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.