Laser Fusion and Glorious Electronica

Finally, I may soon have a means of powering that killbot I constructed mid-nineties, the damn power-hungry monstrosity.

It was reported this week that an obstacle in the process of sustainable nuclear fusion using lasers was overcome! Huzzah! I know, it was on everyone's minds. "Plasma interruption" this, "I dearly hope it doesn't affect the hohlraum's ability to absorb the incident laser light!!" that. But fear not! All is well, and they reckon that they will finally be able to start ignition of a fusion reactor later this year! Essentially, the semi-sustainable power source of the sun, harnessed for potentially great/evil use. This may well be more exciting that the discovery of Dark Matter and the LHC programme, which is too slow burning for my liking. As a world renowned scientist, I demand more! Plus, lasers have auto-cool written all over them and the scientists that use them. It's the law.

Whilst this has been going on, I've been sat at a desk (for once), being endlessly pelted with chunks of confusion. My new job in IT support is more or less exactly like the IT crowd, albeit with more tea and jaffa cakes. And I love it! They literally think temps know nothing, so you spend 80% of your time being trained in varying databases, 10% answering calls where you tell them to ring elsewhere, and the final 10% is dedicated to the art of drinking delicious tea. Mmm, tea.


So, while I'm in a tech-like mood, here's a post dedicated to all things Electronica & my favourite dance music of the recent past. Ideally, I look for something bass heavy, choppy & electro-laden; The bit in Bonkers, where it all kicks off & you press the headphones in a bit more; The best parts of Daft Punk (before they got lazy); And then songs like Into The Void, below, which may not always fit the genre, but will always fit the playlist.

I've never really been into dance music outright, so I'd like to think I'm unbiased and therefore choosier in which tracks I play relentlessly. Nonsense. It most likely means I just don't like the majority (too repetitive and full of Cascada-esque bawling) and am usually unwilling to delve any deeper. But what I have found I do love, though I wouldn't play it all the time. Below are a few of my favourite tracks that shouldn't be too obvious but I assure you are great (if that holds any authority! Which it won't). I'm not including any Daft Punk, Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers, Prodigy or Justice (minus a remix or two), because that'd be lazy. Laaaazy. But the rest is good stuff.

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Ghosthustler - Busy Busy Busy

I'll start with one that was a grower, but the louder I played it, and the more often I walked back from work, late at night, with bass-heavy headphones and a skip in my step, the more I loved it. It has great scooping bass, like the intro to the amazing Satisfaction remix by Daft Punk (which I'll add) when it kicks in and you feel the air vibrate by the speaker. Plus, It's always a bonus to have real instruments in a track, but chopped up. It adds depth and doesn't feel as cold to the ears.

Marumari - Birch Beer Forest

The album Pathscrubber totally immerses you in this robotic undergrowth. Hard to describe, but this song feels like Goldilocks' first venture into the woods, written in binary. And i'd included another, Marumari - Lyortoi, because it sounds bloody marvellous, even though it's essentially an intermission.

Quantazelle - Braking (Hushed)

Ah, 8-bit wonderment. It sounds like the theme for the robot Olympics. Think that how it was described on 3hive, and somehow 4 years later it's still the first thing I imagine.

Thieves Like Us - Drugs In My Body

Drugs In My Body sounds like it's been made in a bedroom somewhere at Uni, and is all the better for it. I kinda like how weak the vocals are. Just the weediest, neediest guy trying to impress a girl with all his drugs! All the better for the driving beat and looping guitars. Oh! And around 2 min 14 or so, the midi drums are superb. Like a Cadbury's advert.

SebastiAn - Head/Off

Don't be put off by the seemingly off kilter timings. Part of the fun is figuring out the rhythm! SebastiAn is well known for remixing Killing in the Name a few years ago, but he doesn't go all out on that one. At the 2 minute 30 secs mark, turn up your bass and general volume. On headphones, superb.

RJD2 - Ghostwriter

I don't know much (or anything at all) about RJD2, but the album Deadringer is amazing. So very easy to listen to, and effortlessly cool. Soundtracked many a lengthy Pro Evo session at Uni way back when.

