End of Year list 2010

10. The National - High Violet

Oh, the absolute impossibility of ranking the overload of records I want to include in this top ten! I think I’ve included and excluded this particular album at least twice on a daily basis over the last week. Am I going to include it over records such as Glasser’s excellent debut Ring? Have I heard enough of the brilliant Autre Ne Veut even though I’ve only discovered their self-titled album two weeks ago? What am I missing on Twin Shadow’s album that everyone else seems to be in love with? And then there are bands of the likes of Beach House, Deerhunter, Bathcrones and Islet that I want to at the very least mention, and how can one manage such a thing when you’re only allowed ten entries in this conglomerate of best music in the first year after the noughties ended? 

I’ve managed to see the National perform live no less than three times this year, and only one time did they manage to slightly disappoint me: there had been mentions of Sufjan Stevens appearing as a special guest, but we had to make ado with some guy from Arcade Fire (if you’re not Win Butler himself, you’re ‘some guy’), which given my idolisation of Mr Stevens was an utter disappointment – but more on that particular subject tomorrow. Other than that their shows consisted merely of moments of complete bliss – complimented by someone shouting “The English are waiting” during one of the lengthier moments of contemplation in between songs, though former albums formed the main contribution to this fact. I love High Violet, though someone still ought to clarify that name to me, but it just doesn’t reach the brilliance of Alligator or Boxer. It feels like more of the same – even though even that is very impressive when it originates from a band like this – and I’m craving something new.
Track: The National - England

9. Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP

Yes, I’ve included an EP. But as it is the first ever EP to be released on double vinyl (as in, the thing didn’t fit on the by convention defined one slack of vinyl which managed to hold all EPs up until the moment Sufjan Stevens decided All Delighted People didn’t qualify as an album) I reckon I’ll be granted permission to include it on this list (if not, bite me). And a great EP it is. Just look at the cover! It’s like a ‘Where’s Waldo’ book without Waldo (so far, I’ve located five Sufjans, Leonardo DiCaprio, Aaron or Bryce Dessner – they are far too similar for me to able to tell them apart – an inflatable Santa and the Dalai Lama).

Highlight of the album, sorry: EP, are the two versions of ‘All Delighted People’ which are very loosely based on Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Sound of Silence – and apparently the Apocalypse and existential ennui, whom always make for an interesting combination if I may say so. And of course the fact that it just so happens to come rolling out of Sufjan Stevens’ head only months after admitting in an interview that the whole “I’ll write an album for each and every American State” project might have been a bit overambitious and that he feared he could never write music again. Only to release this beauty and an albumto critical acclaim this year. And though The Age of Adz might be wonderful, it doesn’t measure up to this EP. However, it’s still no Illinois, on which even the song titles were a delightful read.

8. Baths - Cerulean

Seeing Baths live was one of my favourite music-related moments in 2010. I wasn’t even sure whether I should go through the trouble of travelling through half of London (or what qualifies as half of London in my world) in order to be able to see Will Wiesenfeld – a resident of Los Angeles of course – perform his debut UK show in a basement in a venue that goes by the rather appropriate name of ‘Camp’. But hey, I had already bought a ticket and staying home would’ve just be wasteful, now wouldn’t it?

His music rests somewhere between chillwave and dubsteb, two genres which have been exploited by many over the last couple of years for some quick fame, but Baths manages to find some new ground. That, and he is more cute than any baby panda known to the internetz (I may have spent some of my otherwise precious time on lolcats this year, but I balance it out by fervently reading the Guardian’s Science section). I absolutely love it when an artist seems genuinely surprised people even showed up to their show, let alone dance to their music, instead of using the words “thank you” to signify they’ve reached the end of a song. So far, this list had been limited to Dan Boeckner, Alexei Perry and Gareth Campesinos!, but Will Wiesenfeld is a very welcome attribution. Also, the fuzzy animal impression which he uses to introduce ‘Animals’ is not to be missed.

Track: Baths - Plea

7. Wild Nothing - Gemini

When I first listened to this over half a year ago, I wasn’t convinced. The whole thing sounded rather bland and not one song managed to catch my attention and as a result, I didn’t even consider the album for my half year list. When the album did appear on Ilse’s list, I decided to give it another chance, and what do you know: I loved it. The haziness and how everything just blends together sounded perfectly wonderful all of a sudden.

In a live setting they were amazing as well, even though their London date was the last one of a lengthy tour taking them through Europe, making it painfully obvious at times that sleep is an absolute necessity and that Jack Tatum’s voice does not benefit from a lack thereof. He did manage to reach those high notes though, eventually. Other than that, the gig was rather amazing – maybe even more so since they were obviously not at their best. With tracks like ‘Confirmation’ and ‘Drifter’ they certainly did manage to convince me to add another album to my vinyl collection (though admittedly, given the state of my vinyl addiction that doesn’t take much these days).

Track: Wild Nothing - Confirmation

6. LCD Soundsystem - Is this happening?

As one of the albums I was looking forward to most this year, I’m really glad it turned out this well. There were the mishaps by Foals, Mystery Jets, Blonde Redhead (not that Penny Sparkle is an awful album as such, it’s just a bit of a letdown after 23), Yeasayer, MGMT, and I believe Klaxons dared to resurface – and isn’t it just amazing how many of these albums you can find on the NME end of year list? – just to remind us that good albums by fairly established bands shouldn’t be taken for granted. With gems as their self-titled debut and Sound of Silver, James Murphy and friends certainly had something to live up to.

Maybe it’s the hinting of a retreat from music, just as Sufjan Stevens did, that made this record even more unexpectedly brilliant even though it lacks in songs as brilliant as ‘Someone Great’ or ‘Tribulations’. But nevertheless, it is an awesome record, and live it’s even more amazing. I don’t think I stopped moving for more than a second during their two hour gig earlier this year. But hey, they’ve probably got the best line-up anyone could wish for with people like Nancy Wang and Pat Mahoney; even if James Murphy were to recite the phone book (if those things still exist) over a jam session of the band, the entire city of New York would come out to dance.

