Albums

Arooj Aftab

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Welcome again to another round of, “More Musical Storytime, Less Musical Review”. For this week’s write up, I’m covering more, an Artist than a specific album. Specifically, Arooj Aftab, a Pakistani-American artist. I have two of her album, Vulture Prince, her third album, and the Record Store Day vinyl of Live in London.

Arooj Aftab really isn’t my normal “kind of music” though honestly, I don’t really even have a “kind of music”, as I have always just, enjoyed all kind of music. I’ve listened to plenty of pop, rock, country, hip hop, and, somewhat experimental style minimalist Pakistani music. Or whatever the genre here would be. Anyway, it’s time for a bit of fun story time.

Back in 2020, maybe 2021, it’s all kind of a blur, during the COVID lock downs, I started watching a lot of online concert streams, mostly artists I had heard of, since a lot of these were paid streams. I couldn’t go to any concerts, so why not at least support the artists and watch some online concerts instead. I’ve used a lot of different platforms for this, maybe one day I will do a run down of the options out there. In August of 2021, I was going to catch a stream for Molly Tuttle, a finger picking blue grass musician, performing at Red Rocks Amphitheater, streamed through a site Mandolin.com.

This was the first time I had used Mandolin.com, and unfortunately, the stream was riddle with issues. I don’t think an entire song was played in full during the entire stream. It kept dropping and breaking up. I wasn’t super worried about it or even particularly upset, these streams tend to have a pretty affordable entry fee, so no big loss. Mandolin ended up issuing a refund for the stream, AND a credit for future use within the next 6 months or so.

I kept an eye on their schedule for any other streams I would be interested in, but nothing really came up on my radar, and my credit came up on “about to expire”. So i picked a couple of shows that seemed like they might be interesting, one was Courtney Barnett and the other was Arooj Aftab.

For lack of a better way to describe the draw, after the brief bit of research I did, Arooj Aftab struck me as the kind of “weird hipster shit” that I tend to find appealing. And it turns out that it, well, her music kind of is. Also, don’t take the “weird hipster shit” as a derogatory, it’s just, an apt meme-ish description.

So anyway, I enjoyed the show. While perusing Bandcamp for music to add to my little list of “bookmarks for Bandcamp Fridays.” I found that Arooj Aftab has a page there and I decided to buy her (at the time), current album, Vulture Prince.

I hard to really get into the specifics of what I like about this album and it’s tracks, mostly because, half of it, probably more, is not in English. There are some English tracks, but it’s mostly sung in Urdu. Most of my judgement is on the music itself. Wikipedia suggests her style is Jazz and Minimalism, which I would agree is pretty apt. I just mostly find the songs quite relaxing. It’s all long drawn out vocalization and has a sort of “chanting” vibe to it. The musical parts of very light and rambling. It’s music you can just sort of sit back and get lost in.

Anyway, earlier this year during Record Store Day, I noticed there was an Arooj Aftab vinyl available, Live in London, and it was pretty affordable, it may have actually be the lowest priced item on the RSD selection, so I grabbed that as well. I think it only shares one track with Vulture Prince, but it’s a lot of the same sort of vibe and feel. It also is a nice looking red colored vinyl, though colored vinyls are kind of everywhere.

Anyway, if you’re looking for some interesting low key music to chill out with, Arooj Aftab can certainly fill that need.

Albums

Pink Floyd – The Wall

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I had such a good roll going on these album posts each week and then I got in a funk as I do, and fell off a cliff. Conveniently enough, Pink Floyd’s The Wall is an album I used to listen to frequently when I was “in a funk”, though not quite as much anymore these days. I mentioned last post that these are less reviews and more just writing about music I enjoy or have enjoyed, and The Wall is definitely one of my “top albums” for time listened to and how much I like it.

It’s also kind of up there for “number of times I have bought it”, but that’s not hard, as I don’t own too many albums more than once. I have the CD version, I have a live CD version, I have a copy on Vinyl, an old one not a reissue, possible even one of the original versions as it doesn’t have any text on it, just the Wall itself.

