darthphil.com

Temptation

2009-06-15T19:51:00.004+01:00

Don't need it, probably have most of the music on it, but as someone who owns one or two Japanese import CDs and stupidly limited bits of vinyl I'm finding it really difficult not to preorder. Stunning bit of packaging isn't it?

Weird Coincidence

2009-06-01T12:19:00.002+01:00

Funnily enough I've just finished reading Cat's Cradle so being a proper geek I get this joke.

Synchronicity

2009-05-29T17:06:00.002+01:00

I still want to see Star Trek

2009-05-08T15:12:00.000+01:00

Haven't bought one of these for a while

2009-04-21T12:01:00.003+01:00

A CD! (plus it makes an interesting picture against that background - all gets a bit fractal)

Why I like Black Metal...

2009-04-17T23:57:00.001+01:00

X-actly...

Vinyl Fetishism

2009-04-02T21:22:00.002+01:00

And so it continues...

The above pictures are from Sunn O)))'s vinyl only albun Dømkirke. As live documents go I can begin to understand the good points of releasing these things in vinyl format purely for the fact that the photography and artwork are really given chance to shine. I still don't buy the idea that this can only be listened to via an 'analogue' format.

This is a ridiculously limited companion piece to Larsen's La Fever Lit called LLL. Another live album with really nice artwork - this one seems to have a heavy duty screen print.

Since I am SURE you are aware of Sunn O))) I'm going to post a Larsen tune. This isn't from LLL rather it's big brother La Fever Lit, unlike most of the stuff they do it has vocals so isn't terribly representative, but hey! I like the tune:

mp3: Larsen - LeFrack City Limits

3am music

2009-04-01T01:54:00.004+01:00

This is from the new Fink album (out at the end of May I think). It's a lovely little melancholic number full of half spoken lines and has a slightly... weary but nostalgic feeling to it. Maybe that's just me.

Musically it starts as a fairly simple acoustic number but has this clever trick where it changes style halfway through without you noticing until you're nodding your head, and there is this beautiful little two note piano riff towards the end.

Really nice song, looking forward to the new album.

A new addiction - what could possibly go wrong?

2009-03-24T22:51:00.005Z

Over the last few months, despite the steady stream of sulking, procrastinating and general stagnation, I've been slowly and surely downsizing my CD collection. Part of me is using the 'de-cluttering exercise as a means towards content' as an excuse, although personally I think my subconscious is up to something more serious...

So, what's the first thing to do after clearing up a ton of physical space by digitizing the CDs I may listen to again and selling most of the others?

That's right! I buy a record player and start collecting music on an even more bulky and awkward to store format.

The first fruits of this new obsession can be seen above, let's have a look at them in more detail.

Wolves in the Throne Room - Live at Roadburn 2008

This is a live recording of the excellent 'Black Metal'-esque band (or, as has been pointed out by other more informed sites, due to there pro-environment leanings they could be described as 'Brown Metal'-esque) Wolves in the Throne Room from last years Roadburn festival. Two sides of vinyl and a DVD with some extra music all excellently recorded and well worth tracking down.

Nadja/A Storm of Light - Primitive North

I've mentioned this before and in the flesh it's even nicer to own. Two bits of lovely blood-moon coloured vinyl one of which features a beautiful etching and a CD containing all the music so I can fetishize the vinyl properly by keeping it virginal, pure and unplayed.

Everlovely Lightningheart - Sien Weal Tallion Rue

There are two things I'll never understand about this band: first is why they insist on releasing such limited quantities of their music, and second is what they were doing on a heavy metal label like Hydrahead. Anyway, this is their final album - one of the grand total of 300 produced. I've got the 'purple puke' coloured version, along with a meat-based doily collage, a couple of badges and a bit of cloth with unspecified stain (oh yes!). The music has a very much 'geographical' feel, by that I mean the atmosphere created by the songs definitely puts me in mind of landscapes such as the one pictured in the gatefold. Not that the music is particularly static when invoking talk of geography - there is a definite feeling of traveling associated with each track as the musicians subtly shift melodies and instrumentation. BTW Yes I am aware this sounds like bollocks but I'm not a very eloquent person and wanted to say something more than "it sounds nice".

Since so few people are going to hear this I feel obliged to give you a sample, so from the second disc may I present Yarrow Lophophora...

mp3: Yarrow Lophophora

I'm off now to resist the temptation to spend $200 on a Boris album - wish me luck!

The cloying intimacy of profound sadness

2009-03-20T00:43:00.005Z

Hmm...

Things that I've been listening to today:

2009-03-13T16:51:00.002Z

I think this is the latest release involving Nadja (difficult to say really as the discography is a little bit 'epic' to say the least). Anyway, I've been listening to a copy of the above nadja/A Storm of Light split I *cough* found *cough*and I just needed a way to shout out FUCK ME THIS IS GOOD!!! that didn't involve actual shouting.

If you like your metal to be big, epic, loud, slightly transcendental etc, then you should do yourself a favour and buy a copy. It's available on 2x12" (blood moon or glacier colours *sweet!*) with a copy of the same music on a bundled CD so there is no excuse really - other than the price in these harsh economic times, but what are you going to do?

...

Guess who has purchased a record player so he can start listening to even more of this sort of obscure avante-garde metal? Oh Yes... Yes indeed!

Things that make me happy: The Peggle progress bar

2009-03-12T12:09:00.003Z

The "calculating sparkles" bit especially.

I love my hand cannon

2009-02-27T17:24:00.002Z

...don't make me use it!

Who needs to go to the real world...

2009-02-27T00:32:00.007Z

...to see a beautiful sun rise. And who exactly am I kidding? :-/

Shoshin

2009-02-23T00:58:00.003Z

What you see here is the exact point when music takes on a very much real, very much physical and very much spiritual presence - and all you can do is get down on your knees and praise the gods of the Sunn amplifier, the gods of the speaker stack and the gods of the Les Paul guitar. And you will, and it will be good...

Too much?

OK, tonight I have mainly been watching Sunn0))).

It was very loud...

I bought a t-shirt...

That is all...

Things to do at 4:30am if you're bored and stuck outside Waterloo station...

2009-02-21T23:33:00.005Z

#31.Explore!

Possibly asking for trouble a bit, but if you've missed the train back home and are a bit drunk, having a bit of an explore seems completely reasonable.

I think this tunnel is where Banksy staged an exhibition last year and is still full of really cool graffiti.

Wouldn't mind going back and taking a few more pictures when I'm feeling a little less... unstable.

Delicious Dump

2009-02-16T23:37:00.003Z

I'm going to regret the title to this post...

Anyway, sometimes I wonder if anyone looks at my delicious bookmarks. The link is some what hidden away, except to anyone who looks at my profile on facebook, but does anyone who stumbles across this site look at them? Who knows? Does anyone care? Probably not - but I'm going to stick a few highlights up, they do at least make it look like I'm doing a proper update.

Video: Fever Ray - “When I Grow Up” @ MBV
Really creepy (in a good way) new video from one half of The Knife.

Personal time management software - ManicTime.com
I'm slightly afraid to try this, and at the same time there is sneakily evil part of me that wants to find out exactly how much time I'm wasting at work. I reckon a good 90% ;-)

Spicy Potato Bread
Time to crack out the baking skills.

Microsoft Recite Voice Technology Preview Home
Clever little audio note taking tool for windows mobile, allows you to do an audio search over notes you've recorded. One of the few potentially useful Windows Mobile apps I've found.

Southern Lord Records » sunn 0)))-”Monoliths & Dimensions”
Yay! New doom! And this time with strings... and an upright bass trio? and a Viennese woman’s choir?? Can't wait for the live shows for this one.

Pointui
Another windows mobile tool, replaces the touch flow interface found on my HTC Touch Diamond... and is so much better!

Every Swear Word on Every Episode of the Sopranos, Ever, in Chronological Order. (video) - Boing Boing
I can't watch this till the end - if there is such a thing as too much swearing this is it.

8-bit video game neckties probably won’t pass as formalwear on [technabob]
Don't care if they won't, I want the pong one.

Kinetica Art Fair
Carnivorous art, man-animal-machine hybrids, mechanical drawing machines, subliminal installations, pole dancing robots... I'd like to go to this, but it's over my birthday weekend and I doubt anyone I know will want to go to this.

Mozilla Labs » Blog Archive » Introducing Ubiquity
Excellent idea, it's like an additional command line interface for the internet. I just wonder if it will catch on outside the geek community.

...

Anyway that will do for now.

Shh... you had me at "zen concept of shoshin"

2009-02-05T23:26:00.003Z

From the Southern Lord blog:

SUNN O))) Grimmrobes/Shoshin 22nd February 2009 @ Corsica Studios

With honor, SUNN O))) is announcing one exclusive live performances in the United Kingdom, the first since their phenominal Altar concert at The Kentishtown Forum December 2007, to recognize the 10th anniversary of SUNN O)))’s creation. To coincide with the recording of the first album, The GrimmRobe Demos, SUNN O)) will be playing material from it exclusively. It will be a return to their primal origins, and approach respecting a zen concept of shoshin, the beginner’s mind, the yet undyed pure wool, the clarity in initiation upon the untraveled. The attitude of embodying the basics precisely, point by point, line by line, with an immovable faith in the teaching, experience and of beyond the possibility. Of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when approaching, even with much experience, just as a beginner would upon the initial impetus and thirst to seek the path. And so, with this mindset, they will be approaching these live concerts. Pure, raw, uninhibited invocations featuring O)))s core members: Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson ONLY. No guests, no vocals, no keyboards. We hope you will join us!

Corsica Studios
Unit 5 Farrell Court
Elephant Road
London
SE17 1LB

www.corsicastudios.com
www.last.fm/event/904486

Roll on Sunn0)))day

Wolves in the Throne Room

2009-01-29T12:20:00.002Z

Behold! Wolves In The Throne Room, honestly...

