Tim

So in a pretty introspective mood last night I started to write (ramble) about a couple of different things, going to have a post called ‘Life’ that summed up pretty much everything at the moment. It was too long and didn’t really make sense, so I’m just going to cut bits and pieces out of it and post those for the next few weeks. Sort of just a recap of a bit more than the last year.

Music

At the start of the year I found a really cool website turntable.fm that lets people join rooms based on genre’s and types on music where there are 5 DJ’s (anyone from the community can be a DJ) who take turns choosing songs which the crowd then rates. It was a great place to find new music and it was really fun to have a room of people like your song, but then of course all countries outside of the U.S were banned. I went back recently using a VPN and saw that it was still great (and that I was apparently an ‘Original Gangster’ from way back when it was in closed beta), although some rooms had just become a bit of a Levels fest. After finding some really cool music and artists on turntable, I was turned onto Hype Machine by a mate which has been fairly fun (and managed to ruin music for me! If a song has any empty space my mind now says “you really could fit another song in there…”) and I’ve found a fair bit of music that I like.

As well as the single-track stuff I’ve always had a few artists and albums I’ve really gotten into in the last year or so. Of course there was the usual MOS Sessions and Annuals that I used to be so into, and moving in with @nathcarruthers I became a fan of deadmau5 who dropped 4×4=12, and Skrillex (who’s new album is pretty much ‘meh’) amongst a few others. At the very start of the year I found Kanye’s new album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and have to say that, regardless of how up himself the guy is (that is part of the fun after all), it is an amazing album and definitely the best thing he’s ever done.

The best musical discovery of 2011 however, would have to be Childish Gambino. Real name Donald Glover, he’s much better known for his character Troy on Community, and probably less known for being a writer on 30 Rock. The thing I like about most of his music is that it’s just a fresh take on rap (that I listen to anyway) and he is just so clever! So many lines in his songs just leave me with a big grin on my face. A couple of my favourites would be Break, Freaks and Geeks and Heartbeat but the new album Camp is altogether pretty great. And there I go…getting a bit rambly already (even though I’ve missed some stuff out). I’m a bit tired, but time to move on! Leaving music off with one thing; the story at the end of Camp.