The Best and The Worst!

We have an exercise here that we do every week where one person picks an album that they have not heard, purchases it, and makes every other daCapoite listen to it. We then have a group review of the album and express our deepest feelings about it to everyone.

This has been going on for about a year now, so I have compiled daCapo’s list of the best and the worst of ‘Albums Of the Week’ for 2005/06. Here they are, by staff member along with any comments they passed on to me. All of these discs are available for purchase from Apple’s iTunes, if you are interested. Finally, a full list of the year’s worth of albums of the week is at the bottom.

Kevin Aichele

TOP 3
1. John Mayer - Continum
2. Carolyn Dawn Johnson – Love and Negotiation
3. Sarah Slean – Day One

WORST 3
1. Chantal Kreviazuk – Ghost Stories
2. James Blunt – Back to Bedlam
3. Aphix Twin – Come To Daddy






Annalee Schellenberg

Top 3
1. Carrie Underwood – Some Hearts
"I love pop country"
2. Sarah Slean – Day One
"This is just overall a really great, catchy album"
3. Beck – Guero
"Okay, this is a good album, not actually my favorite album but instead of choosing yet another female singer I thought I would choose this album to try and present my musical taste as slightly more well-rounded. I did actually get hooked on this song-of-the-week."

Worst 3
1. Westernhagen – Nahaufnahme
"OLAAAAAF uuugh!"
2. Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Journey of Dreams "I just plain don't like this style of music, and this album goes on forever!"
3. Massive Attack – Collected
"I'll show you what's not massive.... this album"






Olaf Pyttlik

TOP 3
1. John Mayer – Continum
2. Cake – Comfort Eagle
3. Imogen Heap – Speak for Yourself

WORST 3
1. Carolyn Dawn Johnson – Love and Negotiation
2. Westernhagen – Nahaufnahme
3. Chantal Kreviazuk – Ghost Stories






Clint Skibitzky

Top 3
1. Hot Hot Heat – Elevator
This album has creative and original instrumentation mixed with hooky melodies and strong pop rhythms.
2. Camille – Le Fil
This is a wholly original production with a very unique sound construction. After listening to it once, I was not certain that I liked it, but I knew I had to hear it again.
3. Sarah Slean – Day One
Creative, catchy, melodic...

Worst 3
1. Carolyn Dawn Johnson – Love and Negotiation
"Every bad cliché both musically and lyrically...please SHUT UP!)
2. Miami Vice – Soundtrack
"This is the best selection of bad tracks by several well known artists I have heard in a while, with the exception of the Phil Collins cover"
3. Chantal Kreviazuk – Ghost Stories
"Ghost Stories indeed...the last track on this album is incredibly haunting, and NOT in a good way!"






Nolan Balzer

Top 3
1. Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself
"Great Variety. arrangements and production. All round consistent flow and presentation."
2. Donald Fagen - Morph the Cat
"The classic oddball storytelling of Steely Dan with the best damn musicianship ever.
Sparse but funky production and crystal clean sound."
3 Sarah Slean - Day One
"Great song writing and arrangements without a low moment on the album. Always interesting and a tip of the hat to cabaret in a pop sensible manner."

Worst 3
1. Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy
"What the hell is this. Interesting if I wanted a soundtrack to losing mind.
2. Westernhagen – Nahaufnahme
"He should get over himself. I think he had a bunch of tunes no one else would take and he put them all on one album. When they sounded awful he decided to play trumpet on them. Unfortunately the sound worse now than they must have before the trumpet debacle. Bad decisions all over the place"
3. Chantal Kreviazuk – Ghost Stories
"Apparently she recorded this at home. Why am I not surprised?"

Date	Artist	Album	Picked By
October 17, 20005	Aphix Twin	Come To Daddy	Nolan
October 24, 2005	Hot Hot Heat	Elevator	Clint
October 31, 2005	Enigma	Love Sensuality Dev..	Olaf
November 7, 2005	Jamie Warren	Make Me Believe	Annalee
November 14, 2005	Sarah Slean	Day One	Nolan
November 21, 2005	Ladysmith Black Mambazo	Journey of Dreams	Clint
November 28, 2005	Pink Floyd	Dark Side of the Moon	Olaf
December 5, 2005	Imogen Heap	Speak for Yourself	Annalee
December 12, 2005	Bruce Cockburn	Speechless	Nolan
December 19, 2005	Beck	Guero	Clint
January 2, 2006	James Blunt	Back to Bedlam	Olaf
January 9, 2006	Madonna	Confessions on a Da..	Annalee
January 16, 2006	Fiona Apple	Extraordinary Machine	Nolan
January 23, 2006	Tori Amos	The Beekeeper	Clint
January 30, 2006	Depeche Mode	Playing the Angel	Olaf
February 6, 2006	Paul Anka	Rock Swings	Annalee
February 27, 2006	Jason Falkner	Can You Still Feel	Nolan
March 6, 2006	The Be Good Tanyas	Blue Horse	Clint
March 13, 2006	Kanye West	Late Registration	Olaf
March 20, 2006	Carrie Underwood	Some Hearts	Annalee
March 27, 2006	Donald Fagen	Morph the Cat	Nolan
April 3, 2006	Arctic Monkeys	Whatever People Say..	Clint
April 10, 2006	Westernhagen	Nahaufnahme	Olaf
May 15, 2006	P!nk	I’m Not Dead	Annalee
May 22, 2006	Van Hunt	On the Jungle Floor	Nolan
June 12, 2006	Train	For Me, It’s You	Clint
June 19, 2006	Massive Attack	Collected	Olaf
June 26, 2006	Dashboard Confessionals	Dusk and Summer	Annalee
July 3, 2006	Kean	Under the Iron Sea	Nolan
July 10, 2006	Camille	Le Fil	Clint
July 17, 2006	Cake	Comfort Eagle	Olaf
July 24, 2006	Carolyn Dawn Johnson	Love and Negotiation	Annalee
August 22, 2006	Esthero	Wikkid Lel’Girrls	Nolan
September 5, 2006	The Killers	Hot Fuss	Clint
September 12, 2006	John Mayer	Continum	Kevin
September 19, 2006	Miami Vice	Soundtrack	Olaf
September 29, 2006	Chantal Kreviazuk	Ghost Stories	Annalee
October 15, 2006	Joseph Arthur	Nuclear Daydream	Nolan

Jesse Bell is Alive and Well.... and Living at daCapo

Well, due to things really REALLY hoppin' around here, we have asked Jesse Bell who is fresh off doing a full round of audio post production for a full season of television involving puppets, to give us a hand with Cloë.

All he know is that Cloë is a friendly children's cartoon aimed at helping them learn their numbers and recognize the different species of sea monsters... until... OH NO.... Jesse realizes this that all sea monsters are NOT polite. Fortunately for Jesse, Nolan was there to console him, and promise that the worst was yet to come!

Offical Opening!

We had our official opening of our new recording studio! In attendance were all the luminaries from daCapo Productions, including (from left to right) The Honorable Kevin Aichele, Olaf Pyttlik (Esquire), Nolan Balzer (Pig Searer), and Annalee Schellenberg (Spouse Extraordinaire of Steinbach Mayoral Hopeful). All went well.... until Kevin dropped the official scissors, at which point we revoked his 'Honorable' prefix and re-christened him Kevin 'The Klutzy'. Anyhow, Kevin finally got to sit behind his new workstation.... .... and we all listened in wonder to his first audio construction. You can listen to it too by clicking here!

New Staff, New Studio!

Well, it is now official, we have a new studio and new staff! As seen in these lovely photos, Olaf finished painting the new facility last week... ...note the lovely shade of yellow, which was the subject of much personal soul searching on Olaf's part... Painting always reminds me of when we were painting the outside of our building last year, and the paint store across the street from us RAN OUT OF PAINT! This, of course, reminded us of Monty Python's "Cheese Shop" sketch, and prompted us to update it for the paint store... you can listen to it by clicking here! Here we see Kevin moving into his new studio which we have dubbed "Baker Street", our other studios being named "Piccadilly Circus" and "Leicester Square" respectively. ...unfortunately, 10 minutes after moving in to the studio, Kevin tried to mitigate the bright yellow of the studio walls by using a soldering iron on himself OH NO!

A Strange Package Arrives

Our Friday afternoon was interrupted by the arrival of a strange and large package addressed to all daCapo staff members. We naturally assumed the worst, and called in the bomb squad to help deal with a potentially explosive situation... As it turns out, there was not much to worry about! It was a grab bag from our friends at FatKat Animation, filled with all sorts of things we need to keep going.... like dildos that spew insults! Nolan got a pair of in-link skates from Gene... Annalee was excited about the DVD on Miriamichi Salmon Fishing! I got that lingerie that I've been talking about for the last six months, and tried it on for everyone! There were some mishaps amidst the celebration however, as Nolan turned too quickly on his new skates (OH NO!) We also got some 'Happy Tree Friends' mints... ... that Nolan and Annalee were REALLY excited about. 'This is even better than that talking dildo' 'You're not kidding' OH NO! SEE WHAT THE MINTS DO (they got this move from Spraychel) Thanks all you Fatties! You made for an interesting afternoon. It has been awesome working on wacky projects for with you and hanging out.... now let's all go see what we can find in OUR basement to send to YOU...

daCapo Relay

Ok, this is old news, but I have been negligent in the Blogging department from time to time. Last month, daCapo had a relay team in the Manitoba Marathon, and we actually finished BEFORE SOME OTHER TEAM DID! Anyhow, I was poking around the Marathon web-site the other day and found these gems of photos from the event posted for the world to see... Here is Gene with half of Olaf... ... And Olaf with half of Gene. Gene's a good client and friend of ours from FatKat animation in New Brunswick... for some reason we thought it would be fun to have him come visit us....and run 12K. He must have liked it, 'cause he continued running until he did a half-marathon distance... here he is with Nolan on Nolan's leg. ...and here is Nolan running alone after Gene decided that half-a-marathon was about as much as any sane person should consider doing. Annalee could not make it out to the event (she says it was a family commitment, but I think she just had too much to drink out at the cottage the night before) so we got her sister Lisa to run for us. This is me... run Clint run. I ran the second last leg of the relay, which is awesome, as all the real runners have already done 20 miles AND ARE TIRED! You can breeze right by them and pretend that you are some kind of superhero (not that I actually DID that!)"

In other Marathon news, Olaf wrote a song to market the Manitoba Marathon a couple of years back, and you can hear it here...I Never Knew that I Could Fly

We've Been Framed

Construction continues, and we have now had our new studio completely framed and ready for heating/cooling and electrical work! On the left of this shot you can see where the new control room will be... And here is where the isolation booth will be constructed. For recording vocals, guitar and solitary confinement if necessary... Speaking of solitary confinement, I think Nolan wishes our old bathroom (soon to be ripped out and replaced) was a bit MORE solitary. He has that incontinent look in his eyes again! This old furnace is leaving us... in fact it is going this morning and a new high-efficiency one is coming to live here! OH NO! I know what is going on here... he has that 'cat in the litter box' look on his face...

Construction Day 1!

Things have been busy around the studio these days, and that's why we are BUILDING A NEW STUDIO in the gross and disgusting pit of despair that is our basement.

Thankfully the only person who will have to work in the basement, is Kevin the new guy, and he doesn't even KNOW about the hissing cockroach infestation!

Anyhow, I am going to try and chart the progress on our new rooms on this blog, starting with today, when the crowbar started pulling the old duct work off... Believe it or not, these shots are of the basement AFTER we cleaned it out! We are disgusting pigs! The fridge in the corner is a bio hazard. We have not opened it since it broke... 20 months ago. I am guessing the lettuce and liverwurst have done some pretty raunchy things since then... This old 'bathroom' was beyond disgusting... ...believe it or not, certain butt-cheeks have caressed this porcelain Petri dish in moments of gastro-intestinal upheaval (I'm looking YOUR way Nolan). And finally, here is a drawing of how it WILL look...

Stay tuned to see how things change day-to-day!

I Can't Believe It's... tomorrow already!

Things really heat up when daCapo works crazy hours. We are all stuck here at the studio doing some really funky audio for our (lovely, really we love you, LOVE!) clients: FatKat, Byte and Unilever!

Nolan realizes that the audio has to be mixed in COLOUR... It's 1:00 AM.. do you know where you sanity is?

Very Late Banff Update

Due to a delinquent blogger (me) we are really behind with our blog update from the Banff International Television Festival.

All went well, and Olaf had the opportunity to meet with many exciting producers and directors in the conference centre while I met with many directors and producers on the golf course!

The golf is amazing. Here's a shot from the Kananaskis Golf Course which I played with Cookiejar Entertainment, XMC Sports and Entertainment and Heenan Blaikie. Among the few events we did not forget to bring a camera to was the Banff Awards night. Olaf, his wife Ange, myself and Sherri my spouse on our way to the awards night. Hanging with Ralf-Peter and Corolla from ZDF in Germany! Here I am with Heather Watson in a really sexy flapper dress (Heather not me... I save that kind of thing mostly for at home). Olaf and I discussing who is going to look cooler in this shot. Note his look of quite resignation.

The other really freaky thing from that evening was that we found NOLAN'S EXACT DOUBLE! Assuming of course that Nolan was black, about 25 years older and about 50% cooler than he really is. Check it out... the resemblance is UNCANNY! The real Nolan Balzer who we know and love in a completely platonic sense... AND... his UNCANNY and COOL DOPPLEGANGER!