Amazon.co.uk mp3 site

The mp3 shop on amazon.co.uk is superb and it beats the pants of most of it's competitors (although I still dearly love bleep). Here's why;

1. It is cheap
2. There is no digital rights management
3. It is quick
4. There is a good selection
5. They have linux versions of their download assistant

Today I have been downloading some great records;


Oxygene and Equinoxe by Jean-Michel Jarre and Koyaanisqatsi by Philip Glass


I've also been searching for treasure. Two sites I really love are cosmobells and 36 15 moog. Both are blogs written by collectors who find rare treasure on vinal and make mp3 files available. If you like electronica and old moog and synth music it is a hoarde of precious things the likes of which cannot be found or bought anywhere. My 'free' find of the day is High Tech by CLaude Larson

Apropos of not much really...

The Popular project (over on Freaky Trigger), which is reviewing all UK number 1 singles in order, is on great form at the moment. It's just hit September 1976, with the number 1 in question being Dancing Queen which has earned a big fat 10 out of 10.

I like Dancing Queen, but I like Chiquitita better. It's a song that stops and then starts again, which are always ace, and it features Bjorn playing the piano with great gusto. I have no idea what it's about but it sounds sad, in a kind of European melodramatic way (see also Fernando). So here's a lovely snowy video for it.



Niczilla xx

Could Have Been Worse

EMI are to release a Best of Radiohead on June 2 as revenge for the band ditching the record company. The tracklisting and artwork have just landed;

Single album;|||||||||||||||||||Double album; single album plus extra CD

Just||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Airbag
Paranoid Android|||||||||||||||I Might Be Wrong
Karma Police|||||||||||||||||||Go To Sleep
Creep|||||||||||||||||||||||||||Let Down
No Surprises|||||||||||||||||||Planet Telex
High and Dry||||||||||||||||||Exit Music (For A Film)
My Iron Lung||||||||||||||||||The National Anthem
There There|||||||||||||||||||Knives Out
Lucky|||||||||||||||||||||||||||Talk Show Host
Fake Plastic Trees|||||||||||||You
Idioteque||||||||||||||||||||||Anyone Can Play Guitar
2+2=5||||||||||||||||||||||||||How To Disappear Completely
The Bends|||||||||||||||||||||True Love Waits
Pyramid Song
Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Everything In Its Right Place

I can't really argue with the track list but the running order produces some very odd transitions. Also, 'How To Dissappear' should be on CD 1 because it is one of the top 5 Radiohead songs. Other than that this makes a reasonable introduction to RH. The problem is they are an album band and you can't really cut and shut the albums to get the 'best bits'.

Anyway, as a long time fan I won't buy this album because it is just EMI being greedy. I can make my own RH greatest hits playlist on my ipod and change this every couple months. What the fans really want is a b-sides collection or a boxed set. Now that would be something exciting. Almost exciting as seing them live (again) at the end of June this year (3 months to go!).

Criminally underrated albums

1. Monster (R.E.M.)
2. One Hot Minute (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
3. Hail To The Thief (Radiohead)
4. John Wesley Harding (Bob Dylan)
5. Fables Of The Reconstruction (R.E.M.)

Radiohead LP7

For those of us who wait with baited breath for the next Radiohead album there is some good news. The latest album has been officially confirmed as completed, 4 years after the last one. Quite why it took so long will emerge in pre-release interviews, I assume. The new album probably won't be released until next year. Exactly when is anyones guess. The band have fulfilled their contract with EMI and they now have to negotiate with potential suitors to see which record company will give them the best all round deal. Then there is the marketing. Early next year is the earliest optimistic estimate for a release. Boo.

On a lighter note, Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and the BBC composer in residence has done another film score. The last one, for the film Bodysong, was amazing. I'm really looking forward to seeing 'There will be blood'. Question is do I listen to the score first and then see how the film fits to it or do I watch the film first and have the music forever associated with the images on screen? It's a tough one, fit the music to my imagination or listen to it with the intended visual accompaniment?

Orange gigs'n'tours

Orange have a new offer to their customers. You get to reserve concert tickets 48 hours before they go on sale. Sounds great from an Orange customer perspective but any band that is willing to treat fans like this isn't worth watching. The argument can be made that most live events are more accessible to those who pay more; corporate boxes in football and snooker etc. But this Orange thingy is pure queue jumping which is a very non-British thing to do. I don't know why I'm bothered; the acts that are in partnership with Orange aren't the type of acts I'd like to see anyway. Shed Seven anyone? Lily Allen (*shudders like Homer when thinking of Patty and Selma*)? Amy Winehouse ('I'm on drugs, aren't I kewl)? The Streets (geezer, music once OK, now reported lost somewhere in celeb land)?

New Interpol Album

The first two Interpol albums were great and I've been looking forward to the new one. Having listened to it I must say I'm underwhelmed. There is a review over at Pitchfork who normally get it right. The main problems are this; the drums and bass have been subdued, the deep Paul Banks vocals have been lifted too much, the songs are bloated and uneconomical and there aren't many tunes in there. One or two tracks are OK. I disagree with Pitchfork in that I like the opening track. The best track is Heinrich Maneuver and it is here that Interpol keep all the elements of their dynamic that worked on previous albums. The overall problem is that the band, in "seeking to freshen its damp atmospherics", has overstretched itself. They aren't capable of opening up their sound in the same way Joy Division did with Closer or Radiohead did with OK Computer. And the cover of this record really sucks.

Live Earth

Live Earth was supposed to raise awareness for green issues and climate change. Madonna urged the audience to jump up and down to change the world. This from a woman with investments in some of the most polluting companies in the US. I have a real problem with wealthy musicians telling me to fly/drive less and recycle more. A touring band generates a vast amount of CO2 and waste. The concert has not been well received. TV viewing figures were very low in the UK and there were complaints about the sound quality in the stadium and the clips that were shown on TV attracted more complaints for the songs that weren't shown than the swearing. I'm glad I didn't go. It seemed to be about neither music nor the environment.

News from the front line

There is no news. We've been at a major UK science facility for two weeks now but we have done no experiments and have yielded no data due to technical issues. C'est la vie. I wish I could give more details but I might say the wrong thing.

Tessa Jowell has said that the cost of the Olympics has not trebled to £9 billion. It has increased from £2 billion to £3 billion because of unforseen costs in the construction of the Olympic village. The other £6 billion is to be spent upon regeneration projects in London. Are these not associated with the Olympics? Should they not be included in the total cost figures? Would these areas have been regenerated regardless of the successfull Olympic bid? I smell another Millenium Dome. And that logo is ugly.

In other news the chain of Track records stores is to close. This is a crying shame because track records was all about music and variety; they never gave 50% of their stores over to DVDs like HMV and Virgin and cut down the music range to high volume items like Coldplay and the Kaiser chiefs. HMV is in financial trouble too. Of course, the internet will be blamed which is just crap. If HMV continued to sell things that people could not get on torrent sites then people might be more inclined to continue shopping there. Take this weekend. I was shopping for the 'I Am Kurious Oranj' album by The Fall and the Trojan Records Dub box set. I could find neither item in one of the largest shopping malls in the country. I could find crappy reggae compilations and overpriced Fall boxed sets but not the particular items I wanted. The space was taken up by piles of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Batman Begins DVDs.

The Fall - Mr. Pharmacist

I'm away doing an experiment at the moment. I'll post from the front line when we get up and running and try and give you a flavour of what scientific research is like. In the meantime, please enjoy mark e. smith singing his mr. pharmacist song which is reyt good.

Final Approval?

radiohead starts up again having finally caught up on some sleep next week
i have a cd of what we;'ve been up to...
and you haven't.
yet.
(sorry)

i must listen to it, after taking an ear break
that always makes me nervous
hope you're well

yours

Thom

Seventh Radiohead Album

Radiohead have announced that they have started mixing their new album. This is very exciting news. The last album came in 2003 and was the last in a cycle of 3 post OK Computer albums that had a very similar sound and aura. There has been a lot of speculation about how LP7 will sound. Will it mark a radical new direction with large-scale orchestration, will it be more computer effects and beats or will it be three minute rock songs? The band have been tight lipped and so far there have been no leaks of unmixed tracks. Likely new songs can be found on fansites like atease and greenplastic and mp3's of live versions of works in progress can be found on finefinemusic. Plank, the bands very down to earth guitar/instrument tech and general fixer has a lovely little blog which is very tight lipped about the band but very informative and good fun.

