Thomas Midena

Matrix bridges mean I don't have to use social media anymore

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Setting up my own Matrix server came with the unexpected benefit of distancing me from all the worst social media platforms.

It was only afterwards that I realised there are paths to the same benefits with almost none of the hassle.

Social Media

None of us really want to be on social media, do we? I mean, some platforms are better than others, but at this point we're pretty familiar with their capacity to drain the life force from our very souls.

Like many of you, I try to use them only when and as much as I need to. Over the years I've done a pretty good job of deleting apps from my phone and using browser extensions to limit my exposure to annoying social feeds, but it's hard to completely break that reliance on social media platforms. Particularly if you've been on some of them for 15 years.

The biggest thing that has made removing Instagram or Facebook Messenger from my phone totally unfeasible is that all of these apps are also direct message services. And I don't know about your generation, but all the millennials I know use these far and above SMS text messages.

I mean, I can't just tell everyone that I'm only using Signal now, and that's the only place I can be contacted. Well, I could. But I don't think that would leave me with many friends.

So the only way to become less reliant on these apps was to effectively funnel direct messages from all these disparate apps into another place that was more under my control.

Which is exactly what I did with Matrix.

Matrix

Matrix is many things. It's an advanced open source messaging protocol. It's (relatively) popular. It's self-hostable. It's often considered to be one of the few worthwhile alternatives to Discord. And it's pretty bloody cool.

Matrix is one of those online things that can appear pretty daunting from afar. For years I'd heard about Matrix and what people were doing with it, but always felt like the whole thing was outside my reach.

But after Pangolin forced me to get comfortable with basic VPS management, I thought... how hard can it be?

And uh, look, I won't sugar-coat it... it's a bit hard.

It doesn't have to be. There are Matrix homeservers that you can join and get started immediately, no self-hosting necessary. There are platforms that make self-hosting your own Matrix instance as streamlined as possible. There are versions of Matrix that are somewhat easier to setup and maintain.

But I went fully in: a full Matrix Synapse instance. Partly because I'm silly, and partly because I wanted to ensure I was able to play with all the bells and whistles Matrix has to offer.

I lost days of my life to this thing. It's a pretty clean Docker Compose setup but all the variables and the production.yaml settings are quite fiddly. Admittedly, I did make the whole process harder for myself by making everything encrypted. You don't really have to do that.

Once I had it all up and running though... oh boy. Look on my works and despair etc (it's pretty great, although perhaps not as impressive as I initially thought).

I'm using the Mautrix bridges for Whatsapp, Meta (Facebook Messenger and Instagram), Signal and Google Messages. There are also a bunch of bridges for the likes of Telegram and Discord, which I may try at some point. There have been some reports of Discord accounts getting deactivated when they use a bridge, but hey, these days if any platform wants to ban me just because I'm using it the way I want, I don't care.

And effectively, these bridges make messages from all those other services appear as if they are any other message in Matrix. I can see all the chat history, I can send and receive messages and media files. It's really so flexible. This is digital minimalism at its finest. Admittedly kinda complicated and cutting-edge in the background, but logical and effortless in my everyday life.

I've been using this setup for nearly 6 months now, and I can no longer imagine life without it. One glance at my phone or my computer and I know that I'm across all my incoming messages from every app. I know that I can respond to any message from any of my devices. I can start a conversation on my desktop and continue it on my phone. And it's always easy as pie to see a list of the several people I haven't responded to in weeks and really should (sorry).

What's wild is that most of the time I don't even know (or care!) what apps other people are using to message me. It could literally be any of these and it makes no practical difference to me.

It really did surprise me that this Matrix implementation works beautifully. I've used message aggregator apps and services in the past which were all useless.

Well, it's not entirely perfect. Some of the bridges (particularly Meta and Google Messages) get logged out from time to time. But honestly, far less frequently than I expected. I consider a quick reconnect once every month or two to be totally acceptable maintenance.

And thanks to this setup, I've been able to completely remove Facebook Messenger and Instagram from my phone. I have to keep Whatsapp and Signal running, because those messages have to be delivered to the phone before the Matrix bridges can pick them up. But I've turned off all notifications for those apps and Google Messages, so Element X (my current Matrix Android client of choice) essentially acts as my one and only messaging app.

So it's all great. What a win, right?

Well, it turns out I didn't really need to do any of that.

Beeper

Beeper has been around for several years now, but it was only after agonising through my custom Matrix setup that I learned it's based on exactly the same technology.

I had assumed Beeper would be no different to the many terrible universal messaging apps I'd tried in the past... but since it uses the Matrix protocol and Mautrix bridges, it essentially wraps up my entire complicated setup into a much more accessible package. In fact, Beeper is actually a primary sponsor of the Mautrix project, and therefore the reason my setup works as well as it does!

I've dabbled with the Beeper app, and it's really easy to use. No Matrix configuration, just create an account and you can dive straight into all the message bridges.

It's also cool that Beeper has options for cloud-based and device-based bridges. In theory this lets you completely remove WhatsApp (for example) from your phone. How well it works though, I haven't investigated.

It's also worth noting that Beeper is a private US-based company, so if you use their service you've got to have a bit of trust there.

Honestly, if I had discovered Beeper before experimenting with Matrix, I likely would have been satisfied with that. But at this point I'm definitely sticking with the Matrix setup. Not only because I'm a big sunk cost fallacy guy, but also because Matrix does give me a lot of ownership, control and flexibility that any pre-packaged software will struggle to match.

It's also nice to have all of Matrix's features that go beyond just the Mautrix bridges that Beeper offers: flexible self-hosted secure chat, compatibility with every Matrix client on desktop and mobile, a solid foundation for all future developments.

Right now though, I'm just so glad I don't have to use Meta's apps on my phone. Obviously, long-term we want to abandon many of these abominable social media platforms entirely... but I consider this to be a big step towards relying on them less, and progress is progress!

My favourite soundtracks of 2025

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Once again I've forced myself to organise my favourite music from the last year into a big long list. I present to you my 25 top original scores released in the year 2025.

The video above presents this list with short excerpts from each score, but below you can find my list in written form. You can also listen to the playlist on Spotify.

25. MARTY SUPREME – Daniel Lopatin

We begin with Marty Supreme: an operatic, high energy, 80s-styled score. Daniel Lopatin uses synths, organs, flutes and awestruck voices to depict an exciting descent into chaos... all through a fairytale lens. The blend of a retro-electronic aesthetic and vaguely-religious chanting choirs gives this soundtrack a very culty feeling.

I love how big it gets. It takes Marty's perspective on his own life, depicting the character as all kinds of big and important and impressive. I love a score that isn't afraid to stand out and make itself known, and this one certainly caught my attention in the best way.

24. HADES II – Darren Korb

Hades II brings us more of the same music we heard in the first game, and that's a great thing. Bigger and longer hypnotic rock rhythms drag us deeper into a cool and fantastical hell.

There's a solid few hours of exciting new music here, and I particularly love the way the long cues take the time to tell a story of a unique character or place. And the playful little rhythms are relentless and irresistible.

23. LE SECRET DE MARTHA – Romain Paillot

Here's the beautiful, sweeping classical melody of the year. In the vein of Rachel Portman or Alexandre Desplat, the main theme from Le Secret De Martha is rich and confident. With a sumptuous blend of piano, strings and woodwinds it finds that perfect register, that melodramatic angst that tugs at your heartstrings, but still with the restraint to never become too sappy or saccharine.

Just a really beautiful dramatic score that doesn't overstay its welcome.

22. ANDOR (SEASON 2) – Brandon Roberts

For Andor's incredible second season, Brandon Roberts builds on Nicholas Britell's foundations; there's that gentle kind of tenderness, with relatively simple orchestrations, nothing too overbearing. The music on this show always feels aware that its underscoring some of the most electric drama ever put on TV, and for the most part it really doesn't have to do very much. But over the course of this score's three albums, the music deliberately starts reaching towards Michael Giacchino's Rogue One, slowly filling out the orchestra, slowly finding a greater sense of heroism -- if still tinged with tragic destiny.

There are also some exceptionally tense cues here that accompany the major set pieces towards the story's conclusion.

21. OUTLANDER: BLOOD OF MY BLOOD (SEASON 1) – Bear McCreary

Outlander gained yet another beautiful Bear McCreary score for this series, which keeps the same musical template but introduces some more instantly-indellible new themes.

The wistful sense of romantic longing this series has excelled at since the beginning is still alive and well.

20. KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE II – Jan Valta

The first of several expansive video game scores on the list is Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. This one has a very warm and authentic tone, welcoming us into a grounded medieval setting.

For the most part it holds off from getting too heroic or grandiose, but when it does, I find it really thrilling. Proper medieval fantasy stuff.

19. CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33 – Lorien Testard

It's definitely one of the most popular game scores of 2025, and it's easy to see why. For most of us, Clair Obscur came seemingly out of nowhere with many (and I mean many) hours of beautiful melodic music. Small string sections and light piano give life to a range of very playful and expressive themes. And astonishing rich voices are often used to great effect, singing quirky and catchy French-ish lyrics, telling tales we can't directly understand, but we can feel.

This is a huge, dynamic musical journey that tells a rich story. And one with such a huge quantity of music that I don't know if I'll ever feel like I've got my ears around the whole thing.

18. SWORD OF THE SEA – Austin Wintory

For as long as I've been aware of him, Austin Wintory has been one of the most exciting and prolific game composers around, putting out enviable quantities of wonderful music every year. Sword of the Sea is one of his latest works, and it puts many of his best traits on full display.

It has the sweeping adventure of Journey, the gentle nature-inspired sense of discovery of Abzu, the inventiveness of The Banner Saga, and the intelligent melodic richness of any Austin Wintory soundtrack. This is also just some of the cosiest, most warmly-inviting orchestration around.

17. STAR WARS OUTLAWS: WILD CARD & A PIRATE'S FORTUNE – Wilbert Roget, II & Cody Matthew Johnson

This is a most welcome expansion of the exceptional music that Star Wars Outlaws brought us in 2024. Again, the combination of classical John Williams ideas and the freshness of a slightly broader modern musical palette... it's so good, and I'd argue Star Wars has rarely sounded better or been more fun.

Every time Wilbert Roget, II does Star Wars I'm reminded of the brilliant Star Wars: The Old Republic, for which he played a significant role. There's so much of that DNA here, in the colourful little ideas, the choice of instrumentation, the playful ornamentation.

This isn't another one of those 5-10 hour long game scores; the album is only an hour long, and a chunk of that is cantina music. But the good stuff here is just so good. It's an absolute triumph.

16. ABSOLUM – Gareth Coker

Another big game score here, and one that totally blew me away. If Sword of the Sea was a kind of showpiece for everything Austin Wintory can do, I think Absolum does the same for Gareth Coker.

There's a lot in the mix here... some ARK heaviness, some Ori magic, some Immortals fantasy.

Wistful, melancholy atmospheres and very striking melodies drew me into this one. It's instantly memorable stuff. It reminds me at times of Recore, one of my absolute favourite game scores of all time, with ethereal female voices and a small rock orchestra combining to create really inspiring, striving themes.

All in all, Absolum is absolutely beautiful.

15. THE WAR BETWEEN THE LAND AND THE SEA – Lorne Balfe

Lorne Balfe enters the Whoniverse for this epic spinoff soundtrack. You'd think as a massive Doctor Who fan I would have watched this by now, but I haven't. I've been loving the music though.

It's Lorne Balfe completely in His Dark Materials mode; stomping-big fantasy, styled in the manner of Hans Zimmer's Remote Control. In a way it's nothing we haven't heard from Balfe before, but this is just a really nice new package of it. There isn't much subtlety to it, but it's got a soul to it... there's heart and passion in here. More than anything, it's just fun to have such an easy-to-enjoy big new fantasy score like this.

14. PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS (SEASON 2) – Bear McCreary & Sparks & Shadows

Musically, the second season of Percy Jackson leans pretty heavily on what worked before. But when what worked before was a colourful and heroic fantasy score full of great themes and action cues, that's a very good thing.

The track "Chariot Race" is just about as good as action cues get... dancing between a dozen motifs and ideas with real verve and panache.

Turns out Bear McCreary's team kinda know what they're doing. Go figure.

13. PREDATOR: BADLANDS – Sarah Schachner

After Sarah Schachner's Prey a few years ago, I was very keen to hear what her next moves would be in the Predator universe. And Predator: Badlands is very cool. It dives headfirst into dark, huge and overbearing synth, incorporating very cool alien language as music, as well as dabbling with light and playful themes, like in the track "Meet Thia".

Despite clearly using so much synth and digital technology, there's also such a rich, tangible sound to this score. It sounds like things are physically being hammered and broken and twisted and destroyed to bring these sounds to our ears. Schachner's music for this series is one of the most unique and easily identifiable musical worlds in a recent film series, and I hope she gets the chance to build on it in future movies.

12. DOCTOR WHO (SERIES 10) – Murray Gold

It's a pleasure to have Murray Gold's Doctor Who on one of my yearly lists for the first time. Even if it's for music he wrote nearly a decade ago.

The soundtrack for Series 10 was finally released late in 2025, and it's an absolute treat. I don't think it ever quite reaches the heights of Series 3 or Series 5, but that doesn't mean it's not one of the best things I heard all year.

Anyone who's already familiar with Murray Gold already knows this, but he cooks insanely hard on Doctor Who. He really is to Doctor Who as John Williams is to Star Wars, no doubt. Some of the most thrilling and open-hearted modern orchestral music out there.

Between Bill's theme and some incredible cues from the final few episodes of Series 10, this new album has plenty to offer.

11. GHOST OF YOTEI – Wataru Hokoyama, Toma Otowa

When I saw that there was a sequel to Ghost of Tsushima, I had some pretty high expectations for the music. Thankfully, Ghost of Yotei does not disappoint. This is a rousing epic, with beautiful Japanese instrumentation and a charming William Tell-esque giddy-up energy. There's also real sensitivity and pathos in this. Just like last time, as epic as things get, the most wonderful thing is how emotional the whole package is.

I'm also really glad that just like Ghost of Tsushima, this soundtrack features beautiful thematic songs that use the same melodies as the rest of the score. Love that.

10. AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH – Simon Franglen

The third Avatar film is more of the same, but when it comes to the music I'd argue its never sounded better. I mean the soundtracks for this series have always been beautiful and luscious and inviting... but now it's all of that alongside a greater sense of confidence and maturity.

I think Simon Franglen managed to push the envelope a little further on this one. The orchestra just sounds so big and self-assured. James Horner's themes are now effortlessly intertwined with Franglen's own ideas. There's also some shocking, intense instrumentation for some of the film's bad guys.

This is the kind of epic classical orchestral score that we only seem to get a few times a year lately, but in my opinion its still the best sonic template out there.

9. CREATION OF THE GODS II – Gordy Haab

Speaking of the best sonic template out there... Gordy Haab delivers it big time in Creation of the Gods II. This is probably the biggest-sounding orchestra on my list this year. Like, not in an artificial Remote Control way, just a really big orchestra with a whole bunch of players. And it's having so much fun, with long, propulsive action cues filled with fist-pumping melodies.

I've listened to a lot of Gordy Haab's Star Wars music over the years, but I must say I actually liked this even more. It feels like removing the expectations of the Star Wars template allowed him to unleash a whole bunch of really dynamic ideas.

I also find a unique joy in these amazing scores for movies I've never heard of and I'll probably never see. The music is the entire experience for me here.

8. THE ECHOES OF ETERNITY (AION2) – Simon Franglen, Ryo Kunihiko & NCSOUND

I've been a big fan of a lot of the Aion music in the past, so when I discovered there was a sequel with a nearly 4-hour-long album release... it was basically Christmas.

Then I listened to it, and it was the best Christmas ever. The orchestration and recording on much of this soundtrack blows me away. It has its moments of grandiosity, but it's also regularly intimate enough that you can hear all the authentic detail of the instruments.

A lot of these tracks play out like haunting lullabies, often reusing musical ideas from earlier Aion games, but with such stunning beauty that I never begrudged the retread.

And Simon Franglen is here again! I never would have expected him to join the world of Aion, but it's actually a perfect fit. His lush worlds intertwine with the existing DNA of Aion really elegantly.

Later in the album things mellow out into some fairly stock standard action stuff, but there's heaps to love here.

7. DUNE: AWAKENING – Knut Avenstroup Haugen

And here is the coolest score of the year, in my opinion. Dune: Awakening may take some inspiration from other Dune music we've heard in recent years, but it's also very much its own thing. And it's just incredibly cool.

There's an old-fashioned, sort of retro feel to this score. At times it feels straight out of a 90s video game, but with a richer sound. And that suits the world of Dune so well, which in itself is this sort of blend of past and future.

I don't think this would work if it didn't sound so incredibly confident and self-assured, but oh boy, it sounds like it knows what it's doing, and it works brilliantly.

6. CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD – Laura Karpman & Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum

Laura Karpman goes in a completely different direction to her previous Marvel scores here. Brave New World sounds like a tense and exciting thriller, with some flourishes that certainly reminded me of Henry Jackman's Winter Soldier.

The instantly iconic main theme is built around a tight and controlled rhythm, which returns both softly and with great force throughout the soundtrack. I think it's brilliant to have this great hook that we can keep returning to so regularly and so effortlessly.

The movie itself may not live up to it, but this soundtrack is brilliantly dangerous and intense.

5. HOLLOW KNIGHT: SILKSONG – Christopher Larkin

You know I delight in the rare opportunity to celebrate an Australian composer on my list. And Christopher Larkin deserves heaps of celebration for his gorgeous and enormous soundtrack for Hollow Knight: Silksong.

A bunch of cues here push the strings to the limits, driving breathless action with stunning dexterity. And as with so many of these great game soundtracks, there are really riveting quieter atmospheric tracks here too, painting vivid pictures of magical places.

I was lucky enough to hear some of this soundtrack played by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra before the game even came out, which as you can imagine was an absolute thrill. It's a great one.

4. F1 – Hans Zimmer

This is some of that pure Hans Zimmer crack, and I'll take it whenever I can get it.

Held together by Interstellar-like ticking percussion, F1's powerful main themes are a perfect melding of heart, grit and awe.

It's not unlike things we've heard Zimmer do a bunch of times before, and it's not that unique or surprising, but it's just such a potent distillation of some of the best modern epic action writing. This score has one job: it should make me want to drive fast. And it absolutely does that.

3. STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW – Mick Giacchino

Mick Giacchino enters the Star Wars universe for some extremely charming light pirate-y adventure.

Well I say "light", but this also gets surprisingly dark. Mick Giacchino follows Jude Law's fantastic Long John Silver performance into some pretty dark and sinister places.

There's so much Star Wars in my favourite soundtracks every single year, and it's because composers keep coming in like this and taking what John Williams started and expanding it and taking it in fresh directions and just giving it new life. This score is so terrifically playful.

A little warning... there are different mixes depending on where you listen to this, and one sounds a lot better than the other. The streaming copy in a lot of places doesn't sound that great for some reason, but if you can get the CD version, that's the good stuff!

2. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING – Max Aruj & Alfie Godfrey

I loved Lorne Balfe's Dead Reckoning soundtrack so much that when I heard he was no longer working on The Final Reckoning, I was pretty disappointed.

But these composers I'd never heard of, Max Aruj and Alfie Godrey, totally surprised me with my second-favourite score of the year.

The film itself may be a bit of a mess, but musically The Final Reckoning effectively continues in Lorne Balfe's footsteps with an incredibly bombastic action score. This is like Hans Zimmer's Remote Control sound being taken to the extreme, if that's even possible. It's so over the top, in a way that I definitely wouldn't want every score to be. But in this case, it really works.

This is action melodrama on the biggest scale imaginable.

1. THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS – Michael Giacchino

Fantastic Four: First Steps is utterly delightful, and an easy pick for my favourite score of the year! This is probably my favourite Michael Giacchino score since Doctor Strange. It's just a full-throated and sophisticated superhero score which isn't too cool to sing its own title for the main theme. That's hard to pull off, and very few get away with it... but just like Robocop 2, here it works. It's fun and cheeky and playful, but not a joke.

The space-faring optimism seeded throughout this soundtrack is really exciting, and it's perfectly balanced by darker themes with real stakes. The villain material here is just as good as any of the heroic material, and gives the score as a whole such fantastic light and shade.

Did I say fantastic? Yeah, let's go with that.

Wrapping Up

This was another pretty good year for music. I think there was heaps of "good" music, enough that (as usual) it would have been easier to make a much longer list.

There maybe weren't as many real-standouts this year, compared to previous years. As much as I do love the top three scores on this list, I think it's one of the weaker top threes I've had in the seven years that I've done this list. Just not as many scores that I'd give 10/10 top marks.

As always, I feel bad about all the things I couldn't fit on the list. But I did decide I didn't really need to include great new albums that were extremely similar to things we've heard before... like John Powell's new How To Train Your Dragon.

The split across categories this year was almost exactly the same as last year. Not quite sure how I managed that! But I again had 6 TV shows, 9 movies, and a slightly larger share of video games with 10 on the list.

Nothing on my list was nominated at the Academy Awards this year. It is kinda wild how infrequently that seems to align.

Let's see, any composer double ups? Well Bear McCreary's here twice. Both Mick and Michael Giacchino are in the top 3. And surprisingly, Simon Franglen appeared twice. Couldn't have anticipated that!

As always, thanks for watching. I really enjoy making these, and it's really good icing on the cake if anyone enjoys watching them.

Should be a good list next year... I've already been listening to some amazing new releases for 2026. Until next time!

Yamtrack is the best escape from Trakt's enshitification

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

About a year ago I made a video about some dreadful decisions being made by the people behind Trakt, which until then had been my favourite movie and TV show tracking website.

Well it seems like bad decision has followed bad decision and now even more users, alienated by Trakt's latest blunders, are searching for alternative platforms.

Trakt

It is a shame, really. I discovered Trakt around 2012, and even wrote a blog post about it around that time, describing it as "a magnificent website which I highly recommend to lovers of TV or film."

For years it was a pretty-good-looking website that made it easy as pie to track the media you watch. And simply by including TV shows as well as movies, it blew competitors like Letterboxd out of the water (TV is good!).

