Another day, another hip-hop CD...

Hip Hop Week Part 2...



Definitive Jux Presents III

The usual high quality hip-hop, pretty much faultless. If there are any problems it's that some of the old skool Dukies (El-P, Mr Lif, RJD2) are over shadowed by some of the others. Aesop Rock contributes production duties to a couple of tracks proving that he's not just an MC; El-P's second in command Nasa manages keep up with anything El-Producto can do on his own on the track by Carnage. Actually, the more I try to describe the other tracks on the album, the more I realise that I'm just going to end up gushing about every track on this album, I think we'll leave it there and I'll refer you back to my first sentence for the overall assessment.

OK, let me try to do this before I fall asleep.



I've been on a little adventure, I've been to see Sophia again - and well, they rocked! Took a bit of effort to find the damn place, I'm used to seeing bands in venues that aren't in shopping centres, that will teach me not to get proper directions. I managed to get to the Islington Academy eventually, after actually looking at the address on the ticket properly, missed the support band so it wasn't all bad news - support acts always get on my nerves a bit.



Sophia started off with some of there older songs So Slow and If Only got an airing, both very gentle numbers obviously not to the taste of the IGNORANT FUCKERS STANDING NEXT TO ME WHO WOULDN'T SHUT THE FUCK UP! (sorry, had to get that out of my system). As the set went on, things got heavier and louder until it reached its high point: Desert Song #2. I guess I should apologise for going on about this song, but fuck it - it's just beautiful, it's one of the few songs I know exactly where I was when I first listened to it. The lyrics get to me at a very personal level, and the music itself: the way it starts from a bare audible guitar riff slowly introducing the other instruments until just when you think the song has reached it's conclusion it stops and you get the quiet before the storm that is the last 90-odd seconds of pure joyous noise, chokes me up I'm telling you... I'm getting a bit over the top aren't I? Sorry.



Anyway I'm too tired to write, let's skip to the end: I enjoyed the night, there are a few pictures here in case you're wondering what it looked like, and a big one here if you want a proper look.



And since I'm feeling a bit confessional: I may have lasped on the smoking front, disapproving comments should be directed to the comments section below this post.

/On the train back from London after seeing Sophia, details to follow...

I now declare this week to be Good Hip-Hop Week. The new DJ Signify album is just excellent, the more I read about Rammellzee the more I'm fascinated by him, the Mad Villain album got 9.4 on Pitchfork which must be a good sign, and the new Definitive Jux compilation is out this week.



Yes Sir, this is going to be a very good week for hip-hop, I can feel it in my bones.

Hip Hop Week Part 1...



DJ Signify - Sleep No More

Sweet Zombie Jesus! This is good, this is very good! Lex Records, Warp Records hip-hop off-shoot, have been purveying some excellent hip-hop based wares in there short life (Hymie's Basement, Dangermouse & Gemini, Tes, Boom Bip to name a few) but this one is way ahead. Mainly instrumental, with guest vocals from the Henry Rollins of hip-hop: Sage Francis, and the... well, I don't know, I havem't really heard him much: Buck 65; this album has one main trick to keep it head and shoulders above the rest - atmosphere, it's as dark as fuck! You know that scene in Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader is seen putting his helmet on and getting out of his chamber? Well, this is what he was listening to before heading off to lop his son's hand off... Excellent stuff, possible album of the year material.



Blockhead - Music By Cavelight

OK, How do you follow the Signify album - well for one lighten the atmosphere, not too much, but take some of the fear away - maybe speed the beats up a little, and ditch the scary rappers. Oh, look here's the new CD by Blockhead (whose also produced some Aesop Rock tracks - who has kindly donated some instrumental versions to a bonus disc here) to fit the bill almost exactly. Very good, fans of other instrumental hip-hop producers - I'm trying my best not to say it, but I'm going to have to relent... DJ Shadow - will enjoy this.

Steve Coogan in a Jim Jarmusch film? Did I miss something?

It's one of those unwritten rules of running a personal website that you must foist the details of your personal life on to poor unsuspecting web surfers no matter how dull and boring they are.



So, here we go: strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.



This weekend I played pool, drank pretty much every drink imaginable (even tequila), watched England lose at rugby, bought not one - but two new jackets (I blame my new Will & Grace DVD for that, it's clearly turning me slightly gay, or I've developed some sort of fashion sense), and I've also purchased lots and lots of CDs (but that's not exactly earth shattering news). I am however getting quite good at posting when pissed, the entry before this was done after several beers and half a bottle of wine.



I so need an interesting hobby...

Retail Therapy...



!!!/Out Hud - "Lab Remix Series Vol. 2" Split EP

Another piecemeal offering from these two (or is it this one, I'm not entirely sure where !!! ends and Out hud starts) bands, damn it release proper albums! It's older stuff from 98 and 99, and it kind of shows, the !!! track is OK, but not quite as funky as Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard (A True Story), it doesn't make me want to dance like there new stuff. Out Hud contribute an original track with a couple of remixes, which are OK, but again not as good as the tracks on S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.



Blink 182 - I Miss You

I've tried to download this a few times off various P2P file sharing networks with out much success, so I've had to stump up £2.99 for a two track CD which I kind of resent. However it's a song I wanted to own since it's really rather nice, as a general rule of thumb if a song has a cello, a nice piano line and a soppy title I'll like it - if you can shoehorn Kid606, and anyone from Anticon or Def Jux in there I'll love it, although I'm pretty sure such a combination is impossible. Anyway, back to the song - it's rather good, definitely worth giving the time of day to even if it is from a bunch of corporate sell-outs!



Lolita Storm - Studio 666 Smack Addict Commandos / I Am Your Enemy

Before listening to this you really need to listen to the wonderful "Girls Fucking Shit Up", 15 tracks in about 20 minutes and responsible for giving the world one of my favourite song titles: "Hot Lips, Wet Pants", just savour that title for a minute, roll it around your tongue..."Hot Lips, Wet Pants". Fandabeedoze! Basically Lolita Storm are three very scary ladies with very short attention spans (subtleties such as singing in tune are thrown out of the window fairly quickly), and someone called Jimmy Too Bad on production duties who likes to skip through meadows with flowers until he finds a pig to fuck - according to there website anyway. For this release they have a go at songs that have a 4 minute time span, and they even try harmonys *gasp*, I think a bit of charm is lost because of that, but it still makes a refreshing change to 'normal' pop music.



Alias - Eyes Closed EP

Alias is part of the anticon roster, and like cLOUDDEAD he has a very Boards of Canada feel, the tracks have more in common with ambient music rather than hip hop. This EP has a definite grower feel to it, on the first couple of listens it's all very nice but doesn't sink in. However I've had it on my mp3 player whilst walking around and I'm beginning tp appreciate it more - file under subtle yet fulfilling.



The Bad Plus - Give

I've seen this band described as a jazz rock band, I can see why - although they have a traditional piano trio lineup (piano, bass, drums) they slip a few cover versions of modern rock songs such as Velouria by the Pixies, Iron Man by Black Sabbath and (gulp) Knowing Me Knowing You by Abba - and they play everything very loudly. Lots of interesting jazz freak outs and even a bit of 'boogie-woogie' for want of a better phrase, something for everyone.



Themselves - Them

(Sorry I'm getting bored of all this writing - quick reviews from now on). First album from Themselves, great vocals from Dose One, with some jolly good production from Jel, who was only 18 when he first started the album, talented git!



Part Chimp - Chart Pimp

Balls out "raaawk" from some of Mogwai's friends. Very very loud.



Donna Summer vs Ove Naxx

No, not Donna Summer, this one does a take on Disco Gabber, sort of - very energetic copyright infringing dance music. Ove Naxx takes over for the last half of the CD and introduces the world to some proper Japaese noisecore. Cool.

My god, I've just agreed with Mark Kermode, they just showed the first ten minutes of the new Dawn of the Dead on channel 4 and I have to agree with him - that was one of the most spiritualy uplifting ten minutes of my life...



Speaking of spiritual uplifting experiances in short amounts of time, if you keep up to date with the credit card stress testing section you may notice the ramelzee album, well I actually forgot to order it (i have now) they have a 30 second sample of it on playlouder.com - fuck me... it's good.

/On the train back from London with far too many new CDs...

Films I'd like to see soon... (click titles for trailer goodness)



Shaun of the Dead

Spaced was probably my favourite (dare I say it) sitcom ever, and the people behind it have made a zombie film - how can this fail?



Dawn of the Dead

OK recent horror film remakes have not been very good (yes Texas Chainsaw Massacre - I'm talking about you!), but this one looks like it could be OK.



