This past Monday, I finished listening to my latest California CD haul. I got through all 29 in just 17 days, compared to a month for 37 CD's last time around. So I'm improving. Progress IS attainable, kids, and you've gotta start somewhere. Some hard-to-find nuggets and highlights:

First, I have to confess, that I actually came back with 30 CD's, #30 is a CD I already own, but it's the glow-in-the-dark limited edition of Spiritualized's "Pure Phase". I could have had a great deal on it in Feb 1995, when the owner of the now-defunct CD Bar on Yonge made me a great offer. I ended up buying the regular CD on import, but the day-glo one would have cost me a measly five bucks more and I passed on it. I figured I'd been spending enough money as of late and needed to cut down a bit. I never, ever forgave myself for that decision, and since then I've gone out of my way to lean on the side of "buy" every time I'm confronted with similarly structured decisions involving hard-to-find music.

Hey, do you miss the days when Stereolab weren't trying to write futuristic pop, the days when all their songs contained only two chords? I do too. Flowchart's "Multi-Personality Tabletop Vacation" misses those days as well. Although, when the album was released in 1995 those days weren't such distant memories. But today, it's a rollicking trip down memory lane with a fat colourful photo album. This album sounds more like Stereolab than any album has ever sounded like any band, ever. The resemblance is so strong, it's scary, and it's also lovely. They could re-release it as a synthetic music product called "I Can't Believe It's Not Stereolab!".

One of my goals was to buy some experimental music (i.e. noise, minimalism, etc.). For whatever reason, the inventory and prices on the West Coast are unbelievable for this music. I returned with stuff by Kevin Drumm, Pure (from the Mego label), and Brighter Death Now, to name a few. I also scored Tony Conrad's "Early Minimalism Volume One" box set, which is totally THE psychedelic shizznit. Just listen to those drones for half an hour and try to deny that it's one fine drug, I dare you. This made me clamour for my early Spacemen 3 CD's. A thoroughly cleansing, inspirational, three and a half hour experience. I was droning away on my sampler in a matter of minutes, just by sampling as I cooed into a microphone.

Acid Mothers Temple released 5973 records last year, and I've begun the catch-up process with their take on Terry Riley's "In C". The melodies are carried almost entirely by the keyboard, and fifteen minutes in, with the robo-chug overwhelming the track, I completely forgot what I was supposed to listening to. That's a compliment. The other two tracks, In E and In D, are amphetamine fueled noise-rock and blissed-out shimmering drones. I find that it's impossible to get bored of this kind of stuff.