Random Bollox.

Not much has been happening recently.

There was a brief period of great weather which I completely missed because I was busy with stuff. Suckage.

I had a good session at Ratho where I did okay despite not having done routes for ages - although I was demoralised that I'm now such a hideous bloater I struggled to fit into my indoor harness :(.

I had a good session at TCA where I polished off several good and mis-graded problems on the comp wall. Curiously my progress over the previous session was more due to technique rather than strength, but I found I was able to keep cranking over a long-ish session, which was nice :).

I then had most of a week off climbing and exercise. Terrible. I can't afford to do that AT ALL. Came back to a session at the revamped and average-but-considerably-less-terrible-than-before GCC, and was weak, tired, and cross. Gym the next day helped a bit. I HAVE to keep moving.

Thankfully there is some movement planned: On Saturday morning Tris and I are flying to Malaga to go climbing at San Bartolo, funky looking sandstone near Gibraltar. Not a major destination but it looks nice for a few days and I really need to get away!! I need inspiration, activity, climbing mileage, and hopefully some dry fucking weather!! So, yay.

Oh and I got a cool new breakage drum'n'bass CD recently:



Nice variety of chopped up beats on this. I wasn't so taken at first, but have been playing it a lot. Ruff!

Tunes of 2011.

...available on good old physical media at your chosen outlet.

Origin - Evolution Of Extinction (Entity CD)

Track of the year from album of the year by metal band of the year - the epitomy of their precise, complex, well-crafted and utterly brutal style.

Cern, Dose, & Teknik - Huntsville (Commercial Suicide Compilation CD)

Drum and bass - music that keeps on giving....and keeps spreading in ever-more diverse areas. Sticking with straight up modern techstep, this track was a real eye-opener for it's unbelievably filthy sound. Less future funk and more steampunk funk.

Donny - Something Terrible (Riot & Revolt CD)

The harder side of DnB has diversified too with the hardcore/breakcore/idm/dnb crossover being increasingly fertile ground. It often gets too mashed up for me, but when the artists blend the toughness with a straight up dnb groove, you get properly good tracks like this one.

All Shall Perish - The Past Will Haunt Us Both (This Is Where It Ends CD)

A return to form for All Shall Perish and a beautiful death metal love ballad. Which vile twats say heavy music can't have any soul or emotion??

Gridlok - Enemies Of The State (Commercial Suicide Compilation CD)

I'm not the biggest fan of the choppy offbeat steppy style of DNB, not of Gridlok's overly-bleepy production. But sometimes two wrongs make an irrefutable right in this brilliant epic industrial dnb soundtrack.

Eye-D & DJ Hidden - Battlefield (Peer-2-Peer Pressure CD)

A great, refined and interesting CD by perhaps the foremost purveyors of the gabber/dnb crossover. They bring dnb influences into awesome hardcore tracks like Hell's Basement, and hardcore influences into this very well-named piece of headbanging dnb artillery.

Bonus!!
Fuck it, can't resist including one more...
Seba - It Ain't The Weather (Commercial Suicide Compilation CD)

As diverse and and as interesting as DNB gets, sometimes you just can't beat a straight up deep dark roller. And this is a great one from the usually mellow and choppy man Seba.

And!!
In case anyone was wondering, albums of the year 2011:
Ray Keith & Bladerunner - Dub Dread 4
Origin - Entity
Eye-D & DJ Hidden - Peer 2 Peer Pressure
All Shall Perish - This Is Where It Ends
DJ Asmatik - Homicide Voltaire
Dyprax & Unexist - Disorder In Italy
DJ Distance - Dubstep All Stars 8
Torsten Kanzler & Sven Wittekind - Basstech 1
Raiden - Beton Arme
Ill Skillz - Nectar And Ambrosia
+
Any DJ mix by S.P.Y.

Go forth and sate your ears' need for awesomeness!

Rainy day stuff.

Yup after a not-too-brief respite, the rain is back. Hopefully it will be bringing some snow onto the mountains to extend to the somewhat tapering out ski season - I've only had one slushy day at Glen Coe this year - but in the meantime it is shutting down the continuation of the recent good climbing I have been enjoying.

So I have retreated to my plethoric collection of geeky indoor activities. Actually I should be retreating to more GYM, more CAMPUSSING and more LEADING/FALLING PRACTICE. But I'm kinda having a week off that because I'm being fucking lazy. Instead in recent times I have been indulging myself with:

Models:
Have had a wee urge to paint recently and completed a couple of figures....old figures. Have a few more in progress but am generally very lazy about painting so these will do for now:



(Not to relative scale - click for more normal size!)

