First article today to speak about How the Marquis Got His Coat Back by Neil Gaiman. It is a short story taking place in the world of Neverwhere (another book by Gaiman which I recommend reading, a novelization of a TV series by the same author, later presented as a play, and as a radio play and comic books).

Sell me a coat with buttons of silver

The story takes place, for those who have read Neverwhere, between Richard Mayhew leaving London Below and the end of the book. In this story, we follow the quest undertaken by the Marquis de Carabas, who after losing (among other things) hiw coat, sets out to find who has got his coat, and how to get it back. In order to achieve this, he will have to overcome many dangers, hampered by the loss of his precious coat. He will get help, somewhat against his will, by a character as extraordinary as him, whom he would have rather not met again.

It is a short short story, sold in pocket form, thin. It can be read in the time it takes to read at night before going to sleep, and if one enjoyed Neverwhere, then one will be pleased to come back to familiar places, and to learn more about the Marquis and some of the inhabitants of London Below.

Only available in french.

And that’s why they say I’m strange

Culottées is a series of portraits of 30 exceptional women who have distinguished themselves by breaking away from the codes of their times, either by their choice of profession, by their way of life or by their convictions, in short by doing what they wanted instead of following what society wanted them to do.

The style is classic for Penelope Bagieu, and one recognizes its feature, in the portraits themselves, and in the magnificent double-page images that conclude each portrait in the two books. What is particularly peculiar in these stories is that there is a lot of text, and the images are in the end either there to illustrate the point, or so that the woman illustrated by the portrait can express her opinion (often in a humorous/sarcastic/ironic tone) about the situation described. In the end, it is full of finesse, we learn a lot about these women and the obstacles they have to face and cross to achieve their passion, and we quickly feel sympathetic for them.

In short, I recommend reading the portraits, either on the blog which, at this time, is still online, or by buying the two books for those who like me appreciate the reassuring and permanent contact of books.

Below, the list of portraits in each of the two books.

1. Clémentine Delait, bearded woman
2. Nzinga, queen of Ndongo et du Matamba
3. Margaret Hamilton, terrifying actress
4. Las Mariposas, rebellious sisters
5. Josephina van Gorkum, stubborn lover
6. Lozen, warrior and shaman
7. Annette Kellerman, mermaid
8. Delia Akeley, explorer
9. Joséphine Baker, dancer, resistant, mother of a family
10. Tove Jansson, painter, creator of trolls
11. Agnodice, gynecologist
12. Leymah Gbowee, social worker
13. Giorgina Reid, lighthouse keeper
14. Christine Jorgensen, celebrity
15. Wu Zetian, empress

1. Temple Grandin, interpreter for animals
2. Sonita Alizadeh, rapper
3. Cheryl Bridges, athlete
4. Thérèse Clerc, realistic utopist
5. Betty Davis, singer-songwriter
6. Nellie Bly, journalist
7. Phulan Devi, queen of bandits
8. The Shaggs, rock stars
9. Katia Krafft, volcanologist
10. Jesselyn Radack, lawyer
11. Hedy Lamarr, actress, inventor
12. Naziq al-Abid, “good family” activist
13. Frances Glessner Lee, crime miniaturist
14. Mae Jemison, astronaut
15. Peggy Guggenheim, in love with modern art

The Wakening ?

Today, my inner Dragon woke up. By Dragon, I don’t mean Tolkien’s Dragon, hoarder of gold and burninator of peasants, but Gardner’s Dragon, Keeper of Knowledge.

In other less exotic terms, today’s back to school day. I can feel a flame coming to my eye.

Aeternation

One could think the Dragon spends his summer sleeping while waiting for the sheep to come back, before moving out of his lair, but one would be mistaken. The Dragon, while not one to shy away from indolence, really sharpens his claws and his immense intellect (prepares his classes and material), organizes the herd (dispatches the students into groups), and polishes his gold (prepares the opening lecture and all the documents to be handed out) to welcome the little lambs that don’t know yet on what skewer they will end up being cooked.

While it may not look like much, this is actually time consuming. Before that, some software was developed (this Dragon has a preference for Python) so that the students could ask to be paired with another student, while not relying on Google Alphabet. A significant amount of time (the whole month of July) was given to give them a chance to make their wish.

Of course, some of them went away on holidays immediately and happily ignored mails and came bleating today to try and change paddocks. Quousque tandem, quousque tandem?

Class groups had to be made, with the funny constraint of fitting 163 students into 10 groups of 13. I’ll let you do the math, for giggles. To add a little twist, among the students, some have to be paired, some have to be in a predetermined group, some that may leave in a week or month for apprenticeship, some that are taking the internship defense in September and who may or may not fail their year and have to retake it, and some in failing situation who may well not show up or leave in the next x weeks.

The welcome lecture had to be prepared, so it meant running after other dragons to know if such and such is still in charge of this or that, sometimes without success. We’re also readying a nice skewer for a special long duration roasting: a multi-course project (advanced object-oriented analysis, advanced object-oriented programming, server-side web programming, advanced databases). My colleagues have prepared other skewers too: one in mathematical modeling, just as long but thinner, and a shorter one in management. And an apple to top it off in January.

Let’s not forget various parchments to be handed out, the list of the victims, and of course, face the dreadful moment: the morning welcome lecture (at 9am).

Baaaaaaa

It’s the third time I’m doing this, but third time’s not the charm and I think this was the worst. It’s amazing how much noise a herd can make… It could have been over in 45 minutes, including roll calling them all, but between the noise and having to ask for more quiet, it took a whole hour. Roll call was (of course) the worst part.

I expect most of what I said went though one ear and out the other, but, as someone cynical might say, it’s a fact that air passes right through when there’s only empty air between two holes. since I am not that someone cynical, I’ll put it on their excitement to be back to school, with their friends and baa-baa-baa my vacation stories.

Silence is Gold(en)

An hour of hellcome lecture, as I was saying. After that it’s back to the usual building and to serious activities: internship defenses. Woooooooo.

So it’s back to back defenses until 12:30, then an express flight to my lair for an equally express lunch, then back on the plateau for more defenses from 1:30pm till 6:30pm, without break.

The trouble with defenses is that quality is so random, you can see some barely average presentations (reading from their notes) and some that are great. We even have some remote defenses using Skype. It’s exhausting and shuts your brain off. Then we have to agree on grades, but the colleagues doing that with me are nice and we do that efficiently.

But wait, there’s more

Needless to say, it doesn’t stop there, you naive readers. I had to run after more grades, because I am one of the Great Dragons in our department, and so I have the privilege of managing the second year herd and it’s report cards and their results (or lack thereof). Thankfully, the grades were quickly found on a colleague’s desk, colleague who left early and doesn’t answer his phone.

In the end: I left the plateau at 7:30pm. Not too bad, 9am->7:30pm with barely one hour for lunch on the first day.

See you soon for more adventures of this Great Dragon.

Tonight’s article is about a recent buy (actually, semi-recent, I’ve owned the novel for a while, but took the opportunity only recently to buy the manga): All you need is kill, by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, with illustrations by Yoshitoshi ABe and its manga adaptation by Ryōsuke Takeuchi, drawn by Takeshi Obata. A movie adaptation was released under the title Edge of Tomorrow, but I won’t talk about it here, because it differs a lot from the original story.

From ethers tragic I am born again

The story follows Keiji Kiriya, a young recruit in the United Defense Force. He, and the UDF he is a part of are fighiting against mysterious creatures names Mimics, and despite all the technology that the UDF holds (such as exoskeletons for its soldiers), the Mimics relentlessly push back the human forces regardless of their efforts to stop them. During his first fight, Keiji seemingly dies after killing a stranger than usual mimic, but through some unexplained phenomenon, he wakes up in his bunk bed, back at the military base, the day before the fight that should have been his last.

