This is what I’ve been listening to this Sunday, while freeriding on the board in Poaina Brasov (lot of ice, no powder, except for when Alba took me through the woods :D)

The moment you start playing the first track of Ray Charles – Genius Loves Company, you understand what true surround sound feels like.

The album received the Grammy award in 2005 for the best surround sound, being mastered by Al Schmitt, Robert Hadley and Doug Sax. Even though I listen it by headphones the first time (it’s true, iPod headphones, which have a really great sound), the difference is immediately noticeable.

Also, the music of Ray Charles sounds itself as a masterpiece, so you can imagine how the combination feels like :)

Ah, and you should go straight for the CD version, or at least MP3 at 192 kbps.

It really made my day !

There is this person that I get along with pretty well. In fact TOO WELL but those aspects are debated on a different blog altogether… I think the only times we ever came close to a fight were those when we exchanged music files and shared impressions.

He likes a wide variety of genres BUT they are kinda old flavoured. Not all, there are exceptions, but the arsenal consists mainly of vintage guns. He sent me stuff that I enjoyed listening to, some I knew, some didn’t ring a bell, but I liked them all. Then again I’m an eclectic listener. I like everything from dixieland to power metal. I love gothic, but I’m not a big fan of doom. I listen to speed and thrash but I don’t like death metal. Where the lyrics are just an accessory, I can’t follow. I love some ambiental bands and I am just crazy for some instrumental music. There are some guitarists that I worship and there are some under-rated bands that caught my attention. I also enjoy dancing on RNB, and most of the times I hum to the mainstream tunes I hear on the radio even though I know they’re crap. If there’s something I don’t like, it must be something terribly wrong with it…

I never had any objection to the tracks I received from him, but on several occasions he dismissed absolutely every damn song from my side. He also served me some theories of how a song can inspire a certain sorrow and sadness by just playing a certain succession of musical notes. (It made sense to one extent, but for f@*k’s sake, why can’t he just listen and enjoy a song without so much useless analysis?! In my humble opinion he’s so much like a gyn-ob who doesn’t get excited by sex anymore because he’s seen the “apparatus” inside and out too many times…)

He strengthened his sayings with opinions from “other people who knew more about music”. On one occasion he totally dismissed the importance of the lyrics, saying that he listens to the melody first, without giving so much consideration to the message. We argued and we presented arguments to support our sayings. His conclusion was that I was listening to “simple” music and that I don’t even care to listen to his arguments; my conclusion was that he valued other people’s opinions on the matter too much, instead of just listening to his gut and keeping an open mind on the matter. We went away mad.

Conclusion? People can forgive you for saying harsh truths about them. They’ll forgive you for saying bad things about their family members. They’ll even forgive you for calling them mediocre. But you will almost certain start a world war and people will most likely never forgive you for attacking their musical taste.

This week I have an obsession for 3 songs. These are:

1. September – Satellites
2. Cypress Hill – Ganja Bus
3. Carla Bruni – Raphael (thanks to Irina)

3 completely different genres, 3 completely different moods inspired, 3 great tracks. There’s something magic about this number…