I burnt through and discarded about 20 albums on Sunday.
I managed to hook up my speakers to my laptop to give me a better sound, and tested them by playing my favourite Iron Maiden album, Somewhere in Time.
I was surprised that after a listen through I discarded Quiet Riot seeing as Im both a huge fan of Randy Rhoads and Frankie Banali. I guess greatness came after QR disbanded.
Most of the music I listened to was Psychedelic and Stoner rock in style.
I also updated my Motorhead discography and got rid of a couple of duplicate albums, and also ensured the music I did have was 320 bit rate.
Monday, 30 June 2014
Friday, 27 June 2014
World Music Musicians and Why I Hate It
More of an observational rant rather than anything serious.
There was, and still is, a trend for 1980's musicians to engage and adopt world music styles into their own music or change musical direction and become world musicians themselves. In their eyes it is the equivalent of their maturing musical identity, to the rest of us its either an interesting reworking of their sound, or utter rubbish.
Im going to name names, and these are normally good musicians who have become worse in my view rather than better.
Paul Simon - while I don't think he has done anything better since his days as a duo with Garfunkle, his Graceland album (which I detest) has many world music elements that it doesnt quite gel as a pleasurable listening experience, and seeing him in concert now is akin to watching an Africaan Dance music festival.
Sting - I tolerate his world music as he is one of the few who has made it work, but he does go overboard on his concerts.
Peter Gabriel - Im no fan of Genesis with or without him, but his solo work is almost deliberately world music.
Robert Plant - Its sad to see Mr Plant being dragged down with the world music scene. Yes both he and Jimmy Page have both used middle eastern influenced music in songs such as Kashmir, but they did a live album together called No Quarter which has many world musicians playing as well. But to be fair that have stolen a lot of first world music as well as third world music roo.
Why do they do it? Ego perhaps, but they are also products of their own experience, as they have (Sting and Peter Gabriel) been involved with travelling, poverty and Amnesty International
Dragging half an African tribe onto the stage is not the equivalent of world music.
There was, and still is, a trend for 1980's musicians to engage and adopt world music styles into their own music or change musical direction and become world musicians themselves. In their eyes it is the equivalent of their maturing musical identity, to the rest of us its either an interesting reworking of their sound, or utter rubbish.
Im going to name names, and these are normally good musicians who have become worse in my view rather than better.
Paul Simon - while I don't think he has done anything better since his days as a duo with Garfunkle, his Graceland album (which I detest) has many world music elements that it doesnt quite gel as a pleasurable listening experience, and seeing him in concert now is akin to watching an Africaan Dance music festival.
Sting - I tolerate his world music as he is one of the few who has made it work, but he does go overboard on his concerts.
Peter Gabriel - Im no fan of Genesis with or without him, but his solo work is almost deliberately world music.
Robert Plant - Its sad to see Mr Plant being dragged down with the world music scene. Yes both he and Jimmy Page have both used middle eastern influenced music in songs such as Kashmir, but they did a live album together called No Quarter which has many world musicians playing as well. But to be fair that have stolen a lot of first world music as well as third world music roo.
Why do they do it? Ego perhaps, but they are also products of their own experience, as they have (Sting and Peter Gabriel) been involved with travelling, poverty and Amnesty International
Dragging half an African tribe onto the stage is not the equivalent of world music.
Thursday, 26 June 2014
Adventures in Music Part 1 1970s
My first introduction to music was the same I’m sure for most people, listening to my parents records. I never heard my parents play any of their records, but then I never saw them read any books, but they had plenty of those as well. Not having any knowledge on how record players worked, I was only able to look at the album covers and was curious about their cassette tapes. Their music collection seemed to be mostly Country and Western albums and I distinctly remember them having collections of MARIO LANZA, and the West Side Story Musical stage show.
Beyond that limited music collection I didn’t pay attention to any other music, other than bits and pieces I saw on Saturday morning television, but that was nothing more than music that got in the way of the cartoons I was more interested in.
The first 7inch single I was ever bought was SARAH BRIGHTMAN AND HOT GOSSIP’s I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper. A dire and average disco pop record. I’ve no idea why it was bought for me, I didn't have or know how to use a record player. That wasn't the first record I bought, but was only one of two records my mum ever bought for me. The other was much later, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’s Born in the USA 7inch.I remember being invited to a friends birthday party and I brought the record along to be played. I don't think they bothered. The dad of my friend was heavily into Jazz music and had collections of the stuff and listened to it constantly. I'm pleased I never got into that style of music.
I eventually learnt how to use my parent’s record player and was also able to play my parent’s music as well as my own 7inch. I spent countless hours learning how to queue up singles on a record player. I think I experimented with albums to see just how many I could balance on record player at once without ruining them rather than playing them.
