A day to remember indeed.

"You're supposed to smile for the camera, dumbass". Image: guardian.co.uk

And if Cameron is indeed fearful that worst times are yet to come, he’s not hiding it. Take a look at the wordings in his first speech – I wonder if it was written with the sole purpose of curbing expectations and evading responsibilities in the first place. For instance:

And I think the service our country needs right now is to face up to our really big challenges, to confront our problems, to take difficult decisions, to lead people through those difficult decisions, so that together we can reach better times ahead.

One of the tasks that we clearly have is to rebuild trust in our political system. Yes that’s about cleaning up expenses, yes that is about reforming parliament, and yes it is about making sure people are in control – and that the politicians are always their servant and never their masters.

But I believe it is also something else. It is about being honest about what government can achieve. Real change is not what government can do on its own – real change is when everyone pulls together, comes together, works together, where we all exercise our responsibilities to ourselves, to our families, to our communities and to others.

If that didn’t sound hope instilling and upbeat, take a count and see how his speech was dominated by words that paint a picture of depression and urgency:

• “difficult” and “difficult decisions” – 4 matches
• “work” – 6 matches
• “challenge”, “hard” – 4 matches
• “problem” – 3 matches
• “rebuild” – 4 matches
• “stable”, “trust”, “strong” – 9 matches

Of course, it’s not Cameron or Clegg’s fault that the country isn’t in more healthy shape. Not that their parties or voters wished to be caught up in the predicament of a coalition government and a pissed poor economy anyways. It’s just that the rate at which events unfolded and the dramatic marriage of opposing forces gave a surreal air to the entire event – or should I say more “real”, because it clearly exposes how easily and quickly what claimed to be core values and fundamental differences can be set aside and forgotten, when it comes to a power struggle that decides who runs the parliament of a country.

Images of 10 Downing Street always remind me of a particular scene and a particular era. An era that in retrospect started off just as horribly but people were buying into a bubble and thus optimistic and cheerful. Now compare this speech excerpt with Cameron’s and try not to come to the conclusion that one of these speakers were under the influence of certain reality bending substances during the delivery:

“It’s been a great year for British music,” said Blair. “A year of creativity, vitality, energy. British bands storming the charts. British music back once again in its right place, at the top of the world. And at least part of the reason for that has been the inspiration that today’s bands can draw from those that have gone before. Bands in my generation like The Beatles and The Stones and The Kinks. Of a later generation: The Clash, The Smiths, The Stone Roses…”

Even though that was a speech made at the 1996 Brit Awards and not upon taking residence at Downing Street, once can’t help but reflect in awe how the circumstances have deteriorated. Compared to then, UK in the 2010 appears more like a torn apart war zone struggling to maintain its identity. And no-one, not even the guys at the NME, can focus on the music alone and not get distracted by the prevailing cries of distress and desperation.

Tony Blair and The Chief in 1997. Image: dailymail.co.uk

Note: For those interested in getting one of these kits, head over to ebay and search for “otona no kagaku” (name of the magazine).

People swear by it. Millions have had their lives transformed by it. The instrument that has changed history is, at its core, a relatively simple set up of wood, wires and stones. Any dirt-cheap cell phone nowadays contains parts with sophistication a million times greater.

Coming across this japanese magazine, I finally had a chance to do the impossible feat of putting together the axe, albeit a much simplified one with 1/5 of the original size and the E and A strings absent. Nonetheless it served as a wonderful weekend project, especially for an electronics dummy like myself.

Unbox & Assembly

The kit itself is rather tiny, but the shots were so well done they made the finished product convincingly playable enough.

The design of the mini-guitar is a bit like the Frank Krocker’s framworks guitars, with a reduced neck and minimalistic body. For good measure the did include a teeny amp with internal speaker too, which is a surprise.

The unboxed package and parts.

Putting the neck in place was easiest. Somehow it was more reminiscent of a Gundam plastic model kit than a musical instrument though.

Strings winding remain a huge pain…on guitars large and small. To me the pain is occasionally physical as well as somehow the steel ends like to find their ways into your fingernail gaps. The little bastards.

Moving to the heart and soul of the guitar – the pickup. And it can’t be simpler – a single chunk of ordinary magnet wrapped around by copper wires. The wrapping took a good 15 minutes by hand (Imagine what it would be like to hand-wire a real pickup with its standard 7600 cycles), and when it was done, a silly decal resembling Fender’s pole pieces was slapped on top.

Some textbook recap of what a pickup is – The magnet generates a field upon itself, though which the strings pass. Any vibration in the string moves some of the lines of force that make up the field. These movements in the field create tiny electric pulses in the coil, which is then picked up from the coil. In other words, striking a steel string next to a magnet would cause its strength to fluctuate, and that triggers a response in the rings of copper around it. The tiny spark gets amplified a thousand times and eventually transformed into audible waves. Or something. Hope my understanding wasn’t too far off.

Slapping the heart into place and voila – a rock-n-roll axe ready ready to melt faces.

