Hunt for hifi IX: Now what?

Now that the Focal Diablo Utopia speakers #19 and #20 are mine (Focal are numbering every speaker in their Utopia line, and I appear to have gotten my filthy mitts on an early pair), I stand before the daunting task of trying to find a way to afford source and amplification electronics that do them justice. First of all, I need to figure out where to aim my priorities next. My current amplifier, while immensely powerful, is not the poster child of resolution and finesse. When... Read More

DJ report: Belgium round III

I played a DJ set in Belgium this weekend, where Psykovsky and Cosmosis played live. So it was kind of big, but my morning set (I got on at 8am) got a slightly smaller crowd than last year. Nevertheless, the Belgians know how to stir up a dancefloor riot, and here’s a short glimpse of when I played my favourite track off of Filteria‘s “Heliopolis” album: I arrived just 40 minutes before I started playing, since I had to get up at 6am on Saturday to catch... Read More

Hunt for hifi VIII: It’s over, yet only just begun

So, the time had come to decide. MBL? Focal? Neither? What impressed me the most with the MBL 121 speakers was their stunning ability to illustrate the space of a recording. This makes them nearly unbeatable for classical, jazz, singer-songwriter and live recordings. Since I don’t listen to those types of music much, instead often drawn to “produced” sounds, this argument loses some of its weight in my case. Instead, their ability to provide an accurate and deeply... Read More

Changing to WordPress

Blogger is utter shit, so I’m changing to wordpress. Please be patient as I try to get everything sorted out and a proper design put in place.  Read More

Hunt for hifi VII: Verdict prelude

Before I reveal to you, my imaginary horde of loyal readers, what the final outcome of my quest to replace my old speakers is, I will briefly summarize the previous posts in this series: Part I briefly touched on my approach to music and attitude towards high-end, or audiophile, sound, before telling the story of how my eyes (or rather, ears) were opened by what may well be the most impressive speaker I have encountered. Part II explains in greater depth how I think with regards... Read More

Hunt for hifi VI: The final showdown – before the bell

Later today I will sit down and compare the Focal Diablo Utopia with the MBL 121 speakers side by side. I won’t purchase the winner today, and if I didn’t have such a rich history of financial recklessness I’d say I may never buy them. But having bought into my own justification pitch, I realize I might pull the trigger eventually. Age has at least taught me to take a few deep breaths before I take the plunge. This will probably be the final comparison between... Read More

Hunt for hifi V: Justification

I stole this image somewhere in an attempt to illustrate what is generally an accepted costly hobby. This really is over the top though. While it’s easy to point out when audiophile excess has entered the land of absurdity, it’s a bit more interesting to look at the conditions where purchasing high-end components makes sense. Since all of my recent hifi posts are basically just flow-of-consciousness ramblings, here’s a list off the top of my head: If you can... Read More

Hunt for hifi IV: Attack ov ze Germans

Having exhausted the options of speakers cheaper than Focal Diablo Utopia that has my preferred dry, tight and precise sound, I was beginning to think that I might have to either buy the damned things, buy something cheaper I wasn’t fully happy with, or just keep what I have and take up knitting instead. But in a last attempt to make sure there were no options, I asked what else there was in the same price class as the Diablo’s. After all, if I’m going to spend... Read More

Hunt for Hifi III: Trap doors and mirages

Audiophiles are often ridiculed for spending time and substantial amounts of money on snake-oil products. These can vary from little wooden blocks to place speaker cables on like a monorail so that it never touches the ground (presumably to prevent static electricity, or something) to all manners of vibration dampening hocus pocus. The criticism spans from entirely valid, as I would say is the case for the examples I just gave, to dubious, which is the case for things like analogue... Read More

Hunt for hifi II: What is good sound?

