Ashes of memories still aglow

There's not enough Tangerine Dream in YOUR life.

2009-09-21T11:05:36Z

I'll get back to the more exciting news (bought a Nord electro 3) in a short while - i.e. some time between the weekend and tomorrow. But for now, I'd like y'all to have a listen to this most beautiful song (shame about the vid though) :

A political and sociophilosophical quandry.

2009-08-07T22:51:50Z

I'm gonna discuss the most clichéd, hotly debated and - oddly enough - still one of the most unstable political minefields of a topic this side of the Middle East, and has held this distinction since the 1960s.

That's right, I'm taking a stance on abortion.

As Norwegian legislation stands today, the abortion laws are fairly clear: A timeframe of 12 weeks for self-determined abortion. Between 12 and 18 weeks, you have to apply for an abortion, and a bunch of other people - probably medical attorneys - decides if your case is valid. Past 18 weeks? No dice.

Now, there seems to be political forces that are campaigning for an expansion of the self-determination period up to 16-18th week of pregnancy and a removal of the apparatus that pass judgment on the "special" cases in what I call (for the purpose of the debate) the grey area. Which is fair enough in and of itself. The anti-abortion stance will regularly draw on arguments that seems like something out of a Philip K. Dick novel. According to them, if the legislations opens the abortion window further, in particular the window for self-determined abortion, combined with the rapid advances in fetus diagnostics, we will end up in a Gattaca-like society where genetic purity becomes so important that any genetic deviation will be looked at as a disease, or will breed a whole new system of class where people are judged by the potential coded into their DNA.

Am I missing out on something, or do people actually think that pregnant women are going to run en masse towards abortion clinics and do away with their babies if the gene machine says the kid might grow up with a slight lisp and overbite? If so, I need someone to tell these people that they have failed common sense. The issue at hand lies in the word choice. The reason why we even consider abortions in the first place has to do with something so simple as human nature - and this is where it's going to get a little rocky, so bear with me here. Like the genes that say whether or not we have Down's Syndrome or are particularly receptible to ALS or arthritis or whatever, the genes usually have one prime directive hard-coded in the DNA: The genes must go on. Simple, yet effective. But we happen to have some manner of perception, and most nations aren't pre-Ceaucescu Romania - women don't get themselves pregnant and abort for kicks.

Any woman who has gone through pregnancy will most likely testify that no hospital has forced them to test for anything they haven't asked to be tested for, because doctors are by and large as professional as people come. And people who want to have their babies are getting increasingly prepared for it. It's our instinct. But pregnancies happen occasionally when unprepared. And when you find out, you tend to give it some thought. You assess your environment and think things like: "Are we ready to bring a child into this?" "Can we give the child a good upbringing?" "Do we trust ourselves with the responsibility of parenthood?" So I'd say most people know what they're up against when they decide to get pregnant, or to keep the baby. Regardless, the point is that most people who decide to procreate have a tendency of figuring it out perfectly well on their own.

So the inevitable conclusion is that the anti-abortion crowd seems to mollycoddle prospective parents because they see them as vulnerable and ignorant. One out of two, at least - no one is as vulnerable as first-time parents. But even yours truly, someone who is scared witless at the mere thought of parenthood, feels the underestimation of the intelligence of first-time parents to be among the gravest of insults. This error of judgment is probably the root of a misconception on behalf of the anti-abortionists that equates the inherent susceptibility to believe any advice on parenting that looks halfway convincing (a trait rooted in the aforementioned vulnerability) with the ignorance often attributed to first-time parents that buy into all the "revolutionary new techniques for optimally raising your children", something that reminds me of race-supremacy propaganda. Personally, if I ever got into a situation where I had to abandon everything to be a decent father to a child, I'd go with the one thing that I actually can trust in such situations - my instinct.

Back to the issue at hand: People who oppose self-determined abortion tend to bring out the "right to life"-rhetoric we have all heard in various forms, shapes and sizes over the years. Being a self-declared utilitarianist, I'd say the consequences of such a decision are not isolated to the fetus in and of itself. What about the mother? The psychological pressure that follows the realisation that you are bringing a child into the world you cannot care for yourself is a scenario I would like to avoid having to wish upon an enemy. We are instinctively connected to the children we bring into the world, and that's something no one would contest, barring the seriously mentally disturbed. If you have seen (or better yet read) Trainspotting, you most likely remember that a heroin-addicted mother loses her child in cot death due to neglect. Is there more mercy in than as opposed to an abortion? What would little Dawn think, given a chance to see and understand what was happening to her?

No matter what your dystopian speculations tell you, there is little to no chance of our gene pool being distilled. People still have the freedom of choice, and we still have to procreate, and bring our race forward in one way or another. And considering there are still four-five billion people too many for this planet, perhaps we could take a step back and think: "Perhaps the nicest thing to do would be to spare these kids from living in the shadows of the bad choices humanity has made over the years." There seems to be few limits to the potential for asshattery in human beings.

...and John Hughes died yesterday. What's with this summer and dying childhood heroes?

PM in more ways than one

2009-04-18T20:52:03Z

I'm going to tell you about the Ultravox concert once I'm done with obligs and shiet, but first: This link may or may not work for you, but it's supposed to show the Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg on his laptop during the national party meeting thingy.

Apparently, he's twittering.

I am not making this up.

For some reason or other, I had a momentary fit of laughter when I saw the picture. It's like having your parents on Facebook without the mandatory embarassment. And yes, apparently Stoltenberg is on Facebook for real. It's an obvious marketing strategy, but it's so ridiculously out there I'll gladly take a fall for it :D

Of Turkey, Food and Hiroshima (mon Amour...)

2009-02-23T19:18:21Z

Well, after living alone for barely six weeks, my bedsit looks like it's been Blitzed. On my desk is a pizza roller in a stack of three pot-noodle boxes, a cereal bowl - used, empty lager cans (Pilsner Urquell) and soft drink bottles big and small literally everywhere.

But give me a stable 'Net connection and Dali's Car on the record player, and I'm happy as a pig in his own shite.

Otherwise, I've decided to make myself proper food every day this week. Today: Penne Rigate with chicken and tomato sauce. I can has kitshun skillz!

Next week, it's off to Istanbul. EXCITEMENT.

Nemesis Kane

2008-12-16T13:46:24Z

Yep, I'm back, stop the applause, you're embarassing me...

Anyway, for those of you who know me well (or have spent more than 5 minutes in my vicinity), it's not really a surprise that I am a hobby musician/singer-songwriter/producer/engineer. And the most recent fruits of this project is this.

Zoh, there is a link. Clicky-click. And comment! You are my audience, and I live and breathe for feedback.

