#AirPlay 2 receiver

[crazydiscostu]

Eve Play Audio Streaming Interface

This unassuming device transforms your existing amplifiers, powered speakers, or soundbars into the stars of a multi-room setup, seamlessly integrating into your home audio ecosystem. Today we’re getting into the Eve Play Audio Streaming Interface, a new gadget from the folks at Eve Systems. Product supplied for review purposes Eve Play The Eve Play Audio Streaming Interface is a compact���

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

The Cranberries - Zombie 1994

"Zombie" is a protest song by Irish alternative rockband the Cranberries. It was written by the lead singer, Dolores O'Riordan, about the young victims of a bombing in Warrington, England, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The song was released on 19 September 1994 as the lead single from the Cranberries' second studio album, No Need to Argue. While the record label feared releasing a too controversial and politically charged song as a single, "Zombie" reached number 1 on the charts of Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and Iceland, and spent nine consecutive weeks at number 1 on the French SNEP Top 100. It reached number 2 on the Ö3 Austria Top 40, where it stayed for eight weeks. The song did not chart on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart as it wasn't released as a single there, but it reached number 1 on the US Billboard Alternative Airplay chart. Listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J voted it number 1 on the 1994 Triple J Hottest 100 chart, and it won the Best Song Award at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards.

The Troubles were a conflict in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to 1998. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), an Irish republican paramilitary organisation, waged an armed campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland and unite the region with the Republic of Ireland. Republican and Unionist paramilitaries killed more than 3,500 people, many from thousands of bomb attacks. One of the bombings happened on 30 March 1993, as two IRA improvised explosive devices hidden in litter bins were detonated in a shopping street in Warrington, England. Two people; Johnathan Ball, aged 3, and Tim Parry, aged 12, were killed in the attack. 56 people were injured. Ball died at the scene of the bombing as a result of his shrapnel-inflicted injuries, and five days later, Parry lost his life in a hospital as a result of head injuries. O'Riordan decided to write a song that reflected upon the event and the children's deaths after visiting the town: "We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing. So I suppose that's why I was saying, 'It's not me' – that even though I'm Irish it wasn't me, I didn't do it. Because being Irish, it was quite hard, especially in the UK when there was so much tension." The song was re-popularised in 2023 after it was played after Ireland games at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. It was picked up by fans of the Irish team, with videos of fans singing the song in chorus accumulating hundreds of thousands of views on social media. This offended other Irishmen, who identified it as an "anti-IRA" anthem, and said that that the lyrics failed to consider their experience during the Troubles.

The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, was filmed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the heart of the Troubles with real footage, and in Dublin. To record video footage of murals, children and British Army soldiers on patrol, he had a false pretext, with a cover story about making a documentary about the peace-keeping efforts in Ireland. Bayer stated that a shot in the video where an SA80 rifle is pointed directly at the camera is a suspicious British soldier asking him to leave, and that the IRA were keeping a close look at the shoot, given "the British Army come in with fake film crews, getting people on camera.” While "Zombie" received heavy rotation on MTV Europe and was A-listed on Germany's VIVA, the music video was banned by the BBC because of its "violent images", and by the RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster. Instead, both the BBC and the RTÉ opted to broadcast an edited version focusing on footage of the band in a live performance, a version that the Cranberries essentially disowned. Despite their efforts to maintain the original video "out of view from the public", some of the initial footage prevailed, with scenes of children holding guns. In March 2003, on the eve of the outbreak of the Iraq War, the British Government and the Independent Television Commission issued a statement saying ITC's Programme Code would temporarily remove from broadcast songs and music videos featuring "sensitive material", including "Zombie". Numerous media groups complied with the decision to avoid "offending public feeling", along with MTV Europe. Since it violated the ITC guidelines, "Zombie" was placed on a blacklist of songs, targeting its official music video. The censorship was lifted once the war had ended. In April 2020, it became the first song by an Irish group to surpass one billion views on Youtube.

"Zombie" received a total of 91% yes votes!

[black-arcana]

HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Hydra – Within Temptation

Although not confirmed to be a subtle dig, the timing was suspicious: during the recording of NIGHTWISH’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful in the summer of 2014, their newest member, Troy Donockley, said in a video diary that it is “still absolutely NIGHTWISH, but there are some parts that will probably startle some people. But nothing cheesy. There’s gonna be no dreadful, pathetic stabs at trying to jump on some bandwagon, slap some shit rap on it or something, none of that nonsense.” A few months earlier, WITHIN TEMPTATION released their sixth full-length record, Hydra. 

In the run up to its January launch, much had been made of their choice of collaborators across its tracklist. Dreams came true when Tarja Turunen was announced to feature alongside Sharon Den Adel on Paradise (What About Us?), a song which has become the answer to ‘what does symphonic metal sound like?’

What raised eyebrows was And We Run (feat. Xzibit). While other guest vocalists from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE and SOUL ASYLUM broadly drew from the same rock palette as WITHIN TEMPTATION, here was an artist from a genre that could seriously be considered the polar opposite of symphonic metal.

Whether And We Run entirely works is subjective, but history has vindicated the band and Xzibit as being ahead of the curve. In the ten years since Hydra, heavy music has not only become more fashionable again, but it has diversified – and the two are surely linked. In 2023, SPIRITBOX remixed MEGAN THEE STALLION’s Cobra, introducing metal’s most hyped band in years to a whole new audience by a show of respect between them and one of the world’s biggest stars. In the UK, BRING ME THE HORIZON sell out the country’s largest venues because they introduced elements of pop, electronica, and hip hop to their initially abrasive sound. The future of music is genreless, but to get there, bands have to break down barriers.

There is more to it than just the music. One of symphonic metal’s most defining tropes is the vocal talent of its lead singer, who is often female and often white. Its lyrical content is heavily fantastical, referring to literary works by European authors who have written in predominantly white cultures. The lack of diversity in the genre can be seen in the source material for many of its songs. Introducing Xzibit’s deep vocals, having him write his own verse, destroyed the notion that symphonic metal has to look or sound a certain way.

In the years since, WITHIN TEMPTATION have taken up the mantle to promote peace and love. During live performances of Raise Your Banner, Den Adel would wave the rainbow LGBTQ+ flag, and in the last few years changed it to the Ukrainian one. Their new album Bleed Out draws heavily from accounts of war, documenting its horrors in anthems of solidarity.

Hydra was when the band realised this music, their music, was for everyone. When NIGHTWISH, who had long gone unchallenged at the top of the genre, decided to double down on their usual shtick, WITHIN TEMPTATION looked outward and opened their arms. They saw no reason why a rapped verse could not exist alongside all the other elements of their arsenal. The rousing Paradise that featured Turunen was inspired by a Dutch general who emphasised seeing the world as ‘us’ instead of ‘yourself’ and ‘them’.

It makes sense then that the album is also the band’s most palatable. There is none of The Unforgiving’s prog rock-like storyline, no epics like The Truth Beneath The Rose from The Heart Of Everything. In return, the acoustic-driven Whole World Is Watching received radio airplay in the UK – and was debuted on BBC Radio 2 by the legendary Ken Bruce. While rock music is a little more welcome on the airways in 2024, this marked a significant shift in WITHIN TEMPTATION’s profile at the time. No longer a niche band, they were welcome on the most listened to radio show in the country.

The rest of the album follows in this vein, for better or worse. That it lacks a distinct personality alongside most of their other records – the technicolour of The Unforgiving, the natural wonder of Mother Earth – is a symptom of how straight-forward it is. But there is an argument for Hydra as the band’s most consistent collection of songs, all of which are built on a strong foundation of pop music and familiar structures. Silver Moonlight in particular is overflowing with hooks, built upon chunky guitars and small symphonic flourishes. It sounds massive, which might be the only gear WITHIN TEMPTATION know how to operate in, but it sounds instant and immediate too.

