Circadian Shift

I know, I know...

Screamingly late, but here's last week, represented by two mood boards.

Media consumption:

• Got the CD In Between Dreams by Jack Johnson after redeeming some AirMiles. I know, it's the sort of comfortably soothing tunage listened to by Volvo-driving suburbanites pushing 40, but I like it (even if it does mean that my age is showing -- Swedish sedan and dwelling in a subdivision notwithstanding).
• Read the book Songbook by Nick Hornby. It's a collection of essays about songs that have some significance to the author. Therefore: Essays (arguably my favourite literary format) + Music (one of my favourite things) + Hornby (one of my favourite authors) = Pretty Easy to Like, IMHO.

In other happenings, N and I went to Ottawa for the long weekend. The second board is double-sized, so click on the one you see below to launch the full-sized version in a pop-up window.

It was cold and rainy, which meant that it was no worse than if we had stayed in Toronto. Took in the National Gallery and the Museum of Civilization, and did a lot of walking around and basically taking it easy.

(Most of the pics on the board were taken by N; I took the one of the back of the Parliament Buildings, plus the two of the National Gallery, using N's camera.)

Dirtyradio continues to be AWOL. Boo.

I've been able to at least partially fulfill my IDM listening needs, thanks to some music compilations that I've been able to download for free.

Sutemos is a "Lithuanian-based netlabel specialising in mellow, melodic and minimal styles of electronic music". Among a number of offerings that are all freely available are these two standouts:

• Intelligent Toys is a compilation of previously unreleased tracks by various IDM "stars" (the only name that was vaguely familiar to me was Khonnor), accompanied by "a virtual collection of visual art... that reflects a doll/toy/child theme"
• Intelligent Toys 2 is a longer compilation offering more of the same, including a grand total of three names that I recognize from listening to Dirtyradio (Ulrich Schnauss, Manual, and Praveen)

Meanwhile, online MP3 retailer Bleep is currently offering a free EP-length download called Expanding Live At Norberg 2005, featuring a "(s)election of pieces by expanding records artists recorded live at Sweden's idyllic Norberg Festival last summer". Check out the preview in the player below.

Addendum 29 May 2006: The preview player seems to be gone for this particular release, but if you click through to Bleep, the EP is still there (at least for now) and you can listen there.

Presumably, this EP is only available for free for a limited time, and would require you to register (for free) to download.

Dirtyradio has been "unavailable" for over a week now, which I find somewhat perturbing. In the meantime, I've been catching up with my retro tunage listening, courtesy of WOXY Vintage.

Also in a retro mode, I found (via New Wave Outpost) this treasure trove of 80s MP3s -- some guy digitised a ton of his 12" vinyl, encoding it all at a high bitrate (192 kbps or better). There's plenty of cheese, but also some terrific nuggets in there. Download away.

For other listening enjoyment, there are now several CBC Radio Podcasts for you to choose from. The science show Quirks & Quarks has been offering podcasts for a while, but now you can also get a weekly super-condensed version of the Saturday afternoon pop-culture juggernaut Definitely Not the Opera, plus a weekly selection from the show Ideas (one of those shows that I keep meaning to listen to more often).

OMG, I've had this song on repeat for a large chunk of the afternoon:

• Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs - "I See the Rain" (mp3 hosted at Good Rockin' Tonight)

It's a remake of a 60's garage chestnut by a group called The Marmalade, and the harmonies are sweet, sweet, sweet...

Go ahead and sing along:

Beautiful day I'd like to lie on the green lawn,
The ducks are congregating round, round the lily pond,
And the cows have all gone running home to put their coats on,
Stay indoors, while it pours, till tomorrow.

I see the rain again, I must complain again, why does the rain let me down
Will you try to make it sunny in the morning?

Five to ten, now it's time for the weather,
The sun will shine and in its time, get better,
But it won't last for long, clouds are spreading over London town,
Stay indoors, while it pours, till tomorrow.

I see the rain again, I'll take the blame again, I see the rain lets you down,
But I'm gonna make it sunny in the morning

I think we can safely file this moodboard under the "phoning it in" category:

Running a little low in the inspiration department, so once again I will run through some recent music acquisitions of mine. Most of it falls in the ambient/atmospheric vein, since I've been craving music that's a little more soothing to listen to, especially in the evenings.

Downloads from eMusic:

• Explosions in the Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place -- guitar-and-percussion-driven melancholy; you can download the song "Memorial" for free from Download.com
• E*Vax - Parking Lot Music -- soft, glitchy IDM; download "The Process of Leaving", once again free, courtesy of Download.com
• Moby - Ambient -- one of Moby's earlier works; like the title says, it's ambient
• Banco De Gaia - 10 Years -- a double-CD length compilation of global-fusion-electronica from the first decade of Banco de Gaia's career; you can download "Sinahala" and "Last Train to Lhasa" plus one other track for free from the Banco de Gaia website; also check out some tracks from 10 Years Remixed, which was released a year later
• NEU! - NEU! -- a landmark piece of early-70s Krautrock; I didn't know that Neu was founded by two early members of Kraftwerk, but you can hear the influence they had on the latter group's release Autobahn

I also bought one CD:

• Massive Attack - Collected -- downtempo trip-hoppy goodness; I must sheepishly admit that I missed the boat on these guys beforehand, so I'm now trying to catch up; read the review from Pitchfork here

BTW, the background image is courtesy of Mayang's Free Textures.

Today's code phrase is: "Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot."

I really need one of these mugs:

Meanwhile, fans of the CBC radio show Definitely Not The Opera will recognize this track:

• Bentley Rhythm Ace - "Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out"

Fun, fun, fun...

A good video for a rainy Sunday:

And you can download two Jesus and Mary Chain MP3s here for "Happy When It Rains" and "Just Like Honey".

Been neglecting the blog lately...

Here's a song that many of the music-bloggers have linked to already. I've heard it on dirtyradio once or twice, and I like it too:

• Ellen Allien & Apparat - "Do Not Break" (mp3, 7.19 MB) (courtesy of Orchestra of Bubbles)

It's a fun bit of electro, with a beat that dares you to defy the title.

Meanwhile, Freak Girl's Pew links to this quick list of Six Tips for Happiness.

