SOON

http://www.last.fm/music/Burning+Prisma

Scottish Rap

An old college mate now runs a magazine / review site, which recently done a feature on Scottish Rap (where he mentioned my old documentary).  Check it out:

http://flickermagazine.co.uk/features/scottishrap.html

ME Versus PITBULL

While I was working on my (our) new stuff, I got a so much RnB stuck in my head, I had to do this:

And you can download it here, too:

http://soundcloud.com/nolikecrumbs/marco-van-bastard-pitbull-give

Enjoy

HAPPY LANDING

http://about.me/criticalbest

http://flavors.me/criticalbest

Have at it

2011 - Best Music

It's that time of year again

Not had a chance to listen to as much as usual this year, it's been a hectic one.  Here's what I've liked, though

Best of 2011

Rustie - Glass Swords
High Park - All Day
Water Borders - Harbored Mantras
Amon Tobin - ISAM
Balam Acab - Wander / Wonder
Zomby - Dedication
Xander Harris - Urban Gothic
GusGus - Arabian Horse
GL▲SS †33†H / ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ - Split
Thundercat - The Golden Age Of Apocalypse
Prurient - Bermuda Drain
Patten - GLAQJO XAACSSO
Nero - Welcome Reality
Chilly Gonzales - The Unspeakable
Mark Fell - Manitutshu
Hype Williams - One Nation
Hudson Mohawke - Satin Panthers
Holy Other - With U
Fed. - Lion Conversion
Cut Hands - Afro Noise, Vol. 1
The Caretaker - An empty bliss beyond this World
Cex - Tiny Creature
The Captain Kirk On LSD Experience - Eternal Sauerkraut Warmachine
Alva Noto - Univrs
The Weeknd - Echoes of Silence
Clotaire 1er - We Are Bad Mother Fuckers

Tune of the year

Sabrepulse - Close To Me

http://youtu.be/YIC1aK6CleE

That's us for another year - be excellent to each other, y'all


Here's the links to previous years charts:

2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003

BOOK YOUR FACE

Critical Best, now available on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/criticalbest

A Silent Swaying Breath

Hey, I did some audio textures for this:

http://music.audiogourmet.co.uk/album/a-silent-swaying-breath 

All profits go towards folks affected by the summer UK riots / community projects.

It's nice and ambient - have a listen if you like that sort of thing.  Bonus points if you can identify anything of mine...

BURNING PRISMA

I had mentioned previously that I'd been collaborating on some music with a mate of mine.  Well, we've just unleashed a couple of tracks into the wild, and submitted them to Bleep's 'Filtered' competion.  We're going to releasing stuff under the name 'Burning Prisma'

You can listen to the 2 tracks here:

Defectors - http://soundcloud.com/burningprisma/defectors

Extrapolated Message - http://soundcloud.com/burningprisma/extrapolated-message

Have a listen, and see what you think.  We'll be doing a proper release of our stuff at some point, but work continues at the moment

A NICE CHEERY MIX

A coupla weeks ago, I picked up a load of new vinyl. Had a play on the decks today, and thought I'd do a "nice cheery mix" since the sun's come back out. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you want to look at it a different way), it turned out pretty much the opposite of cheery. There's some nasty hardcore and breakcore on there (the DJ Floorclearer track is a particular belter).

You can stream and download it here - http://soundcloud.com/nolikecrumbs/a-nice-cheery-mix

Tracklist:

Team Doyobi - Skylight Red Omega
DJ Balli - Cutting The Throat of a Boyscout
LFO Demon - My Rotten Body
DJ Producer - Obituary
DJ Floorclearer - Strangle The Giant Elephant
Duran Duran Duran - Face Blast
Danny C - Scrawny

Enjoy!

'"Test 01'"

SO, my last.fm page has a track on it, that I have no recollection of making:

http://www.last.fm/music/Critical+Best/_/Test+01

It's called 'Test 01', and it's over 40 minutes long. Evidently, 7 people have listened to it, some of them multiple times.

Does anyone have it? Seriously, it's not on any of my hard drives, and I really don't remember making a 40 minute track...

COLLAB

It's been pretty quiet at Circus Hands towers with regards to blog worthy items - been planning my wedding, and getting stuck in at work. But I have still found time, over the last 6 months, to colloborate with a good friend of mine on some music type stuff. It's shaping up rather nicely - so I will keep you all updated when things progress to a listenable state.

One more thing - there's now a mobile adapted version of this page, for viewing on your phone an' that. It should all work automatically if you you check this on for your phone I think

Ta ra

CRITICALBEST.CO.UK

Oh hey, looky here:

criticalbest.co.uk

I'll be doing some proper stuff with it shortly, hopefully.

Got the laptop back, fixed - it's all good. Working on some new stuff as we speak...