They play by candlelight so its a tad difficult to take a decent picture with a crappy camera phone. Rather good live, apart from the candles they don't mess around with the usual theatrics associated with black metal so no face paint or spiky gauntlets to distract from the music. And speaking of the music I do like the way that the thrashing guitars, furious drumming and screamed vocals somehow blurs into something beautifully sad - not many bands can pull off this trick.

Art Appreciation Lesson 1

2009-01-28T00:07:00.004Z

I don't really get on with paintings, especially old ones. All other forms of art I'm OK with - I love music, a simple chord or a couple of notes on a piano can be enough. I like photography too and have a lot of time for people who have the ability to capture a moment in time successfully. I even like some of the more unpopular forms of modern conceptual art, I like the idea of art which is created because of a new unique idea rather than worrying about skill or technique.

But painting has always left me a bit cold so I've been trying to rectify that with a visit to The National Gallery today.

Can't say it worked. There are too many pictures of Jesus and his cohorts being tortured to death for my liking - don't really care how well these sort of scenes are painted, I just don't enjoy looking at them.

However there are a handful of paintings I can appreciate, thought I'd share them with you:

1. Perseus turning Phineas to Stone by Luca Giordano

Gotta love a bit of Greek Mythology, especially when it involves monsters and people turning into stone. I like the rather silly theatrics involved in this scene, and the stone effect is done very well.

-

2. Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve ('The Ambassadors') by Hans Holbein the Younger

This one is a puzzle and I like puzzles. There are all sorts of objects on the table which are meant to be deeply meaningful but the one thing you can't ignore is the massive distorted skull. There are so many questions about that, why is it there? what does it mean? how did they go about painting it and why hide it in such a weird way?

-

3. An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby

There are some interesting musings on science, religion and magic with this one. Back before we knew about matter at a molecular level no one was really sure what happened in a vacuum. When the vacuum pump was invented and scientists started showing that things such as fire or life couldn't exist in a vacuum it lead to some interesting 'debate' along the lines of 'if there is no life in a vaccum then there is no God in a vacuum'. Of course when the religious lot caught onto this and struck back with the 'but God is omnipresent and must exist everywhere' public displays of this experiment were banned and the scientists had to go undercover so to speak and started showing this in private like a magician doing a private show - hence the painting. Anyway, I like it - I like all of the different expressions on the participants, especially the "fuck you religion! I'm doing science!" look on the face of the man in the red.

-

4. The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her Last Berth to be broken up by Joseph Mallord William Turner

I can relate to the boat... :-/

Best album of 2009 for connoisseurs of doom

2009-01-23T11:58:00.002Z

Actually bandying around words like doom is a complete disservice to this album. It is a masterclass in restraint and tension - the last song is 33 minutes long, it takes about half an hour for the song to start in the traditional sense.

I think it is bloody marvelous. Purchased from the ever reliable Inoxia Records.

Best album of 2009 already?

2009-01-23T00:35:00.003Z

According to certain sources the album of the year has already been released by Animal Collective. I am going to have to agree with Mr Ellis on this one, in small doses its fine but as a whole its just too - nice...

Or maybe I'm too damn miserable to enjoy it? Cool cover though.

Best Albums of 2008

2009-01-20T14:41:00.007Z

2008? Remember that one? Still trying to cling on to it? I certainly am...

Anyway, here is my list of albums/EPs/whatever that were released in 2008 and which are well worth your time in my opinion. This list is culled from my last.fm charts over the last 12 months with some editorialising to make sure certain albums got a special mention

Boris - Smile - Live at Wolf Creek
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
Ascend - Ample Fire Within
Helms Alee - Night Terror
Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Like, Love, Lust & The Open Halls Of The Soul
Jesu - Battle of Mice Split EP
Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
Sunn 0))) - Dømkirke
Nadja - Thaumogenesis + Thaumoradiance

It's been a very noisy year...

Some notes:

This was going to be a much longer post with reasons why each release was included. However, I kept changing my mind and judging by the rate I was writing it would have been around April when I finished.
Boris managed to release Smile 3 times this year, the live version is the best IMHO as they clearly allowed the songs to evolve over time.
Jesse Sykes sneaks in here as I think the CD technically came out in 2007, but the vinyl was released in 2008.
Sigur Rós win the prize for most expensive album I've ever brought (it comes with a very nice book of photos - one of which I'm using as the background on this site)
Sunn 0))) are in the list grudgingly as they refuse to release this album digitally and hence I wasn't able to get a legal version.
I've included nice legal links to places where you can download/purchase these releases. My general rule nowadays for guilt free purchasing is: first choice - emusic, second choice - get it from the band, third choice - get it from the bands label, forth choice - amazon
... or bleep, or conspiracy
Best bet if you want to go down the illegal route is here

Although getting back to graphs about google results, this is pretty funny:

2009-01-19T11:07:00.003Z

...For the love of God do not google that result - unless you are someone I don't like, then make sure safesearch is turned off and go straight to image search.

Actually maybe this is the best graph ever

2009-01-19T11:01:00.003Z

...if you you want to get into the spirit of Blue Monday.