Every Note is a Word.

Find this and Listen.

Readers all. Even the ones I don’t like. Kidding. Remember, I love you more than god does.

Know that from this point on I expect you to be familiar with the first part of my endless memoirs, “A God In Chains”. I may refer to it from time to time, but my attention is on the sequel, where Hell is in the grip of otherchaos. I do love how nicely that word fits with everything, as an ‘other’ myself I know where it lives.

Nothing I can’t handle, I have a Dorian, after all. What do you think he’s doing, at this moment?

Agatha will no doubt wrest the scribe away soon, she is more than due, which might worry me slightly, if I cared. She is not here to fight for the scribal hands, so you will have another music lesson, my loyal readers.

A short one, sharp and to the point, pay attention.

How you listen to music is just as important as the music itself, never believe otherwise. As an eternal connoisseur, I am uniquely suited to give you valuable advice on this subject. Am I a music critic? No. I am a music lover. Pretentious, (I like to be) but true. You already know my rule number One- only on good headphones, ideally over-ear. No speakers of any kind, no cheap buds, not on any car system, unless it’s as good as mine, which I doubt. Critical, don’t bother listening without them. You need to be alone with your music.

Be comfortable, able to forget your physical self. Listen to a song at least as many times as there are major elements to attend to. Listen for each instrument, tease it apart from the whole and hear only that, then listen again to hear the magic, all the elements combined, every breath, every note, every silence accounted for and placed there by careful hands.

Never Look At the Lyrics. Never. As much as you think you want to, you don’t, trust me. Let the words come to you as they will, there are reasons for obscure lyrics, ask the Master, Thom York.

If they are worth knowing, and they should be, they will be too much for one listen, perfectly crafted words take time to absorb, you want the pleasure to linger, let it. One word, phrase or sentence at a time, you need to think about what is being said, and how. A classic example is “Electioneering” by Radiohead, a nightmare to listen to, as intended and brilliantly executed. Like all their work. If you aren’t loving this band you aren’t listening properly. Imagine a band that the young and the ancient can agree on, I think it’s pretty much just this one.

Listen to music in other languages where you can’t understand the words at all, make them anything you want, or make them nothing, that’s the beauty of mystery. Listen then to the voice, and the melody it brings, a lovely, clean way to hear notes strung together well. I have given you many examples of songs that can hold up under such demanding conditions. Hopefully you have been listening and learning.

Put your music to the test, always, odds are you will ditch much of it, since it won’t measure up. The gods of music approve, keep weeding.

You have already heard what I expect from music, a great deal, as you know. Use my measures, they have been honed by centuries. Remember, I’ve heard it all, the lost as well as the known. If I didn’t keep what I like my heart would be broken, as yours should be. How do you grieve for what you have never known?

Tell me, you’re experts, what else is ancestor worship but regretting that you can’t ever connect? How do you know your ancestors were even worth knowing? What if you come from a race of perfect dicks, with centuries of indolence and ignorance running through your blood?

Do you?

What if they lived in shanties and kept their dogs vicious? Find them in every culture, right across the world.

Back to music, I leave you with a sweet line that should make you think, if you still know how by yourself.

“I crave to commit my words to the book of stifled cries.” By all means, you have my permission.

The song is called “Gutter”, by Lunatic Soul. The best kind of soul in my opinion. Find other beautiful words in this song, as well as some fine Bass work indeed. Like many songs these days, it is too long. Alas, I have not the ordering of the world.

Do you wonder what it would look like if I did?