Thinking about Thoughts on Music

Before thinking about today's big news, and the start of Glastonbury 2009, I'd already been thinking about the wider aspects of performance music thanks to two items that very recently came my way.
The first may seem almost inconsequential as it was just a flyer in an album I received...

You can probably see why this appealed to me - and what a great way of making buying physical music more appealing - though I had just bought this, Iamsound IAM024, and imported it from the US anyway unaware of this bonus. The album is Dance Mother - Telepathe on 12" vinyl and the best thing, apart from the fact it is available on vinyl at all, is that doing so is not prohibitively expensive.

I am also reading a book that is proving much more fascinating than I expected it would be. It is a question that lies behind all music, recorded music and live performance, although it is predominantly concerned with the former.
What do we mean when we say "That sounds really good." and why?

If anything that is only an easy question: Is it possible to find answers, or even gauge trends, in a topic so obviously fraught with individual tastes and tolerances?

How do I know if the CD I am listening to now even sounds the same to you as it does to me, regardless of whether it is to your liking or not? It could have been a book of untold ennui but, as I got a free copy to review, I decided to take the risk.
I have only read about half of it so far - at nearly four hundred pages it is no light-weight matter - and the further I get the harder it is to put down. It is factual and sometimes analytical but only because the topic requires it to be thus at times; at others it is reminiscent of a detective novel in search of those responsible for the way in which the story unfolded and what the influences and motives were, or in some cases, might have been.
I am finding it enlightening and simply fascinating. It is certainly not necessary to read it to enjoy recorded music but will it increase my enjoyment of recorded music?
My answer is that it is probably too early to tell really but it is unlikely to do any harm. It is already making me think about the whole process in a different light.

You can find many blogs that discuss the merit of Dave Sitek's production duties on various albums of late, and one of those is that by Telepathe that I mention above (and helpfully I've recently seen them play live, for comparison). Reading the book and listening to this and (other) albums might inspire some to write a PhD thesis. Count me out, I'm too old for that kind of thing now, but tell me about it and I'll gladly read yours.

Method of Modern Love

Six weeks in and 2009 in music is getting into its stride. It is sounding good and certain trends are clear:
Firstly, that festivals are not necessarily going to suffer as a result of the recession. Glastonbury sold out over a week ago and the only tickets that will be available in early April will be returns. After last year's wobble, that this happened before any acts have been officially confirmed surprised me at first. On reflection I have decided that perhaps this result is in part because of the recession. Perhaps folks who enjoy music and can tolerate camping have, while making cut backs to expensive holiday plans, realised just what good value in terms of both time and money a long weekend at a festival can be.

The second thing, and it will doubtless be apparent at this summer's festivals, is the subtle shift towards more music that is pop and fantasy-inspired and often electronically based. This is no sudden change, and it certainly won't stop the likes of White Lies conquering all the territory they lay claim to, but it should make 2009 very interesting indeed. It took a while but electro-pop finally returned to the mainstream in 2008 and I wouldn't be surprised if its disco-cousins don't do the same in 2009 and that is where some of these new electronic toys will see use live.
They've been a source of much controversy and creativity since the analogue Moog synthesizer appeared in the late 1950s, with the more compact, robust and practical transistorized version following in 1961. They are still used and have many devotees, not least for the warm sound they produce. The Dubrecq stylophone followed in 1967, a hand-held keyboard played with a stylus, and it was really mainly intended as a 'toy instrument' for children. It too gained a large following and was therefore successfully relaunched in 2007.

This is an example of the 21st century stylophone.

You will almost certainly see one being played sometime this year - it is well suited to the style of music favoured by Little Boots and others. Another much more recent and complex electronic instrument also used by Victoria Hesketh first appeared in 2007.

Yamaha Tenori on.

It is not obvious exactly what it does or how you play it but, put very simply, it is a computer specifically designed to be used to play music. As you probably know I'm a big fan of acoustic music and traditional instruments but I can't wait to see someone in the flesh actually playing one of these.

On that general subject one of the giants of 1990s electro/dance pop is back. The single below is a new one released to promote the forthcoming 2-CD compilation - London Conversations - The Best Of Saint Etienne - but I wonder if there is actually rather more to it than that particularly given the success of Sarah Cracknell's collaboration with Mark Brown in 2008 - The Journey Continues.

This is the first Saint Etienne single in many years: 'Method Of Modern Love', was released on 9 February 2009. It is available to download but why would I want to? This is the real vinyl deal. This is 0116 of 1500, some of which were also signed.

Across the Atlantic they are at it too and they have also developed a liking for vinyl! More soon...

Chrome's On It - Telepathe (12" vinyl single)

New and recycled. New Music 2009 - Part 2

I'm not quite sure now why, when writing my post on that music I am looking forward in 2009, I decided to stop when I did. I intended to add some more soon but didn't intend to do it this promptly as I couldn't decide what direction to take first. This morning I woke up with a migraine - hence the title of the post - but as things go the odd such episode is hardy something to complain about and, like dreams, if it serves a purpose then it is one hard to define in importance. I mention that because I suspect that, being both brain-based phenomena, they may not be entirely unrelated and a sort of living version of a soft-reboot followed by a hard-disc defragmentation. One thing I have noticed is that if I have a few vivid dreams (that I can remember) in a couple of days then a migraine might well follow. I woke up on Saturday morning and was mystified to discover that I was not in a tent but at home instead! My dream of being at a festival, though no particular one, was reality at the moment I woke up... Having slept the worst of it off I started to spend the rest of the time this afternoon, that I would normally have spent at work, drinking weak tea with sugar (the best palliative that I have yet found) and thinking about the problem. I don't know if others find this but, in the immediate aftermath, I discover that I have a new perspective on the scheme of things and even a renewed optimism.
In 2008 I listened to a great deal of music from the US and it was more in quantity and far more varied that I could have anticipated.
New York is always a good bet and, while some are particularly championing Chairlift and the 2008 début album 'Does You Inspire You' and it is yet another album left hanging around in my wish list of 2008, I'm going with this one for now and it is the début full-length album from Telepathé who are now, mostly, a three-piece but with collaborators a-plenty.

'Dance Mother' has been long in the making but also preceded by several vinyl and/or CD EPs, commencing with 'Farewell Forest' in 2006. It is released in the UK on January 26, 2009.

This is just a temporary image of the album cover but, judging from the EPs, the whispers and the fact that production duties on the album were in the hands of Dave Sitek, this shouldn't disappoint in terms of off-kilter cheer.
From this side of the pond here is another band that, although also not new, for most of us might as well be so. In 2007 a band called 6 Day Riot released an album 'Folie à Deux' and it didn't click with me then either.

They are back in 2009 with a new album that may or may not be called 'Have a Plan', which is due out by the summer. You know, the long, hot one that we are going to have, and to think that the 'festival season' is only six months away. You see, I've cheered up already!