[Moozik: M83 - Couleurs]

When watching scenes of abandoned cities in the movies, I've always wondered if it was cool special effects or whether the film studios paid the city handsomely for closing off a few streets for a little bit. I should wonder no more. All you have to do is get up reasonably early on Christmas Day and you have an abandoned London. What a cool idea. I think this one is my fave.

Oh and speaking of special effects, this list of the top 50 movie special effects is really worth a look. I do think it's worth noting how much more effort they had to put in back in the early days. The approaching the death star trench scene from 1977 is still amazing even today.

[Moozik: Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch (Live 2008)]

A little over 20 years ago I was watching Top of the Pops and happened to see a video from a band I'd never heard of before. The song was This Corrosion by The Sisters of Mercy.

I was only 14 at the time and had never heard anything like it before. It was dark & gloomy, yet oddly atmospheric and catchy at the same time. I was totally blown away and I bought it on 7" single that weekend. I had to hear more so I saved all my pennies and bought Floodland on cassette. I remember taking my Sony Walkman on a school trip to Belgium and played Floodland to death.

It was only later that I learned of the history of the Sisters, Wayne leaving to form The Mission, and the sheer and utter brilliance of First and Last and Always. But Floodland is where it all started for me; where my love of the Sisters started; and where I started getting into music from the oft-derided genre known as (ssshhh) goth.

The album itself has aged really well. I still love it as much today as I did then and often find myself playing it. The pounding bass of Lucretia My Reflection, the synth of Flood II, and the haunting vocals of Driven Like The Snow all work tremendously well. Highly recommended. 10/10.

Track Listing:

Dominion/Mother Russia
Flood I
Lucretia My Reflection
1959
This Corrosion
Flood II
Driven Like The Snow
Never Land (a fragment)
Torch
Colours

[Moozik: Jakalope - Go Away]

I was introduced to wine 13 years ago when I lived in a region of Northern Italy well known for producing a rather excellent Pinot Grigio. I've been a fan ever since. But that's all. I mean I really don't know much about wine at all. I can tell you the types of wine I like and I know that after a few glasses, everything is right with the world. But ask me about the different types of grape or how a bunch of them become a fantastic vintage and I'm clueless.

I hope to change all that this year and actually learn about the delicious liquid I'm sipping merrily. As a good start then, I happened to get an excellent book about wine for Christmas. I've been reading away like mad and I must say I've learned a lot already. One day I'd love for us to go wine tasting in the Northern California Wine Country. For now, I'll raise my glass and look forward to learning as much as I can about grapes, soil, and barrels.

[Moozik: Nine Inch Nails - Non-Entity (Live 2006)]

So, a rather belated Happy New Year then. So far 2009 has brought me a case of the suck. Usually I get over colds/flu pretty quickly. Not so this time and I've been totally wiped out. Friday night I went to sleep at 6:00pm and woke up at 8:45am Saturday morning. Last night I was in bed by 7:30pm and woke up around 9:00am ish this morning. I don't remember the last time I slept this much or had so little energy.

Still, I've managed to feed my Battlestar Galactica addiction, watch Batman movies, and get caught up on all the old episodes of The Young Ones. Which have surprisingly stood the test of time rather well.

"Dr Martens, Dr Martens, Dr Martens Boots"

Them: It's Harry the bastard.
Harry: And you owe me 500 quid.
Them: Well, what a complete bastard.

[Moozik: Haujobb - Rising Sun]

Listening to music is somewhat of an addiction I've had since the cassette version of Adam & The Ants' Prince Charming started this whole thing rolling on my 8th birthday.

Every year I try to expand my music collection whenever possible and last year I found it extremely easy to come up with at least 10 albums that warranted a quick mention. Not this year though, I found it actually quite difficult to come up with the 7 that I did. So, in no particular order of preference, albums released this year that are worth a quick nod.

The Killers - Day & Age

Their first album Hot Fuss was really good. I think they got an unfair bashing in the press for growing beards and getting all serious with their second album Sam's Town. Day & Age is a return to a lighter, poppier Killers in the vain of Hot Fuss. And you know what, that's good, because that's what The Killers really are, a good pop band. Recommended track: Goodnight, Travel Well.

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV

The first of two albums that Trent Reznor would release this year. Ghosts I-IV is a 36 track instrumental extravaganza. Initially only available from the NIN website I eagerly parted with my $5 and downloaded it. In places it can be a little hit & miss but when it does hit, it's really quite something. It is an album that you have to be in the mood for though and it's best to not make any comparisons to any other "proper" NIN album. Recommended track: 24 Ghosts III.

The Cure - 4:13 Dream

Everything that I wrote about the album back in October still stands. A welcome return to form and some of the tracks that I labeled as misses have indeed grown on me in the couple of months since I bought it. It is indeed the best album of the post-Wish era and I was lucky enough to get to see them play some of the tracks live earlier in the year. Recommended track: Underneath The Stars.

ohGr - Devils In My Details

Of the many Skinny Puppy side projects ohGr is my favorite. Initially I was a little underwhelmed with this album and didn't think it held up that well to the first two releases. But, as with many albums, it has really grown on me over the past couple of weeks and I actually think it's now my second favorite after Welt. A really solid industrial album that any fan of Skinny Puppy should own. Hard to pick one track to recommend as there are a few that are certainly worth a mention. Oh, ok. Recommended track: Psychoreal.

Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

The second NIN album released this year. As with the previous release earlier in the year, The Slip was available under a creative commons license and only initially available as a download. Unlike Ghosts I-IV though, you could download it free of charge. I did pay $5 as a show of support. I think this is certainly the way the music industry should head and Trent is way ahead of the game. The Slip is a really solid Nine Inch Nails album. It hasn't held my interest as much as With Teeth or Year Zero but it has some really really good moments. Recommend track: Discipline.