It also had a great community feel. It was big enough to get clever little comments on most episodes of popular shows, but small enough that you'd often see the same commenters and get to know their tastes. There are a handful of other users I genuinely enjoyed following, always interested in their take on the latest episode of Dexter or The Good Wife. Some of my own little one-line reviews were even pretty popular:

Trakt always had VIP features behind a paywall, but they were never related to the main tracking or list-making features. VIP was primarily sold as a way to support the site and the community. It was affordable, too. At $15 USD a year, it was early on that I thought, "hey, I like this site, I'm happy to throw in a few bucks!"

Cut to now, my 13 year VIP subscription is ending in a few weeks. Because this is no longer the friendly little tracking website it used to be.

Basic features like making lists are now partially locked behind a paywall. And VIP subscriptions have blown up to $60 USD a year — for everyone, no grandfathered rates.

Alongside this, the developers seem determined to continually try to fix what ain't broke.

"Trakt Lite" is the latest version of the site, that's been available in preview for some time. When it was first announced, I was one of many who asked "what is this and why are you making it?", and never received a coherent response. Now, it seems they're gearing up to replace the existing version of Trakt with this "Trakt Lite" monstrosity. And people aren't happy.

Why? Because it's simply worse. It's harder to navigate. It has missing features. It obscures access to simple navigation and tracking. The whole thing looks more like a mobile app than a website. There's only one positive thing I've heard anyone say about it — it runs fast. It's technically a slicker, faster version of the site. But it's no fun to use.

These changes go hand in hand with a mobile app redesign that recently came out of the blue and changed things for everyone. The pushback against these changes on Reddit and Trakt's forums over the past few weeks has been loud and clear...

These two posts capture the sentiment of many hundreds of disgruntled users who have been prompted to share their comments in recent weeks.

Possibly most egregious of all, in my opinion, is Trakt's partnership with Younify, to facilitate automatic scrobbling from streaming services. A feature that sounds pretty cool and useful on paper but is rumoured to be one of the key reasons they now need to charge $60/year. The collaboration was never openly described or explained to Trakt's users, and it demonstrates a core mission change from friendly community website to expensive commercial platform.

I have nothing against automatic scrobbling features, but if that's what they cost to run for each user, something is rotten. The best scrobblers use open source code to send basic data from one location to another.

All I want is a basic and easy-to-use website that remembers everything I've watched. Ultimately this is a glorified spreadsheet, with pretty pictures. But Trakt now seems to think itself some kind of fancy premium media kiosk.

I'm don't know the numbers, but my guess would be that Trakt is probably actually pretty popular. At some point it may have reached a point of critical mass, where word was positive and signups were bountiful. Perhaps it has more users (and more paying users) right now than ever before. Perhaps many of those users are even pleased with the latest changes. But just because something is mainstream, doesn't mean it's not stupid. And those who have used Trakt for a long time know it's only been getting worse.

Some users will hate these changes, but stick it out with Trakt. And sure, the higher costs and worsening interfaces can be tolerated... but on principle I do not want to be a part of a user base that is so obscenely and consistently ignored by its custodians.

Hence, the search for a new tracker.

There are actually a lot of alternatives out there, like Simkl or Serializd (why are the names all just letter salads nowadays?).

But I've been burned enough. Sure, I could try my luck with another one of these closed source web services, from developers I don't know, with unclear monetisation plans. But I've decided to break free.

Yamtrack

Yamtrack is a self-hosted open source media tracking app that began development just a few years ago.

Yep, you've gotta self-host it. I swear that's not as daunting as it may sound. But I get it, if you've never self-hosted before, it can be hard to get started. Since I've been self-hosting for a couple years now, it's a topic I'm keen to write about much more soon. It's something that should be accessible to everyone, especially in this day and age. (I might make a video about setting up Yamtrack in the near future.)

Being free and open source are huge boons here. My data isn't trapped in some service with a tenuous future, it's mine forever. There's no chance of it being sold or misused, I'm the only one with access to it. Each update and change is transparent and community-led. The worst possible outcome for a project like this is that it's abandoned by the developer. Certainly a potential scenario, especially in this case where the project is led by one sole developer. But the collapse of Yamtrack's development would still leave me in full control of all of my data and plenty of options on where to take it next.

Open source means unlimited potential. Someone has already forked Yamtrack and started adding features more rapidly, if that's what you're into. (I suspect this fork is a little vibe-coded, which is fine, but adds slight risk.)

And Yamtrack itself is exactly what I want. It's like the Trakt of yore: just the basics without too many frills. It's easy to find, rate and mark as watched any movie or TV show. It's got statistics, lists and a basic calendar. And thanks to a solid Trakt import feature, it was easy to move over all my data.

Yamtrack can even track other media like books and video games. I haven't tried these yet but I don't see why they shouldn't work quite well. Transferring in my book history from StoryGraph is on my to-do list for some point in the future.

Simplicity is underrated, and Yamtrack does what it should without over-complicating things.

Of course, it isn't perfect. It's still so new, how could it be? These are some of the most important features I'm patiently awaiting:

Rating and commenting on individual episodes of TV Shows
Easier controls for dropping and re-watching TV Shows
Wrapped/Year in Review stats

It's easy to imagine (but much less easy to implement, I'm sure) that one day federation implementation could allows all Yamtrack servers to share comments between one another. At that point we essentially return to feature parity with Trakt at its best, the difference being we now have total control of our data.

I do believe the internet can actually be that good. One step at a time!

So from now on I'll be sticking with Yamtrack, and ignoring all the Trakt drama and nonsense. Thanks for 13 good years and good riddance.

My favourite media of 2025

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

2025 has come and gone. Another year made so much better by great stories. And the only thing better than watching, reading, listening to and playing... is sharing those experiences with other human beings. So here we go!

TV Shows

Of all the mediums, in my opinion TV continues to feature the most stand-out original art.

My top picks are book-ended by Star Wars: Skeleton Crew was some of the most adventurous fun I had all year (Jude Law is a perfect Long John Silver), and Andor Season 2 used a galaxy far, far away as the backdrop to a riveting rise against fascism.

The sci-fi thrills continued in Pluribus and Alien: Earth, both of which hooked me at the start and maybe lost a little bit of my attention by the end. Really hoping to see them both return of second seasons before too long.

A strong year for clever comedies between English Teacher Season 2 (uncomplicated laughs), The Chair Company (complicated laughs) and The Rehearsal Season 2 (extremely complicated laughs). I've loved all of Nathan Fielder's work, but I really think this season of The Rehearsal was his greatest work yet.

The second season of Poker Face was a complete delight, and ended in a really exciting way. I'm sad to hear a third season isn't a surety at this point, because there really isn't much on TV quite like this.

Finally, the dramas. The latest trip to The White Lotus may have been my favourite yet, thanks to a really incredible ensemble of some of the most excruciating characters imaginable. Adolescence has been talked to death, and with good reason, it wowed me and broke me simultaneously; my heart saying "this is unbearable" while my brain said "what the heck how did they pull this off". Task was a perfect short HBO drama with incredible performances and an interest in revealing radical kindness within dire circumstances. Then there's The Pitt, an addicting adrenaline ride that proves truly long-form TV isn't dead quite yet!

Movies

I don't feel like I loved heaps of movies that I saw this year. Not compared to other recent years. Still, there were enough to make a great top ten.

A decent year for superhero movies. Superman was essentially everything I wanted it to be. Perhaps not as neat and tidy a movie as it could have been, but its heart was in the right place. The same could be said for Thunderbolts, which somehow defied the constraints of the Marvel machine to tell an intimate story about small-scale struggles.

I'm Still Here and It Was Just an Accident were such difficult, challenging films. Very uncomfortable very important stories. Black Bag was Soderbergh at his best: slick, smart and agile.

I really enjoyed the deft handling of religious themes in Conclave and Wake Up Dead Man. These are films that could have easily taken cheap shots in many different directions, but neither takes the easy path. They sit with difficulty, but it doesn't ever feel like a burden to watch. That's good writing.

Jay Kelly surprised me as a really tender and charming glimpse into aspects of Hollywood. One Battle After Another is probably Paul Thomas Anderson's most broadly-appealing movie yet, and such a perfect play on some of the most important themes of our time.

Horror dominated my 2025 though. Between Bring Her Back and Weapons, I was so impressed by the way horror movies continue to delve unblinkingly into the most shocking, horrifying, unbearable ideas at the core of human experience. These movies aren't just scary, they're weighing our deepest fears.

Oh and I had to throw KPop Demon Hunters in there because it's just very cool.

Books

At the beginning of 2025 I set a goal to read at least 25 books in 2025. I started strong towards this goal, but as so often happens, things got in the way and my reading dropped off dramatically. Alas, here's what I enjoyed reading, and I will aim for 26 in 2026!

Alongside enjoying some easy Star Wars and Harry Potter books in Spanish, I also caught up on another decent novella in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. There are two other books that I'll highlight here:

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro I read this before also watching the movie for the first time. I knew it was going to be a sad story of some kind, but I wasn't prepared for how deeply upsetting the story is at its core. Before you even get to the intricate details and character beats that make this tale utterly tragic, the very idea of this is just soul-crushing. I loved it. (The film's good too, but in a different way to the book.)

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney This hooked me big time. It's my first Rooney novel so it look me a little while to enjoy the rhythm of the writing, the naturalistic flow of characters' thoughts. Before long it feels good though, like a monologue, no distinction needed between an inner thought and something that's said aloud, one is as significant as the other. I found the characters incredibly endearing, and the relationships between them so tenuous and delicate but also so important. As if two people seeing eye to eye is the most unlikely but most wonderful thing in the world. By the end I was a broken wreck. Seriously. Love that.

Music

Once again, soundtrack music was my most constant companion. This is what I listened to the most:

Giacchino continues to top my listens. Makes sense, for a while there his output each year was insane.

F1, Fantastic Four: First Steps and Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning were the new scores that I kept on repeat. Sometimes you just need those deep motivational action cues to keep you going in life, you know?

And one of the most exciting and long-anticipated releases of 2025 was definitely the Doctor Who Series 10 soundtrack. I can't believe it finally hit. I've definitely been spinning that one quite a few times.

In February I'll be posting my annual Favourite Soundtracks of the Year video, so I'll discuss my favourite music of 2025 in more depth there.

Games

I didn't play heaps of games in 2025, but did enjoy a relapse into World of Warcraft.

Dabbling with Retail with some friends (some of whom were completely new to the game) was a lot of fun. But it was in Classic Anniversary (vanilla) where we had our most memorable experiences. The slower, more deliberate, more purposeful version of the game is certainly the more satisfying experience. I never would have guessed back in 2008 when I was trying WoW for the first time that over 15 years later I'd be playing an even earlier version of the game.

It sounds incredibly stupid and obvious to say that World of Warcraft has a lot going for it, but it really does. I just wish they'd consolidate their offerings a little bit. Between Retail, Classic, Classic Anniversary, and Seasonal varieties, the game's population is so incredibly fractured. Which unfortunately means an Australian server can't even survive on Classic (according to Blizzard, anyway -- if you ask me, it's yet another case of Oceanic servers being mismanaged into death). Perhaps they have plans to improve the situation in future with the highly anticipated Classic+.

