First, make a list of your top-20 artists overall. Then, for each of these artists, add the 8 most similar artists to your list. Delete any duplicates, count up the number of entries on your list and this will give you some idea of how eclectic your listening habits are. A score of 9 represents an extremely unvaried musical taste while a 160 represents an extremely varied one.
So here's how you do it:
- Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
- Put it on shuffle
- Press play
- For every question, type the song that's playing
- When you go to a new question, press the next button
- No cheating!
Opening Credits
Halo - Haley James Scott - [awww nice]
Waking Up
Man! I Feel Like A Woman - Shania Twain [lolol]
First Day At School
Sad Song - Blake Lewis [eek lol that's not good]
Falling In Love
Surrender - Ashlee Simpson [aww kinda sad]
What is a good memory you have involving 30?
my best friend since I was 2 used to come over to my house EVERY morning before school to listen to Iris with me and my mom while getting ready. we couldn't go to school without listening to it lol.
Is there a song by 19 that makes you happy? With You <3 such a cute song.
How many times have you seen 24 live?
uh none.
What is the first song you ever heard by 23? Happy Ending <3
What is your favorite album by 11?
the only one... Digital Rock Star <3
Have you ever seen 14 live?
no, but I would have loved to years ago.
What is a good memory involving 27?
uh none really. her best song was on my favorite episode of my favorite tv show though [Tabula Rasa of Buffy the Vampire Slayer]
What is your favorite song by 16?
ew :x um Maybe Tomorrow <3
First song I heard: Boom
Song that made me love them: Alive
Current favourite song: Alive
Overall favourite song: Alive
Least favourite song: Celestial
Million Dollar Bill Opening single from the welcome return from Whitney. It's an uptempo track with nice hooks and vocal layers. Writing credits for Alicia Keys on this one, Whitney's soulful voice warms us all into a good time and heralds her very welcome return. 9/10
Nothin' But Love Similarly uptempo, with a busy bassline grinding away in the background. Not as instant as the opener, this nonetheless carries similar positives - nice layers of vocal and a good happy vibe. Slightly more urban feeling (though still very much on a pop credential extreme), this just lacks the hooks that shine on the first. 7/10
Call You Tonight Nice enough track which almost heads into ballad territory. But not quite. It's a slinky little velvety warm track in which Whitney sounds fabulous. Probably very much a 'now' sound and probably a grower... though this lacks an immediacy to endear. 6/10
I Look To You Title track of the album, this is written by R. Kelly. One thing that can be said about Kelly is that he can write a ballad. And this one is a winner. Instantly hitting all the right buttons for those of us who flocked to Whitney for a damn good ballad, it would be very surprising indeed if this one were not a future single. And Whitney sounds great on it. 10/10
Like I Never Left This one features the "talents" of Akon. What joy! Now, this genre does very little for me, so lets look at how it's arranged. What is that instrument in the background that sounds like a cheap 1980's Casio keyboard? It's irritating. The strength of this is the vocal arrangement - but we'll leave the track, thanks. 3/10
A Song For YouSTAR TRACK!! Opens with a beautiful piano solo, leading into something that is a bit of a torch song before moving on into dance territory. One could easily accuse them of covering all bases of the fanbase, but this actually works - and works incredibly well. Full of hooks, great vocals, love the energy... this could easily be a big hit single. Smashing!! 10/10
I Didn't Know My Own Strength The problem with tracks that leak is that you may base your views on a product that is not finished. This one was something I listened to a good couple of months ago via YouTube. And I panned it as a bit underwhelming. It's a Diane Warren penned ballad and - while not the greatest work of either of them (and having slightly cringe inducing lyrics if you've followed Whitney's trials and tribulations) - is actually quite a pretty song and we're convinced the version that was splashed on YouTube was simply a rough cut demo. This is nicer than it had promised - or threatened - to be. 8.5/10
Worth It Again, a bit too into the soulful now sound to get this reviewer excited. However, the arrangements and hooks all seem to be in place and the vocals are absolutely fine. 6/10
For The Lovers Very uptempo R&B track with some nice synth going on in the background. Not our bag, but there you go. Actually, about three-quarters of the way through, one can appreciate how this might be a big grower. 7/10
I Got You Another one of those slightly too R&B for our tastes type of songs. Still, for those who like this sort of stuff, we're sure it's fabulous. 6/10
Salute A second R.Kelly penned song to close the album. More upbeat than his first track on the album. Again, not especially the genre or style of song to thrill this reviewer. 6/10
Now, looking at the title of this journal, you’d be forgiven for thinking that I was on the brink of giving up on last.fm, this being a sort of self-indulgent “suicide note”. That isn’t the case. Like the two journals that precede it, this entry could end up being ever so slightly narcissistic, but it’s not intended as a goodbye. More a series of New Year’s Resolutions, 3 months early – in addition to a few more things I need to get off my chest. Musically speaking, I’ve just reached a personal juncture, a crossroads where a journal doesn’t just feel appropriate, but essential for my sanity. As Depeche Mode put it, it’s a question of time, of how much time a person can afford to invest enriching their own musical life. Music plays an important part in a lot of people’s lives. Many of us here on last.fm are beyond obsessed and last.fm itself further fuels that obsession. But, as I’ll go on to explain, I need to start channeling that obsession a little better. If the last 3 or 4 years have been an Open University course in the world of electronic music, then at this point I have to accept that I have well and truly graduated. It’s time to take what I’ve earned, consolidate and move on. It’s time for a change. But first, one last amble through my musical consciousness… Be warned though, this is not a journal of sunshine and rainbows all the way. In fact, brace yourself for some pretty brutal generalisations and a dose of, to borrow a phrase from George Carlin, “free floating hostility”.
