Realised I haven't been updating this with actual words, so here are a few links to some writing I've done:
Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood of Colour
City and Colour - Little Hell
Saves the Day - Daybreak
I've been co-hosting a weekly technology news show since October; you can catch up with the podcast if you are so inclined.
In terms of gigs, February is looking pretty good. Tomorrow, I'm seeing Brand New, which should be amazing and wonderful. Then next week I've got Errors and Pulled Apart By Horses lined up...and it's not just music as I'm seeing Chris Addison on Friday!
Oh yes, photos have been happening as well, so I'll post some longer entries soon with some pictures, or you can check out my Flickr in the meantime.
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Friday, 13 January 2012
Mail-order "music"
See the title of this blog? Yeah, that's what my answer to the following question is going to be from now on:
Would you like to listen to some post-dubstep?
Right, this morning I noticed the phrase "post-dubstep" crop up in the list of eligible albums for XFM'x New Music Award 2012. Intrigued, I sought out some to find out what on earth justified the ridiculous moniker.
First up, a James Blake track entitled Limit To Your Love. This rather stripped-down song starts off with jaunty piano reminiscent of Aretha Franklin backing soulful pop vocals. Then the piano disappears, replaced by some lazy percussion. Then the percussion vanishes and piano comes back. THEN THERE'S PERCUSSION AND PIANO AT THE SAME TIME. Wait, no, that was just one chord. Got my hopes up there.
At this point I was thinking, "perhaps I've simply selected the wrong song as this has no elements of dubstep whatsoever", so I tried another: The Wilhelm Scream, also by James Blake. This was just as devoid of dubstep elements, and quite frankly, very dull indeed. As far as instrumentation goes, jazzing up the sound of a metronome doesn't really work.
Still unconvinced, I went for a different artist associated with the "genre", SBTRKT. Having suffered from a debilating impediment which causes suffers to ignore the existence of vowels, I expected Aaron Jones to plague my soul with winsome, melancholy music full of atmosphere and feelings.
(No, not really.)
Wildfire turned out to be significantly more dubsteppy than either of the James Blake tracks, yet also very lacking of...well, music. Some basic percussion accompanied with the wob-wobbing of electronics made a very dull background for some decent vocals provided by Little Dragon (apparently they're a Swedish electronic band). Not impressed, really.
I'm not one to judge something without adequate evidence, so I figured I'd check out one last track. SBTRKT again, with Pharaohs. Right, this is more like it. It's also what I'd call "electro-pop".
Perhaps there is a reason for connecting the "dubstep" genre to certain musicians, but a silly genre name is not the way to do it.
Conclusion: post-dubstep, if it even exists, is definitely not my thing. If you enjoy it, well...make yourself a nice cup of tea and have a civilized rave to it. On the other hand, post-hardcore makes my ears happy.
Would you like to listen to some post-dubstep?
Right, this morning I noticed the phrase "post-dubstep" crop up in the list of eligible albums for XFM'x New Music Award 2012. Intrigued, I sought out some to find out what on earth justified the ridiculous moniker.
First up, a James Blake track entitled Limit To Your Love. This rather stripped-down song starts off with jaunty piano reminiscent of Aretha Franklin backing soulful pop vocals. Then the piano disappears, replaced by some lazy percussion. Then the percussion vanishes and piano comes back. THEN THERE'S PERCUSSION AND PIANO AT THE SAME TIME. Wait, no, that was just one chord. Got my hopes up there.
At this point I was thinking, "perhaps I've simply selected the wrong song as this has no elements of dubstep whatsoever", so I tried another: The Wilhelm Scream, also by James Blake. This was just as devoid of dubstep elements, and quite frankly, very dull indeed. As far as instrumentation goes, jazzing up the sound of a metronome doesn't really work.
Still unconvinced, I went for a different artist associated with the "genre", SBTRKT. Having suffered from a debilating impediment which causes suffers to ignore the existence of vowels, I expected Aaron Jones to plague my soul with winsome, melancholy music full of atmosphere and feelings.
(No, not really.)
Wildfire turned out to be significantly more dubsteppy than either of the James Blake tracks, yet also very lacking of...well, music. Some basic percussion accompanied with the wob-wobbing of electronics made a very dull background for some decent vocals provided by Little Dragon (apparently they're a Swedish electronic band). Not impressed, really.
