Oh absolutely! One question though.... Each of your links in your signature.......?

20th Century Electronic & Avant-Garde | Ambient | Art Rock (Eno / Byrne) | Classical (Herbert Von Karajan) | Downtempo & Future Jazz | Funk & Soul | Gravel-Throated Troubadours | Jazz | Karl Hyde Library | Kosmische Musik | Slowcore & Shoegaze | Psychedelic Folk | The Odd Bits Out
Put you in the same spot and I was really trying to hit the individual arenas such as "Psychedelic Folk" which I happen to thoroughly enjoy! How to I access these arenas?

Oh my - I've been logged into my Discogs account steady for years now, but I suppose I'd never tried to connect to my Collection folders from the outside. It appears that the folders don't work outside of one's own account.

I'll have to come up with a solution for that. You aren't missing much from my psych folk folder, but highlights include Beck's Mutations and Sea Change LPs.

Signature fix pending!

Highlights of John Cage and Morton Feldman - Exquisite Examples of Dynamic Range
 

This weekend's research proved to be incredibly valuable, resulting in two wonderful musical discoveries. And it began with The S.E.M. Ensemble.

From semensemble.org:

The S.E.M. Ensemble was founded in 1970 when Petr Kotik organized a group of musicians of the fellows at the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts, SUNY/Buffalo. The first S.E.M. Ensemble concert was presented in Buffalo at the Domus Theater and included works by Cornelius Cardew, John Cage, Petr Kotik and Rudolf Komorous.

In 1992, the SEM chamber ensemble was expanded into The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble with a debut concert at Carnegie Hall, presenting the first complete performance of Atlas Eclipticalis by John Cage (all 86 instruments). The concert was an internationally celebrated event, lauded by audiences and critics from across the United States, Europe and Japan.



But another property unique to this performance makes it a must-own for all lovers of exceptional music.

For the last several years, DR-loudness-war.info has been crowd-sourcing a massive database mapping the dynamic range, (that is, the range from the quietest to the loudest sounds occurring in piece of music) for over 77,000 albums. This database was created as a reaction to the Loudness War - the trend of record labels cutting off all the “highs” and “lows” of an album so that the entire album can be as loud as possible.


It is this very recording - the S.E.M. Ensemble’s Concert for Piano & Orchestra, which tops the chart for dynamic range. In fact, the album holds both the #1 and #2 positions among all 77,522 recordings presently cataloged - one for the original CD release and the other for the subsequent digital download.

The recording is unlike any other musical experience I've had with my listening equipment. The sound stage is open and well-defined and really gives the listener the feeling of a live modern classical performance. My setup has a very neutral or transparent delivery which is well-suited to the more “academic” recordings I enjoy such as Berlin School electronic, drone and ambient musics. I can say with certainty that this recording is a brilliant match for my setup and makes for a thrilling experience, both for its critical acoustic properties as well as for the cerebral pleasures it arouses in the listener.

While reviewing the Dynamic Range Database’s other highest-ranked recordings, I took note of Morton Feldman’s Late Piano Works Vol.3 performed by Steffen Schleiermacher. AllMusic contributor, Blair Sanderson called the album “sublime”, speaking of the spaciousness and quietude of Feldman’s composition and of the incredible sensitivity and control with which Schleiermacher presents the featured selections.


Feldman’s later piano works make for excellent study music, or simply a soundtrack for an evening of quiet reflection. The Database is certainly correct - this is a wonderfully pensive and subtle recording which is sadly (and quite literally) drowned out by more modern victims of the Loudness War. Put this on, turn down the lights, and awaken your senses to the subtle nuances of audiophilic delight.

Ignore The Sunday Times - Today's Young Artists are doing Great Things
 

A headline surfaced in my news feed today - an article from The Sunday Times in the UK proclaiming, "Modern pop is rubbish, says Damon." The Blur front man says music stars of the ‘selfie generation’ should sing about politics, not just chant platitudes.

