Topic: The Music Thread

@Jimmer-jammer A jazz guitarist I really like is influenced by Meshuggah, according to interviews. As a long-term metal/rock fan, where do you stand on the band? I always used to love them when I listened to the stuff. Considering bringing them back into rotation aas the only metal band I will choose to listen to, simply for the sheer intelligence present in the music.

If you haven't heard them already, I'd love to get your thoughts on this record.

destroy erase improve by meshuggah is worth a spin also

@Jimmer-jammer Second what @Skarasny said, possibly a better starting point.

So encouraging to see musicians like Josh Meader and Shubh Saran mixing their jazz with other influences such as rock and Hindustani classical ,it's really inspiring to see so many different genres going into the melting-pot to create visions that are truly unique.

Edit: Shubh Saran and Westside Gunn have more or less 'duo-handedly' reinvigorated my interest in music, wanting to engage with it as both a listener and participant on the free jazz guitar. Such talent and creativitiy! Truly magnificent!

so, i have been listening alot to Schammasch, which is a swiss black metal band. ITs not hardcore norwegian black metal, but more black metal with mostly clean vocals and chanting. Songs are usually 6 mins and longer. Their own/record companys word: "although their roots can be found in forward-thinking black metal whilst balancing a razor sharp hybrid of dark atmospherics, doom and Hermetic mysticism".

I bought the record (Contradiction) on bandcamp a couple of years ago, but didnt listen to it a whole lot. My Mistake. Its a really good record and being a faithful listener to classic black metal, its just something else. I have also listened alot to Black Sabbaths Sabotage record. I have never been a diehard Sabbath fan, but i have bought Paranoid and listened to various songs and records through the years. Anyways its a kick ass record if you enjoy heavy metal and some lovely riffs provided by Iommi and crew.

I have also started watching this new documentary about Little Richard, which is also kickass in my opinion. The struggle is real and who doesnt like the song Tutti Frutti. Which actually is a song about analxxxx (wikipedia says no, but the interviews in the film says yes) Anyways its well worth seeing this documentary if you like music in general. Little Richard has been a great inspiration for many artists and music in general.

Iam going out with a bang: https://napalmdeath.bandcamp.com/track/the-kill-7

Two quality hip hop records dropped today. Here they are.

@Jimmer-jammer No problm at all, im glad to help. music brings joy

@Jimmer-jammer Glad you liked them, man. Obzen by them is good as well, and more along the same lines as those two. Apparently when they started they were quite thrashy! Destroy Erase Improve is an early record, and reflects that to a certain extent, I believe.

@Herculean If you like Black Country, New Road, do you also like Black Midi? Just wondering because, from my readings of music journalism, I get the impression they are very much part of the same UK rock scene. So here is a recommendation for you, regardless of whether you have heard them or not, their former frontman's debut solo album. I think it's quite amazing.

@Herculean No problem. Glad you enjoyed the album.

I'm considering cutting down on my hip hop consumption and listening to more contemporary classical, like the artist featured below, in addition to my regular jazz consumption. Vaguely toying with the idea of 80s era King Crimson as well, as I hear it is quite similar to Geordie Greep's music.

N.B There's arguably significant overlap between 70s prog and jazz fusion, i.e bands like Soft Machine etc. ,according to Google A.I.

Edit: Music and Guitar may recede somewhat into the background of my life a bit more now, now that I feel I understand those things a bit better, with Games and Literature coming to the fore a bit more.

As there is no general tech thread (maybe there should be one, like a Push Square gadget show) I thought the best place to find audiophiles would be the music thread.

Now, I'm no audiophile, beyond hating tinny subpar audio, but I am considering getting some new top quality earbuds. My last ones came free with an LG tv, I think. I rarely use them now as I prefer my B&W headphones by a substantial, substantial margin. But my headphones are also substantially f***ing massive compared to earbuds, and this isn't always ideal 😅

So I'm here to ask your opinions on the best earbuds, what you use, what you prefer in an earbud for music, audiobooks, and even tv and gaming if they have proven good enough for general use.

I may have painted myself into a corner with my B&W headphones becsuse they are so damn good, and so far I'm hovering over their Pi8 offering, as I'm concerned anything less would just sound bad now. But there are a few offerings in a similar range, they don't have the same type of carbon driver (and the biggest in an earbud I've seen advertised as yet) but as the other options are still pretty premium, I'm sure the drop off can't be as bad as I'm fearing. I did see some LG ones advertised with Atmos which would make it a good option for multi purpose listening. But they seemed to have questionable implementation and people seem to prefer atmos off with those earbuds anyway. People rave about Sony buds, and there's also Bose, but eh, I don't know.

Anyway, a good ramble, but it boils down to the simple question, what earbuds do any of you use? do any of you have any personal preferences or recommendations regarding good quality earbuds for good quality audio on a smaller scale than full over-ear headphones?

@Ravix After using the ones that came with my phone for the last five years, I purchased some new ones a few months back. I think they were reduced from something like £100 to £60, so nothing fantastic. There are defo an improvement on my old ones, with way more features and better sound. Noise cancelling is game changer for me, especially when I'm out and about.

An update, if anyone is interested. Went for Technics AZ100's set them up this morning so got to try them out a little, and I feel like I can already recommend them to anyone who likes music. They seem to be absolutely fantastic right out of the box even before any real fiddling.

The only fiddling was making sure Ldac Bluetooth codec was was enabled via the Technics app for higher fidelity sound. Which was a little bit of effort and investigation, but totally worth it if the device supports it.

I feel like, even though they are wee little buds, they are almost comparable to my B&W over-ears, on first listen streaming Flac quality from a phone with ANC, anyway. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but I'm definitely impressed.

Impressive little b***ers 👏 and if you are someone that uses earbuds every day and likes high quality audio, I think they are well worth the investment from first impressions.

Popped in briefly to share this bit of stellar free jazz guitar. Evan Parker (ss) with the late, great John Russell (g).

I find that he says everything and nothing, simultaenously, in his playing. I shall strive to do the same, for myself.

I recently discovered The Fearless Flyers, a funk and soul band, their earlier stuff has more fiery and rock-y overtones, I think it's great to observe the way they have evolved.

Amazing free jazz guitar album. Four guitarists playing stuff like this at the same time. There should be more along the same lines available.

And now for some funk.

My free jazz consumption seems to have become limited to what I hear when I play the guitar. 😂 And in terms of balancing my other high brow interests, i.e art, literature, cricket ,with what I consume in terms of lowbrow culture, like what I was saying in The Chit Chat Thread, I am listening to a lot of hip hop, like this;

and other beats-based music, i.e IDM, like this;

and watching American Gangster movies. I do like Studio Ghibli movies as well, but I feel like they fall under the "highbrow" category.

Topic is proof that the majority of humans listen to really terrible music. Not all, but the majority. Similar to when I see articles like "The top 10 most downloaded movies". Always just proof that the majority enjoy complete garbage movies.

@Almost_Ghostly I'd love to know what is considered good music, fine sir? Please do enlighten the thread with your vast knowledge.

I'm also not sure a very small part of the Push Square community can be considered 'The majority of humans' either 🤷‍♂️ but you've decided to pick on them specifically here, so here I am asking out of pure fascination.