The complete Tori Amos video collection has been longed for since the dawn of DVD. “Fade To Red”, released on February 14 2006, is a 2 disc DVD set including 21 videos as well as bonus features like behind the scenes footage and a comprehensive audio commentary by Tori, all remastered in 5.1 surround sound. Tracklist available at Everything Tori. Just as with Seinfeld, I’m glad they didn’t rush for a release until the format was truly ready.
“Hot Pink, Distorted” is the first track on 50 Foot Wave’s “Free Music EP”, which is finally available to download! It’s offered in FLAC files as well as hi-resolution mp3 files. The band is also encouraging fans to seed BitTorrents and set up CD burning trees to ensure that people without time or technology may also receive the free music. As a big fan of Kristin Hersh, this is like early christmas. :) So good it hurts!
Alexander Hacke, the bassist of Einstürzende Neubauten, sets out to capture the musical diversity of Istanbul in Fatih Akin’s new documentary, “Crossing The Bridge”. His previous drama, “Head-On”, is one of my absolute favourites and I can’t wait to lay my hand on this new DVD, featuring a voyage through modern electronic, rock and hip-hop to classical “Arabesque”. Apart from the trailers, Intro magazine have also put up some clips from it.
Issue 4 of Slices, the free DVD format electronic music magazine, is out in a few days. Their big feature this time is Modeselektor, which I just can’t miss. Ok, so I lied a little when I wrote it’s free… If you can’t pick it up yourself at any of the stores offering it (mainly in Germany and the UK), you have to pay for postage and packing. Instead of an 8€ international bank transfer, you can get it from Juno, where the shipping is cheaper.. but you’ll also have to order something else from there of course. My recommendation would be the new album from dutch drum’n bass collective, Black Sun Empire.
Dr. Jason Freeman has created the iTunes Signature Maker, which is supposed to describe who you are and what you listen to by creating a short sonic signature of your iTunes music library. It takes brief bits from your favorite iTunes tracks (based on your ratings, play count or date) and mashes them together into a single file. Here’s mine, based on my last played songs (AAC format).
..and the winner is CD Baby.com:
“Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved ‘Bon Voyage!’ to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Monday, December 5th.
I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as ‘Customer of the Year’. We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!”
I haven’t done anything about the design of redvolume for ages now. The old design was already outdated by the time WordPress Strayhorn arrived. The sloppily converted theme will now be replaced by K2 which I will put my own touch on in the next few weeks..
The Bloc Party concert at Paradiso, Amsterdam on December 3 will be broadcast live over the internet from Fabchannel.com! Better set my alarm clock, or just stay at the site, exploring the impressive archive until then. Seems Apple couldn’t have picked a better week to release their Broadband Tuner…
The snippet mixtape of my favourite songs in November. Click here to listen! (Streaming with Flash in popup)
November 2005
Hooverphonic – We All Float
Roadrunner United – The End
Saian Supa Crew – Zonarisk
Hatesex – Spiritual Palsy
Sender Berlin – Griselda (Arenys De Mar Mix)
Thåström – Ingen Sjunger Blues Som Jeffrey Lee Pierce
Iron And Wine And Calexico – He Lays In The Reins
Montys Loco – Roadkill
System Of A Down – Attack
SITD – Firmament
I’m not sure if I’m sad or just relieved. ABC has decided to end Alias for good with this season 5 in May 2006. The fourth season really sucked, but it seems the series will get a worthy ending. Season 5 has been a great comeback so far, and ABC president promises “Alias is not going to wind down as it comes to an end, it’s going to rev up, and we’re going to make it the event it deserves to be”…
Everybody loves Kylie. On Christmas day she will release her first ever digital only single featuring the xmas classics, “Somewhere over the rainbow” and Marilyn Monroe’s “Santa Baby”. If you’re wondering about the rainbow song, it’s a UK thing. “The Wizard of Oz” is the special christmas movie over there. Anyway, the recording is taken from her upcoming live DVD, “Showgirl”. Gig of the year according to The Times… I’m not sure I wanna hear more xmas music at the time of release.
The KLF manual on how to write a number one hit is now up for grabs online. My TV is broken, so I might as well try it…
Today, 16 years ago, the Berlin Wall fell. To celebrate it, I uploaded a little sketch from the now discontinued Anke Late Night TV show. Originally made for the 50 year anniversary of the founding of DDR, it’s about the unemployed Berlin Wall today! :) German speech, but don’t let that scare you. Watch it here (Windows media).
The health minister in Bavaria has issued a special “DJ licence”. The reason for it has nothing to do with bad taste or musical quality though. A written exam will make sure that DJ’s know how to handle sound with responsibility, which will hopefully lead to less hearing damages. Suffering from tinnitus myself, I think this is a great idea. Exaggerated? Maybe, but in this iPod age, the problem is too serious to be over-looked. Just because it’s loud, doesn’t mean it’s good, so this might just increase the quality after all. :)
She’s definately no stranger any more. Beth Orton’s fourth album, “Comfort Of Strangers”, will be released on February 7th next year! 14 tracks produced by Sonic Youth guitarist Jim O’Rourke. As much as I’m excited by it, I’m also a little worried that it will turn out to be too minimal and boring, like Emiliana Torrini’s latest. Four Tet is good riddance at least, and the lack of electronica on it will probably be made up by her appearance on Massive Attacks gothic soul project. :)
The snippet mixtape of my favourite songs in October. Click here to listen! (Streaming with Flash in popup)
October 2005
Alice In Videoland – Emily
Soilwork – Stabbing The Drama
Nouvelle Vague – Just Can’t Get Enough
Fake Moss – Highway (Alien Waveform Interpretation)
Silver Jews – How Can I Love You (If You Won’t Lie Down)
Spillsbury – Zwei Von Vielen
Modeselektor – The Rapanthem
Common feat. Joy Denalane – Go
Disco Volante – Easy Target
Axwell – Together
While waiting for my new Mac I’m stuck with this old PC, not being able to access my music library. It’s not all bad though. Nostalgia struck when I rediscovered all the songs and sound sketches I did back in my teens. I remember being inspired from Leftfield’s “Release Four” (they just released their best of collection), when making:
Dark Discovery (mp3)
You can now listen to Madonna’s new single “Hung Up” on her MySpace page. Stuart did a great job producing it, but ABBA just doesn’t do it for me. Reading about the upcoming Massive Attack album made my heart beat a little faster though. “Gothic soul” is how the sound is described. Gimme gimme gimme!
I really hate being this way, but when Apple presented their new iMac, I just knew it was the thing to trade in my iBook for (on auction here). It’s basically more power I need, so there might even be something better coming on the press event this Wednesday. Hopefully I will get it sold in time before “Buy nothing christmas”. Sometimes it’s hard being a bad consumer.
Run up that iTMS hill and become “King Of The Mountain”. Kate Bush is back. Didn’t believe it until now. Also, couldn’t help myself buying the exclusive bonus track from Modeselektor’s debut “Hello Mom!”. Boomkat shipped the CD today. :)