Note to self Maschine and Kore

Bit of beat this but I want to rember how to do this trick with my new Maschine sequencer.

Hot Chip's "I feel better" video

Generally not a big music vid fan but I love this from Hot Chip who by the way were so brilliant when they played the O2 in Bristol in Feb that even that awful venue was bearable. This video is hilarious.

Hot Chip - I Feel Better

Hot Chip | MySpace Music Videos

"Dreaming" by Allo Darlin'

A sugar-rush of indie-pop sweetness this, that really puts a spring in the step of thoughts of Spring. It's as catchy as a summer cold but it's real killer punch is that it's a boy girl duet, in the grand tradition of Sonny and Cher or Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra. Out on Fortuna Pop home of fellow C86 flag bearers Pains of Being Pure at Heart - in fact the vibe of this song echos POBPAH's yummy little nugget "Young Adult Friction".

No more Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy, my favourite band of last year is no more! A cause for consternation you might think? Well not really. Owen Pallett has simply decided to release his music under his own name rather than FF (which was always more well known as a computer fantasy game anyway). Truth is it was a slightly naff name anyway. I'm really looking forward to the new album, "Heartland", now by Owen Pallett, which is out on January 11th.

Great article on MP3s vs hard copy music formats

The day after I distributed my end of year comp digitally (for the second year running) this article in the Boston Globe (sent to me by my friend Dave) is about the best I've read on the meaning of music collections in the digital age.

Nearly in the top 12 of the year

Weeding that list down to 12 was tough. I didn't include any drone music even though it's been a big thing for me this year. But it's difficult stuff to weave onto a mix CD. Chihei Hatakeyama has put out two excellent albums, full of dense and evolving harmonics which provide an incredibly immersive sonic experience when listened to as a whole. In a similar (but darker) style Black to Comm's album Alphabet 1968 was notable for its majestic sweeps of noise and found-sounds, but also featured one of the most beautiful songs of the year in "Hotel Freund" with it's haunting orchestral sample. Another track that missed out for simply practical reasons was Lars Horntveth's (of Jaga Jazzist) Kaleidoscopic, an incredibly ambitious Sibelius-like orchestral work which, at 37 minutes, was just too long to include. One of the true giants of the electronic music scene, AtomTM, put out a fabulous album Leidgut, which again works better as a whole. Dirty Projectors released what I think will turn out to be their best album yet in Bitte Orca - but I only got it last month so am still digesting it and I was truly charmed by the romanticism of the Leisure Society, whose Sleeper album is simply very pretty. And speaking of prettiness - Haruko's Wild Geese is an exquisite example of plaintive acoustic folk loveliness. One of my favourite artists, Broadcast, released their most experimental album to date, a collaboration with Ghost Box's Focus Group and very much in the "hauntological" style. But with two tracks already in the 12 from Ghost Box I felt this sound was already adequately represented. That said, the live show Broadcast did in support of this album was brilliant and bodes really well for next year's full album. Other things have crept onto my radar too late, such as Good Evening by the beguiling Nite Jewel, who may end up featuring on next year's comp. Likewise Dead Man's Bones and Joker's Daughter both of whom's albums are currently on repeat-play on the Griffiths iPod. With these late-comers and a veritable stack of eagerly anticipated releases early in 2010 (Jaga Jazzist, Beach House, Hot Chip AND Final Fantasy all have albums released in January) next year's compilation is almost writing itself!