Spurs All But Out, Chelsea v United

I watched that Spurs game last night and I was quietly smug. Not because I dislike Spurs, I have next to no feelings for them, but because it highlighted exactly what I thought about their place in Europe's elite.

While beating the Milan teams may have been seen by many as confirmation of their arrival as a club of European status, for me it just underlined how far backward the Italian league has gone. Spurs, however, when faced with a real European giant crumbled. They are not able to handle the Ronaldos, Marcelos or even Adebayors (OK maybe not him, good service can do a wonderful thing for average strikers)of this world.

Two clubs who can compete at this top level, however, are Man United and Chelsea (as painful as it is to admit the latter). Tonight we will see two genuine contenders slugging it out for a semi-final place and I, for one, cannot wait. To be honest, I think the Blues will do it (and that is a horrible thing for a QPR fan to have to admit). But it won't be by much.

In other news Bibio has a new record out and my review of it should be up by tomorrow at some point, oh, and the R's are going up! 3-0, what a result.

What I'm Into Recently

A quick glance through previous posts may well let you know about certain artists I like. Coverage of The Clash, Beatles, Eminem, The Smiths and MGMT was rife in the old regime... and may still feature heavily in the new one. This blog, however, as it is kicking off again needs to feature some other shit. So, here's a quick list of 3 acts I've got into heavily recently (one of them rather belatedly so).

1. Bibio - Warp Records in general have caught my interest recently. Having known about Warp for years as being a kind of weird, leftfield Electronica label and through admiration of Aphex Twin (probably the label's most well known artist) I can't believe it's only really been in the last year that I've developed any kind of further interest in the label. Anyway, Bibio is a relatively new artist on their roster whose 2009 debut Ambivalence Avenue is absolutely brilliant. Use of 'real noise', samples and distorting acoustic guitar parts give the record a really fresh, exciting feel. Check him out!


Bibio

2. Boards of Canada - BOC are another Warp act, but one which was around in the 1990s, rather than now. They heavily influenced Radiohead during the OK Computer and (especially) Kid A sessions and also influenced the abovementioned Bibio greatly. Fantastic.

3. Vieux Farka Toure - Son of world-famous Mali blues man Ali, Vieux is very promising. His 2009 album release Fondo showcases his fine guitar playing and emotive vocals and works really well as a whole piece. Fafa is the stand-out track so far in his canon but you just feel with Vieux that so much more is to come.


Vieux Farka Toure