New Music!

So on the trip to Norway I posted about in the previous post, I bought a bunch of CDs:

NAS - Illmatic


This has been one of my favorite hip hop albums for quite a while now. Sure, it may be a popular choice, but this album just gets hip hop stripped down to the essentials, focusing on them, working them out in great detail. It's a little bit of a grower, but the raw beats and (generally) interesting lyrics really make this shine. It's just bad-ass.

Dinosaur JR. - You're Living All Over Me


Another album I enjoy quite a bit. Unlike Illmatic, which I play a lot, I don't listen to this album that often (at least, not before buying it). However, as I was going to see them live, I was so enthusiastic I picked this one up, remembering how I liked it when I first heard it. And it was definitely worth the money!

Meyvn - Splintered Skies


Here's one I had never heard of. However, for a mere 2.50 euro's and awesome artwork, I really couldn't leave it. I expected something symphonic metal, in the line line of Epica or After Forever, but instead I got something better; a lengthy progressive metal album with plenty of impressive guitar, synths and heavyness. A friend compared them with Dream Theater; I actually don't like them- but if he's right, maybe I should give DT another chance.

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder


Another 'classic' that I hadn't heard in a while. The RVG edition of this album is impressive like all the RVG jazz remasters I've heard (Ornette Coleman, I'm looking at you). Though perhaps not as avant-garde as I usually like my jazz, this album still has plenty of variety to offer and is a must-hear if you're working yourself through jazz.

Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here

(the text is on a plastic sleeve)

And here is a new album. I got this one with perhaps a little too little thought; I actually thought I was buying an atmospheric metal album. Surprise soon made place for enjoyment, however; this album is extremely pleasing to the ears (Steven Wilson- you actually did a good job here). However, unlike Porcupine Tree, this album doesn't suffer much from boringness (or at least, not yet). Also, this album includes a DVD-A of the album (which I have yet to try). Pretty good, for the price of a regular new CD. Oh- did I mention the carefully crafted packaging?

And that reminds me of yet another task I will probably forget about: documenting my CDs, one post for each, with pictures and all that. If I ever do it, the Anathema album, Fear Factory - Mechanize, Sunn O))) & Boris - Altar, Sigur Rós - Takk.., Municipal Waste - Massive Aggressive, Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV, will probably be the albums that go first, since (my editions of) these all have awesome/non-standard packaging.

Project Euler | Problem 6 (&7!)

Problem 6 is one of those where functional programming just makes things WAY too easy. Look at this:

squares x = [y^2| y<-[1..x]]
answer = (sum ([1..100]))^2 - sum(squares 100)

If you know how list comprehension (the [result | var<-generator;condition] part) works, and you know that [x..y] is all the natural numbers between x and y, including x and y, you can understand the above.
List comprehension works like this:
The generator generates one value. Each occurrence of var is replaced by the value, the conditions, of any, are evaluated, and if all of them apply, result is evaluated and "returned". Since functional languages like these are lazy, evaluation of a list comprehension only occurs when a value from the list is actually needed. Thus, one can define all prime numbers as follows:

allPrimes = [y |y<-[1..];isPrime( y )]

And use it as a list containing all possible primes (assuming the isPrime function exists). Just be sure not to call reverse or something on an infinite list like this. If you try to find the xth prime, all you have to do is allPrimes!x and the list will be evaluated up to the xth result.

[edit]
Holy crap, I almost answered problem 7 without even reading the question. Given allPrimes from above and isPrime from problem 3, we can do:

allPrimes ! 10001

And we're given the prime we want.
[/edit]


By the way, this album is fucking badass:

The Cosmic Hearse, a blog I've followed for nearly a year now, posted this and I've been hooked ever since. Its sound is fairly repetitive, but Kool Keith is just really fucking solid and there are some great samples and beats here. One of the strongest rap albums out there, possibly.

hip hop

Finally, time for a new post.

I ordered some hip hop goodies this weekend:

This one I haven't heard at all yet. Abandoned Language was so good this has to be worth it, though.

An album I've liked for some time, and this one was with a DVD for the same price! I wonder what's actually on it though. Not sure I got the right RYM link for this.

The last album I ordered. Not hip hop at all, but just posting it for the record. This album is fucking amazing and I recommend it to any fan of (hardcore) punk. It's basically where emo began. Go google it.


Also, I gave MF DOOM's projects another listen because I got so excited buying the above:

Madvillain is a project by MF DOOM (rapping) and Madlib (producer). They've got short tracks, with some rather unusal sounds and voice samples. But not nearly as much comic/villain notions and references as does the following album.

DangerDoom is a collaboration between Danger Mouse (who also did production in Gnarls Barkley) and MF DOOM. They've got a truckload of funny lyrics, with enjoyable beats.

Go and find those albums, too.