Four billion phones ask one text file what time it is. One lecturer keeps it in his spare time. We counted the rest.

Hi everyone, if you’re available on Wednesday October 21st at 10am Pacific Time, please join me and fellow rabble-rouser Aparna Rae for an informal conversation where we bust some of the myths about nonprofit and philanthropy. It’ll be fun, since we’ll probably be trash-talking billionaires

The term Afrobeats is applied to all sorts of genres, flattening them into one. Artists, media and the music industry must do better at showing off the richness of African pop

Over a decade after it's publication, here's why you should pick up Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station Eleven.

For more than a decade, FevGames has been at the heart of the Ingress community. From helping thousands of Agents participate in IngressFS events around the world, to maintaining one of the most comprehensive Ingress Guides available and sharing agent stories, it has been an invaluable resource for players around the world. With FevGames stepping away from Ingress, the IFS-UN team has begun the process of moving to a new home: GlobalResonator.com Over the coming months, both sites will continue to operate while this transition takes place. Existing links and FS pages on FevGames will remain available during this period, giving event organizers and Agents time to become familiar with the new site before the FevGames Ingress pages are retired. We’ll share more information on the final transition once the IngressFS backend has migrated across and is stable. To preserve the history of the community, we’ve migrated the entire Ingress section of FevGames to Global Resonator. That includes years of event reports, guides, announcements, and community stories that document more than a decade of Ingress history. As a result, you’ll still find plenty of references to FevGames throughout the new site. Rather than rewriting that history, we’ve chosen to preserve it as faithfully as possible while continuing to build on it. From here, Global Resonator will become the home of IngressFS resources, the Ingress Guide, and new community content as the project continues to grow. Finally, we’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to FevGames over the years. From writers and editors to the countless Agents who shared their stories, your work has helped inform, connect, and inspire the global Ingress community. As Global Resonator begins its own journey, we’re excited to welcome both familiar faces and new contributors. Whether you have a story to tell, knowledge to share, or simply want to help support the community, we’d love to have you join us. Here’s to the next chapter. -Jordon

We are delighted to announce the recipient and runners-up of the 2026 Flickr x Black Women Photographers grant!

Browse hundreds of video game maps created by VGCartography.

Dave Kemp is a visual artist whose practice looks at the intersections and interactions between art, science and technology: particularly at how these fields shape our perception and understanding of the world. Often this involves an exploration of new technologies and a firm embrace of the absurd. Recently, it has also included the researching and retelling of unacknowledged local histories.

How a community devoted to thinking clearly incubated salvation stories, abusive experiments, race science, and an affection for autocracy, and why that history matters now that its alumni are asking for the public trust on AI.

In a Brooklyn warehouse, a man handed me a piece of paper that was a running computer program.

As SBC Toronto approaches its ninth anniversary, we contend that we’ve been bookmaxxing before it starting have its recent moment. Even while entranced by paper, electronic or audio works holding us in their spells, we are all and have always been decidedly “thoughtful, intelligent, well-versed and highly desirable” … As usual, our zoom and in-person meetings this month provided not just updates on recent reading from all members, but included some interesting recurring themes: * Some members are revisiting books they read in high school, with mixed but interesting results. * One reader is inspiring others with her exploration of different books intertwined with the same story told from different perspectives. Her starting point was George Orwell’s _1984_. See if you can find the other companion books from our monthly reading list. * All of our members remarked on their reading ups and downs. From month to month and book to book, their experiences range from “loved it” to “meh” to “tossed it over my shoulder” (aka POMS). It’s beyond nice to be able to share with fellow readers, isn’t it? Long-time silent book club member Todd has given us the gift this month of some thought-provoking mini reviews. Enjoy! * _On the Calculation of Volume (Book 1)_ by Solvej Balle and translated by Barbara J. Haveland. Wow – what a ride this was. Think of a more mundane version of Groundhog day set in France. It was interesting but apparently there are six more volumes (some as yet untranslated) which might be a bit much for me. * _Coup de Grace_ by Sofia Ajram – This one’s a dark one. CW for suicide and a bit of gory stuff. This takes place in the Montreal Metro. Someone takes the metro trying to kill themselves but when they get off at a station it becomes an endless series of concrete rooms. * _A Short Stay in Hell_ by Steven L. Peck – Another dark, bleak and liminal one. A man dies, ends up in hell but it’s not the usual image of it. It’s a massive library full of randomly generated books. He must find the book that tells the story of his life among mostly books filled with nonsense. There are other people there so there is some interaction with others, food is taken care of but there’s not much else to do short of search for your book or chat with others for eternity. * _Cassandra in Reverse_ by Holly Smale – This one’s another similar to _On the Calculation of Volume (Book 1)_ except in this one our main character, Cassandra, can rewind to get “do-overs” and learns a lot as she tries to make a relatively short period of time work better for her. * _Life after Ambition – A Good Enough Memoir_ by Amil Niazi. It was described as “Amil Niazi explores what life looks like “post-ambition.” With sly humor and a deep literary sensibility, she interrogates her own evolving ambitions, and how they intersect with adulthood, motherhood, age, identity, class, and race, and how it has shaped her and a generation of Millennials. And, most importantly, now that she is “done with ambition”—what happens next?” It wasn’t really for me, though. Once again, warmest thanks to our amazing in-person meeting venue, Sprouty Cafe! They offer us reader heaven on the second floor of their beautiful establishment. Here are snapshots from our readers’ adventures in reading this month. Photo credits: Kathryn Eastman, Jess Bootsma, Vicki Ziegler, Ruth Bartlett The group booklist is a dazzling thing of beauty again this month. Multiple readers from our group have typically given considered attention to each title appearing on our our lists of diverse and tempting reading. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended. However, rest assured that inclusion on our lists always means that our readers have devoted time and thought to each book, which counts for a great deal, we contend. * _The Keeper of Lost Causes_ by Jussi Adler-Olsen, narrated by Erik Davies (audiobook) * _Coup de Grace_ by Sofia Ajram * _The Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts_ by Margaret Atwood * _We Love You Bunny_ by Mona Awad, narrated by Sophie Amoss (audiobook) * _On the Calculation of Volume (Book 1)_ by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J. Haveland * _Thursdays in the Park_ by Hilary Boyd * _The Serpent and the Wings of Night_ by Carissa Broadbent * _The Luminaries_ by Eleanor Catton * _The Bookshop on the Corner_ by Jenny Colgan * _The Barman at the Ritz_ by Philippe Collin * _The Land Breakers_ by John Ehle * _“Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?”_ by Nicci French * _The Oxford Widows Murder Club_ by Bruce Graham * _Steppenwolf_ by Hermann Hesse * _Moonlight Murder_ by Uzma Jalaluddin, narrated by Deepti Gupta (audiobook) * _At Home in Mitford_ by Jan Karon * _A Light in the Window_ by Jan Karon * _Doctor Sleep_ by Stephen King * _Kim_ by Rudyard Kipling * _fairy_ by Kirby * _Crow Lake_ by Mary Lawson * _Theo of Golden_ by Allen Levi * _The History of Bees_ by Maja Lunde * _Whidbey_ by T Kira Madden, narrated by Eunice Wong, Christina Moore, Mia Hutchinson-Shaw, Rebecca Lowman (audiobook) * _The Crucible_ by Arthur Miller * _From Hell_ by Alan Moore with art by Eddie Campbell * _Hot Stew_ by Fiona Mozley * _1Q84_ by Haruki Murakami * _Soldiers Coming Home_ by Dana New * _Julia_ by Sandra Newman * _Life after Ambition – A Good Enough Memoir_ by Amil Niazi * _Land_ by Maggie O’Farrell * _1984_ by George Orwell * _We Chase Shadows – A We Solve Murders Mystery_ by Richard Osman, narrated by Nicola Walker (audiobook) * _Whistler_ by Ann Patchett * _A Short Stay in Hell_ by Steven L. Peck * _The Briar Club_ by Kate Quinn * _The Alice Network_ by Kate Quinn, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld (audiobook) * _The Fertile Earth_ by Ruthvika Rao * _Murder at the Book Club_ by Betsy Reavley * _The Palm House_ by Gwendoline Riley * _Élisabeth_ by Éric Rohmer * _Intermezzo_ by Sally Rooney * _The Sky is a Sky in the Sky_ by Stuart Ross * _The Land and its People_ by David Sedaris (audiobook) * _Daughters of the Sun and Moon_ by Lisa See * _Who We Are – Four Questions For a Life and a Nation_ by Murray Sinclair * _Cassandra in Reverse_ by Holly Smale * _East of Eden_ by John Steinbeck * _John of John_ by Douglas Stuart * _John of John_ by Douglas Stuart, narrated by Lorne MacFadyen (audiobook) * _The Goldfinch_ by Donna Tartt * _Margo’s Got Money Troubles_ by Rufi Thorpe * _Anatomy of a Scandal_ by Sarah Vaughan * _Based on a True Story_ by Sarah Vaughan * _100 Rules for Living to 100_ by Dick Van Dyke, narrated by Dick Van Dyke, Tom Bergeron (audiobook) * _The Bridges of Madison County_ by Robert James Waller * _The Men Who Saved the World_ by Edith Wharton * _Harlem Shuffle_ by Colson Whitehead * _We_ by Yevgeny Zamyatin We regularly have extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations to share. These items and tidbits are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions. * Silent Book Club head office invites us to Generate Your Reading Session StoryStats and then crow about it on social media if you feel so inclined. But jeepers, don’t forget that reading is not a competition … er, right? * “There is a form of being together that feels as easy and spacious as being alone, when your experience is not crowded out or eclipsed by the presence of the other but deepened and magnified.” Hmm, what does that remind you of …? Ponder the pleasure of being left alone. * Can reading fiction actually make you happier? Yes, yes it can. You can always find our previous reports and book lists **right here**! Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via the Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and since then, with continuing, breathtaking momentum, they now boast **2,278 chapters in 73 countries.** (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) The SBC organization celebrated its 10th anniversary throughout October, 2025 … and our chapter will celebrate its 9th anniversary in early November, 2026. You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is different in size, format (in-person, virtual or hybrid) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings. Keep maxxing your reading, in whatever form, till next we meet!

Best known internationally as the Grammy-nominated songwriter behind Zara Larsson’s Midnight Sun, the Danish-Chinese singer-producer has been scouring Shanghai nightclubs to reconnect with her heritage – and ruffling a few feathers

The rise of ABC Toronto and Progress Toronto marks a new era of behind-the-scenes political organizing at City Hall—and this October's election is their first real test.

But they’re wrong about why

Who do you trust more to get things done? The leader who, when reporting bad news, says “The engineers on the app team are behind schedule and they are working on it” or the leader who says “We’ve fallen behind schedule and here is what we are going to do to fix it”? Effective leaders make “we” a default word in their vocabulary. When reporting a miss, saying “they” sloughs off blame; saying “we” takes ownership. When reporting a win, “I” steals credit; “we” shares it. The habit of saying “we” is powerful when things go right but critical when things go wrong. The habit matters when referring to the teams you lead, the teams you work with, and the organization—and company—that you are a part of.

Enabling developers to build integrations used by millions of Instapaper users. Modernized and seamless.

On September 24, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the White House for their second summit of the year. The meeting advanced new mechanisms on trade and investment, and launched the U.S.-China bilateral dialogue on artificial intelligence, while leaving many of the relationship’s most difficult questions—from Taiwan to technology competition—unresolved.

It's just you, a car and the open road.

We use long-run census data to understand the scale of recent US migration trends, and how these compare to previous centuries.

