On vacation

Currently I'm on vacation. Will post my experiences nex week. Stay tuned!

Knowledge Zenith ATE Review: A Rough Little Gem

After more than 5 years, my faithful, much abused, Melectronic M6 is throwing the towel. No, not the driver, but the wire which gave up. So, after drying my non existent tears I shop around for the new IEM (in ear monitor). Yay.....?

As usual, the only place to research audio stuffs is ofcourse head-fi.org. (I swear, this forum is so, so poisonous, it will poison you to spent hundreds or thousand of dollars to buy that beautiful sounding stuffs. So, don't you dare go there if you want to keep your walled thick. You've been warned!).
After reading the portable stuff on head-fi, I was eyeing the beautifully build Auglamour R8. But I'm not 100% convicted, because the reviewers said how the mid take steps back compared to bass and treble. So I shop around again and (almost) decided on Audio Technica IM50.

But, both IM50 and R8 priced around 50-60 dollars here. Because I am stingy broke, I looked around, again, for lower priced IEM. Enter Knowledze Zenith ATE. Reviewers seems like like it very much. Boosted bass? Check. Beautiful, warm mid? Check. Smooth, forgiving treble? Check. Cheap price? Double check.

At BukaLapak.com, a vendor sell it at IDR 140.000,- (which equivalent to 12-13 dollars). Several clicks later, the IEM are on the way. It arrived 2 days later. Read on for the review.

The box.
It came with pretty heart shaped hard plastic case. Inside is the IEM itself, placed on cut out foam, 2 pairs of silicon tips (small and large size, I think) and a pair of foam tips.

The Case

Inside

The build.
The build quality is quite good. There's no creaks or flex, there is none of those driver flex like my old M6 used to have. The body and the cable is translucent, you can see the inside of the shell (the drivers and whats-not) and the braided cables. The cable coating is some kind of soft rubber, making it (almost) tangle free. There is no memory wire on the cable like my M6. Oh, and it has mic too, so you can use it with your smart phone.

The IEM

It's light enough, heavier than my M6 was, but more comfortable to wear. I can use them more than 3 hours straight without discomfort, not like M6 which make my ears sore after 1 hour.

The Sound.
How does it sounds? Beautiful, warm, and smooth, with more than adequate bass.

The mids is the star here. Liquid, organic, warm and forward. Male voice are to die for. I played some tracks by male performers such as Il Divo (En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor), The High Kings (Galway to Graceland, Red is the Rose), Gotye (Heart A Mess), Apocalyptica (Not Strong Enough) and all make me close my eyes and melt. Seriously, it's that good. What price this IEM again? 12 dollars? Hell yeah!

The mid are warmer and more forward than my beloved Sennheiser HD600 (review here). Lower mid, especially warm. Upper mid and lower treble (where the female voice) take a step back, so they are not as good as male voice, but, it still good. Smooth, unoffensive, liquid are how KZ ATE render female voice.

The treble are soft, smooth, with dip in 5 khz, rendering those pesky bright female vocals smooth. I love it. Take that, Postmodern Jukebox's Historical Misappropriation!(*)
The treble extension are so so, you can hear how it rolled down early. For some, KZ ATE can sounded dark and muddy. To me, it's perfect, like darker, closed version of HD600. In fact, it reminds me to Goldring DR150 (review here) I had (broke the headband to pieces, still looking to cannibal a cheap headphone).

I played some instrumental and classical stuff and the rolled out treble punish ATE rather heavily here. I loved wind instrument such as flute, oboe etc, and with ATE, those good stuff take two step back. Roger Subirana - The Ritual at Dusk had this beautiful native American wood flute as center piece, HD600 render it as beautiful as it deserves, while ATE, it take two step back. I got similar result with Yasuharu Takanashi arrangement for Naruto OST titled Despair and Kaoru Wada arrangement for Inuyasha OST titled Bojou (Longing). All the flute (the good stuff) take two step back.

Closer Shot #1

The bass is forward and BIG. Way bigger than HD600. Again, reminds me to DR150, except, ATE bass is more forward and hit harder than DR150 was. Most are in mid-bass tough, so for you guys who looking for ear shaking bass better look for other Knowledge Zenith IEMs. The deep bass are rolled quite early, although not as thin as HD600 bass, still won't win bass competition. It's still punchy and in your face bass.

The sound-stage (or head-stage, if you prefer that terms) is small. Thats ok, sound-stage is never IEM strength. And it quite closed too, ATE lack that breath of air HD600 had in abundance. Fatoumata Diawara excellent album Fatou just not as atmospheric, the excellent sound-stage and positioning diffused. But then HD600 is an open headphone, so it's no competition.

Comparing the sound-stage size to HD600, if HD600 sounded like the singer or band play in small, open venue, and you sit several row from them, ATE will sounded like they play in a closed middle-sized venue and you sit in front row, right in front of the band / singer.

ATE separation and positioning is just so-so. You could still tell where the sounds coming from, but it's rather mushy. I think my M6 separation and positioning is little bit better than ATE. This is the weakness of KZ ATE, I guess. Just don't compare it to HD600, that headphone positioning and separation is INSANE.

Closer Shot #2

As good as the mids are, I found that KZ ATE sounded rather metallic. And vocals could be shout-y. Voice and instruments are not as organic as my HD600. But then, my Sennheiser HD600 is a 250 Euro headphone, equivalent to, what, 300-350 dollars? That's like 25 times ATE price! So, I can forgive this weakness no 2.

KZ ATE is a polite sounded IEM. I tried playing some metal / rock / hard core stuff on it, and it render them beautifully. Beautiful, not grungy as it should be. The speed, the attack, the rockiness or metalness (sorry for the made up words, but you get the gist) is just lack. It's like Dragonforce, Avenged Sevenfold, Seraphim and Linkin Park sudenly playing jazz or pop song. Definitely not for hard stuff.

KZ ATE strength is in jazz, acapella, pop, acoustic, and other vocal heavy music and stuff. It's sounds OK with instrumental and classical piece, and rather bad with metal and hardcore stuff. That rolled out treble is the culprit for this, although that punchy bass is OK for RnB and Dance music. Robyn's Dancing on My Own is toe-tapping stuff.


The Others.
KZ ATE is easy to drive. You don't have to buy separate amplifier to drive this, your phone can drive it well. I used it with my Xperia P and OnePlus One, and both sounded good on it. Even my tiny, old Sandisk Sansa Clip (the 1st gen) is able to drive it.

