Best 2007 albums

Here's my list of "best 2007 albums", meaning "albums released in 2007 I got and definitively recommend you to do the same". This doesn't mean that these are the only 2007 albums I got and would buy again... But hey, even this way I feel the list is a little longer than usual...

Merankorii - Melencolia III
Dismal - Miele Dal Salice (CD Limited deluxe edition)
Antimatter - Leaving Eden
Bardic Wisdom / Merankorii - Prose of the Ancient Times / Sanguine
V/A - Falésia
Tenhi - Folk Aesthetic 1996-2006
V/A - Fairy World 3
Moorlandt - Waiting Again
The Allstars Project - Your Reward... A Bullet
Ambience - As Dez Esperas
V/A - Livre Trânsito #2 - Sons de Outubro'07
V/A - Winter of Dissonance
Corde Oblique - Volontà d'Arte

2007 so far - books

Following my "2007 so far" posts [1], where I'll talk about the best books I've read this year. Notice that "this year" means "I interacted with it in 2007", and not "it was made in 2007". You're free to also check the music [2] and movies [3] lists.

As you've probably noticed by the size of this post, this time the list isn't actually here in the blog. For this list I finally decided to check out what's out there in the web regarding to book communities. I was looking for a "books social networking": something like Last.fm for books, where you could "scrobble" the books you've been reading, and with that you could find similar books, people with similar reading tastes, other books from the same authors... Well, I don't really need to describe it, just imagine a website just like Last.fm but with books instead of music tracks. Of course, I didn't find any, but while checking out the alternatives I ended creating an account in consumating.com, and from there creating a list of books on listofbests.com.

Unfortunately I haven't read as many books this year as I used to (I only read 27 this year), and you might notice that in the list. Yet, you might like to read the list [4] and maybe pick one of those to read yourself...

[1] - http://tinyurl.com/2dz7m3
[2] - http://tinyurl.com/ysmog6
[3] - http://tinyurl.com/2dldwg
[4] - http://www.listsofbests.com/list/42093

2007 so far - movies

Keeping up with my "2007 so far" series, today I'm going to talk about the movies that I've seen so far this year and that I think are worth talking about, and maybe convincing you to see them. It's quite hard to write about movies and books without spoilers, which I refuse to write here, so I'm just giving my relation with each movie. If you get curious about some of the movies, but still not decided to see it, I encourage you to check more info about it on IMDB or such.

On Piracy. I talked about this movie by the time I saw it. This is basicly a movie about what's usually called "Digital Piracy". It shows an imparcial vision, allways talking to both sides on each issue, and focusing on several aspects of Piracy. It is refreshing to see a documentary of this kind, since we're used to see allways the same stuff from the content industry, saying that "piracy is evil and is a form of terrorism", and here we see the real oppinions of both sides, and not only the legal side of the question (what is legal? what is not? what is moral? what is not? what is fair? what is not?) but we also see the cultural issues (Why do people download music? Why does the music industry refuse to reinvent their business model?). To make it even better, this movie is free.

Les glaneurs et la glaneuse is another documentary, but this one reflecting on human nature. Of course, the theme isn't real that one: it's a documentary were we see various examples where people live with what others don't care to see. What is garbage for ones, can be vital for others, or can be used as art (just to give you a pair of examples). Also, with this you see alternative lifestyles, away from what's commonly accepted, and yet, it seems, more human. This movie is, in fact, a reflexion, but the great thing about it is really the fact that, while it explains and explores each argument for that reflexion, it settles the ground for you to do a reflexion of your own.

PlayTime, or my introduction to Jaques Tati. And, well, I'm way too curious to see all the other stuff he made (I actualy didn't stop with PlayTime, as you'll read in a moment). A futurist movie, describing the mechanical world and the mechanical animals. Each angle has ninety degrees, each city works the same way, everything has a place to fit. What happens if someone just doesn't fit in? Probably the world doesn't care. While a far topic from dystopias, I imagine that the fan of PlayTime will be those who are fans of dystopias - specially mathematicly inspired ones, like Zamiatyn's "We".

