2. Nirvana - Nevermind
3. Revenge Of Shinobi OST
4. Weezer - The Blue Album
5. Richie Hawtin - Decks EFX 909
PBAP is how this man is known to me, and I'm at the point where I'm not 100% certain I know his actual name. I think it's Padraig. anyways, another streetfighter in our circle of firends who is also a DJ (really? A DJ who plays streetfighter you say?). Must be a common thing. I've not seen Padraig that much at all recently since he moved, so I hope he's keeping well down south. I remember asking him one night late in to August when I said "Jesus Padraig, Rave much?". To which he succinctly replied "YES PLEASE!". That probably sums up all we need to know about this month, and solidifies my feeling that being trapped in a thumping rave fest with black lighting, drugs and thumping subwoofters would be very close to my idea of hell.
Daft Punk - Homework (Da Funk)
Like just about everyone in the known world, I have listened to Discovery, probably the gateway for many in to electronic music.
And whilst I'd heard one or two tracks, I hadn't listened to Homework, the debut by the French electronic duo known around the world.
In the midst of listening to this album, I actually saw the Daft Punk Unchained documentary, which was quite the letdown, but gave some interesting insights to the group in question.
On first listen I thought this album was a little "rave", but it still held my interest for the majority.
It does feel a little disjointed.
In comparison to Discover, where the whole album flows beautifully from one track to the other, this album feels quite disjointed.
Daft Punk have commented that this was more a collection of tracks, and that shows.
It's very interesting however, as by listening to this you can "hear" the bridge from the techno origins of electronic music in to the new melodic sound which Daft Punk is so well known for, it's almost like a history lesson in modern music.
One of my favorite tidbits about it is how when Jean Michel Gondry commented on "Around The World" (which he directed the video for), that the tracks by Daft Punk would take one beat, and repeat to just before the point of which it would be too much, and only then change it.
I guess they are the masters of "dropping the beat", and you can really hear it throughout this album.
Ironically the most important parts of the album are the bits that "miss", and it really highlights the fine line between the catchy chart topper hits Daft Punk have thrown out, and the origins they came from to develop that sound.
I think from the point of view of musical structure, this is actually the best album I've listened to thus far this year.
As Pratchett would say "don't ever confuse simple with stupid"
Nirvana - Nevermind
Whilst massively overrated and over played, I can't honestly say Nirvana are a bad band. This album, whilst not my favorite, is quite listenable and by no means a bad album. There's some nice chunky guitar, and it flows quite well. The influence on modern pop rock is indisputable. I suppose I had more of a problem with the people who listened to Nirvana as opposed to Nirvana themselves. It's not particularly complex, but it's probably in the category of Metallica and the Ramones, pushing a bit of a new sound and inspiring people to get in to music. That said, it's more than a little repetitive. I wouldn't put this on by choice, but if someone else was putting this on as background music I wouldn't feel compelled to leave, or in the case of most of the rest of this list, shoot myself. It's been happily running in the background here for the last few minutes whilst I type this, check Facebook, drink coffee and remark how bloody dark it is now at 1800 in the evening.
Revenge Of Shinobi OST
Jesus, maybe I'm the one who's wrong here. Maybe I'm the only guy this year not taking drugs. There's some decent tracks on here, but listening to this as an album drives me slightly mad. Many would say I'm already far past that slightly stage, but listening to another album of bit tunes is not in any small way helpful to the preserve of whatever infinitesimally small quantity of sanity that somehow hasn't yet escaped my cranium of despair (at bit tunes).
I can't really say anything wrong with this music, there's some interesting licks. But when you listen to that same lick over and over, and then a teeny tiny variant of it over and over, and just when you think you've escaped it's wrath, it's back in the track after next. I really don't think it's fair to include a video game soundtrack in this list by nature of the layout of it, but I'm gonna speak about it as I hear it, without any particular emotional attachment as I've not played the game in the first place. And in that scenario, it does very, very little for me.
Weezer - The Blue Album
What the fuck PBAP, I feel like this is just a joke you're playing on me. I know we were all young once and made mistakes, but this superpop vibe of these hipsters really doesn't do a damn thing for me. I just listen to them rabbit on and on with their few chords, having flashbacks to that Happy Days music video that was on the Windows 95 disc, and politely (or not so politely the article may make it seem) wait for them to stop their monotone vocals and guitar at the end of 45 minutes. Generic pop indie rock of no interest to me really. This just sounds to me like all the crap I imagine hearing on the radio. And the scary thing is, this is probably the cream of what that current category has to offer. There were girls in the gym this week talking about bands like Snowpatrol and Walking In Cars, and whilst this stuff would probably blow those bands out of the water, they wouldn't care for them as they're not on the radio this week.
Richie Hawtin - Decks EFX 909
"Thank god that's over", the words I uttered after the first play through.
This, to me a least, is deep rave territory. I feel like I'm back in the nineties, watching a DivX rip of Blade in front of a gigantic monitor whilst eating a pot noodle. This is probably the first album this year that I could only stick a few sittings, and whilst I wish I could say different, does not seem to be the last. I'm pretty sure I'm in a deep deficit of the drugs required to get through this album. I don't even know what drugs do I need, nor do I want to know.
It's the same approximate beat, ran through a slightly different synth or timing over and over and over and over until I lose all will to live. It has a psychotic amount of tracks and they all make me question my station in life, and why I even would subject myself to this.
Three times was enough, I don't think I ever need to listen to this album again. Fuck this shit again for good measure.
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