This Is No Substandard Fare (Battlemouth)

Standard Fare may be named after a sign spotted on a bus, but their effect is anything but pedestrian. Sounding like the perky younger siblings of the Arctic Monkeys, the power trio’s uncomplicated lyrics of life and infectious beats make for a rollicking good time, and now Emma Kupa, Danny How, and Andy Beswick are set to release their debut album. Recorded in six days with an indie aesthetic that would have made John Peel proud, the album is named for a formative period in the band’s development when they travelled across the channel to play at a festival in Noyelles Sous Lens, France. “It was where we felt our sound came together,” says How, and the collection of songs they were playing became The Noyelle Beat. [...]

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Symphonic Serj Tankian (Battlemouth)

In mid-March 2009, a one-off special concert was performed at New Zealand’s majestic Auckland Town Hall. At this concert, System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian performed songs from his critically-acclaimed solo debut album Elect the Dead, along with some previously unreleased songs, accompanied by the well-regarded Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Thankfully for those unable to be part of the audience, this unique concert was recorded, and is being released as Elect the Dead Symphony. [...]

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Not a Consolation Prize (Battlemouth)

Every now and then, one comes across an artist that truly reminds you how good simple music can be, and Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten is one of these artists. I came across her music in an odd moment of serendipity, and was immediately taken by the wonderfulness of her work. Recorded under the artist-centric Language of Stone label, Because I Was In Love is her first studio album, and is a clear demonstration that she is a talent to be watched. [...]

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A Boozy Taste of Latin America (Battlemouth)

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. [...]

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Heavy Rain: First Impressions (Battlemouth)

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. [...]

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Journey to The Golden Archipelago (Battlemouth)

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. [...]

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ACTA: Do You Know What It Means? (Battlemouth)

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? [...]

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Five Live Albums to Check Out (Battlemouth)

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. [...]

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Possible Transference Issues for Spoon (Battlemouth)

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. [...]

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The Flaming Lips vs Pink Floyd: The Kiss of Death or a Breath of Life? (Battlemouth)

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. [...]

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Music Preview (Battlemouth): Heligoland from Massive Attack

Seven years after the release of Massive Attack’s last studio album, 100th Window, DJs 3D and Daddy G have returned to bring us their new offering, Heligoland.  A pioneering and highly influential institution of the Bristol scene, the UK duo follow their usual model of collaborating with guest artists to bring their listeners on a new journey into the surreal trip-hop genre. […]

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What's All This Battlemouth Malarkey Then?

As some may have noticed, it's been a bit quiet on my site recently. Between holidays, reading the Wheel of Time series, and gaming, I haven't really been up to updating the site with anything. I also seem to have hit a spot somewhere between "can't be arsed" and "a dry spell" with doing anything graphical, so that hasn't helped here either.

One thing I have been doing though is thinking over ideas for stories and articles on various things, and the best way I could present them. I could have put them on here, but I wasn't really sure how they fit with my general site theme (if, in fact, I actually have one).

A week or so ago, Mike from Battlemouth put a call out for new contributors for his site. As I had been interacting (read: trash talking) with a few of the Battlemouth guys for a while on Twitter, and had contributed a guest game review in the past, I indicated my interest and promptly sent off an article on the social inadequacy of Sony's PS3 console. Skip forward to now, and I have several articles up on Battlemouth and have been welcomed into the team.

I'm quite enthusiatic about this opportunity, and look forward to contributing to Battlemouth. It's not that I have any pretensions about my writing ability, but more about being a member of a like-minded community developing a quality magazine-style site. I certainly feel that Battlemouth is the best place for the articles I'm thinking of, and I hope the rest of the team feel the same way.

I will be posting links (with some text) to my Battlemouth articles on this site for the foreseeable future, but this may change if I think it doesn't feel right. I also hope to get back into the fold of posting my more regular stuff (photos, drawings, etc.) so this site stays alive.

Going forward, please feel free to offer any suggestions or ideas for changes in this site, or articles for Battlemouth.

Battlemouth articles to date:

• 30% of Brutal Legend... A Guest Review!
• Dragon Age: Origins - An Epic Review for an Epic Game (contribution)
• PS3's Social Inadequacy