^ A gin and and tonic water can be deadly. Usually I prefer my booze not to be watered down, with tonic water, glacier water, distilled water and shark and piranha infested water.

Logan wrote: mathman: Good stuff. Those first three are all equally good to me in their own way. White Out and Black light are most in my wheelhouse despite both being opposites.   Well, I mean not musically but colour-wise (no colours, all colours in one way.... Won't get into that). I'll say Black Light because... No White Out...

Ha ha! I didn't realize how black and white my selections were. And the second track by Black String. I imagine that the Tea Club serves up a selection of black, white, and even green tea. Maybe some Earl Grey.

Logan wrote: ^^^ Thanks, Jared very much. It's quite a bit of effort to respond like that and I appreciate all the people here for taking the time to mention these favourites. I love the insight it gives me into others, and feeling like I am sharing in that experience. I love the kind of communal listening room type topics and ones where I feel people share their passions and experiences in a way that goes beyond just a simple list. I get the fuzzies from this topic. Your listing helps to demonstrate the diversity of listening when it comes to those bands (at least to me). I had hoped that some might take the time to comment on other people's selections and mention their own favourites, by the way.

Edited by Jared - August 04 2023 at 02:47

Here's my 7:

- Kees: I thought my last response to you might have come across as a bit too cheap. I had noticed the similarities in tracks but I am prone to muddled thinking (faulty wiring, but the plumbing is passable), and as it is two boozy tracks, one liquor with regular water and one with tonic water.... Not only have I worked as a cocktail bartender (mixing drinks) and a nightclub DJ (mixing music) in my youth, but things get more mixed up with me in my older years, which makes me a Mixologist of sorts.

- Christian: Thanks so much. I appreciate everyone here for taking the time, and for me it is nice to have a diversion right now.

- George: As Michael Jackson tells us, it doesn't matter if you're black or white. Your colorful post made me smile. :)

- Ian (Nogbad the Bad) : Thanks for that. I could not find the first one on youtube, but here it is on bandcamp: The Muffins - Zoom Resume (off 185, from 1981) https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/track/zoom-resume-2 By the way, I used be very into The Muffins' Chronometers, but have not heard it in too many years.

I could not find Electric Masada's Kedem on youtube and I did not find it on bandcamp. I like Electric Masada and a lot of Zorn music as well.

black midi's Cavalcade is what really got me into the band. John L is a very good opener, but it was the last track, Ascending Forth, that most got under my skin. There are some album closers that when it comes to them I want them on repeat, this was one of them. black midi has been one of my most listened to over the past six months and easily could have been listed by me (I knew others would anyway if this topic got any traction).

Squid's Bright Green Field is an album I really like. I would not be surprised if Boy Racers is the particularly obvious standout for many, although G.S.K. is the one that first made big impression on me. Love it.

I checked out The Comet is Coming before, because of you, or perhaps maybe George? (please excuse the poor memory), very good stuff. Summon the Fire is one I really liked.

I very much enjoyed Schnellertollermeier's Rights. The album is called Brutal Prog (I genre which often doesn't seem that brutal to me), but this track is actually super-pleasant to my ears. I like this kind of math-rocky music.

Melt Yourself Down's Fix My Life... I liked this a lot too (I could imagine a great collaboration with Urban Sax). I may like gloomy/ down-beat atmospheric music (find it cathartic), but this is really hitting the spot right now.

- Jared: I really appreciate your words. I like to write (but not read what I write) but I also have been told that it's nearly impossible to understand a word I say and so I all the more appreciate people trying to respond -- I think the words themselves are mostly fine, it's the way the words are combined that is the real problem.   Anyway, I genuinely do like to read what others write, especially if I have asked a question or presented an idea.

And of course nothing wrong with listening to more traditional bands. Those are all classics that stood the test of time. I loved listening though your choices. And despite being big names, there were some really happy discoveries for this guy who is lacking in knowledge when it comes to many classics that others take for granted.

- Will: Glad you liked the Boards of Canada track. I love to listen to that when driving and cleaning -- it's got such groove and I love groove... Yeah, that's right. It's fun and gets me moving. I do find lots of dark and gloomy music, tv shows, movies, books to particularly resonate with me, which is kind of sad I guess. I find it can be cathartic. That said, like I said, I found that Rascal Reporters track to be excellent. I love it and other music you posted. I've said it before in so many words, but different musical worlds largely but they also intersect because a lot of the kind of music I would associate with Zappa and friends we both like. Hearing Peaches en Regalia on the radio was revelatory to me and had a big effect on my music direction. I like Frogg Cafe, French TV and many others that I find positively jaunty. I have noticed that a lot of music I actually find quite uplifting and life-affirming others just find plain depressing. I'm organising a funeral now and I still get a weird pleasure out of music that some have claimed they would rather perform vile acts on their bodies than to listen to, and/or that it would drive them to self-destruction to have to listen to it. To each their own psyches and tolerance levels, not to mention hyperbolic claims.   I have wanted to respond that much as I like the music, I would enjoy testing that proposition rather like in A Clockwork Orange even more. But I digress.

