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A surprise of an evening February 27, 2010

Posted by Sharny in : Entertainment, Music, Review , add a comment

The stars finally aligned to allow me and one of my bestest buds to go into town on Tuesday in order to peruse some live music. Our intention was to go to an open mic night, but when we got there we found no such open mic, or indeed even an open venue. So we instead we headed the independent (and secretly Christian) Bar and Coffee house the Malt Cross, which we’ve been scoping out with timid curiosity for a while. The place is alarmingly hip and feels so oozing with indie cred that it’s a little scary for those of us new to that amount of music cool. It’s also a very interesting building and I’d urge anyone living around Nottingham to go inside and take a look for that reason alone.

Anyhow, as it happened Tuesdays are a night for free music (or at least this one was) and for young people with old, broken cars and pay cheques not coming till the end of the week this was rather perfect. We were there rather early for the music so we got to see the band sound checking. Not the best time to see a band but without this my curiosity would not have been piqued. It was a band not only with quite a large number of musicians but a quite ludicrously large number of instruments to go with it. Ukeleles, mandolins and trumpets combined with more traditional bass, guitar and drums. Plus they had a dedicated chellist. This was something I had to see.

It took us all the way till the very end of the evening to find out what the band were called, but I’m just gonna name them now for ease of writing and to allow me to speak about the EP that we bought (yeah, I have a 60% share in it). As it turns out they are called Hhymn, a name with all the indications of being appropriately indie without being too pretentious. They hail from Nottingham, which is nice purely because I like to find local bands that aren’t playing the derivative drivel of most of the ones I’ve seen.

I didn’t exactly fall in love with them from the live show, but I definitely enjoyed it. And it interested me enough to want some of their music. All live music is improved by knowing the songs though, repetition is such a core concept in music, there is only so much that I can enjoy something when hearing it for the first time. I have to be able to go and listen to it in my own space, in my own world. Luckily the EP captures the best elements of the band that I saw from the live setting as well as bringing in some minimalist production that just enhanced things that little bit. As such it has become a CD (figuratively speaking, all my listening is from my PC) that is really growing on me.

The songs are well put together, full of neat rhythms and piercing melody with a pleasant but yearning backing put out by soft clean and acoustic instrumentation. The structures and concepts aren’t ground breaking, they’re just very well done, and the sheer variety of instruments gives the necessary variety to make each track unique but still cohesive to the sound of the EP and the songs themselves. These guys have got a sound that I think has potential to appeal to a great number of people and I’m really looking forward to seeing more of them, I hope that they continue to write and play, as long as they do I’ll be followingand listening.

Repetition

All Ad’d up and ready to go November 28, 2009

Posted by Sharny in : Blogs, Entertainment, Fun, Gaming, Internets, Scraps , add a comment

So I’ve now got the google ads back up on the blog and also on Malarky. Before they were under another account rather than my own because I was under 18 but now that I’m legally an adult I’m allowed to earn money on my website. Woop.

My main concern with this little venture is the time it’ll take for traffic to really pick up, it was a long time after starting Durka that others outside of people I knew actually used the site. Word of mouth is a great propogator for something like this but it what it really takes is people searching deep into search engines for a site that they can actually play on. It’s this that really got visitors to it before and eventually caused it to somewhat explode in terms of popularity. Explode relatively that is.

I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to poke this along or whether it simply is a case of watching, waiting and hoping. Of course, please do tell your friends, it’s the caring sharing thing to do. With that I’m going to be over and out.

Toy Commander: The most local multiplayer fun you’ll ever have (that isn’t an FPS) July 22, 2009

Posted by Sharny in : Entertainment, Essay, Fun, Gaming , 1 comment so far

The Dreamcast is in many ways considered to be a failed console, and indeed, it did spell the end for Sega in one way or another. Many say it failed due to a huge amount of the market wanting to wait till the PS2 was released. Still, it was the first console to have online multiplayer features and it was the first new console I ever received and therefore will always hold a special place in my heart.

Toy Commander has a similar personal connection. I can’t remember where or when I got it, only that I had liked the idea behind it from when I first heard about it and was willing to pay the above average price for a Dreamcast game to get it. It certainly was worthwhile. As a single player game it held up very well,  the missions were interesting and varied, even if a few could get a bit frustrating. For a game of it’s time though, it was very well done.

