mememachine interactive design
styles
contact
e: rik@mememachine.net
m: [07966] 307969
links
heavy rotation
My Way
Akufen
force inc.
Life Is
Full Of Possibilites
Dntel
plug research
Yoshimi
Battles The Pink Robots
Flaming Lips
Warner
Neon Golden
The Notwist
City Slang
Futuristic
Experiments Vol 004
Various Artists
Background
shopping
iPod!
I love my trusty iPod, which got even better when I added a pair of Sony MDR-EX70L earbuds. Having 100 albums in my pocket has radically changed the way I listen to music, more of which soon.
check out iPodLounge
Intro
I really really need to update this page. Will post an Akufen review shortly, along with a resource for laptop DJs (and wannabes, like Y.T.).
Meanwhile, I am hugely enjoying the new Flaming Lips opus, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.
London Modular is a handy site listing upcoming electronic music events in the capital
Ableton
I am also totally grokking the fantastic Live by Ableton Software. Check it out! I might put a mix up here soon, if I ever get it finished.
Reviews
Tool | Lateralus
volcano 9210132CD
Tool’s new album Lateralus is, like, the most awesome music ever made by humans. In fact, it's like Tool are aliens from a more musically evolved planet, and their music is in fact a super-advanced programming language disguised as music, which is designed to hack our DNA and our minds and lift us to the next level of human evolution. Repeated exposure to Lateralus will turn you into a post-human, man. Plus the album is really, really long, and, like, a concept album, which is good. Also Danny Carey has a huge drum kit, which is also good.
This is exactly what my inner 15-year-old Rush fan thinks. But I am
older, wiser and infinitely cooler. Or so I thought. Yes, as a teen
I used to love prog-rock and thrash metal. My ideal band would have
been Pink Floyd and Rush crossed with Slayer. My ideal band would have
been Tool. But soon I realized the error of my ways and put away childish
things. I was no longer allowed to like this kind of music. At University
I discovered the joys of, erk, “electronica” and “post-rock.”
I was cooler-than-thou. That was me at the Tortoise gigs, bored out
of my skull, but one of the chin-stroking cognoscenti. I still pride
myself on my large collection of obscure and unlistenable CDs made by
mad Austrians torturing PowerBooks with cattle prods. ("Get Out"
by Pita being a supreme example).
But then something happened. I was a member of the achingly hip Web-designer/flasher
hangout dreamless.org, where one of the threads was on folks' favorite
music. Along with all the usual suspects I noticed a remarkable number
of hipsters raving about a CD called Aenima by Tool. Who? That weekend
I checked it out of the library and had a mini-epiphany: Tool Fuckin’
Rock(s)! And they sampled the mighty
Bill Hicks, which meant they were fairly cool, huh? Huh? Y’see,
I was still feeling guilty for liking this music. But anyway…
I bought Lateralus the day it came out, listened to it on headphones
a few times at work, thought it was okay, not outstanding.
But I was listening to it all wrong. Research has led me to conclude
that the correct, and possibly only, way to fully appreciate this album
is at extremely high volume on a decent hi-fi whilst massively stoned
out of your gourd. Silly me.
The guitars will morph into genetically-engineered cyborg sharks which
will eat your mind. Maynard's lyrics will reveal their full transcendent
wisdom. The unbelievably good production will convince you that this
is alien music, and when “Parabol” kicks into “Parabola”
you will, I guarantee, just about lose your shit. Seventy-eight minutes
will seem woefully short. The album will end just as you are starting
to get into an interesting headspace. You will be impatient for the
next Tool CD, which will be a 7-hour long concept-film DVD based on
“Cosmic Trigger,” William Blake, “VALIS” by
Philip K. Dick and all sorts of other dreadfully clever and esoteric
stuff. You will, for an hour and a bit, be 15 again. Try it, it's fun.
