Five Albums of 2011

Yes, it's that time again, when I, along with countless other internet-dwellers, try to prove my cultural relevance by coming up with a list of über-hip albums of the year. This year my music purchasing has increased slightly after the aural recession of 2010, but not enough to justify a top ten, so a top five will have to suffice. Comments welcome! Here goes...

5. Rob St. John - "Weald"

This album had been on my list of long-awaited releases for some time, and it didn't disappoint. The vinyl is a thing of beauty in itself (yes, it's vinyl-only, digital kids) and, by turns, slow-burning and magisterial, it's a lovely record, full of charm and subtlety.

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4. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - "Diamond Mine"

Perhaps not the strongest King Creosote album, but coupled with flowing soundscapes and homely production by Jon Hopkins, "Diamond Mine" is a real gem, and worthy of Mercury nomination (for whatever it's worth).

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3. Johan Agebjörn - "Casablanca Nights"

I doubt anyone will be surprised that this makes my list. In lieu of a new Sally Shapiro record you might think that a Johan Agebjörn solo release might be a good stop-gap. But, with an impressive list of collaborators, including Wolfram and Legowelt (not to mention Sally, of course), Mr Agebjörn has pulled off an impressive feat by creating a really cohesive album, full of top tunes.

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2. Admiral Fallow - "Boots Met My Face"

Maybe I'm just homesick, stuck as I am on the wrong side of the border, but there's something pleasing about hearing a good, honest Scottish accent on a record like this. Sure, it's indie-folk, which will no doubt be anathema to many, but it's an incredibly strong indie-folk album, with rich instrumentation, great lyrics and full to the brim with pop hooks.

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1. Wolfram - "Wolfram"

Album of the year, in my book, automatically goes to any album with a guest appearance from Haddaway (yes!) But seriously, this is a cracking Italo-influenced album, full of collaborations and special appearances. This has been there or thereabouts on my listening schedule ever since I got my clammy hands on it earlier in the year. The production is spot on, with sweeping pads and sparky synth lines, throbbing basslines and melodies which just fit perfectly. The use of vocoder also gets extra points from me every time.

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Appreciative nods...

A few others just didn't quite make the cut, although I enjoyed them immensely.

M83 - "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming"
Ladytron - "Gravity The Seducer"
Ali Renault - "Ali Renault"
The Moth and the Mirror - "Honestly, This World"
Junior Boys - "It's All True"

and, just for kicks, how about a Compilation of the Year? The sublime...

Jonnie Common presents... “Deskjob”

Latest "Heartache Disco"

Hello chaps. Just a quickie. In case you missed my recent show on Culture Lab Radio, you can hear it again on Mixcloud at http://www.mixcloud.com/alektronic/alektronic-presents-heartache-disco-17062011/

In fact you can hear the show before that too, if you go to http://www.mixcloud.com/alektronic

And I'll be uploading all my shows there as they happen (when I manage to record them properly, that is...)

Cheers!

Alektronic Presents : Heartache Disco : 03/05/11

Hey y'all,

Just a heads-up, if you, for some unfathomable reason, managed to miss my most recent show on Culture Lab Radio, you can listen again here:

http://www.mixcloud.com/alektronic/alektronic-presents-heartache-disco-03052011/

Enjoy!

N

Alektronic presents Heartache Disco

Start:	Nov 18, '10 6:30p
End:	Nov 18, '10 8:00p
Location:	The Internet

I will be playing some hottt Italo and electro-disco traxxx and talking nonsense for your dancing/weeping pleasure/pain this Thursday at 6.30pm on http://culturelabradio.ncl.ac.uk/

Tune in or I will officially pronounce you to be dead. x

Dog Show

Electrofreaks.com brings news of the eagerly awaited debut LP from canine electro genius Rex The Dog, apparently titled "The Rex The Dog Show" and the lead single, "I Can See You, You Can See Me". The latest track is not quite as in-yer-face as previous singles, but I kinda like it...



Bizarrely, I have also discovered that the man behind Rex the Dog was also responsible for early 90s eurodance classic "You Belong To Me" by JX.... Remember this one?


I am now on a mission to discover the early 90s cheesey secrets of today's credible underground electro producers, so watch this space!

In the interests of stupid eclecticism, I've noted that this should make an interesting combination with the new James Yorkston album that's due out at the beginning of September also!