The finished product:

The only thing was that it produced NO SOUND…so some expert inspection was eventually inevitable…

Here’s what the mini guitar would have sounded (if the strings don’t constantly crap themselves out and the coil becomes dumb every few minutes)…still…what good fun it was.

For those willing to part with HKD $400 can take a look at the various auction sites here to get a taste of what hand-wiring a pickup is like.

21 Guns

Sometimes a song really gets to you not due to its quality but how its context hits you at the appropriate moments. This is the parting swan song that echoed in my head as I saw her ashes being put into place. What can I say? A tragic tune loaded with anger and unjust, just like her life and passing.

Jesus of Suburbia

It’s Green Day revisited year alright. It wasn’t till 09 when I rediscovered this tune and taken to its nihilism and rage. I don’t care if you don’t I don’t care if you don’t I don’t care if you don’t care.

UP

This was quite unexpected. Watching UP was like watching my entire life flashing before my eyes…though unlike Carl Fredricksen, I’m hanging on to the floating house like dear life. At least he had somewhere he could go. At least he doesn’t have long to live before he gets to see his Elly.

証人 Beast Stalker

Moving on to less sentimental choices.  I think Beast Stalker (a 08 film) is undoubtedly the best local film I saw in 09. With the local film industry being stagnated or gone all haywire,  this might remain the most decent film for many years to come. Mark my words.

Let It Be – Remastered

Love the fact how the 2009.09.09 re-issue has rejuvenated the band’s legacy around the world. Pity that “Across The Universe” didn’t sound particularly different. Sometimes efforts to bring back certain things that have passed are destined to be futile. A real shame.

Slumdog Millionaire

There was the initial shock (seeing Dharavi) followed by waves of surprises. The success of the film lied on its transformative power – its ability to change people’s perceptions upon alien cultures and nations. Not to mention how it eventually led me to set foot in Mumbai or learn about Mahatma Gandhi’s life. The chase scene in the beginning is so much more engaging and shocking than any of the pompous CG scenes in Avatar.

Sweetney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

A fantastic film I didn’t get to see till this year. The production, characters, sets and music are all top notch. Should have seen it at a cinema. An underrated film this didn’t seem to have garnered enough praises.

Uncharted 2 (ps3 game)

Have to bring up this title again, for its innovation in pushing the gaming media into new narrative heights. In terms of achievement Uncharted 2 should be up there with Shenmue, I reckon.

Marley and I

It wasn’t a film about canines. It was showing us a life that we wished we could have had but knew we never would. I wonder if her tears were shed for the same sentiments. I’d never know.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Anything with David Fincher’s name on it is bound to secure a place on my list. Though criticized for its linearity and unoriginality, Benjamin was great in its own terms. The portrayal of encounters, emotions and departures in life were simply outstanding. Another film that managed to reduce me to a pool of tears (and eventually led to a Varanasi visit).

20th Century Boys Part 2+3

I might be the only one who thoroughly enjoyed all three parts of this trilogy. Seeing how the production team painstakingly re-created the imaginary world from the manga was nerve whacking enough – then seeing how they went an extra mile in exemplifying the key scenes and emotions was beyond moving. People, you guys were missing the point, big time.

As a project born out of immense passion, it lasted a good two years and witnessed few rather interesting events like the STC exhibition, two live gigs, DVD releases and so on.

Can’t say whether it has been successful or not. I’d like to think of it as to have achieved some moderate fame within the circle though.

http://www.oasis-story.net continues the legacy.

Video after the jump:

Ok, so this afternoon (I’m not in the UK btw) I tagged along a journalist friend of mine and went to a listening party organized by Sony BMG. It was held in a small club and I got to listen to the entire album through overhead speakers. There were only a few Sony representatives present, with about 40 ppl from the press in general.

After showing us the TSOTL video, the host dimmed the light and we sat down and listened.

the following are straight from the notes I managed to scribble while listening. I probably misheard most the lyrics.
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1. Bag It Up

Song began with a fade-in followed by a blusey riff. Liam’s voice came on earlier than expected. He sounded coarse and very rough, like Go-Let-It-Out-rough. The words I managed to pick up were “someone told me I’m dreaming…”, “everything I believed in, I wanted more more more…”, “tell me what you desire, I’ll bag it up”, “the freaks are rising from the floor”. This might sound better if Noel’s on vocal. It came to a slow, atmospheric close. I felt like I was watching a intro of a Tim Burton freak show.

2. The Turning

The drums on the intro sounded a bit like Columbia. The heavy atmospheric mood continued. Some lyrics: “Eyes over the city…rises over your soul”, “Come on, shake your — baby, before you change your name” (chorus), “…messiah”. The guitar riffs which served as the solo/bridge reminded again of Columbia, though much shorter. And then the song drained to a close over sounds of passing cars and tinny piano notes.

3. Waiting For the Rapture

Song began with some heavy power riffs, in the style of Led Zeppelin or AC/DC. The riff continued and Noel’s voice came on. He sang in crazily high keys, pushing it further than the chorus of Part Of The Queue. Reminded me of Force Of Nature. A lot of people will HATE it. The outro is a bit like that of Mucky Fingers. Lyrics to the chorus: “she said I’m tired….come pick me off the merry-go-round”.

(they skipped TSOTL, but we’ve heard that a million times)

5. I’m Outta Time

The opening of the sound is exactly what we heard from the NME clip. Lyrics: “can’t get myself some piece of mind, or would you hide behind the light…cos if I have to go….blahblahblah…..and that’s where you belong….” then it closes with “guess I’m outta time, outta time, outta time…”. It fades out and then again leaving only some fainty piano notes hanging in the air. WTF? That’s IT?

6. (Get off your) High Horse Lady

The intro is a bit like Come Together and that funky shuffle beat continues throughout the song. Drums were mixed with hand-claps. The first line of lyric is actually “get off your high horse lady”. Sounded quite heavy. The chorus went something like “I don’t need a right to —-, lay down — —-”. It dragged on a bit and got tedious. For the outro there’re some footsteps (NME said it’s the sound of closing drawers, anyways).

7. Falling down

Well, this song fitted right in with what was heard so far. Make no mistake, apart from TSOTL, this is the most melodic song on the album. The ending faded into the start of the next song.

8. To Be Where There’s Life

(I didn’t listen to the bootleg versions)

Great! Some Live Forever like drum intro. Liam’s vocals are excellent and the the rhythum is quite upbeat. I could only make out the lines “Let me come through….let me take you…”, “…wayyyYYYYY (stretches for a long time) over the line”. The bridge/solo type was filled with sitar like Indian sounds. It sounded quite good and special.

9. Ain’t Got Nothin

This sounded like the leaked version. Nothing dramatic was changed in the arrangement or anything. Was over too quickly. I couldn’t really make out “a brawl being played out” scene as Liam described.

10. The Nature of Reality

Intro began with some cicada or buzzing insect-like noises, before a wave of guitar feedback poured in. “The nature of reality…is —- fantasy…it’s only in your mind…..” is the first line of lyrics. There were tons of high pitched guitar fills and jams not unlike something you get from a White Stripes album. Finally! There was a guitar riff long enough to be called a tiny solo. The song ended with Liam’s howl of “mind” melting with long guitar feedbacks. Quite cool.

11. Soldier On

The verse featured a line “Shine a light for me tonight”, and the chorus is just six fucking LA-LA-LAs in rising and falling tones! And before you know it, it slowed to a close, with Liam repeating the words “soldier on” for a while, then some squeeching noise and then, silence.

The listening sesion finished with the host inviting two reputed local music journalists to share their views (more on that later).

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Impressions:

- My head felt stuffed. After two hours, the weight of that sound hasn’t subsided. It’s like the after effects of watching The Dark Knight or I’m Not There, where you feel punished with heavy headaches for being too focused. The message/effects/weight were overwhelming, and worst of all, I could’t really decide whether it was GOOD or BAD.

- This does not sound like an Oasis album. Seriously. Not at all. If TSOTL hinted a comeback of the BHN sound in a more polished way, Noel really should apologize for the misleading suggestion. DBTT sounded like HC. DM, WTSMG and BHN are a trilogy. This is something else entirely. This sounded like and an old obscure record by The Verve and Ride. Something only the hardcodest fans learnt to appreciate. Anything off DBTT sounds incredibly tame and thin compared to the sound on this album. Actually, even Viva La Vida sounded commercial compared to DOUS. Love is Noise sounds like a pop-song now.

- There were no singalongs, no big choruses, no standard verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus composition. Or may be there were but they were hidden behind or drown by the massive sonic facade that the trademark Oasis elements become barely noticeable. I don’t remember any specific melodies or hook lines from any of the songs. Fans expecting a resurgence of anthems, or even melodic b-sides like I Wanna Leave In a Dream In My Record Machine woulld initally be greatly disappointed. For those people, I say, hang on to TSOTL like dear life. Mind you, it may be the fact that the music was played from over head loud speakers, but still…

- Noel wasn’t joking when he said he doubted the radio would play anything other than TSOTL. Either he wants to kill off Oasis, or he desperately wants Oasis to be taken seriously and inducted in some Rock and Roll hall of fame somewhere.

To bring in some third opinions, here’s what the two reputed music journalists said when they were invited to share their thoughts on stage:

- “ambitious attempt to pull the 60s sound to the 2000s, at the same time re-defining it and made it belong to this new era”
- very heavy 60s psychedelic sound consistent throughout the entire album.
- Oasis was trying to create an authentic analog sound, and succeeded.
- good production. loads of thoughtful and delicate details scattered around.
- liam has matured a lot and is more like a professional singer now. In the past he just shot the words in a don’t-care attitude, in this album he would change his tone and level of stress in his vocals depending on the pace or mood of the song.
- first three songs were a bit hard to get into. It got better after TSOTL.
- “hope they produce a 5.1 version of this album. it would be the perfect immersive experience.”
- Falling down, TBWTSL, I’m Outta time are stand out tracks.
- Soldier-on sounds like Noel’s revelation of life in mid-age.
- bold, radical new direction for the band who had survived for longer than 10 years.
- their verdicts: 7.5/10 and 7/10.

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