Ladytron - Velocifero

I was a little late to the Ladytron party but since discovering them, they've grown into one of my favorite bands. They make really really good electronic pop music. Really good. 2005's Witching Hour is one of my favorite albums and a very good starting point if you've never heard anything by them before. Then once you've assimilated that, try Velocifero. I loved it from the very first play and it's one of those albums that doesn't have any off tracks. Extremely hard to pick a favorite song. But if pressed... Recommended track: Tomorrow.

Fixmer/McCarthy - Into The Night

Nitzer Ebb's Doug McCarthy provides vocals to Terrence Fixmer's electronic wizardry. Their second album together and this one blows Between The Devil... away. Industrial? Yes, hmm, but more than that. Electronic, futurepop perhaps? Hard to classify, it's one of those you really have to hear it to get what it is. One thing is for sure, you'll be turning the volume way up and like me, finding yourself nodding your head to the infectious noise from your speakers. Recommended track: Trans European.

[Moozik: The Cure - The Only One]

Had a nice break over Christmas, tried to ban myself from those intarweb thingies and for the most part succeeded handsomely. I hope anyone reading this had a nice time and hopefully Santa left you something nice under your tree.

So today I've been getting caught up on a week's worth of reading, and my goodness, snow much? Everyone it would seen, has had battles with that white powdery goodness for the past week or so.

Of course, living in the desert means that snow is not something that is immediately familiar to most Phoenicians and in fact yesterday was perfect hiking weather. So off to White Tank Mountain Park we went.

Shady.

Hairy.

Hilly.

An every once in a while, the cacti can make you laugh.

And in somewhat unrelated news, my goodness is The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button a long movie. Good. Sad. Long. We caught the last showing on Boxing Day and had people walk out of the movie before it finished. Don't know if they didn't like it or just couldn't handle being at the cinema after 1:00am.

[Moozik: ohGr - Shhh]

I've been a Skinny Puppy fan ever since I heard Assimilate many many moons ago. Over the years they've had many side projects and one that I've particularly liked and paid attention to is Nivek Ogre's ohGr. ohGr released their third album at the end of October and as luck would have it, came to my neck of the woods on the current leg of their North American tour last night.

Those fine chaps at the Marquee Theater wouldn't let me take my camera inside and of course my cell phone camera sucks donkey balls so I was a little disappointed to not be able to capture the show. It was really good gig and Ogre is a pretty good showman.

Highlights were amazing versions of luSid, miNUS, and Pepper. Somewhere around mid-show he sent copious amounts of feathers into the crowd via fans blowing at hurricane speeds. An entertaining idea as we were all playing keep the feathers out of the beer which didn't work. My car as a result is now a little feathery in the inside.

I was a little surprised at how empty the venue was though. It was absolutely hammering down with rain so that may have stopped some from coming out to buy tickets at the door. Still for the few hundred of us that were there, we had an absolute blast. Now, I can only keep my fingers crossed that if Skinny Puppy do release an album next year (which rumor has it they will), they decide to tour.

[Moozik: Lords Of Acid - I Sit On Acid]

With only a few days to go until Christmas I figured now was as good a time as any to start thinking about those year in review type posts. 2008 proved to be a year of many firsts. A quick recap via photos.

First Time In New York

First Time Seeing The Cure

First Time I Realized I Grew Up In A Picturesque Village

First Time In Paris

First Time In Dublin

First Time Hiking

First Time Being Able To Call Ourselves A Couple

Did you have any firsts in 2008?

[Moozik: The March Violets - Slow Drip Lizard]

Quite frankly I'm a little shocked. I just upgraded MT from 4.01 to 4.23 and nothing appears to be broken. That can't be right. Every time I've upgraded MT ever, something broke as a result. I must have done the upgrade wrong ;-)

[Moozik: Edge Of Dawn - The Flight (Lux)]

Over the course of a career, a band will perhaps produce one album that really stands out among all their others. An album that signifies their defining moment; their masterpiece. U2 managed this with The Joshua Tree, The Cure with Disintegration. Depeche Mode's seventh studio album Violator is, without a doubt, their masterpiece.

The band were approaching the pinnacle of their career both creatively and in popularity. They had finally cracked America with their sixth album, Music For The Masses, and had finished up a hugely successful world tour culminating with a final concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on June 18th 1988 in front of 60,000 fans.

Released in early 1990, Violator instantly became my favorite album ever. It is, quite simply, stunning. The attention to detail to every single sound, noise, beep, melody, and rhythm by Alan Wilder is amazing. Anyone who has heard Martin Gore's original demo for Enjoy The Silence should really appreciate how much studio time Wilder and producer Flood must have put in to come up with the electronic masterpiece that Enjoy The Silence would ultimately become.

There aren't many albums that I can honestly say I love every single song, this album is one of them though. Enjoy The Silence is perhaps, the best song DM ever made. The other three singles, Personal Jesus, Policy Of Truth, and World In My Eyes are classics.

What makes the album stand out for me though is that you can take away the singles and still be left with some of the best songs DM have made. Halo, Blue Dress, and Clean really shine. Clean, with Alan Wilder on live drums would ultimately grow on me and I find myself playing this song more and more over time. The irony of Dave Gahan's impending drug use isn't lost on me as I listen to him sing 'now that I'm clean, you know what I mean, I've broken my fall, put an end to it all, I've changed my routine'.

If you only ever listen to one Depeche Mode album ever, you owe it to yourself to pick this one. You won't be disappointed. 10/10.

Track Listing:

World In My Eyes
Sweetest Perfection
Personal Jesus
Halo
Waiting For The Night
Enjoy The Silence
Policy Of Truth
Blue Dress
Clean