Life in Stereo

I've been meaning to type this up for my loyal fans, but I've just been too f*cking lazy to do it.

WOW! Have you ever listened to a really good song with headphones on and heard the spacial orientation of the instruments and the singer, etc? OMG, you potheads will know what I'm talking about.

It is only recently that I truly began to understand and appreciate stereo! I don't mean that object that sits on a shelf somewhere in your house, or in the dashboard of your car. I mean real stereo. The kind that can only truly be experienced while listening to music with a good, high quality pair of headphones on. My personal choice is V-Moda. They're about £50/$100 and they kick ass!!

After you break in the headphones (V-Moda) they have this wonderful quality about them that captures every little nuance of the music. I was listening to Nina Simone and it struck me like a Mac truck. I could hear every instrument individually, the flute, the 3 guitars, piano, harp, drums, etc., where they were in the recording studio, each move that Nina made around the microphone, each subtle note. I was blown away!! I quickly searched for more songs on my iPod that would allow me to experience this wonderful feeling. I found more, and each time was just as brilliant as the first. Each of the older songs I had on my iPod sounded so clear and real. Sadly, the newer songs did not.

I'm not sure what it is about today's "modern" music, but I just don't get the same sense of space I do from songs of the 50's, 60's and 70's. It's sad really. We're losing out on such a great sensory acuity. Today's music is mechanical and sythesized. There's nearly nothing real about it anymore. Every instrument comes through each speaker with only minor variances in time and space, giving what can only be half-heartedly called stereo.

Supposedly our lives are easier and much better than they were yesteryear, but this is one of those cases where I would say it's better to be stuck in the 70's than to be in the 00's (or whatever the term is for this decade). We guppies are losing out on something our parents had and cherrished. They knew what music really was, and how it should be listened to. Now we have these suits in charge of the corporate machines churning out song after shitty song looking for the one song that will make them money, rather than taking the time to invest in talent and make REAL music. I'm not saying that all of the so called artists today are shite, but the vast majority of them are. They're canned, cookie cutter images of something that worked once and that the recording industry is hopeful will somehow come back into vogue. Why do you think rap is making it big? These guys are true artists. I'm not supporting them, god knows I hate rap, but they seem to be the only people out there that have anything new and exciting to offer.

Anyway, if you haven't experienced the wonders of stereo in your own private space, I highly suggest you get a really good set of headphones and download, or if you're still able to cuz you're old school, buy the vinyl. Listen to a good song and experience that wonderful feeling if being right in the studio with the artist as they sing, wail, and generally produce some of the greatest aural sensation you'll ever have the joy of hearing. Or you could just smoke a fat one and let your mind do the sound mixing for you.

Cheers!