February 2012
2 posts
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Facebook Page...
This could almost be deemed as a redundant post of sorts, but its just a notification to let you know a Facebook page has finally been created to go hand in hand with this blog, so all updates should now go straight to there(as opposed to my personal Facebook page, snore) and also may allow a little bit more interaction and updates through that marauding juggernaut that is everybody’s...
January 2012
8 posts
Burn the Aeneid's Review Of Spotify's Top 100... →
Shock Horror. Some people who actually write are seizing the Tumblr platform to do just that. A rebellion in the blogosphere? Who knows. Either way, the written word on this, without doubt, the most popular blogging interface in this very day and age is something to cherish. At least its not people masquerading as an edgy creative type by copying and pasting pictures onto...
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'Shame' Review
Michael Fassbender’s performance and Steve McQueen’s backdrop mutually excel in a film that provokes a glut of probing questions on modern life, and the polarization between love and cold, soulless lust that lies therein.
‘Shame’s release to the cinema has brought with it a raft of publicity and attention purely because of its subject matter. In a nutshell, it revolves around sex. And I won’t lie...
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Toby Kaar →
New Year. Welcome to 2012, a year I have down to be a big one, with oodles of progression, and driven by a personal ‘revolution of refinement’.
Luckily, It started off very, very well… What a beautiful morning/afternoon, that I’m now missing and trying to relive already. Oh well. Sometimes you try and get some music to recreate the feeling. Unsuccessfully, but valiant...
December 2011
9 posts
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2011 - End of Year Mix by JC →
(Click above link to access the Soundcloud Page)
Following a ‘Best Of’ list for albums, inevitably it would have been rude not to do something similar for electronic tracks. Any extra motivation I needed was whetted by Resident Advisor’s usual gargantuan ‘Top 50’ effort, which, whilst not being too succinct or palatable, also got it horribly wrong with their number 1, Blawan’s...
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Eclectic Picnic's Top Ten Albums of the year......
Welcome to the Internet event of the year. Glad you could make it. Its a pretty big deal when you upstage Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Joey Barton’s Twitter, but hey, I’m pretty chilled out about the whole thing.
Let me preface this by saying numerous times over the course of the year, I felt 2011 seemed to be a very poor year for music on the whole. It was more about...
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Boiling Over
The Social (media) event of the year… Thom Yorke ensures Boiler Room goes stellar.
What do you think of when you hear ‘Boiler Room’? If it’s a late 90’s/early 00’s poor man’s Wall Street, with Vin Diesel in his edgiest performance ever, you’re not very with it. If the term ‘Immersion’ springs to mind, there’s even less hope for you. Boiler Room, if you had never heard of it, has rapidly...
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The Importance of Stewart Lee
Many of Stewart Lee’s long time admirers have never had any doubts about his comedic credentials, his trademark razor sharp brand of intellectual wit, and the astonishingly clever structure to all his routines. However, ‘cult’ status would be a more fitting term to bestow upon the popularity that Lee maintains to have. He did after all, memorably name one of his runs ‘41st Best Stand Up Comedian...
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Thoughts
Inactivity leads to oblivion.
Activity leads to fruition.
October 2011
1 post
September 2011
4 posts
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Zulu Winter
Perhaps its something subliminal about being a cog in a juggernaut that peddles the likes of David Guetta and Professor Green that pushed me to go and check out some unsigned music for the first time in an age. Or indeed, just the chance to relive a hobby that now personally seems to be from a bygone era, long, long ago. Well, fair enough, there’s probably always been something very...
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Go... West?
It seems like taboos’s are dropping like flies on the screen these days. A mould was shattered, surprisingly by the German’s, when Bruno Ganz did the unthinkable and unbelievable by portraying Hitler in ‘Downfall’. How were we supposed to relate to one of history’s most maligned characters? Surely too much to handle, too difficult to connect to, and a step too far....
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August 2011
4 posts
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Robin Friday: The Man Don't Give A F**k
Robin Friday: As immortalised by Super Furry Animals, banging in another one for Cardiff.
Considering its such a universal language, worshipped as the ‘beautiful game’, and widely acknowledged as the fuel that pumps through many a man’s veins, the most galling aspect of the eternally burning flame of football is… the protagonists themselves. Either mind numbingly dull, gormlessly stupid, or just...
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Stevie Russell Indian Summer Set →
Its been a while since I posted a set of any description, and thats probably because there hasn’t been too much blowing my mind recently, apart from perhaps the outstanding Maya Jane Coles Esssential Mix, but anyway… The reason why I’ll encourage the following is not just because its a little bit closer to home, but mainly because I just prefer it because its so damn good.
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July 2011
1 post
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News Of The...
The News International story needs to stay in the headlines, otherwise a golden opportunity to clean up a moral, abhorrent journalism and the untrammelled power behind it all will go abegging.
How Rupert Murdoch, in his innate bloodthirstiness for a big story must have welcomed Amy Winehouse’s death, and even more so, the shocking atrocities in Norway. However, Murdoch usually loves scoops...
June 2011
6 posts
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Nothing's Changed
The shortest and sweetest of holidays was spent last week immersed in Barcelona brilliance, and a ticket to the Pitchfork drenched Primavera Sound festival in tow. With a lineup that was choc a bloc with of the freshest hipster delights, ultra bona fide veterans, and pretty much everything in between, it was always going to be difficult to prioritise acts to see, especially when on arrival, you...
May 2011
7 posts
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Tree Of Life Review
Where to start… Bucket loads of clamour; the proverbial case of mixed reviews, revulsion to adulation from all kinds of critics, whether it’s professionals or popcorn munchers, and now, the proclaimed winner of the Palme D’Or. Probably an accolade that will, on past experiences, only serve to create an even greater chasm of opinion. That’s the general talk so far for the Tree Of Life. Now...
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Motor City Drum Ensemble - DJ Kicks... Lick your... →
Shout out for Stevie G (not that old school Cork punter) for giving me the heads up on this one, if I could give you more information, or even a sneaky download link, I would, but for now, we anticipate with baited breath. Considering I just said that, it will probably be mediocre beyond our wildest nightmares. Then again, if he’s sensible and includes a tracklisting clogged with MCDE...
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Mark E - Stone Breaker
And while I’m on topic for all things CHEWN related, thought I would be all ahead of the game and give you the heads up on Eclectic Picnic fave and general House ledgehammer Mark E’s album. More renowned for his anorak approach to collecting the finest house music known to man, and indeed proceeding to spin it in style, he has laboured and toiled on some of his own tracks for quite a...
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Fabrication
(Apologies for the delay, life goes up and down, tumult, rollercoasters, that sort of thing. Anyway, back to the music John)
The latest FabricLive Mix (57) courtesy of Jackmaster is arguably one of the most hyped the series has been boasting for a while. There has always been a bit of excitement when a certain name is in line to make a Fabric mix, and there’s hardly been a better recent...
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April 2011
17 posts
...
The Idiots are winning again. They always are.
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Royal Pain in the...
Here’s an opinion piece for you. A fairly topical one too. What a truly momentous day. Especially to be British, and witness one of the most truly spectacular events of our lifetime. It was probably the greatest day of our lives. Oh what joy to see our precious William and Catherine(or eh, Kate?) joined in holy matrimony, and send the nation (kingdom, empire, whichever you like) into...
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Hivern... Muy Bueno
Spain. Hotbed of much. Beautiful people, beautiful place, charisma that affects both. A country with passion coursing through its veins. Finest purveyors of the beautiful game these days too of course. They’ve got a certain World Cup trophy and El Clasico’s to illustrate that. It boasts Madrid, Barcelona, countless other mesmerising places… Great place to live, great place to...
The Secret History....of a forgotten author?
Heard of Donna Tartt? Debateable. Should you have? In terms of sheer ability, most definitely. In terms of reality, probably not. Its almost now 20 years since 1992, a time to which we can recall quite well, but also where two decades have crept up rather rapidly, and you pose yourself the question, Jesus, is it that long ago? Indeed, its almost those 20 short, or long (whichever way you look at...
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Heartworm
I was going through my external and stumbled across this ‘classic album review’, which was written once for the University newspaper, and must be about 7 years old at this stage. Funny thing is, these type of things usually date rapidly, and the cringe factor is untenable. No doubt at that naive and impressionable juncture there was countless acts of mediocrity I was championing. Not...