Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis - The Heavy Hitter

Dem saxophones; I just can't get enough of them so here's another heavy hitting bebop album from 1979 which is pretty late in the game. And it's kinda weird that he returned to this sound when before this he released a bunch of albums that were organ fueled jazz (ones you hear in 70s porn). Kinda like what Grant Green did (also porn music).

So is it any good? Well of course it is, from start to finish this is some mighty fine bebop. It opens up with a killer bass line and then it just strolls on and on into wonderful saxophone riffing. The downside of this album for me is the lack of any original tunes. All of them are standards or famous tunes boggled up into jazz. That shouldn't be a bad thing but I would kinda want to hear some of his original things. Despite that it's still a highly enjoyable little jazz adventure. Have fun.

Download.

Fahrenheit 451: Internet Protocol (also 2011 album list)

Recently Megaupload and Filesonic were taken down along with every other site that was associated with these two (like megavideo). So a question pops up who's next? What am I going to do if Mediafire gets taken down?

I guess if I loose mediafire I'll stop uploading. This blog will then consist me writing silly inane fragments of how I feel and my pointless bullshit problems. I'll also move to Liberia because democracy here is obviously so terrible.

Of course not; don't be silly.

There's always Rapidshare. So if mediafire ever gets taken down, I'm switching to Rapidshare. Just thought I'd point that out in case someone's wondering what will happen in this case.

And just to keep this post relatively useful here's a list of albums from 2011 (I wrote a feature post about it but it turned out to be 20 pages long, so yeah) that I liked in hopes that maybe you'll find some of them interesting and eventually check them out:

Links are youtube videos for my favorite songs etc. and the list is in no particular order (I wrote stuff as they came along in my mind and as I browsed my library).

Colin Stetson - New History Of Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
Colin Stetson - Those Who Didn't Run EP
Youth Lagoon - The Year of Hibernation
Wormrot - Dirge
Agnes Obel - Philharmonics
O'Death - Outside
A Winged Victory for the Sullen - A Winged Victory for the Sullen
Æthenor - En Form For Blå
Black Swan - The Quiet Divide
Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1
Capsule - World Of Fantasy
SBTRKT - SBTRKT
Starfucker - Reptilians
Tinariwen - Tassili
Gridlink - Orphan
Punch - Push Pull
Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All
Dječaci - Istina
Hiromi - Voice
John Zorn - The Satyr's Play/Cerberus (didn't find any links)
Peter Evans Quintet - Ghosts
Altar Of Plagues - Mammal
Deafheaven - Roads to Judah
Farsot - Insects
Glorior Belli - The Great Southern Darkness
The Axis of Perdition - Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh)
Tombs - Path Of Totality
Corrupted - Garten Der Unbewusstheit
Light Bearer - Lapsus 
Dead To A Dying World - Dead To A Dying World 
Virus - The Agent the Shapes the Desert
Alela Diane - Alela Diane & Wild Devine
Seapony - Go With Me
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Belong
Miaou - The Day Will Come Before Long


I don't plan uploading any of them in this upcoming year since I have this invisible policy of "not posting new releases" that I'm trying to maintain. You can also just google "band - album + mediafire/filestube" and a link will pop up for most of them; but don't tell anyone I told you that.

Oh and feel free (I actually encourage it) to recommend albums that you liked from 2011 in the comments.

Edit:

http://holyfuckingshit40000.blogspot.com/

You will be missed. Thank you for everything.

The Evpatoria Report - Maar

Despite being over saturated with monotonous bands and ideas post-rock always manages to ride onwards to the future and not really losing its initial appeal. A lot of people are still into it which hints to the fact that it won't go away for a while nor it will go away quietly. The trouble now is that it's hard to stumble upon some more inventive bands. Sure a lot of them use new gimmicks like adding new instruments into play (violins or cellos usually evoke a lot of reaction, but bands who use them seem to overuse it a bit; don't you think?) but that's just cooking pasta with a different sauce. At least I look at it that way (mainly because I'm a big fan of pasta).

