Fourty-eight hours in. All's clear. I used to have little music fantasies (stop the guffaws, all music nerds have them) about a dream world where the music was piped directly into my ears, either that, or the far more disrupting situation (to others, not to me) where music plays through speakers in every room and every hallway no matter where I walk. And I've made this dream come true! Er, sort of, because I have to change music players when on the move. Otherwise, wow!!

It's fading into the background, it's always there, I'm always aware of it yet it is rarely disruptive. I even had dinner with my parents tonight and had no trouble convincing them to put on background music of my choice. And I didn't even get strange looks when I informed them about the reasons why. Fortunately, I had old cassette tapes stashed (since upgraded to CD and left in the basement when I moved out) which meant Tindersticks and Orbital set the dinner mood.

Movietone -- The Blossom Filled Streets
Mark Burgess and the Sons of God -- Zima Junction. He sounds just like Marc Almond on the last track. I'll say it again -- Clay Aiken is the new Marc Almond if he wants to be.
Xiu Xiu -- Live at Tonic, NYC (March 20, 2004)
SLEEP: V/A -- Isolationism Disc 1, Stephan Matthieu -- Frequency Lib, Nurse With Wound -- Chance Meeting, Mum -- Summer Make Good, Lustmord vs Hectate -- Law of the Battle of Conquest, Yann Tiersen -- L'absente. I drifted off to sleep with the caustic "Chance Meeting", and heard little else until morning. This was a collection of stuff that I didn't quite "get" on the first listen. I was far more keen on the delights of "Absente" and the noisy crush of "Conquest" this time around. "Summer Make Good" remains horribly boring, however, albeit about 20 % less so.
Vainqueur -- Elevations. Still my fave summer album ever.
(at Amato's during lunch, they played something that sounded like a Morcheeba/DJ Krush hybrid, and I can't have been too far off because they were playing DJ Shadow -- Entroducing as well. I made a point of going there since they've got some new guys working there who have good taste in music. A couple of weeks ago, I sat in the back reading the paper for a second time just so I could hear the first half of "Daydream Nation")
Nico -- Chelsea Girls
Talk Talk -- Colour of Spring
The Smiths -- Live Derby Dec 9, 1983
Jesus and Mary Chain -- Live Hacienda, Manchester, Aug 26, 1985. Twenty minutes long, and "You Trip Me Up" is played twice.
Mistress Barbara -- MB 02 (TrusttheDJ.com). A nice little steal from the hellmouth of music retail, Sonic Boom. I heard it for the first time today in the library and the subway, and I am SO spinning for like four hours at some point this weekend. The best mix of hard techno I've heard in a long time.
Tindersticks -- Tindersticks, Orbital -- Snivilisation. Klassiques of the highest order.
Low -- Live in SF, Nov 13, 2002. Classic of the quietest order.
Can -- Mother Sky (Live 1971). Near the end of the 20-minute "Bring Me Coffee or Tea" (barely ressembling the original, 90% of it is improvised), there's a part which sounds exactly like Joy Division's "Passover".
Th' Faith Healers -- Lido. A cruelly ignored great 90's album. Every time I hear "Spin 1/2", I'm convinced it is the greatest song ever.