xdevx – cd & live reviews

records of the year:
1. Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing – transcendental in any way. A true eye-opener
2. Portishead – Third – astonishing comeback of the best triphop-band ever (besides Massive attack)
3. Genghis Tron – Board up the House – the perfect fusion of IDM and Grindcore
4. Esbjörn Svensson Trio – Leucocyte – a post-mortem oeuvre of the band which brought me to jazz. R.I.P. Esbjörn Svensson
5. Foals – Antidotes – longtime awaited and not disappointing
6. Someone still loves you, Boris Yeltsin – Pershing – buoyancy is the new hatred
7. Bugge Wesseltoft – IM – on the path of ancestor Keith Jarrett’s Cologne concert
8. Vampire Weekend – s/t – just too happy sounding to not finding it good
9. Cobblestone Jazz – 23 Seconds – an impressive fusion of minimal techno and jazz
10. Fennesz – Black Sea – perhaps the only musician reviving guitar drones

Fuck Buttons – Sweet love for planet earth – LIVE @ SXSW

songs of the year:
1. Portishead – The Rip – a piece of modern pop history that Thom Yorke has never been able to write. pwned
2. Foals – Heavy Water – bumby rollercoaster anyone? try it in audiosurf
3. MGMT – Time to pretend – placeholder for the revival of cheesy synth-sounds. woohoo
4. Little Boots – Stuck on repeat – the essence of Kylie Minogue, Madonna & Roísín Murphy, only better
5. Genghis Tron – I won’t come back alive – one of the most intense moments this year

Portishead – The Rip – LIVE @ Jools Holland

concerts of the year:
1. Portishead @ Palladium, Köln – the comeback of the year (despite the crappy location)
2. Foals @ Werkstatt, Köln – the newcomers of the year
3. Autechre @ Stadtgarten, Köln – an eschatological film noir experience unlike any other
4. Jamie Lidell @ Motel Mozaique, Rotterdam – swing, big band, heavy electronic processing, charismatic as hell
5. Lightning Bolt @ Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin – for sure one of the most intense moments in history of sound

movies of the year:
1. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – Touching memoires of the locked-in-syndrome-diseased former Elle-chef-editor
2. Lars and the Real Girl – Ryan Gosling falls in love with a sex toy doll
3. [REC] – Eventually a good horror pic.
4. 39,90 (99 francs) – Biting bestseller adaptation of the schemings in the marketing branche
5. Darjeeling Limited – A family stroy unlike any other – in between indian tradition and american lifestyle

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – Trailer

worst movies of the year:
1. Cloverfield – Not more than an artsy exercise in style
2. Die Welle – A pedagogical experiment gone wrong… for the characters in the film and for the audience
3. The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian of Narnia – As a children’s film > too brutal, as an adult film > too half-baked
4. Mirrors – Mirror, mirror on the wall, what’s the most annoying movie of’em all?
5. I am Legend – Almost perfect film in the first running hour… but then you should better look away

Cloverfield – Trailer

TV programs of the year:
1. Lost – 4th season FTW
2. The IT Crowd – nerd tales from the crypt, the 3rd season is a notch above the previous ones
3. Switch Reloaded – the one and only reason to watch private programs in german TV

Lost

game of the year:
1. Metal Gear Solid 4 – IMHO the best piece of electronic entertainment ever.
2. Little Big Planet – impossible to forbear a smile. The MOST lovely designed game ever.
3. Pixeljunk Eden – hypnotic and incredibly motivating minimal techno puzzle jump’n’swing

Metal Gear Solid 4 – Theatrical Trailer

websites of the year:
1. last.fm – the most encyclopedic index of bands and concert listings
2. berlin.unlike.net – for Berlin folks a true underground resource for parties, bars, food, events and thrills
3. vbs.tv – IPTV with programs apart mainstream broadcasting

Hype of the year:
1. The new Macbooks – no firewire? EPIC FAIL.
2. Postrock – lame revival with more shallowness than ever before
3. Ed Banger – there’s so much good electronic music out there, so why be ruled by Paris’ pricks?