Christmas

...was all about one person this year.

This is Rose trying to climb up my brother - bit of a problem when you are only 6 weeks old and as far as motor skills go you have only just figured out how to smile.

This is my completely unflappable and brilliant Mum with Rose.

Here is Rose with my brother, Wee Willie Winkie, and my sister in law.

And here is Rose with our family's Uncle Buck - me!

Top 20 albums released in 2007 that I seem to have listened to a fair amount:

In alphabetic order!

Apparat - Walls
Beautiful techno/glitch/pop album from Germany.

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Battles - Mirrored
One of the few bands around that can honestly be called unique.

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Big Business - Here Come The Waterworks
The business half of The Melvins, quite literally.

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Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
Out of place in this list, but I don't care.

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Boris with Merzbow - Rock Dream
Not as big a head fuck as you probably think if you are aware of the separate careers of these two.

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Burial - Untrue
Sad but strangely not depressing, true urban music.

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Chrome Hoof - Pre-Emptive False Rapture
Think Black Sabbath meets Funkadelic for an easy point of reference.

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The Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fleur
Sparse and wonderful - true soul music.

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Fink - Distance & Time
This years Sophia, but not as depressing.

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Jesu - Conqueror
Justin Broadrick goes pop? Get the Japanese version for the bonus Sundown/Sun Rise EP, which is stunning!

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Jesu - Pale Sketches
More pop music? But for the fans this time.

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KTL - 2
Music for dead children, scares me silly.

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Larsen - Abeceda
Tribute to the work of Czech typographer Karel Teige... No! Come back! It's really good!

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Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
Trent Reznor discovers his social conscience - and writes some pretty good tunes in the process.

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Om - Pilgrimage
Devotional Stoner rock via drums, bass, vocals and nothing else.

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Oxbow - The Narcotic Story
Oxbow are a decent, honest to goodness Rock Band with lots of interesting ideas.

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PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Sparse and honest, to the point of being uncomfortable.

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Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War
Melodramatic and romantic, but in a good way.

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Weedeater - God Luck and Good Speed
Sweet, sweet, stoner sludge.

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Zozobra - Harmonic Tremors
As close to an Old Man Gloom album as I'll get this year.

Coming next, my top songs of 2007.

It all getting a bit Danny Dyer

This is Tom:

He is a Portsmouth fan.

He is also a very naughty boy...

If I could spend 8 minutes 2 seconds of this year stuck in a loop...

It would be this one:
I might be getting a bit obsessed with Jesse Sykes.

Altar

I've just seen Boris live...

and Sunn O)))...

and Boris and Sunn O))) on stage at the same fucking time!

Some pictures:






Boris are amazing! They started slow, gentle even, until half way through their set when they must have hit a weakness in the tectonic plate under England, it honestly felt like being in an earthquake.

As for Sunn O))), I'll be honest I think they were a bit quiet - this is the third time I've seen them live and I just haven't had the whole "my god - my nose is vibrating" - moment as I did the first time. However, their new singer Attila outdid himself today, basically going for a look which was a cross between a corpse, a pagan god and a tree.

Now Boris and Sunn O))) together? Fuck and indeed yes! Unfortunatly I had to leave early due to trains so I only got to see a couple of songs (although I don't think they were going to do the full version of Altar) but what songs. They surprised me and started off with a ballard, The Sinking Belle... I was almost in tears in the end. They played it perfectly... Then they followed with Etna! Now if Boris managed to hit a tectonic plate during their brief set, together with Sunn O))) they managed to drill right through, it was like a volcanic eruption. They so need to play together again.

And in other "can music get better" - news. Have you heard What Portishead are up to? This is a video from this weekends ATP festival:



They have turned into Nine Inch Nails! Joy!

Warning: the following bassline is dangerous

The Bug featuring Warrior Queen - Poison Dart

Absolutely massive! As some other people seem to think...

This weekend sucked, I have evidence

I knew this weekend was going to suck I could feel it in my bones last week, and these old things never lie.

Friday was cold and wet; I got drunk too quickly, went home early and ended up watching Requiem for a Dream. One of my favourite films, but a classic example of a film which should never be watched whilst feeling a big emotional. It's about four people and their collective and individual descents into addiction, none of the stories end happily. Doesn't sound much of an endorsement does it? It does have a really good soundtrack, and mentioning the film gives me an excuse to post an mp3 to break this post up a bit.

