Monday, June 05, 2006

We actually played games

I used to be rather ashamed of the fact when someone asked me what music I was into, I'd reply "bit of everything really". I hated this woolly non-committal answer and tried to develop an overbearing passion for a particular genre, which I did for dance music for a while. But then you'd talk to someone who was also into dance and they'd start compartmentalising it further - house, trance, hard-house, garage, old skool, the list was endless. And you'd get people, who would despise one form of repetitive beats over another - ridiculous, what's wrong with you people, they're all just there so you can take drugs and dance about like a loony, why do you have to keep separating yourself from others?

So now, rather pretentiously you might say, I say I'm into passion music - music created, performed and recorded with a passion: country and western, jazz, techno, classical, pop, hip-hop, it doesn't matter, if I turn it on and think to myself in a geography teacher style, "that's got a good beat" then I'm sold. I was openly mocked for my appreciation of the Streets' first two albums, but it couldn't be denied that the guy had a passion and told us a story any working class lad could relate to - shame he's let the fame and fortune go to his head and his third album is pants, but such is life.

My latest rediscovery is Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds* - I first heard it back in the late 80s when my bro brought home a heavily re-recorded cassette tape copy, but thanks to modern means a digital version came my way round about the same time old Nicolarse went to see a live performance of it - and it is truely one of the most electrifying pieces of modern composition I have heard. We've been obsessed with it since - putting it on full volume in the car is f*cking amazing. It really does skate that far edge of awe-inspiring magesty and huge self-indulgent, cheese-fest, but I just love it all, even the fact that it was blatantly done with american actors putting on a Dick Van Dyke style english accents. A true work of genius that restores your faith in the spirit of man.

*The website's pretty good gives you the story of how the album came about - I wouldn't listen to the mp3 snippets too long though - it keeps cutting off when it gets to the good bits and there's no "oooooh-laaaahh"s.

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