There’s a “Recently Added Albums” widget that shows five albums, but I usually add more than that in a batch (I only synchronise between my two computers every now and then) so it’s not so useful for me. But a KDE community forums post tells me that putting added:<1week in the search bar will have the obvious effect. That is bloody awesome.

Also, I’ve just discovered how to randomise the current playlist: “Add a playlist sorting level” (the funny little icon above-left of the playlist itself), “Random”. That’s a killer feature.¹

As if that’s not enough: the latest release apparently adds “labels”² which I’ve been hankering after since pretty much forever.³

Amarok devs: you rock.

Notes:

1. It’s not shuffle: it resorts the current playlist in random order, so you can make your own adjustments as you like. I wonder how it handles appends?
2. Tags, in the sense of “tagcloud”, except they apparently already use that term for track metadata.
3. After five minutes tinkering, I haven’t yet figured out how to use the labels I’ve set, in collection filtering or in dynamic playlists, but I presume I’ll get it sorted eventually.

Neato, huh?

This isn’t just “hur hur they’re both 5/4″, the melody of Take Five gets a subtle reinterpretation over the chord changes of 15 Step. My only complaint is that Take Five was trimmed to fit 15 Step, meaning we lost some fantastic drum solo.

Also, Thom Yorke dances like a weirdo on weird pills, weirdly. Doesn’t look healthy, I gotta say.

That is, they’ve shown up on the European site (they’re German, although you wouldn’t guess it from listening), with slightly different punctuation and case (I’m taking the regrettable .bb from their site — apparently it stands for “big band”) but the same glorious sound. The new album, The Exile Itch, isn’t there, but three older albums are (Alligator Soup, 29 Moonglow and Introducing the Mighty Three).

I’m an eMu member since before they raised prices, and I’m not sure I’d pay what they’re asking now. But if you’re already a member, rock on over and check these guys out. There used to be plenty of free downloads on their site, but they seem to have vanished (apart from four tracks from the new album). Grrr! If you can find ‘em, I recommend “Down Down Down” and “Dark Days” as an introduction to their sound. Bet you can’t keep still listening…

If it could be proved that two plus two is five, then it could be proved that five is not five, and then there would be no claim that could not be proved, and math would be a lot of bunk.

If you’ve got access to JSTOR or Mind you can get the second section: “I wish he would explain his explanation”.

Awesome.

And they show an extended version of John Lee Hooker’s song! Whee!

The gig went off, although the Sugar Factory was far too hot and a bit too loud. I walked off with a CD, in case anyone wants to check out the sound, although it doesn’t quite live up to their energy onstage.

And (jump down… you know the drill) the Black Seeds are going to be here in September. No news exactly when yet, but they’re touring again (Kiwis: catch the down home tour in August) and you can be very sure you’ll hear about it when I know what the plans are.

Oh yeah, and it’s really summer at last. Jump down, turn around…