Cose Fantastiche

There are times when I am given evidence, that yes I really am Italian. This does not mean Italian-American, which has its own weird culture I was never exposed to. All of my interaction with my relatives has actually been in Italy, so really I'm just straight up Italy Italian. The effect is probably not obvious to people, even those who know me really well, and sometimes I'm criticized for being 'pretentious'. For the record, I'm not for two reasons 1. I like stereotypically populist sorts of things as well as stereotypically elitist things, and 2. I'm European, deal with it. Not speaking Italian fluently for a long time has made it difficult at times for me to own my identity, but it is half of the picture of who I am and it has partially defined my lifestyle, food palate, fashion sense, and even music taste. Observe below.

My friend Marina was on my computer the other day watching stuff related to King Arthur because she's just weird and awesome like that. Today in my Youtube history I found what she was looking at: 'King Arthur' sung by Valerie Dore, which part of an italo-disco Arthurian concept album in the 80s. As I watched this in wonder I felt my Italian-sense tingling.



And then I watched "Lancelot" which is a huge stadio show, which means that at one point there were thousands of Italians out there capable of appreciating the majesty that is this song. And the only thing cuter than the happily waving people in the crowd are the comments of people musing on Youtube in Italian about all their nostalgic flashbacks brought on by this song "Ahh che bei ricordi!"



The world is a changed changed place due to the Italians that made italo-disco like this possible. Yes, its ridiculous, and yes, its amazing something like this not only existed but had a real following. It's times like these when I'm seriously proud to be Italian. Read More......

If You Still Need an Idol

Lately I've been watching tons of old music videos for classics like Eurythmics, Siousxie, basically anything with my female role models of style and badassery. there is something solidifying about watching those videos, maybe there is something more real about seeing them in person, with hair and makeup and clothes that other youth as myself must have admired, but most of all that element of uniqueness and spunk that sets them apart from the rest of the world. It lets me know I'm not the only one who wants to live life on my terms, 'Up Bondage Up Yours.' I'm just not famous (yet).

I don't know where this came from, but I found this music video of women rock legends to the music of one of my favorite punk bands X-Ray Spex, "The Day the World Turned Dayglo." If you don't have a chickrock idol yet, select one now:



And if you want to see the actual video, and one of my dear idols Poly Styrene (look for the one with braces), here it is:

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Blog Shopping

Perhaps the perfect short break from writing a paper is finding tons of new blogs to explore. Finding an awesome new blog is like a new pair of shoes crossed with a rack of new CDs to check out crossed with a new friend crossed with rainbows. What I mean is, its pretty friggin kickass.

I should start off by mentioning the blog that started it all, Fantasmi Macchina, which basically posts music from a medly of experimental electro or synthy subgenres like NewWave, Italo, Garage, Drone, etc. I recently discovered it in my bookmarks and have been sampling the musics of 1000 Mexicans.

From there I discovered Matrixsynth, an "Everything synth' technical blog, which is completely useless to me, yet fills me with an intense joy. It's like finding a blog of puppy yawns or something. I was intrigued by the name Minimal Wave, which may be my next favorite record label. Also Minimal-Elektronik is a pretty awesome minimally-designed site that's basically just a listing of recommended bands and albums; probably boring to anyone not me.

Eventually I made my way to Mutant Sounds which has lots of foreign out of print LPs, that I have never heard of, probably postpunk, and looks especially pretentious for one of its ilk, so you know its good. As for Disco, I discovered Disco Classic, which I'm pretty sure is not in English, but could be fun anyway.

Sigh shopping is exhausting! Read More......

Electronic Music Heads Up

Hello world, lately I've been jamming on a bunch of stuff I've been getting from Hypnotic Breaks. It's a great site with lots of awesome electronica, especially the stuff I like that's more progressive, experimental or minimalist. Check it out for hours of fun! They just put up a ton of Hypnotic-Breaks Techno Packs, including one for Dub, Minimal and, the one I'm working on now, Detroit Techno Classics. Thank you Hypnotic Breaks!! Read More......

Marnie Stern's video for 'Transformer'

I just finished writing my review of Marnie Stern's new album, which I mentioned on here before. You can still find her full album on imeem, although she took down the link to it from her myspace. Anyway, THIS is why I'm so astounded by this woman.