The Useless, Unnecessary and Utterly hUmourous

2008-09-25T15:41:57Z

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

The existentialist Albert Camus (1913-60) famously claimed that the only real philosophical question was wherther or not life was worth living, a question Metallica raises again and again. Even posing this question sets one apart from the crowd, for it shows that one will not simply assume life has a value. For the existentialists, the idea that the world - that life - has some definitive meaning for all time is merely wishful thinking. If we are honest with ourselves, the existentialists contend, we must acknowledge that the world is absurd: that it exists, and that there is no reason for its existence; that it demands to be understood, but that it cannot be.
To add insult to injury (or perhaps injury to insult?), if we do manage to find some meager meaning in this absurd world, it will be wiped away by our deaths - and death is inevitable. So, here is the absurd in a nutshell: we find ourselves existing in a world we did not ask to be in. We are forced to deal with this world - to attempt to find meaning in it.

BONUS: The end of the paragraph
But ultimately it doesn't matter if we do or do not find meaning. We will die all the same.

An excerpt of the book on my makeshift nightstand: Metallica and Philosophy: A Crash Course in Brain Surgery. Edited by William Irvin, the excerpt (the opening of the second part of an essay on the existentialistic aspect of Metallica) is written by J. Jeremy Wisnewski.

And yes - it was the closest book. The only other object resembling one was the Operation manual for Cubase 4, a 676-page mammoth you could probably kill a mid-sized horse with. And that book doesn't have sentences in it.

OK, even Matt Damon got it right.

2008-09-21T13:47:52Z

Sarah Palin? You hearing this, Mama?

Oh, and New Rule: Just because you live in the middle of nowhere doesn't make you more authentic than me. It just means you have a much longer drive to the airport.

Now, ever since Sarah Palin came along, this election has been falsely framed as a contest between salt-of-the-earth, small-time maverick westerners and snooty eastern elites. You know, there's people who go to church on Sunday, and there's people who go to brunch.

Even fast-talking, cross-dressing Rudy Giuliani - the former mayor of New York City - accused Obama of being too cosmopolitan. That's like being called a douche-bag by Andy Dick.

And...and listen to Mitt Romney from the same convention. He said, "If America really wants change, it's time to look for the sun in the west, because it's about to rise and shine from Arizona and Alaska. Of course, if the sun actually did rise in the west, that would mean the earth is spinning backwards and we'd all fly into space. But, then Mormons were never big on science. As you well know.

But, what Mitt was getting at is that the East Coast is where all the liberals, with their bad ideas, come from. You know, bad ideas like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As opposed to the brilliant ideas that have come out of the west like frontier justice and wearing cowboy boots with a suit.

The ideas this nation was founded on came from the most cosmopolitan people of their day, the founding fathers, who believed in science, who looked to Europe for wisdom, and who had no use for ignorant hicks like Bush and Palin.

Truth is - the truth is, as America moved west and got farther away from its birthing in Boston and Philadelphia, it became less American, not more. We keep hearing about small-town values, you know, like shooting wolves from an airplane or forcing your daughter into a doomed, loveless marriage.

Cities are about diversity of thought. Small towns are about...well, crystal meth. And, last year, police found 42 meth labs in Sarah Palin's home county. Drug addiction is a terrible thing, but apparently it beats living in Wasilla sober.

There's so much meth in this town, I'm surprised the Palins didn't have a kid named "Tweaker."

So, now I know what they mean when they talk about the Alaska spirit. Ah, yes, Alaska, where the townsfolk are jittery and the hockey players screw right through the condoms.

You guessed it - memetiem.

2008-08-14T11:38:09Z

I love these. Nicked from riddled and lotiel_vanya.

Go over to Wikipedia and enter your birth date. Then pick 3 events, 2 births, and 1 holiday that occurred on your birthday.

Events:
1789 - The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.
1793 - After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI of France was executed by the guillotine.
1899 - Opel manufactured its first automobile.
1924 - Vladimir Lenin dies; a lengthy power struggle emerges between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin begins, culminating to the latter's consolidation of power c. 1928.
1925 - Albania declares itself a republic.
1977 - President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to Canada.
2008 - Black Monday in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, European stocks closed with their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%.

Births:
1829 - King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway (d. 1907)
1885 - Umberto Nobile, Italian politician (d. 1978)
1940 - Jack Nicklaus, American golfer
1942 - Edwin Starr, American singer (d. 2003)
1955 - Jeff Koons, American artist
2004 - Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway

Holidays:
Flag Day - Quebec
Wellington Anniversary - New Zealand

As well, I don't really care about the number of facts. My birthday is an official flag day in Norway, though - royal B-day, woo!

I'm an Enemy of the People, and I am proud of it.

2008-08-07T00:15:40Z

Saw Blade Runner: The Final Cut today. The added gore was gratuitous, but they made up for it by being much more clever about the Replicant-Deckard theorem. Still every bit as awesome as ever. George Lucas has a lot to learn about the term "Director's Cut", and Sir Ridley should be schooling him.

On another note, I realised something today.

I have a good life. A fantastic life, in fact. The hills are alive and everything. I live in a ridiculously rich country with public services that works (most of the time), where 99.1% have a roof over their heads, and where my only day-to-day problems are purely personal and relatively insignificant compared to what others have. I live in a nice apartment in Central Oslo with my mum, where I have my own room (or, if you like, a very small office) where I can sleep and stay fairly comfortable in.

Unfortunately, the country I live in is Norway. Where "Mannen i Gata" (The Average Man, henceforth called the People) gets riled up about gas prices like the numbers are gonna jump off the Statoil sign and eat their wallet or something. And so the People goes to vote for the Progress Party. However, the People are forgetting a few things. The People forget that FrP (Progress Party) wants a full-stop of immigration. And if that happens, the Peole will not have anyone to drive them home from his weekend binge (Our drinking culture is based on staying sober five days a week, get shitfaced the following two nights and spend one day in a coma before the circle goes around. I didn't invent it.) and no-one to sell them their fresh fruit and veg.

This is not an anti-FrP rant. It's an anti-"I'm-Norwegian-so-up-yours"-mentality rant. We were off to a nice start in 1905 - fresh out of union with Sweden and just aching to establish ourselves as a nation. Writers and statesmen are heavy on the language debate, Ibsen is a gnat's fart from kicking the bucket, and Hamsun is causing revelry in the literary circuits. And abroad? Well, France had already figured out enough to abolish monarchy, England going for the "If it isn't broke, don't repair it"-mentality, and the Archduke of Austria-Hungary goes off to Yugoslavia to get himself shot. World War I happened elsewhere to us Norwegians. Then, in 1940 (April 9th, to be exact) we get invaded. The government exiles itself in a walkover coup d'etat and Norway is occupied by Nazi-Germany. (Don't even think about Godwin's Law, I'm not even going near the H-words!) 1945, the war is over, happy Wegies all over. Sadly, those who remember the war are mostly keeling over now, crippled and bitter about the state of the nation.

Not helping.

These old fogeys could have re-shaped this country, but no. We are STILL a bunch of navel-gazing, sanctimonious, sociopathic first-class A-holes. Back to FrP: Most people with even a fraction of knowledge of the Norwegian political system knows the established fact that FrP is a political party that is overtly populistic and to a lesser extent brown-nosing the US, at least now that it's under Republican* rule. Therefore, FrP have picked up a few tricks from the big boys, not least the fear-mongering. It's like a political deus ex machina - no matter what you say or do, no matter what sort of dung you could toss at the big fecking fan, if you play on what the People fears, you've got the People by the bollocks.

But why aren't FrP in power already?

Political correctness.

The Norwegian Labour Party gave us a nice fail-safe against that kind of public stupidity, and that is the public consensus that out of line is out of line. Unless you can provide salvation (which FrP cannot) you are just a political farce. But FrP has a mighty hand nowadays, it's quite scary. However, the defence we have against these populists is also the albatross of our nation. The Catch-22 of Norwegian politics reads thus: Political correctness obstructs progress by dictating that democracy is absolute, and the voice of the People is supposedly democracy in action. However, political correctness is also protecting us from the ones who try to obtain power by scare tactics and silly proposals that do more harm than good.

A few things in this country relies on government backing in one form or another. It's not all government control, but rather having the government as a player on the market. I can live with that. However, the People see these matters in absolutes. Some want more, others want less. FrP wants to cut government support to cultural arrangements, claiming that it promotes elitism in culture. As if cutting the spending magically gives everyone the same taste as for what good culture is. Of course there are things that are considered elite, but removing diversity will not help that, on the contrary. To fight fire with fire: Would you like waking up one day and seeing football (that's soccer to you Yanks) on absolutely every single channel on the telly, walking out to see that all the good films are going straight to video and mindless Hollywood nonsense dominates the cinemas, ~~reading the same shite in all the papers~~ (oh wait - we do that already) and seeing concert venues closing all over because the government refuses to support creativity? That's what it boils down to. I know only one person - one single sorry soul - who could live with having Strolling Bo-- ehhh, Rolling Stones in concert as the only speck of "high culture" left in Norway, and that's just because he's a very old fanboy in disguise.

And don't you dare to even think you can be something - unless you're in a job interview. We are a collectivist nation at heart still - the jury's still in on individualism around here. God forbid you should have opinions that don't all correspond with what the news say - which is always irrelevant because none of the important things sell anymore. But don't say that either. Orwell was right, he was just off the mark with about 20-odd years. Make up your own minds, friends. This is evolved democracy - mediocracy (rule of the mass media) in sheep's clothing. I, for one, will do what I can, which is fairly little but to resent, resist and believe. Believing in myself and that I can be something. Remember safety aboard airplanes: Your oxygen mask first, then you can help the others.

I'll end with some quotes.

"The release of atomic power has changed everything except our way of thinking."
- Albert Einstein, 1946

"Life is a four-letter word."
- Lenny Bruce, unsourced

"I'm the guy who thinks religion is bad and drugs are good. I think children aren't innocent, god doesn't write books, and Jesus wasn't a republican. I think girls hate each other, no doesn't mean no and being drunk is funny. I'm for mad cow disease, how am I gonna win that? I'm against suing tobacco companies. I think abstinence is a perversion. I think Bush's lies are worse than Clinton's. I think Vegas was better when it was run by the mob. I think men are only as loyal as their options. I think stereotypes are true and rehab is for quitters."
- Bill Maher, 'Victory Begins At Home' (2004)

"The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us. They say, "Hey, don't worry, don't be afraid ever, because – this is just a ride." And we... kill those people. "Shut him up. We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. Jesus, murdered; Martin Luther King, murdered; Malcolm X, murdered; Gandhi, murdered; John Lennon, murdered; Reagan... wounded. But it doesn't matter, because – it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace."
- Bill Hicks, 'Revelations' (1990s)

A long post, and something of a comeback here. The post is open for discussion if you think I was too off-topic. I'll probably regret this tomorrow anyway.

Vinyl is hot (...as in RECORDS, you pervs!)

2008-06-26T12:42:48Z

I went out with my grandfather yesterday, and paid our usual visits around Oslo. Now, while there, we stopped by this beautiful second-hand music store (Råkk & Rålls) and bought a shitload of vinyl records. Made scoop of the century.

~ Alan Parsons Project - I Robot (Got it on CD, brilliant album.)
~ Alan Parsons Project - Eve (Recommended by a friend of my mum, she was absolutely right.)
~ Alan Parsons Project - Stereotomy (Supposedly Parsons' own favourite at the time. Haven't heard the entire album yet.)
~ Mick Karn - Titiles (Eccentric moody music. Mick Karn used to play bass in Japan, and has a very quirky and melodic style. Check it out.)
~ Saga - Worlds Apart (Of course, all Norwegian prints of this album has the wrong track order. But still, it's a seriously brilliant album!)
~ Saga - Heads or Tales (I know the pun in the title sucks donkey schlong, but it is said to be a fine piece of Canadian 80's prog.)

Aside from this, there was a visit to Platekompaniet in Oslo City (where they have nearly everything) and got four CDs - more APP, Rush, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Art of Noise. Which reminds me, I need to go back to Oslo City to get the Art of Noise CD - the store clerk forgot to put the CD in the cover... >:(

Ooh, memetime!

2008-06-11T13:48:51Z

Nabbed this most awesome meme from riddled. Weee!

You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have:

1. one weapon.
2. one song blasting on the speakers.
3. one famous person to fight alongside you.

Weapon can be real or fictional. Person can be real or fictional.

1. A Desert Eagle .50 with enough ammo should suffice, and still allow me some cool, if we're gonna be realistic about it.

However, since suspension of disbelief allows some leeway, I'd go for a lightsaber. Handbuilt by myself, of course.

2. Ok, this one is very hard for me, but hey: Saga - "Careful Where You Step". There we are.

3. Again, I'll categorise into real and fictional:
REAL: Harrison Ford. The MAN. No question. Seriously, the guy is 66 and STILL does his own stunts? Who else?
FICTIONAL: Since I'm already wielding a lightsaber, it would be nice to know I'm not the only one wielding a fluorescent tube. Obi-Wan Kenobi. As in Episode III.

A project worth considering.

2008-05-24T23:35:25Z

OK, people. I know there are a lot of Star Wars fans, both casual and fanatical, in my flist. So some may commend me while others will try to decapitate me for heresy when I tell you of this idea that I've had buzzing around my head since seeing Ep. III.

There is a general consensus among fans and critics that George Lucas has comitted several acts of douchebaggery during the making of the prequel. In an attempt to explain loose threads and give certain characters a backstory (*cough*Boba Fett*cough*) he really could have left to Expanded Universe canon, he got lost in his own mess. And I think, upon greater reflection, that the "midi-chlorian" concept is an abomination that's so wrong that I'd be willing to forgive the Wachowski brothers for the fallacies that were the Matrices Reloaded and Revolutions in comparison.

So when I uttered in a moment of frustration after finding out that GL has conned his own fandom something along the lines of: "I could have written a better backstory!" I later thought, once the hubris died down, that: "Perhaps it is possible to at least improve the prequels?" And I thought that even though I knew that George has a veto in the SW universe, he could at least have heeded some of the EU continuity?

That said, the concept goes as follows: What did you like and not like, storywise, about the prequel movies? Tell me in a comment to this post, and we can discuss this throughout, and see if there are some things we can agree on. Call it a "fan version" of the prequels.

I liked:
- The way Anakin was turned to the dark side. Although it could have been improved by making him seem less whiny about it, the idea that he went bad for reasons that is rooted in an intention to do good is an appealing concept.
- Palpatine's rise to power and the subtle, yet cunning way he dissolves the Senate by instigating a state of emergency in his bid for power by mobilising the Republic against an enemy and turning the Republic into an autocratic empire. Political powerplay at its scariest and best.
- Christopher Lee. See the dislike list for more on this.

I disliked:
- The obviously hare-brained love story. About as heartfelt as a giftwrapped can of windshield cleaner for Christmas. And isn't the age difference almost eight years in Ep. I, while they barely look a year apart in Ep. II?
- Jar-Jar. The last time I expressed my distaste for the foppish Gungan, I was surrounded by pro-Jar-Jarists. But I will not yield on that front - Jar-Jar was about as necessary to the movies as a fart in a spacesuit. He is made of epic fail.
- Count Dooku. Did Georgie leave the character names to a four-year-old with toilet humour?! And in Ep. III, he's killed off faster than you can say 'plothole'. WTF?
- Jango Fett. I refuse to be fooled by his shiny armour: Beneath that helmet is a dickhead. To all Boba Fett-fans: I'm sorry, but my respect for BF sank like seaborne concrete after Ep. II, and while we're on the subject...
- The clone troopers. No, George. FAIL! EPIC FAIL! The Stormtroopers were ordinary grunts drafted as Imperial cannon fodder, and not cloned super-soldiers. Try to explain why there are no Hispanic Imperial officers, when they were all cloned from Jango Fett! And how can a legion of stormtroopers be easily overpowered by a few ragtag rebels in the original trilogy, and the beta version in the prequels can butcher Jedis? FAIL.
- Having Anakin smegging Skywalker build C-3PO. When you clearly see a protocol droid of the same model as Threepio catering Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan aboard the Trade Federation mothership? FAIL.
- I mentioned the midi-chlorians, right? Can someone teach GL what "suspension of disbelief" means? And in the Star Wars universe, we allow the Jedi to have a working belief system that does not rely on biochemistry for a scientific justification. SCIENCE IS FOR THE TREKKIES, GEORGE!

All in all, we have some mess to clean up here. But we do have a few anchor points to work with for an eventual reconstruction of the storyline.

DISCLAIMER: I do not claim to be a better man than George or anyone else, this is only done as an experiment to see if we could have done it better. By fans, for fans, so to speak.

Answers to Top 25 meme.

2008-03-06T10:22:03Z

Even though I wish people got some more of these right (edaindirith, I'd suspect quite a few would be recognisable, hm?) I decided to post the answers, but under a cut so people can still guess if they want to.

It wasn't too hard, was it?

Tarot

2008-03-04T19:36:51Z

Some friends did this already, so I tagged along...

You are The Hermit

Prudence, Caution, Deliberation.

The Hermit points to all things hidden, such as knowledge and inspiration,hidden enemies. The illumination is from within, and retirement from participation in current events.

The Hermit is a card of introspection, analysis and, well, virginity. You do not desire to socialize; the card indicates, instead, a desire for peace and solitude. You prefer to take the time to think, organize, ruminate, take stock. There may be feelings of frustration and discontent but these feelings eventually lead to enlightenment, illumination, clarity.

The Hermit represents a wise, inspirational person, friend, teacher, therapist. This a person who can shine a light on things that were previously mysterious and confusing.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Which is kinda cool, because the Hermit is seen in some of the promo art for Led Zeppelin's fourth album. Also, it's a bit strange, because I enjoy a little bit of both socialisation and solitude. So this might just be one side of me. But in describing that side, I found it pretty darn accurate. So yeah.

Meme: Top 25

2008-02-25T18:12:09Z

Ok. Found this in riddled's journal, thought it might be hilar.

1. Those of you who use iTunes, post the first line of each song on your 25 Most Played list, no matter how embarrassing
2. Let your friends guess all your "favorite" songs and artists!
3. Strike through and credit the winner as each song is guessed.

Zoh. Some are rather short, so I took the liberty of adding the second line on those as well. Song 26 is there because there are no lyrics in Song 12.

1. Come closer and see, see into the trees...
2. ~~Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while~~ gedrekslegej
3. Native these words seem to me, all speech directed to me
4. So the world goes round and round with all you ever knew
5. When the room is quiet, the daylight almost gone...
6. Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach
7. Voices heard in fields of green
8. Hey little sister, what have you done?
9. ~~I hear the drums echoing tonight...~~ spastic_banana
10. He looked a lot like Che Guevara, drove a diesel van
11. ~~Show me show me show me how you do that trick~~ spastic_banana
12. [Instrumental]
13. A modern day warrior, mean mean stride
14. There was no time for pain, no energy for anger
15. ~~I could escape this feeling with my China girl~~ spastic_banana
16. Boys, now the times are changing, the going could get rough
17. ~~Out on the wiley windy moors we'd roll and fall in green~~ samuelvimes
18. So many things I think about when I look far away
19. ~~They came for him one winter's night, arrested he was bound~~ domiel
20. The words played on around our heads, perhaps we went too far
21. We sit and watch these lifeless forms, stark and petrified
22. Sprawling on the fringes of the city in geometric order
23. A man concieved a moment's answers to the dream
24. Winter cityside, crystal bits of snowflakes all around my head and in the wind
25. The night is black, without a moon
26. We turned the dial, we heard the news and laughed, we don't know why

Just for the heck of it.

2008-01-11T22:42:12Z

My WikiBand project Kunissery (see this page) has just released a new album.

Kunissery - Drell-Yan Process

1. Proximity Card
2. Tunduma [Instrumental]
3. 1604 in Rail Transport
        I. Haddingtonshire
        II. Weikersdorf am Steinfelde
        III. Great Isaac Cay
        IV. Banlieue
        V. House of the Vestals
4. Solar Conjunction
5. Bergen River Dogs
6. VCCR

This time, we went a bit out on a limb with instrumentation and structural experimentation, as opposed to our previous effort, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. Even though JoPD had its fair share of eccentricities (Oliver has a thing for 80's King Crimson and Talking Heads) we never took it so far into the realm of progressive rock as we did here. Truth be told, though - we did very good by it. Also, the addition of guest African session percussionist N'ghatti Feiys (who plays on "Tunduma" and the opening of "1604 in Rail Transport") really did the trick. Otherwise, we're still the same group: me on vocals, piano, Mellotron and synths, Sledge Hammer on flutes, saxophones and spoons, Oliver Klozoff on guitars, banjo and violin, Michael Rotch on bass guitars and Chapman Stick, and Sledge's younger brother Jack on drums. But in addition to the old gang, we've accepted a new full-time member: German technician and sound engineer Ralfheinz Knappenspieler, who brought with him a huge synthesiser integrated with a couple of old Apple computers, a telephone exchange desk and a coffee machine. Welcome aboard, Ralfi.

"Proximity Card" is my ode to the keycard I use at school. Lyrics by me, music by the Hammer brothers and Oliver. The rhythm in the verses circle around the pulse of the alarm emitted from a keycard door that has had its lock left open for too long, and the chorus is an average prog-rock rhythm: 14/8 for 3 bars, then 5/16 for one bar, four bars of 7/8 and then finally two bars of 15/4. Of course, Jack plays in a constant 4/4, like he always does when he actually takes his medicine.
"Tunduma" was a jam that Oliver and Mike made while Sledge and Jack were at the Betty Ford to get out of their addiction to the Jetman application on Facebook. So we recycled the flute track from a ditched number off the JoPD sessions. And since Jack wasn't in, we hired the talented N'ghatti Feiys to play a percussion track on it, for which he used a djembe, a slit drum, a weird African rhythm device that he called a "Gusboli" and which resembled a small dog, and a knife and fork with his dinner plate. The only payment he would accept was a spaghetti and meatballs dinner before the session.
Our lengthy epic track "1604 in Rail Transport" is about a train wreck - and no, I'm not talking about what happened to the band who warmed up for us at Glastonbury last year. Most of the lyrics were made around the shite I managed to distinguish after we sat with a tape recorder for an entire lunch break at Bahnhof Zoo in Berlin. We were all listening to Kraftwerk at the time, and fused elements we picked up there like electronic percussion and motorik beats with Ralfi's surreal and diverse synth techniques. We also made Oliver's guitar sound like a derailed bullet train at the end of the fourth segment, through a special technique which involved a wall of amplifiers, an Airbus A320 engine, two 1958-model transistor radios and about ten microphones placed inside an air hangar.
"Solar Conjuction" was written by Mike when he stole Oliver's guitar and went on a road trip across Utah for a week. He sucks at playing the guitar normally, and an even worse singer. So what we did was that we kept the structure of the song, but remade the vocal melody and had the guitar parts be played with a banjo. Also, we changed the theme so that it was more about astronomy than about Mike's steel lunchbox that gave him a second-degree burn in his right hand after staying in the sun for too long.
The Hammer brothers insisted that we were to make a song about the lacrosse team their cousin's brother-in-law's father's bowling mate's son has signed a four-year contract with. I was a bit skeptical about it, especially considering the team isn't active yet, but unfortunately all the other band members had drunk themselves unconscious on a particularly scary batch of absinth. So I was forced to go with the flow there, and to my eternal dismay, the producer insisted that we used that as a track instead of "Hutena", which now only exists as a double B-side to the Brazilian first pressings of "Fax2Send" from JoPD.
While on tour to support JoPD, I wrote "VCCR" with Jack, Mike and the legendary Japanese vibraphone player Ikugari Kamikaze, who sadly died of asphyxiation from elephant manure in a circus accident. As a tribute to him, we recorded it by using a demo recording to extract the vibraphone parts. If you listen closely at about 4 minutes and 33 seconds in the track, you can hear him strike a wrong note and swear in Japanese, however this requires good hearing or a stereo with an exceptional EQ attached.

So far, Drell-Yan Process - or D-YP as the fans have abbreviated it, is highly anticipated among prog-rock fans, and Amazon.com has already sold off their first batch through pre-orders. Currently, Mike and Oliver are negotiating with our record company concerning advance money for the tour. We'll still be using the same live band that we had at our last tour, but our stage show is going to be upgraded severely. Some French bigwig in the ballet industry is going to choreograph an insanely ambitious dance for ten of our songs, and our pyrotechnics are supplied by the British RAF. Sledge has made a new praying mantis outfit after Mike torched the old one as part of the Budokan show last year, so fans of "Dalmanutha" can rejoice.

Cheerfuller post this time - Meme ahoy

2007-12-13T10:36:17Z

Snagged from teh_king:

This is what you do: Go to the Wikipedia home page and click random article. That is your band's name. Click random article again; that is your album name. Click random article 15 more times; those are the tracks on your album.

Oh yeah. Gonna have a go at GIMP later on today if I have time and make some cover art for this.

Kunissery - Journal of Psychoactive Drugs

1. Fax2Send
2. Ozark Bass
3. Alto Caparaó
4. Roman Catholicism in Nicaragua
5. Direct Proof
6. Roberto Salvatierra
7. Dalmanutha
8. Cimego
BONUS TRACKS (I thinks albums with more than 10 tracks usually are prone to filler)
9. Crook and Ladder (Single release)
10. Ilex Acutidenticulata (B-side on "Fax2Send" single)
11. Roberto Costa (Early home demo version of "Roberto Salvatierra")
12. Bimöhlen (B-side on "Crook and Ladder" single)
13. Malmquist Index (Early home demo version of "Direct Proof")
14. 3-Propylmalate Synthase (Previously unreleased demo)
15. Cause Product (Previously unreleased demo)

Copied from too many to list.

2007-04-13T23:23:33Z

All righty. Ten fandoms, a sentence each. Have a guess:

1. A Scot, two Englishmen and a Canadian - and they still haven't reunited.
~~2. Big red rustbucket containing a slob, an obnoxious hologram and a sapient cat.~~ (riddled )
~~3. Five Englishmen now four and one American in various entertaining absurdities.~~ (samuelvimes )
4. Murders, dwarves, insanely pretty people and damn fine coffee!
~~5. Push button and get sound, turn knob and get new sound, turn another knob and get squelchy sound, find new buttons and knobs to fiddle with, repeat as necessary.~~ (lotiel_vanya )
~~6. Make a new identity and roll the bones.~~ (riddled )
7. Farmhand teenager seeks new life with old geezer, two robots, a walking carpet and a hard-boiled pilot.
~~8. People from all over the world beat each other up - repeat five times with spin-offs and new stuff in the making.~~ (riddled )
9. Kill your brother, be captured by power-mad former elf wizard, then kill him before killing five-six more and then choosing to ascend to godhood or no.
10. British agent/playboy, keeping Her Majesty safe on the big screen since 1962.

Ultravox Part 3: Post-Modern Reverence

2007-04-07T00:35:10Z

After a bit of a break, I thought I should post my review of Quartet, which also appears on Amazon in a slightly different form. For their third effort with Midge Ure and their sixth in total, the lads in Ultravox abandoned Germany and producer Conny Plank in favour of legendary Beatles producer George Martin and his AIR Studios in Montserrat. The results? Read on...

1. Reap the Wild Wind
Following the proud tradition of Astradyne and The Voice from Quartet's predecessors, 'Reap the Wild Wind' is a grandiose track, showing that a Yamaha SS-30 string synth can easily do the job of a symphony orchestra to great effect. Not the best track on the album, but definitely held in high regard in my book. It's a mood lifter, and everybody needs a mood lifter. (If you didn't catch the reference, buy Moving Pictures by Rush and never cease to listen to it until you see the reference.)

2. Serenade
This song serves a good reminder that this is the band behind Rage in Eden. Like the optimistic little brother of 'I Remember (Death in the Afternoon)' from RiE, Serenade never really seems to let go once it's finished. It's the perfect example of a good non-single album cut, following the prime template set by spiritual predecessors on both Vienna and RiE.

3. Mine For Life
If 'Serenade' was the younger brother of 'I Remember', 'Mine for Life' owes a lot to 'Passing Strangers', the second single from Vienna. One can certainly see that Ultravox had good templates from previous tracks, and continued to use them. Not a bad thing at all, since the songs are very different in orchestration, but not in the function of the song. I'm particularily partial to Midge Ure's clockwork guitar playing on this track, including his trademark "back-to-front" harmonic wail. If you see a live clip of this track, you'll understand why that guitar scream is so cool.

4. Hymn
If U2 brought religious overtones to the post-punk genre with 'Gloria', Ultravox brought it to New Wave with 'Hymn'. Taking the soundscapes of 'Reap the Wild Wind' and 'Astradyne' to a new high, 'Hymn' is where Ultravox really lets loose in a pomp-fest which they could never hope to top in a million years, a record they fortunately never really attempted to break. This is the track I have played the most out of the Quartet material, but 'Visions in Blue' is catching up now...

5. Visions in Blue
When I first heard 'Vienna', I believed that they would never make something so profoundly eerie and majestic again. Boy, was I wrong! Hardcore fans may scathe me for ranking 'Visions in Blue' over the uncontested magnum opus of Ure-era Ultravox, but I guess I might have played 'Vienna' to death. The truly heartfelt and tear-jerking vocal delivery exhibited by Midge Ure, placed on top of Billy Currie's delicate piano and brooding synth strings comes at you full force and will haul your heart out of your throat if you are caught unprepared. I still get tears in my eyes whenever I play it.

6. When the Scream Subsides
Here lies a track that shows the new Ultravox at its best. Irresistably catchy, and just a tad lighter than 'Serenade'. A little gem in its own right, and one that shows that Midge is de facto ruler of the band at this point. Billy's solo section on this track is a warning to all guitar players: There is at least one synthesist out there that can and will rip your heads off in a wankery duel.

7. We Came to Dance
Truth be told, I never cared much for this track. There is something about the main hook that repels me, but I cannot place my finger on it. In my opinion, this is a slight flaw in an otherwise well-crafted album. Love Warren's section here, though.

8. Cut and Run
Here, Ultravox has taken the sound from 'When the Scream Subsides' and dimmed the lights a few notches, making the tune slightly sinister with a well-placed hint of nervousness. A sure-fire recipe for a good synthrock track, but it suffers from it not being as cohesive as 'When the Scream Subsides' through a slight hint of the 'Accent on Youth'-syndrome (see my RiE review). Nevertheless, unlike 'Accent...', 'Cut and Run' has more tolerable verses and therefore is a better track.

9. The Song (We Go)
Apart from 'Mine for Life' and 'Hymn', this is by far one of the more concert-friendly tracks on the album. A large burst of optimism to end this exercise in increasing the stadium potetial of Ultravox. This is also where drummer Warren Cann gets to have a little fun - he eschews the normal drumkit for a bunch of electronics. A sequenced hi-hat and a Simmons SDS-V electronic drumkit are his weapons of choice, and he really gets to showcase his abilities with the hexagonal pads here. Watch the live vid from Köln (there is one on YouTube if you search for the title) for a proper display of power.

Overall Rating: 8/10
I'll have to say that the two preceeding albums are superior, but I enjoy listening to Quartet, and I'm quite sure it would be an easy start if you want to know Ultravox. Lament is too far removed from their initial soundscape to be a good start, but here we can clearly hear that it's the same sounds that made the predecessors, just after a thorough polish. This makes for a pleasant listen, and those who worry for the integrity of the band can relax - it's not without its own edge.

Quartet is a classic in its own right, but the shoes are still a few sizes too big to fill. Otherwise a magnificent effort, though...

Ultravox: Part 2 - Dystopian Diaries

2007-03-17T23:45:19Z

The second part of my reviewing is now here. See my previous entry for the Vienna review. Here, we will embark on a journey to review the album I hold in highest regard among the four great Ultravox albums: Rage in Eden.