And, just because, here is a drawing of a cute small rodent holding a giant cherry:

As far as putting together together a mood board for the week is concerned, this one is pretty much phoned in.

Not a lot to report, so instead I'll focus on some music that I've downloaded in the last six weeks or so using my eMusic subscription. This is all stuff that I've heard on dirtyradio.net.

• The Presets - Girl and the Sea -- occasionally sombre-sounding electro, with some funky bass licks; you can download the Cut Copy remix of "Girl and Sea" (MP3, 5.9MB), which is by far the catchiest track on the release
• Out Hud - Let Us Never Speak of it again -- dance punk goodness, reminiscent of Gang of Four; you can download "It's For You" for free, courtesy of Download.com
  
• Midwest Product - World Series of Love -- electronic, some tracks upbeat, others more laid back; you can download "Bank", a nice Kraftwerk-esque take on dayjob monotony, again courtesy of Download.com
  
• Cut Copy - Bright Like Neon Love -- low-key electro, featuring vocals tinged with irony; you can download "Future" for free from BetterPropaganda
• Colder - Heat -- sort of a Joy Division meets Kraftwerk thing, with some Japan thrown in for good measure
  
• !!! (Chk Chk Chk) - Louden Up Now -- actually, I'm not 100% sure I've heard !!! on dirtyradio, but I can credit Mr. GAK for introducing me to them via a mix CD that he and Graig put together a few years ago; you can download "Hello? Is This Thing On?" from BetterPropaganda
  

I also procured a few tracks à la carte:

• Rex the Dog - "Protoype (Original Mix)" and "We Live In Daddy's Car (12" Original Mix)" -- fun, robotic, old-school electro; you can download a MiniMix that Rex the Dog put together for BBC Radio 1 last year which has more old-school goodies in it (S'Express, anyone?); Rex the Dog MP3s are available for purchase at beatport (I've never used them, but they look OK)
• MU - "Paris Hilton" -- crazy, and oh so catchy; I've already linked to the video (QuickTime) for this tune; you can also download a lo-fi MP3 of the track (96 kbps, 3.87 MB)
• Soulwax - "E Talking" and "NY Excuse" -- more dance-punk; you can watch videos here (the one for "NY Excuse" is particularly recommended)
  

Thanks once again to Bleep.com for providing the sound widgets; not surprisingly, the tunes are available for purchase at Bleep (except for the !!! album, which is marked as "Currently Not Licensed For Sale In Canada".)

• audiography: Theme: Keyboards -- New Wave goodies, all featuring (surprise) keyboards
• Mars Needs Guitars: In My Dream I Was Nowhere -- songs with "dream" in the title, heavy on the shoegazing

It's a double-size mood board this week. ("N", I hope you're happy.) Click on the board below to view it in full 800x600 pixel glory (launches in a pop-up).

I'm not really sure what I did this week. Went to work. Went out to dinner a couple times. Went for a long walk yesterday.

I did buy a new CD, the album Everything Ecstatic by Four Tet. As the title might suggest, the album features light-hearted, sample-happy electronica and makes for fun listening.

Thanks to Bleep for providing the hella-neat widget shown above (the songs will play in 30-second slices; re-click the play button continue the tune). Unfortunately, they're not selling the MP3s to Canadian customers, hence my need to get a hard copy (thank you, CD-Replay on Bloor St., for offering it for cheaper than elsewhere).

I previously included the track "Smile Around the Face" in my 'Abstraction and Reverie' mix (still available for the time being on Rapidshare (scroll, click, wait, type)), or you can download the tune for free from Amazon (192 kbps, free registration required) or Insound (160 kbps, no registration, plus some older Four Tet tunes). You can also hear several of the tunes as part of a live set in Melbourne, currently available for free on Four Tet's website.

(BTW, all images on the board this week are courtesy of stock.xchng.)

All this past week, silence is a rhythm too has been posting late 70s / early 80s musical goodies, in celebration of the release of Simon Reynolds' book Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-84.

Magazine, Monsoon, Simple Minds, The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire -- if this is the stuff you love, you better get over there ASAP and download away.

Ugh. Nasal congestion is making it very hard to lie down and breathe at the same time.

So, in the meantime, here's some disco.

• Chic - "Everybody Dance" (MP3, 6.7 MB) *

The bassline on this track gets a little too busy for my liking at times, but other than that, this is one smooth tune. Makes me wanna put on a caftan, break out the Harvey's Bristol Cream, and get on down. Or something like that.

* Note: The file is hosted via YouSendit -- which means means that the link will expire in 7 days or less. But at least you don't have to jump through as many hoops to get to it as with Rapidshare.

Note #2: If you happen to get a prompt asking you for a password, just click "Cancel". You should still be able to download the file.

Addendum 03 March 2006: More disco goodies are available at Silence Is a Rhythm Too.

Just because, here's a little mix that I whipped together very quickly this evening. I've blogged about several of these songs before, but some I haven't.

Circadian Shift: Abstraction & Reverie Mix (ZIP file of MP3s; 59.6 MB) (hosted on Rapidshare -- some scrolling, clicking, waiting, etc. required)


1. Broken Spindles - "Induction"
2. Pinback - "Fortress"
3. Four Tet - "Smile Around The Face"
4. Barbara Morgenstern & Robert Lippok - "Please Wake Me For Meals"
5. Ivy - "Edge of the Ocean (Duotone Mix)"
6. The Cinematic Orchestra - "All That You Give"
7. Sigur Ros - "Svefn G Englar"
8. Dykehouse - "Signal Crossing"
9. Lali Puna - "Together In Electric Dreams"
10. Mercury Rev - "In A Funny Way"
11. Sarah McLachlan - "I Love You (BT Mix)"

Lest anyone be concerned about me engaging in piracy, the tracks were all downloaded freely and legally from the following sources:

• Insound
• Amazon.com (free registration required to download)
• betterPropaganda
• Epitonic
• Download.com

Addendum 09 February 2006: OK, I've added an alternate download link for the mix, over at YouSendIt, that doesn't require you to jump through hoops -- just click and download right away. The link will expire in 7 days, or after I reach the maximum number of downloads (not sure what the number is), whichever comes first.