Clint Mansell - Summer Overture

On Saturday I got up too early, ended up in work for half the day and found out that a distant family member had died - which of course made me think of how much I miss my Dad again. Not helped by a storyline in 52 (a comic book series I'm reading which I should talk about in a future post as it's very interesting) where a character dies of lung cancer - the descriptions of the noises people make in the last few days of a terminal illness, and the use of morphine was a bit too close to home to be comfortable.

And then this:


Not that I'm in any way equating the death of someone you know to a console breaking down as that would be crass. I just want to point out another way that this weekend sucked.

Support your local improvisational DJ + punk rock guitarist duo!

...and you get nice little thank you notes like this one when you buy their new CD.

Rose

The young lady you see above, kicking some serious Bruce Lee moves, is my new niece. Her name is Rose and clearly she is awesome.

Games wot I is playing - Part 1

The Orange Box

This contains 5 games: Half-life 2 and it's two episodic add-ons, Team Fortress 2 (which I doubt I'll play as it involves genuine social interaction), and Portal...

Half-Life 2 is a fantastic game, that goes without saying if you know anything about games, and episodes one and two do a brilliant job of continuing it's legacy. But Portal, what a game!

The premise is simple: you are placed in a room with an exit. You have to get to that exit by navigating various puzzles. You have a gun which can fire two 'portals', these 'portals' can attach themselves to certain types of surface and when they do you can move between these portals. The trailer probably describes this process better than I do:

Although I completed this game in a single sitting, which implies that it is too short, I have to say it was one of the best games I've ever played. It starts as a simple puzzle game, but as you play through it you start seeing hints of a darker world hidden behind the main game world, until you end up 'breaking' the game world and confronting this completely deranged computer who has been making your life miserable. It's at this point where the game's script peaks, for example:

"There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends are invited to. I invited your best friend the companion cube, of course he couldn't come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn't come either because you don't have any other friends. Because of how unlikable you are. Its says right here in your personal file. Unlikeable. Liked by no one. A bitter unlikable loner. Whose passings shall not be mourned. Shall not be mourned. Thats exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official. It also says you are adopted. So thats funny too."

Now that is comedy!

They even manage to tie in the Portal universe to the Half-Life 2 universe, which hopefully means the portal gun will make a re-appearance in Half-Life 2 Episode 3. I kind of hope they don't make a proper sequel to Portal as it could tarnish the sheen of this almost perfect game.

Friday Morning Devotional Music

If you are an aficionado of the work of Justin Broadrick you'll be more than aware that this year has been a good year: by my reckoning we've had 2 albums, 2 full EPs, 3 remixes that I know of and a split EP from his Jesu project and the year isn't over yet. It wouldn't suprise me if he slips another EP in on the sly before Christmas.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, keep up! I go on about this sort of stuff all the time on this blog, plus if you peruse my last.fm stats it would appear that Jesu is my second favourite band, although the fact that Justin Broadrick releases music under several different projects complicates matters - if you add up all his other stuff he probably gets bumped to the top.

Anyway this post is for people who haven't been drawn into this music yet, I have a couple of mp3s for you.

First one is from Pale Sketches, an album of tracks that for one reason or another didn't make it to a full release. I'm damned if I'll call it an out-takes compilation as the stuff on this CD is far too good to be described as such. If you want a frame of reference, if you like Boards of Canada, but also like guitars I think you would like this. This is the first track:

MP3: Don't Dream It

The piano line has a hint of Coldplay about it, sort of, and there is a wonderfully positive vocal sample tying the track together - which seems to have been lifted from a very unlikely source. Anyway lie back, look to the heavens, think positive thoughts and let the bass line wash over you that's my advice.

Second track is from the Lifeline EP, it features the legendary Jarboe from Swans fame, and as a track seems to be universally hated by other Jesu fans:

MP3: Storm Comin' On

I really don't understand why, it's a perfectly good song and I really like the idea of trying some different vocals; plus Swans are my third favourite band according to last.fm - and criticising anyone connected to them is pretty much blasphemy.

Anyway, hope you enjoy these. If you do you can buy the CDs here and here.

Illness

I don't know if it's just my age, or that I've finally destroyed my immune system through alcohol abuse, but whenever I have a heavy night out (in this case Saturday - celebrating various England victories) I end up the next day with what can best be described as man-flu.

In other news, once again I'm getting bored of this website. To be honest I'm toying with the idea of replacing it with a simple 'about phil' page as facebook, and various other web tools seem to be handling my internet presence quite nicely.

* EDIT * Actually, everyone at work is ill so it wasn't just me begin old.

Dexter

Possibly my favorite TV series at the moment...

And I'm spent...

It seems fitting that the game to push my gamerscore over the 10,000 mark was Halo 3.


