[-empyre-] blast from the past :: listening habits

["Trace Reddell" <treddell@du.edu>]

> i think it would be interesting to hear what others members of this panel
> and list enjoy listening to and why.  do you listen to relax?  do you
listen
> intently (analysing what you are hearing), or do you listen as background?
> do you listen to music/sound that makes you feel good, or that shares
> something in the way you think (i.e. lyrics that you identify with).

I wanted to resurrect this thread from the past, as I too am interested in
what everyone listens to and why/how.

I'd say I listen for all of the reasons John lists: relaxation, intent
listening, background to dishwashing. My tastes are eclectic (currently
immersed in The Clash's _Sandinista_ again after many years), and I don't
equate a certain type of music with a certain listening mode (e.g.,
microsound for intent listening, post-punk-dub for dishwashing). I do find
myself having less time for intent listening (two kids in the house now!),
but when I do, I'm usually drawn to lyrical stuff right now, particularly
narrative lyrics (Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" and "Darkness
on the Edge of Town", The Smiths, Talk Talk's "Colour of Spring" and
"Laughing Stock"). Much of my listening happens while busy on the computer
building a web site for a project or writing or emailing.

Most microsound I listen to is my own, though I consider "own"-ership
somewhat questionable. That is, I usually try to enact a situation (such as
translating .txt data into MIDI) for musical generation that I can then
listen to as it unfolds and, as it were, performs itself. I try to engage
this process, multiple times, in a way that lets me filter out the more
interesting results and mix from there into a single track. This is how all
of my work up on the microsound projects has come about, as well as the De
Quincey piece on Stasisfield.

I guess what's interesting to me about this question is the reminder that
much of what I listen to has very, very little to do with what I produce.
I'm certainly not listening to Tom Waits or The Clash looking to mine out
samples and such. And I don't create rock-ish sounding microsound or glitch
tracks, though one piece did bear some resemblance to the sonic mood from
one of Talk Talk's Phill Brown productions.

Anyone else exploring the discrepancies between what/how they hear and
what/how they produce?

-=Trace