One year later for my birthday I was bought a radio cassette recorder, and to go with it was THE BOOMTOWN RATS’ A Tonic for the Troops, containing the songs Like Clockwork and Rat Trap. I listened to this album many times, along with a couple of audio-books and found a few other tapes my parents owned, including the soundtrack to the film Exodus which was incredibly moving, inspiring and probably explains my deep love for soundtrack albums, the main theme was beautiful. I was too young to be trusted with my parents vinyl records.
The following year I was bought a Bontempi organ that had numbers on each of its keys, making it easy to follow and play music specially written for it. It came with half a dozen books allowing you to play common melodies, but I remember my mum buying a special book; SIMON & GARFUNKLE’s Greatest Hits. I’d never heard of either of them (Simon or Garfunkle), and oddly could play their music well even though Id never heard them played properly. So for almost ten years the only version I knew was my crappy cover versions.
Beyond that limited music collection I didn’t pay attention to any other music, other than bits and pieces I saw on Saturday morning television, but that was nothing more than music that got in the way of the cartoons I was more interested in.
The first 7inch single I was ever bought was SARAH BRIGHTMAN AND HOT GOSSIP’s I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper. A dire and average disco pop record. I’ve no idea why it was bought for me, I didn't have or know how to use a record player. That wasn't the first record I bought, but was only one of two records my mum ever bought for me. The other was much later, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’s Born in the USA 7inch.I remember being invited to a friends birthday party and I brought the record along to be played. I don't think they bothered. The dad of my friend was heavily into Jazz music and had collections of the stuff and listened to it constantly. I'm pleased I never got into that style of music.
I eventually learnt how to use my parent’s record player and was also able to play my parent’s music as well as my own 7inch. I spent countless hours learning how to queue up singles on a record player. I think I experimented with albums to see just how many I could balance on record player at once without ruining them rather than playing them.
One year later for my birthday I was bought a radio cassette recorder, and to go with it was THE BOOMTOWN RATS’ A Tonic for the Troops, containing the songs Like Clockwork and Rat Trap. I listened to this album many times, along with a couple of audio-books and found a few other tapes my parents owned, including the soundtrack to the film Exodus which was incredibly moving, inspiring and probably explains my deep love for soundtrack albums, the main theme was beautiful. I was too young to be trusted with my parents vinyl records.
The following year I was bought a Bontempi organ that had numbers on each of its keys, making it easy to follow and play music specially written for it. It came with half a dozen books allowing you to play common melodies, but I remember my mum buying a special book; SIMON & GARFUNKLE’s Greatest Hits. I’d never heard of either of them (Simon or Garfunkle), and oddly could play their music well even though Id never heard them played properly. So for almost ten years the only version I knew was my crappy cover versions.
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Removed Several Stoner Rock Albums - Update
Just a short update to say Ive cleared out half a dozen albums that I liked, but just never felt the need to listen to again. One of these was the new Hell Yeah! album. I really enjoyed the groove metal of Pantera although I didnt care too much for the screaming vocals, in fact they are one of the only bands I have that screams (okay 2 if you include Trivium but they sing with clean vocals). I have dimissed all of Opeth's albums because of this very fact. I just don't get black or death metal at all.
While Hell Yeah! had decent drumming, I felt the songs were quite weak and the vocals nothing special, so although it got good reviews, I didnt think it was a stand out enough album to keep.
I have now brought my download list right up to date, meaning any new albums that are listing on the website I dont need to queue up. I am still left with a weekends worth of music to listen to whilst also listening to some of my older classic albums. It doesnt help that the car Im driving to work at the moment doesnt have a CD player, and the mechanics involved in getting music from my PC to my mobile phone are too cumbersome. Im hoping to land a new job before September and I will migrate my music listening back to a dedicated MP3 player, maybe an iPod or 2nd hand iPhone.
While Hell Yeah! had decent drumming, I felt the songs were quite weak and the vocals nothing special, so although it got good reviews, I didnt think it was a stand out enough album to keep.
I have now brought my download list right up to date, meaning any new albums that are listing on the website I dont need to queue up. I am still left with a weekends worth of music to listen to whilst also listening to some of my older classic albums. It doesnt help that the car Im driving to work at the moment doesnt have a CD player, and the mechanics involved in getting music from my PC to my mobile phone are too cumbersome. Im hoping to land a new job before September and I will migrate my music listening back to a dedicated MP3 player, maybe an iPod or 2nd hand iPhone.
Friday, 20 June 2014
Saturn 2013 Naya Din
I want to give a massive shout out to Saturn's little heard 2013 release Naya Din. Modern hard rock mixed with progressive and acoustic elements and vocals that sound very suited to the style of Indian music a la Kula Shakar.
Pakistan's very own answer to Dream Theater sees a very experienced and tight band performing really catchy melodic progressive metal.
