I love this idea. I was on the verge of getting rid of my vinyl collection. I tried to do it. My head told me that I needed to shed the unnecessary weight of them. But when I actually tried to select some to take to my local secondhand book and record store, my heart just wouldn't let me do it. In your post, you articulate what stayed my hand. I will go and select three records in the way you suggest and get back to you!
Don't get rid of your precious vinyl Andy. I regret some of what I shed in the past. Your sensory record quiz in lockdown was such a joy too.
You've clearly got a great collection. Yes they are heavy, yes they take up space, but they are irreplaceable. Glad I've helped stay your hand. I do share what your vinyl oracle tells you.
Happy Solstice. It's taken me nearly a full week to get around to listening to the three records that I selected last Sunday as my Vinyl Oracle. It's been a very worthwhile enterprise. The records were
1. Joy As An Act of Resistance by Idles
Inside the sleeve were the tickets to see Idles play live in Birmingham. They were the first band Sam and I went to listen to live together. It was a fantastic father and son bonding experience. A joyful memory. And no coincidence that I picked the record on Father's day and Sam came down from Manchester to spend the day together just the two of us for the first time in a long time. Or that fatherhood and finding positive male role models is a key theme of that record.
2. Testone by Sweet Exorcist
Well, I hadn't listened to this in a while. It's a three track EP on Warp records based in Sheffield and a fine example of "bleep techno" "Bleep techno is a regional subgenre of techno which developed in the late 1980s in Northern England, particularly Yorkshire. Named after its minimalistic synthesizer sounds, bleep techno combined influences from American techno and house, with electro elements and heavy sub-bass inspired by reggae sound system culture. The style was commercially successful between 1989 and 1991, and became associated with artists on the Sheffield label Warp Records. It has been characterized as the first unique British style of electronic dance music." Thank you Wikipedia! The record reminds me of living in Sheffield in the 80s/90s.
An absolutely key formative time in my life. It's where and when Jo and I met, trained to be teachers and got married. We loved to go out dancing and seeing bands. A happy, more innocent time. I still have a great fondness for Sheffield and friends and family who live there.
3. John Coltrane Live at Birdland.
Another record that I haven't listened to for ages. But, oh, my goodness, thank you for leading me back here. What a record! From the opening blast of saxophone on Afro blue my heart melts. The sleeve notes by Leroi Jones are wonderful. They remind me that music is transcendental. It can transport us to other worlds. Music such as Coltrane makes speaks directly to the soul. It shows us what we can be. To regard it as product, as entertainment is to cheapen its power, a grave disservice to the music and ourselves. I first became interested in jazz whilst I was still at school, after reading Kerouac and the Beat poets. What was this wild, free music that they were all so taken with? The answers to my question lay in the record lending section of Dudley Public Library. For the lending fee of a few pennies I could take home records by Coltrane, Monk, Miles Davis and all the other jazz greats. Do such services even exist any more? In the age of streaming and instant download there probably doesn't seem to be any point. Yet I can't help feeling that something important has been lost. We have in some way surrendered part of our soul.
So, what is my Vinyl Oracle saying to me with these three records? I interpret it as a reminder to stay true to my deeper soul sense of who I truly am. We all have to live and get by in the everyday world of faulty plumbing and unsatisfactory politicians but it's important not to get lost in the minutae and forget our soul's purpose, our actual reason for being here now. I am coming to a place in my life when I will be free of commitments. No parents, children, partner, pet that I feel responsible for, have an obligation to put their needs before my own. For the first time since before I was two years old and my brother was born, I am free to explore what it is that I am here to do, free to be the fullest version of me. Which may seem odd given the precarious state of my physical health. But I feel positive and excited about the future. And that is a good place to be
What a rich reply Andy. Thank you so much for sharing. I don't know Sweet Exorcist but the Idles ring a bell and John Coltrane...well, he is a jazz master. Along with Miles David who I pulled this week. And yes it was the world of the beatniks and reading Jack Kerouac that really got me into jazz. It was so exciting to discover all this incredible music. Like you I am going through huge transformation....not easy. But I know I need to live on my own. How to get there is another matter. I'll post my last Oracle #13, tomorrow on Instagram and here. I'm making a playlist too from a track from each LP pulled so far. There will be another 13 day Oracle journey later in the summer.
It's been a great way to rediscover the joy of vinyl and all the memories attached.
Sheffield is such a great city. I've spent happy times there, in the home of steel and trees that grow in the middle of the street and Pulp.
Happy Solstice to you too. I've spent it in the woods with Andreas and co, working with the birch trees and the runes.
