juggle technology and astronomy simultaneously. 1. Bob & Doug McKenzie: Black Holes (Great White North, 1981) Anthem 2. Meco: Star Trek Medley (Music from Star Trek and The Black Hole, 1980) C...

For your civic holiday in Canada, BC Day specifically here in Vancouver, this episodes goes 80s chirpiness with selections from Harold Faltermeyer's soundtracks to Beverly Hills Cop, Fletch and a bit of Top Gun. Dollar days are upon us, pray tell. 01. Sally Shapiro: Holiday (Italians Do It Better, 2021) Italians Do It Better 02. Arushi Jain: Under the Lilac Sky (Under the Lilac Sky, 2021) Leaving...

Plan B galore as gak deals with substantial home music library problems, so we'll dig up Francis & Carmine Coppola's score to the 1979 epic war film Apocalypse Now and the unused David Shire score that was released a couple years ago. Let's all head up river with our grocery list. 1. UNKLE: UNKLE Main Title Theme (Psyence Fiction, 1998) Mo'Wax/London 2. Marc Sabat: Swing in Sweetest Summer [for Gl...

gak's back after a few weeks in both literal and figurative wildernesses. At long last, we pay tribute to the Greek composer Vangelis (1943-2022) and only some of his synthetic epics. 1. Kraftwerk: Home Computer [2021 single edit] (Remixes, 2022) Kling Klang/Parlophone 2. Ingram Marshall: Prelude/The Bay (Alcatraz, 1994) New Albion 3. Alexandra Spence: Blue Waves (Calliope, 2022) Hotham Sound 4. M...

gak went away to Finland for a few weeks to the only pre-recorded episode made available is Part 9 of our all-ambient series, focusing on mostly Canadian artists for the then-leadup to Canada Day. He doesn't talk over Sarah Davachi for once and there are longer drone pieces in the back half. ProtoU: Somniat Praeterita (Memory Alpha, 2022) Cryo Chamber Museum of No Art: Flight on Carpet (Museum of...

All the holidays are upon us as Bloomsday and Juneteenth have passed, then National Indigenous Peoples Day and Midsummer approach. We'll tackle all that along with Joe Strummer's score to the 1987 film Walker plus a preview of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. 1. Fontaines DC: Bloomsday (Skinty Fia, 2022) Partisan 2. Brian John McBrearty: Second Story Tune (Blue Twenty-Three, 2017) Blue T...

The actor Ray Liotta (1954-2022) was a distinctive force, so amongst various highlights, we'll profile music from Martin Scorsese's 1990 epic Goodfellas and then the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. He did amuse us so. 1. Mahotella Queens: Wozani Mahipi (Next Stop...Soweto: Volume 2, 2010) Strut 2. Jamani Duo: Open Window (Timeline, 2021) self-released 3. Julee Cruise: Rockin' Back Inside M...

In tribute to actor William Hurt (1950-2022), we profile a wide swath of the actor's films, primarily focusing on John Barry's sultry score to the 1981 neo-noir Body Heat and selected music from 1998's sci-fi puzzler Dark City amongst other film scores. 1. Kamikaze Nurse: Aileen (Stimuloso, 2022) Mint 2. Mount Maxwell: Senescent Vivarium (Senescent Vivarium, 2022) Hotham Sound 3. Iggy Pop: The Pas...

gak raced back from out east so this haphazardous episode profiles Joe Hisaishi's score from the iconic Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro whilst previewing the 2022 edition of Vancouver's Music Waste festival. You can smell the jet lag. Ichi, ni, san, yon, go! 1. Otoboke Beaver: Yakitori (Super Champon, 2022) Damnably 2. ToToro: Cats Eggs (Tings in Boots 3, 2019) Push & Run 3. Joseph Shabason...

It's Victoria Day up Canada way and as gak jets off in multiple directions, this prerecorded episode promises to go Everything Everywhere All at Once (score by Son Lux). 1. Folklore Ensemble of the Village of Stena, Tomashpol District, Vinnitsa Region, Podolie: We're Starting a Curved Dance [Springtime Round Dance] (Ukrainian Music: Anthology of Folk Music, 2011) Melodiya 2. Richard Reed Parry: Ne...

