Harkive 2017

Here we are again, another Harkive and another excuse to use this blog and pretend that I still update it regularly. If my memory serves me right this is the fourth Harkive I've done (2013 being the first), and whilst I can't promise that anything exciting will happen today or that I'll listen to anything unusual and worth writing about, hopefully there will still be enough tracks to make a decent blogpost and perhaps even a playlist if I feel so inclined.

It's currently just gone midnight, 00:09 to be precise, and I've just gotten back from seeing Dune (dir. David Lynch, 1984) in the cinema. Whilst it isn't commonly regarded as his finest work, this is probably the fifth time I've seen it this year alone, and that must be worthy of some sort of award. Annoyingly, this year's Harkive has come at a point where I'm stuck in a bit of a rut with the music I listen to; I haven't discovered anything new for ages and seem to end up listening to the same ten songs over and over again for hours at a time. Two of these songs are Echo Beach - Martha and The Muffins and I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) - Daryl Hall & John Oates, and they are also the two songs I have listened to so far today. Just a warning - this post may end up looking like the track listing of an 80s hits compilation album by the end of the day.

It's now nearly 12:30 and I'm just about to head into town to run some errands and mope around Selfridges for a while. I intended to go out earlier but spent the two hours after I woke up at 8 listening to Kraftwerk and Jean-Michel Jarre. As I was getting ready I put on Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's self titled debut album - because if it isn't from the 80s and it doesn't have a synthesiser in it - I'm not interested.

On the bus I listened to The Associates - a band I discovered in a Popular Modernism lecture at uni this past spring, and was frankly horrified that I hadn't ever listened to them before. Sulk has become my go-to album for when I don't know what to listen to, and today is one of those days. I didn't listen to anything whilst I was out and was instead treated to whatever background pop the shops and cafés had playing. Sometimes I'll get lucky and somewhere will be playing a song I love, but I wasn't so fortunate today.

It's almost 20:00 and I should probably put the oven on and cook something for dinner. Instead, I'm halfway through the Kraftwerk 3-D Catalogue that I've listened to almost every single day since I saw them at the Royal Albert Hall last month. It really is a brilliant album.

23:43 and Harkive 2017 is almost over. I watched several episodes of Seinfeld whilst I had dinner, and now I'm currently listening to some Suede to work out how to create a dumb Twin Peaks meme video I just thought up. It worked, and you can watch it on my Twitter here.

And that's a wrap on Harkive 2017! I'm editing this post the day after and I can't remember if I listened to anything else after I spent the best part of ten minutes editing the Suede song He's Dead to a clip from S3 E11 of Twin Peaks. As always, I never know how to finish these apart from with some drivel about how I absolutely 100% will start writing on here again and never do, so, see you in a year.

Harkive 2016

It's that time of year again! Harkive has once again snuck up on us and given me a reason to resurrect my blog for the day. It's currently 00:36, and I've spent the past half an hour uploading photos to Flickr and listening to various Kate Bush songs. About ten minutes ago I changed to The B-52's and as I write this I'm currently bopping along to Roam, the third single from their 1989 album Cosmic Thing.

01:00 and I've ended up listening to Billy Idol. I think I need to go to bed.

Stayed up until 05:00 (it's 10:58 now) watching the last season of US Queer as Folk so naturally I've awoken with the frankly awful theme music stuck in my head. I have no idea what it is but let me tell you - it's bad. I did have plans to go back to London today but faced with 32 degree heat I've elected to stay at home and try not to expire from heat exhaustion. Expect lots of Christmas songs about winter and being cold later.

14:40 and I'm trying to decide what to have for lunch that involves minimal prep and cooking because I do not have time for that in this weather. It only feels right to include one of my current fave albums in today's listening, so I've stuck on Courtney Barnett's Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. It feels apt for my life at the moment since all I do since breaking up from uni for the summer several months back is sit around and think. I did so much sitting around not really doing anything that I forgot to get a ticket for her show at Somerset House last week - I'm still gutted.

For the first time in years my room is the coolest room in the house so I've escaped back upstairs after a bowl of noodles. It's now 16:00, and I'm still listening to Courtney Barnett. I've decided that her music is the perfect soundtrack for a sunny heatwave day. The bad thing about the summer is that I feel so inspired to create things (be they art or music) but I just can't be bothered to do anything. I like to have something to do whilst I listen to music but I can't think of anything to do today except have a nap.

With nothing better to do I ended up watching 13 Going on 30, 12 years after I watched the first 10 minutes of it before the on demand on our NTL box died (those were the days...). The soundtrack is fab and has made me really want to stick on a Talking Heads record and steal the t-shirt one of the characters was wearing. I've just put Veruca Salt on after hearing Lillix's What I Like About You in the film - a total blast from the past and possibly one of the best songs of 2003? Maybe that's going a bit too far but it's certainly a banger.

It's 21:43 and the day is drawing to a close. I couldn't do a day documenting the music I listen to without including at least one Sleater-Kinney album, and have decided to go for One Beat since I've had Combat Rock stuck in my head for the past hour. After The Woods it's probably my most listened to album of theirs. I recently bought the 33 1/3 Dig Me Out book but am yet to read it as I keep re-reading Carrie Brownstein's memoir Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl (which I highly recommend).

As expected, I fell asleep sometime around 23:00 after listening to more Sleater-Kinney and watching a bunch of YouTube videos. This is a bit disappointing as I was hoping to get a few more hours of listening in before midnight but I do actually have things to do today (Wednesday) so maybe it's for the best.

Changes // New Beginnings

Such a corny title....I'm sorry....

Ok! Once again it's been ages since I wrote anything on this and despite my wanting to, you probably won't hear anything from me for another year. One of the last posts I made detailed a trip to Berlin to visit art schools that I took in July 2014 - a time when I was committed to going to art school and becoming a fully "qualified" artist. A lot has changed since then! I changed my mind from wanting to study in Germany to wanting to study in France, and then from going to university immediately after finishing my A Levels to taking a gap year (which also involved me changing my mind numerous times regarding what I wanted to do). Then I had a moment of madness in September and applied to Goldsmiths through clearing to study History of Art - and by some fluke, got in. Of course, now I face a whole new bunch of problems and I don't have any idea of what I'd actually like to do once I have my degree, but I've put those on the back burner for the time being.

Anyway, now I'm back living in London (and only a stone's throw from where I grew up, can you believe it) I might actually have some interesting things to write about on here. Stay tuned for them! At the moment I seem to spend most of my spare time in galleries eating chocolate cake and the other day I had the fantastic idea of starting a comparison/review series on them (although really it's just an excuse to eat more cake) which will be appearing shortly. Other than that, I don't really know what will be appearing and with my numerous attempts to change this blog around all failing, I think it's time to just go with the flow and write about whatever I feel like. Maybe there'll be more serious political posts, or maybe it'll still be all about the latest records from Scandinavia. (Exciting things are happening in that department currently: I might finally be going to Denmark and Sweden in 2016!). With a large amount of cool shops at my disposal and the wonderful thing that is the student loan, I'm sure there'll be posts about interesting knick-knacks that I pick up - which is something I don't think I've ever written about but I've always wanted to. And of course, lots of posts about exhibitions and galleries (and not just the cafes...)

I also still want to change the name of this blog, however I'm yet to find anything that sounds nice and professional and cultural. Suggestions are welcome, send them in on a postcard etc. etc.

New Sounds from Denmark: Harmony - Vinnie Who

After months and months of waiting, it's finally here! Yes, the third album from the wonderful Vinnie Who was released today, March 30th, and what a wonderful album it is. When 'Seven', the first single from 'Harmony' was released back at the end of 2014 I sincerely hoped the rest of the album would stand up to it's brilliance and it wouldn't be the only decent track. It was a fear I had until the second single 'Only Dreaming' was released a few weeks ago, but of course, it was equally as strong as the first single and my fears were diminished. The two singles rapidly became part of my repeat playlist, and the amount of times I've listened to them over the past few weeks is probably ridiculous, but they're just so good it's hard to not get hooked on them.

