What are you listening to? Part III

[LizKat]

Interesting... iTunes search is sure lame sometimes. if you put in MTV Unplugged you get it. Bob Dylan Unplugged, no. I had to wander into Amazon to get a clue what else to pop into search of iTunes.

Agreed.

In the early days, I remember not being able to find one of the (admittedly, not exactly popular) pieces of music that I sought.

Thus, I stayed with obscure music stores. And - with reluctance - Amazon.

There was a time I used to get some CDs from Arkiv, while iTunes Store and Amazon were still both trying to figure out which way was up, so to speak, with respect to classical music. "Bach... is that with a K?"

Strange! You'd think the search engine would be fuzzier....

Not necessarily.

I did really expect it to be fuzzier. I haven't had that sort of problem with an iTunes search for quite awhile. It's not like I was using an advanced search where I specified the artist as Bob Dylan or the title as something or other. I just stuck my search terms into the search oval up at the right in the main window of iTunes app, and typed bob dylan unplugged with no quotes and it said no results. bizarre. The long reach of MTV, maybe. But do they want the $$ or not?

Anyway moving right along. Saving Mr. Dylan unplugged for another time. It's 15º outside (for a change from the usual but also quite unusual 50º stretch we've had lately), so I am now warming up the room a little by listening to Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba

 

[Scepticalscribe]

There was a time I used to get some CDs from Arkiv, while iTunes Store and Amazon were still both trying to figure out which way was up, so to speak, with respect to classical music. "Bach... is that with a K?"





I did really expect it to be fuzzier. I haven't had that sort of problem with an iTunes search for quite awhile. It's not like I was using an advanced search where I specified the artist as Bob Dylan or the title as something or other. I just stuck my search terms into the search oval up at the right in the main window of iTunes app, and typed bob dylan unplugged with no quotes and it said no results. bizarre. The long reach of MTV, maybe. But do they want the $$ or not?

Anyway moving right along. Saving Mr. Dylan unplugged for another time. It's 15º outside (for a change from the usual but also quite unusual 50º stretch we've had lately), so I am now warming up the room a little by listening to Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba

Bach with a 'K'. Well, that sounds about right.

At fairly short notice, I was asked to head off to Belarus in early 2006 to observe their (dodgy, very dodgy, very very dodgy) Presidential election and was expected to spend a few months in the country. In police states, the population don't talk to you, or socialise with you, for very good reasons. That meant that most of my evenings would be spent in my own company - not a major problem - but musical company in a country where everything (phones, internet, people) was monitored, was, I deemed, something of a necessity.

So, two or three days before I was due to deploy, I bought an iPod - my first, ever - and spent several hours trying to construct playlists and ripping stuff from my (Windows) computer. That was when I realised that the Apple ecosystem might merit further exploration, - especially when that iPod died, with mortal HDD failure, while still under warranty, and was replaced without fuss or seeking refuge in microscopic small print - but that is a different story.

That is what led me, inadvertently, to the world of iTunes, and - trawling there, when I returned from Belarus, the President having won re-election with an enhanced majority - I must admit that I was appalled at what they didn't have, and didn't even think it necessary to have.

In classical music, they only had the really blatantly obvious stuff: Such as 'Spring' from the Four Seasons by Vivaldi (but not say, "Winter", which I far prefer). But I already had some of this, both on CD and on vinyl, and a lot else besides. When I am trawling online, it is usually for stuff I don't already have. And their understanding of classical music, and the range of what they had was an absolute disgrace.

Furthermore, I rather like the music used in spaghetti westerns, and I remember hunting for ages for the soundtrack to Sabata (Marcello Giombini); not only did they not have it, they didn't have anything of Ennio Morricone's beyond the most obvious, and clichéd best sellers.

(Now, I love Ennio Morricone, and I had the privilege of hearing him play live earlier this year, - my brother's Christmas present to me - but, when looking for music, I want more of his music than just the obvious best sellers).

So, I came to the conclusion that iTunes merely catered to populist tastes. And that those who really loved music needed to look elsewhere to satisfy their musical needs. Specialist stores, foreign trips, and Amazon, alas have done the needful ever since.

 

[LizKat]

@Scepticalscribe Your Belarus adventure sounds... fraught with possibility for more adventures than one may have volunteered for! Music a good option to recover from some of it, no doubt.

Well as you say there was almost nothing of “classical” works in the iTunes Store at first (and less knowledge of it by staffers). It was only when someone gave me an iTunes track featuring Anna Netrebko that I realized things had changed in those particular warrens of the iTunes Store...

The track I was given was Netrebko singing the beautiful Zdes' khorosho, Op. 21, No. 7 (Galina, Rachmaninov; from The Russian Album.

Hmm, I thought. They have this at the iTunes Store? I went back for another look. Things had improved somewhat more than somewhat! I still end up changing genres of course, and even track names so I can see which movement a track represented, and working with playlist and group names to get the stuff recognizable on an iPod’s little screen. So they're not my first choice, but they're on the menu for me now, and I prefer AAC to MP3 if I am opting for a digital download purchase.

 

[Gutwrench]

My step daughter is visiting from college today. I haven't seen her since early summer so I'm looking forward to it. I'm straightening a bit while listening to Bat for Lashes (Two Suns & Fur and Gold).

The girls (my two dogs) feel it's too early for music being piped through the house though. They are late sleepers.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

My step daughter is visiting from college today. I haven't seen her since early summer so I'm looking forward to it. I'm straightening a bit while listening to Bat for Lashes (Two Suns & Fur and Gold).

The girls (my two dogs) feel it's too early for music being piped through the house though. They are late sleepers.

Try some nice classical music; that might elicit a different response from the dogs.

Meanwhile, enjoy the visit of your step-daughter. How long will she stay with you?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

@Scepticalscribe Your Belarus adventure sounds... fraught with possibility for more adventures than one may have volunteered for! Music a good option to recover from some of it, no doubt.

Well as you say there was almost nothing of “classical” works in the iTunes Store at first (and less knowledge of it by staffers). It was only when someone gave me an iTunes track featuring Anna Netrebko that I realized things had changed in those particular warrens of the iTunes Store...

The track I was given was Netrebko singing the beautiful Zdes' khorosho, Op. 21, No. 7 (Galina, Rachmaninov; from The Russian Album.

Hmm, I thought. They have this at the iTunes Store? I went back for another look. Things had improved somewhat more than somewhat! I still end up changing genres of course, and even track names so I can see which movement a track represented, and working with playlist and group names to get the stuff recognizable on an iPod’s little screen. So they're not my first choice, but they're on the menu for me now, and I prefer AAC to MP3 if I am opting for a digital download purchase.

Lovely piece of music and thanks for sharing.

Re Belarus, I have now observed four elections in that country over the past decade, starting in November 2004, and, most recently, this past October. All were fraudulent, though some were worse than others.

Actually, I'd argue that the election of December 2010, when all of the genuine opposition candidates contesting the election, all seven of them, were arrested, assaulted and beaten up on the night of the election itself, was probably the worst of all.

I have been doing this work for the best part of twenty years, and for the first decade or so, I was able to combine it with teaching; more recently, though, I have sort of strayed into public service.

 

[Gutwrench]

Try some nice classical music; that might elicit a different response from the dogs.

Meanwhile, enjoy the visit of your step-daughter. How long will she stay with you?

Thank you! She will be here for nearly three weeks. She and her mom are closer than ever now, so mom will probably be visiting a lot while she's here. And that's fine.

My daughter asked I cook a few things so I'm going to try to fatten her up a bit. She's planning several reunions here at the house with her close high school friends. So it looks like I'll have to surrender the den to them and retreat to the livingroom or my bedroom. Just like old times. Ha ha.

Oh, classical has been my main listening preference for years. Over the past couple years I've transitioned to alternative and like it very much. Believe it or not I enjoy Marilyn Manson. The beats and sounds are pretty amazing. The girls don't fully agree though.

 

[mobilehaathi]

 

[Scepticalscribe]

View attachment 606443

Lovely art on the album cover, reminiscent of Art Nouveau.

 

[lobeyonekenobi]

As it is the season of goodwill, I always dig out John Lennon - Happy Xmas (War Is Over), still gives me goosebumps, like Imagine does also, the man was a genius, songs that make me happy and melancholic at the same time.

On another note also Wham! Last Christmas although the effect is not quite as profound as John Lennon.

