I am Ashley Elsdon

someone who's doing some things

Tag: thoughts

Stuff I’m thinking about.

What I think that iOS automation needs right now

Posted by on in Mobile Applications

I was thinking about this today whilst reviewing some links on general automation stuff. One of the best tools for automating stuff on iOS is Editorial. I love its workflow generator. It’s great but it doesn’t go far enough. What’s needed is a simple editor for creating iOS workflows that span multiple apps and even incorporate web services like ifttt. Perhaps that’s too far. For a start anyway.

But something that could just help you use the available building blocks and get things moving would be amazing. Rather than having to use loads of URL encoding and stuff like that. It’s a thought. I would certainly buy it anyway.

New old reading

Posted by on in Books and Audiobooks

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I’ve read this before, but I decided to read it again as it’s such an interesting set of essays on music. I might even pen a few notes on the content as I go through it.

I finished reading ‘In the field’, and these are a few things I thought

Posted by on in Creative Process, Listening, Sounds

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I’ve found this book inspiring at times, interesting, and once or twice, frustrating. It is a series of interviews with a number of people involved in field recording. It asks them a series of questions about their practice and why they record and for the most part the responses are very well put together.

For someone who has dabbled with field recording on and off for a long time I found this inspiring and illuminating. Some of the reasons given for recording and for what makes a good recording where superb. But the book isn’t just about recording, and in fact, it is very light on any kind of technical detail, which I suppose should come as no surprise as it is subtitled ‘the art of field recording’.

Quite a number of the interviewees talked extensively about listening as well as recording. This is something that I found really interesting and it’s made me think a lot more about the sounds we (I) experience every day. It’s so easy to overlook sounds that you hear all the time and not appreciate them or explore them, and in many ways recording is a way to do just that.

So the book has given me a lot to think about, and some things to follow up on too. I’m intrigued to find out where it’ll take me next.

Palm Sounds is 7 and there is cake

Posted by on in Stuff

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And what a 7 years it has been. I do like the number 7, in fact it’s my favourite number if I can be said to have such a thing. So today I’m thinking about Palm Sounds and wondering about where it will go next.

Digital, Vinyl, and cassette, music as an art object

Posted by on in Listening, Music

Since going along to Rough Trade East for record store day 2013 I’ve been thinking a great deal about formats. There are the obvious ones, vinyl, cassette, CD, digital, all of which I’ve owned stuff on over the years. However, it’s the characteristics of physical formats that I find most interesting and thought provoking, so I thought I’d write something about it.

There’s no doubt in my mind that digital music is incredibly convenient for a lot of my own listening needs. I love using spotify and I’ll often buy music digitally simply because of its convenience. However, remembering a love of vinyl has made start to question my buying and listening habits for the first time in many years, and made me remember some amazing releases in a variety of formats that are more art objects in some cases than just releases.

I’ll start with some tape …

I’ve been a big lover of cassettes since I was in my teens and I still love the idea of the cassette, but I haven’t bought a cassette release for years, or at least that was true until a day or so ago. I still have a handful of cassette releases, but none are as beautiful as the first edition of the Unknown Public, which I only bought on cassette by accident. I’m glad I made the mistake though, it was worth it.

Unknown Public was meant to be a monthly music magazine with a release of a selection of new musical works around a theme. I don’t think it ever became monthly and struggled to even be quarterly. However, every issue was worth a listen, and I’m glad I collected them all. Looking back they’re each a unique object that is more than just the music it contains.

Unknown Public: First Edition
Unknown Public 1: Inside the Unknown Public Box
Unknown Public information
Unknown Public cassette
Unknown Public 1 Cassette: Cassette inlay

CDs have a bad reputation, but here are a few examples that redeem them

So, the humble CD has had a bad reputation for a while, but I have some nice examples of CD releases that show what can be done with a simple CD release. Here’s David Sylvian’s Manafon boxed set and Amplified Gesture film.