The Voice:
My relationship with "The Voice" can be credited to the fact that outside a few other hits found on "Hits of the 80's"-styled compilation albums, this was my first real experience with what Ultravox really was. By coincidence, I ran into a German TV recording of Ultravox live in '82-'83, and the first song they played was "The Voice". It had style, it had edge and it had what is arguably one of the most majestic choruses manifested in music. Later on I dug up the music video for the song, and then the lyrics made more sense. The cryptic message in the song refers to how fascism spreads in a dissatisfied population, and the dangers that ensues. Not coincidental, considering we're historically in the middle of one of the darkest times in modern British history: Thatcheristic Britain.
We Stand Alone:
Given the promise of "The Voice", a better follow-up than "We Stand Alone" is impossible to find. Thematically, it's "Passing Strangers" revisited for Rage in Eden, with the same film-noir feeling going on. But if we continue the theme from "The Voice", "We Stand Alone" continues with how the main character runs off with a woman who also sees the fascist government for what it really is. However, the last verse of the song is rather ambiguous, and to date there has been no info on the meaning behind the lyrics. Regardless, "We Stand Alone" is a good showcase for what the album has to offer - a catchy chorus, clockwork instrumentation, and well-written lyrics with a message.
Rage in Eden:
Ah, "Rage in Eden"... The title track, and a crash course in how to decieve the listeners. First, the opening bassline. As soon as the drums enter, at first listen one is led to believe that the riff has made a subtle change, but in reality, the drums have only changed where your inner metronome starts, thereby making you think that the entire structure of the riff skewered slightly. The Minimoog/CR-78 combo Ultravox made famous on "Vienna" is at the center of this song as well, but now in an even more bare and minimalist structure, with only Midge's words and single guitar chords gently circling around them. Then, the chorus. For years, this chorus boggled listeners, making them go: "What language IS that?!" That is, until they played the song backwards. The language was indeed English, but backmasked before it got drenched in reverb. What they actually sang was the chorus from the next song, but as said, they reversed it and placed some heavy reverb on it. A pretty neat trick, adding to the enigmatic feel of the song (Pun intended; this song seems to have laid the template for acts like Enigma.) and sets the standard for Ultravox' title tracks together with "Vienna". Well, apart from Quartet, which has no title track. However, it does have "Visions in Blue", which carries the tradition on, I guess.
I Remember (Death in the Afternoon):
An outstanding number on an outstanding album, "I Remember" has the very same mix of foreboding and catchiness seen in "We Stand Alone", but a new sense of haunting is added to the mix, giving "I Remember some extra spice. The instrumental break is fast-paced and nerve-wrecking, seeing Currie's string synth and piano entwining with Midge's guitar solo, as the moustached Scotsman lets his guitar skills loose in a rare, but not unheard of, moment. (Guitar solos are very rare in Ultravox' songs.) Otherwise, Billy Currie shows why he has been dubbed "the sound of Ultravox"; the piano melodies on this song are exceptional and one of his better moments, bar "Paths and Angels", a B-side that carries Billy's very best piano hook.
The Thin Wall:
Nervous and jittery is a few words I can use to describe the first single released from Rage in Eden. However, there are better songs on the album IMO. Most of them are on Side One, which ended with the previous song. "The Thin Wall" is a song with you either love or feel neutral about. I'm with the neutral crowd. I think it's cool, but it doesn't give me anything anymore. When I first heard it, I was stoked, but once I really dug into the album, "The Thin Wall" started to seem out of place. It stuck out, like singles have a tendency to do. Don't get me wrong, I love this track, but the way it sticks out when played on the album doesn't do it for me.
Stranger Within:
Creepy-time? Yes indeed. For once, they managed to make a creepy song without having to restrain Midge from the microphone. The seven-minute track showcases some of the better stringwork they have done bar "Reap the Wild Wind" (except this one gives you the cold chills), as well as the creepy bridge about halfway through. "Don't fear the stranger within..." ...right.
Accent on Youth:
The verses really tick me off on this song. It's like some kind of frenetic punk, which is very out of character, both in terms of the style of the band as well as the style of the album. The intros to the chori (Chorus in plural, anyone?) and the bridge in the last half definitely pull the song up, though. The paradox is the otherwise appealing theme (which should be obvious in the title) juxtaposed with unusually half-arsed way of performing the verses.
The Ascent:
Now THIS is cool. As said, I was a bit disappointed in "Accent on Youth", but at the end of it they segue the song into "The Ascent", which is basically an instrumental coda where they have taken all of the good stuff from the previous track, added more drum machine at the expense of the live drums, and added a brilliant violin solo. Thank you, Billy Currie! Your efforts alone redeemed the verses of "Accent on Youth".
Your Name (Has Slipped My Mind Again):
This one is just like the title track without any X-factor. This is a song I often skip, but then again, that's me. It's very moody, but it lacks some punch. And the drums: WTF? This must have been at the end of the sessions, where Midge and Billy find out that they are one song short and Warren has gone to get absolutely knackered. In short, the drums can and will piss you off because they exist only as these annoyingly malplaced 'gunshots' that punctuate the song. It would be more powerful without, really.

Overall rating: 10/10
The final album with Conny Plank at the helm, Rage in Eden was originally panned by critics for being too polished and over-produced. These days however, it stands out from their albums as a brilliant concept album, not a concept in Pink Floyd's "The Wall"-fashion, but an album where the primary lyrical theme refers to a dystopic scenario. It was the first Ultravox album I bought (on vinyl, no less) and remains my favourite album to this day. What makes me rate this higher than Vienna, when no less than two songs recieved flak for annoying elements? Simple. The soundscape of Rage in Eden is perfect. Where Vienna is too harsh and cold, and Quartet is too pompous or optimistic, Rage in Eden delivers a perfectly balanced mixture of darkness and cold with pomp and grandeur. Despite being Ultravox' fifth album, it suffers from the "sophomore syndrome": a music disease anyone who pays attention to music will tell you.

Rage in Eden recieved a lot of unjustifiable flak upon release, but to my ears, it's a more mature album than Vienna. The band is more confident here than on the preceding album, but they're not about to let it get to them. Give Rage in Eden a spin, and you will thank me later.

Ultravox: Part 1 - Austria in Wintertime

2007-03-02T18:06:42Z

I thought I should do like I did with The Cure's Dark Trilogy and post a few album reviews. After careful consideration, I chose not to review the B-side tracks. Even though they are often of extremely high quality, they do not really belong to the official album canon. Here's the review of their first album at Chrysalis and the first with Midge Ure at the helm: Vienna.

Astradyne:
There is no better album opener as far as I know. When you are greeted with a 7-minute instrumental with such bombastic synth orchestration, you would most likely hold great expectations for the rest of the album. "Astradyne" manages quite well the task of providing a catchy and majestic opener, with its unmistakeable Yamaha SS-30 string melody and a violin solo that works as the definite demonstration of keyboardist/violinist Billy Currie's skills with the instrument.
New Europeans:
After a larger synth-based number, "New Europeans" catches you off-guard and hurls a set of rapid fuzzed A-minor guitar chords towards you. The rest of the song functions like an anthem for the darker side of the New Wave movement, spearheaded by bands like Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The Cure and of course Ultravox themselves. Relentlessly romanticising a technology-dominated dystopia, the song never loses its tempo or its edge as it marches on until the end, where Currie breaks out in a jazz-like piano frenzy that brings the entire song to a grinding halt.
Private Lives:
Opening with a tired 1940's-styled cocktail-party piano melody, the song drastically breaks into full force with the same riff played on an ARP Odyssey synth, squealing and soaring like only Billy Currie could make it do. The lyrics carries several passing references to fascism, perhaps deliberate hinting towards the similarities between Thatcheristic Britain and the fascism surges of the 30's and 40's. The false ending starting at 2:51 is one of the better of it's kind, on par with the original false ending-song, Roxy Music's "In Every Dream Home A Heartache". The last minute of the song sees the band taking the main riff to new heights, pressing the song to an almost unbearably persistent level. My personal favourite on this album, at times second to "Mr. X".
Passing Strangers:
And just when you thought you'd have a breather after the exhausting ending of "Private Lives", "Passing Strangers" comes along. Another driving guitar number with what is arguably the most memorable chorus on the album, Midge Ure finally gets a chance to show his guitar riffing skills properly in a way he'd never surpass until 1982, when Ultravox made "Mine For Life". The second single to be released from Vienna, "Passing Strangers" is also the single that would describe the entire album best. With the synth coda and effect-laden viola solo, this song captures the spirit of the album perfectly.
Sleepwalk:
"Sleepwalk" was the first single taken from Vienna, a little known fact due to its complete failure at entering the charts. Not necessarily due to it being a bad song, which it's far from being, but perhaps more because it's not spectacular in any way. Besides, it was released with only an appearance at Top of the Pops to market it to the video audience, a terrible choice at a time where a proper music video would have done the song justice. Personally, I don't think "Sleepwalk" was a good choice for a single release. "Mr. X" or "All Stood Still" would have been a lot better.
Mr. X:
Out of all the songs on this album, "Mr. X" is perhaps the song owes the most to Kraftwerk's influence on the band. Rejecting Midge's vocals in favour of drummer Warren Cann's deep and robotic spoken narrative, the song showcases Cann's skills with changing drum machine patterns, most likely on the famous Roland CR-78. Billy Currie should again get his share of credit as the #2-man on this song, showing off his Yamaha CS-80 and proving that this instrument really tailors itself to its user and never sounds the same in the hands of different people (The CS-80 is Vangelis' weapon of choice, and you can hardly hear that here). However, "Mr. X" is Warren Cann's moment in the spotlight, providing the most mysterious track yet in Ultravox's career. Who is the mysterious Mr. X? Former Ultravox frontman John Foxx? David Bowie? No-one knows, except perhaps Warren Cann. And he's not telling.
Western Promise:
As "Mr. X" closes, is slowly segues into a jittery and nervously rapid synth sequence once again sounding like a tribute to the Kraftwerk classic album "Trans-Europe Express". That's where most similarity stops, however. "Western Promise" carries an Eastern-tinged melody that sounds more like Yellow Magic Orchestra on acid than anything else, but the Ultravox sound is still the most evident, i.e. there are very few things that sounds like this. Cann's frenetic drumming on this track is pretty unorthodox compared to his usual style (it's the only song I've heard where he uses a ride cymbal), but he uses this to great effect. Billy Currie again does something interesting: he makes his synthesiser sound like it is choking on a cockroach during the verses and makes it rhythmical as opposed to melodical. The lyrical aspect is perhaps the most interesting here, telling the irony of the Western world's idolising of ancient Eastern culture, when the Western world was largely responsible for the detrimentation of their old traditions. I have no problem with calling "Western Promise" the most experimental track on the album, but then again, I am not taking the title track into account...
Vienna:
If you lived to be musically conscious in 1980, the opening drums of "Vienna" should be instantly recognisable. Hailed as the best song to have been kept from the #1 spot on the British charts (infamously kept from the top by spaghetti novelty Joe Dolce's fad-hit "Shaddap You Face"), the majestic title track from Ultravox's 1980 effort is nothing short of a humongous sign that this band was not like any other band. Before there even was a notion of an industry-standard communication language for all synths, sequencers and drum machines, Warren Cann devised a system for clocking the internal sequencer on his Roland CR-78 drum machine to bass player Chris Cross' Minimoog. Listen closely to the ending coda as the tempo increases - the tempo was actually adjusted by hand in studio, a testament to how important Ultravox really was to the electronic music community. The rest of "Vienna" is a very odd phenomena. The song was almost impossible to dance to, and it wasn't a ballad, but still it was a major hit. Sure, it's a slow-tempo song, but it doesn't seem to be a tale of love, lost or otherwise, and if it is, it's extremely hard to find any traces of it.
All Stood Still:
If you need an up-tempo song to dance to, this is it. Chris Cross gets to show what he can do with his Minimoog, pouring ut a steady stream of eighth-notes in perfect sync with Warren Cann's live, yet mechanically precise drums. The lyrics showcase the classic apocalypse theme, which Ultravox would prove that they were not beyond repeating with 1984's "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes". However, "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" and "All Stood Still" are two very different songs in style. However, if asked which one I'd prefer at the end of the day, I'd choose "All Stood Still" without batting an eyelash. "Dancing..." is a classic and beautiful song, but the closer on Vienna is just a really catchy rocker. Great ending for a great album.

Overall rating: 9/10
Vienna is definitely worthy of the magnum opus-status it has recieved among the fans of Ultravox. Clearly influenced by the German music scene, an influence undoubtably brought in by German producer Conny Plank, Vienna is at times machine-like and cold, but it will also occasionally display a surreal warmth by using analogue string synths and violin as a solo instrument, the best examples being Astradyne and the title track. Personally, I prefer Rage in Eden to this album, but that's me.

This is perhaps where most people say their peak was. You know by now that I think the peak was one album after, but then again, that's me...

Mail - A Picture Story

2007-02-22T22:08:57Z

I opened my mail today and found:

And when I opened it, I found:

And when I tore off the plastic, I found:

This pretty much means it's happy-time.

Wakeman did a funny.

2007-02-15T22:51:27Z

I was watching (on Google Video) a Channel 4 miniseries on synths called "The Shape of Things That Hum", and during the episode on the Minimoog, Rick Wakeman (known for his skills with this particular synth) poses with one and says:

"This is the love of my life... well, not this actual particular one, 'cause it's borrowed. But I've got three that are the love of my life. I used to have nine, but six of them were nicked... *peeks behind the Minimoog, presumably at the serial no.* ...and that ain't one of 'em, unfortunately."

Icon Meme

2007-02-11T11:50:48Z

Reply to this post, and I will tell you my favorite icon of yours. Then post this to your own journal using your own favorite icon.

A very out-of-character moment for David Sylvian, who usually appears as this reclusive and enigmatic frontman of Japan. Here it actually looks like he enjoys his part and looking exceptionally good.

IT'S EFFIN' OUT!

2007-02-01T23:24:49Z

After circulating the rights for almost two years...

It's...

SEASON 2, PART 1 OF TWIN PEAKS!

So my hopes are halfway fulfilled now, and the other half comes out in March-April-ish.

Bloody hell yes!