Choosing To Die
The name Terry Pratchett usually rolls along when one would discuss fantasy novels. If you're not familiar with either him or the Discworld series I suggest you read about it on Wikipedia or perhaps even read a book or two from the series (I warmly recommend them). But this little documentary isn't directly about Terry nor it is about his work which is why I won't bother explaining it.
This documentary covers a bit more important (and perhaps a more interesting) thematic which Terry calls "assisted dying". Assisted dying (or suicide, as the law calls it) is illegal in Europe but not in Switzerland thus the existence of a particular company there that helps people to die in peace. Terry goes around exploring this troublesome and perhaps controversial topic by meeting and talking with people who are considering this option. The sad fact about Terry Pratchett is that he has a very rare type of Alzheimer's disease which is killing off his writing ability day by day. He feels that when his disease advances far enough that it completely destroys his ability to write he should have the right to end his life in a painless process rather than suffering a miserable life. Thus this isn't just a documentary about the topic but also a journey of sort for Terry Pratchett. He explains this a lot better than I did in the first few minutes of the film.
Whatever your opinion might be on this topic and whether you like Terry or not I think it would be healthy to watch this short documentary (it's 60 minutes long) and learn something (new) about life and death.
The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is a neat little mod for Half Life 2. If you have Half Life 2 I suggest you play it (it's really short but great and it takes you about 10 minutes to complete) prior to watching this video which shows all possible endings and options.
Intermission
Hi, you might remember me, I used to post here when I was a few months younger than now. And the last post I did was something that I posted a few years ago. As amateurish as this sounds I actually had no idea I already did this. Sorry for that, hopefully it won't repeat. At least not with Dead End.
Another, more significant, event that I would like to talk about is Desert Bus For Hope. It's a charity project for sick kids and it's making people play the most realistic and boring unreleased game ever made for hours and hours on. While they play it you can donate money and make them do stuff. Porn and similar subjects are excluded sadly. They also have guests and auctions.
In any case, go check them out. It's a good cause and it makes children play good videogames. And it's, you know, all for the kids.
Posts will resume on a more regular sin(ωt) interval as soon as college decides to quit being such a demanding bitch.
Oh yeah and having a dream where your dogs head turns into this and your neighbors are being half alive and stuck in the thing is the best and most horrifying dream you can ever have. Try it out sometimes, or just watch The Thing again because it's a great movie.
Shohei Manabe - Dead End
It has been a while since I shared some reading material so here's a manga that I've read a while ago.
Dead End is about a guy who finds a woman that falls from the sky. As absurd as that sounds he takes the girl to his home and decides to take care of her, it's not like anything particular is happening in his life anyway. Their relationship evolves a bit - he shows her around a bit and introduces her to his friends who are mostly low life thugs. Everything starts like a usual semi-serious seinen romance manga but things get a little weird when one day our hero arrives at his flat and finds all sorts of things. Things that used to function as limbs to his friends.
As the story goes more and more things we discover and through those events we learn more of our characters. It's kind of hard to explain what's going on in this manga because whatever that I want to mention it ends up being a spoiler for something. So to prevent this I guess you'll just have to read the thing if you want some more plot exposition.
All I can say is that the story is good. It has it's weak moments and cliches but it ends up being a rather enjoyable read. The ending to me was unexpected but once you realize what's it all about it makes perfect, if not obvious, sense.
The art style of this manga is simply great. I always like it when Japanese authors decide to break free from the usual conventions of manga styled drawings. The environment is drawn pretty good although there isn't much variation in locations but there are always a lot of details to look at (especially in the buildings). Some much needed breaks from the usual routine every now and then happen so it does not get tedious. In general the art is simplistic, especially when it comes to facial features. Somehow the characters don't look very Japanese because of it. Speaking of characters most of the are characterized fairly good. Some are predictable but still likeable while other more focused characters have a lot of things going for them. Throw in a little philosophy in it and you have a very nice read.
Enjoy.
I posted this once already. Check the first post for the links.
Bix Beiderbecke - Jass Me Blues (1927-8)
Yes! More delightful music from a time when people were so poor that they were too poor to be poor.
Bix Beiderbecke is another early jazz musician that was not known very much in the public but he was highly admired by his fellow musicians. As far as trumpet/cornet rivals go, the only person who was on par with him was Louis Armstrong. It's a real pity that Bix died so early (in '31) because he would most definitely influence modern music in a much larger scope if he only had the time. Sadly alcohol and other various factors made him die young. But, for our consolation he left us a bit of his music behind so that we may grasp a bit of his great playing.
I might sound pompous but that's probably because he's one of my favorite players so I tend to get very subjective about him. In any case the compilation that I'm sharing is (as the title suggests) a bunch of songs he recorded in his "late"career. At those times ragtime (or hot jazz) was starting to settle down for a more orchestrated and organized way of playing - swing so what you get here is an interesting middle ground between the two types of jazz. Musically speaking this means that songs are much more relaxed, they swing but they still have some great improvised solos which makes this record so great. You'll notice a lot things that are way ahead of their times, especially the sax solos which often hint to the bebop way of playing. They are all instrumentals so we can fully enjoy the wondrous playing of a person that just had so little luck. So sit back and enjoy the swing.
Download.