On Sansa Clip, this IEM sounded rather dark and muffled tough. Better pair this IEM with neutral or bright player. With Fiio E10 (the first gen, not the E10k. Impression here), ATE warm sound neutralize the slightly bright sound of E10.

The Conclusions.
Just buy it. Especially if you still listening music with your generic, 2 - 5 dollars generic, cheap no name earphone (shudder). Or if you still rocking the earphone included with your smart phone. Seriously, just chuck them at the garbage bin. Except Sony MH1, I read they are good. If you fortunate enough to have Sony MH1 included in your smart phone package, keep it.

For about 12 dollar (like what I paid for it) this is a steal. At online stores, they usually sell it from 15 to 25 dollar equivalent. I think at that price, it still a steal. Especially compared to that anemic sounded, over priced Apple earbud, earwax, iEar or whatever they called their loopy shaped IEM are.

Recommended.

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note on (*): I love Postmodern Jukebox, but I think Historical Misappropriation album is mastered with boosted 5 khz, rendering it downright painful on my Audio Technica SJ33 (review here) and little bit too much on my HD600.

PS: Auglamour R8 is really beautiful! Google it! I swear, when I had money, I'm going to buy it! Just so I can take photos of it and parade it around! It's just beautiful!

Luca Stricagnoli, a Contemporer Guitarist Prodigy

For me, ability to play musical instruments always seems like something out of world. You see, my clumsy hands, bad reflexes, and bad timings just won't cut it for playing instruments. Forget piano or fiddle, I can't even match simple percussion tone to my friends playing (it was in my high school long, long time ago, the teacher assign us to make some band and play in front of class. Total disaster on my part.) So, watching people playing music live always gave me envious feeling.

Enter Luca Stricagnoli. A contemporary guitarist who skills I'm not even dare to dream having. Watch this:


How is his brain works? I mean, I keep stumble over nothing while walking on flat, clean straight floor, and here he is, playing a one man band:



AND. HE. PLAY. GOOD. TOO!

That is so unfair. Handsome, cute guy who can play music instruments, and prodigy at that? Ladies (and number of guys) will definitely screaming for him. And he is young too! Maybe 24 or 25 years old. And ladies, please hold on to your panties, but he is proficient in Judo too!

Thank God he seems like can't sing, or I'm going to ask for refund.



Wait, did he just play TWO guitars?! Yep he did!


Freaking cool.
And here he is, using his feet to play some chords:



Fuck it, I'll just go back to sleep.

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PS 1: he released an album last year, so you can buy it on your choice of market place (such as Amazon or iTunes) 
PS 2: for more his videos, go to the usual site (*cough* YouTube *cough*)
PS 3: that disaster high school assignment story is 100% true. Right total disaster that was.
PS4:  the only, I repeat, the ONLY instrument I can play is the freaking RECORDER. Yeah, THAT recorder. You know, the flute-like instrument? Usually for elementary kids? Yep. Pathetic eh? (apologize to all professional recorder players. You guys are awesome!)

Troye Sivan - Blue Neighbourhood

Have you heard Troye Sivan? Yes? I guess I'm late to party. I found him when browsing Youtube, there I saw his Talk Me Down video clip, which, while I'm not really like the story, I quite appreciate the videography and video quality. It was good. So I download his complete album. It IS good.

First, I would recommend you to get the deluxe edition, because the included tracks are actually GOOD, not like those deluxe albums which only include filler song. I actually liked the included tracks, such as DKLA, and Blue; while BITE, THE QUITE and TOO GOOD are actually enjoyable.

This album is quite brooding and moody, kind of modern version of Lana DelRey. The tracks are dark and moody, with pulsating bass and sprinkle instruments giving them bite. It kind of reminds me to The Weeknd, crossed with grandiose of old Coldplay albums (as bad as their recent releases were, I won't deny their previous releases as good).

Fans of grittier music or bubble gum pop would best skip this album, because I don't think they would appreciate the slow, dark, brooding moody of this album atmosphere. And the lyrics too, are bog standards. Some are cheesy, albeit none of that crazy-cheesy lyrics like some of Lana's lyric, but standard nonetheless.

I like Troye Sivan voice, not too thick, with slight husky and dark tint on it. You won't find range like Sam Smith exhibit, or his control, for that matter, but the simple way he sing is enjoyable. Personally I'm quite interested on how he will sounded with more demanding song.

All in all, for music listener, I would recommend this album, it is simply GOOD.

Dota2 Reborn, Catalyst and Others

What was the last time I wrote on this blog? It was like...years ago., I think. This post was like, months and months ago saved on my draft, but I have no mood to post it. So, rather than post outdated things, I decided to put all those things into one post.

First, I got quite large internet quota from my cell provider, so I decided to (re)download Dota2 from Steam on my linux box. I was running elementaryOS (eOS) based on Ubuntu 12.04. It was several months ago. With Catalyst driver from AMD, the performance is OK, with several eye candy disabled, I can run it quite smoothly, although not as smooth as Windows 7. In Windows 7, I can enable almost all eye candy (all, except anti aliasing and V-Sync) and got smoothly running Dota2. In linux, I had to reduce it even lower. I was grumbling and grumbling and grumbling about AMD linux driver quality.
Then Valve update Dota2 to Source2 Engine.

It. Was. The. Best. Dota2. Linux. Experience. Ever.

At first I was resisting, because just like old Dota, when updating to Reborn, I wouldn't able to watch old replay. And I love me replay. And when Valve made Reborn update mandatory, I was like, WTF?!? And I was forgot to backup my old Dota2, so now I had to deleted several replay which I haven't got time to watch. Damnedest thing.

But now, after several small and big updates, I can enjoy Dota2 Reborn on my linux box (now running eOS Isis, Freya, based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS) with eye candy almost maxed (I still disabled anti aliasing and V-Sync - my Pentium dual core and Radeon R250 just can't handle it). Everything is running smoothly. Now, if only I had good and stable internet connection...

2nd thing: AMD released their newest driver called Crimson. Unfortunately, linux Crimson performance is still a big no-no. Here is the review from Phoronix guys. So I held back from updating and wait for their-hope-it's-better next release.
Please AMD, give us linux user good and stable driver....

note: no, I have no qualms about using proprietary driver / software / blobs as long as it good. You guys GNU / Open source hardcore can shut up about it.

3rd thing. I still enjoying taking photos. And learning editing using Darktable. Sometimes I look back at my earlier photos and re-edited them. Or delete them. Mostly delete. (What? Lots of the are AWFUL!)
Here are some of my pictures, I tried that cinematic looks, but I don't think I quite successful. It's all edited using split toning feature from Darktable 1.6.9.



