|synaptic disunion|

Monday, April 21, 2008

chronic stereophonic...

Headphones. Some music is just better this way.

I remember, about ten years old, lying on my back in my grandmother's house on Sunday afternoons between church services, dipping into my older brother's collection of Pink Floyd vinyl. I'd lay there, tripping on the audio with classic 1970s stereophonic headphones that covered my entire ear. Every whispered word. Every soft thump and muted sound effect and back masked mystery, in my ears. Dark Side, The Wall, Meddle. Head music, for sure. For a ten year old, fodder for imagination. This era in my life, is probably one of the many reasons I'm the way I am now.

Zip the tape forward to today. It's been a while since I indulged in headphones, yet the same holds true. However, the difference is, mobility. I must have missed the whole Walkman era, because I don't remember being musically mobile before, with the exception of the car stereo or the annoying boom box. With the car stereo, however, road noise can cover subtlety. Sometimes, you don't even know how much you've been missing because of distraction and the intrusion of environmental noise.

I am, as many of you know, the happy recent recipient of an iPod Nano from Phil over at A Family Runs Through It (stay-at-home homeschooling dad and philanthropist). Listening to some of my collected musics on this device has been ear opening. For some, it's like rediscovering the music all over again. For example, I can now hear every click, buz, whir and whispered vocal of every Radiohead album after The Bends (when they finally stopped pandering to the Pop world and started getting interesting). I can hear every finger slip, scratch of bow against guitar string, and quiet distant drumbeat on Sìgur Rós' album ( ). I can hear every scratchy and endearing imperfection of the mellotron when it's used by either Porcupine Tree or Steve Hackett. In short, I think I'm hearing exactly what the artists wanted me to hear, for the first time.

CORRECTION: My wife corrected me in the comments section so I believe I should just come clean and mention that it was not actually ME who won the iPod Nano, but my wife. It is through the loving generosity of my wife who has allowed me to borrow HER iPod Nano that I am able to listen to all this wonderful music. Thank you my love!

Labels: music

: toadman : at Monday, April 21, 2008 |