Say, whoever came up with the word "Hiatus" anyway??

Y'know, I have done this before...

Blogging after a hiatus which is long enough that they should probably coin an altogether new term to describe it...But then, this time I had stretched it a tad too long considering I had to rely on my I.E's memory to remember my login id here! While I wasn't that thrilled to have every bit of my existence on the Internet googlicized, it helps I guess...At least now, all I need to remember is my name separated by a self-inflicted dot!

So...what has kept me away? Well, lets not get there! (Unless you volunteer to count the bottles on my window sill...)...

What have I been upto, at least as far as mujik is concerned?

#1 - Gotten myself all there is to have of Sufjan Stevens' (again...we are strictly taking only mujik here...sadly so! )

- That includes rarities, outtakes, B-sides, a live album and of course the studio stuff! And the rest, as they say, is history! ( atleast on my last.fm page it is.... http://www.last.fm/user/kritikal02 - Check out the Overall top artist! Yee Haw!)

- I even got Illinoise through CD WOW!!

#2 - Discovered a new muse - complete with the hippie looks, the weird name, an awesome voice and the works! Devendra Banhart's Cripple Crow, released in India thanks to FreeSpirit Entertainment, is one of my best CD buys in a while. I now have all of his other albums - It's folk with an eccentric twist, labelled "New Weird America" and all...And trust me, the only thing that works against the movement is the lame name!

#3 - Marillion!!! While 'Scripts for a Jester's Tear' would definitely figure in the most influential prog album list, I am ashamed to admit I haven't dug deep into more of their stuff. So I added Fugazi and Misplaced Childhood (with Bonus CD edition)....I must say, one of the most underrated of the better-known prog bands!

#4 Tag and Rename! (Thanks Mr. Orange Blossom Special :D) - I highly recommend this software for anyone who has a compulsive obsession with structured tagging of your music files.

#5 Rediscovered the joys of a live acoustic set and the brilliance of it in all its glory. Live albums are definitely not my forte, but if I ever need something to question as to why I haven't got myself more of the live albums - I could start with Derroll Adams' Live album. First of all, what an artist! And next, what an act! The most personal, the most involved, the most heartwarming and probably the most anyone can do with a banjo!

#6 A host of brilliant prog acts - The Italians! Mamma Mia! Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) needs no mention...But Le Orme, Metamorfosi and Banco Del Mutuo - they have been quite a find!

#7 Neo-prog attacked back in a major way! The Flower Kings' Retropolis (an album which I had been dying to hear for a long while), Chroma Key's Dead Air for Radio, The Pineapple Thief's new album - Little man..

#8 The grand ol' daddies of Prog - Kansas, Focus and of course, Renaissance!! Annie Haslam is my nomination for prog's leading lady :)

#9 Okay, I have to sheepishly admit that I had been taken by The Killers' When You were Young too. Before you jump at me... notice the "had" part of the previous sentence. The rest of their album failed to create any impression...

#10 That Mysterious charm of tapes! On my trip back home, I dusted up 'em cassettes (which were growing new beings on 'em!)...My first trip of nostalgia - Postcards from Heaven by the Lighthouse Family. Now these guys don't exactly belong to the tapes era, because going by the tape sleeve, this album was out in 1997 and I presume, CDs were out in some part of the world, even though they were yet to take over a quaint l'il town down south. But the experience of the fastforward/rewing options were really refreshing...

So there ..... I haven't exactly been having a totally wasted time! Or so I console myself saying...

Until the next post/hiatus....One last "Whoo-hoo" for Sufjan!