Tag: Projects
January 14, 2024
Sofa So Good
A progress update on the repair of our sofa, very much the ultimate lazy Sunday job.
February 2, 2011
Programming an UNO game, part 2
It turns out that programming the UNO game is not that complicated once you start designing the thing. This post will get the rules and game elements clear.
The deck An UNO deck consists of four sets of coloured cards (red, yellow, green and blue) together with eight wild cards. The non-wild cards are marked with either numbers or special symbols. The numbers range from zero to nine with two of each number except for the zero, which is unique.
December 28, 2010
Programming an UNO game
A new year, a new hobby I don’t write about programming enough. This is a shame because it is a very interesting subject and I find that the problem solving aspects of programming are very satisfying. Keenly aware of the need to do more hobby programming and to get up to speed on areas of software development that I’ve been neglecting, I have decided to give myself the project of creating a computerised version of the UNO card game.
Tag: Puns
January 14, 2024
Sofa So Good
A progress update on the repair of our sofa, very much the ultimate lazy Sunday job.
Tag: Sofa
January 14, 2024
Sofa So Good
A progress update on the repair of our sofa, very much the ultimate lazy Sunday job.
Tag: Twenty Four
January 14, 2024
Sofa So Good
A progress update on the repair of our sofa, very much the ultimate lazy Sunday job.
January 12, 2024
The Negativity Casket
Updates on my diary, which I have continued rather than starting this month. Sometimes you can’t write because you haven’t done the things you like to write about. Sometimes you can’t write because you don’t feel you can articulate things correctly. I write anyway most of the time.
January 8, 2024
Agents of Chaos (2024 edition)
The cats break their new resolution not to knock stuff over in my office.
January 7, 2024
Some Git Instructions for Future Matt
What I did when I wanted to make the Hugo branch of this blog’s repository main, without using a merge.
January 2, 2024
Reflections on 2023
A post reflecting on the highs and lows of 2023, including travel, books, work, movies etc.
Tag: Diary
January 12, 2024
The Negativity Casket
Updates on my diary, which I have continued rather than starting this month. Sometimes you can’t write because you haven’t done the things you like to write about. Sometimes you can’t write because you don’t feel you can articulate things correctly. I write anyway most of the time.
Tag: Emotions
January 12, 2024
The Negativity Casket
Updates on my diary, which I have continued rather than starting this month. Sometimes you can’t write because you haven’t done the things you like to write about. Sometimes you can’t write because you don’t feel you can articulate things correctly. I write anyway most of the time.
Tag: Life Experiences
January 12, 2024
The Negativity Casket
Updates on my diary, which I have continued rather than starting this month. Sometimes you can’t write because you haven’t done the things you like to write about. Sometimes you can’t write because you don’t feel you can articulate things correctly. I write anyway most of the time.
January 8, 2024
Agents of Chaos (2024 edition)
The cats break their new resolution not to knock stuff over in my office.
January 2, 2024
Reflections on 2023
A post reflecting on the highs and lows of 2023, including travel, books, work, movies etc.
January 20, 2023
Come back to us Brother Matthew
As with most years, I had hoped to start off 2023 with a flurry of new blog posts. Instead I caught Covid, which knocked me out for most of ‘betweenmas’ and put paid to my hopes for a productive start to the year. At the time of writing this post, I only just feel like I have begun to get back to ’normal’, or at least as normal as things have been since 2020.
June 1, 2022
The paths in the wood
I began writing this post after realising that it is the first of June and I might as well attempt once more to write a post every day. The speed with which the first of the month comes around, inviting another such promise, always amuses me. But at the moment I am not sure whether this blog will still exist come the end of the month. I think I want to start again in pastures new.
August 2, 2021
Jab 2
I was due to have my second vaccination today, but like most people I rebooked to have it a bit earlier. No real side effects this time, save for a bit of malaise. Though that may have just been the thought of opening up the country when cases are still increasing quickly.
It goes without saying that I’d urge everyone to get vaccinated and then to keep turning up for whatever boosters the people protecting us (e.
May 17, 2021
Jab 1
I had my first Covid-19 vaccination on Friday. Leading up to it, I was borderline having a panic attack. From about lunchtime I was just all over the shop (the jab was at 7pm). I’m glad that the vaccination centres run with such exactitude, but also with a sense of cheeriness. By the time I’d had the jab, I was feeling much better just from the sheer relief of it.
January 5, 2021
Some Tips For Saving Time
A non-exhaustive list of ideas for saving time:
Delete your social media, and perhaps any other website or app that demands that you consume it rather than create with it. Another way to think of it: all these sites and apps transform your time in to one thing or another, what are the most valuable products of that time? In general, Facebook products are designed to transform your time into greater awareness of companies who would like you or your friends to buy their products.
January 4, 2021
The Forever Now
Writing this post came about from frustration with blogging. Specifically the tools I am using. Often it feels like a new language or paradigm comes along that shifts one or two of the pain points of blogging. The biggest are:
How long it takes to get a post on the internet once you’ve written it The reliability of the resulting website How good the resulting website looks Note that none of this really impacts the quality of the writing.
October 8, 2020
Old photographs
Recently I’ve had cause to dig out some old photos. If I’m honest it’s made me sad. Sadder than I was expecting. There’s a quote from Nan Goldin that once felt like a warning but now just sounds like a sad statement of ongoing affairs:
“I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost.”
May 31, 2020
Travel Writing After All This
While sprucing up this blog a bit during lockdown, I fell into reading my old posts about South America. I enjoyed it, mostly for the memories, but also because the current lockdown is warping my sense of time and space. Hours feel like weeks, but then I blink and a month’s gone by. I find myself traipsing similar orbits each day around the house, and then perhaps over to the supermarket or the park.
October 31, 2017
Three Years
Three years ago today I moved in to my little flat in Chichester, soon to start a new job. I had no money left but at least, after a character building stint of six months sleeping on the floor, I had a bed. In the intervening three years, my job role has expanded, I’ve done another degree, the flat has become a home, and I’ve met and married Ingrid. Add to that the fact that it’s almost four years since I left for South America and I start to realise that I’ve done a crazy amount of things in that time.
October 1, 2017
The same, but different
Ingrid and I got married a month ago. It was a lovely day. We had a simple ceremony with two witnesses, our friends Sue and Andrew. We kept it quiet and small, as we just wanted to be married without too much fuss. A month on, we’re happy to report that we are glad we did it.
We’d like to thank everyone who nonetheless sent cards and gifts, and to all of those who wished us well on Facebook.
January 1, 2015
Happy New Year 2015!
Just a brief message to wish everyone a happy new year. Getting my flat connected to the internet continues to be a trial so it’s still not as easy to post as I would like. However, I have some workarounds now and I hope to write (and post) more often from now on.
Like everyone I make resolutions at this time of year, though as the years pass I realise that the best resolutions are to apopt a new way of being rather than a new way of doing.
November 14, 2014
October and November 2014
I recently started a new job and moved in to a new flat. This means I’m too busy to write any long blog posts at the moment. Also I’m still not quite at home there, so I tend to spend my evenings tidying up or setting up new things. It’s a shame because I have plenty of things to write about (even without observations on moving, starting a new job, etc) but I guess the writing will happen eventually…
July 3, 2014
Whatever Happened To That Hat?
The hat in question is a Wilco baseball cap that I bought at a gig of theirs in 2004, the night that Germany got eliminated from Euro 2004. I’d love to show you a picture of it but I can’t, there isn’t even a picture of it from a Wilco merch site: at least not one that Google or Bing images can see anyway. I did manage to find a side-on picture of it in my bedroom in 2005 and zoom right in on it like they do in CSI.
October 16, 2013
The Reset Button
Previously on… I planned this post as a follow-up to one called The Truth About Work from a couple of months ago, but a few things happened that changed my thinking. It has implications for my future and in particular, it redefines what this break from work and upcoming trip means to me.
One of the punchlines to “The Truth About Work” was that, sometimes, the only way to move ahead is to quit.
August 14, 2013
The Truth About Work
Motivation and Lies Motivation is a fickle thing. You can see it in action here on this blog, or rather in inaction as there are often “droughts” between posts (and draughts between drafts…). Back in June I tried to write a post each day that had a title of the form “X and Y”. I was overambitious and they petered out after a bit. This was one of those posts and was originally titled “Motivation and Lies” in melodramatic fashion.
April 5, 2011
Five Things To Try When You Can't Sleep
Facebook is wonderful for keeping in touch but I’ve noticed that quite a few of my friends tend to use it to tell the world that they can’t sleep. Here’s some advice for you if you find yourself unable to sleep one night. I’ve often had to try these out myself! Note that these are just things that work for me and your mileage may vary, particularly if you are fortunate enough to have a partner next to you!
December 24, 2010
Tales From Home
A question of identity Three letters for Dad in the mail today, three variations on our surname including the aquatic Dory version and the lesser-spotted Dorny. It is perhaps best not to go back to the time he was accidentally listed in the Thompson directory as Mr. Dopey, bringing forth prank calls from all teenagers within a ten mile radius. Fortunately, Dr. Dorey doesn’t have this problem with his mail: he doesn’t get any.
December 1, 2010
The Setback
Since the run there has been a bit of a hiatus in this blog. I wrote about how running was making me feel better. In fact, I should have said more. I recently stopped taking the antidepressants that I had been taking for eighteen months. This has been my longest period taking such medication but the running made me feel sufficiently good to decide that I could stop taking them.
November 14, 2010
Movember 10K
So, Saturday. Finally. The big day. Would I a) be able to get to Greenwich in time for the registration? and b) be able to make it all the way around the course without collapsing and crying?
Happily the answer to both questions was a resounding “Yes!” and I really enjoyed it. The weather was really good, especially compared to the two days before hand, and Marc came along to take some brilliant photos.
Tag: Writing
January 12, 2024
The Negativity Casket
Updates on my diary, which I have continued rather than starting this month. Sometimes you can’t write because you haven’t done the things you like to write about. Sometimes you can’t write because you don’t feel you can articulate things correctly. I write anyway most of the time.
January 2, 2024
Reflections on 2023
A post reflecting on the highs and lows of 2023, including travel, books, work, movies etc.
March 15, 2023
What is in my Rakefile? (March 2023 edition)
Because I am bored of forgetting what’s in my website’s Rakefile, I thought I’d write a list. Also, as I’m probably going to move over to a node based approach soon, it’s a handy wish list for my package.json file when the time comes.
Make a new post in _posts named “Title” rake post["Title"]
If no title is given, you will be prompted for one. The post will be opened in the editor specified in the Rakefile.
June 1, 2022
The paths in the wood
I began writing this post after realising that it is the first of June and I might as well attempt once more to write a post every day. The speed with which the first of the month comes around, inviting another such promise, always amuses me. But at the moment I am not sure whether this blog will still exist come the end of the month. I think I want to start again in pastures new.
February 26, 2022
John Irving, The Imaginary Girlfriend
The Imaginary Girlfriend is a short autobiography by American author John Irving. In it, he explains the interwoven roles of writing and wrestling in his life.
As always with Irving, the book is absorbing from the off, and it’s tempting to use the anecdotes here to explain why most of his novels seem to have an underdog narrating them. It’s because he loves the work of Dickens so much. I kid.
June 1, 2020
Sprucing up the Blog
This post explains some of the modifications I made to a minimal Jekyll theme to get this blog as I wanted it. This blog (currently) uses the excellent Sidey theme by Ronalds Vilciņš. His site looks eerily similar to this one, at least at time of writing.
The theme is pretty minimal in terms of features (and appearance) but it scores well on the Google Page Speed test. The features I added have increased the build time, but have not affected the speed of the site in terms of the page speed test.
May 31, 2020
Travel Writing After All This
While sprucing up this blog a bit during lockdown, I fell into reading my old posts about South America. I enjoyed it, mostly for the memories, but also because the current lockdown is warping my sense of time and space. Hours feel like weeks, but then I blink and a month’s gone by. I find myself traipsing similar orbits each day around the house, and then perhaps over to the supermarket or the park.
April 23, 2019
Ambitions Revisited
Back in 2012 I wrote a post listing my ambitions for the future. Well it’s the future now isn’t it? Almost. After all, I’m a whole new person now. Anyway it’s probably time to take stock. Have I achieved any of them? Have any of my ambitions changed? What’s replaced the things that I’ve decided not to worry about? What has come after the things I managed to do?
First off, here’s my justification for writing the list in the original post:
June 10, 2018
Reboot
As much as I hate to write about writing, especially when I write so infrequently, I feel I need to reboot this blog. I wrote so few posts in recent months I considered giving up altogether.
I’ve been stressed. Sometimes this manifests in being unable to sleep. Sometimes it manifests in all my interests and ideas seeming to be completely pointless. Sometimes one of those precedes the other. Sometimes it works vice versa.
February 1, 2018
A Diary?
This year promises to be exciting so this week I tried to buy a diary. One of those day-to-a-page affairs for scribbling down all the things I’ve seen and learned about. I thought they might be cheap now the calendar is turning to February. No such luck. There were a few week-to-view diaries going for half price in Waterstones but nothing suitable for my needs. I have lots of Field Notes notebooks if my urge to write gets too much to resist.
October 31, 2017
Three Years
Three years ago today I moved in to my little flat in Chichester, soon to start a new job. I had no money left but at least, after a character building stint of six months sleeping on the floor, I had a bed. In the intervening three years, my job role has expanded, I’ve done another degree, the flat has become a home, and I’ve met and married Ingrid. Add to that the fact that it’s almost four years since I left for South America and I start to realise that I’ve done a crazy amount of things in that time.
July 17, 2017
Valleys
In my last post, I wrote about hills. I tried to use them as a metaphor to explain nagging sense of incompletion when you single out one activity over another. The feeling that there’s always a more exciting hill off in the distance to go climb, instead of the one you’re on.
I said my next post would be about how to pick between different options, particularly when you have many to choose from.
June 16, 2017
Create
It can be a struggle to keep writing. I’ve found this happened a lot since I moved the blog. First, there was the business of moving things over. That meant a lot of thought about old posts and which ones I should keep. A lot of the time I thought “how on earth did I have time to write this?!”
Then there seemed to be a lot more barriers to writing than previously.
April 11, 2017
Changes
Moving the blog to Jekyll (again, sort of) Et voila, my blog lives! In a new body (Jekyll) and at a new location.
The Process I set up Jekyll on my MacBook Air after loads of initial problems with installing the theme and getting assorted Ruby gems installed and working. Stack Overflow is a friend for life now. By way of comparison, getting things up and running on my new Mac was simple.
September 11, 2016
A New Notebook
Witness the pressure of a new notebook. You sit at your desk, trying to get it started with an amazing piece of writing. Something worthy of that crisp new page. You want it to tumble out of you, fully formed and coherent. Something that justifies you abandoning the previous one. As though first drafts don’t exist. You cast yourself into the role of shaman, of seer - of someone gifted a prophetic vision.
September 8, 2016
I Don't Have a Clue, part 43
A little man wearing a bow tie, and possibly a fez, scurries into the middle of the frame clutching a clapboard. Breathing heavily he hoists the clapboard up to chest height. He holds the clapper up then brings down while slurring "This is a blog post about not having a clue, take 43". He exits to the right of the frame.
My feet are hot. The bed seems too small. Why are my feet always too hot on nights like these?
June 9, 2016
Logitech K380 Review
Time for a little gear review. This is the Logitech K380 keyboard. It pairs with devices wirelessly over Bluetooth. I bought it to use with my Apple TV, iPad and iPhone. It runs on 2 AAA batteries, but the supplied batteries are not rechargeable. The keyboard is light and portable but you definitely know you have it in your bag.
It’s lovely to type on. For a go-anywhere keyboard it has a surprisingly nice feel to the keys.
December 17, 2015
The Long Post
I am writing a long post that I will either publish as one long post (about five or six thousand words) or as about seven smaller ones each closer to the average post length of about eight hundred words. I have to get it out-of-the-way soon as my mind needs to focus on my health economics essay.
It is hard to write short posts to a timetable, let alone churn out long posts on a regular basis.
July 20, 2015
Untitled 2
A few months ago I wrote about an idea for a novel that I’d abandoned. I mentioned in that post that I’d abandoned it because there was another idea that I wanted to pursue. The working title for it is “Untitled 2”. (It isn’t really, I have an actual working title that would give things away or would at least make me feel like the idea was out in the world.
March 22, 2015
A Little Bit Intimidating Really
There is so much good writing out there. All you have to do is fire up the guardian website, or download the medium app to your smartphone, or visit my friend Barrie’s site, or Lee’s, and so on and so on.
When it comes to my little whisper into this great choir, it’s easy to feel a bit intimidated. How do I add my voice? How do I feel distinct? How do I do it as well as all these other wonderful writers?
March 22, 2015
How Fireworks Work
Last night an impromptu firework display occurred. I watched it from my bathroom window. Very pretty and somewhat extravagant, given that there’s no reason for one on the calendar. I could have filmed it on meerkat but it would have diminished the spectacle. However, it did at least motivate me to write this piece that I have put off for a while (since about November I guess?). One where I find out (i.
February 20, 2015
On Writing As It Happens
I’m pretty close to a round number. To date I have written 298,500 words for this blog, not counting posts that I have discarded or deleted. This will be the 505th post currently on the blog, which makes for an average of just under 600 words per post. Some posts are just a picture or a video or a gallery though, so that distorts the average a bit.
I don’t think I can write the 1500 words I need to hit 300,000 in this post.
February 15, 2015
On Jackson X
I set myself the task of writing about a fictional character for this blog post, so this post is about Jackson X. His surname isn’t really X, it’s just one of the details about him that I haven’t fleshed out yet. This is because Jackson X is the one of the protagonists of the novel I’m (not) writing.
The name of the novel is “The Summer of the Giant Space Whale”.
December 30, 2014
On convictions, whereas to the strength of and belief in same
Overlong reflection upon the past is one sure way to make yourself unhappy so I try to avoid it. Nevertheless it becomes unavoidable at this time of year, especially if, like me, you are somewhat prone to reflection.
At this time last year I was, as detailed in the most recent report of my South American adventure, in La Paz, Bolivia. I think I felt as lost then as I do now, though back then I had the novelty of new places and good friends to steer me through.
November 14, 2014
October and November 2014
I recently started a new job and moved in to a new flat. This means I’m too busy to write any long blog posts at the moment. Also I’m still not quite at home there, so I tend to spend my evenings tidying up or setting up new things. It’s a shame because I have plenty of things to write about (even without observations on moving, starting a new job, etc) but I guess the writing will happen eventually…
August 21, 2014
Useful Ulysses
What it is Ulysses is a markdown editor for the Mac. It has a simple drafting model that makes it easy to organise ideas and move between them. Pieces of writing are represented as sheets that can be tagged and grouped together - the grouping can be made manually or using filters. There are no files, the sheets are entries in a single database that is synced with iCloud. Because everything is plain text it won’t eat up your storage space.
August 5, 2011
Five lessons from a year of blogging
I have now been writing decent length articles on this site for about a year. I have learned a lot in this time, mostly about writing but also how to express your feelings and how to marshal your ideas and passions into action. For this month’s “five on the fifth”, I would like to share with you some of the things I have learned.
Writing posts consistently is hard… There are a lot of things that get in the way of regular posting.
Tag: AI
October 24, 2014
Building Brains
This is a longer form post about artificial intelligence inspired by reading a little bit of “The Pale King” by David Foster Wallace and putting a picture of a “ghost” up on Instagram. This might be the last of these that I’m able to write for a while.
On Not Reading “The Pale King” “The Pale King” is the third and final novel by American author David Foster Wallace. He was working on it when he committed suicide in 2008.
Tag: Blogging
January 7, 2024
Some Git Instructions for Future Matt
What I did when I wanted to make the Hugo branch of this blog’s repository main, without using a merge.
January 2, 2024
Reflections on 2023
A post reflecting on the highs and lows of 2023, including travel, books, work, movies etc.
December 21, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year Preview
It might have been a good idea to write all the reviews prior to publishing this summary. You’ll get ten eventually, I promise.
February 2, 2022
Checking In
Despite my best intentions, I didn’t manage to continue writing posts after the first day of 2022! But perhaps now I can try again as an excuse to test my blogging set up on my new computer.
June 1, 2020
Sprucing up the Blog
This post explains some of the modifications I made to a minimal Jekyll theme to get this blog as I wanted it. This blog (currently) uses the excellent Sidey theme by Ronalds Vilciņš. His site looks eerily similar to this one, at least at time of writing.
The theme is pretty minimal in terms of features (and appearance) but it scores well on the Google Page Speed test. The features I added have increased the build time, but have not affected the speed of the site in terms of the page speed test.
April 23, 2019
Ambitions Revisited
Back in 2012 I wrote a post listing my ambitions for the future. Well it’s the future now isn’t it? Almost. After all, I’m a whole new person now. Anyway it’s probably time to take stock. Have I achieved any of them? Have any of my ambitions changed? What’s replaced the things that I’ve decided not to worry about? What has come after the things I managed to do?
First off, here’s my justification for writing the list in the original post:
June 10, 2018
Reboot
As much as I hate to write about writing, especially when I write so infrequently, I feel I need to reboot this blog. I wrote so few posts in recent months I considered giving up altogether.
I’ve been stressed. Sometimes this manifests in being unable to sleep. Sometimes it manifests in all my interests and ideas seeming to be completely pointless. Sometimes one of those precedes the other. Sometimes it works vice versa.
February 1, 2018
A Diary?
This year promises to be exciting so this week I tried to buy a diary. One of those day-to-a-page affairs for scribbling down all the things I’ve seen and learned about. I thought they might be cheap now the calendar is turning to February. No such luck. There were a few week-to-view diaries going for half price in Waterstones but nothing suitable for my needs. I have lots of Field Notes notebooks if my urge to write gets too much to resist.
July 17, 2017
Valleys
In my last post, I wrote about hills. I tried to use them as a metaphor to explain nagging sense of incompletion when you single out one activity over another. The feeling that there’s always a more exciting hill off in the distance to go climb, instead of the one you’re on.
I said my next post would be about how to pick between different options, particularly when you have many to choose from.
July 15, 2017
Hills
I’m a big fan of books. The way they transport you away to other places and so on. As repositories of knowledge and adventure they can’t be beat. I can think of no better way out of an existential fix than reading.
The trouble is I tend to hoard them. I’ve posted pictures of book stacks before (on more than one occasion). I could probably repeat that every month if I wanted to, perhaps even more often.
April 11, 2017
Changes
Moving the blog to Jekyll (again, sort of) Et voila, my blog lives! In a new body (Jekyll) and at a new location.
The Process I set up Jekyll on my MacBook Air after loads of initial problems with installing the theme and getting assorted Ruby gems installed and working. Stack Overflow is a friend for life now. By way of comparison, getting things up and running on my new Mac was simple.
September 8, 2016
I Don't Have a Clue, part 43
A little man wearing a bow tie, and possibly a fez, scurries into the middle of the frame clutching a clapboard. Breathing heavily he hoists the clapboard up to chest height. He holds the clapper up then brings down while slurring "This is a blog post about not having a clue, take 43". He exits to the right of the frame.
My feet are hot. The bed seems too small. Why are my feet always too hot on nights like these?
December 17, 2015
The Long Post
I am writing a long post that I will either publish as one long post (about five or six thousand words) or as about seven smaller ones each closer to the average post length of about eight hundred words. I have to get it out-of-the-way soon as my mind needs to focus on my health economics essay.
It is hard to write short posts to a timetable, let alone churn out long posts on a regular basis.
June 18, 2015
Time Is Time and That Is That
A brief rant about Facebook: I hate the fact that the news feed defaults to “Top Stories” even though I change it back to “Most Recent” every time I log in. It’s a horrible pattern of user abuse that needs to stop. Time is time and that is that.
So why does Facebook feel the need to jiggle things about into a random order? Well most of you have that mobile phone app of theirs that sucks your battery and your data allowance like crazy (mainly by auto-playing videos like a dick).
Tag: Getting Better
Tag: Life Experience
June 3, 2023
How random should things be?
I’ve managed to extract my music library, including all the albums I’ve added to streaming, as a CSV file and write a routine in R to select an album at random. The plan is to write about that album for the blog in roughly the time that it takes to listen to that album all the way through. I already did this yesterday for Goldfrapp’s Black Cherry.
But I have to level with you.
April 9, 2023
A list for '23
A set of rules for living from now on (in no particular order)
Life is too short to look at adverts. Avoid them where possible. Block them if you have to. Embrace risk and chance, as they have contributed the most to where you are now. Intervene into physical things and leave your mark upon them. Draw pictures on the blank pages of books, even if they are dear to you.
Tag: Album Digest
December 31, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #1: Sofia Kourtesis, Madres
Good vibes, global beats, and the life changing effects of brain surgery abound in Sofia’s debut.
December 30, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #2: James Holden, Imagine This is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities
Like a yomp in the countryside, but it’s a psychic topography made up of all modern dance music in James Holden’s brainy but democratic masterpiece.
December 29, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #3: Barry Can't Swim, When Will We Land?
Get up and go delivered in spades in this sunny happy dance album.
December 28, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #4: The National, "First Two Pages of Frankenstein" and "Laugh Track"
Two new albums? And they’re both better than the last one? And now with added Taylor Swift? You spoil us!
December 27, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #5: Nation of Language, Strange Disciple
Chilly and delicate synth missives from the lockdown.
December 26, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #6: Grails, Anches en Maat
Grails’ latest album gives you plenty to lose yourself in (for forty minutes at least).
December 25, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #7: Maara, The Ancient Truth
Because sometimes you can be relaxed by drum and bass. Sometimes.
December 24, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #8: Everything But The Girl, Fuse
Kiss me while the world decays because I miss you like the deserts miss the rain.
December 23, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #9: Fever Ray, Radical Romantics
Features odes to carbon dioxide, bullying your kid’s bullies, and candy/kandy.
December 22, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #10: Wata Igarashi, Agartha
Anyone for Japanese Techno via German kosmische music and Philip Glass operas?
December 21, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year Preview
It might have been a good idea to write all the reviews prior to publishing this summary. You’ll get ten eventually, I promise.
December 31, 2020
Album Digest 2020
I’ve listened to music in slightly different ways to normal in the last nine months, but it’s still been a decent year for music. When I checked out my Spotify Unwrapped and my Last.fm reports, I had listened to more 2020 music than I thought.
December Album of the month had to be “We Will Always Love You” by the Avalanches. One of only three albums that I bought physical copies of this year, it combines my favourite musical genres and has a novel take on the spacey-sounding album: like something beamed into space about how great humans are.
April 30, 2019
About the Album Digest
I haven’t written one of my monthly album digests for over a year. The reasons mostly boil down to a lack of time and motivation but other factors include the changing way in which I listen to music. I bought more albums on vinyl and only a small proportion of those were recently released music. Meanwhile, the attractions of Spotify’s release radar proved too great to resist: it is a very convenient way to consume new music.
December 27, 2017
Album Digest, December 2017
Bjork Utopia “Utopia” is Björk’s ninth album. It’s a happier album compared to the emotional wreckage of “Vulnicura”. But while “Vulnicura” was a compelling if uncomfortable listen, “Utopia” is more comfortable and, unfortunately, not that compelling. This is old ground retrodden with few glimmers of past glories.
The brevity, succinctness and sharpness are all gone. Even on the best songs (the first three), there is very little strength in the lyrics.
December 7, 2017
Album Digest, November 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
October 31, 2017
Album Digest, October 2017
Mary Epworth “Elytral” This album came to my attention because its lead single “Me Swimming” appeared on my Discover Weekly playlist. I’d never heard of Mary before but this album was one of those nice discoveries that one sometimes makes when one tries to broaden what one listens to. The aforementioned “Me Swimming” is probably the best track, a beautiful slice of summery experimental pop layered over a beat that you can imagine as the kicks of a swimmer compared to the swirling lyric that imitates the pull of the strokes through the water.
September 30, 2017
Album Digest, September 2017
Note: Recent months have been very busy, so this album digest combines a review of the new album by The National with a couple of reviews left over from earlier in the year.
I’ve written a few more album reviews in the past months but I’m so far behind (February and March have already been published on a considerable lag) that I’m just going to pepper forthcoming digests with additional reviews of older albums.
March 31, 2017
Album Digest, March 2017
Blanck Mass World Eater This album is pretty extreme. It’s not for everyone and even for the people who can handle it, it’s not for all the time. This album is a soul crushing experience at points but there are also points of light. Perhaps this makes “World Eater” more reflective of life as a whole than any other of this month’s albums. On balance it’s probably less crushing than the last Blanck Mass album “Dumb Flesh”, which I reviewed back in June 2015.
February 28, 2017
Album Digest, February 2017
Grails Chalice Hymnal Some albums are good because a band continues making the music that you love. Some albums are good because a band takes their ideas a step or two further than before. Chalice Hymnalis that rare album that does both of these things.
The references to past albums include the track Deeper Politics and Deep Snow II, and, as per albums past, these tracks evolve slowly out of languid guitar hooks and smoky atmospherics.
January 31, 2017
Album Digest, January 2017
Mike Oldfield Return to Ommadawn With Return to Ommadawn, Mike Oldfield revisits his third album Ommadawn. He has past form for this, having revisited his masterwork Tubular Bells twice (the third revisit and fourth instalment Tubular Bells 4 is due next year). I wrote about Tubular Bells II for my understated classics series. Of course Mike has in fact made many more than three Tubular Bells albums1, and this is not a first “return” to Ommadawn.
September 30, 2016
Album Digest, September 2016
This month’s album digest features albums by Wilco, M.I.A., Local Natives, and a collaboration between Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani.
Wilco Schmilco Schmilco is the tenth studio album by Wilco, which regular readers will know are one of my favourite bands. There’s no need to repeat that anecdote about why this blog has the name that it does. Meanwhile, this album follows on from last year’s Star Wars and is probably the third Wilco album to have a jokey meta- kind of title.
August 31, 2016
Album Digest, August 2016
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I allowed Spotify to pick some new albums for me this month. It chose some noodly ambient techno, a captivating slice of World Jazz, a moody gothic hallucination, and a concept album about humans being rescued by aliens. All in all a pretty good job! Here is the list:
Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Sarathy Korwar “Day to Day” Doomsquad “Total Time” United Vibrations “The Myth of the Golden Ratio” Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Prins Thomas recently remixed the Orb’s “Alpine EP” so I’m not surprised that Spotify included one of his tracks on my Discover Weekly playlist.
July 31, 2016
Album Digest, July 2016
Album Digest July 2016 consists of a bumper five albums, mainly because I couldn’t work out which one to drop. I think they’re all pretty good though it’s great to hear new music from The Avalanches after all this time.
Bat For Lashes “The Bride” For her fourth album as Bat For Lashes, Natasha Khan applies her considerable songwriting skills to a concept album. She sings from the perspective of a bride whose husband dies on his way to their wedding.
June 30, 2016
Album Digest, June 2016
Album Digest June 2016 is a poppy batch of albums. We have the return of my long-time favourites Roxette and the heroes of my South American tour Tegan & Sara. There’s some dance music in the form of Flume’s album “Skin”: an Australian presence ahead of the new Avalanches album next month. Finally there is the first of two new albums by Islands - both were released back in May but one gets reviewed this month and the other next month.
May 31, 2016
Album Digest, May 2016
Album Digest May 2016 features the work of four bands or artists that I have reviewed in previous album digests. I also own (or will own) all of these albums on vinyl, so it’s handy that I’ve recently bought myself a record player!
Radiohead “A Moon Shaped Pool” Radiohead released “A Moon Shaped Pool” online about three weeks ago and a physical version hits the shops later in June. As with all of their recent albums, it is (mostly) a slow burner that rewards multiple listens.
April 30, 2016
Album Digest, April 2016
This month’s album digest is a mixture of comparisons. First we compare the fortunes of old hands Underworld to even older hands the Pet Shop Boys. After that I’ve found two dance albums, one that I liked and one that I didn’t. I find it quite hard to write about dance music and so the comparison is quite useful. Sometimes it helps to work out why you like one thing and not another.
February 1, 2016
Album Digest, David Bowie RIP
I thought I’d add three of my favourite David Bowie albums to my review of Blackstar to a form an album digest tribute. Also among my favourites but not included here is “Outside”, which will be included in the understated classics (currently it’s number 66) at some point. I thought about bumping “Outside” up the running order but I’d like to be objective about it when its turn comes.
Station To Station “It’s not the side effects of the cocaine / I’m thinking it must be love” sings Bowie on the title track of his tenth studio album “Station To Station”, released in 1976.
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
September 1, 2015
Everything Everything, Get To Heaven
It’s difficult to write honestly about your feelings. It’s difficult to write about your feelings consistently, for a living on a regular basis. It’s difficult to write about your feelings when the world constantly intrudes with inanity, insanity and hatred. It’s difficult to write under those conditions without seeming frayed, without coming loose at the edges.
“Get To Heaven”, the third album by Everything Everything, was forged under these stresses and pressures.
June 30, 2015
Album Digest, June 2015
To reboot this series, Album Digest June 2015 features five fantastic albums from Hot Chip, Jamie xx, Blanck Mass, Holly Herndon, and The Orb. I could pick loads more as I’ve listened to a lot of albums since February but I decided to focus on the more electronic material. This means that I have no excuses for not continuing next month with a rockier theme.
Hot Chip “Why Make Sense?” Hot Chip seem to be settling in to a pattern with their album releases, alternating between messy experimental affairs and then a state of the art correction.
March 1, 2015
Album Digest, February 2015
Aphex Twin “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt2 EP” Aphex Twin follows SYRO (reviewed in Album Digest September 2014 here) with this 27 minute EP of music that, if we take the title literally, features computers playing acoustic musical instruments. It’s a very different sound to SYRO and sounds acoustic for the most part. It’s an important experiment about the role of the musician, one that is already blurred in the creation of electronic music.
January 31, 2015
Album Digest, January 2015
Album Digest January 2015 rounds up a few albums from the tail end of 2014 that I didn’t get much time to write about. The only one of these six to be released this month is the excellent “No Cities To Love” by Sleater-Kinney.
Sleater-Kinney “No Cities To Love” I had heard of Sleater-Kinney before their boxed set “Start Together” was released in 2014. I was quite impressed that they curated their own Spotify playlist with the contents of the box.
September 30, 2014
Album Digest, September 2014
Album Digest September 2014 contains four amazing albums, including the long-awaited return from the Aphex Twin, and an album from Cymbals Eat Guitars released about a week after I wondered what had happened to them. Spooky. Rounding out the selection this month are a cool punky-disco album by The Juan Maclean and a truly remarkable offering by Vessel.
Aphex Twin SYRO SYRO is the sixth album by Aphex Twin and his first official Aphex Twin release since Drukqs in 2001.
August 31, 2014
Album Digest, August 2014
The album digest returns with five albums by four artists.
Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE Lone Reality Testing FKA twigs LP1 Mogwai Come On Die Young: Appendix Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE I’m a big fan of both Karl Hyde’s work with Underworld and of Brian Eno’s stuff so Someday World seemed like a dream collaboration to me when it was released last May.
June 30, 2014
Album Digest, June 2014
Watter are a “supergroup” composed from various members of Grails, Slint, and other bands. I did not know anything about Hundred Waters before this month: “The Moon Rang Like A Bell” is their second album. In fact second albums by bands I know nothing about are a something of theme because “Sunbathing Animal” is Parquet Courts’ sophomore effort and I don’t know anything about them either. Meanwhile, I’ve meant to write about “The Four Seasons Recomposed” since April.
May 31, 2014
Album Digest, May 2014
This month was strange. I didn’t listen to much new music and after last month’s bumper digest there’s probably a reason for that. Not to mention that Spotify gives you more reasons to look backwards than forwards. Nevertheless, this brief post features new albums by Little Dragon and Coldplay, along with the mini-album collaboration between Röyskopp and Robyn.
Little Dragon “Nabuma Rubberband” I discovered Little Dragon, like most people, I imagine, via Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach” album.
March 31, 2014
Album Digest, March 2014
I’m back in the UK so it’s back to posts about albums each month. This one is a bit different because I didn’t listen to very much new stuff while I was away so not all of the albums are up to date. I had to write about the new album by Liars though because it’s awesome and I couldn’t wait to discuss it! Here’s the list of albums:
Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob Fanfarlo Let’s Go Extinct Liars Mess London Grammar If You Wait Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob I would argue, as I have throughout my sequence of understated classics posts, that a great album is one that changes you as a person.
October 31, 2013
Album Digest, October 2013
Four great albums this month for the last album digest in a while.
CHVRCHES “The Bones Of What You Believe” I first got into CHVRCHES on Record Store Day, one of my purchases was an Irn Bru coloured 12" of the Recover EP that, according to eBay, tripled in value over night. Judging by this, their full debut, my see-through orange slab of happiness may hold its value, because it’s clear that CHVRCHES should be around for the long haul.
September 30, 2013
Album Digest, September 2013
A nice diverse selection of albums this month:
Arctic Monkeys “AM” BT “A Song Across Wires” Goldfrapp “Tales of Us” Janelle Monáe “Electric Lady” Arctic Monkeys “AM” This whole review is basically me catching up with the rest of the world and realising that the Arctic Monkeys are ace. To be fair, I did notice how awesome they were at the opening ceremony of the Olympics last year, and I have liked the odd one or two of their singles, but up until now I haven’t really wanted to listen to any of their albums.
August 31, 2013
Album Digest, August 2013
For reasons that will become apparent, there will be a short period soon where I will not be writing album digests. Until then, I’m clearing a backlog of some albums that I’ve been listening to but haven’t had enough time or motivation to write about. Only one of this month’s albums was released this month, something that’s not that uncommon at this time of the year as it is not the best time to release things.
July 31, 2013
Album Digest, July 2013
Another four albums for you this month. Sometimes the problem is not finding albums to listen to but actually finding time to listen to them! Often it is not because I don’t have time but because I have already found some great albums this month and I am busy listening to those instead. As a result, a couple of these albums are ones that I have only listened to for a week or so, but they are interesting enough to write about.
June 30, 2013
Album Digest, June 2013
Just two albums this month as I am still enjoying last month’s albums so much (and I spent loads of time getting reacquainted with Boards Of Canada at the start of the month). I listened to a few more albums but not often enough to write loads about them so there is an “honourable mention” section at the end of the post that briefly discusses a few more albums.
Without further ado, the two albums are:
May 31, 2013
Album Digest, May 2013
Lilacs & Champagne Danish & Blue You might remember that last year I reviewed the first Lilacs & Champagne album and I liked it a lot. This album sees them back with more of the same: taking the approach that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There are very few changes to the formula apart from the fact that the spoken word samples are not quite as good this time and there’s a bit more Grails-like guitar solo action.
April 30, 2013
Album Digest, April 2013
Some great albums this month!
The Flaming Lips The Terror Wire Change Becomes Us James Blake Overgrown The Knife Shaking The Habitual The Flaming Lips The Terror How you view The Terror pretty much depends on how much you have kept up with The Flips output since their last official album, the clanking double behemoth in Merkin packaging that was Embryonic. The irony being that I used Embryonic to deal with a break-up and The Terror is pretty much about… a break-up.
March 31, 2013
Album Digest, March 2013
Just the David Bowie album this month as it’s pretty much the only new music that I’ve listened to.
I must admit that I had no idea what to expect of “The Next Day”. It comes almost exactly ten years after “Reality”, an album that I have never really got into despite it having some pretty decent fun tracks like “New Killer Star” and a nice cover of “Pablo Picasso” that has never sent me in search of Jonathan Richman’s original.
February 28, 2013
Album Digest, February 2013
Most Februaries are quite quiet when it comes to albums (though this was not the case back in 2011) and although only the Foals album is a major release, I was quite surprised to find myself with four decent albums to write about. They are:
Darkstar “News From Nowhere” Foals “Holy Fire” Daniel Hope “Spheres” Apparat “Krieg und Frieden (Music For Theatre)” Darkstar “News From Nowhere” I don’t need to give too much biographical background for the Darkstar album as I don’t know too much about who the are.
January 31, 2013
Album Digest, January 2013
Only one of this month three albums was actually released this month. Nelly Furtado’s Mi plan was actually released over three years ago - I only discovered it last year when I wrote the September album digest following the release of “The Spirit Indestructible”, or it might have been when I wrote about “Folklore” at around the same time.
Anyway, I guess these are albums that I bought with my Christmas gift vouchers!
December 31, 2012
Album Digest, December 2012
Three albums (one very Christmassey one!) and an EP this month.
Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” Woob “Have Landed” Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin “Instrumental Tourist” Burial “Truant / Rough Sleeper Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” “Tinsel and Lights” is that rarest of records, a Christmas record that is perfectly suited to the season and is not in any way overbearing or irritating. Most albums that are Christmas themed are usually centred on lots of covers that are taken from a small subset of well worn classics.
November 29, 2012
Album Digest, November 2012
Pretty much a sliding scale between songs and electronic wibble on this month’s albums and a particularly damp, chilly feeling to proceedings too.
Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” Ital “Hive Mind” and “Dream On” Björk “Bastards” Brian Eno “Lux” Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” When it comes to Bat For Lashes, I prefer her first album “Fur And Gold” to her second “Two Suns” because when I listen to the latter I don’t feel connected to any of the songs.
October 31, 2012
Album Digest, October 2012
It has been a strange month and I found that I didn’t listen to a lot of new music. I have been a bit down and when that’s the case I tend to take refuge in music that I know well, stuff that cheers me up. I have listened to last month’s fave a lot, Nelly Furtado’s “The Spirit Indestructible”. I said a lot of nice things about it but it probably didn’t come over in my writing just how much I really liked it.
September 29, 2012
Album Digest, September 2012
I had a bit more time to listen to this month’s albums because I was on holiday for two weeks. I didn’t manage to write about them while on holiday though! In fact I bought and listened to a few more, but I will save them for next month. The albums I will discuss now (in order bought) are:
Four Tet “Pink” The xx “Coexist” Nelly Furtado “The Spirit Indestructible” Grizzly Bear “Shields” It’s quite a diverse collection and, Four Tet apart, quite song based.
August 31, 2012
Album Digest, August 2012
Album Digest August 2012 is also from the stack of albums that I mentioned last month. I chose this selection (along with the Passion Pit album) because the colours looked good together in the mosaic of covers that I make each month. Last month’s digest was about the right amount of detail so this will be another briefer digest. These are all good albums but not ones that will change your life, they’ll just happily sit alongside it.
July 31, 2012
Album Digest, July 2012
Just a short album digest this month. I bought a stack of CDs and am parcelling them out over the next few months (together with important additional releases as they crop up). This is in the hope that I can write more considered pieces about each one. This month I’ve grouped together albums with monochrome covers and a BT album from June that I found out about recently. These albums are not just linked by their artwork, they also form a cohesive whole.
June 30, 2012
Album Digest, June 2012
Three fantastic albums for Album Digest June 2012:
Saint Etienne Words and Music by Saint Etienne Liars WIXIW Hot Chip In Our Heads This month is a curious selection in that the albums are all by bands that I already own a few records by. When there is so much other directly related material that you can write about, it makes focussing on the album in hand quite difficult. I am always thinking up rankings and comparisons.
May 31, 2012
Album Digest, May 2012
Four albums for Album Digest May 2012:
Jack White Blunderbuss One Little Plane Into The Trees Beach House Bloom Oxia Tides Of Mind The April album digest was rather short on songs, so this month I decided to look for albums that were more based around songs not tracks. Electronic music is relatively easy to write about: the music is often simple (but not always), there are recognisable structures and genres (but not always), and there are conventions that are adhered to (but not always).
April 30, 2012
Album Digest, April 2012
A mostly instrumental month with a comeback from Orbital, an excellent remix collection from Battles, an amazing movie documenting a live performance by the Chemical Brothers and Austin Wintory’s soundtrack to the game Journey.
Orbital Wonky Battles Dross Glop The Chemical Brothers Don’t Think Austin Wintory Journey (Original Soundtrack) Orbital Wonky I am quite keen on Orbital, though perhaps not as keen as I am on the similarly named Orb. I think I have got all the Orbital albums, mostly bought on eBay after the fact.
March 31, 2012
Album Digest, March 2012
Five albums for Album Digest March 2012
Fanfarlo Rooms Filled With Light The Shins Port Of Morrow Grails Deep Politics New Build Yesterday Was Lived And Lost Scuba Personality A nice collection of albums this month - things usually pick up in March after a slow period after Christmas. One of these is a “catch-up” (the album by Grails) but apart from that one, everything else was released in the last five weeks or so… I should probably have included the album by Racehorses that I bought on my birthday but I will have to leave that for next month as I haven’t listened to it that much.
February 28, 2012
Album Digest, February 2012
One EP and three albums for Album Digest February 2012:
Burial Kindred EP John Talabot fIN Lilacs & Champagne Lilacs & Champagne The 2 Bears Be Strong Last February was a pretty good month for song based albums, although the likes of Radiohead and James Blake provided plenty of electronic noodling in and around their song structures. (Interestingly, out of the two out-and-out song based albums, one was one of the worst albums of the year and the other one of the best).
January 31, 2012
Album Digest, January 2012
Five albums to see in the new year:
FOE “Bad Dream Hotline” Leila “U & I” Diagrams “Black Light” Pyramids & Horseback “A Throne Without A King” FabricLive 61 mixed by Pinch FOE Bad Dream Hotline I listened to “Bad Dream Hotline” about four times thinking “who does her voice remind me of?”. In the end I realised it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though in parts she sounds like KT Tunstall too.
December 29, 2011
Album Digest, December 2011
Some rather brief pen pictures of this month’s albums. I’ve been a bit busy!
Radio Slave - Collected Remixes Thud thud thud. This is pretty much how all Radio Slave remixes go. I really liked his fabric mix and borrowed a few tracks for a playlist I made called “Dancing In Space”. Anyway, back to the thudding: it’s no bad thing, the remixes have a nice formula that works well for discovering new tracks like UNKLE’s Burn My Shadow (Ian Astbury’s vocal is given plenty of room to shine) and K3’s Play To Win.
November 20, 2011
Album Digest, November 2011
Just three albums this month as I’ve been listening to a lot of Brian Eno records ready for an upcoming understated classic. First up is 50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush, the second album that she has released this year. Back in May I wrote about Director’s Cut, which presented re-recorded and re-mastered versions of songs from her albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. This time around it is an album of brand new material, the first since Aerial in 2006.
October 31, 2011
Album Digest, October 2011
This month we have albums by Björk, Coldplay, M83, and Radiohead.
Album Digest October 2011 - Intro I listened to Wilco’s The Whole Love again the other day. I happened to be walking past the venue in Portsmouth where I went to see them live back in 2004 and it seemed the right fit. I really enjoyed the album after a period of not having listened to it and I found that being familiar with the songs allowed me to better appreciate the production of the album.
September 30, 2011
Album Digest, September 2011
Hmmm, a rather grey looking selection of covers this month. The albums I have listened to most are:
John Beltran Ambient Selections FabricLive 59 mixed by Four Tet The Rapture In The Grace Of Your Love Wilco The Whole Love I have actually only had the Wilco album since Monday of this week (the 26th) but it has inveigled its way into my consciousness quite quickly. As I have said before, this blog owes its name to a Wilco song and they are quite an important band to me.
August 31, 2011
Album Digest, August 2011
I bought a collection of electronic music this month. I mixed them all up in a smart playlist on iTunes, the smart aspect being to limit to tracks that had been played fewer than five then six then seven times etc. This made sure I was still listening to all the tracks equally often, despite the randomness.
Biosphere N-plants Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure Gus Gus Arabian Horse Instra:Mental Resolution 653 Jon Tejada Parabolas Biosphere N-Plants I think this album makes Biosphere the most reviewed musician on this blog at the moment but I don’t mind too much, he makes some great stuff.
July 31, 2011
Album Digest, July 2011
Quite a mixed bag this month.
SBTRKT SBTRKT Zomby Dedication Brian Eno Drums Between The Bells Bon Iver Bon Iver Washed Out Within and Without This month’s collection of albums is a rather mellow bunch. The SBTRKT album (self-titled) is probably the most frenetic of the five though even that does not exactly pound four to the floor. Most of it is pretty calm, though the occasional burst of pop to spice things up: sometimes it is as downtempo as the rest (Right Thing To Do and Trials Of The Past) but at other times things spark into life, as on Pharaohs.
June 30, 2011
Album Digest, June 2011
I have had the sort of month that is not conducive to listening to much new music. Therefore this month’s post is only going to consider two new albums and two albums that I have bought behind time. Because of various bits of stress and poor mood, I have ended up going back and taking refuge in some old favourites and not listening to new stuff. At other points I have also gone back to the Fleet Foxes’ album that I wrote about last month, which has grown on me even more since.
May 31, 2011
Album Digest, May 2011
Four albums this month:
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Africa Hitech 93 Million Miles Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues TV On The Radio Nine Types of Light There is a pleasing red hue to all the covers this month. I had time to write four full reviews of the major albums I listened to. Like last month I have included a video at the foot of each review. Enjoy!
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Director’s Cut is not a new album from Kate Bush but a collection of re-visits to old songs, four from The Sensual World (1989) and seven from [The Red Shoes](http://en.
April 30, 2011
Album Digest, April 2011
Album of the month: Mirrorwriting by Jamie Woon Jamie Woon was brought to my attention late last year by Pitchfork who wrote an article about the video for lead single Night Air. I’ve put that video down below because I think that it is very good, a simple well executed and the tune itself is brilliant, probably my favourite individual track of 2010. It’s a downtempo tune full of dark spaces and empty beats, full of nocturnal promise and mystery.
March 31, 2011
Album Digest, March 2011
This is not an Album Digest March 2011 Well as I said at the end of last month’s album digest post, I took a bit of a break from pursuing new music quite as closely as I have been. As promised, I sidestepped the new R.E.M. and Elbow albums - although I had been promised the latter as a birthday present it is yet to show up, maybe I will look at in April.
February 28, 2011
Album Digest, February 2011
February, the shortest month, harbinger of such delights as Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day. Could it possibly produce any good albums? Well the candidates are the eponymous début album by James Blake, Zonoscope by Cut/Copy, Let England Shake by PJ Harvey and Smart Flesh by The Low Anthem. Furthermore, there was an unexpected bonus when Radiohead announced that their new album would be out and available to listen to this month too.
January 31, 2011
Album Digest, January 2011
Here’s to 2011 and the start of a monthly album digest. I want it to be a brief trot through some of the albums I have listened to each month. Sometimes January can bring a few quiet releases by big name bands. This happens if the previous album did not do as well as the record company hoped or if it is the kind of artist who would get lost under the hype of all the Christmas releases.
Tag: Electronic
December 31, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #1: Sofia Kourtesis, Madres
Good vibes, global beats, and the life changing effects of brain surgery abound in Sofia’s debut.
December 30, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #2: James Holden, Imagine This is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities
Like a yomp in the countryside, but it’s a psychic topography made up of all modern dance music in James Holden’s brainy but democratic masterpiece.
December 29, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #3: Barry Can't Swim, When Will We Land?
Get up and go delivered in spades in this sunny happy dance album.
December 27, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #5: Nation of Language, Strange Disciple
Chilly and delicate synth missives from the lockdown.
December 25, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #7: Maara, The Ancient Truth
Because sometimes you can be relaxed by drum and bass. Sometimes.
December 24, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #8: Everything But The Girl, Fuse
Kiss me while the world decays because I miss you like the deserts miss the rain.
December 23, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #9: Fever Ray, Radical Romantics
Features odes to carbon dioxide, bullying your kid’s bullies, and candy/kandy.
December 22, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #10: Wata Igarashi, Agartha
Anyone for Japanese Techno via German kosmische music and Philip Glass operas?
June 5, 2023
Fabric 44 by John Tejada
This is one of my more played Fabric mix CDs so I decided to go for it when my random prompter plumped for this earlier today. One constraint of these posts was to write it in roughly the amount of time it takes to listen to it. You’d think that for a mix CD that would be ok. After all, this mix is a full CD and 74 minutes long.
October 29, 2022
The Orb, Live at Brighton Concord 2
Went with my friend Nick to see The Orb at Concord 2 last night. The last time I’d seen the Orb was back in 2004, at the start of their relatively dry spell. That night, they’d been a bit lacklustre despite playing (some of) the hits and a relatively decent album in “Bicycles and Tricycles”. I left feeling that I’d seen the past rather than the future, something that I wouldn’t glimpse again in their records until 2015.
February 4, 2022
Understated Classics #39: Lifeforms by Future Sound of London
Lifeforms is the 1994 album from the Future Sound of London. A double album (just), it also features the talents of Robert Fripp, Ozric Tentacles, Talvin Singh, Toni Halliday, and Liz Frazer. It reached number 6 on the UK album chart and went silver.
I have wanted to write about the Lifeforms album for a long time. In 2012, I even tried learning how to tell the tracks apart from one another.
January 1, 2022
Understated Classics Or Not?
At the new year, thoughts and spare time for writing point me toward writing some new posts for my understated classics series. Expect some new ones soon.
I also reflected on my previous choices and thought a bit about how my music tastes have changed recently. Some of this has to do with streaming and the frustrations I wrote about in my last post. Some of it is just down to getting older: I have less time to listen to new music, and much of the ’new’ stuff I listen to is me investigating the stuff I missed first time around.
May 29, 2021
Understated Classics #38: Trance Nation (Various Artists)
I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been in need of some music that:
Blots out the outside world Helps me to concentrate on my work Makes me feel a bit less anxious about the state of the world Well, allow me to submit the compilation Trance Nation for your consideration as an understated classic.
But Matt I’ve heard trance music, I hear you say, and it’s one of the least understated forms of music possible.
November 15, 2017
I Will Make Room For You - Four Tet Remix
In a perfect confluence of last month’s album digest, here’s an excellent Four Tet remix of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “I Will Make Room For You” from her album “The Kid”. I’ve put it into a playlist with “Lush” from Four Tet’s “New Energy” album and the original version of “I Will Make Room For You.”
Enjoy!
September 25, 2017
Understated Classics #35: Snivilisation by Orbital
I came late to Orbital’s work. I knew of them through a few remixes and because as a mad Orb fan, they could not have avoided my notice could they? Apart from that, one of my college friends tried to get me into “In Sides” just after its release in 1996. The same friend got me into “Second Toughest In The Infants” by Underworld. I cannot now understand the reason, but “In Sides” just left me cold.
March 12, 2016
The Orb - Alpine EP
The Orb return with a new EP on the Kompakt label called “Alpine”.
“Alpine” is split in to three tracks “Morning”, “Evening” and “Dawn”. The third of these was included on the 2016 edition of Kompakt’s annual “Pop Ambient” compilation, a gently drifting track with plenty of bells and yodels. A diversion from the sounds of Moonbuilding 2703 AD (and its presumably ongoing remixed companion EPs), but it sat nicely with the other tracks.
November 26, 2015
Underworld, Second Toughest in the Infants (Superdeluxe edition)
Last week Underworld reissued their excellent second album “Second Toughest In The Infants” in various formats including a four disc super deluxe edition. I wrote about this album in my understated classics series and I want to share some thoughts on the reissue. I love this album so I was excited to hear the remaster and the additional material.
I can’t comment on the physical version of the release as I can’t afford it at the moment.
July 22, 2015
Understated Classics #31: The White Room by The KLF
This little masterpiece was released in 1991. I got my copy on cassette for Christmas that year, but by May in 1992 they’d already “retired” and split up.
The KLF were a band in the right place at the right time with the right idea. Taking advantage of synthesizers and the idea of fusing rock and pop music with the emerging sound of house music, they laid the ground for many of the most successful electronic acts that followed them.
April 19, 2015
Understated Classics #30: Our Aim Is to Satisfy by Red Snapper
The thirtieth understated classic is by a band named after a fish. There isn’t a great deal for me to say about “Our Aim Is To Satisfy”1 apart from the usual insistence that it is quite good. There’s no overarching theme to write about, and no deep personal story attached. It was bound to happen eventually.
“Our Aim Is To Satisfy” is one of those albums spawned in the late nineties and early naughties at the height of the Electronica boom: dance music that you didn’t necessarily have to dance to.
August 17, 2014
What IS That Noise?
I recently spruced up a post I wrote four years ago about Biosphere’s wonderful album Substrata. I added the following footnote about the difference between voice samples and found sound:
I suppose I am distinguishing between found sound and vocal samples here. Perhaps there is very little difference, or that one is the other? When is a vocal snippet something more than found sound? Is it the fact that one has meaning?
July 22, 2014
My Amazing Subversive Revolutionary Adolescence
Or at least its subversive soundtrack… I listened to The Orb’s amazing live album “Live ’93” the other day (after discovering the insipid “History Of The Future” collection on Spotify) and I was amazed at how countercultural and subversive it was. I was listening to this stuff at the age of 14 and now that I’m old enough to be a parent, that makes me a bit uncomfortable. Actually it does nothing of the sort, because it’s frigging awesome.
May 23, 2013
Understated Classics #23: Gorgeous by 808 State
It was quite hard to choose an 808 State album for the understated classics series for two reasons. The first is that I was introduced to 808 State quite late through a friend’s sister’s cassette copy of The Shamen’s En-Tact (the original version recorded from vinyl that had a thirteen minute version of “Evil Is Eden”) that also had – to fill out the C90 – the full length sweary version of “What Time Is Love?
March 5, 2013
A Work Of Art At The End Of My Road?
I have had a lot of ideas for posts swirling around in my head in recent days. This is because I have actually done quite a lot of cool things in that time, and because I have hung out with some great people who make me think, and because I always have a whole load of things bouncing around in there anyway - space junk of the mind. I was thinking about how to put together these thoughts I have been having about art and about stories and yes, about love too.
November 21, 2012
Understated Classics #21: Woob 2 by Woob
The second Woob album (AKA “Woob 4495”) is probably the greatest ambient album ever made and is certainly the best one you have never heard of. Originally released in 1995 on the em:t label it is also a rare record. I don’t have an actual copy but I have seen one! I downloaded it off the internet and even that is quite difficult to do. My friend is an avid collector of all the em:t releases and it is easy to see why: all the albums are titled in a specific way that is very appealing to people who like to collect things and they also have very striking nature photography on the covers.
August 15, 2012
Understated Classics #19: The Dreaming by Kate Bush
“I see the people working and see it working for them.” (Sat In Your Lap)
The Dreaming by Kate Bush is a strange 1982 album that many believed had destroyed her career. Two weeks before her first ever performance of “Running Up That Hill”, the NME had written an editorial asking whether she had burnt herself out completely. Obviously “Running Up That Hill” (recently used to great effect in the Olympic Closing Ceremony) and the parent album “The Hounds Of Love” that followed showed that she had plenty more up her sleeve.
June 5, 2012
Understated Classics #18: Fabric 12 mixed by The Amalgamation Of Soundz
Say what? We’re allowing compilations now?
Yes. Why not? A good mix is as much an artistic statement as a full-blown single artist album. It takes a lot of skill to get from A to B and keep everything on the boil in between. This Fabric mix by The Amalgamation Of Soundz is one of my favourites because it is a downtempo (but, crucially, not too downtempo) compilation delivered with flair and using what I consider to be unconventional sources (soundtracks, tribute albums, hip-hop) to do it.
April 19, 2012
Understated Classics #17: Nearly God by Nearly God (Tricky)
Sit back and let it happen, / Let us take your time away.
Nearly God is Tricky’s second album, which was released under a different name either because Island rejected it as the follow-up to Maxinequaye or because it came too quickly after and Tricky just wanted it released. I had this album before Maxinequaye because back then it wasn’t as easy to go back and catch up with albums that you had missed as it is now.
March 21, 2012
Understated Classics #16: Ambient 2 / The Plateaux Of Mirror by Howard Budd and Brian Eno
Among Fields of Crystal / Wind in Lonely Fences I have written about a fair number of ambient albums in this series (and there are at least two more to come!) but perhaps none are as unobtrusive as this one by Howard Budd and Brian Eno. It’s a subtle collection of music that sits at the margins of your consciousness: for a long time it was the music that I turned to when I could not sleep but I could just as easily imagine it as (ahem!
January 23, 2012
Understated Classics #15: Début by Björk
I got into Début via a cassette from the library, much like I did with Together Alone by Crowded House. I suppose it is less obscure than many of my choices for this strand but I do think that Post is more well-known (because of It’s Oh So Quiet, which we shall mention here only briefly) and that Homogenic is probably more popular among her fans.
What I really like about Début though, as much as the album itself, is the panoply of remixes and alternative versions that surround the release.
November 7, 2011
Understated Classics #14: Clear by Bomb The Bass
I think it’s time to discuss your philosophy of drug use as it relates to artistic endeavour…
That quote is from the movie “The Naked Lunch” directed by David Cronenburg (see also this) and it also opens “Bug Powder Dust” by Bomb The Bass, the five star single that opens “Clear”. A rollicking piece of rock rap dripping with pop culture references that runs for four and half minutes and does not stop until another quote from “The Naked Lunch”, it is probably one of my favourite songs of the 90s.
September 9, 2011
Understated Classics #13: U.F.Orb by The Orb
FUN FACT: It was because of the artwork to this album that I obsessively scrawled onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome on my pencil case at school. I also had a very passable u.f.orb logo drawn on it too.
In The Blue Room I had my first “close encounter” with The Orb in 1992 when the single Blue Room was in the charts.
July 22, 2011
Understated Classics #11: Second Toughest In The Infants by Underworld
Your rails, your fins, your thin paper wings Second Toughest in the Infants (STITI) is the second album by Underworld, released in 1995. This was just ahead of the mania caused by the .NUXX version of Born Slippy appearing on the Trainspotting soundtrack a little later. Born Slippy itself, the blippy techno confection released between their début Dubnobasswithmyheadman and this album. STITI then is very much the calm before the storm and features a band (in the truest sense, which is unusual among electronic acts) in full flow.
May 6, 2011
Understated Classics #9: Tiger Bay by Saint Etienne
Background Tiger Bay is Saint Etienne’s third album and I think it is among their best. It was released in June 1994 on Heavenly records. I first owned a copy in 1998 when I picked it up while living in halls as an undergraduate. The reason for including this album in the understated classics series is the same as for Second Light by Dreadzone: it marries traditional forms to newer electronic music1.
March 17, 2011
Understated Classics #8: Second Light by Dreadzone
In the understated classics series, I try to alternate between pop/rock and electronic albums. Keeping with this trend number eight is the wonderful dub-infused album Second Light by Dreadzone. Released in 1996 it was well-received critically and four of its tracks featured on John Peel’s best-of-year list that year. Little Britain received a lot of radio play, a popular choice for that flag-waving period of britpop and assorted other demons.
December 3, 2010
Understated Classics #6: Arbor Bona Arbor Mala by The Shamen
Background Ask anyone into pop music between 1991 and 1993 about The Shamen, and you’ll either receive a flood of euphoric good will about excellent tracks like Move Any Mountain, LSI, and Phorever People1; or they will rant at you about the evils of Ebeneezer Goode. The Shamen are either one of the pantheon of great acts from early 90’s dance and electronic music, or they are a shameless vaudeville novelty act.
September 11, 2010
Understated Classics #4: Substrata by Biosphere
I bought this album in the summer between my two years at college. I remember listening to this music under skies glowering with clouds so 1997 must have been a poor summer. I’d just bought a book of photography too, which placed photos from the north and south poles on opposite pages. I bought it mainly for the penguins that were, of course, on pretty much every other page. The pictures of snow and ice soon became the ideal companions to this album.
August 12, 2010
Understated Classics #2: Sinking by The Aloof
I discovered The Aloof while listening to the Top 40 When I was younger, I used to listen to the Top 40 every Sunday. To begin with, this was partly an endurance thing and partly an obsession with one day seeing Roxette top the charts - alas, they never did, though for one thrilling spring “Joyride” did flirt with the upper reaches of the chart.
Listening to the charts is probably the best way to become a lover of music.
Tag: Maara
December 25, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #7: Maara, The Ancient Truth
Because sometimes you can be relaxed by drum and bass. Sometimes.
Tag: Vinyl
Tag: Cats
January 8, 2024
Agents of Chaos (2024 edition)
The cats break their new resolution not to knock stuff over in my office.
June 11, 2020
Am I caring for a naughty cat?
“He keeps biting me on the leg” says Ingrid one day as I mill around her desk during the new water cooler moment that is a comfort break on a Microsoft Teams call. I pat Martok, one of our cats, and he rubs up against me, pretending that he might nibble at me too.
I experience this regularly. It used to be at half five, then at five, and these days at half past four.
Tag: Photo
January 8, 2024
Agents of Chaos (2024 edition)
The cats break their new resolution not to knock stuff over in my office.
Tag: Coding
January 7, 2024
Some Git Instructions for Future Matt
What I did when I wanted to make the Hugo branch of this blog’s repository main, without using a merge.
Tag: git
January 7, 2024
Some Git Instructions for Future Matt
What I did when I wanted to make the Hugo branch of this blog’s repository main, without using a merge.
Tag: Hugo
January 7, 2024
Some Git Instructions for Future Matt
What I did when I wanted to make the Hugo branch of this blog’s repository main, without using a merge.
Tag: Travel
January 2, 2024
Reflections on 2023
A post reflecting on the highs and lows of 2023, including travel, books, work, movies etc.
May 31, 2020
Travel Writing After All This
While sprucing up this blog a bit during lockdown, I fell into reading my old posts about South America. I enjoyed it, mostly for the memories, but also because the current lockdown is warping my sense of time and space. Hours feel like weeks, but then I blink and a month’s gone by. I find myself traipsing similar orbits each day around the house, and then perhaps over to the supermarket or the park.
February 23, 2018
The Great Ocean Road
As a wedding present, Ingrid’s Mum Maria kindly took us for a trip along The Great Ocean Road, the longest war memorial in the world.
Stretching 151 miles from Torquay (not that one!) to Allansford, the road was deliberately built as a tourist attraction as a means of providing meaningful work for troops returning home from the First World War. Regarded as one of the world’s greatest scenic roads, it certainly holds it own against things like the roads I experienced in Chile and Bolivia when I travelled over the Andes.
February 21, 2018
More Melbourne
On our second full day in Australia we went shopping in central Melbourne, before Ingrid’s mum Maria picked us up ahead of our trip along the Great Ocean Road.
We took the metro into the city. I always love watching the fabric of cities knit itself together around train lines and Melbourne is no exception. Along the way, Ingrid had plenty of stories to tell about the various places she had lived.
February 20, 2018
Taking It Easy In Melbourne
On our first full day in Melbourne we took it easy. It was warm and sunny, so different to the weather we’d left behind!
Ingrid needed more time than me to sleep off her jet-lag. I sat in the sunshine and read the book I’d ignored on the plane. An easy read, it drew me into its characters. I’ll post a review later, perhaps after I have read the sequel.
February 19, 2018
A Day in the Air
It seemed to last forever but we made it. We left for Heathrow at 6AM and left London at around midday. I waved goodbye to home for nearly four weeks.
We stopped over in Dubai for an hour or so while the plane refuelled. We walked in circles trying to shake off the fatigue. I’d equalled one of my longest ever flights just getting to Dubai and now I was facing almost twice as much time again.
September 28, 2017
A little trip to Italy
We bought a cheap package holiday in the British Airways Black Friday sale. The weekend spanned Ingrid’s birthday, so it was ideal. £99 each for flights and a hotel, and we bagged a hire car quite cheaply too.
Because our flight was from Heathrow and the trains from Chichester are both expensive and inconvenient for early flights, we spoiled ourselves with a taxi to the airport. It felt very strange to be whisked through the Sussex and Surrey countryside at six am on a Friday morning!
April 11, 2016
Lausanne, Switzerland, March 2016
Just before Easter Ingrid and I went to Lausanne in Switzerland for a few days. It was a much-needed break and my first trip out of the UK since I got back from South America.
We caught an early train to Gatwick. It took a strange route along the coast via Worthing and Hove, which was annoying because we could have left later if a more direct train were available at that time of day.
Tag: Albums
December 31, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #1: Sofia Kourtesis, Madres
Good vibes, global beats, and the life changing effects of brain surgery abound in Sofia’s debut.
December 30, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #2: James Holden, Imagine This is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities
Like a yomp in the countryside, but it’s a psychic topography made up of all modern dance music in James Holden’s brainy but democratic masterpiece.
December 29, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #3: Barry Can't Swim, When Will We Land?
Get up and go delivered in spades in this sunny happy dance album.
December 28, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #4: The National, "First Two Pages of Frankenstein" and "Laugh Track"
Two new albums? And they’re both better than the last one? And now with added Taylor Swift? You spoil us!
December 27, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #5: Nation of Language, Strange Disciple
Chilly and delicate synth missives from the lockdown.
December 26, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #6: Grails, Anches en Maat
Grails’ latest album gives you plenty to lose yourself in (for forty minutes at least).
December 25, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #7: Maara, The Ancient Truth
Because sometimes you can be relaxed by drum and bass. Sometimes.
December 24, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #8: Everything But The Girl, Fuse
Kiss me while the world decays because I miss you like the deserts miss the rain.
December 23, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #9: Fever Ray, Radical Romantics
Features odes to carbon dioxide, bullying your kid’s bullies, and candy/kandy.
December 22, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #10: Wata Igarashi, Agartha
Anyone for Japanese Techno via German kosmische music and Philip Glass operas?
December 21, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year Preview
It might have been a good idea to write all the reviews prior to publishing this summary. You’ll get ten eventually, I promise.
Tag: Music
December 31, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #1: Sofia Kourtesis, Madres
Good vibes, global beats, and the life changing effects of brain surgery abound in Sofia’s debut.
December 30, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #2: James Holden, Imagine This is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities
Like a yomp in the countryside, but it’s a psychic topography made up of all modern dance music in James Holden’s brainy but democratic masterpiece.
December 29, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #3: Barry Can't Swim, When Will We Land?
Get up and go delivered in spades in this sunny happy dance album.
December 28, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #4: The National, "First Two Pages of Frankenstein" and "Laugh Track"
Two new albums? And they’re both better than the last one? And now with added Taylor Swift? You spoil us!
December 27, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #5: Nation of Language, Strange Disciple
Chilly and delicate synth missives from the lockdown.
December 26, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #6: Grails, Anches en Maat
Grails’ latest album gives you plenty to lose yourself in (for forty minutes at least).
December 25, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #7: Maara, The Ancient Truth
Because sometimes you can be relaxed by drum and bass. Sometimes.
December 24, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #8: Everything But The Girl, Fuse
Kiss me while the world decays because I miss you like the deserts miss the rain.
December 23, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #9: Fever Ray, Radical Romantics
Features odes to carbon dioxide, bullying your kid’s bullies, and candy/kandy.
December 22, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #10: Wata Igarashi, Agartha
Anyone for Japanese Techno via German kosmische music and Philip Glass operas?
December 21, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year Preview
It might have been a good idea to write all the reviews prior to publishing this summary. You’ll get ten eventually, I promise.
June 8, 2023
Ellie Goulding - Bright Lights
So today my random album script picked out “Bright Lights” by Ellie Goulding, an album I wasn’t sure I’ve ever listened to. I looked in my music library and there it was! As a result this is not so much an album revisit as an album _visit.
Anyway, this album was released in 2010 and did quite well. In fact, “Bright Lights” is a reissue of an album that was originally released as “Lights” (February 2010).
June 5, 2023
Fabric 44 by John Tejada
This is one of my more played Fabric mix CDs so I decided to go for it when my random prompter plumped for this earlier today. One constraint of these posts was to write it in roughly the amount of time it takes to listen to it. You’d think that for a mix CD that would be ok. After all, this mix is a full CD and 74 minutes long.
June 3, 2023
How random should things be?
I’ve managed to extract my music library, including all the albums I’ve added to streaming, as a CSV file and write a routine in R to select an album at random. The plan is to write about that album for the blog in roughly the time that it takes to listen to that album all the way through. I already did this yesterday for Goldfrapp’s Black Cherry.
But I have to level with you.
June 2, 2023
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
This is the first in an unplanned series of album revisits, I will write a post explaining the process soon.
“Black Cherry” is the second album by Goldfrapp, released in 2003. I bought the lead single Train while I lived in York and also the single of the title track because by then I’d discovered M83 and they’d done a remix of it.
“Black Cherry” finds the band faced with following their successful and chilled out debut album “Felt Mountain”, which back in 2000 had sounded notably weird.
October 29, 2022
The Orb, Live at Brighton Concord 2
Went with my friend Nick to see The Orb at Concord 2 last night. The last time I’d seen the Orb was back in 2004, at the start of their relatively dry spell. That night, they’d been a bit lacklustre despite playing (some of) the hits and a relatively decent album in “Bicycles and Tricycles”. I left feeling that I’d seen the past rather than the future, something that I wouldn’t glimpse again in their records until 2015.
February 4, 2022
Understated Classics #39: Lifeforms by Future Sound of London
Lifeforms is the 1994 album from the Future Sound of London. A double album (just), it also features the talents of Robert Fripp, Ozric Tentacles, Talvin Singh, Toni Halliday, and Liz Frazer. It reached number 6 on the UK album chart and went silver.
I have wanted to write about the Lifeforms album for a long time. In 2012, I even tried learning how to tell the tracks apart from one another.
January 1, 2022
Understated Classics Or Not?
At the new year, thoughts and spare time for writing point me toward writing some new posts for my understated classics series. Expect some new ones soon.
I also reflected on my previous choices and thought a bit about how my music tastes have changed recently. Some of this has to do with streaming and the frustrations I wrote about in my last post. Some of it is just down to getting older: I have less time to listen to new music, and much of the ’new’ stuff I listen to is me investigating the stuff I missed first time around.
November 24, 2021
A pox on both their houses
How hard is it to just listen to music these days?
Spotify has crammed in all sorts of crap in to the app lately. Lyric videos, those weird interactive art things that are turned on by default, podcasts (so many podcasts), Netflix tie-ins, and audiobooks. It wants to be the app that opens when you plug in your headphones (not that we’ll be doing that for much longer the way things are going).
August 25, 2021
If anything, make it weirder
Today I listened to ‘Cloudbusting’ by Kate Bush for the first time in a while. What a gloriously strange song it is. Best of all, it’s one of those songs that obscures what it is really about. It’s not a song about a change in the weather, but about Wilhelm Reich, the orgone accumulator, fluorescent yo-yos, and a son (rather than a sun) coming out.
‘Cloudbusting’ is from ‘Hounds of Love’, Kate’s ‘comeback’ album following the commercial failure of ‘The Dreaming’, an album I wrote about in my understated classics series.
May 29, 2021
Understated Classics #38: Trance Nation (Various Artists)
I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been in need of some music that:
Blots out the outside world Helps me to concentrate on my work Makes me feel a bit less anxious about the state of the world Well, allow me to submit the compilation Trance Nation for your consideration as an understated classic.
But Matt I’ve heard trance music, I hear you say, and it’s one of the least understated forms of music possible.
December 31, 2020
Album Digest 2020
I’ve listened to music in slightly different ways to normal in the last nine months, but it’s still been a decent year for music. When I checked out my Spotify Unwrapped and my Last.fm reports, I had listened to more 2020 music than I thought.
December Album of the month had to be “We Will Always Love You” by the Avalanches. One of only three albums that I bought physical copies of this year, it combines my favourite musical genres and has a novel take on the spacey-sounding album: like something beamed into space about how great humans are.
May 30, 2020
Holiday Tabs
Over the course of a week on holiday, I started reading many interesting articles. In lockdown there isn’t much to do but read articles, but I still find myself not that good at finishing them. My phone has lots of tabs open and has become a Rolodex of shame. This post is to confess my sins.
I’m trying to re-familiarise myself with Python. As with all modern software development, Python now seems atomised and hyper-complicated.
August 26, 2019
Understated Classics #37: Lost Souls by Doves
Doves are a band from Manchester who traded dance music for rock yet never left their former genre behind. Starting out as Sub Sub, they scored a worldwide hit in 1993 with “Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)”: a timeless dance tune that immediately owns whatever room it plays in. However, subsequent releases by Sub Sub did not catch on and people started to think of the band as a one-hit wonder.
April 30, 2019
About the Album Digest
I haven’t written one of my monthly album digests for over a year. The reasons mostly boil down to a lack of time and motivation but other factors include the changing way in which I listen to music. I bought more albums on vinyl and only a small proportion of those were recently released music. Meanwhile, the attractions of Spotify’s release radar proved too great to resist: it is a very convenient way to consume new music.
December 31, 2017
Top 10 Albums 2017
10. Grails “Chalice Hymnal” Some albums are good because a band continues making the music that you love. Some albums are good because a band takes their ideas a step or two further than before. Chalice Hymnal is that rare album that does both of these things.
The references to past albums include the track Deeper Politics and Deep Snow II, and, as per albums past, these tracks evolve slowly out of languid guitar hooks and smoky atmospherics.
December 29, 2017
Top 10 Songs 2017
10. Rolling Blackouts CF “Julie’s Place” Sometimes you just want a simple pop song about going out somewhere. I enjoyed the Rolling Blackouts’ EP “The French Press”. It contains many catchy tunes as I noted in my review. “Julie’s Place” is the best, speaking of a need to be somewhere or a promise that you will go there. Given that I often listen to music between places, it’s nice to have a song or two like that on my playlist.
December 27, 2017
Album Digest, December 2017
Bjork Utopia “Utopia” is Björk’s ninth album. It’s a happier album compared to the emotional wreckage of “Vulnicura”. But while “Vulnicura” was a compelling if uncomfortable listen, “Utopia” is more comfortable and, unfortunately, not that compelling. This is old ground retrodden with few glimmers of past glories.
The brevity, succinctness and sharpness are all gone. Even on the best songs (the first three), there is very little strength in the lyrics.
December 7, 2017
Album Digest, November 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
November 15, 2017
I Will Make Room For You - Four Tet Remix
In a perfect confluence of last month’s album digest, here’s an excellent Four Tet remix of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “I Will Make Room For You” from her album “The Kid”. I’ve put it into a playlist with “Lush” from Four Tet’s “New Energy” album and the original version of “I Will Make Room For You.”
Enjoy!
October 31, 2017
Album Digest, October 2017
Mary Epworth “Elytral” This album came to my attention because its lead single “Me Swimming” appeared on my Discover Weekly playlist. I’d never heard of Mary before but this album was one of those nice discoveries that one sometimes makes when one tries to broaden what one listens to. The aforementioned “Me Swimming” is probably the best track, a beautiful slice of summery experimental pop layered over a beat that you can imagine as the kicks of a swimmer compared to the swirling lyric that imitates the pull of the strokes through the water.
October 29, 2017
Understated Classics #36: The Coral by The Coral
Perhaps in today’s modern age of streaming and such, The Coral would be a bigger band and may have survived their eventual burnout. Their work ethic was evident from the start, as rumours swirled in the NME about a fantastic new band from Liverpool who were going to blow everybody’s socks off. I went to see them live in Bristol after they’d released three EPs and they were incredible. Their sound, a bit like the movie “Holy Mountain” set to pop music, imagined a Merseybeat channelled from an alternative universe in which Lennon and McCartney took their acid in the Mojave desert rather than in the English suburbs.
September 30, 2017
Album Digest, September 2017
Note: Recent months have been very busy, so this album digest combines a review of the new album by The National with a couple of reviews left over from earlier in the year.
I’ve written a few more album reviews in the past months but I’m so far behind (February and March have already been published on a considerable lag) that I’m just going to pepper forthcoming digests with additional reviews of older albums.
September 25, 2017
Understated Classics #35: Snivilisation by Orbital
I came late to Orbital’s work. I knew of them through a few remixes and because as a mad Orb fan, they could not have avoided my notice could they? Apart from that, one of my college friends tried to get me into “In Sides” just after its release in 1996. The same friend got me into “Second Toughest In The Infants” by Underworld. I cannot now understand the reason, but “In Sides” just left me cold.
March 31, 2017
Album Digest, March 2017
Blanck Mass World Eater This album is pretty extreme. It’s not for everyone and even for the people who can handle it, it’s not for all the time. This album is a soul crushing experience at points but there are also points of light. Perhaps this makes “World Eater” more reflective of life as a whole than any other of this month’s albums. On balance it’s probably less crushing than the last Blanck Mass album “Dumb Flesh”, which I reviewed back in June 2015.
February 28, 2017
Album Digest, February 2017
Grails Chalice Hymnal Some albums are good because a band continues making the music that you love. Some albums are good because a band takes their ideas a step or two further than before. Chalice Hymnalis that rare album that does both of these things.
The references to past albums include the track Deeper Politics and Deep Snow II, and, as per albums past, these tracks evolve slowly out of languid guitar hooks and smoky atmospherics.
January 31, 2017
Album Digest, January 2017
Mike Oldfield Return to Ommadawn With Return to Ommadawn, Mike Oldfield revisits his third album Ommadawn. He has past form for this, having revisited his masterwork Tubular Bells twice (the third revisit and fourth instalment Tubular Bells 4 is due next year). I wrote about Tubular Bells II for my understated classics series. Of course Mike has in fact made many more than three Tubular Bells albums1, and this is not a first “return” to Ommadawn.
October 13, 2016
Understated Classics #34: Stray by Aztec Camera
The next instalment in my understated classics series is "Stray" by Aztec Camera. Released in 1990, it features two hit singles and the cover is my favourite colour: green.
My angle for writing about “Stray” was that it was an album that I "caught" from my parents. I soon realised that I wrote about some of those already, for example “The Circle and the Square" by Red Box. Besides, I’m not sure that my parents liked this album that much.
September 30, 2016
Album Digest, September 2016
This month’s album digest features albums by Wilco, M.I.A., Local Natives, and a collaboration between Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani.
Wilco Schmilco Schmilco is the tenth studio album by Wilco, which regular readers will know are one of my favourite bands. There’s no need to repeat that anecdote about why this blog has the name that it does. Meanwhile, this album follows on from last year’s Star Wars and is probably the third Wilco album to have a jokey meta- kind of title.
August 30, 2016
Adventures with Discover Weekly
Because I couldn’t find any albums coming out this month that I wanted to review for the album digest, I decided to let Spotify pick the albums to listen to. I listened to my algorithmically chosen Discover Weekly playlist one week and selected albums based on the songs that I liked the most. The album also had to be released in 2016. The selections are ones that got away.
I’ve done this before.
August 21, 2016
BBC Prom 47 at the Royal Albert Hall
We went to see Prom 47, an afternoon prom at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The bill included a brand new work by Piers Hellawell, along with a Cello concerto by Haydn and a symphony by Tchaikovsky. These were all performed by the Ulster Orchestra. The conductor was Rafael Payare. The tickets were an affordable £17 each which isn’t bad at all given that we were sat in the second row of the circle.
July 31, 2016
Album Digest, July 2016
Album Digest July 2016 consists of a bumper five albums, mainly because I couldn’t work out which one to drop. I think they’re all pretty good though it’s great to hear new music from The Avalanches after all this time.
Bat For Lashes “The Bride” For her fourth album as Bat For Lashes, Natasha Khan applies her considerable songwriting skills to a concept album. She sings from the perspective of a bride whose husband dies on his way to their wedding.
July 20, 2016
Understated Classics #33: Embrya by Maxwell
I give the impression of planning these posts but to be honest I came across an article about Maxwell a few weeks ago and fondly remembered my cassette copy of this album. The joy of Spotify is that it’s easy to dig up old favourites. The recent warm weather makes for a good opportunity to enjoy the sultry embrace of “Embrya” once more.
“Gestation: Mythos” burbles along for two and a half minutes, overlaying spoken word samples, string phrases and weird underwater noises, before the bass line of “Everwanting: To Want You To Want” brings things to life.
June 30, 2016
Album Digest, June 2016
Album Digest June 2016 is a poppy batch of albums. We have the return of my long-time favourites Roxette and the heroes of my South American tour Tegan & Sara. There’s some dance music in the form of Flume’s album “Skin”: an Australian presence ahead of the new Avalanches album next month. Finally there is the first of two new albums by Islands - both were released back in May but one gets reviewed this month and the other next month.
May 31, 2016
Album Digest, May 2016
Album Digest May 2016 features the work of four bands or artists that I have reviewed in previous album digests. I also own (or will own) all of these albums on vinyl, so it’s handy that I’ve recently bought myself a record player!
Radiohead “A Moon Shaped Pool” Radiohead released “A Moon Shaped Pool” online about three weeks ago and a physical version hits the shops later in June. As with all of their recent albums, it is (mostly) a slow burner that rewards multiple listens.
April 30, 2016
Album Digest, April 2016
This month’s album digest is a mixture of comparisons. First we compare the fortunes of old hands Underworld to even older hands the Pet Shop Boys. After that I’ve found two dance albums, one that I liked and one that I didn’t. I find it quite hard to write about dance music and so the comparison is quite useful. Sometimes it helps to work out why you like one thing and not another.
March 12, 2016
The Orb - Alpine EP
The Orb return with a new EP on the Kompakt label called “Alpine”.
“Alpine” is split in to three tracks “Morning”, “Evening” and “Dawn”. The third of these was included on the 2016 edition of Kompakt’s annual “Pop Ambient” compilation, a gently drifting track with plenty of bells and yodels. A diversion from the sounds of Moonbuilding 2703 AD (and its presumably ongoing remixed companion EPs), but it sat nicely with the other tracks.
February 1, 2016
Album Digest, David Bowie RIP
I thought I’d add three of my favourite David Bowie albums to my review of Blackstar to a form an album digest tribute. Also among my favourites but not included here is “Outside”, which will be included in the understated classics (currently it’s number 66) at some point. I thought about bumping “Outside” up the running order but I’d like to be objective about it when its turn comes.
Station To Station “It’s not the side effects of the cocaine / I’m thinking it must be love” sings Bowie on the title track of his tenth studio album “Station To Station”, released in 1976.
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
November 26, 2015
Underworld, Second Toughest in the Infants (Superdeluxe edition)
Last week Underworld reissued their excellent second album “Second Toughest In The Infants” in various formats including a four disc super deluxe edition. I wrote about this album in my understated classics series and I want to share some thoughts on the reissue. I love this album so I was excited to hear the remaster and the additional material.
I can’t comment on the physical version of the release as I can’t afford it at the moment.
October 31, 2015
Understated Classics #32: They Were Wrong So We Drowned by Liars
As it is Halloween, I’m writing about a spooky understated classic. Liars’ second album “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned” is a concept album about witches. It was the first of their albums that I owned having heard their name mentioned among those in the New York Post-punk revival scene at the start of the 00s.
I imagine that to most ears a first listen to “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned” sounds dreadful.
September 1, 2015
Everything Everything, Get To Heaven
It’s difficult to write honestly about your feelings. It’s difficult to write about your feelings consistently, for a living on a regular basis. It’s difficult to write about your feelings when the world constantly intrudes with inanity, insanity and hatred. It’s difficult to write under those conditions without seeming frayed, without coming loose at the edges.
“Get To Heaven”, the third album by Everything Everything, was forged under these stresses and pressures.
July 22, 2015
Understated Classics #31: The White Room by The KLF
This little masterpiece was released in 1991. I got my copy on cassette for Christmas that year, but by May in 1992 they’d already “retired” and split up.
The KLF were a band in the right place at the right time with the right idea. Taking advantage of synthesizers and the idea of fusing rock and pop music with the emerging sound of house music, they laid the ground for many of the most successful electronic acts that followed them.
July 5, 2015
An Initial Comparison of Apple Music and Spotify
My previous post about Apple Music was more a response to how it was presented at the WWDC Keynote rather than to the idea of Apple Music itself. I should have known better than to use that clickbait title. I knew I wasn’t writing about the product, more the flatness of its introduction (despite the names on show).
After a few days of living with it I thought I’d write about it and Spotify, so that it’s not just my snarky comments about the keynote that are on record here.
June 30, 2015
Album Digest, June 2015
To reboot this series, Album Digest June 2015 features five fantastic albums from Hot Chip, Jamie xx, Blanck Mass, Holly Herndon, and The Orb. I could pick loads more as I’ve listened to a lot of albums since February but I decided to focus on the more electronic material. This means that I have no excuses for not continuing next month with a rockier theme.
Hot Chip “Why Make Sense?” Hot Chip seem to be settling in to a pattern with their album releases, alternating between messy experimental affairs and then a state of the art correction.
April 19, 2015
Understated Classics #30: Our Aim Is to Satisfy by Red Snapper
The thirtieth understated classic is by a band named after a fish. There isn’t a great deal for me to say about “Our Aim Is To Satisfy”1 apart from the usual insistence that it is quite good. There’s no overarching theme to write about, and no deep personal story attached. It was bound to happen eventually.
“Our Aim Is To Satisfy” is one of those albums spawned in the late nineties and early naughties at the height of the Electronica boom: dance music that you didn’t necessarily have to dance to.
March 11, 2015
You Can’t Just Switch Off Free
Ministry of Sound boss Lohan Presencer does the cry baby act in today’s Guardian, complaining that Spotify’s freemium model doesn’t allow him to bathe in a Scrooge McDuck style swimming pool of golden coins any more. The cat is out of the bag for streaming music now, and no matter how much music companies cry foul they can’t stop Spotify and their ilk, and there wouldn’t be pots of gold waiting for them even if they could.
March 1, 2015
Album Digest, February 2015
Aphex Twin “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt2 EP” Aphex Twin follows SYRO (reviewed in Album Digest September 2014 here) with this 27 minute EP of music that, if we take the title literally, features computers playing acoustic musical instruments. It’s a very different sound to SYRO and sounds acoustic for the most part. It’s an important experiment about the role of the musician, one that is already blurred in the creation of electronic music.
February 22, 2015
Understated Classics #29: Let It Come Down by Spiritualized
I listened to Let It Come Down by Spiritualized for the first time during a difficult time in my life. I think this will always affect my feelings towards it. For me it’s a great big comfort blanket of a record. Coming after one of the all-time best break-up albums (in an artistic sense) in “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” perhaps it’s not that much of a surprise.
January 31, 2015
Album Digest, January 2015
Album Digest January 2015 rounds up a few albums from the tail end of 2014 that I didn’t get much time to write about. The only one of these six to be released this month is the excellent “No Cities To Love” by Sleater-Kinney.
Sleater-Kinney “No Cities To Love” I had heard of Sleater-Kinney before their boxed set “Start Together” was released in 2014. I was quite impressed that they curated their own Spotify playlist with the contents of the box.
January 18, 2015
Understated Classics #28: The Meadowlands by The Wrens
One of the first lines of “The House That Guilt Built”, the soft cricket-laden lament that opens The Meadowlands by The Wrens, is “I’m nowhere near where I thought I’d be”. The last line of the whole album is “this is not what you had planned”. These bookending lines set the tone for this shimmering, ramshackle masterpiece - a fatigue and careworn pride in failing to meet impossible standards writ large over its first and last eighty or so seconds.
September 30, 2014
Album Digest, September 2014
Album Digest September 2014 contains four amazing albums, including the long-awaited return from the Aphex Twin, and an album from Cymbals Eat Guitars released about a week after I wondered what had happened to them. Spooky. Rounding out the selection this month are a cool punky-disco album by The Juan Maclean and a truly remarkable offering by Vessel.
Aphex Twin SYRO SYRO is the sixth album by Aphex Twin and his first official Aphex Twin release since Drukqs in 2001.
August 31, 2014
Album Digest, August 2014
The album digest returns with five albums by four artists.
Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE Lone Reality Testing FKA twigs LP1 Mogwai Come On Die Young: Appendix Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE I’m a big fan of both Karl Hyde’s work with Underworld and of Brian Eno’s stuff so Someday World seemed like a dream collaboration to me when it was released last May.
August 19, 2014
Understated Classics #27: A Ghost Is Born by Wilco
I have already given some of the personal background to why I love this album and now it’s time to give a bit of love to the music itself so I’ll stick to giving a track by track account of “A Ghost Is Born”.
If you are familiar with Wilco’s first few albums, you’ll know that A Ghost Is Born is on the line of best fit through Being There, Summerteeth, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
August 17, 2014
What IS That Noise?
I recently spruced up a post I wrote four years ago about Biosphere’s wonderful album Substrata. I added the following footnote about the difference between voice samples and found sound:
I suppose I am distinguishing between found sound and vocal samples here. Perhaps there is very little difference, or that one is the other? When is a vocal snippet something more than found sound? Is it the fact that one has meaning?
July 22, 2014
My Amazing Subversive Revolutionary Adolescence
Or at least its subversive soundtrack… I listened to The Orb’s amazing live album “Live ’93” the other day (after discovering the insipid “History Of The Future” collection on Spotify) and I was amazed at how countercultural and subversive it was. I was listening to this stuff at the age of 14 and now that I’m old enough to be a parent, that makes me a bit uncomfortable. Actually it does nothing of the sort, because it’s frigging awesome.
July 7, 2014
Understated Classics #26: Come On Die Young by Mogwai
I’ll tell you about punk rock: punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and ah… and ah… heartless manipulators about music that takes up the energies and the bodies and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds of young men who give what they have to it and give everything they have to it and it’s a… it’s a term that’s based on contempt, it’s a term that’s based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism and everything that’s rotten about rock ’n’ roll.
June 30, 2014
Album Digest, June 2014
Watter are a “supergroup” composed from various members of Grails, Slint, and other bands. I did not know anything about Hundred Waters before this month: “The Moon Rang Like A Bell” is their second album. In fact second albums by bands I know nothing about are a something of theme because “Sunbathing Animal” is Parquet Courts’ sophomore effort and I don’t know anything about them either. Meanwhile, I’ve meant to write about “The Four Seasons Recomposed” since April.
May 31, 2014
Album Digest, May 2014
This month was strange. I didn’t listen to much new music and after last month’s bumper digest there’s probably a reason for that. Not to mention that Spotify gives you more reasons to look backwards than forwards. Nevertheless, this brief post features new albums by Little Dragon and Coldplay, along with the mini-album collaboration between Röyskopp and Robyn.
Little Dragon “Nabuma Rubberband” I discovered Little Dragon, like most people, I imagine, via Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach” album.
March 31, 2014
Album Digest, March 2014
I’m back in the UK so it’s back to posts about albums each month. This one is a bit different because I didn’t listen to very much new stuff while I was away so not all of the albums are up to date. I had to write about the new album by Liars though because it’s awesome and I couldn’t wait to discuss it! Here’s the list of albums:
Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob Fanfarlo Let’s Go Extinct Liars Mess London Grammar If You Wait Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob I would argue, as I have throughout my sequence of understated classics posts, that a great album is one that changes you as a person.
October 31, 2013
Album Digest, October 2013
Four great albums this month for the last album digest in a while.
CHVRCHES “The Bones Of What You Believe” I first got into CHVRCHES on Record Store Day, one of my purchases was an Irn Bru coloured 12" of the Recover EP that, according to eBay, tripled in value over night. Judging by this, their full debut, my see-through orange slab of happiness may hold its value, because it’s clear that CHVRCHES should be around for the long haul.
September 30, 2013
Album Digest, September 2013
A nice diverse selection of albums this month:
Arctic Monkeys “AM” BT “A Song Across Wires” Goldfrapp “Tales of Us” Janelle Monáe “Electric Lady” Arctic Monkeys “AM” This whole review is basically me catching up with the rest of the world and realising that the Arctic Monkeys are ace. To be fair, I did notice how awesome they were at the opening ceremony of the Olympics last year, and I have liked the odd one or two of their singles, but up until now I haven’t really wanted to listen to any of their albums.
September 14, 2013
Understated Classics #25: Long Gone Before Daylight by The Cardigans
The single biggest fact of life is that you are always going to be alone, you just might not realise it. Listening to The Cardigans’ excellent 2003 “Long Gone Before Daylight” will help you see that all our relationships are essentially screwed – but at least it sounds great while it does so.
“Long Gone Before Daylight” (“Long Gone Before Daylight”) plays the role of “The Empire Strikes Back” in a trilogy of great albums that The Cardigans released between 1999 (the arguably better and slightly happier “Gran Turismo”) and 2006 (the unarguably inferior and definitely happier “Super Extra Gravity”).
August 31, 2013
Album Digest, August 2013
For reasons that will become apparent, there will be a short period soon where I will not be writing album digests. Until then, I’m clearing a backlog of some albums that I’ve been listening to but haven’t had enough time or motivation to write about. Only one of this month’s albums was released this month, something that’s not that uncommon at this time of the year as it is not the best time to release things.
July 31, 2013
Album Digest, July 2013
Another four albums for you this month. Sometimes the problem is not finding albums to listen to but actually finding time to listen to them! Often it is not because I don’t have time but because I have already found some great albums this month and I am busy listening to those instead. As a result, a couple of these albums are ones that I have only listened to for a week or so, but they are interesting enough to write about.
June 30, 2013
Album Digest, June 2013
Just two albums this month as I am still enjoying last month’s albums so much (and I spent loads of time getting reacquainted with Boards Of Canada at the start of the month). I listened to a few more albums but not often enough to write loads about them so there is an “honourable mention” section at the end of the post that briefly discusses a few more albums.
Without further ado, the two albums are:
June 24, 2013
Understated Classics #24: Reservoir by Fanfarlo
I have written a lot in these posts about how music gets indelibly tied up with places, events and feelings. For me this album by Fanfarlo is tied up with all three of these. It makes me happy and sad at the same time in memory of great times that are now gone but are fondly remembered. I am aware that this is the youngest album on the list so far and so it might be a bit early to endow classic status upon it, but “Reservoir” is a fine album and to my ears it stands up really well.
May 31, 2013
Album Digest, May 2013
Lilacs & Champagne Danish & Blue You might remember that last year I reviewed the first Lilacs & Champagne album and I liked it a lot. This album sees them back with more of the same: taking the approach that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There are very few changes to the formula apart from the fact that the spoken word samples are not quite as good this time and there’s a bit more Grails-like guitar solo action.
May 23, 2013
Understated Classics #23: Gorgeous by 808 State
It was quite hard to choose an 808 State album for the understated classics series for two reasons. The first is that I was introduced to 808 State quite late through a friend’s sister’s cassette copy of The Shamen’s En-Tact (the original version recorded from vinyl that had a thirteen minute version of “Evil Is Eden”) that also had – to fill out the C90 – the full length sweary version of “What Time Is Love?
April 30, 2013
Album Digest, April 2013
Some great albums this month!
The Flaming Lips The Terror Wire Change Becomes Us James Blake Overgrown The Knife Shaking The Habitual The Flaming Lips The Terror How you view The Terror pretty much depends on how much you have kept up with The Flips output since their last official album, the clanking double behemoth in Merkin packaging that was Embryonic. The irony being that I used Embryonic to deal with a break-up and The Terror is pretty much about… a break-up.
March 31, 2013
Album Digest, March 2013
Just the David Bowie album this month as it’s pretty much the only new music that I’ve listened to.
I must admit that I had no idea what to expect of “The Next Day”. It comes almost exactly ten years after “Reality”, an album that I have never really got into despite it having some pretty decent fun tracks like “New Killer Star” and a nice cover of “Pablo Picasso” that has never sent me in search of Jonathan Richman’s original.
March 13, 2013
Understated Classics #22: Walking With Thee by Clinic
“Walking With Thee” is the second album by Liverpool band Clinic. It was released in 2002, which seems like an age ago now. Even longer ago they released the single “The Return of Evil Bill”, which was got me interested in them in the first place.
I recently got back into “Walking With Thee” when I picked “Vulture” in my A-Z of Animals playlist last month. I’d forgotten just how great a song it is, both musically and lyrically.
March 5, 2013
A Work Of Art At The End Of My Road?
I have had a lot of ideas for posts swirling around in my head in recent days. This is because I have actually done quite a lot of cool things in that time, and because I have hung out with some great people who make me think, and because I always have a whole load of things bouncing around in there anyway - space junk of the mind. I was thinking about how to put together these thoughts I have been having about art and about stories and yes, about love too.
February 28, 2013
Album Digest, February 2013
Most Februaries are quite quiet when it comes to albums (though this was not the case back in 2011) and although only the Foals album is a major release, I was quite surprised to find myself with four decent albums to write about. They are:
Darkstar “News From Nowhere” Foals “Holy Fire” Daniel Hope “Spheres” Apparat “Krieg und Frieden (Music For Theatre)” Darkstar “News From Nowhere” I don’t need to give too much biographical background for the Darkstar album as I don’t know too much about who the are.
January 31, 2013
Album Digest, January 2013
Only one of this month three albums was actually released this month. Nelly Furtado’s Mi plan was actually released over three years ago - I only discovered it last year when I wrote the September album digest following the release of “The Spirit Indestructible”, or it might have been when I wrote about “Folklore” at around the same time.
Anyway, I guess these are albums that I bought with my Christmas gift vouchers!
December 31, 2012
Album Digest, December 2012
Three albums (one very Christmassey one!) and an EP this month.
Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” Woob “Have Landed” Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin “Instrumental Tourist” Burial “Truant / Rough Sleeper Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” “Tinsel and Lights” is that rarest of records, a Christmas record that is perfectly suited to the season and is not in any way overbearing or irritating. Most albums that are Christmas themed are usually centred on lots of covers that are taken from a small subset of well worn classics.
November 29, 2012
Album Digest, November 2012
Pretty much a sliding scale between songs and electronic wibble on this month’s albums and a particularly damp, chilly feeling to proceedings too.
Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” Ital “Hive Mind” and “Dream On” Björk “Bastards” Brian Eno “Lux” Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” When it comes to Bat For Lashes, I prefer her first album “Fur And Gold” to her second “Two Suns” because when I listen to the latter I don’t feel connected to any of the songs.
November 21, 2012
Understated Classics #21: Woob 2 by Woob
The second Woob album (AKA “Woob 4495”) is probably the greatest ambient album ever made and is certainly the best one you have never heard of. Originally released in 1995 on the em:t label it is also a rare record. I don’t have an actual copy but I have seen one! I downloaded it off the internet and even that is quite difficult to do. My friend is an avid collector of all the em:t releases and it is easy to see why: all the albums are titled in a specific way that is very appealing to people who like to collect things and they also have very striking nature photography on the covers.
October 31, 2012
Album Digest, October 2012
It has been a strange month and I found that I didn’t listen to a lot of new music. I have been a bit down and when that’s the case I tend to take refuge in music that I know well, stuff that cheers me up. I have listened to last month’s fave a lot, Nelly Furtado’s “The Spirit Indestructible”. I said a lot of nice things about it but it probably didn’t come over in my writing just how much I really liked it.
September 29, 2012
Album Digest, September 2012
I had a bit more time to listen to this month’s albums because I was on holiday for two weeks. I didn’t manage to write about them while on holiday though! In fact I bought and listened to a few more, but I will save them for next month. The albums I will discuss now (in order bought) are:
Four Tet “Pink” The xx “Coexist” Nelly Furtado “The Spirit Indestructible” Grizzly Bear “Shields” It’s quite a diverse collection and, Four Tet apart, quite song based.
September 19, 2012
Understated Classics #20: Folklore by Nelly Furtado
It’s rather spooky but shortly after deciding to write about Nelly Furtado’s “Folklore” as the next understated classic, I found out that she has a new album out this week. As a result, I have been listening to a lot of her music while writing this post, and I’ve been enjoying it too.
As always with these choices of mine, “Folklore” is a record that I can link to particular events and emotions in my life and so I guess my perception of it is coloured by that.
August 31, 2012
Album Digest, August 2012
Album Digest August 2012 is also from the stack of albums that I mentioned last month. I chose this selection (along with the Passion Pit album) because the colours looked good together in the mosaic of covers that I make each month. Last month’s digest was about the right amount of detail so this will be another briefer digest. These are all good albums but not ones that will change your life, they’ll just happily sit alongside it.
August 15, 2012
Understated Classics #19: The Dreaming by Kate Bush
“I see the people working and see it working for them.” (Sat In Your Lap)
The Dreaming by Kate Bush is a strange 1982 album that many believed had destroyed her career. Two weeks before her first ever performance of “Running Up That Hill”, the NME had written an editorial asking whether she had burnt herself out completely. Obviously “Running Up That Hill” (recently used to great effect in the Olympic Closing Ceremony) and the parent album “The Hounds Of Love” that followed showed that she had plenty more up her sleeve.
July 31, 2012
Album Digest, July 2012
Just a short album digest this month. I bought a stack of CDs and am parcelling them out over the next few months (together with important additional releases as they crop up). This is in the hope that I can write more considered pieces about each one. This month I’ve grouped together albums with monochrome covers and a BT album from June that I found out about recently. These albums are not just linked by their artwork, they also form a cohesive whole.
June 30, 2012
Album Digest, June 2012
Three fantastic albums for Album Digest June 2012:
Saint Etienne Words and Music by Saint Etienne Liars WIXIW Hot Chip In Our Heads This month is a curious selection in that the albums are all by bands that I already own a few records by. When there is so much other directly related material that you can write about, it makes focussing on the album in hand quite difficult. I am always thinking up rankings and comparisons.
June 24, 2012
CAN, The Lost Tapes
This arrived on Monday and I thought I would give it a post of its own because at over 3 hours of music, I am unlikely to do more than dip into it before writing the album digest next week. It is a far bigger and more enjoyable artefact than I thought it was going to be, so it probably deserves special attention for that reason too.
CAN are a German (“Krautrock”) band that I got into about four years ago after my interest in the genre was sparked by the “Neu!
June 5, 2012
Understated Classics #18: Fabric 12 mixed by The Amalgamation Of Soundz
Say what? We’re allowing compilations now?
Yes. Why not? A good mix is as much an artistic statement as a full-blown single artist album. It takes a lot of skill to get from A to B and keep everything on the boil in between. This Fabric mix by The Amalgamation Of Soundz is one of my favourites because it is a downtempo (but, crucially, not too downtempo) compilation delivered with flair and using what I consider to be unconventional sources (soundtracks, tribute albums, hip-hop) to do it.
May 31, 2012
Album Digest, May 2012
Four albums for Album Digest May 2012:
Jack White Blunderbuss One Little Plane Into The Trees Beach House Bloom Oxia Tides Of Mind The April album digest was rather short on songs, so this month I decided to look for albums that were more based around songs not tracks. Electronic music is relatively easy to write about: the music is often simple (but not always), there are recognisable structures and genres (but not always), and there are conventions that are adhered to (but not always).
April 30, 2012
Album Digest, April 2012
A mostly instrumental month with a comeback from Orbital, an excellent remix collection from Battles, an amazing movie documenting a live performance by the Chemical Brothers and Austin Wintory’s soundtrack to the game Journey.
Orbital Wonky Battles Dross Glop The Chemical Brothers Don’t Think Austin Wintory Journey (Original Soundtrack) Orbital Wonky I am quite keen on Orbital, though perhaps not as keen as I am on the similarly named Orb. I think I have got all the Orbital albums, mostly bought on eBay after the fact.
April 19, 2012
Understated Classics #17: Nearly God by Nearly God (Tricky)
Sit back and let it happen, / Let us take your time away.
Nearly God is Tricky’s second album, which was released under a different name either because Island rejected it as the follow-up to Maxinequaye or because it came too quickly after and Tricky just wanted it released. I had this album before Maxinequaye because back then it wasn’t as easy to go back and catch up with albums that you had missed as it is now.
March 31, 2012
Album Digest, March 2012
Five albums for Album Digest March 2012
Fanfarlo Rooms Filled With Light The Shins Port Of Morrow Grails Deep Politics New Build Yesterday Was Lived And Lost Scuba Personality A nice collection of albums this month - things usually pick up in March after a slow period after Christmas. One of these is a “catch-up” (the album by Grails) but apart from that one, everything else was released in the last five weeks or so… I should probably have included the album by Racehorses that I bought on my birthday but I will have to leave that for next month as I haven’t listened to it that much.
March 21, 2012
Understated Classics #16: Ambient 2 / The Plateaux Of Mirror by Howard Budd and Brian Eno
Among Fields of Crystal / Wind in Lonely Fences I have written about a fair number of ambient albums in this series (and there are at least two more to come!) but perhaps none are as unobtrusive as this one by Howard Budd and Brian Eno. It’s a subtle collection of music that sits at the margins of your consciousness: for a long time it was the music that I turned to when I could not sleep but I could just as easily imagine it as (ahem!
February 28, 2012
Album Digest, February 2012
One EP and three albums for Album Digest February 2012:
Burial Kindred EP John Talabot fIN Lilacs & Champagne Lilacs & Champagne The 2 Bears Be Strong Last February was a pretty good month for song based albums, although the likes of Radiohead and James Blake provided plenty of electronic noodling in and around their song structures. (Interestingly, out of the two out-and-out song based albums, one was one of the worst albums of the year and the other one of the best).
January 31, 2012
Album Digest, January 2012
Five albums to see in the new year:
FOE “Bad Dream Hotline” Leila “U & I” Diagrams “Black Light” Pyramids & Horseback “A Throne Without A King” FabricLive 61 mixed by Pinch FOE Bad Dream Hotline I listened to “Bad Dream Hotline” about four times thinking “who does her voice remind me of?”. In the end I realised it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though in parts she sounds like KT Tunstall too.
January 23, 2012
Understated Classics #15: Début by Björk
I got into Début via a cassette from the library, much like I did with Together Alone by Crowded House. I suppose it is less obscure than many of my choices for this strand but I do think that Post is more well-known (because of It’s Oh So Quiet, which we shall mention here only briefly) and that Homogenic is probably more popular among her fans.
What I really like about Début though, as much as the album itself, is the panoply of remixes and alternative versions that surround the release.
December 29, 2011
Album Digest, December 2011
Some rather brief pen pictures of this month’s albums. I’ve been a bit busy!
Radio Slave - Collected Remixes Thud thud thud. This is pretty much how all Radio Slave remixes go. I really liked his fabric mix and borrowed a few tracks for a playlist I made called “Dancing In Space”. Anyway, back to the thudding: it’s no bad thing, the remixes have a nice formula that works well for discovering new tracks like UNKLE’s Burn My Shadow (Ian Astbury’s vocal is given plenty of room to shine) and K3’s Play To Win.
November 20, 2011
Album Digest, November 2011
Just three albums this month as I’ve been listening to a lot of Brian Eno records ready for an upcoming understated classic. First up is 50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush, the second album that she has released this year. Back in May I wrote about Director’s Cut, which presented re-recorded and re-mastered versions of songs from her albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. This time around it is an album of brand new material, the first since Aerial in 2006.
November 7, 2011
Understated Classics #14: Clear by Bomb The Bass
I think it’s time to discuss your philosophy of drug use as it relates to artistic endeavour…
That quote is from the movie “The Naked Lunch” directed by David Cronenburg (see also this) and it also opens “Bug Powder Dust” by Bomb The Bass, the five star single that opens “Clear”. A rollicking piece of rock rap dripping with pop culture references that runs for four and half minutes and does not stop until another quote from “The Naked Lunch”, it is probably one of my favourite songs of the 90s.
October 31, 2011
Album Digest, October 2011
This month we have albums by Björk, Coldplay, M83, and Radiohead.
Album Digest October 2011 - Intro I listened to Wilco’s The Whole Love again the other day. I happened to be walking past the venue in Portsmouth where I went to see them live back in 2004 and it seemed the right fit. I really enjoyed the album after a period of not having listened to it and I found that being familiar with the songs allowed me to better appreciate the production of the album.
September 30, 2011
Album Digest, September 2011
Hmmm, a rather grey looking selection of covers this month. The albums I have listened to most are:
John Beltran Ambient Selections FabricLive 59 mixed by Four Tet The Rapture In The Grace Of Your Love Wilco The Whole Love I have actually only had the Wilco album since Monday of this week (the 26th) but it has inveigled its way into my consciousness quite quickly. As I have said before, this blog owes its name to a Wilco song and they are quite an important band to me.
September 9, 2011
Understated Classics #13: U.F.Orb by The Orb
FUN FACT: It was because of the artwork to this album that I obsessively scrawled onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome on my pencil case at school. I also had a very passable u.f.orb logo drawn on it too.
In The Blue Room I had my first “close encounter” with The Orb in 1992 when the single Blue Room was in the charts.
August 31, 2011
Album Digest, August 2011
I bought a collection of electronic music this month. I mixed them all up in a smart playlist on iTunes, the smart aspect being to limit to tracks that had been played fewer than five then six then seven times etc. This made sure I was still listening to all the tracks equally often, despite the randomness.
Biosphere N-plants Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure Gus Gus Arabian Horse Instra:Mental Resolution 653 Jon Tejada Parabolas Biosphere N-Plants I think this album makes Biosphere the most reviewed musician on this blog at the moment but I don’t mind too much, he makes some great stuff.
August 16, 2011
Understated Classics #12: Look Sharp! by Roxette
Happy Birthday! No matter how intellectual one gets about these things, the primary function of music is to have fun. With this in mind it is a good time to turn to Roxette then, as they are almost always the epitome of fun.
I received Look Sharp! as a present for my ninth birthday. This was probably a bit young to fully understand all the emotions expressed on the record. It’s just as well that it is also crammed with the kind of pop confections that made “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!
July 31, 2011
Album Digest, July 2011
Quite a mixed bag this month.
SBTRKT SBTRKT Zomby Dedication Brian Eno Drums Between The Bells Bon Iver Bon Iver Washed Out Within and Without This month’s collection of albums is a rather mellow bunch. The SBTRKT album (self-titled) is probably the most frenetic of the five though even that does not exactly pound four to the floor. Most of it is pretty calm, though the occasional burst of pop to spice things up: sometimes it is as downtempo as the rest (Right Thing To Do and Trials Of The Past) but at other times things spark into life, as on Pharaohs.
July 22, 2011
Understated Classics #11: Second Toughest In The Infants by Underworld
Your rails, your fins, your thin paper wings Second Toughest in the Infants (STITI) is the second album by Underworld, released in 1995. This was just ahead of the mania caused by the .NUXX version of Born Slippy appearing on the Trainspotting soundtrack a little later. Born Slippy itself, the blippy techno confection released between their début Dubnobasswithmyheadman and this album. STITI then is very much the calm before the storm and features a band (in the truest sense, which is unusual among electronic acts) in full flow.
June 30, 2011
Album Digest, June 2011
I have had the sort of month that is not conducive to listening to much new music. Therefore this month’s post is only going to consider two new albums and two albums that I have bought behind time. Because of various bits of stress and poor mood, I have ended up going back and taking refuge in some old favourites and not listening to new stuff. At other points I have also gone back to the Fleet Foxes’ album that I wrote about last month, which has grown on me even more since.
June 24, 2011
Understated Classics #10: Tubular Bells II by Mike Oldfield
It was the artwork that got me interested in Tubular Bells II. Rendering Trevor Key’s wonderful icon of the twisted tubular bell in yellow and blue made it all the more mysterious. Seeing it one day in Woolworth’s in Leigh Park back in 1992 aroused my curiosity. The huge display must have been part of the massive publicity drive for the album. Despite dwindling sales for his albums at that time, a sequel to Tubular Bells represented a huge potential for sales.
May 31, 2011
Album Digest, May 2011
Four albums this month:
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Africa Hitech 93 Million Miles Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues TV On The Radio Nine Types of Light There is a pleasing red hue to all the covers this month. I had time to write four full reviews of the major albums I listened to. Like last month I have included a video at the foot of each review. Enjoy!
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Director’s Cut is not a new album from Kate Bush but a collection of re-visits to old songs, four from The Sensual World (1989) and seven from [The Red Shoes](http://en.
May 6, 2011
Understated Classics #9: Tiger Bay by Saint Etienne
Background Tiger Bay is Saint Etienne’s third album and I think it is among their best. It was released in June 1994 on Heavenly records. I first owned a copy in 1998 when I picked it up while living in halls as an undergraduate. The reason for including this album in the understated classics series is the same as for Second Light by Dreadzone: it marries traditional forms to newer electronic music1.
April 30, 2011
Album Digest, April 2011
Album of the month: Mirrorwriting by Jamie Woon Jamie Woon was brought to my attention late last year by Pitchfork who wrote an article about the video for lead single Night Air. I’ve put that video down below because I think that it is very good, a simple well executed and the tune itself is brilliant, probably my favourite individual track of 2010. It’s a downtempo tune full of dark spaces and empty beats, full of nocturnal promise and mystery.
March 31, 2011
Album Digest, March 2011
This is not an Album Digest March 2011 Well as I said at the end of last month’s album digest post, I took a bit of a break from pursuing new music quite as closely as I have been. As promised, I sidestepped the new R.E.M. and Elbow albums - although I had been promised the latter as a birthday present it is yet to show up, maybe I will look at in April.
March 17, 2011
Understated Classics #8: Second Light by Dreadzone
In the understated classics series, I try to alternate between pop/rock and electronic albums. Keeping with this trend number eight is the wonderful dub-infused album Second Light by Dreadzone. Released in 1996 it was well-received critically and four of its tracks featured on John Peel’s best-of-year list that year. Little Britain received a lot of radio play, a popular choice for that flag-waving period of britpop and assorted other demons.
February 28, 2011
Album Digest, February 2011
February, the shortest month, harbinger of such delights as Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day. Could it possibly produce any good albums? Well the candidates are the eponymous début album by James Blake, Zonoscope by Cut/Copy, Let England Shake by PJ Harvey and Smart Flesh by The Low Anthem. Furthermore, there was an unexpected bonus when Radiohead announced that their new album would be out and available to listen to this month too.
January 31, 2011
Album Digest, January 2011
Here’s to 2011 and the start of a monthly album digest. I want it to be a brief trot through some of the albums I have listened to each month. Sometimes January can bring a few quiet releases by big name bands. This happens if the previous album did not do as well as the record company hoped or if it is the kind of artist who would get lost under the hype of all the Christmas releases.
January 9, 2011
Understated Classics #7: 100 Broken Windows by Idlewild
Idewild are a solid band who have released four or five albums that I could consider for this series. I’m even in the sleeve credits of one: Post-Electric Blues, if you’re asking.
In the end I went for 100 Broken Windows because it means a lot to me. It has more of a place in my life than the others. Usually I find that this happens if I can remember where I bought an album.
December 3, 2010
Understated Classics #6: Arbor Bona Arbor Mala by The Shamen
Background Ask anyone into pop music between 1991 and 1993 about The Shamen, and you’ll either receive a flood of euphoric good will about excellent tracks like Move Any Mountain, LSI, and Phorever People1; or they will rant at you about the evils of Ebeneezer Goode. The Shamen are either one of the pantheon of great acts from early 90’s dance and electronic music, or they are a shameless vaudeville novelty act.
November 8, 2010
Understated Classics #5: A Weekend In The City by Bloc Party
A Weekend In The City: Background This is the youngest album I have chosen for this series. I try to pick albums that are at least ten years old but every now and then, I will think of an album that matches the sort of things I want to write about. That’s the case here. A Weekend in the City is an unusual album that, in a reversal of the old adage, is “easy to love but hard to admire”.
September 11, 2010
Understated Classics #4: Substrata by Biosphere
I bought this album in the summer between my two years at college. I remember listening to this music under skies glowering with clouds so 1997 must have been a poor summer. I’d just bought a book of photography too, which placed photos from the north and south poles on opposite pages. I bought it mainly for the penguins that were, of course, on pretty much every other page. The pictures of snow and ice soon became the ideal companions to this album.
August 17, 2010
Understated Classics #3: The Circle & The Square by Red Box
When is understated not understated? The trouble with writing a series of articles all themed somehow is that eventually you might find something that sits naturally in the sequence but at the same time goes against the grain a little. Et voila, I give you “The Circle & The Square” by Red Box. An album that hardly anyone has heard containing two top 10 UK singles that probably everyone has heard.
August 12, 2010
Understated Classics #2: Sinking by The Aloof
I discovered The Aloof while listening to the Top 40 When I was younger, I used to listen to the Top 40 every Sunday. To begin with, this was partly an endurance thing and partly an obsession with one day seeing Roxette top the charts - alas, they never did, though for one thrilling spring “Joyride” did flirt with the upper reaches of the chart.
Listening to the charts is probably the best way to become a lover of music.
August 3, 2010
Understated Classics #1: Together Alone by Crowded House
This week Arcade Fire released their hotly anticipated third album “The Suburbs”. I loved “Neon Bible” but critics found it preachy, as overbearing as the religious folk it sought to satirise. I disagree and think it was an impressive continuation from an exciting debut. “The Suburbs” steps on from their previous two albums, both in subject matter and tone. It’s sad, thoughtful, resigned, angry and tetchy - among other things. “The Suburbs” isn’t the understated classic that I want to discuss though: with all the praise and plaudits, it may never suit this new thread of posts.
Tag: Twenty Three
December 31, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #1: Sofia Kourtesis, Madres
Good vibes, global beats, and the life changing effects of brain surgery abound in Sofia’s debut.
December 30, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #2: James Holden, Imagine This is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities
Like a yomp in the countryside, but it’s a psychic topography made up of all modern dance music in James Holden’s brainy but democratic masterpiece.
December 29, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #3: Barry Can't Swim, When Will We Land?
Get up and go delivered in spades in this sunny happy dance album.
December 28, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #4: The National, "First Two Pages of Frankenstein" and "Laugh Track"
Two new albums? And they’re both better than the last one? And now with added Taylor Swift? You spoil us!
December 27, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #5: Nation of Language, Strange Disciple
Chilly and delicate synth missives from the lockdown.
December 26, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #6: Grails, Anches en Maat
Grails’ latest album gives you plenty to lose yourself in (for forty minutes at least).
December 25, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #7: Maara, The Ancient Truth
Because sometimes you can be relaxed by drum and bass. Sometimes.
December 24, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #8: Everything But The Girl, Fuse
Kiss me while the world decays because I miss you like the deserts miss the rain.
December 23, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #9: Fever Ray, Radical Romantics
Features odes to carbon dioxide, bullying your kid’s bullies, and candy/kandy.
December 22, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #10: Wata Igarashi, Agartha
Anyone for Japanese Techno via German kosmische music and Philip Glass operas?
December 21, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year Preview
It might have been a good idea to write all the reviews prior to publishing this summary. You’ll get ten eventually, I promise.
June 22, 2023
Civ Leaders #4: Qin Shi Huang (Mandate of Heaven) of China
Well, it’s been a while since I wrote my last Civ VI leader post about Amanitore of Nubia and there’s been a whole host of new leaders and personas added to the game since then. Among these the number of Chinese leaders has increased from two to five. Therefore it’s probably a good time to start writing about one of them, and where better to start than the OG himself, Qin Shi Huang.
June 19, 2023
On learning new tools
It strikes me that it is better to sit and think about what you need to do, rather than endless try out new tools and hoping you end up with a use for them. I’m not saying that innovation is bad, or that you shouldn’t stretch yourself into some new spot once in a while, but you will become more valuable to others if you can identify what it is you are supposed to be doing and then use your existing skills to get that job done.
June 8, 2023
Ellie Goulding - Bright Lights
So today my random album script picked out “Bright Lights” by Ellie Goulding, an album I wasn’t sure I’ve ever listened to. I looked in my music library and there it was! As a result this is not so much an album revisit as an album _visit.
Anyway, this album was released in 2010 and did quite well. In fact, “Bright Lights” is a reissue of an album that was originally released as “Lights” (February 2010).
June 7, 2023
Hot Chocolate Comparison
I’m a massive fan of hot chocolate. Recently a friend recommended M&S hot chocolate flakes. Thanks to a promotion it was about half the price of the Montezuma’s hot chocolate discs that we usually buy. The Montezuma’s ones are lush (that’s official hot chocolate tasting terminology) but in this economy anything that saves a bit of money has got to be good right?
However, there are other things to consider. For one, what’s the cost per drink?
June 5, 2023
Fabric 44 by John Tejada
This is one of my more played Fabric mix CDs so I decided to go for it when my random prompter plumped for this earlier today. One constraint of these posts was to write it in roughly the amount of time it takes to listen to it. You’d think that for a mix CD that would be ok. After all, this mix is a full CD and 74 minutes long.
June 3, 2023
How random should things be?
I’ve managed to extract my music library, including all the albums I’ve added to streaming, as a CSV file and write a routine in R to select an album at random. The plan is to write about that album for the blog in roughly the time that it takes to listen to that album all the way through. I already did this yesterday for Goldfrapp’s Black Cherry.
But I have to level with you.
June 2, 2023
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
This is the first in an unplanned series of album revisits, I will write a post explaining the process soon.
“Black Cherry” is the second album by Goldfrapp, released in 2003. I bought the lead single Train while I lived in York and also the single of the title track because by then I’d discovered M83 and they’d done a remix of it.
“Black Cherry” finds the band faced with following their successful and chilled out debut album “Felt Mountain”, which back in 2000 had sounded notably weird.
June 1, 2023
Oh heck it's June
White rabbits and all that.
Even more than during the pandemic, I’m feeling these days like the days, weeks, and months are all blurring into one another. It’s getting harder to figure out what year something happened, how the old the cats are, and just how overdue all my promises are. It’s definitely getting harder to look at this blog and wonder whether it will ever get back to its heyday of regularly posted updates.
May 31, 2023
Decision to Leave
I gave up writing reviews of movies because:
I never felt I got the balance right between describing the plot and why I liked the film. I don’t watch enough movies to be able to draw comparisons that are interesting, just between the small subset of total films that I have watched. I don’t know enough about film making to properly describe why a movie made me feel a particular way and how to discuss the different possibilities available to the director, the actors, and the other artists involved with creating a movie.
April 9, 2023
A list for '23
A set of rules for living from now on (in no particular order)
Life is too short to look at adverts. Avoid them where possible. Block them if you have to. Embrace risk and chance, as they have contributed the most to where you are now. Intervene into physical things and leave your mark upon them. Draw pictures on the blank pages of books, even if they are dear to you.
March 15, 2023
What is in my Rakefile? (March 2023 edition)
Because I am bored of forgetting what’s in my website’s Rakefile, I thought I’d write a list. Also, as I’m probably going to move over to a node based approach soon, it’s a handy wish list for my package.json file when the time comes.
Make a new post in _posts named “Title” rake post["Title"]
If no title is given, you will be prompted for one. The post will be opened in the editor specified in the Rakefile.
January 20, 2023
Come back to us Brother Matthew
As with most years, I had hoped to start off 2023 with a flurry of new blog posts. Instead I caught Covid, which knocked me out for most of ‘betweenmas’ and put paid to my hopes for a productive start to the year. At the time of writing this post, I only just feel like I have begun to get back to ’normal’, or at least as normal as things have been since 2020.
Tag: Sofia Kourtesis
December 31, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #1: Sofia Kourtesis, Madres
Good vibes, global beats, and the life changing effects of brain surgery abound in Sofia’s debut.
Tag: James Holden
December 30, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #2: James Holden, Imagine This is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities
Like a yomp in the countryside, but it’s a psychic topography made up of all modern dance music in James Holden’s brainy but democratic masterpiece.
December 7, 2017
Album Digest, November 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
July 31, 2013
Album Digest, July 2013
Another four albums for you this month. Sometimes the problem is not finding albums to listen to but actually finding time to listen to them! Often it is not because I don’t have time but because I have already found some great albums this month and I am busy listening to those instead. As a result, a couple of these albums are ones that I have only listened to for a week or so, but they are interesting enough to write about.
Tag: Barry Can't Swim
December 29, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #3: Barry Can't Swim, When Will We Land?
Get up and go delivered in spades in this sunny happy dance album.
Tag: Indie
December 28, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #4: The National, "First Two Pages of Frankenstein" and "Laugh Track"
Two new albums? And they’re both better than the last one? And now with added Taylor Swift? You spoil us!
December 27, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #5: Nation of Language, Strange Disciple
Chilly and delicate synth missives from the lockdown.
Tag: Rock
December 28, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #4: The National, "First Two Pages of Frankenstein" and "Laugh Track"
Two new albums? And they’re both better than the last one? And now with added Taylor Swift? You spoil us!
December 26, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #6: Grails, Anches en Maat
Grails’ latest album gives you plenty to lose yourself in (for forty minutes at least).
January 1, 2022
Understated Classics Or Not?
At the new year, thoughts and spare time for writing point me toward writing some new posts for my understated classics series. Expect some new ones soon.
I also reflected on my previous choices and thought a bit about how my music tastes have changed recently. Some of this has to do with streaming and the frustrations I wrote about in my last post. Some of it is just down to getting older: I have less time to listen to new music, and much of the ’new’ stuff I listen to is me investigating the stuff I missed first time around.
August 25, 2021
If anything, make it weirder
Today I listened to ‘Cloudbusting’ by Kate Bush for the first time in a while. What a gloriously strange song it is. Best of all, it’s one of those songs that obscures what it is really about. It’s not a song about a change in the weather, but about Wilhelm Reich, the orgone accumulator, fluorescent yo-yos, and a son (rather than a sun) coming out.
‘Cloudbusting’ is from ‘Hounds of Love’, Kate’s ‘comeback’ album following the commercial failure of ‘The Dreaming’, an album I wrote about in my understated classics series.
October 29, 2017
Understated Classics #36: The Coral by The Coral
Perhaps in today’s modern age of streaming and such, The Coral would be a bigger band and may have survived their eventual burnout. Their work ethic was evident from the start, as rumours swirled in the NME about a fantastic new band from Liverpool who were going to blow everybody’s socks off. I went to see them live in Bristol after they’d released three EPs and they were incredible. Their sound, a bit like the movie “Holy Mountain” set to pop music, imagined a Merseybeat channelled from an alternative universe in which Lennon and McCartney took their acid in the Mojave desert rather than in the English suburbs.
October 13, 2016
Understated Classics #34: Stray by Aztec Camera
The next instalment in my understated classics series is "Stray" by Aztec Camera. Released in 1990, it features two hit singles and the cover is my favourite colour: green.
My angle for writing about “Stray” was that it was an album that I "caught" from my parents. I soon realised that I wrote about some of those already, for example “The Circle and the Square" by Red Box. Besides, I’m not sure that my parents liked this album that much.
February 22, 2015
Understated Classics #29: Let It Come Down by Spiritualized
I listened to Let It Come Down by Spiritualized for the first time during a difficult time in my life. I think this will always affect my feelings towards it. For me it’s a great big comfort blanket of a record. Coming after one of the all-time best break-up albums (in an artistic sense) in “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” perhaps it’s not that much of a surprise.
January 18, 2015
Understated Classics #28: The Meadowlands by The Wrens
One of the first lines of “The House That Guilt Built”, the soft cricket-laden lament that opens The Meadowlands by The Wrens, is “I’m nowhere near where I thought I’d be”. The last line of the whole album is “this is not what you had planned”. These bookending lines set the tone for this shimmering, ramshackle masterpiece - a fatigue and careworn pride in failing to meet impossible standards writ large over its first and last eighty or so seconds.
August 19, 2014
Understated Classics #27: A Ghost Is Born by Wilco
I have already given some of the personal background to why I love this album and now it’s time to give a bit of love to the music itself so I’ll stick to giving a track by track account of “A Ghost Is Born”.
If you are familiar with Wilco’s first few albums, you’ll know that A Ghost Is Born is on the line of best fit through Being There, Summerteeth, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
July 7, 2014
Understated Classics #26: Come On Die Young by Mogwai
I’ll tell you about punk rock: punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and ah… and ah… heartless manipulators about music that takes up the energies and the bodies and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds of young men who give what they have to it and give everything they have to it and it’s a… it’s a term that’s based on contempt, it’s a term that’s based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism and everything that’s rotten about rock ’n’ roll.
September 14, 2013
Understated Classics #25: Long Gone Before Daylight by The Cardigans
The single biggest fact of life is that you are always going to be alone, you just might not realise it. Listening to The Cardigans’ excellent 2003 “Long Gone Before Daylight” will help you see that all our relationships are essentially screwed – but at least it sounds great while it does so.
“Long Gone Before Daylight” (“Long Gone Before Daylight”) plays the role of “The Empire Strikes Back” in a trilogy of great albums that The Cardigans released between 1999 (the arguably better and slightly happier “Gran Turismo”) and 2006 (the unarguably inferior and definitely happier “Super Extra Gravity”).
June 24, 2013
Understated Classics #24: Reservoir by Fanfarlo
I have written a lot in these posts about how music gets indelibly tied up with places, events and feelings. For me this album by Fanfarlo is tied up with all three of these. It makes me happy and sad at the same time in memory of great times that are now gone but are fondly remembered. I am aware that this is the youngest album on the list so far and so it might be a bit early to endow classic status upon it, but “Reservoir” is a fine album and to my ears it stands up really well.
March 13, 2013
Understated Classics #22: Walking With Thee by Clinic
“Walking With Thee” is the second album by Liverpool band Clinic. It was released in 2002, which seems like an age ago now. Even longer ago they released the single “The Return of Evil Bill”, which was got me interested in them in the first place.
I recently got back into “Walking With Thee” when I picked “Vulture” in my A-Z of Animals playlist last month. I’d forgotten just how great a song it is, both musically and lyrically.
August 15, 2012
Understated Classics #19: The Dreaming by Kate Bush
“I see the people working and see it working for them.” (Sat In Your Lap)
The Dreaming by Kate Bush is a strange 1982 album that many believed had destroyed her career. Two weeks before her first ever performance of “Running Up That Hill”, the NME had written an editorial asking whether she had burnt herself out completely. Obviously “Running Up That Hill” (recently used to great effect in the Olympic Closing Ceremony) and the parent album “The Hounds Of Love” that followed showed that she had plenty more up her sleeve.
June 24, 2012
CAN, The Lost Tapes
This arrived on Monday and I thought I would give it a post of its own because at over 3 hours of music, I am unlikely to do more than dip into it before writing the album digest next week. It is a far bigger and more enjoyable artefact than I thought it was going to be, so it probably deserves special attention for that reason too.
CAN are a German (“Krautrock”) band that I got into about four years ago after my interest in the genre was sparked by the “Neu!
June 24, 2011
Understated Classics #10: Tubular Bells II by Mike Oldfield
It was the artwork that got me interested in Tubular Bells II. Rendering Trevor Key’s wonderful icon of the twisted tubular bell in yellow and blue made it all the more mysterious. Seeing it one day in Woolworth’s in Leigh Park back in 1992 aroused my curiosity. The huge display must have been part of the massive publicity drive for the album. Despite dwindling sales for his albums at that time, a sequel to Tubular Bells represented a huge potential for sales.
January 9, 2011
Understated Classics #7: 100 Broken Windows by Idlewild
Idewild are a solid band who have released four or five albums that I could consider for this series. I’m even in the sleeve credits of one: Post-Electric Blues, if you’re asking.
In the end I went for 100 Broken Windows because it means a lot to me. It has more of a place in my life than the others. Usually I find that this happens if I can remember where I bought an album.
November 8, 2010
Understated Classics #5: A Weekend In The City by Bloc Party
A Weekend In The City: Background This is the youngest album I have chosen for this series. I try to pick albums that are at least ten years old but every now and then, I will think of an album that matches the sort of things I want to write about. That’s the case here. A Weekend in the City is an unusual album that, in a reversal of the old adage, is “easy to love but hard to admire”.
August 3, 2010
Understated Classics #1: Together Alone by Crowded House
This week Arcade Fire released their hotly anticipated third album “The Suburbs”. I loved “Neon Bible” but critics found it preachy, as overbearing as the religious folk it sought to satirise. I disagree and think it was an impressive continuation from an exciting debut. “The Suburbs” steps on from their previous two albums, both in subject matter and tone. It’s sad, thoughtful, resigned, angry and tetchy - among other things. “The Suburbs” isn’t the understated classic that I want to discuss though: with all the praise and plaudits, it may never suit this new thread of posts.
Tag: The National
December 28, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #4: The National, "First Two Pages of Frankenstein" and "Laugh Track"
Two new albums? And they’re both better than the last one? And now with added Taylor Swift? You spoil us!
September 30, 2017
Album Digest, September 2017
Note: Recent months have been very busy, so this album digest combines a review of the new album by The National with a couple of reviews left over from earlier in the year.
I’ve written a few more album reviews in the past months but I’m so far behind (February and March have already been published on a considerable lag) that I’m just going to pepper forthcoming digests with additional reviews of older albums.
May 31, 2013
Album Digest, May 2013
Lilacs & Champagne Danish & Blue You might remember that last year I reviewed the first Lilacs & Champagne album and I liked it a lot. This album sees them back with more of the same: taking the approach that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There are very few changes to the formula apart from the fact that the spoken word samples are not quite as good this time and there’s a bit more Grails-like guitar solo action.
Tag: Nation of Language
December 27, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #5: Nation of Language, Strange Disciple
Chilly and delicate synth missives from the lockdown.
Tag: Grails
December 26, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #6: Grails, Anches en Maat
Grails’ latest album gives you plenty to lose yourself in (for forty minutes at least).
February 28, 2017
Album Digest, February 2017
Grails Chalice Hymnal Some albums are good because a band continues making the music that you love. Some albums are good because a band takes their ideas a step or two further than before. Chalice Hymnalis that rare album that does both of these things.
The references to past albums include the track Deeper Politics and Deep Snow II, and, as per albums past, these tracks evolve slowly out of languid guitar hooks and smoky atmospherics.
June 30, 2014
Album Digest, June 2014
Watter are a “supergroup” composed from various members of Grails, Slint, and other bands. I did not know anything about Hundred Waters before this month: “The Moon Rang Like A Bell” is their second album. In fact second albums by bands I know nothing about are a something of theme because “Sunbathing Animal” is Parquet Courts’ sophomore effort and I don’t know anything about them either. Meanwhile, I’ve meant to write about “The Four Seasons Recomposed” since April.
March 31, 2012
Album Digest, March 2012
Five albums for Album Digest March 2012
Fanfarlo Rooms Filled With Light The Shins Port Of Morrow Grails Deep Politics New Build Yesterday Was Lived And Lost Scuba Personality A nice collection of albums this month - things usually pick up in March after a slow period after Christmas. One of these is a “catch-up” (the album by Grails) but apart from that one, everything else was released in the last five weeks or so… I should probably have included the album by Racehorses that I bought on my birthday but I will have to leave that for next month as I haven’t listened to it that much.
Tag: EBTG
December 24, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #8: Everything But The Girl, Fuse
Kiss me while the world decays because I miss you like the deserts miss the rain.
Tag: Fever Ray
December 23, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #9: Fever Ray, Radical Romantics
Features odes to carbon dioxide, bullying your kid’s bullies, and candy/kandy.
December 7, 2017
Album Digest, November 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
Tag: Wata Igarashi
December 22, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year #10: Wata Igarashi, Agartha
Anyone for Japanese Techno via German kosmische music and Philip Glass operas?
Tag: Meta
December 21, 2023
2023 Albums of the Year Preview
It might have been a good idea to write all the reviews prior to publishing this summary. You’ll get ten eventually, I promise.
Tag: China
June 22, 2023
Civ Leaders #4: Qin Shi Huang (Mandate of Heaven) of China
Well, it’s been a while since I wrote my last Civ VI leader post about Amanitore of Nubia and there’s been a whole host of new leaders and personas added to the game since then. Among these the number of Chinese leaders has increased from two to five. Therefore it’s probably a good time to start writing about one of them, and where better to start than the OG himself, Qin Shi Huang.
Tag: Civ
June 22, 2023
Civ Leaders #4: Qin Shi Huang (Mandate of Heaven) of China
Well, it’s been a while since I wrote my last Civ VI leader post about Amanitore of Nubia and there’s been a whole host of new leaders and personas added to the game since then. Among these the number of Chinese leaders has increased from two to five. Therefore it’s probably a good time to start writing about one of them, and where better to start than the OG himself, Qin Shi Huang.
May 27, 2020
Civ Leaders #3: Amanitore of Nubia
Amanitore of Nubia is available in a base game DLC. She also has her own scenario “The Gifts of the Nile”, which like most scenarios has unique tech and civic trees. You need to assert your dominance over the Nile by building seven temples. The scenario combines faith and military tactics in a satisfying way and you can also play it as Cleopatra for a different perspective.
Civ ability Ta-Seti +50% Production toward Ranged units.
May 12, 2019
Civ Leaders #2: Alexander of Macedon
Alexander of Macedon is available in a base game DLC pack alongside Darius of Persia. He also has his own scenario “The Conquests of Alexander”, which is both fun to play and instructive in how to use the formidable benefits of his bonuses and unique units.
Civ ability Hellenistic Fusion When capturing a city, receive civic boosts for each holy site and theatre square, and tech boosts for each campus and encampment.
May 6, 2019
Civ Leaders #1: Hojo Tokimune of Japan
Civ ability Meiji Restoration Districts receive a +1 adjacency bonus for each adjacent district, instead of +0.5.
Leader bonus: Land units in Coastal tiles and naval units in Coast tiles receive +5 Combat Strength. +50% Production towards Encampment, Holy Site and Theatre Square districts. Units are immune to Hurricane damage. Civilisations at war with Japan receive +100% unit damage from hurricanes while in Japanese territory Unique unit The samurai, a high combat strength unit that does not lose combat strength when damage and gains an extra 10 combat strength against anti-cavalry units.
April 24, 2019
All the Civs
Ingrid and I love playing Civ VI. It’s a fine game that improves on previous versions, adding many layers and mechanics that mean you can vary your playing style. In fact, with the recent Gathering Storm expansion there’s now an incredible variety of ways to play. The 39 leaders to play with both reflect and provide the game’s increased complexity. Each leader has a slightly different mechanic that influences how you play the game, and of course the leaders you are up against also affect your game play.
Tag: Fun
June 22, 2023
Civ Leaders #4: Qin Shi Huang (Mandate of Heaven) of China
Well, it’s been a while since I wrote my last Civ VI leader post about Amanitore of Nubia and there’s been a whole host of new leaders and personas added to the game since then. Among these the number of Chinese leaders has increased from two to five. Therefore it’s probably a good time to start writing about one of them, and where better to start than the OG himself, Qin Shi Huang.
May 27, 2020
Civ Leaders #3: Amanitore of Nubia
Amanitore of Nubia is available in a base game DLC. She also has her own scenario “The Gifts of the Nile”, which like most scenarios has unique tech and civic trees. You need to assert your dominance over the Nile by building seven temples. The scenario combines faith and military tactics in a satisfying way and you can also play it as Cleopatra for a different perspective.
Civ ability Ta-Seti +50% Production toward Ranged units.
May 12, 2019
Civ Leaders #2: Alexander of Macedon
Alexander of Macedon is available in a base game DLC pack alongside Darius of Persia. He also has his own scenario “The Conquests of Alexander”, which is both fun to play and instructive in how to use the formidable benefits of his bonuses and unique units.
Civ ability Hellenistic Fusion When capturing a city, receive civic boosts for each holy site and theatre square, and tech boosts for each campus and encampment.
May 6, 2019
Civ Leaders #1: Hojo Tokimune of Japan
Civ ability Meiji Restoration Districts receive a +1 adjacency bonus for each adjacent district, instead of +0.5.
Leader bonus: Land units in Coastal tiles and naval units in Coast tiles receive +5 Combat Strength. +50% Production towards Encampment, Holy Site and Theatre Square districts. Units are immune to Hurricane damage. Civilisations at war with Japan receive +100% unit damage from hurricanes while in Japanese territory Unique unit The samurai, a high combat strength unit that does not lose combat strength when damage and gains an extra 10 combat strength against anti-cavalry units.
April 24, 2019
All the Civs
Ingrid and I love playing Civ VI. It’s a fine game that improves on previous versions, adding many layers and mechanics that mean you can vary your playing style. In fact, with the recent Gathering Storm expansion there’s now an incredible variety of ways to play. The 39 leaders to play with both reflect and provide the game’s increased complexity. Each leader has a slightly different mechanic that influences how you play the game, and of course the leaders you are up against also affect your game play.
November 3, 2017
Suits Me
In recent weeks I have worn a suit to work. I bought a new furry woolly suit a few weeks ago and have alternated between it and my old one. I also bought new shoes that gave me blisters and made me cry. Enough time has passed that by now it feels natural rather than silly and those shoes don’t eat my feet as much as they used to.
I think I feel calmer before I go to work as a result of wearing the suit.
July 1, 2016
Swaptastic Part 3: The Shiny App
The shiny app embedded below allows you to explore the number of packets you need to complete the Panini sticker album for this summer’s Euro tournament. This builds on the results I presented in an [earlier post](link to earlier post) and allows you to explore how many fewer packets you need to buy when you have more friends to swap with. You can also vary the number of runs performed because the model runs considerably slower with more swappers involved.
June 14, 2016
Swaptastic Part 1
Envelopes containing swaps that have arrived in the post in recent days. It is nice to get letters from all over the country, even if they do just contain a selection of panini stickers. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have used the sticker swapping website to share my swaps with people all over the UK. I have sent swaps off to London, Bristol, Cornwall, Lancashire, Wales, and Gloucester.
July 9, 2015
Minions: A Short Review
The Minions got their own movie, just as I predicted in my review of Despicable Me 2. I went to see it this week and I enjoyed it a lot. Here’s a short review. Don’t worry, there are no spoilers here that aren’t in the trailer.
It’s very funny. Right from the opening credits you get the minions and their anarchic fun-loving slapstick humour. There’s always been something delightful about they way in which they innocently bumble around.
February 11, 2013
A Jigsaw
The other weekend, beset by insomnia, I decided to follow my own advice and get up to do something instead of wallowing unable to sleep. I pulled my emergency jigsaw out of the cupboard and set to it. I should stress that I mean a jigsaw puzzle and not an actually jigsaw: DIY at 2am is not such a good idea!
I’d forgotten how interesting jigsaw puzzles actually are. As I sat there contemplating the 1000 pieces and wondered exactly what I’d let myself in for, I found myself thinking about a number of things.
September 21, 2012
Programming a Carcassonne Game
Although I have put off finishing my UNO game for over eighteen months, I thought I would get started with another pet project of mine: making a Carcassonne game. This is not a serious affair, there is an excellent app of Carcassonne available for those of you who have iOS devices (it works particularly well on the iPad). The game just strikes me as having the right level of complexity to be a taxing yet attainable project.
June 22, 2011
Favourite Numbers
What’s your favourite number?
I was ambivalent on this issue until a few months ago until I came across the following quirky result: if you start with the prime number 41 and then add 2 you get 43, which is also prime and then if you add 4 to 43, you get 47: also prime. And this continues to produce prime numbers if you add successive multiples of two to your running total, UNTIL… you get to the 41st number in this sequence, which is 41 squared.
May 5, 2011
Five Superheroes We Can Live Without
The other day while writing some rather self-pitying notes in my blog book (yes, I handwrite all this rubbish before I go to bed at night!) I came up with some useless superheroes, or rather the only superheroes that a washed-up guy in his early thirties could hope to be. Because I haven’t got any ideas for “five things on the fifth” this month, I decided to flesh out a few of these.
April 3, 2011
Favourite Culture Ship Names
As I mentioned before I am re-reading the novels of Iain Banks and this weekend I managed to finish Consider Phlebas. A little post about it will be coming up soon. One of my favourite things about the Culture novels is how the ships are named and having found a list on Wikipedia, I thought I would share ten of my favourites with you!
You’ll Clean That Up Before You Leave Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff Prosthetic Conscience Of Course I Still Love You Size Isn’t Everything Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again Dramatic Exit, Or, Thank you And Goodnight We Haven’t Met But You’re A Great Fan Of Mine Anticipation Of A New Lover’s Arrival, The Great names all I am sure you would agree.
February 2, 2011
Programming an UNO game, part 2
It turns out that programming the UNO game is not that complicated once you start designing the thing. This post will get the rules and game elements clear.
The deck An UNO deck consists of four sets of coloured cards (red, yellow, green and blue) together with eight wild cards. The non-wild cards are marked with either numbers or special symbols. The numbers range from zero to nine with two of each number except for the zero, which is unique.
December 28, 2010
Programming an UNO game
A new year, a new hobby I don’t write about programming enough. This is a shame because it is a very interesting subject and I find that the problem solving aspects of programming are very satisfying. Keenly aware of the need to do more hobby programming and to get up to speed on areas of software development that I’ve been neglecting, I have decided to give myself the project of creating a computerised version of the UNO card game.
Tag: Leaders
June 22, 2023
Civ Leaders #4: Qin Shi Huang (Mandate of Heaven) of China
Well, it’s been a while since I wrote my last Civ VI leader post about Amanitore of Nubia and there’s been a whole host of new leaders and personas added to the game since then. Among these the number of Chinese leaders has increased from two to five. Therefore it’s probably a good time to start writing about one of them, and where better to start than the OG himself, Qin Shi Huang.
May 27, 2020
Civ Leaders #3: Amanitore of Nubia
Amanitore of Nubia is available in a base game DLC. She also has her own scenario “The Gifts of the Nile”, which like most scenarios has unique tech and civic trees. You need to assert your dominance over the Nile by building seven temples. The scenario combines faith and military tactics in a satisfying way and you can also play it as Cleopatra for a different perspective.
Civ ability Ta-Seti +50% Production toward Ranged units.
May 12, 2019
Civ Leaders #2: Alexander of Macedon
Alexander of Macedon is available in a base game DLC pack alongside Darius of Persia. He also has his own scenario “The Conquests of Alexander”, which is both fun to play and instructive in how to use the formidable benefits of his bonuses and unique units.
Civ ability Hellenistic Fusion When capturing a city, receive civic boosts for each holy site and theatre square, and tech boosts for each campus and encampment.
May 6, 2019
Civ Leaders #1: Hojo Tokimune of Japan
Civ ability Meiji Restoration Districts receive a +1 adjacency bonus for each adjacent district, instead of +0.5.
Leader bonus: Land units in Coastal tiles and naval units in Coast tiles receive +5 Combat Strength. +50% Production towards Encampment, Holy Site and Theatre Square districts. Units are immune to Hurricane damage. Civilisations at war with Japan receive +100% unit damage from hurricanes while in Japanese territory Unique unit The samurai, a high combat strength unit that does not lose combat strength when damage and gains an extra 10 combat strength against anti-cavalry units.
Tag: Procrastination
June 19, 2023
On learning new tools
It strikes me that it is better to sit and think about what you need to do, rather than endless try out new tools and hoping you end up with a use for them. I’m not saying that innovation is bad, or that you shouldn’t stretch yourself into some new spot once in a while, but you will become more valuable to others if you can identify what it is you are supposed to be doing and then use your existing skills to get that job done.
Tag: Software
June 19, 2023
On learning new tools
It strikes me that it is better to sit and think about what you need to do, rather than endless try out new tools and hoping you end up with a use for them. I’m not saying that innovation is bad, or that you shouldn’t stretch yourself into some new spot once in a while, but you will become more valuable to others if you can identify what it is you are supposed to be doing and then use your existing skills to get that job done.
February 2, 2022
A February Project
Hmmm it seems as though the ffi gem as installed by bundler is not compatible with a Mac that has an M1 chip. This limits my ability to preview blog posts locally. I might have to swap to a more modern static site generator (which is probably easier than working out what ffi actually does) - seems like a good February project!
June 1, 2020
Sprucing up the Blog
This post explains some of the modifications I made to a minimal Jekyll theme to get this blog as I wanted it. This blog (currently) uses the excellent Sidey theme by Ronalds Vilciņš. His site looks eerily similar to this one, at least at time of writing.
The theme is pretty minimal in terms of features (and appearance) but it scores well on the Google Page Speed test. The features I added have increased the build time, but have not affected the speed of the site in terms of the page speed test.
May 29, 2020
Living in the Pi Hole
Ingrid bought me a raspberry pi for my birthday. I’ve set it up to run the Pi-hole software. Pi-hole is a nifty bit of kit that intercepts your web requests and purges any that ask for material on known ad servers. Essentially it’s like having an ad blocker on your network rather than just your computer.
I’ve written before about why I hate web advertising, and since then it’s got even more malign.
April 11, 2017
Changes
Moving the blog to Jekyll (again, sort of) Et voila, my blog lives! In a new body (Jekyll) and at a new location.
The Process I set up Jekyll on my MacBook Air after loads of initial problems with installing the theme and getting assorted Ruby gems installed and working. Stack Overflow is a friend for life now. By way of comparison, getting things up and running on my new Mac was simple.
August 30, 2016
Adventures with Discover Weekly
Because I couldn’t find any albums coming out this month that I wanted to review for the album digest, I decided to let Spotify pick the albums to listen to. I listened to my algorithmically chosen Discover Weekly playlist one week and selected albums based on the songs that I liked the most. The album also had to be released in 2016. The selections are ones that got away.
I’ve done this before.
July 5, 2015
An Initial Comparison of Apple Music and Spotify
My previous post about Apple Music was more a response to how it was presented at the WWDC Keynote rather than to the idea of Apple Music itself. I should have known better than to use that clickbait title. I knew I wasn’t writing about the product, more the flatness of its introduction (despite the names on show).
After a few days of living with it I thought I’d write about it and Spotify, so that it’s not just my snarky comments about the keynote that are on record here.
August 21, 2014
Useful Ulysses
What it is Ulysses is a markdown editor for the Mac. It has a simple drafting model that makes it easy to organise ideas and move between them. Pieces of writing are represented as sheets that can be tagged and grouped together - the grouping can be made manually or using filters. There are no files, the sheets are entries in a single database that is synced with iCloud. Because everything is plain text it won’t eat up your storage space.
April 15, 2014
Should I Drop Dropbox?
I am thinking about whether I want to use Dropbox to sync my files anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love Dropbox. It came along in beta in just 2008 just as I needed it to manage my PhD thesis. In fact I often jokingly claim to having invented it by asking on the MacRumors forums whether a program like it existed - just a few weeks before its beta rode in to my life like a knight in shining armour.
Tag: Work
June 19, 2023
On learning new tools
It strikes me that it is better to sit and think about what you need to do, rather than endless try out new tools and hoping you end up with a use for them. I’m not saying that innovation is bad, or that you shouldn’t stretch yourself into some new spot once in a while, but you will become more valuable to others if you can identify what it is you are supposed to be doing and then use your existing skills to get that job done.
October 16, 2013
The Reset Button
Previously on… I planned this post as a follow-up to one called The Truth About Work from a couple of months ago, but a few things happened that changed my thinking. It has implications for my future and in particular, it redefines what this break from work and upcoming trip means to me.
One of the punchlines to “The Truth About Work” was that, sometimes, the only way to move ahead is to quit.
August 14, 2013
The Truth About Work
Motivation and Lies Motivation is a fickle thing. You can see it in action here on this blog, or rather in inaction as there are often “droughts” between posts (and draughts between drafts…). Back in June I tried to write a post each day that had a title of the form “X and Y”. I was overambitious and they petered out after a bit. This was one of those posts and was originally titled “Motivation and Lies” in melodramatic fashion.
Tag: Album Revisit
June 8, 2023
Ellie Goulding - Bright Lights
So today my random album script picked out “Bright Lights” by Ellie Goulding, an album I wasn’t sure I’ve ever listened to. I looked in my music library and there it was! As a result this is not so much an album revisit as an album _visit.
Anyway, this album was released in 2010 and did quite well. In fact, “Bright Lights” is a reissue of an album that was originally released as “Lights” (February 2010).
June 5, 2023
Fabric 44 by John Tejada
This is one of my more played Fabric mix CDs so I decided to go for it when my random prompter plumped for this earlier today. One constraint of these posts was to write it in roughly the amount of time it takes to listen to it. You’d think that for a mix CD that would be ok. After all, this mix is a full CD and 74 minutes long.
June 3, 2023
How random should things be?
I’ve managed to extract my music library, including all the albums I’ve added to streaming, as a CSV file and write a routine in R to select an album at random. The plan is to write about that album for the blog in roughly the time that it takes to listen to that album all the way through. I already did this yesterday for Goldfrapp’s Black Cherry.
But I have to level with you.
June 2, 2023
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
This is the first in an unplanned series of album revisits, I will write a post explaining the process soon.
“Black Cherry” is the second album by Goldfrapp, released in 2003. I bought the lead single Train while I lived in York and also the single of the title track because by then I’d discovered M83 and they’d done a remix of it.
“Black Cherry” finds the band faced with following their successful and chilled out debut album “Felt Mountain”, which back in 2000 had sounded notably weird.
Tag: Ellie Goulding
June 8, 2023
Ellie Goulding - Bright Lights
So today my random album script picked out “Bright Lights” by Ellie Goulding, an album I wasn’t sure I’ve ever listened to. I looked in my music library and there it was! As a result this is not so much an album revisit as an album _visit.
Anyway, this album was released in 2010 and did quite well. In fact, “Bright Lights” is a reissue of an album that was originally released as “Lights” (February 2010).
Tag: Pop
June 8, 2023
Ellie Goulding - Bright Lights
So today my random album script picked out “Bright Lights” by Ellie Goulding, an album I wasn’t sure I’ve ever listened to. I looked in my music library and there it was! As a result this is not so much an album revisit as an album _visit.
Anyway, this album was released in 2010 and did quite well. In fact, “Bright Lights” is a reissue of an album that was originally released as “Lights” (February 2010).
January 1, 2022
Understated Classics Or Not?
At the new year, thoughts and spare time for writing point me toward writing some new posts for my understated classics series. Expect some new ones soon.
I also reflected on my previous choices and thought a bit about how my music tastes have changed recently. Some of this has to do with streaming and the frustrations I wrote about in my last post. Some of it is just down to getting older: I have less time to listen to new music, and much of the ’new’ stuff I listen to is me investigating the stuff I missed first time around.
October 13, 2016
Understated Classics #34: Stray by Aztec Camera
The next instalment in my understated classics series is "Stray" by Aztec Camera. Released in 1990, it features two hit singles and the cover is my favourite colour: green.
My angle for writing about “Stray” was that it was an album that I "caught" from my parents. I soon realised that I wrote about some of those already, for example “The Circle and the Square" by Red Box. Besides, I’m not sure that my parents liked this album that much.
July 20, 2016
Understated Classics #33: Embrya by Maxwell
I give the impression of planning these posts but to be honest I came across an article about Maxwell a few weeks ago and fondly remembered my cassette copy of this album. The joy of Spotify is that it’s easy to dig up old favourites. The recent warm weather makes for a good opportunity to enjoy the sultry embrace of “Embrya” once more.
“Gestation: Mythos” burbles along for two and a half minutes, overlaying spoken word samples, string phrases and weird underwater noises, before the bass line of “Everwanting: To Want You To Want” brings things to life.
July 22, 2015
Understated Classics #31: The White Room by The KLF
This little masterpiece was released in 1991. I got my copy on cassette for Christmas that year, but by May in 1992 they’d already “retired” and split up.
The KLF were a band in the right place at the right time with the right idea. Taking advantage of synthesizers and the idea of fusing rock and pop music with the emerging sound of house music, they laid the ground for many of the most successful electronic acts that followed them.
September 19, 2012
Understated Classics #20: Folklore by Nelly Furtado
It’s rather spooky but shortly after deciding to write about Nelly Furtado’s “Folklore” as the next understated classic, I found out that she has a new album out this week. As a result, I have been listening to a lot of her music while writing this post, and I’ve been enjoying it too.
As always with these choices of mine, “Folklore” is a record that I can link to particular events and emotions in my life and so I guess my perception of it is coloured by that.
August 15, 2012
Understated Classics #19: The Dreaming by Kate Bush
“I see the people working and see it working for them.” (Sat In Your Lap)
The Dreaming by Kate Bush is a strange 1982 album that many believed had destroyed her career. Two weeks before her first ever performance of “Running Up That Hill”, the NME had written an editorial asking whether she had burnt herself out completely. Obviously “Running Up That Hill” (recently used to great effect in the Olympic Closing Ceremony) and the parent album “The Hounds Of Love” that followed showed that she had plenty more up her sleeve.
January 23, 2012
Understated Classics #15: Début by Björk
I got into Début via a cassette from the library, much like I did with Together Alone by Crowded House. I suppose it is less obscure than many of my choices for this strand but I do think that Post is more well-known (because of It’s Oh So Quiet, which we shall mention here only briefly) and that Homogenic is probably more popular among her fans.
What I really like about Début though, as much as the album itself, is the panoply of remixes and alternative versions that surround the release.
August 16, 2011
Understated Classics #12: Look Sharp! by Roxette
Happy Birthday! No matter how intellectual one gets about these things, the primary function of music is to have fun. With this in mind it is a good time to turn to Roxette then, as they are almost always the epitome of fun.
I received Look Sharp! as a present for my ninth birthday. This was probably a bit young to fully understand all the emotions expressed on the record. It’s just as well that it is also crammed with the kind of pop confections that made “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!
May 6, 2011
Understated Classics #9: Tiger Bay by Saint Etienne
Background Tiger Bay is Saint Etienne’s third album and I think it is among their best. It was released in June 1994 on Heavenly records. I first owned a copy in 1998 when I picked it up while living in halls as an undergraduate. The reason for including this album in the understated classics series is the same as for Second Light by Dreadzone: it marries traditional forms to newer electronic music1.
August 17, 2010
Understated Classics #3: The Circle & The Square by Red Box
When is understated not understated? The trouble with writing a series of articles all themed somehow is that eventually you might find something that sits naturally in the sequence but at the same time goes against the grain a little. Et voila, I give you “The Circle & The Square” by Red Box. An album that hardly anyone has heard containing two top 10 UK singles that probably everyone has heard.
August 3, 2010
Understated Classics #1: Together Alone by Crowded House
This week Arcade Fire released their hotly anticipated third album “The Suburbs”. I loved “Neon Bible” but critics found it preachy, as overbearing as the religious folk it sought to satirise. I disagree and think it was an impressive continuation from an exciting debut. “The Suburbs” steps on from their previous two albums, both in subject matter and tone. It’s sad, thoughtful, resigned, angry and tetchy - among other things. “The Suburbs” isn’t the understated classic that I want to discuss though: with all the praise and plaudits, it may never suit this new thread of posts.
Tag: Chocolate
June 7, 2023
Hot Chocolate Comparison
I’m a massive fan of hot chocolate. Recently a friend recommended M&S hot chocolate flakes. Thanks to a promotion it was about half the price of the Montezuma’s hot chocolate discs that we usually buy. The Montezuma’s ones are lush (that’s official hot chocolate tasting terminology) but in this economy anything that saves a bit of money has got to be good right?
However, there are other things to consider. For one, what’s the cost per drink?
Tag: Food
June 7, 2023
Hot Chocolate Comparison
I’m a massive fan of hot chocolate. Recently a friend recommended M&S hot chocolate flakes. Thanks to a promotion it was about half the price of the Montezuma’s hot chocolate discs that we usually buy. The Montezuma’s ones are lush (that’s official hot chocolate tasting terminology) but in this economy anything that saves a bit of money has got to be good right?
However, there are other things to consider. For one, what’s the cost per drink?
April 22, 2019
Four Recipe Book Recommendations
The A-Z of Cooking by Felicity Cloake This book is for more luxurious and experimental recipes. There are 26 chapters, one for an ingredient beginning with each letter of the alphabet, but you probably guessed that already. Ingrid and I have been (very) slowly working our way through the chapters, making a couple of recipes from each one - we’re currently up to G for Garlic.
My favourite so far has been the bread dumplings in parmesan broth because it gives us a use for our many many parmesan rinds.
December 26, 2017
Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew
Here’s a recipe to use up your turkey leftovers after Christmas.
You will need a slow cooker or an oven-proof cooking dish.
Ingredients About four portions of cold turkey, torn into bite-sized pieces 1 sweet potato, chopped into small slivers 1 carrot, chopped into small slivers 1 onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic, diced 2 tsp mixed herbs 2 tsp smoked paprika 20g butter 50g diced chorizo 1 chicken stock cube mixed in about 700ml water (see method) Method Melt the butter and fry the onions on a medium heat until golden.
November 5, 2017
Beetroot Bolognaise
We cook this version of bolognaise with beetroot due to Ingrid’s tomato allergy. This recipe is an attempt to capture what we do on the fly. The key to it is using the wine, the Worcestershire sauce and the herbs to even out the sweetness of the beetroot. If you can manage that, it’s super tasty. The sauce usually ends up being an unusual but pleasing pink/purple colour, as you will see from the pictures.
February 16, 2015
On The Humble Cheese Grater
You can’t beat a good cheese grater. Cheese just tastes better in a sandwich once it has been grated. It’s been proven by ACTUAL SCIENCE that this is the case: something about the increased surface area making it taste more zingy (NB. QI is not actually a peer-reviewed scientific journal). Of course the cheese we are grating here is a nice mature cheddar, you can’t grate Camembert or Stilton (well technically you can, but why would you?
Tag: Hot Chocolate
June 7, 2023
Hot Chocolate Comparison
I’m a massive fan of hot chocolate. Recently a friend recommended M&S hot chocolate flakes. Thanks to a promotion it was about half the price of the Montezuma’s hot chocolate discs that we usually buy. The Montezuma’s ones are lush (that’s official hot chocolate tasting terminology) but in this economy anything that saves a bit of money has got to be good right?
However, there are other things to consider. For one, what’s the cost per drink?
Tag: Recipes
June 7, 2023
Hot Chocolate Comparison
I’m a massive fan of hot chocolate. Recently a friend recommended M&S hot chocolate flakes. Thanks to a promotion it was about half the price of the Montezuma’s hot chocolate discs that we usually buy. The Montezuma’s ones are lush (that’s official hot chocolate tasting terminology) but in this economy anything that saves a bit of money has got to be good right?
However, there are other things to consider. For one, what’s the cost per drink?
Tag: Compilation
June 5, 2023
Fabric 44 by John Tejada
This is one of my more played Fabric mix CDs so I decided to go for it when my random prompter plumped for this earlier today. One constraint of these posts was to write it in roughly the amount of time it takes to listen to it. You’d think that for a mix CD that would be ok. After all, this mix is a full CD and 74 minutes long.
Tag: Fabric
June 5, 2023
Fabric 44 by John Tejada
This is one of my more played Fabric mix CDs so I decided to go for it when my random prompter plumped for this earlier today. One constraint of these posts was to write it in roughly the amount of time it takes to listen to it. You’d think that for a mix CD that would be ok. After all, this mix is a full CD and 74 minutes long.
June 5, 2012
Understated Classics #18: Fabric 12 mixed by The Amalgamation Of Soundz
Say what? We’re allowing compilations now?
Yes. Why not? A good mix is as much an artistic statement as a full-blown single artist album. It takes a lot of skill to get from A to B and keep everything on the boil in between. This Fabric mix by The Amalgamation Of Soundz is one of my favourites because it is a downtempo (but, crucially, not too downtempo) compilation delivered with flair and using what I consider to be unconventional sources (soundtracks, tribute albums, hip-hop) to do it.
January 31, 2012
Album Digest, January 2012
Five albums to see in the new year:
FOE “Bad Dream Hotline” Leila “U & I” Diagrams “Black Light” Pyramids & Horseback “A Throne Without A King” FabricLive 61 mixed by Pinch FOE Bad Dream Hotline I listened to “Bad Dream Hotline” about four times thinking “who does her voice remind me of?”. In the end I realised it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though in parts she sounds like KT Tunstall too.
April 30, 2011
Album Digest, April 2011
Album of the month: Mirrorwriting by Jamie Woon Jamie Woon was brought to my attention late last year by Pitchfork who wrote an article about the video for lead single Night Air. I’ve put that video down below because I think that it is very good, a simple well executed and the tune itself is brilliant, probably my favourite individual track of 2010. It’s a downtempo tune full of dark spaces and empty beats, full of nocturnal promise and mystery.
Tag: John Tejada
June 5, 2023
Fabric 44 by John Tejada
This is one of my more played Fabric mix CDs so I decided to go for it when my random prompter plumped for this earlier today. One constraint of these posts was to write it in roughly the amount of time it takes to listen to it. You’d think that for a mix CD that would be ok. After all, this mix is a full CD and 74 minutes long.
Tag: Randomness
June 3, 2023
How random should things be?
I’ve managed to extract my music library, including all the albums I’ve added to streaming, as a CSV file and write a routine in R to select an album at random. The plan is to write about that album for the blog in roughly the time that it takes to listen to that album all the way through. I already did this yesterday for Goldfrapp’s Black Cherry.
But I have to level with you.
Tag: Dance
June 2, 2023
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
This is the first in an unplanned series of album revisits, I will write a post explaining the process soon.
“Black Cherry” is the second album by Goldfrapp, released in 2003. I bought the lead single Train while I lived in York and also the single of the title track because by then I’d discovered M83 and they’d done a remix of it.
“Black Cherry” finds the band faced with following their successful and chilled out debut album “Felt Mountain”, which back in 2000 had sounded notably weird.
January 1, 2022
Understated Classics Or Not?
At the new year, thoughts and spare time for writing point me toward writing some new posts for my understated classics series. Expect some new ones soon.
I also reflected on my previous choices and thought a bit about how my music tastes have changed recently. Some of this has to do with streaming and the frustrations I wrote about in my last post. Some of it is just down to getting older: I have less time to listen to new music, and much of the ’new’ stuff I listen to is me investigating the stuff I missed first time around.
Tag: Goldfrapp
June 2, 2023
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
This is the first in an unplanned series of album revisits, I will write a post explaining the process soon.
“Black Cherry” is the second album by Goldfrapp, released in 2003. I bought the lead single Train while I lived in York and also the single of the title track because by then I’d discovered M83 and they’d done a remix of it.
“Black Cherry” finds the band faced with following their successful and chilled out debut album “Felt Mountain”, which back in 2000 had sounded notably weird.
September 30, 2017
Album Digest, September 2017
Note: Recent months have been very busy, so this album digest combines a review of the new album by The National with a couple of reviews left over from earlier in the year.
I’ve written a few more album reviews in the past months but I’m so far behind (February and March have already been published on a considerable lag) that I’m just going to pepper forthcoming digests with additional reviews of older albums.
September 30, 2013
Album Digest, September 2013
A nice diverse selection of albums this month:
Arctic Monkeys “AM” BT “A Song Across Wires” Goldfrapp “Tales of Us” Janelle Monáe “Electric Lady” Arctic Monkeys “AM” This whole review is basically me catching up with the rest of the world and realising that the Arctic Monkeys are ace. To be fair, I did notice how awesome they were at the opening ceremony of the Olympics last year, and I have liked the odd one or two of their singles, but up until now I haven’t really wanted to listen to any of their albums.
Tag: June
June 1, 2023
Oh heck it's June
White rabbits and all that.
Even more than during the pandemic, I’m feeling these days like the days, weeks, and months are all blurring into one another. It’s getting harder to figure out what year something happened, how the old the cats are, and just how overdue all my promises are. It’s definitely getting harder to look at this blog and wonder whether it will ever get back to its heyday of regularly posted updates.
June 30, 2016
Album Digest, June 2016
Album Digest June 2016 is a poppy batch of albums. We have the return of my long-time favourites Roxette and the heroes of my South American tour Tegan & Sara. There’s some dance music in the form of Flume’s album “Skin”: an Australian presence ahead of the new Avalanches album next month. Finally there is the first of two new albums by Islands - both were released back in May but one gets reviewed this month and the other next month.
June 30, 2015
Album Digest, June 2015
To reboot this series, Album Digest June 2015 features five fantastic albums from Hot Chip, Jamie xx, Blanck Mass, Holly Herndon, and The Orb. I could pick loads more as I’ve listened to a lot of albums since February but I decided to focus on the more electronic material. This means that I have no excuses for not continuing next month with a rockier theme.
Hot Chip “Why Make Sense?” Hot Chip seem to be settling in to a pattern with their album releases, alternating between messy experimental affairs and then a state of the art correction.
June 30, 2014
Album Digest, June 2014
Watter are a “supergroup” composed from various members of Grails, Slint, and other bands. I did not know anything about Hundred Waters before this month: “The Moon Rang Like A Bell” is their second album. In fact second albums by bands I know nothing about are a something of theme because “Sunbathing Animal” is Parquet Courts’ sophomore effort and I don’t know anything about them either. Meanwhile, I’ve meant to write about “The Four Seasons Recomposed” since April.
June 30, 2013
Album Digest, June 2013
Just two albums this month as I am still enjoying last month’s albums so much (and I spent loads of time getting reacquainted with Boards Of Canada at the start of the month). I listened to a few more albums but not often enough to write loads about them so there is an “honourable mention” section at the end of the post that briefly discusses a few more albums.
Without further ado, the two albums are:
June 30, 2012
Album Digest, June 2012
Three fantastic albums for Album Digest June 2012:
Saint Etienne Words and Music by Saint Etienne Liars WIXIW Hot Chip In Our Heads This month is a curious selection in that the albums are all by bands that I already own a few records by. When there is so much other directly related material that you can write about, it makes focussing on the album in hand quite difficult. I am always thinking up rankings and comparisons.
June 25, 2012
Another Reading List
More books to add to the “University of life” course list. From top to bottom: I picked up “Generation X” for 50p in a charity shop in Tintagel. “Everything Is Going To Be OK” is a picture book full of inspirational mottos. “The Happiness Hypothesis” is the most useful and interesting book that I have read in a long while. I decided to read “How To Write A Sentence” as an alternative to Strunk and White’s “The Elements Of Style” which, while useful, can be a little stuffy!
June 30, 2011
Album Digest, June 2011
I have had the sort of month that is not conducive to listening to much new music. Therefore this month’s post is only going to consider two new albums and two albums that I have bought behind time. Because of various bits of stress and poor mood, I have ended up going back and taking refuge in some old favourites and not listening to new stuff. At other points I have also gone back to the Fleet Foxes’ album that I wrote about last month, which has grown on me even more since.
Tag: Organisation
June 1, 2023
Oh heck it's June
White rabbits and all that.
Even more than during the pandemic, I’m feeling these days like the days, weeks, and months are all blurring into one another. It’s getting harder to figure out what year something happened, how the old the cats are, and just how overdue all my promises are. It’s definitely getting harder to look at this blog and wonder whether it will ever get back to its heyday of regularly posted updates.
Tag: Time Passing
June 1, 2023
Oh heck it's June
White rabbits and all that.
Even more than during the pandemic, I’m feeling these days like the days, weeks, and months are all blurring into one another. It’s getting harder to figure out what year something happened, how the old the cats are, and just how overdue all my promises are. It’s definitely getting harder to look at this blog and wonder whether it will ever get back to its heyday of regularly posted updates.
April 23, 2019
Ambitions Revisited
Back in 2012 I wrote a post listing my ambitions for the future. Well it’s the future now isn’t it? Almost. After all, I’m a whole new person now. Anyway it’s probably time to take stock. Have I achieved any of them? Have any of my ambitions changed? What’s replaced the things that I’ve decided not to worry about? What has come after the things I managed to do?
First off, here’s my justification for writing the list in the original post:
November 21, 2018
Five years after
Five years ago I set out at 3am for Heathrow airport to catch the early morning flight to Madrid. There I connected with a flight to Quito in Ecuador. The previous days and weeks had been fraught with worry about whether I was doing the right thing. Did I get the right vaccinations? Would I have enough money? Would I cope with all that travel? Was I coming back? What was I going to do with all my stuff?
October 31, 2017
Three Years
Three years ago today I moved in to my little flat in Chichester, soon to start a new job. I had no money left but at least, after a character building stint of six months sleeping on the floor, I had a bed. In the intervening three years, my job role has expanded, I’ve done another degree, the flat has become a home, and I’ve met and married Ingrid. Add to that the fact that it’s almost four years since I left for South America and I start to realise that I’ve done a crazy amount of things in that time.
January 1, 2015
Happy New Year 2015!
Just a brief message to wish everyone a happy new year. Getting my flat connected to the internet continues to be a trial so it’s still not as easy to post as I would like. However, I have some workarounds now and I hope to write (and post) more often from now on.
Like everyone I make resolutions at this time of year, though as the years pass I realise that the best resolutions are to apopt a new way of being rather than a new way of doing.
Tag: Detective Story
May 31, 2023
Decision to Leave
I gave up writing reviews of movies because:
I never felt I got the balance right between describing the plot and why I liked the film. I don’t watch enough movies to be able to draw comparisons that are interesting, just between the small subset of total films that I have watched. I don’t know enough about film making to properly describe why a movie made me feel a particular way and how to discuss the different possibilities available to the director, the actors, and the other artists involved with creating a movie.
Tag: Movies
May 31, 2023
Decision to Leave
I gave up writing reviews of movies because:
I never felt I got the balance right between describing the plot and why I liked the film. I don’t watch enough movies to be able to draw comparisons that are interesting, just between the small subset of total films that I have watched. I don’t know enough about film making to properly describe why a movie made me feel a particular way and how to discuss the different possibilities available to the director, the actors, and the other artists involved with creating a movie.
Tag: South Korea
May 31, 2023
Decision to Leave
I gave up writing reviews of movies because:
I never felt I got the balance right between describing the plot and why I liked the film. I don’t watch enough movies to be able to draw comparisons that are interesting, just between the small subset of total films that I have watched. I don’t know enough about film making to properly describe why a movie made me feel a particular way and how to discuss the different possibilities available to the director, the actors, and the other artists involved with creating a movie.
Tag: Rules
April 9, 2023
A list for '23
A set of rules for living from now on (in no particular order)
Life is too short to look at adverts. Avoid them where possible. Block them if you have to. Embrace risk and chance, as they have contributed the most to where you are now. Intervene into physical things and leave your mark upon them. Draw pictures on the blank pages of books, even if they are dear to you.
Tag: Thoughts
April 9, 2023
A list for '23
A set of rules for living from now on (in no particular order)
Life is too short to look at adverts. Avoid them where possible. Block them if you have to. Embrace risk and chance, as they have contributed the most to where you are now. Intervene into physical things and leave your mark upon them. Draw pictures on the blank pages of books, even if they are dear to you.
June 1, 2022
The paths in the wood
I began writing this post after realising that it is the first of June and I might as well attempt once more to write a post every day. The speed with which the first of the month comes around, inviting another such promise, always amuses me. But at the moment I am not sure whether this blog will still exist come the end of the month. I think I want to start again in pastures new.
Tag: Blog
March 15, 2023
What is in my Rakefile? (March 2023 edition)
Because I am bored of forgetting what’s in my website’s Rakefile, I thought I’d write a list. Also, as I’m probably going to move over to a node based approach soon, it’s a handy wish list for my package.json file when the time comes.
Make a new post in _posts named “Title” rake post["Title"]
If no title is given, you will be prompted for one. The post will be opened in the editor specified in the Rakefile.
June 1, 2022
The paths in the wood
I began writing this post after realising that it is the first of June and I might as well attempt once more to write a post every day. The speed with which the first of the month comes around, inviting another such promise, always amuses me. But at the moment I am not sure whether this blog will still exist come the end of the month. I think I want to start again in pastures new.
February 2, 2022
A February Project
Hmmm it seems as though the ffi gem as installed by bundler is not compatible with a Mac that has an M1 chip. This limits my ability to preview blog posts locally. I might have to swap to a more modern static site generator (which is probably easier than working out what ffi actually does) - seems like a good February project!
March 22, 2015
A Little Bit Intimidating Really
There is so much good writing out there. All you have to do is fire up the guardian website, or download the medium app to your smartphone, or visit my friend Barrie’s site, or Lee’s, and so on and so on.
When it comes to my little whisper into this great choir, it’s easy to feel a bit intimidated. How do I add my voice? How do I feel distinct? How do I do it as well as all these other wonderful writers?
February 20, 2015
On Writing As It Happens
I’m pretty close to a round number. To date I have written 298,500 words for this blog, not counting posts that I have discarded or deleted. This will be the 505th post currently on the blog, which makes for an average of just under 600 words per post. Some posts are just a picture or a video or a gallery though, so that distorts the average a bit.
I don’t think I can write the 1500 words I need to hit 300,000 in this post.
February 15, 2015
On Jackson X
I set myself the task of writing about a fictional character for this blog post, so this post is about Jackson X. His surname isn’t really X, it’s just one of the details about him that I haven’t fleshed out yet. This is because Jackson X is the one of the protagonists of the novel I’m (not) writing.
The name of the novel is “The Summer of the Giant Space Whale”.
December 30, 2014
On convictions, whereas to the strength of and belief in same
Overlong reflection upon the past is one sure way to make yourself unhappy so I try to avoid it. Nevertheless it becomes unavoidable at this time of year, especially if, like me, you are somewhat prone to reflection.
At this time last year I was, as detailed in the most recent report of my South American adventure, in La Paz, Bolivia. I think I felt as lost then as I do now, though back then I had the novelty of new places and good friends to steer me through.
November 14, 2014
October and November 2014
I recently started a new job and moved in to a new flat. This means I’m too busy to write any long blog posts at the moment. Also I’m still not quite at home there, so I tend to spend my evenings tidying up or setting up new things. It’s a shame because I have plenty of things to write about (even without observations on moving, starting a new job, etc) but I guess the writing will happen eventually…
August 21, 2014
Useful Ulysses
What it is Ulysses is a markdown editor for the Mac. It has a simple drafting model that makes it easy to organise ideas and move between them. Pieces of writing are represented as sheets that can be tagged and grouped together - the grouping can be made manually or using filters. There are no files, the sheets are entries in a single database that is synced with iCloud. Because everything is plain text it won’t eat up your storage space.
April 3, 2012
Net Loss
I pay to have this blog up and running. That is, I pay for the space where it is stored and I pay for the name. I have to look after all the files and plug-ins, I have to perform all the updates and optimise the database tables. All this is great fun but wouldn’t it be cheaper to slap the mattischro.me address onto a hosted WordPress.com account?
Well, yes it would.
August 5, 2011
Five lessons from a year of blogging
I have now been writing decent length articles on this site for about a year. I have learned a lot in this time, mostly about writing but also how to express your feelings and how to marshal your ideas and passions into action. For this month’s “five on the fifth”, I would like to share with you some of the things I have learned.
Writing posts consistently is hard… There are a lot of things that get in the way of regular posting.
Tag: Housekeeping
March 15, 2023
What is in my Rakefile? (March 2023 edition)
Because I am bored of forgetting what’s in my website’s Rakefile, I thought I’d write a list. Also, as I’m probably going to move over to a node based approach soon, it’s a handy wish list for my package.json file when the time comes.
Make a new post in _posts named “Title” rake post["Title"]
If no title is given, you will be prompted for one. The post will be opened in the editor specified in the Rakefile.
Tag: Jekyll
March 15, 2023
What is in my Rakefile? (March 2023 edition)
Because I am bored of forgetting what’s in my website’s Rakefile, I thought I’d write a list. Also, as I’m probably going to move over to a node based approach soon, it’s a handy wish list for my package.json file when the time comes.
Make a new post in _posts named “Title” rake post["Title"]
If no title is given, you will be prompted for one. The post will be opened in the editor specified in the Rakefile.
