tunequest

In the past, I've taken issue with the tendency in some circles to lump Ratatat's music in with that of the 8-bit crowd. I can understand the temptation, what with the band's programmed, electronic beats, screaming guitars and ample keyboarding. But while their tones may sometimes sound similar to those produced by the Nintendo Entertainment System, their origins are much more organic. So it surprised me to see that Ratatat ...

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Sorry for the relative quiet around here lately. I've been on a bit of a holiday. Here's a review posted from a small island ~10,000 miles from home. :: After nearly six years in the musical wilderness, alt-rock godfathers The Breeders are back with a disc called Mountain Battles. And boy is it a good one, but its quality may not be readily apparent on the first few listens. The record, ...

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Jump to Review Halo 26, Ghosts I-IV has just been announced at the nine inch nails website. It's a collection of 36 instrumental tracks created with no clear agenda, with the entire process being driven by impulse and improvisation. Of it, Trent says: We began improvising and let the music decide the direction. Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear ...

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This is it. The Strokes inaugural recording. I discovered it the other day while browsing the XL Recordings page at eMusic, which as far as I can tell, is currently the only place you can find it (unless you want to pay collectors prices for a hard copy). Released in 2001, this eleven minute EP features rougher, less unpolished versions of three songs that would later appear on the band's ...

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Another year come, another year gone. After spending 2006 evaluating the status of my iTunes library and trimming some fat, I took the opportunity in 2007 to explore a lot of new material. And I must say that overall it was a pretty good year for both my library and for music in general. I had added 1,891 songs to my library by the end of October, which marks ...

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For nearly as long as there's been an Internet, fans have been contributing to the nine inch nails experience. There's something about the music that seems to inspire a devotional following (probably has to do with expressions of angst, contempt and alienation wrapped appealing pop sensibilities). Youthful rebelliousness and antiestablishmentism runs deep through both camps. Indeed, the rise of nin and the net seems to have coincided perfectly with ...

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  No announcement on dead air space or inrainbows.com. And no rumblings on the net save for this report about one fan receiving it early. But today, Saturday Dec 1, is the last day for Radiohead to make good on its promise to ship the Diskbox version of In Rainbows "before 3rd December 2007." So it begs the question: Are the packages in the mail? Will legions of fans worldwide receive ...

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So Amazon recently threw its hat into the thunderdome of online digital music sales. The store's big brand name and huge retail operation instantly make it one of the top tier marts for digital music. As Amazon MP3 is seen primarily as a challenger to the iTunes Store's throne, I originally wanted to do a compare and contrast with that gorilla, but later thought that unfair to eMusic, who ...

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Via this 9rules note: HERE IS SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE DOWNLOAD: THE ALBUM WILL COME AS A 48.4MB ZIP FILE CONTAINING 10 X 160KBPS DRM FREE MP3s. I haven't placed an order for In Rainbows yet because I was waiting to find out the quality and format of the digital files. With this news I'm a little disappointed. Sure, 160kbps is quite *acceptable* but I consider 192kbps to be my minimum bitrate ...

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