Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit

Top 25 2020

2020-12-28T18:22:13Z

Welp.

OK so, 2020 went a bit weird. I think I saw two films in the cinema, and went to maybe two gigs that didn't involve us playing. I had tickets to a lot more though. Maybe Squid at the Bullingdon would have been gig of the year, or OMD at the Albert Hall, or Holy Fuck, or Warmduscher and Lynks Afrikka.....who can tell. Disappointment of the year therefore goes to....the pandemic.

Of the gigs I did see I am ruling out Sink Ya Teeth at the Norwich Arts Centre because I'm biased because we were the support act. Yes, the main development of 2020 is that we seem to have become friends with our favourite band, and supported their album launch gig just before a small matter of a pandemic put everyone's plans on hold. Swings and roundabouts eh. Also they got gig of the year for the last two years so it's time someone else had a go.

So of the unbiased gigs we have Otokobe Beaver at the Fleece in Bristol, Working Men's Club at the Bullingdon, and These New Puritans at the Barbican. And, well, that was it for 2020. I'm giving it to WMC because they are *really fucking good* live.

Art show of the year, we've been to maybe two? Bridget Riley and Among The Trees, both at the Hayward. Both were good but Bridget Riley wins it. You really have to see her stuff in real life to get a full idea of its hallucinatory quality but anyway let's give it a go. Here is an example with a suitably dazed Jeremy.

Films. We managed to see 1917 and Birds of Prey, loved them both for entirely different reasons. I'm going to give it to 1917. On a different day it could go the other way.

OK, so let's look at singles. Or tracks. Or whatever.
Honourable mention goes to Martha Hill's fantastic Grilled Cheese

But I think this from Soccer '96 sums it up. I was gonna fight fascism. I was just a bit tired.

And so to the main event. Albums of the year. This year I am expanding it to 25 because, you know what, there were a lot of good records out, almost as if loads of artists had long periods of time without much to do.

25) Supervision by La Roux. Nice to see you back, La Roux. Did this album really come out this year? Apple music says it did.

24) Howl by John Foxx and the Maths. One of the best things he's done in a long time, with Robin Simon out of Ultravox delivering some Adrian Belew style guitar vibes.

23) A Situation by Wrangler. More dark synth stuff. I will always like this kind of thing.

22) Reanimator by Everything Everything. Bit of a change of pace here. There are some gorgeous singles off this but in the end let's go for this one. Apparently the lead singer also does the animations.

21) Kompromat by ILikeTrains. Bands that I thought were really a bit indie but in the end this is great - iliketrains (or is it I Like Trains now? hard to tell) have decided to go all avant-krautrock on us. This is the result

20) Fantastic Man by Blacklisters. The return of BLKLSTRS with a lineup change. Still a horrible noise though. I mean that in a good way.

19) Speaking of horrible noises the still hugely divisive IDLES with Ultra Mono. All I will say is cleverness and irony seemed inadequate in the face of 2020 and IDLES' straightforward shouting was a blessed relief. Having said that, the best track on the album was the subtlest.

18) How I'm Feeling Now - Charli XCX. Those of us who liked PC music will also like this. The sound of weirdness going fully mainstream, and therefore also very 2020.

17) The Night Chancers by Baxter Dury. Tales of grimness, social commentary and low rent criminality. Keep coming back to this.

16) Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa. Late entry from a stocking filler electropop CD (this is a Christmas tradition in the Means of Production household). Gorgeous. This is the marginally better version of this song without the guest rap.

15) Let's have some more German synthwave/techno. You can if you like get a T Shirt from this label which says "Techno but not Techno" on it, which I of course have done. NEIN 2020.

14) It's Never Going To Happen And This Is Why by Spectres. Not sure if they're referring to the pandemic or their increasingly one sided feud with Sam Smith and Radio 6. Either way the band that have made career suicide a feature have come back with an album of experimental noise. It is, of course, brilliant and in a sane universe would be at number 1.

13) Deleter by Holy Fuck. We are now seriously moving onto the stuff which barely gets moved off the turntable. Or the current playlist, or whatever. I had tickets for this band. I was really looking forward to seeing them. Since they are in Canada I doubt this is going to happen now. :(

12) Every Bad by Porridge Radio. Or should I say Mercury Prize Nominated Porridge Radio. Managed to see them at Ritual Union in 2019 having been alerted to them by this single.

11) Smash Hits Vol1/Vol 1.5. Lynks/Lynks Afrikka changed his name halfway thorugh the year in order not to seem appropriative. So he's now Lynks but some of the stuff from the first half of the year originally came out as Lynks Afrikka. Including this piece of UTTER BRILLIANCE.

10) Working Men's Club by Working Men's Club. It is getting increasingly hard to rank these, but well, here we are. Most exciting new band of the year. Great name.

9) It wouldn't be an end of year roundup without something from Italians Do It Better and that something this year is the label sampler "After Dark 3". Vinyl is on order.

8) Pain Olympics - Crack Cloud. Crack Cloud are back with a "proper" album and it's great.

7) The Cool Greenhouse by The Cool Greenhouse. I wouldn't have heard of this band if we hadn't been played on BBC Introducing in Norfolk by Sink Ya Teeth and this band got played on the same show. Did I mention we supported Sink Ya Teeth? Maybe I did. Anyway I like this.

6) Shadow of Fear by Cabaret Voltaire. Is it really a Cabs record without Stephen Mallinder? When it's this good, yes.

5) Seeking Thrills by Georgia. More electropop, this is fantastic, can't get the tunes out of my head.

4) Barbarians by Young Knives. Again, another band I had written off as just too indie and again I saw them at Ritual Union which alerted me to the fact that they seem to have gone fully feral. I could have picked the deranged lead single Red Cherries but this has been growing on me.

3) Miss Anthropocene by Grimes. Ah, Grimes. The twitter feud with Azalea Banks. X Æ A-12. The art event held in a shipping container because nature is too stressful when you're a cyborg. The concept album about an evil goddess made of oil and ivory. In many important ways, both good and bad, 2020 belongs to you.

2) Two by Sink Ya Teeth. Pretty much impossible to pick the top three apart. I'm putting this at No 2 because they have had enough top albums and gigs on these lists already, and also it's called "Two" and I couldn't resist it. Did I mention we supported them at the launch for this album? I did? Anyway this is a proper banger and I wish I'd written it.

1) PL by Paranoid London. I hadn't ever heard of them but they've been around for a while so I have some back catalogue to catch up on.. Thanks to Electronic Sound Magazine for including this on their compilation. So, anyway, this album is all excellent acid techno (J called it "uneasy listening" which is dead on) but this. This is one of the best things I have ever heard.

Over and out.

Top 20 2019

2019-12-31T16:29:57Z

Hello again. End of year list time. Astonishingly LiveJournal is still functioning.

Sadly this is more than can be said for eMusic. After several years of declining catalogue and rumours of unpaid royalties eMusic seemed finally to throw in the towel by redirecting users to 7Digital. Which the CEO of eMusic is also the CEO of and which will sell you MP3s at "normal" (i.e. 99p) prices as opposed to the about 20p I was paying.

This paragraph possibly of interest only to me, but it makes a big change in the way I listen to music - from my point of view, the economics of eMusic was worth it as long as I could find tracks - my £6.15 (cheaper than Spotify) got me 40 downloads (as many as I could reasonably assimilate) per month. The discovery of the entire Nein Records back catalogue held it open for a couple more months but there is a limit to the amount of minimal German synthwave/techno crossover that even I can absorb. And now there is pretty much nothing else there. So, goodbye eMusic and hello Apple Music, picked for the back integration of my existing iTunes collection. Let's see how Apple's famous legacy support works out then /sarcasm. At the same time I am moving from my much loved iPod Classic to my phone as main listening device because hey it's the 2020s now or something, and because I can't get streamed tracks on my iPod.

Films. Didn't go to a lot, mainly due to lots of music and other commitments, Endgame was OK, Ad Astra was wrecked by an intolerably silly ending, and Star Wars: Triumph of the Incels was marred by JJ Abram's decision to bow to the fanboys and ditch anything interesting set up by TLJ. Detective Picachu it is then.

Gig. I honestly thought it was going to Chromatics for sure, I have waited so long to see them and they were so good. But so were The Comet Is Coming at Ritual Union and most of all Light Asylum + Sinkyateeth in a sweatbox at Elephant and Castle. I've seen both bands before but not like this. Got to bed at 3, knackered next day at work, so worth it.

So to the Music.

Single of the year: Teeth by Working Men's Club. Almost missed them at Ritual Union. Fortunately they're coming back to Oxford in the new year.

EP: Town Centre by Squid. Yeah, we all like this.

The One That Got Away: Crack Cloud by Crack Cloud. According to the PR this is a bunch of drug workers and their charges' rehab project from Vancouver. Believe it or don't as you please but this is great.

