Pump It Up...

I never posted any videos or images that weren't produced by me on this blog. But, although almost no one is reading this blog, it has to be celebrated! In the end, this blog is all about my references and especially how music turns out to be the biggest one in my photographic work. So here's another one: Norton.

Back in 2004, I bought "Pictures From Our Thoughts" CD immediately after listening to the fantastic track "Swirling Sound". It sounded like "The Postal Service" with an incredibly amount of some familiar nostalgia and leaving a feeling of memorabilia after listening to it. It still feels strange on the back of my neck when listening to "A Whisper" and the instrumental track "Blue Interlude".

Then in 2005, when I bought "Frames (Remixes & Versions)", a friend came and told me they were from Castelo Branco, my little hometown. It sounded like some kind of riddle becoming suddenly solved, and I should've guessed it when I saw them associated with Musgo and Jaguar.

That answer was explicit enough in the CD sleeve of "Pictures From Our Thoughts". I guess that reading CD sleeves was one of those things I've lost habit since I became thirty-something, like giving up listening to the radio and TV shit and reading all the credits at the end of movies.

Anyway, they're back with a massive hit from late in the 80's: Technotronic's "Pump Up The Jam". Playing it out of the blue, out of context, today would make anyone blush and wink. Norton's remake makes it feel genuinely fun, seriously amusing and, most important, beautiful.

These guys are really having fun. It sounds like they're throwing a party with all their friends and anyone who gets along with the spirit. Boring? They don't give a f*ck. I'm sure having fun, sitting at this grey pit where I spend my day.

Or, like many of my Lisbon and Porto friends say when speaking of guys from Castelo Branco, am I chasing after some "interiority syndrome". Hell yeah! :)


Pump Up The Jam from Norton on Vimeo.

By the way, all those parties at Património Bar seem clearly celebrated in this video too.

Parabéns Norton.

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Today's score: Norton's "Pictures From Our Thoughts" and looping "Pump Up The Jam".