Hard News: Friday Music: So much music I can't even
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Sun Kil Moon doesn’t seem as impressed with War On Drugs as everyone else.
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And old mate of mine’s in new band Glass Boat, and they just made a live EP. Beautiful folksy stuff from the ’Naki. Have a listen for free on Bandcamp, and if you wanna buy, it’s only eight bucks. Bandcamp lets you buy and send as a gift, I'm sure someone you know would love it.
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And now, a Christmas shopping message from The Saints …
Bugger, I was lining up to post that one! Looking forward to some of those delicious links.
Said advertising, you're lying; Never gonna give me what I want; I said, smooth talking, brain washing; Ain't never gonna get me what I need
And the brain washing is as intense as ever 36 yrs on, e.g. the incessant, rotating pre-Xmas sales for 'spavers'
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I had a look at the Pitchfork list a few days ago and felt completely out of touch. I knew about a tenth of the artists, and even few of their songs. I think we're living in a very diverse music environment. It's thrilling, and sometimes overwhelming.
I hadn't heard of War on Drugs. But I'm happy to join the consensus, and on initial impressions they're most like the Phoenix Foundation in my lexicon. Very smooth and warm instrumentation behind affected vocals.
On a slightly different tip, I've been enjoying Robyn and Kindness collaboration, in which they channel early-90s R&B and Kate Bush. (Not generally a fan of these kinds of videos, but the song carries this one.)
And this monstrous headbanger of gravelly synths, dirty bass, and Robyn's trademark emotion.
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I'm going to make more of an effort with Spotify, I really am -- but it can't just be me who finds the user interface extremely unappealing
I consider myself of around average intelligence and have used an app before, so it should be easy right, but nothing, NOTHING, has made me feel as lost, hurt and confused as the Spotify UX. It's likes it actively hates music, listening to music, or people who do in fact want to listen to music. Things got better when I figured out the shuffle icon *is* actually a button, you just have to hit it the right way, hold your tongue out and swear an awful lot before albums will play sensibly. Then make sure you never hit it again.
That being said it has been moderately invaluable for picking up and previewing some new stuff (along with here of course!) , especially since iOS 8 wiped all my Soundcloud downloads off my iPhone. The Golden Echo was my album of the year, but this has been hogging my Spotify of late:
Not much new there in the world of sound, but done real nice.
Big thanks from me for the Friday Music posts, they've been standout gold in a year of meh online, appreciate the work and care you put in. Best reason to come to work on a Friday is to get some unbothered time under the cans to listen in : )
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I consider myself of around average intelligence and have used an app before, so it should be easy right, but nothing, NOTHING, has made me feel as lost, hurt and confused as the Spotify UX. It’s likes it actively hates music, listening to music, or people who do in fact want to listen to music.
I am genuinely relieved to confirm that it's not just me.
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Lilith __, in reply to
I consider myself of around average intelligence and have used an app before, so it should be easy right, but nothing, NOTHING, has made me feel as lost, hurt and confused as the Spotify UX. It’s likes it actively hates music, listening to music, or people who do in fact want to listen to music.
I am genuinely relieved to confirm that it’s not just me.
Bahaha, you guys have obviously never used Freegal! You could not imagine such a hostile user-interface.
Having said that, I sometimes use Spotify and think I don’t like listening to music. “It’s all crap!” I think. -
Mike O'Connell, in reply to
Freegal can be truly awful to negotiate but when one has teenage family members who have long since acquired their music from other sources, I use their cards it's almost possible to download an album a week :)
Not sure about the quality. Variable I've found. While the tracks are 256kbs mp3, there's something lacking, can't quite put a finger on it.
Christchurch libraries still have Freegal, Dunedin does too? I think Auckland dropped their Freegal service earlier in the year.
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I'm not sure there is any digital music service whose interface and workings isn't at odds with how any music lover would want - coders just hate music I reckon... worse as services 'improve' the interfaces generally get worse (spotify's sure has)
As for end of year lists, yep there's truckloads more music and less gatekeepers telling us through the year what we should like... powered by promo companies, record companies, marketing spends etc. The lack of music media as there once was and the spread and speed of the internet means culture screams past us where once it wandered, if you miss it its gone - quite dazzling and also liberating it all is
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Peter Darlington, in reply to
I consider myself of around average intelligence and have used an app before, so it should be easy right, but nothing, NOTHING, has made me feel as lost, hurt and confused as the Spotify UX. It’s likes it actively hates music, listening to music, or people who do in fact want to listen to music.
I am genuinely relieved to confirm that it's not just me.
Not only that but it's so overbuilt it's as slow as a wet week to load, search etc... Nasty experience. One day someone will create a music service that is a pleasure to use.
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I dunno if you've featured these young fellas but I really like what they are doing here...
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Gaz Tayler, in reply to
it's still better than iTunes...
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The New York Times reports that classic hip-hop is taking over the radio dial. I can relate.
The station that started this whole thing, Boom 92 in Houston, has been a staple streamer in our household since it started (my husband, being from Houston, heard about it from his friends there on the first day). Family dance party to “Big Pimpin’”? Don’t mind if I do! Uh, ignore the lyrics, kids.
NZ On Screen has just posted the long-unseen NZBC documentary on the 1970 Redwood festival in Auckland, which is remembered chiefly for the hostile reception accorded to the unfortunate headliner, Robin Gibb.