But the real strength came in the multiplayer, me and my best friend played that game to death in two player battles. How we managed to remain interested in it for as long as we did is a complete mystery to me but really says something about what a fantastic multiplayer game Toy Commander was and still is.

The reason I’m writing this post is because recently the topic of retro games and old games that had a strong personal connection to us came up in conversation, I remembered Toy Commander and how awesome a game for multiplayer it had been but more I remembered how I had longed for another two controllers as I thought the fun would be multiplied greatly with two more people. So I went on eBay and had a little look around for Dreamcast controllers, they seemed pretty inexpensive and I picked up two of them for just £8.50 with free P&P.

When they arrived we immediately cracked out the old games, Toy Commander at the forefront and experienced the fun it brings.

What is so fantastic about it is that it’s a completely different game to any other of the games we’ve played local multiplayer on in the past. For one, it’s not a first person shooter. Mostly though, it comes from the pretty simple system combined with wonderfully intricate and detailed levels. The thing about normal flight combat in games is it takes place in massive areas which are all pretty much the same, there are no obstacles as you’re out in the open. Toy Commander brings the dog fights inside, into your living room or bedroom. Fights take place dodging behind chairs and curtains, into cupboards and under tables, around ceiling fans and through fire places. It is this aspect that really gives Toy Commander it’s wonderful originality and fun.

As with every great game, it’s easy to pickup and start playing but difficult to master. There is no other game like it. Which is really why I’m now imploring the game industry – someone please pick up the rights for a remake/sequel. This game would work so well on modern consoles and PCs. If it were done well, the levels would be expanded and more fun details added and the missions would retain their fun whilst hopefully losing some of their unclear instructions and frustration. Moreover, the game would work fantastically well online, with either Xbox Live or regular PC online gaming being perfect. I can just imagine the possible fun having a toy commander battle with 8 or even 16 players. The dog fights would be so tense, the battles could be raised to an epic scale. The fun would be multiplied even more.

I know the chances of remake or sequel are minute but it would be truly such a great game. It was a fantastic concept and I have no idea how it possibly dyed with the absolutely awful Toy Racer, what seems to be one of the most rushed games I’ve ever played. Even to just see it appear on the Xbox Live Arcade would be awesome, even in it’s original form. I’d love to see how my skills match up to others around the world.

Really, if you have a Dreamcast and don’t own this game you need to try and get your hands on a copy, it is THE most fun multiplayer experience on that console, if not any console ever made and probably the most original and fun multiplayer game you’ve ever played.

Musical musings July 16, 2009

Posted by Sharny in : Entertainment, Music, Ramble , add a comment

So, I say right up there in the tag line that I talk about music, but short of a few gigs and bits and pieces on Opium Toad I haven’t done much. Over time, I’ve really come to learn what makes good music for me although still new things open up and make me think in different ways.

The easiest thing for me to write about would probably be where I am at now musically, and to do that I’m gonna consult my last.fm profile. My top charts from the past 6 months say a lot I think, although said a little more a month or two back. Here they are:

  1. Porcupine Tree
  2. Karate
  3. Ayreon
  4. Riverside
  5. Turisas
  6. Finntroll
  7. Clutch
  8. Seth Lakeman
  9. Kalmah
  10. Opeth
  11. Dark Tranquillity
  12. dredg
  13. Alestorm
  14. Eluveitie
  15. Paul Simon
  16. Anathema

Symphony X, Queensrÿche, The Sword, Megadeth, Pure Reason Revolution, Korpiklaani, Machine Head, Dream Theater, Blackfield, Kiuas, Orange Goblin, Show of Hands, Equilibrium, Ensiferum, Children of Bodom, Spock’s Beard, Jethro Tull, Metallica, Thin Lizzy, Down, Municipal Waste, Indukti, Annihilator, Taint, Arch Enemy, Bert Jansch, Primus, Edguy, Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier, Pineapple Thief, Afro Celt Sound System, AC/DC, Weather Report, Led Zeppelin.

The big ones right at the top there, PT and Karate. Porcupine Tree have to go down as my all time favourite band. Still when I listen to them now I love them as much as when I first heard “Where we would be” amazingly, a song that is very different to much of their work is what brought them to me and I love it. PT did actually drop to 2nd to Karate whilst I was still in the US and indeed Karate deserve a mention.

