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.