Last year I ran an experiment to test the ability of modern LLMs to correctly answer a relatively straightforward question. Every single one of them got it wrong. Some missed information, some made up false statements, none were right. Of course the fanbois variously claimed that I was holding it wrong, my prompts were shit, I should have chosen better defaults, and - my favourite - that it would be better next year. Well, next year is now. 365 days after the original experiment, let's see if these self-reinforcing-learning machines have achieved anything close to intern-levels of competence. ## The Question That Started It All I asked: > Which TLDs have the same name as valid HTML5 elements? ## Why It Matters This is the sort of question that I would expect a moderately bright teenager to answer. There exists a list which comprehensively includes all TLDs. There is a separate list which contains every HTML element. One could either manually go through the TLD list comparing it to the HTML list, or write a tiny scrap of code to do the same. This isn't "solve Navier-Stokes" levels of superintelligence. It's a simple but boring task which people are bound to offload onto their digital sycophants. ## The Quiet Part Out Loud How many LLM generated answers have become load-bearing without scrutiny? People are lazy, slapdash, and some third thing to make the rule-of-three. If an answer looks answer-shaped, they'll accept it. On a simple but boring task, no reasonable human is going to suspect that a superintelligent computer has made a mistake. All the marketing says that these machines are brainier than you - so why bother? ## OK, I'll write a sub-heading that sounds like an AI. So how did the current crop do? First up Google Gemini. The default "Flash" model came up with this: > Valid top-level domains (TLDs) registered in the IANA Root Zone Database share exact names with standard HTML elements: > > .a — `<a>` (Anchor/Hyperlink) > > .app — `<app>` (Deprecated HTML tag for WebAPKs/WebApps) > > .art — `<art>` (Historical/non-standard HTML element) > > .audio — `<audio>` > > .bar — `<bar>` (Historical SVG/HTML draft tag) Then it listed a dozen more. You don't need to be a DNS expert to know that the minimum length of a TLD is two characters - `.a` simply isn't valid. HTML nerds will know that art, app, and bar have never been elements. Pathetic. So I tried Gemini's extended thinking model. Thankfully, it didn't make up any imaginary TLDs or elements. It did, however, miss the `<data>` element which has a valid `.data` TLD. It also missed `map`, `select`, and `search`. So, points for not making shit up. But demerits for not being able to compare two text lists. A friend asked Claude. That missed `search` and `select`. It didn't report _any_ ccTLDs. You _could_ argue that a country code like `li` isn't part of the original question - but I'd say that was weak justification; the set of TLDs contains ccTLDs. A different friend (I have many!) used a different model and, while the answers looked accurate, it included this at the end: > Near misses that don't count: .codes, .forum, .pictures, .market, .navy, .press, .dell, .baseball. I get that there's a `<code>` and `.codes`, similarly `<picture>` and `.picture` - but what are forum, baseball, and the others doing there? This is just unnecessary verbiage designed to trick the user into thinking the task has been well-researched. If you want a laugh, take a look at Perplexity which found 54 matches - most of which were wrong. Finally, someone asked "GPT Astra 6 Extra High" (which is a bonkers bad name for any product). It seemed to get all the elements - and made a note that two were actually obsolete. So that's a range of modern models which are either very wrong, slightly wrong, included spurious and incoherent information, or were right. How do you know which one to choose? How confident are you that the non-determinist computer will always produce the correct answer? ## Hello Computer Another AI which got all the correct answers, didn't make anything up, didn't add extraneous information, and didn't use weasel words was… Siri! FUCKING SIRI?!?! How did a glorified Speak 'n' Spell beat all the other AIs? Oh. It just copied the answers off a random idiot's website. ## The Trick Which Was Hiding In Plain Site Note carefully the question. > Which TLDs have the same name as valid HTML5 elements? There's a —secret— and —some would say— unintuitive type of element. Behold the mighty power of The Custom Element. Website authors can create their own elements like `<my-custom-element>` in order to extend the functionality of their site. But you can't go and create any old custom element. You can't have `<mobi>` or `<uk>`. No, there are _rules for validity_. The rules say that custom elements must start with a lower-case letter, it must not contain any upper-case letters, and it must contain a dash. And that's the whole game. There are over **one hundred and fifty** Top Level Domains which match that criteria! The Hindi top level domain of `.कॉम` is represented in Punycode as `xn--11b4c3d`. It has been present in the list of TLDs for over a decade. ### Write a simple piece of JS to register a custom element. Paste this in to your console: class Example extends HTMLElement { constructor() { super(); } } customElements.define('xn--vermgensberatung-pwb', Example); Try it again with a custom element like `holiday` (which is also a valid TLD) and it will fail with the error "'holiday' is not a valid custom element name". Thus it is demonstrated, Punycode TLDs _are_ valid HTML5 elements. ## One Last Thing Perhaps you think that including custom HTML elements is a cheat. A trick question set by a bitter old man to tarnish the holy name of our new machine gods? Verily, I submit to you one final heresy. HTML specifically allows MathML elements in its documents. That means we can include the following valid elements which are _also_ TLDs: `mn`, `mo`, `ms`, and `mtr`! Amusingly, if you go back and look at the Perplexity answer, after it barfed up a bunch of misinformation, it said: > The HTML specification also includes names from embedded vocabularies—`<math>` from MathML and `<svg>` from SVG—but `.math` and `.svg` are not currently delegated TLDs in the public DNS root. So close and yet so far! ## You're right, the question _is_ unfair - and that's on me If you think the original question was unfair, try asking "Which TLDs have the same name as elements which are valid in an HTML document?" and see if you get better results. What precise wording would you use to ensure that a model would get the right answers? What assumptions are you making about how well you understand the problem? At what point do end up writing a thousand-word formal specification? ## What does this prove other than you have too much time on your hands? (rewrite to be more friendly and professional) Let's delve in to the problems. * Most people don't change defaults. Telling people "you have to fiddle with the settings" just means the normal experience is rubbish. * Humans are lazy and won't check outputs. But, crucially, they shouldn't have to! If something markets itself as a genius, why should a human have to hold its hand? * Sycophantic models make themselves seem less fallible by giving extraneous detail in order to misdirect overworked readers. That is despicable. * The fast models are no better than they were a year ago. There's no evidence of "trickle-down intelligence". * Some models _are_ better than others! But unless you constantly validate their output, you'll have no real way of knowing which ones are capable of working at a suitable level. Look, I don't claim this question is as useful or entertaining as Simon Wilson's "generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle". But I do think it is an example of the sort of real-world use-case where LLMs regularly fail. If I give a list of one thousand different numbers to Excel, I can be sure it'll add them up correctly. If I tell Photoshop to select all red pixels, I can be sure it won't imagine some of the blues are really red. That's people's mental model of computers - they do boring tasks quickly and accurately. In my opinion, LLMs are _still_ surprisingly bad - but only if you know what you're looking for and if you can be bothered to check their outputs. (And, yes, I am _still_ just so bored of AI!)

