Hello my name is Phil, and I am an alcoholic. Although I think that's quite clear from the pictures I post on this site. What's more worrying to me is the way I'm slowly turning into a Spurs fan - for a day out it's difficult to beat getting royally slaughtered in the opposition fans pub and having a bit of a sing along after watching the team you are meant to be supporting lose. I'm going to have to be careful about this sort of behaviour...

2004's Scariest Halloween Costumes



The grin on the face of the kid being 'The Littlest Prisoner at Abu Ghraib' made me smile...

I have a copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas sitting on my desk at work, teasing me like the brazen hussy it is! Today is going to be a very long day...



Went to a smooth jazz night yesterday; they had a duo playing very laid back Burt Bacharach tinged jazz on the sax, guitar and salt shaker thingy. Quite nice music really, unfortunatly there weren't many people there, probably a bit too sophisticated for Woking's tastes, and the bar wasn't exactly easy to find. It was a non-smoking venue so I had to keep popping out for a ciggy, at the end of the night I found myself outside chatting to the guitarist - turns out he was into some of the improvistational shite I'm into, quite cool being able to talk about Matthew Shipp, Spring Heel Jack and using a gas mask as a musical instrument with a proper jazz fiend.

Todays new CD comes from Japan! It is credited to The Boredoms, but they may be called The V?redoms, anyway here are my thoughts.

v?redoms maybe...



Boredoms - Seadrum/House of Sun

This may or may not be a new Boredoms album as the general concensus amongst fans is they are now called the v?redoms. Anyway, whatever they may be called, it's the first release since there psychedelic 'Vision, Creation, New Sun' CD. The CD contains 2 tracks both over the 20 minute mark, the first track is amazing. It starts off with fairly abstract female vocals, almost like someone absent mindly singing to them selves, then there is the wave of drums which just seems to explode. The rest of the track is pretty much based around the drums, lots and lots of drums; the female vocalist remains and is accompanied by some pretty frenzied not quite classical, not quite jazz piano, but mainly it's all about the drums. Think about trying to get 3 or 4 live drummers to beat out a slightly different rhythmn at the same time and you'll be close, it does slow down a bit in the middle but not for long. Fantastic stuff... it's a pity that the other track is so fucking dull.

Todays new CD comes from a rather roundabout route. I first heard about it on the Definitive Jux site at the start of the year where it was described as a European import, could I find it? Could I bollocks! They've now started selling it in America, so basically I've got a new CD that came from Europe via America. Makes no sense to me. Anyway, may I present the new El-P album Collecting the Kid.



In other news the exercise score is: Phil 6 - Exercise 0

Having said that, today hurt! And I still haven't played with the weight machine thingies...



And in other news apparently there is a scene in the new Star Wars film where Yoda farts... It's sad, but I'm so not suprised that the bearded one is determined to fuck this film up too. *sigh*

def jukie head honcho...



El-P - Collecting the Kid

This is a collection of rare tracks and instrumentals from Definitive Jux's "executive producer" (well that's what he calls himself on pretty much every Def Jux release) El-P. It contains instrumental tracks he produced for Murs, Mr Lif and Camutao along with contributions from his jazz album 'High Water (Mark)' and from his score for a film called 'Bomb the System'. There is also a remix of a track he did with someone called Stephanie Vezina which I think is brilliant. It's all very El-P: lot's of scattershot drum programming, big distorted organs and sci-fi synths, but I'm a fan of that sort of stuff so I like it. For a collection of knock-offs it also holds together suprisingly well, but I would like to see a proper El-P album, on this one his vocals are missed. Recommended if you can find it!

John Peel died today.



I am genuinely upset by that news; the man was responsible for a fair proportion of my CD collection and I've always admired and tried to follow his open minded attitude to music. A sad day for all music fans really...



*edit*



There seems to be many tributes popping up over the internet, I think this site is pretty good, plus there is a link to Teenage Kicks on it. I strongly advise you follow the instructions regarding listening to it as loud as you can as a fitting tribute.

Silly Idea #147 (part of an ongoing series)



How about this for my next car? I'm thinking of getting one in black and having a big eagle painted on the front, maybe one sitting on a skull... with snakes coming out of the skulls eyes - that would be so metal! I got the idea from an article in the Times this weekend, with current exchange rates the low end model is just over £10,000. OK so there would be VAT and import problems to deal with, but it would still work out pretty cheap compared to buying a new European car.



Of course there may be some tiny little teething problems such as horrible insurance quotes and just by looking at the damn thing would make it use petrol. But how cool would it be to say you owned a Mustang?

OK, I'm slightly less confused now - these camera phones can be very handy when your memory needs a bit of extra help.



So, Friday was fairly traditional in that there was plenty of good old fashioned binge drinking. It also marked the return of Wetherspoons as a venue, which is still as horrible as ever. Saturday was spent doing even more heroic drinking, this time in Tottenham and various random parts of London. I'd convinced myself that I knew where this really cool Polish bar was, unfortunatly I was wrong and a fair amount of the evening was spent wandering round parts of London that were unnervingly quiet for a Saturday night. It was a bit like those first scenes in 28 days later, if a zombie had jumped out I wouldn't have been in the least bit suprised.



As you can imagine today has been spent trying to convince my body to work properly, it's been a bit of a lost cause really...

What happened to the last 36 hours? I'm confused...

The first expensive package from japan has arrived - this is the Isis remix album, the Fennesz remix is particularly good.

my first japanese import...



Isis - Oceanic Remixes/Reinterpretations

Well, I've bought Japanese CDs before, but this is the first one I've bought direct from Japan. This double CD does pretty much what it says on the packet, ie it contains remixes and reinterpretations of songs from Isis's Oceanic album. It's being released here as a series of limited edition vinyl singles, which is annoying since I don't have a record player hence the importing nonsense. OK, first track is from genius that is Fennesz, with little more than a bit of processed guitar and a few glitches he can create some of the most epic and emotional sounding music you've ever heard. The Ayal Noar remix is very good, although I think he's worked with Isis before so has an advantage, the Thomas Koner one is suitably creepy. In fact the only track thats a bit iffy on the first CD is the one from Teledubgnosis which is a biut long - although the Mike Patton track is just bizarre. The Second CD has plenty of weird stuff on it, the problem is there is also a JK Broadrick remix at the end so I've found myself wishing the others would hurry up so I could get to the main event so to speak, it's exactly what I thought it would sound like - ie like the new Jesu stuff. Anyway, if you like Isis and the more experimental side of the music spectrum I'd recommend this CD.

I swear that the website cdjapan is going to financially ruin me. I've ordered a copy of the Isis remix album from them which contains all four volumes of the limited 12" series in one handy double CD package, and since that seems to be on the way to England I've gone and ordered the new Boredoms album.I've also discovered they are about to release Casshern on DVD, this film looks amazing: giant robots, epic cinematography, basically it looks like a Final Fantasy game brought to the cinema screen (or in the case of the DVD - my TV screen) properly - can't wait to watch it.



The trouble is all this importing of exotic CDs and DVDs is bloody expensive, I've always thought that those £30 japanese import albums you see in decent record shops were a bit of a rip off - turns out they aren't, as importing them yourself costs just as much. I'm going to have to be good and steer clear of the site for a while or I'm going to end up having a very sheepish conversation with my bank manager...

Went to see Shark Tale tonight, let's get this out of the way first. It's nowhere near as good as Finding Nemo.



It has it's moments - mainly with the shark voiced by Jack Black - but there were a few too many touchy feely parts, and I don't know if it was just me but the film did seem to be trying a little too hard to be a bit urban. The Missy Elliot and Christina Agregulia song at the end was particularly forced. But maybe I'm just getting old and can't relate to youth culture anymore...



In other news I've survived my first trip to the gym, so the score now stands at:



Phil 1 - Exercise 0



Wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, however having said that I'll probably wake up tomorrow screaming in agony and unable to get out bed, I'll just have to wait and see I guess.

Some links from my RSS reader...



This is just lovely, I recommend it if your in the mood to listen to something gentle.



Just found out about a Love and Rockets collection which I need! I remember reading a few of these books when I was at college, possibly the best punk rock lesbian love stories you'll read, but I drifted off into more super hero type books. I'm looking forward to this turning up.



And apparently a game called Half Life 2 has gone gold. It'll probably be shit...

A bunch of new CDs

initial thoughts on a bunch of new Cds



Donkey Konga Soundtrack

Absolutely fucking appalling even if it is a free CD. This CD comes with the latest official Nintendo magazine and showcases tunes from Nintendo's latest rythmn action game Donkey Konga. The music is horrible and has but me right off the game.



Subtle - A New Shade of White

How do I describe this? Easy, it's cLOUDDEAD doing rock music. How can I say that? Well, Subtle have 2 out of the 3 members of cLOUDDEAD in there ranks, and although they have a similar dream like quality they seem to use more live instruments which include *gasp* guitars and drums... hence the lazy cLOUDDEAD doing rock music tag from yours truly. It's damn good stuff though, it's on Warp's hip-hop off shoot Lex Records who get a thumbs up from me for releasing yet another excellent CD. Bad points? Well, I imagine that Dose One (the vocalist/MC) could get on people's nerves, he has a pretty much unique approach to vocals (ie fast, high pitched, surreal and drenched in effects) and the fact that in the line up he is credited as supplying words,throat,synth and art makes him sound like a pretentious wanker - I'll let it pass though, as the music is bang on.



Jimmy Eat World

I think this there self titled release, I could be wrong though Media Player seems to be determined to call it Bleed America, and a few people on Amazon refer to it by the same title, basically it's the one with all the sports trophies on the front cover. Anyway, after listening to the new album I thought it was time to go and hit there back catalogue. This one has got Sweetness and Salt Sweat Sugar, which if you've ever been in O'neils in Woking you will recognise. The rest of the CD seems to be much more gentle than these two songs, maybe a bit too gentle really. My top tip would be to download the two decent songs and buy the new album.



Mansun - Attack of the Grey Lantern

One of those albums that I kick myself for not buying in the first place. This was Mansun's debut album; it's an ambitious one, full of some seriously overblown production but at the same time some amzing songs. Highlights include Taxloss mainly for the way it somehow morphs into disco, and Wide Open Space which is worth the asking price alone.



MDZ04

I get very nostalgic about Metalheadz, I used to frequent Goldies Sunday night metalheadz club when I was at University, which considering involved over a 200 mile round trip was quite a feat. At the time the music they played seemed very futuristic, nowadays I use the word nostalgic when describing it, is that irony? I guess it could be. Anyway, back to this compilation: it does exactly what you would hope it would: it's fast, viscious and has a nasty metallic pointy bits that could easily take your eye out - and it's nice to see Photek getting back to some good old fashioned drum'n'bass.

This weekend has mainly been spent watching Hellraiser and Spongebob Squarepants DVDs (a combination which should cause some sort of mental damage), playing old school computer games to the extent that I managed to break a controller, listening to track 10 off the new Jimmy Eat World album pretty much constantly and generally avoiding any sort of physical contact or communication with real human beings...

Went to a comedy club called the Banana Cabaret last night, it was as you can imagine fun and made a nice change from drinking in Woking. All the comedians were jolly good, and there was chance for a bit of a boogie afterwards, and as I was being a relatively sensible person for a change I can actually remember it this time.

Oh no, what have I done?

I'm thinking of having a Stella free weekend this weekend (note: not an alcohol free one, that would be silly!). I've noticed that whilst out on the sauce recently I've either had these weird little lost moments where rather than collapsing unconcious like any decent self respecting drunk I get more lively and do stuff that I'm damned if I can ever remember. Or I get horribly depressed, and what do you do when horribly depressed? Why, listen to Emo my friends! Lots and lots of Emo...



The fags are also going to have to go too, I seem to be very close to joining a gym and I get the impression that they may be somewhat incompatible with fitness.

emo...



Jimmy Eat World - Futures

Absolutely marvellous album, unashamably emo this is the sound of four men rocking like bastards whilst pouring there hearts out. OK, its more straight forward to what I often listen to ie there are tunes here, but at the moment its just what I need.

Trying to give up smoking when there was beer and an England match involved was never going to work was it?

Well the weather sucks, work sucks and the new Massive Attack album is disappointingly dreary. I need something to cheer me up damn it! If any generous rich people are reading this, how about spreading a bit of cheeriness and chucking me a few quid so I can bugger off round the world for a few months or something?



In other news I've acquired a copy of Innocence, the sequel to Ghost in the Shell. Visually it is truly extraordinary, you could pick pretty much any single frame from the film and want to hang it on your wall; but boy is it confusing. The main characters are constantly quoting famous thinkers like Confusious, Plato, Descartes and Buddha in between there own philosophical musings. This makes for a very confusing film at times but it's nice not to watch a film with a bit of intelligence for a change, even if much of it is way beyond me...

woof woof...



Massive Attack - Danny the Dog

This is the soundtrack album to a new film starring Jet Li, Bob Hoskins and Morgan Freeman, it's an interesting film which seems to be half kung fu revenge film and half erm, well, a European art house film about pianos. Massive Attack, or whats left of Massive Attack as I think 2 of the 3 main producers have left, have produced the score the whole film. This CD has it's moment's, there is a hint of the old massive attack here and there - beats and strings - but it's an album of mainly incidental music, and without the visual element it's a bit dull to be honest.

Ta Da! I'm back from Manchester and my first proper England match, I saw the under 21s play years ago, but I don't think that counts. I'm sure you are aware of how the match went so I won't go into it here. As for events surrounding the match, well it was fun, bit odd going into the stadium sober due the difficulty in getting any alcohol in Manchester before the game but it didn't really deter from proceedings. We went out on the town afterwards, after a few false starts due to not being allowed into a couple of bars due to lack of shoes or not being couples (which was a new one on me) we settled down to some serious drinking. All jolly good fun, some of which is recorded here.

This picture has appeared on a fairly respectable website that is one of my daily/hourly visits (the mighty boingboing.net) so I can offload the slightly unnerving feeling that I'm looking at japanese schoolgirl porn on to them. Could it be the coolest class photo of all time?

Went to see Layercake last night, it's your typical British gangster film like Lock Stock, you know: swearing, sharp suits, liberal use of drugs and violence, absolutely zero meaningful female characters. But it has it's moments, some good one liners and a particularly fine use of the phrase "Well fuck off then", there are worse ways to spend a Thursday evening.



In other news I have a copnfession: I really like the new Gwen Stefani tune, OK it's essentially europop - but it's europop with balls!

OK, about time for a proper post rather than the one sentence posts which seem to have formed the last few posts. The trouble is I haven't got a huge amount to say; I could give you a guide to some interesting DVD releases, wax lyrical about the joy that is Burnout 3 on the Xbox (it's just soooooo fast, it's more like a drug than a game), or maybe get a bit topical and go on about current events in the world - but I think I'll leave those ideas for another time...



Instead I think I'll point you in the direction of this nice new PC wallpaper from a chap called Martyn Norman who has won some sort of Ninjatune competition. I've had the worlds most depressing wallpaper, which I pinched from this site, on my desktop at work - I thought it was about time for a change.



Oh, and go out and buy the new dj /rupture CD, it is brilliant - why? Because I say so!

not a mix CD...



DJ /rupture - Special Gunpowder

I've got quite a few DJ /rupture mixes, but after a blinding start in the CD mix world with Gold Teeth Suite I've found some of his recent ones a bit 'samey' so I was a bit anxious about this first 'proper' album. I needn't have worried though, this is brilliant, there is a perfect mix between soft soulful tunes which would not be out of place on one of Massive Attack's earlier albums and some full on scary as shit noise assualts - all held together with ragga beats and arabic-esque riddims... and a bit of hip hop. The guest vocalists are really good, the ragga MCs being my favourite but he's also used poets, MCs and singers - something for everyone really. If I had to compare this CD to anyone the first one that pops into my head is The Bug's 'Pressure', but as good as his album was I think this one by DJ /rupture is better. Definitely one to own.

I'm getting old, I'm struggling to cope with going out two nights out in a row. Pictures are a bit crap I'm afraid...

We had a company meeting last night, I'm still suffering...