Although this is the blog’s fourth edition of Spotted Dick this is my first contribution to a feature which has unarguably taken the music world by storm since it’s conception and put a previously little known music application firmly on the map. Recently blogging has been part of my life that has been severely neglected and I’m sorry to say, dear readers, there’s no narcotics addictions or short lived love affairs for me to blame this on. In fact I have little to no excuse for leaving the fate of INFTC almost entirely on the very capable and far more consistent shoulders of Mr. Gavin Williams who I sincerely thank for taking the role of a pushy mother and not letting a day go by without leaving a nagging post on my facebook wall.
This album doesn’t sound like any of the bands mentioned in the press release, well Gary Numan perhaps but definitely not Nirvana, The Beatles, Primal Scream or The Smashing Pumpkins. Radio Over Moscow is the solo assignment of Aucklander Dan Satherley (KittyHawk, Vetox, Luna Spark) and Battletech is his first solo release. Bringing ’90s pop-punk into the twenty-first century, Battletech covers common ground with just a subtle pinch of unfamiliarity; synthesisers and drum machines. Imagine if Blink 182 went electro or Placebo ditched the dark make-up, Radio Over Moscow brings the two together in a mechanical blender, adding slices of metallic sounding synths and sci-fi rhythms. Sprouting multiple seeds of futuristic punk, alien grunge, contorted new-wave and geographically nondescript Brit-pop, Battletech provides a moderately eclectic genre fix and is well structured, allowing the songs to merge together without sounding disjointed. Opener ‘The Purpose Of Man’ is an electro sherbet hit echoing The Faint and flows directly into ‘Anti-human Nous’ which utilises similar synth techniques but puts a vocoder effect on the vocals.
As last year, I will not be able to attend the music lover’s paradise, South by Southwest, and will have to explore the roster of artists from the swivel chair in front of my laptop (if I spin around fast enough every so often, I can attempt to simulate the dizziness brought on by wanting to see so many bands at once).
Our headliners have provided us with an impressive rant that includes identity cards, the 'credit crunch', state surveillance, newspaper irrelevancy and the numbing effects of information bombardment. And all in under 200 words too!
Or in other words, the world’s first totally online music festival!
Or in other words, the world’s first totally online music festival! With Primal Scream and the Futureheads headlining, our dastardly plan to put a music festival in cyberspace is taking delicious shape. Step this way for details…
Lewis Hingston is hot on the trail of two second album campaigns, as he catches the tambourine abusing antics of Tokyo Police Club, and the art house meanderings of Semifinalists…
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Travel News : Penalties
When I got to the First Capital Connect ticket office there was nobody serving. The one member of staff had left his position to go and tell another (who...
iLiKETRAiNS DEMO OF THE WEEK:
ISTVAN & THE KOSMAS / DISCO CLUB IMPERIAL
DAVE: The song started out pretty promisingly, but it didn’t really develop. It could be just me! Having said...
Joe Gideon & The Shark - Civilisation from Bronzerat Records on Vimeo.
Awesome video from Joe Gideon & The Shark. Sharp white suits, Mark E Smith style monologues and NoMeansNo heavy...
What we know about Justin Vernon: he’s a fantastic songwriter with a soulful voice, which has slowly but surely found widespread acclaim with Bon Iver. We also found out from the Blood Bank EP...
Sunday 18th November
Monkey Chews – Friend Of The Bride, Looker, Jon byrne, Marcus Mumford
Cargo – Wire doo dah – Jackie-o motherfkkkccer5, polly shang kuan band
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Concert Review: Magazine, The Forum 12/02/09
Before I describe what it was like to be at a Magazine concert in 2009, I feel I should let you in on what it was like to be at...
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Media News : Free Papers report Diana Inquest
When people complain about the media's prurient interests, they often say 'if people didn't buy it then the papers wouldn't print it...
Legendary rock photographer Steve Gullick has a retrospective at Manchester’s KRAAK Gallery running from March 12th til March 27th, featuring shots taken for NME and Melody Maker as well as his...
