Articles of 2010 Part III: Deftones

I finally managed to interview one of my consistently favourite bands of all time back in May. Not only that, but I could grace them with a cover for Playmusic Pickup which, along with Sonic Youth, Frank Turner and a few bands I've never managed to, was always one of my biggest goals.
Anyway, I'm tired after 6 days and nights in California doing this, so no more words from me....except for ones I've already written. Enjoy, or don't. It's entirely up to you, funnily enough.

Trying to do justice to an artist or ensemble whose music has consistently moved you for years with mere words when they have the full articulacy of sound in comparison is one of the hardest tasks a writer faces. Descending to hyperbole and analogy is all too easy and drifting into tangents which merely add colour to a narrative is a common trap. Sacremento's elite pioneers Deftones make my job extremely difficult, but if they didn't exist at all I would still miss them. Perhaps that's just as much about what they represent for us, the fans, as how their music has ensnared us.

The quintet currently touring the globe in promotion activities for their sixth officially released studio album, Diamond Eyes, may well be radically altered from that which made 2006's Saturday Night Wrist, but the heart, spirit and sonic sculptures are unmistakable. A huge amount of energy and thought has been expended by the band on their efforts to struggle on as a creative collective without founder member bassist and backing vocalist Chi Cheng who was left in a coma state following a severe car crash in November 2008, and at time of writing is at home under constant care of his family and a medical expert. Nevertheless, their first album without Chi (former Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega has taken on bass duties) is perhaps their strongest work to date. Amalgamating the eerie, stark and savage sounds the band have been cultivating since 1997's Around the Fur and 2000's White Pony into a truly cohesive and resoundingly heavy record, Diamond Eyes represents a little bit more than a snapshot in time.
“Music in general that I listen to is pretty much put on because I wanna change my headspace so I do feel the same way about the music that we make. Why not be able to use it to escape?,” asks vocalist and guitarist Chino Moreno reasonably. A quick glance at our surroundings, Chino, keyboard/electronics guru Frank Delgado and I, in this inviting central London hotel room immediately makes Chino qualify his statement and question. “It's not like our life is so terrible that we need to escape it but just for a head change, a mood, to get into a groove.”

Placing Deftones' music on a pedestal goes hand-in-hand with the escapism inherently captured within their dense yet subtle concoction of voodoo ambience and brutal riffs. The effect is not unlike exquisite caligraphy formed from fissures and unstable faultlines. “Sonically and musically that's what the bands music does so lyrically I try to live up to that and try not to put up any boundaries. I do none of that.” In the past, Chino's lyrics may have been more direct, but the oblique references, obtuse and haunting imagery as well as a consistent fascination with waves could easily be the subject of several articles in their own right. Of course that isn't our intention here, but it's necessary to briefly illustrate that every part of the Deftones art is inseparable from the other. Though there is no glue that holds the operation together, it's arguable that certain aspects are often overlooked in favour of the most tangible. Hence, Frank Delgado's intricate webs of sound, flowing from effects driven turntables, synthesizers or warped samples and tape effects – perhaps because of their understated yet essential role in the music or perhaps due to being the least visible as well as the latest permanent member (barring Vega) – will be disregarded in favour of Steph Carpenter's magma guitars or Chino's scathing howl and seductive whispers.

“Whether its a riff Chino's creating subtly on his guitar or with me messing around on a synthesizer, we're getting better at closing it all in a song instead of one song being one way and another song being another way. We're able to mesh them now,” explains Frank. Since the eclectic platter of White Pony, where blistering metal like Elite resided along surprising, lush electronica as on Teenager, the band has always had tracks which proudly strutted their opposing colours. Diamond Eyes is notable for having seemingly abandoned that in favour of cohesion which doesn't narrow their ambition or experimental sides in the least. Frank's role, as a result has grown, despite his own misgivings about his position.
“Especially with Steph's sonics with his low guitar, at times it was hard for me,” he admits. “Like how the hell am I gonna fit in this spectrum of sound? On the earlier albums, I don't know how I'm supposed to do this in this band I don't know what the fuck I'm doing but I'm gonna paint my shit and I knew what I wasn't gonna do. As I got better at it I could extend these sounds and change pitches if I borrow Steph's guitar pedal. That's how I ended up creating a sequence of melodies.”

