Christoph's Reviews

"All Day" by Girl Talk - Album review

2011-02-20T22:17:00.000+09:00

10/10

Music

Girl Talk is finally back. And, again, for free! Let me start this review with saying, this album would already be a 10 out of 10, if it is was like 20 Dollars, but for free? Better than sex. I s**t you not.

Of course, you have to be into remix-culture/Mash-Up-izm and just lots of different kinds of music to really appreciate this piece of art. But then again, come on, it IS for free, so whatever your taste in music is, you might as well just download it and give it a try:

Link to Download

So how do you explain Girl Talk's music? Ok, you know when they mash up two songs together, like let's say, "Numb/Encore" a few years back? Now imagine a song where not two songs, but around 20 songs get mixed into 3 minutes, with 3 or 4 songs playing at the same time, changing every other second to some other songs. Sounds confusing and exhausting? Well, maybe only for the first few listen's but you get used to it pretty quick and it is actually not that different than DJ's in the club mixing songs together to a good party. Just. Way. Better.

What I always enjoyed so much about Girl Talk was the fact, that the songs he mixes are mostly chart-hits, not some unknown Indie-tracks. Rihanna, Cindy Lauper, Lil Wayne, U2, Beyonce, Beastie Boys, artists that you are most probably familiar with if you have listened to pop music in the past two decade's. And of those songs, Girl Talk mixes just the very familiar parts. Just the chorus or hook, just the most memorable bass line or beat. It all has a strong Hip Hop sensibility about it without actually being that Hip Hop. So if you do like Hip Hop, but also like all kinds of other music, from 80's pop to Hard Rock to House to RnB to Reggaeton to Classic Rock to... whatever else there is, you might enjoy this. A lot.

Personally, Mash-Up's always annoyed me a bit. Having two songs, that are very different from each other, play at the same time, is a nice gag for one or two times, but it gets very old very quick. But having those two songs play only for about 10 seconds together makes for a totally different music-experience. The first couple seconds of this album as an example: Ludacris raps his "Move Bitch" over some Black Sabbath. For a couple of seconds? Awesome! For a whole song? Meh.

I guess some over-used songs could have been cut (yes, "I want you back" from Jackson 5 is in this), but then again, the fact that those songs have that strong familiarity about them, just brings a certain structure to all that musical chaos, that you do need to not go crazy.

I don't really want to go into an in-depth analysis of every song as this album is meant to be listened as a whole anyway. Also, I don't really want to compare to the two previous full-length Girl Talk albums. It is more of the same and if you liked it before, you will still like it. If you haven't listened to the past albums, do yourself a favor and download "Feed the Animals" and "Night Ripper" as well here.

Girl Talk is as exciting as ever and still makes me smile with every freakishly fast-changing sample, and music that makes me smile and nod my head AND is for free is just not enough these days. Hand clap. Please.

Menya Kafuu (麺屋家風), Yamashina, Kyoto - Ramen review

2011-02-20T21:04:00.001+09:00

7.5/10

Food

Okay, finally I am back with some more Ramen reviews. Kafuu is a Ramen shop not too far away from my house here in the district of Yamashina, Kyoto. I always thought about going, and today, I finally did.

It was actually almost 30 minutes to walk, but totally worth it. This is some good ol' classic Pork based (Tonkotsu) Ramen. The soup is very thick and creamy, a bit too sweet for some people (but not for me), quality thin Ramen noodle and three types of pork meat: thick pork, thin pork and little tiny pork pieces. Awesome.

However, there wasn't a lot of "special" about it. Don't get me wrong, if you are fan of this kind of Ramen, you will love it and it is definitely worth the walk. But there is nothing about it that kicks you off your chair. Minus 2 points for that.

I also minused half a point, for something that might sound very Ramen-elitist to you, but is something that really annoys me about the Ramen scene lately: Tsukemen!

Tsukemen is basically separating the noodles from the soup, with the soup being way thicker than usually and serving as a dip for the noodles. This kind of Ramen started years back in Tokyo and has since become a big trend in the rest of the country as well. Which is fine.

But when stores, that never had Tsukemen on their menu, now start to include them on their menu... That is just wrong. Please. Don't.

Other than that, great Ramen. If you are ever in Kyoto, you might want to give it a try.

Menya Kafuu @ Tabelog

Keika Ramen (桂花ラーメン) - Shibuya, Tokyo

2011-01-03T11:08:00.001+09:00

6.5/10

Food

On my most recent trip to Tokyo I originally had planned to go to sone of the more famous Ramen stores, which Tokyo has so plenty of, for lunch. But like always, after you walk around for a bit and get hungry, you just go into the first best-smelling place you can find close by. That's how I ended up in Kyoka Ramen. And it was actually pretty good. An excellent soup with a very rich taste. However, some flaws hindered this Ramen to get a higher score.

The Good:
Like I said, the soup was superb. Keika is originally from Kumamoto and has a very thick rich pork-based-soup, famous for South-Western Japan. One difference to other stores is, that they don't use any soy sauce or miso paste to flavor the soup. This is a 100% pork and you can definitely taste the difference. Its taste is very rich and strong, but the soup does not feel too heavy which is also very pleasant.

The Bad:
I wasn't a big fan of the noodles. Kumamoto is famous for its rather thick, almost Udon-like noodles, which is so different to the super-thin noodles mostly used in South-Western Japan.
Keika's noodles were kind of in the middle, which would be alright in another soup, but not in this rich pork-soup.
While the noodles were only "meh", I had a big problem with all the cabbage in the soup. Cabbage is not really a usual ingredients in Ramen and now I know why.. Just doesn't go well with the rest, in my taste.

The Verdict:
Again, the soup was excellent. But the mediocre noodles and the strange extra cabbage, made this Ramen still good, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Keika Ramen, Shibuya @ Tabelog

"The Princess and the Frog" Review

2010-12-26T20:05:00.000+09:00

7/10

Movies

I missed to catch this movie last year in 2009, but I finally got around to see it today.
It was good. Really good.

Recently when you talk about "Animated movies", you probably mean digital animation. But this Disney movie went back to the old school, having an elegant 2-D animated style lot of us have missed the past years.
The story itself also was very old-school, but with a twist: Prince becomes frog, needs kiss to become human again, finds girl to kiss, kisses girl... and both become frogs.

While animation and core story concept remind you of older Disney movies, funky music, Southern setting and the fact that main character is African-American make this movie very different from other Disney flicks. I personally enjoyed that a lot. I always liked Disney movies, but they always felt too generic for me, once I grew older.

But even apart from being "different", this movie delivers on all fronts: Well scripted, funny, great music, enjoyable side characters, well rounded performances and two very charming leads.

Now why did I not give this a 10 out of 10? Well, this is no classic. It is very well made and enjoyable, but it relies very heavily on being "different" from those old Disney movies to have time to breathe on its own.
But even if it is no classic, you will definitely have a good time watching this. So if you like animated movies and/or have kids, give this a try.

"The Princess and the Frog" on Amazon.com