[ Hypnos Forum ]

Two older releases I've recently rediscovered are:

Electro Harmonix (love the combination of Tetsu Inoue and Jonah Sharp)
The Pool - Quiet Stories (a very obscure cassette from the mid-80s in an ambient vein).

I would love to get my hands on Electro Harmonix. Another limited pressing from Fax that's impossible to find.

I have an odd one: Jon Hassel - The Surgeon Of The Nightsky Restores Dead Things By The Power Of Sound. I first bought it back in '87 when it came out, and it didn't grab me. A few years went by and I was in a record store and heard this amazing sound. I was stunned that it was the same album I'd dismissed years before. Went home and re-discovered it. One of his best.

I think I need to randomly pick something out of my library. I also have a lot of Steve Roach I haven't listened to in years.

I use Audacity for FLAC files. Most of my Bandcamp purchases go through Audacity on their way to iTunes.

Back on topic: Are there any other media players people can recommend based on experience?

iTunes, Winamp, Foobar, Windows Media Player, is what I've heard so far.

What this points out is that, regardless of the platform, there don't seem to be that many good choices out there.

Lustmord - The Place Where The Black Stars Hang

 Because, apparently, this is how I celebrate the holidays....

My humble advice re: the new Mac Pro....wait. The machine isn't even out yet. It's too soon to jump to conclusions. Let the early adopters road test it and shake the bugs out. Let them figure out how to integrate their workflow back into a new system.

As a video editor, who has gone through Avid Media Composer, the old (very glitchy)Adobe Premiere, the first versions of Final Cut Pro, and all their attendant hardware and software needs and/or limitations, if there is one thing I have learned over the years, it is that we figure out how to adapt and overcome. Then we learn how to improve on what Apple has done.

Apple hasn't spent all this time and money on an exotic design and brought the manufacture of a desktop Mac back to the US just to have it fail. They will be watching to see how it is received and how professionals bring it into their pipeline. My guess is that it will take some time, since Thunderbolt breakout boxes will be expensive and people will probably jury-rig some of their existing gear to make it work with the new hardware. But they will make it work. And the new peripherals will make their way into the wild, as well. We will mourn the passing of yet more hardware standards that Apple pioneered(farewell, Firewire) and adopt new ones.

Hardware and software are restless animals that have to evolve. And evolution is never without conflict and short-term chaos. Relax and watch the show. You'll know sooner or later, whether you can find a use for this new generation of Macs.

As an OS X fan, I like the upgrade. There are some very nice new features.

However as with any major OS upgrade, and as a video editor who has had this issue before, I would say do not upgrade during a project. You may find applications behaving strangely or projects losing assets. If you have active projects, finish them first.

As you said, Mavericks is free. It will be there when you're ready. Just make sure your work is safe and backed up before you upgrade.

Oöphoi - Nocturnes

After reading Ben's recollections in the other thread, I am listening to this dark little masterpiece again and remembering just how deep the rabbit hole goes. I really miss looking forward to a new release from Gigi. Hard to believe this one came out in '06. Has it been that long?

I thought I'd try the "most played" option as well, and found some interesting stats.

Here were my top 10 most played albums over the last year:

Tau Ceti - Somnium
Oöphoi - An Aerial View
John Broaddus - 4 At 18
Steve Roach - Immersion: Three
Thomas Köner - Kaamos
Kammerheit - Asleep and Well Hidden, The Starwheel
Oöphoi - Mare Imbrium
Between Interval - Autumn Continent
Sphare Sechs - Tiefschlaff
Mitsuko Uchida - Mozart Piano Sonatas

The first two almost don't count because I use them to try to fall asleep at night. I think it shows more how much trouble I have sleeping than what my listening habits are(maybe the NSA knows). The rest do seem about right in terms of play, but I listen to a lot more stuff daily. I tend to needle-drop through my music. I had expected to see some artists much higher on the playlist. The computer has definitely altered how I listen to music over the years. When I buy a CD, I usually rip it right away, then listen to it on the 'phones.

Flame away.

Kind of curious, myself. The last new album Tetsu put out was 'Inland' on the Fax label, back in 2007.  I know of nothing since then.

Dave at Ear Rational has been hard at work on his tribute album to Pete Namlook http://carpesonum.tumblr.com/namlooktribute The track list from Fax artists had no submission from Tetsu Inoue.

This will be old news to many, I'm sure, but I have recently discovered the Shock Totem series of horror and macabre tales on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Shock-Totem-Curious-Macabre-Twisted/dp/1448621747/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1375433960&sr=8-2&keywords=shock+totem

They are available as paperbacks or e-books(my preferred format) and are a perfectly twisted and evil series of short story collections by some well-known authors as well as lots of lesser-known and sick new voices in horror. There are also interviews with various authors in each issue as well.

If you're looking for a break from the 500-page opus, or something to fill the time on the throne, I have found this to be a great series of fun, bizarre stories with something for everyone. From "The Music Box" to "The Dead March" to "Thirty-Two Scenes from a Dead Hooker's Mouth", there is everything from whimsical to seriously creepy to unmentionably horrific. And there's even a Holiday Issue.