120312 Spotified or Radio 6'd, not sure

Continuing  the debate as to whether to stop paying  for Spotify, I just can't decide. This weekend is a very good example of why it is difficult.

On  Friday evening  we were listening to the unbelievably good Tom Ravenscroft show, which has a couple more days before its taken off line. The thing  is that its difficult to keep up  with what you  are listening  too, often the radio can't be bothered to say, now the website, and if he does speak it can easily be a series of vowels and consonants that often make little sense: Inigo Ugarteburu Aeraberan being  a particularly good case in  point. Even now i am not sure if i am correct, bu this may have been a brilliant tune.

So, on  saturday night i found the track lise for the show and decided that the closest thing  i could find to what i had written down the night before (i had written 'beringi el berengar' about 3 minutes after he had said it as by then a  second or even third track had been played and i had no idea what he was referring  to.

Yes, i do sit there with a note pad to write down things we listen to and talk about.

Anyway, staring  at the set list  of fridays show i decided that Casiokids Kaskaden, Ben Butler & Mousepad was what i had liked, and tried to find it in  Spotify - and couldn't. Though i did find Casiokids by Kaskaden but thats a different thing. (And who knew Bernard BUtler was doing  interesting  things with Mousepad, AND as a big big fan of my casio and what can be got out of it i liked the idea of the tune Casiokids. But it wasn't that. So i wondered down through the set list, thinking  that was where i had been listening.


And thats when i found Sugar Minott Ghetto Youths. But i dodn't play that. What caught my eye was Sugar Minott Exit Music. Surely no?! But yes, digging  deeper into Spotify it turns out that there is an album called Radiodread, what a fantastic name. And what a fantastic album, well mainly anyway. According  to wiki Radiodread 'is a 2006 album by the Easy Star All-Stars (on  backing it seems), a collaboration of reggae and ska artists', so its not as varied as i had originally hoped (i had hoped it was completely different artists playing  any Radiohead song, when actually it turns out its OK Computer). But still worth getting  and listening  too. Actually, its just brilliant.

And they have an earler album called Dub  side of the Moon! Just makes me laugh even saying  that. Got to hear that too.

Anyway, i have to go back and continue relistening  to Tom Ravenscroft's show, i am beginning  to think the songs i am after are:
Inigo Ugarteburu — Aeraberan
A Giant Dog — Trash Can USA
Kromestar — Wooo
Groundislava — Creeper Shit
Trans Upper Egypt — Cleopatra
or maybe it was the The Haxan Cloak — Untitled - which i think is a 20 minute mix.
i dont know. More work needed.

So, the result is i need radio 6 and spotify. I need spotify to find the bands i hear on  radio 6, and to branch out to find more.


Whoops, sorry forgot another song that got played: The Beach Boys — Feel Flows. Reading  about that on  wiki too. Its surprising  late, 1971, but a lovely tune. I dont like like the Beach Boys, i bought Brian Wilson's Smile, and liked it a lot, yet somehow it feels wrong. But maybe Surfs up  is the album to actually listen too. Just a surprise i suppose.

Lovely Radio - Bad dream

Radio arrived! and it looks lovely and works!
and i keep trying to upload the images and failing. not sure what googles problems is there - they uploaded to facebook ok.

But this leads on  to another problem. Radio 6 is great! This was the whole point of having  DAB - to listen to R6. I just wasn't expecting  it to be quite so good.

But, do i still need spotify?


Well. Yesterday i was inspired to listen to an album of '80s 12 inches on  spotify, becasue of listening  to the Sugarhill gang on  R6. And as i speak i am listening  to The Jesus and Mary Chain: Psycho Candy, and loving  it. Its strange, i loved April Skies (from the 2nd album Darklands) at the time, and bought it. But never bothered to listen to the albums. Why? Well becasue of Duran Duran and The Cure.

You  see i bought the trully abominable Duran album Arena. A terrible live album - and i saw them live that year too at Wembley Arena. One of the worst gigs i have ever been to. And then i bought The Cure's Head on  the Door - which had 4 great songs and 6 terrible ones (or so i thought) which upset me a lot. So i told myself that i would not buy any more current albums.

Which (apart from 3  Shriekback albums ) i stuck to until 1989 when i bought The Beloved's Happiness, The Stone Roses and Welcome to the Beautiful South.

In  the mean time i got listening  to all sorts of 70s funk and disco.

And missed many great bands of the mid-eighties. If there were any, then i missed them.

Oh, and the dream: standing  on  a steeply rolling, lightly wooded  hill (somerset? the borders?) and the ground is covered with dead animals and birds. Though there are some sheep and lambs still alive, and there are a lot flies which keep going  in  my mouth. No zombies though which is a plus.

But, Misfits raised an  interesting  point a few weeks ago: zombies like live flesh, they eat an animal, the animal escapes, do you  then have zombie animals. Its bad enough having  zombie humans chasing  you, but what  if its cats too? and mice? and flies??? and fleas. Anyway, stop there.

UPDATE: 27/02/2012. Schmallenberg virus gets into news in  UK. Lambs dying  as midges spread virus in  south of England.

All been quiet on the Spotify Front - Damn You Logitech!

Our evenings of listening  to new music on Spotify have been problematic of late. And it turns out we are not alone.
A quick search brought up  our problem: PureFi Anywhere 2 Speakers Cutting Out/Turning Off.

It seems, that though the speakers get excellent audio reviews, as soon as you  plug an external source of music into the speakers they can start cutting  off.

The problem seems to be that the sleep mode that protects the batteries from being used up (its portable too - for those camping moments??) still gets applied even when its plugged into the mains, and somehow after two and a half minutes it will just start turning itself off.

This does not happen with an iPod plugged in , just when a computer or other source of music is plugged in.

Lovely speakers - hopeless to use for spotify or playing  music from your server/computer.

Luckily we have a lovely new hifi on its way after christmas from DabHandRadio. Well i hope its lovely. It will look lovely, its a PHILIPS 141U BAKELITE WIRELESS RADIO, sorry about the caps. Its one of these: