Today I read a short story by Peter Watts that I hadn't read before. You can read it for free on the publisher's website. It's called The Island. He's posted excerpts on his blog before, and I loved them, so I was thrilled to be able to read the actual story. It didn't disappoint.

Watts writes hard SF, most recently the novel Blindsight, which was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards, but unfortunately (in my view, having read some of the other contenders) won neither. The Island is true to form, a fascinating look at a future so far ahead that the Earth has long since been immolated in the Sun's death throes. 

Well worth the short time investment required to read it.

Started: 8/22/2009 | Finished: 8/22/2009

Purchase from Amazon

The review wasn't dead, just resting.

In some ways I think the break was for the best, because now instead of writing about records I bought last week I'm writing about records I bought six months ago. Often when listening to something new there's an initial "love affair" period where I listen to it frequently, so in the interests of a fairer take on a record it isn't a bad idea to let it sit for a while before starting to write what I think. I see that as an unintended perk of the hiatus.
Explosions in the Sky are a group of Texans who write instrumental post-rock worthy of Sigur Rós or Mogwai. "Post-rock" sounds kind of silly to me, but it's shorter than listing bands, some of which -- Godspeed You! Black Emperor, for instance -- have somewhat convoluted names. Sub-genre naming conventions aside, though, post-rock is a genre that has appealed to me since I discovered Sigur Rós close to five years ago.
There isn't as much rock here as on Mogwai's Mr. Beast, the guitars and keyboards are clean. The musical phrases are shorter than Sigur Rós, so despite the length of some songs (It's Natural to be Afraid clocks in at 13:27) it isn't as demanding on the attention span as any given record by our Icelandic friends. Often the melody is driven by clean piano while the delayed guitars supply texture, which would make the music sound thin if it weren't for the meaty drumming. There's a fairly substantial dynamic contrast between the parts of songs where the drums are present versus absent, so it can be hard to listen to this album while in an environment with substantial steady background noise (e.g. driving, flying).
The melodic payoff is great; if you like other post-rock, you'll probably like this. The only real criticism here is that Explosions in the Sky don't really do much to differentiate themselves from Mogwai, so if I want to introduce someone to post-rock, Mr. Beast is still my first stop. Explosions' effort shouldn't be overlooked, though.
The Record: All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone (Explosions in the Sky), 2007
One-line Verdict: Good post-rock.
Standout Tracks: The Birth and Death of the Day, So Long Lonesome

I picked this up in New Zealand on the recommendation of a relative. The first track was absolutely captivating -- mellow, understated, with a complete absence of climax that leaves you wanting more. A thing of quiet beauty.
Unfortunately, there's nothing else like it on the album. There's a fair amount of variety, and all of the material is competently performed, but none of it quite reaches that level, at least to me. There are moments in some of the ballads that come close, though. The harder rockers have some melodically interesting elements, but there are also some thematic re-uses that could have been done without. Using the same interval in a few different keys as the core of a few different songs gets old fairly quickly. More subtle thematic referencing would have been more interesting.
There's one outright jarring moment, too -- part of the hook from Saddest Song in the World sounds quite a lot like the Rolling Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. Shihad's spin on the riff makes for a good song, but it's impossible to keep the Stones' classic out of my head when I listen to Shihad's tune.
Overall, I do like the album, but I don't love it. None of the Above is going to be a staple on my playlists, but the rest of the album will be a much less frequent listen.
The Record: Love is the New Hate (Shihad), 2005
One-line verdict: Hit-and-miss.
Standount Tracks: None of the Above, Dark Times, Stop

I saw this album on shelves in New Zealand and made a note to check it out when I got home. As it turned out it was available on iTunes, so I picked it up. It's hard rock, with conventional lyrics and more than a hint of screamo. The guitar textures are interesting and novel, but the melodies themselves are generally fairly straightforward.
There are a few interesting tracks, especially the first and last, but even they are just very good examples of the genre rather than anything unusual. The album as a whole suffers from the curse of sounding too consistent for its own good. The songs blend together and many of the middle tracks just aren't memorable.
There isn't much more to say about this one. It's an enjoyable listen, but easily displaced by the next purchase.
The Record: End the Silence (Blindspott), 2006
One-line verdict: Unsurprising, but solid.
Standount Tracks: 1975, Pray for Me

David Bowles has said that his intention in crafting this album was to create "intellectual dance music." In this he succeeded admirably, and I find This Insubstantial Pageant significantly more palatable than I find most conventional dance music. My tastes in the electronic tend more toward Orbital, Boards of Canada, and Nine Inch Nails, though I do enjoy traditional four-on-the-floor bass drum electronic dance music if I'm in a club.
Somewhat predictably, the highlight of the album for me is the blues vocals over acoustic guitars and synth backgrounds in the opener, Huckleberry Juju. Bowles has a good singing voice, and I'd love to hear him record a real acoustic blues number... which leads me to my main complaint about the album: the effected vocals. Frequently, the vocal tracks have an effected bass tone that sounds synthetic, even if it actually isn't. Sometimes the bassified vocals work for me, but most of the time I find myself wishing for uneffected or possibly distorted vocals.
Some tracks are possibly a bit longer than strictly necessary, though that's more a much more useful "failing" in dance than in other genres.
Melodically, This Insubstantial Pageant is considerably more interesting than a lot of other dance. That's also true lyrically -- at least, when I can make the lyrics out. The effected vocals make it harder than it should be.
Overall, though, when I want to pull a dance record out of my library, this is one of the first ones I go for. Quite enjoyable.
The Record: This Insubstantial Pageant (David Bowles), 2007
One-line verdict: Dancey.
Standount Tracks: Huckleberry Juju, Ineluctable

I bought two Dream Theater albums in December 2006 and have been listening to them almost constantly since then. I figured it would be enough to review one of them and mention the other, but I waffled back and forth on which one to write about. Originally, I intended to write about their 2003 release, Train of Thought, which is sometimes referred to as "the heavy album," and clearly exhibits the influence of the complete Master of Puppets cover show that the band did around the same time. Lately, though, I've been listening to Octavarium a lot more. While it's more hit-and-miss, it's also more varied.

One of the things I really enjoy about Dream Theater is that you can tell what they've been listening to by the sound of their albums and songs. Train of Thought exhibited a definite Metallica influence; Octavarium has some tracks in that vein, but also references Muse, among others. Musically, they're open about their influences without being derivative -- indeed, it's hard to imagine a band with the raw musical ability of Dream Theater writing something that sounded more like another band than like themselves. There's more variety in Octavarium's 24-minute title track than in many complete albums, and yet it doesn't feel a second too long. Some of Dream Theater's longer songs are a little too musically varied, without enough thematic consistency to really tie them together. Others require some history, making thematic allusions to songs on previous albums. The title track, though, is self-contained, and within its 24-minutes there is frequent musical self-referencing and subtle thematic modifications to keep the song cohesive through a wide range of musical styles. This, more than any other I've heard, is the song that reveals the depth of Dream Theater's virtuosity.

Having said that, there are a couple of tracks on the album that I consistently skip over -- they just get too cheesy for me. Train of Thought is more even, but it's also more consistent sonically, especially when compared to the variety of sound on Octavarium. In the end, I really enjoy both albums, but if you're looking for an introduction to Dream Theater and you don't love Metallica's Master of Puppets, start with Octavarium.

The Record: Octavarium (Dream Theater), 2005
One-line verdict: A little hot-cold, but the ones that are good are really good.
Standount Tracks: Never Enough, Octavarium

I wasn't too interested in this game when I first heard about it. The trailers were all browns and greys; the notion of a "chainsaw bayonet" struck me as sophomoric, as did the ability to curb stomp downed opponents. The story didn't seem very interesting. It didn't really appeal to me, and I said as much on a couple of forums I frequent.

*munch, munch*

I'm actually enjoying eating my words, because Gears of War is so good that I can hardly bear to put it down. In hindsight, I'm not even sure why the browns and greys in the trailers turned me off, given my professed love for Resident Evil 4. Epic cited that very game as a strong stylistic and atmospheric influence, and it shows. If I had to categorize Gears, or describe it succinctly, I'd call it a third-person tactical action shooter with survival horror elements that draws on a number of classic science fiction tropes.
It's also by far the best-looking game I've ever seen. When I got my 360, I was wowed by the visuals in Oblivion and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, but Gears makes both games look positively dated.

(Click the screenshot for a fullsize version. The shot is in-game.)

As I alluded to above, the story is a fairly standard affair, but it blends its myriad influences well rather than coming across as a tired rip-off of any one of them. The dialogue is rife with over-the-top machismo, which is reflected clearly in the main characters' stylized burliness, but as the game progresses it becomes abundandly clear that most of them are tired, beaten down, or scared out of their minds, and the macho acts are just a cover. This makes an interesting contrast with the game's environments: the buildings, which were once beautiful, are almost uniformly broken ruins. Between the disparate influences and excellent use of art style to create atmosphere, Gears has proven much more subtle than I initially gave it credit for.

