*CAUTION: The following review contains plot spoilers for this episode of Black
Mirror. If you have not yet seen it and wish to do so, then proceed with
caution*
Politics is a cruel, frustrating and often confusing world that often passes us by.
It is an interesting world from the outside looking in at how these people really do control what goes on and how much they can mould the world the way want to. It is even more fascinating and extremely worrying how little a largely apathetic public knows or cares about what they get up to, and how little politicians seem to care about getting them back on side.
Voters are becoming more cynical. A lot of news nowadays seems to be being gathered through the buzz around the news, and how it is also being diluted into immediate opinions, jokes, and how it affects us. Politics is ignored in a way like never before, especially by the younger generation who have been turned off by a largely homogenised blend of politicians who look the same and have similar policies.
Or to amend the words of Waldo the animated blue bear, none of us know what these people are for anymore.
Having tackled the dead and the criminals, Black Mirror moves onto a scene Charlie Brooker is more renowned for sinking his claws into - that of politics. The scene is going to be a lot different because politics is an easier subject that is less likely to cause depression as much as the other two.
It's a lighter subject because we are more used to politicians as figures to be mocked as much as figures to be respected, and ironically satirists are one of the targets for this one.
The show is centered around Jamie (Daniel Rigby), a struggling comedian. He works for a late night news comedy, providing the voice and the central animation for an animated blue bear who takes the piss out of politicians. Early on we see how keen he is on his role - not very. This mood is certainly not helped as the main host of the show keeps nicking the main zingers for his monologue.
Despite this he is the show's most popular character. With his normal show taking a break, and everyone wanting more and more of him, he's duly handed his own show. Figuring out how to do a pilot, his producer sends him to try to run for an MP.
Jamie is reluctant, feeling he knows too little about politics to attempt this. It also doesn't help that the main canditate was recently one of Waldo's targets. But before long he's off on the campaign trail in a fictional Surrey seat.
There's something quite amusing about a van with a big blue cartoon bear pursuing an actual politician down a high street. Naturally the humour is the somewhat childish-smart we've come to expect from modern comedy - while not quite the pig-relations antics of the first season opener, one gag involving the bear's boner appears - but there is still some amusement in watching a blue bear stalking a Tory.
It also feels weird - this is after all from a series that has produced heartbreaking sci-fi romance and a psychological torture, and has now gone to more conventional ground, if played with unconventional toys. Obviously Brooker wants this to be an anthology series but this does play like the odd one out.
In confidence to the Labour MP canditate, the comedian says that he is unhappy and is also dissatisfied with the whole system. Strangely though the idea of a dissatisfied anarchist comedian becoming a big political player is not as far fetched as you think - one look at Italy, where one is being talked as a serious canditate in their presidential election, proves this possibility.
After falling in love with and then being ditched by said Labour canditate, things get out of control. A student Question Time/"meet the canditates" session sees the Tory canditate reveal Jamie's past history - ironcially referring to advertising, which Rigby is most famous for - and this incentivises him to go forward with a rant where he dismembers each individual canditate.
Aside from making him even more miserable, it also catapults him into notoriety. Suddenly he's the big star the world is talking about. Feeling embarassed and even more upset, he wants to pull out of this whole charade but the momentum is against the view and his producer's promptly cajole him into carrying on.
Suddenly, the momentum takes an even stranger turn. There's no denying disssatisfaction with our politicians is out of control everywhere but recommending him to be a global revolutionary like Occupy is a surreal tone, and one clearly too much for him.
He tries to rebel against his own creation, only for his producer to overrule him and even get people to maul him for trying to betray him. To general surprise, and the prompt sparking of a riot, Monroe gets the seat. But the more surreal and faintly unnerving touch is the future-set end coda, when a now homeless Jamie sees what he has created - a global phenomenon inspiring revolutionaries worldwide.
The trouble with the episode is that, as politics is now a subject we more easily mock, the only way political stuff can be genuinely affected is if we have full blown crisis stuff. As the subject doesn't feel as close to home, it doesn't feel like as rough, which reduces the character somewhat. So although the set-ups are very well sculpted and the actors all do exceptionally well, it's not really in the same league as it's predecessors.
The episode was developed when Brooker and Chris Morris did Nathan Barley, a 2005 sitcom about hipsters. This does follow the trend of it, with a voice of reason overruled by a "aint-it-cool" loon, with a loon victory leading to dire consequence, but it's easy to feel it may have worked better either as that or starting with Waldo the all-knowing revolutionary global force rather than creating him.
It could have been a lot harder hitting, although the points it did make - not least in Waldo's rant - were rather accurate. The idea of a big blue bear running amok in Westminster would be interesting but as Boris Johnson basically lives this, the idea of satirising it was lost in nob gags and swearing. If the premise had been a malicious individual using his cartoonish points to gain votes, it may have hit harder. But in its guise it just lacked true elevation to get it to the standards of the other episodes and it just felt too weak to be a series finale.
3/5
Monday, 25 February 2013
Sunday, 24 February 2013
NME Awards Tour at Brixton Academy - Live Review
Every year, in the run-up to it's award ceremony, the NME magazine sends four acts on the road to test the adulation of it's magazine's readers.
Looking back through previous line-ups is always a fascinating experience to see some of the biggest names in contemporary music playing such low positions. The biggest example of how a low-down act has eclipsed all after it came in 2000 when a little known band called Coldplay have gone through opening act to stadiums. Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, Kaiser Chiefs, Florence and the Machine and The Vaccines are also names that have begun their way to the big time as an opening act here.
This often givens a lot of line-ups a baffling retrospective look - it seems preposterous that Maximo Park were above Arctic Monkeys, for instance - but it can often be a chance to find future stars. Alternatively it can be a chance to see if the NME hype machine's targets are as good as they say they are. Often they are hit-and-miss - for everyone bona fide superstars worthy of their hype come acts that don't quite warrant the hype.
After a year or two exploring other gestures, all the acts on here are guitar-heavy. It's still the standard NME sound of recent years, but a sound that has not had the same popularity as it did in the indie heyday of 2005. Nevertheless it's been touted 2013 is the comeback of indie and the hype machine turns back to guitar acts to see if the old formula of getting them high still works.
Much hyped, not least by NME, are the evening's opening pair on the last night of the tour. Birmingham act Peace, who open, are very highly hyped. There is some confusion as to what their actual sound is - grunge, 80s music and Britpop have all been touted as potential sounds.
There's elements of all of these sounds but the sum total is all that matters. On that score, they do very well. A driving mixture of sound creates some very impressive music. While lacking on record, here it sounds massive, leaping out of the Brixton Academy's PA. The bass riff and pounding drums provide an immaculate soundscape the guitars growl on top of.
Particular delights are Bloodshake, which is teased in with the snippet of annoying dance craze Harlem Shake, and California Daze. These songs provoke a frenzied reaction amongst those who have come early, and even provide one of the best reactions an opening act has wished for.
Frequent NME cover stars Palma Violets are the other act seen as heralding the much-hyped "guitar comeback". This is the final show before their debut album comes, and the Londoners are on one of the biggest stages they've been on - bigger than the corner of the room stance they normally wind up in. Touted by many as the new Libertines, this is a chance to prove such expectations.
However their set is not quite the same class as before it, or at least at first. The first two songs don't get the crowd going. But as they progress the songs get heavier and happily ditch the melodies earlier tunes were reliant on.
This is good as the band's heavier moments get the crowd jumpier and the class of song improves. It all begins to make sense towards the end, as the music begins to get more and more lively.
Following on is Miles Kane, whose already had a big contribution this year with the sublime Give Up. New material indicate there's more where that came from on top of his impeccable debut record.
Give Up serves as a grand opener as Kane, dressed like a French jockey, leads his band on a merry charge through his catalogue. The crowd takes time to warm up but when they truly awaken for Rearrange it's a grand reaction, with what feels like the whole venue joining in for the chorus.
Stretched to prog-rock levels, closer Come Closer is a final rush through after a masterful set. There's even some cliche rock posturing as Kane hurls his guitar to the ground at the end, but there's no denying he's had the tunes for a good set.
