Overview formusic

WQXR

I absolutely love this advertisement campaign for this classical music radio station in New York City -- WQXR.

I caught these pics on Twitter and was immediately interested in this station, and the weird thing is I don’t even like classical music.  Now don’t get me wrong; I don’t hate the genre, it’s just not on high on my list of music I would listen to.  I was impressed with the selection of programs they have on the station.  I also liked that they have an iPhone app, which is what I’ve been using to listen to the station since I live across the continent.

Huh, I guess advertising is everything.

"I guess I didn't know"

Earlier this week The Crystal Method performed at KCRW promoting their latest self-titled studio album.  It was a powerful set of tracks and the performance was outstanding.  It is available to listen on demand from KCRW’s website.

They played six tracks, of which four are from the new album.  My favorite tracks were "Over It" and "Storm the Castle."  "Over It" features vocals from Dia Frampton where she includes a heavenly voice to the song, which is over some heavy guitar playing.  "Storm the Castle" has a lot of energy to it and kept my attention from start to end.  I also enjoyed hearing "Play for Real" and "Emulator."  They closed the performance with a remix to "Born Too Slow," which was from Legion of Boom.

Listening to them reminded me that they provided the soundtrack to an old game from the PlayStation called N2O: Nitrous Oxide.  I played a demo of this game back when it was originally released, and thought it would be cool to continue playing it, but I never got around to pick it up and play the full game.  I now had the itch to play it, so I downloaded it from PSN and just finished playing a few hours of it.  Guys, let me tell you: while the music is great, the game itself is not too hot.

It’s kind of weird.  The game is fast paced and slow at the same time.  It definitely is sensory overload.  Especially in the visuals.  For me, the game is way too fast as in there are too many enemies on the screen at one time and you’re moving too fast to actually comprehend what’s happening.  This is a high score kind of game so it gives a ton of info during the tutorial on how to increase your score, but in the end, all you’re doing is shooting anything that moves.  And what I mean by the game is slow is that your weapons don’t seem to fire at the rate you want it to.  Making it like you are not really shooting.  But the soundtrack is fantastic.  It includes tracks from their debut album Vegas.

Droppin’ the noise

2013 was a great year in music, especilaly with electronic music.  Below is a playlist I made throughout the year.  I would post links, but when it comes to music, links tend to die fast.  I’m sure you can hunt these tracks down on you own though if you’re inclined to listening to them.  Note, I think two near the top of the list came out in late 2012, but whatevs.

Sleep Alone - Chapel Club
So Many Details - Toro y Moi
What a Shame - Jamie Lidell
P.Y.T. (Michael Jackson Cover) - Nite Jewel
Pull Me Down (Ryan Hemsworth Remix) - Mikky Ekko
Rose Quartz - Toro y Moi
Bavarian #1 (Say You Will) - Miike Snow
Sleepless (feat. Jezzabell Doran) - Flume
Heaven for the Sinner (feat. Erykah Badu) - Bonobo
Emkay - Bonobo
Green (feat. Andreya Triana) - TOKiMONSTA
You’re Out (Prefuse 73 Remix) - Ultraista
Partners In Crime, Pt. Two - The Internet
Goldmine - Kilo Kish