Sometimes you just have to deviate from your normal. I am trying an album labelled as “rock”, but that I would instead label as “country”. Male vocalist, good lyrics, quality production, simple and enjoyable.
Category Archives: Listening
Listening
Listening to "The Portofino Variations"
Listening to “The Portofino Variations” as performed by various (27) artists, including Sofie Winterson, Eva Auad, Waterlelyck, bArt, etc., all tracks with Scott himself too. Soft, calm music, with good use of silences and volume, to allow the listener to properly appreciate it. Raymond Scott is one pioneer of “contemporary experimental music”.
Listening to Okada – "Life Is but an Empty Dream"
A bit dark, or even too dark, but slow and with enough silence to allow you to think. Oddly relaxing for an album with tracks titled “killing myself” and “the right to destroy myself”.
I think reverse psychology might be playing its role in the perception of this music, which can be so gloomy that it actually induces a contrary, uplifting response!
Listening to Pan-American – "Cloud Room, Glass Room"
This artist is consistent in delivering music for thought and concentration. Really enjoying the latest album.
Listening to Rafael Anton Irisarri – "Decay Waves"
Audio landscapes. Relaxing. Ample immersion. Near minimal, but would benefit from even less on stage, at times.
Listening to Cucina Povera – "Hilja"
This 2018 album is something very different. How can I appreciate music that vocalizes in an invented language, or even in no language at all, just playing with phonetics? I do not know. The brain does work in mysterious ways. Still, this is strangely relaxing.
Here is a Spotify playlist:
Listening to "Age of" – "Oneohtrix Point Never"
Listening to “Age of” – “Oneohtrix Point Never”.
At times, refreshing and unusual mix of instruments (namely what sounds like harps and tubes), interesting pitch plays (mainly fluctuations) and album tracks that can feel totally unrelated. There seems to be an investment in contrasts. Frequency contrasts as in having acute moments with a grave background, and acoustic contrasts, as in having simple instruments (e.g. guitar) mixed with complex and artificial audio (e.g. voice transcripts). Nice!
Listening to Andy Stott – "Faith in Strangers"
Cinematic, landscapist, void and full. Interesting album of opposites I discovered in Andy Scott’s “Faith in Strangers”.
Here is a corresponding Spotify playlist.
Enderness
Listening to A. A. Bondy’s Enderness
Slow paced, audio for thought, sober vocals, interesting compositions and sometimes-unusual use of instruments. Nice!
Enjoying it at ~800 kbps.
Here is a Spotify version:
Tyler Ramsey – For the Morning
This is good music: Tyler Ramsey – For the morning
Simple instrumentals (the acoustic guitar is dominant), sparse vocals, meaningful lyrics, conveying a landscape of audio and silence that gives you time to think.
I am NOT listening to it via Spotify (I am increasingly frustrated with its audio quality, even on premium), but here is the playlist for this album: