I’ve been looking forward to this gig for a while now – after picking up his album on impulse about a month ago (review here). Its the first time I’ve been to Kings College Students Union in London, and after the initial shock of having to take a lift 4 floors UP to the club like venue, I soon recovered with Extra Cold beer and a Chicken Burger. Support acts were Liam Frost (bloody excellent) and Hush (from Denmark – a duo, who were a little bit eighties, a little bit harsh on the ears – but may sound much better on CD – I’ll check and get back to you). Stephen Fretwell came on at 10.00, with just a guitar – and after a couple of songs was joined by a 3 piece band – keyboards, drums and bass (who was the coolest bassist I’d ever seen – sat down, beer on the go). Cracking version of Bad Bad You – and some new tracks which were really good…came back for an encore of Emily and New York, in an acoustic, man with a guitar style. Excellent gig, from a guy full of style and humilty – superb. I’m gonna book up for Shepherds Bush Empire in January. I took a few pictures (before security stopped me!) – they are over here on flickr.
By: mattr
Category: music
I’m no Stones fan….but this is very cool – the new Rolling Stones album is released on Flash Memory. I can see this being quite a collectors item.
By: mattr
Category: music
![Crash [2004]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000ATJKM0.02._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg)
Crash (2004) - Its an awesome mixture of fate and serendipity that draws the characters in this film together – sometimes with tragic and shocking consequences. Its not often you watch a film as dark and foreboding as this – almost an analysis of prejudice and racism. The cast is excellent, Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock and Matt Dillon are amongst a great ensemble. Its well made, well acted – and almost glacial in pace at some points – but never boring. Great Movie. 8/10.
I sat and read my Sunday paper yesterday, and read a really gushing review of this album – how it was the finest follow up album in memory, and that they clearly hadn’t put a foot wrong in making it. Any review like that is a challenge for me, I’ve got to grab the album and find out whats going on. Strangely enough – I wasn’t disappointed…its a superb followup. They haven’t broken the format too much with tighter than tight guitar riffs, over superbly bad-ass funky rhythm sections. Occasionally they sound a little gang-of-four, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They still have the huge tempo changes, and high-energy choruses (I’m your Villain) and the lyrics are superb throughout (This boy is so spectacular, Not a boy but a wealthy bachelor – This Boy). Its truly a great follow up to their first album – miss it at your peril.
By: mattr
Category: music
We spent a great couple of hours walking through Burnham Beeches on Saturday, here is a short set of photos I took there.
Kate Bush is releasing a new album – looking forward to that!
By: mattr
Category: music
I’ve long been fascinated with how web services can begin to replace tools that once upon a time would have been firmly located on your home machine. Flickr is a great example of something that is handled online, almost better and more flexibly than it is handled locally, sharing and collaboration is much easier, and if you are so motivated your picture collection becomes portable. A new kid on the block is NetVibes - an ajax enabled homepage replacement, which aggregates information from a number of places into a personalized portal. There are plenty of these around – MSN have Start.com, Google and Yahoo have theirs, but NetVibes is something special – it looks good, runs quickly and seems agile enough to really deliver features quickly. I’m using it as my homepage now – I’m watching carefully to see when new modules are added, and whether there will be an API so we can see all the excellent ideas peoples put together for this service.
This is a lovely album, right up my alley of things to listen to. Claudia Brucken was the lead singer with legendary 80′s band Propaganda – and with ZTT label mate Andrew Poppy, they have produced a collection of reinterpreted pop songs, not just covers – but real remakes with subtle and and sometimes not-so-subtle shifts in style. Expect to hear covers of Radiohead, Kate Bush and David Bowie on here, the piano and voice version of ‘Running up that hill’ is a real stand out track, very dramatic. Excellent album – well produced, and brilliantly constructed.
By: mattr
Category: music
Kronos Quartet and Asha Bhosle – You’ve stolen my heart : I listened to this album with a little trepidation, I love Asha Bhosle’s voice…and I like the Kronos Quartet, but I wasn’t convinced how they would go together. It really works – the combination of deep soundscapes by the Kronos Quartet blends nicely with Bhosles amazing voice, and Hindi (?) lyrics. The album is made of tracks composed by her husband R.D. Burman, who was a key figure in creating the sound of Bollywood that everyone recognises. The best track for me is ‘Relationships grow Slowly’ and the instrumental ‘Beloved o Beloved’. The tracks are well updated – with plenty of the original flavour involved – sometimes surreal and almost abstract, and often doleful and sad, Asha Bhosles voice is allowed much room to breathe. I highly recommend this if you’d like a relatively gentle introduction to Asha Bhosle’s work.
By: mattr
Category: music
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