A Lark Ascending

I too downloaded 2-5 after hearing the BBC programme (I already had 1). Marvellous music.

No reason why you should know the names, Steve. They were not even in the thread title. If you asked the average Brit in the street what were their thoughts on the passing of the two men you'd most likey get a 'Who?' (that would not happen with MJ!). Though if you mentioned 'oldest First World War veterans who just died' then I suspect it would be picked up on.

On the death of Michael Jackson Michael Jackson's real cause of death. 57 replies 986 views Jazz Versions of Michael Jackson Tunes 25 replies 581views Michael Jackson has died 213 replies 5634 views On the death of Harry Patch and Henry Allingham Lest we forget 0 replies 18 views I realise this is primarily a music board and that the latter two were not American, but it looks a bit stark.

Now there must be a market for one of those with a built-in deck, amp and wall speakers. Double insulated reinforced wiring with 32ms RCDs required though... Are you referring to the tank or the woman?

I can't say I'm a great fan of silence - I tend to fill it with music. Don't like words though...I can't be doing with a radio babbling unless it's something I specifically want to hear. Where I live is pretty quiet - I can hear the buzz of a ring road if I consciously listen for it. Bird noises outside, the grumbling of the central heating system (it's wet and cold!). I'm never disturbed by the sound of voices outside, kids playing, the very rare plane (light only) passing by. More intrusive are lawnmowers but they rarely last long and are part of life. The jingle of ice cream vans in the afternoon (there seems to be an ice cream war going on here at present) fall into the same category. The only thing that really drives me nuts is when neighbours decide to turn up their stereos (it's always something with an inflexible beat!). Fortunately this doesn't happen too often...and most seem to have so little interest in music that it stops after 30 minutes.

It all seems to gave gone very strange since they put in the new buttons. When I click to download an album I get a white screen. If I check album view nothing shows yet the credits have been subtracted. To get at the music I have to go through my downloads and find my way back to the original album page, rehit the button (which has now changed colour and promises it will cost me no credits), click a window telling me the number of re-downloads is limited and then everything starts whirring! After that it seems quicker - I no longer get the two tracks stalling and needing resuming. Oh, and it won't let me delete anything in the saved items section. They vanish but reappear on refreshing! Clearly lots of bugs in the system.

I think that's one of my problems; when it comes to music in public areas, I seem to have lost the ability to filter. At home, I can just turn everything off, but at work, with piped in music playing all day, my brain just can't seem to ignore it. No one else there seems to have any trouble blocking out the music, but I just keep listening. No, I too can't filter out unsolicited music in public places. However, technology has made it less necessary to go to those public places. I imagine that this is not the case for those living in a big city...but living in a small rural market town I find I can now miss the worst of it. And the bird-twittering countryside is a ten minute walk away. I have found myself increasingly turning down offers of 'a night in town', largely because I can't cope with trying to hear people or talk to people over music. I really feel for you having to endure unsolicited music at work! Given all the other health and safety regulaions that tie us up, you'd have thought there would be legislation to stop the undue stress caused by unwanted music! Bizarre that getting the right to play music to paying customers who choose to hear it can be so fraught with red tape (at least here in the UK), yet background muzak is allowed to flourish. I blame Brian Eno.

As individuals, we can all filter, as we've always done. I have a TV in the corner of my living room - I could complain about how there's too much there (even without satellite). Instead, I don't turn it on very often...I don't think I've hit double figures this year in TV programmes watched. It's a great bit of technology...but I prefer other options ost of the time. What I do find annoying is the need to fill public places with sound. If I'm between concerts at a festival I like to find a quiet cafe/pub to sit in, either to read quietly or listen to my own iPod. It's nearly impossible to find a place in most towns where there isn't a 1:1 kiddiepop beat thumping out. I'm more than happy in the current land of plenty. Just like a library doesn't phase me because there are too many books, so the multiplicity of entertainment options causes me no grief. I expect most of us have designed our own pathways through the jungle.

No wonder students end their courses in such debt! I'm materialist enough to want to own a copy of the music I play; but the idea of buying it in two formats doesn't compute in my brain. Can't see such a 'boutique' approach lasting long.

This became irrelevant a few years back when the big companies took the initiative out of the hands of local managers and started ordering centrally. Back in the 80s/90s I used to be able to travel to Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leicester and get a different CD buying experience from the big Virgin and HMVs and the plentiful independents. I rarely go to any of them now. They are over here! CDs have always been much more expensive in the UK than in the States or mainland Europe. A couple of years ago an ECM would set you back £15 in the shops. On iTunes you pay £8.99 (which I'd imagine would still be seen as expensive in the US). The back catalogue on e-music is much chreaper (maybe not so when the new pricing kicks in here). I've rarely resold a CD - last time I off-loaded some I was getting little more than £2.00 for things I paid 5x plus as much for. I tend to keep things on the grounds that, even if I'm not playing a CD now, the day may come when I want to hear it again. Creates storeage problems but I dealt with that by throwing out all the jewel boxes (which means I'll never be able to sell them). Although I use Spotify I'm still locked into the 'need to own' mentality. I preview there but like my own copy. I suspect to a new generation who have never or rarely owned CDs the idea of having a physical copy will seem quite daft.

I've not dumped my CDs...in fact I continue to convert the downloads to CD-R. I feel comforted by a physical product on the shelf!

I've actually never found it easier - or cheaper - to acquire music than at present. Either via download or online purchasing of CDs. Far greater choice than I experienced in the provinces in the LP/CD heyday. My only worry is how long this will last - either customer desire for recordings will diminish so companies will give up making them available; or they'll become ever present in digital download form. I'm hoping the latter! I also have no problem findings things to buy...still so much music out there unheard. But you won't find it in even the larger UK cities, except in a few isolated spots. I've not visited a record shop since late May - the still excellent jazz and classical shops in Bath - and that was just a by-product of being in the city for the festival.

Perhaps it will. It seems that, with other artists, everything gets remastered as part of the process of creating the boxed set. Then they release the individual titles. Seems you are right: http://www.spincds.com/

Well, look what turned up in the jazz new releases! Straight to the unbelievable covers thread!

The Age Of The Album might well have been a fluke. From sheet music to piano roll to 78 to Top 40 and now back to downloading a song, the focus of "western" Popular Music has been predominantly song, not album, based. I think you are dead right there. At the same time, there has always been an audience for larger scale agglomerations of music - be it sung masses, symphonies, suites, ballets etc. I imagine that audience will continue to be there into the future and distribution will shape itself to provide for it.

The line I find interesting...and suggestive of a major cultural change...is this one: Now those of us who grew up buying LPs and CDs (even 78s) will just seek that music via other means. But what about those who never went through the CD buying stage? One big thing that has changed is that when I first started buying records if you heard a track you liked you had to buy the whole album...and often bumped into something quite unfamiliar as a result. Even 'Best of' discs were not that common. Today you can download the single track you want.

Thanks as always for your guidance in this area, Seeline. I suspect that, like in rock and jazz, the 80s/early 90s have to be approached with caution. There was a time when many an established artist tried to save their career by adopting the 'dreaded beats', mawkish synths and general studio glossiness. I get the impression the Koorax/Bonfa disc was aimed at an MOR market - reminds me of the sort of "Euro-pop for grown-ups' that was around (probably still is) at the time. Eurovision Song Contest stuff. Any thoughts on this: The samples on iTunes sound nicely percussive and jammy. Thanks for the warning on the Cazes' disc. Listened to the e-music samples...not what I'm looking for!

http://www.jazzfm.com/features/jazz-cd-sales-down/

I've been mining Loronix recently. These three are tremendous...the same earthy, darkness you get in the 'Afro-Sambas': Lots of great, sugar-free percussion. However, not all is gold there. This is horrid: Drum machines, nasty synth orchestral effects. Everything the 80s were so awful for. I had to turn it off after track 3...something I rarely do. This one is curious. No drum machines, but synthetic synth backdrop. Joyce is in good voice though:

This has just arrived on e-music: One for when my credits refresh in a couple of days.

Spoilt for choice with this chap: With those Edwardian sidebars he always looks like he ought to be playing 'Roll Out The Barrell'.

An early mention of 'moon walking' would quickly see the coverage become about Michael Jackson.

I guess I singled out ECM because I don't think I need much explanation about, say, a hard bop date: I understand the tune structure, what the players are trying to accomplish, and I have a pretty good idea about the individual sound and approach of the players. But I can listen to an ECM track and say, what is really going on here? What are they trying to accomplish? Is the point of the tune the pulse, the mood, the textures, the interplay of the players, the composition, was there really a composition? Since I assume there was an intention there, it would be nice to have some entree into the thinking, since I think it would increase my enjoyment of the music. I recall making a similar suggestion about free jazz a few years back. Most ECMs (obvious exceptions like the Roscoe Mitchell and Evan Parker discs) work to relatively conventional harmonic structures - the listener can easily get a grip on what is happening from moment to moment even if they don't like or are bored by the results. Free jazz tends to be a bit like Britain in 1940 - all the signposts are taken down. Yet the response I got when suggesting that performers explain what they are doing was along the lines of 'don't be silly, if you can't hear it then no writing about it will help.' Queue the 'talking about music/dancing about architecture' quote (normally attributed to several different people). I'd imagine the general lack of liners on ECM is part of the general concept of raising an air of mystery about the records. Practically, the days of liners look numbered as digital distribution takes over. I suspect a lot of this will go into electronically distributed publicity, blogs etc. Both Miroslav Vitous and John Surman have done interviews in Jazzwise surrounding their latest discs which provide the sort of context I think mjzee is looking for. Would be good to have things like this on the website. Some of the strangest ECM liners come on Italian releases - initially written in high art/intellectual European linguistics, then translated. Quite bewildering. I believe I've got one by Umberto Eco - think it's a Trovesi disc.

What was odd was the way they mixed things up - you might get a Perry Como or Andy Williams blurb alongside Johnny Winters or Al Kooper. They also went for more niche-marketed inner sleeves, without worrying what record they turned up in. I'm sure my Soft Machine 'Third' (bought Dec, 1972... I remember these things!) had both discs with inner sleeves devoted to MOR favourites. I can almost see myself scowling with contempt as I viewed it on the bus home (I vividly recall that trip!).

A Harvest one here: