And today is "Math Rock"...

....day!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, that's right. We're talking about a form of music that will contain unusual time signatures, some heavy guitar work, no singing normally....

I'm too busy in work to go into detail.... Here's a tune...

Battles - "Dance"

As my systems are down in work..

....I've actually got 5 minutes to check all the RSS alerts I receive on my Bloglines account. There's hundreds to check. I'm typing this as fast as I can before somebody interrupts me and stops me blogging about one of my favourite all-time songs that I just found on Moistworks. Here it is..

Dandy Livingstone - "RUDY A MESSAGE TO YOU"

There we go. If anyone interrupts me now I can just whack the publish button and then it's out there. I've learnt to put the actual MP3 near the top of the post. If I put it toward the end of a long post then it doesn't show up on "elbo.ws" - only the first few lines of text are used.

Anyway, that tune. It is everything I love about reggae/roots/ska/rocksteady - the big, warm bass, the slow, careful vocals, the pianos, the warm rugged production, the satisfying verse/chorus structure, the catchiness of the vocals. The sort of music that you always enjoy no matter what mood you are in. The blog that posted this MP3 is Moistworks.

"..the stuff of legend.."

As G-man will testify, I bought Zero Tolerance magazine yesterday. It features a massive interview with Jesse Pintado. He is the guitarist of Terrorizer and was ex-Napalm Death too. Since the magazine was printed he actually died of a diabetic come at the end of August. I've just been reading the tributes to Jesse Pintado on the Roadrunner Records website. I've only read half of them but one made me laugh! The comment was about how the Roadrunner website announced his parting.

Here is how Roadrunner announced it -
In a recent interview with Rockdetector.com, Pintado spoke about his final days in NAPALM DEATH.

"The departure was basically due to a variety of reasons," he said. "We shared a house together, we toured together, we were always together, but people move on. Along the way there was a little rough bumps, though I don't know. In my situation it got to the point where I needed a little fresh start. I'm still good friends with the guys; there's no animosity there, we're all cool, and they're happy with what I'm doing."

"Asked if the media twisted the situation in some ways since it was reported that the band stated he had personal problems and alcohol issues," Pintado replied, "Yeah, of course. The other day I was browsing the Internet, and they stated I was dead! I thought 'Oh shit, I'm dead!' I really don't pay much attention to that."

Well, the comment is about the bit I've highlighted in orange. Here's the comment that made me laugh/chuckle:

"why in god's name have they posted the interview excerpt about Pintado talking about his death on the internet? ..its almost as if to say ''you got owned'' or something. Its really really bad taste and they wouldn't dream of doing such a thing with Douchebag Darrell and all his fat ugly minions on here."

If you don't get it don't worry about it.

"..get stuck in your head."

Cannibal Corpse - "Hatchet to the Head" via Demonovich

Thought we needed some true death metal seems as this blog has gone grind/death crazy. Perhaps it's cos I'm feeling so happy. Couldn't listen to some of this stuff if I was depressed!!
I don't actually know this track. Well don't think I do anyway. Just need to know that Cannibal Corpse are an incredible band with an incredibly deep chunky, bassy production. They are technical and very tight. As Lupatakastaja said there is always that slow, chunky section in the middle of Cannibal Corpse songs that seems to get stuck in your head . You end up wandering around humming some crazy guitar riffage. Better than singing all that crap in the charts.
Saying that about pop music, mind, their songs are all structured in a pop way. You know -verse, chorus, solo, middle eight etc. And don't forget - Cannibal Corpse were in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

Ultra- technical death metal

Necrophagist - "Stabwound" via Relapse

Well, what can I say? I've heard the first one second of the track and there were about a hundred drum rolls in that time. Crazy band. Check it out like innit! Grindcore, death metal or something I suppose.

I gotta do some work now!!! Stop bugging me!!!!

Mmmm Caballero, I love me some good Don Cab

This is them. The only band I can think of at the moment where every time I re-listen to one of their tracks I find that it starts to make sense. They are creating masterpieces..
We're talking of course about Don Caballero.

