I wish I could just ask the GF to just call me. But you all know that will be near impossible, bearing in mind
the cost of lost distance calls. Heh.

You were the sweetest, you blue thing called smurf.

Happy Independence Day my friends!

Post-rock is a genre of alternative rock characterized by the use of musical instruments commonly
associated with rock music, but using rhythms, harmonies, melodies, timbre, and chord progressions
that are not found in rock tradition. It is the use of ‘rock instrumentation’ for non-rock purposes.
Practitioners of the genre’s style typically produce instrumental music.

As with many musical genres, the term is arguably inadequate as a concise descriptor: for example,
Don Caballero and Tortoise were among the more prominent bands of the 1990s described as post rock,
but the two bands’ music has very little in common besides the fact that they are both instrumental and
centered on guitars and drums. As such, the term has been the subject of backlash from listeners and
artists alike.

Although firmly rooted in the indie or underground scene of the 1980s and ’90s, post-rock’s style often
bears little resemblance musically to that of indie rock.
Post Rock - Origin of the term

The term ‘post-rock’ was believed to be coined by critic Simon Reynolds in his review of Bark Psychosis’
album Hex, published in the March 1994 issue of Mojo magazine. Reynolds expanded upon the idea later
in the May 1994 issue of The Wire.

He used the term to describe music “using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as
facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords.” He further expounded on the term,
” Perhaps the really provocative area for future development lies… in cyborg rock; not the wholehearted
embrace of Techno’s methodology, but some kind of interface between real time, hands-on playing and
the use of digital effects and enhancement. ”

In a July 2005 entry in his blog, Reynolds claimed he had used the term “post-rock” before using it in Mojo,
previously using it in music newspaper Melody Maker. He also said he later found the term to not be of his
own creation, saying in his blog, “although I genuinely believed I was coining the term, I discovered many
years later it had been floating around for over a decade.” The term was used by American journalist James
Wolcott in a 1975 article about musician Todd Rundgren, although with a different meaning. It was also
used in either the Rolling Stone Album or Record Guide to name a style roughly corresponding to
“avant-rock” or “out-rock”. Another pre-1994 example of the term in use can be found in an April
1992 review of 90’s noise-pop band The Earthmen by Steven Walker in Melbourne music publication
Juke, where he describes a “post-rock noisefest”.

Post-rock literature and imagery came out worldwide since 1995 with press items such as Crème Brûlée
fanzine in France.
Early precedents

Post-rock appears to take a heavy influence from late 1960s U.S. group The Velvet Underground and
their “dronology” - “a term that loosely describes fifty percent of today’s post rock activity.”

The “Krautrock” of the 1960s and ’70s would also exert a strong influence on post-rock, particularly
via the “motorik”, or characteristic rhythm of much Krautrock.

British group Public Image Ltd (PiL) were also pioneers, described by the NME as “arguably the first
post-rock group.” Their second album Metal Box (1979) almost completely abandoned traditional rock
and roll structures in favor of dense, repetitive dub -and krautrock- inspired soundscapes and John
Lydon’s cryptic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. The year before Metal Box was released, PiL bassist
Jah Wobble declared, “rock is obsolete.” Flowers of Romance (1981), their third album, was an even
more radical departure, emphasizing rattling percussion and abstract tape music.

The shoegazing movement of the late 1980s and early ’90s was also a predecessor of post rock, with
bands like My Bloody Valentine devoting as much, or more, attention to unorthodox, layered guitar
textures than to traditional guitar sounds.
1990s Post-Rock

Bands from the early 1990s, such as Slint, or earlier, such as Talk Talk, were later recognized as
influential on post-rock. Slint’s Spiderland and Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock are credited as giving
birth to post-rock.
Post-rock group Mogwai performs at a 2007 concert.

Originally used to describe the music of such bands as Cul de Sac, Stereolab, Laika, Disco Inferno,
Moonshake, Seefeel, Bark Psychosis, and Pram, post-rock grew to be frequently used for a variety
of jazz and krautrock influenced, largely instrumental, and electronica-tinged music made after 1994.

Tortoise is also widely considered as being among the founders of the movement. After the second
Tortoise LP Millions Now Living Will Never Die, the band became a post-rock icon. Many bands
(e.g., Do Make Say Think) began to record music inspired by the “Tortoise-sound”.

In the late 1990s, Chicago was the home base for a variety of post-rock associated performers. Both John
McEntire of Tortoise and Jim O’Rourke of Brise-Glace and Gastr del Sol were important producers for
many of the groups.

One of the most eminent post-rock locales is Montreal, where Godspeed You! Black Emperor and
similar groups, including A Silver Mt. Zion, Do Make Say Think, and Fly Pan Am record on Constellation,
a notable post-rock record label. These groups are generally characterized by an aesthetic rooted in,
among other genres, musique concrète, chamber music, and free jazz.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Scottish group Mogwai were among some of the influential post-rock
groups to arise during the turn of the 21st century.
2000s post-rock

In the early 2000s, the term had started to fall out of favour. It became increasingly controversial as
more critics outwardly condemned its use. Some of the bands for whom the term was most frequently
assigned, including Cul de Sac, Tortoise, and Mogwai, rejected the label. The wide range of styles covered
by the term, they and others have claimed, rob it of its usefulness.

