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Glass Graves - Architecture

2010-06-09T23:57:00.002+03:00

The Trap Rebaited
Sister Dream
Glass Lips
Parachutes
Mess of Live Vines
The Twin
Corrine
Quarantined
Lila Tov

Every once in a while one finds a band that completely and overwhelmingly surprises one positively. Glass Graves, a band I discovered almost a month ago, is one of those bands. This San Francisco band is the brainchild and solo project of Gaby Graves, and the debut LP demonstrates her great affinity with the post-punk and gothic sounds of the 80s.

Glass Graves' debut LP is a very interesting mixture of shoegaze and goth with a dash of lo-fi aesthetic, which is clearly present but doesn't interfere with the music as is the case with some bands going for the lo-fi sound. Her sound has been labeled much better by greater minds than I (namely by Better Than Sex) as Vivian Girls gone goth. Not necessarily a bad point of comparison, except for the fact that I don't enjoy Vivian Girls all that much and Glass Graves kick ass. The LP is characterized by a slow tempo, a certain hollowness, exquisitely layered guitars and Gaby's own voice which is simply sublime. My favourite song from the LP, "Mess of Live Vines," makes use of studio magic to allow Gaby to sing her own background vocals, and the end result is simply beautiful as fuck.

The best part? The album is completely free to download. Just click here.

The final verdict: Glass Graves' debut LP is a great show of skill. Gaby Graves is showing great promise and hopefully we will be hearing more of her in the future. Glass Graves: douze points.

Veil Veil Vanish - Change in the Neon Light

2010-03-17T16:02:00.003+02:00

Change in the Neon Light
Anthem For a Doomed Youth
Exile City
Modern Lust
Pharmaceutical Party Platform
Secondhand Daylight
This is Violet
Detachment
Wilderness

Veil Veil Vanish is a San Francisco-based band whose style is a mix of dark fast-tempoed post-punk with a shoegaze/dreampop sensibility. I've been very into them ever since I heard their debut EP "Into A New Mausoleum" and I was very enthusiastic to hear that they were releasing a full-length album. The said album is now in my very hands and it's excellent.

"Change in the Neon Light" generally doesn't try to reinvent the sound Veil Veil Vanish exhibited on "Into A New Mausoleum," but it polishes and develops it even further, making for an absolutely fantastic album. The album plays almost like a mixture of Disintegration-era The Cure mixed with 4AD records' early roster and spiced with a doze of fast-tempoed post-punk in the vein of The Chameleons, an acquired taste but an excellent one at that. The sound is characterized by strong, cold basslines, rapid drumwork, ethereal synthesizers, well-textured guitars and the voice of vocalist Keven Tecon which sounds deceptively like Robert Smith at times.

Where the album does depart from Veil Veil Vanish's formula it does it excellently: "Modern Lust" adds in an almost electroclashy sound, "Secondhand Daylight" seems to take a cue from Gang of Four for its rhytm guitar and drums, while "Wilderness" slows the tempo down a notch to bring the album to a close.

This is a nearly flawless album and it deserves every single good word I've said about it. If this were to be the only good album released this year it would be enough to carry me through.

Band: Veil Veil Vanish
Album: Change in the Neon Light
You'll Like this if You: Like the sound of The Cure's "Disintegration" but sometimes wish it had more balls and came at you like a wall of sound.
Rating: Five goth kids gazing at their shoes out of five.

The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume One

2010-03-14T22:47:00.004+02:00

Linear Movement - Way Out of Living
Crash Course in Science - Flying Turns
Oppenheimer Analysis - Radiance
Mark Lane - Who's Really Listening
Tara Cross - Tempus Fugit
Turquoise Days - Blurred
Bene Gesserit - Mickey, Please...
Esplendor Geométrico - Moscú Está Helado
Das Ding - Reassurance Ritual
Martin Dupont - Just Because
Deux - Game & Performance
Somnabulist - Things I Was Due To Forget
Ohama - My Time
Das Kabinette - The Cabinet

Once upon a time there was a time that most people would like to forget. Those that still remember it know it as the eighties. In those times a lot of bad music was made. This post is not about that music.

Minimal wave is an umbrella term for a type of synth-based electronic music prevalent in Europe and the United States in the seventies and eighties and the name of a record label dedicated to unearthing the music made in that style. They have rereleased a number of minimal wave gems throughout the years and this year they've come out with a compilation of great minimal wave tunes.

The compilation is generally solid and gives a very broad picture of this almost entirely forgotten style of great electronic music. There is a great variety of songs here and most of them are killer. If one would have to find a complaint it would be the inclusion of Deux' "Game & Performance" which is simply overplayed and has already featured on every compilation it's even remotely related to. Still, given the great quality of this compilation I can hardly wait for Volume Two.

The final verdict:
What? The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume One
Who? A bunch of great artists, doing their minimal electronic thing.
How? The only way they know: awesomely. Five stars out of five as a compilation.

Also, for those of you who use Spotify, here's a link. The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume One

Sex Games

2010-03-02T10:49:00.002+02:00

Today's Xkcd was surprisingly winful. Does it make me a bad person that I now want to add a sex die into all of my RPGs?

Imagine your warrior attacking a dragon and as you're making your attack roll you roll one die from that set to find out that you HIT HIM IN THE BREASTS FOR 32 POINTS OF DAMAGE!!!

Yeah, I'm done.

Family Time 12"

2010-03-01T00:05:00.002+02:00

DOLLCHIMES - Lapidary Throats
Rapid Youth - Hospital Haunt
Kevin Greenspon - Open Book
Twin Lion - The Greys
Trudgers - Moist Mouths Eject
Dimples - Crybaby
No Paws (No Lions) - No Ghosts
Ancient Crux - Wind Walker
Mikura Suzuki - Panzerkorps
Norse Horse - Shoot the Kids
Deep Sht - Mythmaker
Strange Frames - Stealing Flowers from a Grave
Blessure Grave - Down in the Ground

Every once in a while you run into a release that is so surprising that you're left at a lack for words in describing it. Okay, I'll try: Family Time Records' latest release, the Family Time 12" compilation, is truly awesome.

The reason why I'm left at such a loss for words is that it's hard to quantify what exactly's going on with this record label. Family Time is, as far as I know, a small record label based in Riverside, California and if this compilation is any indication they host a varied crowd of bands. One thing that seems to be a universal across the board seems to be their lo-fi aesthetic and the haunting quality of the different bands' sounds.

This compilation is all heart, but it's also kick-ass. If you ask me this compilation could kick the asses of most releases by supposed goth, deathrock and post-punk bands. Simply put, it's excellent and truly showcases that good things are coming out of the fringes of what is traditionally regarded as the goth scene.

If I were to play favourites, and I do so love to, they would have to be the opening track "Lapidary Throats" by DOLLCHIMES, a band that excels in their self-dubbed style known as coldgaze, "Wind Walker" by Ancient Crux, a marriage of neo-psychedelia with a lo-fi aesthetic, "Panzerkorps" by Mikura Suzuki, an artist who mixes equal parts heavy metal, goth rock and Tolkien and does it excellently, and finally "Stealing Flowers from a Grave" by Strange Frames which is simply haunting and great.

You know what, get this compilation. It's fantastic. I'm giving it as many points as it takes to get these bands more widely known.

Cruel Black Dove - The Myth and the Sum

2010-02-16T18:23:00.013+02:00

Forgotten Place
Isolation
The Myth and the Sum
Raking Water
Tied to the Pavement

The indie electronic rock quartet Cruel Black Dove originally came to my information through Bell Hollow's "Foxgloves Extras" digital release previously featured on this blog. Cruel Black Dove's remix of Bell Hollow's song Lowlights was dark yet beautiful, a good representation of Cruel Black Dove's sound in general.

Cruel Black Dove's latest EP, "The Myth and the Sum," shows a lot of promise for the band. Their sound is dark but extremely warm and organic, featuring none of the sterility and coldness of many dark indie bands. The songs are punctuated with complex beats, eerie melodies and the absolutely ethereal singing.

This is dark pop music at its most beautiful. The EP is available as both a digital release and as a physical album.

