Digital Wanderer

We live as long as we fly

Here phoneme asks everyone for their top 5 Russian music.

 2005-09-26

Here phoneme asks everyone for their top 5 Russian music. Later, though, under pressure from the Russophile public, he expands it to a top 10.

Why not write one. Despite my ardent support for all manner of attacks on Russian music, I’m not without sin myself—there’s no escaping your native language.

My Top 5 Russian musicians, in no particular order, with explanations

Psychea—emo-shit cybercore. I didn’t get the appeal at first, but after a few listens it really started hitting the spot, and then I played it endlessly
Dolphin—for the album "Zvezda", in which absolutely everything is simply perfect and meticulous. Such a degree of perfection is downright frightening. And what a cyberpunk atmosphere—it makes you want to just lie down and plug in.
Tequilajazzz—a classic, dammit. The albums about billions of steps and "Above Autumn", and then onward in reverse chronological order
Aquarium—for me, Aquarium means their last 2 albums. I haven’t heard the rest and don’t want to. That’s my idiotically principled position
Zvuki Mu—now this is a classic of that strange Russian-bloke-avant-garde genre. It’s probably a rare example of genuinely original Russian music

Expansion to the Top 10

2h company—my heart’s beloved postmodernist machine-gun recitatives of the MTV generation over the harsh electronics of Christmas Baubles. Even that sounds surreal
Kasta—straightforward Russian rap as it is. Fans of true hip-hop with niggas shout "Boo!"
Kirpichi—straightforward Russian nonsense as it is. Fans of true hip-hop with niggas shout "Boo!" for an encore
Slot—ultra-pop nu metal with female vocals. Fans of true hip-hop moo theatrically, stomp their feet, and wave their arms
W.K.? for the one and only song "Rastaman" (remix version), which, as far as I remember, was the last one to send the joy-and-happiness meter in my head off the scale. Fans of true hip-hop look bewildered

Read more →

Weird PR

 2005-09-25

I've been wondering for a few days now why I have mr_carbo on my friends list - I mean, one minute he's writing about turkey meat, and the next he's posting links to random Franz Ferdinand b-sides that I'm not particularly interested in. But then - bam! Wonderful, slightly cyberpunk pictures.
Not for nothing, then. Not for nothing.

Read more →

Observation

 2005-09-22

I lay down for a nap during the day. I woke up and immediately craved something sweet. I went and ate a marshmallow. It was extraordinarily delicious. I ate another one. Not bad either. It got me thinking. This isn’t the first time this has happened—immediately after sleep, when you haven’t properly woken up yet, or conversely, when you’re falling asleep, sensations become very vivid.  Once, as I was falling asleep listening to Physical Graffiti, the instrumental parts seemed to break into pieces and imprint themselves on my consciousness like slabs of sound.
Is the brain not yet properly calibrated upon waking, causing it to perceive sensory signals at the wrong scale?
Or, while the eyes are closed, is it free from visual information and therefore automatically amplifies the other senses?
In any case, this is most likely connected to nighttime, when less information comes in and the body, over the course of evolution, developed the ability to amplify signals in order to detect danger more effectively.


Read more →

On the presence and absence of taste

 2005-09-20

   I just don't believe in the concept of absolute taste. It seems to me that groups of active, snobby citizens furiously pounce on dissenters and kick them for their own amusement.  If that's true, one person has no right to criticize what another loves, and pushily promote their own favorite creations. Except maybe hand over a record with the words: "Give it a listen in your free time, maybe you'll like it".

Read more →