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Tyondai Braxton recommended Liedgut by Atom TM in Music (curated)

 
Liedgut by Atom TM
Liedgut by Atom TM
2009 | Dance, Electronic
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Both of Atom TM's records on the Raster-Noton label are some of my favorite electronic records ever made. Liedgut was his first one for the label. It feels cinematic without being pandering. Inventive and beautiful. Being that it’s electronic, and just that it in its own particular style, it’s a lot more having to do with texture and sound design. But then there’s this weird kind of melodic framework that goes in and out throughout the record, that’s very “hypermelodic”. Very consonant. It almost sounds like… you know those snow-globes that have a twisting belt? Like a music box. It’s texturally focused sound design. And he’s able to go back and forth here in a way that’s really compelling. And again, you can tell it’s very intuitive - he’s just going where the music takes him. In a world of forward thinking electronic music, where anyone can pick up a computer and do this thing, his voice is so unique. I'd be able to pick him out of a thousand records – his own distinct voice. I really love his records, especially the ones he did for Raster-Noton."

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Tyondai Braxton recommended Beautiful Rewind by Four Tet in Music (curated)

 
Beautiful Rewind by Four Tet
Beautiful Rewind by Four Tet
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"So much nuance but he always has clarity in all of his music. Kieran's at the top of his game. He's such an interesting producer. Everything he does has this clarity and it seems very simple. But it's not, he has such a highly sophisticated sense of what should go where. You feel like he really understands the world that he's created for himself and works in. So you just hear him having fun and placing things around and you inherently trust him with whatever he does. It's like a new journey every time. Honestly, what I say about Beautiful Rewind could probably be applied to a bunch of his records. That's the kind of thrilling thing with him. He's the master of his domain and it's exciting to hear him play inside of that sandbox. Such a fun record. Fun can mean a lot of different things and it hits you in a lot of different ways. But it's enjoyable to get into something steady, that's the pulse of his tracks that are dance orientated. The production of it and just the way that he thinks keeps your mind spinning. So it's always fun unpacking what he's presented."

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DJ Muggs recommended Ultimate Run DMC by Run-DMC in Music (curated)

 
Ultimate Run DMC by Run-DMC
Ultimate Run DMC by Run-DMC
2003 | Rap
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Run-D.M.C came out and it was like some serious gangster shit: bomber jackets and Kangols [laughs]. They were just some serious hood shit and they pushed the limits as far as they possibly could at that time. They laid the building blocks for everything that was to come in that era and for everything where we are right now. It felt so special being able to see that for the first time: I was there at the birth of it and I was watching the first round of this shit build up and up. Their live performances also helped Cypress Hill. We got confidence on stage by originally going to local shows in New York City – Run-D.M.C and the like. All the really big shows too – we'd see 'Ministry' and learn from them as well as all the local acts in the city. I saw bands like Ministry and Run-D.M.C on stage very early on in the game and I drew inspiration [and confidence] from a lot of their live shows and these undoubtedly helped our own future live performances. It was very exciting to be a part of this scene at that time and to see Run-D.M.C with such unbelievable raw power at that time."

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Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols by The Sex Pistols
Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols by The Sex Pistols
1977 | Punk
8.9 (15 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I was only nine years old in 1976 so I wasn't down the front at the 100 Club, I was still watching Doctor Who. Like everything in those days it probably filtered through slowly to Haywards Heath Market. It was the first record I bought. It was shockingly brilliant, and is one of those records that if you played it in 200 years time it would still sound like that. I think that they perfectly defined their own genre. They were the ultimate punk band. The other so-called punk bands to me sound like a parody of the Sex Pistols. It's a lot to do with John Lydon, he's a huge hero of mine. I was going to have a PiL record in here but I thought you can't have two records by the same person. I saw PiL play recently, and it's the first time I've ever done this, but I went to John Lydon's dressing room door to thank him for everything, but he was asleep. To have created the Sex Pistols was an amazing thing in itself, and then to go and create a new band that was just as groundbreaking in such a different way was unbelievable. John Lennon didn't do that. Jim Morrison didn't do that."

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Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
2022 | Action, Drama
"Legacy Sequels" are big business these days. Some have been bad, some have been surprisingly great. Top Gun: Maverick falls into the latter camp without a shadow of a doubt. It's a sequel, so many years later, that surpasses the much loved original in every way.
It definitely leans heavily on the nostalgia button here and there, but everything it offers is so much fun that it never feels like it's relying on that nostalgia. The new cast are hugely likable, and just like the first time around, the comradery between the characters is well realised, and wholesome as hell, with some good hearted rivalry. Tom Cruise slips back into the role of Maverick like he never left, and is clearly having a blast once again in the drivers seat.
The action set pieces are exciting, and it boasts a genuinely intense and high octane finale, as well as emotional beats that had me welling up dammit. Combine all of this with a spruced up classic music score, and you have a true blockbuster that will thrill fans of the original, and new audiences alike.
I wasn't overly excited about Top Gun: Maverick during the lead up to release, but I would be a fool not to admit that it's a triumph. Absolutely loved it.
  
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
1988 | Classics, Documentary, Documentary
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"As someone who’s really passionate about what he does, I have a lot of opinions about documentary films. A lot of documentary filmmakers don’t really think about their films cinematically, and some documentaries almost seem like they were just copy-and-pasted like Microsoft Word documents. I’ve always loved how Errol Morris takes a wrecking ball to those conventions. His films are constantly exploring the idea of what a documentary is. His films tweak and twist reality, and they don’t just try to serve the audience digested ideas on a platter. If I had to pick a favorite, it’s his transcendent 1988 classic The Thin Blue Line, which recounts a murder case and then riffs and re-riffs on it like a Bach fugue. It was the first film to really use re-creation and reeneactment scenes in a new and highly cinematic way, both to explore a case and to challenge a viewer’s own bias and subjectivity. Nowadays, its approach and editing style loom over every one of these multipart true crime series and podcasts. The Thin Blue Line is almost like the influential band that’s been ripped off so often that new converts may not realize just how significant it is."

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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
2017 | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Forced humor, cliches, and way too many jokes about male anatomy.
Contains spoilers, click to show
Okay, I'll start by saying that I did legit chuckle a few times watching Jumanji. I can't even recall why at this point, but there was definitely some laughter involved.

What stands out to me though (I watched the movie a few weeks ago) was all the things that annoyed me.


Like the African American kid from what appeared to be upper middle class whose mother made it seem like the team was his only hope of succeeding.


Also, the fact that it's of course the African American character in the game that is the one who loves alcohol and gets plastered without exercising any common sense.


Or, you know, the fact that it was just so funny to see Jack Black overplaying the 'female trapped in a man's body' thing to limp-wristing levels.


This movie could have been so much better than it was. But it was almost painful to watch. I was hoping we were moving past thinking that laughing at this type of crap was a good thing.
  
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David McK (3562 KP) rated Assassins Creed: Mirage in Video Games

Mar 31, 2024 (Updated Mar 31, 2024)  
Assassins Creed: Mirage
Assassins Creed: Mirage
2023 | Role-Playing
The Assassin's Creed games used to be a favourite of mine.

Until they drifted away from the formula, turning too much (IMO) intro a standard open-world game.

So at around about the time of AC: origins, then.

I still played Origins and (forced my way through) Odyssey, but heard bad things about Valhalla.

By this time, I was also getting fed up with having to spend over a year just to complete the story, so skipped Valhalla completely.

So I felt that the back-to-basics approach of Mirage was exactly what was needed to revive my interest in the series. I've also heard that this was originally meant to be an expansion to Valhalla; truth be told I'm glad that they didn't go down that route as otherwise I would have missed this one out completely.

There's no mention - like, at all - of the Animus in this, which purports to tell the back-story of Basim, who was (apparently) a character in Valhalla. I'd no knowledge of that beforehand; thankfully it also felt like that wasn't needed.
  
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Britt Daniel recommended Dirty Mind by Prince in Music (curated)

 
Dirty Mind by Prince
Dirty Mind by Prince
1980 | Rock
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Dirty Mind is the first one where I feel Prince became the Prince we all know and love. There had been somewhat suggestive lyrics with 'Soft & Wet', which came out earlier, but this is where he went full force with songs like 'Sister' and 'Head'. The record cover, the whole package, really says something to me. Instead of looking like a black guy from Minneapolis, he looks New Wave and you can't really tell what he is. He's got bed springs behind him and the album is called Dirty Mind, the first song is called 'Dirty Mind' and it just hits you over the head with this new direction. Maybe my favourite song on the record is 'Partyup', the last song on it. I understand there's rumours that he sort of traded that song with Morris Day. He said if you give me that song I'll record an album for you or I'll put together The Time For You. It's just an amazing song. Spoon covered it a long time ago for this Prince compilation."

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