The Ultimate Secret Bunker

I suppose most of us must give at least a passing thought, at some time or another, to what we might do and where we might go in the event of some horrendous world catastrophe - nuclear war, bird flu, the rapid onset of the next ice age, perhaps, or a giant, out of control rabid, toxic Celine Dion rampaging across the globe.

World leaders have certainly given it some thought at various points in recent history, building vast underground bunkers and complex communications infrastructure to ensure that they (and maybe a select few of us) survive. Most recently we had the opening of the Global Seed Vault built under a Norwegian mountain to store all known types of crop, in case some future disaster puts at risk our capacity to produce Corn Flakes and Hovis.

But now I know exactly where I'll be heading should the prophets of doom start their oratory in earnest:

http://gizmodo.com/5018990/lego-secret-vault-contains-all-sets-in-history

Yes, it's the secret Lego vaults, where the crazy Danish plastic brick makers have stashed away one complete set of every Lego product ever made. Really. Every one.

Can you imagine a more fulfilling way to live out your last few days on Earth, as the meagre food and oxygen supplies dwindle and the hope of salvation recedes? Something better than having access to all those Lego Space and Pirates sets that were just that little bit too expensive for your Dad to buy you, even at Christmases or significant birthdays? Come on!!??!

Sorry guys, you can all go off and live in a bunker full of seeds and grain (grain?! Puh-lease - even the most fertile of imaginations would have difficulty making any fun out of a few big piles of plant germplasm) I'll die happy pretending to be a wee square yellow spaceman with limited capacity for limb movements and a head that has a tendency to fall off at the most inopportune moments.

If the rescue parties ever arrived with news of mankind's miracle survival and the great hope for the rebirth of the human race, they would find me, like a crazy, child-like Colonel Kurtz muttering to myself about the scarcity of roof pieces and my grand plan to build a replica Berlin Wall out of thousands of 2x6 multi-coloured studded bricks.

Woolly

Ah, now... in MY day... [author strokes greying beard, sobbing gently before falling asleep against zimmer frame]

http://xrrf.blogspot.com/2008/05/thats-wonder-of-woolworths.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7421000/7421035.stm

Secret

I have a secret. I'm addicted to this website.  

http://www.postsecret.com/      

It's tragic, funny, twisted, sad, desperate, hilarious, disgusting, poignant...   

This is my favourite from the archives.   

http://www.postsecretarchive.com/2008/01/20/10-16-2005/   

You never know, one of them might be from me. About you.

Control

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Cult

Anton Corbijn's biopic of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis has been lauded in many circles, including picking up prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. Corbijn has an outstanding pedigree, having worked with the band during their short lifespan, and with input from Curtis' widow Deborah, and the now-departed Tony Wilson, 'Control' should have all the ingredients required to be a top-notch piece of cinema. That it fails is perhaps the greatest cinematic tragedy of the year.

Firstly I should say that the photography is simply sumptuous, as one would expect. The cast is solid (am I the only Samantha Morton fan out there?), and there are some excellent musical performances too. Thankfully there is no attempt to out-do Steve Coogan's near-perfect Tony Wilson from 24 Hour Party People - here the Factory boss is played pretty straightly by Craig Parkinson, leaving the comic relief to be provided by Joy Division, and later New Order manager Rob Gretton, played by Toby Kebbell.

A film about a man who commits suicide must have its light moments, yet there can be no discussion of mental illness, the pressures of success and fame, and suicide with out some exploration of the internal torments which go alongside. Frustratingly, it feels like Corbijn is merely touching from a distance here (to quote the title of Deborah Curtis' book, on which the film is based). His direction is prosaic and remote, rather than conceptual and intimate; we as an audience never really get an insight into the workings of this troubled mind. There is no real exploration of a troubled childhood or of the exploration of drugs (prescribed and un-prescribed) or the fascination with altering perceptions and experience. Similarly there is little or no insight into the genius of the lyricist and performer, or how he was driven and inspired (save for one cursory nod to some early Wordsworth reading and Bowie listening)

Sam Riley's Curtis comes across as almost too perfect to be truly convincing as a tortured soul. Curtis was a deeply awkward character - an anti-pinup, if you will - but Riley comes across as somewhat cherubic.The lack of emotional insight and character development means that the audience finds it hard to relate to the the spasmodic on-stage performances (there was laughter at the screening I was at). Corbijn fails to make the psychological link between the singer's state of mind and the expression of it through performance, and eventually his downward spiral into depression.