CATASTROPHIC HDD FAILURE

Well, in a severe case of deja vu, I must report that my laptop hard disk is currently suffering a catastrophic failure.

Bad news
-It was only 3 months old
-The drive is failing so bad it failed to image, meaning I will need to re-install everything when I get it replaced =S
-I was actually in the midst of making new music - a collaboration with a very good friend. And we were making some fine progress

Good news
-It's still under warranty, so I'm sending it back to get the drive replaced tomorrow
-Even though the imaging failed, I managed to back everything up. Phew
-I've got this spare Ubuntu laptop, which is chugging along nicely

Fucking nightmare, though. I've got some software running under Wine on this laptop, so I may be able to make some daft noises, at least, while I get all this shit sorted out

Carry on!

Cakebuilder - Book of the Dead

I could not find a decent copy of this on Youtube, so chucked it up myself:



The best breakcore tune that samples Evil Dead? I think so...

WOLVODS on Last.fm

Well, my new EP, WOLVODS, is up for streaming and download on Last.fm now:

You can get it here - http://www.last.fm/music/Critical+Best/WOLVODS

(It's still on Bandcamp, too - http://criticalbest.bandcamp.com/album/wolvods)

It's been described as

"... the sound of abandoned machines - in the process of corroding and seizing-up, mourning the loss of their masters ... and their place in society.... Desperately sending clunky transmissions, trying to communicate their mute fate."

Enjoy!

Best music of 2010

2010 is over. We are well on our journey towards the glittering singularity of the future. There was some cracking stuff released last year, a selection of which. is layed out below. Not really in any order, though the first 4 or 5 are definitely in the right place...

Best of 2010

Umberto - Prophecy Of The Black Widow
Crookers - Tons Of Friends
Autre Nu Veut - Autre Nu Veut
Ceephax Acid Crew - United Acid Emirates
Zola Jesus - Stridulum II
Altar Eagle - Mechanical Gardens
Fed. - Mashup Business
Afrirampo - We Are Uchu No Ko
Lindstrøm and Christabelle - Real Life Is No Cool
Mount Kimbie - Crooks & Lovers
Sylvain Chauveau - Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)
Lil B - Rain in England
Holy Fuck - Latin
Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
Sun City Girls - Funeral mariachi
Mark Van Hoen - Where Is The Truth
Xiu Xiu - Dear God, I Hate Myself
Souvenir's Young America - The Name Of The Snake
Gill Scott-Heron - I'm New Here
Sam Spence - Sounds
Kid606 - Songs About Fucking Steve Albini
The Black Dog - Music For Real Airports
How to Dress Well - Love Remains
Balam Acab - See Birds

And according to Last.fm, my most played tracks last year were:

1. Crookers – Have Mercy ft. Carrie Wilds
2. Crookers – Embrace The Martian ft. KiD CuDi
3. Eraplee Noisewall Orchestra – Desperation Speaks
4. Xiu Xiu – Dear God, I Hate Myself
5. Sabrepulse – I Heart Voltage


Here's the links to previous years charts, if you wish to make me for previous musical indiscretions or whatnot:

2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003

Ciao, and Happy New Year

HAPPYXMAS

Might not get a chance to update for the Christmas hols - have a good one, folks

CREATION

Regular viewers should be aware of the trials and tribulations I've been through with my laptop, Percy (Laptop Bastard). He died a few years ago, very nearly taking my completed second (I think it was that one) album with him. He was kindly patched up by a friend, to become Percy Laptop Bastard 2.0, and served me well for a time.

About a year ago, I noticed he started to get slow and sluggish, and generally past his prime, so recently I got a new one. A beast. It's taken me a month or so, but I've got it all tricked the fuck out, and now I'm rocking Reason (with a nice wee Korg control interface) for music, and Premier (and a proper pro transcoder) for videos, as well as the other Windows 7 niceness.

So I guess, what I'm getting at, is - I now have some decent kit, so in theory, my creative output should be decent-er.

Prepare for war

(Addendum - the old laptop has been freshened with the new Ubuntu. He's now 'Percy Laptop Bastard 3.0', and I have no idea what to do with him)

New EP - WOLVODS - out now

My new EP, WOLVODS, is up for streaming and download on Bandcamp, now

All I ask for in return for the free download is your email address - and I won't send you any shite. Promise!




Critical Best - WOLVODS - Released 21 November 2011

Further download locations coming soon...

New Look

I'd been using that old template for about 5 years, so thought I would futurise it up a bit. There's some links to my other internet places now, too

In other news - new EP is finished. Release scheduled before the end of the year. BAM

Got a new, decent laptop, and got Reason 4 humming along nicely on it, with my wee Korg Nano Kontrol and some other bits an' that, so once the new album's out I'm gonny start making some shiny new stuff