Last night, Brett and tbit both noted that they visit here looking for MP3 linkage, which I haven't posted much of lately. So, in an effort to oblige...

Currently have playing a mix called "Classic Architecture" from "Jazz and Groove" blog Bending Corners. It sort of ambles about and makes for good laid-back Sunday afternoon listening.

Also, lots of the MP3 bloggers have been linking to this set of DFA Radio Mixes. The first two are by James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem, while the third is by Juan McLean. I wasn't so taken with the first one; the second one is pretty decent, and I'm not sure if I've heard the third one or not (was playing them at work during the week). Funtime OK has been chopping the mixes up into individual tracks, should you not want to listen to everything; mixes one and two are done -- I'm sure the third will be up soon.

Addendum 08 February 2006: Mix three is now up.

Back to the gri(n)d.

Another new month meant another 40 MP3s from eMusic, so I got the following:

• John Coltrane - Lush Life and Soultrane
• Miles Davis Quintet - Cookin' With The Miles Davis Quintet and Relaxin' With The Miles Davis Quintet
• Sonny Rollins - Plus 4 and Way Out West
• Mozart - Piano Concertos (performed by The Academy Of St. Martin-In-The-Fields Under Neville Marriner)
• Philip Glass - Symphonies No.s 2 and 3 (dipped into yet another subscription "Booster Pack" to get this one)

Also, just because I can, I cashed in some Air Miles and got U2's The Best of 1980-1990 and The Best of 1990-2000 on CD.

Not much else to say. Still sleeping badly, trying to dig out The Hovel, blah blah blah. Big shout-out to several of my fellow bloggers who attended Maria's citizenship party last night. Sorry, I'm lazy, so no linking.

Further to yesterday's video post....

I went and set up my own account over at YouTube and have begun putting together a playlist of Punk, New Wave, & 80s Videos that I find there from various sources - lots of good/nostalgic viewing for you retro fans out there.

Addendum 07 February 2006: The playlist count is presently up to 85 videos. More likely to be added as time goes on.

In lieu of my own content, ladies and gentlemen, may I present The Go-Go's (apologies if the embedded video is a tad slow):

Aaah, the 80's. Yes, boys and girls, we really did dress like that. (Admittedly, I didn't go in so much for the off-the-shoulder sweatshirt number that Belinda Carlisle wears in the video, but I did have a plaid shirt or two not unlike the one that drummer Gina Schock is wearing.)

(Idea blatantly lifted from Shatnerian, who posted the video for "Going Underground" by The Jam.)

Some moody retro tunage:

• bumrocks has the extended version of "Driver's Seat" by Sniff 'n' The Tears
• silence is a rhythm too reposts the magnificent "Primitive Painters" by Felt

Addendum: Realized afterward that I got the title quote for this post from a site that misheard the lyrics to "Driver's Seat"; I'll leave the title as is, because it seems to work that way.

Same old, same old...

Finally breaking free of the grid for the first time in a few months, I chose to populate this week's board mostly with avatars and buddy icons (little images that users of Instant Messaging applications and bulletin boards or forums use to represent themselves online).

Besides being a convenient source of visual micro-content that I can plunder (no cropping or resizing needed to fit them on the board), I also happen to like avatars because they can say so much in so little space. OK, so there are a lot of avatars out there that are crap -- and why do so many of them have spelling mistakes -- but in theory these little 100x100 pixel (or smaller) squares are personas writ small.

Think about it -- how would you capture yourself in 10,000 pixels? Could you?

(And of course, what does my choice of these images say about me?)

Incidentally, the mood board from two weeks ago and Friday's post also use avatars.

One musical acquisition of note: The album OK Cowboy by Vitalic was added to eMusic's catalog this week, and I snapped it up as soon as I saw it there (I've teetered on the brink of purchasing it from Bleep.com several times over the last six months or so). You can view the video for "My Friend Dario" (Flash, 14.7 MB), a song that's a fantastically catchy slice of electro dance-punk. The video's lots of fun too.

I am, how shall we say, in a mood.

I've been listening to dirtyradio, and this song grabbed my ear:

• Longwave - "The River (Depot Song)" (MP3, 6.53 MB)

A mood, indeed.

Here is the band Longwave's website. You can sample more of their wares in the "Jukebox" section.

Blah.

Not much to report.

Of the few highlights of the week, I went out on Friday night to meet up with Eva and some of the other local bloggers and say hello to visiting blogger Shelley, who managed to survive a 29 hour flight from New Zealand relatively unscathed. Much fun, geekery, and the usual blogger hijinks ensued (Eva's pics of the evening are here). (BTW, there were two Jens at the event; as I was the second to arrive, I became "Other Jen" for the rest of the evening.)

In other news, triggered by a conversation with Junkman, I wound up dipping into my eMusic booster pack to download the compilation album A Passage In Time by Dead Can Dance. The work is at times gloomy and other times contemplative, which makes it good to listen to on cold winter nights.

I also bought a few tracks from Bleep.com:

• Helios - "Nine Black Alps" -- minimal beats over warm synths; a calming atmospheric tune
• TTC - "Meet the New Boss" -- French electro that's buzzy, blippy, and stark
• Cursor Miner - "The Sports of Kings" -- exuberant and propulsive; a great pick-me-up

All were finds via dirtyradio, which has introduced to so much cool music over the last year. It's a pity that I can't listen to it at work.

BTW, Bleep is currently giving away a free music sampler (as with all Bleep offerings, it's in MP3 format, with no DRM) titled Bleeps-oh-six; you do have to set up an account with them to download the sampler, but it's free to do so.

Long time readers of this blog will recall its companion website, Circadian Shift: The Outpost, where I used to regularly post retro MP3s and some other stuff.

Then, back in July of last year, the free hosting service that the site is on decided to clamp down on the file types that it hosted, so that you could no longer upload MP3s or other multimedia filetypes, and also set bandwidth restrictions on how much could be downloaded from the site per day and per month.

At the time, any existing multimedia files were left alone, but a few weeks back the provider made good on their promise to lock down on the unauthorized file types, so that if you've clicked recently on one of the few remaining MP3 links to the site, you'd have seen a screen that looks like this. As mentioned before, I have the option to upgrade my account to one of the company's paid hosting packages to lift the restrictions, but I'm not going to bother.