Finally the headliners. Django Django may have hit number 33 with their album but it got massive acclaim, including a Mercury Prize nomination. There music is led by synthesizers and percussion as much as by the guitar, and the band from all corners of the UK - Northern Irish singer, English bassist, Scottish keyboard player and drummer - were looking to take the place by storm.
There'd been some debate as to who should have been on top between Kane and the Djangos, with the latter even booed by some fans when Kane said it was great to tour with them.
While the Djangos weren't bad, their music seemed to lack something. As much as the crowd lapped it up, it just lacked the power the three before it managed and as a result it took longer to get going.
The songs with less reliance on guitars was certainly the more interesting, and also the best of what they surfaced. But ultimately the feeling Kane should probably have topped the bill just kept surfacing too frequently.
Overall though the acts were still rather impressive. People may mock the fact the NME has again reverted to going heavy on guitar-based music, but the bands provided do lend credibility to the theory guitar music is about to embark on it's 40908th revival. A few more bands like could help provide the spark music has been crying out for in the past 5 years.
4/5
Looking back through previous line-ups is always a fascinating experience to see some of the biggest names in contemporary music playing such low positions. The biggest example of how a low-down act has eclipsed all after it came in 2000 when a little known band called Coldplay have gone through opening act to stadiums. Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, Kaiser Chiefs, Florence and the Machine and The Vaccines are also names that have begun their way to the big time as an opening act here.
This often givens a lot of line-ups a baffling retrospective look - it seems preposterous that Maximo Park were above Arctic Monkeys, for instance - but it can often be a chance to find future stars. Alternatively it can be a chance to see if the NME hype machine's targets are as good as they say they are. Often they are hit-and-miss - for everyone bona fide superstars worthy of their hype come acts that don't quite warrant the hype.
After a year or two exploring other gestures, all the acts on here are guitar-heavy. It's still the standard NME sound of recent years, but a sound that has not had the same popularity as it did in the indie heyday of 2005. Nevertheless it's been touted 2013 is the comeback of indie and the hype machine turns back to guitar acts to see if the old formula of getting them high still works.
Much hyped, not least by NME, are the evening's opening pair on the last night of the tour. Birmingham act Peace, who open, are very highly hyped. There is some confusion as to what their actual sound is - grunge, 80s music and Britpop have all been touted as potential sounds.
There's elements of all of these sounds but the sum total is all that matters. On that score, they do very well. A driving mixture of sound creates some very impressive music. While lacking on record, here it sounds massive, leaping out of the Brixton Academy's PA. The bass riff and pounding drums provide an immaculate soundscape the guitars growl on top of.
Particular delights are Bloodshake, which is teased in with the snippet of annoying dance craze Harlem Shake, and California Daze. These songs provoke a frenzied reaction amongst those who have come early, and even provide one of the best reactions an opening act has wished for.
Frequent NME cover stars Palma Violets are the other act seen as heralding the much-hyped "guitar comeback". This is the final show before their debut album comes, and the Londoners are on one of the biggest stages they've been on - bigger than the corner of the room stance they normally wind up in. Touted by many as the new Libertines, this is a chance to prove such expectations.
However their set is not quite the same class as before it, or at least at first. The first two songs don't get the crowd going. But as they progress the songs get heavier and happily ditch the melodies earlier tunes were reliant on.
This is good as the band's heavier moments get the crowd jumpier and the class of song improves. It all begins to make sense towards the end, as the music begins to get more and more lively.
Following on is Miles Kane, whose already had a big contribution this year with the sublime Give Up. New material indicate there's more where that came from on top of his impeccable debut record.
Give Up serves as a grand opener as Kane, dressed like a French jockey, leads his band on a merry charge through his catalogue. The crowd takes time to warm up but when they truly awaken for Rearrange it's a grand reaction, with what feels like the whole venue joining in for the chorus.
Stretched to prog-rock levels, closer Come Closer is a final rush through after a masterful set. There's even some cliche rock posturing as Kane hurls his guitar to the ground at the end, but there's no denying he's had the tunes for a good set.
Finally the headliners. Django Django may have hit number 33 with their album but it got massive acclaim, including a Mercury Prize nomination. There music is led by synthesizers and percussion as much as by the guitar, and the band from all corners of the UK - Northern Irish singer, English bassist, Scottish keyboard player and drummer - were looking to take the place by storm.
There'd been some debate as to who should have been on top between Kane and the Djangos, with the latter even booed by some fans when Kane said it was great to tour with them.
While the Djangos weren't bad, their music seemed to lack something. As much as the crowd lapped it up, it just lacked the power the three before it managed and as a result it took longer to get going.
The songs with less reliance on guitars was certainly the more interesting, and also the best of what they surfaced. But ultimately the feeling Kane should probably have topped the bill just kept surfacing too frequently.
Overall though the acts were still rather impressive. People may mock the fact the NME has again reverted to going heavy on guitar-based music, but the bands provided do lend credibility to the theory guitar music is about to embark on it's 40908th revival. A few more bands like could help provide the spark music has been crying out for in the past 5 years.
4/5
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
Black Mirror - Season 2 Episode 2 Review
*CAUTION: The following review contains plot spoilers for this episode of Black
Mirror. If you have not yet seen it and wish to do so, then proceed with
caution*
Having started off the series with a show about talking to the dead, Black Mirror naturally progresses to a show with roots in the living dead.
In one of Charlie Brooker's many previous projects - the 2008 zombie show Dead Set - there was a graphic scene of a man meeting his grisly end at the hands of a zombie while a bunch of kids happily got video on their cameraphones.
This is another extreme but more and more cameraphones are around and everyone is documenting their lives. Every gig is a sea of cameraphones recording the artist, even when the gig is being professionally filmed. It's not just these sort of events. The grimmest extension of this came in 2011 when the still-warm corpse of Colonel Gaddafi was surrounded by people on cameraphones, but whenever a big story breaks, chances are a cameraphone will be nearby.
What they're filming is also getting more outlandish. People are willing to go that extra mile to entertain their audience, and often play up to their audience to encourage certain traits. It is also guaranteed anything and everything is on YouTube, and people will not stop plumbing further depths to find more unsettling things to put for their friends to see. Where these keepsakes could lead is anyone's guess.
For the first two-thirds of the second installment of Brooker's anthology show, this nightmare is played upon at blistering breakneck pace. White Bear begins with a young woman called Victoria (Lenora Crichlow) who wakes up disorientated with no recollection of who she is and suffering seizures triggered by a signal that has replaced images on every screen.
She leaves her house and quickly runs across a man in a mask with a gun trying to kill her. They're promptly pursued by the entire neighborhood, who instead of trying to stop her instead are filming her and taking pleasure in watching the events, sort of like the terraces at a football match.
During this period of the show, she runs around in the company of a young woman called Jem (Tuppence Middleton) that has seemingly escaped the camera signals and adjusted to this new world. They're taken on by a man called Baxter (Michael Smiley), who seems to be their friend but is actually about to kill them. Jem escapes and is able to kill Baxter just before Victoria can be hung, all the while the audience continues their grim fascination with filming it.
Things begin to point in the direction of a solution when part 3 rolls around and Victoria and Jem head onto the White Bear transmitter. They get into the control room where two assassins quickly follow, and move in for the kill. Victoria thinks she has a salvation as she nicks the gun of one and pulls the trigger, only for a burst of red and silver confetti to emerge instead of a bullet. At this point proceedings change in an even more outlandish direction when the doors open and she's revealed to be in a theatre, presented to a whooping crowd.
As this is all from her point of view we still have absolutely no idea what the fuck has gone on. But then all becomes clear when Baxter returns and is revealed to be the comprere for the audience. She's not a lost woman in a world full of zombie voyeurs, and the girl she kept seeing in polaroids was not her daughter.
Instead the truth is far grimmer. It's revealed she and her fiancee abducted the girl from a school, dumping her favourite white teddy bear in a layby and sparking a nationwide manhunt. They took her to a similar forest Baxter had taken them too in the simulation, where he tortured the little girl and she filmed everything on her phone. Said fiancee had a tattoo in the shape of the signal she thought was used for the brainwashing, and is revealed to have hung himself in prison, while she was sentenced by the judge to be the subject of this cruel and unusual situation.