The band have been cryptically keeping fans up to date via their Dead Air Space blog which contains a Hodiau Direkton section (Japanese; 'todays direction') where the new ideas for the artwork are previewed. All the stuff to date can be found collected on this fan blog. As for a release date? Who knows. The band have no record contract so that could delay things. And a title? No idea. Probably something seemingly random with a cute hidden meaning as usual. 'Down Is The New Up' is a possible but this is a song name so.. And touring? Earns the band loads of cash and breathes new life into the songs that are on record (the Kid A stuff sounds just as good live even though entirely different). But... Thom is a Friends Of The Earth frontman and has been heavily criticised for his carbon debt from the massively polluting tours the band do.

Uplifting Songs

Scott Walker - On Your Own Again
Sibelius - Karelia Suite (Intermezzo)
Talking Heads - Heaven (Stop Making Sense version)
The Velvet Underground - I'll be your mirror
Dave & Ansel Collins - Double Barrel (This one gets a special *)
The Smiths - There is a light that never goes out
Radiohead - Lucky
R.E.M. - Electrolite
The Beta Band - Dry The Rain
The Beatles - Every Little Thing
Blur - Tender
The Delgados - No Danger
Keane - Bedshaped
Strauss - The Blue Danube
Philip Glass - The Grid

I know there are many more. Let me know what you think!

The Beta Band and Arcade Fire

The Beta Band were a great little band these past few years. 'Dry The Rain' is one of the most uplifting songs ever and Hot Shots II was a superb album in places and could have gone through the stratosphere. But it didn't quite have that anthemic zeitgeist enveloping quality. Eventually, mental illness and poverty broke the band up. Shame. Now the band have partially reformed as The Aliens and a new album is out


I had a listen and sorry guys but, meh. It's nothing special. God bless you for trying but as a commercial venture you stand alongside Gomez and the Super Furry Animals. A decent band at times but there are surer ways for the record buying public to Get Their Ya Ya's off.

At the moment The Arcade Fire are electioneering trying to shift copies of their new album Neon Bible. They are a decent band who put music first. The lead singer is an American rich kid who is married to the main instrumentalist in the band. Alas, every time he opens his mouth in interviews he comes across as a complete t***er. He tries to be appeal to some mystical wistfull ideal of the musician. The article in the Observer Music Monthly is not very flattering in this respect. What is funny is that the article is trying to build up his mystique. But, being written by the worst music journalist ever, Pretentious Paul Morley, the article could never succeed. This guy really is a drivel merchant. In the past he has attached himself to Joy Division and New Order and the stuff he has written there makes me cringe. An example of his style, describing Lou Reed watching Arcade Fire live;

'For song after song the infinitely impassive Lou doesn't move a muscle. He doesn't even seem to blink. He never taps his feet or shakes his head, and when a song crashes to a glowing climax he doesn't applaud. Perhaps he's working out what the trick is, if it can save him from the grave.'

*Retches* And his paragraph description of the band

'The group came from nowhere, like they were born yesterday, sonic sweethearts, a scholarly post-punk gospel choir merrily identifying the menace of the world, and it was a surprise. How they sounded, how they looked, the throbbing innocence, the way they swapped roles and instruments, hugged each other, hit each other, broke for cover, jumped for joy and swore on the Bible, the way they sang their hearts out whether there was a microphone near them or not, the way that Win sang, like a soft-hearted iron man, with dashing, rustic serenity, as if he still believed rock music and songs had the power to change the world, to burn down to reality, as if they could obliterate darkness with light and fury'

*Dashes for the bathroom*

Tchaikovsky

In 1879 a large pro-slavic sentiment had built up in Russia after Turkish troops attacked and killed many innocent people in Serbia. A Red Cross benefit concert was arranged to help Russians who had volunteered to help in the resulting Serbo/Turkish war alongside their fellow Slavs. PT agreed to compose a piece for this. In it he referenced Serbian and Russian folk songs and anthems. It starts with a slow mournful marching rhythm which suggests a funeral procession which later becomes a war march as Russian and Serbian troops march to eke revenge. It is unclear how much of this was just hack work for PT, how strongly he felt about the issue and how much he relied on emotions from his personal life. He would only say that he felt the performance at the concert to be a great success.

