Sdtrk: ‘Cries and whispers’ by New order

About a week ago, the Missus had to stay in bed, so she could recuperate from a minor tear she somehow received behind her knee. As she was bored — apparently she’s read every book and magazine in the flat several times over — I suggested she occupy herself with something constructive. As Shi-chan pondered the idea for a couple of minutes (and I surreptitiously hid her Hello Kitty vibrator), she snapped her fingers, and asked me to retrieve a box of C90s that were on a shelf in our closet, as well as a pen & notepad, my four-track recorder, and my headphones. ‘I think I’ll finally have a go at mastering those Inorganiksubset tracks,’ she said with a smile. ‘Ah!’ I replied, and wandered off to the livingroom to play some more Warriors Orochi 2.

Back during the mid-Nineties, when she lived in the north of England, Sidore was the bass player and backing vocalist in a band called Inorganiksubset. Well, they were technically a band, but they weren’t pursuing it professionally or anything. The other three members were Sabrina (guitar, samples), Gia (drums), and Emma (lead vocals, synthesisers, rhythm guitar): Sabrina was a friend, Gia was a fellow student from Maitland College of Fine Arts in Leeds, and Emma was Shi-chan’s girlfriend at the time. As they each had a metric ton of effect pedals, they were pretty much a shoegazer group, but they were leaning towards the more discernible-vocals end where Slowdive and Lush reside.
They had fun when playing and whatnot — they even managed to score two successful live performances at a Goth night at their local club — but Inorganiksubset dissolved under the combined pressure of Gia having to return home to Florida, and Sabrina’s increased workload at her office job effectively forcing her to quit. Over the course of nine months, though, they managed to finalise a handful of songs, and committed them to tape. Yes, tape; remember, these were the heady days before .mp3s.

Now, Shi-chan had been holding onto the masters for years, as she just hadn’t gotten round to mixing them down, but her newfound spare time gave her the opportunity to finish the lot up. So she did! She’s signed out with a website called Figment, which caters specifically to music groups like hers, and you can check out the profile she created for Inorganiksubset here, which also showcases their one and only release, ‘Die Sonne im Nebel’. It should go without saying that if you have an account there, she’d love a review from you!

The first time I’d heard those tapes was maybe a year into our relationship. I was really impressed, and I have to say that their sound was familiar, yet like nothing I’d ever heard before. I asked Sidore if she thought that, provided there was a chance the four of them ever got back together, that they’d reform the band; she shook her head resignedly. ‘It’s not like it was an accrimonious split or anything, but the way things are these days, we barely even keep in touch with each other. I’ve really not heard from Gia or Sabrina since the middle of the decade, and it’s been even longer since any of us have heard from Emma.’ She smiled though, pulled her headphones back on, and pressed the Play button. ‘It’s alright, though, cos it’s like these songs trap everything in amber. Now I have a proper soundtrack to my memories’

Sdtrk: ‘Farmland, freeland’ by The Advisory Circle

Yes, another meme (pronounced ‘meh-meh’), courtesy of Veach (pronounced ‘vee-ack’): in no particular order, twenty albums that warped me into the tosser I am today. Ready GO!

+ My bloody valentine Loveless

+ The Human League Dare!

+ The Smiths The Queen is dead

+ New order Power, corruption & lies

+ The Velvet underground and Nico s/t

+ Echo and the Bunnymen Porcupine

+ The Cure Standing on a beach: the singles

+ Joy division Substance

+ David Bowie Changesonebowie

+ Sex pistols Never mind the bollocks

+ Throbbing gristle D.O.A

+ Laibach Macbeth

+ Stereolab Transient random-noise bursts with announcements

+ Broadcast Work and non work

+ Merzbow Great American Nude/Crash for hi-fi

+ NON Easy listening for iron youth

+ the soundtrack to ‘A clockwork orange’

+ The Jesus and Mary chain Psychocandy

+ Pulp Different class

+ France Gall Greatest hits

Granted, my choices for the Cure, Joy division, Bowie, Broadcast, NON, and F.Gall were compilations (o, the shame!), but those were the first releases by those artists that I’d bought, which subsequently hooked me and reeled me in, so I’d consider them to be just as significant in my personal history as the actual albums that the other artists on my list put out. Usually I’m a music snob about compilations — are they albums? No, not really — but I can’t apply that sort of thinking here.

As always, the Marquess of Queensbury Meme Rules apply: I don’t infect people with these, so if you’re keen on it, you’ll have to infect yourself by leaving a comment in the usual area. But then, with the exception of Quentin Crisp, who doesn’t like music?