They are a band that came around at exactly the right time. “Some Boots” somehow captured me exactly as I was when I first heard it, listening to “Airport” in my guitar lesson, it’s smooth main idea just took me away, combined with lyrics that filled me with what I like to refer to as “future nostalgia” and a unique delivery. They are a band completely different to any other, I’ve listened to their number one similar artist on last.fm and they sound nothing like them. Spectacular. Indeed, “Airport” is currently the number 2 most played song in my iTunes library, the only song in the top 50 to have been added to my library in 2008. Every other song there is there because, yes, I love them but I listened to them over time. This is one of the only times I can say that a single song got me through so much but it’s true. It’s an absolutely magnificent achievement but I can only do so much to sell it to others. It has such a personal connection to me that I love it as much for the memories and comfort it gave and continues to give me than for the music itself (which is still very good).

There it is, for all to enjoy.

A shout has to go to Ayreon too, for the music of Arjen Anthony Lucassen has taken me on many adventures in the soundscape. I do really enjoy his music, as demonstrated by the number of plays he has. It’s also down to how much of his music I have due to his tendancy to always produce double albums and my tendancy to like all the songs on them.

Number four is a band that have captured my attention for a little while now but are still fairly recent additions to my regular listening; Riverside. Their style of progressive rock is one that I can really connect to and they do a great job of balancing good song writing with interesting musicianship. Somehow their music manages to be appropriate for being happy, being sad and everything in between. That in itself is a bigger accomplishment than I think many would realise.

Turisas and Finntroll remain strong as my favourite offerings that folk metal have. To me, these two are the quintessental folk metal bands. They have the perfect combination of folky melodies and rocking metal riffs that are what define the genre, as well as the little bits of extra epic cool fun that folk metal should be full of.

Clutch have been entertaining me with their breed of stoner rock for about a year now and I’m still loving it, “Blast Tyrant” remains an incredibly strong album, an unrelenting onslaught of rock. I haven’t delved much further into their offerings but do enjoy a good portion of “Pure Rock Fury”.

Then comes Seth Lakeman, the only indication of the oncoming of more folk influence into my spectrum. I was delighted to see a few BBC shows at the cambridge folk festival which introduced me to a few folk artists, the one that stuck being Seth Lakeman. I really struggle with folk because as a genre it’s just so varied. I absolutely love strong folky melodies and strong story telling vibes mixed with top notch vocals but so much of folk is just same old acoustic guitar chords with a bit of singing on top, just not enough for me. I want to hear violins and vocal harmonys, I want engaging stories not just crappy love songs that I can hear on any pop record. Seth gives me a great mix of the stuff I love and I’ve been continuing to listen to his music on a regular basis since seeing those tv pieces.

Wow, I seriously have waffled on here. I’m not entirely sure what this was supposed to be exactly, but I think it’s collapsed in on its self. Still, I put quite a lot of time into writing it so I mayaswell post it. You’d have to care quite a lot about my personal musical motives to really find it interesting though, and I get the feeling that audience is very small.

Like, 1 person max.

Turisas 01/10/08 (Dragonforce were there too…) October 9, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Entertainment, Music, Uncategorized , add a comment

After a rather chaotic day where nothing much really went to plan we eventually managed to get on a bus and find ourselves in town, this was not before freaking out the rest of the bus with our loud talking on a whole manner of topics, the last of which was horrific porn… Of course, this was not the beginning of our reign of terror, before getting on the bus we had filled the “Rowdy gang of youths” role very well due to the fighting and throwing of biscuits going on.

On a side note, being part of such a gang of youths is quite a lot of fun. Good confidence boost to just be able to be silly and get funny looks from people.

So, once we arrived in town we headed to Rock City and found that people were being let in but that obviously hadn’t been going on long since our friends in the queue were not too close to the door. We easily joined ourselves to them and headed in.

From this point we spent a long time in a sort of oddly shaped circle, making people around us give us strange looks due to our various innuendos and fondlings and whatnot. During this, most of us got our faces painted in the Turisas red + black stripes. We weren’t alone in this painting, despite Dragonforce being the headliners there were clearly plenty of Turisas fans there. As time went on we gradually got more and more crushed by the crowd forming and had to push out a little to avoid just being swamped.

Eventually Turisas came on, with an epically awesome cheesy intro. I’m not going to try and recount the set list in order, that’s just a train to fail. However, I’m pretty sure these were the songs they played: A portage to the unknown, Battle Metal, In the court of Jarisleif (which was slightly extended, woot!), Rasputin and to Holmgard and beyond. They also did their little Fuck guitar solos bit and, for an extra treat, we got to sing happy birthday to their newest accordion player who’s birthday would be the 2nd of October, I do believe. According to their lead singer, she was only 16 when she started to tour with them and now is just turning 18. Pretty insane really, to be doing something so awesome as that so young.

During the performance I got jostled a bit round the crowd away from everyone else but somehow ended up back next to them at the end, through some kind of pure fluke. After that we ploughed our way out of the crowd and went outside. As expected, we were all pretty hyped up. A couple of my friends went back in to see if earlier promises of getting backstage to meet the band were possible. I hung back since I figured it was very unlikely but after a while we headed in and were met with a fun surprise.

Just as we were heading up the stairs back to the main room, two of the members of Turisas were coming out of the door to the Rig. My friends and I were actually the first people to jump at this opportunity and we immediately all got ourselves high fives from both of them. The two in question would be Jussi Wickström (guitarist) and Netta Skog (accordion, as mentioned earlier). After this I saw a couple of my friends at possibly the most excited I have ever seen them, both getting hugs and autographs from both of them. After this quite a crowd was forming with other people wanting to get autographs and such.

I guess the irony is that arguably the biggest fan of Turisas of all of us (me) didn’t bother getting an autograph. Why? I was happy enough meeting them, the thing about autographs is that I don’t collect them for a start but if I did get them I would simply end up loosing them. No one can take away the experience of having high fived them both though, that was truly awesome. It’s also that I’m a little afraid of asking for things such as this, what with my difficult to spell name.

After all this hubbub we all headed down to McDonald’s (as it is reliably open at almost any hour) and bought various different foods and drinks. I didn’t get anything myself as…well…I don’t really go for that stuff and wasn’t especially hungry/thirsty. Of course, our delightfully painted faces caused us to get some nice funny looks from people that we passed, that’s always fun.

Once we were done there we headed back up to Rock City and went in to find Dragonforce in full swing. We watched for a little while but none of us really like Dragonforce and nothing about the performance was interesting enough to stick at it. I can’t say that they were bad, just that I don’t like them and therefore had little interest in seeing them once I had confirmed that their solos weren’t laughably bad (they seemed to be playing alright, from what I could see/hear, although you can get away with a lot of mistakes in what they play) so we all left, barring the one of us that does actually like Dragonforce.

Halfway back to the bus stop, it was realised that we had left a jacket behind so a couple of party members went back to get it. We all just stood around waiting for them and eventually caught the bus back home again. The bus, incidentally, was surprisingly full for such a journey. Probably Goose Fair’s fault.

So that was that.

Another spectacular show by Turisas, easily upstaging Dragonforce but perhaps not if you’re a fan of them. Proof that you should never have Turisas as your support. All in all an awesome stuff once again, I can be sure that I’ll be seeing them live many more times whenever I get the chance.

The Bridge August 25, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Entertainment, Society , add a comment

I just finished watching The Bridge. I had heard about it a while ago and been intruiged by the the premise and it didn’t dissapoint.

As a film that centres around the filming of actual suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge, it’s going to be something that is controversial.  It’s definitely possible to view it as something morbid but at the same time, can be something very sensitive.

I personally found it very moving and extremely powerful.  I’m not really gonna say a lot about it because there isn’t a whole lot to say, it had a strong effect on me though, that’s for sure. Having seen this the experience of visiting the bridge whilst I am in San Francisco later this year is going to be even more special.

I suppose what really struck me by it is the variance between the stories of the people who took their own lives.  Some had mental problems from quite early on and where in and out of depression, whereas others had seemed happy to those around them for the majority of their lives. This is, I suppose, the scariest part, as it puts forward the idea that essentially anyone can be driven to suicide, that it is not as distant as many of us would like to think.