I've left the site up for now, having cleaned out some dead links and changed a few widgets. At some point, I'll probably incorporate the remaining content into a page on this site, and then just kill it. And I still have to go back through the archives here and take out the remaining MP3 links, and also update the sidebar.

A belated Happy New Year to everyone.

I spent the last week of 2005 fighting off a headache, doing stuff at work, dealing with my course assignment, and halfheartedly glancing at a couple of Boxing Week sales.

I did buy one thing, namely the single CD version of The Prodigy - Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005. It's funny, because I really didn't listen to The Prodigy much when they were really popular, but I do get nostalgic once in a while for that old-school booming techno sound.

There were more musical acquisitions, thanks to my eMusic subscription:

• Bloc Party - Silent Alarm -- an album that was much beloved by the hipster kiddies this year, and I like it too; wears its retro/post-punk influences well, without being so bloody obvious about it (cf. The Bravery); you can download the lead single, "Banquet", for free from betterPropoganda
• The Clientele - Strange Geometry -- another 2005 release that's been getting lots of good reviews; features lots of jangly reverberating guitars, melancholy lyrics and vocals, and many riffs and harmonies that are positively Beatle-esque; you can download the tune "E.M.P.T.Y." for free, once again courtesy of betterPropoganda
• Richard Bartz - Midnight Man -- another dirtyradio discovery; Bartz is a veteran of the German techno scene, and if you like that sort of sound, you won't be disappointed
• Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Insen -- featuring Sakamoto's piano compositions all cut up and glitched out by Noto's electronic manipulations, this album really works best as background music; I noticed that bleep lists the album as "Not For Sale In Canada", so I figured I'd grab it from eMusic while I still could (which meant dipping into my "Booster Pack" to get it)
• John Adams - Shaker Loops / Wound Dresser / Short Ride in a Fast Machine -- some Minimalist Clasical music for a change of pace; I already have a different recording of "Shaker Loops", so I only picked up the other compositions on this release

New Year's Eve was pretty quiet. Went out for a nice dinner, then stayed in and watched Monty Python's And Now for Something Completely Different on DVD. CITY-TV then ran Fight Club after midnight, so I wound up going to bed fairly late.

Snow on the ground and a looming holiday rush in the air.

I've been a bit scattered this week -- bashing away at getting a bunch of stuff done at work before year-end, trying (unsuccessfully) to work on the major assignment for my course, and thinking (intermittently) about what the hell to get people for Christmas.

Three songs figuring prominently on my musical radar in the last few days:

• Sara Valenzuela - "Para Continuar" -- this incredibly pretty tune was included on a Nacional Records Sampler that I downloaded for free from eMusic a while back and promptly forgot about until I played it at work this week; Valenzuela's work is a gentle pop-jazz hybrid that will likely appeal to fans of Bebel Gilberto or Nora Jones -- you can download "Para Continuar" plus another song for free from her website (after you enter the site -- Flash required -- select 'Galería' from the menu, then go to 'Extras: Downloads')
• Isao Tomita - "Arabesque No. 1" -- taken from his 1974 album Snowflakes Are Dancing, this is an electronic re-working of an old Debussey chestnut; soothing, without degenerating into New Age-y musical wallpaper
• Matthew Barber - "Soft One" -- heard on the mainstream radio station that I listen to on weekday mornings, this is a solid pop gem, reminiscent of the old Cars song "Just What I Needed"; purchased from iTunes this week (along with the Tomita track)

Stumbled across this by accident:

• Making Flippy Floppy presents "Flaming Mistletoe: Christmas Mix 2005"

Featuring an eclectic array of holiday tunage, there's only one song that overlaps with my Xmas mix (we'll just overlook have to overlook the presence of one Xmas song that I hate). Plus you have your choice of downloading everything in one ZIP file or cherry-picking individual tracks. A nice mix (and good quality MP3s, too).

There are also more MP3s of the non-holiday variety on the Making Flippy Floppy blog.

Running a bit later than originally planned, here is a mix of holiday tunage that I've pulled together from various online sources. Some picks are obvious, while others are, uh, different.

1. Claudine Longet - I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without You
2. Cocteau Twins - Frosty The Snowman
3. No Doubt - Oi To The World
4. Frank Sinatra & Cindy Lauper - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
5. Ben Folds - Bizarre Christmas Incident
6. John Lennon - Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
7. Jethro Tull - Ring Out Solstice Bells
8. Pet Shop Boys - It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas
9. Eels - Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas
10. The Ventures - We Wish You A Merry Christmas
11. Gayla Peevey - I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas
12. Donny & Marie - Winter Wonderland
13. Missile Toe - Gloria
14. The Wombles - Wombling Merry Christmas
15. My Chemical Romance - All I Want For Christmas Is You
16. Vic20 - A Marshmallow World
17. Johnny Cash - Little Drummer Boy
18. The Kinks - Father Christmas
19. The Pogues - Fairytale of New York
20. The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping
21. Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

You can download the Circadian Shift Xmas mix as a single ZIP file, weighing in at 73.2 MB; sorry, I'm lazy, so downloads of individual tracks are not available. The ZIP is hosted on Rapidshare, so some scrolling, clicking, etc., required.

I really found myself struggling with the mood board this week.

Using a grid is easy to do, and yields pretty good results most of the time, but it does make it hard to keep the look fresh. I tried going back to the more free-form style, like what I was doing in the spring and summer, but it just looked like crap.

Anyway, it's December now, which means that my monthly 40 MP3 allotment from eMusic was there for the taking. I got three albums.

• Thievery Corporation - The Cosmic Game -- I already have five other CDs bearing the Thievery Corporation name; I just can't get enough of that lounge-y downtempo electro goodness
• Frankie Bones - Act Like You Know -- house-y dance tunage to get up and go to
• Steve Reich / Alarm Will Sound - Tehilim & Desert Music -- Steve Reich, of course, looms large on the scene of Minimalist Classical composers, whilst Alarm Will Sound is an instrumental ensemble with an eclectic repertoire (most recently, they covered music by Aphex Twin); the resulting combination yields a work that rewards repeated listens

For those of you doing the math, those three selections actually topped out at 42 MP3s, so I had to dip into my "Booster Pack" for the extra tracks.