I love this idea. I was on the verge of getting rid of my vinyl collection. I tried to do it. My head told me that I needed to shed the unnecessary weight of them. But when I actually tried to select some to take to my local secondhand book and record store, my heart just wouldn't let me do it. In your post, you articulate what stayed my hand. I will go and select three records in the way you suggest and get back to you!
Don't get rid of your precious vinyl Andy. I regret some of what I shed in the past. Your sensory record quiz in lockdown was such a joy too.
You've clearly got a great collection. Yes they are heavy, yes they take up space, but they are irreplaceable. Glad I've helped stay your hand. I do share what your vinyl oracle tells you.
Hey Serena,
Happy Solstice. It's taken me nearly a full week to get around to listening to the three records that I selected last Sunday as my Vinyl Oracle. It's been a very worthwhile enterprise. The records were
1. Joy As An Act of Resistance by Idles
Inside the sleeve were the tickets to see Idles play live in Birmingham. They were the first band Sam and I went to listen to live together. It was a fantastic father and son bonding experience. A joyful memory. And no coincidence that I picked the record on Father's day and Sam came down from Manchester to spend the day together just the two of us for the first time in a long time. Or that fatherhood and finding positive male role models is a key theme of that record.
2. Testone by Sweet Exorcist
Well, I hadn't listened to this in a while. It's a three track EP on Warp records based in Sheffield and a fine example of "bleep techno" "Bleep techno is a regional subgenre of techno which developed in the late 1980s in Northern England, particularly Yorkshire. Named after its minimalistic synthesizer sounds, bleep techno combined influences from American techno and house, with electro elements and heavy sub-bass inspired by reggae sound system culture. The style was commercially successful between 1989 and 1991, and became associated with artists on the Sheffield label Warp Records. It has been characterized as the first unique British style of electronic dance music." Thank you Wikipedia! The record reminds me of living in Sheffield in the 80s/90s.
An absolutely key formative time in my life. It's where and when Jo and I met, trained to be teachers and got married. We loved to go out dancing and seeing bands. A happy, more innocent time. I still have a great fondness for Sheffield and friends and family who live there.
3. John Coltrane Live at Birdland.
Another record that I haven't listened to for ages. But, oh, my goodness, thank you for leading me back here. What a record! From the opening blast of saxophone on Afro blue my heart melts. The sleeve notes by Leroi Jones are wonderful. They remind me that music is transcendental. It can transport us to other worlds. Music such as Coltrane makes speaks directly to the soul. It shows us what we can be. To regard it as product, as entertainment is to cheapen its power, a grave disservice to the music and ourselves. I first became interested in jazz whilst I was still at school, after reading Kerouac and the Beat poets. What was this wild, free music that they were all so taken with? The answers to my question lay in the record lending section of Dudley Public Library. For the lending fee of a few pennies I could take home records by Coltrane, Monk, Miles Davis and all the other jazz greats. Do such services even exist any more? In the age of streaming and instant download there probably doesn't seem to be any point. Yet I can't help feeling that something important has been lost. We have in some way surrendered part of our soul.
So, what is my Vinyl Oracle saying to me with these three records? I interpret it as a reminder to stay true to my deeper soul sense of who I truly am. We all have to live and get by in the everyday world of faulty plumbing and unsatisfactory politicians but it's important not to get lost in the minutae and forget our soul's purpose, our actual reason for being here now. I am coming to a place in my life when I will be free of commitments. No parents, children, partner, pet that I feel responsible for, have an obligation to put their needs before my own. For the first time since before I was two years old and my brother was born, I am free to explore what it is that I am here to do, free to be the fullest version of me. Which may seem odd given the precarious state of my physical health. But I feel positive and excited about the future. And that is a good place to be
Thanks for the help getting there xxx
What a rich reply Andy. Thank you so much for sharing. I don't know Sweet Exorcist but the Idles ring a bell and John Coltrane...well, he is a jazz master. Along with Miles David who I pulled this week. And yes it was the world of the beatniks and reading Jack Kerouac that really got me into jazz. It was so exciting to discover all this incredible music. Like you I am going through huge transformation....not easy. But I know I need to live on my own. How to get there is another matter. I'll post my last Oracle #13, tomorrow on Instagram and here. I'm making a playlist too from a track from each LP pulled so far. There will be another 13 day Oracle journey later in the summer.
It's been a great way to rediscover the joy of vinyl and all the memories attached.
Sheffield is such a great city. I've spent happy times there, in the home of steel and trees that grow in the middle of the street and Pulp.
Happy Solstice to you too. I've spent it in the woods with Andreas and co, working with the birch trees and the runes.
Ive to do my five minutes poem! Tomorrow 💃🌞🌞🌞🙏