Sdtrk: ‘Turritopsis’ by To kill a petty bourgeoisie

Links! It’s like likes, it’s like licks. It’s even a bit like lax!
I, ah, don’t know where I was going with that.

+ Having recently popped round the forum on Broadcast’s official site, hoping to find some news of a new album, cos with each release they lose a member, and soon, the band will be reduced to just Trish playing a theremin by herself onstage, there was a thread concerning groups that sound similar to Broadcast. Two bands that struck my fancy: To kill a petty bourgeoisie, which are kind of a more dissonant and soundtracky collision of the Sixties-era BBC Radiophonic Workshop sound with Shoegazer, and The new lines, which is headed by Hewson Chen, formerly of the late-lamented indie-synthpop duo Vitesse. I’ve been playing the hell out of ‘dc1’ and ‘th case fr public organisation’ on their Myspace player. And soon, you will be too! I guarantee it

+ Almost twenty years ago, David Lynch filmed a perfectly normal little television series called ‘Twin Peaks‘ in Snoqualmie Valley, Washington. Recently, some obsessive has undertaken a project to photograph various locations that were used in the series, to show what they look like now. If nothing else, you have to admire his determination

The Double R Diner, then

(Not quite) The Double R Diner, now

+ People with more time and scissor dexterity than myself are rather keen on papercraft, which is a hobby centred round cutting out pre-printed shapes, folding them up, and slotting them together, resulting in all manner of amusing objects. A prime example would be what you can find on cubeecraft. ‘Download, Print, Cut, Fold’ as they say there. They boast a growing array of characters in .pdf form as well, such as Number Six from The Prisoner, or Oh Dae-Su from ‘Oldboy’, or Brock Samson, or the Prince from Katamari Damacy, just to give a few examples. So why not fire up the ol’ dot matrix and assemble a couple of your favourite characters, instead of sitting on the Internet all day… o, wait

+ Have you considered the humble tetrapod lately? Have you??

photo by kana_m

Hit the beach anywhere in Japan, and you are likely to see endless piles of tetrapods — enormous four-legged concrete structures intended to prevent coastal erosion. By some estimates, more than 50% of Japan’s 35,000-kilometer (22,000-mi) coastline has been altered with tetrapods and other forms of concrete. Critics, who blame the tetrapod invasion on decades of excessive government spending designed to bolster the construction industry, argue that in addition to posing a danger to swimmers, surfers and boaters, tetrapods actually accelerate beach erosion by disrupting the natural processes that shape the coastal environment. Meanwhile, others have developed an aesthetic appreciation of the tetrapod landscape, as evidenced by a host of stunning Japanese tetrapod photos on Flickr.
from a post on Pink Tentacle

I’ve always thought tetrapods were cool, but then, I would. Frankly, I’m surprised that there aren’t like significantly scaled-down versions that you could buy to use as home accents or whatnot. Think of it! Toy tetrapods! I’m hoping someone will take that particular ball and run with it

+ For nearly a decade, I’ve always gone on public record as being in love with the city of Toronto, Ontario, and wanting to eventually move there. But lately, I’ve been reconsidering. For instance, with the weather being as polar as it’s been in Michigan, what godforsaken arctic winds would I have to put up with the further north I were to go? So these days, my party line is Bye bye Toronto, Hello Milwaukee! And after viewing this informative video, I’m thinking I won’t be the only one to want to relocate there!

+ Finally, anyone who’s aware of my manias interests knows that I like squirrels. Not as much as cats, and certainly not on the level of one of my ex-coworkers who loved pigs and had about a billion pig-related pieces of ephemera all over her cubicle, but I think squirrels are endearing little critters. To that end, I give you (not literally) a purple squirrel.

STEP ONE: soak squirrel in bucket of grape Kool-Aid

Purple squirrel baffles experts
telegraph.co.uk | 12:38AM GMT 22 Dec 2008

A purple squirrel which appeared at a school has baffled experts who are unable to explain its colour.

Teachers and pupils at Meoncross School in Stubbington, Hants, were amazed when they saw the creature through the window during a lesson.

Since the squirrel, now nicknamed Pete, was first seen, it has become a regular fixture at the school but no one has been able to say whether the animal has fallen into purple paint, had a run-in with some purple dye, or whether there is another explanation.

Dr Mike Edwards, an English teacher, said: “I was sitting in my classroom and looked out the window and saw it sitting on the fence. I had to do a double take.

“Since then it’s been a bit of a regular at the school – everyone’s seen it.

“We thought it might have been paint or something but then when you look at it up close, it’s an all over coat, not in patches like you’d expect if it had been near some paint.

