Plutonic Rainbows

I recently found this gem from way back in my collection. I remember playing it quite a bit in 1991. It hasn’t aged at all; if anything, it seems even more powerful than it did back then.

Reviewer Jason Ankey talks about it:

Virtually ignored upon its initial release, Laughing Stock continues to grow in stature and influence by leaps and bounds. Picking up where Spirit of Eden left off, the album operates outside the accepted sphere of rock to create music that is both delicate and intense. Recorded with a large classical ensemble, it defies easy categorization, conforming to very few structural precedents. While the gently hypnotic ‘Myrrhman’ flirts with ambient textures, the percussive ‘Ascension Day’ drifts toward jazz before the two sensibilities converge to create something entirely new and different on ‘New Grass.’ The epic ‘After the Flood,’ on the other hand, is an atmospheric whirlpool laced with jackhammer guitar feedback and Mark Hollis’ remarkably plaintive vocals. It flows into ‘Taphead,’ perhaps the most evocative, spacious, and understated piece on the record. A work of staggering complexity and immense beauty, Laughing Stock remains an under-recognized masterpiece, and its echoes can be heard throughout much of the finest experimental music issued in its wake.

Previously only available on RunwayML, San Francisco based fal.ai have now partnered with the company to enable Runway Gen3 Alpha on their own platform, with requests being made via their web form or using an API. You can tailor the output for either 5 or ten seconds of video.

Euro troubadour Milan Warmoeskerken charms our darned socks off with an instant classic entry to the pantheon of timeless Stroom beauties - daydreamy, hydroponic pastoralism to soundtrack urbane yearnings RIYL CS + Kreme, Dirty Beaches, Mittland Och Leo, Eyeless In Gaza, Cocteau Twins, Les Disques Du Crépuscule, Enno Velthuys, Felt, or the most crushed Joanne Robertson & Dean Blunt jams.

‘Leave Another Day’ is arguably the magnum opus of Milan W., whose breadcrumb trail of work as Crumar Young, and as part of Mittland Och Leo, Speedqueen, Beach, and others, has lured listeners deep into the s/Lowlands backwoods imagination over the past 16 years. The album’s dozen songs illuminate the thoughts of an old head on young shoulders; gilding and binding aspects of dusky country, folk-rock, blues, chamber-like jazz noir, spangled kosmiche and indie-pop, with flushes of synthetic warmth and a strikingly poised voice for the ages, perfectly suspended in-the-mix, floating moody above it all.

The Antwerp artist’s music could hardly be a more apt for release on Belgium’s Stroom, carrying with it a certain modest, lowkey vitality and slowness of thought we’ve come to associate with that strange, gently undulating sliver of Europe where things occur at their own time-out-of-joint (or as one put it to us, akin to an “absurd England”). It’s maybe a tenuous link, but the expressive instrumental synthy sentiment of ‘Blue Heron’ shares a title and evocative European soundscape feeling with Enno Velthuys’ early ‘80s peach, and can be heard as symptomatic of a smoky magique and almost medieval meets modernist appeal that riddles the whole album.

We could almost be hearing a more full voiced CS + Kreme (from that other eerie England, Oz) cooing from the floating chamber music of ‘I Wait’, whilst ‘All The Way’ evokes the Midlands lilt and jangle of Felt or less histrionic Eyeless in Gaza, and ‘Face To Face’ weaves in the soft female counterpoint of Martha Maieu, who lends nuanced, harmonised filament to swaying Lynchian centrepiece ‘Ballad’ and the simply gorgeous ‘Memories’. Milan’s contemporary colours are worn more explicitly in the skull-rub synth detunings and city pop detour coda of ‘Wanda’, which makes the stylistic balance of crepuscular airs from anachronstic eras feel all that more intoxicating, when contrasted with the contemporary x classical touches of chef’s kiss synth and strum that come together in his parting piece.

You can get the album now by heading over to Boomkat.

I recently picked this up and have to say it is one of the most incredible gourmands I have ever tried. The opening of Melt My Heart is as irresistible as it is complex, drawing you in with the rich, velvety warmth of dark chocolate. This is no ordinary chocolate note — here, it is bittersweet and luxurious, like the finest artisanal confection. Its smooth richness is immediately captivating, evoking the feeling of indulgence and the allure of forbidden pleasures. The chocolate feels dark and enigmatic, setting the stage for the sensuality that follows.

