Partial Reality

Best albums of 2005

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 06:51:00 -0500

1. Bohren and de club of Gore - Geisterfaust (Wonder)
2. Mosseisly - Mosseisly (Breakdance the Dawn)
3. Lau Nau - Kuutarha (Locust)
4. Angels of Light - Sing Other People (Young God)
5. Earth - Hex (or printing in the infernal method) (Southern Lord)
6. Skullflower - Orange Canyon Mind (Crucial Blast)
7. Fursaxa - Lepidoptera (ATP)
8. MV/EE + The Bummer Road - We Offer You Guru (Child of Microtones)
9. Seventh Sister - Seventh Son (Breakdance the Dawn)
10. Antony and the Johnsons - I am a Bird Now (Secretly Canadian)

It's coming

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 09:17:00 -0400

Hey, I look like Nelly.

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Sat, 9 Jul 2005 23:54:00 -0400

Yesterday, stupidly I jumped into a heater and cut my hand. Then I was in the bathroom band-aiding up the cut and fainted. It might have been the sight of blood or the fact that I hadn't really eaten but the next thing I knew I woke up on the floor with my head next to the toilet. I might have knocked myself out and there was blood on the floor. Anyway looked in the mirror and opened up a nice cut above my eye from knocking my head on the floor, required 3 stitches. Wish I'd taken a photo with half my face covered in blood though, was too out of it at the time.

Currently listening to Costes' album about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict - Bible and Machine Gun.

Not so calm

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Thu, 7 Jul 2005 21:20:00 -0400

Actually, I'm still tense in the heart.. weird feeling, not sure if I've felt like this before.

Glad I'm not in London

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Thu, 7 Jul 2005 09:26:00 -0400

I've been feeling really tight inside the last couple of days and now this.. Surprisingly I feel kind of calm now although I feel these sorts of events will increase in frequency.

Engage

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Fri, 1 Jul 2005 23:13:00 -0400

Time to get this blog out of 'stall' again, a change in direction is probably called for now, more in the way of general ranting which may include music.

So I've got a show late night on 2MBS now called Mutable Carat. As I'm still poor I've been getting lots of stuff off Soulseek. A lot of the albums I've been getting have been ripped by some group called High intelligence Trolls. Now most of this is underground avant/folk stuff that I quite like but it pisses me off that someone thinks they're more 'intelligent' because they listen to it. Reminds me of that IDM bollocks. Also takes away from the artists. I don't think they want to be portrayed as wankers.

Take Off

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 08:25:00 -0400

So things are starting to pick up music wise again in this city. There's a few more venues and more on the way.. It's just a pity that the radio doesn't seem to be supporting it at the moment. With the restructure at 2SER I initially don't think they've got it right. Not enough of a hand on the pulse what is happening now and not enough risk taking..
Here's a photo of Your Intestines doing their 'on' noise rock thing. A comp of this kind of stuff is in the works,..I hope.

Deny yourself children

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 22:36:00 -0400

It's not really surprising that the Catholic church will continue a doctrine of self suppression.
In other news; the last Spitting Bits went out with bang, a big 4 hour mix. Tried to play live to Finland over the internet Saturday but something obviously wasn't working and wasted 2 hours. Went to a bit of a party at Newtown later that night with DJ Guerra as DJ OptimumRavePosition playing some old school funk. Clayton put on some more disco/funk later and there was about a solid hour of Michael Jackson in there! I couldn't take it all night though and ended up hating it. I think I'm taking a break from seeing gigs in the near future. Only interesting thing that looks like it's coming up is the debut of Yr Intestines this Anzac day. Oh yeah, Sydney has a new record store, Sound and Fury which I might check out later this week.

Buzz..

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:31:00 -0400

Saw the Blamey/Guerra guitar duo last night. Nice but maybe a little too long. Bagpipes ahoy!! I think I'll be taking a break from gigs mostly.. Got a nice $200 train fine for having a ticket without showing them the concession card, good luck getting that out of me!
Here's a nice image of where the buzz is in the world

xNoBBQx

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 13:27:00 -0400

Another killer night on Saturday in Sydney rock. First up was xNoBBQx (me and Matt Earle). We definitely got a similar sound to our first recording and even did some of the songs (probably sunshine of your love about 4 times). The cassette is now out on Breakdance till dawn. I have the set (all 13 minutes) shared on Soulseek.
Peater Blamey did an ebow on the snare drum and one on guitar for his set. Kind of interesting and buzzy, esp the drum. I was kind of how surprised Anthony Guerra's and Matthew Nideck set turned, quite beautiful really. Skittering drums and lamenting guitar. there's definitely something in the water at the moment but it's pretty under the radar. Sydney seems to be quite happeing from the look of things except that the primary form of media that supports good music 2SER axed all the existing 'experimental' music shows including Spitting Bits. It's our last show tomorrow after about 3 years. I think it might force me to make my own music rather than listen to it.

Unexpected

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 07:08:00 -0500

The whole show last night that we put on was pretty killer!! Adam Sussmann guitar solo first which was pretty nice and feedbacky. Inge played mixing desk and minidisc which was a really enjoyable quiet set. Peter Blamey did one of the best performances I'd ever seen him do with the ebow thang, really nice tone for the crappy gear he was using. Sumu just turned up in time to play as Antipan went on stage at about 10 past 11. Anthony started playing this really militant rhythm and it all went on from there. I snapped my picked in half on the first song. I've never done that, but that's what you get from playing chords on a bass. Peter dubbed my voice up through an analogue delay, Matt and Sumu got pretty feedbacky as well. I ended up using the inbuilt speaker in my bass for feedback. When we decided to do the final song it ended up going for about 20 minutes. I ended up played the bass with the mic which got a big ding in it. Shredded my strings and scratch plate. Felt really ritualistic, then things got strange and drawn out over a big comedown. I was still feeling the effects this morning on my body.

Hairy

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:00:00 -0500

Being Easter and all I thought I take this snap of my 16 day Jesus like growth before I shaved it off. Still in the midst of figuring out what to do. Had a talk to the auditory neuroscience lab at Sydney Uni who seem like they're in a position to take somebody on but it seems like I have to get cash to support myself from somewhere which is my problem. I really need to get an income within the next few weeks for food. Saw Castings and Hiss ply at a new space in Sydney called Yvonne Ruve. I didn't particularly like the noise that they made, more annoying than enjoying really. It seems I'm playing there as half of x No Barbeque x on April 9th BTW. Also I booked an Antipan gig at the Frequency Lab this Wednesday but we can't seem to get any supports to stay on the bill at this stage.. Might see if I can find an 'interesting' job tommorow.

Where to from here?

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 10:19:00 -0500

Still figuring out what to do now that I'm back. I'm investigating whether I can study a Masters in the auditory neuroscience lab at Sydney Uni. Hopefully I can see them this week. Maybe get some temp work but as usual the jobs 'boom' doesn't mean a lot of work for engineers like me from what I've seen in the papers. On the music front I went to Monkfly's (Chris who runs the Frequency Lab) album launch on Friday. Some good sounds in there. Can tell he's spent a lot of time on it, says he was influenced a bit by the local experimental musicians. I booked an Antipan gig there Wednesday week. Looks like we'll be launching the cassette and the DVD, of our first and only performance! If only the merchandise now expands exponentially with the number of gigs..

The end of What?

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 07:26:00 -0500

All the festivals are over and now I'm concentrating on putting back on the weight that I lost and seeing if I can get into uni. Wednesday saw the start of the What is Music? nights with that one being particularly metal, complete with the black metal DJ in between sets. Not many experimental music types there. I actually thought nothing on the night stood out too much. Kevin Drumm was good but he only played for 10 minutes. I've seen Rev Kris Hades enough to know his show, actually wouldn't mind seeing it again but in a smaller venue where I can hear the detail. Dead C were nice but they sounded better the night before. SunO))) + Oren Ambarchi + Kevin Drumm... lots of noise in the beginning then the guitarists came out. They were just starting to warm up when it looked like O'Malley lost power and pushed his stacks over then exited stage left. Noise throughout with various members coming on and off stage. They finally got into some riffing. I liked about 5 minutes when they got pretty bass heavy and towards the end but the music didn't really go through me like the night before. On Thursday Brendan Walls really hit me physically but not really on any other levels. Brendan can be a bit funny sometimes, sometimes crap sometimes really really good. Passenger and Rizilli were pretty funny although the screaming thing has been done to death a bit. Sir Richard Bishop was nice although he didn't sing. I actually liked one or two songs of Black Dice's primitive percussion but they couldn't sustain a whole set. Pansonic were the final act. Just as they hit a peak they had technical troubles as well. Kind of killed it a bit. Funny that I never was totally enthralled by anything this festival except maybe the last half of SunnO)) at the Onathon. I really wanted to see OOIOO who I heard were great so I guess I'll have to trawl the web for a video to suffice. Managed to give a stack of cds to Oren Ambarchi, Stephen O'Malley, Kevin Drumm and Rev Kris Hades took my last Antipan because he's fascinated with triangles. The last 3 left in a cab for a hotel room to continue drinking it seemed at 3am in the morning..I headed home.

Back in Oz..

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Tue, 8 Mar 2005 22:23:00 -0500

I've made it back in one piece so I can at least say mission accomplished but the music doesn't stop for another 2 nights. The last day of Tokyo I went looking for a metal shop in Ikebukuro. They had some hard to get stuff new on vinyl but not what I was looking for. Grabbed something to eat then collected my luggage from the hotel and caught the bus out to the airport. Slept a bit on the plane then back home to sunshine!! My apartment's been renovated so I'll have to put everything back together. Caught the 'What is Music?' onathon last night but it wasn't worth $80 and the Residents were crap. Sunn0))) were probably the best but took a while to get going. Dead C were pretty good as well, only caught bits of Kevin Drumm and Pimmon. Not much else of note, been a bit of a blurr since I got back running into everyone and such.

More weight to the luggage..

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Sun, 6 Mar 2005 08:14:00 -0500

Started off today to apparently look for the noise record store I'd been told about, MSBR. I found the address through the web and took the train to near Ohara. It actually ended up being the guys home and I got him out of bed!! He gave me the shop address anyway. Next I headed out to Kichijoji to find the Disk Union. Pick up 3 records of more experimental type stuff and went to get something to eat. By chance I happened to find an organic place and had a quite a vegetarian lunch. Also some black bean sesame cheesecake for desert at the end. Then went to try and find the MSBR shop in Sedagaya. That one was tough to find. Picked up a few nice new records of the more experimental and hard to find type and 1 CD. Then back to the hotel and around the block for dinner which was a curry with veges and rice but then the guy told me there was meat in it so I had it without the sauce. He appologised profusely aftowards. Less than 24 left!! This place is crazy..

rare death

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Sat, 5 Mar 2005 08:05:00 -0500

Woke up at about 2 today. A nice day, much better than the snow yesterday. Decided to trek out to Koenji to check out this shop called Manual of Errors but apparently looks like it has moved a few weeks ago according to a local. Headed back to Shinjuku and grabbed some noodles with vegetables, the same thing I've eaten about everywhere here. It filled me up though and at least it's some real food aside from the bar of chocolate I got from Germany that's been sustaining me. Found a little hardcore shop and bought some metal CDs and also managed to get distribution for Musique Provocateur and Antipan! The shop is called Nat records. They also said they're intersted in other Sydney stuff. A bit of vinyl shopping later I got some out of print Napalm Death stuff around the corner at Vinyl Records. Wandered around a bit further and found another red light area. All the spruikers are from Africa, pretty funny and they walk with you down the street. Got a bit tired so headed back to the hotel, bought a hot tea in a bottle on the way; better for me than the alcoholic green tea drink I had last night!

Back with the sun

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Fri, 4 Mar 2005 16:21:00 -0500

Just got back from clubbing and the sun has come up. Managed to book another couple of nights at the place I'm at so at least I won't have to move and get lost. Headed to Jimbocho station and had pasta for brunch. Spent the afternoon travelling out to Minamae and Modern Music, the home of the PSF label. Managed to pick up a couple of interesting records. Went to a English looking restaurant for lunch (with all the crome, glass and wood finish furniture + complete with English language books in the bookcase) but none of the staff could actually speak English very well! Kind of funny, it was all a front!! Ended up with the garden salad and some tea. Headed back to the hotel and headed out with another 3 guys to Roppongi; the tourist trap. A few drinks in several bars full of R&B later we decided to find some techno and got wind of a club in Shibuya called womb from one of the guys Japanese friends. After a long journey, including a stop at Hibuya station in Ginza we found our way there at about 1 o'clock. Boom, boom, boom; you get the idea. The main act was DJ Rush who seemed to work up the the Japanese every 10 minutes..I tried for some of it. A quite good laser show throughout kind of kept us entertained. Entry was a bit pricey though at 3500 yen but probably ended up being worth it in the end. Ears were getting sore so now time to go to bed at 6:30.

Coffee in a can

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Thu, 3 Mar 2005 06:01:00 -0500

Woke up late at about 10:30 since the dryer wasn't working and kept me up. Kept myself awakesince I did want to wear clean underwear for the rest of the trip. Out the door I bought a hot cofee in a can from a vending machine on the street. Not the greatest but worth a try. Found my way to the Disk Unions around Ochanomizu station and managed to pick up a couple of old Digital Hardcore comps at a bargain of 4 bucks each. Kept wandering into the musical instrument section of Tokyo. I ended up buying a Pignose bass which has an inbuilt speaker for about $328. It sounds quite good compared to the Fernandes one I tried which sounded a bit hollow. It seems guitars with built in speakers and mini amps are pretty popular here. Got a miso soup with noodles for the only main meal of the day so far.. Walked back to the hotel to drop off the stuff then caught the train to the only real tourist type site I know of which is the Buddist temple at Asakusa. Bought some rice cake things which are OK but haven't managed to find any moon cakes yet which I like much better. Wandered into a 'comic' shop and browsed through some Manga books. It seems the idea of censorship in these is to place a part transparent black rectangle on only a section of the naughty bits. Seems quite weird with all these far worse images of prepubescent looking girls pissing and shitting with cum all over them (all drawn). Did a bit of a lap and a few pit stops later for fresh juice ended up back at the hotel.

Ricrds

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Wed, 2 Mar 2005 05:22:00 -0500

Just been record shopping in Shibuya where I've stocked up a bit. I was mainly at a store called Warszawa where they had categories like 'Dancehole'. In a pasta restaurant now where I've managed to find free wireless. Did I mention that there are heaps of Japanese walking around with face masks on since there's some sort of weird flu and it's considered polite not to cough without one if you're a bit sick I guess. They're handing them out on the street. It's kind kind of funny because it looks like Michael Jackson might be around me somewhere; but he's actually on TV distracting everyone! hehe
It's a good thing I got of Europe when I did because it seems like they've had their worst cold snap in 40 years!!

Lost again..

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Tue, 1 Mar 2005 11:12:00 -0500

Yeah, it was that damn TDK I`m a speaker thing that the Germans thought was a bomb + they have had the heaviest pad downs of anyone so far.. Anway have managed to get to Tokyo and find my first hotel after getting lost several times. Stumbled upon Akihabara after some wandering and subsequently gadget browsed for some hours. Needed to eat afterwards but hard for a vegetarian in Japan. Ended up eating some udon noddles with a raw egg which was about the best they had. Ended up chatting to a few Japanese girls and went out for a few drinks afterwards.

Bomb scare!!

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 07:34:00 -0500

Well I held up the boarding for 15min, here at London in transit.

Schnee..

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 10:54:00 -0500

I've just about had enough of this snow, it's a good thing I leave for Japan tomorrow where they hopefully don't have this weather. Went to White Trash last night since I didn't know what else to do but was too full so only had one drink. The weather has been too cold to enjoyably walk around outside and all the clothes stores are closed today so just bumming around in this internet cafe. Must be about -10 right now.. brrr

Lasers and such..

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 11:51:00 -0500

Yesterday walked around alot and subsequently got a sore back. Wandered down to what's left of the wall but it's all covered in colourful grafitti, I wanted some grime for a photo. The outer edges of Friedrichstein are pretty grimey and run down though but there seems to be interesting stuff going on. I visted the shop of the people I met at Transmediale and bought a little Steak Zombies patch around there. Getting further west Prenzlauerberg is a bit more colourful and rebuilt with some nice little record stores. Got to west berlin by the end of the day but pretty boring and headed back home when it started snowing. Today I went to see the new Carsten Nicolai installation called syn chron at Neus Nationalgalerie. Missed the opening Thursday as I only found out about it via a street poster later. A nice combination of architecture, lasers and music. It looks like his most accomplished thing yet. The permanent ehibition had a very good selection of German modern art, esp the Joseph Beuys but I had plenty of ja ja jas and ne ne nes to last a lifetime. Redaing a lot at the bookshop later it seems that Nicolai has quite an interest in Fuller as well.

Back to die stadt

noreply@blogger.com (honkfink) — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 08:11:00 -0500

Got back to Berlin last night, staying in Friedrichstein this time which is to the east and has cheaper rents then mitte. Seems a bit more edgy but the buildings are all pretty ugly. Will have to look around further.. Bought a bit of stuff at A-Musik yesterday but sending via airmail was too expensive so I'm getting it sent by boat. Funny thing is they said they'll invoice me.. first store I've come across that does that. The hostel is a bit funny, they were playing some German metal when I walked in and the best of Elvis at breakfast, which also had lots of fresh fruit! (a rare thing).