Track: LCD Soundsystem - You Wanted a Hit

5. Perfume Genius - Learning

I might have been a bit overexcited about this album when I put it on number one half a year ago. I still think it’s absolutely great, it’s just there are about four albums that I think are better, two of which were also kind of around when I attempted to make this list last time round. I think this in itself proves the silliness of these lists: you need some perspective, some time to really appreciate some records and some more distance from others (which brings Editors’ second album – An End Has a Start – to mind, which I found mind-blowing at first and have never listened to since).

Nevertheless, Perfume Genius’ debut album is absolutely excellent. I love the combination of the at times almost hesitant, shy and calm poppy sound of the tracks with the dark, scary content that sounds like it ought to belong in a Xiu Xiu song. There are not an awful lot of people who manage to pull that of successfully. It seems very probable that if it hadn’t been for blogs and the internet, someone operating in such a small and specific niche as Mike Hadreas would not even be able to actually be an artist. Something which showed during his first show in London this year. He’d had next to none experience in performing his tracks live and seemed very insecure at times, and still managed to sell out this venue, solely on the reputation he had build online by recording songs in his bedroom. Pretty extraordinary.

Track: Perfume Genius - Learning

4. Infinite Body - Carve Out the Face of My God

Someone wrote about this album that it’s this day’s classical music, and I couldn’t agree more (and I really should start writing down quotes when I read something I want to use as I couldn’t for the life of me tell you who actually said that). Infinite Body’s music is a sort of ambient Fuck Buttons but with that LA sound that really seemed to catch on this year, resulting in 40% of my end of year list originating from this one city. And when you think about that a bit more, it feels rather weird. How does one city, on the other side of the planet, manage to dominate this year’s album list? According to my flatmate it’s impossible to form a band in London because the city’s too crowded: there are no affordable spaces where you can really practice – meaning without the neighbours calling the police because you’re making noise - resulting in ‘bands’ having to get full time jobs in order to pay for practice space and then not having the time to practice in the now affordable space. The vast open space of the USA seems to be winning on this.

I have used ‘A Fool Persists’ as my ringtone for the better part of the year, which wasn’t a big success as I didn’t really want to pick up my phone on the rare occasion that it actually went off. On the album it works perfectly though. All the songs flow into each other, something which I love as it means you shouldn’t play this album on shuffle. Shorter interludes are alternated between the longer tracks, and while the all tracks feature a drone of noise which strangle reminds me of No Age – or not so strangely as the album has been released on their record label - there is some real beauty in there too.

Track: Infinite Body - Dive

3. Zola Jesus - Stridulum/Stridulum II/Valusia EP

I didn’t really know which release to choose as Zola Jesus has released rather a lot this year. She’s made it even more difficult by releasing her stuff first in the USA, then adding some songs before she released the same stuff in Europe, then figuring that she should also release the new European stuff in the USA but adding some more new stuff and finally releasing the last new USA stuff in Europe as a single. I could just choose Stridulum II as that features most of her stuff and was actually intended to be an album – according to the press release that landed in my inbox at least, Nika Roza Danilova herself seemed to disagree – but then I’d miss out on ‘Poor Animal’. Moreover, I don’t own that record myself, whilst I do own Stridulum and the Valusia EP (and that last one comes in some beautiful packaging).

But hey, let’s talk about the music. I think these releases are bloody brilliant. The songs on Stridulum sound more like her earlier work, but cleaned up, the layers of noise have lifted a bit. ‘Night’ and ‘Manifest Destiny’ are filled with despair, but at the same time there is that glimmer of hope which sounds so amazing when the opera-trained Nika sings it. The tracks on the Valusia EP are more poppy, as if she discovered catchy melodies and figured she could get away with that as well, and oh my God, she can. One of my favourite tracks is ‘Sea Talk’, which also featured in a now almost indistinguishable version on her Tsar Bomba EP. It’s been brushed up from the – sorry for the cliché, but it just really fits here – rough diamond it was to a real gem.

Live she possibly even more impressive. I’ve seen her with a full band crammed on a small stage in New York and on alone on a vast stage in London with nothing more than a laptop. She has enough attitude to make both work, even though she’s obviously absolutely uncomfortable with a whole crowd of people staring at her. With the progress she has made in this year alone I absolutely can’t wait for her new album next year.

Track: Zola Jesus - Manifest Destiny

2. Max Richter - Infra

I guess this is my odd one out this year. The music on this album was originally commissioned by the Royal Ballet as a collaboration between composer Max Richter, choreographer Wayne McGregor and artist Julian Opie (whom you might know from the Blur cover he did a lifetime ago). So surprisingly, I’ve got a ballet as my number two, even though I have never seen a ballet. It is also inspired by T.S. Elliot’s ‘The Wasteland’ and Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’, both of which I have never read or heard. Goodie.

The album isn’t actually the original piece. The original was 25 minutes long and recorded as a BBC documentary in 2008. Since then a lot has been added to the piece to make it suitable for recording as an album. Not that is a studio album in the strictest sense of the word. There are individual tracks, but you can’t really listen to on track on its own. The tracks come together to form one piece of music, and the separate tracks might be viewed as chapters. You could try and read a random chapter, but that would only end up like watching a single episode of Lost: complete gibberish (not that I’m insinuating that particular show would start making sense if you were to put yourself through watching more than one episode, or the entire series for that matter).

On this album, Max Richter combines classical music – when he performed the album this year, he was accompanied by a string quintet – with electronic noises, which I believe is the perfect way to get me listening to classical music. Apart from the fact that it’s absolutely beautiful. For the first half of this year I only listened to classical music when my flatmates were practising their violins and that came with a lot of Hungarian swearing (in which I am now quite proficient), so discovering to this was quite the epiphany. Maybe ballet ought to be up for 2011.

Infra by max richter

1. Former Ghosts - New Love

If my putting this album on number one comes as a surprise, then you obviously haven’t run into me this year. I have been absolutely infatuated with Former Ghosts this year. Last year’s Fleurs ended up pretty high on last year’s list (third place, I keep an excel file) and with the prospect of live performances this year, I was excited. And wow, I wasn’t disappointed at all when I saw Freddy Ruppert perform live for the first time in May this year. He was preceded by Parenthetical Girls who were all kinds of amazing themselves, and I and the rest of the audience just stuck around for Freddy thinking he could never amount to very much after just having seen the best gig of the year. How wrong were we. During his set the sheer display of emotion on Freddy’s side made me feel so uncomfortable that I wasn’t even sure whether to applaud or slap the girls who were drunkenly screaming at him (I now know I should’ve gone for the second option). It was also the first time I heard ‘New Orleans’ and saw a grown man cry on stage. Wow.

It got even better, if ‘better’ is the right word in this case, when I saw him in his home town of Los Angeles. He performed the track ‘Mother’ that night, the night of his dead mom’s birthday, while his father and brother whom both had never seen him perform under the denominator of Former Ghosts were standing right behind me creating the illusion that Freddy Ruppert was looking right at me each time he almost succumbed to tears. It was heartbreaking. Then he finally released New Love and I just so happened to be the first person in the world to find the vinyl waiting for me on my doormat. So through the magic world of Twitter, the first glance Freddy Ruppert got of his own finished album was of a picture I send him of my album (followed by weeks of harassment by people wanting me to upload to thing, so for future reference: no I will not).

The album itself is brilliant. I love each and every track on it, though ‘New Orleans’ and ‘Bare Bones’ are my absolute favourites. The lyrics seem so simple and the emotions so raw, I’d almost wish I’d have a break-up to get through so I’d have a proper reason to put this album on repeat. To be quite honest, this album has made me a little bit afraid to fall in love. The emotions behind lines as “I waited my whole life to find you / But I’m not the one you waited your whole life to find” and “Oh stop my heart from beating / Oh I’m so tired of not sleeping / Oh love, keep it away from me” make me doubt the lines it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

Track: Former Ghosts - Winter's Year (feat. Yasmine Kittles)

Flatmates

As people kept asking me about my flatmates, here's a picture of Nick and Chrissy

IKRS 8 December - double wammy!

Ikrs 8th December by Ikrs on Mixcloud

SUEDE

Oh, the suspense of going to a Suede gig! And the horror when you finally take a look at your ticket that’s been lying around gathering dust for months and realise that you’ve actually booked a seat instead of a ticket in the standing area. Sitting down at the Suede gig you’ve been quite literally waiting for years for, ever since they broke up ages ago (7 years, 1 month and 3 days to be precise, but who’s counting anyway?). Could it get any worse? Well, there is the venue it’s being held at: the O2 area (or millennium dome for anyone who believes that a venue named after a phone company should at the very least provide you with a proper signal). Maybe it’s me, but I feel there is something inherently wrong when a band that appealed to, and sang about weirdoes, creeps and other generally awkward people sells out London’s biggest music venue. But perhaps it’s just in my mind that the whole raison d’être of a band like Suede is affected when people’s main reason to buy a ticket is “a nice evening out”.

Not that above rant disqualifies Suede as a band in any way. After Brett Anderson’s solo career (or a lack thereof), it seems very reasonable that they cash in now. How many bands have preceded them by now? It’s only a few months ago that Pavement took control of Brixton Academy for almost a week and managed to sell out every single night, so why can’t Suede come along for the ride?

But enough on the why’s and how’s, it’s the music that matters, and one of the (very, very few) benefits of having a seat is that it is pre-assigned, allowing one to miss support acts such as Dial M for Murder, whose name is as off putting as David Cameron’s sudden love for the Smiths – and have you read Morrissey’s subsequent rant? “David Peckham”, excuse me while I giggle as a 5-year old. New Young Pony Club’s faith is rather similar, although ‘The Get Go’ remains one of their more brilliant efforts.

Whilst waiting for the main act, the arena fills, ads for Peter Andre and Barry Manilow gigs flash over the screens and the man next to me enthusiastically recounts his last gig experience: a 1999 concert by Suede. He still owns the shirt he bought at that particular gig, but his lifestyle since has condemned it to be used merely as a flag. When the light finally go down, and a dark opening tune starts to play while people around me scurry to their seats (this takes longer than you’d normally expect, considering the age range of the audience) time seems to turn back and the last ten years seem not to have happened at all. Even from the distance I’m at, Brett Anderson can be made out unmistakingly, and another benefit from sitting halfway up the stairs becomes obvious: from this distance it is impossible to make out whether the band have aged as much as their audience.

Music wise, they certainly haven’t. From opener “This Hollywood Life” to the very end everything is performed absolutely flawless (kudos to the tech guy who had to readjust Brett Anderson’s microphone thingy about every five minutes or so). And because it’s Suede, every other song or so makes your hart jumps as they’re playing one of your favourites: ‘Trash’, ‘Filmstar’, ‘Animal Nitrate’ or ‘Everything Will Flow’. Brett Anderson still has the moves and the voice and every high note is reached, while the giant screens mainly show the drummer as he is the most immobile person in the set. When the cameraman finally zooms in on Brett Anderson (and who else would you want to look at?), a choice has to be made: watch the gig on the screen or live as the set up of the venue doesn’t really allow you to do both. While it is great to be able to actually see Brett’s face, it does feel a bit like you’re just watching it happen instead of actually being part of it. But hey, there is a probably a reason why they were already advertising the recordings of this gig before it actually happened.

As you might expect, everyone is on their feet within minutes and dancing like a bunch of overexcited teenagers whose parents have allowed them to go to a gig unchaperoned for the first time ever. ‘Pantomime Horse’ offers a short moment of deliberation and time to reconsider of the more edgy dance moves before the set is off again and the singing along wins it from the dancing - the question remains whether that was an actual improvement. Naturally, there is an encore, which Brett starts with an acoustic rendition of ‘The Living Dead’ – rather appropriate for the occasion in an ever so slightly sarcastic way if I may say so. The Wednesday night ends on ‘Saturday Night’ and the reassurance that this wasn’t their last gig. Which is all I really needed to hear. Next time I’ll be more careful whilst ordering tickets. 

The first decent snow today!

Cat vs Printer

Ikrs 24 November 2010 by Ikrs on Mixcloud

IKRS - Try-out

Show 1 by Ikrs on Mixcloud

Our Radio Try-out! Stopping mid-sentence because you suddenly realise you've pressed the wrong button, remixing stuff live on air because you've got stuff playing out of two channels at the same time and panic because the keyboard stopped working. Next one will be better. Yup.

Elvis on his day off

Amir Shoucri, director of the video: The original concept was to recreate a complete Vegas-era Elvis spectacle. I planned and arranged the production for months -- lights, stagehands, the works -- at great personal cost, both financial and mental. We hired four hundred extras: a 23-piece backing band with vintage instruments, a stadium-sized audience all done up in period haircuts and wardrobe, and a second film crew "shooting" a video within the video -- just for effect. We even rented an outdoor marquee for the establishing shot. The day before the shoot, Freddy changed his mind. He said: "I'm just not feeling it dude." So we fired the entire crew, most of whom have families to support, and made this instead.

Opposites attract

That is what they say, right? It might not be two opposites actually coming together in the case I'm referring to, but they came damn close. I'm talking here about the extravagantly extravert 19-year-old Anja Plaschg, better known as Soap&Skin, and the introvert Mike Hadreas who makes up Perfume Genius. Two performances that couldn't be more enchanting, though different in so many ways.

First up is youngster Anja. She was supposed to have performed in London earlier this year, but her efforts were thwarted by a particular Icelandic volcano. Just the setting, in the wonderful Union Chapel (and an actual chapel for that, with Sunday services and all) is worth the wait. Add to that the chamber music ensemble that lines the part of the stage that isn't taken up by Soap&Skin's grand piano and you've got a rather promising formula for a good night of music. But that is not all, there is also Soap&Skin's personality that makes up a large part of the show. Her voice is something to be jealous at, and she isn't afraid of showing it off. The theatrical tracks from her album Lovetune For Vacuum are blasted into the chapel, both vocally and by her admirable piano skills. At times the chamber music ensemble seem to have the utmost trouble matching her volume. Not that it really matters, they get to chance to shine in some of the more calm songs.

Halfway through there is a moment though, during 'Spiracle'. Soap&Skin sits behind her piano belting out the lyrics when she suddenly appears to have a complete black out. Seconds of silence, retracing her steps on the piano but the words don't seem to come back to her. A minute passes, still there's silence. A bit hesitant she gets up, and walks over to her background singer - a few people applaud encouragingly, but she, almost panicky, signals them to stop. The other singer whispers the words into her ear and shyly Soap&Skin makes her way back to the grand piano, takes a deep breath and sings the rest of the song with such vigour as to make up for a lifetime of mistakes.

Surprisingly, fear and making mistakes seem to be exactly what the song is about, and the breakdown fits rather nicely in the set. At this point you still want to believe in her sincerity, but as the set progresses it gets more and more obvious she is playing a part. Which is absolutely not a bad thing, it even goes rather well with the music. And the fact that I initially was rather hesitant in believing the black out was a set up is a good indication of her acting skills. For someone of her age, it can only be very promising.

The next performance, only 24 hours later, could not be more different. Perfume Genius has been in London earlier this year, for one of his first performances in front of an actual audience. It was sold out weeks in advance, and talked about for even longer. I believe I wrote at that time that it felt a bit like a piano recital, and oh boy, Mike Hadreas has been listening. Whereas his first performance was in an actual music venue, this time he has taken a step back and is performing in a hall that belongs to the English Folk Dance and Song Society which is also infrequently used, you've guessed it, for the recitals of the local music school. And with the plastic seats lined up especially for this occasion and the lack of proper stage lighting it does set the scene for a proper recital this time.

However, there are some signs of improvement since last time. For one thing, Mike Hadreas appears more confident. Not that he is not his shy self, but the presence of an audience seems less like a surprise to him and he dares to interact with them this time, even make jokes. Also, the pan flute on Alan Wyffels's keyboard is tuned down a bit - a big improvement in my humble opinion. Music-wise, the performance has also improved: there are less mistakes, though it's certainly not flawless. But flawlessness wouldn't suit Perfume Genius as the occasional cock up is actually quite charming. The most impressive bit of the evening is when Mike takes place behind the grand piano that is set up just next to the stage. Maybe it's the contrast with the for the occasion installed sound system that results in rather flat keyboard sounds or grand pianos in general, but it sounds absolutely mind blowing. Where Soap&Skin excelled in big and theatrical sounds a day earlier, Perfume Genius manages to impress with simplistic songs that win on content.

A minor flaw is the lack of a back catalogue, which results in Perfume Genius literally performing all his songs and, in the end, a rather similar setlist to that of his show earlier this year. There is still enough there to keep one interested though: the interaction between Alan and Mike, Mike's smile when he gets a song right, and of course the rather brilliant songs itself. There's nothing like a bit of dark storytelling disguised as a pop song.

Anniversary

Today is my one year anniversary of living in London! Hurray for that! And if you've missed me in the time I've been gone, well, than it might please you to know that starting next week I'll be once again hosting a (so far nameless) radio show on Rare.FM with another PhD student whom I have yet to meet. Exciting times!

The show will be on Wednesdays from 5 to 6pm (or 6 to 7pm in CET), and you can tune in through the Rare.FM website - of which the tuning part is about the only feature that's currently working, sadly.

That's my flatmate in the black/weird dress!

Performing a duet with different costumes, and showing a working process: Dotty Ujszászi & Benny Maslov. Choreographed by Hubert Essakow, costume designer Fabrice Serafino.

2012 'lympics

"At least half of the tickets will be priced under £20"

Actual prizes

I'm particularly surprised at the tickets for the cycling road race. Traditionally, that one's free. Also wondering how many people will come up with £2000 to view the opening ceremony, or £450 to see gymnastics, swimming, diving, beach volleyball or athletics. By my count all those events are usually pretty short in duration.
Also surprising: football. The Olympics are in London, but footballers are playing as far away as Glasgow, which is not even in the same country as London. I would have thought London, or even England would have a sufficient amount of excellent football grounds.

They've also made a provisional schedule.

Why Googleing yourself is useful from time to time

I've been awarded a prize!

Banksy

Indian summer

PhD

'The Letter'

Tube strikes

Just to give you an idea of the scale of this. All lines in colour are either suspended or have severe delays - I've marked the one line that does seem to be running with an arrow. The "Special service" means that lines skip random stations (the stations shown in red on the map). They said they were doing better than last time.

Cupcake anyone?

World Exclusive!!

That's my newest vinyl record apparently! Yesterday I surprisingly had Former Ghosts's new album 'New Love' waiting for me when I got home. Surprisingly as a day before it was announced that the album wouldn't be released until 8 November. An even bigger surprise was to learn that even Freddy Ruppert himself (the man behind Former Ghosts) hadn't even seen the vinyl. The first time he actually saw his own album on vinyl was when I send him a picture of it over Twitter. Now isn't that nice? (And the new album is AMAZING)

En de clip van de dag is... *tromgeroffel*

'New Orleans' van Former Ghosts! And I couldn't be more excited. Sinds vlak na het uitkomen van het debuutalbum van Former Ghosts dit nummer opeens standaard werd opgenomen in de live set van de band is dit één van mijn favoriete nummers. En dat nu dus al zo'n 10 maanden terwijl het officieel nog steeds niet uit is: op 9 november verschijnt het op het nieuwe album 'New Love'. Live is het nog beter. In deze versie hoor je het al een beetje, in het refrein, aan het eind van het nummer: "I fell in love in the first place." Die snik. De beide keren dat ik mocht toekijken hoe hij zich door dit nummer worstelde had hij halverwege al moeite de tekst nog uit te spreken zonder schijnbaar zichzelf te verliezen. Na die laatste zin had hij even een moment voor zichzelf nodig voordat hij weer de zaal in durfde te kijken. Nou ja, "zaal in kijken", richting het publiek staan en naar z'n laptop staren (en tapdansen, maar dat moet je zelf maar ontdekken wanneer hij in november in Paradiso staat *hint*). De clip gaat een hele andere richting op dan het nummer, maar de fles Jack Daniels verraadt dat het weldegelijk om een Former Ghosts clip gaat (whiskey is essentieel). Op 1 oktober komt Freddy Ruppert nog met 'Old Love' een gratis mixtape die je van zijn blog kunt downloaden als soort van teaser voor het album. Dat en een clip met hem in een Elvis pak. Dat krijg je van al die whiskey.



‘Laredo’ van Led er est! En een instructie how not to make a video. Gelukkig is de muziek beter. Het nummer featured op het debuutalbum Dust on Commonvan de New Yorkers. Het is warmere versie van cold wave – let’s introduce the term tepid wave – met veel synths en bas. Ik kwam de band naam tegen toen iemand met een shirt van de band voor me stond bij een Gold Panda gig en het de volgende dag opeens bij de nieuwe releases stond op Spotify. A lucky find indeed. Als dit nummer je al aanstaat, moet je zeker de rest van het album eens luisteren, dat is zelfs nog beter (ze schijnen band-shirt waardig te zijn) en klinkt iets minder alsof het op de verkeerde snelheid wordt afgespeeld. ‘Port Isabel’ bijvoorbeeld kan concurreren met de beste tracks van een band als Cold Cave. Nu nog een decent video.



‘Brother’ van The Organ! Een band uit Canada, you just can’t go wrong with that. Okay, Nelly Furtado’s werk is van discutabele aard, maar over het algemeen gaat die regel toch aardig op. Zo ook voor deze all girl band die ook wel the lesbian Smiths genoemd werd – en waarschijnlijk om die reden ook gefeatured werd bij The L Word. Het is een van de bands waarvan ik het echt jammer vind dat ik ze pas heb ‘ontdekt’ nadat ze er alweer mee opgehouden zijn. Ze hebben slechts één album nagelaten, Grab That Gun, maar dat is wat mij betreft dan ook meteen een van de betere albums van the noughties. Met name dankzij die fantastische stem van Katie Sketch, die zich sinds de break up in 2006 richt op haar carrière als model. Daarnaast heeft ze ook nog een restaurant geopenend in Toronto en heeft ze zich inmiddels op een nieuwe band Mermaids genaamd gestort. Misschien is Spencer Krug toch niet zo alleen in het niet kunnen stilzitten.



‘Morning After Pill’ van Meanwhile, Back In Communist Russia...! Het is geen proper clip – het is eigenlijk gewoon een foto – maar gezien er schijnbaar geen enkele clip van de band te vinden is on the entire internet en ik de band toch een keer wilde noemen moet het maar voldoen. Mocht de bandnaam je bekend voorkomen, dan zou dat (behalve als je de band al kent natuurlijk) kunnen komen doordat Los Campesinos! ze noemen in het nummer ‘Don’t Tell Me to Do the Math’. En gezien Gareth Campesinos! me al op het spoor van Zola Jesus, Former Ghosts en Perfume Genius heeft gebracht, dacht ik dat deze referentie ook nader onderzoek waardig was, met als gevolg dat de 10” van Indian Ink vandaag op mijn deurmat belandde (en dat ik nu zijn Last.FM stalk, maar dat feit zullen we maar buiten beschouwing houden gezien hij te veel The-Dream luistert). Helaas bestaat ook deze band - uit Oxford, mocht je afvragen waar het accent vandaan komt - niet meer van de solo-projecten na de break up heeft ook niemand meer iets vernomen.



‘See Spaces’ van TEEEEETH!!!! Ik geloof dat TEETH!!! de geprefereerde spellingswijze is, al is het aantal ‘e’s en het gebruik van Caps lock erg variabel. ‘See Spaces is hun eerste single en een album schijnt al onderweg te zijn. Afgelopen weekend stonden ze op het beste festival dat Engeland kent: Offset. Dat was gedeeltelijk vanwege het bouncy castle (the mummy of all bouncy castles) en vanwege de kleinschaligheid en vijf podia waardoor er geen moment was dat je niet ergens een geweldige band kon zien. T3ETH was daar dus één van, met als hoogtepunt dit nummer dat qua sfeer nogal aan ‘Die Slow’ van HEALTH doet denken (of misschien is het de caps lock). Hoogtepunt van de set dan, het hoogtepunt van T∑∑TH zelf was het slotnummer van de set van Telepathe waarbij de man-van-de-Mac (Macist?) in zijn American Apparel onderbroek op het podium stond te dansen.

Some random pictures

A few weeks ago I went to the London Zoo - they had late night openings throughout August of which this picture best describes the atmosphere.

There were penguins...

...and other very dangerous animals...

...such as these llama's 

Baby giraffe

Siamese giraffe

I also went to Offset festival, which is the best festival ever (East London hipster galore). Note the bouncy castle. 

Last and probably least: the London finish of the Tour of Britain. The finish was in Newark, where they're planning on having the actual Olympic race in 2012. I do hope someone changes their mind. After already having seen the Tour de France, it was pretty pathetic (this is the actual finish line, about half an hour before the finish, it didn't get more crowded). Greipel won the stage, Albasini won the yellow jersey (which was surprisingly white) and Johnny Hookerland won the mountain jersey and the best applause. There were no interesting persons to hand out any of the prizes since they were all attending to the pope (Best pope-UK visit memorabilia I've seen so far: Let Us Spray garden sprinkler)

Evil Eye or cyborg?

Science jokes (sorry)

(Comics from the excellent PhD comic - obligatory literature for any grad student)

Did you hear the one about the statistician? Probably.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

A sodium atom walks into a bar.
After sitting at the bar for a while enjoying his pint, he suddenly starts frantically looking through his pockets.
"What's the matter", says the barman, "have you lost something?"
"Yes", says the sodium atom "I've lost an electron".
"Are you sure?" replies the barman
"Yes, I'm positive."

"Barman, a pint of adenosine triphosphate please"
"Certainly sir. That'll be 80p"
(you need to say that one out loud for it to work)

Did you hear about the molecular biologist who swallowed a beaker full of restriction endonucleases?
He came to a sticky end...

A infectious disease walks into bar.
The bartender says "We don't serve infectious disease in this bar."
The infectious disease says "Well, you're not a very good host."

Two bacteria walk into a bar.
The bartender says "We don't serve bacteria in this bar."
The bacteria says "But we work here! We're staph."

A room temperature superconductor walks into a bar.
The bartender says "We don't serve any superconductors in this bar.
The room temperature superconductor leaves without putting up any resistance.

An infrared photon walks into a bar and says "Is it hot in here, or is it just me?"

A neutrino walks into a bar.
The bartender says "We don't serve neutrinos in this bar."
The neutrino says "Hey, I was just passing through."

The Higgs boson walks into church.
The Priest says "We don't allow Higgs bosons in here"
The Higgs boson says "But without me, how can you have mass?

A statistician walks into just your average bar.
The bartender says "We don't serve statisticians in this bar."
The statistician says "Well, you're just mean."

Some helium gas just drifts into a bar.
The bartender says "We don't serve noble gases in this bar."
The helium didn't react.

There are 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Mathematicians should be integrated into society, but it would mean giving them more powers.

What do you do when you find a dead chemist? Barium

What’s round and growls? – A vicious circle!

What type of bear dissolves in water? A polar bear.

Strikes & Boris Bikes

Chaos is about to ensue in London: the Tube is going on strike. For 24 hours, from 5pm on Monday until Wednesday morning (I do hope part of the strike involves an appeal for better maths classes). The reason is completely legit: due to funding cuts, TFL (Transport for London) wants to cut about half its safety staff, and with a few near-disasters in the last couple of months (e.g. a fire at Oxford Circus, a run-away train on the Northern line) that doesn't seem to be a very good idea.

Where's does that leave the 3 million commuters whose lives depend on this underground maze of trains? Well, we just have to take the bus - which are crowded enough as it is during rush hour, not to mention the fact that your trip can take up to four times as long compared to a journey on the Tube. But mayor Boris Johnson (formerly known a founding member of The Muppets) has a solution: we all have to get on our bikes. Yes, because all London needs at a time when the streets will be filled with extra bus services and an overload of cyclist-hating drivers is more inexperienced cyclists. There are some escorted bike rides, though I guess bunches of cyclist might only add to the problem. His bike suggestion might also includes some more mentioning of 'his' rent-a-bike scheme now known as 'Boris Bikes' (and I say 'his' as it was actually an idea of former mayor Ken Livingston - but Livingston Bikes just isn't catchy).

The strike is subject to some heavy criticism. Safety is of course very important, but by taking out the Tube system, you hit the heart of London. The Tube is as vital to London as ambulance services or fire brigades, making it very hard for Londoners to sympathise with the TFL workers. They feel like Tube workers take advantage of their monopoly position in transporting the city in order to get everything they like (their pay cheques are allegedly pretty high). Further strikes are planned in October and November - YouTube vids of angry Londoners surrounded by transport chaos to follow as soon as someone gets out their iPhone.

This is also very good...

Particularly because they have anticipated on what people are gonna try to type in.

The BEST music video EVER!

If this still qualifies as a music video that is. It isn't really a video and, for me at least, it isn't really about the music. Also, it only works properly in Google Chrome, which has never worked properly for me in the first place, so yeah, awesome job on that.

Nevertheless, even as the stop and go movie I had to watch this as, it is still one of the best things I have seen of late. And that includes Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and penguins (and you know how hard it is to beat penguins). 

So yes, as awful as Google Chrome tends to be, I guess you'll have to try it out to try this out (I nearly cried and not because of my browser):
http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

EDIT - The whole Chrome thing is rubbish, just tried it in Firefox and it works absolutely perfect. And just to give you an idea: this is a still of the video that it came up with for me. That's actually the house I grew up in. Amazing stuff.

Ageless

Another 'secret' gig! Oh, I just love these. At first you're like, "why is everyone getting so excited about this 'Special ageless Guest' at this Upset The Rhythm gig?" Only to start grinning slightly when you finally (it took me at least a day) crack this immensely Beautiful Mind-level-code-breaking-knowledge-requiring-code and know that is actually LA homies No Age - No Age, ageless, get it? -  who are playing. And because it is supposed to be secret, and they don't want everyone to catch on, the show's really cheap as well! What more could you want? Okay, a pony or world peace maybe, but let's be realistic, shall we?

Support is provided by Tqqundo frrrr, or whatever you get when you randomly slam your hands on the keyboard. The project is a solo venture by 18 year old Felix Lee, and is... interesting... So it's not my thing: he's just a bit too pretentious for my taste, with the pictures of African statues, the black cape and church bell he uses to create loops. No, definitely not my thing. SAUNA YOUTH I like though. They're a punk band, as simple as that. If they did the old 1-2-3 before each song they'd be the Ramones all over again. As soon as they start to play the singer disappears into the audience, only to emerge between songs to show that there is an actual person doing the singing and that it's not just a tape. They rather literally bring the house down with their final tracks when the crowd surfing singer's foot gets caught on some wires running along the ceiling. Difference with the 'real' punk era is that in this case the loose wires are neatly tied to the ones remaining on the ceiling by someone in the crowd. How very courteous.

I have seen No Age 1,5 before - the half time being at the Lowlands festival, when Franz Ferdinand ran past while I was getting drinks and no one warned about this fact until they had found their way to the front of the crowd (ah, the fond memories!) - and when I was in LA, I took the obligatory picture of the back of the Smell which features on the cover art of their collection of EPs known as Weirdo Rippers. I guess that place is starting to become the Abbey Road for hipsters (not just because of No Age, but of all the amazing bands that emerge from The Smell). So in all you could say I'm a bit of a fan.

As their second album is coming up, No Age bring a mix of old and new, and geez, I'm really looking forward to that new album now. The new tracks neatly fit in with the stuff from Nouns, but may be just a bit more melodic, if you can discern any melodies underneath the layers of noise that is. All the songs you'd want to be there, are on the set list: 'Teen Creeps', 'Eraser' and 'Everybody's down'. The LA duo keep insisting on us being an amazing audience, which I guess has something to do with their performance at the Underage Festival (you have to be < 18 to get in there) just a day earlier. It's always nice to see people whose taste in music you can actually trust appreciate your music, and I can personally vouch for 14-year olds years having untrustworthy tastes in music.

While SAUNA YOUTH got the audience involved by involving themselves in the audience, No Age choose the opposite strategy and get nearly half of the gathered crowd on to the tiny elevated space in the front of the room. It does signify the great atmosphere of the night, as well the culprit of having a singing drummer: once people appear on the stage, Dean Spunt disappears. At the same time, the only sign of Randy Randall's continuing stage presence is his hijacked guitar. Ah well, duo's brilliant looks weren't the reason people were there anyway. So how long do I have to wait now till I can hear this brilliant new album of them?

A guide to graduation

A few people have asked me about this, so as an expert, I will provide you with a few handy guidelines.

(If someone can find an even cheesier picture - do let me know)