They signed to Relapse Records to release "World Class Listening Problem". The last but one track off that album is available for streaming and downloading on the MP3 page of Relapse Website.
It's called "Savage Composition" and that's exactly what it is. The savagery is in the unexpected time changes and syncopated beats that somehow flow through the music. It's a composition in that it is melodic and structured. Here is the link to this track. Press the blue button to start listening to it almost instantly.

Don Caballero - "Savage Composition"

There you go. That wasn't difficult was it. Now listen. This music demands attention. Don't put it on and then go and make a cup of tea and walk away. Put it on quietly by all means. But just listen. Can you not tap your feet/lap???

More later...

Reading this is freaking me out.

Just started reading a blog post of a first-hand account of a shooting in a student area of Canada. Some nutter running about letting off his gun..students running around averywhere screaming and stuff. I've only read the start as I've stopped to log in to Blogger and creat thise post! It's pretty scary reading when you hear it first hand. I got as far as..

"more gunshots and screaming, trying to figure out what to do next because the shots were getting louder, therefor closer."

Anyway, check it out yourself. Here's the link - the link.
Found this story by reading Boing Boing.

"...open to new possibilities."

Low Latent Inhibition Plus High Intelligence Leads To High Creativity?

Jordan Peterson of the University of Toronto and colleagues at Harvard University have found that decreased latent inhibition of environmental stimuli appears to correlate with greater creativity among people with high IQ. (same press release available here and here)

The study in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says the brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment. Other people's brains might shut out this same information through a process called "latent inhibition" - defined as an animal's unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to its needs. Through psychological testing, the researchers showed that creative individuals are much more likely to have low levels of latent inhibition.

"This means that creative individuals remain in contact with the extra information constantly streaming in from the environment," says co-author and U of T psychology professor Jordan Peterson. "The normal person classifies an object, and then forgets about it, even though that object is much more complex and interesting than he or she thinks. The creative person, by contrast, is always open to new possibilities."

Previously, scientists have associated failure to screen out stimuli with psychosis. However, Peterson and his co-researchers - lead author and psychology lecturer Shelley Carson of Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard PhD candidate Daniel Higgins - hypothesized that it might also contribute to original thinking, especially when combined with high IQ. They administered tests of latent inhibition to Harvard undergraduates. Those classified as eminent creative achievers - participants under age 21 who reported unusually high scores in a single area of creative achievement - were seven times more likely to have low latent inhibition scores.

The authors hypothesize that latent inhibition may be positive when combined with high intelligence and good working memory - the capacity to think about many things at once - but negative otherwise. Peterson states: "If you are open to new information, new ideas, you better be able to intelligently and carefully edit and choose. If you have 50 ideas, only two or three are likely to be good. You have to be able to discriminate or you'll get swamped."

"Scientists have wondered for a long time why madness and creativity seem linked," says Carson. "It appears likely that low levels of latent inhibition and exceptional flexibility in thought might predispose to mental illness under some conditions and to creative accomplishment under others."

A less able mind has a greater need to be able to filter out and ignore stimuli. A less intelligent person with a low level of latent inhibition for filtering out familiar stimuli may well sink into mental illness as a result. But a smarter mind can handle the effects of taking note of a larger number of stimuli and even find interesting and useful patterns by continually processing a larger quantity of familiar information.

You can find the original paper here: Decreased Latent Inhibition Is Associated With Increased Creative Achievement in High-Functioning Individuals (PDF format)

The central idea underlying our research program is therefore that individuals characterized by increased plasticity (extraversion and openness)retain higher post-exposure access to the range of complex possibilities laying dormant in so-called ‘‘familiar ’’environments.This heightened access is the subjective concomitant of decreased latent.." Read On.

Credit to Mesq

"Four necks. Two sound holes. 42 strings..."

"Created by luthier Linda Manzer for guitarist Pat Metheny, the instrument took 2 years to build (approximately 1000 hours), and when the 42 strings are strung up to high tension, the Pikasso is under approximately 1000 lbs pressure. It weighs 6.7 kg or 14 3/4 lbs.." Read On

This article was found on Link Filter via A Welsh View

"..very accidental group of people.."

