Poets of the Fall

I just want to take some time out and tell anyone who's reading this about a Finnish trio called Poets of the Fall. They first came to fame from the ending song to Max Payne 2 (Late Goodbye) and the music to the 2005 Futuremark PC benchmarking software, 3DMark (Lift). I was introduced to this band by a Finnish friend I'd met online who sent me Late Goodbye. I was instantly hooked to the film-noir-esque overtones and delicately layered guitars. Little did I know that their music had much more depth to it. Their lead singer, Marko Saaresto has an incredible talent for linking beautiful lyrics, loaded with symbolism with melody that just lodges in my mind and doesn't leave. His voice has a great range, from deep smooth bass to pure high-notes. I recall reading an interview that he had classical vocal training in his youth. One can't forget Ollie's addictive guitar riffs and Captain's keyboard and mixing prowess.

In more recent years, they've written songs for the game Alan Wake under the pseudonym Old Gods of Asgard - one of these being a delicate folk song (The Poets and the Muse), but they stray into heavier affairs (More) and sideways into powerful, instrospective ballads (Given and Denied, a personal favourite) and have even dabbled in electronica (The Absolution [Locking up the Sun Remix]). All are insightful and are, in my opinion, the music equivalent of hearty food to the body.

I'm listening to them even as I type. You should too.

Added: Very recently, their newest album came out - Temple of Thought. I actually didn't think it sounded any good, but I've listened to it a few dozen times (yes, I know...) and it took root. It's actually a solid album, with the usual thoughtful lyrics. I love how there's themes to every one of their albums. It will take me some more time to decide on my favourites, but the ones that stick in my mind are the first one - Running Out of Time - very catchy, likeable tune and the soulful last song - The Ballad of Jeremiah Peacekeeper.

Please don't pirate their music.

(Anime) Image Hoarding

As a person who likes to collect and catalogue things (read of that what you will...), I undertook, a few years ago, some research to this end. Specifically, I wanted to catalogue anime desktop wallpapers that I found on the internet. Call it scratching an itch if you will. I was already aware of conventional wallpaper archive websites (that any standard G search will throw up) and the (in)famous 4chan. However, I desired something with more flexibility. Photobucket had already turned me away as they only filled themselves with photos, and so, eventually, I trawled my way to a very flexible, tag-based, image cataloguing technology: Danbooru and all its derivatives. Free-loving as I was, and still am, I found an altruistic group of people who hosted boorus - The Booru Project - and I happily rooted myself there. Just a warning, most of the boorus on 'The Booru Project' are definitely not safe for work. Mine is though.

To pad out my impetus for cataloguing anime wallpaper, I was concerned that the beautiful artwork I'd collected would start vanishing as subscriptions on old websites started expiring. Nausicaa - the classic Miyazaki film and not her of Odysseus fame - wallpapers are, for example, notoriously difficult to locate due to the film's pre-Internet conception.

In more recent times, I have been invited to Pintrest and started sharing the images I'd been hoarding so carefully from Google scraping and certain dubious boorus.

If anyone is actually reading this, which I doubt, please feel free to join in my (anime) image hoarding.