8 posts from February 2009

Ah, Monday.  With us again, like the disturbing sight of an unflattering photograph of yourself, the copies of which you thought you had summarily tracked down and destroyed.   With us again, like the unmistakable waft of something unpleasant emanating from within a fridge that you thought you had thoroughly cleaned. With us again, like the storm cloud which seems to decelerate and change into reverse gear when you had previously observed it pass you overhead.

No matter.  No form, or indeed substance, some might be so bold as to say.  "Pffft", I say to them.  Bold people.

Today's, and indeed, this week's, Monday Music is again from the Tympanik Audio label, from the German group Integral. The track is "Back here alone" from the album "Rise" - a brooding and atmospheric piece that swirls around you, twists you around, and then leaves you standing there to count your senses when it has finished its work:

http://www.last.fm/music/Integral/_/back+here+alone?autostart

Enjoy and have a great week, if at all possible.

... I don't need statistics to tell me anything.  This is how keen I am on music: 

I've just been for a walk down to my local highly co-operative mini-supermarket. I had headphones on, listening to an album of music that I like.  I complete my shopping and retrace my steps back home, once again listening to music on my merry (well, it'll have to pass as merry but it probably didn't look it) way.

I arrive home, unlock the door and enter.  I put down my shopping bags and attempt to extricate myself from my jacket and the hooded top underneath it.  My MP3 player is in a pocket as I try to remove my jacket, but I keep the cord as loose as I can and the jacket close as I can so I am able to successfully remove the garment without tearing an ear bud or two from its location.  Jacket removed, the player then transfers to a hand so I can then keep it free as I single-handedly, literally, peel my hooded top off with the other.  Having done so, the MP3 is then transferred to a pocket in my combat trousers and I continue to listen whilst I liberate items from my bags, put the kettle on, and check e-mail.

And all because I didn't want to interrupt the flow of the album by taking off my headphones for even a moment. 

It seems that I do need help after all.

Someone who can take my outer garments off for me when I come in with my headphones on.  And, perhaps, to also have the kettle boiled and ready for a nice cup of tea or coffee upon my arrival.

A year ago on this day I started scrobbling music on last.fm.  Which is to say, for those who aren't aware of what scrobbling is, the tracks I listened to on my laptop actually began registering with the last.fm web site to display my music tastes on my profile. 

On that day, and probably for the first time ever, my listening habits went public.
The stuff that I subject my ears to became a statistic.

Now, I'll be honest and say that I already knew that I listened to a lot of music - that I was a bit of a music obsessive, in all actuality - but exactly how much music I listen to I'd never been able and willing to quantify before.  But, last.fm makes that quantification so easy because it's all done for you in the process of scrobbling.  And then all kind of statistics can then be generated.

It's worth noting by way of explanation that the statistics below don't include music that I play via CD (or occasionally vinyl) directly through my hi-fi, but that's less and less all the time as a) digital subscription / downloaded music begins to take over my listening and b) I rip the CDs I buy so that I can listen to them in other ways.

That said, the last.fm listening statistics are probably quite a good barometer of my musical habits.  So, a year on, what do they report?  And how much of a music junkie am I?  Well, the results are in...

Tracks scrobbled in one year: approx. 22500
Tracks scrobbled on average per week:  433
Tracks scrobbled on average per day: 62

It doesn't sound too much when put in those terms, but once you start to think about the duration of listening involved it tends to appear a little more serious.  Even taking an average track length of 4:30 (just based on the fact that the music I listen to tends to be slightly longer than your average three-and-a-half minutes of pop) then I'm listening to a probable (and underestimated) average of

4.5 hours of music listening each and every day
or
1.5 days of music listening each and every week

Come rain or shine.  Hell or high water, and there's been a bit of both of those over the past year. 

I don't really know whether to rejoice, feel slightly embarrassed, or seek help.  But what I do know is that music has always been present, there for me, ever since I first listened to the music that really reached inside and seemed to express something fundamental to me when I was in my mid-teens.  It isn't as mere background stage scenery that music exists in my world, but very much in the foreground and in the centre of the stage - a source of inspiration and encouragement, a channel through which emotions are outpoured and imbibed, and an envelope of continued joy and curiosity and interest.  And I'm certainly planning on keeping it that way, just as long as there's music out there to listen to that has a message for me, transports me somewhere, makes me think, makes me dance, gets my pulse racing, or simply expresses something that otherwise can't be expressed.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, there were no lies or damned lies in the above.

It's probably entirely appropriate that this week's Monday Music comes from a musician I have featured before in these posts - Stendeck (aka Alessandro Zampieri from Switzerland).  It's apt in several ways, in fact. 

First, because I'm coming up to my first year anniversary of properly scrobbling tracks via Last.FM (more of which later this week) and Stendeck is a project that figures very heavily in my listening profile on there.  Second, because last week saw me receive his latest album "Sonnambula", a CD that I was more eagerly anticipating than any release I can recall in recent times.

Mixed in with the hope surrounding "Sonnambula" was some trepidation that the dizzy heights of his previous releases would be difficult to ascend once more. I am sure that's a common feeling amongst music afficionanados - that the magic somehow will come to an end, that the bond will break.  The slight fear which accompanied my opening of the package was short-lived - quickly vanquished by the opening few tracks of the CD which comprehensively proved that any trepidation was unwarranted - Ale had indeed climbed high and ascended new peaks with "Sonnambula". At 17 tracks and over 70 minutes, it's both a generous and rewarding journey through emotional musical terrain. Fortunately, one of the tracks uploaded to last.fm also happens to be one of my favourites from the album, "Dead Dancing Triangle", so I'll just let the music do the talking from here. 

Stendeck - "Dead Dancing Triangle" - from the album "Sonnambula":

http://www.last.fm/music/Stendeck/_/Dead+Dancing+Triangle?autostart

Have a great start to your week!

I've been playing a lot of online Scrabble in recent days.  It's a welcome diversion from work, but it also occupies, exercises and sometimes confounds that part of my brain which is interested in words and letters and which responds well to pointless activities which are disguised as ones full of point because they have some kind of intellectual sheen to them. 

Playing online Scrabble also affords me the opportunity to sulk without good reason, to curse my lack of fortune and extrapolate that to the rest of my life, and also focus my attentions on individuals who I could probably beat to a pulp at anything other than Scrabble.

And it got me thinking about versions of online Scrabble that we've yet to see:

Scrabble (Parent's Edition) - Includes new dialog boxes such as "If you can't put anything nice down, don't put down anything at all."

Scrabble (Deluxe Parent's Edition) - Includes new dialog boxes such as "There's no such word as CAN'T."

Scrabble (Pirate's Edition) - No difference to rules.  However, there is a considerably higher frequency of Rs in the tiles - and very few other letters in the distribution.

Scrbbl (Txtrs Edtn) - No vowel tiles distributed. Players playing words longer than 6 letters will have their word split into two visits to the board.  Signal outages may result in players missing their turn on a random basis to be determined before the game commences.

Scrabble (Credit Crunch Edition) - Points are scored as per normal, however, at the end of the game a player who has been randomly nominated as "banker" is found to have unilaterally and excessively gambled the points away by betting on the value of tile scores.  This causes a crisis of confidence in the alphabet and a government bail-out is sought in order to shore up the plummeting value of the dictionary.  The game ends when someone punches the banker or if the banker manages to exit the game using newly-acquired Lear Jet.

Scrabble (Holier Than Thou Edition) - Points are scored as per normal, but a winner is only found when one of the players is so riled by the game that sticks and stones are employed in such a fashion as to demonstrate that, indeed, they constitute a more effective arsenal of weaponry than mere words and that, indeed, they can and do break bones.

I need to admit something and I feel that this is a safe place to do it.  I have a penchant for music sung in a language that I don't speak myself.  In terms of the kind of music I generally listen to, these foreign languages tend to be German (although I do speak a little), Portuguese and Spanish.  This week's Monday Music is an example of this, from the Spanish group Tannhauser.

Perhaps it's just the novelty that a non-native tongue brings to an ear that is not familiar with it on a day-to-day basis.  Although I should stress that I don't invite non-native tongues into my ear on a daily basis and for that matter, I'm not too keen on indigenous tongues in my ear either. 

Perhaps the expressiveness of those foreign words just fits the kind of music I listen to - or vice versa, as they say in... well, everywhere.  Or, perhaps I'm just being a teensy-weensy bit up my own rear.  Anyway, here 'tis - the excellent "Estructura Violenta" from Tannhauser's "A New Biostate" album.

http://www.last.fm/music/Tannhauser/_/Estructura+Violenta?autostart

Enjoy! Although, as they say in Spain, YMMV.

Being not only a cheap pun, but also an excuse for the posting of some more "winter weather event" photos from the last couple of days.

Let me know if you get bored of them. 

And I'll send you in the direction of some better blogs ;)

I almost cancelled today's Monday Music because of the weather "event" currently sweeping across the UK.  Yes, we had some snow and, as per usual, it sent everyone into hysteria bordering on the insane or hysteria bordering on the inane depending on which side of the river you camp. The travel networks struggled, and in some cases, buckled under the weight of the hordes of journalists and camera crews trying to get around to report on it.  Even London Mayor, Boris Johnson weighed in with something on the subject of travel and commuting but I suspect it was more inane than insane, which for him is quite a change.  Keep it up, Boris.  I personally would love to hear you talk about inane things, such as planning regulations for garden gnomes, the removal of chewing gum from the underside of school desks, adverts on buses, and so on.  Just as long as it keeps you away from the really important things.  Please.

Thankfully, my own "journey to work" is immune to the ravages of the weather.  The most hazardous obstacle I have to overcome is the rather low beam in the ceiling at the bottom of my stairs. And most days I manage that without too many problems.

Anyway, here's today's music which is a track called "An Interrogation" by Keef Baker from his excellent and varied album "Redeye". 

Very mellow, I think you'll agree...? 

http://www.last.fm/music/Keef+Baker/_/An+Interrogation?autostart

And just to prove that I am not totally immune to the childish pleasures which snow brings (I actually love the snow! Ahem!)  here are some photos that I have taken over the last couple of days of snowfall.

Have a great week...