I'm not one to judge something without adequate evidence, so I figured I'd check out one last track. SBTRKT again, with Pharaohs. Right, this is more like it. It's also what I'd call "electro-pop".
Perhaps there is a reason for connecting the "dubstep" genre to certain musicians, but a silly genre name is not the way to do it.
Conclusion: post-dubstep, if it even exists, is definitely not my thing. If you enjoy it, well...make yourself a nice cup of tea and have a civilized rave to it. On the other hand, post-hardcore makes my ears happy.
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Google +1, competition 0
Earlier this week, Google's new social networking project, Google+, launched in a limited public beta. With the intention of making it easier for users to share content on the web, Google has made a small number of Google+ features available to testers. As expected, the main focus is a stream of content shared by people you have added to your network. Posts are ordered in terms of recent activity, so if someone makes a new comment on a post you made last Tuesday, it'll go to the top of the stream. This is handy, yet it could lead to newer posts without replies simply getting buried and going entirely unnoticed.
Google+ is built around Circles, which are lists of contacts. You can choose to share content with specific people, one or more of your circles, or just make it totally public. A lot of praise has been heaped upon this feature, yet many have overlooked the fact that customisable friend lists have been a part of Facebook for a good few years. Nevertheless, the transparency of privacy controls that the Circles concept perpetuates is likely to garner a lot of support for Google+.
Instead of being able to "Like" posts, you can "+1" them. This feature is available for content on both Google+ and other websites. While Google's interesting grammatical choices may upset some people, the feature in its current form is hardly groundbreaking. As well as this, the search giant has managed to incorporate a glorified search engine into Google+, Sparks, which allows users to look for things they are interested in and returns a chronologically ordered collection of results.
One of the more novel features is the ability to create a Hangout. This is Google's term for video conference calling, which can be limited to specific Circles. Multiple people can participate in a video call, a clear advantage over Skype, which only provides one-to-one video chat for free. Text-based conversations via Google Chat are integrated into the Hangout. Text chat is also available on its own, but is nowhere near as exciting. In addition, Youtube integration allowing users to select a video to be played to everyone in the hangout has been implemented. On the surface, this may seem somewhat frivolous, yet it adds a more natural dimension to conversations and really does make it seem like you're just hanging out with your friends, despite not being in the same geographical location. While testing out a Hangout, we did experience a few technical issues, but even those with slower Internet connections were able to participate without too much disruption. Refinements such as allowing a queue of videos to be made and providing an option for voice to be transmitted continuously while watching videos ought to be put into place, but there is still a strong case for people moving over to Google+ simply for the group video chat.
Hanging out like a pro
At this stage, it is difficult to say whether or not Google has a chance of overtaking its rivals in the social networking market; Google+ currently lacks a number of features and it is not clear if these will be accounted for in later releases. For a beta, this is a compelling service and the potential for integration with other Google services will probably give Google an edge over the competition.
Try it out, if you have a Google account.
Google+ is built around Circles, which are lists of contacts. You can choose to share content with specific people, one or more of your circles, or just make it totally public. A lot of praise has been heaped upon this feature, yet many have overlooked the fact that customisable friend lists have been a part of Facebook for a good few years. Nevertheless, the transparency of privacy controls that the Circles concept perpetuates is likely to garner a lot of support for Google+.
Instead of being able to "Like" posts, you can "+1" them. This feature is available for content on both Google+ and other websites. While Google's interesting grammatical choices may upset some people, the feature in its current form is hardly groundbreaking. As well as this, the search giant has managed to incorporate a glorified search engine into Google+, Sparks, which allows users to look for things they are interested in and returns a chronologically ordered collection of results.
One of the more novel features is the ability to create a Hangout. This is Google's term for video conference calling, which can be limited to specific Circles. Multiple people can participate in a video call, a clear advantage over Skype, which only provides one-to-one video chat for free. Text-based conversations via Google Chat are integrated into the Hangout. Text chat is also available on its own, but is nowhere near as exciting. In addition, Youtube integration allowing users to select a video to be played to everyone in the hangout has been implemented. On the surface, this may seem somewhat frivolous, yet it adds a more natural dimension to conversations and really does make it seem like you're just hanging out with your friends, despite not being in the same geographical location. While testing out a Hangout, we did experience a few technical issues, but even those with slower Internet connections were able to participate without too much disruption. Refinements such as allowing a queue of videos to be made and providing an option for voice to be transmitted continuously while watching videos ought to be put into place, but there is still a strong case for people moving over to Google+ simply for the group video chat.
