Category: music
So I’m reading liner notes again…
(November 22, 2024)… because I got this gorgeous His Name Is Alive box set a couple days ago. (Here’s my in-depth review: It’s fantastic! And gorgeous!) But this is what triggered this blog post: “told the 4AD fan site data base Eyesore”? But… Eyesore! That’s me! (Well, it was back in the 90s, at least.) But yes … Continue reading So I’m reading liner notes again…
Rock Show
(November 20, 2024)Stuff Mixtape #422
(November 4, 2024)Rock Show
(November 3, 2024)Eh, it’s early so I’m going to write a review? Am I?! Apparently! I bought Joan as Police Woman’s first er release (was it an EP) back then, and I was underwhelmed, so I didn’t listen to any of her stuff for like the next 20 years. But then I randomly bought Joanthology, and duh. … Continue reading Rock Show
October Music
(November 1, 2024)Music I’ve bought in October. Hey! I got a lot of music this month… The Pescado Rabioso album was fun… I mean, it has a fun shape. But the Album of the Month is definitely the Nia Archives album. I was really into jungle back in the days, but it seemed to disappear after two … Continue reading October Music
Rock Show
(October 19, 2024)Rock Show
(October 16, 2024)Record Shoppin’
(October 7, 2024)Two fun things in the haul this week: Artaud by Pescado Rabioso, which is famous (probably) because of its shape, but also apparently: It is considered Spinetta’s masterpiece and one of the most influential albums in Spanish rock. I got these today, so I’ve only listened to it once, and it seems pretty cool? But … Continue reading Record Shoppin’
His Name Is Alive has the best liner notes
(October 2, 2024)September Music
(October 1, 2024)Music I’ve bought in September. I almost didn’t buy anything, did I? I think October’s going to be stronger. And the only notable album this time around is Grush by µ-Ziq. It’s the bees’ knees. Or the bee’s knees. I always forget. But it fun how all these three er tentpole “IDM” artists from the … Continue reading September Music
It was very dark
(September 30, 2024)Jazz Show
(September 27, 2024)Close encounters of the jazz kind.
Noise Show
(September 21, 2024)Jazz Show
(September 4, 2024)August Music
(September 1, 2024)Music I’ve bought in August. Let’s see… any trends in this month’s purchases? Yes, I bought a lot of albums from concerts I attended. Arooj Aftab was amazing in concert. And funny. Idles were a lot of fun. Nia Archives was totally ON during the show. And who knew that good old-fashioned jungle is back? … Continue reading August Music
Improv Festival
(August 24, 2024)Did he break almost all the strings!?
Improv Festival
(August 22, 2024)Improv Festival
(August 21, 2024)Jazz Show
(August 17, 2024)Jazz Show
(August 16, 2024)Jazz Show
(August 15, 2024)Jazz Show
(August 14, 2024)Music Festival
(August 10, 2024)I was particularly impressed by the Idles guy wearing a SOPHIE sweatshirt and opening his set with a SOPHIE track.
Music Festival
(August 8, 2024)Music Festival
(August 7, 2024)Every DJ should have twenty of their closest friends on the stage. Nia Archives won the day, and now I’m buying all her albums.
Stuff Mixtape #421
(August 2, 2024)July Music
(August 1, 2024)Music I’ve bought in July. It’s been a normal month, I guess? The latest Sun Ra covers album is pretty nice — it’s all Nuclear War. Angel Bat Dawid’s version is particularly good, I think.
Improv Show
(July 30, 2024)Saimi Ester Kortelainen was amazing!
Music Show
(July 19, 2024)Music Festival
(July 13, 2024)Improv Show
(July 11, 2024)Jazz Festival
(July 6, 2024)Jazz Festival
(July 5, 2024)Jazz Festival
(July 3, 2024)Stuff Mixtape #420
(July 2, 2024)June Music
(July 1, 2024)Music I’ve bought in June. A couple years ago, I started buying all the records that Ze Records had released, but when I got to 1983, I forgot to buy the rest. I’ve now remedied that unfortunate situation, and the last few albums are pretty good? But not as interesting as the ones from the … Continue reading June Music
Have Anybody Made Their Best Album After 33?
(June 15, 2024)Every time an older pop/rock musician comes out with a new album, the reviews are always “this is the best album they’ve made since that album that was actually good several decades ago” (and then two months later, nobody ever listens to the new album ever again). So I’ve been idly wondering whether there is … Continue reading Have Anybody Made Their Best Album After 33?
Rock Show
(June 15, 2024)Improv Show
(June 4, 2024)Wow, it was so great seeing Toshimaru Nakamura again. There was a period like… 20? years ago? where musicians like Nakamura, Sachiko M and Otomo Yoshihide were here like every other month, but it’s been a while now… Fantastic. I want to go back to Japan now and just go to every one of his … Continue reading Improv Show
Music Fest
(June 1, 2024)It was cool. The best bands og the night were Glassmanet and Blodknoke. Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to write an article about how tall people should comport themselves at concerts. I think the first point is: Don’t wear hats.
May Music
(May 31, 2024)Music I’ve bought in May. So what have we got here… Ai Aso’s new album is produced by Stephen O’Malley from Sunn O))), and in a way it makes sense… it’s like the quietest album ever? But it sounds like Sunn O))), only with the volume turned down to almost nothing. And two albums by … Continue reading May Music
Stuff Mixtape #419
(May 28, 2024)Much of the music on this one comes from CDs I bought at the 2023 Big Ears festival in Knoxville, Tennessee: Mourning [A] BLKstar, Lonnie Holley and the Blue Hour by Shara Nova and others, I see. And then just general randomness.
Rock Show
(May 24, 2024)Half an hour before the show, the club was totally empty. I mean, it wasn’t full by any means when Snapped Ankles started playing, but it was less deserted… Kinda unusual place, but it’s newish, so I guess people haven’t gotten used to going there yet… I hope they do before they go bankrupt, because … Continue reading Rock Show
Jazz Show
(May 22, 2024)Jazz Festival
(May 19, 2024)New Version of Concerts in Oslo Pushed to the App Stores
(May 16, 2024)I started doing the Concerts in Oslo web site in… 2013? Hey, I forgot the ten year anniversary… Anyway, the idea behind the thing is that there are no comprehensive and handy sites to see all the concerts in a city, really — I mean, these days, sites like Songkick cover a lot, but not … Continue reading New Version of Concerts in Oslo Pushed to the App Stores
Music Show
(May 16, 2024)Stuff Mixtape #418
(May 12, 2024)I’ve been doing mixtapes since the late 80s — it’s nice to be able to go back and listen to what you really liked back then. I mostly listen to them while in the car or eating breakfast… But I thought it might be nice to see if I could cobble something fun with ffmpeg … Continue reading Stuff Mixtape #418
Rock Show
(May 10, 2024)Jazz Show
(May 7, 2024)April Music
(May 2, 2024)Music I’ve bought in April. Shockingly few albums this month — I was away for a couple of weeks. But my demos from my brother’s teenage punk band was released on CD, at least. And the new Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin album is swell. And the new Still House Plants album … Continue reading April Music
Jazz Show
(April 25, 2024)Opera Show
(April 15, 2024)Music Show
(April 12, 2024)Trés intime.
Music Show
(April 11, 2024)Music Festival
(April 7, 2024)Music Festival
(April 6, 2024)Music Festival
(April 6, 2024)March Music
(April 1, 2024)Music I’ve bought in March. After a very thin February, there’s more music in March. Still catching up with Fontaine DC’s discography. This album’s pretty spiffy. Very post punk. I also stumbled onto Eliza Carthy (doing a cover of a Lal Waterson song). Folk music sure has modernised lyrics these days (*clutches pearls*). Oh, and … Continue reading March Music
February Music
(March 1, 2024)Music I’ve bought in February. I have bought basically no new albums in February — least albums ever. I wonder how that happened…
January Music
(January 31, 2024)Music I’ve bought in January. I didn’t really buy much stuff this month, but I bought several box sets, so there’s a lot of entries below… I guess the most fun thing this month was the Sleaford Mods cover of West End Girls. And the Andrew Poppy box set seems very fine… Er… and other … Continue reading January Music
Jazz Show
(January 30, 2024)Rock Show
(January 26, 2024)Rock Show
(January 22, 2024)December Music
(January 1, 2024)Music I’ve bought in December. Oh ghod I’m so drukn.