A blog about software craft and quality

This Friday sees the release of _Knock Knock_ , the new album from German techno wizard **DJ Koze** - and his first in five years. It’s a colourful and collaborative album, featuring guest spots from Róisín Murphy, Speech from Arrested Development, Sophia Kennedy and more, dabbling in styles as diverse as hip-hop, glitch-pop, house and of course Koze’s signature interstellar techno – all stitched together through the German’s inimitable personality. We called up Koze, or Stefan as he’s known to his friends, to chat about self-aggrandising, visits from the muse, his collaborators on the album and the importance of the album as a statement. ---------- **How are you doing today?** Bad! Thank you. **Oh no, what's going on?** I just can't... I'm full of myself and I just can't hear my voice and my talking anymore. [Laughs] **We might as well just get on with it then!** Yeah, no, it's all good, but somehow it is interesting to analyse... all the time you're waiting for some feedback, and you're excited, then as it's coming you are really… first you are full of yourself and then you just can't listen to your own voice anymore. I'm so happy I'm not an actor or television star! **And not a singer.** Or not a singer, yeah, permanently having to talk and sing. **I'm sure what you'll say is enjoyable to others, even if you don't think so.** Yeah it's always enjoyable if you witness some people who are in a worse mood than yourself, then you really can feel better. [Laughs] This is my job today, maybe. **Let's see how it goes. Let's start with a broad question: how long have you been working on this album,_Knock Knock_?** Erm, maybe 4 years or something. I maybe started one year after _Amygdala_ , but not permanently. But I'm more or less trying to use every slot of time I have to make some music, but I'm a slow worker, and then I let go and I use this wine cellar principle: put it away and listen to it some months later. And then from there on I restart again or I continue with some elements. It's like a growing plant, taking care of all the leaves. I can't say permanently 4 years every day, but over the period of 4 years I was working on all this music. **Why is it important to you to make albums rather than just release singles?** I have a nostalgic and romantic reasons. I think this is a masterpiece for every artist: to make like a sense-making, nice album, which is like a proper body of work and like a story and a trip of its own. I will never lose this, I think. In my youth it was the biggest experience to me to listen to these albums, and since I've been making music I’ve been trying to make my best album. I don't know, I just like it, and I hope that some of the people find the time to listen to it in a row - if not, it's not a problem - I just do it for me and I'm happy. And also I don't have children, so it's like a little baby I can leave behind on the planet. **And it's a child that everyone can play with!** [Laughs] Yeah, yes, it's a child everybody can play with, yes. **And why did you decide to call it _Knock Knock_?** I thought I'd knock on the door and see who would open it. **I see. And was that at the beginning or the end of the process that you decided it was the name?** The first knock was in the beginning, and then the last knock was in the last week; I thought "make it two knocks." [Laughs] **It starts with 'Club der Ewigkeiten', which translates to 'Club Of Eternities', did you name it that as a welcome to the world of this album?** Yeah, it's like opening your brain, because you can think of this club - it's a journey in your fantasy what this club could look like and what they're doing there, and I liked it - for me it was like this. **On 'Bonfire' you have a sample of Bon Iver's 'Calgary': "I was only for the father’s crib/ Ahhhh – face *way from the sun" - what was it about that line that made you pick it out?** To be honest it came out in one of these strange nights where I was under the headphones with some wine and my cat in Spain, and - it sounds a little bit kitsch, but it was like this - in the morning the song was more or less like it is now, finished, without too much proper thinking up front. **Does that happen often?** Yes, 'Pick Up' was the same. It was in one night. If I have some good moments, it's working like this. I really try to force situations to be like this, but I don't have so much influence when it's happening. So really often this is not happening and I'm sat working stupidly on a beat, without any good results, to the morning. This is the majority of days and nights. But sometimes within these routines, this stuff also happens - actually I'm just waiting for these nights, but they only come if you don't expect and you just keep on working. “The muse never visits an empty studio,” is the saying, and I really believe it. **How does that feel when you wake up and the muse has been?** It feels good, but you're not so sure yet if you are right, and you need distance from everything. Look in two weeks and see if you still feel the first rush. When the first rush is gone then you don't believe sometimes anymore. It's not easy to be sure, when you're a musician, if what you've done is good or not. The possibility of judging or seeing things clearly is really often not existent for me. You always have a rush if you create something out of zero, but then maybe one day later you think it's just a normal feat, it's just nothing, and if you play it to some friends they’ll just say "it's OK, it's nice." After some days you really realise if something is deeper, and what it's missing, or what could be a direction. I can't see it - in the first process of building and generating, I am a little bit blind. **Does that feel scary?** No, I'm used to it now. But it may be interesting for people who are starting to make music, of course I was the same, I couldn't be sure about anything that I did, and it comes with experience that you are relaxed and that you just keep on going and taking your time to judge the output. I really think it is more important that you are really proud of what you did than that you just release something because you need a release this year, you need a booking or stuff - this is shit. I'd rather do one record in 5 years, which is on point, than 5 records a year and they're just mediocre and everybody says "yeah it's OK, it's not bad not good." The world doesn't need this, we already have too much content. **The first feature that's on the track list is Eddie Fummler, but looking at the credits it seems like that's an alias for your usual musical collaborator Arne Diedrichson, who plays a lot of guitar and other instruments on the album, is that right?