We Interrupt This Blog For A Public Service Announcement:

2010-02-11T15:00:00.007+02:00

The voting for Deathrock.com's Album of the Year 2009 has begun.

Vote now!

Viimeinen näytös/Eilisen jälkeen double feature

2010-02-07T17:09:00.005+02:00

After finally mastering the hangover caused by last Friday's release party I think I'm finally up to the job of reviewing a couple of records that have recently come into my possession. These are the Finnish goth/post-punk band Varjo's swansong, "Viimeinen näytös," and a collection of Finnish post-punk from the 80s titled "Eilisen jälkeen," both released by Stupido Records.

Varjo - Viimeinen näytös

Maalaa
Joku sytytti kynttilän
Nyt mun silmät näkee enemmän
Soluttautujat
Velka
Kadonneet
Sairaalassa
Hissi
Susan
Viimeinen näytös
Olet ehkä kuollut

Before I dive into Varjo's album some things need to be cleared up: Varjo was a band founded in 1994 in Heinola, Finland. Its founding members were lead singer/guitarist Antti Lautala and lead guitarist Henry Walden. Their first release was the EP titled "Ensinäytös," which translates into English roughly as "The First Act" or "The First Show." Thus it's only appropriate that their last album (due to the unfortunate death of Henry Walden which I touched upon in a post last year) be titled "Viimeinen näytös," or "The Final Act" or "The Last Show" appropriately.

"Viimeinen näytös" is made up of songs that Varjo had been rehearsing before Henry Walden's sudden death. Some of the songs even feature post-humous guitarwork by Walden, as they'd apparently already recorded some material before his passing. Most of the songs should be familiar to those who have seen Varjo (now performing under the title Silent Scream) perform within the last two years and they are by and large extremely solid as far as compositions and lyrics are concerned. However, as a minor disappointment to those who have heard any of these songs performed live, they are somewhat lacking in energy on the record.

I know this should be easy to brush up to the fact that you can hardly get the same energy on a record as into a live performance, but this theory doesn't hold water when you consider that Varjo's masterpiece "Paratiisissa" featured some extremely energetic and tight songs and the songs on "Viimeinen näytös" sound somewhat sluggish in comparison.

This minor quibble doesn't detract from the general excellence of the songs on the album. However, the album's finalé, "Olet ehkä kuollut" sounds like a retread of "Vaellamme rakkauden soilla" from Varjo's previous album "Muistijälkiä," and not even a very good retread at that. Still, the album is extremely listenable when taken on its own terms.

The final verdict:
Band: Varjo
Album: Viimeinen näytös
What?: An extremely good swansong for one of the best bands to come out of the Finnish goth scene in ages. Not the best album Varjo's ever done, but by far not the worst.
Verdict: Four stars out of five.

Eilisen jälkeen compilation

Ratsia - Eilisen jälkeen
Musta Paraati - Romanssi
Belaboris - Kuolleet peilit
Silmät - Haudattu
Syyskuu - Susi
Musta Paraati - Johtaja
Geisha - Kesä
Aprés Demain - Arpakuutio
Kolme Seisoo Vinossa - Peilisali
Kuudes Tunti - Kuuntele ääniä
Musta Paraati - Myrsky nousee
Ret Marut - Beatnik
Psyyke - Temppeli
Hexenhaus - Ikiyö
Kuolleet Kukat - Kasoittain tuhkaa
Hiljaa - Kuume
Päät - Rikoksen rytmi
Alaston Lounas - Taivaskatto
Burundin - Aavikon laiva
Liikkuvat Lapset - Sinut haluan
Jumalainen näytelmä - Ilo
Tiistai - Ansassa

Pros: We Finns really knew how to make music in the 80s, eh?
Cons: Apparently the people making this compilation ran out of ideas and decided to just stick in more Musta Paraati. Not slagging on the band, it's awesome, but three songs feels a bit too much especially since it would've left more room for other bands.
So, yeah: All in all an excellent compilation.
Verdict: Four stars out of five. Get it.

The Best of 2009 (crossing over a bit to 2010)

2010-01-22T14:30:00.003+02:00

I'm writing this due to the fact that I still haven't been able to bring myself to finish playing The Path (mostly because I'm scared). I need to get something else done in order to keep myself from getting lazy with my writing again.

So, we're already three weeks into 2010 and I still haven't done a proper retrospective of the best parts of 2009. Well, I thinks it's high time. Here, for your pleasure, is my top five countdown of the best things in 2009:

5. Bands That Care. 2009 saw the release of Feeding Fingers' "Baby Teeth" which I reviewed rather favourably in 2008 already due to having received an advance copy. So, in a way this bit is the year 2008 crossing over to 2009, but never mind that. 2009 saw me having some extremely nice experiences with certain bands. Whether it was a band coming all the way to my blog to thank me for reviewing their album (Skeleteen) or a band being so genuinely nice as to let me keep a limited edition vinyl they accidentally sent me when I'd in fact ordered the CD and then sending me the CD for no extra charge (The Prids) or a band promising me a free copy of their work-in-progress album as thanks for DJ'ing at their bassist's birthday party, this year really made me feel good about the bands that I listen to. Bands, here's something you should know: nothing makes a person appreciate the effort you put into your music (other than making really good music) more than a genuinely human connection. Commenting on blog posts reviewing your albums, showing appreciation to people for simply listening to your music in the form of advance copies and appearing as human all make the music you make feel so much more personal. This crosses over to my next topic, which is...

4. Musicians Who Friend You Simply For Being A Fan. I've experienced this in a number of places. Justin Curfman of Feeding Fingers is my friend on Facebook, meaning that the gap between musician and fan has been bridged somewhat. Furthermore, after the shenanigans with my order from The Prids their bassist Mistina Keith added me as a friend. In addition to this, members of Entertainment, Bell Hollow (R.I.P.) and most recently Burning Image have friended me on Last.fm simply for listening to their music. The most recent instance also came with a message in my Last.fm inbox from the said person thanking me for taking the time to listen to their latest album. This is the online equivalent of a person from a band coming up to you after a gig and saying "Hey, I saw that you were really getting into my music there. Would you like to join me for a drink?" Okay, it's not really like that, but it's the best analogy I can come up with.

3. Casual Gaming. Let me be frank here: I started gaming when my dad bought me the Nintendo Entertainment System when I was four or five. For a long time I was a hardcore gamer but I sadly fell off the wagon when the generation of consoles following the Playstation and Nintendo 64 came around. Last year saw me getting back into gaming through casual gaming, mostly through websites like Kongregate and Jay is Games. The future of gaming is in casual gaming: just look at the sales figures of the Wii and the Nintendo DS in comparison to the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 and you'll see what I mean. Granted, I don't think this should mean that gaming companies should start pissing on the hardcore gamers, but I think it's about time we dropped the attitude towards people who play fun and simplistic games and not the latest titles which require the computing power of a space station to run properly.

2. DJ'ing. I took a DJ course in 2008 and started playing music at university parties. Last year I finally started doing some proper DJ'ing the form of goth clubs run by some of my friends. It's really something to be able to play music for the entertainment of an entire clubful of people and it's even better to read people's comments online after the clubs praising your choices in music. I've even had people coming up to me after clubs to thank me for playing some obscure song that I was unsure anyone would recognize, much less enjoy. DJ'ing is a great exercise in entertaining people while also subtly trying to expose them to music outside of their comfort zone. (I intend to throw some We Miss The Earth and Fangs on Fur into my next set, just to see how it goes down.)

1. The Music The last year was a really good year for music. We got KASMS, Fangs On Fur, We Miss The Earth, new releases from Burning Image and A Place To Bury Strangers and the reinvention of Varjo as Silent Scream with the added promise of Varjo's final album finally seeing the light of day this spring. And that's just to name a few. There were more releases than I could simply get my dirty hands on last year, some of which I still hope to get at some point.

With that said, I'm already excited about this year. I've already got my first DJ gig in sights, Drop Dead Festival is coming closer than ever this year and I might actually be in a good enough monetary situation to actually attend. Fingers crossed now.

