My Brightest Diamond

Okay, what just happened there in 2009?  It went by like a blur.  All snide comments aside about my utter lack of indie juice for that year, I could say that my personal evolution has tremendously affected the course of this website’s content.  As I review all my entries it’s been so issue-oriented and later on, I tried to experiment on describing sensations evoked by music and vice-versa.  The latter is a somewhat out-of-body experience, if you will, which might require a slight intoxication on my part (again, real or imagined).

But enough of my self-indulgent musings.  This year, I wish to introduce a new dimension to this blog which is to feature guest writers.  That’s right.  Other voices writing on this blog aside from moi. I’m sure by now you’re tired of this highly cynical and weird eccentric behind the keyboard.  Fine.  We’ll drag in another highly cynical and weird eccentric behind the keyboard! Hah.

So yes, expect some guy named Francis to pop into this scene once in a while.  By the way, Francis is a guy I can easily monitor.  By that, I don’t mean in the Foucauldian sense of the word nor at a predatory sense whereby I am the stalker and he is the stalkee.  No.  It is like the kind of monitor where I can see him sitting in front of class and slap his back startling enough that will remind him to write some more.  Take not that Francis is in no way being remunerated for his efforts yet (at least as far as cash is concerned because I will probably be subject to some ‘homework collaboration’ in the future should he ask for assistance in the event that I will be guilt-tripped to oblige).  But you know!  You get the point. He is also a ‘prolific’ indie artist.  By that I mean he has his own myspace! (Okay, up to you if you get my sick and twisted humor).  Kidding.  Again, let’s get that out of the way and just anticipate his words because you can probably pick up a thing or two from this extremely tenacious music geek.

I am also dragging some of my other friends into this salad of music geekery.  When they are no longer pretending to be busy – like I used to do.  Of course, in case they are telling me matter-of-factly that they have work this blah blah blah, I’m sure I’ll find a way to squeeze out a little piece of their wonderful minds once I’ve found their bargain weakness.  So there.  That’s what you’ll be expecting this 2010 in Southisms.  Shove Kim to the sides with her boring commentaries at late and in with the new fabulous music critics who’ve got some fresh insights in to the musical esse.

Now, time for a playlist. Maestro! Music!

My Brightest Diamond - Something of an end [Download]

Moby - Shot in the back of the head [Download]

The Books and Jose Gonzales - Cello Song [Download]

I was able to do a phone trial for WOMWorld for the new Nokia E71. I wrote an extensive review on my other blog which I hope you guys should check out. Here’s an excerpt:

Their E71 model inspires enthusiasm among Nokia consumers especially among the growing number of people who have jumped in to the Wireless LAN bandwagon. Personally, it’s about time that mobile phones began to fully embrace the internet and enhance its flexibility and capability to surf it.

It also has its own built-in music player which comes in handy if you don’t have your own mp3 player like in my situation. I use the phone to listen to the Music I’m in to at the moment so I’ll let you in on some of the songs on my current list.

• Ellen Allien & Apparat - Do not break
• Sigur Ros- Gobbledigook
• Trentemoller – Miss you
• De la Mancha – Lotus seven

By the way, the song from Sigur Ros on my playlist from their newest album entitled in a long Icelandic name I can hardly pronounce. The album is a bit happier than the more epic tunes we’re so used to hear from the band like from the original soundtrack of the movie Vanilla Sky. Speaking of movies, the movie The Fountain which is a personal favorite features the song from Trentemoller, a pensive new age tune. Check ‘em out.

Y’all have a nice weekend!

Yesterday, I felt rain on my head.  Walking through a crowded place, everyone is bustling, running for cover, scrounging for a ride home.

Yet I moved through the noisy crowd like the film and music was slow and sad. Like Karen Carpenter cooed at my ear with her cold voice.  I have always wondered why the rain was such a sad occasion on most literary references.

Scarlett Johansson – Falling Down [Download] [Lyrics]

Oh, and by the way Scarlett Johansson can sing.