The Best Albums of 2023
(December 15, 2023)It’s that time of year! Once again I’ve asked Emacs which new albums I’ve listened to most this year, and the shocking truth is revealed below. And above, too! It’s been a really strong year for new music, I think — I’ve been wildly enthusiastic about several of these albums, which makes a change from … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2023
Jazz Show
(December 1, 2023)November Music
(December 1, 2023)Music I’ve bought in November. Hey, that’s quite a lot of albums and stuff. Anything in particular stand out? Hm… Well, I really like the new album from Vanishing Twin. As usual, they sound a bit like Stereolab, but in a good way. I also got this old album from The Unthanks (best band name … Continue reading November Music
Rock Show
(December 1, 2023)October Music
(November 1, 2023)Music I’ve bought in October. I haven’t really bought that many albums this months, but then again, I was in London for almost two weeks. Which was a lot of fun — I went to half a dozen concerts. And what’s fun at concerts in London is that they often have opening acts that are … Continue reading October Music
Rock Show
(October 25, 2023)Rock Show
(October 23, 2023)Rock Show
(October 21, 2023)And why is Android Photos so bad at taking pics at a strobing show? This is an example pic.
Folk Show
(October 20, 2023)And the seats in front of us (in the front row) were reserved by… an XLR cable and a bag of chips.
Folk Show
(October 15, 2023)Rock Show
(October 14, 2023)I saw two Arto Lindsay sets at Cafe Oto, and they were both great. The first one, at 16:00, was shambolic and fun, and Arto played guitar a lot. For the second set, at 20:00, it seemed like they’d been rehearsing a lot, and the concert was a lot smoother. And also fun, but in … Continue reading Rock Show
Rock Show
(October 14, 2023)Rock Show
(October 3, 2023)September Music
(October 1, 2023)Music I’ve bought in September. Hey! More music this month than the last few… The new (and final) Jamie Branch Fly or Die album is very good. Hm… anything else that stands out? I guess not — it’s the usual mix of old stuff and new stuff and rereleased stuff.
Jazz Show
(September 26, 2023)Jazz Show
(September 22, 2023)Music Show
(September 21, 2023)There are light sensitive thingamabobs on the left there, so he’s playing those with his flashlights. It was really nice! She randomly got a prize for being awesome, I think.
Rock Show
(September 9, 2023)Jazz Show
(September 8, 2023)Rock Show
(September 7, 2023)Music Show
(September 2, 2023)August Music
(September 1, 2023)Music I’ve bought in August.
Jazz Show
(August 30, 2023)Rock Show
(August 28, 2023)Jazz Festival
(August 24, 2023)Hamid Drake/William Parker/Anja Lauvdal was insanely amazing! It was like Alice Coltrane 1971, but different. So fabulous.
Shopping
(August 23, 2023)Jazz Festival
(August 19, 2023)Jazz Festival
(August 18, 2023)Music Festival
(August 12, 2023)Music Festival
(August 11, 2023)Music Festival
(August 9, 2023)July Music
(August 2, 2023)Music I’ve bought in July. Not a lot of stuff this month, since I’ve been unexpectedly busy. I guess the most exciting album is the one from Still House Plants — it reminds me quite a bit of Wildbirds & Peacedrums? In a good way, of course.
Jazz Festival
(July 9, 2023)Jazz Festival
(July 7, 2023)SUCH OSHA
Jazz Festival
(July 6, 2023)Jazz Festival
(July 6, 2023)June Music
(July 1, 2023)Music I’ve bought in June. Hey! I actually got back into shopping new music this month. I guess Water From Your Eyes is the hype of the year, but the album is actually good. On the other hand, the new Everything But The Girl album has been getting rave reviews, which made me suspicious. And … Continue reading June Music
Pop Show
(June 17, 2023)That was amazing. It’s the first time I’ve seen Laurie Anderson with a full live band, and it was so awesome. Not that I don’t like her more sparse stuff, but it was just in-credible to get to hear versions of Let X = X and stuff that were kinda like what they sounded like … Continue reading Pop Show
Jazz Show
(June 6, 2023)May Music
(June 1, 2023)Music I’ve bought in May. I’m still limping around after twisting my ankle, so it’s SO IRONIC that I’ve got a new EP by: Don’t you think? It’s pretty good, too. I also like the new album by Liis Ring. I guess it’s part of this thing that I haven’t seen anybody try to make … Continue reading May Music
Rock Show
(May 16, 2023)Rock Show
(May 15, 2023)Metal Show
(May 14, 2023)*gasp* After twisting my ankle and staying on the couch for a month, I now made it to a live show! Liturgy! It was great. And I managed to stand for about 45 minutes before I had to sit down, which was way longer than I thought I was gonna last. Fortunately there was a … Continue reading Metal Show
April Music
(May 1, 2023)Music I’ve bought in April. Geez. Has it been a month already? I guess time flies when you’ve got a sprained ankle. And I guess that I’ve been totally slacking in the “buying new music” dept for pretty much the same reason, somehow… I did get at least one great album — The Blue Hour … Continue reading April Music
March Music
(April 14, 2023)Music I’ve bought in March. This post is way late (I know, I know) because I went to the Big Ears music festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. (And then got sick on the way home, but that’s a different story. Viruses!!!) Big Ears was great — Knoxville is just about the perfect size for a hipster … Continue reading March Music
Yet Even More Music Festival
(April 3, 2023)Even More Music Festival
(April 2, 2023)More Music Festival
(April 1, 2023)Music Festival
(March 31, 2023)Rock Show
(March 23, 2023)Jazz Show
(March 20, 2023)February Music
(March 1, 2023)Music I’ve bought in February. Haven’t really been buying much this month — it’s mostly just random bits and pieces. Hm… oh, it’s almost all old albums, isn’t it? Or albums from people who’ve been around for quite a while. One pleasant surprise was the new Orbital album — it sounds very early 90s, but … Continue reading February Music
“Martin”
(February 22, 2023)The biggest mystery in musical history is why there were so many songs called “Martin” released over a few short years. I’ve got albums with at least four: Tom Robinson Band (77). Tom Robinson (81). So this is a kind of followup to the first one, I guess. Soft Cell (83). But this is a … Continue reading “Martin”
Rock Show
(February 16, 2023)Jazz Show
(February 1, 2023)January Music
(February 1, 2023)Music I’ve bought in January. So what did I get this month… Oh! I checked out Laura Jean’s discogs page, and it turned out she’d released a new album last year! You’d think there’d be some way this information would, like, filter its way to me, like, by magic, but the tech apparently isn’t there … Continue reading January Music
Jazz Show
(February 1, 2023)Improv Music Festival
(January 14, 2023)The Best Albums of 2002
(January 14, 2023)Let’s pick another year at random… 2002. Here’s a mixtape I made at the time: And here’s list of the best albums of that year, as decided by how much I’ve listened to them: DJ Rupture Gold Teeth Thief The Notwist Neon Golden Pet Shop Boys Disco 3 DJ Rupture Minesweeper Suite Arto Lindsay Invoke … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2002
The Best Albums of 1994
(January 2, 2023)Feeling a bit nostalgic, so I thought it might be vaguely diverting to look at some old albums, and look at specific years. I remember much of the 90s being kinda boring, music-wise, so let’s look at, say, 1994. Here’s a mixtape I made at the time: I don’t have data that says what music … Continue reading The Best Albums of 1994
December Music
(January 1, 2023)Music I’ve bought in December.
The Best Albums of 2022
(December 15, 2022)Geez. It’s December again, so it’s time to officially determine what was the best albums of the year, I guess. (I do this by having Emacs list what albums I’ve played most during the year, so this is a scientifically sound and accurate method.) But… it’s been one of those years — a number of … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2022
November Music
(December 1, 2022)Music I’ve bought in November.
Rock Show
(November 21, 2022)Music Festival
(November 20, 2022)October Music
(November 1, 2022)Music I’ve bought in October.
Improv Show
(October 19, 2022)Music Festival
(October 11, 2022)September Music
(October 1, 2022)Music I’ve bought in September. Welcome to the Old Man Yells At Clouds edition of this blog series: I quite like the 77 album by Talking Heads. It’s not my favourite album or anything, but I grew up with it (one of my older sisters had a copy), and I still play it frequently. Over … Continue reading September Music
August Music
(August 31, 2022)Music I’ve bought in August. So what’s been happening in my music shopping this time? Uhm… Oh, yeah, the Bill Callahan/Bonnie “Prince” Billy lock-down collaborations album is really pretty. It’s 19 tracks done with various people over the Internets, and it’s a lot of fun. Brigitte Fontaine’s album with Art Ensemble of Chicago’s very nice. … Continue reading August Music
July Music
(August 1, 2022)Music I’ve bought in July.
Jazz Festival
(July 23, 2022)Jazz Festival
(July 13, 2022)June Music
(July 1, 2022)Music I’ve bought in June. I got most of these just a couple of days ago, so nothing’s really gelled as being fantastic in my mind. The Moby album of remixes of his Reprise orchestral rewords (which was really bad) is good. But that’s because the remixers disregarded that album and went back to the … Continue reading June Music
Jazz Festival
(June 19, 2022)Two festivals in a day! Monk’s Casino (Alexander Von Schlippenbach, Axel Dörner, Rudi Mahall, Jan Roder, Michael Griener) played until a quarter to one. At night! So jazz!