Experiments in Interactive Entertainment: The Path, Part 1

2010-01-15T12:33:00.006+02:00

In spite of the fact that an increasing number of games are finding their way onto Mac's the actual number of titles released is still but a fraction of the number of PC titles. This means that the gamer stuck with a MacBook, such as I, must be extremely creative in finding games to amuse themselves with.

Enter The Path, a game by Tale of Tales, a small company from Belgium that styles themselves as makers of "interactive fiction." The descriptor is quite fitting of The Path, their modern retelling of the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

In The Path you take the role of one of five different Little Red Riding Hoods who are all sisters. The objective is simple: get to grandmother's house and don't stray off the path!!! However, if you do actually as you're told you don't get to see any of the interesting parts of the game and you technically lose. No, in order to get the proper ending with each of the Reds, you have to stray off the path into the forest and encounter the wolf, which is unique to each Red.

I started playing by choosing the by far most traditional Red, Robin. A little girl with the hood and all. Having already read a number of reviews I already knew that the entire point was to stray off the path and into the woods. Suddenly the game became extremely eerie. The game was suddenly dominated by a spooky piano soundtrack as I made my way through the woods and ran into an abandoned playground that had fallen into disrepair.

Yes. I had suddenly walked into a scene from Silent Hill. Playing the game makes one feel extremely ill at ease, simply due to the fact that the combination of forest sounds, the eerie atmosphere and the soundtrack make for a feeling of something being wrong in a very primal way. But onward I went and on the horizon I could make out the outlines of a graveyard. As I closed in on the graveyard the shapes of the tombstones and statues started to come into focus and HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!!!

So, every Red's part in the woods concludes with encountering your wolf. I knew this was going to happen but I was still completely unprepared for Robin's encounter with her wolf (who, mind you, was the most literal of all the wolves in the game). But the game wasn't over, oh no. After a short cutscene with Robin and her wolf I was transported to the front of grandmother's house. I made my way inside the house and what happened could best be described as thus: directed by David Lynch.

One short nightmarish encounter later I was back at the sisters' house, but Robin was now missing. It was disconcerting to say the least. It took me weeks to get back and play as one of the other sisters. As of writing this I've still got two sisters to go.

So, this should give you an idea of what should await you if you were to purchase The Path. It is a truly terrific experience and I mean terrific both in the modern and in the more archaic sense: it inspires terror. Next time, once I've actually finished the game I'll share with you some of my deeper thoughts about the game's mechanics and my own interpretations of the game's sequentially unfolding story.

What Is This, I Don't Even

2009-12-29T02:50:00.008+02:00

Okay, so my last year's new year's promise was that I would at least make an effort to update this blog more than randomly. In my defense I've been swamped with various activities, both school and work-related and recreational. Now, in the true spirit of the upcoming year I'm going to take a look back at two (yes, you read right) albums that helped shape me as a person this year.

E For Explosion - Reinventing the Heartbeat

This band came to me like Jesus. That is, like a thief in the night. (Thessalonians, 5:2) The band was recommended to me through Last.fm and since they happened to have some songs free to listen to I gave them a try.

After listening to "Behind Every Breath" I was hooked. With that said, Reinventing the Heartbeat is by no means a revolutionary album. To put it quite bluntly, it's an album filled with all the indie pop/shoegaze clichés of the last century and doesn't break too much new ground. But the band would be damned if they didn't make their sound extremely addictive.

The album starts, as seems to be required by law for modern shoegaze bands, with a slow, ethereal piece titled "Sunday," which may lead the noncautious listener to think that this is another album of generic indie pop. That said listener would be entirely right in many ways. The songs "Reinventing the Heartbeat" and "Behind Every Breath" which follow the intro are both filled with delightfully heartfelt expressions of love and pain. The latter actually deserves special mention due to the fact that, in spite of sounding like a song the Backstreet Boys would make if they suddenly turned indie, it has the one of the catchiest hooks ever. At this point I must admit that I'm tempted to quote the entirety of the chorus to you... ah, heck, I might as well:

I beg you close your eyes
I'm only a voice
just a thought, just a reason
I could be your best excuse to live a lie
I'll do all I can to make your heart beat with mine

Sappy? Why, hell yes. That doesn't make the song any worse off, in my personal opinion. The reason why I'm having such a hard time reviewing this album is simply because I keep returning to that one song and ignoring the rest of the album before and after it, but in the name of journalistic integrity I must try.

The album stays pretty firmly on the indie pop romance axis for the rest of its length, but it does it with such an honesty and integrity that it can only be admired. Special mentions go to the aptly titled "Paper Flowers Never Die," to the slow ballad "Lies Lies Lies," the godawfully romantic "You Know Who You Are," (which contains the pathetic lyrics "When you're close to me/I'm in heaven") and the surprisingly perky "I Explode."

E For Explosion doesn't take any chances with its first album. It's an extremely listenable collection of indie pop love songs. It doesn't break any new artistic ground, but it will definitely tug your heartstrings if you're into that sort of thing.

The final verdict:
Band: E For Explosion
Album: Reinventing the Heartbeat
Score: Four broken hearts out of five

We Miss The Earth - A New Silent Era

What can I say? This band had me sold at their name. It at the same time invokes images of environmentalism and, thanks to a friend of mine, aliens having visited our planet and now wanting to return to it. The album, only available in digital format at the moment, is a refreshing piece of lo-fi electro-goth whatever. Even I am at a loss at describing this band's sound, but the truth is that the band is well-grounded in the 80s tradition of dark music and at the same time a breath of fresh air into the scene. While they certainly owe a lot of their sound to early electronic/goth acts of the 80s their sound is extremely refreshing in a scene filled with sorry Sisters of Mercy/Christian Death/The Cure derivatives.

What makes A New Silent Era such a great experience is the fact that, unlike many new electronic acts, they don't equate the term electronic with the sterile sound of many modern darkwave band nor the upbeat indie electro pop that has become a fad in the wake of bands like Crystal Castles. Their sound is charmingly unpolished, lending it an air of intimacy absent in too many a modern electronic band, and the lead singer's use of an extremely rudimentary echo effect adds a nearly primal quality to the album.

Songs that particularly stand out on the album include the heart-rending "Incentive" and "Pulling My Stitches," the divinely abrasive "Voices in the Dryer" and "Life and Limb" and "Reception," which sounds like what Joy Division would probably sound like through a Commodore 64 after a couple too many drops of acid.

A New Silent Era is an absolutely fantastic album for those who enjoy the darker side. One should only avoid this album if one is chronically allergic to the introduction of electronic elements into the tried and true dark formula.

And the scores are...
Band: We Miss The Earth
Album: A New Silent Era
Score: Five dead babies in one barrel

Memories Are Over Nine-Thousand: Ratpick's Music Taste In Memoriam

2009-10-24T13:10:00.003+03:00

Since I haven't updated in quite a while I might as well make my comeback with a bang.

Is it possible to be exposed to simply too much awesome? I think it is.

Some months ago I was exposed to a japanese song called "Omoide Wa Okkusenman!" (literal translation: Memories Are 110 Million) through no other place than Youtube. The song's short history is as follows: sometime less than one hundred years ago a japanese fellow set lyrics to the tune of the Mega Man 2 song from the Wily's Castle level. The lyrics concerned nostalgia, loss of innocence and how adulthood isn't what it's made out to be. Two videos, the first with the lyrics transcribed to romanji and the second with english subtitles, follow:

My initial reaction to the song was somewhere along the lines of "This is pure concentrated awesome!" I then started doing a bit of research on the internet and discovered that "Omoide Wa Okkusenman!" is something of a hit in Japan and that making new versions of it is sort of a national pastime. The song has been done as a happy hardcore song, a death metal song, a fully orchestrated song and a number of other versions as well, but the one that really stood out to me was this one:

Yes, apparently a pair of japanese guys had made a version of the song to make it sound approximately what it would sound like if X Japan were to perform it live. They then cut footage from X Japan's final concert to make the above quite convincing video. For a while I thought this was by far the best version of Okkusenman possible, until I heard japanese supergroup JAM Project's version of it:

That song was simply too awesome for my feeble taste in music to take. Honestly, I've been listening to that song on repeat for most of the week. It's simply breathtakingly glorious. However, exposure to this song has had an unforeseen side effect: it's broken my taste in music.

