SingularDTV is an exciting new blockchain-based entertainment industry boondoggle. It’s part DRM snake oil marketing, part pseudo-Bitcoin scam and part sincere Singularitarian weirdness. You should not fall for it.
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Author: David Gerard
Nicole Pesce performs Happy Birthday in the style of Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Bach and Mozart.
No time for a proper post this evening, so have an amusing video.
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Reviews: Fredrik Croona, Amelie Prime, London Plane (2016).
Futurepop, impassioned grunge and some new wave power pop. All with good tunes and a beat.
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Links: Dr Dre and Apple, Alan Vega, Dangerous Minds.
Dr Dre and Apple’s new headphone jack, reminiscences on Alan Vega (and Bruce Springsteen) and clickbait for aging record nerds.
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How the Church’s imperial period ended with a whimper, and who did it.
Why Starfish and Gold Afternoon Fix were amazing, and Priest = Aura … wasn’t. Hint: same reason the second Jack Frost album was not so gret akshuly.
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Reviews: Deerful, Brandy Kills, Milan (2016).
Political indie pop, goth rock with tunes and perfect synthpop.
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DRUM MACHINE MUST BE STOPPED.
DRUM MACHINE MUST BE STOPPED -DRUM MACHINE IS KILLING BLACK METAL- DRUM MACHINE IS NEXT KEYBOARD/CRUTCH AND IS DAGGER IN THE BACK OF BLACK METAL-
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Why De La Soul’s ridiculously important albums are unavailable on the face of the earth.
Why you can’t buy De La Soul’s albums: the sample rights are so complicated, Warner refuse to sell them to anyone.
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Reviews: Optiphonal Wonder Machine, Coupons, Lich (2016).
Art collective synthpop, ’90s-style indie rock and a remarkable instrumental album.
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Kim Dotcom’s Mega 3, with Bitcoin. Two bad ideas that go worse together.
Kim Dotcom is a crook and a scammer. I feel this claim is sufficiently backed for me to make such a bold statement in England. The amazing thing was that the MPAA ever made a colourful racing identity like Dotcom look like the good guy.
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Electronic reviews: Boy Harsher, Syrian, Kuoko, Metroland (2016).
Post-punk synth, futurepop and synthpop.
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David J. of Bauhaus on Alan Moore, interviewed by Elizabeth Sandifer.
David J. Haskins is not just the other guy from Bauhaus, he’s also an old mate and collaborator of comics genius Alan Moore. Here he’s interviewed about Moore and occultist magical workings, with occasional sp00ky stories, by Elizabeth Sandifer.
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Links: Microsoft DRM, Brian Eno, Lou Reed and Revolver.
While I’m busy faffing with the new theme …
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Come see a new Rocknerd theme!
test.rocknerd.co.uk is a temporary copy of Rocknerd as of about 9pm yesterday, currently featuring the Matata theme, as suggested by Lev. I’ve recategorised, tagged and excerpted the front page of posts and it took me all evening, so don’t expect anything before then to be done.
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Reviews: Vanguard, Dark Narrows, Navvi (2016).
EBM, goth-aspiring new wave and dreampop.
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Heaven 17 and Paul Morley: how to age.
Paul Morley interviews Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware of Heaven 17 in 2010 on the joys of having been a pop band for over thirty years, and how to appreciate pop now we’re all old. It’s thirteen minutes that’s well worth watching.
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Music designs by Arkady Rose. And more.
It’s shilling time! The loved one is an artist and sells quite a lot of the designs. Full catalogue on Redbubble and Spreadshirt. In particular the music selection.
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Synthpop: BOO (Battery Operated Orchestra), Zürich ’81, Deerful (2016).
Three stone winners today. A pleasing selection.
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How to slum as a rock critic, like generations of rock critics before you.
Sometimes you see a piece of modern music journalism and you wonder why these people are allowed fingers.
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Watch Linsey Pollak making a carrot clarinet in five minutes.
You just need a thick carrot, a mouthpiece, an electric drill, a potato peeler and a funnel. Then, in five minutes, you can do this …
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Spray: Enforced Fun (2016).
Spray are a couple of old goths doing semi-novelty synthpop straight out of The Manual. They do a brilliant job of it and you should listen to everything they have ever recorded.
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Reviews: Dark Colour, The War Between, The Nursery, Selves (2016).
’90s-style sample-ridden indie dance rock, catchy amateur punkish indie pop, melodic pop songs in an indie band with synths, American Britpop.
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Burning books is *wrong*. So we had it taken out and shot.
The above being a quote from Graham Clark, one of the literary assessors in question. He told me the story years ago (and I keep retelling it), but I finally found a decent writeup of this, from a 1994 interview with Iain (M.) Banks …
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Dischord releases most of its catalogue on Bandcamp.
It’s the happening thing. Doesn’t appear to be everything they’ve ever released, but it’s a pretty fair chunk of it for you to try before you buy and give them your money.
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Industrial singles: Mesh, Liquid Newt (2016).
A couple from the poppier end, on Dependent.
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Movie links: The death of the VCR; new ways for 3D to suck; why men aren’t funny.
The last video recorder, 3D again, why men just aren’t funny.
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Links: cultural markets in late capitalism, Patricia Morrison, the 1938 synthesizer.
Consumer markets, a nice Patricia Morrison interview and the 1938 Novachord.
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More eyegouging eastern European rap video for your delectation.
After yesterday’s wonder of the pop video maker’s art, we have a couple more. Here’s Russian rap act Little Big, whose dick is very very big.
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The worst video you will see today: “Winaloto” by Tommy Cash.
Estonian rap. The genre is “trap-pop”, apparently. The video itself is probably not worksafe, though technically within YouTube rules.
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Strap On Halo: Altar of Interim EP, Prayers for the Living CD (2016).
Strap On Halo are a goth rock band from the goth scene. This is unfortunate, insofar as not even current goths are interested in current goth music — it’s a subculture of new clothes and old music.
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