A view from the hill - Media

New records for the masses (winter edition, part two)

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:05:00 +0100

So, let's continue summing up the major records I got over the last months.

The Horrors, "Skying" is not the continuation of their previous album which I liked a lot. There are some similarities in style, of course, but it doesn't have the same focus and there are not so many convincing titles. (6/10)

I also got the new record from Äl Jawala, "The ride" for review, which, while mainly instrumental Balkan-Beat style has a wild variety of other influences, also didn't quite fit in. I like the record, but it's hard for me to keep going all through it. But they made me search for similar records from other artists. (6/10)

Then I recently reviewed Deep cut, "Disorientation" for plattentests.de which is a nice shoe-gaze style band, with some guitar pop thrown in for good measure. Think Lush or Sing-Sing, if that means anything to you. (7/10)

Wild Flag, "Wild Flag" is an ex-sleaze riot girls afterthought, more guitar power-pop oriented, but also a lot less interesting. (5/10)

Very interesting is "In the pit of the stomach" by We were promised jetpacks: its alternative crusade between noise and more quiet tones reminds me a little bit of Broken Social Scene, although the references to bands like the Twilight Sad are also appropriate. (8/10)

Another addition is "Belong" from The Pains of being pure at heart which sounds to me like a more pop-oriented variation of "We were promised jetpacks". A nice and light record, recommended. (7/10)

Similar in style is the self-titled album from Yuck, which has some voice-coder stuff, which I typically don't like at all, and also some low-key songs but is overall a pretty nice album. (7/10)

And then we have the christmas special "Anthology" by my long time favourites The Throwing Muses. I reviewed the two CD set, which is a nice and non-obvious collection of their material from 25 years. If you like complex accoustic and electric guitar songs (from Independent style to alternative rock) with great female singers (Kristin Hersh/Tanya Donelly) this is for you. (8/10)

Just by chance I found out that Carlo van Putten has two new records out: White Rose Transmission, his former collaboration with Adrian Borland released "Spiders in the mind web". Adrian is clearly missing but it's still a nice record. (6/10)

The other one is with his new band Dead Guitars who released "Stranger". Actually, I find it hard not to mix up the two records, because they are stylistically quite similar, although difficult to classify. Certainly an alternative sound, but alternative what? Guitar-pop? Wave? (6/10)

Records from the crypt:
Another missing piece filled in, I finally have a best of collection by The Rolling Stones, "Rolled Gold". It contains two CDs full of hits. Unfortunately, it focusesses pretty much on the older stuff, the newer songs from the end of the last century and the newer songs are missing. (6/10)

New records for the masses (winter edition, part one)

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:06:00 +0100

I let too much time pass in between writing these overviews. Which of course results in even more stuff to write about, which makes me delay it even further. As this post would get rather long in the mean time, I'm going to split it into this winter edition into a part one and a second part, which I will probably post next week. Okay, 'nough said, here we go:

Arcade Fire, "The suburbs" is a Grammy award winning record of the canadian band. It's also the first by Arcade Fire which doesn't drown in pathetics, although it's still not too light hearted -- which implies that this is really a nice one. (7/10)

Amplifier, "The octopus" is a heavy beast of a record. It's easy to imagine the arms of the octopus playing a multitude of guitars. But it's an alternative rock drama which I don't have the patience for over two discs. (6/10)

Mogwai, "Hardcore will never die, but you will" is another rather heavy and constructed sounding record, quite like Amplifier, although it has some more lighter moments. It's also only a single disc. (6/10)

I reviewed Lotus Feed, "A different place" for plattentests.de, which is a rather classical gothic/wave record. It's a good one but too close to more famous bands to really stand out. (6/10)

I have the impression that Radiohead with each new record try to come up with even stranger song structures. "King of the limbs" is the latest and greatest step on that mission. (6/10)

I admit it, I have a weak spot for the low-fi two-piece sound of The Kills. On the other hand, I think they get better with each new record. "Blood pressures" has a pretty broad range of song structures, while still mostly sticking to their typical two people setup. (7/10)

I was lurred by the praising review on plattentests.de into buying the punk rock opera "David comes to life" by Fucked up. The music is fine, but I have a hard time standing the singer. (5/10)

A jazz record by Nicole Jo, "Go on" and a very nice one, too, came to me from plattentests.de but didn't fit into the thematic range. Which doesn't make it a bad record, not at all, I like it very much. (7/10)

Records from the crypt:
Billy Talent, "Billy Talent III" was a cheap buy, but a very nice one. If you like Green Day-style punk rock without the pop part, you'll also like this one. (7/10)

New records for the masses

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:26:00 +0100

So, 2010 is already over (just like the yearly poll on plattentests.de) and I haven't shared my latest additions to my CD collection.