Alpinist - Minus Mensch
Alpinist is a German band that plays some sort of crust/hardcore music and they will entertain you for about half an hour. If you, that is, decide to lay your ears upon their music. They released this album back in 2009 and it was their first full length. So you'd assume the album is a bit sloppy but production wise and musician wise it's quite good.
As far as the music goes I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone outside the genre. It's not that accessible, I think, but for those who know their way around hardcore and post-hardcore bands I think they'll enjoy this quite a bit. The riffs are done marvelously, lots of melodic riffing and some good "punk in your face" riffs in between. A nice mixture of both old and new hardcore. I like both eras so I liked this album a lot. Vocals are another good part of this album. They are mostly that "sour screaming" vocal style but it's done well and sometimes, to spice things up, they venture into growling a bit. Good stuff all in all, it does not get boring due to its fitting time span and excellent musicianship.
Download.
Dorothy Ashby - In a Minor Groove
Jazz is one of those genres that's able to absorb any instrument and make it feel like it's home. Dorothy Ashby seems to handle the instrument quite well, playing an assortment of standards and some of her own compositions as well (or I just didn't recognize that they are from other composers). So the harp at least found a home in jazz but unlike Alice Coltrane she uses it on this album in a much more bebop-y way. She did travel in similar directions afterwards but this album was recorded in 1958 which makes it much more traditional in sound.
The album is played in a quartet setting with a harp, bass, drums and a flute (Frank Wess). As the instrumentation might suggest this album is mainly in a relaxed tone. This is both bad and good; it's good because the musicians are top notch and they know what they are doing, the soloing is also great. The bad part though is that I'd really like to hear some faster jazz played out with a harp. But perhaps this would just ruin the mood of the album. Another drawback of this album is that sometimes Dorothy sounds like a guitar player, which can ruin the enjoyment for me at times. Although these occurrences aren't too often to ruin the whole album. When the instrument shines in its true light it shines really well and Dorothy explores all ranges of the instrument. The wide array of songs lets us see different techniques of playing and the really unique feeling of hearing this instrument in a quartet setting.
Download.
Corpus Callosum - Corpus Callosum
As it usually goes with bands like these they use a lot of instrumentation (mostly acoustic stuff) to create their intended atmosphere. The atmosphere here is what I essentially like the most. It's this weird blend of really melancholic music and lyrics but somewhat it sounds so happy. It's like they embrace it with a smile and in turn it makes me happy as well. It's in a way what blues was, sad stories that are meant to make you happy. It's kinda like that. Although Corpus Callosum sounds a bit more mad.
Most songs are mid paced, they just kinda stroll by. It's like they just sat down in front of a porch one evening and decided to record an album as the Sun goes down. I don't think I've ever felt bored by this album so if you like folk music check this out, you might like it too.
Download.
For some reason I named this album differently in the folder (it's tagged correctly though). So rename it if you will.
Ben Templesmith - Singularity 7
So how about some American comics? If you look around you'll notice that there's pretty much the same amount of prejudice about American comics that there is for the Japanese manga. Both sides have its terrible commercialized and fanserviced stories, sagas, settings and characters. But underneath (or among) the shitty ones you can always find some good stuff. So why not share them?
Since this is the first in line of "western" comics that I'll post I don't really see any other option but to post cyberpunk. Because cyberpunk is awesome.
Singularity 7 is a short story written and drawn by Ben Templesmith. If you like to read comics that are based on video games you might have come across some of his work that he did for Deadspace or Silent Hill and he also likes do to horror comics. From what I've gathered this is his only cyberpunk comic.
The plot is set in a destroyed (of course it's destroyed) post apocalyptic world. An old man narrates to us why and how did this all came to be. A comet fell from the sky carrying some kind of living mechanized beings that merged with a nearby human. He decided to do good like cleaning up the atmosphere and stuff like that. Obviously greed and some other things came along and shit hit the fan. Now all that's left are small pockets of humanity that try to fight back destroy the singularity of the man and nanomachines.
The story follows several characters but due to the killing nature of the surroundings they don't really live very long so we don't get the chance to know more about certain individuals that are present in the story. That's perhaps the biggest flaw of this comics; it's too short. There are some interesting ideas and settings here but it all seems so shortened. It's a pity because I really enjoyed the story and I would love to see this world a explored a lot more thoroughly. As I've mentioned before this is a very mean world and thus the characters aren't really any angels here, they are just trying to survive here so luckily you won't find any of the Hollywood morality system here. It's bleak and nihilist, just what cyberpunk should be!
The art actually reminds me a lot of Blame! in a weird way. It's not really that detailed but it gives the same feeling of atmosphere and the portrayal unnatural yet natural beings is similar in comparison. The lines/architecture and drawings, unlike in Blame! (aside from the characters), are much more curvy and they look a lot more "hand drawn". It's all very simplistic but it delivers the desired effect and that's what matters really. As usual with western comics all pages are fully colored so it's a nice visual candy from start to finish. Ben seems to have a really nice talent for drawing semi fucked up things.
Overall it's a nice short story. It's nothing grand but it's a fun one night read.
See comments.
More stuff
Here's some more stuff to watch if you're bored. I didn't repeat any links from my previous post.
Have fun.
(Cool) music videos/live performances:
Nero - Guilt
Older - They Might Be Giants
Kimbra - Settle Down
Keiji Haino, Makoto Kawabata & Tatsuya Yoshida 2
The Melvins - Live At Hellfest 2011 [HQ]
Jailbreak (Heather Leigh Murray & Chris Corsano) live at the CCA, Glasgow.
