Well that's Christmas done, the stash currently contains a new coffee machine with lots of bells and whistles, the Minipops book, Spiderman 2 DVD (not sure why I don't already own that one) and various other bits and bobs generally to make me smell nicer.



I've actually been back since Tuesday night but have been sidetracked by Paper Mario on my Gamecube (fantastic game which has great fun messing with traditional RPG conventions, almost done it I think), and buying even more CDs. Anyway I've now updated the site, there are some pictures of Cats and stuff to look at here, and some really crappy reviews of CDs to read here, and I've dumped the bookmarks section for a del.icio.us link.

pre-christmas CDs



Jesu - Jesu

I've been waiting for this CD for quite some time, over three years to be more precise, that being the time since Justin Broadrick's previous band, Godflesh, last release. I have to hold my hands up here and declare myself a completely obsessive Godflesh fan, so this is going to be a very biased opinion. Jesu is a very ambitious project; layers of guitars, keyboards and vocals are mixed together to produce something almost religious in nature. This point is hammered home with titles such as Your Path to Divinity, Walk on Water and Guardian Angel. Not to say the lyrical theme is all religious, from the lyrics I can make out and the way they are delivered it's more spiritual in nature, in fact I've read one review describing it as a 'Spiritual Awakening'. As over the top as that sounds, it's pretty near the mark to me...



Subtle - Earthsick

A collection of Subtle's earlier 'season' EPs. Good stuff like the other Subtle album I bought this year, it's basically a more organic instrument driven version of the sort of things cLOUDDEAD do (not suprising as they share common members of Dose One and Jel). It tails off a bit to the end though with instrumental improvised sounding tracks which frankly are a little dull, but if you ignore these it's a good album.

161 CDs in case anyone is counting, new ones from Jesu and Subtle have turned up, but I haven't got time to tell you about them now, I'm off to colder climates (well, Nuneaton and Leeds) for Christmas...

RIP Suprnova...

No pictures this weekend I'm afraid, too busy christmas shopping it seems...



Anyway, it's getting near to the end of the year so I'm almost ready to make my list of top ten CDs of the year. Almost, but not quite as I still have one in the post which I'm pretty sure could get into the top ten. In the mean time here is a scary list of CDs which I've bought this year, no wonder my credit card bill never goes down:



!!! - Louden Up Now

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

2XH vs HHR: Where is my robotic boot?

Alias - Eyes Closed EP

Alias - Muted

Amen - California's Bleeding

Amon Tobin - Solid Steel

Andrew Broder - Modern Hits EP

Andrew Broder - More Modern Hits

Anticon Label Sampler: 1999-2004

Arthur Russell - Calling out of Context

Arthur Russell - The World of Arthur Russell

Auf der Maur - Auf der Maur

Autechre & The Hafler Trio - ae3o&h3ae

Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash

Black Dice - Miles of Smiles

Black Eyes - Cough

Blink 182 - I Miss You

Blockhead - Music By Cavelight

Boom Bip & Dose One - Circle

Boredoms - Seadrum/House of Sun

Broken Social Scene - Beehives

cLOUDDEAD - Dead Dogs Two

cLOUDDEAD - Ten

Converge - You Fail Me

Craig Armstrong - Piano Works

Curve - The Way of Curve

Definitive Jux Presents III

Devendra Banhart - Nino Rojo

Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the Hands

DJ /rupture - 58.46 Radio Mix

DJ /rupture - Special Gunpowder

DJ Signify - Sleep No More

DJ Spooky - rhythm Science

Domino 04

Donkey Konga Soundtrack

Donna Summer - This Needs to Be Your Style

Donna Summer vs Ove Naxx

Einsturzende Neubauten - Perpetuum Mobile

El-P - Collecting the Kid

El-P - High Water

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Exploratory Music From Portugal 04

Faust vs Dalek - Derbe Respect

Fennesz - Live in Japan

Fennesz - Venice

Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back And Forth

Fugazi - Repeater + 3 Songs

Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

Good Night Music To Sleep By

Gravenhurst - Flashlight Sessions

Grime

Hope of the States - The Lost Riots

Infinite Livez - Bush Meat

Isis - 09.23.03

Isis - Mosquito Control EP

Isis - Oceanic Remixes/Reinterpretations

Isis - SGNL>05

Jackie O MotherFucker - Wow / The Magick Fire Music

Jah Wobble - I Could Have Been A Contender

Jesu - Heartache

Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World - Futures

Kevin Drumm - Sheer Hellish Miasma

Kid606 - Who Still Kill Sound?

Kid606/Cex - Oh so now you fuckers wanna dance!

King Geedorah - Take Me To Your Leader

Knifehandchop - How I Left You

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

Lost Prophets - Start Something

Madvillain - Madvillainy

Manhunt Remixes

Mansun - Attack of the Grey Lantern

Mark Lanegan Band - Bubblegum

Massive Attack - Danny the Dog

Matmos - Rat Relocation Program

MDZ04

Michael Gira - I am singing to you from my room

Mike Ladd - Nostalgialator

Miss Kittin - I Com

Mr Scruff - Keep It Solid Steel

Murcof - Utopia

Murs - 3:16 The 9th Edition

New Japan Philharmonic - Smashing... live!

Odd Nosdam - No More Wig For Ohio

Old Man Gloom - Christmas

Out Hud - S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.

OVe-NaXx - Bullets From Habikino City HxCx

Pale Horse - Gee That Ain't Swell

Pan Sonic - Kesto (234.48:4)

Part Chimp - Bring Back The Sound

Part Chimp - Chart Pimp

Passage - The Forcefield Kids

Paws Across The World 2003

Philip Jeck - 7

Philip Jeck - Surf

Probot

Rammellzee - Bi-Conicals of the Rammellzee

Rhythm & Sound with The Artists

Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine - Tuxicity

Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol.1

RJD2 - Constant Elevation: The 'Say Word' Mix

RJD2 - Since We Last Spoke

Rock Action Presents Vol.1

Rough Trade Shops - Counter Culture 2003

Ry Cooder & Manuel Galban - Mambo Sinuendo

Seeing the Unseen D.O.R. Almanac 2004

Shaun of the Dead

Shockout Volume 1

Shotgun Wedding Vol.1 - DJ /Rupture vs Mutamassik - The Bidoun Sessions

Slam - Year Zero

Slipknot - Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse

Sophia - All My Love

Sophia - Collections:One

Sophia - People Are Like Seasons

Spring Heel Jack - Sweetness of The Water

Squarepusher - Square Window (3" Promo CD)

Squarepusher - Ultravisitor

Stone Sour - Stone Sour

Subtle - A New Shade of White

Sunburned Hand of the Man - Rare Wood

Sunn 0))) - White1

Swans - Children of God / World of Skin

Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind

Teledubgnosis - Magnetic Learning Center

The Angels of Light - How I Loved You

The Angels of Light - New Mother

The Bad Plus - Give

The Bad Plus - These are the Vistas

The Beatles - The White Album

The Bug featuring Warrior Queen - Aktion Pak

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine Sampler

The Rapture - Echoes

The Soft Pink Truth - Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Soft Pink Truth?

The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free

The Twilight Singers - She Loves You

Themselves - Them

Throbbing Gristle - Mutant TG

Throbbing Gristle - The Taste of TG (A Beginner's Guide To The Music Of Throbbing Gristle)

TV on the Radio - Desperate Youths

TV on The Radio - Staring At The Sun EP

TV on the Radio - Young Liars EP

Two Cultures Clash

Two Lone Swordsmen - From The Double Gone Chapel

UNKLE - WWIII: UNKLE vs UNKLE

Urban Renewal Program Supplement 1.5

Vast Aire - Look Mom... No Hands

Wanna Buy A Craprak?

Ward 21 - U Know How We Roll

Watch and Repeat Play

Why?/Odd Nosdam - The Split EP

Wiley - Treddin' on Thin Ice

William Parker Violin Trio - Scrapbook

Wire Tapper 11

Wire Tapper 12

Zentertainment 2004



159 CDs by my reckoning... yikes!

Some website changes:



For some reason I've decided that one domain name isn't enough, so you can now access the site through darthphil.org and soon through darthphil.net (as soon as the DNS pixies sort the t'internet out anyway). They both use crappy banner ads unfortunatly, I may do something interesting with them at some point but I wouldn't put money on that happening soon...



