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2007 in Music

Published on January 8, 2008 in Audio / Music. 0 Comments

headphones2007

Well lots of people seem to be throwing their top ten albums of last year about in the blogosphere so I guess I will throw my hat in the ring. But I’m not going to write it in any particular order as I couldn’t be that organised about my music tastes! Besides, is the album not dead with the advance of digital music? - Well, no I don’t really believe that, but it is true to say I have been a little bit out of the loop when it comes to keeping up with the latest releases over the last year or two. I’ve been listening to a lot of old stuff and mixes and the like. My Last.Fm quilt here on the side of the blog and profile will give you a better idea of what I’ve been listening to when I have the scrobbling turned on. Meanwhile my vinyl collection has been gathering dust and taking up space, perhaps I might sell it all.

So back to the topic at hand, here’s a few I enjoyed that were released in 2007 :

The Pale - Contents Of A Shipwreck
Sarsparilla - Karahee
Grinderman - Grinderman
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Saul Williams - The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!
Paul Hartnoll - The Ideal Condition
Herv - Flot and Retent
Dan Deacon - Spiderman Of The Rings
Cathy Davey - Tales of Silversleeve
Bjork - Volta
Battles - Mirrored
Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

No need for reviews for the above, they were all (and still are) a joy to my ears!

I also liked Zoid vs The Jazz Musicians of Ireland although technically I only got the CD in 2008, I performed the visuals for the launch in Crawdaddy a few months back and was very impressed by the sounds.

Other music I really like was that which is on the Tara Compilation CD, which is a lovely mix of many types of music, both contemporary and traditional. There is an another one for the Vigil camp also which I don’t have, but by no doubt it is good too and worth checking out. Support the warriors!

On heavy rotation from previous years, there was a whole lotta Serge, Íse, The Clash, Tool, Mouse On Mars, Howie B, Hot Chip, Neutral Milk Hotel, Halfset, Four Tet, MC Paul Barman, Dangerdoom and more in that mixed bag.

As far as mixes are concerned I’ve been kept entertained by the ThinkToy podcast and in recent weeks by offerings from the Freebird (Vinyl Room) crew; Halfdutch, Pasta Masta and Goldy.

I’ve also been listening to a lot of Alan Watts which is music to my ears and I sometimes blend him with some tunes using Djay or by more ad-hoc means!

Miniature Civilisations

Published on December 12, 2007 in Culture, Film / Video and Social. 0 Comments

Capitalism is about using money to make money for people who already have more of it than they need. Its institutions, by their very nature, breed inequality, exclusion, environmental destruction, social irresponsibility and economic instability while homogenising cultures, weakening the institutions of democracy, and eroding the moral and social fabric of society. - David Korten

The Miniature Earth is powerful piece of multimedia that shows us the statistics of life on earth. The message? = Be thankful for what you’ve got and help others, especially those you don’t know, by treating them as human beings no matter what the differences are. The world is not the way it is by accident. It is like this because of greed and fear. Greed is NOT what we need and fear should NOT be let near. Be bold, but be nice. Share.

This was sent to me by a friend on Facebook and duly passed around. But I need to put it here alongside some related videos, especially given the time of the year, as a reminder of how unjust this world is. Don’t close your eyes.

The Miniature Earth

Next up is a piece from Avaaz.org Avaaz (meaning “voice” or “song” in Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, and other langauges) is a community of global citizens who take action on major issues around the world. The video is made by Agit-Pop and features the music of Dj Spooky.

Stop the Clash of Civilizations

And the final word goes to Alan Watts, with the help of the animation skills of the South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Prickles and Goo

Music Board Of Ireland

Published on December 12, 2007 in Audio / Music, Culture, Film / Video and Politics. 0 Comments

Here’s a great documentary about the Irish music industry made by Manina Films. Made in late 2005, early 2006 about the Music Board Of Ireland which was set up by the government in partnership with the music industry through IBEC to promote and support contemporary Irish music in 2001. It was disbanded (pun intended) in 2004 having accomplished little if anything. The idea was good but it was not a priority for the government.

