Steve F.
www.waysidemusic.com
www.cuneiformrecords.com
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“Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin
Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]
"Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"
please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.
Analog or digital?!
Bill, don't get me wrong; the leverage of a choice only shows retroactively, and if it turns out to be the wrong one then it's better to not have made it at all.
I've got friends and colleagues at my age who've abstained (actively/deliberately) from having children, and from what I gather they are all up for the responsibility of that position. Most of them are neither more nor less generally happy folks than those whose lives were (mostly) enriched by having toddlers. So there's nothing principally dodgy about choosing to live without them.
My point was that once you have kids and discover that part of yourself which you would otherwise probably never meet, there's absolutely no turning back or being indifferent to anything as concerns it. Now I have to say that personally I never intended to breed, but having done so twice and on rather volatile grounds (i.e. partners), I still wouldn't change the tiniest single bit about the past of it; and the sorrows of separation (physically, I mean), the emotional bitterness of breakups, the existential anguish and desperation which may come out as a result - it's still worth it. To me, at least. Hell, even WITH the friggin' hacksaw!
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Honestly, it hasn't for quite some time.
I had my first son when I was a history student specializing in the dynamics of genocide, and bringing that little fella into orbit was solely the decision of my then very young wife. I came clean on not objecting, a choice I haven't regretted. Of course, her life turned out a wee bit better than mine, but there's the boy to show for it.
Still, yeah, I see what you mean quite obviously. There aren't many positive angles left to choose from as far as development goes.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Steve F.
www.waysidemusic.com
www.cuneiformrecords.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin
Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]
"Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"
please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.
Doesn't that chafe your nuts? My copy of the vinyl reissue of the Courtyard Music Group album arrived with several small scratches on one side, from chips of vinyl detritus that somehow managed to not be caught by quality control. Very disappointing, especially after the buildup of anticipation when it arrived.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
+1. Never felt love like I do for my kids; truly the circle of life, they are my wife and I. We see it each and every day, in the littlest things they say/do. Can't possible imagine we'd have stayed married without them.
Back on topic
If you're talking 70s music, please always consider buying the original pressings on vinyl. It's a complete experience. Not sure why people are spending a lot of money for "180 gram Reissues" of 70s music, but I never heard one that sounds better than the original McCoy. Or a properly remastered CD with bonus tracks.
After all, spending less money on a piece of music can mean you buy more music. IMHO, of course.
"Always ready with the ray of sunshine"
No.
For 'fashion' to be the main factor, it somehow has to be fashionable to stack vinyl - which it isn't. Not at all.
There are two primary forces at play here; a) the cultural habitus of purported "authenticity" and then b) the phenomenon of listening identity as such.
a) Vinyl and the 'album' was the denominating format of recorded (popular) music up until the early 1990s. A lot of works were conceived especially with that very format in mind, thereby rendering the format itself a significance in the listening process as well. Music is not merely audio sonics, it's the act of accumulating its various modes of expression - including the physical aspect of it. Of course, the notion that you somehow "understand" it better on taking in the sound by way of its physical connotation is and will always remain bogus. But there's the "authenticity" tangle for you.
b) A lot of so-called "hipster youths" of today came of age into listening precisely by that act described in the paragraphs of a). Meaning that although they may have found their niche through means which weren't essentially about the sound at all but rather about the context of consumation, this doesn't necessarily imply that doing so didn't eventually lead them into listening to music for the music's sake; which is my experience on encountering younger vinyl-heads today. They aren't too often into current artists at all, rather juxtaposing the package with the age of the music.
And there's nothing even slightly fashionable about either.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
There's a thread on FB by someone who happens to be a PE member, musician, and cool guy, so no names. But he lists a bunch of classic, mostly prog records he has a problem with. Some of them have to do with the music itself, and fair enough. But a lot of them have more to do with how the album sounds RE: the recording, mixing, mastering, etc. It's made me realize I just don't care about audio quality that much. At least as far as I can appreciate most albums sound to some extent like they're from the time and circumstances when they were recorded, and I'm almost always fine with it. In this thread people were saying that Foxtrot is poorly recorded. I don't fucking care, it's always sounded the way it sounds and I love it! The other day I was listening to the Guruh Gipsy album from Indonesia. It might have been recorded in someone's bedroom, but I don't care. It sounds the way it should sound.
I've just become officially bored with the conversation about "audio quality," MP3s, analog vs. digital, CD vs. vinyl. I care so much more about the content that I just can't stand reading about the audio quality. I've rarely dismissed an album because of audio quality. I love a ton of albums independently recorded on a low budget, it's just not that big a factor for me. (The intentional or accidental brick-walling is the only exception, really.)
Anyway, that's all, carry on...
I had an interesting experience buying Il tempio delle clessidre's s/t debut on vinyl. It arrived from Laser's Edge with a note attached to it, saying they've had problems with this particular disc. Most of them had streaks of glue on them. The note said they had to go through most of them to find the one with the least amount of glue, then go through extraordinary means to clean it. Luckily, the disc was playable by the time I received it.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
I am a fashion victim retard that buys only vinyl. I don't even own a cd player anymore.
Can anyone explain to me what is the difference between a cd and a digital file containing music? Because the quality and size of the LP cover is at least an argument for buying vinyl. What is the argument for buying a CD? Not that one needs an argument to do something he enjoys of course, just out of curiosity...does it sound better than a high resolution file?
And if there were a god, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence - Russell
If you like vinyl, buy and listen to vinyl.
If you prefer cd's, buy cd's and listen to a cd.
I think what happens in the battle of vinyl vs cd is when one side or the other says you're wrong and my way is right.
Both sides have presented convincing arguments, both passionately and with scientific arguments to support their argument.
I happen to like both media.
I think vinyl is at it's best when they are original LP's from earlier era(pre digital). Analog tape, effects, mixers all added their own color to the final mix.
A lot of my cds which were first pressings from the early days of digital, don't sound very good. And I've found some of the remasters to suffer from too much compression and attempts to bring the older material into the "loudness wars".
I've bought newly remastered vinyl of older material(70's-80's) which sound great and other's that I prefer the original lp sound.
I've bought newly remastered vinyl which was supposed to be sourced from the original analog master, only to find out it was from the hi-res master of the analog master tape. (I recently discovered my remastered 180g vinly of Pink Floyd's DSOTM and Wish You Were Here) were hi res vinyl copies..these were remasters from Pink Floyd themselves(believe 2016 or 2017). They sound great by the way.
I've got some new CDs of new material from bands that the remastering to me sounds like krap and others sound full and warm, you'd swear they were vinyl.
I've bought some new albums on vinyl which also included the cd, and I prefer the cd cause it sounds just as good and I don't have to do all the work of putting the record on, cleaning it and then getting up halfway through to turn it over.
I think I've reached the point in believing the older(pre-oil shortage and crappy vinyl pressings) albums sound better on vinyl than the early digital pressings.
But today's technology of digital music provides wonderful sound if the mix and resmastering is done tastefully and without a lot of compression and loudness.
For digital listening I use a dedicated cd player(I have a fairly inexpensive ONkyo cd player) , a good stereo system(I don't have 5.1 unfortunately), good speakers and ditch the compressed formats.
Soundcloud page: Richard Hermans, musical meanderings https://soundcloud.com/precipice YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/@richardhermans4457
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