Machine Gun Sarariman

Death by (Feb) Mixtape

2010-03-01T09:23:00.006+09:00

Image: artandwit.lifeofpoet.com

Warning: This blog is quickly becoming a monthly event and not much else.

So I haven't really been blogging on here lately, bar to update with the latest mixtape I've compiled. Part of it is laziness, part of it is using other outlets for my sociability (Facebook being a big one), and the other part of it is also laziness.
But I haven't given up on the monthly mixion, so there's still cause to update.

I got overloaded with good tunes over the last month or so, so had a big problem finding the right selection for this mix. Lots of dubstep and drumnbass coming through the door, but I still prioritise the old electro (I'm not a very good dub compiler).
One artist who features heavily this month is Drop The Lime - Luca from the west coast in the states has a handful of absolute bangers out, and really making a name for himself. I've been a fan since his remix of Curses What I Need a while back. Since then his tracks have got a lot more dancefloor savvy, and he's really turning into hot property. I've been trying to get him over to Japan, which hasn't been easy due to his busy schedule, but we'll get there. For now enjoy the 3 offerings of his up in the mix.

Danger's track 04h18 is the first track I've used in two consecutive mixes (not including the 09 collection last December), and this is because I didn't think I did it justice in Jan. Absolute classic that I hope to hear lots of club-time on.

The last transition (Dada Life into Major Lazer) is very bootleg, but I had fun with it.

Anyway, check out the Feb mix on Soundcloud:
Big Ted's Feb Electro by BigTed
(or on mediafire (Permanent Link)

Tracklist
1. Danger - 04h18 (w/ Transmission acapella)
2. Boys Noize - Transmission (DJ Djedjotronic Remix)
3. Ocelot - Our Time (Bird Peterson Remix)
4. No1else - Up Ravers
5. Dan The Automator - Rapper's Delight (TEPR Remix)
6. French Fries - Predador
7. Rye Rye - Bang (Addeboy vs. Cliff Remix)
8. Mustard Pimp - Cherry (feat. Kali)
9. Martin Solvieg feat. Dragonette - Boys & Girls (Laidback Luke Remix)
10. Boy 8-Bit - Baltic Pine (Run Hide Survive Remix)
11. Drop The Lime - Devil's Eyes (Diplo's B-Live Mix)
12. Major Lazer - When You Hear The Bassline (Tony Senghore Remix)
13. M.A.N.D.Y. & Booka Shade - Donut (Boy 8-Bit Remix)
14. So Shifty - Wine
15. Kid Cola - Kappa Kappa (Last Japan Remix)
16. Buraka Som Sistema - Kalemba (Wegue Wegue) [Reso's Aguardente Remix]
17. Blatta & Inesha - Bite Your Lip (Deathface Remix)
18. Drop The Lime - Doomsday Device
19. Drop The Lime - Set Me Free
20. Dada Life - Let's Get Bleeped Tonight (Mustard Pimp Remix)
21. Major Lazer - Keep It Going Louder (Diplo Remix)

It's over!

New Beginnings

2010-01-25T14:39:00.006+09:00

Warning: This mix may not be suitable for those who suffer from a lack of diverse musical taste.

So 2010 has rolled around, and between heading home for Xmas/NYE and a spell in China cracking the whip (not literally, I'm all about worker and human rights), suddenly the end of January has too. Spending time in China makes me so out of touch with the rest of the world that I feel like a chunk of my life is missing when I get back - I'm struggling to figure out how February is only a week away.

Meanwhile however, I managed to put together a mix of stuff that I have had kicking around for the past two months (December's mix not bringing much to the table in new music). It's all quality stuff that I am really into, but it's not really a club mix. Well, the first 40 mins or so aren't. By the time Noisia's remix of Hooligans rolls around, there's bangers aplenty and it's all quite overwhelming. In comparison, the first half is all about great vocals and remixing over them - it's not often I sing along to electro, but this is mix brings out my lipsynching on the subway like nothing else.

If anything is to be said about it, the mix isn't tremendously "fresh", as a lot of the tracks have been around for some months. I promise we'll get back to flavours of the month in Feb (and there is quite a few juicy releases planning then, believe me), but for now it's all about savouring some slightly aged quality.

Big Ted's Jan '10 Mix (Mediafire here)

Favourite transition: Hooligans (Noisia) into Let's Get Bleeped Tonight (Don Rimini Remix) - 43m18s in. The latter has a fantastic drop that just blows the whole thing wide open.

Tracklist:
Mario Basanov - Do You Remember Arithmatix?
Munk - No Milk (Mercury Remix)
Hail Social - No Paradise (Diamond Cut Rebuff)
Djedjotronic - Dirty & Hard (Boy's Noise "Jump If You're An Idiot" Remix)
Memory Tapes - Easy Pert Mom
Delphic - Doubt (Riton Re-Rub)
Boys Noize - Jeffer (Para One Remix)
Tommy Sparks - Miracle (Grum Remix)
We Are The World - Claystones (Turbotito Remix)
Modeselektor - Cash
Golden Bug - Assasin (sic)
Don Diablo & Example - Hooligans (Noisia Remix)
Dada Life - Let's Get Bleeped Tonight (Don Rimini Still Skill Kill Remix)
Kick-Oh - Black Celebration (SonicC Remix)
Kid Sister - Right Hand Hi (Riton Vocal Re-Rub)
What Kind Of Bleeze Do You Blow? - The Probe
Myagi & Utah Saints - Rock One (Utah Saints vs. Zero B Remix)
Danger - 4h30 (killer new track from the French DJ)
Boys Noize & Erol Alkan - Waves (Chilly Gonzales Piano Remake

Enjoy!

DECAmix

2009-12-22T12:05:00.004+09:00

Warning: This mix has so many drops you may think it's raining electro.

So 2009 is rounding up, and I haven't had the time to do the usual "best of" section. With a trip back home on the cards as of tomorrow it's doubtful I'll get around to it, but I've been biding my time putting together something else: a compilation of the biggest tunes of this year - electronically speaking.

The result is 41 tracks smashed into 42 mins of chop & change music - which despite my finest efforts often sounds a lot like an album teaser. However I do dare say it's worth a listen at least once; for those not in the know it's a lesson in what you missed out on, and for you more savvy individuals, it's a little nostalgia from the club scene o' the '09.

There's still a buttload of tracks I could've put in here (see: most of The Prodigy's Invaders Must Die, Yuksek's Away From The Sea, or Royksopp's Junior), and some of the remixes I chose aren't necessarily as good as the original - but hey, that's what worked when I put it in. Having said that, comments on what you thought Track of The Year was are most welcome.

Without further adieu, and it being December, I present the Big Ted DECAmix for 2009. Merry Bass-mas.
Big Ted Deca-mix by BigTed

Permanent Link here (Mediafire)

Tracklist will be up later - for now, play DIY Track ID amongst yourselves

Everything's All White

2009-11-28T09:22:00.005+09:00

(Real) Warning: The video below contains large amounts of excited and relieved explicit language.

2.5 years ago, I posted a youtube clip of the friendly between Wales and the All Whites on here. The game itself, played halfway around the world and for no particular trophy, was hardly broadcast about, even in NZ. I think the footage I put up was a TV3 news report - which has since then been taken down for copyright violation. Its nearly impossible to find footage of the game online that wasn't from some bloke's digital camera.

But obscure as it was, that game was a turning point. It was the dawn of Shane Smeltz's blossoming career (he nabbed both goals in a 2-2 draw), another piece in the puzzle that brought us to November 14th, 2009.
Incidentally, Wales was ranked around 20 places higher than us at the time (but to be honest FIFA rankings mean nothing below #50, and not a lot above it either) and sporting such famous names as Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy.

New Zealand's World Rank history has some rather unrealistic topography

It was also the first time I really started paying attention to the state of the national game. And suddenly, Wellington got a pro football team. We started seeing more regular appearances of national level footballers. New Zealand qualified for the playoff against the fifth placed Asian team. We nearly beat Italy. We drew with Iraq, previous Asian champions. The team started to look more like a team and less like a bunch of guys flown in to bump into each other on the field.

And now we're going to the World Cup.

When someone asks me about 2009 years on, the heading picture is the first thing that will come to my mind. It's a picture that says Victory. It's a picture that shows joy and excitement. But it's also a picture that says "now, have I got your attention?" Even moreso, "I better damn well."

More than enough has been blogged, spoken and broadcast about the game for me to go into an analysis here, and sadly even the idiotic arguments "the All Whites didn't have to do much to get there, European teams would kill for our route" and "Rugby vs. Soccer: Is New Zealand undergoing a shift in sporting interest?" But it's so refreshing to have all this after a big fat nothing for so long. The media didn't care. The public were ignorant to the whole thing. But now everyone's listening. Mark Paston and Rory Fallon are household names. And I'd take all the overkill in opinionated journalism you can muster if it means football is on NZ's radar. Then someday, maybe not today or tomorrow, you'll be able to read the headline: All Whites 1:0 England/Brazil/Italy/you get the idea.

Sorry, the point of this post was actually to show you the chaos that was our excitement at the moment of NZ's qualification. Sure, it's nothing on what was going on at the stadium, but I think we did them proud.

Go the All Whites.

Movember Mix

2009-11-26T18:46:00.006+09:00

Warning: None of this electro mix is remotely hairy.

I have a Movember post abrewin', but for now here's the latest instalment in the Big Ted Mixion, and in bassthumping 320kpbs to boot:
Big Ted's Movember Mix (320kpbs)

Edit: I've also put it up on Soundcloud, though this will only be around for about a month - ie. till I put the next one up.
Big Ted's Movember Mix by BigTed

Electro with the fashionable dubstep aside here and there, though a bit more dancehall-y than of late. Probably my tightest effort at track collab thusfar, even if I haven't been particularly ambitious with the effects between tracks (loop fade, anyone?)
Tracklist
Boris Dlugosh - Bangkok
Strip Steve - Breakin'
The Big Pink - Dominoes (Switch Remix)
Huoratron - Corporate Occult (Passion's Splatter House Remix)
Alex Metric - It Starts (Evil Nine Remix)
The Prodigy - Thunder (Bang Gang Remix)
Florence and The Machine - Drumming Song (Jack Beats Remix)
DJ DLG - Paramount (Rogerseventytwo Remix)
SonicC - Stickin' (Kissy Sell Out VIP Edit)
Eve & Benga - Me & My
Reso - Smash Yer Face In
Mexican Institute of Sound - Cumbia (Deathface Remix)
Tom Stephan - Turn That Shit Up (Diplo Remix)
Mixhell - Highly Explicit (Brodinski Remix)
Passion Pit - Little Secrets (Jack Beats Remix)
Fenech Soler - Lies (Alex Metric Remix)
Ellie Goulding - Under The Sheets (Jakwob Remix)
Subwave - Stars Get Down

So yes, the now-traditional Prodigy track remixed, and yet another remix by Jakwob - this time with a beautiful if mildly uneventful remix of Ellie Goulding's debut single. What can I say - quality breeds quality.

Comments always welcome.

It's Getting Dark

2009-10-29T11:08:00.005+09:00

Warning: This mix contains basslines that wobble more than your dad's jellyrolls.

The lack of dubstep on the last mix I made left a hole in me that I needed to fill, so I overcompensated and put together a dubstep mix last night.

Dubstep is a misunderstood genre - kinda like science fiction. Many people will lump anything with a wobbly bassline into the "dubstep" category, and though this is the defining feature (that and a speed of around 140bpm), its a bit like saying any book/movie set in outer space is a science fiction book. Not only does being a fan give you a bit of a rep, the bad habit that arises from this is that when you say you like dubstep people instantly assume you mean everything from the dark, hard stylings of Goth Trad, past the "clownstep" business that Jack Beats and Rusko love, out to the pop/electro dubstep remixes that have been making waves since Skream put out that La Roux remix.

I tend to prefer my dubstep without cheese nor minimal essence - and mostly without rap. MC Dynamite completely ruined Caspa's Rat-A-Tat Tat. My choices from the assorted menu tend to be dark bangers and those with emotional, melodic samples.
While I tried to keep any of the original, dated hits (which I still love) like Chase & Status's Saxon and Caspa's Remix of TC's Where's My Money?, I think this is a fairly good control sample of what I personally think makes dubstep worth listening to.

Enjoy! (mediafire)

Tracklisting
GTRONIC - Destroyer
Udachi - Jellyroll
Last Japan - Jungle Warrior (TEDD's "Eseya Huo" Remix)
Hostage - Badman Sound
DZ - Down
The Prodigy - Breathe (Numbernin6 Remix)
Datsik - Gizmo
Tek-One - Pressure
Mikey B. feat. Ill Bill Bachelor - Still Dre (Dubstep Fix)
Wachs Lyrical - Dark Entity VIP
Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (Evol Intent Remix)
Mistabishi - Printer Jam (Barbarix Remix)
Reso - Beasts In The Basement
Emalkay - When I Look At You (Sduk Remix)
Reso - Onslaught
Deadmau5 - I Remember (Caspa Remix)
Teasers - Sooner Or Later (Jakwob Remix)
BONUS - Flight of The Conchords - The Most Beautiful Girl In The World (Kissy Klub DNB Version)

Megadrive

2009-10-28T11:01:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post does not accept game cartridges.

DJ Sega played at Triangle last Friday, coming all the way from Pennsylvania to hit us with the East Coast ish that got the guy onto Diplo's Mad Decent label. The electro junkies at Triangle just didn't know what to do with it - is it hip-hop? is it dubstep? Are his decks skipping?

Baltimore beat (there's probably another term for it, but I'm not very genre-savvy) is indeed unique, but it's not hard to see where it came from. My guess is it's just a tangent of the East Coast hip-hop sound, where a few DJs decided they'd rather screw with samples of other tracks than just lay down a beat for an MC to spit on. The upside is in it's shock value - "hey I love this son-what the hell is he doing to it?!", where the downside is, to be frank, it's a bit repetitive. As soon as you pronounce the bassline, you've got to do more things with it than just boom, boom, b-b-boom. Still, if you can get past that, the key is in hearing Nirvana and Michael chopped to death. That, and wonderful moments like this one below.

The track did get a little bit more expansive with it's sampling, but hardly - so you get the repetition. But the fact that Timmy! is obviously having a brain explosion over a beat is extremely entertaining, to this patron, at least.

The crowd swelled at the start, but slowly dropped off til we had a lot of the dancefloor to ourselves. Shame, really - not often Osaka gets a change of pace like that.

Nice work Sega - now, if you wouldn't mind giving me back my girlfriend before you go...cheers.

Dilem-Mo

2009-10-28T09:42:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post features unfashionable facial hair.

I'm currently tossing up whether to grow a moustache for Movember.

Any moustache I grow would be purely amusing and decorative, as sadly I don't really have the ability over here to collect any funds for charity.

The dilem-Mo I am facing is that
- I really don't look that great with a mo
- I'm not 100% certain about the above statement, as every time I try to grow one, they get to a point where they itch like a Mo-fo and I frustratedly shear them from my upper lip.
-Not many of my compatriots seem to care much for growing one themselves.

But what the hey. I figure there's no better a time to put aside my deMo-ns, Mo-ve past my irritation and put it all in Mo-tion.

I could organise a collection and send it to someone in NZ, but it seems a bit tough. If anyone knows anyone who I can send Mo-ney to, however, please let me know - I may change my Mo-ind.

I think this is all entirely because I like saying the word "Mo".

Revisited

2009-10-27T15:42:00.006+09:00

Warning: Those of you with low tolerance for bad singing should NOT watch the below video.

I've had my 4th group of Kiwi visitors come and go last week, with Caroline & Edwina dragging along a couple of mates and camping out in my spare room for 6 days.
We took the girls along for a long-awaited sesh in the karaoke rooms, with the Energizer Bucky (he just keeps going when he's on the mike) and "Dios" Mio (who is indeed a vocal OMG).
We hit a point 2 hours in with 3 tracks - Bohemian Rhapsody, In The End and Wannabe (yes, we are shameless) where the energy was so high that...well, it's been a long time since karaoke like that. We should have sung "Like a Virgin", because that's how it felt. I even think there was bleeding.

Looking back on the videos, however, is a bit like seeing drunken photos. Did I really look that munted? Or, in this case, did we really sound that bad?
I had a feeling we did - well, that *I* did, as recently I lose my voice after an hour of the 'roke. But I didn't expect we'd sound like sick dogs going down a coal-chute.
Still, this video is very entertaining, if only for Mio's reaction to our stupidity.
Enjoy. At least, don't judge me. More than you already have.

Mixed Bag

2009-10-22T19:40:00.008+09:00

Warning: Though it may be "Rock-tober", this mix only includes guitar in a sampled, heavy distorted format.

The 3rd instalment of my monthly "mixion" (a bad attempt at combining "mix" and "mission") contains a sole Fake Blood track and NO Boy 8-bit, and only one dubstep track. Madness, I know.

It's still quite stompy, but the midpart gets quite minimal, with lots of stuff from Sweden's Style Of Eye. This guy does minimal like I like it - not really very minimal, and fairly loopy (check out his track "The Big Kazoo" if you can hunt it down on youtube). The other major hat-tips this month are to Dexpistols, the up-and-coming banger-meisters of Japanese electro, and the new mix from Plump DJs on Global Underground.
With 80kidz and Lowbrows (and their Tokyo following) getting distinctly more pop lately, it's up to Osawa and Dexpistols to toe the line between success and good DJing with great care, which as yet I feel they have.
Meanwhile, Plump DJs are showing they're at their best in the mix (with Headthrash being a bit of an average album) on their newest release, chock-full of the bigbeat ish you just wish was dropped more often these days.

Anyway, track here (mediafire).

Tracklist
Mille - Ghost Dancer
Kid Sister - Get Fresh (Zombie Nation Remix)
Alex Metric - Shirley You Can't Be Serious?
Huoatron - $$ Troopers
Sharam Jey - In My Blood (Mom & Dad's Remix)
Style of Eye - Grounded
Fake Blood - Mars (Style of Eye Remix)
Drummatic Twins - Crazy Love (Peo De Pitte Remix)
Royksopp - This Must Be It (Rex The Dog K-DART Remix)
Lily Allen - It's Not Fair (Style of Eye Remix)
Boys Noize - Jeffer (Dexpistols)
Beat Assassins - Boom Style (Dub)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix)
Heartsrevolution - Dance Til Dawn (Dexpistols Remix Deux)
Atlantic Connection - Rocksteady (LA Riot's 'Shake it All Night' Mix)
Chase & Status - Saxon (Oh Snap!! Edit Stylee)
The Prodigy - Omen (Kilmar Remix)

Feedback? Dare I ask?

The innocence of youth

2009-10-06T11:09:00.003+09:00

Warning: This video may have you smiling and causing your coworkers concern.

I do love my baby nephew. And my lovely sister. And their stupid games.

I sense a theme

2009-09-30T18:19:00.000+09:00

Warning: We here at Machine Gun サラリーマン accept not responsibility for mutilating dance music.

So I'm back-dating this post, as I never actually wrote it at the end of September, but for sake of records it should probably exist.

Continuing on with my endeavour to learn how to DJ, my second mixtape is loosely based around a theme of...well, themes. Theme tunes, to be precise. Admittedly only a third of the tracks in this mix have any relation to TV & movie music, but hey, Will Smith's I, Robot only contains around 3 lines from its namesake written back in the day by Isaac Asimov. Sue me*.

It's full of bangers and might not really be home listening material, but I'm sure it kills on your own in the car (or while playing COD4 or whatever it is kids do these days).
Mix here(mediafire)

Tracklist
Barry Gray - Thunderbirds Theme
Major Lazer - Pon De Floor (Chewy Chocolate Cookies Remix)
Midfield General - Sirens (Boy 8-Bit Remix)
Grum - Heartbeats
Fake Blood - The Dozens
Gossip - Love Long Distance (Fake Blood Remix)
Wes - Alane (Legobeat Remix)
D.I.M. - Lyposuct
Cyperpunkers - Check This Out (Chewy Chocolate Cookies Remix)
Pola-Riot - Superpimpin'
Kill Frenzy - 54321
Bumblebeez - Rio (Boy 8-Bit Remix)
Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You (Pola-Riot Remix)
Jack Beats - UFO (K-Hole Riddim)
Lea Luna - Leaving For Mars (B. Rich Remix 128)
Torqux n Twist - Doom's Night Dub
Metronomy - Radio Ladio (Radioclit Swedish Remix)
Tiga - What You Need (Zombie Nation Remix)
Jakwob - Wild Pitch
Douster - King Of Africa
Birdy Nam Nam - Parachute Ending
...
Pascal & Pearce - Disko Biskit

*Don't actually sue me. That would make you a cock.

The King Says Dance

2009-09-07T16:09:00.002+09:00

Warning: This post has one of the best montages of kids dancing I've seen in a long time.

I like this. Do you like this? You should like this.

The Return

2009-09-04T12:58:00.006+09:00

This post is back. Back again. Yeah, it's back. Tell a friend.

What do the above wonderful people have in common? Well, they're all nice enough to put aside a little time to come to Tokyo and play for the masses at Warp's 20th anniversary gig @Makuharu Messe, presented by electraglide.

For those of you who haven't heard of electraglide, their annual flagship gig in November was the premier electro event in Japan for many a year. Playing in Osaka and Tokyo, the likes of The Prodigy, Underworld, 2manydjs, !!!, Carl Cox, Tiga, Tim Deluxe, Darren Emerson, Sharam Jey, Coldcut, Sasha, Orbital, Vitalic, Fatboy Slim and X-Press2 laid it out each year.
But suddenly in 2006, there was no more electraglide.

I hit the 2004 gig, and have been waiting for another chance since then. The fact that I missed Underworld at the 05 gig (and twice more since then) haunts me. Even the excellent showcase of French electro that GanBan put on last year didn't quench my appetite. We wanted the 'glide back.

This years lineup is far from being fully announced yet, but so far it looks worth making the trip to Tokyo for (sorry Osaka, no show for you this year - story of our life). I'm not familiar with Battles but I'm being told that I should be. Flying Lotus had the Essential Mix of the Year in 2008, and !!! are always fun. But probably the biggest pull for me is Chris Cunningham. Not quite sure what to expect from the music, but the visuals should be intense.

Tickets have been out in pre-sale windows, and go on general sale tomorrow. Consider mine booked.

My Package

2009-09-04T10:57:00.006+09:00

Warning: This post doesn't meet local standard dimensions.

So the folks are coming to Japan, and ipso facto my mother is frantically searching for what chunk of the homeland she can fit in her suitcase to bring over for me. She has a habit of sending whatever she can to me, magazines and chocolate being staple additions. Being 25 this all makes me feel a bit molly-coddled, but she seems to enjoy it, and hey, care-packages are always nice.

But I'm struggling to think about what I want from home. Sure, there's loads of stuff I love when I come back - most of them foods - but a lot of that doesn't travel well. She's promised some baking, which I am looking well forward to. Alcohol-wise, I'm still 2.25 bottles short of finishing the South gin my wonderful friends brought in August. So what else?

Would it be weird if I asked my parents to buy condoms for me?

Yeah, probably would be.

It's just that the Japanese ones tend to be a) made of this rubber that feels more like a small balloon than latex, and as such tends to shun lubrication rather too well, and b) - I'm not bragging, promise - they tend to be a little on the small side.
Without wanting to think too hard about it, I'm sure Japanese cock is more than satisfying, but it does seem to have a median a bit lower than my equipment. TMI, I know.
Just like with low overheads in doorways, I fail to see why they don't just make all condoms longer. A short guy can walk through a tall doorway, but a tall guy has to duck a lower one. A "short" guy can wear a longer rubber, but "longer" guys can't wear shorter ones (without it looking like the cock is wearing a hoodie with exposed midriff - now I KNOW I've gone too far with the mental imagery). Maybe they save a few square cm of materials, but come on.

Rodney recently found some "XL" condoms in the local supermarket, but I'm not sure if I can bring myself to buy protection with an elephant/horse/whale shark on the cover. However is asking Mum to pop down the chemists for 5 packs of Durex really the lesser evil?

I might just wait til I'm home in December.

ExhAugusted

2009-09-03T15:53:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post has nothing worth warning you about in it.
So August has come and gone, and my summer is basically over. I'd say the end came just after Mr. Chris's visit around Obon, as I spent the rest of the month in China. Looking back, it was all a bit intense:

- The locals of the last year all began to depart back to their countries of origin, and we lost a few good men and women. Still, I increased my potential locations to crash while travelling, if one is looking on the bright side. See you soon guys.

- Jake arrived and we hit Summer Sonic, which I was too busy to even do a delayed "live blog" for. If you're feeling ripped off, Jake's report on it sums the 2 days up well. While I missed Soulwax and Birdy Nam Nam, I did get to see NIN in their last tour (who were most excellent), and Aphex Twin, who was also quite intense. Boo-urns to Phoenix and Placebo for letting little things like their health get in the way of playing - you shall be redeemed when you come back for a separate tour. All in all, not as good as Fuji, but at least my clothes didn't get permanent mudstains.

- Jake left, to be replace by another certain Wellytownian. Chris and I, along with a tiny but fierce Swiss girl trekked down to Shikoku to Tokushima's Awa Odori. Thousands of dancers, tens of thousands of tourists, a warm evening by a river and more taiko than you can shake a drumstick at. Good times, though as our host was right to point out, it's OK to watch, but much more fun to do. And do I...uh...did.

- Chris moved on to bigger things (Europe), but not before getting his karaoke on - good times. Then I was left with 2 precious nights with the missus, one of which I had couch surfers, the other one she had work. Fantastic. Oh well - off to China.

- Various work-related crises overted, I return home to find my cellphone bill for roaming in China is 94,000yen. 940USD. 9 Bajillion New Zealand Dollars. Oh well - not using the iPhone overseas again...

- I made a mix of some tracks I got in August, and some tracks I've wanted to hear in a mix but haven't. It's terribly amateur at times, the volume needs normalising for starters, but hey it's a start. Start of what? We'll see, if I actually do continue trying to mix music. The mix is here.

- Somewhere in between China and coming back, all the Gaidai exchange students left, so now I have no friends I can pretend to be 20 with.

- Mio left for Spain for 3 weeks, completing my bereavement and leaving me with a next-door-neighbour, 2 random german guys crashing at my house and 3 bottles of South gin. Dangerous parameters.

September is gunning to be 3 weeks of recuperation, abstinence, exercise and work, with a final week with the parentals on a 5 day tiki tour of Japan. All of which are well needed.

Who I'll be watching at Summer Sonic

2009-08-06T14:35:00.002+09:00

Warning: If you haven't bought a ticket, you ain't coming.

Round 2 (well, three if you count the Star Festival) of La Musique a la Summer in Japan is Summer Sonic 09, a 10th anniversary edition over 3 days. Sadly they've gone for quantity over quality, and the lineup this year is far inferior to years gone by. However, a few gems are nestled amongst the wannabe's, enough that I've considered it good enough to go on both Saturday & Sunday. Here's my planned viewing schedule:

SATURDAY

[13.40] Girl Talk
The rather arrogant, very entertaining "mash-up DJ" Girl Talk plays early afternoon, possibly the worst timing at SS since MSTRKRFT played that early 2 years ago. While he should be excellent, it will be warm and light and it only makes me feel ever more justified in saying that the early dance acts should be at the Sonic Stage, inside where it's dark and cool.

[14:20] Phoenix
The distance between the Sky Stage and the Dance Stage and overlapping of Girl Talk and the friendly French boys from Phoenix may be enough to suggest skipping the former in favour of seeing the whole of the latter. They did indeed rock out when they played here in '05, so it'll be interesting to see how they bring it 2 albums later...

[16.10] Datarock
I only know the track Give It Up and Computer Camp Love from these guys, but they should be good fun back at the Dance Stage.
The songs are good, the video even better (see below).

[17.30] Tricky
One of the fine Bristol trip-hop crew from the 90s, if you don't know Tricky, you're a liar because you actually do know Tricky.

[17:55] Nine Inch Nails
Soon after Tricky starts, however, I think I'm going to have to head to the main stage to see what has been rumoured as NIN's final tour. They were excellent in 2005, as were the crowd.

[19:00] Soulwax
I can imagine this will pack out, but the boys from Belgium are always worth a look. Their set last year really showed their live incarnation is now their strong point.

[20:00] Aphex Twin
The last time I saw this guy, it was quite confusing indeed. Much as I love him for his mental breakdown music, I do hope he pulls something together that we can all enjoy. Live vids on youtube look promising.

SUNDAY

[13:10] Little Boots
Again, I feel they got this wrong - Little Boots is an outdoor stage girl, or at least the Dance Stage. The Sonic Stage is a bit too dark at 1pm for Miss Boots, but it should still be wonderful to see her.

[14:00] Yuksek
Though we'll miss half his set thanks to the commute, Yuksek should be a fun afternoon electronica affair.

[15:05] Placebo
Finally, after 9 long years the original androgynous emo boys (well, not ORIGINAL, but still "veteran") return to Japan. Their new album is severely mediocre, but their back catalogue is some of my favourite music. I do wonder how the crowd will take them - never hear their music here. Hoping they'll go down well.

(Placebo clashes with Birdy Nam Nam, 4 scratch DJs from France who do indeed look very impressive. I'll regret missing them, but it's a choice that needs to be made)

[16.40] Metronomy
A unique, impressive 3-piece of boys who look like jocks and play music like...a parallel universe made of playdough. Very nice use of brassy synth and strange guitar sounds, with catchy vocals. Music to dance in the strangest way possible to.

[18:30] CSS
Brazilian...electronic band fronted by an odd Japanese-Brazilian girl, who may be considered a cross between Bjork and Chicks on Speed. Should be fun - though I find a lot of their music a bit simple.

[20:10] Klaxons
I did enjoy these boys back in 07, when their album come out and they visited. The lead singer was in a wheelchair with a broken leg, and perhaps a bit sombre, but it all worked, mate. This time around? Who knows? They had a new album worked out, it got canned, and it's back to the drawing board. So will we hear more of the old, or some of the new? Who knows? Will I care enough? I may be a bit tired by then.

Youtube playlist of tracks from all of the above (though I suggest visiting it directly on youtube here, seeing as the friendly ppl at universal & emi won't let me embed their artist's videos).

FMF Trailer

2009-08-06T12:59:00.002+09:00

Warning: Wes Anderson + Roald Dahl = Fantastic.

Might Roald Dahl be a better source of book-to-movie gold that even Steven King? While it may be a hard race to call, having grown up on Mr. Dahl's books (like many of us), I'm pleasantly impressed with how well he translates to the silver screen. Willy Wonka & the remake Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, , and his efforts at screenwriting for such gems as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and my favourite Bond, You Only Live Twice. Even Matilda wasn't that bad.
The latest of Dahl's back catalogue to be utilised for the cinematic powers of good is Fantastic Mr. Fox, brought to life by the wonderful Wes Anderson (Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore). The trailer looks awesome. The cast are the only remaining funny people left in Hollywood. The director is a mildly eccentric genius. Should be great.

FYI, my favourite Dahl book was The Twits, though I'm not so sure I want that to be made into a movie.

"I'm so cute and cuddly! I help you pee!"

2009-08-06T11:42:00.003+09:00

Warning: Aaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Available on a T-Shirt here, along with the rest of their fantastic lineup.

Fuji Rock Festival: The not-so-live blogging experience

2009-07-28T14:33:00.017+09:00

Warning: These micro-posts are all on a 6+ day delay.

The cellphone coverage at Naeba Ski Resort (home of the Fuji Rock Festival again this year) was sufficiently patchy, and my interest in the outside world sufficiently minimal that I didn't manage much in the way of live status updates from Fuji.
However I do enjoy live micro-blogging from festivals and events, and in blatant disregard for the fact that this all happened days ago, I'm still going to bring you my report of Fuji Rock in time-stamped, twitter-esque form. Consider it delayed coverage, like if you don't have cable.
Here goes.

Friday, July 24th

[0:15] We're off! Just about to leave Namba, with a packed car and 5 excited passengers. I can't see out the back window for all the luggage. Red Bulls and pumping stereo are ready. Bring on 8 hours of driving!

[4:30] Sunrise and we're making great time. Alex, Yutaka and Kate are passed out in the back, while Mio's keeping me company as we listen to Diplo's Essential Mix from last year and admire the Sea of Japan from the passenger-side window.

[5.40] Some random guy in a van decided to tail me in my blindspot. He looked a little off the boil so we pulled off the highway to lose him. Should be in the mountains by 7am!

[6.50] Good news: Just saw the sign saying 10km to go! Bad news: it's spitting, and a call from Rob (who's already there) says it rained something atrocious last night.

[7.25] We have arrived! And we are immediately greeted by pouring rain. Didn't even start until we were out of the car. Queuing for wristbands. Pain.

[9:00] Tent's are up, but the rain's still coming down. I'm having a nap to make up for missing sleep last night.

[14:20] Down at the White Stage, and Major Lazer roll out in dashing suits with Brazilian dancers dressed in mummy-esque rags (Hottie Cat, I later found out). It's early days in the festival and already everyone's jumping up and down like maniacs

[14:45] Switch & Diplo drop Pon De Floor, and we get a circle going with a bunch of Brits and random Japanese girls. The ground is a slushy mess of muddy clay, and my sandals & legs are caked with it.

[15:05] Dubstep remix of a reggae track from their album. Madness!

[15:15] Walking back through the masses. Alex teaches some Japanese the meaning of the word "choad".

[16.30] Back up at the tent - we chose a spot up the top and jeez it's a mission to walk up. Nice view though, and the privacy is golden. Can hear Lily Allen playing a cover of Womanizer in the distance.

[18:20] Down at the Red Marquee (the only indoor stage, mainly for electronic acts) to see Peaches. She strolls out wearing a puffy jacket that somewhat resembles a peach, and a scary lycra balaclava. Strips out of it by the time she finishes the first song, and says "I'm Peaches, you can call me momo."

[18.50] These Japanese boys go crazy for Peaches. Her haircut is permed on top and shaved at the sides, in a kind of 80s scary lesbian style that goes with her crimson makeup across her eyes. Looking a bit old, but entertaining none the less, especially with her hot guitarist.

[18.55] "Shirts come off, shirts-shirts come off" says Peaches and most of the crowd (well, the male contingent) oblige.

[19:30] Dinner time. Most of the food here looks fantastic. Alex can't stop saying how the festival is "exactly like Glastonbury". Those doner kebabs look fantastic.
Taste even better.

[20:30] Red Marquee is fairly packed out for Simian Mobile Disco. They have their mixers stood up vertically, set into what look like record cases. The 3D feel to it looks like they're tinkering with a model of a building plan. The music is pounding and intense, the crowd responsive in kind.

[22:15] Chilling out in the food court, listening to Oasis blasting out at the Green Stage from across the way. Too packed & muddy to bother heading over there - only those prepared with gumboots and camping chairs can really handle the conditions.

[23:00] Eye from Japanese band The Boredoms starts up the "Planet Groove" all night session in the Red Marquee. He's OK - if The Boredoms themselves were here it would be 1000x more entertaining: those guys have drums. Lots of drums.

Saturday, July 25th

[0:30] Gang Gang Dance are on, and the crowd has swelled. People have been talking to me about these guys all day, but they're just 2 or 3 degrees too hippy-ish for us. Some white guy on stage is wearing what looks like a Tibetan postman's uniform and is holding a white flag made from a rubbish bag tied to an umbrella. The singer is impressive, but old and quite frankly a bit scary. House Jam sounds good, but the rest of the set doesn't go anywhere. It's like LCD Soundsystem in boring slow-motion.

[1:20] Finally, the hippies depart, calling on "Diplo & Switch". Seems it's just Diplo though.

[1:30] Pon De Floor does it's 2nd run of the night. Getting a bit of a vibe on now.

[2:05] Peaches is dancing on a speaker with her hot bassist. Diplo's revving the crowd up with his mike. Typical American DJs - but it's working.

[2:20] Stage is getting crowded: Switch is out there now. Diplo's chugging back red wine from a bottle. His Harder Better Faster Stronger remix gets spun.

[2:25] Diplo rinses out some solid dubstep.

[2:40] Fuck The Pain Away, and Peaches is dancing above the decks now.

[2:50] Diplo: "You guys have no idea what you're in for now." Well, some of us do. Buraka Som Sistema, a la Lisbon! DJ Riot, electronic drums, real drums, 2 MCs (the large Andro and the classy Kalaf Ângelo), and the exceedingly hot and vibrationally-talented MC Blaya.

[3:00] These guys are insane.

[3:05] They just blended in "Rhythm is a dancer"!! Fuck I haven't heard that in forever.

[3:15] Diplo is back on stage. Looks pretty drunk.

[3:20] Buraka just invited a whole bunch of girls up on stage. I thrust Mio over the bar and Kalaf was nice enough to say she was cool to come up. Peaches jumps back on the stage, they fire off some gun full of gold streamers and everyone's going nuts.

[3:30] Diplo has now scaled the lighting frame and is hanging from the ceiling like a monkey 2 metres above the stage. Motherfucker's brachiating.

[3.40] Buraka come to a close - amazing set with everything in it. Ass-shaking, pounding beats, talented MCs and one drunk American stealing the show. Diplo has now brought out a watergun and is shooting the MCs and the crowd - over the equipment of DJ Craze and Klever, who are very politely freaking out about it.

[4.15] Craze & Klever are ripping it up, but its basically more of the same as Diplo's set, with scratching - and we're tired. Let the exodus back up the hill to the tent commence.

[8.30] WTF - suddenly awake, to find the tent is sweltering. Stumble outside - hello sunshine! My happiness is competing heavily with my feeling of sweaty, sleep-deprived, dehydrated exhaustion.

[9.30] Kobo-chan has arrived, so I'll have to go pick him up from the carpark. Oh well - no more sleep for me.

[10.00] Chilling outside the tent - pretty sure I'm getting sunburnt. Bread, tinned tuna and bananas for brekkie.

[11.30] At an onsen just up the road. Heaven is washing away the night before. Alex can't stop saying how having an onsen is "nothing like Glastonbury". Nab a few beers at the combini on the way back and chill with a fairly odd Aussie and his very cool Japanese mate.

[14:30] There are a few bands on but noone big yet, so we'll take the cable car up to the Day Dreaming stage. First: watermelon, and a big bottle of Sangria.

[15:00] Jeez, this gondola is massive. Biggest in Japan, apparently. 20 minute ride up through the mountains - people like ants at the stages below.

[15:15] Christ - just saw some people in a gondola car going the other way, all wearing Doraemon masks. They looked more like hostages than like people enjoying themselves - hilariously unnerving.

[15:30] This stage is amazing! Like we've been transported to some kind of hippie central. Furry characters like pandas and rabbits are skipping after a girl playing a mouth organ. The music is reggae laced with some breaks, with a Japanese MC. Really chilled way to kill the afternoon.

[16:05] Sadly they're finishing at 16:30, and the rain's about to return. Back down the cable car - but not before bumping into our mates from Osaka again. Tequila shots in the gondola on the way back down.

[17:20] Back down at the Green Stage to see Ben Harper. "We're Relentless 7, and we're here to sing the blues."

[17:30] "We're Tim & Mio, and we're here to sit on a groundsheet and sleep away the early evening."

[17:40] Not a single classic Ben Harper track in sight. Looks like he left behind his soul tracks when he joined his new band. Tis a shame - the new sound is good, but not half as fun as last time I saw the guy.

[18:50] Dinner time: Pizza for me. Mio goes with curry with nan.

[19:40] Stroll back to the Green Stage to check out the Kiyoshiro Memorial gig. Perfect timing - Tortoise Matsumoto from the Ulfuls comes on to bash out a soulful tribute. Brings tears to my eyes, and I didn't even know who Kiyoshiro was until today. Matsumoto is all class - lots of passion and a fantastic voice.

[20:00] Hiroto and Mashi from The Blue Hearts come on to do a few tracks. Hiroto is a maniac - always chewing or moving his mouth even when he's not singing. "Rock n Roll will not die!" he proclaims in Japanese. Reminds me of Mick Jagger, perhaps a little uglier but great presence.

[20:15] A big group effort, a montage of Kiyoshiro footage on the big screens, and it's all over, with most of the crowd weeping. Beautiful send-off.

[21:30:] We move a bit closer for Franz Ferdinand. They come on to "Do You Wanna", which is good fun.

[21:50] Bit too many songs we don't know, and we're saving our energy. Nice visuals on the big screens though.

[22:30] Right - they've played "Take Me Out", and it's go time.

[23:00] Red Marquee's "Tribal Circus" tonight- first up: FAKE BLOOD! Being first kind of sucks though, as the crowds haven't really accumulated yet. He's wearing a woodcutter shirt. And he's bald. No way.

[23:05] "Love, it's a weird thing ain't it"

[23:??] Pulls out Sonic C's Stickin', which is about the 3rd time I've heard it this festival. Also pulls Pon De Floor, which seems to be the track of the weekend. Crowd's loving it.

Sunday July 26th

[0:05] "Mars!"

[0:15] Wow, that was over quick. Shame it wasn't a full 2 hours. 80kidz is getting packed, so I think we'll go outside for a break.

[0:45] Some nice drumnbass going on at the Ganban Night Stage - not sure who's playing, as the line-up isn't announced.

[1:00] Fake Blood just rolled up on the Ganban Night Stage! We rush down the front. He's only playing to around 100 people.

[1:30] This set is much more experimental. "I'm Horny" accapella on "Mars".

[1:50] ...and he wraps it up with some fun loops on "Voulez-vous" by Abba. That's more like it. Not as intense due to the crowd size, but a much more satisfying set.

[2:00] Damn, we've missed Bloody Beetroots.