This was in a sense banished to the web as it could not be shown in it’s entirety because of it’s critical angle of government policy in the area of support for young Irish bands. Comparisons are made to funding giving for others areas in the Arts and in Sport (which is handled by the same government department - I never quite got that one!).

There is a point made by Jim Carroll that the government is more interested in entertaining the National Concert Hall punters (can you call them that?) than the regular young gig goers and young musicians, as the former are more likely to vote. This is a fair point, but a worrying one. There are a lot of young people apathetic to politics in this country and this is a shame. Ultimately then, when complaints are made about the “state of the nation” the apathetic are the ones to blame. Vote not just for the Battle of the Bands, vote for (or against) bigger things.

Thanks to Nialler9 for bringing this to my attention on his blog.

Here are some words from Lindsey, the director of the film, to lead you in :

After failing to get this documentary seen by the general public I’ve finally put it up on the Internet. It’s amazing how much control someone in power has. I was warned that by showing a certain individual in a bad light then I would be shooting myself in the foot because my film would not be accepted into film festivals or shown on TV. The Last Broadcast on RTE showed part of my film but refused to air the entirety, omitting the scene with this particular individual.
I felt that the film would not prove the point I was trying to make if I left the scene out so I made the decision to keep it. Unfortunately I underestimated how much fear people have for this man. The power that he holds over funding for arts makes sure that he can maintain a good image.
The only place my film was actually seen in its whole was in Wales where it was a runner up in the Screen Academy Wales student awards.
Anyway… here it is!

Roll it there Roisin!

Post No Bills

Published on November 29, 2007 in Culture, Environmental and Social. 2 Comments

herald asbo article
[click for bigger image]

I picked up a free copy of the Evening Herald in Bus Aras the other day. Unfortunately there was no recycling bins where I could dispose of this waste of paper so I left it on the bench to pollute someone else’s mind after me! Anyway, I could write an in depth piece about ‘free’ newspapers and the waste that they are, but I will save that one for another day.

This story is related though and it stems from this piece that I snapped from this free rag to pass the time while I waited for my bus. The article talks about Anti Social Behaviour and the photo cites graffiti as being such that. But yet, graffiti is not mentioned in the article and I wonder if it is in the report at all.

Now I’m not going to defend all graffiti here. Some of it, is of course rubbish. Tags could be seen as just the work of bored teens rather than a piece of art or a statement. I don’t really get tagging to be honest. Some of it is good, especially on a big scale where there is obviously preparation and thought put into the design. But some is just crap, the “I woz ere” or “BA luvs GB” variety, as much to say “I own this here bit of wall, look at me”. Now I know a lot of graffiti artists will disagree with me, but you have to draw the line somewhere and by that I mean where you don’t write on walls. For example, if it is going to piss someone off enough to start addressing their local politicians about cleaning up the neighbourhoods and imposing tough penalties on people who draw on the walls no matter if they are just inconsiderate bored teens or creative street artists. In other words, painting them all with the same brush.
Continue reading ‘Post No Bills’

The Last Supper in high def

Published on October 29, 2007 in Art & Design and Technology. 0 Comments

last supper

A new high resolution image of Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece “The Last Supper” has been posted online on a new site which specialises in macro images of artworks for closer inspection. The resolution is 16 billion pixels and that equals about 1,600 times your average 10 megapixel digital camera image.

This impressive study was done by none other than HAL9000! Well no, not that one, but rather an Italy-based firm specializing in the digital restoration and preservation of works of art through high-resolution art photography. The image size is 16.118.035.591 pixels, (172181 pixels wide and 93611 pixels high) and takes up a whopping 96 Gigabytes on disk. The panoramic photography technique used allows the stitching into one image of different photos shot using rigorous criteria.

Go have a look for yourself. It looks like more will artworks are to be added. Just click on the image of the work of art and you go to a page where you can explore it’s detail. There’s lots of great info about the technique used on the site also. See it here.

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