Nexeus Fatale

I love mashups, the ability to create a new song from two completely different songs and various samples amaze me.  Girl Talk, formerly biomedical engineer Gregg Gills, is gifted at mashup’s as demonstrated by his recent album release Feed the Animals.  The entire album can be purchased for any price, with extras available at $5 and $10 and features creative remixes of popular songs from hip-hop, rock, and pop.  Unlike most mashup’s where two or three songs are pitted against each other, tracks frequently contain samples from four or five other references interweaved to make a completely new song. While the album is unbelievably creative and well orchestrated, it does sounds more like a demo than an actual album.  The album is best played as a whole, each track is interwoven seamlessly into the next one as separately the tracks seem out of place.  Do not let this critique detract from the creativity and complexity of the album that makes it a very rewarding listen. You can get the CD from Girl Talk’s MySpace page.

Last week at TweetNYC, I was introduced to Chip and Mike (left and right in the above picture) members of the New York based Pop-rock/Emo band Beyond Hope Lies.  The Pop-Rock/Emo genre suffers from an abundance of songs that sound similar and are painted with themes concerning breakups, friendships and the struggles of life.  Beyond Hope Lies does not stray too far from the formula, with a sound similar to Blink 182 and Fall Out Boy.  Their deviation appears on two tracks, Music vs Knowledge and Void, where a harder, metal sound is employed (screamo fans would enjoy these tracks).  Overall those who enjoy the genre should (and would) add Beyond Hope Lies to their library, they are well produced and maintain all of the aspects that have made their genre very popular.

On Thursday, September 25, 2008, I saw Second Skin at a screening at The Calhoun School in New York City and was quite impressed. Second Skin is an honest and real look into the lives individuals whom are actively engaged in MMORPG’s, i.e. ‘Gamers’. The film, however, is not an all inclusive look of those in virtual spaces focusing heavily on gamers especially those involved with World of Warcraft, and Everquest. There are brief mentions of non-MMOG platforms such as Second Life, but not the core of the film. In reality Second Skin is a starting point in the discussion of MMOG’s by exploring the many aspects of gamers and their involvement in these worlds.

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I’ve become very critical of Rolling Stone. Since their proclamation of Lil Wayne as the best MC of 2008, I’ve found myself questioning most of their reviews and features. Santogold was one review that I was very critical of. Outside of RS, I’ve heard very good things about due to her ability to mesh many different style of music into one unique sound. While very talented, Santogold is the No Doubt of Indie Rock. This time the musical mix is that of Indie Rock, Pop, Caribbean, and Reggae. While Santogold is not very revolutionary (if anything it can be very repetitive), it is an amazing mix of music creating a new Ska like sound.

While I like Santogold, I am very conflicted about Santogold. The things that annoy me, many of the overused Lower East Side-like indie artist mannerisms and sound, I appreciate and feel that it is well composed in the music. I’m never one to discredit good mixtures of popular music, and I’m a very much a fan of No Doubt. I really enjoyed their music, felt it was very relevant of their time, and I feel the same about Santogold.

OtsAV is a series of program packages that perform audio web broadcasting, web radio automation, or video web broadcasting.  With my recent upgrade to Windows Vista, I was forced to seek alternatives to popular web broadcasting software such as SAM Broadcaster and Winamp.  OtsAV, recommended to be my friend DJ Tarsis, fit the bill but was problematic.  While it claims Windows Vista support, it did not enjoy my microphone configuration, something I’m attributing to its complex configuration options, not complete Vista support and my lack of a microphone only soundcard.

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