Now, I have a clear bias for the disk jockey software I was used to before, and I really think that it’s still the best way of smoothly transitioning songs with one another.  I am specifically fond of the program OtsDJ from OtsLabs but unfortunately only the trial version is available online and they come with annoying OtsDJ stingers that I can’t remove.  So that alone eliminated the prospect of my using it for the party.  Its full version is obviously minus the stingers but cost about a whopping USD 999.95.  But that price is good for professional Radio Broadcasting companies, without going through the trouble of renewing their license for the use of the product.  Clearly, Ots targets a niche market but if ordinary people could get their grubby paws on this thing, it’d top ordinary party music players.  It has its own audio leveling initiative, that even if you transition songs manually, it gives you a hint of where to start off without the songs sounding weird next to each other.  Radio networks try to cheat this awkward transitioning by putting on stingers in between say for example, it’d be strange to put a JayZ song next to something from…Josh Groban.  So you put something in between that cleverly inserts your station ID “Killerboop FM, your music priority” blah blah.  (Which reminds me, I have yet to write about HOW to make a good music compilation since the same principles apply). With the case of Ots, it crossfades the songs smoothly next to each other with or without anything inbetween.  You can continuously play music and it’ll fix things for you automatically.

Since I wrote off Ots from my list, I had to come up with a FREE alternative.  And I chose from four different softwares, namely: Virtual DJ, iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Rhapsody.

Virtual DJ probably has the nearest features to Ots but again it’s not for free.  I  managed to buy an installer from a shop in Manila and have the full version installed on my laptop.  The great thing about Virtual DJ is that, as the name implies, its really made for a DJ.  Not the kind of DJ I used to be, but DJs who play for clubs and are technically playing club music.  I didn’t want to play an all club music playlist for the party because of the moderately “behaved” crowd, if you don’t mind me saying.  But had I intended to play for a crowd more open to House music, this would be the most excellent software to use.  It features an Auto Sync beatmapping thing that lets you match the tempo of a song automatically.  It also gives you an option to transition the beats by the number of bar counts in between.  Okay, that’s DJ talk already.  Mind you, this is ALSO another niche product which hits a happy nerve among its enthusiasts.  Plus, if you really get in to the mixing thing, you can record your entire mix via the program, leaving out the hassle of recording hardware that can burn a hole in your pocket. The next thing you know, you can burn your own music mix straight from the desktop.

Moving on to the poor man’s media players?  I hope not.  We all know how GREAT the almighty Apple iTunes is, but let’s measure how functional this player can be for parties.  First of all, I love its crossfade effect.  It’s as smooth as the visual transition interface used for the iPod, hard to explain really.  But by the sound of it, its the best among cheap downloadable music players.  I’ve also noted that building a playlist with iTunes is by far the easiest to deal with.  I like the idea that I can organize all my playlists in a viewable area at the left sidebar, and drag and drop music files from anywhere: even from other media players!  And some music software won’t let you do that.  My big problem with iTunes has more to do with its rather bland aesthetics.  If it’s music and functionality you’re looking for, you wouldn’t mind playing it on a software that looks like a spreadsheet.

I hardly want to talk about Windows Media Player since it’s practically a local software but I considered it because of its really familiar interface.  The newest version out there, which I use on Windows Vista is one that eliminates the standard row of functions, only to appear if you press ALT.  What I don’t like about Media Player is its rather juvenile Visualizations that come along with the package, which the newest version of Winamp has already beat.  (Note: I didn’t include Winamp in this review because I think it deserves an entire post, to follow).  Where was I?  Yes, WMP is so uninteresting these days.  What I do like about it is NOT the fact that you can change the surface colors but that you can incorporate it in such a stylish way on the taskbar.  It’s not on the system tray it’s on the left side of the bar when minimized as you can see in this picture:

Never mind the product placement there.  Anyway, it’s posited at that side of taskbar you get what I mean?  You can set it up via the taskbar properties.  It’s a great way for Windows to monopolize features all over again!

Last but not the least is the most elusive Rhapsody.

My friend uses this for their bar and it’s a great software to use if you want to attend to everyone’s request. Why?  Because it’s powered by no less than the internet!

Real Rhapsody has iTunes’ playlist building flexibility whereas you can access the internet for full albums from your favorite artists.  Its dashboard is intuitive that it makes an artist suggestion for you based on the kind genre of the artists that you look up on Rhapsody.  And because you can access songs so easily from the internet, it’s likewise more accessible when it comes to building a playlist from a database larger than the ones you have on file.  Unfortunately, it comes with a catch: you have to pay.  At least for either a monthly subscription of USD 9.95 or a yearly sum worth USD 20.00, and those are the last prices I checked before the oil hike, yikes. The software itself is downloadable for free and is fairly respectable when it comes to archiving your music without getting confused.  It’s just that, you can get away with other music players that uses less memory for local music playing.

