January 2011
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Notes On Music Criticism from Tony Herrington
If you have an interest in writing about musical experience (as a student, critic, academic, or simply as a music blogging individual) you may find Tony Herrington’s notes on music criticism particularly edifying (I know I did). Herrington is a contributor to The Wire, one of the best sources for insightful writing about exciting new… Continue reading
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The Neuroscience Of Music
In a recent article posted on his always interesting neuroscience blog at Wired magazine, Jonah Lehrer writes about the neural basis of how music listening makes us feel emotion (or at least the semblance of emotion). Citing a recent study in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Lehrer discusses how music stimulates a brain region called the… Continue reading
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Bad Music, Good Music: How We Assess Sound
How do you know when some music is just plain bad? Not bad as in really good (“That was badass!”) or badly performed, badly executed, but just stylistically bad–bad as in: “That’s terrible, awful music.” What do we mean when we utter such a harsh critique? And–to paraphrase Napoleon Dynamite’s brother in the scene in… Continue reading
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Views From A Flying Machine
My new collection of music Views From A Flying Machine is now available on iTunes and CDBaby. Continue reading
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Microsoundscapes In Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist
For me, there is something magical in just about all animation in how it abstracts reality and transforms it into something other–something more vivid and thus more hyperreal. Sylvain Chomet’s movies The Triplets Of Belleville (2003) and The Illusionist (2010) partake in this tradition while also bringing new things to the viewer’s attention, including, surprisingly enough, a… Continue reading
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From Quadraphonic To Good Enough Sound
Why did quadraphonic sound never catch on? Was it because no one wanted to have to set up four speakers instead of two? Was it just too expensive and cumbersome? Was it because its various formats were incompatible with one another? Or did folks somehow collectively decide that stereo was good enough? Quadraphonic or “Quad” sound was first… Continue reading
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On Audio Cassette Technology
Today I went to a local dollar store to buy a plastic storage bin and while at the checkout counter I noticed they were selling Maxell blank chrome cassette tapes. I did a double take–it was a little like seeing an old friend for the first time in years–and almost tripped over myself while waiting… Continue reading
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On Hildur Gudnadottir’s Without Sinking
One way to make a claim for your innate listening acumen is to figure out which recordings in your collection you return to again and again. Which ones reward repeated listenings? A recording that does just this–and not merely offer itself up for one more remix (any recording can claim that status)–is probably pretty special… Continue reading
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What Chord Are You?
Could a chord–two or more pitches sounding simultaneously–capture your essence, sum up who and how you feel yourself to be at a particular time and place? Are you a sunny major triad kind of person, or a minor key tolling? Are you open and consonant, in tune with yourself, like a perfect octave or fifth?… Continue reading
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On Bassweight
The documentary DVD Bassweight offers an overview of the emergence of dubstep, perhaps the most significant vector in the past few years of electronic dance music. Dubstep originated in South East London in the late 1990s, growing out of instrumental dub remixes of the two-step garage sound, combining its rapid-fire, double time feel with the sub-bass basslines of dub and a… Continue reading
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