Yes, I can no longer enjoy all the music I used to listen to before. Songs which evoked a huge emotional response from me, such as E for Explosion's "Behind Every Breath", Entertainment's "Flesh!", The Prids' "Infection" and Bell Hollow's "Jamais Vu" now seem dull and flat to me. At the same time I've experienced the loss of appreciation for camp classics such as Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)", Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" and even Cheap Trick's "Mighty Wings." (And don't make me say it: there's absolutely nothing gay about the song! It just happened to be on Top Gun's soundtrack!)

I have, however, taken measures towards recovery. By exposing myself to some of the most god-awful music in existence (such as all the inane pop music they play at my work at McDonald's) I've slowly found myself appreciating the subtle nuances of the bands I used to love, but whether my recovery will be final is still uncertain.

Therefore I'd like to raise a glass to all the bands whose music I've enjoyed during the past year: here's to you, Adoration, Bell Hollow, Butterfly Explosion, The Chameleons, The Church, Crystal Castles, The Cure, The Dead Milkmen, Echo & the Bunnymen, E for Explosion, Entertainment, Feeding Fingers, KASMs, Kent, Kitchens of Distinction, Leisur Hive, Magenta Skycode, The Prids, A Spectre Is Haunting Europe, Suruaika, Varjo and White Rose Movement. Your efforts to educate me about good music have not been in vain!

Alienating My Audience Part 1: RopeCon 2009

2009-08-05T13:43:00.003+03:00

The description of my blog does say that one of my topics is geekery, so be adviced that if you don't enjoy RPGs or reading about people's experiences you might want to stop reading this.

Didn't you hear me? Stop reading right now!

Is he gone? Good. I never liked his type.

Anyway, for those of you who don't know, RopeCon is an annual RPG convention held somewhere around July and August in Otaniemi, Espoo. The exact location of the convention is Dipoli, a building which I won't describe because my friend NiTessine does it so much better in a pre-RopeCon post of his on his blog:

Seriously. They say there isn’t a single straight angle in the house. While I know this isn’t exactly true, they aren’t exactly abundant. This is like my eleventh Ropecon in Dipoli and I can still get lost there. I only figured out the layout of the bottom floor two years ago. Last year, I had trouble finding the room where I was supposed to give a presentation. It’s a confusing place, but in a really cool way.

With that said, RopeCon was last weekend and I spent all three days of the con there. This was the first time in two years that I've actually attended RopeCon, because for the past couple of years I've always ween chronically broke by the time the con has rolled around. This year I had the pleasure of GMing at the con, meaning that I got free entrance to the con. There was much rejoicing.

On Friday I ran a game for the Finnish branch of Pathfinder Society, namely The Prince of Augustana. My group included one complete newbie, one person I regularly game with and two old beards from Living Greyhawk. The session was alright, no thanks really to the scenario since it's just a railroaded succession of combats with no challenge to speak of even for a low-level party. The players breezed their way through the scenario and into the rather anti-climactic yet funny twist ending. After the game was over I wandered around aimlessly until I found a spot in an AD&D game run by one James Raggi, a most awesome gentleman. He was running the Tomb of Horrors, a module which is pretty much synonymous with "Gygaxian dungeon crawl." Most of the players had previously played the adventure and even those who had not (myself included) took a healthy degree of paranoia into the game with us. I was playing a level 14 Cleric and for my spells I mostly prepared augury, just so I could ask the gods whether a certain course of action would lead us to weal or woe. Unfortunately sleep deprivation took the better of me and I was forced to withdraw from the dungeon at around four. Still, I had a great time playing.

After about four hours of very bad sleep I made my way back to the con to run a game of Best Friends, an award-winning storytelling game by Gregor Hutton about girls, their friends and their petty hatreds. I was surprised to find that the game had been booked full, so me and the five players who showed up played the game for three hours, exceeding my table booking by a good hour. It was hysterically funny and by far one of the best con games I've ever been in. I'm not saying this because I ran the game, since my role as running the game was pretty subdued as my only role in the game was to introduce the players to the system, help them with creating their characters (I also had a character of my own since Best Friends is very easy to run GM-less.) and then get the ball rolling by getting the story started. After this the game pretty much ran itself, with the players introducing new characters and events into the mix, creating plot twists and drama and generally just helping me have a great time. Sadly, after the game I really started feeling the effects of not having slept too well last night and made my way back home for a good night's sleep.

On Sunday I ran another Pathfinder Society scenario, this time The Third Riddle. I'd run this scenario earlier to a higher level party at the higher tier (i.e. all encounters scaled up to be more difficult) and the scenario was a pushover back then. Thus, I assumed that a party of mostly 1st-level characters could easily pull this one off at the lowest tier. How wrong I was. While two out of three of the main encounters were pretty easy there was one encounter which should never, under any circumstances be run as written for a tier 1-2 group. When the dust settled only one of the PCs was standing, everyone else was either unconscious or bleeding to death and one was dead. Thankfully the PC left standing had stocked up on healing potions and quickly got his companions up on their feet. A near total party kill, but they pulled through in the end. The rest of the day was spent discussing the implications of the new and updated Pathfinder Society Guide to Organized Play. Suffice to say that brokenness has already been found. I'm personally not that bothered by the brokenness as I am with the new trait system. It's not that the system itself is flawed but the fact that there are a few real stinkers in there, such as:

Charming: Blessed with good looks, you’ve come to depend on the fact that others find you attractive. You gain a +1 trait bonus when you use Bluff or Diplomacy on a character that is (or could be) sexually attracted to you, and a +1 trait bonus to the save DC of any language-dependent spell you cast on such characters or creatures.

Now, I don't really have that much of a problem with this until you realize that it's completely up to the GM's interpretation when it applies. Could an orc be sexually attracted to a gnome? It's entirely possible, taken into account the fact that dragons regularly breed with almost anything living (as demonstrated by the half-dragon monster template). That's the thing: the truth is that in a world like the assumed setting of D&D almost any creature with a defined sex could be sexually attracted to almost any other such creature. The second problem comes from the fact that this trait is completely dependent on GM-fiat: the GM may deny a male character the possibility of using this trait's bonus on another male creature simply because "He's not gay," which is purely bullshit. As I consider any tagging of people's sexualities as completely arbitrary and not even taking into account the fact that pretty much every person has a unique sexual history this trait just opens up a can of worms, especially due to the fact that it contains the text could be. If I wanted to do a dick move I'd just make a male character with the said trait and insist on it applying to my skill rolls with all males, because there have been males who have been attracted to males before so therefore it's a simple fact that any given male could be attracted to my character.

God, I love semantics.

KASMs - Spayed

2009-06-11T01:59:00.005+03:00

So, you may have noticed a trend in my album reviews: I seem to slant towards the gothic/post-punk style of music when it comes to music and if you find that somehow depressing STOP READING RIGHT NOW! Anyway, now that we've got that sorted out, yes, I like goth music and by goth music I mean music in the vein of Joy Division, Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees as I have no love for the likes of Sisters of Mercy and the hordes of clones thereof that seem to characterize said genre. One might say that I have a very old-school taste for gothic and obviously as a direct consequence of this I will obviously shun any modern attempts at making music even remotely gothic.

And the person saying that would be wrong, seeing as there are so many good bands reinventing the field of gothic music even in this modern day and age. KASMs comes to mind, what with them having released their debut album "Spayed" less than a month ago. Come on, any band citing Subtonix as an influence has to be good.

"Spayed" is a nice bit of old gothic sound, characterized by the haunting voice of their female singer and jagged guitars. The band itself has coined the term "shriekbeat" to characterize their music, apparently in a bid to distance themselves from the "cooler" terms like "new grave" and "the new thing," both used liberally by the NME. Based on the band's public profile one could easily dismiss "Spayed" as another NME-dearie in the vein of The Horrors and the more recent White Lies, but it would be doing the album injustice. While both aforementioned bands have their own schticks and excel at them they are both extremely derivative in ways seen and heard before, KASMs isn't afraid to dig deeper into the tradition of dark alternative music to create a sound which is equal parts Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus and Sonic Youth. All songs on the album have a manic energy to them with just enough of an experimental mindset to make them sound fresh.