** [Laughs] I promised Eddie Fummler not to spoil who he is. **OK then, well he'll stay a mystery. Let's go on to 'Colors of Autumn'; Speech from Arrested Development's performance on this is so perfect, it goes so well with your track; at what point do you show him the track? Is it already completed before you present it to him?** Yes, I think this track was nearly already done like you hear it now, fully produced, because the task to win somebody like Speech, or some of these super nice talented artists I really admire, you have to send them an instrumental which is convincing, but at the same time still empty, so he could imagine himself on it. It's super normal that if you listen to something and you don't feel like you have your place in it, you won't do it. But it's difficult to generate instrumentals which are convincing and empty. I thought when I sent it to him that maybe he'd feel the Arrested Development vibes, late 90s hip-hop vibe which I loved so much, this country hippie vibe in it, and I gave it an African vibe, and, yeah, I was glad that he heard the beat. We met in Hamburg, he had a concert 2 weeks after I wrote him initially, and it was even his birthday, and it was somehow a magic coincidence that this somehow came to life, this song. **Wow, very cool. So how do you go about deciding who you want to feature? Is it just a dream list?** Of course, people who inspire me. Every song is also an homage to the oeuvre these artists brought to the world, which inspired me in my music history, and which I admire. I think these people, in their minds, they are very open and broad, and you can try to experiment and do stuff. Róisín [Murphy], for example, is one of these people; you could come at her with a dubstep beat, or if I said tomorrow "let's make a Studio 1 record that combines ambient" she would say "yes! let's do it!" She has no borders or frontiers in her mind, as long as it comes to good music everything is possible and imaginable for her, and this is super nice. These people are super rare and nice to work with, and for me it was an honour; to work with like a free mind. Kurt Wagner is also such a guy. The autotune he uses he brought in, it was his idea, he's like 60 - I don't know - and he's just experimenting with his voice and I think it's beautiful. **Let's talk about Róisín a little bit, because her two features are so amazing and so different, I didn't realise she had such diversity. Have you been a fan of hers for a long time?** Not a long, long time, but quite a long time now, recently [laughs]. We have a heavy exchange of music ideas and cultural things which we share with each other. I think it's like a super nice match made in Heaven, working with her is somehow really good and inspiring and cool. **Did you know you were going to do two tracks together with her? Did they happen at the same time?** More or less, yes, over a period of some months. We even made some more tracks already. These on the album are really shit compared to the other songs. **Oh, really?** [Laughs]. Yes! **When can we expect to hear the rest?** [Laughs] I don't know! **Do you give her any kind of brief about what the lyrics should be, or is it completely up to her?** No, I didn't. She decided and wrote what she had in mind, but somehow I think if you are on the same frequency, and if you feel the instrumental and the music then it effects the topics that people choose. Also sometimes I have some ideas or inspiration, and I send them also, but I say "if you want to combine it it's your choice, if not, it's also good." **You mentioned Kurt Wagner, let's talk about him for a moment. I think his feature is maybe my favourite on the album because it's so different. And I'm a big Lambchop fan, are you? Do you have a particular favourite song or album?** Yes, I am a big fan. Actually, the last album _FLOTUS_ , I loved, when he started started using the autoharmoniser. 'The Daily Growl' is a song I like, and the albums _Aw Cmon_ and _No You Cmon_ I really liked. **Was it a surprise when he suggested using the autotune?** No, I loved it. And it didn't surprise me, because on the _FLOTUS_ album he already did it, and somehow I hoped he would, but I didn't say anything to him before. And it was wonderful. **What was he like in the studio?** He did this in Nashville, I think, where he lives. And he sent me the recording, and he said to me he even had no headphones on, he was playing with this harmoniser instrument and just recording. And more or less we had to take this recording, we didn't have the option to manipulate it. I liked it, if some of this stuff is irreversible and you just have to work with what is there. It's nice to cut the options you have. In electronic music making all the stuff is only about the decisions you make. Decisions about which options I take and which I don't - this is all. This can drive you insane, because you could do anything in any direction every minute, because you are alone in front of all these options, and which one do you choose? So I'm really happy to limit my options and stick to only some ingredients. It's like a blessing, this modern possibility of making music for everybody, but it's also a curse, because you never finish sometimes - because you have too many options. **Sophia Kennedy you must have known for a while through the Pampa Records connection; did you know for a while you wanted her on the album?** No, it was like an organic flow. I thought maybe it would be nice, and while producing the beats I just wrote her and asked if she would be up for it and it just fitted in her timetable and we worked it out together. I didn't think too much about everything. **Did she choose to sing in German on the final track, ‘Drone Me Up, Flashy’? Can you tell us what she's singing about?** Yes, she chose to. It is more or less about the idea that a man is sitting on the stairs and doing nothing. The best songs come from boredom. I think it was her first try, and then we both thought in the first moment maybe we'd do something more sophisticated later, and then I thought no let's stick to the topic in your song, which says we just do nothing. It has to be like this now: first thought, best thought. And we left it like this, and I really love it now. **Another feature we haven't mentioned is Mano Le Tough, singing, which isn't something he's necessarily known for.** Recently he's been singing a lot in his music; the last album and the last 12" we released on Pampa, which beautifully he also sings on two songs. I really like his voice because it has the virgin, not-too-professional – but I feel him, and I feel his Irish sorrow, and I just like that he decided to include his voice and his singing in his music. I don't know, maybe I sent this song to him because I saw the possibility that his voice could fit nicely. I think I sent him more songs and this was the phrase I liked. I really like him and he's a super talented musician for me. **There's no way of collaborating on the actual music part, just the singing?** When it comes to the music I don't trust anybody. They're all shit, you know? **You've never done it?** I really like to be the nerd sitting alone and making all the decisions all alone. I also have a history in bands, and this is of course another quality of brainstorming and working together and it can be really super. But also I know so many nights we sat together, three drunken heads in front of the computer, and in the end we did just one snare sound we didn't even like the next day. So it's nice if you don't have to do so much compromising and can be radical and non-democratic, and you can decide it is strong writing, then. **Speaking of Mano Le Tough, when I saw him DJ a few weeks ago in Amsterdam he finished his set with 'Pick Up' from this album, which has already been played by loads of people - why do you think people love it so much?** I don't know! For me, if I play it, it is like the roof is on fire. I think it has a simplicity and the ingredients are just somehow so well balanced; the pain, the melancholic, the sadness, the euphoria and the simplicity - mainly the simplicity, that it has so many fewer ingredients. And the energy is old, it doesn't want to be a new club stomper with a modern sound, it's as simple and few elements as possible, and focuses on when is the loop getting hypnotic, and what effect can you generate with this bass drum in and bass drum out in the right moments. This is the formula of course from Thomas Bangalter and Daft Punk in the early 2000s, the French house idea that was the blueprint for that, to make 12-minute tracks and they have only one magic loop and you only arrange them with tiny changes. Still I like this idea, I really like the simplicity in that blueprint and time, and I think 'Pick Up' transports a little bit of this energy. It is 18 years now since the big French house wave came, and many of the young people they are not so aware of this time and period, but they feel it now originally for the first time, and still feel it, you know? It has a soul energy, somehow, like an old energy. **As you move through _Knock Knock_ , the final third of the album is quite different as there are much fewer features, just tracks you've produced by yourself, was that on purpose?** I don't know. I thought I had the right balance of guests and features and instrumental music. I like the idea that not every song has a feature, and that you have a feeling of a personal album, but with many voices, so it's not an instrumental abstract album, it is somehow pop and soul and personal, with many humans - but not all the way. I like this in-between feeling. I'm a fan of instrumental music also, I like the feeling of there being humans, but it's not too much. For me it was the right dosage. **Why did you decide to put 'Seeing Aliens' out first from this album?** I don't know, I like the idea that it's misleading somehow. Because in the end you can't choose one song that's representing the album really well, because it's maybe too broad and too much variety. It's different from others; if you put out a Kamasi Washington song you know it's going to be a jazz record. But here every song can't stand on its own to represent the album, but it can stand on its own as a song; this was my idea. **Are there are any plans for remixes for tracks on this album?** At the moment I'm not sure. I'm not a fan of remixes - except I do them quite often. I think if the artists deliver a sense-making planet, why should there be different versions that we can dance to also? I don't see it. For me it's an old fashioned idea from major companies to generate some extra buzz for the record or the release, but I don't feel it so much. **If an artist you admired came to you and asked you specifically to remix one of your songs, do you think you'd be open to it?** Yeah, maybe. Of course if I see a way where they could touch this in a way with respect and make something different, not just a clubby version of the same idea which I already decided not to be clubby (I could do 20 club songs, but why should I?) then I could imagine it. But normally the good people are so busy they won't ask me. **The day after the album comes out you're doing****the album launch party at Printworks here in London****, did you choose that for any particular reason?** It came together all in a nice way, and last time it was a blast and it was beautiful! Mano Le Tough is there and Dolan [Bergin] and MCDE [Motor City Drum Ensemble] are there, and it came together in a nice way, and it's just a nice way to celebrate. It was really nice last time, and I think it's really good for London people that the party is a daytime party. You have a different level of energy because the energy in the night is different in London. [Laughs] You know what I mean. They are more happy and more energetic in the day. Sometimes I like the idea that it is not normal to celebrate during the day, and so you have an extra kick, because you think "wow it's daytime and I'm already in this good mood!" It's fantastic, it's like a child's birthday. **But when you're inside Printworks there it doesn't feel like daytime, there's no light!** [Laughs] Yes, you're right. But somehow it is affecting the energy. The same party at night, at 4am, it would be not so colourful and not so wild I guess, because people are too wasted - people have more energy on these day parties. **Can we expect you to play many songs from the album at the party?** I don't know yet, but not too many are peak time compatible, I think. I fucked it up – shit **[Laughs] I don't think so, I think you did great. Last question: what do you hope people feel when they finish listening to _Knock Knock_?** Love. ---------- _Knock Knock_ is released this Friday through Pampa. This article was originally published on The 405 - 2nd May 2018.