Fantastic game, even though I've completed the single player campaign on heroic difficulty (I normally plump for normal difficulty on these sort of games as I'm a bit crap at first person shooters, but I got shamed into playing through on a harder level as heroic was described very firmly by the developers as the way Halo is meant to be played) I'm yet to try any of the multi player modes.

One mode I really liked was the theater mode. Every action you perform is recorded and you can go back and watch yourself play through the whole game if you like. Not only does it provide evidence about how much I suck, it also lets you take really pretty screen shots and upload them to the bungie website. Pictures like this:

Anyhoo, thats one game down - now I just have to somehow cope with the next couple of months. The videogame release schedule gets really silly during October & November, I've managed to get my wishlist down to 9 games during October & November - and by god that's making a few sacrifices (goodbye Eternal Sonata, farewell Skate I just can't see how I can fit you in). I'm such an addict aren't I?

Geek with game - a self portrait

Me, about to finish the fight.

I wasn't sad enough to attend any midnight release parties, but I am sad enough to take 3 days off work to spend some quality time with Master Chief.

My incredibly well thought out opinion of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof

One word sums it up nicely: tosh.

There is one school of thought that sees Death Proof as a load of puerile sexist nonsense and then there is another school that sees the film as a tribute to a long forgotten era of cinema history.

Personally I just thought it was incredibly dull, the dialog didn't do a damn thing for me - I kept drifting off a bit, how the hell did that happen? It's a Tarantino film, it's meant to be full of snappy quotes for annoying students to memorize. And for a two hour film about a psychotic stunt driver how the hell do you only end up with two actions scenes?

Plus am I the only one who thinks this whole idea of Grindhouse cinema was just something Tarantino made up on the spot in some interview and the 'genre' never existed...

Mystery Song

Just found this mp3 in my iTunes, I have no idea who it's by and that is really bugging me. The only info on the mp3 is it's track 2 and the filename is woodpecker.mp3 - anyone got any ideas?

Wednesday Alien Invasion News

Why isn't this story about a so-called Meteor making people sick in Peru getting more attention? If that isn't the first sign of an alien invasion I don't know what is...

I for one welcome our new Alien Overlords - let the probing begin!

Friday Booze News

My feeds in Google Reader seem to be informing me it is Friday, as there were quite a few interesting alcohol related posts today. As I'm lazy I'll regurgitate a few here with some witty commentary...

• Did you know the world record for drinking a litre of beer is 1.3 seconds - it is in wikipedia so it must be a FACT! (note the explanation mark). There is your reason why I don't live in a world filled with flying cars, jet packs and robots, right there! As a species we have far more important things to do.
  


• However we are making some serious technological advances in the world drinking. There is a new bar in London (which I will never be allowed in as it will be hideously expensive and I'm not one of the beautiful people) that has a touch sensitive bar to summon bar staff - I predict this will be switched off by pissed off bar staff within five minutes of the bar opening.
  


• Drinking at work just got easier, here is the proof.

Finally here is a picture of a dog in a sock which has nothing to do with drinking, you may want to save this one for a particularly depressing Monday.

*EDIT* I've created a public view of my Google Reader feeds which shows a selection of sites here, for those people scared of RSS readers.

Weekend Activities

• Sleeping - I seem to be averaging about 5 hours a night during the week, so generally weekends involve some catching up. So Saturday was pretty much dedicated to sleep.


• Watching Comedy, specifically Joe Rogan. He is the sort of drug fuelled American comedian I enjoy listening too, he practically had to be dragged off stage due to going spectacular over time, and he does a very unique impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger.


• Finishing off Bioshock on my XBox360 and feeling very smug with myself when I got the 'good' ending by making life difficult and not killing any of the 'Little Sisters'. It's a good game Bioshock, but not perfect. The art direction is fantastic, but at it's heart it's still just a shooter and not the greatest game of all time.


• Spotting Chris Eubank driving his big shiny truck through central London:

...and yes I know, I'm posting this on a Wednesday and the weekend is long gone

Feeling my age part 1

Blimey, Napalm Death's Scum is 20 years old - that doesn't half make me feel old. Let's remind ourselves why this album is so influential with all 1.316 seconds of You Suffer.

Ah, happy days...

Best book title in the world ever?

Fight: Or, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-kicking But Were Afraid You'd Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking

It's written by Eugene Robinson, the vocalist in Oxbow - dare I use the Henry Rollins comparison? Why not? They are both singers who have been known to strip down to their pants while performing, both write, and have both expressed an interest in fighting; plus if I mentioned he is in Oxbow I have my doubts that the few people who do read this blog will know who I'm going on about.

Anyway, judging by some of his previous writing, and of course that title, it could be an entertaining read.

What's in Phil's bag?

I've got new laptop bag, it's made by the same people who make Swiss Army Knives so has some extra unique features such as a secret pocket to keep your knife in and that all important clip so you can hang it off a mountain - obviously that's what swung my decision to buy it...


Anyway, this gives me an excuse to play around with some of flickrs' features and join the thousands of geeks exposing the contents of their bags. If you want to know the sad truth about the somewhat shocking amount of drugs being carried around by yours truly have a look at the far too detailed tagged picture after this link.

Things that I have been doing over the last week

• Watching Transformers: I heard a review on the radio that described it as the best film ever if you could take out all of the dialogue; my personal thoughts are to think of it in the same way as a roller coaster ride, that is it's fast, exciting and has pretty much the same narrative flow as a theme park ride. Just to be clear though, I thought it was fun.
  

• Buying lots of obscure CDs that nobody else I know would like and books that I won't read for month - I'll save details of those up for one of my "I really should write something here"-posts
  

• Spending way too much time playing morally questionable games on my XBox360.
  

• Attending a wedding.
  

• Playing with my Facebook profile too much
  

• Not sleeping properly, not that this counts as news in any sort of way.
  

Oh look! A flurry of activity

Don't worry, it's just me going on those strange CDs I ordered...

Here is my new Sunn O))) CD 'Oracle':


As you can see I got a free poster, a nice big cardboard sleeve and a 12" piece of vinyl too - apparently people used to play music from these.

It has two 'kind of new' tracks; the first one is really a remix of a remix which appears on the Jukebox Buddha compilation. This compilation was based around musicians remixing the loops created by something called the Buddha Machine - think of it as a really lo-fi iPod. for the original remix SunnO))) amplified the crap out of this small plastic box, added some more drones and a hint of Buddhist chanting. For the first track on Oracle 'Belülrol Pusztít' they add some more chanting courtesy of Attila Csihar and some jackhammer courtesy of Joe Preston.

I believe the second track on the CD is a re-recording of a composition they performed originally in a gallery space where the audience was only let in after the band had finished playing... :-|

Anyway, good CD.

Next up: Everlovely Lightningheart - Particles and Fields


This contains a CD-R with one 16 minute track consisting of a gentle mixture of drones, bells and piano. The CD case is hand sewn, covered in dirt and apparently some saliva - you can practically smell the elitism can't you!

I'm not going to post any mp3s from these two CDs as it would be taking the piss slightly, instead I'm going to post some music from these ones:


So, from the top: Hawkwind... No I haven't become a total hippy. There was a fantastic documentary on BBC4 (which you can now find on youTube here) a few weeks back which opened my mind up to this band. The early stuff they did contains plenty of elements I can appreciate: a bit of stoner rock, some very lo-fi experimental electronics, a good old fashioned relaxed attitude to taking heroic amounts of drugs, and Lemmy! So when their live double album Space Ritual got the deluxe reissue treatment and a favourable review on Pitchfork I took it as a sign to dabble in a bit of seventies rock. If you fancy joining in have a listen to this:

MP3: Hawkwind - Born to Go

In the bottom right we have Recoil. Recoil is the solo effort of ex-Depeche Mode band member Alan Wilder, this may seem a bit too clean and clinical for some people but I've always liked his stuff. It's sort of Mississippi Blues with a bunch of samples thrown at it - god help me, a bit like when Moby did Play... but better, obviously

MP3: Recoil - Prey

Finally: Weedeater. This band have either listened to a hell of a lot of Sleep, or consumed many many drugs - the name of the band gives it away I think, plus their Bass Player/Vocalist is also in a band called Bongzilla - I'm fairly sure they may have been influenced by something other than a misspelled Japanese movie monster. The following song may be my favourite, it's quite short, but very loud and the use of the phrase 'Wizard Fight!' is the best battle cry in the world EVER! (capital letters and poor use of the explanation mark are intentional). They also get bonus points for starting all of their loud songs with a wall of feedback.

MP3: Weedeater - Wizard Fight

Stag Weekend

So, I've been on my second ever stag do. Obviously, not mine, I'm still no closer to any sort of meaningful relationship let alone marriage.

We went to Cardiff along with pretty much every single stag and hen party in the country, I think we made the biggest impression though by dressing up as priests. I got to convert lots of sinners, and had a heated debate with someone who though he was Jesus (I'm sorry, but Jesus did not have a perm mate! right!).

As per normal I completely overdid it, I'm covered in bruises (not just from paintball - which we played earlier in the day), and I seem to have permanently damaged my immune system. Still, it was worth it - pictures can be found here. None of me looking biblical unfortunately...

Dan & Emily

It's been a blast *sniff*. Here are all my pictures - they are not very good I'm afraid.

Strange CDs I have ordered off t'internet

sunn 0))) - "Oracle" LP (gatefold sleeve)

Two brand new exclusive sunn 0))) tracks available officially on vinyl only!

ORAKULUM was originally composed for a live performance collaboration with the New York sculptor Banks Violette at the Maureen Paley Gallery in London, June of 06. Violette created sculptural representation of SUNN O)))s entire backline in cast resin and salt, including amplifier stacks, instruments, effects & accompaniments. In addition, black laquered stage platforms and sound panels were created as a basis for the groups actual backline setup, and a selection of drawings were presented within the context. The result of this performance and collaboration, which was conducted in a sealed gallery space, was intended to generate a feeling of absence, loss and a phantom of what once was.

The A side of this lp: BELUROL PUSZTIT was also recorded at this session. Initially this song was created for the "Jukebox Buddha" compilation as it features the use of the tone generating Buddha Boxes within the track. In the style of sunn 0))) these boxes were run through the sunn backline and recorded at maximum volume which of course yielded maximum results! BELUROL PUSZTIT " also features extra "instrumentation" from Atsuo Mizuno (Boris) on drums and Joe Preston (Earth, Melvins, Thrones) on jackhammer (!!!) !!!!

The 180 gram vinyl is packaged in a thick printed innersleeve and thick cardboard gatefold jacket. Stark, stunning photographs of Banks Violettes' sculptures adorn all sides of the gatefold, innersleeve including a drawing by Banks on the innersleeve! The vinyl version will be the only "official" release of these recordings.

Any cd versions of "Oracle" are limited versions (mostly tour only) and will not be readily available.

The initially pressing of "Oracle" is 7,777 copies (2,000 on clear).

First 1000 orders of clear vinyl will also receive a Oracle poster with their album. Both versions are available via mailorder. As stated above all mailorder customers will receive a free "Oracle" cd (with rare misprinted cover!) with each order. Limit of 1 order of each color per customer. $17.77

(MAILORDER CUSTOMERS WILL RECEIVE A FREE SINGLE CD VERSION OF THE ALBUM!)

That's right, I've ordered a vinyl version of an album which I won't be able to play due to the slight problem of not having a record player, thankfully they give you a CD version too (wtf?)... And it's an album that has a jackhammer (or 'pneumatic drill' for civilised people) as an instrument. (again, wtf?!)

You can order this one here

Second one I've ordered:

Everlovely Lightningheart: Particles & Fields

"Particles and Fields is an amalgamation of detritus assembled as a precursor to the new album Sein Weal Talion Rue due to be released later this year. The packaging was formed from saliva, liquid polymer and dirt, each being the only one of its kind and hand sewn."

Yes, you read that one right. The packaging includes saliva and dirt - this may be the first CD I've ordered that could actually be contagious.

This one can be ordered here. It is a bit limited, only so much spit you can put on your CDs I guess. Joking aside I'm looking forward to this one, the chances to listen to this band are horribly limited.

You know you have been playing too many video games when...

...you get a receipt like this:

...and your first reaction is "Fuck yes I am!" (it's a video game thing - lets allow Wikipedia to explain the significance of the number)

Another sign that you are playing too many games could be when you start using game controllers as paper weights...

Speaking of games I've changed the banner for a brief time to reflect my current obsession with Forza MotorSport 2. If you have been anywhere near a PlayStation you may of heard of Gran Turismo: the petrolheads game of choice, Forza is Microsoft's attempt to woo this demographic.

The game has hundreds of cars modelled to a frightening level of detail - you can turn on a telemetry system and see exactly how much pressure is being put on each individual tyre as you go screaming round each and every corner. You can play it online (I haven't tried that yet, I get scared off by the whole social interaction thing), you can tune the cars to your hearts content by fiddling with things like gear ratios and what not, and if you are really patient you can create some very nice custom paint jobs.

I like to look at it as a little bit more than a game; the never ending slog to acquire as many cars as possible, the fruitless attempts at being creative with the paint jobs, all punctuated by a fair few disastrous crashes as you attempt to take corners too fast ending up with you limping home as everyone one else overtakes your shattered vehicle... If that's not one big old metaphor on life I don't know what is!

BTW, the car in the banner is my 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z28, I think it is my favourite as it is easily the loudest car in my collection.