Thursday 31 December 2015

A Year Of Songs


Albums of 2015, then? Too many to leave out, too many left unheared. And so it goes. But these ones were pretty brill. No prizes for guessing what's at the top.

30. <insert album here>

Because I'll always miss one brilliant album.

29. Malted Milk And Toni Green - Milk And Green

Fab and bouncy rhythm and soul blues.

28. Godsticks - Emergence

HEAVY, man! Like a concrete boot to the groin.

27. Mew - + -

Blissful euphoric rock from Denmark.

26. Modest Mouse - Strangers To Ourselves

More great tunage from the other Mouse, featuring the greatest song title of the year in God Is An Indian And You're An Asshole. Get on your horse and ride!

25. Blur - The Magic Whip

New Blur is better than good - it's decidedly odd and great.

24. Leon Bridges - Coming Home

Vintage soul to make you bop along.

23. The Decemberists - What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World

Americana-rama!

22. Troyka - Ornithophobia

Weird funk jazz from the suburbs as people turn into animals.

21. Ozric Tentacles - Technicians Of The Sacred

Space Ibiza is a blast by the sounds of it.

20. Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.

The strongest album of his career so far.

19. Snowapple - Illusion

Bohemian trippy folk vocals. Beautiful and strange.

18. Lianne La Havas - Blood

A properly soulful voice meets trip-hop sounds. Funky.

17. Legendary Shack Shakers - The Southern Surreal

YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

16. Wilco - Star Wars

And the awards for most surprising release, nonsensical title choice, and terrible artwork go to...

15. Punch Brothers - The Phosphorescent Blues

The Beach Boys sing in an acoustic bluegrass band conducted by Robert Fripp. Or so.

14. Public Service Broadcasting - The Race For Space

Smell the tweed and corduroy. Two of the group's best songs materialised in Gagarin and Go!.

13. Caravan Palace - <|*_*|>

If The Avalanches remixed 1940s New Orleans. Brilliant.

12. Jaga Jazzist - Starfire

Someone weaponised the music from the Quest channel and it is awesome.

11. Dutch Uncles - O Shudder

Creamy sounds and odd compositions. Like a new wave Oreo.

10. Slug - Ripe

Field Music's bassist let loose. Enough said.

9. Bill Laurance - Swift

Snarky Puppy allumni eclipses actual Snarky Puppy with beaty piano tunes.

8. Benjamine Clementine - At Least For Now

The winner of the Mercury Prize weaves a tapestry of intrigue and compelling piano-based threads. Sounds like London.

7. Destroyer - Poison Season

Beautiful songs, beautiful strings and horns, beautiful.

6. Laura Marling - Short Movie

The best acoustic sounds of the year behind a voice of pure character.

5. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear

Frighteningly personal, heartbreaking, and darkly humorous.

4. Susanne Sundfor - Ten Love Songs

Exquisite and intelligent electro carry magnificent melodies. I'm in love.

3. Guy Garvey - Courting The Squall

The greatest lyricist of our time invites you in.

2. Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Motorcade Amnesiacs

Magnificent shape-shifting works of brilliance.

1. David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock

Gilmour.

Wednesday 30 December 2015

Moving Pictures

Source: Google

It's Mouse's favourite films of 2015! Ooh, the excitement builds! I'll bet you're positively quivering with anticipation... or maybe food poisoning. Either way, here's a list. And everybody loves a list.

10. Inside Out

Pixar prise open your conciousness and dissect what it is to be human and to live life with love and loss, all the while showcasing incredibly complex psychological principles with brightly coloured balls.

9. Ex Machina

A computer programmer stays with a Zuckerberg-esque engineer and his breakthrough in artificial intelligence, taking the form of a robotic woman. Disturbing, manipulative hijinks ensue.

8. It Follows

The most original horror film of recent times, it's beautifully directed with patience and enjoyable suspense. And then there's the soundtrack... oh, the soundtrack...

7. Crimson Peak

Victorian business ideals collide with Edgar Allen Poe as Guillermo Del Toro makes every shot a perfect thing of beauty. Also, Tom Hiddleston's bum.

6. The Peanuts Movie

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

5. Star Wars (Episode VII: The Force Awakens)

NEW STAR WARS IS GREAT!

4. Mad Max: Fury Road

Insane on vast levels of ecstasy. Features the best original character of the last decade of cinema in Furiosa. SHINY AND CHROME!

3. Nightcrawler

A thoroughly gripping, reckless swipe at modern mainstream media's borderline inhuman obsession with disaster, fear, and death.

2. Whiplash

When jazz attacks! The snarling hatred between old and new guards shot with the furious pace of a machine gun. Relentless.

1. Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)

Like watching exceptionally beautiful machinery perform as clockwork. Technically perfect, mesmerising, and so much fun.

Saturday 26 December 2015

Oogie Boogie's Song



Haverbrook attempt Christmas! Hope you all had a wonderful time. I work in retail, so I'm still working.

In other news, every track for the album has now been demoed. Work shall begin in earnest (now that we know what the hell we're doing) once the festive season stops being so damn festive.