en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal The Last.fm journal for ffxi_frohike. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2009/08/17/2y2dw2_it%27s_time_for_more..._nobuo_uematsu! Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:35:42 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2009/08/17/2y2dw2_it%27s_time_for_more..._nobuo_uematsu! Sorry, this happens at least once a year for me. I go on a Final Fantasy nostalgia binge and totally distort my charts with videogame soundtracks. It's part of who I am. Hell, might as well change my avatar to reflect the shift in attention.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2009/08/12/2xnga9_a_new_discovery_(for_me_anyway) Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:28:08 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2009/08/12/2xnga9_a_new_discovery_(for_me_anyway) Just had a "holy crap gotta share this" discovery yesterday: Kashiwa Daisuke. Sort of like World's End Girlfriend meets Venetian Snares. Try to find Program Music I if you can, since the Stella track is his best, imo. I started with 5 Dec. though and was just stunned from the Requiem track onward. Stunning work.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2009/07/06/2umrwj_people_who_place_warnings_or_conditions_in_their_profiles_on_last.fm Mon, 6 Jul 2009 20:49:18 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2009/07/06/2umrwj_people_who_place_warnings_or_conditions_in_their_profiles_on_last.fm It dawned on me today... these warnings are idiotic. How much of an egotistical wanker must you be to honestly believe that:

A. Your friends list is some sort of privileged roster, some inner sanctum that only people who've shouted on your wall are "worthy" of joining.

B. Users and/or artists who actually spam friend requests are going to read your sniveling little self-important caveat.

C. Users somehow feel validated if you leave their shout on your wall.

To the self-important navel-gazing users on this service I say: stop using last.fm as some sort of facebook platform. You're either misunderstanding the intended use of this social app, or you value your profile wall a bit more than is sane or healthy. Friend requests are simply a means to bookmark your profile, listen to your station, or dig into your music collection. Usually nothing more. Get over yourself.

In conclusion I'm reminded of a page from the blog rant classic "Two Phrases That Destroyed American Culture:"


Speaking of respect, another idea that has ruined American culture is the one that states, ‘I don’t give respect freely. You have to earn my respect.’ This one is most often uttered by punk kids with bad attitudes and black fingernail polish.

Fucking gag me.

I mean, how egotistical does one have to be to automatically assume that their respect is so fucking important that one must jump through multiple hoops in order to earn it? How about we give people respect because they are humans with lives and feelings just as important as our own? Why not give people a default level of respect and more or less can either be won or lost based on the behavior of the individual? The loss of respect is something that should be based on actions. The idea that that one must win basic respect in the first place is incredibly belittling. How narcissistic can you be to embrace that ideology?


Respect your last.fm community.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/09/17/26669a_look,_i_can_loop_stuff_too! Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:05:18 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/09/17/26669a_look,_i_can_loop_stuff_too! William Basinski's work, in my mind, embodies the danger of unquestioned minimalism. To me, these "disintegration loops" don't sound like art so much as a well-presented lack thereof. From the 9/11 contextualizations, to the improperly self-indulgent cover art (do we really need to aestheticize the event?) to the pompous self-descriptions of his "process". It all eschews the absence of a real, crafted, intentional artistic product.

I hear his work juxtaposed to Machinefabriek, Tim Hecker, Fennesz, and Stars of the Lid, and can't help perceiving an Emperor's New Clothes effect here. Mind you the "music" isn't unlistenable. It's rather pleasant in an ambient loop sort of way. But I'm baffled by the "poignancy" people are ascribing to it. Sounds like a tape playing itself into oblivion, with some nice reverb; not much more.

Whatever else has been ascribed to it is, in my opinion, a testament to the aesthete's success in "spinning" his own work as something more than noodling around with loops.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/04/25/9dtcl_damn..._almost_missed_xaphan Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:29:23 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/04/25/9dtcl_damn..._almost_missed_xaphan So Secret Chiefs 3 finally fucking released the album, and here I am with my thumb up my butt.

Nothing at the Streetlight Records brick & mortar (I try to buy local when I can), nothing at their online shop.

Nothing on Tzadik, nothing on Amazon, nothing on Boomkat...

No rapidshits, no torrents, zilch.

