Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that I’m fond of the occasional mojito. This traditional Cuban cocktail is a nice light-flavoured drink and is very refreshing on a hot summer’s day. Also popular in our house is the Brazilian caipirinha, which has some similarities to the mojito, and is also very tasty. [...]
Heavy Rain
is an upcoming single-player video game, developed by the French company Quantic Dream exclusively for the PlayStation 3. The game is a dark film noir thriller, featuring four protagonists being pulled individually into the search for the Origami Killer. Earlier this week, the demo was made publicly available, and I took the opportunity to try it for myself. [...]
Shearwater make beautiful music, it cannot be denied. Their albums are critically acclaimed and invoke great passion in their fanbase. Their new album continues this fine tradition with the band’s most absorbing and accomplished work to date. The Golden Archipelago
is the third panel of a triptych (preceded by Shearwater’s Palo Santo
and Rook
albums) linked by themes of environmental and personal decay, and humans’ impact on nature. [...]
In 2007, a select number of countries announced they were about to begin negotiating the US-proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). At first glance, the aim of the proposed treaty was to tackle the international issue of counterfeit physical goods (such as medicines). Since then, leaks from the secret negotiations, and some public announcements, have revealed that the treaty will have a far broader scope and will have a section targeting “Internet distribution and information technology”. But what does this mean? [...]
What is it that defines a good live album? It may the intensity of a stadium concert, or the intimacy of a ballroom acoustic set. Perhaps it’s the artists interacting with the audience and obviously having fun. It could even be a reminder of concerts that a person has gone to in the past, or wanted to. For this article, in place of the usual album review, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and present one of those ubiquitous lists you see on the Internet - this list being five great live albums. These isn’t a list of the top five live albums as I haven’t heard a number of the “great” albums and wouldn’t presume to rank things outside of my ken. Instead, these are five albums that I recommend as being worthy of checking out. [...]
Spoon for me has always been one of those bands that you often see mentioned in various places and mean to check out, but never actually get around to doing it. When Mike asked me to have a listen to Spoon’s new album, Transference
, I was certainly keen to check them out. What I discovered was that this album is a bit of a mixed bag. [...]
Pink Floyd’s album The Dark Side of the Moon
is generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest albums of all time, and a key influence on a number of modern musical artists. It is one of the albums I grew up listening to and have carried through into my adulthood as one of my favourites. The album’s notable use of musique concrète and conceptual, philosophical lyrics resonate strongly with myself and its other listeners, and is truly something that needs to be explored in its entirety, rather than its parts. [...]
