|
Everything In Its Right Place |
|
|
|
|
Written by Chris Hess
|
|
Wednesday, 06 January 2010 |
|
Music will not stop moving.
There was a time when releasing an album was something very special. It still is to some folks.
Hard work goes into them. Creative energies. Late nights. Some
fretting, probably. It could take months or years. Now, though, with
technology at our side, with r ecording happening in apartments and
bedrooms and other small spaces (which is beautiful, don't get me
wrong)...the music is coming at us so very fast. We hardly have time to
digest the latest before the next wonderful thing is discovered. It
seems - in some circles at least - artists & their albums are not
given time to take root. This month's or week's discovery will give way
to next month's or week's. Almost disposable.
Being a being that reads music blogs and listens to music podcasts and
critiques music as part of my living, I find myself trying to keep up
at a ridiculous pace. Part of this is self-imposed nonsense. Part is
the pressure to be on the hip-train. But part of it is just the current
state of what seems like everything.
Kid A by Radiohead is an album that has not left me since its release 9
years ago. I bought the CD. In a pinch, I bought the MP3s. After
deciding to assemble a record collection made up only of albums I want
to pass on to my kids, I recently bought the vinyl.
Kid A was written by the band in the midst of a season of overwhelming
strain brought on by the success of OK Computer, itself an album
inspired by the feeling of disconnection from the speed of the modern
world. Lead singer Thom Yorke was overwhelmed with what he called the
"fridge buzz" of the world...a constant background noise...an unending
hum he felt their music had become a part of. He couldn't bring himself
to write songs after OK Computer. It became apparent to the band that
they had to change everything.
Kid A is sparse electronic composition. Kid A is sparse lyrical
content. Kid A slows you in the moment. At times, Kid A is church.
The world will not stop moving.
The rate at which music is propagating is a snapshot of larger things.
I've never really paid much mind to the idea that art imitates life.
This, though, seems to be an appropriate time for that.
We are constantly hounded by the "fridge buzz." We seem to ride
frequencies through our days. Things must be done and we must do them
now...and then we must do more things. What was done yesterday is
replaced by what must be done now and if we are not doing and moving
and humming along something is obviously wrong.
Perhaps it is time to change everything.
Methinks Kid A has kept it's roots in me because of the thread of
slowness running through the songs. This slowness might better be
called peace. Changing things requires new methodologies which requires
learning which requires listening which requires being still.
Stillness. Slowness. Peace.
"SonHusbandFatherWhiskeyCoffeeMusicSweaters." A stream-of-consciousness compound word describing Chris Hess and what he enjoys. Chris also enjoys being the Executive Director of Everyday Joe's, a non-profit volunteer-powered coffee house & concert venue in Fort Collins, CO. He has not had much of anything published anywhere, except on the two blogs he maintains. Follow more of his streams at appendixej.com and/or whiskeyandcardigans.wordpress.com.
|
