Made a mix for a friend of mine. Impetus was us mutually rocking out to World Looking In in Starbucks, of all places. I'd forgotten how much I like this girl's voice and how much of an emotional/bodily reaction these songs give me. So here's the track list and a few comments.
Becky's Morcheeba Mix
Rome Wasn't Built in a Day
World Looking In
The Sea (slow download)
Good Girl Down
Be Yourself
Love is Rare
Friction
Let It Go
Public Displays of Affection
Trigger Hippie
Fragments of Freedom
Blindfold
Shoulder Holster (speedy download)
Part of the Process
Fear and Love
Over and Over (also swift)
Morcheeba is a British group consisting of brothers Ross & Paul Godfrey and lead singer, Skye. They share similarities with Massive Attack, early Metric, Beck, Tricky, Moloko, and to a lesser degree groups like Faithless and Apollo Four Forty.
Elements that can be labeled as trip/hip-hop, lounge, disco. Sometimes featuring rappers, and reggae/dub overtones. Significant use of horns and acoustic strings. Mix work, beats, and synth support everything and are always superb, tho sometimes distracting. Songs have a variety of 'sounds' within each track, nearly orchestral in their clarity and choreography, often starting slow and building towards a climax before dropping down into a relaxed finish.
These guys are all over the map. There's harmonizing. There're flutes and saxophone. There're big, crunchy, electronic bass beats. There are also pyschedelic, poetic, and vivid lyrics. Keywords to search for: Brooklyn, post-punk, doo wop, electronica, singers who can really sing. I was most surprised by their a cappella/gospel cover of the Pixies song "Mr. Greives." They're currently touring with Franz Ferdinand. Didn't get to see 'em myself, but had a date (with good taste) who said, "Oh, yeah, those guys were good."
Favorite songs:
Staring At The Sun
Mr. Greives
Young Liars
Sattellite
(link to last three songs and some others, behind a 'free trial' registration, so I can't vouch beyond that)
oh, goody! an unreleased song: Dry Drunk Emporer
TV on the Radio
blogorythm
-- Ed. Note: Sorry for the gap, kids. Had a wild weekend in Mexico and the good doctor got drunk under the table by the cutie who took him home.--
I totally fuckin' agree.
"Has it ever occurred to you that you just smash your wine glass and jump at someone, grab the top of their head and put it in their carotid artery and ask anything?" Senator Vanstone told her audience of about 100 Rotarians. "And believe me, you will have their attention."
and, even better
"I asked him if I was able to get on a plane with an HB pencil, which you are able to, and I further asked him if I . . . came and grabbed him by the front of the head and stabbed the HB pencil into your eyeball and wiggled it around down to your brain area, do you think you'd be focusing?"
via BoingBoing, posted by Cory who you should read about below.
This guy is really cool. And not in that traditional, 'the Fonz' kinda way, but in the independent, orginal, and creative thinker way.
Cory Doctorow has an abiding sense of anomie and what it means to be an outsider in this wildly interconnected world. He's written a few novels, a number of stories and even some non-fiction. He gives access to most of his work gratis on his website. I think my favorite concept from his work is "whuffie," which are the reputation points that replace money once society reaches the ubiquitous computing stage. The great thing is that this system allows you to 'earn' a living just by doing really cool and creative things.
I suggest starting with A Place So Foreign, some recent short stories, or with Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, his first novel. Diehard fantasy geeks may prefer Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves Town, but I've still got mixed feelings about its value in the Doctorow bibliography.
He's also one of the five or so people who update BoingBoing. Then there's his work/advocacy for the Electronic Freedom Foundation (who help bloggers, Myspace.com users, and those who've purchased Sony cd's). If you're a Second Life player/member you can usually catch him doing in-world interviews whenever he's releasing something new. And I totally forgot to mention his podcasts of short stories he's written/writing.
Also, if you find yourself really diggin' on Down & Out or EST, then you should check out Accelerando by Charles Stross.
Damn! that's all I can say. Iran musta been pretty scary back in ye ole ancient days, what with hundred foot monsters runnin' this way and that. Note the human circled in red. The site for this photo is here.
Caveat Emptor
(via Cynical C)
Ever read Plato's Republic? Did you hate it, too? The Socratic Method, especially in written form can be horrible. Ishmael is written in the same style (albeit with modern english), and its the opposite of horrible. A few facts, lots of logic, some very canny armchair metaphors, and a gentle sense of the absurd run throughout this book. Did you ever try and figure out what's wrong with the world? Why everything just seems a little fake? This is deeper than capitalism or communism, deeper than democracy or monarchy, and deeper than church vs. synagogue vs. mosque. Everyone should read this book. Oh yeah, it's opening features this classified ad:
TEACHER seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person.
Said teacher is a telepathic mountain gorilla.
We have proof that little people existed! National Geographic sez so. Check it out, these little guys stood about three feet tall, they used tools, they had fire, and they had complex social groups. And their brains were only 1/3 the size of ours. Makes you wonder what we missed out on doesn't it? Look at where Nat'l. Geo. puts these guys on the evolutionary chart.
Damn. I found this thing an hour after I wrote the inaugural post. I've spent the remaining time cramming my head with every single story on Farley's website. Biting and ironic sense of humor. Drug references galore. Hippies and social justice. Skewering the dominant paradigm, especially this story, which I do think Billy G would approve of, or at least chuckle at in the least mocking tone he could muster. Farley deserves muchos !oi! points in the areas of style, layout, invention, and humor. Go read this.
What do the word cyberspace, the band named Straylight Run, and space-dwelling Rastafarians have in common? Neuromancer. Published in '84, this is THE cyberpunk novel in my mind. Its value is not in its archetype, but in the ability to blindside the reader and its extrapolation of concepts & scenarios which are still current today. There are two things that any writing about Neuromancer must mention: it's the origin of the word 'cyberspace,' and it's a science fiction novel that was written on a typewriter. Unfortunately these breathless reviews and retrospectives have hyped the novel out of its natural proportion. Gibson is a little irritated with the typewriter thing. He points out that everything was written on one in those days, it was pre-PC. Which may explain why the novel is so compeling today, it's not shackeld with an indoctrinated, pre-visualized version of technology. Whatever the reason, it's an awesome read. The imagrey Gibson uses and the depth of the world it shows are really what make the book. Who would seriously envision a cludged together orbital habitat full of dub-listening, ganjafied Rastafarians? It was a watershed for my 14 year-old brain when I read it and it must have gotten some other people, too, if a band would use one of the four section titles as their name. You should enjoy this even if you're old and jaded.