'Harmony' has a very different sound to the first two albums and I would go as far to say that this is probably the best of the three. It has a overall more sophisticated sound, with more melodic segments and well, more harmonies. It's hard to describe the sound without using a million adjectives, but if 'Then I Met You' is the album for the party, 'Harmony' is the album for the morning after. It's smooth, comforting, and drenched in sunlight. It also manages to have a glorious cinematic quality that I really can't describe. It sounds like when you're awake at four o'clock in the morning in the summer and the sun's just beginning to rise, or when the sun's just beginning to set and you're sat in a garden with your friends drinking a beverage that makes you feel all fuzzy and warm inside. It sounds like warmth and happiness. Especially 'Funtime', the fourth track. The whole album has quite a calming quality to it as well, even the more up-tempo 'Only Dreaming' has the power to send me into such a relaxed state that I could probably fall asleep in the right conditions. Not in a bad way, you understand. If I were to name my least favourite track, it would probably be 'Swimming', not because of any faults in the musicianship, it's a perfectly fine song, but just not my thing really. Maybe it's because I can't swim - I don't know. However, at a mere three minutes and nine seconds, making it the shortest track on the album, it doesn't do much to hinder my enjoyment of the other songs.

Unsurprisingly I give 'Harmony'  a solid 10/10 in every category. Would I give it album of the year status? Quite possibly yes, but as we're only three months in it's hard to say what the next nine months will bring. We've already seen very strong works from Sleater-Kinney and Pond, making 2015 an incredibly good year for music. With a new Blur album on the horizon, and a new Suede offering in the works, I have high hopes for the rest of the year. Whether 'Harmony' will stand up to them is a question I'm not willing to ask. I sincerely hope it does though, and I urge everyone to listen to it as soon as possible. I also hope the album gets the recognition it deserves outside of Denmark, and I would really love to see a gig in the UK at some point...*hint hint*.

'Harmony' is released on Fake Diamond Records and is available to listen to on Spotify, purchase in iTunes, and on CD in all Tiger stores worldwide. The vinyl will be available in Tiger stores from April 17th. 

Le Nice

At last I have reached the pinnacle of my writing career. For the first time something I've written, about something I love, has been emailed off and featured in a magazine. The feeling of seeing your name on a page is one that can't be beaten. That page is one of the pages of the fabulous new magazine Le Nice. It's a collaboration of all things wonderful and contributed to by wonderful people.
A few weeks (or months) ago the idea for this magazine was born, and although it sounded like a great idea to me to write something for it, I honestly had no idea and when I did get an idea it took me the week of the deadline to finally put finger to key and type it up. I decided to play it safe and write about something I've written about many times before - music from our wonderful continent of Europe. You can pretty much guess what I included if you've read past posts on here. I must admit, I did have some hang ups about writing about the somewhat unknown bands that I love, purely because I don't want to share them but at the same time I want everyone to like everything that I do. It's complicated. However, I sent it off anyway and now I am a published writer at last. I feel honoured to be able to be part of something that I know (or hope) is going to be great and take the world of journalism by storm. Here's hoping the editor of some super-hip German culture magazine reads it and offers me a job....

Le Nice can be read here and the accompanying playlist to my article is here   for your listening and reading pleasure.

New Sounds from Denmark: Seven - Vinnie Who

Now I know what you're all thinking, and yes this is yet another post about wonderful Scandinavian music. Once again I have travelled to Denmark in search of cool new tunes, and boy have I struck gold. This however was almost completely by accident, and with all new/old discovery posts - there's a story to go with it:

Sunday night - November 9th. A seemingly normal evening until I logged onto Facebook to discover a new post from Soundvenue (which is safe to say served as my bible back in 2010) with a link to the new single from Denmark's Vinnie Who (aka Niels Bagge Hansen). What followed was 3 minutes and 31 seconds of pure dreamy bliss that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but also reminded me of lazy summer evenings and that feeling you get when you've had a couple of glasses of wine and become very affectionate towards everything. With vocals that I can only describe as creamy and a beautiful melody that almost sends you to sleep (but in a good way), 'Seven' is fast becoming my favourite single of the year and is a sharp contrast to the more pop-py, disco synth-y sounds that can be heard on his first album. It's a welcome change. Of course, not to say I don't love the likes of 'Remedy' et al. but sometimes it's nice to have something softer to listen to, y'know?

