Welcome to darthphil.com's weekly post. Tsk tsk, Getting a bit lazy Phil.
Anyway, not much to report, another one of those busy weeks at work that left no time for anything of interest or having something approaching a social life. Went out on the town for about the first time in three weeks on Friday night, paid for it with a nasty hangover for most of Saturday, and as today was hot and sunny I of course spent it inside with the curtains shut playing videogames like a good little gamer should.
Got this new game called God of War for my Playstation 2, it's excellent! Definitely a game for adults as it is incredibly violent, bloody, has a main character who could really only be described as a complete and utter bastard and... It has *gasp* naked women. It's based loosely on the myths of ancient Greece; it's full of angry medusae, cyclops and hydra to chop into small convenient pieces. I'm also impressed with the overall production values, it's one of those games that gets close to sometimes feeling like a film, they've even taken time to produce a making of documentary and adding deleted scenes just like you would fine on any DVD nowadays.
New CDs have been purchased this week, details on a couple of them can be found over here. I have a couple of others, but I have to dwell on them a bit longer before passing opinion.
Before finishing, some words on events in London last Thursday. What should have been a great day (annoying the French by winning the Olympics, maybe getting some world leaders to actually do something useful for a change) was royally fucked up by a bunch of... I think we'll have to invent a new swear word to describe them. Well, that's the initial reaction anyway, closely followed by the obvious sympathy for the victims and then a swell of national pride from the impression that we've reacted to the event with humour, defiance and a collective metaphorical flicking of the V-sign in the general direction of anyone who thinks London hasn't dealt with this sort of thing before. That's the impression I get from the internet anyway...
Sunday, July 10, 2005
if I don't post about these I never will...
Fennesz Sakamoto - Sala Santa Cecilia
Two names that will be familiar to readers of The Wire: Christian Fennesz laptop guitarist extrordinaire and Ryuichi Sakamoto Japanese composer. This is a recording of a live 20 minute laptop mini-symphony that the two of them produced at an Italian music festival last year. It clicks, pops and crackles in a way that will cause a few furrowed brows to those of you not familiar with modern electronic composition, but give it chance and you'll be rewarded with a very intelligent, sometimes beautiful piece of music that is refreshingly different to 99% of the music you'll here. Since the whole CD is just one 20 minute track I thought it would be taking the piss to post the whole track, so here is an edited segment from towards the end for you to try out...
MP3: Sala Santa Cecilia (edit)
Microsolutions #1: Microsolutions for Megaproblems
Soul Jazz is a label whose main truck is in compilations of sometimes forgotten, but always of the highest quality music. This compilation is a little different in that it is of modern electronic artists. Kid 606 makes an appearence with a couple of laid back reggae tinged tunes, as for the other people I'm afraid I don't know much about them. What I do know is this compilation is a mighty fine summer CD: slow, laidback, just about right for hot summer evenings.
MP3: Sunday Kind of Love
Fennesz Sakamoto - Sala Santa Cecilia
Two names that will be familiar to readers of The Wire: Christian Fennesz laptop guitarist extrordinaire and Ryuichi Sakamoto Japanese composer. This is a recording of a live 20 minute laptop mini-symphony that the two of them produced at an Italian music festival last year. It clicks, pops and crackles in a way that will cause a few furrowed brows to those of you not familiar with modern electronic composition, but give it chance and you'll be rewarded with a very intelligent, sometimes beautiful piece of music that is refreshingly different to 99% of the music you'll here. Since the whole CD is just one 20 minute track I thought it would be taking the piss to post the whole track, so here is an edited segment from towards the end for you to try out...
MP3: Sala Santa Cecilia (edit)
Microsolutions #1: Microsolutions for Megaproblems
Soul Jazz is a label whose main truck is in compilations of sometimes forgotten, but always of the highest quality music. This compilation is a little different in that it is of modern electronic artists. Kid 606 makes an appearence with a couple of laid back reggae tinged tunes, as for the other people I'm afraid I don't know much about them. What I do know is this compilation is a mighty fine summer CD: slow, laidback, just about right for hot summer evenings.
MP3: Sunday Kind of Love
Sunday, July 3, 2005
Time for a post, apologies for the delay, as you may have figured out from my previous post I've been put off from going anywhere near a computer due to the joys of Sharepoint. That's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it.
Not much to say; been doing my good Samaritan turn this weekend by helping my Sister and her husband move house (I won't bore you with the details, moving boxes and cleaning skirting boards figured largely - rock and roll eh?). So no fun filled photos from my phone, unless you desperately want to see my Mum and her insane dog.
Got a couple of CDs for you to read about that were pretty good. Some other interesting CDs should arrive in the next week, some Egyptian dance music, some improvised guitar stuff and a concept album about the politics of food. Bet you can't wait!
Anything else? Well maybe I should offer my opinion on the whole Live 8 thing that happened this weekend. I'm trying so hard not to be cynical about it, but I'm really getting tired of b-list celebrities and indulgent rock stars appearing on television preaching about how we shouldn't be cynical about it. I'm finding it hard to suppress a general 'fuck you!' feeling about it. I watched the concert on and off, and heard time again that we should 'Make poverty history' but it just came off as a bit of an empty slogan after the hundredth time. I can't remember a single one of them telling us how they were going to go about doing this, maybe the rally in Edinburgh had more practical answers but I certainly didn't hear about them.
I was also left with the question why the sudden interest in Africa? Where were all these rock stars when the Iraq invasion went hideously wrong, why aren't they all protesting against the Catholic Church and there stance towards contraception (I'm pretty sure you could dramatically cut down on AIDS in Africa if a few more people felt it was morally fine to use condoms). How about a few celebrities endorsing Stem Cell therapy? That could in theory help produce a cure for cancer and spinal injuries, but I guess supporting a therapy that may involve experimenting with stem cells from human embryos isn't as media friendly as Africa. And why oh why isn't anyone launching a campaign to publicly sterilize the members of the Big Brother house so they can't spread there vile genes?! (Except for that new Irish girl as she has marvelous boobies)
I'm slipping into a cynical mood, I'll stop going on about the politics. But I'll just offer my opinions on the music... I think the word 'shit' springs to mind, although for some unfathomable reason I quite liked The Who - I think that was mainly due to the fact that Pete Townshend still plays the guitar in a way that brings to mind the word 'assault'. And I quite liked Pink Floyd even though I have bad memories of being forced to listen to The Wall at university. I must be getting old.
Not much to say; been doing my good Samaritan turn this weekend by helping my Sister and her husband move house (I won't bore you with the details, moving boxes and cleaning skirting boards figured largely - rock and roll eh?). So no fun filled photos from my phone, unless you desperately want to see my Mum and her insane dog.
Got a couple of CDs for you to read about that were pretty good. Some other interesting CDs should arrive in the next week, some Egyptian dance music, some improvised guitar stuff and a concept album about the politics of food. Bet you can't wait!
Anything else? Well maybe I should offer my opinion on the whole Live 8 thing that happened this weekend. I'm trying so hard not to be cynical about it, but I'm really getting tired of b-list celebrities and indulgent rock stars appearing on television preaching about how we shouldn't be cynical about it. I'm finding it hard to suppress a general 'fuck you!' feeling about it. I watched the concert on and off, and heard time again that we should 'Make poverty history' but it just came off as a bit of an empty slogan after the hundredth time. I can't remember a single one of them telling us how they were going to go about doing this, maybe the rally in Edinburgh had more practical answers but I certainly didn't hear about them.
I was also left with the question why the sudden interest in Africa? Where were all these rock stars when the Iraq invasion went hideously wrong, why aren't they all protesting against the Catholic Church and there stance towards contraception (I'm pretty sure you could dramatically cut down on AIDS in Africa if a few more people felt it was morally fine to use condoms). How about a few celebrities endorsing Stem Cell therapy? That could in theory help produce a cure for cancer and spinal injuries, but I guess supporting a therapy that may involve experimenting with stem cells from human embryos isn't as media friendly as Africa. And why oh why isn't anyone launching a campaign to publicly sterilize the members of the Big Brother house so they can't spread there vile genes?! (Except for that new Irish girl as she has marvelous boobies)
I'm slipping into a cynical mood, I'll stop going on about the politics. But I'll just offer my opinions on the music... I think the word 'shit' springs to mind, although for some unfathomable reason I quite liked The Who - I think that was mainly due to the fact that Pete Townshend still plays the guitar in a way that brings to mind the word 'assault'. And I quite liked Pink Floyd even though I have bad memories of being forced to listen to The Wall at university. I must be getting old.
electronic music (best I can come up with)
Odd Nosdam - Burner
I can't decide whether this album is merely good, or an absolute classic - it's a very contrary album really. Odd Nosdam is, as those in the know will already realise, one third of cLOUDDEAD (or was one third, I'm not really sure if they split up or not). He was the non-vocal one out of that trio, concentrating on producing the majestic dreamy soundscapes that made the first cLOUDDEAD album so special. It shows on this solo album of his: it's full to the brim with lush slightly overdriven old synth sounds, long forgotten beats, and snippets of vocals that sound like someone has gone back in time to the 1950's solely to sample someone randomly flicking between TV shows. It has some moments of ambient genius, you can just lose yourself at times - I guess this is the reason I'm holding back a bit from calling it a classic, it has to be approached in one sitting to really appreciate it. However this is more a criticism of how I listen to albums nowadays, ie most of the time I'll listen to an album a few times, but then it will get lost in amongst the random play feature of my MP3 player. Shame really. Anyway, here's something for you to listen to from the album, it's got Mike Patton on vocals and it ends with this wonderfully melancholic sample of someone repeating how much they hate themselves. Yeah yeah I know, stop wallowing again Phil. pftt!
MP3: 11th Ave Freakout Pt 2
MDZ05
Drum & Bass isn't dead motherfuckers! It's just hiding. Right, here's a compilation from Goldie (so that's what he's been up to since retiring from C-List celebrity life) and his Metalheadz label. I've got a soft spot for this label, when I was at university I used to make a pilgrimage to Goldie's Club for several glorious Sundays to worship the bass lines and dance myself silly. Back when I was a young whipper-snapper that is, *sigh* I'm sooooo old! Anyway, just to let you know Drum & Bass is still going; hasn't changed much, still full of weird and wonderful sci-fi samples and bass lines you could drill through concrete with. Here's a track from Digital, about the only artist I remember from the old days.
MP3: Scam
Odd Nosdam - Burner
I can't decide whether this album is merely good, or an absolute classic - it's a very contrary album really. Odd Nosdam is, as those in the know will already realise, one third of cLOUDDEAD (or was one third, I'm not really sure if they split up or not). He was the non-vocal one out of that trio, concentrating on producing the majestic dreamy soundscapes that made the first cLOUDDEAD album so special. It shows on this solo album of his: it's full to the brim with lush slightly overdriven old synth sounds, long forgotten beats, and snippets of vocals that sound like someone has gone back in time to the 1950's solely to sample someone randomly flicking between TV shows. It has some moments of ambient genius, you can just lose yourself at times - I guess this is the reason I'm holding back a bit from calling it a classic, it has to be approached in one sitting to really appreciate it. However this is more a criticism of how I listen to albums nowadays, ie most of the time I'll listen to an album a few times, but then it will get lost in amongst the random play feature of my MP3 player. Shame really. Anyway, here's something for you to listen to from the album, it's got Mike Patton on vocals and it ends with this wonderfully melancholic sample of someone repeating how much they hate themselves. Yeah yeah I know, stop wallowing again Phil. pftt!
MP3: 11th Ave Freakout Pt 2
MDZ05
Drum & Bass isn't dead motherfuckers! It's just hiding. Right, here's a compilation from Goldie (so that's what he's been up to since retiring from C-List celebrity life) and his Metalheadz label. I've got a soft spot for this label, when I was at university I used to make a pilgrimage to Goldie's Club for several glorious Sundays to worship the bass lines and dance myself silly. Back when I was a young whipper-snapper that is, *sigh* I'm sooooo old! Anyway, just to let you know Drum & Bass is still going; hasn't changed much, still full of weird and wonderful sci-fi samples and bass lines you could drill through concrete with. Here's a track from Digital, about the only artist I remember from the old days.
