Listening To: 21st Century Jesus : The Messiah

I know it’s been floating around for a while now on various people’s blogs - most recently on Imaginery Girl’s site … but for want of anything better to do here’s my version of the ‘Music Quiz(llet)’ …

1. Total amount of music files on your computer ?

You know, I really did *try* to get into the whole downloading MP3’s thing about 8 years ago. But even though I was hitting all the underground Mac ‘Hotline’ servers (now who else remembers THAT network, huh ?) in Germany, I still couldn’t find the weird, Teutonic industrial tracks I was listening to at the time, just the frikkin Beach Boys & Celine Dion, mostly. Oh and David Hasslehoff of course !

Given that experience … I don’t really see the appeal of downloading MP3’s of other peoples stuff, unless these are unreleased / unsigned artists, like the peeps at BTGetOutThere or MP3.Com.AU. Generally, MP3’s are shite anyway … I don’t see the fuss, given they are usually compressed at far below CD-quality to get the filesize down. Give me Ogg Vorbis any day ! That being said, I’ve got about 30 tracks from GetOutThere & MP3.Com.AU of ‘unsigned’ dance/electronica artists burnt to a CD, but not on any of my PC’s. My work PC has no other music on it at all … I just play my CD’s through it.

Which computer d’ya mean, anyway ? Do you mean my work PC, my laptop, or my (home) desktop machine ? Define “music files” … does this mean MP3’s/WMA’s/WAV’s of other people’s commercial releases (even if these are illegal burns), or do we include work-files (completed song or otherwise) for tracks I’ve written ? Really, the scope of this question should have been worked out better ;P

The work PC I’ve already discussed. The laptop and desktop at home have, between them, a few hundred MB worth of samples and parts of tracks in .WAV format for manipulating, and combined with 13 years worth of backup CD’s and cover discs, I’ve probably got a few gig of samples all up. Then there’s another 30 or 40 old-school 90’s techno Protracker (.MOD) & Screamtracker (.S3M) modules from Alternate Reality BBS by a bunch of demo-sceners I used to know back in the day, twenty or so Fasttracker2 .XM format tracks (although FT2 hasn’t worked on any of my PC’s for years, I tend to use Modplug) in various stages of completion, the Rebirth .RBS patterns for a track I’ve since lost the .XM workfile for, and a handful of Buzz format .BMW files, which is what I sequence with these days. Finally on top of that, there are backup Nero .NRI compilations for several versions of my first (shitty) EP, and the new one I keep pushing the release-date back for.

2. The CD you last bought is ?

‘Nobody Ever Really Dies’ by N.E.R.D, which I bought at JB-Hifi in Bondi Junction Westfields. I think the JB’s in Parramatta is better in terms of its size and the available selection … but IG and I ducked in to the one in BJ and they were on sale, so of course I had to buy *something*, didn’t I ? On the same outing I also bought a copy of RATM’s first album, since I didn’t have this on CD and had lost the tape years ago.

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message ?

‘Ra’ by Shy FX, off the ‘Drum And Bass Arena’ compilation by Fabio & Grooverider. Also a JB-Hifi purchase, but I got this one @ Parramatta. This is a pretty sweeet DNB compilation, although I must admit was really hanging out for a Busta Rhymes album, but they didn’t have any at JB at the time.

4. Name 6 songs that mean something to you?

That’s no fair … only 6 ?! I could probably name at least 60 songs that have a strong meaning for me in some way ! But OK, in no particular order of preference, here are the first 6 which spring to mind -

(1) It’s No Good - Depeche Mode

Probably my fave DM song. All ego, fantastic bassline, eminently danceable …

(2) Dominion/Mother Russia - The Sisters of Mercy

Quintessential gothness, exemplified by the dulcet tones of that f*cking twat Andrew Eldritch. Along with Temple of Love, this was on of my favourite club tracks throughout most of the 90’s.

(3) Just Like Heaven - The Cure

The ultimate combination of bitter-sweet, I keep changing my mind … do I prefer the studio version on ‘Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me’, or the extended live version on ‘Cure Show’ ? I dunno … either way, I looooove this song !

(4) Karma - 1200 Techniques

I’ve already talked about this track elsewhere. Summed up 2004 for me.

(5) Risingson - Massive Attack

The entire album, Mezzanine, which this track is off is fantastic. But this is pure, electronic, minimalist heaven !

(6) Brother Slimboy Chemical - Yours truly :)
A Rebirth/Modplug .XM-hybrid track, this was the first song I wrote that actually lasted the ’standard’ 3 minutes, and got me back into sequencing after a few years of doing nothing but the occasional remix for nightclub DJ demos.

5. Who are you going to pass this stick on to, and why ?

No-one … it’s been done to death ! :)