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The fork in the road

As well as revealing new iPlayer traffic figures, the BBC also today announced that the iPlayer service is to be made available on Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

So says the Guardian.

If it’s not realised through Adobe Flash (which these devices currently don’t support), then it will probably be similar to how YouTube works on these devices. Alternatively we’ll get some lame web pages that merely direct to Quicktime content.

Back in July last year I suggested that the BBC should ditch iPlayer and sign up with iTunes. BBC Worldwide – a separate commercial entity – started on this path this week with the release of programmes on iTunes after they expire from their iPlayer obligations.

What’s the betting that we’ll eventually see everything via iTunes as the iPlayer solution for the Mac? And for Windows too?

No Comments | Permalink | General Musings | All things Apple
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Bertine Zetlitz: This Time

You see.. this is how to do ballads in pop music: drop the cheesy instrumentation which always seems to dog such endeavours – RnB people that includes you, let the lyrics scoot around the subject rather than explaining everything (remember it’s about building a relationship with your listeners). I guess I’m asking to songwriters to understate everything.

This Time starts and continues in a very ambient fashion, adding percussive decorations to emphasize how much was lost – explained through the lyrics. Sure, there’s a gradual build towards the end, but the climb is wonderfully subtle. Check out the sparse use of acoustic guitar which is usually the dominating factor in such downbeat songs.

Bertine Zetlitz: My Italian Greyhound – iTunes UK

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | Music of 2006
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Robyn Is Here

For the past week, Anil Dash has been obsessing about vocoders and auto-tuning during dissertations about Snoop Dogg’s new single Sensual Seduction. Personally, I can’t stand the guy (Snoop), apart from one song. Anyhow, whilst these posts are analytically perpendicular to the great musical interludes in American Psycho (going for depth rather than breadth), there is only one thing that you really should know: there’s a remix featuring Robyn on vocals. Anil correctly documents this as follows:

There’s an outstanding remix of Sensual Seduction with the hook sung by Robyn, minus the vocoder manipulation. But really it’s just another milestone in Robyn’s march towards being the best pure-pop female performer in the world.

There are potential warning signs here: do we really want Robyn to pop up anywhere and everywhere?

1 Comment | Permalink | Music of 2008
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Told You So: musings and an abstract prediction

A brief companion piece to Three Ps.

When it comes to business, many people don’t like to spend a lot of money on an unknown venture, especially if they’re not sure that the direction they’ll be going in is the right one. Perhaps they don’t trust their instincts enough, or perhaps they don’t trust the people who are advising them.

But if such a timid approach leads to reduced productivity, mis-communication, loss of sales or of staff, or maybe something more calamitous, it becomes easier to step back and decide to throw lots of money at an alternative solution.

Translation: it’s easier to blame technology than Policies, Procedures or People.

No Comments | Permalink | General Musings
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Yelle: Mal poli

And if you want proof that the music press should never stick text in front of my nose that includes the words ‘electro’ and ‘pop’, here it is. Because give me five seconds with such music and I’m usually off to iTunes. This time, I think it was mere milliseconds.

This track from the “French electro-popper”’s debut album doesn’t know whether to be rave, rap or pop. So in the end it decides to be all three.

Live:

Yelle: Pop Up – Version deluxe – iTunes UK
Yelle – Official Website

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | New Music | Music of 2007
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Strike the Colours: Bare Legs In a Storm

Arggh.. delay in posting, proving that when my head is full of tech stuff – specifically Git this time around – music isn’t boisterous enough to barge in and kick it out.

Strike the Colours make music that seems to grab the best bits from all my favourite bands and weaves them together in tingly shifting ways. This track from their debut EP (and yes, it’s a proper EP) is my favourite because of the way Jenny Reeve’s voice curls round the words and what happens after the piano break.

Inexplicably discovered on the BBC’s TV show Rapal. I don’t know quite why they turned up there, rather than somewhere more accessible, but I’m glad they did.

Rapal: Strike the Colours
The Face That Sunk A Thousand Ships – iTunes UK
Strike the Colours – Official Website

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | New Music | Music of 2007
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Butterfly Boucher: Scary Fragile

Forthcoming.

Oh my.. I’ll say it again. Forthcoming.

After years of waiting, Butterfly Boucher’s second album is now showing signs of being released. This should be the title track of the album which should turn up sometime this month. Hmm.. two conditionals. Not good.

Downbeat and acoustic, chorused vocals, with a splash of organ, percussion and some very brief, expensive sounding strings. There’s more going on than might first appear. I guess this time she’s not playing most of the instruments. Shame.

Hear it on her MySpace page.

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | Music of 2008
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Sofia Talvik: Street of Dreams

Street of Dreams, Sofia Talvik’s second album, released last year, absolutely nails the folk-pop target that I think she has been aiming for. Perhaps genre-fying her music is a little vulgar – it doesn’t deserve that simplistic treatment. The album crosses the path laid by Heidi Berry 20 years ago – check out Jozsef Nemeth’s piano on this song if you want to play Snap – and that’s a very good thing.

Sofia undersells herself via the lyrics of the title track, whilst making the point musically and vocally that she’s achieving her goals. A new album Jonestown is due out later this year.

Street of Dreams – Official Store
Sofia Talvik – Official Website
Sofia Talvik – MySpace
Street of Dreams – iTunes UK

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | Music of 2007
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