Having said all of that, the gameplay is what really makes Gears stand out from the crowd. Like the other aspects of the game, it oozes polish; the controls, weapons, and terrain were clearly lovingly tested and balanced. All of it combines to create an experience that just begs to be played co-op, whether split-screen or via Xbox Live, and true to its billing, Gears features seamless drop-in co-op in campaign mode. It can be played single-player, but it was clearly designed with two players in mind. There is a very strong emphasis on the use of cover, and while playing with a friend you'll find yourself executing flanking maneuvers, laying down suppressing fire, and making tactical retreats. All of these stratagems work exactly as you would expect them to, particularly if you're playing on Hardcore mode rather than Casual. The latter is more forgiving, making it suitable for single-player; on Hardcore, the enemies can take more hits, but they also pop up from cover less often and for less time, and are much more apt to try to flank you even as you're trying to flank them.

This is a vast improvement over games like GRAW, where the closest enemies come to shooting from behind cover is lying prone. I complained about limited tactical options in GRAW, but while the combat in Gears happens in much closer quarters, the ability to duck behind pretty much anything and then dodge from one piece of cover to the next makes it a much more tactical affair.

Gears is not without its flaws. Versus mode multiplayer has a few bugs that pop up intermittently, such as some allied players being unable to hear one another in voice chat during the game*; the A button may be mapped to one function too many, which sometimes results in sticking to cover while trying to run. However, none are anything more than minor irritants, and it's a testament to the immersiveness of the game and intuitiveness of its gameplay that it by and large makes you forget them.
This is the best game I've played all year, and I think it's going to sell some Xbox 360s.

Title: Gears of War (Epic), 2006
One-line verdict: Game of the Year material.
Review Platform: Xbox 360

*2007-02-02 Addendum: The voice chat bug was fixed by a patch released in January 2007, along with a couple of balance issues. There are also two new multiplayer maps available free.

Shortly after buying an Xbox 360 earlier this year, I picked up Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and Oblivion. I bought GRAW entirely on the strength of its co-op play -- while there are only four missions, it's a lot of fun. For months, all I'd played was the single-player training mission and the first two co-op levels. Eventually, though, I decided to see what the full single-player campaign had to offer.

Multiplayer and single-player GRAW are essentially two different games. From what I've read, they were apparently even developed largely separately, and multiplayer lacks some of the prettier visual effects found in the single-player (particularly in the lighting department). Unlike multiplayer, single-player GRAW is by default a third-person affair. You can play in first-person if you want, but third-person makes dealing with cover much easier.

I don't play many shooters, and it would be something of an understatement to say that I'm not terribly enamoured with Tom Clancy, so I came into GRAW fairly fresh. One of the first things I noticed is that the player can't take very much punishment -- not unlike real life, a couple of bullets is all it takes to put you out of commission. This kind of realism seems to be one of GRAW's focuses, and I found that it enhanced my enjoyment of the game significantly. The game is set in the near future, 2013, and the developers did an excellent job of maintaining "real-world" verisimilitude while adding just enough futuristic techy stuff to keep me from feeling like it was just a U.S. Army simulator.

Being a Tom Clancy-branded title, though, the game is steeped in his "might makes right, no matter what the enemy body count" ethos. It's hard to have a shooter without enemies, of course, but at the end of the game I discovered I'd perpetrated mass murder on the scale of Resident Evil 4 -- I'd killed roughly 600 enemies, all of them Mexican rebels -- and, through my superior officers, the game heaped praise upon me. There isn't even a hint of moral ambiguity.

There is also no sign of security forces or troops from the other two nations involved in GRAW's storyline, Mexico and Canada. Obviously the capabilities of U.S. forces far exceed those of either of its neighbours, but given the story progression in the game, the near-complete absence of even supporting units from those two countries is very conspicuous to this Canadian. The first non-training mission in GRAW is exactly the sort of situation where one might expect to run into members of Joint Task Force Two.

My main criticism of the game is that the single-player is completely linear. There's very little freedom of movement; despite having fairly robust scouting capabilities in the form of an unarmed drone, you're usually confined to one or two angles of attack. For a game that tries to be as seamless as possible between missions, moving you from point to point within Mexico City by armoured car or helicopter, the artificial constraints placed on you in the "levels" are jarring. Dead ends and non-destructible fences abound, and I heard the phrase "You are leaving the combat zone! Turn around!" all too often often while trying to flank the enemy.

