thoughts/mini reviews on stuff.

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Nirvana - Nevermind (Album - 1991)

Yes, this was my first time listening. Of course I had heard Smells Like Teen Spirit Before, and hearing it as the opener reignited a lot of Guitar Hero memories for me! I really enjoyed ‘Bleed’ - like rock tracks with a sense of urgency to them and from the get go I was feeling it. Honestly, I wasn’t too big on ‘Lithium’, just kind of lost my interest as it went on. ‘Polly’ was a nice unexpected change up, really enjoyed that track! ‘Something In The Way’ is also a nice slower one. The screaming on the closing track ‘Endless, Nameless’ was personally a bit much for me.

8/10 - A classic, and now I hear why.

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Twin Atlantic - Transparency (Album - 2022)

I have never listened to anything by Twin Atlantic before. My partner reccommended them to me, and I noticed they had a new album coming out so I just dived in with it on release day. I enjoyed it! I can’t say I’ve heard a lot of Scottish singers before - the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Chvrches’  Lauren Mayberry (who I am a huge fan of), so it was refreshing to hear that stand out accent on an album like this. I haven’t got much more to say as this kind of music is quite new to me - I am going to dive into the band’s discography and hear where they’ve come from.

7/10 - Fun, different, definitely would listen again!

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Shire T - Tomorrow’s People (Album - 2021)

I just randomly stuck this on in the background late at night as I was sorting some bits sat at my desk, therefore did not pay a huge amount of attention to each individual track, hence the short but sweet thoughts.

I’d heard one or two of the tracks through playlists and I liked them, so I just decided to let the whole thing play. It reminded me a lot of Since I Left You by The Avalanches. Very happy, almost summery grooves, little vocal chops here and there, electric synths, nice ambient parts, breaks, the lot. Uplifting stuff! Special mention to the closing track ‘Serve No Tea’ - took my mind to Aphex Twin - Avril 14th.

It has made me want to listen to Maribou State’s stuff. (Shire T is one half of Maribou State and I belive this is his first solo outing).

8/10 - Late night vibing, working, grooving, wondering. Memorable.

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Virtual Riot - Simulation (Album - 2021)

His tune ‘Energy Drink’ was one of my favourites when I was first DJing about nine years ago, and as much as I am not as into this style of EDM as I used to be, it brings back some of the best memories. Simulation is the new hour-long outing from one of Germany’s biggest dubstep/brostep/electro/just general madness producers, 27 year old Christian Valentin "Val" Brunn AKA Virtual Riot.

From the start, I know I’m in for a wild ride. The ‘Login’ intro is an immersive way to tell me “you’re in. here we go. out of this world for the next sixty minutes.”. The second track is no messing about, full force, good feeling dubstep. I’m bobbing my head. For the first few tracks we get some nice transitions (which are always welcome in my opinion - I like the feeling of not quite knowing when I’m into the next track) and by track three I’m being taken back to the prime days of Skrillex and Zomboy blowing my brains out, climbing synths feeling like they’re never going to end making me want to be in the middle of a sweaty moshpit. The words stomping and growling come to mind with these synths.

On track 5 we get some fun nicely fitting bars from So Loki - not usually my flavour but I liked it. Casual and sits nicely in the mix. Track 6 - CHROMA - is a definite highlight. I can only describe it as crystal-y. Next up we have something which really made me smile, another dubstep whomper featuring the return of a Virtual Riot classic - the use of Team Fortress 2 character voice lines amidst crazy drops. A really nice midtempo, almost Rezz-esque vibe creeps up on track 9, very powerful. Then for ‘Touhou Riddim’ I was pleasantly surprised with a TRANCE BREAKDOWN! WOOOO! TRAANCE! Epic stuff.

‘Fork Funeral’ fulfilled my desire for some banging 128bpm electro house which Brunn has done excellently before, and this time he did not disappoint. Obligatory halftime second drop included. ‘Back In Time’ brought a smile with a borderline happy hardcore drop - strengthening the variety of the album’s sub-genre selections.

Towards the end of the album we get some beautiful vocals for a... ahem... dreamy... (sorry) track ‘Dreaming’ from Danyka Nadeau - when it reaches the middle some lovely plucky sounds come in, reminding me of old Skrillex & Justin Bieber stuff and culminating in some excellent use of strings and drums towards the last quarter of the track - definitely another highlight of the album for me. But I was not done with being wowed yet. ‘Neon Angel’ truly blew me away. Smooth, retro, synthwave vibes, I felt like I was entering Night City, crusing with the neon lights lighting the path.

Everything gets wrapped up with a great outro track, and suddenly I’m out of the Simulation and back to reality.

Overall: fun, nostalgic, diverse and club-ready. First-rate stuff from Germany.

8/10 - Bringing memories, smiles and bass faces.

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Low - HEY WHAT (Album - 2021)

What is described on Wikipedia as ‘slowcore’ and ‘dream pop’, I had never at all listened to this band’s music or heard of them. I listened purely because I saw the album receiving rave reviews online. I thoroughly enjoyed what I heard. Excellent vocal harmonies in places, crazy distorted sounds and very nice abstract/ambient moments. My favourite track is ‘Hey’ - I am a sucker for very long, beautiful tracks - especially ones that I imagine fititng nicely into the background of a very emotional moment in a TV series such as Mr Robot.

