Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Totally Shuffled extract-when music gets too much...

extracted from "Totally Shuffled-A Year of Listening to Music on a Broken iPod"

when music gets too much...how I felt on...



February 12th 

Beethoven-Symphony No 4 in B Flat, Op 60-4th Movement-Gianandrea Noseda/BBC Philharmonic

Sometimes music gets just too much; there is too much music and I end up flitting from one thing to another, never fully satisfied. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen that often as there is usually something that fits. But when it does, I have developed two different solutions. 

The first is to listen to Bob Dylan’s “John Wesley Harding” album. This blows the cobwebs away and clears the palate (to stitch a couple of metaphors together). There’ll probably be some Dylan cropping up later-I wonder if it’ll be a track off John Wesley Harding? 

The second solution I have is to listen to some classical music. This was originally just a solution, just a way of getting back into music, but recently I have found myself listening to classical music for pleasure and not just a means to an end.

Classical music, like jazz and reggae, appears to be such a massive and wide-ranging genre that it is seemingly so difficult to find a way in. I don’t wish to be one of those people who start off with a classical-music-for-dummies mindset or with some horrible compilation e.g. that’s what I call classical music CDs. Neither does anything like Classic FM appeal: the only time I have heard that was when I was at the dentist, and for that reason alone it has enough bad connotations, let alone the idea of popular little snippets of classical “hits”. So I dipped a toe in the water through Radio 3, a couple of classical blogs, reviews in the papers and half-remembered ideas of what might be interesting. This meant that I ended up with about 250 or so classical CDs, including the one above. I suppose to anyone who is well-versed in classical music that I have maybe picked my selections at random, magpie-like or only gone for the obvious. I know that there is a whole world of other stuff there and that such a small amount cannot even be representative but for now, it’s enough for me. I suppose over time, different things will pique my interest and take me in fresh directions. Looking at what there is here now though- Beethoven’s symphonies, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Bach, Bruckner, there’s plenty to be getting on with.

After reading Alex Ross’ “The Rest is Noise” book, I developed an overarching interest in Mahler, and downloaded a few complete sets of his symphonies, as well as some audience recordings of highly praised concerts. For someone coming from a “rock” background, it always strikes me as odd that there can be some many different interpretations of classical music and massive arguments about what is the best or definitive version. It’s a bit like searching for the Holy Grail, but never getting there-it’s unattainable by its very nature. I don’t think that in popular music that there is the same debate-cover versions are just that and they are all are different. Maybe it’s because we know what the first recorded version sounds like but that you can’t get back to that in classical music; it’s impossible to know even what the first performance sounded like.

Anyway, back to something else tomorrow no doubt.



Get/read/see Totally Shuffled here

Kindle:

Paperback: 

What "Totally Shuffled" is all about; 


One track per day for 366 days on a broken iPod. 366 tracks out of a possible 9553. From the obvious (The Rolling Stones), to the obscure (Karen Cooper Complex). From the sublime (The Flaming Lips) to the risible (Muse).  From field recordings of Haitian Voodoo music to The Monkees. From Heavy Metal to Rap by way of 1930’s blues, jazz, classical, punk, and every possible genre of music in between. This is what I listened to and wrote about for a whole year, to the point of never wanting to hear any more music again. Some songs I listened to I loved, and some I hated. Some artists ended up getting praised to the skies and others received a bit of critical kicking. There’s memories of spending too many hours in record shops, prevaricating over the next big thing and surprising myself over tracks that I’d completely forgotten about. But with 40 years of listening to music, I realised that I’ll never get sick of it.  I may have fallen out of love with some of the songs in this book, but I’ll never fall out of love with music.     



Friday, April 25, 2014

Totally Shuffled- The Stone Roses (Revisited)

extracted from "Totally Shuffled-A Year of Listening to Music on a Broken iPod" and just because there's a lot of stuff flying around about the anniversary of Britpop.... 


The Stones Roses-Don’t Stop-The Stone Roses  

There are times that when listening to particular records specific, precise memories are evoked and for an instant you are transported back in time. Proustian. Hearing just a few stray notes or an odd chord sequence is all that is needed. It was a Saturday in December 1990. I was driving to Southport, in a blue Ford Fiesta, along the back roads at 8.30 in the morning. A crisp, clear, dry winter day. The fields either side of the road had a faint mist hovering over them and whilst the sun was too weak and hazy to burn anything away, what had been thick, muffling fog an hour earlier, was slowly dissipating. There were hardly any other cars on the road and I took corner after corner at speed, but not overly excessively, keeping up a smooth and steady rhythm. I was only having to touch the brakes lightly now and then. I had one cassette to listen to. This Stone Roses album was on one side and The House of Love’s debut on the other although I kept playing the Stone Roses over and over again. I remember taking one bend at about 50 mph, swooping and dipping, picking the perfect moment to accelerate out of it as “(Song for My) Sugar Spun Sister” came on. It was a perfect moment with a perfect song from a perfect album.

Well, that’s what I thought back then. And for a long time afterwards. Maybe I’d bought into all the hype about the Stone Roses and particularly this album. (Not maybe-definitely). I’d read all the glowing reviews (all 5 stars etc), and that they were the future of rock and roll. I really did like the album, but in retrospect I wonder how much of it was due to genuinely liking it for what it was and how much was due to the overwhelming critical acclaim? At the time of its release it was already being spoken about as one of the greatest albums of all time; and even now it’s still up there in those lists so beloved of the music press. If their first album was so good, then the follow- up was destined to be a just as good, if not better. But, as such things tend to go, they pissed around for ages and ages and took over 5 years to release it. At the time, I tried to convince myself that it was a good album, but it was self-delusion. All it was was the sound of too much time and too many drugs. They split up afterwards in a storm of acrimony, though I still had the first album filed under “all-time-classics” in my mind.

Not having played it for the longest time, it was only upon hearing of their totally unexpected (and not for any financial gain at all oh no it’s all for artistic reasons) reunion in 2012, that I dug it out and gave it another spin. I did expect that I’d be returning to an old favourite and wondering why I’d taken so long to get back to it. It would be as if I’d be reunited with an old friend. Two songs in though, it was more like being reunited with a boring relative who goes on and on and on about events in the past.  I couldn’t believe how insipid it all sounded.  There were odd flashes here and there, but it was the sound of filler that surprised me. My memory of something light and sparking was, in reality, replaced by the sound of plodding and obviousness. 

Overall? 

Don’t stop? 

Do please stop. 

I’m so glad that you did and I just wish you’d never started again. 

Get/.see/read the rest of Totally Shuffled here:   

Kindle e book:

 Paperback: 

and this is what it's all about.....



One track per day for 366 days on a broken iPod. 366 tracks out of a possible 9553. From the obvious (The Rolling Stones), to the obscure (Karen Cooper Complex). From the sublime (The Flaming Lips) to the risible (Muse).  From field recordings of Haitian Voodoo music to The Monkees. From Heavy Metal to Rap by way of 1930’s blues, jazz, classical, punk, and every possible genre of music in between. This is what I listened to and wrote about for a whole year, to the point of never wanting to hear any more music again. Some songs I listened to I loved, and some I hated. Some artists ended up getting praised to the skies and others received a bit of critical kicking. There’s memories of spending too many hours in record shops, prevaricating over the next big thing and surprising myself over tracks that I’d completely forgotten about. But with 40 years of listening to music, I realised that I’ll never get sick of it.  I may have fallen out of love with some of the songs in this book, but I’ll never fall out of love with music.     

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Totally Shuffled-Vinyl vs mp3 on Record Store Day



extracted from Totally Shuffled-A Year of Listening to Music on a Broken iPod -a few thoughts re vinyl vs mp3s on Record Store Day



Lara and The Trailers-Sugartown-Girls in the Garage compilation

Following on from yesterday, here’s another crackly ripped single. This is a cover of a Lee Hazelwood song written for, and recorded originally by Nancy Sinatra. It wasn’t a hit for Sinatra, but she was immensely popular in Singapore-which is why this song was covered by Lara and The Trailers (from Singapore). Only the title of the song is sung in English-the rest is indecipherable to me, it may be Chinese or it may be Malayan, but it doesn’t really matter that much as it sounds fairly  good. It’s got that “swingin’ 60’s” style, but clearly refracted through another culture. And following on from yesterday- and it goes without saying- that without the internet I couldn’t have really got hold of a copy of a single from Singapore that was released in the 1960’s. Anything is possible of course, but some things are more probable than not and I’m not that hip enough to have the original 7”-in no doubt a cool-as-fuck picture sleeve. What really, and even more so than yesterday, adds to the exotic appeal of this track, is that crackly and scratchiness that appears deep within the grooves of the record as if it’s a part of the song, but at the same time it’s only something that has been added with time; like the ageing of a fine wine or the surface of an antique piece of furniture. And herein lies the problem; what would the record actually sound like if it was pristine? Would it lose something of that otherness or am I attracted by that element too much? Maybe I should hear it in a pure state, unaffected by jumps, crackles and surface noise. It’s possible that there’s been too much fetishisation of old vinyl and I’ve been led astray by at least two people whose taste and judgement I’d normally rely upon; John Peel and Neil Young.

Peel famously retorted to someone who complained that a track he was playing had too much surface noise with the reply that “Life has surface noise” and Neil Young similarly refused to record using digital equipment for a very long time. This is without mentioning Jack White issuing singles on his own label as 7” singles, rather than in any other format and the retro love-in for 180g album reissues on vinyl. (The latter costs a fortune by the way, and I think that unless you’ve got high-end equipment to play it on (I haven’t) and very good ears (not me, too much loud music over the last 35 years) then the record companies are selling us the Emperors’ New Clothes). 

Whilst we may go all misty-eyed about 12” albums and great sleeve art that’s all now been made redundant by the birth of CD and digital formats and we similarly mourn the loss of 7” singles with all their juke box connotations, let’s face it-it was all a pain in the arse. Most of the sleeve art for albums was crap design or sub-Roger Dean hippy stuff and 7 “ singles were always a nuisance to store and find. There was nothing more frustrating than finding your favourite record being so scratched or warped that it was unplayable and not being able to get another copy without spending a lot of money or time. 

Give me mp3’s any day-I can live without surface noise.     



Get/see Totally Shuffled here



What "Totally Shuffled" is all about:
 

One track per day for 366 days on a broken iPod. 366 tracks out of a possible 9553. From the obvious (The Rolling Stones), to the obscure (Karen Cooper Complex). From the sublime (The Flaming Lips) to the risible (Muse).  From field recordings of Haitian Voodoo music to The Monkees. From Heavy Metal to Rap by way of 1930’s blues, jazz, classical, punk, and every possible genre of music in between. This is what I listened to and wrote about for a whole year, to the point of never wanting to hear any more music again. Some songs I listened to I loved, and some I hated. Some artists ended up getting praised to the skies and others received a bit of critical kicking. There’s memories of spending too many hours in record shops, prevaricating over the next big thing and surprising myself over tracks that I’d completely forgotten about. But with 40 years of listening to music, I realised that I’ll never get sick of it.  I may have fallen out of love with some of the songs in this book, but I’ll never fall out of love with music