Record Reconstructor

  Dashboard! I've spent the last day or so trying to decide how to open this discussion, and I think I've settled on this - next Tuesday I'll be going, on my own, to see Nine Inch Nails perform live in Manchester.  This gig comes a quarter-century after the prospect of seeing Nine Inch Nails live was what compelled me to purchase a ticket to the Glastonbury festival in the year 2000.  I believe in the power of live music even if I don't love what has happened to the culture around it and the commodification of it in the last few years, but rarely do I go to a gig alone;  live music is an activity which yearns to be a shared experience.  I think Nine Inch Nails are one of the most important, creative, revolutionary musical acts that has existed in my lifetime, but I can't in good conscience bring someone to a NIN performance sight-unseen, without them having time to acclimatise to the scalding heat and relentless assault, the frigid stillness and sparse desolatio...

This week: Songs and albums about games, the Queens of the Stone Age discography, and confusing the Spotify algorithm. Well, I was all set to have a quiet weekend when things got thrown out of kilter when a friend's teenage daughter was hit by a car while crossing at a zebra crossing (thankfully she seems to be alright, despite being knocked into the air by the vehicle), which threw into disarray Catherine's plans, which we managed to stitch back together but she was then out all Saturday evening which I spent in turn watching coverage of the increasing tensions between the citizens of Los Angeles and the agents of the Federal Government sent to harass them, and spiralling out on my own, waiting for the escalation into full blown martial law.  Needless to say, the whole affair has left me feeling weirdly unsettled, with misfortunes both foreign and domestic on my mind.  It did make me think of Refuse/Resist by Sepultura who provided this week's article title though. Becaus...

  Dashboard! So, I know I have a weekly wrapup from last week to write, but I've not been able to summon the spoons to face it.  I'm not sure how much I have to say about any of the albums I listened to really, so I'll find a way to scoop them up just for the same of covering every single album this year in text, but there's no in depth essay coming, just a collection of music I listened to in the background while other stuff happened around me. This week has been the longest period where I've not written anything for this blog, nor listened to any new albums (or in fact, any albums at all).  I had a fun time with my friends at UK Games Expo over the weekend but came back slightly drained;  its a long few days and it's a big wear on my introverted social battery to hang out with people that I like for four days straight.  Coming back into work this week has been a challenge as well - its pretty tough sledding at the moment, and high stress situations combined wi...