Forthcoming 'Accomplishments':

Not fail, but not do sufficiently well enough in forthcoming (i.e Tuesday's) exams

Fail to be inspired to craft an 'inspirational' dissertation idea

Stand on the suspension bridge, always smoking the 'last cigarette'.

Get seriously out of my own head. Enough to perhaps do something akin to previous accomplishments (such as falling in the harbor, random hotel Spaniards etc etc)

Fucking DANCE!

Run away!

2009: My Favourite Releases of the Year 2009

Okay, so 2009 was a pretty good year for music, well that was my perception at least. 2010 is shaping up to top its predecessor as well, which puts me in a very good mood. With a new decade seeing highly anticipated albums from some of my favourite artists/bands/etc, it seems that in retrospect, 2009 was a year of new blood, new names releasing debut or 'breakthrough' recordings. We can only hope that new records from A Silver Mt. Zion, Efterklang, Liars, Four Tet and Joanna 'dick-in-a-box' Newsom are worth getting excited for. So far I've heard leaks of ASMZ, Efterklang, Liars and they all seem to have the potential to be great...although ASMZ won't be played on Radio One anytime soon. The Efterklang LP 'Magic Chairs' seems to have the most 'commercial' appeal, with the Danish ensemble dropping their 'indie-choir' (just had a horrible image of 'performing parades' the 'cast of Glee version'. Yikes.) for genuine pop-songs. Don't be put off by this though, its not fucking Journey or anything. Liars. Here is a band that are perhaps past their peak, thanks to simply mind-fucking everyone with 2006's incredible 'Drum's Not Dead' . But their new album, 'Sisterworld' is a return to form, for me, after I couldn't really get into their last, self-titled effort.

Okay, wow, so you got two posts for the price of one it seems.

Here is 2009, or at least what I care to remember of it...

Moth/Wolf Cub - Burial & Four Tet

Let's get one thing straight, this was a MASSIVE release back in April. With minimalistic black artwork and and killer production, this became a must-have record for DJs everywhere. Moth/Wolf Cub was shrouded in mystery and this was probably of equal importance to the quality of the tracks, in terms of its notoriety. Was this a true collaboration of two of the UK's finest electronic music producers, or did one track belong to each artist. Perhaps they are homages to each others musical styles, or somewhere in between these suggested scenarios. I've seen Hebden perform both in the DJ and Live environment, and always the result is overwhelmingly positive. Two tracks that have become instantly recognizable for those in 'dubstep' clubs in the UK. Very infrequently do collaborations surpass the hefty sum of their parts, but this is THE collaboration of the year.

Merriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective

Upon release this was a hotly tipped AOTY contender by much of the indie media. The eighth LP from AC was a more 'accessible' version of their Psych-Folk selves, gone were a member (and apparently he took all his guitars with him) and in was a synth-oriented explosion of psychedelic ditties. Some may say that overall this album is a bit overrated; perhaps caused by the two singles 'My Girls' and 'Summertime Clothes' being arguably the weakest tracks in my opinion. For me this was perhaps their (counts in head) 4th or 5th best album. (behind 'Sung Tongs', 'Feels', 'Strawberry Jam' and perhaps....all of them) but yeah, 'breakthrough record', massive critical acclaim.

Great Lengths - Martyn

The highest ranking 'dubstep' full length of the year for me, and many others. Great Lengths seems to have been around for ages, with all manner of dj's from different sub-genres, dropping tracks from the Dutchman's debut LP. Martyn's dutch heritage is retained by the techno feeling his sound can sometimes produce, but with the classic bass-melodies of 'Vancouver', 'Elden St.' etc etc. this album has united both fans of the more aggressive south london producers (16 Bit et al) with those who enjoy the berlin-ic sounds of the likes of Scuba and Appleblim's latest productions. In a medium where the vinyl 12" release is the reigning monarch, 'dubstep' albums are usually more compilations of singles, but Martyn is an advocate of the process in which an album is produced. Believing that isolation and focus can combine to form something outstanding. Great Lengths is just that. ALSO: Martyn's stunning Fabric 50 mix, as well as cerebral sets at bestival and Warehouse Project, meant that he was always going to feature in this list!

Ambivalence Avenue - Bibio

A beautiful mix of manipulated guitar, synthesizers, 'found sounds' and IDM, Bibio's Warp debut was one of the most eclectic albums of 2009 yet still one of the most beautiful. Its release in June, this album complemented the British Summer perfectly for me. The idea of simultaneously feeling both positive and negative about some aspect of your life (that's the ambivalence bit, yeah!) summed up last year for me. From the funk of 'Jealous of Roses', the 'song-writer-ish middle section, through the more 'Electronic' 'S'Vive', the album's contrasting styles unite on final tracks 'Cry! Baby!' and 'Dwrcan'. For me the stand-out track is 'Haikuesque (When She Laughs)'.

Bitte Orca - Dirty Projectors

Love this album. Unusual rhythms and unique guitar stylings plus some lovely ladies singing lovely-ly. Pop music as it should be. Apparently Beyonce's mum is a fan. Now THAT would be a collaboration!! Hats off to DP for their music video for 'Stillness Is The Move', which is (if you haven't seen it) basically weird-sheeted-girl-group-DP, plus rugged alpaca wielding Dave Longstreth, meandering, sometimes in an unusually choreographed manner, around the wilderness of north america. Ain't that awesome, or something.

Délivrance - A Hawk And A Hacksaw

This Balkan-Folk outfit from Albuquerque, New Mexico, first came to my attention this year, I actually bought the album on recommendation from the staff in a local record shop. The precision of their playing and the energy of their live performances is truly represented on this their 5th album. Sometimes if I listen to this album I have a very vivid daydream where I am in a Bulgarian forest at the turn of the 20th century, being stalked by some weird creature similar to the 'Judderman' from the Metz Schnapps advert a couple year back. Yeah, I said it was VIVID. 'Beware the Judderman, my dears, when the moon is fat.'

Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear

Not as good as Yellow House, for me. But TUNES such as 'Two Weeks' got the masses on side, whilst tracks like opener 'Southern Point' and 'Fine For Now' rounded off a very good album. The music equivalent of a 'little black dress' (hear me out), good for dinner parties, and to have a little dance/boogie to, perfect for all occasions.

Three EPs - Shackleton

The Skull Disco Co-founder and producer's LP on Frankfurt/Berlin's Perlon label cemented a great year for dubstep. Not as accessible as Martyn's 'great lengths', Three EPs demonstrates dubstep at its most menacing. Shackleton's productions have an aggression to them without having to result to excessive 'chainsaw-bass' and fucking 'wobble' that has made artists such as 16 Bit, Rusko, Caspa etc. popular. This collection sees Shackleton preserve the classic, pure, deep basslines that made seminal tunes such as 'Blood On My Hands'; The eery 'Mountains of Ashes', is well worth a listen. This record demands a lot from the listener: firstly without a sub or decent headphones there is NO POINT bothering. Secondly it is truly epic on the intro. When the bassline finally drops, you find that you where never, ever going to be ready for it. Try as you might, you struggle, but soon 'Something Has Got To Give', and it's always more likely to be you that yields, left in a bass-riddled mess on the floor. Urgh.

the ASMZ, Efterklang leaks can be found on www.nodata.tv

Liars leak is on www.sordomusic.com

Full Greenman REVIEW: Saturday!!...Pt.1

Hello and welcome to Greenman review: SATURDAY

So after Friday's feast of musical loveliness, how could Saturday possibly top it? Basically, put Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear and Andrew Bird on the same bill and you're going to do pretty well. Saturday's line up also contained many little surprises and new faces (to me at least) that made it just as beautiful as anything you could ever experience.

Peter Broderick

so, what did I know of Peter Broderick before GM. Not a lot. It is to his credit, that I am now obsessed with opening every channel of my being to any recording that Peter is a part of. His 2009 full length, 'Home' is a calming influence on me whenever I play it. The album may be a simple set up of nylon-stringed guitar and some vocal effects, but produced with a balletic quality that separates it from the usual singer-songwriter, acoustic bollocks that is churned out so readily.

