Ambient Music Links, September 28th
Posted on | September 28, 2007 | No Comments
- Pjusk “Sart” latest review « 12k
“Sart is the debut of the Norwegian duo of Jostein Dahl Gjelsvik and Rune Sagevik, otherwise known as Pjusk.”
There’s more where this came from at del.icio.us/ambientmusicblog.
iPod Classic, 80gb Review
Posted on | September 18, 2007 | No Comments
About two years ago, I bought a first generation 4gb iPod Nano. At the time, it was exactly what I needed: something small that would carry the small amount of music I was currently listening to. I was growing tired of carrying around my heavy 2G 10gb iPod. For about about 20% of the size and weight of the iPod, I got about 50% of the capacity. That seemed like a great trade off at the time.
Fast-forward a few years, and I found the Nano, which still works perfectly, not to be serving my new needs. For the past few months I had been considering purchasing yet another iPod, and the reason was capacity. My 4gb and 10gb iPods, regardless of their physical size, just weren’t cutting it.
In short, here’s why I was looking for more capacity:
- I download around a gigabyte of music a month, and if I don’t listen to it all regularly enough, I don’t have enough iPod capacity to keep it on hand. That means good music gets buried and not heard.
- Because I like to listen to rock music at the gym, I was employing a 2 iPod rotation policy. Nano for new stuff, mostly ambient, and 2G iPod for the gym. It gets old pulling headphones off of one iPod to wrap them around another at 5:45 a.m.
Just before the new iPod lineups were announced, I had considered upgrading to the 80gb size, which at the time was the largest. I have a reasonable amount of music, but I’m not one of these people with 100’s of gigabytes in their collection. 80gb would serve my needs for probably another couple years, assuming I don’t get into watching video, which I don’t see happening. Unfortunately, the physical size of the old 80gb iPod was a turn off. It was just too bulky. So I waited.
But when the new iPod lineup was announced last week, and when I saw that new, slimmer 80gb model in Steve Jobs’ hands, the decision was made.
I’ve been living with the iPod Classic 80gb for a week now, and here’s the verdict:
- The physical size is great. It’s slimmer than an iPhone, and the metal face has quite a nice feel. It’s maybe a touch on the heavy side, but when you figure that it has the same hard drive capacity as the PowerBook I’m currently typing on, it doesn’t seem all that bad.
- The 80gb capacity means I can have every ambient music track in my library on hand. This means in the last week I’ve listened to some old favorites I’d forgotten about, and discovered some old downloads I didn’t know I actually liked.
- The new interface is a touch on the flaky side, but it seems software related and will likely be improved in future updates. Also, I didn’t buy the thing for new features, I bought purely for more capacity.
- This is my first iPod capable of playing video. I did watch an Arsenal podcast on the subway coming home from class the other night, but otherwise watching video still seems a bit gimmicky to me. This though is coming from a guy who doesn’t watch many TV shows or movies. If I could get football matches and/or highlights onto the thing easily, I can see me changing my tune on this.
- christopher willits – Plants and Hearts
“Christopher Willits is a ceaseless creative force focused on teasing out the most from his instrument of choice ? the guitar.” - The Silent Ballet > Taylor Deupree & Christopher Willits – Listening Garden
“Listening Garden is what I want to hear when I die. Deupree and Willits consistently prove themselves masterful in the process of manipulating the guitar sound to a point where its timbre is totally different on the surface…”
In all, I’m pleased with my purchase. And for $249.99, 80gb seems almost astonishing sometimes. In the end, an iPod is an iPod is an iPod, and if you have similar capacity needs or listening habits to mine, you’d do well to look at the iPod Classic.
Wordless Music Series Schedule Firmed Up
Posted on | September 17, 2007 | No Comments
I’ve posted about this before, but for the New Yorkers reading, you should know that it looks like the fall program for the Wordless Music Series has firmed up. I’ve got tickets for the November 11th performance of Múm, Hauschka, and Bing and Ruth/David Moore. Quite a few other great performances are scheduled, including shows featuring Colleen and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood.
Ambient Music Links, September 15th
Posted on | September 15, 2007 | No Comments
There’s more where this came from at del.icio.us/ambientmusicblog.
í gær Video Trailer, by Clare Langan
Posted on | September 15, 2007 | No Comments
Irish artist Clare Langan has created a video for the song “í gær,” which is to be included in the upcoming Sigur Ros record hvarf-heim.
Via the always lovely eighteen seconds before sunrise.
Free Efterklang mp3 Download: Cutting Ice to Snow
Posted on | September 13, 2007 | No Comments
In the growing downloads section of their Web site, Danish band Efterklang has just released a free mp3 download of “Cutting Ice to Snow” (.mp3) from their upcoming album Parades, set for release this October 15th. Have a listen, everyone likes free!
LastGraph: Graph Your Listening Habits via Last.fm Statistics
Posted on | September 12, 2007 | No Comments
Like the Last.fm Normalised Rankings I mentioned a few weeks back, LastGraph is a great way to get a visual look at what you’ve been listening to. Another great reason for measuring and tracking things, and then making that data available for people to build interesting applications.
Related
LastGraph
Last.fm Normalised Rankings
Last.fm
Scattered Practices, Ezekiel Honig
Posted on | September 11, 2007 | No Comments
I mentioned Early Morning Migration a while back, the Ezekiel Honig and Morgan Packard collaboration. Well, lately I’ve been listening to Honig’s 2006 release Scattered Pieces, and it’s work of really nice quiet electronic sounds. It sounds like what I imagine a laundromat sounds like at 3am. Just quietly pumping along, and if you listen closely the dryers actually do sound different as the clothes get closer to dry.
Related
Ambient Music Blog: Early Morning Migration, Ezekiel Honig & Morgan Packard
Ezekiel Honig Wikipedia entry
Ezekiel Honig MySpace profile
Air Curtain, Fourcolor
Posted on | September 10, 2007 | No Comments
Speaking of 12k records, Air Curtain by Japanese artist Fourcolor is a superb record. Nice rolling textured melodies which a touch of blips and tech sounding glitch playing subtly in the background. Really quality stuff, especially for those of you who tend to listen to more of the electronic end of things.