Thought I'd take the time to sit and recommend some albums that you lovely people might like to listen to from each "Genre".
Electronica
Massive Attack - Mezzanine - 1998
The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die - 2009
Innerpartysystem - Innerpartysystem - 2008
Prog Rock
Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream - 1999
Porcupine Tree - Lightbulb Sun - 2000
Riverside - Rapid Eye Movement - 2007
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here - 1975
Rock
Good Charlotte - Good Morning Revival - 2007
The Killers - Sam's Town - 2006
Linkin Park - Reanimation - 2002
Mew - Frengers - 2003
Placebo - Meds - 2006
Muse - The Resistance - 2009
Steven Wilson - Insurgentes - 2008/2009
U2 - No Line On The Horizon - 2009
Heavy Rock
Rammstein - Reise Reise - 2004
Apocalyptica - Worlds Collide - 2007
30 Seconds To Mars - A Beautiful Lie - 2005
Enter Shikari - Take To The Skies - 2007
Indie/Pop
Liam Frost - Show Me How The Spectres Dance - 2006
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns - 2008
Blur - 13 - 1999
Athlete - Beyond The Neighbourhood - 2007
Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends - 2008
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid - 2008
Elbow - Leaders Of The Free World - 2005
Thirteen Senses - The Invitation - 2004
Other
Jonsi & Alex - Riceboy Sleeps - 2009 - Ambient
Sigur Ros - Takk... - 2005 - (Technically) Post-Rock
Sigur Ros - () - 2002 - Same as Above
Fort Minor - The Rising Tied - 2005 - Rock/Rap
Eminem - The Eminem Show - 2002 - Rap
Gorillaz - Demon Days - 2005 - Post-Rock
Amiina - Kurr - 2007 - Ambient
And there we have it, only a few albums there (34) that should keep people going for a while.
Also Song of the Week is:-
Porcupine Tree - Drawing The Line
iTMS - Spotify
That's all for now, I promise I'll get the Muse review out onto the 'net as soon as possible, probably tomorrow.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Monday, 5 October 2009
The Geek(-Boy) Of The Ding(ram) : The Two Posts
Well here it is, my second blog entry, and the first “Proper” entry! During this post I will be explaining the format to which I will attempt to follow throughout the duration of my blog. This time on Geek-Boy @ Blogspot. I will devote a majority of the two posts to Reviews, both elaborating on the review scoring, reviewing 1 album (With 1 still to come). Please remember that these reviews are my own opinions and are not skewed for my own personal gain (Though I could be swayed Mr/Mrs Record Label :-D).
Format & Frequency
In terms of format and frequency, I have decided to have neither. I will attempt to post most weeks, even if it does just end up being one of the forthcoming “Regular Features”, most of which will require input from me. I will also be attempting a sort of quiz/fun-game type thing...how well this works is dependant on two factors – 1) My ability to ask good questions and update when I say I will. 2) Input from you, my audience, for without your input there will be no point in doing this sort of stuff – I'm hoping that some people seize the opportunity to show off/ridicule me for my lack of knowledge (or a combination of both) and I can get this sort of thing going on a regular basis, and inevitably come up with a type of rewards system on my website (When I get around to finally making it).
Regular Features
Certain “Features” will be more regular than others, this will be pretty much “X of the Week/Month” probably including Single (or song), album, game, film, iPod/iPhone App, website (:S) etc. This type of thing is more so that I can attempt to brainwash everyone into liking the same sort of music/games/films etc. Of course making a welcome return is the highly regarded “Fan of the Month” which will be decided on the last day of every month, and awarded to the person who I think has made the greatest contribution to the blog over the last 31/30/29/28 days, they will be immortalised on their own personal post with a photo of themselves (stolen from Facebook or Myspace) and a little golden trophy jpeg which I will need to either redesign or just use as it is.