Daft Punk - Technologic
"Those Minerals" (Mass Effect 2 rap)
Shatner Of The Mount by Fall On Your Sword
Glass harp-Toccata and fugue in D minor-Bach-BWV 565
Threnody to The Victims of Hiroshima by Krzysztof Penderecki
C2C - DMC DJ team World Champions 2005 set @C2Cdjs
'IT'S OVER 9,000!'
Booker White - Aberdeen Mississippi Blues
Rev. Gary Davis plays "Slow Drag / Cincinnati Flow Rag"
Bruce Willis - Respect Yourself
Gilels plays Rachmaninov: Vocalise op.34 no.14
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sings "Vocalise" - Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff Prelude in g minor op. 23 #5 HQ
Andrei Gavrilov plays Rachmaninov Elegie op3 No1
Bartok: Romanian Dances
Schubert: Impromptu in G-flat major D 899, Op. 90 No.3 (by Vadim Chaimovich)
Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne op.9 no.2 in E flat Major (by Vadim Chaimovich)
Jazz stuff:
Love In Outer Space (Alt. Take) - Sun Ra & His Arkestra
Renaud Garcia Fons - Berimbass
Sachal Studios' Take Five Official Video
Sun Ra Solar Arkestra - All Stars concert, Berlin 1983
John Coltrane Quartet - Afro Blue
Paul Flaherty, Randall Colbourne, Daniel Carter LIVE at The Thing In The Spring 2008
Sun Ra Arkestra - Retrospekt
Sun Ra Arkestra - Face the Music / Space is the Place
Art Blakey "Buhaina's Delight" 1966 Lee Morgan
Hiromi Uehara - The Tom and Jerry Show
John Coltrane - Every Time We Say Goodbye - 1961
Peter Brötzmann Quartet - improvisation (1974/10/17) (1/3)
Rufus Harley - A LOVE SUPREME - Coltrane with BAGPIPES
Louis Armstrong - Basin Street Blues - 1959
Cool/interesting videos:
Biggest CD collection in the world
Portal: No Escape (Live Action Short Film by Dan Trachtenberg)
早乙女太一☓チームラボ [吉例]新春特別公演「龍と牡丹」-剣舞／影絵-
2D Photography Rube Goldberg
CL!CK: A LEGO Short Film
Lego Hello World
8BITS
Sintel - Third Open Movie by Blender Foundatio
How To Sell 1 Million Albums and Owe $500,000
Fun/weird stuff:
Carlsberg stunts with bikers in cinema
Survival Unit Falls From Stage
Worst Office Freak Out Ever
Japan Erection
Mutant pig 'alien' born in Guatemala
Batman and Robin Appearance In Psych Lecture!
japan TV Cooking show Marty Friedman 2-2
Charlie Brooker's How to Report the News - Newswipe - BBC Four
全力でスイッチをONするとOFFするロボットをいじめてみた
adidas Originals - Star Wars™ Cantina 2010
Bob Dylan and John Lennon in a taxi (English subtitles)
The Silly Adventures of Mr. Mochi (an Oblivion Machinima)
Puppy Fakes His Own Death
Rachmaninov had big Hands
Gwigwi Mrwebi - Mbaqanga Songs
I heard somewhere that it's autumn. That time of the year when you do all the shit you do during every other time of the year except now everything around you is dying. Or birthing; for you South Hemispherians. To complete the dying process of everything here's a complimentary album for you to enjoy while being alive or in the process of dying.
Gwigwi Mrwebi comes from a land that has no seasons. The only weather forecast he has is either incredibly hot or impending mauling by lions. To compensate for the lack of anything in his country Gwigwi Mrwebi decided to do some jazz. So Gwigwi Mrwebi packed his shit and came to London to record some authentically awesome jazz from Africa. You don't really get the chance to experience some authentic African production but you do get to experience its players (I couldn't find any information from which country they actually are).
The album was recorded in 1967 which makes it an interesting blend of old and new. It has those light bebop solos here and there, swing melodies and a bit of soul and funk in it. There's a bit of everything in here but it also gives that exotic feeling. You'll know what I mean hopefully when you hear the thing. I can't really explain it. In any case, the main emphasis here is on melody so most songs are very easy to digest even if you're not into jazz. Just some good melodies and great rhythm. Good stuff.
Download.
Rainer Maria - Look Now Look Again
Rainer Maria was an emo/indie rock band from the US. They released this album back in 1999 which was a follow up to their (equally good) debut album in 1997. I'm not really into this sort of thing but somehow I stumbled upon this song so I decided to check these guys out and I was actually pleasantly surprised by this because I never really thought this kind of music would interest me. It's nothing special but I really like how it sounds and feels throughout the whole album.
The post-rock riffs, female vocals and instrumental crescendos really do their magic here. The singer sounds sincere although the lyrics aren't really something exceptional. Maybe that's just me but they are standard "I'm fucked up, everything is fucked up etc." so they aren't really impressive or noteworthy but are enjoyable to listen and can be overlooked.
Download.
Pharoah Sanders - Karma
The difference between the two is that this one contains much more free jazz in itself. Now I know this might turn off some people but actually this album is very accessible for people who aren't used to free jazz. This is mainly due to the fact that the rhythm section is consistent and does not divulge in any overly long dissonant solos or strange patterns. Basically you have this lively African drumming with Sanders furious sax solos burning everything in sight but the magic of it is that's it's not all the time just soloing. In contrast to most free jazz records that sound really depressing and nihilistic this one sounds very positive and uplifting for some reason. Probably because of the yodeling.
Some call this a spiritual successor to A Love Supreme and I kinda agree. The bass lines in the opening are quite similar and the overall theme of the album is along the same lines although A Love Supreme is far less err ambitious with its instrumentation.
Great stuff.
In glorious flac:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Takashi Hirayasu & Bob Brozman - Jin Jin/Firefly
This album was the product of an somewhat unusual collaboration. Okinawan koto player (among other things) and an American guitarist one day decided to record this album. Bob Brozman seems to be a totally bros man going around the world and playing with various people. This particular record is perhaps the best collaboration that I've heard from this guy.
Essentially it's one of those albums that makes you feel good. It feels like as if these two guys just met on the street and started jamming, playing solos and singing. Singing is done by Takashi and are fitting this record perfectly while most of the solos are from mister Brozman. All of the songs are catchy three to four minute jolly good melodies and merry vocals. It's simple and effective, just what folk should be.
Download.
Hideo Yamamoto - Koroshiya Ichi aka Ichi the Killer
If you're into Japanese or extreme cinema in general you probably heard of or watched Ichi the Killer. A wonderful adaptation of this manga directed by Takashi Miike and starring Tadanobu Asano.
The movie itself was a fairly truthful adaptation when it comes to characterizations and main goals but naturally the plot of the movie finished rather soonish. Despite that it still felt like a complete journey. The manga is like the movie but with more of everything. The characters are much more fleshed out, each has a backstory and there are themes here which weren't explored in the movie. For example necrophilia wasn't even alluded in the movie (if I remember right, I haven't seen the movie in quite a while) and it has a prominent sub plot in the manga.
The overall plot is still pretty much the same on the other hand. Aside from how the end plays out of course.
Ichi The Killer is about a lot of themes but it's main storyline is about a guy called Ichi that goes around killing yakuza. He apparently thinks they bullied him in his childhood so he decides to chop them down with razor blades on his boots. Naturally he's guided by someone else called Jiji, an old man with somewhat questionable but still good goals. Jiji has his own henchmen who go after Ichi and clean up the mess and they plan to clean out a particular yakuza gang. Whats interesting about the plot is that there are essentially two main protagonists, the good guy and the villain. Both get equal time in the spotlight up to the point that you forget that there's the other guy as well. Some might consider this bad but I think it's balanced just right and it works well.
When it comes to gore and violence there's, of course, plenty of it and even more of it than in the film. This is obviously so because the movie has much more restrictions while the manga has only the limitation of the authors imagination. And his imagination goes to a lot places. In that department I think this is enough to satisfy most gore hounds.
Artistically speaking, eh, I wasn't really that impressed. A lot of drawings seem soulless and they sometimes lack the polish they deserve but this is probably because there are a 10 volumes and shit had to be done to publish it in an orderly fashion. The whole design and style actually reminds me a lot of Gantz (minus the gigantic boobies that are often featured in Gantz) so if you like how Gantz looks you'll have no problem here either. I just kinda like it when an artists tries different things and this just doesn't happen here. Nevertheless it's highly enjoyable and I firmly believe you'll breeze through these 10 volumes.
Part 1, 2 and 3.
Blade Runner Soundtracks (most of them)
Blade Runner is one of those movies that everybody either saw of heard of it. It was a peculiar little film that I find very dear to my heart. It's perhaps my favorite movie of all times. I won't talk about the movie in great detail mostly because it would just go on and on. What I want to talk about it is its soundtrack. There are a lot of versions and interpretations of it so I'll just share every version I have.
If you're not familiar with the soundtrack I would suggest that you start with the initial 1994 release of the soundtrack as it contains most of the compositions that were in the movie and is performed by Vangelis.
I'll start chronologically.
Okay, so back when Blade Runner got out and made a name for itself the soundtrack never really was released by itself. Or more exactly it wasn't released in its original format. Vangelis was the guy who made it but in fact the first official soundtrack was done by an orchestra adapting scores that Vangelis made for the film.
I'm not sure why they did it but this is the end result:
New American Orchestra
Orchestral adaptation of music composed for the motion picture by Vangelis
1982
Despite the lengthy title it really is what it says. Vangelis songs adapted by an orchestra and it feels actually quite natural. I thought this would be terrible but it's enjoyable. The tracks are made with orchestral instrumentation which makes it a thrill to listen if you already know the Vangelis soundtrack because of the apparent lack of keyboards. The only non full orchestral song is the End Titles which seem really out of place here since it combines keyboards and funky guitar riffs. To further annoy the listener they included another version of the same track. But yeah, for the most part it gives a new insight at the songs. The best part of this release, in my opinion, is that it features One More Kiss that's sung by a female vocalist (that sounds better than the original version). Its runtime is barely past 30 minutes so to no surprise this pissed off a lot fans who expected a Vangelis full hour album which in turn caused numerous bootleg releases (a theme I'll address at the end of the post.