George Sarah - Lament

Different mood, but still evokes that late night with a drink and numerous Cracked articles thing. Happy times. The strings make the song more than it would have been.

!!! - Must Be The Moon (Emperor Machine mix)

I'm (foolishly) betting on the fact that other people keep coming back to certain songs, even though they conk out at the halfway mark. This, by !!! (Chk Chk Chk) being one of them, sounds amazing all loud n' whatnot. Once again, real instruments are the key.

Nine Inch Nails - Into The Void

To finish with (for now, until I can properly search through my music, not just the one playlist), here's one of my favourite songs of all time. The build up, the range of instruments, the colliding layers and then the rolling pay-off. Bliss

Billions upon Billions

I'm sat watching BBC's The Great Rift, which is a new wildlife/geology programme, and I swear that they are just inventing animals. The Antelope in the mountains were clearly, clearly marked with white spray paint, with a little on the cheeks to complement its complexion. Lovely, yes, but there's definitely something going on. They just said that a tiny gopher-like creature was, in fact, a scaled down Elephant, but hairy. You what? Made up. "Down by the sugar bushes, where the chameleons stalk their prey...". Sugar bushes?! This is sounding like Jabberwocky now.

There's definitely not enough geology programmes on telly at the moment. Or ever. A programme that shows planetary change with clear explanations, a charismatic presenter and some not-dodgy-but-can-be-if-effective CGI. I recently 'acquired' the 1980 TV series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan, and it triggered a minor obsession with the universe and all its crazy physics. Carl Sagan is quite possibly the most intelligent man I've ever seen on television, and he's such an confident oddball. His delivery of every single syllable makes you pay attention and partly absorb everything he talks about. However, due to the nature of talking about the universe and its unknowable vastness, Cosmos induces a kind of laid back trippyness that makes you lose hours and hours. Also, Sagan was a well-documented advocate of getting stoned and stargazing, AND worked for NASA. This is exactly the sort of as-cool-as-a-taco-is-spicy TV personality we're lacking on the BBC. Carl Sagan could get every child in the UK to become a astrophysicist. Or a stoner.

The David Attenborough series of documentaries/landscape porn, such as Life and Planet Earth, are great, but aren't sciencey enough for my interest to be piqued. Yes, that tiger cub is cute, and it's plight is very much fraught with danger and mild peril, but I want to see inside it's DNA, and I want to see it now! *Cue rapid zoom to a sub-molecular level* Boom. But no time for that, the Earth is shifting! *Dolly zoom into the helpless cub's eyes as the ground crumbles away under it* Laaaavvvaaaa. Freeze frame as a detailed spectrography of the rocks appears, superimposed onto the surrounding volcanic of pit. And are tiger cubs fireproof? Percentages and betting ratios, stat! Not sure exactly how volcanically active this fictional part of India is, but I wouldn't need to make this up if they'd just give me the TV that I want!

Right, music theme... Ah! The best detective (eg. whilst doing some detecting)/chase music from film or TV. Ideally not a John Williams-esque orchestra score. Here's a few, but any suggestions are very welcome.

Yoko Kanno & The Seatbelts - Tank!

This is from Cowboy Beebop, an amazing anime movie based on a popular detective TV show. According to my good friend Rick, they commissioned a jazz and blues soundtrack specifically for the show, and the result is effortlessly cool. Okay, they probably put some effort in, jazz is complex. This is the best track on the album, coming on over the main titles. Really defines the film from there on in.

Brad Fiedel - Tech Noir: Alley Chase

Seminal work from the former Blackburn Rovers goalie turned Villan. Oh. That would've been amazing though, right? This is from The Terminator, and is amazing to do a puppet dance to (just wait til it kicks in around the 3 minute mark). Turn it up a bit louder though, it needs it. Also, it's a bit Final Fantasy VII, escape from Midgar! Ruuuuun.

Dengue Fever - Ethanopium

From the film Broken Flowers, this is pure sleuthing musak. Pass me another Sailor Jerry Mojito, I'm ready to invoice.

Right, the house is covered in thread from Deborah's handbag production line, I'm (not) off to hoover.