At this stage, it is difficult to say whether or not Google has a chance of overtaking its rivals in the social networking market; Google+ currently lacks a number of features and it is not clear if these will be accounted for in later releases. For a beta, this is a compelling service and the potential for integration with other Google services will probably give Google an edge over the competition.
Try it out, if you have a Google account.
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Eclecticity
Lack of updates is due to coursework deadlines, gotta love being a CS student. More fun stuff will appear here in the near future. For now:
- Check out my review of Young Knives' new album on Intuition
- I went to see Saves The Day in London and I have a couple of phone photos that weren't too bad, so I'll fix them up and put them online soon.
- ...and finally, here is a silly last.fm thing I found.
Take your top 50 artists. For each of these artists, collect the top 20 similar artists (where the artist itself is the #1 most similar). The resulting number of unique artists is your super-eclectic score. You can compute your own score at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/supereclectic.php
My super-eclectic score is currently
708/1000
The most similar artists for my profile are Funeral for a Friend (7), Finch (6), Kasabian (6), Yourcodenameis:milo (5), The Early November (5), The Futureheads (5), Taking Back Sunday (5), The Starting Line (5), Glassjaw (5), Franz Ferdinand (4)
I don't actually listen to about four of those bands, so it's interesting that I have multiple artists that are similar to them!
- Check out my review of Young Knives' new album on Intuition
- I went to see Saves The Day in London and I have a couple of phone photos that weren't too bad, so I'll fix them up and put them online soon.
- ...and finally, here is a silly last.fm thing I found.
Take your top 50 artists. For each of these artists, collect the top 20 similar artists (where the artist itself is the #1 most similar). The resulting number of unique artists is your super-eclectic score. You can compute your own score at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/supereclectic.php
My super-eclectic score is currently
The most similar artists for my profile are Funeral for a Friend (7), Finch (6), Kasabian (6), Yourcodenameis:milo (5), The Early November (5), The Futureheads (5), Taking Back Sunday (5), The Starting Line (5), Glassjaw (5), Franz Ferdinand (4)
I don't actually listen to about four of those bands, so it's interesting that I have multiple artists that are similar to them!
Monday, 4 April 2011
Ragfest 2011
On 26th March, Bristol LiveSoc and Bristol RAG co-hosted the second annual Ragfest, a night of live music in aid of charity. I was there with UBU Photosoc Events Team getting the whole thing captured on camera. There were two stages across the main Anson Room and Ar2 in the University of Bristol Students' Union, so I was flitting back and forth trying to make sure I got enough pictures of each act. Rather than rambling on, I'll cut straight to the pictures! Many more here.
LAD NTL
The End Effect
Pieman
Max Parker
Kill Cassidy
Jim Horne, Publicity Stunt
Greg Walton, Publicity Stunt
Calm Down Caesar
The Goodness
The Lasting Days
The Phoenix and the Turtle
Mary Spender
Indigo Lights
LAD NTL
The End Effect
Pieman
Max Parker
Kill Cassidy
Jim Horne, Publicity Stunt
Greg Walton, Publicity Stunt
Calm Down Caesar
The Goodness
The Lasting Days
The Phoenix and the Turtle
Mary Spender
Indigo Lights
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Publicity Stunt
It's been a while since my last photo post, mostly because I haven't uploaded anything to Flickr for some time. So here, have a massive update!
Some friends of mine are in a ska band, Publicity Stunt. They played their first couple of shows at The Hill recently and I was there taking photos.
I took more on both nights. Publicity Stunt will be playing more gigs in the near future, so I'll keep you updated on that.
Coming up in the next week or so, photos from Ragfest!
Some friends of mine are in a ska band, Publicity Stunt. They played their first couple of shows at The Hill recently and I was there taking photos.
