So, So, So Wrong

High Wolf

Totally digging this album: zoned-out but frenetic haze, like some odd mix of krautrock, flying saucer attack, and minimalist percussion jams. Nice stuff.

Can't You Hear The Wind Howl?

This is the 'The Complete Recordings' set of Robert Johnson's music, which ought to be pretty broadly commercially available (I used to have it on cassette- those were the days...). Only, pitch-shifted down, by me.

I opened each file (working with mp3s, which is audiophile-loserdom, but whatever) in Sound Forge and pitch-shifted to 90%.

I've always thought RJ sounded too shrill and frenzied to be real, and had often wondered over the years if the recordings weren't pitch-shifted. But only recently with a bunch of press about the theory that it actually WAS, did I take that theory seriously. Slowed a little, he no longer sounds quite as bizarre and otherworldly, sure-- but he DOES sound excellent. And human. He sounds like the other blues singers of his time and place. And his guitar sounds like a guitar, not a ukelele.

85%, which is the number I've seen online, seemed too slow to my ears- it made RJ sound froggy and his guitar thumpy. Having played and sung (poorly) myself for several decades, I'm pretty familiar with the sound of the instrument. And I've listened to a lot of country and delta blues-- so 90% might not be exactly right, but it sounds ok to my ears. Hopefully it'll sound good to yours.

My suspicion, actually, is that each song is probably slightly different. Some songs still sound a little fast, and others a little slow. But this is probably a truer picture of the actual sound of the musician, than the regular version. So, hey. Whatever.

There are lots of odd arguments going around about authenticity and ownership-- was it intended to be sped up? (Apparently Johnson himself may have never heard his own recordings, and they were not much of a commercial success at the time, so many of his peers may not have either, for what that's worth). Did all the early listeners, his contemporaries, think it sounded normal? If Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, et al, thought fast was normal, does that make it right? Ultimately I'm not too interested in any of this. All I know is that the slower version sounds more musical. 

If you haven't heard these songs slowed down before, it's a bit unnerving. It's a bit like seeing an old movie that you'd only watched on a worn-out VHS, in a restored print via Blu-Ray. Suddenly the details jump out and the nuances and dimensions are audible.

Hope you enjoy  this as much as me.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/s37fs1ysbynobx5/The%20Complete%20Recordings%20%28Pitch-Corrected%29%201%20of%202.zip

http://www.mediafire.com/file/prybm9qo8a885cq/The%20Complete%20Recordings%20%28Pitch-Corrected%29%202%20of%202.zip

A Thousand Miles Away

A million glorious music moments. Dip in wherever. They're all worthwhile, I promise.

Eno in one of his lovelier moments. From Before and After Science.

A short segment of a much longer performance. Debashish Battacharya always has the most glorious sound.

Mississippi John Hurt is unfuckwithable. This song is a particular favorite, for somehow managing to be playful, lecherous, a little sorrowful, and gently optomistic, all at once.

Anytime someone objects to "music today isn't as good as music of yesteryear", shit like this (and the next 5 or so) is good to display. This casual display of utter brilliance, by what looks like a bunch of 20-year olds, ought to make the average 'I know a jazz chord' guitarist weep. (Guitarists should just avoid most of these entirely, unless they need to change their pants anyway).

Also See:

Louis Armstrong --Struttin with some barbecue

www.youtube.com

Louis and his All Stars 1953

Worth the detour to the Youtube page. Armstrong was such a public figure that it's easy to forget how funky, precise and lovely his music could be. This little performance makes my liver quiver.

Any fans of both the VU and Marvin Gaye, will probably be suitably delighted/horrified by this. Good prank. Interesting creation. 

In this clip, a contest is being held to see if music can melt stone. Spoiler alert: yes.

I love the Stars of the Lid. You should not listen to any of their music while driving or operating heavy equipment.

Most of the Chaurasia I've heard has been super-mellow and meditative; this has got some melody and activity to it, and is delightful.

Watch those fuckers' fingers. How do human beings do this?

Popol Vuh is one of my personal all-time-most-revered-musical-units. I could listen to this song every morning for the rest of my life.

Old friends made this song. I'd love it even if that wasn't true.

Someday, I will learn to play the Oud. But, I will never play any instrument as well as this guy plays the Oud.

The delights of this aren't so much musical, as existential.

The delights of this are completely musical. (And, maybe, existential too).

Over & out. Hope you enjoyed some of these.