Rock Festival
(June 18, 2022)Music Festival
(June 16, 2022)Amazing! So much fun. But then it started raining so I went home afterwards.
Jazz Show
(June 7, 2022)May Music
(June 1, 2022)Music I’ve bought in May. After a slow April, May was full on shopping, apparently? Among the more notable things this month is this old Dry Cleaning EP. Dry Cleaning is just amazeballs; I have to catch them live this summer. I was also oddly taken by this MOR classic from the 70s. But be … Continue reading May Music
Improv Festival
(May 21, 2022)All The Answers
(May 13, 2022)The questions you may be asking yourself are: 1) Who are they? 2) Why are they here? This video has all the answers: And it may be the best music video ever.
Jazz Show
(May 10, 2022)It was teh amaze.
April Music
(May 1, 2022)Music I’ve bought in April. It’s been a slow month, I guess? Yup; just the usual stuff.
March Music
(April 1, 2022)Music I’ve bought in March. Mostly just the usual nonsense, but I saw that Ministry is going to play here in November, so I wondered what they sounded like these days: And they’ve dumped the metal thing they were going for a decade ago? And they’re now back to their 80s sound, sort of? So … Continue reading March Music
Jazz Show
(March 29, 2022)Rock Show
(March 25, 2022)Oh my Emacs. It was so good to be back at a rock show. I think it’s my first since last autumn? But now the pandemic is totally over so cough cough It was Nadja, and they were great. I even got the t-shirt. Which is a confusing t-shirt. Yay. On the other hand, I … Continue reading Rock Show
February Music
(March 1, 2022)Music I’ve bought in February. That was a short month. I seem to have carried on buying Ze records, but I also bought a handful of things featuring Sidsel Endresen, like the early-80s party band album from Chipahua. It’s fun.
January Music
(January 31, 2022)Music I’ve bought in January. Let’s see… what have I been buying this month? Yes, I remembered that I was buying my way through the Ze catalogue, like Alan Vega: And the Contortions: It’s very downtown. And other than that, it’s the usual stuff… Oh! And I’ve been continuing to buy Nina Simone’s albums. Yes, … Continue reading January Music
December Music
(December 31, 2021)Music I’ve bought in December.
The Best Albums of 2021
(December 13, 2021)Once again, Emacs has kept careful track of what I’ve been listening to this year, so I can scientifically give a list of what’s the best albums this year. And by amazing coincidence, the world’s very best album is by a Norwegian band and I’m Norwegian, but I’m sure that’s totally coincidental and fair. Lost … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2021
November Music
(December 1, 2021)Music I’ve bought in November. What do we have here, then… Uhm… looks like a pretty normal mix of things. I finally scored a copy of DJ\Rupture’s Curiosity Slowdown, and there’s a new PC Music thing, and some old Shopping… Oh, right! Open the gates we arrive energy time The new album by Irreversible Entanglements … Continue reading November Music
Is this the greatest tune ever?
(November 3, 2021)Well it might be this: But it’s not as existential.
October Music
(November 2, 2021)Music I’ve bought in October. Anything particularly interesting this month? Hm… Well, it’s more new music than usual — JPEGMAFIA, Yves Tumor, Namasenda, Aksak Maboul… but I guess it’s the usual mix of stuff. I quite liked the Big Brave/The Body album.
September Music
(October 1, 2021)Music I’ve bought in September. The release of the month is When I Hit You, You’ll Feel It by Leslie Winer, of course — it collects a bunch of her most magical songs in one place, but there’s also unreleased stuff! Whoho! Hm… anything else… looks like the usual mix of old stuff and older … Continue reading September Music
August Music
(September 1, 2021)Music I’ve bought in August. Let’s see… what do we have here… Looks like the usual mix of new stuff and old stuff. Of particular note: Snapped Ankles is a great name for a band, right? The music’s fun, too — kinda giving me vibes of early Django Django? So it’s like modern post punk … Continue reading August Music
The Best Greatest Albums of All Time Ever
(August 14, 2021)I was looking at Noah Bertlasky’s book about the best ever (that is, it hasn’t been released yet, but I’ve looked at a couple of the things that will be included when it’s released in a couple of days), and while falling asleep yesterday, I thought “I wonder what my list would look like”… So … Continue reading The Best Greatest Albums of All Time Ever
July Music
(August 1, 2021)Music I’ve bought in July. I think this is the least amount of stuff I’ve bought in a one month period… probably ever? I’ve been busy (and listening to old music (i.e., from 2020)). But I did discover one thing that really made me feel… er… out of touch. That is, the Tiny Mix Tapes … Continue reading July Music
Oda
(July 19, 2021)All the intertubes were atwitter about the Oda Speakers last year. The concept is pretty odd: You buy these speakers, and then you buy a subscription to a series of concerts. You can only listen to these concerts on these speakers, and the speakers don’t really do much else. They do have a line in, … Continue reading Oda
June Music
(July 1, 2021)Music I’ve bought in June. Hm… anything special this month? Nope, just looks like the normal mixture of new stuff and old stuff. One album that stood out in particular was the new one by Mia Doi Todd: It’s very pretty. Hm… Oh, yeah, there’s also a handful of things I got for my Punk … Continue reading June Music
First Post-Vax Festival
(June 26, 2021)It was the awesum.
Second Post-Vax Show
(June 25, 2021)It’s Stian Westerhus. It was the best ever. This was also nice. “I can’t bear it any longer!” I know the feeling. But it’s over! Sort of! Kind of! In some parts of the world! Except it’s not.
First Post-Vax Show
(June 23, 2021)It was teh awesome. Guro Moe, Håvard Skaset and Helge Sten. I AM BACK
May Music
(June 1, 2021)Music I’ve bought in May. I’ve got virtually no new music this week — I’ve been listening mostly to stuff I bought last year. So behind the times.
April Music
(May 1, 2021)Music I’ve bought in April. What! It’s been another month? Time flies when… er… did I do anything at all this month? And I can’t really remember buying music according to some… idea… this month, either, so it’s just random stuff. Find of the month is Espen Reinertsen: I saw a live streaming thing of … Continue reading April Music
March Music
(March 31, 2021)Music I’ve bought in March. It occurred to me that Cabaret Voltaire had released a bunch of 12″ singles from their mid-80s period that I didn’t have. So I’ve fixed that this month. Other than that… it’s been a quiet month. Just the normal random selection of new and old stuff.
February Music
(February 28, 2021)Music I’ve bought in February. Let’s see… yes, it’s the usual mix of new and old stuff? Except that there’s a bunch of Mort Aux Vaches CDs in there… The discovery (because I’m slow on the uptake) of the month was this: The Sets & Lights album by Xeno & Oaklander. It’s so 1983! Even … Continue reading February Music
Mort aux Vaches
(February 18, 2021)There’s this series of CDs called Mort aux Vaches (probably named by somebody that either hates cows or really likes eating cows (metaphorically)). It’s a series of recordings commissioned by the VPRO radio station, and it’s basically like the Peel Sessions: It’s a “live in the studio” thing, but for experimental music. They’ve got pretty … Continue reading Mort aux Vaches
January Music
(February 1, 2021)Music I’ve bought in January. *gasp* I just discovered that Mimi Goese released an album last year with Ben Neill! So I got it yesterday and have been playing it on repeat since. It’s really good! I’ve been a huge fan of Goese ever since her album Soak in the mid 90s: Unfortunately, she seems … Continue reading January Music
December Music
(January 1, 2021)Music I’ve bought in December. I rediscovered LTM Recordings this month, and placed such a large order that they thought I was running some kind of scam. LTM specialises in re-releasing music originally released by Factory Benelux, Les Disques du Crépuscule and related labels in the early 80s. So it’s totally in my wheelhouse, and … Continue reading December Music
The Best Albums of 2020
(December 12, 2020)It’s that time of year again: December. Unlike other people who come up with “best of” lists, I use a totally scientific method, and therefore my list is more correct: Emacs tallies which albums I’ve listened to the most in 2020, and those are ipso facto cogito alea jacta hoc the best albums of the … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2020
November Music
(December 1, 2020)Music I’ve bought in November. Let’s see… I guess this month it’s just the usual mix of new and old stuff… Oh, yeah, I’ve been shopping a bunch of CDs from Häpna records from around 2000-2005 that I didn’t get at the time. And some albums from people connected to the band Tape, like Ass … Continue reading November Music
October Music
(October 31, 2020)Music I’ve bought in October. Oopsie! That was more… than… I should have? Let’s see… it’s not all old stuff, either? It’s a pretty good mix. So what are the most interesting ones? Er… as you can imagine, I haven’t really heard many of these a lot of times, so I don’t really know. But … Continue reading October Music
September Music
(October 1, 2020)Music I’ve bought in September. So what have we got here… oh yeah, I finished up buying all the Consolidated EPs I missed back then. And… Yup. It’s all old, old, old music. Except a couple new things. But! I did get one interesting thing: The 433 thing by Saito Koji. I was intrigued by … Continue reading September Music
August Music
(August 31, 2020)Music I’ve bought in August. This month I’ve bought some actual new music. Released this year and everything. I’m impressed by the Nihiloxica album… very fresh. Shirley Collins has a new album out! *gasp* So do the Residents, but… I don’t like it. It’s called Metal, Meat & Bone, and it’s a parody of murder … Continue reading August Music
July Music
(August 1, 2020)Music I’ve bought in July.
The Horror
(July 23, 2020)So I was unpacking a mega package from the US today (I’m using a forwarding service, because it’s just … more fun), and one of the packages inside contained this item. “Queensryche? On tape?” I thought? “JUST HOW DRUNK HAVE I BEEN!!!1” “Oh, OK, perhaps it’s something so avant garde that they sell it in … Continue reading The Horror
June Music
(June 30, 2020)Music I’ve bought in June. It’s a good mix of stuff… old and new. And new stuff from old favourites like Aksak Maboul: Hm. Well, there’s not actually that much new stuff from new people this month, is there? Last month we had Irreversible Intanglements and Yves Tumor, but this month we have a 1984 … Continue reading June Music
May Music
(May 31, 2020)Music I’ve bought in May. The albums I bought this month seems to be all over the place… new stuff, old stuff… and unusually enough, I haven’t actually listened to any of it, because I’ve been listening to old stuff. But I can recommend this one:
April Music
(April 30, 2020)Music I’ve bought in April. Oh my. That’s a lot of new music. How did that happen? Did I spend the entire month of April on my couch shopping? Yes, I did. The two main threads here are my continuing fascination with Ze Records. They were a late-70s/early-80s New York record company (very, very New … Continue reading April Music
March Music
(April 1, 2020)Music I’ve bought in March. After a very slow February, I pulled myself together and got buyin’. And not just new old music: But mostly. And, hey, a new single from Team Dresch!
February Music
(February 29, 2020)Music I’ve bought in February. *gasp* Virtually no new music! Well, it’s been a slow February.
January Music
(February 1, 2020)Music I’ve bought in January. There’s proportionally fewer Discogs finds this month, because I went through Norman Record’s Best Albums of 2019 list and picked up some stuff that seemed fun. Like black midi: Which, indeed, turns out to be very good. Well, OK, I also bought ‘ard Corr by Well ‘ard from Discogs, because … Continue reading January Music
Innovations in Music Distribution
(January 30, 2020)I was at a concert the other day, and as usual, I checked out what wares the musicians had to sell in the interval. And there was this box: … with a card inside: It’s USB! Isn’t that great? It conducts light really well, so that if your USB hub has a LED, it looks … Continue reading Innovations in Music Distribution
The Best Albums of 2019
(January 1, 2020)Here’s the best music of 2019, according to Emacs, which has carefully tallied what I’ve been listening to: Sam Amidon I See The Sign Meat Beat Manifesto Opaque Couche Coil Swanyard Various Third Noise Principle (Formative North American Electronica 1975-1984) Brigid Mae Power The Bones You Keep Close Lucy Roleff Left Open in a Room … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2019
December Music
(January 1, 2020)Music I’ve bought in December. Hm… not a very exciting month for new music, apparently. But I got a bunch of old stuff that I remembered needing, like Chrome Hoof:
The Best Albums of the Decade
(December 13, 2019)As a data scientist, applying machine learning to my listening patterns has led to this quantitative analysis of the albums of the decade. I can therefore reveal that these are officially the best albums released during the previous ten year period: Dani Siciliano Dani Siciliano Black Cab Games of the XXI Olympiad Anohni Hopelessness Grumbling … Continue reading The Best Albums of the Decade
Stereo
(December 6, 2019)So I’ve been futzing with my living room stereo setup lately after getting new speakers, and things look a bit too… stacked? So I thought I’d at least slim down the box the stereo is sitting on: That’s an Ikea box, and it’s too wide and too high and too deep. Inside that box is … Continue reading Stereo
November Music
(December 1, 2019)Music I’ve bought in November. I’ve been buying all the usual nonsense this month, but I’ve particularly been delving into the output of Broklyn Beats (yes, one O), a label that was active in the early noughts. They concentrated on what some people at the time called “brokebeat”: Harsh, annoying music you can’t dance to. … Continue reading November Music
October Music
(November 1, 2019)Music I’ve bought in October. I’ve been buying a lot of stuff this month, eh? It’s mostly along two lines in inquiry: Is everything Ze Records published in the late 70s/early 80s fun? The answer is yes, but not everything is good. But some is! The other is: There has to be more good music … Continue reading October Music
September Music
(October 2, 2019)Music I’ve bought in September. After some months of really trying to cut down on buying music, I just kinda gave up. LET THE FLOODGATES OPEN!
August Music
(September 1, 2019)Music I’ve bought in August. By the minuscule list below it kinda looks like I’ve finally managed to scale down the amount of music I’m buying… but it’s probably just because I went away on holidays. We’ll see!
July Music
(July 31, 2019)Music I’ve bought in July. And I went to Barcelona and saw a Joe Jackson concert (great) and went to Sónar (fun). I need to buy some stuff from some of the peeps I saw there… like… er… uhm… Oh, yes! Afrodeutsche was great. Very German. (You know, like To Rococo Rot and… Pole? Yeah.) … Continue reading July Music
Crimson
(July 5, 2019)I’m not a King Crimson fanatic, but I really love the three albums with Adrian Belew from the early 80s (the ones all Crimson fans hate). And it turns out that Fripp is re-releasing the entire oeuvre in a ridiculously lavish fashion. It’s like 20 discs per “era”. It’s ludicrous! I love it! So I … Continue reading Crimson
June Music
(June 30, 2019)Music I’ve bought in June.
May Music
(June 1, 2019)Music I’ve bought in May. After restraining my music buying impulses for a very, very long time (a month or two?), I broke down in May and went on several shopping sprees. In particular, I’ve been buying Joe Jackson live albums and singles and stuff. I grew up with Beat Crazy, that wild and weird … Continue reading May Music
New Music
(April 30, 2019)Music I’ve bought this month. I finally managed to stop buying so many albums! On the other hand, I changed the posting date from the 12th to the 1st, there’s just 18 days in this month.