These cycling, shimmering, harrowing sounds creep throughout the Deftones work but is especially evident as defining moments on classics like Change (In The House Of Flies), Digital Bath and Hexagram – those voices, smeared squealing, putty-like sampled garbling are all Frank's work. Diamond Eyes begins with a statement of intent; a startling onward rush of translucent sound before Steph's sludge guitar threatens to drown all else out. By chorus time a sublime euphoric upper melody has arisen from Frank's effects and it's clear immediately that the awe-inspiring balance between metal, hip-hop, new wave, electro and who knows what other genres effortlessly glide together.
“We all love the same things but we've all found them at different parts of our lives or different routes got us there. It's crazy because sometimes people like to think of Steph as the metal dude and Chino as this new romantic dude and Abe...well he's the black dude,” laughs Frank with Chino joining in. Drummer Abe Cunningham is caucasian yet his hip-hop influenced beats suggest otherwise. “But it's not really that way man. People would bug out if they saw Stpeh in his truest form. He fucking loves Depeche Mode and he loves the shittiest stuff too, like we all do. We saw him listening to PM Dawn and it looked like he was thinking about his whole life!” With those sort of revelations it's no wonder Deftones are one of only a handful of bands in the last twenty years that can stand up and be counted as a truly defined unit with a musical DNA that is impossible to replicate. “It just so happens we're very good at these different parts and getting them to work. We're all honestly trying to do it a little bit cooler, a little bit better and that way it doesn't come off as painting by numbers. That's all those other bands.” Diamond Eyes has proven this to be fact; it's a Deftones record which doesn't surprise at all yet absolutely astounds in its vision and execution.

To complicate things further, the three of us agree that those who have songs fully written inside their heads before recording are to be wondered at. Chino says: “Some people may be able to do that and that's great but for us the fact that things aren't preconceived that's kinda the uniqueness about us. The organic quality. These are some my favourite songs we've written, those with that organic quality and we still have to work at it. But the more organic and natural the better. If there's an idea we start gravitating towards it filters through us and who else is going to do something like that? No one else because there's only one of me, one of him, one of Steph and when you put the five of us together that's a unique sound, something that's not contrived and not formulated.”
“It's funny because in reality, say we wanted to make this electronic song it's not gonna be Deftones before it filters through Steph and Chi and by then it's already fucking morphed already,” says Frank. “The same thing with Stephan's crushing riffs. I mean he was riffing like I hadn't seen him do in a long time but it would just stay like that if it didn't go through Chino and Abe and then it becomes something like You've Seen The Butcher which is something we could never do by thinking in that way. That shit just happens.” Opening with the distinctive jagged chug of guitars before the hesitant, off-the-beat pounding drums and layers of arcane sounds, You've Seen The Butcher branches into stoner rock riffs, long sustained hollering from Chino and seething undercurrents which bellow from the undulating crescendo section. And yes, reading that back it's fair to say that their music is fairly indescribable.

In an ever growing list of contrasts they somehow got Diamond Eyes to sound like a studio creation that is still achievable live.
“We were pretty well prepared as far as being able to play them live pretty much before we went into the studio which was important I think for the way the record sounds and now us going out to play we have a lot more confidence playing it because we're pretty strong. It's probably closer to the way we did things when we didn't have the means to use pro tools or going into a studio and writing the record there,” explains Chino. The record was done in two months, a much shorter time than the last three. It seems as well as having the drive to create – bearing in mind that the band had already written and recorded their sixth album Eros with Chi before the accident, a record that may see the light of day at some point – the refreshing back-to-basics attitude of avoiding pro-tools and rehearsing songs to perfection before recording led to the precise, amalgamated feel of the album.
“The producer Nick worked with us in pre-production which was pretty much the whole writing process. He was very helpful in getting us on what the task of the day or the hour was. In the past we'd all start digging on the same idea and without anybody there to kinda get us focused on that we'd start somewhere and start drifting off to nowhere land, although that's not a bad thing,” says Chino. “But if nobody's speaking up and keeping things in context or keeping an eye focused on the essence of the idea... It snowballed. We'd start with something hone in on it and complete something in a few hours that wasn't there before. When it's done that's more ammo you tuck that into your coat and move on to the next thing so you start getting really inspired. Once you start getting in that rhythm it feels great and everybody hits a super creative stride.”

