Another great Blancmange gig last night. I love that they just seem to enjoy themselves so much. I’ll post some pictures up tomorrow.
Tag: music
I love music. Making music, listening, talking about it and anything else too.
The Ethometric Museum
I saw the Ethometric Museum again last night. This time at the Battersea Arts Centre. The performance was exactly as I remembered it, but as it wasn’t in a cellar this time there was no need for hard hats.
I got to take a few more pictures than last time in Edinburgh, so I thought I’d share the pictures of these amazing machines.
Experiments in listening
I’ve been using Spotify for over a month now and it is really starting to fit into my listening process. It’s interesting to listen and subscribe to other people’s playlists, and a little strange too, almost like snooping in some ways.
I’ve also subscribed to some playlists from the Field Day festival, and again, that’s quite interesting too, and a good way to get to hear some of the acts that I’ve not listened to before.
So I start to wonder about the differences between owning and renting music and how my view of music ownership is changing.
Listening to Shriekback
I hadn’t listened to this band in a long time and decided to play their last few albums on Spotify. I’d forgotten just how good their lyrics were. It was a great listen and brought back a load of memories too.
If you haven’t heard any shriekback then I’d suggest you give them a listen as they were a great band with a great sound.
Einstein on the beach
I’ve held off writing about this performance until I’d had some time to think about it. I had very high hopes of this production. I saw ‘The Cave’ some years ago and it was incredible, and I sort of had that in my mind when I went along to see ‘Einstein on the beach’. But they’re not the same in any way.
I can’t say that I really understood any of it at all. It was almost completely incomprehensible. I also thought that a lot of the music was very poor indeed. There were a few sections of the show that I did enjoy. The dance sequences were very good indeed, but on the whole, the show wasn’t worth it in my opinion. I didn’t really enjoy it, or understand it.
It’s a bit of a shame really.
Spotify trial is over
I’ve had my 1 month free of using Spotify premium, and I’ve decided to keep it, for now anyway. I think that how I use it will evolve over time. I’m not sure that I’ve quite got it fitted into my listening patterns, but I think that’ll change and make more sense soon enough.
Reading about Bill Nelson
I’ve just got this book and I’m really looking forward to reading it having just listened to the whole of the latest Bill Nelson collection “The Practice of Everyday Life”, which has been great to hear again.
I don’t often read biographies, but I’m going to try this one and see if I can get on with it.
Listening to Bill Nelson’s “The Practice of Everyday Life”
Not for the faint hearted that’s to be sure. I’ve been a Bill Nelson fan for a very long time, and I knew that I had to get this collection when it came out. It’s 8 CDs and covers everything from his first solo album, through Be Bop Deluxe and Bill Nelson’s Red Noise, and beyond. So far I’ve listened to 5 CDs of the compilation, and I’m just at some of the tracks from “Blue Moons and Laughing Guitars”, which was an excellent album and one I’ve not listened to in a long time.
It’s great to hear all these tracks again, I’m really enjoying listening to it again.
New Order at the Brixton Academy
I have to say that I was really looking forward to this gig, and it was worth the wait. The first few tracks were a little off on the mix front, but it did improve after that. They played all the greats as you’d expect, and they finished off with a couple of Joy Division tracks too.
So it was worth going for sure, and actually, the light show was pretty amazing too.
Changing the way I think about listening
Using Spotify over the last few weeks has made me start to re-evaluate how I listen to music, or more specifically how I discover music. I’m quite intrigued by the idea of sharing playlists and collaborative playlists, and the whole concept of subscribing to a playlist. I think that I probably need to spend some more time getting used to this stuff before I go publishing and sharing my own playlists all over the place.
But listening is changing, probably in a good way, and I feel like I need to catch up and understand it better.
I am Ashley Elsdon 