- Ian (Stressed Cheese) : Yeah, it's a lot. It's easier for me because I am taking some time from things other than there is lot of stuff to organise which I need some distraction from and I'm happy to take a bit of a break from the music I have most been into of late and delve into some others. In your case I had heard almost all of those before. Really enjoyed hearing that Zappa (such a great track) and the Floyd again. I have not been as into King Gizzard.... (KG&TLW) as I sometimes have felt I should be. I mean I do like plenty of King Gizz music, and probably it has something to do with how prolific the band is. I wanted to say that I really enjoyed the track you posted.

- Richard: I love PFM's L'isola di niente. And the jazzy and quite bombastic last track on it, "Via Lumière" is one of my all-time faves. What a fantastic way to end such a great era for PFM imo.

Thanks all.


Edited by Logan - August 04 2023 at 23:37

I can't account for what I've been listening to over the last year, it's quite varied; however, recently I've been on a blues kick, among other things:

Saperlipopette! wrote: moshkito wrote: I'm not much into the "pop culture" that we often find in many works listed here, although I will state that many of them are super nice and very enjoyable. Just out of curiosity: What is it to you that represent "pop culture" listed here? I unashamedly enjoy high quality pop-culture (or rather I don't actually think about whether something is, or not), so it's not about my hurt feelings. I just like to know.

Sorry, I know this was addressed to Pedro, but I thought he might not respond, and wanted to try to look for the correlations for a pop culture that is represented by much of the music that has been mentioned. I do favour going into very specific examples rather than generalising often. I think Pedro tends to favour a sort of deductive thinking whereas I am more inductive (not that I am anywhere near as adept at logical reasoning as I would like to be). Of course there are pop veins running though this, and rock and pop intertwine (and folk etc.)

As someone who has checked out most of the music in the playlist, there is such variety that has been mentioned. If pop culture is that significant, then I would say pop cultures. The audience of, say, a K-pop artist might be very different from an audience that listens to avant-garde jazz, experimental rock, neoclassical, Zolo. But actually I think it shows that our PA culture, if it is thought of as a kind of subculture, is into very diverse music. I guess my choices would tend to appeal to a certain more hipster alternative art pop crowd.

I love lots of music that gets classified as pop. From really popular classic ones like ABBA and the Carpenters to a lot of music deemed art pop, chamber pop, avant-pop....

From my selection, Weyes Blood would be the most obviously considered to make pop (as genre) music I would think, but Anna von Hausswolff and Chelsea Wolfe also make a kind of art pop. Portishead has been hugely popular and part of pop culture, and Boards of Canada. Lingua Ignota I also put into art pop/ folk pop realms. And Swans has made mainstream sounding folk music and even covered "Can't Find My Way Home" on what I have seen at least person call its sell-out album.. Now TheGazzardian spoke specifically about K-pop girls bands as something he can enjoy with his wife and daughter (my wife has been most hooked on Korean dramas for many years). By the way, Weyes Blood is music, in part, that I have played very often because my wife really likes it and my eldest likes it. It is my most played music in the car when driving with my wife. Most of what I listen to would not be appreciated by my wife.

Instead of focusing on the genre tags (from rateyourmusic) of the tracks themselves, here are the albums that contain the tracks for the youtube track playlist choices, or an album that was mentioned as a fave even if a track off a different album was chosen, and for those who mentioned albums but not specific tracks) -- I did not make it that far as it was more effort and time-consuming than I anticipated. So this is just a small sample from the first few people to post, and so not enough to come to good conclusions... whatever conclusion that might be (and one may not like the labels).

Logan:
- Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind (Experimental Rock, Post-Rock, Experimental. Drone, Dark Ambient, Field Recordings, Spoken Word, Sound Collage, Industrial, Post-Industrial)
- Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children (IDM, Downtempo. Ambient, Trip Hop)
- Weyes Blood - Front Row Seat to Earth ( Baroque Pop, Psychedelic Folk. Chamber Folk, Ambient Pop, Psychedelic Pop, Art Pop, Psychedelic Folk, Singer-Songwriter)
- Portishead - Third (Electronic, Experimental Rock. Krautrock, Post-Industrial, Post-Rock, Trip Hop)
- Anna von Hausswolff - Dead Magic (Neoclassical Darkwave. Ethereal Wave, Drone, Ambient, Experimental Rock)
- Lingua Ignota - Caligula (Neoclassical Darkwave, Death Industrial. Black Noise)
- Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty (Darkwave, Ethereal Wave. Gothic Rock)

Saperlipopette!:
- The Necks - Unfold (Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Improvisation. Post-Minimalism, Ambient)
- Greg Foat - The Mage (Cool Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz, Soul Jazz. Jazz-Funk, Downtempo, Library Music)
- black midi - Hellfire (Avant-Prog, Brutal Prog. Jazz-Rock, Art Rock, Vaudeville)
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Polygondwanaland (Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock. Space Rock)
- Sibylle Baier - Colour Green (Singer-Songwriter, Contemporary Folk)
- Joni Mitchell - Hejira (Singer-Songwriter, Folk Rock. Jazz Fusion, Vocal Jazz, Progressive Folk)
- Ahmad Jamal - Extensions (Cool Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz. Post-Bop)

