While November is the season for video games, January appears to be the time for albums. So far we’ve seen recently released albums courtesy of Good Shoes, OK Go, Field Music, RJD2 and Hot Chip. I’ve already posted a negative review of OK Go’s Of the Colour Blue of The Sky because it lacked the pure pop charm of their second album.

The Good Shoes album is a classic case of an indie band becoming a one trick pony. Their sophomore release, No Hope, No Future, is full of un-catchy riffs, bad track ordering and an overall lazy sound. Their previous mellifluous art rock sound has all but disappeared to reveal just generic indie music, it’s a shame as I loved the former.

I probably haven’t listened to enough of the RJD2 and Hot Chip albums to form a full opinion but what I have heard isn’t promising. I thoroughly enjoyed the last two Hot Chip releases but this one doesn’t seem to have those one or two catchy tracks that lift the whole album. Meanwhile, I originally got into RJD2 for his album The Third Hand – it was mellow and I could happily use it as ambiance while writing. The Colossus seems to lack that same tight production but I’ve only listened to it a handful of times, so I’m not ready to cast it off yet.

The only album of the five released this month, that I can happily say I’m enjoying, is Field Music’s Measure. This lengthy twenty track double album is full of the perfect mix between experimentation and that classic, unappreciated, Field Music sound. As soon as I took a sneaky listen to an advance leak, I pre-ordered the limited edition vinyl and it’s been a long time since I’ve done that.

It’s ultimately been disappointing month; filled with two albums that only feature a few decent tracks, two albums that are taking longer to get into and one album is… well… brilliant. At least there are Justice, Beastie Boys, LCD Soundsystem, N.E.R.D, The Roots and The Streets albums penned for the rest of the year.

Its been a busy day from planning prospective articles for Nidzumi to launching a new site-wide design for Nidzumi. Oh, and I also had to impress a lecturer at University today – somehow. All in a day’s work, huh?

I’m not going to tell you about the new site design, well not on this site anyway, let me tell you on Nidzumi’s blog.

Let me know what you think, I’d really appreciate any feedback.

In January 2007, I set up Blogizzle, mainly so I could test my php skills. At the time I decided that learning PHP was a valuable way to spend my time and although I couldn’t tell you much about it now, I know enough to confidently code WordPress themes every quarter. Three years on and I’m still updating it, albeit now a little more regular due to this one a day thing.

In January 2008, I set up Nidzumi, mainly so I could run a gaming site the way I wanted to. I used to write at MSXBOX-World and I’m forever thankful for the chance I was given but, at the time, I felt like they had no ambition. I wanted to start a podcast, run annual features, set up columns – they were happy to carry on the same path. Only now do I understand their ‘lack of ambition’ but that learning curve was an enjoyable if tough one. Two years on and it’s going stronger than ever with regular articles and a great bunch of staff writing for it.

In January 2009, I set up The Wreckidz Podcast, mainly so I could post my aspiring ‘sets’ onto iTunes. Me and a friend, also called Sam, used to alternate from week to week and we kept up a regular weekly podcast for a majority of the year. Towards the tail end of 2009 we got a spot on local radio at 9PM, every Saturday. These shows took longer to produce on top of our normal weekly shows and the more we talked, the more we realised that we had moved on from that type of music – I only listened to electro and liquid funk for the podcast. One year on, we’ve stopped. They can’t all end happily.

In January 2010… actually I haven’t set up any website, mainly so I could focus on the ones I run at the moment. Oh, and I’m also doing a Graphic Design course, I should probably focus on that a little more. I’m tempted to turn graphicdesignforhumans.com – a project for uni – into a design blog. I live with a house full of potential writers, maybe one day.

Anyway I’m starting to ramble now, the point is – you’ve got a week left until February starts, setup a website.

I hate them. Well that’s not entirely accurate as I spend most of the day using them but I hate the shear number of them. Why do we need Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer 5.5 through to 8, Chrome, Opera and many more? It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that all of them see the internet in different ways. Safari and Chrome use WebKit, Opera uses Presto, Firefox uses Gecko and Internet Explorer uses the mess that is Trident.

Why do we need multiple ways to see the same information? Most people use Firefox nowadays and although I prefer the way WebKit renders pages, Mozilla have built a great browser.

When it comes to consoles, I can vaguely understand a necessity of choice – in fact all forms of media should be delivered in multiple formats. With consoles it forces competition, which in turn forces innovation. The internet doesn’t need competition, it’s a tool, not an entertainment outlet.

Standardise the internet, please ISO get involved.

You know I planned to make a fully fleshed out post today but I’ve been quite busy. I’ve got to develop a first aid iPhone app for a project at uni, edit through a few articles for the site and put some finishing touches on a project that has been long in the works.

I probably would have had more time if it wasn’t for the excellent preview of ‘the future’ that is, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online. If you haven’t heard of it, think Tiger Woods PGA Tour for 360 or Playstation 3 but in your freaking browser. The open beta has just become available to everyone, so sign up before they… unopen it.