Perl blog post #50

This week I’m putting up my 50th Perl blog post, over on my Other Blog.  This one happens to be yet another installment in my ongoing series about my new date module, but that’s not the important thing, from my perspective.  50 is a pretty healthy number.  Of course, here on this blog, we’re approaching 200 posts, even discounting all my “interstitial” posts (i.e. the posts where all I say is I’m not going to do a proper post).  But somehow 50 technical posts seems like a greater achievement.  And some of them are pretty long.

Anyhow, hop on over to the blog if you’re interested in seeing what’s going on with my Perl work.  If not, stay tuned for next week, when there might be a non-technical post here.  Mabye.  If you’re lucky.  Depending on your definition of “lucky.”

Perl blog post #49

After a bit of a longer hiatus that I’d meant to, I’ve finally gotten back to my ongoing Perl series about my new date module.  I really want to have this completed before YAPC in June, so I’m going to be spending a bit more time concentrating on it than previously.  Or that’s the plan at any rate.  This installment is about my adventures with CPAN Testers finding bugs in my code for me, helpful little devils that they are.  Hop on over to the Other Blog for lots of Perl-y goodness.  Or, you know, don’t.

Next week may well be another Perl blog post.  Just giving you a heads-up on that one right now.

Smokelit Flashback IV

"This Labyrinth of Poems"

[This is one post in a series about my music mixes.  The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use.  You may wish to read the introduction for more background.  You may also want to check out the first volume in this multi-volume mix for more info on its theme.

Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguous—that is, I don’t guarantee that the next post in the series will be next week.  Just that I will eventually finish it, someday.  Unless I get hit by a bus.]

It’s time to return once again to the mix that kicked off this whole series for another installment of slightly trippy, smokey bar spy movie music.  I was playing this very volume at work one night this week, and one of my co-workers called the music “creepy.” My kids have made the same accusation.  And, there’s no denying: many of the songs that you hear on this mix do fall on the creepy side of a line.  Not too far, else we’d see them on an entirely different mix,¹ but north of the border of unsettling, for sure.  Songs like Portishead’s “Over” (from volume I), Lemon Jelly’s “Experiment Number Six” (from volume II), and Goldfrapp’s “Lovely Head” (from volume III) have a certain vibe to them, and we’ll see a few more like them here too.  But there’s more to this mix than just “creepy.” There’s some very interesting tunes here, so let’s dive right in.

As always, there are familiar faces returning for the latest installment.  Just like last volume, there are two Hooverphonic tracks here: “Every Time We Live Together We Die a Bit More,” which provides our volume title, and the rare male-vocal-fronted song from them, “Dictionary.” Plus another track from Dahlia (possibly an even better one than last time), another instrumental break from the Swing soundtrack, and back to Falling You’s first (and best) album for another track off Touch.  Familiar faces all, but not the same old same old by any stretch.

You may also recall that Falling You comes to us via Magnatune, the “We Are Not Evil” label.  We’ve seen other folks from Magnatune on various mixes, such as Lisa DeBenedictis, who showed up on Shadowfall Equinox.  Here we get to hear her sing, on “Sidetrack,” a slow but deliberate song that slots in beautifully after another Magnatune artist, Beth Quist.  Quist has toured with Bobby McFerrin as part of his Voicestra, so you can imagine what sort of inventive vocal stylings she’s capable of.  Much of her music has a Middle Eastern feel to it, due to her mastery of the dumbek and hammered dulcimer and other, similar instruments.  But “Air Chair” is a bit different: possibly the creepiest tune in the volume, with a feel somewhat like a new age tune fell into a Halloween mix.

Another Magnatune artist that first shows up here is hands upon black earth, who combine downtempo with touches of world and new age.  I’ve chosen two of their tunes for this volume: “Effigy” towards the beginning, and “Dream” as a bridge to get us from the centerpiece tracks to the latter part of the set.  Neither can be said to have vocals, per se, but there are samples and whispers.  hube, as they are often known, have an intriguing sound that make them indispensable to this mix, and we’ll see them again next volume.  They also give us one of my favorite transitions of the mix, as “Dream” ends with: “Next to me, the man appears again; as the shadow creatures leap off the peak around me, disappearing into the darkness, he turns to me and speaks without words ...” and then Falling You kicks in with “Come out, come out, wherever you are ...” Our final Magnatune artist is Lizzi, who normally has more of a smooth jazz sound.²  “You Belong,” on the other hand, is a bit more slinky, and works well as the penultimate song for this set.

Possibly the greatest find in this whole volume, though, is Kutiman, an Israeli musician who stitches completely unrelated clips from YouTube videos into new, brilliant compositions.³  Many of his songs are quite good, but “No One in This World” is somewhere beyond amazing.  Featuring a jazzy (originally a capella) vocal from Nicola Dodds paired with the Carducci String Quartet, the Natty Princess horns, Thomson Kneeland on stand-up bass, and such things as a simple 10-second video of a vibraslap, 30 seconds of chimes, and a music student playing a scale on a cello, you really have to watch the video to fully appreciate Kutiman’s genius.  But the music also stands on its own, just a brilliant piece of mildly trippy smoky bar music that epitomizes what this mix is all about.

I’m also bringing some of the finds from my cable provider’s “Zen” music channel—previously only seen over on Paradoxically Sized World—here to flesh out Smokelit Flashback.  Instrumentally, British DJ Nightmares on Wax gives us “Les Nuits,” a smooth but kaleidoscopic tune that stands alone in his catalog, as far as I’m concerned.  On the other hand, Carmen Rizzo is a major find: an LA producer and electronica artist, he’s produced three great albums of world-inflected downtempo, and I’ve picked up all of them.  His first is his best, in my opinion, 2005’s The Lost Art of the Idle Moment, and it gives us “I’ll Carry You,” a song about halfway between the near sense of wonder of “Les Nuits” and the almost menace of “Dictionary.” It’s a great song that works beautifully here, and we’ll be hearing more from Rizzo on this mix as well as others.

Smokelit Flashback IV
[ This Labyrinth of Poems ]

“Every Time We Live Together We Die a Bit More” by Hooverphonic, off The Magnificent Tree
“Effigy” by hands upon black earth, off hands upon black earth
“Air Chair” by Beth Quist, off Shall We Dance
“Sidetrack” by Lisa DeBenedictis, off Fruitless
“Last Night” by Lush, off Lovelife
“Someday the Wind” by Fauxliage, off Fauxliage
“Dictionary” by Hooverphonic, off Blue Wonder Power Milk
“Martin's Theme” by Ian Devaney, off Swing [Soundtrack]
“No One in This World” by Kutiman, off Thru You Too
“Connected by a String” by Devics, off The Stars at Saint Andrea
“Dream” by hands upon black earth, off hands upon black earth
“the canoe and the waterfall” by Falling You, off Touch
“Forget This Place” by Dahlia, off Emotion Cycles
“I'll Carry You” by Carmen Rizzo, off The Lost Art of the Idle Moment
“Les Nuits” by Nightmares on Wax, off Carboot Soul
“You Belong” by Lizzi, off Love and you and I
“Breathe” by Télépopmusik, off Genetic World

Total:  17 tracks,  76:38

In the vein of new trip-hop, we have a tune from Fauxliage, the mildly bizarre combination of Delerium, the darkwave/techno band that grew out of industrial greats Front Line Assembly, and Leigh Nash, the lead singer of folksy Sixpence None the Richer.  The result is a single album of some decent trip-hop, of which “Someday the Wind” is probably the best.  On the other hand, French trio Télépopmusik have a couple of good albums, and “Breathe” is the biggest and brightest of their hits.  It is, as its title suggests, breathy, but with a strong beat, and an undercurrent of smokiness that makes it a natural closer for this volume.

