From new phone

Testing one two!

just testing something...

Really, really bored...

I'm bored of this site...

I was going to do a big post tonight but Blogger is being a pain and not letting me upload images, anyway - here are a couple of music posts instead. First some Tigerbeat related artists (not that good to be honest), and a really good CD from a group called Daughters - enjoy!

Spazcore Apparently...

Daughters - Hell Songs
Ooh I like this. I've heard the term spazcore associated with the sort of downright mental hardcore that bands like Daughters play. It's sort of metal, but played at breakneck speed quite often, with strange Jazz type noodling and drunken singing. And all clocking in at easily under half an hour, which is a good solid length for this sort of music. If you like The Dillinger Escape Plan you will like this, hopefully as much as me.

MP3: Daughters Spelled Wrong

tigerbeat refugees...

Matmos - The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast
Ten audio portraits of mainly literary influences of the Matmos duo played using there usual strict sampling rules. For example the title track uses rose, teeth and manure as percussion elements (how I have no idea!) set to spoken word excerpts of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations - pop music this is not. I think the Pitchfork review summed the album up best describing it as a colletion of experiments resulting in frenetic dance tracks doubling as reading lists.

MP3: Roses and Teeth for Ludwig Wittgenstein

Cex - Know Doubt
I've always found Cex a bit annoying, he started off doing some very promising IDM-esque electronica (must not complare to Aphex Twin!), then went downhill a bit with some more hip-hop influenced stuff, came back with the Being Ridden album and it's slightly superior instrumental companion piece, and then went all Linkin Park on the Maryland Mansion CD (which I loved). I'm not sure about now, I'm vaguely dissatified by this EP - I think the thing that has always annoyed me about him is the way that I know he has a blinder of an album buried deep down there somewhere, I just haven't heard it yet.

MP3: Contains It

Kid606 - Pretty Girls Make Raves
Sort of traditional squelchy rave based CD from Mr Depedro. I hate to say it, but it's a bit dull in places - I've heard he's started playing with a band nowadays, I must say I'm far more interested in hearing how this turns out.

MP3: Let it Rock

Once every so often a piece of music seeps out of the ether and absolutely floors me, this is one such track from a band on Warp Records called Grizzly Bear.

If you get fed up of manually stopping and starting it (Bleep only preview 30 seconds of music at a time) they have the full track streaming on Warp's homepage at the moment. I also found this blog post which has a really cool acapella version of a track they did whilst casually walking through Paris.

I sense a potential album of the year brewing.

I've not been updating this site enough have I? I blame depression inducing binge drinking (and having a broken Xbox360 to go with my broken PSP doesn't help matters one bit either). In fact the only bit I regularly update is the credit card stress testing schedule and that's really only for my own benefit - It's nice to have something to look forward to, the SunnO))) Boris collaboration (Phil says a little prayer to any of the old gods passing by - please tour!) and the thought of a new Sophia album are a couple of things keeping me going.

Anyway, might try to post again soon - I have a pile of CDs that I keep meaning to post about, in the meantime - keep it grimm! I'm off to watch the new Prison Break episode.

You have to love that photo! (It's SunnO))) and Boris btw)

Go! Go! Gadget attack vagina!

Excellent video, not sure what I'm more fightened of - the aforementioned vagina, or The Horrors' rhythm section.

More info here.

Amazing Stop Motion Video - www.2BlogGadgets.com

This is exactly what all my days are like. Exactly! Except maybe for the head shaving... the sprinkly chocolate stuff... the hooded tops... lack of Sharepoint... and the drum and bass soundtrack (mine seems to be all doom metal nowadays - hail Satan! w00t!)... and my games consoles aren't quite as needy.

So it's nothing like my day then - damn cool video though!

*edit* to the people in my local gamestation, it's not about the whole 'the internet is made of pipes' thing (or severed penises - where the fuck did you get that idea from!?), it's about Belgian surrealism... and Mario.

Made a bit of a momentous decision this weekend...

Well, for me it is anyway. Basically my Japanese PSP is officially knackered, I'm not entirely sure how (although I think Loco Roco may have something to do with it) the right trigger button has become jammed or something and it's now pretty much impossible to play anything on it. And you know what? I don't think I'm going to replace it.

*Gasp!*

The PSP is undoubtedly a great little gadget; it's got a wonderful screen - plays music, videos and games, but I've come to the conclusion that I can cope with life fairly easily without one. When it came out I was amazed with games like Lumines and Ridge Racers, but since then I don't think there has really been anything that has occupied me for more than a weekend if I'm being totally honest. And looking ahead at the depressing release schedule of games (only Tekken interests me, and even that is tainted by the fact that beat-em-ups are only really enjoyable when played against a real live person that you can taunt when you win and whine when you lose), I can't see there being a game that will occupy me coming out any time soon.

Could this be a sign of things to come? I'm already seriously thinking of not getting a PS3 - big deal for me, I've brought pretty much every console since the Dreamcast on release day. New found maturity? Yikes!

Anyway, just wanted to get that off my chest. Now for something completely different: Europop.

europop...

The Knife - Silent Shout
Anyone in the know would have heard about this Swedish duo sometime ago, a brother and sister combo (I think) who produce slightly off kilter techno pop, and strangely on one track a sort of weird techno waltz. They also have a refreshing attitude to completely screwing around with the vocals which I guess is why they get compared with Aphex Twin sometimes. They make really cool videos and are also responsible for the tune behind the Sony Bravio advert with the bouncy balls (you really need to hunt down the One World Session version of Heartbeats... seriously, it's brilliant). Here's the wonderfully melancholic title tune.

MP3: Silent Shout

Spillsbury - Raus!
I was first made aware of this band through a post on the blog of Moebius Rex (which sadly seems to be inactive, shame really). They are a German pop-punk band, nice fast friendly beats and cheesy keyboards with punk rock bass and shouty vocals. You have to be in the right mood I guess, but when you are I think they are up there with someone like Bis (damn shame they called it a day). Bit eighties maybe, but who cares? It's fun!

MP3: Schlagzeile

Something for the comic book geeks...


Watch the pilot now, legally for a change too! OK, SciFi.com are being idiots and have added region encoding crap onto the pilot - so you'll have to YouTube it or if you are feeling naughty torrent it...

Me and a bearded lady:


I think it may be love... More pictures from the Studio Artois film festival thing here.

I've been playing Prey most of the weekend, I thought is was dead good unlike this somewhat average review. It's basically Doom 3 but with enough weird little twists (including some mind-bending levels involving localised gravity effects and portals which allow you to watch yourself run into a room) to make it more interesting than most run and gun games.

I can't help but think that Freud would have a thing or two to say about some of the imagary.

And I'm back!

A month away, and do I have news! Well, actually no... It's basically been a month spent watching football, avoiding the heat by reducing my activity levels to something approaching hibernation and restarting bad habits...


I gave up smoking on New Years Day, that lasted until the middle of May, by June I'd stopped sneaking around and trying to hide the fact I'm smoking again, now I'm back on pretty much a 20 a day habit. It's all too easy really, I get bored very easily or something - not exactly happy about the whole situation.

Anyway, anything positive? Well after 80 hours of gameplay I finally finished Dragon Quest.


My thoughts exactly Yangus - top game in my book.

I've also a huge pile of CDs to get through, thought I'd start off with some hero worshipping so here is a post of Justin Broadrick related MP3s.

Justin Broadrick appreciation post...

5ive - Versus
This 5ive are a band on hydrahead records, not the boy band famous for slam dunking 'da' funk. According to the blurb on the CD they are an instrumental rock band who use the bare essentials of guitar and drums, even though they have an apparently minimalistic approach there music sounds very busy - as many bands on Hydrahead, very much like Isis at times. The reason I bought this EP was for the Justin Broadrick mixes, it's really just the one mix but split into two bits - basically the music is slowed down and some atmospheric organ parts added on top. Pretty much what fans would have expected, won't here me grumble.

MP3: Soma Remix by JK Broadrick (Stage 1)

Godflesh - Streetcleaner
I was once a spotty long haired teenage metal fan (hard to belive I know!), but thankfully I found two albums that dragged me out of my rut. One was Nine Inch Nail's Pretty Hate Machine, and the other was Streetcleaner. I'd heard nothing like it, and to this day I don't think anyone has come close to it's relentless crushing power. What hit me more than anything was the simplicity of it all, beats were created using simple drum patterns, the vocals took on a mantra like quality at times, and Broadrick had this way of playing guitar riffs that made you want to freeze time and just wallow in the moment.

MP3: Head Dirt

Knut - Alter
Swiss metal anyone? How about remixed Swiss metal? I'll be honest I'm completely ignorant of most of the remixers and the source material. The only reason I bought this was the Broadrick remix, very brutal, very Godflesh at times, very enjoyable to listen to at volumes guaranteed to induce tinitus.

MP3: H/Armless

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - PCP Tornado / ANbRX
PCP Tornado was a 10 track, six and a half minute long album(?!) released on highly anti-social 6" vinyl by digital grindcore band Agoraphobic Nosebleed. There is a lot to be said for albums spanning such a short timeframe, frankly if you want to listen to grindcore properly you want it condensed into as short a time frame as possible. Kind of like a punch in the face, once is enough - being punched repeatedly is no fun! Someone though had the bright idea to add an album of remixes to this re-release, some of the remixers go for the trying to make as much noise as possible route (which is fine), there are also a few almost unlistenable gabba mixes, and then there is Broadricks which turns one of there songs into a Godflesh mix - pretty good trick for such a small amount of source material.

MP3: Flesh of Jesu Mix

5 minutes to go and still no sign of anything particularly Satanic I see.

Although my XBox360 patched itself earlier in a particularly sinister way...

It's from a game called Dragon Quest, and no I have no idea what this scene is all about...

I was meant to go and see The Boredoms tonight, but through a combination of me being late and good old engineering works on the tube making it almost impossible to get to Shepherds Bush in a reasonable amount of time I didn't make it. This doesn't bode well for the week ahead...

Bracing myself for the week ahead...


Here are a few pictures from the weekend, John's got some much better ones on his site over here.

It's Friday, and since I'm not drunk at some sort of sporting event I'm going to continue my effort to make Friday more musical...

Today I have a track from the new EP by Jesu. This really should be listened to.

However if you want something a bit more poppy I've just stumbled across a new band called ¡Forward, Russia! (although all the hip indie kids probably knew about them months ago, I've been listening to too much experimental metal recently), there new album Give Me a Wall is really very good indeed. Think Bloc Party but with balls.

essential...

Jesu - Silver
Just brilliant, the only problem I have is the disc makes me want more. Here's the title track, if you don't like it you are just plain wrong... Really, really wrong.

MP3: Silver

It's been a busy couple of days, I was at the cricket on Friday (which gives me a great excuse to show off the panoramic mode on my phone camera)


Then, after that went to see the Dresden Dolls at the astoria. Pretty good gig, even though I was probably a bit too pissed by then to properly enjoy it, and I got into an argument with some angry lesbians which was totally not my fault - although I had been drinking for about 10 hours before so I could be wrong there... Hmmm.

Anyway, if you are curious about what they sound like here's a clip of them doing a cover of War Pigs, don't worry it's not more black metal.




Saturday involved more drinking whilst watching some entertaining football speaking from a neutrals point of view, and today - well, my body just gave up on me and I've been sleeping pretty much all day... except for now... unless I've figured out how to blog in my sleep.

Bit of black metal to start the day...

(Very funny post from Said the Gramophone, deserved to be promoted from my del.icio.us links - the cover version of Losing my Religion is one of the most horrific things I've heard for quite some time, made me laugh though)

Easily the most impressive 40ft wooden puppet elephant I've seen wandering around London...


I'm sure you've heard all about it, however if not here is the Sultans Elephants' homepage, here's the coverage from the BBC, and here are some of my crappy camera phone pictures.

I was well impressed - even if I had only gone into town for a bit of much need retail therapy - this sort of thing needs to happen much more often...

NASA have released this weird little video from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Titan. It shows a video of the decent of the Huygens probe along with various displays of flight data, the thing that piqued my interest is that some one has added sound samples to the video triggered by various data changes. Well, I found it interesting any way...

I think I'm going to make posting music on a Friday a regular occurrence (assuming I buy enough CDs - I doubt that will be a problem!). For today I have a bit of classic Stoner Rock from Sleep.

Finally, my Xbox360 has taken a further step towards autonomy by starting a blog. It also seems to be making threats towards me.

about as stoned as you can get...

Sleep - Jerusalem
I haven't exactly been hiding my love of bands like Sunn0))), Earth and Boris recently, I admire the way that each of them celebrates the art of the Riff in there own different ways. Another band to add to that list is Sleep, I've heard about this track called Jerusalem many many times - an hour long monster of a track, a hymn in praise of Black Sabbath and hashish, possibly the ultimate in Stoner Rock. And you know what, it's actually very good, you don't need to be stoned to enjoy it, but it is an absolute necessity to listen to it at an ear bleeding volume. We join our heroes in this sample just after the 40 minute mark...

MP3: Jerusalem (Part 5)

I am that close to weeing with excitement! I've just seen a trailer to the new Star Wars Lego game (click here for pant wetting fun). And to make things even better George Lucas has finally given in and announced that the original, non-cgi-ed, Han-most-definitely-shoots-first Star Wars trilogy is going to be released on DVD.

Eeep!

It was a Bank Holiday this last weekend, I of course spent it wisely. Pretty much split any time not spent eating or sleeping by swearing at my foot or by putting in some quality videogame time.

My Playstation 2 seems to be getting a lot of love at the moment. Played Guitar Hero (most fun you can have with a 2ft plastic guitar - fact!) until my hand started to curl up into a weird leper-like claw, followed by a serious amount of Dragon Quest time - about 25 hours according to my save game, obviously not in one go! I'm not quite that bad.

Here is a tune to help you through the afternoon, from the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album - which I go on about over here.

How exactly I'm mean't to get through the afternoon is another question...

lullabies to tell...

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show your bones
Not much really needs to be said here, new album from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and unsurprisingly it's great even though they seem to have annoyed a few indie commentators by being extremely professional about the whole recording process and not making an album about the singer's cat. This song's interesting, it sounds like a lullaby to me, a very loud one admittedly, but still a lullaby.

MP3: Dudley

The next Nintendo console is going to be called the Wii, pronounced 'Weeeeeeee!' while doing some sort of sliding action I think. No matter how hard I look at it I can't see myself being able to keep a straight face when I try to pre-order one of those from my local Game, which I will be doing - oh yes.

I went to the Doctor's for the first time in over ten years today, can't say I'm particularly convinced that I've been given any sound medical advice.

Bit of a back story - which will sound really pathetic. For the last couple of months I've been waking up really early (or if I'm super lucky about 4am /sarcasm) with really bad pains in my right foot. Well it's been getting on my nerves, and I'm pretty sure people around me are getting sick of me mentioning it all the time so I finally decided to go and see a professional about it.

And what advice do I get? I have to drink loads of tonic water apparently. I couldn't help think of some con man from the wild west selling his bottles of tonic water to 'hapless towns-folk' when this was mentioned to me, but apparently there is something called quinine in tonic water which is used to treat leg cramps so maybe he's right... I'm not convinced.

If it doesn't work I'm going to move onto Voodoo.

Here's a pretty decent book, it's a retelling of the Wizard of Oz story from the point of view of Elphaba, aka the Wicked Witch of the West. However in this story she's not portrayed as wicked, more as a frustrated animal (or rather 'Animal', there is a difference in the book) rights activist. If there is any problem with it it's with the rather large supporting cast of characters, it's very easy to lose track of some of them...

sorting out the back log part 1...

The DFA Remixes - Chapter One
Can't really go wrong with a DFA remix, you know what you're getting with one. Solid disco beats, take the original song and make it really long (like older 12" mixes used to do), and add a nice long freak out at the end, case in point: this remix of Gorillaz.

MP3: Dare (DFA Remix)

Nine Inch Nails - Every Day is Exactly the Same
If I've got one problem with the last Nine Inch nails it's that the choices of singles have been way too obvious, considering that possibly the most successful song written by El Rezzo was Hurt as everyone knows that from the Johnny Cash cover, why not go for one of the less 'poppy' songs on the album as a final farewell? Nevermind... Anyway, if you have been dutifully buying the singles you will already know about the Photek and DFA remixes, which leaves remixes by El-P (dark hip-hop as expected), Richard-X (cheesy disco) and someone from Interpol (a bit dull). I'm mainly interested in the El-P mix as he is going to be collaborating with our dark lord Trent on his new album.

MP3: Only (El-P Mix)

Current Mood... well, let me put it this way. If I did have mutant powers that could enable me to flip the magnetic poles of the earth causing widespread ecological disaster, you would all be fucked.

I think I've been listening to Khanate too much... (and now so can you thanks to my CD page!)

Either that or I'm getting a cold just in time for a break from work which has put me in a bad mood...

thank you Hydrahead...

Khanate - Capture & Release
Stephen O'Malley of Sunn0))) is in this band so you know it isn't going to be a laugh a minute ride. Two tracks of slow, depressing often tortuous music exceeding 40 minutes in total length. Besides the funeral pace to the songs the other standout 'highlight' is the vocals of Alan Dublin which may be the scariest singing I've heard outside of a Sunn0))) collaboration. Here's a clip from the second song Release, didn't want to post the whole song as that would be taking the piss. Incidently I also got a Khanate DVD at the same time, 4 live tracks and the video to Dead, which is worth watching.

MP3: Release (edit)

Everlovely Lightningheart - Cusp
Not even sure if these are a band or not, probably best to describe them as an art collective and get ready to duck when you're accused of being an art snob. This release consists of one 40 minute track that does noise, ambient and several bits and bobs inbetween using everything but the kitchen sink. I'm going to give you a bit of the rather pleasant piano piece that starts preceedings. Very nice packaging, rather liked the way the CD booklet is sewn together rather than stapled.

MP3: Cusp (edit)

Easily the most useful website you will see today...

Ian's Shoelace Site

I'm being deadly serious here, the reverse starting knot technique will change your life! (if like me you've apparently been tying your shoelaces wrong for the past 30-odd years)

Possibly the finest fan made light sabre fight you will ever see...

/Darth Phil dons his black Sith robes and walks down his stair case slowly clapping and croaking 'good! good!' (think about it!)

My little chap in Animal Crossing (you may have noticed the adverts on Channel 4 with the spaced out woman dosed up to her eyeballs on prozac advertising this game) - yes that is a hockey mask, and yes that is an axe - Tom Nook is going to pay for trying to scam me!

I'm not the only one obsessing over this game btw, have a look at this forum post on the subject of the flower fest event in the game, you'll at least learn a few new swear words.

Friday afternoon music

The Knife - Heartbeats (OneMusic Session)

You need to set up an account to listen, but it's well worth it - dark melancholy pop music, with a mean hook.

Coolest picture of today's eclipse by about a mile:


Well, by about 220 miles actually. It's from the International Space Station and reminds me why I wanted to be an Astronaut when I was a kid...

Oh my god! I can't believe it! I've never been this far... far? Away?

No, that's not it.

*Ahem*

Oh my god! I can't believe it! I've actually updated my website.

That's more like it. Anyway, after a month of inactivity on my CD page I've actually updated it, you can now read some really half-arsed opinions on new CDs by Boris, The Bug, Sunn0))), Teledubnosis, Mogwai and Liars. There are also some mp3s for you to sample - the fun starts over here.

Other news, well my new laptop is kind of doing it's job - it will share pictures and music with my Xbox360, but media centre won't play nicely so no watching downloaded American TV programs through my TV - not that I would do such a thing, it would be wrong. It was the firewall, it has been punished... Now if I could only get this Transcode 360 to work

And youtube.com continues to be a source of some excellent time wasting. I found this one the other day:

Yes! It's the Swans. Now that's what I call music, can't understand why bands with axe-wielding front men weren't more popular during the eighties - makes perfect sense to me...

a month overdue...

Domino 06
Nice little freebie from The Wire, lot's of good stuff from bands like Coldcut, Battles, Sunn0))) - plus it's got this particularly extraordinary version of Windowlicker by Maxence Cyrin which I'm sure Aphex Twin fans will appreciate.

MP3: Windowlicker

Boris - Sound track from film "mabuta no ura"
Odd, but beautifully packaged CD of the sound track to a film that doesn't exist. It's nothing like the previous Boris album I got, this one is mainly solo guitar pieces, amplifier hum and a few tracks that are very rhythmic and tribal - not entirely sure it works for me.

MP3: the meddle of stairs

Razor X Productions - Killing Sound
New album from The Bug finds him on fine form, I'm pretty sure if you played this sort of music loud enough it could be categorized as weaponry. Comes with an extra CD of Dub mixes - righteous!

MP3: Boom Boom Claat

Teledubgnosis vs N.I.C.
Double CD from two dub influenced bands Teledubgnosis and Necessary Intergalactic Cooperation linked by the common strand of drummer Ted Parsons (who I know from Swans, Godflesh and Jesu). What interests me about this release though are the two Justin Broadrick remixes, one viscous beat driven one from his JK Flesh pseudonym, and a lovely dubby number credited as a Jesu Remix.

MP3: Materialismo (Jesu remix)

Sunn0))) - Flight of the Behemoth
Bass, drone, doom, Metallica cover, Merzbow remixes - Yes!!!

MP3: F.W.T.B.T

Liars - Drums not dead
This is clearly a good album, although I have to confess I really haven't got to grips with it. Possibly because I was expecting a fairly straight forward indie albums, this is far more 'avant-garde' in nature. A concept album about two characters called Drum and Mt. Heart Attack; plenty of noise, lot's of drums, odd falsetto vocals, and three extra visual versions of the album if you get the CD with the extra DVD.

MP3: Let's Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack

Mogwai - Mr Beast
Easily the most focused Mogwai album yet, as mentioned in about a million other reviews they've been pretty ruthless when it comes to song lengths although none of the songs suffer because of this in my opinion (Dear Pitchfork, you are wrong, Love Phil). It's possibly one of the most 'metal' Mogwai albums too, songs such as Glasgow Mega Snake and We're Know Here can out metal the likes of Isis quite easily, I'm quite proud that I've been asked a couple of times to turn my headphones down at work when listening to songs like these on full whack. There are a few slower gentler numbers which slow things down a little too much at times, but as mentioned before this is a short album so these songs never have time to drag things down. On a final big plus note, this album contains a song called Travel is Dangerous which in my opinion is worth the entry price alone.

MP3: Travel Is Dangerous

My laptop at home seems to have surrendered after being dropped on the floor one too many time: it powers on if you balance it at just the right angle on my sofa, but will shut down completely if placed on any strange and unusual surface, like a table or a desk... Also, the speaker socket is broken so I've been using an external soundcard for months, and the DVD writer gave up last week.

Basic upshot, I think it's time for a new laptop, nothing too fancy as I don't play modern games on it nowadays as I have many consoles for that little addiction, decided to go for a cheap and cheerful Dell. Hopefully I won't break this one...

AS I'm sure you were aware it was Paddy McGuinness day on Friday which meant drinking Guinness whilst wearing silly hats was necessary. Being a geek I've gone one step further by purchasing one of these beauties:


It's an ultrasonic Guinness head maker! You can watch the strange voodoo magic in action here, literally seconds of entertainment.

Association Of International Glaucoma Societies

I'm trying to design a website for a company that sells drainage products, the question is can I come up with a site as WTF-inducing as the one above? Somehow I doubt it, in fact I don't think anyone could - I'm convinced that websites like that one just spawn into existence completely independent of any external influences.

The sound quality is does no justice to the amount of bass that was no doubt present, the picture quality makes it look like it was recorded using pre-colour television technology, but what an entrance!

I seem to be very much into Sunn 0))) at the moment, they appeal to my sense of fun...

Plus there are quite a few cool videos of them on YouTube, and Stephen O'Malley's website is always worth a visit.

Against all odds (well I'm at work, and I've screwed up my sleep patterns by waking up at 3:30am today - my body is fucking with me again for some reason, I won't bore you with the details) I have uploaded some pictures to my website, guess what - they show people drinking... Bet you didn't expect that.

Well it's not even close to a redesign but I've made a couple of changes to the site which warrant a mention (basically because I doubt anyone scrolls down to the super secret menu at the bottom of the page).

First change you can probably see already, it's to do with the tiny pictures that should be appearing above the adverts. These are random pictures from my Fickr account - or should I say my flickr pro account (oooh! fancy). I'm going to use this as a repository for any pictures of my days/evenings out on the town that haven't been taken by me - the same rules apply as with my camera phone page, if you find a picture of yourself there which you really don't like let me know and I'll get rid of them straight away, hopefully they should all be fairly non-offensive - I've already banned a couple of sets from being posted there mainly because I know I'll be lynched if I do. Anyway, have a look and feel free to use flickr's fancy comments to leave lot's of rude and suggestive messages.

The second change is a link to my 'myspace' at the bottom of the page, I really don't see the point of this other than giving spammers even more ways to clog up the internet with junk mail, but it seems to be the done thing to have one - and I can annoy people by linking to streaming tunes on it.

Last few interesting links from my del.icio.us bookmarks:

Natalie Portman doing gangsta rap - and becoming even more desirable
Strange Puzzle Game - bit like Samorost (google it!)
Battlefield 2 Players do the Sony bouncing ball advert - kind of relaxing
John Kricfalusi - ren & stimpy creator
Katamari Damacy 2 - you roll stuff up, that is all...
Encyclopaedia Metallum - the metal wikipedia.

I'm bored of my website - I may redesign it soon, or more likely change the colour scheme as that's less effort, the above links are a half-hearted attempt to add some content that is vaguely interesting. I'm pretty sure this attempt has failed...

Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birth-day to Meeeeeeee
Happy Birthday to Me!

32 Years old today, still going, just about...

Monday morning is being more painful than usual, I've made a half hearted attempt to update a couple of pages on my site but as you can see here and here, my hearts not really in it.

However I have found a rather 'banging' little tune on the interweb which is taking the edge off things a little, have a listen to it over here, don't worry it's not the normal scary rubbish I listen to. The only problem I have is with it only being 7 minutes 58 seconds long, too short...

not albums...

Mogwai - Friend of the Night
First single from the forth-coming Mogwai album and it's a bit of a belter. Starts gently with piano's and guitars - typical Mogwai stuff really, then about half way through it shifts up a gear into something really majestic. If they can pull off this sort of trick for the whole album it will be nothing short of amazing.

MP3: Friend of the Night

Battles - EP B / C EP
A couple of old EPs from what most people seem to describe as 'post-rock' band Battles. It's intriguing stuff, on paper they have a traditional line-up, guitars, bass and drums - on record they sound more like someone like Autechre, which for a rock group is a pretty impressive trick to pull off. It's a bit dry in places and the last track on the second disc is the most pointless track I've heard for a long time, but besides that it's good stuff.

MP3: Dance

Prefuse 73 - Security Screenings
Never really quite sure why I always buy Prefuse 73 CDs, the music is good but always fails to sink in properly. This tune is one of the few collaborations, in this case with Four Tet, which makes the track stand out a bit from the rest of the CD.

MP3: Creating cynical headaches

Lego + Manga + Robots =

That sound you can hear in the background is the world becoming a slightly nicer place to live in...

Well maybe that's maybe over doing it a bit, but it's still cool and building Lego robots did provide a pleasant distraction from Saturday's hangover.

Well, unless my postman is running spectacularly late it looks like I'm not getting any Valentine's Day cards.

Quelle ... fucking ... suprise, as they say in France.

Hmph. Well, until we get back to the days of the Horny Werewolf Festivals, I have found a website that expresses my feelings towards the current nasty little, commercial driven, Christian festival.

www.fuckvday.com

Nice to see there are other equally bitter people in the world.

My body is rebelling against me again, a couple of weeks ago I ended up over doing it in the gym and pulling a muscle on my side (the bit just below the rib cage - don't ask me what its called). Now it appears that this muscle group can suck up all bad parts of my hangover and focus it all in one tiny area of my torso - basic upshot it feels like someone has been repeatedly stabbing my side all day - which isn't fun.