The "Booster Pack" also got depleted a bit more, as I downloaded a bunch more of those ambient music/noise recordings that are supposed to do good things for your brain -- Brain Power, Deep Learning, High Focus, and Increase Creativity all got some significant play while at the office this week. They actually seemed to help, as I was able to buckle down and plow through some sticky points in what I've been working on.

In terms of other media consumption for the week, I saw the documentary film March of the Pengiuns (IMDb info) on DVD. It was a good movie -- who, after all, does not enjoy watching cute flightless seabirds (and fluffy baby birds!) waddling around -- but you may, perhaps, argue with the attempt to ascribe too many human characteristics to them. Still, is was great fun to watch, and the Antarctic vistas in the background were truly spectacular.

December is here, which means that we'll now fully enter into the throes of the holiday season. And that means Christmas songs, for better or for worse. Often worse.

Here are three Christmas songs that particularly get up my nose:

• "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" -- So, let's see if I got this straight. Rudolf is a reindeer who is different from the others, so he gets mocked and abused by them. Then he goes and does something cool -- with no help from anyone, thank you very much -- and suddenly everybody is his new best friend. Right. Stupid, fickle, asshole reindeer. I hope Rudolf told them to go fuck themselves.
• Paul McCartney - "Wonderful Christmastime" -- Mr. McCartney crafted some truly fine pop songs, back in the day, but this is not one of them. Everything about this track -- production values, melody, lyrics -- has "wanking about in the studio between takes of something else" written all over it. It's not a bad song, but there was a time when Sir Paul was capable of writing so much better.
• Bryan Adams - "Christmas Time" -- Whereas McCartney's ditty can be excused for being a diversionary throwaway piece, you just know that Bryan Adams sat down and tried really, really hard to pen a holiday anthem of peace, brotherhood, the warm-and-fuzzies, etc. What we wind up with instead is a maudlin, formulaic, piece of crap. Every time I hear a blatantly manipulative line like "to see the joy in the children’s eyes", I want to hunt down Mr. Adams and beat him about the head with a Yule log.

As mentioned a few weeks back, I have an assemblage of Xmas tunes that I've been working on. I'm ironing out a few things, but it will be up soon.

Another week. Another grid.

It was yet another week of dark and cold, and trying to get a good night's sleep.

Even though we've yet to reach the end of November, I went and downloaded some MP3s from eMusic, thanks to having purchased a "booster pack" for an extra 50 tracks, which I can download at any time. I've only made use of 7 downloads thus far, having bought some nice calming tunage to play at bedtime:

• Gas - Koenigsforst -- featuring an array of string samples taken from vinyl LPs, backed with a drum machine; this isn't entirely suitable as bedtime music, but it is good for quieter evening listening thank to its droning atmospheric sound
• Kelly Howell - Sound Sleep -- consisting of a single hour-long track titled "Music with Delta Waves", this is meant to be listened to through headphones so that the delta waves can induce your brain into a sleeping state; unfortunately, sleeping with headphones on is not particularly comfortable, but I still found it to be somewhat useful to be played softly through speakers in the background

I also bought a couple songs from iTunes:

• Laika - "Alphabet Soup" -- yet another dirtyradio discovery, this tune is all spacy and electronic, with vocals that remind me of Kate Bush
• Alice Cooper - "Clones (We're All)" -- one does not ordinarily associate Alice Cooper with New Wave, but he did produce some work in the early 80s that fits reasonably well in the genre; "Clones" combines a Gary Numan aesthetic with Brave New World imagery for just under three minutes of enjoyable listening

Other highlights of the week include all-day Friday and Saturday sessions for this taxonomy and metadata course that I'm taking (nothing says "rip-roaring good times" like parking your ass in a classroom on Saturday morning to learn about faceted classfication and controlled vocabularies), and getting my flu shot for this year. Yes, it's sad that those count as "highlights".

I was in The Bay yesterday shopping for pants (never a fun activity, and of course nothing fit), and realized that they were playing Christmas music.

We're not even halfway through November yet, and already some idiot decides that it's time to start "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (which in itself isn't so bad a song, but it doesn't merit being played 50 gazillion times before the 25th rolls around).

Anyway, to combat the schmaltz and appeal to the hipster kiddies, Gorilla vs. Bear has already released a Holiday Mixtape, featuring a dozen tunes from the likes of Sufjan Stevens, The Polyphonic Spree, The Arcade Fire, The Walkmen, Deathcab for Cutie, Feist, and (an oldie but a goodie) The Waitresses.

I have my own Christmas mix that I was waiting to put up at the beginning of December (have it backed up on CD somewhere), but I might move it ahead by a week.

Of course, I am late with the mood board.

The start of the month meant more MP3s from eMusic. I got three albums:

• Delerium -- The Best Of -- dancy electronica with lush synth arrangements, a few exotic "World music" touches, and ethereal vocals from an array of female guest singers; fave tracks: "Silence" with Sarah McLachlan, and "Euphoria (Firefly)" with Jacqui Hunt (channeling 90s-era Madonna)
• Elliott Smith -- Either/Or -- gentle acoustic arrangements and double-tracked vocals make for quiet, soothing listening; fave track: "Rose Parade"
• Brian Eno -- Nerve Net -- more progressive and up-front than Eno's well-known "Ambient" series, but still very atmospheric; fave track: "What Actually Happened?"

Also bought some tunage from bleep.com:

• The Go! Team -- "We Just Won't Be Defeated" and "Hold Yr Terror Close" -- these two tracks appear on the re-mixed North American edition of Thunder Lightning Strike!; having bought the UK edition of the album a few months back, I of course didn't get these tracks; they're OK, but nothing special, really
• The Fiery Furnaces -- "Tropical-Iceland" -- a discovery from back in the spring via Dirtyradio (which now appears to have returned after a long absence); whimsical, with a catchy chorus

Other happenings from the week included my attendance at a Saturday matinee performance of Les Miserables (which just finished up its run at the Canon Theatre), many weeknights of sleeping badly, and of course Saturday's ill-begotten NaDruWriNi exercise.

