Super awesome krautrock band, Harmonia
I have a friend who claims to merely like the music that he enjoys and not necessarily fill his iPod with only good, critically-praised music. While this seems a cop-out when faced with criticism for guilty pleasures, he has certainly got me thinking this week about what influences my musical taste.
I think I can not-too-flippantly claim to liking music that I sincerely enjoy. While critics can obviously inform opinion, my taste has developed mostly through listening to lots of music. Simply put, discernment comes from listening to good records.
Hopefully that’s where this blog comes in. I hope to not only share my enthusiasm for music (It really is okay to prefer records to talk radio after college!) but also other bands and styles to investigate. You can decide what you like, but make it an informed decision. Enjoy.
- “Chanson Sans Issue â Ne Vois-Tu Pas)” – Autour de Lucie (Immobile | Netwerk | 1998)
- “Den Her Sang Handler Om At Fa Det Bedste Ud Af Det” – Under Byen & The Danish Radio Sinfonietta (Siamesisk | Paper Bag Records | 2008)
- “Gollum” – Harmonia (Deluxe | Brain | 1975)
- “Age of Consent” – The Golden Filter (Mojo Presents Power Corruption & Lies Covered | Mojo magazine | February 2012)
Radio Free Raytown 
I’m not sure you understood what I meant, but that’s okay. đ I was just saying to you that I like the Pauline Kael quote (or at least it was attributed to her by a grad. school instructor), “I like many movies, and some of them are good.” What I’m saying is, there are guilty pleasures that not even an overblown music critic can deflate for me. I know a good record when I hear one. But I also know when I like a record that’s not necessarily mind-blowing, but manages to push all the right buttons for me personally. That’s the distinction I was making.
I understood what you said, but I kinda ran with it. To apply your logic to another situation, I can’t imagine someone would ever stock a freezer in the basement with some Miller Lite just to have as a guilty pleasure, even if RateBeer says it sucks.
I do think taste can/should be justified. To me, calling something a ‘guilty pleasure’ is a cop-out and, therefore, isn’t up for discussion. I can justify my like of the few albums I own that most would call guilty pleasures. (Can’t we all?) Saying that a particular album was a soundtrack to good times in high school or college just doesn’t cut it for me. (I think I can more easily say this because the artists I remember from high school are Steven Curtis Chapman, Third Day and Geoff Moore. In no way do I want to relive those times.)
Not that I think you’ve gone downhill, but I think your logic is shared by many who really don’t invest time to discover new music and acquiesce to praising mediocrity. And I want to challenge that tendency in my own life, that’s all. I hope that I don’t get so busy with fatherhood that I start praising bands Mumford and Sons in five years.
[…] albums he recorded with Harmonia and Cluster. (If you’ll remember, I talked about Harmonia in my last episode.) They’re both great examples of ambient music, music intended to be enjoyed equally either […]