Thoughts on Raucous Rock’n’Roll

For a long time I haven’t really been thinking of Rock’n’Roll too much. It’s true that here and there were flickers all along the other stuff. To tell the truth, a lot of my focus has been on the music of Devo.

Devo rock, sure, but they're not really rock. To me they're above the fray of genre.

I’ve decided that I really like the lyrics of their 2010 album, Something for Everybody—I was into the music for a while but the lyrics suddenly came into focus. It’s unique album that manages to fuse the sometimes patchy band’s best form with contemporary concerns and production. The album’s provenance is also highly interesting: the title stems from the band’s decision to operate like a multinational corporation and employ focus groups to choose the track list.

Devo are currently zeitgeist because of their anti-Romney song:

False Alephs

The other day, I re-read Jorge Luis Borges’ ‘The Aleph’. It was a timely reminder that the notional every place is just that, a notion. When it comes to fiction, one of the most important elements can be desire—it makes characters seem autonomous. This led me to considering what makes the Aleph attractive in Borges’ fiction.

The letter Aleph, of the Hebrew alphabet. It is not pronounced as part of words.

Sterling Sound: Preliminary Thoughts

This is the first in a series on mastering in general and Sterling Sound Mastering in New York in particular. In the second part I will talk specifically about Sterling and what prompted me to choose them to write about.

I have written previously about mastering. The production chain of records is something that fascinates me. It can be simple or complex depending on a wide range of genre, session and production decisions and considerations. Something that all commercially released recordings have in common is mastering (a recording issued without mastering attention may well be pilloried as poorly mastered).

Review: Cold Cave--Cherish the Light Years

This is quite an old piece, a year or more old. It was written at a time when I was really trying to translate the feeling of listening to music and craft my informational writing to cram in a lot of detail. At the moment I’m trying to write shorter paragraphs to break things open better. Note, as I have written elsewhere that I failed to pick up on the over compression that was found by Pitchfork. With that said, listening again I still enjoy the music.

Regaining My Edge

I thought I would write this brief note because I know I've been a little quiet of late, but I like to think I've gained some insight.

Robot Ears

I thought I would reblog this because if I have the time I will definitely give it a go. Robotic listening ought to be really cool.

Last Fm: 'Do You Have Robot Ears?'

CD Report and Mono vs. Stereo

I just wanted to recount some thoughts on CDs and some (rare) issues that have cropped up recently. Remarks on Sugar's recent Copper Blue reissue and The Sonics on the 2003Psycho-Sonic compilation after the jump. Apologies in advance for any moaning. Another tiny item of news is that I've decided to start compiling a discography for music you absolutely have to listen to in mono (vinyl or CD), head-on. The first entry will be Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. The intial entries are going to be largely Psychedelic and Garage rock, I hope to branch out after that.