Tomora – Come Closer

Tomora – Come Closer

Welcome to my reviewish write up on the debute album Come Closer from Tomora. Tomora is a joint side project from Tom Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers and Aurora. The name is a portmanteau of their names, Tom-(Aur)ora, Tomora. It features a lot of vocals from Aurora, but its much much more heavy electronic music like you would hear from The Chemical Brothers. Come Closer feels like a random project that came out of nowhere, but I have some pet theories that its sort of been a thing for a while, or at least the concept of a thing. A…
My Music Listening Habits for 2025

My Music Listening Habits for 2025

Its that time of year, when everything rolls over and everyone does wrap up and summary posts. I have done my music wrap up every year for a while now. I did it monthly for a bit but it didn't change enough to be interesting to write about. Hell, it honestly doesn't change much to be interesting annually. It was kind of a big year for buying CDs for me, though not necessarily listening to them. CDs are plentiful on the secondary market, and are easily digitized. I also went and ID tagged all my music, which will be useful…
Blue Sky Archives

Blue Sky Archives

I'm going to touch on the entire discography here for Blue Sky Archives, it's only 3 EPs, each with 3 songs, and a couple of singles. So it's effectively just, one album's worth of music. But first I want to touch on why the group is significant. It's a precursor band to one of my favorite bands, CHVRCHES. Specifically, it's one of two groups that CHVRCHES lead singer Lauren Mayberry was a part of before CHVRCHES. The albums themselves (maybe not all, but Triple-A Side for sure) were produced by Iain Cook, also of CHVRCHES. Anyway, the three EPs are,…
Twenty Years of Last.fm

Twenty Years of Last.fm

So this is a bit of an estimate, because there are several pages of songs listed as "Unknown Date". I'm not sure how that happens, but looking at my Scrobble History on last.fm, my first Scrobble was on June 8th, 2005, with the track "Katamari on the Rock" by 三宅優. That would be, the main theme to Katamari Damacy. I can actually see that being my first Scrobble. Afterwards I apparently rolled (aye, get it) into the soundtrack for Cowboy Bebop. Anyway, I've not been super consistent over the years, a lot of my listening has happened in the last…
Record Store Day 2025

Record Store Day 2025

Another year, another Record Store Day. Though for my part it was Record Stores Day. This is only the second time I went to one of these, last year I don't think there was anything I wanted. This year there was, this super cool 10th anniversary release of CHVRCHES Every Open Eye. It's getting a regular release later, but it won't be the pretty "Clearest Blue" color. Like the song, on the album, possibly the best song in their catalog. I am there in the middle in the green jacket. The store is around the corner and half a block…