The article addressed today's youth culture, and pictured Taylor Swift as the spokeswoman of their generation. But The Times and Damon have got it all wrong.


Pop is relatively inconsequential - like the loudmouth in the room at a party carrying on to hear himself speak... no one cares and he is forgotten when the moment has passed.

I've spoken with a number of musicians from what the article dubs, "the selfie generation" and the term honestly doesn't apply. Nor does the term from a previous but similar article which called them "the Belieber generation." These kids don't revere teen pop stars as anything relevant outside of the tiny bubble that is pop music. They are interested in more socially and culturally significant concepts, like the role of technology in their lives and the globalization of culture. Or any number of other values of relevance ranging from widely-demographic to simply personal. Because that's what the youth culture is - individual, creative people, not a swarm of mindless bodies jumping up and down to whoever Disney tells them to worship.

Certainly - Taylor Swift and Bieber were massively popular. It’s an inevitability because they were designed to be popular - saccharine-sweet over-simplified melodies repeated ad nauseum, super-saturating every mass-media market in the world. But outside of those irritatingly-loud broadcast spheres, in the minds of growing teens forming their own values and opinions about the world around them, those media outlets matter less and less every day. They blare on at full-volume 24/7, desperately begging consumers to buy their associated merchandise, but kids quickly grow out of that infinitesimal world and move on to something bigger and far more important in their lives.

In 100 years, music history won’t droll on about Bieber or Britney, any more than they would about Frankie Avalon or Ricky Nelson. Momentary teen pop sensations are irrelevant in the grand scheme. Instead, they will teach the incredible impact of Cage and Glass the way they do today about Bach and Beethoven. Rock’s brief but vibrant life will be summarized by Dylan and The Beatles. Other than a handful of household names, the whole of teen pop will be forgotten, just as it is when it is recycled, again and again, every three to five years.

I have a lot more faith in “the selfie generation.” They’re doing great things musically - you just have to listen to them.

Love the Godspeed reference in your youtube video. Have you ever delved into music that isn't necessarily ambient but incorporates ambient into their music? I have a few suggestions. You talked about pop and I thought it'd be cool to show you some pop artists that incorporate ambient into their music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgjL...A87354D0D01A4E

Felt Mountain -- Goldfrapp's debut album. It's a cross between baroque pop and ambient with elements of trip hop. It has some really great ambient atmospheres.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSGRkBiVP1Y

Fever Ray -- Full blown ambient pop, elements of drone as well

Also are you a fan of Tim Hecker? He's an amazing contemporary ambient artist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu-ihs4BkAs

Thanks very much! I'm certainly open to hybrid genres which incorporate ambient elements into their work. I am well-aware of Tim Hecker, particularly the notoriety he received from the success of the Virgins LP. Though I'd honesty not sat down and experienced the whole record yet. Remedying that presently.

The Goldfrapp track was excellent, though I wasn't so keen on the Fever Ray stuff - perhaps a bit too heavy on the "pop" for my tastes.

Still, I always love hearing something new so thanks! I'll explore more of Hecker's work this week!

The New Headphone Stand Has Arrived!
 

If Schroeder wore headphones, that's how he would store them! :laughing:

Very nice piece on the "selfie generation". As a member of it, I appreciate what you wrote. :clap:

Thus far, I'm enjoying just about everything you've got, even the off the beaten path material. I love that sort of thing! I'm also enjoying your articles. Excellent reading!

[QUOTE=innerspaceboy;1579552][CENTER]Last week I started to think that I could do better than the $9 wire banana hanger I was using for my Sennheiser monitors.



Then I had a wonderful idea. It took about an hour of searching eBay to find one just the right size for the task, but in the end, it worked out beautifully.

Transitional classical-to-romantic elegance with a touch of bittersweet post-modern irony (given the figure I selected). I couldn't be happier with the result.

What do you think?

Excellent idea, but...... but he does look a bit annoyed. I'd maybe keep him in another room away from where you sleep.:laughing: