My only uncle by blood recently passed away after a sudden and brief battle with cancer. Over the past few years I had been trying to get copies of his old home movies because I made frequent cameos in them as a young child. It’s very rare, early footage of me on film or video. Yes kids, I remember the days before everyone had video cameras in their cell phones! While he was living the last weeks of his life, my uncle, Erich, made me copies of those films. I was floored at his complete unselfishness and I was fortunate to be able to thank him on Christmas day, the last time I saw him. Each brief clip of our families is pure magic in today’s saturated world of moving images.
It was timely then for me to come across Head Like A Kite, the solo project from Dave Einmo. His debut album Random Portraits of the Home Movie was inspired by the economy of Super 8 movies. Combining samples from the movies, filtered through various guitar effects and gadgets, and a keen sense of well-honed pop songs, Einmo cut and pasted together a musical homage to the vintage format. It’s a rich reflection on how the past inevitably textures the present.