At a Massive Attack concert, almost a year ago, I saw a girl in a Coil T-shirt. Given the distance between us, that observation alone was already impressive, but as she walked away my attention shifted to the widening gap between us, and the spatial quality of time I somehow associate with Coil. From a…
Is it Jazz, is it Afrobeat, is it world music?
The record store owner frowned at me when I asked him where he kept Fela Kuti, under ‘Jazz’ or ‘World Music’. I already assumed he wouldn’t have ‘Afrobeat’ as a separate category or awared Fela Kuti his own, private entry. For a moment I saw him searching for the right words and then he said…
Some of 2019’s best
When listing the best albums of 2019 it is difficult to ignore the voice of the critics. Most people will agree to a large extent with the critics, some, like me, with a strong dislike of authority, will take the opposite position, and claim critics only follow each other and are more focused on being…
We are the music makers (1873-1964-1992)
End of year, time to take stock. Time to say goodbye to ideas that have done nothing more but collecting dust. Time to address the most annoying part of getting older; becoming a grumpy old man no one wants to listen to, someone who is increasingly living in the past and only deals in comparisons…
I am a DJ, I am what I play (90s Christmas Tale in Summer)
In a dark summer night I found myself counting stones. One stone, two stones, three stones. One by one we dug out the cobbles and threw them into the canal. ‘Why are we doing this?’, I asked Adrian. ‘Because this party is boring’, he answered. ‘and because we are doing nothing in the name of…
Earplugs and gags
Suppose every book comes with the warning not to read when light intensity is less than 300 lux, that doing so could damage your eyes. Or museums offering special glasses to protect us against aggressive colours by blocking or filtering those. After all, it can’t be healthy to be subjected to high doses of bright…
Music for elevators
It stopped me in my tracks. At first I didn’t know why, but then I realised, the music in the elevator I just came out was an instrumental version of ‘Don’t look back in Anger‘, complete with a sweet, nondescript string section. It stopped me in my tracks for two unrelated reasons. First, the sudden…
Top 10 of concert annoyances!
Back in the old days, when smoking was still allowed everywhere, I never noticed the smell of other people. One of the advantages of a venue filled with smoke is that it literally covers and blocks all other nasal sensations. Having said that, smelly people is hardly my biggest concert annoyance. Here’s my personal Top…
Will the true fan please rise?
It was a weird day already. A bunch of French guys were in the same bus from Zürich to Munich, all in Lederhosen, drinking beer at 10 in the morning, which could only mean one thing; Oktoberfest in Munich. The city would be packed with boys in Lederhosen and girls in Dirndls, all drinking massive…
Love me…please!
The audience was gradually getting nervous as Black Midi extended songs beyond recognition, almost stopped playing altogether, engaged in prolonged stop-start patterns with satanic pleasure and then, all of a sudden, started the next song without even waiting for applause. This was exciting, dangerous, finally a band pushing boundaries of technical possibilities, song structure and…
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