For what it is, though, GRAW is an excellent game. The controls are responsive, the atmosphere tense and immersive, and the visuals are often flat-out stunning. All that, and four included co-op missions? I'll take it.

Title: Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft), 2006
One-line verdict: Very good, but linear.
Review Platform: Xbox 360

Between a lot of travel and my continuing addiction to Mr. Beast, I haven't bought anything new since that record. Last week, though, I picked up a record that had been on my "to investigate" list for a while, by a group called Neverending White Lights. The only thing I knew about them when I bought the record was that they're Canadian -- or so I thought. Actually, "they" aren't a band at all, as such. Neverending White Lights is a project spearheaded by a fellow named Daniel Victor, a Canadian, but most of the tracks are collaborations with other artists, some from as far afield as Scotland. The collaborators are usually vocalists, though I was interested to note that Mogwai (see? Scotland!) supplied music (I don't know how much) for the album. My love affair with Mogwai continues!

Now that I've given away the ending: Act I: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies is good. Even though each song has a different singer, the album remains cohesive, which I can only credit to what must be Victor's strong sense of musical direction. The album is laid back, but more in the way of latter-days Moist than something more groovy like Zero 7. In parts it reminds me of Chris Vrenna's 2 A.M. Wake-Up Call, released under the pseudonym Tweaker; there are blends of instrumental and electronic components that strike that same sort of aural chord. Neverending White Lights are much more consistently uplifting than Vrenna, though that's hardly surprising given that the latter became famous as one of the founding memebrs of Nine Inch Nails.

At 16 tracks and 79 minutes, this is one you may not have time to focus on from start to finish all that often. However, unlike many other albums that come in at 14 tracks or more, Act I doesn't have any tracks that I think of as "filler" or skip over consistently (though there are a few tracks, mostly enumerated below, that I often skip to when I just want to hear one or two tracks).

Victor is apparently working on a solo album now, and with the reasonable commercial success of Act I in Canada, is also reported to be looking at Act II. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for both.

The Record: Act I: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies (Neverending White Lights), 2006
One-line verdict: Mellow, yet varied.
Standount Tracks: From What I Once Was, A Littlepiece, The Grace, Life Is A Dead Scene

A couple of years ago at a friend's party in Montréal, I spent some time talking about music with a girl from Vienna who, upon learning of our shared taste for bands like Sigur Rós and Muse, told me that I should really check out Mogwai. A day or two later, I made my way to downtown Montréal and picked up Ten Rapid as well as Come On Die Young. I liked them both, but I wouldn't say I loved them. I wasn't quite sure what all the fuss was about, though I did think they had a gift for simple yet compelling hooks.

A few months ago, I started reading a webcomic called Questionable Content that, among other things, regularly and lovingly pokes fun at the indie rock and indie rock fandom. It's an amusing strip. Judging by the author's news posts, which accompany the daily comics, my taste isn't that similar to his, but there's enough overlap that I read his list of recommended 2005-2006 albums with some interest. On that list I spied Mr. Beast. I didn't know that Mogwai had a new album out, and when he referred to it as their "heaviest record to date," I was sold.

True to my expectations, it rocks. There isn't much of the clean guitar diddling that CODY is built around; in its place is the double-barreled assault of full chording and meaty distortion. The hooks are still simple, and as spectacular as ever. The piano melody that Friend of the Night builds to gets stuck in my head on a regular basis, even when I haven't been listening to it.

The album does have its quiet moments, but for me these work best as interludes between bouts of heavier material -- though they're decent, I don't find that they stand as well individually as the heavier tracks do. As a whole, though, it's a cohesive, moving, solid record.

Vocals, as usual, are largely absent. It didn't bother me in the slightest, though people who listen to music for lyrics first and music second may find themselves bored.
My copy of the album, downloaded from iTMS, came with two live tracks as well. Those are nothing special; they sound pretty much like the album versions.

Mr. Beast is definitely my favourite of the three Mogwai albums I now own. It's pretty accesible, too, so it's a good place to start for people who don't own any Mogwai or have never heard of them. As long as such people also like heavy riffs, that is.

The Record: Mr. Beast (Mogwai), 2006
One-line verdict: Compelling.
Standount Tracks: Auto Rock, Glasgow Mega-Snake, Friend of the Night, We're No Here