Finally found a copy on eBay for a normal price. Can't wait till it gets here. Well... that and GTA IV, of course. b^_^b]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/04/09/9dt9y_animal_collective_annoys_me._done_with_them. Wed, 9 Apr 2008 01:31:23 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/04/09/9dt9y_animal_collective_annoys_me._done_with_them. There's a difference between being eccentric, and *trying* to be eccentric. The former is fascinating and sometimes endearing, while the latter is foppish and often annoying. Animal Collective fall squarely in the latter. >.>

I tried to like them... I really really did. I even gave it some time and came back to them again. But I'm deleting them from my library as I write this. Ah well, can't like 'em all.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/02/21/9dt7m_colleen... Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:12:46 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/02/21/9dt7m_colleen... I think I liked Colleen for the novelty at first, but the more I listen, the more she sounds tedious to me.

I've found the later albums, particularly Les ondes silencieuses, to be soporific but not in a "good" way. It's like she decided to stop being interesting and play Philip Glass because using a laptop was, in her words "boring". Well, guess what.

Her first few albums had a definite magical quality to them, but they haven't really stood up to repeated listens for me. So much of it is looped music boxes and string plucks with variants thrown in here & there to keep the listener awake (and frankly I find the sound of a music box to only be endearing in short doses; long bouts of it are quite irritating).

The music still has a draw, but I have to be in the right mindset to settle into it now, which is odd considering the droned out stuff I've been listening to lately.

It's almost like her music is only as magical as the extent to which you don't pay direct attention to it?]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/02/14/9dt6v_last.fm_performance.__patience_is_wearing_thin. Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:53:18 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/02/14/9dt6v_last.fm_performance.__patience_is_wearing_thin. I'm getting tired of all the problems last.fm has been experiencing lately as it goes through a semi-sneaky deprecation of features in preparation for some as-of-yet unannounced change in the "free" level of service.

While I'm grateful at the exploration it has enabled me to do, I've found my usage of the sites services to be scaling back, so the fact that they're killing features just makes me feel all the more detached from the service.

I no longer scrobble with the official client, since they surreptitiously dropped iPod support, causing me to drop my future membership indefinitely. The fact that there are no plans to fix this is inexcusable.

And I no longer play radio, since most of the tracks have... again surreptitiously, been dropped as freely streamable. Way to go!

This is not the way to keep existing users, last.fm, and it certainly isn't a viable way to get their money. My precious stats? Those won't keep me here if you continue this trend. They're just fucking numbers after all.

I'm on the verge of being done with this place and moving on to other services (because, you know, you're not the only ones out there). And I suspect that when you make your big change to rake in the bucks, most people will follow suit.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/02/07/20zc6e_venetian_snares:_need_suggestions Thu, 7 Feb 2008 18:01:52 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/02/07/20zc6e_venetian_snares:_need_suggestions I've been living under a rock and hadn't really heard of Venetian Snares until I'd seen him on a few charts and checked him out.

The first and only track I've enjoyed so far has been A Giant Alien Force More Violent & Sick Than Anything You Can Imagine.

I thoroughly enjoyed the last few minutes of it, starting at around 13:30 when it just ramps up into this awesome wall of noise and furious BPM.

Is there any other stuff like this that he's done? Any albums that feature this style predominantly?

Maybe it's bad luck, but lot of the stuff I've sampled sounds more like late era Aphex Twin, but I like this noise he generated on the aforementioned track. I don't want to sift through this guys immense library to find this, so any responses would be appreciated.

Thanks!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/02/06/9dt6c_ok,_burial_fans,_enlighten_me_please Wed, 6 Feb 2008 05:36:18 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ffxi_frohike/journal/2008/02/06/9dt6c_ok,_burial_fans,_enlighten_me_please Ok, I made the mistake of reading reviews before I listened to Burial and all I have to say is... what the fuckity fuck?

I've never seen reviewers gush over such tiresome techno, like ever. Well maybe since Squarepusher. But come on people, there's better stuff out there. This is basically Tricky regurgitated with the least evocative or interesting aspects of dubstep.

Just because it comes from the hip new dubstep world doesn't mean it's some sort of divine illuminated text to be interpreted as... I shit you not:

"layers of lugubrious synths, passing over one another like successive waves of blue and purple rainclouds"

(as if Pitchforkmedia weren't laughable enough). I dread going over to Dusted mag to see what godforsaken string of epithets they've ascribed to it.

This music is boring. And I write a journal about it because, well, blowhards piss me off, and music critics are, in my estimation, the most overpaid and overestimated blowhards outside of the oval office.

Rant over.]]>