Tag Archives: Kraftwerk

The Self-Hating Hipster’s Top 50 Albums of 2013

26 Mar

2013 Albums
Two years ago (and change) I compiled a list of  the Top 11 Albums of 2011.  Last year I put together the Top 12 Albums of 2012.  Both articles were compiled of selections culled from lists of approximately 40 albums respectively.  After not publishing an article in six months I decided that those once dedicated SHH readers deserved something much more comprehensive for 2013.  Instead of publishing a predictably titled Self-Hating Hipster’s Top 13 Albums of 2013 three weeks into January of 2014 I would, as I am wont to do, aim way too high and likely disappoint myself–a Top 50!

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The First Quarter of 2013 in Music

14 Jun

Almost exactly three months ago I posted this article with a list of twenty albums in alphabetical order which I had purchased in the first quarter of 2013.  The intent was to have the article out by mid-April.  In classic SHH fashion I decided that it would be better to do a review of twenty albums Continue reading

Mouse on Mars – Parastrophics

12 Mar

The Düsseldorf based avant-garde, post-techno duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma have been releasing music under the moniker Mouse on Mars for nigh two decades.  2012’s Parastrophics proves that Mouse on Mars, after six years of collective inactivity (there were a number of musical/production side projects in between), are sharp and still relevant.

Since 1994’s Vulvaland, Mouse on Mars has been an electronic chameleon of sorts.  MoM collaborated with The Fall’s Mark E. Smith in 2007 as Von Südenfed which calls to mind John Peel’s famous description of The Fall: “They are always different, they are always the same.”  The same could be said for Mouse on Mars whose latest album, Parastrophics, shows that St. Werner and Toma are Continue reading

RIP Whitney Houston

13 Feb

The news of Whitney Houston’s untimely death happened to come as a facebook update in the middle of my trying to explain to my girlfriend the importance of the grandfathers of electronic music, Kraftwerk, and so I could not believe the coincidence in one of my friends posting this minutes later.  It is a Richard X remix of Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and Continue reading

Great songs about robots…

29 Nov

There are some great songs about robots out there. There are also some not-so-great songs about robots out there, go figure! Some of these songs might fit rather loosely into the ‘robot’ category, but they’re all good songs regardless.

If you have trouble listening to any of the songs below, you can find the playlist on my Grooveshark page. Continue reading

The Olivia Tremor Control – Music From the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle

11 Sep

Music From the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle by The Olivia Tremor Control (1996)

The Olivia Tremor Control’s first album, Dusk at Cubist Castle, is a psych pop tour de force.  It is supposed to be the soundtrack for an unreleased film about two girls, Olivia and Jacqueline, and an apocalyptic quake in California.  The album offers a wide range of genre exploration: neopsychadelia, indie rock, lo-fi, folk, Krautrock, surf rock and noise.  The first time I listened to it, I expected Continue reading