The progression is bizarre, having seemingly hitched zombie movie to a pontification on potential future criminal justice operations. It does have a point though, and it's perhaps even more hauntingly relevant in the current age where witch-hunts and campaigns basically fuel the news. It's a disturbing progression on the already unsettling scenario posted above - photoing the dying and then decaying remains of Gaddafi was horrible enough, but openly fucking around with the heads of these people is even more horrendous. It's hardly a way of condoning this - the sort of crimes Victoria is complicit in are just as nauseating and deserve punishment. But matching it in the gross out stakes is just as horrendous.
Even more unsettling is when all the phones return. Again, crowds of gleeful people video and photo her. This time, Baxter acts like Davina McCall and encourages them as she is loaded into a Popemobile-like vehicle along the road back to the house where it all started in for the crowd to leer at her like the stocks of ye olden days, replete with rotten fruit to hurl at the perspex. At the end of the road the procedure begins again, when the producers re-dress the house and her bloodcurdling noisy screams fill the room as she is shocked back into a catatonic state ahead of the re-starting of the simulation the following day. It's a truly horrific note to end on, and for lesser shows that would be that.
But for those who need a bit more, the unsettling factor is raised to peak and immeasurable bleakness during the end credits. Here it's revealed she's actually the main attraction at the White Bear Justice Park, sort of like a zoo of criminals. We get cheery behind the scenes vignettes of visitors being welcomed, the set pieces being curated, the auditorium getting ready for the big reveal, the return to the house, and then it ends on Victoria waking up again stuck in this cycle forever.
The streak of bleakness makes it probably the one thing that has ever made The Road feel like optimistic feel good television. In the hands of lesser actors it would all feel silly, and at times it does feel like it's stretching the boundaries of plausibility.
Credit to the actors is due - Lenora Chrichlow is very good at conveying both the confusion and the anguish, and her talent at layering scream after scream helps convey the emotion superbly well. The other actors also play their parts very well, both before and after the game changes away from what we thought it was.
While not quite as good as Be Right Back it is nevertheless an engaging and delightfully dark hour's worth of drama. Just don't watch it before bed or else you will have nightmares all week.
3.5/5
Having started off the series with a show about talking to the dead, Black Mirror naturally progresses to a show with roots in the living dead.
In one of Charlie Brooker's many previous projects - the 2008 zombie show Dead Set - there was a graphic scene of a man meeting his grisly end at the hands of a zombie while a bunch of kids happily got video on their cameraphones.
This is another extreme but more and more cameraphones are around and everyone is documenting their lives. Every gig is a sea of cameraphones recording the artist, even when the gig is being professionally filmed. It's not just these sort of events. The grimmest extension of this came in 2011 when the still-warm corpse of Colonel Gaddafi was surrounded by people on cameraphones, but whenever a big story breaks, chances are a cameraphone will be nearby.
What they're filming is also getting more outlandish. People are willing to go that extra mile to entertain their audience, and often play up to their audience to encourage certain traits. It is also guaranteed anything and everything is on YouTube, and people will not stop plumbing further depths to find more unsettling things to put for their friends to see. Where these keepsakes could lead is anyone's guess.
For the first two-thirds of the second installment of Brooker's anthology show, this nightmare is played upon at blistering breakneck pace. White Bear begins with a young woman called Victoria (Lenora Crichlow) who wakes up disorientated with no recollection of who she is and suffering seizures triggered by a signal that has replaced images on every screen.
She leaves her house and quickly runs across a man in a mask with a gun trying to kill her. They're promptly pursued by the entire neighborhood, who instead of trying to stop her instead are filming her and taking pleasure in watching the events, sort of like the terraces at a football match.
During this period of the show, she runs around in the company of a young woman called Jem (Tuppence Middleton) that has seemingly escaped the camera signals and adjusted to this new world. They're taken on by a man called Baxter (Michael Smiley), who seems to be their friend but is actually about to kill them. Jem escapes and is able to kill Baxter just before Victoria can be hung, all the while the audience continues their grim fascination with filming it.
Things begin to point in the direction of a solution when part 3 rolls around and Victoria and Jem head onto the White Bear transmitter. They get into the control room where two assassins quickly follow, and move in for the kill. Victoria thinks she has a salvation as she nicks the gun of one and pulls the trigger, only for a burst of red and silver confetti to emerge instead of a bullet. At this point proceedings change in an even more outlandish direction when the doors open and she's revealed to be in a theatre, presented to a whooping crowd.
As this is all from her point of view we still have absolutely no idea what the fuck has gone on. But then all becomes clear when Baxter returns and is revealed to be the comprere for the audience. She's not a lost woman in a world full of zombie voyeurs, and the girl she kept seeing in polaroids was not her daughter.
Instead the truth is far grimmer. It's revealed she and her fiancee abducted the girl from a school, dumping her favourite white teddy bear in a layby and sparking a nationwide manhunt. They took her to a similar forest Baxter had taken them too in the simulation, where he tortured the little girl and she filmed everything on her phone. Said fiancee had a tattoo in the shape of the signal she thought was used for the brainwashing, and is revealed to have hung himself in prison, while she was sentenced by the judge to be the subject of this cruel and unusual situation.
The progression is bizarre, having seemingly hitched zombie movie to a pontification on potential future criminal justice operations. It does have a point though, and it's perhaps even more hauntingly relevant in the current age where witch-hunts and campaigns basically fuel the news. It's a disturbing progression on the already unsettling scenario posted above - photoing the dying and then decaying remains of Gaddafi was horrible enough, but openly fucking around with the heads of these people is even more horrendous. It's hardly a way of condoning this - the sort of crimes Victoria is complicit in are just as nauseating and deserve punishment. But matching it in the gross out stakes is just as horrendous.
Even more unsettling is when all the phones return. Again, crowds of gleeful people video and photo her. This time, Baxter acts like Davina McCall and encourages them as she is loaded into a Popemobile-like vehicle along the road back to the house where it all started in for the crowd to leer at her like the stocks of ye olden days, replete with rotten fruit to hurl at the perspex. At the end of the road the procedure begins again, when the producers re-dress the house and her bloodcurdling noisy screams fill the room as she is shocked back into a catatonic state ahead of the re-starting of the simulation the following day. It's a truly horrific note to end on, and for lesser shows that would be that.
But for those who need a bit more, the unsettling factor is raised to peak and immeasurable bleakness during the end credits. Here it's revealed she's actually the main attraction at the White Bear Justice Park, sort of like a zoo of criminals. We get cheery behind the scenes vignettes of visitors being welcomed, the set pieces being curated, the auditorium getting ready for the big reveal, the return to the house, and then it ends on Victoria waking up again stuck in this cycle forever.
The streak of bleakness makes it probably the one thing that has ever made The Road feel like optimistic feel good television. In the hands of lesser actors it would all feel silly, and at times it does feel like it's stretching the boundaries of plausibility.
Credit to the actors is due - Lenora Chrichlow is very good at conveying both the confusion and the anguish, and her talent at layering scream after scream helps convey the emotion superbly well. The other actors also play their parts very well, both before and after the game changes away from what we thought it was.
While not quite as good as Be Right Back it is nevertheless an engaging and delightfully dark hour's worth of drama. Just don't watch it before bed or else you will have nightmares all week.
3.5/5
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
Black Mirror - Season 2 Episode 1 Review
*CAUTION: The following review contains plot spoilers for this episode of Black Mirror. If you have not yet seen it and wish to do so, then proceed with caution*
Technology is beginning to take over the world.
Every laptop, phone, tablet, music player and others are a further step to the closer intergration of human life into the machine, and innovations are piling up like horse lasagnes in a returns bin. The chances of the world's technology suddenly going all Skynet on us is remote, but there are still some worrying and plausible ways human life is changing in the face of all this technology.
The first series of Charlie Brooker's bleak technology films Black Mirror was especially notorious at providing some of the possibilities. Obviously the scenarios are unlikely to happen - no matter how unpopular David Cameron gets, it is unlikely he will be forced into a sexual relationship with a pig - but they did provide an intriguing satire on modern technology and worrying omens of what could happen.