Essentially, the core of Deftones has always been this unstoppable gang, a group of friends who share such disparate musical tastes but work so closely together that they could only ever end up sounding themselves. This has always been reflected in the warmth and density of their sound, something that embraces you in a way similar music fails to do. Everything from the splicing of musical genetics to the caustic or glorious performances – live or on record – enrapture and captivate but their essential elements are most poignantly proven on Diamond Eyes: courage, conviction and optimism in the darkest of hours and this is something Deftones fans across the globe have taken to heart from this most important of bands.

Brad Barrett

Articles of 2010 Part II: Chrome Hoof

So while I'm listening to the soothing white noise assault of Cementimental - definitely the best way of calming all the broiling bad feelings about impending, extortionate self-employed tax bills - it's the second installment of my alphabetical list of my own favourite articles of last year about bands.

Chrome Hoof are not just exceptional fun to listen to, but also fun to chat to and interview. This was tremendous fun to write perhaps because they were so good natured. Also they touch upon how it might be to craft as a writer, which is always interesting. Anyway, here it is. NB: no header or standfirst, perhaps because I was creatively tired out by this point.

As fellow music obsessives, there's one thing we can probably all agree on: that there is music out there demanding to be made against whatever odds are thrown at it and regardless of who will listen. Chrome Hoof are in a unique place. The core duo Leo Smee, bassist of UK doom metallers Cathedral, and his brother Milo, on drums, formed an electronic side-project which has gathered musicians, absorbed genres and adopted an indelible image of a collective adorned in disco/sci-fi hooded robes. On the day of their sit-down show at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's Southbank as part of Ether Festival's programme of exploratory music, they number 22 including two guitarists, a violinist, lead vocalist Lola Olafisoye, a trumpeteer, a saxophonist, a synth player, a full choir and a harpist. It's an arresting sight, and that's before the eclectic dynamic force of their performance. With the sheer amount of troops they're leading though, it's no wonder Milo – ever smiling, ever so slightly amused – confesses to feeling a little anxious. “I'm never confident. Keeping on high alert throughout the day and getting ridiculously stressed on the day of a gig is normal for me and, hopefully, being like that raises my game by 1%. If it doesn't it's just wasting my time, which is an even more joyous thought,” he says good humouredly. It doesn't help that because of the awesome power of nature, or Eyjafjallajökul as most people are not calling it, prevented Milo flying from his home in Berlin to the UK for rehearsals.
“The new album is obviously quite epic with complex time changes and allthat nonsense,” says the softly spoken Leo. “So with only two days (rehearsal) we're gonna be a bit on the edge but I think that'll add to it. As long as 22 people start and stop at the same time it doesn't matter what happens in the middle.”

Self-deprecating to the last, Chrome Hoof undersell themselves dramatically. Their latest opus, Crush Depth, is their third official album since their 2004 self titled debut and follows the funkdiscometalorchestratronica of Pre-Emptive False Rapture. Straddling the entirety of music like some globe spinning titan, Crush Depth is an astonishing amalgamation of freeform ideas. Gutteral guitars stand alongside funk bass, warped disco synthesizers, demonic choral chants, hi-hat shuffles, cantankerous strings and all embellished with self-styled diva Lola's enigmatic vocal and lyrical bent. It's as hard to describe as it is to imagine. The only option is to listen. Milo at least attempts to explain how it all flows together.
“I actually think what these Chrome Hoof tracks end up sounding like is just an ongoing unconscious progress that everyone has. If you're a writer you'll have that going on and you'll sleep on stuff and a nice way of putting something will come to you. You don't have to sit and think how am I going to approach this one, shall we do it like this or this. It just starts unfolding you start doing stuff that subconsciously you've been working out in your head at other times.”

