We are on a short trip up to Penang, which is an island off the west coast of Malaysia (only an hour and a bit flight from home in Singapore).

It just happens to be peak Durian season in Malaysia and Penang is famous for Durians (a lot from Singapore come just for that). For those that don’t know a Durian is spiky husked fruit that is indigenous to SE Asia that contains seeds with a yellowish / white pulp – that is what is eaten. It’s known as the king of fruits here, but is characterised by is very ‘distinct’ smell – some say turpentine, some say raw sewage, some actually like. Added to that it’s a fairly strong tasting fruit. I actually don’t mind – the flesh is creamy, almost custardy – the only problem is the aftertaste lingers for hours……

So what disgusting / unique / strange / obnoxious foods have you eaten ? Why and what were you overall impressions ?

As a companion thread to Ganglesprockets “Thread of Sh**e’, how about the worst music video – i.e. the song may be good and so not warranting a mention in that thread, but the video is awful / cheesy / etc etc……

We all know that the actual worst ever video is David Bowie / Mick Jagger’s “Dancing In The Street”, but what else comes a close second…….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HasaQvHCv4w

Reading the excellent review of the Rory Gallagher / Blues album, it immediately went on my to buy list. However, I now see that it’s not released until May 31st.

With the increase in pre release reviews on here, should we add a field to the Nights In entry for Release Date, otherwise, could reviewers of pre release stuff just add a comment as to when it will be released ?

Reading the papers today, I came across trailers for Black Mirror Season 5 and the HBO / BBC adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials”.

So with Good Omens on Amazon at the end of the month (and BBC later in year), Black Mirror in June, season 3 of Stranger Things in July and His Dark Materials later in the year, this is shaping up to be a pretty good year of TV.

What else are folks looking forward to ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bVik34nWws

These often get missed as I believe they are only shown on TV in Scotland, but are readily available on iPlayer. Latest session is rather good and features Chris Difford with Boo Hewerdine……

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p077r9fw/the-quay-sessions-chris-difford-with-boo-hewerdine

I see there were a couple of releases from Sigur Ros for Record Store Day (also available digitally) – ‘22deg Lunar Halo’ and ‘Variations On Darkness’.

The thing is they are not ‘proper’ Sigur Ros releases – both are soundtracks to dance collaborations using elements of Sigur Ros mastertapes to create ambient pieces.

Before that we had 2017s “Route One” – another ambient piece using elements of their work (and it was more a 24 hour live broadcast with soundtrack).

Their last album was ‘Kveikur” back in 2013 and last non-album single ‘Óveður‘ back in 2016. I know by Kate Bush standards it’s a relatively short period, but still….. this is the group that had a string of superb albums from ‘Ágætis byrjun’ (which is being released as a deluxe set this June) in 1999 through ‘Kveikur’.

I also read that the drummer recently left due to sexual assault accusations (which he denies).

So are they a spent force ? Will we see another ‘proper’ album from them or is it all arty collaborations from now on ?

I was listening to Antiphon by Midlake last night for the first time in a long while.

It struck me that this album came out in November 2013 – over five years ago – and is the last release from them since then (and apparently they knocked this together in six months after Tim Smith left).

Now whilst they may be ‘critically acclaimed’, I can’t imagine that they are a group that has shifted albums by the millions and they don’t appear to tour / play live that often. There’s also six of them in the band, so any income must have been spread pretty thinly.

So how do they survive? What pays the bills?

I can understand there is no financial incentive for the likes of the Stones, Who, Fleetwood Mac, etc to put out new material, but for less established acts, surely they can’t afford to take there own sweet time to realise their artist muse.?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k-pMMW01yw

Another one of the legends gone – the beat behind the Wrecking Crew, Hal Blaine has passed at 90.

As mentioned over at the retirement thread, I have just taken the retrenchment package and plan to take 3-6 months off to rest, catch up and generally enjoy life……

One of my goals in this period is to try and get back to some level of fitness. I am now 52 and my yearly medical puts me in generally okay / good health – cholesterol is okay, treadmill stress test is okay, blood pressure is slightly high but still in the normal range, no diabetes, cancer etc markers found….. The one thing is that I am overweight.

We have membership of the local country club and so I have access to their gym and Olympic sized Swimming pool. Yesterday I went for the first time – but never having been a gym person, I had no idea where to start. I ended up doing about 15 mins on the treadmill (gradually and manually increasing the speed) and then 10 mins on a exercise bike (again manually increasing the resistance). I then did 10 laps of the 50m pool.

I would welcome any guidance on what to do in the gym, how long for, how often how you do etc » Continue Reading.

We have Cirque du Soleil coming to Singapore later this year with their show “Kurios” and on seeing an advert for it on TV last night, I was telling my son about the French circus group “Archaos” from the early 90s.

Anyone else remember them ?

If I recall correctly, I saw them at the Edinburgh festival and in Manchester in the early 90s. A manic mix of Mad Max meets the circus with juggling chainsaws, flamethrowers, exploding vehicles, one side of the trapeze being a JCB…….and a live band playing throughout. Unfortunately they went bust in the mid 90s.