MP3: Scam
Monday, June 27, 2005
As a professional IT developer (bwah ha ha ha ha! I'm so funny sometimes... *sigh*) I'd like to offer my opinion of Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 in the form of a classic movie still:
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for your time.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Phew! What a weekend, dinner with the Ambassador and his charming wife on Friday night - the souffle had to be seen to be believed, followed by a night at the opera on Saturday - although we left halfway through when the drugs kicked in to go to a wonderfully quaint Gabba club for some gurning and further illicit drug taking... Oops, silly me, having a wildly imaginary social life again. What I meant to say was I did fuck all this weekend, unless you count playing videogames, listening to CDs and the odd trip to the gym as a social life.
I'm playing some odd games at the moment: Kirby's Canvas Curse on the Nintendo DS which involves prodding a little pink ball around various hallucinogenic levels whilst drawing little rainbow paths for him to roll about on, and I'm finding Forza motorsport on the XBox a very strange car racing simulator in that I spend an inordinate amount of time teaching an AI driver to do the races for me, rather than doing any actual racing
And then there is Final Fantasy X-2 on the Playstation 2, which can be really messed up - Final Fantasy X was set in a world threatened by a giant flying demon whale called Sin, one of the main characters was dead, another one was the dream of a dream (or something) and Yuna (one of the characters who crosses over to Final Fantasy X-2) was this straight-laced priestess who's job was to Shepherd the souls of the dead to the afterlife and who also had a sideline in summoning demonic entities to aid your party. What does she do in the sequel? Well obviously she becomes a globe-trotting treasure hunter who also is a Pop-singer on the side. Eh?!
The whole game has this weird Charlies Angel vibe (the main characters are all 'kick-ass' girls), it has a cheesy disco-funk-jazz soundtrack, all the male characters seem to have issues with there sexuality, and frankly I haven't got a clue what's going on most of the time. I just have this uncomfortable feeling it would be better appreciated whilst wearing make-up... Very odd.
Got a couple of CDs this weekend: another 80s 12" compilation and continuing my tradition of for one reason or other owning each Nine Inch Nails album twice I have another version of With Teeth - you may now refer to me as Trent Reznor's bitch. Still, you've got to love a band that can still dish out this level of abuse to there instruments. Anway, more details over here.
Finally, I managed to find the torrent to the pilot of the TV version of Warren Ellis's Global Frequency, damn shame it's not going to be made into a full series. I suggest you check out Frequencysite.com to check out how good this could have been.
I'm playing some odd games at the moment: Kirby's Canvas Curse on the Nintendo DS which involves prodding a little pink ball around various hallucinogenic levels whilst drawing little rainbow paths for him to roll about on, and I'm finding Forza motorsport on the XBox a very strange car racing simulator in that I spend an inordinate amount of time teaching an AI driver to do the races for me, rather than doing any actual racing
And then there is Final Fantasy X-2 on the Playstation 2, which can be really messed up - Final Fantasy X was set in a world threatened by a giant flying demon whale called Sin, one of the main characters was dead, another one was the dream of a dream (or something) and Yuna (one of the characters who crosses over to Final Fantasy X-2) was this straight-laced priestess who's job was to Shepherd the souls of the dead to the afterlife and who also had a sideline in summoning demonic entities to aid your party. What does she do in the sequel? Well obviously she becomes a globe-trotting treasure hunter who also is a Pop-singer on the side. Eh?!
The whole game has this weird Charlies Angel vibe (the main characters are all 'kick-ass' girls), it has a cheesy disco-funk-jazz soundtrack, all the male characters seem to have issues with there sexuality, and frankly I haven't got a clue what's going on most of the time. I just have this uncomfortable feeling it would be better appreciated whilst wearing make-up... Very odd.
