It's been a long time (again) since I was here – and it's still pretty sad that the place is so dead compared to its heyday when I had the Sirius moniker.
Anyway, I was just reminiscing and thinking how things change, even at the micro-level when it comes to phases and musical tastes.
Back in the day, I was into the Zone, into big piano house, Pianoman stuff, Italian piano classics, even some of the old happy hardcore, tartan techno, and, of course, the old breakbeat/hardcore stuff on Reinforced, Suburban Base, Formation.
In the mid to late 90's I switched to progressive house and progressive trance but still lapped up the occasional piano stormer and spent hours in record shops and travelling to various record shops in search of holy grails that are now just tapped in easily on Discogs and sent to your door!
I don't really listen to Zone stuff any more. I don't really listen to happy hardcore or "Tartan Techno". I wouldn't buy cheesy Pianoman stuff any more, or the new style of this stuff that's coming out, not least because it's often some kind of souped-up, over-polished, over-effect-driven imitation that doesn't really hit the mark for me.
1994 was a terrible time for music, or so I thought back then.
It seemed to be boring or full of crappy "handbag" genres, Eurohouse, or all sorts of other far too commercialised cheese.
In the last four or five years I've been really getting into old trance, old underground techno/progressive/ambient trance specifically, and old progressive stuff that I missed in 1993 and 1994.
If it is trippy in melodies, smooth, bubbling with acid and pretty relentless, I lap it up.
I've been buying up all sorts of such vinyl, and whereas in the past, I was more an enthusiastic bedroom DJ buying them for the vibe and the mix, I am now mostly just listening to records sat on my sofa having a brew – and I have really come to love just listening properly to these kinds of records and delving back through my old and quite neglected vast collection of progressive house and the occasional old-school track.
Some of them really are just magic. I now often wonder just what the hell I was doing in late 1993 and 1994 when I thought the music scene had gone crappy! In hindsight, I was missing out on so much great stuff!
Music has always been such a huge part of my life, and it has kept me going through what has been a rather insular and lonely existence, including two nervous breakdowns, decades of depression and unease with myself, and, as I now deeply suspect, a life of undiagnosed Asperger's, which pretty much explains almost everything about the things I've done (and not done!) in my life.
Dance music has been the thread, the grounding force, the constant and only remaining interest and anchor – and yet within this small sphere, my tastes have changed a lot since the late 80s/early 90s. I'd say it has matured.
I couldn't imagine my life without it, and, as time passes, each subgenre style kind of reflects a "stage of being"—which is simultaneously happy and saddening.
Happy that I have had it, yet sad that so much is in the past, opportunities wasted, and that my life has started to become less about what it could become in the future and more about what's in the rearview mirror! I've been so worried about living life thus far that I've generally failed to have one at all. That's not a nice thing to try and come to terms with.
Yet, if I am still alive in 10 years' time, I might be super keen on Goa or super-hard nosebleed acid techno and it will be helping me get through.
Who knows?
Does anyone else relate to any of this, or is it just me? lol.
Anyway, I was just reminiscing and thinking how things change, even at the micro-level when it comes to phases and musical tastes.
Back in the day, I was into the Zone, into big piano house, Pianoman stuff, Italian piano classics, even some of the old happy hardcore, tartan techno, and, of course, the old breakbeat/hardcore stuff on Reinforced, Suburban Base, Formation.
In the mid to late 90's I switched to progressive house and progressive trance but still lapped up the occasional piano stormer and spent hours in record shops and travelling to various record shops in search of holy grails that are now just tapped in easily on Discogs and sent to your door!
I don't really listen to Zone stuff any more. I don't really listen to happy hardcore or "Tartan Techno". I wouldn't buy cheesy Pianoman stuff any more, or the new style of this stuff that's coming out, not least because it's often some kind of souped-up, over-polished, over-effect-driven imitation that doesn't really hit the mark for me.
1994 was a terrible time for music, or so I thought back then.
It seemed to be boring or full of crappy "handbag" genres, Eurohouse, or all sorts of other far too commercialised cheese.
In the last four or five years I've been really getting into old trance, old underground techno/progressive/ambient trance specifically, and old progressive stuff that I missed in 1993 and 1994.
If it is trippy in melodies, smooth, bubbling with acid and pretty relentless, I lap it up.
I've been buying up all sorts of such vinyl, and whereas in the past, I was more an enthusiastic bedroom DJ buying them for the vibe and the mix, I am now mostly just listening to records sat on my sofa having a brew – and I have really come to love just listening properly to these kinds of records and delving back through my old and quite neglected vast collection of progressive house and the occasional old-school track.
Some of them really are just magic. I now often wonder just what the hell I was doing in late 1993 and 1994 when I thought the music scene had gone crappy! In hindsight, I was missing out on so much great stuff!
Music has always been such a huge part of my life, and it has kept me going through what has been a rather insular and lonely existence, including two nervous breakdowns, decades of depression and unease with myself, and, as I now deeply suspect, a life of undiagnosed Asperger's, which pretty much explains almost everything about the things I've done (and not done!) in my life.
Dance music has been the thread, the grounding force, the constant and only remaining interest and anchor – and yet within this small sphere, my tastes have changed a lot since the late 80s/early 90s. I'd say it has matured.
I couldn't imagine my life without it, and, as time passes, each subgenre style kind of reflects a "stage of being"—which is simultaneously happy and saddening.
Happy that I have had it, yet sad that so much is in the past, opportunities wasted, and that my life has started to become less about what it could become in the future and more about what's in the rearview mirror! I've been so worried about living life thus far that I've generally failed to have one at all. That's not a nice thing to try and come to terms with.
Yet, if I am still alive in 10 years' time, I might be super keen on Goa or super-hard nosebleed acid techno and it will be helping me get through.
Who knows?
Does anyone else relate to any of this, or is it just me? lol.