Interwoven with the chocolate is the elegant and creamy essence of orris butter, which lends a powdery, almost buttery floral quality to the fragrance. The orris root’s softness tempers the intensity of the chocolate, creating a delicate balance between richness and refinement. The orris introduces a sensual, tactile element, reminiscent of the feel of silk against the skin — cool, smooth, and intimately close. This interplay between the edible and the ethereal makes Melt My Heart a fragrance that feels simultaneously grounded and otherworldly.

This sumptuous oriental fragrance contains pure orris butter, a sought-after delicacy in perfumery for which there is no substitute. Like the warmth of true love, orris butter is irreplaceable. Our sensual blend is deepened by the sultriness of beloved oud and sandalwood, soothing ylang ylang combines with a hint of white magnolia and French sage to boost spirits. With their irresistible influence, purified ginger, stimulating mandarin, and luscious dark chocolate complete this enthralling creation.

As the fragrance evolves, a heart of oud and sandalwood emerges, grounding the composition with a smoky, woody depth. The oud here is subtle and refined, not overpowering, but present enough to give the fragrance a sense of exotic allure. The sandalwood is creamy and smooth, adding to the richness of the scent, while the ginger adds a slight spiciness, a warmth that contrasts beautifully with the cool powderiness of the orris.

The drydown of Melt My Heart is where the true magic happens. As the chocolate fades into the background, the base of amber and myrrh reveals itself, creating a warm, resinous cocoon that lingers on the skin for hours. The amber is golden and sweet, while the myrrh adds a smoky, balsamic touch, giving the fragrance a mystical quality.

I've finally finished configuring the CloudFront Distribution for the site. Previously, gzip compression was being enabled in the upload config file. However, it has now been configured to avoid that and only have CloudFront compress static files automatically.

This fragrance has been out for some time now but I recently managed to get a small sample for testing purposes. Vanilla Diorama is a unisex offering from the house that contains a mixture of ambery and gourmand notes.

Vanilla Diorama, the new creation of Dior perfumer-creator François Demachy, is a warm and joyful ode to vanilla. For this noble beauty, he composed a fragrance that is instantly pleasing, round and seductive, both rich, and shot through with freshness, revealing a joyful portrait of true vanilla perfection.

I first tried this a few weeks ago and wasn't totally sold on its qualities. However, it has sort of grown on me a bit and I will try to find a bottle at a decent price.

I am also waiting for a sample of Roja Parfums 'Lost in Paris' to arrive. I will update on that when it finally gets here.

New novel from this British author that sees him delve into the occult world of London. You can pick up a copy of The Great When by Alan Moore published by Bloomsbury on October 2nd.

The year is 1949, the city London. Amidst the smog of the capital is Dennis Knuckleyard, a hapless eighteen-year-old employed by a second-hand bookshop. One day, on an errand to acquire books for sale, Dennis discovers a novel that simply does not exist. It is a fictitious book, a figment from another novel. Yet it is physically there in his hands. How?

Dennis has stumbled on a book from the Great When, a magical version of London beyond time and space, where reality blurs with fiction and concepts such as Crime and Poetry are incarnated as wondrous, terrible beings. But this other, magical London must remain a secret: if Dennis cannot find a way to return this book to where it belongs, he risks bizarre and disastrous repercussions, such as his body being turned inside out (or worse).

So begins a journey delving deep into the city's occult underbelly and tarrying with an eccentric cast of sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers – some from legend, some all too real, and all with plans of their own. Soon Dennis finds himself at the centre of an explosive series of events that may alter and endanger both Londons forever.

OpenAI rolled out the service across parts of the world during the week and the service is now available in the UK since yesterday.

The ChatGPT Advanced Voice feature was first announced in May during the launch of GPT-4o. The feature can respond to audio inputs in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, similar to human response time in a typical conversation.

You're still visiting this blog? Wow. Thanks.

As I haven't posted to this site in almost four years, I thought it would be good to rebuild it with Python and Jinja2. Originally, it was all generated with Ruby On Rails. The Python upgrade is done now. There are some new subtle design changes too.

Due to the complexity, quite a bit of the work was carried out with OpenAI ChatGPT o1-preview.

I hope to get back to more regular entries now that all backend work has been completed.