iTunes Store hits Europe

Posted on 17 June, 2004 by adrian

After all the excitement, speculation and US-envy, the iTunes Music Store arrived in Europe this week. Or at least, the bits of Europe called Germany, France and the UK. For people in these countries, Apple have arrived rather late to the party; since the US-only launch of the Music Store last year, European listeners have been able to use a variety of competing music download services, including Napster, WebListen and the eight services under the OD2 umbrella. Still, Apple may have an advantage in that their service has acquired something of an iconic status in this field, as well as being linked with iTunes itself, still a truly excellent piece of software.

Now, I’ve blogged my reactions to the Music Store before, but that was without the luxury of first-hand experience. Today I decided to give the UK ITMS a try.

Browsing the list of tracks and albums available, I’m not impressed. It’s like being in a small-town branch of HMV or Virgin… all the really obvious stuff you can get anywhere. However, those little record shops at least have the excuse of limited shelf space and dumbed-down marketing policies; download services have far more potential for low-bandwidth obscurities. Once again, I did a few test searches, including the usual “Frank Zappa”. There are no actual Zappa albums (making me wonder whether the Zappa Family Trust just isn’t licensing Frank’s music to Apple) but they do have Jean-Luc Ponty’s ‘King Kong’. Although I own every Zappa album, I don’t religiously collect other people’s renditions of Frank’s music; however, I’ve been meaning to listen to this album for years.

Prices at the UK Music Store are fixed at 79p per song and £7.99 per album. While this is better than the 99p/£9.99 rate foreseen by a number of commentators last year, it’s still more expensive than the US store… 99¢/$9.99 = 54p/£5.50 at the current exchange rate. Still, not a huge burden for the old credit card…

Even for a broadband connection with no other bandwidth challenges, the download seemed incredibly fast. Apple’s reluctance to state the actual bandwidth of the downloaded tracks on their website always worried me a little, and sure enough, my downloaded Jean-Luc Ponty tracks turn out to be 128k AAC files. Now, AAC is reputed to sound better than mp3 at equivalent bitrates (personally, I can’t hear any difference) but whatever the codec, 128k represents a huge loss of audio data from the 1411k wav/aiff source. What’s more, it’s not great value when you’re paying for the stuff, and sure enough, my downloaded tracks have that one-dimensional, unengaging sound of low-bitrate compressed audio. Surely a tiered 128k/256k system wouldn’t be too complex to set up?

It’s nice to hear the Ponty album at last, and I’ll now be trying extra hard to find the CD. However, this is driven not only by the great music, but also by the poor sound quality of the Apple downloads. I’ll end up paying double… if I choose to be a fussy audiophile anorak, that’s my problem, but it’s easy to see how the various legitimate download services could be construed as just another record industry ploy to fleece the consumer, under the guise of Exciting New Technology.

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England f… (labbergasted)

Posted on 14 June, 2004 by adrian

What a strange evening. It started brightly, with a dismal 0-0 draw suggesting that the competition was almost over from the start for both Croatia and Switzerland. Then the big event started and for most of the first half (and the second, for that matter) everything was as you’d expect… cagey, with neither defence opening up much at all. Ledley King provided the perfect response to the critics, his selection justified with Thierry Henry’s every despairing lunge. Also the pressure on Zidane was just sufficient to cut off the supply to Trezeguet. Similarly, the French defence subdued Owen well and were realising the tactical usefulness of heating up Rooney’s fiery temper.

The goal, while marginally against the run of play, was fully deserved. Our defence had confined the French threat to the midfield, while our few chances had been far more direct. How appropriate that a dangerous, floating free kick from Beckham should be nodded into the net by one of our most promising young players.

Beckham’s penalty miss was a shame, but not, it seemed, a disaster. By this point, our defence were shutting out the French attack completely, our midfield starting to gain more momentum and confidence in our passing moves. Oh for the gift of second sight.

Sven will, no doubt, be criticised in the morning papers for bringing on Emile Heskey. I certainly can’t understand his repeated use of Heskey, who frequently fails even to fulfil the simple “big target bloke at the front” role. However, the French equaliser came from a reckless act of Heskey’s own volition, so I think Eriksson deserves some slack. With Makelele about to run straight into two England defenders, there was no reason for Heskey to “help out” by bringing him down from behind. As with Beckham, you just don’t want to give Zidane a free-kick opportunity like that.

Despite the disappointment, 1-1 would be a fair result, and the match was all but over. So it was particularly galling, irritating and downright gobsmacking to watch Gerrard’s inept (and needless) backpass. David James probably used up his luck in staying on the pitch after hauling the goalbound Henry to the ground… somehow, Zidane was never going to miss that penalty.