New Music
(April 11, 2019)Music I’ve bought this month. My plan to cut down on buying new music to give me more of a chance to actually listen to what I’m buying is showing results! Plot twist: I haven’t listened to any of these albums — I’m still trying to catch up with the stuff I’ve bought earlier. *sigh*
4AD 1999
(April 2, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1999 on Spotify. This is the end! Not of 4AD, but this blog series, and more importantly, an era: Ivo Watts-Russell sold 4AD to Beggars Banquet. So what did he do as the final year as the label boss? Release a buttload of Gus Gus things, and a smattering of “best of” … Continue reading 4AD 1999
4AD 1998
(March 26, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1998 on Spotify. I asked last week whether 4AD would even release anything good again, and here we are in 1998 and the answer is… Yes! There’s Kristin Hersh’ new album, and His Name Is Alive make a comeback of sorts with Ft. Lake. And then, uh, and then… uh… Well, there’s … Continue reading 4AD 1998
4AD 1997
(March 18, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1997 on Spotify. Listening to 4AD in 1997 is obviously listening to a label shutting down. There are no new artists, but instead there’s the first of many pilferings to come of one of 4AD’s most commercially successful bands of the 90s, Pixies. And there’s a concerted effort to make Tanya Donelly’s … Continue reading 4AD 1997
New Music
(March 12, 2019)Music I’ve bought this month. Last month I declared that I was going to cut back radically on how much music I’m buying (because I can’t listen to all this stuff), so this month I’m down to… er… thirtyseven releases… OK, quite a bit of that was albums trickling in that I’d ordered earlier, so … Continue reading New Music
4AD 1996
(March 12, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1996 on Spotify. Let’s focus on the positives: Dead Can Dance returned with Spiritchaser, and that’s a quite good album. Throwing Muses continued the streak begun with University and released another excellent album. His Name Is Alive went in a new direction: They discovered the Beach Boys. Heidi Berry released her final, … Continue reading 4AD 1996
4AD 1995
(March 5, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1995 on Spotify. I think perhaps it makes sense to regard 1995 as the end of the iconic, classic version of 4AD. 4AD’s ends their association with The Wolfgang Press here, and that’s a group of people that had been with them (in various permutations) since 1980: The very first “proper” 4AD … Continue reading 4AD 1995
4AD 1994
(February 26, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1994 on Spotify. The most important thing that happened in 1994 was that Kristin Hersh launched her solo career. While not really that radically different from her Throwing Muses music, it gave us more Kristin Hersh, and that’s always better, right? Also: 4AD signed Lisa Germano and released her stunning Geek the … Continue reading 4AD 1994
4AD 1993
(February 19, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1993 on Spotify. 1992/1993 sealed 4AD’s fate: They had two major hits in the US college market with Belly’s Feed the Tree and The Breeders’ Cannonball; both going into heavy rotation on MTV (back when that meant something). Major label Warner Bros came sniffing seeking grunge acts, and Ivo Watts-Russell signed a … Continue reading 4AD 1993
4AD 1992
(February 12, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1992 on Spotify. 1992 was another year of change for 4AD. Ivo Watts-Russell wanted to be able to pick more freely among things to release without getting in a serious relationship with bands, so he started the Guernica imprint which released three things at a rapid pace at the end of the … Continue reading 4AD 1992
New Music
(February 11, 2019)Music I’ve bought (or resampled) this month. I discovered a shelf of 12″ things this month: They were all items I’d bought in the early noughts before I started doing FLAC instead of MP3. So I had to resample them all, of course, even though I’ll probably never listen to many of them again… But … Continue reading New Music
4AD 1991
(February 5, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1991 on Spotify. The most striking thing about 1991 is that a lot of the sleeves aren’t very good. Vaughan Oliver/Chris Bigg might have been going through a period of burn-out, and there’s some external designers used, too. Counting Backwards, Time, the Spirea X releases, Flesh Balloon are all pretty bad. And … Continue reading 4AD 1991
4AD 1990
(January 29, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1990 on Spotify. 4AD head Ivo Watts-Russell has later said that he was going to shut down 4AD after ten years, but he didn’t because he felt an obligation to the bands. So instead 1990 turned into one of the busiest years ever, with 17 releases, and some of the biggest commercial … Continue reading 4AD 1990
4AD 1989
(January 22, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1989 on Spotify. The playlist is, once again, not complete because Spotify doesn’t have everything. The missing songs are marked with an asterisk*. 1989 is a year of change. None of the old 4AD heavy hitters (Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, erm Clan of Xymox) release anything this year, … Continue reading 4AD 1989
4AD 1988
(January 15, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1988 on Spotify. And here my problems really start with the “let people listen to 4AD as if they were around at the time” approach starts fraying. Over the next few years, 4AD would start getting in to the 12″ remix business, and it starts here with The Wolfgang Press’ King of … Continue reading 4AD 1988
New Music
(January 11, 2019)Music I’ve bought this month.
Automated Turn-On Logic
(January 10, 2019)4AD 1987
(January 8, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1987 on Spotify. This isn’t complete, unfortunately. The Fat Skier mini-album by Throwing Muses doesn’t exist on Spotify. Three of the tracks appear on various compilations, and I’ve included them on the playlist, but you’re missing some wonderful songs like And A She-Wolf After The War, Pools in Eyes and Soap and … Continue reading 4AD 1987
4AD 1986
(January 1, 2019)Listen to 4AD 1986 on Spotify. 1985 was a good year for 4AD, but didn’t have many surprises. 1986 ramps things up considerably. First of all, we have Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. I don’t think anybody saw that coming or were prepared for how beautiful these Bulgarian songs could be. And Cocteau Twins decided … Continue reading 4AD 1986
4AD 1985
(December 25, 2018)Here’s 4AD 1985 on Spotify. In 1985, there weren’t really any major revelations: It’s business as usual, but, oh, what a business. The Wolfgang Press finally (after a complicated band story that started with Rema-Rema, the first “official” thing 4AD released as a label in 1980) came into their own after five years. With a … Continue reading 4AD 1985
4AD 1984
(December 18, 2018)The B-side to Kangaroo, the single by This Mortal Coil with the confusing name “It’ll End In Tears” is not included here, because I can’t find it on Spotify. It’s basically a short instrumental version of Kangaroo, though, so it’s not a catastrophe, I guess. But it’s a nice version. Somebody should fix that on … Continue reading 4AD 1984
The Best Albums of 2018
(December 12, 2018)“Best album” has been decided by Emacs which keeps track of what albums I’ve listened to most, so this is a totally objective list that objectively literally lists the best music this year. Except for the bits where I just edited by hand, because I’ve been listening more to old music than new music this … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2018
New Music
(December 11, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
4AD 1983
(December 11, 2018)Here’s 4AD 1983 on Spotity. 1983 is the watershed year for 4AD, when they transition fully from a post-punk label into something much stranger and something that people will still obsess about decades later. Most important commercially (and musically, for that matter) are the Cocteau Twins releases. The Peppermint Pig single was a major step … Continue reading 4AD 1983
4AD 1982
(December 3, 2018)The 4AD 1982 playlist on Spotify. In a shocker, not everything from 1982 is available on Spotify. The Birtday Party/Lydia Lunch split isn’t, but I’ve substituted some other live Birthday Party tracks. The Lunch track isn’t available at all. And the We Means We Starts single (with a different version of Not To) by Colin … Continue reading 4AD 1982
8K: Metropolis
(December 2, 2018)Look! *gasp* The number of albums er um musical units I have surpassed an arbitrary nice-looking number in the decimal number system! But what album was the eight thousandth? It’s this one! Metropolis! A jazz-ish album from the late 60s by Mike Westbrook, who I discovered recentlyish after Phil Minton did a gig here, so … Continue reading 8K: Metropolis
4AD 1981
(November 27, 2018)Here’s the link: 4AD 1981 on Spotify. Working with the 4AD data set brings back memories… In the early days of the WWW, before Mozilla came on the scene, I had written a 4AD database (called “eyesore”, written in C++) where you could mark what releases you owned, and it would spit out a list … Continue reading 4AD 1981
4AD 1980
(November 18, 2018)Some years back, I read the excellent Facing the Other Way book by Martin Aston. It’s about the British independent record company 4AD, which I used to be an er somewhat obsessive fan of in my teens, which resulted in absurdities like this. I decided to listen to everything 4AD had released, chronologically, while reading … Continue reading 4AD 1980
New Music
(November 11, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
Download Codes
(October 27, 2018)I mostly buy music on physical format because… I don’t know. I’m old? Right. So included in the latest batch was the new single from 80s phenomenon Soft Cell: And as is often the case these days, there’s a download code included so that people presumably can avoid actually listening to the vinyl: Now, I … Continue reading Download Codes
New Music
(October 11, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
My New Concert Review Blog
(October 5, 2018)I went to a metal festival. In a church! It’s been desecrated I mean des-consecrated, but it’s still a great room. Thank you, religious people, for making impractical spaces like this that can be used for fun stuff now. The downstairs crypt is more intimate. Anyway, as usual I thought that the traditional metal bands … Continue reading My New Concert Review Blog
New Music
(September 11, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month. After starting to sort the music I have by release date, I noticed that I have like absolutely no music from the 60s. So I’ve been trying to explore that slightly more (like with the absolutely wonderful Bobbie Gentry), but I’m not really sure what methodology to use. I mean, … Continue reading New Music
New Music
(August 12, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
Innovations in Web Scraping
(August 3, 2018)I added event descriptions to my Concerts in Oslo a few months back. It mostly worked kinda OK, but it’s using heuristics to find out what “the text” is, so it sometimes includes less-than-useful information. In particular, those fucking “YES IT KNOW IT”S A FUCKING COOKIE!” texts that all fucking web sites slather their pages … Continue reading Innovations in Web Scraping
Concert Diary: Rockefeller
(July 18, 2018)Dear concert diary. Today I went to a Slowdive concert, mostly because Lost Girls were the opening act. They were great, and so were Slowdive, but the experience was somewhat marred by the odour of the venue. Rockefeller is the foundational concert venue in Oslo. t’s always been somewhat whiffy: If you don’t stand in … Continue reading Concert Diary: Rockefeller
New Music
(July 12, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
Innovations in Music Distribution
(June 29, 2018)I was at a jazz concert the other week, and I was looking at the CDs and stuff the musicians had brought to sell. Adam Pulz Melbye had brought a shrinkwrapped bass string: With a Bandcamp download code. (Censored above.) I just had to buy one! Genius! It’s weird that I haven’t seen anybody doing … Continue reading Innovations in Music Distribution
New Music
(June 15, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
Concerts in Oslo
(May 26, 2018)I maintain a site that list concerts in Oslo. In Facebook’s continuing war on its users, the events API was discontinued without warning a month ago. (That is, they may allow access to some apps after doing an individual review, but somehow I suspect that allowing access to a service that tries to drive foot … Continue reading Concerts in Oslo
Nice Vinyl
(May 25, 2018)Zola Jesus’ album Okovi was one of the best albums released in 2017, so now there’s a remix/additions album out, and it’s on totes groovey vinyl: How pretty! Sounds great, too. And for some reason, Norman Records sent me a signed picture of Chris Carter in the same parcel: Thanks? It’s what I’ve always wanted? … Continue reading Nice Vinyl
New Music
(May 12, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
Dear Interweb
(April 21, 2018)I was listening to an old mix tape the other day, and I happened upon this song: I can’t for the life of me figure out who this song might be by. Shazam doesn’t recognise it and I can’t find any of the text snippets on Google (“dreams of what could be if you love … Continue reading Dear Interweb
New Music
(April 17, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
New Music
(March 11, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
New Music
(February 12, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
All Ears 2018
(January 19, 2018)Joëlle Léandre, Kazehito Seki @ All Ears 2018Watch this video on YouTube Watch this video on YouTube Arma Agharta @ All Ears 2018Watch this video on YouTube Watch this video on YouTube
New Music
(January 11, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
My New Concert Blog
(December 20, 2017)The Best Albums of 2017
(December 19, 2017)This has been a kinda weird year of music for me. I’ve spent quite a lot of time resampling old vinyl and sampling old tapes, so I’ve listened to a lot less new music than usual. Nevertheless, here’s the list of the best music of 2017, determined by how many times I’ve listened to each … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2017
New Music
(December 11, 2017)Music I’ve bought this month. The end of the Grand Sampling (of bootleg and rare tapes from the 90s). It’s been fun revisiting the tapes, but it’s also nice that I can go back to listening to newer music again.
