For a band, being compared to the likes of Radiohead, Bob Dylan and Oasis can be a great compliment. It can also be intimidating. I'd also like to throw in names like Screaming Trees and a somewhat less happy Paul Westerberg.

To say Unknown Component is easy on the ears would be an understatement. In Direct Communication flows out of the speakers smoothly with everything in its place. Songs such as Somewhere A Light Has Gone Out paint surprising and complex pictures with unusual melodies that work oh-so-well together.

Keith Lynch's vocals are edgy & gruff bringing a harsh but not unpleasant note to the songs that plays well against the meticulously arranged bleakness. Indeed, were his vocals more in-line with the style of music, it wouldn't likely stand out as much nor sound as original or new.

Typically one-man bands will favour a single instrument while the rest are dragged along in the background. Not so with Keith. While he shines on the keys, everything is well arranged and in its proper place.

I do have to fault Keith for the sound quality. With this album being his seventh kick at the can, I feel he could have done a better job. It sounds somewhat like listening through ears stuffed with cotton balls. While this style of music does sometimes benefit from a somewhat compressed frequency range, this disc overdoes that somewhat which takes away some from the material at hand.

Overall, In Direct Communication is a welcome change. Somewhat bleak and sparse musically with wonderful melodies and Keith's almost Dylan-esque vocals make for a disc the likes of which haven't been heard in a long time.

Links:
http://unknowncomponent.com/

Researchers at software vendor CA have discovered that social networking site Facebook is able to track the buying habits of its users on affiliated third-party sites even when they are logged out of their account or have opted out of its controversial "Beacon" tracking service.

Responding to privacy concerns, Facebook has since moved to reassure users that it only tracks and publishes data about their purchases if they are both logged in to Facebook and have opted-in to having this information listed on their profile.

But in "extremely disconcerting" findings that directly contradict these assurances, researchers at CA's Security Advisory service have found that data about these transactions are sent to Facebook regardless of a user's actions.

I suggest you read the article if you enjoy your privacy and are a facebook user. It's pretty frightening.

Melodic Swedish death metallers Scar Symmetry recently released their third studio album titled ‘Holographic Universe’ via Nuclear Blast Records. The band’s latest album has received praise from metal critics around the world since its release last month and has helped push Scar Symmetry further onto the global metal map! Forming back in 2004 the band has grown from strength to strength, and early on a gathering of crazed fans in Europe and North America helped spread the word to the rest of the world that Scar Symmetry were here and that they meant business. The band’s debut album ‘Symmetric in Design’ was released in 2005 and was followed up soon after by their smashing melodic metal masterpiece ‘Pitch Black Progress’. Although the album didn’t receive commercial chart success, the album sold very well and kept Scar Symmetry out on the road with bands Dark Tranquillity, Soilwork and The Haunted.

A little over two years on, the band returned to the studio to record what is being hailed as Scar Symmetry’s most musically diverse album to date. ‘Holographic Universe’ shows just how much the band has grown musically since their last release and with bone crunching tracks like ‘Timewave Zero’, ‘Fear Catalyst’, and ‘Morphogenesis’ it is easy to see just why metal fans are rushing out to get the band’s latest album! I recently had the pleasure of catching up with Scar Symmetry’s thunderous skins-man Henrik Ohlsson to discuss the band’s latest album, growing up in Sweden, his drumming abilities and influences and much more.

Join us in ‘The Three-Dimensional Shadow’ as we discuss the ‘Holographic Universe’ with Henrik Ohlsson.

On Wednesday, July 16th, Prof. Sam Trosow came to Tillsonburg to speak with interested parties about current and proposed copyright laws. It was a most interesting discussion and at the end I informed those interested that I would post materials discussed here. So, here it is!

Here is the powerpoint presentation.

Here is the text of Bill C-61 itself.

Here is the info sheet with talking points to hand out.

I don't have the audio yet, but I will post it as soon as I have it.

Here's some links for information on what you can do. Here you will find a wonderfully easy way to mail & email your local MP. I urge you to do both, since mailing the letter will be free. Here is a much longer list of things you can do. And do feel free to link directly to the files if you like.

"Digital preservation" sounds simple enough; just slap that data onto increasingly cheap and spacious hard drives, keep some offsite backups, and you're good to go, right? Not so fast, says the Library of Congress, and it points a crabbed and bony finger directly at US copyright law—and at DRM.

But copyright law also hampers important work being done at places like the Library of Congress, and a major new report on the issue from the Library points out the problems with the current rules. One big issue is the exemption for published works in a library's collection; these can also be copied three times, but only to "replace a work in their collections that is damaged, deteriorating, lost or stolen or whose format has become obsolete." In other words, librarians can't backup or archive such works until destruction is well under way.