No, I am not posting about that horrible trance act Darude. With the wisdom teeth removed today and not really wanting to talk, I need something to get the thoughts out of my head. It was one of the weirdest, coolest, and weirdest again, experiences I’ve ever been through.
While I was out, I was having a mini out of body experience. I couldn’t see what was going on, but I could hear the doctors talking, drilling, and it was much faster than I had thought. About 5 minutes of this equated to about 1.5 hours. At one point I remember giving a thumbs up and the nurse putting my hand back down. Visually, I was in space looking down on earth and dropping by the moon. It was amazing.
Here’s a good song to brighten your spirits and give you an idea of how I felt after I woke up.
The Raconteurs - Yellow Sun [3:15m]:
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It’s been quite a busy month or so. I forgot about blogging, moved to Ubuntu, moved back to Windows, had layoffs, met a girl, watched her go crazy, started noticing gains from my working out, and then met another one.
It frustrates me that I know what I want to do, I try my best to qualify myself for that gig, and I can’t seem to land it. Perhaps PJ is right in that once I hit the year of experience my success level will change. Until then, bollocks to all interviewers.
I recently had the privilege of discovering and enjoying The Stone Roses’ second, and last, LP, Second Coming. For those who are unfamiliar, or live in a cave, The Stone Roses were the group that resided at the centre of the Madchester movement out of England. Combining guitars with dance grooves, it was unlike anything else being played at the time. Their second album was largely ignored by critics and called an afterthought.
I listened to the album for the first time today, and I am very much blown away. There is a right way and a wrong way to go out, and these guys chose the right way. Engaging, dramatic songs with fantastic drumming and pseudo dance grooves make this, in my opinion, just a little under the self titled. If you listened to All-Music, you would think this album was horrid. Do not believe the blasphemer. Amazing.
The Stone Roses - Daybreak:
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Damascus steel was revolutionary even by today’s standards. With the Crusades pushing through the Middle East, swordsmiths utilised a technique and materials to produce blades that were swift sturdy and light that pushed back the Christians. This steel could cut through lesser quality European blades and even rock, in some cases. Like all good things, the swordsmiths who knew the process and materials died out and damascus wrote itself into the history books.
It’s a new time for me. I’m moving into Penn’s house and I’m quite excited about that. The tall drink of man gave me a pretty sweet deal that I couldn’t refuse. The commute time will be shorter, and that’s always a good thing as well. Indicated by the title, I’m definitely seeing my time here under the parents come to a close. There were some times that I wished I didn’t live here, but those were outweighed by the tons of good times. I guess I’m getting a little nostalgic about how fast time goes and passes you by.
Time to get to the music portion of this post. I found an absolutely killer album that one Sean Tovson would enjoy. The album is called ISDN by The Future Sound of London. It is completely dark, unpredictable, and full of awesome. There are at least 15 different cunts of meat on these 15 songs. Compiled live over ISDN connections back in 1994, these are masters from those radio shows. It even features Robert Fripp on guitar in a few of them. Completely badass.
A good Christmas idea.
The Future Sound of London - Are They Fightin' Us [6:24m]:
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My brother is a massive Skream fan, and in his words this is the future of electronic music. I was a little skeptical at his claim, but this is the person who (maybe he regrets it) introduced me to 311. At that point I had bought that “come on and ride the train” album and 2Pac. So if anything, he introduced me to rock, which introduced me to electronic, and there goes the whole ball game.
I am new to this whole dubstep thing, and I still don’t get it yet. Fred has said it may be too dark or minimal for me, but then again I liked the hell out of Surgeon’s This Is For You Shits album. That, aside from Cut Copy’s So Cosmic and Dj Food’s 1000 Mask’s Mix, sits in my top four among greatest mix compilations for me. It’s super engaging and I think this track would fit right into Surgeon’s repertoire and he could use it in a slower dj set.
Anyways, tell me what you think of Skream.
Skream - Wobble That Gut [6:49m]:
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Those who know me are familiar with my perpetual dislike of the ultimate fan; that individual who has been to all the games, bought all the merchandise, has the flag in the yard, yucks about their team as often or moreso than they do real actual work. While I do not choose to inform the ultimate fans that they are a prime example as to why marketing is such a huge career, I can’t really get into things 100%. I transferred to OU and I never really got into the almost enslavement like mentality that most of the student body has. To be fair, this is common in most schools that either have successful programmes or are good at selling their product to their donors, err, students. The same can be found in the social fraternity atmosphere. The enemy of the rival fraternity, massively recruiting and selling individuals on an idea that plays on their wants and desires, I was never really into it.
If there is something I can be a fan of, and get excited about, is…wait for it, videogame soundtracks. For the three people that read this, you’re probably thinking I’m off my rocker. Is it even music? Isn’t it repetitive? That’s too nerdy for me. What if my friends found out I listened to it? What would they think? If you can, somehow, remove those concerns and consider that videogame soundtracks can be taken as a snapshot in time as any album is for a pop recording artist, you will soon find some rare gems that deserve the praise they should and do not receive.
One of my favourite games that was released on the Super Famicom was 聖剣伝説2 (Legend of the Holy Sword 2), or Secret of Mana. The game is one boy’s quest to stop an invading empire from using the Mana Fortress and resurrecting the Mana Beast. The soundtrack focuses on inspirational tunes for each of the characters, but also the land itself. I have not encountered a game since that has achieved this feat. Sure, there are games that give themes for a particular area, and they are used to invoke a certain feeling or reaction. Secret of Mana took it a step further and conveyed the message of feeling sad and sorry for the planet. With tracks like “Cry From The Forest,” it motivated the game player to finish the game. At least for me it did.
This particular piece is a remix from the site OCRemix, a place dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. There are some really fantastic artists here that spend a great deal of time interpreting their favourite tracks from videogames. This is one I found, and particularly enjoy.
Kassie! - Cry From The Forest [2:28m]:
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I’ve never really been a huge fan of house music since about 2002. I guess the first question is, what is house music? I seriously don’t know. Can you seriously sit down and tell me what house music is? I can tell you what rock is, what hiphop is, what classical is, what ambient is.
What the fuck is house?! (Besides the Gregory nature) Sidebar on that for a little while. I want to tell you about something I can actually define without financial theory: deep house. Deep House is composed of your typical 4/4 beats, slow moving or “brooding” beats and basslines, essentially something you could sit down, put on, tune out, and study to without listening to silence. Not that I get insanely bored of it, but the diversity of electronic music essentially means it is impossible to describe a “typical” track since producers have such a wide range of samples and sounds to choose from.
This particular track is from Slowhouse, someone that I can’t even tell you who his real name is. This mystery guy got these vinyls pressed, released, and that’s it. No interview, no tour, no remixes, just some fucking damn good Swiss deep house. Each track is named Untitled. I fucking love the song Untitled!
Enjoy, and stop obsessing over my nuts.
Slowhouse - Untitled [6:29m]:
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I do not care about the USA political elections. I never will. Just stop it already! In other news, I am completely caught up with Burn Notice and Entourage. Always good news.
Yes, I completely redid my blog. One only had to look at the FTP to realise it. It was such a mess I completely restarted.
I finally gave a listen to the Beastie Boys’ album after Paul’s Boutique this weekend, and it is a little better than PB, which of course is my favourite BB album. It isn’t lyrically as good, but the music is much more important. I say that these guys rival the Clash for change in a span of three albums. They went from 70s rock and metal samples over programmed beats to the most obscure samples you could think of through the Dust Brothers vehicle to a very funky and atmospheric groove band. I’ll give you a sample here (one of the more obscure tracks) and let you think about it. I really like Check Your Head the best now. Blasphemy, I know!
The Beastie Boys - Lighten Up [2:48m]:
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