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Playlist 5

Playlist 5 is up, it isn't very long. I will admit I haven't put TONS of time into it, I've been in a very strange music mood lately, you'll notice there is a lot of fuzzed out synth stuff.

I am obsessed with the first song by Pidgeon. I need to get their CD as soon as possible. It's a really good balance of music styles--grungey metal guitars and screams with some indie pop moments, and I love anything with male and female vocals. Excellent, really excellent.

I may add another song to the mix, I just heard some amazing stuff by Jenny Hval. If you go look at the blog Obscure Sound, you'll notice a few other songs are from there. It's a great site if you want to find new indie rock artists, although you'll have to look elsewhere for other genres. Jenny Hval sounds very original and amazing, Bjorklike. Read More......

Process

When I'm looking for the next artist for my music column for my college's feminist music column, I never really know what I'm looking for. I generally have an eye out for women and women-fronted groups, but I don't necessarily want to discount people because of their gender. I've actually been very open to the idea of featuring a guy for once.

I run into a lot of good music on my journey to find the topic of my next column, and I always feel unsure about who I'm going to choose. Until I find it, that is, and then it just seems ridiculous to have imagined anything else would work. I love that I pretty much always end up finding the perfect thing, an artist whose work I really care about and connect with. But I find plenty of other good stuff, too, even those aren't what I find most useful for my particular mission. I won't give too many of my potentials away, because who knows.



I was very excited to find The Depreciation Guild, The Depreciation Guild, and the free album on their site for download. I haven't gotten a chance to listen to it, but I was really siked even though it doesn't really fit for the column. It's sort of Crystal Castley but different.

And you can check out Marnie Stern's myspace to hear her album, too. I was really really excited to find out that she had a new album, she is freaking amazing, and the obvious choice. So to be continued on that one. Read More......

Life

I know this blog has gone by the wayside since I went to school, to be honest I haven't really been listening to much new stuff.

I feel like so much has happened since the day I left for college, this year, my last year. On that day I just had this watershed moment of self-realization and reassessment of everything I've taken for granted in my entire life. It was like waking up from a dream, or lifting a curse, or stepping into a different reality.

Since then I've come to realize that the only motivation I've had my entire life has been to avoid being considered the worst. Music for me has always been this wonderful thing, an escape. I definitely have held back a part of myself for a really long time, and to some extent I have perpetually felt alone. Music will always be your friend, and it will always understand you.

But at the same time, music was also its own source of stress. I hate the whole hipster music culture, where music taste becomes this competition. Music, this part of my soul, felt like yet another opportunity to be judged lacking.

Coming over this hump, living the life of what feels like an entirely different person, I've lost that motivation and fear of failure in many areas of my life, including music. What used to give me motivation to follow music blogs and stay on top of new music, now leaves me untouched.

I need to create new motivations to do things. This is part of that--doing things for myself. Read More......

I Heart Distopia Authors

The quote of the month from Analogik (mentioned at length in the previous entry) is

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music". Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963), "Music at Night", 1931

I like Brave New World, sure, but I liked 1984 better. I found out the other day about the Orwell Diaries, and I think it's awesome. Seventy years from when Orwell wrote in his diaries, his writings are being published day by day on the blog. It's been a very domestic August, although I do find it interesting to observe Orwell's fascination with plants, animals, and bottling methods. In September it is supposed to go into his political diaries, and then day by day we will relive the buildup to the second World War. Intense, huh? Read More......

Confession

Writing electronic music may seem like an easy task at first. All who have tried have realised that there is a difference between writing a piece that sounds either amateurish or too commercial and creating something truly unique. Electronic music is supposed to be opening new horizons towards melodic and rhythmic structures that are not limited by physical properties of natural instruments and its musicians.

One can argue though, that the removal of all such intermediaries brings the composer a step closer to the ultimate barrier. Of course, we’re talking about inspiration. There are a plenty of audio samples and software packages out there, in fact maybe too many. Machines are increasingly fast and humans increasingly impatient which inevitably leads to a path where machines will be able to interface with the composer on almost an organic level and reward the musician with an instant result.

