Hey guys. A few weeks ago I got an email asking me if I’d like to review some mini-speakers on my blog. My philosophy on this is that if it’s a product that I would realistically use, I’ll review it. (Thus explaining the lack of tampon reviews…) But don’t worry, I got permission from the company to write whatever I want. If it sucks, I’ll let you know. I hope this disclaimer will prevent any thoughts of ‘Mike is selling out. BURN HIM DOWN!‘ because I really don’t want to be on fire.

Introduction

Mini speakers, the middlemen of headphones and full size speakers, have always been a bit, well, rubbish. Once you lose the size of the sub woofer, the bass either disappears or ends up really tinny, resulting in your finely-honed collection of tracks all end up sounding like they were produced by teenagers in their parent’s garage.

A company based in Singapore called Xmi Pte have released a series of small speaker solutions to solve this problem. They all revolve around the same sort of idea – part of the device when turned lifts to reveal a concertina section that traps air and uses it to create a bass sound. At least, that’s the science behind it. Now to see if it works!

The Product

Today I’m going to be looking at two products. The Capsule Speaker 2nd Generation, which is the little black and red speaker in the photos below, and the Max 2 Portable Series, which are the two white speakers. (Although they do turn into one large speaker in a very Transformers way).

All of them attach to your computer/mp3 player/games device/dog with a standard headphone 3.5 jack, so you shouldn’t have any trouble using them. One other great feature they have is the ‘Buddy Jack’ function. Despite sounding like a bizarre sexual term, it simply means you can plug X-Mini speakers into each other, and end up ending the world when 500 speakers all play the guitar solo from Dream Theater’s As I Am at the same time.

Charging is done via USB. The cables the speakers use all have a USB connector attached. It’s a shame they can’t be charged via a wall connection.
The Capsule Speaker offers up to 11 hours battery life – in my test it lasted 10 hours 18 minutes.
The Max II offers up to 12 hours battery life – in my testing it lasted 12 hours 2 minutes.

Photos

Testing

I mentioned the battery life, and I think you’ll agree the results are pretty impressive. Now it’s time to see how the speakers handle different tasks. I played The Gathering – Treasure as a ‘standard’ track, Muse – Supermassive Black Hole as a ‘bass heavy’ track, and Anathema – Temporary Peace (Acoustic) as the ‘light’ track.

The Capsule Speaker handled ‘Treasure’ very well, although the bass was a little too loud in comparison to the treble. It also did well on Muse until I turned the volume way up, at which point the speaker actually began to jump around. But it has to be obscenely loud for that to happen. Finally Anathema was OK – if you twist the speaker so the bass section is hidden this sounds much better.

The Max II did sound better overall, although the bass to treble ratio on ‘Treasure’ was worse. Again Anathema sounded better with the bass sections closed. Muse sounded fantastic, possibly because that song’s bass is totally awesome.

Update: As Mark points out in the comments, if your device handles EQ settings, it more or less solves the problem. I used the ‘rock’ setting on Muse and everything worked nicely.

Conclusion

I’m aware this review is pretty long, so here is a quick breakdown of what is so great and not so good about the speakers;

+ They’re tiny, and they come with carrying pouches.
+ The bass is amazing considering how small they are.
+ They are pretty damn loud.
+ They work with anything (Computers, Mp3 Players, Games Consoles…)
+ They’re pretty tough, with no parts that look easily broken.
+ The ‘buddy jack’ sharing system is great – it boosts the volume rather than splitting it.
- There are so many wires. I guess this can’t be avoided but it is a bit messy.
- If it’s too loud, the speakers will begin to jump around.
- They do make the bass too loud. Closing the bass part is a solution, except you then up with no bass at all.
- As we’re using a headphone jack, the Max II cannot function as a left and right speaker. They are simply two speakers instead of one.

Overall, they are a great solution. They’re really nice looking and, despite turning your desk or whatever into spaghetti junction, are super easy to use. If you’re obsessed with musical quality and only listen to music in a soundless bubble suspended in space, they may not be for you.

If you’re interested, check out the x-Mini website.

Recently, I’ve really been getting into something called ‘Post Rock’ Um, what’s “Post Rock”? Wikipedia says:

Post-rock is a genre of alternative rock characterized by the use of musical instruments commonly associated with rock music, but using rhythms, harmonies, melodies, timbre, and chord progressions that are not usually found in rock tradition. It is the use of ‘rock instrumentation’ for non-rock purposes. Practitioners of the genre’s style typically produce instrumental music.

I’m not going to kid you, I don’t really understand that description. To be totally honest I don’t really know exactly what constitutes post rock and what doesn’t. In my experience, it’s rock music with an emphasis on instruments other than guitars and drums, with very little or no vocals. Maybe that’s accurate. Maybe it’s totally wrong and post rock scholars everywhere just spat tea all over their leather-bound computers.

Regardless, the artists I’ve found through searching the term are responsible for some totally awesome music. Really moving stuff. So I thought today I’d introduce an album that moved me, and still moves me every time I hear it.

This wasn’t the first post rock album I listened to, and it wasn’t the first one I enjoyed. But it is my favourite. Hymn to the Immortal Wind is the fifth album by MONO, an instrumental band who’ve been going since 1999. It’s a little over an hour long and only consists of seven tracks, yet it doesn’t plod along but constantly moves along through clever movements and passages.

What really makes the album is the harmony between the guitar line and the orchestra parts. Recorded with a 28 piece orchestra, the strings in particular take the music and push it from ‘amazing’ to ‘it feels like I’m soaring through the sky‘. It’s hard to get across what I mean by that, but I suppose ‘uplifting’ is a reasonable if boring term, and this stuff is anything but boring. The opener “Ashes in the Snow” goes from a calm, almost timid set of strings emerging from radio static into an all out battle of guitars and drums versus swooping orchestra. It sounds like it should be a noisy mess but it’s actually a single harmony, carved out of a wall of pure energy.

