Plutonic Rainbows

Having been disappointed with my first sample, I recently ordered another from a trusted online retailer, thinking perhaps the original had been a faulty batch or somehow diluted.

Unfortunately, this new sample smells almost identical to the first. There is no oud to speak of — just a lingering rose note. For me, the oud simply isn’t present, and I cannot understand how this fragrance has gained such a reputation as an oud powerhouse.

In any case, I will not be purchasing a full bottle. Unless the day comes when I can thoroughly test it in a department store, it will remain a fragrance I have no intention of buying.

James Leyland Kirby — better known for his haunting work as The Caretaker — ventures into darker territory with 'Bleaklow,' an album that trades his usual deteriorating ballroom memories for the windswept desolation of Northern England's moorlands. This isn't the interior decay of abandoned hotels that The Caretaker explores, but rather the outer spaces where humans can only visit, terrains that exist beyond habitation. The opening track 'Something to Do with Death' sets the tone immediately with unstable, fizzing drones punctuated by pained, high-pitched howls that transmit waves of genuine dread. Throughout its eleven tracks, Kirby masterfully manipulates sound into intimidating monstrosities — formidable sonics and fearsome drones that map out a sonic cartography of the Eerie North West, from the titular Bleaklow plateau to the subterranean cave systems and crags that dot these lonely landscapes.

What makes 'Bleaklow' such a unique jewel in Kirby's extensive catalogue is its complete departure from his sample-based turntable work, instead crafting original dark ambient compositions that feel simultaneously deeply unsettling and oddly comforting. Tracks like 'Indefinite Ridge' create that destabilizing sound that seems to pull you into the moorland itself, while 'Kirkbymoorside' and 'Ominous Sunset' build layers of industrial ambience that feel both majestic and oppressively lugubre. The 2014 remastered edition — with Matt Colton's pristine vinyl mastering and Ivan Seal's new artwork — only emphasizes the album's power, revealing new depths in these already cavernous soundscapes. As critic Mark Fisher noted, Kirby should be understood more as an artist than merely a musician, and 'Bleaklow' stands as testament to this vision — a work that shames the conceptual poverty of much contemporary art through its commitment to place, atmosphere, and the haunting presence of landscapes that remember their dead.

Agentic coding represents a paradigm shift in software development where specialized AI agents act as autonomous team members, each bringing unique expertise to the development process. These agents — ranging from architecture advisors and security engineers to QA specialists and integration experts — work collaboratively to handle everything from boilerplate code generation and automated refactoring to real-time error detection and comprehensive testing. Real-world implementations like Anthropic's Claude Code, GitHub Copilot Workspace, and Cursor IDE demonstrate how these systems can analyze entire repositories, suggest architectural improvements, and execute complex multi-file operations while maintaining consistent quality standards across massive codebases. The advantages are transformative: tasks that once took hours now complete in minutes, senior-level expertise becomes democratically accessible to all developers, and code quality remains consistently high without the variability of human fatigue.

While challenges persist — including context window limitations in massive codebases, occasional hallucinations requiring verification systems, and the complexity of coordinating multiple agents — the trajectory is unmistakable. Current trends show agents evolving beyond text generation to execute commands, modify files, and interact directly with external systems, enabling automated deployment workflows and self-healing applications. Specialized ecosystems are emerging for specific domains, languages, and frameworks, while next-generation memory systems allow agents to learn from past decisions and adapt to team coding styles. The future of development isn't about replacing programmers but amplifying their capabilities: developers will orchestrate agent teams, define high-level objectives, and focus on creative problem-solving while agents handle implementation details. Teams that embrace this agent-collaborative approach will dramatically outpace those that don't, making the question not whether to adopt agentic coding, but how quickly you can integrate it into your workflow.

Chanel's latest release, Bleu de Chanel L'Exclusif, officially launched on August 26, 2025, represents the most mysterious and intense expression of the iconic Bleu de Chanel lineage. Created by Olivier Polge as an Extrait de Parfum, this ambery-aromatic composition centers around New Caledonian sandalwood, resinous cistus labdanum, amber, and leather notes that create a warm, dense fragrance sitting closer to the skin than its predecessors. Opening with the familiar citrus blast of the Bleu de Chanel line, it quickly evolves into something more sophisticated as the labdanum becomes dominant, creating a smooth, incense-like presence with markedly improved longevity over the Parfum version.

The fragrance community's response has been mixed but generally positive, with reviewers praising its refinement while questioning its necessity within the existing ecosystem—one critic called it "the best designer release of 2025," though others find it redundant to the Parfum. At $205 for 60ml and $275 for 100ml, the pricing has drawn criticism, but the consensus suggests L'Exclusif successfully targets a more mature demographic seeking a sophisticated, grown-up interpretation of the Bleu de Chanel DNA.