[2:30] Still outside, eating pizza and chilling. Seems a shame to be missing all the music, but it's just as fun in the crowds of the courtyard.

[2:50] Back inside to see The Shoes. They're cranking it - far harder than when I saw them at Summer Sonic. Admittedly, that set was one of the first of the day, whereas this is one of the last.

[3:05] "Ich-ni-san-shi-go, Knock Out!" Sounds like they borrowed the vocalist from 80kidz for a Japanese sample.

[3:15] And to close out the night, Crookers!

[3:30] Fake Blood is dancing like a robotic nazi on their decks.

[4:00] This is turning into a quality set. Down by DZ just got dropped. Dubstep rears its brutish head yet again.

[4:30] Right, I'm spent. Wanted to stick around for Day N Nite, but I think that's enough for one day.

[10:30ish] Last day! Better get up and enjoy it. So tired. Kobo-chan is up and off already.

[11:30] First act I'm keen on is Jimmy Eat World at 15.50, so we spend the morning dancing to electro on Al's speakers and looking like idiots. This feels as much like Fuji Rock as the rest of it. Good times.

[15:00] Pack up most of the stuff and stroll down to the car. It starts pouring down and we seek shelter inside. By the time it stops it's looking hard to make it on time for Jimmy.

[16:30] Lunch: delicious pork on rice.

[18:00] More packing - now we're free to enjoy the evening.

[20:00] Waltz past Fall Out Boy on the way to Animal Collective. FOB sounding so much more sell-out that in years past, when I used to look forward to seeing them.

[20:15] Night lights are looking beautiful.

[20:40] Animal Collective come on. I don't know this band, but I've heard amazing things. Sadly, the things I'm hearing from the actual band aren't as amazing. 10 minutes in and it's obvious this is far too "experimental" (which I find is a polite word for "pretentious and botched attempt at originality").

[20:50] Decide to check out the other half of the festival. Stroll through the boardwalk, where they have hung mirrorballs in the forest. Serene.

[21:30] Chilling at the Orange Court, where Seun Kuti is playing, amid talking about women's "nyash", which seems to mean "ass".

[22:00] Back to the White Stage for the only real act I want to see today: Royksopp!

[22:30] Oh, they're just as awesome as I remember them. Bouncy bouncy fantasy music on a cool evening where the rain has blessedly stayed away. Anneli Drecker is doing the vocals - and the foxy dance moves.

[22:40] Obviously the only Japanese words Torbjørn knows are "Hai!" and "Honto ni arigatogozaimas!", but he uses them to great comic effect. A man after my true heart.

[23:00] After a downbeat, almost unrecognisable variation on What Else is There, Anneli dons an owl costume for Tricky Tricky, the other Karin track. This crowd is nice and fun, if a little tired.

[23:20] A one track encore, and they're done! 10 mins early, too. Sad. Still, stand-out performance from two of the (seemingly) nicest guys in electronic music.

[0:00] Finally make it back to the Green Stage to see Basement Jaxx. The rain may be gone, but the mud! Insanity. Half-wade, half-dance our way across the area. The Jaxx are bringing it fullsteam though, good times all round.

[0:30] Heading back to the car. Sure hope I can drive back safely. Gotta drop Kobo in Tokyo too.

[1.45] Right, everyone's here, we're packed, I've accidentally spilled Red Bull all over my seat, but we're off! Bye, Fuji Rock! See you next year!

...For the ladies

2009-06-29T16:16:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post is purely because I know I'm going to get strife for the last one from a certain someone.

...and here's a shot of the (unofficially) hottest man from Japan. Hiro Mizushima.
I wouldn't do him, but he's a bit of alright.

Lies & Damned Lies

2009-06-29T15:46:00.004+09:00

Warning: 90% of statistics are made up - and when they aren't, rarely do they prove anything.

I've been quite thrilled to see the visit count on my blog get some serious boostage lately. The thought that my musings on seemingly arbitrary themes were gaining popularity makes my head swell most fetchingly. Especially seeing as I didn't post at all in April or May (blame China - I often do).

But sadly, it appears that the figures don't actually mean much. The most popular month this year was May.
Question: why would people read my blog more when I posted less?
Answer: They weren't reading it, they were imagining a naked woman.

And I mean that. Upon further research I noticed that almost all the visits to the blog were from google image search, and to my post about hot olympians. Most of them were image searches for Jennie Finch, the "hot" baseballer and Republican. I'm almost tempted to remove her - how can I sleep knowing that 99% of my blog love is all because of the male love of the female figure - and a right-wing figure, at that?

Moral of the story? Sex sells. Don't try to deny it.

I'll never stoop to such base levels of marketing my blog again.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of Aoi Miyazaki.

I mean, just damn. If you don't like that, no more women for you.*

*If you don't like women, of course, that's no problem. Besides, that means all the more for the rest of us.

Afraid of the dark?

2009-06-23T16:44:00.005+09:00

Warning: This post contains graphic makeup. And bugs.

Photography buff blog Sooth Brush posted some time last year about the delightfully chilling work of a certain Joshua Hoffine, a man obsessed (possessed) with childhood fear art photography. The brilliant composition and art that goes into the pics is just as impressive as the fact that they aren't photoshop edits, but straight shots with only colour adjustments and tweaking done by computer. The rest is all family & friends, a bunch of free time and an artful eye, resulting in vivid images that shock in their contrast of stark gore with symbols of purity & innocence.

Check out Joshua's site to buy signed prints - or even a brooch version of the beasty below. Or just give him blog love.

Props to Rodney for the linkage.

Not something you see every day

2009-06-21T16:00:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post contains footage that may be beat-influenced

Ayoji, aka. Yoji Biomehanika, rocked up to Triangle a week ago as a "secret special guest". Probably the worst kept secret in Osaka, judging by the crowds reaction. The reason he wasn't headlining was purely because he wasn't DJing; evidently the man wanted to try out his guitar skills and didn't feel they were polished enough to do it officially. Good fun all the same - not the most amazing set, but certainly one of the rarer ones you'll see around here.
Here's about a minute of it:

Killing time on Youtube

2009-06-21T13:28:00.002+09:00

Warning: This post is a collection of entertaining time wasters.

I think anyone who has ever used the internet has spent time procrastinating on Youtube more than once or twice, and between that and posts on Facebook you've probably seen these before. However, for those not in the viral video loop, here's a few gems I came across lately.

Drumnbass Church Rave - very well edited

Hammertime in an LA store - flashmob at its best

Nyuki nyuki nyuki - give a girl a camera...

Damian Walters - gymnast, stuntguy, spiderman

Now, go forth and waste time.

Dubstep Rude? Very.

2009-06-21T12:48:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post rinsed it out hard Friday night.

Caspa made his Japan debut @ Noon in Osaka last Friday, and though the crowd was a bit thin (half the crew I know weren't even in the city - well done guys), the guy still pulled out a set bulging with bass, turning the club inside out.

Chatting to Gary (Caspa) on the night, despite my intoxicated state I did manage to get a few coherent questions out about how he was enjoying the scene. He said tho Japan was small he was impressed with the committment here, and though he loved making tracks, there's nothing like bringing it to the masses.
And bring he did.

Jah Works Sound Systems in Sakai brought out a sound system so large that I struggle to think how they got it through the door. Come Sunday I'm still feeling the buzz in my ears - and on the night I remember feeling the cartilage in my nose vibrate. Madness.

The lack of art from the night is on account of me forgetting my memory card, and being too Jagered up to get anyone's addy for their pics. Still, here's the promo mix Caspa dished out on the night. Short but sweet and...dutty.

Edit: Toshi sent me a few pics including this mint one of Caspa on the decks. Big ups!

Holy crap

2009-06-21T12:24:00.003+09:00

Warning: This post is a BIG FUCKING ROBOT

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the anime Gundam, the crazy Japanese have decided to build a temporary monument in Odaiba in Tokyo.
A LIFESIZE motherfucker. That's 18m.

Although I don't really follow Gundam to any obsessive extent - OK, any extent at all - I still love a good giant robot.
For now its just a static thing, but imagine the awesomeness if they made the thing move. Even the fingers or the arms. Damn.

...and progression (Sonifi)

2009-06-19T12:58:00.005+09:00

Warning: This post is the reeeemiixxxxxxx.

So as I mentioned earlier, Rose of Jericho from BT wasn't really doing it for me like I wished it would. Listening to the more subtle points of it, the quality of sound is actually very BT, but it's all overshadowed by a very generic, fairly garden-variety thumpthumpthump of a progressive house/trance bassline. Even a 30 second rip-it-all apart segment in the middle would have tacked 2 extra stars on my rating of it. The remixes on the release (Sultan & Ned Sheperd, Robbie Riviera) are also underwhelming - the former is just a more generic house rendition, and the later feels like an attempt at currently-trendy electro that falls short.

There is one more remix on the market, though, and this one rocks the party that rocks the mutha-loving party.

For non-BT fanboys and girls, you may or may not have heard of Sonifi, an iPhone app that the man and his crew have been slaving over for some impressive amount of time. The app essentially allows live remixing of tracks using the iPhone. LoFi, Low Pass & High Pass filters are activated by sliding fingers on the screen. Each of the 4 layers of the track (melody, extra synth, bass, beats) have multiple samples available to interchange between. And finally and perhaps most impressive of all, is BT's own Stutter Edit effect, activated by shaking the iPhone - not 1, but in 3 different axes to achieve 3 different effects.

That's 3-dimensional remixing, ladies and gentlemen. 3 dimensions. Count them.

The thing is so piss-easy to use it could make a toddler seem like a pro-dj, and yet has enough going for it that it's far more than just pushing buttons. It's highly addictive.

All good things are by no means perfect: there's only one track available as yet; Rose of Jericho. It could have extra options like a time remaining bar or a tempo gauge, but I'm just hunting for faults now. All in all, it's a fantastic piece of innovative work, and I'm more than impressed.

One more fault though - it's extremely addictive. I think my productivity for Friday afternoon has just been reduced to zero.

Here's a vid of a guy playing with it.

Re-progression

2009-06-10T13:03:00.010+09:00

Warning: This post takes a step backwards.

Today BT released his first musical work since the eclectic and ambient This Binary Universe(2006). The track - available "exclusively" at Beatport.com and only to US customers - is entitled Rose of Jericho, and currently has 3 mixes (the album mix and 2 remixes) out, with another 3 to come in 2 weeks time.

Three years after BT decided to tread a different path with TBU - a beautiful album, but entirely bereft of "club music" - he's brought himself back somewhat to his prog-house/trance days, in the vein of Godspeed or Namaste from Movement in Still Life(1999). Words like "eagerly awaited" spring to mind - Movement was an amazing album (still is, 10 years on), and while the successive Emotional Technology (2003) and TBU are masterpieces in their own right, fans have been wondering when the man might come back and make something that will blow them away on the dancefloor. I am one of those fans.

Damn.

Picking up Movement in 2001, purely because I'd seen the cover so many times at Real Groovy that I became too curious, I'd have to say BT put me firmly on the train towards being the electronica fan I am today. His attention to detail in the sound, beautiful synth and vocals over more than a simple house beat, mixed in with breaks and flourishes that no-one like Sash! or Paul Van Dyke could pull off, I was thoroughly smitten. Seeing him live in Auckland twice at God's Kitchen and Two Tribes, he easily outshone "bigger name" DJs like Mauro Picotto, Above & Beyond & Tomcraft) with both sets, mostly with superior track choice and energy. Let's face it, the guy's a hero of mine. And he doesn't sing too shabbily either.

Spot the fanboy

Listening to Rose Of Jericho today though, I'm yet to be impressed by it. Sure, it's a decent track, but hardly as memorable as I expect from the man. The beat reeks of Tiesto & Van Dyke, which I guess the Cali crowd lap up (judging by how packed Tiesto was on NYE 07/08 in LA). The synth is tight, but it's minimal, progressive, and fairly easily forgotten. No vocal, no drop, no breaks. It could have been written by any generic house name. Especially Du Monde, or Deadmau5 on an unproductive day.

Maybe I've moved on, or maybe he has. But I swear I still hold a special place in my heart for BT's exceptional work - I'm just not quite sure this qualifies.

Album will be out near the end of the year, which may be a totally different kettle of fish. For now, I'm going to go listen to Hybrid to fill the void.

Edit: Checking a few clips kicking around of stuff he's working on for the album, they did sound better. Here's hoping!

Underdog

2009-06-04T15:14:00.003+09:00

Tetralogistics@Triangle

Warning: This post provides a small, intimate setting that probably doesn't break revenue costs.

Talking with a friend in the Osaka electronic music scene recently, it came to my attention that perhaps Osaka is fighting a losing battle in the electro scene. While I'm not surprised that Tokyo pulls the bigger acts and has the more well-known scene, after hitting clubs in Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo I can confidently say that the Easterners have nothing on the vibe of the West. In this case, bigger simply does not equal better.

Of course, in the case of massive festival gigs, Osaka can't win. Tokyo has the huge ageHa (though it's usually reserved for the kind of sickly, overground house - think DJ Emma - and local acts like Takkyu Ishino), and the immense Makuhari Messe (home of Summer Sonic, Ganban Night, and the now-extinct Electroglide). Osaka, by comparison, only really has Studio Partita ("Black Chamber"), about half the size of ageHa, meaning while it is fantastic in its own right, pulls less than half the revenue. I'll concede Tokyo has the large-scale events in the bag.

Womb:Intense...perhaps TOO intense
But it's the small events where I think Osaka reigns supreme. Tokyo's big electronica clubs, Womb, Air, Unit etc. are all spacious, but also full of the usual fronting you get in hip-hop clubs. The location tends to be near semi-residential areas, which means the clubs have a responsibility to keep the external noise from the patrons coming and going to a minimum. Nothing kills my buzz more than having a security guard tell me to stop being so excitable when I arrive. Come on now.

With the lights on, it's tiny. But on the dancefloor, it's perfect.
Osaka's clubs are smaller, which means they often take in less than a third in revenue on what can be made in Tokyo. But that size creates a community and intimacy that I revel in. Some people prefer not to know everyone at the gig, but for me if we're all mates one way or another, the whole place reverberates with the vibe. No cold, heartless pushing to the front. No "pick-up bar" feel to it. Everyone's there for the music, and each other. Sounds pretty hippie, huh. Meh - that's how I roll.

Anyway, point being - clubs like Triangle, LabTribe, and Onzieme need your help! It's up to you to keep electronica alive in Osaka - otherwise we'll all be stuck going to Pure or listening to DJ Kaori.

You Rang...

2009-06-03T14:35:00.004+09:00

First iPhoto I iTook with iMy iPhone (outside our iOffice)
Warning: This post uses outdated technology. Updating can be financially taxing.

I'm fresh back from a 6-week stint in China, during which I couldn't really/maybe could have but was too tired/lazy to update the blog. It's not the first time, and surely not the last. But all good procrastination/hiatus must come to an end, so here we are.

I had a list of gripes about China, but I lost it, and it's hardly fun to get back to posting with a bitch session, now is it?
On a more positive note, back in Japan and with my pockets lined with hard earned cash, I found a spending spree was in order, and the first order of business was ditching the old burner. About time to get an iPhone.

Though I spend stupid amounts of money on gadgetry across the board, I very rarely pick something up on the launch date. Got a PS2 well over a year after they came out. My PSP, DS, Xbox 360 were all years after the first ones came out (though the DS and PSP were new editions of the same). I always buy my cameras one model older than the latest, and my iPods and cellphones are not the newest on the market.
Reasoning? The first is money, and the second is customer feedback. Without fail, any major electronic release (esp. gaming) gets a barrage of online forum complaints about bugs and defects. Look at the debacle with the first Wii, or how desparate people were for new iPhone software the day it came out. I love new stuff, but in this case I'd rather wait for the DVD release (so to speak), just in case the movie isn't that good.

iPhones have dropped fantastically in price since their release in Japan, for the basic fact that they are not at all geared for Japan's needs. No infra-red (the most popular way to share contact details and data here), no cell internet (including sites to pick up purikura (those cute Japanese photo booth things) online, and no microSD drive for storing off the hard drive. Plus, the phone treats email like normal computer email, where in Japan cellphone email is the substitute for inter-network SMS. However, for a net-loving gaijin in a country with wi-fi almost everywhere, it's fabulous. Not perfect, but quite nice.

I may be approaching my quarter century, but I'm still a kid who likes his toys, even if they're not the latest ones on the shelf.

(Rugby World Cup) Final-ly

2009-03-12T17:43:00.003+09:00

Warning: Kicking the ball between this post does not score 3 points.

I remember being ecstatic when NZ pulled out a coup and won the rights for the Rugby World Cup in 2011, but it was so long ago that I've actually lost touch with the fact that it will be played down under in September 2011.

Assuming NZ makes the final (which, as we all know, is less likely than not, given previous history), then it will be 1400 big ones to go see them try to break a losing streak that dates over 20 years now. However, if the exchange rate with yen is anything like it is right now, that's only 70,000 yen, i.e. a lot less than the Football WC Final was in Japan. So, I may well consider getting in there.

The reason this comes up is that it adds a spanner in the works of my travelling plans - which were to quit work and travel for the 9 months or so starting April 2010. But if I were to try to hit this, and I'm not the country in 2011 (seems unlikely atm), then it might be a bit much on the old savings. So, perhaps I should start in 2011 and finish up in NZ?
Having said that, I'll be 27 by then, and I like the idea of travelling before I get to the age that I'm thinking about being a bit more grounded and the like.
Hrmm. Thoughts?

Are you ready for it?

2009-03-12T11:00:00.001+09:00

Warning: This music video will (space-)invade your reality.

I do like a good music video. There's something beautiful about being able to use 3-5 minutes and no soundtrack (bar the music, of course) to create something with meaning or unique cinematic vision. Something akin to what Brian Eno said when he was hired by Microsoft to write the start-up theme for Windows 95: he became obsessed with these mini-symphonies and expressing so much with so little.

A good music video is not just one of shots of the band playing - though if you can work them in there, that's always useful so people know who they are. Failing that, editing in time with the music is (IMHO) absolutely essential. Anyone who's seen a live gig or DVD filmed by MTV knows how terrible bad editing on music can be. It's like nails down a blackboard for me.

So, I'm pleasantly satisfied with Royksopp's video for Happy Up Here. I do love CGI that looks like it's shot with handheld cameras (the only thing that made Cloverfield look cool). Joss Whedon's Firefly TV series was full of fantastic graphics like this, and it also reminds me of The Pheonix Foundation's Hitchcock (with the acrobatic Ladas). Plus the idea is cute, fits the music and it's not a pixelated, low-qual piece of trash. All charm-points.

You know, I really like it.

Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

Junior, Royksopp's long-awaited new LP, in stores (including) iTunes March 23rd! For the last two albums they put out awesome special editions in Japan with bonus CDs full of B-Sides and new artwork - do that again pleasethanks

Summer Sonic: Second Announcement

2009-03-12T01:08:00.004+09:00

Summer Sonic has put out their second announcement for those who subscribe (at a cost) to their mobile announcements. Luckily the folks over at mixi.jp (Japanese Facebook) have posted what appears to be a mostly complete listing:

Kasabian
Elvis Costello
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Mastodon
Phoenix
Tahiti 80
The Ting Tings
Tom Tom Club
All American Rejects
The Big Pink
Gogol Bordello
Iglu&Hartly
Never Shout Never
The Qemists
School of Seven Bells
Tame Impala
The Temper Trap
The Veronicas

So what is one to make of this? Some new faces (Mastodon, The Qemists), some from a ways back (Phoenix), some major regulars (Kasabian, All American Rejects), and then The freakin' Veronicas.

Much as I like Phoenix's new single (Lisztomania), it doesn't grab me like their really old stuff - and I'm sure The Qemists will be back seeing as they just played Triangle in the weekend (I missed it - couldn't pull 3 nights in a row sadly). So it's all a bit "meh". I expect more, Summer Sonic.

Am I missing something? Am I a bit too picky with my opinion on the line-up? Would you shell out \14,000/day (280NZD, based on today's exchange rate) for this?

Hit you with some Summer

2009-03-11T14:09:00.005+09:00

Warning: This post is not recommend for those in need of some fiscal restraint.

First announcements are up for the two biggest gigs of Japan's summer: Fuji Rock Festival and Summer Sonic 2009.

They have left me physically struggling not to rip my wallet from my pocket and thrust my credit card digits cyber-ward to the online booking sites. Though it's only a matter of time - the moment I saw the line-ups it was a foregone conclusion that I was going.

Summer Sonic is celebrating it's 10th anniversary with an extra day of music, padding it out to a full 3 days (August 7-9). I have work on the Friday and Saturday, but I'll be taking it off for the likes of:

Admittedly Miss Boots & Yuksek are the only artists I've yet to see that I'm absolutely gagging to, but I'm sure there is plenty of quality to come.

Usually Summer Sonic puts the wood on Fuji Rock for the hottest talent, due to its central city location (Tokyo, Osaka), with no need to camp out or shell out big money for transport.
However, Fuji have got one up this round in my book, with a first announcement that boasts:

Basement Jaxx
Ben Harper
The Bloody Beetroots
Crookers
Diplo
Fake Blood
Fall Out Boy
Franz Ferdinand
Japanese Popstars
M83
Patti Smith (wtf)
Royksopp
Simian Mobile Disco
Weezer
(full announcement here)
...damn.

Though one would hope and pray that the artists in bold will consider extra gigs in the rest of Japan, it looks like I'm renting a car and taking my leave for 3 days in beautiful, rainy Niigata. Hopefully it's not the mud-fest it was last time.

Anyone keen to come? It's gonna be a hell of a summer.

I'm Back

2009-03-10T15:01:00.007+09:00

Warning: This blogger is suffering from an over-abundance of shit to do.

Back in Japan after two weeks in China, shortly after the Chinese New Year celebrations. I was there in late Jan but left before the actual New Year's Day - though I was around for the brutal drinking of the factory parties. I can remember regurgitation onto such diverse objects as ashtrays and hedges, but not much else. Damn Chinese.

This time around we had lots of fun new products coming up for launch in the States - including some new Pokemon stylus - so things were pretty hectic.
I'm not quite sure about these new Pokemons' level of cuteness - I mean, Pikachu is cute-incarnate, but some of these new ones are the stuff nightmares are made of.

There's also some exciting new stuff planned for June release, so I wasn't getting a lot of sleep/still aren't. Can't say much as yet, but Hasbro's game deal with EA is involved. Will keep you posted.

The weekend I came back was quite intense - we were straight off to Labtribe in Kyoto for a night of drumnbass/dubstep at the hands of (Chase &) Status. Only the one of them showed up, but Will ("Status") brought the fine sounds and much fun was had. He even had the nicety to drop Killing In The Name Of SebastiAn in the middle of a dnb set. Very impressive.
The club itself was great - my first expedition out there - but the clientele were far more sparse than Triangle can pull in Osaka. Still, everyone was of the good sort - typical underground electronica round here. Wouldn't trade it for the world.

Sunday night was Tiga - 4 years and three tours to Japan later before we finally managed to be in the same room. He's a lot whiter and quite short in person. He led his two hour set with some minimal stuff he seems to be getting into lately, before busting out "Mind Dimension" and a few tracks I'm sure were his, but possibly new stuff from the album: "It's Six O'Clock" and "What's that sound/I like that sound" being predominant lyrics. Fever Ray and Mr. Oizo also made cameo appearances in a mix that went from strength to strength.

Life = work for the time being so I haven't got many amazing things to say, but The Whore did introduce me to a fantastic (and rather masculine-erotic) video clip from Germans Deichkind. The high quality copy (worth a look) is here.
I'm not gay, but I love anything that can combine porno with parody ("pornody"?)

Tim is blacked out: Stand up against "Guilt Upon Accusation" for New Zealand.

2009-02-18T12:12:00.001+09:00

http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html

It's an Omen!

2009-02-09T12:58:00.004+09:00

Image: theprodigy.com
Warning: The writing's on the wall. It won't go away.

I'm listening to a copy of Invaders Must Die, the upcoming album of those most ferocious of break-beat electro monsters, The Prodigy.

Do I need to say anything more? It's a beast. The beats are nostalgic and razor-sharp cutting edge, with no souls spared in the bass. The homage to their older tracks (circa Music For The Gilted Generation is ever present - a step that all decent fans have been awaiting a long time. Samples in Take Me To The Hospital and Warrior's Dance could easily fit in well on M4TGG or Experience. But the sound isn't a rehash - more a natural progession. It's off the gawdamn hook.
Let me know if you'd like a listen - though I expect all who do to buy it come Feb 23rd. And see them live - you won't regret it.

In other music news, big ups to the guys at the Grammy's for recognising how truly amazing Radiohead's In Rainbows is (it picked up Best Alternative Album), along with the accolades for Daft Punk's Alive 07 (Best Dance Album/Best Dance Recording for Harder Better Faster Stronger), which may well be the best live electronic set ever. Period.

The other awards were fairly run-of-the-mill - though Led Zepp's Robert Plant picking up Record of The Year came as a surprise - I was sure Coldplay had that in the bag. Not that I really care. Awards for music, like talking about music, is like dancing about architecture, or so Mr. Costello would have you believe.

Don't Stalk Me

2009-02-06T10:47:00.003+09:00

Warning: This post knows where you live.

Last Sunday I moved flat - my 3rd place since coming here in 2006, and a reversion back to living alone after the shambles that communal living deteriorated to in my last place (having my laptop stolen by my flatmate and living with people who never washed the dishes after they ate and built duvet-forts in the living room where they camped out and never slept in their bedroom are what I term "shambles", FYI). I have a Kiwi neighbour, an American and a few Japanese but I have the room (spacious but old) to myself. Much as I loved the previous place for its social factor, things like safety and general hygiene are vastly improved for having moved into a new place.

Looking it up on Google Maps, I clicked too far and suddenly found a remarkably high quality photo of the outside of the apartment block.

I know everyone got into Google Map's Street View quite some time ago, but when it first came out it was extremely limited (ie. certain parts of the States), and I never imagined they'd manage to make it all the way around to my side of the world.
How wrong was I?

Not only can you see my place in Osaka (above), the supermarket down the road and other wonderful parts of Namba, but it appears they've got New Zealand covered too. Not that you can see the whanau's house (it's down a long driveway), but still, the neighbourhood is there:
Driveway
Ferry Road and a view of the bay
The wharf near sunset
Still, they haven't made it into the countryside in Japan, nor anywhere in China from the looks of things. But the progress is almost scary. I just hope people only use it for good - like that story of the cop who found the girl kidnapped by her grandmother by using the GPS on her phone and Street View to find the motel they were at - rather than for the forces of evil -like a dude who might find a girl to kidnap and take to a motel, or (worst case), realising the political scenario of 1984...

One day, we're gonna live, in Paris

2009-02-05T14:20:00.006+09:00

Warning: This post has insufficient funds.

The final leg of my trip to Europe was a night in Paris before jetting back to Osaka. The original plan was to go early in the morning with Sam, have a romantic walk along the Seine and check out the city before a night out. Sam couldn't make it in the end, so I headed off in the afternoon to check into a hotel and have 16 hours of Paris to myself.

First stop was a compulsory trip to Le Tour Eiffel, which was quite surreal - felt like meeting a celebrity. I avoided the queues for the lift and the guys selling roses (trying to con boyfriends into thinking an obligatory romantic gesture is in order), and merely enjoyed staring at it from underneath. For all its hype (and anti-climax: I heard at least one American girl say "it's so small!"), it really is a beautiful structural work. I want to climb amongst the steel and take pictures at interesting angles. Can't say I thought much of the epileptic strobe lighting that intermittedly explodes from it.

Getting halfway across the city (from Gard du l'Est to the Tower) was almost as simple as it is in Japan - though the Metro system suffers from graffiti scratched on the windows that brings the whole image down. I found it painful to look at - for some reason it reminded me of scar tattoos that gang members inflict on themselves with knives. The subway limped along, a victim of torture.

Dinner was pizza at a cafe, and after a kip I headed out to Rex Club, where Danger & Digikid 84 were playing. Nice club, large without too much fronting from the kids and only 15EUR to get in. I say "only 15 EUR" when that's around $NZ37, but considering the price of the drinks the entry fee was a bargain. 10EUR for Sex On the Beach* may sound like a cheap hook-up, but it's very dear if said sex on said beach is in the form of a mocktail masquerading as an alcoholic beverage. Still - I guess it stops binge-drinking...

Drinks weren't the only expensive thing - the hotel was 42EUR for a watercloset with a hard bed. This was apparently a steal seeing as I had the room to myself and most places would ask for double that, but it's hard to see it that way when you're wondering if the bed is supposed to make that cracking noise when you get in it.
But bar the prices, Paris did have this air of a city I could get very accustomed to. If I could only afford it. It's certainly on my growing list of places to visit (again) when I'm off travelling in 2010, but I might need to make some Parisian friends to avoid blowing my budget in a week.

Finally, here's a 5-second clip of a guy playing an accordion on the train. I think he's awesome. I bet the locals hate him.

More photos on Flickr and Facebook.

*Let me point out I don't drink Sex on the Beach. People I bought drinks for do. I'd never stoop to that alcohol level.

Buddha Pest

2009-02-03T15:14:00.006+09:00

Warning: This post requires warmer clothing.

Part of my trip to Europe over New Years was around 20 hours in Budapest, mainly to visit Andris (a mate since '06: he went to Gaidai and we met at the kid's camp I mentioned earlier). He's just had a kid with his wife Adrian, a bouncing bubble-cheeked girl named Viktoria. Anyway, my lack of time and money meant I flew over in the afternoon and back out at midday the following day, but it was worth it to catch up and see where the man is at these days.

I flew via Wizz Air - I think they're Hungarian, and they have hot pink planes. They also have very cheap flights. It ended up costing me 60EUR or so each way, but that's with a week's notice and at the end of the year. I can't get prices like that in NZ or Japan even if I book 4 months in advance for a Tuesday morning in February.
The flipside is that the flights are almost guaranteed to be delayed 1-2 hours and there's no meal (nor seat-allocation), but hey - what you pay is what you get.

My impression of Budapest (all 5 hours or so of it) was one of a country sitting on the fence between developed and developing, between Eastern Europe and Western culture, with layer upon layer of ancient architecture, relics of Soviet control, and, well, Tesco's. It felt beautiful and also withered - but maybe that's just what winter does to a place.

The Hungarian women, who are vaunted by men (though it is mentioned in Lonely Planet that hotties are often used as bait for muggings in bars) certainly stood out, but they're not really my type. Something about the fashion or the extensive eyebrow-waxing just feels like they're trying too hard. The girls who tone it down a bit are probably very attractive, but so many look a bit "cheap". Or is that "expensive"? Certainly either way they look like they have a price.

Photos are on Facebook and Flickr of our "Budapest in 90 minutes" tour across the city in the morning. There's also a few videos I took of Andris's apartment and driving over the famous Budapest "chain bridge". Good times.

Thanks for having me Andris & family - I'll come see you next time I want cheap DVDs and vicious Eastern European spirits. Take care!

Who needs photos of a "pissing boy"

2009-01-31T13:26:00.007+09:00

Manneken Pis, and his audience

Warning: This post is affected by climate.

January's come and gone. What the hell? I still haven't gotten used to writing '09 instead of '08. While simultaneously from a work perspective I'm already declaring February a lost cause for sales and working in the realm of March.
One thing I don't really like about my job is that I hardly consider the present. Forward planning is lovely, but I wouldn't mind stopping and smelling the roses a little more. Christmas comes in August, otherwise it won't arrive at Walmart on time. My next travel plans are 15 months away. My last ones were already a month ago - a visit to Mr. Sam in Belgium.

Anyone had bets that the first non-Asian countries I'd visit would be America and Belgium? That quinella would have paid handsomely once upon a time - I'm instinctively adverse to so much pop culture and politics from America, and I didn't even know where Belgium was ("in Europe somewhere near France") until about a year ago. Home of good chocolate and beer, it was on the list, but surely Spain or Germany first?
But no, just after Christmas I invited myself to Sam's house in sweet (and historically preserved) Ghent (spelt "Gent" in Flemish, but for some reason we add an "h"). Sam's a mate from the good old days in Gaidai - in fact, my very first post on this blog features a weekend summer camp trip we helped out on). Korean-born, Belgian-raised and fairly charming, I felt it was high-time for something of a reunion with the man.
Sam works at a chocolate company. This stereotype of Belgians should have had excellent dividends in the cocoa-souvenir department, but sadly I was unable to get him to smuggle any "work-materials" back for "sampling". I trust that next time I see him this will be remedied.

So, Belgium. I called my parents while I was there, and my father said "how is it? People tell me it's boring." Well, so's Lower Hutt in the winter, really. And we don't have old buildings to look at. We just have Queensgate.
I didn't find Belgium boring. I may have if I was a tourist, but I wasn't. I don't really like visiting countries for touristy reasons - I'll have much more fun meeting someone, eating dinner or riding public transport than I will taking cliched photos of the Eiffel Tower. There are some exceptions, sure: I'd like to see The Great Wall. I had a Canadian couchsurfer at my old place who said he slipped past the barriers of the tourist part to see sections people can't normally go to. Much as Chinese authority scares me, that sounds excellent - tourist groups just irritate me.

A few of the patron saints of Belgium.
Well, beers made by monks.

The best moments in Belgium had to include the beer. First night out with jetlag, I thought I was a bit of a lightweight in only putting away 4 handles (ジョッキ), but then I realise that the beer is 9-11%. Seeing as Japanese beer is glorified water, this is like going from Malibu to Coruba. Good luck keeping up the pace.

Sam's family are as mildly-neurotic as he is, and a bunch of good souls at heart. I don't think I gave enough thanks for the various gifts thrust my way, from cigars to fries with excellent mayonnaise, and several thousand mp3s courtesy of Sam's younger brother Hein ("Henn"). His friends were also good sorts - nice enough to revert to English even for conversation I wasn't directly involved in. It was easy to forget that none of them were native speakers - if there's one thing Flanders-Belgians can boast, it's language skills. Even under the influence of New Year's Eve champagne on a rooftop at -6C, they were still making jokes that many so-called "native speakers" would struggle to produce.

New Years Eve itself was a 4 course meal, and I'm fairly sure 90% of the dishes contained cheese. Oh cheese. I missed you so. We were never meant to be apart so long, but Japanese cheese doesn't make the grade and imported stuff costs much for mediocrity.
Good wine, food and highly unsuccessful scratch-and-win tickets finished with, we headed into town without specific plans, which is always a bad idea on New Years because anywhere good is full and anywhere else is too expensive for how terrible it is. Anti-climax aside, it was a good night and my 4th different country to bring in the new year.

Other highlights included seeing Andris and his lovely wife and kid in Budapest, and an Amazing Race-esque circuit of the sights around town in the few hours I had before my flight back (I only stayed 20 hours), the coffee (thank God, I was so deprived I was beginning to think Starbucks was kinda good) and strolling around Ghent thinking it was beautiful but needed a touch of green (guess I'll have to go back in summer). But most of all it was the awesome people - my favourite part of going places. Meeting someone amazing/malicious can make/break my whole opinion of a place. And I didn't meet a single person in Belgium who wasn't top notch.

Only This Moment

2009-01-06T08:42:00.004+09:00

Image Source: royksopp.com
Warning: This post took a while - don't blame me.

Remember Royksopp? Half of you may say "don't insult me". The other half may need me to remind you of the guys who had that bouncy track (Eple) which made it's way onto a hundred chill-out albums and a Lynx (see: Axe) commercial. Whichever demographic you subscribe to, it doesn't have a lot of bearing on the fact that they have a new album due out March 23, 2009.

It's been 3 years but it feels like a hell of a lot longer. I saw Royksopp on the final day of Fuji Rock 05, and they were probably my favourite act of the day (up against Mylo, Moby, Sigur Ros, New Order, Athlete, The Mars Volta and Primal Scream). Lots of electronic acts have claimed to play "live dj sets", but they are probably the closest thing to that that I've ever heard. Most groups either end up playing tracks on their computer or add enough instruments to make it a band, not a dj set. So they're probably not the first guys to hit electronic drums with timpani sticks wearing togas, but by god they deserve some credit for it.

The album (their third, after Melody: AM and The Understanding, and a live ep) is titled Junior, and includes guest appearances from Lykke Li, Robyn and reappearances from Anneli Drecker (vocalist on Sparks from Melody:AM) and Karin Dreijer of The Knife (vocalist on What Else Is There? from The Understanding).
With this and Invaders Must Die both due out in March, consider me more excited than a raptor in a movie theater.

Check royksopp.com for more details & updates. Why not subscribe to their mailing list? It doesn't cost trees.

Consumer Whoring

2008-12-26T16:15:00.000+09:00

Warning: This post sells out.

Some accessories I became particularly attached to this year:

Some Toys I Bought

Products I helped get on the shelves:

Top 8 of 08: Books

2008-12-26T09:00:00.001+09:00

Image Source: bestsellerauthors.com/blog/

Warning: Don't judge this post by its cover.

Travelling a lot and commuting to work has given me a chance to rekindle my love of a good novel (I generally can't/don't read non-fiction), and I manage to work my way through a good 16-odd of them on the train, plane and Chinese taxi. In order for me to finish a book it has to be at least 3-stars until midway through; after that I'm likely to tough it out even if it deteriorates, just in case the author happens to pick up the pieces at the end.
FYI, The worst book I ever read was Peter F. Hamilton's Misspent Youth - I had faith in him but he betrayed me. Luckily we've reconciled over the last 3 mammoths he's written (he has an average novel length of around 800 words). John Marsden has yet to redeem himself, however, as his "Ellie Chronicles" feel more and more like he's pulling a George Lucas, ie. milking it for all it's worth.

Top Books I Read in 08:(in reverse order)

8. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
The reviews all call it a masterpiece, but for me it's kinda just another post-apocalyptic commentary on the human psyche. A damn good one, mind, but it loses half a star for a lack of originality (and also refusing to bring its grammar up to a level above "....and then....and then...").

7. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
An awkward but unavoidable scenario as seen from the eyes of all involved. Smooth and enthralling dialogue and a unique perspective on a common topic - what more can one ask for?

6. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus - Orson Scott Card
I do love authors who can combine entertaining fiction with lessons in history or anything else for that matter (NB: Da Vinci Code fails in the fiction, not the lesson). OSC (one of my favourite authors) achieves just that - Pastwatch tries to pinpoint the one moment in history that had the most effect on where we have stuffed up in this world, and sorry Mr. Columbus, but apparently it's your little boat trip. It's not gospel, but it's food for thought.

5. Blindsight - Peter Watts
Watts redefines the 'First Contact' story, says one reviewer. Certainly it's a novel take, bursting with suspense and new, cool technology (like all good SF should have) and a sense of unpredictability. Watts sometimes gets lost in his own jargon, but if you can sift through it the ideas he is proposing are pretty neat, in a really geeky way.

4. An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
Quaint, young adult-ish take on relationships and logic, delivered with pacy wit and oddball characters. Maximum points for prose style, and Green does well to attack the often over-exaggerated emotional trials of teenagers, without letting his main character become entirely unlikable.

3. Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood
This book reestablished Margaret Atwood as one of my favourite authors. Her characters are vivid, her antagonists (in this case, a 19th Century accused-murderess imprisoned at the age of 16, and the doctor examining her) are flawed and human. The book is loosely based upon the true story of Grace Marks and the two murders she was charged for, and Atwood does an artistic (and creepy) job of sewing together the pieces that are missing from any official records, or perhaps anyone's knowledge.
I have never read Atwood I didn't like - and this continues that trend.

2. Shantaram - Gregory Roberts
Amazing tale of a man who flees to Bombay, only to fall in love with it. Attacks concepts of wealth, love, honour, and right and wrong, on a journey of self-discovery that is all the more impressive for its roots in the truth. He's perhaps a little simple in his writing style and when he tries to glorify his language it comes out a bit forced, but he more than makes up for it with the story he has to tell. In the end, it speaks for itself.

1. Number9dream - David Mitchell
Beginning with disorientating, fantastic blend of fantasy and reality, number9dream is a brilliant piece of work. The reasons I love it are diverse: firstly, many gaijin write about Japan, but Mitchell actually writes Japan. His POV of Tokyo is so spot-on that many points I hadn't even considered unique until he brought them to my attention. His dabbling with original metaphors, shying away from cliche, makes it all the more memorable. Take this, his protagonist in a rather pitiful Eiji Miyake, and his twists and turns, and you have Mitchell at his best. This may be a book about a boy who's trying to find his estranged father, but it's no heartfelt coming-of-age piece. It's an exploding 3D neon alleyway as seen from a speeding car driven by a drunk: you often feel you caught just a glimpse of the vivid depths of the Japan he describes. His later novel Cloud Atlas is more timeless, but Number9dream is a real gem.

Honourable Mention: The Book of Everything - Guus Kuijer
A novella translated from Dutch most expertly, but maintains a quaint style of prose that feels distinctly like a foreign language. One of those books that pervades age ranges and genres to create a timeless, sad and sweet story.

Merry Christmas (Part 2)

2008-12-25T13:44:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post treats Christmas like Valentines.

So my fourth Christmas in Japan rolls around (previous three being '04, '06-'07). Japanese don't do Christmas like Westerners do (though, if you think about it, do Westerners even do Christmas like Westerners "did"?). It's much harder to sucker parents into buying gifts for their kids when New Years (and it's gift-giving traditions) are just around the corner.
So JapaXmas takes its leaf from the other book of holiday marketing, and plays it up as a romantic occasion. As a friend told me yesterday, she feels lonelier on Christmas Eve without a boyfriend than she does on Valentines. At least on Valentines you can give to multiple people without the need to be dating. On Xmas Eve, everything's a bit more "couples only". That is, good luck getting into an Italian restaurant without a reservation.

I do despise commercialism of tradition, but I do enjoy a night out with the missus, and it's a good excuse to splurge a bit (what recession?). Last night it was a slightly over-priced pasta restaurant and a bottle of savignon blanc. Very nice.

Was nice to get in a hello to the family this morning too - we didn't get the connection speed to be able to do a webcam present-opening session, but I still got to see their lovely faces, including Caleb (my 6-month-old stand-in).

I, for my part on the receiving end, got a bag, a belt, a tie, a novel and a sweater. Now all I need is slippers, socks and a dressing gown and I think I'm ready to fastforward to my 40s. Nah, they were all awesome gifts and I'm very lucky to get anything.
My gift from me to me was a new digicam - Canon Powershot IXY 920IS - which was on special thanks to this lovely dip in the economy. I'll probably regret it later when I lose my job and have to scrounge for cash.

Feliz navidad a todos - I wish I could be with everyone I know! Especially because then I could probably score some free food ;)

Merry Christmas (Part 1)

2008-12-25T08:32:00.001+09:00

Warning: The war probably isn't over.

I'd put more Sudan and Zimbabwe footage, but it's not my video. Nice work though.

Top 8 of 08: Destinations

2008-12-18T16:19:00.006+09:00

Warning: This post is going places - or went them, at the least.

So I went a few places this year. A fair few. Everywhere from the local supermarket ("Super Tamade") to Vegas. I also attended my share of musically-orientated assemblies - where much fun was to be had.
Here's a bunch of lists.

Top Places I Went of 2008 (grammar intentional)

1. San Diego - Wonderful city. If I can get past the aging hippies and the gange infatuation, this may be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

2. Melbourne - More crazies than SD, but even more fun. Saw more bar fights in one night than I have in my other 24 years. Beautiful & (essentially) friendly though.

3. Hong Kong - The insane town that it is. Hotter and more bustling than anywhere I've ever been - and this was in autumn. Always makes me feel very very poor.

4. Sapporo - I was in Hokkaido for less than 24 hours and didn't see much more than Dora's apartment, an izakaya and the bottoms of a very large number of Kirin bottles, but it seemed like a wonderful place. Plans to go back have already been made (and shelved due to lack of time & money).

5. Wellington - Can't beat it on a good day huh? Was nice to be back home, especially for long enough to feel sad when I was leaving.

6. Bali - Bar the rubbish and the extreme UV, was very beautiful, and the hotel our boss had us up in for the 2 nights on a company vacation was exorbitant and fantastic. Hagglers were a bit of fun too - if irritating eventually.

7. Morioka - a small town in northern Tokyo, my 3 nights in Morioka consisted of drinking, karaoke, sleeping and beginning the cycle again. Wonderful town from a part of Japan I almost couldn't imagine - the attraction lies in that it has no "attractions".

8. Tokyo - well who doesn't love Tokyo? I've been there 5 times this year; twice I stayed less than 6 hours (flight transfer), twice were only for an evening, and once for a whole weekend. That's kinda how we stay friends - moderation. Plus I don't want Osaka to think I'm cheating on her.

Top Gigs/sets of 2008

1. Mr. Oizo @ We Love Sounds (Melbourne, June) - I think enough has been said about this, but it was a defining hour of my musical life. I think I kissed a man too.

2. Boys Noize @ Ganban Night, Makuhari Messe (Tokyo, October) - 3.30am, I'm about to pass out, and this guy mixes up a storm. Noone else could have kept me on that dancefloor and leave me feeling more genki than when he started.

3. Radiohead @ Osaka Municipal Gymnasium (Osaka, October) - The lights, the sounds, Thom Yorke's giant, drunk-faced screen projection, all of them in rainbows.

4. Jason Mraz @ Namba Hatch (Osaka, July) - Finally. The most happy-feeling concert I've been to since Ben Harper.

5. Soulwax @ Black Chamber (Osaka, October) - Dressed in suits with undone bow ties like they're playing at an after party, Soulwax took the evident (re)merge of electronica and rock one step closer to fruition.

6. South Central @ Summer Sonic (Osaka, August) - hard and dark and irresistible. Yum.

7. Cut Copy @ The Forum (Melbourne, June) - This is the kind of music that feels like neon lights and avante garde photography. Seeing it up close with a bunch of fanboys in the band's hometown only made it more beautiful. Worth the trip to Melbourne alone.

8. DJ Hype @ Triangle (Osaka, July) - While Triangle had many a fantastic gig this year, DJ Hype stood out as being something rather special. I don't know what it was - the long hiatus of drumnbass, the superb mixing skills, or just a nice level of drunkenness, but those involved all agree it was quite intense.

Other: Gigs I wish I'd gone to:
- Digitalism + Shinichi Osaka (February)
- Modest Mouse (March)
- kap10kurt (May)
- Simian Mobile Disco (June)
- The Black Ghosts (July)
- Underworld etc. @ Fuji Rock Festival (July)
- The Prodigy (Tokyo, August)
- Ladyhawke (Tokyo, August)
- Autokratz (September)

Other: Places I'm Glad I didn't go:
- Zimbabwe
- Sudan
- The coast off Somalia
- Walmart on Black Friday
- Sichuan on May 12

Top 8 of 08: Music (Artists)

2008-12-15T15:56:00.007+09:00

Warning: The following 8 don't paint.

In a year where everyone was clambering over Coldplay, Katy Perry and M.I.A., who was I being wowed by?
Top 8 Artists of 2008

Fake Blood
Everything this man touched this year turned to remixed gold. The intrinsic sound of 2008 - I could have included any of his remixes in my previous post's list. Underworld's Ring Road, The Count & Sinden's Beeper, and of course Little Boots Stuck on Repeat all come out all the better under Theo's watch. As it says on his myspace:
"I MAKE MUSIC - AND I TAKE YOUR MUSIC AND DO WHAT I WANT WITH IT.
IF SWALLOWED SEEK MEDICAL ASSISTANCE.
WILL STAIN CLOTHES.
WILL SOUND SPECTACULAR."
Yes, yes it will.

Boys Noize
So Oi! Oi! Oi! came out in 2007, but Herr Noize has been equally busy this year, with touring and remixes further installing him as a powerhouse in electro. His Suck My Deck mix under Bugged Out was probably my favourite mix album of the year, and his performance at Ganban Night in Tokyo in October was just...damn.

Radiohead
The In Rainbows tour did for Radiohead what Alive 2007 did for Daft Punk - a culmination of the greatest things about them in a palimpsest of sound and light, showing that Radiohead really do what they do best.

Jason Mraz
Mr. A to Z is back! Jason's most poppy track ever - I'm Yours - has propelled him to renewed fame, so much that it's mildly irritating. In the typical "I knew him first" vein, hearing people go "I love that song" irks me, especially as it's not his best work. The album has grown on me over the year, but seeing him live for the first time in July was just amazing (see fanboy rant here).

Cut Copy
The boys from Melbourne were a mild blip on my radar a year ago, with their Fabriclive release sparking my attention but paling in comparison to the Evil Nine mix directly before it. 12 months and a trip down to see them later, and they've effectively changed my attitude towards electronic music. In Ghost Colours is a solid album, and they're not half-bad live either. I haven't really got into the remix side of their work, but I'm sure I'll come around.

Mr. Oizo
As far as I knew, Mr. Oizo was dead. Who the hell was the guy who made Flat Eric with the epileptic weiner smoking muppet, and where'd he go? Finding him was akin to Where's Wally - he popped up in a crowd of people in a hard-to-see scene in Melbourne, disguised in a massive beard and homeless-guy white shirt. Some fiercely beaten and scratched 60 minutes later, and I couldn't understand why we had ever parted ways. His new album for 08, Lamb's Anger is something truly special - challenging to listen to, but God is it good.

Santogold
Santogold is everything good about the underground hip-hop scene mixed with just the right amount of electronica, and retro fashion. Good debut album, good gig, and damn that woman is hot.

Sebastien Tellier
How can a guy who looks like a clone of Mr. Oizo make the sexiest album of the year? Easy: Be French. Admittedly all I got on Mr. Tellier is that and his Eurovision performance, but it's enough to make him one of the biggest guys in 2008. If you can't get laid to Sexuality, then you might as well become a monk*.

*All is not lost: My friend tells me Top Gun is the number one movie to watch with someone you want to sleep with.

Top 8 of 08: Music (Tracks/Albums)

2008-12-09T11:24:00.009+09:00

Warning: This post sounds better than it reads.

Music has to be the biggest thing of 2008 for me. Making friends with His Whoreness and being introduced to the music blogosphere has had a large hand in that. Spending more time in Japan this year than 2007 and being exposed to the wonderful barrage of artists that visit these fair shores has too.

So, I figure some lists of music I happened to really enjoy this year is only fitting. Order is generally not important - it's hard enough to pick just 8 of each catgeory, let alone order them.
Bon appetit.

Top 8 "Non-Club" Songs

The Whip - Trash
The Kills - Cheep & Cheerful
Elbow - Grounds For Divorce
Portishead - Magic Doors
Jason Mraz - Details In The Fabric
Santogold - Say Aha
Ladytron - Ghosts
Grace Jones - William's Blood

Top 8 "Club" Songs

Utah Saints - Something Good 2008 (re-hash by Van She) [This could be seen as a remix, but I have enough of those and no-one actually remembers the original, so it counts]
Alex Gopher - Aurora
autokratz - Stay The Same
The Presets - My People
Kill The Noise - Hey You (Le Castle Vania Remix is actually better, but hey)
Le Castle Vania - Zero Machine
Fred Falke - Sanctuary
Fake Blood - Mars

Top 8 Remixes

Bjork - Dull Flame of Desire (Modeselektor's "For Girls" Remix)
The Whip - Muzzle #1 (Bloody Beetroots Remix)
Ladyhawke - Back of the Van (VanSheTech's Turbo Fire Engine Mix)
Hot Chip - Touch Too Much (Fake Blood Remix)
IAMX - Spit It Out (Designer Drugs Remix)
Justice - Phantom II (Boys Noize Unreleased Turbine Mix)
Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down (Duke Dumont Remix)
Sebastien Tellier - Sexual Sportswear (Sebastian Remix)

Top 8 Albums

Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
The Whip - X Marks Destination
Sebastien Tellier - Sexuality
Danny Byrd - Supersize
South Central - Owl of Minerva
Santogold - Santogold
Portishead - Third
Jason Mraz - We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things

Honourable Mention:
Teenager - Thirteen
Does It Offend You Yeah? - You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into

May I now suggest that you go and find said music (perhaps on Youtube) and enjoy it.

Top 8 of 08: Movies

2008-12-04T09:36:00.005+09:00

Warning: This list is a relative flop.

Top Films of 2008 (That I managed to see):

8. "Baby Mama" - I know it flopped, but it was far superior to Get Smart and other comedies featuring ex-SNL stars. Fey vs. Poehler is my favourite female comedian combination.

7. "Horton Hears a Who" - Decent adaptation and with all the good humour that adults help to sneakily get out of a kid's movie.

6. "The Magic Hour" - Japanese film by the inimitable Kouki Mitani, set in a faux-1920s about a bumbling idiot who angers a Yakuza boss and has to use a washed-up actor to bluff his way out of trouble.

5. "Son of Rambow" - a schoolground bully and a reject team up to remake Rambo. Think Billy Elliot with more blood (well, and better).

4. "El Orfanato" (The Orphanage) - Spanish thriller about a woman who goes to live in the house that was her orphanage when she was young, only to find the past was waiting for her. Beautifully shot, well told, and jumpy. Avoids the "serial thriller" label well.

3. "Wall-E" - Classic Pixar. A few moments in it made me think it was a bit sell-out, but that was only because the flow of the movie changes quite a bit and in the end it's just a great piece of work.

2. "Iron Man" - Scores higher than Wall-E for dry RDJ lines, fantastic graphics and for restoring everyone's faith in Marvel comic movies.

1. "The Dark Knight" - Not many movies get watched by me more than the 5 times I've seen this, which puts it in good company with LOTR: ROTK, Fight Club and The Matrix. If Gladiator can win best picture, TDK should sweep.

The list feels a bit lacking to me, but that's mostly because Japan doesn't get half the quality movies available around the world (hence I have to wait for DVDs), and when they do they tend to be up to 6 months late. There's a much more promising list of movies of 2008 I want to see:
- Burn After Reading
- Man on Wire
- Quantum of Solace
- Body of Lies
- Be Kind Rewind
- Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
- The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas
- Synecdoche, New York
Perhaps the original list is a mite premature.

Helicopter

2008-12-02T16:45:00.002+09:00

On a backstreet in south Osaka,
the boy stumbled upon the holy grail.

Warning: This post kicks like a mule.

So the older of the youngers came to visit for a few days lately, and much fun was had. So much fun, in fact, that I'm almost glad he left. No way could I keep that schedule up for another week.

Bought a funky new camera for him to use on his travels - a Canon Powershot 910IS (called the SD870IS in America). This is an outdated camera - the 920 came out recently - but the nice thing about that is it was half the price. And to be honest, I don't think the 920 could have been much better.

One of the nice things about it (and there are many) was the superior video quality, blowing my Olympus out of the photo bath. Of course, with great quality comes great megabyte-age, and 100mb per min of film is a little difficult to get up on youtube (especially these days: am I the only one who's noticed how deathly slow uploading is there lately?). However, I was able to get a few vids up over the weekend.

The first of these is at Cafe Absinthe (which I may have mentioned before), where my Israeli bartending friend demonstrates one of the more complicated cocktails on their menu: the Helicopter. Made of (I assume) absinthe & black sambuca, the kick on it is only topped by trying to inhale the remaining fumes afterwards. As Luke's reaction shows, it's not really for the faint of heart.
Cheers.

Invaders Must Die

2008-11-28T10:02:00.004+09:00

Warning: OMG this post is the funky shit.

It has been announced. The new Prodigy album. Invaders Must Die.
If you're anything of a decent Prodigy fan, or scope the music blogosphere, you already knew this. You also knew that the date to put in your diary is March 9th, 2009. After the solid performance these guys put together at Summer Sonic coupled with the mix of their stuff that was kicking around earlier this year, it's safe to say I'm well excited.

What you may or may not have picked up is the title track is available for download on theprodigy.com for the next few days (and then at many different blogs such as Jacuzzi Killers). As far as Liam Howlett goes, its a step in yet another direction from Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, feeling very much like a club bombshell and less like the stand-out sound he's known for. The collaboration with Does It Offend You Yeah?'s James Rushent give rise to a more progressive mainstream guitar riff and accompanying synth which is like nothing else he's done. Having said that, the raw drums and occasional synth flourish in the background are very much what we hope to hear from the man. Can't wait to hear it on a dancefloor.

ライフ Through A レンズ

2008-11-17T11:44:00.005+09:00

Warning: These pictures feel like a silent movie.
Piers has been slowly uploading the photos he took over here, and I'm impressed with the results. It does make Japan look like a cold concrete jungle (it's not as bad as all that), but as artistic work it's quite lovely. Can't wait to see more.
Pics available on flickr here

Sing-a-long

2008-11-16T13:39:00.000+09:00

Warning: This post is not for those who don't like hearing their favourite songs murdered.

One of the activities I dragged Piers to while he was visiting was a night of dirty dirty singing.

Everyone loves a bit of karaoke. Well, not everyone - shy people and those with sensitive hearing may be put off by it, but hey who counts people like that in the general populus anyway. I, on the other hand, have a fondness for it that often borders on the obsessive. I tend to run out of vocal ability near the end of a karaoke session, thanks to singing songs that are at least mildly yelled, drinking too much and joining in on everyone else's songs too. I also bang on the table (or the tamborine, if we have one), harmonise and adlib like it's nobody's business, and occasionally dance on the couches.

I do love the booth system in Japanese karaoke. Places like K-Bar in Wellyville or anywhere where it's a stage in front of all the clientele (meaning you have to wait like 40 mins to sing in front of dozens of people) is no fun - acting like lunatics in the comfort of your own personal room with mates, is. The optimum karaoke-going group size is 4-6. Any less and it feels a bit empty (though sometimes that's good too), any more and you have to wait forever til its your turn again.

Karaoke is also one of the best ways to kill 2 hours early in the morning if you're waiting for the first train/bus/plane to get home. You can always just sleep on the couches, and its cheaper than a hotel (about 6 bucks/hour if you have 5-6 people).

Songs that I think are particularly fantastic to sing at karaoke include:
Remedy (I Won't Worry) - Jason Mraz
Barbie Girl - Aqua
Word Up - Cameo
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen (but of course)
By The Way & Other Side - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Helicopter - Bloc Party
miss you - m-flo (Japanese pop-rap)
Baby One More Time - Britney Spears
Your Song - Elton John
El Scorcho - weezer
Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry

Songs that are far harder to sing that you may first assume:
Under Pressure - Queen
Living La Vida Loca - Ricky Martin
Wake Me Up Before You Go Go - Wham! (the last two because of the taxing repetitive chorus)
Where is the Love - Black Eyed Peas (have to practise that rap beforehand...)

Songs that are not really karaoke material:
Around the World - Daft Punk
Hey Jude - The Beatles
American Pie - Madonna
Anything by Nickelback (for taste reasons)

Deadly on a Mission

2008-11-14T17:40:00.007+09:00

Warning: This post begins the backlog.

So there's been a bit going on of late. We had a trip to the States for work (fun but not worth blogging), a trip to Hong Kong (worth blogging), and a bunch of other shenanigans. But for the sake of (belated) chronology, let's cast our minds back to the weekend before Halloween, which was as far as the clubs in Osaka were concerned, was Halloween too.

There was a pub crawl going on in town that myself and some mates attempted to attend, but we had a slight conflict of interest: Alex Metric from Marine Parade (who brought you Adam Freeland and Evil Nine) was playing at Onzieme 11. So we did a bit of both, but in the end the night was all about that.
The pre-gig drinks were at the now-defunct Herb bar, and we bumped into a bunch of trick-or-treaters in the cramped space. Japan is big on Halloween- I'm assuming they might be next after the US and Canada. Not much in the way of pumpkin carving, but they throw one hell of a good club night - probably a bigger evening than New Years, mainly because so many people go to temples on that night instead.

My mate Mark loaned me his rather homo-erotic panther suit, which was hotter than hell and a bit short in the leg department (but extremely comfortable, thanks to the baggy middle). 6,000yen or so from Tokyu Hands. Also, dressing up as a furry animal will get you more attention from women than if you were Brad's stunt double.

Off to Onzieme around 11, though like any good country, the party didn't really get started til after midnight. Call me old-fashioned, but parties that start at 10pm feel a bit like high school socials, while ones that start at 5am are just a bit silly, really. I'd prefer to leave round 4, sleep til 12 and still have half a Sunday before work.

I was completely out of it by the end of the evening (tequila may have played a cameo role), but I was focussed enough to give it a good go on the dancefloor. The guy was nice enough to drop Evil Nine's They Live! (Roger Seventytwo Remix), which kicked as much as I hoped. His own track Deadly on a Mission also went a lot farther live than I had previously given it credit. Finishing on a sweet high with Free Things (Alex Metric Remix) by Infadels was the perfect way to go out.
Videos courtesy of Mio's fantastic little Lumix DMC...

Tried to have a chat with the guy afterwards - genuinely nice young man - but I think I came off sounding like a spaced-out lunatic. I must refrain from trying to meet famous people at 4am when I'm off my face. Doesn't really leave the right impression. Still, we did get pictures out of it.

Full credit to the Gaidai crew who came down for the gig - we had a posse of around 13, the most people I've ever hit an electro event with. Dancefloor domination! Looking forward to the next one - Steve Aoki in December, anyone?Slightly unfocussed? That's us.

The Week Has Landed

2008-10-26T13:52:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post is a note of things to come, about things to have come before.

So I'm about 1 hour off running out the door and onto a plane bound for the States and a bit of client-pandering, but I felt the need to let you know that I'm alive and well.
This is no mean feat - the last week has been something of a mission, energy-draining but fantastic in the way that the latter lets you keep going despite the former.

Culprits responsible include my good friend Piers, my flatmates (past and present), a cold, several bars and some joker named Alex Metric. Honourable mention goes to my partners in crime, including the aforementioned along with this years Osaka Gaidai Massive.

More to come. Stay tuned.

Where's a cherry when you need one

2008-10-21T13:29:00.002+09:00

Warning: This video is everything good indie music vids should be.

Much as I semi-vowed to myself that I wouldn't just do "youtube posts" here, I do feel this has brought sufficient good cheer to my sleepy Tuesday afternoon that it warrants serious viewage. Upbeat indie/ska + music video that looks like it was as fun to make as to watch = Doug Schachtel's take on Junior Kickstart by The Go! Team. Booya.
PS. The guitar at the start reminds me of old-school Placebo, ie. Teenage Angst. Yummy.

Part of the Weekend Really Never Dies

2008-10-14T17:25:00.004+09:00

One of these things is not like the others...
Warning: This post only works 2 days a week.

So we're halfway through "Rock-tober" (or should that be "Electroctober" given the predominant genre of events this month?), and it's really going quite swell. I'm sure recovering from a hernia has never been this fun.

A week ago I attended my first Nagisa Music Festival, a day-long event that happens in spring and autumn here and features an array of local DJ talent with a few obscure gaijin acts. It has big hippie roots, with a lot of psy-trance and conga drum groups, but there was a solid dnb and electro base too, and the small crowd (mostly driven away by the rain) responded in kind. I have one photo I took on my cell - will get it up when I manage to work out why it won't send on an email.

One week later, and I'm recovering from a 3 day weekend that started with everybody's friends Soulwax and ended with my good mates Pitch Black.

Soulwax was intense - big convoy of gaijin a la the JET program boys & girls, plus Mio and myself made for a quality outing. The venue was a little packed and badly-airconditioned (what is it with these guys only playing hot sweaty venues in Japan?), but fantastic. My mate Piers nabbed an awesome shot of them at Park Life in Melbourne - their set-up was the same in Osaka.

Their set included wonderful live versions of Miserable Girl and KracK, along with covers of tracks by LCD Soundsystem (Get Innocuous) and Daft Punk (Robot Rock). Soulwax have done a good job of reinventing their live side just when their DJ work was beginning to feel a little old-hat.

They did put on a DJ set afterwards, and it was by no means terrible, full of oldies-but-goodies and a couple of newer tracks (eg. Don Rimini's Let Me Back Up), but yeah a lack of flow mixed with the length of the set meant I wasn't really cheering for an encore.

Pitch Black (@Triangle with Extrawelt, Sunday 10/12) were also in good form, and I was glad I didn't miss them as I did last year. I've only managed to catch them once before, opening for Salmonella Dub, and their computers crashed 10 mins in. Ah well - this time they didn't disappoint.
Triangle being the small club that it is, I took the chance to grab them for a few photos (and shots of tequila). After all, they played Soliton, my all-time favourite dub track, so the least I could do is get drunk with them.

Rest of the photos can be found on my Facebook or flickr.

Isn't She Lovely

2008-10-08T14:47:00.003+09:00

Warning: This post contains some damn good political satire.

Is there anyone out there who doesn't like Tina Fey? She's the best answer to series of so-so SNL regulars of late that I've seen in a while. Sure, Steve Carell is gold at times, but Will Ferrell is so tragic it's no longer even slightly funny, and guys like Dan Fogler are just far too like Chris Farley for me. Even if they do well on the show, so many of them do so badly off it that it's not really much of a "launching pad" anymore.

But Tina shows there is a light at the end of the unamusing tunnel. 30 Rock is a great show - great like Scrubs, Seinfeld and Family Guy in their heydays. It's the best thing to happen to sitcoms since Arrested Development, and the day they decided to cancel Two & A Half Men (not yet, sure, but that day will come, and I'll be there with the ticker tape).
Her debut movie lead Baby Mama didn't rake in the box office results, probably because people probably thought it was a real chick flick rather than a comedy-with-minor-love-story, and it went up against Sex & The City and lost. I saw it on a plane a few weeks ago and it was easily better than Get Smart and probably mildly beat Forgetting Sarah Marshall (which also has some awesome comic talent, but the ultimately doesn't use them to their funny-potential). The story is a little predictable but it's not about that - its the sparks flying between Tina Fey and fellow SNLer Amy Poehler (also the mum in Mean Girls) that is worth the watch. Steve Martin is also possibly the funniest I've seen him ever (possibly because this is not a "Steve Martin movie"). Anyway, Fey vs. Poehler. Successful-but ultimately-way-too-uptight-businesswoman in a surrogate mother relationship with white-trash-party-slut. I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.

Probably though the role that has put Tina's name on everyone's lips this year has been her parody of Republican VP-hopeful (well, she might hope, but we don't) Sarah Palin. Her feminist address with a parodical Hillary Clinton was eerily spot-on, while also hilarious. But it's the "Biden vs. Palin" debate parody SNL aired last week that has me in stitches.

The pretext for the parody is that neither candidate really debated one another, they merely said what they had rehearsed and come there to say. For Biden it was finding ways to attack McCain (a fair strategy, as people are voting for him and Palin doesn't need attacking, she takes her rifle to her own foot quite deftly). In Sarah's case, she'd got all the lines memorised, but seemed to forget she was supposed to adapt them to the question. Nevermind, she delivered them anyway.
Tina nailed Sarah so subtly in this sketch and yet so obviously that its comic genius. It's a pisstake, but it'd be damn hard to argue any point was slander or political smearing. It's also nice to see Biden made fun of too - after all, this isn't about picking sides, this is about laughing at the stupidity of people!

Here's the vid - my mate Eion says he can't load it, but so far he's the only one who's had trouble. Enjoy.

While we're on the topic of SNL, here's one of my favourite sketches from them: "Maraka", the fantastic parodia de Dora. Es muy hilaranta ;)

Everything In Its Right Place

2008-10-03T14:19:00.008+09:00

Warning: This post talks in maths and buzzes like a fridge. Like a detuned radio.

Yesterday, October 2 2008, I saw Radiohead live. I've been clinging to the faintest hope I might get the chance for around 11 years (when I first got OK Computer). Words like "dream come true" seem so cheesy, and yet so right.

This was their second night in Osaka in their Japan tour, supported by Modselektor (German techno duo). In hindsight going to both nights would have been well worth it (more on that later), but we were well rewarded with a fantastic set spanning The Bends to the new album (90% of it). 25 tracks of haunting, discordant Radiohead goodness.

Modselektor were pretty decent, if perhaps a little unsuited for the crowd (who were either a bit old for techno, or mainly from the alt-rock side of the fanbase). Their quality of sound was fantastic, and great visuals (eg. woman dressed in loose yellow ethnic dress waving poles amid gridlines like an altimeter). They dropped Suckerpin (the only song I know by them) which went off, but much of it was quite minimal. All in all though they were a fitting warm-up act, getting everyone a little bit rhythmic whilst not stealing the show. Highlight was their remix of Bjork's Dull Flame of Desire (Remix For Girls). Fantastic track, only made all the more beautiful by destroying the music behind the haunting vocals from Bjork and Anthony.

Roll off the turntables and drop down 60-odd vertical lengths of clear plastic piping in a grid above the stage, resembling an inverted forest of leafless stalks suspended over the band. Intriguing. But even moreso, as Radiohead walk out 20 mins later and the pipes light up like fiber-optic cables. Reckoner from In Rainbows is first up, and a wide screen at the back of the stage displays cameras trained on each band member (a lot like their In The Basement recordings). It's all quite surreal. Radiohead. Thom Yorke is a lot shorter in real life, but his presence lets you forget that fairly quickly.

They roll through an initial set constructed around In Rainbows (House of Cards is the only track missing by the end of the night) but well peppered with tracks you wished they'd play, and others you'd never think they would. Here's where I'd probably quote a few standouts for example, but to be honest it's so hard to pick just one. National Anthem and Jigsaw Falling Into Place did it for me big-time, showing the band really are a rock masterpiece. An unrecognisable version of The Gloaming was odd, then downright creepy. Idioteque was fantastic (I've previously disliked the dance-ish live version but hearing it in person for the first time changed my opinion drastically).
The more mellow All I Need and Wet Fishes were spectactular, along with everything else.

Possibly my absolute favourite moment was Thom leaning into a b&w camera over the piano, his sick/drunken/beaten-up look leering out from the massive screen at the audience, and stumbling over the opening to You And Whose Army? When the song broke, his face accordioned out into 7 different windows of the same camera. Who, I ask, needs drugs when you have Thom Yorke?

He was in a chipper but typically quiet mood, but responded well to heckling: "Radiohead!!"
"Yes?"
"You guys rock!"
"...We may rock, but not in this particular song." - before gliding into No Surprises(!!!)

Back on for the first of two encores, my friends and I had prayed for more OK Computer, and were rewarded with Airbag. The Bends finally got a part, with very rock-heavy versions of Just and Planet Telex. And they would have had more, if not for...

Thom coming back on stage alone to play Street Spirit (Fade Out), but misplacing his bloody lyric sheet! I only found out later as to what he couldn't find, and I'm pretty gutted. Instead he played Fog (a B-Side), which was nice, but doesn't really compare.

Second encore closed out with Karma Police, and Everything In It's Right Place, as the plastic pipes (and the cameras on screen) turned the colour of oily-rainbows. Daft Punk's pyramid suddenly had a serious contendor for most-awesome-visual effects. Burning after-images in our minds, the lights faded, but the buzzing feeling in my head ceased to go away.

Set List
01. Reckoner
02. Optimistic
03. There There
04. 15 Step
05. All I Need
06. You and Whose Army
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
08. The Gloaming
09. Videotape
10. Morning Bell
11. Faust Arp
12. No Surprises
13. Jigsaw Falling into Place
14. Idioteque
15. The National Anthem
16. Nude
17. Bodysnatchers
Encore 1
18. Airbag
19. Knives Out (Which they played barely anywhere on tour and so I can't find a vid)
20. Just
21. Where I End And You Begin
22. Planet Telex
Encore 2
23. Cymbal Rush / Fog
24. Karma Police
25. Everything in its Right Place (Our version had rainbow lights...)

The first gig had Pyramid Song, Talk Show Host, Paranoid Android and Exit Music (For a Film), but they didn't get No Surprises or Karma Police. Oh well - you can't have everything. My advice? Go to every Radiohead show you can. Pretty much guaranteed to get a great new setlist every time.

Thanks for coming guys.

Youtube Clip of You And Whose Army:

Holla back at ya boi

2008-10-01T11:12:00.003+09:00

Warning: This post is dedicated to you.

Most Likely to Win a Rake

The above pic is courtesy of yearbookyourself.com - one of those fabulous ways to kill time needlessly on the internet. With dozens of facetypes to choose from, who wouldn't want to become a timeless piece of high school history?

Isn't it nice to have friends. I sure think so. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, they come in a variety of shapes and sizes, not to mention orders of magnitude: from the "BFF(ROFLMAO)", the Drinking Buddy all the way to the Facebook Friend and the Workmate. These guys tend to be the ones who care you're still alive (before you ask, no I'm not suicidal). They might be the ones who listen to you ranting like a moron. Or the jokers who want to pose for photos with your ugly mug at parties. Hopefully they laugh at your vain attempts at humour, or at least don't leave you stranded at 3am in a nightclub with no ride home. In some cases, they might just be that guy you know in that far-off place who wouldn't mind if you crashed on the couch for a few. Note: These people are not to be confused with family, who are legally obliged to do all that (unless they're a Jerry Springer family).

So, in celebration of friends everywhere (the world's best volunteers!), here's a shout out to all of my mates who deserve a bit of Mcluvin. If you didn't make the cut, don't worry - I've merely temporarily forgotten you exist! Feel free to remind me. I'm looking forward to writhing in guilt.

Alan: Yes, you're my friend. I bet you wish you weren't! When you die I will inherit your hats.

Alex: I know you're my ex-roommate, but you can still be my boyfriend. Just wear lippy more often. Looking forward to the next gig dude.

Andris: Congrats on being a dad! Can I come see the little damburger in January? I didn't say damburger, I said damburger!

Angelo: You sexy beast - why haven't we slept together yet? Probably because our combined libido would make the bed explode. That and you having a penis and all. Miss you dude! Come by Osaka some time!

Mr. Chris: Loving the shaved head dude. It's a shame we didn't see the Phoenix together, but it was still awesome to hang out as much as we did. Don't be a stranger man - you're a more important friend to me than our lack of contact would suggest. Possibly the nicest guy I know.

Daniel K: I'm finally back in the saka of O, so lets hit the Blarney!

Danny: You are my favourite Greek. Yeah - more favouriter than Achilles and Stankopolos!

Dhiresh: How's the mines, Mocha Bear? I wonder if I should call you Hot Fuzz (some play on the fact that you work with copper). You have no idea how awesome it was to see you in Welly - and to get some of that Bill action!

Diana: I miss you! You're the only one who ever called me "Kiwi"!

Dora: I don't think I'll ever visit Hokkaido again - hanging with you there is the best image and I don't want to taint it. Or maybe I'll just come visit you. In Croatia would be awesome though!

Eion: That was too long between meetings dude. I know it's my turn to visit you, but I still wanna see you come hang in Osaka. Next year might be your last chance! Also cool to see Teresa all fun & friendly. She still can't steal my cat though. PS. I want to be a lion tamer! I've got a hat!

Flapy: Hola Espanol! Como es Madrid? When you get back here, let's go to karaoke and take pictures of my girlfriend!

Gemma S: Don't think you ever read my blog, but you were the best thing about 2nd year physics. You wanna host me in London if you're still there in 2010?

Grant: I tried to visit you one weekend on Muritai Rd and you were in Taupo, you SOB. Just for that you owe me a trip out here. I'm waiting. Glad we did touch base though. Need to more often.

Hannah: Now I know you don't read my blog, but I still like you. And your little guy! He's so kyute! ;) Keep up the big work, lil' sis.

Ingrid: Still haven't worked out that nickname. But missing you and all our movie watching immensely. I still owe you one for hanging out with my incapacitated self.

Jess T: Row, row, row your boat honey. How'd your fancy dress party go?

Jenbee: What's up, Rainbow Brite? Hope England hasn't turned you into a coarse hooligan. Though that might be entertaining... Keep on rockin', become a famous improv actor and I'll see you at the Globe when I'm next over! Mwah.

Kat: Acoustic Flowers in The Wind? I hate you so much I think I like you. Hope Scotland doesn't take your life or your FREEEEEEEDOOOOMM...I left green tea for you with Chris. Raak his Asian ass up for it.

Laura W: Tall and amusing as ever, I see. Next time lets hang some more - wanna come visit me over here? PS. I think I'm in love with your boyfriend. Is that OK?

Louise K: I know you're quitting and starting up German translation study (which is awesome), but you'll always be a "planner" to me. Actually, you'll always be the chica with a good Python memory! Now, bring me a shrubbery!

Luke: Hope the eye's all good. Don't slack off just yet! I'm forming an itinerary for our Japan escapade. Do you like penguins?

Mindy: Was awesome to have coffee and catch up. You're still the coolest!

Mel R: Tiny, tiny Mel. What can I say? I actually had more fun seeing you in September than all the other times put together. You's a'ight wit' me.

Melissa: You're in London? Man, you get around. I'm like, way jealous and stuff. Miss your smiley face!

Rajeev: The fact that you would suffer the asthmatic nature of Prescott's apartment just to pop by and see me speaks more for itself than, I dunno, a thousand speaking birthday card things. Was great to see you're well - looking forward to the next ICW production.

Rivan: I promise you I will visit you in Kouchi one day. During which time I will make you the most popular man on the island. Oh, and I'm reading a book about a guy in Bombay - sounds awesome. When can I visit?

Sam De V: Bonjour Chocolat ;) Looking forward to seeing you on New Years man. Underworld play in Ghent in November at I Luv Techno - gutted! I know you want to hit somewhere down south for NYE, but are there any good gigs on in Ghent around that time?

Sarah/OhDarling: You know, me and you were in the same country for 3 days, and I didn't even realise. Enjoy being back in Welly - see you next time! PS. Now I can finally read your blog, I'm loving it ;)

Sukanda/Ben: How come I no see you online no more? Remember how we used to hang out and stuff? Gimme suma that!

Tom M: I think you have a very photogenic memory too. Next time I come to Melbourne I am so photogening it. Hope you're there next year!

Travis: Your sexy ass might just be enough reason to come visit you in the States. I'm working on the job thing, but I only have one as a call girl. Do you swallow?

Mr. Whore: All that relaxing and having fun in Melbourne can't be good for you. I command you to go back home. PS. You have no idea how big a grudge I hold over your seeing Boy 8-Bit before I did.

Height (by Randall Munroe)

2008-09-30T16:40:00.003+09:00

Warning: This post is in logarithmic form.

This excites me (click to enlarge):
Image Source: xkcd.com
Thanks Randall!

Tinselworm

2008-09-30T13:00:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post is deadpan, intellectual and crazy.
Image Source: last.fm
One month hiatus from blogging. What a slacker I am. Just when I thought I was on a productive role for the year (and on the back of fifty-million music posts in August), I ran out of stuff to say. Or maybe not - maybe it was just that I was too busy doing and not busy saying. I have indeed been up to much, though I don't know what's bloggable and what's not. You decide!

I've been back in NZ for the last month, and just returned to Japan yesterday. Goodbye friends, movies and family, hello fast internet and decent club events. But more on that later - I figure the best place to start is the main reason why I even went home in the first place: Bill Bailey.

The guy has been my favourite stand-up comic since around 1998, when he came to the St. James in Wellington (his 2nd time, after hitting the now-defunct James Cabaret in '97 - the home of so much brilliant comedy in those years). The guy is a "nutter", or so he would have us all believe. But under that eccentric shell lies a true intellect that carves his wit to a knife-point, and steers his musical genius from the realm of "good pianist" to something that is as much humour as it is talent.
He's off-the-beaten-track, sure, but he got there with a very good navigation system.

Bill played two shows in Wellington (both sold-out), using mostly the same material across the two. The crowd were real fans on the first night - those on the second were keen too, but a little more intoxicated (and thus annoying: one bloke was under to impression that saying "oh, he's brillunt" after every joke wasn't irritating).

He rolled through what was essentially all new material (a rare gift from comedians these days), starting out with his bemusement at New Zealand customs' obsession with stopping people who may have potpourri in their luggage ("Who carries their own blend of potpourri around?") and the notable invisibility of the Kiwi in the zoo (Probably covered in all the potpourri in the enclosure - that must be where customs dumps it). Before the interval he covered nuclear fusion, asking for audience input and receiving it from a pig farmer (who wouldn't confirm if his farm used nuclear power or not), and a British expat who was an expert on energy and didn't know when to shut up (laughter ensued after 10 seconds of rambling, and when it stopped she was still going on about the theory behind it). You can't plan comedy like that - good on you Wellington for your rather unorthodox heckling.

Moving through priceless musical comedy - including a lynching of Lionel Richie and his lyrical "drivel" ("'What a feeling, when you're dancing on the ceiling' - what, nausea and vertigo?") and a performance of the Star Wars Imperial March a la scat, Bill culminated in what are possibly his two greatest musical works: Ode of the Starbucks Emo, and The Greatest Love Song Ever Written (I take credit for the titles, having forgotten the real ones). The former was new and pure genius - two quotes resonating my mind are "if you were a DVD your region would be polar" and "I pressed thumbtacks into my hand and they spelled 'WHY?'...why did they spell 'WHY'? Because there weren't enough tacks for 'OBLIVION'... "
The latter, a ballad from Bill's previous tour, Part Troll, was an acoustic version of an onslaught on the form of the ballad, mincing metaphors to an epic and hilarious result. The "snowflake on the eyelash of a startled deer" that his romantic character views with his loved one then turns to "pus that oozes from an open wound" upon her betrayal ("The deer, now blinded, stumbles into a ravine").

Mr. Bailey has always been close to my intellectually deranged heart, and he only proved further that if anyone deserves the title of "Nuttier than a Whittaker's peanut slab" (given to him by a critic 10 years ago), it's him.

Here's a youtube clip of aforementioned Love Song. Enjoy.

10 Reasons to Watch the Olympics

2008-08-19T01:23:00.015+09:00

Warning: This post is rather shallow and materialistic - but then again, aren't gold medals?

Deprived of anything productive to do all weekend, I spent my time camped out on the sofa watching the Olympics. New Zealand made Saturday evening entertaining enough (see previous post), but there was a lot more on offer for those who had the time (and I had oodles).
Track & Field events have always been more entertaining to me than the swimming or the team sports - though gymnastics is worth a look in. I used to think it was because I like watching people run fast. But I'm fairly certain it's not just about that - it dawned on me, midway through a beer-punctuated Sunday afternoon, that track & field girls are really rather hot. This spawned a mass trawling of internet image sites (showing the obvious deprived state of my sorry self) to find more athletic booty - here's the ten contenders at Beijing that I'd like to..."set a lap time with"?

10. Shelly-Ann Fraser

The picture isn't great - but noone knew this girl until she caned everyone in the 100m final. She's 21, still has braces, but the most perfect shoulders I've ever seen on a black girl. Plus she was the friendliest, smiliest 100m sprinter I've ever seen before a race - the rest are all hardened and fired up, while she just looked like she was there to have fun. That kind of attitude wins big with me.

9. Ivet Lalova

There are far better looking photos of this 24 year old Bulgarian sprinter online, but I wanted one that shows off her navel tatt. She does have that Eastern-European arrogant air about her, but then again, she's hot and she knows it. She reminded me of a whiter, skankier version of Eva Longoria. That (and the tattoo) might be the only reason she really perked my interest.

8. Jennie Finch

She's not my type, and softball's not my sport, but there's no denying Jennie is a looker. She was voted Hottest Female Athlete by ESPN viewers in 2004, but she's just a bit too Beauty Queen for me. Plus all her publicity shots with Bush don't go down well in my ratings book. However, she must be a decent pitcher - America have decimated all in their path to gold in Beijing.

7. Laura Ludwig

I wouldn't say I've been disappointed by the beach volleyball - guys and girls alike with fantastic physique flexing muscles on sand is hardly disappointing - but not a lot of the women are very...attractive as such. A nice face means a lot to me, probably moreso than a nice toned body. Maybe that's why I like Laura - she's got that cute German face to go with the smooth curves. Plus she's not too bad at volleyball either - though they did get put down by the Chinese and the Austrians.

6. The beach volleyball cheerleaders

OK, so they're not athletes. But they are at the Olympics, and lets face it, these girls are just here to look hot. Which they are. Gold medal.
On a separate note, much as I love the cheering, this only further lowers beach volleyball's reputation as less of a respectable Olympic sport, and more of a blatant exposition of the flesh. It's not like you see bikini girls introducing the events at the pool, or hot water girls for the high jumpers.

5. Sandra Izbasa

Before you get worried that gymnast may = minor, let me assure you that Romania's gold medalist Sandra Izbasa turned 18 in June. She won the floor exercise - by far the sexiest gymnastics section. Poise, style, grace - use what words you will to describe a successful gymnast - I'm mainly picking her because she's damn good looking.

4. Alicia Sacramone

Yes, another gymnast. No, she's not 12. Alicia from the American team is actually 21 later this year. But she's got that hot teenage cheerleader look, and fantastic skin. What makes her better than Sandra? Well, age difference aside, Alicia is a little less like a skeleton (I prefer girls who aren't wafer-thin; I'd rather not have to think twice before hugging them in case they break), and I'm hoping the language barrier would be less of a problem with a girl from Boston. Girls are far sexier when they laugh, and it helps if they understand your jokes...

3. Stephanie Rice

Triple gold medalist Aussie Stephanie is worth more than her medals' weight in...uh...gold, as far as looks go. Thankfully she hasn't cut her hair short like some of the older swimmers - she's only 20 - and its a perfect complement to a pristine set of shoulders. Not to mention swimmer's legs...

2. Ezinne Okparaebo

Ezinne is the third 100m sprinter I've included here, so maybe I have a thing for fast girls. The 20-year-old Norwegian certainly looked out of place when she lined up - sporting serious makeup and looking fantastic. Not like she couldn't run - she made the semis before the Jamaican storm swept her away. If she needs some consoling, I'm here.

1. Allison Stokke

A picture says 1000 words, and most of the ones that expel from my mouth when I see this picture start with "fuck" and end with "holy fuck". Admittedly it's a tremendous shot, but I can't see how you could take a bad photo of this American pole vaulter. Key point? Skin. It conjures up words in me like "glaze" and similes involving milk and baby's bottoms.
The punchline, however, is that she's not even at the Olympics! But to be honest, with a picture like this, I'm not holding it against her. Sadly I'm not the only one who's attention she's grabbed - there's some fairly inane and spammish sites dedicated to Allison and how badly people want to see her in Playboy. I pray to God she doesn't - morals are one thing, but I've honestly never seen a naked pic of a celebrity that I liked. Sports Illustrated? Tight athletic clothing that shows off maximum skin? Now, that's a different story. It's always so much more fun to dream.
Speaking of dreaming, I'm off to bed, and I'm taking Allison with me.

Look what I found...

2008-08-18T21:07:00.002+09:00

...A factory that makes these!

Muhuhuhuhahahaha!

Call Me Loyal

2008-08-17T00:11:00.005+09:00

Warning: This post features passion.

To every Kiwi who put on a black shirt and did their thing today.

Whether you came first, third or 28th.

Whether you were told you shouldn't race for the sake of your health, or not.

Whether giving your all was so intense you didn't feel so hot afterwards...

...or you danced to music playing just for you.

Just know you were a part of something special. That every Kiwi who saw you was proud to be a Kiwi today.

And that noone, no other single race, will ever look as awesome celebrating with a full tongue than a 193cm, 110kg Samoan from South Auckland.

Booya.

Awards Ceremony

2008-08-13T20:08:00.013+09:00

Summer Sonic: So hot right now.
No, really.
Warning: This post didn't win a medal, but it had the most fun possible in not doing so.

So I'm back in China, and to be honest none too happy about it either. The reason might be because I had one of the most amazing weekends of my life at Summer Sonic. Screw the Olympics. The real awards belong to what went down on Maishima Sports Island in Osaka on Sat & Sun.

Honourable gold medal winners

Speaker climbing: Alice Glass (from Crystal Castles)

I walked into CC's set a little late as we had to trek over from the other side of the event, but it was well worth the walk. Jumped in just as they hit Courtship Dating, with Alice jumping around like some kind of demonic jackrabbit. Ethan and their set drummer were both wearing neon blue mesh sacks which made them look like hazardous waste disposal terrorists. Alice herself had a black ring around one eye and the sexiest black goth skirt known to known to man. Shortly after she proceeded to mount one of the side speakers, lie down and writhe on top of it to the delight of the packed out crowd. Erotic? Very yes.
Crystal Castles' set ended 10 mins earlier that it was supposed to, but Alice's performance alone was enough to think we'd all got our money's worth at only 3pm.
Highlights: Courtship Dating, Love & Caring

Synchronised flouro shirt wearing: New Young Pony Club

My Roommate Alex had told me NYPC were worth it, but the pop sound wasn't doing it for me. Live, however, they were fantastic. Lead singer's Tahita's cropped, bleached hair bobbed with the crowd as we got high on the upbeat synth and live drums. After seeing Prodigy live a few times, my opinion is that hard techno or the like is only dominated by live drumming, but with electropop the raw sound only adds edge that studio records can't pull off. It especially works well if your drummer is a tall sexy chick in a bright dress.
Partial credit should go to myself - we had about 6 Aussie guys jumping up and down but I felt the testosterone levels were too high, and roped in a few of the nearest Japanese girls. One thing you have to love about Japanese is they do respond well to peer pressure. Suddenly we had 6 girls half our size dancing around with embarrassed grins on their faces. Very impressive and even more fun than CC.
Highlights: Icecream, The Get-Go

High Jump: Hadouken!

Hadouken suggested they were going to be intense from the get-go, opening with Get Smashed Gate Crash, and the crowd became a moshpit in turn. James Smith responded with multiple high jumps off the drum stand and vicious, English-accented young-white-boy rap. All in all? Pretty full-on.
Declaration of War is the band's best track, but it was actually relatively tame in comparison to the rest of their set. The heat was so intense and I'd run out of water that I was ready to get some air with 10 mins to go, but then they dropped Breathe by the Prodigy. Heavy on the synth, dark and hard, I'd almost have to say they performed it better than Flinty & Liam Howlett themselves. Mint.
Highlights: Get Smashed Gate Crash, Game Over, Breathe (cover)

Heavyweight sound champion (Saturday): Justice

And here I was worried they'd be bollocks. I'd heard their live sets were boring and too much like their album, but when the roadies started stacking fake speakers around a large fake hi-fi system upon which were most definitely perched some turntables, my heart became all aflutter. I'm seeing Justice? The Justice? I should be so lucky. And lucky we were.

The lights went down, the leds on the hi-fi came up, and two hairy Frenchmen stepped onto the podium. Applause ensued. Earblasting synth followed. And suddenly we were swept into a raw, discordant, broken beat tempest of everything that's so fantastic about Justice. It was heavy, it was hard, it was unbe-flipping-lievable.

In typical French style, it wasn't just about the music. The light show was immense, especially impressive as it was nearly all black&white. With 15 to go, Xavier (the less hairy one) walks out in front of the (fake) Maxwell speakers, and puts his hands to them like a deaf man feeling the bass. Gaspard puts his finger in the air like Moses. The sound blinks out at a crescendo. The speakers light up from behind, suddenly seethrough white like a reverse-polaroid. The crowd goes nuts. 20 seconds that feel like forever go by. The DJs, motionless. "Justice! Justice! Justice!" resonates. And just as suddenly, the drop appears from nowhere, driving a frenzy throughout the excited masses. And so it went on.

French people are lazy too - they managed to make us sing We Are Your Friends for them for a good few minutes. And they needed some serious help on D.A.N.C.E. But credit to them, they managed to crank out a far superior version of The Party along with a climactic Waters of Nazareth all by themselves.

The Aussies I met at NYPC seemed to think Justice was the best thing they'd ever seen. This was coming from guys who had seen, nay, witnessed, the miracle of Daft Punk's Alive tour. Justice was fantastic, there's no doubt, but so much of it felt like it was following in the wake of Alive rather than beating upon its door. The extravagant stage, the arms in the air to form a crucifix, the exclusivity of the tracks all felt like someone had cottoned on to a very good idea and made it their own. Not that that didn't make it bloody good. If you can't beat them, join them.

Earliest successful set time: Yelle

1.30pm isn't the best time for a gig. Noone good has been on before you, and everyone's still saving all their energy for the evening. But it didn't seem to phase French electropop star Yelle. Her outfit, like a designer glossy black&white bag with armholes, complete with glittery black tights, seemed like it belonged on a catwalk in Paris rather than on a humid stage in Osaka. But her emphatic grin and bounce got everyone going. She's another one of those artists that is too poppy for my on wax but the live drumming (and sassy French attitude) brought the fanboy out in me.
A Japanese girl half my size rolls up, and starts singing all the (French) lyrics at me with a big smile on her face. Flustered and embarassed, I did my best impression of lipsynching to songs I don't know the words to in a language I don't understand. More fun than it sounds.
Then came the moment I was waiting for: A Cause De Garcons. And in the middle of the damn thing, TEPR (who indeed was touring with her) flicks it over to his remix. I went three kinds of apeshit. Demanded everyone in a 5-person radius of me to defy gravity. My feet still ache from all the fancy footwork.
Yelle = 1000x better live.
Highlights: A Cause De Garcons, Je Veux Te Voir, watching a cute french girl dance like crazy and not sweat a drop.

Synchronised backing singers: Santogold

We like Santogold. We really do. And we were so glad she came to visit. We're also glad she brought her entourage, along with two Buddy-Holly sunglassed, frilly blouse wearing statue-backup-singer/dancers with her. They stood, still as lions outside a library while the girl herself layed in with You'll Find A Way. This was my turn to sing along at my new tiny Japanese friend. Enter bridge and chorus, and suddenly the backing singers burst to life in a semi-robotic, synchronised dance, lasting all of 10 seconds - then back to statues. Class.
The crowd was small but they were all about her - perhaps me more than most, hence the bouncing and lipsynching along. But what's not to like about Santogold? She was even nice enough to make eye contact with me, not once or twice, but no less than six times throughout the set. I know sometimes when you think someone's looking at you they're really looking at the hot guy next to you, but she was looking at my enthusiastic self alright. My sweaty, white embarrassed self, just grinning back for fear of doing something dumb. Well, besides being sweaty, white and embarrassed.
A solid set, not heavy on the jamming or alteration from the album, but with enough live edge to make it lots of fun. Plus, as always, credit has to go to the half-dozen people around me who were happy to make an improv jumping circle with me, to my delight. Yay Japan! Yay Santogold, baby. Here's hoping the positive vibes call for a tour down the track.
Highlights: Say Aha, Lights Out, Creator (her final track), hell it was all good.

Debutant medalist: South Central

Man - for a band I only found out were actually a band on Friday, by the time their set finished on Sunday afternoon, South Central had me wondering where they'd been all my life. Dark rock with a techno punch? Yes please.
Their album is much more electronic-sounding than they are live - which works very well. The lead singer rocked out a key-tar looking like it was from the depths of the underworld, and - much to my liking - had a series of foot pedals that fucked with his voice. The crowd responded with what I pick as the dance-pit of the festival - no elbows and swinging arms, but plenty of movement and just insanity. I tackle-hugged 12 guys in 2 minutes. What made it better was the flow of the set - just when you thought you'd given your all, a softer track came in and everyone could chill. It was almost as though they wrote their songs with us in mind. Cheers guys. It was fucking fantastic.
Highlights: Golden Dawn, Revolution, Higher State of Consciousness (final track).

4 track medley: The Prodigy

So I missed most of the Prodigy to hit Pendulum, as I've seen the former twice but the latter have been on my to-do list for some time. However the boys have still got it going on - the 4 tracks I saw were fantastic. In just 20 minutes we covered Their Law, Breathe, something that sounded new (The World's On Fire?), and Spitfire. Past, present, future. All of with the freak-show-gone-wrong Keith Flint and the perennial warrior in Maxim. Damn that guy is scary. And we weren't without the vicious stares ("are you yelling at ME?!") and the fatal bass that got all 15,000 people watching up and jumping.
Can't wait for the new album.

400m sprint: Myself (heading to Pendulum)

To make sure we caught the start of Pendulum, my mate Kobo-chan and I took off at the last minute from The Prodigy. The rushed entrance left us kinda out of breath for the Perth boys, but we soon got back in the fray.
I have mixed feelings about the Pendulum gig - on the one hand it was fantastic to see them live and finally mosh with a mass of fans. But they're no longer what they were. Even the drumnbass roots of Hold Your Colour feel lost in their live set now. Partly its the drums that make it feel repetitive (the bass & synth should be driving the tracks), partly it's that, well, they're no longer a drumnbass act. And without real rock roots, they feel too polished and manufactured to work with the rock. They need more distortion, more chaos, or just more..."grimey".
Still, was pretty damn good. And not a bad way to finish off a phenomenal weekend.
Highlights: Mutiny, Fasten Your Seatbelts, Hold Your Colour (but who wouldn't have wished they'd played Vault?

Honourable Mention: The Fratellis
Stuffed from South Central, I popped in on their (packed) gig and sat in the bleachers. Typically brilliant. Wish I'd had the energy to mosh. Every track sounded even more epic than the "drinking songs" they were before - they've really come a long way.

Missed the cut: Myself (for Does it Offend You, Yeah?)
Apparently they blew the roof. But they'll be back next year. I had to see Biffy Clyro, even though the crowd was...

Did Not Finish: Crowd (at Biffy Clyro)

Biffy were awesome. Come on topless, red pants, white hi-tops? Mate. The tracks were tight, many from the new album but all winners. I moshed my head off, but it was just me and 3 other guys. The crowd was half-empty, and silent. Though I blame the band for half of the awkward silences between tracks - usually there's vacant noise from an amp, a beat or two from the drummer or some banter from someone in the band - but there was nothing. Oh well. At least they didn't shut up when it counted.
Highlights: Living is a Problem Because Everything Dies (which was the only song we got a mosh pit going for), Who's Got a Match?, 9/15ths...again, just everything was awesome.

Off the pace: Late of the Pier
The only beef I had with the weekend came first thing on Saturday. British indie-electro boys Late of the Pier were just tragic. You can blame the midday set time on an open air sauna stadium, where they really belong in a dirty basement club (I think their make-up was running), but they just didn't adapt and the crowd weren't sure how to take their slightly cynical randomness. Music was OK, but wrong time, wrong place.

All in all, to be fair, best music festival I've ever been to. Wow.

I'm going to see - South Central

2008-08-08T17:19:00.005+09:00

The final installment in this showcase of exciting fresh musical goodness is my pick for Sunday evening - bar Pendulum, whom I've already mentioned here before. Brighton self-proclaimed "experimental/punk/electro" madmen South Central have nailed themselves a formidable 4.45 set time on Sunday, and their NLLR mixtape is enough to make me want to see them purely for a DJ set.

When I found out this afternoon they were playing live, I was excited but apprehensive. Now that I've downloaded their album The Owl of Minerva, I'm just excited.

They're another one of those we-can-play-but-we-also-dj bands, but their sound seems quite a bit heavier than their counterparts. They're big on static, big on twisting knobs and warping the sound in the middle (something I think 2manydjs made famous, but now everyone does - not that I'm complaining), and big on yelling. I also happen to be big on yelling. How...convenient.

Here's The Golden Dawn - that robot-y voice reminds me of We Are Rockstars. There's also a few live sets kicking around which are well worth checking out.

I'm going to see half of - Cajun Dance Party

2008-08-08T15:15:00.005+09:00

So Santogold and all her female warrior glory will probably absorb much of my attention, such that I am going to miss half of Cajun Dance Party's set. But I've been impressed with their freshmen effort The Colourful Life, such that they warrant me running like a madman over to their stage, at least to catch the last few tracks.

What makes CDP better than your average indie band? I like the vocalist - he doesn't sound pretentious, has a good voice with a decent mix of emotion and indifference. Plus they have beautiful, edgy guitars.

Cajun are hardly "lesser known" themselves - having played Glastonbury last year, and in April '07 had an NME "Track of the Week" in their first single The Next Untouchable. Nice to see the accolades coming in - provided they don't go and get a pop following. Man, I'm cliquey.

Here's Amylase, the other single of theirs I'm rather fond of.

I'm going to see - Santogold

2008-08-08T11:35:00.004+09:00

OK, so these acts are supposed to be the "lesser knowns", but if you don't know Santogold, well, you really should. Shame on you. But here's hoping you know her for the talent she is, and not the pop sensation she may well be becoming.

The common description is to compare Santogold to M.I.A. ("all I wanna do is bang bang bang and take yo' money..."). And to be fair, they've both got that jungle hip-hop vibe going on. But that's where the comparison ends - Santogold achieves a sound that makes M.I.A. sound cheap and nasty, genuine underground hip-hop-cum-electro that is just plain quality. Her album is well worth the price of admission, and she's hot without looking "sell-out hot". Plus collaborations and remixes with the likes of Switch, Diplo, TEPR and Sinden, she's heading in all the right directions.

L.E.S. Artistes is her only single with a video (that I could find), but my personal favourite is Say Aha (especially TEPR's remix). You'll Find a Way is also mint.

We can only hope The Neptunes don't get their hooks in her too badly. I'd rather see her in a collab with Boys Noize than with Snoop Dogg.

I'm going to see - Yelle

2008-08-08T00:30:00.002+09:00

French music is so hot right now.

Well, not just now. From quite a while back, really. The French bought us the likes of Daft Punk, Air, Bomfunk MCs (and their one-hit wonder), Mr. Oizo and Martin Solveig. Formidable.

But these days, its a freaking explosion of Musicien francais: Justice. SebastiAn. Kavinsky. The Teenagers. DJ Mehdi. Uffie. Vitalic. Gildas & Masaya. Mr. Flash. TEPR. And of course, Yelle.

Yelle got herself famous for a track saying a French hiphop star has a small dick. And she hasn't looked back. Partly because it's still one of her biggest singles - Je Veux Te Voir. Her style is termed as "electropop", which I guess in the end is probably the closest interpretation, but I'd fear to lump her in with the pop crowd (maybe its just my hate of the word "pop"...)

She's another one of those artists that remixes just superbly, and I've heard better things about her live performances that I have about her album Pop-Up.
A remix of her track A Cause De Garcons (mixed by Riot in Belgium) was on a Need For Speed installment, but the best thing to come of this feisty French chick's music is a little remix of the same track by TEPR:

Rumour has it TEPR does some touring with Yelle's band, but I have no idea if he's going to be there on Sunday afternoon - here's hoping.

Gotta go - time to practise my Tecktonik.

I'm going to see - Hadouken!

2008-08-08T00:10:00.004+09:00

The exclamation at the end of the header may well be taken to be one of excitement, which is fair enough. But Hadouken! are actually one of those annoying bands that like to have bikkuri-maaku in their titles. Luckily, that's all that's really annoying about them.

Hadouken!'s music (I'm dropping that fucking punctuation from now on) reminds me of an angry version of The Whip, and they're both that kind of indie-electro that gets you jumping around like a madman(I sense a trend in the bands I'm keen on lately). They all look like they're not old enough to actually get into some of the clubs they may play at, but they know what they're doing.

Their standout track is most definitely Declaration of War and its assortment of remixes, but here's hoping they're not just a one hit wonder.

By the sounds of their other singles (such as That Boy That Girl, I may well be in luck.

I'm going to see - New Young Pony Club

2008-08-07T23:40:00.003+09:00

New Young Pony Club are one of those artists that I just know are going to be good, without actually having basis for it. Or perhaps there is some kicking around. First, they're on Modular's label, the guys who also bring you Cut Copy, The Presets, Klaxons and MSTRKRFT (and who also recorded back-to-back fiscal year losses, despite their bulging package of talent). Second, well, they have this song called Ice Cream -

- which I happen to like quite a lot. Although the Bang Gang Deejays remix is far superior. Still, its like the Scissor Sisters went and finally got good. If further argument is needed, they have a fairly hot chick drummer. And everyone knows that a fairly hot chick + is a drummer = a very hot chick.

Oh well - if they're no good, there's always The Kooks, and their drunkenness. I love how they're the only band to come two years in a row that actually got a worse set time than the previous year.

I'm going to see - Biffy Clyro(?)

2008-08-07T08:56:00.005+09:00

Later in the afternoon on Saturday, I've got to make the toughest decision of the festival - choosing between the electro-rock monster that is Does it Offend You, Yeah?, and the mildly-delirious Scottish rock beast of Biffy Clyro. And much as I want to see a black man in pyjamas jumping around on stage, the 3 years I've loved Biffy dictate that it's high time I check them out.

My mate Dhiresh hooked me up with two of Biffy's first three albums, Vertigo of Bliss [2003] and Infinity Land [2005] back in '06 (cheers Mocha Bear). Their eclectic style (many tracks containing both ballad-y melodies and loud screaming) is one that interested me, but I could see how they were a fairly inaccessible band. I wasn't likely to put one of their albums on in the car, for fear of the passengers leaping out at red lights. Still, I thought they were pretty awesome, and tracks like Bodies In Flight and Diary of Always got regular airplay on my 'Pod.

Last year Biffy released Puzzle, which while still sounding unceasingly like the Biffy of old, is a huge step in the direction of accessibility. It flows superbly as an album, and each track maintains that feel of discord while keeping everything within a logical realm. Its kind of as though until now Biffy were a moshpit where everyone wanted to punch you in the face (ie. fun but exhausting), and now suddenly the whole pit is working together to propel everyone into chaotic and frivolous madness.

Searching Youtube should find you their older stuff along with a few tracks from Puzzle, along with the first (seriously awesome) single Living is a Problem Because Everything Dies, as embedded below.
Other recommendations include the choir fuelled discordant 9/15ths and the numerous covers you can find on youtube, including a fantastic one of Franz Ferdninands Take Me Out. Warning: It starts beautifully, but it doesn't stay that way for long.

Biffy toured here in March, but thanks to being in China I missed them (and Modest Mouse...). Here's hoping they still want to kick ass for the Osaka massive. Mon the Biffy!

I'm going to see - Crystal Castles

2008-08-06T14:41:00.004+09:00

So Crystal Castles are probably the band I know least about of the ones I want to see, but I'm making amends for that this week, via the wonder of the intertubes.

First up on my list of stops is the effervescent wikipedia, who (after directing me away from the wiki on the 1983 Atari Game of the same name) tell me the band - a DJ/vocalist duo from Toronto - are named after Crystal Castle from She-Ra rather than said game. Which I find ironic, because the band sound a hell of a lot more like an 8-bit video game than a lesbian warrior. Actually, maybe a bit of both.

Youtube will give you insight into CC's sound, which is like someone took a Commodore 64 and played pinball on it - or took a pinball hammer to it, or perhaps both at the same time. Delicious 8-bit samples riding an edgy female vocal make them an act that gets you to sit up and listen - though Ethan (the DJ) does have other releases under CCs name that are very laidback (and just as 8-bitty). The standout track is Courtship Dating, though everything from the chilled out Crimewave to the can't-you-see-I'm-DANCING-HERE xxzczx me are all entertaining (and short, so surely you have no excuses not to check them out).

Extra: If you like this, you may well enjoy Anamanaguchi, who are my favourite "8-bit band". Below is Power Supply.

I'm going to see - Late of the Pier

2008-08-05T23:31:00.003+09:00

Warning: This post wanna be your frieeeeeennnd.

Late of the Pier are a British indie group who got themselves on the airwaves via the fairly successful Moshi Moshi label (which sadly doesn't actually involve Japanese acts). I first came across them thanks to this guy and his often explosive introductions to new music. The first time I heard their single Focker, I was hooked.

LOTP do well for themselves in keeping from the rather unimaginative sound that often emanates from indie groups (it's a good sound, but they all sound like the same damn band sometimes). The key to this is in their heavy electro influence - rock-bands-turning-to-electro is the new electro-music-with-heavy-guitars. Like the best Aussie indie groups atm (Cut Copy, Van She), they sound like they'd be just as much at home behind decks - and occasionally are. Their sound though is ultimately a live, raw, rock-out one, and I'm looking forward to seeing them do just that despite their set time being 12.25pm.

They have 4 singles kicking around on Parlophone Records, the stand-out for me still being Focker, but Space in the Woods and Heartbeat are well worth a listen. Album Fantasy Black Channel is out Aug 11.

For now, here's the Focker video. Fun times (though Heartbeat is a better video).
The last 60 seconds are what really do it for me.

Here we go

2008-08-05T22:54:00.005+09:00

Warning: This post is preclusive to showboating.

Summer Sonic has always been good to me. Sure, it's robbed me of a lot of hard earned cash (over $US800 in tickets and probably around $US300 in water, beer, watermelon and yakisoba), but it gives so much in return.
Summer Sonic has brought me the likes of Daft Punk, Tool, DJ Shadow, Nine Inch Nails, Fall Out Boy, Deftones, Muse, Bloc Party, Phoenix, Interpol, Editors, MSTRKRFT, Klaxons, Weezer, Vitalic, LCD Soundsystem, Digitalism
, and Massive Attack. Its no wonder it may possibly be my favourite weekend of the year.

So with less than a week until SS08, I figured I might tell you a bit about some of the "lesser known" acts (not in the circles you tread, Jake) who I'm keen on checking out. They're really very good. Trust me.

Stay tuned.

That Was Lucky

2008-08-05T22:42:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post probably won't increase your odds, except maybe in refreshment.

Went out into town today, walking around in the sweltering evening heat with hundreds of other twilight shoppers.

My throat was dry, my mouth parched and my face sweating profusely.

My body and wallet cried out to purchase a refreshing beverage.

Lucky there was a drink at the conbini which did just the trick.

Mr. A to Z

2008-08-05T01:47:00.006+09:00

Warning: This post doesn't involve playing its songs just like on the albums.

That hat would piss me off, but he pulls it off far too well.
Photo Source: steinbaugh.com

Last week I finally saw my man Jason Mraz. The gig was a long time coming - I've been a fan since his first album, but no more-so than after I got his bootleg from a coffee shop in San Diego called Java Joe's. The vibe of the gig (just him with an acoustic and some joker named Toca on bongos) is quite simply the best you could ever expect to get out of a free coffeeshop artist - light and bouncy, lamenting but not intense, and with an awesome sense of humour. From his rendition of "At Last" by Etta James to his Spanish ad lib of "Our house (in the middle of the street)", its beauty and comedy with a six-string.

I missed out on seeing Mr. Mraz at Fuji Rock in '06, so I was stoked to hear he was adding onto his tour this time around to include Tokyo, Osaka and Hiroshima. Everyone has always told me he's 1000 times better live, and I believed it. Boy, ain't that the truth.
The man exudes flair, modesty, talent and...well, geek, in one lovable combination that shines out on stage. His band don't let him down either - along with bass, drums and the ever-present Toca on percussion (the dude's a big half-black guy with braids, a cowboy hat and Oakleys - and yet exactly like the nervous joker on the bootleg from JJ's), on the latest tour he also sports a 3-piece brass ensemble (sax, trumpet, trombone) that would steal the show if the man wasn't so damned entertaining himself. I haven't seen a band have this much fun since Ben Harper and his Innocent Criminals, but Jason's take-nothing-too-seriously attitude pulls my strings just a little bit more.

Opening with Make It Mine, he quickly (but not rushedly) moved through a set heavy on the new album (We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things). Older tracks Geek In The Pink, Bella Luna and of course Remedy (I Won't Worry) featured too, but you could tell the band was really digging the fresh material and new stuff to jam with, as that's where all the fun was to be had. I'm Yours a very mainstream track by Jason's standards (sure, he sounds poppy, but there's just so much more to his style that mere Jack-Johnson/John Mayer analogous sound) was so much more entertaining live, especially with a Bob Marley sing-a-long in the middle ("every little thing, is gonna be alright!").

Other standouts included The Dynamo Of Volition (classic Jason geek-rap) and Butterfly, a sexy track that only gets sexier when infused with the jazz trio. And of course noone there would forget A Beautiful Mess - the whole crowd held their breath until the last string was plucked and the last lyric spilled (Jason had to step away from the mic to let people know they could clap - and clap they did, going crazy to make up for all the silence throughout the track...)

In the encore Jason took the time to introduce his band, taking Polaroids of everyone and flicking them into the crowd. Some lucky joker got themselves a timer-ed shot of the whole band, though I don't think anyone needed a memento - somehow feel noone there is going to forget the night anytime soon.

Thanks Jase. And though I'm disappointed you didn't play the track below, it was still the best live gig I've seen this year.

Tell me...

2008-08-05T01:04:00.002+09:00

Warning: This post sets off metal detectors.

...what do you think?

Plans in Motion

2008-07-30T00:58:00.004+09:00

"You see the way Hynesy took out Sivivatu? We can't lose!"

Warning: This post features regular fanboy excitement.

My 3 weeks in China in July are up. Tomorrow I hit Japan again, back for a full 2 weeks before I'm back here to get more involved in some peaktime summer work. Am I complaining? Well, I don't get much of a summer. But in return, I've got loads of cash to do all the fantastic things I'm looking forward to this year.

And fantastic they are: Yesterday the latest installment in my plans for much amusement this year went through successfully, as I managed to get tickets to Bledisloe IV in Hong Kong in November. Judging by the looks of last week's game between the ABs and the Wallabies, it could well be a cracker. I'm almost hoping that the Wallabies win both their home games so it comes down to a winner-takes-all in HK. Noone wants to spend copious amounts of money on a dead rubber.

That's happening November 1st, a week before the recently announced company vacation to Bali, which I am also looking forward to with much excitement. With Luke planning to visit in the last week, its looking to be a bit of an awesome month.

Before then in October we have Radiohead in Osaka on the 2nd, which I must say I'm equally stoked about. Dude. Radiohead.

September has the trip back to NZ and Bill Bailey, not to mention all the wonderful people I am much looking forward to catching up with and proving my continuing existence to. Game on.

But all eyes are focussed firmly for the moment on the next 2 weeks, which will be my only summer for the year. But hey, could be worse. I could be not going to Summer Sonic. The people who organise which were nice enough to release the timetable for (click to enlarge):

I can already spot a couple of titanic clashes, in the form of (my preference first)
The Shoes vs. The Ting Tings
Late Of The Pier vs. MGMT
Biffy Clyro vs. Does It Offend You Yeah? vs. Junkie XL
New Young Pony Club vs. The Kooks
Justice vs. Coldplay (OK its no contest, but I still would like to see Coldplay...)

And that's only Saturday. Sunday is also pretty jam-packed, though only Santogold vs. Cajun Dance Party is causing me strife.

God I love summer.

Toilet Humour

2008-07-21T00:40:00.006+09:00

Warning: This post may make you shit yourself.

I had the privilege of using one of MacDonalds' restrooms the other morning, as Chinese food tends to put my body in a constant state of "when I need to go, I need to go NOW". Thankfully the golden arches were nearby, and I knew they wouldn't have "one of those Chinese toilets".

"One of those Chinese toilets", words that people who have been in Asia for any period of time can well relate to, refers to one of these:

Well, this is a clean one. If you are unlucky enough to have to use one that is communal for all the workers of a factor, you may find yourself trying to negotiate territory worse than the state of a loo at 3am in a busy club.

I for one really can't stand squat toilets (they are fairly prevalent in Japan too, at least in public restrooms). The main reason is because "squatting" is my nemesis. I am incredibly bad at squatting. I don't know if it's years of sprained ankles that has rendered them incapable of bending forward far enough, or inflexible legs that cramp up and lose blood if I fold them in on themselves, but either way I find it near impossible to hold a squat for more than 30 seconds without disabled handles to hold. And that's a fair approximation to how I feel while squatting: rather disabled.

Some places in China are nice enough to have sit down dunnies, though depending on the place, you do wonder if you really want to sit. May be better to hover. Especially when you see signs like the one I saw when I went to sit down (rather hurriedly, as my bowels apparently wait for nothing these days) in this particular toilet in Macca's:

Say what? I shudder to think who has been doing what to warrant the need for that sign. I also think that if someone was attempting to use the sit-down toilet like a squatting one, then they're a) really confused and b) very talented in the balance department.

I'd like to write more, but you know, nature calls.

I'll have my lunch burnt, please

2008-07-19T14:57:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post is not legal in bars or restaurants in most Western countries.

So we were out in some other random part of the city (Dongguan, China), visiting a factory that makes blow-molded stuff (if you don't know what that is, it's not important, and no it's not dirty). While waiting for the guy to pick us up, we have lunch in some cafeteria which serves typically semi-westernized food. Glancing across the menu, I noticed they also catered for those who prefer to inhale their lunch...

China will be the last country to outlaw smoking in eateries. And even then, they won't enforce it. Not in a country where in business situations, if a person offers you a cigarette it's rude to say no (though as foreigners, we can get away with being rude).

"Enclosed is a paper clip, a drinking straw and a rubber band. Please save my son."

2008-07-02T13:18:00.003+09:00

I made this from a beer keg and a baby's bottle.
Warning: This post can also be used to stop international bad-guys.

Don't try these at home.

2008 - The year movies were awesome again?

2008-07-01T13:21:00.007+09:00

Is THIS your card?
Warning: This post is not necessarily region-coded for your country.

I have been thoroughly impressed with the line-up of new movies this year. After a mild 2007 (for those of us not gushing over Transformers, Die Hard 4 was about the only real pant-wetting experience to be had), this year has proven that there is still awesomeness to be made, even if its all sequels, remakes and adaptations.

Although their actual release date may be considered as 2007, last Oscars nominations chilling No Country For Old Men, fantastically-scripted Juno, difficult-to-watch-but-damn-good There Will Be Blood, and the fairly-heartwarming The Bucket List set a standard I didn't think would be met again this year. And yet, starting with the totally fan-boy-pleasing Iron Man, its turning out to be a cracker.

Good reviews abound for the likes of The Incredible Hulk, Wanted, Son Of Rambow and WALL-E suggest that we're in for an excellent next few months. Sparsely different genres but they all look fantastic. And right after they all land we've still got:

Hancock
X-Files
The Dark Knight (ooh boy)
Zack & Miri Make a Porno (Kevin Smith!!)
Australia (and yes I am excited about this)

And, although I'll probably have to wait until 2009 to finally see it, THIS GUY is back.
I think I'm going to faint.

Not that there's no rubbish this year. High School Musical 3, Saw V, You Don't Mess With The Zohan and Disaster Movie should well take care of that.

I'm also very stoked about seeing these all in cinema - if they'll be released here, damnit.

Gonna send into Outa Space

2008-06-17T23:06:00.005+09:00

Warning: I had nothing to do with this wonderful mixtape, but I stole it and put it on my blog.

I'm not such a fan of The Prodigy live. They tend to be kinda one-dimensional, not showcasing the multi-faceted talent of Liam Howlett.
I love mostly everything they've put out. From the borderline happy hardcore of Experience and the 90s dnb of Music For The Jilted Generation (which I remember putting on in the car to Dad saying "did something break"), to the hard industrial Fat of the Land and the synth-gone-wrong of Always Outnumbered... it's all good. As a live act, Keith Flint needs to get a new look, and perhaps some intelligence - he's pretty thick. Maxim can stay.
Kidz by Colette were nice enough to post a 70 minute mastermix (Zshare) of all that is Prodigy, blending together 15 years of golden tunes. Get it while its hot! Yum yum.
Tracklisting @http://kidzbycolette.free.fr/?p=754

--Props to Jake for the assist--

30 seconds to nowhere

2008-06-17T15:50:00.003+09:00

Warning: This post also features stock footage.

Just realised that I hadn't put one of my China vids from a while back on here. So here's a 30 second video of a "factory" in China, which is more like a garage on an unpaved street. The quality is good, but the content is... well, simple. At least its over nice and quick eh?

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

2008-06-17T15:26:00.005+09:00

Warning: This post has sloppy aim.

"Super Pii Pii Brothers"?

I love Japan!

Edit: Despite these being a rather elaborate and impressive April Fools gag, it sows the seed in my mind...

Alkaline Trio - Help Me

2008-06-16T10:03:00.003+09:00

Warning: This post contains better-than-your-average American punk.

So Alkaline Trio have a new album coming out this year, which I'm quite excited about. It's called Agony & Irony and it's due out...July 1 or something. They just released a video for the first single, "Help Me":

The video is really nothing special, though the song is catchy. Nice work.

I know it's a bit tangential, but am I the only one who hears Coldplay's Viva La Vida and thinks it sounds incredibly cheesy? The rest of the album is OK, Cemeteries of London being one of the better tracks, but that violin and his voice are just...far too simple.

To end on a higher, if not particularly new note, you should watch this video. If only for the multiple shots of super-hot Phee the drummer. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Whip, with Trash. Now get out yo' seat an' jump around.

Not now, I have a headache

2008-06-16T01:57:00.004+09:00

Warning: This post isn't all it should be.

And the giant-squid-looming-on-the-kitchen-table post that I'm trying my hardest to avoid dealing with is of course the events of last weekend, in Melbourne with His Whoreness and the likes of Cut Copy, Mr. Oizo and Utah Saints. It might be for lack of good photos that do the trip justice, it might be the lack of energy I've had from the cold I achieved upon my return to reality, or my back, which has been killing me for around 2 weeks. Whatever the excuse, I certainly do want to write about it, but not at 2am on a Sunday night. Don't be offended.

Meanwhile, check out Piers' photos of the gigs. In fact, check out all of Piers' photos. They're wonderful. Especially this one of Oizo.

Shopping

2008-06-16T00:50:00.018+09:00

Warning: This post is both spontaneous and expensive.

So I walked into a CD store today. For the first time in around 6 months. Last time I attempted to do so was in the US, but apparently CD stores no longer exist there. iTunes and Limewire have run them out of business.

I like my music in hard copy. The cover art is fun, it's nice to have a version you can lend around (for any record companies asking, the lending is purely for the people to look at it, see how cool it is and immediately purchase it), and also I can't stand the license that iTunes slaps on its downloaded tracks. Feels like I'm buying something that isn't really mine. Not sure how that analogy works but thats the vibe I get.

Today's damage was to the tune of \22,000, or around US$220. Nice to see CDs getting cheaper though - I got 10 albums for that. Namely:

Weezer - Red Album A nice comeback from Rivers and the boys after the rather disappointing Make Believe. Still reeks of "album with one good single".

Fratellis - Here We Stand Less cockney-punk, more...uplifting? album from these jokers from Glasgow. Far better than Franz Ferdinand.

Does It Offend You Yeah? - You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into...I've liked these guys for a while but purely through remixes of We Are Rockstars, so we'll see what the album is like. Not new, but new to me.

Dexpistols - Lesson.04A nice snapshot of great electro from Tokyo's hipster djs of the moment. Educational indeed. Personal remixes of Digiki and The Lowbrows included.

2 many djs - Radio Soulwax Live: get yer yo yo's out pt.3I've gone a bit off 2 many djs as a live act, as they seem a bit sellout (which is sad seeing as they did so much for the mash-up movement), but they do tend to bring some good shit to my attention. You could say I bought this as a stepping stone or merely out of curiousity.

The Black Ghosts - Mixtape I don't actually like the Black Ghosts. I find the vocalist annoying, and the lyrics cheesy. Having said that, they do make good music. So I went with their mix album as opposed to the studio one. They're coming to World in Kyoto in July. Yay.

Simian Mobile Disco - Live In Japan I have reason to believe this album came out a few days before they actually played here last weekend, so I'm curious as to how this is "live". I missed the show (8pm didn't agree with me, and I was buggered), but I'm keen to check what I missed out on.

Portishead - Third I promised I'd buy it, didn't I? Now they owe me. Live tour including Osaka pleasethanks.

Justice - DJ Mix Leur Selection Justice doing what they originally became famous for - picking good songs and playing them in succession. It's like a talented version of Fatboy Slim. Nice collection of new and old here.

Pendulum - In Silico Just paying them back for a good 2nd album. Can't wait to see them in August.

Yum yum.

In other music news, Jason Mraz announced a tour of Japan to go with his Fuji Rock gig that includes Osaka (July 30) and surprisingly, Hiroshima. Guess he wants to see the Peace Park. Still, I'm happy. I was rueing not having the dough and leave from work to blow mindlessly on heading out to Niigata at the end of July. Now if only Underworld would plan a tour with Data, Switch and the Juggs, and I wouldn't even have a reason to regret missing Fuji.

Good Morning Caleb

2008-06-16T00:41:00.002+09:00

Warning: This post only features births, not deaths or marriages.

Caleb Isaac Fieldes-Booth
Born 11.50pm June 11th 2008 NZT, to Hannah Fieldes and Ramon Booth.
No complications (unless you call not having a name for 4 days a complication).
So far is prone to sleeping and looking like a scrunched up human being.

Welcome. Just so you know, I'm the cool uncle. Not the other two jokers. They're my wingmen.