jackhammer

Favourite 3 genres:
Damn that's quite hard to answer as I listen to everything. Probably Metal and its never ending genres Reggae and Electronic music. This way I can encompass lot's of areas of music.

What attracts me to music
Honesty and sincerity although that is really difficult to elaborate upon. Somehow I can just feel if music is forced and only made for the sole intention of making money. This is not to say that I don't like commercial music. Far from it but making albums and always trying something a little different each time appeals a lot to me. I think 95% of musicians could make chart friendly pap if they really wanted too but then I contradict my own opinion in that I like a small number of bands that rarely change their formula and are quite happy to stick with it. However the bands are not always radio friendly in the first place.

I could say the usual cliched waffle about how music calms me or takes me somewhere else but if you are a serious music fan then this is a given really and if it doesn't illicit emotions in you then music is just something to listen to as background noise or something to dance to at the weekend etc

I guess music is a window into how someone feels and thinks and we are all interested what goes on in other peoples minds.

I am beginning to dislike youtube vid posting unless it's for a promotional thread for a band I like and music is personal and what one person adores is not always easily put into words. What I will do is post songs that elements of what attracts me to music. Here goes though.

Melt Banana

I love the raw energy from this track and the production is not overdubbed to oblivion yet despite having a seemingly chaotic sound, it has structure and melody. It is original, intense and buoyant. You can just tell that the band love to play music and enjoy it at the same time.

John Martyn

There may as well be no one in the room so focused is John in the music. He isn't sat there bemoaning life. He is celebrating it yet he is so ensconced in his own world it becomes quietly powerful and utterly believable. There have been thousands of artist who sit there with an acoustic guitar and 95% of them are boring, banal bleeding poets and there is the 5% who would sit and play for hours not giving two craps whether you liked it or not. This is their own release and fulfilment. Honesty and sincerity.

Slayer

Virtually any Metal band in the world can be noisier or heavier than the rest but it takes something special to be so intense yet clear, concise and meticulous. Although it's a cliched choice, this is still probably the finest example of intense Metal recorded that doesn't sound dated in the slightest (it is now 25 years old).

Underworld

I love monotonous Electronic riffs especially if they are not actually a riff but just a device that pulls a song along. It's not intrusive. It's subtle yet hypnotic. It should just exist bubbling under the track but not become the whole track or none of the track. In that I mean that you shouldn't really even notice and instead revel in the whole ambience of the track. This is not a dance track, it's not a by the numbers ambient track. It's fully formed with many aspects that suggests that the artist has an ear for music and many genres. This song is all about mood and appeals to may different moods that I feel.




Are you attracted to the same musical qualities now as then?
I grew up with Reggae and classic British bands but I got 'into' music through Heavy Metal and for a number of years in the mid - late 90's I barely listened to the genre(s) but over the last 10 years I have gone full circle and celebrate the fact that the music that formed who I am still has a resonance for me today.

I still love Reggae as the basslines still grab me today as they did way back then when I didn't understand what they were but knew that they had an earthy, honest and sensual sound to them.

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