Some time back, before I bought my Logitech Squeezebox Duet, I was touring the hifi stores auditioning CD players. Not only is my CD player the oldest component in my system, but I had also heard some mantra about “source first” in composing a stereo system, not giving it any thought beyond the initial “sure, OK”. I ended up with the Squeezebox instead, and have since made a complete 180 in terms of system design philosophy. The speakers are affecting... Read More

Hunt for hifi I: High-end fever

As a music aficionado I am concerned about sound quality, in the sense that I want to experience the music at its fullest potential, be it ultra minimalist ambient, goa trance, black metal or wall noise. Spending a fortune on hi-fi equipment will leave nothing for records, and to me it’s clearly better to listen to a huge selection of great music on mediocre equipment than to listen to just a handful of records on great equipment. But there is a balance, of course – if... Read More

Schedule change

The new world order for this weekends party is that I play between Battle of the Future Buddhas and Filteria, instead of after them. This makes a whole lot more sense, seeing as I will now be taking over from howling psychosis while it’s pitch black, and leave to über-melodic power-trance in broad daylight. This lets me leave the “normal” goa trance to the other DJ’s while I can dig really deep in my record collection to pick out the sickest mindfuckery... Read More

The yearly Swedish forest gig

My first and possibly only outdoor gig for the year is going to be this upcoming weekend. The flyer: Pretty damn sweet lineup if you ask me! I’m playing 03:30 – 06:00, which means early dawn -> full sunlight. The music will go from dusk hypnoticism to orgasmic sun worship (as if Filteria doesn’t provide enough sun worship =). I will also play in the chillout, from 22:00-00:00 if all goes well. I will be playing Steve Roach music exclusively, hopefully getting... Read More

Intermission acid

Not much happening here lately (as usual, I suppose) so while waiting for my planned series of posts on ambient overlord Steve Roach I’ll post this short clip from a private party where I played with Kompressorkanonen: I don’t think I will ever get tired of that sound.  Read More

I’m a big boy now

So I finally have an artist entry on Discogs thanks to poking Jannis in the kidneys while he’s making music. Some short comments on the two tracks from his latest album that had me involved: Filtertraces – this was a complete track that was pretty nice, but we sat down one day and completely rearranged it, added layers and tweaked pretty much everything. It was me shouting commands and Jannis sweating over the mixing desk and synths. I’m not sure how it happened,... Read More

I’m on myspace now

…and yeah, I’m a bit ashamed about it. Not enough to avoid posting this, but still. I have actually had the account for some time but never did anything with it. So over the weekend I made some half-hearted (at best) attempts att designing the thing, and put up some partial tracks I had lying around. I never finish anything and they’re not really the second coming of Simon Posford, but whatever. OK, enough buildup: http://www.myspace.com/ukiro  Read More

Belgium part deux

I had my second DJ gig in Belgium this weekend, and it went fairly well – I played a lot darker and more demanding music this time and I was happy that so many seemed to appreciate it, but for some it was “too much” or they expected something more melodic. A few minor technical mistakes are par for the course (I still don’t have CD players at home, so I can’t practice!) but what bugs me the most about my performance is that the buildup wasn’t as... Read More

Black Metal Trance part V: Darkspace

When a black metal band lists Juno Reactor among only 4 visible friends in their MySpace profile you can probably conclude that they’re somewhat more prone to electronic experimentation than the average band. This is indeed the case with Swiss trio Darkspace, who rely more on synthesizers than any of the bands mention previously in this series, and possible more than any in the genre. There are still guitars though, but most of the time they’re played to sound like... Read More

Black Metal Trance part IV: The Ruins of Beverast

When listening to introvert and contemplative music I can’t really escape the thought that it feels odd when it’s made by a band rather than a single person. Weakling (see below) sort of get away with it since they have more of a desolate, post-war and somehow “open” sound, but Burzum clones that are multi-member bands will just never feel legit. With The Ruins Of Beverast we’re on the safe side though, since it’s just one guy playing guitars,... Read More

Black Metal Trance part III: Weakling

While Burzum achieved a lot by simple means, his music can sometimes become too simple. Mood, sound and structure can get you very far, but add complexity to the mix and the music can become truly mindboggling, as well as hold up better to repeat listenings. Among the literally uncountable bands that have been influenced by Burzum, I find Weakling to be the best by far (do click that link, it gives an excellent summary of the bands history). Perhaps Weakling’s greatness... Read More