Feb 2024
How do people manage to do weeknotes? Month-notes are hard enough!!
February Playlist #
Ovlov - I'm Your Dini #
Can't believe I'm actually going to see Ovlov (twice!) next month. Literally a dream come true, never thought it'd ever happen (as they rarely tour overseas). AM is basically everything I want in a guitar record. It's been a consistent presence in my life and the guitar tones and solos it contains have served as an effective balm for the standard psychic damage that life has wrought. "The Great Crocodile" has also proved to be indispensable to helping me persevere to the end of countless fifth kilometres.
When I checked out some recent live performances (that rip btw), I clocked some songs from "Greatest Hits Vol 2" were on their setlists. This is compilation of works recorded before the release of AM but I had never thought to listen to it before. Turns out, it contains some of their best songs! "I'm Your Dini" is a highlight for me because it does the fantastic Ovlov thing of the song just blasting off into space on the back of one of the heaviest riffs you've ever heard in your entire life.
Listen to "I'm Your Dini" here
Shygirl - tell me #
Remember Music 3000? Me too.
Can - Bel Air #
Shout out to the legend Damo Suzuki (RIP).
The news of his passing made me revisit the classic work he did with the iconic Can. I'm fairly well acquainted with Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi but for some reason I had never listened to Future Days. Turns out, Future Days is my favourite Can album and I feel silly for not having listened to it earlier! Although I know this not to be the case due to the nature of Can albums (the "songs" being choice cuts edited from jams), Future Days feels like a more deliberate work than the other classic Suzuki records. It's def their most accessible record but I think something can be accessible without being "dumbed down". As an entire start-to-finish listen, there are no skips and nowhere does it become "interesting" rather than "captivating". Bel Air, the twenty minute juggernaut that closes the record, is my favourite track. It's a completely memerising listen and I can't believe this album is over 50 years old.
(the main reason this is a shorter playlist this month is because I just listened to 'Future Days' and 'Bel Air' most of February lol)
Mk.gee - Alesis #
Sorry but I'm very down for a record that sounds like "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" and the best Bon Iver album.
Baggio - Mangetout #
Baggio is a band that I've had the pleasure of seeing on numerous occasions at the best venues London has to offer. Not only do they keep the much missed tradition of the indie ensemble band alive (up to 8 members on stage sometimes!), they pick up sonically from where Purple Mountains (sadly) left off with lyrics about battling the various existential crises one faces in their 20s. It's easy to treat one's past self harshly but listening to the music of Baggio makes one feel that they should be kinder to the person they used to be. Or something.
MGMT - Mother Nature #
MGMT made another beautiful ballad about friendship? Of course it rules.
Listen to "Mother Nature" here
Patchnotes #
Thanks to mjjodea for pointing me to Cloudflare, which is an excellent hosting/workers platform and provides a whole lotta free stuff. I'm gonna move the entire site there instead of using Github Pages and a VPS for hosting services.
There's still no mailing list but I've got most of how I'm going to implement it mapped out. Cloudflare makes sending emails straightforward, so it might be ready for next month?