And, finally, we have the unexpected tracks.  Lush started out as shoegazers, then went a bit pop for their album Lovelife, which featured moderate hit “Ladykillers.”⁴  “Last Night,” however, is neither of the above: it’s a slower, slightly psychedelic affair that works quite well here.  Last but not least, I introduced you to the dream pop outfit Devics over in Darkling Embrace.  All their music has a bit of a darker edge, and this track is no exception.  I’m not exactly saying that when you cross darkwave with dream pop you always get music that’s perfect for Smokelit Flashback, but Devics seems to hit it more often than not.  We’ll definitely be seeing more from them here.  While My Beautiful Sinking Ship is my go-to Devics album, their follow-up The Stars at Saint Andrea has a few good tracks as well, such as the one we use here, “Connected by a String.” It has a distant, disconnected quality that slides effortlessly off the Kutiman track to close out the centerpiece of the volume.

Next time, I think we’ll explore the intersection of punk and new wave.

⇐ Smokelit Flashback III

Smokelit Flashback V ⇒

__________

1 Which we shall come to in the fullness of time.

2 Which means she will inevitably appear on Smooth as Whispercats.

3 I discovered Kutiman quite by accident in one of those bizarre Internet linkwalks.  I was originally looking for what artist did the music for some commercial I’d heard.  Turns out it was just an ad agency type company, but a fairly hip one.  They had quite a few links of “music we like” or “music that inspires us” or somesuch.  One of those links was Kutiman, and I clicked it, and I was just blown away.

4 Which we’ll probably see show up on a mix at some point, as it’s a great song.

A bit of a bummer week

I thought I might be able to get you a proper post this week, but unfortunately it just didn’t happen.  I’ve had two pretty severe scares with my laptop—in fact, I’m writing this post on my backup laptop—and I don’t know that I’m out of the woods yet.  I don’t have much (if any) data to lose, but it’ll be a pain in the ass of epic proportions if I can’t get the existing laptop back up and running again.  We’ll have to wait and see.

In other news, I’ve been working pretty hard this weekend on getting my Perl module completed (see the ongoing series over on my Other Blog for full details), and of course it was Easter weekend.  So I was responsible for hiding 69 eggs today.  And then I had to try to remember where I hid all the ones that my kids couldn’t find.

So it’s been a tough day.  Hopefully the coming week will be a bit easier.

Time keeps on slipping into the future

Yet another week where I had every intention of producing a blog post for you, but Real Life managed to get in the way.  That seems to be happening more and more to me these days ... possibly I’m getting even more terrible at time management than I’ve always been.  Which is, quite frankly, terrifying.

But there’s nothing to be done about it at this point, except to apologize once again to you, my faithful reader, and to try to do better next week.  Which is what I shall now do.

Sorry.  See you next week.

Paradoxically Sized World III

"Are the Stars Out Tonight?"

[This is one post in a series about my music mixes.  The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use.  You may wish to read the introduction for more background.  You may also want to check out the first volume in this multi-volume mix for more info on its theme.

Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguous—that is, I don’t guarantee that the next post in the series will be next week.  Just that I will eventually finish it, someday.  Unless I get hit by a bus.]

For the third volume of Paradoxically Sized World, I decided to concentrate on the music from LittleBigPlanet 3.  Honestly, LBP3 isn’t nearly as good a game as the first two (although it has some great aspects, they are not realized with the same attention to detail as the previous games), but the music is still amazing.  We start with Japanese indie artist Shugo Tokumaru and “Rum Hee,” the prolific (and catchy) little song used as background for many of the LBP3 trailers.  That bleeds beautifully into Lullatone, the group responsible for “Race Against the Sunset.”¹  Lullatone is composed of an ex-patriate American and his Japanese girlfriend, and their music is somehow evocative of what your childhood toys would jam out to when you weren’t around.  “Hot Sand” is off the same album as “Race Against the Sunset” and sounds quite similar.  These two make a great opening to this new volume of LittleBigPlanet-inspired tunes.