May is Asian Heritage Month so we'll tackle a classic by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa that inspired part of Star Wars: 1958's The Hidden Fortress as scored by Masaru Satoh. We also pay tribute to a lot of fallen drummers as of late amongst talking concerts in the Lower Mainland this week. As with CITR's web server, podcasts are working again. 1. Jacques Greene: Taurus (Fantasy EP, 2022) LuckyM...

Iceland is on the mind as we profile a few recent posthumous releases by composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, including 2 film scores from Chinese films that are now streaming in North America: Blind Massage & The Shadow Play. We also talk about concerts in Vancouver this week as we play catchup from the CITR web server outage, including the Verboden Festival. Jónsi: Salt Licorice [w. Robyn] (Shiver, 2020)...

Long desired & finally aired, this episode tried to avoid the feeling of devouring six bowls of colourful cereal on a Saturday morning by keeping the cartoony side towards the back third. Still, there's plenty of Carl Stalling's music from the original Warner Brothers' cartoons amongst other frantic music from films & TV both old & new amongst the usual frim fram. 1. Alabaster dePlume: The Sound o...

For our 600th episode as Exploding Head Movies (DC for the Romans, 698 for long-time radio free gak listeners), we go mostly Gallic with music from Wes Anderson's 2021 film The French Dispatch. The podcast gods were amenable since I couldn't record this episode from home so we are successfully relying on the rebuilt server talking to the station logger properly to present what I feared would be a...

With the passing of the actress Monica Vitti (1933-2022), we listen to a wide range of music associated with her films, ranging from comedies to Michaelangelo Antonioni's moody new wave films. There were also a lot of concerts happening in Vancouver that week -- for podcast listeners, it's not so relevant anymore -- but it's a full raft of the usual mayhem. 1. Le Rose: Monica Vitti (Le Rose, 2010)...

With the Major League Baseball season starting last week, this episode pays tribute to that pasttime with a profile on James Horner's score to the 1989 sports fantasy Field of Dreams. We also recognize Peter Bogdanovich (1939-2022) with songs from his 1971 film The Last Picture Show. Podcast subscribers: yep, citr.ca was offline for a month so you'll see all the recent episodes starting popping up...

With awards season over, it's time an overdue Part 8 of our all-ambient episodes, this time focusing on soothing sounds that came out last year. 1. Kaleema: Ambrosia (Útera, 2021) Wonderwheel 2. Area 3: Whale (Amb, 2021) Khotin Industries 3. M Crook + Oxherding: Shelter in Place (Shelter in Place, 2021) self-released 4. A Winged Victory for the Sullen: The Celestial City (Invisible Cities/Le Città...

Our Oscar season draws to a close as the 94th Academy Awards were handed out yesterday in a wild ceremony. Along with a recap of the winners, we'll profile Marius De Vreis' score from this year's Best Picture: Coda. 1. Emilia Jones: Beyond the Shore (CODA OST, 2021) Republic 2. Loscil: Clara (Clara, 2021) Kranky 3. Hans Zimmer: Leaving Caladan (Dune OST, 2021) WaterTower 4. Hans Zimmer: Ornithopte...

Since we've wrapped up our profiles on the best original scores for this Sunday's Academy Awards, Part 6 of our annual Oscar episodes focuses on the nominated songs from the films No Time to Die, Encanto, King Richard, Belfast & Four Good Days. We'll touch upon some songs that missed the cut and then pay tribute to Canadian director (1963-2021) with music from some of his films & television series...

For the 5th part of our annual Oscar profiles, we'll listen again at Hans Zimmer's score to Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune since it became nominated since we last spoke about it. We'll also a lot of live music options in Vancouver this week as pandemic mandates lift amongst more Ukrainian music and tributes to the recently deceased. 1. Dragobrath: Intro (Fra Myrer Taake, 2010) Eastside 2. T...