Working from jams, the very nature of a blueprint or formula seems alien to Chrome Hoof. That there's nothing here that could easily be distilled or co-opted by a lesser collective is tribute to the wild imaginations at work, as well as the decades of experience at the helm; although Milo confesses to a real lack of band experience, his kit skills belie that and Leo has spent his time in Cathedral since 1989. Despite this, Crush Depth was a real effort for everyone involved.
“It was pretty chaotic and quite high pressure actually. There's a little bit of a connection with the album title and the pressure of being deep under sea and things like that. Basically we've got a manager who has done a lot to make this happen because this is a massive undertaking especially for this band to create something like that. The amount of people we've had to rope in and ask favours from...”
“We've got zero budget really,” adds Leo. “Me and Milo's relationship has gone through some funny moments but we've had to stick together whatever happened. We've come out the other side. We're sponges for our life and the music we listen to, things we dig and the styles we like and it comes out, like all the bands, unconsciously, consciously and it's not until the end result when you can sit back and think 'oh, that's just happened!'. In a way, we quite ruthlessly plan something and at the same time we do jam around it. I think the album does show the year we've had through the music, through things that have happened. I don't want to sound too corny but that's how music comes out most of the time.”

It's difficult to reconcile the tough times with the glorious utopian funk soundtrack of Sea Hornet or the pounding symbiosis of Third Sun Descendent despite their fractured, schizophrenic fluidity which suggests madmen at work. Yet it's all so enthralling, it stirs the blood and feeds on your response like an emotional vampire. It's almost as if those robes, adopted early on, have cast a relentless shadow upon the music, and vice versa.
“The image feeds into the music and the other way around,” agrees Milo. “Without an overview of what it was gonna end up like, this is how things have turned out and there are reasons for that and you can make those reasons up for yourself. We've just stuck to what excites us and just just tryied to be honest with ourselves. Stuff that excites us is gonna take priority over what anyone else thinks. If you stick to that then it will go in a certain direction.” Milo smiles wryly again. “We're trying to keep the essence of what we started with although we mostly lose it.”

Brad Barrett

Articles of 2010

Yep so Albums of 2010 went wrong because of a portable hard drive and floor collision. Damn. I could just reproduce my list of 75, but that would be boring and pointless and if there's two things I don't like to think I'm being, it's those.

However it's always nice to indulge myself in looking over my favourite band interview features of the last year. There's been some ace ones too. Cover wise I finally got my friend Frank on Playmusic Pickup, signalling only his second cover (after Kerrang!). I got to interview Deftones finally, giving them a cover, and there's been plenty of excellent insight from Marnie Stern, Baths, The National and Field Music.

So let's see what I got up to in 2010: in alphabetical order.


Baths AKA Will Wiesenfeld. A bright, enthusiastic and bluntly honest lad. Refreshing and fantastic and it's entirely reflected in his utterly brilliant music, best represented by Baths' debut album Cerulean. Of course, like all features, this has been edited from the original conversation - which was a blast, and very candid on both of our parts. This, however, is the unedited text before it hit Playmusic Pickup in the December 2010 issue.

Liquid Love

Baths is the solo project of 21 year old Will Wiesenfeld, Cleveland's shy electronic lothario. Once a classical music student, his past has helped fuel his desire to open his heart and pour it into music. He reveals all to Brad Barrett...

The emotional connection we have with music is why we engage with it. Any other reason is secondary, or at least should be in my opinion. Dance music of late, has tended towards the evocative where passionate embraces are perhaps more important than mere body movement conducted by cleverly-constructed beats. Will Wiesenfeld, AKA Baths, remains the pinnacle of this attitude as we head into the new year; his underrated homemade debut Cerulean, released earlier in 2010, proving a huge highlight of the last 12 months. It's a rapturous blur of clogged beats, echoing piano melodies, Will's disarming falsetto and unexpected clashes of hyper-tense electro melodies and ethereal instrumentation.

“In terms of using samples, I don't use any. Maybe a drum sample of a bass drum hit, for instance, but then I layer a hundred different things on top of it and make my own sound out of it and the construction of the actual rhythms is all my own,” he says. “The less I start out with, the more open ended it can be and the more comfortable I am. It's like I don't have to abide by any rules, I can do whatever I want. It's easier when I can throw a thousand ideas around and narrow it down to the right things,” explains Will at the City Arts and Music Bar above the basement venue he'll play a few hours later.
This open field he's bringing to our attention is a way of getting away from implied emotions. Rather than building a sad song from a minor key or a happy song from a major key, Will leaves ambiguity in his melodies and propels them to the desired emotional pitch with rhythms and textures which accentuate the sensual mood.
“I really wanted to make something easier to digest than my older material,” he says, referencing his band [post-foetus] and his Geotic side project. “but that is very, very positive and spirited and happy at the same time. That's the whole vibe of the album even though there's more personal and intense subject matter, it's told through a positive lens and feels more reminiscent than directly linked and depressing.”

Will manages to sum up his own music exquisitely. Describing Baths as “intentionally of the moment” and “what I actually want to put out in the world and my main artistic expression”, it's clear that it's a world away from his derivative, ambient Geotic material, which he creates almost purely to help him sleep.
“I used Digital Performer and Ableton Live and I just used a bunch of instruments. I'm lucky enough to have an upright piano in my bedroom, it's the family piano from when I was, like, four. I used an electric guitar, electric bass, my brother's acoustic guitar, a lot of singing, layers of vocals. With the construction of beats and stuff, there's a little bit of samples - maybe two or three percent across the whole album that's like actual drummer library samples - but the rest of those rhythms are all blurry with layers and sounds I put on top of it and the rest is stuff I did in my bedroom: snapping my fingers, clicking on the table, closing and opening doors. I'll record tonnes of layers of that type of stuff and then have to eliminate them. Trial and error and a lot of split second decision making.”

The incredible Hall, coincidentally a name I associate with love and joy in my life – something Will is happy to hear about and discuss, being the adorable chap that he is - begins a cut-up, aquatic burst of burbling voices before breaking into a loop-driven, modern gospel chorus that's more swan-dive beautiful than anything else you've heard in 2010. Plea, as well, is an otherworldly luminescence on the unexpectedly beautiful face of electronica, while You're My Excuse to Travel sprinkles that gorgeous family piano throughout in eloquent fashion. It's truly an album to grasp and hold tight. Considering his beginnings though, it could've turned out very different and perhaps sewn with far more blatant virtuosity.
“I was classically trained from the age of four until about 12 on piano and then I sort of had a falling out with classical music and couldn't stand it any more. The way I was playing piano was so rigid and robotic and completely devoid of emotion. I was playing music that, of course...the composers when they wrote it was a very, very emotional experience for them, but none of that was being communicated to me,” he explains, perhaps reflecting the lives of other kids whose parents urged them to be musical. “I took a break from that and when I started playing again, maybe a year and a half later, I only played my own music and only played what I wanted to play and I was like 'Oh music is thrilling!'” he says, adopting a gushing tone. “At that point in time it had become a horrible, tiresome thing but I wouldn't trade that experience. The spinal memory and the motion in my fingers is something I would never have had otherwise. I owe it all to the fact that I had that training and now I'm able to make ideas come out as fast as they do...because that's all it is. Technical proficiency is just a tool to make writing music easier.”

Will makes an amazing case for really learning your chosen instrument, though it's unlikely that without his revelation he would've embarked on an album which he hopes – rather sweetly - will help him “to look into someone who might be the right person.” He calls the album “crazy romantic” and it's in evidence not just in the lyrics - “Smile for me if you can/I wanna see that in my head” or “Boy you are every colour/How am I visible?/Please tell me you need me” - but in the scaling melodies, the cloudy and dream-like shimmering, the pulse-setting rhythms that occupy the core and prevent any deviation from the surging burst of feeling that erupts from within. Even the extraneous and playful noises throughout cross the lines between doubt and hope, anxiety and devotion. Cerulean sums love up in pure sound.
Certainly though, Will's ambition is to keep Baths consistently different and hearing a new song played later at Camp Basement in Old Street, the next Baths album will be crushing and oppressive or lustful and angry as opposed to tenderly hugging and kissing. But never again can you imagine his music being anything other than purely expressive and an extension of his very being, never becoming just a playground for his dormant expertise.