Of Interest to 4AD Fans of Olden Times
(November 28, 2017)Back in the late 80s/early 90s, I was a huge 4AD fan and did many fannish things, like running VHS tape chains of 4AD-related video clips and the like. It’s a bit difficult to remember at this remove just what was so important about watching video clips and interviews with these bands now, but this … Continue reading Of Interest to 4AD Fans of Olden Times
My New Concert Blog
(November 22, 2017)Le Guess Who
(November 21, 2017)I went to Le Guess Who in Utrecht, and it was very good. Here’s a festival report. The festival is spread out all over Utrecht, like here in front of a church where Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares performed. (The doors closed mysteriously before the huddled throng and nobody let us know what was happening, … Continue reading Le Guess Who
New Music
(November 20, 2017)Music I’ve bought this month. (Well, mostly recorded from old tapes.)
New Music
(October 11, 2017)Music I’ve bought or found this month. I’ve been rooting through boxes and boxes of old stuff. A seemingly unlimited supply of things to throw away. But one box was full of old tapes, a fair number of which are bootlegs and mixtapes of rarities I got in the mail in the 90s. I couldn’t … Continue reading New Music
My New Concert Blog
(October 11, 2017)New Music
(September 11, 2017)Music I’ve bought this month.
Blow Out 2017
(August 20, 2017)Huh. Where did that interference pattern/banding thing that’s on the first of the evening’s sets come from? Is that from the camera? Or was there a 50-ish Hz light source blinking that I didn’t see? Weird. And it disappeared on the last set, and I don’t think I changed any settings on the camera…
Blow Out 2017
(August 19, 2017)
Blow Out 2017
(August 17, 2017)My New Concert Blog
(August 15, 2017)Kongsberg Jazz 2017
(August 15, 2017)Hey! I recorded some stuff and forgot to edit and upload.
New Music
(August 13, 2017)Music I’ve bought this month.
New Music
(July 11, 2017)Music I’ve bought this month.
Further Trends in Packaging
(June 17, 2017)Many, many years ago I noted that people selling vinyl were starting to use vinyl as the packing material. At that point, they were using stuff that, well, was junk. But today I got a package from the US that made me go “hmmmm”. Or “yay”? I was exploring discogs.com looking for new stuff from … Continue reading Further Trends in Packaging
Face Your Problems
(June 13, 2017)I maintain a web site (and a gaggle of apps) that scrape event lists of all the clubs and concert venues in Oslo. The other day, I was told that it missed a bob hund concert and I was all whaaa? It turned out that the reason was that Facebook is now blocking all non-logged-in … Continue reading Face Your Problems
New Music
(June 11, 2017)Music I’ve bought this month.
My New Concert Blog
(May 10, 2017)New Music
(April 30, 2017)Music I’ve bought this month.
My New Concert Blog
(April 26, 2017)My New Concert Blog
(April 12, 2017)Whoo.
New Music
(April 5, 2017)Music I’ve bought and/or resampled this week. And that concludes The Great Resampling.
New Music
(March 29, 2017)Music I’ve bought and/or resampled this week.
New Music
(March 22, 2017)Music I’ve bought and/or resampled this week.
New Music
(March 15, 2017)Music I’ve bought and/or resampled this week.
My New Concert Blog vs Useful Consumer Review
(March 14, 2017)I’ve been using a Panasonic GH4 camera for a couple of years to do concerts. It’s a very nice camera, but it has a few problems. 1) When recording video, it splits the video into 4GB chunks that I then have to piece together. It’s not a biggie, but it’s annoying. 2) More seriously, the … Continue reading My New Concert Blog vs Useful Consumer Review
Groovy
(March 12, 2017)I’m resampling a lot of vinyl these days (because I got a spiffy record player and the earliest albums I sampled back in the 90s I only have in mp3 (and crappy mp3 at that), and I have to have everything in flac). You know. It makes sense. So the other day I was sampling … Continue reading Groovy
One Thing Leads To Another
(March 8, 2017)In the previous installment, I got a new monitor for my stereo computer. I thought everything was fine, but then I started noticing stuttering on flac playback. After some investigation, it seems as if X is on (and displaying stuff on this new, bigger monitor), and there’s network traffic, then the flac123 process is starved … Continue reading One Thing Leads To Another
New Music
(March 8, 2017)Music I’ve bought and/or resampled this week.
New Music
(March 1, 2017)Music I’ve bought and/or resampled this week.
New Music
(February 22, 2017)Music I’ve bought and/or resampled this week. I found the “box of not very interesting albums” in the basement (I think that must have been my criterion when sorting records into the box), but I’ve gotta resample them all. Plus some new stuff.
My New Concert Blog
(February 15, 2017)Oops. And then I deleted the next set while trying to copy it from the SD card…
New Music
(February 15, 2017)Music I’ve bought and/or resampled this week.
New Music
(February 7, 2017)Music I’ve bought and/or resampled this week.
My New Concert Blog
(February 1, 2017)Obelisk: A Monitor Review
(January 30, 2017)I’ve had the same monitor in my stereo control system for many years. It’s a 20″ Dell that’s OK. It’s got an appropriate size for the living room. But lately it’s started having a high-pitched whine. If I play only punk music I can’t hear it at all, but otherwise it’s slightly annoying. So I … Continue reading Obelisk: A Monitor Review
My New Concert Blog
(January 18, 2017)All Ears 2017: Day Three
(January 15, 2017)
All Ears 2017: Day Two
(January 14, 2017)I’ve always loved the sound of a steam iron.
All Ears 2017: Day One
(January 13, 2017)Vinyl Noise
(January 4, 2017)I’m still buying a lot of music on vinyl. Not because it’s hip: I was buying vinyl long before hipsters did. (That’s code for “old”.) I had one record player for decades that was cheap, but pretty OK. But it had one major problem: There was a lot of deep rumble. Not horrible-sounding, but still… … Continue reading Vinyl Noise
My New Concert Blog
(December 21, 2016)The Best Albums of 2016
(December 14, 2016)Once again, Emacs has tallied up what albums I’ve listened to most this year, and must therefore be the best music released in 2016. Grumbling Fur Preternaturals Dani Siciliano Dani Siciliano Anohni Hopelessness Babyfather Meditation PJ Harvey The Hope Six Demolition Project Copeland & Gast Sisters of Control DJ Nigga Fox Noite e dia Lolina … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2016
My New Concert Blog
(November 9, 2016)
My New Concert Blog
(October 26, 2016)My camera’s microphone freaked out completely on the Agnes Hvizdalek piece, so I haven’t included that one. But it seems to have survived on this:
Rocktober Day 6: The Cure
(October 12, 2016)Concerts in Oslo today.
Rocktober Day 5: Oranssi Pazuzu
(October 10, 2016)Concerts in Oslo today. That was the most disappointing din-din at Arakataka ever. Ooo! Psyche-a-delic! Stamped, but faintly.
Rocktober Day 4: Vollen Odd Size United
(October 9, 2016)Reindeer pizza at Tranen. That may be the best white pizza I’ve had. Concerts in Oslo today.
Rocktober Day 3: Sofa Label Night
(October 8, 2016)Food at Xích Lô. The rack of lamb was simply amahzing. You know that fatty thing over those round bit of meat? They had done something to it so that it tasted like a cross between bone marrow and foie de gras, but really charred, and with bright spices. It was like nothing I’ve tasted … Continue reading Rocktober Day 3: Sofa Label Night
My New Concert Blog
(August 30, 2016)Blow Out 2016 Day Three
(August 20, 2016)I didn’t find a good place to put my camera, so the angles are kinda … off… Sorry.
