I bought this purely from the recommendation of members of amazon.co.uk, as usual.

It’s different. Different, in an amazing way. With old English samples, accordions and all sorts of instruments it feels familiar and peaceful. According to minister-of-dub of amazon.co.uk:

Second Light is like a spliff - fuelled trek across the English Countryside, taking in caves, oceans and sailors (could just be me!)with Mr. Kipling at your side. Theres an even more spititual feel about this album; it is so chilled out it just fills you with a sense of peace and well being.

I agree, it’s a beautiful album and definitely worth it if you like something very different from any dance you’ve heard before!

My rating: 4/5

Amazon rating: 5/5

I’m not one for making music, but this new ‘Pacemaker’ looks interesting.  A pocket sized DJ mixing device by Tonium, you load tracks onto it then use gestures to mix them up.  My opinion is you either buy a proper mp3 player if you want to listen to music, or proper DJ decks if you want to mix - I don’t understand who’d spend a lot of money on halfs.

Review at dancenode.com

 Some random stuff by Deadmau5 for you to download.

the idea back then was to do a thing called “Project 56″ which was 56 tracks for people with short attention spans…  instead of waiting years to finally throw it together,  i figured i’d just toss it to everyone.

so!  feel free to download and exploit these tracks in any way your evil heart desires….  if you use these commercially, all i ask is that you give credit where credit is due!

Go to samples

This is a compilation of Daft Punk’s work plus a few remixes, so in a way I’m reviewing all of their work (though some of their best stuff is left out). Interestingly, Daft Punk fell way below Justice in the Top 100 DJs list, even though Justice imitate them.

Unfortunately, the tracks not a continuous in the mix CD since it’s a compilation, so the jumble of tracks leave it far from Daft Punk’s Alive 2007 album which is brilliant. Also, many of the tracks aren’t Daft Punk’s best, ‘Musique’ and ‘Something About Us’ for instance include a lame robot voice and are uninteresting. ‘Robot Rock’ has potential to be brilliant but in 4 and a half minutes Daft Punk hardly change a thing. ‘Da Funk’ is great, along with ‘Around the World’ and ‘One More Time’. The remixes suck. Buy Alive 2007 if you like Daft Punk, even if it costs much more.

Commonly seen as a disappointment by the Chemical Brothers, and it’s easy to tell why.  Exit Planet Dust was good, Dig Your Own Hole was brilliant and then they changed their genre - losing the big beat factor that they were so good at.  Surrender was mediocre, and so is this, dropping the standard.

‘Come With Us’ and ‘It Began in Afrika’ are alright at the right time, but sometimes feel loud and boring.  Lots of the album is just normal - nothing special, setting the trend for the whole thing.  The song to note is ‘The Test’, which uses the right instruments to create the druggy experience Richard Ashcroft of the Verve is singing about. 

Don’t let the snarling grin put you off.  It’s a different album (not just because it has body parts all over the back as well).

The songs are varied, but the drum machine is way-over used.  Some songs are experimental, and good: ‘Goon Gumpas’ sounds like something out a fairytale and it’s interesting.  However, the album is the shortest of my whole collection at only 30 minutes.  Considering I paid the same amount for 150 minutes of Sasha in Global Underground, which is better without being longer anyway, I really don’t think I’ve got my money’s worth.

Mr R Baker says something I completely agree with:

I’m the odd one out because I can’t appreciate this album as much as his others. It’s over before you have time to get into it, and upon repeat listens it seems to do very little but show off. Sounds to me like Mr. James was trying to include as many variations of one rhythm into each song, at the expensive of listenability.
It’s impressive, but a little too self-indulgent for my liking.
That said, “4″, “Yellow Calx” and (especially) “Girl/Boy Song” are fantastic tracks.
Disappointing…but what can you do?

He’s not the odd one out, he’s exactly right.

Yes, it’s Christian dance music, but don’t let that put you off at all. This is a classy album. In the words of Flap Jackson from Amazon:

Fact: The British like to dance.
Fact: This album is so pumped with adrenaline, it’s bad to drive to this. You’ll find yourself doing 100 MPH. Yes, it’s that good. “Open My Eyes” is pure adrenaline, say goodbye to coffee, because this is a pure action song. You’d expect it to be played in huge action movie scene, like a high-speed car chase.

“Lifelight” is a song that actually has lyrics, but that doesn’t hinder the song, as it’s still a great dance song, and it could fit right in with the club scene. The rest of the album is filled with great beats, and cool vibes. Overall, a great unique album for the Christian music industry. This album is so cool on every level, even Andy Hunter’s name sounds totally cool. I just wish more people could hear him. So try it out, but don’t drive to it. You’ll get a ticket.

Basically, it’s very energetic, some of the best hardcore dance you’ll get.

Bought this on the recommendation of those on Amazon, who you can usually trust. It’s a chillout CD from French band Air.

It’s quite a decent CD. ‘La Femme d’Argent’ is a very nice sounding chill song, but it runs into ‘Sexy Boy’, which isn’t. The robotic voice is annoying, and the CD feels annoyingly long even though it’s one of the shortest I have, because all the songs are the same.

Let’s leave it to Gustav on Amazon to explain the rest:

Moon Safari gets a bit of praise and claim to be the best Air album. I honestly cannot tell why. There is only two or three songs on here worth listening to and one is basically a continuation of the other.

“La femme d’argent” - a fantastic track. Its the only song on this cd worth listening to.
“Sexy Boy” - a terrible, horrible, disgusting track. Every time it starts I hit the Next button. I can’t stand this song.

“All I Need” - bores me to tears.
“Kelly Watch The Stars” - tries to be a good song but doesn’t quite make it.
“Talisman” - This one is more a “La femme d’argent” part 2 so its good as well.
“Remember” - This one tries to be good too. Its slightly better than “Kelly Watch The Stars”
“You Make It Easy” - another continuation. This time it’s “All I Need” part 2. Still bores me to tears.
“Ce matin-là” - On the level of “Kelly Watch The Stars.”
“New Star In The Sky” - listen to this on as well. Its very good.
“Le voyage de Penelope” - On the level of “Remember”

Article

I thought prisons were for correcting people… not for messing them up even more.  According to an ex-prison worker, an estimated £100m worth of drugs are being traded in prisons each year.

With all our other problems with prisons, e.g. running out of space, and that it’s gonna be full of nasty characters already, it seems that things are just going to get worse for people in prisons.

According to www.nicefacts.com:

Under extreme stress, some octopuses will eat their own arms.

Octopuses are self harming too!  Good job human emos can’t reach their own arms… and I won’t chuck in a ‘harmless’ joke.