Art isn't a commodity that you haul in and out ... like dildos
- Dean Learner
Philosophical problem for you… If a manufactured pop band replace all their original members over the course of 11 years, are they still the Sugababes? Answers on a postcard please. May I also draw your attention to the fact that each departing member’s replacement has been that little more attractive than the person they replaced. Of course, the testosterone fueled male in me isn’t complaining, but the music purist does die a little bit inside. Because according to their bio on last.fm, “Sugababes are widely credited as being the UK’s most credible girl group, and their audience spans a huge demographic.” Well, my response to that is, if sampling Right Said Fred and replacing all 3 original band members without changing your name is credible in the world of UK girl groups then what about is not credible in the world of UK girl groups. But that bio is indeed correct. Their passable, if hit-and-miss, pop output is as credible as it gets. This, my friends, is a tantalising glimpse into the world of mainstream music.
Attacking mainstream music is obviously very fashionable these days. But the fashion, or the “sport” if you want, is not normally that of deconstructing what it is that is “abhorrent” about the current mainstream, but simply of bashing certain artists for seemingly joining the ranks of the “sell outs”, for essentially departing their core scene and becoming more popular. In other words, people decide they dislike artist X for being mainstream before they actually decide what it is about the mainstream that is so anti-music. The question people don’t often ask themselves is, is the mainstream against the spirit of music because of the very nature of what it means to be mainstream or are “we” just doing something wrong? Is the mainstream just controlled by the wrong people for the wrong people? More to the point, can it only be controlled by the wrong people?
As I say, some people just don’t like popularity. That’s not the problem I have with the UK mainstream as it is exists now. The problem I have with it is the apparent insincerity and general insipidness that emanate from most parts of it. The institution that most typifies those problems for me is BBC Radio One, the UK’s national, government funded bastion of youth culture. In my current job I often put the radio on to help the hours pass. Being a massive sports fan I tend to listen to TalkSport at home, but at work I can tell that the poor medium wave signal and constant adverts annoy the people I work with. To keep people happy Radio One inevitably goes on. But by the end of the week, hearing the same 10 songs day in day out and listening to Edith Bowman’s rabbiting on about how “awesome” everything and everyone is really starts to take its toll.
To me, Radio One’s daytime playlist is particularly limited in terms of numbers. Currently, their A-List contains 20 tracks. And the vast majority of the tracks you’ll hear on daytime Radio One are from that playlist. And that playlist changes VERY slowly from month to month. Considering how much is going on in the world of music at any given time and given how many great songs from years gone by that could be played, this seems pretty limited to me. Often, even if you hear a song on Radio One that you vaguely like, you can guarantee that they’ll play the record so many times throughout the month that you’ll end up hating it. But I wonder whether the rest of the population is getting bored of the same 10-20 songs day after day. And if they aren’t, why aren’t they? Is the UK population that easily entertained, that bereft of a need for variety or that starved of imagination? Surely, most real music fans need far more musical nutrition than is provided by daytime Radio One. But still people listen.
And what about the music itself? Well, it’s almost as if by blurring the lines between “commercial” and “underground” and making the mainstream “hip”, “sexy” and “indiefied”, the mainstream has sold its soul. Now it’s clichés plucked from every represented genre rolled into one homogenous ball of clichés, a hybrid of super clichés: Indie bands with lead singers that can’t sing and play the same chord over and over again, indie songs with choruses that sound like they were intended for the terraces of football grounds, R’n’B collaborations with whiny “emo” choruses, wall-to-wall autotune and robotic clapping percussion, over-stated but under-produced electro, mockey-cockney singers half rapping about living in “Landan”…
These clichés are all well and good within their own genres but when, for example, David Guetta produces a track with Akon, the clichés from electro, R’n’B and pop music join to create a horrible mess of stereotypes. Middle-class “studenty” music, British and American black music and various types of miscellaneous dance music don’t just stand together but are copying each other. And not in the interests of art, but in the interests of taping into all the available avenues of image and accessibility. Artistic merit is lost in favour of pulling together predictabilities and “ticking the right boxes”. And while BBC Radio One does claim to try and give diversity with its daytime playlist, I still think most of the tracks they select for their playlists conform to a broad formula of fashionable clichés.
I’ve lost count of the times that I’ve said to myself “who buys this shit?” But I now know who buys it. And its not necessarily kids of between about 7-16 anymore. I remember the days when one of the main functions of the mainstream was to get the next generation of genuine music lovers passionate about music from a very early age by spoon-feeding them exceptionally cheesey but annoyingly memorable pop records. Getting kids into music by bombarding them with music videos, lip syncing “live” music shows and hopeless dance routines. That was excusable, almost necessary. But that’s not the primary target audience anymore. The mainstream now attempts to cater for an age demographic that in years gone by would have long since flown the nest and developed its own sense of musical freedom and individuality. We have a new group of music “fans” in this country who, well into their early twenties, male and female, are happy to be spoon-fed the same banal, image conscious bullshit day in day out.
There are two groups who buy this shit: Studenty middle-class indie hipsters who can’t appreciate a record before its coolness has been ratified by Jo Whiley, Zane Lowe or NME, the types that pitch up at music festivals like Glastonbury year in year out more for the kudos of saying they were there than genuine passion for the music that is on show; And, on the other end of the spectrum, airhead “blondes” whose hobbies include dancing provocatively in clubs playing David Guetta, buying overpriced shoes and giving handjobs to complete strangers, the types that follow the “careers” of Katie Price and Peter Andre as if they’re both genuinely talented and important people. And that includes the utter twats who shed crocodile tears for Michael Jackson, people who, until he died, were only interested in his bizarre celebrity private life and not his unique musical talent and now, to continue the soap opera, pretend to mourn him like a family member… We all saw it.
This is the new mainstream 17+ demographic. And I actually think it’s that second group that is most consistently appealed to. Undiluted and sexual charged post-feminist girl power and vomit-inducingly “sensitive” new age men whining about their doomed relationships and about how their “hearts won’t beat again” … the girls love it.
And that’s the difference, for me. The concept of “the mainstream” is not anti-music per se. It’s just that today’s mainstream is full of, and support by, so many people who are either painfully insincere and fickle or just generally dumb when it comes to music. That’s what’s so anti-music, in my opinion. Anti-music in the same way hero-worshipping one or two artists is anti-music.
But what skin is it off my nose? I and most of my closest mates have flown the mainstream nest. So, it’s not me that loses out in all this. Well, maybe just a small amount of short term discomfort whenever I’m forced to listen to Radio One or get dragged into a shit mainstream club. But as I say, my main point is that the mainstream doesn’t have to be shit, it just happens to be shit at the moment, and shit in a way that is that little bit more unpleasant, superficial and, when it wants to be, shamefully sycophantic.
Some people will say what I’ve just written here is pure snobbery. Maybe it is. But music is such a wonderfully self-expressive medium, such an amazing way of defining your own individuality and channeling the energies that make human kind such a unique species. And it pains me to see people whose music taste and methods of consuming music say nothing more about them other than their capacity to be bought and sold by clichés, to be easily entertained and easily molded, and to conform rigidly, without thought or question, to the core values of our consumer, image conscious, celebrity obsessed culture.
2. IBIZA 2009
Those who have read my previous journals, particularly part 3 of my trance journal, will know that Ibiza is a pretty big deal for me. If I’d have had more money and more friends into dance music over the last 5 or 6 years I’m sure I would have been more than twice. But such is life. And, in visiting Ibiza for the second time, I learnt some valuable life lessons this year. Lessons in the management of expectations and the capacity for life to kick you in the balls when you least want it to. I built up Ibiza 2009 so much. I was checking Ibiza-Spotlight daily, planning our clubbing itinerary, turning pub conversation towards it at every opportunity. This was going to be the best two weeks ever… Two weeks off work, Ibiza followed by Global Gathering. The best two weeks ever?… famous last words?
Well, don’t get me wrong, it was a great two weeks with a number of highs. I saw Armin van Buuren and Gareth Emery twice, Sander van Doorn for the fourth time, Above & Beyond for the second time and saw Tiesto play for about 5 hours in the biggest club in the world. And I spent most of those two weeks with some of my best mates in the blissful summer sunshine. But things didn’t quite go to plan. It didn’t match my vastly overblown expectations and could have been so much better. So what was the problem? Ibiza lost its magic?
Well, no. The main problem was something largely out of my control, that being…getting ill. I was already developing a bit of a sore throat on the plane out there but whatever it was I had didn’t fully take hold until the 3rd or 4th day. So I’d managed to enjoy Tiesto and most of Armada with few problems. In fact, Tiesto at Privilege was the finest night of clubbing I’ve ever had. The crowd was enormous, the lights and production were stunning and, after he’d finish throwing out his indie remixes, Tiesto got back to trance basics in a way that I never expected to hear. Hearing the In Search Of Sunrise mix of Delerium – Silence in the biggest club in the world was really special.
But by the Thursday I was really starting to struggle. I missed Cream on the Thursday and Pacha on the Friday, having to make do with trips to the West End dosed up on paracetamol. And without the pain killers I felt seriously rough… Paracetamol…not the drug I was expecting to use to survive the week. So, Tiesto alone had been worth the trip but how could this be best week of my life?
The other problem with this trip was that I was there with a group of mates who, generally-speaking, were looking for a different Ibizan experience to the one I was after. I was the only dedicated trance fan in the group, the only “proper” clubber, the only one interested in the island’s spirituality and mysticism. Most of the lads were after cheap booze, easy birds and cheesey tunes, an attitude typified by their mid-week “Pull A Munter” competition. I was more after proper DJs, serious sunshine and abnormal levels of serotonin. To me, you can go to any holiday resort for booze, birds and cheesey tunes. You go to Ibiza for the best dance music and the beauty of the island. The tackier aspects are the bonus in Ibiza; they’re not the main attraction.
There was definitely a split in the group, and I was in the minority. I knew that as soon as the holiday was booked. But we agreed from the start that there was no reason why we couldn’t split and do different things. For example, only one of the other 7 lads joined me for Armada at Amnesia (part of which was actually broadcast on ASOT Radio as episode 413), while the others went to AATW’s Clubland at Es Paradis. But after getting ill, it was more difficult to justify wandering off on my own (or with one other person) to see whatever it was I wanted to see. I just didn’t have the energy. Without the paracetamol and pints of lager I would have been in bed. So, not quite the trip to clubbing paradise I'd had planned. More a case of a good laugh in the sun with some good mates.
But rather than be angry and overcome with disappointment, on returning I decided to take what had happened on the chin. I figured it would be better just to take some important life lessons out of the situation. However, it wasn’t the lesson of “if it can go wrong, it will go wrong”. That’s not a lesson because you can’t really do anything about it. It felt like more a case of, “the more you want something the more you can’t have it.” Amazing as a place like Ibiza is, you can’t guarantee the attainment of a flawless, timeless experience just by virtue of being there. So, to talk up a place having been there is fair enough, but to talk up an experience, wherever it takes place, before you’ve even had it is more or less pointless. It’s a recipe for disappointment.
And, secondly, if you go to Ibiza choose who you go with carefully. For me, the problem wasn’t who I went with but who I didn’t go with. Going with people who aren’t necessarily passionate about dance music isn’t the end of the world, it isn’t even a problem. But I just needed one or two more real dance music nuts with me, like my old clubbing crew from Uni, to balance out the group and really search out the Ibiza experience I was after.
In a sense, I think it's almost better to be in Ibiza alone than it is to be there with a group of people who predominately aren't into dance music in the same way you are. You either need a good number of people to share and fully appreciate the experiences you crave with, or the total freedom to just go and do your own thing. And Ibiza is obviously an expensive place, now more so than ever. Because of that, I can now see there’s no point in compromising. But, we live and learn. And they’ll be other times, other opportunities. Of that I’m sure. Of that I’ll make sure.
3. CLUBBING & ITS FUTURE IN THE UK
It was left to Global Gathering this year to rescue the clubbing I felt I’d missed out on in Ibiza. And it did go a long way to squashing any post-Ibiza self-pity. On the Friday we raved it up outside in the early evening sunshine, Karim bashing out the hard house, and closed the day seeing Paul van Dyk, complete with live guest vocalist. And on the Saturday we were destroyed by 7 hours of Sander Van Doorn, Above & Beyond and Armin Van Buuren, appearing one after the other. And being at Global with my old clubbing mates from Uni and my two trance loving mates from home did reinforce to me how important it is to find and connect with people who share your passions.
But I did come away from Global with a few negative thoughts as well. The main one being that I think I can see clubbing in the UK being pushed down a route that no longer reflects the idealistic philosophies I talked about in my final trance journal.
The main problem is the lack of MDMA, which is now much harder to get in pure form after a chemical used in its production was banned internationally. Now, some, particularly those who have not read TRANCE CULTURE , will say, “You shouldn’t be taking it anyway” or, “Well, that proves dance music culture is nothing without drug culture.” It’s a bit more complicated than that.
Clubbing will continue regardless, as will people’s passions for trance, house and techno music. But the fact remains that a lot of people in this country, whatever their musical preferences, like getting completely fucked on a regular basis. And if they can’t get proper MDMA, they will turn to other drugs that don’t have the emotionally magnifying effects that bring crowds together and energise them, drugs like ketamine, cocaine and, in a way, even alcohol, which anesthetise and either dull sensory acuity or boost the ego. And this will have to have a negative effect in long run – almost the exact opposite effect of MDMA. I actually think much of the good-will and communalism could be retained in clubbing without MDMA, but a noticeable increase in the use of drugs that dramatically slow down motor skills, promote insularism or encourage further alcohol consumption by their very nature will damage clubbing’s sense of communalism. To me, such drugs can’t and shouldn’t be regarded as substitutes. The sad fact is, in some quarters, they will be.
I was chatting to my mate Rob only a month after Global and we seemed to agree that clubbing’s best years are behind it and that, even though we both wish we’d been born 5-10 years sooner, we’ve both had a decent run at it – that although today’s dance music scene is great, it’s still lost much of the rawness and youthful optimism of its earlier incarnations.
The film Human Traffic, despite its sense of idealism, itself made some interesting, albeit brief comments about the decline of clubbing, about the ways it’s got fetishised and hijacked by people just looking to boost their street cred. But that film was released 10 years ago this summer, and there’s probably been further decline in that time. Certain well-known festivals have got a bit too popular and a bit too corporate; some events are plagued by groups of chavs looking for trouble. Maybe our outlook was unnecessarily pessimistic. Maybe these things come in cycles. We can but hope. All you can do in the meantime is make the most of what’s on offer, which, at the core of it all, is the music. That’s still there and going strong, of course.
A good quality video of Above & Beyond wipping out On A Good Day (followed by Breakfast - Air Guitar) at GG this summer. This isn't my video by the way, so thanks to whoever posted this on youtube.
4. DOWNLOADING MUSIC & ACHIEVEING MUSICAL KARMA
As I said in the introduction, in my own musical life a change has been needed for a while. The amount of time I spend on various music related activities has grown year on year since about the age of 15 or 16. Whether it be chatting to fellow music fans on music forums, tagging up reams and reams of new music or just mindless staring at last.fm, many hours have been wiled away. Maybe it was unnecessary amount of time, maybe it was an obscene amount of time, who’s to say?
But I don’t regret that time spent. Not one bit. That time spent has brought me along way: it’s made me passionate in a way that I can’t imagine not being, educated me, entertained me, broadened my horizons, and even developed my outlooks and perspectives on life. The last 4 or 5 years of my life have been a real musical journey, of searching, discovering, learning, piecing together the various scenes in my head like some great patchwork. And, as sentimental as it may sound, nothing has taught me more about myself over the course of the last half a decade than music.
That’s the amazing thing about music. If you put it in focus enough, if you think about the messages in its universal language, the world of music becomes a little microcosm of life itself. But not just any old life, but life as it should be, life with all the irrelevant and meaningless parts taken out. It’s a bubble of personal idealism and the more you enjoy it, the more you know about it, the more you personalise it, the more unburstable the bubble becomes.
But alongside and inseparable from this personal journey, there has been a sizeable degree of “digital gluttony.” I left for Uni in the summer of 2005 with my 30 gig music collection, an amount of music that some would say was already enough. I sit here today with a music collection of 286 gig, according to iTunes, approximately 120 days of music, including just short of 700 albums. Now these things are all relative. There are people out there with double, even triple that these days. But, given that HDD storage sizes seem to be growing rapidly, where do you draw the line? Can you ever have enough? More importantly, when you’re as OCD about tagging and ordering your music as I am, who has the time?
I think there was a time, maybe 2 or 3 years ago, when collecting music was just pure habit. I knew the avenues for getting it so I just did it. It was like watering a plant and enjoying watching it grow.
But I think, as my tastes started to seriously broaden, the need stopped being expansion for expansions sake. It was actually to fill gaps in my listening; trying to cover various moods and making sure all the bases were covered in the various new sub-genres I was listening to. It wasn’t about quantity anymore; it was about breadth and depth. And, of course, as I took up DJing, the reams of full length 320 kpbs trance and hard dance tracks I’d collected out of habit the years before now served a much more valuable purpose. This was now my digital DJing material.
Of course, a large part of my assembled collection has been illegally downloaded over the years. Maybe that is a dangerous thing to admit in these days of ISP litigation. But my conscience is clear, and I think it has ever right to be. Because, while I’ve picked up a lot of music for free, I’ve still poured a hell of a lot of my own money into the music industry, particularly in recent years through sites like Trackitdown.net. I support artists whenever I can afford to and when I feel the music is worthy enough of being fully supported.
Downloading has produced as many positives as negatives in its time. The internet has without doubt spread electronic music into areas of the world it would have had no chance of reaching previously, building its reputation as the ultimate culture crossing musical medium. And I think there are plenty of artists out there that I would never have had the chance to hear had buying it been the only way to hear it. The problem comes when people take ALL their music illegally and don’t put back into it at all. Artists have to make a living, so, when an artist’s work really moves and shakes us, sometimes they deserve more than a message on their official forum saying, “I thought your album was great!” It’s about give and take.