February 2, 2022
A February Project
Hmmm it seems as though the ffi gem as installed by bundler is not compatible with a Mac that has an M1 chip. This limits my ability to preview blog posts locally. I might have to swap to a more modern static site generator (which is probably easier than working out what ffi actually does) - seems like a good February project!
June 1, 2020
Sprucing up the Blog
This post explains some of the modifications I made to a minimal Jekyll theme to get this blog as I wanted it. This blog (currently) uses the excellent Sidey theme by Ronalds Vilciņš. His site looks eerily similar to this one, at least at time of writing.
The theme is pretty minimal in terms of features (and appearance) but it scores well on the Google Page Speed test. The features I added have increased the build time, but have not affected the speed of the site in terms of the page speed test.
Tag: Rake
March 15, 2023
What is in my Rakefile? (March 2023 edition)
Because I am bored of forgetting what’s in my website’s Rakefile, I thought I’d write a list. Also, as I’m probably going to move over to a node based approach soon, it’s a handy wish list for my package.json file when the time comes.
Make a new post in _posts named “Title” rake post["Title"]
If no title is given, you will be prompted for one. The post will be opened in the editor specified in the Rakefile.
June 1, 2020
Sprucing up the Blog
This post explains some of the modifications I made to a minimal Jekyll theme to get this blog as I wanted it. This blog (currently) uses the excellent Sidey theme by Ronalds Vilciņš. His site looks eerily similar to this one, at least at time of writing.
The theme is pretty minimal in terms of features (and appearance) but it scores well on the Google Page Speed test. The features I added have increased the build time, but have not affected the speed of the site in terms of the page speed test.
Tag: Covid
January 20, 2023
Come back to us Brother Matthew
As with most years, I had hoped to start off 2023 with a flurry of new blog posts. Instead I caught Covid, which knocked me out for most of ‘betweenmas’ and put paid to my hopes for a productive start to the year. At the time of writing this post, I only just feel like I have begun to get back to ’normal’, or at least as normal as things have been since 2020.
August 2, 2021
Jab 2
I was due to have my second vaccination today, but like most people I rebooked to have it a bit earlier. No real side effects this time, save for a bit of malaise. Though that may have just been the thought of opening up the country when cases are still increasing quickly.
It goes without saying that I’d urge everyone to get vaccinated and then to keep turning up for whatever boosters the people protecting us (e.
May 17, 2021
Jab 1
I had my first Covid-19 vaccination on Friday. Leading up to it, I was borderline having a panic attack. From about lunchtime I was just all over the shop (the jab was at 7pm). I’m glad that the vaccination centres run with such exactitude, but also with a sense of cheeriness. By the time I’d had the jab, I was feeling much better just from the sheer relief of it.
Tag: New Year
January 20, 2023
Come back to us Brother Matthew
As with most years, I had hoped to start off 2023 with a flurry of new blog posts. Instead I caught Covid, which knocked me out for most of ‘betweenmas’ and put paid to my hopes for a productive start to the year. At the time of writing this post, I only just feel like I have begun to get back to ’normal’, or at least as normal as things have been since 2020.
Tag: Ambient
October 29, 2022
The Orb, Live at Brighton Concord 2
Went with my friend Nick to see The Orb at Concord 2 last night. The last time I’d seen the Orb was back in 2004, at the start of their relatively dry spell. That night, they’d been a bit lacklustre despite playing (some of) the hits and a relatively decent album in “Bicycles and Tricycles”. I left feeling that I’d seen the past rather than the future, something that I wouldn’t glimpse again in their records until 2015.
Tag: Live Music
October 29, 2022
The Orb, Live at Brighton Concord 2
Went with my friend Nick to see The Orb at Concord 2 last night. The last time I’d seen the Orb was back in 2004, at the start of their relatively dry spell. That night, they’d been a bit lacklustre despite playing (some of) the hits and a relatively decent album in “Bicycles and Tricycles”. I left feeling that I’d seen the past rather than the future, something that I wouldn’t glimpse again in their records until 2015.
Tag: The Orb
October 29, 2022
The Orb, Live at Brighton Concord 2
Went with my friend Nick to see The Orb at Concord 2 last night. The last time I’d seen the Orb was back in 2004, at the start of their relatively dry spell. That night, they’d been a bit lacklustre despite playing (some of) the hits and a relatively decent album in “Bicycles and Tricycles”. I left feeling that I’d seen the past rather than the future, something that I wouldn’t glimpse again in their records until 2015.
March 12, 2016
The Orb - Alpine EP
The Orb return with a new EP on the Kompakt label called “Alpine”.
“Alpine” is split in to three tracks “Morning”, “Evening” and “Dawn”. The third of these was included on the 2016 edition of Kompakt’s annual “Pop Ambient” compilation, a gently drifting track with plenty of bells and yodels. A diversion from the sounds of Moonbuilding 2703 AD (and its presumably ongoing remixed companion EPs), but it sat nicely with the other tracks.
June 30, 2015
Album Digest, June 2015
To reboot this series, Album Digest June 2015 features five fantastic albums from Hot Chip, Jamie xx, Blanck Mass, Holly Herndon, and The Orb. I could pick loads more as I’ve listened to a lot of albums since February but I decided to focus on the more electronic material. This means that I have no excuses for not continuing next month with a rockier theme.
Hot Chip “Why Make Sense?” Hot Chip seem to be settling in to a pattern with their album releases, alternating between messy experimental affairs and then a state of the art correction.
March 1, 2015
Album Digest, February 2015
Aphex Twin “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt2 EP” Aphex Twin follows SYRO (reviewed in Album Digest September 2014 here) with this 27 minute EP of music that, if we take the title literally, features computers playing acoustic musical instruments. It’s a very different sound to SYRO and sounds acoustic for the most part. It’s an important experiment about the role of the musician, one that is already blurred in the creation of electronic music.
July 22, 2014
My Amazing Subversive Revolutionary Adolescence
Or at least its subversive soundtrack… I listened to The Orb’s amazing live album “Live ’93” the other day (after discovering the insipid “History Of The Future” collection on Spotify) and I was amazed at how countercultural and subversive it was. I was listening to this stuff at the age of 14 and now that I’m old enough to be a parent, that makes me a bit uncomfortable. Actually it does nothing of the sort, because it’s frigging awesome.
September 9, 2011
Understated Classics #13: U.F.Orb by The Orb
FUN FACT: It was because of the artwork to this album that I obsessively scrawled onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome on my pencil case at school. I also had a very passable u.f.orb logo drawn on it too.
In The Blue Room I had my first “close encounter” with The Orb in 1992 when the single Blue Room was in the charts.
Tag: Twenty Two
October 29, 2022
The Orb, Live at Brighton Concord 2
Went with my friend Nick to see The Orb at Concord 2 last night. The last time I’d seen the Orb was back in 2004, at the start of their relatively dry spell. That night, they’d been a bit lacklustre despite playing (some of) the hits and a relatively decent album in “Bicycles and Tricycles”. I left feeling that I’d seen the past rather than the future, something that I wouldn’t glimpse again in their records until 2015.
September 14, 2022
I went to a pub quiz tonight
Ingrid and I joined our usual quiz team tonight for the residents’ association pub quiz. As usual we came third. It’s a fairly settled group of attendees and we know our level. We’re also quite used to the quiz master and his questions, though I do wish he’d acknowledge that pop music continued to be a thing long after the sixties!
There’s always a pot luck round. On one round we get to play a joker which doubles your points.
May 22, 2022
M1 External Monitor Issues
Since moving to an M1 Mac, I’ve noticed some issues with my second screen that I do not experience with my previous Intel Mac or with my current work laptop, which is a Dell Intel PC running Windows 10.
I get a lot of flickering on the screen, which is intolerable if I have Pro-motion and True Tone turned on. Note that these are options for the main display rather than the external monitor.
March 21, 2022
Tade Thompson, Rosewater
Rosewater is an exciting science fiction novel set several decades after first contact with an alien called Wormwood, that has established itself as a large biodome in Nigeria. The novel follows Kaaro, a thief whose extra special abilities are forged from an unlikely connection with the alien. The whole thing is part sci-fi adventure and part spy novel.
The novel is set in multiple timelines with whole sections of the story told in flashback.
March 3, 2022
Doing the thing
I find it hard to get started on projects. This may have always been the case. I definitely remember instances of complex plans for school projects that I’d barely have time to finish. I once got up at 6AM to finish making a calendar in French—I thought it was going to be this outstanding piece of work that would genuinely replace my teacher’s calendar! Reality didn’t quite match the idea though.
February 26, 2022
John Irving, The Imaginary Girlfriend
The Imaginary Girlfriend is a short autobiography by American author John Irving. In it, he explains the interwoven roles of writing and wrestling in his life.
As always with Irving, the book is absorbing from the off, and it’s tempting to use the anecdotes here to explain why most of his novels seem to have an underdog narrating them. It’s because he loves the work of Dickens so much. I kid.
February 8, 2022
Laurent Binet, Civilisations
‘Civilisations’ is a counterfactual historical novel that attempts to extrapolate the future course of history after changing one pivotal moment of the timeline. I usually find novels like this are great fun, another entertaining example is ‘Making History’ by Stephen Fry. The novel, originally written in French, won some big awards in France last year. I read the translation by Sam Taylor.
In ‘Civilisations’, Binet makes the pivotal point of his tale, the migration of Erik the Red to America in the late 900s.
February 8, 2022
TIL: footnotes in Latex captions
Today I had an interesting bug in some Latex code I am writing. Putting a footnote into a caption caused the document to fail compilation. The problem was that this document doesn’t use a table of figures at the start, so I hadn’t thought to include a short summary caption. Apparently the curly brace in the footnote command does not sit well with that, even if you aren’t using a list or table of figures in your document.
February 5, 2022
The Garden
Today, we transferred our Christmas tree to a new pot. Being root-bound as the tree was, it took ages to get it out of the crappy pot from the store and into the new, bigger pot. And I’m pretty sure it’s a bit wonky, which might make the baubles a bit lopsided next Christmas. It looks excellent next to the new bird bath.
Nonetheless, it was nice to get another plant into a pot with the hope of keeping it around.
February 4, 2022
Understated Classics #39: Lifeforms by Future Sound of London
Lifeforms is the 1994 album from the Future Sound of London. A double album (just), it also features the talents of Robert Fripp, Ozric Tentacles, Talvin Singh, Toni Halliday, and Liz Frazer. It reached number 6 on the UK album chart and went silver.
I have wanted to write about the Lifeforms album for a long time. In 2012, I even tried learning how to tell the tracks apart from one another.
February 3, 2022
What is FFI anyway?
At the moment I can’t compile this blog locally because my ruby-ffi install is somehow wrong and is preventing Jekyll from running on my recently upgraded Mac system. Fortunately the site still compiles on Netlify, or else you wouldn’t be reading this!
It’s always annoying when you rely on a complex multi-part system and some obscure part fails. It leaves you groping for answers and inventing unnecessary hack solutions. The dreaded old Stack Overflow rabbit hole.
February 2, 2022
A February Project
Hmmm it seems as though the ffi gem as installed by bundler is not compatible with a Mac that has an M1 chip. This limits my ability to preview blog posts locally. I might have to swap to a more modern static site generator (which is probably easier than working out what ffi actually does) - seems like a good February project!
February 2, 2022
Checking In
Despite my best intentions, I didn’t manage to continue writing posts after the first day of 2022! But perhaps now I can try again as an excuse to test my blogging set up on my new computer.
January 1, 2022
Understated Classics Or Not?
At the new year, thoughts and spare time for writing point me toward writing some new posts for my understated classics series. Expect some new ones soon.
I also reflected on my previous choices and thought a bit about how my music tastes have changed recently. Some of this has to do with streaming and the frustrations I wrote about in my last post. Some of it is just down to getting older: I have less time to listen to new music, and much of the ’new’ stuff I listen to is me investigating the stuff I missed first time around.
Tag: Chichester
September 14, 2022
I went to a pub quiz tonight
Ingrid and I joined our usual quiz team tonight for the residents’ association pub quiz. As usual we came third. It’s a fairly settled group of attendees and we know our level. We’re also quite used to the quiz master and his questions, though I do wish he’d acknowledge that pop music continued to be a thing long after the sixties!
There’s always a pot luck round. On one round we get to play a joker which doubles your points.
Tag: Pot Luck
September 14, 2022
I went to a pub quiz tonight
Ingrid and I joined our usual quiz team tonight for the residents’ association pub quiz. As usual we came third. It’s a fairly settled group of attendees and we know our level. We’re also quite used to the quiz master and his questions, though I do wish he’d acknowledge that pop music continued to be a thing long after the sixties!
There’s always a pot luck round. On one round we get to play a joker which doubles your points.
Tag: Quiz
September 14, 2022
I went to a pub quiz tonight
Ingrid and I joined our usual quiz team tonight for the residents’ association pub quiz. As usual we came third. It’s a fairly settled group of attendees and we know our level. We’re also quite used to the quiz master and his questions, though I do wish he’d acknowledge that pop music continued to be a thing long after the sixties!
There’s always a pot luck round. On one round we get to play a joker which doubles your points.
Tag: Programming
June 1, 2022
The paths in the wood
I began writing this post after realising that it is the first of June and I might as well attempt once more to write a post every day. The speed with which the first of the month comes around, inviting another such promise, always amuses me. But at the moment I am not sure whether this blog will still exist come the end of the month. I think I want to start again in pastures new.
February 3, 2022
What is FFI anyway?
At the moment I can’t compile this blog locally because my ruby-ffi install is somehow wrong and is preventing Jekyll from running on my recently upgraded Mac system. Fortunately the site still compiles on Netlify, or else you wouldn’t be reading this!
It’s always annoying when you rely on a complex multi-part system and some obscure part fails. It leaves you groping for answers and inventing unnecessary hack solutions. The dreaded old Stack Overflow rabbit hole.
November 4, 2017
A Little Lesson in R
I had to compute an indicator this week. It had confidence intervals that relied on taking 100,000 samples from the indicator’s approximate distribution. I had to repeat this over multiple GP practices and for twelve different demographic groups.
I decided to use dplyr1 because I thought it would help me organise all subgroups involved. I used mutate_at() heavily and thought that dplyr was keeping everything organised. However, when I moved from the 10 samples I’d used for testing to the 100,000 samples required by the specification of the indicator, my code moved to a crawl.
October 5, 2017
Personal ggplot tips and tweaks
I love making plots in R with ggplot. However, there are always a few niggles that I forget about between plots. I wrote this post so that I have somewhere to look the next time I need to tweak a few things in my plots. I intend to come back and add updates in the future as I learn more things. If I keep coming back, I might also remember a few of these too.
July 1, 2016
Swaptastic Part 3: The Shiny App
The shiny app embedded below allows you to explore the number of packets you need to complete the Panini sticker album for this summer’s Euro tournament. This builds on the results I presented in an [earlier post](link to earlier post) and allows you to explore how many fewer packets you need to buy when you have more friends to swap with. You can also vary the number of runs performed because the model runs considerably slower with more swappers involved.
June 29, 2016
Swaptastic Part 2
As a follow-up to my post about the Euro 2016 Panini Stickers, I’ve now completed the collection with the help of an online swapping site and by buying the last 39 stickers directly from Panini. I also managed to write a new simulator, this time with additional collectors involved.
I assume that each of N collectors will buy a packet of stickers and add any new stickers to their album. Then they attempt to swap any leftovers with the rest of their friends.
June 3, 2015
Learn X in Y Minutes
I found “Learn X in Y minutes” (www.learnxinyminutes.com) while researching the programming languages needed for a new project. The site aims to help people who know at least one programming language to learn others by proving a quick run through of the main language features. It’s not quite enough to get you up and running. After all, having sample code doesn’t get you the compiler. However, it’s a nice start that shows you how similar (and different) language X is compared to the one(s) you already know.
October 24, 2014
Building Brains
This is a longer form post about artificial intelligence inspired by reading a little bit of “The Pale King” by David Foster Wallace and putting a picture of a “ghost” up on Instagram. This might be the last of these that I’m able to write for a while.
On Not Reading “The Pale King” “The Pale King” is the third and final novel by American author David Foster Wallace. He was working on it when he committed suicide in 2008.
September 21, 2012
Programming a Carcassonne Game
Although I have put off finishing my UNO game for over eighteen months, I thought I would get started with another pet project of mine: making a Carcassonne game. This is not a serious affair, there is an excellent app of Carcassonne available for those of you who have iOS devices (it works particularly well on the iPad). The game just strikes me as having the right level of complexity to be a taxing yet attainable project.
February 2, 2011
Programming an UNO game, part 2
It turns out that programming the UNO game is not that complicated once you start designing the thing. This post will get the rules and game elements clear.
The deck An UNO deck consists of four sets of coloured cards (red, yellow, green and blue) together with eight wild cards. The non-wild cards are marked with either numbers or special symbols. The numbers range from zero to nine with two of each number except for the zero, which is unique.
December 28, 2010
Programming an UNO game
A new year, a new hobby I don’t write about programming enough. This is a shame because it is a very interesting subject and I find that the problem solving aspects of programming are very satisfying. Keenly aware of the need to do more hobby programming and to get up to speed on areas of software development that I’ve been neglecting, I have decided to give myself the project of creating a computerised version of the UNO card game.
Tag: Apple
May 22, 2022
M1 External Monitor Issues
Since moving to an M1 Mac, I’ve noticed some issues with my second screen that I do not experience with my previous Intel Mac or with my current work laptop, which is a Dell Intel PC running Windows 10.
I get a lot of flickering on the screen, which is intolerable if I have Pro-motion and True Tone turned on. Note that these are options for the main display rather than the external monitor.
November 24, 2021
A pox on both their houses
How hard is it to just listen to music these days?
Spotify has crammed in all sorts of crap in to the app lately. Lyric videos, those weird interactive art things that are turned on by default, podcasts (so many podcasts), Netflix tie-ins, and audiobooks. It wants to be the app that opens when you plug in your headphones (not that we’ll be doing that for much longer the way things are going).
Tag: Hardware
May 22, 2022
M1 External Monitor Issues
Since moving to an M1 Mac, I’ve noticed some issues with my second screen that I do not experience with my previous Intel Mac or with my current work laptop, which is a Dell Intel PC running Windows 10.
I get a lot of flickering on the screen, which is intolerable if I have Pro-motion and True Tone turned on. Note that these are options for the main display rather than the external monitor.
Tag: M1
May 22, 2022
M1 External Monitor Issues
Since moving to an M1 Mac, I’ve noticed some issues with my second screen that I do not experience with my previous Intel Mac or with my current work laptop, which is a Dell Intel PC running Windows 10.
I get a lot of flickering on the screen, which is intolerable if I have Pro-motion and True Tone turned on. Note that these are options for the main display rather than the external monitor.
February 2, 2022
A February Project
Hmmm it seems as though the ffi gem as installed by bundler is not compatible with a Mac that has an M1 chip. This limits my ability to preview blog posts locally. I might have to swap to a more modern static site generator (which is probably easier than working out what ffi actually does) - seems like a good February project!
Tag: MacOS
May 22, 2022
M1 External Monitor Issues
Since moving to an M1 Mac, I’ve noticed some issues with my second screen that I do not experience with my previous Intel Mac or with my current work laptop, which is a Dell Intel PC running Windows 10.
I get a lot of flickering on the screen, which is intolerable if I have Pro-motion and True Tone turned on. Note that these are options for the main display rather than the external monitor.
Tag: Monitor
May 22, 2022
M1 External Monitor Issues
Since moving to an M1 Mac, I’ve noticed some issues with my second screen that I do not experience with my previous Intel Mac or with my current work laptop, which is a Dell Intel PC running Windows 10.
I get a lot of flickering on the screen, which is intolerable if I have Pro-motion and True Tone turned on. Note that these are options for the main display rather than the external monitor.
Tag: Technology
May 22, 2022
M1 External Monitor Issues
Since moving to an M1 Mac, I’ve noticed some issues with my second screen that I do not experience with my previous Intel Mac or with my current work laptop, which is a Dell Intel PC running Windows 10.
I get a lot of flickering on the screen, which is intolerable if I have Pro-motion and True Tone turned on. Note that these are options for the main display rather than the external monitor.
May 30, 2020
Holiday Tabs
Over the course of a week on holiday, I started reading many interesting articles. In lockdown there isn’t much to do but read articles, but I still find myself not that good at finishing them. My phone has lots of tabs open and has become a Rolodex of shame. This post is to confess my sins.
I’m trying to re-familiarise myself with Python. As with all modern software development, Python now seems atomised and hyper-complicated.
Tag: Books
March 21, 2022
Tade Thompson, Rosewater
Rosewater is an exciting science fiction novel set several decades after first contact with an alien called Wormwood, that has established itself as a large biodome in Nigeria. The novel follows Kaaro, a thief whose extra special abilities are forged from an unlikely connection with the alien. The whole thing is part sci-fi adventure and part spy novel.
The novel is set in multiple timelines with whole sections of the story told in flashback.
February 26, 2022
John Irving, The Imaginary Girlfriend
The Imaginary Girlfriend is a short autobiography by American author John Irving. In it, he explains the interwoven roles of writing and wrestling in his life.
As always with Irving, the book is absorbing from the off, and it’s tempting to use the anecdotes here to explain why most of his novels seem to have an underdog narrating them. It’s because he loves the work of Dickens so much. I kid.
February 8, 2022
Laurent Binet, Civilisations
‘Civilisations’ is a counterfactual historical novel that attempts to extrapolate the future course of history after changing one pivotal moment of the timeline. I usually find novels like this are great fun, another entertaining example is ‘Making History’ by Stephen Fry. The novel, originally written in French, won some big awards in France last year. I read the translation by Sam Taylor.
In ‘Civilisations’, Binet makes the pivotal point of his tale, the migration of Erik the Red to America in the late 900s.
January 3, 2021
Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, This Is How You Lose the Time War
This Is How You Lose the Time War is a short novella about two members of opposing factions (Red and Blue) engaged in a ’time war’: that is they travel in time and attempt to erase each other’s existence. Except that one day Red decides to taunt Blue with a letter, and a correspondence emerges.
The book is entertaining by virtue of wit and brevity. However, the elements that are skipped over that end up being more interesting to reflect on later.
January 2, 2021
Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Last year I started to write a review of Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller”. I read it while we were in Germany for Christmas. We’d visited Bremen and also undergone the bizarreness of Christmas in another language - the same motifs played out in different words and different customs. I’d tried to write the review in a similar structure to the book but, in a testament to Calvino’s writing I couldn’t pull it off.
January 1, 2021
Richard Powers, Orfeo
“The mind may give up its desire to improve on creation and function as a faithful receiver of experience.” John Cage
After enjoying The Overstory, I wanted to read more of Richard Powers’ novels. Orfeo was also long listed for the Booker prize. Perhaps more of his novels would have been had the prize been opened to American authors earlier.
Orfeo is about Peter Els, a seventy year old composer who accidentally alerts Homeland Security to the existence of his home laboratory, in which he has been trying to recode the genetic material of a bacterium to include a piece of his music.
May 28, 2020
George Saunders, Lincoln In The Bardo
I read this book on holiday in Belgium last year. Having forgotten to pack a novel I scoured almost every book in the Waterstones at St. Pancras station before settling on this Booker prize winning novel by George Saunders.
Lincoln in the Bardo fictionalises a period in Abraham Lincoln’s life immediately after the death of his son Willie. The story alternates between factual accounts of what happened at the time and the observations of ghosts in the graveyard where young Willie is buried.
April 28, 2019
Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation
I managed to read all of the foundation novels since I wrote about the first one. In this post, I’ll write about the next two, which covers the original trilogy of ‘novels’ created from the original short stories. I’ve tried to avoid spoilers.
Foundation and Empire Foundation and Empire comprises two novella length stories. The first story (“The General”) picks up from shortly after where the last of the five short stories in Foundation left off.
April 22, 2019
Four Recipe Book Recommendations
The A-Z of Cooking by Felicity Cloake This book is for more luxurious and experimental recipes. There are 26 chapters, one for an ingredient beginning with each letter of the alphabet, but you probably guessed that already. Ingrid and I have been (very) slowly working our way through the chapters, making a couple of recipes from each one - we’re currently up to G for Garlic.
My favourite so far has been the bread dumplings in parmesan broth because it gives us a use for our many many parmesan rinds.
October 30, 2018
Richard Powers, The Overstory
“The Overstory” by Richard Powers piqued my interest among the novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize. And once again the book that interested me most did not win. One year I will succeed in my prediction!
I found “The Overstory” an enjoyable read. Its accessibility surprised me. Often people view Booker nominated novels as stuffy or over-intellectual. This novel however is a genuine page turner, full of emotion and heartbreak, not to mention plenty of science and awe of the natural world.
October 14, 2018
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
For our first anniversary we decided to exhange books. What better way to celebrate a paper anniversary? Ingrid bought me the entire Foundation saga, most of which were reissued in fancy new paperback designs by Mike Topping in 2016. All save for 1993’s Forward The Foundation that is, but Ingrid got me a copy anyway. Hence, here is a new series of blog posts!
The Foundation novels detail a galactic empire in decline.
September 17, 2018
J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy
“Hillbilly Elegy” is the autobiography of JD Vance, a self-professed hillbilly made good who graduated from Yale Law School. I read it because reviews touted it as illustrating the economic conditions leading to Brexit and the implausible election of Donald Trump. As I wrote in an earlier post, I’m keen to learn about why Brexit happened. However, I think this book fails to provide an explanation.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book.
November 11, 2017
Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive
After I read “Hello America” and “Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” to Ingrid, it was her turn to read something to me. We settled on Matt Haig’s memoir of anxiety and depression “Reasons to Stay Alive”, which is as uplifting and life-affirming as its title suggests.
The book begins with its author standing atop some cliffs in Ibiza, crushed by depression and anxiety and determined to die.
October 30, 2017
Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun
“Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” is a novella by Sarah Ladipo Manyika. Of all the books nominated for the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize, this looked like the most interesting to my eyes. I’ve enjoyed previous Goldsmiths nominated novels including Acts of the Assassins and Satin Island.
The title comes from a poem by Mary Ruefle called “Donkey On”. You can read it here.
“Like a Mule…” is set in contemporary San Francisco and takes the form of multiple first person narratives, centred around Dr.
October 6, 2017
Alistair Reynolds, Revelation Space
Alistair Reynolds’ 2000 novel “Revelation Space” has long been in orbit of my science fiction “to read” list, but it wasn’t until one sleepless night (post “Command and Control”) that I came across it in Ingrid’s audiobooks. I was instantly drawn in as I listened to the opening scene about an archaeological dig facing evacuation ahead of an imminent ‘razor storm’.
“Revelation Space” is hard sci-fi set in a universe where the speed of light cannot be exceeded.
October 3, 2017
J. G. Ballard, Hello America
I had low expectations for “Hello America”, the next in the series of Ballard novels that I started reading over seven years ago. However, it turned out to be a hoot. A couple of years ago, this novel would have been a wig-out bit of standard Ballard weirdness (a bit like “The Drowned World” or “The Crystal World”) but given recent events “Hello America” is starting to take on an eerie prescience.
September 29, 2017
Eric Schlosser, Command and Control
“Command and Control” by Eric Schlosser is about the history of nuclear weapons and their safety. This might not seem like a thrilling subject, but it’s absorbing from start to finish. I started it three years ago but only finished it more recently as the subject of nuclear weapons has become more pertinent to current affairs1. There are many people who would stand to gain a great deal from reading this book2.
July 30, 2016
Richard Beard, Acts of the Assassins
Acts of the Assassins is an interesting novel by Richard Beard that retells the story of the apostles and their deaths. It uses a modern crime genre style and a contemporary setting. The author himself refers to it as “Gospel Noir”. Cassius Gallio, a Roman CSI-type referred to as a speculator, investigates the murders of the apostles following the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Gallio, charged with guarding the body following Jesus’ death and greatly undermined by the disappearance of the body, views the resurrection as the greatest conspiracy of the age.
July 14, 2016
J. G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company
I last wrote about a JG Ballard novel nearly three years ago. That one - “High-Rise” - has since been made into a film. The subject of this post is “The Unlimited Dream Company”, my favourite among his novels: a silly romp through suburban sexual repression that glitters with sinister wit. Even after many read-throughs I still can’t work out whether it is a crazy masterpiece or something light that we’re meant to throw away after reading.
May 17, 2016
Paul McAuley, Something Coming Through
“Something Coming Through” is a science fiction novel set in the near future. A few years after a brief nuclear war known as “The Spasm”, an alien race known as the Jackaroo introduce themselves to humanity. The novel is funny, thoughtful, and politically charged. I found it to be a good read.
The aliens have given humanity fifteen “gift” worlds and an automated way to access them. Think of the Docklands Light Railway but with space shuttles.
November 20, 2015
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy: Review
As much as I wanted it to, Satin Island by Tom McCarthy did not win the Booker Prize. Having read it all I realise it was a long shot. However it is an interesting book that deserved consideration, even if it does have some flaws.
Normally I promise that there will be no spoilers. Not this time. There are some spoilers here. Because it took me so long to work out what I thought Satin Island was actually about, I want to use this post to explore those ideas.
October 12, 2015
My Booker Prize Pick 2015
“Satin Island” is my pick for the Man Booker prize, announced tomorrow. I’ve not managed to read all of it yet. Also, I’ve only glanced at the others on the shortlist.
My prediction record on selecting the winner of the Booker from the shortlist is pretty good, though all I’m ever doing is guess the outcome of a 1 in 6 chance, like the roll of a die. Often it’s a book that I really hope will win rather than one I know will (except “Wolf Hall” and its sequel).
September 29, 2015
Ben Elton, Time and Time Again
Time and Time Again is a ridiculously stupid novel by Ben Elton. A shadowy sect (established by Isaac Newton no less!) recruits a soldier to go back in time and prevent Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo in August 1914. I wonder if it all goes to plan and everyone lives happily ever after with no weird timey-wimey after-effects?
Needless to say this novel makes me wish that time travel were a real thing so that I could travel back in time and slap myself in the face while in the queue to buy this tripe.
September 2, 2015
Eric Schlosser, Gods of Metal
Y-12 is the United States’ most secure weapons-grade Uranium storage facility. It is known as the “Fort Knox of Uranium”. In 2012 it was infiltrated by three elderly peace protesters, sparking a major scandal about the safety of US nuclear sites. “Gods of Metal” by Eric Schlosser tells the story of that break-in alongside a history of both the anti-nuclear movement (in particular the Plowshares movement) and nuclear security in the United States.
April 3, 2015
Andy Weir, The Martian
I received a copy of The Martian by Andy Weir for Christmas. This week during some annual leave I managed to finish it. It’s one of those novels that just flies by once it gets going. I’ve stayed up incredibly late to read it as it is full of those “just one more page” moments. It’s a readable and enjoyable story of an astronaut trapped on Mars.
Mark Watney is believed to be dead following an accident during an emergency evacuation in a dust storm.
March 27, 2015
Jodorowsky's Dune
Jodorowsky’s Dune is a documentary about outlandish Chilean director Alejandro Jodorosky’s attempt at a film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune in the 1970s. As a big fan of the novel and of science fiction in general, I was very interested in this film. It does not disappoint. It gives a great insight into the mind of a little known (if slightly batty) director and shows even an artistic failure can lead to shock waves that can be felt in later work by others.
March 16, 2015
Ned Beauman, Glow
Glow is about a guy called Raf, a Londoner whose life is going nowhere in particular; a state of affairs not helped by “Non-24 Hour Sleep/Wake Syndrome”. One night while experimenting with a new ecstacy-like drug that’s apparently derived from a social anxiety medication for dogs, Raf meets a beautiful girl and then loses her to the crowd in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. From there a conspiracy evolves involving the titular dog-medication-derived drug, Burmese dissidents, corporate espionage, pirate radio stations, and urban foxes.
January 3, 2015
Iain M. Banks, Feersum Endjinn
Feersum Endjinn is one of Iain Banks’ few non-Culture sci-fi novels. Like the Culture novels, an existential crisis drives the plot: in this case the action takes place on Earth in the far future and the sun has aged to a point where it will grow and swallow the earth. This is referred to as the Encroachment. The characters are divided between the good guys who seek to find a solution for the greater good and bad guys who use the Encroachment to consolidate their power and influence.
September 2, 2014
Evie Wyld, All The Birds, Singing
I recently finished reading All The Birds, Singing, the second novel by Evie Wyld. It’s about a woman called Jake who lives alone on a farm with a dog called Dog on an island somewhere off the coast of Britain. She has sheep to look after but something keeps coming in the middle of the night to kill them.
Meanwhile, as the narrative on the island moves forward in the present, a second narrative peels off backwards to explain her past.
August 24, 2014
Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage is the latest novel by Haruki Murakami. It comes with free stickers. Perhaps that tells you everything you need to know about this book, which is slimmer than Murakami’s recent efforts. The plot begins with an intriguing premise. Tsukuru is part of a group of close friends and is one day expelled from the group for no reason. Unfortunately, the development of the plot is uncontrolled and by the end of novel too many holes have developed for it all to hold together.
August 17, 2014
Clarice Lispector, Hour of the Star
Hour of the Star is a short novel by Clarice Lispector, a Ukrainian-born Brazilian author with an interesting life story. This is her last novel and is a remarkable book: inventive, funny, and sad, all at once. I found it in a special selection at the local library dedicated to Brazil because of the World Cup.
First some biography. Born Chaya Lispector in Chechelnyk, Ukraine, in 1920, her family escaped the pogroms and emigrated to Brazil in 1922.
October 5, 2013
J. G. Ballard, High-Rise
After a few false starts I managed to finish “High-Rise”, the next in my collection of JG Ballard novels. For a book that I had trouble getting into, it turned out to be a pretty good read - even if it was also a pretty unpleasant one. Published in 1975, “High-Rise” is perhaps ahead of its time in exploring the effects of social breakdown in stylised and artificial situations where people are in close contact.
July 30, 2013
Neil Gaiman, The Ocean At The End Of The Lane
“The Ocean At The End Of The Lane” is the new novel by Neil Gaiman. I was so intrigued by it that I bought the hardcover, which is unusual for me because I prefer paperbacks. I’d been excited by reading the first chapter online at the Guardian website and from reading a blog post about the novel written by the author’s wife Amanda Palmer. I’d not read any of his novels before but they had long been on that “to read” list that is typically as long as your arm.
July 23, 2013
Don Delillo, Point Omega
There were no mornings or afternoons. It was one seamless day, every day, until the sun began to arc and fade, mountains emerging from their silhouettes. This is when we sat and watched in silence.
Today I finished reading “Point Omega” by Don Delillo. I have wanted to read one of his novels for a while and though this is a slip of a novella, I certainly enjoyed it. I accidentally came across it when I looked at the wikpedia page for Pierre Teilhard de Chardin last week as part of research for another post that I am writing.
July 5, 2013
Michael Frayn, Skios
This week I read “Skios” by Michael Frayn (who was born in Mill Hill). It’s another book from now customary pile of books that tends to develop around this time of year. “Hawksmoor” and “The Marriage Plot” were on the same ever-increasing pile. “Skios” is something of a change from what I normally read: it’s a comedic farce about stolen identities set on the (fictional) titular Greek island. Amusingly, the wikipedia page for the novel currently reads “Praise for Skios was entirely misplaced”, probably thanks to some curmudgeon who doesn’t like the novel.
June 26, 2013
Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
Peter Ackroyd’s “Hawksmoor” was first published in 1985. I bought a recent reissue that forms part of Penguin’s decades collection whilst on a spree in Waterstone’s. It appealed to me as I recently realised that despite growing up in the eighties and nineties, I had read very novels that were either written or set in the eighties. Happily “Hawksmoor” is both of these, sort of. It also appealed to me because it is (again, sort of) a detective story and I’ve found myself getting into those lately.
May 20, 2013
Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot
“The Marriage Plot” by Jeffrey Eugenides is a novel about love and growing up set in the privileged world of US academia in the early eighties. The main plot concerns a love triangle involving two guys and a girl. Madeline Hanna, the girl at the apex of the love triangle, is the main focus of the novel and the majority of the novel is told from her standpoint. I think her sections are incredibly well written but I’d love the thoughts of a female reader, in case it is actually all a horribly male way of seeing through a young woman’s eyes.
April 11, 2013
Why I Love On The Road
I was fifteen when I first read “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac and recently, after twice as much lifetime lived, I was able to watch the film version directed by Walter Salles.
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.
March 18, 2013
Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas
A while back, I decided I was going to write about the Iain M. Banks sci-fi-novels (mainly as a respite from having to read and write about J. G. Ballard novels, but I only got as fas as writing about the excellent “Against A Dark Barkground” and re-reading the first of the Culture novels “Consider Phlebas”. WARNING: Some plot spoilers follow (but not too many).
I’m not sure why it has taken almost two years to write about this novel.
February 26, 2013
On Pynchon
The existence, or impending existence, of a new novel by Thomas Pynchon was announced today. I have all his previous books (seven written over a period of about fifty years, a pace that I definitely approve of), though he’s a hard author to get close to: I’ve only finished three and started four up till now. The unfinished one is, of course, Gravity’s Rainbow (GR) and somewhat perversely, I have two copies of the thing.
September 23, 2012
Jon McGregor, Even The Dogs
Over my holiday I read “Even The Dogs” by Jon McGregor. I’ve not quite finished it yet but that will at least prevent me from giving away spoilers. I am not sure I would want to give any spoilers anyway because it is unrelentingly grim so far. Perhaps there is a happy ending but both you and I will have to read it to find out.
I was introduced to Jon McGregor by the book group I was part of during my PhD.
August 15, 2012
Nick Harkaway, The Gone-Away World
“The Gone-Away World” is a novel by Nick Harkaway. It’s about a world slightly askew to our own in which the powers-that-be have deigned to unleash a weapon that simply wipes the enemy out of existence. Unfortunately the enemies also have the same weapon and there are terrible consequences to the extent that the very fabric of reality is threatened. If you don’t already know what reification means, you will by the end.
June 25, 2012
Another Reading List
More books to add to the “University of life” course list. From top to bottom: I picked up “Generation X” for 50p in a charity shop in Tintagel. “Everything Is Going To Be OK” is a picture book full of inspirational mottos. “The Happiness Hypothesis” is the most useful and interesting book that I have read in a long while. I decided to read “How To Write A Sentence” as an alternative to Strunk and White’s “The Elements Of Style” which, while useful, can be a little stuffy!
June 25, 2012
Helen Fisher, Some Lessons In Love
As indicated by my reading list posted a couple of months ago (which has since been added to here), I’ve started to try to read more about the things that I felt that I did not understand so well. Most notably perhaps is this book “on love” by Helen Fisher. Lest there is any innuendo it is not a book about technique nor does it attempt to explain love to those who have never known it, instead it assumes that we have all been there.
June 17, 2012
Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith, Gonzo
Another book from the “university of life” pile (though not in the picture), “Gonzo” is the biography of Hunter S. Thompson in graphical form. In case you don’t know his work, Hunter S. Thompson was a journalist who invented the so-called “gonzo” style. This was basically to rock up at some major event and become embedded within it, usually writing up a long form piece from an outsider perspective. He was particularly famous for his work on the Hell’s Angels and Richard Nixon’s campaign for presidential re-election in 1972.
April 20, 2012
Reading list, mid-April 2012
A hefty reading list that should keep me occupied into the summer. A friend on facebook asked “What course is that for?”, to which I replied “It’s for one of the modules I am doing at the university of life.” This response was quite popular.
April 9, 2012
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon was written in 1956 and tells of the experiences of West Indian men moving to London for work. It has been described as the definitive novel about the experiences of the Windrush settlers. The narrative centres on a man named Moses who was one of the first to come to London and finds himself the first port of call for many subsequent immigrants:
It look to old Moses that he hardly have time to settle in the old Brit’n before all sorts of fellars start coming straight to his room in the Water when they land up in London from the West Indies, saying that so and so tell them that Moses is a good fellar to contact, that he would help them get place to stay and work to do.
February 9, 2012
Never Mind The Ballards
Ages ago I set out to write a post for each of JG Ballard’s novels. In fact it is the oldest post on this blog. Most of the novels (I don’t have the two autobiographical novels Empire Of The Sun or The Kindness Of Women and the late period novel Milennium People) are sat in a row on top of my broken bookshelf, part of the weight there that bowed outer frame of the unit and made the inner shelves collapse.
November 2, 2011
Mark Rowlands, The Philosopher And The Wolf
I saw that a friend had ‘liked’ this book on Facebook and reading about it on amazon, I was curious enough to give it a go. It is the autobiography of the philosopher Mark Rowlands, specifically the experiences and lessons learned from raising a wolf, Brenin, from cub to maturity and beyond.
The book addresses different aspects of philosophy including the nature of evil and the interaction between humans and other animals.
September 9, 2011
Frank Herbert, Dune
A week or so ago, I finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert. It tells the story of a revolution within a Galactic Empire that takes place on a harsh and unforgiving desert planet called Arrakis. One central theme is how destinies can be shaped despite being intertwined around many axes. Another is the importance of adaptation in the fight for survival.
I came to Dune via the David Lynch film and then the Sci-Fi Channel’s mini-series, which I was able to stream through LoveFilm.
June 21, 2011
J. G. Ballard, Concrete Island
No man is an island (not any more) You are tracked pretty much everywhere you go. CCTV, the GPS on your phone or the signals sent by your more primitive model to the masts to keep in touch with the network. Your cash withdrawals, your purchases in Tesco and your journeys on public transport all add to the picture of where you are. If you drive, your sat nav will hold clues to where you have been and, if you disappear, where you might have gone to.
April 3, 2011
Favourite Culture Ship Names
As I mentioned before I am re-reading the novels of Iain Banks and this weekend I managed to finish Consider Phlebas. A little post about it will be coming up soon. One of my favourite things about the Culture novels is how the ships are named and having found a list on Wikipedia, I thought I would share ten of my favourites with you!
You’ll Clean That Up Before You Leave Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff Prosthetic Conscience Of Course I Still Love You Size Isn’t Everything Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again Dramatic Exit, Or, Thank you And Goodnight We Haven’t Met But You’re A Great Fan Of Mine Anticipation Of A New Lover’s Arrival, The Great names all I am sure you would agree.
March 18, 2011
More Books
Never mind the Ballards I have been writing about books by J.G. Ballard pretty much to the exclusion of all others. Gradually the posts have tricked out about four novels and ground to a halt. I’ve got a fair way through two other books but I am getting very tired of reading his novels all the time, much as I love them. The mistake I made was that I hadn’t read enough of them in the first place.
February 1, 2011
J. G. Ballard, Crash
Form and function, deformation and dysfunction I think we should get one thing out of the way first. For me, there is nothing erotic about a car or a motorway. The place in popular culture of the car in particular as sexual icon has always bemused me. In fact, I’m really rather ambivalent about cars. This matters when discussing Crash, the 1973 novel by JG Ballard that resumes this strand of posts about his novels.
September 26, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Crystal World
Crystallising the world, the body, or the mind? At last, Ballard in full flow. The Crystal World (TCW) is definitely the most enjoyable of the early trio of apocalyptic novels. It takes the successful elements of the first two and embellishes them with new details and ideas. At time of writing, TCW is definitely the best Ballard novel that I have read in its entirety.
The book begins with a steamer travelling up a river in Cameroon carrying the novel’s main protagonist Edward Sanders, a doctor at a hospital for lepers.
September 8, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Drought
The world created by nature versus the world constructed by humans On to The Drought by J. G. Ballard in my ongoing quest to read and review all of his novels. This is his second novel, if we assume his convention of never acknowledging “The Wind From Nowhere” as being his first novel. “The Drought” itself was renamed from “The Burning World” and additional content added later on. This was quite common practice in SF in the 50s and 60s where novels were serialised in magazines like Amazing SF and Interzone.
August 14, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Drowned World
Does Science Fiction have to be believable to be meaningful? Should science fiction have predictive power? In plotting the vast unknowns of the future, should authors aim for prescience? Will people be able to say of the best SF novels in five hundred years time that some novels were right about some things and that these novels are better than the ones that didn’t?
I would say no, otherwise we would be remarkably unfair on an awful lot of good writing.
August 2, 2010
J. G. Ballard
Reading “Crash” at 17 left me in a state of numb shock. It got me hooked and left me with J. G. Ballard as one of my favourite authors. I then devoured a short story collection called “Myths of the Near Future” around the same time. You may recognise it because the Klaxons appropriated the title for their debut album. Those stories captured my imagination, in particular the eponymous story of a world gone to run amid “space sickness”.
Tag: Science Fiction
March 21, 2022
Tade Thompson, Rosewater
Rosewater is an exciting science fiction novel set several decades after first contact with an alien called Wormwood, that has established itself as a large biodome in Nigeria. The novel follows Kaaro, a thief whose extra special abilities are forged from an unlikely connection with the alien. The whole thing is part sci-fi adventure and part spy novel.
The novel is set in multiple timelines with whole sections of the story told in flashback.
January 3, 2021
Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, This Is How You Lose the Time War
This Is How You Lose the Time War is a short novella about two members of opposing factions (Red and Blue) engaged in a ’time war’: that is they travel in time and attempt to erase each other’s existence. Except that one day Red decides to taunt Blue with a letter, and a correspondence emerges.
The book is entertaining by virtue of wit and brevity. However, the elements that are skipped over that end up being more interesting to reflect on later.
April 28, 2019
Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation
I managed to read all of the foundation novels since I wrote about the first one. In this post, I’ll write about the next two, which covers the original trilogy of ‘novels’ created from the original short stories. I’ve tried to avoid spoilers.
Foundation and Empire Foundation and Empire comprises two novella length stories. The first story (“The General”) picks up from shortly after where the last of the five short stories in Foundation left off.
October 14, 2018
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
For our first anniversary we decided to exhange books. What better way to celebrate a paper anniversary? Ingrid bought me the entire Foundation saga, most of which were reissued in fancy new paperback designs by Mike Topping in 2016. All save for 1993’s Forward The Foundation that is, but Ingrid got me a copy anyway. Hence, here is a new series of blog posts!
The Foundation novels detail a galactic empire in decline.
October 6, 2017
Alistair Reynolds, Revelation Space
Alistair Reynolds’ 2000 novel “Revelation Space” has long been in orbit of my science fiction “to read” list, but it wasn’t until one sleepless night (post “Command and Control”) that I came across it in Ingrid’s audiobooks. I was instantly drawn in as I listened to the opening scene about an archaeological dig facing evacuation ahead of an imminent ‘razor storm’.
“Revelation Space” is hard sci-fi set in a universe where the speed of light cannot be exceeded.
October 3, 2017
J. G. Ballard, Hello America
I had low expectations for “Hello America”, the next in the series of Ballard novels that I started reading over seven years ago. However, it turned out to be a hoot. A couple of years ago, this novel would have been a wig-out bit of standard Ballard weirdness (a bit like “The Drowned World” or “The Crystal World”) but given recent events “Hello America” is starting to take on an eerie prescience.
July 1, 2017
Wonder Woman: A Short Review
I enjoyed Wonder Woman, which came as a surprise to me given my growing distaste for superhero movies. I can remember seeing the Superman reboot Man of Steel with its phallic rockets and its boring boring fight sequences. But almost everything about Wonder Woman exceeded my expectations. It’s a well-made superhero movie and better still, it gets to the heart of why these kinds of movies matter.
Whereas Man of Steel ended up levelling cities and criminally underusing Amy Adams, all while giving us no stake on why Superman even matters as a man or a hero, Wonder Woman focusses tightly on its main character and explains what matters to her, and in turn the movie then explains why she should matter to us.
May 17, 2016
Paul McAuley, Something Coming Through
“Something Coming Through” is a science fiction novel set in the near future. A few years after a brief nuclear war known as “The Spasm”, an alien race known as the Jackaroo introduce themselves to humanity. The novel is funny, thoughtful, and politically charged. I found it to be a good read.
The aliens have given humanity fifteen “gift” worlds and an automated way to access them. Think of the Docklands Light Railway but with space shuttles.
October 18, 2015
The Martian: A Short Review
In my review of the book I mentioned that a film adaptation of The Martian was on the way. I’m not sure why but it got released earlier than any of the dates that I’d seen and so on Saturday I found myself watching The Martian on the big screen. Could the film version deliver the same level of entertainment as the novel? Could Mark Watney (Matt Damon) get off Mars alive?
April 3, 2015
Andy Weir, The Martian
I received a copy of The Martian by Andy Weir for Christmas. This week during some annual leave I managed to finish it. It’s one of those novels that just flies by once it gets going. I’ve stayed up incredibly late to read it as it is full of those “just one more page” moments. It’s a readable and enjoyable story of an astronaut trapped on Mars.
Mark Watney is believed to be dead following an accident during an emergency evacuation in a dust storm.
March 27, 2015
Jodorowsky's Dune
Jodorowsky’s Dune is a documentary about outlandish Chilean director Alejandro Jodorosky’s attempt at a film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune in the 1970s. As a big fan of the novel and of science fiction in general, I was very interested in this film. It does not disappoint. It gives a great insight into the mind of a little known (if slightly batty) director and shows even an artistic failure can lead to shock waves that can be felt in later work by others.
January 3, 2015
Iain M. Banks, Feersum Endjinn
Feersum Endjinn is one of Iain Banks’ few non-Culture sci-fi novels. Like the Culture novels, an existential crisis drives the plot: in this case the action takes place on Earth in the far future and the sun has aged to a point where it will grow and swallow the earth. This is referred to as the Encroachment. The characters are divided between the good guys who seek to find a solution for the greater good and bad guys who use the Encroachment to consolidate their power and influence.
August 15, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy: A Short Review
Finally saw Guardians of the Galaxy today. Here are fifteen observations about the film that may or may not constitute a short review.
At least two Oscars for Best Use Of Body Paint (Green) and Best Use Of Body Paint (Blue) are sewn up. Chris Pratt basically plays Star Lord as “Andy Dwyer in space” and this is fine by me. Best movie to feature a talking raccoon in a long time.
October 5, 2013
J. G. Ballard, High-Rise
After a few false starts I managed to finish “High-Rise”, the next in my collection of JG Ballard novels. For a book that I had trouble getting into, it turned out to be a pretty good read - even if it was also a pretty unpleasant one. Published in 1975, “High-Rise” is perhaps ahead of its time in exploring the effects of social breakdown in stylised and artificial situations where people are in close contact.
June 22, 2013
Man of Steel: A Short Review
Today I went to see the new Superman reboot Man of Steel with friends. I really enjoyed it, particularly the more reflective take on the superhero myth. Starting out with the fate of the planet Krypton, Man of Steel approximately fuses the events of both the first two original Superman movies. We get to see Superman’s arrival and childhood on earth and then the arrival of Zod, a maniac bent on replacing the earth and everyone on it with a new race of Kryptonians.
May 17, 2013
Star Trek: Into Darkness - A Short Review
I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness last night in 3D at the IMAX in Waterloo. I am going to have to separate this into a review into two parts, a review of the film and a review of the viewing experience. I am not completely happy with how the film experience is changed by the 3D and the super big screen and I will try to explain what I mean.
March 18, 2013
Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas
A while back, I decided I was going to write about the Iain M. Banks sci-fi-novels (mainly as a respite from having to read and write about J. G. Ballard novels, but I only got as fas as writing about the excellent “Against A Dark Barkground” and re-reading the first of the Culture novels “Consider Phlebas”. WARNING: Some plot spoilers follow (but not too many).
I’m not sure why it has taken almost two years to write about this novel.
August 15, 2012
Nick Harkaway, The Gone-Away World
“The Gone-Away World” is a novel by Nick Harkaway. It’s about a world slightly askew to our own in which the powers-that-be have deigned to unleash a weapon that simply wipes the enemy out of existence. Unfortunately the enemies also have the same weapon and there are terrible consequences to the extent that the very fabric of reality is threatened. If you don’t already know what reification means, you will by the end.
November 3, 2011
Contagion: A Short Review
There was much excitement about Contagion at work. Finally a movie that explains as part of the plot! A bunch of us went to see it, mainly to see whether a disaster movie about a global pandemic could hold up as entertainment and to have a bit of a giggle if it couldn’t.
I liked three things in particular about the film. I liked the cinematography, especially the opening sequences with the index cases staggering around.
September 9, 2011
Frank Herbert, Dune
A week or so ago, I finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert. It tells the story of a revolution within a Galactic Empire that takes place on a harsh and unforgiving desert planet called Arrakis. One central theme is how destinies can be shaped despite being intertwined around many axes. Another is the importance of adaptation in the fight for survival.
I came to Dune via the David Lynch film and then the Sci-Fi Channel’s mini-series, which I was able to stream through LoveFilm.
June 21, 2011
J. G. Ballard, Concrete Island
No man is an island (not any more) You are tracked pretty much everywhere you go. CCTV, the GPS on your phone or the signals sent by your more primitive model to the masts to keep in touch with the network. Your cash withdrawals, your purchases in Tesco and your journeys on public transport all add to the picture of where you are. If you drive, your sat nav will hold clues to where you have been and, if you disappear, where you might have gone to.
April 3, 2011
Favourite Culture Ship Names
As I mentioned before I am re-reading the novels of Iain Banks and this weekend I managed to finish Consider Phlebas. A little post about it will be coming up soon. One of my favourite things about the Culture novels is how the ships are named and having found a list on Wikipedia, I thought I would share ten of my favourites with you!
You’ll Clean That Up Before You Leave Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff Prosthetic Conscience Of Course I Still Love You Size Isn’t Everything Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again Dramatic Exit, Or, Thank you And Goodnight We Haven’t Met But You’re A Great Fan Of Mine Anticipation Of A New Lover’s Arrival, The Great names all I am sure you would agree.
September 26, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Crystal World
Crystallising the world, the body, or the mind? At last, Ballard in full flow. The Crystal World (TCW) is definitely the most enjoyable of the early trio of apocalyptic novels. It takes the successful elements of the first two and embellishes them with new details and ideas. At time of writing, TCW is definitely the best Ballard novel that I have read in its entirety.
The book begins with a steamer travelling up a river in Cameroon carrying the novel’s main protagonist Edward Sanders, a doctor at a hospital for lepers.
September 8, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Drought
The world created by nature versus the world constructed by humans On to The Drought by J. G. Ballard in my ongoing quest to read and review all of his novels. This is his second novel, if we assume his convention of never acknowledging “The Wind From Nowhere” as being his first novel. “The Drought” itself was renamed from “The Burning World” and additional content added later on. This was quite common practice in SF in the 50s and 60s where novels were serialised in magazines like Amazing SF and Interzone.
August 14, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Drowned World
Does Science Fiction have to be believable to be meaningful? Should science fiction have predictive power? In plotting the vast unknowns of the future, should authors aim for prescience? Will people be able to say of the best SF novels in five hundred years time that some novels were right about some things and that these novels are better than the ones that didn’t?
I would say no, otherwise we would be remarkably unfair on an awful lot of good writing.
August 2, 2010
J. G. Ballard
Reading “Crash” at 17 left me in a state of numb shock. It got me hooked and left me with J. G. Ballard as one of my favourite authors. I then devoured a short story collection called “Myths of the Near Future” around the same time. You may recognise it because the Klaxons appropriated the title for their debut album. Those stories captured my imagination, in particular the eponymous story of a world gone to run amid “space sickness”.
Tag: Series
March 21, 2022
Tade Thompson, Rosewater
Rosewater is an exciting science fiction novel set several decades after first contact with an alien called Wormwood, that has established itself as a large biodome in Nigeria. The novel follows Kaaro, a thief whose extra special abilities are forged from an unlikely connection with the alien. The whole thing is part sci-fi adventure and part spy novel.
The novel is set in multiple timelines with whole sections of the story told in flashback.
Tag: Trilogy
March 21, 2022
Tade Thompson, Rosewater
Rosewater is an exciting science fiction novel set several decades after first contact with an alien called Wormwood, that has established itself as a large biodome in Nigeria. The novel follows Kaaro, a thief whose extra special abilities are forged from an unlikely connection with the alien. The whole thing is part sci-fi adventure and part spy novel.
The novel is set in multiple timelines with whole sections of the story told in flashback.
Tag: Ideas
March 3, 2022
Doing the thing
I find it hard to get started on projects. This may have always been the case. I definitely remember instances of complex plans for school projects that I’d barely have time to finish. I once got up at 6AM to finish making a calendar in French—I thought it was going to be this outstanding piece of work that would genuinely replace my teacher’s calendar! Reality didn’t quite match the idea though.
August 25, 2021
If anything, make it weirder
Today I listened to ‘Cloudbusting’ by Kate Bush for the first time in a while. What a gloriously strange song it is. Best of all, it’s one of those songs that obscures what it is really about. It’s not a song about a change in the weather, but about Wilhelm Reich, the orgone accumulator, fluorescent yo-yos, and a son (rather than a sun) coming out.
‘Cloudbusting’ is from ‘Hounds of Love’, Kate’s ‘comeback’ album following the commercial failure of ‘The Dreaming’, an album I wrote about in my understated classics series.
February 26, 2021
Drawing a line on the page
Ingrid has joined an online drawing class. She sits there on Teams getting feedback on her drawings, while I sit there attempting to absorb everything. I’m also learning by doing, by making a line on the page. In some ways, it’s instructive to observe the difference in what we learn with and without the feedback.
We bought some drawing materials and nice notepads. But to be honest, I still haven’t made room in my day to draw regularly.
January 5, 2021
Some Tips For Saving Time
A non-exhaustive list of ideas for saving time:
Delete your social media, and perhaps any other website or app that demands that you consume it rather than create with it. Another way to think of it: all these sites and apps transform your time in to one thing or another, what are the most valuable products of that time? In general, Facebook products are designed to transform your time into greater awareness of companies who would like you or your friends to buy their products.
May 31, 2020
Travel Writing After All This
While sprucing up this blog a bit during lockdown, I fell into reading my old posts about South America. I enjoyed it, mostly for the memories, but also because the current lockdown is warping my sense of time and space. Hours feel like weeks, but then I blink and a month’s gone by. I find myself traipsing similar orbits each day around the house, and then perhaps over to the supermarket or the park.
May 30, 2020
Holiday Tabs
Over the course of a week on holiday, I started reading many interesting articles. In lockdown there isn’t much to do but read articles, but I still find myself not that good at finishing them. My phone has lots of tabs open and has become a Rolodex of shame. This post is to confess my sins.
I’m trying to re-familiarise myself with Python. As with all modern software development, Python now seems atomised and hyper-complicated.
May 26, 2020
Things to Remember
These are some things I jotted down one day last week, I’ll refine them a bit more later on. Think of it as an aide-memoire of things that work for me, your milage may vary.
Don’t worry about things that haven’t happened. Don’t turn whatever has happened and/or is bothering you into a catastrophe, especially if no one else is telling you that it is one. Seek out someone you trust and ask them “is this a catastrophe?
April 23, 2019
Ambitions Revisited
Back in 2012 I wrote a post listing my ambitions for the future. Well it’s the future now isn’t it? Almost. After all, I’m a whole new person now. Anyway it’s probably time to take stock. Have I achieved any of them? Have any of my ambitions changed? What’s replaced the things that I’ve decided not to worry about? What has come after the things I managed to do?
First off, here’s my justification for writing the list in the original post:
November 21, 2018
Five years after
Five years ago I set out at 3am for Heathrow airport to catch the early morning flight to Madrid. There I connected with a flight to Quito in Ecuador. The previous days and weeks had been fraught with worry about whether I was doing the right thing. Did I get the right vaccinations? Would I have enough money? Would I cope with all that travel? Was I coming back? What was I going to do with all my stuff?
June 10, 2018
Reboot
As much as I hate to write about writing, especially when I write so infrequently, I feel I need to reboot this blog. I wrote so few posts in recent months I considered giving up altogether.
I’ve been stressed. Sometimes this manifests in being unable to sleep. Sometimes it manifests in all my interests and ideas seeming to be completely pointless. Sometimes one of those precedes the other. Sometimes it works vice versa.
February 1, 2018
A Diary?
This year promises to be exciting so this week I tried to buy a diary. One of those day-to-a-page affairs for scribbling down all the things I’ve seen and learned about. I thought they might be cheap now the calendar is turning to February. No such luck. There were a few week-to-view diaries going for half price in Waterstones but nothing suitable for my needs. I have lots of Field Notes notebooks if my urge to write gets too much to resist.
July 17, 2017
Valleys
In my last post, I wrote about hills. I tried to use them as a metaphor to explain nagging sense of incompletion when you single out one activity over another. The feeling that there’s always a more exciting hill off in the distance to go climb, instead of the one you’re on.
I said my next post would be about how to pick between different options, particularly when you have many to choose from.
July 15, 2017
Hills
I’m a big fan of books. The way they transport you away to other places and so on. As repositories of knowledge and adventure they can’t be beat. I can think of no better way out of an existential fix than reading.
The trouble is I tend to hoard them. I’ve posted pictures of book stacks before (on more than one occasion). I could probably repeat that every month if I wanted to, perhaps even more often.
June 16, 2017
Create
It can be a struggle to keep writing. I’ve found this happened a lot since I moved the blog. First, there was the business of moving things over. That meant a lot of thought about old posts and which ones I should keep. A lot of the time I thought “how on earth did I have time to write this?!”
Then there seemed to be a lot more barriers to writing than previously.
September 11, 2016
A New Notebook
Witness the pressure of a new notebook. You sit at your desk, trying to get it started with an amazing piece of writing. Something worthy of that crisp new page. You want it to tumble out of you, fully formed and coherent. Something that justifies you abandoning the previous one. As though first drafts don’t exist. You cast yourself into the role of shaman, of seer - of someone gifted a prophetic vision.
September 8, 2016
I Don't Have a Clue, part 43
A little man wearing a bow tie, and possibly a fez, scurries into the middle of the frame clutching a clapboard. Breathing heavily he hoists the clapboard up to chest height. He holds the clapper up then brings down while slurring "This is a blog post about not having a clue, take 43". He exits to the right of the frame.
My feet are hot. The bed seems too small. Why are my feet always too hot on nights like these?
July 20, 2015
Untitled 2
A few months ago I wrote about an idea for a novel that I’d abandoned. I mentioned in that post that I’d abandoned it because there was another idea that I wanted to pursue. The working title for it is “Untitled 2”. (It isn’t really, I have an actual working title that would give things away or would at least make me feel like the idea was out in the world.
July 19, 2015
First Light, Last Light
I often ponder whether the joys of waking up early are greater than those of staying up late. Empirical evidence seems to bear this out: all those people who get to work before you do, super-eager to get everything done. But then all the people walking under your windows late at night, drunk and laughing, they sound like they’re having a whale of a time too.
I oscillate between the two extremes, though I tend to sleep better if I stay up late.
June 18, 2015
Time Is Time and That Is That
A brief rant about Facebook: I hate the fact that the news feed defaults to “Top Stories” even though I change it back to “Most Recent” every time I log in. It’s a horrible pattern of user abuse that needs to stop. Time is time and that is that.
So why does Facebook feel the need to jiggle things about into a random order? Well most of you have that mobile phone app of theirs that sucks your battery and your data allowance like crazy (mainly by auto-playing videos like a dick).
May 25, 2015
Jim's Conservatory
Let’s assume that Jim has just had a sudden unexpected expenditure: a neighbour released a bull into his back garden and it destroyed his conservatory. Let’s assume that the conservatory is essential to Jim’s wellbeing, so it has to be fixed immediately. As a result Jim’s debts, which were previously small and well-managed, have now increased somewhat.
Obviously Jim can’t keep that debt hanging over him forever. What does he do?
April 11, 2015
Consider the Donut
Or, From There to Here With the Simpsons Old episodes of The Simpsons are great. The other night “Bart After Dark” was on and I really enjoyed seeing it again. It’s from season eight, the one where Bart ends up working in the Maison Derriére. I thought it was older; mind you, this makes it nineteen years old. When I thought about the episode later on that evening, I realised how the story anarchically set out in multiple directions before settling into its main storyline.
March 22, 2015
A Little Bit Intimidating Really
There is so much good writing out there. All you have to do is fire up the guardian website, or download the medium app to your smartphone, or visit my friend Barrie’s site, or Lee’s, and so on and so on.
When it comes to my little whisper into this great choir, it’s easy to feel a bit intimidated. How do I add my voice? How do I feel distinct? How do I do it as well as all these other wonderful writers?
March 22, 2015
How Fireworks Work
Last night an impromptu firework display occurred. I watched it from my bathroom window. Very pretty and somewhat extravagant, given that there’s no reason for one on the calendar. I could have filmed it on meerkat but it would have diminished the spectacle. However, it did at least motivate me to write this piece that I have put off for a while (since about November I guess?). One where I find out (i.
March 11, 2015
You Can’t Just Switch Off Free
Ministry of Sound boss Lohan Presencer does the cry baby act in today’s Guardian, complaining that Spotify’s freemium model doesn’t allow him to bathe in a Scrooge McDuck style swimming pool of golden coins any more. The cat is out of the bag for streaming music now, and no matter how much music companies cry foul they can’t stop Spotify and their ilk, and there wouldn’t be pots of gold waiting for them even if they could.
February 16, 2015
On The Humble Cheese Grater
You can’t beat a good cheese grater. Cheese just tastes better in a sandwich once it has been grated. It’s been proven by ACTUAL SCIENCE that this is the case: something about the increased surface area making it taste more zingy (NB. QI is not actually a peer-reviewed scientific journal). Of course the cheese we are grating here is a nice mature cheddar, you can’t grate Camembert or Stilton (well technically you can, but why would you?
February 15, 2015
On Jackson X
I set myself the task of writing about a fictional character for this blog post, so this post is about Jackson X. His surname isn’t really X, it’s just one of the details about him that I haven’t fleshed out yet. This is because Jackson X is the one of the protagonists of the novel I’m (not) writing.
The name of the novel is “The Summer of the Giant Space Whale”.
October 24, 2014
Building Brains
This is a longer form post about artificial intelligence inspired by reading a little bit of “The Pale King” by David Foster Wallace and putting a picture of a “ghost” up on Instagram. This might be the last of these that I’m able to write for a while.
On Not Reading “The Pale King” “The Pale King” is the third and final novel by American author David Foster Wallace. He was working on it when he committed suicide in 2008.
August 17, 2014
What IS That Noise?
I recently spruced up a post I wrote four years ago about Biosphere’s wonderful album Substrata. I added the following footnote about the difference between voice samples and found sound:
I suppose I am distinguishing between found sound and vocal samples here. Perhaps there is very little difference, or that one is the other? When is a vocal snippet something more than found sound? Is it the fact that one has meaning?
August 13, 2013
Posters
In 2005, towards the end of the second year of my PhD I presented a poster at a conference in Dresden, Germany. My eccentric colleagues and I stayed on a huge canal boat moored on the Elbe for no discernible reason other than it seemed like a laugh at the time. In reality I was the second worst snorer of the three of us and it also turned out that our room was right underneath the gang-plank and every morning at six the person who made breakfast would stomp across it.
July 29, 2013
Ideas for TV shows: Great Mathematicians
I want to see a TV show about great mathematicians of the past on a channel like BBC Four. Programmes about mathematics tend to be rather condescending, at least to anyone who has a bit of mathematical knowledge. Perhaps a way around this is to delve into the social and historical circumstances of the great mathematicians and how that along with their personality produced the mathematical results for which they are famous.
November 27, 2012
A Mountain Story
A cat reaches the top of a mountain after a long climb through the snow. He is cold from the bottom of his fur to the tips of his claws. He is sodden and wet, and we all know how much a cat hates to be wet.
At the top of the mountain there is not much to see. What may have been a breathtaking view is instead a murk of freezing mist and at any rate, snow assails the cat’s eyes and whiskers.
November 10, 2012
Ambitions
Sometimes, when I am feeling a bit down, I like to write down some of my ambitions. As you can see from this list they are mostly pretty humble but they are also a bit cheesy and embarassing, so I have put them after the fold!
Be wholehearted, cheerful, and sincere Be creative Look at the world and see its many faces, hear its many voices Explore new recipes as often as possible when I cook Learn to like the taste of tomatoes and cucumbers Be more at ease around people Listen to people and hear what they say Play my part Look after someone special Become a parent Share my values with others, help those who need it Break up all the negative things inside me Know what other people want, help them get it When I wake up each morning I would like to remember my dreams Understand art more than I do Lose my fear of creepy crawlies Learn to drive Learn to write left handed (why not?
April 3, 2012
Net Loss
I pay to have this blog up and running. That is, I pay for the space where it is stored and I pay for the name. I have to look after all the files and plug-ins, I have to perform all the updates and optimise the database tables. All this is great fun but wouldn’t it be cheaper to slap the mattischro.me address onto a hosted WordPress.com account?
Well, yes it would.
January 13, 2012
The Painter
Once upon a time there was a man who loved to paint. He studied the art and craft of painting for many years. He chose to invest his time and energy into creating the most realistic portraits that he could paint. For him the joy came not from completing the paintings but the process of recreating the real world with the strokes of his brush.
For many years he continued to study the art of painting.
November 22, 2011
The Amber World
My earliest memory is waking up in Queen Alexandra hospital in Cosham after an operation on my ears. I must have been about four years old and it was the middle of the night. I was in a room on my own and the door was locked. It had been daylight only seconds before so I got out of the bed and walked to the window to look incredulously out at the amber world that lay beyond.
July 25, 2011
The News
“I read the news today, oh boy” (The Beatles, A Day In The Life.)
Sometimes watching the news feels like a series of repeated blows to the face: arbitrary, cruel and unrelenting. It gets draining and upsetting, and leaves you fearful of what might come next.
You won’t need me to tell you about the tragedies that have occurred all over the world in the last few days: drought in East Africa, the gunman running amok in Norway, the death of Amy Winehouse and the horrific train crash in China.
July 19, 2011
A Beta Test Of Everything
Reading a few articles about the recent launch of Google+, a few things hit home. Google tends to launch a product that works and not always one that is perfect or finished (like, say, Apple). Sometimes it takes them several iterations to get right. They love the beta tag. In fact, I think it was Google (or possibly Flickr) that made me aware of the concept of beta software.
Along these line I thought about this blog and its one year anniversary.
July 2, 2011
Maps And Charts
When I was growing up a framed print of a map hung on the wall in the hallway. It was one of my favourite things, littered with strange latin names and with Vs where Us should have been. The outlines of the continents and countries were all familiar and yet slightly distorted, becoming more recognisable around the shores of western Europe.
I don’t know the provenance of that map print but at some point it got taken to the charity shop and replaced by Van Gogh’s sunflowers.
April 5, 2011
Five Things To Try When You Can't Sleep
Facebook is wonderful for keeping in touch but I’ve noticed that quite a few of my friends tend to use it to tell the world that they can’t sleep. Here’s some advice for you if you find yourself unable to sleep one night. I’ve often had to try these out myself! Note that these are just things that work for me and your mileage may vary, particularly if you are fortunate enough to have a partner next to you!
Tag: Mood
March 3, 2022
Doing the thing
I find it hard to get started on projects. This may have always been the case. I definitely remember instances of complex plans for school projects that I’d barely have time to finish. I once got up at 6AM to finish making a calendar in French—I thought it was going to be this outstanding piece of work that would genuinely replace my teacher’s calendar! Reality didn’t quite match the idea though.
Tag: Motivation
March 3, 2022
Doing the thing
I find it hard to get started on projects. This may have always been the case. I definitely remember instances of complex plans for school projects that I’d barely have time to finish. I once got up at 6AM to finish making a calendar in French—I thought it was going to be this outstanding piece of work that would genuinely replace my teacher’s calendar! Reality didn’t quite match the idea though.
Tag: Autobiography
February 26, 2022
John Irving, The Imaginary Girlfriend
The Imaginary Girlfriend is a short autobiography by American author John Irving. In it, he explains the interwoven roles of writing and wrestling in his life.
As always with Irving, the book is absorbing from the off, and it’s tempting to use the anecdotes here to explain why most of his novels seem to have an underdog narrating them. It’s because he loves the work of Dickens so much. I kid.
Tag: Non Fiction
February 26, 2022
John Irving, The Imaginary Girlfriend
The Imaginary Girlfriend is a short autobiography by American author John Irving. In it, he explains the interwoven roles of writing and wrestling in his life.
As always with Irving, the book is absorbing from the off, and it’s tempting to use the anecdotes here to explain why most of his novels seem to have an underdog narrating them. It’s because he loves the work of Dickens so much. I kid.
September 17, 2018
J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy
“Hillbilly Elegy” is the autobiography of JD Vance, a self-professed hillbilly made good who graduated from Yale Law School. I read it because reviews touted it as illustrating the economic conditions leading to Brexit and the implausible election of Donald Trump. As I wrote in an earlier post, I’m keen to learn about why Brexit happened. However, I think this book fails to provide an explanation.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book.
November 11, 2017
Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive
After I read “Hello America” and “Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” to Ingrid, it was her turn to read something to me. We settled on Matt Haig’s memoir of anxiety and depression “Reasons to Stay Alive”, which is as uplifting and life-affirming as its title suggests.
The book begins with its author standing atop some cliffs in Ibiza, crushed by depression and anxiety and determined to die.
September 29, 2017
Eric Schlosser, Command and Control
“Command and Control” by Eric Schlosser is about the history of nuclear weapons and their safety. This might not seem like a thrilling subject, but it’s absorbing from start to finish. I started it three years ago but only finished it more recently as the subject of nuclear weapons has become more pertinent to current affairs1. There are many people who would stand to gain a great deal from reading this book2.
September 2, 2015
Eric Schlosser, Gods of Metal
Y-12 is the United States’ most secure weapons-grade Uranium storage facility. It is known as the “Fort Knox of Uranium”. In 2012 it was infiltrated by three elderly peace protesters, sparking a major scandal about the safety of US nuclear sites. “Gods of Metal” by Eric Schlosser tells the story of that break-in alongside a history of both the anti-nuclear movement (in particular the Plowshares movement) and nuclear security in the United States.
June 25, 2012
Helen Fisher, Some Lessons In Love
As indicated by my reading list posted a couple of months ago (which has since been added to here), I’ve started to try to read more about the things that I felt that I did not understand so well. Most notably perhaps is this book “on love” by Helen Fisher. Lest there is any innuendo it is not a book about technique nor does it attempt to explain love to those who have never known it, instead it assumes that we have all been there.
November 2, 2011
Mark Rowlands, The Philosopher And The Wolf
I saw that a friend had ‘liked’ this book on Facebook and reading about it on amazon, I was curious enough to give it a go. It is the autobiography of the philosopher Mark Rowlands, specifically the experiences and lessons learned from raising a wolf, Brenin, from cub to maturity and beyond.
The book addresses different aspects of philosophy including the nature of evil and the interaction between humans and other animals.
Tag: Wrestling
February 26, 2022
John Irving, The Imaginary Girlfriend
The Imaginary Girlfriend is a short autobiography by American author John Irving. In it, he explains the interwoven roles of writing and wrestling in his life.
As always with Irving, the book is absorbing from the off, and it’s tempting to use the anecdotes here to explain why most of his novels seem to have an underdog narrating them. It’s because he loves the work of Dickens so much. I kid.
Tag: Captions
February 8, 2022
TIL: footnotes in Latex captions
Today I had an interesting bug in some Latex code I am writing. Putting a footnote into a caption caused the document to fail compilation. The problem was that this document doesn’t use a table of figures at the start, so I hadn’t thought to include a short summary caption. Apparently the curly brace in the footnote command does not sit well with that, even if you aren’t using a list or table of figures in your document.
Tag: Fiction
February 8, 2022
Laurent Binet, Civilisations
‘Civilisations’ is a counterfactual historical novel that attempts to extrapolate the future course of history after changing one pivotal moment of the timeline. I usually find novels like this are great fun, another entertaining example is ‘Making History’ by Stephen Fry. The novel, originally written in French, won some big awards in France last year. I read the translation by Sam Taylor.
In ‘Civilisations’, Binet makes the pivotal point of his tale, the migration of Erik the Red to America in the late 900s.
February 25, 2021
I was twenty one at the time…
“I was twenty-one at the time, about to turn twenty-two. No prospect of graduating soon, and yet no reason to quit school. Caught in the most curiously depressing circumstances. For months I’d been stuck, unable to take one step in any new direction. The world kept moving on; I alone was at a standstill. In the autumn, everything took a desolate cast, the colors swiftly fading before my eyes. The sunlight, the smell of the grass, the faintest patter of rain, everything got on my nerves.
January 2, 2021
Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Last year I started to write a review of Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller”. I read it while we were in Germany for Christmas. We’d visited Bremen and also undergone the bizarreness of Christmas in another language - the same motifs played out in different words and different customs. I’d tried to write the review in a similar structure to the book but, in a testament to Calvino’s writing I couldn’t pull it off.
January 1, 2021
Richard Powers, Orfeo
“The mind may give up its desire to improve on creation and function as a faithful receiver of experience.” John Cage
After enjoying The Overstory, I wanted to read more of Richard Powers’ novels. Orfeo was also long listed for the Booker prize. Perhaps more of his novels would have been had the prize been opened to American authors earlier.
Orfeo is about Peter Els, a seventy year old composer who accidentally alerts Homeland Security to the existence of his home laboratory, in which he has been trying to recode the genetic material of a bacterium to include a piece of his music.
July 7, 2020
Strategy one
I decided to create my own deck of creativity cards. I was sick of all the adverts for similar products on Instagram. You know the kind. They’re covered in pictures, patterns, and buzzwords. You shuffle the cards and draw them one at a time. As you place each card on the table, the brain’s natural desire to tell stories, create patterns and produce meaning takes over.
I made a deck without too much thought for form or consequence.
May 28, 2020
George Saunders, Lincoln In The Bardo
I read this book on holiday in Belgium last year. Having forgotten to pack a novel I scoured almost every book in the Waterstones at St. Pancras station before settling on this Booker prize winning novel by George Saunders.
Lincoln in the Bardo fictionalises a period in Abraham Lincoln’s life immediately after the death of his son Willie. The story alternates between factual accounts of what happened at the time and the observations of ghosts in the graveyard where young Willie is buried.
October 30, 2018
Richard Powers, The Overstory
“The Overstory” by Richard Powers piqued my interest among the novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize. And once again the book that interested me most did not win. One year I will succeed in my prediction!
I found “The Overstory” an enjoyable read. Its accessibility surprised me. Often people view Booker nominated novels as stuffy or over-intellectual. This novel however is a genuine page turner, full of emotion and heartbreak, not to mention plenty of science and awe of the natural world.
July 30, 2016
Richard Beard, Acts of the Assassins
Acts of the Assassins is an interesting novel by Richard Beard that retells the story of the apostles and their deaths. It uses a modern crime genre style and a contemporary setting. The author himself refers to it as “Gospel Noir”. Cassius Gallio, a Roman CSI-type referred to as a speculator, investigates the murders of the apostles following the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Gallio, charged with guarding the body following Jesus’ death and greatly undermined by the disappearance of the body, views the resurrection as the greatest conspiracy of the age.
July 14, 2016
J. G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company
I last wrote about a JG Ballard novel nearly three years ago. That one - “High-Rise” - has since been made into a film. The subject of this post is “The Unlimited Dream Company”, my favourite among his novels: a silly romp through suburban sexual repression that glitters with sinister wit. Even after many read-throughs I still can’t work out whether it is a crazy masterpiece or something light that we’re meant to throw away after reading.
March 16, 2015
Ned Beauman, Glow
Glow is about a guy called Raf, a Londoner whose life is going nowhere in particular; a state of affairs not helped by “Non-24 Hour Sleep/Wake Syndrome”. One night while experimenting with a new ecstacy-like drug that’s apparently derived from a social anxiety medication for dogs, Raf meets a beautiful girl and then loses her to the crowd in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. From there a conspiracy evolves involving the titular dog-medication-derived drug, Burmese dissidents, corporate espionage, pirate radio stations, and urban foxes.
August 17, 2014
Clarice Lispector, Hour of the Star
Hour of the Star is a short novel by Clarice Lispector, a Ukrainian-born Brazilian author with an interesting life story. This is her last novel and is a remarkable book: inventive, funny, and sad, all at once. I found it in a special selection at the local library dedicated to Brazil because of the World Cup.
First some biography. Born Chaya Lispector in Chechelnyk, Ukraine, in 1920, her family escaped the pogroms and emigrated to Brazil in 1922.
April 11, 2013
Why I Love On The Road
I was fifteen when I first read “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac and recently, after twice as much lifetime lived, I was able to watch the film version directed by Walter Salles.
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.
February 26, 2013
On Pynchon
The existence, or impending existence, of a new novel by Thomas Pynchon was announced today. I have all his previous books (seven written over a period of about fifty years, a pace that I definitely approve of), though he’s a hard author to get close to: I’ve only finished three and started four up till now. The unfinished one is, of course, Gravity’s Rainbow (GR) and somewhat perversely, I have two copies of the thing.
September 23, 2012
Jon McGregor, Even The Dogs
Over my holiday I read “Even The Dogs” by Jon McGregor. I’ve not quite finished it yet but that will at least prevent me from giving away spoilers. I am not sure I would want to give any spoilers anyway because it is unrelentingly grim so far. Perhaps there is a happy ending but both you and I will have to read it to find out.
I was introduced to Jon McGregor by the book group I was part of during my PhD.
April 9, 2012
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon was written in 1956 and tells of the experiences of West Indian men moving to London for work. It has been described as the definitive novel about the experiences of the Windrush settlers. The narrative centres on a man named Moses who was one of the first to come to London and finds himself the first port of call for many subsequent immigrants:
It look to old Moses that he hardly have time to settle in the old Brit’n before all sorts of fellars start coming straight to his room in the Water when they land up in London from the West Indies, saying that so and so tell them that Moses is a good fellar to contact, that he would help them get place to stay and work to do.
February 1, 2011
J. G. Ballard, Crash
Form and function, deformation and dysfunction I think we should get one thing out of the way first. For me, there is nothing erotic about a car or a motorway. The place in popular culture of the car in particular as sexual icon has always bemused me. In fact, I’m really rather ambivalent about cars. This matters when discussing Crash, the 1973 novel by JG Ballard that resumes this strand of posts about his novels.
Tag: Footnotes
February 8, 2022
TIL: footnotes in Latex captions
Today I had an interesting bug in some Latex code I am writing. Putting a footnote into a caption caused the document to fail compilation. The problem was that this document doesn’t use a table of figures at the start, so I hadn’t thought to include a short summary caption. Apparently the curly brace in the footnote command does not sit well with that, even if you aren’t using a list or table of figures in your document.
Tag: History
February 8, 2022
Laurent Binet, Civilisations
‘Civilisations’ is a counterfactual historical novel that attempts to extrapolate the future course of history after changing one pivotal moment of the timeline. I usually find novels like this are great fun, another entertaining example is ‘Making History’ by Stephen Fry. The novel, originally written in French, won some big awards in France last year. I read the translation by Sam Taylor.
In ‘Civilisations’, Binet makes the pivotal point of his tale, the migration of Erik the Red to America in the late 900s.
Tag: LaTeX
February 8, 2022
TIL: footnotes in Latex captions
Today I had an interesting bug in some Latex code I am writing. Putting a footnote into a caption caused the document to fail compilation. The problem was that this document doesn’t use a table of figures at the start, so I hadn’t thought to include a short summary caption. Apparently the curly brace in the footnote command does not sit well with that, even if you aren’t using a list or table of figures in your document.
August 13, 2013
Posters
In 2005, towards the end of the second year of my PhD I presented a poster at a conference in Dresden, Germany. My eccentric colleagues and I stayed on a huge canal boat moored on the Elbe for no discernible reason other than it seemed like a laugh at the time. In reality I was the second worst snorer of the three of us and it also turned out that our room was right underneath the gang-plank and every morning at six the person who made breakfast would stomp across it.
Tag: Chores
February 5, 2022
The Garden
Today, we transferred our Christmas tree to a new pot. Being root-bound as the tree was, it took ages to get it out of the crappy pot from the store and into the new, bigger pot. And I’m pretty sure it’s a bit wonky, which might make the baubles a bit lopsided next Christmas. It looks excellent next to the new bird bath.
Nonetheless, it was nice to get another plant into a pot with the hope of keeping it around.
Tag: Garden
February 5, 2022
The Garden
Today, we transferred our Christmas tree to a new pot. Being root-bound as the tree was, it took ages to get it out of the crappy pot from the store and into the new, bigger pot. And I’m pretty sure it’s a bit wonky, which might make the baubles a bit lopsided next Christmas. It looks excellent next to the new bird bath.
Nonetheless, it was nice to get another plant into a pot with the hope of keeping it around.
Tag: Getting Stuff Done
February 5, 2022
The Garden
Today, we transferred our Christmas tree to a new pot. Being root-bound as the tree was, it took ages to get it out of the crappy pot from the store and into the new, bigger pot. And I’m pretty sure it’s a bit wonky, which might make the baubles a bit lopsided next Christmas. It looks excellent next to the new bird bath.
Nonetheless, it was nice to get another plant into a pot with the hope of keeping it around.
Tag: Household
February 5, 2022
The Garden
Today, we transferred our Christmas tree to a new pot. Being root-bound as the tree was, it took ages to get it out of the crappy pot from the store and into the new, bigger pot. And I’m pretty sure it’s a bit wonky, which might make the baubles a bit lopsided next Christmas. It looks excellent next to the new bird bath.
Nonetheless, it was nice to get another plant into a pot with the hope of keeping it around.
Tag: Future Sound of London
February 4, 2022
Understated Classics #39: Lifeforms by Future Sound of London
Lifeforms is the 1994 album from the Future Sound of London. A double album (just), it also features the talents of Robert Fripp, Ozric Tentacles, Talvin Singh, Toni Halliday, and Liz Frazer. It reached number 6 on the UK album chart and went silver.
I have wanted to write about the Lifeforms album for a long time. In 2012, I even tried learning how to tell the tracks apart from one another.
Tag: Understated Classics
February 4, 2022
Understated Classics #39: Lifeforms by Future Sound of London
Lifeforms is the 1994 album from the Future Sound of London. A double album (just), it also features the talents of Robert Fripp, Ozric Tentacles, Talvin Singh, Toni Halliday, and Liz Frazer. It reached number 6 on the UK album chart and went silver.
I have wanted to write about the Lifeforms album for a long time. In 2012, I even tried learning how to tell the tracks apart from one another.
January 1, 2022
Understated Classics Or Not?
At the new year, thoughts and spare time for writing point me toward writing some new posts for my understated classics series. Expect some new ones soon.
I also reflected on my previous choices and thought a bit about how my music tastes have changed recently. Some of this has to do with streaming and the frustrations I wrote about in my last post. Some of it is just down to getting older: I have less time to listen to new music, and much of the ’new’ stuff I listen to is me investigating the stuff I missed first time around.
May 29, 2021
Understated Classics #38: Trance Nation (Various Artists)
I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been in need of some music that:
Blots out the outside world Helps me to concentrate on my work Makes me feel a bit less anxious about the state of the world Well, allow me to submit the compilation Trance Nation for your consideration as an understated classic.
But Matt I’ve heard trance music, I hear you say, and it’s one of the least understated forms of music possible.
August 26, 2019
Understated Classics #37: Lost Souls by Doves
Doves are a band from Manchester who traded dance music for rock yet never left their former genre behind. Starting out as Sub Sub, they scored a worldwide hit in 1993 with “Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)”: a timeless dance tune that immediately owns whatever room it plays in. However, subsequent releases by Sub Sub did not catch on and people started to think of the band as a one-hit wonder.
October 29, 2017
Understated Classics #36: The Coral by The Coral
Perhaps in today’s modern age of streaming and such, The Coral would be a bigger band and may have survived their eventual burnout. Their work ethic was evident from the start, as rumours swirled in the NME about a fantastic new band from Liverpool who were going to blow everybody’s socks off. I went to see them live in Bristol after they’d released three EPs and they were incredible. Their sound, a bit like the movie “Holy Mountain” set to pop music, imagined a Merseybeat channelled from an alternative universe in which Lennon and McCartney took their acid in the Mojave desert rather than in the English suburbs.
September 25, 2017
Understated Classics #35: Snivilisation by Orbital
I came late to Orbital’s work. I knew of them through a few remixes and because as a mad Orb fan, they could not have avoided my notice could they? Apart from that, one of my college friends tried to get me into “In Sides” just after its release in 1996. The same friend got me into “Second Toughest In The Infants” by Underworld. I cannot now understand the reason, but “In Sides” just left me cold.
October 13, 2016
Understated Classics #34: Stray by Aztec Camera
The next instalment in my understated classics series is "Stray" by Aztec Camera. Released in 1990, it features two hit singles and the cover is my favourite colour: green.
My angle for writing about “Stray” was that it was an album that I "caught" from my parents. I soon realised that I wrote about some of those already, for example “The Circle and the Square" by Red Box. Besides, I’m not sure that my parents liked this album that much.
July 20, 2016
Understated Classics #33: Embrya by Maxwell
I give the impression of planning these posts but to be honest I came across an article about Maxwell a few weeks ago and fondly remembered my cassette copy of this album. The joy of Spotify is that it’s easy to dig up old favourites. The recent warm weather makes for a good opportunity to enjoy the sultry embrace of “Embrya” once more.
“Gestation: Mythos” burbles along for two and a half minutes, overlaying spoken word samples, string phrases and weird underwater noises, before the bass line of “Everwanting: To Want You To Want” brings things to life.
October 31, 2015
Understated Classics #32: They Were Wrong So We Drowned by Liars
As it is Halloween, I’m writing about a spooky understated classic. Liars’ second album “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned” is a concept album about witches. It was the first of their albums that I owned having heard their name mentioned among those in the New York Post-punk revival scene at the start of the 00s.
I imagine that to most ears a first listen to “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned” sounds dreadful.
July 22, 2015
Understated Classics #31: The White Room by The KLF
This little masterpiece was released in 1991. I got my copy on cassette for Christmas that year, but by May in 1992 they’d already “retired” and split up.
The KLF were a band in the right place at the right time with the right idea. Taking advantage of synthesizers and the idea of fusing rock and pop music with the emerging sound of house music, they laid the ground for many of the most successful electronic acts that followed them.
April 19, 2015
Understated Classics #30: Our Aim Is to Satisfy by Red Snapper
The thirtieth understated classic is by a band named after a fish. There isn’t a great deal for me to say about “Our Aim Is To Satisfy”1 apart from the usual insistence that it is quite good. There’s no overarching theme to write about, and no deep personal story attached. It was bound to happen eventually.
“Our Aim Is To Satisfy” is one of those albums spawned in the late nineties and early naughties at the height of the Electronica boom: dance music that you didn’t necessarily have to dance to.
February 22, 2015
Understated Classics #29: Let It Come Down by Spiritualized
I listened to Let It Come Down by Spiritualized for the first time during a difficult time in my life. I think this will always affect my feelings towards it. For me it’s a great big comfort blanket of a record. Coming after one of the all-time best break-up albums (in an artistic sense) in “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” perhaps it’s not that much of a surprise.
January 18, 2015
Understated Classics #28: The Meadowlands by The Wrens
One of the first lines of “The House That Guilt Built”, the soft cricket-laden lament that opens The Meadowlands by The Wrens, is “I’m nowhere near where I thought I’d be”. The last line of the whole album is “this is not what you had planned”. These bookending lines set the tone for this shimmering, ramshackle masterpiece - a fatigue and careworn pride in failing to meet impossible standards writ large over its first and last eighty or so seconds.