What do you think? Any tips on how to achieve those cinematic looks?

Taking photos of wind blown reeds are THOUGH! I had to wait until the reeds are positioned right before press the button. And the focus. I wast like, 15 minutes adjusting it. I really need practice more.
Maybe I will post the non cinematic version. Maybe not. We'll see.
Here is my Flickr page if you want to see my other photos. I had to warn you though, my photos are not that pretty!

4th thing. Now is my 10th month living alone. Yes, alone, as in living solitary in a house by myself. Currently I'm living in a house paid by my workplace. It was like, housing for worker who temporary work here, so sometimes I got other peoples live with me. The house is quite large, although it only two rooms, one living room, one bathroom and kitchen. But the rooms are quite large and the building itself is good. So, except laundry, I do it all by myself. Cleaning house, cooking (yes, I learn how to cook! It was to reduce living cost. Eating is my biggest spending, I just can't eat any food, it had to taste good!)

I still not that good at managing house though. Sometimes I got so lazy I let the floor not swept, dirty plates and glass filling the kitchen sink. It got so bad, once or twice I saw mushroom grow on them! LOL.
And then I got into cleaning frenzy and clean everything on one sweep. I felt like house-wife sometimes! Now I understand why my mom got so mad when I let little piece of dirt inside. It was really tiring always cleaning house. Sorry Mom!

I still going to gym. Currently my weight is 65 kg, I was 57 kg when I started about 1 year ago. Success!!! Some are fats, though, so I still need to convert those fats into muscles. And those belly fats are getting thick, I need to train my stomach again. Sigh. I hate sit ups.

5th. My Aune T1 headphone jack broke I think. When I fully insert my headphone jack fully, there is no sound on left side, but when I insert the jack partially, I can hear sound from left side but not from right side. So currently I'm back to my cute little FiiO E10. I miss organic sound from my T1. sigh.

Oh, and my PC is acting again. It was quite weird, suddenly my PC unable to POST, and rebooting, again and again and again and again until I put stop from it misery by pressing the power off button 5 sec. I tried everything, even asking my friend to check my ram and GPU whether they broke. Yesterday, I just clean the metal connector using rubber eraser, put them all together and press power on. AND. ITS. WORK!!!
I have no idea why it suddenly broke and why it work again. So I just recheck all my hard drive partitions. My home partitions are corrupted and my linux unable to boot, leaving me on grub command line. Rebooting, I enter recovery mode. From there, and the power of Google, I successfully recover the partitions and boot safely into my linux desktop. Here is my linux desktop looks like: uh oh, looks like there is a bug with Catalyst and screen shot ability / features / applications! Basically, every times I tried to take screen shot, it only capture my wallpaper. Or wallpaper cache from GPU cache. Sorry guys!


6th and the last (I promise).
It's December, time to set next year goals. My 2015 goals was: improve my body and gain weight up to 65 kg (achieved! Although those acnes are as rampant as ever. Sigh), buy good camera (achieved!), get better job (not achieved yet), and got desktop amplifier for my Sennheiser HD600 (not achieved yet)
So, my 2016 goals:
1. Gaining weight up to 70 kg, mostly in muscles! (hehehehe)
2. Got new and better job (better paying, better learning experiences, better working experience)
3. Desktop amplifier (and repair my Aune T1 jack)
4. New lens(es) maybe? (hehehehe)
5. Ummmm dunno, start saving for house maybe? Yeah, lets do that...
6. Improve my connections to God (I haven't been the most religious person, I'm really naughty. Sorry God, I'll try to do better!)
7. Update this old blog more often. Oh, how I miss writing blog! There are so much things in my mind that need to let out. The thing is, if I let all it out, I will definitely sent to mental hospital. Or stoned. Or jail. Or all three. Yeah, I guess all three.
8. Going places! I want to travel!!! I want to see beautiful scenery!

Oh yeah, that list is not in order

So, until 2016 then! (maybe?)

Hello world

Hello, it's me again.

Honestly, of late I have no energy left for blogging. Interacting with people are exhausting! Every night I came to home exhausted, even my beloved Sennheiser HD600 and Aune T1 didn't get as much attention as before.

This new year, I got new toy(s). It's a camera, a Sony NEX-5TL (a NEX 5T with zoom kit lens). Why am I not getting the new Alpha such as A5000, A5100 or A6000? Duh, because the money. The usual reason :D
Yes, Sony discontinued NEX series, and yes at the same price I can go for A5000, but honestly, NEX-5T will give you more than A5000. Read the comparisons on the internet, there are lots of them. I rather go for last year mid-range than this year entry level. I was going for  second hand NEX-6, but I never found one which acceptable, so I gave up and go for NEX-5T instead. I miss the viewfinder in NEX-6, but I just have to live without it. Good thing I take picture mostly in the dark. NEX-5T screen is god-damned reflective! (sorry for the french)

Why not going for DSLR? I don't like how bulky and heavy most DSLR is. For example, Nikon D3200 is about 750 grams totals, and Canon EOS 1200D is about 800 grams. My NEX-5T is just south of 500 grams. And the size! NEX-5T, being mirrorless, is just so small compared to your usual DSLR.

Anyway, I'm still learning how to take photos with it. My friend Arif (his blog is here) got into photography longer than me. He, and 2 others. They take better pictures than mine :D. It's quite fun, although it did make me have to get up at 2 am and take long, long walk in the dark just to get those stars or sunrise pictures. And I tell you, walking alone in the dark is SCARY. Good thing my current city is safe.

Anyway, here you go, my flickr (which I made long long ago in 2009):

When the heaven shines with stars...

As Javanese descend, with Gran who love Javanese song (and Javanese poetry, myth, and poetry), my childhood days filled with song's from Waldjinah, Endang Sukoco, Gesang, and other singers and gamelan groups which name I never knew. And now, eighteen years later, any hints of classic java songs always fill me with nostalgic feelings. Of hot days spent under jambu air (Syzygium samarangense) listening to radio and the wind rustled, with chickens clucked and peeped in the background.

One of those song is "Yen ing Tawang ono Lintang"? Have you heard it? No? Hurry and search in Youtube. The Waldjinah version is a classic, while Mayangsari version bring hint's of modern touch. And if you feeling adventurous, try Ramaaipama version, which, let say, quite interesting.