 

[2984839]

Beautiful

 

[mobilehaathi]

Claude Debussy - Suite bergamasque

 

[shinji]

"The Mixtape" station in Apple Music, but Grimes in my car.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Beautiful

Yes, it is beautiful. And both uplifting yet somewhat melancholic, as so much Russian music is.

Actually, I visited Moscow and what was then Leningrad in what was then the Soviet Union in early 1989 and bought a selection of exceptionally beautifully recorded classical music LPs by Russian composers - music which was recorded on the old Soviet State label, Melodiya.

That piece of music was among them.

 

[pachyderm]

 

[LizKat]

"The Mixtape" station in Apple Music, but Grimes in my car.

I got a few tracks from Art Angels that I really liked. LOL don't think I'd play Kill v Maim in my car but you never know

 

[mobilehaathi]

 

[Scepticalscribe]

View attachment 606570

Wow, @mobilehaathi, but that is what I call serious winter music, music that can only be fully appreciated in the deepest, darkest, gloomiest days of winter. Solstice music, in fact…..

 

[pachyderm]

listening on youtube

View attachment 606570

...

I've added it to my wish list on iTunes. I'd buy it now but I've dropped a ton on there lately.

 

[LizKat]

Wow, @mobilehaathi, but that is what I call serious winter music, music that can only be fully appreciated in the deepest, darkest, gloomiest days of winter. Solstice music, in fact…..

I like that (and other) Mahler but I'm going in another direction. Getting up at quarter to five tomorrow morning and playing all the Nada Surf and similar noise pop tracks I can round up. This in the spirit of the ancient Atacama people from the tip of South America; they're said to have used noise festivals to call back the Sun at the winter solstice (which down there is in June). Sounds right to me, so I'm transplanting their idea up north.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I like that (and other) Mahler but I'm going in another direction. Getting up at quarter to five tomorrow morning and playing all the Nada Surf and similar noise pop tracks I can round up. This in the spirit of the ancient Atacama people from the tip of South America; they're said to have used noise festivals to call back the Sun at the winter solstice (which down there is in June). Sounds right to me, so I'm transplanting their idea up north.

Well, I must say that I salute your choice of music and the mindset that prompts it. And yes, what a great idea. Call the Sun back? I may even rouse myself at dawn tomorrow to try to do just that.

However, as a northern European with some Celtic ancestry, much gloomy humour, and a morbid deposition, but one who is considerably influenced by a Nordic and Norse perspective on life, (in politics, and public policy, among other matters) my choice of music for the Solstice reflects the darkness of the day, the bleakness of midwinter and not the optimism of the following dawn.

Anyway, the chosen piece is a piece by Edvard Grieg, from Peer Gynt,and it goes by the name of "In The Hall Of The Mountain King". Epic, and dark. Brilliant, and pagan.

 

[shinji]

I got a few tracks from Art Angels that I really liked. LOL don't think I'd play Kill v Maim in my car but you never know

Hahah, that's one of my favorites, along with Flesh Without Blood.

 

[LizKat]

In a way the sassy lyrics of some of Grimes' Art Angels tracks remind me of Spoon back when they were having such a hassle with a label at the time. For instance, in the album Series of Sneaks, the track Lafitte Don't Fail Me Now asks -- "are you ever honest with anyone??"

In Art Angels, some of Claire Boucher's lyrics are similarly provocative, so I'm more than ever a fan of Grimes!

 

[JamesMike]

There was a time I used to get some CDs from Arkiv, while iTunes Store and Amazon were still both trying to figure out which way was up, so to speak, with respect to classical music. "Bach... is that with a K?"





I did really expect it to be fuzzier. I haven't had that sort of problem with an iTunes search for quite awhile. It's not like I was using an advanced search where I specified the artist as Bob Dylan or the title as something or other. I just stuck my search terms into the search oval up at the right in the main window of iTunes app, and typed bob dylan unplugged with no quotes and it said no results. bizarre. The long reach of MTV, maybe. But do they want the $$ or not?

Anyway moving right along. Saving Mr. Dylan unplugged for another time. It's 15º outside (for a change from the usual but also quite unusual 50º stretch we've had lately), so I am now warming up the room a little by listening to Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba

I'm listening to it now, good choice.

 

[Gutwrench]

I'm listening to my daughter play Slatoon.