Hydra arrived a year after the band recorded 15 cover songs for Belgian radio station Q-Music, in celebration of the band’s 15th anniversary. Most of these tracks were pop songs, like SIA’s Titanium, BRUNO MARS’s Grenade, and LANA DEL REY’s Summertime Sadness, which featured in their live shows at the time (and on the deluxe edition of Hydra). Den Adel said they wanted each cover to sound like a WITHIN TEMPTATION song, and not just a simple stripped back arrangement. It is no surprise then, after spending months familiarising themselves with mainstream hits, that they became tighter songwriters, something which they continue to reap the benefits of to this day, but which was first heard on Hydra.

The reason WITHIN TEMPTATION are headlining Wembley Arenathis year is because of Hydra. It is the turning point in their career where they said no to limiting themselves, and realised their capabilities reached far beyond the confines of symphonic metal. They are too good at songwriting, too strong as performers to be anything less than a legitimate marquee band. Throw on any of its 10 tracks and you hear a band with a new sense of confidence at the start of a new beginning, discovering what they are truly capable of. It was the blueprint to go even bigger, even more widescreen, on what came next. Everyone was welcome on the journey. Just look at them now.

Hydra was originally released on January 22nd, 2014 via BMG.

[yuzuyoon]

No one has been able to keep a song above 8 million and chart another one without over 200 million playlisting and over 10 million radio airplay. If we wanted to keep who at like 4 million, we could probably chart 2 or 3 songs, but if we want to keep her at 8, that's not likely. Only seven has received over 7 million daily strems, snty and 3d both peaked around 6.5 and dropped to 4-5 mil after a week.

i've been doing my due diligence streaming everything 🤷‍♀️ my spotify stats look atrocious right now 😭 who is at 1, 2, 3, 4 and be mine is at 5, 8, and 12, 13 for my monthly spotify stats with the rest of muse filling up the rest of my top 20 (bar 14 and 18, which is the queen like crazy and 17 for illit's magnetic)

without the right promo though, i dont know if that's possible. jk's songs were generally pretty stable because of the ads and playlisting. pjms are going to want to keep who as stable as possible and that means all the attention is on her right now. give it a few months once who naturally begins to fall on the charts and then things will even out and lc will probably jump back up in streams once who x lc x be mine streaming playlists become more common

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #70: 2019

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Lil Nas X, Post Malone and Swae Lee, Halsey, Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Marshmello, Ariana Grande, Khalid, Travis Scott, Jonas Brothers. End description]

More information about this blog here

And here we are with the final full decade featured on this blog. All throughout the 2010's retrospectives, we have been focusing a lot on how streaming and internet culture in general is shaping pop music. Now, that can be seen more than ever. Especially with the number one song this year, Lil Nas X's Old Town Road -- one of the first viral TikTok songs we'll be seeing. Old Town Road isn't just notable for how it took off through meme culture or how TikTok would soon come to be one of the main forces behind pop success, but the track was also controversial for how it blurred the lines between genres. Not through aesthetic or sound (which is nothing new), but through marketing. After reaching number nineteen on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the magazine disqualified the song from counting as the genre. It should be mentioned that country circles have a history of drawing clear lines around what counts as their genre. There was a time when many country music tastemakers considered artists like Johnny Cash or John Denver to be too rock or pop for country. In fact during the 1975 CMAs, Charlie Rich burned John Denver's card after announcing him as the winner. And if it even needs to be said, this tension is even more noticeable when you factor race into the mix. Especially when you factor in how country being classified as a "white" genre was a marketing strategy less than a hundred years ago. Here's an article that went more in depth on the issue in response to the Old Town Road debate.

“Determining which chart a song lives on is an ongoing process that depends on a number of factors, most notably the song’s musical composition, but also how the song is marketed and promoted, the musical history of the artist, airplay the song receives, and how the song is platformed on streaming services.” - a representative from Billboard for Rolling Stone

Obviously, this is a lot of discourse and debate to drop onto a short TikTok meme song. But since this blog is essentially about how music is marketed, I couldn't not bring it up. Because Old Town Road wasn't controversial just because it was a song that used both country and rap influences (country had been incorporating more hip-hop production into their sound all decade), but it was largely controversial because Lil Nas X wasn't a country artist. This is a concept I touched on briefly during the rise of nu metal, but the definition of a genre can change depending on whether you're evaluating the sound as music or as marketing. And if you're in the world of marketing, the definition of "country music" is "music performed by country artists within the country music industry". But with the internet making it more possible than ever for people outside the industry to gain pop success, the lines are allowed to become even more blurred.

Unlike the start of the decade, the pop music now is much more low-key and moody. The popularity of trap lends well to a darker sound, and even pop tracks like Billie Eilish's Bad Guy and Ariana Grande's 7 Rings are taking influence from this production style. Lo-fi music and "bedroom pop" are now becoming the go-to sound. More production styles that encourage more individual, introspective listening. Music that sounds like it could have been produced by one person in their bedroom. And maybe the timing was just right. Because soon, most people would have to make their music out of their bedrooms.

See you all in 2020.

[y2klostandfound]

Now on sale - Rez on Game Players Vol.26 (Video Game magazine)(Hong Kong)(05/12/2001)

Translation in English:

PS2 (PlayStation 2) November 22, 2001 SEGA / STG / 6800 Yen CD-ROM / 54KB or more Corresponding to TRANCE VIBRATOR

DC (Dreamcast) November 22, 2001 SEGA / STG / 6800 Yen CD-ROM / 9 BLOCKS Corresponding to VGA BOX,Vibrator

Light, Shadow, Vibration A Psychedelic Journey with Electronic Music

The fun of "REZ" is really difficult to express in words, because it does not stimulate the player's brain thinking. On the contrary, the less the player's brain does not think, "REZ" will produce more pleasure. Just like the game's promotional phrase: "Feel it, don't think.", This is the attitude you should have when playing "REZ"

STORY OF REZ

In an overpopulated and unorganized network society, the network system has been unable to stop the ever-increasing cyber crimes. In order to solve the whole problem, humans created a new system center "PROJECT-K", and used artificial intelligence "eden" as the core of the system. Since the birth of "eden", the system is slowly approaching the stage of completion. However, after receiving too much information, "eden" began to have doubts about his own existence and actions, and fell into a state of coma… The player's purpose is to be realized after materialization. Look for "e d e n" in the computer space, and attack along the way (HACKING) the firewall (FIREWALL) that has been infected by viruses. Whether "eden" can be revived depends on the player's HACKING (shooting) ability…

SYSTEM

If we only describe the gameplay of "REZ", the author would say that it is a set of "PANZER DRAGOON" with "no ordinary bullets, only attack". What the player does in the game is basically to use CURSOR to aim at the enemy in front of it, and then press the X button to attack with LASER. Players can also press the real X button to LOCK ON up to several enemies at the same time, and then release the X button to launch a LASER to destroy all LOCK ON enemies at once. The bullets fired by the enemy can also be shot down with this method.

In addition to normal attacks, players also have a powerful kill attack "OVERDRIVE". Basically, players can regard it as the "bomb" of the shooting game. After using it, all enemies and bullets on the screen will be wiped out!

There are five sub-systems in the game, and each of them has 10 LAYERs. At the end of each LAYER, there is an object named "NETWORK OPENING". After destroying it, the player can enter the next LAYER. And when reaching the last LAYER, the FIREWALL (leader) of the sub-system will appear. Most of Firewall's attacks are very violent, and their endurance is extremely high. Players have to fight with them for more than three to five minutes at any time to destroy them.

LOCK ON Shoot after the enemy, the gameplay is simple and easy to understand

Use the best OVERDRIVE in the case of bullets flying across the screen

NETWORK OPENING will only open if you hit it several times.

Does such an aggressive FIREWALL exist in the computer world?

The relationship between music and shooting

The most important feature of REZ is the strong rhythmic electronic music that will be generated unconsciously while the player is shooting. There will be sound effects when the launch button is pressed, when LOCK is ON, when the LASER is fired, and when the enemy is eliminated. As long as the player knocks down the enemies efficiently, they can create their own music!

When attacking, players may also press the X button rhythmically to "beat the BEAT"!

"AirPlay REZ" mode

If the player mainly wants to enjoy the music of REZ without putting too much effort into shooting, you can use the "AirPlay REZ" mode provided by the game. The enemies in this mode will not shoot any bullets, and the player is also in an invincible state, which is best for practice.

Be the first to open! FIREWALL cheats method

Area 1 - The Earth

The first form of the boss is a sphere. Its outer wall can be shot through to expose the central part, and then concentrate on attacking its weak point (green circle). The head will then extend a large number of tentacles, and the tips of these tentacles will shoot bullets, but they should not be a threat to the player, and on the contrary, the tips of the tentacles are also another weakness of the head!When the player deducts the head's physical strength to about one-fifth, it will enter the second form, then a high-speed rotating circle will appear around it, but the player does not need to pay attention to it, just focus on attacking the green circle in the center of the weak point.

The outer walls of FIREWALL are destructible

Aim at the track where the tentacles move, and you can LOCK-ON all tentacles at once

Area 2 - The Mars

In the beginning, no matter how the player attacks, they cannot hurt the leader. The attack will not be effective until it is sucked into the body by the boss and the weak point (a small spaceship) is exposed. When the player is sucked into the eye for the second time, it will stretch out four to five tentacles, and the glowing tentacles will release a large number of bullets. At this time, the player had better shoot wildly at the tips of the tentacles in order to destroy them as soon as possible, otherwise Let three or four tentacles attack the player together, then the player can only use OVERDRIVE to break through. After passing this level, the weak point of the small spaceship will appear again, so don't hesitate to shoot at it! Its attack is very sparse, as long as the player keeps shooting, the enemy bomber will not hit you.

The initial attack of the boss is not a big one, but…….

The blows in the boss's body will become extremely dense, so you must make a quick decision!

Area 3 - The Venus

The appearance of this boss is like a fortress, and the player must destroy it layer by layer when attacking. The first thing to deal with is the outer turrets of the fortress, which will shoot a lot of LASER, and you will be injured if you touch them. However, as long as the player is careful, destroying the turrets before they get close should not pose a threat.In the second stage, the fortress releases a large number of fighter jets to attack the player. Due to the large number of enemies, the player should not use LOCK ON to deal with them. After passing this round of attacks, the player will enter the interior of the fortress. Since the center of the fortress is surrounded by outer walls, players cannot hurt it until it is opened. At this time, you should focus on attacking the red bullets outside the enemy and wait until the center is opened before concentrating your fire on it.

Keep firing at the fortress' fighter group!

The red bullets around the weak points of the fortress are not too much chance of hitting the player, but everyone should be careful

Area 4 - The Uranus

This boss is easier to deal with than you might think, basically it's made up of a hub (a glowing object) surrounded by a lot of cubes. Those cubes will constantly move at high speed and cover the central part. Players attacking the cube will not hurt the boss, but the cube after being attacked will become transparent and lose the function of the protective center. This is a good opportunity to attack. These cubes will change into other shapes during the battle, but the basic tactics are the same, plus the difficulty of the enemy, it just takes more time.

Players have to look forward and back when attacking this boss

The biggest weakness of the boss is its center, concentrate on attacking it

Area 5 - Eden

On the periphery of EDEN, there are layer after layer of defense systems. Although their attack methods are different, their structures are similar. Players only need to concentrate on attacking the light spots in the center to break them. Note that POWERUP ITEMs will be left after each defense system is eliminated, and players must obtain them immediately (or they will not be able to obtain them later).

After reaching the inside of EDEN, the player will face two high-speed rotating rings. Although the bullets they shoot will not be aimed at the player, everyone should be careful. When the ring is destroyed, the "top of the tower" below will be opened on the screen, exposing its weak point, and the player should concentrate their firepower to attack it. When the player deducts one-fifth of its energy, the "top of the tower" will be closed again, and the ring below will be revived and start attacking the player again. Afterwards, the player has to repeat the above steps five times to successfully rescue EDEN!

The outer defense system has four layers, and the light in the center is its point of weakness

After the top of the tower is opened, ignore the enemy's attack, just shoot at it in a row!

Added new mode after the explosion

beyond

After completing the game, "beyond mode" appears, in which there are three special modes, which will be slowly unlocked when certain conditions are achieved.

Direct assault Condition - Complete AREA 5

This is a mode in which five areas are played at one go. The difficulty level is the same as SCORE ATTACK mode. And the color of the game background can also be changed by the player.

LOST AREA Condition - Complete AREA 5/ Accumulated game time over 5 hours

Hidden. Although there is no boss, but the enemy's attack on the way is very fierce , the difficulty is not low.

TRANCEMISSION Condition - Get first place in LOST AREA

Players can shoot down any object on the screen as they like in FREE MODE. and if you play well, you may be able to achieve a more psychedelic effect than normal levels!

[musicblogwales]

Track By Track: Tom Emlyn 'Rehersal For The Rain: Scardycat, Vol 2

Swansea Singer-Songwriter and Storyteller 'Tom Emlyn' has released his latest album 'Rehearsal For The Rain: Scaredycat, Vol 2 and will be released digitally, on Cassette alongside a short story called 'Phosphoresence'. The album is available now from Bandcamp.

We've been honoured for an exclusive Track by Track of the album.

Following the release of his recent single 'Double-Crossed', Welsh singer-songwriter Tom Emlyn releases his new album 'Rehearsal For The Rain: Scaredycat, Vol.2'. The self-produced record is his fourth solo effort in the space of two years, continuing an impressive streak of creativity and inspiration.

Tom Emlyn's fourth album in two years,Rehearsal For The Rain: Scaredycat Vol. 2is a self-produced, powerful, fully realised creative statement.

In summer 2022, Tom released his debut solo album ‘News From Nowhere’, a bittersweet love letter to his hometown of Swansea, described by Adam Walton (BBC Radio Wales) as a record of “undoubted brilliance, eloquence and energy”. It has been positively received, with airplay and support from Radio Wales, BBC Horizons, R.E.P.E.A.T. fanzine, God Is In The TV, and Joyzine, among others. Tom’s second album ‘I’ve Seen You In Town’ followed quickly– a more mellow, acoustic affair which was also well received. He also released the ‘Scounger EP’on Bandcamp last February.

His latest record follows hot on the heels of Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1, which was released in May 2023. In the same vein as the first volume, Rehearsal For The Rain gathers up lost fragments from years of songwriting and making music.

Featuring recent single 'Double-Crossed' with its tender vocals, introspective lyrics caressing a daydreaming guitar motif, and lo-fi percussion it explores the darker side of self-reflection to a stripped back Velvet Underground-inspired groove. The album is a dreamlike, lo-fi psychedelic bedroom pop journey, with elements of prog, blues, indie and alternative folk."Peripatetic musical genius" - Adam Walton

Track By Track: Tom Emlyn | Rehersal For The Rain: Scardycat Vol 2

Fire On Fairwood Common

If you travel from Swansea along Gower Road, through Uplands, Sketty and Killay, Fairwood Common is the first part of the Gower Peninsula you'll encounter - a rugged, wind-swept heath dotted with gorse and abandoned airstrips. This is the oldest song on this album. Originally I wrote it when I went away to university. It was meant to be a song about leaving home and the way that things shift and change while you're away. A coming-of-age kind of song. I came back home for a visit and the Swansea Evening Post  were reporting a huge fire on the common, although I don't think they knew whether it was an accident or intentional. Probably some bored teenagers messing around. It seemed a destructive and uncanny image that was fitting for the changes I was going through.

The recording originally dates from 2016, a time when I was playing in a more prog rock style, which is explains the mellotron and the bouncy Jethro Tull-esque middle section. I added heavier, darker fuzzed and flange guitars and the chaotic Korg Monotron synth much more recently. When I originally wrote the song, there were many more lyrics painting the picture of domestic change, but it served the song to strip them away and just have the direct simplicity of 'there's a fire on fairwood common / gorse bushes burning in the dark / there's a fire on fairwood common / and I'm not home.' 

The original lyrics were just too on the nose, I think. Here's a sample; 'I've been home for a day, and things are changing / petrol shortages and mortgages / my pets are all dead, buried at midnight / childhood pets, adult silhouettes.' It works better as a more abstract, open song, allowing the sweeping warble of the synth to take the lead. This stripping-away of weaker lyrics is something I did a few times on this album.

2. Hall of Mirrors

Another song with a long history. The recording dates back to 2017, but I added some heavier guitars doubling what I played on the bass when I tried to record it originally, which gave it the grounding it was missing for a while. I envisioned the song originally as "sci-fi skiffle", whatever that is, although it's got a heavier feel to it now. I wanted to write something carnivalesque, a song that deals with the ways we can be reflected in the internet and social media, like a grotesque funhouse attraction. We're all reflected in the screens of our black mirrors, but they reflect and distort back onto us as well.

There are some interesting sounds in the recording, including saxophone on the outro and flute by Swansea musician Felix Subway. The Korg Monotron synth makes another appearance, and there are some bleeps and swooshing noises which were made by a smartphone app that created glitchy electronic sounds. The percussion was added recently. We recorded it all in our flat in Riverside, Cardiff. Instead of using a drumkit, we just added every percussion instrument we had to hand - djembe, triangle, bongo, kick drum, cajon, snare, cabasa, vibraslap, claps. It added a lot of weight to the track.

There's a mention in the lyrics of a certain Swansea music venue which was just an incidental throwaway at the time. However the venue has more recently gone down the misinformation/ antivax/ right wing rabbit hole. An interesting incidence of a lyric becoming more apposite with the passing of time, and more appropriate to the theme of the song, funnily enough.

3. Kafka  

The recording of this was all done last year, but the song has been around for much longer. A fairly standard blues affair, I've come back to the lyric many times but always given it a new arrangement, appropriate for the circular nature of the words. This final version is a satisfying garage-rock vamp; I'm really happy with the super-distorted lo-fi harmonica, recorded with a Bullet mic, and the overall gritty, angular production. It's got a poppy structure that just feels right. I layered two drum takes over each other to make it extra chaotic, and Evan played a funky bassline. I also used the Bullet harmonica mic on vocals all over the album. At the end of Kafka, you can just about hear a radio broadcast coming through my guitar pickups as the song fades out.

4. Rehearsal For The Rain

Another song which originally had more lyrics. Here's a sample; 'time is a waitress / and my table is served last / but after all it's just a reminder / the guitar is still in the garden / swollen and warped, the keys won't turn'. I think it works a lot better with a very spare and sparse approach. It's almost an instrumental now, with only four words - 'rehearsal for the rain'. I think it was called 'rehearsing for the rain' at some point, but it didn't really sing as well. I don't know what it means. Performing for nobody, or your audience only being the natural world, or something. Maybe the rain itself is just a rehearsal for some future cataclysmic flood.

I put a bit of phaser on the cymbals for a nice washy effect. The track overall has a really cinematic feel. I think it takes you on a dreamlike journey, moving through 4 different sections that feel melancholy and celebratory at the same time. The warbly Casio synth in the middle is really nice. We overlaid cymbals in the middle and used timpani sticks. The electric guitar tones were done with a tiny solid state Vox amp.

5. Chemical Road

This tune is from the same 2017 sessions as Hall of Mirrors. I originally wrote this when I was sitting on a bus going through Morriston in Swansea. I saw a street sign that said 'Chemical Road' and it made me contemplate how strange and toxic-sounding a name that was for a place for human beings to live. I started thinking about post-industrialism and decay, and it turned into this kind of dreamlike, fragmentary kitchen-sink drama about two romantically-entangled characters separated by the mundanity of their surroundings. I like the image of 'an orange river flowed', which is really something from my childhood memories.

All the chords in the verse are 9th chords, which gives it a lovely open jazzy feel. At one point there was a sax solo in the middle, which has been deleted.

While I was recording the song in the YMCA in Swansea, some children were playing outside. We stuck a microphone next to the window and recorded the sound of their laughter. At some point, though, the file was lost.

There's no proper drumkit on the song, only toms.

6. Llangennith (intermission)

An ambient instrumental based around guitar harmonics with different delays applied. I did think it was quite long, but cutting it down would take away from the meditative repetition of it all. There's some interesting sounds including some keyboard chords placed in a random order. My ex-girlfriend built me a diddly-bow, which is like a primitive one-string slide guitar. It created some interesting textural effects with a bit of processing, sounding almost like a windchime at some points. Llangennith is a beach in North Gower where I used to work in a beach cafe for several summers - the same subject as my short story Phosphorescence which I'm releasing along with the album. I thought it would be nice to have an intermission on the record, a bit like the intermission in Monty Python and the Holy Grail or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Another cinematic touch. A chance for listeners to go and grab a coffee or beer in-between the more fleshed-out tracks. It's fitting that the track is named after a period that was an intermission in my life, in a way.

7. I Don't Want To Be A Rockstar

This lyric was based on my memory of my school leaving assembly. The teachers made a cheesy leaving video in which they all mimed to the song 'Rockstar' by Nickleback. It's an exploration of that - rejecting the general prescribed idea of success and more specifically of musical ambition. This song was originally called Rockstar as well, but I thought it was a bit bland. The new title 'I Don't Want To Be A Rockstar' might sound a bit negative, but if you listen to the lyrics, the other half of the title is 'I Just Want To Play My Guitar', so really it's a rejection of the rockstar image and mythos in favour of just being a musician and a craftsman, playing music rather than pursuing a self-destructive myth. Although I probably still do want to be a rockstar, admittedly. It's a self-deprecating and ironic title. 

Recorded in lockdown, we added drums more recently. My drummer Jack said the song sounds like a band being forced to play a song. We ended up deleting all the drums except the ridiculous Nirvana-esque heavy middle section, which comes out of nowhere. I think he played it like that originally as a joke, but it made the song much better.

8. It Came Back To Me

Inspired by the Kinks, this was another lockdown project. Musically a bit complex - every section is in a different key, following on from the section before, which took a while to figure out structurally. It's an abstract Southwalian drama, inspired by looking out across derelict rooftops and tenement buildings, imagining the dreams and interior lives of the people that live in them. Lyrically, it deals with maintaining the fragility of your innocence in a decaying world.

9. Double-Crossed

Written in lockdown, this was a Velvet Underground-esque groove. The lyrics were sparked by realising I'd never walked down a cul-de-sac near where I grew up, even though it was just over the road. It made me wonder about the people that lived there, and their internal lives. So close, yet so far away. This, combined with some of my thoughts about the isolation of lockdown, became a brooding, thoughtful, poetic tune. It's a song about betraying yourself - there's a double meaning there. Betraying yourself in the sense of stabbing yourself in the back, but also giving too much of yourself away or exposing yourself. The song is a confessional, epic ballad with some glam rock undertones.

10. Somewhere There's A Dry Shore

This was meant to be a proper song with lyrics, but the only words I ever wrote were 'walking down the M4 / when the sky begins to pour'. I couldn't get any further than that for some reason, so rather than force it, I decided it worked best as an instrumental. It was inspired by the chords of 'Hesitation Blues' by Dave Van Ronk. Originally recorded by Dave Milsom for Death Monkey records, it's a fitting end to the album. Like the closing credits of a film.

Buy 'Rehearsal For The Rain: Scaredycat, Vol 2 Here

[randomvarious]

Falco - "Der Kommissar" 1981 Synthpop / Neue Deutsche Welle / Pop-Rap / New Wave

I think something that's lost on a lot of people when it comes to hip hop music is, really, just how quickly it managed to spread after scoring its first ever hit in 1979, with The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight"—which was also, remarkably, just the second song that the genre had ever released up until that point. There seems to be a general presumption that the music largely remained within the confines of the New York-metropolitan area, but as I'm about to show you, that notion is actually pretty false.

See, what I think most Americans have never really come to realize is just how deeply seismic of an event the release of "Rapper's Delight" was on a global scale. It was a modest hit in its home country, reaching #36 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it did prove to a lot of New Yorkers who frequented the hip hop parties that this hobby of rhyming rhythmically and extemporaneously over extended disco-type breaks could actually be successfully metabolized into dollars, which people originally had their doubts about. But where "Rapper's Delight" actually performed much better commercially was in Europe: it went to #5 in Austria; #3 in the UK and West Germany; #2 in Belgium, France, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland; and #1 in the Netherlands and Spain.

And for Europeans who were hearing that song in 1979 and 1980, with all its pervasiveness, the fact that it sounded pretty much unlike *anything* that they'd ever heard before, and that rapping was also easily replicable, there was no doubt that "Rapper's Delight" was going to then end up inspiring a whole lot of different musicians to try their hand at something like it too.

So, while we largely tend to think of some of hip hop's earliest records as being made solely by New Yorkers (actually, the Sugarhill Gang were impostrous nobodies from New Jersey), that's actually pretty shortsighted, because some European acts were quick to start incorporating it into their own music too.

And such was the case with Austrian pop sensation Falco, who released his country's first known hip hop record in 1981, with "Der Kommissar," which also served as his breakout single, managing to not just top the charts in German-speaking countries like Austria and West Germany, but the ones in Spain and Italy too. Now, "Der Kommissar" is certainly not hip hop as we've come to know it; there's no DJ or record scratching, or a sampled or re-created beat; and first and foremost, it's a Neue Deutsche Welle (German new wave) tune. But there is clearly a lot of rapping on this record, and there's little doubt that the sudden Euro-popularity of "Rapper's Delight" is what initially sparked that fuse. I mean, this is before Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five even released "The Message" in 1982, mind you—another very early hip hop cornerstone. That's how early we're talking here. So, pretty fascinating when put into that context, no?

Now, maybe if you're an American, you're far more familiar with the 1982 Anglicized cover of this song by UK band After the Fire instead, as the video for it received heavy rotation on MTV, which then led to significant radio airplay, and then eventually a peak at #5 on the Hot 100. But Falco's German-language version is the one that came first.

And while Falco's only really rippled in the US, managing to reach just #74 on the Cash Box chart and #10 on the Billboard dance chart, the success of After the Fire's version appears to be what actually helped propel it into a very minor US hit in the first place. And that's just sort of funny, right? Like, the only reason that your record's even selling a little bit in such a huge market as the US' is because some other band who covered your song in English the following year is getting almost all of the limelight for it? That's a fun dynamic, huh? But Falco would still end up making *serious* inroads in the US a few years later anyway, with his terrific chart-topper, "Rock Me Amadeus," which also happened to have a bunch of rapping in it too.

So, ultimately there were two videos that were shot for Falco's "Der Kommissar" and this is the one that was released in the US. It's a very low-budget affair, in which Falco performs in front of a screen that shows footage of police cars traveling with their blue lights on, as he continuously makes like he's running away from them. And the song's about a couple who are on the run from the law—the titular 'kommissar'—so this very literal depiction certainly fits.

And actually, there were a lot more records from outside the US that both incorporated hip hop and also predate the release of "Der Kommissar" too. I came across this very enlightening list recently on RateYourMusic that shows what the earliest known hip hop release is for a bunch of different countries, and a lot of them happen to be from way earlier than you've probably ever thought! 🤯

Evidently, hip hop's been a global phenomenon for a bit longer than many people seem to realize 👀.

More fun videos here.

[vodkaandsnakes]

On this day, May 2, in Type O Negative history:

The video for "Christian Woman" receives airplay on the Remote Generation (Austin, TX) TV cable access program. The video for "Black No. 1" receives airplay on the Dizzy Demos/ The Show (St. Louis, MO) program (1994)

Type O Negative play the Sandstone Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, KS (1995)

Type O Negative play Jannus Landing with Celtic Frost and Brand New Sin in St. Petersburg, FL (2007)

[urie]

do you mind going more in depth about why you don’t like dallon weekes

sure

besides in general being boring and a bit of a wet blanket, which i guess isnt a crime necessarily, dallon is a ridiculous narcissist

when i was 19 dallon used to check my blog all the time to see what i was saying about him. he knew i didnt like him and he would often formulate replies to posts i specifically was making about him, and post them on fb or twitter, not tagging me directly but essentially quoting my criticisms right after i'd post them

dallon recognized me at shows and directly called me out in public and at a m&g once for not liking him or making jokes about him online. at the time it felt playful or whatever but as time goes on i feel more and more like it was a display of insecurity and ego, to be so concerned by what some teenager was saying about him on the internet that he checked my blog often and felt he should respond to me publicly, or in person, about it

and im not the only person who experienced this type of shit with dallon, there was an incident way back in 2014 or 2015 where he and breezy essentially went after a group of teenage fans because they criticized them. thats the type of behavior that was normal for him at the time. he was a man in his 30s, theres no excuse

beyond all of that i think dallon is a little slimy coward. he will not and has not definitively publicly said anything truly staunchly negative about brendon, but he went back on posts from like 7 years ago to change the captions and allow people to infer he was somehow a victim

but anyone who was around during too weird or doab era will remember that dallon's behavior at that time othered him from both the fans and the rest of the band. he acts as if he was being bullied by brendon, but brendon didnt do anything to him that he didnt do to kenny or zack or dan or, previously, spencer. why is it do you think that dallon is the only person who has ever tried to imply that brendon was a bully? everyone else that has worked with him publicly, from dillon francis to every time i die to fucking TAYLOR SWIFT, has sung his praises, said he was humble and kind and gracious, and you will be hard pressed to find a fan interaction where he was rude, cruel, whatever

dallon is so obsessed with victimizing himself, when its obvious to me that he was never going to be comfortable around the guys because 1) he didnt drink and 2) he was the only one of them who was a father and had that level of responsibility and 3) he is a practicing mormon and brendon himself has very complicated and valid reasons for being against the LDS faith and how it affected him growing up. the themes brendon often wrote about were about religion, his feelings about it, whatever. there was so much religious and subsequently anti-religious themes in the music and that was inevitably going to be offputting to dallon. keep in mind this is the same person who would get upset if brendon was singing songs from the book of mormon on the bus

dallon would talk shit about brendon to fans while he was literally on tour with the band. theres recorded evidence of this. how does this dude get lauded as mature and reasonable when his actions are often so petty and immature?

dallon could not hear about an islamophobic attack without making it about himself. dallon regularly has tiptoed around homosexuality or feminism. and i dont even give too much of a shit about that because obviously i stan brendon and i recognize when people fuck up and grow or whatever, but its so funny to me that dallon gets that pass when brendon doesnt

dallon making these sideways comments about being poor or not paid enough will always annoy me too. 1) he was a touring musician, 2) brendon urie himself was not cutting his checks, fueled by ramen was, 3) he was receiving royalties off of too weird airplay and streaming and live performances (and he still is), 4) HE AND BREEZY LIVED IN BEVERLY HILLS AT THE TIME, like talk about willfully living above your means. and beyond that he got to travel the world playing music and staying in expensive hotels at no cost to him while receiving exposure for his former projects and any that he might be involved with in the future (which is how idkhow has had its level of recognition). he had adoring obsessive fans sending fanmail and gifts and he is now, years and years later, biting the hand that fed him

and its not lost on me that dallon started changing these ig captions and making these nebulous, purposefully-vague comments right when the public shift on brendon started going south for whatever reason

because hes a coward, and he knows that any issues with brendon are simply personal grievances. if he had anything on him, if brendon was truly this evil guy who did him direct harm, you know he'd fucking say so, but he wont

he is an ungrateful narcissist who wants to be the victim sooo bad, sorry a bunch of guys in the band were messing around with airsoft guns and you willingly played along, not just amongst them but on social media, as if these arent the same guys who tazed each other multiple times on camera just bc they thought it would be funny

dallon deliberately othered himself and is now quietly and surreptitiously trying to claim he was bullied without actually SAYING it. hes still getting FBR checks. notice how it isnt just panic that doesnt fuck w him anymore, its practically the entire label, including fob, people they literally toured with multiple times

just a coward. an absolute loser of a man. i thought god told you not to gossip. you fucking dick

[rock-and-roll-hell]

November 15, 1988

Smashes Thrashes and Hits

The two new songs on Smashes, Thrashes & Hits were "Let's Put the X in Sex" and "(You Make Me) Rock Hard," which featured a similar polished production style as 1987's Crazy Nights. They were both produced and co-written by guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley and were accompanied by videos that received moderate airplay on MTV. Unusual for Kiss videos, Paul Stanley never plays the guitar in either video for the new songs.

Nearly all of the songs recorded by the band's original lineup were altered in one way or another, and the Axeology website has made a detailed walkthrough of the alterations, which include a different bass line, recorded by Gene Simmons in 1975, for the song "Rock and Roll All Night". "Beth" was re-recorded with lead vocals by drummer Eric Carr, who had replaced the original drummer Peter Criss in 1980. It was Carr's first lead vocal on a Kiss album. The cover art was done by Amy Guip and directed by Mitchell Kanner.

Smashes, Thrashes & Hits was certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA on February 26, 1996.

In the United States Smashes, Thrashes & Hits is the best-selling Kiss album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking record sales in 1991 with 830,000 copies sold until March 4, 2012

[shefanispeculator]

Seeing Stars! The 9 Most Successful 'Voice' Competitors of All Time

'The Voice' may never find its Carrie Underwood but that's okay.

One of the major complaints about The Voice is that it has yet to launch a major recording career like American Idol did in its early days. But host Carson Daly says that the days of discovering a Carrie Underwood or Kelly Clarkson on a TV show are long gone.

“Your measuring stick is antiquated because of the way that technology has proliferated,” Daly exclusively tells Parade. “For instance, I could never do TRL [his Total Request Live show] again because this generation has the internet and doesn’t need MTV to get music. There are a lot of YouTubers, and my kids listen to music of people that you have never heard of, that I have never heard of. For some people, just getting to a place where they can support themselves making music, thanks to The Voice—that’s winning.”

And The Voice has several of those types of winners. Former contestants, including a couple of Grammy nominees, who are grateful to the show because their lives changed 100 percent, because as a result of appearing on The Voice, they now make their entire living making music, rather than having to have a day job to pay the bills.

Most Successful Voice Competitors

Koryn Hawthorne (Season 8)

was a member of Pharrell Williams’ team and finished fourth in her season. She has gone on to have a successful gospel career and was nominated twice for Grammys in the Gospel Performance/Song category: in 2019 for “Won’t He Do It” and in 2020 for “Speak the Name.” She has received several other nominations as well, including Billboard Awards and Soul Train Music Awards. She even broke the record for the longest chart-topping woman on the Hot Gospel Songs chart.

Nicolle Galyon (Season 2)

got just one coach to turn (Adam Levine) when she sang “You Save Me” during her Blind Audition. The country singer was eliminated during the Battle Rounds but made a discovery along the way: She didn’t want to sing, she wanted to write songs. While on the show, she met performers RaeLynn and Miranda Lambert (who was married to Blake Shelton at the time) and credits those friendships for launching her songwriting career. She earned her first No. 1 song with “We Were Us,” performed by Keith Urban and Lambert. She also has co-written songs for Lady A, Kenny Chesney, Florida Georgia Line and many others and co-wrote and co-produced RaeLynn’s first full-length album, WildHorse. Gaylon has two Grammy nominations for Best Country Song: in 2015 for Miranda Lambert’s “Automatic” and in 2019 for Dan + Shay’s “Tequila.”

Cassadee Pope (Season 3)

was the first female country singer to win The Voice. The former member of Blake Shelton's team has gone on to find success in country music, but a high point was when she and Chris Young received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Think of You” in 2017.  Her single "Tomorrow Night" was released in Sept. and was followed by her third album, Thrive, in October.

Christina Grimmie (Season 3)

finished in third place on The Voice, and went on to open for Selena Gomez and The Scene, and perform backup vocals for Allstar Weekend and the Jonas Brothers. Christina's career was on the upswing—she had 2 million YouTube subscribers—when she was shot to death during a post-concert meet-and-greet with fans on June 10, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. She was 22.

Danielle Bradbery (Season 4 winner)

was only 16 when she won The Voice, the youngest winner at that point in time but no longer the record. Since graduating from Team Blake Shelton, Bradbery has gone on to have a successful country music career with 15 songs on the Hot Country chart, including "Goodbye Summer" with Thomas Rhett which rose to No. 39 in 2018. Her 2020 single "Never Have I Ever" reached No. 58 on U.S. Country Airplay, and her most-streamed song, "Sway," has 50 million streams. In July 2021, she released her latest single, "Stop Draggin' Your Boots."

Morgan Wallen (Season 6)

who was initially on Team Usher, but later stolen by Adam Levine, was eliminated in the Playoffs but soon headed to Nashville to try his hand at country music, rather than the pop songs he sang on the show. He had almost instant success, dropping four No. 1 singles, winning the CMA award for New Artist of the Year and releasing the double album Dangerous. “He was being hailed as the next big thing, maybe the next big crossover artist from country,” executive producer Audrey Morrissey says. Today, Wallen is more famous for getting in trouble. He got booted off of Saturday Night Live for breaking COVID-19 protocols in late 2020 and was banned from country radio after he was caught on video hollering a racial slur in February 2021.

Jordan Smith (Season 9)

was a four-chair turn who chose Team Adam. He went on to write “Ashes” for the Deadpool 2 soundtrack, which was performed by Celine Dion. In addition, he's had three No. 1 songs on the Hot Christian Songs chart and three top 10s. Jordan represented the state of Kentucky for NBC’s American Song Contest in 2022, for which he wrote and performed “Sparrow.” He finished in third place.

Sawyer Fredericks (Season 8)

The winner from Team Pharrell had an original song, “Silent World,” featured on the Season 6 debut of the Netflix original series Longmire, which aired in 2017, and his song “This Fire” was covered by John Ondrasik for a 2018 episode of Code Black. His  latest album debuted in 2020 called Flowers for You.

Loren Allred (Season 3)

was eliminated in the Playoffs but went on to make her Billboard Hot 100 debut with the Platinum-selling "Never Enough" from the musical soundtrack to The Greatest Showman. This past January, she was the featured singer on the original song “Start a Wave” when “World of Color – One” for Disney 100 debuted at Disneyland. Strangely, though, she made a return to reality TV, auditioning for Britain’s Got Talent’s 15th season in 2022, finishing in ninth place. In addition, she performs on Michael Bublé's Love album for a duet of "Help Me Make It Through the Night," and alongside David Foster, as part of his An Intimate Evening PBS concert special and album.

The 9 Most Successful 'Voice' Contestants of All Time - Parade

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers - Monster Mash 1962

"Monster Mash" is a novelty song by Bobby "Boris" Pickett. It was released as a single in August 1962 along with a full-length LP called The Original Monster Mash, which contained several other monster-themed tunes. The "Monster Mash" single was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on October 20–27 of that year, just before Halloween. "Monster Mash" has sustained a lasting impact in various recordings, film inclusions, and re-releases since its initial release. In 2021, nearly 60 years after its release, "Monster Mash" re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 37. As of 2023, the song was generating $1 million annually in royalties.

The song is narrated by a mad scientist whose monster, late one evening, rises from his slab to perform a new dance, with a name implying it is inspired by the Mashed Potato, a popular dance of the early 1960s. The dance becomes "the hit of the land" when the scientist throws a party for other monsters, among them classic 1940s horror film icons such as the Wolfman, Igor, Count Dracula, and his son. The song was re-released several times and appeared on the US Billboard charts on two occasions after the original release: August 1970 and May 1973. The BBC had banned the record from airplay in 1962 on the grounds that the song was "too morbid", but it was later performed on the network's television program Juke Box Jury. The record was re-released in the UK in 1973, where it peaked at number three in early October. It re-entered the British charts again on November 2, 2008, at number 60.

"Monster Mash" received a total of 88,9% yes votes!

[swradiogram]

Shortwave Radiogram, 24-28 August 2023 (program 319): Digital modes from which you can harvest antioxidants

Our transmission Friday at 1300-1330 UTC on 15770 kHz from WRMI Florida was back to normal last weekend. This was a great relief, because this transmission arguably has the greatest reach of all the Shortwave Radiogram airplays. The 15770 frequency reaches Europe, Australia, most parts of North America, and often into Latin America. Usually it's listeners who are too close to WRMI who have the most trouble with this broadcast. The area of this skip zone varies from week to week and from season to season. And this reminder of recent schedule adjustments: 1) The transmission Tuesdays at 1430-1500 UTC on 9955 kHz from WRMI has moved to Sundays. 2) The DRM transmission from WINB Pennsylvania, Friday 1400-1430 UTC, most recently on 15735 kHz, is no more. WINB has ceased its DRM broadcasts. A video of last weekend's Shortwave Radiogram (program 318) is provided by Scott in Ontario (Friday 1300 UTC). (And Lolo SDR in Spain produced this video of the Pop Shop Radio MFSK64 segment, 19 August at 2155 UTC on 3955 kHz from Channel 292 in Germany.) The audio archive is maintained by Mark in the UK. Analysis is provided by Roger in Germany. Here is the lineup for Shortwave Radiogram, program 319,  24-28 August 2023, in MFSK modes as noted:   1:47  MFSK32: Program preview   2:55  MFSK32: Harvesting antioxidants from olive oil waste*   8:15  MFSK64: Facebook news ban reveals the importance of radio 13:19  MFSK64: This week's images* 27:53  MFSK32: Closing announcements Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net And visit http://swradiogram.net Twitter: @SWRadiogram or https://twitter.com/swradiogram (visit during the weekend to see listeners’ results) Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/567099476753304 Shortwave Radiogram Gateway Wiki: https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Shortwave_Radiogram_Gateway

Other Shortwave broadcast programs that include digital text and images include The Mighty KBC, Pop Shop Radio and Radio North Europe International (RNEI). Links to these fine broadcasts, with schedules, are posted here.

Juan EA5XQ in Spain received these images and text 17 August 2023, 2330-2400 UTC, 9265 kHz from WINB Pennsylvania ...

[classicrockblog1]

Donald “Don” McLean III (born October 2, 1945) is an #singer #songwriter best known for the 1971 #album American Pie, containing the #songs “American Pie” and “Vincent”.

McLean’s magnum opus, “American Pie”, is a sprawling, impressionistic ballad inspired partly by the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash on February 3, 1959. The song popularized the expression “The Day the Music Died” in reference to this event.[2]

The song was recorded on May 26, 1971, and a month later received its first radio airplay on New York’s WNEW-FM and WPLJ-FM to mark the closing of Fillmore East, the famous New York concert hall. “American Pie” reached number one on the Hot 100from 15 January - 5 February 1972 and remains McLean’s most successful single release. The single also topped theBillboardEasy Listening survey. With a total running time of 8:36 encompassing both sides of the single, it is also the longest song to reach No. 1. Some stations played only part one of the original split-sided single release.

[vinhstudio]

DENON DRA-800H AMPLI AVR 2 KÊNH STEREO GIÁ RẺ NHẤT HÀ NỘI SẴN HÀNG TẠI VINHSTUDIO

Ampli Denon DRA-800H là Smart Ampli AVR 2 kênh Hifi Stereo hỗ trợ đánh 2 cặp loa A và B. Công suất cho phép 100W ở trở kháng 8 Ohm và 120W ở trở kháng 6 Ohm. DRA-800H tích hợp chức năng Music Server và có chip giải mã âm thanh DAC 32Bit, cho phép kết nối không dây Wifi để truyền phát file nhạc lossless chất lượng cao qua phần mềm Heos, Airplay 2, Bluetooth, trợ lý ảo Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri và tất nhiên là hỗ trợ các nguồn Video 4K Ultra HD.

Những đặc điểm nổi bật của Smart Ampli Denon DRA-800H 2 kênh Stereo

-Ampli Denon DRA-800H có thiết kế đẹp mắt kích thước chuẩn 43,5cm 

 Có khả năng ghép các đôi loa đứng công suất lớn 100W ở trở kháng 8 Ohm và lên đến 120W ở trở kháng 6 Ohm 

-Tích hợp chíp giải mã âm thanh DAC 32bit AK4458 chơi được hầu hết các định dạng âm thanh độ phân giải cao

 -Tích hợp 5 cổng HDMI input và ngõ vào Analog cho CD, AUX, PHONO, ngõ vào cho USB và ngõ vào mạng LAN

 -Hỗ trợ nhiều kết nối không dây như Wifi, Bluetooth, Airplay 2, Cho phép Streaming các file nhạc Hires trong Network

 -Hỗ trợ chơi nhạc trực tuyến qua Spotify, Tidal, Deezer

 -Tích hợp ngõ vào cáp Quang (Optical) và ngõ vào Đồng trục (Coaxial) thích hợp kết nối với Tivi

 -Hỗ trợ trình quản lý âm nhạc qua App Heos tải miễn phí trên iOS và Android

 -Chơi tất cả các định dạng âm thanh PCM và DSD

 -Ra lệnh bằng giọng nói với trợ lý ảo Google hoặc Amazon Alexa và Siri Apple

 -Có điều khiển từ xa thiết kế đẹp thông minh 

 -Đường ra loa bố trí 2 đường ra A và B cho 2 đôi loa và có kênh ra Zone 2, có thể chơi cùng lúc 2 đôi loa, hoặc chơi Bi-Wire hoặc Bi-Amp

 -Tích hợp mạch input cho đầu vào đĩa than PHONO

-Điều khiển, cài đặt và sử dụng rất đơn giản và thuận tiện

Mặt sau với các cổng kết nối của Ampli AVR Denon DRA-X800H 

Đánh giá chi tiết Ampli Denon DRA-800H với những đặc điểm nổi bật

Mặc dù là Ampli AV Receiver hỗ trợ cả hình ảnh nhưng DRA-800H vẫn ưu ái đặc biệt hướng tới nhu cầu thưởng thức âm thanh nghe nhạc Hifi Stereo, Ampli có mạch khuếch đại high current dùng sò Mosfet Transitor cao cấp, biến áp nguồn cách ly cho DRA-800H sử dụng sợi đồng OFC (oxygen free copper) tinh khiết với công nghệ độc quyền chống nhiễu và giảm nhiệt độ tối ưu hóa hiệu suất cho ampli của hãng Denon.

Ampli Denon DRA-800H với công suất 100W/8Ohm - 120W/4Ohm ghép được với rất nhiều loại loa kể cả loa đứng công suất lớn có trở kháng từ 4 đến 16 Ohm, với nhiều tính năng hiện đại người nghe nhạc có thể khai thác được rất nhiều các nguồn âm nhạc từ việc truy cập mạng internet hay các nguồn âm thanh chất lượng cao chứa trong các Usb hay ổ cứng nhạc lossless. 

Ampli Denon DRA-800H kết hợp với loa Klipsch RP-6000F II là 1 bộ đôi hoàn hảo

Denon DRA-800 thiết kê hiện đại đậm chất Denon 

Với thiết kế theo kích thước phổ thông phù hợp với các thiết bị nghe nhạc có kích thước ngang 43,5cm, chiều sâu 33,8cm và dày 15,2cm, với kích thước này ta có thể dễ dàng lắp đặt ở nhiều vị trí kể cả chồng lên nhau sẽ vừa vặn không bị quá dày. Mặt trước của DRA-800H có thiết kế gần giống với các đời Ampli AVR điểm khác biệt lớn nhất là vị trí giữa Ampli có 3 núm điều chỉnh Treble - Bass - Balance bằng kim loại nên cảm giác vặn rất thật tay, nằm phía trên chếch sang phải có hàng 4 phím chọn nhanh cho các nguồn input đã được fix sẵn, nằm cùng hàng bên phải có khe cắm USB để chơi các file nhạc lossless chất lượng cao lưu trên ổ cứng, hàng phím chếch phía trên bên trái là phím nhấn chọn phòng nghe Zone 2, bên cạnh là phím nhấn dò kênh Radio, 2 núm xoay 2 bên đặc trưng của Denon đó là núm vặn âm lượng bên phải và núm nhỏ hơn bên trái để chọn các nguồn vào. Cuối cùng là màn hiển thị nằm ở giữa để hiển thị thông tin nguồn phát, thông tin nội dung file nhạc khi ta kết nối với phần mềm Heos. 

Xem thêm 1 số mẫu Ampli nghe nhạc Stereo Denon đang được bán với giá rẻ nhất Việt Nam tại Vinhstudio  

Denon DRA-800H được thiết kế dựa theo nền tảng từ các Ampli Stereo với nhiều sáng chế độc quyền, Bo mạch được cách ly cẩn thận theo từng Modul riêng biệt nhằm tránh việc can nhiễu lẫn nhau và các đường mạch thiết kế ngắn nhất và đi theo mạch đường thẳng nhằm quản lý nguồn tín hiệu nhanh và chính xác nhất. Các tụ nguồn, biến áp và điện trở được hãng chọn lọc với những linh kiện đồng đều về thông số khiến các Modul hoạt động hoàn hảo nhất. 

Nghe nhạc Hi-Res Audio 

Denon DRA-800H tích hợp chíp giải mã âm thanh DAC của hãng AKM mã hiệu AK4458 32bit giải mã được hầu hết mọi định dạng âm thanh từ MP3 cho đến các file nhạc lossless 24bit/192Khz và giải mã định dạng âm thanh SACD DSD128. Các nguồn nhạc có thể đọc qua cổng USB mặt trước Ampli hoặc qua việc chia sẻ mạng LAN với các Music Server hay ổ cứng NAS, streaming các bản nhạc từ các dịch vụ trực tuyến cao cấp như Tidal, Qubuz hoặc dịch vụ nhạc Spotify Free. 

Kết nối không dây xu thế tất yếu của việc nghe nhạc tương lai

Denon DRA-800H sở hữu full công nghệ không dây mà bất cứ ai yêu thích đơn giản hóa việc truyền phát nhạc không dây, thông qua Wifi bạn ngồi bất cứ đâu trong nhà với ứng dụng HEOS của Denon có thể truy cập bất cứ kho nhạc lossless nào như từ ổ cứng cắm trực tiếp trên AMpli hay mạng LAN nội bộ hoặc các dịch vụ trực tuyến như TIdal, Deezer, đặc biệt Denon DRA-800H cho phép truy cập trang dịch vụ Spotify free tuy nhiên chỉ nghe miễn phí được ở độ phân giải không cao, Airplay 2 hay Bluetooth aptX HD thừa đáp ứng ọi nhu cầu giải trí từ mọi dịch vụ trên điện thoại di động phát sang, và đặc biệt những ai yêu thích nghe Radio có thể truy cập đến hàng nghìn đài Radio Internet miễn phí. 

Khả năng đọc file nhạc từ ổ cứng cắm qua cổng USB

Kết nối không dây, nghe nhạc trực tuyến là các phương thức nghe nhạc tiện lợi bên cạnh đó việc nghe nhạc từ các file nhạc lưu trữ từ ổ cứng là các file nhạc có định dạng như Wav được rip từ đĩa CD không nén dữ liệu cho chất lượng chính xác như khi nghe trên đĩa CD gốc, các file nhạc Master Studio có định dạng Flac Hires 24bit cũng là những file nhạc chuẩn mực cho chất lượng âm thanh rất tốt, chỉ cần có 1 ổ cứng 2TB đã có thể lưu trên 4000 đĩa CD nguyên gốc. Việc chọn các bản nhạc yêu thích sẽ được phần mềm Heos của Denon điều hành 1 cách thông minh nhất. 

Hỗ trợ kết nối HDMI

DRA-800H tích hợp phía sau Ampli 5 cổng nhận tín hiệu HDMI từ các thiết bị ngoại vi như đầu Bluray, đầu HD Player, Game, đầu truyền hình kỹ thuật số trong đó có 1 cổng HDMI ARC cổng ARC có thể vừa nhận tín hiệu từ Tivi truyền đến Ampli vừa có thể phát hình ảnh và âm thanh ngược lên Tivi , 1 cổng xuất tín hiệu âm thanh và hình ảnh ra với công nghệ Video 4K Ultra HD 60Hz HDCO 2.3 tiêu chuẩn BT.2021 Pure Color 4:4:4 HDR10 Plus, Hỗ trwoj tín hiệu hình ảnh 3D sắc nét và độ tương phản tuyệt đẹp. 

Hỗ trợ cùng lúc 2 đôi loa với 2 cầu loa A+B, Pre Out cho Zone 2 đa vùng, tích hợp cổng Subwoofer

Ampli Denon DRA-800H tích hợp 2 trạm xuất âm thanh cho 2 đôi loa với trạm A và B, có thể cùng lúc nghe cả 2 đôi, hoặc nghe từng đôi độc lập có thể kết nối theo kiểu chơi Bi-Wire hoặc Bi-Amp. Mở rộng phạm vi đa dạng cho phòng nghe nhạc thứ 2 với đường xuất tín hiệu Pre Out cho 1 Ampli thứ 2 ở phòng khác, đặc biệt Ampli tích hợp thêm 2 cổng ra cho loa Subwoofer đảm bảo sẽ tăng thêm công lực cho hệ thống âm thanh rất nhiều làm cho bộ dàn có thêm lực đánh và nghe được đa dạng thể loại âm nhạc. 

Tích hợp mạch Phono dành cho thiết bị chơi đĩa than 

Là Ampli 2 kênh Stereo nên việc tích hợp ngõ nhận tín hiệu cho đầu đĩa than là không thể thiếu được, DRA-800H tích hợp mạch Phono thích hợp cho người nghe nhạc sử dụng kim đĩa than MM, là 1 khoản tiết kiệm khá cho người dùng đĩa than không phải mua thêm 1 Phono box rời. 

Remote Denon DRA-800H

Ngoài các phương thức điều khiển Ampli qua App trên Điện thoại Denon vẫn bổ sung thêm Điều khiển từ xa vật không thể thiếu được khi thưởng thức âm nhạc để tiện lợi cho việc tinh chỉnh âm lượng hay 1 số chức năng chọn nguồn nhạc đơn giản.

Xem thêm Ampli nghe nhạc Denon PMA-600NE đang có bán tại Vinhstudio

Góc tư vấn và ứng dụng của Ampli Denon DRA-800H

Ampli Denon DRA-800H phối ghép với 1 số loa như Klipsch hay Jamo cụ thể như loa Klipsch RP-5000F II, Klipsch RP-6000F II hoặc Loa Jamo C95 II đều rất ổn.  Ampli Denon DRA-800H có thể sử dụng cho những mục đích sau:

Để mua Ampli Denon DRA-800H chính hãng với giá tốt nhất hãy liên lạc ngay với Mr. Vinh 0936999663, giá niêm yết và giá đã giảm trên trang Web của Vinhstudio có thể vẫn chưa rẻ như mong đợi của quý khách chính vì vậy quý khách hãy gọi cho Vinhstudio với phương châm

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