I love how melancholy and romantic the lyric is. It goes like this:

Yen ing tawang ono lintang, cah ayu
Aku ngenteni tekamu
Marang mego ing angkoso, nimas
Sun takokke pawartamu

(*)
Janji-janji aku eling, cah ayu
Sumedhot rasaning ati
Lintang-lintang ngiwi-iwi, nimas
Tresnaku sundhul wiyati

Dek semono, janjiku disekseni
Mego kartiko, kairing roso tresno asih

Yen ing tawang ono lintang, cah ayu
Rungokno tangis ing ati
Binarung swaraning ratri, nimas
Ngenteni mbulan ndadari
(Repeat *)

And for you English speaker, here the translation ⁽⁺⁾:

When the heaven shines with the stars, ⁽¹⁾ pretty girl
I'm waiting for your presence
To the clouds above the sky, milady
I ask your whereabouts

(*)
All those promises I do remember, pretty girl
Pounding inside my heart
All those stars are mocking (me), milady
(Because) My love touching the heaven

At those times, my promises were witnessed by
All the clouds above, accompanying (my feeling of) love and tenderness

When the heaven shines with the stars, pretty girl
Listen the cries of this heart
Within the sound of the night, milady
Waiting for full moon to shine
(Repeat *)

Beautiful isn't?
Most people think this song is about the singer / composer yearning for his lovers. But, you know what, actually this song is about how the composer waiting for the birth of her daughter! Yep. Her daughter. Who is not born yet. Talk about dramatic.

Most singers made little change here and there, transforming this song into lover song. And that version is the most popular. Love sells after all.

Still, this song is a classic. I love Waldjinah and Mayangsari version. Same song but bring different atmosphere. However, Waldjinah version is still the best. I just love her angelic voice. It soar effortlessly above gamelan. So clean, so powerful. Beautiful.

Try it, maybe you like it. If you by any chance stumble upon CD containing this song, especially the audiophile version, just buy it. You won't regret it.

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⁽⁺⁾:  Of course, it's not direct translation, because it always hard to capture how one language express something to other language, but I guess that translation is as close as it could be.
⁽¹⁾: actual translation is "when in the sky there are stars," / "when in the sky the stars are seen" but the Javanese language used is the flowery form, so I chose to romanticizing it a bit.

Review: Zella Day - Zella Day EP

I stumbled upon this artist from Sputnik Music which got lot of good albums recommendation. So I decided to give it a go and, bam, I was hooked.

Sweet Ophelia,
When young blood escapes
Vows that break
Go up, up away
Zella Day - Sweet Ophelia

This album (or mini album) from Zella Day consisted just of 4 songs, totaling in 12 minutes and 25seconds. But, boy, those four songs just soooo good. I keep hitting replay button again. And again. And again. And again...

So, how should I describe Zella Day? I would say like Lana del Rey met Florence Welch met Elly Ghoulding: the sheer epic result is simply mind blowing.

Many EP is just an epic song with lots of filler. But in Zella Day, there are no filler, all her four songs are strong: good lyrics combined with big hook and blasting melody. Oh, and the melancholy, we must not forget the big dose melancholy.

You did to me so well
Hypnotic taking over me
Make me feel like someone else
You got me talking in my sleep
Zella Day - Hypnotic

The lyrics is good, I love how poetic all her songs are. The theme is mostly about blinded in love.

Take me to the garden of your ecstasy
Make myself a heaven from your falling leaves
Woven in the fabric of your tapestry
Cover me in honeysuckle memories
Zella Day - Compass

From Hypnotic, Sweet Ophelia to Compass and East of Eden, we will meet pounding bass,  strings and layer upon layers of sounds. Her musics is really rich. The only sparsely instrumented is Compass, which only capitalized her vocal.

And she sing really good. Her high register is really good. She soar effortlessly to falsetto, without sounding breathless. However, I would like to hear more of her lower register, because she had this dark voice which I liked.

Call me wild, drinking up the sunshine
Be my man and show me what it feels like
Denim sky unbuttoned down the middle
Spilling out little by little
Zella Day - East of Eden

I would like to see how her full album sounded, I hope it would be even better than this epic EP. If you liked Lana Del Rey, Florence Welch or Elly Ghoulding, I would recommend you to try Zella Day. She is good.

Zella Day + Deadbeef + Aune T1 with Phillips PCC188 + Sennheiser HD600  = eargasm.

Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence

You must already noticed now, that I rather like Lana Del Rey. I really dig her melancholy and old style. Yes her persona is rather made up and not natural. Yes those lips almost certain face job. I don't care. As long as she keep produce music I like, she can put one meter long nose, or third arm or fly or whatever.

This album is very different than her previous two albums. Dark is what it felt at first. But different dark than Born to Die dark. In Born to Die, the darkness is glittering with flashes of neon and orb-lamp. Of recklessness and willfulness. In Ultraviolence, the darkness is lightened only by a splash of fireflies, of fond memories and little bit of sands in moonlight.

Gone is the hip - hop and heavy strings, replaced by echoing electric guitars and -what-is-it-called?-reverb? And simple drum. Simpler band arrangements, with a splash of strings here and there. The result is a fresher sounded album, although still heavy with melancholy and drama.

The lyrics, to be honest, still not 100% good. I mean, //You dance in circles around me // You're fucking crazy // You're crazy for me // is definitely bad. Or // He used to call me DN // That stood for deadly nightshade //. Really? Nightshade as in Potato and Eggplants? And why on earth "hydroponic weed"? At least, nightshade did sounded cool, I'll give you that
But there are gems here and there. The same song which gave us vegetables also give us this gems: // I can hear sirens, sirens // He hit me and it felt like a kiss // I can hear violins, violins //. Domestic abuse or BDSM? You choose.
Oh, and did she just take a jab at USA? //I’m talking about my generation // Talking about that newer nation // And if you don't like it // You can beat it //. What do you think?

I won't go detailed review of each songs here. But if you ask me, personally I like the Bond - movie-esque "Shades of Cool", the twanged "Brooklyn Baby" (really love the guitar), "West Coast" (nice tempo switching there!) and the operatic induced "Money Power Glory".
All in all, this album gave nostalgic vibe, with big doze of melancholy thrown. If Born to Die felt like good girl had her first taste of bad (and loving each second of it), then Born to Die: Paradise Edition felt like grown woman comfortable in her sexy, womanhood, and Ultraviolence felt like a woman who reminiscing how her life gone. Jaded, tired, sad but still starving for love, even a violent one. That how Lana on this album felt.

Lana's voice sounded much stable and matured here. Her voice soaring high and smooth. I really loved how she sounded on "Brooklyn Baby". And those soprano on "Shades of Cool" is really good. I kind of missing her low voice though. There aren't many singer with good rich, dark low voice. And song like "Born to Die" is shining because of those low voice.

