Converge - Dark Horse.
Good morning Wednesday.
We’ve all had those experiences with our first proper love’s in life. You don’t know what to do or how to act about things and you end up making a lot of mistakes. Generally, and I’m speaking from personal experience here; you’ll put all your eggs in one basket and forget the world around you which may seem like bliss at the time but really isn’t the right thing to do at such a young age. The friends you hung out with every day before you met this person can all of a sudden can take a back seat to your new found love, plans to go to a gig or hang out with them can be broken at the last minute if you’re partner calls and tells you they want to spend some time with you instead. Evenutally your friends will stop trying. It’s one of the hardest phone calls in the world to make when you call up a mate you’ve not spoken to in ages after the eventual break-up happens and you have to say “sorry man, I was a dick, I thought I was doing the right thing but I was wrong.”
Jealousy is the main problem with young love, the most rational and calm person in the world can have their life turned upside down by nagging suspicions and a dislike of their partner having fun without them. At 17 I spent so many nights out with my friends doing nothing but having a laugh and watching a few DVD’s, the whole time getting texts every five minutes asking what I was doing and who I was with. If one minor detail was wrong or questionable in some way, I was in BIG trouble.
Eventually this is what made me go “fuck it” and walk away from what I had naively thought was the girl of my dreams. Fresh from a two year relationship at 19 years old with a new perspective on life and an understanding of what I want and didn’t want from future relationships, I made it my goal to never make the kind of mistakes I’d made again, and since then, I haven’t. Every girl I’ve been with since the day I walked away, I’ve been as easy as can be with, I’ve not been posessive in any way whatsoever and have taken every day as it comes, not even planning a week in advance let alone the rest of my life with someone. Where once I would have a feeling of un-ease about a girl I’m with going out to a club or something without me, I now really couldn’t care less. If a girl’s going to ditch you, she’s going to ditch you, simple, you not being there on her nights out with her friends to stop her from falling into the arms of another isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference.
If someone wants to keep track of your every move, make sure you’re never near a member of the opposite sex and generally tie your life down because of their hang ups, that isn’t love. Well, it is, it’s just really unhealthy and the relationship is mostly doomed unless someone’s willing to change, which of course they usually can’t. I don’t care if whoever I’m with goes out with her friends every night of the week and only comes to meet me for lunch in the day, as long as we have the time together we both want and the support and care that a loving relationship give’s you, that’s enough for me. I don’t want this person to commit their heart to mine for the rest of their life or ask me about future baby names and wedding songs, I just want to see what happens and have a good time doing it.
If you want me to produce an annoying characteristic that will kill a relationship stone dead in five minutes then I know hundreds of foul alternatives to the word “period” which drive most women insane. It’s not going to be through me being an insecure, jealous prick, those days were over when I gave up being a teenager for a living.
This^ is Health. They made the best album of 2009, FACT.
There’s been lots of surprises this year music wise, The Horrors second album being one and the triumphant return of older bands like Sonic Youth, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and Dinosaur Jr being another. However, I really didn’t think that after it was all said and done I’d be calling a noisey/fucked electro album the best 2009 has to offer.
Health first made their name in 2007 when they collaborated with Crystal Castles on the single ‘Crimewave’, a track which got them to number nine in the UK Indie Singles Chart. Although the dual release was a complete re-work of the original Health track, there was definitely something more going on in it than the usual 8-bit shenanigans that CC absolutely hammer the shit out of. There was a darker, cooler and more original edge to it than CC had previously shown and where they went on to greater things in the style over substance world of pop-culture, Health have remained pretty much unknown in comparison. Why? Well, aside from the fact that they don’t have a poster girl frontwoman or the mean spirit to steal an unkown artists work and turn it into the most iconic musical image of 2008, it’s simple; musically, Health are fucking insane.
Every track off this years full length release; Get Color is completely mental in some way or another. Whether it be through intense tribal drumbeats, off-kilter guitar lines or a broken, fucked and frankly disturbing array of synth sounds, every listen is an experience. From the opening madness of ‘In Heat’ there is an undeniable flow, every track leads gracefully into the next without relying at all on seven minute Mars Volta style interludes of nothing but a small child whispering into a manhole to lead each track into the next.
The tracks on Get Color average out at about four and a half minutes each, the longest being atmospheric closer ‘In Violet’ (6:14) which brings the curtain down like a lone battle survivor, eerily surveying the destruction and chaos it’s left in it’s path.
Apart from obvious personal shouts to ‘Traynor’ by Dinosaur Pile-Up and ‘Steadycam’ by Dutch Uncles for single of the year, the second track on Get Color; ‘Die Slow’ is definitely in the mix. A slower paced but equally powerful track with a dancefloor destroying chorus and subtley deranged verse structure that has as much strength as anything one of their larger contemporaries could assemble. Other clear highlights on Get Color are ‘Severin’ and ‘Death+’ but in particular, the intense mentality of ‘Eat Flesh’ takes centre stage, an old school electro mind-bender that leaves you feeling as disturbed as it does enthralled.
In conclusion, I don’t claim to know about noise as a genre, it’s the one alternative syles that apart from a few distant murmerings from a couple of Canadian bands and a few on the underground scene over here, I know pretty much nothing about. I’m sure that as many people see Pendulum as “The Idiot’s Guide To Drum & Bass” that there’s an equal ratio of people saying that Health are about as noise as Lady Gaga. In this instance, I don’t care, I don’t feel the need to spend hours searching blogs to find out more about a genre that probably isn’t worth more than a handful of genuinely great bands. All I know is, if you sometimes like your music gloriously messy, broken and fucking insane whilst still being able to dance to it, you need to own this record. It is quite simply a masterpiece.
Beautiful.
So true. The one thing I hate most about shows like CSI is the way the camera angles change every half a second and it’s always intentionally shaky. I don’t like David Caruso either, anyone who’s seen the first Rambo film ‘First Blood’ will have seen the bit where Sylvester Stallone breaks his arm in two with one punch and half kills all his mates. This is defining proof that David Caruso is a complete pansy and in no way the bad ass mother fucker her likes to think he is.
Out of all the personality traits I recognise in my life as being slightly negative, the one that winds me up the most is my laziness at staying in touch with people.
I don’t know what it is, I can meet someone I really like or even a friend who simply moves away and all of a sudden after a few texts and missed calls, we fall out of touch. I’ve done it so many times but this year I’ve made it my main priority to knock it on the head. I’ve made a lot of new friends in the last six months or so and I genuinely think I’ll know the vast majority of them for a very long time to come. I won’t let my annoying habits get in the way of staying in touch with people I actually like. From now on, I’m making the effort.
I kept saying towards the end of the summer that in comparison to last year, 2009 had been pretty dull, not much change and not many new opportunities. It’s only in recent weeks that I’ve got the feeling that this year has been pretty incredible. I moved out, I managed to hold down and do well at a paying job in the music industry and I made loads of new friends while doing it.
So, as the irritatingly expensive occasion that is Christmas approaches and the obvious plans for new years are made, I won’t look back on the last twelve months with anything other than a sense of happiness and achievement. I still have no idea what I’ll be doing for new years eve, whatever it is though I’m sure it’ll be something anti-climactic and dull if it’s planned too far ahead. If a few noises are made about a night out in East London are made, count me in. That’s been my other resolution this year that’s worked out pretty well, not planning and just rolling with the wind. I don’t like to think a week in advance let alone a year or two and I can’t really envision my life ten years down the line. All I know is that I’m happy now and I’ll take whatever’s thrown at me.
Anyways, thanks to another weekend of relentless partying I’ve completely missed out on daylight since Friday. My sleeping routine is totally wrecked and I’m not exactly thrilled about a Monday morning tomorrow. On the plus side I do still have a few Kellog’s Selection boxes under my desk and I’ve got quite a few midweek shenanigans planned. Night night for now and if my Monday morning routine is anything to go by, I’ll go through my e-mails, do the webstore orders, e-mail a few torrent sites and check back here with my third cup of tea by about half 12, bye!
…I am totally going to say it in the simplest words; “I like you, I’ve heard that you like me, why don’t we go out, have a laugh and see how it goes.”
I’ve obviously wanted to say this for a while but I’m currently so excited about all the open doors and prospects in front of me that it’s totally killed any fear of rejection I ever had. If I’m unsuccessful, sod it, life’s moving at 1000 miles an hour right now and where matters of the heart once took pole position in my life, I now see them as more of an entertaining side story in the grander scheme of getting shit done.
If she say’s yes, I’ll probably be totally doe eyed for the rest of the day, sitting there in my own little world with a smile on my face and patting myself on the back for finally asking her out.
Hopefully the roll I’ve been on lately is enough of a good luck charm to see this work out.
I seriously can’t wait for next week now
half an hour, half a measly hour’s worth of sleep, that’s what I’m currently running on. I don’t feel anywhere near as bad as I did last week on Monday on two hours sleep, obviously those were different circumstances but other than my body insistently telling me to sleep, I actually feel quite alert.
Hopefully today should go by quickly, there’s not a lot going on here at the minute so the work load isn’t exactly heaving. I think work today will require headphones, endless cups of tea and maybe a biscuit if there’s any floating about.
Oh, and seeing as how this little piece is centred around the fact that I’m completely fucking shattered, I’d just like to say a big thank you to the construction workers who started at 5am across the street from my building. I honestly don’t know what the fuck they were doing, whatever it was it sounded like two cranes playing pick up sticks with a set of 30ft scaffolding poles. I mean come on, I admire the hard work and long hours the majority of Polish labourers put into a job but making them start before the sun’s even up and right next to MY estate, it’s just a bit out of order.
Ah well, time now to soldier on through until the end of the working day, I figure if I stick to the above plan I should be fine. My back may be killing me, I may be half asleep and I may need an extra cup or two of tea but I think I can survive, let’s see.