August 19, 2014
Understated Classics #27: A Ghost Is Born by Wilco
I have already given some of the personal background to why I love this album and now it’s time to give a bit of love to the music itself so I’ll stick to giving a track by track account of “A Ghost Is Born”.
If you are familiar with Wilco’s first few albums, you’ll know that A Ghost Is Born is on the line of best fit through Being There, Summerteeth, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
July 7, 2014
Understated Classics #26: Come On Die Young by Mogwai
I’ll tell you about punk rock: punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and ah… and ah… heartless manipulators about music that takes up the energies and the bodies and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds of young men who give what they have to it and give everything they have to it and it’s a… it’s a term that’s based on contempt, it’s a term that’s based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism and everything that’s rotten about rock ’n’ roll.
September 14, 2013
Understated Classics #25: Long Gone Before Daylight by The Cardigans
The single biggest fact of life is that you are always going to be alone, you just might not realise it. Listening to The Cardigans’ excellent 2003 “Long Gone Before Daylight” will help you see that all our relationships are essentially screwed – but at least it sounds great while it does so.
“Long Gone Before Daylight” (“Long Gone Before Daylight”) plays the role of “The Empire Strikes Back” in a trilogy of great albums that The Cardigans released between 1999 (the arguably better and slightly happier “Gran Turismo”) and 2006 (the unarguably inferior and definitely happier “Super Extra Gravity”).
June 24, 2013
Understated Classics #24: Reservoir by Fanfarlo
I have written a lot in these posts about how music gets indelibly tied up with places, events and feelings. For me this album by Fanfarlo is tied up with all three of these. It makes me happy and sad at the same time in memory of great times that are now gone but are fondly remembered. I am aware that this is the youngest album on the list so far and so it might be a bit early to endow classic status upon it, but “Reservoir” is a fine album and to my ears it stands up really well.
May 23, 2013
Understated Classics #23: Gorgeous by 808 State
It was quite hard to choose an 808 State album for the understated classics series for two reasons. The first is that I was introduced to 808 State quite late through a friend’s sister’s cassette copy of The Shamen’s En-Tact (the original version recorded from vinyl that had a thirteen minute version of “Evil Is Eden”) that also had – to fill out the C90 – the full length sweary version of “What Time Is Love?
March 13, 2013
Understated Classics #22: Walking With Thee by Clinic
“Walking With Thee” is the second album by Liverpool band Clinic. It was released in 2002, which seems like an age ago now. Even longer ago they released the single “The Return of Evil Bill”, which was got me interested in them in the first place.
I recently got back into “Walking With Thee” when I picked “Vulture” in my A-Z of Animals playlist last month. I’d forgotten just how great a song it is, both musically and lyrically.
November 21, 2012
Understated Classics #21: Woob 2 by Woob
The second Woob album (AKA “Woob 4495”) is probably the greatest ambient album ever made and is certainly the best one you have never heard of. Originally released in 1995 on the em:t label it is also a rare record. I don’t have an actual copy but I have seen one! I downloaded it off the internet and even that is quite difficult to do. My friend is an avid collector of all the em:t releases and it is easy to see why: all the albums are titled in a specific way that is very appealing to people who like to collect things and they also have very striking nature photography on the covers.
September 19, 2012
Understated Classics #20: Folklore by Nelly Furtado
It’s rather spooky but shortly after deciding to write about Nelly Furtado’s “Folklore” as the next understated classic, I found out that she has a new album out this week. As a result, I have been listening to a lot of her music while writing this post, and I’ve been enjoying it too.
As always with these choices of mine, “Folklore” is a record that I can link to particular events and emotions in my life and so I guess my perception of it is coloured by that.
August 15, 2012
Understated Classics #19: The Dreaming by Kate Bush
“I see the people working and see it working for them.” (Sat In Your Lap)
The Dreaming by Kate Bush is a strange 1982 album that many believed had destroyed her career. Two weeks before her first ever performance of “Running Up That Hill”, the NME had written an editorial asking whether she had burnt herself out completely. Obviously “Running Up That Hill” (recently used to great effect in the Olympic Closing Ceremony) and the parent album “The Hounds Of Love” that followed showed that she had plenty more up her sleeve.
June 5, 2012
Understated Classics #18: Fabric 12 mixed by The Amalgamation Of Soundz
Say what? We’re allowing compilations now?
Yes. Why not? A good mix is as much an artistic statement as a full-blown single artist album. It takes a lot of skill to get from A to B and keep everything on the boil in between. This Fabric mix by The Amalgamation Of Soundz is one of my favourites because it is a downtempo (but, crucially, not too downtempo) compilation delivered with flair and using what I consider to be unconventional sources (soundtracks, tribute albums, hip-hop) to do it.
April 19, 2012
Understated Classics #17: Nearly God by Nearly God (Tricky)
Sit back and let it happen, / Let us take your time away.
Nearly God is Tricky’s second album, which was released under a different name either because Island rejected it as the follow-up to Maxinequaye or because it came too quickly after and Tricky just wanted it released. I had this album before Maxinequaye because back then it wasn’t as easy to go back and catch up with albums that you had missed as it is now.
March 21, 2012
Understated Classics #16: Ambient 2 / The Plateaux Of Mirror by Howard Budd and Brian Eno
Among Fields of Crystal / Wind in Lonely Fences I have written about a fair number of ambient albums in this series (and there are at least two more to come!) but perhaps none are as unobtrusive as this one by Howard Budd and Brian Eno. It’s a subtle collection of music that sits at the margins of your consciousness: for a long time it was the music that I turned to when I could not sleep but I could just as easily imagine it as (ahem!
January 23, 2012
Understated Classics #15: Début by Björk
I got into Début via a cassette from the library, much like I did with Together Alone by Crowded House. I suppose it is less obscure than many of my choices for this strand but I do think that Post is more well-known (because of It’s Oh So Quiet, which we shall mention here only briefly) and that Homogenic is probably more popular among her fans.
What I really like about Début though, as much as the album itself, is the panoply of remixes and alternative versions that surround the release.
November 7, 2011
Understated Classics #14: Clear by Bomb The Bass
I think it’s time to discuss your philosophy of drug use as it relates to artistic endeavour…
That quote is from the movie “The Naked Lunch” directed by David Cronenburg (see also this) and it also opens “Bug Powder Dust” by Bomb The Bass, the five star single that opens “Clear”. A rollicking piece of rock rap dripping with pop culture references that runs for four and half minutes and does not stop until another quote from “The Naked Lunch”, it is probably one of my favourite songs of the 90s.
September 9, 2011
Understated Classics #13: U.F.Orb by The Orb
FUN FACT: It was because of the artwork to this album that I obsessively scrawled onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome on my pencil case at school. I also had a very passable u.f.orb logo drawn on it too.
In The Blue Room I had my first “close encounter” with The Orb in 1992 when the single Blue Room was in the charts.
August 16, 2011
Understated Classics #12: Look Sharp! by Roxette
Happy Birthday! No matter how intellectual one gets about these things, the primary function of music is to have fun. With this in mind it is a good time to turn to Roxette then, as they are almost always the epitome of fun.
I received Look Sharp! as a present for my ninth birthday. This was probably a bit young to fully understand all the emotions expressed on the record. It’s just as well that it is also crammed with the kind of pop confections that made “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!
July 22, 2011
Understated Classics #11: Second Toughest In The Infants by Underworld
Your rails, your fins, your thin paper wings Second Toughest in the Infants (STITI) is the second album by Underworld, released in 1995. This was just ahead of the mania caused by the .NUXX version of Born Slippy appearing on the Trainspotting soundtrack a little later. Born Slippy itself, the blippy techno confection released between their début Dubnobasswithmyheadman and this album. STITI then is very much the calm before the storm and features a band (in the truest sense, which is unusual among electronic acts) in full flow.
June 24, 2011
Understated Classics #10: Tubular Bells II by Mike Oldfield
It was the artwork that got me interested in Tubular Bells II. Rendering Trevor Key’s wonderful icon of the twisted tubular bell in yellow and blue made it all the more mysterious. Seeing it one day in Woolworth’s in Leigh Park back in 1992 aroused my curiosity. The huge display must have been part of the massive publicity drive for the album. Despite dwindling sales for his albums at that time, a sequel to Tubular Bells represented a huge potential for sales.
May 6, 2011
Understated Classics #9: Tiger Bay by Saint Etienne
Background Tiger Bay is Saint Etienne’s third album and I think it is among their best. It was released in June 1994 on Heavenly records. I first owned a copy in 1998 when I picked it up while living in halls as an undergraduate. The reason for including this album in the understated classics series is the same as for Second Light by Dreadzone: it marries traditional forms to newer electronic music1.
March 17, 2011
Understated Classics #8: Second Light by Dreadzone
In the understated classics series, I try to alternate between pop/rock and electronic albums. Keeping with this trend number eight is the wonderful dub-infused album Second Light by Dreadzone. Released in 1996 it was well-received critically and four of its tracks featured on John Peel’s best-of-year list that year. Little Britain received a lot of radio play, a popular choice for that flag-waving period of britpop and assorted other demons.
January 9, 2011
Understated Classics #7: 100 Broken Windows by Idlewild
Idewild are a solid band who have released four or five albums that I could consider for this series. I’m even in the sleeve credits of one: Post-Electric Blues, if you’re asking.
In the end I went for 100 Broken Windows because it means a lot to me. It has more of a place in my life than the others. Usually I find that this happens if I can remember where I bought an album.
December 3, 2010
Understated Classics #6: Arbor Bona Arbor Mala by The Shamen
Background Ask anyone into pop music between 1991 and 1993 about The Shamen, and you’ll either receive a flood of euphoric good will about excellent tracks like Move Any Mountain, LSI, and Phorever People1; or they will rant at you about the evils of Ebeneezer Goode. The Shamen are either one of the pantheon of great acts from early 90’s dance and electronic music, or they are a shameless vaudeville novelty act.
November 8, 2010
Understated Classics #5: A Weekend In The City by Bloc Party
A Weekend In The City: Background This is the youngest album I have chosen for this series. I try to pick albums that are at least ten years old but every now and then, I will think of an album that matches the sort of things I want to write about. That’s the case here. A Weekend in the City is an unusual album that, in a reversal of the old adage, is “easy to love but hard to admire”.
September 11, 2010
Understated Classics #4: Substrata by Biosphere
I bought this album in the summer between my two years at college. I remember listening to this music under skies glowering with clouds so 1997 must have been a poor summer. I’d just bought a book of photography too, which placed photos from the north and south poles on opposite pages. I bought it mainly for the penguins that were, of course, on pretty much every other page. The pictures of snow and ice soon became the ideal companions to this album.
August 17, 2010
Understated Classics #3: The Circle & The Square by Red Box
When is understated not understated? The trouble with writing a series of articles all themed somehow is that eventually you might find something that sits naturally in the sequence but at the same time goes against the grain a little. Et voila, I give you “The Circle & The Square” by Red Box. An album that hardly anyone has heard containing two top 10 UK singles that probably everyone has heard.
August 12, 2010
Understated Classics #2: Sinking by The Aloof
I discovered The Aloof while listening to the Top 40 When I was younger, I used to listen to the Top 40 every Sunday. To begin with, this was partly an endurance thing and partly an obsession with one day seeing Roxette top the charts - alas, they never did, though for one thrilling spring “Joyride” did flirt with the upper reaches of the chart.
Listening to the charts is probably the best way to become a lover of music.
August 3, 2010
Understated Classics #1: Together Alone by Crowded House
This week Arcade Fire released their hotly anticipated third album “The Suburbs”. I loved “Neon Bible” but critics found it preachy, as overbearing as the religious folk it sought to satirise. I disagree and think it was an impressive continuation from an exciting debut. “The Suburbs” steps on from their previous two albums, both in subject matter and tone. It’s sad, thoughtful, resigned, angry and tetchy - among other things. “The Suburbs” isn’t the understated classic that I want to discuss though: with all the praise and plaudits, it may never suit this new thread of posts.
Tag: FFI
February 3, 2022
What is FFI anyway?
At the moment I can’t compile this blog locally because my ruby-ffi install is somehow wrong and is preventing Jekyll from running on my recently upgraded Mac system. Fortunately the site still compiles on Netlify, or else you wouldn’t be reading this!
It’s always annoying when you rely on a complex multi-part system and some obscure part fails. It leaves you groping for answers and inventing unnecessary hack solutions. The dreaded old Stack Overflow rabbit hole.
Tag: Learning new things
February 3, 2022
What is FFI anyway?
At the moment I can’t compile this blog locally because my ruby-ffi install is somehow wrong and is preventing Jekyll from running on my recently upgraded Mac system. Fortunately the site still compiles on Netlify, or else you wouldn’t be reading this!
It’s always annoying when you rely on a complex multi-part system and some obscure part fails. It leaves you groping for answers and inventing unnecessary hack solutions. The dreaded old Stack Overflow rabbit hole.
Tag: Ruby
February 3, 2022
What is FFI anyway?
At the moment I can’t compile this blog locally because my ruby-ffi install is somehow wrong and is preventing Jekyll from running on my recently upgraded Mac system. Fortunately the site still compiles on Netlify, or else you wouldn’t be reading this!
It’s always annoying when you rely on a complex multi-part system and some obscure part fails. It leaves you groping for answers and inventing unnecessary hack solutions. The dreaded old Stack Overflow rabbit hole.
February 2, 2022
A February Project
Hmmm it seems as though the ffi gem as installed by bundler is not compatible with a Mac that has an M1 chip. This limits my ability to preview blog posts locally. I might have to swap to a more modern static site generator (which is probably easier than working out what ffi actually does) - seems like a good February project!
Tag: February
February 2, 2022
Checking In
Despite my best intentions, I didn’t manage to continue writing posts after the first day of 2022! But perhaps now I can try again as an excuse to test my blogging set up on my new computer.
February 28, 2017
Album Digest, February 2017
Grails Chalice Hymnal Some albums are good because a band continues making the music that you love. Some albums are good because a band takes their ideas a step or two further than before. Chalice Hymnalis that rare album that does both of these things.
The references to past albums include the track Deeper Politics and Deep Snow II, and, as per albums past, these tracks evolve slowly out of languid guitar hooks and smoky atmospherics.
March 1, 2015
Album Digest, February 2015
Aphex Twin “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt2 EP” Aphex Twin follows SYRO (reviewed in Album Digest September 2014 here) with this 27 minute EP of music that, if we take the title literally, features computers playing acoustic musical instruments. It’s a very different sound to SYRO and sounds acoustic for the most part. It’s an important experiment about the role of the musician, one that is already blurred in the creation of electronic music.
February 28, 2013
Album Digest, February 2013
Most Februaries are quite quiet when it comes to albums (though this was not the case back in 2011) and although only the Foals album is a major release, I was quite surprised to find myself with four decent albums to write about. They are:
Darkstar “News From Nowhere” Foals “Holy Fire” Daniel Hope “Spheres” Apparat “Krieg und Frieden (Music For Theatre)” Darkstar “News From Nowhere” I don’t need to give too much biographical background for the Darkstar album as I don’t know too much about who the are.
February 28, 2012
Album Digest, February 2012
One EP and three albums for Album Digest February 2012:
Burial Kindred EP John Talabot fIN Lilacs & Champagne Lilacs & Champagne The 2 Bears Be Strong Last February was a pretty good month for song based albums, although the likes of Radiohead and James Blake provided plenty of electronic noodling in and around their song structures. (Interestingly, out of the two out-and-out song based albums, one was one of the worst albums of the year and the other one of the best).
February 28, 2011
Album Digest, February 2011
February, the shortest month, harbinger of such delights as Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day. Could it possibly produce any good albums? Well the candidates are the eponymous début album by James Blake, Zonoscope by Cut/Copy, Let England Shake by PJ Harvey and Smart Flesh by The Low Anthem. Furthermore, there was an unexpected bonus when Radiohead announced that their new album would be out and available to listen to this month too.
Tag: Test
February 2, 2022
Checking In
Despite my best intentions, I didn’t manage to continue writing posts after the first day of 2022! But perhaps now I can try again as an excuse to test my blogging set up on my new computer.
Tag: Spotify
November 24, 2021
A pox on both their houses
How hard is it to just listen to music these days?
Spotify has crammed in all sorts of crap in to the app lately. Lyric videos, those weird interactive art things that are turned on by default, podcasts (so many podcasts), Netflix tie-ins, and audiobooks. It wants to be the app that opens when you plug in your headphones (not that we’ll be doing that for much longer the way things are going).
August 30, 2016
Adventures with Discover Weekly
Because I couldn’t find any albums coming out this month that I wanted to review for the album digest, I decided to let Spotify pick the albums to listen to. I listened to my algorithmically chosen Discover Weekly playlist one week and selected albums based on the songs that I liked the most. The album also had to be released in 2016. The selections are ones that got away.
I’ve done this before.
July 5, 2015
An Initial Comparison of Apple Music and Spotify
My previous post about Apple Music was more a response to how it was presented at the WWDC Keynote rather than to the idea of Apple Music itself. I should have known better than to use that clickbait title. I knew I wasn’t writing about the product, more the flatness of its introduction (despite the names on show).
After a few days of living with it I thought I’d write about it and Spotify, so that it’s not just my snarky comments about the keynote that are on record here.
March 11, 2015
You Can’t Just Switch Off Free
Ministry of Sound boss Lohan Presencer does the cry baby act in today’s Guardian, complaining that Spotify’s freemium model doesn’t allow him to bathe in a Scrooge McDuck style swimming pool of golden coins any more. The cat is out of the bag for streaming music now, and no matter how much music companies cry foul they can’t stop Spotify and their ilk, and there wouldn’t be pots of gold waiting for them even if they could.
Tag: Twenty One
November 24, 2021
A pox on both their houses
How hard is it to just listen to music these days?
Spotify has crammed in all sorts of crap in to the app lately. Lyric videos, those weird interactive art things that are turned on by default, podcasts (so many podcasts), Netflix tie-ins, and audiobooks. It wants to be the app that opens when you plug in your headphones (not that we’ll be doing that for much longer the way things are going).
August 25, 2021
If anything, make it weirder
Today I listened to ‘Cloudbusting’ by Kate Bush for the first time in a while. What a gloriously strange song it is. Best of all, it’s one of those songs that obscures what it is really about. It’s not a song about a change in the weather, but about Wilhelm Reich, the orgone accumulator, fluorescent yo-yos, and a son (rather than a sun) coming out.
‘Cloudbusting’ is from ‘Hounds of Love’, Kate’s ‘comeback’ album following the commercial failure of ‘The Dreaming’, an album I wrote about in my understated classics series.
August 2, 2021
Jab 2
I was due to have my second vaccination today, but like most people I rebooked to have it a bit earlier. No real side effects this time, save for a bit of malaise. Though that may have just been the thought of opening up the country when cases are still increasing quickly.
It goes without saying that I’d urge everyone to get vaccinated and then to keep turning up for whatever boosters the people protecting us (e.
July 31, 2021
Rachel Cusk, Outline
Outline is the first of a trilogy of novels by Rachel Cusk. In it, the narrator is travelling to Athens to help teach on a creative writing class. You could describe the rest of what happens in a couple of sentences. I won’t be doing so because first, that’s spoilers, and I don’t do spoilers; second, Outline is one of those novels where what happens doesn’t matter quite so much as how it all happens.
May 29, 2021
Understated Classics #38: Trance Nation (Various Artists)
I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been in need of some music that:
Blots out the outside world Helps me to concentrate on my work Makes me feel a bit less anxious about the state of the world Well, allow me to submit the compilation Trance Nation for your consideration as an understated classic.
But Matt I’ve heard trance music, I hear you say, and it’s one of the least understated forms of music possible.
May 17, 2021
Jab 1
I had my first Covid-19 vaccination on Friday. Leading up to it, I was borderline having a panic attack. From about lunchtime I was just all over the shop (the jab was at 7pm). I’m glad that the vaccination centres run with such exactitude, but also with a sense of cheeriness. By the time I’d had the jab, I was feeling much better just from the sheer relief of it.
February 26, 2021
Drawing a line on the page
Ingrid has joined an online drawing class. She sits there on Teams getting feedback on her drawings, while I sit there attempting to absorb everything. I’m also learning by doing, by making a line on the page. In some ways, it’s instructive to observe the difference in what we learn with and without the feedback.
We bought some drawing materials and nice notepads. But to be honest, I still haven’t made room in my day to draw regularly.
February 25, 2021
I was twenty one at the time…
“I was twenty-one at the time, about to turn twenty-two. No prospect of graduating soon, and yet no reason to quit school. Caught in the most curiously depressing circumstances. For months I’d been stuck, unable to take one step in any new direction. The world kept moving on; I alone was at a standstill. In the autumn, everything took a desolate cast, the colors swiftly fading before my eyes. The sunlight, the smell of the grass, the faintest patter of rain, everything got on my nerves.
January 5, 2021
Some Tips For Saving Time
A non-exhaustive list of ideas for saving time:
Delete your social media, and perhaps any other website or app that demands that you consume it rather than create with it. Another way to think of it: all these sites and apps transform your time in to one thing or another, what are the most valuable products of that time? In general, Facebook products are designed to transform your time into greater awareness of companies who would like you or your friends to buy their products.
January 4, 2021
The Forever Now
Writing this post came about from frustration with blogging. Specifically the tools I am using. Often it feels like a new language or paradigm comes along that shifts one or two of the pain points of blogging. The biggest are:
How long it takes to get a post on the internet once you’ve written it The reliability of the resulting website How good the resulting website looks Note that none of this really impacts the quality of the writing.
January 3, 2021
Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, This Is How You Lose the Time War
This Is How You Lose the Time War is a short novella about two members of opposing factions (Red and Blue) engaged in a ’time war’: that is they travel in time and attempt to erase each other’s existence. Except that one day Red decides to taunt Blue with a letter, and a correspondence emerges.
The book is entertaining by virtue of wit and brevity. However, the elements that are skipped over that end up being more interesting to reflect on later.
January 2, 2021
Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Last year I started to write a review of Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller”. I read it while we were in Germany for Christmas. We’d visited Bremen and also undergone the bizarreness of Christmas in another language - the same motifs played out in different words and different customs. I’d tried to write the review in a similar structure to the book but, in a testament to Calvino’s writing I couldn’t pull it off.
January 1, 2021
Richard Powers, Orfeo
“The mind may give up its desire to improve on creation and function as a faithful receiver of experience.” John Cage
After enjoying The Overstory, I wanted to read more of Richard Powers’ novels. Orfeo was also long listed for the Booker prize. Perhaps more of his novels would have been had the prize been opened to American authors earlier.
Orfeo is about Peter Els, a seventy year old composer who accidentally alerts Homeland Security to the existence of his home laboratory, in which he has been trying to recode the genetic material of a bacterium to include a piece of his music.
Tag: Kate Bush
August 25, 2021
If anything, make it weirder
Today I listened to ‘Cloudbusting’ by Kate Bush for the first time in a while. What a gloriously strange song it is. Best of all, it’s one of those songs that obscures what it is really about. It’s not a song about a change in the weather, but about Wilhelm Reich, the orgone accumulator, fluorescent yo-yos, and a son (rather than a sun) coming out.
‘Cloudbusting’ is from ‘Hounds of Love’, Kate’s ‘comeback’ album following the commercial failure of ‘The Dreaming’, an album I wrote about in my understated classics series.
August 15, 2012
Understated Classics #19: The Dreaming by Kate Bush
“I see the people working and see it working for them.” (Sat In Your Lap)
The Dreaming by Kate Bush is a strange 1982 album that many believed had destroyed her career. Two weeks before her first ever performance of “Running Up That Hill”, the NME had written an editorial asking whether she had burnt herself out completely. Obviously “Running Up That Hill” (recently used to great effect in the Olympic Closing Ceremony) and the parent album “The Hounds Of Love” that followed showed that she had plenty more up her sleeve.
November 20, 2011
Album Digest, November 2011
Just three albums this month as I’ve been listening to a lot of Brian Eno records ready for an upcoming understated classic. First up is 50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush, the second album that she has released this year. Back in May I wrote about Director’s Cut, which presented re-recorded and re-mastered versions of songs from her albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. This time around it is an album of brand new material, the first since Aerial in 2006.
May 31, 2011
Album Digest, May 2011
Four albums this month:
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Africa Hitech 93 Million Miles Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues TV On The Radio Nine Types of Light There is a pleasing red hue to all the covers this month. I had time to write four full reviews of the major albums I listened to. Like last month I have included a video at the foot of each review. Enjoy!
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Director’s Cut is not a new album from Kate Bush but a collection of re-visits to old songs, four from The Sensual World (1989) and seven from [The Red Shoes](http://en.
Tag: Strangeness
August 25, 2021
If anything, make it weirder
Today I listened to ‘Cloudbusting’ by Kate Bush for the first time in a while. What a gloriously strange song it is. Best of all, it’s one of those songs that obscures what it is really about. It’s not a song about a change in the weather, but about Wilhelm Reich, the orgone accumulator, fluorescent yo-yos, and a son (rather than a sun) coming out.
‘Cloudbusting’ is from ‘Hounds of Love’, Kate’s ‘comeback’ album following the commercial failure of ‘The Dreaming’, an album I wrote about in my understated classics series.
Tag: Vaccination
August 2, 2021
Jab 2
I was due to have my second vaccination today, but like most people I rebooked to have it a bit earlier. No real side effects this time, save for a bit of malaise. Though that may have just been the thought of opening up the country when cases are still increasing quickly.
It goes without saying that I’d urge everyone to get vaccinated and then to keep turning up for whatever boosters the people protecting us (e.
May 17, 2021
Jab 1
I had my first Covid-19 vaccination on Friday. Leading up to it, I was borderline having a panic attack. From about lunchtime I was just all over the shop (the jab was at 7pm). I’m glad that the vaccination centres run with such exactitude, but also with a sense of cheeriness. By the time I’d had the jab, I was feeling much better just from the sheer relief of it.
Tag: Experimental
July 31, 2021
Rachel Cusk, Outline
Outline is the first of a trilogy of novels by Rachel Cusk. In it, the narrator is travelling to Athens to help teach on a creative writing class. You could describe the rest of what happens in a couple of sentences. I won’t be doing so because first, that’s spoilers, and I don’t do spoilers; second, Outline is one of those novels where what happens doesn’t matter quite so much as how it all happens.
Tag: Literary novels
July 31, 2021
Rachel Cusk, Outline
Outline is the first of a trilogy of novels by Rachel Cusk. In it, the narrator is travelling to Athens to help teach on a creative writing class. You could describe the rest of what happens in a couple of sentences. I won’t be doing so because first, that’s spoilers, and I don’t do spoilers; second, Outline is one of those novels where what happens doesn’t matter quite so much as how it all happens.
Tag: Novels
July 31, 2021
Rachel Cusk, Outline
Outline is the first of a trilogy of novels by Rachel Cusk. In it, the narrator is travelling to Athens to help teach on a creative writing class. You could describe the rest of what happens in a couple of sentences. I won’t be doing so because first, that’s spoilers, and I don’t do spoilers; second, Outline is one of those novels where what happens doesn’t matter quite so much as how it all happens.
September 29, 2015
Ben Elton, Time and Time Again
Time and Time Again is a ridiculously stupid novel by Ben Elton. A shadowy sect (established by Isaac Newton no less!) recruits a soldier to go back in time and prevent Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo in August 1914. I wonder if it all goes to plan and everyone lives happily ever after with no weird timey-wimey after-effects?
Needless to say this novel makes me wish that time travel were a real thing so that I could travel back in time and slap myself in the face while in the queue to buy this tripe.
Tag: Rachel Cusk
July 31, 2021
Rachel Cusk, Outline
Outline is the first of a trilogy of novels by Rachel Cusk. In it, the narrator is travelling to Athens to help teach on a creative writing class. You could describe the rest of what happens in a couple of sentences. I won’t be doing so because first, that’s spoilers, and I don’t do spoilers; second, Outline is one of those novels where what happens doesn’t matter quite so much as how it all happens.
Tag: Short novels
July 31, 2021
Rachel Cusk, Outline
Outline is the first of a trilogy of novels by Rachel Cusk. In it, the narrator is travelling to Athens to help teach on a creative writing class. You could describe the rest of what happens in a couple of sentences. I won’t be doing so because first, that’s spoilers, and I don’t do spoilers; second, Outline is one of those novels where what happens doesn’t matter quite so much as how it all happens.
Tag: Creativity
February 26, 2021
Drawing a line on the page
Ingrid has joined an online drawing class. She sits there on Teams getting feedback on her drawings, while I sit there attempting to absorb everything. I’m also learning by doing, by making a line on the page. In some ways, it’s instructive to observe the difference in what we learn with and without the feedback.
We bought some drawing materials and nice notepads. But to be honest, I still haven’t made room in my day to draw regularly.
Tag: Drawing
February 26, 2021
Drawing a line on the page
Ingrid has joined an online drawing class. She sits there on Teams getting feedback on her drawings, while I sit there attempting to absorb everything. I’m also learning by doing, by making a line on the page. In some ways, it’s instructive to observe the difference in what we learn with and without the feedback.
We bought some drawing materials and nice notepads. But to be honest, I still haven’t made room in my day to draw regularly.
Tag: Make a draft
February 26, 2021
Drawing a line on the page
Ingrid has joined an online drawing class. She sits there on Teams getting feedback on her drawings, while I sit there attempting to absorb everything. I’m also learning by doing, by making a line on the page. In some ways, it’s instructive to observe the difference in what we learn with and without the feedback.
We bought some drawing materials and nice notepads. But to be honest, I still haven’t made room in my day to draw regularly.
Tag: Murakami
February 25, 2021
I was twenty one at the time…
“I was twenty-one at the time, about to turn twenty-two. No prospect of graduating soon, and yet no reason to quit school. Caught in the most curiously depressing circumstances. For months I’d been stuck, unable to take one step in any new direction. The world kept moving on; I alone was at a standstill. In the autumn, everything took a desolate cast, the colors swiftly fading before my eyes. The sunlight, the smell of the grass, the faintest patter of rain, everything got on my nerves.
Tag: Quote
February 25, 2021
I was twenty one at the time…
“I was twenty-one at the time, about to turn twenty-two. No prospect of graduating soon, and yet no reason to quit school. Caught in the most curiously depressing circumstances. For months I’d been stuck, unable to take one step in any new direction. The world kept moving on; I alone was at a standstill. In the autumn, everything took a desolate cast, the colors swiftly fading before my eyes. The sunlight, the smell of the grass, the faintest patter of rain, everything got on my nerves.
Tag: Notes
January 5, 2021
Some Tips For Saving Time
A non-exhaustive list of ideas for saving time:
Delete your social media, and perhaps any other website or app that demands that you consume it rather than create with it. Another way to think of it: all these sites and apps transform your time in to one thing or another, what are the most valuable products of that time? In general, Facebook products are designed to transform your time into greater awareness of companies who would like you or your friends to buy their products.
Tag: Resolutions
January 5, 2021
Some Tips For Saving Time
A non-exhaustive list of ideas for saving time:
Delete your social media, and perhaps any other website or app that demands that you consume it rather than create with it. Another way to think of it: all these sites and apps transform your time in to one thing or another, what are the most valuable products of that time? In general, Facebook products are designed to transform your time into greater awareness of companies who would like you or your friends to buy their products.
Tag: DIY
January 4, 2021
The Forever Now
Writing this post came about from frustration with blogging. Specifically the tools I am using. Often it feels like a new language or paradigm comes along that shifts one or two of the pain points of blogging. The biggest are:
How long it takes to get a post on the internet once you’ve written it The reliability of the resulting website How good the resulting website looks Note that none of this really impacts the quality of the writing.
Tag: Facebook
January 4, 2021
The Forever Now
Writing this post came about from frustration with blogging. Specifically the tools I am using. Often it feels like a new language or paradigm comes along that shifts one or two of the pain points of blogging. The biggest are:
How long it takes to get a post on the internet once you’ve written it The reliability of the resulting website How good the resulting website looks Note that none of this really impacts the quality of the writing.
Tag: Internet
January 4, 2021
The Forever Now
Writing this post came about from frustration with blogging. Specifically the tools I am using. Often it feels like a new language or paradigm comes along that shifts one or two of the pain points of blogging. The biggest are:
How long it takes to get a post on the internet once you’ve written it The reliability of the resulting website How good the resulting website looks Note that none of this really impacts the quality of the writing.
May 29, 2020
Living in the Pi Hole
Ingrid bought me a raspberry pi for my birthday. I’ve set it up to run the Pi-hole software. Pi-hole is a nifty bit of kit that intercepts your web requests and purges any that ask for material on known ad servers. Essentially it’s like having an ad blocker on your network rather than just your computer.
I’ve written before about why I hate web advertising, and since then it’s got even more malign.
June 18, 2015
Time Is Time and That Is That
A brief rant about Facebook: I hate the fact that the news feed defaults to “Top Stories” even though I change it back to “Most Recent” every time I log in. It’s a horrible pattern of user abuse that needs to stop. Time is time and that is that.
So why does Facebook feel the need to jiggle things about into a random order? Well most of you have that mobile phone app of theirs that sucks your battery and your data allowance like crazy (mainly by auto-playing videos like a dick).
October 24, 2014
Building Brains
This is a longer form post about artificial intelligence inspired by reading a little bit of “The Pale King” by David Foster Wallace and putting a picture of a “ghost” up on Instagram. This might be the last of these that I’m able to write for a while.
On Not Reading “The Pale King” “The Pale King” is the third and final novel by American author David Foster Wallace. He was working on it when he committed suicide in 2008.
April 15, 2014
Should I Drop Dropbox?
I am thinking about whether I want to use Dropbox to sync my files anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love Dropbox. It came along in beta in just 2008 just as I needed it to manage my PhD thesis. In fact I often jokingly claim to having invented it by asking on the MacRumors forums whether a program like it existed - just a few weeks before its beta rode in to my life like a knight in shining armour.
April 3, 2012
Net Loss
I pay to have this blog up and running. That is, I pay for the space where it is stored and I pay for the name. I have to look after all the files and plug-ins, I have to perform all the updates and optimise the database tables. All this is great fun but wouldn’t it be cheaper to slap the mattischro.me address onto a hosted WordPress.com account?
Well, yes it would.
January 24, 2011
In Defence Of Tolerance
I’ve found twitter to be a bit boring lately but today a perfect storm brew up and once again the Daily Mail and one of its odious columnists was at its centre. Melanie Phillips’ opinion piece was a perfectly constructed piece of trolling that implied that since the repeal of section 28, schools have been flooded with an influx of gay propaganda in subjects like maths, history and geography. Well I’m all for it, Alan Turing was a genius brutally mistreated by his country despite turning the second world war in favour of the allies - that story is maths and history is combined.
Tag: Amal El-Mohtar
January 3, 2021
Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, This Is How You Lose the Time War
This Is How You Lose the Time War is a short novella about two members of opposing factions (Red and Blue) engaged in a ’time war’: that is they travel in time and attempt to erase each other’s existence. Except that one day Red decides to taunt Blue with a letter, and a correspondence emerges.
The book is entertaining by virtue of wit and brevity. However, the elements that are skipped over that end up being more interesting to reflect on later.
Tag: Max Gladstone
January 3, 2021
Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, This Is How You Lose the Time War
This Is How You Lose the Time War is a short novella about two members of opposing factions (Red and Blue) engaged in a ’time war’: that is they travel in time and attempt to erase each other’s existence. Except that one day Red decides to taunt Blue with a letter, and a correspondence emerges.
The book is entertaining by virtue of wit and brevity. However, the elements that are skipped over that end up being more interesting to reflect on later.
Tag: Christmas
January 2, 2021
Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Last year I started to write a review of Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller”. I read it while we were in Germany for Christmas. We’d visited Bremen and also undergone the bizarreness of Christmas in another language - the same motifs played out in different words and different customs. I’d tried to write the review in a similar structure to the book but, in a testament to Calvino’s writing I couldn’t pull it off.
May 27, 2014
South America, Part 9
In a tour full of highlights, Christmas week of 2013 was nonetheless one of the greatest weeks of my life. I may have moaned, groaned, and got completely soaked, but it was worth it to see Machu Picchu in the sunshine.
“The Story So Far” Arriving in Quito Otovalo and Misahualli Banos Ingapirca and Cuenca Into Peru The Road to Lima The Nazca Lines Arequipa and Cusco The Sacred Valley On 22nd December, we set off from the hotel in Cusco for a trip along the Sacred Valley that lines the Urubamba river.
December 24, 2010
Tales From Home
A question of identity Three letters for Dad in the mail today, three variations on our surname including the aquatic Dory version and the lesser-spotted Dorny. It is perhaps best not to go back to the time he was accidentally listed in the Thompson directory as Mr. Dopey, bringing forth prank calls from all teenagers within a ten mile radius. Fortunately, Dr. Dorey doesn’t have this problem with his mail: he doesn’t get any.
Tag: Eighteen
January 2, 2021
Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Last year I started to write a review of Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller”. I read it while we were in Germany for Christmas. We’d visited Bremen and also undergone the bizarreness of Christmas in another language - the same motifs played out in different words and different customs. I’d tried to write the review in a similar structure to the book but, in a testament to Calvino’s writing I couldn’t pull it off.
November 21, 2018
Five years after
Five years ago I set out at 3am for Heathrow airport to catch the early morning flight to Madrid. There I connected with a flight to Quito in Ecuador. The previous days and weeks had been fraught with worry about whether I was doing the right thing. Did I get the right vaccinations? Would I have enough money? Would I cope with all that travel? Was I coming back? What was I going to do with all my stuff?
October 30, 2018
Richard Powers, The Overstory
“The Overstory” by Richard Powers piqued my interest among the novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize. And once again the book that interested me most did not win. One year I will succeed in my prediction!
I found “The Overstory” an enjoyable read. Its accessibility surprised me. Often people view Booker nominated novels as stuffy or over-intellectual. This novel however is a genuine page turner, full of emotion and heartbreak, not to mention plenty of science and awe of the natural world.
October 14, 2018
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
For our first anniversary we decided to exhange books. What better way to celebrate a paper anniversary? Ingrid bought me the entire Foundation saga, most of which were reissued in fancy new paperback designs by Mike Topping in 2016. All save for 1993’s Forward The Foundation that is, but Ingrid got me a copy anyway. Hence, here is a new series of blog posts!
The Foundation novels detail a galactic empire in decline.
September 17, 2018
J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy
“Hillbilly Elegy” is the autobiography of JD Vance, a self-professed hillbilly made good who graduated from Yale Law School. I read it because reviews touted it as illustrating the economic conditions leading to Brexit and the implausible election of Donald Trump. As I wrote in an earlier post, I’m keen to learn about why Brexit happened. However, I think this book fails to provide an explanation.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book.
June 10, 2018
Reboot
As much as I hate to write about writing, especially when I write so infrequently, I feel I need to reboot this blog. I wrote so few posts in recent months I considered giving up altogether.
I’ve been stressed. Sometimes this manifests in being unable to sleep. Sometimes it manifests in all my interests and ideas seeming to be completely pointless. Sometimes one of those precedes the other. Sometimes it works vice versa.
February 23, 2018
The Great Ocean Road
As a wedding present, Ingrid’s Mum Maria kindly took us for a trip along The Great Ocean Road, the longest war memorial in the world.
Stretching 151 miles from Torquay (not that one!) to Allansford, the road was deliberately built as a tourist attraction as a means of providing meaningful work for troops returning home from the First World War. Regarded as one of the world’s greatest scenic roads, it certainly holds it own against things like the roads I experienced in Chile and Bolivia when I travelled over the Andes.
February 21, 2018
More Melbourne
On our second full day in Australia we went shopping in central Melbourne, before Ingrid’s mum Maria picked us up ahead of our trip along the Great Ocean Road.
We took the metro into the city. I always love watching the fabric of cities knit itself together around train lines and Melbourne is no exception. Along the way, Ingrid had plenty of stories to tell about the various places she had lived.
February 20, 2018
Taking It Easy In Melbourne
On our first full day in Melbourne we took it easy. It was warm and sunny, so different to the weather we’d left behind!
Ingrid needed more time than me to sleep off her jet-lag. I sat in the sunshine and read the book I’d ignored on the plane. An easy read, it drew me into its characters. I’ll post a review later, perhaps after I have read the sequel.
February 19, 2018
A Day in the Air
It seemed to last forever but we made it. We left for Heathrow at 6AM and left London at around midday. I waved goodbye to home for nearly four weeks.
We stopped over in Dubai for an hour or so while the plane refuelled. We walked in circles trying to shake off the fatigue. I’d equalled one of my longest ever flights just getting to Dubai and now I was facing almost twice as much time again.
February 2, 2018
Any sugar?
Not being much of a drinker, I’ve never felt the need to do dry January. Also Ingrid and I sat in a restaurant in Barcelona on January 2nd drinking for the third night in row. We hadn’t got off to that great a start. Well today marks the completion of a dry month: dry January with a two day lag.
I also (mostly) managed to keep to my other goal of eliminating sugar from my tea and coffee.
February 1, 2018
A Diary?
This year promises to be exciting so this week I tried to buy a diary. One of those day-to-a-page affairs for scribbling down all the things I’ve seen and learned about. I thought they might be cheap now the calendar is turning to February. No such luck. There were a few week-to-view diaries going for half price in Waterstones but nothing suitable for my needs. I have lots of Field Notes notebooks if my urge to write gets too much to resist.
January 25, 2018
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Ingrid and I renewed our Cineworld passes as it is the season to go to the movies and check out the Oscar contenders. You nod along sagely while dreaming up superlatives to show how much you agree with the taste-makers. Or you can call such-and-such movie a pretentious load of crap.
With “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, it’s more the former. But I don’t have to say anything pretentious about the cinematography or its timeliness.
January 12, 2018
Spain, New Year 2017/18
For new year Ingrid and I met up with Ingrid’s friend Ros at Barcelona airport. We went from there to Cadaqués on the Costa Brava. A winding drive over steep hills leads you down to a cute bay with the typical white houses and terracotta roofs. All the window frames were painted just the right shade of blue.
View of Cadaqués from the church. View of Cadaqués from near to where we stayed.
Tag: Germany
January 2, 2021
Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Last year I started to write a review of Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller”. I read it while we were in Germany for Christmas. We’d visited Bremen and also undergone the bizarreness of Christmas in another language - the same motifs played out in different words and different customs. I’d tried to write the review in a similar structure to the book but, in a testament to Calvino’s writing I couldn’t pull it off.
Tag: Italo Calvino
January 2, 2021
Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Last year I started to write a review of Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller”. I read it while we were in Germany for Christmas. We’d visited Bremen and also undergone the bizarreness of Christmas in another language - the same motifs played out in different words and different customs. I’d tried to write the review in a similar structure to the book but, in a testament to Calvino’s writing I couldn’t pull it off.
Tag: Nineteen
January 2, 2021
Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Last year I started to write a review of Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller”. I read it while we were in Germany for Christmas. We’d visited Bremen and also undergone the bizarreness of Christmas in another language - the same motifs played out in different words and different customs. I’d tried to write the review in a similar structure to the book but, in a testament to Calvino’s writing I couldn’t pull it off.
August 26, 2019
Understated Classics #37: Lost Souls by Doves
Doves are a band from Manchester who traded dance music for rock yet never left their former genre behind. Starting out as Sub Sub, they scored a worldwide hit in 1993 with “Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)”: a timeless dance tune that immediately owns whatever room it plays in. However, subsequent releases by Sub Sub did not catch on and people started to think of the band as a one-hit wonder.
May 12, 2019
Civ Leaders #2: Alexander of Macedon
Alexander of Macedon is available in a base game DLC pack alongside Darius of Persia. He also has his own scenario “The Conquests of Alexander”, which is both fun to play and instructive in how to use the formidable benefits of his bonuses and unique units.
Civ ability Hellenistic Fusion When capturing a city, receive civic boosts for each holy site and theatre square, and tech boosts for each campus and encampment.
May 6, 2019
Civ Leaders #1: Hojo Tokimune of Japan
Civ ability Meiji Restoration Districts receive a +1 adjacency bonus for each adjacent district, instead of +0.5.
Leader bonus: Land units in Coastal tiles and naval units in Coast tiles receive +5 Combat Strength. +50% Production towards Encampment, Holy Site and Theatre Square districts. Units are immune to Hurricane damage. Civilisations at war with Japan receive +100% unit damage from hurricanes while in Japanese territory Unique unit The samurai, a high combat strength unit that does not lose combat strength when damage and gains an extra 10 combat strength against anti-cavalry units.
April 30, 2019
About the Album Digest
I haven’t written one of my monthly album digests for over a year. The reasons mostly boil down to a lack of time and motivation but other factors include the changing way in which I listen to music. I bought more albums on vinyl and only a small proportion of those were recently released music. Meanwhile, the attractions of Spotify’s release radar proved too great to resist: it is a very convenient way to consume new music.
April 28, 2019
Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation
I managed to read all of the foundation novels since I wrote about the first one. In this post, I’ll write about the next two, which covers the original trilogy of ‘novels’ created from the original short stories. I’ve tried to avoid spoilers.
Foundation and Empire Foundation and Empire comprises two novella length stories. The first story (“The General”) picks up from shortly after where the last of the five short stories in Foundation left off.
April 24, 2019
All the Civs
Ingrid and I love playing Civ VI. It’s a fine game that improves on previous versions, adding many layers and mechanics that mean you can vary your playing style. In fact, with the recent Gathering Storm expansion there’s now an incredible variety of ways to play. The 39 leaders to play with both reflect and provide the game’s increased complexity. Each leader has a slightly different mechanic that influences how you play the game, and of course the leaders you are up against also affect your game play.
April 23, 2019
Ambitions Revisited
Back in 2012 I wrote a post listing my ambitions for the future. Well it’s the future now isn’t it? Almost. After all, I’m a whole new person now. Anyway it’s probably time to take stock. Have I achieved any of them? Have any of my ambitions changed? What’s replaced the things that I’ve decided not to worry about? What has come after the things I managed to do?
First off, here’s my justification for writing the list in the original post:
April 22, 2019
Four Recipe Book Recommendations
The A-Z of Cooking by Felicity Cloake This book is for more luxurious and experimental recipes. There are 26 chapters, one for an ingredient beginning with each letter of the alphabet, but you probably guessed that already. Ingrid and I have been (very) slowly working our way through the chapters, making a couple of recipes from each one - we’re currently up to G for Garlic.
My favourite so far has been the bread dumplings in parmesan broth because it gives us a use for our many many parmesan rinds.
April 9, 2012
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon was written in 1956 and tells of the experiences of West Indian men moving to London for work. It has been described as the definitive novel about the experiences of the Windrush settlers. The narrative centres on a man named Moses who was one of the first to come to London and finds himself the first port of call for many subsequent immigrants:
It look to old Moses that he hardly have time to settle in the old Brit’n before all sorts of fellars start coming straight to his room in the Water when they land up in London from the West Indies, saying that so and so tell them that Moses is a good fellar to contact, that he would help them get place to stay and work to do.
Tag: Twenty
January 2, 2021
Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Last year I started to write a review of Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller”. I read it while we were in Germany for Christmas. We’d visited Bremen and also undergone the bizarreness of Christmas in another language - the same motifs played out in different words and different customs. I’d tried to write the review in a similar structure to the book but, in a testament to Calvino’s writing I couldn’t pull it off.
January 1, 2021
Richard Powers, Orfeo
“The mind may give up its desire to improve on creation and function as a faithful receiver of experience.” John Cage
After enjoying The Overstory, I wanted to read more of Richard Powers’ novels. Orfeo was also long listed for the Booker prize. Perhaps more of his novels would have been had the prize been opened to American authors earlier.
Orfeo is about Peter Els, a seventy year old composer who accidentally alerts Homeland Security to the existence of his home laboratory, in which he has been trying to recode the genetic material of a bacterium to include a piece of his music.
December 31, 2020
Album Digest 2020
I’ve listened to music in slightly different ways to normal in the last nine months, but it’s still been a decent year for music. When I checked out my Spotify Unwrapped and my Last.fm reports, I had listened to more 2020 music than I thought.
December Album of the month had to be “We Will Always Love You” by the Avalanches. One of only three albums that I bought physical copies of this year, it combines my favourite musical genres and has a novel take on the spacey-sounding album: like something beamed into space about how great humans are.
October 8, 2020
Old photographs
Recently I’ve had cause to dig out some old photos. If I’m honest it’s made me sad. Sadder than I was expecting. There’s a quote from Nan Goldin that once felt like a warning but now just sounds like a sad statement of ongoing affairs:
“I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost.”
July 7, 2020
Strategy one
I decided to create my own deck of creativity cards. I was sick of all the adverts for similar products on Instagram. You know the kind. They’re covered in pictures, patterns, and buzzwords. You shuffle the cards and draw them one at a time. As you place each card on the table, the brain’s natural desire to tell stories, create patterns and produce meaning takes over.
I made a deck without too much thought for form or consequence.
June 11, 2020
Am I caring for a naughty cat?
“He keeps biting me on the leg” says Ingrid one day as I mill around her desk during the new water cooler moment that is a comfort break on a Microsoft Teams call. I pat Martok, one of our cats, and he rubs up against me, pretending that he might nibble at me too.
I experience this regularly. It used to be at half five, then at five, and these days at half past four.
June 1, 2020
Sprucing up the Blog
This post explains some of the modifications I made to a minimal Jekyll theme to get this blog as I wanted it. This blog (currently) uses the excellent Sidey theme by Ronalds Vilciņš. His site looks eerily similar to this one, at least at time of writing.
The theme is pretty minimal in terms of features (and appearance) but it scores well on the Google Page Speed test. The features I added have increased the build time, but have not affected the speed of the site in terms of the page speed test.
May 31, 2020
Travel Writing After All This
While sprucing up this blog a bit during lockdown, I fell into reading my old posts about South America. I enjoyed it, mostly for the memories, but also because the current lockdown is warping my sense of time and space. Hours feel like weeks, but then I blink and a month’s gone by. I find myself traipsing similar orbits each day around the house, and then perhaps over to the supermarket or the park.
May 30, 2020
Holiday Tabs
Over the course of a week on holiday, I started reading many interesting articles. In lockdown there isn’t much to do but read articles, but I still find myself not that good at finishing them. My phone has lots of tabs open and has become a Rolodex of shame. This post is to confess my sins.
I’m trying to re-familiarise myself with Python. As with all modern software development, Python now seems atomised and hyper-complicated.
May 29, 2020
Living in the Pi Hole
Ingrid bought me a raspberry pi for my birthday. I’ve set it up to run the Pi-hole software. Pi-hole is a nifty bit of kit that intercepts your web requests and purges any that ask for material on known ad servers. Essentially it’s like having an ad blocker on your network rather than just your computer.
I’ve written before about why I hate web advertising, and since then it’s got even more malign.
May 28, 2020
George Saunders, Lincoln In The Bardo
I read this book on holiday in Belgium last year. Having forgotten to pack a novel I scoured almost every book in the Waterstones at St. Pancras station before settling on this Booker prize winning novel by George Saunders.
Lincoln in the Bardo fictionalises a period in Abraham Lincoln’s life immediately after the death of his son Willie. The story alternates between factual accounts of what happened at the time and the observations of ghosts in the graveyard where young Willie is buried.
May 27, 2020
Civ Leaders #3: Amanitore of Nubia
Amanitore of Nubia is available in a base game DLC. She also has her own scenario “The Gifts of the Nile”, which like most scenarios has unique tech and civic trees. You need to assert your dominance over the Nile by building seven temples. The scenario combines faith and military tactics in a satisfying way and you can also play it as Cleopatra for a different perspective.
Civ ability Ta-Seti +50% Production toward Ranged units.
May 26, 2020
Things to Remember
These are some things I jotted down one day last week, I’ll refine them a bit more later on. Think of it as an aide-memoire of things that work for me, your milage may vary.
Don’t worry about things that haven’t happened. Don’t turn whatever has happened and/or is bothering you into a catastrophe, especially if no one else is telling you that it is one. Seek out someone you trust and ask them “is this a catastrophe?
December 17, 2015
The Long Post
I am writing a long post that I will either publish as one long post (about five or six thousand words) or as about seven smaller ones each closer to the average post length of about eight hundred words. I have to get it out-of-the-way soon as my mind needs to focus on my health economics essay.
It is hard to write short posts to a timetable, let alone churn out long posts on a regular basis.
November 3, 2011
Contagion: A Short Review
There was much excitement about Contagion at work. Finally a movie that explains as part of the plot! A bunch of us went to see it, mainly to see whether a disaster movie about a global pandemic could hold up as entertainment and to have a bit of a giggle if it couldn’t.
I liked three things in particular about the film. I liked the cinematography, especially the opening sequences with the index cases staggering around.
Tag: Richard Powers
January 1, 2021
Richard Powers, Orfeo
“The mind may give up its desire to improve on creation and function as a faithful receiver of experience.” John Cage
After enjoying The Overstory, I wanted to read more of Richard Powers’ novels. Orfeo was also long listed for the Booker prize. Perhaps more of his novels would have been had the prize been opened to American authors earlier.
Orfeo is about Peter Els, a seventy year old composer who accidentally alerts Homeland Security to the existence of his home laboratory, in which he has been trying to recode the genetic material of a bacterium to include a piece of his music.
October 30, 2018
Richard Powers, The Overstory
“The Overstory” by Richard Powers piqued my interest among the novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize. And once again the book that interested me most did not win. One year I will succeed in my prediction!
I found “The Overstory” an enjoyable read. Its accessibility surprised me. Often people view Booker nominated novels as stuffy or over-intellectual. This novel however is a genuine page turner, full of emotion and heartbreak, not to mention plenty of science and awe of the natural world.
Tag: Family
October 8, 2020
Old photographs
Recently I’ve had cause to dig out some old photos. If I’m honest it’s made me sad. Sadder than I was expecting. There’s a quote from Nan Goldin that once felt like a warning but now just sounds like a sad statement of ongoing affairs:
“I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost.”
Tag: Photography
October 8, 2020
Old photographs
Recently I’ve had cause to dig out some old photos. If I’m honest it’s made me sad. Sadder than I was expecting. There’s a quote from Nan Goldin that once felt like a warning but now just sounds like a sad statement of ongoing affairs:
“I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost.”
Tag: Short Story
July 7, 2020
Strategy one
I decided to create my own deck of creativity cards. I was sick of all the adverts for similar products on Instagram. You know the kind. They’re covered in pictures, patterns, and buzzwords. You shuffle the cards and draw them one at a time. As you place each card on the table, the brain’s natural desire to tell stories, create patterns and produce meaning takes over.
I made a deck without too much thought for form or consequence.
February 15, 2015
On Jackson X
I set myself the task of writing about a fictional character for this blog post, so this post is about Jackson X. His surname isn’t really X, it’s just one of the details about him that I haven’t fleshed out yet. This is because Jackson X is the one of the protagonists of the novel I’m (not) writing.
The name of the novel is “The Summer of the Giant Space Whale”.
November 27, 2012
A Mountain Story
A cat reaches the top of a mountain after a long climb through the snow. He is cold from the bottom of his fur to the tips of his claws. He is sodden and wet, and we all know how much a cat hates to be wet.
At the top of the mountain there is not much to see. What may have been a breathtaking view is instead a murk of freezing mist and at any rate, snow assails the cat’s eyes and whiskers.
January 13, 2012
The Painter
Once upon a time there was a man who loved to paint. He studied the art and craft of painting for many years. He chose to invest his time and energy into creating the most realistic portraits that he could paint. For him the joy came not from completing the paintings but the process of recreating the real world with the strokes of his brush.
For many years he continued to study the art of painting.
Tag: Tarot
July 7, 2020
Strategy one
I decided to create my own deck of creativity cards. I was sick of all the adverts for similar products on Instagram. You know the kind. They’re covered in pictures, patterns, and buzzwords. You shuffle the cards and draw them one at a time. As you place each card on the table, the brain’s natural desire to tell stories, create patterns and produce meaning takes over.
I made a deck without too much thought for form or consequence.
Tag: Behaviour
June 11, 2020
Am I caring for a naughty cat?
“He keeps biting me on the leg” says Ingrid one day as I mill around her desk during the new water cooler moment that is a comfort break on a Microsoft Teams call. I pat Martok, one of our cats, and he rubs up against me, pretending that he might nibble at me too.
I experience this regularly. It used to be at half five, then at five, and these days at half past four.
Tag: Statistics
June 11, 2020
Am I caring for a naughty cat?
“He keeps biting me on the leg” says Ingrid one day as I mill around her desk during the new water cooler moment that is a comfort break on a Microsoft Teams call. I pat Martok, one of our cats, and he rubs up against me, pretending that he might nibble at me too.
I experience this regularly. It used to be at half five, then at five, and these days at half past four.
Tag: Liquid
June 1, 2020
Sprucing up the Blog
This post explains some of the modifications I made to a minimal Jekyll theme to get this blog as I wanted it. This blog (currently) uses the excellent Sidey theme by Ronalds Vilciņš. His site looks eerily similar to this one, at least at time of writing.
The theme is pretty minimal in terms of features (and appearance) but it scores well on the Google Page Speed test. The features I added have increased the build time, but have not affected the speed of the site in terms of the page speed test.
Tag: zsh
June 1, 2020
Sprucing up the Blog
This post explains some of the modifications I made to a minimal Jekyll theme to get this blog as I wanted it. This blog (currently) uses the excellent Sidey theme by Ronalds Vilciņš. His site looks eerily similar to this one, at least at time of writing.
The theme is pretty minimal in terms of features (and appearance) but it scores well on the Google Page Speed test. The features I added have increased the build time, but have not affected the speed of the site in terms of the page speed test.
Tag: Coronavirus
May 31, 2020
Travel Writing After All This
While sprucing up this blog a bit during lockdown, I fell into reading my old posts about South America. I enjoyed it, mostly for the memories, but also because the current lockdown is warping my sense of time and space. Hours feel like weeks, but then I blink and a month’s gone by. I find myself traipsing similar orbits each day around the house, and then perhaps over to the supermarket or the park.
Tag: Links
May 30, 2020
Holiday Tabs
Over the course of a week on holiday, I started reading many interesting articles. In lockdown there isn’t much to do but read articles, but I still find myself not that good at finishing them. My phone has lots of tabs open and has become a Rolodex of shame. This post is to confess my sins.
I’m trying to re-familiarise myself with Python. As with all modern software development, Python now seems atomised and hyper-complicated.
Tag: News
May 30, 2020
Holiday Tabs
Over the course of a week on holiday, I started reading many interesting articles. In lockdown there isn’t much to do but read articles, but I still find myself not that good at finishing them. My phone has lots of tabs open and has become a Rolodex of shame. This post is to confess my sins.
I’m trying to re-familiarise myself with Python. As with all modern software development, Python now seems atomised and hyper-complicated.
November 3, 2017
Suits Me
In recent weeks I have worn a suit to work. I bought a new furry woolly suit a few weeks ago and have alternated between it and my old one. I also bought new shoes that gave me blisters and made me cry. Enough time has passed that by now it feels natural rather than silly and those shoes don’t eat my feet as much as they used to.
I think I feel calmer before I go to work as a result of wearing the suit.
June 25, 2016
In the space between this and that
Britain voted to leave the EU this week. It made for an angry and confused Friday morning. I posted snippy comments on Facebook at a rate of about one every fifteen minutes. I also knew that there was nothing I could do. Even when you feel like Charlton Heston at the end of "Planet of the Apes", you have to suck it up and accept that sometimes things don't go as you like.
May 25, 2015
Jim's Conservatory
Let’s assume that Jim has just had a sudden unexpected expenditure: a neighbour released a bull into his back garden and it destroyed his conservatory. Let’s assume that the conservatory is essential to Jim’s wellbeing, so it has to be fixed immediately. As a result Jim’s debts, which were previously small and well-managed, have now increased somewhat.
Obviously Jim can’t keep that debt hanging over him forever. What does he do?
May 9, 2015
Like a Rhino Voting for Poaching
There’s a reason I cannot and will not vote Conservative, and like most people’s apparent motive for voting tory it is also a selfish one. As someone employed in the public sector, working to ensure the greater good, I’m a member of an increasingly endangered species.
Ah Matthew, I hear you say, you’re trotting out the old “the turkeys have voted for Christmas” line. Well no, like I said, this is purely selfish.
February 4, 2015
On Voting
We hear a lot about our rights but these are given to us in return for fulfilling our responsibilities. One of these is engagement in the democratic process, and in particular voting. You should register to vote, that’s a no brainer. You should take an interest in what politics means for you locally, nationally, and internationally. On the day you to get to the polling station and cast your vote. Then you need to hold you representative accountable afterwards, even if he or she isn’t the person you voted for.
July 25, 2011
The News
“I read the news today, oh boy” (The Beatles, A Day In The Life.)
Sometimes watching the news feels like a series of repeated blows to the face: arbitrary, cruel and unrelenting. It gets draining and upsetting, and leaves you fearful of what might come next.
You won’t need me to tell you about the tragedies that have occurred all over the world in the last few days: drought in East Africa, the gunman running amok in Norway, the death of Amy Winehouse and the horrific train crash in China.
January 24, 2011
In Defence Of Tolerance
I’ve found twitter to be a bit boring lately but today a perfect storm brew up and once again the Daily Mail and one of its odious columnists was at its centre. Melanie Phillips’ opinion piece was a perfectly constructed piece of trolling that implied that since the repeal of section 28, schools have been flooded with an influx of gay propaganda in subjects like maths, history and geography. Well I’m all for it, Alan Turing was a genius brutally mistreated by his country despite turning the second world war in favour of the allies - that story is maths and history is combined.
Tag: Ads
May 29, 2020
Living in the Pi Hole
Ingrid bought me a raspberry pi for my birthday. I’ve set it up to run the Pi-hole software. Pi-hole is a nifty bit of kit that intercepts your web requests and purges any that ask for material on known ad servers. Essentially it’s like having an ad blocker on your network rather than just your computer.
I’ve written before about why I hate web advertising, and since then it’s got even more malign.
Tag: Economics
May 29, 2020
Living in the Pi Hole
Ingrid bought me a raspberry pi for my birthday. I’ve set it up to run the Pi-hole software. Pi-hole is a nifty bit of kit that intercepts your web requests and purges any that ask for material on known ad servers. Essentially it’s like having an ad blocker on your network rather than just your computer.
I’ve written before about why I hate web advertising, and since then it’s got even more malign.
May 25, 2015
Jim's Conservatory
Let’s assume that Jim has just had a sudden unexpected expenditure: a neighbour released a bull into his back garden and it destroyed his conservatory. Let’s assume that the conservatory is essential to Jim’s wellbeing, so it has to be fixed immediately. As a result Jim’s debts, which were previously small and well-managed, have now increased somewhat.
Obviously Jim can’t keep that debt hanging over him forever. What does he do?
March 11, 2015
You Can’t Just Switch Off Free
Ministry of Sound boss Lohan Presencer does the cry baby act in today’s Guardian, complaining that Spotify’s freemium model doesn’t allow him to bathe in a Scrooge McDuck style swimming pool of golden coins any more. The cat is out of the bag for streaming music now, and no matter how much music companies cry foul they can’t stop Spotify and their ilk, and there wouldn’t be pots of gold waiting for them even if they could.
April 3, 2012
Net Loss
I pay to have this blog up and running. That is, I pay for the space where it is stored and I pay for the name. I have to look after all the files and plug-ins, I have to perform all the updates and optimise the database tables. All this is great fun but wouldn’t it be cheaper to slap the mattischro.me address onto a hosted WordPress.com account?
Well, yes it would.
Tag: Booker Prize
May 28, 2020
George Saunders, Lincoln In The Bardo
I read this book on holiday in Belgium last year. Having forgotten to pack a novel I scoured almost every book in the Waterstones at St. Pancras station before settling on this Booker prize winning novel by George Saunders.
Lincoln in the Bardo fictionalises a period in Abraham Lincoln’s life immediately after the death of his son Willie. The story alternates between factual accounts of what happened at the time and the observations of ghosts in the graveyard where young Willie is buried.
November 20, 2015
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy: Review
As much as I wanted it to, Satin Island by Tom McCarthy did not win the Booker Prize. Having read it all I realise it was a long shot. However it is an interesting book that deserved consideration, even if it does have some flaws.
Normally I promise that there will be no spoilers. Not this time. There are some spoilers here. Because it took me so long to work out what I thought Satin Island was actually about, I want to use this post to explore those ideas.
October 12, 2015
My Booker Prize Pick 2015
“Satin Island” is my pick for the Man Booker prize, announced tomorrow. I’ve not managed to read all of it yet. Also, I’ve only glanced at the others on the shortlist.
My prediction record on selecting the winner of the Booker from the shortlist is pretty good, though all I’m ever doing is guess the outcome of a 1 in 6 chance, like the roll of a die. Often it’s a book that I really hope will win rather than one I know will (except “Wolf Hall” and its sequel).
Tag: George Saunders
May 28, 2020
George Saunders, Lincoln In The Bardo
I read this book on holiday in Belgium last year. Having forgotten to pack a novel I scoured almost every book in the Waterstones at St. Pancras station before settling on this Booker prize winning novel by George Saunders.
Lincoln in the Bardo fictionalises a period in Abraham Lincoln’s life immediately after the death of his son Willie. The story alternates between factual accounts of what happened at the time and the observations of ghosts in the graveyard where young Willie is buried.
Tag: Depression
May 26, 2020
Things to Remember
These are some things I jotted down one day last week, I’ll refine them a bit more later on. Think of it as an aide-memoire of things that work for me, your milage may vary.
Don’t worry about things that haven’t happened. Don’t turn whatever has happened and/or is bothering you into a catastrophe, especially if no one else is telling you that it is one. Seek out someone you trust and ask them “is this a catastrophe?
September 8, 2016
I Don't Have a Clue, part 43
A little man wearing a bow tie, and possibly a fez, scurries into the middle of the frame clutching a clapboard. Breathing heavily he hoists the clapboard up to chest height. He holds the clapper up then brings down while slurring "This is a blog post about not having a clue, take 43". He exits to the right of the frame.
My feet are hot. The bed seems too small. Why are my feet always too hot on nights like these?
December 1, 2010
The Setback
Since the run there has been a bit of a hiatus in this blog. I wrote about how running was making me feel better. In fact, I should have said more. I recently stopped taking the antidepressants that I had been taking for eighteen months. This has been my longest period taking such medication but the running made me feel sufficiently good to decide that I could stop taking them.
Tag: Self Improvement
May 26, 2020
Things to Remember
These are some things I jotted down one day last week, I’ll refine them a bit more later on. Think of it as an aide-memoire of things that work for me, your milage may vary.
Don’t worry about things that haven’t happened. Don’t turn whatever has happened and/or is bothering you into a catastrophe, especially if no one else is telling you that it is one. Seek out someone you trust and ask them “is this a catastrophe?
February 2, 2018
Any sugar?
Not being much of a drinker, I’ve never felt the need to do dry January. Also Ingrid and I sat in a restaurant in Barcelona on January 2nd drinking for the third night in row. We hadn’t got off to that great a start. Well today marks the completion of a dry month: dry January with a two day lag.
I also (mostly) managed to keep to my other goal of eliminating sugar from my tea and coffee.
July 19, 2015
First Light, Last Light
I often ponder whether the joys of waking up early are greater than those of staying up late. Empirical evidence seems to bear this out: all those people who get to work before you do, super-eager to get everything done. But then all the people walking under your windows late at night, drunk and laughing, they sound like they’re having a whale of a time too.
I oscillate between the two extremes, though I tend to sleep better if I stay up late.
February 20, 2015
On Writing As It Happens
I’m pretty close to a round number. To date I have written 298,500 words for this blog, not counting posts that I have discarded or deleted. This will be the 505th post currently on the blog, which makes for an average of just under 600 words per post. Some posts are just a picture or a video or a gallery though, so that distorts the average a bit.
I don’t think I can write the 1500 words I need to hit 300,000 in this post.
November 14, 2014
October and November 2014
I recently started a new job and moved in to a new flat. This means I’m too busy to write any long blog posts at the moment. Also I’m still not quite at home there, so I tend to spend my evenings tidying up or setting up new things. It’s a shame because I have plenty of things to write about (even without observations on moving, starting a new job, etc) but I guess the writing will happen eventually…
December 19, 2013
Grumble Grumble
I’m a bit behind in my posts about the trip and this post interrupts the sequence of events somewhat, just because I’ve not felt that well and that has dominated my thoughts about what to write. Basically for a week or two I’ve had varying degrees of bellyache and it’s not been fun. Instead of feeling the gratitude and excitement I’ve felt since being here, I’ve spent a lot of time wanting to curl up in the corner and just be… well… somewhere else.
October 16, 2013
The Reset Button
Previously on… I planned this post as a follow-up to one called The Truth About Work from a couple of months ago, but a few things happened that changed my thinking. It has implications for my future and in particular, it redefines what this break from work and upcoming trip means to me.
One of the punchlines to “The Truth About Work” was that, sometimes, the only way to move ahead is to quit.
November 10, 2012
Ambitions
Sometimes, when I am feeling a bit down, I like to write down some of my ambitions. As you can see from this list they are mostly pretty humble but they are also a bit cheesy and embarassing, so I have put them after the fold!
Be wholehearted, cheerful, and sincere Be creative Look at the world and see its many faces, hear its many voices Explore new recipes as often as possible when I cook Learn to like the taste of tomatoes and cucumbers Be more at ease around people Listen to people and hear what they say Play my part Look after someone special Become a parent Share my values with others, help those who need it Break up all the negative things inside me Know what other people want, help them get it When I wake up each morning I would like to remember my dreams Understand art more than I do Lose my fear of creepy crawlies Learn to drive Learn to write left handed (why not?
June 25, 2012
Helen Fisher, Some Lessons In Love
As indicated by my reading list posted a couple of months ago (which has since been added to here), I’ve started to try to read more about the things that I felt that I did not understand so well. Most notably perhaps is this book “on love” by Helen Fisher. Lest there is any innuendo it is not a book about technique nor does it attempt to explain love to those who have never known it, instead it assumes that we have all been there.
January 5, 2012
Dreams Of A Life: A Short Review
Dreams Of A Life is a documentary about Joyce Vincent, a woman who was found in her flat three years after her death surrounded by wrapped christmas presents and with the TV still on. £2400 in arrears on her rent, she was discovered by bailiffs who forced the door down. The film attempts to work out happened to Joyce by interviewing people who knew her. In two other strands that unfold in parallel, various events from her life are re-enacted along with the clearing of her flat by forensics officers.
July 19, 2011
A Beta Test Of Everything
Reading a few articles about the recent launch of Google+, a few things hit home. Google tends to launch a product that works and not always one that is perfect or finished (like, say, Apple). Sometimes it takes them several iterations to get right. They love the beta tag. In fact, I think it was Google (or possibly Flickr) that made me aware of the concept of beta software.
Along these line I thought about this blog and its one year anniversary.
April 5, 2011
Five Things To Try When You Can't Sleep
Facebook is wonderful for keeping in touch but I’ve noticed that quite a few of my friends tend to use it to tell the world that they can’t sleep. Here’s some advice for you if you find yourself unable to sleep one night. I’ve often had to try these out myself! Note that these are just things that work for me and your mileage may vary, particularly if you are fortunate enough to have a partner next to you!
December 1, 2010
The Setback
Since the run there has been a bit of a hiatus in this blog. I wrote about how running was making me feel better. In fact, I should have said more. I recently stopped taking the antidepressants that I had been taking for eighteen months. This has been my longest period taking such medication but the running made me feel sufficiently good to decide that I could stop taking them.
November 14, 2010
Movember 10K
So, Saturday. Finally. The big day. Would I a) be able to get to Greenwich in time for the registration? and b) be able to make it all the way around the course without collapsing and crying?
Happily the answer to both questions was a resounding “Yes!” and I really enjoyed it. The weather was really good, especially compared to the two days before hand, and Marc came along to take some brilliant photos.
Tag: Doves
August 26, 2019
Understated Classics #37: Lost Souls by Doves
Doves are a band from Manchester who traded dance music for rock yet never left their former genre behind. Starting out as Sub Sub, they scored a worldwide hit in 1993 with “Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)”: a timeless dance tune that immediately owns whatever room it plays in. However, subsequent releases by Sub Sub did not catch on and people started to think of the band as a one-hit wonder.
Tag: Isaac Asimov
April 28, 2019
Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation
I managed to read all of the foundation novels since I wrote about the first one. In this post, I’ll write about the next two, which covers the original trilogy of ‘novels’ created from the original short stories. I’ve tried to avoid spoilers.
Foundation and Empire Foundation and Empire comprises two novella length stories. The first story (“The General”) picks up from shortly after where the last of the five short stories in Foundation left off.
October 14, 2018
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
For our first anniversary we decided to exhange books. What better way to celebrate a paper anniversary? Ingrid bought me the entire Foundation saga, most of which were reissued in fancy new paperback designs by Mike Topping in 2016. All save for 1993’s Forward The Foundation that is, but Ingrid got me a copy anyway. Hence, here is a new series of blog posts!
The Foundation novels detail a galactic empire in decline.
Tag: Reading Projects
April 28, 2019
Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation
I managed to read all of the foundation novels since I wrote about the first one. In this post, I’ll write about the next two, which covers the original trilogy of ‘novels’ created from the original short stories. I’ve tried to avoid spoilers.
Foundation and Empire Foundation and Empire comprises two novella length stories. The first story (“The General”) picks up from shortly after where the last of the five short stories in Foundation left off.
October 14, 2018
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
For our first anniversary we decided to exhange books. What better way to celebrate a paper anniversary? Ingrid bought me the entire Foundation saga, most of which were reissued in fancy new paperback designs by Mike Topping in 2016. All save for 1993’s Forward The Foundation that is, but Ingrid got me a copy anyway. Hence, here is a new series of blog posts!
The Foundation novels detail a galactic empire in decline.
October 3, 2017
J. G. Ballard, Hello America
I had low expectations for “Hello America”, the next in the series of Ballard novels that I started reading over seven years ago. However, it turned out to be a hoot. A couple of years ago, this novel would have been a wig-out bit of standard Ballard weirdness (a bit like “The Drowned World” or “The Crystal World”) but given recent events “Hello America” is starting to take on an eerie prescience.
July 14, 2016
J. G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company
I last wrote about a JG Ballard novel nearly three years ago. That one - “High-Rise” - has since been made into a film. The subject of this post is “The Unlimited Dream Company”, my favourite among his novels: a silly romp through suburban sexual repression that glitters with sinister wit. Even after many read-throughs I still can’t work out whether it is a crazy masterpiece or something light that we’re meant to throw away after reading.
October 5, 2013
J. G. Ballard, High-Rise
After a few false starts I managed to finish “High-Rise”, the next in my collection of JG Ballard novels. For a book that I had trouble getting into, it turned out to be a pretty good read - even if it was also a pretty unpleasant one. Published in 1975, “High-Rise” is perhaps ahead of its time in exploring the effects of social breakdown in stylised and artificial situations where people are in close contact.
February 9, 2012
Never Mind The Ballards
Ages ago I set out to write a post for each of JG Ballard’s novels. In fact it is the oldest post on this blog. Most of the novels (I don’t have the two autobiographical novels Empire Of The Sun or The Kindness Of Women and the late period novel Milennium People) are sat in a row on top of my broken bookshelf, part of the weight there that bowed outer frame of the unit and made the inner shelves collapse.
June 21, 2011
J. G. Ballard, Concrete Island
No man is an island (not any more) You are tracked pretty much everywhere you go. CCTV, the GPS on your phone or the signals sent by your more primitive model to the masts to keep in touch with the network. Your cash withdrawals, your purchases in Tesco and your journeys on public transport all add to the picture of where you are. If you drive, your sat nav will hold clues to where you have been and, if you disappear, where you might have gone to.
March 18, 2011
More Books
Never mind the Ballards I have been writing about books by J.G. Ballard pretty much to the exclusion of all others. Gradually the posts have tricked out about four novels and ground to a halt. I’ve got a fair way through two other books but I am getting very tired of reading his novels all the time, much as I love them. The mistake I made was that I hadn’t read enough of them in the first place.
February 1, 2011
J. G. Ballard, Crash
Form and function, deformation and dysfunction I think we should get one thing out of the way first. For me, there is nothing erotic about a car or a motorway. The place in popular culture of the car in particular as sexual icon has always bemused me. In fact, I’m really rather ambivalent about cars. This matters when discussing Crash, the 1973 novel by JG Ballard that resumes this strand of posts about his novels.
September 26, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Crystal World
Crystallising the world, the body, or the mind? At last, Ballard in full flow. The Crystal World (TCW) is definitely the most enjoyable of the early trio of apocalyptic novels. It takes the successful elements of the first two and embellishes them with new details and ideas. At time of writing, TCW is definitely the best Ballard novel that I have read in its entirety.
The book begins with a steamer travelling up a river in Cameroon carrying the novel’s main protagonist Edward Sanders, a doctor at a hospital for lepers.
September 8, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Drought
The world created by nature versus the world constructed by humans On to The Drought by J. G. Ballard in my ongoing quest to read and review all of his novels. This is his second novel, if we assume his convention of never acknowledging “The Wind From Nowhere” as being his first novel. “The Drought” itself was renamed from “The Burning World” and additional content added later on. This was quite common practice in SF in the 50s and 60s where novels were serialised in magazines like Amazing SF and Interzone.
August 14, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Drowned World
Does Science Fiction have to be believable to be meaningful? Should science fiction have predictive power? In plotting the vast unknowns of the future, should authors aim for prescience? Will people be able to say of the best SF novels in five hundred years time that some novels were right about some things and that these novels are better than the ones that didn’t?
I would say no, otherwise we would be remarkably unfair on an awful lot of good writing.
August 2, 2010
J. G. Ballard
Reading “Crash” at 17 left me in a state of numb shock. It got me hooked and left me with J. G. Ballard as one of my favourite authors. I then devoured a short story collection called “Myths of the Near Future” around the same time. You may recognise it because the Klaxons appropriated the title for their debut album. Those stories captured my imagination, in particular the eponymous story of a world gone to run amid “space sickness”.
Tag: Update
April 23, 2019
Ambitions Revisited
Back in 2012 I wrote a post listing my ambitions for the future. Well it’s the future now isn’t it? Almost. After all, I’m a whole new person now. Anyway it’s probably time to take stock. Have I achieved any of them? Have any of my ambitions changed? What’s replaced the things that I’ve decided not to worry about? What has come after the things I managed to do?
First off, here’s my justification for writing the list in the original post:
February 9, 2012
Never Mind The Ballards
Ages ago I set out to write a post for each of JG Ballard’s novels. In fact it is the oldest post on this blog. Most of the novels (I don’t have the two autobiographical novels Empire Of The Sun or The Kindness Of Women and the late period novel Milennium People) are sat in a row on top of my broken bookshelf, part of the weight there that bowed outer frame of the unit and made the inner shelves collapse.
Tag: Recipe
April 22, 2019
Four Recipe Book Recommendations
The A-Z of Cooking by Felicity Cloake This book is for more luxurious and experimental recipes. There are 26 chapters, one for an ingredient beginning with each letter of the alphabet, but you probably guessed that already. Ingrid and I have been (very) slowly working our way through the chapters, making a couple of recipes from each one - we’re currently up to G for Garlic.
My favourite so far has been the bread dumplings in parmesan broth because it gives us a use for our many many parmesan rinds.
December 26, 2017
Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew
Here’s a recipe to use up your turkey leftovers after Christmas.
You will need a slow cooker or an oven-proof cooking dish.
Ingredients About four portions of cold turkey, torn into bite-sized pieces 1 sweet potato, chopped into small slivers 1 carrot, chopped into small slivers 1 onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic, diced 2 tsp mixed herbs 2 tsp smoked paprika 20g butter 50g diced chorizo 1 chicken stock cube mixed in about 700ml water (see method) Method Melt the butter and fry the onions on a medium heat until golden.
November 5, 2017
Beetroot Bolognaise
We cook this version of bolognaise with beetroot due to Ingrid’s tomato allergy. This recipe is an attempt to capture what we do on the fly. The key to it is using the wine, the Worcestershire sauce and the herbs to even out the sweetness of the beetroot. If you can manage that, it’s super tasty. The sauce usually ends up being an unusual but pleasing pink/purple colour, as you will see from the pictures.
October 21, 2013
The Only Chocolate Cake Recipe You’ll Ever Need
As I mentioned in a previous post, I baked a chocolate cake the other day and it was a great success. Here is the recipe, which is a trivial modification of one that appears in Nigel Slater’s “Real Food” (Amazon links: UK, US). “Real Food” is a cookbook that I genuinely treasure. The modification I have made for this recipe is to omit the espresso but I will point out where it should be added, in case you want to give that a try.
Tag: Ecuador
November 21, 2018
Five years after
Five years ago I set out at 3am for Heathrow airport to catch the early morning flight to Madrid. There I connected with a flight to Quito in Ecuador. The previous days and weeks had been fraught with worry about whether I was doing the right thing. Did I get the right vaccinations? Would I have enough money? Would I cope with all that travel? Was I coming back? What was I going to do with all my stuff?
December 31, 2013
South America, Part 5
After Cuenca we set off for the Peruvian border. One of the great advantages of having a UK passport in South America is that you don’t need any visas. If you’re Australian or Canadian it’s a different story. Nevertheless we all got over the border with very little trouble (the third ever land border crossing of my life) apart from the bits where they seem to make you wait in a queue just for the sake of making you wait in a queue.
December 28, 2013
South America, Part 4
After Baños, we set off for Cuenca, which is a town in the south of Ecuador. Being a long drive, the journey was broken up with our first excursion to some inca ruins, a large complex at Ingapirca with a sun temple. It was built on an earlier site that dated back to about the 9th century and the Inca then conquered the area and built on top of it, as they tended to while their empire was expanding out from Peru to the south in the 11th and 12th centuries.
December 21, 2013
South America, Part 3
We left Misahualli for Baños via an hour in nearby Tena to get something for the truck fixed. After that the drive to Banos was pretty short - or at least it seemed that way as I alternated between dozing off, snapping the scenery and… well… dozing off some more. We arrived at a campsite about twenty minutes taxi ride from Banos and this was it, the thing I’d feared most about this trip: the camping.
December 2, 2013
South America, Part 2
Otavalo Sunday (24th November) was our first day of travel and involved a four hour trip to Otavalo, a town to the north of Quito that is famous for its market… on Saturdays. The journey got us better acquainted with travel on our truck Magaly and we encountered a few of the little hiccups that are a natural part of travelling this way: power lines crashing down on to the highway, driver of your truck asking a policeman to take a photo of your truck snagged under the wires, wrong turns, and - funniest of all - getting a whole block’s worth of concerned locals to watch as your truck tries to turn a corner.
November 29, 2013
South America, Part 1
By the time this goes up, I will be at least a week in to my South American tour. I flew out to Ecuador last Thursday (the 21st) and ended up being awake for more than twenty four hours. My flight left London early and I had a three hour stopover in Madrid, then a twelve hour flight onward to Quito. My bag didn’t leave Madrid though, so we were separated for about twenty four nerve-racking hours.
Tag: South America
November 21, 2018
Five years after
Five years ago I set out at 3am for Heathrow airport to catch the early morning flight to Madrid. There I connected with a flight to Quito in Ecuador. The previous days and weeks had been fraught with worry about whether I was doing the right thing. Did I get the right vaccinations? Would I have enough money? Would I cope with all that travel? Was I coming back? What was I going to do with all my stuff?
July 19, 2016
South America, Part 12
Uyuni to Tupiza We left Uyuni the night after the big storm, having stopped just a day or so to visit the salt flats. Our next stop was a strategic stay in Tupiza, a large town encircled with red hills. It resembled many towns that I visited in South America: low buildings arranged in a grid pattern. Not much greenery and plenty of dust billowing about. The reason for our stay was strategic, it’s only a short distance to the notoriously fussy border between Bolivia and Argentina.
September 14, 2015
South America, Part 11
La Paz to Potosi We left La Paz, this time ascending the rim of steep hills around the city in a slightly less clunky “Death Bus”. Perhaps it was because we were travelling uphill or because it was daylight, but it didn’t seem so bad.
We set off to Potosi through strange towns with weird monuments (see the pictures) and Oruro where great festivals happen around Ash Wednesday each year that are famous throughout the continent.
December 30, 2014
On convictions, whereas to the strength of and belief in same
Overlong reflection upon the past is one sure way to make yourself unhappy so I try to avoid it. Nevertheless it becomes unavoidable at this time of year, especially if, like me, you are somewhat prone to reflection.
At this time last year I was, as detailed in the most recent report of my South American adventure, in La Paz, Bolivia. I think I felt as lost then as I do now, though back then I had the novelty of new places and good friends to steer me through.
August 18, 2014
South America, Part 10
Picking up where I left off at Machu Picchu, we headed down into Aguas Calientes (trans. “hot waters”) by coach and by the time we got there it was torrenting down with rain. So much for exploration. We waited out the downpour in a pizza place and deliberated over whether to buy souvenier snaps from the tour guides. Ironically for a town named after hot waters, it was bitterly cold. One of those places where the sound of running water follows you wherever you go, the best thing about it was the huge trains that ran down the middle of street - big clanking hulks pulling huge passenger trains.
May 27, 2014
South America, Part 9
In a tour full of highlights, Christmas week of 2013 was nonetheless one of the greatest weeks of my life. I may have moaned, groaned, and got completely soaked, but it was worth it to see Machu Picchu in the sunshine.
“The Story So Far” Arriving in Quito Otovalo and Misahualli Banos Ingapirca and Cuenca Into Peru The Road to Lima The Nazca Lines Arequipa and Cusco The Sacred Valley On 22nd December, we set off from the hotel in Cusco for a trip along the Sacred Valley that lines the Urubamba river.
February 10, 2014
South America, Part 8
Arequipa and Cusco – the two cities that are the subject of this post – are probably the two cities in Peru that are most amenable to travellers (though Lima certainly has a lot to offer too). For me they should have been punctuated with a trip to Colca canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world and twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, I got really sick on the second day in Arequipa as my attempts at keeping my tummy bug at bay finally failed.
February 7, 2014
South America, Part 7
Next up was a piecemeal section of the trip that took in a varied set of sights and helped us get to know the new passengers who joined in Lima. On the first day we took a boat trip out to the Ballestas Islands, a nature reserve that is informally known as “the poor man’s galapagos”. Living there are penguins, sea birds, sea lions and seals. The speed boat out was a little wet and wild (and in fact the return trip was even wetter and wilder) so we all got soaked (twice) but the microclimate around the islands themselves was calm and warm, and we all got good value out of our cameras (if they still worked that is).
January 12, 2014
South America, Part 6
From Punta Sal we took a long driving down to Huanchaco, via a stop off at the Lord of Saipan museum. The lord of Saipan is a Moche mummy found dressed in all manner of gold and surrounded by artefacts and other sacrifices (including other humans and decapitated llamas). The tour took a while to get going (our guide was late) but the exhibition was so amazing (the pieces were painstakingly restored in Germany) that it was hugely enjoyable.
December 31, 2013
South America, Part 5
After Cuenca we set off for the Peruvian border. One of the great advantages of having a UK passport in South America is that you don’t need any visas. If you’re Australian or Canadian it’s a different story. Nevertheless we all got over the border with very little trouble (the third ever land border crossing of my life) apart from the bits where they seem to make you wait in a queue just for the sake of making you wait in a queue.
December 28, 2013
South America, Part 4
After Baños, we set off for Cuenca, which is a town in the south of Ecuador. Being a long drive, the journey was broken up with our first excursion to some inca ruins, a large complex at Ingapirca with a sun temple. It was built on an earlier site that dated back to about the 9th century and the Inca then conquered the area and built on top of it, as they tended to while their empire was expanding out from Peru to the south in the 11th and 12th centuries.
December 21, 2013
South America, Part 3
We left Misahualli for Baños via an hour in nearby Tena to get something for the truck fixed. After that the drive to Banos was pretty short - or at least it seemed that way as I alternated between dozing off, snapping the scenery and… well… dozing off some more. We arrived at a campsite about twenty minutes taxi ride from Banos and this was it, the thing I’d feared most about this trip: the camping.
December 19, 2013
Grumble Grumble
I’m a bit behind in my posts about the trip and this post interrupts the sequence of events somewhat, just because I’ve not felt that well and that has dominated my thoughts about what to write. Basically for a week or two I’ve had varying degrees of bellyache and it’s not been fun. Instead of feeling the gratitude and excitement I’ve felt since being here, I’ve spent a lot of time wanting to curl up in the corner and just be… well… somewhere else.
December 2, 2013
South America, Part 2
Otavalo Sunday (24th November) was our first day of travel and involved a four hour trip to Otavalo, a town to the north of Quito that is famous for its market… on Saturdays. The journey got us better acquainted with travel on our truck Magaly and we encountered a few of the little hiccups that are a natural part of travelling this way: power lines crashing down on to the highway, driver of your truck asking a policeman to take a photo of your truck snagged under the wires, wrong turns, and - funniest of all - getting a whole block’s worth of concerned locals to watch as your truck tries to turn a corner.
November 29, 2013
South America, Part 1
By the time this goes up, I will be at least a week in to my South American tour. I flew out to Ecuador last Thursday (the 21st) and ended up being awake for more than twenty four hours. My flight left London early and I had a three hour stopover in Madrid, then a twelve hour flight onward to Quito. My bag didn’t leave Madrid though, so we were separated for about twenty four nerve-racking hours.
Tag: Thirteen
November 21, 2018
Five years after
Five years ago I set out at 3am for Heathrow airport to catch the early morning flight to Madrid. There I connected with a flight to Quito in Ecuador. The previous days and weeks had been fraught with worry about whether I was doing the right thing. Did I get the right vaccinations? Would I have enough money? Would I cope with all that travel? Was I coming back? What was I going to do with all my stuff?
August 18, 2014
South America, Part 10
Picking up where I left off at Machu Picchu, we headed down into Aguas Calientes (trans. “hot waters”) by coach and by the time we got there it was torrenting down with rain. So much for exploration. We waited out the downpour in a pizza place and deliberated over whether to buy souvenier snaps from the tour guides. Ironically for a town named after hot waters, it was bitterly cold. One of those places where the sound of running water follows you wherever you go, the best thing about it was the huge trains that ran down the middle of street - big clanking hulks pulling huge passenger trains.
May 27, 2014
South America, Part 9
In a tour full of highlights, Christmas week of 2013 was nonetheless one of the greatest weeks of my life. I may have moaned, groaned, and got completely soaked, but it was worth it to see Machu Picchu in the sunshine.
“The Story So Far” Arriving in Quito Otovalo and Misahualli Banos Ingapirca and Cuenca Into Peru The Road to Lima The Nazca Lines Arequipa and Cusco The Sacred Valley On 22nd December, we set off from the hotel in Cusco for a trip along the Sacred Valley that lines the Urubamba river.
February 10, 2014
South America, Part 8
Arequipa and Cusco – the two cities that are the subject of this post – are probably the two cities in Peru that are most amenable to travellers (though Lima certainly has a lot to offer too). For me they should have been punctuated with a trip to Colca canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world and twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, I got really sick on the second day in Arequipa as my attempts at keeping my tummy bug at bay finally failed.