The original novel, by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, is a light novel (a type of Japanese novel aimed at the young adult audience), illustrated by Yoshitoshi ABe (Serial Experiments Lain, Haibane Renmei…), whose style is recognizable in the character design. It was published in 2004 in Japan, and a manga adaptation was published in 2014.

The manga is drawn by Takeshi Obata (Death Note) based on th adaptation written by Ryōsuke Takeuchi.

Keiji Kiriya is a young recruit from the United Defense Force. At the beginning of the novel (and the manga), he made the very ephemeral acquaintance of a soldier in a red exoskeleton, who told him she was named Rita Vrataski, then he dies attacking a mimic. The End.

However, not unlike in Groundhog Day, Keiji wakes up at the base, in his bunkbed. Though conversations, he realizes that he is back on the eve of the battle that will be fatal to him. The day is similar to the previous one, but during the battle, he dies even faster, and again, finds himself in his bed. Gradually, he realizes how the loop in which he is a prisoner works, and he realizes the differences between each loop, and he starts the habit of writing down on his hand how many loops he went through to keep track of how many times he died. Each iteration makes him more effective as a soldier.

After several dozens of iterations, he starts figuring out the limitations imposed by his armament and he then begins imitating and copying Rita (nicknamed “Full Metal Bitch”), who does not fight with traditional weapons but with a gigantic battle axe. Similarly, from iteration to iteration, he becomes more and more efficient and progressively realizes how much Rita and him are similar.

I will not tell you everything, it would be a shame to spoil all the story. 😉 I recommend both the light novel and the manga, choose either of them according to your reading preferences. If you’ve seen Edge of Tomorrow, ditto, come back to books, I think they’re better.

Today I’m going to step away from the usual articles about my reading and musical tastes to talk a bit about a video game that kept me the most occupied some years ago, and some of its predecessors.

Mana mana, pa pa palala.

It should be obvious, given the title above, that this is about the game series …of Mana (but not just them). The game that is the center of my interest here is Legend of Mana, but I will also write about Secret of Mana and 聖剣伝説3 (Seiken Densetsu 3) – never released outside of Japan – and Secret of Evermore, the little, unfairly shunned, cousin.

First things first, a brief history of the series: the first title was released in 1991, it was Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden, later released in the USA as Final Fantasy Adventure then even later in Europe under the name Mystic Quest. This first title was in fact a spin-off of the Final Fantasy series and would serve to launch the Mana series.

The first episode is really similar to the Final Fantasy type of games, but with the second episode, the distinctive elements from FF disappear and the Mana series gain a life of their own. It has since then evolved and now contains multiples games spanning various genres (action, tactical, dungeon crawler…) all with the common theme of the Mana Tree and protagonists that will protect it from those who seek to claim its power as their own.

To put it in a more personal perspective : Secret of Mana was one of the first, if not the first RPG that I have ever owned. When it came out (late November 1994), I was visiting a cousin in Germany to improve my German (I was taking it as my first foreign language back then). since I was very doubtful my parents would buy it to me or let me buy it, I used the occasion and bought it with allowance money there and brought it back to France. Yes, it means I played Secret of Mana in german with my brother (who was 10 at that time) with the helpful guide that came with the game (in German too, surprisingly).

Ultimately, my proficiency was enough to understand what was said in the game, and the medium helped understanding everything else. We played it for hours and hours (and then some more) to complete everything, level up all the weapons, raise the characters’ levels, and boost all the magic spells to their maximum.

And nowadays, when I look at the game and play it on an emulator, I see what gave it its charm, but it does feel a little weird playing alone this game that I used to always play with my brother as the second player.