Albums.

20: Tutti by Cosey Fanny Tutti. Abstract industrial.

19: Serf's Up by Fat White Family. I have been pretty much immune to the Fat Whites' shtick up till now but their messed up lounge thing is sounding good to me.

18: In Shadow by Fader. Who would have guessed I'd like a retro synth thing.

17: And including some of the same people, Um Dada by Stephen Mallinder

16: No Home Record by Kim Gordon. it seems a bit harsh to describe it as a break up record - lyrically that seems to be what it is but musically she has launched off into something wholly other drawing on the likes of Gazelle twin as much as her past.

15: Ladytron by Ladytron. Excellent return.

14: Useless Coordinates by Drahla. They seem to have decided that the post punk of the first couple of singles is not ambitious enough, acquired a sax player, and turned left into somewhere a bit strange. These are all positive developments as far as I am concerned.

13: Stunning Luxury by Snapped Ankles. Yes.

12: Inside The Rose by These New Puritans. The title track has the NSFW video but this is a better song so

11: Debridement by Spectres. Some of this collection of rarities and B sides was previously unobtainable so it gets in as this year's record. Includes the Greatest Chirstmas Song Of All Time

10: Slaves Of Fear by HEALTH. HEALTH adapt to the loss of Jupiter Keyes and come out with something reliably great.

9: Drift by Underworld. Not really an album, not really a series of EPs, let's just release a bunch of stuff under a common name. Quality is a bit variable or it would be much higher. The best tracks, such as this, are not always on the collections either for some reason, except some which are *only* on the collections. Whatever.

8: Right. As indicated above I have been listening to a lot of Nein Records stuff, all of which is great, and none of which came from 2019. So there is this, from the free EP which introduced me to them, to stand in for all that. Could be much higher it's all a bit tight now.

7: Animated Violence Mild by Blanck Mass. Just keeps getting better

6: Closer to Grey by Chromatics. Chromatics return! With a completely different album the the one they have been teasing for the last (checks watch) 8 years! Which is apparently still due "soon". Never mind, we forgive you, for the fantastic live shows and for this.

5: The Center Won't Hold by Sleater-Kinney. St Vincent production and the related loss of their drummer make this a divisive record. I know which side of the divide I am on, this is by far and away my favourite of their records.

4: International Teachers of Pop by International Teachers of Pop. Moonlandingz and Eccentronic Research Council associates come good with this. New album and further spin offs on the way.

3: Dogrel by Fontaines DC. Yes, I was one of the two dozen people who saw them in the Cellar before they blew up huge. I will always have that and you won't.

2: Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery by The Comet Is Coming. Acording to an irate trumpet player at the Bullingdon who stormed out of their gig "this is not jazz!". Jazz's loss I reckon.

1: Fibs by Anna Meredith. Becuase the end there has to be a winner and this is it. Thankyou and goodnight.

Top 10 20 2018

2018-12-31T13:19:58Z

Top 20 2018

Well, 2018. A medium horrific year in many ways but with a lot of good music.

Some of my friends and I had a theory in the late 90s and early 2000s that the worse the political and economic situation, the better the music culture, especially the various underground scenes. And however simplistic that is, 2018 tends to confirm that theory.

So.

Let’s start with films. And rather less competition this year – although I enjoyed the likes of Pacific Rim 2 and Annihilation (which doesn’t really qualify as it wasn’t a cinema release) and I’m told that the Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic is much better than expected (haven’t seen it, probably won’t) there was only really one movie in contention this year. Black Panther it is.

Gigs. Been a bit of a year, to be honest, largely thanks to local promoters Future Perfect bringing all the new bands to Oxford. So we’ve had Shame, Cabbage, Hookworms, Shopping, Drahla, Fontaines DC, Gwenno, Girli, Brix and the Extricated, and away from Oxford Heaven 17 and Metric. Then there are the gigs we played which meant we got to watch The Overload, Pink Diamond Revue, Tiger Mendoza, and Restructure for free. Not to mention the craziness of Ritual Union (highlights: Suuns, TVAM)

The three most outstanding were
3) Idles at the O2. First time I’d seen them. Super intense but the band went out of their way to maintain a friendly and inclusive vibe (“you four! You can have fun but respect the people around you!”)
2) Stockhausen’s Gruppen at the Tate Modern. Simon Rattle conducts one of the “monsters of modernism” involving three orchestras all of which have to be kept in time while playing different things while the audience wanders between them. Breathtaking.
1) Sink Ya Teeth at the library. My favourite new band of 2018 in a tiny space where we got to stand two feet away from them. Also, they are lovely.

Disappointment of the year was also a gig, I’m afraid. I had really been looking forward to GNOD at Ritual Union, but they only sent half the band and instead of the barrage of guitar noise elected to make a bunch of drones on an OP-1 while muttering about serial killers. Mate, I can do that at home for free. After 10 minutes we went to see Husky Loops instead because they have tunes.

Albums.
Stuff that is probably great but I haven't listened to it yet: Seriously there was too much good music this year, so I have not yet heard the albums from Let's Eat Grandma, John Hopkins, Goat Girl or Nicki Minaj. All of which are undoubtedly excellent. So I'm told.

Archive Release of the year
Mike Simonetti - Solipsism. After a messy split from Italians Do It Better co-founder Johnny Jewel it turns out that Mike Simonetti composed all the best stuff on Italians Do It Better, which is why Dear Tommy is late. According to Mike Simonetti. Actually this retrospetive makes a pretty good case for that. So much done with so little. They seem to have made up now, or at least stopped arguing in public. So.

One that got away
Victorian English Gentlemens Club – GYTS.
VEGC’s final album came out to no publicity whatsoever in 2016 and I completely missed it. This year I rectified that and bought the idiot vinyl collector’s version. I heart VEGC but one of them wrote the music for the Handmaid’s Tale adaptation and the other seems to be a successful graphic designer including having done the Gwenno sleeve so I won’t worry too much about them. Seems fitting to go out on this.

EP
Underworld and Iggy Pop – Teatime Dub Encounters. Iggy Pop’s confessional bio vocal reveals he is almost certainly a massive bellend. Dance crossover with Underworld revels everyone concerned is a musical genius.

Singles
Fontaines DC – Too Real. Just excellent.

Death In Vegas – Honey. I’d kind of written Death In Vegas off but if they are making stuff this good I need to reconsider that.

Honourable Mentions
1877 – Our Become Their Memories. Local band 1 have finally bought out an album. It’s great.
Warmduscher – Whale City. Fat Whites spinoff come good. Best track is “I got friends”.
Noise Lock – Exist/Extinct. Local band 2 with insane hip hop/death metal crossover
Girli - has released enough tracks to make an album. Has not released an album, or would be in top 20.
Fever Ray – Plunge. Unsettling dance bobbins from Knife vocalist.
The Presets – Hi Viz. Would probably be top 20 if it weren’t for their baffling decision to take one of the most distinctive voices in dance music and cover it in autotune and guest vocalists. Somewhere there is likely to be a set of demos where Julian Hamilton just sings the tracks. It will be better.
Orbital – Monsters Exist. Tiny Foldable Cities was great but most of the album was overthought. Then there was the bonus disc which had all the looseness and joy missing from the actual official album. If the bonus disc had been the main album this would be top 10 for sure.
Creep Show – Mr Dynamite. Wrangler/John Grant crossover
Suuns – Felt. Synth driven post rock but sadly does not capture the intensity and pulse of the live show. If I hadn’t seen them live I would be quite happy with this but there is a bit of a sense of a missed opportunity.
Virginia Wing – Ecstatic Arrow. Seen supporting Hookworms. Has something of the Laurie Anderson and something of the St Vincent about it. Intriguing.

Top 20
20) Chai – Pink. Indie/punk/J-pop crossover.

19) Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer. Janelle Monae comes good with Prince influenced bangers.

18) Marie Davidson – Working Class Woman. Brutalist techno for the masses.

17) Gwenno – Le Kov. Sung in Cornish and includes a song about cheese which is great.

16) Death Grips – Year Of The Snitch. Surprisingly metal new direction.

15) SOPHIE – Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides. PC Music associate breaks out with avant pop masterpiece.

14) The Overload – Radio For The Blind. Local band 3. Devastating live in a way that a video taken from the sound desk will never capture.

13) Factory Floor – A Soundtrack For a Film. Factory Floor’s reimagining of the soundtrack to Metropolis gets better with every listen.

12) Baxter Dury, Etienne de Crecy and Delilah Holliday - B.E.D. A series of very short and melancholic songs (mostly under two and a half minutes) about shagging in Paris. Lovely.

11) Lone Taxidermist – Trifle. More avant pop including the fantastically titled “Hammered in Homebase”. And this.

10) Shopping – The Official Body. Excellent niggly post punk and shouting.

9) Metric – The Art Of Doubt. I’ve said everything I need to say about Metric over the years. Sometimes just writing great songs is enough.

8) Cabbage – Nihilistic Glamour Shots. Have taken some stick from the critics but actually this is great. Politically charged punk band 1.

7) Robyn – Honey. Robyn’s comeback album is everything we expect and more.

6) Shame – Songs Of Praise. Managed to see them twice this year (Once at the Bullingdon and once at Citadel) and this is fantastic. Politically charged punk band 2

5) IDLES – Joy As An Act Of Resistance. Politically Charged Punk Band 3. Half my friends love Idles and the other half hate them. Probably as it should be for a band of this type. In case of any doubt which side I come down on here’s “Colossus”.

4) Gabe Gurnsey – Physical. Half of Factory Floor comes out with another record about shagging. Superb.

3) TVAM – Psychic Data. How good is this.

We can also pause to admire his dedication to the 4:3 aspect ratio

2) Hookworms – Microshift. Hookworms keep getting better. Pearl Mystic was OK, The Hum was good and this is great.

1) Sink Ya Teeth – Sink Ya Teeth. Postpunk/synthpop duo from Norwich complete the double with best gig and best album. Something of the minimalism of the likes of Light Asylum, nods to Happy Mondays and Moroder, killer basslines and vocals. The single was great but my favourite track is this one which is apparently about Trump. Which brings us back to the premise at the start, I suppose.

So. Fucking. Good.

Top 10 2017 redux

2017-12-31T19:46:08Z

OK let's see how this works.

Best of 2017

So once again to the end of year stuff where I tell you what I liked in 2017 and nobody cares.

Starting a little differently this year with one that should have been in best of 2016 but I hadn’t heard of it at the time. Slightly embarrassingly it was in my end of year playlist so it’s a proper fuck up. So anyway here is The Comet Is Coming

Just don’t point out it’s Jazz

Moving on to films of the year. Quite a lot of good stuff and also some drivel that I liked anyway, standouts include Wonder Woman, Last Jedi, Baby Driver, Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, Atomic Blonde, and Thor:Ragnarok
Winner however is The Death of Stalin. If you want to imagine “The Thick Of It” gone paranoid and lethal here you are. Is in no sense 100% historically accurate but somehow captures something important anyway.

Art thing of the year – new category. Strong sound art from +-Human at the Roundhouse, and Ray Lee’s excellent Ring Out installation at Oxford Christmas Lights. However in a year we went to Venice for no other reason than to see it, the win goes to the deranged and divisive Treasures From The Wreck Of The Unbelievable Damien Hirst. Back on form I’d say.
http://www.palazzograssi.it/en/exhibitions/past/damien-hirst-at-palazzo-grassi-and-punta-della-dogana-in-2017-1/

Gig of the year was a hard choice. Honourable mentions go to Audioscope, Bananarama and Kraftwerk. The prize could go to the crazy intense Moonlandingz at Village Underground, The astonishingly good Gorillaz at NIA Birmingham, or the outstanding LCD Soundsystem show at Ally Pally. Can’t decide so I’m going to give it to The Dinosuars of China exhibition in Nottingham including the type specimen of Microraptor Gui. These fossils have never been out of China before and maybe won’t ever again. A once in a lifetime opportunity. That’s a gig. Right?
http://www.dinosaursofchina.co.uk/

Music Time. Starting with EPs of the year – I’m going to do a top three here.

3 – GNOD - Just Say No to the Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine. Amazingly titled relentless barrage of noise # 1.

Most of these tracks are like 9 minutes long consider yourselves lucky.

2 – Thank – Sexghost Hellscape.
Amazingly titled relentless barrage of noise # 2.

Turn it the fuck up

1 – Jupiter-C – 001
Time for a change of pace then. Love this band.

No YouTube for you

Albums of the Year
Honourable mentions:
Spectres – Condition. Psych noise from Bristol.
Goldfrapp – Silver Eye. You don’t need me to tell you who Goldfrapp is. She seems to vary between rubbish and good every second album. This is one of the good ones.
Fufanu – Sports. Postpunk Indie. Was someone’s recommendation in the Truck store
Nathan Fake – Providence. Audioscope headliner decides to get melodic again. Has probably paid his mortgage from royalties from the Screen Wipe theme which he wrote but which is not on this album.

And so to the top 10, which again because of good music is in fact a top 20. Could be worse.
PS This is not a Spotify playlist because fuck Spotify.

20 - Fujiya and Miyagi - Fujiya and Miyagi.
Still sounding a lot like Neu but a bit more techno these days, have a recently discovered sense of self awareness showcased on this track.

Not that they’re bitter or anything

19 - Tiny Magnetic Pets – Deluxe/Debris.
Had never heard of them. Saw them supporting OMD in Guildford. Liked them. Bought the album. There you go.

This band remind me a lot of Chew Lips. Whatever happened to Chew Lips? They were lovely.

18 - Nadine Shah – Holiday Destination.
Came to this one a bit late. Realised sometime in December that I’d heard three or four tracks off it and liked them all, without ever actually seeking it out. Anyway.

As everyone knows, the answer to the question is “on top of a big pile of money surrounded by beautiful ladies”.

17 - Hurts – Desire.
Didn’t even know this had come out until I saw them on “Sounds Like Friday Night”. BTW if you would like to see a return of TOTP, SLFN is as close as you’re likely to get.

Someone has, of course, reversed this video and put it up on YouTube. Thankyou the internet.

16 - Gorillaz – Humanz
Wasn’t sure about this but it all made so much sense live. Tbh you’re probably better off with the straight up album than the deluxe version which dilutes the vibe a bit and has the execrable Rag’n’Bone man on the “Bonus” disc. This on the other hand is brilliant.

I’ll be honest here, I watched the lyrics video and I’m still none the wiser.

15 - Christian Fitness – Slap Bass Hunks.
Made the joke about the offshoot being better than the band last year. So much to choose from here. As usual no YouTube so here’s their Bandcamp.

Maybe being less under pressure helps creativity of something. Who knew eh?

14 - Johnny Jewel – The Hacker/The Key.
More synth based instrumental loveliness from Johnny Jewel while we’re still waiting for the Chromatics album. Couldn’t decide between these two but then he released them together as a single CD. That makes them one album as far as I am concerned

…. although if you insist “The Hacker” is slightly better.

13 - Taylor Swift – Reputation.
2017 was the year all the people who previously thought Taylor Swift was amazing decided that actually she was rubbish. So naturally this is my favourite of her albums. True, there is a song featuring Ed Sheeran, but I’ve listened to it and his contribution is basically inaudible.

Clearly she liked Ghost In The Shell even if no one else did.

12 - Everything Everything – A Fever Dream.
Bands I shouldn’t like. Noodly, over fussy, too many notes. Still somehow sound futuristic though which redeems them.

“Redeems them” hah. I have all their records and have seen them twice.

11 - Fader – First Light.
Collaboration between Benge (Wrangler, John Foxx and the Maths) and Neil Arthur from Blancmange. Minimal synthpop if you like.

Once again nothing on YouTube so give this a go.

10 - Joe Goddard – Electric Lines.
Saw him supporting LCD Soundsystem at Ally Pally, without which I probably wouldn’t have bothered with this (I’m kind of OK with Hot Chip, but not massively excited). I’d have missed out big time - this is lovely.

What the actual FUCK is it with blocked videos on YouTube. I guess if you want to hear most of this album you’ll just have to go to spotify or whatever.

9 – Public Service Broadcasting – Every Valley.
PSB drift further from their kitsch roots with their serious third album. Luckily it works. They might have to change their stage names though.

Seems somehow apposite for the times.

8 - Sex Swing – Sex Swing.
Only six tracks but they’re all pretty long so this is album length. Made up of people from Part Chimp and Mugstar who were already VERY LOUD and makes it louder and if anything nastier. Far and away the standouts at Audioscope.

Once again YouTube etc etc.

7 - Autobahn – The Moral Crossing.
Brilliant second album from Leeds post punks. This is probably the most melodic and accessible track.

Literally saw them playing to six people on Oxford this year. I hope they get famous just so I can say that, but I’m not counting on it.

6 - OMD – The Punishment of Luxury.
If previous album “English Electric” was OMD rediscovering what made them so good in 1983, this is a look to what might make them that good again in 2017. Excellent.

“Here’s another upbeat song about terrible things. It’s what we do”.

5 –Blanck Mass – World Eater.
After the slightly misfiring “Dumb Flesh” this is great.

Seems to be more prolific than Fuck Buttons over the last couple of years so maybe this is now what is happening.

4 - Colin Stetson – All This I Do For Glory.
Heard this on 6 music. Thought it was some kind of avant-garde Raymond Scott style synth thing. Is in fact all clarinets and saxes. Will melt your fucking face off.

Not a synth. In fact a bearded man with a sax. It seems so obvious now.

3 - St Vincent – Masseduction.
This I guess is St Vincent’s pop album. And also her break up album. I hate to say maybe she should break up more often but…..

Again could have picked almost any track off this

2 - Moonlandingz – Interplanetary Class Classics.
Oh this was so close to being number 1. I’m still not 100% sure it shouldn’t be. Crazed collaboration between Lias Saoudi from Fat White Family, Eccentronic Research Council and Rebecca Taylor from Slow Club which is way better than all of its parts. Fucking love this record.

I’m in no sense a fan of Fat White Family but y’know maybe I should reconsider.

1 - LCD Soundsystem – American Dream.
But in the end after everything we have this. LCD left us a few years ago with a perfect string of albums and gigs, the band that had called it a day without fucking it up.
By coming back they risked ruining everything, but they didn’t.

I’m not even going to joke about this one

Thankyou and goodnight

New Tunes

2017-05-29T18:58:52Z

This is the first EP from my new project Golden Cities. Please spread the goodness if you like it.
At some stage there will be gigs

Crossposted from Dreamwidth

Ghost in the Shell

2017-04-14T09:40:22Z

So where can I write my important feels about Ghost in the Shell then? There will be spoilerz so FB is not appropriate. So clearly LJ is the ideal place! But LJ is now fully compliant with ~~Putin's anti-LGBT agenda~~ Russian Law, so DreamWidth it is. Aparently LJ-cuts work on DW so let's see.

By and large I liked it but it is not unproblematic.

First, the whitewashing issue. Yes, I know she's an android and that the original writer said it was OK since androids have no race. Allegedly. However I still feel a little uneasy about a plot in which a Japanese teenager is LITERALLY OVERWRITTEN by a white woman's body. Yes, I get that you have turned a bug into a feature and at the end she gets her identity back, but still.

Second, the plot changes. The Grauniad nailed it when they said it had lost something. What was a transcendent story about the singularity which seemed wonderful and strange because the singularity was not yet a cultural commonplace has turned into a very standard trope of cyborg in search for human identity. Now the thing about the original was that the Major's original human identity did not matter, and she never really cared about it; GITS was a story about what we might become, not about what we used to be. That has been completely reversed.

Essentially, the plot of GITS has been replaced with the plot of Robocop.

Now the plot of Robocop was pretty good when it came out I admit. However it is now 2017 and we are probably ready for a story about the singularity (and we'd better be since it's due in our lifetimes). See also: the replacement of an emergent AI by an abused teenager's revenge rampage (and by the way the wholly unbelievable plot twist where he is all good and has never killed any innocent people? What about the garbage truck guys? What about all the people wired into his network?).

Thirdly, the replacement of Section 6 as the bad guys by Evil MegaCorp (TM) (I have been informed that there is an actual games company called Evil MegaCorp. Of course there is). Again this turns a morally ambiguous tale of bureaucratic infighting into a rather less interesting Heroic Quest (TM).

This all makes it sound like a bust, so here are things I liked:

The visuals. I know that quite often if a film is generally awful but has half decent CGI "the visuals" are used as a get-out, but here they are genuinely great. Some lovely reconstructions of the original anime. A breathtaking underwater sequence on Tokyo Bay. The chase scene and fight with garbage truck guy. The spider tank. The cityscapes in general.

Beat Takeshi. Basically he steals every scene he ends up in. Don't send a rabbit to catch a fox indeed.

Scarlett Johanssen. In spite of all the above noone plays a nonhuman better. I just wish she'd been given a better version of the nonhuman to play.

Juliette Binoche. Again a standard trope character - the morally compromised scientist who in the end Does The Right Thing - but beautifully realised. J pointed out she is essentally the same character as the morally compromised scientist from Humans (AI wrangler with her substitute babies) and that therefore they are both Susan Calvin.

Batou. A pitch perfect performance of a more rounded character than we see in the original anime.

Not a bad film then, but definitely an opportunity missed.

Crossposted from Dreamwidth

timscience @ 2017-04-11T12:03:00

2017-04-11T11:05:55Z

I guess I will be posting from DW from now on. Will be looking at LJ from time to time as usual. I guess finding and friending everyone will be a slow process but anyways I am timscience on Dreamwidth as well so should be easy enough to find.

Crossposted from Dreamwidth

Space Heroes

2017-02-12T19:40:57Z

Copied from Facebook

Hello. I am posting to confirm what has probably become obvious, that Space Heroes of the People are on long term hiatus (at the very least). If you are a friend of Jo's you will know why this is, if you aren't then you probably don't need to know.
The Spaceheroes.net domain is going to be allowed to lapse (don't have the time or money to maintain it) but will be archived along with my old Science Never Sleeps site at scienceneversleeps.com. The Soundcloud and Bandcamp sites will remain active for now and you can still buy our music from Bandcamp (https://spaceheroes.bandcamp.com/) or in the case of our album from iTunes, Spotify etc.
Preferably Bandcamp as we make more money from that.
I remain extremely pleased with what we have done. There are a couple of tunes mostly written which are most definitely Space Heroes tunes so it is possible that there may be more material at some stage in the future. I certainly hope so. In the meantime I am working on a new project which is close to ready, so look out for that.

Top 10 2016

2017-01-07T11:53:03Z

Top 10 2016

Well then 2016. Not the best year on record for musicians, but a cracking year for music, of which a bit more later. So without any more blether:

Film of the year:
Started with Hateful 8, some excellent scifi including the fantastic Arrival and Rogue One, on the arthouse side we had Neon Demon, High Rise and Tale of Tales. On the superhero side we had the excellent Deadpool and Dr Strange (the less said about the DCEU the better) and even the Harry Potter franchise came good with Fantastic Beasts. I think I’m going to have to give it to Hateful 8 as a gleeful piece of Grand Guignol western that may be Tarantino’s best film. But it’s close.

Gig of the year:
Savages at the Roundhouse. OMD at the Albert Hall. Grimes at the Birmingham O2. Underworld, Jean Michel Jarre and Lonelady at Blue Dot. Gary Numan at the Oxford O2 (brilliant gig although a terrifyingly bad venue). Holy Fuck at Village Underground. Tomaga at Audioscope. In the end though the standout was the insane Death Grips gig at the Roundhouse. An hour and a half non stop of full on intensity. I am still at a loss as to how the drummer didn’t die.
edit: Oh shit I forgot Grimes at the Birmingham O2 whihc was also amazing. Death Grips still win on sheer insanity value though. /edit

EP of the year:
So after thinking about this it’s going to go to Kone, for the “Sketches of a Kone” EP. Best band in Oxford right now. Here’s HYKO.

Disappointment of the year:
Leaving out the fact that the Chromatics album STILL has not appeared in spite of a string of teaser tracks, videos and cryptic pronouncements from the label….no, I can’t have that every year. FEWS then, whose “Means” LP was….OK. Just OK. Where is the brilliance of the singles? Can they seriously only have three good songs, but those songs to be that good? Which leads us neatly into

Single of the year:
Is, of course, one of those Chromatics teaser tracks: the title track in fact from the aforementioned as-yet-non-existent album. It’s amazing though.

Which brings us to the main event, and the elephant in the room that is Blackstar. It’s really quite difficult for me to assess this one. If “The Next Day” was a farewell to old Bowie, “Blackstar” at first seemed like a hello to a new chapter. Then everything changed. I’m still having trouble getting to grips with it to be honest.

However.

In some sense there is no point in putting in Blackstar. Everyone who’s likely to read this has heard it and will have an opinion on it. So precisely because it is the elephant in the room, I’m not putting it in the list. It is going into the itunes playlist though. What follows is therefore the Best Records Of The Year that weren’t by David Bowie. But first this:

The ten that didn’t get in. Let’s face it in a lot of years these would have been top 10. That’s how good 2016 was. Which is why I've posted a top 20.

20. TOMAGA – The Shape Of The Dance. I had never heard of this band and let’s face it, percussion led improv does not sound promising, but they were the highlight of this year’s Audioscope. Here’s some film of them live, because amazing though it is the album doesn’t quite capture it.

19. Mendoza and Griffiths – The Shadow. Local band alert! Plus they are both friends. I may be a little biased. The electro/hip hop edge of Tiger Mendoza works beautifully with Dave’s vocal and guitar.

18. Christian Fitness – This Taco Is Not Correct. Future of the Left offshoot releases album that is better than the Future of the Left album. Almost made the top 10. No video so here’s a taster on Bandcamp:
https://christianfitness.bandcamp.com/track/reggie-has-asbestos-training

17. Right Hand Left Hand – Right Hand Left Hand. Another association with FOTL as we hadn’t heard of them before seeing them in support at the Electric Ballroom. We ended up buying the album. Amazing what two guys and a loop pedal can do.

16. Beyonce – Lemonade. Another that almost made top 10 but a couple of missteps for me (notably the weird pro-gun country number “Daddy Lessons”) keep it out. If everything had been as good as “Formation” it would have been top 5.

15. Cavern of Anti Matter – Void Beats/Invocation Trex. Do you like Stereolab? Do you like Krautrock? Of course you do. You will probably like this then, which features Tim Gaines out of Stereolab playing krautrock.

14. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool. Radiohead now seem to be making a good album every second release. Hail to the Thief – a bit rubbish. In Rainbows – great. King of Limbs – a bit rubbish. Which makes this one of the good ones. You’ve heard this before but here you go anyway.

13. Eagulls – Ullages. A change of pace here, going for a sparser, more Cure-like sound. Would have been higher but for their to me slightly inexplicable decision to do half the songs in 3/4 time. Or sometimes 6/8 or 12/8. Anyways this is great.

12. Santigold – 99c. I love Santigold. Another one that would have been higher but for a couple of missteps, like the bloody awful single “Who Be Lovin Me”. This isn’t that. This is "Outside The War" which is brilliant:

11. Not Waving – Animals. Minimal experimentalism from the Diagonal label. See also Powell. Love this.

So to the top 10:

10. Underworld – Barbara, Barbara, We Face A Shining Future. The 90s band revival continues with this comeback album from Underworld. I find myself listening to this more and more, even the more relaxed numbers that I wasn’t sure about first time round. The bangers are fantastic, notably the towering “If Rah”. Luna Luna Luna.

9. Powell – Sport. More glitchy minimalism. Liking this more each time I hear it. I’m going to include the single “Insomniac/Should’ve been a Drummer” as an excuse to play the video featuring a hilarious email exchange with Steve Albini. Big up Steve.

8. PC Music Volume 2. More hipster bobbins. But I like it so I don’t care.

7. Pet Shop Boys – Super. Another band comeback. I think it’s as good as any of their imperial phase albums. Yes yes yes yes.

6. Savages – Adore Life. This has really grown on me over the year. On first hearing less sparse and more rocky than their first album it nonetheless seems to have found a permanent space on my playlists.

5. MSTRKRFT – Operator. Well now. After the slightly generic EDM “fist of God” they’ve gone off and had a long think. The result is this, mostly produced via analog modular gear and hardware step sequencers and sounding raw as fuck and fresh as you like. Highlight is the metalcore crossover “Go On Without Me” but that seems to have no decent quality videos so instead here’s other highlight “Party Line”.

4. Wrangler – White Glue. It’s getting harder to figure out which ones are better now but anyway here’s Wrangler’s new release, if it sounds a bit Cabaret Voltaire-ish it’s because the band contains actual Stephen Mallinder. So they’re allowed. Best of luck finding any videos though.

3. Holy Fuck – Congrats. Another comeback – they’ve been off, decided to go with vocals, come back, maybe it’s the five year absence but they’ve never sounded so vital.

2. Factory Floor – 2525. To quote a friend on Facebook completely out of context “Acid techno. Nice One!” but there’s more to it than that. Minimal synth pulses, ever shifting percussion rhythms, you can listen to an 8 minute track and never get bored. Music lesson for 2016 - never underestimate the power of doing one thing for a long time. Here’s “Dial Me In”:

1. Cliff Martinez and others – Neon Demon OST. In the end there can be only one and this gorgeous soundtrack to one of my favourite films of the year is it. Getting it on beautiful transparent blue and green vinyl didn’t harm its case either. Again, however, best of luck finding a legit video. Most of the soundtrack is up here and if you want a highlight I would pick the theme starting at 22.47 “Jesse Sneaks Into Her Room”.

If this video gets taken down I guess you’ll just have to go and buy it. Trust me it’s amazing.

Bowie

2016-01-31T16:18:16Z

The thing is, I've always been rather scornful of people mourning the deaths of public figures. Partly it's because I remember the craziness when Princess Diana died and we were all supposed to feel this vast outpouring of grief, but mainly I think it's been a feeling of intrusiveness. We didn't know those people. They weren't our friends or family. And it felt like, somehow, the legitimate private grief of those who did know those people, and who were their friends and family, was being appropriated and repurposed.

Bowie dying hit me fairly hard. The fact that it was just after such an excellent new record, a huge surge of "good grief, he's done it again". The Guardian guide's music critic reviewed the single and said "stop innovating, you maniac!". Then, two days later, he did. And in the car a couple of days ago I was playing old Bowie and "5 Years" came on and I burst into tears. Not because I knew him, but because the world is a less bright place, and we won't have any crazy innovative new music from him ever again.

So, anyway, late new year resolution, be kinder when people get upset and cry over the deaths of people they don't know. No, they didn't know them, but in turn I don't know what part of their lives those people, without even having met them, lit up and made special.

Top 10 2015

2015-12-30T12:55:46Z

And so once again to the yearly roundup. What are the best things this year WHAT ARE THE BEST THINGS?????????

Obviously the best thing was the Space Heroes album which you can still buy from me or off bandcamp. But in an act of festive generosity I have decided to leave that aside as it would be too unfair on those other, lesser artists to include it.

Disappointment of the year: No Chromatics album. We were promised it for Valentine’s day. It is now the end of the year and it still does not exist, except for a couple of teaser tracks on SoundCloud. Maybe they meant Valentine’s day 2016.

Film of the year: It’s been a good year for films, especially given my love of giant explosions. We’ve had Mad Max:Fury Road, Star Wars:The Force Awakens, and SPECTRE. We’ve had the underrated Man From Uncle film. But in the end there can be only one, and that one is the glorious insanity that was Jupiter Ascending. A financial catastrophe given a critical kicking, I remain convinced that this film will one day be vindicated in the same way that The Fifth Element was. Contains a sexy space werewolf, some of the most beautiful spaceships I’ve ever seen, Sean Bean (possibly) surviving until the end, the QUEEN OF THE FUCKING BEES, and top notch villaining from Eddie Redmayne. There have been “better” films but nothing I have flat out enjoyed more than this.

Gig of the year. Close one this. Metric at the O2 were excellent, and Blacklisters at the Wheatsheaf were nothing short of stunning. But the winner in a, er, three way was surely Peaches at the Electric Ballroom, complete with trapeze artist Empress Stah shining lasers out of her bits.

that light isn't behind her

Albums that may well be amazing but which I have not listened to:
Grimes - Art Angels. I’ve been judging Grimes on early album “Halfaxa” which is something of an avant grade gem but also a bit lacking in tunes. I’ve since heard the single off this album and it seems that is no longer a problem. Will probably go back and relisten to this and “Visions”
Chvrches - Every Open Eye. I don’t know why Chvrches first album didn’t quite do it for me, but there you go. This might, but I haven’t listened to it so I don’t know.
Slaves - Are You Satisfied. Slaves were the high point of a not particularly amazing NME tour this year but I haven’t heard their album. Apparently it’s very good.

Didn’t quite make the cut:
Laurie Anderson - Heart of a Dog. Undoubtedly an artistic masterpiece, this is also her mourning album and pretty gruelling to get through. Also the long section in the middle about Tibetan Buddhism is pish.
Hudson Mohawke - Lantern. Some excellently synthy hip hop here, doesn’t quite get in because the lack of a consistent main vocalist seems to give it a lack of focus.
Lonelady - Hinterland. Lovely scratchy pop songs, but I don’t quite keep going back to it enough.
New Order - Music Complete. Don’t get me wrong, this is excellent, but I’m of the school that says it isn’t really New Order without Peter Hook. I just keep imagining how much better half of these songs would be with twangy melodic baselines on them. Come on boys. You know you both want it really.
Blanck Mass - Dumb Flesh. Don’t know quite what’s happening here. Something about the production, it just doesn’t seem big enough to carry it’s own weight. Or something.
Prurient - Frozen Niagra Falls. An hour of drones, static and muttering about satan. Kind of amazing, but also kind of not something I’ll be going back to listen to all that often.

Singles of the year:
Decided to have two of them. Why not.
FEWS - The Zoo. This is what I’m talking about. Three minutes of Krautrock, remembered to include a tune. Banging.

Kone - Bauhaus Table. Saw them at Audioscope, liked them, downloaded the single…..this is great.

EP of the year:
Prinzhorn Dance School - Home Economics. A return to form after the misfiring Clay Class. They seem to have learned how to marry actual melodies to their stripped down aesthetic, at its best here on "Reign".

And so to the albums.

10) Charlie XCX - Sucker. Yes, seriously. Get so tired of the snobbery over pure pop albums. Could equally well have been Taylor Swift or Katy Perry. Would definitely have been Robyn if she had released anything this year. Let’s let this stand in for all of them because each time a track comes on it’s like the sun’s come out for three minutes.

Terrible video, don't let it put you off

9) Death Grips - Jenny Death. Let’s be clear this is not for the whole of The Powers That B, given that the first disc, the waaaaaay overthought Niggas On The Moon came out in 2014 anyway. This is more like it, taut, angry and you can dance to it if you want to.

8) Leftfield - Alternative Light Source. Who would have guessed that Leftfield would make one of the best records of 2015. Suffers a bit from the Rhythm and Stealth issue that the slow tracks aren’t all that, but the bangers are so banging that it doesn’t matter. Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1995.

7) FFS - FFS. And they’re back. This works amazingly well. Saw them at the Forum where everyone involved seemed to be having a great time. Including me.

6) Metric - Pagans in Vegas. Not sure what to say about Metric that I haven’t said before. Cruelly if accurately described by Nightshift as a 7/10 band, but redeemed by the fact that every tune is amazing. Every. Single. Tune.
Apart from “The Governess” which is bollocks, obviously.

Not the most obvious choice but I've had it on earworm since I first heard it

5) Hurts - Surrender. Oh thank fuck. The tunes are still good and the horrible redlined limiter crunchy noises which blighted “Exile” have been fucked off. The triumphant return of the indie Take That.

4) Autobahn - Dissemble. A major step up from the second E.P. in terms of songwriting. Put on a lovely gig at the Bullingdon. Get this if you are a fan of reverb drenched post-punk. Get it anyway because if you’re not, you ought to be.

Nice trenchcoat action at 1:20

3) PC Music - This is PC Music Vol. 1
“PC Music proposes a set of critical questions about pop culture, accelerationism, hyperrealism, digital communities, gender, identity, and consumerism. The questions may not have definitive answers, but that's partly what's so fascinating about the collective. It's not didactic; to the contrary, it revels in ambiguities that even its artists may not fully understand.” - Pitchfork
“Hipster Bullshit LOL” - Anonymous YouTube commentor.
Most likely the YouTube commentor is right (which may in itself be a first), but it turns out (in a development which will surprise nobody) that I kind of like hipster bullshit. LOL.

2) Blacklisters - Adult. Oh, this is fantastic. If you liked their first album, this is similar but….bigger. More noise, more screaming, more musically ambitious. The kind of record where you dance frantically to a squall of rock noise and only realise two days later that it was in 7/4 time. The singer has a habit of going down into the audience at gigs and shouting in your face, in a good way.

This one isn't in 7/4 time before anyone asks

1) HEALTH - Death Magic. A collection of songs about bleak loveless relationships, with huge drums, punctuated by electro noise, sung in a gorgeous voice. Pretty much as good as it gets.

PS. as a coda to this I have bought the Grimes album and it's really good. But since I didn't buy it until 2 Jan 2016, it's too late and I really don't want to bump anything out. Which means that my top 10 playlist for 2015 in iTunes will probably become a top 11 playlist.

Political

2015-12-04T21:48:41Z

Getting increasingly hacked off with the incessant fucking whining of the Labour right. Let's make it clear.

Demonstrating outside an MPs house is wrong

Intimidating their staff is wrong. Fine.

But.

We have the right, as constituents, to lobby our MPs. Indeed all the factions of all the parties frequently encourage us to do so.

We have the right, as party members, to select other MPs if the ones we have do not represent us. This happens all the time. And in fact the only people even talking about deselection are you.

There is nothing wrong, or sinister about this, it is how parties are supposed to work.

If you think otherwise maybe you should not be here.

And by the way, we have shut the fuck up, held our noses and voted Labour for years while you have had your go. While it is not fair to suggest you didn't achieve anything, you have built nothing substantial or lasting, it has dissolved like smoke at the first sign of adversity because you failed to make the case for a genuinely left alternative. Now somebody else has to try to do in opposition what you should have done in government, and you do not now get to throw your toys out of the pram because you are not in charge.

/rant

Possibly the wrong moment to post a pork recipe.

2015-09-27T20:44:52Z

Slow roast pork loin with tomato goop. A simple one this

Pork Loin
1/2 stick celery
4 cloves garlic
1/4 yellow pepper (we had this left over)
1 tsp paprika (pimiento dulce from seasoned pioneers, for preference)
1 pinch sea salt flakes

Most important; 2 medium or 1 large black krim tomatoes grown in Jeremy's greenhouse. A large black krim is about the size of your fist, if you have smallish hands like mine. These have an intensely tomatoey taste but also an umami kick and are an amazing cooking tomato.

Chop up the celery and yellow pepper and peel the garlic cloves, then place in a ceramic pot just big enough to fit the pork loin. Rub the sides of the pork loin with paprika and put it on top, crackling side up. The bed of celery will allow the tomato goop to get under the pork, stopping it from overflowing as well as keeping the bottom tomatoey, and should also keep the crackling protruding over the top of the pot to keep it out of the tomato.

Chop up the tomatoes and stuff round the side of the pork. This will form the tomato goop and also keep the meat nice and moist.

Rub the sea salt into the crackling, and drizzle with olive oil.

Cook as slow roast pork belly - 20 minutes at gas 9 to start the crackling off, then turn to gas 3 and leave for about 2 1/2 hours.

We had it with fennel seed roast new potatoes and buttered cabbage steamed at th end with a bit of soy sauce and it was insanely good.

Carsten frickin Holler

2015-07-05T18:04:27Z

Anyway this is an early wedding anniversary thing. Carsten Holler has a thing at the Hayward Gallery, and you should go if you can, and if you get a chance to stay on the roaming beds overnight it's totally worth it.
https://flic.kr/p/vjTh7g
Jeremy on a flying machine

Flying Mushrooms

Dice

Me on a flying machine. The little wind turbines on the top or A Room For London are visible peering out over the Purcell room.

Upside down goggles

Relaxing on a roaming bed

The slides

Serpentine Pavilion. Nothing to do with Carsten Holler but open the next day. One of those things that doesn't photograph well and looks amazing in real life, although this pic is pretty good.

Most of the pics on J's Flickr. As a side issue, embedding video from almost anything else into LJ now seems pretty much completely broken,hence the link, and even uploading and embedding from LJ leads to an interminable wait with no indication as to what is happening so I assume it just isn't working. It was nice knowing you, LiveJournal, but it took me literally one minute to post these pics to FB and about half an hour fighting with your shonky embed procedure to even get this far with this post.

CD

2015-02-18T16:44:35Z

Anyway, it occurs to me that I have friends on LJ who do not see my Facebook or any of the other social media I sometimes use. So you may not know that this is out:

So if anyone wants it, if you go to our site at spaceheroes.net you'll find links to Bandcamp and Amazon if you want to download it, or I'll sell you a CD

It's all very exciting to be honest.

Top 10 2014

2014-12-31T16:03:57Z

Top 10 2014
It’s Top 10 time again. Although you may claim that the judgement of someone who has voluntarily gone to see all four Transformers movies at the cinema may be a little flawed. Anyway.

Gig of the Year – OMD doing Dazzle Ships at the Museum of Liverpool. Included the unearthed sections of “Dazzle Ships” (Parts I, IV, V and VI) played as a sound art installation in a Dazzle Ship. My favourite synthpop band playing their best album – nothing was going to top this. It’s a tribute to Eagulls that they even got close. Noisy post punk in the Jericho Tavern. Fantastic.

Disappointment of the year – I’m afraid it’s going to have to go to Metronomy with “Love Letters”. It’s not a bad album, perfectly listenable, but I found myself thinking, well, hum ho. After the loveliness that was “The English Riviera” it just felt like a bit of a let-down. Added to a frankly underwhelming gig at the O2 it seemed like a misfire. Hopefully they’ll be back on form next time.

Honourable Mentions –
The Bug – Angels and Devils. Excellent mashup of dancehall, grime and a bit of hip hop. A bit of inconsistency from the guest vocalists but mostly fantastic.
East India Youth -Total Strife Forever. Gorgeous electronica. Might be in but includes “Heaven, How Long?” and “Looking for Someone” from the Hostel EP which I already own. Well worth it though for the fantastic “Hinterland”.
FKA Twigs - LP1. Spacey ambient R’n’B reminiscent of the Witch House craze of a couple of years back, which I liked. Abstract, avant-garde and very very sexy. Not quite enough tunes to make it to the top 10.
Museum of Love – Museum of Love. Solo project from LCD Soundsystem’s drummer Pat Mahoney. If you liked LCD Soundsystem you’ll probably like this. Loses out on originality points.
Total Control – Typical System. Postpunk and a bit of synthiness. Amazing in parts but let down by a couple of uninspired jams. If you’re going to have a song title as good as “Black Spring” don’t waste it.
These New Puritans - Expanded (Live at the Barbican). Basically “Field of Reeds” fleshed out with orchestra and choir. Sounds amazing and for some songs (“Island Song” in particular) these are better versions than the originals. If the lovely “Where The Trees Are On Fire” had been on it, it would have been in.

EP of the Year –
Jupiter-C – Synthetic Landscape. We saw them supporting East India Youth at the O2 and really liked them. A bit like HTRK used to be. Here, have a listen:

The Top 10 Albums:
10. French Style Furs – Is Exotic Bait. What Arcade Fire might have sounded like if they were a postpunk guitar band fronted by the lead singer from Cold War Kids. Much, much better than that sounds, apart from album opener “Three Friends” which is bobbins.

9. Mogwai – Rave Tapes. Mogwai return to form with their best album since “Mr Beast”. More relaxed that that one, more memorable than anything off “Rock and Roll Will Never Die But You Will”, has vocals on some tracks. A bit like “Rock Acrtion” then, if you want a reference point.

8. Kele – Trick. Lovely housey electronic album full of heartbroken lyrics.

7. Sleaford Mods – Chubbed Up. cleanskies and I had an imaginary side project which we conceived as a band who thought The Fall were mainstream pop sellouts. We were going to have a song called “One Way Penis”. That band is now redundant as Sleaford Mods have got there first. “Chubbed Up” is a bit of a cheat for this year’s top 10 being, as it is, a collection of singles, but they did release a proper album this year which I do not have and probably won’t get as one Sleaford Mods album is probably enough. I will almost certainly hate this by this time next year and wonder what the hell I was thinking about but right now it’s essential.

6. DZ Deathrays – Black Rat. Saw them at an almost empty O2 on a freebie on a damp Monday night. They were ace. Immediately bought both albums from their merch store. “Black Rat” is the 2014 one. For fans of DFA 1979 and the like I suppose, and like them can be distinguished from all the other rock two pieces by the fact that they have proper, proper tunes. I could have picked anything off this album to be honest.

5. Johnny Jewel – The Other Side Of Midnight. Chromatics/Glass Candy mainman releases a half hour instrumental which I’m going to call an album because, hey, it’s my top 10 and I make the rules. I was talking about the unreleased portions of “Dazzle Ships” earlier. Now, imagine that gone disco. Press play and bask in its warmth.

4. Liars – Mess. Liars go full on techno with their best album so far, at least as far as I’m concerned. I may be a little biased here. This one kind of snuck up on me and I realised by the end of the year how much I’d been playing it.

3. Wrangler – L.A.Spark. Another new one to me, saw them at Audioscope where they were a standout band in a strong year. Includes Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire and Benge, who did the excellent “Twenty Systems” a couple of years back and has been playing as part of John Foxx’s tour band.

2. La Roux – Trouble In Paradise. Critically acclaimed, spurned by Radio 1 for reasons nobody pretends to understand (too old? I doubt it. Not a guitar band? Dubious, plenty of pop gets played on R1. Really, no idea), this was lovely, La Roux gone disco. Played an excellent and sold out gig at the O2 where she came on all David Bowie and on one point rocked out with her foot on the monitor.

1. Eagulls – Eagulls. Incomprehensible vocals, driving rhythms, guitars a huge swamp, an outstanding gig at the Jericho. There are a couple of bands like this (See also Autobahn) but in the same way as DZ Deathrays in another genre, Eagulls stand out because they have tunes – there are great melodies in here inside the noise. I can’t say often enough how important this is. Gets to number one because every time a song from it comes on shuffle, it's ALWAYS a "fuck yes" moment. Exciting and vital.

Pigeon and Lentil Casserole a.k.a. the most middle class post in the history of the world ever.

2014-11-28T19:32:09Z

Serves 2.
Ingredients:
4 pigeon breasts (we get them in packs of 10 from the covered market. They're pretty cheap)
3 rashers streaky bacon (we used smoked) or the equivalent in lardons.
1 tin green lentils
1 small red onion
7 or 8 forestiere mushrooms (about 1/2 a punnet or a bit less)
2 sprigs rosemary
about 100 ml veg stock
1/2 teaspoon ground pasilla chilli. I originally wanted a red garden chilli but we had eaten them all.

Cooking - this is mostly a matter of adding things to the pot.
Drain the lentils and put into a casserole dish (we used the Nigellaware marmitout that you can't get any more that we bought from Little Trendy Street).
Chop and add the onion.
Add the veg stock - we used 1/4 cube of stock with 100 ml water.
Cut the bacon into small pieces, fry and add.
Chop the mushrooms, fry and add.
Strip the rosemary from its stalks and add.
Add the chilli.
Stir it all together.
Finally, fry the pigeon breasts until they are brown and place on top.

Put the lid firmly on the casserole (you want to retain the moisture) and cook at gas 3 for 1 1/2 - 2 hrs.
Serve with kale.

Teasel

2014-08-19T14:44:11Z

Teasel died a little before 10 this morning, at the age of 20 and a couple of months. He'd been a bit under the weather for a week or so but still had a healthy appetite and was walking well although not very far. Last night though he got a bit ill and this morning he climbed up the stairs to see us. It must have been an epic journey for him at that stage. I think he knew. He was refusing food and water although he was purring when he was being stroked. I called the vet for an emergency appointment and when we took him in we were told that his system had basically collapsed and wouldn't make it any more. He was purring and we got to hold him at the end.

Teasel was given to me in 1994 by my then local vet in Dunstable. I had had another cat run over and I had decided I didn't want another kitten because the cat I had lost was the best cat in the world.

They are all, it turns out, the best cat in the world.

The Dunstable vet was a kind man who knew what had happened so when he called to say he had a black kitten for adoption I went along out of politeness. He was the tiniest kitten you ever saw, his mother had died when he was four weeks old so he had been weaned early and had lost a couple of weeks of growth, so even though he was seven weeks he looked much younger. He won me over instantly and I took him home in a cardboard box. The first thing he did was clamber laboriously up my chest and curl up on my shoulder where he went to sleep.

I called him Teasel because he was both fluffy and spiky. A friend pointed out that he was also "a seed head". He was energetic and lively and used to come bounding across the garden to see me. He would crash through the catflap at full speed.

He was a very tidy little cat and would sit on the end of the sofa with his tail tucked round his front paws.

He could totally destroy a scratching post in the space of about three weeks, ripping through the sisal rope and leaving it in bits on the floor.

He was for a time a mighty hunter of birds. I'm glad he stopped doing that. He once caught a swift in flight which I found, miraculously unharmed, at the top of the stairs. I took it into the front garden and lifted it on my finger where it flew out into the evening.

He was a very amenable cat. I had another cat at the time, a grumpy old three legged tom called Stirfry, and Teasel was gentle with him. They could share my lap, one on each leg, with their front paws gripping my knees, sometimes quite painfully.

When I had some bad times he would come and lick my nose.

He used to like to sneak under the duvet to sleep in the winter. If he couldn't get in he had a painful habit of hooking a claw under my lip and pulling to wake me up. I guess from his point of view it worked because he would curl up to sleep against my chest.

He used to hide in a carboard boxes to ambush my legs. Because the box sides were taller than his head, as far as he was concerned he was invisible, but if you looked down on him he would figure he had been seen. If you wanted him to ambush you, you had to go past him looking away while whistling nonchalantly.

I was worried when I moved to Oxford because he was at the grand old age of 12 and I thought he might be too stressed by the move. 12 turned out to be his prime.

When Jeremy first came to my house he was still hiding out of nervousness from the move. He hid under my futon frame. All you could see was a pair of eyes.

He pretty much decided he approved of Jeremy from the off, curling up on her lap and playing with her shoelaces. When she broke her wrist he kept her company, lay against the cast and purred.

He loved to climb and would try and get to the highest point in the house, on top of a wardrobe or on a high shelf.

When we moved to our new house he was, I think, very pleased as we had a garden (with, more to the point, an even bigger garden over the back fence). He had a stone shelf beside the patio where he could lie in the sun.

When we got our new kitten, Harlequin, he was suspicious at first but they seerned to get on. They would share treats from my or Jeremy's hand. Harley always deferred to him and slightly inexplicably let him beat her up, even though she weighed about twice what he did.

He became old and his legs became stiff and he needed a lot of looking after, which we were happy to give him. He always thought he was stronger than he was and would make doomed leaps onto chairs, windowsills, across the room. He perfected a method of snagging his claw in your shirt, then leaping for freedom, and almost, but not quite, injuring himself with the resulting somersault.

His last meal was treats taken from my hand, last night.

He had the loudest purr and the best, most magnificent tail.