But my music collection has got to a stage now where it feels more or less complete. In terms of “old music”, every avenue feels covered. And I don’t say that just because my HDD is looking a bit full. To be honest, I think it’s more because I’ve recently added a small folder of rock music into the collection. Just obvious stuff like Muse, Oasis, Blur, R.E.M. etc. Much of it is just pure nostalgia for me and, of course, it’s another musical base covered. And it was adding that rock music which actually created a strange of musical karma in me. As if that was the last real piece in this jigsaw. Yes, me – the self-confessed electronic music nut, trance to the absolute core, given musical karma by rock music… the irony is not lost, believe me. A couple of hundred rock songs in a collection of over 280 gig is indeed outrageously modest, but it is a hole that needed filling and I didn’t realise how much it needed filling until it was actually filled.
There are others things as well though, other milestones. My iPod too now feels pretty much complete, with only 7 gig remaining and with all my playlists as I want them. I’ve also recently finished recompiling and reburning my trance DJing CDs, weeding out tracks that I don’t mix often or of low bitrate. And the final, and most recent thing, was my last.fm subscription running out. All these small milestones, all coming around the same time, and in the wake of the lessons learnt post-Ibiza, made me think, “Yeah, I’m done – It’s time to rethink how I do this.”
And, simply put, the main change will just be reducing the number of scenes I try to keep up with, in terms of new music, keeping my eyes more firmly on trance music. UK hard dance is dying on its arse, electro-house feels like its stagnating and has been hi-jacked by the mainstream, and I have enough psy-trance, minimal, tech house and drum & bass to satisfy my occasional cravings for them. And, of course, no more "old music"... if it's not new, I won't be downloading/buying it.
But even the amount of trance I collect can be reduced now. Instead of trawling Trackitdown and Soulseek on a daily basis, if I use radio shows like A State Of Trance and Global DJ Broadcast on a biweekly basis, making a note of what tunes take my ear, I can concentrate on quality rather than quantity and specifically download the tunes that I want to DJ with. The point is, I don’t need to hear and download everything that is released. I just need to put my ear to the ground, so to speak, once or twice a week. Maybe even only a couple of times a month. And, I suppose, I don’t want to be the kind of DJ, whatever level I end up getting to, that only plays new stuff anyway. There are too many of those kinds of DJs around as it is.
Obviously, the other thing that has caused me to download in huge amounts is last.fm itself. More and more recently I’ve used the site’s radios, particularly the ambient stations. And if the station throws up an amazing piece of music you’ve never heard previously, it’s incredibly tempting to go out and download half that artist’s discography. That’s what last.fm is all about – discovery.
For example, you might leave a message in an artist’s shoutbox, someone will see it and randomly view your profile. They see your charts and decide to leave you a shout recommending an artist. You check out the artist, like them and download most of their material. At that point you might decide to listen to that artist's tag radio station and on that radio station you might hear 2 or 3 artists that absolutely blow you away… Before you know it, you have more or less full discographies of about 5 artists you’d never heard of the month before.
But now, especially since my last.fm subscription has run out, I’m going to try and visit last.fm much less often in future, only checking my profile and charts when I receive an e-mail about a shout or a friend request. I’ll continue scrobbling of course, but I think I’ve had my fill when it comes to using last.fm as a proactive searching and networking tool. And I will continue doing my end of year review journals, but, because I won’t be paying as much attention to certain scenes or collecting new albums on a daily basis, there’s no way they’ll be anything like as comprehensive as they have been previously.
The bottom line is, I have to curtail the amount of time spent searching for, collecting and tagging music and reinvest that time in practicing mixing and actually enjoying the music I’ve already collected. If you want to be a successful DJ, bedroom, semi-pro or professional, you have to invest time in keeping up with the scene and putting together your collection. But there are more efficient ways of doing it than I am now and I think you do get to the point where you’ve acquired enough knowledge of labels and artists to be able to afford to invest fewer hours without it affecting your own standards. And that is a lesson for all wannabe DJs out there – Invest time in expanding your knowledge, but don’t over invest. You need a balance.
Although, all this doesn’t mean I’m no longer open to the recommendations of other last.fm users. In fact, being as I’ll be doing less active searching myself, I’m sure I’m going to come to rely on the recommendations of fellow last.fm users more and more to help me make sure I don’t miss out on the not-to-be-missed new releases. Friend, neighbour or just passerby - do leave recommendations in my shoutbox or inbox if you hear anything you think will blow my socks off, from whatever genre. I’ll more than appreciate that. And I will get back to you eventually, I promise.
5. THANK YOU LAST.FM
Last.fm is such a simple concept. An ambitious project in internet databasing maybe, but a simple concept nonetheless. On the face of it, almost too simple. If you’re a last.fm user and describe what this site is all about to a non-last.fm user, trying and failing miserably to explain to them what a “scrobble” is, the non-last.fm user will probably be thoroughly unimpressed and be left wondering why the hell you’re wasting your time with it. At least that is how I’ve often felt after describing it to people. Why the hell would I want to make a log of all the music I listen to? It’s not until you actually set up a profile, get scrobbling and start having a look around, that you realise how much there is on offer here, how much opportunity there is.
Whoever came up with the concept of last.fm is, in my book, a borderline genius. If utilised properly, it’s the kind of concept that keeps on giving, like a lemon that you can just squeeze and squeeze, the juices just keep on coming. And by utilising it properly, I mean actually using the tag radio stations, the artist links and interacting with fellow users. Unfortunately, not every user does. Last.fm provides the tools you need to be truly proactive and self-motivated in broadening your musical horizons. The charts aren’t there for charts’ sake.
For the most recent and, up until now, most important leg of my own musical voyage, last.fm has been absolutely indispensible. Without it my taste would be far narrower and far less developed than it is today. In fact, I can’t even begin to imagine what I’d be missing out on now if it weren’t for last.fm. So, to whomever it is I should be thankful, I am indeed thankful.
But, as I say, time for a change... Onwards and upwards.
