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Hicks.design's Music of 2023
Albums of 2023 Versions of Us - Lanterns on the Lake This was the year I really 'got' Lanterns on the Lake. I’ve listened and liked them since their debut album, but for some reason I’ve not spent much...
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Witney Ambient Night
The little Cotswold market town that I call home is hosting it's first Ambient night. An evening of Ambient/Drone/Experimental music on May 12th at Fat Lils, starting at 19:30. This will be the debut...
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Bill Oddie taught me how to make web sites
One of my (many) life regrets, is not being a proper website archivist. Not just of the various versions of hicks.design, but the many client sites and side projects. Even when I had backups, the CD-Rs...
View ArticleAn Unexpected Slowdive
Leigh and I had only just seen Slowdive play live at the Troxy in London last November, so we'd decided not to see them again on this current tour. I think we were trying to be frugal, but a few weeks...
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Analog Scrobbling
With all my recent dithering between Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal to supplement my Plex usage, I've got back into using last.fm as my one source of statistical truth. 'Scrobbling' is what last.fm...
View ArticleThe Mortimiser
The Mortimiser is a little toy that I’ve been steadily chipping away at for a few months now. It uses Bob Mortimer's naming formula of: ordinary first name + a noun/nonsense/mundane word as second...
View ArticleRIDE at Truck Oxford
Last night, Leigh and I went to see RIDE play a stripped-down in-store performance at TRUCK Oxford. This was to promote their lovely new album Interplay, and get our vinyl copies signed. As it's a...
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The Oberland and its Glaciers
We visited our friends Richard and Rachel recently. Richard used to work at the Bodlean Library, and now that he's retired he buys and sells obscure antique books. One particular book that he'd...
View ArticleWeeknotes 25.04.24
Just a few notes and linky-poos to end the week (technically it's Thursday, but Leigh and I are off to Madrid for the weekend!): Votre Saucisse est trés plastique There's a new episode of One Footer in...
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Mini Clubman
I ♥️ our Mini Clubman. It simply makes me grin every time I drive it. When the time came to replace our Land Rover Discovery Sport, I wanted to go for something… a bit different. Something with soul,...
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Share Openly
Ex-Oxford resident Ben Werdmuller contacted me a couple of months ago, wondering if I'd be interested in creating an icon for his new personal project ShareOpenly. It's a very easy way to share content...
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Apple Music 100 Best Albums
Apple Music announced what they consider the best 100 albums of all time, and inevitably with these kinds of lists, no one is going to agree with all the choices. Rather than be outraged at what was...
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Ministry of Transport Signage
Last week, while on a mini-holiday with my brothers, I got the opportunity to admire some pre-Worboys Committee signage up close. Before the Committee introduced the Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert...
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Hicks.design's Best 15 Albums
After spending more than two weeks, working my way through the torturous Apple Music Best 100 albums list, I needed a way to respond. So I decided to collate my own list, but keep it down to 15 for...
View ArticleTroika #46: Best of 2023
Every year since I started Troika, I've wanted to do a 'best of the year' episode, and this is the year that I've finally got around to doing it. With twenty-one tracks at almost two hours, it's seven...
View ArticleTroika 47: Tim Smith
Episode #47 of Troika is all about Tim Smith, the musician from Denton, Texas, who's probably most well known as the singer in the band Midlake until 2013. I first discovered his work with the 2006...
View ArticleTroika 48: Ambient Americana
Spotify's normally the one that makes up genres, but I've recently been listening a lot to what I've come to term 'Ambient Americana'. Expansive ambient soundscapes created with guitars (especially...
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Lanterns on the Lake at the Minack
Leigh and I woke up to the news that not only was the UK now governed by the Labour Party, but our useless local Tory MP had been well and truly ousted by the Liberal Democrats. Witney constituency had...
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Ambient Witney 2: Bypass//Engage
After the success of the first Ambient Witney, Doug Tolley of Nine is the Level has organised another event for later this year. It now has a proper name 'Bypass//Engage' and has sponsorship from Chase...
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New albums from Starflyer, Hamish, Wishy & Chuck out today
Today is a great day for new album releases! I’ve been really looking forward to these four coming out: Lust for Gold - Starflyer 59 Particularly excited for this release. On first listen it's like a...
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New Music Friday - Cold Gawd and Nick Cave
It's a New Music Friday! There are two new releases today that I've been waiting excitedly for: I'll Drown On This Earth - Cold Gawd Heavy shoegaze from the California band that also take in...
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HueHouse
I've sung the praises of ColorSnapper many times before, because it's an app that's absolutely vital to my work. My colourblindness means that I can't esaily tell the difference between green and...
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Supernatural Detective's Field Guide
The Supernatural Detective's Field Guide is a little side-project of mine that I’m working on. I've been trying solve the quandary of 'what to draw?’ - finding an engaging thematic prompt - and I...
View ArticleTroika #49: Shoegazin' Part 1 - Origins
Shoegaze. Once a derisory term invented by music journalists to describe how the bands barely moved, staring at their vast array of effects pedals. Now the term is embraced positively, and thanks to...
View ArticleTroika #50: Shoegazin' Part 2 - 1990s
Greetings peoples of the internets! And welcome to part two of this series looking at the history of Shoegaze. In the last episode of Troika, we heard from the early influences, hearing where Shoegaze...
View ArticleTroika #51: Shoegazin' Part 3 - 2000s
Greetings peoples of the internets! And welcome to part three of this series looking at the history of Shoegaze. Shoegaze seemed all over by 1997 but it was far from dead, just resting a bit. It didn’t...
View ArticleTroika #52: Shoegazin' Part 4 - 2020s
Greetings peoples of the internets! And welcome to part four of this series looking at the history of shoegaze. Leigh and I went to see Slowdive play live in Bath in 2022 and were pleasantly surprised...
View ArticleTroika #53: Shoegazin' Part 5 - Black Artists
Greetings peoples of the internets! And welcome to part five, the last part of this series looking at the history of Shoegaze. Historically, the genre has been stereotyped as a music form for the white...
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Hicks.design's Music of 2024
This year I scrobbled my little heart out. I was determined to record everything I played (at least for one year), whether it be on Plex, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, CD or vinyl. It hasn't been...
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Festive Sandwich Reviews 2024
Sandwich of the Year It's that time of year again, where I review as many pre-made Festive sandwiches from supermarkets and cafe's as I can. Who will win this year? Balancing the taste and quantity of...
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