Today, despite criticism of the term, post-rock has maintained its prominence. Post-rock outfits Explosions
in the Sky, Sigur Rós, Pelican and MONO have risen in popularity, showing the longevity of the disputed genre.

Though it has been argued that post-rock as a movement has become obsolete, Post-rock bands are still
emerging; Vessels, HREÐA, 65daysofstatic, Youthmovies, Yndi Halda, Caspian, God Is An Astronaut, Sunlight
Ascending, This Will Destroy You, Everlasting/Praise: Spring Fist Order, Port Royal and other such bands
still maintain the fundamental principles of the genre.
Musical characteristics

The post-rock sound incorporates characteristics from a variety of musical genres, including ambient, jazz,
electronica, and experimental. The traditional method of power chords is replaced with timbre and
texture for guitar-play while the song and voice is abandoned by its ambience. The rebellious overtones
of rock as we remember it is no longer the theme for post-rock groups. In fact, utilizing dub reggae, hip
hop, and rave, post-rock manages to create an androgynous and softer means of subversion. The clubs
were also a response to the emergence of a new post-rock vibe where musicians escaped musical genre
labels and traded ideas. Early post-rock groups also often exhibited strong influence from the
krautrock of the ’70s, particularly borrowing elements of “motorik”, the characteristic krautrock rhythm.

Post-rock compositions often make use of repetition of musical motifs and subtle changes with an
extremely wide range of dynamics. In some respects, this is similar to the music of Steve Reich, Philip
Glass, and Brian Eno, pioneers of minimalism. Typically, post-rock pieces are lengthy and instrumental,
containing repetitive build-ups of timbre, dynamics and texture.

Vocals are often omitted from post-rock; however, this does not necessarily mean they are absent
entirely. When vocals are included, the use is typically non-traditional: some post-rock bands employ
vocals as purely instrumental efforts and incidental to the sound, rather than a more traditional use
where “clean”, easily-interpretable vocals are important for poetic and lyrical meaning. When present,
post-rock vocals are often soft or droning and are typically infrequent or present in irregular intervals.
Sigur Rós, a band known for their distinctive vocals, fabricated a language that critics call “Hopelandic”
(Vonlenska in icelandic, a term even used by the band), which has been described by the band as “a form
of gibberish vocals that fits to the music and acts as another instrument.”

However, in lieu of typical rock structures in the vein of “verse-chorus-verse”, post-rock groups generally
make greater use of soundscapes. As Simon Reynolds’ “Audio Culture” states, “A band’s journey through
rock to post-rock usually involves a trajectory from narrative lyrics to stream-of-consciousness to
voice-as-texture to purely instrumental music.” Reynolds’ conclusion defines the sporadic progression
from rock, with its field of sound and lyrics to post-rock, where samplings are stretched and looped.

Some bands, such as Rachel’s and Clogs, combine post-rock with classical music, while others such as
Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Fly Pan Am are so far removed from popular music in their sparseness
of arrangement and use of repetition, that they are frequently compared to minimalism.

Wider experimentation and blending of other genres have recently taken hold in the post-rock scene. Isis,
Russian Circles and Pelican have fused metal with post-rock styles. The resulting sound has been termed
post-metal. More recently, Sludge metal has grown and evolved to include (and in some cases fuse
completely with) some elements of post-rock. This second wave of sludge metal has been pioneered by
bands such as Giant Squid and Battle of Mice. This new sound is often seen on the label of Neurot Recordings.

Screamo has also been influenced by post-rock (and more specifically math rock) with bands such as,
City of Caterpillar and Japanese band Envy following in the steps of Mogwai.
Stylistic origins

Alternative rock
Ambient music
Experimental rock
Indie rock
Progressive rock
Space rock
Shoegazing
Electronica
Typical instruments

Guitar – Bass – Drums – Violin – Cello - Other less common instruments, such as cimbalom, Voice,
Saxophone, Oboe, Glockenspiels, Piano, or Synthesizers.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I have decided against my original plan of revamping
this beloved blog of mine. I had at one point of time transferred most of my original uploads
to the Wordpress domain but due to compatibility issues, I will be sticking with Blogsome for
abit longer than I had initially planned for. My thought was simple: I was so adamant about switching my
host just because Wordpress offers more flexibility in the coding of its CSS and it has also far more
beautiful templates being distributed around on the internet by dedicated voluntary designers.

But I was having problems with all my entries here as almost each and every one of them had
manually-customised formatting that will be just too tedious for me to edit if I ever decide
to transfer all of them over, which I intended. After much deliberate thinking and pondering,
I have finally concluded and realised that Blogsome is still capable of serving me for at least a while
more.

The long period of absence was definitely uncalled for; my blog should be up and running in no time!

Anyway, I am back in school now studying Optometry with a class-load of fun-loving friends
whose company I will definitely appreciate for the next three years. The class appears balanced
with an almost equal number of boys and girls though it seems like there are twice the number
of babes than dorks, judging by the amount of noise these fairer gender are able to produce.

Or maybe this is because the guys are half as weak as the girls.

Either way, these people are so adorable they make great pets for the household. I will squish
them to death.

Cheers!

90 days ago, it was not necessary for us to go through it actually;
We definitely knew what were going through our minds and hearts;

Our words always seemed to taste so sweet;
We were the most beautiful things our eyes had ever laid upon;
Voices had never sounded so calming before —
Heck, we knew how much we meant to each other!

The letters that went back and forth,
The parcels after parcels of surprises —
Signed, kissed, sealed, delivered —
Travelled miles and miles in the air,
Covering distance of the many great oceans between us;
Yet we played pretend.

How absence itself caused us so much restlessness
During those months in Taiwan and Mecca, they were obvious,
Were they not?
We did not just need each other;
It was more than that, more than what we could ever comprehend.
Yet, we played pretend.

We still had those gifts we exchanged six years ago,
And they were the most well-kept treasures one could ever think of.
Everything there was about me,
To you they were priceless;
Everything about you,
They were more than anything else to me.
Was it love? No.
It was more than that.
Yet again, we played pretend.

But we did not have to fool ourselves,
For we definitely knew what were going through our minds and hearts.
Three months are nothing actually —
For all that we know, history between us dated all the way back since 2003.

Happy third month Sakina.
You are definitely the best;
The One and Only.

Oh,

I lub you berry, berry much,
You shmelly shmelly belly.

:)

(All pictures were taken by my trusty Fujifilm Finepix F40fd)

The day you left me,
Leaves fall dead;
My heart left a print.

It seems that whenever I upload a photo, Flickr desaturates the colours in it. Is this a free account problem?
And I noticed my photo degrades abit more. Will subscribing to a pro account help eliminate this issue once and for all?
I had to use Picnik to up the saturation abit more which kind of destroyed a few of my photos;
and now the leg looks greenish to me.

Is this really a free account issue?

(All taken with Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim with Kodak Elitechrome 100 X-Pro)

Do check out my Flickr for more of my photos.

For those of you who had already started Twittering, TweetDeck is a very useful desktop application
that’ll help you organise all of your tweets. The real-time updates are a revelation too!

Or if you need more Twitter applications, just head to the Twitter Fan Wiki site.

Another application that I find pretty nifty is Google Reader.
If you’ve always found that visiting all your bookmarks individually to be too troublesome,
why not download Google Reader?
Grab all the RSS Feeds you can find from your favourite sites and any future updates will be sent directly to the reader.
It’s like getting the best of everything with no effort at all!
I’m sure it’ll be a worthy addition to your already fantastic range of desktop applications.

I’ll be collecting my cross-processed film at Triple D today.
I hope it turns out fine though, but if it’s not as how I want them to be,
then i guess it’s too bad.
:(

Heya guys!
I’ve been pretty quiet these days huh? Busy? Well, not quite.
Even though you don’t see me on MSN often, I’m actually online 24/7 (well, sort of).
That’s because I’ve been frequenting Twitter and Flickr more than ever now.
And I’ve been doing lots of reading plus workouts at home.
Not to forget: Photography!
So, if for some reason you urgently need me, do drop me a line.
Or you can always follow me on Twitter @inf3ktion.

I just borrowed this book titled, ‘Bystander: A History of Street Photography’.
It’s a 450-pages A4-sized book that’s as heavy as our Additional Mathematics textbook.
It’ll keep me occupied for some time now.

Sunny aka Draco had this wonderful idea called Project A-Photo-A-Day.
I’ve been roped in as well. Basically, it’s the posting of one unedited photo per day.
And I’m using TwitPic as a place to dump all these raw shots.
Well, they won’t be as appealing as my usual products but they’re definitely worth looking at.
This project will surely aid me with my compositional skill.
The first post’s already up so do drop by.

My cross-processed film’s due to be collected by Thursday, so I’m pretty excited about it!
With my Velvia 100F still loaded into my Holga 135BC, and that one unused roll of Sensia 100F,
I’m still left with lots of lomo ammo for this month. Coolness.
And ever since the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim’s been out of production,
I’ve been loving this beau so much more now.
Ah, it’s such a treasure!
Triple D of Burlington Square’s a good place to send all your slide films for cross-processing.
They’ll get it done by the next day, and costs $10 for cross-processing and scanning to CD.
10% discount for Lomotion members like I am.

I’m going to get these black and white films next for my Holga;
No cross-processing needs to be done, so it’ll be cheaper.
Hurray for film grains!

Life’s as sweet as the bokeh in my photo at the top of this entry.
I’ve a wonderful girlfriend who’s so trusting and supportive even though we’re living many oceans apart.
Six years isn’t a short period, my friends.
She’s Sakina, if you’ve not known.
And yes, Sakina’s not my virtual hamster!
xD

Do pay me a visit on Flickr as well as that’s where I’ve been posting all of my works.
And don’t forget to tweet tweet me alright?

Oh, and happy belated 16th to my lovely sister.
I love you!
:)

I miss all those times in green uniform, brothers.