The world of music has been dealt quite a few humdingers this past month, what with rappers humiliating teenage girls, founding members being kicked out of their very own pop institutions, the BBC attempting an X Factor style coup with a glamorous new judge (even giving her the same amazing hair) and Fearne Cotton personally making sure my weekday mornings are groan-inducingly horrible. You'd think I'd appreciate when people talk over the songs they play on the radio, especially the crap stuff, but the fact that Fearne waffles on about nothing and gives inane interviews (along the line of: "What's this?" "Oh, yeah, I loved that!" "I remember, it was great!" "AAAAALLLLLL WWWWIIIIILLLL SSSSSSSUFFFFFEERRRRRR!!!!") in such a grating manner with all of the self-importance of a stage school sixth former is enough to make me scream at the worst of times. Especially when she insists on playing Mika's latest single over and over and demands us to learn each time how much she loves it!
Thankfully, most of the new music I've gotten hold of has been untainted by Fearne's golden-handcuffed appendages; and now my rant is o'er, normal service can resume... (PS, I did post elsewhere that I'd tag a review of Lamb's gig in London yesterday, but under the banner "hangover permitting"... trust, it was fun, even though they sung Gabriel twice without realising and the sound for the first few songs was too loud; Gorecki was fucking ace though!)
I Look To You by Whitney Houston
Her first studio album of original material in seven years, but most prominently plugged as her first album post-divorce from self-proclaimed “thug” Bobby Brown, Houston’s return to the airwaves has been much anticipated, front loaded by a high-profile “first listen” event in London and a revealing interview stint on Oprah. In light of the flood of wannabe divas that she undeniably inspired currently caterwauling through the charts, Houston’s voice is sadly not quite up to the trilling scratch of her early years and is certainly more weathered by experience (a glaring example being ballad I Didn't Know My Own Strength, which at times doesn’t even sound like her!) She can still sell some soulful sass when she wants to (check out the Alicia Keys/Swiss Beatz co-production Million Dollar Bill and Leon Russell cover A Song For You), but the raft of über-producers here (Danja, Akon, R Kelly, Stargate) do well to bury Houston’s voice in the requisite clichés of every pop/R&B album of the past three years, in effect making her sound old and worn when she should sound hopeful and exultant (one such instance being Worth It, which has Whitney singing about soundtracking a night-time love session... Not really!)
Greatest Hits by Aqua
Of all of the successful ‘90s acts to reform before the decade of revisionism peters out, Aqua probably ranked as one of the least excitable prospects of reformation for music fans, even if enough time has passed that classics such as Turn Back Time and Cartoon Heroes should be rediscovered as worthy pop gems in their own right. Treading cautiously before releasing a long-awaited third album, the Danish quartet have plumped for a Greatest Hits package to check their marketability in Europe (though one was already released in Japan and the US years ago), containing twelve of their fourteen singles, three new additions for ‘09 and four album tracks from their two albums. It makes for a less-than-consistent listen but still offers enough proof that Aqua had a lot more promise than the hate Barbie Girl garnered afforded them, particularly on the cuts from the big-budget second album Aquarius (minus the God awful Halloween, obviously!). The new additions vary, hinting at a more rock influenced sound; My Mamma Said registers a nasty blip, but the tongue-through-cheekiness of Back To The '80s and the boisterous key change of Live Fast - Die Young do well to suggest that there’s life in the misunderstood popniks yet.
A Man's Thoughts by Ginuwine
Released in the US two weeks before Maxwell’s comeback record, the rather lovely BLACKsummers'night, Elgin Baylor Lumpkin (for that is his name!) may have pipped his contemporary to the post release wise, but his album pales in comparison with regards to the amount of soul and sultriness within. Granted, Ginuwine’s sound is one that has always flirted with hip hop rather than old school soul, and there are plenty of cuts here where he shows off his pre-eminence in the field of hip pop R&B (even if he’s still using that glass harmonica!) show off and Open The Door find him in fine form with production wares from RL, Oak and Bryan-Michael Cox, and Get Involved is almost poignant when it brings his old friends Timbaland and Missy Elliott herself back into the mix, as well as its being the most banging tune on the LP. It’s all very agreeable and serviceable, with a couple of missteps along the way (particularly the uninspired duet with Brandy, Bridge To Love), but for someone who formerly owned the arena of hip hop soul in the 1990s and helped to inspire the current crop of swaggering upstarts, it’s a little disappointing. If this were a debut album, a star would have been born; for the man who burst on to the scene with Pony in 1996, it’s bland and uninvolving.
Ellipse by Imogen Heap
Straddling the line between twee and swoonsome doesn’t come easy to most, but since the splitting up of Frou Frou back in 2003, Imogen Heap has been steadfast in her commitment to such aesthetics within her nestling electro pop. Often, she strikes just the right gorgeous balance (hear her first Narnia song Can't Take It In for her most sterling example), and there are a few examples of her oeuvre at its best on her follow-up to the well-received debut Speak for Yourself here, one highlight being Wait It Out, which references her only hit single Hide and Seek with her processed harmonies only to open up into a disarming slow burn of synths and guitars. Other forays into self-effacing niceties miss the mark quite bemusedly, particularly Bad Body Double, which charts Ms Heap’s picking out chinks in her physical appearance via a clunky doppelganger metaphor. So, in spite of Heap’s voice being as sweet as it was in Frou Frou and her own composition and production skills in themselves being an expert lesson in homemade production (like Speak before it, Ellipse was written, produced and mixed entirely in her humble abode in Essex), the slighter-than-slight lyrical themes often rob the songs of being able to listen to them without prejudice.
Time To Die by The Dodos
One of the quieter-yet-notable critical successes of last year was rock folk duo Meric Long and Logan Kroeber’s sophomore LP, Visiter, a fine rabble of anti-folk rock made all the finer by its rough-hewn production and excitable noise with its percussion-led music (a key track from that album being Red and Purple). Somewhat novel in their methods of multi-instrumentation in their live performances (Kroeber dutifully tapeing a tambourine to his shoe at the shows being one such quirk), the duo’s third album not only sees them aided with the help of a well-known producer (that’d be Phil Ek, most recently responsible for production duties on Fleet Foxes’ fine debut album from last year) but also, at their own admission, “sounds more like a band”, ironing out most of the leftfield quirks that made their last album shine. Which isn’t to say that Time To Die doesn’t have its moments; Two Medicines in particular benefits from a more refined production with its harmonies and more ornate percussive elements sharing more space with the duo’s established penchant for drumkit-led revelry. It’s just that the refinement in their sound here is just that little bit less charming and immediate than their breakout LP from last year is all.