Later (two years? three years?), in a small shop in Saint-Malo that has since disappeared, we bought a second hand cartridge of Secret of Evermore. Evermore is a bit unusual: unlike all the other games in the series, it was produced by the American branch of Square instead of the Japanese branch. One of the effects is that many players have considered that Evermore was published in place of Seiken Densetsu 3, which is false; the choice not to translate the latter was taken independently of the decision to produce Evermore. Moreover, the atmosphere is quite original in Evermore: in Secret of Mana, all the action takes place in a world, on various continents which have their geographical specificities, but in Evermore, the action takes place in different times, from the Palaeolithic jungles and marshes, an ancient Coliseum and pyramid, a medieval market and an abandoned castle, to a space base, all inspired by the B-series films of which the protagonist is a fan.

The atmosphere and gameplay are quite different: where Secret of Mana had an atmosphere quite close to the initiatory quest with a gallery of secondary characters helping the hero against a multitude of opponents with different objectives, Secret of Evermore is in my opinion much more oppressive, in the sense that interactions with other characters are quite limited spatially, and one is often (accompanied by his dog) alone facing nature or enemies. In terms of gameplay, there are some commonalities (in particular the combat part where one charges his weapon), but also great differences, especially magic: in Secret of Mana, it is enough to have mana, go in the menu and then simply cast the spell. In Evermore, you must have the right ingredients to cast your spell, it’s Alchemy. And at certain points in the game, some ingredients are very easy to acquire, and others very rare, which will strongly influence the tactical choices in combat.

Similarly to Secret of Mana, I still have good memories of this game, though we regretted then that this game could not be played with two players, unlike Secret of Mana.

Much later, I bought a PSX, and one day brought it into Paris, on boulevard Voltaire, to have it chipped, which allowed me to play not just burned games, but also imported games, which brings us to one of my most favorite games ever on console: Legend of Mana.

Legend of Mana has never been published in Europe, much less translated. It was released in Japan in 1999, then in the USA in 2000. I bought it near Republic as an import, and with my chipped console I could play it and spend more time there than in Secret of Mana.

Why play it so much and spend so much time? The first reason is esthetic: Legend of Mana is one of the most gorgeous 2D games ever made. See for yourself.

Second reason, Yoko Shimomura’s music is magnificent.

The game brings many innovations, and many of them revolve around the workshop: during the game, different characters will improve it, adding a forge, an instrument making workshop (magic in Legend of Mana) and a golem making workshop (golems which can accompany the protagonist but are controlled by the AI). These three workshops are very rich, and add massive customization options. And for me, the forge was a formidable playground: at the time, the understanding of the depth of the system was rather rudimentary, based on translations of the Japanese Ultimania guide experiments. On the game’s message board on GameFaqs, I joined at the moment when the great breakthroughs in understanding arrived, and I had discovered at the same time and independently of another player how to push the elementary levels of weapons higher than what was then done. And it was amazing! It was experimental research in the game, based on hypotheses and tests to confirm them. Since then, a simulator has even been created (because the code of the game for the forge is mostly known now). There’s also a corral, and one can catch many of the monsters from the game (and some half-humans) to raise them and take them as companions (instead of a golem). There’s even a orchard to grow your own fruits.

In terms of story, Legend of Mana also differs a lot from other RPGs because overall, the protagonist is not the hero. The protagonist is the secondary character of the many stories whose main characters are accompanied by us. There are three great stories (arcs) in the game: the Jumis, Larc and Sierra, and Matilda and Irwin, and within these arcs, there are side quests. There are also a multitude of small stories composed of one or more quests that sometimes intersect (Niccolo, the young magicians Bud and Lisa, Gilbert, Rachel…). In the end, the protagonist is a catalyst for all these stories, helping the Mana Tree (the protagonist restores the places of the world of Fa’Diel, in game by placing artefacts on the --originally blank-- map).

In short, it is beautiful, it is rich, the characters are varied, with nuanced motives (there is no real “villain who wants to destroy the world because he is wicked”, all the antagonists have their own reasons for their actions, and you sometimes find yourself making difficult choices, one of which involves the permanent death of a character), and I advise everyone to get it and play it.

Nashorn im Galopp (Rhino Full Throttle) is a short film by Erik Schmitt, released in 2013, starring Marlen Lohse (as Vicky) and Tino Mewes (as Bruno). It was nominated for and won multiple awards, a list of which you can find on the IMDb page.

Nashorn Im Galopp (Rhino Full Throttle) (Erik Schmitt ; 2013)

Bruno is making his way through the city, searching for its soul. Driven by his curiosity, a challenging imagination and his wild reflection on reality, he is lifting the old dusty curtain on the city's crusted perception. Bruno is collecting patterns, spaces and surfaces, showing us the city as we have never seen it before.

That is, until one day the city guides him into meeting Vicky. While the summary makes this story about Bruno, it also is about his relationship with Vicky, and the feelings and the pains and the growth he experiences because of her. In a way, it is a love story, but also a friendship story, and a story about Berlin and its soul, about a meeting and a parting. It also is a technical movie, in the sense that Erik Schmitt shows what he is capable of through montage and collage and mixing filming with photography.

I’m not surprised this short film won so many awards, because I can’t help but recognize a bit of myself in Bruno and his relationship with the city and with Vicky, and be moved by their story.

The vidéo can be bought on Vimeo.

Hansel & Gretel (Neil Gaiman, Lorenzo Mattotti ; 2014)

I’ll start this with the end of the book, which is a story about the story of Hansel and Gretel. We learn of the origins of the story, how the versions evolved from the first telling of the story to Wilhelm Grimm (which is believed not to be the first telling of the story, for it may have origins dating it back to the XIVth century), to more modern versions. Gaiman chose here to go for a fairly classic setting, set a long time ago, in a place where war would eventually flood and dry life and hope from the land and its people.

In his version of the story, Gaiman sets the mood as optimistic, then rapidly switches it to gloom as war advances and the once happy family, if not living in luxury, quickly goes hungry and hopeless. The mother is the first to break, and she manages to convince her husband that the children must be lost (“not killed, lost”) in order for the two of them to survive. Forewarned, little Hansel uses pebbles to find his way back, much to the joy of their father and the cold antipathy of their mother. The lack of improvement in their living conditions leads the father to take them out again, this time leaving Hansel no time to prepare.

The children are lost, and as all lost souls do, they find their way somewhere. I could tell you about the Gingerbread house and its owner, and old lady, maybe a witch, maybe Baba Yaga, maybe just gone crazy from the war and famine, and what happens, but that would spoil the fun, now wouldn’t it?

The book has dark, black and white illustrations of the various scenes, and Mattotti has a unique style well suited for the book. The forest is oppressive, and only the characters stand out in patches of light amid the darkness.

All in all, it was a pleasant read, a retelling of a classic story, and it makes for a nice bedside book for children who want a scary story to read in the winter, when the night has come.

Mickey’s Craziest Adventures (Trondheim, Keramidas ; 2016)

In their introduction to the comic book, Trondheim and Keramidas claim that it was a fortuitous discovery during a yard sale, in which they chanced upon a stack of old and forgotten issues of Mickey’s Crazy Adventure, published in the 60s, then forgotten about and never republished due to its really unconventional nature. The consequence is that not all issues were recovered, some are missing or in poor state, and the authors are publishing a facsimile of the original issues, with some minor adaptation by Trondheim.

However, as everyone knows, authors lie, after all it is their job to do so. Under that pretense, Trondheim and Keramidas let loose and had a lot of fun inventing a crazy Mickey adventure, in the style of Big Adventures from the 60s Mickey, with an appropriate vintage style. Keramidas’ touch is recognizable, as is Trondheim’s writing, and both take advantage of the supposed (re)discovery of these issues to take the liberty of omitting pages from the story, leaving the reader free to fill and imagine what happened in the blanks, or what is missing in torn fragments of pages.

Story-wise, we of course follow Mickey, but also all the main characters from the Mickey universe: Donald, Scrooge McDuck, Goofy, Gyro Gearloose, Peg-Leg Pete, the Beagle Boys, but also Minnie, Daisy and even Gladstone Gander. Scrooge calls for Donald’s help retrieving Gyro’s latest invention, which ends up in the hands of Pete and the Beagle Boys, who use it to steal Scrooge’s fortune. Mickey is on their trail and will have to work with Donald in order to catch them and bring back Scrooge’s gold. Due to the gaps from the “missing” pages, the action goes at a fast pace, and the whole story is a fast read. Another effect of the missing pages is that as the title says, this Mickey adventure is truly the craziest.

This story is all the more fun to read that Trondheim adds his unique touch to the story and creates off-the-beaten-path situations, far from the traditional Mickey we know: children scorn and mistrust him, he gets slapped by Minnie, hurts himself stupidly jumping off a landing plane, loses his pants… We are as far as possible from classic (and sometimes boring) Mickey stories. Keramidas is perfect, and takes a lot of pleasure drawing the scenes and places for such an Adventure: jungle, multiple ruins, the moon (!), a submarine world… All of them is a really well done vintage style and full of small details.

A really fun comic book to read, with superb illustrations.

Two pages to see what this is about:

D is For Dangerous

Daniel Danger is an illustrator and printmaker from the USA, in the New England Area. He runs Tiny Media Empire, a production and design company based out of Boston, MA. He has been working for the likes of Universal Pictures, Dreamworks, Penguin Books, Lucas-Arts, several music labels and more. He has also given numerous exhibits through the years across the USA.

Most importantly, he is amazing at what he does.

I first discovered him last year, when i was searching for a new profile+cover combo for my Facebook profile. I stumbled upon a picture of Alice and the Jabberwock and it was an immediate like.

There is something so eerie in what he draws, and so meticulously detailed. It just so happened that for Facebook, Alice stands right where your profile picture is, relative to the cover picture, so I shamelessly used the whole image to make my profile.

And today is my opportunity to tell you to go on his store and to buy a print, because they are beautiful (and reasonably priced).

I figure I like to share the things I enjoy – games (boardgames, video games, role playing games), music, movies, series, books, my work – so I might as well blog about them, and not just share content, but also share why I liked/enjoyed it. And – who knows ? – maybe the world will care, or maybe just one of you, and you, that special someone, mean the world to me.

So, without further ado, let me share some music!

Why start with La Femme? Because my friend Laurent shared his 2016 playlist, in which this particular piece appears.

La Femme is an odd number, that I cannot (not want to) classify in one genre. Sphynx has that repetitive, hypnotic melody and Naomi Greene’s voice fits perfectly; not quite whispered, but with a wispy quality to it. The lyrics speak of acid and dance and Babylon, and the video that was made for it stays true to the theme and style.

Sphynx révèle toi ! Emporte moi
et guide moi sur le chemin
qui nous emmènera au loin
à mille et une années lumière
et nous durerons dans le temps, nous serons Sphynx

Show yourself, Sphynx ! Take me away
and guide me on the path
That will take us afar,
one thousand and one light years away,
and through time we will endure, we will be Sphynx

Repos Administration

A day with no lecture planned, but no rest for this Great Dragon. since yesterday’s grades can’t be entered through the web (long, boring story), my Dragon office colleague enters the notes that I’m reading off my phone’s screen.

We prepare report cards and result summaries, it takes a lot of time, with a small interruption by some students who (surprise, surprise) want to change groups. After that we prepare two report cards manually for a student doing a customized cursus (which means it doesn’t simply work using the grade management software, so we tinker to get it “working”)

After that mini-meeting with another colleague to talk about some sheep who want to change paddocks (again, but these are english speaking ones), some of whom may give me a headache.

All in all, I left work at 7pm (but I’ll be honest, I spent the whole morning at home).

Tomorrow, meetings to validate or fail students, and then the department general meeting, now that’s gonna be rock&roll.

After an afternoon grading papers, there’s nothing like a little cooking to take a break (before going back to grading, who am I kidding?).

Ingrédients

To make your strawberry shortcake you will need:

Préparation

Prepare your cake tin by lining it with clingfilm like thus :

Do not shy away from using a long piece, it will be used at the end to wrap the cake around. Remove the strawberry leaves and cut them. I found that cutting them in halves is the best size for this cake.

Get the preparation ready : take the mascarpone, the fromage blanc and the sugar and put them in a large bowl. whip it good, until you end up with a smooth, creamy texture. I used a fork to do it, but you can use whatever, really.

Get a plate and pour just a little orange juice in it.

Wet the ladyfingers quickly, one by one, just enough to get the top and bottom side wet, then put the at the bottom of your tin, with the flat side of the ladyfingers up (when you get the cake out, they will be at th top of th cake). cover with a first layer of strawberries. The most observant among you will have noticed I gut the ladyfingers : my tin isn’t rectangular and the bottom is thinner than the top. I also cut a lot of them because the first ones were cut too short. Go me. \o/

Cover the strawberries with a layer of preparation.

Get a second layer of strawberries in place. Eat the left over strawberries.

And now make them disappear.

Wet the remaining ladyfingers then cover the top. unlike me, you should put the flat side up.

And last, wrap the clingfilm around to cover the cake. Push down a bit to make it compact. Actual tin makes it easier since silicon molds tend to deform.

Leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Serve immediately after taking it out of the fridge.

So a few days ago, I read an article on Pigeons&Planes (Archive.org version here), about the 10 songs that André Allen Anjos, of RAC (Remix Artist Collective) is listening to right now. One of these songs was Rite of the Ancients, the first track of The Budos Band’s album titled The Budos Band III (on Daptone Records). That song led me to the album, which I gave a good listening to (or two, or three, it’s that good), and I ended up with a clear favorite song: Nature’s Wrath, which you can listen to below. The band refers to itself as “Staten Island instrumental afro-soul”, a mix of soul music and afrobeat (and jazz, and others), in instrumental form.

Enjoy.

The album opens with Rite of the Ancients, which sounds as if it came from a 70s TV show, with some fancy car driving along the coast. This song is what led me to seek the rest of the album, because its retro-feeling groove takes you places. And the brass, and the drums, oh, hmm.
Second track is Black Venom. As the name suggest, the theme is much darker and oppressive. Still, a good track, with an hypnotising melody in the background.
Third comes River Serpentine, a nice track, but which doesn’t stand out to me.
Fourth track is Unbroken, Unshaven. This track has a lighter mood, feeling as the name suggest as if you just survived hardships and could take on the rest of the adventure in stride.
Fifth is the incredible Nature’s Wrath, for which listening expresses much better than words its qualities and feelings.
Nature’s Wrath is followed by the impressive Golden Dunes and its rythmic, metronomic, cowbell. A very nice song.
Track seven is Budos Dirge. It is the shortest track of the album, one of hte moodier songs of the album.
The eighth track, Raja Haje, is good and features Th. Brenneck’s guitar.
Next is Crimson Skies. Again, the mood of this song demarks itself by being lighter overall than many of the songs before.
After that comes Mark of the Unnamed. This one echoes the first track’s feeling that it could be featured in 70s movies or tv series on the road.
Last but not least, Reppirt Yad is their cover and reinterpretation of a famous Beatles’ song (hint: rorrim, rorrim), giving it a whole new feel.

So if you get a chance, listen to the album, or better yet, buy it.

Today, I discovered a band through a test of the newest iPad. While mostly useless, it allowed me to hear this one song, which happens to have a very permissive license (License Art Libre, close to copyleft), so I’m gonna put the mp3 here on my site for embedding purposes.

The band is Poppers, and here’s Dr Robert and the Gober: