Music
- “Un 2023” contains all tracks released this year that have neither been listened to nor skipped
- “Unloved” contains all non-holiday 5-star/loved/favorited songs that haven’t been played in the last year
- “Unskipped” is a little more inclusive version of unloved, but limited to 1 GB of music (chosen by recently added): all non-holiday unskipped, undisliked songs not played in the last year
- “Untouched” is a little more inclusive version of un 2023, but limited to 1 GB of music (chosen by recently added): all non-holiday songs that haven’t been listened to, skipped, or rated
- I like that it shows listening charts based on time not tracks
- Some parts of the system seem to favor albums, and others tracks, and I can’t figure out the design principle yet
- Scrobbling seems to work ok, though there are some mismatches due to the “enhancement” they do to artist/title
- Arc is supposed to work off-network, but looks like it doesn’t without some extra networking work (similar to Plex)
- However, Roon may handle scrobbling better on Arc downloads than PlexAmp downloads (i.e. counting them when it reconnects). I haven’t 100% verified this, yet (For PlexAmp, you have to trick it by playing from a playlist that you happen to have downloaded, instead of playing the download, and then it will sync on reconnect)
- Genre choices are little interesting at times, but it seems things may at least get multiple genres? Not sure on that, either.
- It’s not clear how tagging works or what it adds aside from the other options
- A little lack of clarity around how library is managed when you have some local files and some streaming tracks (e.g. Tidal) that are related, or when you have incomplete albums
🎶 while I’m at it, talking about listening habits, here is what came out on top in November:
🎶 How I'm listening lately
I’m in the process of re-building my Plex ecosystem. In the interim, I’ve either been listening to straight albums or playing from my iTunes library using this structure:
What this means…
“Un” is a folder of four auto-updating smart playlists. I shuffle the whole thing to listen (and of course, scrobble to last.fm).
What it creates…
Overall, this is a mixture weighted toward top songs along with some “discovery” of recent music and recent adds to my library. It works very well with limited “management” of the music.
🎶 Periodic reminder that clipping. performed a really really tiny desk concert with NPR / SXSW and it was weird and incredible.
🎶 For me, Strain is the quintessential sound of industrial music.
Now, after 20 years, Flesh Field are back with a new album, Voice of the Echo Chamber. Eager to check this out.
Believing falsehoods because those falsehoods reinforce our preferred narratives is not harmless. Promoting falsehoods to benefit your faction is not harmless, particularly in a well-armed society. If we remain locked in our own echo chambers, inevitably there will a voice of the echo chamber that speaks in the language of mass murder, believing it justified. This album describes that tragic inevitability.
🎶 For all we know, this could be the last bandcamp friday so get out there and support your artists before artist-friendly music purchasing is dead.
🎶 Roon Trial: Day 1 (vs. Plex/PlexAmp)
Doing a Roon trial after @rcrackley brought it to my attention, again.
Quick Day 1 notes:
So far, not at all worth the 3x (monthly) to 7x (lifetime) cost increase over Plex/PlexAmp (especially considering you get many other functions with Plex unrelated to music, as well as a discount on your Tidal monthly subscription).
🍺🎶 Upland X Haste the Day: Haze the Day
(Hazy IPA, obviously)
🎶 it’s 2.5 years old now, but this was a powerful performance:
🎶 Has anybody made a solid Bandcamp download/archive tool?
I have over a thousand releases on Bandcamp and am worried about them going away.
I download them as I get them, but it would be good to do a single archive.
🎶 I listen to four genres of music:
(It’s a joke. These are record labels, but they reflect my common styles decently well.)
🎶 Listening to Enduser while knocking through some last-minute work requests.
Tea kettle started to whistle and I just thought it was part of the music. 😆
🕊️ 🎶 🎙️📚
I like the variety of pre-church activity this morning in our house.
I’m listening to HolyName - Fall on Your Knees and their live heavy taizé set.
Spouse is listening to Emily P. Freeman/Next Right Thing, charming inspiresting devotional.
Both reading At Home in Exile by Russell Jeung
🎶 While I’m strolling down musical nostalgia lane….
Embodyment’s The Narrow Scope of Things really stands the test of time.
🎶 Apparently we’ve shifted the musical Overton window enough in this house that my spouse was like “are you intentionally choosing mild Zao songs?” when I was simply playing one of their classic albums.
🎶 Igorrr put on the the best live show I’ve ever seen tonight (and I’ve seen them before).
With the last two albums, they have enough music that classifies as “songs” that they have so much goodness to work from.
🎶 Just sayin’. Head-banging opera singers are pretty rad.
🎶😆. Yessss! Gautier actually played the little bit on the recorder live. (To much fanfare).
🎶 Igorrr songs can have accordion, harpsichord, operatic singing, death metal, breakcore, and more. All in the same song.
🎶 for those who don’t get the Igorrr chicken imagery, he has created a couple (non-album) videos like this.
🎶 I love that the PA music between Melt Banana and Igorrr is: gentle classical piano.
On another note: I think the bands tonight represent: Cuba, Germany, Japan, France, and Greece. (May be some I’m missing with Igorrr’s lineup change.)