A Post About Music
I'm still updating from my Wii. I've got a lot to write about Jun's return from Europe on Friday morning, and subsequent departure for Korea today, but I'll leave it for my work PC. Speaking of PCs, I've specced up a new one, and I'll probably start buying the parts next week.
I acquired 8 new albums over the course of the last week. The first 3 arrived from Japan on Tuesday:
YMCK - Family Genesis. The NES-pop trio's third album sounds a little bit samey after the first two, but I appreciate the fact that they've stuck solidly to their 8-bit sound, despite moving to a major label. As usual, it's wonderfully enjoyable and polished.
Boom Boom Satellites - Exposed. Every new BBS album is going to disappoint me; Let's face it, they're never going to return to the Big Beat sound of their first four albums, and I should stop hoping they will, but what's worse is that with each new release they strip away more and more of the diversity that caused me to fall in love with them in the first place. While it's perfectly enjoyable, Exposed in an exercise in indie-rock uniformity. It's catchy and adrenal, but that's pretty much all it is.
Riow Arai - Electric Emerald. After my delight at discovering Arai's 2000 album, Mind Edit, Electric Emerald contains all of the disappointment of a turd in a Snickers wrapper. Quite why he ditched the glitchy minimalist hip-hop in favour of mid-nineties-sounding four-to-the-floor dance generica is a mystery, and one that doesn't do him any favours. I can see where it went wrong; Mind Edit was beat-driven, sample-heavy and unmelodic. Emerald is the opposite, and it clearly highlights the fact that he just can't do melody. The electronics are also sub-par, often sounding like they were dragged of an early rave track, and the production generally leaves little to be desired. He's not a very good producer; I already knew this. Mind Edit played to his strengths, however, and it worked. Electric Emerald plays to his failings, and it's just a mess.
Next up I received The Young Punx - Your Music Is Killing Me from Sarah for Christmas (Thanks!), and today I bought: At The Drive-In - Relationship of Command, The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole, Maxïmo Park - A Certain Trigger, and 30secondstomars - A Beautiful Lie. I haven't had the chance to listen to any of these yet, because my PC was the only way I had of playing CDs, but I'll bring them to work on Monday and put them on my iPod. You can look forward to brief opinions on them in future entries, should any of them interest me enough. At any rate, I think the moral of this story is that I'm buying too many CDs, and I should probably cut down a bit.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch A Clockwork Orange. Bye!
I acquired 8 new albums over the course of the last week. The first 3 arrived from Japan on Tuesday:
YMCK - Family Genesis. The NES-pop trio's third album sounds a little bit samey after the first two, but I appreciate the fact that they've stuck solidly to their 8-bit sound, despite moving to a major label. As usual, it's wonderfully enjoyable and polished.
Boom Boom Satellites - Exposed. Every new BBS album is going to disappoint me; Let's face it, they're never going to return to the Big Beat sound of their first four albums, and I should stop hoping they will, but what's worse is that with each new release they strip away more and more of the diversity that caused me to fall in love with them in the first place. While it's perfectly enjoyable, Exposed in an exercise in indie-rock uniformity. It's catchy and adrenal, but that's pretty much all it is.
Riow Arai - Electric Emerald. After my delight at discovering Arai's 2000 album, Mind Edit, Electric Emerald contains all of the disappointment of a turd in a Snickers wrapper. Quite why he ditched the glitchy minimalist hip-hop in favour of mid-nineties-sounding four-to-the-floor dance generica is a mystery, and one that doesn't do him any favours. I can see where it went wrong; Mind Edit was beat-driven, sample-heavy and unmelodic. Emerald is the opposite, and it clearly highlights the fact that he just can't do melody. The electronics are also sub-par, often sounding like they were dragged of an early rave track, and the production generally leaves little to be desired. He's not a very good producer; I already knew this. Mind Edit played to his strengths, however, and it worked. Electric Emerald plays to his failings, and it's just a mess.
Next up I received The Young Punx - Your Music Is Killing Me from Sarah for Christmas (Thanks!), and today I bought: At The Drive-In - Relationship of Command, The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole, Maxïmo Park - A Certain Trigger, and 30secondstomars - A Beautiful Lie. I haven't had the chance to listen to any of these yet, because my PC was the only way I had of playing CDs, but I'll bring them to work on Monday and put them on my iPod. You can look forward to brief opinions on them in future entries, should any of them interest me enough. At any rate, I think the moral of this story is that I'm buying too many CDs, and I should probably cut down a bit.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch A Clockwork Orange. Bye!