Friday, January 1, 2010

Adios 2009!

It's that time again, to look back and reflect on the music and events from the past twelve months. Staggeringly, I acquired almost twice as much new music this year compared to 2008, largely through the discovery of web sites and blogs that make available bootleg radio broadcasts. This had the unfortunate side effect of reducing the number of netlabel releases that I was able to absorb, because there are only so many hours in the day. However, it also had the impact of increasing the amount of contemporary classical music I heard, since most of the boots were otherwise unrecorded new music. A somewhat depressing consequence is that I looked over the list, and several times asked myself, what's that? I don't remember anything about that one!

Another shift in my listening habits, especially in the last quarter of the year, is that I've started listening more to CDs than downloads. I've been a staunch advocate for downloads for years, and even got into a bit of a flamefest on the ambient mailing list on the subject. And yet, it bothers me that I listen so much to downloaded music in preference to recordings that cost considerably more than the downloads, and which sit largely forgotten on the shelf. This change in attitude is perhaps a response to emusic's two-pronged price increase, not only charging 40% more per download, but forcing the use of twelve credits for an album if the album has any tracks longer than ten minutes. Even though I've kept my subscription, and even though I recognize that paying a quarter for an album is unfair, the luster has fallen off the pumpkin with this service.

Albums that made an impression this year (album links to reviews I wrote) include:


I eagerly look forward to the new music of 2010, and wish everyone a happy and safe new year.

3 comments:

Notice Recordings said...

Hello.

You mentioned listening to a lot of old bootleg radio broadcasts online. I've been meaning to delve into this for quite some time, although not quite sure which site is a good starting point.

Could you recommend any ?

Thanks !

Evan

Caleb Deupree said...

The best I've found is Dime a Dozen, a torrent site. They have a set number of users, and I had to register three or four times before I was able to get an account. The site contains no commercial recordings, and lots of new music completely unavailable on recording elsewhere.

Good luck!

rik said...

Thanks so much for including "tactile" in your year end list, I'm very flattered to hear that you like it!

rik
mara's torment