The last review I did last year was about Kim Wilde, "Come out and play". Kim Wilde is one of the artists I really enjoyed in the eighties, but I can't really say the same thing about her latest album. (4/10)

I also got The Superbees, "Top of the rocks" for review but as it's just a mini-album it didn't get published (nor written). If you like punk rock with a rolling "R" like the New Bomb Turks this is a very nice little record. (7/10)

Till Brönner, the German (jazz) trumpet player has published "At the end of the day", an album consisting of covers of well-known pop songs like "Space Oddity" (D.Bowie) and "Human" (Killers). Till should really stick to playing his trumpet. (4/10)

Les Savy Fav is one of my favourite bands with their music somewhere between post-hardcore, noise and danceable indie sounds. "Root for ruin" sees them a little lighter, less aggressive but still powerful. (7/10)

Interpol surely had a lot of influence over the last ten years, bringing back some of favourite music from the 80s to the indie scene. Their last album "Interpol", however, continues what they have been doing like forever now and I'm getting more and more bored with every new record. (6/10)

I have to admit, that they have been a rather new discovery for me: Belle and Sebastian play their lovely indie folk tunes on "Write about love", but only now I've been able to appreciate the beauty in their songs. (8/10)

Deerhunter, "Halcyon digest" is a record that resonates firmly within the plattentests.de universe but for me the mix between esoteric music style and indie rock needed some getting used to. There are some really strong songs on it, but also some more obscure stuff as well. (7/10)

Iliketrains is another band well received by the crowd over at plattentests.de and "He who saw the deep" sounded interesting with it's music somewhere between Interpol and The Whitest Boy Alive. However, I can't really stand the singer. (5/10)

I am not too much into trip hop, but Massive Attack, "Heligoland" was a cheap buy and I do like some of their older stuff. Their new record contains a lot of complex songs and it takes quite a while getting into them. No hit though. (6/10)

The last record from 2010 that's worth noting is of German indie rock band Tocotronic, "Schall & Wahn". It's actually my first Tocotronic record, although I otherwise have a lot of similar stuff (e.g. Blumfeld). A nice record with heavy lyrics. (7/10)

This new year has brought me three new records so far.

First one is Gang of Four, "Content", their comeback after 16 years which I reviewed for plattentests.de. A very strong record that clearly shows why bands like Bloc Party or Franz Ferdinand have good reason to still name them as one of their main influence. Post-punk indie music with a funk note and strong political texts. (8/10)

Years ago I have been listening to quite a little bit of dark wave and some times I still like such music. Esben and the Witches, "Violet cries" have been getting hyped somewhat in the indie media and rightfully so. Pretty dark and haunting sounds, with the occasional heavy guitar. (7/10)

And then there is the latest album "Tao of the dead" by ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. I must admit that I still haven't managed to get a key to it. It's a very homogenic record, but nearly consistently Kraut Rock-style with very few noise core attacks being left. Given that "Madonna" is still my favourite album of them, it is probably no surprise that I find this record to be their weakest one so far. The evolution had been apparent but so far I could always find some interesting stuff to take from the records in between, but I haven't been able to it this time. (6/10)

Now for the Records from the crypt section:

Sophie Hunger first album released under her own name, "Monday's ghost", isn't that old, but still. It's pretty similar to last years "1983" and contains some very beautiful tracks like "Shape" or "Drainpipes" which are difficult to classify (most likely under Jazz). (7/10)

Melody Gardot with "Worrisome heart" is Jazz, sometimes with a pop tune. Very nice record from another Jazz artist getting quite some hype last year. (7/10)

Athlete's "Beyond the neighborhood" is a record somewhere between radio music and indie rock. Just the same I can't really say how much I like it. (6/10)

Then we have Mando Diao and their 2009 album "Give me fire". Besides the hit single "Dance with somebody" (which seems to be much slower and mellow in the album edit) there are several rather boring but also some more interesting songs. (6/10)

And now to classics:

The debut of the Stray Cats, "Stray Cats". This record basically defined what Rockabilly is. One might say, well Rock'n'Roll is known a bit longer, but Setzers guitar and the mixin of Ska elements still makes the record sound fresh. (9/10)

And finally the one defining German punk band, Slime with "Alle gegen alle". Of course, some texts look rather silly today and the music is, well, simple, but still this record kicks some serious butt. (8/10)

Ab 0, ab 18 oder offline?

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:32:00 +0100

Kristian Köhntopp ist seit gestern offline und er ist lt. dieser Heise-Meldung wohl nicht der einzige. Hintergrund ist der neue Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag, kurz JMSTV, der kurz gesagt fordert, dass potentiell jugendgefärdende Inhalte auch im Web kennzeichnungspflichtig und mit Zugangsschutz versehen werden. Was von dem aktuellen Vertragsentwurf zu halten ist, fasst ein Jurist in einer Analyse des JMSTV so zusammen:

Liebe Politik, bitte verzichtet auf solche Gesetze Stoppt den Unsinn und denkt lange nach, bevor Ihr wirklich an das "Machen" von Gesetzen geht. Gesetze wollen handwerklich und dogmatisch sauber geschrieben sein, das braucht Zeit, Ruhe und Verstand.

(via Fefe).

Die Situation ist gerade alles andere als durchsichtig: Einerseits ist der Vertrag immer noch nicht in Kraft, daher auch ein konkreter Starttermin trotz kolportiertem Datum 1.1.2011 nicht sicher, die Verfügbarkeit einer Software/API zur Abfrage einer vorhandenen Kennzeichnung existiert nicht und es ist unklar, ob sich aus der Neufassung des Vertrags überhaupt eine Auswirkung in der realen Welt, vulgo: Abmahnwelle auch an private Content-Ersteller ergibt. Auf der anderen Seite ist das Worst-Case-Szenario bedrohlich genug, dass es schon sehr plausibel ist, den Betrieb einer Webseite einzustellen (s. auch eine weitere Disputation auf pottblog.de der Auswirkung auf Blogs).

Was aber, so die Verschwörungstheorie, ja genau das ist, was "man" beabsichtigt: Unabhängiger, nicht durch "große" Medien zur Verfügung gestellter freier und kostenloser Content (was eine kostenpflichtige Einschätzung durch Dritte ausschließt) wird behindert bis ausgeschaltet. Auch wenn ich kein Freund von solchen Theorien bin, kann man sich des Eindrucks nur schwerlich erwehren, dass es kein Zufall ist, dass der Staat gerade extrem stark versucht, massiv in das "gefährliche Netz" einzugreifen: Wikileaks wird von Politikern und Medien kriminalisiert, soziale Netzwerke unter den Generalverdacht des Datenmissbrauchs gestellt, und generell wird jeder (männliche) Nutzer einer Kommunikationsplattform als potentiell gefährlich ("Tatort Internet" und/oder Terrorismus) und somit einer Vorratsdatenspeicherungs würdig eingestuft. Freie Kommunikation durch Kontrollzwänge erschweren, Daten über freie Kommunikation auf Verdacht sammeln -- das Bild ist fatal und für eine stabile, freiheitlich-rechtstaatliche demokratie Grundordnung mehr als unwürdig.

Ich werde mir auch sehr genau Gedanken machen müssen, ob dieses Blog am Leben bleiben kann. Auch wenn ich sicher bin, dass meine Inhalte nicht jugendgefährdend sind, bleibt ein Abmahn-Restrisiko. Eine generelle Einschätzung als "ab 18" geht auch nicht, da ein Zugangsschutz weder existent noch sinnvoll wäre. Viel mehr Alternativen als Abschalten, Auswandern oder anonym das Problem zu umgehen gibt es nicht (s. auch die Strategieüberlegung vom Schockwellenreiter) -- alles keine attraktiven Varianten.

Update 2010-12-16:Der Landtag in NRW hat den Vertrag explizit abgelehnt (via netzpolitik.org). So weit, so gut. Aber was für eine widerliche Farce ist das, wenn die Ablehnung nur wg. politischer Spielchen zustande kommt. Man kann beim Pottblog-Interview mit dem CDU-Politiker mehr dazu lesen.

Image of more

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:55:00 +0100

Over the weekend I had the pleasure to watch two interesting movies, both involving singers that are highly idolized. Friday night I started out with Control (here's the imdb entry for "Control"), about Ian Curtis, singer of Joy Division, the band which would become New Order after Curtis' suicide. The movie is based on the novel "Touching from a distance" by Curtis widow Deborah, which is the likely reason why "Control" is not your regular rock'n'roll movie. Instead it's a black and white picture of a (not really) ordinary man which breaks apart due to fear (because of his epilepsy) and oscilliating between semi-star status and small town family life. It's a nice movie insofar as the live performances contributed by the actors are really good and powerful and the general performance by the main actors Sam Riley as Ian and Samantha Morton as Deborah is very well as both figures come across very natural. On the other hand, I wasn't too satisfied with the movie overall: For one, I'm missing a little bit more historical context, how live in an english city must have felt at the time, the punk explosion etc. don't get much attentition. But the far more serious problem goes a lot deeper: Just like Natalie Curtis in this review I'm missing a convincing illustration of the (bad) feelings accompanying the events. Too rare are the moments when mental health problems, depression and dispair about his life show up which left me kind of wondering when the trouble culminated in the final tragic event. Still an interesting movie, for sure.

And then, on sunday night we went to watch "Gainsbourg" (here's the imdb entry for "Gainsbourg"), which deals, of course, with the life of french singer Serge Gainsbourg. This is very different which is likely to be expected, at least if you consider that the former passed away with 23 while the latter with 62. Being born in the 40s with a career lasting to roughly the time when Joy Division had their moment in time, Serge Gainsbourg surely had seen something from the world of glamour as well as having contributed to it, with music that not only made him famous but also notorious. Just as Control, the movie very much lives due to the performance of its main male actor Eric Elmosnino. But otherwise these two movies don't have much in common, where Control has a documentary approach, Gainsbourg is much more playful. For instance, Gainsbourg has a strange comic companion which more or less accounts for the darker and more vicious aspects of his character. Given that Gainsbourg has a very rich and entertaining life, it would probably have been no problem to create a four hour movie. But while a lot of details were surely omitted, you still get away with the feeling to have gained an insight into what made this artist tick. Summing up, I liked the movie a lot more than Control, but they're surely both worth watching.

ObTitlte: The Estranged, "The Estranged"

Spießer

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:31:14 +0200

Neulich wurde ich von einer Freundin an eine der deutschen Punkbands überhaupt, Slime, erinnert, die dann auch kurze Zeit später die LP "Alle gegen alle" ausgrub, auf der sich --neben anderen großartigen Songs wie "Religion" -- gleich zu Beginn das schöne Stück "Linke Spießer" befindet. Ein schöner Anlass mal über Positionen und deren Veränderungen nachzudenken. Um so witziger finde ich, was ich heute beim Websuchen dazu fand: eine schicke Neuauflage des Stücks in Originalbesetzung, aufgenommen in Guantamano:

Sehr lustig. Außerdem fällt mir noch zu dem Stück eine alte Werbung ein:

BTW: Slime spielen am 28.10. in Freiburg (im Crash, wo sonst). Update:Es gibt einen Konzertbericht bei fudder.de.

