taliesin...meImyself......MUSIC (10.10.97)

New love might be an overstatement, but a friend recently sent me a tape of Ragga in the Jungle, a compilation CD released in UK, and I've been listening to it ever since. (For those who needs a glossary of pop music terms--and I sure needed one--All Music Guide's web site is a very good starting point. Lame the 'insiders' would say, but you've got to start somewhere. Squared snobs.)

Now while Jungle/Drum&Bass proper can be really good, that almost incomprehensible West Indian half-rap-half-singing with the odd groovy sampling set to the mellow reggae bass and breakbeat drum.

Despite having devoted a monstrously huge chunk of my precious web site to the British band SCRITTI POLITTI I must admit I don't linger long over music. People have different prioirties. I just happen to have not enough time and $$$ to shift through piles of music rumbles for the gems. A sad fact of life.

Consequently, I don't know a thing about pop music and its history -- probably much to the disappointment of a band so erudite on the why and wherefore of pop music. I often wonder myself why I bothered to maintain a Scritti fan site. So my apology to the band and the better informed fans for writing non-sense about the band instead of making a strong rebuttal to all those who've dismissed the band intentionally or not and maliciously or otherwise.

In the final analysis, my enjoyment of music isn't something that can be rationalized or dictated by some self-appointed music authority. Justifiable or not, I just love Scritti's music and Green's voice. So there. Now on to my pathetic records -- yes, genuine oil products as opposed to CDs -- collection...

Scritti, Scritti, and more Scritti! Okay, so that's stating the too obvious. Apart from which, in general, I tend to go for the sound of good percussion and rhythmic elocution; so some hip-hop, rap, ragga, and dance music then. But I can't name anyone because I don't really own anything besides you-know-what.

Then there's the other side, though not materially represented in my collection but which I nonetheless like quite a lot when I chance to hear them: Middle Eastern music -- sorry, not very knowledgeable; can't distinguish local varieties -- and the likes of Cocteau Twins. Then there's also The Fall and early Microdisney. Al Green isn't bad either. And the exception list just keeps growing longer and longer...