Deb, one of my favourite designers – very professional and creative guy – just launched a new website dedicated to the recruiting of “flash geeks” for the company he is working for  – one I used to work for like 3 years or so. As the message is written from the heart – from one flash geek to the other – I recommand you taking a look if you are interesting in a flash-geek job or similar – www.flashgeek.ro.

And as any passion needs a song, the one which should go for a flash geek I guess is a very technologic song. It sounds like being made by a bunch of IT-oriented guys, and as a result it has been used in commercials for iPod or Motorola phones for example. The song is by Daft Punk and the name says it all – Technologic. You can listen to it here.

Write it, cut it, paste it, save it,
Load it, check it, quick- rewrite it,
Plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
Drag it, drop it, zip- unzip it.

[download]: Daft Punk – Technologic

 

Muse, the UK band which not long time ago was mostly reffered to as the new Radiohead, just released their fourth album – Black Holes and Revelations.

Having the opportunity to listen to it, it provides a great feeling starting with the first track – Take a Bow – a powerful song with a space-like feeling made with a complex orchestration in the beginning which leaves space to a more powerful drums sound to the end of the track.

This feeling carries on to the next tracks, all having a complex sound with powerful orchestrations until the 5th track – Soldier’s Poem, where the listener can take a brake and enjoy mostly the lyrics of the short, 2:01 minutes, ballad.

The seventh song, Assassin, starts with high pressure and follows up the same, being one of the best pieces of rock on this album. Still, I think the lyrics could be more outspoken in this track to deliver more power.

One of the last songs, Hoodoo, gives a strange feeling of both a poem with some instruments in the background until it strikes with some powerful drums riffs towards the end of it.

Overall, I found it a consistent album, it is clear that the guys from Muse worked a lot for it to bring it to this shape. If you are a fan of the genre, it is very likely you will find it a great piece of work.

Only for sample purposes – not to be distributed – you can listen to the first track here: Muse - Take A Bow.

 

Who would have thought that the first Romanian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” would be staged by a group of students from professor Florin Zamfirescu’s class at the National University of Drama and Cinematography “I. L. Caragiale” (UNATC) in Bucharest, lead by professor Adrian Pintea? Well, it’s true ;)

I guess most of you have already seen one of the movies with the same title from 1973 or 2000, or have at least listened to a recording of it. This modern opera is a masterpiece – the more you listen to it, the more you begin to understand and love it. But anyway, this is not my main point here ;).

The first time I went to see the show at the Arcub Theater (because I have to admit I already went three times and, who knows, maybe I’ll go again ;) ) I was completely blown away. I imagined the show would be ok – but nothing more. Yes, I had the preconception that it can’t be exceptional, because I knew the actors were only students, still preparing for their big acting careers. But I was so wrong: nothing can beat a year of hard work, the professionalism of all the people involved, these students’ optimism and great attitude, their talent and – most of all – their unspoiled enthusiasm. Combine all of that with a modern opera as brilliant and as powerful as Webber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” and I guess it’s obvious that they can’t go wrong.

Most of all, I would have never guessed that young people preparing at UNATC can have such great voices – I would have thought that their acting skills are their biggest asset, but it’s obvious that they have a lot more to show. From this point of view I would totally mention the two leading actors who play the roles of Jesus (Daniel Dobre) and Judas (Dan Rădulescu) – some of their songs gave me serious goose bumps ;). Mihai Niţă (in the roles of Peter and Herod), Darius Daradici (Caiaphas) and Marius Miron (Pilate) are also very good.

However, I think that the greatest merit of the show lies most of all in the excellent interaction between the actors – you will most likely find several of them very gifted but you will probably be the most impressed by the way their group songs turn out, so uplifting and powerful.

Oh, and they dance really cool, the orchestra (Conservatory students) sounds very professional and the costumes and scenery are also very appropriate. Need I say more? ;)

Big “congrats” to them all – for their hard work and accomplishment of a difficult project – but most of all for the great feeling that they manage to translate to the audience.

 

If you haven’t seen it yet, there are four more shows left, on the 13^th, 15^th, 17^th and 19^th of july, at 19.00. The address of the Arcub Theater is Batistei str., nr. 14.

Enjoy ;) I know I definitely have.

You can find some of mtx’s pics of the show on his blog, on my blog or on the official website of the project.

 

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a long time now and finally I feel like it. There is this great artist whom I find listening to more and more since some years now, almost never getting enough of, even if at one point I am just repeating them songs.

Wyclef Jean – it’s him whom this post is about – is widely known both for his contribution to the Fugees and also in working with artists like Santana, Mary J Blige and lately Shakira. Comming from Haiti, with a reggae background and writing mostly hip-hop songs, he has proved in numerous times to know and be able to produce excellent pieces of music, either by himself or when working with another artist.

