Top of 2023

My top albums in 2023

What I realized thinking back and looking at Last.fm stats is that I relisten albums extremely rarely in the past few years. I keep pouring new music to my “listening todo list”, and it’s like a never ending chore trying to chew threw it. So if I came across something great, I was happy that I did, but still I rushed onwards to the next one. I picked the most listened albums from the past year below that I had some standout memories of, but I’m sure there were at least a hundred that I loved but don’t even remember.

I want to change this next year, and consciously keep some great albums on repeat for longer. Perhaps take more walks or bike rides with just music playing, instead of this year’s podcast and audiobook craze that overtook my on the go listens. I was also toying with the idea of getting a MiniDisc player so that I can have some great albums as physical discs and stick to them like I did in the old days. Btw, I absolutely love the idea of an MD player, I’ve always regarded that as the single best disc format and never had the device itself. Just needs a bluetooth adapter for convenience, but otherwise it would be perfect.

Back to albums, the absolutely clear winner of the year is Strength by Unto Others. This one album got the replay treatment heavily. It spoke to me this year like nothing else.

My top artists in 2023

I didn’t use the Last.fm export for the albums because I had a cyberpunk atmosphere music playlist that I played on repeat a lot and trashed my stats for the year. The playlist was partly playing during some Cyberpunk Red RPG sessions, but I also kept it running a lot on travels, especially when flying (that’s one I always have synced offline). I don’t think it’s representative of album plays, but for artists it makes sense—these were artists I loved to hear all year long.

My top live music in 2023

It wasn’t an extremely packed year for live music, but the standout moments were strong.

When seeing Weval in Paradiso we climbed up to the second level balcony, which was pretty much completely empty at the beginning of the concert. We found a small bench and moved it right to the middle of the stage two stories high, sat down, and this is how we enjoyed the most amazing electronic music live act and visual show from the recent years. It was like some absolute royal treatment, we were literally laughing at how lucky we were. The music was a rollercoaster of genres and moods, building from idm through uptempo electro to breakcore. And the visuals were building with the show, it started from some extremely simple lights, and ended up with a full stage wide, intense animation. It was perfection.

This was the year when I first met Dr Rubinstein, during ADE, at the He.She.They party in Shelter, and it was love at first contact. That level of energy, impeccable taste in selection, perfection in dj technique, and complete control over the audience. It was a benchmark of a dj set on a level that I haven’t heard in years. Funny thing, I originally went there as a fanboy for Ellen Allien, and Rubinstein stole my heart.

My top movies in 2023

I set out for this year with the determination that I want to watch more movies, and I did. I watched 97 movies, which comes down to about one movie every four days on average. All that while watching a couple of series, too, like binging through the entire catalogue of Bosch, and keeping up with some of the currently running shows. So yeah, this was an intense year for film. Now, as for what all those movies were… I wanted to take it easy, took on lots of lighthearted comedies, and went all in for adventure flicks. I guess it was all about compensating and keeping afloat while other parts of life were shit on occasion. Anyways, what it all comes down to is having seen lots of movies, checking off a bunch of Watchlist items, and getting positive energy, so I’m fine with what I had, even if my yearly average rating is not setting records.

Looking at the top list, it was mostly about random surprises. Again it got proven that my hunches work really well: seeing just a few shots from most of these movies I already knew I would love them, and I wasn’t disappointed. The colorful creativity of Three Thousand Years of Longing, the my kind of sci-fi atmosphere of Ad Astra, the nostalgia-infused hilarious entertainment of the Beastie Boys Story, the slowly building space horror of Life, the weirdo humor of They Cloned Tyrone, the jumpscareless gripping thrill of Talk To Me, the stunning art style of Entergalactic, the silent melancholy of The Midnight Sky were the most standing out. Interesting that none of these were well-advertised blockbusters, but they are far from being some kind of art house cinema, so what are these?

The Spidey animation is obviously the big screen one here, so that’s the line of demarcation, after which the complete randomness of my Watchlist kicks in.

My top series in 2023

Bosch had parked on my Watchlist for a few years now, and finally I took a stab at it, and one and a half months later I found myself done with seven seasons plus the Legacy series. I loved the flow of it and the stories, but in terms of art it couldn’t beat those other two.

Mrs Davis is like a spiritual successor to Dirk Gently—absolutely unhinged, every turn unexpected. I would love to say more, but I really can’t. It’s not an experience you describe. It’s something you show, if you want someone else to experience it.