Blow Out 2016 Day One
(August 18, 2016)My New Concert Blog; Festival Edition
(July 11, 2016)My New Concert Blog
(July 7, 2016)This time it’s the Motvind festival, day one, which is all about protesting other festivals being sponsored by big oil and weapons and stuff.
My New Concert Blog
(June 9, 2016)My New Concert Blog
(May 25, 2016)My New Concert Blog
(May 25, 2016)I put the SD card into my Ubuntu laptop, copied some files over, and then unplugged the SD card without ejecting it. I thought it would be safe because I hadn’t altered anything. But when I replugged the card, it was invalid. And fsck.exfat on Linux knows nothing. It’s worse than John Snow. I plugged … Continue reading My New Concert Blog
My New Concert Blog
(April 27, 2016)Eek. The SD card mysteriously ran out of space, even though du said it was empty. And it happened in the pretty part at the end…
My New Concert Blog
(March 16, 2016)
libre.fm
(January 18, 2016)After the last last.fm redesign, it’s been speculated that last.fm probably isn’t going to survive much longer. It’s sad, but it’s difficult to see what the business idea with last.fm is these day. And the way they’re chopping the useful features is weird. For instance, I’ve been using the events page for years to time … Continue reading libre.fm
Even More Ears 2016
(January 17, 2016)All Ears 2016
(January 16, 2016)
last.fm scrobbling problems
(January 15, 2016)The past few months, I’ve noticed that only a fraction of the music I’ve been playing has been scrobbling on last.fm. But I just put this down to general last.fm flakiness — I think everybody pretty much assumes that they’re closing any time soon after the last disasterous redesign (where all the useful functionality disappeared … Continue reading last.fm scrobbling problems
The Best Albums of 2015
(December 6, 2015)This list has been scientifically created by making Emacs list what albums I listened most frequently to this year. You can’t argue with facts, so you’ll just have to admit that this is the best music released this year. Róisin Murphy Hairless Toys Baby Dee I Am A Stick Dat Politics No Void Hauntologists Hauntologists … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2015
My New Concert Blog
(December 3, 2015)NCSI SUV: CSID
(October 10, 2015)Look, I’m a Windows developer: Actually, I just pushed the Concerts in Oslo Cordova app to the Windows Phone store to debug the submission process. At work I’ve tried to push an app several times to the store, but Microsoft just says “it doesn’t work”. When I ask “er, what doesn’t work?” their response is … Continue reading NCSI SUV: CSID
Incubate 2015
(October 3, 2015)SUV: CSID
(September 29, 2015)Some weeks back, I decided to appify the Concerts in Oslo web page thingie. Because UX. It’s a Cordova (i.e. Phonegap) app, so I thought it would be, like, no work at all. And it wasn’t! Until I started thinking about the added opportunities the Cordova framework gave me, like exporting events to the calendar … Continue reading SUV: CSID
My New Concert Blog
(September 9, 2015)I got a new camera! The Blackmagick one was just too pro for me — no white balance detection, and a 40 minute battery life. So I got a Panasonic GH4, which is less pro and has a longer battery life: So what does Mir look like with this camera? Mir is still as yellow … Continue reading My New Concert Blog
CSID: App
(September 3, 2015)I made a web page for concerts in Oslo because reasons a couple years ago. An evening this week, it occurred to me that perhaps I could make the page “responsive”; i.e., more cell phone friendly. That was quite easy, but one thing led to another, and before I knew what was happening, there were … Continue reading CSID: App
Gutvik Ukentlig 2015
(August 26, 2015)Blow Out 2015 Day Three
(August 22, 2015)I bought a CD from those peeps: And those, too, but it doesn’t look as funny.
Blow Out 2015 Day Two
(August 21, 2015)Blow Out 2015 Day One
(August 20, 2015)Lots of merch at this festival. CDs… T-shirts… Unmentionables… The usual stuff. Anyway, here’s some vids:
My New Concert Blog
(August 5, 2015)I got a new lens for my Blackmagick Pocket Cinema camera: Yeah, I know. But it’s a 7-14mm lens, so I can finally get the entire stage in frame. I don’t think I quite got peeps in focus, though. And I should have used my external microphone, because the internal microphone is awful: Whenever there’s … Continue reading My New Concert Blog
I feel so grown up now
(July 17, 2015)Kongsberg Jazz 2015
(July 10, 2015)My New “Trends in Packaging” Blog
(June 26, 2015)So how do the kids pack 7″ singles these days? Reuse before recycling!
My New Concert Blog
(June 17, 2015)Jazz!!! And my veins are now finally the exact same colour as the stamp at Mir!
Peak Record Collecting
(May 22, 2015)I’ve been a fan of Kid606 and the music coming from his Tigerbeat6 label right from the start. Tigerbeat6 is still (sort of) active, but had its peak years from 2000 to (say) 2009. They released music by such well-known acts as Kid606, Kevin Blechdom, Knifehandchop, Cex and DJ \Rupture. Musically, it was brash and … Continue reading Peak Record Collecting
My New Concert Blog
(May 21, 2015)See? Colours!!! Man, that was a great concert…
My New Concert Blog
(May 20, 2015)A friend suggested that I change the white balance on my Blackmagic camera. I did! Down to 2500K. Here’s the result: I bumped the contrast a bit in post, though. Well, it’s better. The lighting on that stage is just very difficult.
My New Concert Blog
(May 7, 2015)I’m experimenting with my newish Blackmagic camera. I ISO’d it down a bit, and f’d it up a bit. So the back wall isn’t a total white block now. But here I didn’t angle it high enough, and the battery ran out: And here the 128GB SD card ran out: *sigh*
Useful Consumer Review
(April 28, 2015)I’ve been filming some concerts the last year or so. I’ve been using mostly normal compact cameras, and they work quite well. The Sony RX 100 II is probably the best one of the bunch. However, they either stop filming after 30 minutes because of tax reasons (apparently, in the EU there’s an additional tax … Continue reading Useful Consumer Review
The End of an Ear
(January 7, 2015)I moved to a bigger apartment like five years ago. “Hey! Finally I can have access to all my precious belongings! Preciouses!!!” But time passes, and I tend to accrue more precious belongings, so I have to start putting stuff down into the basement storage room thingie. And I settled on the CDs. Since I … Continue reading The End of an Ear
The Best Albums of 2014
(December 7, 2014)It’s that time of year, and Emacs has decreed (based on how many times I played each album) what the best ones are. I’ve played a lot of old, old music this year, so the recent purchases haven’t gotten that much play… But these are the 15 bestest albums released in 2014. Neneh Cherry Blank … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2014
Jazzember
(December 6, 2014)Jazzember
(December 3, 2014)Rockvember
(November 15, 2014)I like used this camera. It’s all action and stuff Here’s Deathcrush and TBA. I love Deathcrush.
Useful Consumer Review (feat. Rockvember)
(November 8, 2014)I decided I didn’t want to go to a concert every day, after all. But I did see Cat Power on Tuesday and The Thing on Thursday and Cloroform yesterday. Anyway, I gave the weird audio-recorder-with-a-camera thing a go at the The Thing concert. The video quality is, not surprisingly, pretty awful. This is what … Continue reading Useful Consumer Review (feat. Rockvember)
Rockvember
(October 30, 2014)I was looking at the list of concerts for November, and there seemed to be a show I wanted to see, like, every other day. So I thought, well, why not see a show every day for a month? Oslo isn’t London or New York, but it’s somehow one of the best cities in the … Continue reading Rockvember
Bookvember Paused
(October 25, 2014)And then Inga Copeland played afterwards, but I didn’t get any footage because I was kinda bopping around.
Bookvember Paused
(October 23, 2014)Toft & Joe McPhee & Chris Corsano & My my my
Bookvember, Paused
(October 11, 2014)
Bookvember, Paused
(October 4, 2014)Kate Bush at Hammersmith Odeon
(September 13, 2014)I’ve never loved any stage thing as much as I loved what took place tonight. KT is still a genius. And I’m seeing it again in two weeks. Yay!
My New Concert Blog
(February 24, 2014)PAINJERK at CafeWatch this video on YouTube Multipletap at Cafe Oto was a lovely two-day festival featuring a butt-load of great Japanese peeps. Mostly noise stuff, but Ko Ishikawa played a lovely flute set, and Yumiko Tanaka did a very intense string-based thing. Day one was good, and on day two they fixed everything that … Continue reading My New Concert Blog
My New Concert Blog: Reconnaissance Fly
(February 14, 2014)My New Concert Blog: Oneohtrix Point Never
(February 7, 2014)Asshole Wanker Standing Behind Me Who Just Wouldn’t Shut Up Quote Of The Day: “A lot of people see this shirt, and…. but then they see the back and they know I’m not fucking around.” I stalked him and had a look at the back. It was a Mr Bungle shirt.
