Well, no. Not that long. It’s only been four weeks now that I’d been sent away from my office to work from home (WFH), and thankfully I’m still working. Zoom is my absolute lifeline to the outside world, along with Roon+TIDAL. If you haven’t heard of Roon yet, you will (mainly because I’m going to write about it in an upcoming post.) But with all of my traditional, brick-and-mortar, touchy-feely record places shut tight for the foreseeable future, TIDAL is my musical lifeline.
One of the absolute killer features of Roon is its music discovery capabilities (think a much more sophisticated Pandora) that suggest music based on what’s in your library AND what you’ve listened to. It misses some times, but when it hits, it’s creepy how good the suggestions are. So, having set up a more permanent office in Wow and Flutter HQ (i.e., my old music room), I connected my Roon server to my vintage Harman/Kardon Citation Receiver and spend the first 5-10 minutes of my work day setting up an 8-10 hour queue of music for the day. Here are some new-to-me discs I’ve played over the past couple of days. Check ’em out:
Mixing Colours, Roger Eno and Brian Eno
Of COURSE I’m going to start with an Eno disc. This was just released as I was starting to settle in to my forced solitude, and it arrived at exactly the right time. The Brothers Eno have uncorked yet another beautiful collection of ambient music, this one having music Roger created as long as 15 years back, to which Brian added his sonic treatments.
Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo, Raul Lovisoni/Francesco Messina
This one came out of left field (actually, from one of a bunch of artist lists in a Pitchfork piece. This is a 1979 bit of “occult esoterica” from two Italian ambient music pioneers. Although it gets ever-so-close to ‘aromatherapy music’, it never goes over the line into Windham Hill territory. Recommended.
Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa
OK, I listened to this at the END of the day. This entire disc is a JAM, full of smart, danceable pop. This is her second studio album, and was planned to be released as part of a huge rollout, with a spot on the Glastonbury roster, and a big tour (all of which were, obviously, scrapped.) So, they took a chance and put it out. I think their gamble paid off. Highly recommended.
Recent Comments