Vale of Ammonition acceptance speech at #hbawards

I'd like to thank all the people who've been along for the journey. There's been a lot of people in and out of this band. From Japheth to Zach and so on, who are not with us right now. This is for me and this is for Solomon Dust(?) who slaved over a lot of the material that has sort of propelled us to the main - not really the mainstream; we're still very underground, but um - the stuff that has sort of gotten us to the point in our career where we are actually a force to be reckoned with.

I want to thank our manager Darrell, he's right here with me, he came through. He's sort of helped us to get to a very good point. He's right here.

I want to thank Aaron.

I want to thank Chuck Suo(?), the very first person who released our material on vinyl.

Steve Gene, Ugandan producer and his brother Henry, who recorded our material.

Hueskillz, he showed up for concerts...

I want to thank anyone who has ever lent us gear.

I want to thank Ivan, he lent us gear.

I want to thank Djae of Crystal Axis, he lent us gear.

I am so proud to do this in Nairobi. You guys have always embraced us with open arms. You've always been there for the band. You embraced us way before Uganda embraced us. We're gonna keep on doing what we're doing so thank you very much.

The Right Now and The Other: A Comparison

Kenyan rock band Murfy's Flaw released the music video of their song "The Right Now" on 19/9/19. The song is featured on their most recent album "Nataka Sitaki" which was also released on the same day as the music video.

"The Other” is the first Solitude in Apathy single taken off their debut EP and was "composed spontaneously during a rehearsal". The music video was directed by Gaetano Massa.

Similarities

1. Nature

The setting for "The Right Now" is all outdoors, with plenty of trees, rocks and even a cave.

The opening shot of "The Other" is outdoors, with plenty of trees and a big rock.

2. Slow Motion Walk

There are copious amounts of the slow motion walk in both music videos.

According to The Society of Aerial Cinematography:

"...overcranking makes footage look smoother in addition to slower, so it tends to give the subject a more dramatic, epic, or massive feel." The traditional use of overcranking was "simply to slow down time in a shot in order to convey importance, add suspense, give time for the audience to inspect the frame, or mirror a character’s psychological state."

"The Other" is "about the will to understand the other or simply oneself, reaching its epilogue with the inability to truly do it; the same themes underpin the fascinating video directed by Gaetano Massa."

According to TVtropes.org:

"...in movies featuring Godzilla and similar monsters, overcranking adds a sense of ponderous weight to the monsters' motion."

I wonder, who is the monster/The Other in "The Right Now"?

Differences

1. Light vs Dark

Although lyrically there is a bit of light in "The Other" ("The song...is built around a single sentence “In the other, try to see”), "The Other" is decidedly darker than "The Right Now", at least in terms of the sound of the song and the images of the music video. This is in keeping with the genres that Solitude in Apathy draw their influences from: "...shoegaze to darkwave and alternative rock, with a hint of gothic."

Light saturates the lyrics of "The Right Now":

Far-off streaming lights like a rainbow

Savour the moment while it’s open, and still honest
Don’t fear

...as long as we commit to the right now
That's something we will never regret


But there is also a hint of the underlying darkness in the song:

But you know the stars never cared,
And as we kissed they just callously stared, with their icy glares

2. Band vs No Band

Solitude in Apathy makes an appearance in the music video for "The Other" while in "The Right Now" Murfy's Flaw is no where to be seen, thus joining the long list of rock music videos where the band is not seen.

From the list of ROFFEKE official selections, here are a few of such music videos:

Rita
A bigger man
Cadger
Astronaut

Astronaut in Room 403: When two films talk to each other

As luck (fate?) would have it, Astronaut (directed by Pierre Ponchant) was submitted to ROFFEKE right after Spinoza Hotel: Room 403 (directed by Dr. Robert David Duncan). I usually watch the short films/music videos in the order they were submitted so I couldn't help but immediately notice the similarities between these two works of art. It's like Astronaut is an amplification or continuation of Room 403. But don't just take my word for it; see for yourself how these two films are talking to each other! (The lyrics of Astronaut are in bold while the narration from Room 403 is in italics)

Looking at the window, it's another day
Man that sun is a monster
I hate the day
Woke up very tired just like yesterday
The time I spend down here is a necessity
I dress up like man and I take my place
But that's just to keep this body going
Maybe all your dreams will come true
Maybe no one cares about you
I know a guy who knows how

Trains tickets for nowhere on a holiday
My entire place is a radio paradise
Every friday night I play silly games
Most of the time I'm in touch with my brothers in space
I follow the horizon it's the only direction
They orbit and orbit and I orbit with them
There's something wrong in me but I can't think of another way
I can decipher the static and check in with my souls
Maybe all your dreams will come true
Maybe no one cares about you
That's why I had to get to the top floor
Moving closer until I got 403 with the roof access

Up there
I have my foil antenna up there
Everything must
Be so tiny
The foil is as good as a microwave dish
Oh so tiny

One day, you'll see,
I won't come back
One day, you'll see
I'm not coming back tonight
I'm going to convert myself to pure radio emissions
and just upload into space

"Room 403 is another follow-up to the award-winning trio of films. In this one, we meet the Cosmonaut, who operates a network of radios from his room, communicating with lost spirits in space, a place he hopes to transport himself to someday."

"Astronaut is a no budget Space Odyssey, a voyage into the imaginary world of a hero who, night after night, explores the universe seeking for a safe haven."

This Day on Kenya Rocks: December 13th 2004

It's Friday the 13th! What luck that one of the very active members of Kenya Rocks agreed to have some of the messages he posted on the Kenya Rocks Yahoo group reposted on this blog. This is what he wrote on December 13th, fifteen years ago!

My Weekend Rockscapades
MAMBONO Dec 13 9:25 PM
What an event filled weekend, went Sikiliza rock night on Saturday, damn those mud fighters, problem is the bunch of kids around. Come Sunday, The venue was Choices, hooked up with one of my rockfreak pals. We brought the underground sitting area down. We had like this makeshift rock band downstairs, got each of us three straws, one for taking our beers (ohh you don't get that much drunk when you use straws to take your beer, no hangovers... and it's so cooool, come on go ahead next time you are out taking some beer, ask for a straw as well) and two for, guess what....... well for our "drums". LOL I love that. So like I we was three guys, one doing drums at some point and the other two doing the guitars, well you would find that once in a while the numbers interchanged. So we rock down the place, playing each song that comes around apart from the techno stuff(Rasmus, Darude) and that bad rock from Shania Twain and the other "commoner" rock. That's when we would sit down to sip our beers and take a rest from our "busy schedules". Well my two pals were able to hook up with some chics just because of that, other tables started ordering for their own straws and we had some "Battle of the Bands" downstairs, well underground, that's where the whole show was taking place. Don't ask me if I hooked up with any chic, just for the record my Rock does't mix with chics, either one of them will suffer if the other was brought into play, and knowing me as I am, rock makes up half of the primary pillars in my life(comps make the other half), so definitely the chic would have to suffer, so why not save the maiden some heartbreak and concentrate on my drums.

Well all this ended up with some guy who used to play guitars for Hot rod having an interest in us and we got some contacts, the dude's called Leroy like Wheatus' Leroy( Leroy's my mojo man tonight). Oh you don't want to know what I've been planning with my pals for sometime, but you just chill out I will let you in on one of rock's best kept secrets pretty soon.

Well I realised one thing though, Kenyans are not that much into metal or even hard rock, the hardest it's ever gone for them is Bryan Adams and BonJovi. When it goes almost metal, then it's Linkin Park, but you know what, I guess Numb's not yet touched the hearts of many (phew, no more waste at last). Ok I digged my rock all night, till the phuckin DJ started his Techno so I was back to my beer for a while while the tweeps got jumping up and down, until rock was back and I hit the floor running till early morning when we hit out everyone to go home.

As for one of my pals who had hooked up with these chics earlier on, well he was reduced to a chauffer, having to drop all of them at their diggz. SO much for hookin up with a chic in a club, if it's not the beers you buy her, then you drop her home, and if you are not like me, then you might just get lucky and get some One night stand. HAHAHA. I wonder if he had a 5 some or not :-) HAHAHA.

Well there goes the story of my weekend and my rockscapades. Damn what a Sunday night.