Ordo Ab Chao

It's good to broaden your musical tastes and one great way to do it is to get others to suggest the songs that have soundtracked their lives. Kinda like making a mix tape for your friends.. We're in high fidelity terrority here!

Rob: "The making of a great compilation tape like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick it off with a killer to grab attention. Then you gotta take it up a notch but you don't want to blow your wad. So then you gotta cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules. Anyway...I've started to make a tape. In my head, for Laura. Full of stuff she'd like. Full of stuff that'd make her happy. For the first time, I can see how that's done."
(from the movie High Fidelity staring John Cusack)

Recently I was forced to come up with a list of songs to be distributed to friends and colleagues over the next few weeks. Here's what I picked. Not going to comment on them, it's just like a musical snapshot of my life at the moment and whatever truths are here lie in the ear of the interpreter.

• Are You Going With Me - Pat Metheny Group


• Pink Moon - Nick Drake


• Free Falling - Tom Petty


• Samba Pa Ti - Santana


• Belfast (Original Version) - Orbital


• Into The Mystic - Van Morrison


• Natural Beauty - Neil Young


• She Is So Beautiful - The Waterboys


• Wild Flowers - Ryan Adams


• Get Down Make Love - Nine Inch Nails


• Step Outside in The Morning Light - David Kitt


• Lay It All On Me - The Black Crowes


• Electrolite - REM


• Zero - Smashing Pumpkins


• Gorecki - Lamb


• Whipping Boy - We don't need nobody else


• One/Take 5 - Rodrigo Y Gabriela


• Pyramid Song - Radiohead


• Nobody's Fault But My Own - Beck


• Go Down Easy - John Martyn


• The Man in the Station - John Martyn


• When the Stars Go Blue - Ryan Adams


• No More Tears - Ozzy & Zakk Wylde


• Redemption Song - Bob Marley

Rodrigo Y Gabriela are two young 20-something (I think, no time to check at the moment!) guitarists that form a two-piece specialising in classical/jazz/rock fusion. With blistering solo runs, intriguing harmonies, innovative use of harmonics and a wonderful percussive style on heavier numbers they prove that classical guitar really can rock. I recommend going to their website and downloading some of the sample tracks here. I met these two in small theatre in my home town of Waterford, Ireland and I think they're both pretty damn fantastic. Check it out.

I'm a big fan of the music of 70s singer songwriterjohn martyn as most of my friends will testify. In particular the album solid air (pictured) which never loses its magical quality no matter how many times I listen to it. John's wonderful and deeply expressive voice together with his stunning acoustic technique are something to behold in concert. So I was delighted to learn that he's playing in DeBarra's in Clonakilty, Cork on December 4th.
For those of you not familiar with his music here's a lyrical sample from "I don't want to know"

Sometimes it gets so hard to listen
Hard for us to use our eyes
All around the cold is glistening
Making sure it keeps us hypnotized
I don't want to know about evil
I only want to know about love
I don't want to know one thing about evil
I only want to know about love

Currently evaluating various digital mp3/wav based software mixing packages. Ots Turntables and Virtual DJ.
Current mixes include the (I can't believe what I'm hearing) Bacharach meets Beastie Boys meets the Prodigy... It's every bit as tongue-in-cheek bad as it sounds. Expect a Ch00n-tastic audio blog sometime soon :-P
Not ready to pick a winner yet but these are both excellent packages. Intuitive, powerful with excellent sound quality, tasteful effects and. I'm not sure I'd prefer them to a high quality CD mixing system from someone like Technics I have to say that they're relatively cheap and damn powerful. I think Virtual DJ will just shade it on features but I prefer the interface of Ots Turntables.

Virtual DJ wins hands down. The effects are amazing, the interface is really nice once you get used to it and it's very very powerful. I'd have no reservation in recommending this package to anybody who wants to try out mp3 mixing at home or professionally. I finally got to play around with it a bit today and I was very impressed. Haven't quite gotten used to it yet but I mixed up some music and uploaded it to the site in case anybody's interested. This should also test the RSS Enclosures plugin I've been playing around with aswell... The song is U2's Mofo mixed with Orbital's Lush3.1 and is available here Could be a smoother mix (by a long way) but it's not the worst...

Having finally gotten the hang of virtual dj I'm amazed how easy it is to create high quality mixes with a relatively ordinary computer equipment. This mix (Orbital and the brilliant Lamb)was done on my laptop which is an overclocked Rock Direct Extreme Edition. As before, audio files are identified using the RSS 2.0 enclosures tag for those at the bleeding edge. Be warned, it's a 9 meg download. Anyway, that's me done on mixing for a while. I'll get back to all things techie and scientific ASAP.

An amazing and very rare live version of John Martyn's Ana. Very stripped down, just the man, his guitar and his soulful voice. Haunting...It's available here on johnmartyn.net

Just picked this up on Linux Journal. Reviews of the best Midi apps for linux from the ubiquitous Rosegarden to seq24. The power of rosegarden has always impressed me. It supports Disposable Software Synth Interface (DSSI) and the LADSPA audio processing API enabling a wide range of plugins to be added (or even developed).. As a composition tool, it's usefulness is enhanced through support for the Lilypond notational format, it's pretty much the complete midi sequencer. If you're serious about music but not so big on linux then tough it out. Rosegarden is one of the reasons why I love free software.

Hyper-Ballad by Bjork from the album Post. Pure sonic heaven from everyone's favourite icelandic pixie. I know the image is from the album cover of debut but it's such a cool pic ;-)

Veneer by Jose Gonzalez. Yes, the lower-than-lo-fi album with the track from the sony bravia advert. He's very much in the same vein as Damien Rice except with a more restrained delivery and tastier guitar work. Not that Damien Rice is bad but Jose's guitar playing is very special indeed. Think of Robert Johnson playing flamenco and you'll have a feel for it. His pure and relaxed delivery of thoughtful lyrics is soothing and peaceful while edgier numbers recall David Kitt's excellent "The Big Romance" album. The whole effect is like a gentle stroll down your favourite street on a soft autumn day nuzzled by a light breeze and a warm feeling of contentment. Alternatively, just go and buy the album and listen for yourself.

Goes to "The ballad of Ronnie Drew". I can't quite believe this amusical dirge has been released. As I'm not from Dubin I don't have to worship Ronnie Drew like he's some kind of saint. It's certainly sad that the man is unwell but I don't understand how a collection of such allegedly talented artists managed to record such a dire song with its incoherent mutterings from Shane McGowan, more shouting from my namesake Damien Dempsey and Bono's new orleans gospel chorus. Those whoops have never seemed so out of place.

As for the Late Late Show performance. Pat the plank hosted a dub musical love-in without rhyme or reason. When I heard Bonio suggest that Ronnie was up there with Pavorotti in his singing ability I reached for the remote. He's a very average singer with a distinctive voice. No Luke Kelly either.

I know I've somehow "missed the point" but if Daniel O' Donnel had put out this rubbish Bonio and chums (Sinead O' Connor for F&(K's SAKE!) would be rightly slagging him but it seems the capital's musical elite think they're immune from criticism.

Fionn Regan's "The End of History". This singer-songwriter from Wicklow constantly reminds me of Nick Drake. I'd like to think history will bestow him a similar status but none of the tragedy. I remember reading an article by Bob Dylan a few years ago where he described accomplished singer songwriters who don't get the recognition their talent deserves as "secret heroes"

The album is lyrically sophisticated, elegiac and uplifting in equal measure. Humorous, poignant and musically nuanced. It's also "catchy" :) Perfect thing for a lazy Saturday straining under the weight of all those damn adjectives!