[<<] 1988 [>>]
Related: 1980s
By medium: 1988 films - 1988 music
Films: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) - Akira (1988) - Tetsuo (1988)
Non-fiction: The Misfits: A Study of Sexual Outsiders (1988) - Colin Wilson
Deaths: Raymond Williams (1921 - 1988) - Sylvester (1947 - 1988) - Jean Michel Basquiat (1960 - 1988) - Piero Fornasetti (1913 - 1988)
Todd Terry [...]
After an initial success with "Can You Party", Todd Terry secures a position in the 1988 charts with no less than four classics. The focus re-shifts to New York. [...]
New Dance Sound from Detroit [...]
Virgin 10 release a compilation of music by Detroit artists including Juan Atkins and Derrick May, called 'Techno: The New Dance Sound from Detroit'. Compiled by Neil Rushton, the release was the first real taste of Detroit techno taken to Europe. It is less successful than expected, however, manages to coin the term "techno".Balearic, Ibiza
In 1988, there was the 'Balearic' business, an eclectic style of DJing which at the time encompassed dance mixes of pop artists like Mandy Smith and quasi-industrial music like Nitzer Ebb's 'Join In The Chant' Championed by Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway, Paul Oakenfold and Johnny Walker who'd all been to Ibiza in the summer of 1987, Balearic was an integral part of the club scene at the time, but after the gushing media overkill it all became a little farcical as people attempted to make Balearic records. There was, of course no such thing. --Phil Cheeseman
Dancefloor Singles
- Mr. Fingers - Amnesia (Larry Heard)
- Royal House - Party People (Todd Terry)
- Royal House - Yeah Buddy
- Todd Terry Project - Weekend (rework of the 1978 classic)
- Raze - Break For Love
- Liz Torres - Can't Get Enough
- Adonis - No Way Back
- First Bass - It's Like That (Mark Kinchen with a killer bassline and old school drum rolls)
- Blake Baxter - When We Used To Play (Blake Baxter, the prince of techno)
- Inner City - Big Fun (Kevin Saunderson)
- Ce Ce Rogers - Someday
- The Nightwriters - Let the Music Use You
- Rythim is Rythim - Strings Of Life
- A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray
- Stetsasonic - Talkin' All That Jazz (using Lonnie Liston Smith's Expansions bassline)
- Basement Boys - Love Don't Live Here Anymore (Jump Street records)
- Joe Church - I Can't Wait Too Long
- Adeva - Respect
- Kraze - The Party
- S-Express - Theme From S-Express
- Turntable Orchestra - You're Gonna Miss Me
- Pfortune - String Free
- Black Riot - A Day in the Life (Todd Terry)
- Hardhouse - Check This Out (Todd Terry)
- Samba De Flora - Airto Moreira
- Mr Fingers - Stars
- Jevetta Steele - Calling You
- Mayday - Freestyle
- Kevin Saunderson - The Groove That Won't Stop (1988)
- Inner City - Good Life (Kevin Saunderson)
CDs
- It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) - Public Enemy [Amazon US]
[FR] [DE] [UK]
It Takes a Nation of Millions was the sign that hip-hop had exploded like a grenade. A rap record as abrasive, hardcore, and eloquent as a JFK speech, the 1988 disc is one classic track after another: tense, multilayered, harmonically wild music. Chuck D. declaims like a master preacher with foil Flavor Flav's voice darting around his. They've got the desperate energy of people fighting for their lives, and everything from their pumped-up rhetoric ("Prophets of Rage") to the group's quasi-paramilitary organization to the sirens and sax squeals in nearly every track declares how urgent their mission is. It's a hugely influential album, and it still sounds fresh and frightening after all these years. --Douglas Wolk - Straight Out the Jungle (1988) - Jungle Brothers [CD, Amazon US]
[FR] [DE] [UK]
1. Straight Out The Jungle 2. What's Going On 3. Black Is Black 4. Jimbrowski 5. I'm Gonna Do You 6. I'll House You 7. On The Run 8. Behind The Bush 9. Because I Got It Like That 10. Braggin & Boastin 11. Sounds Of The Safari 12. Jimmy's Bonus Beat 13. The Promo
I'll never forget the first time I heard "Jimbrowski". I was twelve years old, and it made its debut on college radio, the only place you could hear hip-hop in Chicago at the time. I was writing a rhyme, and I involuntarily dropped my pencil. Compared to what else was going on, Cool J etc., it was artistic and cerebral. I instinctively knew something special was happening. In the following years, De La Soul and Tribe emerged with a new style of rap after the JB's paved the way, proving that MC's didn't need Kangols and Fat Gold Chains to rock a mic. They also had another impact on pop culture (grimace and grin): how many frat boys called condoms "jimmies", not even having heard of Afrika, Mike G, and Sammy B? --Hunter Brumfield for amazon.com [...] - Pixies - Surfer Rosa [1 CD, Amazon US]
Before the Breeders and Frank Black, there was this Boston quartet, playing hardcore's rush and terseness against the acoustic grit and the minor-key flourish of Latin pop. Their first full-length album is their starkest, harsh and trebly, with the drums right in your face, and songs edited to eliminate any note that's not absolutely necessary. Singer Black Francis yelping away about destroyed bodies and the river Euphrates, alternately acting cryptic and crazed. Kim Deal, then calling herself "Mrs. John Murphy," contributes the highlight, "Gigantic," a creepy anthem about childhood voyeurism. The playing is snarly and tricky but unfailingly tuneful, and the hooks come out of nowhere, hiding behind the noise, and bite down hard. --Douglas Wolk [...] - Big Black - Songs About Fucking[1 CD, Amazon US]
Back in 1991 I was getting ready to graduate from high school. All I had ever listened to was Janes Addiction and I assumed that they were as good as music gets. Then one day a friend of mine got a job at a local record store and brought back an album and said "You have to check out this band." I then half heartedly removed my "Ritual De Lo Habitual" CD out of my car's stereo and inserted "Big Black's - Songs About Fu...". My taste in music and my entire life changed from the moment that CD played. I found a whole new world of music that rarely, if never, touched the corporate radio waves. -- Steve Combs for amazon.com [American mid eighties punk rock from Steve Albini's former band. Originally released in 1988.] [...] - James Brown Funky People vol 1 [Amazon US]
1. Gimme Some More - The JBs 2. Pass The Peas - The JBs 3. Think (About It) - Lyn 'The Female Preacher' Collins 4. Givin' Up Food For Funk (Part 1) - The JBs 5. Mama Feelgood - Lyn 'The Female Preacher' Collins 6. Hot Pants Road - The JBs 7. Rock Me Again & Again & Again & Again & Again & Again - Lyn 'The Female Preacher' Collins 8. Damn Right, I Am Somebody (Parts 1 & 2) - Fred Wesley & The JBs 9. Take Me Just As I Am - Lyn 'The Female Preacher' Collins 10. If You Don't Get It The First Time, Back Up And Try It Again, Party - Fred Wesley & The JBs 11. Parrty (Part 1) - Maceo & The Macks 12. (It's Not The Express) It's The JBs Monaurail (Part 1) - Fred & The New JBs 13. Same Beat (Part 1) - Fred Wesley & The JBs
More films
- The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) - Wes Craven [Amazon US]
Eight years before he scored a phenomenal hit with Scream, horror master Wes Craven made a worthy effort to "legitimize" horror with this chilling supernatural thriller, based on the best-selling book by Wade Davis. More ambitious than most horror films, this one allowed Craven to generate compelling plausibility with the fact-based story of a Harvard researcher (Bill Pullman) who travels to Haiti to procure a secret voodoo powder that places people into a state of simulated death. His investigation into the hidden world of black magic grows increasingly dangerous until he's caught in a living nightmare--a potentially deadly predicament that inspired the film's advertising tag line: "Don't bury me... I'm not dead!" Craven pays particular attention to authentic details of Haitian society and the role voodoo plays in Haitian culture, and the film gains additional atmosphere from location shooting in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Craven would, of course, continue to thrive by making more "conventional" horror films including Scream, but this remains a fascinating departure for one of the genre's most celebrated directors. - -Jeff Shannon - The Vanishing (1988) - George Sluizer [Amazon US]
When a young Dutchman discovers that his girlfriend has gone missing during their return to Holland from a bicycling trip in France, he begins a three-year search that forms the basis of this unsettling psychological thriller from 1988, originally titled Spoorloos. The missing woman's whereabouts remain a mystery, but the film provides an early introduction to her abductor, a seemingly normal family man whose domestic tranquility hides a meticulous, methodical madness. As the despondent husband advertises all over France and Holland for his missing wife, this game of cat-and-mouse escalates into a strategy of psychological horror, revealing certain facts and merely suggesting others to create an intense atmosphere of dread and anticipation. A film that Alfred Hitchcock would certainly have admired, The Vanishing leads to an unforgettable conclusion that's sure to send chills down your spine. Ironically, this film's director, George Sluizer, also made the inferior 1993 American remake starring Keifer Sutherland and Jeff Bridges. --Jeff Shannon for amazon.com - The Milagro Beanfield War (1988) - Robert Redford [Amazon US]
Robert Redford's underrated directorial follow-up to his Academy Award-winning Ordinary People, The Milagro Beanfield War is a loose and whimsical fable about community pride and social activism in the face of modern progress. Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman) plays a local mechanic in a small New Mexico town who takes up the challenge of rallying support for a local farmer who uses water owned by a real estate developer to grow beans in his field. Everything escalates to a showdown between the townspeople and the developers, with unexpected results. The strongest aspect of the film is the way it doesn't take itself too seriously, with Redford adopting a leisurely tone and allowing his fine cast (including Ruben Blades as the pragmatic town sheriff and Christopher Walken as a nasty state police officer) to deliver finely nuanced performances that touch on themes of faith and perseverance without seeming heavy-handed. The Milagro Beanfield War is an overlooked gem. --Robert Lane for Amazon.com - A Fish Called Wanda (1988) - Charles Crichton, John Cleese[1 DVD, Amazon US]
Kevin Kline took home an Oscar for his performance as a self-absorbed lothario who prepares for lovemaking by drinking in his own "manly" musk, but it would be hard to single him out as the best thing about the film. The fact is, the entire cast of this hilarious comedy is perfect: John Cleese as the conservative barrister defending a member of sexy Jamie Lee Curtis's gang, Ms. Curtis as the conniving crook out to grab the haul for herself, and Michael Palin as the stuttering, animal-loving hit man whose attempts to murder a little old lady only decrease the size of her poodle pack. Cleese cowrote the zingy script with British comedy veteran Charles Crichton (The Lavender Hill Mob), whose smooth direction balances Monty Python farce, hysterically tasteless gags, and an unexpectedly romantic subplot with style and confidence. --Sean Axmaker for amazon.com - Dangerous Liaisons (1988) - Stephen Frears [1 DVD, Amazon US]
A sumptuously mounted and photographed celebration of artful wickedness, betrayal, and sexual intrigue among depraved 18th-century French aristocrats, Dangerous Liaisons (based on Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses) is seductively decadent fun. The villainous heroes are the Marquise De Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte De Valmont (John Malkovich), who have cultivated their mutual cynicism into a highly developed and exquisitely mannered form of (in-)human expression. Former lovers, they now fancy themselves rather like demigods whose mutual desires have evolved beyond the crudeness of sex or emotion. They ritualistically act out their twisted affections by engaging in elaborate conspiracies to destroy the lives of their less calculating acquaintances, daring each other to ever-more-dastardly acts of manipulation and betrayal. Why? Just because they can; it's their perverted way of getting get their kicks in a dead-end, pre-Revolutionary culture. Among their voluptuous and virtuous prey are fair-haired angels played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Uma Thurman, who have never looked more ripe for ravishing. When the Vicomte finds himself beset by bewilderingly genuine emotions for one of his victims, the Marquise considers it the ultimate betrayal and plots her heartless revenge. Dangerous Liaisons is a high-mannered revel for the actors, who also include Swoosie Kurtz, Mildred Natwick, and Keanu Reeves. --Jim Emerson for amazon.com -
David Cronenberg - Dead Ringers[1 DVD, Amazon US]