'Seven', I believe, is the first single from the third Vinnie Who album, due out in early 2015, and if it's anything like that, I can't wait. Of course, as with all good things those of us who live outside of Denmark and continental Europe will probably have to wait 6 months or so to be able to listen to it - let alone buy a physical copy. However, I have high hopes and I'm sure it'll be fantastic. For those of you who want a slice of the action right now, 'Seven' is available to listen to on soundcloud via the Soundvenue website and will be available to purchase worldwide from Friday 14th November. Enjoy. 

How To: Learn A Language

So. You've just booked that dream two-week holiday to Sweden but discovered you know absolutely no Swedish. What do you do? Although the majority of the world does speak some level of English, going abroad and knowing none of the language can seriously limit your range of activities and make you appear an ignorant tourist, and no, shouting in English does not magically make the person on the receiving end understand you. Asides from the obvious holidays, there are millions of other reasons to learn a new language. Maybe you want to woo your new French colleague or buy some exciting new treats from the Polish delicatessen on the corner? There are also numerous health benefits to learning a language as it has been proven that multilingualism can help prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease by about 4 years. It's also a pretty impressive skill to have. I myself have been learning at least one language for about 10 years now. I started in primary school aged 8 with Spanish, and then progressed to French and German once I started secondary school. I've dabbled with various other languages along the way: Danish, Russian, Japanese...I even studied Latin at GCSE (I don't recommend it), and now i'm considering moving abroad to either a French or German speaking country to further improve my skills,

Learning a new language, whether it be the first one outside of your mother tongue or your 20th, can be incredibly rewarding and even more so if you teach yourself it. I'm a huge advocate for teaching yourself things. You can go at whatever pace you like and spend a week learning the words for various foods if you can't remember them. You don't need to worry about that know-it-all in the class who takes every opportunity to remind the rest of the group how easy they're finding it. Everything's down to you. There are downsides to it though, it's easy to get caught up in other things and forget that you're supposed to be learning Serbian since you have no structure and no classes to attend or homework to hand in. Juggling work and your everyday life and still finding time to sit down with your notes can also pose a problem for learners of whatever age, unless you're retired and have all the time in the world. It can also be quite hard to find people to practice speaking with, unless you happen to know someone who can already speak the language. (Alternatively, persuade one of your friends that they want to learn this language too, it can be your secret code.) In order to make your journey to bilingualism easier, I've complied a list of some handy tips that I use to learn new languages and help with the ones I'm already studying. Of course, some of these will vary according to where you live, your age, and whether or not you speak another language already, etc, etc.

1. Use the internet. The internet is a fabulous resource for learning something new. There are thousands of websites dedicated to anything and everything so it shouldn't be too hard to find one to help your new language adventure. However, depending on what language you want to learn there will be various levels of resources available, and for various prices. For example, more websites have French resources than ones for Xhosa (I imagine). A quick Google of something along the lines of "learn Spanish" or "Spanish for beginners" should turn up many websites with helpful information. Personally, I like to use YouTube as many native speakers of various languages make videos explaining topics such as their alphabet and grammar to pronunciation and translation; and it doesn't cost anything to use it. Again, the amount of videos will vary according to the country and the number of speakers. There are also many other videos that explain how to learn a new language that could prove helpful if you need more guidance from more knowledgeable people than myself. 
2. Change the language of things you use everyday. Many smartphones, whether they be iPhones or an android alternative give you the option to change the language of your phone. Take advantage of it! I wouldn't recommend doing this just as you're beginning if you're learning a completely different language to ones you already know as it can be quite confusing, but if you already speak German well and are looking to learn Danish (two Germanic languages), why not! If you don't understand, you can always change it back (just so long as you remember how to). Following on from this, change the language of your Facebook account or another website you use often that gives you the option to change language settings. 
3. Download apps. Following on from point 1, there are many resources for phones and tablets that can help you learn a language. These are good as you can go over some key vocab or grammar on your way to work (provided you're not driving) or when you have a spare moment with nothing to do. Apps can vary from dictionaries to ones that give you the ability to make your own flashcards, and many others inbetween. Two favourites of mine are WordReference, an online dictionary that has an app for looking up words on-the-go and a German verb conjugator that has many verbs and has proved very very useful for written assignments. 
4. Listen to music and watch films or TV shows. Watching films and TV shows can be a great help when it comes to getting used to hearing a language and becoming familiar with the pattern of speech and pronunciation. It can however be daunting at first when you realise the people are speaking so fast that you can't understand them, but don't worry! Persevere and soon that'll be you too! Listening to music isn't just for pleasure, and although it may be nice to listen to some French songs once in a while it can really help you to learn a new language. Look up the lyrics, sing along, and maybe translate the songs that you really like, Not only will you not look stupid when you put on your favourite Croatian song at a party and someone asks you what it's saying, but you'll also be expanding your vocabulary. But learning a language isn't just about how many words you know and whether or not you know all the tenses; the cultural side is equally as important. and watching the latest drama series can also give you a picture of life in that country (depending on what it's about). Many films are available online, either on YouTube or via services such as Netflix, and music can be found all over the internet. 
5. Read. Read things in the language you're learning from day one. It may seem daunting, but you'll get through and feel so much better at the end of it. I'm not suggesting you go and buy all the works of that country's most prized author, there are things that are much cheaper and easier. Follow some twitter accounts that are in foreign languages, find a blog on a topic that interests you and read that, find a magazine and read that either online or in print form if you have an international newsagents nearby. The more the merrier. You don't need to read every word, skim over it, just get a feel for the style of how that language is written, and jot down any interesting words you think may come in later. Not only will your language improve, you'll be more clued up on interesting things too. Remember, you don't just have to read non-fiction texts. There are many short stories and poems that can be very easy to read too.
6. Try to talk to native speakers. This may be easier depending on where you live. For example, if you live in Spain but in a largely expat community where everyone speaks English and really want to learn Spanish, it shouldn't be too hard to find a Spanish person to talk to. If however, you live in America and want to learn Icelandic, it may be harder for you to find an Icelandic person to talk to. However, if you live in an area that many people move to from abroad, it shouldn't be too difficult. Take a trip to the expat area of your town or city, you may discover a new and exciting snack, make some new friends and be able to practice your language skills at the same time. 
7. Actually go to the country that they speak the language in. It may seem obvious, but there are many factors that can prevent this from happening depending on your age, where you live, and how much money you have. For people living in Europe who want to learn another European language it can be quite simple, especially if you live close to the border or if your country isn't that big. There are many train and road networks that make learning a language easier and can be inexpensive depending on the time of travel and the country you're in. Immersing yourself in the language is the best way to learn it, as you're forced to speak it and are hearing and seeing it everywhere you go. 

 Asides from these seven tips there are other things you can do to help you learn a language, such as buying various books to help you understand grammar, but these can often be fairly expensive and I wouldn't recommend doing so until you're certain that you really love the language and want to learn it more in-depth. Learning a language can also become expensive even without buying books, as many websites will ask you to sign up and pay a small fee in return for access to many services that may not be as good as you think. Language programmes such as Rosetta Stone may be helpful, but with prices up to £300 for a complete course it can sometimes be cheaper to visit the country of the language you want to learn and learn it by being surrounded by it. Remember that if you're intending on visiting another country alone to stay safe. In poorer countries kidnapping and pick-pocketing can be devastating for obvious reasons, and even if you want to explore the real country and not just the tourist hotspots, it's advised to not go out into "rough" areas and not to take unmarked taxis. 

Learning a new language is a journey in itself, from the day you learn how to introduce yourself to the day you finish reading your first novel. Remember that these things take time, you're not going to wake up fluent so keep going and don't give up! As cheesy and cliched as it may sound, the key to being good at anything is perseverance and knowing that it'll all be worth it in the end.