The first two episodes were primarily satires on where we are now - the development of social media into a political and cultural force. While the third episode was the series' weakest, it also provided the most plausible and scary development - chips inserted into your skull that can record everything. Aside from the fact Robert Downey Jr is interested in making a feature length film out of the concept, the most bizarre thing is that similar innovations are being launched now.
One other more plausible possibility is the idea that our digital footprint - Facebook statuses, Tweets, e-mails, text messages, YouTube uploads, etc. - can be manipulated upon death into a programme that mimicks our personaility when we're gone. Episode one of the second series concerns this worryingly plausible future, and how it might work.
The main protagonist is an artist called Martha (Hayley Attwell), who moves in with her husband Ash (Domhall Gleeson) to his parent's old house. The first few minutes show the back-story of their relationship. He's constantly on his phone using social media, while she lightly chides him for heavily using the "thief".
They live in the near future, where said phone is thinner than a credit card - as are laptops and highly sophisticated graphics tablets - and can be revived after dropped on a sort of resuscitation pad, while couriers now use biometric scanners to record delivery, dashboards are replaced by video screens, pregnancy testing kits having dancing babies instead of a blue light, and so on.
A number of these innovations gradually reveal themselves over the course of the piece. But the storyline is thrown into motion when Ash dies in an accident returning their moving van, and her friend signs her up to "something that can help".
Originally she tries to ignore it, protesting it is sick, but then comes the revelation that Martha is pregnant - hence dancing babys on the testing kit - and this is the catalyst for her move into the unknown. Stage one sees Ash's sizeable digital footprint animated purely as simple messages, sort of like Twitter for exorcists.
Rather than stopping there, she is soon encouraged to embrace the second stage - a full digital recreation of voice to go with the initial text. It's a perfect tonal recreation of his voice that provides further character simple text doesn't provide. This was where a lot of the implications and staggering pondering questions begun to pile up.
However, Martha begun to live her life fine. Her boyfriend sounded like the way she imagined it and it goes along mimicking his views on scenery, his jokes, his opinions, even what he might think of her UltraSound scans. This techno-romance functioned right up until the moment she dropped her phone and thought she'd killed 'him'.
This panic encourages the full plunge into stage three, and then things get out of hand a little. At the start, somewhat unnoticed, is a news report that "synthetic flesh" is in full production. Sure enough a box of synthetic flesh parts are delivered to her house. As commanded she leaves it the bath in a mixture of water, salts and electrolytes, and overnight it reanimates itself into a physical copy of Ash using his digital app as a brain.
Something about this just seems like a step too far. It doesn't feel too far removed but it ultimately feels like trying to grow your own boyfriend wouldn't work, no matter how hard gossip sites Tweeted they'd go along with it if they could have options to grow their own copies of celebrities. However this step too far feeling is an opinion not confined to viewer alone, and what helps rescue this bit - after a while of living with her reproduced lover, Martha starts to feel her new creation is too perfect. A textbook attempt at boyfriend, even down to the robotic sex, just isn't a substitute for a flawed but genuine human love.
Things seemingly reach a spectacular end atop a cliff when Martha brings Ashbot 2.0 to the position and she tries to persuade him to jump while he tries to fight after at first seeming keen on doing it. It's a truly unsettling sequence that is pretty well crafted and it would've been a pretty good way to end just on her screaming at the organism to jump.
But it doesn't stop there. There's an awkward coda when a few years later, where Martha allows her daughter to spend some time with 'daddy', who now lives in the loft. The idea of this is certainly worrying purely for the idea of having a robot guard your kids, and having said child develop an attachment to their fake guardian. It's a worrying gambit of thought-provoking questions.
Brooker's script is pretty well formed, allowing a very well worked and intimate portrayal of love and death, and how technology is making it's presence felt in these matters. The principal actors are certainly expert at managing his vision, with Attwell doing fantastically well to carry the show and balance a delicate range of emotions in her circumstances, while Gleeson is a good counterpoint both as a real person and his consequent digital re-animation.
The rural setting is also very well selected and utilised. The isolation of the setting rams home Martha's loneliness and helps the story progress at a sharper pace than it might in a city, where moving on is a more straight-forward affair.
All in all this terrifying vision is fantastically well formed. It engages supremely well with the viewer in providing thought-provoking and troubling technological visions, while providing a very well acted romance - replete with sci-fi overtones.
4/5
Technology is beginning to take over the world.
Every laptop, phone, tablet, music player and others are a further step to the closer intergration of human life into the machine, and innovations are piling up like horse lasagnes in a returns bin. The chances of the world's technology suddenly going all Skynet on us is remote, but there are still some worrying and plausible ways human life is changing in the face of all this technology.
The first series of Charlie Brooker's bleak technology films Black Mirror was especially notorious at providing some of the possibilities. Obviously the scenarios are unlikely to happen - no matter how unpopular David Cameron gets, it is unlikely he will be forced into a sexual relationship with a pig - but they did provide an intriguing satire on modern technology and worrying omens of what could happen.
The first two episodes were primarily satires on where we are now - the development of social media into a political and cultural force. While the third episode was the series' weakest, it also provided the most plausible and scary development - chips inserted into your skull that can record everything. Aside from the fact Robert Downey Jr is interested in making a feature length film out of the concept, the most bizarre thing is that similar innovations are being launched now.
One other more plausible possibility is the idea that our digital footprint - Facebook statuses, Tweets, e-mails, text messages, YouTube uploads, etc. - can be manipulated upon death into a programme that mimicks our personaility when we're gone. Episode one of the second series concerns this worryingly plausible future, and how it might work.
The main protagonist is an artist called Martha (Hayley Attwell), who moves in with her husband Ash (Domhall Gleeson) to his parent's old house. The first few minutes show the back-story of their relationship. He's constantly on his phone using social media, while she lightly chides him for heavily using the "thief".
They live in the near future, where said phone is thinner than a credit card - as are laptops and highly sophisticated graphics tablets - and can be revived after dropped on a sort of resuscitation pad, while couriers now use biometric scanners to record delivery, dashboards are replaced by video screens, pregnancy testing kits having dancing babies instead of a blue light, and so on.
A number of these innovations gradually reveal themselves over the course of the piece. But the storyline is thrown into motion when Ash dies in an accident returning their moving van, and her friend signs her up to "something that can help".
Originally she tries to ignore it, protesting it is sick, but then comes the revelation that Martha is pregnant - hence dancing babys on the testing kit - and this is the catalyst for her move into the unknown. Stage one sees Ash's sizeable digital footprint animated purely as simple messages, sort of like Twitter for exorcists.
Rather than stopping there, she is soon encouraged to embrace the second stage - a full digital recreation of voice to go with the initial text. It's a perfect tonal recreation of his voice that provides further character simple text doesn't provide. This was where a lot of the implications and staggering pondering questions begun to pile up.
However, Martha begun to live her life fine. Her boyfriend sounded like the way she imagined it and it goes along mimicking his views on scenery, his jokes, his opinions, even what he might think of her UltraSound scans. This techno-romance functioned right up until the moment she dropped her phone and thought she'd killed 'him'.
This panic encourages the full plunge into stage three, and then things get out of hand a little. At the start, somewhat unnoticed, is a news report that "synthetic flesh" is in full production. Sure enough a box of synthetic flesh parts are delivered to her house. As commanded she leaves it the bath in a mixture of water, salts and electrolytes, and overnight it reanimates itself into a physical copy of Ash using his digital app as a brain.
Something about this just seems like a step too far. It doesn't feel too far removed but it ultimately feels like trying to grow your own boyfriend wouldn't work, no matter how hard gossip sites Tweeted they'd go along with it if they could have options to grow their own copies of celebrities. However this step too far feeling is an opinion not confined to viewer alone, and what helps rescue this bit - after a while of living with her reproduced lover, Martha starts to feel her new creation is too perfect. A textbook attempt at boyfriend, even down to the robotic sex, just isn't a substitute for a flawed but genuine human love.
Things seemingly reach a spectacular end atop a cliff when Martha brings Ashbot 2.0 to the position and she tries to persuade him to jump while he tries to fight after at first seeming keen on doing it. It's a truly unsettling sequence that is pretty well crafted and it would've been a pretty good way to end just on her screaming at the organism to jump.
But it doesn't stop there. There's an awkward coda when a few years later, where Martha allows her daughter to spend some time with 'daddy', who now lives in the loft. The idea of this is certainly worrying purely for the idea of having a robot guard your kids, and having said child develop an attachment to their fake guardian. It's a worrying gambit of thought-provoking questions.
Brooker's script is pretty well formed, allowing a very well worked and intimate portrayal of love and death, and how technology is making it's presence felt in these matters. The principal actors are certainly expert at managing his vision, with Attwell doing fantastically well to carry the show and balance a delicate range of emotions in her circumstances, while Gleeson is a good counterpoint both as a real person and his consequent digital re-animation.
The rural setting is also very well selected and utilised. The isolation of the setting rams home Martha's loneliness and helps the story progress at a sharper pace than it might in a city, where moving on is a more straight-forward affair.
All in all this terrifying vision is fantastically well formed. It engages supremely well with the viewer in providing thought-provoking and troubling technological visions, while providing a very well acted romance - replete with sci-fi overtones.
4/5
Friday, 8 February 2013
Two Door Cinema Club at Brixton Academy - Live Review
In a year when guitar music is meant to be on the way back, Two Door Cinema Club have ridden the cusp of that wave to the brink of success.
Lead singer Alex Trimble had an especially fantastic moment as he appeared as one of the singers at the Olympic opening ceremony, where he sung on "Caliban's Dream" as the torch entered the stadium.
Topping that once-in-a-lifetime moment is no doubt a challenge but his band are making a claim for their own headline shows in such venues. Their second album Beacon was narrowly edged out in a battle for top spot by the Vaccines' underwhelming second album, and their live touring commitments have included a rapturously received sub-headlining slot on the second stage at Reading and Leeds 2012 and a headline gig to 12,000 at the Dublin O2.
Sell out gigs left, right and centre in the UK have been a feature of their year so far, with a further one to 10,000 at Alexandra Palace booked for April.
This gig at Brixton is the end of this leg of UK touring and sees them return to a venue they've headlined twice before - once in 2011 and once on the NME Awards Tour 2012. They certainly arrive on stage with confidence, breezing through Beacon lead single Sleep Alone and then following it up with the classic Undercover Martyn.
The particular strength of the band come from their electro-pop anthems. Swaggering gems littered their 2010 debut record Tourist History and neary all of the album is aired, with the one-two of Do You Want It All and This Is The Life fuelling the start. Blue lighting rods surround what appears to be a rubber dinghy dressed as a satellite while rampant strobing illuminates the Academy.
The material from Beacon sounds stronger in the Academy than on record, where a number of songs failed to hold up in comparison to their debut. But they still lack the rush the debut album tunes such as I Can Talk or the preposterously fast chorus of Something Good Can Work use.
Despite this the crowd lap it up. Every word is yelled back with gusto, which helps out Trimble as the singer tells the crowd he's having vocal problems.
All too soon, the show has rattled by way too quickly. The end of the main set is chalked up with first album song Eat That Up, It's Good For You, where a cargo net holding about 30 balloons is removed and the rubber orbs gracefully spend the rest of the show bouncing around.
A killer encore of Beacon highlight Someday, debut album tune Come Back Home and the truly magnificent What You Know close up the show.
This was not a perfect show. A lot of the Beacon stuff still felt like it lacked something in comparison to the debut record. Also lacking somewhat was the bass, which was diluted on a number of songs - somewhat ironically given the two support acts' reliance on it.
But despite this the overall show was a marvellous experience. If Two Door Cinema Club have ambitions of heading for bigger things they are certainly using their current platform to stake a very convincing claim.
4/5
Also playing at this show were two indie acts - Swim Deep and Bastille. Opener Swim Deep were disappointing, with the band's tunes drowning in a sea of unnecessary bass and despite some enthusiasm from the very front they don't convince. Bastille, by contrast, had a better slot - not least helped by the fact a lot of the crowd was also there to see them. They provide a lovely minimal set of electronic tunes, including one song that provides the closest resemblance of Kraftwek's banks of keyboards at the Tate Modern.
Lead singer Alex Trimble had an especially fantastic moment as he appeared as one of the singers at the Olympic opening ceremony, where he sung on "Caliban's Dream" as the torch entered the stadium.
Topping that once-in-a-lifetime moment is no doubt a challenge but his band are making a claim for their own headline shows in such venues. Their second album Beacon was narrowly edged out in a battle for top spot by the Vaccines' underwhelming second album, and their live touring commitments have included a rapturously received sub-headlining slot on the second stage at Reading and Leeds 2012 and a headline gig to 12,000 at the Dublin O2.
Sell out gigs left, right and centre in the UK have been a feature of their year so far, with a further one to 10,000 at Alexandra Palace booked for April.
This gig at Brixton is the end of this leg of UK touring and sees them return to a venue they've headlined twice before - once in 2011 and once on the NME Awards Tour 2012. They certainly arrive on stage with confidence, breezing through Beacon lead single Sleep Alone and then following it up with the classic Undercover Martyn.
The particular strength of the band come from their electro-pop anthems. Swaggering gems littered their 2010 debut record Tourist History and neary all of the album is aired, with the one-two of Do You Want It All and This Is The Life fuelling the start. Blue lighting rods surround what appears to be a rubber dinghy dressed as a satellite while rampant strobing illuminates the Academy.
The material from Beacon sounds stronger in the Academy than on record, where a number of songs failed to hold up in comparison to their debut. But they still lack the rush the debut album tunes such as I Can Talk or the preposterously fast chorus of Something Good Can Work use.
Despite this the crowd lap it up. Every word is yelled back with gusto, which helps out Trimble as the singer tells the crowd he's having vocal problems.
All too soon, the show has rattled by way too quickly. The end of the main set is chalked up with first album song Eat That Up, It's Good For You, where a cargo net holding about 30 balloons is removed and the rubber orbs gracefully spend the rest of the show bouncing around.
A killer encore of Beacon highlight Someday, debut album tune Come Back Home and the truly magnificent What You Know close up the show.
This was not a perfect show. A lot of the Beacon stuff still felt like it lacked something in comparison to the debut record. Also lacking somewhat was the bass, which was diluted on a number of songs - somewhat ironically given the two support acts' reliance on it.
But despite this the overall show was a marvellous experience. If Two Door Cinema Club have ambitions of heading for bigger things they are certainly using their current platform to stake a very convincing claim.
4/5
Also playing at this show were two indie acts - Swim Deep and Bastille. Opener Swim Deep were disappointing, with the band's tunes drowning in a sea of unnecessary bass and despite some enthusiasm from the very front they don't convince. Bastille, by contrast, had a better slot - not least helped by the fact a lot of the crowd was also there to see them. They provide a lovely minimal set of electronic tunes, including one song that provides the closest resemblance of Kraftwek's banks of keyboards at the Tate Modern.
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Is The Season Back On Track?
After the Reading defeat it was hard to know where Newcastle United could go.
Under the watchful eyes of Mike Ashley a promising Toon performance suddenly ended in total capitulation. Alan Pardew looked on his knees, the team looked like they were bracing themselves for impact and the fanbase was on the verge of collectively snapping. Some already had, with many calling for Pardew out.
Ashley's glimpse of a season's mess suddenly made him realise that his gamble not to spend in the summer of 2012 had failed and there was no point in arguing any longer that his attempts to play the same game as the year before were not going to end in similar glory.
Much as sacking the manager would have been a bold move, in hindsight it was never a likely option we were going to take. In the early days you suspect it would have been but instead, a mass recruitment drive was commissioned.
This move could well have saved the season. At a total cost of £2.7million, Yoann Gouffran and Moussa Sissoko have moved to St. James' Park, and have jumped straight into the first time. They had a positive impact against Aston Villa but against Chelsea they stole the show.
Our two more expensive signings of the crazy four players in four days spree - the £6.5million centre-back Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and the £3million full back Massadio Haidara - are yet to start, but you sense they will get opportunities, not least in the case of the former if Fabricio Coloccini, as expected, leaves in the summer.