John Connor & the Time Travelling Throat Lozenge

We finally managed to put up our free Tree of Life poster from the Open University! It's a glorious map of every species (more or less), and we ordered it when the first episode of BBC's Life series appeared. 8 short weeks later, woo!

Just watched Terminator Salvation too. The actual terminators themselves looked amazing, far better than I was led to believe. Of course, anything Stan Winston (RIP) is instantly frightening and lifelike (yeah, even Pumpkinhead and Small Soldiers). The Arnie T-100 was way more believable than the interweb told me too, although he looked far too normal. 80s Arnie was Bulbous, misshapen and Conan like, but this guy (Roland Kickinger) was wax like.

However, the story lacked any sort of dramatic tension, John Connor wasn't given anything to do apart from sounding gruff, and I would definitely have preferred the horrendous original ending, where both Marcus and Connor died, and Connor's skin was put over Marcus' Endoskeleton to keep the myth alive. Yeah, it would have been sacrilege, but it would've given the franchise a fresh twist. And the music! Why get the rights for the Brad Fiedel score from the first two movies, then hire Danny Elfman to f**k it up?! It resulted in a bad mash-up that made think that maybe a jaunty pure Elfman score would've been just the ticket.

Of course, if they hadn't cancelled the TV series, we would've had an intelligent and thought-provoking Terminator for once. If you took out the explosions in the film, then the final episode of the TV series had twice as much plot and intrigue. And it didn't rely on Christian Bale gruffing it up. I swear to God, Bale hasn't had a decent role in ages. He does kinda play the same character over and over though, right? In the Machinist he was paranoid and huskily whispered a lot. He was practically non-existent in The Dark Knight (not a bad thing, but I do like a Batman centric story every so often), and huskily whispered a lot... 3:10 to Yuma was great, but I'm fairly sure he was doing the same thing again: A righteous man who huskily whispers and fires weapons.

Now, District 9! That was a pleasant surprise. Matched Avatar for Mobile Armoured Battlesuits (although his had an unsightly bulge), matched Half-Life and Portal for weapons, and had a lead who was, while admittedly a dick, still likeable. What an achievement. Can't wait for the next one, but I'd rather not encourage it. It ended too perfectly.

Here's some happy

Vampire Weekend - Taxi Cab

Clue To Kalo - Empty Save the Oxygen

Juana Molina - Quien

My, Outside is Murky

It's really quite grim outside. I live on the top floor in the middle of about 20 factories, and it feels like a Lowry painting. And I'm a bit skinny, so it fits perfectly.

Went to see Laura Veirs with Miss Deborah and Mr Iwan on Tuesday, as Iwan was interviewing her for a website...somewhere. She has a new album, a new baby on the way, and the songs are quietly confident and ruddy good. Quickly becoming an immensely listenable album. Iwan has a review of the album on his Small World Reviews page, so I won't go into it much. The song Sun is King caught my attention a few minutes ago, so I figured I'd share. It has a lovely drifting country vibe to it, and I'll probably be singing along in a few more listens.

Laura Veirs - Sun Is King

Continuing the low-key mood I'm in, here's one by Karl Blau. He's used to be the bassist for Laura Veirs, and just keeps churning out albums. I haven't been able to get into the latest one, Nature Got Away, but this one song stands out. It's a bit haphazard, but I genuinely believe he lives in the woods and talks to the animals.

Karl Blau - Mockingbird Diet

Next, to go a bit louder, ridiculously titled Manics track that harks back to...well, good Manics. Great guitars and lyrics that are absurdly brilliant, but are probably deadly serious. It's hard to tell.

Manic Street Preachers - Jackie Collins Existential Question Time

This next one is great for late night interweb browsing. I think it's the minimal effort that José Gonzalez puts into his vocals, combined with the Folktronica. Oh, I think that's all there is to the song. Still, great stuff.

The Books & José Gonzalez - Cello Song

And to finish, a slice of Amélie-esque, French market pondering wonderfulness from Swedish Detektivbyrån. Used it to put Deborah's head in Parisian mode in September, and by golly it worked!

Detektivbyrån - Dansbanan

Hope I get some sleep tonight...

Some 2009

I sorta forgot to find new music last year. I usually make a CD or 3 for Deborah, but struggled this year, through internet uselessness (5 gb limit?!? F**k off. There goes my US TV habit) and through not being in a house with 5 people anymore. It's the filtering process that's the best part. Downloading about 250 songs based on recommendations from blogs/friends/stuff you stumble upon, then being ruthless (in your own tiny way). Ideally, 20 songs worth, as a CD that's less than full isn't worth it. Well, that's what I tell myself. Clearly I'm not being 'ruthless' enough.

Anyway, here's a few songs from the small pile of data I've accumulated. It won't all be new, but it was new to me.

1. Midlake - Roscoe
Midlake - Young Bride

I got a bit hooked on this album around September, and may have since ruined it for myself through one too many listens. Whoops. Healthy time apart, I think. Brilliant Songs, these two. Pretty much all the album is of this quality, but these two I go back to. Roscoe has a great driving rhythm, and I'm always a sucker for harmonies and Amish imagery.

2. The National - So Far Around The Bend

I can't believe this wasn't even on an album! Such a great song. Uplifting, lots of instruments, doesn't last too long and has a lovely outro. What more could you ask for? Aside from another album.

3. Vitalic - Trahison

I love playing this song straight after the Blade Runner theme (end credit theme, whatever) by Vangelis. Sounds so 80s futuristic and a bit desolate. Of course, that's the imagery of Blade Runner, but it certainly carries on into Trahison. It just keeps building and building. I'd love to listen to it at the gym, whilst trying to stare down a T-100 who's hogging a treadmill. Try it! Link for Vangelis below.

Vangelis - Blade Runner (End titles)

4. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Old Panda Days

I love the backwards sounding synths, and the stereo production on the vocals. Reminds me of offloading tracks from my 4-track to the computer, and hearing the separate guitars in either ear, sometimes creating strange effects... anyway, I really like this song. It doesn't take anytime to get to know, you can forget about it for a while, and come back and fit it into any mix. Well, not any mix, but you get the idea. Sounds like certain friends.

5. Andrew Bird - Heretics

I went to see Andrew Bird last year with The Baxtertron (patent pending), and although I only knew about 4 songs, you really didn't need to know any. It's practically a mesmerising one man show, using a violin, his remarkable whistling abilities and a loop pedal (which are always ruddy brilliant). Heretics, as with most of these songs, wasn't out in 2009 (or was it?), but not long before that anyhow. He has that style of playing and singing like he's making it up on the spot, or rather it sounds like he's just having a conversation with someone in the room.

6. Fruit Bats - Rainbow Sign

I first heard this on a Subpop promo CD, and it definitely came out a while ago, but it's been on my endless playlist all year. I hadn't realised til today though, that it's a side project of a Shins member. Who knew? (is that true? Makes sense, same label and it's fantastic!). I really like Silent Life as well, so I'll include that too, though I didn't hear it last year.

Fruits Bats - Silent Life


7. Les Paul & Mary Ford - How High The Moon

Now, this most definitely isn't new! 1955 maybe? I watched that documentary about Les Paul, and although it was a little like an extended Jack Daniels ad ("Bill? Whyyyy he's just Bill...and John Boy? He's just Jooohnnn boy!!"), and it didn't really go into the Les Paul guitar, but I did learn that he invented multi-track recording! He started recording several guitar parts, harmonies etc. and confused everyone! And he didn't tell anyone how he did it for aaaages.

The vocals on this are crazy, and a little unnerving. The bit around 1 minute 10 with all the harmonies by the same person, in particular, as it builds and builds and then...just carries on as it did before. Listen for yourself.

8. Ratatat - Black Heroes

Sounds like a 60/70s children's TV show, but a really really sad one. Really draws you in.

That's all till later. It's far too late.

First off

I think I need some new music.

I'm definitely at that stage where I need to find a new band, a new obsession. It's been so long since I've found a band where I like at least half of their songs (when does that ever happen?! I'm probably being too picky). For shame! There's definitely something to be said for having only one or two songs for a hundred different artists: it makes your music collection more like an extended mix tape. But I definitely want a comfort band at the moment. A band that, when shuffle fails, you can get instant joy from. Sometimes even a band that you can just ignore! An album in the background that isn't shit to listen to past track 4 or 5, that drifts by, songs blending into one. A self-contained time-passer that you catch yourself singing along to on your trip across the living room to the kitchen, making the 12th brew in an application form marathon.