Unlike most hip-hop artists / bands, in Wyclef’s songs you can really hear and feel the music, together with some of the most inspired / inspirational lyrics in the industry – and if you find them a little bit strange in writing is, as he confesses, because his first language is still Creole, not English.

After studying guitar and jazz in New York, he formed the Fugees group together with his longtime friend Pras and another classmate, Lauryn Hill. They all ended having a huge success, both as a group and in solo projects.

Wyclef’s first solo album after the breaking up of the Fugees, entitled The Ecleftic, is an amazing album as it was rated by most critics, with an impressive guest line-up by Whitney Houston, Mary J Blige, Kenny Rogers, The Rock and more. And, to top it all, it ends up with an excellent cover of Pink Floyd’s Whish You Were Here. The album combines slow tracks like “911” with dirty hip-hop – in “Thug Angels” -, party songs like “Perfect Gentlemen” and an excellent guitar solo on “Something About Mary“.

I am not going to write much more about Wyclef and his career, instead here are some samples of his works:

• One of his excellent remixes – Another One Bites The Dust from Queen.
• One of his most famous hits – I’ll Be Gone Till November – performed together with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
• A song from his Ecleftic album – Da Industry.
• Whitney’s Huston praise to Wyclef Jean in the Dub Plate song.

Some students from UNATC (Theatre University in Romania) had a great idea of putting in play one of the greatest rock operas ever – Jesus Christ Superstar.

The play has been written in the 70′s by Andrew Webber and Tim Rice and – in the original version – was performed by, among others, Ian Gillan playing the role of Jesus and Murray Head in the role of Judas.

The Romanian version is played free of charge at the ArCub stage on 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19th of July. It’s nice to see such initiatives happen and I bet their act will be worthwhile for anyone to attend.

Later Edit: It seems someone liked it very much. Also some pictures here.

I am sure you all remember Skye, the ex-vocalist of the UK band Morcheeba. After a successful career, she left the band in 2003 and recently (February, 2006) she released a solo album – Mind How You Go.

With a sound similar to what the Morcheeba fans are used too, she now added more life to the songs, making them a little more dynamic. A good sample can be heard on the Love Show track, the first one on the album.

You can download Love Show here and also find some more media on her website – www.skyewebsite.com.

Fergie – the girl from Black Eyed Peas – is one of those girls that makes guys imagine stuff just by seeing her on TV. She doesn’t have to do much to be sexy and she is widely appreciated for that.

Still, there is more to her than just the looks – her performance with Black Eyed Peas are very good and she quickly became a key member of the band. As she said in an interview: “It’s funny because it’s backwards. A lot of times I don’t overtly try to dress sexy. In fact, I’ve actually made an effort not to. Because I don’t want it to be all about that, you know? I’ve been wearing baggier clothes at my shows, just because it’s important to me that people know I am an artist, and not just some men’s trophy model.”

With that success in her pocket, she is now preparing also for a solo carreer. This starts with the first single she realeased, London Bridge. Quite a sexy song, the lyrics are all about this and probably the video is going to be the same. Even though the song is not exceptional, is still a good performance for a starter. You can now download it here – Fergie – London Bridge.

The full album is supposed to be released in September and is going to be entitled “The Dutchess“.

Well, the Romanian series of rock concerts continues with the performance Placebo is going to have in Arenele Romane on 13th of August. They are currently in a tour promoting their latest album, “Meds“, which is highly appreciated in Romania, as far as I learned from a lot of people.

Even though I am not a big fan of their musical style, I must admit they are doing a pretty good job. And the results are showing, as ”Meds” is currently voted as the best album of this year by 32% of the responders of the poll on the right side of this blog :)

Tapinarii is on their fifth year as a band and they are celebrating this in an old-fashioned way….with a tour. They are to start in Bucharest’s Deko Cafe on 8th of July, then they will move to Timisoara for a concert on 15th on July, in Sibiu on 16th – in Atrium. Sighisoara will welcome them on 29th, on 4th of August they are going to the seaside, in Costinesti, then a little bit south in Vama Veche on 5th – at El Comandante. Next is saving the Rosia Montana on 25-27th of August and they are going to go back to Vama Veche for the Stufstock 2006.

Quite a long tour throughout the country and I hope they will have the best in each of these cities. So be prepared.

Ok, now with these dates marked in your calendar you can download, courtesy of them, the Puiul Paranoic sample track.

If you want to know who they are (who is Covei and who is Tanase), maybe you should drop by http://www.tapinarii.ro/.

Congrats guys and don’t stop here ! When is the next album comming up ? How about a DVD with live performances from this tour ?

Later Edit: The Concert in Cafe Deko starts at 22:00. Also, during the performance, videos of the band can be admired on the screen on which probably some would expect the football game to be shown :)

Lacrimosa was a few days ago in Bucharest, for a live performance. Unfortunatelly, I could not attend but here is a review of their performance.

It seems they did not attract too much public and is still a mistery to me why they decided to perform outside. This music style sounds so much better performed inside …