9/10 - Dreamy, emotional, epic

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Virtual live music events during lockdown

Due to the global pandemic of 2020, artists of all kinds have taken to live streaming to deliver their performances and releases among other things. Here are some of the ones that I have ‘attended’ and some thoughts on each:

8th May - Defected Virtual Festival Livestream - managed to catch some great sets from Danny Howard, Selena Faider and Claptone

9th May - Fortnite Party Royale - An in-game event on Fortnite complete with a full visual stage and huge screen to see the person playing on. Short but sweet sets from Dillon Francis, Steve Aoki and deadmau5. [bonus: deadmau5 did an afterparty testpilot set on his Mixer channel afterwards that went on until late]

9th May - Secret Sky Virtual Festival - Put together by Porter Robinson, a huge virtual event across 14 hours spanning a number of genres and visual presentations. Also, a virtual auditorium where you could join from your browser and see other people represented as small squiggles in a huge space where you could see the visuals. Loved the sets I saw: DJ Potaro (Porter’s old school electro throwback set), KNOWER, DV-i, San Holo, GRRL, Shadient, kz, Doss, Hakushi Hasegawa, Jai Wolf, Nanobii, Anamanaguchi, Kizuna AI, Madeon and Porter Robinson. Porter’s set was the highlight - brilliant edit of Avril Lavigne towards the end and the debut of some new music of his including the Get Your Wish remixes. Went to bed at about 5:45am.

27th May - Mat Zo & Friends: A Minecraft Party - A Mad Zoo/Anjunabeats crossover event hosted by Mat Zo. This was one of the most unique experiences. A full world created in Minecraft. A VIP campsite where attendees set up camp days in advance of the show. Visuals pushing the limits of Minecraft’s particle effects. A night of brilliant sets from a variety of artists. People turning into parrots and turtles. ‘Shady bartenders’ that sold you items your characters could consume and then be given hazy vision/dizziness/floatyness. I was there from start to finish and absolutely loved it - Counsel Pop, Inverted Silence, Rohaan, Groke, Swardy, Luttrell and Mat Zo (playing brand new album material that BLEW ME AWAY).

3rd/4th July - Glastonbury & Shangri-La present Lost Horizon Festival - Run through the VR events program Sansar (which lets you jump in as an avatar with friends and see the DJ inside the virtual space), this event spanned multiple stages and had AAA headline acts. I had a laugh with some mates in this one. Managed to catch Absolute & Jaguar, Mella Dee, Fatboy Slim, 24HR Garage Girls, Pete Tong, Anna, Sasha, Whiney, London Elektricity, Metrik and Alan Fitzpatrick.

25th July - Tomorrowland Around The World

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Fyre (Documentary - 2019)

Just watched a great doc about that festival that was a flop.

I enjoyed it, felt a bit sad towards the end as I was thinking about the hundreds of workers who did so much to prepare everything and never got paid a penny. Was cool to see Jillionaire (from Major Lazer) talking in it.

Billy McFarland (the main man) is an absolute nutter and it seemed he genuinely believed the festival would live up to what it had been marketed as. He is now in jail after explicitly saying “I’m not going to jail” which is quite funny.

This made me think a bit about if we were to put on a festival locally, the amount of planning and time it would take - we would have to do it properly. NO bullshit marketing selling something that wasn’t actually going to happen.

7/10 - would watch again.

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Some quick thoughts on stuff I’ve recently watched

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (Movie - 1998): I have never seen anything like it. Brilliant and made me laugh a few times. Johnny Depp is a great diverse actor. The drug fuelled madness reminded me of The Secret DJ.

Chernobyl (TV Series - 2019): Absolutely phenomenal. One of the best series I’ve ever seen. Top notch acting. I learnt a lot about this horrible disaster and it lead me to read heavily into what happened and other similar man made disasters. Seeing Paul Ritter of Friday Night Dinner fame in a more serious role made me laugh (”not great not terrible”...”he’s delusional” etc.). The episode with the dogs was horrible. Watching the nurses getting angry at visitors for getting too close to patients was very on topic to the COVID 19 situation strangely.

The Football Factory (Movie - 2004): Seen this many a times when I was younger with friends, an absolute British classic in my eyes. When Tommy Johnson wakes up to news that he blackout drunk tried to get with Billy Bright’s wife and panics and goes to beg him and it’s all a wind up - classic. Watching as an older person made me really wonder why football hooligans love it so much, literally beating the shit out of each other. Each to their own I suppose.

The Breakfast Club (Movie - 1985): Second time seeing this, and I loved it. Made me think about films that are pretty much entirely in one location - it’s got to be done well to keep you interested.

Inglorious Basterds (Movie - 2009): As I’m writing this, realising 2009 was fucking ages ago! Really has stood the test of time this film. Cristoph Waltz is the highlight for me. Up there with Tarantino’s best.

Ex Machina (Movie - 2015): I had been meaning to watch this for years. Enjoyed it. Wouldn’t say it was one of the best films I’ve seen but it was good, always into techy roboty things.

There are more that I want to write about but it’s 11:51PM. I’d be here til at least 2AM for sure.

[itstartedwithfyre]

Hello!

I am starting this thing to share thoughts on what I’ve been seeing/doing/experiencing/whatever. At the moment I’m thinking mainly movies/tv shows/games/music. A bit of fun and I like the idea of keeping a record of my thoughts after c o n s u m i n g media.