I remember back in 99 when I first bought this album. Before then I had only listened to trance and the common club hits, even Spice Girls. I hadn’t learned about all the great music out there. In comes Orbital, and blows my mind away. For a year straight. On my way to school. I had it on literally 24/7 and it really opened up my music taste. So naturally, this review isn’t technical or analytic, because the CD is pure emotion to me.

In retrospect of course I enjoy the high attention to detail, the way every track oozes of effort and talent, but at the time, I had no clue about such analytical things. The CD shoots off with “Way Out”, where trumpets and synth lines morph away in complicated matters, and a beautiful repetitive melody comes into play. Orbital always loved those long evolving tracks, and this CD is no exception. All the tracks feel like a journey on each own, where usually there is a first section, second section and then back to first section. With all the sounds and small things they put in I can’t imagine the amount of work needed to sequence it all, but even so it never gets overpopulated or too messy, all the sounds are placed well and work well.

Now naturally in a review, the reviewer is supposed to compare it to earlier albums. And while I agree that this can be fruitful, in this case Middle Of Nowhere is just different. It’s different in the way that they no longer have as much a theme or a concept with the album as they did on Snivilisation or In Sides. It’s music for music’s sake so to speak. It’s all about the sounds, the arrangements, the climaxes. The title ‘Middle Of Nowhere’ with a pure white cover sort of gives this away before listening to it.

It’s even so extremely enjoyable to listen to, and an album that will forever be a part of my soul. I reckon it’s one of their best…
10/10

Oh the joys of 90s television.. Before CGI became ultra-realistic and took precedence over story and content (see: Avatar), there were made several TV series with low budget, that still remained fantastic. One of those shows was called ‘The Outer Limits’, with 90s charm and clever twists.

The show focused on 1 hour science-fiction gems, where every episode ended in an unexpected twist. There are different characters and leads in every episode, similar to The Twilight Zone. In retrospect I appreciate this show even more because nothing like it has been or is being made. The visual effects, while basic and primitive in many ways, also provided a completely unique atmosphere to the show. Who can forget the last frame of one episode where aliens had taken over the world and an alien had sat itself on the president’s head in the Oval Office while the shot faded out with a view of Washington DC in ruins?

The show just plain worked. And even though it was a sci-fi show, it was also completely rooted in human social relations and societal critique. Many ideas and concepts could be applied to real life occurrences, and while the show could be called ‘crazy’, it never strayed away from its inner human core. This is a show I highly recommend to any sci-fi fan, and luckily for us, all 7 seasons of it is on hulu.com for free!

http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/#landmark

They really did it this time in image recognition!
Now you can use your Android mobile to take photos of landmarks, logos, books, contact info and other things and use Google to search for it.
Take a photo of the Coca-Cola logo, and it’ll Google it.

Very nice!

I think this is a pretty cool concept. I really like the idea of dropping the endless sea of the internet and get a full editorial package with a definite ending. I would imagine we could save issues on the device and browse them as we wish, and maybe have an internet connection or USB connection so we can purchase new issues immediately. I think this is the perfect closer of the gap between the internet and physical media, so I hope we see some devices soon.

In no particular order:

Lustmord – [ B E Y O N D ] (Extremely accurate and the perfect incarnation of soft moody dark ambient)
Alva Noto – Xerrox vol 1 and 2 (Beautiful ambient with excellent associations)
Boards Of Canada – Geogaddi (Their weirdest but also most nice album imo)
Autechre – Draft 7.30 (Their most isolating and immersive album)
Air – 10,000 hz Legend (Perfect melodies and nice beats)
Goldmund – Corduroy Road (Amazing quiet piano)
Hybrid – Morning Sci-Fi (Excellent cinematic and scifi breakbeats)
Murcof – Martes (Nice strings and moody glitches)
Plaid – Double Figure (Awesome melodies)
Radiohead – Amnesiac (Better than Kid A)
Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (Beautiful songwriting and instrument use)
Burial – Untrue (Nice atmospherics for late nights)
Elegi – Sisteris (Perfect rendition of haunted shipyards and boats made of wood)
Mira Calix – One On One (Innocence and beauty)

Cube
The Butterfly Effect
Alien
Children Of Men
Donnie Darko
ExistenZ
The Matrix
Rules Of Attraction
Star Trek (2009)
The Crow
Scream
Hackers 2: Takedown
In The Mouth Of Madness
The Game
Jacob’s Ladder
Mulholland Drive
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Solaris (2002)
Starship Troopers
Traffic (2000)
The Bourne Identity
Blade Runner
Hitman
The Shawshank Redemption
American History X
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Die Hard 2
Independence Day
Minority Report
Groundhog Day
Pitch Black
Frailty
Office Space
The Next Three Days
The Company Men
The Breakfast Club
Basic Instinct
Taxi Driver
Kids
The Machinist
Heat

Wow! FlashForward had a kickass start!
It looks to be a dense mystery series where nothing is predetermined.
They even tied it in a bit with Lost. Look at the screenshot:

Yes, that’s an Oceanic Air poster, right out of Lost.
Right now nobody has any idea what’s going on, and next year in February Lost’s secrets will be revealed. I’m glad we now have a new show to take over where Lost ends

La Femme Nikita is one of those shows (along with The Outer Limits) that show how story telling and acting is more important than special effects and big budget production. With its unusual twists on the espionage world, along with intriguing core concepts, it’s undoubtedly one of my favorite shows of all time. The show is basically about an undercover government operation called Section One. The agency uses many immoral and brutal techniques to take down terrorists and other major league criminals. Torture, deception, exploitation of innocent people for a grand goal and extortion are all techniques used to reach the goal. The show features an excellent cast with brilliant deep personalities, and they are all acted well throughout.

The show was created by Joel Surnow and Bob Cochran, of which both later created “24.” 24 is also another show that is extremely well written and executed, but it is quite different from Nikita even still. You can tell these guys are into politics, terrorism, espionage and such though, but just presented in two different ways. Nikita is in many ways more in fantasy land than 24, while 24 tries to be more realistic in how torture and such is handled. Section One is completely free of any responsibility for its actions. It can torture and exploit at will and nobody will come after them for it. My favorite character is Operations, which is the leader of Section One. He’s very charismatic, cold but can also show his empathy (which he did for Walter in a Season 3 episode.) This creates a very multi faceted personality where you’re not really sure what he’s thinking. Madeline is Operations’ second in command, and she is more cold than Operations. If she ever shows compassion it’s probably only a game played for personal or higher gain. The first 3 seasons are the best. The last two are a bit more lacking.

Defying Gravity is a show set in 2059, with 8 astronauts that embark on a journey through the solar system. The show touches upon many different things, destiny vs free will, science and some slight mindbend tendencies for good measure. There’s a sense of mystery all through, and this makes the show very open ended as far as story is concerned. It’s not your typical space adventure show like Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks. There’s also great humane characters in the show. Every character is ‘studied’ and I presume they will all be in the spotlight with flashbacks and focus in individual episodes. 13 episodes have been ordered apparently, but maybe if it takes off we will see more seasons. I do not know how this season will end, but I presume they can’t stuff 6 years into 13 eps. Highly recommended show.

Warning: This will contain spoilers.

John Carpenter has done some amazing movies. Some of them not as good as others, but when it comes to old school horror and pure atmosphere, Carpenter is the best. “In The Mouth Of Madness” is no exception, and in fact he has really taken it a step further this time.

Sam Neill plays John Trent, an insurance fraud specialist who takes pride in the fact that no con goes above his head because of his keen eye and solid roots in reality. What he doesn’t know then is that all his beliefs about reality will be shaken and turned upside down. The story starts with John Trent and Linda Styles traveling to New Hampshire to find Sutter Cane, a horror novelist who has disappeared with the latest manuscript for his novel. The owner of the publisher sends Cane’s editor (Styles) and Trent off to find a town named Hobb’s End, which is a place in one of Cane’s novels. They drive by car there and when night falls, strange things begin to happen. At one point, they find themselves driving through a small tunnel at night, and end up on the other side in daylight. This is most likely a portal to another realm of reality, maybe an entrance to Cane’s novel, but this is never confirmed.

They end up checking in to a small hotel with a weird old lady behind the desk. After some time they begin to realize that strange things are happening and that they might be in a Sutter Cane novel. One of my favorite things about this movie is how there is always a disbelief for the majority of the movie. You never really know if he’s in a Sutter Cane story or not, and the audience follows the same rationale and doubt that John Trent does. But then the end hits you, and everything you thought you knew is thrown out the window.

Carpenter is great at the visuals, he has a surreal way of directing, and although some think he shows too much of the monsters, I found it suiting. There are many classic horror and science fiction concepts in here, all executed at a masterful degree, and when I came to the end of the movie, I felt there was a lot of mystery, but still a satisfaction given from the ending (not a feat easily achieved.)

A highly recommended movie for any mindfuck movie fan.
10/10<