Ahem...(Sung to the tune of the traditional 'Happy Birthday')
'Happy Birthday to me, yeah that's fuckin' right... Cos it's been a year today, since I did my first post.'
Has it really been an entire year since I first got the idea to document my listening habbits? Well, according to the Gregorian calendar, yes... yes it has!
So, am I any wiser? Have I come close to making any sense of it all? Finding reason behind the pointless compulsion, behind the seemingly endless collecting of neatly packaged music-based ephemera? No.
All I know is I like records, I like to buy them and sometimes (though not always) I like to listen to them. Is it pointless? Yes it is, but I ask you this: Is it as pointless as stamp or baseball card collecting? Say yes and I will kick you in the face.
And what else have I discovered over the past 12 months? Well, I had the revelation that Talking Heads have at least for me become borderline un-fucking-listenable and should be filed under 'O' for 'Over-rated. I learnt that Beggars Opera are shit, that Bossa Nova music is as irritating and repetetive as House.
I also discovered no end of complete gems, records that blew me away, fucked me sideways and because I like lists here are 5:
5.) Muddy Waters - After The Rain (The John Spencer/Royal Trux blueprint, worn out, tired and dirty as fuck)
4.) Eroc - Eroc IV (Sounds like it was recorded yesterday, dreamy ambient masterpiece with odd French cafe overtones)
3.) TRex - Tanx (Underrated and close to coked out Bolan perfection, should have a mirrored sleeve)
2.) Machiavel - Jester (Wailing castrato over some awesome Moog action from Belgium)
1.) Walter Franco - Revolver (Post Tropicalia stone killer, unexpected to say the least)
I think on reflection what this blog has taught to do is fine tune my buying habbits. I've learnt a few expensive lessons, buying albums for one track or in some cases part of a track, because of the label or in the case of the horrendous Baltik album becaues of the font on the sleeve is not the way to go. Equally there is little point in spunking mad cash money on a whim purchase, or something you only 'kind of wouldn't mind to want to have'. Focus, focus and filter, that's my mantra for the next 12 months. No more pointless hoarding or possessed completism, just focus and filter. Aaaah.
After much chopping and changing I have whittled the records I do own down to something resembling a neatly ordered progression through genre, by highlights. Flicking through it almost makes sense. It might make perfect sense if almost everything I owned wasn't available for free in digital format at the click of a button. That said I'm not sure this idea of invisible music will last forever, too much of it is rooted in image, in the physical. In memories.
Anyway, I am done waffling, Summer is coming and I'd like to think that with it maybe some swimming, cycling or something that involves being outside, in the fresh air rather than flashing black circles under an inadequate light source in an attempt to read matrix numbers might be the order of the day.
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