Have just become sort of obsessed with Oneohtrix Point Never.

As an example, this (Nobody Here) was reviewed in The Wire. It’s a sample you’re bound to know. Vid is mesmerising. I’ve listened to this over and over.

Oh, and yes, it’s supposed to be ultra lo-fi. Watch it on your mob for the full effect.

…by Leyland Kirby is the most evocative piece of music I’ve heard in ages.

If I’m writing about it, it’s worth listening to.

If I was going to recommend this, which I am, I have no idea where I’d send you. You’d just Google it. I came to it by accident (as is usual) from the fabulous 14 Tracks folks at Boomkat. Their newsletter is a bit crap (no concession to the medium it’s delivered in) but I’ve bought quite a few of the 14 Tracks compilations. I got this track from the beautiful ‘The City at Night’ collection.

This BBC thing talks about an “emotional, melancholic undertow” which is apt. But I only just found this by doing the same Google (Guge) search you’re going to do.

I love the unknown.

Listening to it now.

BTW, the graphics on the site are just lovely. They’re friendly.

I have bought music from Boomkat before.  Hard-copy CDs.  And Andrew used to walk around the office with an enigmatic T-Shirt that was odd but cool.  Turns out it was a Boomkat shirt.  NSTAC.

Anyway, I happened to subscribe to their ’14 Tracks’ mailing list not really knowing (as usual) what it was really about but thinking, hey, when I get the emails, I’ll figure out what it is they’re trying to sell me and deal with it then.

It turns out that they have this cool idea that they put together a grouped set of theme-linked tracks, from their catalogue, and present them as ’14 tracks’ for you to buy individually or if bought together, at a massive discount.
So, you (I) get a set of tracks, linked by a common theme – 14 of them – for £6.86 (yes, that is in fact 99p a track).  Not a typo.

I’m on my second set.

First set was called ‘Filmed in Super-8′.  Utterly magical.  I listen to tracks in bed.  Just mesmerizing.

Second set, today, is ‘Dubstep Hybrids’.  A little more challenging.  But hey, we’re experimenting here.  For £6.86.

Have a go…

As a bonus, the web site is beautiful and informative.  This whole thing is web 2.0 for me.  More please.

This is a funky application, to quote the wire to the ear, “Here an interesting new application for Mac OS-X called TapeDeck. It’s an audio recorder that looks like an old Radio Shack cassette deck. You can label your recordings cassettes with notes that look handwritten.


Your archived recordings are displayed in virtual cassette cases. All of this is pretty ridiculous except one feature could be very useful: Upload to YouTube.

Upload to YouTube sends your audio to YouTube and the video diplays your Cassette, the labeling your put on it and a little animation so you know it’s playing”

To quote the marketing bit “TapeDeck is a powerful and fun new audio recorder for Mac OS X Leopard.
It’s just like your old analog tape recorder, only better. A lot better.”

I loved cassettes when the only (best?) way to record off the radio or an LP was to put a mic in front of the speaker and have to shout “shush” loudly when someone walked into the room quietly.

And I loved them when having to explain what they were to mum and dad (and grandma) and what Dolby (B) was… and dbx (dbx) was.  Wow, dbx was expensive wasn’t it.  And DNL (wow, wasnt DNL the poor relative; Philips, and shit!).

Bias and EQ.  What actually was that all about?  120 microseconds (and 170 microseconds?).  Chrome tape!

I remember living in a flat with a guy called Roland in the early 80s (1982?) with an Akai (maybe Aiwa) cassette deck and we used to have to use a screwdriver to ‘tune’ the sound.  In that sort of environment, what use is the microfine adjustment of bias and EQ?  However, we could get ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ to sound unbelievable.  The chicken currey was good too.  We would put the curry on, go doen to the pub for an hour or two, and come back to a curry.  In those days, pubs didn’t have fridges (why not?).  Instead they had metal trays filled with cold water (half and inch deep).  Old cans went rusty.  In those days Swan lager from Australia was only available in imported cans.  Can’t imagine that now.  Cans were gold, red and black I seem to remember.  It is what I drank.

I bought this to sample.  50p ($1).  For a cassette I reckon that’s pretty expensive.  But it is a double LP so I do get a lot (have a lot) for my money.  I hope it’s shit, but in that beautiful, sampleable way.

This is so inspirational.

• Industrial landscapes
• Field recording
• Bass
• Photography

The fish-eye pics are just amazing.  I can feel a doodad coming on… No.  One at a time.  Get the Tascam first.

Note the Tascam DAT recorder (and AKG 1000s) – the forerunner of the HD-P2.  It’s about a hundred pics in (LOL)…