If I were forced to pick favourites from the album they'd be the opening "Male Bonding" and the nicely disturbing "Krih." All in all, a solid album in my opinion. In a nutshell:

Band: KASMs
Album: Spayed
Rating: Five points of indie cred out of five

From Open 'Til Close

2009-05-07T15:16:00.003+03:00

As you may or may not know I've for quite some time now worked at a McDonald's in my old hometown. In spite of the fact that I've now moved to Helsinki I still work there, mostly because I love the people I work with. For a while now I've been thinking of trying to get some of my workmates interested in RPGs but I've been hesitant since I understand they might have some preconceptions about the hobby and I think they might have trouble adjusting to the roleplaying mindset. However, I think I've found the right solution: a humorous RPG that allows the players to play themselves, thus easing the pain of getting into character, but not too mundane so as to not bore the players.

The game will be called From Open 'Til Close, A McDonald's Survival Horror Game! (In case you're wondering, open and close are colloquial terms used by Finnish employees of McDonald's for the morning and evening shifts respectively.) The game's short blurb, as you might imagine on the back of an RPG manual, would read as follows:

It started like any normal morning shift at McDonald's in spite of the fact that the town centre seemed awfully quiet. Almost dead, one might've said. The employees working the morning shift were well under way with their opening chores and were just about ready to open at 9:30 when they realized a throng of people waiting outside, hungry. Not for cheeseburgers, but for brains.

From Open 'Til Close, A McDonald's Survival Horror Game: the lunch rush just got a completely new meaning!

Okay, so that's pretty much the outline of the game. My preference systemwise would be Fate or Fudge on the Fly because of their modularity and ease of use. The game will be slightly humorous in tone and the characters' skills will be those relevant to their work at McDonald's. Persuasion will be renamed Customer Service, Leadership will be Shift Management and Resolve will be called Vitutuskynnys. (a Finnish term for which there is no good translation into English. Quite literally it means "The Threshhold At Which You Get Pissed Off.") Combat skills will be grouped into relevant skills for the use of various materials and equipment: the Cleaning skill will cover the use of mops, brushes and detergents in combat while the Frying skill will be used to handle combat using frier fat and the other materials used near the frying station. There will also be a separate skill for the use of kitchenwares, from mayo guns to knives etc.

This is pretty much as far as I've got thus far. All the skills mentioned above will of course be renamed since I'll be running this game for a bunch of Finns. At least one of my former co-workers has agreed to play, so the game will be set in an alternate reality where he never quit McDonald's. I'll probably be posting updates once I get this thing under way.

Fair Game

2009-04-11T23:46:00.002+03:00

I have a huge problem: life on the internet is simply too peaceful. There's no drama. Thus I have taken it upon myself to start creating some drama. I'm not sure if it'll be notable enough to count as real drama, but as long as a few people get butthurt I'll be cool.

To achieve this I'm going to start working on a roleplaying game of my own. Its name is going to be "Fair Game" and it's going to be a light-hearted parody of a certain ~~battshit fucking insane cult~~ perfectly valid religion which shall remain unnamed. The players take the roles of agents of a religion called Discernotology (name subject to change) whose duty it is to combat the enemies of the said religion. You see, Discernotology is a perfectly valid religion which helps its adherents follow happier lives and all claims to the contrary are simply untrue and highly exaggerated and it's really mystifying why anyone would want to criticize such a religion! Yet these critics do exist and it is the characters' duty to silence them.

A session of "Fair Game" will be paced somewhat similarly to a game of kill puppies for satan: the characters are given their target, told how he's raised the ire of the characters' superiors and shortly briefed on their target. Following this the characters must "find dirt" on the target, trying to discover their past crimes, no matter how small. They all matter! Failing at this they go on to "making dirt." Surely any enemy of this religion must be a criminal and even if he's been able to hide the fact he's obviously got some dirt on him. If no dirt can be found it has to be created. At this point the player characters are encouraged to frame their target for whichever crimes they see fitting. If this still doesn't work it is time to pull out the big guns: the target and even their friends and family must be harrassed until the target sees the error of his ways and sues for peace. The session ends with the characters receiving the praise of their superiors and gaining more Gammans, the game's equivalent of experience points. Once a character has collected enough of these mysterious particles he rises to a higher level of consciousness and is given access to more classified information about Discernotology.

So, I have a rough outline of what I want the game to be capable of doing: it must somehow simulate acts of larceny, sabotage, threats, psychological warfare, harrasment and investigation. I am personally thinking of something along the lines of The Burning Wheel, with a very simple basic system but with more detailed subsystems for various methods the characters can use.

More on this when I start to figure out the system. In the meantime, I'm welcoming ideas for what the religion should be called in the game.

Dots to Connect

2009-04-09T13:20:00.008+03:00

After no less than a month after the Prids benefit album Dots to Connect was announced it finally hit iTunes today and I've got my filthy digital hands on it. It's been available through Amazon for a while now, but since I don't live in either the US of A or the UK I wasn't capable of getting it through there. Well, it was worth waiting.

Just to give a bit of background: last Autumn The Prids were in a terrible accident. They crashed their tour bus and most of their equipment was destroyed. A PayPal account was set up for donations and apparently it worked, seeing as the band is already doing a tour in the States. At some point someone thought it'd be great if a bunch of bands friendly with The Prids made a benefit tribute to the band. With a discography dating as far as 2000 there was a lot of material for bands to mine.

The compilation features eighteen covers by various bands, including my favourites Entertainment and Bell Hollow, and as far as I'm concerned it's a very solid compilation. The songs are true to the originals yet they don't sound forced to the bands performing them. Hearts Fail's "The Glow" turns down the tempo quite a bit, changing the song into a really ethereal and dark piece, while Bell Hollow's signature guitar sounds make "Contact" a piece that wouldn't have sounded out of place on their album Foxgloves.

The quality of the songs is great and they serve as a great tribute to The Prids. Highly recommended.

Skeleteen - No Fun Intended

2009-02-26T18:52:00.010+02:00

For a while there I was worried I was going to be depleted of material for this blog until the release of Magenta Skycode's long overdue second album and Jessie Evans's solo debut. Thankfully through the power of the internet I have yet again been able to scrounge up another band so obscure that just by writing about them I will lengthen my music-peen by several inches.

The band I am speaking of is called Skeleteen and as a nice tie-in to one of my previous posts, their debut full length album "No Fun Intended" has thus far only seen a digital release. Now, given the option I will always go for owning a release in physical form, but when I don't have that choice I won't shun a band because of it. The digital format also has its clear strengths: being able to purchase music from the comfort of your own home and not having to wait for weeks for the album to arrive after ordering it (something which I've grown accustomed to since I've purchased many albums unavailable in Finland through the internet). Furthermore, now that Apple has finally made their iTunes store drm-free you won't be criminalized for listening to music purchased from there on something other than the computer used to purhcase it and neither will you have to go through the process of removing the drm from each track each time you change hardware.

Anyway, moving on from my "The Future Is Now!" rant, it's Skeleteen with "No Fun Intended." The band's style borrows from many different places, the most obvious influences being the noisy no-wave of bands such as Sonic Youth and Swans, but some of the songs also demonstrate an almost ethereal quality reminiscient of classic shoegaze acts My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. Add a healthy doze of experimentation and time signatures stolen straight from math rock and you've got Skeleteen.

With six songs and priced at $5.94 "No Fun Intended" is well worth its price. The opening song "Bet On Me" is by far the most noisy and abrasive of the lot with its screamed out chorus and sharp guitarwork. The song does mellow out now and again only to jump right back at you at full force. "Gone," which is also the single drawn from the album, is almost hypnotic with its ethereal vocals and guitarwork which moves quickly from sharp and angular to melodic and twangly. "Not This Time" opens slowly but suddenly picks up the pace and turns into a delightful lo-fi noise pop anthem. For a while the guitar goes silent and we are treated to the perfect interplay of the bass and the drums, after which the song comes to an abrupt halt. From here it slowly accelerates back into its original speed and finally comes to an end on the same note that it started on.

