Simon Fell > Its just code > Music

Upgrade lust strikes, and I've decided to sell my turntable, a Rega P25 with cherry surround complete with a Dynavector 10x4 MKII Moving Coil cartridge. Vinyl is having something of a renaissance right now, and this is a great way for you to join in. Everything is still in mint condition and i have the manual to go with both the TT & cartridge, new the pair cost over $1600, I'm asking $850 (buyer collects from San Francisco). drop me a note if you're interested. (Stereophile P25 review, Soundstage review of the 10x4).

Looks like the Art of Noise have a box set coming out soon, What Have You Done With My Body God? containg a bunch of unreleased tracks and other goodies, can't wait, I was disappointed they didn't do more after they got back together to do The Seduction of Claude Debussy, and I still kick myself every now and then that I missed them when they came to SF back in 99.

Saw Amon Tobin last night at Bimbo's, all the previous times I've seen him live its always been a great show, but last night was a real disappointment not a lot of recognizable Tobin tunes, no visuals at all, the whole night would of been a complete washout if it wasn't for Telephone Jesus Jim

WoooHooo, the best news i got all day, Tags Trance Trip is back, at a new home on SomaFM :)

Kraftwerk played at the Warfield in San Francisco this week, I fulfilled a long standing ambition on saw them Wednesday night, a fantastic gig, the chron has a more detailed write up.

FIrst off, The Crystal Method played at the Warfield last week, I really enjoyed it, there performance was orders of magnitude better than last time I saw them live (way back in 99), and speaking of the Warfield, Kraftwerk will be playing there April 28, can't wait, they're one of my all time favorites. On a slightly different kick, Makoto takes over the Progression Session reigns from Bukem, and doesn't disappoint. If you're a Bukem fan, check out Progression Sessions 9 you'll like it.

The Crystal Method were playing at the Virgin Megastore in SF for the release of their new CD, I went over to check it out, get a signed copy of the new CD, and a photo :)

• The Italian Job is now available on DVD, no not the cheesy remake, the original 1969 Michael Caine, Noel Coward classic, one of my all time favorite movies.
• Dare has his new blog up and running using dasBlog.
• As Russell points out its fleet week, trying to cycle through the wharf and marina this morning was painful, lots of people out, I picked a different route back.
• Amon Tobin played an awesome gig at Bimbo's a few weeks back, and Kid Koala is coming up, and for something slightly different for me, saw ZooStation, a U2 cover bad at the last day saloon last night.

• Yerba Buena Gardens Festival continues to run, the SF Mime troop performance was fantastic.
• Brad convinced me to read Redemption Ark despite my misgivings on Revalation Space, and I couldn't put it down, not only was it a great read, it resolved some of the issues I had with RS, and also leaves a few unanswered questions, ready for the next one.
• Also recently read The Hacker & The Ants, Spaceland & Flatland, all excellent.
• I picked up a copy of Senor Coconut's Smoke on the water at the weekend, hillarious, and their Kraftwerk covers are great (Kudos to Kelley for tipping me off to Senor Coconut a while back)

I wrote a while back about options for integration hi-fi and PC, in the end I settled for the long cable runs, putting the PC on the end of a tape loop from the amp, and I'm pretty happy with it, turned out to be cheap ($40 worth of cables from radio shack), can listen to SomaFM, Tags Trance, Basedrive and other internet streaming radio station's on the hi-fi, can listen to to vinyl via the Rega p25 whilst still sat in front of the PC, and Sound Forge Studio works pretty well for ripping from vinyl to mp3s (for the iPod).

BTW, the Rega is absolutely awesome, well recorded vinyl is easily on par with CD, and even manages an impressive job when faced with 20 year old abused Art of Noise singles. If you have any sort of vinyl collection, do yourself a favor and get one these puppies.

Amoeba is always worth a visit, I came away today with both a rare coldcut vinyl, and this awesome Art Of Noise picture disk.

The "lyrics" consist of samples from (I believe its Anne Dudley saying)

"To be in england in the summertime with my love, close to the edge"
and "hey"

This track first used Anne Dudley's now famous "hey" sample, which 20 years on is still being re-sampled. (I heard it in a TV advert last night for example) This is yet another version of "close" to the other ones that I have (how many different versions did they do ?, I recon I easily have 6 versions of it now). Truly ground breaking stuff, what I wouldn't give to be able to go back and see them perform live.

The show last night was pretty disappointing you didn't miss anything if you missed it. However I thought Prefuse 73 was much better than last time I saw him play.