Music:
Although I'm back on the DRUMS and the BASS at the moment, I had a splurge on some metal recently which was very pleasing to my ears....but less pleasing to those of my friend Wendy who came out with the awesome quote:

"YUCK!!! i had to turn that off after 30 seconds, thats SHITE!! LMAO thats what u listen to? have you not killed enough brain cells?"

Yes it is what I listen to. Yes I genuinely REALLY like it. Yes I feel the same way as your quote about pop music. So the following CDs have been recent favourites...

Behemoth - The Apostasy & Zos Kia Cultus


Burzum - Belus


Gorefest - La Muerte


Immortal - All Shall Fall


Kataklysm - Prevail


Games:
I've finally got around to using my new (in October 2010) computer to it's full potential. As well as the usual Starcraft 2 (very good, very refinded indeed) shenanigans with my buddies VULTURE and DRAKE, I've got back into quality FPSes...

Bioshock - Excellent, a very distinctive and intruiging take on the FPS genre. Strong atmosphere, rich background, some emotional involvement and many interesting combat options.

Crysis - Superb, great graphics and great gameplay, the latter was refreshing after COD4. The nanosuit gives you many options and makes you feel in charge of your own gameplay destiny.

Call Of Duty 4 - (aka Modern Warfare) Pretty good but obviously overrated as a typical "crowd pleaser". Great looks and atmosphere and some strong scenes, but average gameplay, twitchy story, and too much war/weapon porn.

Next up will be: Thief 3, Far Cry 2, then maybe Crysis Warhead, Bioshock 2, and I might end up buying Singularity, COD5, Bulletstorm, Dead Space 2.....hmmm actually maybe the weather will improve and I will sack it all off ;)

BOLT THROWER!!!

Bit of personal history for you.

1986 - Bolt Thrower formed.
1990 - John Peel (RIP) played their "Drowned In Torment" track which introduced me to them.
1992 - I buy their Realms Of Chaos CD.
1993 Saturday 15th August - see Bolt Thrower live at the London Marquee, my second ever gig.
1993 Wednesday 19th August - my ears stop ringing.
1994 - for some bizarre reason I get rid of the Realms Of Chaos CD as I find it too rabid. What a gaylord.
2004 - get back into metal. Buy various CDs including 4th Crusade and Mercenary.
2009 - finally restock with the Realms Of Chaos, Warmaster, and their latest and equal greatest For Those Once Loyal.
2010 - see Bolt Thrower live again, 17 years on, and they are still awesome. Finally get to purchase a highly exclusive hoodie and beanie.

It was an ace gig. What makes Bolt Thrower great is how they are so heavy and so catchy at the same time - they manage to blend a dense wall of sound with such strong riffs and drumming that is both brutal and surprisingly groovy. It would be hard not to mosh along and I didn't even try to resist. The crowd were well syked, from kids who just appreciate a class grindcore sound, to veterans who have been following them for two decades. Karl Willets looked fat, sweaty, old, and still full of energy and excitement at delivering the mighty Bolt Thrower sound \m/ YEAH \m/

Well worth going to. I think I need to see Carcass next if they're still touring...

Here's a selection of their best stuff, Throughout The Ages:

Hip HOP.

Pay attention to this one and trust me. If you like or even merely tolerate hip-hip-hop, you need this in your life. It is bigger than big.

Swollen Members - Armed To The Teeth

[ Listen to samples rudebwoy. ]

Swollen have always dished out some great hip-hop in their previous albums (Balance, Bad Dreams, Heavy, Monsters In The Closet & Black Magic), with deep heavy beats from Rob Tha Viking and dark quirky lyrics from Mad Child and Prevail, and they've always been a firm favourite of mine.

This album however is the next step up in dopeness. The lyrics have gone downhill a bit with much more of a gangsta style and less wierdness, although plenty of catchy choruses make up for this. The beats however are so PHAT they'd need a lifetime subscription to Weight Watchers. Not only phat but well varied from rude underground stuff to dark melodic stuff to stomping party stuff, Rob Tha Viking should be made a Saint of Sickness. Things hit the ground running with "Reclaim The Throne" and generally get better and better until track 13 "Flyest" hits and OMG BASS, I just have to rewind this one every damn time. Oh and it's all good till the end too. 2 okay tracks and 16 great ones, can't ask for much more. I listened to it 4 times in a row, nuff said. Just get it.

Christmas Number 1

RATM always overrated, half decent music but not much flow and predictable attitude. Strictly Come Xhoad-factor I disdain as does any sensible human being.

My vote is for (in honour of it's 20th Anniversary):

November...

Hmmmm. While I was musing on this very Novembery update, I had a cool Drum'n'Bass track going around my head, by Norwegian hotshots Future Prophecies - Norway being the home of a couple of top class electronic acts i.e. Teebee and Biosphere, both of which I am a big fan of, in fact maybe it is time for a Norway-themed listening phase which would fit pretty well with the November vibe which was supposed to be the whole point of this rambling intro. Anyway the Future Prophecies track which I thought was called November is actually called September - two months out but have a listen anyway...

Future Prophecies - September

...because it kinda sums up the vibe at the moment, maybe a bit too cheerfully* but there's a hint of melancholy and wistfulness which is certainly relevant.

With curious precision, the exciting wintry end to October has abruptly shifted to a grim, damp start to November. Looking outside, it's very dull, very drizzly, very....devoid of meteorological distraction. Thus it forms a grey mirror of personal reflection, an empty canvas for one's thoughts....in the same way that the neutral grey/brown of gritstone radically changes personality with the weather around it, hostilely bleak on a grey day, warmly welcoming in the autumn evening sun...

My thoughts - the low cloud and mist shows back to me - are fairly turbulent, as often happens: An overactive and underexercised mind reacting to turbulent times. Reacting....fighting....rather than accepting?? I have always said that climbing is a metaphor to life, that climbing reflects and accentuates life - what you have in your life, you bring to your climbing. God knows how I've ever managed to climb at all well!! - but that's not the point. The point is more about the challenge and learning and that the lessons presumably go both ways. The fact is, I have climbed at all well (something I value during these times too, as well as during the pleasurable and thrilling and intriguing experience of when it happened - having done something of personal significance, I still have a certain (surprising) level of relaxation and lack of pressure about what I do now - as long as I keep going and keep experiencing, that is), and although it was a long, drawn-out battle, obviously something worked!! So what will work the other way?? Well, that's for me to work out and deal with...


(* perhaps, continuing the theme of suitable music prefixed with the letters No-, I should put on some of the mighty and utterly dark Nordvargr instead?? Maybe...)

Noise annoys...

Not entirely sure whether to pollute a mostly climbing blog with non-climbing ramblings. But then again why not. Can't make it much worse!

I went down to London this weekend (non-climbing weekend, resting elbow). Visited family, had some nice meals, did a bit of shopping, bought a new beanie (more on this later)...

...went to a live noise gig. And by noise, I mean noise, howling, pulsing, tearing static noise from 3 acts: The legendary "Godfather Of Japanoise", Merzbow; confrontational power-electronics veterans Sutcliffe Jugend; and low-key dark noise ambient act Satori (side-project of the owner of Coldspring records, who part organised this gig and are pretty much the hub of the dark ambient / industrial / noise / dark experimental scene in the UK).

Now, although I like many genres of electronic music, and extreme music in general, I'm not a real fan of noise music. I don't see any problem with noise per se, it is just another musical tool that can be used, abused, and crafted into something pretty stimulating and ear-catching. And in a few noise pieces, particularly with strong rhythms and a good balance across the tonal range, I find it works and can sound pretty good. In many others, where the noise is abstract and mashed up, I find it purposeless and it leaves me entirely disinterested. Thus I dabble a bit without following the genre.

Nevertheless, Merzbow (below) is effectively the god of noise music, so I felt I had to go to this gig, a once in a lifetime experience through opportunity....or more likely choice :).


And? Well, it was pretty cool. As you'd expect. Not a painfully unlistenable waste of time, and not a transcendentally mind-blowing experience. Just pretty cool.

It was interesting to see the 3 different acts (Satori: no stage show, fairly clean mixture of harsh noise and dark ambient passages, some good rhythms; SJ: strong stage presence with middle-aged man howling obscenities - a bit sad and laughable really - some interesting noise and fairly entertaining; Merzbow: amusingly intense Japanese focus, some strong rhythmic bits and some bewildering ear-splitting bits), interesting to see the usual crowd of goths, metallers, frightening bald blokes with huge beards, worryingly hot goth chicks, worryingly weird goth chicks, a fair proportion of nerds (who doubtless find some deep intellectual meaning in this nonsense that I don't), an appropriately prominent Japanese contingent, and the obligatory middle-aged men in sober dress. All somberly watching the various performances with admirable dedication and civility. As always it gets me wondering: "What do these people actually really like in this racket??"

Perhaps a more pertinent question: What do *I* actually really like in this racket?? Well aside from the performance/crowd interest above, the bits I musically enjoyed were anything with strong pounding rhythms and deep bass, which come across great in the live enviroment, some of the noise when it wasn't too jarring over the top of that, and some of the dedication of the performance. Which is enough for me.

Incidentally I'm listening to a Merzbow CD as I type this (I got into the spirit of things and bought it at the gig), and some of it is pretty cool. The rhythmic bits, as you'd guess ;).