Category: Music
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Meeting up with Pulp in the years 2023 and 2024
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I went to just two concerts in 2023, and they were both of Pulp’s performances in Scotland.
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Britpop, braindance and broken politics — How 1990s optimism became passé
Britpop has been having a moment again this summer, prompting investigations into why the scene fizzled out. The conventional explanations are unconvincing. Electronic music tells us why.
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Lockdown projects — Month 3
As lockdown eased, small craft projects made way for some much larger home improvement projects.
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Inside the 46-year journey to bring Aretha Franklin’s ‘Amazing Grace’ doc to life — David Browne — Rolling Stone
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This film took almost 50 years to hit the cinema screens because the filmmakers inexplicably failed to use a clapperboard, making it impossible to edit until digital technology arrived. The director was Sydney Pollack, who won 11 Oscars throughout his career. “There were thousands of pieces of film with no edit points, and they were […]
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Dutch “singing road” silenced after villagers complain: “I’m going nuts” — Palko Karasz and Yonette Joseph — The New York Times
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This must be the most spurious “road safety” feature ever conceived. A Dutch town decided to install rumble strips that are set at certain frequencies so that cars “play” the regional anthem as they drive over them. This article focuses on the fact that this feature is driving residents crazy as they repeatedly have to […]
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The handshake economy — Mark Mulligan — Music Industry Blog
The astonishing ways the Japanese music industry artificially inflates the sales of CDs.
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I’m getting rid of 18 years’ worth of plastic CD wrappers
I’m not entirely sure why I started collecting them. Probably a mixture of liking some of them, and thinking that keeping them would make my CD collection more valuable.
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After the Belgian Grand Prix — Days out in Spa and Brussels
After our weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix last year, Alex and I stayed on for a few more days to explore other parts of Belgium.
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My Omnichord normally gathers dust in the corner of a room
My Omnichord normally gathers dust in the corner of a room. So when someone retweeted into my timeline Karine Polwart asking if anyone in Edinburgh had an Omnichord she could borrow for some filming, I was happy to help, and to see the Omnichord out of its case for a change! Dear @DuncanBSS thanks for […]
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33 adventures in The Designers Republic
“On July 14th 1986 The Designers Republic was declared.” Celebrating 33 years of Brain Aided Design.
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The Great 78 Project
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An awesome project to preserve 78rpm records by recording and publishing the audio of hundreds of thousands of discs in the Internet Archive. Check out the Preservation page, which explains the process in detail. I love the cool four tonearm turntable!
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I’ve been writing an article that I’ve been thinking about for well over a year
I’ve been writing an article that I’ve been thinking about for well over a year. Upon writing it, it’s turned out to be surprisingly short. So I turned to my two favourite block-busters — and they both told me to do things I was thinking about doing anyway. Oblique Strategies told me to tidy up. […]
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“Brian Eno’s ideas have resonance for architecture” says Finn Williams
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“Brian Eno’s ideas have resonance for architecture” says Finn Williams Where is here? And what is now? The answers are more complicated than you might think. Eno’s realisation that “people live in different sizes of here” led him to the idea of The Big Here and Long Now – a way of thinking that asks […]
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13 years too late, the BBC’s classical music back catalogue is being made available
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Once in a while, when listening to music on shuffle, a Beethoven symphony plays. The MP3 files came from the BBC. It was an experiment never to be repeated.
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The danger of relying on natural talent
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Believing you are naturally talented at something may in fact be detrimental to your development.
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Annoying online ads cost business
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Annoying online ads cost business Results from a study of users of Pandora has quantified the effect of shoving adverts in users’ faces. As part of the experiment, a section of users were served fewer ads than normal, and another section were served more ads than normal. …after 1.5 years of being exposed to the […]
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The gardens where ideas grow
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The gardens where ideas grow We tend to think of musicians as architects, who fully control the sound they compose. But here, Austin Kleon outlines how it is in fact more like gardening. Top musicians like Prince, Ralf Hütter and Brian Eno appear to subscribe to this approach. Brian Eno says: One is carefully constructing […]
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Encoding data in dubstep drops
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Encoding data in dubstep drops Very amusing. It reminds me of some of the images Aphex Twin has hidden in some of his music. Via @Resi014
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My original iPod is a time capsule from 2002
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My original iPod is a time capsule from 2002 What happened when one person started up his iPod for the first time in 15 years. …I also came across music and artists which made me wonder what on earth I was thinking of when I loaded their tracks into iTunes. If I could talk to […]
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An inauthentic authenticity: the soulless side of vinyl
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The vinyl resurgence isn’t all good news — particularly for independent musicians.
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40 years of the Voyager golden record
The 40th anniversary of the launch of Voyager has created renewed interest in the two gold-plated phonograph records that are on board.
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The George Street Sessions: A new CD featuring musicians from north east Fife
A new CD has been recorded in Alex’s family’s front room — and it sounds great.
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John Bult: Julie’s Sixteenth Birthday
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John Bult: Julie’s Sixteenth Birthday The story of one of the worst record covers of all time. “During the photo shoot, Ted kept telling her to look serious, like her dad is talking to her,” Bult said. “But she just kept looking sad to me.” When the final album was pressed, and Bult saw the […]
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Help! I’m becoming an audiophile
After years of dilly-dallying, I have finally bought myself a new record player. But I’m still not convinced vinyl provides the superior sound quality.
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Was Joyce Hatto always a con artist?
Joyce Hatto was a revered pianist until her recordings were revealed to be fakes after her death. But was the truth about her recordings staring everyone in the face all along?