TheGazzardian:
- Mamamoo - Waw (K-Pop)
- Dreamcatcher (K-pop, Pop-Rock...)
- Torres - Thirstier (Alternative Rock, Indie Rock. Post-Punk Revival, New Wave)
- Nothing But Thieves - Moral Panic (Alternative Rock. Pop Rock, Alt-Pop)
- Devin Townsend - Empath (Progressive Metal, Avant-Garde Metal. Symphonic Metal, Progressive Rock, Orchestral)
- Major Parkinson - Valesa - Chapter I: Velvet Prison (Progressive Pop, Synthpop, Electropop. Synthwave, Progressive Rock, Rock Opera)

Grumpyprogfan:
- Polyphia - Remember That You Will Die (Math Rock, Trap [EDM]. Math Pop, Jazz Fusion, Flamenco nuevo)
- Haken - Fauna (Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock. Djent)
- Marco Minnemann - Their Colors Fade (Progressive Rock, Experimental Rock, Jazz Fusion, Jazz-Rock, Art Rock for his general discography)
- Wippy Bonstack - 22 (Progressive Pop, Math Pop, Art Rock. Indie Rock, Progressive Rock, Art Pop)
- Rascal Reporters - The Strainge Case of Steve (Avant-Prog, Zolo, Progressive Rock for the general discography) I love lots of Zolo, which I should have mentioned in comparing our worlds before as THE key word. I like to recognise the differences while finding, exploring and appreciating the similarities
- Eyeless Owl - Murmurations (Progressive Rock. Canterbury Scene, Math Rock, Jazz-Rock, Avant-Prog)
- Mike Keneally - The Thing That Knowledge Can't Eat (Art Rock, Progressive Pop. Progressive Rock)

Stopping there at least for now cause there is so much listed and this albums approach was not a good one as it is taking me so long... I wanted to try to see if I could grok it more on my own based on the rateyourmusic genre labels to find the commonalities in regards to a pop culture (otherwise it's more vague impressions). Progressive Rock, diverse thought it is, might be seen as a kind of pop, and as a Prog community we might be seen as a pop culture. Lots of bands in PA made popular music, and it is common for bands at PA to make music that is associated with styles of pop. Of course some music included in PA is much more academic, esoteric, has less pop genre attributes and would be considered much less pop than others. And that goes for the music listed in this topic too, be it Prog or not.

Edited by Logan - August 05 2023 at 15:12

Saperlipopette! wrote: ...Just out of curiosity: What is it to you that represent "pop culture" listed here? I unashamedly enjoy high quality pop-culture (or rather I don't actually think about whether something is, or not), so it's not about my hurt feelings. I just like to know.

^^ Mosh, seems I was quite off-base in my approach to your comment of "pop culture". Never-the-less, I think there is so much variety here. I guess you already are familiar with The Necks, but Unfold (labelled as Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Improvisation. Post-Minimalism, Ambient) is one I would think you would like.

------------------------------------

General comment: It's not a requirement, but it would be great if everyone would highlight some key music (albums, tracks) from the bands/artists that they mention. I would like to add a track from each for the playlist and check it out, and it's interesting to me to see which specific music is particularly appealing to people. Gentle Giant is an old fave of mine, and I always favoured the early albums. I mentioned "The Moon is Down" as a particular favourite recently in another topic from what is I think a really great album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEUTPwgKKdI

Here is the playlist for those who might have missed it.



https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXcp9fYc6K4LJBMAZAJBGiJDTO0CoMoQz

I am tempted to offer another seven with a track from each and make an additional playlist for that. And I invite those who already listed seven to mention more. One album I was listening to a lot over this last year is Fishmans' Long Season. I had meant to include it before. I adore this:




I also got more Into Natural Snow Buildings, especially with Daughter of Darkness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hiy3Qbw-oFo

Definitely one that I have been biggest on this last year is Cocteau Twins. I really like all of its albums up to and including Leaving Las Vegas (great album), but Head Over Heels and Treasure got the most play in the past few months. Again a track I have shared several times, and yes, it is an embed, but I adore this (it's "In The Gold Dust Rush" off Head Over Heels):



I also have been very into Godspeed You! Black Emperor this last year (favourite album remains Lift Your Skinny Fists, black midi, still very into Stereolab (love the albums Dots and Loops and Emperor Tomato Ketchup), Broadcast, Pram, and Air (as usual), and Uboa. And I have been very into Dead can Dance, Radiohead (really got into Kid A this last year, already loved especially A Moon Shaped Pool and OK Computer) , Bjork, and Susanne Sundfør (especially The Silicone Veil).

That seven criterion seems kind of silly to me, why limit? Except that I thought we might get inundated with what I call laundry lists instead of people maybe focusing on those that have really meant the most this past year.    There are dozens that have meant a huge amount to me over the past 12 months.

PS. I know all of these tracks I have been sharing in this topic I have shared before in other topics, and that indicates how special they have been to me.


Edited by Logan - August 06 2023 at 17:11