Coders at work

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:38:00 +0200

For the holidays I finally bought Peter Seibels Coders at work, which is a very unusable book about programming: it consists solely of interviews with pretty well known programmers or "coders". It's an interesting constellation: On the one hand, Peter Seibel is well known in the Common Lisp community for his book Practical Common Lisp which gives a modern view on Lisp: not only is it an introduction to the language but also to several libraries and the general setting of modern lisp programming. On the other (fifteen) hands, there are people like Jamie Zawinski (XEmacs, Netscape), Don Knuth (TeX, Art of Computer Programming), Guy Steele (Lisp, Scheme, Java), Peter Norvig (PAIP, Google), Brendan Eich (Javascript) and Ken Thompson (Unix) -- just to note the ones that are probably the most well known.

I've had resisted the urge to buy the book because I've always felt that programming is a craft that ultimately forces you to make your own experiences. I mean, you can read all the books you like but ultimately you have to make your own hands dirty to really get knowledge about the issues involved. So, what could I learn from other peoples experiences? On the other hand, as a lightweight (in terms of reading attention) holiday book it seemed about right, so I finally gave in.

Well, the book turned out to be a real page turner for me. It's a fascinating read because of the re-occuring topics Seibel is addressing and the various opinions he got. He addresses topics you would expect like preferred tools (e.g. editor), worst bugs, debugging techniques, asssertions and verification, literate programming (which suprises me a little), design approaches and team work, but of course the main focus is the personal experiences and how they wound up with whatever made these guys known. One thing that I liked is that Seibel has a way to ask good follow-up questions to the responses he gets, without ever letting his own experiences or opinions getting in the way, which I can imagine has probably made for pleasant interview situations (at least I take away that impression). I wouldn't have imagined beforehand that I would find the different stories how the guys (and one woman) got into coding so interesting. There are very few people in this book whose experience doesn't go back to teletype and time sharing systems. Of course, as a result these stories tend to be similar, but the details differ enough that's it doesn't get too boring. Starting with computers in the early 80s, I don't have any experiences with such systems and which I frankly don't miss at all after reading more about it. But just to get to this conclusion is interesting: the constant comparison with your own experiences and opinions you can't help but make while reading this book alone is worth buying and reading it.

Over all, it's hard to say which interviews I found the most interesting one, essentially each has some unique point or other. That being said, the interviews with Joe Armstrong and Guy Steele made a lot of impresssion on me, whereas I'm a little disappointed by the one with Peter Norvig (though he had the funniest quotes), but I can't really nail down why. I didn't particular like the interview with Brad Fitzpatrick, it didn't seem to contain as much information as the others. And Joshua Bloch seemed to hype Java all the time which I found not very convincing -- the idea that todays larger context for programming contains quite a few different languages and approaches seems to elude him.

There are some points I took away from this book: For one, most of the interviewed people seem to be much more concerned with data types than I am, even the ones who have done extensiv work on dynamically or weakly typed languages. I guess I should really take a closer look at that topic and, to make it more concrete, play around with e.g. Haskell. Another point is that concurrency or parallel programming is a topic that (IIRC) all of the interviewees have seen as being responsible for the worst bugs they encountered and as a result are interested in newer approaches like STM. So, it might be worthwhile to look closer into such developments, for example by playing with Clojure, Erlang. or the transaction monad, if I'll ever really play around with Haskell. A third point is that I realized that I'm not keeping up with academic research in CS and, not having TAoCP, might never have been up to date at all. I'm following a few online references like LtU, but not closely and it's pretty rare these days that I look deeply into some research paper. This is something else I should probably change, if time permits.

New records for the masses

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:03:00 +0200

Long time no post -- I've been overwhelmed with work and afterwards on holidays. In the mean time, I've somehow still managed to obtain some records, but I've had no time to write any review for plattentests.de.

Let's start out with Sophie Hunger, "1983", which I first heard of on a Verve Jazz Today sampler. Her music is not easy to describe: some tracks are certainly jazz influenced, others more folk oriented and there some tracks might be guitar pop. But beware: this is not the next radio hype. A very nice record overall. (7/10)

Another lady, but a totally different style is Melissa auf der Maur. "Out of our minds", her new album after a four years delay nethertheless sounds as if nothing has happened in between. Rock with a touch of wave, but the hits are sadly missing. (5/10)

The National, "High violet" is a record I needed some time to get used to. The band not only looks but also sometimes sounds rather as if you're grandpa has gone recording an alternative album after having sucked in a great pipe of Sigur Ros, Radiohead and Morrissey -- take away nearly all of the noisy feedback, leave the slighly melancholic glistening shimmer remaining. Sometimes even iery, sometimes nostalgic, never rushed. No hit singles but a very homogenous beautiful album. (7/10)