David Cronenberg, for so long an auteur of films typified by schlocky, low-budget splatter effects and a profoundly disturbing intelligence, turned to drama with his 1988 masterpiece "Dead Ringers". It flirts with some of his usual themes - a fusion of the brain and body, mad doctors (with weird names), and decay - but there's a level of sophistication here that tops all of his previous work. Here, special effects are used in the background, as Jeremy Irons gives an utterly compelling (and damn convincing) performance as two twin gynaecologists, whose descent into drugs and madness will surely leave even the most ardent horror viewer deeply disturbed. On one level, it works almost as Shakespearean tragedy, as the two brothers imitate each other in an affair with Genevieve Bujold. When the less confident twin wants to "keep it for myself", it sparks instant dissonance between the disturbingly close kin. On another level, it's a crazed horror film involving bizarre medical instruments, and gynaecological mutations. The truly tragic conclusion leaves the viewer dazed, confused, but above all, deeply emotional, and for that alone it should deserve the term "masterpiece". Other factors that allow it such a term are the truly masterful performances (Cronenberg a master of getting Oscar-contending acting out of even the most mediocre performers), the genius use of special effects, the compellingly cold direction, and Howard Shore's extraordinary score. To say it's not for all tastes is an understatement, as it's probably the darkest film of the past decade, but for those with an interest in grippingly-executed, profoundly disturbing psychological horror/drama, "Dead Ringers" is one of the most marvellous films around. -- Allan Harrison for amazon.com -- [...] - Bagdad Cafe - Percy Adlon [Amazon.com]
Actress Marianne Sägebrecht reunites with her Sugarbaby director, Percy Adlon, in this story of a German woman abandoned by her husband in the Mojave desert and taken into a kooky community at a remote café. C.C.H. Pounder (Dr. Angela Hicks on television's ER) gives an atypically unhinged performance as the café owner, and Jack Palance is wonderful as an artist who wants to capture on canvas the beauty he perceives in the rotund Sägebrecht. Adlon's warm but slightly unreal colors give the film a hint of fantasy and time standing still for a life-changing adventure. --Tom Keogh [the song 'Calling You' by Jevetta Steele is extremely sweet] - The Vanishing [Spoorloos] (1988) - George Sluizer [Amazon.com]
When a young Dutchman discovers that his girlfriend has gone missing during their return to Holland from a bicycling trip in France, he begins a three-year search that forms the basis of this unsettling psychological thriller from 1988, originally titled Spoorloos. The missing woman's whereabouts remain a mystery, but the film provides an early introduction to her abductor, a seemingly normal family man whose domestic tranquility hides a meticulous, methodical madness. As the despondent husband advertises all over France and Holland for his missing wife, this game of cat-and-mouse escalates into a strategy of psychological horror, revealing certain facts and merely suggesting others to create an intense atmosphere of dread and anticipation. A film that Alfred Hitchcock would certainly have admired, The Vanishing leads to an unforgettable conclusion that's sure to send chills down your spine. Ironically, this film's director, George Sluizer, also made the inferior 1993 American remake starring Kiefer Sutherland and Jeff Bridges. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com - Story of Women (1988) - Claude Chabrol [Amazon.com]
Marie Latour (Isabelle Huppert) wants to be a singer, but she is a woman struggling against poverty in war-torn France, with two children to feed and a husband away fighting. When a neighbor becomes pregnant, Marie performs an abortion and is rewarded for her services with a Victrola. It's a small step from the Victrola to an income, and Marie finds that she likes to live comfortably and feed her children well. Her husband Paul (Francois Cluzet) returns and attempts to coerce her into being the type of wife he imagines he wants, but Marie insists on running things her way, and her husband is relegated to the role he imagined for her. She finds contentment in her power (merely the power to be herself and pursue her desires), but things are terribly out of balance in the world she was born into and eventually revenge is exacted. Claude Chabrol (Madame Bovary) has created a remarkably complex and poignant film about a very complex subject: the true story of the last woman to be executed in France by guillotine. An important film to see. --James McGrath, Amazon.com