Unfortunately we’re not quite there yet and it will be some time until we reach that level. But let’s reflect on this exciting time where technology and science flourish and draw our inspiration from this dynamic and uplifting era

Sigh. The day when music can be created instantly. Sounds awesome, although to be honest that means there will be a much greater amount of crappy music probably. But that isn't really a deterrent. The quote above comes from the site Analogik, which focuses on the creation of electronic music and is currently entertaining me with its huge archive of great articles. Right now I've got a separate tab for an explanation of the physics of analogue and digital music, as well as another essay asking what went wrong with techno culture.


OK, so out comes it: I may be considered an amateur electronic music creater. I feel comfortable calling myself an amateur but not so much musician. There is something really geeky, yet awesome, about spending hours in front of the computer playing around with different samples and settings to create fun sounds. For me, since I don't know what I'm doing at all, it's like musical fingerpainting: it's not so much about building a song or getting anything out of it I would actually want anyone to hear, it's just completely FUN to smear sounds wherever I want. Especially doing that on top of my own super enhanced and reverby, disco diva vocals. Yeah, it's so freaking ridiculous and entertaining I can barely think about it without smiling.

I stole the first couple of paragraphs of their homepage to demonstrate a theme of futurism that runs through a great deal of the writing: there is such a sense of excitement about the development of technology as a means for creative expression, and, more vastly, the eventual expansion of creative possibilities beyond what we can imagine today. It's about the next frontier of music and art and intelligence. I sense the romance of undiscovered stars and a steady determination. The underlying assumption is that its part of inevitable technological development--we all know we'll get there, it's just a matter of when. See their article on the future of electronic music.


In another tab I'm reading through an explanation of a music project described as 'An Ever Changing and Evolving Entity of Sound,' that aims at basically creating a long stream of music using parameters and databases of samples and instruments. It would never sound the same because anyone would be able to make changes in the parameters and alter the sound, thus creating a communal collaboration:

"Every one of you out there is wonderful in your own special way, and we all have at least one little increment of uniqueness that is different from anyone else.... What if we all connected and worked peace by peace to put together something that is beyond the concept of songs? ..

We beings are coming together finally. Late at night when you're lonely and depressed you can log on to find someone else in the same state of mind and collaborate in violent noise. We will make love to each other in a new way. Expressing things from hate to sexuality will be prominent in this new world of communication and language. How amazing are we? Its time people take a baseball bat to there [sic] TV's and log on to express one's self. "

This is why I love electronic music. It's friggin deep.
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Dubstep Warz, Burial 'Archangel' (And yes I'm still alive)

No actual video for this, but the song is great:



At work now, I'm listening to the fantastic Breezeblock Dubstep Warz, a BBC Radio 1 show from 2006 on Mary Anne Hobbs' Experimental Show, (whose job I want with a fiery passion). You can listen to it, download it, and see the tracklist on GetDarker, a cool dubstep site to check out. I'm thinking it's probably going to keep me busy for a while.

By the way I should mention I don't profess to know anything about dubstep. Actually I don't profess to know anything about anything, I just listen to it and read wikipedia entries, ha. Read More......

Vacation

New playlist-- had a big upset in the past couple weeks but I've adapted. Aside from that, it's been marvelous. Just had a great 21st birthday hanging out in the beautiful weather, and now I'm going to the beach! Later! Read More......

The Morning Benders

I think I first heard this band two or three years ago. Anyway, I found the playlist they made for imeem quite diverting to listen to at work. Check it ouuuuut. Read More......

Little Bit

I'm a little bit in love with this video. You may remember Lykke Li from the Hood Internet mixes I posted about. She's pretty amazing, as is evident.

And then I saw this recorded session of "I'm Good, I'm Gone" in the back of a black cab:



And now an acoustic version of "Little Bit" played on the street in Stockholm (which looks so beautiful)

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Adventure to the House of Musical Traditions

On Wednesday, me and two cherished high school friends went on an adventure. We drove fourty-five minutes to a music store!

It was a great day overall, starting with a good drive and breakfast at a cafe at which we discussed our futures, and the turning into reality of something we've always dreamed of. That is, opening a bookstore cafe with room for live performances and yoga class. We decided we need to scout Seattle.

Later on was great, too, especially when Jenn, violinist performance major extraordinaire (plus Ethnomusicology), played some Irish tunes with my dad. But of course the big excitement of the day was centered around the House of Musical Traditions in Takoma Park, MD.

