A Year In Songs Heard on Fast Trains 15 years ago
Posted in SHOFT on Sunday 26th December 2010 at 9:14am
I agonised over the wisdom of posting a list like this. The drawbacks were of course very apparent - I open myself to accusations of whimsy or elitism with some of my choices, or I miss out something I really liked and realise too late. However, since 2010 is the year I've purchased more music than for any in the preceding decade, it feels important to mark the occasion. I've tried to list things I've listened to most - because that seems like a fair test of how much impact they've made. This does of course miss the acts which have released less music this year but have been very much on my list - honourable mentions to White Heath and French Wives for instance. Also, there are many others just outside the top twenty who I'd love to have included - but there have to be some self-imposed rules or these things would never work.
I make absolutely no apology that this list is largely of Scottish musicians. I've spend an inordinate amount of the last year north of the border on a variety of trips and missions, and this has left it's mark. Also, there is a genuinely supportive network of musicians in Scotland who, as one starts to explore, suggest and link to countless others. That this sprawling and sometimes incestuous network functions on a genuinely human scale is amazing and inspiring to me. Before I knew it, my old preferences for things Scottish had reawakened with a whole host of new talent. There are of course some remarkable artists from elsewhere around the world on the list. There is also an equally impressive network of Scottish blogs which serve this diverse scene - including Peenko, Aye Tunes and the truly inspiring Glasgow PodcART - all of which nurture and promote talent with fervour and humour.
I also make no apology about the downbeat, often acoustic bent of this selection. It's the kind of year it's been - and while there have been some fantastic released by louder or more electronic acts, they've just not achieved the place in my heart that these have.
So, here then are the things which have inspired, delighted and consoled me during the year. Wherever possible, I've tried to link them to a place where you can hear the music almost straight away and completely for free. This has sometimes meant using bands' Myspace pages - which are now rendered pretty horrible by the new platform, but at least allow access to the music. I hope there's something in here which others find equally entrancing...
- Meursault – All Creatures Will Make Merry
- Admiral Fallow – Boots Met My Face
- Burnt Island – Music and Maths EP
- Kid Canaveral – Shouting at Wildlife
- Randolph’s Leap – Battleships and Kettle Chips EP
- Timber Timbre – Timber Timbre
- eagleowl – Into the Fold EP
- Yusuf Azak – Turn On The Long Wire
- Thirty Pounds of Bone – Method
- The Scottish Enlightenment – St. Thomas
- Esperi – Made For Life/Snowman
- And So I Watch You From Afar – The Letters EP
- The Unwinding Hours – The Unwinding Hours
- I Build Collapsible Mountains – A Month of Lost Memories
- Endor – Endor
- The Last Battle – Heart of the Land, Soul of the Sea
- Maple Leaves – Golden Ether EP
- The Savings and Loan – Today I Need Light
- Thous and Thees – Last Recordings EP
- Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou - Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou
When asked what I'd like as a gift this year, I had no ideas at all. Then, while browsing Amazon I remembered a neat little device someone at work had mention some time back, which would play streamed music from a PC via a wireless network. Having done a little research on Slim Devices' Squeezbox, I was intrigued to discover that it was powered by a clever little Open Source server which was actively developed for Linux in it's various flavours. I also noted some neat Internet Radio related touches, including the ability to access BBC Radio's 'Listen Again' catalogue without recourse to their painful web player. This was also one of the only devices of this or similar types which didn't seem to have a single bad word said about it anywhere. I was sold.
So far, things have gone well - the Squeezebox discovered almost all of its own network settings except of course the WPA key, the server software was simple to set up and the quality of the audio is excellent. I'm really impressed with how solid and well put together the unit and the remote control feel too. I had some brief problems with the box losing network connectivity today, but I think that was probably of my own doing, and some tweaks to network settings seem to have cured this entirely. If I lived somewhere larger, I think I'd be looking for one of these in every room. Time to buy more storage space and start digitising more of the collection...
I recall writing about the rather humbling realisation last year that the festive season was important, if only for the sense of belonging to a family. The past year has tested everyone one in my family beyond expectation, but despite even the most recent setbacks, we all turned out for what was perhaps the strangest Christmas Day on record for us. We overcame some of the practical problems, and managed to involve my father who was uncomfortably nursing his injured foot elsewhere in the house. Once again, my nephew stole the show and kept everyone on their toes. Perhaps the most rewarding time was a half-hour spent sitting on the kitchen floor playing with magnetic numbers on the freezer, with him repeating the numbers after me before sweeping them onto the floor. Surreally, he pronounced the 'equals' sign as 'eagles' which appealed to my sense of humour and ended with us both giggling uncontrollably.
Despite mostly living so close to each other, we're not often together for more than a few minutes at a time. Thinking back over the past year, and looking forward with a degree of trepidation, I'll confess there were moments when I could barely control my emotions this Christmas. Channelled some of this excess of energy into an endeavour my mother has long wished to undertake - the tracing of the family tree. So, spent much of today knee deep in Census records and mananged to trace a couple of the branches back to the 1850s, with the help of my grandmother's unfailing memory. I sense this project will start to involve and obsess us increasingly - and I'm already feeling a pull towards a small village in Worcestershire which seems to hold the key to my origins. Once again I'm substituting topography for spirituality.
I suspect that as a result of this entry I'll be asked once again if I'm a 'convert to Christmas'. Well, I'm not - there has been no Dickensian visitation here to cause a turnaround. I'm more convinced, in fact, than ever about my atheism. But a holiday when no-one has anywhere else to be but here is always going to be a good thing in my book.
Finally got around to piecing together the various spare parts I have lying around here, and resurrecting the Duron. With 256Mb of RAM and a 20Gb drive I got ridiculously cheaply on eBay, it makes a reasonably good machine.
Kicked off an ftp install of SuSE which didn't seem to work well. Eventually put Fedora Core 1 on to get things working. Seems fine.
Need to decide what to do with it...
Lost::MikeGTN
I've had a home on the web for more years than I care to remember, and a few kind souls persuade me it's worth persisting with keeping it updated. This current incarnation of the site is centred around the blog posts which began back in 1999 as 'the daylog' and continued through my travels and tribulations during the following years.
I don't get out and about nearly as much these days, but I do try to record significant events and trips for posterity. You may also have arrived here by following the trail to my former music blog Songs Heard On Fast Trains. That content is preserved here too.