The next themed stretch starts off with a tune from the PS Vita version of LBP, Crystal Castle’s “1991,” which is reminiscent of the music of old-school video games.  And that makes it a perfect lead-in to the “8-bit” version of “Threshhold,” from Scott Pilgrim vs the World, which actually accompanies the old-school video game sequence in the movie.  Which then flows nicely into another tune from one of my favorite LBP bands, Ugress, and his spy-movie-inspired “Harakiri Martini.” Then we have the uncharacteristic electro-swing of Der Dritte Raum’s “Swing Bop.”²  Being that they are still Der Dritte Raum, this particular electro-swing song is far more electro than swing.

But the centerpiece of the mix is an atypical vocal stretch, starting with the insanely good “How You Like Me Now?” by the Heavy.³  This is used in LBP3 during the casino level, although they use an instrumental version.  The vocal version is blow-you-away better.  From there, we hit the bizarrely-named !!! (who claim that their name should be pronounced⁴ “Chk Chk Chk”), with a stand-out track, “Myth Takes.” I found !!! while investigating some other artist—some “related to” or “influenced by” link, no doubt—and I’ll admit I was intrigued by a band whose name consisted only of punctuation.  I find most of their music to be average at best, but “Myth Takes” is just genius, with a sly blassline and clever lyrics.  My kids tell me I’m crazy if I think it sounds anything like LittleBigPlanet, but I think it slots perfectly here between “How You Like Me Now?” and “Ghosts.” The only track here from LBP2, “Ghosts,” from Liverpudlian-with-a-Bulgarian-vocalist group Ladytron, also has some magnificent lyrics, like its chorus:

There’s a ghost in me
Who wants to say I’m sorry
Doesn’t mean I’m sorry

Despite the fantastic lyrics in this set, nothing jumped out at me as a suitable volume title.  That had to wait for the 50s-themed set towards the end of the volume.  It kicks off with bassist Barry Adamson, whose track “Dead Heat” (also used in the casino level of LBP3) is actually from the 90s, but has a very early 50s cinematic feel.  Then another Lullatone track, which also fits this mood, then two remakes of actual 50s songs: “I Only Have Eyes for You,” originally by the Flamingoes, and “Mr. Sandman,” originally by the Four Aces.⁵  The former remake is by my other favorite LBP band, Tashaki Miyaki, an LA-based noise-rock dream pop outfit that continues the good work started by Mazzy Star.  Their music is similar to their contemporaries Beach House and Widowspeak, but even better, in my opinion, despite not being as well-known.  Their version gives a dreamy, fuzzed-out quality to the outer-space level of LBP3’s Bunkum Lagoon, as well as our volume title.  For the latter, LBP uses the Four Aces version, but I wanted a version with a bit more character.  After a bit of searching, I went with the version from Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween.  I think it has an ever-so-slightly creepy vibe that follows perfectly after Tashaki Miyaki.⁶

As always, I’ve added a note for each track used in a LittleBigPlanet game: either 1, 2, 3, PSP, PSV, or Kart.  If a track doesn’t have a note, it isn’t from an LBP game (that I know of).  Although I often use slightly different versions of songs from those that are used in the game (such as using a vocal version instead of an instrumental version), I’m using a version by a completely different artist for “Mr. Sandman” here, so I noted that below as “alt,” meaning it’s an alternative version to what’s used in the game.

Paradoxically Sized World III
[ Are the Stars Out Tonight? ]

“Rum Hee” by Shugo Tokumaru, off Port Entropy

3

“Hot Sand” by Lullatone, off Summer Songs [EP]
“Ultraviolent” by Cinnamon Chasers, off A Million Miles from Home
“Sunday Boy” by Bent, off Ariels
“1991” by Crystal Castles, off Crystal Castles

PSV

“Threshold [8 Bit]” by Brian Lebarton, off Scott Pilgrim vs. the World [Soundtrack]
“Harakiri Martini” by Ugress, off Unicorn
“Swing Bop [Tanz Variante]” by Der Dritte Raum, off Swing Bop [EP]

PSV

“How You Like Me Now?” by the Heavy, off How You Like Me Now? [EP]

3

“Myth Takes” by !!!, off Myth Takes
“Ghosts” by Ladytron, off Velocifero

2

“Morticia” by Combustible Edison, off Schizophonic!
“Vitium in Opere” by Corvus Corax, off Cantus Buranus II

3

“Shadows and Doubts” by Ugress, off Cinematronics
“Dead Heat” by Barry Adamson, off The Negro Inside Me [EP]

3

“Cannonball Splash” by Lullatone, off Summer Songs [EP]
“I Only Have Eyes for You” by Tashaki Miyaki, off The Lagniappe Sessions [Special]

3

“Mr. Sandman” by Nan Vernon [Single]

3 [alt]

“Brassic [Original Mix]” by Laroca [Single]

3

“Quantum” by Pantha du Prince, off Elements of Light

Total:  20 tracks,  76:24

That just leaves us with three sets of songs.  Toward the beginning of the volume, we have a rare mostly-vocal track from Cinnamon Chasers, whose track used in LBP3 will show up next volume, paired with a likewise-uncharacteristic vocal track from UK electronica duo Bent, with voice provided by Sian Evans (of Bristol’s Kosheen).  In the middle, we come off “Ghosts” and into a snappy instrumental by way of the Addams Family, “Morticia” by Combustible Edison, who I discovered via their work on the Four Rooms soundtrack.  CE has a weird sound that’s sort of a cross between lounge and retro-exotica, and we’ll be hearing more from them in other mixes.  That leads into the somber medieval tones of Corvus Corax, who provide the dramatic chase scene music in the final level of the Ziggurat.  And thence into another Ugress tune, “Shadows and Doubts,” which sets us up for the 50s run.

On the back side of that run, the relaxed downtempo of Laroca brings us down and prepares us for Pantha du Prince’s closer.  Although this track isn’t used in the game, it’s from the same album as one we’ll see next volume, a collaboration with Norway’s The Bell Laboratory.  This whole album is composed of mellow, ambient tracks like this one.  It’s a perfect closer for this volume of LittleBigPlanet inspired music.

Next time, we’ll add yet another volume to our inaugural mix.

⇐ Paradoxically Sized World II

Paradoxically Sized World IV ⇒

__________

1 Which we’ll hear on volume IV.

2 Specifically, the “Tanz Variante” version.

3 Despite the identical title, this is not the version off The House That Dirt Built.  This is the EP version, featuruing the horn section from the Dap-Kings.  Trust me: it’s worth the extra effort to track it down.

4 And alphabetized, presumably.

5 Well, technically, the Chordettes did the first version, which was also the highest-charting version in the US.  But the Four Aces’ version came out later that same year—1954—and charted even higher in the UK.

6 Although my eldest child says that any song with a lyrical reference to Liberace cannot be considered creepy under any circumstances.

Perl blog post #48

As promised last week, I completed the next installment in my latest Perl series.  Hop on over to my Other Blog to check it out if you’re so inclined.

I also completely forgot to post this pointer on Sunday.  So I’m just lying about the date on this post now.  Deal with it.

Carryover post

I really, really tried to make sure you got a proper post this week.  My fervent hope was that I would complete the next round of work on my Perl module, since it’s been a month since I updated over on my Other Blog.  However, I ran into a couple of crises (one computer-but-not-work related, the other child-and-sickness related) that have conspired to keep me from being prepared to do that.  I’ll have it next week if it kills me.

My next thought was to quickly crank out the next post in my music mix series, because I rather thought I’d already started it, and therefore it would be pretty easy to polish it off.  But, alas: I had the barest shell of a post ready, and there was just no way I was going to be able to fill that out in a reasonable amount of time.

On the other hand, I would once again point you at the post that I updated last week with: Why I Left the C3V.  It really is about way more than Heroscape and the C3V; plus it’s long enough to count for two weeks’ worth of posts anyway.

Until next week.