I went into the music store expecting maybe to come out of there with some bongos or a maraca. I came out of it with a harp, Ravenna 26.




Music stores are pretty magical places. My friend Liz was drawn to a violin while she was there, and is now planning on bringing her own to be assessed and possibly traded. You can unexpectedly fall in love with an instrument and it can end up coming home with you.

For me, the acquisition of a new instrument is like picking up a new language: it's just the beginning, but it holds so many possibilities. Both offer entirely new modes of expression. Maybe it's just me--I love both music and language, partily for this reason--but there is something so stirring, exciting, and ecstatic about that. Definitely romantic, there is a reason why people name their guitars.

We wandered around the store together. Jenn played impressively on a violin, and at one point Liz joined her in song (she's a performance major for voice, doubling with Composition. I love my musical friends), and I was wowed. It was so spontaneous, like we were in a musical. But really we were in a music store, where magic things happen. That was the violin that Liz loved when she played it herself.

We went into the room with harps and dulcimers. I plucked around on a few. And then I met my harp. I sat down on the creaky stool and it was love at first touch. It brought up all of these memories of Scotland, and my flatmate Liz (a different one), who would play her harp to us sometimes. Mostly it was at night after we had been out having fun, and I was exhausted or inebriated. My other flatmates and I would lay around the living room lounging and listening, and her playing was so beautiful I could cry. I'd never heard a harp in person before, it's definitely an entirely different experience. But as soon as I played some notes, I just remembered these times of happiness and peace and beauty. I called up my dad and told him about the harp, and he told me to get it as my birthday gift. He said it was more agreeable to have it in the house than the drum set I had suggested last year.

I'm so in love with this harp. I've been playing it all the time, trying to get into using both hands at once, the left one for chords and the right for melody. Liz told me that it's really hard to make harps sound bad, which is so true. I've never been able to sit down and enjoy playing an instrument for hours without having any knowledge of it. I've always been so aware that I sound bad, and that leads to my awareness of the time I would need to invest in practicing and learning before it will actually sound any good, and that leads to the actual learning and practicing not being fun or satisfying. My harp is instantly gratifying, I can immediately make music without any painful wait or reliance on written songs.

I love it I love it I love it. I don't have a name for it though. I feel like harps are feminine, but as my love I kindof want it to be male. I'm thinking something classy like Hector. Well, we have plently of time to get to know each other.

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Finalllmente

OMG New Playlist!! It's pretty calm, felt down on a Monday night. But I woke up feeling better and the playlist is still awesome--that's the real test.

Yes there are two Air songs..probably be the last of my Air obsession for now, so it's going out with a bang. Although remixes totally don't count.

In other news I went to Goodwill last week and I bought 26 dollars worth of VHS movies! Three for two dollars! That's right, baby.

Really digging the Kaki King song on there, maybe I'll review her or something tomorrow. We'll see.

Don't forget you can expand the player to see full titles, and please let me know if anything doesn't work. Read More......

My Peter & the Wolf Adventure on eBay

I've been sorely disappointing on the posting front on this blog lately, and I apologize to my dear readers. I've got a lot of material sitting around, I just need to knuckle down and post it. Sometimes its hard to keep at it, especially when I write a ton of stuff out and disappears (which happened on the equivalent post to this yesterday). But I think I'm back.

One thing that actually helps with my blog activity is my acquisition of a new television for my room. It's from my grandmother's house that she is moving out of, and as far as I can tell it's the top of the line of circa 1994 TVs---still new looking shiny chrome silver exterior, decent sized screen, impressive weight and bulk due to its oldschool construction, topped with a fabulous VHS player ANNND DVD player! All it needs is a companion Walkman and no one on the block can compete. It took all of my willpower and and brute strength to haul it above my head onto my dresser, but I did it.

I'm rediscovering my VHS movie collection. So people still cling to their tapes and records, but why don't VHS movies get any love? They are awesome, and it's way easier to find good old movies on VHS thanks to the fact that no one wants them and they are all over ebay. There is something very nostalgic about popping in a movie, it reminds me of childhood when I would watch classics like The Little Mermaid, Fantasia and The Pink Panther, on repeat. My rule is you should always watch the previews on VHS, to create an authentic experience, and also because of the fact that often they will blow your mind. Just trust me.

