Greetings fellow users!  As some of you are aware, I’ve started a little user review competition in which the winner receives an automatic feature, as well as a “user spotlight” session.  It basically consists of an informal chat in which I ask some personal questions as well as some silly ones.

This week, Mort. won with his review for Crystal Castles’ newest, Amnesty (I) (read: here)

Excerpt: “Overall though “Amnesty (I)” is mostly devoid of warmth. It’s also weirdly industrial in its execution at points, the drums packing more weight and the synth more intense, yet at the same time lacking the robotic feel a lot of industrial has. It might be cold and harsh but it still feels very human. It’s a good example of how Crystal Castles can nail down the darkly serious style they were so obviously attempting on “(III)” without sacrificing momentum and the ecstatic energy they’re known for. It may not be a total curveball in the band’s discography, but it is the most cohesive and focused Crystal Castles have ever sounded which is saying something for such a scatterbrained band.”

I had the… dubious honour of sitting down with Dean (aka Mort.) and asking the tough questions.

Tristan: I sent you some pics earlier. What’d you think? Yay / nay?

Mort.: what pics man??

Next question. This is totally off the record btw: thoughts on SowingSeason? I think he’s doing a pretty bang-up job eh.

He is although I’m pretty confused as to how him continuing to review and then starting this whole review challenge fits in with the whole “sorta leaving the site/diminishing my role” announcement he made a month or two ago haha.

Yeah what a flake. Actually maybe it’s the opposite of a flake? This is off the record, by the way. I urban dictionary’d your username and was wondering if that’s more or less in line with why you chose the name? Unless you’re a big Terry Pratchett fan.

Haha no although I do actually have that book and enjoy his Discworld series.

Ok, why then? This is for the people.

So when i first joined my name was MortimusPrime, which basically came about as a joke between me and a friend. I must of been about 15 and was holding my mate’s chips out for him while he rode his bike, so we joked that i was like his servant. Mortimus sounds like a stereotypical hunchbacked servant name so that stuck. The Prime bit was from the joke being that I transformed inbetween a servant and normal like a Tranformer? I dont know, i cant remember really, but regardless it was just one of those stupid teenage jokes that resulted in a nickname sticking. Then everybody called me Mort. here anyway so i shortened it to that.

Ohhhhh I remember now. Friggin name changes. Do you think Green Baron should have his username reversed?

Oh god it was that monstrosity of GreenLinkinMuse or something wasn’t it? Yeah maybe he should, as a warning to make people choose their names better.

Haha yeah, I mean at least AtomicWaste has the decency. ; ]

Or do you mean he should be called Baron Green? Because if that then definetly yeah, sounds much better.

I would be a much less forgiving mod tbh.

Who would be your first ban? And for what predicted reason?

Good question, probably whoever said enough inflammatory remarks about Enter Shikari to me or in my view first haha.

I selected your review as the winner because I liked how you showed levelheaded criticism while keeping fairly straightforward wordplay as well, and it resulted in what some users claim is your best review to date. A lot of reviewers have trouble with that approach, I think. Was it a fairly easy review for you to write?

It was a bit of a strange review for me to write as I started writing it suddenly with little forethought or planning and it was my first review in four months. Back in april I had a spur of reviewing and wrote around 7 in a month, however I felt many of them werent that great because I was almost forcing myself to review them just for the sake of reviewing. Writing that Crystal Castles review on the other hand felt a lot more natural and easy because it just came to me and I rolled with it, so yeah I would say it was a fairly easy review to write.

Yeah it’s nice when an album basically does the writing for you. Have you been emulating any other writers (of reviews or even short stories or whatever) and tweaking your writing accordingly? Or have you just been developing your style as is?

I would say it’s more I’ve just been developing my own style, although I’m still unsure of what that style is. I start writing a lot of reviews that never get finished simply because I dont like the way in which I’ve written it, even if it does feel natural while I’m writing it. Perhaps it’s just part of doubting my own ability which I think is a common thing.

Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut and submit shitty reviews. Worked well enough for me : ]

I have done that a fair few times, although I never think they’re properly shit just extremely average? I’ll make sure the review is grammatically correct enough and spelt properly then post it, but still be unhappy with the overall prose.

2 Truths / 1 Lie is all the rage right now on Sput. Let’s play a quick game, r u ready?

Yeah I think so.

1. Jom (who is from Sarnia, Ontario I guess) unironically referred to himself as the “Kronicle of Sarnia” in a thread in Olympus.

2. I know where Hep Kat went.

3. klap’s real name is actually Rudy Klapper lmfao

I’m going to say that the lie is that you know where Hep Kat went.

Actually that’s a ~truth~. Though when I say “where” I mean in more of a metaphysical way.

Oh and apparently I’m supposed to ask what albums you’d like to see on next week’s challenge? I gotta tick all my boxes here.

Anyone doing the new De La Soul?

Oh shit I forgot to dibs De La Soul. Thanks for reminding me.

Hahahaha

We asked Brett this last week, but: “If there’s one feature you could add to sputnik today, feasible or not, what would it be and why?”

Probably private messaging, it would be nice to have a 1 on 1 conversation with someone on the site that everyone cant see.

Oh and if the new De La Soul isn’t applicable for the challenge then the new Glass Animals.

Nah I don’t think either are dibbed, up on the list they go. I’m just gonna steal another one of Sowing’s ideas almost word-for-word and somehow make it sweeter: “Pull up your Foobar2000 or whatever you use and put your entire library on shuffle. What are the first 3 songs that came up? “

This could go horribly haha. I got:
Unwound – October All Over,
Coalesce – A New Language,
and Comadre – Hack
Two of my favourite bands and one decent one.

I have to look after muhh kid so I guess we’ll hit the home stretch here: how dope is the drum work on The Moon is a Dead World tho I mean let’s be honest. (?)

It’s so good that comments about the drum work on that album make up a decent amount of Sput’s traffic.

I’m recently rediscovering a love for that album. Any albums doing the same for you? Like, albums you knew you loved forever but are only recently being reminded?

Yeah Wow Owls!’ only LP “Pick Your Patterns” got a spin for the first time in ages today after it popped up on my shuffle. Really solid post hardcore from Richmond, Virginia that has gone largely unnoticed and forgotten