AUDIO ADDICTION

Really great to hook up with Woebot last nite, in what must possibly be the first West Country/London blogging x-over. (I always think of Dom and Lurch as being West Country even tho' they've been lurking in Tha Smoke for a couple decades) It'd be stating the obvious to say (but I'm gonna say it anyway) that Matt is a top bloke and a total pleasure to hang out with.

Interesting what he said about music as an 'addiction'; I certainly feel that v. strongly sometimes...that music is such a major part of my lfe and that, to a degree, it defines a large part of my personality...it's always felt incredibly 'important' to me (tho sometimes a guilty pleasure, in that there are so many other things in this world that are so much more important, and that, here in the western world at the blunted end of the 21st century, we are lucky/privileged to have such easy access to something which is for many people a luxury...)

As to the nature of my own addiction (can't speak for Matt), I'm not entirely sure. Is it purely the music or is it also, as I sometimes fear, the act of acquision...(do I get a minor endorphin buzz from purchasing, like some middle-aged housewife on a credit-card zombie-shopping binge in Denners...I'm interested in Loki's approach, tho: he's done his 'purchasing' by sandstorm-sized bulk downloads, now he's randomly sifting thru his iPod and his own pleasure/surprise comes from the act of random access and the juxtapositioning of song w/ surroundings)...w/ me, is it about, owning, controlling, knowing...is there a teeny bit of Aspergers in there somewhere...I love the tactile, physical act of browsing, particularly vinyl (size counts!): that much I know...and I think that it is all locked up with the thrill of discovery, of newness, of being surprised, of refreshing my own sensibilities and reconfiguring this new newness into my own internal matrix of self-referentiality...and not just the music, but making connections out into art, film, alt.lit, skewed pop kulchur, whatever...it's not just the combination of frequencies locked in the grooves; it's also the sleeve-art (or lack of it), the typography...wh/ is why I'm digging the homemade/handpainted covers of contempo Acid/Free Folk/Nu Psych...Dubstep is linked to white-label urban dance culture and, apart from Skull Disco covers, it has no readily identifiable visual signature...I wish it had its equivalent of Dave Nodz...the limited runs and budgets of some of the d/step vinyls prob. make elaborate packaging unlikely from a financial point of view, but there's anudder level to all this visual austerity and bargin-bin minimalism that says: it's the music that counts, not the paper and card that it's wrapped up in....but, saddo that I am, I love both.