I also have difficulties with the new Broken Social Scene, "Forgiveness record". While the alternative collective hasn't changed its style too much, I'm not as easily lurred into this one as with the previous records. And I'm also not as fascinated. (6/10)

A stark contrast is, of course, Gogol Bordello, "Trans-continental hustle". Finally, a record that smells like Pogues, but isn't irish at all. This gypsy-punk is fascinating world music (mostly) on speed. And no, they're not from East Europe. (8/10)

Die Zukunft, "Sisters&Brothers" is an album that didn't make it to being reviewed for plattentests.de, despite the fact that the band consists of several noteworthy German musicians: Bernadette La Hengst, Guz (from "Die Aeronauten") and Knarf Rellöm. Pretty strange and interesting texts throughout, but the mix between chart aiming dance pop, soul and rock'n'roll leaves me uninspired. Pretty difficult to judge overall. (5/10)

Pavement, "Quarantine the past" is starting the section "records from the crypt", although the record is from 2010. But it's a best-of album of one of the most influential alternative bands of the late 90s/early 2000s. In hindsight, I can't say I enjoy the slackness of most songs. This doesn't imply that the album isn't worth the money, though, quite to the contrary. (7/10)

Pennyless People of Bulgaria, "Velocity" is not new, it was released in 1993. I recently found this record by chance in my local record store and immediately bought it. If you like Husker Du-style punk/Bob Mould rock from the no-longer hardcore area, this record as well as it's even greater successor "Mould" is definitely worth listening. (7/10)

Holzauge, sei wachsam!

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:01:08 +0100

Es gibt diese Woche aktuell zwei schöne Meldungen aus Datenschützersicht: EU-Parlament kippt SWIFT-Abkommen. und Schwarz-Gelb rückt von Internetsperren ab. Das klingt erstmal prima, denn es bedeutet, dass es keine offiziell genehmigte Lieferung von Bankdaten im großen Stil von der EU in die USA geben wird und "man" vielleicht doch nochmal drüber nachdenken wird, ob das Löschen von Kinderpornographie dem leicht zu umgehenden Sperren der Webseite vorzuziehen ist. Man könnte also auf den Gedanken kommen, dass die ganzen Diskussionen im letzten Jahr nun endlich nach Abklingen des (Bundes-)Wahlkampfgetöse zu einer Einsicht bei unseren herrschenden Volksvertretern geführt haben.

Aber so einfach ist die Lage dann leider nicht. Kommen wir zuerst zum Thema Internetsperren: Im Endeffekt ist der Stopp für Zensursula-Stoppschilder zweifelhaft, wie die Kollegen bei netzpolitik.org in Bundesregierung will Zensursulagesetz, aber es nicht anwenden detailierter ausführen. In der Tat ist es momentan so, dass wir bisher nur Meinungsbekunden und Ankündigungen haben, aber noch nichts greifbares. Wie so was laufen kann, sieht man ja bei der Diskussion um die Hotelier-Steuererleichterung: Auf die Einsicht, dass man da vielleicht nicht so ganz glücklich agiert hat, kommt schnell ein "Weiter so", denn jedwedes Eingeständnis eines Fehlers könnte ja schon im nächsten Wahlgang (NRW im Mai) wieder Stimmen kosten. Und man darf nicht vergessen, dass an anderer Stelle (Jugendmedienschutz) gerade eine ganz ähnliche Stoßrichtung verfolgt wird. Kristian Köhntopp hat dazu eine gerade zu besorgniserregende Analyse zum geplanten Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag verfasst, die sehr plausibel völlig andere Beweggründe für das geplante Vorgehen nennt: Das geht von wirtschaftlichen Interessen von Medienherstellern über den elektronischen Personalausweis bis zur Einrichtung/Stärkung einer Zensurinfrastruktur.

Man erlebt ja auch ein Deja Vu beim Thema Software-Patente: Die entsprechenden Lobbyisten haben sich nach ihrer Niederlage vor einiger Zeit zu einem erneuten Angriff formiert, so dass es eine erneute Aufforderung zum Widerstand (sprich: Petition gegen Softwarepatente) gegen die neuerlich Auflage einer Einführung von Softwarepatenten auf EU-Ebene gibt. Kommen wir zu SWIFT: Liest man mal den Bericht bei Heise zum Kippen des SWIFT-Abkommens, dann findet man da schön aufgelistet, mit welchen Tricks man noch versucht hat, das heutige Ergebnis zu verhindern. Und Verhandlungen über ein neues Abkommen sind schon konkret anvisiert -- das klingt nicht danach, als wäre das Thema vom Tisch. Man wird aufpassen müssen, dass man nicht mit wachsweichen Alibiformulierungen den anvisierten Status quo doch noch durch die Hintertür etabliert.

"Man" sind dabei eigentlich alle, die verstanden haben, dass die Meinung "ich habe doch nichts zu verbergen" nicht zielführend ist. Und wer das noch nicht verstanden hat, dem sei der folgende Artikel von Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti bei heise online über die Gefahren der Vorratsdatenspeicherung empfohlen.

Die interessante Frage ist jetzt, was erleben wir da diese Woche eigentlich mit den scheinbaren "Niederlagen"? Im EU-Parlament ist es womöglich hauptsächlich zu einer Ablehnung von SWIFT gekommen, weil der vorausgegange Schachzug der Kommission, das Abkommen schnell an den Abgeordneten vorbei (vor der Konstitution des neuen Parlaments) zu installieren, möglicherweise zu einer Art Revange geführt hat. Dann wäre die Ablehnung nichts anderes als ein Winkelzug im Machtspiel zwischen Kommission und Parlament und somit von wenig Wert für eine Neuauflage. Spannender noch ist jedoch die Ankündigung von Schwarz-Gelb: Ist das ein Zugeständnis seitens der Konservativen an die sog. Liberalen, die dafür im Gegenzug etwas anderes durchgehen lassen? Zum Beispiel eine Einigung beim Einsatz von Nackscannern? Das wird man wohl abwarten müssen, aber spekulieren ist erlaubt und aufpassen explizit erwünscht.

New records for the masses

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:58:23 +0100

While this year is still young, I just finished writing my second review for the (German) plattentests.de. But it's been some time since my last post, so I'll also go over records from the last months that I hadn't mentioned previously.

One of the nicer surprises of last year was the new album by the Editors, "In this light and on this evening". Much less reduced pathos in comparision to their last album "An end has a start" (see my more detailed discussion of the old record here). And they still try to find new ways to vary that one old song. (8/10)

The same can not be said for Dial M for Murder!, "Fiction of her dreams", which I received for review for plattentests.de. They, too, are in the Interpol/Joy Division/etc.-sound-a-like genre, but the singer has a sometimes unnerving voice. Add 80-style keyboards and you have a record that nobody misses a review for. (5/10)

But it can get even worse: Echo & the Bunnymen, "The fountain", which I reviewed in more detail for plattentests.de, is a real disappointment, especially as their former album was a real nice comeback for this 80s heroes of guitar wave. This time all they come up with is another weak attempt of becoming the little brother of the Simple Minds. (4/10)

The Church show on "Untitled #23" (also reviewed for plattentests.de) how to just keep going constantly without losing credibility over a time about as long as the Bunnymen. A nice trip into the blue sky between the green earth and the dark cold universe, as usual. (6/10)

And the last of the records I reviewed last year, was The Xx, "The Xx" which is a very reduced low-tone record with a very nice, although cold ambiente. The young couple are not really comparable to, say, the White Stripes, as their music is much more electronic, although they are clearly grounded in alternative music. A very concise and atmospheric record, but also sometimes a little too cold and without much variation. (7/10)

But 2009 had even more to offer: The great Sonic Youth also made a new record, called "The eternal". What can you say? You get what you can expect, basically. I find the record more interesting than the last one, which is in part because the guitars are this time often so catchy instead of noisy. It's probably safe to call "The eternal" the most poppy sounding record Sonic Youth have made so far. (8/10)

Of course, I couldn't ignore Them Crooked Vultures, "Them Crooked Vultures": If there has ever been an Alternative super group, this is probably it. But the nice thing is that it's also a fantastic rock record. (8/10)

The first record for review this year was The Black Box Revelation, "Silver threats". These two guys make music somewhere between alternative rock and blues ala Jon Spencer, and nobody will be missing anything (instrument-wise, I mean). Overall, a fine record, although some songs are a little bit overdone. (6/10)

Finally, my review of the Die Aeronauten, "Hallo Leidenschaft" is just online. This Swiss band makes German pop roughly according to the so-called Hamburger Schule (school of Hamburg), which means that you can intelligent texts and catchy guitar takes. But the Aeronauten add a lot of brass sounds and do a lot to not get stuck with this not exactly new style. (6/10)

The rest will follow

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:50:06 +0100

It's this time of the year again: Jahrespoll @plattentests.de again. You can still participate until 31. December 2009 and maybe win one out of 25 packages with CDs, shirts etc.

Here are my votes for this year:

Continue reading "The rest will follow"

Nicht erst spät in der Nacht vermatschen die Gehirne

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:06:05 +0100

Gestern abend hat die ARD zum zweiten Mal Frank Schirrmacher ausladend Gelegenheit gegeben, sensationsheischend Werbung für sein neuestes Buch "Payback" zu machen: Er war zusammen mit Jauch bei Beckmann zu Gast und beide ließen sich über die "Reizüberflutung", "Abhängigkeit" durch das "Internet" und die "Durchleuchtbarkeit des Menschen durch die Maschine" aus.

Liebe Freunde des gedruckten Wortes auf totem Holz: get a life. Ganz ähnlich wie Kris habe ich das Gefühl, mal wieder einigen Leuten vom falschen Planeten oder aus dem falschen Jahrtausend gesehen zu haben. Nur mit dem Unterschied, dass die zwei da gestern das "in letzter Zeit" das "Internet" entdeckt haben und nun erhebliche Anpasssungsschwierigkeiten haben -- so wie die Leute, denen man früher die Schreibmaschine wegnahm, um sie mit einem Computer zu ersetzen. Der größte Witz dabei ist, dass die beiden Intellektuellen offenbar auf ihrem ureigensten Gebiet verlieren: Wenn man als Bildungsbürger (oder deren Wissensikone) eines gelernt haben sollte, dann ist das die Filterung von Informationen. Es gibt keinen Zwang das mitzumachen, was die beiden da als Gefahr sehen: Weder muss man den ganzen Tag online sein und sich von jeder Email ablenken lassen, noch muss man alle Geheimnisse irgendwelchen Firmen anvertrauen und man kann auch weitere als nur die ersten drei Suchtreffer anklicken. Das ist allerdings überhaupt nichts neues, denn auch schon früher musste man nicht jeden klingelnden Anruf direkt annehmen, nicht seinen Namen usw. bekannt machen, wenn man ein Buch suchte, noch seine Bankverbindung jedem mitteilen, dem man nach dem Weg fragt. Wenn noch nicht mal gestandene Medienleute in der Lage sind, Suchergebnisse kritisch zu hinterfragen und gegenzuprüfen, dann gute Nacht. "Warum wir im Informationszeitalter gezwungen sind zu tun, was wir nicht tun wollen, und wie wir die Kontrolle über unser Denken zurückgewinnen" (so der Untertitel von Schirrmachers Buch) -- ja, mein Gott, das Hirn nicht abschalten, wenn man den Rechner oder das Handy einschaltet.

Aber ja, natürlich ist es so, dass heute viele Leute all das Unsinnige tun (nur den ersten Link klicken, alle privaten Geheimnisse rausbrüllen). Das sind aber die gleichen, die schon früher jede Schlagzeile der Bildzeitung geglaubt haben, die "keine Geheimnisse", weil sie ja eh nichts zu verbergen hatten und die auch in der Bibliothek/Buchhandlung ohne Unterstützung hoffnungslos von der schieren Menge der erhältlichen Bücher erschlagen waren. Wenn Schirrmacher dann fordert, dass wir heute in der Bildung mehr auf die Förderung des Denkens achten sollten als auf das bloße Faktenwissen, dann, aber auch genau nur dann, kann man ihm nur zustimmen. Warum er aber scheinbar glaubt, dass diese Fähigkeiten irgendwie besonders durch die Allgegenwärtigkeit von Rechnern, Internetzugängen und Informationen aller Arten gefordert sind, man diese im Umkehrschluss sonst aber nicht braucht, ist mir schleierhaft. Aber nicht nur mir, auch die Welt titelt schön Jauch und Schirrmacher scheitern am Internet und es war auch (natürlich, war ja Beckmann) keiner da, der ihnen hätte helfen können. Es kam zwar alibiweise ein Blogger (dessen Name ich mir leider nicht gemerkt habe) für ca. 15 Sekunden per Spot für einen (sehr treffenden) Kommentar zu Wort, aber dessen Vermutung, dass Schirrmacher "Angst vor dem Verlust der Deutungshoheit" hätte, wurde von diesem gleich beiseite gewischt.

Bleibt die Gewissheit, dass ich mein müdes, vermanschtes Gehirn gestern abend besser zur Ruhe gebettet hätte anstatt es dieser "wahnsinnigen Flut" an Nicht-Informationen und (Buch-)Werbemüll auszusetzen. Aber immerhin habe ich es nur versäumt, die Flimmerkiste auszuschalten, nicht das eigenständige Denken und Handeln.

PS: Noch ein Wort zum Thema "Manipulation des Wissens der Menschen durch Suchinformationen" sei gestattet. Ja, ich benutze Suchmaschinen. Meistens Google. Aber nicht nur. Die meisten Informationen, die ich aus dem Netz ziehe, werden originär erstellt. Die Informationsanbieter sind dabei durchaus klassische Medienproduzenten (wie etwa Zeitungen oder Nachrichtenproduzenten), aber natürlich auch eine Menge an anderen rein im Internet vertretenen Anbietern, Blogs wie netzpolitik.org oder diverse sog. Planets und News-Aggregratoren etwa. Was ich lese, entscheide ich dabei absolut gleichwertig wie bei herkömmlichen Medien anhand einer von mir aufgrund von Rezeption zugesprochenen Vertraubarkeit/Verlässlichkeit (engl. Credibility).
Natürlich lese ich nicht alles, was da alles produziert und angeboten wird. Nicht irgendeine Maschine entscheidet für mich, was relevant ist, sondern ich mache das. Aber natürlich nach einer Vorfilterung, was aber wiederum nichts neues ist, denn auch die Zeitungsmacher entscheiden etwa für mich, was ich am Morgen lesen kann. Insofern ergibt sich da für mich keine neue Situation, ich muss genau wie vorher versuchen, ein vielfältigen Blick auf eine bestimmte Information zu bekommen, um sie verlässlich bewerten zu können. BTDT.

New records for the masses

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:13:43 +0200

So again quite some time has passed since the last record overview, but at least I'm writing the second one this year, which is more than I managed the last two years. Hey, you've got to set reasonable goals, don't you? Okay, here we go.

I only had one record for review in the meantime, "Dirty king" by The Clicks. This one seems to get a little bit of media attention on the other side of the ocean, but this alone isn't a convincing argument to write a review for plattentests.de: either the record must be liked by the reviewer or popular enough to justify writing a bashing. Neither was the case for this one, as The Clicks sound like just another boring radio aiming rock band. (4/10)

Up next is another disappointment, the "The pariah, the parrot, the delusion" by Dredg. It has to be said that the new album isn't any worse than their former one, but still it's too poppy and too half-hearted to be a great alternative album. (5/10)

Also not too convincing is "Wavering radiant" by Isis. Just like their previous records, Isis sound like a somewhat more subtle Tool cover band with the occasional shouting thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, it's hard to see any difference to their previous record and the shouting goes a little bit on my nerves this time. The song structures are a bit too predictable, too. (5/10)

But there are The Horrors with "Primary colours" which make up the disappointment easily. One might say they sound like a mix of The Cramps and The Cure which results in some rather interesting songs. There is no real hit single on the record but a lot of great tunes. (7/10)

A lot of media attention has also been given to Gossip, in fact I became aware of them via a MTV clip, which I very rarely watch. "Music for men" is the name of their new record. There are some really great songs on it, some sound like a less pathetic second coming of Toyah, while others are even punkier. But on the other hand there are also some really boring pop tunes on it, so judging the overall record isn't easy. (6/10).

While I was buying some records, my favourite record store played Black box revelation's "Set your head on fire" which immediately struck a chord with me. References would include bands ranging from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to the StereoMCs. While there are some not so convining tracks on the album, overall it's a perfect summer record. (7/10)

Finally, I've bought a best-of compilation called "Suck and swallow" by the Hard-ons, a pretty well known australian surf and hardcore band. This is clearly a you get what you pay for record, so nothing exciting can or needs to be said. (7/10)

In the section "records from the crypt" I've bought two new old records: First, that's "Elephant" from The White Stripes with the infamous "Seven nation army" which was indeed the reason I bought the record in the first place. But there always has been the nagging urge to try to further understand the hype behind the White Stripes. I think I get it now. Looking back it's pretty funny that I've liked both the Raconteurs and the Kills earlier than the White Stripes. (8/10)

Next, there is "Goo" from Sonic Youth. The other day I went out to my trusty old record shop to buy the new Sonic Youth album, but instead went home with "Goo". I can hear my shelf screaming "Oh no, not another Sonic Youth disc", as this is probably disc number six or seven in my collection. I bought it mostly because of its cover, having heard most of the songs as far back as 1990 on a lousy live recording on tape. One of the best records of Sonic Youth, including such hits as "Kool thing", which rightly deserves its own Wikipedia page. (9/10) The new Sonic Youth was just sold out, btw.

Finally in the section 'Found and lost', we have the new albums from The View and The Whitest Boy Alive: both have been tested and been judged as not required. "Which bitch", the album by the View, makes the Killers sound as if they would have learned something from the 80s -- the View surely haven't. "Rules" on the other hand substitutes electronics for guitars, which results in an album that just can't keep up with their first record.

Ever fallen in love

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:20:25 +0200

Through this infoworld article on the greatest cults in IT I've discovered a new band: Press play on tape. The music isn't exactly what I'm listening to daily, but I have to admit I know probaby nearly all the songs they play: cover versions of old commodore C64 tunes. I also have to admit that I'm still not sure what to make of this, but the cover version of "Crazy comets" is quite cool.

New records for the masses

nospam@example.com (Holger Schauer) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:50:06 +0200

I haven't written a lot under this title in the last year, mainly because I never felt like it. This doesn't imply I stopped writing for plattentests.de (German), but I didn't write as much as I did. That won't change, however, I'll see if I can write a little about the music I get my hands on. I won't cover here now the entire 2008, but 2009 is still relatively fresh, so I'll try to talk about the records I've heard of this year so far.

My latest review for plattentests.de is the new from Bob Mould, "Life and times". That's the guy who kicked punk from hardcore to post-punk with his band Husker Du and also the one whose alternative band Sugar was quite succesful in the first half of the 90s. The new record is a mix of more quite songs and the usual alternative rockers, sugar-style, so if you know Mr. Mould, I can assure you you'll get what you pay for. (7/10)

The previous review was about Demons, "Ace in the hole". If you like punk rock firing straight out of the garage, along the likes of New Bomb Turks or Turbonegro, these Swedes are going to kick your ass. (7/10)

This years favourite so far is the new album "The century of self" by ... And you will know them by the trail of dead. I'm planning to write a longer review of the record here (i.e. for my blog), but I can say so much that I like it much more than their previous record "So divided". The new record contains at least partly more noisy songs and is a little less pathetic, so over all well done. Although, I must admit the surprises are not so numerous this time. (8/10)

Another nice record is the new one by The Decemberists, "The hazards of love". It's somewhere between a folk and a traditional hard-rock album, but what I find interesting is that it's a completely interleaved story about "Margaret". Great story telling, nice music, what else do I need? (7/10)

Then there is the new Franz Ferdinand, "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand". Although I've become rather sick and tired of this kind of disco indie pop, Franz Ferdinand are somewhat of a special exception to me. And, hey, with "No you girls" in the advert every evening, everybody is going to talk about them anyway, so I'm kind of forced to buy it, no? However, I've probably shouldn't have give in to the urge. (5/10)

Okay, so far so few. There's still a lot of records I have to check out: Whitest Boy alive, Morrissey, Mando Diao, The View all have new albums and the White Lies also got a nice review on plattentests.de. And there's guaranteed more to come.