At the end of every year I write a post ranking my favourite music releases of the year. But for 2008 I was very busy, and I had other things I wanted to write about more. Now that it’s February, I think I’d really better get on with it. I know not many people will […]
The Designers Republic
The other day I learnt from my brother that the graphic design company The Designers Republic went out of business earlier this month. My interest in graphic design is not particularly heavy. But the interest I do have in it has all stemmed from my exposure to the work of The Designers Republic. Their work […]
100,000 scrobbles
Around a year ago I wrote a post that analysed the year’s activity on Last.fm. For those who don’t know, Last.fm is a website that tracks your music listening habits. It produces lovely graphs and churns out recommendations as well as providing tailored radio stations for you to listen to at your leisure. I adore […]
Muxtape: playlist nostalgia
By now you may have heard of a website called Muxtape. In a way, I’m surprised it hasn’t been shut down already. It’s probably the most blatantly illegal website since YouTube. Technically, I guess, you’re meant to own the copyright to everything you upload to the service. But of course that’s not what most people […]
Autechre — Quaristice
I have now had well over a month to digest the MP3s, and I have had the CD (and what a lovely object that is) for a week. High time for me to review Quaristice, Autechre’s first album for three years. Pinksy encouraged me to write a track-by-track review, but I will not do that […]
How not to review music
I was going to to a track-by-track review of Quaristice. Pinksy asked what it sounds like, which is quite a tough question to answer. I was tempted to give it a shot though. But I think I will give the track-by-track review a miss — in case I end up sounding like this. It already […]
How to quadruple the price of an album and get away with it
If there is a musical act I like more than Radiohead, it is Autechre. The release of Autechre’s new album, Quaristice, bears some resemblance to Radiohead’s attention-grabbing In Rainbows release. It also bears a lot of the hallmarks of my predictions / observations about the apparent future of the music industry which I wrote about […]
Music of 2007: #20–#11
Getting there slowly but surely. We might be two weeks into 2008, but that won’t stop me from looking back at 2007. By this rate it will be February before we get to the end of this list… 20. The Tuss — Rushup Edge Whoever is responsible for this is at least a genius at […]
What I listened to in 2007
I am a bit late with my ranking of albums of 2007. I know it’s the new year and it’s not very fashionable to be looking back once the new year has begun. But unlike some people — who publish their lists in early December or sometimes even mid-November — I like to wait until […]
Clark — Ted E.P.
First CD review in a while. Hope you don’t mind. It is short though. I won’t say much about this, but I will say that I am as disappointed in this EP as I was in his last album. After ‘Ted’ itself we are presented with Bibio’s remix of ‘Ted’. I don’t think I’ve ever […]