May 2012
3 posts
January 2012
1 post
November 2011
1 post
August 2011
2 posts
Watchclick on that little white box just there ^ to pick songs, mkay?
1. Washed Out: Amor Fati
2. Bon Iver: Perth
3. Austra: Beat and the Pulse
4. The Horrors: Still Life
5. Arctic Monkeys: That’s Where You’re Wrong
6. Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi: Roman Blue
7. Cat’s Eyes: Over You
8. Junior Boys: Itchy Fingers
9. Pixies: River Euphrates
10. OMD: Enola Gay
11. Kraftwerk:...
May 2011
2 posts
WatchSPRINGCOMPIL 2011
Yes it was about time! & this time in a different format, the YouTube playlist. I think it’s the future (for now). All you have to know is there’s more to it than “A View to a Kill”: click on the right-hand arrow for all 16 beauties I’ve picked out for you this quarter. A selection inevitably influenced by my chancy trip to the US in March: but...
April 2011
1 post
WatchSXSW 2011 Concerts filmed - and sung - by yours truly
- Duran Duran: A View to a Kill
- The Strokes: Last Night (& fireworks), followed by Someday
- Violens: Full Collision
- The Naked and Famous: Young Blood, followed by Spank
- James Blake: Limit to your Love
What can I say. It was huge. All this is just 24h, just 5 of the 400 concerts on at SXSW last March. Lucky yours truly got to go...
February 2011
1 post
“Five steps to heaven”
– http://twitpic.com/4fsi4w/full
could be a good title for this mountaintop panorama gone wrong thanks to iPhone app Pano. You take a series of photos and said app weaves them together… Except when you put phone back in your pocket too soon & it weaves vertically instead of horizontally....
December 2010
2 posts
Winter Compil 2010: Violens, Robots & Tame Impalas
About bloody time! Enough time to stock up on some proper gems, like the last track, a teaser from the no-doubt huge Tron soundtrack; the first tune, from Violens’ no-doubt album-of-the-year; a corker from mad genius Gonzales’ latest (another soundtrack masterpiece); a bunch of young Aussie hippies re-enacting the Beatles’ blissed-out phase (Tame Impala); and plenty of other...
September 2010
1 post
August 2010
2 posts
WatchReview: Rock en Seine 2010
OK so I can’t review the whole thing as I only went for the last day but still. True to form, Paris’ biggest festival was just as touched by genius as it was by sheer bad luck.
It all started nicely for yours truly with a trip to the Nvidia stand for some 3Dgasms, including a stunning first ever 3D gaming experience I’ll tell you about in paper...
WatchMore loveliness from Maman Records with new signing, Californian duo Kisses. Got it too late for my last compilation but no matter. This video is just as slick, polished, dark & sophisticated as the tune itself, a monotonous marvel the whole blogosphere’s buzzing about right now. Not least because it’s notably been remixed by St Etienne’s Pete Wiggs (listen on Kisses’...
July 2010
2 posts
Summercompil 2010: "new" & "retro" editions
This time it’s not one, but two summer compilations that await you lucky people here (new choons from my latest muse Mohini Geisweller, photo; plus Delorean, Tennis, Aeroplane, Silver Columns, Kele & a Yeasayer remix of N.E.R.D. to name a few); and here, the results of my pre-house-move clear-out of old late-nineties electro CDs (gems from Charles Webster, The Gentle People, Adam F,...
June 2010
2 posts
iPad: The Hangover
OK, I’ll admit it. I tend to get a little overexcited about things. Especially when Steve & co tell me to get excited, over a year ago. Fortunately for me, I’m not alone. 2 million iPads have been sold to date, aided by a media orgy to which I have willingly contributed. Now I’ve had one in my sweaty palms for a week, my overriding question is this: is it really that...
May 2010
1 post
Techtastic: 3D & iPad
iPad launch day is just behind us. One senses its wasn’t the huge Apple fanboy clusterfuck it was stateside but still, this is a gamechanger. More about it (in French) in this rather good article (page 12) spoiled only by wrong photos & captions… until I can get my clammy mits on it for as long as possible from Wednesday. Also in that issue (pages 10 & 11) is a rather good...
April 2010
2 posts
WatchMummy knows what’s best for you! A little teaser from up & coming French label Maman Records: Clock Opera’s tempting tunes & an ingenious string sculpture. Enjoy!
& as you’ve all been very good today, here’s mummy’s bonus reward: a remix, by same Clock Opera chappies, of the Phenomenal Handclap Band’s “Baby.” A groovy number if I do say...
Springcompil 2010
1. Rocket: Goldfrapp 2. Grand Central: Alizée 3. Don’t be a Jerk, Johnny: The Drums 4. Highschool Prom (Playground Love - Rob remix): Air 5. Rome (live in Sydney): Phoenix 6. Find the Time: Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly 7. Never Known Love: Thieves Like Us 8. Sweet Disposition: The Temper Trap 9. Girl I Love You: Massive Attack 10. Salt Skin: Ellie Goulding 11. Halcyon: Delphic 12. Bicycle:...
March 2010
2 posts
February 2010
2 posts
Book review: Kill your Friends
Yes, I read books too. But only if they involve psychotic bastards, hedonism & music. John Niven’s Kill Your Friends ticks all those boxes.