"Little Glimpse" is the shortest song of the lot, being an ethereal piece that almost seems to begin in medias res. Nothing too out of the ordinary though. The titular "No Fun Intended" is sluggish and abrasive with its fuzzy guitars that fluctuates between pure noise and a soft guitar pop. It also picks up the pace occasionally to let the band really go apeshit and the song ends with the vocals practically screamed out. The last track, "Overcome," is a fast-paced noisy number. As a lovely little detail the music dies down occasionally to let in the absolutely wonderful whispered vocals, which are followed with the music in full force. Probably my favourite of the lot.

I'm not going to bother to score "No Fun Intended." For its price it's an absolute must-have for anyone who enjoys abrasive noise pop and shoegaze in the vein of My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth and The Jesus & Mary Chain. You could spend those six dollars much worse.

Henry Walden In Memoriam

2009-01-31T01:24:00.005+02:00

In approximately two hours I'll be attending a gig in honor of the late Henry Walden, lead guitarist of Finnish goth groups Varjo and Angelica Kult. For those of you who didn't know Henry Walden passed away in a fire on the 20th of September last year. Apparently two cats named Morrissey and Siouxsie also died in the fire.

I didn't know Henry personally. The only contact I had with the man was through brief glimpses at clubs in Helsinki and seeing him perform with Varjo or Angelica Kult. One might thus put into question the very point of me writing this. If I didn't have any personal contact with the man how could his death have possibly affected me to the point that I must vent about it on my blog?

Partly because I know people who knew Henry and have seen the effect his death has had on them. At the risk of sounding a wee bit grandiose it seems that Henry was no ordinary person. To my understanding he was warm and approachable and in spite of his gothic image an exceedingly cheerful and open person. I might of course be mistaken: for all I know the guy could've been a giant dick, but that's not the impression I've received from people who had any contact with the man.

I'm also writing this because in Henry we've lost another great musician. While listening to Varjo's album "Paratiisissa" (which, in addition to being my favourite Varjo album also ranks among my top five Finnish records of all time) earlier this week I found myself again admiring the intricacy of Henry's guitarwork. To me Varjo has always been a guitar band, with the guitars weaving a texture of sound over which the rest of the music is built. Most of that comes from Henry's very distinctive wall-of-sound style, the guitars sounding mournful while at the same time flirting with shoegaze. It's a sound easy to imitate yet completely synonymous with Varjo in my mind.

The remaining members of Varjo are not going to be going under that name anymore. Officially it's because of a gentlemen's agreement made years ago by Henry and Antti that if something were to happen to the other the band would be terminated. I personally believe that the reason goes beyond just Antti making good on his agreement and thus not cheapening the memory of Henry; to an extent I think it's also a practical matter. No one could replace Henry in Varjo. He was as much iconic of the band as the lead singer Antti is and even though you could easily get some new guy on stage and play the exact same notes as Henry did it wouldn't feel the same. (not only because of Henry's extremely impressive stage presence) Now, this may sound a bit heartless coming from me, stating that one of the reasons for Varjo not going on being that Henry was such an integral part of their image, but just wait 'til I've finished: when we accept that Henry was an irreplaceable part of Varjo, not only as a musician but also as a performer, we can truly appreciate the decision not to go on without him as it shows that the rest of the band also realizes Henry's true worth for the band.

The Finnish alternative music scene has lost a great man, but we can make sure that his memory will live on. For my part I intend to make sure that it lives on in the music I make.

White Lies - To Lose My Life

2009-01-27T22:15:00.006+02:00

The British music press is currently abuzz with the recent indie post-punk sensation White Lies. This month they finally went ahead and released their debut album "To Lose My Life" which instantly shot to the top of the charts in the UK. I have recently come to be in possession of said album and will now proceed to examine it closely.

"To Lose My Life" begins promisingly with the hit single Death, a contagiously catchy post-punk number. Already we get a clear idea of where these fellows have drawn most of their influence from: Joy Division and New Order must figure prominently in their record collections. The titular To Lose My Life is also solid, featuring gloomy lyrics and a catchy tune, only to be followed by the songs A Place To Hide, Fifty On Our Foreheads and Unfinished Business, all good songs but lacking in that special something that would make me sing their praises. I'm starting to fear that this album is turning into a mediocrity-fest.

Thankfully this problem is solved by the delightfully new wave E.S.T. which features some rather interesting synthwork. This is followed by From The Stars, which again falters with its mock-epic strings and no hook to speak of, leading us to Farewell To The Fairground, another post-punk piece which left me quite impressed.

As Nothing To Give rolls in I find myself thinking "Hey, who put on a crappy version of the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack?" This song is absolutely ridiculous in its execution, featuring the same annoying strings we heard back in From The Stars and the lead singer wishing he was Ewan McGregor. The song would be right at home on the soundtrack of some weird rock opera, but on this album it sticks out like a sore thumb. The finale The Price Of Love is another slow song, again with those abominable strings and Ewan McGregor worship. Thankfully it picks up the pace slightly towards the end, but not enough for me to forgive the first half of it.

So, how should I describe this album? Uneven. White Lies are at their best when working their pastiche of Joy Division and New Order with modern hipster sensibilities and their attempts at transcending that formula all fall flat. Yes, it's a bit odd to compliment a band for their ability to be derivative, but White Lies do it in such a good way that I can only applaud them. There are only two songs on the album which I actively dislike, those being the two slow songs at the end, but most of the rest are simply not excellent. I don't know, maybe I've been spoiled by Feeding Fingers, Bell Hollow and The Prids to such an extent that I can't appreciate an album where each song doesn't work individually. I wish I could give this album full points for the few excellent songs on it, but unfortunately the rest of the songs are either bland or insanity-inducing. So, to wrap this up:

Album: To Lose My Life
Artist: White Lies
Comment: A terribly uneven album that I wish I could love unconditionally but can't because of the hit-and-miss quality of the songs.
Rating: Three hipsters complaining about the bad rap I gave this album out of five.

D&D? In my CoH?

2009-01-16T15:10:00.005+02:00

I know it's old news at this point, but the superhero MMORPG City of Heroes has been recently made availabe on Apple's Macintosh platforms. Since I have quite recently become a member of the Honorable Order of Macintosh Operators due to having acquired a Macbook I decided to try out the free trial for the game. Now after having played the game as well as its evil cousin City of Villains for about two weeks I have to admit that it is the first MMORPG that I've ever enjoyed playing.

Most of the game's appeal comes from the very simple fact that character advancement and modification is so open. In addition to allowing one to create extremely thematic superheroes and villains through a wide range of powers the avatar editor for the game provides a wide range of possibilities. Herein lies the game's greatest strength and its greatest weakness: there are simply too many possibilities and the number of choices can be a bit overwhelming. I have thus tried to keep it relatively simple through making rather bland yet thematic characters.

Last night though, in a state caused by my being hung over and rather tired I decided to test the possibilities of the avatar editor and create the most out-of-place hero possible. I created a troll slayer straight out of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Unfortunately the game doesn't support twin battle axes as a fighting style so I had to opt for the next best thing: a battle axe and a shield. Yet there I was, having created Gotrek Grungnisson (the name a homage to Gotrek Gurnisson, a famous troll slayer of Warhammer fiction, and Grungni, the god of dwarfs in the world of Warhammer Fantasy), a Natural Tanker with Shield Defence and Battle Axe powers.

This experiment lead me to think: with such a varied range of powers and avatars to choose from there would be very little to prevent a bunch of players creating a group of heroes straight out of D&D within the game's system. It'd be hilarious in my opinion to see a team of D&D-themed heroes running around the extremely modern Paragon city talking in mock-medieval English, referring to missions as "quests" and calling the sewers "dungeons." Furthermore I have already devised the perfect group for such an effort, if one were to do everything according to D&D iconics:

The Dwarf Fighter: Natural Tanker with Shield Defence and Battle Axe powers. Just make him short, stocky and bearded, add a bit of armor into the mix and you've got it!
The Elf Ranger: Natural Blaster with Archery powers. For an interesting mix make him a Defender with Trick Shot and Archery powers.
The Cleric: Magic Defender with Empathy powers. The secondary power set should be based on what kind of a Cleric you're playing, but Energy Blast would be the most neutral and would be in line with the D&D 4e interpretation of the Cleric. Of course if you want to interpret the 4e Cleric powers' Radiant keyword as being a close match with Radiation Blast, serve yourself. Just realize that your character will be hated by gods and men alike.
The Wizard: Magic Controller with powers chosen according to what kind of a Wizard you're playing. As an Illusionist you'd of course take Illusion Control. As a secondary power take either Force Field (can anyone say Mage Armor?) or Storm Summoning.
The Angsty Drow Ranger That Nobody Understands: Natural Scrapper with Twin Swords and Super Reflexes. If you want to play up the Drow heritage change origin to Magic and replace Super Reflexes with Dark Armor.

Now I just need to find a team crazy enough to do this with me.

Bell Hollow - Foxgloves Extras

2009-01-03T16:04:00.010+02:00

While I did promise to make an effort to be more up-to-date with my music reviews, there is still one release from 2008 that I must discuss.

The music industry in general has been slow to get on the digital release bandwagon. While most albums by major labels are now released in digital format through services such as iTunes, it seems that most of the cash that record companies are raking in is coming through the sales of actual physical records.

Which gives me a nice segue to Bell Hollow. This bittersweet dream pop quartet released a digital only album in December 2008 titled "Foxgloves Extras." As the title suggests, the album simply consists of extras for their 2007 album Foxgloves, featuring five remixes and three completely new songs.

So, a band charging for what really amounts to five refurbished versions of old songs and three original ones might not sound that great, but the real kicker is this: the band was kind enough to release the remixes for free on RCRD LBL. Thus, any Bell Hollow fan could pick up the remixes for free on the said site and to complete their "Foxgloves Extras" experience buy the three new songs on iTunes for $0,99 per song. So, $2,97 for an entire mini-album. Not bad in my opinion.

Now, I'm personally no great fan of remixes, but the quality of the remixes on "Foxgloves Extras" is superb. The five remixes succeed in bringing out completely new sides to the songs. Project Jenny, Project Jan's version of Copper Crayon is quite straightforward, but succeeds in making the original song quite a bit more perky and Halo33's remix of Eyes Like Planets emphasizes the song's ethereal unearthly quality. Then you have the oddballs: Phofo turns the melancholy Getting On In Years into a really swinging piece that to me seems to combine equal parts lounge, salsa and jazz. Cruel Back Dove's Lowlights adds a break-beat into the previously slow-tempoed song and adds quite a bit of feedback to give the song an absolutely haunting quality, while Peter Du Charme's rendition of The Bottle Tree goes into full-blown synthpop mode.

The first of the three new songs on the album, Peru, is solid Bell Hollow quality with their signature twangy guitars and a dreamy atmosphere. Late At Night is a great demonstration of Bell Hollow's sound, what I once characterized as "Morrissey fronting Echo & the Bunnymen." Energetic, yet with a dark dreamy quality. Throw Me opens with a dark, throbbing bass, which combined with some effective guitarwork and almost tribal drumming makes this bittersweet ballad an excellent song which would make most second-rate The Cure wannabe bands ashamed.

If you're not convinced, I suggest you check out the above link for the free mp3s. After that you can make the decision whether you want to purchase an excellent album for a measly 3 dollars.

2008 In Retrospect

2009-01-02T13:33:00.003+02:00

So much for 2008. I must admit, for me 2008 wasn't much of a year in music, mostly due to the fact that I spent most of the time trying to get my music library up to date by getting all the classics and gems I'd missed throughout the years due to having lived in relative insobriety/poverty. Thus, my first resolution for the year 2009 is that I will at least make an attempt at being topical by purchasing and reviewing albums as they are released instead of what I've been doing up until this point.

I'm already feeling hopeful about 2009. As you may know, I already got a glimpse of it through Feeding Fingers' "Baby Teeth." In case you made the right decision and pre-ordered it it should have shipped already and you should have it in your hands in a matter of weeks or days depending on where you're located geographically. Something to look forward to, then.

In other news... what the hell is coming out in 2009? I'm confused.

Feeding Fingers - Baby Teeth

2008-12-20T12:23:00.005+02:00

This is my long overdue review of Feeding Fingers' upcoming album Baby Teeth, of which I've received an advance copy due to my being a source of unending praise for the band.

Baby Teeth opens with Neverlight, a beautiful piece that seems to signal an end to the long wait following Wound in Wall. Listening to the song is almost like hearing the band say "We know you've been waiting for this and now the wait is finally over." It has all the qualities that made the best songs on Wound in Wall great, from the throbbing bassline to the inspired use of keyboards. Justin Curfman's voice has the same ethereal, near-possessed quality that it had before, yet it feels fresher than before. Neverlight is followed by the equally inspired She Hides Disease, demonstrating the band's knack for very simple yet evocative guitarwork.

The titular Baby Teeth is, in my opinion, nothing spectacular, but still solid. The song does cover new ground for the band by being one of their more fast-paced songs and while it is a good song it seems to fall flat somehow. It seems that the band's strength still lies in the slower, more dreamy songs. The next song on the album, Is Heaven All That You Hear, is a prime example of such a song. With its ethereal guitars complemented by the warm bass it evokes similar emotions in me as the strongest songs on Wound in Wall did.

Permission for Sleep also goes into the faster-paced ground and feels a lot better for it than Baby Teeth. The song goes to show that while the band does excel in slow songs they are also capable of doing something faster. I wouldn't call for a complete retooling of Feeding Fingers, but I'd be happy to hear more songs such as this in the future. This Isn't Enough goes back into the slow, lulling tempo, and the song has a genuinely creepy atmosphere to it. This is definitely a song that'll creep you out if listened to in the darkness of your room at midnight. The song's creepiness, a composite of Justin's voice, the effective use of keyboards and what can only be described as white noise in the background, is accentuated by the effective drumming which has an almost heartbeat-like quality to it.

Plain Faced Afternoons is a definite hit in my book, as it perfectly captures everything that I enjoy about Feeding Fingers' music. Everything that the band excels in seems to come together in this song to achieve an effect that is at the same time beautiful but also disconcerting. No Movement in Water again demonstrates the band's ability to pull faster songs. Oddly enough, the song, with its almost tribal drums and minimalistic guitarwork reminds me of the now-defunct Finnish goth act Varjo. This is entirely positive, as Varjo still remains one of my favourite bands. The song makes me feel that Feeding Fingers has all the potential for making great songs, no matter what the tempo.

Finally, the album ends with Your Name in a Stolen book, another slower song which, unfortunately, falls short of its goal. While a solid song it seems to lack that certain something that I would've liked the album to end with. The song ends on the same note as the album began, wrapping up the album in a passing manner.

Final thoughts? Baby Teeth is an excellent album. It proves that Feeding Fingers is as good as ever with beautiful and dark dreamy post-punk but also demonstrates that they have a lot of potential for expanding their repertoire. While there are great songs here none of them seem to have the radio-friendly quality that Fireflies Make Us Sick from Wound in Wall did, but I personally see this as a feature and not a bug. This sort of music is niche at best, so the lack of radio-anthems on albums isn't that much of a loss, really. So, in a nutshell:

Album: Baby Teeth
Artist: Feeding Fingers
Comment: An excellent album that'll at times make you cry and at others will make you afraid of going to sleep. Coming out in January 2009!
Rating: Five teardrops of blood out of five.

2008-12-04T18:18:00.002+02:00

Dear chauvinistic male heterosexual homophobe,

The last time we spoke the discussion got a bit heated. Some hateful things were said on your part. You called me gay as if the term itself was somehow offensive. After reassuring you that I was actually heterosexual you questioned why I as a heterosexual could support what you referred to as the "gay agenda". You furthermore put into question my position on women's rights and feminism. Since I was not at the moment in the best mindset to argue with you I now intend to make things clear between us.

I used to be like you once. I was a homophobe to an extent. Like you, I thought that homosexuality was unnatural and an abomination. I didn't have a clear reason for thinking so, but it seemed to go against my personal views. It was only after meeting some of the people like you that I came to change my position. I have always been what you hatefully referred to as "a soft man". For this I was ostracized by the likes of you, who put into question my heterosexuality because I did not fit their accepted view of a heterosexual man. Yes, I was called gay. I was subjected to homophobia even though I was straight. It was this that made me change my position.

You see, after taking the abuse for long enough I came to realize that I had never logically considered my position on homosexuality. I realized that I'd barely scratched the surface of the sort of treatment that real homosexuals had been put through. I was sickened by this. I decided that the best way to combat the homophobia that I, a heterosexual man, was facing was to do my utmost to fight against actual homophobia.

So as you see, it was people like you who turned me into the person I am today. It was your homophobia that turned me against you.

You told me that you didn't understand how two men could love each other and be in a romantic relationship with you. What I fail to understand is how you could love a woman. You are a chauvinist: you told me at length that women shouldn't be treated equally to men, that women should be in a subordinate position to men. It seems to me that you are incapable of loving someone who could be considered your equal. As I understand it, you are afraid of homosexual men because they are fully capable of something you can't do: loving an equal. This would also explain your obsession with lesbianism as it is portrayed in adult films: you don't see those women as a threat to your sexuality, as they are obviously weaker than you are.

It makes me wonder how self-loathing you must be to only consider loving someone you consider inherently weaker than yourself. I am confident in my heterosexuality, yet I consider women to be my equals. I could never claim to love someone if I at the same time considered them my inferior. I have no need for your sexual politics where man is above the woman. I am also not frightened by the idea of two men or women being in a loving relationship with each other. I don't see how this would make me less of a man.

As you seem to consider the very idea of homosexuality terrifying and offensive, you use words such as "gay", "fag" and "queer" as insults. I don't consider any of those words an insult on my person, they are simply all untrue in my case. Since you seem to consider the implication of homosexuality offensive, I intend to take a stand against it. The next time you use any of those words as a form of insult I intend to take up the most stereotypical homosexual facade, just to offend you.

I have no need for your hate-filled sexual politics. I have no need for your self-loathing. I am confident as the person that I am.

Love,
Ratpick

Retrospect

2008-11-20T12:57:00.004+02:00

The more I think about it, the more I like the title "This name is a placeholder." In a very post-modern way it manages to say everything about the human, er, blogospheric condition while at the same time not saying anything. So, the title stays.

Seeing as this is supposed to be a music blog I thought I'd go through my music library just to give you an idea what kind of music I am going to be reviewing on this blog as well as giving you my opinion on said albums.

Feeding Fingers - Wound In Wall

Feeding Fingers is an Atlanta-based trio that is lead singer Justin Curfman's brainchild. In addition to being a musician Justin is an independent filmmaker and throughout his career he had composed a lot of music for his projects that never came to be used. He thus founded Feeding Fingers to set his compositions to music.

Feeding Fingers is a very obviously gothic band and when I say gothic I do not mean the goth n' roll of bands such as Sisters of Mercy. His is a style more similar to Bauhaus, early The Cure and Joy Division: slow-tempoed songs with ethereal soundscapes, pulsating basslines and lyrics that seem to come from the worst of Justin's nightmares. Wound In Wall is a solid album which starts with the wailing guitars of "Mouth Filled With Sand", then lets the listener lull into a false sense of security with "A Bag of Broken Hands" and "Seafoam Warm Piss", which are followed by the dark yet beautiful "This Isn't Going To Hurt" and the piano instrumental "This Is Yours". Following this the darkness is cranked up to eleven as we are treated to songs such as "Feeding Fingers", "Manufactured Missing Children", my personal favourite "Swallow Me" and finally the most iconic Feeding Fingers song "Fireflies Make Us Sick."

This album is the stuff of nightmares, best listened to at night in solitude so as not to let anything detract from its dark appeal. I heartily recommend this album to anyone who likes a bit of gothic romance and nightmarescapes.

The Prids - Love Zero

The Prids are a band that rode the last wave of post-punk revival bands, but whereas many bands went for a pastiche of the most recognizable post-punk bands such as Joy Division and Gang of Four The Prids built their style out of the dark post-punk of bands such as Bauhaus, The Chameleons and For Against. The end result is what another reviewer once described as "gothic surf" and I find this description to be quite apt. Love Zero, as an album, is built entirely around pop-punk hooks but with every single instrument set to "dark". The aforementioned Chameleons and For Against influence is obvious in their guitarwork which is borderline shoegazey, but the tempo is a fast one almost throughout the entire album.

Therein lies the strength and the weakness of Love Zero. While the fast-tempoed songs such as "All Apart And No Fall", "Contact" and "The Problem" are the strongest of the lot by far they do feel a bit samey. The slower songs, such as the titular "Love Zero", "Not Even Sometimes" and the acoustic "Artificial Heart Designer" are all clearly distinct from the rest, but suffer from having generally weaker hooks in comparison. With that said, there is not a single bad song on the album, so the only criticism I can lift against it is that the songs are good but in very similar ways, which isn't much of a criticism when you think about it. All in all, I highly recommend this album and I for one am waiting for a time when I won't suffer from chronic poverty so that I may purchase their other album Until The World Is Beautiful.

Adoration - Sleepwalking

This British dark pop trio came to my attention quite recently and I was instantly impressed by their brand of gothic music which borrows more from Disintegration-era The Cure than from the genre staples of Sisters of Mercy and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. Their music is a combination of ethereal guitars, warm basslines and syntesizer effects which evoke the feeling of dark Autumn nights complete with the constant rainfall and the nagging feeling that everything is dying around you.

I apologize for the terrible prose at the end of the last paragraph, but it is all true. Sleepwalking is a terrific album. The titular "Sleepwalking" sets the stage for the rest of the album with the songs "Closure" and "Broken Sky" standing out as the strongest. The songs I am least impressed by are "Slowmotion" and "Overground", as they lapse too much into goth-by-numbers. I don't hate the style of the Sisters of Mercy, but one must admit that it is the most plagiarized style in gothic music, a fact that makes me think twice about a band when their songs just sound like refurnished versions of "This Corrosion".

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, terrific album, a couple of weak songs but mostly solid. The last song on the album, "Fade Away", is an odd one, as it's almost neo-folky in its sounds, but it stands out from the rest of the songs to its benefit. All in all, highly recommended if you enjoy The Cure back when they didn't suck.

Bell Hollow - Foxgloves

If you happen to frequent Last.fm you should check out my profile (my user name is Ratpick there) and see which band I've listened to most frequently during the last three months. Taking into account the fact that I got this album only two months ago its place at the top of my three month chart is rather impressive. I'm not going to bore you with details of the album, as I'm getting quite tired of recycling the same adjectives over and over again. "Seven Sisters", "Copper Crayon", "Jamais Vu" and "Eyes Like Planets" are all terrific songs. The rest of the album is also excellent. Listen to the free clips on Last.fm and make up your own mind. Over and out.

Paying Someone to be a Prick

2008-10-25T03:49:00.004+03:00

A friend of mine recently brought this little video into my attention.

The song is courtesy of Andrew Hansen, musician/comedian of The Chaser's War On Everything fame. If you don't know what the Chaser is, you're missing out on a lot and should at least google them. They're pretty much the best thing to come out of Australia since Mad Max and Crocodile Dundee, and quite a number of their stunts are available for viewing on Youtube as well.

The video also strikes a chord with me not only because it's by Andrew Hansen (who is actually a very talented musician in addition to being quite a funny guy) but also because it actually brings forward a very good message. I find myself at a loss for words when trying to describe how bad a policy one that actually provides money to the offending party instead of using it on better solutions is.

I send my regards to the Chaser and Greenpeace.