February 7, 2014
South America, Part 7
Next up was a piecemeal section of the trip that took in a varied set of sights and helped us get to know the new passengers who joined in Lima. On the first day we took a boat trip out to the Ballestas Islands, a nature reserve that is informally known as “the poor man’s galapagos”. Living there are penguins, sea birds, sea lions and seals. The speed boat out was a little wet and wild (and in fact the return trip was even wetter and wilder) so we all got soaked (twice) but the microclimate around the islands themselves was calm and warm, and we all got good value out of our cameras (if they still worked that is).
January 12, 2014
South America, Part 6
From Punta Sal we took a long driving down to Huanchaco, via a stop off at the Lord of Saipan museum. The lord of Saipan is a Moche mummy found dressed in all manner of gold and surrounded by artefacts and other sacrifices (including other humans and decapitated llamas). The tour took a while to get going (our guide was late) but the exhibition was so amazing (the pieces were painstakingly restored in Germany) that it was hugely enjoyable.
December 31, 2013
South America, Part 5
After Cuenca we set off for the Peruvian border. One of the great advantages of having a UK passport in South America is that you don’t need any visas. If you’re Australian or Canadian it’s a different story. Nevertheless we all got over the border with very little trouble (the third ever land border crossing of my life) apart from the bits where they seem to make you wait in a queue just for the sake of making you wait in a queue.
December 28, 2013
South America, Part 4
After Baños, we set off for Cuenca, which is a town in the south of Ecuador. Being a long drive, the journey was broken up with our first excursion to some inca ruins, a large complex at Ingapirca with a sun temple. It was built on an earlier site that dated back to about the 9th century and the Inca then conquered the area and built on top of it, as they tended to while their empire was expanding out from Peru to the south in the 11th and 12th centuries.
December 21, 2013
South America, Part 3
We left Misahualli for Baños via an hour in nearby Tena to get something for the truck fixed. After that the drive to Banos was pretty short - or at least it seemed that way as I alternated between dozing off, snapping the scenery and… well… dozing off some more. We arrived at a campsite about twenty minutes taxi ride from Banos and this was it, the thing I’d feared most about this trip: the camping.
December 19, 2013
Grumble Grumble
I’m a bit behind in my posts about the trip and this post interrupts the sequence of events somewhat, just because I’ve not felt that well and that has dominated my thoughts about what to write. Basically for a week or two I’ve had varying degrees of bellyache and it’s not been fun. Instead of feeling the gratitude and excitement I’ve felt since being here, I’ve spent a lot of time wanting to curl up in the corner and just be… well… somewhere else.
December 2, 2013
South America, Part 2
Otavalo Sunday (24th November) was our first day of travel and involved a four hour trip to Otavalo, a town to the north of Quito that is famous for its market… on Saturdays. The journey got us better acquainted with travel on our truck Magaly and we encountered a few of the little hiccups that are a natural part of travelling this way: power lines crashing down on to the highway, driver of your truck asking a policeman to take a photo of your truck snagged under the wires, wrong turns, and - funniest of all - getting a whole block’s worth of concerned locals to watch as your truck tries to turn a corner.
November 29, 2013
South America, Part 1
By the time this goes up, I will be at least a week in to my South American tour. I flew out to Ecuador last Thursday (the 21st) and ended up being awake for more than twenty four hours. My flight left London early and I had a three hour stopover in Madrid, then a twelve hour flight onward to Quito. My bag didn’t leave Madrid though, so we were separated for about twenty four nerve-racking hours.
October 31, 2013
Album Digest, October 2013
Four great albums this month for the last album digest in a while.
CHVRCHES “The Bones Of What You Believe” I first got into CHVRCHES on Record Store Day, one of my purchases was an Irn Bru coloured 12" of the Recover EP that, according to eBay, tripled in value over night. Judging by this, their full debut, my see-through orange slab of happiness may hold its value, because it’s clear that CHVRCHES should be around for the long haul.
October 21, 2013
The Only Chocolate Cake Recipe You’ll Ever Need
As I mentioned in a previous post, I baked a chocolate cake the other day and it was a great success. Here is the recipe, which is a trivial modification of one that appears in Nigel Slater’s “Real Food” (Amazon links: UK, US). “Real Food” is a cookbook that I genuinely treasure. The modification I have made for this recipe is to omit the espresso but I will point out where it should be added, in case you want to give that a try.
October 18, 2013
LS Lowry At Tate Britain
I have mixed feelings about this show. On the one hand, I like that there are depictions of working class Britain on display and I feel that it is right that these paintings are considered part of the British cultural canon. I also like that a lot of these paintings represent large gatherings of people, which are absent from a lot of what we might call the mainstream of art.
October 16, 2013
The Reset Button
Previously on… I planned this post as a follow-up to one called The Truth About Work from a couple of months ago, but a few things happened that changed my thinking. It has implications for my future and in particular, it redefines what this break from work and upcoming trip means to me.
One of the punchlines to “The Truth About Work” was that, sometimes, the only way to move ahead is to quit.
October 12, 2013
Art Under Attack at Tate Britain
Today I went with a friend to see Tate Britain’s “Art Under Attack” show. It’s an interesting, if uneven, affair that entertains but doesn’t quite succeed in everything it attempts to do. The big word that you learn is iconoclasm: the act of attacking an object believed to represent particular beliefs. The show splits into two parts: ideological acts of iconoclasm committed against works of art in Britain and the work of British artists who embrace iconoclasm as a means for making art.
October 5, 2013
J. G. Ballard, High-Rise
After a few false starts I managed to finish “High-Rise”, the next in my collection of JG Ballard novels. For a book that I had trouble getting into, it turned out to be a pretty good read - even if it was also a pretty unpleasant one. Published in 1975, “High-Rise” is perhaps ahead of its time in exploring the effects of social breakdown in stylised and artificial situations where people are in close contact.
September 30, 2013
Album Digest, September 2013
A nice diverse selection of albums this month:
Arctic Monkeys “AM” BT “A Song Across Wires” Goldfrapp “Tales of Us” Janelle Monáe “Electric Lady” Arctic Monkeys “AM” This whole review is basically me catching up with the rest of the world and realising that the Arctic Monkeys are ace. To be fair, I did notice how awesome they were at the opening ceremony of the Olympics last year, and I have liked the odd one or two of their singles, but up until now I haven’t really wanted to listen to any of their albums.
September 14, 2013
Understated Classics #25: Long Gone Before Daylight by The Cardigans
The single biggest fact of life is that you are always going to be alone, you just might not realise it. Listening to The Cardigans’ excellent 2003 “Long Gone Before Daylight” will help you see that all our relationships are essentially screwed – but at least it sounds great while it does so.
“Long Gone Before Daylight” (“Long Gone Before Daylight”) plays the role of “The Empire Strikes Back” in a trilogy of great albums that The Cardigans released between 1999 (the arguably better and slightly happier “Gran Turismo”) and 2006 (the unarguably inferior and definitely happier “Super Extra Gravity”).
September 13, 2013
Ellen Gallagher at Tate Modern
Ellen Gallagher is an American artist and her “AxME” show recently finished at the Tate Modern. I went along a few weeks ago and have only now had a bit of time to write up my thoughts.
My biggest regret is that I didn’t go along to it sooner, so that I had a chance to see it more than once. It was certainly a larger show than I was expecting (it was about the size of the Ibrahim El-salahi and Saloua Choucair shows put together) and I hadn’t left myself with a lot of time to see everything when I did go.
August 31, 2013
Album Digest, August 2013
For reasons that will become apparent, there will be a short period soon where I will not be writing album digests. Until then, I’m clearing a backlog of some albums that I’ve been listening to but haven’t had enough time or motivation to write about. Only one of this month’s albums was released this month, something that’s not that uncommon at this time of the year as it is not the best time to release things.
August 14, 2013
The Truth About Work
Motivation and Lies Motivation is a fickle thing. You can see it in action here on this blog, or rather in inaction as there are often “droughts” between posts (and draughts between drafts…). Back in June I tried to write a post each day that had a title of the form “X and Y”. I was overambitious and they petered out after a bit. This was one of those posts and was originally titled “Motivation and Lies” in melodramatic fashion.
August 13, 2013
Posters
In 2005, towards the end of the second year of my PhD I presented a poster at a conference in Dresden, Germany. My eccentric colleagues and I stayed on a huge canal boat moored on the Elbe for no discernible reason other than it seemed like a laugh at the time. In reality I was the second worst snorer of the three of us and it also turned out that our room was right underneath the gang-plank and every morning at six the person who made breakfast would stomp across it.
August 12, 2013
Despicable Me 2: A Short Review
It’s so good that I paid to see it twice! There, that’s the review done.
Despicable Me 2 is great for so many reasons. I reckon pretty much anyone aged from 3 to 103 would enjoy both movies’ warm heartedness and most will love the minions’ riot of anarchic slapstick. And if they don’t, I guess they aren’t our kind of people anyway, right?
Here are a few good reasons for loving “Despicable Me 2” (and actually most of these reasons apply to the original “Despicable Me”):
July 31, 2013
Album Digest, July 2013
Another four albums for you this month. Sometimes the problem is not finding albums to listen to but actually finding time to listen to them! Often it is not because I don’t have time but because I have already found some great albums this month and I am busy listening to those instead. As a result, a couple of these albums are ones that I have only listened to for a week or so, but they are interesting enough to write about.
July 30, 2013
Neil Gaiman, The Ocean At The End Of The Lane
“The Ocean At The End Of The Lane” is the new novel by Neil Gaiman. I was so intrigued by it that I bought the hardcover, which is unusual for me because I prefer paperbacks. I’d been excited by reading the first chapter online at the Guardian website and from reading a blog post about the novel written by the author’s wife Amanda Palmer. I’d not read any of his novels before but they had long been on that “to read” list that is typically as long as your arm.
July 29, 2013
Ideas for TV shows: Great Mathematicians
I want to see a TV show about great mathematicians of the past on a channel like BBC Four. Programmes about mathematics tend to be rather condescending, at least to anyone who has a bit of mathematical knowledge. Perhaps a way around this is to delve into the social and historical circumstances of the great mathematicians and how that along with their personality produced the mathematical results for which they are famous.
July 24, 2013
Ibrahim El-Salahi At Tate Modern
Ibrahim El-Salahi is a modernist artist from Sudan. I believe this exhibition is a first for an African artist at the Tate Modern. Much like the Choucair show (which is still on everyone!), it’s an engaging but too short introduction to an interesting artist that you have probably never heard of.
The pieces are roughly divided between large blank and white ink drawings that are mounted on multiple panels and oil paintings in earthy colours that depict abstract scenes.
July 23, 2013
Don Delillo, Point Omega
There were no mornings or afternoons. It was one seamless day, every day, until the sun began to arc and fade, mountains emerging from their silhouettes. This is when we sat and watched in silence.
Today I finished reading “Point Omega” by Don Delillo. I have wanted to read one of his novels for a while and though this is a slip of a novella, I certainly enjoyed it. I accidentally came across it when I looked at the wikpedia page for Pierre Teilhard de Chardin last week as part of research for another post that I am writing.
July 5, 2013
Michael Frayn, Skios
This week I read “Skios” by Michael Frayn (who was born in Mill Hill). It’s another book from now customary pile of books that tends to develop around this time of year. “Hawksmoor” and “The Marriage Plot” were on the same ever-increasing pile. “Skios” is something of a change from what I normally read: it’s a comedic farce about stolen identities set on the (fictional) titular Greek island. Amusingly, the wikipedia page for the novel currently reads “Praise for Skios was entirely misplaced”, probably thanks to some curmudgeon who doesn’t like the novel.
June 30, 2013
Album Digest, June 2013
Just two albums this month as I am still enjoying last month’s albums so much (and I spent loads of time getting reacquainted with Boards Of Canada at the start of the month). I listened to a few more albums but not often enough to write loads about them so there is an “honourable mention” section at the end of the post that briefly discusses a few more albums.
Without further ado, the two albums are:
June 26, 2013
Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
Peter Ackroyd’s “Hawksmoor” was first published in 1985. I bought a recent reissue that forms part of Penguin’s decades collection whilst on a spree in Waterstone’s. It appealed to me as I recently realised that despite growing up in the eighties and nineties, I had read very novels that were either written or set in the eighties. Happily “Hawksmoor” is both of these, sort of. It also appealed to me because it is (again, sort of) a detective story and I’ve found myself getting into those lately.
June 24, 2013
Understated Classics #24: Reservoir by Fanfarlo
I have written a lot in these posts about how music gets indelibly tied up with places, events and feelings. For me this album by Fanfarlo is tied up with all three of these. It makes me happy and sad at the same time in memory of great times that are now gone but are fondly remembered. I am aware that this is the youngest album on the list so far and so it might be a bit early to endow classic status upon it, but “Reservoir” is a fine album and to my ears it stands up really well.
June 22, 2013
Man of Steel: A Short Review
Today I went to see the new Superman reboot Man of Steel with friends. I really enjoyed it, particularly the more reflective take on the superhero myth. Starting out with the fate of the planet Krypton, Man of Steel approximately fuses the events of both the first two original Superman movies. We get to see Superman’s arrival and childhood on earth and then the arrival of Zod, a maniac bent on replacing the earth and everyone on it with a new race of Kryptonians.
May 31, 2013
Album Digest, May 2013
Lilacs & Champagne Danish & Blue You might remember that last year I reviewed the first Lilacs & Champagne album and I liked it a lot. This album sees them back with more of the same: taking the approach that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There are very few changes to the formula apart from the fact that the spoken word samples are not quite as good this time and there’s a bit more Grails-like guitar solo action.
May 29, 2013
George Bellows At RA
Today I went to see “George Bellows 1882-1925 Modern American Life” at the Royal Academy of Arts. It’s the first time I’ve been to the RA but I was emboldened by my art pass and the fact that Bellows was a contemporary of Edward Hopper, a painter whom I admire greatly. This is the first major retrospective of Bellows’ work in the UK and taking in his wonderful paintings this afternoon, I felt a little embarrassed that I hadn’t seen anything of his before.
May 25, 2013
Choucair At Tate Modern
Yesterday I went to see the Saloua Raouda Choucair show at the Tate Modern. As it was quite small, I went to see the Lichtenstein show again as well.
Choucair is an underrated Lebanese artist and many of the paintings and sculptures shown were created in the fifties and sixties. Her sculptures in particular are amazing.
The first room is lined with paintings that were nearly all gouache on paper, about 40cm by 30cm.
May 23, 2013
Understated Classics #23: Gorgeous by 808 State
It was quite hard to choose an 808 State album for the understated classics series for two reasons. The first is that I was introduced to 808 State quite late through a friend’s sister’s cassette copy of The Shamen’s En-Tact (the original version recorded from vinyl that had a thirteen minute version of “Evil Is Eden”) that also had – to fill out the C90 – the full length sweary version of “What Time Is Love?
May 21, 2013
Lichtenstein At Tate Modern
This was a show that I had put off going to see for quite a while now. Looking online at the pictures featured in the show did not really excite me enough to get out and see it. I’d seen Whaam! before in isolation (it’s part of the Tate collection and will no doubt return once the retrospective show is over) and it didn’t really grab me, arresting as it is.
May 20, 2013
Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot
“The Marriage Plot” by Jeffrey Eugenides is a novel about love and growing up set in the privileged world of US academia in the early eighties. The main plot concerns a love triangle involving two guys and a girl. Madeline Hanna, the girl at the apex of the love triangle, is the main focus of the novel and the majority of the novel is told from her standpoint. I think her sections are incredibly well written but I’d love the thoughts of a female reader, in case it is actually all a horribly male way of seeing through a young woman’s eyes.
May 17, 2013
Star Trek: Into Darkness - A Short Review
I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness last night in 3D at the IMAX in Waterloo. I am going to have to separate this into a review into two parts, a review of the film and a review of the viewing experience. I am not completely happy with how the film experience is changed by the 3D and the super big screen and I will try to explain what I mean.
April 30, 2013
Album Digest, April 2013
Some great albums this month!
The Flaming Lips The Terror Wire Change Becomes Us James Blake Overgrown The Knife Shaking The Habitual The Flaming Lips The Terror How you view The Terror pretty much depends on how much you have kept up with The Flips output since their last official album, the clanking double behemoth in Merkin packaging that was Embryonic. The irony being that I used Embryonic to deal with a break-up and The Terror is pretty much about… a break-up.
April 11, 2013
Why I Love On The Road
I was fifteen when I first read “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac and recently, after twice as much lifetime lived, I was able to watch the film version directed by Walter Salles.
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.
March 31, 2013
Album Digest, March 2013
Just the David Bowie album this month as it’s pretty much the only new music that I’ve listened to.
I must admit that I had no idea what to expect of “The Next Day”. It comes almost exactly ten years after “Reality”, an album that I have never really got into despite it having some pretty decent fun tracks like “New Killer Star” and a nice cover of “Pablo Picasso” that has never sent me in search of Jonathan Richman’s original.
March 18, 2013
Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas
A while back, I decided I was going to write about the Iain M. Banks sci-fi-novels (mainly as a respite from having to read and write about J. G. Ballard novels, but I only got as fas as writing about the excellent “Against A Dark Barkground” and re-reading the first of the Culture novels “Consider Phlebas”. WARNING: Some plot spoilers follow (but not too many).
I’m not sure why it has taken almost two years to write about this novel.
March 13, 2013
Understated Classics #22: Walking With Thee by Clinic
“Walking With Thee” is the second album by Liverpool band Clinic. It was released in 2002, which seems like an age ago now. Even longer ago they released the single “The Return of Evil Bill”, which was got me interested in them in the first place.
I recently got back into “Walking With Thee” when I picked “Vulture” in my A-Z of Animals playlist last month. I’d forgotten just how great a song it is, both musically and lyrically.
March 5, 2013
A Work Of Art At The End Of My Road?
I have had a lot of ideas for posts swirling around in my head in recent days. This is because I have actually done quite a lot of cool things in that time, and because I have hung out with some great people who make me think, and because I always have a whole load of things bouncing around in there anyway - space junk of the mind. I was thinking about how to put together these thoughts I have been having about art and about stories and yes, about love too.
February 28, 2013
Album Digest, February 2013
Most Februaries are quite quiet when it comes to albums (though this was not the case back in 2011) and although only the Foals album is a major release, I was quite surprised to find myself with four decent albums to write about. They are:
Darkstar “News From Nowhere” Foals “Holy Fire” Daniel Hope “Spheres” Apparat “Krieg und Frieden (Music For Theatre)” Darkstar “News From Nowhere” I don’t need to give too much biographical background for the Darkstar album as I don’t know too much about who the are.
February 26, 2013
On Pynchon
The existence, or impending existence, of a new novel by Thomas Pynchon was announced today. I have all his previous books (seven written over a period of about fifty years, a pace that I definitely approve of), though he’s a hard author to get close to: I’ve only finished three and started four up till now. The unfinished one is, of course, Gravity’s Rainbow (GR) and somewhat perversely, I have two copies of the thing.
February 11, 2013
A Jigsaw
The other weekend, beset by insomnia, I decided to follow my own advice and get up to do something instead of wallowing unable to sleep. I pulled my emergency jigsaw out of the cupboard and set to it. I should stress that I mean a jigsaw puzzle and not an actually jigsaw: DIY at 2am is not such a good idea!
I’d forgotten how interesting jigsaw puzzles actually are. As I sat there contemplating the 1000 pieces and wondered exactly what I’d let myself in for, I found myself thinking about a number of things.
January 31, 2013
Album Digest, January 2013
Only one of this month three albums was actually released this month. Nelly Furtado’s Mi plan was actually released over three years ago - I only discovered it last year when I wrote the September album digest following the release of “The Spirit Indestructible”, or it might have been when I wrote about “Folklore” at around the same time.
Anyway, I guess these are albums that I bought with my Christmas gift vouchers!
Tag: J. D. Vance
September 17, 2018
J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy
“Hillbilly Elegy” is the autobiography of JD Vance, a self-professed hillbilly made good who graduated from Yale Law School. I read it because reviews touted it as illustrating the economic conditions leading to Brexit and the implausible election of Donald Trump. As I wrote in an earlier post, I’m keen to learn about why Brexit happened. However, I think this book fails to provide an explanation.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book.
Tag: Australia
February 23, 2018
The Great Ocean Road
As a wedding present, Ingrid’s Mum Maria kindly took us for a trip along The Great Ocean Road, the longest war memorial in the world.
Stretching 151 miles from Torquay (not that one!) to Allansford, the road was deliberately built as a tourist attraction as a means of providing meaningful work for troops returning home from the First World War. Regarded as one of the world’s greatest scenic roads, it certainly holds it own against things like the roads I experienced in Chile and Bolivia when I travelled over the Andes.
February 21, 2018
More Melbourne
On our second full day in Australia we went shopping in central Melbourne, before Ingrid’s mum Maria picked us up ahead of our trip along the Great Ocean Road.
We took the metro into the city. I always love watching the fabric of cities knit itself together around train lines and Melbourne is no exception. Along the way, Ingrid had plenty of stories to tell about the various places she had lived.
February 20, 2018
Taking It Easy In Melbourne
On our first full day in Melbourne we took it easy. It was warm and sunny, so different to the weather we’d left behind!
Ingrid needed more time than me to sleep off her jet-lag. I sat in the sunshine and read the book I’d ignored on the plane. An easy read, it drew me into its characters. I’ll post a review later, perhaps after I have read the sequel.
February 19, 2018
A Day in the Air
It seemed to last forever but we made it. We left for Heathrow at 6AM and left London at around midday. I waved goodbye to home for nearly four weeks.
We stopped over in Dubai for an hour or so while the plane refuelled. We walked in circles trying to shake off the fatigue. I’d equalled one of my longest ever flights just getting to Dubai and now I was facing almost twice as much time again.
Tag: Photos
February 23, 2018
The Great Ocean Road
As a wedding present, Ingrid’s Mum Maria kindly took us for a trip along The Great Ocean Road, the longest war memorial in the world.
Stretching 151 miles from Torquay (not that one!) to Allansford, the road was deliberately built as a tourist attraction as a means of providing meaningful work for troops returning home from the First World War. Regarded as one of the world’s greatest scenic roads, it certainly holds it own against things like the roads I experienced in Chile and Bolivia when I travelled over the Andes.
February 21, 2018
More Melbourne
On our second full day in Australia we went shopping in central Melbourne, before Ingrid’s mum Maria picked us up ahead of our trip along the Great Ocean Road.
We took the metro into the city. I always love watching the fabric of cities knit itself together around train lines and Melbourne is no exception. Along the way, Ingrid had plenty of stories to tell about the various places she had lived.
January 12, 2018
Spain, New Year 2017/18
For new year Ingrid and I met up with Ingrid’s friend Ros at Barcelona airport. We went from there to Cadaqués on the Costa Brava. A winding drive over steep hills leads you down to a cute bay with the typical white houses and terracotta roofs. All the window frames were painted just the right shade of blue.
View of Cadaqués from the church. View of Cadaqués from near to where we stayed.
December 17, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 3: Flu∂ir to Vík.
We left Gulfoss and drove through the countryside to Fluðir where our next hotel stay would be. The hotel had cute little cabins arranged around a central square and the room itself was comfy and warm. Our dinner was nice enough, although we had a bit of a Fawlty Towers moment with Ingrid’s chicken salad. First it went back because they didn’t leave the BBQ sauce off. Then it came back with tomatoes.
October 15, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 2: Reykjavík to Flu∂ir.
After a day on foot in Reykjavík, and with some trepidation, we returned to the car for our drive through Iceland’s countryside. We started by heading out on route 1, which is like Iceland’s M25 except that it encircles an entire country and about thirty times fewer people. We went to house of Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness, only to be turned away because it was being renovated and wouldn’t open for another month.
October 4, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 1: Reykjavík.
We arrived in Reykjavík a few days after a monumental snowstorm. As such the city was still under at least six inches of snow. We collected the hire car from the airport and drove out of Keflavik. The scenery normally looks like a moonscape, but for us it was a frosty white wonderland.
After about an hour’s drive, we arrived at the Hotel Nattura. From the outside it looks like a huge secondary school but as soon as you step inside it’s warm and comfortable.
October 1, 2017
The same, but different
Ingrid and I got married a month ago. It was a lovely day. We had a simple ceremony with two witnesses, our friends Sue and Andrew. We kept it quiet and small, as we just wanted to be married without too much fuss. A month on, we’re happy to report that we are glad we did it.
We’d like to thank everyone who nonetheless sent cards and gifts, and to all of those who wished us well on Facebook.
September 28, 2017
A little trip to Italy
We bought a cheap package holiday in the British Airways Black Friday sale. The weekend spanned Ingrid’s birthday, so it was ideal. £99 each for flights and a hotel, and we bagged a hire car quite cheaply too.
Because our flight was from Heathrow and the trains from Chichester are both expensive and inconvenient for early flights, we spoiled ourselves with a taxi to the airport. It felt very strange to be whisked through the Sussex and Surrey countryside at six am on a Friday morning!
October 8, 2016
Mira Schendel at Tate Modern
Mira Schendel was a Brazilian artist who was active throughout the middle to late twentieth century. She is considered to be one of South America’s best artists. Known mostly for her abstract paintings, she also experimented with sculptures and installations. Many of her works use text and semiotics to explore and define possible meanings for more abstract works.
I saw this exhibition during its run in the Tate Modern in the Autumn of 2013.
July 19, 2016
South America, Part 12
Uyuni to Tupiza We left Uyuni the night after the big storm, having stopped just a day or so to visit the salt flats. Our next stop was a strategic stay in Tupiza, a large town encircled with red hills. It resembled many towns that I visited in South America: low buildings arranged in a grid pattern. Not much greenery and plenty of dust billowing about. The reason for our stay was strategic, it’s only a short distance to the notoriously fussy border between Bolivia and Argentina.
June 14, 2016
Swaptastic Part 1
Envelopes containing swaps that have arrived in the post in recent days. It is nice to get letters from all over the country, even if they do just contain a selection of panini stickers. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have used the sticker swapping website to share my swaps with people all over the UK. I have sent swaps off to London, Bristol, Cornwall, Lancashire, Wales, and Gloucester.
May 23, 2016
Werner Bischof: Point of View and Helvetica
2016 marks the centenary of the birth of Werner Bischof, the talented Magnum photojournalist who died in Peru in 1954, aged 38. He travelled widely, making the most of an incredible talent for photography. After the second world war, this led him all over Europe to document its aftermath. As the cold war began, Bischof found himself documenting events further afield.
We saw two exhibitions of his photography at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne.
April 11, 2016
Lausanne, Switzerland, March 2016
Just before Easter Ingrid and I went to Lausanne in Switzerland for a few days. It was a much-needed break and my first trip out of the UK since I got back from South America.
We caught an early train to Gatwick. It took a strange route along the coast via Worthing and Hove, which was annoying because we could have left later if a more direct train were available at that time of day.
September 14, 2015
South America, Part 11
La Paz to Potosi We left La Paz, this time ascending the rim of steep hills around the city in a slightly less clunky “Death Bus”. Perhaps it was because we were travelling uphill or because it was daylight, but it didn’t seem so bad.
We set off to Potosi through strange towns with weird monuments (see the pictures) and Oruro where great festivals happen around Ash Wednesday each year that are famous throughout the continent.
June 25, 2012
Another Reading List
More books to add to the “University of life” course list. From top to bottom: I picked up “Generation X” for 50p in a charity shop in Tintagel. “Everything Is Going To Be OK” is a picture book full of inspirational mottos. “The Happiness Hypothesis” is the most useful and interesting book that I have read in a long while. I decided to read “How To Write A Sentence” as an alternative to Strunk and White’s “The Elements Of Style” which, while useful, can be a little stuffy!
April 20, 2012
Reading list, mid-April 2012
A hefty reading list that should keep me occupied into the summer. A friend on facebook asked “What course is that for?”, to which I replied “It’s for one of the modules I am doing at the university of life.” This response was quite popular.
December 24, 2010
Tales From Home
A question of identity Three letters for Dad in the mail today, three variations on our surname including the aquatic Dory version and the lesser-spotted Dorny. It is perhaps best not to go back to the time he was accidentally listed in the Thompson directory as Mr. Dopey, bringing forth prank calls from all teenagers within a ten mile radius. Fortunately, Dr. Dorey doesn’t have this problem with his mail: he doesn’t get any.
November 14, 2010
Movember 10K
So, Saturday. Finally. The big day. Would I a) be able to get to Greenwich in time for the registration? and b) be able to make it all the way around the course without collapsing and crying?
Happily the answer to both questions was a resounding “Yes!” and I really enjoyed it. The weather was really good, especially compared to the two days before hand, and Marc came along to take some brilliant photos.
Tag: Sugar
February 2, 2018
Any sugar?
Not being much of a drinker, I’ve never felt the need to do dry January. Also Ingrid and I sat in a restaurant in Barcelona on January 2nd drinking for the third night in row. We hadn’t got off to that great a start. Well today marks the completion of a dry month: dry January with a two day lag.
I also (mostly) managed to keep to my other goal of eliminating sugar from my tea and coffee.
Tag: Films
January 25, 2018
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Ingrid and I renewed our Cineworld passes as it is the season to go to the movies and check out the Oscar contenders. You nod along sagely while dreaming up superlatives to show how much you agree with the taste-makers. Or you can call such-and-such movie a pretentious load of crap.
With “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, it’s more the former. But I don’t have to say anything pretentious about the cinematography or its timeliness.
July 1, 2017
Wonder Woman: A Short Review
I enjoyed Wonder Woman, which came as a surprise to me given my growing distaste for superhero movies. I can remember seeing the Superman reboot Man of Steel with its phallic rockets and its boring boring fight sequences. But almost everything about Wonder Woman exceeded my expectations. It’s a well-made superhero movie and better still, it gets to the heart of why these kinds of movies matter.
Whereas Man of Steel ended up levelling cities and criminally underusing Amy Adams, all while giving us no stake on why Superman even matters as a man or a hero, Wonder Woman focusses tightly on its main character and explains what matters to her, and in turn the movie then explains why she should matter to us.
October 18, 2015
The Martian: A Short Review
In my review of the book I mentioned that a film adaptation of The Martian was on the way. I’m not sure why but it got released earlier than any of the dates that I’d seen and so on Saturday I found myself watching The Martian on the big screen. Could the film version deliver the same level of entertainment as the novel? Could Mark Watney (Matt Damon) get off Mars alive?
July 25, 2015
Inherent Vice: A Short Review
Tonight I finally caught up with Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello who’s put on to a case of possible kidnapping by his “ex-old lady” Shasta, played by Katherine Waterston.
There’s no point attempting to tell much more you of the plot of Inherent Vice: it’s rather convoluted and self-digesting. At least this means there’s very little chance of stumbling into inadvertent spoilers.
July 9, 2015
Minions: A Short Review
The Minions got their own movie, just as I predicted in my review of Despicable Me 2. I went to see it this week and I enjoyed it a lot. Here’s a short review. Don’t worry, there are no spoilers here that aren’t in the trailer.
It’s very funny. Right from the opening credits you get the minions and their anarchic fun-loving slapstick humour. There’s always been something delightful about they way in which they innocently bumble around.
March 27, 2015
Jodorowsky's Dune
Jodorowsky’s Dune is a documentary about outlandish Chilean director Alejandro Jodorosky’s attempt at a film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune in the 1970s. As a big fan of the novel and of science fiction in general, I was very interested in this film. It does not disappoint. It gives a great insight into the mind of a little known (if slightly batty) director and shows even an artistic failure can lead to shock waves that can be felt in later work by others.
August 15, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy: A Short Review
Finally saw Guardians of the Galaxy today. Here are fifteen observations about the film that may or may not constitute a short review.
At least two Oscars for Best Use Of Body Paint (Green) and Best Use Of Body Paint (Blue) are sewn up. Chris Pratt basically plays Star Lord as “Andy Dwyer in space” and this is fine by me. Best movie to feature a talking raccoon in a long time.
August 12, 2013
Despicable Me 2: A Short Review
It’s so good that I paid to see it twice! There, that’s the review done.
Despicable Me 2 is great for so many reasons. I reckon pretty much anyone aged from 3 to 103 would enjoy both movies’ warm heartedness and most will love the minions’ riot of anarchic slapstick. And if they don’t, I guess they aren’t our kind of people anyway, right?
Here are a few good reasons for loving “Despicable Me 2” (and actually most of these reasons apply to the original “Despicable Me”):
June 22, 2013
Man of Steel: A Short Review
Today I went to see the new Superman reboot Man of Steel with friends. I really enjoyed it, particularly the more reflective take on the superhero myth. Starting out with the fate of the planet Krypton, Man of Steel approximately fuses the events of both the first two original Superman movies. We get to see Superman’s arrival and childhood on earth and then the arrival of Zod, a maniac bent on replacing the earth and everyone on it with a new race of Kryptonians.
May 17, 2013
Star Trek: Into Darkness - A Short Review
I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness last night in 3D at the IMAX in Waterloo. I am going to have to separate this into a review into two parts, a review of the film and a review of the viewing experience. I am not completely happy with how the film experience is changed by the 3D and the super big screen and I will try to explain what I mean.
April 11, 2013
Why I Love On The Road
I was fifteen when I first read “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac and recently, after twice as much lifetime lived, I was able to watch the film version directed by Walter Salles.
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.
November 5, 2012
Rust And Bone: A Short Review
So, two short reviews in a row. I had the day off work and went to see “Rust And Bone” this afternooon. It’s the new film by Jacques Audiard, who directed “A Prophet” – one of my favourite films of the last five years.
“Rust And Bone” is a love story about Ali, a sexually feckless security guard who is struggling to look after his young son on his own, and Stéphanie (played by second most beautiful woman in the world, Marion Cotillard), who is injured while working as a co-ordinator of killer whale displays at an ocenarium.
November 3, 2012
Skyfall: A Short Review
I went to see “Skyfall” last night and I really enjoyed it. I knew nothing about the plot, mostly because I had avoided all discussion of the plot with people who had already seen it and I even avoided reviews as so many these days seem to just rattle off plot points, instead of discussing what makes the movie any good. With that in mind I will obviously try not to give away any of the plot in this brief review.
June 29, 2012
A Case For Yellow As Your New Favourite Colour
This post is about the films of Wes Anderson. I am no expert, I’ve just watched them all recently (inspired by seeing “Moonrise Kingdom”) and spotted a some similarities and differences between the films and I thought it would be fun to write about them. My appearance on Mastermind with “The Films of Wes Anderson” as my specialist subject will have to wait for now. Feel free to add to the discussion in the comments.
June 16, 2012
Moonrise Kingdom: A Short Review
Tonight I avoided the first half of the football along with my friend Albert Jan and we went to watch “Moonrise Kingdom” at the wonderful Everyman cinema in Hampstead. It was a real treat in every sense. To start with, the Everyman is a lovely cinema. It is quite expensive but you do get what you pay for: a comfortable seat in a great theatre and the chance to watch more than just the latest blockbusters (though it shows those too).
January 5, 2012
Dreams Of A Life: A Short Review
Dreams Of A Life is a documentary about Joyce Vincent, a woman who was found in her flat three years after her death surrounded by wrapped christmas presents and with the TV still on. £2400 in arrears on her rent, she was discovered by bailiffs who forced the door down. The film attempts to work out happened to Joyce by interviewing people who knew her. In two other strands that unfold in parallel, various events from her life are re-enacted along with the clearing of her flat by forensics officers.
November 3, 2011
Contagion: A Short Review
There was much excitement about Contagion at work. Finally a movie that explains as part of the plot! A bunch of us went to see it, mainly to see whether a disaster movie about a global pandemic could hold up as entertainment and to have a bit of a giggle if it couldn’t.
I liked three things in particular about the film. I liked the cinematography, especially the opening sequences with the index cases staggering around.
July 12, 2011
Why I Love The Jungle Book
Just as with the understated classics I want to set out my stall early on that good movies are good enough. Both Betty Blue and today’s choice The Jungle Book are never going to win any sort of consensus prize for the best movies ever made but they are really good. They also have a personal history attached that makes them worth writing about.
When I was younger both my sisters would be given VHS copies of Disney movies at a rate of about two a year, one for Christmas and one at their birthday.
April 6, 2011
Why I Love Betty Blue
I saw Betty Blue (original French title 37,2 Le Matin) for the first time in 1996 shortly after having read the book and it remains one of my favourite films to this day. Although there are many obvious reasons why a sixteen year old boy might like it, I think it does stand up to scrutiny beyond the sex and nudity. This post is a brief explanation of some of the obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why this is a film to be loved and cherished.
December 1, 2010
The Setback
Since the run there has been a bit of a hiatus in this blog. I wrote about how running was making me feel better. In fact, I should have said more. I recently stopped taking the antidepressants that I had been taking for eighteen months. This has been my longest period taking such medication but the running made me feel sufficiently good to decide that I could stop taking them.
Tag: Oscars
January 25, 2018
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Ingrid and I renewed our Cineworld passes as it is the season to go to the movies and check out the Oscar contenders. You nod along sagely while dreaming up superlatives to show how much you agree with the taste-makers. Or you can call such-and-such movie a pretentious load of crap.
With “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, it’s more the former. But I don’t have to say anything pretentious about the cinematography or its timeliness.
Tag: Europe
January 12, 2018
Spain, New Year 2017/18
For new year Ingrid and I met up with Ingrid’s friend Ros at Barcelona airport. We went from there to Cadaqués on the Costa Brava. A winding drive over steep hills leads you down to a cute bay with the typical white houses and terracotta roofs. All the window frames were painted just the right shade of blue.
View of Cadaqués from the church. View of Cadaqués from near to where we stayed.
December 17, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 3: Flu∂ir to Vík.
We left Gulfoss and drove through the countryside to Fluðir where our next hotel stay would be. The hotel had cute little cabins arranged around a central square and the room itself was comfy and warm. Our dinner was nice enough, although we had a bit of a Fawlty Towers moment with Ingrid’s chicken salad. First it went back because they didn’t leave the BBQ sauce off. Then it came back with tomatoes.
October 15, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 2: Reykjavík to Flu∂ir.
After a day on foot in Reykjavík, and with some trepidation, we returned to the car for our drive through Iceland’s countryside. We started by heading out on route 1, which is like Iceland’s M25 except that it encircles an entire country and about thirty times fewer people. We went to house of Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness, only to be turned away because it was being renovated and wouldn’t open for another month.
October 4, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 1: Reykjavík.
We arrived in Reykjavík a few days after a monumental snowstorm. As such the city was still under at least six inches of snow. We collected the hire car from the airport and drove out of Keflavik. The scenery normally looks like a moonscape, but for us it was a frosty white wonderland.
After about an hour’s drive, we arrived at the Hotel Nattura. From the outside it looks like a huge secondary school but as soon as you step inside it’s warm and comfortable.
September 28, 2017
A little trip to Italy
We bought a cheap package holiday in the British Airways Black Friday sale. The weekend spanned Ingrid’s birthday, so it was ideal. £99 each for flights and a hotel, and we bagged a hire car quite cheaply too.
Because our flight was from Heathrow and the trains from Chichester are both expensive and inconvenient for early flights, we spoiled ourselves with a taxi to the airport. It felt very strange to be whisked through the Sussex and Surrey countryside at six am on a Friday morning!
April 11, 2016
Lausanne, Switzerland, March 2016
Just before Easter Ingrid and I went to Lausanne in Switzerland for a few days. It was a much-needed break and my first trip out of the UK since I got back from South America.
We caught an early train to Gatwick. It took a strange route along the coast via Worthing and Hove, which was annoying because we could have left later if a more direct train were available at that time of day.
Tag: Happy New Year
January 12, 2018
Spain, New Year 2017/18
For new year Ingrid and I met up with Ingrid’s friend Ros at Barcelona airport. We went from there to Cadaqués on the Costa Brava. A winding drive over steep hills leads you down to a cute bay with the typical white houses and terracotta roofs. All the window frames were painted just the right shade of blue.
View of Cadaqués from the church. View of Cadaqués from near to where we stayed.
January 1, 2015
Happy New Year 2015!
Just a brief message to wish everyone a happy new year. Getting my flat connected to the internet continues to be a trial so it’s still not as easy to post as I would like. However, I have some workarounds now and I hope to write (and post) more often from now on.
Like everyone I make resolutions at this time of year, though as the years pass I realise that the best resolutions are to apopt a new way of being rather than a new way of doing.
Tag: Seventeen
January 12, 2018
Spain, New Year 2017/18
For new year Ingrid and I met up with Ingrid’s friend Ros at Barcelona airport. We went from there to Cadaqués on the Costa Brava. A winding drive over steep hills leads you down to a cute bay with the typical white houses and terracotta roofs. All the window frames were painted just the right shade of blue.
View of Cadaqués from the church. View of Cadaqués from near to where we stayed.
December 31, 2017
Top 10 Albums 2017
10. Grails “Chalice Hymnal” Some albums are good because a band continues making the music that you love. Some albums are good because a band takes their ideas a step or two further than before. Chalice Hymnal is that rare album that does both of these things.
The references to past albums include the track Deeper Politics and Deep Snow II, and, as per albums past, these tracks evolve slowly out of languid guitar hooks and smoky atmospherics.
December 29, 2017
Top 10 Songs 2017
10. Rolling Blackouts CF “Julie’s Place” Sometimes you just want a simple pop song about going out somewhere. I enjoyed the Rolling Blackouts’ EP “The French Press”. It contains many catchy tunes as I noted in my review. “Julie’s Place” is the best, speaking of a need to be somewhere or a promise that you will go there. Given that I often listen to music between places, it’s nice to have a song or two like that on my playlist.
December 27, 2017
Album Digest, December 2017
Bjork Utopia “Utopia” is Björk’s ninth album. It’s a happier album compared to the emotional wreckage of “Vulnicura”. But while “Vulnicura” was a compelling if uncomfortable listen, “Utopia” is more comfortable and, unfortunately, not that compelling. This is old ground retrodden with few glimmers of past glories.
The brevity, succinctness and sharpness are all gone. Even on the best songs (the first three), there is very little strength in the lyrics.
December 26, 2017
Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew
Here’s a recipe to use up your turkey leftovers after Christmas.
You will need a slow cooker or an oven-proof cooking dish.
Ingredients About four portions of cold turkey, torn into bite-sized pieces 1 sweet potato, chopped into small slivers 1 carrot, chopped into small slivers 1 onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic, diced 2 tsp mixed herbs 2 tsp smoked paprika 20g butter 50g diced chorizo 1 chicken stock cube mixed in about 700ml water (see method) Method Melt the butter and fry the onions on a medium heat until golden.
December 17, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 3: Flu∂ir to Vík.
We left Gulfoss and drove through the countryside to Fluðir where our next hotel stay would be. The hotel had cute little cabins arranged around a central square and the room itself was comfy and warm. Our dinner was nice enough, although we had a bit of a Fawlty Towers moment with Ingrid’s chicken salad. First it went back because they didn’t leave the BBQ sauce off. Then it came back with tomatoes.
December 7, 2017
Album Digest, November 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
November 15, 2017
I Will Make Room For You - Four Tet Remix
In a perfect confluence of last month’s album digest, here’s an excellent Four Tet remix of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “I Will Make Room For You” from her album “The Kid”. I’ve put it into a playlist with “Lush” from Four Tet’s “New Energy” album and the original version of “I Will Make Room For You.”
Enjoy!
November 11, 2017
Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive
After I read “Hello America” and “Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” to Ingrid, it was her turn to read something to me. We settled on Matt Haig’s memoir of anxiety and depression “Reasons to Stay Alive”, which is as uplifting and life-affirming as its title suggests.
The book begins with its author standing atop some cliffs in Ibiza, crushed by depression and anxiety and determined to die.
November 5, 2017
Beetroot Bolognaise
We cook this version of bolognaise with beetroot due to Ingrid’s tomato allergy. This recipe is an attempt to capture what we do on the fly. The key to it is using the wine, the Worcestershire sauce and the herbs to even out the sweetness of the beetroot. If you can manage that, it’s super tasty. The sauce usually ends up being an unusual but pleasing pink/purple colour, as you will see from the pictures.
November 4, 2017
A Little Lesson in R
I had to compute an indicator this week. It had confidence intervals that relied on taking 100,000 samples from the indicator’s approximate distribution. I had to repeat this over multiple GP practices and for twelve different demographic groups.
I decided to use dplyr1 because I thought it would help me organise all subgroups involved. I used mutate_at() heavily and thought that dplyr was keeping everything organised. However, when I moved from the 10 samples I’d used for testing to the 100,000 samples required by the specification of the indicator, my code moved to a crawl.
November 3, 2017
Suits Me
In recent weeks I have worn a suit to work. I bought a new furry woolly suit a few weeks ago and have alternated between it and my old one. I also bought new shoes that gave me blisters and made me cry. Enough time has passed that by now it feels natural rather than silly and those shoes don’t eat my feet as much as they used to.
I think I feel calmer before I go to work as a result of wearing the suit.
October 31, 2017
Album Digest, October 2017
Mary Epworth “Elytral” This album came to my attention because its lead single “Me Swimming” appeared on my Discover Weekly playlist. I’d never heard of Mary before but this album was one of those nice discoveries that one sometimes makes when one tries to broaden what one listens to. The aforementioned “Me Swimming” is probably the best track, a beautiful slice of summery experimental pop layered over a beat that you can imagine as the kicks of a swimmer compared to the swirling lyric that imitates the pull of the strokes through the water.
October 31, 2017
Three Years
Three years ago today I moved in to my little flat in Chichester, soon to start a new job. I had no money left but at least, after a character building stint of six months sleeping on the floor, I had a bed. In the intervening three years, my job role has expanded, I’ve done another degree, the flat has become a home, and I’ve met and married Ingrid. Add to that the fact that it’s almost four years since I left for South America and I start to realise that I’ve done a crazy amount of things in that time.
October 30, 2017
Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun
“Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” is a novella by Sarah Ladipo Manyika. Of all the books nominated for the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize, this looked like the most interesting to my eyes. I’ve enjoyed previous Goldsmiths nominated novels including Acts of the Assassins and Satin Island.
The title comes from a poem by Mary Ruefle called “Donkey On”. You can read it here.
“Like a Mule…” is set in contemporary San Francisco and takes the form of multiple first person narratives, centred around Dr.
October 29, 2017
Understated Classics #36: The Coral by The Coral
Perhaps in today’s modern age of streaming and such, The Coral would be a bigger band and may have survived their eventual burnout. Their work ethic was evident from the start, as rumours swirled in the NME about a fantastic new band from Liverpool who were going to blow everybody’s socks off. I went to see them live in Bristol after they’d released three EPs and they were incredible. Their sound, a bit like the movie “Holy Mountain” set to pop music, imagined a Merseybeat channelled from an alternative universe in which Lennon and McCartney took their acid in the Mojave desert rather than in the English suburbs.
October 15, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 2: Reykjavík to Flu∂ir.
After a day on foot in Reykjavík, and with some trepidation, we returned to the car for our drive through Iceland’s countryside. We started by heading out on route 1, which is like Iceland’s M25 except that it encircles an entire country and about thirty times fewer people. We went to house of Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness, only to be turned away because it was being renovated and wouldn’t open for another month.
October 8, 2017
Georgia O'Keeffe at Tate Modern
We went to see the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition at the Tate Modern last year. At the time, I didn’t know much about her, other than the fact she was famous for painting flowers. And that people get a bit hot under the collar about what those paintings might represent. Was the art world of the 1920s and 1930s so repressed that it managed to get into a lather about some paintings of flowers?
October 6, 2017
Alistair Reynolds, Revelation Space
Alistair Reynolds’ 2000 novel “Revelation Space” has long been in orbit of my science fiction “to read” list, but it wasn’t until one sleepless night (post “Command and Control”) that I came across it in Ingrid’s audiobooks. I was instantly drawn in as I listened to the opening scene about an archaeological dig facing evacuation ahead of an imminent ‘razor storm’.
“Revelation Space” is hard sci-fi set in a universe where the speed of light cannot be exceeded.
October 5, 2017
Personal ggplot tips and tweaks
I love making plots in R with ggplot. However, there are always a few niggles that I forget about between plots. I wrote this post so that I have somewhere to look the next time I need to tweak a few things in my plots. I intend to come back and add updates in the future as I learn more things. If I keep coming back, I might also remember a few of these too.
October 4, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 1: Reykjavík.
We arrived in Reykjavík a few days after a monumental snowstorm. As such the city was still under at least six inches of snow. We collected the hire car from the airport and drove out of Keflavik. The scenery normally looks like a moonscape, but for us it was a frosty white wonderland.
After about an hour’s drive, we arrived at the Hotel Nattura. From the outside it looks like a huge secondary school but as soon as you step inside it’s warm and comfortable.
October 3, 2017
J. G. Ballard, Hello America
I had low expectations for “Hello America”, the next in the series of Ballard novels that I started reading over seven years ago. However, it turned out to be a hoot. A couple of years ago, this novel would have been a wig-out bit of standard Ballard weirdness (a bit like “The Drowned World” or “The Crystal World”) but given recent events “Hello America” is starting to take on an eerie prescience.
October 1, 2017
The same, but different
Ingrid and I got married a month ago. It was a lovely day. We had a simple ceremony with two witnesses, our friends Sue and Andrew. We kept it quiet and small, as we just wanted to be married without too much fuss. A month on, we’re happy to report that we are glad we did it.
We’d like to thank everyone who nonetheless sent cards and gifts, and to all of those who wished us well on Facebook.
September 30, 2017
Album Digest, September 2017
Note: Recent months have been very busy, so this album digest combines a review of the new album by The National with a couple of reviews left over from earlier in the year.
I’ve written a few more album reviews in the past months but I’m so far behind (February and March have already been published on a considerable lag) that I’m just going to pepper forthcoming digests with additional reviews of older albums.
September 29, 2017
Eric Schlosser, Command and Control
“Command and Control” by Eric Schlosser is about the history of nuclear weapons and their safety. This might not seem like a thrilling subject, but it’s absorbing from start to finish. I started it three years ago but only finished it more recently as the subject of nuclear weapons has become more pertinent to current affairs1. There are many people who would stand to gain a great deal from reading this book2.
September 28, 2017
A little trip to Italy
We bought a cheap package holiday in the British Airways Black Friday sale. The weekend spanned Ingrid’s birthday, so it was ideal. £99 each for flights and a hotel, and we bagged a hire car quite cheaply too.
Because our flight was from Heathrow and the trains from Chichester are both expensive and inconvenient for early flights, we spoiled ourselves with a taxi to the airport. It felt very strange to be whisked through the Sussex and Surrey countryside at six am on a Friday morning!
September 25, 2017
Understated Classics #35: Snivilisation by Orbital
I came late to Orbital’s work. I knew of them through a few remixes and because as a mad Orb fan, they could not have avoided my notice could they? Apart from that, one of my college friends tried to get me into “In Sides” just after its release in 1996. The same friend got me into “Second Toughest In The Infants” by Underworld. I cannot now understand the reason, but “In Sides” just left me cold.
July 17, 2017
Valleys
In my last post, I wrote about hills. I tried to use them as a metaphor to explain nagging sense of incompletion when you single out one activity over another. The feeling that there’s always a more exciting hill off in the distance to go climb, instead of the one you’re on.
I said my next post would be about how to pick between different options, particularly when you have many to choose from.
July 15, 2017
Hills
I’m a big fan of books. The way they transport you away to other places and so on. As repositories of knowledge and adventure they can’t be beat. I can think of no better way out of an existential fix than reading.
The trouble is I tend to hoard them. I’ve posted pictures of book stacks before (on more than one occasion). I could probably repeat that every month if I wanted to, perhaps even more often.
July 1, 2017
Wonder Woman: A Short Review
I enjoyed Wonder Woman, which came as a surprise to me given my growing distaste for superhero movies. I can remember seeing the Superman reboot Man of Steel with its phallic rockets and its boring boring fight sequences. But almost everything about Wonder Woman exceeded my expectations. It’s a well-made superhero movie and better still, it gets to the heart of why these kinds of movies matter.
Whereas Man of Steel ended up levelling cities and criminally underusing Amy Adams, all while giving us no stake on why Superman even matters as a man or a hero, Wonder Woman focusses tightly on its main character and explains what matters to her, and in turn the movie then explains why she should matter to us.
June 16, 2017
Create
It can be a struggle to keep writing. I’ve found this happened a lot since I moved the blog. First, there was the business of moving things over. That meant a lot of thought about old posts and which ones I should keep. A lot of the time I thought “how on earth did I have time to write this?!”
Then there seemed to be a lot more barriers to writing than previously.
April 11, 2017
Changes
Moving the blog to Jekyll (again, sort of) Et voila, my blog lives! In a new body (Jekyll) and at a new location.
The Process I set up Jekyll on my MacBook Air after loads of initial problems with installing the theme and getting assorted Ruby gems installed and working. Stack Overflow is a friend for life now. By way of comparison, getting things up and running on my new Mac was simple.
March 31, 2017
Album Digest, March 2017
Blanck Mass World Eater This album is pretty extreme. It’s not for everyone and even for the people who can handle it, it’s not for all the time. This album is a soul crushing experience at points but there are also points of light. Perhaps this makes “World Eater” more reflective of life as a whole than any other of this month’s albums. On balance it’s probably less crushing than the last Blanck Mass album “Dumb Flesh”, which I reviewed back in June 2015.
February 28, 2017
Album Digest, February 2017
Grails Chalice Hymnal Some albums are good because a band continues making the music that you love. Some albums are good because a band takes their ideas a step or two further than before. Chalice Hymnalis that rare album that does both of these things.
The references to past albums include the track Deeper Politics and Deep Snow II, and, as per albums past, these tracks evolve slowly out of languid guitar hooks and smoky atmospherics.
January 31, 2017
Album Digest, January 2017
Mike Oldfield Return to Ommadawn With Return to Ommadawn, Mike Oldfield revisits his third album Ommadawn. He has past form for this, having revisited his masterwork Tubular Bells twice (the third revisit and fourth instalment Tubular Bells 4 is due next year). I wrote about Tubular Bells II for my understated classics series. Of course Mike has in fact made many more than three Tubular Bells albums1, and this is not a first “return” to Ommadawn.
September 21, 2012
Programming a Carcassonne Game
Although I have put off finishing my UNO game for over eighteen months, I thought I would get started with another pet project of mine: making a Carcassonne game. This is not a serious affair, there is an excellent app of Carcassonne available for those of you who have iOS devices (it works particularly well on the iPad). The game just strikes me as having the right level of complexity to be a taxing yet attainable project.
Tag: Spain
January 12, 2018
Spain, New Year 2017/18
For new year Ingrid and I met up with Ingrid’s friend Ros at Barcelona airport. We went from there to Cadaqués on the Costa Brava. A winding drive over steep hills leads you down to a cute bay with the typical white houses and terracotta roofs. All the window frames were painted just the right shade of blue.
View of Cadaqués from the church. View of Cadaqués from near to where we stayed.
Tag: Lists
December 31, 2017
Top 10 Albums 2017
10. Grails “Chalice Hymnal” Some albums are good because a band continues making the music that you love. Some albums are good because a band takes their ideas a step or two further than before. Chalice Hymnal is that rare album that does both of these things.
The references to past albums include the track Deeper Politics and Deep Snow II, and, as per albums past, these tracks evolve slowly out of languid guitar hooks and smoky atmospherics.
December 29, 2017
Top 10 Songs 2017
10. Rolling Blackouts CF “Julie’s Place” Sometimes you just want a simple pop song about going out somewhere. I enjoyed the Rolling Blackouts’ EP “The French Press”. It contains many catchy tunes as I noted in my review. “Julie’s Place” is the best, speaking of a need to be somewhere or a promise that you will go there. Given that I often listen to music between places, it’s nice to have a song or two like that on my playlist.
August 15, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy: A Short Review
Finally saw Guardians of the Galaxy today. Here are fifteen observations about the film that may or may not constitute a short review.
At least two Oscars for Best Use Of Body Paint (Green) and Best Use Of Body Paint (Blue) are sewn up. Chris Pratt basically plays Star Lord as “Andy Dwyer in space” and this is fine by me. Best movie to feature a talking raccoon in a long time.
July 29, 2013
Ideas for TV shows: Great Mathematicians
I want to see a TV show about great mathematicians of the past on a channel like BBC Four. Programmes about mathematics tend to be rather condescending, at least to anyone who has a bit of mathematical knowledge. Perhaps a way around this is to delve into the social and historical circumstances of the great mathematicians and how that along with their personality produced the mathematical results for which they are famous.
November 10, 2012
Ambitions
Sometimes, when I am feeling a bit down, I like to write down some of my ambitions. As you can see from this list they are mostly pretty humble but they are also a bit cheesy and embarassing, so I have put them after the fold!
Be wholehearted, cheerful, and sincere Be creative Look at the world and see its many faces, hear its many voices Explore new recipes as often as possible when I cook Learn to like the taste of tomatoes and cucumbers Be more at ease around people Listen to people and hear what they say Play my part Look after someone special Become a parent Share my values with others, help those who need it Break up all the negative things inside me Know what other people want, help them get it When I wake up each morning I would like to remember my dreams Understand art more than I do Lose my fear of creepy crawlies Learn to drive Learn to write left handed (why not?
October 2, 2012
Nonlinear Systems: A Rough Intro
This is another mathematics post that does not actually feature any equations or graphs. It is intended to set the way clear for writing regularly about nonlinear systems. This in itself is a precursor to writing more about mathematical biology as biological systems are inherently complex and nonlinear. I am reading P. G. Drazin’s textbook on Nonlinear Systems and this post is a glossary of terms from the start of the book laid down here because I wanted to remember how to typeset definition lists in Markdown (though in the end I (ab)used <h4> tags because it looked better).
June 29, 2012
A Case For Yellow As Your New Favourite Colour
This post is about the films of Wes Anderson. I am no expert, I’ve just watched them all recently (inspired by seeing “Moonrise Kingdom”) and spotted a some similarities and differences between the films and I thought it would be fun to write about them. My appearance on Mastermind with “The Films of Wes Anderson” as my specialist subject will have to wait for now. Feel free to add to the discussion in the comments.
June 25, 2012
Another Reading List
More books to add to the “University of life” course list. From top to bottom: I picked up “Generation X” for 50p in a charity shop in Tintagel. “Everything Is Going To Be OK” is a picture book full of inspirational mottos. “The Happiness Hypothesis” is the most useful and interesting book that I have read in a long while. I decided to read “How To Write A Sentence” as an alternative to Strunk and White’s “The Elements Of Style” which, while useful, can be a little stuffy!
April 20, 2012
Reading list, mid-April 2012
A hefty reading list that should keep me occupied into the summer. A friend on facebook asked “What course is that for?”, to which I replied “It’s for one of the modules I am doing at the university of life.” This response was quite popular.
August 5, 2011
Five lessons from a year of blogging
I have now been writing decent length articles on this site for about a year. I have learned a lot in this time, mostly about writing but also how to express your feelings and how to marshal your ideas and passions into action. For this month’s “five on the fifth”, I would like to share with you some of the things I have learned.
Writing posts consistently is hard… There are a lot of things that get in the way of regular posting.
July 12, 2011
Why I Love The Jungle Book
Just as with the understated classics I want to set out my stall early on that good movies are good enough. Both Betty Blue and today’s choice The Jungle Book are never going to win any sort of consensus prize for the best movies ever made but they are really good. They also have a personal history attached that makes them worth writing about.
When I was younger both my sisters would be given VHS copies of Disney movies at a rate of about two a year, one for Christmas and one at their birthday.
May 5, 2011
Five Superheroes We Can Live Without
The other day while writing some rather self-pitying notes in my blog book (yes, I handwrite all this rubbish before I go to bed at night!) I came up with some useless superheroes, or rather the only superheroes that a washed-up guy in his early thirties could hope to be. Because I haven’t got any ideas for “five things on the fifth” this month, I decided to flesh out a few of these.
April 6, 2011
Why I Love Betty Blue
I saw Betty Blue (original French title 37,2 Le Matin) for the first time in 1996 shortly after having read the book and it remains one of my favourite films to this day. Although there are many obvious reasons why a sixteen year old boy might like it, I think it does stand up to scrutiny beyond the sex and nudity. This post is a brief explanation of some of the obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why this is a film to be loved and cherished.
Tag: Bjork
December 27, 2017
Album Digest, December 2017
Bjork Utopia “Utopia” is Björk’s ninth album. It’s a happier album compared to the emotional wreckage of “Vulnicura”. But while “Vulnicura” was a compelling if uncomfortable listen, “Utopia” is more comfortable and, unfortunately, not that compelling. This is old ground retrodden with few glimmers of past glories.
The brevity, succinctness and sharpness are all gone. Even on the best songs (the first three), there is very little strength in the lyrics.
November 29, 2012
Album Digest, November 2012
Pretty much a sliding scale between songs and electronic wibble on this month’s albums and a particularly damp, chilly feeling to proceedings too.
Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” Ital “Hive Mind” and “Dream On” Björk “Bastards” Brian Eno “Lux” Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” When it comes to Bat For Lashes, I prefer her first album “Fur And Gold” to her second “Two Suns” because when I listen to the latter I don’t feel connected to any of the songs.
January 23, 2012
Understated Classics #15: Début by Björk
I got into Début via a cassette from the library, much like I did with Together Alone by Crowded House. I suppose it is less obscure than many of my choices for this strand but I do think that Post is more well-known (because of It’s Oh So Quiet, which we shall mention here only briefly) and that Homogenic is probably more popular among her fans.
What I really like about Début though, as much as the album itself, is the panoply of remixes and alternative versions that surround the release.
October 31, 2011
Album Digest, October 2011
This month we have albums by Björk, Coldplay, M83, and Radiohead.
Album Digest October 2011 - Intro I listened to Wilco’s The Whole Love again the other day. I happened to be walking past the venue in Portsmouth where I went to see them live back in 2004 and it seemed the right fit. I really enjoyed the album after a period of not having listened to it and I found that being familiar with the songs allowed me to better appreciate the production of the album.
Tag: December
December 27, 2017
Album Digest, December 2017
Bjork Utopia “Utopia” is Björk’s ninth album. It’s a happier album compared to the emotional wreckage of “Vulnicura”. But while “Vulnicura” was a compelling if uncomfortable listen, “Utopia” is more comfortable and, unfortunately, not that compelling. This is old ground retrodden with few glimmers of past glories.
The brevity, succinctness and sharpness are all gone. Even on the best songs (the first three), there is very little strength in the lyrics.
December 31, 2012
Album Digest, December 2012
Three albums (one very Christmassey one!) and an EP this month.
Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” Woob “Have Landed” Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin “Instrumental Tourist” Burial “Truant / Rough Sleeper Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” “Tinsel and Lights” is that rarest of records, a Christmas record that is perfectly suited to the season and is not in any way overbearing or irritating. Most albums that are Christmas themed are usually centred on lots of covers that are taken from a small subset of well worn classics.
December 29, 2011
Album Digest, December 2011
Some rather brief pen pictures of this month’s albums. I’ve been a bit busy!
Radio Slave - Collected Remixes Thud thud thud. This is pretty much how all Radio Slave remixes go. I really liked his fabric mix and borrowed a few tracks for a playlist I made called “Dancing In Space”. Anyway, back to the thudding: it’s no bad thing, the remixes have a nice formula that works well for discovering new tracks like UNKLE’s Burn My Shadow (Ian Astbury’s vocal is given plenty of room to shine) and K3’s Play To Win.
Tag: Neil Finn
December 27, 2017
Album Digest, December 2017
Bjork Utopia “Utopia” is Björk’s ninth album. It’s a happier album compared to the emotional wreckage of “Vulnicura”. But while “Vulnicura” was a compelling if uncomfortable listen, “Utopia” is more comfortable and, unfortunately, not that compelling. This is old ground retrodden with few glimmers of past glories.
The brevity, succinctness and sharpness are all gone. Even on the best songs (the first three), there is very little strength in the lyrics.
Tag: Phoebe Bridgers
December 27, 2017
Album Digest, December 2017
Bjork Utopia “Utopia” is Björk’s ninth album. It’s a happier album compared to the emotional wreckage of “Vulnicura”. But while “Vulnicura” was a compelling if uncomfortable listen, “Utopia” is more comfortable and, unfortunately, not that compelling. This is old ground retrodden with few glimmers of past glories.
The brevity, succinctness and sharpness are all gone. Even on the best songs (the first three), there is very little strength in the lyrics.
Tag: Watter
December 27, 2017
Album Digest, December 2017
Bjork Utopia “Utopia” is Björk’s ninth album. It’s a happier album compared to the emotional wreckage of “Vulnicura”. But while “Vulnicura” was a compelling if uncomfortable listen, “Utopia” is more comfortable and, unfortunately, not that compelling. This is old ground retrodden with few glimmers of past glories.
The brevity, succinctness and sharpness are all gone. Even on the best songs (the first three), there is very little strength in the lyrics.
June 30, 2014
Album Digest, June 2014
Watter are a “supergroup” composed from various members of Grails, Slint, and other bands. I did not know anything about Hundred Waters before this month: “The Moon Rang Like A Bell” is their second album. In fact second albums by bands I know nothing about are a something of theme because “Sunbathing Animal” is Parquet Courts’ sophomore effort and I don’t know anything about them either. Meanwhile, I’ve meant to write about “The Four Seasons Recomposed” since April.
Tag: Gluten Free
December 26, 2017
Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew
Here’s a recipe to use up your turkey leftovers after Christmas.
You will need a slow cooker or an oven-proof cooking dish.
Ingredients About four portions of cold turkey, torn into bite-sized pieces 1 sweet potato, chopped into small slivers 1 carrot, chopped into small slivers 1 onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic, diced 2 tsp mixed herbs 2 tsp smoked paprika 20g butter 50g diced chorizo 1 chicken stock cube mixed in about 700ml water (see method) Method Melt the butter and fry the onions on a medium heat until golden.
Tag: Tomato Free
December 26, 2017
Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew
Here’s a recipe to use up your turkey leftovers after Christmas.
You will need a slow cooker or an oven-proof cooking dish.
Ingredients About four portions of cold turkey, torn into bite-sized pieces 1 sweet potato, chopped into small slivers 1 carrot, chopped into small slivers 1 onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic, diced 2 tsp mixed herbs 2 tsp smoked paprika 20g butter 50g diced chorizo 1 chicken stock cube mixed in about 700ml water (see method) Method Melt the butter and fry the onions on a medium heat until golden.
November 5, 2017
Beetroot Bolognaise
We cook this version of bolognaise with beetroot due to Ingrid’s tomato allergy. This recipe is an attempt to capture what we do on the fly. The key to it is using the wine, the Worcestershire sauce and the herbs to even out the sweetness of the beetroot. If you can manage that, it’s super tasty. The sauce usually ends up being an unusual but pleasing pink/purple colour, as you will see from the pictures.
Tag: Iceland
December 17, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 3: Flu∂ir to Vík.
We left Gulfoss and drove through the countryside to Fluðir where our next hotel stay would be. The hotel had cute little cabins arranged around a central square and the room itself was comfy and warm. Our dinner was nice enough, although we had a bit of a Fawlty Towers moment with Ingrid’s chicken salad. First it went back because they didn’t leave the BBQ sauce off. Then it came back with tomatoes.
October 15, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 2: Reykjavík to Flu∂ir.
After a day on foot in Reykjavík, and with some trepidation, we returned to the car for our drive through Iceland’s countryside. We started by heading out on route 1, which is like Iceland’s M25 except that it encircles an entire country and about thirty times fewer people. We went to house of Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness, only to be turned away because it was being renovated and wouldn’t open for another month.
October 4, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 1: Reykjavík.
We arrived in Reykjavík a few days after a monumental snowstorm. As such the city was still under at least six inches of snow. We collected the hire car from the airport and drove out of Keflavik. The scenery normally looks like a moonscape, but for us it was a frosty white wonderland.
After about an hour’s drive, we arrived at the Hotel Nattura. From the outside it looks like a huge secondary school but as soon as you step inside it’s warm and comfortable.
Tag: Trips
December 17, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 3: Flu∂ir to Vík.
We left Gulfoss and drove through the countryside to Fluðir where our next hotel stay would be. The hotel had cute little cabins arranged around a central square and the room itself was comfy and warm. Our dinner was nice enough, although we had a bit of a Fawlty Towers moment with Ingrid’s chicken salad. First it went back because they didn’t leave the BBQ sauce off. Then it came back with tomatoes.
October 15, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 2: Reykjavík to Flu∂ir.
After a day on foot in Reykjavík, and with some trepidation, we returned to the car for our drive through Iceland’s countryside. We started by heading out on route 1, which is like Iceland’s M25 except that it encircles an entire country and about thirty times fewer people. We went to house of Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness, only to be turned away because it was being renovated and wouldn’t open for another month.
October 4, 2017
A trip to Iceland. Part 1: Reykjavík.
We arrived in Reykjavík a few days after a monumental snowstorm. As such the city was still under at least six inches of snow. We collected the hire car from the airport and drove out of Keflavik. The scenery normally looks like a moonscape, but for us it was a frosty white wonderland.
After about an hour’s drive, we arrived at the Hotel Nattura. From the outside it looks like a huge secondary school but as soon as you step inside it’s warm and comfortable.
Tag: 0110100 01010100
December 7, 2017
Album Digest, November 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
Tag: Daniele Luppi
December 7, 2017
Album Digest, November 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
Tag: Four Tet
December 7, 2017
Album Digest, November 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
November 15, 2017
I Will Make Room For You - Four Tet Remix
In a perfect confluence of last month’s album digest, here’s an excellent Four Tet remix of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “I Will Make Room For You” from her album “The Kid”. I’ve put it into a playlist with “Lush” from Four Tet’s “New Energy” album and the original version of “I Will Make Room For You.”
Enjoy!
October 31, 2017
Album Digest, October 2017
Mary Epworth “Elytral” This album came to my attention because its lead single “Me Swimming” appeared on my Discover Weekly playlist. I’d never heard of Mary before but this album was one of those nice discoveries that one sometimes makes when one tries to broaden what one listens to. The aforementioned “Me Swimming” is probably the best track, a beautiful slice of summery experimental pop layered over a beat that you can imagine as the kicks of a swimmer compared to the swirling lyric that imitates the pull of the strokes through the water.
October 31, 2013
Album Digest, October 2013
Four great albums this month for the last album digest in a while.
CHVRCHES “The Bones Of What You Believe” I first got into CHVRCHES on Record Store Day, one of my purchases was an Irn Bru coloured 12" of the Recover EP that, according to eBay, tripled in value over night. Judging by this, their full debut, my see-through orange slab of happiness may hold its value, because it’s clear that CHVRCHES should be around for the long haul.
September 29, 2012
Album Digest, September 2012
I had a bit more time to listen to this month’s albums because I was on holiday for two weeks. I didn’t manage to write about them while on holiday though! In fact I bought and listened to a few more, but I will save them for next month. The albums I will discuss now (in order bought) are:
Four Tet “Pink” The xx “Coexist” Nelly Furtado “The Spirit Indestructible” Grizzly Bear “Shields” It’s quite a diverse collection and, Four Tet apart, quite song based.
September 30, 2011
Album Digest, September 2011
Hmmm, a rather grey looking selection of covers this month. The albums I have listened to most are:
John Beltran Ambient Selections FabricLive 59 mixed by Four Tet The Rapture In The Grace Of Your Love Wilco The Whole Love I have actually only had the Wilco album since Monday of this week (the 26th) but it has inveigled its way into my consciousness quite quickly. As I have said before, this blog owes its name to a Wilco song and they are quite an important band to me.
Tag: Karen O
December 7, 2017
Album Digest, November 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
Tag: November
December 7, 2017
Album Digest, November 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
November 29, 2012
Album Digest, November 2012
Pretty much a sliding scale between songs and electronic wibble on this month’s albums and a particularly damp, chilly feeling to proceedings too.
Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” Ital “Hive Mind” and “Dream On” Björk “Bastards” Brian Eno “Lux” Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” When it comes to Bat For Lashes, I prefer her first album “Fur And Gold” to her second “Two Suns” because when I listen to the latter I don’t feel connected to any of the songs.
November 20, 2011
Album Digest, November 2011
Just three albums this month as I’ve been listening to a lot of Brian Eno records ready for an upcoming understated classic. First up is 50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush, the second album that she has released this year. Back in May I wrote about Director’s Cut, which presented re-recorded and re-mastered versions of songs from her albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. This time around it is an album of brand new material, the first since Aerial in 2006.
Tag: Parquet Courts
December 7, 2017
Album Digest, November 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
May 31, 2016
Album Digest, May 2016
Album Digest May 2016 features the work of four bands or artists that I have reviewed in previous album digests. I also own (or will own) all of these albums on vinyl, so it’s handy that I’ve recently bought myself a record player!
Radiohead “A Moon Shaped Pool” Radiohead released “A Moon Shaped Pool” online about three weeks ago and a physical version hits the shops later in June. As with all of their recent albums, it is (mostly) a slow burner that rewards multiple listens.
January 31, 2015
Album Digest, January 2015
Album Digest January 2015 rounds up a few albums from the tail end of 2014 that I didn’t get much time to write about. The only one of these six to be released this month is the excellent “No Cities To Love” by Sleater-Kinney.
Sleater-Kinney “No Cities To Love” I had heard of Sleater-Kinney before their boxed set “Start Together” was released in 2014. I was quite impressed that they curated their own Spotify playlist with the contents of the box.
June 30, 2014
Album Digest, June 2014
Watter are a “supergroup” composed from various members of Grails, Slint, and other bands. I did not know anything about Hundred Waters before this month: “The Moon Rang Like A Bell” is their second album. In fact second albums by bands I know nothing about are a something of theme because “Sunbathing Animal” is Parquet Courts’ sophomore effort and I don’t know anything about them either. Meanwhile, I’ve meant to write about “The Four Seasons Recomposed” since April.
Tag: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
November 15, 2017
I Will Make Room For You - Four Tet Remix
In a perfect confluence of last month’s album digest, here’s an excellent Four Tet remix of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “I Will Make Room For You” from her album “The Kid”. I’ve put it into a playlist with “Lush” from Four Tet’s “New Energy” album and the original version of “I Will Make Room For You.”
Enjoy!
October 31, 2017
Album Digest, October 2017
Mary Epworth “Elytral” This album came to my attention because its lead single “Me Swimming” appeared on my Discover Weekly playlist. I’d never heard of Mary before but this album was one of those nice discoveries that one sometimes makes when one tries to broaden what one listens to. The aforementioned “Me Swimming” is probably the best track, a beautiful slice of summery experimental pop layered over a beat that you can imagine as the kicks of a swimmer compared to the swirling lyric that imitates the pull of the strokes through the water.
September 30, 2016
Album Digest, September 2016
This month’s album digest features albums by Wilco, M.I.A., Local Natives, and a collaboration between Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani.
Wilco Schmilco Schmilco is the tenth studio album by Wilco, which regular readers will know are one of my favourite bands. There’s no need to repeat that anecdote about why this blog has the name that it does. Meanwhile, this album follows on from last year’s Star Wars and is probably the third Wilco album to have a jokey meta- kind of title.
Tag: Matt Haig
November 11, 2017
Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive
After I read “Hello America” and “Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” to Ingrid, it was her turn to read something to me. We settled on Matt Haig’s memoir of anxiety and depression “Reasons to Stay Alive”, which is as uplifting and life-affirming as its title suggests.
The book begins with its author standing atop some cliffs in Ibiza, crushed by depression and anxiety and determined to die.
Tag: R
November 4, 2017
A Little Lesson in R
I had to compute an indicator this week. It had confidence intervals that relied on taking 100,000 samples from the indicator’s approximate distribution. I had to repeat this over multiple GP practices and for twelve different demographic groups.
I decided to use dplyr1 because I thought it would help me organise all subgroups involved. I used mutate_at() heavily and thought that dplyr was keeping everything organised. However, when I moved from the 10 samples I’d used for testing to the 100,000 samples required by the specification of the indicator, my code moved to a crawl.
October 5, 2017
Personal ggplot tips and tweaks
I love making plots in R with ggplot. However, there are always a few niggles that I forget about between plots. I wrote this post so that I have somewhere to look the next time I need to tweak a few things in my plots. I intend to come back and add updates in the future as I learn more things. If I keep coming back, I might also remember a few of these too.
July 1, 2016
Swaptastic Part 3: The Shiny App
The shiny app embedded below allows you to explore the number of packets you need to complete the Panini sticker album for this summer’s Euro tournament. This builds on the results I presented in an [earlier post](link to earlier post) and allows you to explore how many fewer packets you need to buy when you have more friends to swap with. You can also vary the number of runs performed because the model runs considerably slower with more swappers involved.
June 29, 2016
Swaptastic Part 2
As a follow-up to my post about the Euro 2016 Panini Stickers, I’ve now completed the collection with the help of an online swapping site and by buying the last 39 stickers directly from Panini. I also managed to write a new simulator, this time with additional collectors involved.
I assume that each of N collectors will buy a packet of stickers and add any new stickers to their album. Then they attempt to swap any leftovers with the rest of their friends.
September 25, 2014
How to generate random numbers in R
This post deals with how to generate random numbers in R. It is good to know how to generate random numbers with a particular language or software package for at least one of the following three reasons:
You want to test something that depends on a particular distribution. You’re running a stochastic process of some kind (Branching process, random walk etc) and you need random numbers for deciding whether an event occurs.
Tag: Mary Epworth
October 31, 2017
Album Digest, October 2017
Mary Epworth “Elytral” This album came to my attention because its lead single “Me Swimming” appeared on my Discover Weekly playlist. I’d never heard of Mary before but this album was one of those nice discoveries that one sometimes makes when one tries to broaden what one listens to. The aforementioned “Me Swimming” is probably the best track, a beautiful slice of summery experimental pop layered over a beat that you can imagine as the kicks of a swimmer compared to the swirling lyric that imitates the pull of the strokes through the water.
Tag: October
October 31, 2017
Album Digest, October 2017
Mary Epworth “Elytral” This album came to my attention because its lead single “Me Swimming” appeared on my Discover Weekly playlist. I’d never heard of Mary before but this album was one of those nice discoveries that one sometimes makes when one tries to broaden what one listens to. The aforementioned “Me Swimming” is probably the best track, a beautiful slice of summery experimental pop layered over a beat that you can imagine as the kicks of a swimmer compared to the swirling lyric that imitates the pull of the strokes through the water.
October 31, 2013
Album Digest, October 2013
Four great albums this month for the last album digest in a while.
CHVRCHES “The Bones Of What You Believe” I first got into CHVRCHES on Record Store Day, one of my purchases was an Irn Bru coloured 12" of the Recover EP that, according to eBay, tripled in value over night. Judging by this, their full debut, my see-through orange slab of happiness may hold its value, because it’s clear that CHVRCHES should be around for the long haul.
October 31, 2012
Album Digest, October 2012
It has been a strange month and I found that I didn’t listen to a lot of new music. I have been a bit down and when that’s the case I tend to take refuge in music that I know well, stuff that cheers me up. I have listened to last month’s fave a lot, Nelly Furtado’s “The Spirit Indestructible”. I said a lot of nice things about it but it probably didn’t come over in my writing just how much I really liked it.
October 31, 2011
Album Digest, October 2011
This month we have albums by Björk, Coldplay, M83, and Radiohead.
Album Digest October 2011 - Intro I listened to Wilco’s The Whole Love again the other day. I happened to be walking past the venue in Portsmouth where I went to see them live back in 2004 and it seemed the right fit. I really enjoyed the album after a period of not having listened to it and I found that being familiar with the songs allowed me to better appreciate the production of the album.
Tag: Rival Consoles
October 31, 2017
Album Digest, October 2017
Mary Epworth “Elytral” This album came to my attention because its lead single “Me Swimming” appeared on my Discover Weekly playlist. I’d never heard of Mary before but this album was one of those nice discoveries that one sometimes makes when one tries to broaden what one listens to. The aforementioned “Me Swimming” is probably the best track, a beautiful slice of summery experimental pop layered over a beat that you can imagine as the kicks of a swimmer compared to the swirling lyric that imitates the pull of the strokes through the water.
Tag: Goldsmiths
October 30, 2017
Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun
“Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” is a novella by Sarah Ladipo Manyika. Of all the books nominated for the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize, this looked like the most interesting to my eyes. I’ve enjoyed previous Goldsmiths nominated novels including Acts of the Assassins and Satin Island.
The title comes from a poem by Mary Ruefle called “Donkey On”. You can read it here.
“Like a Mule…” is set in contemporary San Francisco and takes the form of multiple first person narratives, centred around Dr.
Tag: Novella
October 30, 2017
Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun
“Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” is a novella by Sarah Ladipo Manyika. Of all the books nominated for the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize, this looked like the most interesting to my eyes. I’ve enjoyed previous Goldsmiths nominated novels including Acts of the Assassins and Satin Island.
The title comes from a poem by Mary Ruefle called “Donkey On”. You can read it here.
“Like a Mule…” is set in contemporary San Francisco and takes the form of multiple first person narratives, centred around Dr.
Tag: Sarah Ladipo Manyika
October 30, 2017
Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun
“Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” is a novella by Sarah Ladipo Manyika. Of all the books nominated for the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize, this looked like the most interesting to my eyes. I’ve enjoyed previous Goldsmiths nominated novels including Acts of the Assassins and Satin Island.
The title comes from a poem by Mary Ruefle called “Donkey On”. You can read it here.
“Like a Mule…” is set in contemporary San Francisco and takes the form of multiple first person narratives, centred around Dr.
Tag: The Coral
October 29, 2017
Understated Classics #36: The Coral by The Coral
Perhaps in today’s modern age of streaming and such, The Coral would be a bigger band and may have survived their eventual burnout. Their work ethic was evident from the start, as rumours swirled in the NME about a fantastic new band from Liverpool who were going to blow everybody’s socks off. I went to see them live in Bristol after they’d released three EPs and they were incredible. Their sound, a bit like the movie “Holy Mountain” set to pop music, imagined a Merseybeat channelled from an alternative universe in which Lennon and McCartney took their acid in the Mojave desert rather than in the English suburbs.
Tag: Art
October 8, 2017
Georgia O'Keeffe at Tate Modern
We went to see the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition at the Tate Modern last year. At the time, I didn’t know much about her, other than the fact she was famous for painting flowers. And that people get a bit hot under the collar about what those paintings might represent. Was the art world of the 1920s and 1930s so repressed that it managed to get into a lather about some paintings of flowers?
October 8, 2016
Mira Schendel at Tate Modern
Mira Schendel was a Brazilian artist who was active throughout the middle to late twentieth century. She is considered to be one of South America’s best artists. Known mostly for her abstract paintings, she also experimented with sculptures and installations. Many of her works use text and semiotics to explore and define possible meanings for more abstract works.
I saw this exhibition during its run in the Tate Modern in the Autumn of 2013.
October 18, 2013
LS Lowry At Tate Britain
I have mixed feelings about this show. On the one hand, I like that there are depictions of working class Britain on display and I feel that it is right that these paintings are considered part of the British cultural canon. I also like that a lot of these paintings represent large gatherings of people, which are absent from a lot of what we might call the mainstream of art.
October 12, 2013
Art Under Attack at Tate Britain
Today I went with a friend to see Tate Britain’s “Art Under Attack” show. It’s an interesting, if uneven, affair that entertains but doesn’t quite succeed in everything it attempts to do. The big word that you learn is iconoclasm: the act of attacking an object believed to represent particular beliefs. The show splits into two parts: ideological acts of iconoclasm committed against works of art in Britain and the work of British artists who embrace iconoclasm as a means for making art.
September 13, 2013
Ellen Gallagher at Tate Modern
Ellen Gallagher is an American artist and her “AxME” show recently finished at the Tate Modern. I went along a few weeks ago and have only now had a bit of time to write up my thoughts.
My biggest regret is that I didn’t go along to it sooner, so that I had a chance to see it more than once. It was certainly a larger show than I was expecting (it was about the size of the Ibrahim El-salahi and Saloua Choucair shows put together) and I hadn’t left myself with a lot of time to see everything when I did go.
July 24, 2013
Ibrahim El-Salahi At Tate Modern
Ibrahim El-Salahi is a modernist artist from Sudan. I believe this exhibition is a first for an African artist at the Tate Modern. Much like the Choucair show (which is still on everyone!), it’s an engaging but too short introduction to an interesting artist that you have probably never heard of.
The pieces are roughly divided between large blank and white ink drawings that are mounted on multiple panels and oil paintings in earthy colours that depict abstract scenes.
May 29, 2013
George Bellows At RA
Today I went to see “George Bellows 1882-1925 Modern American Life” at the Royal Academy of Arts. It’s the first time I’ve been to the RA but I was emboldened by my art pass and the fact that Bellows was a contemporary of Edward Hopper, a painter whom I admire greatly. This is the first major retrospective of Bellows’ work in the UK and taking in his wonderful paintings this afternoon, I felt a little embarrassed that I hadn’t seen anything of his before.
May 25, 2013
Choucair At Tate Modern
Yesterday I went to see the Saloua Raouda Choucair show at the Tate Modern. As it was quite small, I went to see the Lichtenstein show again as well.
Choucair is an underrated Lebanese artist and many of the paintings and sculptures shown were created in the fifties and sixties. Her sculptures in particular are amazing.
The first room is lined with paintings that were nearly all gouache on paper, about 40cm by 30cm.
May 21, 2013
Lichtenstein At Tate Modern
This was a show that I had put off going to see for quite a while now. Looking online at the pictures featured in the show did not really excite me enough to get out and see it. I’d seen Whaam! before in isolation (it’s part of the Tate collection and will no doubt return once the retrospective show is over) and it didn’t really grab me, arresting as it is.
March 5, 2013
A Work Of Art At The End Of My Road?
I have had a lot of ideas for posts swirling around in my head in recent days. This is because I have actually done quite a lot of cool things in that time, and because I have hung out with some great people who make me think, and because I always have a whole load of things bouncing around in there anyway - space junk of the mind. I was thinking about how to put together these thoughts I have been having about art and about stories and yes, about love too.
Tag: Georgia O'Keeffe
October 8, 2017
Georgia O'Keeffe at Tate Modern
We went to see the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition at the Tate Modern last year. At the time, I didn’t know much about her, other than the fact she was famous for painting flowers. And that people get a bit hot under the collar about what those paintings might represent. Was the art world of the 1920s and 1930s so repressed that it managed to get into a lather about some paintings of flowers?
Tag: Tate Modern
October 8, 2017
Georgia O'Keeffe at Tate Modern
We went to see the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition at the Tate Modern last year. At the time, I didn’t know much about her, other than the fact she was famous for painting flowers. And that people get a bit hot under the collar about what those paintings might represent. Was the art world of the 1920s and 1930s so repressed that it managed to get into a lather about some paintings of flowers?
October 8, 2016
Mira Schendel at Tate Modern
Mira Schendel was a Brazilian artist who was active throughout the middle to late twentieth century. She is considered to be one of South America’s best artists. Known mostly for her abstract paintings, she also experimented with sculptures and installations. Many of her works use text and semiotics to explore and define possible meanings for more abstract works.
I saw this exhibition during its run in the Tate Modern in the Autumn of 2013.
September 13, 2013
Ellen Gallagher at Tate Modern
Ellen Gallagher is an American artist and her “AxME” show recently finished at the Tate Modern. I went along a few weeks ago and have only now had a bit of time to write up my thoughts.
My biggest regret is that I didn’t go along to it sooner, so that I had a chance to see it more than once. It was certainly a larger show than I was expecting (it was about the size of the Ibrahim El-salahi and Saloua Choucair shows put together) and I hadn’t left myself with a lot of time to see everything when I did go.
July 24, 2013
Ibrahim El-Salahi At Tate Modern
Ibrahim El-Salahi is a modernist artist from Sudan. I believe this exhibition is a first for an African artist at the Tate Modern. Much like the Choucair show (which is still on everyone!), it’s an engaging but too short introduction to an interesting artist that you have probably never heard of.
The pieces are roughly divided between large blank and white ink drawings that are mounted on multiple panels and oil paintings in earthy colours that depict abstract scenes.
May 25, 2013
Choucair At Tate Modern
Yesterday I went to see the Saloua Raouda Choucair show at the Tate Modern. As it was quite small, I went to see the Lichtenstein show again as well.
Choucair is an underrated Lebanese artist and many of the paintings and sculptures shown were created in the fifties and sixties. Her sculptures in particular are amazing.
The first room is lined with paintings that were nearly all gouache on paper, about 40cm by 30cm.
May 21, 2013
Lichtenstein At Tate Modern
This was a show that I had put off going to see for quite a while now. Looking online at the pictures featured in the show did not really excite me enough to get out and see it. I’d seen Whaam! before in isolation (it’s part of the Tate collection and will no doubt return once the retrospective show is over) and it didn’t really grab me, arresting as it is.
March 5, 2013
A Work Of Art At The End Of My Road?
I have had a lot of ideas for posts swirling around in my head in recent days. This is because I have actually done quite a lot of cool things in that time, and because I have hung out with some great people who make me think, and because I always have a whole load of things bouncing around in there anyway - space junk of the mind. I was thinking about how to put together these thoughts I have been having about art and about stories and yes, about love too.
Tag: Alistair Reynolds
October 6, 2017
Alistair Reynolds, Revelation Space
Alistair Reynolds’ 2000 novel “Revelation Space” has long been in orbit of my science fiction “to read” list, but it wasn’t until one sleepless night (post “Command and Control”) that I came across it in Ingrid’s audiobooks. I was instantly drawn in as I listened to the opening scene about an archaeological dig facing evacuation ahead of an imminent ‘razor storm’.
“Revelation Space” is hard sci-fi set in a universe where the speed of light cannot be exceeded.
Tag: J. G. Ballard
October 3, 2017
J. G. Ballard, Hello America
I had low expectations for “Hello America”, the next in the series of Ballard novels that I started reading over seven years ago. However, it turned out to be a hoot. A couple of years ago, this novel would have been a wig-out bit of standard Ballard weirdness (a bit like “The Drowned World” or “The Crystal World”) but given recent events “Hello America” is starting to take on an eerie prescience.
July 14, 2016
J. G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company
I last wrote about a JG Ballard novel nearly three years ago. That one - “High-Rise” - has since been made into a film. The subject of this post is “The Unlimited Dream Company”, my favourite among his novels: a silly romp through suburban sexual repression that glitters with sinister wit. Even after many read-throughs I still can’t work out whether it is a crazy masterpiece or something light that we’re meant to throw away after reading.
October 5, 2013
J. G. Ballard, High-Rise
After a few false starts I managed to finish “High-Rise”, the next in my collection of JG Ballard novels. For a book that I had trouble getting into, it turned out to be a pretty good read - even if it was also a pretty unpleasant one. Published in 1975, “High-Rise” is perhaps ahead of its time in exploring the effects of social breakdown in stylised and artificial situations where people are in close contact.
February 9, 2012
Never Mind The Ballards
Ages ago I set out to write a post for each of JG Ballard’s novels. In fact it is the oldest post on this blog. Most of the novels (I don’t have the two autobiographical novels Empire Of The Sun or The Kindness Of Women and the late period novel Milennium People) are sat in a row on top of my broken bookshelf, part of the weight there that bowed outer frame of the unit and made the inner shelves collapse.