Tracklist for this would be:
1. Love Theme (4:12)
2. Main Title (5:01)
3. One More Kiss, Dear (4:00)
4. Memories of Green (4:50)
5. End Title (4:17)
6. Blade Runner Blues (4:38)
7. Farewell (3:10)
8. End Title Reprise (3:08)
Download.
After the initial "official" soundtrack more than 10 years passed before the actual soundtrack was released. This was in 1994 and it is probably the most widespread version of this soundtrack.
Vangelis
Blade Runner
1994
The soundtrack itself is really Vangelis at its heart. Heavy keyboard music that just screams of 80s music. Thankfully it's not that kitsch as his other soundtracks due to the nature of the movie. Because the movie was so melancholic and dark there really is no room for any happy jittery music. Most of the tracks are very atmospheric and slow to fit the theme and he got it just right.
Along with the songs that were used in the film Vangelis also added a bunch of songs that were made for the movie but never ended up in it. Even with all these tracks there were still a lot of unpublished tracks. Despite that this is probably the best release if you want the standard version of the movie soundtrack and the length is at reasonable 57 minutes. Did I ever mention that this is the perfect music while going to bed aside from Stars of the Lid?
The tracks are:
1. Main Titles (3:42)
2. Blush Response (5:47)3. Wait for Me (5:27)
4. Rachel's Song (4:46)
5. Love Theme (4:56)
6. One More Kiss, Dear (3:58)
7. Blade Runner Blues (8:53)
8. Memories of Green (5:05)
9. Tales of the Future (4:46)
10. Damask Rose (2:32)
11. Blade Runner (End Titles) (4:40)
12. Tears in Rain (3:00)
Vangelis
Blade Runner Trilogy
2007
As far as the original releases go this is the definitive collection of the soundtrack released along with the collectors edition of the movie. Accompanied by the exact same 1994 soundtrack on the first CD there are two extra CDs included.
The second CD includes a lot of previously unreleased material that were and were not used in the movie. Probably the most notable from this bunch is "Tears In The Rain" which is now called "Fading Away" and is the same but without the voice. So it's more ambient bliss by Vangelis. A lot of these songs were not meant to be "songs" but ambient passages in the movie which makes this pretty much ambient music devoid of long synth solos and crap like that.
The third CD is music that was inspired by the movie. This whole CD feels like a filler to ramp up the price tag of the Movies Collector Edition. There are some good tracks but for the most part I didn't really enjoy it. Maybe you will.
Download:
Bootlegs
Esper Edition
As I have mentioned earlier there are a lot of bootlegs that were released ever since the movie got out. Roger posted the Esper edition in the comments a while back when I originally posted the 1994 version of the soundtack. It contains two CDs with a fair share of the music that can't be found on the originals. I'd say that this is the most complete bootleg version. Although there are a lot of rereleases of the Esper version so I'm not really sure which version is this one.
Wikipedia notes that there's an updated Esper edition called The Retirement Edition with improved sound and better versions of various songs. It also has more material that spans over 5 cds. If someone has it please share it!
Deck Art Limited Edition
This is the second bootleg version that I have and it's probably the strangest. It's just one big track that goes on for about an hour with tracks seamlessly joined and chronologically sorted with the scenes of the movie. So it's like an audio journey of the movie, for the most part. It does not contain much new stuff (aside from maybe the longest versions of the Japanese traditional themes and some weird Arabian music) but it's very enjoyable if you know the movie and the soundtrack well. A cool little novelty. Apparently it's from Japan.
Again, if someone has (of if you can find it) the previously mentioned The Retirement Edition of the Esper bootleg please share it because I would love to hear it.
I don't know why I love this soundtrack so much, don't give me that worried strange look. :D
Lycanthrophy & F.U.B.A.R.
Hello everyone, I'm back after a short break due to exams. Now let's get back to grinding.
Czech Republic has been growing a really good grindcore/fastcore scene for quite a while now. They have some really great fests and some really thriving bands. I had the pleasure of watching Lycanthrophy live a few years ago and it was one of the best grindcore gigs I ever attended. Stunned by the gig I decided to buy this little 7'' since I had to have something by them. It's a nice little short 7'' with both bands having their representative sound on it.
The charm of Lycanthrophy is their vocal female/male duo that quickly changes between the verses accompanied by some really tight arrangements of fast and furious grind. Riffs and such aren't really exceptional here but the drumwork on the other had really drives the whole thing into space.
Fubar is yet another, surprisingly, grindcore band which I haven't seen live but they sound very fun on this record. They are far much noisy and raw when compared to Lycanthrophy but it's still great fun. The bass on their side is actually so loud I can hardly recognize the guitar. Which is great because it kinda reminds me of a more organized Godstomper.
In any case, a great thing to listen if you're into grindcore. If not then move along. ;D
Download.
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
Length: 01:41:59
Format/Subtitles: .MP4 / English .srt subtitles
Audio: Japanese
Director: Hiroyuki Okiura
Writer: Mamoru Oshii
Year of release: 1999
Wikipedia
Despite the mp4 format the video quality is great, the size is after all 1.6 gb so don't worry about quality.
In order to recuperate from my Valkyria adventure I decided to revisit another anime movie that I dearly liked. The movie itself is essentially a military thriller and a nice insight into the mind of a soldier (unlike some animes that I might mention, oh - ho - ho, pretension etc.) but there's very little actual combat (something of a Mamorus trademark).