What’s sad is that the match will be memorable for our comedy of errors in the last three minutes. I only hope the squad (including the coach) will draw strength from the performance of the previous ninety minutes, where we silenced, and led, the most feared team in the tournament. Based on that, we should be able to tear holes in Croatia and Switzerland. I only hope Sven has learned something about team selection.

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Posthumously acting like royalty?

Posted on 11 June, 2004 by adrian

However much I try to put aside my political leanings, to see things objectively, I still fail to understand why Ronald Reagan’s funeral should be shown live, in full, on the BBC. Granted, he had an impact on political life in this country through his relationship with Margaret Thatcher, but he wasn’t unique in that. What’s more, it’s not as if that impact was a particularly positive one; last year’s war in Iraq wasn’t the first time it felt as though Britain was being used as a pawn in the chaotic foreign policy of a bumbling idiot, way out of his depth in the White House. When General Pinochet dies, will his funeral be on UK TV? Will Thatcher read a eulogy to him?

So, if those affectionately revisionist accounts of the dear old Gipper and the wonderful things he did for us all start to get you down, here’s a nice little antidote.

(Thanks to Matt for the link)

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A more organized approach to listening

Posted on 29 May, 2004 by adrian

From the “so much music, not enough time” category…

After interviewing Ronny Jordan for Guitarist magazine last week, I realised that I hadn’t listened to much jazz guitar recently and that I’d got this far in life without hearing Grant Green at all. So I’ve started to remedy that. Cool, funky, bluesy jazz guitar, frequently backed by such luminaries of mid-sixties jazz as Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner and Larry Young.

Similarly, it took me until the late 1990s to get into Nick Drake; this is less surprising, as I’m not normally a singer-songwriter type. Still, the new release ‘Made to Love Magic’ was a nice surprise, combining the meagre 1974 recordings with a few demos from Nick’s university days.

My overall approach to discovering music tends to be quite random. I might pick up new ideas by word of mouth or by seeing a support band at a gig, but more often than not, I’ll follow links from one band to another. While I’ve built up quite a comprehensive awareness of rock-based styles and a reasonable overview of jazz, my knowledge of (for want of a much better term) “classical” music has developed in a very patchy way, mostly huddled around the early 20th century, with a few choice composers added from other periods. So, I decided to remedy this. I’m currently reading a large single-volume history of music and (more importantly) supporting my reading with as much listening as possible.

I’ve just finished the chapter on medieval polyphony, for which the majority of available recordings are of music by Hildegard of Bingen and Perotín. Now, Hildegard is fairly well known, even outside of early music circles, but Perotín is new to me. The album by the Hilliard Ensemble is the best way of hearing this crystalline, serene music. The human voice can be a wonderful thing, y’know.

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London elections

Posted on 28 May, 2004 by adrian

Next month sees a flurry of electoral activity for London residents. The rest of you will have to entertain yourselves with the European Parliament elections, but down here, we also have to vote for members of the London Assembly and the London Mayor.

Having voted Labour since turning eighteen, I did the same in 1997, despite living in a tightly marginal Tory/LibDem constituency. I spent a slightly uncomfortable election night, terrified that my (frankly wasted) ballot paper would allow the dreaded Lady Olga Maitland to win by a single vote… luckily that wasn’t the case. By 2001, though, I was happy enough to vote tactically for the LibDems, and with my increasing disillusionment at a certain sector of the Labour Party, I’ll almost certainly do the same in the next general election.

With the London elections, though, the nature of the system means that candidates tend to campaign on a much narrower range of policies, allowing the voter to choose on an almost single-issue basis. My feeling is that there’s less of a need for strict party loyalty as there is (for many) in a general election. It’s like the mass Green vote in the 1987 Euro elections or the “government in seat loss shock” in just about every round of council elections… you can try something new, without worrying about the country being plagued by riots, military rule or falling house prices (delete according to political leaning).

Nonetheless, my best options in the London Mayor election turn out to be Simon Hughes or Ken Livingstone. I find Ken’s plan to extend the Congestion Charge area quite tempting; as far as I’m concerned, the scheme has done wonders for the general atmosphere in central London. However, I wonder whether we should leave things be for another year or so… extending the zone so soon could easily tip a lot of “floating voters” into the anti-charge camp.