Got a couple of CDs this weekend: another 80s 12" compilation and continuing my tradition of for one reason or other owning each Nine Inch Nails album twice I have another version of With Teeth - you may now refer to me as Trent Reznor's bitch. Still, you've got to love a band that can still dish out this level of abuse to there instruments. Anway, more details over here.
Finally, I managed to find the torrent to the pilot of the TV version of Warren Ellis's Global Frequency, damn shame it's not going to be made into a full series. I suggest you check out Frequencysite.com to check out how good this could have been.
Haven't we heard this before?
12"/80s/2
The people behind the 80s/12" collection that I got a while ago are back with an equally excellent sequel. Once again they've compiled a 3 disc set of full on 80's overload and proto-dance music that once I put my music snobbery to one side is thoroughly enjoyable. The track I've decided to post probably exemplifies 80's remix culture to a tee: completely over the top use of samples, stretches the length of the track to breaking point, and some classic Roland synths and drum machines. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you INXS...
MP3: Need You Tonight (Liebrand 12' Mix)
Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth (Limited Tour Edition)
Yes I know, I already own With Teeth, there is a good reason for buying it again though. This edition comes with a bonus DVD which includes, amongst other extras, the album remixed in 5.1 dolby surround sound. So what's it like to listen to?
Well, everything is a lot more spread out, induvidual synth pad type effects that blend into the normal stereo mix now have there own space and are much easier to pick out from there own mix. It also breathes a bit of extra life into some of the simpler sounding songs such as Getting Smaller whose guitars now swirl all over the place in quite an impressive way. Is it worth buying again though? Not sure, to be honest I prefer to listen to music from my MP3 player, I like having my own portable private space to lock myself away in. With this DVD you have to make an effort and sit down to listen to it; also with my surround system, like many others I guess, theres a certain sacrifice that has been made to the midrange sound spectrum. So I guess the jury is out.
It does however give me chance to post another song from the album, for some reason I've found myself listening to Sunspots alot, not sure why. The lyrics are a bit lacking, but at the same time I keep finding myself identifying to them the most. Plus it's got some weird falsetto singing from El Rezzo and a great synth driven chorous, anyway enjoy the song - not sure how long it will be up for. (Feel free to leave a comment this time, last time I posted a song from this album I noticed that an awful lot of people downloaded it, but not one single comment!)
MP3: Sunspots
12"/80s/2
The people behind the 80s/12" collection that I got a while ago are back with an equally excellent sequel. Once again they've compiled a 3 disc set of full on 80's overload and proto-dance music that once I put my music snobbery to one side is thoroughly enjoyable. The track I've decided to post probably exemplifies 80's remix culture to a tee: completely over the top use of samples, stretches the length of the track to breaking point, and some classic Roland synths and drum machines. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you INXS...
MP3: Need You Tonight (Liebrand 12' Mix)
Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth (Limited Tour Edition)
Yes I know, I already own With Teeth, there is a good reason for buying it again though. This edition comes with a bonus DVD which includes, amongst other extras, the album remixed in 5.1 dolby surround sound. So what's it like to listen to?
Well, everything is a lot more spread out, induvidual synth pad type effects that blend into the normal stereo mix now have there own space and are much easier to pick out from there own mix. It also breathes a bit of extra life into some of the simpler sounding songs such as Getting Smaller whose guitars now swirl all over the place in quite an impressive way. Is it worth buying again though? Not sure, to be honest I prefer to listen to music from my MP3 player, I like having my own portable private space to lock myself away in. With this DVD you have to make an effort and sit down to listen to it; also with my surround system, like many others I guess, theres a certain sacrifice that has been made to the midrange sound spectrum. So I guess the jury is out.
It does however give me chance to post another song from the album, for some reason I've found myself listening to Sunspots alot, not sure why. The lyrics are a bit lacking, but at the same time I keep finding myself identifying to them the most. Plus it's got some weird falsetto singing from El Rezzo and a great synth driven chorous, anyway enjoy the song - not sure how long it will be up for. (Feel free to leave a comment this time, last time I posted a song from this album I noticed that an awful lot of people downloaded it, but not one single comment!)
MP3: Sunspots
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