A Week of Obsessions

My use of magical music infinito-software Spotify has started to change (evolve? devolve? I'm unsure) recently. I remember my confusion, upon initially downloading Spotify, at the sheer wall of music that lay before me, bigger and growing faster than it would ever be possible to listen to. A joyful confusion, to be sure, but nihilistic in its revelation of my ultimate insignifance.

So I used it as a Kate Bush listening-machine.

After a while, I discovered playlists. I could allow other people to whittle down this impossible amount of music. With this confidence, I discovered Spotify as a request-granting immediate-gratification social DJing tool.ut, finally, its true purpose has been revealed: Spotify is the replacement for the role the NME; MTV2; MySpace and various blogs have served throughout my life. The discovery feed. Without much commitment, I can hear pretty much anything- all I need to know is the name. (Which remains, of course, the big difficulty in discovering music.)

There's a much longer post in me on the nature of discovering music, and the drive behind that so, with no further ado, I recommend the accompanying playlist to Pitchfork's Top 500 songs of the 21st Century list. And three songs, two that I've listened to on repeat and one that inspired me enough to write this post.

El-P - Stepfather Factory
I am constantly torn by my love of hip-hop. It's very limited, to certain acts and specific song and then, I know it all feeds one emotion- this male, chest-beating aggression thing. I know it can be a pretty harmful genre, socially. It's irresponsible.
Then I hear this and it's genuinely terrifying in the way some of OK Computer was when I first heard it. The nearest comparison I can draw, soundwise, is I Can Ride A Bike With No Handlebars, if you remember that. The ultimate disenfranchised attack on American values, corporations, the family unit... It'd be mockably, teenage-ly, broad if not for its genius idea- the titular Stepfather Factory. And then it bends some of the sounds just right and it's threatening and depressing and a call to arms.

The Honeydrips - (Lack of) Love Will Tear Us Apart
I haven't actually listened to this much yet, but I can spot an obsession when it's coming. Distant, airy female vocals, clever-clever title, and a beat that sounds like a stretched-out combination of '90s dance and Christmas jingles. It's a bit of a pity there has to be a male (pseudo-rapping) voice on the track at all, but it only lasts about 10 seconds.

Antony & The Johnsons - Hope There's Someone
This is the big one, the most obsessed I've been with a song in months, possibly longer. When he won the Mercury prize from pretty much nowhere in 2005? and got hit by the NME hype-train, I made the mistake of scoffing. I was young and didn't know better. A musing on loneliness? Sexuality? Death? All of the above? It really doesn't matter- the strange wavering voice is genuinely touching and actually oddly catchy... I'm trying hard not to fall into my normal journalistic mode of description here. Suffice to say, if you like any kind of emotion in your music, you owe it to yourself to listen to this song. Three listens should give it the time to embed itself in your soul.

Sometimes, it's enough to just be the guy that tells people about nice songs.

"How I'd Love To Feel A Girl Your Age..."

I can't believe I've never written about Phonogram before.* In short, a comic about how music is magic, with a playlist of Kenickie, The Smiths and, relevantly, the Long Blondes. You can perhaps see why I like it. The latest issue, Lust Etc, finally inspired me to put finger to keyboard and produce this, a review.

"It’s hardly a criticism to say a comic left you wanting more, but given that Phonogram mk2 was always going to be my favourite/most important comic of ‘09, there’s something almost infuriating about the tiny 16 page stories told in the pages of The Singles Club. Almost. Each vignette falls very comfortably into the realms of small-but-perfectly-formed, and every time my (musical) worldview is subtly changed, and every time I find myself thinking ‘I wish I’d thought of that’. But there’s just not enough time to invest myself in these characters."

To watch me stumble through pain and praise, in both plain and purple prose, check the review out here. As usual, I can't resist taking the less obvious path, and wander into wider commentary and theory on music, comics and my huge man-crush on Kieron Gillen.

*Journalistically, anyway. Some corner of my dissertation will be forever Phonogram's.

Like an evil twin...

Welcome to the bi-weekly comeback.

I'm posting this from my once-broken laptop. Damn it's good to have my baby back. As usual, been busy editing the hell out of Britain's best-looking student paper Redbrick. Still, I've had time to write up a fair few things, and now the time has come...to link to them!First up, my visit to Eurogamer Expo '09 bears further fruit. I equally gush and rant about my look at forthcoming 360 sneaky-shooty-game Splinter Cell Conviction. I'm getting the hang of this preview business...

"After a very smooth opening cutscene, showing Sam Fisher interrogating some generic evil-doer by smashing his face into urinals as information gained was projected on the wallls, Fisher runs out into a civilian-packed street. Pulling his gun out causes a panic, people running away and shouting, allowing Fisher in a very Assassin’s Creed-esque moment to slip amongst them unnoticed by guards. The game might have gone “back to the drawing board” a year or so ago, but its certainly kept the initial mission statement, a game about hiding in plain sight."

Spot the internal battle raging, to stop me just constantly repeating the word 'smooth' throughout. Read the rest here.

Second, a (late, as usual) return to the Moneyless Gamer feature for Gamersyndrome.com. With slightly less immediate enthusiasm than my usual posts, I basically link to experimental weird-out game . The post is probably the most normal thing I've ever written, but I'm trying a bit of an experiment (to match the game). Hint: There's more to come...

"Less a game than a mass experiment, Dungeon is nevertheless worth playing. I'm a bit afraid I don't have the necessary reach here to get discussion rolling the way the game really needs, but there's no way I can't talk about it. Created by Swedish one-man prolific indie-game machine Jonathan Söderström (aka Cactus)."

If you play it (and I heartily endorse giving it a go), please, post on the article and tell me what you thought of it. Here.
Meanwhile, in my other life: The Redbrick Top 40 best albums of the 21st Century (that's right, the whole damn' millenium.) It's starting to get really interesting, as all the classic choices pop up. I've even written a few entries for it. Start here, and you should be able to click through to where we are now (#'s 20-16 should be going up in the next day or so).
Alternatively, you can pick your starting point by going here.

I've also argued out the Hot(ish) Topic of band reunions with my co-ed Erica Anne Vernon. She likes 'em, I think they're a force for evil. FIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!

This post carved out of the very flesh of its brother.

What I Did With My Weekend...

I've been away awhile but I'm b-b-BACK. Don't call it a comeback.

In that time, I've battled a broken laptop, edited the hell out of a few issues of Britain's hottest* student paper Redbrick, and attended a games-expo. It's been a pretty fun time. Somehow, during all that, I found the time to write up a coupla articles for y'all.First up, it's a (late) return to the Moneyless Gamer feature for the lovely yet-MMO-keen people at Gamersyndrome.com. I talk about joyous crayoned-in speed-platformer, Runman, and just why YOU should play it. Because it's the best, that's why.

"Level names like ‘The Awesome Zone’ reveal exactly what the game is about (apart from having a genuinely funny and warm personality): making you feel damn awesome. The very best sugar-rush speed moments match that of the Burnout games, and as your little yellow mascot cheers encouragement (WOO! OH SNAP!), you’re going to have to smile along with him."

Click here and you can be awesome too.

Second, the fruits of my visit to Eurogamer Expo '09 begin to flower. I write about the PS3's next-big-thing, point&click thriller Heavy Rain.

"The comparison to film is important- Heavy Rain is gaming's equivalent to the thriller. Obviously so; it wears the trappings of a Se7en or Usual Suspects, but more importantly it captures the central feel of them- the thrill. Until now, games have looked like a thriller- see Condemned for a game example- but they've never played like a thriller- Condemned had dark moody atmosphere and the occasional jump, but it was more akin to a survival horror than a true thriller."

Yup, it's one a' them there revolutionary games**. Do I crown it gaming's Citizen Kane, or noble failed experiment? There's only one way to find out.

Finally, I haven't technically written anything for it yet (I'm the curator), but we've got a Redbrick countdown going on, of the 40 best albums of this whole millenium. Where the hell is your favourite? Good question: check it out/complain here.

*By hottest I mean most-attractivest. Obv.

**There's a beautiful video of what the game is capable of (or more excitingly, was capable of in 2006) here.

I'm So Proud of It, I Put (the back of) My Face On It!

A new thing for our good friends Gamersyndrome: this time the start of (what I hope will be) a beautiful new feature: THE MONEYLESS GAMER. Basically, I have taken the realisation that I'm someone with very little money to buy games and spun this into (what I hope will be) a good thing. Flash games, demos, deals, everything. All in one handy corner, with lengthy discourse attached.

For #001 I do Time Fcuk. Example quote:

"It takes the head-against-wall element of trying to grasp at the logic of a puzzle game and makes its key motif. Where Braid used this brain-crunching confusion to hint at a higher meaning, here it is transformed into a masochistic and – not unlike, say, the game version of certain Nine Inch Nails songs."

It's... well, it's better if you play it, really. That Edmund McMillen knows how to mess with people.