I’ve been compiling a list of my favourite records of each year for a decade or more. This year I’ve listened to music slightly differently; with monthly Spotify playlists on shuffle during train journeys and walks, but otherwise by putting a record on my record player and listening to the songs in the order they were sequenced. I’ll share a few of my favourites over the next few days just in case anyone is looking for new music to get them through the Christmas period, starting with something that came out during a surprisingly warm February.
Ex:Re – Ex:Re
Ex:Re is the solo project of Elena Tonra (from Daughter), and this record is touched by heartbreak, but also by the realisation that you sometimes need to pick the pieces of other people out of your skin before you can start to heal. It’s sparse and beautiful, and one of the most emotionally raw collections of songs I’ve heard this year.
The Twilight Sad – It Won/t Be Like This All the Time
Anyone who has known me for a while will know that The Twilight Sad are one of my favourite bands, and that their music often soundtracks the winter months for me. This year they delivered an excellent new record in January, which got me in the right head space for a couple of weeks of sub-zero cycling and an extremely challenging month at work (but it’s good to get the worst month out of the way at the start of the year, right?).
Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising
At this point I realise there are very few cheery records on this year’s list. This one is probably the most uplifting musically, although lyrically it deals with climate change, and the growing sense that if we don’t do something to avert the climate catastrophe then it doesn’t really matter what else we do because we are underwater. This one is a grower, and nothing like what I usually listen to, but it’s one I keep coming back to.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen
I said yesterday that there are very few cheery records on this list, and this one doesn’t help. It is however one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard (this year or any other year), and it’s a million miles away from where Nick Cave started all those years ago (check out Release the Bats by The Birthday Party for something a lot angrier). This reminds me of one of those books where you just have to read it all in one go. Partly to find out what happened and partly because it deserves your full attention until you have consumed it completely. I would be surprised if there is an album of the year list that doesn’t include this record; it really is that good.
Kate Tempest – The Book of Traps & Lessons
This is a record that definitely needs to be listened to in the order it is sequenced. It’s also probably my favourite record by an artist who is responsible for at least one of my favourite records already (2016’s Let Them Eat Chaos). Kate Tempest is a writer who also performs, and The Book of Traps & Lessons is a single long poem put to music that demands to be listened to in one go. The music is much sparser than anything she has done before, but it allows the words to take centre stage as they should do. This record has probably provoked the most extreme emotional reaction of anything I’ve listened to this year, and I suspect I’ll listen to it for many years to come.
I posted quite a lot about my trip to Japan on Facebook, but never got around to posting it here (that’s what not having a day off since September does). The following is what I wrote at the time (with light editing where required), and there are also more pictures from the cycle tour of the Japanese islands on my cycling blog.
Monday 9th September
Its the early hours of Monday morning, and I’m sitting in a beautifully air conditioned room in Tokyo. It is nearly 6am, and jet lag has been banished by three hours of sleep on the plane and then an early night last night. In fact I think we’re about 2 hours ahead of ourselves now, which fits quite nicely with the dark nights and light mornings of Japan.
The only problem is the storm. It’s sitting right over us and doesn’t show much sign of moving for at least the next hour or so. But we have coffee, hotel breakfast, and all the delights that the hotel vending machines have to offer, and we stocked up on food in between the initial downpour of yesterday evening and the overnight storm that is raging directly above us.
Apart from that all is well. The flight was great, I saw two movies I’d missed at the cinema (The Girl in the Spider’s Web and Murder on the Orient Express), and whilst the Tokyo subway resembles one of Dante’s circles of hell it is no worse than what we have back home.
The first hotel we stayed in
(a few hours later)
I’m back in the hotel room after a few hours of adventures. We have eaten breakfast and lunch, rescued several bikes from the storm (by putting them upright again – I don’t like to see bikes that look unloved or otherwise out of place), visited a woodland shrine, and wandered around the shops in the sort of blistering heart that makes me very thankful that most shops have air conditioning. We also had a much better experience of the subway today, which may have a lot to do with having slept and not carrying 2 weeks of luggage around.
A bike that required rescuing
Wednesday 11th September
Another day another part of Tokyo, and this morning saw us lugging our bags from Asakusa to Disneyland during what seemed too early to be rush hour, so was probably just a series of busy trains.
The capsule hotel we stayed in
I’ve been known to be negative about all things Disney in the past, but I did have a lot of fun today, and went on a few rides that very much tapped into things I hold dear (Star Wars and Indiana Jones) rather than the aspects that I feel no cultural resonance with.
