So much new music

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I know, I know. Most of you have stopped reading already. My eclectic musical tastes often mean that no-one is satisfied and everyone goes away metaphorically empty-handed (and usually quite quickly, too).

Mind you, given the state of the world (as documented here and here), who would deny me a bit of delicious escapism? Surely not you, dear reader.

But let’s run through what has happened recently, and what is going to happen presently, because I feel that last year was a bit sparse as far as good releases went. That’s not to say that there weren’t some very good releases – I mean, of course there were – but the quality far outweighed the quantity, and I’d actually like a bit of both, please.

Great news. 2025 has started well (IMHO).

First of all, the stuff that’s already out:

January began with a confusingly really laid back, electronic bang. Magne Furuholmen (you may remember him as the keyboard player from a-ha, and also from Apparatjik) gave us another solo offering: living with ourselves.

Here’s a live version of white horses from the album:

To be fair, I’m actually not sure that this is a good representation of the overall feel of the album. I’d say that time is on your side gives a better idea of the rest of the tracks. I still quite like it, though.

And then: Ludovico Einaudi’s The Summer Portraits is a very welcome return to basics from the Italian neoclassical composer and Pianist. Sure, a few edgy strings to keep your guard up, but alongside some beautiful smooth, relaxing piano. It calms me in the traffic, and that’s a good thing for everyone except my cardiologist.


Sequence would be – and indeed, is – my track of choice.

And from the sublime to the… also sublime(?) – Mogwai’s new album – The Bad Fire – is also out now. I’ve yet to really work my way through it, but already, it’s typically dark, grumpy and rumbling. However, somehow there’s a bit of an electronic element to it which has got me more interested than usual. Give their current single Fanzine Made of Flesh (great name) a go.

And then, can I mention (again) my excitement at the upcoming albums from three of my top 10 bands:

Manic Street Preachers – Critical Thinking is out next Friday (14th February).

Doves – Constellations For The Lonely is released on the 28th February. You may remember this from them at the end of last year. And their latest single Cold Dreaming has really whetted my appetite. (OMG – 0:58 in… SOOO Doves!!!)

Following those… The Lathums. Matter Does Not Define comes out on 7th March. And the first three from that album (including this) have sounded very promising.

What have I done to deserve this? Because honestly, it does feel a bit like I am being spoiled.
Or maybe, somehow musically “fattened up” for slaughter.

I’m not actually sure how that would work.
And I don’t really fancy finding out.

But what a three week spell this promises to be. Hardly enough time to gorge oneself on one album before the next banger arrives. And even when all is said and done for this lot, we’re not even a quarter of the way into the year.

Treats galore.

Lighting

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It’s been an incredibly busy, non-stop day for me, putting (most of) the finishing touches to the new garden lighting system. Because there’s a new car, which needs some security, and there was this, which turned out to be a lamppost for the garden. You might remember that both of these had December 23rd connections. But anyway, because there were those, I thought that I might as well lob an uplighter into the tree, and then a socket so that junior can vacuum his car.

And then why not make all the lights SMART, so that they can be turned on by your phone or the clever speaker in the kitchen?

It’s been a lot of work, and I’m fairly exhausted. But it does look quite good.

A couple of i dotting and t crossing here and there, some tidying up and a bit of indoor cable management, and it should all be golden.

But right now, some football and a well-deserved Marlon is calling.

The Drama of The Doomsday Clock

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It’s 89 seconds to midnight. It’s the closest that humanity has ever been to self-wrought extinction (well, since 1947, anyway). At least, that’s what the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is telling us, anyway. They’re the ones that get to inform us about where The Doomsday Clock is sitting this year.

And what exactly is The Doomsday Clock?

The Doomsday Clock is a design that warns the public about how close we are to destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making. It is a metaphor, a reminder of the perils we must address if we are to survive on the planet.

And look, I get that in a day with 86,400 seconds, being just 89 from complete destruction isn’t a great place to be. But then also, looking at things another way, we started just 420 seconds away from annihilation back in 1947, and we’ve only ever been 17 minutes away at our very safest. And then add to that, the fact that we’ve “only” moved one second towards complete obliteration in this year’s update:

In setting the Clock one second closer to midnight, the Science and Security Board sends a stark signal: Because the world is already perilously close to the precipice, a move of even a single second should be taken as an indication of extreme danger and an unmistakable warning that every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster.

Yep. Awful. But then, this also suggests that we could keep going at the frankly horrendous rates of killing each other and destroying the environment that we’ve been working so hard upon for the last 12 months for at least another 88 years, and we’ll still be ok. Just.

See, they’ve gone in all too dramatic, and now they have no wiggle room at all.

If they’d started back in 1947 with an hour instead of seven minutes, it would mostly have been fine. They could have knocked off a few minutes here and there, added on a few when things were looking better. The only issue with this approach would likely have been that people would have looked at the thing and basically not given a toss. So sure, there needed to be a bit of drama in there, I get it.

But they went in too hard, too soon. And now we’re all supposed to be scared over a 1.11% increase in the likelihood of self-inflicted destruction? Nope.

Look at the warnings that The Doomsday Clock is sending us, and look at mankind’s reaction.

I’m calling for a reset of The Doomsday Clock: stick it back to 15 minutes to midnight or something so that we can actually move the hands a significant distance and see where we actually stand when there are important developments one way or the other.

Although, honestly, they’re really only likely to go one way, right?

Because a second here or there is really not going to put us on edge and give us the wake-up call that we so clearly need. In fact, it might take actual planetary ruination before someone important (and no, it won’t be him) pipes up and starts wondering if we should do (or should have done) something to stop it all.

Tick tock.

If I promise…

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If I promise to do a “proper” blog post tomorrow, I think that I can probably get away with just a couple of lines tonight after a really busy day, right?

Let’s give it a go.

Frustrasie

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A frustrating morning. I woke up earlier than I wanted to, right into the middle of a spell of loadshedding. And no sooner was that over, the internet went down. Sure, they warned us that this might happen because they are doing some maintenance, but for “spells of 30 minutes or an hour”.
It’s now been almost 4 hours.

Running a business?
Underpromise, then overdeliver. You’ll make friends and keep customers and everything.

And so I threw myself into the electrical project I’ve been working on. And I worked hard and got lots done, but it looks like I’ve done nothing. That’s because I found some frighteningly dodgy wiring…
[“What? In your house which “passed” its CoC with flying colours?!?”]
Yes.
…and so I had to rewire some stuff. Fiddly, difficult to get to. But now safe.

But that was enough frustration. And so I’ve come inside and given up. There’s still no internet, but at least the TV is working for some footy.

Let’s see if I can upload this via my iffy cell signal. If you’re reading this, it worked.