This showed on Heartland’s Saturday compilation of music-festival related programming a few weeks ago. And it was out in deepest darkest west Auckland! I was hugely amused to think of Robin Gibb driving wanly through Ranui.
ETA: fuck iTunes. I will never not take the opportunity to say that. :)
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Peter Johnston, in reply to
I enjoyed The Golden Echo much more than I expected. The Juan Maclean album is also a ripper - between that and the LCD Soundsystem "Long Goodbye" marathon I've listened to a lot of Nancy Whang this year. BTW I find Spotify OK to use on the iPhone app - apart from when it plays everything in shuffle mode which I had to trawl through google to find a way to turn off. Grrr.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
it’s still better than iTunes…
Well, than the iTunes Stoe. I’m happy enough with iTunes for managing my music, even if it could be a lot better. I have Apple ecosystem gizmos and that part works well – unless a software update turns the dread iTunes Match on again. What a basically decent idea executed eye-wateringly badly that shit is.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I’m not sure there is any digital music service whose interface and workings isn’t at odds with how any music lover would want – coders just hate music I reckon… worse as services ‘improve’ the interfaces generally get worse (spotify’s sure has)
Were you an eMusic customer when they did their utterly insane "upgrade"? Seriously the worst thing ever. It was like alpha code they'd forgotten to test. It pretty much killed them too.
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I’m happy enough with iTunes for managing my music
I'm sorry, everything you said after that was drowned out by an enormous NOPE.
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I twaddled off on my annual junk shop circuit thru Thames, Te Aroha, Morrinsville and Huntly this week and reaped a fine bounty.
most lucrative – not that I sell – was a minty copy of the Underdogs (best known for Sitting in the Rain) album Wasting Our Time.
check out this breakz, fuzz and wah wah combo
but also delighted to get equally minty 7s of Johnny Devlin’s Straight Skirt and the Deuce’s Hone Heke – I’d pitch them both to Lawrence Arabia for tomorrow night. Anyone who hasn’t caught one of these shows at Golden Dawn has missed out.
as for managing my music, I find some hefty shelving units and ample floor space does the job most effectively.
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Here he is with his old band …
This is one of hundreds of music videos I recorded off Radio With Pictures back in the 80s and kept on VHS, with the aim of digitising them all one day. But then youtube came along and nearly all of the videos had already been uploaded by others before I got round to it. Except for this Exponents clip, and a Triffids vid for "Hell of a Summer".
Glad I was able to put this one up though, because "If Only I Could Die..." is a hell of a song and Chris was a hell of a guitar player. RIP.
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Chris Starling was also part of goth legends The Sisters of Mercy around the turn of the century.
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Andrew Dubber, in reply to
I’m with Russell here. If your metadata and artwork is complete (and that was a hell of a mission), then iTunes is probably the best 'music library presented as Excel spreadsheet’ around... as long as you mess with the view options a bit (show songs, order album by artist, only display columns for artist, title & time, always show artwork, large).
I quite like what the Qleek guys are doing with media interface design. Not “the answer”, but it’s a nice idea. We had them at Music Tech Fest in Paris. At MTF Scandinavia (next May) we’re doing an “invent a new format for music” challenge. Will be interesting to see what comes out of that...
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Pete,
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Run the Jewels 2 smashing it on those top album of the year lists. Number 1 on pitchfork. I've been playing the shit out of it.
Not sure what to link to out of it but here's a good one. If you like your Hip Hop ruff and raw you'll like it, if you don't like swear words, side step:
Killer Mike is dope:
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E-Bowler?
I see the Cricket World Cup has launched an ad campaign with a full page insert in The Press - it has a topical and even 'catchy' slogan:
"Greatness is contagious"
I wonder if it is airborne, or if you need a physical exchange of bodily fluids?
There's many slip twixt cup and lip... -
Finally got to Latitude this year. I was at a conference in the States last year, so missed out (though my wife got to go). Was a little underwhelmed by the lineup initially, but in the end was completely blown away by Slowdive:
Somehow, I never really connected with their albums though I’ve always loved the sound. This time, though, getting to the Radio6 tent just as the set was starting and hearing that guitar tone and those pulverisingly beautiful breaks of pure sound, I couldn’t hold it together. I was in tears, swaying, from the first track. I’ve heard shoegaze done louder (Death in Vegas; MBV) but never with such depth of emotion. Just … unforgettable.
Other highlights: Goat. What made it even more memorable was the group of English teenage boys who showed up in the tent just as the show was starting. They looked like your average set drifters, dropping by randomly for a sample, but once the band started up, they started dancing with each other – frenetically; relentlessly – and carried on that way for the entire set until they were just drenched in sweat and it was clear they knew all the songs and their presence was anything but random. English teens dancing in unison with anonymous bemasked Swedish women while all hell breaks loose behind, on the stage, everyone lost in the music. Again: unexpected.
And we got to see Teeth of the Sea, Esben and the Witch sound tracking La Antena, Tame Impala, Tinariwen, Mogwai, Siobhan got to boogie down to Hall and Oates and of course we got to experience Albarn in the middle of a ludicrously intense lightning- and rain-storm.
A++ would spend four nights in a tent in a muddy bit of rural Suffolk again.
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