Another of Ken’s ideas is to increase the number of buses on London streets. I’m always in favour of enhancements to the public transport system, but is there much point to this? Even in newly decongested central London, bus travel is unbearably slow; further out (even here in Zone 5) it’s thoroughly miserable at most times of day. If buses are to become a serious mode of transport once again, we’re going to need more (and longer) dedicated bus lanes, and that just isn’t practical with most two-lane city streets. Buses are fine for sprawling suburban residential developments, but hopeless in congested urban areas. The smart money needs to be spent on suburban train services, raising awareness of the less-used stations and, where necessary, tweaking the routes to provide alternatives to popular bus routes.

Of course, another solution would be massive investment in a series of craftily situated light rail networks, expanding and improving upon Croydon’s Tramlink, but I’m not holding my breath…

As for the other candidates, the only TV electoral broadcast I’ve seen has been the one by UK Independence Party. Most of the UKIP candidates in previous elections have been slickly upper-middle-class, conveniently distinguishing themselves from the BNP by the presence of pinstripes and the absence of criminal records, so it’s surprising to see the current crop. The wretched Kilroy is a Euro candidate, while boxing coach Frank Maloney is standing for Mayor. Among his confused and facile “man on the street” list of policies, Frank intends to abolish the Congestion Charge in order to “free car drivers on London’s roads”. Let me guess, Frank… you use a lot of taxis, right? Ever thought of getting out and walking? There’s enough in there to please the radical wing of the Daily Mail readers, but somehow I think it’s going to be the traditional three-horse race.

Posted in Local, London, Politics | Leave a comment

The real Qwghlm?

Posted on 21 May, 2004 by adrian

Interesting little bit of trivia for Neal Stephenson fans. Try typing the fictional place name “Qwghlm” into Multimap… the resulting map shows the village of Quholm in Orkney.

(thanks to Chris Applegate’s qwghlm blog)

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UKMG in suits!

Posted on 17 May, 2004 by adrian

Much drunken fun over the weekend, as several of the UKMG regulars were down in Wiltshire for Justin’s wedding. Lovely weather, picturesque setting, fine company…

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Oh no, there’s more!

Posted on 10 May, 2004 by adrian

Thanks for all the responses to the earliest musical memories meme. I figured most of us probably get a bit self-righteous about the wonderful music we have in our record collections, viewing all the Pop Idol-style plastic pap with a superior air of distaste. However, we all have to start somewhere, and as the various comments show, most of us started in the bargain basement ;-)

But anyway, I realised I was missing a huge chunk of my musical memories. Shortly after I got my little plastic record player, I was also given a small pile of old 45rpm singles, which had belonged to my Auntie Marion when she was young. Ah… to be 5 or 6 years old again, with no concept of what constitutes the “latest sounds”. These are the highlights I remember…

Jerry Lee Lewis, ‘Great Balls of Fire’

I can’t remember whether I played “air piano” to this, but I hope I did.

Stan Freberg, ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’

Old songs with hilarious comedy moments. I’m sure there was one called ‘Rock Around Stephen Foster’ and another called ‘Rock Around the Island’, too. I can safely say I didn’t understand any of the 50s US musical comedy references, but I still liked listening to these.

Rosemary Clooney, ‘This Ole House’ and ‘Mambo Italiano’

Yep, George’s aunt. When Shakin’ Stevens covered the former back in the 80s, I already knew the song. I was so retro. These songs were on a four-track EP, and the only other one I can remember from it is ‘Where Will the Baby’s Dimple Be?’, which doesn’t seem to be on the P2P network I use, so I’m saved from having to download that. I’m sure Rosemary would prefer it that way…

Winifred Atwell, ‘Poor John’ and ‘Piano Tuner’s Boogie’

Winifred Atwell was a Trinidad-born pianist (and trained pharmacist, trivia buffs!) who came to England in the late 40s, playing in clubs to fund her studies at the Royal Academy of Music. Her huge success in the 50s was based on popular songs and rags for the easy listening market, although she later concentrated more on classical music. The two songs listed above are the ones I remember best, although there was also a version of ‘Stardust’ which was just sooooo schmalzy, I couldn’t bear to listen to it.

And there you go. I think I’ve now remembered all of the tunes which filled my simple musical world during my first five or six years. I feel purged.

EDIT…

I don’t believe it. There’s more… thanks to Scoop‘s careless talk on #ukmg, I’ve just remembered how much time I spent singing…

Middle of the Road, ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’

That’s it. We’ve reached rock bottom. My work is done.

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The cowardly internet critic

Posted on 9 May, 2004 by adrian

One of the great things about the internet is that you can discuss anything with people from all over the world. However, when people exploit the potential for anonymity offered by the technology, the whole system is compromised. There is no level platform for debate; the anonymous party is, in effect, throwing stones from behind a wall. This is common knowledge, but it annoys me when it happens. Just a few minutes ago, I tried to respond to an email from someone taking me to task for something I’d posted on a newsgroup (alt.fan.frank-zappa)… only to find that he’d faked the email headers. So for your (and my cowardly correspondent’s) interest, here’s our oh-so-brief relationship…

>Feedback form result
>From: The rose (dimbar@mindspring.com)
>Message: I read your Absolute Zappa review.
>1st of all learn how to spell
>musician and 2nd of all you are a complete and uttter idiot.

You’re obviously a charming little chap, so let’s investigate this more closely. In my review, I spelled the word ‘musician’ as ‘musishnin’… this is a play on the comedy patois used by the Thingfish, the main character in the Zappa musical of the same name. Any Zappa fan with a broad selection of albums would recognise that. In general, a radically misspelled word in an otherwise correct text tends to point to some sort of comedy or referential usage, wouldn’t you say?

Regarding your second point… well, maybe so, and I’ll happily defend your right to say that. However, Mr Pot and Mr Kettle seem to have got their dirty little hands on your computer, and have craftily inserted the word “uttter” into your email.

All the best, Adrian

Posted in Drivel | Leave a comment

Earliest musical memories

Posted on 23 April, 2004 by adrian

Let’s see if we can get a little meme thing going here. What are your very earliest musical memories? Don’t cheat by naming the first cool teenage albums you bought; this has to be a cathartic experience for all of us. Here’s my list…

Suzi Quatro, ‘Devilgate Drive’

Ah… even without the benefit of adolescent hormones (I was 5) I knew Suzi was cool.

Gary Glitter, ‘I Love You Love Me Love’

I’m not sure about the exact song, but the general concept of Gary Glitter is clear in my memory. I used to grab a makeshift microphone (remember, kids… save the cardboard tubes from bog rolls) and *be* Gary.

Simon and Garfunkel, ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song’

Y’know… the one that goes “Feelin’ Groovy”. I don’t really remember hearing the song, which was a bit before my time, but I remember singing this (probably just the “Feelin’ Groovy” bit) with my Mum.

The Beatles, ‘She Loves You’

Ditto… I think the Beatles craze had pretty much died out by the time I was aware of music. My Mum used to sing this a lot, though.

Little Jimmy Osmond, ‘Long Haired Lover from Liverpool’

One of the most truly awful records ever. I probably loved it at the time.

Terry Jacks, ‘Seasons in the Sun’

I definitely loved this one; even now, it reminds me of being four or five years old on a hot summer’s day, when the best toys in the world were a plastic bucket full of water and a multi-coloured rubber ball. Aah… and that cool I-IIm chord progression, like on ‘Alright’ by Supergrass.

The Wombles, ‘The Wombling Song’

My first big musical heroes. I had two or three singles by them, including the hard-rocking ‘Bungo’s Birthday’. And I liked the orange/yellow CBS record labels, too.

‘Little Boxes’

“… on a hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky”. I don’t remember whose version it was. Pete Seeger did the original, I think, but long before I was around.

The Sweet, ‘Blockbuster’

I have a dim memory of getting out of bed, coming downstairs and being allowed to watch them playing this on Top of the Pops. I mean, it’s so cool, it has a police siren, and a proper American one at that! All songs should have police sirens, really.

When I was (I think) 5 years old, I got a chunky plastic kiddie record player for Christmas. It was probably made by Chad Valley (as all good things were back then). It came with a free record; a four-track EP from the ‘Top of the Tots’ series. I played it incessantly, burning detailed, indelible memories of the songs (which mostly were quite old) onto my brain…

Des O’Connor, ‘Dick-a-Dum-Dum’

A verbal diarrhea pastiche of swingin’ mid-sixties London. I downloaded this recently, just to revive the memories, and… it’s not all that bad, really. I don’t think I understood any of the lyrics back then… I mean, just what is the “Buckingham Beat”?

The Beatles, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’

I seriously doubt it was the Beatles version… probably a recreation by the Terence Fairbrother Pops Orchestra and Chorus, or something. Still, I’m glad I started life with at least one absolute classic in my musical psyche.

Hot Butter, ‘Popcorn’

The first ever techno record? Plinky plonky Moog sounds and a nice contrasting middle section. Until today, I never knew who it was by… check out the All Music Guide entry.

Clodagh Rodgers, ‘Jack in the Box’

An unsuccessful 1971 Eurovision entry, apparently.

So there you go. I’m really tempted to get hold of all of those and burn them onto a CD. There’s some pretty horrendous stuff there, but those songs have such great nostalgic resonance for me, I can barely think of them as crap or cheesy. Now tell me yours…

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