Speaking of childhood classics, I decided to expand my VHS collection with the help of eBay. Last night I had the urge to look up the going rate on Disney's animated rendition of Peter and the Wolf, which I haven't seen since I was eight. I think it might have left a big impression on me, and I remember it being enthralling. I did find many copies, as well as many other treasures.

That's unfortunately what usually happens when I go on eBay. Last year I underwent an eBay recovery period after a serious addiction spring semester sophomore year, perusing shoes and vintage clothing auctions can be a very good method of procrastination. I ended up with several pairs of shoes that don't really fit, one pair awesome red faux leather heels which fit ok (10 bucks), one dress I actually wear (10 bucks), and several shirts I don't. Unfortunately whenever I brag about my savvy shopping on the few things I am able to use, I forget that I probably wasted another 100 bucks on returns and other crap.

Anyway, Wikipedia's article on Peter and the Wolf was quite helpful as I was pointed in the direction of two particularly amazing things I would later find on eBay. It seems like Peter and the Wolf is one of those things that is constantly being redone to introduce to each influx of children, and as a result there are a billion versions. The first that caught my eye, was the one that David Bowie did in the eighties, and then I found a record for sale of the prog-rock version.


Excerpts on youtube:
Bowie

That's as far as I could find on youtube, but Bowie's voice is very expressive.

Brand-X

Sorry, this part of the story is more sad :( You should notice that the guitar is Peter in this version, the Wolf (done by Brian Eno) is the bass, the bird is a synth, and I think you can figure the rest out. The whole thing is on youTube, so enjoy. Read More......

Koop - I See a different you

I've been a bit unprolific--my power cord died, and I can't use my laptop at work anymore :(

But this is cheery. I totally get you, dude.

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Better late than never

The playlist for this week is two days late, I know, I think Mondays may work better for me actually. But this one seems to match up with my last week experience nicely. There were some emotional ups and downs, restless energy I wanted to express, but by the end it sort of settles down into my previous contented happy summer state. Hope you like it. I made some more notes on individual songs for anyone interested.

I know the widgity thing is a bit squished but you can expand it or go to the imeem page if you want to see album info, etc. Old playlists will still be available on my imeem profile. Imeem is pretty cool unless it does things like shorten songs, like it did last week's final song, as well as this week's Bn Loco song which I actually bought in order to put it on a playlist. LAME. Like I say in the extended post, you should check out the full version if it's not working, on the player here.


Some notes on this week's playlist

1. Air- Another gorgeous Air song. I'm a recent intense Air fan, this album has been in rotation a lot lately.

2. Heartsrevolution- I've gotten this song into my head, makes me want to jump up and down and dance. I like the grunginess too, makes me think of the creak of leather couches or rubber.

3. Vitalic- Italo-discoy, I love the melodies and the heartbeat, it makes me think of flying

4. Blonde Redhead-- I love love love this song lately. I've been listening to 23 on repeat at work when no one is around, I definitely didn't appreciate the album when it came out last year, but now it calls to mind the live performance of theirs I saw for my 20th birthday. They're amazing, the songs amazing.

5. Bn Loco-- Last week I was checking out the artists at Modus Vivendi Music, and I just had to have this song once I heard it, so I bought it off iTunes as well as his album. If it's not playing the full version (it's around 5 minutes not 1.5 minutes), then you should go to the label site and listen to it on their player. There's a bunch of other good stuff there as well. Thanks to discodust for getting me to go over there to check out the new Sam Sparrow remix, which it turns out I wasn't that impressed by.

6. Burning Spear- Hard to fit this song in, but I really dig it. I love all the keyboard effects and the horns, great song. I fell asleep to it the other day on my couch under the fan with the sunshine filtering into the room. So peaceful and happy, so summer.

7. Atmosphere- A little hiphop to mix it up. The back melody sounds like oldschool videogame music to me, like the music played during pause, when you're stuck in a long conversation with someone or in a shop. Fellow dorks know what I'm talking about it.

8. Glass Candy-- AWESOME Glass Candy song that doesn't sound like any of their other stuff (well they've used those same lyrics a ton), but I've heard that the next stuff they are brewing has this more funky sound. And it fades out nicely...

Also thanks to Hackosphere for the instructions and code to make Selective Expandable Posts
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I hope you can read French

Luckily for me, I can a lot better than I thought I could considering I only took a few years in high school (I took pretty much all the languages offered at some point. Doesn't mean I know any of them.), so I could enjoy this article comparing the wonderful Ellen Allien (see the first track of Playlist 1) to fellow Berlinette electronic music badass Anja Schneider. 

The lesson is all romance languages are the same. And also Boing Poum Tchak is a pretty cool online magazine--don't worry it has English articles, too, including this interview with Swedish artist Andars Ilar. Here's a taste:

Do you think your music is sometimes too complex / experimental according to the listeners ? And why there are so many elements inside your music ? Are you afraid of the silence ? (silence = death ?)

I await death with curiosity, but life is so overwhelmingly full of sounds, and I see music in almost everything around me. In nature, in architecture and infrastructure, it’s really everywhere. I like to listen to a good track over and over again, and be swept away every time. It may be intense and chaotic the first listenings. But then you start to hear new sounds that appear by coincidence, and other sounds dissapear. In life there is always more input than the brain can handle, and you automaticly sort thru this and focus on what’s important. But I don’t think my music is really that complex. To me it seems more like it’s people that’s afraid of noise.

(thanks mnml)

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Oh wait yeah

I mentioned I was listening to the mixtape put out by The Hood Internet of mixes they did of stuff of the new album by Lykke Li. It's actually free on their website! Yay! All can enjoy!

Free stuff is one of my favorite things about electronic music. Read More......

Thoughts

So far this is a very excellent project. I'm really glad I'm doing this.

I'm rediscovering html. Learning stuff trying to figure things like sound embedding. I love the internet, if I want to learn to do something, I can just google it and read enough instructions until I get it. And it's all sort of building on each other.

I'm realizing I am in a love affair with media.

Listening to NPR now. I realize what I love about it: I love its ability to connect so many disparate points of our lives and those of others, of our society. And it does so with such a voice. Listening to it alone, and letting the thoughts run over your mind, it's like briefly letting someone else take over, thinking with someone else's stream of consciousness. It's very intimate, and it's the kind of feeling we don't have day to day in our lives, interacting with people.

I think that's sad. I wish life was such that we could walk in and out of each other's minds without fear. But there are so many things that help to keep our truest selves tucked away.

But that's why I love media. Especially the kind of media like NPR that has this kind of voice. When I was working in the library at school I picked up The Dream of a Common Language, and I immediately fell hard in love with the poem of that name. Excerpt:

It’s simple to wake from sleep with a stranger,
dress, go out, drink coffee,
enter a life again. It isn’t simple
to wake from sleep into the neighborhood
of one neither strange nor familiar
whom we have chosen to trust. Trusting, untrusting,
we lowered ourselves into this, let ourselves
downward hand over hand as on a rope that quivered
over the unsearched…. We did this. Conceived
of each other, conceived each other in a darkness
which I remember as drenched in light.
I want to call this, life.

But I can’t call it life until we start to move
beyond this secret circle of fire
where our bodies are giant shadows flung on a wall
where the night becomes our inner darkness, and sleeps
like a dumb beast, head on her paws, in the corner.

But it doesn't have to be academic, I mean that's part of what makes me (and everyone?) fall in love with bands, movies, books, photos, art...Jon Stewart, Colbert, David Sedaris, that's what makes me love their comedy--I guess for me the division between comedy, art, literature, music all seem irrelevant. Yes, this is technically a music blog. But life is musical so is music then lifelike? life-ical? Oh words.

Anyway, I guess if I could do anything, I'd want someone someday to read my book (or blog?), or hear my song (or playlist?), or listen to (or read?) me musing in such a way that it struck them in the same way so many things have struck me.

I want to develop my voice, and for that reason I'm glad I'm doing this.



P.S. Case in point about Adrienne Rich, reading Fox. It's not technically music but it's close. Read More......