Fahrenheit 451, an addaptation of Ray Bradbury's book. I was talking about dystopias, so here is one of those stories that I consider the "obligatory four dystopias": We, 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451. The adaptation of the book to the big screen is better than I was hoping, and every little storyline change is well justified and justifiable. Also, this story has the particularity that even Ray Bradbury liked to change and adapt it to the medium it was going to be told - from several forms of writting to several forms of playing. I wonder if Ray was living only nowadays he would like Clive Barker's thoughts on art, and release it as a game instead...

Mon Oncle, another Jaques Tati movie. Far lighter that PlayTime, extremely funny, it ends talking about the same kind of concepts than PlayTime - it almost seems that it is a previous chapter of the story (which maybe it is, I don't know the release date of one and the other). Also an excelent movie, this one that tells a story of a family of father, mother and son, and their new home. Of course, there is also the uncle, best friend of the kid but not really into the social standards of the family... It's fun to see that, while PlayTime is "one society black sheep", Mon Oncle is more about a culture clash between social levels, told in the funniest way.

Having Cypher on this list is somewhat like cheating, since this was not the first time I saw it. What made me wanting to see it for a long time was the fact that it was made by the same guy from "Cube" (an awsome movie, IMHO), but I didn't really know much about it when I saw it. When I did, I really liked and it was one of those movies that I didn't forget about, and several times recalled it. The problem is that I never thought of it as "Cypher" but allways as "that movie where 'a' and 'b' happens", so when the movie was being played again in a movie festival in Coimbra, this year, I read the movie descriptionand didn't relate it to the movie itself. I had the same thought, "if it's directed by the same guy who worked on Cube it must be good", and I only recognized it as being the same when I first saw the movie start. And I'm glad, 'cause this is one of those movies I don't mind watching more than once.

Four Eyed Monsters is an exquisite movie: it was made by too persons that met via the web, and the movie is about their story. But that's not it: the movie not only was made, hyped and distributed using a lot of new technology, namedly social networks, blogs and so on, they also focus that new means of connecting and getting toguether in the movie. The movie can still be viewed and downloaded for free on YouTube (I don't know for how long), being the first featured movie on YouTube. The movie was all made with money from a huge bunch of credit cards, that they're now paying for. It's arguably the first "Movie 2.0", and while that would be encouraging enough for you to see it, the story and plot are also very good - even better than the concept itself.

M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Moerder is another movie that you can download and see for free, but this time not on YouTube nor because the author lets you do, but because this is a Fritz Lang movie that is already in Public Domain, so you can get it (with subtitles of your choice) at archive.org. As you might remember from an earlier post of mine, I'm a fan of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and I was curious for a long time on "M". Seeing it was a great experience, and I really recommend this movie almost-dystopian movie, that shows a dark side of humanity and society, while telling you a preety easy to follow plot: a child murderer is out there, and everyone is both afraid and wanting to catch him. What scares the most is that the movie is as actual now as it was at the time.

Det Sjunde Inseglet is a movie from Ingmar Bergman, that recently died but will never be dead, and is considered one of the movies that helped defining the European cinema. From 195, this black and white movie was the only one that I've seen from Bergman (yet), but that something that I have and want to fix soon enough. This movie reflects about death, God, religion and myths, and shows, among other things, that Bergman had guts. While the movie itself is excelent, I felt that I need to see more of his works (specially those made near this one) to have a full understanding of what's going on Bergman's mind with some particularities of this movie. But making me wanting to see more of his movies is one good indicative that I liked it, and I really expect to like his other works.

2007 so far - Music

I've been in a really bad mood lately: there's just a load of stuff that I don't really want to talk about that isn't going right as it should, and with that I'm doing worse - being grumpy, pissing off friends, or generaly being a worse self. I'm trying to fight this kind of state that usually comes before depression, not only because the best way to get away from a drepression is avoiding it. So, I've started to do lot's of other things, in an attempt to fight against this state - and even if you don't interact with me in another way than by this blog, you might have noticed that I'm "acting weird" lately. So, sorry if my grumpyness affected you in some sort of way lately.