All Balloons by One eskimO
Brainchild of former homegrown pop-star-that-never-was Kristian Leontiou and drummer pal Adam Falkner, you’ve every reason to feign ignorance at their One eskimO project. It’s actually the soundtrack to an animated film; they’ve been endorsed by Janice Long on her midnight shift show on BBC Radio 2; they’ve listed Massive Attack next to Nizlopi as their musical influences; it’s co-produced by Rollo “Dido’s Older Brother” Armstrong... It doesn’t exactly bode well, does it? Well, in spite of all of this, and even with recognising each of those elements within the music, it’s actually really rather lovely, reminiscent more of Faithless’ quieter moments most likely because of Armstrong’s influence (Astronauts sounds like a long-lost brother of Don't Leave certainly, and is just as moving) and Leontiou’s evocative vocals providing a readily-empathetic anchor to the sweetness, especially on the meet-cute number Kandi, containing a sample of Candi Staton’s He Called Me Baby. It’s lo-fi, it doesn’t draw too much attention to itself and it certainly won’t appeal to the more jaded listeners here on last.fm (particularly with the tag of being a children’s movie soundtrack on it), tracks like Hometime and UFO are creeping high on my Guilty Pleasures ‘09 list.
The Blueprint 3 by Jay-Z
Not only is The Blueprint 3 the album that turned Jay-Z into the record holder for the most consecutive Number 1 albums on the US Billboard Chart ahead of Elvis Presley, but most importantly, it is the first album of his to chart within the Top Ten on the UK Albums Chart, most likely helped by his support slot for Coldplay on the final leg of their world tour in the UK last week. If that hasn’t announced how much Jay-Z has been accepted by the UK record buying public (aside from the likes of Eminem, Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder, most urban albums ratchet up Gold/Platinum certifications from the BPI with steady sales and without bothering the Top Ten), then this new album should. Radio-friendly, not without its indulgent egotism (check Kanye West-produced Hate (Feat. Kanye West)) but still chock full of Mr Carter’s skilled bravado as well as some choice cuts from the leading hip hop producers (The Neptunes, Swiss Beatz, Timbaland) alongside some well-judged special guests, the obvious standout being Alicia Keys’ somewhat wonderful appearance on Empire State of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys). Other highlights include On To The Next One (Feat. Swiss Beatz)’s neat sample of Justice’s D.A.N.C.E. and closer Young Forever (feat. Mr. Hudson), (even if the featured guest sounds a little like Sting here!)
Things Are What They Used To Be by Zoot Woman
So after new work from Fischerspooner, Peaches and Miss Kittin & The Hacker, the electroclash cadre continues with the new release from Zoot Woman who, thanks to founding member Stuart Price’s commitment to all things Madonna since her Re-Invention Tour in 2004 (as well as production duties for the likes of New Order, The Killers, Seal and Frankmusik, amongst others), have finally followed up their eponymous sophomore disc from 2003. It’s safe to say that, compared with the unholy trinity previously mentioned, Zoot Woman’s sound is more streamlined and less inclined to take in lyrics about Oedipus complexes and dead swingers, but it doesn’t deter from the retro delights to be had here. Essentially one-upping La Roux’s debut for electro pop glory (if falling behind Little Boots, in my opinion), songs such as the unrequitedly longing Lonely By Your Side, the kick-ass More Than Ever and the gorgeous slow build of the title track boast enough synergy between the synths, guitars and beats to suggest an ever-so-slightly more well-adjusted Depeche Mode, even if the edge has been dulled ever so slightly.
No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories the World… by Mew
Some self-proclaimed “pretentious art rock” now from this Danish trio, who’ve enjoyed plenty of cult success worldwide (this, their highest charting album in the UK, peaked at 110) as well as recently supporting Nine Inch Nails on their European tour alongside Jane's Addiction. Quite what most NIN fans would have made of material from Mew’s latest fifth album at least beggars certain questions, as this dreamy adventure of an album inhabits a heady atmosphere that, whilst not without its moments of exuberant rocking out (check the finale of Repeaterbeater), is content to take in piano-led moments accentuated by childlike vocals and harmonies (hear Silas The Magic Car). Stark, infantile imagery and wounded naivety is prevalent throughout, encapsulated best near the end of the tumultuous journey with the penultimate track Sometimes Life Isn't Easy, which has one of the most unsettlingly beautiful moments of the musical year in having a children’s choir sing along to a monologue of piteousness and mutilation. A rewarding listen for those who dare and an impressive feat for an outfit that’s still going after fifteen years.
Logos by Atlas Sound
Bradford James Cox is certainly a busy man of late. Not content with working with his band Deerhunter on the release of two of their albums last year, 2008 also saw the debut album of his solo project Atlas Sound, an exercise in ambient music that gave birth to the critically-lauded Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel. Helping to bolster a running theme with popular alternative musicians this year by following up with new material the following year, Logos differs from Cox’s former piece firstly in its more mainstream sensibilities. Whereas Cox’s solo debut felt more like a concept album telling a Gothic story of ghosts and past traumas, Logos is a little more ambitious with its templates, taking in guest stars Panda Bear of Animal Collective and Stereolab’s Lætitia Sadier to offer some tripped out mellowness (Quick Canal in particular is hella gorgeous with its Boards of Canada-style beats restless underneath Cox’s indecipherable vocals) as well as some more acoustically informed pieces (hear Criminals and My Halo). It might not create as cohesive another world as his previous disc, but it still has its moments of gorgeousness.
For Lack Of A Better Name by Deadmau5
Joel Zimmerman enjoyed a certain degree of breakout success earlier this year with the minor chart hit I Remember with Kaskade, as well as a fine critical reception from its parent album, Random Album Title, and a raft of recognition from his peers, including a Grammy nomination. The party continues apace to lesser effect on his latest release, only because there’s nothing quite as awe-inducing as I Remember or Slip from the aforementioned Random here (besides the closing ten minute swoon of Strobe). Zimmerman also commits a couple of cardinal sins in dance music studio albums in letting a few of the jams go on for too long (Word Problems in particular grinding to a halt far later than it should do) and including a somewhat pointless instrumental version preceding a superior track with vocals (that’ll be highlight Ghosts N' Stuff featuring Pendulum’s Rob Swire). Still, there are some mighty fine tunes to be had barbed with a couple of leftfield turns, such as the one-two of Soma’s elegant piano solos puncturing the electronic glitch jams followed by the string-led wonder of Lack Of A Better Name.
