As any fule kno, I am massively fanatical about Autechre. All of their EPs from 1991 to 2002 are being reissued in a slick looking boxset format. In all, 11 EPs are being condensed into a resource-friendly five CDs.
I already own all of these EPs, with the exception of Cavity Job, which has never before had a CD release. So I can’t really justify spending the £30 on this box set for the sake of two new tracks.
But I think this would be an ideal purchase for any Autechre fans with more significant gaps in their collection of EPs. Apparently most of them have been out of print for a while now.
I have never been so disappointed to already own all these Autechre CDs!
Here is Gantz Graf, which is from the last of the EPs featured in this box set. I consider it to be among the finest four minutes of music I know of.
Discovering the music of Broadcast was an important step in the development of my taste in music. It remains one of my favourite bands. Trish Keenan’s singing mesmerised me. Broadcast’s retro-futuristic style appealed to my then-developing interest in experimental music.
Few people can have played a larger role in the development of the genre known as hauntology, the most interesting sound in electronic music today. Broadcast returned the favour with recent collaborations with the Ghost Box record label, the primary purveyors of the genre.
I was pretty excited when it was announced a few weeks ago that Pulp are getting back together to play some concerts next year. Pulp have been one of my favourite bands since I was nine years old. Yet I have never seen them live.
Many times my friends and I have discussed going to see one of Jarvis Cocker’s solo shows. But somehow it has never quite come together.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they will play in Scotland. Only three dates have been announced so far, all at pretty far-flung festivals.
Mind you, I’m not too sure about the way it is being marketed as being “all the original members of the band”. It might be the “classic” line-up that propelled the band to the height of its mid-1990s fame. But it is by no means the “original” line-up.
The band had several incarnations throughout the 1980s until success was reached. Jarvis Cocker is the only common element of them all, although the majority of the band was in place by the mid-1980s.
I was listening to some Pulp from this period the other day. It reminded me of this footage from a 1980s documentary about the Sheffield music scene. The footage is pretty grotty-looking, but it’s great to have this rather rare peek into the band’s early days. This is available on the ‘Hits’ DVD.
Clearly, they weren’t quite the finished product. Masses of loo roll is an interesting choice of stage decoration, and Jarvis Cocker himself does not yet have the commanding stage presence that made him famous.
The band themselves always warn against listening to their earlier material, preferring to think of the 1992 release of ‘OU’ as their year zero. However, I like all of their earlier albums.
Even though their earlier material rough around the edges, there is still a lot of great songwriting and the potential can be heard. Fascinating to listen to with the knowledge of how they turned out to become one of the biggest groups of the 1990s.
I have been really enjoying the new album by Squarepusher. I had feared the worst about the Shobaleader One project since I first read the Q&A.
It sounded suspiciously like Gorillaz on the cheap, complete with odd psuedo-humorous band member names. A low-budget Gorillaz would necessarily be a bad thing. But it seemed like an odd move for Squarepusher to make. And the music, while clearly the sound of Squarepusher, was shockingly immediate and borderline cheesy.
The one or two tracks that had been released as teasers for the album seemed good. But would a whole album that sounds like a proggy Daft Punk be bearable?
Amazingly, yes. I have immensely enjoyed listening to this album.
In a way, it is a logical next step for Squarepusher to take. Squarepusher has been pushing on with the fantasy-prog sound since his 2004 album, Ultravisitor. This album created a novel half-live, half-studio atmosphere. The follow-up, Hello Everything, dispensed with the live elements, but placed more emphasis on the multi-instrumental talents and a further step towards a futuro-prog sound.
Then came Just A Souvenir, introducing Squarepusher’s fantasy band concept. It was as much about the stories of what this incredible futuristic band could do on stage as about the music.
Shobaleader One and d’Demonstrator appear to take the fantasy band concept and turn it into reality. Squarepusher is promising more Shobaleader One material, and live shows too. Despite my initial doubts, I’m looking forward to seeing what is coming next in the incredible development of Squarepusher’s sound.
I am quite a fan of DAB radio. It allows me to listen to two of my favourite stations, Radio 5 Live and Absolute Radio, in crystal-clear quality as opposed to the duff medium wave frequencies they have historically used. Two of my other favourite stations, 6 Music and the World Service, are not available on analogue radio. So DAB wins for me on two key counts — sound quality and choice.
But there is no doubt that DAB is troubled. Its future is constantly being questioned. There are grumbles about poor sound quality and reception issues. The fact that car and handheld DAB radios are still thin on the ground is no help either. Take-up has been slower than anticipated.
Moreover, technology is beginning to overtake DAB. Having been developed during the 1980s and early 1990s, DAB uses old-fashioned and inefficient compression techniques.
I am considering buying a second digital radio for when I move. But given the continued niggles surrounding DAB and the uncertainty regarding digital switchover for radio, I am beginning to wonder if buying a second DAB set would be a sensible move.
At first it will be offered for Radio 3, then Radio 2. But given that feedback of the trial as so far been extremely positive — even among the demanding Radio 3 audience — this is beginning to look like a promising system.
Only one thing. It will be available on the internet only. So should my new radio set be an internet radio?
I hadn’t seriously considered buying an internet radio up until now. But it has a massive wealth of choice. There is huge flexibility. It is more future-proof. This platform has widespread adoption (you don’t see the internet disappearing any time soon — although somehow the future of DAB always seems relatively uncertain). And now it seemingly the internet has the potential to have the upper hand in terms of audio quality.
Do any readers have any experience with internet radios? Are they worth a purchase?
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