Thought I’d get an early handle on my best-of-the-year list this time around. I’ve blogged surprisingly little about music in 2011. That doesn’t mean that I listened any less, or less attentively. In fact, audio-wise, it was just this past year that I finally managed to get my hands on digital playback equipment that allows [...]

Listening to: Diane Birch, Bible Belt
A review of Diane Birch’s Bible Belt It almost didn’t happen, my finding out about Diane Birch. My friend and coworker P. and I decided to visit our local Sunrise Records yesterday, on our way back from lunch. You know, two old people looking at CDs. And while I was mildly interested in seeing that [...]

Today’s desert island disc: Simply Red, Stars
A review of Simply Red’s Stars (1991) British soul pop at its finest. Mick Hucknall came from a reggae and soul perspective, but was really always a crooner first. This is an incredibly strong collection of songs, and it’s still puzzling to me why this never took off more in North America. I loved this [...]

Today’s desert island disc: Yazoo, Upstairs at Eric’s
What powerful music this was, and remains. Vince Clarke, the original composer/arranger behind Depeche Mode, teams up with blue-eyed soul singer Alison Moyet, and together they create some of the most memorable, path-breaking electronic pop music ever recorded. What makes this so powerful is that it’s two consummate professionals fully bringing themselves to this project [...]

Listening to: ABBA, The Visitors
I’ve had a 26-year love affair with this album. This was one of the first records I bought with my own money. I was 11 or 12 when it came out. ABBA was accessible, wonderfully well-produced, very very catchy yet musically complex pop. In a way, perhaps the last 2 or 3 ABBA albums are [...]
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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.
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@carstenknoch on Twitter
- Barbarism is not the inheritance of our prehistory. It is the companion that dogs our every step. (Alain Finkielkraut) 12 hours ago
- Music really is amazing. No matter how deeply you steep yourself in it, or for how long--there's always a fantastic new artist to discover. 14 hours ago
- More world's worst brands: http://t.co/FEgngM6s 1 day ago
- How to accommodate low literacy readers in your web writing. http://t.co/2s1dKV52 1 day ago
- @dybskiy So what — are you staying? 2 days ago
- @joniv Absolutely. No issues. We're having the easiest winter in the history of winters this year... can't complain really :) 2 days ago
- @joniv Great - now I have that song in my head! Hope you're well :) 4 days ago
- It's 5:30pm, and - strangely - things are finally starting to flow (where I've been beating my head against a wall for most of the day). 4 days ago
- How to catch an iPhone thief: Officer knows buttons to push. http://t.co/YHVgl0MS 1 week ago
- I have a nasty, sneaky cold. TGIF. 1 week ago