Brad Barrett

My Favourite Records of 2010

So it begins. Having had my rather hefty list of 100 records knocked down to a mere 25 by Playmusic Pickup, I thought I'd reveal my list here. Deciding on whether to do a slow, seductive strip tease or go the full monty from the start probably depends on how many people care and, of those who care, how much they care. Either way has its merits. Maybe I'll do both. Routine is overrated.

In alphabetical order, and more for my own weird gratification than anyone else's, here begins my odyssey into 2010's musical canon. This now accounts for late entries and those I've had more time to listen to since compiling the original longlist. All of these are worth a listen, so please do.

The 'A's.

Actress 'Splazsh'
Adebisi Shank 'This Is The Second Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank'
Aidan Baker 'Liminoid / Lifeforms'
Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté - 'Ali & Toure'
Aloe Blacc 'Good Things'
Anais Mitchell 'Hadestown'
And So I Watch You From Afar 'The Letters EP'
Animal Collective 'ODDSAC'
Arcade Fire 'The Suburbs'
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti 'Before Today'
Autolux 'Transit Transit'
Avey Tare 'Down There'
Avi Buffalo 'S/T'

Conclusion

There's some incredible records just in the first letter of the alphabet. For me 'Ali & Toumani' stands out as a breathtaking work of considerable technicality and beauty. 'Splazsh' was one of a multitude of electronic records worth spending time with, though it's arguably overshadowed by others later in the list. 'ODDSAC' remains unique in the entire 2010 list for being a visual album, something that needs to be absorbed in one high-intensity sitting. Avey Tare's 'Down There' sneaks in after its release a week ago after a few listens thanks to the surprisingly soulful delivery on the vocal led songs. Similarly, 'Good Things' comes courtesy of a recent listen, a real soulful collection of tracks from the always-reliable Stones Throw label.
Of course, while 'The Suburbs' was too long and flawed tro be truly an album of the year, some of the best Arcade Fire songs so far were included on it, rising it well above the standard of their previous longplayer. 'Liminoid/Lifeforms' is a sparse, avant-garde masterwork, Ariel Pink's 'Before Today' took 9 months of listening to make any sense and Adebisi Shank's excellently titled effort is shock treatment utilising unbelievable displays of rock virtuosity. Anais Mitchell's concept record 'Hadestown' is a brave country-tinged network of haunting songs, ably aided by Justin Vernon whose voice continues to resonate far from his Bon Iver alter-ego. Finally 'The Letters EP' is my nod to one of the plentiful short player records released this year. This Irish instrumental rock troupe have got a savage handle on dynamics and it's a thrilling, four track blast. I'm still of the opinion that Avi Buffalo's self titled album is the weakest here, though just for 'What's In It For?', one of my favourite songs of the year, it must be included. There are some lovely moments dotted about. I would probably choose 'Ali & Toumani' as my favourite from this short list, but all of the rest are either excellent or contain unavoidably evocative moments.

Next: The 'B's

Braid

Ah dear, neglected blog, how I've missed you. Unfortunately life has gotten in the way again. It is not that I don't love you too, it's just that....well, perhaps I had less to say than I used to. Love B.

As ever, whenever I feel myself falling into a stupor of writing incompetence, it's a medium other than music which pulls me back from the brink. In this case it's the 2008 award-winning videogame Braid.

How to explain its effect on me? Well perhaps I'll try a leaf out of its book.

"And so it clicks. The melancholy irridescence that shimmers across not only the backgrounds and the domineering strings that have severed the bright and sparkling outset, but the snippets of longing and obsession that cloud this simple characters journey. Having been chased from your goal and the object of Tim's obsession snatched away by a perceived rival, you have a chance to reflect upon Braid's time-warping escapades. Only a few minutes before, time was running backwards and Tim was being eagerly helped by his princess to reach her - foiling traps and sprinting away from the evil knight who would snatch her away as well as the horrifying onset of flame, burning and destroying everything in its path. But as we draw back from that moment we get further away from the goal. Back into musing upon whatever invention Tim has been plotting - his princess - and how reversing mistakes have caused everything. #

Each world draws strength from a single mechanical concept that alters it completely from what you played before. The art direction and musical score absorbs this change and distributes it.

The ring, an object that weighs Tim down just like Frodo and Bilbo's counterpart, has an inexorable draw that slows progress of anything within its circumference. It seems that Tim's obsession draws other people into it, eagerly eating away their time. Lonely shadows who can only imitate Tim's actions until they fade away, despondent, into nothing represent the repetition of past mistakes. Their sad, shoe-gazing expression break hearts. World 4 sees Tim's every step manipulating the flow of time. Your actions affect everything around you apart from the very few. Consequences of whatever Tim is planning will inevitably have a huge impact on his world. By the time we've reached the beginning of the game - we are innocently traipsing into Tim's darkened world, his house full of memories and realising that we are able to, gloriously, rewind time so as to never have to worry about making a mistake again. Progress is unstoppable, even time - the one thing we all have - cannot prevent human folly.

And so it is that two legendary quotes from scientists resonate strongly. Ploughing through the game to its ultimate end, by collecting the hidden stars, reveals a new beginning with which to end the game, this one fatal. Tim, more determined than ever, manages to grasp the princess in her escape. A bright white explosion engulfs the screen. The atomic bomb has been dropped."

Quite apart from the incredible storytelling device of rewinding time to turn the storyline on its head, gaming convention has also been twisted. The princess did not want to be saved, she wanted to be rescued from you. The countless homages to gaming past - "The princess is in another castle", flagpoles, Jumpman - are merely utilised to ease you into a world where an innocent 2D platformer can become a strategic puzzle game whose plot is an allegory for the creation of the most deadly weapon known to man. Every little touch - the shadow that becomes your companion but whom is being used for your own benefit, the amazingly deft conclusion to the world where running forwards keeps time going in the right direction which results in a poignant comment on progress both in life and in virtual life, even down to the simple beauty of slotting the puzzle pieces together to form a picture whose image relates to the themes inherent in that world - is a delight. Every moment not spent tackling the brain-taxing methods to capture those puzzle pieces is spent pondering the philosophical questions constantly prodding at you. It's a 2D platform game, one of the oldest forms of videogaming available, that has more depth than the average technologically advanced-3D shooter, and even some RPGs. Its open-ended nature is a call to imagine, something severely lacking in film, literature and videogames today.
It's a game I don't feel guilty extolling the virtues of nor spending some time thinking about, because it's clearly art as well as a challenging game requiring lateral thinking. There's the simple pleasure of warping time into your own shape for linear ends, but its a wonderful - nay - powerful feeling. It must've felt the same once science had reached its logical conclusion and formed a doomsday weapon. Unlike that discovery though, Braid enables the player to reflect on how far videogames have come and yet how perfect they were from the very start.

SxSW Beginner's Guide #8 - Eye, Jay and Kay

I think this is my first SxSW related post since I booked my (bargain) flights to Austin, so there's definitely no backing out now. Not long til I go either so these posts need to step up a gear.

So below are the highlights of the I, J and K pile winging their way to Texas state in March. Let's dig in and find some excellence shall we?

Inhabitants (www.myspace.com/theinhabitants)

Trumpet guitar bass drums all colliding in a spectacular array of sparks and fissures; this improvising quartet make a glorious racket, of that we can be sure. Go listen.

Instrumenti (www.myspace.com/instrumenti)

Not even sure I like them - which is often a good sign - but their audacious pop tang and glorious piano or fuzz synth accompaniments are undeniably fiery and fun. Could be glorious to watch.

The Intelligence (www.myspace.com/theworldisadrag)

This is going well. The Intelligence are noisy, lo-fi monotony in the same way The Fall are repetitive, lo-fi monotony - in other words pretty addictive and pretty brilliant.

The Intimate Stranger (www.myspace.com/theintimatestranger)

Chilean fuzzy pop from a quartet surely aware of the UK and Canada's indie-pop scene. Pretty good.

The Invisible (www.myspace.com/theinvisiblethree)
Already favourites of mine, plus lovely chaps to boot, their new material is sounding amazing right now, having seen them at The Borderline a week or so back. A definite shout for anyone from foreign climes who hasn't seen them yet. Londoners, you have no excuse not to see them when you get back.

Japandroids (www.myspace.com/japandroids)

Noisy lo-fi pop rush, a driving fuzzy edge that recalls No Age and suchlike. Good stuff though not as great as the aforementioned LA duo.

The Jazzus Lizard (www.myspace.com/jazzuslizard)

Yes. A jazz trio covering Jesus Lizard songs. What a wonderful time to be alive.

Jern Eye (www.myspace.com/jerneye)

Some great cuts on myspace, mainly embellished with epic backing tracks - looped vocals, strings and a generally escalating vibe - so may well be worth a shot.

Jinnyoops! (www.myspace.com/jinnyoops)

Brass and overdriven guitars never sounded like a good idea until Blur wrote Popsong. That was and still is ace, so these Japanese ladies sound like tremendous fun too. They also cheekily steal Orange amps logo, but I'm sure they'll let this pass.

Joan of Arc (www.myspace.com/joanfrc)

Tim Kinsella's long running effort should be a must see for all ex-emo kids.

The John Steel Singers (www.myspace.com/thejohnsteelsingers)

Light airy pop which embraces layers of instruments and colours.

Jookabox (www.myspace.com/jookabox)

Formerly under the even-less-managable moniker of Jookabox Grampall, this group filter disparate ideas through a very kaleidoscopic filter that allows funk, hip hop, rock, soul, jazz and all sorts of sub-genres to amalgamate into a very wholesome soup. Brilliant.

J. Rocc (www.myspace.com/funkypresident)

J. Rocc's excellent funk breaks are exquisite and laid back grooves, set to that internal fuzzy metronome you have which forces dancing on you when you least expect it.

kasms (www.myspace.com/kasms)

I've seen them enough times, but always great value - energetic, noisy and eye-catching.

Zoe Keating (www.myspace.com/zoecello)

Bored of all those streamlined rock acts, dowdy folk rubbish and mainstream Mr Sheen hip-hop? Try some ambient, moody classical yeah?

Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds (www.myspace.com/kidcongoandthepinkmonkeybirds)

Obviously - playing in the Bad Seeds means you automatically get an awesome pass.

Kill It Kid (www.myspace.com/killitkid)

You know how despicable Mumford & Sons are? Yeah? Well Kill It Kid are a bit like them, but with heart, passion, soul and even a pinch of excitement. Brilliant.


Well now the alphabetical list has become the tentative schedule with venues and times for the full five days. So, the next SxSW blog post will involve dates, times and artists. This is gonna be fun.

Sidestep The Hype #4 - Débruit (Xavier Thomas)

It's pretty impossible for me to pick out particular producers for special attention, especially as - unlike guitar bands and suchlike - I have less scope for explaining and referencing how they craft their music. It's something I always attempt to correct every year but it feels impossible to keep on top of the amount of amazing electronically-designed music out there.

Anyway, Debruit - or Xavier Thomas to his friends and family - caught my attention with his Spatioin Temporel EP. It's a blustery cluster of disparate rhythms, slinky spring sounds and cutting samples that all bring to mind a clash between exotic street parties and underground club ambience. Generally the filtering of ideas ends up sputtering unforseen and unimaginable cultural splicing, down to the finest warped bass register and vocoder voice patch.

Certainly the most refreshing thing I've heard from France for a long time, the exciting thing is just how he's tamed about 50 ideas, lashed them into four tracks and still it feels like he's bursting with incredible energy. All this energy is destined to burst onto a second full-length platter soon.

Here have this youtube feed of Nigeria What? from this very EP. It's ace.