Hijinx World

Say the words “Cloud Atlas” to a film fan, and you’re likely to get one of two reactions. One might be a look of disgust, as they think about how much they hate this big, messy, weird movie. The other is a look of pure joy, as that person thinks about how much they loved and connected with the same big, messy, weird movie. There’s not much in between, and what follows is for people in that second camp. People like me. A few weeks back, Shout Studios released a brand new 4K collectors’ edition of _Cloud Atlas,_ and io9 was provided a copy. It includes a brand new restoration of the film, a new sound mix, and all the bells and whistles. But it also has something quite special and different. A two-plus-hour documentary about the making and impact of the film, which, if you love _Cloud Atlas_ as much as I do, will help you fall in love with it all over again. It’s called “What Is An Ocean… Reconnecting the Cast and Crew of _Cloud Atlas_ ,” and it features interviews with basically every single major actor or production head involved with the movie. (The one glaring omission is Halle Berry, but we’ll get to that in a second.) The whole thing is hosted by an actor named Jon Donahue, who most of us wouldn’t immediately recognize but has a pretty important job. He’s Tom Hanks’ longtime stand-in. So he was there, on set, every day filming _Cloud Atlas,_ and got to know everyone involved. Out of all of Hanks’ work, Donahue calls _Cloud Atlas_ the most incredible experience he’s ever had on a film, which is why he was chosen to host this documentary. And so we watch as Donahue interviews everyone you’d hope for. That means writers and directors Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, and Tom Tykwer. It means original author David Mitchell. It means actors Tom Hanks, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Keith David, James D’Arcy, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant. We get producers, directors of photography, editors, costume designers, make-up artists, and so much more. Tom Hanks and Halle Berry in _Cloud Atlas._ – Warner Bros The result is not just a filmmaking masterclass but an enduring, deep-seated feeling of adoration. As everyone involved talks to Donahue about their experiences, either changing how actors look or figuring out how to make the film work as one complete story, there’s almost infinite passion and reverence for the end result. Everyone being interviewed has only the most heartwarming and fascinating stories to tell about the film, and it makes you appreciate what was achieved even more. We learn how the Wachowskis and Tykwer got their hands on the material and worked together to adapt it. We hear about how the film was basically shot in tandem between the three of them simultaneously in multiple locations. Lana explains that if author David Mitchell didn’t like their script, they would have canceled the whole project. Tom Hanks and his daughter, E.A., talk about how he didn’t quite get it at first but slowly came around to it. All the actors talk about playing multiple characters that cross lines of gender and race. (Yes, the “yellowface” the film was criticized for is addressed in this.) We learn which locations were real, which were sets, how far the pirate ship in the film had to sail to get there, and on and on. One of the most interesting bits, we learn, came once production was over. The directors and editor put the footage together as it was laid out in the script, and they describe the result as “devastating.” They hated it. It didn’t work. And that’s when they put the whole movie up on a wall and started to find similarities and themes, resulting in the semi-manic, but ultimately rewarding, film we see today. A cadence that Mitchell says is maybe even more impactful and beautiful than his original intentions. The downside to all of this is that, as mentioned, Halle Berry isn’t involved, which feels odd. Obviously, though, she’s spoken of with nothing but love and respect, especially in terms of one story where she literally broke her foot while filming. She was worried she was going to be replaced, and the studio actually considered it, but the Wachowskis and Tykwer never faltered. They all worked together to find ways for her to film the movie anyway, earning even more respect and love from everyone involved. Jim Broadbent and Ben Whishaw in _Cloud Atlas_. – Warner Bros. Another issue worth noting is that most of the documentary was created over Zoom. It’s got a very 2020 vibe, even though we don’t think it was filmed in 2020. At first, you kind of hoped that a film paying homage to something so grand and epic would be equally grand and epic, but, clearly, this was the most economical way to make the documentary and have everyone participate. (Think of the travel budget!) And when you look at it that way, I’d rather have everyone involved appear in the documentary and not better-looking footage of fewer people. Plus, the documentary digs so deep and has such passion for this film that after a few minutes, you don’t just forget about the camera footage; you embrace it. It becomes fun and almost fitting to see all the actors and artists in their own environments. It makes everything that much more personal, which is perfect for this movie. So, yes, if you are a fan of _Cloud Atlas_ , you should pick up the new 4K, but not just because it’s a new 4K. This documentary makes the whole thing worth it all on its own. You can learn more about it here. > Want more io9 news? Check out the best movies and TV shows to stream this month and all the upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books that should be on your radar.

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