November 21, 2008 – 3:38 am
In a vaguely worrying move, NASA has successfully tested a deep-space capable communication system that runs on the same lines as Arpanet, the Interwub’s immediate predecessor. Basically, the plan is to fire of a few deep space probes and satellites off, and have them act as intermediates allowing fast, clear data transference across interstellar distances (and given the speed computer tech moves at, is it too much to hope for subspace soon after?) According to the guy with the coolest sounding job title since ‘Viking’ (manager of space-networking architecture ) Adrian Hooke:
“This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary Internet,”
Given the way the net has evolved here on Earth, it sounds like we may no longer have to pay premium Japanese sites for our alien tentacle porn. LolKlingons anyone?
LINK
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November 21, 2008 – 3:12 am
In line with our love of cloning and dangerous experiments in general, the Spectre are genuinely pleased to learn that insane soviet genetics from the 1920s are all set to be this seasons hot new scientific hangout. Apparently the Mammoth project is a trifle costly, but Science confidently predicts a decent map of the Neanderthal genome by Christmas, and exciting possibilities for a Human or Chimp/Neanderthal mashup. According to ironically named top DNA-Tinkerer George Church:
“The big issue would be whether enough people felt that a chimp-Neanderthal hybrid would be acceptable, and that would be broadly discussed before anyone started to work on it,”
Personally I say enough talk, I want my monkey man! And people say science is boring..Mutant Ape Army Now!
LINK
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November 20, 2008 – 9:19 pm
Steampunk is a slippery concept . At once literary tradition, design style and fashion statement. And now, increasingly – music genre. But how does a band capture and create the sound of a time that never existed? How can you classify something as steampunk when your source material is disparate fiction? Well, you just do it and see what happens…
And until now I never really agreed with any band calling themselves steampunk – Abney Park, although awesome are a little too electronic, Unextraodinary Gentlemen, too experimental and Thomas Truax, well he’s kind of odd.
But now there is Ghostfire who sound like what would happen if you stuck The Cure, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a steam organ and Tom Waits into a blender, and dressed the result in brass goggles, top hats and told them to entertain a drunken punk crowd.
That laboured metaphor can boil down to three words ‘they sound fantastic.’
It’s the kind of thing the common people would listen too in a stempunk setting. After a hard day building airships the workforce would retire to gin soaked taverns and be entertained by something sounding a lot like this.
Demo opener Vaudevillian is a ska tinged, beer soaked sing-along about vampires (I think) that shows off singer Steven’s powerful and unique vocals, Masters of the Sea is a haunted shipwreck of a song. Ghostways Of Paris is a gothic absinthe-nightmare in lace and leather and demo closer Barrio – possibly the weakest song in comparison – is still a jarring – jangly slab of romantic darkness.
Praises don’t get sung much higher than this. Steampunk just got it’s official sound.
LINK (Ghostfire MySpace)
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November 19, 2008 – 11:13 pm
Remember a few years ago when you got sent a link to a video that made you, our obviously nerdy and awesome audience scream with joy? You know the one…Batman, Joker, Alien, Predator. Yeah, how ace was that! Well, joy of joys – someone has thrown enough money at its brilliant creator Sandy Collora for him to make a full movie.
Entitled Hunter Prey – it’s a war film set on an alien world, filmed for very little, but from the above picture – looking awesome. IO9 spoke to the man himself…
The film centers around a crew of special forces commandos who must recapture an alien prisoner that has escaped after the military transport ship carrying it crashes on a desolate and hostile planet. There are subtle political and environmental overtones that I certainly don’t hit anyone over the head with at all, but that will hopefully make you think about things like war, politics and current events, by presenting them in situations cinematically from a uniquely different perspective.
Thank god for a sci fi film that isn’t a comic book rip off, sequel or remake. can’t wait to see this.
LINK (IO9)
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November 19, 2008 – 9:13 pm
“Umm, yeah, this song is called RAGUGGGELLWUGH!!!” Says the tubby funster fronting opening act Fleshrot. Ah, yes, the calling card of bloody boring brutal death metal – a lack of any personality. Yeah, the songs have some cool blasts, and I’m sure the solos are all fine, but a muddy sound and no real tightness produce something that rarely can distract from the fact that the Purple Turtle smells like cthulhus arsehole. A big meh to them.
Second up are old school grinders Hovadah. A power trio in the strictest sense, they blast out some quality slabs of grinding fun and occasionally throw in some truly groovy riffs – but it’s mostly about the blastbeat. As I have a pretty low attention span (oooh look…porn) constant blasting bores me a bit and I’m soon back to wondering how a pub can really smell this bad. But if you want tight no frills quality grind – Hovahah are your boys.
Dyscarnate plug in and destroy. Tight and polished catchy death with dual vocals, the band blow the cobwebs (and yes, the smell) clean out of the venue. These guys could be the great British hope of death metal. They certainly have the songs. If they could grow some personality and get a bit more interaction with the crowd going, they could be playing venues double the size of this place, and killing the shit out of everything around.
Welsh DM institution Desecration are a strange beast, trading on their ‘pervert’ notoriety is an odd way to rise through the musical ranks. And being an institution and ‘old school’ is no excuse for playing a pretty damn sloppy set. Desecration most definitely have the tunes and the experience to be much better than this. Yeah, it may be a small venue without a huge crowd, but it could be far better. And with that – the shit smell is back.
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