I have also decided that rather than post everything in one big block of text I will use one of the basic, yet oh-so-useful, tools provided by the nice Google people... “Categories”. These will be assigned as required, for now I can only see about 5 categories (Reviews; Rants; Work; Leisure; Fan of the Month) and as you will expect some of those may interloop (mainly Rants and Work). I'm thinking about splitting “Reviews” into 3 to have VG Reviews, Music Reviews and Film Reviews, but I'm not sure whether I could bring myself to write that many reviews...so we'll see how it goes.
Reviews
In terms of the Reviews themselves (Only Music so far) I will write a brief little bio on the artist (as it's likely you won't have heard of most of them) then an analysis of the album itself, though how long this will be I have yet to decide (First draft review of The Incident took up two A4 pages). The analysis will be followed by a conclusion (Look at mah engleesh skillz!!) and then finally the scores. For the scores albums will be given a mark out of 10 for each of the following:-
Writing
Flow Of The Album
Originality
Overall Sound
For a total score of 40 (rather like Famitsu). Which will then be given a “Grade” like that of a exam paper split as shown below (Yes I have slightly ripped off the GCSE mark scheme, so what?).
36 + = S
31 - 35 = A
26 – 30 = B
21 – 25 = C
16 – 20 = D
11 – 15 = E
6 – 10 = F
1 – 5 = G
0 = U
I am also toying with the idea of removing a point for each “Dud” on the album (Any song which seems out of place or is just plain bad.), also I might start deducting points for the genre being listed as “Alternative & Punk” on iTunes (though admittedly this is iTunes + the record labels fault) because Alternative Rock and Punk Rock are two completely different classifications (Seriously it's like me using a “Teen-Pop & Metal” classification) and should never be crossed (even if they “are” then that itself is “Post Rock”). Let me know what you think, and I'll tell you whether your opinion means anything.
As I have discovered the wonders of Spotify I will now be able to do requests for reviews (As long as the album is on Spotify) which I will gladly do as long as it isn't you guys forcing me to listen to some drivel that no one in their right mind would listen to...trust me, I'll be able to tell...
The review this time is in a separate post BELOW this one, alternatively click on the Reviews link to be shown all of the reviews (which at the moment is only 1).
Song of the Week
With the Song of the Week (hereafter referred to as SotW) I will tell you the one song which I believe I have listened to the most that week, sometimes aided by Last.fm, along with two links, one to the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) and one to the Spotify Application (Spot) for the song listed (If they are available) I ask you to listen to the song (even if it's just the iTunes 20 second preview) for I think that most people will like the songs which I post (as usual there will be a few exceptions to that). I would also appreciate it if you could give me some feedback on the songs for future reference.
Also Song of the Week this week is:-
Biffy Clyro – That Golden Rule
Feedback
And thus we come to the most important part of this post, the section where I beg you to post comments I ask you to post your views/analysis and the like. Doing so will provide a huge incentive for me to continue, even if it is criticism. If you do not know already you can sign into Blogspot using your basic GoogleMail account (If you don't have a GM account then I urge you to get one, even if just for the customisable Google Homepage w/RSS feeds.) and I'm sure you can just post like that, although you might have to sign up for Blogspot, don't really know. I'll find out and let you guys know anyway.
And that, aside from the review posted below, is a wrap. I hope you've enjoyed reading what will be the first of many posts on Geek-Boy @ Blogspot and I trust that you will appreciate all the time and effort that I have put into this first (technically 3rd) entry. Please do read the review below and take the time to at least listen to a bit of the album. I'll try to write up and post my review of The Resistance soon. Thanks for reading and good night.
Geek-Boy
Review : Porcupine Tree - The Incident
Not many of you will have heard of Porcupine Tree (Shame on you!!) unless you vaguely remember me mentioning them, or have seen one of their videos on Scuzz/Kerrang or the like. Porcupine Tree are a Progressive Rock band based in Hemel Hempstead (Just up the road from here) and are fronted by musical genius and workaholic Steven Wilson. He has 6 projects for which he is currently writing and recording songs with – Porcupine Tree; Blackfield; No-Man; IEM; Bass Communion; & his Solo Project – and he is mixing the King Crimson back catalogue in 5.1 for future release. Now Steven Wilson's previous album (Solo project “Insurgentes”) was my Album of the Year for 2008, and Fear Of A Blank Planet (Porcupine Tree album number 9) and it's accompanying EP Nil Recurring I believe were my Album of the Year for 2007 (I think...), so it's safe to say that The Incident has a lot to live up to.