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Side view
Manafon and Amplified Gesture books
Manafon CD
Amplified Gesture DVD

In the case of the Manafon limited edition set I think that the object itself is almost more beautiful than the actual music, although I do like some of the album, and the DVD of the film is a great insight into the process that Sylvian and the other musicians went through to produce the album.

And so to some vinyl …

Pocket Calculator
Modified Toy Orchestra

There are some wonderful things on vinyl, and I have a few. This was something I realised that I had never listened to until I bought a new turntable the other day.

So, where does this lead? It’s certainly made me rethink how I buy music and how I think about what is important to me in terms of objects that are music. I’ve found myself considering which format to buy things when they’re are options available.

Formats are important, in some ways they add something to the music itself, make it more enjoyable in many ways. I’m enjoying discovering them again, and I hope to even find a few more to explore. One thing that it very interesting is the rise of cassette labels again, but that’s for another post I think.

OMD, Metroland, and playing things to death

Posted by on in Listening, Music, Thinking

I listened to this on Spotify and was really impressed by how good it was. Very well produced synth pop music. In many ways what you’d expect from OMD. So I played it for a few days and now I’m starting to move on again. I’ve probably over listened to the Metroland remixes and had enough, for now anyway.

So i makes me wonder what is it that gets us to obsessively listen to something for a while, a few days usually in my case, and then move on. Of course, it could just be me, but I don’t think so. I do know that a few of my friends are like this too. It comes in cycles usually. I’ll listen to something intently for a while then put it down, then in a few months or years I’ll come back to it and rediscover just how good it is. I suppose that’s the thing with ‘pop’ music isn’t it.

Metroland (Remixes) - Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark

Finished watching heroes

Posted by on in TV

Or have I? I got to the end of the fourth season to find that this wasn’t really the ending I was looking for at all! In fact it was in many ways just left hanging. Not satisfactory in any way. I realise that it is now very unlikely that there will be another series commissioned, but I just wish that these kind of things would get left in a decent state!

I’m a bit disappointed by this as you might tell.

So, is Spotify the OS of music?

Posted by on in Mobile Applications, Music, Thinking

This was something that their head of platform claimed that they were aiming for at the Music Ally App Side conference last month. An interesting claim. I have a slightly different take on it though. For me the OS of music isn’t just about listening, in fact it might not be about listening at all, or at least listening might only be a small part of the puzzle.

For me the idea of an OS for music has always been very enticing. Something that I don’t think I’ve ever seen done properly, but I’ve always wished for. The closest thing to it was the elusive Capers OS which was meant to be a replacement for the Palm OS and act as an OS for music making.

Back when that was being talked about it wasn’t really something that could be used for pure synthesis, so Capers OS was more about controlling other devices. That made sense then, but not now. I think now we have the capability in mobile devices for an actual mobile OS which is built for music making.

Will something like this ever come about? Who knows, I’d love to see it, but I can see it being difficult to get off the ground and fund properly. One day perhaps.

So, is Spotify going to be the OS of music? Not for me I don’t think, but I do think that they are doing a great deal for changing listening and discovery, and that’s a step in the right direction, albeit not my direction.

Further thoughts on Spotify

Posted by on in Listening

Well, I have well and truly stepped into the 21st Century now. I’m quite enjoying spotify and finding it works well. I can still myself buying a few things, but probably nowhere near as much from now on.

Is this a good thing? I’m not sure. After only just about a week I think it’s too early to give a complete verdict. Although it’s been a very positive experience so far I think. For me the most positive thing is having spotify on my iPhone, although I’d quite like a proper iPad app too.

More thoughts about Spotify

Posted by on in Listening

So, about a week into my trial of Spotify and I have to say that I’m really enjoying it. It is very useful as a way to check out music I wouldn’t have otherwise heard. I’m not sure that I’m ready to make the full plunge to not buying music at all though. That might be just a bit too far for me to go at the moment.