The Revolution Presents Revolution by The Revolution
There will be those who disapprove of the ethics imposed on the formation of The Revolution, a collective of vibrant young Cuban musicians put together by producers Zack Winfield and Ado Yoshizaki to collaborate with the finest (re: some of the more popular) producers of the Western world. Whilst issue may be taken to claim that the idea of Westernising these indigenous musicians’ sounds robs them of legitimate authenticity, it take just a few bars of the opening track Shelter to not only be swept up by the collective’s evident talent, but also how impressively respectful the producers have been in their roles, whilst still imprinting the tracks with their own sensibilities. Of the assignees, Marius De Vries (helped in no small part on the gorgeous Yellow Moon by Róisín Murphy in particular) and UNKLE’s Rich File should be the most proud, despite fine work from Guy Sigsworth and Jan Kybert also (the latter’s You Wouldn’t Want To Be Me is the stuff of Latin dreams). However, it doesn’t take absolutely anything away from The Revolution themselves that the album can be qualified as nothing less than a success, adhering to each respective genre (tortured trip hop, sassy bossa nova, boisterous Latin hip hop) these producers throw at them with graceful ease.
A Brief History of Love by The Big Pink
The BBC Sound of 2009 strikes again with electro-rock duo The Big Pink, London-based, former indie label runners-turned-Next Big Things with a debut ready to be embraced as much by popular music fans as it will by snooty musos. Although with regards to tone and the amount of abject drama they are completely different, Pink’s debut album could be seen as a companion piece to The Horrors’ Primary Colours from earlier this year, if only for the overt shadow of Joy Division hanging over it, though Pink are more ambitious to take in more than relentless miserabilism. Positively drenched in reverb and as anthemic and rousing as it can be mournful and disturbed (for the former hear recent single Dominos, the title track for the latter), it’s the kind of album that has the music press practically salivating all over it but for once it’s almost entirely justified, at times sounding like early Nine Inch Nails or Depeche Mode, but entirely its own beast of twisted beauty (Too Young To Love being a perfect highlight). A shoo-in for a nomination for The Mercury Prize 2010, methinks!!
Man On The Moon: The End of The Day by Kid Cudi
And yet AGAIN with this BBC Sound of 2009 business... I guess they ought to be very pleased with themselves in picking out so many featured in my listening schedules, if they gived a damn about one of about a million lonely music blogs on last.fm. But I digress; signed to Kanye West’s GOOD Music label in 2008, CuDi has enjoyed increasing amounts of hype since his A Kid Called CuDi mixtape hit and had a profound effect on Kanye in particular, even soliciting a guestspot on his curate’s egg of an album, 808s & Heartbreak, not to mention the airplay assigned to the Crookers remix of lead single Day ‘n’ Nite (Nightmare). Not as emotionally desolate as West’s piece from last year, Man On The Moon still takes cues from a more experimental palette than your average hip hop album, taking in guests as leftfield from the rap scene as Ratatat and MGMT alongside the likes of West and Common, mixing in resonant synths and effects than crunking beats and polished old school arrangements and samples. CuDi himself doesn’t disappoint either, his rhymes and cadence a welcome breath of fresh air from the boisterous motor-mouthing prevalent in the less-inspired hip hop world, fine examples being Heart Of A Lion (Kid Cudi Theme Music) and Enter Galactic (Love Connection).
11:11 by Rodrigo y Gabriela
I may be flirting with disaster when I opine this sentiment, but if the Great British Public can’t get their record-buying faculties in the right place (Lady GaGa holding Doves away from the top spot by a handful of copies being one such criminal happenstance this year), Lord know about the Irish music-buying contingent. However, one rogue act that launched their impressive rise to fame from the Irish shores were Rodrigo and Gabriela, former members of a metal band in Mexico who upped sticks to Europe to broaden their musical horizons, welcomed with open arms for the virtuoso guitar-playing, be it tradional, pop or samba music. As a result, their second album debuted at Number 1 in Ireland and beat away competition from Arctic Monkeys and Johnny Cash to hold on to it. Their follow-up is essentially half-tribute album, each original track dedicated to the one of the duo’s most highly regarded muses (amongst the more recognisable names being Santana, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd). Exclusively made up of the duo’s remarkable guitar playing, it transcends the commonly placed world music label to deliver something more passionate and alive than most music with hundreds more effects and sequences happening at once.
The Resistance by Muse
So I finally got hold of it... And, you know, if anything it’s even more ridiculous, bombastic and stridently composed as the fake copy I found myself hawking in my last update (before removing all evidence of my deaf assumptions in the edit, obviously!) You’ll have heard Uprising already, with its pseudo Doctor Who theme ominously dancing in the background as Matt Bellamy’s voice rides all manner of surging guitars and yell-along anthems but the album confounds still with some of the most bonkers grandstanding that rock music has to offer this year. Undisclosed Desires opens with a staccato string arrangement and backbeat reminiscent of turn of the century two-step garage before sidestepping into Depeche Mode territory (and it’s very good!) whilst United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage) is the sequel to Bohemian Rhapsody that Freddie Mercury never finished (beyond amazing!) Resistance contains one of the most rousing choruses of the year thus far and the three-part orchestral work that closes the album is still as demystifyingly gorgeous, and the perfect gracenote to end such an excessive, relentless explosion of an album.
And that is why The Resistance is my Album Of The Month For September... so good, it was a whole month late!!
And that's me for another month; will be posting my CD3 of the year's best tracks so far next week and then, the final quarter. Christmas is coming; be prepared!
(And a brief apology to brennivin85 for not including the Spotify links where appropriate just yet... will get around to it at some point!)
Akon