Grails - chilled live spacey guitar/post-rock. Very deep though. You can stream a session from a Dutch radio station. Click here.
Also, here are the MP3s hotlinked from Grails website.

Back To The Monastery
Stray Dog
Black Tar Prophecies Vol's 1,2,&3, 2006

Master Builder
Interpretations..., 2005

Dargai
Redlight, 2004

Burden of Hope

lslaflalsasjdlaksd

THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW .......

The text below is a snippet from a blog called Pause At Work

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies.
Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for
survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

 The Emergency Number worldwide for **Mobile** is 112 .* If you find
yourself out of coverage area of your mobile network and there is an
emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to
establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112
can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. **Try it out.**

 Subject: Have you locked your keys in the car? Does you car have remote
keys?*
This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone:
If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call
someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone.
Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person
at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on
their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your
keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away,
and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you
can unlock the doors (or the trunk).
Editor's Note: *It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car
over a cell phone!"*
More

Battle of the Planets

Battle of the Planets

Giant train

Classic album art from Diamond Head album "Am I Evil?"

Who was Penry?

SAFETY SECOND, BODY LAST

This is to tell you all about a crazy band called The Locust. Here is an Mp3 of some of part 2 of their album called "Safety Second, Body Last".

The Locust - "One Decent Leg / Movement Across the Membrane"

Enjoy.......if that's not enough there is another track by them on Clik and Lissen.

Quote: This album "flows like a classical symphony, flying through five movements at lightening speed." Just don't forget we're talking about mental, screaming grindcore...

I've just ordered this album. It's only £4:69 or something because the album is two huge long tracks. P+P is £1:50 ish. 3 days delivery time!! Here is the link to buy it - the link to buy it.

"..quiet interludes and giant swells.."

Yep, you can always rely on Brainwashed. If you're in the mood to check out some new, mental music - normally some crazy grindcore/noisecore stuff - then do what I do visit the aforementioned site. They normally provide clips of a few tracks from the band they're reviewing. The clips do not last forever though so you'd better check 'em out and download them if you like them..Here is today's offering..The band are called Xasthur and they are on Hydrahead Records , home to Isis and Pelican and stuff I think. So here are the MP3 clips..


Xasthur - "Prison of Mirrors"
Xasthur - "Trauma Will Always Linger"
Xasthur - "Loss and Inner Distortion"

I haven't listened to the tracks myself yet so here is a part of the review...

"Black metal has officially disintegrated and transformed into a genre that's as deserving of the adjective "metal" as it is of "ballet." Malefic's dense, foggy, and self-abusive Xasthur project might feature guitars, unintelligible vocals, and all the drama a high school student could ask for, but it is a creature deserving of its own musical kingdom. All the Sunn O))) relationships and mentions of Darkthrone in the world won't make this a metal album.."

What do you mean you don't fancy it?????

Grindcore

"Jim, you've created a monster....!"

Stuffed aubergine with couscous and tomatoes
Thai Green Curry Paprika Chicken
Broccoli Cheese Bake
Toad in the Hole

These are just some of the fantastic recipes that have been added to the, like, 2-week old website that is the "world wide kitchen". The front page seems to update itself every couple of hours, I mean minutes, so let's have a look and seee what's on there now....

Thai Green Curry
Tom Yam Gung
Lamb Tikka Pasta with Basil
Spicy Steak Salad

Warning : do not use this site if you're feeling starving hungry!!!!!

Joke

Cheeers Jim.

Proper ambient bruv...

This is the artwork for Loscil. Ambient music. Check this MP3 out...

Loscil - "Still Upon the Ocean Floor"

I was taken by the artwork while scouring Rate Your Music for drone and ambient music. Noticed that they featured in both categories. Upon searching for them on Exploseek I came across the Mp3 above, which if you've got any sense you will have clicked the blue button by now so you can check it out. It is well ambient. Just found out that it is "from the free album Stases".
Enjoy.