Back to the performance. Broderick takes to the stage with the audience's attention (okay, mine at least) drawn to his angular Scandinavian features and his shoes. I liked his shoes, and was pleased when he wore them again at bestival, whilst performing with Efterklang. The stage set up consisted of a 'Owen Pallet style' combination of loop pedals, keyboard, violin and both acoustic and electric guitars. Broderick's talent for combining sincere lyrics and pretty melodies won over the crowd and his stories that linked songs together left me feeling jealous of such a bohemian existence, oh well. Well played Peter. Saw him in with the civilians on the sunday, nice guy! Although there were no "I've just made a fool out of myself in front of Jarvis Cocker - esque" psychiatric breakdowns. Lame.

Beach House

Don't think I don't like Beach House, because I sure do, but I was not in the MOOD, so Johnny, Ben and I went to the film tent to watch, a film

The Film Tent

Okay so in the film tent I saw two short features, one was a welsh production, a short monologue of a women and her estranged husband is gone....has a couple of kids....yawn.

The real star of the afternoon was 'Trolley Man'. For more info click here. Ernest Smith is a pensioner who collects abandoned shopping trolleys and returns them to there 'owners', the supermarkets. The film follows him around Enfield as he locates trolleys and comments on how "the nearest (insert supermarket) must be, oh... about three-quarters of a mile from here". It then portrays his bafflement as some supermarkets don't want to be pestered about collecting potentially useless items that they have subsequently replaced. The film dabbles, in a light-hearted manner, with themes including: the spaces that abandoned trolleys occupy in urban landscapes, the administrative holes that Ernest annoyingly (from the POV of the council etc.) highlights and most entertainingly, the portrayal of the character of Ernest. Click on the link to view the film (its only 13-14 minutes long).

Forthcoming Posts

Coming Soon:

• Greenman Review: parts 2 and 3
• Warehouse Project 09: Thrasher
• Subloaded 5th Birthday Bash: 31/10
• Grizzly Bear: Ar 6/11
• Broadcast: Cube 6/12
• MAYBE: Battles, Flying Lotus: London 5/12
• A RESPONSE to the Epigram's list "most loved albums 00-10"

Basically my 'beef' with Bristol's student music press and basically how terrible it is (with the exception being Luke Morgan Britton, of course) has turned this "blog" into a more of a personal exploration into "journalism". It will be poor, but perhaps a few will enjoy what I have to say about the gigs etc. that I attend. COMMENT if I am bad, COMMENT if i'm good. COMMENT if you are non-plussed.

ps. Is anyone else getting seriously pissed off with Charlie Brooker's constant tweeting about Modern Warfare 2? JEEZ

Full Greenman REVIEW: Friday

Okay, so I may not be the most prolific blogger (as has previously been alluded to), come to think of it, I've never been prolific at anything, ever, but I intend to right this wrong. Now.

Let me start with a MORE comprehensive tale of what went on this summer: mainly Greenman and Bestival music festivals.

Greenman

What a fantastic weekend. With my buddies, camping in a gorgeous valley in the Brecon Beacons, beautiful music and such a friendly and comfortable atmosphere.

I knew relatively little about this festival up until a few years ago; from which point I desperately wanted to go. But only by be-friending some natives did Greenman become a definite on my summer calender. No doubt the line-up this year was stellar on Friday and Saturday, with Sunday appearing to be the weakest of the three days. My worries were quickly squashed by a certain Aussie three-piece though (more on that later).

Greenman Band Reviews

Friday: Broken Records

This Scottish band seemed to fit the identi-kit nature of mid-afternoon, main-stagers, in terms of band composition anyway: couple of guitars, bass and drums (Obv.) accompanied by the omnipresent String and/or Brass section. By this time I was sick to the back teeth of twee folk-pop (something compounded by We Aeronauts amongst others). So when the thick Scottish drawl from frontman Jamie Sutherland cascaded into a cacophony of ringing guitars and yelps (much rawer than on their record "Until The Earth Begins To Part") I was pleasantly surprised. Good performance, Good band. Overall their sound live can rival that of say Arcade Fire (the archetype of these bands), but they need to encompass this on record to truly achieve anything of note.

Errors

Oh to be lumbered with such a moniker....at 7 pm, "The British Battles" took to the stage on the Far Out stage. Living up to being billed as a blighty's version of Tyondai Braxton and co. shouldn't have gone as well as it did there that night though. Errors are a band who despite the inevitable comparisons, manage to produce math-rock in the upper-echelons of artistic merit. Granted they don't have an 'Atlas', but they certainly have ripped up the 1:20 000 OS Map of Post-Rock and its surrounding area and through both unrestrained expression and attention to detail, have produced a unique sound (Little Geography analogy there).

British Sea Power

One of the STAND OUT performances of the weekend for me (and Rhian of course). BSP came to Greenman on the back of the release of Man of Aran (see my first post) essentially a soundtrack, but best described as a piece of grandeur: BSP do Post-Rock...everything the 'Great Skua' (from their last rock release 'Do You Like Rock Music?') was and more. POURING ON THE EPIC. But this is a festival, so obviously, with the exception of the aforementioned 'Skua' the set was a wonderful 45 minutes of BSP bliss. Tracks such as 'Lights Out For Darker Skies', 'No Lucifer' and 'Remember Me' were performed with an endless abundance of energy. Truly Memorable for BSP fans. FUN times for those not familiar with the material

Four Tet

One of Greenman's most unique features is that mostly there is very little overlapping of headliners. This means my fears of having to choose between Animal Collective and Four Tet were averted . PHEW. Kieran Hebden did not disappoint. Up until Four Tet began, there was a lot of speculation as to what kind of set this would be: DJ set (including "the hottest 12" this year, of course, Kieran's collaboration with Burial) or Pure IDM? The answer was a bewildering combination of both. This may worry you. A cop-out? Not a chance. The combination of extended melodies and construction of each track's textures and sophisticated blending from one track to another left the audience aurally challenged, whilst enough of the beat remained to allow for a sporadic form of 'dance'. Hebden curated a merging of the new Burial productions (Moth and Wolf Cub) and the Old 'Rounds'- era electronica into something that resembled a soundscape more akin to his last full length, 'Ringer'. Breathtaking.

Animal Collective

Having seen AC play the Trinity Centre in Bristol, at Easter, I was not alone in expecting a set-for-the-ages from these guys. To be fair, we never gave them much chance. The expectation was so large, the setting so 'perfect' that AC were always going to fall short. Mind you many still cited this performance as one of their favourite ever sets. AC were knackered. They appeared weary and loose and their trippy-merriweather-heavy excursion into PSY-folk did not truly fulfill the crowd's expectations. 'Fireworks' shouldn't feel like they have been playing it for 15 minutes, even if they have, it should be effortless, but the experimentation sapped energy from the main-stage crowd, as opposed to releasing it upon them. Finale 'Brothersport' was by far the best track, and was received the best.

Verdict: AC's set was a trippy-masterpiece. It was just a bit shy, and hid in the trees around Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Saturday tomorrow (maybe)

Being a bad blogger: the stories of multiple trips to wales, bristol, and Greenman. yikes.

Sometimes too much happens. More oftenly i'm just too darn lazy.



My summer has not consited of the big global adventures that people my age are supposed to undertake, but i'll hide my lack of organisational skills with a facade of bouycotting air travel, believable no? Probably not, no. However I have had an active time, just sporadically distributed, fits and starts, throughout a weird liminal period.



Firstly there was a trip to howard's house in Dolgellau, fun times at the beach, with friends new and old and really new.













Rhian's birthday wales trip to Capel Curig, lots of rain, rum and me passing out to my own rapping.













Then I went to Bristol, to move some stuff into my new flat, and also to see Final Fantasy in Cardiff, at the Gate. What a truly great gig, shame me and Rhian had to leg it to the bus station, only for the bus to be late, late enough for us to have been able to not only catch the whole set, but also the exclusive outdoor acoustic set after. National express owe us big.













GREENMAN


awesome bands





awesome times





awesome...







SHAVE

MOON

Today I went with my friends Howard and Johnny to Manchester, to see the Duncan Jones (aka Son of Bowie) film Moon at the Cornerhouse. I had a great day, I think they had a great day too. Sometimes I wish everyone's interface was an emoticon voiced by kevin spacey/ :-s / :- / :-)...etc....

Basically the film is very entertaining, and is pretty awesome at putting any shitty existential crisis one might be having into a very lovely "man up, you could be a clone" context.

Without spoiling the film too much, the ending is a bit weak, and stops the film from being a "Stuff a White Person would like"

APPENDIX: New Feature...GASP. Quote(s) of the Day(s):
"Efficiency is the Spice of Life" Johnny Rizkallah