Arcane killed my soul so that I literally had to build back. I actually had to take a pause of like two months at some point because it was just too much. It is an absolutely shockingly strong story that I am sure I have never seen in animation ever in my life (not to mention the surreal good art style), so I just had to finish it, but it literally took a toll. I was willing to pay, still. It’s like speeding to a chasm and you just cannot not be there for the ride if you know it exists.

My top audio dramas in 2023

I started taking walks during the day this year, to stand up from my desk more instead of working through eight hours straight just sitting still. This was when I realized audio dramas exist. These three were actually the first ones I listened to at full length, and I was shocked that this format exists on this level of quality. I also tried some others, but those didn’t stick.

Batman Unburied came out as the top one because it makes use of the format like no other. It is a piece of content specifically crafted for this medium, and since this was a new medium for me, it was extremely exciting to hear how it plays the notes of this format.

The Long Night on the other hand won me out with the atmosphere. It was like a new season of True Detective but audio.

My top game in 2023

Cyberpunk 2007 took me like three tries to get into it, and then suddenly 117 hours passed and I had a hard time getting out of it. I did all quests, side quests, gigs, every content and all endings of the original game. Great story, music, visuals, atmosphere, characters. Two things I loved most: the power fantasy and the open world.

A friend of mine said how much of a power fantasy this game is, and I realized how true that is. Sniping with a rifle, then running into action with parkour moves, dashing in air, splitting heads with a blade, quickhacking people and systems, and hearing your own cyberpsycho laugh, while industrial techno is pumping loud. It’s a mad cyberpunk fantasy dream.

And the world. What I loved most about the side quests and gigs was that they showed such corners of this city and what’s beyond it, that I would probably have never seen otherwise. I could discover depths, heights, entire sprawling micro-universes of their own, within, above, under, and outside the metropolis. The level of detail and the options to discover are insane.

Best of 2019

Looking back on this blog it seems like the last time I did a year-end list was in 2015. That’s… wow. I thought maybe one or two year had been missed. Anyway that’s not why I started compiling one now. It was an intense year and the other day I looked through my IMDb check-in list and had a great memory trip with it, so I thought I might as well look through some more. Besides IMDb I checked my Netflix history, and for music I browsed back on this blog and checked on Last.fm. With that data and some reminescing I came up with this.

One caveat: I decided that I’m doing this list for myself and in that sense I value the sum of my personal experiences most and don’t care about release dates. So, all stuff here are things that made my year 2019, and that’s the only criteria that’s important.

Movies

  1. Joker
  2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
  3. Ford v Ferrari
  4. Suspiria
  5. Split
  6. Sorry to Bother You
  7. Midsommar
  8. Bomb City
  9. Bohemian Rhapsody
  10. Zombieland: Double Tap
  11. Hereditary

Outstanding new Christmas movie:
Klaus

Best trash:
Geostorm

Best movie franchise that I missed so far:
Mission Impossible

Best one movie that I haven’t seen in ages:
Event Horizon

Series

  1. The Expanse (seasons 4)
  2. The Final Table (season 1)
  3. Love, Death & Robots (season 1)
  4. The Witcher (season 1)
  5. Formula 1: Drive to Survive (season 1)
  6. Glow (season 3)
  7. Hyperdrive (season 1)
  8. Stranger Things (season 3)

Best comedy rewatch:
The Big Bang Theory (seasons 1-7)

Best scifi rewatch:
Firefly and also the Serenity movie

Best one show that I totally late adopted:
Shark Tank

Honorable mention foodie show:
Food, Booze & Tattoos

Memorable “TV to life” experience:
Seeing Jim Jefferies in a live stand-up show

Most inspiring interview:
Joe Rogan Experience #1342 – John Carmack

Music

Albums

  1. Tool – Fear Inoculum
  2. Korn – The Nothing
  3. Blaqk Audio ‎– Only Things We Love
  4. The Black Dog – Post-Truth [2018]
  5. Kölsch – Fabric Presents Kölsch
  6. Jambinai – ONDA
  7. Monolink – Amniotic [2018]
  8. Rammstein – untitled
  9. Belief Defect – Decadent Yet Depraved [2018]
  10. KOMPROMAT – Traum Und Existenz
  11. Plaid – Polymer
  12. Recondite – Silk
  13. Snow Ghosts – A Quiet Ritual
  14. Robot Koch ‎– Sphere [2018]
  15. FJAAK – Havel [2018]
  16. Nightmares on Wax – Shape The Future [2018]
  17. Sampa The Great – The Return
  18. Saint Agnes – Welcome To Silvertown
  19. UNKLE ‎– The Road: Part II / Lost Highway
  20. VA – Furi (Original Game Soundtrack) [2016]

Best weird random music that I cannot unlike:
Rummelsnuff – Kraftgewinn [2013]

Interesting new style that I stumbled upon:
Saharan rock, and album: Mdou Moctar ‎– Ilana (The Creator)

Singles

  1. Black Devil – Disco Club [1978]
  2. Prophets of Rage – Pop Goes The Weapon
  3. Red Axes – Shabak Shalom
  4. Kincaid feat. Blancmange – Big Fat Head
  5. Playboy ‎– A Paco Di Bango’s World [1996]
  6. Modeselektor – Wealth [2018]
  7. Charlotte Adigéry – Paténipat [2018]

Luke Cage – season 2

I liked the first season for the cultural aspect, for telling a lot about Harlem and seemed like something authentic. In that respect, it seemed to tell a lot more about and go much deeper into black culture than the Black Panther ever did, even though this is much more the grim side of the story, but what can you do when it’s there.

And then the second season seemed like starting slow, and after a while I realized that it remained slow, I just got adjusted to the speed. And it took its time (1 hour long episodes? That’s balls.), and went deep into the minds of the characters, and I liked that a lot. It stayed culturally relevant, showed struggle, and when it came to some hit-hard turning points it just did hit hard and I went “wow, I didn’t see that coming” a few times. The Punisher was dark and a slasher but that was still a super hero flick on its own terms. Luke Cage’s season two is a super hero drama with some heavy shit going on. It was not an easy ride at all times, but it was well worth the time and attention.

Game of Thrones (S07)

OMG, such underwhelming. How could this series possibly turn into this crowd pleasing Hollywood shitshow? I couldn’t have imagined to carve nails into my face for being annoyed by GoT just two seasons ago. I don’t even bother to search for an image to place here.

The only thing I am interested in from this point on is whether Bran could possibly become the Night King himself based on the time travel loop theory. And if he does I really hope he kills off every other human being in this world.

The Defenders (S01)

Ah, this is such a crap. I liked Jessica Jones for the grim humour and the alcoholic protagonist. I liked Luke Cage for how much emphasis was on the cultural aspects, for half the season it didn’t even feel like a superhero thing. I didn’t give a shit about Daredevil, they managed to make him uninteresting. And Iron Fist was a Saturday afternoon Xena-level ride with its stupid story and fuckface main character. And what is the Defenders about? Storyline following Iron Fist with Daredevil in the center of attention because of the Elektra relations. And what do Jessica Jones and Luke Cage do? They frown and try not to give a shit, like I do. Meh.

Westworld – season 1

I jumped on the bandwagon early on right after the first episode as Westworld seemed something to look out for. Now after season one here are some notes (for self).

Some theories, opinions, facts and stuff:

  • Felix is a host. I had this assumption all along and I believe that on Maeve’s screen it’s him. Also, I think his affection for Maeve is because of this, too. Also, there is the thing about the names: Felix being a host learning from joy, and Dolores being another learning from pain.
  • Maeve did not reach consciousness (by going back). Ford said hosts have to learn by pain over and over until they are able to break their loop by breaking away from their cornerstone. Her cornerstone is her (memory of a) daughter and she failed to break away, so she had to go back to learn evolve further. And she delivered the suitcase to the train, so her mission is accomplished, I guess her being on the train and leaving with the baggage was not mission critical. Also, see the code on Bernard’s screen.
  • Ford will return as a host. When he had Bernard kill Theresa everyone was assuming that the body being printed there will allow Theresa to come back as a host. But she didn’t, apparently. So I assume that body was mean for Ford. And there’s his sentence about musicians being turned into music themselves.
  • William will be left alive. He could have got shot to death right away but got just a scratch. Also he was always pro-consciousness, so Ford’s narrative spared him to face the uprising and have his real fight he was looking for.
  • Elsie is alive.
  • The thread on Reddit about the Finnish subs is hilarious.
  • Good old Jeffrey Wright, came a long way since Basquiat. Still his best acting so far.

But. I loved the show, looking forward what comes next, and all that. But. There were so many painful stupid little things that totally wrecked my immersion. And I just cannot understand why.

  • Glass walls all around and a guy tries to secretly jerk off on a host in the middle of all that with earphones plugged in? This was probably the final and biggest stab.
  • Naked Logan riding away into… death? And no serious investigation into this high-profile guy’s disappearing?
  • Theresa, one of the biggest bosses around, dying just mysteriously and in the super-protected park there is no very specific trace about where she went, who she was last with, etc.?
  • Previous point applies for Elsie, too.
  • Security guards shot down by hosts with a single shot and not getting shot back once (until the story says it needs some shooting back). And security guards wearing no bulletproof armour at all, wtf?
  • Probably the whole concept just got wrapped into itself too much. I mean if you can’t explain something and any time something fucked up happens you say “oh, that guy probably is a host and was hacked to do so” it gets tiring after a while. Like when the explanation is always “because they are Jedi”, and “oh so this is also a dream”. Come on. Beyond a point you cannot take anything seriously.

Anyway. We shall see where we go from here. Until then, here’s a pretty good chronological overview of the season’s storyline.

Westworld s01e01

Dark City meets Ex Machina meets something from the wild west. This pilot was great, I’ll be curious to see where we are going from here, or what greater plot pans out.

Also, Black Hole Sun played by the saloon’s automatic piano, and the Pain It Black under the shooting scene… Pretty much wow music choices and covers.

Footnote: HBO goes mad this year with doing The Night Of first, and then this.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World covers

After watching Mr. Robot’s S02E08 and heard Portia Doubleday sing Everybody Wants to Rule the World in a karaoke bar I got totally hooked on the tune and just couldn’t let it go from my head. And since the whole thing started with someone else singing the song and it was not the original Tears For Fears version, I started searching for even more renditions of this track.

This is how I came across the 2014 Spotify Landmark recording of the song with the original band just 30 years after and it’s an awesome video to watch, also the guys just totally kill it even 30 years later. This video is right here below, and then there are some more covers after it that I found interesting.

Spotify Landmark: Tears For Fears plays “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” (in 2014)

Continue reading “Everybody Wants to Rule the World covers”

Best of 2015

Maybe I miss out some stuff especially on the music part but these are what my notebooks hold of what was good in 2015, based on some memories, this blog, Last.fm, and IMDb.

If I wanted to some up shortly, I would say this year quite sucked for movies but brought some unexpected and nice twists and turns for music.

Movies & TV

The movie and TV list speaks for itself: the year was full of mediocre shit and overrated mainstream blockbusters (or wannabes). The Martian was okayish, Sicario had some beautiful compositions, but as a whole I wouldn’t say flicks like this made any great difference in my inner movie universe. And please don’t tell me about Star Wars, just shut it.

Movies

  1. Whiplash
  2. Mad Max: Fury Road
  3. Ex Machina

TV

  1. Mr. Robot
  2. Killjoys
  3. Jessica Jones

Music & live performances

As for music, I didn’t stumble upon a new best band, but there were some notable releases from some old favourites. IAMX created a stunning new record, and I was similarly satisfied with what DJ Krush or The Black Dog had to offer in 2015, plus a complete out of nowhere experience came from Amon Tobin in the form of a sci-fi ambient composition.

My best pleasantries included the absolutely incredible album of the Killing Joke, the totally unexpected but stunning record of Karyn Crisis, and something completely new for me in the form of the Thy Catafalque release. And things that I didn’t see coming to this list: a surprisingly mature and powerful single track by Apocalyptica, and my re-found fandom of Cradle of Filth.

Last year was definitely ruled by techno for me, where I found quite some new territories and depths. This year was not on that level of novelty but it was quite eclectic instead as the musical range shows in this list of names.

I haven’t been to many festivals and parties in 2015 so my live performances list is quite narrow. Although I could make it to Sónar Barcelona for the second time, which was nice, and surprises dominated there as well: Squarepusher’s live act was by far the most satisfying live music experience that I heard this year.

Music

  1. Killing Joke – Pylon
  2. Karyn Crisis’ Gospel of the Witches – Salem’s Wounds
  3. IAMX – Metanoia
  4. Thy Catafalque – Sgùrr
  5. DJ Krush – Butterfly Effect
  6. The Black Dog – Neither/Neither
  7. Cradle Of Filth – Hammer of the Witches
  8. Amon Tobin – Dark Jovian
  9. Rival Consoles – Howl
  10. Apocalyptica – Shadowmaker (single)

Live

  1. Squarepusher @ Sónar Barcelona 2015
  2. Less Than Jake @ Budapest Park
  3. RGB|CMY Kinetic installation (ART+COM & Ólafur Arnalds) @ Sónar Barcelona 2015
  4. Atom TM @ Sónar Barcelona 2015
  5. The Gaslamp Killer – The Gaslamp Killer Experience: Live in Los Angeles (album)