Well, to pick up yet another thing I wanted to do for a long time, and distract myself that way, I'm now starting my saga of "2007 so far" posts, in a way different (and less interesting) format than the one I wanted to. In the first three posts under this tag, I'll talk about the best music purchases I've made so far this year, the best books I've read this year, and the best movies I saw this year. Notice that "this year" means "I interacted with it in 2007", and not "it was made in 2007".

So, let's start with Music.

Merankorii - Melencolia III (CD)

You can think this is kind of egocentric - heck, maybe it is. Merankorii is my own musical project, but if I make it is because I like it, and I really use it as a scapegoat, to let out those thoughts and feelings that I couldn't express in any other way. And the thing is, I really like the outcome, and (this again sounds egocentric) Merankorii is probably the band that I like the most nowadays, and the band I listen more often. In January "Melencolia III" was released, and, while it is the third of the four parts concept I defined for it, it's way different and more defined work than the previous releases. It's also, in my oppinion, the hardest Merankorii album to absorb, even if it's easier to listen than the previous ones.

Bardic Wisdom/Merankorii - Prose of the Ancient Times/Sanguine (CD, Cassete)

After Melencolia III in January, in May I've released a split album in two formats (CD and Cassete) with another one-man band, Bardic Wisdom. I already liked Bardic Wisdom (who never had released any album prior to this one), a mixture of neo-classical music with neofolk, that is quite exquisite since its sound is heavily inspired in the ancient Incas. From what I've been listening from those who got this release, the split concept worked quite well, since Bardic Wisdom's part evolves in a way that blends very well with Merankorii's side, something that you probably experience better in the CD release. This was also Merankorii's most "neo-classical" work to date, even if it will probably fit better under the "dark ambient" or neofolk tag.

Empyrium - A Retrospective... (Box)

I've blogged about this release when I got it, but I have to write about it again. Empyrium is one excelent musical project, the one that defined the NeoFolk "tree" of bands that I like the most under that tag. They've started as a "black/doom metal" band, with it's long gone demo, but since their first release they abandoned the idea of being a Metal band, and just started making an unique sound, heavilly inspired by Nature, and kept doing until they decided that Empyrium has released all the music they had to release to give to the world what they wanted to. When they felt that any other Empyrium release would be "just another CD with the same kind of music", they took the hard yet wise decision to end with the musical project. Now, they released this box, "A Retrospective...", that has six CD's including the demo and unreleased matterial - all the band's work, where each CD is also a book telling the story of the band and the story behind each release. This is the kind of release that every band should do.

Rasputina - The Lost & Found 2nd Ed. (CD)

I only knew one music from Rasputina (Tansylvanian Concubine), from a soundtrack CD I have somewhere (in Coimbra, I guess), but I really don't like that track, so I allways thought, without listening more from them, that I didn't like Rasputina. Then, this year I listened to one of the most cool covers I've heard on a Marilyn Manson song, in Last.fm, and when I went to check who was making such a beautifull version of The Tourniquet, I saw it was from Rasputina. After listening to the track I knew I had to get it, so I searched for it and noticed that it was from a Rasputina album called "The Lost & Found 2nd Ed.", and I ordered it. Wow. this album only has covers made by Rasputina, and is really awsome - one of those albums that you like every track of it, and that you can listen in repeat for a whole day. I now have the intention to know more about Rasputina, maybe by buying the "1st Ed." CD, but since I made a promise that this year I wouldn't buy any CD other than those that are really must-have's, I guess I'll postpone it...

Dismal - Miele Dal Salice (CD Limited deluxe edition)

These are the Italian Dismal. Once upon a time I used to listen to a Spanish band called Dismal, and I knew that they were going to release a CD. Then I got on my mail yet another upcoming CD's list, and saw there "Dismal - Rubino Liquido", so I've ordered. One happy mistake, since when the CD arived I noticed that it was not from the Spanish band, but from another, with a completely different musical style, only the same name. What happened is that I've listened to that Doom Metal album and I was awed, it is one of the most favourite Doom Metal albums up to date. They spent years without releasing, but this year they released Miele Dal Salice, with a new vocalist, and a new sound - impossible to define. The characteristic that comes to mind when thinking of it is just "beautiful". I wonder what path will they take in the next release...

V/A - Tribute to Dead Can Dance - The Lotus Eaters (2CD)

While I think that Dead Can Dance is preety cool, I don't own any of their CD's. So why did I got this tribute? Well, there's one track here from Antimatter, and I don't really think that track is that good, but it was the only recorded track from Antimatter that I still didn't have, so I was quite tempted to get the album. When I looked with greater care to the track listing, I saw there names like Arcana or Ulver, and with that I've made my decision. I'm really glad I made it - the whole album is awsome, better (in my point of view) than any Dead Can Dance album I've heard, and Antimatter has there one of the worse tracks of the whole compilation. If you like Dead Can Dance, this is a must-have.

V/A - Legend And Lore - Dark Folklore and European Myths (CD)

The third best neofolk compilation I have, a must-have for anyone who fancies this musical style. Once I saw on Last.fm that Nuno Nunes was listening to Tenhi and IM'd him something like "wow, you like Tenhi?"... Turns out that he had this compilation, and when I listened to it I knew I had to have it. Subaudition, Tenhi, Vàli, Neun Welten, Orplid, :Of The Wand and the Moon:, Gaé Bolg and Hekate are the bands in this album, and I think that I'll only forget that I have this CD when I have every CD from where each song here was taken from (well, except Subaudition's). BTW, and for reference, the second best neofolk compilation that I know of is "Lichttaufe - Der Folklore Liedschatz", only beated by "Looking For Europe", that is what I consider "the NeoFolk compendium", since it is more than a 4CD compilation, it is (literally) a book telling the story of NeoFolk.

Tenhi - Kauan (+2tracks CD)

Well, I already had Tenhi's Kauan, but when I found out that the Kauan CD that Paula bought in Finland was the special edition digipack CD with two bonus tracks, I had to get a way to make here swap her CD with mine (yeah, I'm evil ;-)). Tenhi is one of those bands that I need to have all their music, which I'll achieve as soon as their new 3 CD's book is released (in less then a month). They play NeoFolk, that, while inspired by Empyrium and following their line, has a preety characteristic sound - probably thanks to the heaviest use of keyboards, and the voice settings. It's surely more sad, and intimist. They've been considered "Sigur Rós in the woods" (a description that I don't really agree of) and "a landmark in the acoustic settings of nature", which surely fits.

Neun Welten - Vergessene Pfade (CD)

This band is for Tenhi fans - while with a happier soundscape, and with almost no voices, they are surelly inspired by Tenhi, even if having their own style and sound. The inspiration comes with no surprise, besides being long time friends, they record in Tenhi's UTUstudios, and are touring together. I first heard of Neun Welten on the "Looking for Europe" compilation, and bought their only release until then - a three songs single that, while I really like, sounded as... way too little. When they released Vergessene Pfade I had to get it, and fortunately they were not only up to my expectations but better than that: they even enhanced the tracks they had in the single! Great CD...

V/A - Flowers made of snow (2CD)

The tenth and last album I'm going to call "the best of 2007 so far" is a two CD's compilation called "Flowers made of snow", a compilation made by Cold Meat Industry, and aimed for fans of that label. Cold Meat Indistry was established in 1987, and is a mark, influence and inspiration for those into the alternative genre. It releases "lisstenable music with a deeper reflection on life and death, within the musical spectrum of dystopia varying from dark to darker, from ambient industrial to acoustic folk, from beautiful to that which is just painful, exploring both the philosophical and the subversive activities of human kind and its psyche". By the description that this label makes of themselves, you'll already know by now if this is a must-have or a must avoid, so I'll just add that the work in the compilation is really good, in the way they chose the tracks and ordered them in each CD.