• Graduate in Summer. If you graduate in June, July or August, you will continue to receive student loans until the following 1st of September without having to pay any college fees. Unfortunately, if you don't know about this, they (meaning the people handing out the free money) won't tell you about this until you've already put a final stop to your monthly financial supplies. If you graduate any other month, you have a choice: continue leading the luxurious life of a student till the 1st of September (however long that is) or face reality. The first will entitle you to student loans and free public transportation, but you'd have to continue paying college fees. So it's just a matter of how often you intend to use the train. 
• Don't take too many extra courses. Once you graduate you will get vouchers to take some classes for free after you've graduated. So if you're planning some sort of ridiculous schedule allowing you to include that one course about some otherworldly statistical method or the latest shenanigans in the field of stem cell transplantation: don't.
• Choose the person who will give the talk at your graduation wisely. Yes, you will have to ask someone to give a talk at your graduation, as they'd like it to be 'personal' (I personally think 'embarrassing' would be a more suitable denominator). But as I said: choose wisely. Go for someone with a) a loud voice to keep the elderly quiet (they are known to collectively shout that they can't hear anything, causing everybody else to hear nothing but them shouting), b) someone who doesn't cause the audience to fall asleep (even though that would take care of the problem posed under a), c) someone who you've actually worked with and finally something for personal gain: d) someone from a company or business enterprise as they have the big bucks and are thus more likely to provide you with a gift. Also, a hint for receiving your talk: you have to stand up and face the music so don't put your hands in your pockets (though I honestly wouldn't know where else to put them, maybe you should wear a straight jacket if such garments would be allowed during graduation ceremonies).
• Hand in the paperwork. As with everything, graduation has to go on file. So you have to make sure the Examination Committee has approved your placements, coursework and grades and you have to formally apply to a Master of Science examination (if you manage to fill out the form, you're considered fit for graduation). The dates when all of this has to be handed in can be found on the UMCN website, but only under the Bachelor of Science headings. The MSc examination application has to be handed in about a month before the Committee actually meets, and study plans & grades two weeks before the meeting. Officially that is. In reality there is quite some stretch in the 'final dates' you can hand things in. I for one handed in my final grades two days before the meeting and it was totally fine.
• The nasty bit. There's always a nasty bit, isn't there? So the Committee has approved and you're now a Master of Science - what to do in the two weeks before the actual ceremony? First of all: practice the evil laugh that goes with the title. Afterwards, you can start with some more paperwork. You have to let the IB-groep, Studielink, and the university know that you're no longer a student (the fist two you can do online, and Studielink will provide you with the necessary information about university forms). Also, you can probably apply for a refund of part of your college fees. Finally, you have to sort out your bank account as you won't be allowed to have a student's account. However, postpone this al long as you possibly can as accounts get a lot more expensive and the bank probably doesn't know you graduated in the first place.
• The ceremony. The final hurdle! You'll get a formal invitation that also lists the other graduates in your session. Diplomas will be handed out in alphabetical order, so you know beforehand when you're up. You can take whoever you like to the ceremony: there will only be 8 - 10 students graduating at the same time, and the lecture room is ginormous, so bring your entire family and all of your friends (preferably you should leave pets at home). Dress casual chic. Even the professors (yes, prof. Zielhuis will be there) don't dress any different then usual - apart from maybe wearing their Sunday tie on a Wednesday - so don't go all overboard on clothes. As a graduate you have to sit in the first row the entire time so, for the sake of the rest of the audience, do something nice with your hair as they will be bored for most of the time as they have to listen to stories about people they know nothing about or jokes about workings of Western Blotting or bias-corrected accelerated bootstrap methods. There will be free drinks afterwards (essential information!). But most of all: do try to enjoy it a bit. 
• The afterlife. As you're an alumnus now, you'll get to join the alumni society, which entitles you to at least one free food event a year. Also, you get to keep your @student.ru.nl e-mail address for six months, and you can choose to hold on to it for another six months. Good to know if you'd like to apply for a job and don't want to use your hotmail.

So Iceland don't know how to play football...

...but they sure know how to celebrate when they finally manage to score a goal

Stephen Fry

The world wouldn't be the same without him (or his Tweets to be more precise).

Animator vs Animation

It only takes a pound to seriously piss off a supermarket...

Ow NOS...

Mike Hadreas' Piano Recital

What a treat: in the same week as naming Perfume Genius' debut album my mid-season favourite, I get to see Mike Hadreas live. And I say Mike Hadreas, as it doesn't really feel like it's Perfume Genius up there, he's more of a real person, less of a distant artist - even though his set is set up at the back of the stage of Hoxton Hall, a place rather reminiscent of Paradiso in Amsterdam.

He is preceded by Porcelain Raft who is off to a bit of a rocky start with his first song, but all else is surprisingly good. It's not the obvious choice to put this artist on as a support act for Perfume Genius (except for the whole hey! He's a male singer-songwriter too, you know?-concept), but who actually likes obvious choices anyway? He's a at a crossroads between Caribou and Alaska in Winter but then poured into a one-man show with a guitar, keyboard and sampler and all of that looped into a lovely electronic slightly danceable mix. Well, I say danceable, but it's rather more of  an introverted tap your foot to the rhythm and move your head from side to side kinda music. Rather lovely if I may say so (and as I'm reviewing this shindig, I think I may).

As you might have read on this blog, I'm rather in love with Perfume Genius' 'Learning' - read: obsessed - so you could say I had some very high expectations of this gig. When listening to the album, you might expect to find a singer-songwriter who is rather disconnected from the world and writes his songs in a dark room contemplating the beauty of suicide. Just the mere entrance of Mike Hadreas onto the stage obliviates this image. As if it were a piano recital, and Mike Hadreas the lucky seven year old who gets to show off what he's learned in the past two months, he takes up his place behind the piano and waves at the audience. It gets even more recital-like when he looks up for approval to his patron saint Gareth Campesinos! who's also attending Perfume Genius's London début.

For this live setting, Mike is accompanied by Alan Wyffels (nothing could describe him better than his name - if it is actually his name as I'm only sure it's Alan and there's an Alan Wyffels on the sleeve of the record), who acts as the teacher conducting the recital - as yes, we are still attending a recital. The best moments are when Mike makes mistakes - forgetting to change to a different chord or just getting lost in the music - and the audience, as if we were the proud parents attending our son's performance, applaud even louder. There are actually quite a few of these moments, though they only add to the intimate atmosphere.

Is this then the perfect gig to accompany the perfect debut album? No, it most certainly is not. There is that awful moment, at the very beginning of the gig, when Alan uses the 'pan flute' mode on his keyboard to accompany 'Look Out, Look Out', which absolutely ruins the song for me. Maybe it's my aversion to the pan flute (pan flutes and banjos are works of the devil), or the fact that I happen to be standing on the left side of the stage right in front of the boxes from which the pan flute emanates, but it's more a of a distraction than an addition to the sound in any way possible. Nevertheless, the rest of the set is simply enchanting. 'Learning' - a quatre mains piece in live setting - and 'Mr Peterson' more than make up for the use of the pan flute mode. As a true seven year old, Mike Hadreas seems genuinly surprised and thankful at the love his music is receiving, and as he doesn't really seem to know what else to do, scurries of the stage after another quick 'thank you' at the end of his set. This just might have been the most genuine gig I've seen in quite some time.