It tells the tale of a despicable, hateful, coke-addicted racist, sexist, arrogant and violent A&R man which rings so true that John Niven must have held a major label position at some point in his life… And has now made himself a...
January 2010
1 post
Review: Vampire Weekend: Contra (listen, too!)
As a divine thalasso weekend draws to a close, rather than muse on why we like having water bubbles blown up our buttcracks I thought I’d have a good old rave about Contra, the first album of the year (OK I said it, won’t say it again!)
Why? The last time I saw the band live, this summer, they premiered ‘White Sky’:
…in which (genius) Erza Koenig whoops and...
December 2009
2 posts
Avatar: The Review
The least impressive thing about the latest creation of the director who brought you Titanic (TM) is the reason I went to see it in the first place: the 3D. You only really notice it in scenes with considerable depth of vision - the opening sequence’s deep sleep chamber first and foremost - where you can clearly make out characters larking about in the background. Group dialogue scenes...
November 2009
2 posts
Winter warmer: wintercompil.zip
Lately I have mostly been listening to:
- Out of the Blue: Julian Casablancas - Cousins: Vampire Weekend - I Can Talk: Two Door Cinema Club - Ambling Alp: Yeasayer - All the King’s Men: The Wild Beasts - I Say Fever: Ramona Falls - Theme from Tomorrowland: Cold Cave - Slick: Chew Lips - Holiday: Dizzee Rascal - Bodies (Aeroplane Instrumental Remix): Robbie Williams - Thunderbird: The...
Shitstorm approaching: Call of Duty: Moderm...
In the opening sequence of what will most likely be the best-selling game of the year, you play a CIA agent infiltrated in a group of terrorists, “24”-style. They emerge from an airport lift and start machine-gunning down hordes of innocent people: and you can as well, if you like. In the ultra-realistic sequence, which has leaked all over the net (find it yourself, I’m not...
October 2009
3 posts
Strokes singer goes Pet Shop Boys shocker! Julian...
September 2009
3 posts
5 tags
District 9: the new Star Wars?
OK, so I may well be exaggerating to get your attention (I’m a journalist!) but I have just been totally blown away by Neil Blomkamp’s District 9. Here’s why it could well be this generation’s Star Wars, i.e. the film that reaches way beyond the nerdosphere to obtain huge general public & critical acclaim:
It’s the first ever “reality science...
Autumncompil.zip: The xx, Arctics, Very Best,...
Tracklisting:
Islands: The xx
No Buses: Arctic Monkeys
Two Weeks: Grizzly Bear
Hey You: Pony Pony Run Run
Warm Heart of Africa feat. Ezra Koenig: The Very Best
Not Made for Love: Metronomy
Triangle Walks: Fever Ray
Let’s Go Surfing (The Clean Shaven Grins Out There Remix): The Drums
Azza: Y.A.S.
Take Aim: Kasabian
Potion Approaching: Arctic Monkeys
Anatomy Domine (Prince...
WatchVampire Weekend’s A-Punk: Feelgood tune supreme, live in Paris last week. Ey ey ey EY!
August 2009
3 posts
François Villon (1431-?): Poet, monk and original...
One of France’s finest 15th century poets was also a semi-monk… And a party boy, prankster, whore-lover, bandit and even murderer.
In the excellent “Je, François Villon”, Jean Teulé spins a fascinating docu-fiction, based on supposed fact and educated guesswork, around this original bad boy’s turbulent life.
Admired both by classic scribes like Rabelais and...
Summer romances: Toddla T, The xx & (still)...
Toddla T (photo) is another of those annoyingly talented musicians born in the LATE 80s who has managed to make dancehall palatable with chart-friendly ditties like imminent single Shake It, whilst also mastering the rinsin’ riddims of me yoot, as proved by Boom DJ from the Steel City. As the excellent Ilictronix puts it here, “debut album “Skanky Skanky” is what it would...
Costa del Hell
If there’s anything more clichéd than going on a package holiday, there’s going on a package holiday, hating it and then complaining to the tour operator in the hope of compensation. So colour me & my family walking clichés! :(
It all started out rather innocently. With 2 small offspring, Marie & I accepted our fate of the all-inclusive resort hotel — “you know, for...
July 2009
4 posts
Summer phones: the whole truth!
Right then so here’s my take on the best phones to own right now, from A Nous Paris. In print they cut out all the negative bits… but online is the director’s cut. In short, and for non-French speakers: the iPhone is still the best smartphone out there… but only pay double for the new 3GS (pictured) if you absolutely must have video. The Nokia N97 is pretty swish but...
Do you Discovery?
Discovery of the summer —...
Motion control: the way forward?
In which yours truly gushes about Wii Motion Plus (a bit), PlayStation Eye (not much) and (shitloads about) Microsoft’s project Natal (pictured above): http://www.anous.fr/anous-fr/high-tech/l-avenir-en-mouvement/8357.html
For those not fluent in French (the shame!) just check this out. Guaranteed jaw-dropper… Spielberg is already a HUGE fan!...
June 2009
7 posts
WatchThese Solidays are yours and mine!
As my mates no doubt noticed, I was rather excited at the idea of seeing Friendly Fires live for the first time yesterday. As you can’t tell from this rather poor quality video (expected better of the Nokia N97), the UK group behind one of 2008’s very best albums was let down by the piss poor sound system of Solidays (France’s festival season...
Audio: “Useful Chamber”, Dirty...