It’s truly incredible music. But there are tracks that don’t follow MONO’s wonderful formula. “Silent Flight, Sleeping Dawn” and especially “Follow The Map” are two incredibly calm tracks, beautiful pieces of moving music that serve both to entertain but also to act as interludes between epic pieces like ‘The Battle To Heaven’.

Something I was always advised as a child was “save the best for last” and it looks like MONO heard that one, too. The final track Everlasting Light is my favourite song on the album and probably the best song I’ve heard all year. It starts off as a set of strings and piano. It’s so simple. To be honest if the song ended at the 2:30 mark it would have been a wonderful piece of classical music, but it keeps going. The piano keeps winding it’s way over an ever growing chorus of strings. Then, all of a sudden, things start getting serious. The strings take a more scary, “something’s coming out of the woods!” turn…

…and then the guitar arrives, and all that calmness from the introduction is swept up and pushed along by this new roaring energy. Still the piano slides it’s way overhead, and together these wildly different musical elements build towards the crescendo. I know calling it ‘The Crescendo’ is a bit serious, but it deserves that title. Trust me.

I’m not going to tell you when it comes, as that would spoil it, but a solitary cymbal gives way to what I can only describe as a tidal wave of sound. One that keeps rolling and growing, as more and more is added to it, driving towards the final sixty seconds of the song I can only describe as musical perfection. The best moments in music I’ve heard in a hell of a long time. There’s no way a listener can’t be blown away. Imagine sitting in your living room expecting a rock song with a piano, but instead an 18 wheeler truck piles out of your stereo. Yeah, try ignoring that.

OK, so I admit I might have got a *tiny* bit carried away with this review. But these guys deserve all the hype. As I mentioned it’s hard to define them but ‘music you can’t ignore’ is probably pretty close. If you do ignore this review and never hear the band, you’re missing out. It’s like staying in bed when everyone else has ice-cream. This album is musical ice-cream.

The album is available in most regions on Spotify here, and if not you can always visit the MONO website. They’re touring the world at the moment. Don’t miss out!

Made way back in 1982, 転校生 (Exchange Students) starts with a premise that you’ve heard a thousand times; two people switch bodies, hilarity ensues. But wait! Come back! This isn’t some Freaky Friday ripoff. This is one of the most rewarding films I’ve watched in a long time, and believe me when I state that this  film is one of my favourite Japanese films. Ever.

But woah, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. I’ll start with background. The film was directed in the early 80s by Nobuhiko Obayashi, who has gained a reputation in Japan both through his earlier surreal works, and his later successes in more mainstream film. Other famous films of his, none of which I’ve seen (yet) include The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and last year’s Before That Day.

Alright, history is boring. Let’s get down to it. There’s a few reasons why I truly loved this film. Firstly, it’s very realistic for such a surreal idea. I know that sounds odd, but what I mean is after the bizarre part (the two characters falling down the stairs of a shrine together and swapping bodies), the way they interact with each other, and indeed themselves, is very believable.

The whole ‘wow I have breasts now!’ thing is done pretty well, and every time it’s brought up it’s quite funny in a new way, rather than rehashing the same joke. It’s funny, but it’s eclipsed by the characters dealing with the social implications, restrictions and, er, urination approach of the opposite gender. Kazumi (who becomes the boy) becomes the target of a lot of bullying because she fails to hide feminine linguistic and physical habits – in the same way Kazuo (who becomes female) earns a reputation as a ‘wild girl’ because his way of reacting to his loss of masculinity is to act aggressively towards other characters. It’s all very funny, but at the same time very realistic, if you get what I mean.

So well done to the director then. But the real winner here isn’t the director, it’s actress Satomi Kobayashi. Whilst actor Toshinori Omi does a good job acting the shy and coy girl, and the acting throughout the whole film is consistently good, Kobayashi shines above everyone. The way she speaks, her body language and even her facial expressions just reminded me of a bored schoolboy all the way through the film. I remember at one point all she is doing is walking up a hill, and even though she’s wearing a skirt I still felt ‘that is a male character’. She really sticks to the character too – more than once in the film her upper body is totally exposed and still she’s 100% in character. Her expression doesn’t even flicker.

I’m finding it quite hard to pick fault with this film. I suppose the fact it was made nearly thirty years ago means the hairstyles and clothing have dated a bit, but then you could say that about some of the greatest films in the world, so that’s not a real complaint. I suppose the conclusion is very predictable, at least in the case of the body swapping. But there’s also a crushing and tragic finality to the relationship of the characters that I won’t spoil here, but I will say it’s overpowering, and rounds the film off nicely.

Ultimately then, we have possibly my favourite Japanese film. It’s got a lot of competition but I really have fallen in love with it. It’s impossibly sweet, funny without being ridiculous, and a fantastic showcase for the awesome talent of Kobayashi Satomi. I give this film 5 discarded Freaky Friday DVDs out of 5.

Generally speaking, you have to be very careful of bands who have one member from a ‘supergroup. They tend to be either excellent (Liquid Tension Experiment, for example) or horrendously cheesy. There are some artists, and I won’t mention who, who really won’t work outside of the category their already existing band is in. So today we’re going to find out if Hyde, vocalist of L’arc~en~Ciel, can hold his own in another band.

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LIAR GAME is a ‘psychological thriller’ drama about Nao, a girl who gets pulled into a game of deceit, lies and backstabbing, all in the name of making huge amounts of money, and how the various players play clever schemes to ensure their victory. So here’s my review, the first of my ‘drama reviews’, but hopefully not the last!

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