I took more on both nights. Publicity Stunt will be playing more gigs in the near future, so I'll keep you updated on that.
Coming up in the next week or so, photos from Ragfest!
Monday, 7 March 2011
Does It Offend You, Yeah? – Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You
The second album from electronic quintet Does It Offend You, Yeah? is a bizarre experimental affair that doesn’t quite hit the mark. Lead single ‘We are the Dead’ is promising, yet the abstract tribal vocals don’t add anything to the pulsing synth melody. The acoustic intro feels forced, completely at odds to the rest of the song. The chaotic ‘John Hurt’ includes an entirely out of place sample, which is a real shame as the song is otherwise one of the best tracks on the album.
It becomes increasingly clear throughout the record that DIOYY have simply tried to do too much; instead of subtly pushing boundaries, the band have run riot and caused a fair amount of musical destruction. ‘Yeah!’ is an incredibly out-of-tune sounding Pendulum-esque mess. There are a couple of more alt-rock tracks, ‘Pull Out My Insides’ and ‘Wrong Time Wrong Planet’ which aren’t bad at all, but just fail to fit in with the rest of the album. ‘Wrestler’ is a slap in the face vocally and would have worked much better as an instrumental track.
A guest appearance from Trip on ‘Wondering’ is very different to what one would expect from DIOYY but works well with the blistering electronic bass. The chorus is a bit of a let-down due to the cutesy vocals though. The album closes with ‘Broken Arms’, a curious melange of acoustic and electronic that doesn’t meld well, leaving the listener with a distinctly unsettled impression. ‘Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You’ is a mash-up of too many genres; the variety is simply strained rather than welcoming. This is just too weird to get into even after multiple listens, but it has some interesting moments.
It becomes increasingly clear throughout the record that DIOYY have simply tried to do too much; instead of subtly pushing boundaries, the band have run riot and caused a fair amount of musical destruction. ‘Yeah!’ is an incredibly out-of-tune sounding Pendulum-esque mess. There are a couple of more alt-rock tracks, ‘Pull Out My Insides’ and ‘Wrong Time Wrong Planet’ which aren’t bad at all, but just fail to fit in with the rest of the album. ‘Wrestler’ is a slap in the face vocally and would have worked much better as an instrumental track.
A guest appearance from Trip on ‘Wondering’ is very different to what one would expect from DIOYY but works well with the blistering electronic bass. The chorus is a bit of a let-down due to the cutesy vocals though. The album closes with ‘Broken Arms’, a curious melange of acoustic and electronic that doesn’t meld well, leaving the listener with a distinctly unsettled impression. ‘Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You’ is a mash-up of too many genres; the variety is simply strained rather than welcoming. This is just too weird to get into even after multiple listens, but it has some interesting moments.
Lady Gaga, Everything Everything, Panic! at the Disco singles
A few single reviews for you this week...
Lady Gaga – Born This Way
Lady Gaga is back with a classic pop track that is a more generic outing, lacking the quirky shimmer of previous singles. However, ‘Born This Way’ is sure to be a massive hit and an instant floor-filler, deservedly so.
Everything Everything – Final Form
This low key single is well-composed, with delicate layers of vocals and subtle electronic melody. ‘Final Form’ isn’t the most accessible of songs, yet it shows off Everything Everything at their best.
Panic! At The Disco – The Ballad of Mona Lisa
Following the departure of half the band members, Panic! At The Disco have finally regrouped and return with an excellent new track. The folky Beatles sound of previous album ‘Pretty. Odd.’ has fortunately vanished and the loss of primary lyricist Ryan Ross hasn’t impacted the band’s ability to come up with original, memorable music at all. ‘The Ballad of Mona Lisa’ matches the creepy cabaret atmosphere of first album ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ with Fall Out Boy style pop rock to make a track that has definitely been worth the wait.
Lady Gaga – Born This Way
Lady Gaga is back with a classic pop track that is a more generic outing, lacking the quirky shimmer of previous singles. However, ‘Born This Way’ is sure to be a massive hit and an instant floor-filler, deservedly so.
Everything Everything – Final Form
This low key single is well-composed, with delicate layers of vocals and subtle electronic melody. ‘Final Form’ isn’t the most accessible of songs, yet it shows off Everything Everything at their best.
