As another year (and decade) draws to a close, here’s a list of the top 10 albums I have enjoyed this year, as well as some honourable mentions which didn’t make the list for one reason or another. I’ve included Spotify links to albums (where available) so that you can listen to the albums in their entirety for free on Spotify.  If you require an invite for Spotify, just let me know!
Read rest of story…

I thought I’d post a few clips of some bands I’ve been really enjoying recently using embeds from Youtube (so a somewhat limited selection of tracks).  It was hard to keep this list down to a mere few.

—–

Brand New – “At The Bottom”
from the album “Daisy“, out late September 2009.

Brand New have long been a favourite band of mine ever since the classic Deja Entendu in 2003, followed by the dark and harrowing (and also a classic in its own right) The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.  I’ve often seen them written off as just another teeny emo band, but the imagery and quality of the songwriting Jesse Lacey provides is more often than not something to behold.  Really looking forward to the new album at the end of this month.

—–

Frank Turner – “The Road”
from the album “Poetry of the Deed“, out now.

I’ve been lucky enough to see this guy play acoustically live twice now and looking forward to seeing him with his full band in October in Belfast. English singer/song-writer Frank’s songs are often down-to-earth musings of life on the road, banter with friends and generally trying to be a better person and then decided “fuck it, lets just get drunk!”.  His new album isn’t (in my opinion) quite as good as his previous album Love Ire & Song, but its still a very enjoyable listen.  Its well worth checking out the full video for this track (his latest single), where Frank toured and played 24 different shows in 24 hours – fair play!

—–

Saxon Shore – “Bar Clearing Good Times”
from the album “It Doesn’t Matter“, out now.

Saxon Shore are an instrumental rock band (or post-rock if you must) who’ve been around for a while but whom I’ve only discovered recently.  Their albums are extremely consistent and a must for anyone who enjoys the likes of Explosions in the Sky.

—–

Dananananaykroyd – “Some Dresses”
from the album “Hey Everyone“, out now.

Scottish band Dananananaykroyd are as crazy as their name would suggest, said to put on a highly energetic and enjoyable live show (including the ‘wall of hugs’).  Their first full-length Hey Everyone is a great album and this is possibly my favourite track from it.

—–

Maybeshewill – “Accept and Embrace”
from the album “Sing The Word Hope in Four Part Harmony“, out now.

Another instrumental band who put out consistently great records.  This is the highlight from their latest full-length.

—–

For a full run-down of what I’ve been listening to both recently and not so recently, check out my Last.fm page.

Spotify is a fantastic online music service.  In short, it provides a large music library for free legal streaming online.  Every few songs you will hear an advertisement, but its a small “price” to pay for such a great service provided at no charge (you can pay for a premium subscription to get ad-free higher quality streaming).

One of the great features of Spotify is being able to create a music playlist and share it with other Spotify users.  Whilst I still have some free time (still on my holidays from work) I figured I’d create a couple of playlists to share.  Sign up to Spotify, download and install the client, and check out these playlists (tracklists after the jump):

• Rock playlist: Listen with Spotify.
• Chilled playlist: Listen with Spotify.

Read rest of story…

Following on from last week’s review of And So I Watch You From Afar’s upcoming album, the video for Set Guitars to Kill has just been uploaded to Vimeo.  Check it out!

And So I Watch You From Afar – Set Guitars To Kill from Smalltown America on Vimeo.

(I can see myself in the crowd!)

The instrumental rock scene (commonly labelled as ‘post-rock’ – much to the chagrin of most bands within the genre) has seen rapid growth over recent years.  Clones of Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky are all too common, and at times it almost seems inevitable that the genre is doomed to becoming monotonously repetitive and formulaic.  Every now and then, however, the genre produces something innovative and refreshing which stands head and shoulders above the rest; walking tall in the face of mediocrity.  Enter Northern Ireland 4-piece And So I Watch You From Afar and their eponymous, full-length album.

Read rest of story…

Its that time of year again folks: top 10 lists ahoy!  First up, its my top 10 favourite albums of 2008, as well as some honourable mentions.  I’ll post my top 10 favourite games of 2008 soon.  Click the “read more” link below to see the top 10.

Read rest of story…

One of the best bands I’ve ever had the privilege of seeing live, And So I Watch You From Afar, organised a weekend of showcasing the finest bands from Northern Ireland’s growing music scene, as well as supporting young new musicians by offering slots in the show and a session with industry panelists.

Not only did they organise this awesome weekend, they also stole the show on the Saturday night, 15th November.  Playing as the penultimate act in Belfast’s Mandella Hall that night, they took to the stage with indisputable passion and energy and blew the crowd away (I know – I was there).

The band have recently signed to record label Smalltown America (also the home of Fighting With Wire, who also played at the show) and are planning to release their new full-length self-titled album on March 23rd 2009.  Take it from me, this album will be amazing!

You can listen and download an excerpt from the live show below, broadcast on BBC’s Across The Line show (ATL).  Unfortunately it doesn’t come close to comparing to the actual experience of seeing them live, so make sure to go see them if the chance arises.

And So I Watch You From Afar
Live at Mandella Hall – “A Little Solidarity”
Saturday 15th November 2008

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download Link

Band Myspace Link

A friend of mine recently recommended checking out a track called “Wrapped in Piano Strings“, by an artist called Radical Face who I’d previously never heard of.  Never one to refuse a recommendation, I checked out the track online (via Radical Face’s Myspace) and immediately found it very enjoyable, also noting that it was on the Morr Music label which is also a plus (their Slowdive tribute compilation was quite the gem).  I proceeded to check out the album, and I completely recommend you do the same.  This is the Last.fm description of Radical Face:

Radical Face is the solo project of Ben Cooper (mainly of Electric President fame). Cooper is the sole member of the band, although he has enlisted the help of fellow Electric President Alex Kane and Cooper’s brother Emeral. The album “Ghost” was originally scheduled to be released in late 2006, but was delayed to be remastered by the label (Morr Music), and it was subsequently released in March 2007. It features acoustic guitar, “found-sound” percussion, and many multi-layered tracks. The sound is incredibly unique, not only because of Cooper’s originality and raw talent, but also because most of the music has traditionally been recorded in the shed in his backyard.

His sound is definitely unique and I heartily recommend you check out the album.  You can listen to many of his songs at his Myspace, and also on the preview track below.

Recommended tracks: Welcome Home Son, Glory, Wrapped in Piano Strings, Along the Road

Preview: Welcome Home, Son

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Websites: Official site / Myspace / Last.fm

I’m gonna start doing some “miscellaneous” notes posts on my blog, just to write about little things that are worth noting during the week (the sort of stuff I tweet about).

• Google Chrome, Google’s new internet browser, launched this week in beta form.  I’ve only had a short play with it but it seems extremely fast and has a very neat and concise look to it – would be useful for the 1024×600 resolution on my Acer Aspire One, giving me more web-page viewing space.  The incognito mode is also cool, where a user can browse the web without leaving a trace.  For now though I’m too reliant on my Firefox add-ons, but this has a lot of potential to some day become my new favourite browser.
• This week I attended IMVIP 2008 in Portrush, a conference on image processing.  Some cool stuff was shown, though since I’m not from an image processing background a lot of it went straight over my head.  You can check out my publication for the conference at my writings page.  Also, the food was fantastic, kudos to the conference organisers and the Ramada hotel.
• I’ve been listening to Oceansize’s Music For Nurses EP this week a lot.  Although its old, I just can’t get over it.  Five tracks of sonic bliss.  Highlights are One Out of nOne and Paper Champion.  Check out the previews and buy the EP here!  Timeless.
• I’m off to Portugal tomorrow morning to attend the ICDVRAT 2008 conference in Maia.  I’m looking forward to this conference a lot since its right up my alleyway in terms of research focus.  Plus the rain at home is depressing me a lot.  If my hotel has free (or cheap) wireless, I hope to post some blog posts about this during the week!  No promises though, sadly.

I’m home from my trip to the excellent Pukkelpop festival, held in Hasselt, Belgium.  I’m feeling extremely tired and groggy right now, but you can check out some photos I’ve put up on my Flickr account here, as well as a few videos on my Youtube profile.

In short, the festival was awesome (with Sigur Rós being a personal highlight), the whole thing was well organised, and the weather was amazing!