June 21, 2011
J. G. Ballard, Concrete Island
No man is an island (not any more) You are tracked pretty much everywhere you go. CCTV, the GPS on your phone or the signals sent by your more primitive model to the masts to keep in touch with the network. Your cash withdrawals, your purchases in Tesco and your journeys on public transport all add to the picture of where you are. If you drive, your sat nav will hold clues to where you have been and, if you disappear, where you might have gone to.
February 1, 2011
J. G. Ballard, Crash
Form and function, deformation and dysfunction I think we should get one thing out of the way first. For me, there is nothing erotic about a car or a motorway. The place in popular culture of the car in particular as sexual icon has always bemused me. In fact, I’m really rather ambivalent about cars. This matters when discussing Crash, the 1973 novel by JG Ballard that resumes this strand of posts about his novels.
September 26, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Crystal World
Crystallising the world, the body, or the mind? At last, Ballard in full flow. The Crystal World (TCW) is definitely the most enjoyable of the early trio of apocalyptic novels. It takes the successful elements of the first two and embellishes them with new details and ideas. At time of writing, TCW is definitely the best Ballard novel that I have read in its entirety.
The book begins with a steamer travelling up a river in Cameroon carrying the novel’s main protagonist Edward Sanders, a doctor at a hospital for lepers.
September 8, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Drought
The world created by nature versus the world constructed by humans On to The Drought by J. G. Ballard in my ongoing quest to read and review all of his novels. This is his second novel, if we assume his convention of never acknowledging “The Wind From Nowhere” as being his first novel. “The Drought” itself was renamed from “The Burning World” and additional content added later on. This was quite common practice in SF in the 50s and 60s where novels were serialised in magazines like Amazing SF and Interzone.
August 14, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Drowned World
Does Science Fiction have to be believable to be meaningful? Should science fiction have predictive power? In plotting the vast unknowns of the future, should authors aim for prescience? Will people be able to say of the best SF novels in five hundred years time that some novels were right about some things and that these novels are better than the ones that didn’t?
I would say no, otherwise we would be remarkably unfair on an awful lot of good writing.
August 2, 2010
J. G. Ballard
Reading “Crash” at 17 left me in a state of numb shock. It got me hooked and left me with J. G. Ballard as one of my favourite authors. I then devoured a short story collection called “Myths of the Near Future” around the same time. You may recognise it because the Klaxons appropriated the title for their debut album. Those stories captured my imagination, in particular the eponymous story of a world gone to run amid “space sickness”.
Tag: Wedding
October 1, 2017
The same, but different
Ingrid and I got married a month ago. It was a lovely day. We had a simple ceremony with two witnesses, our friends Sue and Andrew. We kept it quiet and small, as we just wanted to be married without too much fuss. A month on, we’re happy to report that we are glad we did it.
We’d like to thank everyone who nonetheless sent cards and gifts, and to all of those who wished us well on Facebook.
Tag: Nelly Furtado
September 30, 2017
Album Digest, September 2017
Note: Recent months have been very busy, so this album digest combines a review of the new album by The National with a couple of reviews left over from earlier in the year.
I’ve written a few more album reviews in the past months but I’m so far behind (February and March have already been published on a considerable lag) that I’m just going to pepper forthcoming digests with additional reviews of older albums.
January 31, 2013
Album Digest, January 2013
Only one of this month three albums was actually released this month. Nelly Furtado’s Mi plan was actually released over three years ago - I only discovered it last year when I wrote the September album digest following the release of “The Spirit Indestructible”, or it might have been when I wrote about “Folklore” at around the same time.
Anyway, I guess these are albums that I bought with my Christmas gift vouchers!
September 29, 2012
Album Digest, September 2012
I had a bit more time to listen to this month’s albums because I was on holiday for two weeks. I didn’t manage to write about them while on holiday though! In fact I bought and listened to a few more, but I will save them for next month. The albums I will discuss now (in order bought) are:
Four Tet “Pink” The xx “Coexist” Nelly Furtado “The Spirit Indestructible” Grizzly Bear “Shields” It’s quite a diverse collection and, Four Tet apart, quite song based.
September 19, 2012
Understated Classics #20: Folklore by Nelly Furtado
It’s rather spooky but shortly after deciding to write about Nelly Furtado’s “Folklore” as the next understated classic, I found out that she has a new album out this week. As a result, I have been listening to a lot of her music while writing this post, and I’ve been enjoying it too.
As always with these choices of mine, “Folklore” is a record that I can link to particular events and emotions in my life and so I guess my perception of it is coloured by that.
Tag: September
September 30, 2017
Album Digest, September 2017
Note: Recent months have been very busy, so this album digest combines a review of the new album by The National with a couple of reviews left over from earlier in the year.
I’ve written a few more album reviews in the past months but I’m so far behind (February and March have already been published on a considerable lag) that I’m just going to pepper forthcoming digests with additional reviews of older albums.
September 30, 2016
Album Digest, September 2016
This month’s album digest features albums by Wilco, M.I.A., Local Natives, and a collaboration between Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani.
Wilco Schmilco Schmilco is the tenth studio album by Wilco, which regular readers will know are one of my favourite bands. There’s no need to repeat that anecdote about why this blog has the name that it does. Meanwhile, this album follows on from last year’s Star Wars and is probably the third Wilco album to have a jokey meta- kind of title.
September 30, 2014
Album Digest, September 2014
Album Digest September 2014 contains four amazing albums, including the long-awaited return from the Aphex Twin, and an album from Cymbals Eat Guitars released about a week after I wondered what had happened to them. Spooky. Rounding out the selection this month are a cool punky-disco album by The Juan Maclean and a truly remarkable offering by Vessel.
Aphex Twin SYRO SYRO is the sixth album by Aphex Twin and his first official Aphex Twin release since Drukqs in 2001.
September 30, 2013
Album Digest, September 2013
A nice diverse selection of albums this month:
Arctic Monkeys “AM” BT “A Song Across Wires” Goldfrapp “Tales of Us” Janelle Monáe “Electric Lady” Arctic Monkeys “AM” This whole review is basically me catching up with the rest of the world and realising that the Arctic Monkeys are ace. To be fair, I did notice how awesome they were at the opening ceremony of the Olympics last year, and I have liked the odd one or two of their singles, but up until now I haven’t really wanted to listen to any of their albums.
September 29, 2012
Album Digest, September 2012
I had a bit more time to listen to this month’s albums because I was on holiday for two weeks. I didn’t manage to write about them while on holiday though! In fact I bought and listened to a few more, but I will save them for next month. The albums I will discuss now (in order bought) are:
Four Tet “Pink” The xx “Coexist” Nelly Furtado “The Spirit Indestructible” Grizzly Bear “Shields” It’s quite a diverse collection and, Four Tet apart, quite song based.
September 30, 2011
Album Digest, September 2011
Hmmm, a rather grey looking selection of covers this month. The albums I have listened to most are:
John Beltran Ambient Selections FabricLive 59 mixed by Four Tet The Rapture In The Grace Of Your Love Wilco The Whole Love I have actually only had the Wilco album since Monday of this week (the 26th) but it has inveigled its way into my consciousness quite quickly. As I have said before, this blog owes its name to a Wilco song and they are quite an important band to me.
Tag: Eric Schlosser
September 29, 2017
Eric Schlosser, Command and Control
“Command and Control” by Eric Schlosser is about the history of nuclear weapons and their safety. This might not seem like a thrilling subject, but it’s absorbing from start to finish. I started it three years ago but only finished it more recently as the subject of nuclear weapons has become more pertinent to current affairs1. There are many people who would stand to gain a great deal from reading this book2.
September 2, 2015
Eric Schlosser, Gods of Metal
Y-12 is the United States’ most secure weapons-grade Uranium storage facility. It is known as the “Fort Knox of Uranium”. In 2012 it was infiltrated by three elderly peace protesters, sparking a major scandal about the safety of US nuclear sites. “Gods of Metal” by Eric Schlosser tells the story of that break-in alongside a history of both the anti-nuclear movement (in particular the Plowshares movement) and nuclear security in the United States.
Tag: Italy
September 28, 2017
A little trip to Italy
We bought a cheap package holiday in the British Airways Black Friday sale. The weekend spanned Ingrid’s birthday, so it was ideal. £99 each for flights and a hotel, and we bagged a hire car quite cheaply too.
Because our flight was from Heathrow and the trains from Chichester are both expensive and inconvenient for early flights, we spoiled ourselves with a taxi to the airport. It felt very strange to be whisked through the Sussex and Surrey countryside at six am on a Friday morning!
Tag: Orbital
September 25, 2017
Understated Classics #35: Snivilisation by Orbital
I came late to Orbital’s work. I knew of them through a few remixes and because as a mad Orb fan, they could not have avoided my notice could they? Apart from that, one of my college friends tried to get me into “In Sides” just after its release in 1996. The same friend got me into “Second Toughest In The Infants” by Underworld. I cannot now understand the reason, but “In Sides” just left me cold.
April 30, 2012
Album Digest, April 2012
A mostly instrumental month with a comeback from Orbital, an excellent remix collection from Battles, an amazing movie documenting a live performance by the Chemical Brothers and Austin Wintory’s soundtrack to the game Journey.
Orbital Wonky Battles Dross Glop The Chemical Brothers Don’t Think Austin Wintory Journey (Original Soundtrack) Orbital Wonky I am quite keen on Orbital, though perhaps not as keen as I am on the similarly named Orb. I think I have got all the Orbital albums, mostly bought on eBay after the fact.
Tag: Blanck Mass
March 31, 2017
Album Digest, March 2017
Blanck Mass World Eater This album is pretty extreme. It’s not for everyone and even for the people who can handle it, it’s not for all the time. This album is a soul crushing experience at points but there are also points of light. Perhaps this makes “World Eater” more reflective of life as a whole than any other of this month’s albums. On balance it’s probably less crushing than the last Blanck Mass album “Dumb Flesh”, which I reviewed back in June 2015.
June 30, 2015
Album Digest, June 2015
To reboot this series, Album Digest June 2015 features five fantastic albums from Hot Chip, Jamie xx, Blanck Mass, Holly Herndon, and The Orb. I could pick loads more as I’ve listened to a lot of albums since February but I decided to focus on the more electronic material. This means that I have no excuses for not continuing next month with a rockier theme.
Hot Chip “Why Make Sense?” Hot Chip seem to be settling in to a pattern with their album releases, alternating between messy experimental affairs and then a state of the art correction.
Tag: JFDR
March 31, 2017
Album Digest, March 2017
Blanck Mass World Eater This album is pretty extreme. It’s not for everyone and even for the people who can handle it, it’s not for all the time. This album is a soul crushing experience at points but there are also points of light. Perhaps this makes “World Eater” more reflective of life as a whole than any other of this month’s albums. On balance it’s probably less crushing than the last Blanck Mass album “Dumb Flesh”, which I reviewed back in June 2015.
Tag: March
March 31, 2017
Album Digest, March 2017
Blanck Mass World Eater This album is pretty extreme. It’s not for everyone and even for the people who can handle it, it’s not for all the time. This album is a soul crushing experience at points but there are also points of light. Perhaps this makes “World Eater” more reflective of life as a whole than any other of this month’s albums. On balance it’s probably less crushing than the last Blanck Mass album “Dumb Flesh”, which I reviewed back in June 2015.
March 31, 2014
Album Digest, March 2014
I’m back in the UK so it’s back to posts about albums each month. This one is a bit different because I didn’t listen to very much new stuff while I was away so not all of the albums are up to date. I had to write about the new album by Liars though because it’s awesome and I couldn’t wait to discuss it! Here’s the list of albums:
Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob Fanfarlo Let’s Go Extinct Liars Mess London Grammar If You Wait Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob I would argue, as I have throughout my sequence of understated classics posts, that a great album is one that changes you as a person.
March 31, 2013
Album Digest, March 2013
Just the David Bowie album this month as it’s pretty much the only new music that I’ve listened to.
I must admit that I had no idea what to expect of “The Next Day”. It comes almost exactly ten years after “Reality”, an album that I have never really got into despite it having some pretty decent fun tracks like “New Killer Star” and a nice cover of “Pablo Picasso” that has never sent me in search of Jonathan Richman’s original.
March 31, 2012
Album Digest, March 2012
Five albums for Album Digest March 2012
Fanfarlo Rooms Filled With Light The Shins Port Of Morrow Grails Deep Politics New Build Yesterday Was Lived And Lost Scuba Personality A nice collection of albums this month - things usually pick up in March after a slow period after Christmas. One of these is a “catch-up” (the album by Grails) but apart from that one, everything else was released in the last five weeks or so… I should probably have included the album by Racehorses that I bought on my birthday but I will have to leave that for next month as I haven’t listened to it that much.
March 31, 2011
Album Digest, March 2011
This is not an Album Digest March 2011 Well as I said at the end of last month’s album digest post, I took a bit of a break from pursuing new music quite as closely as I have been. As promised, I sidestepped the new R.E.M. and Elbow albums - although I had been promised the latter as a birthday present it is yet to show up, maybe I will look at in April.
Tag: Rolling Blackouts CF
March 31, 2017
Album Digest, March 2017
Blanck Mass World Eater This album is pretty extreme. It’s not for everyone and even for the people who can handle it, it’s not for all the time. This album is a soul crushing experience at points but there are also points of light. Perhaps this makes “World Eater” more reflective of life as a whole than any other of this month’s albums. On balance it’s probably less crushing than the last Blanck Mass album “Dumb Flesh”, which I reviewed back in June 2015.
Tag: The Shins
March 31, 2017
Album Digest, March 2017
Blanck Mass World Eater This album is pretty extreme. It’s not for everyone and even for the people who can handle it, it’s not for all the time. This album is a soul crushing experience at points but there are also points of light. Perhaps this makes “World Eater” more reflective of life as a whole than any other of this month’s albums. On balance it’s probably less crushing than the last Blanck Mass album “Dumb Flesh”, which I reviewed back in June 2015.
March 31, 2012
Album Digest, March 2012
Five albums for Album Digest March 2012
Fanfarlo Rooms Filled With Light The Shins Port Of Morrow Grails Deep Politics New Build Yesterday Was Lived And Lost Scuba Personality A nice collection of albums this month - things usually pick up in March after a slow period after Christmas. One of these is a “catch-up” (the album by Grails) but apart from that one, everything else was released in the last five weeks or so… I should probably have included the album by Racehorses that I bought on my birthday but I will have to leave that for next month as I haven’t listened to it that much.
Tag: Dreadzone
February 28, 2017
Album Digest, February 2017
Grails Chalice Hymnal Some albums are good because a band continues making the music that you love. Some albums are good because a band takes their ideas a step or two further than before. Chalice Hymnalis that rare album that does both of these things.
The references to past albums include the track Deeper Politics and Deep Snow II, and, as per albums past, these tracks evolve slowly out of languid guitar hooks and smoky atmospherics.
March 17, 2011
Understated Classics #8: Second Light by Dreadzone
In the understated classics series, I try to alternate between pop/rock and electronic albums. Keeping with this trend number eight is the wonderful dub-infused album Second Light by Dreadzone. Released in 1996 it was well-received critically and four of its tracks featured on John Peel’s best-of-year list that year. Little Britain received a lot of radio play, a popular choice for that flag-waving period of britpop and assorted other demons.
Tag: Elbow
February 28, 2017
Album Digest, February 2017
Grails Chalice Hymnal Some albums are good because a band continues making the music that you love. Some albums are good because a band takes their ideas a step or two further than before. Chalice Hymnalis that rare album that does both of these things.
The references to past albums include the track Deeper Politics and Deep Snow II, and, as per albums past, these tracks evolve slowly out of languid guitar hooks and smoky atmospherics.
April 30, 2011
Album Digest, April 2011
Album of the month: Mirrorwriting by Jamie Woon Jamie Woon was brought to my attention late last year by Pitchfork who wrote an article about the video for lead single Night Air. I’ve put that video down below because I think that it is very good, a simple well executed and the tune itself is brilliant, probably my favourite individual track of 2010. It’s a downtempo tune full of dark spaces and empty beats, full of nocturnal promise and mystery.
Tag: Bonobo
January 31, 2017
Album Digest, January 2017
Mike Oldfield Return to Ommadawn With Return to Ommadawn, Mike Oldfield revisits his third album Ommadawn. He has past form for this, having revisited his masterwork Tubular Bells twice (the third revisit and fourth instalment Tubular Bells 4 is due next year). I wrote about Tubular Bells II for my understated classics series. Of course Mike has in fact made many more than three Tubular Bells albums1, and this is not a first “return” to Ommadawn.
August 31, 2013
Album Digest, August 2013
For reasons that will become apparent, there will be a short period soon where I will not be writing album digests. Until then, I’m clearing a backlog of some albums that I’ve been listening to but haven’t had enough time or motivation to write about. Only one of this month’s albums was released this month, something that’s not that uncommon at this time of the year as it is not the best time to release things.
Tag: January
January 31, 2017
Album Digest, January 2017
Mike Oldfield Return to Ommadawn With Return to Ommadawn, Mike Oldfield revisits his third album Ommadawn. He has past form for this, having revisited his masterwork Tubular Bells twice (the third revisit and fourth instalment Tubular Bells 4 is due next year). I wrote about Tubular Bells II for my understated classics series. Of course Mike has in fact made many more than three Tubular Bells albums1, and this is not a first “return” to Ommadawn.
January 31, 2015
Album Digest, January 2015
Album Digest January 2015 rounds up a few albums from the tail end of 2014 that I didn’t get much time to write about. The only one of these six to be released this month is the excellent “No Cities To Love” by Sleater-Kinney.
Sleater-Kinney “No Cities To Love” I had heard of Sleater-Kinney before their boxed set “Start Together” was released in 2014. I was quite impressed that they curated their own Spotify playlist with the contents of the box.
January 31, 2013
Album Digest, January 2013
Only one of this month three albums was actually released this month. Nelly Furtado’s Mi plan was actually released over three years ago - I only discovered it last year when I wrote the September album digest following the release of “The Spirit Indestructible”, or it might have been when I wrote about “Folklore” at around the same time.
Anyway, I guess these are albums that I bought with my Christmas gift vouchers!
January 31, 2012
Album Digest, January 2012
Five albums to see in the new year:
FOE “Bad Dream Hotline” Leila “U & I” Diagrams “Black Light” Pyramids & Horseback “A Throne Without A King” FabricLive 61 mixed by Pinch FOE Bad Dream Hotline I listened to “Bad Dream Hotline” about four times thinking “who does her voice remind me of?”. In the end I realised it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though in parts she sounds like KT Tunstall too.
January 31, 2011
Album Digest, January 2011
Here’s to 2011 and the start of a monthly album digest. I want it to be a brief trot through some of the albums I have listened to each month. Sometimes January can bring a few quiet releases by big name bands. This happens if the previous album did not do as well as the record company hoped or if it is the kind of artist who would get lost under the hype of all the Christmas releases.
Tag: Mike Oldfield
January 31, 2017
Album Digest, January 2017
Mike Oldfield Return to Ommadawn With Return to Ommadawn, Mike Oldfield revisits his third album Ommadawn. He has past form for this, having revisited his masterwork Tubular Bells twice (the third revisit and fourth instalment Tubular Bells 4 is due next year). I wrote about Tubular Bells II for my understated classics series. Of course Mike has in fact made many more than three Tubular Bells albums1, and this is not a first “return” to Ommadawn.
June 24, 2011
Understated Classics #10: Tubular Bells II by Mike Oldfield
It was the artwork that got me interested in Tubular Bells II. Rendering Trevor Key’s wonderful icon of the twisted tubular bell in yellow and blue made it all the more mysterious. Seeing it one day in Woolworth’s in Leigh Park back in 1992 aroused my curiosity. The huge display must have been part of the massive publicity drive for the album. Despite dwindling sales for his albums at that time, a sequel to Tubular Bells represented a huge potential for sales.
Tag: The xx
January 31, 2017
Album Digest, January 2017
Mike Oldfield Return to Ommadawn With Return to Ommadawn, Mike Oldfield revisits his third album Ommadawn. He has past form for this, having revisited his masterwork Tubular Bells twice (the third revisit and fourth instalment Tubular Bells 4 is due next year). I wrote about Tubular Bells II for my understated classics series. Of course Mike has in fact made many more than three Tubular Bells albums1, and this is not a first “return” to Ommadawn.
September 29, 2012
Album Digest, September 2012
I had a bit more time to listen to this month’s albums because I was on holiday for two weeks. I didn’t manage to write about them while on holiday though! In fact I bought and listened to a few more, but I will save them for next month. The albums I will discuss now (in order bought) are:
Four Tet “Pink” The xx “Coexist” Nelly Furtado “The Spirit Indestructible” Grizzly Bear “Shields” It’s quite a diverse collection and, Four Tet apart, quite song based.
Tag: Aztec Camera
October 13, 2016
Understated Classics #34: Stray by Aztec Camera
The next instalment in my understated classics series is "Stray" by Aztec Camera. Released in 1990, it features two hit singles and the cover is my favourite colour: green.
My angle for writing about “Stray” was that it was an album that I "caught" from my parents. I soon realised that I wrote about some of those already, for example “The Circle and the Square" by Red Box. Besides, I’m not sure that my parents liked this album that much.
Tag: Sixteen
October 13, 2016
Understated Classics #34: Stray by Aztec Camera
The next instalment in my understated classics series is "Stray" by Aztec Camera. Released in 1990, it features two hit singles and the cover is my favourite colour: green.
My angle for writing about “Stray” was that it was an album that I "caught" from my parents. I soon realised that I wrote about some of those already, for example “The Circle and the Square" by Red Box. Besides, I’m not sure that my parents liked this album that much.
October 8, 2016
Mira Schendel at Tate Modern
Mira Schendel was a Brazilian artist who was active throughout the middle to late twentieth century. She is considered to be one of South America’s best artists. Known mostly for her abstract paintings, she also experimented with sculptures and installations. Many of her works use text and semiotics to explore and define possible meanings for more abstract works.
I saw this exhibition during its run in the Tate Modern in the Autumn of 2013.
September 30, 2016
Album Digest, September 2016
This month’s album digest features albums by Wilco, M.I.A., Local Natives, and a collaboration between Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani.
Wilco Schmilco Schmilco is the tenth studio album by Wilco, which regular readers will know are one of my favourite bands. There’s no need to repeat that anecdote about why this blog has the name that it does. Meanwhile, this album follows on from last year’s Star Wars and is probably the third Wilco album to have a jokey meta- kind of title.
September 24, 2016
The Threepenny Opera
A few weeks ago, Ingrid and I went to see The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre.
The Threepenny Opera was written by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, based on Elisabeth Hauptmann’s German translation of John Gay’s “A Beggar’s Opera”. It was first performed in Weimar Berlin in 1928 and has evolved over time through many adaptations, including several film and off-Broadway versions. It’s a work with very powerful musical overtones and, despite avowals otherwise throughout by the narrator, it has a powerful moral message.
September 11, 2016
A New Notebook
Witness the pressure of a new notebook. You sit at your desk, trying to get it started with an amazing piece of writing. Something worthy of that crisp new page. You want it to tumble out of you, fully formed and coherent. Something that justifies you abandoning the previous one. As though first drafts don’t exist. You cast yourself into the role of shaman, of seer - of someone gifted a prophetic vision.
September 8, 2016
I Don't Have a Clue, part 43
A little man wearing a bow tie, and possibly a fez, scurries into the middle of the frame clutching a clapboard. Breathing heavily he hoists the clapboard up to chest height. He holds the clapper up then brings down while slurring "This is a blog post about not having a clue, take 43". He exits to the right of the frame.
My feet are hot. The bed seems too small. Why are my feet always too hot on nights like these?
August 31, 2016
Album Digest, August 2016
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I allowed Spotify to pick some new albums for me this month. It chose some noodly ambient techno, a captivating slice of World Jazz, a moody gothic hallucination, and a concept album about humans being rescued by aliens. All in all a pretty good job! Here is the list:
Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Sarathy Korwar “Day to Day” Doomsquad “Total Time” United Vibrations “The Myth of the Golden Ratio” Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Prins Thomas recently remixed the Orb’s “Alpine EP” so I’m not surprised that Spotify included one of his tracks on my Discover Weekly playlist.
August 30, 2016
Adventures with Discover Weekly
Because I couldn’t find any albums coming out this month that I wanted to review for the album digest, I decided to let Spotify pick the albums to listen to. I listened to my algorithmically chosen Discover Weekly playlist one week and selected albums based on the songs that I liked the most. The album also had to be released in 2016. The selections are ones that got away.
I’ve done this before.
August 21, 2016
BBC Prom 47 at the Royal Albert Hall
We went to see Prom 47, an afternoon prom at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The bill included a brand new work by Piers Hellawell, along with a Cello concerto by Haydn and a symphony by Tchaikovsky. These were all performed by the Ulster Orchestra. The conductor was Rafael Payare. The tickets were an affordable £17 each which isn’t bad at all given that we were sat in the second row of the circle.
July 31, 2016
Album Digest, July 2016
Album Digest July 2016 consists of a bumper five albums, mainly because I couldn’t work out which one to drop. I think they’re all pretty good though it’s great to hear new music from The Avalanches after all this time.
Bat For Lashes “The Bride” For her fourth album as Bat For Lashes, Natasha Khan applies her considerable songwriting skills to a concept album. She sings from the perspective of a bride whose husband dies on his way to their wedding.
July 30, 2016
Richard Beard, Acts of the Assassins
Acts of the Assassins is an interesting novel by Richard Beard that retells the story of the apostles and their deaths. It uses a modern crime genre style and a contemporary setting. The author himself refers to it as “Gospel Noir”. Cassius Gallio, a Roman CSI-type referred to as a speculator, investigates the murders of the apostles following the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Gallio, charged with guarding the body following Jesus’ death and greatly undermined by the disappearance of the body, views the resurrection as the greatest conspiracy of the age.
July 20, 2016
Understated Classics #33: Embrya by Maxwell
I give the impression of planning these posts but to be honest I came across an article about Maxwell a few weeks ago and fondly remembered my cassette copy of this album. The joy of Spotify is that it’s easy to dig up old favourites. The recent warm weather makes for a good opportunity to enjoy the sultry embrace of “Embrya” once more.
“Gestation: Mythos” burbles along for two and a half minutes, overlaying spoken word samples, string phrases and weird underwater noises, before the bass line of “Everwanting: To Want You To Want” brings things to life.
July 19, 2016
South America, Part 12
Uyuni to Tupiza We left Uyuni the night after the big storm, having stopped just a day or so to visit the salt flats. Our next stop was a strategic stay in Tupiza, a large town encircled with red hills. It resembled many towns that I visited in South America: low buildings arranged in a grid pattern. Not much greenery and plenty of dust billowing about. The reason for our stay was strategic, it’s only a short distance to the notoriously fussy border between Bolivia and Argentina.
July 14, 2016
J. G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company
I last wrote about a JG Ballard novel nearly three years ago. That one - “High-Rise” - has since been made into a film. The subject of this post is “The Unlimited Dream Company”, my favourite among his novels: a silly romp through suburban sexual repression that glitters with sinister wit. Even after many read-throughs I still can’t work out whether it is a crazy masterpiece or something light that we’re meant to throw away after reading.
July 1, 2016
Swaptastic Part 3: The Shiny App
The shiny app embedded below allows you to explore the number of packets you need to complete the Panini sticker album for this summer’s Euro tournament. This builds on the results I presented in an [earlier post](link to earlier post) and allows you to explore how many fewer packets you need to buy when you have more friends to swap with. You can also vary the number of runs performed because the model runs considerably slower with more swappers involved.
June 30, 2016
Album Digest, June 2016
Album Digest June 2016 is a poppy batch of albums. We have the return of my long-time favourites Roxette and the heroes of my South American tour Tegan & Sara. There’s some dance music in the form of Flume’s album “Skin”: an Australian presence ahead of the new Avalanches album next month. Finally there is the first of two new albums by Islands - both were released back in May but one gets reviewed this month and the other next month.
June 29, 2016
Swaptastic Part 2
As a follow-up to my post about the Euro 2016 Panini Stickers, I’ve now completed the collection with the help of an online swapping site and by buying the last 39 stickers directly from Panini. I also managed to write a new simulator, this time with additional collectors involved.
I assume that each of N collectors will buy a packet of stickers and add any new stickers to their album. Then they attempt to swap any leftovers with the rest of their friends.
June 25, 2016
In the space between this and that
Britain voted to leave the EU this week. It made for an angry and confused Friday morning. I posted snippy comments on Facebook at a rate of about one every fifteen minutes. I also knew that there was nothing I could do. Even when you feel like Charlton Heston at the end of "Planet of the Apes", you have to suck it up and accept that sometimes things don't go as you like.
June 14, 2016
Swaptastic Part 1
Envelopes containing swaps that have arrived in the post in recent days. It is nice to get letters from all over the country, even if they do just contain a selection of panini stickers. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have used the sticker swapping website to share my swaps with people all over the UK. I have sent swaps off to London, Bristol, Cornwall, Lancashire, Wales, and Gloucester.
June 9, 2016
Logitech K380 Review
Time for a little gear review. This is the Logitech K380 keyboard. It pairs with devices wirelessly over Bluetooth. I bought it to use with my Apple TV, iPad and iPhone. It runs on 2 AAA batteries, but the supplied batteries are not rechargeable. The keyboard is light and portable but you definitely know you have it in your bag.
It’s lovely to type on. For a go-anywhere keyboard it has a surprisingly nice feel to the keys.
June 5, 2016
Euro 2016 Panini Stickers
Sound the conspicuous consumption klaxon! 📣 I know it’s foolish but I decided to collect the Panini stickers for the Euro 2016 tournament this summer. I think it’s a more edifying waste of money than a series of group game accumulators that don’t come off. If this week’s long read in The Guardian is anything to go by, we really shouldn’t be giving any more of our money to betting companies.
May 31, 2016
Album Digest, May 2016
Album Digest May 2016 features the work of four bands or artists that I have reviewed in previous album digests. I also own (or will own) all of these albums on vinyl, so it’s handy that I’ve recently bought myself a record player!
Radiohead “A Moon Shaped Pool” Radiohead released “A Moon Shaped Pool” online about three weeks ago and a physical version hits the shops later in June. As with all of their recent albums, it is (mostly) a slow burner that rewards multiple listens.
May 23, 2016
Werner Bischof: Point of View and Helvetica
2016 marks the centenary of the birth of Werner Bischof, the talented Magnum photojournalist who died in Peru in 1954, aged 38. He travelled widely, making the most of an incredible talent for photography. After the second world war, this led him all over Europe to document its aftermath. As the cold war began, Bischof found himself documenting events further afield.
We saw two exhibitions of his photography at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne.
May 17, 2016
Paul McAuley, Something Coming Through
“Something Coming Through” is a science fiction novel set in the near future. A few years after a brief nuclear war known as “The Spasm”, an alien race known as the Jackaroo introduce themselves to humanity. The novel is funny, thoughtful, and politically charged. I found it to be a good read.
The aliens have given humanity fifteen “gift” worlds and an automated way to access them. Think of the Docklands Light Railway but with space shuttles.
April 30, 2016
Album Digest, April 2016
This month’s album digest is a mixture of comparisons. First we compare the fortunes of old hands Underworld to even older hands the Pet Shop Boys. After that I’ve found two dance albums, one that I liked and one that I didn’t. I find it quite hard to write about dance music and so the comparison is quite useful. Sometimes it helps to work out why you like one thing and not another.
April 11, 2016
Lausanne, Switzerland, March 2016
Just before Easter Ingrid and I went to Lausanne in Switzerland for a few days. It was a much-needed break and my first trip out of the UK since I got back from South America.
We caught an early train to Gatwick. It took a strange route along the coast via Worthing and Hove, which was annoying because we could have left later if a more direct train were available at that time of day.
March 12, 2016
The Orb - Alpine EP
The Orb return with a new EP on the Kompakt label called “Alpine”.
“Alpine” is split in to three tracks “Morning”, “Evening” and “Dawn”. The third of these was included on the 2016 edition of Kompakt’s annual “Pop Ambient” compilation, a gently drifting track with plenty of bells and yodels. A diversion from the sounds of Moonbuilding 2703 AD (and its presumably ongoing remixed companion EPs), but it sat nicely with the other tracks.
February 1, 2016
Album Digest, David Bowie RIP
I thought I’d add three of my favourite David Bowie albums to my review of Blackstar to a form an album digest tribute. Also among my favourites but not included here is “Outside”, which will be included in the understated classics (currently it’s number 66) at some point. I thought about bumping “Outside” up the running order but I’d like to be objective about it when its turn comes.
Station To Station “It’s not the side effects of the cocaine / I’m thinking it must be love” sings Bowie on the title track of his tenth studio album “Station To Station”, released in 1976.
January 29, 2016
The Nutcracker
For Ingrid’s birthday, we went to see The Nutcracker performed by the Moscow City Ballet at The King’s Theatre in Southsea.
The original conversation went something along the lines of “Matt, please come and see some ballet with me on my birthday! It might not be your thing but I’d love someone to come and see it with me”. As I’ve always loved a bit of Tchaikovsky, I said yes.
Tag: Mira Schendel
October 8, 2016
Mira Schendel at Tate Modern
Mira Schendel was a Brazilian artist who was active throughout the middle to late twentieth century. She is considered to be one of South America’s best artists. Known mostly for her abstract paintings, she also experimented with sculptures and installations. Many of her works use text and semiotics to explore and define possible meanings for more abstract works.
I saw this exhibition during its run in the Tate Modern in the Autumn of 2013.
Tag: Local Natives
September 30, 2016
Album Digest, September 2016
This month’s album digest features albums by Wilco, M.I.A., Local Natives, and a collaboration between Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani.
Wilco Schmilco Schmilco is the tenth studio album by Wilco, which regular readers will know are one of my favourite bands. There’s no need to repeat that anecdote about why this blog has the name that it does. Meanwhile, this album follows on from last year’s Star Wars and is probably the third Wilco album to have a jokey meta- kind of title.
Tag: MIA
September 30, 2016
Album Digest, September 2016
This month’s album digest features albums by Wilco, M.I.A., Local Natives, and a collaboration between Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani.
Wilco Schmilco Schmilco is the tenth studio album by Wilco, which regular readers will know are one of my favourite bands. There’s no need to repeat that anecdote about why this blog has the name that it does. Meanwhile, this album follows on from last year’s Star Wars and is probably the third Wilco album to have a jokey meta- kind of title.
Tag: Susan Ciani
September 30, 2016
Album Digest, September 2016
This month’s album digest features albums by Wilco, M.I.A., Local Natives, and a collaboration between Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani.
Wilco Schmilco Schmilco is the tenth studio album by Wilco, which regular readers will know are one of my favourite bands. There’s no need to repeat that anecdote about why this blog has the name that it does. Meanwhile, this album follows on from last year’s Star Wars and is probably the third Wilco album to have a jokey meta- kind of title.
Tag: Wilco
September 30, 2016
Album Digest, September 2016
This month’s album digest features albums by Wilco, M.I.A., Local Natives, and a collaboration between Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani.
Wilco Schmilco Schmilco is the tenth studio album by Wilco, which regular readers will know are one of my favourite bands. There’s no need to repeat that anecdote about why this blog has the name that it does. Meanwhile, this album follows on from last year’s Star Wars and is probably the third Wilco album to have a jokey meta- kind of title.
August 19, 2014
Understated Classics #27: A Ghost Is Born by Wilco
I have already given some of the personal background to why I love this album and now it’s time to give a bit of love to the music itself so I’ll stick to giving a track by track account of “A Ghost Is Born”.
If you are familiar with Wilco’s first few albums, you’ll know that A Ghost Is Born is on the line of best fit through Being There, Summerteeth, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
July 3, 2014
Whatever Happened To That Hat?
The hat in question is a Wilco baseball cap that I bought at a gig of theirs in 2004, the night that Germany got eliminated from Euro 2004. I’d love to show you a picture of it but I can’t, there isn’t even a picture of it from a Wilco merch site: at least not one that Google or Bing images can see anyway. I did manage to find a side-on picture of it in my bedroom in 2005 and zoom right in on it like they do in CSI.
September 30, 2011
Album Digest, September 2011
Hmmm, a rather grey looking selection of covers this month. The albums I have listened to most are:
John Beltran Ambient Selections FabricLive 59 mixed by Four Tet The Rapture In The Grace Of Your Love Wilco The Whole Love I have actually only had the Wilco album since Monday of this week (the 26th) but it has inveigled its way into my consciousness quite quickly. As I have said before, this blog owes its name to a Wilco song and they are quite an important band to me.
Tag: Brecht
September 24, 2016
The Threepenny Opera
A few weeks ago, Ingrid and I went to see The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre.
The Threepenny Opera was written by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, based on Elisabeth Hauptmann’s German translation of John Gay’s “A Beggar’s Opera”. It was first performed in Weimar Berlin in 1928 and has evolved over time through many adaptations, including several film and off-Broadway versions. It’s a work with very powerful musical overtones and, despite avowals otherwise throughout by the narrator, it has a powerful moral message.
Tag: London
September 24, 2016
The Threepenny Opera
A few weeks ago, Ingrid and I went to see The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre.
The Threepenny Opera was written by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, based on Elisabeth Hauptmann’s German translation of John Gay’s “A Beggar’s Opera”. It was first performed in Weimar Berlin in 1928 and has evolved over time through many adaptations, including several film and off-Broadway versions. It’s a work with very powerful musical overtones and, despite avowals otherwise throughout by the narrator, it has a powerful moral message.
August 21, 2016
BBC Prom 47 at the Royal Albert Hall
We went to see Prom 47, an afternoon prom at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The bill included a brand new work by Piers Hellawell, along with a Cello concerto by Haydn and a symphony by Tchaikovsky. These were all performed by the Ulster Orchestra. The conductor was Rafael Payare. The tickets were an affordable £17 each which isn’t bad at all given that we were sat in the second row of the circle.
June 26, 2013
Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
Peter Ackroyd’s “Hawksmoor” was first published in 1985. I bought a recent reissue that forms part of Penguin’s decades collection whilst on a spree in Waterstone’s. It appealed to me as I recently realised that despite growing up in the eighties and nineties, I had read very novels that were either written or set in the eighties. Happily “Hawksmoor” is both of these, sort of. It also appealed to me because it is (again, sort of) a detective story and I’ve found myself getting into those lately.
October 23, 2012
Stevenage vs Portsmouth
Tonight, despite feeling a bit under the weather, I went to Stevenage to watch Portsmouth play a League One game at the Lamex Stadium. In addition, I met a “person off the internet” for the second time in a week – this time Tom, a friend of a friend from Facebook: our shared passions being Portsmouth FC and really cool music. We met at King’s Cross and caught a packed train to Stevenage, a non-descript dormitory town that was even more non-descript than I remember St Albans being.
January 5, 2012
Dreams Of A Life: A Short Review
Dreams Of A Life is a documentary about Joyce Vincent, a woman who was found in her flat three years after her death surrounded by wrapped christmas presents and with the TV still on. £2400 in arrears on her rent, she was discovered by bailiffs who forced the door down. The film attempts to work out happened to Joyce by interviewing people who knew her. In two other strands that unfold in parallel, various events from her life are re-enacted along with the clearing of her flat by forensics officers.
Tag: Theatre
September 24, 2016
The Threepenny Opera
A few weeks ago, Ingrid and I went to see The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre.
The Threepenny Opera was written by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, based on Elisabeth Hauptmann’s German translation of John Gay’s “A Beggar’s Opera”. It was first performed in Weimar Berlin in 1928 and has evolved over time through many adaptations, including several film and off-Broadway versions. It’s a work with very powerful musical overtones and, despite avowals otherwise throughout by the narrator, it has a powerful moral message.
January 29, 2016
The Nutcracker
For Ingrid’s birthday, we went to see The Nutcracker performed by the Moscow City Ballet at The King’s Theatre in Southsea.
The original conversation went something along the lines of “Matt, please come and see some ballet with me on my birthday! It might not be your thing but I’d love someone to come and see it with me”. As I’ve always loved a bit of Tchaikovsky, I said yes.
Tag: Insomnia
September 11, 2016
A New Notebook
Witness the pressure of a new notebook. You sit at your desk, trying to get it started with an amazing piece of writing. Something worthy of that crisp new page. You want it to tumble out of you, fully formed and coherent. Something that justifies you abandoning the previous one. As though first drafts don’t exist. You cast yourself into the role of shaman, of seer - of someone gifted a prophetic vision.
November 22, 2011
The Amber World
My earliest memory is waking up in Queen Alexandra hospital in Cosham after an operation on my ears. I must have been about four years old and it was the middle of the night. I was in a room on my own and the door was locked. It had been daylight only seconds before so I got out of the bed and walked to the window to look incredulously out at the amber world that lay beyond.
April 5, 2011
Five Things To Try When You Can't Sleep
Facebook is wonderful for keeping in touch but I’ve noticed that quite a few of my friends tend to use it to tell the world that they can’t sleep. Here’s some advice for you if you find yourself unable to sleep one night. I’ve often had to try these out myself! Note that these are just things that work for me and your mileage may vary, particularly if you are fortunate enough to have a partner next to you!
Tag: August
August 31, 2016
Album Digest, August 2016
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I allowed Spotify to pick some new albums for me this month. It chose some noodly ambient techno, a captivating slice of World Jazz, a moody gothic hallucination, and a concept album about humans being rescued by aliens. All in all a pretty good job! Here is the list:
Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Sarathy Korwar “Day to Day” Doomsquad “Total Time” United Vibrations “The Myth of the Golden Ratio” Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Prins Thomas recently remixed the Orb’s “Alpine EP” so I’m not surprised that Spotify included one of his tracks on my Discover Weekly playlist.
September 1, 2015
Everything Everything, Get To Heaven
It’s difficult to write honestly about your feelings. It’s difficult to write about your feelings consistently, for a living on a regular basis. It’s difficult to write about your feelings when the world constantly intrudes with inanity, insanity and hatred. It’s difficult to write under those conditions without seeming frayed, without coming loose at the edges.
“Get To Heaven”, the third album by Everything Everything, was forged under these stresses and pressures.
August 31, 2014
Album Digest, August 2014
The album digest returns with five albums by four artists.
Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE Lone Reality Testing FKA twigs LP1 Mogwai Come On Die Young: Appendix Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE I’m a big fan of both Karl Hyde’s work with Underworld and of Brian Eno’s stuff so Someday World seemed like a dream collaboration to me when it was released last May.
August 31, 2013
Album Digest, August 2013
For reasons that will become apparent, there will be a short period soon where I will not be writing album digests. Until then, I’m clearing a backlog of some albums that I’ve been listening to but haven’t had enough time or motivation to write about. Only one of this month’s albums was released this month, something that’s not that uncommon at this time of the year as it is not the best time to release things.
August 31, 2012
Album Digest, August 2012
Album Digest August 2012 is also from the stack of albums that I mentioned last month. I chose this selection (along with the Passion Pit album) because the colours looked good together in the mosaic of covers that I make each month. Last month’s digest was about the right amount of detail so this will be another briefer digest. These are all good albums but not ones that will change your life, they’ll just happily sit alongside it.
August 31, 2011
Album Digest, August 2011
I bought a collection of electronic music this month. I mixed them all up in a smart playlist on iTunes, the smart aspect being to limit to tracks that had been played fewer than five then six then seven times etc. This made sure I was still listening to all the tracks equally often, despite the randomness.
Biosphere N-plants Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure Gus Gus Arabian Horse Instra:Mental Resolution 653 Jon Tejada Parabolas Biosphere N-Plants I think this album makes Biosphere the most reviewed musician on this blog at the moment but I don’t mind too much, he makes some great stuff.
Tag: Doomsquad
August 31, 2016
Album Digest, August 2016
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I allowed Spotify to pick some new albums for me this month. It chose some noodly ambient techno, a captivating slice of World Jazz, a moody gothic hallucination, and a concept album about humans being rescued by aliens. All in all a pretty good job! Here is the list:
Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Sarathy Korwar “Day to Day” Doomsquad “Total Time” United Vibrations “The Myth of the Golden Ratio” Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Prins Thomas recently remixed the Orb’s “Alpine EP” so I’m not surprised that Spotify included one of his tracks on my Discover Weekly playlist.
Tag: Prins Thomas
August 31, 2016
Album Digest, August 2016
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I allowed Spotify to pick some new albums for me this month. It chose some noodly ambient techno, a captivating slice of World Jazz, a moody gothic hallucination, and a concept album about humans being rescued by aliens. All in all a pretty good job! Here is the list:
Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Sarathy Korwar “Day to Day” Doomsquad “Total Time” United Vibrations “The Myth of the Golden Ratio” Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Prins Thomas recently remixed the Orb’s “Alpine EP” so I’m not surprised that Spotify included one of his tracks on my Discover Weekly playlist.
Tag: Sarathy Korwar
August 31, 2016
Album Digest, August 2016
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I allowed Spotify to pick some new albums for me this month. It chose some noodly ambient techno, a captivating slice of World Jazz, a moody gothic hallucination, and a concept album about humans being rescued by aliens. All in all a pretty good job! Here is the list:
Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Sarathy Korwar “Day to Day” Doomsquad “Total Time” United Vibrations “The Myth of the Golden Ratio” Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Prins Thomas recently remixed the Orb’s “Alpine EP” so I’m not surprised that Spotify included one of his tracks on my Discover Weekly playlist.
Tag: United Vibrations
August 31, 2016
Album Digest, August 2016
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I allowed Spotify to pick some new albums for me this month. It chose some noodly ambient techno, a captivating slice of World Jazz, a moody gothic hallucination, and a concept album about humans being rescued by aliens. All in all a pretty good job! Here is the list:
Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Sarathy Korwar “Day to Day” Doomsquad “Total Time” United Vibrations “The Myth of the Golden Ratio” Prins Thomas “Principe del Norte” Prins Thomas recently remixed the Orb’s “Alpine EP” so I’m not surprised that Spotify included one of his tracks on my Discover Weekly playlist.
Tag: Classical
August 21, 2016
BBC Prom 47 at the Royal Albert Hall
We went to see Prom 47, an afternoon prom at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The bill included a brand new work by Piers Hellawell, along with a Cello concerto by Haydn and a symphony by Tchaikovsky. These were all performed by the Ulster Orchestra. The conductor was Rafael Payare. The tickets were an affordable £17 each which isn’t bad at all given that we were sat in the second row of the circle.
Tag: Aphex Twin
July 31, 2016
Album Digest, July 2016
Album Digest July 2016 consists of a bumper five albums, mainly because I couldn’t work out which one to drop. I think they’re all pretty good though it’s great to hear new music from The Avalanches after all this time.
Bat For Lashes “The Bride” For her fourth album as Bat For Lashes, Natasha Khan applies her considerable songwriting skills to a concept album. She sings from the perspective of a bride whose husband dies on his way to their wedding.
March 1, 2015
Album Digest, February 2015
Aphex Twin “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt2 EP” Aphex Twin follows SYRO (reviewed in Album Digest September 2014 here) with this 27 minute EP of music that, if we take the title literally, features computers playing acoustic musical instruments. It’s a very different sound to SYRO and sounds acoustic for the most part. It’s an important experiment about the role of the musician, one that is already blurred in the creation of electronic music.
September 30, 2014
Album Digest, September 2014
Album Digest September 2014 contains four amazing albums, including the long-awaited return from the Aphex Twin, and an album from Cymbals Eat Guitars released about a week after I wondered what had happened to them. Spooky. Rounding out the selection this month are a cool punky-disco album by The Juan Maclean and a truly remarkable offering by Vessel.
Aphex Twin SYRO SYRO is the sixth album by Aphex Twin and his first official Aphex Twin release since Drukqs in 2001.
Tag: Bat For Lashes
July 31, 2016
Album Digest, July 2016
Album Digest July 2016 consists of a bumper five albums, mainly because I couldn’t work out which one to drop. I think they’re all pretty good though it’s great to hear new music from The Avalanches after all this time.
Bat For Lashes “The Bride” For her fourth album as Bat For Lashes, Natasha Khan applies her considerable songwriting skills to a concept album. She sings from the perspective of a bride whose husband dies on his way to their wedding.
November 29, 2012
Album Digest, November 2012
Pretty much a sliding scale between songs and electronic wibble on this month’s albums and a particularly damp, chilly feeling to proceedings too.
Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” Ital “Hive Mind” and “Dream On” Björk “Bastards” Brian Eno “Lux” Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” When it comes to Bat For Lashes, I prefer her first album “Fur And Gold” to her second “Two Suns” because when I listen to the latter I don’t feel connected to any of the songs.
Tag: Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve
July 31, 2016
Album Digest, July 2016
Album Digest July 2016 consists of a bumper five albums, mainly because I couldn’t work out which one to drop. I think they’re all pretty good though it’s great to hear new music from The Avalanches after all this time.
Bat For Lashes “The Bride” For her fourth album as Bat For Lashes, Natasha Khan applies her considerable songwriting skills to a concept album. She sings from the perspective of a bride whose husband dies on his way to their wedding.
Tag: Islands
July 31, 2016
Album Digest, July 2016
Album Digest July 2016 consists of a bumper five albums, mainly because I couldn’t work out which one to drop. I think they’re all pretty good though it’s great to hear new music from The Avalanches after all this time.
Bat For Lashes “The Bride” For her fourth album as Bat For Lashes, Natasha Khan applies her considerable songwriting skills to a concept album. She sings from the perspective of a bride whose husband dies on his way to their wedding.
June 30, 2016
Album Digest, June 2016
Album Digest June 2016 is a poppy batch of albums. We have the return of my long-time favourites Roxette and the heroes of my South American tour Tegan & Sara. There’s some dance music in the form of Flume’s album “Skin”: an Australian presence ahead of the new Avalanches album next month. Finally there is the first of two new albums by Islands - both were released back in May but one gets reviewed this month and the other next month.
Tag: July
July 31, 2016
Album Digest, July 2016
Album Digest July 2016 consists of a bumper five albums, mainly because I couldn’t work out which one to drop. I think they’re all pretty good though it’s great to hear new music from The Avalanches after all this time.
Bat For Lashes “The Bride” For her fourth album as Bat For Lashes, Natasha Khan applies her considerable songwriting skills to a concept album. She sings from the perspective of a bride whose husband dies on his way to their wedding.
July 31, 2013
Album Digest, July 2013
Another four albums for you this month. Sometimes the problem is not finding albums to listen to but actually finding time to listen to them! Often it is not because I don’t have time but because I have already found some great albums this month and I am busy listening to those instead. As a result, a couple of these albums are ones that I have only listened to for a week or so, but they are interesting enough to write about.
July 31, 2012
Album Digest, July 2012
Just a short album digest this month. I bought a stack of CDs and am parcelling them out over the next few months (together with important additional releases as they crop up). This is in the hope that I can write more considered pieces about each one. This month I’ve grouped together albums with monochrome covers and a BT album from June that I found out about recently. These albums are not just linked by their artwork, they also form a cohesive whole.
July 31, 2011
Album Digest, July 2011
Quite a mixed bag this month.
SBTRKT SBTRKT Zomby Dedication Brian Eno Drums Between The Bells Bon Iver Bon Iver Washed Out Within and Without This month’s collection of albums is a rather mellow bunch. The SBTRKT album (self-titled) is probably the most frenetic of the five though even that does not exactly pound four to the floor. Most of it is pretty calm, though the occasional burst of pop to spice things up: sometimes it is as downtempo as the rest (Right Thing To Do and Trials Of The Past) but at other times things spark into life, as on Pharaohs.
Tag: The Avalanches
July 31, 2016
Album Digest, July 2016
Album Digest July 2016 consists of a bumper five albums, mainly because I couldn’t work out which one to drop. I think they’re all pretty good though it’s great to hear new music from The Avalanches after all this time.
Bat For Lashes “The Bride” For her fourth album as Bat For Lashes, Natasha Khan applies her considerable songwriting skills to a concept album. She sings from the perspective of a bride whose husband dies on his way to their wedding.
Tag: Richard Beard
July 30, 2016
Richard Beard, Acts of the Assassins
Acts of the Assassins is an interesting novel by Richard Beard that retells the story of the apostles and their deaths. It uses a modern crime genre style and a contemporary setting. The author himself refers to it as “Gospel Noir”. Cassius Gallio, a Roman CSI-type referred to as a speculator, investigates the murders of the apostles following the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Gallio, charged with guarding the body following Jesus’ death and greatly undermined by the disappearance of the body, views the resurrection as the greatest conspiracy of the age.
Tag: Maxwell
July 20, 2016
Understated Classics #33: Embrya by Maxwell
I give the impression of planning these posts but to be honest I came across an article about Maxwell a few weeks ago and fondly remembered my cassette copy of this album. The joy of Spotify is that it’s easy to dig up old favourites. The recent warm weather makes for a good opportunity to enjoy the sultry embrace of “Embrya” once more.
“Gestation: Mythos” burbles along for two and a half minutes, overlaying spoken word samples, string phrases and weird underwater noises, before the bass line of “Everwanting: To Want You To Want” brings things to life.
Tag: Argentina
July 19, 2016
South America, Part 12
Uyuni to Tupiza We left Uyuni the night after the big storm, having stopped just a day or so to visit the salt flats. Our next stop was a strategic stay in Tupiza, a large town encircled with red hills. It resembled many towns that I visited in South America: low buildings arranged in a grid pattern. Not much greenery and plenty of dust billowing about. The reason for our stay was strategic, it’s only a short distance to the notoriously fussy border between Bolivia and Argentina.
Tag: Bolivia
July 19, 2016
South America, Part 12
Uyuni to Tupiza We left Uyuni the night after the big storm, having stopped just a day or so to visit the salt flats. Our next stop was a strategic stay in Tupiza, a large town encircled with red hills. It resembled many towns that I visited in South America: low buildings arranged in a grid pattern. Not much greenery and plenty of dust billowing about. The reason for our stay was strategic, it’s only a short distance to the notoriously fussy border between Bolivia and Argentina.
September 14, 2015
South America, Part 11
La Paz to Potosi We left La Paz, this time ascending the rim of steep hills around the city in a slightly less clunky “Death Bus”. Perhaps it was because we were travelling uphill or because it was daylight, but it didn’t seem so bad.
We set off to Potosi through strange towns with weird monuments (see the pictures) and Oruro where great festivals happen around Ash Wednesday each year that are famous throughout the continent.
August 18, 2014
South America, Part 10
Picking up where I left off at Machu Picchu, we headed down into Aguas Calientes (trans. “hot waters”) by coach and by the time we got there it was torrenting down with rain. So much for exploration. We waited out the downpour in a pizza place and deliberated over whether to buy souvenier snaps from the tour guides. Ironically for a town named after hot waters, it was bitterly cold. One of those places where the sound of running water follows you wherever you go, the best thing about it was the huge trains that ran down the middle of street - big clanking hulks pulling huge passenger trains.
Tag: Chile
July 19, 2016
South America, Part 12
Uyuni to Tupiza We left Uyuni the night after the big storm, having stopped just a day or so to visit the salt flats. Our next stop was a strategic stay in Tupiza, a large town encircled with red hills. It resembled many towns that I visited in South America: low buildings arranged in a grid pattern. Not much greenery and plenty of dust billowing about. The reason for our stay was strategic, it’s only a short distance to the notoriously fussy border between Bolivia and Argentina.
Tag: Fourteen
July 19, 2016
South America, Part 12
Uyuni to Tupiza We left Uyuni the night after the big storm, having stopped just a day or so to visit the salt flats. Our next stop was a strategic stay in Tupiza, a large town encircled with red hills. It resembled many towns that I visited in South America: low buildings arranged in a grid pattern. Not much greenery and plenty of dust billowing about. The reason for our stay was strategic, it’s only a short distance to the notoriously fussy border between Bolivia and Argentina.
September 14, 2015
South America, Part 11
La Paz to Potosi We left La Paz, this time ascending the rim of steep hills around the city in a slightly less clunky “Death Bus”. Perhaps it was because we were travelling uphill or because it was daylight, but it didn’t seem so bad.
We set off to Potosi through strange towns with weird monuments (see the pictures) and Oruro where great festivals happen around Ash Wednesday each year that are famous throughout the continent.
December 30, 2014
On convictions, whereas to the strength of and belief in same
Overlong reflection upon the past is one sure way to make yourself unhappy so I try to avoid it. Nevertheless it becomes unavoidable at this time of year, especially if, like me, you are somewhat prone to reflection.
At this time last year I was, as detailed in the most recent report of my South American adventure, in La Paz, Bolivia. I think I felt as lost then as I do now, though back then I had the novelty of new places and good friends to steer me through.
November 14, 2014
October and November 2014
I recently started a new job and moved in to a new flat. This means I’m too busy to write any long blog posts at the moment. Also I’m still not quite at home there, so I tend to spend my evenings tidying up or setting up new things. It’s a shame because I have plenty of things to write about (even without observations on moving, starting a new job, etc) but I guess the writing will happen eventually…
October 24, 2014
Building Brains
This is a longer form post about artificial intelligence inspired by reading a little bit of “The Pale King” by David Foster Wallace and putting a picture of a “ghost” up on Instagram. This might be the last of these that I’m able to write for a while.
On Not Reading “The Pale King” “The Pale King” is the third and final novel by American author David Foster Wallace. He was working on it when he committed suicide in 2008.
September 30, 2014
Album Digest, September 2014
Album Digest September 2014 contains four amazing albums, including the long-awaited return from the Aphex Twin, and an album from Cymbals Eat Guitars released about a week after I wondered what had happened to them. Spooky. Rounding out the selection this month are a cool punky-disco album by The Juan Maclean and a truly remarkable offering by Vessel.
Aphex Twin SYRO SYRO is the sixth album by Aphex Twin and his first official Aphex Twin release since Drukqs in 2001.
September 25, 2014
How to generate random numbers in R
This post deals with how to generate random numbers in R. It is good to know how to generate random numbers with a particular language or software package for at least one of the following three reasons:
You want to test something that depends on a particular distribution. You’re running a stochastic process of some kind (Branching process, random walk etc) and you need random numbers for deciding whether an event occurs.
September 2, 2014
Evie Wyld, All The Birds, Singing
I recently finished reading All The Birds, Singing, the second novel by Evie Wyld. It’s about a woman called Jake who lives alone on a farm with a dog called Dog on an island somewhere off the coast of Britain. She has sheep to look after but something keeps coming in the middle of the night to kill them.
Meanwhile, as the narrative on the island moves forward in the present, a second narrative peels off backwards to explain her past.
August 31, 2014
Album Digest, August 2014
The album digest returns with five albums by four artists.
Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE Lone Reality Testing FKA twigs LP1 Mogwai Come On Die Young: Appendix Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE I’m a big fan of both Karl Hyde’s work with Underworld and of Brian Eno’s stuff so Someday World seemed like a dream collaboration to me when it was released last May.
August 24, 2014
Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage is the latest novel by Haruki Murakami. It comes with free stickers. Perhaps that tells you everything you need to know about this book, which is slimmer than Murakami’s recent efforts. The plot begins with an intriguing premise. Tsukuru is part of a group of close friends and is one day expelled from the group for no reason. Unfortunately, the development of the plot is uncontrolled and by the end of novel too many holes have developed for it all to hold together.
August 21, 2014
Useful Ulysses
What it is Ulysses is a markdown editor for the Mac. It has a simple drafting model that makes it easy to organise ideas and move between them. Pieces of writing are represented as sheets that can be tagged and grouped together - the grouping can be made manually or using filters. There are no files, the sheets are entries in a single database that is synced with iCloud. Because everything is plain text it won’t eat up your storage space.
August 19, 2014
Understated Classics #27: A Ghost Is Born by Wilco
I have already given some of the personal background to why I love this album and now it’s time to give a bit of love to the music itself so I’ll stick to giving a track by track account of “A Ghost Is Born”.
If you are familiar with Wilco’s first few albums, you’ll know that A Ghost Is Born is on the line of best fit through Being There, Summerteeth, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
August 18, 2014
South America, Part 10
Picking up where I left off at Machu Picchu, we headed down into Aguas Calientes (trans. “hot waters”) by coach and by the time we got there it was torrenting down with rain. So much for exploration. We waited out the downpour in a pizza place and deliberated over whether to buy souvenier snaps from the tour guides. Ironically for a town named after hot waters, it was bitterly cold. One of those places where the sound of running water follows you wherever you go, the best thing about it was the huge trains that ran down the middle of street - big clanking hulks pulling huge passenger trains.
August 17, 2014
Clarice Lispector, Hour of the Star
Hour of the Star is a short novel by Clarice Lispector, a Ukrainian-born Brazilian author with an interesting life story. This is her last novel and is a remarkable book: inventive, funny, and sad, all at once. I found it in a special selection at the local library dedicated to Brazil because of the World Cup.
First some biography. Born Chaya Lispector in Chechelnyk, Ukraine, in 1920, her family escaped the pogroms and emigrated to Brazil in 1922.
August 17, 2014
What IS That Noise?
I recently spruced up a post I wrote four years ago about Biosphere’s wonderful album Substrata. I added the following footnote about the difference between voice samples and found sound:
I suppose I am distinguishing between found sound and vocal samples here. Perhaps there is very little difference, or that one is the other? When is a vocal snippet something more than found sound? Is it the fact that one has meaning?
August 15, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy: A Short Review
Finally saw Guardians of the Galaxy today. Here are fifteen observations about the film that may or may not constitute a short review.
At least two Oscars for Best Use Of Body Paint (Green) and Best Use Of Body Paint (Blue) are sewn up. Chris Pratt basically plays Star Lord as “Andy Dwyer in space” and this is fine by me. Best movie to feature a talking raccoon in a long time.
July 22, 2014
My Amazing Subversive Revolutionary Adolescence
Or at least its subversive soundtrack… I listened to The Orb’s amazing live album “Live ’93” the other day (after discovering the insipid “History Of The Future” collection on Spotify) and I was amazed at how countercultural and subversive it was. I was listening to this stuff at the age of 14 and now that I’m old enough to be a parent, that makes me a bit uncomfortable. Actually it does nothing of the sort, because it’s frigging awesome.
July 7, 2014
Understated Classics #26: Come On Die Young by Mogwai
I’ll tell you about punk rock: punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and ah… and ah… heartless manipulators about music that takes up the energies and the bodies and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds of young men who give what they have to it and give everything they have to it and it’s a… it’s a term that’s based on contempt, it’s a term that’s based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism and everything that’s rotten about rock ’n’ roll.
July 3, 2014
Whatever Happened To That Hat?
The hat in question is a Wilco baseball cap that I bought at a gig of theirs in 2004, the night that Germany got eliminated from Euro 2004. I’d love to show you a picture of it but I can’t, there isn’t even a picture of it from a Wilco merch site: at least not one that Google or Bing images can see anyway. I did manage to find a side-on picture of it in my bedroom in 2005 and zoom right in on it like they do in CSI.
June 30, 2014
Album Digest, June 2014
Watter are a “supergroup” composed from various members of Grails, Slint, and other bands. I did not know anything about Hundred Waters before this month: “The Moon Rang Like A Bell” is their second album. In fact second albums by bands I know nothing about are a something of theme because “Sunbathing Animal” is Parquet Courts’ sophomore effort and I don’t know anything about them either. Meanwhile, I’ve meant to write about “The Four Seasons Recomposed” since April.
May 31, 2014
Album Digest, May 2014
This month was strange. I didn’t listen to much new music and after last month’s bumper digest there’s probably a reason for that. Not to mention that Spotify gives you more reasons to look backwards than forwards. Nevertheless, this brief post features new albums by Little Dragon and Coldplay, along with the mini-album collaboration between Röyskopp and Robyn.
Little Dragon “Nabuma Rubberband” I discovered Little Dragon, like most people, I imagine, via Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach” album.
May 27, 2014
South America, Part 9
In a tour full of highlights, Christmas week of 2013 was nonetheless one of the greatest weeks of my life. I may have moaned, groaned, and got completely soaked, but it was worth it to see Machu Picchu in the sunshine.
“The Story So Far” Arriving in Quito Otovalo and Misahualli Banos Ingapirca and Cuenca Into Peru The Road to Lima The Nazca Lines Arequipa and Cusco The Sacred Valley On 22nd December, we set off from the hotel in Cusco for a trip along the Sacred Valley that lines the Urubamba river.
April 15, 2014
Should I Drop Dropbox?
I am thinking about whether I want to use Dropbox to sync my files anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love Dropbox. It came along in beta in just 2008 just as I needed it to manage my PhD thesis. In fact I often jokingly claim to having invented it by asking on the MacRumors forums whether a program like it existed - just a few weeks before its beta rode in to my life like a knight in shining armour.
March 31, 2014
Album Digest, March 2014
I’m back in the UK so it’s back to posts about albums each month. This one is a bit different because I didn’t listen to very much new stuff while I was away so not all of the albums are up to date. I had to write about the new album by Liars though because it’s awesome and I couldn’t wait to discuss it! Here’s the list of albums:
Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob Fanfarlo Let’s Go Extinct Liars Mess London Grammar If You Wait Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob I would argue, as I have throughout my sequence of understated classics posts, that a great album is one that changes you as a person.
February 10, 2014
South America, Part 8
Arequipa and Cusco – the two cities that are the subject of this post – are probably the two cities in Peru that are most amenable to travellers (though Lima certainly has a lot to offer too). For me they should have been punctuated with a trip to Colca canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world and twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, I got really sick on the second day in Arequipa as my attempts at keeping my tummy bug at bay finally failed.
February 7, 2014
South America, Part 7
Next up was a piecemeal section of the trip that took in a varied set of sights and helped us get to know the new passengers who joined in Lima. On the first day we took a boat trip out to the Ballestas Islands, a nature reserve that is informally known as “the poor man’s galapagos”. Living there are penguins, sea birds, sea lions and seals. The speed boat out was a little wet and wild (and in fact the return trip was even wetter and wilder) so we all got soaked (twice) but the microclimate around the islands themselves was calm and warm, and we all got good value out of our cameras (if they still worked that is).
January 12, 2014
South America, Part 6
From Punta Sal we took a long driving down to Huanchaco, via a stop off at the Lord of Saipan museum. The lord of Saipan is a Moche mummy found dressed in all manner of gold and surrounded by artefacts and other sacrifices (including other humans and decapitated llamas). The tour took a while to get going (our guide was late) but the exhibition was so amazing (the pieces were painstakingly restored in Germany) that it was hugely enjoyable.
Tag: Football
July 1, 2016
Swaptastic Part 3: The Shiny App
The shiny app embedded below allows you to explore the number of packets you need to complete the Panini sticker album for this summer’s Euro tournament. This builds on the results I presented in an [earlier post](link to earlier post) and allows you to explore how many fewer packets you need to buy when you have more friends to swap with. You can also vary the number of runs performed because the model runs considerably slower with more swappers involved.
June 29, 2016
Swaptastic Part 2
As a follow-up to my post about the Euro 2016 Panini Stickers, I’ve now completed the collection with the help of an online swapping site and by buying the last 39 stickers directly from Panini. I also managed to write a new simulator, this time with additional collectors involved.
I assume that each of N collectors will buy a packet of stickers and add any new stickers to their album. Then they attempt to swap any leftovers with the rest of their friends.
June 14, 2016
Swaptastic Part 1
Envelopes containing swaps that have arrived in the post in recent days. It is nice to get letters from all over the country, even if they do just contain a selection of panini stickers. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have used the sticker swapping website to share my swaps with people all over the UK. I have sent swaps off to London, Bristol, Cornwall, Lancashire, Wales, and Gloucester.
June 5, 2016
Euro 2016 Panini Stickers
Sound the conspicuous consumption klaxon! 📣 I know it’s foolish but I decided to collect the Panini stickers for the Euro 2016 tournament this summer. I think it’s a more edifying waste of money than a series of group game accumulators that don’t come off. If this week’s long read in The Guardian is anything to go by, we really shouldn’t be giving any more of our money to betting companies.
October 23, 2012
Stevenage vs Portsmouth
Tonight, despite feeling a bit under the weather, I went to Stevenage to watch Portsmouth play a League One game at the Lamex Stadium. In addition, I met a “person off the internet” for the second time in a week – this time Tom, a friend of a friend from Facebook: our shared passions being Portsmouth FC and really cool music. We met at King’s Cross and caught a packed train to Stevenage, a non-descript dormitory town that was even more non-descript than I remember St Albans being.
Tag: Stats
July 1, 2016
Swaptastic Part 3: The Shiny App
The shiny app embedded below allows you to explore the number of packets you need to complete the Panini sticker album for this summer’s Euro tournament. This builds on the results I presented in an [earlier post](link to earlier post) and allows you to explore how many fewer packets you need to buy when you have more friends to swap with. You can also vary the number of runs performed because the model runs considerably slower with more swappers involved.
June 29, 2016
Swaptastic Part 2
As a follow-up to my post about the Euro 2016 Panini Stickers, I’ve now completed the collection with the help of an online swapping site and by buying the last 39 stickers directly from Panini. I also managed to write a new simulator, this time with additional collectors involved.
I assume that each of N collectors will buy a packet of stickers and add any new stickers to their album. Then they attempt to swap any leftovers with the rest of their friends.
June 5, 2016
Euro 2016 Panini Stickers
Sound the conspicuous consumption klaxon! 📣 I know it’s foolish but I decided to collect the Panini stickers for the Euro 2016 tournament this summer. I think it’s a more edifying waste of money than a series of group game accumulators that don’t come off. If this week’s long read in The Guardian is anything to go by, we really shouldn’t be giving any more of our money to betting companies.
September 25, 2014
How to generate random numbers in R
This post deals with how to generate random numbers in R. It is good to know how to generate random numbers with a particular language or software package for at least one of the following three reasons:
You want to test something that depends on a particular distribution. You’re running a stochastic process of some kind (Branching process, random walk etc) and you need random numbers for deciding whether an event occurs.
Tag: Flume
June 30, 2016
Album Digest, June 2016
Album Digest June 2016 is a poppy batch of albums. We have the return of my long-time favourites Roxette and the heroes of my South American tour Tegan & Sara. There’s some dance music in the form of Flume’s album “Skin”: an Australian presence ahead of the new Avalanches album next month. Finally there is the first of two new albums by Islands - both were released back in May but one gets reviewed this month and the other next month.
Tag: Roxette
June 30, 2016
Album Digest, June 2016
Album Digest June 2016 is a poppy batch of albums. We have the return of my long-time favourites Roxette and the heroes of my South American tour Tegan & Sara. There’s some dance music in the form of Flume’s album “Skin”: an Australian presence ahead of the new Avalanches album next month. Finally there is the first of two new albums by Islands - both were released back in May but one gets reviewed this month and the other next month.
August 16, 2011
Understated Classics #12: Look Sharp! by Roxette
Happy Birthday! No matter how intellectual one gets about these things, the primary function of music is to have fun. With this in mind it is a good time to turn to Roxette then, as they are almost always the epitome of fun.
I received Look Sharp! as a present for my ninth birthday. This was probably a bit young to fully understand all the emotions expressed on the record. It’s just as well that it is also crammed with the kind of pop confections that made “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!
Tag: Tegan and Sara
June 30, 2016
Album Digest, June 2016
Album Digest June 2016 is a poppy batch of albums. We have the return of my long-time favourites Roxette and the heroes of my South American tour Tegan & Sara. There’s some dance music in the form of Flume’s album “Skin”: an Australian presence ahead of the new Avalanches album next month. Finally there is the first of two new albums by Islands - both were released back in May but one gets reviewed this month and the other next month.
March 31, 2014
Album Digest, March 2014
I’m back in the UK so it’s back to posts about albums each month. This one is a bit different because I didn’t listen to very much new stuff while I was away so not all of the albums are up to date. I had to write about the new album by Liars though because it’s awesome and I couldn’t wait to discuss it! Here’s the list of albums:
Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob Fanfarlo Let’s Go Extinct Liars Mess London Grammar If You Wait Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob I would argue, as I have throughout my sequence of understated classics posts, that a great album is one that changes you as a person.
Tag: Modelling
June 29, 2016
Swaptastic Part 2
As a follow-up to my post about the Euro 2016 Panini Stickers, I’ve now completed the collection with the help of an online swapping site and by buying the last 39 stickers directly from Panini. I also managed to write a new simulator, this time with additional collectors involved.
I assume that each of N collectors will buy a packet of stickers and add any new stickers to their album. Then they attempt to swap any leftovers with the rest of their friends.
June 5, 2016
Euro 2016 Panini Stickers
Sound the conspicuous consumption klaxon! 📣 I know it’s foolish but I decided to collect the Panini stickers for the Euro 2016 tournament this summer. I think it’s a more edifying waste of money than a series of group game accumulators that don’t come off. If this week’s long read in The Guardian is anything to go by, we really shouldn’t be giving any more of our money to betting companies.
Tag: Politics
June 25, 2016
In the space between this and that
Britain voted to leave the EU this week. It made for an angry and confused Friday morning. I posted snippy comments on Facebook at a rate of about one every fifteen minutes. I also knew that there was nothing I could do. Even when you feel like Charlton Heston at the end of "Planet of the Apes", you have to suck it up and accept that sometimes things don't go as you like.
May 25, 2015
Jim's Conservatory
Let’s assume that Jim has just had a sudden unexpected expenditure: a neighbour released a bull into his back garden and it destroyed his conservatory. Let’s assume that the conservatory is essential to Jim’s wellbeing, so it has to be fixed immediately. As a result Jim’s debts, which were previously small and well-managed, have now increased somewhat.
Obviously Jim can’t keep that debt hanging over him forever. What does he do?
May 9, 2015
Like a Rhino Voting for Poaching
There’s a reason I cannot and will not vote Conservative, and like most people’s apparent motive for voting tory it is also a selfish one. As someone employed in the public sector, working to ensure the greater good, I’m a member of an increasingly endangered species.
Ah Matthew, I hear you say, you’re trotting out the old “the turkeys have voted for Christmas” line. Well no, like I said, this is purely selfish.
February 4, 2015
On Voting
We hear a lot about our rights but these are given to us in return for fulfilling our responsibilities. One of these is engagement in the democratic process, and in particular voting. You should register to vote, that’s a no brainer. You should take an interest in what politics means for you locally, nationally, and internationally. On the day you to get to the polling station and cast your vote. Then you need to hold you representative accountable afterwards, even if he or she isn’t the person you voted for.
January 24, 2011
In Defence Of Tolerance
I’ve found twitter to be a bit boring lately but today a perfect storm brew up and once again the Daily Mail and one of its odious columnists was at its centre. Melanie Phillips’ opinion piece was a perfectly constructed piece of trolling that implied that since the repeal of section 28, schools have been flooded with an influx of gay propaganda in subjects like maths, history and geography. Well I’m all for it, Alan Turing was a genius brutally mistreated by his country despite turning the second world war in favour of the allies - that story is maths and history is combined.
Tag: Gadgets
June 9, 2016
Logitech K380 Review
Time for a little gear review. This is the Logitech K380 keyboard. It pairs with devices wirelessly over Bluetooth. I bought it to use with my Apple TV, iPad and iPhone. It runs on 2 AAA batteries, but the supplied batteries are not rechargeable. The keyboard is light and portable but you definitely know you have it in your bag.
It’s lovely to type on. For a go-anywhere keyboard it has a surprisingly nice feel to the keys.
Tag: Keyboard
June 9, 2016
Logitech K380 Review
Time for a little gear review. This is the Logitech K380 keyboard. It pairs with devices wirelessly over Bluetooth. I bought it to use with my Apple TV, iPad and iPhone. It runs on 2 AAA batteries, but the supplied batteries are not rechargeable. The keyboard is light and portable but you definitely know you have it in your bag.
It’s lovely to type on. For a go-anywhere keyboard it has a surprisingly nice feel to the keys.
Tag: Brian Eno
May 31, 2016
Album Digest, May 2016
Album Digest May 2016 features the work of four bands or artists that I have reviewed in previous album digests. I also own (or will own) all of these albums on vinyl, so it’s handy that I’ve recently bought myself a record player!
Radiohead “A Moon Shaped Pool” Radiohead released “A Moon Shaped Pool” online about three weeks ago and a physical version hits the shops later in June. As with all of their recent albums, it is (mostly) a slow burner that rewards multiple listens.
August 31, 2014
Album Digest, August 2014
The album digest returns with five albums by four artists.
Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE Lone Reality Testing FKA twigs LP1 Mogwai Come On Die Young: Appendix Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE I’m a big fan of both Karl Hyde’s work with Underworld and of Brian Eno’s stuff so Someday World seemed like a dream collaboration to me when it was released last May.
November 29, 2012
Album Digest, November 2012
Pretty much a sliding scale between songs and electronic wibble on this month’s albums and a particularly damp, chilly feeling to proceedings too.
Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” Ital “Hive Mind” and “Dream On” Björk “Bastards” Brian Eno “Lux” Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” When it comes to Bat For Lashes, I prefer her first album “Fur And Gold” to her second “Two Suns” because when I listen to the latter I don’t feel connected to any of the songs.
March 21, 2012
Understated Classics #16: Ambient 2 / The Plateaux Of Mirror by Howard Budd and Brian Eno
Among Fields of Crystal / Wind in Lonely Fences I have written about a fair number of ambient albums in this series (and there are at least two more to come!) but perhaps none are as unobtrusive as this one by Howard Budd and Brian Eno. It’s a subtle collection of music that sits at the margins of your consciousness: for a long time it was the music that I turned to when I could not sleep but I could just as easily imagine it as (ahem!
July 31, 2011
Album Digest, July 2011
Quite a mixed bag this month.
SBTRKT SBTRKT Zomby Dedication Brian Eno Drums Between The Bells Bon Iver Bon Iver Washed Out Within and Without This month’s collection of albums is a rather mellow bunch. The SBTRKT album (self-titled) is probably the most frenetic of the five though even that does not exactly pound four to the floor. Most of it is pretty calm, though the occasional burst of pop to spice things up: sometimes it is as downtempo as the rest (Right Thing To Do and Trials Of The Past) but at other times things spark into life, as on Pharaohs.
Tag: Mark Pritchard
May 31, 2016
Album Digest, May 2016
Album Digest May 2016 features the work of four bands or artists that I have reviewed in previous album digests. I also own (or will own) all of these albums on vinyl, so it’s handy that I’ve recently bought myself a record player!
Radiohead “A Moon Shaped Pool” Radiohead released “A Moon Shaped Pool” online about three weeks ago and a physical version hits the shops later in June. As with all of their recent albums, it is (mostly) a slow burner that rewards multiple listens.
Tag: May
May 31, 2016
Album Digest, May 2016
Album Digest May 2016 features the work of four bands or artists that I have reviewed in previous album digests. I also own (or will own) all of these albums on vinyl, so it’s handy that I’ve recently bought myself a record player!
Radiohead “A Moon Shaped Pool” Radiohead released “A Moon Shaped Pool” online about three weeks ago and a physical version hits the shops later in June. As with all of their recent albums, it is (mostly) a slow burner that rewards multiple listens.
May 31, 2014
Album Digest, May 2014
This month was strange. I didn’t listen to much new music and after last month’s bumper digest there’s probably a reason for that. Not to mention that Spotify gives you more reasons to look backwards than forwards. Nevertheless, this brief post features new albums by Little Dragon and Coldplay, along with the mini-album collaboration between Röyskopp and Robyn.
Little Dragon “Nabuma Rubberband” I discovered Little Dragon, like most people, I imagine, via Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach” album.
May 31, 2013
Album Digest, May 2013
Lilacs & Champagne Danish & Blue You might remember that last year I reviewed the first Lilacs & Champagne album and I liked it a lot. This album sees them back with more of the same: taking the approach that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There are very few changes to the formula apart from the fact that the spoken word samples are not quite as good this time and there’s a bit more Grails-like guitar solo action.
May 31, 2012
Album Digest, May 2012
Four albums for Album Digest May 2012:
Jack White Blunderbuss One Little Plane Into The Trees Beach House Bloom Oxia Tides Of Mind The April album digest was rather short on songs, so this month I decided to look for albums that were more based around songs not tracks. Electronic music is relatively easy to write about: the music is often simple (but not always), there are recognisable structures and genres (but not always), and there are conventions that are adhered to (but not always).
May 31, 2011
Album Digest, May 2011
Four albums this month:
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Africa Hitech 93 Million Miles Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues TV On The Radio Nine Types of Light There is a pleasing red hue to all the covers this month. I had time to write four full reviews of the major albums I listened to. Like last month I have included a video at the foot of each review. Enjoy!
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Director’s Cut is not a new album from Kate Bush but a collection of re-visits to old songs, four from The Sensual World (1989) and seven from [The Red Shoes](http://en.
Tag: Radiohead
May 31, 2016
Album Digest, May 2016
Album Digest May 2016 features the work of four bands or artists that I have reviewed in previous album digests. I also own (or will own) all of these albums on vinyl, so it’s handy that I’ve recently bought myself a record player!
Radiohead “A Moon Shaped Pool” Radiohead released “A Moon Shaped Pool” online about three weeks ago and a physical version hits the shops later in June. As with all of their recent albums, it is (mostly) a slow burner that rewards multiple listens.
October 31, 2011
Album Digest, October 2011
This month we have albums by Björk, Coldplay, M83, and Radiohead.
Album Digest October 2011 - Intro I listened to Wilco’s The Whole Love again the other day. I happened to be walking past the venue in Portsmouth where I went to see them live back in 2004 and it seemed the right fit. I really enjoyed the album after a period of not having listened to it and I found that being familiar with the songs allowed me to better appreciate the production of the album.
February 28, 2011
Album Digest, February 2011
February, the shortest month, harbinger of such delights as Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day. Could it possibly produce any good albums? Well the candidates are the eponymous début album by James Blake, Zonoscope by Cut/Copy, Let England Shake by PJ Harvey and Smart Flesh by The Low Anthem. Furthermore, there was an unexpected bonus when Radiohead announced that their new album would be out and available to listen to this month too.
Tag: Switzerland
May 23, 2016
Werner Bischof: Point of View and Helvetica
2016 marks the centenary of the birth of Werner Bischof, the talented Magnum photojournalist who died in Peru in 1954, aged 38. He travelled widely, making the most of an incredible talent for photography. After the second world war, this led him all over Europe to document its aftermath. As the cold war began, Bischof found himself documenting events further afield.
We saw two exhibitions of his photography at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne.
April 11, 2016
Lausanne, Switzerland, March 2016
Just before Easter Ingrid and I went to Lausanne in Switzerland for a few days. It was a much-needed break and my first trip out of the UK since I got back from South America.
We caught an early train to Gatwick. It took a strange route along the coast via Worthing and Hove, which was annoying because we could have left later if a more direct train were available at that time of day.
Tag: Werner Bischof
May 23, 2016
Werner Bischof: Point of View and Helvetica
2016 marks the centenary of the birth of Werner Bischof, the talented Magnum photojournalist who died in Peru in 1954, aged 38. He travelled widely, making the most of an incredible talent for photography. After the second world war, this led him all over Europe to document its aftermath. As the cold war began, Bischof found himself documenting events further afield.
We saw two exhibitions of his photography at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne.
Tag: Paul McAuley
May 17, 2016
Paul McAuley, Something Coming Through
“Something Coming Through” is a science fiction novel set in the near future. A few years after a brief nuclear war known as “The Spasm”, an alien race known as the Jackaroo introduce themselves to humanity. The novel is funny, thoughtful, and politically charged. I found it to be a good read.
The aliens have given humanity fifteen “gift” worlds and an automated way to access them. Think of the Docklands Light Railway but with space shuttles.
Tag: April
April 30, 2016
Album Digest, April 2016
This month’s album digest is a mixture of comparisons. First we compare the fortunes of old hands Underworld to even older hands the Pet Shop Boys. After that I’ve found two dance albums, one that I liked and one that I didn’t. I find it quite hard to write about dance music and so the comparison is quite useful. Sometimes it helps to work out why you like one thing and not another.
April 30, 2013
Album Digest, April 2013
Some great albums this month!
The Flaming Lips The Terror Wire Change Becomes Us James Blake Overgrown The Knife Shaking The Habitual The Flaming Lips The Terror How you view The Terror pretty much depends on how much you have kept up with The Flips output since their last official album, the clanking double behemoth in Merkin packaging that was Embryonic. The irony being that I used Embryonic to deal with a break-up and The Terror is pretty much about… a break-up.
April 30, 2012
Album Digest, April 2012
A mostly instrumental month with a comeback from Orbital, an excellent remix collection from Battles, an amazing movie documenting a live performance by the Chemical Brothers and Austin Wintory’s soundtrack to the game Journey.
Orbital Wonky Battles Dross Glop The Chemical Brothers Don’t Think Austin Wintory Journey (Original Soundtrack) Orbital Wonky I am quite keen on Orbital, though perhaps not as keen as I am on the similarly named Orb. I think I have got all the Orbital albums, mostly bought on eBay after the fact.
April 20, 2012
Reading list, mid-April 2012
A hefty reading list that should keep me occupied into the summer. A friend on facebook asked “What course is that for?”, to which I replied “It’s for one of the modules I am doing at the university of life.” This response was quite popular.
April 30, 2011
Album Digest, April 2011
Album of the month: Mirrorwriting by Jamie Woon Jamie Woon was brought to my attention late last year by Pitchfork who wrote an article about the video for lead single Night Air. I’ve put that video down below because I think that it is very good, a simple well executed and the tune itself is brilliant, probably my favourite individual track of 2010. It’s a downtempo tune full of dark spaces and empty beats, full of nocturnal promise and mystery.
Tag: Charlie Don't Surf
April 30, 2016
Album Digest, April 2016
This month’s album digest is a mixture of comparisons. First we compare the fortunes of old hands Underworld to even older hands the Pet Shop Boys. After that I’ve found two dance albums, one that I liked and one that I didn’t. I find it quite hard to write about dance music and so the comparison is quite useful. Sometimes it helps to work out why you like one thing and not another.
Tag: Leon Vynehall
April 30, 2016
Album Digest, April 2016
This month’s album digest is a mixture of comparisons. First we compare the fortunes of old hands Underworld to even older hands the Pet Shop Boys. After that I’ve found two dance albums, one that I liked and one that I didn’t. I find it quite hard to write about dance music and so the comparison is quite useful. Sometimes it helps to work out why you like one thing and not another.
Tag: Pet Shop Boys
April 30, 2016
Album Digest, April 2016
This month’s album digest is a mixture of comparisons. First we compare the fortunes of old hands Underworld to even older hands the Pet Shop Boys. After that I’ve found two dance albums, one that I liked and one that I didn’t. I find it quite hard to write about dance music and so the comparison is quite useful. Sometimes it helps to work out why you like one thing and not another.
July 31, 2013
Album Digest, July 2013
Another four albums for you this month. Sometimes the problem is not finding albums to listen to but actually finding time to listen to them! Often it is not because I don’t have time but because I have already found some great albums this month and I am busy listening to those instead. As a result, a couple of these albums are ones that I have only listened to for a week or so, but they are interesting enough to write about.
Tag: Underworld
April 30, 2016
Album Digest, April 2016
This month’s album digest is a mixture of comparisons. First we compare the fortunes of old hands Underworld to even older hands the Pet Shop Boys. After that I’ve found two dance albums, one that I liked and one that I didn’t. I find it quite hard to write about dance music and so the comparison is quite useful. Sometimes it helps to work out why you like one thing and not another.
November 26, 2015
Underworld, Second Toughest in the Infants (Superdeluxe edition)
Last week Underworld reissued their excellent second album “Second Toughest In The Infants” in various formats including a four disc super deluxe edition. I wrote about this album in my understated classics series and I want to share some thoughts on the reissue. I love this album so I was excited to hear the remaster and the additional material.
I can’t comment on the physical version of the release as I can’t afford it at the moment.
August 31, 2014
Album Digest, August 2014
The album digest returns with five albums by four artists.
Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE Lone Reality Testing FKA twigs LP1 Mogwai Come On Die Young: Appendix Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE I’m a big fan of both Karl Hyde’s work with Underworld and of Brian Eno’s stuff so Someday World seemed like a dream collaboration to me when it was released last May.
July 22, 2011
Understated Classics #11: Second Toughest In The Infants by Underworld
Your rails, your fins, your thin paper wings Second Toughest in the Infants (STITI) is the second album by Underworld, released in 1995. This was just ahead of the mania caused by the .NUXX version of Born Slippy appearing on the Trainspotting soundtrack a little later. Born Slippy itself, the blippy techno confection released between their début Dubnobasswithmyheadman and this album. STITI then is very much the calm before the storm and features a band (in the truest sense, which is unusual among electronic acts) in full flow.
Tag: David Bowie
February 1, 2016
Album Digest, David Bowie RIP
I thought I’d add three of my favourite David Bowie albums to my review of Blackstar to a form an album digest tribute. Also among my favourites but not included here is “Outside”, which will be included in the understated classics (currently it’s number 66) at some point. I thought about bumping “Outside” up the running order but I’d like to be objective about it when its turn comes.
Station To Station “It’s not the side effects of the cocaine / I’m thinking it must be love” sings Bowie on the title track of his tenth studio album “Station To Station”, released in 1976.
March 31, 2013
Album Digest, March 2013
Just the David Bowie album this month as it’s pretty much the only new music that I’ve listened to.
I must admit that I had no idea what to expect of “The Next Day”. It comes almost exactly ten years after “Reality”, an album that I have never really got into despite it having some pretty decent fun tracks like “New Killer Star” and a nice cover of “Pablo Picasso” that has never sent me in search of Jonathan Richman’s original.
Tag: Ballet
January 29, 2016
The Nutcracker
For Ingrid’s birthday, we went to see The Nutcracker performed by the Moscow City Ballet at The King’s Theatre in Southsea.
The original conversation went something along the lines of “Matt, please come and see some ballet with me on my birthday! It might not be your thing but I’d love someone to come and see it with me”. As I’ve always loved a bit of Tchaikovsky, I said yes.
Tag: Battles
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
April 30, 2012
Album Digest, April 2012
A mostly instrumental month with a comeback from Orbital, an excellent remix collection from Battles, an amazing movie documenting a live performance by the Chemical Brothers and Austin Wintory’s soundtrack to the game Journey.
Orbital Wonky Battles Dross Glop The Chemical Brothers Don’t Think Austin Wintory Journey (Original Soundtrack) Orbital Wonky I am quite keen on Orbital, though perhaps not as keen as I am on the similarly named Orb. I think I have got all the Orbital albums, mostly bought on eBay after the fact.
June 30, 2011
Album Digest, June 2011
I have had the sort of month that is not conducive to listening to much new music. Therefore this month’s post is only going to consider two new albums and two albums that I have bought behind time. Because of various bits of stress and poor mood, I have ended up going back and taking refuge in some old favourites and not listening to new stuff. At other points I have also gone back to the Fleet Foxes’ album that I wrote about last month, which has grown on me even more since.
Tag: Blur
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
Tag: Chvrches
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
October 31, 2013
Album Digest, October 2013
Four great albums this month for the last album digest in a while.
CHVRCHES “The Bones Of What You Believe” I first got into CHVRCHES on Record Store Day, one of my purchases was an Irn Bru coloured 12" of the Recover EP that, according to eBay, tripled in value over night. Judging by this, their full debut, my see-through orange slab of happiness may hold its value, because it’s clear that CHVRCHES should be around for the long haul.
Tag: Fifteen
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
December 17, 2015
The Long Post
I am writing a long post that I will either publish as one long post (about five or six thousand words) or as about seven smaller ones each closer to the average post length of about eight hundred words. I have to get it out-of-the-way soon as my mind needs to focus on my health economics essay.
It is hard to write short posts to a timetable, let alone churn out long posts on a regular basis.
November 26, 2015
Underworld, Second Toughest in the Infants (Superdeluxe edition)
Last week Underworld reissued their excellent second album “Second Toughest In The Infants” in various formats including a four disc super deluxe edition. I wrote about this album in my understated classics series and I want to share some thoughts on the reissue. I love this album so I was excited to hear the remaster and the additional material.
I can’t comment on the physical version of the release as I can’t afford it at the moment.
November 20, 2015
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy: Review
As much as I wanted it to, Satin Island by Tom McCarthy did not win the Booker Prize. Having read it all I realise it was a long shot. However it is an interesting book that deserved consideration, even if it does have some flaws.
Normally I promise that there will be no spoilers. Not this time. There are some spoilers here. Because it took me so long to work out what I thought Satin Island was actually about, I want to use this post to explore those ideas.
October 31, 2015
Understated Classics #32: They Were Wrong So We Drowned by Liars
As it is Halloween, I’m writing about a spooky understated classic. Liars’ second album “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned” is a concept album about witches. It was the first of their albums that I owned having heard their name mentioned among those in the New York Post-punk revival scene at the start of the 00s.
I imagine that to most ears a first listen to “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned” sounds dreadful.
October 18, 2015
The Martian: A Short Review
In my review of the book I mentioned that a film adaptation of The Martian was on the way. I’m not sure why but it got released earlier than any of the dates that I’d seen and so on Saturday I found myself watching The Martian on the big screen. Could the film version deliver the same level of entertainment as the novel? Could Mark Watney (Matt Damon) get off Mars alive?
October 12, 2015
My Booker Prize Pick 2015
“Satin Island” is my pick for the Man Booker prize, announced tomorrow. I’ve not managed to read all of it yet. Also, I’ve only glanced at the others on the shortlist.
My prediction record on selecting the winner of the Booker from the shortlist is pretty good, though all I’m ever doing is guess the outcome of a 1 in 6 chance, like the roll of a die. Often it’s a book that I really hope will win rather than one I know will (except “Wolf Hall” and its sequel).
September 29, 2015
Ben Elton, Time and Time Again
Time and Time Again is a ridiculously stupid novel by Ben Elton. A shadowy sect (established by Isaac Newton no less!) recruits a soldier to go back in time and prevent Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo in August 1914. I wonder if it all goes to plan and everyone lives happily ever after with no weird timey-wimey after-effects?
Needless to say this novel makes me wish that time travel were a real thing so that I could travel back in time and slap myself in the face while in the queue to buy this tripe.
September 14, 2015
South America, Part 11
La Paz to Potosi We left La Paz, this time ascending the rim of steep hills around the city in a slightly less clunky “Death Bus”. Perhaps it was because we were travelling uphill or because it was daylight, but it didn’t seem so bad.
We set off to Potosi through strange towns with weird monuments (see the pictures) and Oruro where great festivals happen around Ash Wednesday each year that are famous throughout the continent.
September 2, 2015
Eric Schlosser, Gods of Metal
Y-12 is the United States’ most secure weapons-grade Uranium storage facility. It is known as the “Fort Knox of Uranium”. In 2012 it was infiltrated by three elderly peace protesters, sparking a major scandal about the safety of US nuclear sites. “Gods of Metal” by Eric Schlosser tells the story of that break-in alongside a history of both the anti-nuclear movement (in particular the Plowshares movement) and nuclear security in the United States.
September 1, 2015
Everything Everything, Get To Heaven
It’s difficult to write honestly about your feelings. It’s difficult to write about your feelings consistently, for a living on a regular basis. It’s difficult to write about your feelings when the world constantly intrudes with inanity, insanity and hatred. It’s difficult to write under those conditions without seeming frayed, without coming loose at the edges.
“Get To Heaven”, the third album by Everything Everything, was forged under these stresses and pressures.
July 25, 2015
Inherent Vice: A Short Review
Tonight I finally caught up with Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello who’s put on to a case of possible kidnapping by his “ex-old lady” Shasta, played by Katherine Waterston.
There’s no point attempting to tell much more you of the plot of Inherent Vice: it’s rather convoluted and self-digesting. At least this means there’s very little chance of stumbling into inadvertent spoilers.
July 22, 2015
Understated Classics #31: The White Room by The KLF
This little masterpiece was released in 1991. I got my copy on cassette for Christmas that year, but by May in 1992 they’d already “retired” and split up.
The KLF were a band in the right place at the right time with the right idea. Taking advantage of synthesizers and the idea of fusing rock and pop music with the emerging sound of house music, they laid the ground for many of the most successful electronic acts that followed them.
July 20, 2015
Untitled 2
A few months ago I wrote about an idea for a novel that I’d abandoned. I mentioned in that post that I’d abandoned it because there was another idea that I wanted to pursue. The working title for it is “Untitled 2”. (It isn’t really, I have an actual working title that would give things away or would at least make me feel like the idea was out in the world.
July 19, 2015
First Light, Last Light
I often ponder whether the joys of waking up early are greater than those of staying up late. Empirical evidence seems to bear this out: all those people who get to work before you do, super-eager to get everything done. But then all the people walking under your windows late at night, drunk and laughing, they sound like they’re having a whale of a time too.
I oscillate between the two extremes, though I tend to sleep better if I stay up late.
July 9, 2015
Minions: A Short Review
The Minions got their own movie, just as I predicted in my review of Despicable Me 2. I went to see it this week and I enjoyed it a lot. Here’s a short review. Don’t worry, there are no spoilers here that aren’t in the trailer.
It’s very funny. Right from the opening credits you get the minions and their anarchic fun-loving slapstick humour. There’s always been something delightful about they way in which they innocently bumble around.
July 5, 2015
An Initial Comparison of Apple Music and Spotify
My previous post about Apple Music was more a response to how it was presented at the WWDC Keynote rather than to the idea of Apple Music itself. I should have known better than to use that clickbait title. I knew I wasn’t writing about the product, more the flatness of its introduction (despite the names on show).
After a few days of living with it I thought I’d write about it and Spotify, so that it’s not just my snarky comments about the keynote that are on record here.
June 30, 2015
Album Digest, June 2015
To reboot this series, Album Digest June 2015 features five fantastic albums from Hot Chip, Jamie xx, Blanck Mass, Holly Herndon, and The Orb. I could pick loads more as I’ve listened to a lot of albums since February but I decided to focus on the more electronic material. This means that I have no excuses for not continuing next month with a rockier theme.
Hot Chip “Why Make Sense?” Hot Chip seem to be settling in to a pattern with their album releases, alternating between messy experimental affairs and then a state of the art correction.
June 18, 2015
Time Is Time and That Is That
A brief rant about Facebook: I hate the fact that the news feed defaults to “Top Stories” even though I change it back to “Most Recent” every time I log in. It’s a horrible pattern of user abuse that needs to stop. Time is time and that is that.
So why does Facebook feel the need to jiggle things about into a random order? Well most of you have that mobile phone app of theirs that sucks your battery and your data allowance like crazy (mainly by auto-playing videos like a dick).
June 3, 2015
Learn X in Y Minutes
I found “Learn X in Y minutes” (www.learnxinyminutes.com) while researching the programming languages needed for a new project. The site aims to help people who know at least one programming language to learn others by proving a quick run through of the main language features. It’s not quite enough to get you up and running. After all, having sample code doesn’t get you the compiler. However, it’s a nice start that shows you how similar (and different) language X is compared to the one(s) you already know.
May 25, 2015
Jim's Conservatory
Let’s assume that Jim has just had a sudden unexpected expenditure: a neighbour released a bull into his back garden and it destroyed his conservatory. Let’s assume that the conservatory is essential to Jim’s wellbeing, so it has to be fixed immediately. As a result Jim’s debts, which were previously small and well-managed, have now increased somewhat.
Obviously Jim can’t keep that debt hanging over him forever. What does he do?
May 9, 2015
Like a Rhino Voting for Poaching
There’s a reason I cannot and will not vote Conservative, and like most people’s apparent motive for voting tory it is also a selfish one. As someone employed in the public sector, working to ensure the greater good, I’m a member of an increasingly endangered species.
Ah Matthew, I hear you say, you’re trotting out the old “the turkeys have voted for Christmas” line. Well no, like I said, this is purely selfish.
April 19, 2015
Understated Classics #30: Our Aim Is to Satisfy by Red Snapper
The thirtieth understated classic is by a band named after a fish. There isn’t a great deal for me to say about “Our Aim Is To Satisfy”1 apart from the usual insistence that it is quite good. There’s no overarching theme to write about, and no deep personal story attached. It was bound to happen eventually.
“Our Aim Is To Satisfy” is one of those albums spawned in the late nineties and early naughties at the height of the Electronica boom: dance music that you didn’t necessarily have to dance to.
April 11, 2015
Consider the Donut
Or, From There to Here With the Simpsons Old episodes of The Simpsons are great. The other night “Bart After Dark” was on and I really enjoyed seeing it again. It’s from season eight, the one where Bart ends up working in the Maison Derriére. I thought it was older; mind you, this makes it nineteen years old. When I thought about the episode later on that evening, I realised how the story anarchically set out in multiple directions before settling into its main storyline.
April 3, 2015
Andy Weir, The Martian
I received a copy of The Martian by Andy Weir for Christmas. This week during some annual leave I managed to finish it. It’s one of those novels that just flies by once it gets going. I’ve stayed up incredibly late to read it as it is full of those “just one more page” moments. It’s a readable and enjoyable story of an astronaut trapped on Mars.
Mark Watney is believed to be dead following an accident during an emergency evacuation in a dust storm.
March 27, 2015
Jodorowsky's Dune
Jodorowsky’s Dune is a documentary about outlandish Chilean director Alejandro Jodorosky’s attempt at a film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune in the 1970s. As a big fan of the novel and of science fiction in general, I was very interested in this film. It does not disappoint. It gives a great insight into the mind of a little known (if slightly batty) director and shows even an artistic failure can lead to shock waves that can be felt in later work by others.
March 22, 2015
A Little Bit Intimidating Really
There is so much good writing out there. All you have to do is fire up the guardian website, or download the medium app to your smartphone, or visit my friend Barrie’s site, or Lee’s, and so on and so on.
When it comes to my little whisper into this great choir, it’s easy to feel a bit intimidated. How do I add my voice? How do I feel distinct? How do I do it as well as all these other wonderful writers?
March 22, 2015
How Fireworks Work
Last night an impromptu firework display occurred. I watched it from my bathroom window. Very pretty and somewhat extravagant, given that there’s no reason for one on the calendar. I could have filmed it on meerkat but it would have diminished the spectacle. However, it did at least motivate me to write this piece that I have put off for a while (since about November I guess?). One where I find out (i.
March 16, 2015
Ned Beauman, Glow
Glow is about a guy called Raf, a Londoner whose life is going nowhere in particular; a state of affairs not helped by “Non-24 Hour Sleep/Wake Syndrome”. One night while experimenting with a new ecstacy-like drug that’s apparently derived from a social anxiety medication for dogs, Raf meets a beautiful girl and then loses her to the crowd in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. From there a conspiracy evolves involving the titular dog-medication-derived drug, Burmese dissidents, corporate espionage, pirate radio stations, and urban foxes.
March 11, 2015
You Can’t Just Switch Off Free
Ministry of Sound boss Lohan Presencer does the cry baby act in today’s Guardian, complaining that Spotify’s freemium model doesn’t allow him to bathe in a Scrooge McDuck style swimming pool of golden coins any more. The cat is out of the bag for streaming music now, and no matter how much music companies cry foul they can’t stop Spotify and their ilk, and there wouldn’t be pots of gold waiting for them even if they could.
March 1, 2015
Album Digest, February 2015
Aphex Twin “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt2 EP” Aphex Twin follows SYRO (reviewed in Album Digest September 2014 here) with this 27 minute EP of music that, if we take the title literally, features computers playing acoustic musical instruments. It’s a very different sound to SYRO and sounds acoustic for the most part. It’s an important experiment about the role of the musician, one that is already blurred in the creation of electronic music.
February 22, 2015
Understated Classics #29: Let It Come Down by Spiritualized
I listened to Let It Come Down by Spiritualized for the first time during a difficult time in my life. I think this will always affect my feelings towards it. For me it’s a great big comfort blanket of a record. Coming after one of the all-time best break-up albums (in an artistic sense) in “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” perhaps it’s not that much of a surprise.
February 20, 2015
On Writing As It Happens
I’m pretty close to a round number. To date I have written 298,500 words for this blog, not counting posts that I have discarded or deleted. This will be the 505th post currently on the blog, which makes for an average of just under 600 words per post. Some posts are just a picture or a video or a gallery though, so that distorts the average a bit.
I don’t think I can write the 1500 words I need to hit 300,000 in this post.
February 16, 2015
On The Humble Cheese Grater
You can’t beat a good cheese grater. Cheese just tastes better in a sandwich once it has been grated. It’s been proven by ACTUAL SCIENCE that this is the case: something about the increased surface area making it taste more zingy (NB. QI is not actually a peer-reviewed scientific journal). Of course the cheese we are grating here is a nice mature cheddar, you can’t grate Camembert or Stilton (well technically you can, but why would you?
February 15, 2015
On Jackson X
I set myself the task of writing about a fictional character for this blog post, so this post is about Jackson X. His surname isn’t really X, it’s just one of the details about him that I haven’t fleshed out yet. This is because Jackson X is the one of the protagonists of the novel I’m (not) writing.
The name of the novel is “The Summer of the Giant Space Whale”.
February 4, 2015
On Voting
We hear a lot about our rights but these are given to us in return for fulfilling our responsibilities. One of these is engagement in the democratic process, and in particular voting. You should register to vote, that’s a no brainer. You should take an interest in what politics means for you locally, nationally, and internationally. On the day you to get to the polling station and cast your vote. Then you need to hold you representative accountable afterwards, even if he or she isn’t the person you voted for.
January 31, 2015
Album Digest, January 2015
Album Digest January 2015 rounds up a few albums from the tail end of 2014 that I didn’t get much time to write about. The only one of these six to be released this month is the excellent “No Cities To Love” by Sleater-Kinney.
Sleater-Kinney “No Cities To Love” I had heard of Sleater-Kinney before their boxed set “Start Together” was released in 2014. I was quite impressed that they curated their own Spotify playlist with the contents of the box.
January 18, 2015
Understated Classics #28: The Meadowlands by The Wrens
One of the first lines of “The House That Guilt Built”, the soft cricket-laden lament that opens The Meadowlands by The Wrens, is “I’m nowhere near where I thought I’d be”. The last line of the whole album is “this is not what you had planned”. These bookending lines set the tone for this shimmering, ramshackle masterpiece - a fatigue and careworn pride in failing to meet impossible standards writ large over its first and last eighty or so seconds.
January 3, 2015
Iain M. Banks, Feersum Endjinn
Feersum Endjinn is one of Iain Banks’ few non-Culture sci-fi novels. Like the Culture novels, an existential crisis drives the plot: in this case the action takes place on Earth in the far future and the sun has aged to a point where it will grow and swallow the earth. This is referred to as the Encroachment. The characters are divided between the good guys who seek to find a solution for the greater good and bad guys who use the Encroachment to consolidate their power and influence.
January 1, 2015
Happy New Year 2015!
Just a brief message to wish everyone a happy new year. Getting my flat connected to the internet continues to be a trial so it’s still not as easy to post as I would like. However, I have some workarounds now and I hope to write (and post) more often from now on.
Like everyone I make resolutions at this time of year, though as the years pass I realise that the best resolutions are to apopt a new way of being rather than a new way of doing.
Tag: Grimes
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
August 31, 2012
Album Digest, August 2012
Album Digest August 2012 is also from the stack of albums that I mentioned last month. I chose this selection (along with the Passion Pit album) because the colours looked good together in the mosaic of covers that I make each month. Last month’s digest was about the right amount of detail so this will be another briefer digest. These are all good albums but not ones that will change your life, they’ll just happily sit alongside it.
Tag: Harry Gregson-Williams
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
Tag: Holly Herndon
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
June 30, 2015
Album Digest, June 2015
To reboot this series, Album Digest June 2015 features five fantastic albums from Hot Chip, Jamie xx, Blanck Mass, Holly Herndon, and The Orb. I could pick loads more as I’ve listened to a lot of albums since February but I decided to focus on the more electronic material. This means that I have no excuses for not continuing next month with a rockier theme.
Hot Chip “Why Make Sense?” Hot Chip seem to be settling in to a pattern with their album releases, alternating between messy experimental affairs and then a state of the art correction.
Tag: Joanna Newsom
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
Tag: New Order
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
Tag: Sleater-Kinney
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
January 31, 2015
Album Digest, January 2015
Album Digest January 2015 rounds up a few albums from the tail end of 2014 that I didn’t get much time to write about. The only one of these six to be released this month is the excellent “No Cities To Love” by Sleater-Kinney.
Sleater-Kinney “No Cities To Love” I had heard of Sleater-Kinney before their boxed set “Start Together” was released in 2014. I was quite impressed that they curated their own Spotify playlist with the contents of the box.
Tag: Susanne Sundfør
December 31, 2015
My Favourite Albums of 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
March 1, 2015
Album Digest, February 2015
Aphex Twin “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt2 EP” Aphex Twin follows SYRO (reviewed in Album Digest September 2014 here) with this 27 minute EP of music that, if we take the title literally, features computers playing acoustic musical instruments. It’s a very different sound to SYRO and sounds acoustic for the most part. It’s an important experiment about the role of the musician, one that is already blurred in the creation of electronic music.
Tag: Novel
November 20, 2015
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy: Review
As much as I wanted it to, Satin Island by Tom McCarthy did not win the Booker Prize. Having read it all I realise it was a long shot. However it is an interesting book that deserved consideration, even if it does have some flaws.
Normally I promise that there will be no spoilers. Not this time. There are some spoilers here. Because it took me so long to work out what I thought Satin Island was actually about, I want to use this post to explore those ideas.
October 12, 2015
My Booker Prize Pick 2015
“Satin Island” is my pick for the Man Booker prize, announced tomorrow. I’ve not managed to read all of it yet. Also, I’ve only glanced at the others on the shortlist.
My prediction record on selecting the winner of the Booker from the shortlist is pretty good, though all I’m ever doing is guess the outcome of a 1 in 6 chance, like the roll of a die. Often it’s a book that I really hope will win rather than one I know will (except “Wolf Hall” and its sequel).
September 2, 2014
Evie Wyld, All The Birds, Singing
I recently finished reading All The Birds, Singing, the second novel by Evie Wyld. It’s about a woman called Jake who lives alone on a farm with a dog called Dog on an island somewhere off the coast of Britain. She has sheep to look after but something keeps coming in the middle of the night to kill them.
Meanwhile, as the narrative on the island moves forward in the present, a second narrative peels off backwards to explain her past.
August 24, 2014
Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage is the latest novel by Haruki Murakami. It comes with free stickers. Perhaps that tells you everything you need to know about this book, which is slimmer than Murakami’s recent efforts. The plot begins with an intriguing premise. Tsukuru is part of a group of close friends and is one day expelled from the group for no reason. Unfortunately, the development of the plot is uncontrolled and by the end of novel too many holes have developed for it all to hold together.
October 5, 2013
J. G. Ballard, High-Rise
After a few false starts I managed to finish “High-Rise”, the next in my collection of JG Ballard novels. For a book that I had trouble getting into, it turned out to be a pretty good read - even if it was also a pretty unpleasant one. Published in 1975, “High-Rise” is perhaps ahead of its time in exploring the effects of social breakdown in stylised and artificial situations where people are in close contact.
July 30, 2013
Neil Gaiman, The Ocean At The End Of The Lane
“The Ocean At The End Of The Lane” is the new novel by Neil Gaiman. I was so intrigued by it that I bought the hardcover, which is unusual for me because I prefer paperbacks. I’d been excited by reading the first chapter online at the Guardian website and from reading a blog post about the novel written by the author’s wife Amanda Palmer. I’d not read any of his novels before but they had long been on that “to read” list that is typically as long as your arm.
July 23, 2013
Don Delillo, Point Omega
There were no mornings or afternoons. It was one seamless day, every day, until the sun began to arc and fade, mountains emerging from their silhouettes. This is when we sat and watched in silence.
Today I finished reading “Point Omega” by Don Delillo. I have wanted to read one of his novels for a while and though this is a slip of a novella, I certainly enjoyed it. I accidentally came across it when I looked at the wikpedia page for Pierre Teilhard de Chardin last week as part of research for another post that I am writing.
July 5, 2013
Michael Frayn, Skios
This week I read “Skios” by Michael Frayn (who was born in Mill Hill). It’s another book from now customary pile of books that tends to develop around this time of year. “Hawksmoor” and “The Marriage Plot” were on the same ever-increasing pile. “Skios” is something of a change from what I normally read: it’s a comedic farce about stolen identities set on the (fictional) titular Greek island. Amusingly, the wikipedia page for the novel currently reads “Praise for Skios was entirely misplaced”, probably thanks to some curmudgeon who doesn’t like the novel.
June 26, 2013
Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
Peter Ackroyd’s “Hawksmoor” was first published in 1985. I bought a recent reissue that forms part of Penguin’s decades collection whilst on a spree in Waterstone’s. It appealed to me as I recently realised that despite growing up in the eighties and nineties, I had read very novels that were either written or set in the eighties. Happily “Hawksmoor” is both of these, sort of. It also appealed to me because it is (again, sort of) a detective story and I’ve found myself getting into those lately.
May 20, 2013
Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot
“The Marriage Plot” by Jeffrey Eugenides is a novel about love and growing up set in the privileged world of US academia in the early eighties. The main plot concerns a love triangle involving two guys and a girl. Madeline Hanna, the girl at the apex of the love triangle, is the main focus of the novel and the majority of the novel is told from her standpoint. I think her sections are incredibly well written but I’d love the thoughts of a female reader, in case it is actually all a horribly male way of seeing through a young woman’s eyes.
Tag: Tom McCarthy
November 20, 2015
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy: Review
As much as I wanted it to, Satin Island by Tom McCarthy did not win the Booker Prize. Having read it all I realise it was a long shot. However it is an interesting book that deserved consideration, even if it does have some flaws.
Normally I promise that there will be no spoilers. Not this time. There are some spoilers here. Because it took me so long to work out what I thought Satin Island was actually about, I want to use this post to explore those ideas.
October 12, 2015
My Booker Prize Pick 2015
“Satin Island” is my pick for the Man Booker prize, announced tomorrow. I’ve not managed to read all of it yet. Also, I’ve only glanced at the others on the shortlist.
My prediction record on selecting the winner of the Booker from the shortlist is pretty good, though all I’m ever doing is guess the outcome of a 1 in 6 chance, like the roll of a die. Often it’s a book that I really hope will win rather than one I know will (except “Wolf Hall” and its sequel).
Tag: Liars
October 31, 2015
Understated Classics #32: They Were Wrong So We Drowned by Liars
As it is Halloween, I’m writing about a spooky understated classic. Liars’ second album “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned” is a concept album about witches. It was the first of their albums that I owned having heard their name mentioned among those in the New York Post-punk revival scene at the start of the 00s.
I imagine that to most ears a first listen to “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned” sounds dreadful.
March 31, 2014
Album Digest, March 2014
I’m back in the UK so it’s back to posts about albums each month. This one is a bit different because I didn’t listen to very much new stuff while I was away so not all of the albums are up to date. I had to write about the new album by Liars though because it’s awesome and I couldn’t wait to discuss it! Here’s the list of albums:
Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob Fanfarlo Let’s Go Extinct Liars Mess London Grammar If You Wait Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob I would argue, as I have throughout my sequence of understated classics posts, that a great album is one that changes you as a person.
June 30, 2012
Album Digest, June 2012
Three fantastic albums for Album Digest June 2012:
Saint Etienne Words and Music by Saint Etienne Liars WIXIW Hot Chip In Our Heads This month is a curious selection in that the albums are all by bands that I already own a few records by. When there is so much other directly related material that you can write about, it makes focussing on the album in hand quite difficult. I am always thinking up rankings and comparisons.
Tag: Andy Weir
October 18, 2015
The Martian: A Short Review
In my review of the book I mentioned that a film adaptation of The Martian was on the way. I’m not sure why but it got released earlier than any of the dates that I’d seen and so on Saturday I found myself watching The Martian on the big screen. Could the film version deliver the same level of entertainment as the novel? Could Mark Watney (Matt Damon) get off Mars alive?
April 3, 2015
Andy Weir, The Martian
I received a copy of The Martian by Andy Weir for Christmas. This week during some annual leave I managed to finish it. It’s one of those novels that just flies by once it gets going. I’ve stayed up incredibly late to read it as it is full of those “just one more page” moments. It’s a readable and enjoyable story of an astronaut trapped on Mars.
Mark Watney is believed to be dead following an accident during an emergency evacuation in a dust storm.
Tag: Ben Elton
September 29, 2015
Ben Elton, Time and Time Again
Time and Time Again is a ridiculously stupid novel by Ben Elton. A shadowy sect (established by Isaac Newton no less!) recruits a soldier to go back in time and prevent Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo in August 1914. I wonder if it all goes to plan and everyone lives happily ever after with no weird timey-wimey after-effects?
Needless to say this novel makes me wish that time travel were a real thing so that I could travel back in time and slap myself in the face while in the queue to buy this tripe.
Tag: Everything Everything
September 1, 2015
Everything Everything, Get To Heaven
It’s difficult to write honestly about your feelings. It’s difficult to write about your feelings consistently, for a living on a regular basis. It’s difficult to write about your feelings when the world constantly intrudes with inanity, insanity and hatred. It’s difficult to write under those conditions without seeming frayed, without coming loose at the edges.
“Get To Heaven”, the third album by Everything Everything, was forged under these stresses and pressures.
January 31, 2013
Album Digest, January 2013
Only one of this month three albums was actually released this month. Nelly Furtado’s Mi plan was actually released over three years ago - I only discovered it last year when I wrote the September album digest following the release of “The Spirit Indestructible”, or it might have been when I wrote about “Folklore” at around the same time.
Anyway, I guess these are albums that I bought with my Christmas gift vouchers!
Tag: CAN
July 25, 2015
Inherent Vice: A Short Review
Tonight I finally caught up with Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello who’s put on to a case of possible kidnapping by his “ex-old lady” Shasta, played by Katherine Waterston.
There’s no point attempting to tell much more you of the plot of Inherent Vice: it’s rather convoluted and self-digesting. At least this means there’s very little chance of stumbling into inadvertent spoilers.
June 24, 2012
CAN, The Lost Tapes
This arrived on Monday and I thought I would give it a post of its own because at over 3 hours of music, I am unlikely to do more than dip into it before writing the album digest next week. It is a far bigger and more enjoyable artefact than I thought it was going to be, so it probably deserves special attention for that reason too.
CAN are a German (“Krautrock”) band that I got into about four years ago after my interest in the genre was sparked by the “Neu!
Tag: Thomas Pynchon
July 25, 2015
Inherent Vice: A Short Review
Tonight I finally caught up with Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello who’s put on to a case of possible kidnapping by his “ex-old lady” Shasta, played by Katherine Waterston.
There’s no point attempting to tell much more you of the plot of Inherent Vice: it’s rather convoluted and self-digesting. At least this means there’s very little chance of stumbling into inadvertent spoilers.
February 26, 2013
On Pynchon
The existence, or impending existence, of a new novel by Thomas Pynchon was announced today. I have all his previous books (seven written over a period of about fifty years, a pace that I definitely approve of), though he’s a hard author to get close to: I’ve only finished three and started four up till now. The unfinished one is, of course, Gravity’s Rainbow (GR) and somewhat perversely, I have two copies of the thing.
Tag: The KLF
July 22, 2015
Understated Classics #31: The White Room by The KLF
This little masterpiece was released in 1991. I got my copy on cassette for Christmas that year, but by May in 1992 they’d already “retired” and split up.
The KLF were a band in the right place at the right time with the right idea. Taking advantage of synthesizers and the idea of fusing rock and pop music with the emerging sound of house music, they laid the ground for many of the most successful electronic acts that followed them.
Tag: Philosophy
July 19, 2015
First Light, Last Light
I often ponder whether the joys of waking up early are greater than those of staying up late. Empirical evidence seems to bear this out: all those people who get to work before you do, super-eager to get everything done. But then all the people walking under your windows late at night, drunk and laughing, they sound like they’re having a whale of a time too.
I oscillate between the two extremes, though I tend to sleep better if I stay up late.
June 18, 2015
Time Is Time and That Is That
A brief rant about Facebook: I hate the fact that the news feed defaults to “Top Stories” even though I change it back to “Most Recent” every time I log in. It’s a horrible pattern of user abuse that needs to stop. Time is time and that is that.
So why does Facebook feel the need to jiggle things about into a random order? Well most of you have that mobile phone app of theirs that sucks your battery and your data allowance like crazy (mainly by auto-playing videos like a dick).
Tag: Animation
July 9, 2015
Minions: A Short Review
The Minions got their own movie, just as I predicted in my review of Despicable Me 2. I went to see it this week and I enjoyed it a lot. Here’s a short review. Don’t worry, there are no spoilers here that aren’t in the trailer.
It’s very funny. Right from the opening credits you get the minions and their anarchic fun-loving slapstick humour. There’s always been something delightful about they way in which they innocently bumble around.
August 12, 2013
Despicable Me 2: A Short Review
It’s so good that I paid to see it twice! There, that’s the review done.
Despicable Me 2 is great for so many reasons. I reckon pretty much anyone aged from 3 to 103 would enjoy both movies’ warm heartedness and most will love the minions’ riot of anarchic slapstick. And if they don’t, I guess they aren’t our kind of people anyway, right?
Here are a few good reasons for loving “Despicable Me 2” (and actually most of these reasons apply to the original “Despicable Me”):
July 12, 2011
Why I Love The Jungle Book
Just as with the understated classics I want to set out my stall early on that good movies are good enough. Both Betty Blue and today’s choice The Jungle Book are never going to win any sort of consensus prize for the best movies ever made but they are really good. They also have a personal history attached that makes them worth writing about.
When I was younger both my sisters would be given VHS copies of Disney movies at a rate of about two a year, one for Christmas and one at their birthday.
Tag: Apple Music
July 5, 2015
An Initial Comparison of Apple Music and Spotify
My previous post about Apple Music was more a response to how it was presented at the WWDC Keynote rather than to the idea of Apple Music itself. I should have known better than to use that clickbait title. I knew I wasn’t writing about the product, more the flatness of its introduction (despite the names on show).
After a few days of living with it I thought I’d write about it and Spotify, so that it’s not just my snarky comments about the keynote that are on record here.
Tag: Hot Chip
June 30, 2015
Album Digest, June 2015
To reboot this series, Album Digest June 2015 features five fantastic albums from Hot Chip, Jamie xx, Blanck Mass, Holly Herndon, and The Orb. I could pick loads more as I’ve listened to a lot of albums since February but I decided to focus on the more electronic material. This means that I have no excuses for not continuing next month with a rockier theme.
Hot Chip “Why Make Sense?” Hot Chip seem to be settling in to a pattern with their album releases, alternating between messy experimental affairs and then a state of the art correction.
June 30, 2012
Album Digest, June 2012
Three fantastic albums for Album Digest June 2012:
Saint Etienne Words and Music by Saint Etienne Liars WIXIW Hot Chip In Our Heads This month is a curious selection in that the albums are all by bands that I already own a few records by. When there is so much other directly related material that you can write about, it makes focussing on the album in hand quite difficult. I am always thinking up rankings and comparisons.
Tag: Jamie Xx
June 30, 2015
Album Digest, June 2015
To reboot this series, Album Digest June 2015 features five fantastic albums from Hot Chip, Jamie xx, Blanck Mass, Holly Herndon, and The Orb. I could pick loads more as I’ve listened to a lot of albums since February but I decided to focus on the more electronic material. This means that I have no excuses for not continuing next month with a rockier theme.
Hot Chip “Why Make Sense?” Hot Chip seem to be settling in to a pattern with their album releases, alternating between messy experimental affairs and then a state of the art correction.
Tag: Social Media
June 18, 2015
Time Is Time and That Is That
A brief rant about Facebook: I hate the fact that the news feed defaults to “Top Stories” even though I change it back to “Most Recent” every time I log in. It’s a horrible pattern of user abuse that needs to stop. Time is time and that is that.
So why does Facebook feel the need to jiggle things about into a random order? Well most of you have that mobile phone app of theirs that sucks your battery and your data allowance like crazy (mainly by auto-playing videos like a dick).
Tag: Learning
June 3, 2015
Learn X in Y Minutes
I found “Learn X in Y minutes” (www.learnxinyminutes.com) while researching the programming languages needed for a new project. The site aims to help people who know at least one programming language to learn others by proving a quick run through of the main language features. It’s not quite enough to get you up and running. After all, having sample code doesn’t get you the compiler. However, it’s a nice start that shows you how similar (and different) language X is compared to the one(s) you already know.
Tag: Red Snapper
April 19, 2015
Understated Classics #30: Our Aim Is to Satisfy by Red Snapper
The thirtieth understated classic is by a band named after a fish. There isn’t a great deal for me to say about “Our Aim Is To Satisfy”1 apart from the usual insistence that it is quite good. There’s no overarching theme to write about, and no deep personal story attached. It was bound to happen eventually.
“Our Aim Is To Satisfy” is one of those albums spawned in the late nineties and early naughties at the height of the Electronica boom: dance music that you didn’t necessarily have to dance to.
Tag: The Simpsons
April 11, 2015
Consider the Donut
Or, From There to Here With the Simpsons Old episodes of The Simpsons are great. The other night “Bart After Dark” was on and I really enjoyed seeing it again. It’s from season eight, the one where Bart ends up working in the Maison Derriére. I thought it was older; mind you, this makes it nineteen years old. When I thought about the episode later on that evening, I realised how the story anarchically set out in multiple directions before settling into its main storyline.
Tag: Documentary
March 27, 2015
Jodorowsky's Dune
Jodorowsky’s Dune is a documentary about outlandish Chilean director Alejandro Jodorosky’s attempt at a film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune in the 1970s. As a big fan of the novel and of science fiction in general, I was very interested in this film. It does not disappoint. It gives a great insight into the mind of a little known (if slightly batty) director and shows even an artistic failure can lead to shock waves that can be felt in later work by others.
January 5, 2012
Dreams Of A Life: A Short Review
Dreams Of A Life is a documentary about Joyce Vincent, a woman who was found in her flat three years after her death surrounded by wrapped christmas presents and with the TV still on. £2400 in arrears on her rent, she was discovered by bailiffs who forced the door down. The film attempts to work out happened to Joyce by interviewing people who knew her. In two other strands that unfold in parallel, various events from her life are re-enacted along with the clearing of her flat by forensics officers.
Tag: Frank Herbert
March 27, 2015
Jodorowsky's Dune
Jodorowsky’s Dune is a documentary about outlandish Chilean director Alejandro Jodorosky’s attempt at a film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune in the 1970s. As a big fan of the novel and of science fiction in general, I was very interested in this film. It does not disappoint. It gives a great insight into the mind of a little known (if slightly batty) director and shows even an artistic failure can lead to shock waves that can be felt in later work by others.
September 9, 2011
Frank Herbert, Dune
A week or so ago, I finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert. It tells the story of a revolution within a Galactic Empire that takes place on a harsh and unforgiving desert planet called Arrakis. One central theme is how destinies can be shaped despite being intertwined around many axes. Another is the importance of adaptation in the fight for survival.
I came to Dune via the David Lynch film and then the Sci-Fi Channel’s mini-series, which I was able to stream through LoveFilm.
Tag: Science
March 22, 2015
How Fireworks Work
Last night an impromptu firework display occurred. I watched it from my bathroom window. Very pretty and somewhat extravagant, given that there’s no reason for one on the calendar. I could have filmed it on meerkat but it would have diminished the spectacle. However, it did at least motivate me to write this piece that I have put off for a while (since about November I guess?). One where I find out (i.
February 3, 2011
Out There Somewhere
Hurrah for more exoplanets making the news this week. This time it is a star with a whole bunch of small planets very close to the star, usually they tend to be single gas giants larger even than Jupiter as this list of stars with exoplanets from Wikipedia shows.
But these stars are all so far away! The closest star with an exoplanet found in orbit around it so far is 10 light years away (Epsilon Eridani) and this week’s system was found over 2000 light years away.
Tag: Ned Beauman
March 16, 2015
Ned Beauman, Glow
Glow is about a guy called Raf, a Londoner whose life is going nowhere in particular; a state of affairs not helped by “Non-24 Hour Sleep/Wake Syndrome”. One night while experimenting with a new ecstacy-like drug that’s apparently derived from a social anxiety medication for dogs, Raf meets a beautiful girl and then loses her to the crowd in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. From there a conspiracy evolves involving the titular dog-medication-derived drug, Burmese dissidents, corporate espionage, pirate radio stations, and urban foxes.
Tag: Spiritualized
February 22, 2015
Understated Classics #29: Let It Come Down by Spiritualized
I listened to Let It Come Down by Spiritualized for the first time during a difficult time in my life. I think this will always affect my feelings towards it. For me it’s a great big comfort blanket of a record. Coming after one of the all-time best break-up albums (in an artistic sense) in “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” perhaps it’s not that much of a surprise.
Tag: Cheese
February 16, 2015
On The Humble Cheese Grater
You can’t beat a good cheese grater. Cheese just tastes better in a sandwich once it has been grated. It’s been proven by ACTUAL SCIENCE that this is the case: something about the increased surface area making it taste more zingy (NB. QI is not actually a peer-reviewed scientific journal). Of course the cheese we are grating here is a nice mature cheddar, you can’t grate Camembert or Stilton (well technically you can, but why would you?
Tag: Azealia Banks
January 31, 2015
Album Digest, January 2015
Album Digest January 2015 rounds up a few albums from the tail end of 2014 that I didn’t get much time to write about. The only one of these six to be released this month is the excellent “No Cities To Love” by Sleater-Kinney.
Sleater-Kinney “No Cities To Love” I had heard of Sleater-Kinney before their boxed set “Start Together” was released in 2014. I was quite impressed that they curated their own Spotify playlist with the contents of the box.
Tag: Flying Lotus
January 31, 2015
Album Digest, January 2015
Album Digest January 2015 rounds up a few albums from the tail end of 2014 that I didn’t get much time to write about. The only one of these six to be released this month is the excellent “No Cities To Love” by Sleater-Kinney.
Sleater-Kinney “No Cities To Love” I had heard of Sleater-Kinney before their boxed set “Start Together” was released in 2014. I was quite impressed that they curated their own Spotify playlist with the contents of the box.
Tag: Museum Of Love
January 31, 2015
Album Digest, January 2015
Album Digest January 2015 rounds up a few albums from the tail end of 2014 that I didn’t get much time to write about. The only one of these six to be released this month is the excellent “No Cities To Love” by Sleater-Kinney.
Sleater-Kinney “No Cities To Love” I had heard of Sleater-Kinney before their boxed set “Start Together” was released in 2014. I was quite impressed that they curated their own Spotify playlist with the contents of the box.
Tag: Royksopp
January 31, 2015
Album Digest, January 2015
Album Digest January 2015 rounds up a few albums from the tail end of 2014 that I didn’t get much time to write about. The only one of these six to be released this month is the excellent “No Cities To Love” by Sleater-Kinney.
Sleater-Kinney “No Cities To Love” I had heard of Sleater-Kinney before their boxed set “Start Together” was released in 2014. I was quite impressed that they curated their own Spotify playlist with the contents of the box.
May 31, 2014
Album Digest, May 2014
This month was strange. I didn’t listen to much new music and after last month’s bumper digest there’s probably a reason for that. Not to mention that Spotify gives you more reasons to look backwards than forwards. Nevertheless, this brief post features new albums by Little Dragon and Coldplay, along with the mini-album collaboration between Röyskopp and Robyn.
Little Dragon “Nabuma Rubberband” I discovered Little Dragon, like most people, I imagine, via Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach” album.
Tag: The Wrens
January 18, 2015
Understated Classics #28: The Meadowlands by The Wrens
One of the first lines of “The House That Guilt Built”, the soft cricket-laden lament that opens The Meadowlands by The Wrens, is “I’m nowhere near where I thought I’d be”. The last line of the whole album is “this is not what you had planned”. These bookending lines set the tone for this shimmering, ramshackle masterpiece - a fatigue and careworn pride in failing to meet impossible standards writ large over its first and last eighty or so seconds.
Tag: Iain M. Banks
January 3, 2015
Iain M. Banks, Feersum Endjinn
Feersum Endjinn is one of Iain Banks’ few non-Culture sci-fi novels. Like the Culture novels, an existential crisis drives the plot: in this case the action takes place on Earth in the far future and the sun has aged to a point where it will grow and swallow the earth. This is referred to as the Encroachment. The characters are divided between the good guys who seek to find a solution for the greater good and bad guys who use the Encroachment to consolidate their power and influence.
March 18, 2013
Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas
A while back, I decided I was going to write about the Iain M. Banks sci-fi-novels (mainly as a respite from having to read and write about J. G. Ballard novels, but I only got as fas as writing about the excellent “Against A Dark Barkground” and re-reading the first of the Culture novels “Consider Phlebas”. WARNING: Some plot spoilers follow (but not too many).
I’m not sure why it has taken almost two years to write about this novel.
April 3, 2011
Favourite Culture Ship Names
As I mentioned before I am re-reading the novels of Iain Banks and this weekend I managed to finish Consider Phlebas. A little post about it will be coming up soon. One of my favourite things about the Culture novels is how the ships are named and having found a list on Wikipedia, I thought I would share ten of my favourites with you!
You’ll Clean That Up Before You Leave Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff Prosthetic Conscience Of Course I Still Love You Size Isn’t Everything Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again Dramatic Exit, Or, Thank you And Goodnight We Haven’t Met But You’re A Great Fan Of Mine Anticipation Of A New Lover’s Arrival, The Great names all I am sure you would agree.
Tag: Cymbals Eat Guitars
September 30, 2014
Album Digest, September 2014
Album Digest September 2014 contains four amazing albums, including the long-awaited return from the Aphex Twin, and an album from Cymbals Eat Guitars released about a week after I wondered what had happened to them. Spooky. Rounding out the selection this month are a cool punky-disco album by The Juan Maclean and a truly remarkable offering by Vessel.
Aphex Twin SYRO SYRO is the sixth album by Aphex Twin and his first official Aphex Twin release since Drukqs in 2001.
Tag: The Juan Mclean
September 30, 2014
Album Digest, September 2014
Album Digest September 2014 contains four amazing albums, including the long-awaited return from the Aphex Twin, and an album from Cymbals Eat Guitars released about a week after I wondered what had happened to them. Spooky. Rounding out the selection this month are a cool punky-disco album by The Juan Maclean and a truly remarkable offering by Vessel.
Aphex Twin SYRO SYRO is the sixth album by Aphex Twin and his first official Aphex Twin release since Drukqs in 2001.
Tag: Vessel
September 30, 2014
Album Digest, September 2014
Album Digest September 2014 contains four amazing albums, including the long-awaited return from the Aphex Twin, and an album from Cymbals Eat Guitars released about a week after I wondered what had happened to them. Spooky. Rounding out the selection this month are a cool punky-disco album by The Juan Maclean and a truly remarkable offering by Vessel.
Aphex Twin SYRO SYRO is the sixth album by Aphex Twin and his first official Aphex Twin release since Drukqs in 2001.
Tag: Maths
September 25, 2014
How to generate random numbers in R
This post deals with how to generate random numbers in R. It is good to know how to generate random numbers with a particular language or software package for at least one of the following three reasons:
You want to test something that depends on a particular distribution. You’re running a stochastic process of some kind (Branching process, random walk etc) and you need random numbers for deciding whether an event occurs.
August 13, 2013
Posters
In 2005, towards the end of the second year of my PhD I presented a poster at a conference in Dresden, Germany. My eccentric colleagues and I stayed on a huge canal boat moored on the Elbe for no discernible reason other than it seemed like a laugh at the time. In reality I was the second worst snorer of the three of us and it also turned out that our room was right underneath the gang-plank and every morning at six the person who made breakfast would stomp across it.
July 29, 2013
Ideas for TV shows: Great Mathematicians
I want to see a TV show about great mathematicians of the past on a channel like BBC Four. Programmes about mathematics tend to be rather condescending, at least to anyone who has a bit of mathematical knowledge. Perhaps a way around this is to delve into the social and historical circumstances of the great mathematicians and how that along with their personality produced the mathematical results for which they are famous.
October 2, 2012
Nonlinear Systems: A Rough Intro
This is another mathematics post that does not actually feature any equations or graphs. It is intended to set the way clear for writing regularly about nonlinear systems. This in itself is a precursor to writing more about mathematical biology as biological systems are inherently complex and nonlinear. I am reading P. G. Drazin’s textbook on Nonlinear Systems and this post is a glossary of terms from the start of the book laid down here because I wanted to remember how to typeset definition lists in Markdown (though in the end I (ab)used <h4> tags because it looked better).
June 22, 2011
Favourite Numbers
What’s your favourite number?
I was ambivalent on this issue until a few months ago until I came across the following quirky result: if you start with the prime number 41 and then add 2 you get 43, which is also prime and then if you add 4 to 43, you get 47: also prime. And this continues to produce prime numbers if you add successive multiples of two to your running total, UNTIL… you get to the 41st number in this sequence, which is 41 squared.
Tag: Evie Wyld
September 2, 2014
Evie Wyld, All The Birds, Singing
I recently finished reading All The Birds, Singing, the second novel by Evie Wyld. It’s about a woman called Jake who lives alone on a farm with a dog called Dog on an island somewhere off the coast of Britain. She has sheep to look after but something keeps coming in the middle of the night to kill them.
Meanwhile, as the narrative on the island moves forward in the present, a second narrative peels off backwards to explain her past.
Tag: FKA twigs
August 31, 2014
Album Digest, August 2014
The album digest returns with five albums by four artists.
Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE Lone Reality Testing FKA twigs LP1 Mogwai Come On Die Young: Appendix Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE I’m a big fan of both Karl Hyde’s work with Underworld and of Brian Eno’s stuff so Someday World seemed like a dream collaboration to me when it was released last May.
Tag: Karl Hyde
August 31, 2014
Album Digest, August 2014
The album digest returns with five albums by four artists.
Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE Lone Reality Testing FKA twigs LP1 Mogwai Come On Die Young: Appendix Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE I’m a big fan of both Karl Hyde’s work with Underworld and of Brian Eno’s stuff so Someday World seemed like a dream collaboration to me when it was released last May.
Tag: Lone
August 31, 2014
Album Digest, August 2014
The album digest returns with five albums by four artists.
Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE Lone Reality Testing FKA twigs LP1 Mogwai Come On Die Young: Appendix Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE I’m a big fan of both Karl Hyde’s work with Underworld and of Brian Eno’s stuff so Someday World seemed like a dream collaboration to me when it was released last May.
Tag: Mogwai
August 31, 2014
Album Digest, August 2014
The album digest returns with five albums by four artists.
Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE Lone Reality Testing FKA twigs LP1 Mogwai Come On Die Young: Appendix Karl Hyde & Brian Eno Someday World & HIGH-LIFE I’m a big fan of both Karl Hyde’s work with Underworld and of Brian Eno’s stuff so Someday World seemed like a dream collaboration to me when it was released last May.
July 7, 2014
Understated Classics #26: Come On Die Young by Mogwai
I’ll tell you about punk rock: punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and ah… and ah… heartless manipulators about music that takes up the energies and the bodies and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds of young men who give what they have to it and give everything they have to it and it’s a… it’s a term that’s based on contempt, it’s a term that’s based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism and everything that’s rotten about rock ’n’ roll.
Tag: Haruki Murakami
August 24, 2014
Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage is the latest novel by Haruki Murakami. It comes with free stickers. Perhaps that tells you everything you need to know about this book, which is slimmer than Murakami’s recent efforts. The plot begins with an intriguing premise. Tsukuru is part of a group of close friends and is one day expelled from the group for no reason. Unfortunately, the development of the plot is uncontrolled and by the end of novel too many holes have developed for it all to hold together.
Tag: Peru
August 18, 2014
South America, Part 10
Picking up where I left off at Machu Picchu, we headed down into Aguas Calientes (trans. “hot waters”) by coach and by the time we got there it was torrenting down with rain. So much for exploration. We waited out the downpour in a pizza place and deliberated over whether to buy souvenier snaps from the tour guides. Ironically for a town named after hot waters, it was bitterly cold. One of those places where the sound of running water follows you wherever you go, the best thing about it was the huge trains that ran down the middle of street - big clanking hulks pulling huge passenger trains.
May 27, 2014
South America, Part 9
In a tour full of highlights, Christmas week of 2013 was nonetheless one of the greatest weeks of my life. I may have moaned, groaned, and got completely soaked, but it was worth it to see Machu Picchu in the sunshine.
“The Story So Far” Arriving in Quito Otovalo and Misahualli Banos Ingapirca and Cuenca Into Peru The Road to Lima The Nazca Lines Arequipa and Cusco The Sacred Valley On 22nd December, we set off from the hotel in Cusco for a trip along the Sacred Valley that lines the Urubamba river.
February 10, 2014
South America, Part 8
Arequipa and Cusco – the two cities that are the subject of this post – are probably the two cities in Peru that are most amenable to travellers (though Lima certainly has a lot to offer too). For me they should have been punctuated with a trip to Colca canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world and twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, I got really sick on the second day in Arequipa as my attempts at keeping my tummy bug at bay finally failed.
February 7, 2014
South America, Part 7
Next up was a piecemeal section of the trip that took in a varied set of sights and helped us get to know the new passengers who joined in Lima. On the first day we took a boat trip out to the Ballestas Islands, a nature reserve that is informally known as “the poor man’s galapagos”. Living there are penguins, sea birds, sea lions and seals. The speed boat out was a little wet and wild (and in fact the return trip was even wetter and wilder) so we all got soaked (twice) but the microclimate around the islands themselves was calm and warm, and we all got good value out of our cameras (if they still worked that is).
January 12, 2014
South America, Part 6
From Punta Sal we took a long driving down to Huanchaco, via a stop off at the Lord of Saipan museum. The lord of Saipan is a Moche mummy found dressed in all manner of gold and surrounded by artefacts and other sacrifices (including other humans and decapitated llamas). The tour took a while to get going (our guide was late) but the exhibition was so amazing (the pieces were painstakingly restored in Germany) that it was hugely enjoyable.
December 31, 2013
South America, Part 5
After Cuenca we set off for the Peruvian border. One of the great advantages of having a UK passport in South America is that you don’t need any visas. If you’re Australian or Canadian it’s a different story. Nevertheless we all got over the border with very little trouble (the third ever land border crossing of my life) apart from the bits where they seem to make you wait in a queue just for the sake of making you wait in a queue.
December 19, 2013
Grumble Grumble
I’m a bit behind in my posts about the trip and this post interrupts the sequence of events somewhat, just because I’ve not felt that well and that has dominated my thoughts about what to write. Basically for a week or two I’ve had varying degrees of bellyache and it’s not been fun. Instead of feeling the gratitude and excitement I’ve felt since being here, I’ve spent a lot of time wanting to curl up in the corner and just be… well… somewhere else.
Tag: Biosphere
August 17, 2014
What IS That Noise?
I recently spruced up a post I wrote four years ago about Biosphere’s wonderful album Substrata. I added the following footnote about the difference between voice samples and found sound:
I suppose I am distinguishing between found sound and vocal samples here. Perhaps there is very little difference, or that one is the other? When is a vocal snippet something more than found sound? Is it the fact that one has meaning?
August 31, 2011
Album Digest, August 2011
I bought a collection of electronic music this month. I mixed them all up in a smart playlist on iTunes, the smart aspect being to limit to tracks that had been played fewer than five then six then seven times etc. This made sure I was still listening to all the tracks equally often, despite the randomness.
Biosphere N-plants Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure Gus Gus Arabian Horse Instra:Mental Resolution 653 Jon Tejada Parabolas Biosphere N-Plants I think this album makes Biosphere the most reviewed musician on this blog at the moment but I don’t mind too much, he makes some great stuff.
September 11, 2010
Understated Classics #4: Substrata by Biosphere
I bought this album in the summer between my two years at college. I remember listening to this music under skies glowering with clouds so 1997 must have been a poor summer. I’d just bought a book of photography too, which placed photos from the north and south poles on opposite pages. I bought it mainly for the penguins that were, of course, on pretty much every other page. The pictures of snow and ice soon became the ideal companions to this album.
Tag: Brazil
August 17, 2014
Clarice Lispector, Hour of the Star
Hour of the Star is a short novel by Clarice Lispector, a Ukrainian-born Brazilian author with an interesting life story. This is her last novel and is a remarkable book: inventive, funny, and sad, all at once. I found it in a special selection at the local library dedicated to Brazil because of the World Cup.
First some biography. Born Chaya Lispector in Chechelnyk, Ukraine, in 1920, her family escaped the pogroms and emigrated to Brazil in 1922.
Tag: Clarice Lispector
August 17, 2014
Clarice Lispector, Hour of the Star
Hour of the Star is a short novel by Clarice Lispector, a Ukrainian-born Brazilian author with an interesting life story. This is her last novel and is a remarkable book: inventive, funny, and sad, all at once. I found it in a special selection at the local library dedicated to Brazil because of the World Cup.
First some biography. Born Chaya Lispector in Chechelnyk, Ukraine, in 1920, her family escaped the pogroms and emigrated to Brazil in 1922.
Tag: Hundred Waters
June 30, 2014
Album Digest, June 2014
Watter are a “supergroup” composed from various members of Grails, Slint, and other bands. I did not know anything about Hundred Waters before this month: “The Moon Rang Like A Bell” is their second album. In fact second albums by bands I know nothing about are a something of theme because “Sunbathing Animal” is Parquet Courts’ sophomore effort and I don’t know anything about them either. Meanwhile, I’ve meant to write about “The Four Seasons Recomposed” since April.
Tag: Max Richter
June 30, 2014
Album Digest, June 2014
Watter are a “supergroup” composed from various members of Grails, Slint, and other bands. I did not know anything about Hundred Waters before this month: “The Moon Rang Like A Bell” is their second album. In fact second albums by bands I know nothing about are a something of theme because “Sunbathing Animal” is Parquet Courts’ sophomore effort and I don’t know anything about them either. Meanwhile, I’ve meant to write about “The Four Seasons Recomposed” since April.
Tag: Coldplay
May 31, 2014
Album Digest, May 2014
This month was strange. I didn’t listen to much new music and after last month’s bumper digest there’s probably a reason for that. Not to mention that Spotify gives you more reasons to look backwards than forwards. Nevertheless, this brief post features new albums by Little Dragon and Coldplay, along with the mini-album collaboration between Röyskopp and Robyn.
Little Dragon “Nabuma Rubberband” I discovered Little Dragon, like most people, I imagine, via Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach” album.
October 31, 2011
Album Digest, October 2011
This month we have albums by Björk, Coldplay, M83, and Radiohead.
Album Digest October 2011 - Intro I listened to Wilco’s The Whole Love again the other day. I happened to be walking past the venue in Portsmouth where I went to see them live back in 2004 and it seemed the right fit. I really enjoyed the album after a period of not having listened to it and I found that being familiar with the songs allowed me to better appreciate the production of the album.
Tag: Little Dragon
May 31, 2014
Album Digest, May 2014
This month was strange. I didn’t listen to much new music and after last month’s bumper digest there’s probably a reason for that. Not to mention that Spotify gives you more reasons to look backwards than forwards. Nevertheless, this brief post features new albums by Little Dragon and Coldplay, along with the mini-album collaboration between Röyskopp and Robyn.
Little Dragon “Nabuma Rubberband” I discovered Little Dragon, like most people, I imagine, via Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach” album.
Tag: Robyn
May 31, 2014
Album Digest, May 2014
This month was strange. I didn’t listen to much new music and after last month’s bumper digest there’s probably a reason for that. Not to mention that Spotify gives you more reasons to look backwards than forwards. Nevertheless, this brief post features new albums by Little Dragon and Coldplay, along with the mini-album collaboration between Röyskopp and Robyn.
Little Dragon “Nabuma Rubberband” I discovered Little Dragon, like most people, I imagine, via Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach” album.
Tag: Inca Trail
May 27, 2014
South America, Part 9
In a tour full of highlights, Christmas week of 2013 was nonetheless one of the greatest weeks of my life. I may have moaned, groaned, and got completely soaked, but it was worth it to see Machu Picchu in the sunshine.
“The Story So Far” Arriving in Quito Otovalo and Misahualli Banos Ingapirca and Cuenca Into Peru The Road to Lima The Nazca Lines Arequipa and Cusco The Sacred Valley On 22nd December, we set off from the hotel in Cusco for a trip along the Sacred Valley that lines the Urubamba river.
Tag: Machu Picchu
May 27, 2014
South America, Part 9
In a tour full of highlights, Christmas week of 2013 was nonetheless one of the greatest weeks of my life. I may have moaned, groaned, and got completely soaked, but it was worth it to see Machu Picchu in the sunshine.
“The Story So Far” Arriving in Quito Otovalo and Misahualli Banos Ingapirca and Cuenca Into Peru The Road to Lima The Nazca Lines Arequipa and Cusco The Sacred Valley On 22nd December, we set off from the hotel in Cusco for a trip along the Sacred Valley that lines the Urubamba river.
Tag: Privacy
April 15, 2014
Should I Drop Dropbox?
I am thinking about whether I want to use Dropbox to sync my files anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love Dropbox. It came along in beta in just 2008 just as I needed it to manage my PhD thesis. In fact I often jokingly claim to having invented it by asking on the MacRumors forums whether a program like it existed - just a few weeks before its beta rode in to my life like a knight in shining armour.
Tag: Tech
April 15, 2014
Should I Drop Dropbox?
I am thinking about whether I want to use Dropbox to sync my files anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love Dropbox. It came along in beta in just 2008 just as I needed it to manage my PhD thesis. In fact I often jokingly claim to having invented it by asking on the MacRumors forums whether a program like it existed - just a few weeks before its beta rode in to my life like a knight in shining armour.
Tag: Fanfarlo
March 31, 2014
Album Digest, March 2014
I’m back in the UK so it’s back to posts about albums each month. This one is a bit different because I didn’t listen to very much new stuff while I was away so not all of the albums are up to date. I had to write about the new album by Liars though because it’s awesome and I couldn’t wait to discuss it! Here’s the list of albums:
Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob Fanfarlo Let’s Go Extinct Liars Mess London Grammar If You Wait Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob I would argue, as I have throughout my sequence of understated classics posts, that a great album is one that changes you as a person.
June 24, 2013
Understated Classics #24: Reservoir by Fanfarlo
I have written a lot in these posts about how music gets indelibly tied up with places, events and feelings. For me this album by Fanfarlo is tied up with all three of these. It makes me happy and sad at the same time in memory of great times that are now gone but are fondly remembered. I am aware that this is the youngest album on the list so far and so it might be a bit early to endow classic status upon it, but “Reservoir” is a fine album and to my ears it stands up really well.
March 31, 2012
Album Digest, March 2012
Five albums for Album Digest March 2012
Fanfarlo Rooms Filled With Light The Shins Port Of Morrow Grails Deep Politics New Build Yesterday Was Lived And Lost Scuba Personality A nice collection of albums this month - things usually pick up in March after a slow period after Christmas. One of these is a “catch-up” (the album by Grails) but apart from that one, everything else was released in the last five weeks or so… I should probably have included the album by Racehorses that I bought on my birthday but I will have to leave that for next month as I haven’t listened to it that much.
Tag: London Grammar
March 31, 2014
Album Digest, March 2014
I’m back in the UK so it’s back to posts about albums each month. This one is a bit different because I didn’t listen to very much new stuff while I was away so not all of the albums are up to date. I had to write about the new album by Liars though because it’s awesome and I couldn’t wait to discuss it! Here’s the list of albums:
Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob Fanfarlo Let’s Go Extinct Liars Mess London Grammar If You Wait Tegan and Sarah Heartthrob I would argue, as I have throughout my sequence of understated classics posts, that a great album is one that changes you as a person.
Tag: Arequipa
February 10, 2014
South America, Part 8
Arequipa and Cusco – the two cities that are the subject of this post – are probably the two cities in Peru that are most amenable to travellers (though Lima certainly has a lot to offer too). For me they should have been punctuated with a trip to Colca canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world and twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, I got really sick on the second day in Arequipa as my attempts at keeping my tummy bug at bay finally failed.
Tag: Cusco
February 10, 2014
South America, Part 8
Arequipa and Cusco – the two cities that are the subject of this post – are probably the two cities in Peru that are most amenable to travellers (though Lima certainly has a lot to offer too). For me they should have been punctuated with a trip to Colca canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world and twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, I got really sick on the second day in Arequipa as my attempts at keeping my tummy bug at bay finally failed.
Tag: Nazca Lines
February 7, 2014
South America, Part 7
Next up was a piecemeal section of the trip that took in a varied set of sights and helped us get to know the new passengers who joined in Lima. On the first day we took a boat trip out to the Ballestas Islands, a nature reserve that is informally known as “the poor man’s galapagos”. Living there are penguins, sea birds, sea lions and seals. The speed boat out was a little wet and wild (and in fact the return trip was even wetter and wilder) so we all got soaked (twice) but the microclimate around the islands themselves was calm and warm, and we all got good value out of our cameras (if they still worked that is).
Tag: Beach
January 12, 2014
South America, Part 6
From Punta Sal we took a long driving down to Huanchaco, via a stop off at the Lord of Saipan museum. The lord of Saipan is a Moche mummy found dressed in all manner of gold and surrounded by artefacts and other sacrifices (including other humans and decapitated llamas). The tour took a while to get going (our guide was late) but the exhibition was so amazing (the pieces were painstakingly restored in Germany) that it was hugely enjoyable.
December 31, 2013
South America, Part 5
After Cuenca we set off for the Peruvian border. One of the great advantages of having a UK passport in South America is that you don’t need any visas. If you’re Australian or Canadian it’s a different story. Nevertheless we all got over the border with very little trouble (the third ever land border crossing of my life) apart from the bits where they seem to make you wait in a queue just for the sake of making you wait in a queue.
Tag: Lima
January 12, 2014
South America, Part 6
From Punta Sal we took a long driving down to Huanchaco, via a stop off at the Lord of Saipan museum. The lord of Saipan is a Moche mummy found dressed in all manner of gold and surrounded by artefacts and other sacrifices (including other humans and decapitated llamas). The tour took a while to get going (our guide was late) but the exhibition was so amazing (the pieces were painstakingly restored in Germany) that it was hugely enjoyable.
Tag: Camping
December 21, 2013
South America, Part 3
We left Misahualli for Baños via an hour in nearby Tena to get something for the truck fixed. After that the drive to Banos was pretty short - or at least it seemed that way as I alternated between dozing off, snapping the scenery and… well… dozing off some more. We arrived at a campsite about twenty minutes taxi ride from Banos and this was it, the thing I’d feared most about this trip: the camping.
Tag: Amazon
December 2, 2013
South America, Part 2
Otavalo Sunday (24th November) was our first day of travel and involved a four hour trip to Otavalo, a town to the north of Quito that is famous for its market… on Saturdays. The journey got us better acquainted with travel on our truck Magaly and we encountered a few of the little hiccups that are a natural part of travelling this way: power lines crashing down on to the highway, driver of your truck asking a policeman to take a photo of your truck snagged under the wires, wrong turns, and - funniest of all - getting a whole block’s worth of concerned locals to watch as your truck tries to turn a corner.
Tag: Quito
November 29, 2013
South America, Part 1
By the time this goes up, I will be at least a week in to my South American tour. I flew out to Ecuador last Thursday (the 21st) and ended up being awake for more than twenty four hours. My flight left London early and I had a three hour stopover in Madrid, then a twelve hour flight onward to Quito. My bag didn’t leave Madrid though, so we were separated for about twenty four nerve-racking hours.
Tag: Darkside
October 31, 2013
Album Digest, October 2013
Four great albums this month for the last album digest in a while.
CHVRCHES “The Bones Of What You Believe” I first got into CHVRCHES on Record Store Day, one of my purchases was an Irn Bru coloured 12" of the Recover EP that, according to eBay, tripled in value over night. Judging by this, their full debut, my see-through orange slab of happiness may hold its value, because it’s clear that CHVRCHES should be around for the long haul.
Tag: HAIM
October 31, 2013
Album Digest, October 2013
Four great albums this month for the last album digest in a while.
CHVRCHES “The Bones Of What You Believe” I first got into CHVRCHES on Record Store Day, one of my purchases was an Irn Bru coloured 12" of the Recover EP that, according to eBay, tripled in value over night. Judging by this, their full debut, my see-through orange slab of happiness may hold its value, because it’s clear that CHVRCHES should be around for the long haul.
Tag: Nigel Slater
October 21, 2013
The Only Chocolate Cake Recipe You’ll Ever Need
As I mentioned in a previous post, I baked a chocolate cake the other day and it was a great success. Here is the recipe, which is a trivial modification of one that appears in Nigel Slater’s “Real Food” (Amazon links: UK, US). “Real Food” is a cookbook that I genuinely treasure. The modification I have made for this recipe is to omit the espresso but I will point out where it should be added, in case you want to give that a try.
Tag: L. S. Lowry
October 18, 2013
LS Lowry At Tate Britain
I have mixed feelings about this show. On the one hand, I like that there are depictions of working class Britain on display and I feel that it is right that these paintings are considered part of the British cultural canon. I also like that a lot of these paintings represent large gatherings of people, which are absent from a lot of what we might call the mainstream of art.
Tag: Tate Britain
October 18, 2013
LS Lowry At Tate Britain
I have mixed feelings about this show. On the one hand, I like that there are depictions of working class Britain on display and I feel that it is right that these paintings are considered part of the British cultural canon. I also like that a lot of these paintings represent large gatherings of people, which are absent from a lot of what we might call the mainstream of art.
October 12, 2013
Art Under Attack at Tate Britain
Today I went with a friend to see Tate Britain’s “Art Under Attack” show. It’s an interesting, if uneven, affair that entertains but doesn’t quite succeed in everything it attempts to do. The big word that you learn is iconoclasm: the act of attacking an object believed to represent particular beliefs. The show splits into two parts: ideological acts of iconoclasm committed against works of art in Britain and the work of British artists who embrace iconoclasm as a means for making art.
Tag: Art Under Attack
October 12, 2013
Art Under Attack at Tate Britain
Today I went with a friend to see Tate Britain’s “Art Under Attack” show. It’s an interesting, if uneven, affair that entertains but doesn’t quite succeed in everything it attempts to do. The big word that you learn is iconoclasm: the act of attacking an object believed to represent particular beliefs. The show splits into two parts: ideological acts of iconoclasm committed against works of art in Britain and the work of British artists who embrace iconoclasm as a means for making art.
Tag: Arctic Monkeys
September 30, 2013
Album Digest, September 2013
A nice diverse selection of albums this month:
Arctic Monkeys “AM” BT “A Song Across Wires” Goldfrapp “Tales of Us” Janelle Monáe “Electric Lady” Arctic Monkeys “AM” This whole review is basically me catching up with the rest of the world and realising that the Arctic Monkeys are ace. To be fair, I did notice how awesome they were at the opening ceremony of the Olympics last year, and I have liked the odd one or two of their singles, but up until now I haven’t really wanted to listen to any of their albums.
Tag: BT
September 30, 2013
Album Digest, September 2013
A nice diverse selection of albums this month:
Arctic Monkeys “AM” BT “A Song Across Wires” Goldfrapp “Tales of Us” Janelle Monáe “Electric Lady” Arctic Monkeys “AM” This whole review is basically me catching up with the rest of the world and realising that the Arctic Monkeys are ace. To be fair, I did notice how awesome they were at the opening ceremony of the Olympics last year, and I have liked the odd one or two of their singles, but up until now I haven’t really wanted to listen to any of their albums.
July 31, 2012
Album Digest, July 2012
Just a short album digest this month. I bought a stack of CDs and am parcelling them out over the next few months (together with important additional releases as they crop up). This is in the hope that I can write more considered pieces about each one. This month I’ve grouped together albums with monochrome covers and a BT album from June that I found out about recently. These albums are not just linked by their artwork, they also form a cohesive whole.
June 30, 2011
Album Digest, June 2011
I have had the sort of month that is not conducive to listening to much new music. Therefore this month’s post is only going to consider two new albums and two albums that I have bought behind time. Because of various bits of stress and poor mood, I have ended up going back and taking refuge in some old favourites and not listening to new stuff. At other points I have also gone back to the Fleet Foxes’ album that I wrote about last month, which has grown on me even more since.
Tag: Janelle Monae
September 30, 2013
Album Digest, September 2013
A nice diverse selection of albums this month:
Arctic Monkeys “AM” BT “A Song Across Wires” Goldfrapp “Tales of Us” Janelle Monáe “Electric Lady” Arctic Monkeys “AM” This whole review is basically me catching up with the rest of the world and realising that the Arctic Monkeys are ace. To be fair, I did notice how awesome they were at the opening ceremony of the Olympics last year, and I have liked the odd one or two of their singles, but up until now I haven’t really wanted to listen to any of their albums.
Tag: The Cardigans
September 14, 2013
Understated Classics #25: Long Gone Before Daylight by The Cardigans
The single biggest fact of life is that you are always going to be alone, you just might not realise it. Listening to The Cardigans’ excellent 2003 “Long Gone Before Daylight” will help you see that all our relationships are essentially screwed – but at least it sounds great while it does so.
“Long Gone Before Daylight” (“Long Gone Before Daylight”) plays the role of “The Empire Strikes Back” in a trilogy of great albums that The Cardigans released between 1999 (the arguably better and slightly happier “Gran Turismo”) and 2006 (the unarguably inferior and definitely happier “Super Extra Gravity”).
Tag: Ellen Gallagher
September 13, 2013
Ellen Gallagher at Tate Modern
Ellen Gallagher is an American artist and her “AxME” show recently finished at the Tate Modern. I went along a few weeks ago and have only now had a bit of time to write up my thoughts.
My biggest regret is that I didn’t go along to it sooner, so that I had a chance to see it more than once. It was certainly a larger show than I was expecting (it was about the size of the Ibrahim El-salahi and Saloua Choucair shows put together) and I hadn’t left myself with a lot of time to see everything when I did go.
Tag: Atoms For Peace
August 31, 2013
Album Digest, August 2013
For reasons that will become apparent, there will be a short period soon where I will not be writing album digests. Until then, I’m clearing a backlog of some albums that I’ve been listening to but haven’t had enough time or motivation to write about. Only one of this month’s albums was released this month, something that’s not that uncommon at this time of the year as it is not the best time to release things.
Tag: Washed Out
August 31, 2013
Album Digest, August 2013
For reasons that will become apparent, there will be a short period soon where I will not be writing album digests. Until then, I’m clearing a backlog of some albums that I’ve been listening to but haven’t had enough time or motivation to write about. Only one of this month’s albums was released this month, something that’s not that uncommon at this time of the year as it is not the best time to release things.
July 31, 2011
Album Digest, July 2011
Quite a mixed bag this month.
SBTRKT SBTRKT Zomby Dedication Brian Eno Drums Between The Bells Bon Iver Bon Iver Washed Out Within and Without This month’s collection of albums is a rather mellow bunch. The SBTRKT album (self-titled) is probably the most frenetic of the five though even that does not exactly pound four to the floor. Most of it is pretty calm, though the occasional burst of pop to spice things up: sometimes it is as downtempo as the rest (Right Thing To Do and Trials Of The Past) but at other times things spark into life, as on Pharaohs.
Tag: Fuck Buttons
July 31, 2013
Album Digest, July 2013
Another four albums for you this month. Sometimes the problem is not finding albums to listen to but actually finding time to listen to them! Often it is not because I don’t have time but because I have already found some great albums this month and I am busy listening to those instead. As a result, a couple of these albums are ones that I have only listened to for a week or so, but they are interesting enough to write about.
Tag: Ramin Djawadi
July 31, 2013
Album Digest, July 2013
Another four albums for you this month. Sometimes the problem is not finding albums to listen to but actually finding time to listen to them! Often it is not because I don’t have time but because I have already found some great albums this month and I am busy listening to those instead. As a result, a couple of these albums are ones that I have only listened to for a week or so, but they are interesting enough to write about.
Tag: Neil Gaiman
July 30, 2013
Neil Gaiman, The Ocean At The End Of The Lane
“The Ocean At The End Of The Lane” is the new novel by Neil Gaiman. I was so intrigued by it that I bought the hardcover, which is unusual for me because I prefer paperbacks. I’d been excited by reading the first chapter online at the Guardian website and from reading a blog post about the novel written by the author’s wife Amanda Palmer. I’d not read any of his novels before but they had long been on that “to read” list that is typically as long as your arm.
Tag: Ibrahim El-Salahi
July 24, 2013
Ibrahim El-Salahi At Tate Modern
Ibrahim El-Salahi is a modernist artist from Sudan. I believe this exhibition is a first for an African artist at the Tate Modern. Much like the Choucair show (which is still on everyone!), it’s an engaging but too short introduction to an interesting artist that you have probably never heard of.
The pieces are roughly divided between large blank and white ink drawings that are mounted on multiple panels and oil paintings in earthy colours that depict abstract scenes.
Tag: Don Delillo
July 23, 2013
Don Delillo, Point Omega
There were no mornings or afternoons. It was one seamless day, every day, until the sun began to arc and fade, mountains emerging from their silhouettes. This is when we sat and watched in silence.
Today I finished reading “Point Omega” by Don Delillo. I have wanted to read one of his novels for a while and though this is a slip of a novella, I certainly enjoyed it. I accidentally came across it when I looked at the wikpedia page for Pierre Teilhard de Chardin last week as part of research for another post that I am writing.
Tag: Michael Frayn
July 5, 2013
Michael Frayn, Skios
This week I read “Skios” by Michael Frayn (who was born in Mill Hill). It’s another book from now customary pile of books that tends to develop around this time of year. “Hawksmoor” and “The Marriage Plot” were on the same ever-increasing pile. “Skios” is something of a change from what I normally read: it’s a comedic farce about stolen identities set on the (fictional) titular Greek island. Amusingly, the wikipedia page for the novel currently reads “Praise for Skios was entirely misplaced”, probably thanks to some curmudgeon who doesn’t like the novel.
Tag: Boards Of Canada
June 30, 2013
Album Digest, June 2013
Just two albums this month as I am still enjoying last month’s albums so much (and I spent loads of time getting reacquainted with Boards Of Canada at the start of the month). I listened to a few more albums but not often enough to write loads about them so there is an “honourable mention” section at the end of the post that briefly discusses a few more albums.
Without further ado, the two albums are:
Tag: Jon Hopkins
June 30, 2013
Album Digest, June 2013
Just two albums this month as I am still enjoying last month’s albums so much (and I spent loads of time getting reacquainted with Boards Of Canada at the start of the month). I listened to a few more albums but not often enough to write loads about them so there is an “honourable mention” section at the end of the post that briefly discusses a few more albums.
Without further ado, the two albums are:
Tag: Peter Ackroyd
June 26, 2013
Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
Peter Ackroyd’s “Hawksmoor” was first published in 1985. I bought a recent reissue that forms part of Penguin’s decades collection whilst on a spree in Waterstone’s. It appealed to me as I recently realised that despite growing up in the eighties and nineties, I had read very novels that were either written or set in the eighties. Happily “Hawksmoor” is both of these, sort of. It also appealed to me because it is (again, sort of) a detective story and I’ve found myself getting into those lately.
Tag: Black Hole Rules
June 22, 2013
Man of Steel: A Short Review
Today I went to see the new Superman reboot Man of Steel with friends. I really enjoyed it, particularly the more reflective take on the superhero myth. Starting out with the fate of the planet Krypton, Man of Steel approximately fuses the events of both the first two original Superman movies. We get to see Superman’s arrival and childhood on earth and then the arrival of Zod, a maniac bent on replacing the earth and everyone on it with a new race of Kryptonians.
Tag: Lilacs and Champagne
May 31, 2013
Album Digest, May 2013
Lilacs & Champagne Danish & Blue You might remember that last year I reviewed the first Lilacs & Champagne album and I liked it a lot. This album sees them back with more of the same: taking the approach that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There are very few changes to the formula apart from the fact that the spoken word samples are not quite as good this time and there’s a bit more Grails-like guitar solo action.
February 28, 2012
Album Digest, February 2012
One EP and three albums for Album Digest February 2012:
Burial Kindred EP John Talabot fIN Lilacs & Champagne Lilacs & Champagne The 2 Bears Be Strong Last February was a pretty good month for song based albums, although the likes of Radiohead and James Blake provided plenty of electronic noodling in and around their song structures. (Interestingly, out of the two out-and-out song based albums, one was one of the worst albums of the year and the other one of the best).
Tag: The Phoenix Foundation
May 31, 2013
Album Digest, May 2013
Lilacs & Champagne Danish & Blue You might remember that last year I reviewed the first Lilacs & Champagne album and I liked it a lot. This album sees them back with more of the same: taking the approach that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There are very few changes to the formula apart from the fact that the spoken word samples are not quite as good this time and there’s a bit more Grails-like guitar solo action.
January 31, 2011
Album Digest, January 2011
Here’s to 2011 and the start of a monthly album digest. I want it to be a brief trot through some of the albums I have listened to each month. Sometimes January can bring a few quiet releases by big name bands. This happens if the previous album did not do as well as the record company hoped or if it is the kind of artist who would get lost under the hype of all the Christmas releases.
Tag: Vampire Weekend
May 31, 2013
Album Digest, May 2013
Lilacs & Champagne Danish & Blue You might remember that last year I reviewed the first Lilacs & Champagne album and I liked it a lot. This album sees them back with more of the same: taking the approach that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There are very few changes to the formula apart from the fact that the spoken word samples are not quite as good this time and there’s a bit more Grails-like guitar solo action.
Tag: George Bellows
May 29, 2013
George Bellows At RA
Today I went to see “George Bellows 1882-1925 Modern American Life” at the Royal Academy of Arts. It’s the first time I’ve been to the RA but I was emboldened by my art pass and the fact that Bellows was a contemporary of Edward Hopper, a painter whom I admire greatly. This is the first major retrospective of Bellows’ work in the UK and taking in his wonderful paintings this afternoon, I felt a little embarrassed that I hadn’t seen anything of his before.
Tag: Royal Academy
May 29, 2013
George Bellows At RA
Today I went to see “George Bellows 1882-1925 Modern American Life” at the Royal Academy of Arts. It’s the first time I’ve been to the RA but I was emboldened by my art pass and the fact that Bellows was a contemporary of Edward Hopper, a painter whom I admire greatly. This is the first major retrospective of Bellows’ work in the UK and taking in his wonderful paintings this afternoon, I felt a little embarrassed that I hadn’t seen anything of his before.
Tag: Saloua Raouda Choucair
May 25, 2013
Choucair At Tate Modern
Yesterday I went to see the Saloua Raouda Choucair show at the Tate Modern. As it was quite small, I went to see the Lichtenstein show again as well.
Choucair is an underrated Lebanese artist and many of the paintings and sculptures shown were created in the fifties and sixties. Her sculptures in particular are amazing.
The first room is lined with paintings that were nearly all gouache on paper, about 40cm by 30cm.
Tag: 808 State
May 23, 2013
Understated Classics #23: Gorgeous by 808 State
It was quite hard to choose an 808 State album for the understated classics series for two reasons. The first is that I was introduced to 808 State quite late through a friend’s sister’s cassette copy of The Shamen’s En-Tact (the original version recorded from vinyl that had a thirteen minute version of “Evil Is Eden”) that also had – to fill out the C90 – the full length sweary version of “What Time Is Love?
Tag: Roy Lichtenstein
May 21, 2013
Lichtenstein At Tate Modern
This was a show that I had put off going to see for quite a while now. Looking online at the pictures featured in the show did not really excite me enough to get out and see it. I’d seen Whaam! before in isolation (it’s part of the Tate collection and will no doubt return once the retrospective show is over) and it didn’t really grab me, arresting as it is.
Tag: Jeffrey Eugenides
May 20, 2013
Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot
“The Marriage Plot” by Jeffrey Eugenides is a novel about love and growing up set in the privileged world of US academia in the early eighties. The main plot concerns a love triangle involving two guys and a girl. Madeline Hanna, the girl at the apex of the love triangle, is the main focus of the novel and the majority of the novel is told from her standpoint. I think her sections are incredibly well written but I’d love the thoughts of a female reader, in case it is actually all a horribly male way of seeing through a young woman’s eyes.
Tag: James Blake
April 30, 2013
Album Digest, April 2013
Some great albums this month!
The Flaming Lips The Terror Wire Change Becomes Us James Blake Overgrown The Knife Shaking The Habitual The Flaming Lips The Terror How you view The Terror pretty much depends on how much you have kept up with The Flips output since their last official album, the clanking double behemoth in Merkin packaging that was Embryonic. The irony being that I used Embryonic to deal with a break-up and The Terror is pretty much about… a break-up.
February 28, 2011
Album Digest, February 2011
February, the shortest month, harbinger of such delights as Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day. Could it possibly produce any good albums? Well the candidates are the eponymous début album by James Blake, Zonoscope by Cut/Copy, Let England Shake by PJ Harvey and Smart Flesh by The Low Anthem. Furthermore, there was an unexpected bonus when Radiohead announced that their new album would be out and available to listen to this month too.
Tag: The Flaming Lips
April 30, 2013
Album Digest, April 2013
Some great albums this month!
The Flaming Lips The Terror Wire Change Becomes Us James Blake Overgrown The Knife Shaking The Habitual The Flaming Lips The Terror How you view The Terror pretty much depends on how much you have kept up with The Flips output since their last official album, the clanking double behemoth in Merkin packaging that was Embryonic. The irony being that I used Embryonic to deal with a break-up and The Terror is pretty much about… a break-up.
Tag: The Knife
April 30, 2013
Album Digest, April 2013
Some great albums this month!
The Flaming Lips The Terror Wire Change Becomes Us James Blake Overgrown The Knife Shaking The Habitual The Flaming Lips The Terror How you view The Terror pretty much depends on how much you have kept up with The Flips output since their last official album, the clanking double behemoth in Merkin packaging that was Embryonic. The irony being that I used Embryonic to deal with a break-up and The Terror is pretty much about… a break-up.
Tag: Wire
April 30, 2013
Album Digest, April 2013
Some great albums this month!
The Flaming Lips The Terror Wire Change Becomes Us James Blake Overgrown The Knife Shaking The Habitual The Flaming Lips The Terror How you view The Terror pretty much depends on how much you have kept up with The Flips output since their last official album, the clanking double behemoth in Merkin packaging that was Embryonic. The irony being that I used Embryonic to deal with a break-up and The Terror is pretty much about… a break-up.
Tag: Beat Generation
April 11, 2013
Why I Love On The Road
I was fifteen when I first read “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac and recently, after twice as much lifetime lived, I was able to watch the film version directed by Walter Salles.
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.
Tag: Jack Kerouac
April 11, 2013
Why I Love On The Road
I was fifteen when I first read “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac and recently, after twice as much lifetime lived, I was able to watch the film version directed by Walter Salles.
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.
Tag: Clinic
March 13, 2013
Understated Classics #22: Walking With Thee by Clinic
“Walking With Thee” is the second album by Liverpool band Clinic. It was released in 2002, which seems like an age ago now. Even longer ago they released the single “The Return of Evil Bill”, which was got me interested in them in the first place.
I recently got back into “Walking With Thee” when I picked “Vulture” in my A-Z of Animals playlist last month. I’d forgotten just how great a song it is, both musically and lyrically.
Tag: A Bigger Splash
March 5, 2013
A Work Of Art At The End Of My Road?
I have had a lot of ideas for posts swirling around in my head in recent days. This is because I have actually done quite a lot of cool things in that time, and because I have hung out with some great people who make me think, and because I always have a whole load of things bouncing around in there anyway - space junk of the mind. I was thinking about how to put together these thoughts I have been having about art and about stories and yes, about love too.
Tag: Laurie Spiegel
March 5, 2013
A Work Of Art At The End Of My Road?
I have had a lot of ideas for posts swirling around in my head in recent days. This is because I have actually done quite a lot of cool things in that time, and because I have hung out with some great people who make me think, and because I always have a whole load of things bouncing around in there anyway - space junk of the mind. I was thinking about how to put together these thoughts I have been having about art and about stories and yes, about love too.
October 31, 2012
Album Digest, October 2012
It has been a strange month and I found that I didn’t listen to a lot of new music. I have been a bit down and when that’s the case I tend to take refuge in music that I know well, stuff that cheers me up. I have listened to last month’s fave a lot, Nelly Furtado’s “The Spirit Indestructible”. I said a lot of nice things about it but it probably didn’t come over in my writing just how much I really liked it.
Tag: Apparat
February 28, 2013
Album Digest, February 2013
Most Februaries are quite quiet when it comes to albums (though this was not the case back in 2011) and although only the Foals album is a major release, I was quite surprised to find myself with four decent albums to write about. They are:
Darkstar “News From Nowhere” Foals “Holy Fire” Daniel Hope “Spheres” Apparat “Krieg und Frieden (Music For Theatre)” Darkstar “News From Nowhere” I don’t need to give too much biographical background for the Darkstar album as I don’t know too much about who the are.
Tag: Daniel Hope
February 28, 2013
Album Digest, February 2013
Most Februaries are quite quiet when it comes to albums (though this was not the case back in 2011) and although only the Foals album is a major release, I was quite surprised to find myself with four decent albums to write about. They are:
Darkstar “News From Nowhere” Foals “Holy Fire” Daniel Hope “Spheres” Apparat “Krieg und Frieden (Music For Theatre)” Darkstar “News From Nowhere” I don’t need to give too much biographical background for the Darkstar album as I don’t know too much about who the are.
Tag: Darkstar
February 28, 2013
Album Digest, February 2013
Most Februaries are quite quiet when it comes to albums (though this was not the case back in 2011) and although only the Foals album is a major release, I was quite surprised to find myself with four decent albums to write about. They are:
Darkstar “News From Nowhere” Foals “Holy Fire” Daniel Hope “Spheres” Apparat “Krieg und Frieden (Music For Theatre)” Darkstar “News From Nowhere” I don’t need to give too much biographical background for the Darkstar album as I don’t know too much about who the are.
Tag: Foals
February 28, 2013
Album Digest, February 2013
Most Februaries are quite quiet when it comes to albums (though this was not the case back in 2011) and although only the Foals album is a major release, I was quite surprised to find myself with four decent albums to write about. They are:
Darkstar “News From Nowhere” Foals “Holy Fire” Daniel Hope “Spheres” Apparat “Krieg und Frieden (Music For Theatre)” Darkstar “News From Nowhere” I don’t need to give too much biographical background for the Darkstar album as I don’t know too much about who the are.
Tag: Games
February 11, 2013
A Jigsaw
The other weekend, beset by insomnia, I decided to follow my own advice and get up to do something instead of wallowing unable to sleep. I pulled my emergency jigsaw out of the cupboard and set to it. I should stress that I mean a jigsaw puzzle and not an actually jigsaw: DIY at 2am is not such a good idea!
I’d forgotten how interesting jigsaw puzzles actually are. As I sat there contemplating the 1000 pieces and wondered exactly what I’d let myself in for, I found myself thinking about a number of things.
September 21, 2012
Programming a Carcassonne Game
Although I have put off finishing my UNO game for over eighteen months, I thought I would get started with another pet project of mine: making a Carcassonne game. This is not a serious affair, there is an excellent app of Carcassonne available for those of you who have iOS devices (it works particularly well on the iPad). The game just strikes me as having the right level of complexity to be a taxing yet attainable project.
February 2, 2011
Programming an UNO game, part 2
It turns out that programming the UNO game is not that complicated once you start designing the thing. This post will get the rules and game elements clear.
The deck An UNO deck consists of four sets of coloured cards (red, yellow, green and blue) together with eight wild cards. The non-wild cards are marked with either numbers or special symbols. The numbers range from zero to nine with two of each number except for the zero, which is unique.
December 28, 2010
Programming an UNO game
A new year, a new hobby I don’t write about programming enough. This is a shame because it is a very interesting subject and I find that the problem solving aspects of programming are very satisfying. Keenly aware of the need to do more hobby programming and to get up to speed on areas of software development that I’ve been neglecting, I have decided to give myself the project of creating a computerised version of the UNO card game.
Tag: Frank Ocean
January 31, 2013
Album Digest, January 2013
Only one of this month three albums was actually released this month. Nelly Furtado’s Mi plan was actually released over three years ago - I only discovered it last year when I wrote the September album digest following the release of “The Spirit Indestructible”, or it might have been when I wrote about “Folklore” at around the same time.
Anyway, I guess these are albums that I bought with my Christmas gift vouchers!
Tag: Burial
December 31, 2012
Album Digest, December 2012
Three albums (one very Christmassey one!) and an EP this month.
Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” Woob “Have Landed” Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin “Instrumental Tourist” Burial “Truant / Rough Sleeper Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” “Tinsel and Lights” is that rarest of records, a Christmas record that is perfectly suited to the season and is not in any way overbearing or irritating. Most albums that are Christmas themed are usually centred on lots of covers that are taken from a small subset of well worn classics.
February 28, 2012
Album Digest, February 2012
One EP and three albums for Album Digest February 2012:
Burial Kindred EP John Talabot fIN Lilacs & Champagne Lilacs & Champagne The 2 Bears Be Strong Last February was a pretty good month for song based albums, although the likes of Radiohead and James Blake provided plenty of electronic noodling in and around their song structures. (Interestingly, out of the two out-and-out song based albums, one was one of the worst albums of the year and the other one of the best).
Tag: Daniel Lopatin
December 31, 2012
Album Digest, December 2012
Three albums (one very Christmassey one!) and an EP this month.
Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” Woob “Have Landed” Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin “Instrumental Tourist” Burial “Truant / Rough Sleeper Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” “Tinsel and Lights” is that rarest of records, a Christmas record that is perfectly suited to the season and is not in any way overbearing or irritating. Most albums that are Christmas themed are usually centred on lots of covers that are taken from a small subset of well worn classics.
Tag: Tim Hecker
December 31, 2012
Album Digest, December 2012
Three albums (one very Christmassey one!) and an EP this month.
Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” Woob “Have Landed” Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin “Instrumental Tourist” Burial “Truant / Rough Sleeper Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” “Tinsel and Lights” is that rarest of records, a Christmas record that is perfectly suited to the season and is not in any way overbearing or irritating. Most albums that are Christmas themed are usually centred on lots of covers that are taken from a small subset of well worn classics.
Tag: Tracey Thorn
December 31, 2012
Album Digest, December 2012
Three albums (one very Christmassey one!) and an EP this month.
Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” Woob “Have Landed” Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin “Instrumental Tourist” Burial “Truant / Rough Sleeper Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” “Tinsel and Lights” is that rarest of records, a Christmas record that is perfectly suited to the season and is not in any way overbearing or irritating. Most albums that are Christmas themed are usually centred on lots of covers that are taken from a small subset of well worn classics.
Tag: Twelve
December 31, 2012
Album Digest, December 2012
Three albums (one very Christmassey one!) and an EP this month.
Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” Woob “Have Landed” Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin “Instrumental Tourist” Burial “Truant / Rough Sleeper Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” “Tinsel and Lights” is that rarest of records, a Christmas record that is perfectly suited to the season and is not in any way overbearing or irritating. Most albums that are Christmas themed are usually centred on lots of covers that are taken from a small subset of well worn classics.
November 29, 2012
Album Digest, November 2012
Pretty much a sliding scale between songs and electronic wibble on this month’s albums and a particularly damp, chilly feeling to proceedings too.
Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” Ital “Hive Mind” and “Dream On” Björk “Bastards” Brian Eno “Lux” Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” When it comes to Bat For Lashes, I prefer her first album “Fur And Gold” to her second “Two Suns” because when I listen to the latter I don’t feel connected to any of the songs.
November 27, 2012
A Mountain Story
A cat reaches the top of a mountain after a long climb through the snow. He is cold from the bottom of his fur to the tips of his claws. He is sodden and wet, and we all know how much a cat hates to be wet.
At the top of the mountain there is not much to see. What may have been a breathtaking view is instead a murk of freezing mist and at any rate, snow assails the cat’s eyes and whiskers.
November 21, 2012
Understated Classics #21: Woob 2 by Woob
The second Woob album (AKA “Woob 4495”) is probably the greatest ambient album ever made and is certainly the best one you have never heard of. Originally released in 1995 on the em:t label it is also a rare record. I don’t have an actual copy but I have seen one! I downloaded it off the internet and even that is quite difficult to do. My friend is an avid collector of all the em:t releases and it is easy to see why: all the albums are titled in a specific way that is very appealing to people who like to collect things and they also have very striking nature photography on the covers.
November 10, 2012
Ambitions
Sometimes, when I am feeling a bit down, I like to write down some of my ambitions. As you can see from this list they are mostly pretty humble but they are also a bit cheesy and embarassing, so I have put them after the fold!
Be wholehearted, cheerful, and sincere Be creative Look at the world and see its many faces, hear its many voices Explore new recipes as often as possible when I cook Learn to like the taste of tomatoes and cucumbers Be more at ease around people Listen to people and hear what they say Play my part Look after someone special Become a parent Share my values with others, help those who need it Break up all the negative things inside me Know what other people want, help them get it When I wake up each morning I would like to remember my dreams Understand art more than I do Lose my fear of creepy crawlies Learn to drive Learn to write left handed (why not?
November 5, 2012
Rust And Bone: A Short Review
So, two short reviews in a row. I had the day off work and went to see “Rust And Bone” this afternooon. It’s the new film by Jacques Audiard, who directed “A Prophet” – one of my favourite films of the last five years.
“Rust And Bone” is a love story about Ali, a sexually feckless security guard who is struggling to look after his young son on his own, and Stéphanie (played by second most beautiful woman in the world, Marion Cotillard), who is injured while working as a co-ordinator of killer whale displays at an ocenarium.
November 3, 2012
Skyfall: A Short Review
I went to see “Skyfall” last night and I really enjoyed it. I knew nothing about the plot, mostly because I had avoided all discussion of the plot with people who had already seen it and I even avoided reviews as so many these days seem to just rattle off plot points, instead of discussing what makes the movie any good. With that in mind I will obviously try not to give away any of the plot in this brief review.
October 31, 2012
Album Digest, October 2012
It has been a strange month and I found that I didn’t listen to a lot of new music. I have been a bit down and when that’s the case I tend to take refuge in music that I know well, stuff that cheers me up. I have listened to last month’s fave a lot, Nelly Furtado’s “The Spirit Indestructible”. I said a lot of nice things about it but it probably didn’t come over in my writing just how much I really liked it.
October 23, 2012
Stevenage vs Portsmouth
Tonight, despite feeling a bit under the weather, I went to Stevenage to watch Portsmouth play a League One game at the Lamex Stadium. In addition, I met a “person off the internet” for the second time in a week – this time Tom, a friend of a friend from Facebook: our shared passions being Portsmouth FC and really cool music. We met at King’s Cross and caught a packed train to Stevenage, a non-descript dormitory town that was even more non-descript than I remember St Albans being.
October 2, 2012
Nonlinear Systems: A Rough Intro
This is another mathematics post that does not actually feature any equations or graphs. It is intended to set the way clear for writing regularly about nonlinear systems. This in itself is a precursor to writing more about mathematical biology as biological systems are inherently complex and nonlinear. I am reading P. G. Drazin’s textbook on Nonlinear Systems and this post is a glossary of terms from the start of the book laid down here because I wanted to remember how to typeset definition lists in Markdown (though in the end I (ab)used <h4> tags because it looked better).
September 29, 2012
Album Digest, September 2012
I had a bit more time to listen to this month’s albums because I was on holiday for two weeks. I didn’t manage to write about them while on holiday though! In fact I bought and listened to a few more, but I will save them for next month. The albums I will discuss now (in order bought) are:
Four Tet “Pink” The xx “Coexist” Nelly Furtado “The Spirit Indestructible” Grizzly Bear “Shields” It’s quite a diverse collection and, Four Tet apart, quite song based.
September 23, 2012
Jon McGregor, Even The Dogs
Over my holiday I read “Even The Dogs” by Jon McGregor. I’ve not quite finished it yet but that will at least prevent me from giving away spoilers. I am not sure I would want to give any spoilers anyway because it is unrelentingly grim so far. Perhaps there is a happy ending but both you and I will have to read it to find out.
I was introduced to Jon McGregor by the book group I was part of during my PhD.
September 21, 2012
Programming a Carcassonne Game
Although I have put off finishing my UNO game for over eighteen months, I thought I would get started with another pet project of mine: making a Carcassonne game. This is not a serious affair, there is an excellent app of Carcassonne available for those of you who have iOS devices (it works particularly well on the iPad). The game just strikes me as having the right level of complexity to be a taxing yet attainable project.
September 19, 2012
Understated Classics #20: Folklore by Nelly Furtado
It’s rather spooky but shortly after deciding to write about Nelly Furtado’s “Folklore” as the next understated classic, I found out that she has a new album out this week. As a result, I have been listening to a lot of her music while writing this post, and I’ve been enjoying it too.
As always with these choices of mine, “Folklore” is a record that I can link to particular events and emotions in my life and so I guess my perception of it is coloured by that.
August 31, 2012
Album Digest, August 2012
Album Digest August 2012 is also from the stack of albums that I mentioned last month. I chose this selection (along with the Passion Pit album) because the colours looked good together in the mosaic of covers that I make each month. Last month’s digest was about the right amount of detail so this will be another briefer digest. These are all good albums but not ones that will change your life, they’ll just happily sit alongside it.
August 15, 2012
Nick Harkaway, The Gone-Away World
“The Gone-Away World” is a novel by Nick Harkaway. It’s about a world slightly askew to our own in which the powers-that-be have deigned to unleash a weapon that simply wipes the enemy out of existence. Unfortunately the enemies also have the same weapon and there are terrible consequences to the extent that the very fabric of reality is threatened. If you don’t already know what reification means, you will by the end.
August 15, 2012
Understated Classics #19: The Dreaming by Kate Bush
“I see the people working and see it working for them.” (Sat In Your Lap)
The Dreaming by Kate Bush is a strange 1982 album that many believed had destroyed her career. Two weeks before her first ever performance of “Running Up That Hill”, the NME had written an editorial asking whether she had burnt herself out completely. Obviously “Running Up That Hill” (recently used to great effect in the Olympic Closing Ceremony) and the parent album “The Hounds Of Love” that followed showed that she had plenty more up her sleeve.
July 31, 2012
Album Digest, July 2012
Just a short album digest this month. I bought a stack of CDs and am parcelling them out over the next few months (together with important additional releases as they crop up). This is in the hope that I can write more considered pieces about each one. This month I’ve grouped together albums with monochrome covers and a BT album from June that I found out about recently. These albums are not just linked by their artwork, they also form a cohesive whole.
June 30, 2012
Album Digest, June 2012
Three fantastic albums for Album Digest June 2012:
Saint Etienne Words and Music by Saint Etienne Liars WIXIW Hot Chip In Our Heads This month is a curious selection in that the albums are all by bands that I already own a few records by. When there is so much other directly related material that you can write about, it makes focussing on the album in hand quite difficult. I am always thinking up rankings and comparisons.
June 29, 2012
A Case For Yellow As Your New Favourite Colour
This post is about the films of Wes Anderson. I am no expert, I’ve just watched them all recently (inspired by seeing “Moonrise Kingdom”) and spotted a some similarities and differences between the films and I thought it would be fun to write about them. My appearance on Mastermind with “The Films of Wes Anderson” as my specialist subject will have to wait for now. Feel free to add to the discussion in the comments.
June 25, 2012
Another Reading List
More books to add to the “University of life” course list. From top to bottom: I picked up “Generation X” for 50p in a charity shop in Tintagel. “Everything Is Going To Be OK” is a picture book full of inspirational mottos. “The Happiness Hypothesis” is the most useful and interesting book that I have read in a long while. I decided to read “How To Write A Sentence” as an alternative to Strunk and White’s “The Elements Of Style” which, while useful, can be a little stuffy!
June 25, 2012
Helen Fisher, Some Lessons In Love
As indicated by my reading list posted a couple of months ago (which has since been added to here), I’ve started to try to read more about the things that I felt that I did not understand so well. Most notably perhaps is this book “on love” by Helen Fisher. Lest there is any innuendo it is not a book about technique nor does it attempt to explain love to those who have never known it, instead it assumes that we have all been there.
June 24, 2012
CAN, The Lost Tapes
This arrived on Monday and I thought I would give it a post of its own because at over 3 hours of music, I am unlikely to do more than dip into it before writing the album digest next week. It is a far bigger and more enjoyable artefact than I thought it was going to be, so it probably deserves special attention for that reason too.
CAN are a German (“Krautrock”) band that I got into about four years ago after my interest in the genre was sparked by the “Neu!
June 17, 2012
Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith, Gonzo
Another book from the “university of life” pile (though not in the picture), “Gonzo” is the biography of Hunter S. Thompson in graphical form. In case you don’t know his work, Hunter S. Thompson was a journalist who invented the so-called “gonzo” style. This was basically to rock up at some major event and become embedded within it, usually writing up a long form piece from an outsider perspective. He was particularly famous for his work on the Hell’s Angels and Richard Nixon’s campaign for presidential re-election in 1972.
June 16, 2012
Moonrise Kingdom: A Short Review
Tonight I avoided the first half of the football along with my friend Albert Jan and we went to watch “Moonrise Kingdom” at the wonderful Everyman cinema in Hampstead. It was a real treat in every sense. To start with, the Everyman is a lovely cinema. It is quite expensive but you do get what you pay for: a comfortable seat in a great theatre and the chance to watch more than just the latest blockbusters (though it shows those too).
June 5, 2012
Understated Classics #18: Fabric 12 mixed by The Amalgamation Of Soundz
Say what? We’re allowing compilations now?
Yes. Why not? A good mix is as much an artistic statement as a full-blown single artist album. It takes a lot of skill to get from A to B and keep everything on the boil in between. This Fabric mix by The Amalgamation Of Soundz is one of my favourites because it is a downtempo (but, crucially, not too downtempo) compilation delivered with flair and using what I consider to be unconventional sources (soundtracks, tribute albums, hip-hop) to do it.
May 31, 2012
Album Digest, May 2012
Four albums for Album Digest May 2012:
Jack White Blunderbuss One Little Plane Into The Trees Beach House Bloom Oxia Tides Of Mind The April album digest was rather short on songs, so this month I decided to look for albums that were more based around songs not tracks. Electronic music is relatively easy to write about: the music is often simple (but not always), there are recognisable structures and genres (but not always), and there are conventions that are adhered to (but not always).
April 30, 2012
Album Digest, April 2012
A mostly instrumental month with a comeback from Orbital, an excellent remix collection from Battles, an amazing movie documenting a live performance by the Chemical Brothers and Austin Wintory’s soundtrack to the game Journey.
Orbital Wonky Battles Dross Glop The Chemical Brothers Don’t Think Austin Wintory Journey (Original Soundtrack) Orbital Wonky I am quite keen on Orbital, though perhaps not as keen as I am on the similarly named Orb. I think I have got all the Orbital albums, mostly bought on eBay after the fact.
April 20, 2012
Reading list, mid-April 2012
A hefty reading list that should keep me occupied into the summer. A friend on facebook asked “What course is that for?”, to which I replied “It’s for one of the modules I am doing at the university of life.” This response was quite popular.
April 19, 2012
Understated Classics #17: Nearly God by Nearly God (Tricky)
Sit back and let it happen, / Let us take your time away.
Nearly God is Tricky’s second album, which was released under a different name either because Island rejected it as the follow-up to Maxinequaye or because it came too quickly after and Tricky just wanted it released. I had this album before Maxinequaye because back then it wasn’t as easy to go back and catch up with albums that you had missed as it is now.
April 9, 2012
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon was written in 1956 and tells of the experiences of West Indian men moving to London for work. It has been described as the definitive novel about the experiences of the Windrush settlers. The narrative centres on a man named Moses who was one of the first to come to London and finds himself the first port of call for many subsequent immigrants:
It look to old Moses that he hardly have time to settle in the old Brit’n before all sorts of fellars start coming straight to his room in the Water when they land up in London from the West Indies, saying that so and so tell them that Moses is a good fellar to contact, that he would help them get place to stay and work to do.
April 3, 2012
Net Loss
I pay to have this blog up and running. That is, I pay for the space where it is stored and I pay for the name. I have to look after all the files and plug-ins, I have to perform all the updates and optimise the database tables. All this is great fun but wouldn’t it be cheaper to slap the mattischro.me address onto a hosted WordPress.com account?
Well, yes it would.
March 31, 2012
Album Digest, March 2012
Five albums for Album Digest March 2012
Fanfarlo Rooms Filled With Light The Shins Port Of Morrow Grails Deep Politics New Build Yesterday Was Lived And Lost Scuba Personality A nice collection of albums this month - things usually pick up in March after a slow period after Christmas. One of these is a “catch-up” (the album by Grails) but apart from that one, everything else was released in the last five weeks or so… I should probably have included the album by Racehorses that I bought on my birthday but I will have to leave that for next month as I haven’t listened to it that much.
March 21, 2012
Understated Classics #16: Ambient 2 / The Plateaux Of Mirror by Howard Budd and Brian Eno
Among Fields of Crystal / Wind in Lonely Fences I have written about a fair number of ambient albums in this series (and there are at least two more to come!) but perhaps none are as unobtrusive as this one by Howard Budd and Brian Eno. It’s a subtle collection of music that sits at the margins of your consciousness: for a long time it was the music that I turned to when I could not sleep but I could just as easily imagine it as (ahem!
February 28, 2012
Album Digest, February 2012
One EP and three albums for Album Digest February 2012:
Burial Kindred EP John Talabot fIN Lilacs & Champagne Lilacs & Champagne The 2 Bears Be Strong Last February was a pretty good month for song based albums, although the likes of Radiohead and James Blake provided plenty of electronic noodling in and around their song structures. (Interestingly, out of the two out-and-out song based albums, one was one of the worst albums of the year and the other one of the best).
February 9, 2012
Never Mind The Ballards
Ages ago I set out to write a post for each of JG Ballard’s novels. In fact it is the oldest post on this blog. Most of the novels (I don’t have the two autobiographical novels Empire Of The Sun or The Kindness Of Women and the late period novel Milennium People) are sat in a row on top of my broken bookshelf, part of the weight there that bowed outer frame of the unit and made the inner shelves collapse.
January 31, 2012
Album Digest, January 2012
Five albums to see in the new year:
FOE “Bad Dream Hotline” Leila “U & I” Diagrams “Black Light” Pyramids & Horseback “A Throne Without A King” FabricLive 61 mixed by Pinch FOE Bad Dream Hotline I listened to “Bad Dream Hotline” about four times thinking “who does her voice remind me of?”. In the end I realised it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though in parts she sounds like KT Tunstall too.
January 23, 2012
Understated Classics #15: Début by Björk
I got into Début via a cassette from the library, much like I did with Together Alone by Crowded House. I suppose it is less obscure than many of my choices for this strand but I do think that Post is more well-known (because of It’s Oh So Quiet, which we shall mention here only briefly) and that Homogenic is probably more popular among her fans.
What I really like about Début though, as much as the album itself, is the panoply of remixes and alternative versions that surround the release.
January 13, 2012
The Painter
Once upon a time there was a man who loved to paint. He studied the art and craft of painting for many years. He chose to invest his time and energy into creating the most realistic portraits that he could paint. For him the joy came not from completing the paintings but the process of recreating the real world with the strokes of his brush.
For many years he continued to study the art of painting.
January 5, 2012
Dreams Of A Life: A Short Review
Dreams Of A Life is a documentary about Joyce Vincent, a woman who was found in her flat three years after her death surrounded by wrapped christmas presents and with the TV still on. £2400 in arrears on her rent, she was discovered by bailiffs who forced the door down. The film attempts to work out happened to Joyce by interviewing people who knew her. In two other strands that unfold in parallel, various events from her life are re-enacted along with the clearing of her flat by forensics officers.
Tag: Woob
December 31, 2012
Album Digest, December 2012
Three albums (one very Christmassey one!) and an EP this month.
Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” Woob “Have Landed” Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin “Instrumental Tourist” Burial “Truant / Rough Sleeper Tracey Thorn “Tinsel and Lights” “Tinsel and Lights” is that rarest of records, a Christmas record that is perfectly suited to the season and is not in any way overbearing or irritating. Most albums that are Christmas themed are usually centred on lots of covers that are taken from a small subset of well worn classics.
November 21, 2012
Understated Classics #21: Woob 2 by Woob
The second Woob album (AKA “Woob 4495”) is probably the greatest ambient album ever made and is certainly the best one you have never heard of. Originally released in 1995 on the em:t label it is also a rare record. I don’t have an actual copy but I have seen one! I downloaded it off the internet and even that is quite difficult to do. My friend is an avid collector of all the em:t releases and it is easy to see why: all the albums are titled in a specific way that is very appealing to people who like to collect things and they also have very striking nature photography on the covers.
Tag: Ital
November 29, 2012
Album Digest, November 2012
Pretty much a sliding scale between songs and electronic wibble on this month’s albums and a particularly damp, chilly feeling to proceedings too.
Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” Ital “Hive Mind” and “Dream On” Björk “Bastards” Brian Eno “Lux” Bat For Lashes “The Haunted Man” When it comes to Bat For Lashes, I prefer her first album “Fur And Gold” to her second “Two Suns” because when I listen to the latter I don’t feel connected to any of the songs.
Tag: Mathematical Modelling
November 27, 2012
A Mountain Story
A cat reaches the top of a mountain after a long climb through the snow. He is cold from the bottom of his fur to the tips of his claws. He is sodden and wet, and we all know how much a cat hates to be wet.
At the top of the mountain there is not much to see. What may have been a breathtaking view is instead a murk of freezing mist and at any rate, snow assails the cat’s eyes and whiskers.
January 13, 2012
The Painter
Once upon a time there was a man who loved to paint. He studied the art and craft of painting for many years. He chose to invest his time and energy into creating the most realistic portraits that he could paint. For him the joy came not from completing the paintings but the process of recreating the real world with the strokes of his brush.
For many years he continued to study the art of painting.
Tag: French
November 5, 2012
Rust And Bone: A Short Review
So, two short reviews in a row. I had the day off work and went to see “Rust And Bone” this afternooon. It’s the new film by Jacques Audiard, who directed “A Prophet” – one of my favourite films of the last five years.
“Rust And Bone” is a love story about Ali, a sexually feckless security guard who is struggling to look after his young son on his own, and Stéphanie (played by second most beautiful woman in the world, Marion Cotillard), who is injured while working as a co-ordinator of killer whale displays at an ocenarium.
April 6, 2011
Why I Love Betty Blue
I saw Betty Blue (original French title 37,2 Le Matin) for the first time in 1996 shortly after having read the book and it remains one of my favourite films to this day. Although there are many obvious reasons why a sixteen year old boy might like it, I think it does stand up to scrutiny beyond the sex and nudity. This post is a brief explanation of some of the obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why this is a film to be loved and cherished.
Tag: Marion Cotillard
November 5, 2012
Rust And Bone: A Short Review
So, two short reviews in a row. I had the day off work and went to see “Rust And Bone” this afternooon. It’s the new film by Jacques Audiard, who directed “A Prophet” – one of my favourite films of the last five years.
“Rust And Bone” is a love story about Ali, a sexually feckless security guard who is struggling to look after his young son on his own, and Stéphanie (played by second most beautiful woman in the world, Marion Cotillard), who is injured while working as a co-ordinator of killer whale displays at an ocenarium.
November 3, 2011
Contagion: A Short Review
There was much excitement about Contagion at work. Finally a movie that explains as part of the plot! A bunch of us went to see it, mainly to see whether a disaster movie about a global pandemic could hold up as entertainment and to have a bit of a giggle if it couldn’t.
I liked three things in particular about the film. I liked the cinematography, especially the opening sequences with the index cases staggering around.
Tag: Thriller
November 5, 2012
Rust And Bone: A Short Review
So, two short reviews in a row. I had the day off work and went to see “Rust And Bone” this afternooon. It’s the new film by Jacques Audiard, who directed “A Prophet” – one of my favourite films of the last five years.
“Rust And Bone” is a love story about Ali, a sexually feckless security guard who is struggling to look after his young son on his own, and Stéphanie (played by second most beautiful woman in the world, Marion Cotillard), who is injured while working as a co-ordinator of killer whale displays at an ocenarium.
November 3, 2011
Contagion: A Short Review
There was much excitement about Contagion at work. Finally a movie that explains as part of the plot! A bunch of us went to see it, mainly to see whether a disaster movie about a global pandemic could hold up as entertainment and to have a bit of a giggle if it couldn’t.
I liked three things in particular about the film. I liked the cinematography, especially the opening sequences with the index cases staggering around.
Tag: James Bond
November 3, 2012
Skyfall: A Short Review
I went to see “Skyfall” last night and I really enjoyed it. I knew nothing about the plot, mostly because I had avoided all discussion of the plot with people who had already seen it and I even avoided reviews as so many these days seem to just rattle off plot points, instead of discussing what makes the movie any good. With that in mind I will obviously try not to give away any of the plot in this brief review.
Tag: Daphni
October 31, 2012
Album Digest, October 2012
It has been a strange month and I found that I didn’t listen to a lot of new music. I have been a bit down and when that’s the case I tend to take refuge in music that I know well, stuff that cheers me up. I have listened to last month’s fave a lot, Nelly Furtado’s “The Spirit Indestructible”. I said a lot of nice things about it but it probably didn’t come over in my writing just how much I really liked it.
Tag: Mala
October 31, 2012
Album Digest, October 2012
It has been a strange month and I found that I didn’t listen to a lot of new music. I have been a bit down and when that’s the case I tend to take refuge in music that I know well, stuff that cheers me up. I have listened to last month’s fave a lot, Nelly Furtado’s “The Spirit Indestructible”. I said a lot of nice things about it but it probably didn’t come over in my writing just how much I really liked it.
Tag: Ricardo Villalobos
October 31, 2012
Album Digest, October 2012
It has been a strange month and I found that I didn’t listen to a lot of new music. I have been a bit down and when that’s the case I tend to take refuge in music that I know well, stuff that cheers me up. I have listened to last month’s fave a lot, Nelly Furtado’s “The Spirit Indestructible”. I said a lot of nice things about it but it probably didn’t come over in my writing just how much I really liked it.
Tag: Portsmouth
October 23, 2012
Stevenage vs Portsmouth
Tonight, despite feeling a bit under the weather, I went to Stevenage to watch Portsmouth play a League One game at the Lamex Stadium. In addition, I met a “person off the internet” for the second time in a week – this time Tom, a friend of a friend from Facebook: our shared passions being Portsmouth FC and really cool music. We met at King’s Cross and caught a packed train to Stevenage, a non-descript dormitory town that was even more non-descript than I remember St Albans being.
Tag: Intros
October 2, 2012
Nonlinear Systems: A Rough Intro
This is another mathematics post that does not actually feature any equations or graphs. It is intended to set the way clear for writing regularly about nonlinear systems. This in itself is a precursor to writing more about mathematical biology as biological systems are inherently complex and nonlinear. I am reading P. G. Drazin’s textbook on Nonlinear Systems and this post is a glossary of terms from the start of the book laid down here because I wanted to remember how to typeset definition lists in Markdown (though in the end I (ab)used <h4> tags because it looked better).
Tag: Grizzly Bear
September 29, 2012
Album Digest, September 2012
I had a bit more time to listen to this month’s albums because I was on holiday for two weeks. I didn’t manage to write about them while on holiday though! In fact I bought and listened to a few more, but I will save them for next month. The albums I will discuss now (in order bought) are:
Four Tet “Pink” The xx “Coexist” Nelly Furtado “The Spirit Indestructible” Grizzly Bear “Shields” It’s quite a diverse collection and, Four Tet apart, quite song based.
Tag: Jon McGregor
September 23, 2012
Jon McGregor, Even The Dogs
Over my holiday I read “Even The Dogs” by Jon McGregor. I’ve not quite finished it yet but that will at least prevent me from giving away spoilers. I am not sure I would want to give any spoilers anyway because it is unrelentingly grim so far. Perhaps there is a happy ending but both you and I will have to read it to find out.
I was introduced to Jon McGregor by the book group I was part of during my PhD.
Tag: Auntie Flo
August 31, 2012
Album Digest, August 2012
Album Digest August 2012 is also from the stack of albums that I mentioned last month. I chose this selection (along with the Passion Pit album) because the colours looked good together in the mosaic of covers that I make each month. Last month’s digest was about the right amount of detail so this will be another briefer digest. These are all good albums but not ones that will change your life, they’ll just happily sit alongside it.
Tag: Laurel Halo
August 31, 2012
Album Digest, August 2012
Album Digest August 2012 is also from the stack of albums that I mentioned last month. I chose this selection (along with the Passion Pit album) because the colours looked good together in the mosaic of covers that I make each month. Last month’s digest was about the right amount of detail so this will be another briefer digest. These are all good albums but not ones that will change your life, they’ll just happily sit alongside it.
Tag: Passion Pit
August 31, 2012
Album Digest, August 2012
Album Digest August 2012 is also from the stack of albums that I mentioned last month. I chose this selection (along with the Passion Pit album) because the colours looked good together in the mosaic of covers that I make each month. Last month’s digest was about the right amount of detail so this will be another briefer digest. These are all good albums but not ones that will change your life, they’ll just happily sit alongside it.
Tag: Nick Harkaway
August 15, 2012
Nick Harkaway, The Gone-Away World
“The Gone-Away World” is a novel by Nick Harkaway. It’s about a world slightly askew to our own in which the powers-that-be have deigned to unleash a weapon that simply wipes the enemy out of existence. Unfortunately the enemies also have the same weapon and there are terrible consequences to the extent that the very fabric of reality is threatened. If you don’t already know what reification means, you will by the end.
Tag: Actress
July 31, 2012
Album Digest, July 2012
Just a short album digest this month. I bought a stack of CDs and am parcelling them out over the next few months (together with important additional releases as they crop up). This is in the hope that I can write more considered pieces about each one. This month I’ve grouped together albums with monochrome covers and a BT album from June that I found out about recently. These albums are not just linked by their artwork, they also form a cohesive whole.
Tag: Mohn
July 31, 2012
Album Digest, July 2012
Just a short album digest this month. I bought a stack of CDs and am parcelling them out over the next few months (together with important additional releases as they crop up). This is in the hope that I can write more considered pieces about each one. This month I’ve grouped together albums with monochrome covers and a BT album from June that I found out about recently. These albums are not just linked by their artwork, they also form a cohesive whole.
Tag: Monolake
July 31, 2012
Album Digest, July 2012
Just a short album digest this month. I bought a stack of CDs and am parcelling them out over the next few months (together with important additional releases as they crop up). This is in the hope that I can write more considered pieces about each one. This month I’ve grouped together albums with monochrome covers and a BT album from June that I found out about recently. These albums are not just linked by their artwork, they also form a cohesive whole.
Tag: Saint Etienne
June 30, 2012
Album Digest, June 2012
Three fantastic albums for Album Digest June 2012:
Saint Etienne Words and Music by Saint Etienne Liars WIXIW Hot Chip In Our Heads This month is a curious selection in that the albums are all by bands that I already own a few records by. When there is so much other directly related material that you can write about, it makes focussing on the album in hand quite difficult. I am always thinking up rankings and comparisons.
May 6, 2011
Understated Classics #9: Tiger Bay by Saint Etienne
Background Tiger Bay is Saint Etienne’s third album and I think it is among their best. It was released in June 1994 on Heavenly records. I first owned a copy in 1998 when I picked it up while living in halls as an undergraduate. The reason for including this album in the understated classics series is the same as for Second Light by Dreadzone: it marries traditional forms to newer electronic music1.
March 31, 2011
Album Digest, March 2011
This is not an Album Digest March 2011 Well as I said at the end of last month’s album digest post, I took a bit of a break from pursuing new music quite as closely as I have been. As promised, I sidestepped the new R.E.M. and Elbow albums - although I had been promised the latter as a birthday present it is yet to show up, maybe I will look at in April.
Tag: Wes Anderson
June 29, 2012
A Case For Yellow As Your New Favourite Colour
This post is about the films of Wes Anderson. I am no expert, I’ve just watched them all recently (inspired by seeing “Moonrise Kingdom”) and spotted a some similarities and differences between the films and I thought it would be fun to write about them. My appearance on Mastermind with “The Films of Wes Anderson” as my specialist subject will have to wait for now. Feel free to add to the discussion in the comments.
June 16, 2012
Moonrise Kingdom: A Short Review
Tonight I avoided the first half of the football along with my friend Albert Jan and we went to watch “Moonrise Kingdom” at the wonderful Everyman cinema in Hampstead. It was a real treat in every sense. To start with, the Everyman is a lovely cinema. It is quite expensive but you do get what you pay for: a comfortable seat in a great theatre and the chance to watch more than just the latest blockbusters (though it shows those too).
Tag: Yellow
June 29, 2012
A Case For Yellow As Your New Favourite Colour
This post is about the films of Wes Anderson. I am no expert, I’ve just watched them all recently (inspired by seeing “Moonrise Kingdom”) and spotted a some similarities and differences between the films and I thought it would be fun to write about them. My appearance on Mastermind with “The Films of Wes Anderson” as my specialist subject will have to wait for now. Feel free to add to the discussion in the comments.
Tag: Helen Fisher
June 25, 2012
Helen Fisher, Some Lessons In Love
As indicated by my reading list posted a couple of months ago (which has since been added to here), I’ve started to try to read more about the things that I felt that I did not understand so well. Most notably perhaps is this book “on love” by Helen Fisher. Lest there is any innuendo it is not a book about technique nor does it attempt to explain love to those who have never known it, instead it assumes that we have all been there.
Tag: Box Set
June 24, 2012
CAN, The Lost Tapes
This arrived on Monday and I thought I would give it a post of its own because at over 3 hours of music, I am unlikely to do more than dip into it before writing the album digest next week. It is a far bigger and more enjoyable artefact than I thought it was going to be, so it probably deserves special attention for that reason too.
CAN are a German (“Krautrock”) band that I got into about four years ago after my interest in the genre was sparked by the “Neu!
Tag: Anthony Hope-Smith
June 17, 2012
Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith, Gonzo
Another book from the “university of life” pile (though not in the picture), “Gonzo” is the biography of Hunter S. Thompson in graphical form. In case you don’t know his work, Hunter S. Thompson was a journalist who invented the so-called “gonzo” style. This was basically to rock up at some major event and become embedded within it, usually writing up a long form piece from an outsider perspective. He was particularly famous for his work on the Hell’s Angels and Richard Nixon’s campaign for presidential re-election in 1972.
Tag: Graphic Novel
June 17, 2012
Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith, Gonzo
Another book from the “university of life” pile (though not in the picture), “Gonzo” is the biography of Hunter S. Thompson in graphical form. In case you don’t know his work, Hunter S. Thompson was a journalist who invented the so-called “gonzo” style. This was basically to rock up at some major event and become embedded within it, usually writing up a long form piece from an outsider perspective. He was particularly famous for his work on the Hell’s Angels and Richard Nixon’s campaign for presidential re-election in 1972.
Tag: Hunter S. Thomspon
June 17, 2012
Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith, Gonzo
Another book from the “university of life” pile (though not in the picture), “Gonzo” is the biography of Hunter S. Thompson in graphical form. In case you don’t know his work, Hunter S. Thompson was a journalist who invented the so-called “gonzo” style. This was basically to rock up at some major event and become embedded within it, usually writing up a long form piece from an outsider perspective. He was particularly famous for his work on the Hell’s Angels and Richard Nixon’s campaign for presidential re-election in 1972.
Tag: Will Bingley
June 17, 2012
Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith, Gonzo
Another book from the “university of life” pile (though not in the picture), “Gonzo” is the biography of Hunter S. Thompson in graphical form. In case you don’t know his work, Hunter S. Thompson was a journalist who invented the so-called “gonzo” style. This was basically to rock up at some major event and become embedded within it, usually writing up a long form piece from an outsider perspective. He was particularly famous for his work on the Hell’s Angels and Richard Nixon’s campaign for presidential re-election in 1972.
Tag: Moonrise Kingdom
June 16, 2012
Moonrise Kingdom: A Short Review
Tonight I avoided the first half of the football along with my friend Albert Jan and we went to watch “Moonrise Kingdom” at the wonderful Everyman cinema in Hampstead. It was a real treat in every sense. To start with, the Everyman is a lovely cinema. It is quite expensive but you do get what you pay for: a comfortable seat in a great theatre and the chance to watch more than just the latest blockbusters (though it shows those too).
Tag: Beach House
May 31, 2012
Album Digest, May 2012
Four albums for Album Digest May 2012:
Jack White Blunderbuss One Little Plane Into The Trees Beach House Bloom Oxia Tides Of Mind The April album digest was rather short on songs, so this month I decided to look for albums that were more based around songs not tracks. Electronic music is relatively easy to write about: the music is often simple (but not always), there are recognisable structures and genres (but not always), and there are conventions that are adhered to (but not always).
Tag: Jack White
May 31, 2012
Album Digest, May 2012
Four albums for Album Digest May 2012:
Jack White Blunderbuss One Little Plane Into The Trees Beach House Bloom Oxia Tides Of Mind The April album digest was rather short on songs, so this month I decided to look for albums that were more based around songs not tracks. Electronic music is relatively easy to write about: the music is often simple (but not always), there are recognisable structures and genres (but not always), and there are conventions that are adhered to (but not always).
Tag: One Little Plane
May 31, 2012
Album Digest, May 2012
Four albums for Album Digest May 2012:
Jack White Blunderbuss One Little Plane Into The Trees Beach House Bloom Oxia Tides Of Mind The April album digest was rather short on songs, so this month I decided to look for albums that were more based around songs not tracks. Electronic music is relatively easy to write about: the music is often simple (but not always), there are recognisable structures and genres (but not always), and there are conventions that are adhered to (but not always).
Tag: Oxia
May 31, 2012
Album Digest, May 2012
Four albums for Album Digest May 2012:
Jack White Blunderbuss One Little Plane Into The Trees Beach House Bloom Oxia Tides Of Mind The April album digest was rather short on songs, so this month I decided to look for albums that were more based around songs not tracks. Electronic music is relatively easy to write about: the music is often simple (but not always), there are recognisable structures and genres (but not always), and there are conventions that are adhered to (but not always).
Tag: Austin Wintory
April 30, 2012
Album Digest, April 2012
A mostly instrumental month with a comeback from Orbital, an excellent remix collection from Battles, an amazing movie documenting a live performance by the Chemical Brothers and Austin Wintory’s soundtrack to the game Journey.
Orbital Wonky Battles Dross Glop The Chemical Brothers Don’t Think Austin Wintory Journey (Original Soundtrack) Orbital Wonky I am quite keen on Orbital, though perhaps not as keen as I am on the similarly named Orb. I think I have got all the Orbital albums, mostly bought on eBay after the fact.
Tag: Chemical Brothers
April 30, 2012
Album Digest, April 2012
A mostly instrumental month with a comeback from Orbital, an excellent remix collection from Battles, an amazing movie documenting a live performance by the Chemical Brothers and Austin Wintory’s soundtrack to the game Journey.
Orbital Wonky Battles Dross Glop The Chemical Brothers Don’t Think Austin Wintory Journey (Original Soundtrack) Orbital Wonky I am quite keen on Orbital, though perhaps not as keen as I am on the similarly named Orb. I think I have got all the Orbital albums, mostly bought on eBay after the fact.
Tag: Nearly God
April 19, 2012
Understated Classics #17: Nearly God by Nearly God (Tricky)
Sit back and let it happen, / Let us take your time away.
Nearly God is Tricky’s second album, which was released under a different name either because Island rejected it as the follow-up to Maxinequaye or because it came too quickly after and Tricky just wanted it released. I had this album before Maxinequaye because back then it wasn’t as easy to go back and catch up with albums that you had missed as it is now.
Tag: Tricky
April 19, 2012
Understated Classics #17: Nearly God by Nearly God (Tricky)
Sit back and let it happen, / Let us take your time away.
Nearly God is Tricky’s second album, which was released under a different name either because Island rejected it as the follow-up to Maxinequaye or because it came too quickly after and Tricky just wanted it released. I had this album before Maxinequaye because back then it wasn’t as easy to go back and catch up with albums that you had missed as it is now.
Tag: Sam Selvon
April 9, 2012
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon was written in 1956 and tells of the experiences of West Indian men moving to London for work. It has been described as the definitive novel about the experiences of the Windrush settlers. The narrative centres on a man named Moses who was one of the first to come to London and finds himself the first port of call for many subsequent immigrants:
It look to old Moses that he hardly have time to settle in the old Brit’n before all sorts of fellars start coming straight to his room in the Water when they land up in London from the West Indies, saying that so and so tell them that Moses is a good fellar to contact, that he would help them get place to stay and work to do.
Tag: New Build
March 31, 2012
Album Digest, March 2012
Five albums for Album Digest March 2012
Fanfarlo Rooms Filled With Light The Shins Port Of Morrow Grails Deep Politics New Build Yesterday Was Lived And Lost Scuba Personality A nice collection of albums this month - things usually pick up in March after a slow period after Christmas. One of these is a “catch-up” (the album by Grails) but apart from that one, everything else was released in the last five weeks or so… I should probably have included the album by Racehorses that I bought on my birthday but I will have to leave that for next month as I haven’t listened to it that much.
Tag: Scuba
March 31, 2012
Album Digest, March 2012
Five albums for Album Digest March 2012
Fanfarlo Rooms Filled With Light The Shins Port Of Morrow Grails Deep Politics New Build Yesterday Was Lived And Lost Scuba Personality A nice collection of albums this month - things usually pick up in March after a slow period after Christmas. One of these is a “catch-up” (the album by Grails) but apart from that one, everything else was released in the last five weeks or so… I should probably have included the album by Racehorses that I bought on my birthday but I will have to leave that for next month as I haven’t listened to it that much.
Tag: Howard Budd
March 21, 2012
Understated Classics #16: Ambient 2 / The Plateaux Of Mirror by Howard Budd and Brian Eno
Among Fields of Crystal / Wind in Lonely Fences I have written about a fair number of ambient albums in this series (and there are at least two more to come!) but perhaps none are as unobtrusive as this one by Howard Budd and Brian Eno. It’s a subtle collection of music that sits at the margins of your consciousness: for a long time it was the music that I turned to when I could not sleep but I could just as easily imagine it as (ahem!
Tag: John Talabot
February 28, 2012
Album Digest, February 2012
One EP and three albums for Album Digest February 2012:
Burial Kindred EP John Talabot fIN Lilacs & Champagne Lilacs & Champagne The 2 Bears Be Strong Last February was a pretty good month for song based albums, although the likes of Radiohead and James Blake provided plenty of electronic noodling in and around their song structures. (Interestingly, out of the two out-and-out song based albums, one was one of the worst albums of the year and the other one of the best).
Tag: The 2 Bears
February 28, 2012
Album Digest, February 2012
One EP and three albums for Album Digest February 2012:
Burial Kindred EP John Talabot fIN Lilacs & Champagne Lilacs & Champagne The 2 Bears Be Strong Last February was a pretty good month for song based albums, although the likes of Radiohead and James Blake provided plenty of electronic noodling in and around their song structures. (Interestingly, out of the two out-and-out song based albums, one was one of the worst albums of the year and the other one of the best).
Tag: Diagrams
January 31, 2012
Album Digest, January 2012
Five albums to see in the new year:
FOE “Bad Dream Hotline” Leila “U & I” Diagrams “Black Light” Pyramids & Horseback “A Throne Without A King” FabricLive 61 mixed by Pinch FOE Bad Dream Hotline I listened to “Bad Dream Hotline” about four times thinking “who does her voice remind me of?”. In the end I realised it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though in parts she sounds like KT Tunstall too.
Tag: FOE
January 31, 2012
Album Digest, January 2012
Five albums to see in the new year:
FOE “Bad Dream Hotline” Leila “U & I” Diagrams “Black Light” Pyramids & Horseback “A Throne Without A King” FabricLive 61 mixed by Pinch FOE Bad Dream Hotline I listened to “Bad Dream Hotline” about four times thinking “who does her voice remind me of?”. In the end I realised it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though in parts she sounds like KT Tunstall too.
Tag: Horseback
January 31, 2012
Album Digest, January 2012
Five albums to see in the new year:
FOE “Bad Dream Hotline” Leila “U & I” Diagrams “Black Light” Pyramids & Horseback “A Throne Without A King” FabricLive 61 mixed by Pinch FOE Bad Dream Hotline I listened to “Bad Dream Hotline” about four times thinking “who does her voice remind me of?”. In the end I realised it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though in parts she sounds like KT Tunstall too.
Tag: Leila
January 31, 2012
Album Digest, January 2012
Five albums to see in the new year:
FOE “Bad Dream Hotline” Leila “U & I” Diagrams “Black Light” Pyramids & Horseback “A Throne Without A King” FabricLive 61 mixed by Pinch FOE Bad Dream Hotline I listened to “Bad Dream Hotline” about four times thinking “who does her voice remind me of?”. In the end I realised it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though in parts she sounds like KT Tunstall too.
Tag: Pinch
January 31, 2012
Album Digest, January 2012
Five albums to see in the new year:
FOE “Bad Dream Hotline” Leila “U & I” Diagrams “Black Light” Pyramids & Horseback “A Throne Without A King” FabricLive 61 mixed by Pinch FOE Bad Dream Hotline I listened to “Bad Dream Hotline” about four times thinking “who does her voice remind me of?”. In the end I realised it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though in parts she sounds like KT Tunstall too.
Tag: Pyramids
January 31, 2012
Album Digest, January 2012
Five albums to see in the new year:
FOE “Bad Dream Hotline” Leila “U & I” Diagrams “Black Light” Pyramids & Horseback “A Throne Without A King” FabricLive 61 mixed by Pinch FOE Bad Dream Hotline I listened to “Bad Dream Hotline” about four times thinking “who does her voice remind me of?”. In the end I realised it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though in parts she sounds like KT Tunstall too.
Tag: Eleven
December 29, 2011
Album Digest, December 2011
Some rather brief pen pictures of this month’s albums. I’ve been a bit busy!
Radio Slave - Collected Remixes Thud thud thud. This is pretty much how all Radio Slave remixes go. I really liked his fabric mix and borrowed a few tracks for a playlist I made called “Dancing In Space”. Anyway, back to the thudding: it’s no bad thing, the remixes have a nice formula that works well for discovering new tracks like UNKLE’s Burn My Shadow (Ian Astbury’s vocal is given plenty of room to shine) and K3’s Play To Win.
November 22, 2011
The Amber World
My earliest memory is waking up in Queen Alexandra hospital in Cosham after an operation on my ears. I must have been about four years old and it was the middle of the night. I was in a room on my own and the door was locked. It had been daylight only seconds before so I got out of the bed and walked to the window to look incredulously out at the amber world that lay beyond.
November 20, 2011
Album Digest, November 2011
Just three albums this month as I’ve been listening to a lot of Brian Eno records ready for an upcoming understated classic. First up is 50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush, the second album that she has released this year. Back in May I wrote about Director’s Cut, which presented re-recorded and re-mastered versions of songs from her albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. This time around it is an album of brand new material, the first since Aerial in 2006.
November 7, 2011
Understated Classics #14: Clear by Bomb The Bass
I think it’s time to discuss your philosophy of drug use as it relates to artistic endeavour…
That quote is from the movie “The Naked Lunch” directed by David Cronenburg (see also this) and it also opens “Bug Powder Dust” by Bomb The Bass, the five star single that opens “Clear”. A rollicking piece of rock rap dripping with pop culture references that runs for four and half minutes and does not stop until another quote from “The Naked Lunch”, it is probably one of my favourite songs of the 90s.
November 3, 2011
Contagion: A Short Review
There was much excitement about Contagion at work. Finally a movie that explains as part of the plot! A bunch of us went to see it, mainly to see whether a disaster movie about a global pandemic could hold up as entertainment and to have a bit of a giggle if it couldn’t.
I liked three things in particular about the film. I liked the cinematography, especially the opening sequences with the index cases staggering around.
November 2, 2011
Mark Rowlands, The Philosopher And The Wolf
I saw that a friend had ‘liked’ this book on Facebook and reading about it on amazon, I was curious enough to give it a go. It is the autobiography of the philosopher Mark Rowlands, specifically the experiences and lessons learned from raising a wolf, Brenin, from cub to maturity and beyond.
The book addresses different aspects of philosophy including the nature of evil and the interaction between humans and other animals.
October 31, 2011
Album Digest, October 2011
This month we have albums by Björk, Coldplay, M83, and Radiohead.
Album Digest October 2011 - Intro I listened to Wilco’s The Whole Love again the other day. I happened to be walking past the venue in Portsmouth where I went to see them live back in 2004 and it seemed the right fit. I really enjoyed the album after a period of not having listened to it and I found that being familiar with the songs allowed me to better appreciate the production of the album.
September 30, 2011
Album Digest, September 2011
Hmmm, a rather grey looking selection of covers this month. The albums I have listened to most are:
John Beltran Ambient Selections FabricLive 59 mixed by Four Tet The Rapture In The Grace Of Your Love Wilco The Whole Love I have actually only had the Wilco album since Monday of this week (the 26th) but it has inveigled its way into my consciousness quite quickly. As I have said before, this blog owes its name to a Wilco song and they are quite an important band to me.
September 9, 2011
Frank Herbert, Dune
A week or so ago, I finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert. It tells the story of a revolution within a Galactic Empire that takes place on a harsh and unforgiving desert planet called Arrakis. One central theme is how destinies can be shaped despite being intertwined around many axes. Another is the importance of adaptation in the fight for survival.
I came to Dune via the David Lynch film and then the Sci-Fi Channel’s mini-series, which I was able to stream through LoveFilm.
September 9, 2011
Understated Classics #13: U.F.Orb by The Orb
FUN FACT: It was because of the artwork to this album that I obsessively scrawled onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome onourwayhome on my pencil case at school. I also had a very passable u.f.orb logo drawn on it too.
In The Blue Room I had my first “close encounter” with The Orb in 1992 when the single Blue Room was in the charts.
August 31, 2011
Album Digest, August 2011
I bought a collection of electronic music this month. I mixed them all up in a smart playlist on iTunes, the smart aspect being to limit to tracks that had been played fewer than five then six then seven times etc. This made sure I was still listening to all the tracks equally often, despite the randomness.
Biosphere N-plants Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure Gus Gus Arabian Horse Instra:Mental Resolution 653 Jon Tejada Parabolas Biosphere N-Plants I think this album makes Biosphere the most reviewed musician on this blog at the moment but I don’t mind too much, he makes some great stuff.
August 16, 2011
Understated Classics #12: Look Sharp! by Roxette
Happy Birthday! No matter how intellectual one gets about these things, the primary function of music is to have fun. With this in mind it is a good time to turn to Roxette then, as they are almost always the epitome of fun.
I received Look Sharp! as a present for my ninth birthday. This was probably a bit young to fully understand all the emotions expressed on the record. It’s just as well that it is also crammed with the kind of pop confections that made “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!
August 5, 2011
Five lessons from a year of blogging
I have now been writing decent length articles on this site for about a year. I have learned a lot in this time, mostly about writing but also how to express your feelings and how to marshal your ideas and passions into action. For this month’s “five on the fifth”, I would like to share with you some of the things I have learned.
Writing posts consistently is hard… There are a lot of things that get in the way of regular posting.
July 31, 2011
Album Digest, July 2011
Quite a mixed bag this month.
SBTRKT SBTRKT Zomby Dedication Brian Eno Drums Between The Bells Bon Iver Bon Iver Washed Out Within and Without This month’s collection of albums is a rather mellow bunch. The SBTRKT album (self-titled) is probably the most frenetic of the five though even that does not exactly pound four to the floor. Most of it is pretty calm, though the occasional burst of pop to spice things up: sometimes it is as downtempo as the rest (Right Thing To Do and Trials Of The Past) but at other times things spark into life, as on Pharaohs.
July 25, 2011
The News
“I read the news today, oh boy” (The Beatles, A Day In The Life.)
Sometimes watching the news feels like a series of repeated blows to the face: arbitrary, cruel and unrelenting. It gets draining and upsetting, and leaves you fearful of what might come next.
You won’t need me to tell you about the tragedies that have occurred all over the world in the last few days: drought in East Africa, the gunman running amok in Norway, the death of Amy Winehouse and the horrific train crash in China.
July 22, 2011
Understated Classics #11: Second Toughest In The Infants by Underworld
Your rails, your fins, your thin paper wings Second Toughest in the Infants (STITI) is the second album by Underworld, released in 1995. This was just ahead of the mania caused by the .NUXX version of Born Slippy appearing on the Trainspotting soundtrack a little later. Born Slippy itself, the blippy techno confection released between their début Dubnobasswithmyheadman and this album. STITI then is very much the calm before the storm and features a band (in the truest sense, which is unusual among electronic acts) in full flow.
July 19, 2011
A Beta Test Of Everything
Reading a few articles about the recent launch of Google+, a few things hit home. Google tends to launch a product that works and not always one that is perfect or finished (like, say, Apple). Sometimes it takes them several iterations to get right. They love the beta tag. In fact, I think it was Google (or possibly Flickr) that made me aware of the concept of beta software.
Along these line I thought about this blog and its one year anniversary.
July 12, 2011
Why I Love The Jungle Book
Just as with the understated classics I want to set out my stall early on that good movies are good enough. Both Betty Blue and today’s choice The Jungle Book are never going to win any sort of consensus prize for the best movies ever made but they are really good. They also have a personal history attached that makes them worth writing about.
When I was younger both my sisters would be given VHS copies of Disney movies at a rate of about two a year, one for Christmas and one at their birthday.
July 2, 2011
Maps And Charts
When I was growing up a framed print of a map hung on the wall in the hallway. It was one of my favourite things, littered with strange latin names and with Vs where Us should have been. The outlines of the continents and countries were all familiar and yet slightly distorted, becoming more recognisable around the shores of western Europe.
I don’t know the provenance of that map print but at some point it got taken to the charity shop and replaced by Van Gogh’s sunflowers.
June 30, 2011
Album Digest, June 2011
I have had the sort of month that is not conducive to listening to much new music. Therefore this month’s post is only going to consider two new albums and two albums that I have bought behind time. Because of various bits of stress and poor mood, I have ended up going back and taking refuge in some old favourites and not listening to new stuff. At other points I have also gone back to the Fleet Foxes’ album that I wrote about last month, which has grown on me even more since.
June 24, 2011
Understated Classics #10: Tubular Bells II by Mike Oldfield
It was the artwork that got me interested in Tubular Bells II. Rendering Trevor Key’s wonderful icon of the twisted tubular bell in yellow and blue made it all the more mysterious. Seeing it one day in Woolworth’s in Leigh Park back in 1992 aroused my curiosity. The huge display must have been part of the massive publicity drive for the album. Despite dwindling sales for his albums at that time, a sequel to Tubular Bells represented a huge potential for sales.
June 22, 2011
Favourite Numbers
What’s your favourite number?
I was ambivalent on this issue until a few months ago until I came across the following quirky result: if you start with the prime number 41 and then add 2 you get 43, which is also prime and then if you add 4 to 43, you get 47: also prime. And this continues to produce prime numbers if you add successive multiples of two to your running total, UNTIL… you get to the 41st number in this sequence, which is 41 squared.
June 21, 2011
J. G. Ballard, Concrete Island
No man is an island (not any more) You are tracked pretty much everywhere you go. CCTV, the GPS on your phone or the signals sent by your more primitive model to the masts to keep in touch with the network. Your cash withdrawals, your purchases in Tesco and your journeys on public transport all add to the picture of where you are. If you drive, your sat nav will hold clues to where you have been and, if you disappear, where you might have gone to.
May 31, 2011
Album Digest, May 2011
Four albums this month:
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Africa Hitech 93 Million Miles Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues TV On The Radio Nine Types of Light There is a pleasing red hue to all the covers this month. I had time to write four full reviews of the major albums I listened to. Like last month I have included a video at the foot of each review. Enjoy!
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Director’s Cut is not a new album from Kate Bush but a collection of re-visits to old songs, four from The Sensual World (1989) and seven from [The Red Shoes](http://en.
May 6, 2011
Understated Classics #9: Tiger Bay by Saint Etienne
Background Tiger Bay is Saint Etienne’s third album and I think it is among their best. It was released in June 1994 on Heavenly records. I first owned a copy in 1998 when I picked it up while living in halls as an undergraduate. The reason for including this album in the understated classics series is the same as for Second Light by Dreadzone: it marries traditional forms to newer electronic music1.
May 5, 2011
Five Superheroes We Can Live Without
The other day while writing some rather self-pitying notes in my blog book (yes, I handwrite all this rubbish before I go to bed at night!) I came up with some useless superheroes, or rather the only superheroes that a washed-up guy in his early thirties could hope to be. Because I haven’t got any ideas for “five things on the fifth” this month, I decided to flesh out a few of these.
April 30, 2011
Album Digest, April 2011
Album of the month: Mirrorwriting by Jamie Woon Jamie Woon was brought to my attention late last year by Pitchfork who wrote an article about the video for lead single Night Air. I’ve put that video down below because I think that it is very good, a simple well executed and the tune itself is brilliant, probably my favourite individual track of 2010. It’s a downtempo tune full of dark spaces and empty beats, full of nocturnal promise and mystery.
April 6, 2011
Why I Love Betty Blue
I saw Betty Blue (original French title 37,2 Le Matin) for the first time in 1996 shortly after having read the book and it remains one of my favourite films to this day. Although there are many obvious reasons why a sixteen year old boy might like it, I think it does stand up to scrutiny beyond the sex and nudity. This post is a brief explanation of some of the obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why this is a film to be loved and cherished.
April 5, 2011
Five Things To Try When You Can't Sleep
Facebook is wonderful for keeping in touch but I’ve noticed that quite a few of my friends tend to use it to tell the world that they can’t sleep. Here’s some advice for you if you find yourself unable to sleep one night. I’ve often had to try these out myself! Note that these are just things that work for me and your mileage may vary, particularly if you are fortunate enough to have a partner next to you!
April 3, 2011
Favourite Culture Ship Names
As I mentioned before I am re-reading the novels of Iain Banks and this weekend I managed to finish Consider Phlebas. A little post about it will be coming up soon. One of my favourite things about the Culture novels is how the ships are named and having found a list on Wikipedia, I thought I would share ten of my favourites with you!
You’ll Clean That Up Before You Leave Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff Prosthetic Conscience Of Course I Still Love You Size Isn’t Everything Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again Dramatic Exit, Or, Thank you And Goodnight We Haven’t Met But You’re A Great Fan Of Mine Anticipation Of A New Lover’s Arrival, The Great names all I am sure you would agree.
March 31, 2011
Album Digest, March 2011
This is not an Album Digest March 2011 Well as I said at the end of last month’s album digest post, I took a bit of a break from pursuing new music quite as closely as I have been. As promised, I sidestepped the new R.E.M. and Elbow albums - although I had been promised the latter as a birthday present it is yet to show up, maybe I will look at in April.
March 18, 2011
More Books
Never mind the Ballards I have been writing about books by J.G. Ballard pretty much to the exclusion of all others. Gradually the posts have tricked out about four novels and ground to a halt. I’ve got a fair way through two other books but I am getting very tired of reading his novels all the time, much as I love them. The mistake I made was that I hadn’t read enough of them in the first place.
March 17, 2011
Understated Classics #8: Second Light by Dreadzone
In the understated classics series, I try to alternate between pop/rock and electronic albums. Keeping with this trend number eight is the wonderful dub-infused album Second Light by Dreadzone. Released in 1996 it was well-received critically and four of its tracks featured on John Peel’s best-of-year list that year. Little Britain received a lot of radio play, a popular choice for that flag-waving period of britpop and assorted other demons.
February 28, 2011
Album Digest, February 2011
February, the shortest month, harbinger of such delights as Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day. Could it possibly produce any good albums? Well the candidates are the eponymous début album by James Blake, Zonoscope by Cut/Copy, Let England Shake by PJ Harvey and Smart Flesh by The Low Anthem. Furthermore, there was an unexpected bonus when Radiohead announced that their new album would be out and available to listen to this month too.
February 3, 2011
Out There Somewhere
Hurrah for more exoplanets making the news this week. This time it is a star with a whole bunch of small planets very close to the star, usually they tend to be single gas giants larger even than Jupiter as this list of stars with exoplanets from Wikipedia shows.
But these stars are all so far away! The closest star with an exoplanet found in orbit around it so far is 10 light years away (Epsilon Eridani) and this week’s system was found over 2000 light years away.
February 2, 2011
Programming an UNO game, part 2
It turns out that programming the UNO game is not that complicated once you start designing the thing. This post will get the rules and game elements clear.
The deck An UNO deck consists of four sets of coloured cards (red, yellow, green and blue) together with eight wild cards. The non-wild cards are marked with either numbers or special symbols. The numbers range from zero to nine with two of each number except for the zero, which is unique.
February 1, 2011
J. G. Ballard, Crash
Form and function, deformation and dysfunction I think we should get one thing out of the way first. For me, there is nothing erotic about a car or a motorway. The place in popular culture of the car in particular as sexual icon has always bemused me. In fact, I’m really rather ambivalent about cars. This matters when discussing Crash, the 1973 novel by JG Ballard that resumes this strand of posts about his novels.
January 31, 2011
Album Digest, January 2011
Here’s to 2011 and the start of a monthly album digest. I want it to be a brief trot through some of the albums I have listened to each month. Sometimes January can bring a few quiet releases by big name bands. This happens if the previous album did not do as well as the record company hoped or if it is the kind of artist who would get lost under the hype of all the Christmas releases.
January 24, 2011
In Defence Of Tolerance
I’ve found twitter to be a bit boring lately but today a perfect storm brew up and once again the Daily Mail and one of its odious columnists was at its centre. Melanie Phillips’ opinion piece was a perfectly constructed piece of trolling that implied that since the repeal of section 28, schools have been flooded with an influx of gay propaganda in subjects like maths, history and geography. Well I’m all for it, Alan Turing was a genius brutally mistreated by his country despite turning the second world war in favour of the allies - that story is maths and history is combined.
January 9, 2011
Understated Classics #7: 100 Broken Windows by Idlewild
Idewild are a solid band who have released four or five albums that I could consider for this series. I’m even in the sleeve credits of one: Post-Electric Blues, if you’re asking.
In the end I went for 100 Broken Windows because it means a lot to me. It has more of a place in my life than the others. Usually I find that this happens if I can remember where I bought an album.
Tag: Emika
December 29, 2011
Album Digest, December 2011
Some rather brief pen pictures of this month’s albums. I’ve been a bit busy!
Radio Slave - Collected Remixes Thud thud thud. This is pretty much how all Radio Slave remixes go. I really liked his fabric mix and borrowed a few tracks for a playlist I made called “Dancing In Space”. Anyway, back to the thudding: it’s no bad thing, the remixes have a nice formula that works well for discovering new tracks like UNKLE’s Burn My Shadow (Ian Astbury’s vocal is given plenty of room to shine) and K3’s Play To Win.
Tag: Pinch and Shackleton
December 29, 2011
Album Digest, December 2011
Some rather brief pen pictures of this month’s albums. I’ve been a bit busy!
Radio Slave - Collected Remixes Thud thud thud. This is pretty much how all Radio Slave remixes go. I really liked his fabric mix and borrowed a few tracks for a playlist I made called “Dancing In Space”. Anyway, back to the thudding: it’s no bad thing, the remixes have a nice formula that works well for discovering new tracks like UNKLE’s Burn My Shadow (Ian Astbury’s vocal is given plenty of room to shine) and K3’s Play To Win.
Tag: Radio Slave
December 29, 2011
Album Digest, December 2011
Some rather brief pen pictures of this month’s albums. I’ve been a bit busy!
Radio Slave - Collected Remixes Thud thud thud. This is pretty much how all Radio Slave remixes go. I really liked his fabric mix and borrowed a few tracks for a playlist I made called “Dancing In Space”. Anyway, back to the thudding: it’s no bad thing, the remixes have a nice formula that works well for discovering new tracks like UNKLE’s Burn My Shadow (Ian Astbury’s vocal is given plenty of room to shine) and K3’s Play To Win.
Tag: Memories
November 22, 2011
The Amber World
My earliest memory is waking up in Queen Alexandra hospital in Cosham after an operation on my ears. I must have been about four years old and it was the middle of the night. I was in a room on my own and the door was locked. It had been daylight only seconds before so I got out of the bed and walked to the window to look incredulously out at the amber world that lay beyond.
Tag: Peter Gabriel
November 20, 2011
Album Digest, November 2011
Just three albums this month as I’ve been listening to a lot of Brian Eno records ready for an upcoming understated classic. First up is 50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush, the second album that she has released this year. Back in May I wrote about Director’s Cut, which presented re-recorded and re-mastered versions of songs from her albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. This time around it is an album of brand new material, the first since Aerial in 2006.
Tag: Tom Waits
November 20, 2011
Album Digest, November 2011
Just three albums this month as I’ve been listening to a lot of Brian Eno records ready for an upcoming understated classic. First up is 50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush, the second album that she has released this year. Back in May I wrote about Director’s Cut, which presented re-recorded and re-mastered versions of songs from her albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. This time around it is an album of brand new material, the first since Aerial in 2006.
Tag: Bomb The Bass
November 7, 2011
Understated Classics #14: Clear by Bomb The Bass
I think it’s time to discuss your philosophy of drug use as it relates to artistic endeavour…
That quote is from the movie “The Naked Lunch” directed by David Cronenburg (see also this) and it also opens “Bug Powder Dust” by Bomb The Bass, the five star single that opens “Clear”. A rollicking piece of rock rap dripping with pop culture references that runs for four and half minutes and does not stop until another quote from “The Naked Lunch”, it is probably one of my favourite songs of the 90s.
Tag: Disease Modelling
November 3, 2011
Contagion: A Short Review
There was much excitement about Contagion at work. Finally a movie that explains as part of the plot! A bunch of us went to see it, mainly to see whether a disaster movie about a global pandemic could hold up as entertainment and to have a bit of a giggle if it couldn’t.
I liked three things in particular about the film. I liked the cinematography, especially the opening sequences with the index cases staggering around.
Tag: Mark Rowlands
November 2, 2011
Mark Rowlands, The Philosopher And The Wolf
I saw that a friend had ‘liked’ this book on Facebook and reading about it on amazon, I was curious enough to give it a go. It is the autobiography of the philosopher Mark Rowlands, specifically the experiences and lessons learned from raising a wolf, Brenin, from cub to maturity and beyond.
The book addresses different aspects of philosophy including the nature of evil and the interaction between humans and other animals.
Tag: M83
October 31, 2011
Album Digest, October 2011
This month we have albums by Björk, Coldplay, M83, and Radiohead.
Album Digest October 2011 - Intro I listened to Wilco’s The Whole Love again the other day. I happened to be walking past the venue in Portsmouth where I went to see them live back in 2004 and it seemed the right fit. I really enjoyed the album after a period of not having listened to it and I found that being familiar with the songs allowed me to better appreciate the production of the album.
Tag: John Beltran
September 30, 2011
Album Digest, September 2011
Hmmm, a rather grey looking selection of covers this month. The albums I have listened to most are:
John Beltran Ambient Selections FabricLive 59 mixed by Four Tet The Rapture In The Grace Of Your Love Wilco The Whole Love I have actually only had the Wilco album since Monday of this week (the 26th) but it has inveigled its way into my consciousness quite quickly. As I have said before, this blog owes its name to a Wilco song and they are quite an important band to me.
Tag: The Rapture
September 30, 2011
Album Digest, September 2011
Hmmm, a rather grey looking selection of covers this month. The albums I have listened to most are:
John Beltran Ambient Selections FabricLive 59 mixed by Four Tet The Rapture In The Grace Of Your Love Wilco The Whole Love I have actually only had the Wilco album since Monday of this week (the 26th) but it has inveigled its way into my consciousness quite quickly. As I have said before, this blog owes its name to a Wilco song and they are quite an important band to me.
Tag: Dune
September 9, 2011
Frank Herbert, Dune
A week or so ago, I finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert. It tells the story of a revolution within a Galactic Empire that takes place on a harsh and unforgiving desert planet called Arrakis. One central theme is how destinies can be shaped despite being intertwined around many axes. Another is the importance of adaptation in the fight for survival.
I came to Dune via the David Lynch film and then the Sci-Fi Channel’s mini-series, which I was able to stream through LoveFilm.
Tag: Ford and Lopatin
August 31, 2011
Album Digest, August 2011
I bought a collection of electronic music this month. I mixed them all up in a smart playlist on iTunes, the smart aspect being to limit to tracks that had been played fewer than five then six then seven times etc. This made sure I was still listening to all the tracks equally often, despite the randomness.
Biosphere N-plants Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure Gus Gus Arabian Horse Instra:Mental Resolution 653 Jon Tejada Parabolas Biosphere N-Plants I think this album makes Biosphere the most reviewed musician on this blog at the moment but I don’t mind too much, he makes some great stuff.
Tag: Gus Gus
August 31, 2011
Album Digest, August 2011
I bought a collection of electronic music this month. I mixed them all up in a smart playlist on iTunes, the smart aspect being to limit to tracks that had been played fewer than five then six then seven times etc. This made sure I was still listening to all the tracks equally often, despite the randomness.
Biosphere N-plants Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure Gus Gus Arabian Horse Instra:Mental Resolution 653 Jon Tejada Parabolas Biosphere N-Plants I think this album makes Biosphere the most reviewed musician on this blog at the moment but I don’t mind too much, he makes some great stuff.
Tag: Instramental
August 31, 2011
Album Digest, August 2011
I bought a collection of electronic music this month. I mixed them all up in a smart playlist on iTunes, the smart aspect being to limit to tracks that had been played fewer than five then six then seven times etc. This made sure I was still listening to all the tracks equally often, despite the randomness.
Biosphere N-plants Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure Gus Gus Arabian Horse Instra:Mental Resolution 653 Jon Tejada Parabolas Biosphere N-Plants I think this album makes Biosphere the most reviewed musician on this blog at the moment but I don’t mind too much, he makes some great stuff.
Tag: Jon Tajeda
August 31, 2011
Album Digest, August 2011
I bought a collection of electronic music this month. I mixed them all up in a smart playlist on iTunes, the smart aspect being to limit to tracks that had been played fewer than five then six then seven times etc. This made sure I was still listening to all the tracks equally often, despite the randomness.
Biosphere N-plants Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure Gus Gus Arabian Horse Instra:Mental Resolution 653 Jon Tejada Parabolas Biosphere N-Plants I think this album makes Biosphere the most reviewed musician on this blog at the moment but I don’t mind too much, he makes some great stuff.
Tag: Bon Iver
July 31, 2011
Album Digest, July 2011
Quite a mixed bag this month.
SBTRKT SBTRKT Zomby Dedication Brian Eno Drums Between The Bells Bon Iver Bon Iver Washed Out Within and Without This month’s collection of albums is a rather mellow bunch. The SBTRKT album (self-titled) is probably the most frenetic of the five though even that does not exactly pound four to the floor. Most of it is pretty calm, though the occasional burst of pop to spice things up: sometimes it is as downtempo as the rest (Right Thing To Do and Trials Of The Past) but at other times things spark into life, as on Pharaohs.
June 30, 2011
Album Digest, June 2011
I have had the sort of month that is not conducive to listening to much new music. Therefore this month’s post is only going to consider two new albums and two albums that I have bought behind time. Because of various bits of stress and poor mood, I have ended up going back and taking refuge in some old favourites and not listening to new stuff. At other points I have also gone back to the Fleet Foxes’ album that I wrote about last month, which has grown on me even more since.
Tag: SBTRKT
July 31, 2011
Album Digest, July 2011
Quite a mixed bag this month.
SBTRKT SBTRKT Zomby Dedication Brian Eno Drums Between The Bells Bon Iver Bon Iver Washed Out Within and Without This month’s collection of albums is a rather mellow bunch. The SBTRKT album (self-titled) is probably the most frenetic of the five though even that does not exactly pound four to the floor. Most of it is pretty calm, though the occasional burst of pop to spice things up: sometimes it is as downtempo as the rest (Right Thing To Do and Trials Of The Past) but at other times things spark into life, as on Pharaohs.
Tag: Zomby
July 31, 2011
Album Digest, July 2011
Quite a mixed bag this month.
SBTRKT SBTRKT Zomby Dedication Brian Eno Drums Between The Bells Bon Iver Bon Iver Washed Out Within and Without This month’s collection of albums is a rather mellow bunch. The SBTRKT album (self-titled) is probably the most frenetic of the five though even that does not exactly pound four to the floor. Most of it is pretty calm, though the occasional burst of pop to spice things up: sometimes it is as downtempo as the rest (Right Thing To Do and Trials Of The Past) but at other times things spark into life, as on Pharaohs.
Tag: The Jungle Book
July 12, 2011
Why I Love The Jungle Book
Just as with the understated classics I want to set out my stall early on that good movies are good enough. Both Betty Blue and today’s choice The Jungle Book are never going to win any sort of consensus prize for the best movies ever made but they are really good. They also have a personal history attached that makes them worth writing about.
When I was younger both my sisters would be given VHS copies of Disney movies at a rate of about two a year, one for Christmas and one at their birthday.
Tag: Maps
July 2, 2011
Maps And Charts
When I was growing up a framed print of a map hung on the wall in the hallway. It was one of my favourite things, littered with strange latin names and with Vs where Us should have been. The outlines of the continents and countries were all familiar and yet slightly distorted, becoming more recognisable around the shores of western Europe.
I don’t know the provenance of that map print but at some point it got taken to the charity shop and replaced by Van Gogh’s sunflowers.
Tag: Death Cab For Cutie
June 30, 2011
Album Digest, June 2011
I have had the sort of month that is not conducive to listening to much new music. Therefore this month’s post is only going to consider two new albums and two albums that I have bought behind time. Because of various bits of stress and poor mood, I have ended up going back and taking refuge in some old favourites and not listening to new stuff. At other points I have also gone back to the Fleet Foxes’ album that I wrote about last month, which has grown on me even more since.
Tag: Lykke Li
June 30, 2011
Album Digest, June 2011
I have had the sort of month that is not conducive to listening to much new music. Therefore this month’s post is only going to consider two new albums and two albums that I have bought behind time. Because of various bits of stress and poor mood, I have ended up going back and taking refuge in some old favourites and not listening to new stuff. At other points I have also gone back to the Fleet Foxes’ album that I wrote about last month, which has grown on me even more since.
Tag: Forty One
June 22, 2011
Favourite Numbers
What’s your favourite number?
I was ambivalent on this issue until a few months ago until I came across the following quirky result: if you start with the prime number 41 and then add 2 you get 43, which is also prime and then if you add 4 to 43, you get 47: also prime. And this continues to produce prime numbers if you add successive multiples of two to your running total, UNTIL… you get to the 41st number in this sequence, which is 41 squared.
Tag: Primes
June 22, 2011
Favourite Numbers
What’s your favourite number?
I was ambivalent on this issue until a few months ago until I came across the following quirky result: if you start with the prime number 41 and then add 2 you get 43, which is also prime and then if you add 4 to 43, you get 47: also prime. And this continues to produce prime numbers if you add successive multiples of two to your running total, UNTIL… you get to the 41st number in this sequence, which is 41 squared.
Tag: Africa Hitech
May 31, 2011
Album Digest, May 2011
Four albums this month:
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Africa Hitech 93 Million Miles Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues TV On The Radio Nine Types of Light There is a pleasing red hue to all the covers this month. I had time to write four full reviews of the major albums I listened to. Like last month I have included a video at the foot of each review. Enjoy!
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Director’s Cut is not a new album from Kate Bush but a collection of re-visits to old songs, four from The Sensual World (1989) and seven from [The Red Shoes](http://en.
Tag: Fleet Foxes
May 31, 2011
Album Digest, May 2011
Four albums this month:
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Africa Hitech 93 Million Miles Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues TV On The Radio Nine Types of Light There is a pleasing red hue to all the covers this month. I had time to write four full reviews of the major albums I listened to. Like last month I have included a video at the foot of each review. Enjoy!
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Director’s Cut is not a new album from Kate Bush but a collection of re-visits to old songs, four from The Sensual World (1989) and seven from [The Red Shoes](http://en.
Tag: TV On The Radio
May 31, 2011
Album Digest, May 2011
Four albums this month:
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Africa Hitech 93 Million Miles Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues TV On The Radio Nine Types of Light There is a pleasing red hue to all the covers this month. I had time to write four full reviews of the major albums I listened to. Like last month I have included a video at the foot of each review. Enjoy!
Kate Bush Director’s Cut Director’s Cut is not a new album from Kate Bush but a collection of re-visits to old songs, four from The Sensual World (1989) and seven from [The Red Shoes](http://en.
Tag: Jamie Woon
April 30, 2011
Album Digest, April 2011
Album of the month: Mirrorwriting by Jamie Woon Jamie Woon was brought to my attention late last year by Pitchfork who wrote an article about the video for lead single Night Air. I’ve put that video down below because I think that it is very good, a simple well executed and the tune itself is brilliant, probably my favourite individual track of 2010. It’s a downtempo tune full of dark spaces and empty beats, full of nocturnal promise and mystery.
Tag: Katy B
April 30, 2011
Album Digest, April 2011
Album of the month: Mirrorwriting by Jamie Woon Jamie Woon was brought to my attention late last year by Pitchfork who wrote an article about the video for lead single Night Air. I’ve put that video down below because I think that it is very good, a simple well executed and the tune itself is brilliant, probably my favourite individual track of 2010. It’s a downtempo tune full of dark spaces and empty beats, full of nocturnal promise and mystery.
Tag: Young Knives
April 30, 2011
Album Digest, April 2011
Album of the month: Mirrorwriting by Jamie Woon Jamie Woon was brought to my attention late last year by Pitchfork who wrote an article about the video for lead single Night Air. I’ve put that video down below because I think that it is very good, a simple well executed and the tune itself is brilliant, probably my favourite individual track of 2010. It’s a downtempo tune full of dark spaces and empty beats, full of nocturnal promise and mystery.
Tag: Chili Con Carne
April 6, 2011
Why I Love Betty Blue
I saw Betty Blue (original French title 37,2 Le Matin) for the first time in 1996 shortly after having read the book and it remains one of my favourite films to this day. Although there are many obvious reasons why a sixteen year old boy might like it, I think it does stand up to scrutiny beyond the sex and nudity. This post is a brief explanation of some of the obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why this is a film to be loved and cherished.
Tag: Julianna Barwick
March 31, 2011
Album Digest, March 2011
This is not an Album Digest March 2011 Well as I said at the end of last month’s album digest post, I took a bit of a break from pursuing new music quite as closely as I have been. As promised, I sidestepped the new R.E.M. and Elbow albums - although I had been promised the latter as a birthday present it is yet to show up, maybe I will look at in April.
Tag: LCD Soundsystem
March 31, 2011
Album Digest, March 2011
This is not an Album Digest March 2011 Well as I said at the end of last month’s album digest post, I took a bit of a break from pursuing new music quite as closely as I have been. As promised, I sidestepped the new R.E.M. and Elbow albums - although I had been promised the latter as a birthday present it is yet to show up, maybe I will look at in April.
Tag: Nicolas Jaar
March 31, 2011
Album Digest, March 2011
This is not an Album Digest March 2011 Well as I said at the end of last month’s album digest post, I took a bit of a break from pursuing new music quite as closely as I have been. As promised, I sidestepped the new R.E.M. and Elbow albums - although I had been promised the latter as a birthday present it is yet to show up, maybe I will look at in April.
Tag: Ramadanman
March 31, 2011
Album Digest, March 2011
This is not an Album Digest March 2011 Well as I said at the end of last month’s album digest post, I took a bit of a break from pursuing new music quite as closely as I have been. As promised, I sidestepped the new R.E.M. and Elbow albums - although I had been promised the latter as a birthday present it is yet to show up, maybe I will look at in April.
Tag: Salva
March 31, 2011
Album Digest, March 2011
This is not an Album Digest March 2011 Well as I said at the end of last month’s album digest post, I took a bit of a break from pursuing new music quite as closely as I have been. As promised, I sidestepped the new R.E.M. and Elbow albums - although I had been promised the latter as a birthday present it is yet to show up, maybe I will look at in April.
Tag: Yeasayer
March 31, 2011
Album Digest, March 2011
This is not an Album Digest March 2011 Well as I said at the end of last month’s album digest post, I took a bit of a break from pursuing new music quite as closely as I have been. As promised, I sidestepped the new R.E.M. and Elbow albums - although I had been promised the latter as a birthday present it is yet to show up, maybe I will look at in April.
Tag: Cut Copy
February 28, 2011
Album Digest, February 2011
February, the shortest month, harbinger of such delights as Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day. Could it possibly produce any good albums? Well the candidates are the eponymous début album by James Blake, Zonoscope by Cut/Copy, Let England Shake by PJ Harvey and Smart Flesh by The Low Anthem. Furthermore, there was an unexpected bonus when Radiohead announced that their new album would be out and available to listen to this month too.
Tag: P. J. Harvey
February 28, 2011
Album Digest, February 2011
February, the shortest month, harbinger of such delights as Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day. Could it possibly produce any good albums? Well the candidates are the eponymous début album by James Blake, Zonoscope by Cut/Copy, Let England Shake by PJ Harvey and Smart Flesh by The Low Anthem. Furthermore, there was an unexpected bonus when Radiohead announced that their new album would be out and available to listen to this month too.
Tag: The Low Anthem
February 28, 2011
Album Digest, February 2011
February, the shortest month, harbinger of such delights as Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day. Could it possibly produce any good albums? Well the candidates are the eponymous début album by James Blake, Zonoscope by Cut/Copy, Let England Shake by PJ Harvey and Smart Flesh by The Low Anthem. Furthermore, there was an unexpected bonus when Radiohead announced that their new album would be out and available to listen to this month too.
Tag: Exoplanets
February 3, 2011
Out There Somewhere
Hurrah for more exoplanets making the news this week. This time it is a star with a whole bunch of small planets very close to the star, usually they tend to be single gas giants larger even than Jupiter as this list of stars with exoplanets from Wikipedia shows.
But these stars are all so far away! The closest star with an exoplanet found in orbit around it so far is 10 light years away (Epsilon Eridani) and this week’s system was found over 2000 light years away.
Tag: Speculative
February 3, 2011
Out There Somewhere
Hurrah for more exoplanets making the news this week. This time it is a star with a whole bunch of small planets very close to the star, usually they tend to be single gas giants larger even than Jupiter as this list of stars with exoplanets from Wikipedia shows.
But these stars are all so far away! The closest star with an exoplanet found in orbit around it so far is 10 light years away (Epsilon Eridani) and this week’s system was found over 2000 light years away.
Tag: Telescope
February 3, 2011
Out There Somewhere
Hurrah for more exoplanets making the news this week. This time it is a star with a whole bunch of small planets very close to the star, usually they tend to be single gas giants larger even than Jupiter as this list of stars with exoplanets from Wikipedia shows.
But these stars are all so far away! The closest star with an exoplanet found in orbit around it so far is 10 light years away (Epsilon Eridani) and this week’s system was found over 2000 light years away.
Tag: British Sea Power
January 31, 2011
Album Digest, January 2011
Here’s to 2011 and the start of a monthly album digest. I want it to be a brief trot through some of the albums I have listened to each month. Sometimes January can bring a few quiet releases by big name bands. This happens if the previous album did not do as well as the record company hoped or if it is the kind of artist who would get lost under the hype of all the Christmas releases.
Tag: Iron and Wine
January 31, 2011
Album Digest, January 2011
Here’s to 2011 and the start of a monthly album digest. I want it to be a brief trot through some of the albums I have listened to each month. Sometimes January can bring a few quiet releases by big name bands. This happens if the previous album did not do as well as the record company hoped or if it is the kind of artist who would get lost under the hype of all the Christmas releases.
Tag: Joan As Police Woman
January 31, 2011
Album Digest, January 2011
Here’s to 2011 and the start of a monthly album digest. I want it to be a brief trot through some of the albums I have listened to each month. Sometimes January can bring a few quiet releases by big name bands. This happens if the previous album did not do as well as the record company hoped or if it is the kind of artist who would get lost under the hype of all the Christmas releases.
Tag: The Decemberists
January 31, 2011
Album Digest, January 2011
Here’s to 2011 and the start of a monthly album digest. I want it to be a brief trot through some of the albums I have listened to each month. Sometimes January can bring a few quiet releases by big name bands. This happens if the previous album did not do as well as the record company hoped or if it is the kind of artist who would get lost under the hype of all the Christmas releases.
Tag: Tolerance
January 24, 2011
In Defence Of Tolerance
I’ve found twitter to be a bit boring lately but today a perfect storm brew up and once again the Daily Mail and one of its odious columnists was at its centre. Melanie Phillips’ opinion piece was a perfectly constructed piece of trolling that implied that since the repeal of section 28, schools have been flooded with an influx of gay propaganda in subjects like maths, history and geography. Well I’m all for it, Alan Turing was a genius brutally mistreated by his country despite turning the second world war in favour of the allies - that story is maths and history is combined.
Tag: Idlewild
January 9, 2011
Understated Classics #7: 100 Broken Windows by Idlewild
Idewild are a solid band who have released four or five albums that I could consider for this series. I’m even in the sleeve credits of one: Post-Electric Blues, if you’re asking.
In the end I went for 100 Broken Windows because it means a lot to me. It has more of a place in my life than the others. Usually I find that this happens if I can remember where I bought an album.
Tag: Ten
December 28, 2010
Programming an UNO game
A new year, a new hobby I don’t write about programming enough. This is a shame because it is a very interesting subject and I find that the problem solving aspects of programming are very satisfying. Keenly aware of the need to do more hobby programming and to get up to speed on areas of software development that I’ve been neglecting, I have decided to give myself the project of creating a computerised version of the UNO card game.
December 24, 2010
Tales From Home
A question of identity Three letters for Dad in the mail today, three variations on our surname including the aquatic Dory version and the lesser-spotted Dorny. It is perhaps best not to go back to the time he was accidentally listed in the Thompson directory as Mr. Dopey, bringing forth prank calls from all teenagers within a ten mile radius. Fortunately, Dr. Dorey doesn’t have this problem with his mail: he doesn’t get any.
December 3, 2010
Understated Classics #6: Arbor Bona Arbor Mala by The Shamen
Background Ask anyone into pop music between 1991 and 1993 about The Shamen, and you’ll either receive a flood of euphoric good will about excellent tracks like Move Any Mountain, LSI, and Phorever People1; or they will rant at you about the evils of Ebeneezer Goode. The Shamen are either one of the pantheon of great acts from early 90’s dance and electronic music, or they are a shameless vaudeville novelty act.
December 1, 2010
The Setback
Since the run there has been a bit of a hiatus in this blog. I wrote about how running was making me feel better. In fact, I should have said more. I recently stopped taking the antidepressants that I had been taking for eighteen months. This has been my longest period taking such medication but the running made me feel sufficiently good to decide that I could stop taking them.
November 14, 2010
Movember 10K
So, Saturday. Finally. The big day. Would I a) be able to get to Greenwich in time for the registration? and b) be able to make it all the way around the course without collapsing and crying?
Happily the answer to both questions was a resounding “Yes!” and I really enjoyed it. The weather was really good, especially compared to the two days before hand, and Marc came along to take some brilliant photos.
November 8, 2010
Understated Classics #5: A Weekend In The City by Bloc Party
A Weekend In The City: Background This is the youngest album I have chosen for this series. I try to pick albums that are at least ten years old but every now and then, I will think of an album that matches the sort of things I want to write about. That’s the case here. A Weekend in the City is an unusual album that, in a reversal of the old adage, is “easy to love but hard to admire”.
September 26, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Crystal World
Crystallising the world, the body, or the mind? At last, Ballard in full flow. The Crystal World (TCW) is definitely the most enjoyable of the early trio of apocalyptic novels. It takes the successful elements of the first two and embellishes them with new details and ideas. At time of writing, TCW is definitely the best Ballard novel that I have read in its entirety.
The book begins with a steamer travelling up a river in Cameroon carrying the novel’s main protagonist Edward Sanders, a doctor at a hospital for lepers.
September 11, 2010
Understated Classics #4: Substrata by Biosphere
I bought this album in the summer between my two years at college. I remember listening to this music under skies glowering with clouds so 1997 must have been a poor summer. I’d just bought a book of photography too, which placed photos from the north and south poles on opposite pages. I bought it mainly for the penguins that were, of course, on pretty much every other page. The pictures of snow and ice soon became the ideal companions to this album.
September 8, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Drought
The world created by nature versus the world constructed by humans On to The Drought by J. G. Ballard in my ongoing quest to read and review all of his novels. This is his second novel, if we assume his convention of never acknowledging “The Wind From Nowhere” as being his first novel. “The Drought” itself was renamed from “The Burning World” and additional content added later on. This was quite common practice in SF in the 50s and 60s where novels were serialised in magazines like Amazing SF and Interzone.
August 17, 2010
Understated Classics #3: The Circle & The Square by Red Box
When is understated not understated? The trouble with writing a series of articles all themed somehow is that eventually you might find something that sits naturally in the sequence but at the same time goes against the grain a little. Et voila, I give you “The Circle & The Square” by Red Box. An album that hardly anyone has heard containing two top 10 UK singles that probably everyone has heard.
August 14, 2010
J. G. Ballard, The Drowned World
Does Science Fiction have to be believable to be meaningful? Should science fiction have predictive power? In plotting the vast unknowns of the future, should authors aim for prescience? Will people be able to say of the best SF novels in five hundred years time that some novels were right about some things and that these novels are better than the ones that didn’t?
I would say no, otherwise we would be remarkably unfair on an awful lot of good writing.
August 12, 2010
Understated Classics #2: Sinking by The Aloof
I discovered The Aloof while listening to the Top 40 When I was younger, I used to listen to the Top 40 every Sunday. To begin with, this was partly an endurance thing and partly an obsession with one day seeing Roxette top the charts - alas, they never did, though for one thrilling spring “Joyride” did flirt with the upper reaches of the chart.
Listening to the charts is probably the best way to become a lover of music.
August 3, 2010
Understated Classics #1: Together Alone by Crowded House
This week Arcade Fire released their hotly anticipated third album “The Suburbs”. I loved “Neon Bible” but critics found it preachy, as overbearing as the religious folk it sought to satirise. I disagree and think it was an impressive continuation from an exciting debut. “The Suburbs” steps on from their previous two albums, both in subject matter and tone. It’s sad, thoughtful, resigned, angry and tetchy - among other things. “The Suburbs” isn’t the understated classic that I want to discuss though: with all the praise and plaudits, it may never suit this new thread of posts.
August 2, 2010
J. G. Ballard
Reading “Crash” at 17 left me in a state of numb shock. It got me hooked and left me with J. G. Ballard as one of my favourite authors. I then devoured a short story collection called “Myths of the Near Future” around the same time. You may recognise it because the Klaxons appropriated the title for their debut album. Those stories captured my imagination, in particular the eponymous story of a world gone to run amid “space sickness”.
Tag: Birds
December 24, 2010
Tales From Home
A question of identity Three letters for Dad in the mail today, three variations on our surname including the aquatic Dory version and the lesser-spotted Dorny. It is perhaps best not to go back to the time he was accidentally listed in the Thompson directory as Mr. Dopey, bringing forth prank calls from all teenagers within a ten mile radius. Fortunately, Dr. Dorey doesn’t have this problem with his mail: he doesn’t get any.
Tag: The Shamen
December 3, 2010
Understated Classics #6: Arbor Bona Arbor Mala by The Shamen
Background Ask anyone into pop music between 1991 and 1993 about The Shamen, and you’ll either receive a flood of euphoric good will about excellent tracks like Move Any Mountain, LSI, and Phorever People1; or they will rant at you about the evils of Ebeneezer Goode. The Shamen are either one of the pantheon of great acts from early 90’s dance and electronic music, or they are a shameless vaudeville novelty act.
Tag: Running
November 14, 2010
Movember 10K
So, Saturday. Finally. The big day. Would I a) be able to get to Greenwich in time for the registration? and b) be able to make it all the way around the course without collapsing and crying?
Happily the answer to both questions was a resounding “Yes!” and I really enjoyed it. The weather was really good, especially compared to the two days before hand, and Marc came along to take some brilliant photos.
Tag: Bloc Party
November 8, 2010
Understated Classics #5: A Weekend In The City by Bloc Party
A Weekend In The City: Background This is the youngest album I have chosen for this series. I try to pick albums that are at least ten years old but every now and then, I will think of an album that matches the sort of things I want to write about. That’s the case here. A Weekend in the City is an unusual album that, in a reversal of the old adage, is “easy to love but hard to admire”.
Tag: Red Box
August 17, 2010
Understated Classics #3: The Circle & The Square by Red Box
When is understated not understated? The trouble with writing a series of articles all themed somehow is that eventually you might find something that sits naturally in the sequence but at the same time goes against the grain a little. Et voila, I give you “The Circle & The Square” by Red Box. An album that hardly anyone has heard containing two top 10 UK singles that probably everyone has heard.
Tag: The Aloof
August 12, 2010
Understated Classics #2: Sinking by The Aloof
I discovered The Aloof while listening to the Top 40 When I was younger, I used to listen to the Top 40 every Sunday. To begin with, this was partly an endurance thing and partly an obsession with one day seeing Roxette top the charts - alas, they never did, though for one thrilling spring “Joyride” did flirt with the upper reaches of the chart.
Listening to the charts is probably the best way to become a lover of music.
Tag: Crowded House
August 3, 2010
Understated Classics #1: Together Alone by Crowded House
This week Arcade Fire released their hotly anticipated third album “The Suburbs”. I loved “Neon Bible” but critics found it preachy, as overbearing as the religious folk it sought to satirise. I disagree and think it was an impressive continuation from an exciting debut. “The Suburbs” steps on from their previous two albums, both in subject matter and tone. It’s sad, thoughtful, resigned, angry and tetchy - among other things. “The Suburbs” isn’t the understated classic that I want to discuss though: with all the praise and plaudits, it may never suit this new thread of posts.