Podcasts

Last but not least, podcasts. Because a movie, show or game hasn't truly existed if I haven't enjoyed some thorough discussion of it.

As such, film and TV podcasts rule my listening across the year. I've listened to The Filmcast for nearly 20 years at this point, and The Weekly Planet for about half that time. I'll also follow Joanna Robinson wherever she goes (no one covers TV better), hence House of R and The Prestige TV Podcast. Also cool to see my mate's extremely entertaining D&D podcast Theatre of the Mind Flayer round out my top 5 on Pocket Casts.

Can't wait to see what 2026 brings!

Fedora helped me finally ditch Windows for good

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Windows is awful. Some tell themselves it's a necessary evil to get through the day, but let's be real, we all hate it. I've dreamed of ditching Windows for many years. But every time I've tried Linux, I haven't been able to stick with it.

Until now, that is!

A year ago I decided to try Fedora for the first time. I've always been daunted by it. People talk about it as if it's a hardcore tinkerer's operating system, best for those who already live and breathe Linux, and who aren't daunted by constant issues caused by cutting edge updates.

But after not being totally satisfied with more entry-level distros like Linux Mint and Zorin OS, I was keen to try something different. In 2024 I attempted to go full-time with Linux Mint, and although there was much to appreciate, I felt like I was often fighting against the OS to get it to do what I needed it to do. I'm still a big fan of these Ubuntu-based operating systems -- I've set up Zorin OS as a Windows replacement for several family members. But as a power user, they just don't satisfy my needs.

For me, a desktop operating system needs to:

be reliable (relatively stable and crash-free)
be efficient (quiet, easy to use, effortless to complete simple tasks)
run all the software (there shouldn't be anything I'm simply unable to do)

For me, Fedora ticks all of these boxes.

I was surprised to find Fedora 42 KDE Plasma incredibly welcoming and accessible. Contrary to what I'd heard about it being advanced and complicated, I actually consider it to be the most "ready to go" flavour of Linux I've ever used.

It's better than Windows, though that's a very low bar. It's heaps faster than Windows 11. Not just in everyday tasks, but also in most video games (thanks Proton!). And out of the box Fedora is actually incredibly easy to use... I came thinking I'd need to tweak and customise for ages before I was happy with the setup, but that's not the case.

(Granted, I suppose I do have a fair bit of Linux experience at this point. After tinkering with Debian on Chromebooks years ago, and using Unraid for servers, I'm certainly no longer afraid of the Terminal.)

There a lots of great touches throughout the Fedora operating system. Useful little quality of life features like the "Extract here and delete archive" option in Dolphin's (file browser) context menu. When I saw it, I thought that's such a no-brainer, why hasn't it always been an option across every operating system ever? How often do you really want to keep a zip file after extracting it?

That's not to say there are no issues. Fedora's cutting edge update stream is one of the best and worst things about it. Imperfect updates have broken things for me over hte last year:

for a little while Flatpaks wouldn't open
for a month Zed wouldn't launch
Feishin wouldn't play audio smoothly to monitor over HDMI

But Fedora's updates are fast and comprehensive and all of these issues disappeared on their own within a couple of weeks. All I needed was a little patience.

That's not to say I was trapped with these issues though. These were all issues that I probably could have fixed if I put in some time and effort. That's one of my favourite things about Linux... since the code keeping everything running is easy to see (and largely open source), most issues really are fixable.

When something breaks on Linux, there's a reason. A reason that can usually be discovered. It's possible to actually investigate what's occurring, as opposed to Windows, where the background code is so obfuscated that if you want to fix something you may as well throw a wishing stone into a well and try again later.

The biggest thing that's prevented me from sticking with Linux is the past is the difficulty of running a mainstream video editing application. I've found Davinci Resolve relatively fiddly to set up on every Linux distro, and Fedora is no exception. Things are better than they've ever been though, and I do now have Davinci running adequately. This was made achievable by some very helpful Github projects: Davinci Helper is what got me going last year, but more recently I've preferred the Davincibox setup.

Every other piece of software is much more effortless. I've replaced Adobe Lightroom with Darktable and Visual Studio Code with Zed (although VS Code does run fine on Linux). Every other application I use is already Linux-friendly.

All in all, I've never been happier with my computer! With Fedora I feel like I'm in full control of my powerful desktop PC, and I very rarely have any headaches. I'm excited by the endless customisation and improvements that's possible when you live in the Linux ecosystem. I'm thrilled to be out of the clutches of seriously-fairly-evil big tech. And I genuinely feel awful for everyone who's still having to put up with Windows.

It turns out, this really was the year of the Linux desktop. For me, anyway. And with the Steam Machine launching very soon... I reckon 2026 will be the year of Linux for a lot of people.

My favourite soundtracks of 2024

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

For the sixth year in a row, I've created a list of my favourite soundtrack music of the year. This year I present my 24 top original scores released in the year 2024.

The video above presents this list with short clips from each score, but below you can find my list in written form.

24. IF – Michael Giacchino

Well, it's a colourful and delightful Michael Giacchino score! He's very much in his Pixar mode here; cutesy melodies with playful instrumentation, whistling and upbeat.

It never really gets very complicated or intricate, but it's very pleasant and in places effectively touching and nostalgic. The only downside is that on album it struggles to really get going. There are great statements of themes, but even on the suite tracks they somehow struggle to take off into a really satisfying cue.

That said, beautiful short statements are better than no statements at all!

23. RED ROOMS – Dominique Plante

The highlight of this score is this courtly sort of baroque canon, lulling us into a sense of security and order. It sounds like progress, but underneath there's certainly a sense of irony, of farce.

In other places, this film score also features some strange, twisted material with modulating strings and trance-inducing percussion. Plus some distorted screams in places, to make sure you're really discomforted.

It's a memorable score for a disturbing film.

22. THE DRY 2: FORCE OF NATURE – Peter Raeburn

This is a surprisingly sweet and tender score that—actually, no, the sweetness and tenderness wasn't the surprising part about The Dry 2 . What surprised me is how epic and sweeping it can get.

The relatively contained mystery movie here didn't necessarily beg for such scope, but this music leans into a heightened sense of melodrama in a way that I absolutely love.

I'm also delighted to have something Australian on the list this year. Rare for me!

21. WOODWALKERS – Anne-Kathrin Dern

Anne-Kathrin Dern has been on my radar since The Devil Conspiracy, and this was my favourite score of hers I heard in 2024.

She's done well here working with a film that was clearly using temp tracks from things like Pirates of the Caribbean and maybe some other Remote Control scores. And when I hear something that's clearly following a temp, emulating the pattern of a cue I'm much more familiar with, I become very interested in how this composer has made their music different.

And even in those temp-y places, Woodwalkers is plenty original. Its main themes are full and rich, blanketing the whole score in magic. I love the warm, heavy strings.

All in all, Woodwalkers is rather wondrous and wonderful.

20. THE PENGUIN – Mick Giacchino

We had Michael Giacchino, now let's have his son, Mick.

There isn't a massive orchestra on this score, but the instruments sound so good. Mick Giacchino is clearly benefiting from some family expertise in giving character to the orchestra.

But yeah, this is deliberately more intimate and smaller in scale than The Batman, though it continues many of the same musical ideas. Disturbing psycho-esque strings, for example, are used to great effect.

The main motif for The Penguin is a simple little two-note riff, like Hans Zimmer's Batman theme. It's an instantly iconic identifier.

And it all culminates in a really wonderful frantic, chaotic, powerful main theme.

19. WICKED – John Powell and Stephen Schwartz

This is an interesting one, because since it's a musical we kind of need to clarify: am I talking about the score, or the songs, or both?

Well, I'm here doing this because I'm primarily a fan of orchestral music, so that's where my focus is. And John Powell and Stephen Schwartz have made a really luscious colourful score in that regard. It has really wonderful moments of incredibly detailed expansive composition—some of the most beautiful moments in a score this year.

The only thing that doesn't let it reach really great heights, in my opinion, is the fact that it's clearly connected to a musical. So anytime the orchestral score feels like it's building to something... it doesn't quite get there, because it's been building to a song, which is over on the other soundtrack.

That handicaps it a little bit. But still, some of these tracks are pure magic.

18. CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 6 – Jack Wall

I'm still pretty new to being a fan of the music of this series, but a couple years ago Bear McCreary's Call of Duty was my favourite score of the whole year, so I'm pretty on board for each new release.

And Black Ops 6 by Jack Wall reminded me in some ways of how entertaining I found that Bear McCreary one. This is a big and propulsive score... lots of musical ideas, really energetic and pulse-pounding.

Occasionally that becomes too much, a bit of a Wall of sound (so to speak), but throughout the album there are points where I think that mix is just right, and it feels like a big action blockbuster.

17. CONCORD – Daniel Pemberton

Now to a much less popular game, to say the least. A game that failed so spectacularly you can't even play it anymore.

Thankfully, we get to keep Daniel Pemberton's score, which is super charming and energetic. It sort of does the Overwatch thing, of having contemporary rhythms and some classical heroic motifs on top, but I'd say Concord actually leans a little more cool and modern compared to Overwatch's sometimes kooky retro style.

Either way, it's certainly good at hyping me up.

16. WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES – Rachel Portman & Jon Ehrlich

Nothing like a bit of Rachel Portman to tug on your heartstrings. Here with Jon Ehrlich too, we have a classy drama score that I really enjoyed, especially when it goes big.

When it soars, it's really something. When that main theme kicks in, your heart explodes. That's just Rachel Portman, that's how it works.

15. THAT CHRISTMAS – John Powell

Putting this above Wicked is probably a little controversial, but for me, That Christmas was the John Powell music that most delighted me this year.

It's whimsical and Christmas-y and gets just as playful as any of the best John Powell scores from over the years. It's yet another reminder, as if we needed it, of just how agile John Powell's writing can be, with cues that jump from idea to idea without ever feeling too busy or directionless.

I mean, as all John Powell fans know very well, when it comes to melody and leitmotif, he's one of the best in the business.

14. ARK: THE ANIMATED SERIES – Gareth Coker

Gareth Coker has created a lot of music for the ARK series of games over the years, but now here he is doing a score to an ARK animated series.

He's brought over many of his great existing themes, and he continues to flesh out this bombastic soundscape. I just find all of the music in this series so listenable.

And to contrast with the bombast, there's some really delicate, gentle, romantic material in here too, which surprised me a bit.

Technically this release is labelled as Volume 1, but I don't believe there's been a Volume 2... yet? Which is fine. This release is uh... over 3 hours long. There's so much to enjoy.

13. FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH – Various Artists

This is one of those soundtracks that's kind of impossible to summarise. It is many hours of music. Not all of it is great, and a lot of it is in styles of music I don't really enjoy.

But so much more of it is great than needs to be, and some of it is out of this world.

Of course, as a re-imagining of Final Fantasy VII, this sees the return and reinvigoration of some of the greatest themes in the history of video games. Many of the reiterations are beautiful beyond words.

My only worry is finding the time to listen properly to all of it!

12. PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE LOST CROWN – Mentrix & Gareth Coker

Prince of Persia!

This game score has a little bit of Hades about it, with some electrifying high-tempo beats. It's got some really cool tracks, and when it comes to the main theme, which is my favourite part of the soundtrack, its presentation can be so huge and enormous, like the example you've just heard.

I didn't expect Prince of Persia to sound like ARK, but thanks to Gareth Coker, that's sometimes the case.

Prince of Persia is higher than ARK on my list because overall I just found it to be a newer and fresher experience in 2024.

11. MASTERS OF THE AIR – Blake Neely

Blake Neely has big shoes to fill in this follow-up to Band of Brothers and The Pacific. And I think he really pulls it off.

This is exactly the sort of sentimental World War II soundtrack that I was hoping for. It combines some gloriously wistful, patriotic sop with some really tense and exciting action cues.

It's really what it says on the tin, and that's a great thing.

10. HOUSE OF THE DRAGON SEASON 2 – Ramin Djawadi

A dark and brooding score here for a season of House of the Dragon that's all about the inevitable escalation of war.

And there's actually a recurring motif that exactly represents that theme, sometimes in the form of this foreboding wailing female vocal. It's really raw and tragic.

A lot of this soundtrack is quite bleak, similar to previous Ramin Djawadi Game of Thrones music, but it's still full of standout pieces of beautiful montage and intense action.

9. TALES OF KENZERA: ZAU – Nainita Desai

This one came out of nowhere for me. I'm not familiar with the game or the composer.

It's really exciting though. Brilliant musical storytelling—you don't need anything but the music to start seeing vivid images. There are clearly a lot of inspirations here, but what immediately jumped out to me is some very big Ludwig Goransson Black Panther inspiration, particularly on a couple of action cues.

But hey, again, being able to see a clear line between this and its inspirations doesn't negatively impact my enjoyment in the least.

This is just a gorgeous and vibrant soundtrack.

8. TRANSFORMERS ONE – Brian Tyler

I never thought a spiritual sequel to Brian Tyler's Transformers Prime soundtrack from 2012 is something we'd get. But here it is. Brian Tyler even references those great old themes!

Anyway, even if you don't already love the music of Transformers Prime, Transformers One is so great.

Brian Tyler gives the Transformers such profound nobility in his iconic long-winded melodies. There are few things that I love more than a big melodic Brian Tyler blockbuster score, and this really is another good one.

Some really, really big heavy brass here too, and that always gets me.

7. YOUNG WOMAN AND THE SEA – Amelia Warner

Between Transformers One and Young Woman and the Sea, this is definitely the most uplifting, inspirational section of my list.

This score is really wonderful, magical and beautiful. It's got a bit of Enya DNA in there, and there aren't many 2024 scores I can say that about.

In a couple of brief little moments, the orchestration even reminded me of Justin Hurwitz' First Man, and that's just an all-timer for me.

Anyway, solidly entertaining album, end to end. It only gets better with each listen, and that's why it's this high on my list.

6. DUNE: PART TWO – Hans Zimmer

It's funny, these days Zimmer's presence is felt so keenly across the board, on film scores he had no direct hand in, so it feels strange to actually come to one that's got his name on the cover.

And the thing is, and what's clear in Dune Part Two , is that the Hans Zimmer of today is quite different to the Hans Zimmer we've heard in the past.

He uses many of the same elements and techniques, but Dune is much more minimalistic and experiential than a lot of his most famous scores.

We know from interviews how passionate he is about this particular story, and how personal the experience of creating this music is for him. And that really comes through in the music.

It's full of so much feeling, saying so much with, at times, so little.

The piece you just heard is for me the most heartbreaking piece of the year. Zimmer's Dune: Part Two may not be eligible for an Oscar, but it's eligible to be high on my list.

5. HELLDIVERS 2 – Wilbert Roget, II; Ross Tregenza

Helldivers is mad fun! Talk about Starship Troopers on steroids.

It's an upbeat, rousing action blockbuster, with a cheeky sense of irony that never gets in the way of just being FUN.

Murray Gold once talked about comedic music, and that tough balance of knowing when to lean into the comedy, and when to play it straight.

Well, for the most part, Wilbert Roget II plays this perfectly straight, and I think that's the right approach. He gives himself full permission to lean into the naïve capitalistic heroism.

This album is on the shorter side of things, but it's just some of the most fist-pumping fun I've heard all year.

4. WORLD OF WARCRAFT: THE WAR WITHIN – Various Artists

If you know much about my musical tastes, you know I can never get enough Warcraft in my ears.

It's just one of the great musical landscapes, inspired by all of the greatest epic fantasy music of decades past, and taking it in bold new directions.

And after a couple of slightly disappointing soundtrack releases, I think The War Within is a return to form for the series. It's packed full of new ideas, and it's beautifully recorded.

I listened to this album on repeat for a couple of months in 2024, and it helped me get through some challenging work. I find that music with this much character, magic, and heart is just a perfect companion through difficult times.

3. STAR WARS OUTLAWS – Wilbert Roget, II; Kazuma Jinnouchi; Jon Everist

Yep, it's another game score by Wilbert Roget II!

I'm obviously a sucker for some Star Wars music, but its combination with contemporary styles in recent years has been hit and miss.

I'm not one of the people who thinks Star Wars always needs to sound like John Williams, but I do think many attempts to leave that classical romantic style behind have been fairly disappointing.

Here however, I think they found a great balance. Star Wars Outlaws references some Williams themes, surprisingly appropriately, like its use of the Imperial theme from A New Hope . But for the most part, it's original and exciting, taking us into new areas of the Star Wars universe.

I think one thing it does so well is keeping a sound that's a little unusual, a little alien, a little not of our world. That allows the composers to incorporate modern elements without it losing all of the Star Wars-y-ness .

Basically, it's so cool.

2. DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD – Hans Zimmer & Lorne Balfe

And another game score!

It's a little surprising to have the new Dragon Age this high on the list. I mean, the series has always had great music, particularly Inquisition. But I liked this entry by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe (well, let's be real, mostly Lorne Balfe) way more than I anticipated.

And in terms of measuring a score by how much fun I've had with it, how much enjoyment I've gotten out of it—well, from that perspective, Dragon Age: The Veilguard deserves to be here at number 2.

The main title theme, which is heaps of fun, and probably where Zimmer's influence is most prominent, actually sounds a lot like Junkie XL. And not in a bad way. It's like Junkie XL's Batman or Mortal Engines. It's pretty over-the-top.

There are a lot of recognisable modes of Lorne Balfe here... some His Dark Materials in the thematic shapes, a bit of Mission Impossible grandiosity, and a whole lot of Skylanders. This really is basically Skylanders with a bigger, darker sound.

And overall, it's much more upbeat than I'd expect from Dragon Age. In the end, this score just has a whole lot of tracks that I really really enjoyed. Many times, on repeat. And I was thoroughly entertained.

1. RINGS OF POWER SEASON 2 – Bear McCreary

It almost feels like a cop out. I tried to find anything that could knock this off the number one spot, but I couldn't. For me, The Rings of Power is just head and shoulders above everything else out there.

The scores for the first season blew everything else away. Some come-down was to be expected in this follow-up, and yes, it re-treads a lot of the same territory, which isn't quite as novel this time around.

But the leitmotif writing on this is still just so good, and it's full of wondrous new ideas, like the powerful theme for Rhûn and the delicate sounds of Eregion. Meanwhile, themes from the previous season are refreshed with some of their best presentations yet.

It's so good, and just like last time, there's so much of it.

In terms of strong themes, great orchestration, and satisfying cohesive cues, Rings of Power continues to be my favourite music of recent years.

Wrapping Up

Phew! There we are, another year of this down!

As usual, I feel bad about all the things I couldn't fit on the list.

I haven't even put on the Lord of the Rings movie, or the Indiana Jones game, or the Gladiator sequel. There were about half a dozen scores that during the year I felt super sure would be on the list, so I even wrote up a little blurb about them for this video. But they ended up not fitting.

There was a pretty even split across categories this year—I had 6 TV shows, 9 movies, and 9 video games. But the top of the list leaned heavily into the video games. I guess that's largely where I found the most musical entertainment this year.

Movies were down big-time from last year, when I had 14 film scores. And only one score on my list this year was nominated at the Academy Awards—Wicked. Though that's not unusual, I can't remember ever really agreeing with the Oscar picks.

Only a couple of double-up composers this time around... having John Powell twice isn't surprising. Wilbert Roget II at spots 3 and 5 is a little. Hans Zimmer's name is there twice, on Dune and Dragon Age, but really I do think of Dragon Age as a Lorne Balfe score.

I always love to see the surprises that come out of nowhere for me each year. Like, I had never heard of Tales of Kenzera until a couple months ago, and even now I know nothing about it except that I like the music. It's so much fun to expand the pool of things you love.

See you next year!

My favourite media of 2024

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Like most humans, I just can't get enough stories in my life.

TV Shows

2024 was a great year for TV. My top 10 features a range of things I loved.

At the bottom end is The Curse, which was divisive but completely enthralled me. And it proved that I don't only love Nathan Fielder for his provocative reality TV satire, but also for his fiction! And bloody hell, Emma Stone is good. I know the finale didn't work for a lot of people, but I think about it a lot.

Then there's Fallout and Blue Eye Samurai — colourful genre shows that are widely acclaimed, and I can see why. These shows make their lore-rich worlds perfectly accessible for any old shmuck, without dumbing things down too much.

Then we've got the shows that brought me deep into the spy game. I caught up on all of Slow Horses in 2024, and I'm now a massive fan. I thought the 2nd season in particular was just delightful. The latest season was probably the weakest, but still a lot of fun. I hadn't yet finished The Agency when I scored it 8/10, but I was so enjoying the early episodes that it felt like an easy call to make. It stumbled a little towards the end of the season, but oh well. Honourable mention for Black Doves, which must have just missed my top 10.

Evil had its series finale in 2024, and it's really sad to say goodbye to that show. You know when you feel like something is made just for you? Well for me, that was Evil. I've loved many TV Shows by the Kings, but this was my favourite. It had all the cleverness of The Good Wife, all the genre thrills of BrainDead, all the contemporary relevance of The Good Fight... plus, it was about angels and demons! I had an absolute hoot. It's one of my favourite shows ever.

I also had a good time following the horrible exploits of sociopathic narcissists in RIPLEY and The Penguin. Both walked that line of making the horrible protagonists likeable enough that it was never a pain to hang out with them. But hey, when you have Andrew Scott and Colin Farrell, that's not too hard.

Then at the top of the list, the shows I enjoyed most in 2024, we have Shōgun and House of the Dragon Season 2. Thoughtful, character-focused examinations of pre-war tensions. Both had the best performances I saw all year. And particular props to Shogun for such a thrilling use of language and translation.

There were also some new seasons I absolutely loved, like The Rings of Power's second outing. I couldn't get it to show up on my Trakt list above because, well, sometimes Trakt is weird. Speaking of which...

Movies

I'd already seen the first Dune and Gladiator, but I rewatched them in 2024 and rated them on Trakt, so they've appeared in this list. And there doesn't appear to be a way to remove them. Ah well.

These rewatches reminded me that the first Dune and the first Gladiator are both awesome. Actually, they have a lot in common. Desert-based action adventure epics about rising up against villainous emperors. Both incredibly entertaining and rewarding upon rewatch. Both featuring some of Hans Zimmer's most iconic work.

They diverge in their sequels, however. Gladiator II wasn't bad, I thought. A decent ride, maybe a bit too much of a re-tread, but an entirely competent sequel. On the other hand, Dune: Part Two was one of my favourite films of 2024, and the more I've thought about it, pretty much a masterpiece.

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin was also high on my list. A tragic, uplifting documentary about horrible illness and unlikely community. The way it depicts found family in World of Warcraft really, really, really worked for me.

I caught Anatomy of a Fall at the very start of the year, and it was one of my most thrilling cinematic experiences in recent memory. Astoundingly engaging courtroom drama. And like Shōgun, the way it uses different languages to convey interesting things about the characters is something I'm so fascinated by.

I knew nothing about Wicked before seeing this movie, and like so many others I got completely swept up in it and I can't wait for part two!

Caddo Lake came out of nowhere. It's such a cool little drama with a twist. I don't want to say anything about the concept, it's wonderful to learn all about it in real-time. Highly recommended!

Perhaps it has something to do with the mood I was in on the day, but Twisters is the most fun I had at the cinema in 2024. There's nothing too surprising about the movie, but the cast is so loveable and I was completely along for the ride.

Challengers is a thrill ride and a half. I was so delighted by the propulsive, twisting and turning games of passion and ambition. Shakespearean and all that. I watched this at home and when the credits rolled I was jumping on the couch, punching the air.

And finally, The Last Stop at Yuma County. On the face of it, this could be a pretty generic Coen Brothers rip-off. But it's so much better than that. It makes a completely absurd situation feel immediate and true and plays out one of the most shocking, terrifying, hilarious rides of the year. And it doesn't just fall apart into a mindless shootout at the end! So good.

Books

I have huge appreciation for the importance of reading and (like many people) I'm trying to increase my time spent reading each year. I didn't quite make it to my 24 book goal in 2024, but I'm optimistic about my 25 book goal for 2025!

I'll highlight three books I read in 2024. Not necessarily my favourites, but worth a mention:

Kill Your Husbands by Jack Heath This is a proper page-turning mystery that I consumed within a few short days. It has so many twists and turns — every time I started to worry I'd figured out all of the mysteries, there was still more to come. And it leaned further into horror than I'd anticipated... gave me some shivers before bed! For pure entertainment, this may have been my favourite thing I read this year.
Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson I didn't love this, but I was tickled by some of the ideas. It's a breezy little novella in Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, which I find myself somewhat begrudgingly committed to (once you've read four books in a series, how can you stop!). There are few things as painful as spending too much time with a character who's supposed to be constantly witty (think Steven Moffat protagonists), but hey, sometimes Lift is genuinely witty and that makes it worth it (again, think Steven Moffat protagonists).
Doctor Who: Scratchman by Tom Baker A messy Doctor Who adventure with a severe lack of stakes and character development. However, this is a brilliant ode to Tom Baker, particularly when listening to the audiobook read by the man himself. His winks and laughs and sighs through the story in that way that only Tom Baker can. And more than anything in the story himself, his reading of "a letter from Sarah Jane" at the end was extremely endearing.

Music

I listened to a LOT of music in 2024. I'm a soundtrack fiend and here's a little Last.fm overview of the things I was into:

Giacchino, McCreary and Williams being my top three composers makes a lot of sense. They've been up there for a long time and will probably stay there for the rest of my life.

As you can tell from my top albums and tracks, I got deep into some video game scores this year. Later this week I'll be posting my annual Favourite Soundtracks of the Year video, so I won't discuss any of these here, but those Last.fm stats might give you a little teaser...

All in all, it's been such a really great year across popular media. And considering the sheer quantity of huge movies and shows that are coming soon, things aren't gonna be slowing down in 2025!

That fresh new website feeling

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Smells pretty good right?

Actually yeah, don't sniff too hard. Knowing how I've thrown it together, this website probably has errant links that take you directly to my bank account or something.

I've had many personal websites over the years. Making them is something that I've always been very interested in and only mildly good at. Putting them together feels like its slightly beyond my skills, slightly beyond what I'm capable of – which is the most fun space to play!

Some of the earliest sites I remember putting together used Freewebs. Which later changed its name to Webs, and later shut down completely, apparently deleting everything.

My early websites featured my projects under the moniker "Lcm Film". Here's one of the final forms of that Freewebs site (which went through a ridiculous number of regenerations... every few months I was like "Let's remake the website!").

Not much as changed, has it? Get rid of the dated Google+ link and the ear-searingly grey background, and this website could pretty much do the trick for me today. Actually, now that I think about it, I don't know why I've spent so much time on the new site. Could've just re-published this one!

It's even got a "Brand New Website!" blurb there, just like the one I'm writing right now.

But if you look closely, my favourite bit is the little "What's going on!?" image on the left, with a link to go back to the previous version of the website. How thoughtful of me.

My websites were actually much more fancy back then. I mean, each of those menu links lights up when you hover over them. I put functions like that together manually, designing lit-up versions of each image and programming the hover effect. And the Library has links to separate pages for each short film I was hosting at the time. Yes, actually hosting. Videos weren't all just hosted on YouTube back then, like they are now (for better and worse).

My websites went through quite a few different stages after that...

This is what it looked like when I was just starting to get into minimalism.

Now I was using my own name, a picture of myself, and starting to base everything around my YouTube Channel. Exciting times.

Later on I had this site. Which again, in hindsight I'm pretty impressed by, and I wonder why I got rid of it. It's pretty elegant for 2016.

I can't take all the credit for this one though. It was created with help from my mate Drew Collins. Who was and I have to assume absolutely still is an absolute legend.

But according to the laws of balance, after this relatively minimalistic phase, I went a bit loopy...

For a little while I had a website that looked like this. Holey moley. We all go through design phases.

Since then and in-between I've had various other sites, hosted with Blogger, Squarespace, Wordpress, Drupal, and I think at one point in my teens I lost my mind and went pure CSS. Or went pure CSS and lost my mind. It's a chicken and egg situation.

Then there's the website I've had for the last few years. A very basic Wordpress page.

I was determined to go proper minimal with that one. No icons, only a few lines of text, one image. And I think it has served me well.

But I've been wanting for something a little more robust. A little cleaner. A little better at communicating everything I'm up to. And with a blog built in, so that I can write stuff like this!

Which brings me to the new website.

First up was choosing a platform to build with. I don't like Wordpress, it's a clunky mess to me. I wanted to find something that was

open source,
modern and widely-used,
affordable (or free)
and highly customisable.

It didn't take long to discover that there are more great options out there than ever.

I could use something like Publii. It's got everything I want, and even has an easy to use GUI. But after trying it for a little while, I quickly realised that unless there was a template that I really liked, it was going to be frustrating to customise.

So I started looking at others: Ghost, Hugo, Zola, Eleventy. So many good options!

But ultimately, it came down to the availability of templates. Even though I intend to customise a lot, I wanted a very solid base to get started.

And so, in the end, this new website is built on Astro. Which ticks all the right boxes, in terms of being modern and open source. It also appears to be very popular.

Plus, I really love this template by Muhammad Syakirurohman. It's clean and elegant, putting projects and blog posts at the forefront. And since it's built on Astro, the potential for customisation is unending.

It's also a great boon that platforms like Astro integrate beautifully with markdown files. I've been using Obsidian a lot over the past year for extensive note-taking, and being able to write blog posts the same way is very intuitive.

The tricky part is, of course, learning Astro.

Coding is something I've always dabbled in but never really become proficient at. So it's only with the help of language model chat bots like ChatGPT and (most helpfully of all) Claude that I've been able to stuck into designing this website.

But as helpful as AI bots are for getting started on something you don't understand, it sucks to rely on them too much for too long. After a while, you want to ditch the training wheels and fly on your own, ya know.

So that's the journey I have ahead of me! And that's what makes it fun! Sure, I could fork out however much money each month for Squarespace and have a great website in minutes (or so all the podcast ads tell me). But then I wouldn't feel like I am truly the master of the website. This way, as long as I don't absolutely tank the code into a scorching mess, nothing is holding me back.

For me, one of the key themes of 2024 has been not getting locked in. Not getting locked into a bad habit, or a particular way of thinking, or a single digital app or service. I've done enough of that in the past.

So that's it, that's my new site, and this has been the first blog post.

With the internet becoming even more fragmented all the time, it's wonderful to have my own independent space to bring together everything that relates to me.

And hey, if you do find a link to my bank account... eh, you're welcome to whatever's there.

My favourite soundtracks of 2023

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome! It's high time we did this. Today, I’m sharing the definitive list of the 23 best soundtracks from 2023. Objectively. Unequivocally. Indisputably. Agree or not, this is the list.

This ranking covers a variety of soundtracks from films, TV shows, and video games—anything released as a musical album in 2023 counts, regardless of when the project itself came out. Those are the rules I’ve made up, and I’m sticking to them.

Check out the video above, or read on below!

Reflections on the Year

This list was pretty challenging to put together—it’s already February, and here I sit, locking it all in. Does listening to more soundtracks each year make it easier? Nope. The more you hear, the harder it gets to narrow it down.

For this year, my top dozen or so picks were easy choices—they were shoe-ins for the list. But the bottom half? That’s where things got tricky. I’ve been shuffling, adding, and trimming entries up until the very last week, constantly second-guessing. However, the time has come to finalize everything.

So, without further ado, let's dive in—starting from #23 and counting all the way down to the #1 soundtrack of 2023.

Grab some water, and let’s begin.

23. Wonderwell – Angelo Badalamenti & William Ross

Wonderwell is a gentle and lush little film soundtrack that I find very easy to like. It's got this really beautiful and delicate main theme by the late and great Angelo Badalamenti, and it's used well throughout—you know I love when a score is bathed in its main theme. It captures a really effective sadness in just a few well-placed notes. The flutes and strings are very inviting. It's played by the London Symphony Orchestra, so of course it sounds good. This one is the newest/latest addition to my list; I only just came across it recently, but it's been growing on me rapidly, so I'm very glad to have squeezed it in here.

22. Napoleon – Martin Phipps

Martin Phipps brings his dynamic baroque kinda sound he's always so good at to this Ridley Scott epic. And it's placed somewhere between elegant drama and comic farce, which is quite a balance to maintain. But between godfather-ish mournful horns, elegant cultured strings, and opulent sophisticated choirs, the balance is something I find wonderful to listen to. I often find music by Martin Phipps to be really good to do other work to, like writing and things, when you need to focus. I mean that as a compliment.

21. The Devil Conspiracy – Anne-Kathrin Dern

This is quite a unique score by a composer I'm not familiar with for a film I know absolute nothing about. Weepy large dramatic choirs are joined by cool synths to create an enormous gothic flavour. I don't know what this movie's about, but the music's certainly got a sci-fi futuristic flavour. Baroque choirs, pipe organ, electric guitar... it’s quite a mix. Sometimes it gets a bit noisy— for every beautiful classical choir piece there's something disturbing and messy and sound designy. It certainly leans into horror at points. There are some great moments where the future synth and the gorgeous choirs come together, and it reminds me of Warhammer Darktide from last year, and it’s pretty cool. I wish there was a little more recognisable melody, a little more shape, but I do enjoy what this is.

20. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Pinar Toprak

This is a large and expansive video game score by Pinar Toprak and a team of contributing composers, all continuing James Horner's original Avatar sound. So you can bet there are strong woodwinds and optimistic chanting choirs. And really there's actually a lot of pleasant music here that creates a great atmosphere; a lot of it seems to be describing the lush natural world of Pandora. It does leave me wanting for some more memorable moments, like defined action setpieces or something. It just doesn't do anything quite as striking as James Horner or Simon Franglen have done for the films. But that's alright. This strikes me more as a gentle worldbuilding exercise, and in that it succeeds.

19. Creed III – Joseph Shirley

This past year, Joseph Shirley took the reins from Ludwig Göransson on two big franchises—The Mandalorian and Creed III. And for what it's worth, I think he's done a much better than adequate job on both. In fact, they're both really good. It must be so hard to take over from someone else who has famously given these stories such a unique musical style... and then what can you do? You can either respect that musical style and keep it going or change it up. Well, in both cases, Joseph Shirley has continued the established musical style, and it's really genuinely good. I mean, I'm saying all this just to say, I don't know why Creed III isn't higher on my list. And why The Mandalorian isn't on the list. It was just a very competitive year, and I suppose it doesn't feel like either of these scores did anything very bold or new that we haven't heard in the respective previous entries. They're just super solid. I mean that's not to say uninteresting or boring or anything—Creed III continues in Ludwig Göransson's template of really punchy, cool, rousing music, with unexpected uses of the human voice throughout. I'm super into it.

18. Diablo IV – Various Artists

Welcome to a bleak, anxious world of despair. Diablo IV is a macabre atmospheric soundtrack that makes me feel like there are bugs crawling up my legs. It's extremely evocative. The whole score is drenched in the reverb of a shadowy church—they found a great sound for this one. It really speaks to that medieval fantasy horror featuring the most evil of demons. It's got this great sense of history too, like each piece is telling the story of ancient creatures and places. This music just makes me so restless and uncomfortable. So you may ask why I put it on here. Maybe I like being uncomfortable.

17. The Flash – Benjamin Wallfisch

This is a really solid superhero soundtrack and has some of my favourite music by Benjamin Wallfisch. It's doing an awful lot of work in some setpieces in particular, bringing a lot of gravitas to a film that I'm otherwise quite reluctant to care about. There's some really nice use of piano in some of the sweeping action tracks that has stuck with me. And there are some huge moments of grandeur. I mean, some of them, like the one you've just heard, I kinda think is honestly too grand and wonderful for the movie and the scene it scored. But I don't mind, as a listener outside of the movie; it's a great piece. It's also got a bunch of Danny Elfman's Batman theme, and that doesn't hurt either.

16. Genshin Impact - Fountain of Belleau – Various Artists

The music of Genshin Impact is a relatively recent discovery for me. There's a lot of music out there already, and this latest expansion release is full of wonderful music. It's bright, colourful, and very playful. Playful is the big word I think. Throughout the album, the music dabbles with a whole range of styles and modes, but doesn't forget to hold onto some lovely themes. There's over 3 hours of music here, so I'm hoping to spend a lot more time in the future delving into this world, including the scores from the previous expansions.

15. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – John Murphy

Back into the superhero realm with the third Guardians of the Galaxy . John Murphy is composing this time round, and the music has been taken in a very different direction to the previous soundtracks. This is a really emotional score, really. John Murphy leans into the tragedy and sadness at the heart of the film, and I love that about it. Although there's a bit less action fun, it's still quite space operatic, and there's much more heartbreak and sentimentality. I didn't expect to like it as much as I do.

14. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – Stephen Barton & Gordy Haab

This is Star Wars in dark mode. Everything's rather bleak and grim and hard and overbearing. There's more spooky, creepy, shadowy stuff in here than I expected. And a lot of the 4-hour runtime of the score is atmospheric, painting a range of scary, foreboding backdrops. But when the action kicks in, it's thrilling. There's just nothing like Star Wars music. That descriptive brass and those rich agile strings. I swear with Star Wars music you can always see these worlds so clearly— the empires and the blasters and the lightsabers. And like all of the best Star Wars music, Jedi Survivor does push a bit outside the established template, with some unique orchestrations and styles we haven't heard in this world before.

13. Godzilla Minus One – Naoki Sato

This is a big wow, this soundtrack. It kinda blew me away. In some areas, it's deceptively simple, but then it really just hits you. Especially inside the movie—this is one of the best scores for picture on my list. It really imbues each scene of the film with... energy. Often anxious energy. It's got absolutely thrilling moments, but the thing I was most struck by was how incredibly anxious this score is. It elevates my heart rate; it's physically effective and affecting. I'm in awe. As well as scoring significant setpieces with memorable original music, Naoki Sato also brings back the original Godzilla Main Title theme, as Bear McCreary did a few years ago in his Godzilla score, for some pretty incredible "wow godzilla is wild" moments. But yeah, this is really engrossing stuff. Play it loud.

12. Fast X – Brian Tyler

I'm honestly really not a fan of the Fast and Furious movies at all, but Brian Tyler knows what he's doing. This is really impressive action scoring. It aims to be pretty grand and epic, with some choral punctuations and what I assume is a villain theme that dominates throughout the score, going head to head with Tyler's heroic themes, some of which are now several years old. But what's so important about the success of this music is that it doesn't forget to have fun. It could easily be too serious, and at a couple of points, maybe it is. But for the most part, it's just a good time.

10. Migration – John Powell

It's John Powell doing a colourful animated score, of course, it's good. I mean, it's not How To Train Your Dragon , but not much is. This one is also about flying creatures—they're just ducks, right? I think that's right. And what a perfect provocation the concept of flight is for music, no matter the composer, but especially for John Powell. Anyway, this is tremendously enjoyable light adventure scoring with several good action cues and a few of those flourishes of wonder, awe, and delight that Powell is just the master of. His music is just so dextrous and always sounds good—the particular quality and texture of his orchestra is definitely one of my favourites out there. It's always very creative too; there are surprises in here, like a bit of electric guitar at one point.

9. Percy Jackson and the Olympians – Bear McCreary & Sparks & Shadows

Right at the end of the year, we got this new adventure score by Bear McCreary and his Sparks & Sounds team. And it's really just what you'd expect, which is a great thing. A memorable and noble main theme on French horn. Rich strings to build out the world. All imbued with the sense of wonder and magic that you need for a Percy Jackson story. The only damning thing to say about this score is that it's really not that exciting compared to Rings of Power or other recent Bear McCreary scores. But that's just because they've been so constantly terrific. Honestly, this really is great too.

8. The Orville: New Horizons – Various Artists

If you have any sense of nostalgia for the great classical inspired sci-fi scores, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc., this is like a warm blanket. A 72-track, 4 and a half hour-long warm blanket, packed end-to-end with classical orchestral adventure film score writing. It's almost too much to comprehend, really. But it does everything you'd expect: bold brassy Star Trek -y themes, expressive string ostinatos for Star Wars -like action cues, and all sorts of overt classical references to stuff like Holst's The Planets . And the cues are long—I love long setpiece cues, where the music really just gets to tell the story. Anyway, The Orville has wonderful music. How lucky are we?

7. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Daniel Pemberton

This score is absolutely genius. It's so fast and clever and tight, and it absolutely has to be to keep up with the vivid torrent of ideas on screen throughout the movie. Daniel Pemberton's themes for this world are so distinct and memorable. Just like the different frame rates and animation styles used for characters from different worlds, Pemberton uses such diverse musical styles to represent each theme and idea. It's a miracle that it all comes together into something cohesive at the end. Top stuff.

6. Forspoken – Gary Schyman & Bear McCreary

This ultracool video game score by Gary Schyman and Bear McCreary really drew me in with some ear-catching melodies, often led by a dynamic female voice. It's very much in that McCreary world of moody, appealingly shaped themes riddled throughout a heavy but not exhausting fantasy world. From track 1, it's so instantly full of heartfelt, striving character. Great incorporation of some trap beats, some heavy drums, and agile piano amongst the swirling strings. I also love how cohesive and distinct its style is—you only need to hear the start of a track to go, ah, this must be Forspoken.

5. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – John Williams

The maestro is back! With Indiana Jones! Expectations were high. I wasn't disappointed. Of course, a lot of this album is retreads of Indiana Jones of the past. Or some action writing that is so similar to things we've heard before that it may as well be a needle drop. But there's still so much new magic here. Helena's Theme is the grand new concert piece, and the way it instantly dives straight back into that romantic classical writing, with large, shameless melodic leaps... Everything from John Williams is such a gift.

4. Oppenheimer – Ludwig Göransson

This one's already been talked about so much in the soundtrack community; I don't know that there's much more to say. Not everyone loves it, that's for sure, but I'm totally on board. I think Oppenheimer is an incredible followup to Ludwig Göransson's first Christopher Nolan collaboration, Tenet . It creates such a gloomy tragic vibe with closely recorded expressive strings that sketch out these intricate patterns that feel like human thoughts. It succeeds at creating this atmosphere of an existential fairy tale, a bit like another one of my favourites of recent years, Justin Hurwitz's First Man. Beauty and dread, horror and wonder, all at the same time.

3. Baldur's Gate 3 – Borislav Slavov

Just jaw-droppingly beautiful. That is my primary reaction to most of Baldur's Gate 3 by Borislav Slavov. This is the power of melodic music. Like a worm that crawls into your brain and lives there. This music immediately got deep under my skin. And yeah, it's all about the melodies here. Just stunningly beautiful lyrical melodies. Sometimes performed unexpectedly simply, unexpectedly quietly, unexpectedly soulfully. These are some of the best themes of the year, and they're done so much justice across the score. It's got some of the best songs on a soundtrack in 2023 as well. Divinity: Original Sin 2 from a few years back was great, but this is a new level. Borislav Slavov has received a lot of praise this year, and I think it's all deserved and then some.

2. The Super Mario Bros. Movie – Brian Tyler

I never expected to be so very charmed by this, but I absolutely was and am. Brian Tyler went all out on this one. Not only does it cleverly incorporate heaps of previous Mario musical material, it makes it new and fresh and consistent and tight. It's filled with such visceral joy; it makes you feel like you could fly. Even the villain theme is fun! And again, the orchestra just sounds so good in this. It's a classic case of Brian Tyler featuring drums in a big orchestra, and his sound is so perfected at this point; I can't believe how punchy it sounds. I'm so happy to have something that's this colourful and fun near the top of my list—it's not all just doom and gloom this year. I haven't seen the movie, but I've certainly spent many hours of the past year listening to this amazing score.

1. Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One – Lorne Balfe

Mission Impossible has always had good music. I mean it started with the brilliant themes by Lalo Schifrin in the 1960s, and for the movies, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, Joe Kramer, and Lorne Balfe have all put in stellar work. But I think this latest soundtrack is my favourite of the bunch. Lorne Balfe returns to take the melodrama to the next level. And he so perfectly musically represents the feeling of racing against time, of trying to go faster, of being pushed to your limits, of being up against impossible odds. And it's all done in this larger-than-life romantic style, where everything is turned up to 11 and every emotion is the biggest thing you've ever felt. It's much more emotional than any previous Mission Impossible score. It feels like this dark, exciting nightmare swirling all around you. I still don't know how some of these tracks make me feel what they do. And the bongos! The coolest bongos of 2023! Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning is an enormous and epic work by Lorne Balfe. And make sure you check out the expanded release, with about 3 hours of music. It's glorious.

Final Thoughts

That’s a wrap on my fifth annual soundtrack list! I’m so grateful to share this passion for scores and soundtracks with you every year.

Some Interesting Trends:

14 film scores, 2 TV scores, and 7 game scores made this year’s list. TV scores dropped significantly from last year.
The diversity of composers is stronger—fewer repeating names, except Bear McCreary (3 times) and Brian Tyler (2 times).

Thank you for reading—see you next year!

Performing in Black Comedy & Love's Labour's Lost

Sat, 05 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT

In November and December 2018 I was ecstatic to be given the opportunity to act in two bright, lively and hilarious plays. Both were directed by Tony Rive and presented in Darwin's Browns Mart Theatre.

First came Darwin Theatre Company's Black Comedy, a tight and fast piece of British absurdity with some really fun physical gags:

Then came Corrugated Iron's production of Love's Labour's Lost, a strange little Shakespeare, which was presented at Browns Mart alongside an excellent production of Animal Farm.

I was also honoured to be given the opportunity to create the television advertisement for Corrugated Iron's shows, which you can view here:

Animal Farm and Love's Labour's Lost TVC from Corrugated Iron Youth Arts on Vimeo

Unreal amounts of fun making these shows with so many cool people.

Darwin Fringe Show Vaudeville Knockout

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Yes, this was the sequel to the 2017 Fringe show I was a part of, "Vaudeville Variety".

This was several months ago now, but better late than never! Vaudeville Knockout took the production to new heights for two evenings of wacky old-fashioned humour at Darwin's Brown's Mart Theatre. Many of the same cast and crew returned, but the characters were honed and polished a little further.

Russell (Charlie Chaplin) practising his boxing with new co-star Josh (Buster Keaton)

Russell and myself performed Who's on first again, just like last year. And of course there were songs and there was comedy and a big silent comedy set piece in which I played the villain.

I'm the one with the massive cape and hat and pirate cat

Thanks to all the lovely cast and crew, and of course everyone who came along to see the show. In many ways these ambitious little Fringe shows with a lightning-fast turnaround and little-to-no external support are more exciting than anything else.

You Do You (Darwin International Film Festival Spark Film 2018)

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This year I was lucky enough to produce and co-direct one of the Darwin International Film Festival's five "Spark" films. These are five ten minute scripts that are picked to be produced over a short three months and screened as a part of the festival in September.

It was a hoot having all these actual school kids play fake school kids in the film. The magic of cinema.

I entered several project ideas into the program this year, and the one that was picked to be produced was "You Do You". This is a short film I've been thinking about, vaguely, since late last year. When I tried to write it earlier this year however, I found myself to be not very confident with the voice of the main character, a teenage girl. So I asked long-time collaborator Lexie Gregory to write it for me.

Here's Lexie herself, with DOP Nathaniel Kelly and star Koko Lawton

Turns out that was a great decision. Because what Lexie wrote was quite unlike my original plans, and quite unlike the films I've made before, but felt genuine and personal. The story is a little more honest than the stories I usually write myself. I was very excited to work on something that wasn't my usual speed though. This experience was unique. The first time I've directed a film I didn't write myself, too!

Koko, me, and hey look it's Max Conaghan

Anyway, we shot the film in July. Worked with a bunch of lovely people. Shooting had its many challenges, as shooting always does. We had to be pretty disciplined about schedules because most of the crew currently resides interstate and were only in Darwin for a couple of weeks. There were some difficult times but overall it was actually one of the smoothest shoots I've been involved with. Co-directing with Lexie was lovely not least because it took some of that crazy pressure off my shoulders.

Koko, Joseph Baronio (beautiful producer), Nathaniel, Johanna Hayes (beautiful assistant producer) and Lexie

Additional shout-outs to Joseph Baronio and Johanna Hayes for being good producers. Oh man don't you just love producers? Also Koko Lawton, who starred as the character Mickey. Koko is You Do You. If You Do You is anything it is because of Koko. The boppin' soundtrack is by my favourite music-wizards, Natalie Gall and Thomas Field.

You Do You, and the four other DIFF Spark films, will be screening this Friday evening at the Deckchair Cinema. Nervous-excited to see what people think of what we've made!

In the meantime, here's the trailer:

We're Family Now showing at Deckchair Cinema

Sat, 28 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Nathaniel Kelly's debut feature film, which I had several key roles on, will be screening thrice at Darwin's wonderful outdoor Deckchair Cinema in May.

We're Family now is about a lovable little suburban family. It was shot entirely in Darwin.

Check it out on 12 May (with Q&A), 18 May or 26 May.

Corrugated Iron's Whiplash

Sat, 21 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This week I attended a talk by Indonesian film director Garin Nugroho. One of the many things he talked about was a kind of theatre in which the actors rock up 30 minutes before the show and are given the story and characters there and then. There is extremely little preparation time, but the director briefly shares their plan, then the actors make the show.

This Corrugated Iron skit show, "Whiplash Theatre", has felt a little like that, as preparation time has been sparse. But like the theatre Garin Nugroho was talking about, it hasn't been a bad thing!

The show is a collection of disconnected scenes and skits, most of which centre around a bit of a "road safety" theme. I really enjoyed working with these two excellent young performers (above), who brought to life a really wacky skit.

That's a picture from a skit I appeared in myself, which included a video projection of me which keeps distracting the live actors who are trying to perform Shakespeare.

Final show (of three) tonight.

The Crucible @ Browns Mart Theatre

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Last night was the final performance of The Crucible, directed by Merrilee Mills and staged at Darwin's Browns Mart Theatre.

All of the brilliant cast and crew were an absolute riot. They say it was one of the largest casts Browns Mart has ever had.

Books out for Courting 101

Tue, 26 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT

A few weeks ago it was a delight to be a part of Corrugated Iron's little production of the short comedy play, Courting 101, in Malak's Chambers Crescent Theatre. I played a crazy professor teaching a class (the audience) how to go on a date and basically succeed in love.

Well done and thanks for a great time director Kate and dramaturge Phil and actors Isaac, Amy, Jack, Lily, Michael and Haylee.

A Very Bedroom Farce

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Last week I got to play an idiot called Trevor in Alan Ayckbourn's very-rather-British 70's comedy, Bedroom Farce. It's a very understated play featuring particularly unique staging: three beds. The characters move between these three separate beds/bedrooms throughout the play, which takes place over one night, getting twisted up in all kinds of hilarious (but again, very understated!) hi-jinx.

There's Malcolm (Andrew) talking to Trevor (me). He comes to hate Trevor by the end. Everyone hates Trevor. Trevor hates Trevor. Poor Trevor.

Sniffing a prop.

There's Kate (Lizzy), Malcolm (still Andrew), Susannah (Haylee), Trevor (me again) and the wonderful behind-the-scenes duo who made it all happen: Tony Rive and Tania Lieman.

And finally the full cast. Candid. Thanks for a fun time!

Danny Elfman scored my short films

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

That's a lie, of course. Rather, I made short films for Danny Elfman's music.

Two of them. It was for a competition held on indi.com earlier this year. The brief: simply make a short film with a piece from Danny Elfman's wonderful ballet score, Rabbit & Rogue, as the soundtrack. Elfman is obviously one of my favourite composers of all time, so this was an opportunity I couldn't pass by.

The two films I made were quite a challenge to produce. They were both shot over about a week, in Darwin's unpredictable wet season, with many first-time actors and an absolutely bone-thin skeleton crew. In order to make production achievable I decided not to record sound on set. So every single sound you hear in both of these films, every piece of dialogue, every footstep, was added in post. It's quite funny to think that just about everything you hear was either composed by Danny Elfman or recorded in my bedroom.

The first is a fast-paced fantasy-comedy-adventure about a boy who summons an imaginary friend.

And the second is a strange little story about someone who cannot see the real world.

Bamboo Moon The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I loved Studio Ghibli's 2013 film, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, based on the ancient Japanese folktale, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. What a beautiful, honest and tragic—yet equally uplifting—fairytale about love and loss. And told with a particularly delicate minimalism which only Studio Ghibli can make sexy.

So when I heard local Darwin youth theatre company Corrugated Iron was putting on a new adaptation of the very same Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, I obviously got myself up in that hotness. Bamboo Moon was the title of the production, and it reshaped the classic story into a dynamic short live show.

It was put on as a free show with a three night run at the start of August. It was also staged outdoors in the wonderful dry season air, at the George Brown Botanic Gardens, and with excellent set design, props and costumes; it was a visually spectacular show.

That's a snap from a rehearsal. I played Haru, the son of the Emperor, a very important and pretty cool guy, whose only real flaw is that he enjoys a wee bit of violence and war. Doh! There also is Taylor who played the eponymous Princess Kaguya and Tahlia who was my guard and lieutenant.

There's me on the night. In character. Feeling things. Emotions. Drama. Acting.

That's some of the other actors being funny on stage. Don't worry, they were also in character.

As a dynamic outdoor youth performance, this show of course also included music, dance and circus! Look bamboo spirits on stilts!

And aerialist moon people!

Unfortunately there are far more wonderful images of all these people than I can include here, but you can have a look at the show's photo gallery on the Corrugated Iron website.

Finally I want to congratulate the dedicated crew, some of whom can be seen here...

...and the enormously friendly extended cast, some of whom can be seen here:

Darwin Fringe Show Vaudeville Variety starring Chaplin

Wed, 09 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Here's the facts.

The Darwin Fringe Festival was a month ago. It was good. I got to perform in two shows. One of them was "VAUDEVILLE VARIETY STARRING CHAPLIN".

It was... well, it was what it sounds like. A madhat Vaudeville-inspired couple of hours of comedy, song, slapstick and skits. It was produced by an insane chap who I shall refer to simply as Russell "Rusty Rhubarb" Smith, and directed by a terrific gentleman called Tony Rive.

Russell "Rusty Rhubarb" Smith (shown above) was the centrepiece of the evening, singing and larking through a variety of comedy bits. One of these was a slapstick restaurant skit starring the titular, aforementioned and again shown above Charlie Chaplin, played by Russell "Rusty Rhubarb" Smith.

That photo displays a few other characters from the very same skit: (left to right) Haylee the gangster, Isaac the waiter, Damon the gangster, and me! I was the generically named "Male Lover". In this case referring to the facts that I was A) a lover and B) of the male gender, as opposed to my defining character feature being that I "love males".

This one's a snap from the night itself (thanks videographer Nathaniel Kelly!) in which Russell "Rusty Rhubarb" Smith and I can be seen performing the famous Abbott and Costello skit, Who's on first. Beast of a piece to learn, but it's mega funny.

Thanks to all of the wonderful cast and crew and brilliant musicians and everyone who came to see it. A great experience.