My Personal Top 5 Albums of 2011

Yay... My 3rd annual personal Top-5 albums of the year list is here.
I was hoping i could make a Top-10 list this year, but it was hard enough to find 5, and even harder to put them in the right order.
It has become a very diverse list, you might not even like them all, but here they are in random order;

Betty Wright feat. The Roots - The Movie
Living soul-legend Betty Wright made a nice comeback this year with her 17th album /and her first in ten years.
Again an album produced by The Roots (and guests like Joss Stone, Snoop and Lil' Wayne) made it to my Top-5 this year, just like they did with John Legend last year... but even better this time.

Various Artists - Greco-Roman - Gods Amongst Men
Wow, a compilation album in this list?
Yep... so much crap was released this year, that i couldn't even pick out 5 artist- albums.
It's a complilation-album of the relatively new Greco-Roman label, which produces all kinds of hip electronic dance-tunes like this.
Listen to the whole album HERE (via Soundcloud)
btw, the single 'Gabriel' by Joe Goddard (of Hot Chip fame) feat. Valentina is IMHO the best  dance-track of the year... Listen for yourself;


From GrecoRomanMusic ,no copyright infringement intended


Spinvis - Tot Ziens, Justine Keller
The latest album by Dutch singer, composer and poet Spinvis was a pleasant surprise this autumn.
I am a fan since his first album and always liked the style and craftsmanship of this guy.
It is a great combination of dreamy, folky, mainly electronic sounds with somewhat weird lyrics...
Find the whole album HERE (all tracks are downloadable!)

Tinariwen - Tassili
The biggest surprise for me this year was discovering a whole new genre that i had never heard of before.
This African- or Tuareg- blues (or Assouf or Desert Guitar) sounds like the soul of the desert, and is pretty impressive.
Tinariwen is a band of Tuareg-Berber musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali and as soon as you play first track you can imagine yourself sitting on a camel...
A great album with at times a bit depressing, but also soothing and very hypnotizing music.
Watch the 'making of' video to check it out.

(From http://www.tinariwen.com/ ,no copyright infringement intended)

Mint Condition - 7...
Okay, i admit i have a soft spot for slick R&B, Soul and Funk so you may disagree on this one.
The 7th album from Minneapolis' band Mint Condition is really great, and a lot better than their somewhat disappointing 'E-Life' album from 2008.
The band was once discovered by producers-duo Jam & Lewis, twenty-some years ago, and the band has proved once more that they are still brilliant.
I should go and watch them play live when they are in the Netherlands next time because i have heard that their live-shows are amazing.
Check out their latest video "Walk on" HERE

A few albums that were released last month that haven't made it to the list, but are still worth mentioning;
- The new Kate Bush album '50 Words for Snow' is brilliant, but a bit moody for this list, and it feels more like a Christmas album.
- LuLu, the collaboration album by Lou Reed and Metallica wasn't that bad...
- Adele's '21' is still great, but who doesn't already know that.

List from 2009
List from 2010

Selected works VI: Untitled D

Untitled D - Acrylic paint on canvas / ca. 2006/7

Recently re-inspired by my visit to Ruigoord ( pictures HERE ) i decided to pick up, and dust off my brushes again and start working on some new paintings and ideas soon.
I do have a few things that i would like to experiment with, i also hope i can find the time and focus to be a little more productive than last winter...

I have been posting some of my earlier works on this blog before, and here's another one:

Made in 2006 or 2007 , an abstract acrylic painting on a 20 x 50 centimeters canvas, quite colorful and with slight touches of silver and bright yellow that really stand out when well lit. The side of the canvas is painted black to give it a bit of an extra dimension.

Untitled, because i find it very hard to name to my paintings, but it is the 4th, and one of the two smallest in a series of four with this color-scheme.
I have to say i'm pretty satisfied with this one.

If i can find the time i hope to update this blog more often with some more publications of my older works and my progressions on my newer work.


" The Times They Are A-Changin' " - Bob Dylan

My First (Local) Radio-promo

Lately i am doing a lot of digitizing of old stuff that i own. Bought myself a photo/negative scanner for my old pictures, and hooked up my old cassette-player to my PC.

Between the old mixtapes, basic song-ideas and other stuff i stumbled upon this little ting;

Recorded in the late nineties, this was the first official radio-promo ( in Dutch ) that i was asked to make for a local radio-station in Den Haag (The Hague).
I was really satisfied about the end-result, although it might sound a bit cheap and easy by today's standards.
I did add some compression to this digital version... that's all it needed, enjoy!

 Summertime Party 1 by NetPierre

Happy New Year ! - 2011 Resolutions

Dear regular or coincidental reader of my blog.
I would like to wish all of you the best for the new year.
May all your new years resolutions for 2011( if you have them ) become a reality.

Last year was the first year that i publicly posted my new years resolutions, and looking back it seems i did quite good... or at least i tried... you can find that post HERE

For the new year i can't think of very special things, but for the record i'll share them again, perhaps it can
inspire you... or not...

- Again, i will try to smoke less next year, something that didn't really happen last year ( but to be clear, this is a list in random order )

- I will try to watch what i eat a little more... that will mean less sugar and fat to start with, and perhaps a little more variety ;-) ...besides that i should watch the ingredients a bit more.

The http://readdiet.com/ ( in Dutch http://leesdieet.nl/ ) has some interesting guidelines and is a good list to start with. Less caffeine might be a good idea too, although i like my coffees thoughout the day

- The economy has hit my painting-firm too last year, so i really need to get more work next year. That does mean going out for work, perhaps advertise or actively looking for new projects. Without that there will be less to spend for the year's extras like new modules or a good ( far, hot and sunny ) vacation. Downside to more working is less time to be online or blog though...

- I will continue working on my www.PatchPierre.net blog and the PatchPierre community, and want to try to keep the number of monthly unique visitors growing and post 2 or 3 times a week. Publishing an exclusive interview with Dieter Doepfer in 2011 is also on my wishlist... but don't expect that before this summer.

It would be nice if i could get a PatchPierre  iOS or Android-app on the markets, but that will not be easy or very necessary ( All mobile PatchPierre visitors can use the OVI-sourcecode to read the blog )
(or bookmark http://tinyurl.com/patchpierremobile )

- Last thing is that i would like to develop my own module next year, i can't tell much about specifications or so but i want to work on an idea that I've been thinking about for years... i'm not sure if i can do this all alone, but i'll find a way i guess.

As always, i don't have too high expectations of the coming year, the benefit of that is that it will be hard for 2011 to disappoint me. We'll see what happens... as long as every year can still amaze me i'll be fine.

http://store.ovi.com/content/75710