The story is set in a dystopian alternate timeline where Japan didn't do very well after singing the defeat with the Americans. So in the turmoil and chaos of rebuilding the nation a wide migration to the cities occurred and so a lot slums appeared. Naturally a lot people started breaking the law along with forming various anti-government guerrilla factions etc. Shit hit the fan. Cops on the other hand didn't know what it's like so they did the only natural thing to do which was - more cops. But these were a special breed of police force on par with the military called Panzer Cops (according to wikipedia, but translations vary).
Since the story is written by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost In The Shell etc.) you can expect it to be much more than just what I wrote. As usual with his way of storytelling there are a lot of things happening at the same time and not much is being said - they are being showed through subtle actions and reactions of characters. But there is much more plot exposition here through words compared to the rest of his work so it's not that hard to follow what's going on unlike some other of his works. This is probably because of the director who carried the whole movie out.
The movie deals with a lot of problems of morality and the line where we just stop and rethink why are we serving whatever system we are serving and why the hell are we doing this. There's a very noticeable feel of depression and nihilism between the two main protagonists throughout the whole movie. On the surface they just don't really give a shit anymore about who's right or wrong. It wears people down and they portray it really well. It's an internal struggle whether you'll plunge completely into the beast or resurface as a human and live a more normal life.
I would love to go into much more detail with this movie but I don't want to spoil the plot for those who didn't watch it so all I can do is share the links and hopefully you'll find this movie as great as I did.
Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.
Rock history.
An interesting outlook on the history of rock music. Funny and somewhat accurate at the same time. Click to enlarge etc.
Paysage d'Hiver - Einsamkeit
Autumn and winter are coming along, my favorite seasons, so I thought I'd share some cold black metal to fit the mood. It's still relatively warm but fuck it.
Anyways, I've talked about Paysage d'Hiver before so there's really nothing more to say about this guy. Einsamkeit is no different from his other releases in terms of production and maybe musicianship, although he got relatively better in playing as the years went by. This got out in 2007 and is so far the latest release so it makes me wonder if he'll release anything new. It has been 4 years now. What the hell man? Darkspace didn't release anything either. What are they doing? I need my black metal.
3 delicious tracks of lo-fi black metal and synth ambient. Minimalistic and atmospheric.
Download.
Charlie Parker - Now's The Time/Back Up
It's funny how your mind sometimes just clicks when you hear an artist and right there on the spot you find your new favorite musician. Pretty much this happened to me when I first heard Charlie Parker. Strangely enough I found about him through, out of all places/people, Morita Douji. I really liked her most popular song "Bokutachi no Shippai" so I decided to hunt down the lyrics to read what's it actually about. It was, not surprisingly, a love song which contained this one segment:
"I found myself all alone.
I found the Charlie Parker record you loved so,
in the room
You've probably forgotten me."
"So who was this Charlie Parker?" I asked myself and decided that I'll nab something off the torrents from him. Through my whole life up until then the jazz I listened was exclusively from the 30s and 40s and the rest more "wankery" stuff I had not much interest in. Then I stumbled upon this guy and he refurnished my interpretation of jazz. I greatly enjoyed what I heard and from there on my love for jazz flourished in new directions.
Will it reshape your thinking of jazz? I really hope it will but it really depends on your taste. Charlie Parker is widely known for popularizing bebop and forming the modern jazz and there's really not much to say that hasn't been said in hundreds of documentaries, stories, studies, interviews etc. so I thought a little more personal story would be more fitting.
In any case this is a great introductory to his work. There are quite a few of his trademark songs here like Confirmation, Now's The Time, Leap Frog, Bloomdido etc. and there's some standards that he completely reworks as well. The recordings vary from 1949 to 1953 and at that time he was really blossoming as player. So yeah, there really is no reason not to download this if you like Charlie Parker or would like to start with him.
Enjoy.
Download.
Ancient Grease - Woman And Children First
I guess this would be a fitting disaster album, even the title suggests what you should do. They were an English rock band and they released this in 1970. It's goes for that blues feeling and the whole album is a fitting soundtrack for an outlaw (or apocalypse). Yeah, it's that cheesy. It has all the usual suspects of this music and they sort of sound like Black Sabbath. Not as dark or brooding as them but when it comes to riffs they are similarly heavy. Especially the second track on this thing which is awesome riffage from start to finish.
Fun 70s rock, nothing more and nothing less.
Download.
Oh and best of luck with everything to everyone who'll get hit by Irene.
Starseed Transmission - Metamorphic Illumination
Starseed Transmissions released this back in 1994 (for some reason I labeled it as 2003 (so correct that please if you'll download it) and then drifted off into obscurity. Why? I have no idea because this is pretty good. Maybe because he was from Australia? Australians are more into deserts I guess.
As the cover suggests this is space oriented ambient music. It's somewhere between the Blade Runner soundtrack and Aliens soundtrack. Electronic keyboards, weird effects and long, long tracks that immerse you in the feeling that you're on some mining ship in the middle of the universe (preferably alive and not implanted with a chest-buster). It's nothing revolutionary or something like that, it's just good ambient space music.
Great stuff for listening while going to sleep.
Download.
Tsutomu Nihei - Blame! and so on
The greatest thing that I love about this artbook is that most of the Blame! related artwork is colored. This gives a nice insight in how the author imagined all this and it definitely gives it a lot more organic feel. It's too bad none of the colored images made it into the manga aside from the front covers. There are also some different art styles here which seem much like oil paintings (or something like that, I'm not exactly an expert on art) and they are absolutely astonishing. I especially love this one:
Great artbook, get this.
Download.
Valkyria Chronicles (some thoughts on the animated show)
I believe that it's healthy every once in a while to explore something that's not usually in your area of interest. I try to do this as much as I can because I think it can do either of these two things:
1. Broaden your taste
2. Strengthen your existing taste
And both are good; sort of. If you end up liking a completely new genre then great! You have a lot of new things to explore and learn. If you end up disliking your new venture then you learn something about yourself and you move a step further away from being a blob that just swallows up everything. You develop, you know, your character and opinion on things you find pleasing and of those you do not.
This summer I stumbled upon Valkyria Chronicles which seemed interesting enough and it's something that I would usually not go with. So hey, why not? I have a really cruel love & hate relationship with Japanese animation. Basically I'm really picky about the stuff I watch which is why I every once in a while, sort of, force myself to venture into something that I would not usually watch. Because if I keep being an elitist faggot I'll stop watching anime for a long period of time (happened a few times).
The anime itself is an adaptation of a video game so it's flawed from the start because it already has a predefined plot and everything that goes with it. I watched maybe half of the first season and then decided it would be best to stop or I'll have to repeatedly stab myself in the face with the rustiest barbed wire I can find. This isn't really because of the plot (it's fine for the most part but I'm not really in the position to judge since I didn't watch the whole thing) but the setting and the practicality of the system is impossible. Usually this isn't really something to bother with when it comes to TV logic but this bothered me so much that I just could not take this anymore.
First of all let's look how the cast looks like:
So without knowing the plot and the setting of the story could you guess what the anime is about judging from the looks of the characters? A lot of blue uniforms, lots of girls that apparently wear miniskirts, a nun of some sort, some guy in a suit, ties etc. Yeah, looks like your regular school/slice of life anime right? Except this is supposed to be a fucking paramilitary unit in a semi-fictional world war two.
The plot is apparently about a country that looks something like Netherlands which gets caught up in a war between two alliances. One is evil and one is good blah blah and everything from world war two is sort of changed but not really. The story is focused on a militia group formed out of citizens and farmers of the country that are trying to defend their homeland. The tanks look like they are from 1945 yet the rifles look like something from 1918. The plot is supposedly taking place in 1935; they didn't really work this through. But okay, things like that can still be overlooked for the most part because they are tolerable.
But the uniforms I can not overlook.
The sad part about this is that these are not their formal uniforms, they are wearing actual combat uniforms. BLUE combat uniforms in a land that's mainly LIGHT GREEN. That's like if all the SS divisions in the Ardennes forest decided to wear their black uniforms IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER. Apart from the completely missed colors why are they wearing ties? Both males and females are wearing ties? What's going on? Is this supposed to be an allegorical outlook on the post modern society of Japan symbolizing that every worker on his day job is going through an ongoing war yet he can not do anything to prevent it? Or is it because it's supposed to be cute? -_- Those who wore ties know how impractical these things are. They get in the way all the time and are in no way practical on the battlefield. Except maybe in a very gentlemanly battlefield. And yes of course the big red bandana on the girls head in case they don't get spotted at first because of their uniforms from 10km away.
Sadly this just goes on and on. Some of the female characters even wear earrings and the worst part is that our protagonists aren't infantry they are a tank unit. They are cramped in a small tight tank in those uncomfortable clothes, ties and earrings because, hey, they need to look good while they are being dismembered by an artillery strike. All of these things (and I left out a lot of things) are tolerated because this is a high school anime pretending to be a serious war drama. That's all there is to it. Why not then just make a high school drama? Why bother with all this? Oh right that's why, because they are adapting a video game that's equally brainless. But wait, what are women doing here in the first place? Why are they in the military? In same units with men? Which brings me to another main problem I had with the series.
NOBODY
GETS
RAPED
Imagine you're in a warzone and things aren't looking pretty well for your side. You're getting punched on all sides, communications are down and there's less and less ammo around. Night falls, you and another companion are all that's left in the bunker. The first thing at dawn you'll hear are artillery shells and then a final push that will probably end in your death or imprisonment for the rest of the war. There you sit, thinking about your last hours and you look at your companion who's sitting there beside you like this:
This sort of problem never comes up. Nobody really notices that an army that's mixed like that can't work because of obvious nature restrictions. Everybody just goes along with it. This was just too much to tolerate.
This anime actually had an really interesting premise. Not a lot of anime series tackle our past like this. This could have been an interesting look on paramilitary forces, how they operate and the role of women in the army. How they handled the frontlines? How desperate must a country be to force all of their citizens into fighting? But no, they had to make another school anime with stenciled characters.
I am disappoint. Maybe it gets better afterwards?
Tsutomu Nihei - Blame!
Recently I've reread this and I realized that I never shared this here. Blame! is probably the most famous cyberpunk manga among the internet community (my fair estimation) so this is for those few of you who haven't read it yet.
Blame! is set in the distant future where humanity is extinct (or so is believed) and all that's left are their creations that stroll through the massive mega-structure. The story follows a character called Killy who is, at the beginning, on a mission to reach the top level.
The story itself and the plot contains much more "showing" than "telling", there aren't much words in here which is a plus and minus at the same time. The good thing about it is that it immerses you in this bleak and desolate world because there's not really much to talk about when you're alone in the middle of nothing. On the bad side it makes the plot harder to follow. Sometimes you find yourself wondering what the hell is going on because when the characters do speak they say something completely different from what you thought was happening. Although this happens sometimes you can still catch up with the story as it goes on.
The high point of this book is its world. There's nothing quite like it and I found it more and more interesting as the story progressed on. Although the whole story is set in a huge megastructure there is a lot of diversity in various levels that we see throughout the tale. Each level seems to contain its own genetically deformed humanoids and creatures of all kinds. The completely bleak art style gives a great representation of how massive and broken down this whole thing is. Apparently Nihei finished the school for architects so he knows how buildings work and his knowledge really shines here. The only thing that bothered me sometimes here is that sometimes the shading is so dark that you can't really tell what's going on but that could be due to bad scanning (some volumes aren't really scanned top notch).
The atmosphere, the plot and the interesting characters make this one of the best manga made that I've read and it would be a shame if you skip this.
Part 1, 2 and 3.
Clint Eastwood - Sings Cowboy Favourites
So yeah, apparently this came out back in 1962 when Clint was still a young cowboy stud. I'm not really into regular country music and I know nothing about it so I'm not really in a position to critique the music itself. All I can say is that Clint actually had a good voice for singing. The usual raspy voice that he's known for is completely gone here (almost to a point of being surreal). Most of the songs on it are ballads and slow merry ones and they don't deviate a lot in style but they are mostly catchy so it's not a bore to go through them. Actually the album flows by really fast.
It's weird, although most movie stars did this back in the day. It's just that I never expected to hear Clint Eastwood sing and it actually sounds good.
Download.
Jolly good.
Excellent! I just want to thank everyone for the input and while we're at it I'll axe myself in the face and answer some questions/topics that arose etc.
- more tags for manga posts: yes, this is something that I completely overlooked (because I didn't plan to post that many manga at the beginning) and I will from now on enforce author and genre tags for manga.
- Xenu's Link Sleuth: tried this and it works great, many thanks to the anon who recommended it!
- Where is Dylan Dog?: ah yes, that. This turned out to be a much more complex process that requires much more time and skill. I translated some of the story that I was planning to upload but I'm having a lot of trouble adapting it to English language. If someone wants to give it a shot and translate it from Croatian to English let me know via email and I'll send you the scans.
- More manga!: the lack of manga is I guess due to the fact that I stopped reading them for a while but my interest in them arose again recently so you can expect them soon. By soon I mean today.
- Design: although it's a bit ugly and simple it's functional. I'm not really sure how I want it to look in the future. Perhaps some tabs or crap like that. I'll need to plan this out so there will not be any changes soon.
Other than that I'm really happy to see that people are enjoying this little blog. Thanks to you all; dismembered lolitas for everyone - on the house. Now let's go back to the usual business.
An inquiry.
I'll be away for this weekend and I had some hard drive problems so that's why I suddenly stopped my marathon. I didn't have time to write more posts so it's going to be quiet over here for a few more days while I'm getting an aggressive skin cancer on the nearby island beaches.
But! I have some questions for you, readers, while I'm away. I've been running this for a while now and I always knitted it my way. So I'm wondering what's the biggest obstruction here for you? What am I doing wrong? Do you find my texts useful and readable or you just download stuff? Are tags useful? Should I write tracklists or bitrates or formats etc.? Is my English terrible? Is the overall design utter shit? Are movies that I post crap? And stuff like that, I'm interested to hear your opinion on faults of this blog so that I may try to improve them (if possible).
Oh and while we're at it, I'm slowly scanning through the blog and collecting dead links and I'm half way there. Once I scan everything for dead links I'll upload everything that's dead (if I still have it on my hard drives).
See you soon!
Craft - Fuck the Universe
So yeah, it's kinda like mid era Darkthrone but not boring and with better production. It took them 6 years to record Void so I'm looking forward to it. Until it comes out enjoy their best release so far.
Download.
Coven - Witchcraft Destroys Minds And Reaps Souls
This whole album is like a silly exploitation movie about Satanism. The last track is actually a whole black mass recorded with chants and everything. Today we find this silly but in those days it managed to spur some controversy which eventually gave them some acclaim. Aside from their gimmicks this is nothing really nothing special and they keep the music in the boundaries of then standards. I don't mean to say that it's bad music, it's just not very innovative or original but it's fairly catchy and the (female) vocalist sounds a lot like the chick from Jefferson Airplane. So in a sense this is Jefferson Airplane that's devoted to Satan in the name of commercialism.
Some more info about it on Wikipedia.
Pulp download.
Dick Dale - Surfer's Choice
Because every summer needs some surf rock. Surf rock really doesn't sound to me like it's surfing music, it sounds much more like desert music or wild west music. Dunno, I guess history wanted it to be otherwise. This record is the epitome of surf music so if you ever wondered where to start with this peculiar genre of rock then this is the place. From the track titles to the music everything is stereotypical surf music. Not much else to say, we all know or at least assume how this sounds so if you want to hear it you'll download it if not, then wait for something else. :P
Surf.
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