Well my young padwan, it takes years of pounding your …

March 27th, 2003

Well my young padwan, it takes years of pounding your cochlea (huh… I said cochlea) with the complete spectrum of sounds to build up enough tolerance to withstand a volume setting of eleven. And to answer the question at the front of everyone who sits around me’s mind… yesterday, as well as today, it’s Aphex Twin’s latest outing which bears the most honest title of any remix album in history… “26 Mixes for Cash”. I honestly cannot say enough good things about this album. One of the greatest things about Mr. James is that he has such a broad understanding of genres that he can make any music better. This album even includes a track… and stay with me on this one… that has Philip Glass conducting the American Composers Orchestra playing David Bowie’s “Heroes” (Glass’ version titled “Heroes Symphony”) which was then remixed by Aphex Twin to add more emotion and texture. Truly awe inspiring… especially if you listen to it in 5.1 surround! This of course is followed later on with his contributions to the last Nine Inch Nails album “The Fragile”… another favorite of mine.

I have been having a good music month. It started out when I picked up The Soundtrack Of Our Lives “Behind The Music”, which I highly recommend. Then I finally grabbed Sahara Hotnights “Jennie Bomb” which I’d heard quite some time ago, but never got around to grabbing. The world needs more records like this. I also picked up some Broken Social Scene which I’m quite impressed with and has been keeping me sockless of late. All in all, the albums mentioned here have been making the ol’ ears drool for the past month or so… and with a new release from Radiohead about two months away (their sixth due out June 9th titled “Hail to the Thief”… heh), Marilyn Manson’s “Grotesque Burlesque” on it’s way, both A Perfect Circle and Nine Inch Nails currently in the studio and a concert schedule for this city that is sure to keep me broke for at least the next six months… musically, this year’s shaping up pretty good… I won’t comment on the rest.

And with that I would like to ask sir Jar of Man what has his eyes and ears perked of late?