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PaperclipPerfector
14hr ago
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What are you all listening to these days?
Orville Peck has a new album and the newest single dropped this morning. I love how rich the instrumentals are. It almost reminds me of old Motown or Stax recordings.
One of the most famous lines from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity is (I'm paraphrasing) "Which came first: the music or the misery? Do I listen to pop music because I'm miserable, or am I miserable because I listen to pop music?"
For many years I was an avid listener of music, and would constantly have my headphones on during my morning commute. I owned dozens of CDs and went out of my way to convert them to FLAC format, under the delusion that I could tell the difference from MP3s with my budget Sennheisers. When I read the above question in High Fidelity, I dismissed it as an obviously rhetorical one: of course I listen to music because I'm miserable!
Somewhere along the way I got out of the habit of actively listening to music in my own time, and rarely sit down to listen to an album from start to finish: most music I listen to is just something to put on in the background while I'm doing something else. And you know what? My subjective feeling of ease and well-being is dramatically improved compared to the earlier periods of my life in which I was an active and compulsive listener of music. There are many possible explanations for this improvement (I'm more physically active; I'm in a stable relationship; I've outgrown my depression; the period in my life in which I listened to music most compulsively was my adolescence, never an easy time for anyone), but I no longer think the question from High Fidelity is a rhetorical one with an obvious answer. Maybe listening to music did make me unhappier than I would have been otherwise.
All that preamble aside, I'm trying to get back into the habit of actively listening to music – not for the sake of enjoyment, but for research. I've been trying to write my next album and the riffs aren't coming as easily as I'd like. Surely part of that is because I'm not listening to music: the periods in my life in which I wrote the most riffs were also the periods in which I was listening to the most riffs. To that end, I drew up a list of albums which I've either been meaning to listen to for years, or which have a sound I'd like to emulate on the next album. I've been listening to them when I can get around to it. In no particular order, here are the ones I've listened to so far, and my thoughts.
were used in the film "Sinister". It only really
works in context, not as a standalone piece.
black metal albums just like this one.
Unlike the Ulver one, this one can stand on its own.
Particularly liked the fourth track.
but I have no intention of listening to this one again.
genre tag, never mind "depressive/suicidal black metal".
The vocalist supposedly said that he wants people
to be so affected by his band's music
that they kill themselves after listening to it
– I certainly would if I had to listen to
boring corny dreck like this for the rest of my life.
The cover art is the most interesting thing about it
or Just Breathing", even if I prefer Jesse Leach as a vocalist.
which was both a forum and published reviews of albums and EPs.
One of their critics reviewed this album
and said something along the lines of
"I know as critics we're meant to be 'objective'.
But it's hard in this case, because
this album is pretty close to the Platonic ideal
of what a black metal album is supposed to sound like".
I finally got around to listening to it
(twelve years after release) and wasn't disappointed.
Jaw-droppingly brilliant.
but even as someone who normally disdains noise rock
and spoken-word vocals I can say it didn't disappoint.
when a recording engineer compared my band to them.
They collaborated with Dragged into Sunlight (immediately below)
on an EP which included samples of actual serial killers talking about their crimes.
It creeped me out, but I wasn't sure of how much of that
was because of the music and how much was the enormously tasteless sampling.
This album employs no such gimmicks, and I can say that Gnaw Their Tongues can produce some genuinely horrific soundscapes.
describes their music as "post-[anything]", that means it's boring.
While this isn't true of every band, it's true more often than not, and certainly true of Isis.
but with production improved just enough that you can follow what's going on.
and decided to check it out. Loved it.
Profound Lore Records is now considered a hallmark of quality,
but this was back when they were still finding their feet as a label and couldn't afford to be so choosy.
that your brain can't really process it all in one go.
had more stylistic range.
I've had the opposite experience. When I'm miserable I don't have any desire to listen to music, and when I'm in a good mood I'm more likely to want music on. One would think that a compulsive listener such as myself would take advantage of the 8 to 10 hours a day I have available to listen to music at work, but I rarely do. And when I do, it's usually because I have a lot of work to do, there's a long album that's on the list due to completeness but I don't have much faith in and am thus dreading to listen, and I save it for a time when I have a ton of work to do and not a lot of time to do it and hope that the tedium of listening to a long, lousy album dilates time to the extent that allows me to finish in a reasonable amount of time. Worst case scenario, the time evaporates along with the album. It's basically a hedge.
Fortunately I mostly listen for enjoyment, and I try to combine my listening with activities that I find enjoyable as well. The upshot is that if there's something I want to listen to I'd rather save it for when I'm on the bike, or out walking in the woods. I've put entire bands on hold for the winter because I know I'll enjoy them more when exercising outside in warm weather. Typical itinerary, some years back, which has changed only because the music I listen to changes based on what I haven't heard yet: Bike ride, late Saturday morning into the afternoon, maybe I have a picnic to attend later in the day, so I'm on a schedule. Enough time for a 20 mile trail ride. Start with Krautrock, something repetitive to get me in the pedaling rhythm. Then move on to 70s hard rock like Humble Pie or Faces, something a little more exciting, as the heat of the day builds. This is what I'm listening to at the turn around point. Then switch over to something more Americana, maybe Ry Cooder, as it's now afternoon. Totally different if I'm going for a 6 mile walk after dinner, which I was doing every day for a while on the same path: Start with Southern Rock while it's still broad daylight. As the sun gets low in the sky, switch to British Folk, like Dando Shaft or Lindisfarne, and as I'm approaching my car at dusk let things get a bit darker, like early Pink Floyd or Procol Harum.
Have you been following the CAN archive releases? Or perhaps you knew them from the circulating bootlegs, but either way, some amazing stuff in there. The first release, Stuttgart 1975, remains my favorite.
Also, the Beat Club channel out of nowhere 2 weeks ago dropped new CAN footage from 1971: "Halleluhwah". The footage for "Paperhouse" has been around but as far as I know the new one was never previously available.
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