To accompany the review of tUnE-yArDs’ Monday gig at Cargo, a few tasty shots of Think about Life, Trash Kit and New England native Merrill Garbus aka tUnE-yArDs.
Read the review of the night...
We have collected some truly heinous examples of recent album covers, from Empire of the Sun’s Star Wars travesty to the banal evil that is Razorlight’s Slipway Fire. Discretionary...
Album art in this gallery was selected based on several simple traits: strong concept, fine graphics including creative typography and general lushness. The first three of ‘The Best Record...
Ahhhh. I love this.
When Jenny Tuite of the Dirty Dishes emailed us at Artrocker.com, there was no extended press drivel or desperate pleadings for promotion, just a simple "Hey there!...
Not Squares
From: Belfast, Northern Ireland
On debut single ‘Asylum’ (Richter Collective) Irish punktronic (we really do love inventing these meaningless genres !) trio Not Squares...
The Japanese War Effort
From: Scotland, United Kingdom
The Japanese War Effort is a one man band, based in Edinburgh. Martin Moog (surely an adopted name otherwise baby he was born to moog...
There’s a tiny town to the north-east of Paris called Peronne.
It’s in the Somme, so it rains a lot, and both the buildings and surrounding countryside are deeply gashed with marks from...
I knew something didn’t add up. The BBC 6Music kerfuffle drags on and on – with more and more music fans, politicians and BBC bigwigs all competing to see who can yelp their opinions...
Yes Giantess
Boston, Massachusetts,
United States
The current incarnation of the NME may be a pale shadow of itself and struggling with it’s identity, not knowing whether to...
According to This is Horseflesh (the nom de guerre of Egyptian Hip Hop drummer Alex Pierce) this fantastic ‘reincarnation’ of the band’s own "Rad Pitt" was written to...
Bromheads are continuing their free monthly download singles with a genius reworking of ‘Dedicated to the One I Love’, a song made famous by the Shirelles.
Unsubtle mix tape...
If Wyldman’s recent live review has picqued your interest in Japanese Voyeurs, then you might be interested in their free download track ‘Dumb’. They’re biffing it out...
Forming a rock ‘n’ roll band is one of the more deceptive and fickle actions a group of young men (and it’s almost always young men) can take. It seems so easy: get a self-...
Andy Serkis as Ian Dury
Film Review : Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll
There have been several music ‘biopics’ over the years, and there seems to be a rash of them recently with...
PARSLEY’S COMMLOCK
Film Review : 3 Idiots
Stumbled by accident into my third Bollywood film ever last week. It concerns an Indian engineering school, and 3 students under considerable...
Not content with sitting on their laurels after we awarded them our number 1 record of 2009 for Ballin Outrageous, the Zookeepers have returned to the studio and biffed out another LP. Holy shit....
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COMMLOCKEvent
Review : Omen night at the West London Fantasy Film Society 04/02/10I
was back as my brother’s guest at this tiny cinema for enthusiasts of
an old style cinema...
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Technology News: iPad
Two days before the iPad launch, Bill Gates (former chief mekon on Microsoft) was on The Daily Show to promote his charitable work. It was a rather dry...
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Film Review : OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus (Rio doesn’t answer a.k.a. Lost In Rio)
Legendary Mondo Enduro motorbiking mainstay Austin Vince invited several of us...
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Film Review : Molière
Much to my surprise over Christmas I discovered that you can now watch films again on BBC iPlayer. I guess when the beeb buys films now...
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Film Review: Belle de jour (Buñuel)
Gradually moving through the Luis Buñuel box set I arrived at this legendary sexual fantasy film from 1967....
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COMMLOCK
TV
News: Stephanie Beacham on Celebrity Big BrotherI
confess I was interested to see who was on Celebrity Big Brother, as
my mother watches it avidly, and it’s being...
Nice Nice are currently giving away downloads of their new EP, before its physical release on 26 November.
It’s a fantastic single. The A-side ‘One Hit’ sounds like a kind of...
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