The reason I like this band and this album is that they don't tend to just copy the formula. Admittedly they aren't exactly the next messiah of post rock but I believe they deserve much more praise than they get. Maar, which was released in 2008, offers us 4 relatively long instrumental compositions. Compositions that invoke a lot of dreamy sensations while I listen to them and all four of them sounding distinct. They warmly remind me of GY!BE in a good way. Although this feeling only captured me during the first track. With each track they try something new and different from the previous and from time to time certain parts are a bit overdrawn but the band seems to know when they had enough of it and they throw in something new into the song. Despite overly long tracks I didn't really find them boring. If anything, it's great reading music. Check it out if you're into post rock.

Download.

Crown Of Thorns - Eternal Death

This album to me brings up a lot of memories from high school as we used to listen it quite a lot. Despite my fond memories this album isn't exactly widely known but it can be considered a classic. It came out in 1997 from a little band from Sweden.

Everything on this album just clicks right. The sound is not overproduced so the whole thing does not sound very plastic, it has that grimy 90s production which we all love(d) in 90s death metal scene. And the fact that they come from Sweden points out that they have or had a lot of good influences. Musically it's not purely death metal as it mixes a few black metal riffs although the main allusion to black metal could be found in the vocals I guess. They sound very raspy as they would in black metal but they are different from it in a way. They are much more lively, the vocalist managed to sound good without sounding too cliche or lame. I liked that, I don't often hear that.

If you're into metal I wholly suggest this little undiscovered gem. It's catchy, easy to listen (that is, if you usually listen to metal) and flows really fast. Great album overall.

Download.

Favorite track.

Andrey Tarkovsky - Sculpting in Time

So how about some reading material? More specifically: literature about film. Ha, the irony.

Tarkovsky is my favorite European filmmaker so I'm not sure if I can really give a subjective description of this book so I'll guess I'll try to just briefly explain what he writes about here. I guess you could argue that his movies (especially his later ones) tend to get overcomplicated, plot-less and pretentious at times. In this relatively short book Tarkovsky tries to explain why he avoids plot centered movies in his (then actual) career and expresses much sadness over the fact that people tend to over analyze his movies looking for symbols and meanings that just aren't there. Since he wrote this not long before his death it gives us the opportunity to read about what he thought about all of his major movies (and some early student films as well).

It's not a book that will tell you how to watch his movies nor will it explain explicitly their meanings. He argues that every work of art is supposed to be a unique experience for every person. The movies he makes mean a lot to him but he also wishes for the watcher to get something out of it, to understand life a little better and to know himself a little better. Another theme he vastly covers is the comparison between literary and film works and how to separate them since he believes that film should not be just a visual experience of a novel.

Apart from discussing art and film art in general Tarkovsky also has several sections in the book explaining how he works with his crew, how to direct their craft and how to deal with actors to bring up their most natural side. He often likes in these sections to mention some of his influences and also works that he thinks not very highly of.

In general, if you are interested in cinema I warmly recommend this book as it covers a lot of topics and it's written in a very understandable way. Sometimes it seems that Tarkovsky wanders off in his writings and that is perhaps the biggest flaw of the book but since he isn't exactly a writer I think we can overlook that.

Download.

Ahmad Jamal - The Awakening

Ah, the sweet sound of the piano. Perhaps the best way to start this year is with a classic. Released in 1970 and completely free of then current musically popular styles this album shines with old school bebop played by people who were already quite experienced with it. The tone of the album is very relaxed, there's very little adventurous exploring of dissonance, yeah a few solos on the songs are a bit chaotic but mainly this album has a very calm tone. Perhaps the biggest flaw for me on this album is that sometimes it gets a little too accessible, the melodies sometimes sound a bit to cheesy for my taste. Other than that this is an excellent album if you're looking for more piano centered jazz and a great starting point in Jamal's music.

Download.

Choosing To Die

The Link

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

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

Hello everybody. Let's cut the crap and do some posts.

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.