I’m in a shopping mall, in the food court. From around the corner, some distance away, I can hear the sound of throbbing rock and roll guitars. No distinct rhythm or melody, just a low ominous churning rock and roll growl, getting slightly closer.
Archive | January, 2008
Listening to: Afro Celt Sound System
I was introduced to Afro Celt Sound System by my friend Jeff (at least that’s how I remember it; some of those mid 90s parties are a bit hazy :). They’re a UK-based crossover outfit that marries Irish traditional music with West African influences and wraps the whole thing into electronic/dubby sounds (guess that’s the [...]
Call me ‘Notch’
One of my permanent annoyances/constant amusements about living in the English-speaking world is what happens to my name when others try to pronounce it. My first name, Carsten, is a typical Northern German/Danish first name, widely used in Scandinavia and Germany. It means ‘Christian,’ I believe. In German, you’d pronounce it ‘Kah-stn.’ With a silent [...]
Listening to: Trojan Dub Massive, Chapters One and Two
Always experimental and always an outsider musician as far as a general sort of listenership would be concerned, Bill Laswell’s contribution to popular music has nevertheless been a fantastic journey of the offbeat and powerful. I’m familiar with Laswell’s work primarily through his remixes/reworkings/dub plates. All of those terms, incidentally, don’t really seem to capture [...]
Listening to: Fat Freddys Drop, Based on a True Story
My sister introduced me to this a few years ago. She lived in New Zealand then, as do Fat Freddys Drop, a live dub band. This is basically dubby roots reggae played by a (very good) live band. It loses momentum a little during the second half of the record, but much of it is [...]
Listening to: Burial, Untrue
For anyone still standing at the end of the long, strange journey through the tunnel of electronic music, particularly all the different forms of house over the years, this is lovely, emotional, introverted and perhaps a little nerdy. It’s also very, very good in a genre-transcending sort of way. The producer (whose real identity is [...]
Listening to: Bach, Weihnachtsoratorium (Harnoncourt)
I came late to this work (in life, as I’d like to discuss here… and yes, I know it’s about a month after Christmas now). I remember my mom loving it and playing it to mark the season when I was growing up, but I always thought the passions were too much like opera, another [...]
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About
Carsten Knoch
Software and services professional, attentive music listener, vision enabler, instigator, reader of books and the web, vegetarian, affordable audio hobbyist, thinker, writer, blogger, tinkerer, Internet dweller since 1992. Human being since 1970.
I blog about music, technology, business, vegetarian food, politics, culture and life.
More about me on the About page.