Venetian Snares

Found this today, it's some Crazy stuff

Live Venetian Snares featuring Jo Apps--Dance Like You're Selling Nails



Commenting on youtube, japps:

yeah, it was only a bit of fun really, a silly throw away joke.. I'd sung "dance like you're selling nails" a couple of years before for Aaron, and never met him - it was all done over the internet, so he asked me to do some jokey mcing on stage as a one off. Someone threw their bra at me on stage, and afterwards aphex twin came up to me and said it was the best thing he'd ever seen. I was about 18 years old, wasn't on any drugs, and was just having a bit of an extended in joke laugh on stage.

I didn't realize she was Patrick Wolf's sister. Cool family. Read More......

Playlist

Just added a little Widget/thing-a-ma-jigger to the side of the page, and threw together a playlist. I'm still fiddling with it a little. There's some good stuff in there, I intended for it to be of the more relaxed variety. Next week's will be more polished. I intend to put up a new playlist Saturday nightish every week so look out for that!

Love, me Read More......

Tiësto - The Making Of In Search of Sunrise 7 Asia

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Currently Listening to

I'm listening to a bunch of things that I'm excited to spend more time going over. I may or may not write a review/something about the ones that are truly fantastic, but it'll clear my head a little to get it out.

I should give a warning: Last semester several things combined to hurl me into a whirlwind love affair with all things electronic, which previously I haven't spent much time listening to. Those were related to events from the previous fall in Scotland as well as my summer at home: in Scotland I was listening alot to the three disc compilation of Disco I got in the summer (I was going to have a disco dance party, maybe a little Saturday Night Fever inspired. It didn't happen) which as it turns out is the perfect music to listen to on a twenty minute walk into town before an exciting night at the pub; an increasing interest in dance music stemming from the summer in which I got into M.I.A, and, more saliently, Chromeo and Justice; and finally a lot of this crystallized for me when I went to a Death Disco party at The Arches in Glasgow---an amazing venue for an amazing monthly event which basically blew my mind.

And second warning: Coming home I seem to be so happy for some reason, it's like I've achieved self actualization. I don't think I really have, maybe like Self Actualization 101. But anyway, I seem to be appreciating a newfound love for trance. For some reason I don't fell any other explanation is needed; makes sense to me, anyway.


Point demonstrated: Tiesto has a video introducing the album In Search of Sunrise 7: Asia, and I got more excited about listening to it then I have anything else I've gotten my hands on in the past couple of months. I don't even like compilations. I've only listened to one of the discs, but think I'll have a lot to say about it soon as I'm planning on buying it when it is released in a few days. Here's the video (below), which I saw on an awesome electro blog Platen&Schijven.

Paavoharju --Laulu Laakson Kukista. Can't remember where exactly I got this, but it should be interesting.

I can't remember where I got this mixtape of Lykke Li of The Hood Internet either (see I need a reason to keep better track of these things), but I can find it, may just have been off their website. I have been listening to this and it is a pretty great minimix tape. Only wish it were longer.

Gossip--Rework It. Listened to this a little, I like it because these songs unmixed run long and are kinda repetitive to the point of being boring, which is sad because they are great songs, the Gossip is awesome, and Beth Ditto has an amazing voice. So this version is more badass, although listening to it straight through makes them sound boring in the same way, because the same elements seem to just be shuffled around in the different mixes (there are only mixes of, I think, three songs on there). But I'll keep listening.

And others, mostly singles I download from places like DISCODUST, and some CDs which I've already deleted. They will remain nameless. Read More......

Beginnings

In the summer I have a lot of time to think, or at least, I have a lot of time in which I don't feel bad about thinking. Maybe I actually think more when I don't feel like I have the luxury, when instead of steadily tunneling my way through the neverending pile of work standing in the way of graduation, I lay on my bed, turn on the music, and stare at the first letter of the page. But I'm supposed to shake those thoughts out of my head and work on the second letter.

I also have a lot of time in which I listen to music. But I don't have an outlet for it as I do in the school year, when the good songs are filed onto my next radio playlist or the artist is written about in my next column. I don't have an excuse to share the music I really like with the people I really like. And, not that I need one when I have nothing better to do, but, I like having a reason to look up old interviews with musicians, and memorize details from their website and wiki entries, and look up their back-catalog. And I also like having a reason to think about my musical responses, what they says about the music, and maybe on a deeper level, what they say about me.


I've tinkered with the idea of starting a music blog for some time now. Sooo..I'll see how it goes. Read More......