I've also been playing around with del.icio.us which describes itself as a social bookmark manager. It's pretty good, with a link on your toolbar you can add a bookmark to your list, as well as a description and keywords. Bookmarks are public so when you add one you can see how many other people have added the link you've added, and if you like you can have a prod around in there lists for interesting links - and it will generate a handy RSS feed of your links. Anyway, my list can be found at http://del.icio.us/darthphil. I haven't put much in it at the moment, just a few web comic links, when I get chance I'll be going through all my IE bookmarks and using the del.icio.us to replace the portable bookmarks section.

My brick has turned up...



First impressions of my new iRiver jukebox, well so far are good: sound quality wise it's fantastic. I've compared it to the same songs playing through my laptop's output and everything seems to have be much clearer and the bass really knocks your head off without muddying things up, probably due to all the fancy SRS tricks up it's sleeve. I look forward to my impending struggle with tinitus.



The user interface shines on the colour screen although it can be a bit confusing at the moment, it doesn't help that it seems to have two menu buttons and I keep hitting the wrong one. Whilst I'm on bad points, I'm damned if I can get media player to recognise it (even though Microsoft's website has it as a supported product), not too much of a pain as it acts as a hard disk when plugged in, but I'd like to use Media Player's synch facility - Oh well, early days and all that, I'm sure I'll figure it out.



The really cool thing though is that it can play videos, it takes a bit of work as you have to make sure the video is the right size and it's using Xvid encoding, but it's still a damn cool trick.

I'm feeling unusually festive (having an 8ft inflatable christmas tree behind you will do that to you), so here's some christmas music for you:



Wesley Willis - Merry Christmas



Wesley Willis was a schizophrenic cult musician from Chicago who seems to have been adopted by Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label at some point. It's a very cheesy song, but you can't help but admire the man's enthusiastic delivery...

I seem to be slightly addicted to a new TV series being shown in America called Desperate Housewives. I think I can just about justify liking this apparent Sex in the City clone as it seems to have a bit of a dark twist to it (like alot of American TV at the moment, Dead Like Me is another good example). It doesn't shy away from themes of murder, suicide and drug-abuse - plus Teri Hatcher still has a certain je ne sais quoi about her...

Not having an mp3 player is going to drive me up the wall, so I've already ordered a new one. Unlike the rest of the world I haven't gone for an iPod (you're all sheep!), I've gone for an iRiver H320: colour screen, 20GB disk, top-notch audio quality, can even play videos if you tweak it a bit. Sweet.

It was our work's christmas outing last night, went to one of these big corporate party affairs. Naturally I got horribly drunk, but I can at least remember most of the night - overall impression was that it was great fun. However the karma seems to have decided to even things out and I've managed to lose a bow tie, a cuff link and more distressingly my mp3 player... Arse!

Christmas has hit our office in a big way...

OK, earlier I was talking about very obscure, over emotional, pseudo heavy metal. Now I'm going to switch to happy, chirpy dance music.



I went to see Groove Armada tonight...



They're OK I guess, many of there songs have that comforting quality in that you will recognise the songs, but the whole performance was just a bit...well, meh. They don't have a decent focal point in terms of a charismatic front person, they played eveything by numbers, and there were too many slow points in the set. Plus, playing a song as an encore which you've already played before in the set really takes away from it's initial impact.



I'm making a promise to myself that the next gig I go to will involve something a bit more challenging...

Public Service Announcement

OK, I know I get the odd Isis fan passing through, so there is the possibility that the odd Jesu fan (or should I say potential Jesu fan as they've only released 2 songs officially so far) may pass by, you may be interested in this info, everyone else can look away now.



It looks like today was the Japanese release date for Jesu's debut album, details about it can be found in this message board posting. I've gone for cdjapan again, as they seem pretty reliable, and I'm crossing my fingers about it being a two disk edition...

Not much to report from last night, other than a ninja attack...

OK I've found some new music myself: M.I.A. I've just finished listening to a mix she's done with Diplo, and I'm currently listening to a few tunes on here website. Absolutely marvellous stuff: if you need a frame of reference imagine Dizzee Rascal's first album, make it a bit more fun, and add a female MC and you'll be close.

I'm fed up with work and I need some new music to listen to so that I can temporarily escape this boring, dull, and annoyingly stressful job of mine. Any Suggestions?



I've also added a 'next blog' button to the menu, it's mean't to send you to another 'blog' where you will be entertained by far better writing than on this site. That is the theory anyway...