One element I like is that while both the vocalist and guitarist feature prominently in every song, each of the musicians in the band is allowed to shine. Solid keyboard bass and drums really propel this album along so it sounds shorter than it is
Be warned that this is a hard to find gem of an album and that the singer sings exclusively in his mother language.
A promising 1st release and I will be looking forward to their 2nd album.
6.5/10. I know the score is quite mean but its open to be revised.
Music Listening Update - How I Listen
My current music set up is as follows. All my music lives on a 1TB external hard drive (Western Digital) and is backed up routinely to a RAID 1 Mirror hard drive at home. Music that is downloaded but not yet listened to sits on my laptop until I decide if its good enough to be kept permanently or deleted as dross. Im fully aware that I may well be discarding music I will like if given a chance, but I am genuinely only looking for new albums by artists I already enjoy and music by bands Ive never heard of but really catch my ear, and the only way they can do that is to blow my socks off from the opening tracks.
After spending most of 2013 catching up with almost 500 albums worth of new material I have become far more discerning as to the kind of music I try out.
Previously I would have downloaded anything that was in the following music category;
Doom, Sludge, Stoner, Metal, Power, Symphonic, Folk, Prog Rock, Psychedelic, Space and ambient. But after having listened to all and sundry I've limited it down to just Stoner, Psychedelic and Space. I've listened to far to much power and speed metal to know it all sounds the same, and have decided to (unless I read a good review elsewhere) to focus on those few power/speed metal bands I currently enjoy.
The main problem with so much music is that I rarely get to listen to old music I still enjoy.
I've almost caught up with my downloads of albums I've bought but not yet put onto my laptop, but now have a laptop full of music that must be listened to.
After spending most of 2013 catching up with almost 500 albums worth of new material I have become far more discerning as to the kind of music I try out.
Previously I would have downloaded anything that was in the following music category;
Doom, Sludge, Stoner, Metal, Power, Symphonic, Folk, Prog Rock, Psychedelic, Space and ambient. But after having listened to all and sundry I've limited it down to just Stoner, Psychedelic and Space. I've listened to far to much power and speed metal to know it all sounds the same, and have decided to (unless I read a good review elsewhere) to focus on those few power/speed metal bands I currently enjoy.
The main problem with so much music is that I rarely get to listen to old music I still enjoy.
I've almost caught up with my downloads of albums I've bought but not yet put onto my laptop, but now have a laptop full of music that must be listened to.
Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Tributes? Covers? No Thanks
The very first tribute album I bought was Apocalyptica plays Metallica. A four-piece cello group that recreated Metallica's music (specifically the Black era and earlier) and made it sound new and fresh. Whilst Apocalytpica would create new music in later albums, they would expand their covers and renditions with their own sound and style. While I have fond memories of the first album music, I havent listened to it for years. It was a novelty which sadly wore off quickly.
Oddly it was by accident that I bought my next tribute album, Metallica Blackest Industrial Tribute to..., and my third was Abba Metal, a Metal Tribute to Abba.
I noticed a growing trend of tribute albums, and then later covers albums (Garage Days Revisited/Garage Inc started the revival) and really saw them as cheap cash ins. Essentially a tribute album is done one of two ways. Either a perfect rendition (pointless when you can listen to the original) or a (for example) a Jazz swing version of Enter Sandman. I started seeing these tribute albums as a good purchase, who doesnt want to hear new versions of the same songs, but then the bubble burst. It seemed every band was producing a covers album (Id say its hazy ground on par with a compilation album) or allowing tribute albums of its material to be covered.
Ive stopped buying Tribute albums because they no longer have anything useful to say musically, and cover albums no longer satisfy me when Id rather the band be creating new music. Sure, bands can play cover songs at live concerts etc...but dont sell me an album full of covers. Please.
Oddly it was by accident that I bought my next tribute album, Metallica Blackest Industrial Tribute to..., and my third was Abba Metal, a Metal Tribute to Abba.
I noticed a growing trend of tribute albums, and then later covers albums (Garage Days Revisited/Garage Inc started the revival) and really saw them as cheap cash ins. Essentially a tribute album is done one of two ways. Either a perfect rendition (pointless when you can listen to the original) or a (for example) a Jazz swing version of Enter Sandman. I started seeing these tribute albums as a good purchase, who doesnt want to hear new versions of the same songs, but then the bubble burst. It seemed every band was producing a covers album (Id say its hazy ground on par with a compilation album) or allowing tribute albums of its material to be covered.
Ive stopped buying Tribute albums because they no longer have anything useful to say musically, and cover albums no longer satisfy me when Id rather the band be creating new music. Sure, bands can play cover songs at live concerts etc...but dont sell me an album full of covers. Please.
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