More Fire! Orchestra
(January 8, 2014)Fire! Orchestra
(January 7, 2014)28 Swedes… One stage…
Best Albums of 2013
(December 11, 2013)According to Emacs, these are the albums I bought this year and listened the most to: Pet Shop Boys Electric Adult. The Way Things Fall The Knife Shaking The Habitual Dead Can Dance Anastasis In Concert Scout Niblett It’s Up To Emma Gretchen Phillips Do you ever wish for more? Grouper The Man Who Died … Continue reading Best Albums of 2013
My New Concert Review Blog
(November 23, 2013)Instead of just posting pictures and footage from random concerts, I thought I’d try to do a review instead. So it’s the Rune Grammofon label night. First off was a band that was called…. Something. It was kinda prog rock jazzish. They were quite good. Then Maja Ratkje: It was fantastic, as usual. Although she … Continue reading My New Concert Review Blog
My New Concert Blog
(October 22, 2013)My New Concert Blog vs Useful Consumer Review
(October 17, 2013)So I wanted to test the camera again. I mean, filming. I decreased the HD-ness to perhaps save some battery life. There’s apparently no way to shut the screen off while filming. That’s annoying, because a bright screen sitting on a table at the front is kinda annoying. The camera shut itself off every 20 … Continue reading My New Concert Blog vs Useful Consumer Review
My New Concert Blog
(October 15, 2013)I forgot my camera, but here’s a Damo Suzuki picture from my Nokia E7 phone: It might be Symbian, but at least it’s not Google, Apple or Microsoft. Evil free!
Useful Consomer Review vs My New Concert Blog
(October 13, 2013)I got a Canon S120 the other day, because I thought it’d be nice to have a camera small enough to actually schlep around again. So I went to the Deciders concert: After sixteen minutes the “I’m dying!!!” battery symbol started flashing in red, so I switched the camera off. I switched it on during … Continue reading Useful Consomer Review vs My New Concert Blog
My New Concert Blog
(October 5, 2013)I’ve been carrying around a Lumia phone the last week, so I recorded a couple of shows. Getting the videos off of the phone proved to be challenging. Google has sabotaged the Microsoft Youtube app, so you can’t upload directly from the phone. And using normal HTTP uploads is disabled in the phone, apparently. So … Continue reading My New Concert Blog
Crowdsourcing Is Dead
(September 22, 2013)For a brief, shiny moment back around 2007, it seemed like crowdsourcing would really take off. However, by now it’s become pretty obvious that we just saw an enormous influx of Can Do people as (pretty much) the entire Western world got reliable Interweb connections at all at once. Then most of these people grew … Continue reading Crowdsourcing Is Dead
Livin’ in the 1980s
(July 28, 2013)I got a new tape deck! Now that newspapers have started reporting on how all the hipsters have moved from vinyl to tape (because vinyl got too popular), hipsters have probably stopped buying tape decks. (Too mainstream now.) So I was finally able to pick up a good one today, after looking for a month. … Continue reading Livin’ in the 1980s
I Got Tapes!
(April 4, 2013)That’s the best music ever!
Years and Years
(February 23, 2013)I was reading this article and thinking “gee, 1980 sure was a good year for music”. So I wanted to list all the albums I had from 1980. And then I discovered that I lacked the release year for about 1300 of mah records. Fortunately, discogs.com has a nice API, so I wrote a tiny, … Continue reading Years and Years
CDO Jukebox
(February 17, 2013)I buy a lot of albums, and I have since I had enough money to buy a lot of albums. Since the late 80s, my listening methodology hasn’t changed much. I buy an album, and I put it in the “new” stack, and those are mainly the albums that I play. I delve into older … Continue reading CDO Jukebox
4AD in the Early 90s
(February 2, 2013)I used to be a 4AD fan and kept a discography going back in the 80s. Or 90s, I guess. I also used to buy lots of British music papers. Rooting through the basement storage here today, I found a cache of snipped 4AD-related articles and reviews that I had apparently collected back then, but … Continue reading 4AD in the Early 90s
Top 2012 Records
(December 9, 2012)Hey, I wrote that thing that would pick out what albums I play the most. Perhaps if I point it at 2012, it’ll just list all the best music that I’ve bought this year? Cat Power Sun Deerhoof Breakup Song Django Django Django Django Björk Biophilia Remixes Part Six Neneh Cherry & The Thing The … Continue reading Top 2012 Records
Papp László Budapest Sportarénában
(October 17, 2012)Who knew that Dead Can Dance had so many fans in Hungary that they had to play a sports arena? I thought the sound was gonna be pretty iffy, but it was the last place in Europe that had tickets available. The sound wasn’t iffy — it was horrible. As Concert Goer Guy would say: … Continue reading Papp László Budapest Sportarénában
Special CD
(July 11, 2012)I was ripping CDs tonight, and one was giving me more problems than usual. It was a cd by the band called disc, which is a Matmos offshoot. I took the CD out of the drive and stared at it a bit. Oops. I think it might be one of those conceptual non-playable CDs. And … Continue reading Special CD
Kongsberg Jazz Festival
(July 9, 2012)I’ve been to the Kongsberg Jazz Festival this weekend. It’s mostly a blur. I think we saw like a dozen free jazz concerts. Most of them excellent. Some stand out in particular. Like the very quiet and magical John Tilbury concert. And the very inventive Augstí Fernández thing. Oh, and the surprising Selvhenter concert. And … Continue reading Kongsberg Jazz Festival
CDO
(May 13, 2012)I’m going to the I’ll Be Your Mirror thing next weekend. They’re doing a tape swap thing. I probably won’t be participating, because I’m lazy, but I did start thinking about what such a tape would consist of. Fortunately, Emacs has kept track of all the albums I’ve played over the last decade, so I … Continue reading CDO
Yes Concert
(December 7, 2011)Yes Concert
Music Distribution
(November 12, 2011)The main issue when I moved to the new flat, oh, three-ish years ago? I think, was how to listen to music. I want to be able to walk between rooms, listening to the same music. This means that there has to be some kind of way to distribute music between the rooms. I looked … Continue reading Music Distribution
Cartridge
(November 1, 2011)Gem I bought a new pick-up for the record player (I know, how au courant) today. They didn’t have the one I wanted so I bought this one instead. Look at the pretty packaging!
Kongsberg Jazz
(July 15, 2011)Jazz? Jazz Not Jazz
Digital Audio Extraction from Emacs
(April 21, 2011)Triple Threat SATA Multilane Connector So my CD ripping situation is that I put a CD into the CD reading thing there (more about that in a thrilling later blog article), hit a key in Emacs, slap a CD cover onto the scanner, hit another key in Emacs to say that the format is (usually … Continue reading Digital Audio Extraction from Emacs
Editing Sound Files in Emacs
(April 17, 2011)Emacs PCM Editing I buy quite a lot of vinyl still. And the hipsterish hipsters have started releasing things on tape, since vinyl is obviously too mainstream. (I’m wondering when 78s will be making a comeback.) So to listen to this music I need to sample it and then convert it to flac. That’s trivial … Continue reading Editing Sound Files in Emacs
My Favourite Shop
(April 16, 2011)I buy tons of music, and most of it I buy from Norman Records. One of the many things I like about them is how some of their reviews are both concrete and abstract at the same time.
Emacs Can Haz Brainz?
(April 15, 2011)Adam mentioned MusicBrainz in the comments of the last article. I took that as a challenge, of course. I only implemented the query bits, though. I’m selfish. (Oh, OK, the only reason I didn’t do the submission part, too, is that I can’t make up my mind whether cddb.el and musicbrainz.el should share the same … Continue reading Emacs Can Haz Brainz?
Editing freedb/cddb entries
(April 15, 2011)The new album New Album from the folk band Boris When ripping large quantities of CDs, you really have to have an efficient way to query and edit CDDB entries. So here’s an Emacs library for doing that. It includes a bunch of convenience functions for fixing up other people’s bad entries, and you also … Continue reading Editing freedb/cddb entries
Musical Beats & Pieces
(April 14, 2011)The music player The last hoard of Emacs-related code I’ve written over the years is part of my Emacs-based music player. It started off (in 1997) as a way to rip my CDs and play mp3s (as well as swap out the mp3s to CD since I didn’t have enough disc space to store all … Continue reading Musical Beats & Pieces
Sennheiser HDR 180
(April 11, 2011)Headphones cradled on the charging cradle Most hardware seems to have been created in a “will this do?” mind set. They have a bit of technology, and they have some economic restraints, and then they rush it to market. It makes perfect sense, and I can’t envision that it’ll ever change, but it’s somewhat depressing. … Continue reading Sennheiser HDR 180