I miss him so much.

Teasel as a kitten. The bigger cat is Stirfry.

Teasel and Stirfry eating in my horrible old house in Dunstable. Note crossed tails which they used to do all the time. Teasel is the closer cat.

Teasel with namesake. Note "Viz up the arse corner" expression.

I did this drawing of him, also in Dunstable.

Waiting in ambush.

Good to travel

In his prime, checking out the flat.

This is all mine.

Respect my authority

I own the high places

Surprised by robot

Pwned by kitten

Enthroned

2 cats 1 lap

2 cats 1 lap redux

1 cat 1 laptop. Teasel perfects his arse programming skills.

King of the garden

Rhododendron hat!

On the podium

The best, most magnificent tail.

RIP Teasel

MKIF

2014-07-24T08:25:41Z

MIlton Keynes International Festival was on again!

We went to Sonic Day yesterday.

First up, Chorus by Ray Lee:

Then to the shopping centre for The Lock Shift Songs

Then we walked out through Campbell Park to Willen Lake. Campbell Park is like the landscaped garden of a stately home, complete with open air theatre and a cricket pitch. Only, instead of all the tenants being evicted to make room for it, it is there for everyone.

On the way back, we came across an underpass with some striking acoustic properties

Soundfile here

Finally we went to the Pentalum, a huge inflatable by Architects of Air, for a concert by Ray Lee and Kaffe Matthews featuring theremin and resampling.

More details here.

Sound Art from Chloe Abrahams

2014-05-16T06:55:32Z

http://soundcollider.tumblr.com/post/85895663953/

Soundcollider Tumblr

2014-05-10T19:37:19Z

Right, so I've been playing with the idea of an audio blog for a bit, posting bits of found sound, synth noises and the occasional idea that didn't make it as a Space Heroes song. I think the best way is probably as a Tumblr so here it is. Follow if you're interested, that would be nice. First post is a cat purring.

http://soundcollider.tumblr.com/

Top Ten Albums 2013

2014-01-01T14:52:16Z

Well now. Once again it’s top 10 time. Let’s do this:

Gig of the year – a hard choice between Everything Everything at the O2 (where it turns out that they genuinely can do all that stuff live) and Harrison Birtwistle’s insane Minotaur opera at the ROH. I’m going to give it to the Birtwistle for sheer spectacle and because it was cheaper. Quite a lot cheaper. Standing upstairs at the ROH is, in fact, cheaper than standing upstairs at the Wheatsheaf for an indie band.

Disappointment of the year – no massive let downs of the scale of “Congratulations” or “ Good Don’t Sleep” so it’s going to have to go to Hurts for “Exile”. The decision to go dark and moody seems safe rather than edgy – there’s a kind of off-the-shelf angst here that doesn’t really do it for me. The tunes are decent enough – “Miracle” is as good as anything on “Happiness” - but the main problem is the full on loudness war production, which is full of nasty crunchy noises that make it physically painful to listen to in parts. Stop it. Just stop it.

Close but no cigar:
Chvrches – The Bones of What You Believe. This is pretty good and almost got in but is handicapped by the fact that after listening to it I can’t remember any of the tunes. Literally not one. Not even the tune for “We Sink” which is a great track.
Hacker Farm – UHF. Weird industrial noises, disembodied voices, and homemade electronics – I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff. Not as original as the Guardian seems to think but still pretty fine.
Future of the Left – How To Stop Your Brain In An Accident. You know FOTL by now. Album financed by music Kickstarter-a-like Pledgemusic. Not in because several of the best tunes (including the excellently named “Future Child Embarrassment Matrix”) were on the previous “Man Versus Melody” E.P. which seems a little cheap, although I guess this record being accompanied by two further E.P’s made up for it.
M.I.A. – Matangi. An album born for iTunes shuffle. The tracks are ace (although again suffer from extreme mastering fail) but as an album it’s a bit relentless.
Arcade Fire – Reflektor. I really didn’t like “The Suburbs” – it sounded like a band playing it safe and making a big pile of money. This sounds like a band trying out new things. Much better than the critical backlash would have you believe.

E.P. of the year:
East India Youth – Hostel. Oh, this was great. There’s an album out next year, which I will be buying. In the meantime check this out:

And so to the top 10.

10) Samson and Delilah – V V Brown

A bit out of the blue, this one. I’d never heard of V V Brown. It sounds like a soul singer has decided to make a synthpop album having only read about synthpop and not heard any. The result is surprisingly great. A bit Alison Moyet, a bit Annie Lennox, a bit something all its own.

9) The Next Day – David Bowie

You all know the score on this one anyway. Is it as good as old Bowie? I would argue that it’s at least as good as “lodger” which is pretty good if not up to “Heroes”. Anyway this is the DFA remix of “Love is Lost” which suggests that next time, he should write an album, get James Murphy to remix it, then throw away the originals and release the remixes as the next Bowie album. Honestly, it’s that good.

8) Inform-Educate-Entertain – Public Service Broadcasting

Samples from old TV and radio programmes played over a background of Krautrock – we’ve heard this kind of thing before but what makes this stand out is the quality of the music. Recently played a gig at the British Library.

7) Govt Plates – Death Grips

Death Grips continue to push the envelope with their mixture of avant garde weirdness, thunderous beats, and shouting. As long as they keep doing this kind of stuff, I’ll keep buying it. Or I would if they didn’t invariably release their albums for free on the internets.

6) English Electric – OMD

An unashamed personal choice here. I love OMD and it’s nice to see them back on form. This album has a couple of odd moments -“Helen of Troy” is a strong song that seems to be trying too hard to be a lyrical cousin to“Joan of Arc”, likewise “Dresden” and “Enola Gay”, but encouragingly the best bits are when they move away from the old template a bit, as on “Our System”, “Final Song” and here on the joyous “Metroland”.

5) Factory Floor – Factory Floor

I liked them better before they sold out etc etc. Actually this is great, stripped down and mimimal. Having said that you can tell the exact instant they signed to DFA because loads of percussion suddenly turns up.

4) Field of Reeds – These New Puritans

Oh Fuck, I love TNP. This album got a bit of stick for being “inaccessible” IT’S A TNP ALBUM WHAT DID YOU FUCKING EXPECT? Anyway. It’s less accessible than Mumford and Sons but more accessible than Harrison Birtwistle. I’d give it maybe 1.2 Nymans. Utterly lovely, if that matters to you at all.

3) Arc – Everything Everything

Another of those albums I should hate – all clever noodly stuff and vocal gymnastics, like the worst of prog. However somehow this sounds completely futuristic. The huge choruses might help.

2) Silence Yourself – Savages

Squally guitar band of the year. This is a brilliant record by someone who’s not afraid to be arty and pretentious and then make an enormous racket. Album contains a track about the suicide of Field Marshall Rommel, which may be something of a first.The enormous racket starts about 1.16 in this clip BTW if you’re feeling impatient.
Which brings us to:

1) After Dark 2 - Various Artists

Yes, a compilation is my favourite album of 2013. More Glass Candy! More Chromatics! More Symmetry! I think it’s become clear that I’m going to like pretty much anything on disco producer Johnny Jewel’s Italians Do It Better label. Anyway, here’s Glass Candy’s gorgeous “Warm in the Winter” which seems right given the shitty weather outside my window. They’d like you to know that they love you.

TVOD

2013-09-29T09:39:20Z

After the excitement of the IT Crowd finale and Agents of Shield, we took a punt on the new Atlantis series on BBC1.
Episode 1 "The Earth Bull" but may as well have been titled "Wait, what?" - Time travelling Jason, Pythagoras, and drunken fat Hercules must team up to slay the Minotaur. In Atlantis. Is this the new Bonekickers? Let's hope so.

Doof doof doof

2013-09-07T16:20:48Z

So it turns out the Volca's 5v sync pulse is every 1/8 note. Here I'm using it to modulate the low pass filter on the MS-20 via the external signal processor (could go straight in but using the ESP gives more control over the contour). If it looks as if I'm having fun it's because I am.

Synthesizer synthesizer synthesizer

2013-07-09T19:55:14Z

Well I got bored waiting for DV247 to get the MS-20 Mini I ordered in January and bought one from Professional Music technology in Cowley Rd who had one in stock. The guy made a concerted pitch for our college's custom and from this he might just get it.

So, as promised to various birthday contributors, hwere is the unpacking sequence but it has been much more extensively documented on Flickr by the lovely cleanskies. Videos, sound files, and shots of kitten/synth interaction to follow. Also we now need to figure out the recipe for synthesizer pie.

Facsimile of orignial 80s packaging

KORG sound revolution!

A thing of beauty and a joy forever

OMG patchcables! <3 <3 <3

Holy sweet Jesus this thing sounds amazing.