Top 10 Albums of 2008

1. M83 - Saturdays = Youth
2. The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
3. D_rradio - D_rradio
4. Dosh - Wolves and Wishes
5. Port Royal - Flared Up Remixes
6. Bloc Party - Intimacy
7. Lars Bartkuhn - The New Continent
8. Ferry Corsten - Twice In A Blue Moon
9. Windy & Carl - Songs For The Broken Hearted
10. Manual - Confluence

3 completely (subjective) descriptions for each:

1. M83-Saturdays = Youth -> Brilliant, gaze, pop gem
2. The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me -> Indietronica, sing-a-long, rainy day
3. D_rradio - D_rradio -> Clever, genre bending, glitchy
4. Dosh - Wolves and Wishes -> Flowing, bends time, jazzified
5. Port Royal - Flared Up Remixes -> Colorful, lush, beautiful
6. Bloc Party - Intimacy -> Rock out, dance, energetic
7. Lars Bartkuhn - The New Continent -> Jazzy, electronic, journey
8. Ferry Corsten - Twice In A Blue Moon -> Oontz Oontz (4 to the floor), fun, synthy
9. Windy & Carl - Songs For The Broken Hearted -> Beautiful, gaze, lush
10. Manual - Confluence -> Wakeup music, lush, gaze

Portal Royal - Flared Up Remixes

I became a fan of Port Royal sometime last summer when they released their album "Afraid to Dance." At the time I was going through a lot of electronic gazey music (ulrich schnauss / m83) and it really hit a chord (ha).

This new album Flared Up (Remixes) is a remix album of their LP Flares, and it's awesome. There are about 4 or 5 songs in the middle that completely flow and feel lush and full.

I swore off remixes after a 4 year stint as a bedroom trance dj, subscribing to the idea that "original ideas are just better." After hearing this album, and its reinterpretations I was forced to reconsider the idea of originality as something completely different.

The relevant songs on here are Karola Bloch (manuel), a guitar chopper by D_Raddio (who also just released a new album, which I need to post about on here... soon) and another Karola Bloch (as dialect this time) that is more ulrich schnauss then the man himself could ever be.

This is really great album, and if you can spare the $ to purchase it you will experience some of the best sounds this year

Swod - Sekunden

I promise not to write about music less than a month old
I promise not to write about music less than a month old
I promise not to write about music less than a month old
I promise not to ... who am I kidding?

Ok so the album came out in October of 07. Totally awesome ambient, piano, samplism, sounds totally lo-fi at times and at others completely overproduced, another awesome time buster. This baby just flows.

Like... these guys are hard to find... Check out their last.fm I guess

Album here

Dosh - Wolves and Wishes

First off, is that not the coolest album cover? With that crazy tree and those houses and that whole "Where is gravity?" thing going on.

Ok. Dosh. This guy blew my mind back in 06. I remember laying out on the grass in college, staring at the sky and just listening to this guy's music.

Think ... jazz. Now think, awesome. Add a bit of gaze, some glitch, and a whole lot of "Maaaaaan is that the last track?" and you have Dosh - Wolves and Wishes.

The best thing about the album is its flow from one song to the next. It has this charming ability to make the listener forget the idea of time. Giving the album a feeling as if it is one large song.

Totally. Worth. 20. listens.

Oh, and he's an awesome drummer. Peep the youtube

M83 - Saturdays=Youth

Amazing album.
M83's older stuff was more electronic, more video-gamish, but this album is flowing, lush and beautiful. This is the kind of stuff that puts you to sleep and wakes you up in the morning. The kid of album you travel with.

This is shoegaze and electronic at its best.



youtube.com/m83 for videos.

Aleph-1 - Aleph-1

This record has some of the best ambient, blips, beeps I have ever heard. Tons of motion, completely out there.
This is great for background noise, reading, or sleeping. I listen to this during my commute and time feels completely different during the listen.

If anything, listen to the samples.

Check out this phone

Completely amazing looking phone. Coolest I've ever seen. Perhaps we'll see it on store shelves ... in the year 2000!

[Via Newslaunches.com]

Dive Index - Mid/Air

This album is completely awesome. It has a very glitchy / electronic theme to it similar to DNtel (of The Postal Service), Bjork, Alias, Efterklang, Ratatat, & Regina Spektor. Vocals sound like Sarah McLachlan, & Broken Social Scene.

Completely well rounded and sonically tantalizing. Be sure to give it a listen, and even a buy. The myspace songs don't do it justice.

Recovering your aim buddy list

Deleted aim buddy list?

** The one requirement for this process is that you must have logged your aim conversations **

Step 1. Search your computer for files containing your screen name. Eventually you'll come across the log files. Most logging programs use folders to organize the logs. These folders contain each of your buddy's names. This is the content for the recovery process.
Step 2. Navigate to the base directory of all these folders using the command prompt (start - run - cmd) then type dir/s > backup.txt. That will dump the content of the entire directory into a text file.
Step 3. Open the text file in Microsoft Excel, make sure to chose "fixed width" when importing.
Step 4. Copy the columns of all the screen names, and paste them into a new text file.
-- Here is where you can organize your buddy list using excel. I alphabetized.--

You should at this point have all your buddies in a text file.

Now all you have to do is save an old aim buddy list and edit it with a text editor, pasting the new list of buddies in the appropriate area.

Massive Link Dump

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