This is the end of Musicalis Eclectica as my creative endeavours with my new media startup are taking all my focus now – however, I’ll be blogging regularly and posting video content on a regular basis at the official Pixelati blog, currently situated at: http://pixelati.com. my personal blog at: http://damiencaine.pixelati.com.

Thanks again and I hope you had a fun time reading my rambling views on music : ) (there’ll be more mindless waffle at the Pixelati my blog but I’ll be waffling about videos, film, animation and videogames as well xD).

- Damien

We’ve still got a bit to do but we’ll be rolling with regular video content and free mixes over the next short while. I guess this is as good a time as any to link to the new video by CXL’s boy – J Williams – who is signed to CXL’s label, Illegal Musik. Enjoy it yo!

I’ve been keeping up on friend’s blogs (if a little sporadically) and I notice I’ve been tagged! (by the excellent At the Lighthouse.) Gasp… must update and reply xD.

I feel it pertinent to point out that Australia and NZ are two completely different countries – much like Canada and the US – only we’re separated from Australia by an entire ocean! : ) (never mind, all is forgiven – it’s a common perception out there beyond our shores xD).

I’ve been busy with musical-ness – finally back into creating it, more than just writing about it, so I’m hoping to have more of that to show around soon too : ).

Merry… errr… approaching Christmas y’all!

The Iron Maiden original brings back memories of bad metal covers bands from a misspent youth and the entire album is full of ‘em! If this tickles your fancy be sure to check out the Black Sabbath, Megadeth and Slayer covers. There’s something quite wrong about the way lead singer Harriet Ohlsson sings “frozen eyes stare deep in your mind as you die” xD. Thanks fOo!

I’m back onboard now, though (not that anyone cares) and my NZ music post is back on the agenda xD. Here’s a great cover of “By This River” by Brian Eno (‘the father of ambient music’) from his album “Before and after Science”. (Brian is responsible for the procedural music in Will Wright’s “Spore”.) It’s nice to be reminded why a tune is beautiful after so long.

∞ Random Interest Snippet: Brian Eno is responsible for the Windows 95 startup sound. Brian says: “The thing from the agency said, “We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional”, this whole list of adjectives, and then, at the bottom, it said: “and it must be 3¼ seconds long”. I thought this was so funny, and an amazing thought, to actually try to make a little piece of music. It’s like making a tiny little jewel. In fact, I made eighty-four pieces.”

Anyway! The point of that rambling nostalgia trip was that the only thing I miss about TV are the music channels; I had a TV for years after I moved out of home and it was always set to the music stations (except when certain people wanted to watch Shortland Street >_<). NZ’s had some great channels (yay for Max and C4!) – not all MTV pop – and I discovered great music during the years that I had a TV.

Now that I don’t, I have to rely on my main Eye on the Choob – Grunter. A man of varied tastes, Grunter’s given me the heads up on songs from Disturbed’s latest metal anthem to the alt-pop of the Ting Tings. After checking out their latest video I found this acoustic version of “Great DJ” (which I prefer), performed on Yahoo’s music channel. (Thanks Grunter!)

The quiet, folky, acoustic number really appeals to me and they do it so well; both are singer / songwriters and each has their own style but their writing method (each composes alone, then brings the song in for help with structure and harmonies) ensures they retain a cohesion to their sound. I like it, yo.

Style-wise it’s a bit of a departure from the norm but it proves the efficacy of a sing-a-long style with a funny, universal concept xD. And whilst this live version from Countdown is a good enough performance, Samuel L. Jackson’s “spoken word” version is better, if you ask me ; ).

This track – featuring Tiki Taane of Salmonella Dub fame – is a balls out, breakbeat, rock-fest with warm and dirty analogue synths and a moving bass line of phat proportions.

If I’d had Musicalis Eclectica back when Josh gave us the “sneak preview” of this video I could’ve been one of those elite “insider” blogs and lorded my advance knowledge over you all as if anybody cared what I had to say <— see? that’s my effort at doing it after the fact xD. Nevertheless, the track rocked and blew my head off when I first heard it: it’s electronica breakbeat with a very rock heart that appealed directly to my Prodigy and Chemical Brothers tastebuds.

Antiform are playing a gig at Zen and Fu on Saturday the 6th of September; I’ll be there, lighting up the dance floor with my awkward old guy moves – hopefully I’ll see some of you there!