Anything goes

I want my first post to be about music. I will be writing quite a bit about it in my posts, because it is important to me.

When it comes to the music I listen to, this is pretty much what got it all started:


It’s Josh Wink’s Higher States of Consciousness.

It’s not necessarily the first piece of electronic music I’ve ever heard, nor is it my all time favorite (not that I have one), but it IS the tune I definitely remember most when I think abut my first days of going out, back in ‘96.

I never really had a sense of how well known this song was around the world (I guess it wasn’t), but in my home town it had become quite a hit around that time. This may seem strange now and we can hardly imagine the original version of Higher States playing in a regular club today, but I guess 7 years late was not TOO late to catch up with a phenomenon which had not been accessible to us when it happened elsewhere. I think people were more open-minded than now and were enjoying this tune and, although they hadn’t even heard of the second summer of love, were feeling some of the sensations that had made the whole rave movement such a hit years ahead. So I guess this is a good demonstration of the intrinsic power that the whole movement had.

For me, it was one of the tunes that forever got me hooked on electronic music. And when I say electronic music, I mean anything from ambient to gabber, from funky house to drum and bass or from minimal to goa. Depending on my mood, I like listening to all of them and try to keep up with what’s going on, although there’s so much happening in all these styles that it is hard to manage. But I never called myself a fanatic of any of the electronic genres and I can’t say I am an expert on any single one. Nor do I make a point of listening to the very latest and trendiest of artists or songs. All I care about is listening to and enjoying the music, be it new or old, famous or not. For the most part, though, I try to explore music and always find something new. I usually make a point of staying away from stuff that is blatantly commercial, even though the line is sometimes blurry. I try to set my own standards here and not to go to the extremes and NOT like a tune just because it has become famous (like Higher States had become in Cluj-Napoca), or like it because it is unknown and/or belongs to some genre or another. I try not to be manichaeist about music.

Nowadays, I have found the best way to satisfy my musical needs is via online radio. Here are some of my best sources:

• Soma FM
• Digitally Imported
• ETN.FM

Mainly, I listen Soma to experiment and try some new styles, not necessarily electronic. I especially have a soft spot for Illinois Street Lounge.

ETN is my main destination for trance and progressive and DI is for pretty much everything else. I especially use DI to listen to house. The funky house channel is really great.

So there you have it! The basics of how I feel about music.

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