Before I indulge in talking about the music I believe I should explain a bit about the album format, The Incident in itself probably, to the uneducated eye (/ear), is the definition of Prog Rock... A single 55 minute song (albeit divided into 14 track names) on one disk and 4 further tracks on the second (acting like FOABP and Nil Recurring in a way).
This format however shouldn't deter you from giving The Incident a listen. While the album is best when listened to, in it's entirety, without any interruptions it is possible to pick out a few choice tracks if should the need arrive.
The first disk of The Incident is a tremendous piece of music, with a vast musical and lyrical variety throughout the entire piece. Drawing The Line is a fantastic section 10 minutes in which has SW rhythmically chanting the lyrics “I'm drawing the line” (among others) with such emotion that it's difficult not to be moved, even without realising the lyrics are about self-harm.
The title track The Incident delivers a swift change of tempo and style, deeper and broodier than earlier stuff, and with lyrics talking about the feeling of separation when experiencing a car crash.
The follow-up track Your Unpleasant Family is a fairly entertaining track lyrically, due to the lines “Your unpleasant family, Smashed up my car (Perfectly uncalled for)”, and also succeeds in reversing what the previous track did by upping the speed and treating us to a delightful guitar solo.
Time Flies opens with the line “I was born in '67, the year of Sergeant Pepper and Are You Experienced” and listening to this album you would think that The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix have had very little influence on PT's musical/lyrical style at all. The band would have been better off to try and fit The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (also released in '67) into the opening line, because Pink Floyd have much more in common with PT than either The Beatles or Hendrix. In fact The Incident sounds vaguely similar to Animals Floyd's 1977 album (precursor to The Wall). This track is bookended by two fantastic guitar riffs which would make Hendrix proud and the borderline psychedelic rock which links the two wouldn't be out of place on Sgt. Pepper.
The final track in the song cycle, I Drive The Hearse, is a rather fitting ending to the piece. Quiet, emotional, epic. My words don't do it justice, if you are to listen to one section of this album then listen to this track.
The four songs on the second CD are more like what I have come to expect from Porcupine Tree, Flicker and Remember Me Lover are the two tracks of note on this CD (Although Black Dahlia and Bonnie The Cat are excellent tracks). Flicker is an observational song about the fact that there is only a “flicker” of light left to come from the sun (in comparison with the rest of its existence). Remember Me Lover is an immense and heavy track, with lyrics about a relationship gone sour and the harsh line “And this too, I hated you, I wish you learn to keep your mouth shut .”. Ouch.
In conclusion this album is perhaps the best album Porcupine Tree (and maybe even Steven Wilson) have ever made, the way that all of the tracks ebb and flow and interconnect despite being so different is genius. To really benefit from the mix of the album you need to listen to the CD version, if not then a 256kbps rip of it, there are so many subtle yet important tweaks that you will miss if you do otherwise. So now onto the scoring.
Writing – 10 –
Lyrics are fantastic and meaningful all the way through the duration of the album, and never falter.
Flow Of The Album – 10 –
The song cycle flows fantastically from start to finish, and listening with the four other tracks, you might not even notice that they're not a part of the piece.
Originality – 7 –
The album format is very original for Porcupine Tree, some of the music however is not, I occasionally thought to myself “Hey, this sounds sort of like (enter track name here) from (enter PT album here)”
Overall Sound – 9 –
The overall sound of the album is great, I do have a minor grievance with the fact that it's not as heavy as the previous album was, which is what was so great about Blank Planet.
(~S~)
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