Found this little gem, Feel of Flight by Senn, over on Jamendo a little while back. While I like the beat and the simple melody, it is the funky-sounding bass that hooks me. I think the bass line works because of the melody, though, so I guess they have to come as a set. :-) Give it a listen.
And before any of you RIAA brownshirts shit your knickers, this music is, in fact, freely available.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 20:54 2009-09-04 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
TruckWerks Upgrade (Music)
I upgraded TruckWerks today. Rather, I paid someone else to upgrade TruckWerks. The stock tunes sucked — AM/FM radio only, no CD player, poor reception, and the sound quality blew goats. So, I replaced the old radio with an after-market model that has an AM/FM radio, a CD player, a USB slot for MP3s (<cough>and WMAs<cough> and an HD radio. It's also Bluetooth-ready, but I don't see me using that immediately. Schweet! TruckWerks has some trés decent tunage now.
The unit is a Dual XHD6425 and cost just north of $220 after a dash insert, an antennae, and installation. The $100 BCM (Body Control Module) that I had to buy to ensure that panel lights and door chimes and the like continued to work was a pisser; I just finished replacing that in early August after the original one failed. You can read all the gory details about the radio if you're interested. It might mean more to you than it does to me.
What matters to me is that I can pick up more than the two strongest radio stations in the valley and that I don't have to listen to the radio at all. The big plus is the ability to play MP3s from a USB stick or a CD. The only downside is that the MP3 player can only deal with ID3v1 tags. This isn't a big problem because it is easy enough to convert between ID3v1 and ID3v2, but the limitation does surprise me.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 23:15 2008-10-04 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Northern Room (Music)
My newest musical discovery is Northern Room. Here's a sample, titled We're On Fire. They remind me a lot of early U2.
What I like about Northern Room is their layered sound, solid melodies, and thoughtful lyrics. Oh, I like their "rockin' groove" too. I suppose they fall into the indie or alternative rock genre, but I don't claim to understand the proliferation of genres and don't think it matters much, either. I like their music, and hope you will, too. It doesn't look like they tour much outside of the upper Midwest, yet, so I'm not likely to see them live anytime soon.
Enjoy.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 19:00 2008-09-13 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Trance (Music)
I've long had an affinity for electronic music, being an early fan or Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarré, Ray Lynch, and others. A pleasant surprise has been how much I like that brand of dance or house music known as trance. This track (titled Forever Today) from Tiesto is representative of the genre, at least to the degree that any single song can represent a genre. Tiesto himself is one of the premier trance DJs in the world.
What I like about trance is the steady beat and the melodic form of crescendos and transitions leading to the next part of the song. I also like the often rich, symphonic flavor that characterizes much of trance and and which betrays trance's roots in electronic music. What I like about electronic music is the range of sounds and effects, many of which just aren't possible with "normal" instruments. Maybe I'm just twisted. I'm certainly not acting my age—I ought to be listening to the current equivalent of Lawrence Welk.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 00:07 2008-05-03 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
New (to me) Music (Music)
Lonni gripes from time to time about his "tradition of being about 6 months behind the rest of the world in discovering new good music." Good news, Lonni, I'm farther behind than you and will never catch up.
Seriously, no one could accurately accuse me of being anywhere near close to current in my familiarity with music and certainly not in my musical tastes. A list of the new-to-me music I've found since November of 2007 includes the following:
- Rolle
- try^d
- Hungry Lucy
- Mantrix
- Plain White Ts
- Nursery Crimes
- Paramore
- Marion Raven
- Voyager
- David Gray
- Glass Candy
- Burial
- Dijel
- Shannon Curtis
- Sandrine
- Roby Tav
- Katie Todd
Some of these I found on eMusic and some I found on Amie Street. The styles are all over the map, trance, alt rock, indy rock, pop, power pop. I guess that just means my musical preferences don't fit into neat 'n' tidy boxes. So, there you are, Lonni. You're not as far behind as me, so take heart! :-)
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:47 2008-02-10 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Screw RIAA (Music)
Nah, I don't want to mess with the MAFIAA, formally known as RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America. I'd probably catch something… Besides, it's more fun to watch User Friendly do it. I haven't seen any of these RIAA kiosks at the mall this shopping season.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 19:11 2007-12-20 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)