BTW, walking home just past 5 with the streetlights already on really sucks.

Colour. I need colour.

Getting out of bed has proved to be an even more arduous task than usual this week. Hellish, in fact.

My little universe has been feeling even smaller of late. As the current place-of-employ is located within walking distance from The Hovel, I'm like a little rat scurrying back and forth between St. George and Bathurst, in my little maze (otherwise known as The Annex). Back and forth, back and forth.

A Saturday jaunt in Cabbagetown provided a much-needed change of scenery; walking further south meant that the day ended in the St. Lawrence Market area. Really should get out of my own 'hood more often.

Damn this receding daylight. So easy to feel down. Gotta remember to be positive.

One acquisition of note: I picked up Metric's 2003 CD release Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (was on sale). It's OK. You can download one track from it, "Combat Baby" (one of the highlights, IMHO), plus another song from their new CD, for free over at Better Propoganda.

Random things in my head and elsewhere:

• There's still two weeks left in October, and I'm already chomping at the bit for the new month so that I can get my mitts on another 40 MP3s from eMusic. I've even organized my wishlist in an Excel spreadsheet so that I can sort my picks by artist or by track count with a few clicks of the mouse. (That's either incredibly obsessed or incredibly geeky.)
• Theme song of the day is "Seether" by Veruca Salt. I have an MP3 copy squirrelled away on DVD or CD backup somewhere, but I'm tempted to just buy the track from iTunes for some instant gratification. (Addendum: Yep, I bought it. Goodbye $0.99. Guess I'll just skip the morning coffee at Tim Horton's tomorrow.)
• Speaking of iTunes, they have a "Just For You" recommendation engine currently in beta. It recommends a bunch of albums (and songs) based on what you've bought from them in the past, and you can tell the engine "Don't Like It" or "Already Own It" in response to the album suggestions (which is a pretty sneaky/smart way of doing market research, if you ask me). But why, after I repeatedly keep telling it that I'm not interested in albums by Jay-Z, does it keep pushing different releases by him on me?

Lastly, this cartoon by toothpastefordinner is so true:

Ennui has kicked in something fierce. I'm actually tempted to go to bed because I'm so bored (and lack the ambition to do something interesting, or at least useful).

Here's a pair of MP3s for you (hosted on Rapidshare -- some scrolling, clicking, and waiting required):

• Carl Orff - "O Fortuna" (4.37 MB)
• Apotheosis - "O Fortuna (Apocalypse Chorus Mix)" (5.57 MB)

The first is the widely recognized chorus from Carl Orff's opera Carmina Burana, while the second is a whacked out piece of techno that samples from the first (and reportedly is no longer commercially available).

So, enjoy the end of the world (sing along, if you like). Or maybe just enjoy the end of the week instead.

A little while back, Fluxblog brought a certain song to my attention:

"Rachel Stevens 'I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)' - Oh, Rachel Stevens - never stop with the glammy schaffel-pop! It is your thing and only Goldfrapp can touch you on this score."

And it's a damn catchy little tune that lent itself to some heavy repeat time on WinAmp here in The Hovel. (Only later did I learn that Stevens was a member of the pre-fab telepop group S-Club 7, but I will choose to ignore that from hereon in.)

Anyway, one of the commenters to the Fluxblog post (as did another MP3 blogger, don't remember who) pointed out how the track sounded like Adam and the Ants. When I first heard the track, I immediately thought of it as sounding like Amii Stewart's disco hit "Knock On Wood", with a bit of a slinky Deborah-Harry-circa-1978-spandex-and-ripped-T aesthetic thrown in for good measure.

So, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be great to hear all this put together?" It took a bit of scrounging*, but now -- finally -- here they all are, assembled as the Circadian Shift glampop set:

1. Amii Stewart - "Knock On Wood"
2. Blondie - "Heart of Glass"
3. Adam Ant - "Goody Two Shoes (Hot Tracks Mix)"
4. Goldfrapp - "Train"
5. Rachel Stevens - "I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)"

And you can download it all as a single ZIP file (22.2 MB) (via Rapidshare) and play spot-the-influence and/or slink, schaeffel, and glam out to your little heart's content.

* - most MP3s obtained from other sources on "The Internets"

Acid house fans, you must download this mix:

• funkstörung - "bring back the bounce mix" (MP3, 55.1 MB)

Featuring old-school goodies from LFO, M|A|R|R|S, A Guy Called Gerald, Robert Armani, Aphex Twin, Joey Beltram, Green Velvet, and more, more, more...

Thanks to Totally Fuzzy, who has the full tracklist.

October. It's freaking October already.

The start of the month meant another 40 MP3 frenzy from eMusic. My picks this month were:

• The Pleasure Principle by Gary Numan -- scary to think that this album was released over 25 years ago, especially as I remember when the song "Cars" was a hit; after hearing so many current-day electro throwbacks, it was time to return to the real deal, and this still sounds great
• Long Distance by Ivy -- I first heard the track "The Edge of the Ocean" courtesy of a free download from Amazon.com; the rest of the album offers more of the same dreamy pop with breathy girl-vocals (including bonus French accent); there's also a rather charming cover of "Digging Your Scene" by The Blow Monkeys
• Tenor Madness by Sonny Rollins -- classic bebop; back when I went through my "building my jazz CD collection" phase, there were a number of discs that I'd pick up in the music store, look at, and then put back down (too many choices!), and this was one of them (I did eventually buy two other Rollins discs -- the terrific Saxophone Colussus, and Sonny Side Up, recorded with Sonny Stitt and Dizzy Gillespie)
• Steve Reich - Drumming by So Percussion -- a new recording of Reich's 1971 work for "nine percussionists, two vocalists and piccolo"; probably the best way to fully appreciate the intricacies of it is to listen with headphones while lying down in a darkened room
• and, since those four albums brought me up to thirty-nine tracks, I chose for my last one the song "Streets of Your Town" by The Go-Betweens, for a dose of rainy-day late-80s nostalgia

I also wound up buying a couple songs from iTunes -- two oldies from Boz Scaggs, "Lowdown" and "Lido Shuffle" (both from his album Silk Degrees). Both were 70's era MOR tunes that hovered around the periphery of my consciousness back in the day; then, a couple weeks ago, "Lowdown" was playing somewhere when I was shopping and it just smacked me in the head. It was just a matter of time before I gave in and bought it.

In other happenings from the last seven days, excavation work continues at The Hovel, whilst the bane of my existence this week has been the pile-of-crap-masquerading-as-software known as Microsoft PowerPoint. At one juncture, I was about ready to fly down to Redmond, find the idiot responsible for PowerPoint's completely useless and unreliable formatting functionality, and beat them about the head severely with a wrench. Argh.

I didn't follow the show, but the word is that Rockstar: INXS wrapped up this past week, and some Canadian guy won. I'm not going to get all worked up about the whole "bastardization of INXS' legacy" thing that some fans are on about, but let's face it: getting anyone to replace Michael Hutchence as lead singer is a mighty tall order. J.D. from Oakville, I wish you luck.

Anyway, I'd been meaning to put a couple of old INXS tunes online for a while, so now is just as good a time to do it as any.

These two tracks are from INXS's 1982 album Shabooh Shoobah:

• "Don't Change" is one of my favourite INXS songs, which is kind of funny, since it's somewhat different from the sound for which they later became known. It's got a very pop-y, almost dance-y, New Wave feel to it, and features a keyboard riff that will appeal to fans of the Modern English tune "I Melt With You". Fun fact: when No Doubt was deciding on an 80's tune to include as a cover version on their greatest hits album, "Don't Change" was one of the songs under consideration. (FWIW, I thought they did a fine job with the song they eventually picked -- "It's My Life" by Talk Talk.)
• "The One Thing" still features some prominent keyboard work, not to mention some screeching sax, and something that sounds like marimbas (?), but already you can hear the swagger that went on to typify the group's later stadium rock hits.

You can download "Don't Change" and "The One Thing" as a ZIP file (EXPIRED) (7.14 MB) via Rapidshare.

Boring week. Boring mood board.

I finally got around to seeing Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (IMDB info). It was OK -- didn't love it, didn't hate it. Really, I just went because I saw all the other episodes and even though I knew how this one ended, I still had to see it for myself.

Also bought a couple old/new CDs:

• Although I've accumulated a bunch of Bjork MP3s over the years, I've never bought any of her albums. (Although I did buy "Army of Me" as a CD single back when it was first released.) So I went and got her Greatest Hits compilation from a couple years ago.
• I downloaded a copy of Tourist by St. Germain from somewhere a few years ago, and had been meaning to get a "legitimate" copy for some time. I have now finally done so.

Some free (and legal) MP3s that I've been enjoying lately:

• "Barnowl" by Caribou was a tune that I first heard on the presently AWOL dirtyradio; it's got a nice chugging little groove and some drone-y bits to it which are very catchy
• "Please Wake Me for Meals" by Barbara Morgenstern and Robert Lippok is another dirtyradio find -- all buzzy and blippy, like electro for an airport lounge
• "Do It Now" by Dubtribe Soundsystem is twelve-and-a-half minutes of cool and groovy acid jazz to get down to (sorry to use groove/groovy twice in the same post)
• amazon.com (free registration required) has a couple of exclusive non-album tracks to coincide with Meat Beat Manifesto's new CD; "Postcards" is the stronger of the two
• download.com has two tunes from the new Broken Spindles release, as well as some older tunes that I blogged about here
• the agriculture is currently featuring on its homepage three tracks each from NNNJ and DJ Olive
• more beats are available at smart-music.net, which currently has an entire CD's worth of downtempo and abstract sounds thoughtfully packaged in one convenient ZIP file, as well as a mother-lode of other MP3s in a variety of styles

While it still may be warm enough outside to work up a sweat while just walking around, make no mistake about it -- summer is fading fast.

The passing of Labour Day and the start of a new school year have left me feeling rather wistful. An entire season has passed in what seems like the blink of an eye.

A couple end-of-summer mixes, brought to my attention via totally fuzzy:

• From the long-dormant mix of the week comes their latest offering, called "Gods of Eden". It's a blend of funk, fusion, electro, and other stuff, with several older tracks from the likes of Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michel Jarre, The Art of Noise, and Level 42.
• BendingCorners is new to me; it features monthly mixes of jazz and groove. August's mix, called "Desert Moments", wanders into ambient territory, with tracks by Steve Roach, Autechre, Boards of Canada, and Peter Gabriel (from the Passion soundtrack).

One of the CDs I was listening to at work over the past week was Underworld's 2002 release A Hundred Days Off. This song in particular was on heavy repeat on Friday afternoon:

• "Sola Sistim" by Underworld (EXPIRED) (5.92 MB) (it's a RapidShare link; some scrolling, clicking, and waiting will be required)

Downtempo, and so very chilled -- quite a departure from a group that's perhaps best known for "shoutin' lager! lager! lager!". Beautiful.

Now that we're back, I can finally tell you that Silence Is A Rhythm Too is once again featuring 12" mixes from the 80s all week.

Thus far, there have been tunes from the Tom Tom Club, Spandau Ballet, and The Associates; so, for all you retro freaks, get over there pronto!

Better late than never, here is the mood board for last week...

The week brought the start of a new job, a new month, and a new raft of downloads from eMusic. For my forty-track allotment this month, I decided to forgo getting full albums, and instead cherry-picked a bunch of tunes from different sources.

• Picks number 1 through 27 were a selection of mid-80s goth and industrial tracks from Bauhaus, Gene Loves Jezebel, Love and Rockets, Ministry, Peter Murphy, The Revolting Cocks, Skinny Puppy, The Bolshoi, The Cult, and Tones on Tail.
• Keeping with the retro theme on picks 28 through 39 was an assortment of miscellaneous 80s tracks from Camper Van Beethoven, Eddy Grant, The Dead Milkmen, Scandal and Patty Smyth, Berlin, Toni Basil, Expose, The Go-Go's, Bananarama, and The Alarm.
• And, for my last track for the month, I picked "Raag Shree" performed by Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar; dubbed by the eMusic pundits as "one of the oldest, most difficult, and most exciting of all the ragas", it makes for a decent (I would beg to differ with the "exciting" label) twenty minutes and forty-one seconds (or so) of quieter listening.

Not shown on the board is another bit of media consumption from the week, namely the movie Pollock (IMDB info), which I saw on DVD. I found it to be an enjoyable overview of the life of Jackson Pollock; obviously, they can't cover everything in a movie, but this was good to whet the appetite for more information about his art, and other things.

I had a couple days downtime between contracts this week (I start a new gig on Monday), which gave me the chance to catch up on a few things, like sleep. And music. Lots and lots of music.

I went and bought Coldplay's latest album, X&Y (thank you, iTunes). As mentioned previously, I'm fairly new in catching on to Coldplay. The new album is OK, but I don't like it as much as I liked A Rush of Blood to the Head.

Also, I joined eMusic, finally succumbing to the "try us for two weeks and get 50 MP3s for free" pitch. So, for my free trial, I got the following albums:

• Funeral by The Arcade Fire -- this has gotten some good reviews from various music bloggers, and even my regular weekday morning mainstream radio station recently started playing the track "Rebellion (Lies)"; I like it, although some of the tunes sound kind of similar to me
• Light & Magic by Ladytron -- "Ladytron?" you're saying, "How 2002!" and you'd be right; although I'd heard a few of their tracks back in the day, and even saw them perform live, I'd never heard one of their albums in its entirety; I nearly bought Light & Magic once in HMV, but balked at the price ($21.99, IIRC) -- I'm glad I didn't buy it then, because listening to it now, I don't think it's really held up all that well
• Ciao! 1989-1996 by Lush -- another attempt to backfill the gaps in my music collection; I had an ancient cassette of Lush tunes that a friend made for me, and a handful of MP3s that I found online, but never actually "bought" anything from them before now
• Ultimate Sleep System by Ambient Music Therapy -- the above three albums brought my total up to 47 tracks, so this release -- 3 tracks of ambient electronic noise, clocking in at 25 mintues each -- filled out my 50 track quota

The one silly thing that eMusic does, IMHO, is that they don't encourage you to browse the catalogue before signing up -- a real mistake, because I think most people would want to know if the music that they offer is any good before forking over all their information (plus credit card number). Fortunately, you can circumvent the "start your free trial now" splash screen by clicking one of the footer links (such as the one for 'Privacy Policy'). From there you can access the navigation to browse through the various musical genres that they offer. There's some really good stuff there, particularly for indie/alternative fans; the electronica section is also strong, and my jaw dropped when I saw their jazz offerings -- classic releases from Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Thelonius Monk, Bill Evans, and more.

I've elected to go for monthly "40 MP3s for $9.95 (US)" package (sign up before August 31st and get 20% off an annual subscription), which, if you do the math (between 2 and 4 albums per month, on average) is a damn good deal. I've already queued up enough stuff in my 'Save for Later' list to take care of the first nine or ten months.

In terms of other media consumption, I went to see the movie The Island (Flash site) (IMDB info here). I enjoyed it, although the film's taken a real beating from the critics, mostly due to Michael Bay's noisy and chaotic directing -- I won't disagree, as the sound and visuals can be rather overwhelming at times. But the story's interesting, if you're willing to forgive a few plot holes.

As you might have guessed, the mood board is late because I have been very busy.

Last week in four bullet points:

• spent a lot of time at the computer
• saw the movie The 40 Year Old Virgin and enjoyed it
• played a lot of different MP3s; someone overhead me playing a track from MC5 and concluded that I'm a "headbanger"
• also played some 90s/early-00s era Madonna tunes on Sunday afternoon, which provided a nice pick-me-up while working at said computer

Extremely busy week at work. Deadlines will do that to you.

Also set a new personal record for staying late at the office: 4 am. I know, there are probaly a few of you out there saying "why, that's nothing -- one time I was at the office for (insert ridiculously high number here) hours straight." Congratulations -- you win (or lose).

Anyway, the MP3-CD Walkman was pumping out a stready stream of tunes, most of which I don't really remember. I do know that several mixes from SonicSunset.com figured prominently on one day -- might have beeen Wednesday or Thursday. DJs Matt and Dave are always a good source of old-school electro, mixed in with new stuff, so go check them out if you like that sort of thing.

BTW, pix on the board this week are all courtesy of stock.xchng.

OMG, it's only Wednesday and I've already put in 12 hours of overtime at work this week.

Anyway, here's some tunage that'll take you back...

Silence Is a Rhythm Too has been such a fountain of MP3 riches lately, that I should just display the RSS feed in the sidebar or something instead of sending you over there every few days. Anyway, the latest offering is an extended mix of The Beloved's "Hello", and there's a pointer to the group's official site where you can download many more MP3s.

Meanwhile gabba / pod has the KLF's "What Time Is Love?" (KLF vs. The Moody Boys remix edition). (Note that free registration is required to download; the MP3s are located in the left-hand frame -- some scrolling may be required.)

Anyway, you probably won't hear from me again before Sunday, so have a nice rest-of-the-week.

It's sad, but a busy week can make for a boring mood board.

I went to work and... well... worked. It was busy, but productive (and, of course, it was a short work week). However, the coffee maker was broken during the latter part of the week, so you can imagine what that was like. If it hadn't been for an ample supply of strong tea, I probably would have died.

When not working, I did a lot of walking around. And, it was hot outside.

Media consumption of note:

• I finally got around to seeing the movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle on DVD. It's a fun, ambling sort of buddy flick, nominally about a quest for the ultimate burger, but of course all sorts of wacky stuff happens on the way there. Not exactly The Odyssey, but better than what first impressions might lead you to believe.
• Been liking the song "Mushaboom" by Feist. It's a charming, idyllic sort of track, perfect to listen to on hot, lazy summer afternoons.

(Thanks to toothpastefordinner for the oh-so-appropriate cartoon. Other pix came from stock.xchng and FreeFoto.com.)

Some MP3 goodness for you:

• gabba / pod (free registration required) has "The Promise" by When In Rome (scroll down a bit in the left hand frame)
• Blow Up Doll has "I Know What Boys Like" by The Waitresses
• Alarm Will Sound is a classical music ensemble who performs tunes by Aphex Twin (courtesy of bomarr blog)