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388 days ago
In search of a better platform to write and look at other people's writing I have moved this blog to http://acidaccu3.wordpress.com My MSN space is going to stay here as a dust gathering memoir! Please visit the new blog and leave a comment or two if you can. :) Liam.
423 days ago
What is time? What is 'spending time'? How does the car salesman who knows the price and features of every car in his caryard know the scores and winners of all the AFL grand finals of the last 10 years? How does the girl who says baking muffins and cupcakes is 'all she does' studies to get the marks she needs to get into law school? How does the guy who's watched every season of Top Gear know every detail and policy of not only the West Australian state election race, but the long running US Presidential election, and how can he still know all the lines and moves to hook up on a saturday night? How does the girl who likes anime also manage to know how feelings work so well? How is the guy who studies medicine still able to converse with anyone on any topic you can raise? How does the kid who spends all his evenings cooped up with books in the library still know all the words of all the chart hits this year, so he knows what to sing when he's dancing in Northbridge tonight? What about ...
443 days ago
I feel like there's something that Warp Records is looking for when they're signing a new artist. It's often said that the label's philosophy is to produce 'tomorrow's classics' (and enormous forward-sightedness is true of many of their artists), but 'futuristic' is a label that probably fails to do justice to the latest album by American hip-hop producer (and more) Steven Ellison, a.k.a. Flying Lotus. In the same way that Warp labelmates Boards of Canada or Squarepusher achieve in their music what could be described as a remix of history itself (often drawing influences from jazz, 50s ballroom music and even the corny synthy music of educational nature videos), Flying Lotus scans the vast global musical tapestry of the 20th century's and filters it through the lens of the 21st. The result is Los Angeles, Ellison's second album, and in my opinion a really fluid, dynamic and scintillating work. Los Angeles is at once an album of contrasts: the ...
462 days ago
2008 is probably high time for a new watershed in electronic music. For a genre that is usually where people look for musical progressiveness, retrospectivity has been the name of the game for quite a while now. Justice's 2007 full-length Cross reimagined disco with its robo-glam beats and low-fi synths, while albums from both The Presets and Digitalism brought a rock philosophy to a new brand of abrasive, muscular electro. As far as musical retrospectivity goes, the burgeoning chiptune scene has it in spades, and it could just be the watershed we're looking for. Using the 8-bit noises from 80s video games immediately sounds to me like a great idea- in all honesty there is something totally fresh about the sound. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that video game music history cannot be separated from its electronic origins; while rock and jazz have a illustrious social and musical history behind it, game music was born as digital notches in Japanese consoles, and stands ...
556 days ago
Uni is great, if not somewhat disorienting. Aside from the obvious differences (the throwing off of the constraints of high school, the lawn-chilling), what excites me most is (at least in Arts) honing your critical edge simply requires you to read as much and as widely as possible, and in all the areas that take your fancy. This appeared to me an enthralling and comforting thought, that my course would lend itself to an understanding of the greater world, rather than the acquisition of a repertoire of specialised skills. This leads to the other side of the coin, however; uni has brought to me a whole range of new fears and anxieties as well. Managing an array of friends to fit in with my time is not looking easy. Who I actually want to be friends with is harder still. As far as academic work goes, it's all well and good that an Arts degree will rely on some participation and observation of culture, but my greatest fear is what, during my traversal of the course, I'll leave behind. I ...
