16 Friday Nov 2007
Posted in Music
The Guardian are running a series of five supplements from this Saturday (17th November) which detail what they believe should the 1000 albums that you should hear before you die. You can get a little more information here.
The Guardian are also publishing the list online if you want to see what they say.
16 Friday Nov 2007
Posted in Music
Moby’s next album, which I believe has been in the ‘can’ as they say in Hollywood for a little while has now been scheduled for release in March coming. The album, is reportedly going back to his more dance orientated (rather than chill out) routes. If the shaven headed one tours the album, it will make for some exciting/clubby gigs.
On the subject of Moby, it would seem that press are slowly picking up on the fact he has been making some new music freely available for download for indie film makers to use.
14 Wednesday Nov 2007
Posted in Music
According to the NME (Kate Bush announces new material – NME.COM) the very unprolific Kate Bush is releasing new material. unfortunately it is only one new song for the film The Golden Compass starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. The song will be used with the closing credits of the film.
13 Tuesday Nov 2007
Posted in Music Reviews
The Delays are back with a new EP as previously mentioned. I now have my copy of the limited CD run. I have to say – we’re pleased with what we are hearing. Love Made Visible continues with the Delays signature high vocal harmonies with an upbeat rhythm, bright splashy guitars and synth fills.
The EP comprises for five tracks of which for are new songs and the fifth is a radical remix of the title song, so radical you might as well consider it as a new song in its own right.
The title track pounds a long at a fair rate carrying you with it. If this had been released earlier in the year and we’d had a good summer then I think it would have been successful reminding us of those brighter days and correspondingly a hit. Sadly the weather was poor here, and the EP has only just been released in November.
Panic Attacks and Slow Burn, slows down the tempo, and have a more Autumnal feel to them dealing with less cheery subjects than love. You See Colours, the title of the last album, moves back to a brighter feel with a stronger synth presence. This leads us into the Together We Make A City (Love Made Visible) which takes the vocal from the title song and lays it onto a chilled out synth base with real stabbing blasts of keyboard and what could almost be a sample of Moby’s Go in the background – brilliant stuff.
Recommended listening.
13 Tuesday Nov 2007
Posted in Technology
Wired have an interesting article on the arrival of a new application of the SD card (Eye-Fi: How One Little Chip Will Change the Way You Share Pictures). The combining of WiFi with an SD interface and form is a neat solution. In terms of cameras, this is brilliant for those point and shoot moments (as you’re more likely to be in a location with WiFi readily available, not to mention not overly concerned about finessing your picture in photoshop). Going from camera lens to your Flickr account in seconds. For the pro photographer, the device still has huge potential if developed – imagine this partnered with an iPod like 80GB hard disk device – the need to buying ever larger media cards are gone as the photos can be transferred to a heavier large storage device in your camera bag.
But the application could easily extended to breath life into older PDAs without WiFi by presenting the receiving end of the wireless connection as a the content of a mass storage device.
13 Tuesday Nov 2007
Posted in General
Engadget are reporting (Virtual Palm OS on your Nokia N-Series tablet — hoozah! – Engadget) that a Virtual Machine of the Palm OS developed by Access is available to run on a Nokia 770 and later. As a free solution, this is great news as it will allow the tablet to be to move closer the the PDA role many want to use their N770 for (there is personal organiser software out there but the Palm OS offers a lot more in terms of Windows integration) as well as a lot of robust product standard solution software.
The question has to be, what is the price of the Virtual Machine in terms of performance overhead.
If the usability and performance of the virtual machine is good then this can only help Nokia try and poach more Palm OS users to the N series.
12 Monday Nov 2007
Posted in General
We may not achieve transcendence through computation, but we will keep ourselves out of the gutter with them. What you perceive of as a vacuum is an earthy paradise – the freedom to, quite literally, line-by-line, prevent humanity from going nonlinear.
Douglas Coupland – Micro-serfs
07 Wednesday Nov 2007
Posted in Music, Technology
Back in June I blogged about the idea of having a plugin for the iPod that would allow me to savour the joys of DAB Radio. Well it would seem that the first one to the market will by the same people who make the very retro looking portable radios – Roberts. the Robi as they’ve called it has been reported to be available from the 1st December.
07 Wednesday Nov 2007
Posted in Books
I’ve recently been on the road during the day or at home sick so had the benefit of hearing a bit more Radio 4 than I normally would. That includes hearing the programme ‘book of the week’ . This may sound pretty dull, it but proved this week to be far from it with John O’Farrell’s An Utterly Impartial History of Britain (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge). The excerpts that have been broadcast have been very funny and educational. For example in describing the politics of England prior to the Gun Powder plot the different factions have been likened to football teams and the occasional hooligan behaviour.
If history is taught in the manner that this book adopts, then I think we’ll have a lot more history students engaged and enjoying the subject. On the strength of what I’ve heard I’d recommend the book.
30 Tuesday Oct 2007
Posted in Music
Saul Williams is following in Radiohead’s footsteps of have the album for free or buy with a contribution ($5 in this case). Saul, has at least set the free version’s bit rate to be 192kbps and a choice of qualities if you make a contribution. More information at Saul’s website http://niggytardust.com/saulwilliams/
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is also indicating that he is likely to follow the same route next year with a new release.
Phil (aka MP3Monster)'s Blog 