David Hughes

Notes From Afar

Tag: Music (page 1 of 12)

3 December 2023

Weeknote 3rd December 2023

Rubber Soul

I’ve been listening to Rubber Soul by The Beatles this week. I normally listen to later Beatles – Revolver onwards – but thought I’d listen backwards through their catalogue.

I found Rubber Soul interesting as it feels like a transitional album, a stepping stone between the earlier I Wanna Hold Your Hand pop Beatles to the later Sgt Peppers, spending months in the studio psychedelic Beatles. Well worth a listen.

Saved By Alexa?

I don’t often dream, my wife says I do but don’t remember them as everyone dreams but I’m not convinced.

Anyway, I had a fascinating dream about different AI’s going rogue, each had a cool name I can’t now remember and I was just about to be killed by one when I was woken by the alarm I’d set on our Alexa. Spooky…

Books On A Train

I’d set an alarm as I was once again being dragged into the office.

The train I have to catch is always very busy and this trip was particularly annoying as I had to sit next to a non-commuter.

You can always tell somebody that isn’t used to commuting; they sit there in their coat, with their bag on the floor not the luggage rack, keep checking the time and which station we’re stopping at and generally take up too much space. When you’ve commuted for a while you learn how to coexist in relative peace with your fellow passengers.

This non-commuter did have one saving grace – he was reading a book, a real paper book.

This made nostalgic for when I started commuting in the days before Kindles and watching video on your phone which seems to be far more common now, when people read honest to goodness books.

It was fascinating as you could see what people were reading and what book was popular, I’ll always remember being on the tube and almost everybody seemed to be reading The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman.

15 October 2023

Weeknote 15th October 2023

Bristol

The beginning of the week saw me back in Bristol for a couple of days of workshops with Nomensa, a creative agency I’m working with.church tower lit by setting sun

Monday night we had dinner at The Coconut Tree an excellent Sri Lankan restaurant – superb food and lovely service.

Tuesday night I was flying solo and headed over to Wapping Wharf, a very cool collection of restaurants and bars all inside shipping containers.

I’ve always loved Bristol. My Dad was evacuated from London to the West Country and grew up in and around Bristol. He moved back to Bristol after a short period back in London and met my Mum when they were both working at Bristol University. As a child we used to visit my Dad’s mum, spending weekends in Bristol, Bath and Keynsham.

Bristol was weaved through the early part of my life, and it’s been lovely reconnecting with it over the last couple of  years.

London

Thursday I was in London for Interact, Nomensa’s annual UX conference. It was a really good day of talks and great being at a conference I wasn’t running. I wish I’d thought to count the number of times AI was mentioned, as a drinking game it would have been carnage.

90s rave detroit techno wednesday morning

Spotify mobile ui showing daylist called 90s rave detroit techno wednesday morning Spotify has a cool new feature called daylist and I’m really enjoying it. Your daylist is an automatically generated playlist that changes through the day with morning, afternoon, evening and night versions based on what you tend to listen to at that time on the day in question.

So far my daylists have been pretty good with a nice mix of old and new tracks. My only concern is that if I then listen to the daylist it will confirm to the bot that is what I listen to and gradually reduce the new and prioritise the listened to, which I’ve always felt is the risk of AI generated playlists and timelines – confirmation bias induced ever decreasing circles.

The daylist names are entertaining in their own right:

  • analogue minimal techno monday afternoon
  • krautrock motorik thursday early morning
  • groovy eclectic friday afternoon
  • frutiger aero breakbeat Saturday night
  • bells instrumental afternoon

Mind you confirmation bias induced ever decreasing circles isn’t a bad name for a playlist either…

27 March 2021

While Prince’s Guitar Gently Weeps

When Prince died in 2016 one performance more than any other was shared online, and surprisingly it wasn’t one of Prince’s own songs.

In 2004 Prince joined Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Dahni Harrison in a once in a lifetime performance of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, to commemorate George Harrison’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Prince nearly didn’t play as Harrison’s widow Olivia originally wanted only performers that had known George to perform. Olivia was convinced by Tom Petty to let Prince play and boy did Prince play, transforming the song completely and wonderfully.

I love this performance, and I love it even more now having stumbled across the comment below on YouTube, which explains exactly why Prince stole the show in the way only Prince could.

A good friend of mine was P’s Guitar Tech for some years around this time and was working this very show. He was told that when he caught the guitar at the end, he was to give it to Oprah Winfrey. (In the original broadcast it cut to her looking bemused and astounded.) It DID come back down people…LOL

There was just one rehearsal the night before the show proper, and Marc Mann basically ran riot over the two spots Prince was originally asked to take (middle and end solos). Despite concerns and apologies from the Production team, he was nothing but gracious about it, and told them not to worry and it would all work out fine. As we know, it did – and then some.

As for talk of Petty being pissed at him, not true. Yes, there’s one camera shot that seems like Petty looks annoyed, but not so. Watch closely, and in the next few bars they’re both smiling and nodding at each other, knowing this is “a moment” that should be relished as they were all in the zone doing George’s song such beautiful justice.

Finally, regarding the “showboating” that some people talk of, Prince was actually a major practical joker. Earlier that night, he noticed Dhani seemed in a somber mood – whether it was the occasion, thinking of his Father or both, Prince told him that he was going to make it his mission to put a smile on his face by the end of the evening. So when you see Prince fall backwards off the stage into the brace of his bodyguard, if you watch, you’ll see Dhani burst out laughing. That moment was for him. Nobody else.

Amongst everything else going on that evening, and during the middle of a performance like that, Prince wanted to lift someone up. THAT’S what that whole thing is about.

31 January 2021

The Return Of The KLF

Posters promoting the KLF coming to streaming on January 1 2021

In December 2020 fly posters appeared in Shoreditch London, announcing the return of The KLF.

Solid State Logik 1, was released onto streaming platforms and YouTube on January 1st 2021 and is the closest release yet to a greatest hits.

I love that Solid State Logik 1 ends with their legendary, and previously unreleased, BRITs performance of 3AM Eternal with Extreme Noise Terror, which concluded with a voice announcing “ladies and gentlemen the KLF have left the music business”.

After the BRITs the KLF deleted their entire catalogue of music which is why their long overdue return is big news to fans like me.

30 July 2019

Baby Driver – Cars, Choreography & Cool

I’ve always thought that when it comes to watching films expectation can be a double edged sword. Go in with high expectations and so often you’ll be disappointed, go in with low or no expectations and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Baby Driver was a victim of high expectations the first time I watched it; I love Edgar Wright’s films, but Baby Driver left me a little flat.

I watched Baby Driver again this weekend and really enjoyed it this time. I still think it loses its pace in act two, and Kevin Spacey’s change of character and heart seems a leap too far, but it’s such a stylish and fun film.

In multiple scenes Edgar Wright uses the fantastic soundtrack to great effect, synchronising the action and movement with every beat – it’s as if the music is an extra actor.

Just check out the opening scene where Wright uses Bell Bottoms from The John Spencer Blue Explosion to great comedic, character building and car sliding effect.

But the scene that has had me rewatching it on YouTube are the opening credits where Baby does the coffee run – keep an eye on the graffiti and shop names.

How fabulous is that scene? Every element, including the lyrics appearing on and around the street, is timed to perfection. So much fun and explains why a heist movie has a choreographer in the opening credits.

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