Its good to have something to look forward to, especially as you start the year and its a bit cold and grey. I love those lists of things that are forthcoming – movies, TV and music, and one name that kept cropping up on those lists was ‘Just Jack’. I first heard this guy on a Jools Holland show back in about November and was really impressed with the bouncy sound, fast delivery and above all the streetwise, poetic delivery of Jack Allsop.
The single – Starz in their eyes – is a very cool affair, reminding me a little of Jamiroquai with its electro-funk instrumentation and dance-y beats but the high speed rap will inevitably get Jack compared with the Streets with his faultless flow and zeitgeist touching lyrics. The downtempo breakdown is a beauty and when it all kicks back in for the last chorus its a massive dancefloor tune, I’m going to be looking around for remixes of this one.
The album is much more varied affair taking in a whole bunch of influences and mashing them up with modern beatnik observations. Standout tracks for me are ‘Disco Friends’, stripped down and tripped out anthem about the world of nightclubs and drugs. The track ‘Lost’ is possibly the darkest tune on the album – recounting the story of someone achieving a moment of clarity in the middle of the night.
He used to feel so safe up here, in his shrine to Ikea,
Away from the shouts and the louts and the girls with the overpainted pouts,
And the queers and the dykes and kids in the boxfresh Nikes,
Delivering rocks to the house across the street on rusty mountain bikes.
Its really well observed stuff – as much of the album is. I’m expecting this to do really well, and Just Jack could be one of the early stars of 2007. Thats good news for all of us, because we need some shining lights in the music world.
Technorati Tags: music – just jack – just – jack – overtones – funk – rap – hip-hop – poet – electro
When Microsoft announced that they were going to make movies and TV content available for download on the Xbox360 – it was clear that they were after a harder push into the living room – now it turns out that this move was one of the few success in the movie download arena – it’s a simple equation really:
Doing particularly well are the movies offered in HD, not surprising since many Xbox 360 owners are already playing their console games in high definition. Industry wags say consumers are lukewarm about downloading movies on their PCs and Macs, because there’s no convenient way to watch those movies in their living rooms or home theaters. Not so with the Xbox 360, which has already made its inroads into the TV room. (source)
I know for a fact that my PC sits in an office at home, I occasionally use my laptop from the living room – but not often, after a day at the PC, its good to get away from the screen and relax. Sometimes I do this with the Xbox, sometimes with music and often with the TV. I also know that playing back downloaded material on your PC is not as easy as it looks, especially if you don’t want ANOTHER dvd player in your AV setup.
Now – Microsoft – if you could just do two things for me…like pronto:
- Open this up to the UK – the British audience need some love
- Release a bigger hard drive for my Xbox 360 – 20gig is not going to store a bunch of stuff when its downloaded
Technorati Tags: movies – tv – downloads – xbox – xbox360 – console – gadget – online
Yesterday was the ‘season finale’ of Torchwood – episodes 12 and 13, sandwiched together on BBC 3 (wasn’t overly impressed with the way they just welded these two together – rather than making a seamless long episode, but I digress). I’ve really enjoyed Torchwood – which is is a spin-off from the brilliant Doctor Who.
As you would expect from this kind of thing, there was a spilt in space/time, a threat of the world ending and some personal crisis’ to round the series off – along with a huge suprise halfway through the second part – and a heart tugging, tear inducing moment of tragedy towards the end. I’m not going to hint at the story – just in case I spoil anything for someone idly browsing for info on the times of the BBC2 repeat (Wednesday at 9pm - for info), but rest assured all’s well that ends well – in more ways than one.
The world doesn’t end – and clearly thats a good thing, because they have commissioned series 2 and it’ll be here in the autumn of 2007 – and if the world had ended, clearly they’d need to relocate from Cardiff.
Technorati Tags: torchwood – bbc – tv – cardiff
We’re done with 2006 – finished, over, kaput…and I’m not 100% sure what to make of last year. For parts of ’06 it felt like the world was in information overload – family news being updated on an hourly basis, world news by the minute – huge gobs of information, all incoming at 200 miles an hour and a sense of ‘trying to hold on to just a little bit’ in order to make sense.
I know 2007 is going to be better – way before the time of New Years Resolutions and lists and predictions – I started to get my personal plans in place…and I’m already executing to get some stuff done. Some of my excitement will play out here, and some won’t – but it’ll be fun, thats for sure.
I’m not going make tons of predictions – and list out what I think will happen during 2007, I’ll get it all wrong anyway, but I know one thing. It’ll be better than last year.
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