Lost and Found

As some of you know I have an extreme passion for music of all kinds. This led me in my formative years to become a DJ, a job that I loved for all of the four years I was doing. One of the greatest pleasures for me was always searching for a hard to find track.

A case in point. I once heard a great remix by Karen Ramirez of the Everything but the Girl track, ‘didn’t know I was looking for love (until I found you)’ while I was out at a club. It turned out that it had been deleted for a number of years. Over time I found out that it had been part of a compilation by Hed Kandi but that too had been deleted. I never gave up. One night I was waiting to meet A to go the movies. I was rummaging through the dance compilations at HMV as I use to do, and came across the compilation. It was by then 4 years old and I had no idea why they still had it on the shelf. It made my week finding it, it is such a brilliant song, and we may even use it at out wedding.

Things have changed a lot since then. This week I heard an acoustic version of Guns ‘n’ Roses classic Sweet Child O’ Mine as backing music to a TV commercial. Within 10 minutes I had found out the artist (a Swedish folk outfit called Taken By Trees… weird), downloaded it from iTunes, and was playing it on my music system in the comfort of my lounge room. How the music world has changed. It is somewhat sad though as I really do miss the thrill of the chase.

You are probably all sick of hearing about my passion for music. With so much time on my hands my iPod and B&W Zeppelin Speaker System have become my new favourite devices, having overtaken the ice making fridge.

Some time ago I wrote about some great song lyrics that I love. Well, this post is the opposite. I was listening to the new Sunlounger album the other day while I was jogging and I decided to actually pay attention to the lyrics. If you can make sense of this you’re doing better than me.

Ray of light to the heart of the sun

Million ways to the heart of the sun

Sail the wave to the heart of the sun

Shining into freedom

What was this guy thinking? More importantly, what was he smoking?

I often ask people what they have been listening to lately in my never ending quest to expand my music repertoire. From time to time someone mentions an artist or group that I have never heard of, which sets me off on a mission to find out what they sound like.

Such conversations have led to my buying, amongst other things, Anoushka Shankar’s CD (daughter of world famous sitar player Ravi Shankar), some music by The Dixie Chicks and even a track by 80’s German one hit wonders Falco (remember Rock Me Amadeus?)

I had one such conversation recently with a work colleague. He mentioned he has just bought the latest album of a British-Indian singer called Nitin Sawhney. The next day I went and bought this CD, London Undersound, and have been listening to it regularly since. The Guardian Newspaper’s music writer was quoted as saying “what can’t this guy do” and I understand why. The album is an awesome mix of everything from hip hop beats to sitar and even dancy house.

One particular song I am a huge fan of on the album is Days of Fire. It reminds me of the Gwyneth Paltrow movie Sliding Doors. The featured singer Natty is singing about the London bombings, and he says “I was on the next train, it could have been me”. A split second, he missed the train, and was not impacted by the incomprehensible devastation. It really puts these situations into personal perspective.