Panic! At The Disco – The Ballad of Mona Lisa
Following the departure of half the band members, Panic! At The Disco have finally regrouped and return with an excellent new track. The folky Beatles sound of previous album ‘Pretty. Odd.’ has fortunately vanished and the loss of primary lyricist Ryan Ross hasn’t impacted the band’s ability to come up with original, memorable music at all. ‘The Ballad of Mona Lisa’ matches the creepy cabaret atmosphere of first album ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ with Fall Out Boy style pop rock to make a track that has definitely been worth the wait.
Friday, 4 March 2011
Dinosaur Pile-Up – My Rock ‘n’ Roll
Dinosaur Pile-Up – My Rock ‘n’ Roll
This grunge-tinged track is a winner, matching a chaotic breakdown with fun vocal harmonies. This has all the ingredients to do well in the mainstream, yet is still undeniably rock music.
I interviewed the band ahead of their show at Bristol O2 Academy last week and I will be playing the interview on my radio show on Monday at 3pm, so make sure you listen online!
This grunge-tinged track is a winner, matching a chaotic breakdown with fun vocal harmonies. This has all the ingredients to do well in the mainstream, yet is still undeniably rock music.
I interviewed the band ahead of their show at Bristol O2 Academy last week and I will be playing the interview on my radio show on Monday at 3pm, so make sure you listen online!
Twin Atlantic – Edit Me
Twin Atlantic – Edit Me
The storming new single from Scottish rockers Twin Atlantic is a high-powered affair, more hard-hitting than their previous singles. Definitely a sign that the new album is likely to be just as good.
The storming new single from Scottish rockers Twin Atlantic is a high-powered affair, more hard-hitting than their previous singles. Definitely a sign that the new album is likely to be just as good.
Call the Doctor – Take It Out
Call the Doctor – Take It Out
Featuring understated sultry vocals, this post-punk single could do with a bit more vitality to give it that extra kick. The instrumental parts are more infused with energy, which doesn’t match up with the vocals. Worth listening to, but definitely leaves you wanting a bit more. B-side ‘Gregory, You’re a Star’ has the punk edge that ‘Take It Out’ lacks, and would work well in a live setting.
Featuring understated sultry vocals, this post-punk single could do with a bit more vitality to give it that extra kick. The instrumental parts are more infused with energy, which doesn’t match up with the vocals. Worth listening to, but definitely leaves you wanting a bit more. B-side ‘Gregory, You’re a Star’ has the punk edge that ‘Take It Out’ lacks, and would work well in a live setting.
Monday, 28 February 2011
Studio Time
Alex gave a group of us a tutorial on studio lighting last week.
Jamie with an umbrella. Since some of the studio kit is a bit dodgy, we didn't have a stand for this umbrella and used it as a prop instead.
Tom poses with his beloved headphones.
Photosoc's Film Guru Ben loads some film.
Tom lit from the side. I'd quite like to have a play with different lighting setups minus a studio backdrop, more similar to this shot.
Ben checks some negatives after returning from a darkroom session. Unfortunately we only had one working trigger, so with four of us trying to take photos against the backdrop I decided to take some from other angles.
With about ten minutes to go before the end of the room booking, Mikey appeared with some props for band photos. I took a few of him and Jamie for their electronic project, Lad Neutral. This one is for Mikey's solo act, asinglebiteofcherry.
There are many more (including some with a ladder that had been abandoned in the room we were using) here.
Jamie with an umbrella. Since some of the studio kit is a bit dodgy, we didn't have a stand for this umbrella and used it as a prop instead.
Tom poses with his beloved headphones.
Photosoc's Film Guru Ben loads some film.
Tom lit from the side. I'd quite like to have a play with different lighting setups minus a studio backdrop, more similar to this shot.
Ben checks some negatives after returning from a darkroom session. Unfortunately we only had one working trigger, so with four of us trying to take photos against the backdrop I decided to take some from other angles.
With about ten minutes to go before the end of the room booking, Mikey appeared with some props for band photos. I took a few of him and Jamie for their electronic project, Lad Neutral. This one is for Mikey's solo act, asinglebiteofcherry.
There are many more (including some with a ladder that had been abandoned in the room we were using) here.
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