Such nationalistic and vengeful concerns aside this is a great ten minute piece of work. In terms of orchestral music this would, at the time, have been pop music. In overall classical music terms it is heavy metal. It sits naturally alongside the 1812 Overture (which is even heavier since it contains cannon blasts). Much has been said (and not said) about the man and his work. Tchaikovsky afficionados tend to see these two pieces as too overt and vulgar. I find them exciting and I'm not prepared to be sniffy about the bombast, bluster and bravado. If PT was playing to the crowd then so what, it works. Here is an out of copyright version, for those interested.

Microsoft vs The Beatles

I have nothing against Microsoft (MS) as a software company. Windows works. It has flaws; over rigidity, security vulnerablities and instabilities but the typical PC user finds the interface with their hardware quick and easy. Linux does not offer the same level of support to its users. A Linux installation can take weeks to finalise. In the past I have been plagued by problems with such basics as getting my computer to play sound and obtaining drivers for my broadband modem.

I do object to the business practices of MS. The consumer did not choose Windows, because it is bundled with all new PCs. The situation is akin to that of a person baptised as an infant and raised as a Christian; all of this was decided for them without their consent. After decades of Windows ubiquity anyone who considers heresy must repel years of familiarity, habit and dogma.

A recent example is the smear campaign of The Beatles begun by MS. The Beatles back catalogue is to be made available online via software from Apple. Such a lucrative contract for the only significant commercial rival to MS has prompted them to lash out. Cue an article on the MS network website. It suggests that The Beatles are not above criticism and that there are deficits in some of their output and their personal behaviour. Fair enough. The article also suggests that The Beatles were not innovators and merely followed the tide. The Beatles have admitted that they borrowed mercilessly and there is no shame in this because 99.99% of all art works in this way. But The Beatles did innovate and lead the way at certain points. The article says that The Beatles were slow to emerge from psychedelia and that the song 'Get Back' marks their return to straight rock, hence the name. Wrong. The title of 'Get Back' reflected the desire of Paul to resume live performance. The real get back record was 'Lady Madonna' recorded in early 1968 before The Beatles went to India, a full year before 'Get Back'. The Beatles abandoned psychedelia at its peak and were one of the first mainstream groups to get back.

Factual innaccuracy renders any just criticism in the MS network article into a smear campaign penned by a lazy journalist with a hidden commercial agenda. Perhaps MS can explain on their mouthpiece website why MS Vista costs twice as much in Britain as in the US. Bill Gates gave a non answer the other day. The real reason is that the British consumer has been exploited by high prices for many years. The British economy is founded upon the idea that its own health is more important than that of the individual. This sort of ideology, in which the state is deemed more important than the individual is inherently totalitarian. Consumer debt is caused by excessive prices in all sectors. The banks then move in and pick the bones of the carcass by charging overdraft and credit card fees. Of course, the consumer has choice - no one forces the consumer to pay these prices. Yeah right. And billion dollar ad campaigns don't work in convincing people that they need this product and will fall behind and face social exclusion if they don't get it.

The White Album: A Doll's House

My favourite Beatles album is The Beatles which is also known as The White Album. The best book about the band is Revolution In The Head by the music journalist Ian MacDonald, who is now dead and sorely missed (he also wrote the brilliant and influential The New Shostakovich). MacDonald had a gift for finding fresh insights whilst travelling well trodden paths and instead of my waffle about The Beatles here is an excerpt from Revolution In The Head that gives a summary of the artistic ambience of the The White Album;

"With it's thirty varied and variable tracks, The Beatles is a sprawling affair reflecting the group's post-Epstein indifference to corporate concerns. That it hangs together as well as it does is a tribute to the sequencing skills of Lennon, McCartney, and George Martin, who worked out the running order in a continuous 24-hour effort on 16th-17th October 1968 (The Beatles' longest single session). With it's mood contrasts, cunning key-sequences, and clever segues, this 95-minute double-album is a masterpiece of programming. Mere expert presentation, however, cannot hide the fact that half the tracks on it are poor by earlier standards, or that many of it's lyrics are little more than the lazy navel-gazing of pampered recluses.

Before the Leicester group Family issued their debut LP Music in a Doll's House in August 1968, The Beatles had been planning to call their work A Doll's House (supposedly after Ibsen). The clash was unfortunate since this was an apt title for this musical attic of odds and ends, some charming, others sinister, many tinged with childhood memories, all absorbed in the interior worlds of their authors. There is a secret unease in this music, betraying the turmoil beneath the group's business-as-usual facade. Shadows lengthen over the album as it progresses: the long slow afternoon of The Beatles' career. Sadly, none of this is captured in Richard Hamilton's modishly empty sleeve-design. One can only assume that this is because he wasn't able to hear the music before setting to work, since it's crepuscular quality is so tangible. Certainly no other product of the noon-bright idiom of Sixties pop offers as many associations of guardeed privacy and locked rooms, or concludes in such disturbing dreamlike darkness."

Thom Yorke celebrity iTunes playlist

Thom Yorke of Radiohead has just put his celebrity playlist on iTunes US.

I wonder how Thom has justified this to himself. He has criticised
iTunes and Apple in the past. iTunes is expensive (per track; 40p Canada, 50p US, 70p Europe, 80p UK) and the user doesn't even own what they pay for; they just buy the right to play it on their iPod. I hope it wasn't any financial incentive that swayed Thom. We know he likes shopping and he has kiddies to feed. Or maybe he likes the celebrity tag. Or maybe he likes to simultaneously criticise big business and massively profit off it. Thom has endorsed the Friends of the Earth Big Ask campaign for everyone to do their bit to reduce carbon emissions. At the same time his touring with the band has generated a HUGE carbon footprint. It's doublespeak/hypocrisy.

Whatever. Thom has always had mostly poor taste in music (as even the other bandmembers admit). Contrast this playlist with that of the reggae album Jonny has compiled for Trojan records which I'm very excited about. Or Jonny's growing reputation as a composer and the type of music they associated with him on the Radio 3 program late junction the other night. That program was a joy.

Thees Thom/iTunes beezness, ees not right Stimpy.

In Limbo

I suppose I'd better tell you a bit about me and what will be posted here. The content is easy; whatever I'm mentally chewing on will probably be spit out onto this page (so expect posts in the small hours when I can't sleep). It should be a Physics related blog since that's what I do for a living. Don't let that put you off; I'm hoping to give you a flavour of what it's like to work in scientific research (good and bad) and to provide an accessible slant on science stories in the media (especially when science gets distorted or misreported). There will be other posts about major events in my life and other things like grumbles about the bus companies and the local government.

I submitted my PhD thesis in December 2006 and I now have to find a J.O.B. (Jading fulfillment of Obligations to the Bank) to pay off my bills. A PhD takes at least 3 years to do and the thesis takes 3 months to write but I only get paid for 3 years. Some people have spent 4 years in total on their PhD and only got paid for 3. Luckily I have an understanding partner but I know that it has caused deep stress for many people. To top it off the University of York has now introduced a charge of £200 for anyone who does not hand in a thesis in under 3 years 3 months. Scandal.

So I need a job and I have interviews to go to but not for a few weeks. I have to sit at home with no money while my partner goes to work and gets tired. I'm in limbo. The nether world. Music should help. An excerpt from 'Lull' by Radiohead

Distracted by irrelevence
The stress and the tension
I'm in a lull
There's nothin' more dull
than talkin', talkin' 'bout yourself

Or from the track 'In Limbo'

I'm lost at sea
Don't bother me
I've lost my way
You're living in a fantasy world

I should chill out and make the most of it because soon I will need to quote The Smiths 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'

I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour
But heaven knows I'm miserable now
I was looking for a job, and then I found a job
And heaven knows I'm miserable now