OCRB: Miracle

Apparently, I buy too many records

My wife Helen, like every other woman i've ever lived with, believes that I buy too many records.

Which, as every record-buying man knows, is a ridiculous belief.

I will concede, however, that I do indeed buy a lot of records and that I don't afford them the same amount of listens and attention that I did 20 or 30 years ago.

To this end, I have decided to blog about the records that I buy, in order to help my appreciation of them - and perhaps to show Helen that I don't buy that many records after all.

Because i'm crap with deadlines the blog posts will be sporadic and probably be about a month or 2 behind but that's just the way i am! The posts will not necessarily be actual reviews (most likely comments, at best) and will generally be pretty damn short due to the reasons outlined above. As a writer in a previous existence i have decided not to worry about writing as art in the pieces but, instead, to attempt to convey feeling over semantic (and often grammatic) perfection.

And 'OCRB'? It stands for 'Obsessive Compulsive Record Buying' - a little known mental health affliction that is potentially damaging to the bank account but ultimately life-affirming. It is sad.......but a nice form of sad.

Monday, 22 August 2011

Miracle: The Visitor remixes (House Anxiety)

I rarely buy remixes but Steve 'give me your money, Philip' Moore is an exception to almost every other rule i hold dear so i might as well buy this double 12" of mixes of the lead track from the album. 7 mixes - 2 of which are the album mix and radio edit, expand and contract the track into interesting extremes. Best mix by far is The Field's mix, which is a rumbling piece of ambient dub that brings to mind Gas and Moore's inevitable inclusion in Kompakts' next 'Pop Ambient' compilation. Christian Fennesz covers the latter half of his mix with a smattering of distortion that threaten to envelope the track and isn't half as creative as he is capable of. Elsewhere Adeptus turn up the pop thrills whilst still maintaining a weird bent, Ikonika speed up the BPM into something that would almost fit the Den Haan House masterplan, and Daniel O Sullivan's own Ulver mix begins relatively sedately before morphing into a lovely wordly soundscape. Great stuff yet again, ltd to 500 - so get in quick.

Miracle: Fluid Window (House Anxiety)

More Steve Moore im afraid..... If anyone has really captured the essence of my 2011 listening experiences it is him. I hadn't bought a synthpop album in years until he turned my head and now i listen to more synth stuff than any other. This is a lovely pop album and really sails close to prime-period Depeche Mode on occasions. And do you what? That's not a bad thing at all!!! Stop believing the fools that tell you the 80s were shit - they really weren't, all this great sounding stuff came out and now Steve and his friend Daniel O Sullivan (vocals, also a member of avant metallists Aethenor) have created an album that references all that good stuff and takes it shooting off into a fine new galaxy. This man will bankrupt me. Of this i have no doubt.