Out of all of the poor man’s category, I’d say iTunes wins this one and I’d recommend this for an easygoing mp3 player experience. As for the other players, most features I liked are superficial ones, and among those who’ve I’ve lauded for their systematic depth of function, it’s such a drag having to dole out so much cash so that you can appreciate some music.  You’d rather burn a CD.

I guess at this point, you might be asking why?

Call me weird but I have a strange philosophy about music which suggests that the music you listen to is directly proportional to your temperament. Of course, this formula suggests that altering your choice of music can likewise alter your mood. See, before I’ve decided to admit myself to Rock Rehab, I have been listening to immensely poppy tunes and loads of sleepy songs. It’s time for me to get off my ass and kick out procrastination because I’ve got tons of work to do! (Which reminds me, the company I work for AVL Film and TV Productions, is planning to launch a Mindanao-based Music awards – more details later.) Anyway, more to the point that rock is exactly the kind of music I need right now, especially, happy-sounding-rock, I’ve noticed I’ve turned soft lately and I blame it all on the music I’ve been feeding myself for the past few months. It’s time to bring back some of my sarcasm and regain my steel guts. Because yeah, some people can be tough even if they listen to softer tunes, but nothing gears up your mood that way better than some orgasmic Hendrix solo. And yes, rock is orgasmic. Nothing gets me at a better mood than music that’s as good as sex; topped only by sex itself.

So I’m going to snub artists like Feist, Explosions in the sky, Jose Gonzales, Emily Haines and Deerhunter for the meantime. I absolutely love shoegazer like music but I’m not really in the mood for that. So if you are, you might as well check out those artists and let’s be each other’s contrast and tell me about it!

Rock rehab begins. Woo!

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We’ve already reserved the website for our upcoming Music Awards, hopefully I can plug it on this site as soon as the launching is in order. Meanwhile, watch out for it some time in the middle of August. Nominations will begin by next week. Support your favorite Mindanao-based band! Be part of Muzika del Sur Music Awards 2007. More details later on this week. Adios!

Tags: Deerhunter, Deftones, Emily+Haines, Explosions+in+the+sky, Feist, Frank+Zappa, Jimi+Hendrix, Jose+Gonzales, Mindanao+Music, Music+Awards, Steely+Dan, The+Decemberists, The+Metric, The+New+Pornographers, Radiohead, Wolfmother

So moving on, since this blog is mainly a Music blog, let’s get to the second chunk of this post which is to discuss my love-hate thing going on with “House” music. Okay, half of me dislikes House because of growing up disliking it with people around me (or I happen to be around with) disliking it, and most of the time, it’s a two-fold thing. You can’t find yourself liking something easily when people around you don’t. But I must say that somewhere along the line, I started liking the thumping character of this kind of music. It’s infectious. I think it’s a gay thing. And since I’m being heavily accused of being a pseudo-gay (by the people I least expected to put me that way), I won’t peg down my starting to like House to gay aesthetics, or at least being able identify with it. Let’s just put that the aesthetics behind House has a deviant flavor without sacrificing its staple party consanguinity. Wow, big words. But really. If you’re an Indie snob like I am, “deviance” has got to be a touchy subject. SO I qualify my deviance with the fact that I genuinely like Indie and House at the same time. How’s that?

But let’s make more excuses. I can also peg down my growing interest in House to my homegrown interest in Electronica and Electro-pop-clash. It’s getting there. The music elements are closely related, if not, are similar in terms of performance discipline. As for auditory appreciation, it’s not really a far cry. Electronica may claim to be the bastion of profound, so-out-there songs… House would be its little sister who is quite frankly just more interested in the theme SEX. So there. House is all about sex. And as I’ve come to conclude, through quick polls and careful observation: a lot of House-lovers are, ahem, libidinal to a considerable extent. Haha.

As for being homeless, I have been a vagabond for some time. Sleeping over people’s pads due to uneasy tiffs with the paternal figurine. But it’s all good now, I think. It’s like dust under the carpet for now.

I’m happy for as long as I have my trusty laptop on my side, my Gigs-worth of music and that hot “House lover” I know who was kind enough to not mind me camping out at her House for a couple of days.

