It’s About The Music

With the coming of the new year 2021, I decided it was time to switch up my monthly article with a monthly music review featuring new releases on Qobuz, since that is where I source a lot of the music for my reviews. Regular readers will have an idea about my musical tastes, but I thought I would codify it a little more closely in this first article in order to give a frame of reference.

Historically I have always defined my musical tastes by what I don’t like, rather than by what I do like. I once tried to make a list of my favorite musicians being incredibly annoyed by those “Top Ten” lists (Top Ten wouldn’t even cover my favorite classical composers), when I reached a hundred and had barely scratched the surface, I gave up. I later tried limiting myself to drummers but came up with a similar result. I could probably do a list of singers, since I believe most singers to be simply adequate to the music and rarely exceptional or noteworthy, but still, even limiting myself to rock music, excising all of the wonderful crooners of time past, not to mention Opera singers and Musical performers, it would be a ponderous list indeed.

In the eighties, I would have described my musical tastes to include everything but Rap, Disco, and Italian Opera (I have always loved Wagner and Mozart, probably due to “Looney Tunes”), but have since developed an appreciation for Italian Opera (though I haven’t gone so far as to attend one or learn Italian so I could understand what all the wailing is about). There are even select Rap songs that I like (Chumbawamba and Weird Al’s “Amish Paradise” come to mind). My tolerance for Hip Hop and EDM is fairly limited. A single EDM song can be pretty amazing, but after listening to an album or two I realize that every song is the same song performed slightly differently. Repetitive electronic percussion grates on me, it always has, it takes the life out of the music. But my real weakness is hardcore middle of the road Pop. I literally couldn’t name a Britney Spears tune or even dredge up the names of any of her contemporary (I fully realize that she has probably not been a thing for the last 20 years, but at my age that was yesterday, and it was the only name I could think of in that genre) ilk. It’s not that they are bad, but more that I am bored after the first refrain. Auto-Tune also grates on me something awful, whether it is used as an effect or for its intended purpose, it just annoys me (I was shocked one day to hear my goddaughter replicating the Auto-Tune lilt while singing one of her favorite songs, it is amazing what the human voice is capable of).

A favorite story I like to relate when asked about my musical preferences goes like this; A friend of mine came to me and asked me for a selection of African Tribal Rhythms. He never asked if I had such a thing, or if such a thing existed, he just assumed that I had it to provide him, which as it turned out, I did. So depth and breadth as they say.  

That all being said, my core is ‘60s and ’70s Progressive Rock along with ’70s and ‘80s Avant-Garde, followed closely by Classical and Improvisational Jazz, well Improvisational music in general. I also have a real soft spot for crooners, especially baritones. Of course, there are also certain Folk, Country, Punk, New Wave, Blue Grass, Psychedelic, and Classic Rock artists that will always have a place in my heart.

Mostly I crave variety, excellence of performance, and complex rhythms.

Below is test list I use to evaluate gear in my reviews to pad out the picture, next month we’ll review some actual tunes:

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Gary Alan Barker

Gary Alan Barker is a writer who has been a member of the Audio Industry since 1978, having acted as technical writer for several high-end audio companies, and been an electronics hobbyist since 1960. He has also been a musician and writer since the mid 1960s.

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