The Villa game was surreal - a first half of dominance was followed by a second half of almost total submission, and if the Villains had shown some of the nous they showed at Everton, they might have stolen a point or more.
But the Chelsea game saw us get a vital and deserved three points. Six points in two games for the first time since breezing past Bolton and Stoke in April - then the last two in a six game winning streak - have suddenly changed our outlook from drop certainties to an outside bet for top half, especially if West Brom and Norwich continue their recent implosions.
Of course it's important not to get ahead of ourselves. Two games are two games and while we've begun to creep away we still remain within easy reach of the relegation zone.
However the signs are promising. The players look more composed in a 4-2-3-1 formation than they have done in every other formation, and the players bought in look better. As was probably to be expected, Steven Taylor has returned from injury and helped provide defensive solidity that Mike Williamson just didn't.
Further forward and James Perch has been a surprise choice ahead of the improving Vurnon Anita but he's justified his position by looking more assured than recently. It could even help give Cheick Tiote an incentive he has been lacking almost all season to perform closer to the standards he's managed.
Perch is forming a solid pairing with Yohan Cabaye, who has been a bright spark since returning from injury. In front of him Sissoko has proven to be a valuable presence in an attacking position with Gouffran providing a very handy and nifty option on the left flank. Even Jonas Gutierrez - frequently given a kicking by Toon fans, not least on here - has perked up and provided his best performances this season.
There are still question marks over Papiss Cisse, whose goal against Aston Villa was sandwiched by missing several easy chances against Reading and Chelsea. But the service is now finally coming in for the Senegalese international and he should be about to pick up soon enough.
A new striker in the summer is still a must. Whether it's Andy Carroll or not - likely the latter if Liverpool don't budge on their £17million - we could still use a replacement for Demba Ba, not least given our main back up is still Shola Ameobi.
But the midfield is chipping in, with Cabaye and Sissoko scoring goals and more odd-goals like Gutierrez's - his goal against Chelsea was his first in almost a year - will certainly help.
The promise of a better season from now have arrived. Now it's a question of maintaining this, starting with what is understandably a tough test against Spurs and then a big game against Southampton, who are at the bottom and have won many plaudits for their attacking football, if not quite for their defending. Obviously acting cocky that we're going to stay up is something to be avoided - after all, a home win against Middlesbrough in May 2009 was thought to be all that was required to keep us up only for the team to collapse.
The chances of that happening again are unlikely but the team needs to be vigilant to avoid this. But the signs are there that, after the bleakness against Reading, we look set to start a recovery that should at least get us clear of the dropzone and possibly even towards mid-table. It's now up to the players to see if they can fulfill this aspiration.
Under the watchful eyes of Mike Ashley a promising Toon performance suddenly ended in total capitulation. Alan Pardew looked on his knees, the team looked like they were bracing themselves for impact and the fanbase was on the verge of collectively snapping. Some already had, with many calling for Pardew out.
Ashley's glimpse of a season's mess suddenly made him realise that his gamble not to spend in the summer of 2012 had failed and there was no point in arguing any longer that his attempts to play the same game as the year before were not going to end in similar glory.
Much as sacking the manager would have been a bold move, in hindsight it was never a likely option we were going to take. In the early days you suspect it would have been but instead, a mass recruitment drive was commissioned.
This move could well have saved the season. At a total cost of £2.7million, Yoann Gouffran and Moussa Sissoko have moved to St. James' Park, and have jumped straight into the first time. They had a positive impact against Aston Villa but against Chelsea they stole the show.
Our two more expensive signings of the crazy four players in four days spree - the £6.5million centre-back Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and the £3million full back Massadio Haidara - are yet to start, but you sense they will get opportunities, not least in the case of the former if Fabricio Coloccini, as expected, leaves in the summer.
The Villa game was surreal - a first half of dominance was followed by a second half of almost total submission, and if the Villains had shown some of the nous they showed at Everton, they might have stolen a point or more.
But the Chelsea game saw us get a vital and deserved three points. Six points in two games for the first time since breezing past Bolton and Stoke in April - then the last two in a six game winning streak - have suddenly changed our outlook from drop certainties to an outside bet for top half, especially if West Brom and Norwich continue their recent implosions.
Of course it's important not to get ahead of ourselves. Two games are two games and while we've begun to creep away we still remain within easy reach of the relegation zone.
However the signs are promising. The players look more composed in a 4-2-3-1 formation than they have done in every other formation, and the players bought in look better. As was probably to be expected, Steven Taylor has returned from injury and helped provide defensive solidity that Mike Williamson just didn't.
Further forward and James Perch has been a surprise choice ahead of the improving Vurnon Anita but he's justified his position by looking more assured than recently. It could even help give Cheick Tiote an incentive he has been lacking almost all season to perform closer to the standards he's managed.
Perch is forming a solid pairing with Yohan Cabaye, who has been a bright spark since returning from injury. In front of him Sissoko has proven to be a valuable presence in an attacking position with Gouffran providing a very handy and nifty option on the left flank. Even Jonas Gutierrez - frequently given a kicking by Toon fans, not least on here - has perked up and provided his best performances this season.
There are still question marks over Papiss Cisse, whose goal against Aston Villa was sandwiched by missing several easy chances against Reading and Chelsea. But the service is now finally coming in for the Senegalese international and he should be about to pick up soon enough.
A new striker in the summer is still a must. Whether it's Andy Carroll or not - likely the latter if Liverpool don't budge on their £17million - we could still use a replacement for Demba Ba, not least given our main back up is still Shola Ameobi.
But the midfield is chipping in, with Cabaye and Sissoko scoring goals and more odd-goals like Gutierrez's - his goal against Chelsea was his first in almost a year - will certainly help.
The promise of a better season from now have arrived. Now it's a question of maintaining this, starting with what is understandably a tough test against Spurs and then a big game against Southampton, who are at the bottom and have won many plaudits for their attacking football, if not quite for their defending. Obviously acting cocky that we're going to stay up is something to be avoided - after all, a home win against Middlesbrough in May 2009 was thought to be all that was required to keep us up only for the team to collapse.
The chances of that happening again are unlikely but the team needs to be vigilant to avoid this. But the signs are there that, after the bleakness against Reading, we look set to start a recovery that should at least get us clear of the dropzone and possibly even towards mid-table. It's now up to the players to see if they can fulfill this aspiration.
Friday, 1 February 2013
Biffy Clyro - Opposites: First Impressions
The double album has a massive stigma attached to it. The Beatles may well have pulled it off with the White Album, but with three strong-writers each refusing to budge, a wedge of quality tunes from all of them and even a song from Ringo Starr, they had more than enough varied material for the job.
Other double albums have struggled to get interest, whether it be long running times, lack of tunes or lack of different tunes. The latest band to fall into such a trap are Green Day, who tried to do a triple album but didn't have the tunes to maintain their sound over three hours.
Next to take on the double album is Biffy Clyro. The Scottish rock band made three albums on an indie level and accumulated a good following for their unusual brand of weird-rock. Then 4th album Puzzle saw them make a major label debut, where they begun to play bigger gigs and support slots for major names like Muse, Red Hot Chili Peppers and (bizarrely) The Rolling Stones, despite fans considering this record their weakest.
Afterwards came Only Revolutions - a brilliant record that acted halfway house between the poppier Puzzle and their more histronic first trio - and they hit the jackpot, with arena tours, a headline slot at Sonisphere and more stadium support slots that saw as many people there for them as the likes of headliners Muse and Foo Fighters.
At the end of 2011 Biffy told Q magazine they had 45 potential songs. While they have wittled away more than half that number, it's somewhat of a challenge to get people onboard over such a wide and vast assortment of tunes.
For those who don't think they can manage the whole thing, there is a 14 track single-disk version. But the full 20 songs are all bursting to be heard and chances are the 14 could have cut out a gem or two. But how does this break down and does it all deserve to be heard or have Biffy fallen into rock fallacy?