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I currently love… (House)

Royal Gigolos – California Dreaming
Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek (Morgan Page Remix)
Nelly Furtado – Say it right (DJ Moy – House Remix)
Brazilian Girls – Don’t stop

Tags: Brazilian+Girls, House, Imogen+Heap, Nelly+Furtado, Royal+Gigolos

Let’s see.


Classic choices have always been between Reggae and Ska, and since not everyone’s into that sort of thing, I’ll give you a range of songs from genres that I can think of right now.

Let’s start with…

Alternative
The Sundays – Summertime
The Cardigans – Rise and shine
Hole – Malibu
Smashing Pumpkins – Perfect

Pop
Gwen Stefani – The Sweet Escape
Christina Aguilera – Candyman
Madonna – Ray of light
Nelly Furtado – Turn off the lights

RnB (the messy part, haha, at least for me; arguably…)
Fugees – Ready or not
2pac – Thugz Mansion
A tribe called quest – Awards tour
Cypress hill – I shot the Sheriff
Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
Outkast – Roses (Actually anything from Outkast is a summer go!)

Indie
Sufjan Stevens – Chicago
The Postal Service – Clark Gable
Broken Social Scene – Pacific Theme
The Arcade Fire – Haiti
Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek (Morgan Page remix)

Electronica (my newest obsession!)
The knife – Like a pen
Ellen Allien and the Apparat – Way out
Garbage – Bad boyfriend

Okay, that’s it for now. Enjoy your summer! Let’s see if you’ll get…what you want this summer. And wait a minute. What’s with all these summer flings popping out? Tell me about it.

[photopress:B00000DFRU_01__AA90_SCTHUMBZZZ_V35679563_.jpg,full,alignleft]Afghan Whigs, The – Now I have to make reference to my dear friend J. Lu, who calls them, aptly, “White guys who sing like they’re black soul”. Whatever that’s supposed to means, it makes a lot of sense hearing it. But the stranger part about The Afghan Whigs is that they manage to be that and sound sorta 90’s. Yeah, sorta. A load of whatever to something that sounds pleasant.

[photopress:B000E11568_01__AA90_SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg,full,alignleft]Belle and Sebastian – These kids never fail me. They released a few EPs – which I can’t wait to get my hands on – before letting out their 2006 happity-dabbity album release, The Life Pursuit. I’m falling in love with the 60’s again thanks to them. Go folk revival/jangle!

[photopress:B000GFLAI0_01__AA90_SCTHUMBZZZ_V36943362_.jpg,full,alignleft]Bob Dylan – Modern Times is so apropos and Dylan shows pro form. Period. There are some things new artists have got to pick up from ol’ Bob. He’s getting raspier these days but – dude, Old School is Cool!

[photopress:B0001KL5NA_01__AA90_SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg,full,alignleft]Broken Social Scenee – One of my mom’s Christmas gifts happen to be a copy of their album, Beehives and I guess she knows me well enough. I’ve been waiting for these guys since the 2005 album came out and I’m dying for some new material. No… hungry. Jesus, I can’t adequately put how much I love BSS since I found out about them.

[photopress:B000AOJHZA_01__AA90_SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg,full,alignleft]Clap your hands and say yeah! – Correct me if I’m wrong, but they’re white noise. Or not. Or maybe. Beats me. But they sound so good, good and so fucking good, who cares?

[photopress:B000HKDEEW_01__AA90_SCTHUMBZZZ_V59841508_.jpg,full,alignleft]Decemberists, The – Picaresque was quite a treat at 2005 but 2006 with The Crane Wife out tipped the balance letting The Decemberists achieve musical supercoolness. I love the actual reference to that old Japanese tale about the wife of a man plucking her own feathers so that she could weave silk clothes. You must know the story. Man gets too greedy so the crane wife is driven away, never to return. I hope the “never to return” part won’t happen with these guys.

[photopress:B000EZ902A_01__AA90_SCTHUMBZZZ_V56234497_.jpg,full,alignleft]Feist – What is it with Leslie Feist and all those Canada-only releases?! (Refers to the album Open Season) I need my copies, okay? Feist has the most Enchanting voice. Hint of folk and soul. You will fall in love with her and not just because you’re dyke.

