Music

[Therion]

Azam Ali - Elysium For The Brave

[Mossy Toes]

Was introduced to Adore, by Savages this morning and it's crawled into my headspace and won't leave.

[Mossy Toes]

Putting on some Bowie, as is right and proper.

R.I.P.

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Yep - a real black armband day for me. When I heard it on the radio -though it wasn't coming through on a wave of phase- I told the DJ -Chris Moyles, to name names- to eff off in shock. Got the Blackstar album on in my van, now.

'His gift is you and me, boy.'

[Mossy Toes]

He was definitely preparing for this for some time, I'll say:

Look up here, I'm in heaven...

Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)

[Mossy Toes]

Something that might not be particularly aimed toward folks across the pond, but I finally dug into, and very much enjoyed, the hot hit new musical Hamilton--just the audio for it, but following along in the liner notes.

Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States--albeit somewhat forgotten, by comparison to the others, though one of the key federalists in establishing the central government in it: brilliant polymath, arrogant ass, and $10-bill face. For now. If Harriet Tubman doesn't replace him soon, when it should be the $20 Andrew Jackson (just plain arrogant ass, for those of you not caught up on US history--to say nothing of violent and genocidal) who ought to be replaced.

Anyways, excellent musical, though it does harp on the American Dream/Revolution at quite length. King George is delightfully snotty and abusive. Aaron Burr is an excellently realized in his role as the vacillating and uncommitted but empathetic antagonist. I also applaud Lin Manuel Miranda for throwing out the white male narrative, as historically accurate as that may have been, and casting multi-ethnic and gendered players in the roles, so that the cabinet rap battles feel damned genuine, with the slave-owning Thomas Jefferson being played by a black man, etc.

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Not my usual: The Carolina Chocolate Drops with Leaving Eden. Excellent, toe-tapping blues/ American folk. Saw them on Jules Holland over on New Year's eve, and had to follow them up. Glad I did.

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Liverpool Empire last night: an excellent performance, with a very enthusiastic audience. How the Hell Richard O'Brien ever got it made, I don't know, but I'm glad that he did. All together, now: 'In. Just. Severn. Days. I can make you a maa-aa-aa-aaan!'

[Rob P]

Must be the season for musicals because i've also been listening to a musical.

I'm a big fan of musicals anyway, but I'm gripped at the moment by the original London cast recording of Les Miserables. It really makes the recent film sound absolute crap (save Sacha Baron Cohen's Thenardier).

A few favourites are:

Work song / Look down
Who am I?
I dreamed a dream / Confrontation
Master of the house/ Beggars at the feast
Red and black
Do you hear the people sing?
Turning
Finale

[Chun the Unavoidable]

I read the book last year -and it was thoroughly enjoyed- as a prelude to watching the film - I take it the latter's not worth bothering with?

[Rob P]

I'd still give it a go. I think it's different enough from the book - though it's nearly as long!

Javert (Crowe) really ruins it. His singing is just to his own tune. Everyone else is just not quite as good as the original recording save Cohen and Anne Hathaway. I saw the film the first time before listening to the original recording and i'm not saying the film is bad at all, just that the original recording has a lot more oomph.

It's visually stunning. I wouldn't have had Eddie Redmayne as Marius personally as he looks a bit feeble in everything. Other than that, and my concerns about Russell Crowe's singing, I think the cast fit the roles really well.

[Therion]

Bought this recently:


Endstille - Kapitulation 2013

The last track kinda feels like the last few years of my life:
https://endstille.bandcamp.com/track/endstille-abschied

[Rob P]

Absolutely loving Danger Days by My Chemical Romance. Really enjoy albums with a narrative.

[Rob P]

OMG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT1ujfuXFVo

[Major Rawne]

OMG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT1ujfuXFVo

As in OMG that's terrible?

[Rob P]

Unfriended!

[schaferwhat‽]

Not quite sure on the new Front Bottoms album, a few songs still hit me in the emotion zone but not as consistently and much less rocking out.

Fortunately very much over doing Diet Cig's "I swear I'm good at this" which has lots of rocking out.

[Therion]

I recently listen to:

Fiona Apple, Tove Styrke, MasseMord, Milla Jovovich, Chic Gala, Kap Bambino, Send Request.

Send Request is one of these obscure local punk-rock or whatever bands. I learned about them exploring the legacy of Randy Stair as he worked with them as technical person at some point and was using their songs in his videos.

[Therion]

My Current musical obsession is The Pretty Reckless. Weird to be back to listening to vaguely normal hard rock telling mainly human stories. Haven't done that since I stopped listening to Metallica around 2005. Reminds me of high school days. Depressing but somehow invigorating. Within two months three songs by them - Kill Me, Oh My God and Sweet Things climbed to the top of my listening list - a list where the earliest play date is December, 2016.

Trying to balance human music with more godlike - occult/cosmic/ideological stuff.

Besides that, Grimes - I love her Medieval Warfare, Kill v Maim and Venus Fly. The videos for the later two are amazing!

The Pretty Reckless inspired me to go back to listening Cradle of Filth - mainly Nymphetamine and Dusk and Her Embrace.

Then Send Request. I like them a lot because their first albums had two songs related to being a creator - Comeback Song and Never! Never!, I guess Anymore too. Randy used the Comeback Song in intro of his videos for a long time.
They released their first big album on CD this year - Perspectives. Of course I had to get it, because of Anti-Social War which is about Randy Stair. To be honest it's the only song from that album that I actually liked.

I was listening to Tove Styrke a lot through the first 8 months of 2018 - that is mainly to Kiddo. After Kiddo, her new album released in 2018 was a massive disappointment. It was entirely about relationships.

I recently returned to listening to extreme metal - Mgła, Behemoth, Kriegsmaschine and Marduk for more Godlike mood.

I listened a lot to Nevermore - Politics of Ecstasy - especially Next in Line.

Also, to Queen of the Damned OST - I find Not Meant For Me to be a perfect reflection of how I feel about life.