This is quite good album. I like how fresh, yet how Lana Del Rey is this album. Dark, nostalgic, and melancholy. In short: a Lana Del Rey album.

Review: Word of Radiance (Stormlight Archive Book 2) by Brandon Sanderson

Now, I know that this review is kind of late but I want to make sure that I wore off my excitement and able to give more honest review. Read on!

Word of Radiance is the second book from Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series. And this series is AWESOME!!! This book is even better than the first book, if that even possible. The character development is deeper, the cast screen time is more balance, the story is more cohesive, and the final is even more awesome.

I love how Mr. Sanderson dig Shallan's background. If the first book was all about Kaladin, in the second book Shallan emerge as strong secondary main characters. Now we can understand why Shallan do what she did, and why she felt the why she felt. Maybe in the third book we can read more about Jasnah? (crossing fingers). Just read that the third book is about Szeth.

There are some scene which almost make me tears (I swear, it was just prickling in the eyes....), and there are scene which make me want to strangle Kaladin (just how dense he can get!?!). The last hundred or so of the book really make me want to scream and make me to stop reading but unable to lol. And the scene with Syl and the last fight is awesome. Although the last scene with Dalinar and Adolin is really unexpected (who would guessed that Dalinar would do that, and Adolin to do it? Really!). And that early dead! God, it was almost broke my heart. Almost.

There are so many new plot development that I think I had to reread the book at least once before reading the next book (by the way, when it was scheduled? 2015? 2016? Damn it, that's way too long!). So many plot and twist, so many new mysteries (is the artifact on the last scene with Szeth is that artifact?!? Is Hoid really the person who wrote that letters?!?).

I really didn't want to spoil much, at least not as much as what I already did (sorry lol). What I'm saying is, you really had to read this book. I assure you, you won't regret it!
Well, at least I did not. It was worth the sleepless night when I did it.

Highly Recommended.
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ps: sorry for my previous melt down. Just ignore it.

Running Away

Do you remember MIRC?
I still remember MIRC, chatting senselessly into Indonesian chat room (or called room back then). Or downloading Dragon Ball wallpapers, then saving it to 3.5" floppy disk. And how many pop up I had to close before I can see the web content. God damn the Internet Explorer.
I was using Yahoo! back then. On a computer with dial up connection. The Net Cafe I used was cost me about IDR 6,000 (maybe equivalent to IDR 20,000 now). For comparison, now Net Cafe only cost IDR 2,000 an hour, with 1Mbps connection speed. And now I'm browsing the internet using my phone or my notebook. With 2 Mbps (or more) connection.

I find it easy for me to lost myself to the wide and wild internet world. Sometimes I spent my day only browsing and browsing, shunning the world, not caring if it was a brilliant, clear day or dark and thunderous rain. I care not if there are peoples out there. I'm going to internet. I was happy.

Or so I though.

Actually I was lonely. And the saddest part is I don't understand that I was lonely. I tried to fix my loneliness by going to internet. I'm like a shopping junky. You see, shopping junky thinking by going shopping and buying things to their heart content, they can make their loneliness go. And maybe it does, for some times. When the excitement wore off, or their money spent, the loneliness back. I'm like that. For sometime I was excited and happy browsing the internet. Reading news, new gadgets, pretty pictures, funny videos, the stuffs. But when the excitement wore off, I'm back being lonely. Then the cycle continuous. Back and forward.

The thing is, I'm not exactly liked people. I find it exhausting to socialize with them. Because I found peoples always have expectations to met, emotions to respond, the rules to obey (or at least to be respected), etc. It's exhausting. So most of time I hold other people at bay, not letting them too close to me, but not to far either. And I find it hard to trust people. I always hold back some part of myself. I just can't let it all go.

Sometimes I'm afraid that I become some kind of user-person. Using people, then discard it when I don't need them. I'm afraid that I grow too dis-attached to other people that I became cold and bitter person. Or maybe I already gone to that path, I don't know. And I'm not sure if I'm care.

I'm not blaming the technology. What I'm saying is, those technology made it easier to run away from peoples, and the REAL world. Before then, I was running to books. That's one reason I loved fantasy novels. Maybe THE reason. And every day, I'm only tried just to getting by. I don't make much efforts to be MORE. As long as I getting by, it's enough. And I believe it going to destroy me.

But it's so easy just not to care. Just so easy just to lay back and let the life running by it self.
No worry about life. No worry about other peoples.

 I'm going numb. And the only excitement I can feel is small in number. And I think it's going smaller and smaller.

I don't know.

Nostalgic and Melancholy.

Have you ever see a place, photograph, movie, song, book or other things which take you back to your old times? My life was hectic recently, every day I'm going to office at seven-something, and back at my rented room at seven-something. Everyday I'm wading through the never ending jobs. Then today, I decide to take a 10 minute break and open my long unused Facebook apps. There on the update stream, a friend just liked a photo which I was tagged. Feeling curious, I open the link and voila, a grainy photo from my last week before high school graduation came. Then the 10 minutes break stretches into 1 hour break. How naughty of me.

The photo was taken at 2005, I'm not remember what day or month it was, but from the uniform I'm sure it was either Monday or Tuesday. You see, we got 3 set of uniforms: White and Gray-blue (Monday - Tuesday), Yellow-cream and Chocolate-cream (Wednesday and Thursday) and the last one is Boy Scout one (Light chocolate and brown for Friday and Saturday). Back then, Saturday is school day, although the school finished 1 hour earlier. And I remember very well, the photo was taken at noon. Is till remember the heat of the day. It was a windy day too.

My class is pretty crazy one. I remember how everyone got along so well, some even date each other. I think there was 2 or 3 couple formed. Indonesian school is different to West school. I believe in the West, we can choose what we want to learn, although there were some courses which mandatory. So your class-mate is differs every course. Kind of how University and College run. Here in Indonesia, all course is mandatory. So, every day we met the same people, until we divided into two major: IPA (science-based courses), and IPS (social-based courses). Of course, there were some mandatory courses, but mainly the focus of the major courses is different. Thinking back, my second year is pretty crazy too. Pity we got split.

Some of my classmate are from my first and second grade class, which is about 50 - 60% of the class. The remaining are shuffled from other class. Although not from the same first and second class, but we still got along very well. We got into trouble together, we got praised together, we choose together, every day is really fun. Oh, how I miss those days. Where we start to think about future and the world, but still innocent enough to appreciate simple, mundane teenage things like crush, homework, mischief, quiz etc.

It was awesome.
It was glorious.


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Tributes to  my old high school class, Pajero. Really miss you guys!!!

Another End of Year. And Another Review of Beyonce Newest Album.

So here we are: on the last month of the year. Another New Year. Another post about how your year go, how much you do, how much your resolutions fulfilled. Reflections. Badda-badda-do. Whatever.

So, I'm thinking about closing this year with a BANG. So do Beyonce. While I still turning my brain inside out (not really, but you get the gist), Queen B drop the bomb of the year in shape of an album consisted of 14 tracks, with 14 VIDEO CLIPS!!!

 Wow. Just... WOW.

Her album is quite dark, and minimalist. Yes there are fat and delicious bass line. But there are very few of those glittering laser and neon light. I'm counting maybe 2 or three. Others are filled with minimalist, slow and dark jam. And with retro, 80's feels sprinkle on the top.

Beyonce vocal, like always, soaring through the simple music, gliding and turning like bird through the sky. A dark, smooth, beautiful bird. Her technique is superb, her breath is strong, and wholly, she is just AWESOME.

As a whole, Beyonce is a very strong album. Yes, there aren't that many tracks which radio friendly. I like Pretty Hurts (really love the lyric), Partition (oh yeah), Jealous (simple yet strong), Rocket (nice vocal works there!), XO (simply sweet and cheerful) and, the last but not the leaset: Blue (featuring her daughter voice, which very cute).
Personally, I think those are the best tracks. Rocket got very nice vocal and melody works, but the lyric is ... let just say I'm not going to sing it loudly outside

And the video clips got very nice video works. Again, Pretty Hurts, Partition, Jealous, Rocket and Blue shines here. Blow is a fun, 80's retro video. XO is down to earth Beyonce. BUT! (yes, there will always be but) there's this Rihanna-esque from the videos. I keep expect Ri-Ri to pop-out from nowhere and sing the lines, like the one on Drunk in Love, Yonce (yep, you heard me right), and Haunted.
And it got lot of booty. And skins. And booty. Seriously. Yes we guys (I) love booty, but we (I) like them discreet, flash us (me) here and there and we (I) will keep thirsty for more. Flood us (me) in booty and we (I) will get sick of it. Eventually. Or maybe not. LOL.

So, there you are: my review of Queen B newest album, BOMB. Ignore me and enjoy the album (and the videos). This one is really nice and solid album. Just don't hit shuffle, because this album is best enjoyed straight from track 1 to track 14.

pssst... Queen B booty is really HOT!!!

It's Britney B*tch! Jean. A Review.

Yep, Britney is back. And her newest album is something to rave about.

Disclaimer: I'm rather fond of Britney, so I apologize if this review wasn't as clean as other reviews out there. After all, I'm not professional reviewer (as you can read on my previous reviews). So, you've been warned.

I've been waiting this album since I watch her Work B*tch video clip. That's one hell song, if you ask me. The lyric is really simple, and cheeky enough to balance the pounding beat. Yes, it's not as big as Till the World End, but explosive enough.

Back to the album, Alien is rather unusual track to open an album. But the lyrics...I'm wondering, just how much people out there who like me, keep seeing them self on the lyrics?!

//Lost in the world out of me myself and I // Was lonely then like an alien // I tried but I never figured it out // Why I always felt like a stranger in a crowd // But the stars in the sky look like home, take me home //

Second tracks, Work B*tch is like I said previously, is a cheeky song which I'm sure will burn those gold digger and lazy ass persons. Me included (what can I say?! I AM lazy). LOL

// You wanna hot body // You wanna Bugatti // You wanna Maserati // You better work b*tch //

Perfume, Til It's Gone, Passenger, and Don't Cry showing us the insecure, melancholy and vulnerable Britney. And the way she sings it, really differ with her usual sexy, crazy, robotic Britney. It's more.... raw. Even the auto-tune processing can't take away the rawness of her voice and emotions.
Yes there fat-pounding bass. And glittering neon-and laser. But the loneliness and melancholy still cut through.

I wish Britney duet with her sister is stronger, because Chillin' With You is just that: weak, forgettable song. The track is rather weird, it's like the producer can't decide where to go: nice and sweet acoustic or club worthy song. Tik Tik Boom and Body Ache is the usual club ready song. You know, the usual filler songs.

The Deluxe version comes with 4 new tracks: Brightest Morning Star, Hold On Tight, Now That I Found You and slow remixed version of Perfume. Personally, those extra tracks is album worthy. Better replace It Should Be Easy, Tik Tik Boom, and Body Ache with Brightest Morning Star, Hold On Tight, and Now That I Found You, then make Chillin' With You and remixed Perfume as Bonus Tracks. It would work better. I think.

So, there you go, my review. See the other side of Britney: the one who is insecure, soft and vulnerable. Yes, her voice isn't the best, it never has. But the rawness is new, and you can't deny the appeal of it.

My New Sennheiser HD600 (vs Goldring DR150)

Hello, hello... How are you guys? Sorry for the long interval between my posts, but my work life is getting into my blogging life. Pardon. So, here I am, wanting to post about my new Sennheiser HD600. Okay, maybe not so new, as I buy it as B-Stock, but well, its still new for me. Not bored yet? Well, read on!

I was happy with my Goldring DR150. For the price I paid, I got this wonderfully smooth and dark sound, with good sound-stage and positioning. It was easy to drive too; my FiiO E10 is more than enough to drive it. But I was growing unhappy, mainly because the grain on the sound, and plastic-y timbre which more and more apparent as I used to the sound.

So, I’m saving for an upgrade, and then after searching and asking on head-fi.org, my choice fall to either Sennheiser HD600 or HD650. But the price is really high here in Indonesia, much more than in the Europe or US. I was going to search for another, cheaper headphone but my good friend, who was completing his doctorate degree (damn, I'm so jealous!), said he was going home to Indonesia for 2 month, and offered to hand carry things for me. Yay! God bless you, my friend!

My HD600 is a B-Stock. FYI, B-Stock also known as Open-Box, so when I open the box and saw how it was in completely pristine condition, I knew I'm very lucky guy. It's practically new!
I'm not going to write a full review of this headphone. Mainly because this headphone is a classic and there were so many review out there about HD600, I don't have anything left to add. So I guess I'll just write an impression versus my DR150.

HD600 comes with this nice box, very handy to store the headphone when not in use, but rather troublesome to store because its big size. The headphone itself is slimmer than DR150, and the build quality is much better. DR150 looks like a plastic toy compared to HD600. The grill is much more open, you could see the internal driver from outside the grill. It's heavier too, and the clamp, oh dear God, the CLAMP! It's practically head-crusher. After very, very carefully bending the metal headband, the clamp is tolerable, although still quite tight. DR150 sit feather light in comparison, although the velour is not as comfortable.