Whilst I have seen Cirque Du Soleil a few times and it’s always been good, it never seems to be a good as my memories of Archaos – or am I looking at it through the proverbial rose tinted glasses…..

With the juggling chainsaws etc, would they still be able to get away with such a show these days on health and safety grounds ?

https://youtu.be/DOiE-gGJLyk

Been listening to this for the past couple of days after it being recommended to me by a friend…. Stunningly beautiful album that would definitely been on my albums of 2018 list if I had heard it earlier.

Obvious reference point is Japan / David Sylvian / Rain Tree Crow (given the Steve Jansen connection), but should appeal to anyone who likes Talk Talk etc etc. Available on bandcamp and via the tax dodgers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAEF_EUVa90

I know there’s a post on what we are looking forward to in 2019, but this news is so amazing that I just had to create a new thread and post as soon as I found out……

Nickleback will be playing their first concert in Singapore in February. For a mere S$138 (about 80 of your UK pounds at present) I can be part of rock history.

https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/cnickelback0219

There’s been a lot of love / discussion about Charlie Brooker’s ‘Black Mirror” on here in the past, so with the latest episode arriving on Netflix yesterday…….

For those that aren’t aware, this episode is interactive, with choices to be made throughout and I believe five possible endings. Typical running times are about 90 minutes, with apparently 5 hours of material in total.

What were your thoughts ? What path / choices did you take ? What ending did you arrive at ? Did you go back and watch again with different choices ? etc etc.

Given the nature of this episode, this discussion is probably going to be very spoiler heavy and so if you haven’t watched yet…. look away now.

Assuming that Santa brings you a time machine (single use only – its made in China) and a ticketmaster gift card for Christmas, what historical concert would you use it for…… ?

Stones at Altamont, Beatles at Shea, Sex Pistols Free Trade Hall, Woodstock….. any concert, anywhere in the world, at anytime in history – the choice is yours. And why ?

On the track “Teardrops” from his new album “The Prophet Speaks”, Van Morrison sings “If I had $10 million, I would give her every dime….. just to hear her call my name out one more time”

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Van is worth $90 million. Does that mean that there are nine ladies out there who are about to become very rich just by giving him a call ? Maybe it’s to fund this that he’s put out so many albums lately.

https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/rock-stars/van-morrison-net-worth/

Better start saving folks… 2019 will see a CD / Blu Ray box set of the classic Tangerine Dream Virgin years (1974 – 79) which have been remastered by none other that Steven Wilson.

No details yet – supposed to be out in April and rumours suggest in may be a 20 disc set that includes at least some of the albums in 5.1 surround. If it includes Phaedra and Stratosfear in 5.1, then its going to be difficult to resist for me……

http://www.musictap.com/2018/11/21/tangerine-dream-to-release-cd-bd-box-with-steven-wilson-remixes/

I had pre-ordered the Jimi Hendrix and Beatles box sets that were released last Friday from the tax dodgers over a month ago. Living in Singapore, I usually bank on a 1-2 week delivery time.

Come last Friday and then Saturday, neither had been despatched. Emails fired off with a (polite) rant informing them that one of the reasons I pre-ordered was to get ASAP and surely with a pre-order they should be able to plan their supply accordingly to ensure timely despatch etc etc.

The usual apologetic emails received very quickly informing me that it was being investigated and escalated at the fulfilment centre for immediate action. Come Sunday, still no despatch, so further (maybe a little less polite) emails sent. Promised it was being escalated and they would expedite shipment.

Finally received despatch notices for the Hendrix on Monday and the Beatles yesterday. Replied back thanking them but still questioning why a pre-order had been delayed.

Two results…. i) The Hendrix boxset received today – a mere 2 days after despatch and way before the usual 1-2 weeks if this had shipped normally (I reckon they used Jeff Bezos private spaceship thingy) ii) They gave me a £20 » Continue Reading.

After the extensive discussions on the recent Bowie / Loving the Alien boxset, I was a little surprised at the lack of comments on this Glastonbury performance…..

For those that missed, the hour long highlights were on BBC last Friday night and available on iPlayer at the below link. My understanding is that when this was originally broadcast in 2000, they only showed 4 or 5 songs.

The full 2 hour concert is out on DVD / CD on 30th November and available from your nearest tax dodger. After watching this hour of highlights, I’m very much looking forward the whole thing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bntp2p/bowie-at-glastonbury-2000

News item yesterday about Oxford University interview questions and how the obvious answer may be best. One of the questions was…..

“What are the different ways in which you listen to music ? How does that change the way in which you think about what you are listening to?”

Discuss……..

They may be accused of going through the motions and rattling out the old hits on their current tour, but you certainly can’t accuse them of not keeping us entertained in the soap opera that is Fleetwood Mac………

Has there ever been a more dysfunctional band ?

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/lindsey-buckingham-sues-fleetwood-mac-over-dismissal-from-band-736063/

I know that this contains not just one, but two artists that folks love to hate – Muse with Jools on piano, but this version of Dig Down from last nights Later is rather good……

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6vNRx3it54

It’s the least you can do to honour the memory of Geoffrey Hayes who departed today aged 76…..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc