Friday 19 February 2010

How raw am I

[org. post: 18 Feb 2010] The opening track of Mister Salmon ...in Yorkshirama (Yorkshirama!) was played tonight on BBC Radio Sheffield. I am happy it was played, but it sounded peculiar, in among the young guitar bands. The programme: Raw Talent. Finishing the album just before my 50th birthday probably meant I was just "raw" enough to qualify for airplay.

On a blog I recently found a ripped copy of an EP featuring a couple of tracks by my art school band. One was played a couple of times John Peel's Radio 1 show in the early 80s... and it is very raw indeed. It was recorded by me, trying my best with four track reel-to-reel before I knew very much about production. Technical quality is so taken for granted today. Does it make us more discerning (because so much sounds at least ok), or less able to be discerning (because there's just so much that sounds ok)?

Competently made artistic culture that refers more and more to earlier artistic culture... I'm more than ever drawn to anything unfamiliar in the familiar.

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