When I originally bought this CD is kind of a funny story. I was quite young at the time, and had gone to Best Buy I think with my dad and uncle maybe. I forget why they went, but I went browsing through the CDs, which at the time was a giant multi aisle set up, right up front. Like 1/4th the floor space of the store or something, which is funny because now you’re lucky to find am 8 foot section of CDs at a Best Buy. Anyway, I bought a copy of The Beavis and Butthead Experience (and I think maybe also Nirvana’s Nevermind). When I got home, my mom disapproved of Beavis and Butthead, so I was forced to return the CD, and instead, I bought The Wall. I would have been like 13 or 14 at the time. Funny enough, The Wall was originally released the same year I was born.

It’s probably better in the long run. Also, I eventually bought that Beavis and Butthead CD again, later. I’m also not real sure thematically that The Wall is much better than Beavis and Butthead for a young fresh teenager.

One thing I feel like this album really influenced in my music tastes is the idea of an album that “tells a story”. It’s certainly not the first rock opera ever, but it’s the first one I was really exposed to. To this day, albums with connected underlying themes, even if it’s a super loose connection, really strike my fancy. The Wall tells a story of a man (named Pink) who grew up with a shitty abusive childhood, who became famous, goes a bit crazy, and isolates himself behind a mental wall. At the climax his inner self passes judgement and he is able to break free. The album is also circular in that the end of the album runs seamlessly into the start of the album, allowing it to be run on an endless, connected loop, though that would have been tricky to do before digital media.

Albums with literally connected tracks, are also something I really like, and The Wall may be to blame for that as well.

The album is effectively split into two parts. On the CD version, this is split into the first and second CDs. The first half is the building of the wall, and an exploration of the character’s history and life up until that point. There are quite a few returning themes that run this thread, the most blatant of which is in the three versions of Another Brick in the Wall, which serve as brief interlude moments where previous trauma is compartmentalized off as “another brick in the wall.”

The second half follows Pink’s isolation and decent into a drug induced madness. The airy calmer tracks are intermixed with several sorrowful regretful tracks before Pink hallucinates he is a fascist dictator chasing down minorities at the peak of his delusions. World War II themes are one of the underlying themes of this story as well, the character’s father having died during the way, and several tracks referencing the destruction from the war. Eventually it climaxes off with the previously mentioned The Trial, where Pink is laid bare and judged for his crimes.

The circular nature of the album also is a nod towards how cyclic depression can get, where yes, our hero has broken free and come to his senses, but all of this previous trauma still exists and will come back to close the world off once more.

It’s not worth it’s own separate post, but it’s worth mentioning that the Live Album, Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81, is excellent as well.

There is also a music movie version out there, though it’s been a while since I watched it. I have also heard the live shows at the time of it’s release were incredible to watch, with huge puppets and anamatronics and such, but I would have been way to young to ever see it performed live.

Dark Side of the Moon seems to be the most popular album Pink Floyd has put out, but my favorite has always been The Wall by a long way.

Music My DIY Projects

Project – Record Shelf

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Since I’ve actually taken an interest in vinyl records, One thing I really wanted to do was build a simple little record shelf. This would serve two purposes basically. One, it looks cool. Two, it gives me another way to decorate the basement a bit. The concrete block walls are a pain to work with, especially the outside wall where all my music stuff is. The temperature changes mean nothing sticks to it long term. In other areas I’ve hung frames from the rafters using small chains. For this space, I’ve got a nice shelf I can use and swap out what’s on display as I get more records.

It wasn’t an overly complicated project, but it took longer than planned since my wife had the garage full of garage sale stuff and I couldn’t really reach any tools. Also it’s been blazing hot out, and I don’t care to work outside in that much heat. On the problem of the heat, probably sometime int he fall, I’ll drag the shelf and the lower shelving out and stain and seal it. Neither plays very well with the heat either.

The shelf itself is a handful of 1×4 pine boards. It’s a bit more complicated than it might seem at first. For starters, I like the look of inset joints over just using metal L braces, so I went and inset and glued the shelves inside the sides. This was a bit tricky because I don’t actually own any bar clamps. I also added the little back catch pieces under each shelf, so the albums wouldn’t be resting on the wall itself. This was slightly complicated because there is a power conduit running down this wall i had to work around. The shelves themselves are notched around the power conduit as well. I also only have so many clamps large enough to glue these, so it took like a week of “clue one piece then come back.”