[photopress:B00006BTCA_01__SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg,full,alignleft]Interpol - And since no one thought they could get any better, they took the initiative. Kye, you are indeed a good friend. I was listening to this album over the summer and it was so goddamn perfect at that time. Haha, figures I’m too hooked up with the epic Obstacle 1 & 2. And the fact that post punk bands actually have something to write about!

[photopress:B0000029DD_01__SCTHUMBZZZ_V38736151_.jpg,full,alignleft]Jeff Buckley – He is definitely missed. I’m really a sucker for skinny, sweaty guys playing the guitar. Especially if these skinny, sweaty guys can really sing.

[photopress:B000FWHVKA_01__AA90_SCTHUMBZZZ_V65003357_.jpg,full,alignleft]Knife, The – I kid you not, The Knife is so fucking awesome. It’s my current obssession and for starters you might want to listen to Heartbeats which is yet another creative way of singing about sex. We’re talking about an indie electro-pop and GOD-knows-what music. And by the way, did I mention that I am a music snob and that I didn’t just like them just because they were no. 1 at Pitchfork media but because I took the labor of actually listening through the whole goddamn album. Goes to show that Silent Shout is getting the attention it deserves.

[photopress:B000B66H64_01__AA90_SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg,full,alignleft]Metric, The – You know I had to listen to The Metric after listening to BSS because not only does Emily Haines have rocking vocals in their BSS song Swimmers but as it turns out, their kind of music is almost exactly what I had in mind for effective songwriting. Although a lot of people might argue that structure is no fun but I’d like to say that structure is structure just so you can remember what you’re singing to easier. And what I can sing or would love to sing, I probably like.

[photopress:B0000DFZZA_01__SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg,full,alignleft]Nelly Furtado – Surprised? I’m talking about her album Folklore of course, the second more modest release (definitely underestimated next to the first and the most recent third release). You’ll be surprised at how Nelly is capable of a sensinble kind of pop, although, I suppose this is a trait people overlook when you get to see how gorgeous she is on video while she’s grinding mindlessly. Point is, if she can manage to be some music schizo, then she may have a lot more racked up in her. Oh yeah, and kudos to her single, All good things come to an end, that showed up in her third album. Although I like the unreleased version more with Chris Martin whining in the background, just because, heh.

[photopress:B000HIP4I8_01__SCTHUMBZZZ_V41133725_.jpg,full,alignleft]Sean Lennon - He looks so much like his dad! Come on people, is that all you ever see of Sean Lennon? The dude has worked up enough musical charisma to deserve his own platform without having to mention his parents The John and The Yoko. Friendly fire does have a touch of Lennon sensibility that we can also see in his father. This album is made up of what songwriting used to stand for before people got too cryptic or too simplistic. Good record.

[photopress:B0009R1T7M_01__AA90_SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg,full,alignleft]Sufjan Stevens – I have a love-hate thing going on with this guy because when I check him out in YouTube he seems so gay. But Damn, I’m like hands down with Illinois. For me, it is definitely the best album of 2006, no questions asked.

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[photopress:B000ESSTMO_01__AA90_SCTHUMBZZZ_V55663618_.jpg,full,alignleft]By the way, Jewel is out with a new album. Goodbye, Alice and Wonderland revives what Jewel is best at – a lot of folk, a lot of melody and no more tacky-sounding RnB. This is the same Jewel I knew covering the Rolling Stone’s Wild Horses and can I just say…finally you she came in to her senses! Here’s to maturity. Goodbye, Alice and Wonderland welcomes Jewel back home.

Reviewing:

1.) Coldplay – Sparks
2.) Damien Rice – The Blower’s daughter
3.) Blur – Out of time
4.) Julie Delpy – Ocean apart
5.) Broken Social Scene – Lover’s spit

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If you’re ready for this, kids, my music reflects a lot about my “emotional ressonances”. A friend of mine argues that emoting over music is redundant because music is already feeling. The way I see it, it’s hard to deliniate the two, but we ought to realize that a song cannot be a song without the meaning or sentiments that a person can attach to it. So this entails that a person is separate from the song and whatever was meant by either is something that’s unique from each other. In the end, the meanings might converge. Feelings are never redundant, they’re more often than not, refreshed in us through songs. It makes more sense that way.

Does it?

Currently reading Germain Greer’s Sex and Destiny. Western context though, but Greer pulls it off with her wit and superb analysis.