Disc One - The Sand At The Core Of Our Bones:
1. Different People
This song opens the single disk version as well the 'more negative' first disk. An elongated swell of church organ, gently strummed guitars and atmospheric vocals plays a more serene, almost hymn-like opening. It's a lovely, almost ballady structure, that turns into a more rock sound around 2 1/2 minutes.
2. Black Chandelier
The lead single is more of the slow-Biffy that was out in vogue on Puzzle and Only Revolutions, albeit with a pleasing and slightly random heavy riff after the second repetition of the chorus. The drip-drip-drip-drip intro is a novel introduction for what is, the most part, a classic ballad-y lead single. A few listens in however and it clicks into a pleasing mixture of melancholic ballad, stadium rock and heaviness.
3. Sounds Like Balloons
Classic Biffy arrives on a song that was first aired on the 2012 festival circuit. A jazzy stop-start rhythm underpins jittery, nervous verses, before bursting into full rock chorus that quotes the names of both disks and heavy riff. This is definitley the strongest of the first three on first listen - it has the power, the choruses, the verses and the rhyhtm to make it big.
4. Opposite
Musically this is quite a nice, chill number with gentle guitar work and a simple drum riff topped off with some strings. Lyrically, it's anything but nice and the negative side this album is billed as is out in force - "You are in love with a shadow that won't come back" is possibly the song's most positive lyric - but it's a great chorus and it is a well crafted track.
5. The Joke's On Us
After a slower, a heavy fast one belts out. This song is technically the first cut to be aired from either album after Biffy surprisingly debuted it at their Foo Fighters support slots at the MK Bowl in 2011. The original version was fairly unspectacular compared to this one, which explodes with a supermassive riff, an even huger chorus and some classic fiddly guitar parts. Another winner in this one.
6. Biblical
This song has a big misleading impression with it's restrained intro. Once Simon Neil and the guitar have opened, it gives way to a stomping verse, and then that subsides for a synthesizer-led massive chorus. There's plenty of massive riffing and woooahhh-ohs like recent Muse to bring the end to this song, before it reverts to the opening line. This song was mooted as a possible single and it definitley has potential for such a role.
7. A Girl And His Cat
More misleading fun as a twinkly synthy intro is quickly suplimented by a batshit riff. The rock stays atop a base layer of twinkling synthesizers, and creates a classic mass-rock song for the most part. This song certainly could've belonged on Only Revolutions, and certainly helps its credentials as classic Biffy by a misleading twinkly bit that gives way to even heavier riffs. Quite why this is cut from the 14-disk edition is a bit of a mystery.
8. The Fog
A third tune in a row to have the touch of twinkling synthesizers, and second to start as such. However this one is a lot more minimal. There's a very filmic vibe to a lot of the music, particulary when a huge dramatic buzz fills the speakers about 2/3rds of the way through. Like Opposite, this song is a slow song about a lover's distress, but of those two it is certainly the better song.
9. Little Hospitals
The last song to be recorded for the album is also one of the more old skool Biffy tunes. Some cleverly flickering guitar touches atop a pummelling groove as it piles through choruses. The more recent touches of echo-ing up the vocals is in forth, as are a lot of squeaking vibes, which comes from adding a bunch of kazoos. However the kazoos aren't loud enough in the mix, which is the slight disappointment to quite a good track.
10. The Thaw
Disc one ends with a track led by an old Swedish proverb - "The secrets buried in the snow will always come out in the thaw". Starting out as a fairly simple ballad it grows in bombast with surging strings before paring down and wondering "Tonight we shared the same space - has anything become of it?". It's a nice tune and is again well put-together but it does lack a little oomph...
Disc Two - The Land At The End Of The Toes:
1. Stingin' Belle
Chances are you'll have heard this one already. This is recent Biffy with a different twist - a staggeringly heavy nailgun riff, soaring stadium rock choruses piling after one another and then a euphoric outro replete with a bagpipe-y solo played on guitar. It's definitley a triumphant opener to this mammoth onslaught.
2. Modern Magic Formula
Far from content of starting with one heavy song, this song explodes out the speakers. Swaggering heavy bursts flavour the first 2 1/2 minutes. A quiet whispered mid-section emerges in this one before the guitars are thrashed even harder, through a mass of solos and riffs that end the song on full heaviness.
3. Spanish Radio
In the words of a popular sweet commercial, bring on the trumpets. A lone trumpeter opens up the song and the chorus in this bounding mid-tempo number is also layered over with the rest of the mariachi band. Suddenly the song builds up more, with the pummeling bass layered over by scores of trumpets, chants and Mexican instruments. Then, just as the song seems to slow down, the trick of coming back louder rockets in again as a trumpet-led swell of rock riffery brings an unexpectedly impressive fusion of genres.
4. Victory Over The Sun
There's an almost filmic touch to the intro of the song, with strings and percussive shakers accompanying a ringing lonesome guitar and echoing vocals. This peace lasts a minute and a half, before the rhythm gets faster and jerkier. This is a pretty pleasant tune, if the weakest so far on disc 2, but it is certainly another worthy tune.
5. Pocket
Having previously been cut from both Puzzle and Only Revolutions, and also cut from the 14-track edition, this song has the air of possibly the most elusive song ever. There's an almost 90s-touch to the tune, with stop-start clicking rhyhtms and a few touches reminding of things big in the 90s. It's not a bad song but it's not as good as others here one.
6. Trumpet or Tap
This one starts as a more laid-back tune with guitar work that recalls Red Hot Chili Peppers. It gets more intense for its chorus, with the catalyst for this weirdly being the clip-clap moves of a tap dancer. As is a habit of a lot of songs here, it gets more intense as it builds on further with frenzied cries of "can you just say it's true?" heralding the arrival of a cocktail of strings and riffs. Not that it helps with the impression a lot of songs are sounding similar, although again it is very well crafted.
7. Skylight
Like Pocket, this song did not emerge earlier despite being written before Only Revolutions. It is also the lighter songs on the second album, beginning with just an acoustic guitar, before strings, bleeping keyboards and industrial-sounding electronic drums pile in. Like The Fog, there's a pleasingly punchy film soundtrack vibe.
8. Accident Without Emergency
This song that blossoms from slower to heavier sections, but it isn't one of the all-out rock moments. There's a U2 vibe with touches from heavier acts. It is certainly a song that would sound at home in bigger venues. Certainly, it's a rather pleasant listen.
9. Woo Woo
The shortest song on the album, easily distinguishale by a simply "woowoo...woowoo" that heralds the return of swaggering, jerky riffs. Particulary pleasant is the jerkiness as Simon Neil chants "I. Will. Love. You. For the rest of my life" over some fiddly guitar and a stonking stop-start bassy punch. It could use with being longer but it is certainly delightful.
10. Picture A Knife Fight
The church organ used in the very first song some 85 minutes ago is back, and used to great effect to pin down the riffs to the ground. There's a stronge sense of purpose and urge to this one, which is raised by the organ to pleasingly melodramatic levels. A rousing cry of "We've got to stick together" is a good high to end the record on.
The songcraft on show here is very well done. Even if some songs are not strong as others, the weakest song is still very well put together and despite one song feeling a little barer than promised. Naturally, a lot of the more experimental touches stand out here and, as is the case with double albums, an 11-14 album would have worked just as well.
But fair play to Biffy for making such an album - as well as having the unenviable task of sifting through the 45 songs they reportedly wrote. Although all the songs here are well crafted, some do tend to sag a little while others are a lot more attention grabbing and masterful, and there have certainly got a work they can be proud of with plenty to admire.
7.9/10
Other double albums have struggled to get interest, whether it be long running times, lack of tunes or lack of different tunes. The latest band to fall into such a trap are Green Day, who tried to do a triple album but didn't have the tunes to maintain their sound over three hours.
Next to take on the double album is Biffy Clyro. The Scottish rock band made three albums on an indie level and accumulated a good following for their unusual brand of weird-rock. Then 4th album Puzzle saw them make a major label debut, where they begun to play bigger gigs and support slots for major names like Muse, Red Hot Chili Peppers and (bizarrely) The Rolling Stones, despite fans considering this record their weakest.
Afterwards came Only Revolutions - a brilliant record that acted halfway house between the poppier Puzzle and their more histronic first trio - and they hit the jackpot, with arena tours, a headline slot at Sonisphere and more stadium support slots that saw as many people there for them as the likes of headliners Muse and Foo Fighters.
At the end of 2011 Biffy told Q magazine they had 45 potential songs. While they have wittled away more than half that number, it's somewhat of a challenge to get people onboard over such a wide and vast assortment of tunes.
For those who don't think they can manage the whole thing, there is a 14 track single-disk version. But the full 20 songs are all bursting to be heard and chances are the 14 could have cut out a gem or two. But how does this break down and does it all deserve to be heard or have Biffy fallen into rock fallacy?
Disc One - The Sand At The Core Of Our Bones:
1. Different People
This song opens the single disk version as well the 'more negative' first disk. An elongated swell of church organ, gently strummed guitars and atmospheric vocals plays a more serene, almost hymn-like opening. It's a lovely, almost ballady structure, that turns into a more rock sound around 2 1/2 minutes.
2. Black Chandelier
The lead single is more of the slow-Biffy that was out in vogue on Puzzle and Only Revolutions, albeit with a pleasing and slightly random heavy riff after the second repetition of the chorus. The drip-drip-drip-drip intro is a novel introduction for what is, the most part, a classic ballad-y lead single. A few listens in however and it clicks into a pleasing mixture of melancholic ballad, stadium rock and heaviness.
3. Sounds Like Balloons
Classic Biffy arrives on a song that was first aired on the 2012 festival circuit. A jazzy stop-start rhythm underpins jittery, nervous verses, before bursting into full rock chorus that quotes the names of both disks and heavy riff. This is definitley the strongest of the first three on first listen - it has the power, the choruses, the verses and the rhyhtm to make it big.
4. Opposite
Musically this is quite a nice, chill number with gentle guitar work and a simple drum riff topped off with some strings. Lyrically, it's anything but nice and the negative side this album is billed as is out in force - "You are in love with a shadow that won't come back" is possibly the song's most positive lyric - but it's a great chorus and it is a well crafted track.
5. The Joke's On Us
After a slower, a heavy fast one belts out. This song is technically the first cut to be aired from either album after Biffy surprisingly debuted it at their Foo Fighters support slots at the MK Bowl in 2011. The original version was fairly unspectacular compared to this one, which explodes with a supermassive riff, an even huger chorus and some classic fiddly guitar parts. Another winner in this one.
6. Biblical
This song has a big misleading impression with it's restrained intro. Once Simon Neil and the guitar have opened, it gives way to a stomping verse, and then that subsides for a synthesizer-led massive chorus. There's plenty of massive riffing and woooahhh-ohs like recent Muse to bring the end to this song, before it reverts to the opening line. This song was mooted as a possible single and it definitley has potential for such a role.
7. A Girl And His Cat
More misleading fun as a twinkly synthy intro is quickly suplimented by a batshit riff. The rock stays atop a base layer of twinkling synthesizers, and creates a classic mass-rock song for the most part. This song certainly could've belonged on Only Revolutions, and certainly helps its credentials as classic Biffy by a misleading twinkly bit that gives way to even heavier riffs. Quite why this is cut from the 14-disk edition is a bit of a mystery.
8. The Fog
A third tune in a row to have the touch of twinkling synthesizers, and second to start as such. However this one is a lot more minimal. There's a very filmic vibe to a lot of the music, particulary when a huge dramatic buzz fills the speakers about 2/3rds of the way through. Like Opposite, this song is a slow song about a lover's distress, but of those two it is certainly the better song.
9. Little Hospitals
The last song to be recorded for the album is also one of the more old skool Biffy tunes. Some cleverly flickering guitar touches atop a pummelling groove as it piles through choruses. The more recent touches of echo-ing up the vocals is in forth, as are a lot of squeaking vibes, which comes from adding a bunch of kazoos. However the kazoos aren't loud enough in the mix, which is the slight disappointment to quite a good track.
10. The Thaw
Disc one ends with a track led by an old Swedish proverb - "The secrets buried in the snow will always come out in the thaw". Starting out as a fairly simple ballad it grows in bombast with surging strings before paring down and wondering "Tonight we shared the same space - has anything become of it?". It's a nice tune and is again well put-together but it does lack a little oomph...
Disc Two - The Land At The End Of The Toes:
1. Stingin' Belle
Chances are you'll have heard this one already. This is recent Biffy with a different twist - a staggeringly heavy nailgun riff, soaring stadium rock choruses piling after one another and then a euphoric outro replete with a bagpipe-y solo played on guitar. It's definitley a triumphant opener to this mammoth onslaught.
2. Modern Magic Formula
Far from content of starting with one heavy song, this song explodes out the speakers. Swaggering heavy bursts flavour the first 2 1/2 minutes. A quiet whispered mid-section emerges in this one before the guitars are thrashed even harder, through a mass of solos and riffs that end the song on full heaviness.
3. Spanish Radio
In the words of a popular sweet commercial, bring on the trumpets. A lone trumpeter opens up the song and the chorus in this bounding mid-tempo number is also layered over with the rest of the mariachi band. Suddenly the song builds up more, with the pummeling bass layered over by scores of trumpets, chants and Mexican instruments. Then, just as the song seems to slow down, the trick of coming back louder rockets in again as a trumpet-led swell of rock riffery brings an unexpectedly impressive fusion of genres.
4. Victory Over The Sun
There's an almost filmic touch to the intro of the song, with strings and percussive shakers accompanying a ringing lonesome guitar and echoing vocals. This peace lasts a minute and a half, before the rhythm gets faster and jerkier. This is a pretty pleasant tune, if the weakest so far on disc 2, but it is certainly another worthy tune.
5. Pocket
Having previously been cut from both Puzzle and Only Revolutions, and also cut from the 14-track edition, this song has the air of possibly the most elusive song ever. There's an almost 90s-touch to the tune, with stop-start clicking rhyhtms and a few touches reminding of things big in the 90s. It's not a bad song but it's not as good as others here one.
6. Trumpet or Tap
This one starts as a more laid-back tune with guitar work that recalls Red Hot Chili Peppers. It gets more intense for its chorus, with the catalyst for this weirdly being the clip-clap moves of a tap dancer. As is a habit of a lot of songs here, it gets more intense as it builds on further with frenzied cries of "can you just say it's true?" heralding the arrival of a cocktail of strings and riffs. Not that it helps with the impression a lot of songs are sounding similar, although again it is very well crafted.
7. Skylight
Like Pocket, this song did not emerge earlier despite being written before Only Revolutions. It is also the lighter songs on the second album, beginning with just an acoustic guitar, before strings, bleeping keyboards and industrial-sounding electronic drums pile in. Like The Fog, there's a pleasingly punchy film soundtrack vibe.
8. Accident Without Emergency
This song that blossoms from slower to heavier sections, but it isn't one of the all-out rock moments. There's a U2 vibe with touches from heavier acts. It is certainly a song that would sound at home in bigger venues. Certainly, it's a rather pleasant listen.
9. Woo Woo
The shortest song on the album, easily distinguishale by a simply "woowoo...woowoo" that heralds the return of swaggering, jerky riffs. Particulary pleasant is the jerkiness as Simon Neil chants "I. Will. Love. You. For the rest of my life" over some fiddly guitar and a stonking stop-start bassy punch. It could use with being longer but it is certainly delightful.
10. Picture A Knife Fight
The church organ used in the very first song some 85 minutes ago is back, and used to great effect to pin down the riffs to the ground. There's a stronge sense of purpose and urge to this one, which is raised by the organ to pleasingly melodramatic levels. A rousing cry of "We've got to stick together" is a good high to end the record on.
The songcraft on show here is very well done. Even if some songs are not strong as others, the weakest song is still very well put together and despite one song feeling a little barer than promised. Naturally, a lot of the more experimental touches stand out here and, as is the case with double albums, an 11-14 album would have worked just as well.
But fair play to Biffy for making such an album - as well as having the unenviable task of sifting through the 45 songs they reportedly wrote. Although all the songs here are well crafted, some do tend to sag a little while others are a lot more attention grabbing and masterful, and there have certainly got a work they can be proud of with plenty to admire.
7.9/10
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