Each shelf also has an angled groove cut along the length so the albums sit slightly down in the shelf and are more secure. The whole thing is screwed to the rafter above for support. In fact the whole thing is much sturdier than I thought it would be. My main worry is that the albums would tumble off, damaging the records, but now that it’s up, I actually am not worried about that at all. Everything is very stable.

Also, my original plan was to stick the CD holder I had been using back on the lower shelf, in front of the new shelf. I immediately hated this look. But I also realized that there was a small gap near the bottom, so I added one more smaller shelf to put (most of) the CDs on. I really liked this end result. Plus the board I used here was a different type of wood that was just around, and it’s a much sturdier type of wood than the pine, so I didn’t end up needing to add a center leg like I had worried I might need to do.

I suppose it’s also worth noting the equipment itself. The entire set up is pretty minimal. Everything is centered around this small mixer and amp combination.

I originally bought the mixer for use at my PC, I wanted to be able to play games on one machine, and watch a video on another machine, and merge the audio out one headset. That didn’t really work out to be as useful as I had hoped, but instead I get to use the mixer for my music instead. The amp I bought to go with some nice JBL speakers I had, that needed 2 wire connections to work, also connected to the PC originally. Except I never ever use anything but a headset on my PC, so it was a waste.

Connected to the Mixer are the input options. They can be played all at once, since it’s a mixer not a switch, but I’m not sure why you would want to. There is a Raspberry Pi hidden under the little shelf that connect to my music library and can be controlled remotely via a webpage. I have this kind of mediocre CD player that I’ll probably replace one day with something better, but still compact. Even a portable CD player would probably work better. There is also an Amazon Echo connected, but since Amazon jacked up their music service, I don’t use it as much. I also have an aux cord hanging off for connecting to a phone.

Lastly is my record player, which I bought at a garage sale. It works pretty well for my needs though. It’s an Audiotechnica AT-LP60, nothing fancy.

Lastly I have this recently acquired audio switcher. Right now I just have the one set of speakers, but at the very least, it will be easy to add a second set outside so I can listen to music while out on the deck or porch under the deck out back. The output selector will make this much easier to accomplish and it’s something I’d thought about getting at some point before, then I came across one at an estate sale.

Albums

Oliver and Company Original Soundtrack

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This is where I drop a slightly less than subtle reminder that technically these little music posts aren’t really reviews or recommendations and more just, what I like with a bit of my own “musical journey” sprinkled in.

The last bit is where today’s entry falls in.  The Oliver and Company soundtrack has a vaguely special place for me, not for being overly notable, or even that I enjoy it a lot.  It’s the first album I ever purchased, technically.  Released back in 1988, and probably purchased around that time.  I have vague memories of it, I bought (or maybe it was a birthday present or something) a portable cassette player, and of course, I needed some music to go with it.  I remember deciding on the Oliver and Company Soundtrack.  I will add, I know that I also had the TMNT Movie soundtrack very early, so it’s possible that it was purchased at the same time.  I want to say I was with my grandparents and after picking what I was spending my allowance on, they may have purchased the other to go with it.

I still have the cassette tape.  Though I don’t seem to have the TMNT one anymore.

I suppose it’s worth mentioning the movie a bit.  I have, almost zero memory of the movie itself.  It’s a Disney retelling of Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, only instead of people orphans, it’s about stray animals.  Oliver is a little kitten, his friend Dodger is a dog, of some kind, played by Billy Joel.  It almost feels like a bit of a prototype for “modern Disney” musically.  Yeah, even the older Disney movies had plenty of music, but it feels like this was the first time they tried to really push a Pop song for the soundtrack, with Why Should I Worry by Billy Joel.  The next animated film they did with The Little Mermaid was the one with the real hit music soundtrack though.  Like I said, it felt a bit like a prototype for this concept that would become kind of the cornerstone of Disney films afterwards.

Anyway it consists of 11 tracks, 6 of which I remember not really caring for because they were “boring music” (instrumental) tracks.  Basically, I’d always just listen to one side of this tape, then rewind it instead of flipping it over.  I probably didn’t even make it all the way through the first side though.  I don’t think I really cared a lot for the Bette Midler track, Perfect Isn’t Easy, and the follow up Good Company isn’t really a rocking pop hit either.

It almost feels like I didn’t really like this album at all, though I am sure I did, because listening to it again, before writing about it, I still remembered a lot of the lyrics, especially to Why Should I Worry, which is basically the “stand out hit” of the entire thing, and probably the movie.  I mean, the hired Billy Joel to voice a cartoon dog, and it feels like they did it to get him to provide this song for the soundtrack.  As of this writing, Billy Joel has 52 acting credits on IMDB, and Dodge from Oliver and Company, is the ONLY one where he isn’t credited as playing “Billy Joel”.

Anyway, the two non instrumental tracks I have not mentioned, One Upon a Time in New York City and Streets of Gold are also alright, with Huey Lewis doing the former and Ruth Pionter doing the latter.  Streets of Gold and Why Should I Worry are definitely the stand out tracks though on this soundtrack though.

Albums

Orla Garland – Woman on the Internet

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I’m a few years behind I suppose, but it’s worth mentioning that Orla Gartland’s debut album, Woman on the Internet, was my favorite album of 2021. Orla Garland is one of those artists that I cam to from another, as she is also Dodie’s guitarist and friend and so listening to Dodie, lead me to listening to Orla. The overall feel and tone of Orla Garland’s music is much different than Dodie’s though, it’s much much more upbeat and rock and roll, though it does share a lot of the structural characteristics of ups and downs and clever lyrics that I enjoy from Dodie’s music. I have no idea if there was any level of cross collaboration there, more that just, there is a subtle style going on that definitely has rubbed off one way or the other, or probably both ways a bit.

Though this is her first full album, Olra has had several EPs previously and regularly publishes snippets and unfinished/unreleased songs on her Patreon. I mention the Patreon only to mention that it’s literally the only Patreon I have ever subscribed to. It’s also probably worth mentioning that though I am only writing about the regular release, there is a deluxe version available as well which contains a few more tracks.

Though there is no track called Woman on the Internet, the album title does show up as a lyric and kind of, underlines a lot of the themes present in this album’s tracks about just how “fake” a lot of online people tend to be about a lot of things and how people try to strive to be like them, even if they don’t realize it. The intro track Things That I’ve Learned, feels like it sets a sort of baseline for this, and the theme is a bit ramped up in More Like You later on and comes to a bit of a head later on the album in Pretending. Pretending is probably my favorite track on this album as well, I really just love the whole theme and tune behind it.

Another good track is track 2, with You’re Not Special Babe, a nice fast paced track that makes clever use of it’s title. It’s not really what one might expect, it’s not saying you’re not special because you’re stuck on yourself, or you’re not special and are a loser, it’s more that, you’re not special, in being the only one with problems and issues. As the lyric goes,

Everyone cries, everyone lies Everyone hates you Everyone’s so scared of the future, it’s true

Essentially, everyone has bad days and times and all in all, you’re doing fine, and it will be better. Another track that kind of runs with this theme of “getting better” is Zombie!, When everything seems awful and just bottle it all up because it’s what’s expected and live like, well, an emotionless zombie.

Another one I particularly like is Codependency, which has some nice hits and ups and downs in it’s structure and an interesting theme that feels a bit like a blame game but then accepts that it’s a problem that goes both ways and that’s why it works out. As a wrap up I also wanted to call out the last track, Bloodline/Difficult Things. Which feels like an interesting topper to all of the turmoil of drama across the album, it has a touch of Orla’s own history wrapped in, but I particularly like the lyric “Skip a beat in the bloodline,” which kind of feels like the idea of breaking a bad family cycle.

All in all I just really dig Olra’s overall sound and I’m really looking forward to her next album. There’s lots of interesting emotion behind the lyrics and a lot of fun structure and shifting to the melodies and beats.

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