Anway, it's all my own fault so I shouldn't moan about it so much, I've been drinking a bit too much over the last few days. All started Thursday with a leaving do at work, probably should have ducked away early from that one when the tequila's made an appearance.

Friday night was a bit quieter, well in the sense that there was less drinking, it definitely wasn't quieter in terms of noise. I went to see Sunn 0))) and Earth play in Islington, top show by a couple of legends of the "experimental Metal" scene. Really enjoyed that gig, here are some pictures mainly of Earth and there trombone of doom are over here, the pictures of Sunn 0))) didn't really turn out which is a shame, they are quite a visual band, lot's of dry ice and they all wear robes to really capture that 'we are the kings of doom!!!!' atmosphere.

Saturday night (and a fair bit of the afternoon too!) was spent in London generally drinking too much and watching sporting events to celebrate the birthdays of Mr Ezzi and Mr Cole, pictures from that night are also over here.

So that was the last few days, I'm now going to attempt to lie down without whining...

Bleurgh! It's Monday, and I really could do with it being any other day - frankly I'm not in the mood for putting up with any of Monday's crap! I want to be at home playing We ? Katamari (a strange game where you roll around a sticky ball picking up objects that vary in size from things like paper clips and drawing pins all the way up to planets in the Solar System - it's also notable for being the only game to berate me for finishing it too quickly).

Anyway, enough inane rambling here's some pictures of drunk people, and if you fancy listening to something a bit interesting how about this effort involving a Poetry Machine?

Semantic networks?

FM Einheit / Jamie Lidell / David Link / Saskia V. Klitzing / Volker Kamp - Echohce
From the sleevenotes:

"ECHOHCE is a project for a singer, musicians and a machine generating text. The singer speaks the title of the next song into the microphone to announce it to the audience. The song does not yet exist. The computer answers by generating a stream of associations related to the topic. The lyrics are printed on eight needle printers above the stage as they evolve. The singer selects text that seems meaningful to him and performs it together with the musicians."

It's not as pretenscious as it sounds, solid rythmn section, great vocals from Jamie Lidell - all pretty interesting, have a listen.

MP3: Revolution ('Shon')

After about two years I've actually sorted out one of my New Years' Resolutions, specifically the one about sorting my credit card bill out. Having said that I think it will be a miracle if I can get through this month without dumping the cost of a shiny new HD-ready TV on it.

And speaking of miracles and New Years' Resolutions, I've just hit my one month anniversary of non-smoking, it's been way too easy so far, I'm starting to get nervous...

testing, testing...

*edit* Well, that works - I can forget about writing anything interesting on my site and just dump videos on it. w00t!

Note: only press play if you are made of stern stuff - Coldplay is involved...

Note to self, a little less Wasabi next time.

So the non-celebrity beats all the other celebrities to win Big Brother, Oh! The grim irony of it all! Not that I particularly care about the fragile egos of some D-list 'celebrities' (god I hate that word, it implies I should be celebrating these people's existence, rather than treating them with the contempt they deserve) being battered around a bit, I just find this sort of thing vaguely amusing...

Anyway let's talk music, the CDs are starting to drip feed back into my purchasing routine. I've got a couple off good ones, the third proper album by final (which has been a good 5 years in the making!), and a new EP from Kid606. Details of both are over here.

I've also got the new Artic Monkeys album... sort of anyway. Since they've got popular and I'm so much of a music snob I couldn't bring myself to buy it properly so I've gone for the allofmp3.com route. It's a pretty good album, I just wish they would stick to the heads down punk-pop type songs like there first single rather than trying to be all clever with jazz chords which they do towards the middle of the album. Even so, it's a blinding first effort.

Anyway, time to leave my fortress of solitude for a trip to the shops, I want to try to make some sushi and need to find some Nori sheets, unsuprisingly they don't seem to sell this in my local Morrisons.

it's not ambient...

Final - 3
The best one word description of the sort of music Justin Broadrick produces as Final I can think of is 'beatless'. It's a very practical description, it in no way comes close to giving the range and depth of sounds and emotions spread across these two discs any sort of meaning, but it's a damn sight better than calling it ambient. For anyone unfamiliar with Final and wanting a better reference point than my one word description, think Fennesz with less glitch, maybe a hint of Biosphere, think of some of the Swans more drone based recordings, and then if your feeling imaginative think of the sort of orchestra that is happy playing modern minimal classical music. If that doesn't help listen to the MP3. If possible listen to it very loud, in the dark... you need to completely imerse yourself in this sort of music.

MP3: Hollow

Kid 606 - Done with the Scene
The thing I like about being a fan of Kid 606 is the little suprises, the way his music is constantly evolving, I like that. This EP consists of a song from his recent Resilince LP, along with a handful of rather good remixes (the bravecaptain remix being especially good), and then a really strange cover version of Heartbeat by Annie. When I say strange, I mean it has instruments which sound like they're not coming straight from a laptop. And there is even some singing, although coming from someone who once released a song called Sometimes I Thank God I Can't Sing Because Then No One Can Blame Me For Anything, his vocals could maybe do with some work. I'm still rather intrigued by it and quite look forward to hearing some more of this 'post-laptop' material of his.

MP3: Heartbeat (radio edit)

I'm experimenting with 'selling out to the man', so you may see some adverts in the menu on the right. Do not be afraid! If by some fluke they actually make any money I promise only to spend it on wine, women and fast cars.

It would be nice to think that I've avoided updating this site as I've been up to all sorts of exciting adventures. Unfortunately that's far from true, basically just been reading comic books and playing videogames.


I'm still not smoking. It's been suspiciously easy so far - I don't think I've been particularly grouchy through nicotine withdrawal (well no more than usual), I've only had a couple of occasions where I've found myself thinking about having a sly fag, and I find smokey pubs particularly unpleasant, much like I suppose all non-smokers do. Still waiting for my sense of taste to return properly though.

Bought my first CD of the year, some Japanese rock from a band called Boris, it's very loud - just the sort of music to get you through those crappy long January days, details over here.

And here are some pictures of a trip to the dogs, which was rather good fun.

beginning the year with some rock!

Boris - Akuma No Uta
OK, first CD of the year and it's time to blow the cobwebs away with some very very Japanese rock music. The CD starts off slowly with a ten minute long introduction straight out of the Sunn0))) / Earth school of metal, then for the rest of the 5 tracks it's just full on Rock with the amps turned up way past the Spinal Tap 11. Top album, apparently there new one Pink is very good too.

MP3: Furi

The theme of today's post is 'achievement'...


First, let's take a moment to congratulate Leicester for getting stuck and coming back from 2-0 down, to actually win a match for a change! I think I'm still in shock.


And then what about Nuneaton! I lived there from the age of about 10 so there was a certain amount of interest in that match. I saw them play at Manor Park on a dreary Boxing Day several years ago, nice to see they've still got the same old crappy pitch will resembles a quagmire.

Some more achievements: I've gone a week without smoking, and I've finally finished reading my H.P. Lovecraft book - it hasn't been easy, taken me months to read that, he can be a pretty hard going read. A typical Lovecraft story basically goes 'The Horror! The Terror!' for about 10 pages and then finishes. You have to have a certain Goth sensibility to enjoy them, which of course I have in spades. Anyway, if you are curious about his writing I've found a site with a bunch of his stories, not as good as buying a book though...

And finally on the achievement theme I've stuck a link to my XBox Gamer Card at the bottom of the page. With the new Xbox each game has this built in list of achievements, things like 'get 100 headshots', 'beat game on easy', stuff like that - and if you have a .net passport you can have a poke around at how I'm doing with my newest console. Somewhat sadly I find this sort of thing kind of cool...

Well, that's 2005 over and done with. How was it for you? Not sure what to make of mine, there were a few memorable moments (watching England win the Ashes, seeing a couple of decent bands, my brother's wedding) but I'm left with this nagging feeling that it could have been better.

Anyway, resolution time - even though the ones from the last couple of years are depressingly similar and haven't been kept, so I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing this.

1. Give up smoking.
Forgotten just how much fun it is to try to give up smoking, what's that? Oh yes, FUCK YOU WORLD! Two days in and the mean, nasty, vindictive nicotine-free mood has kicked in nicely. I'm using the 'just keep telling yourself how stupid and dumb smoking is'-approach whenever I feel like sparking up, if I lapse I'm going to find one of those self help groups.

2. Go on holiday
Why is it so difficult for me to do this? Well, I'm lazy, I'm with Aristotle here: "A body's natural state is at rest". It's not a good theory to live up to unfortunately as it leads to inactivity and not going on holiday! There's also the problem of where to go, not sure I could get anyone interested in the sort of holiday I'd really like to go on - all I can think of at the moment is either a videogame pilgrimage to Japan, trying to get to Barcelona for a week or so around the time of the Sonar festival, or maybe going to New York and seeing a few bands (although the fact that America has turned itself into a Police State nowadays puts me off a trip there).

3. Eat a bit better
I think I can whip up a decent meal, but I've really got to stop eating all the crappy stuff between meals. Combine this with resolution number one for some extra fun!

4. Less Binge Drinking
I know it can be fun, but I've had a couple too many lost moments this last year. Yes I'm sure they can be amusing for any on-lookers, but I'm not really a fan of waking up in the morning and hearing about how much of a dick I've been the night before without having any memory of the incident. Plus the hangovers are getting worse.

That will do for now I think, I can think of a few more (stop being so miserable all the time, finally finish reading this H.P. Lovecraft book, get laid, develop some sort of work ethic), but there's no point over reaching is there now?