Similarly, we find it hard to truly understand the reasons behind the ultimate, final act. Suicide, and the reasons behind it, must surely be one of the most difficult things to portray through any medium, but Corbijn's withdrawn viewpoint gives us little insight. Instead of a picture of a man torn apart by mental instability, drugs, his own fame, genius, the women he loved and his inability to deal with these issues, we are left with a somewhat puzzling portrait of a slightly-strange-and-troubled-but-nice kid who had it all and threw it away.

I'd highly recommend Deborah Curtis' book, "Touching From A Distance", to get a far more rounded view of one of music's most interesting characters.

No Fun

The High Court ruling this week against online music retailer CD-Wow sets an incredibly dangerous and worrying precedent. In one fell swoop the British music industry has lost any claim they might have had to the moral high ground in the fight against piracy by essentially criminalising companies who attempt to give those who actually want to buy legitimate products a good deal. Imagine if the same logic was applied to bananas. Or cocaine... (erm, you've lost us now, Neil...)

As usual, "No rock And Roll Fun" has the most incisive commentary, which I urge you to read:
http://xrrf.blogspot.com/2007/05/cd-ow-massive-fine-for-trying-to-save.html

It's a blog worth subscribing to as well, for those of you who fear for the future of popular culture...

WHY, THAT'S DELIGHTFUL!

http://users.livejournal.com/tao_/
It may not be exactly, uh, the prettiest site on the Interweb, but Graham Linehan's blog (or, in his words, 'Hompendium of Dorithies') is certainly worth a visit. He of the writing-half-of-Father-Ted fame serves up some searingly skewed political analysis and comedy interludes, as well as other random ephemera. Very funny stuff and worth keeping an eye on too...

Thou Shalt Always Kill

OK, this track does smack somewhat of the classic gimmicky, novelty, list-of-things single (c.f.The Sunscreen Song (Class of '99), It's The End Of The World And We Know It and - oooh, controversial - Losing My Edge)

But nevertheless, it does have a certain zeitgeisty charm to it. The video really makes the song, I feel - it's quirky at just the right pitch and superbly put together. Enjoy.




Courtesy of the irresistable Headphonesex and Music Like Dirt

Don't Give Up

"Give me a reason to stay constantly ignored

I don’t think I can

Give me an angle that I haven’t tried before

Not from where I stand

A guarantee for being honestly compared

Could not be found

You want to live when life is sickeningly unfair

Stick around"

I am... The Whitest Boy Alive...

Junior Boys

Start:	Feb 16, '07 7:30p
End:	Feb 16, '07 10:45p
Location:	ABC2, Glasgow

So This Is Goodbye....

Adam Buxton

http://www.adam-buxton.co.uk/ad/
Adam Buxton's personal website (he of 'Adam and Joe' fame) provides much topical mirth, as well as musical and comedic video nuggets... Recommended.

Fireworks

Sunday night's Firework concert in Princes Street Gardens was a spectacular event for the thousands present watching... and the thousands of others who were startled/woken up/otherwise roused by the tremendous explosions from the sky!

The highlight was undoubtedly the incredible heart-shaped fireworks which you can see here:

http://flickr.com/photos/redlex/234774685/

There you can also listen to a bit of the concert (with all the bangs) which someone has sneakily recorded...

Troilus and Cressida

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

The Royal Shakespeare Company and EIF's trouble-hit collaboration turned out to be something of a triumph, bringing one of The Great Bard's more, um, "difficult" works to the Festival with bags of epic grandeur and fake-tanned flesh.

Outstanding performances, especially, I thought, Ian Hughes as the parasitic Thersites, Paul Jesson as Pandarus and the ever-sonorous David Yelland as Ulysses.

At over three and a half hours, this could have been a real endurance test, but the excellent cast kept the action moving along swiftly throughout, and especially during the action-packed second half, never allowing the audience to become complacent.

Some utterly unnecessary nudity did detract slightly, as did the overly-camp portrayal of Achilles. I was especially impressed with the excellent scenery (there were no hitches this time) and the superb Julian Lewis Jones as Ajax who all-but stole the show.

Given the fiasco that had led to the cancelling of the previous night's performance during the interval, it was unsurprising that there was a palpable sigh of relief when the actors came out for the second half. I was very glad they did.