Setup Goodbye

I discontinued this blog after one year of activity. As a goodbye, this is my current setup:

• I have used Last.fm, Youtube and Spotify to keep track of music plays, videos and tracks. Songkick is also handy for concerts.
• I own an Apple computer on which I use iTunes to handle MP3 files and other audio sources. Spotify is the only serious competition to iTunes for me.
• On the other end of the setup spectrum, my hardware has not changed much in years: I use an iPod Shuffle and various sets of neckband headphones by Sony and Sennheiser.

See you somewhere else!

Fr.

Änglagård

I started using Last.fm seriously yesterday and it brought me very quickly to an excellent prog rock band from Sweden, Änglagård. Expect mellotron and superb arrangements on their album Epilog.

Stages of techno

I am listening to two lives, both from Carl Cox, both at Tribehouse Neuss in Düsseldorf. The first one is allegedly from the mid-1990s and sounds very much like it: I can hear track sI have already listened to in mixes by Jeff Mills. I can hear acid tracks, and a lot of tracks that are also featured on the F.A.C.T. volumes. The second mix is dated 30th April 2008, and has almost nothing really interesting. It sounds very much like some of that commercial electro crap that you can listen to pretty much everywhere. I have no enthusiasm for that second stage of techno -- I believe the best stuff is now in minimal techno (Ritchie Hawtin) and in hard techno (Chris Liebing, Frank Kvitta). Technasia and their friends (Joris Voorn, Renato Cohen) stay on top of my all-time list.

Isis

A band I do not know, sounds interesting:

Isis_-_Paris
Uploaded by sonik_kaos

Sepultura - Inner Self

Drums Cats

"Dream of Cat" show, Edinburgh Festival, August 2008, truly excellent.

Related videos:



In a different scenery:

In the morning

In the morning, I enjoy some light jazz. Anthony Braxton's "Seven Standards" are extremely appropriate. Here he is, playing Coltrane's "Impressions":

Rvng Prsnts MX5

This is very strange, even for an unofficial release, but I like it.

Remus v. Wittekind

Some of the best hard techno at the moment. Check at 2:20:

Michael Andrews

“Through the Fog”:



The genius who brought you “Mad World”, Donnie Darko soundtrack version (below), also has an album called Hand on String. Simply excellent. Favourite tracks are “Tracings” and “Just a Thought”.

Here's a very different version of “Tracings”, recorded during soundcheck:



And there he covers some Nick Drake:

Best of Plastikman

Ping Pong -- from Closer, 2003
Mind In Rewind
I No
I Don't Know
Aquatik -- from Nostalgik.1, 2004
Consumed -- from Consumed, 1998
Spastik (Dubfire Rework) -- from Nostalgik.3, 2007
Helikopter -- from Sheet One, 1993
Plastique -- from Musik, 1994
Kriket
Plasticine -- from Sheet One

Fripp

Fine, there is a new album by Robert Fripp. Not only Fripp actually:

Thread was created in one improvised sitting, one day in 2007. Fripp, having already guested on one track on Travis' album, Double Talk, joined forces with the saxophonist and flautist best known for his work on the boundaries of Canterbury axis in bands like Gong and Soft Machine Legacy.

I need it! And I still miss the Fripp & Eno from last year.

And the BBC guy is comparing it to Nik Turner, who composed the best industrial rock track ever produced ("Thoth").

Robert Plant

His live at Nashville, TN (dated 06-29-05, whatever that means, probably 29 May 2006) is excellent. Find it.

Black Sabbath, “Paranoid”

One more:

Klaus Schulze

Tonight, I became a real fan of Klaus Schulze.

“Floating”



Klaus Schulze wrote what I consider to be the first real techno track in 1977, on the album Body Love 2. The track is called “Nowhere - Now Here”.

Fight Fire with Fire

A video from March 14th of this year. It's amazing how quickly one can get hold of music video, just by following a few Dailymotion user feeds (I did not even know Metallica was playing there, and I did not look for it in particular).

METALLICA "Fight Fire With Fire" (live)
Uploaded by wastedt

Endless

Aah. Kraftwerk.

Best of Underworld

This track, originally by The Orb and remixed by The Future Academy of Noise, Rhythm and Gardening, is brilliant.

Which makes me think it's time to reveal my best of Underworld tracklist. I have an extremely strong bond to this band. I remember getting the double vinyl of Second Toughest in the Infants (1996), not for "Born Slippy/Nuxx" but for "Juanita," one of my favourite electronic tracks and possibly one of my favourite 10 tracks ever. Underworld will be in Inverness soon but the price is outrageous and the new album less in line with my taste (although it is beautiful).

The selection fits on a CD.

1. Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream Of Love -- from Second Toughest In The Infants, 1996
2. Spoonman - from Dubnobasswithmyheadman, 1994
3. Jumbo -- from Beaucoup Fish, 1999
4. Shudder/King Of Snake -- from Beaucoup Fish
5. Pearls Girl -- from Second Toughest In The Infants
6. Banstyle/Sappys Curry -- from Second Toughest In The Infants
7. Faxed Invitation -- from Oblivion With Bells, 2007
8. Dinosaur Adventure 3D -- from A Hundred Days Off, 2002

Lemmy documentary

Preview video:



"… because he squashed my frog."

Coroner

I do not know this band well, but a full live from 1990 is now online.

Coroner - Absorbed
Uploaded by Raphi490

The same user has some good Exodus.