People said HD600 as warm, dull headphone, but I found them quite neutral, even little bit leaning on brighter side. Yes, it's brighter than DR150, which has this dark sound to it. The treble on HD600 is fuller, smoother with no nasty peak. The bass isn't as big or as hard hitting as Dr150, but still punchy, more detailed and well controlled. Then the mid, oh dear God... So beautiful, detailed, and natural, my Dr150 sounded so mushy and plastic-y in comparison. But, I wish HD600 little bit darker. Just little bit, not as dark as my DR150. Maybe changing the tube (or valve) on my Aune T1 could remedy it?! (I'm NOT going to spill some 450 bucks for HD650!)

Ok, now, the not so good parts. First, as I said before, the clamp is quite tight. And it not exactly light headphone either. The impedance is quite high, 300 Ohm which need some amplifier to sound best. My FiiO E10 could drive it loud, but the sound is not as good as my Aune T1 which much more powerful. And the sound still has some grain in it, not so much as DR150, but its there. I guess the aging driver showing its weakness. Oh, and as I said before, I wish the sound little bit darker.

So that's my impression of my new HD600. I keep going back to it, especially when I listen to acoustic and vocal songs. The sound is so smooth and organic, and natural (I really can't stress this enough). For 250* Euro I paid, it was no regret.

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*note: HD600 usually priced closer to 300 Euro, or 400 USD.

Review: Lightbringer Series

Hello, it's me again. I got this new nice novels called Lightbringer Series from Brent Weeks. Currently it's on second book from four book totals, making it a quartet. The first book is titled "Black Prism", while the second book is "The Blinding Knife".

I had to give it to Mr. Weeks, but this two books is ROCKS!!! I love the magic system use, splitting light and gave each of them different properties, it just so cool!!! It differ from the usual magic system (male - female, 5 elements, etc), and had potentials for development and variations. It's interesting.

The main characters is nice too. The development is the standard Epic Fantasy kind, but the characters himself is quite departure from the usual. The cowardliness, the dark past, the secret, the guild, the resentment, all laid bare. Very nice actually.

The story telling is pretty good. Some passage could be better, but nothing too distracting. The battles and actions are very good, very enjoyable. The way Mr. Weeks stringing up the stories is good, most of time I couldn't guess the story line. Sure the ending of book two is a little bit predictable, but the leading actions is very, very good.

The language, style and atmosphere is very manly. I found it quite hard how little female characters make impact on this novels. Sure Aliviana got some mayor portions, but the impact is just not there. The characters is just not strong enough, while other potentially strong characters such as the White, Karris and Marisia (the poor women) not getting enough actions.

I had to give warning though, point of view Black Prism (book one) is differs to The Blinding Knife (book two). The characters is still the same, it just the portion which differs. I kind of like it, giving different view, different story from other side. Also give me deeper view on the said characters.

Overall, I found this two books very engaging. Yes, there are one or two weak parts, but nothing big. For you fantasy book lovers, you should try this series.

Review: The 20/20 Experience by Justin Timberlake

So, how long it was? 6 months? More? Sorry guys, I was really busy, so this blog of mine been neglected. Now, I'm back, with another review. Here we go.

Mr. Justin Randall Timberlake back after 6 years of hiatus into musical scene. Not that he absent completely, what with his name printed on singles or albums credits. This album, titled The 20/20 Experience, released several months ago, and pretty much earn mixed review. Some said it was nothing special, but some, like me, love this album very much.

JT's vocal is exceptional, I love how his falsetto delivered: smoothly. The lyric is interesting too, some is classic (or overused, from another point of view), but some really is interesting, if sometimes cheesy. Well, this is a mainstream album after all.

Just like the usual, his songs is full of catchy hooks and refrains. I especially love Tunnel Vision, Spaceship Coupe and Mirror (and the video clip. Old peoples getting romantic is really adorable! The skin colored-clad dancers girls with silvery wig is rather creepy though). The cherry-bubbling Strawberry Bubblegum (sorry for the pun) is good too, while Pusher Love Girl had nice refrain. I think Suit & Tie will make good music for lyrical dance. The reggae-touched Let the Groove Get In is nice break on the album, although 7:12 long song is definitely not short. The closing song, Blue Ocean Floor started boring, but got interesting when the refrain kick in.

The 20/20 Experience is bit departure from his last album, Futuresex / Lovesounds, which glittered with lasers and neon lights. I got this warm and classic feeling from Timberlake's latest album. The strings, the trumpets (or saxophone or whatever it is, I'm not really into musical instruments :P) combined with bass, drums and electronics creating a piece of music which spanned generations. A truly marvelous album.

The richness in it, the layers of sounds and instrumentals is good too. The musics is very enjoyable listened on my Goldring DR150 and FiiO E10. Really, you had to try listening it using good equipment. Your free-on-packaging earphones just won't cut it. With good equipment, you will notice just how rich and layered this album is, everything will come alive.

Lot of songs in this album clocked unusually long. For modern pop songs, that is. Some feels nice, bridging form one song to another song, but some, I feel unnecessary. But I had to give it to Mr. JT for his daring.

So, that's what I feel from the newest album by Justin Timberlake, titled The 20/20 Experience. Personally, I think the title reflect the album perfectly.

Review: OneRepublic - Feel Again (single)

Ugh, what a busy month!!! So many things to get done on my workplace I didn't even had time for writing on this blog. Sorry guys, but I really busy this last 3 weeks. So busy I even go to office on Saturday (Saturday!!!) to finish things :(

Now those hectic weeks passed, I want to share this new single by OneRepublic. Well, not exactly new, since it been out for like, 3 months ago, but still, from a band which didn't get much coverage last year (especially since their last album is definitely a flop), this single is like their gambling to the world of fame (their debut album is definitely good).

So, what of their newest single, which titled "Feel Again"? When I listened to it the first time, I though it was one of Coldplay songs. The drum track, the clapping, the melody, the vocals; the hypnotic atmosphere created really reminds me to Coldplay. Watch the videclip, and the similarity is even stronger: the light, the party, the shooting angle.

From lyrical point of view, the lyrics is very simple, "I'm feeling better since you know me / I was a lonely soul but that's the old me" just cant compete with "I loved you with a fire red, / Now it's turnin' blue..." from Apologize, or even "We'll have the days we break /  And we'll have the scars to prove it / We'll have the bombs that we saved / And we'll have the heart / Not to lose it" from Marching On. And just don't even try to compare it to Coldplay lyrics. Just don't.

I like the videoclip, the light play is amazing. The sweet scene where a man give a women flower-with-lighbulb-on-it is nice, giving sweet touch to the hypnotic-party atmosphere. Again, reminiscence of Coldplay. But that's ok, since this single is divers to OneRepublic previous songs (which quite heavy and tiring).


Overall, nice single. The different atmosphere invoked is differs nicely with their last albums. Nice videoclip too, really love the lightbulb play. I just wish it less felt like Coldplay and more OneRepublic.

Review: Christina Aguilera - Lotus (updated)

Hello there! How are you? Have you listened to Mrs. Aguilera newest album yet? No? Then maybe you will find this review pretty old-school.

The cover is quite interesting: the naked Mrs. Aguilera rising from a lotus blossom. Don't worry, the interesting parts are hidden, so it's still quite safe. The pinkish color used is bit departure from Christina Aguilera image of sexy, mature diva. It's just so girly, like the cover you will find on some girl-band from Japan or Korea.

The Album Cover.

I have the Lotus Deluxe Version which contained 17 tracks below:

1. Lotus Intro
2. Army of Me
3. Red Hot Kinda Love
4. Make the World Move (feat. CeeLo Green)
5. Your Body
6. Let There Be Love
7. Sing for Me
8. Blank Page
9. Cease Fire
10. Around the World
11. Circles
12. Best of Me
13. Just a Fool (with Blake Shelton)
14. Light Up the Sky
15. Empty Words
16. Shut Up
17. Your Body (Martin Garrix Remix)

This albums is quite diverse in music style, although generally still dance oriented. I loved the marching drum touch on Cease Fire, Around the World and Best of Me (sometimes I found myself humming the chorus baby cease fire, fire, fire, while walking like an idiot. Yes, it's that infectious).
Throw in Christina's vocal of gymnastic, and you got powerful, energetic, toe tapping album. Although personally I feel Mrs. Aguilera sounded bit strained on some songs, but then, that screaming-like, powerful soprano IS Christina brand-style.

The lyrics is quite standards, you know, for a dance pop albums. You got some interesting lyrics now and then (Use my name as your claim to fame / Got my smell of success on your breath on Circle), but others are the usual stuff. I felt this album lyrics is mainly about how she got herself up and strong after some big break-up. Pardon my ignorance, but I really didn't interested on the artist life, all I interested is their musics.

Not all the songs are dance oriented song with bass pounding, however. There are some track's which quite a keeper. I personally like Sing for Me and Blank Page. Just a Fool is quite likeable actually, if not for how it sounded like a battle contest between Christina Aguilera vs. Blake Shelton. Please Mrs. Aguilera, Mr. Shelton, this is not a battle round of the Voice, play nice!!! Speaking about Blake Shelton, I just always thinking his name spelled backward, Shelton Blake sounded just so much more nicer!!! LOL.
Some grippe: the bonus tracks Light Up the Sky sounded like something out of Ryan Tedder's song book while Empty Words sounded just like the one you got from Leona Lewis old album Echo. Why not include more different tracks?

The production isn't that great, with my DR150 (which is quite detailed), I can hear how the instruments got smashed together: no separation, air, soundstage. The bass is mainly on mid-bass area, with big boomy sound to boot. The treble too, get too piercing sometimes, I need toning down about 3-5db on frequencies of 5 kHz and up on my foobar2000 equalizer. I hate doing equalizer, but this album won't listenable for long time if I don't do that.
On busy tracks, Christina vocals is going laid back, thankfully, reducing the fatigue immensely. On the simpler tracks however, you could hear how glorious Christina Aguilera vocal technique is. Pity she didn't includes more of those kind of songs.
Update: the production is really awful, opening a track on audacity, I can see how the track clipped. The compression is really high!

Verdict? Quite easy, if you like Christina Aguilera, you just had to listen to this album. For dance oriented song, maybe you better go to Rihanna albums. This album is a mix-and-match kind of album. Not quite dance-pop (although most of the songs of dance-pop flavored), but not quite balad-pop either. The result is an album which not too mainstream, but also have it's own flavors.

Lana Del Rey - Paradise (EP) Review (updated)

Hello again, how are you? Me back with another review (again. sigh).
The album I want to share is titled Paradise (EP) from Lana Del Rey. Remember her? You know, the one who became Internet sensation sometimes ago when her video goes viral? Etc, etc. Yeah, that Lana.
Actually, you can find this EP as two version: as Paradise (EP) and as Born To Die the Paradise Edition, which, as it's name suggest, include tracks from her Born To Die album. I personally think you better go for the EP, that's if you have already buy the previous album.

The cover is very nice, Lana, with her hair flowing, standing on some beach (or maybe pool?) with tropical trees (coconut, maybe?) seen behind. The color used, which going for red-yellow, gave this Lana this golden shine. That, and the gold font used, gave the cover a classic and luxury feeling. Well, that's me anyway.

Paradise (EP) Cover

Born To Die The Paradise Edition Cover

The EP consist of 8 tracks, with some difference depends on where you buy your album (or EP). The tracks list:

1. Ride
   
2. American
   
3. Cola
   
4. Body Electric
   
5. Blue Velvet
   
6. Gods & Monsters
   
7. Yayo
   
8. Bel Air

This EP still had Lana's oldie signature: low sultry voice singing with darkness-tinged music, crying hedonism and broken life. Personally, I think Paradise is much better than Born To Die, all tracks on Paradise is more mature. Each track has it's own main theme, from slum-and-road theme on Ride, Las Vegas-night life tinged American and Cola, to sprinkle of Arabian night on Body Electric. The classic Blue Velvet, the more modern Gods & Monsters, to simple and very, very boring Yayo (at least compared to the other tracks), and finished with soft and airy Bel Air. Each different, but still managed to get whole.

I really like the string which accompanied most of the tracks giving the EP the warm-and-melancholy feeling, with a sprinkle of majestic thrown in. And the drums too, very nice. Add sparkling electric guitar, and you got a classic but tap-inducing (although quite draining) album. And boy, that arrangements works very well with Lana's voice.

Yes, the lyrics still wasn't the best ('my pussy tasted like pepsi-cola', really? Yes, it's still emotionally draining (have you see the music video? Lana had some of the most beautifully crafted music videos. Beautiful, though emotionally draining). And yes, there are some tones which similar to her last album, but as an EP, I still think this is a solid album good. The music guitars, the drums, the strings (which I really fond of), the voice, it's all make one solid album (or EP's, which ever you call it).

Pretty Recommended.

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edit: adding some more words, paragraphs to make it bit longer.