It was a hard day though. I don’t think we really stopped for about 15 hours, and that is probably going to come back to bite us tomorrow. We did manage to eat properly, but as with a lot of Japan the vegetarian options are limited, so I didn’t really get to experience much in the way of Japanese cuisine today (although pizza for breakfast and curry for dinner were ok).
Mickey Mouse
On the bright side, tonight is one of our luxury hotel nights, and both the hotel and the room are outstanding. I’ve enjoyed the budget hotels and hostels, but sometimes it’s nice to relax with a hot bath and a cold beer before bed.
Talking of which, it’s nearly midnight here…
Thursday 12th September
Day two of the Disney adventure is now over. We didn’t get quite as much done as yesterday, but did take many more photographs and have now started to plan the next phase of the holiday which will see us bid farewell to Tokyo and head to Osaka for most of the rest of our time in Japan (although there will be several exciting day trips to other places, including a cycling adventure).
I could (and probably will) write much more about what I liked and didn’t like about Disney, but that will be a story for another day.
Saturday 14th September
Our last full day in Tokyo involved a short trip from Disney to a capsule hotel in Tokyo city centre. It wasn’t quite as good as the one we stayed in a few nights ago, but it was good enough to grab a shower, catch up on sleep, and be up bright and early for the epic journey to Osaka via a very impressive and speedy train service. We also grabbed the best meal of the holiday so far at the vegan ramen restaurant in Tokyo station, which made a nice change after several days of not being sure exactly what I was going to be able to eat (Japan can be hard for vegetarians, as can Disney). I’m less worried about food now, as our hotel in the Yodoyabashi District of Osaka is right next door to a great restaurant that does the full range of Japanese modular food, so tonight I feasted on edamame, plum rice, tofu and mushrooms (with food already chosen for at least one more trip there). It’s also next door to a convenience store that sells noodles, snacks and drinks. The hotel itself is great, the mountain of washing is now done, and it’s nice to be sleeping in the same place for 5 nights in a row after a week of being in a different place most nights. If nothing else it will make for much lighter bags for the 4 days of adventures we have planned (including cycling between the Japanese islands on Tuesday and visiting Kobe and Kyoto over the next couple of days.
Osaka
After a week of backpacking it’s clear that most of the kit we bought with us was chosen well. The bags are holding up well, the two universal chargers that will handle 10 devices between them are getting a lot of use, and the portable wifi hotspot we have hired has proved invaluable for navigating between places. I’m finding using an iPad as my only computer to be fine, and I’ve also started using my old iPhone (which I bought here as a music player) because it’s a lot smaller than my current phone and has a really good camera. It’s interesting that a phone I had as part of a contract nearly 5 years ago is still serving me well on a trip like this, and I’ve very much been plugged into it during the capsule hotel evenings, largely listening to the excellent new records by Pixies and Belle & Sebastian.
Wednesday 18th September
The last few days have been a blur of activity. We have visited the world’s largest aquarium and seen the world’s largest suspension bridge. We have seen modern skyscrapers juxtaposed with ancient temples, cycled the length of three Japanese islands (and the bridges that connect them) and encountered the horror that is the Universal Studios theme park. I do feel that we have done Osaka justice during these 5 days though, and I’ll be very sad to leave.
A bridge connecting 2 Japanese islands
But leave we must. The rest of the trip largely involves travel. Firstly a long train journey to get us back to Narita, and then (after a night in a capsule hotel at the airport) the plane home. It’s been a great adventure, and I’ll be very sorry to leave, but at the same time it will be good to be home.
It’s national album day, and as is traditional I’ve spent today playing some records that mean a lot to me, and also some that are new. This is today’s selection.
Richard Dawson – 2020 (2019)
Kim Gordon – No Home Record (2019)
Big Thief – Two Hands (2019)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen (2019)
Black Francis/Frank Black – Frank Black Francis (2004)
The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)
Radiohead – Kid A (2000)
Big Thief – Capacity (2017)
DIIV – Deceiver (2019)
Belle & Sebastian – Days of the Bagnold Summer (2019)
Kate Tempest – The Book of Traps and Lessons (2019)
Nick Drake – Bryter Layter (1970)
Julian Cope – Skellington 3 (2018)
Nick Drake – Pink Moon (1971)
It’s all different than last year but there is a lot on that list that I wish I’d had the time to play today.
I made some changes to this blog (and the server it runs on) tonight. It’s running in a new directory, on (technically) a new server, but should otherwise be largely the same.
If you notice any strangeness then let me know. But hopefully you should just notice speed.
The holidays seem a long time ago, and I seem to have spent most of the last 2 months at work. But I still have vague memories (and many photographs) of an enjoyable week of walking and relaxing in Cornwall.
Next stop Japan, but not until September. In the meantime I may get round to writing up my “see more of Birmingham” experiment and (hopefully) seeing a fair bit of the jazz festival in July.
The Easter holidays have been great. The weather was good, and while I didn’t stay more than 20 miles from Birmingham I did get out and about a lot. Highlights include an excellent British Sea Power gig at The Crossing (with great food and drinks beforehand at the Digbeth Works & Baked in Brick), three long bike rides (including finally exploring the Rushall Canal and repairing my first thorn puncture), and a lot of epic dog walks.
Part two will see more walking in Cornwall (in less pleasing weather, generally), before finally returning to work on 2nd May.
In other news, I replaced both my main computer and bike earlier this month. Both replacements were largely like-for-like and drama-free, and I’ve repurposed my old computer as an emergency WFH Windows machine, and will eventually repurpose the old bike as a pub/shopping bike, once the bottom bracket is replaced.
I have a few vague plans for May and June already, but I also have a long list of concerts I’ve not booked but could be persuaded to attend:
2018 has been a strange year in so many ways. I always said that I would try and buy less music this year, and instead, spend more time with the music I did buy. This has very much happened, but there is also very little on this list that wasn’t chosen by someone else (either as part of the Rough Trade club, or as a birthday/Christmas gift). That said, I love all of these records, and I think they represent an accurate summary of my journey through 2018.
Shame – Songs of Praise
Nils Frahm – All Melody
Belle & Sebastian – How to Solve our Human Problems
The Shacks – Haze
Daniel Blumberg – Minus
LUMP – LUMP
Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth
Father John Misty – God’s Favourite Customer
Here Lies Man – You Will Know Nothing
Bodega – Endless Scroll
Melody’s Echo Chamber – Bon Voyage
She Makes War – Brace for Impact
IDLES – Joy as an Act of Resistance.
Adrianne Lenker – abyskiss
Paul Smith – Diagrams
John Grant – Love is Magic
Smashing Pumpkins – Shiny and Oh So Bright (volume 1)
It’s National Album day today, and I’ve spent the day listening to a few old and new favourites (with a short break to walk the dog once the rain stopped). This is what I ended up listening to:
The Cure – Faith (1981)
Father John Misty – God’s Favourite Customer (2018)
British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music? (2008)
Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band – Adios Senor Pussycat (2017)
The Wedding Present – George Best 30 (2017)
The Auteurs – After Murder Park (1996)
Hope Sandoval – Until the Hunter (2016)
Adrianne Lenker – Abysskiss (2018)
IDLES – Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018)
The National – Sleep Well Beast (2017)
She Makes War – Brace for Impact (2018)
Felt – The Pictorial Jackson Review (1988)
The House of Love – The House of Love (1988)
Belle & Sebastian – If You’re Feeling Sinister (1996)
I’ve been to a couple of very enjoyable concerts this year (Belle & Sebastian and She Makes War) and I’d very much like to go to more now the nights are drawing in and spending evenings outside is less appealing. I thought it was worth listing things I was interested in, just in case I know anyone who might want to come along.
All of these are in Birmingham, and I in no way intend to go to all of them (but some would be nice).
I’ve used various ad-blockers over the years, and while they have all largely worked, they have also started to slow my browser down (especially on older computers). I read about Pi-hole a few times, but didn’t get around to actually installing it until this week. Now I have installed it I’m wishing I hadn’t waited, because not only does it lead to a largely ad-free browsing experience, but it also makes my older and slower computers noticeably faster.
Pi-hole should work on any Debian or Red Hat derived Linux distribution, but I went for the obvious solution of putting it on one of my always-on Raspberry Pis (which also runs WordPress and a command-line IRC client). To install just type curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash in a terminal, and then visit the /admin URL of the machine it’s installed on to view the admin console.
Configuring machines to use it is just a case of defining a custom DNS server (how to do that varies between each OS, but was trivial on Ubuntu and ChromeOS – I’ve not tried anything else yet). Just add the IP address of the Pi as a DNS server, and it will block anything on the block list, and then forward everything else on to be dealt with as normal. If you want to do this for everything on your network then there are various options detailed here that range from configuring one machine to routing everything through Pi-hole.
The admin page will tell you how much blocking is going on. With me it was about 1% of all traffic, and it will even tell you which domains it is blocking so you can whitelist anything you actually want to see (not all ads are bad). I don’t really notice a performance increase on my main computer, but older and slower computers definitely seem snappier, and can maintain about twice as many open tabs before they start to slow down, which is a bonus feature that I wasn’t really expecting.
