It's all about the vibe mate, guilty pleasure, Spotify

Ambient. A pretty constant thread in my newsletters so far has been ambient music which seems all so appropriate in the light of Parkinson's. There are various types of music different people hold up as a cure or more like I should say a temporary relief from symptoms, some of which we'll be exploring in the weeks/months to come. Ambient is the one for me which so far I can relate to and offers some welcome diversion, albeit perhaps a guilty pleasure for a die-hard rocker, metalhead, or whatever label I'm supposed to be wearing today. We're all pretty much the same really aren't we?

Listening habits...

CD. My listening time is split 3 ways. CD is easy/convenient. I have plenty, they don't take up much space, and I was one of many who were sold the lie back in the 80s that we could skateboard across our kitchen floor on a CD and no damage would be sustained. Forgive me a good old-fashioned LOL !

Vinyl LP. I've really enjoyed the vinyl renaissance of recent years, never got rid of my original collection and have enjoyed expanding it, despite it being a relatively expensive hobby. I do support the view that vinyl sounds best. It may be marginal in some instances but it's there and it's real. So in general I reserve my vinyl listening to 'golden time' when I actually have time to kick back with a Jameson's or more likely these days a coffee, crank up the volume and focus.

Spotify. Streaming of course has its enemies as the artist gets paid a very poor rate, that's well known and understood. Personally, I like to listen via Spotify when in my office, and I have a decent mid-range quality bluetooth unit for that purpose. Some days I select something I want to hear, some days I just let Spotify run via the 'daily mix' and features like that, where it plays something it thinks I like based on the 'algorithm' learning my taste. That way I can find something new - a band I've not heard of before, or a reminder of a long-forgotten classic.

Here's an example of why I like Spotify... I like Tangerine Dream, by far my favourite ambient band over the years and as a result of that on a Spotify daily mix feature the 'algorithm' chooses to play me some music by a band called Marconi Union. They are a Manchester band, my home city, and yet I've never heard of them before. I like what I hear and investigate further. I look at the band's website, and before long I'm listening to them often on Spotify, and a little later I have one of the albums added to my vinyl collection. Then we (Lynne or myself, I cannot remember which) notice the band is playing Manchester so we buy tickets. There is a further vinyl I want and will be buying that soon. To cap it all, the venue they played last night, a very cool vibe kind of place called The Yard (Cheetham Hill district), was previously unknown to me, again despite being in my home city. I would go there again, no hesitation, nice place and very friendly staff.

Notwithstanding, the concerns about Spotify / remuneration for bands which is understood, I think this shows how it can work well for everyone in the loop. Oh and by the way the lasers were out in force as seen in the photo! Again taking me back to Tangerine Dream days.

By the way don't forget SOS Festival is not that far away now. There's been a recent uplift in ticket sales so you might want to bag yours before too long. The line-up includes some ace independent artists fully deserving of your support and most-of-all it's incredible value. Here's the link...