“Its fur actually looks purple all the way through. It’s an absolute mystery.”
the rest of the article is here

Looks a bit Photoshopped to me, but anything’s possible in this day and age, really. *coughthatcatwithtwosetsofearscough*

So you lot can keep yourselves busy with those! I might try to pop off one more post before the end of the year, but I’m going to give upgrading to the latest WordPress a go, so wish me luck that it doesn’t turn out like the last time I tried upgrading without proper adult supervision. Man. *shakes head*
In the meantime, Happy (belated) Festivus, and Happy Holikwanzimasnukkah! Hope it’s enjoyable for you all! And don’t forget that the Doctor Who 2008 Xmas special is on tomorrow, for those of you who have access to that sort of thing. Allons-y!

We won’t forget you, though in violence you go,
As the wheels turned in the theatres below,
An escape from the ends never met,
In apartments with the lives not formed yet

Sdtrk: ‘Polar bear’ by Little claw

(In case it’s slipped your mind, go back and read this post first. Or not! I cannot stop you. At least, not from here.)

Of course, it’s one thing entirely to describe Noise, but if you have no reference points, you might be completely at sea. So I’ve generously uploaded a handful of tracks from Masami’s staggeringly enormous backcatalogue, as a kind of half-assed sampler. Remember, the files will only be up for a limited time, so make with the clicking and saving, like, RIGHT NOW.

‘Nimmappa’, from Aka meme, 1985
‘3 types of industrial pollusion’, from Antimonument, 1991
‘Traveling’, from Metalvelodrome: Exposition of electro-vivisection, 1993
‘Part 1’, from Noisembryo: Psycho-analytic study of coital noise posture, 1994
‘Woodpecker No.1’, from Pulse demon, 1995 (yes, that’s where my Gmail Eddress comes from)
‘Bozzio’, from Springharp: Last of analog sessions, 1999
‘Takemitsu’, from Amlux, 2002
‘Green’, from Merzzow, 2002
clicky here! (90 MB) File has expired, sorry.

CAVEAT: As Merzbow is a Noise artist, you might want to mind the volume level on your speakers. Just sayin’

Sdtrk: ‘Jacqueline’ by Franz Ferdinand

As my friend goshou has been a rabid fanatic of the Guitar hero series ever since its inception, it naturally stood to reason that he would pick up the rhythm game phenomenon known as Rock Band up for his XSLAB 360 upon its release. Shortly after he did so, Zip Gun grabbed a copy as well for his PS3. So usually, our Saturday get-togethers are finished off with a hearty hour or two of banding rocks together.
Our group’s name is ‘AH SALOPE GET OFF ME!!’, the name stemming from a long-standing in-joke within our group of mates*, but usually we rock out on Free Mode, as neither SafeT or I have the game, so we can’t practise our chops at home. We’re prone to switch up instruments, but usually ZG plays guitar or sings, goshou mans guitar or drums, SafeT can be found either singing, drumming, or ah, guitarring, and I usually pick drums or bass, or vocals if it’s one of the songs by the Ramones. Like most of the other bands on the rock server, we’re pretty average; however, it must be said that we’re shockingly good at Bon Jovi’s ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’. We can’t explain it.

The game’s opened my ears to a bunch of songs that I’ve always heard of, but never actually heard, like Foreigner’s ‘Juke box hero’, or ‘Paranoid’ by Black sabbath, or Deep purple’s ‘Highway star’, which for some bizarre reason I actually like. Maybe it’s due to its association with the ‘Diamond is unbreakable‘ story arc of the manga series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

So I was just thinking recently: you know what song is begging to be added to the already-lengthy Rock Band playlist? ‘Sister Ray’, by the Velvet underground.

There would be a big brawl over which take to use. Of course everybody would opt for the takes where they sounded best. It was a tremendous hassle, so on ‘Sister Ray’ which we knew was going to be a major effort we stared at each other and said, ‘This is going to be one take. So whatever you want to do, you better do it now.’
And that explains what is going on in the mix. There is a musical struggle — everyone’s trying to do what he wants to do every second, and nobody’s backing off. I think it’s great the way the organ comes in [John] Cale starts to try and play a solo. He’s totally buried and there’s a sort of surge and then he’s pulling out all the stops until he just rises out of the pack. He was able to get louder than Lou [Reed] and I were. The drums are almost totally drowned out.

— Sterling Morrison, from ‘Up-tight: the Velvet Underground story’

Yeaaah, all seventeen sarky chaotic seedy whirlwind minutes of Sister Ray. And here you thought ‘…and Justice for All’ was an endurance test. Pfft, lightweight

*Do you want to know? Do you really want to know? Click on the comments for additional unneccesary exposition