Long Players
Despite the predicted total demise of the music business; despite the rise of the single song download; despite all the nonsense that is spewed out by the major labels pretending to be some sort of good work; despite all that. You can’t beat the long player, the album as a strong, coherent, powerful slab of entertainment. A body of work to sit down and enjoy like a good movie or TV show or football match. Something great, something to make you think, feel, more real, more alive. So it is with the new albums from Radiohead, Nicolas Jaar, James Blake. The King Of Limbs arrrived today. Download, PDF of the cover, WAV format so the sound quality is good, and for me, that’s enough. It’s the body of work, it’s the sound that really matters to me. I could maybe do with some sleeve notes of the who played what where variety but generally I content. I am here, in my studio, in front of the speakers, taking it in, floating, enjoying, breathing, deeper, living with eyes wide open and heart exposed. The first half is all skitter and judder, the second half settles down into that classic Radiohead abstract melancholy that feels so right. And I’m thinking, LotusFlower and Codex or Give Up The Ghost are going on my next show; how do the they get that rich piano sound; good to hear noise is a feature here; people love real music; there is future and there is now. The sun is shining through the mist and this is now.