I do have a few of these albums, which I'll list now, in no particular order;

1. The Shins - Oh, Inverted World

The title more or less sums up the feel of the album. You can't necessary remember the songs when it's not playing, but once you're in, you're in. Endless melodies on every track, and plenty of reverb that makes you feel like you're watching them play a gig through a peep hole in an underground bunker. The newest Vampire Weekend album is a bit like this. I really struggle, in an oddly positive way, to remember the songs on it. In a way, it keeps me listening to it!

A standard mid album track would be One by One All Day, not one I usually remember, then as soon as it's on all is good


02 One By One All Day.mp3


2. Weezer - Pinkerton

Now, this could be just me harking back to my teens and the good times associated with it, along with a hefty dose of "I prefer their earlier stuff". But that's bollocks, 'coz it's definitely the best Weezer album, and one of my favourites. Later albums have been either all over the place, but alright (Maladroit), or too smooth, generic and comprise of that whole "I'm a playaaaa" thing Rivers Cuomo has embraced (Every album since Make Believe). It's not fun, it's just shit.

The Green Album is an album where nearly every song sounds the same, but blend together fairly well. Variations on a melody. Pinkerton, on the other hand, is grimy, melodic, passionate, has the whole band shouting the choruses, and is sort of how I'd prefer Weezer to still be. But that was never gonna happen. Plus, tastes change.

Across the Sea is a glorious song, tinged with melancholy, full of weirdly personal yet memorable lyrics ("At 10 I shaved my head and tried to be a monk. I thought the older women would like me if I did") and is probably the best song on the album. But once again, It works so much better in the context of the album.


05 Across The Sea.mp3


3. Beck - Mutations



This is the sort of album I'd like Beck to get stuck into now. Recorded in about 2 weeks, it's not over-produced, and, while there are layers, it's stripped down to as near a minimum as Beck could feasibly go. It's folky, melodic, and mad at times (the intro to Diamond Bollocks in particular). Sea Change tried to replicate it, but he wasn't exactly in a joyful mood there, and he certainly sounded like he'd rather be living in a box murmuring to himself.

Now, the end tracks are definitely not as strong as the first 6 or so, but that's still pretty good going! The mood is consistent, and seeing as I don't tend to remember lyrics (I can, however, recite them phonetically, like singing in a foreign language), I can sing along happily! This may be helped by the nonsense Beck spouts, as it doesn't require me to pay attention to the overall story. If I'm missing something, Beck definitely doesn't seem to care.

Dead Melodies is a lovely song. All harpsichord and melody. It's gibberish to me, but what imagery I do pick up from the lyrics is wonderful.


07 Dead Melodies.mp3


4. Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy

In my Eels experience, I find it hard to distinguish between many of the songs, especially on such a large album as Blinking Lights and Revelations, which can put me off a bit (same chord progressions, melodies... I'm sure the stories are great! But I usually don't pick up on them because I'm backwards). However, when Mr E gets it right, there goes a summer. Daisies of the Galaxy is the album that put the Eels back on the right track after the understandably depressing Electro-Shock Blues, which is still great but didn't exactly belch sunshine with such ditties as Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor...

Daisies of the Galaxy just flows and flows. It can be fun and frivolous (I Like Birds), slightly creepy and grungy (Flyswatter, which reminds me of the time when MTV2 wasn't just countdowns and Zane Lowe, and you could select your own hour on telly...think mine only ever came on at 3am) and then heartbreakingly sad (Selective Memory). I get the impression that any song about dead mothers is instant sadness (For Martha, I'm looking at you...and then running away to cry into my Weetabix).

Wooden Nickels is a mid album song that I reckon is a good reflection of the rest of the songs. It's short, sweet, and damning. I think Mr E judging you is a fate worse than death. The album in general doesn't outstay its welcome either. Well worth it.


12 Wooden Nickels.m4a


Right, that'll do for now.