Hellboy

I'm slowly getting into the Hellboy comic books and this movie adaption has been getting some good reviews amongst the fanboy community. Plus Ron Perlman was pretty much born to play the part of Hellboy, even without the makeup.



Zatoichi

I'm a bit of a fanboy when it comes to 'Beat' Takeshi films, this one is a little different as its not a yakuza film *gasp*.



The Punisher

Seems to be based on the 'Welcome Back Frank' comic book - hopefully they won't fuck this up too much. It even seems to have the Russian! (that won't mean a damn thing unless you've read the book)

Those of a non-programming nature may want to look away now...



Anyone know how to parse an xml document with javascript? I've had a go with this document, but it fails once I put it on my server - It smells like a server security setting to me. Basically I'm trying to get the listen to link to point to the link created by google's I'm feeling lucky button, download the file to see what I mean.

Quote of the day: "Grab a bottle, hunker down and pray for daylight!"

This film looks, well there's no other way of putting it: fucking awesome!.

/Sigh



I'm having a bit of a music crisis - I'm just not listening to enough.



Indulge me for a minute while I explain, tonight I've had my laptop's music library on random (incidently hands up who's noticed the thing in the top right hand corner? If you have, give yourself a pat on the back, or a gold star, or whatever floats your boat). Eventually Media Player got round to a song by a band called Clarissa's Wierd, one that I'd downloaded from there website ages ago - well I was curious about what they they were up to and decided to have a prod around on the internet for any news.



Whilst doing that I found the photography site that had originally piqued my interest in Clarissa's Wierd (really must get there album...), and on the front page there were some pictures of a band called Rasputina that caught my eye. Very interesting band - two cellos, drums, vocals; they have this strange sort of experimental, yet quite traditional, baroque rock feel to them.



I'm now looking at the website of Zoe Keating, reading about her looped cello recordings - and thinking, damn it! I'm only just scratching the surface here. Can someone just give me a bunch of money so I can retire and spend the rest of my life listening to interesting music?

My dalliance with rock music may be waring off already, just downloaded The Darkness doing a cover version of Radiohead's Street Spirit - my god... words just don't seem to be enough in situations like this.



(Link stolen from the Teaching the Indie Kids to dance again mp3 blog)

Today I have mainly been buying rock music, and staring wistfully at BC Rich guitars.



...still, it beats jogging.

Rock...



Amen - California's Bleeding

Bit of a taster for the follow up to the excellent 'We Have Come For Your Parents' this is the first CD single from Amen's new 'Death before Musick' album. I have to say on the evidence of this I'm a little worried, it's mainly down to the video on this CD - essentially a fairly conventional "band performing against white background" video - the trouble is, the haircut's seem a little too styled, the lead singer Casey Chaos looks like he's been enjoying one too many pies, and the blood looks fake. The really bad thing is I'm not walking away humming along to lines like I did with the last album... Maybe it's my age, but modern fake punk rock just isn't as good as it used to be.



Lost Prophets - Start Something

I've been listening to there cover version of "Cry me a river" pretty much constantly recently, so it's only fair that I tried there new album out, after all the first Lost Prophet's album wasn't too bad (although I'm damned if I can remember a single song off it). This one suffer's from the same problems - it's not sticking, don't get me wrong it's good; think Angel Dust era Faith No More and you're pretty close, although if you listen to the sort of music they play on Jackass you're probably a bit closer. Actually no, it's a bit more intelligent than that - the last songs really clever, it starts off as a fairly slow rock number before going all ambient in the last five minutes, this is a pretty hard trick to pull off really.



Auf der Maur - Auf der Maur

Right, first thing first: Melissa Auf der Maur was in Hole once - but I forgive her... she escaped the clutches of the Courtney Love (The day she dies of a nasty self induced overdose will be a good day - yes I know it's a horrible thing to say, but I really don't like her, and not because of the Cobain thing, it's mainly because she thinks she's this "kick-ass female role model", when really she's just a fucking disgrace!), went on to the Smashing Pumkins for a bit (very overrated band, that needs to be said), took a couple of years off, and is now back with a solo album. So, after all that negativity why did I pick it up? Well, the 'good' answer is I've seen quite a few positive reviews, the 'bad' answer is "red hair, goth chick (essentially), plays bass... nuff said!". Sorry I'm shallow, I can be attracted to music for very base reasons sometimes. Thankfully it's paid off this time, what I didn't realise (or notice in reviews) is that Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age is all over this album! So it rocks! And it even rocks when he's not on it, in fact sometimes it rocks more. If you want a point of reference draw a line between "A Perfect Circle" and "Queens of the Stone Age", vere off toward's PJ Harvey's tunes on the Desert Sessions album and you'll be about there.

Hmm, I've got to think of something interesting to do with this bit of the site. The photo page, and the cd page have obvious functions (look at me - I'm pissed, and look at me - I buy too many CDs) which they perform reasonably well - but this main page can't really decide what it's meant to be: journal, newswire or soapbox - maybe one day if I feel brave it may turn into an mp3 blog. At the moment it's going to be this:







A big shouty thing telling the world what I'm listening to on my laptop... I think this needs to be incorporated into the site design as a very lazy way to update the site!

Songs that need to be heard but are a bit difficult to find so head for your friendly neighbourhood file sharing application - part 1 of an occasional series



Dizee Rascal - I luv u (sharky remix ft wiley and major)

Honestly, it's really really good...



In other late breaking news, happy hangover day!

"Who's a man and a half? I'm a man and a half! Beserker packin' man and a half!"



Depending on your level of sobriety that is either the best or the worst comic you will ever read. Guaranteed.

Jazz...



El-P - High Water

I've been looking forward to this one for a while, it's the latest addition to the Blue Series Continuum where Matthew Shipp and his improvisational chums enlist a forward thinking contributer to create some jaaaazz! Previous inductees include Spring Heel Jack and DJ Spooky - now it's El-P's turn. The approach is in theory straight-forward, the players are recorded live, with El-P contributing some distorted synth work that will be familiar to anyone whose heard Fantastic Damage, these recordings are then chopped up and remixed by El-Producto in his secret underground lab to create High Water - at least that's what I think has happened, I could be horribly wrong. What the listener is left with is improvisational music that has structure, the results are pretty deep in places, even more impressive for the fact that the production work is incredibly subtle in places. I've seen a lot of conflicting reviews of this CD, obviously some people hate it, but what's interesting is those that do hate it for conflicting reasons, and then there are people who see it for what it is: a daring and impressive fusion of modern jazz and hip-hop production which doesn't fall into the trap of being yet another soundtrack for bars which think they are cooler than they really are. I kind of wish he's put some of his vocals on it though...

"The parents of heroin addict Rachel Whitear have said they are "appalled" that a portrait of their dead daughter is to appear in an art show."



These are the same parents who released some pretty disturbing pictures of there daughter after she apparently died from a heroin overdose, and who are having her dug up tomorrow. The only problem I have with the painting is the following: it's what I believe is called "shite".



/climbs down from art critic soap box.



Got the new El-P 'jazz' album yesterday - niiiiice.

Pink ninja goodness!

I finally witnessed Spurs win a game of football today - miracles can happen!

A couple of retro ones...



The Beatles - The White Album

As I mentioned on the main page, I've got Jay-Z's Black Album and Dangermouse's Grey Album so I felt that it was my duty to own this one too. Well, I can't deny that they knew how to write a song or two - but I'm afraid they just leave me a bit cold. Having said that I do like the rockier ones: Helter Skelter especially - although that's probably something to do with my ambition to one day start a cult.



Rough Trade Shops - Counter Culture 2003

This is a compilation chosen by the staff at the Rough Trade record shop, so naturally it's full of tunes from obscure vinyl only releases from obscure indie bands on obscure indie labels. Actually that's a complete generalisation, some of it's not indie ;-) Bit long, but there is some good stuff here if you have the patience, and you can't really go wrong with a CD that contains a band called Selfish Cunt.



Fugazi - Repeater + 3 Songs

Why the fuck haven't I bought this before?!



Part Chimp - Bring Back The Sound

Woah! Just what I was after, good old fashioned rock music but with everything running in the red. Incredibly loud, angry and noisy - definitely one to watch.

Here's another Mario inspired animation, bit more Kill Bill than the ones I linked to earlier.



Lot's of new CDs today, I think there was some subconcious retail therapy going on - I've apparently been a moody bastard recently. Anyway, since I own Jay-Z's Black Album and have downloaded Dangermouse's Grey Album I decided it was time I went for The Beatle's White Album. Hmm, I still don't get the Beatles, I'll have to listen to it a few more times with my Hip Hop head on before writing proper opinions.

Last night I played pool, drank Stella (further proof that there is no God, or he/she/it does exist and hates us all), took pictures and went home. This morning I woke up with a bastard of a headache and my laptop playing Sophia's cover version of Jealous Guy very loudly. That is all...



...actually it's not. I have some videos for Walshie here and here, they have lots of swearing. :-@

Reggae Break...



Ward 21 - U Know How We Roll

I think this counts as my first proper 'Ragga' (I hate that term, but it's the only one I can think) album, I can't be arsed to write much about this - suffice to say I quite like it. Pretty much covers the whole range of modern reggae, there's something for the 'ladiez' and then some pretty nasty ones for all the 'bad men' out there. Still can't quite get over the fact I now own a CD with vocals which use the word 'PooNani' in a non-piss taking way...

Let's see how long it takes everyone to figure out the new pictures page. Opinions on the new layout are welcome, as long as they are constructive - with the new phone I've decided to ramp up the picture size and needed some way to deal with that without overloading the page. Does that make sense?



/shrugs shoulders



Anyway, music... went to see The Bug vs The Asian Dub Foundation night. Better than expected really, there was a bit of an experimental touch with ADF using a violin player and The Bug using... well, someone's Dad on sort of jazz guitar. Besides that it was almost an old-fashioned sound system clash, with the ADF on one side of the stage, the Bug on the other both taking it in turns to out dub each other. ADF went for a kinder gentler approach, dare I say it almost ambinet? However The Bug went for a more vicious approach with a couple of scary MC's, one of whom looks like, well let's be frank - a terrorist (I think he may be the MC on Techno Animal's Dead Man's Curse... which will mean fuck all to anyone who reads this) and another extremely hyperactive one who shouted... a lot. Not to say The Bug doesn't have a sensitive side, there was the curiously attractive Warrior Queen, and also some kid who did a guest spot (they had been running seminars for school kids during the day) signing off a typically abrasive Bug tune with "Big up my Mum!" made me smile. Oh, and Adrian Sherwood was the warm-up DJ.



All in all, pretty good - bad points: The Bug was too quiet in places, and seats really don't suit this sort of event. I had a go at taking a couple of videos, the sound quality is officially 'fucking appalling':



ADF.3gp

The_Bug.3gp

Matt_the_critic.3gp



...real player will handle the video format, barely.



Continuing with the reggae theme, got this today.

Hold on a minute, who's that suave looking mofo third row down, on this page? I recognise him from somewhere...

I have a new phone, beaten to it by a matter of minutes by a 'friend' (damn you Butler!), I present to you the Sharp GX-30. So far so good, it's basically a beefed up version of my original camera phone, so I knew roughly what I was getting into - a quick run down on the good and bad points, starting with the bad points:



Bad Points

• The Bluetooth is a bit shit - it only seems to have headset and hands-free support support



• The Calendar hasn't changed since the GX-10! So no alerts.



• It doesn't like downloading midi files off my website. grrr!



• No wavs or mp3s as ringtones



• OK, that's a bit negative, so here's the more positive points...

Baaaaad Ass Points

• Amazing 240x320 display



• 1MB Camera! Which can also do video clips (mwah mwah mwaaah!)



• Disco Lights! No, seriously it has a seven colour light on the front which can be set to 'disco'



• 256KB Java, allegedly. This was a feature of the Japanese version of this phone which in theory means fancy 3D graphics like this - that is if these sort of games ever get released over here
. In fact the Java perforance is noticeably improved compared to either of my old java enabled phones, I've tested it using the Amark demo on Midlet.org


• Menus and Text messaging are much quicker than the T610

Basically it's a fun phone, it's for taking out down the pub and capturing those 'special' alcohol fueled moments. If you're after a business orientated phone forget it, in fact what are you doing reading this? Get off m'oi laaand! We don't want yours sort 'round here!

Un-fucking-believable...



Can the human race get any lower than that? First up the whole idea of prosecuting a child for downloading music off the internet is just sick, but then to hawk her in front of millions of tv viewers while the fakest of fake punk rock bands gang rape the memory of The Clash is wrong wrong WRONG! And that shot where she brings the bottle of P*ps*, possibly the most nausea inducing piece of advertising I've ever witnessed.



(link stolen from die puny humans - and I'd do it again I tell you!)

Damn crazy fool of the day.



I'm especially fond of the "At hospital the pain got worse, and I was getting frustrated so I asked (nurses) for a pair of pliers to pull it out myself" bit.

Good music week continues with the new cLOUDDEAD CD.

Good Music Week Part 2...



cLOUDDEAD - Dead Dogs Two

Bit of a cheeky one here, this was a fairly limited vinyl only release - now it's being given away free with the new cLOUDDEAD CD. However it deserves special mention for the fantastic Boards of Canada remix of Dead Dogs Two, they take a song which could in some circles be described as 'a bit depressing' and inject a bit of psychedelia and come out with something close to Sgt Pepper Beatles.



cLOUDDEAD - Ten

First things first, many reviews of this album have made a big deal of the lyrics being surreal - I think there missing the point here, they're really very observational if anything. For example "A single long stemed rose resting between two antlers", OK it's odd, but not really surreal - in fact on some tracks they get as far from surreal as you can get, the line "The makers of guns will never go hungry" is about as far from surreal as you can get. I guess it's the delivery that makes people instantly reach for the surreal tag, Dose One with his high pitched hyper speed delivery, Why? with his softer sing song delivery - not what you traditionally associate with hip-hop, although this isn't your traditional hip hop album. Anyway lets get back to my opinion on this CD - first time through I was a little disappointed, I can't help but compare it to the first cLOUDDEAD disc, this one seemed a little too 'normal'. The tracks have proper names this time, they even stick to the same tune for each track and don't go wandering off all the time, it's more 'professional'. However after a couple more listens it clicked and I started to appreciate the album on its own merits, compared to most music released nowadays its in a league of its own...

Good music week begins! I present you with the new Squarepusher album.



And the mp3 blogs are doing there job nicely, found a downright rude tune by Ward 21 and Bounty Killa called Badda than dat on gabba / POD which has forced me into tracking down the full album. It got compared to The Bug who I'll be seeing on Thursday.



/Phil's credit card starts making whimpering noises.

Good Music Week Part 1...



Squarepusher - Square Window (3" Promo CD)

I think this is mean't to be a promo to the new Squarepusher album, which is strange since precisely none of the tracks appear on it! Anyway, I've already got Square Window from bleep.com (I'm not sure about 'reviewing' mp3s, legal or not), this is a fine melodic slab of electronica with a suprisingly straightforward beat, he follows that with Abacus 2 which sees Mr Pusher having another go at garage, but without the comedy vocal lines that previously appeared in 'My Red Hot Car', this is then followed by Venus No.17 which get's all old skool jungle with a hint of some proper dub stylee effects. The last couple of tracks are kind of throwaway although the first of these does give a good preview of the jazzier side of his work. Anyway, very good - but really just a taster for the main event...



Squarepusher - Ultravisitor

...Which is over here. Ooh, this is good - very long, but good. It starts off in fairly familiar Squarepusher territory with skittering beats and mad bass lines and cute little melodies - then before you know it your on the second track, I Fulcrum, which showcases his jazz skills - it sounds like its recorded live, and I know he does occasionaly whip out the bass for some full on noodling when playing live, but on here he is amazing - this segues seamlessly into Iambic 9 Poetry which has a really lovely melody which when added to a funky jazz beat sounds more like someone like Four Tet. And that's just the first 3 tracks he does baroque sounding bass instrumentals, industrial stylee hip hop, full on apocalyptic nose-bleed inducing electronic violence on the rest of the album. And it's arranged so well, not exactly mixed, but you can tell someone has spent alot of time making sure the tracks are in exactly the right order, certain other electronic musicians could learn from this (*cough* Aphex Twin *cough*). Anyway, highly recommeded!

Get it away from me!

This next week is going to be a good one for music, I can feel it in my bones. First up the new Squarepusher album, this has turned up early (and with a free 3" CD) since I'm very impatient person and I got it straight from Warp - it's long so I haven't quite got my head round it, but after just a couple of 'spins' I think I can comfortably class it as "a bit of a blinder!". More thorough comments will follow shortly...



Then there's also the next cLOUDDEAD album, which I'm really looking forward to - although I'm a little nervous since the first album was so groundbreaking, and then there are a couple of El-P related releases: the new Definitive Jux compilation and his Blue Series collaboration which should be a bit special.



Finally on the music front; I've discovered the mp3 blog: my favourite one being Fluxblog, in fact it's made me realise that I really need to tidy up my CD collection - I downloaded a track by Unwound called Demon Sings Love Songs (the title so appealed to me) only to realise that I already own it, but I'm damned if I can find the CD that I've got.



Anyway, enough wittering on about music here's some pictures - and here's Padgett's site with some more pictures from a much better camera phone (yours truly makes a guest appearance)

Christ, I was being a miserable sod yesterday wasn't I?



Anyway, the new B3ta newsletter is out which is always good for a laugh (incidently last weeks was cracking, the cactus and son episode was especially 'dope' for the almost god-like use of the word 'Bollocks', and the phrase 'Spin in the fucking sand she would' - which made me laugh)



Not sure if anyone is keeping tabs on die puny humans but there's been a few choice links there - for some reason I found the Chernobyl travelogue really interesting, as well as being a fine example of the internet being used properly.



Oh, and anyone caught wearing these deserves to die in a very inventive and painful way.

Today needs documenting, events have conspired to make it a classic example of a shitty day - in fact the week's not been brilliant, maybe down to post 30th birthday blues. I think I had a stupid unrealistic expectation of there being some sort of epiphany after hitting the big 3-0 - let me tell you now, that hasn't happened. But I digress, back to today.



First up the Sam n Max, OK it's only a game, but that sort of nasty business-centric attitude to any vaguely creative form of entertainment makes me want to, in the words of the late great Bill Hicks: puke blood.



Then at lunch I got to meet a pension advisor - rather than try to persuade me that securing my financial future is a good idea I just got numbers, lot's and lot's of numbers. Very boring, and did little to shift my attitude that pensions are a big fat con - taking a very literal approach the way I see them it is: I pay just over half of my videogame budget to someone every month, and if I somehow get past retirement age I get about 25% back... Ooh, sign me up!



And then the afternoon's news... the Leicester players being arrested in Spain. As a fan i should jump to there defence, I should instantly assume that these women accusing players, of the team I support, of such morally wrong crimes are after some media attention - the trouble is I can't. Reading the reports on the aptly named forfoxsake.com (the major news websites seem to be just scared shitless of reporting anything that isn't 100% official), the phrase that springs to mind is 'no smoke without fire'; when police reports start mentioning ripped underwear, and blood, you know something very nasty and distaceful has happened involving some or all of these players. The only word that seems apt at the moment is 'disgust'. Maybe I'm wrong - I hope I am, but somehow I don't think so. Let's be honest, there a bunch of violent nasty fuckers on the pitch, who says there not off it?



And I keep getting a bad urge for a cigarette!

Unless you're nostalgic about early 90's point'n'click PC adventure games the following will mean nothing to you, I just need to get my feelings about the recent cancellation of Sam & Max: Freelance Police out of my system.



/darth phil climbs on to soap box



You evil soul-less money-grabbing cunts!



/steps down and walks off in a huff.

I think you'll like this one Walshie...



Pale Horse - Gee That Ain't Swell

You know your into seriously heavy territory when an album starts off with a track consisting of 5 minutes of feedback, welcome to Pale Horse! They settle down on the second track with a formula of twin heavily distorted basses, a drum beat so slow it almost goes into reverse, and vocals that sound strangely like those used by the mighty Carcass. And so it continues until halfway through the third song when the death metal vocals disappear and they go all - well, emo I guess. This is the sort of thing I like in music - to be suprised. They continue to do this all through the album, one minute it's sludge-core at it's finest, the next minute you'll be listening to a gently strummed acoustic line. Since I'm a big fan of picking bands by association (I went for these for reasons explained on the front page) I'll compare these to someone else to make the leap less stressful - the best I can come up with is Isis with a hint of Sunn 0))) - not entirely sure that helps much?

I've spent a fair amount of today listening to one of my favourite bands, Godflesh (there is a point to this, just give me a minute).



Anyway, they disbanded in 2002 - shortly afterward Justin Broadrick, the creative brains behind the band, announced his intention to carry on his 'Rock' music writing with a new band called Jesu. To quote from an interview posted on the scarily well informed Godflesh.com, Jesu are going to be: slow, miserable, heavy and emotional with really really self-indulgant songs on average ten minutes long - basically, bang up my street. The first EP is going to consist of two songs, Heartache and Ruined both averaging 20 minutes long - I'm practically moist with anticipation!



The problem is it seems that Jesu is only going to be on very small labels, such as Dry Run Recordings. Well, I've been doing my reasearch on this label and it seems they've only got four signed bands, the only one with any information being Pale Horse - and it seem's this band has got some good reviews...



Now we reach the point: I got Gee That Ain't Swell by Pale Horse today - it's rather good.