Tuesday, April 29, 2008

R.I.P.


Albert Hofmann passed away at his home at 9am on Tuesday April 29, 2008 of a heart attack at the age of 102.
He was one incredibly important individual.
May we all live to see more like him.

Erowid Albert Hofmann Vault

How did I miss this?



I have spent the evening drinking Appleton rum and watching the first season of Spaced. I've been a big fan of the Pegg/Wright duo since Shaun of the Dead.

I had heard tales of some fantastic but short lived series which ran on BBC 4, a series which served as a harbinger of comedy to come. A series I had never bothered to track down.

Thanks to the wonder of modern technology, I have both seasons sitting lazily on my drive. There are not many of them, but if the second season can be judged in any way by the first, they are absolute fucking jewels...every single one.

Do yourself a solid; lay eyes on this one.


Saturday, April 12, 2008

Eat my Speakers

I have been living in a silent world, devoid of new music for far too long. This week, steps were take to rectify that problem.
Here is some of the goodness I picked up in the past few days:


Subtle - ExistingARM

This motley group of musicians put out some of the prettiest left-field, genre bending, post hip-hop available. I wore out the remixish album yell&ice just a bit ago, retiring it from my vehicle and stashing it somewhere in the lab for other folk to find and enjoy. I cannot yet tell if I like this album better than the fantastic For Hero: For Fool, but it handles similar themes and does not wander too far. Time will tell, but this one is sure to get quite a bit of play.


The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

I did not like the first Raconteurs album much. I only picked this one up because I have some strange sick hope that Jack White will return to making stripped down rock that I can cut grass to. The white stripes have gone downhill for quite some time now, deserving nothing more than the casual listen to see how bad the album might be this time. Apparently, Jack has been funneling the coolness from that group right into this one. The Raconteurs have made the album that should have been the follow up to White Blood Cells. A fine collection of jangly and distorted songs in the key of awesome. Simple and thoroughly enjoyable.


Tipper - Tertiary Noise

It isn't an actual new album really, more of a collection of things not found on other albums with a touch of new thrown in to appease anyone who had happened to somehow have found everything else contained herein.
It isn't groundbreaking, and does not yet show him breaking the new ground he promised to soon, but it is a new Tipper release and that makes me happy.


Meat Beat Manifesto - Autoimmune

Dangers returns from the land of jazz and pissed off zombies to bring out a real and true new MBM album. Electronic rivers of low slung bass flowing around edifices of shiny broken beats that fall forever in perfect metronome on mescaline time. All the while an infinite open sphere of found sounds and obscure samples drift past your head and frame melody pieces that never quite connect to anything other than your subconscious.
This is the MBM album we have been waiting for since RUOK? pointed out that MBM could still show the way to new musical heights. Daddy Sandy shows up a few times to spew his unintelligible vocals. MC Azeem shows up on one track (the most straightforward on the album). Jack even brings his familiar vocal stylings to a track, a trick we haven't heard in quite some time.
Get this album immediately and turn it up way the fuck up.


Coil - The New Backwards

I was not expecting any new Coil to show up, what with Balance not being around anymore and Sleazy off in Thailand doing new tings (check out Soisong if you haven't already done so). This lovely redrawing of the works fro way back when at Nothing studios accompanied re-release of The Ape of Naples. The old and unreleased tracks were reworked by Christopherson and Danny Hyde, featuring Balance on three of the six tracks. What can I say? Coil were arguably the most gifted group to ever gift the world music. A new album is priceless.