In the past I've asked for and received a little pile of new CDs for Christmas, but this year I got money towards a camera. How pretentious.
I've bought a bit of new music recently, some of which I mentioned last time - Florence and the Machine's "Lungs". "Rabbit Heart (Raise it up)" is as hugely thrilling as last time I wrote, particularly the near-silence between the bridge and the chorus (to unfairly demarcate a work of genius). Honestly, in the context of the song, or at least the two seconds either side, that silence is my favourite bit - I <3>
The new stuff I haven't mentioned before is by Maps, who are the only band/artist I've ever heard of coming from Northampton, though I'm probably just ignorant. I heard "You Don't Know Her Name" on the highly recommended "Sci Fi Lo Fi vol. 3" compilation and decided to buy 2007's "We Can Create". I need to give it a proper lesson, but listening to it driving along the M25 and home yesterday morning I kept breaking the speed limit - probs a good sign. Maps released a new album this year which leaves the shoegaze revival for a heavier dance territory, which I'll try and listen to soon.
What I really wanted to write about today was Steely Dan's "Aja". When I was starting out learning the drums in my mid-teenage years I used to trawl drumming websites and forums for hints, tips and information. Alongside the classic rock of the 1970s which seemed to have influenced so many of the people who were writing about drums on the internet, Steely Dan's "Aja" was always named as a "must listen" for budding sticks-people. I duly bought it and have always returned to what is an absolute masterpiece of taste and control. Seriously, how the FUCK did they manage to get SO MANY incredible musicians to play on one album? Reading the liner notes, it's absolutely remarkable, and the proof is in the listening - regarding the drumming, which I can't help but listen out for, it is perhaps one of the greatest ever collections of performances "playing for the song", which is what I wish more musicians would strive for.
On the title track, Steve Gadd plays an incredible drum solo (which is acceptable because it is accompanied and framed within the context of the song - no solo drum performances thanks, because they are worse than death) which, legend has it, he recorded, sight-reading from the score, in only two takes. Incredible stuff. But what spontaneously occurred to me while listening to it as we drove home from the West Country the other day, was that in the most gentle moments of the song he makes the cymbals sound like bubbles bursting on the surface of a placid pool. It's the textural richness of the music, making me think such odd things, which demonstrates the true quality and depth - to be absent-mindedly listening to a record I've heard hundreds of times before and hear something so new and fresh that it can conjure such images.
I've thought about metaphors for this before, and I like to think that some music is like fools gold. It's shiny but if you cut it open, it's all "move along, nothing to see here". If you cut open "Aja", there are 24 carats dangling there, making you salivate like a mad animal.
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In praise of BBC 6Music:
I've listened to this station (available through DAB or the internet) a lot more than before over the Christmas holiday, and I've been really impressed. The presenters are, for the most part, good company, and you really get the sense they do it because they love the music they get to play. Unfortunately a really irritating track by Frankie and the Heartstrings was playlisted recently but otherwise, good work.
Check it out if you bored of shit Radio 4 daytime plays and the 5th repeat of "The Strand" on the World Service.
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