I hear new news every day, and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies, apparitions, of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey, Persia, Poland, &c., daily musters and preparations, and such like; which these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain, monomachies, shipwrecks, piracies, and sea-fights; peace, leagues, stratagems, and fresh alarums. A vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions, edicts, petitions, lawsuits, pleas, laws, proclamations, complaints, grievances, are daily brought to our ears. New books every day, pamphlets, currantoes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophy, religion, &c. Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries, entertainments, jubilees, embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, plays ; then again, as in a new shifted scene, treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous villainies in all kinds, funerals, burials, deaths of princes, new discoveries, expeditions, now comical, then tragical matters. Today we hear of new lords and officers created, to-morrow of some great men deposed, and then again of fresh honours conferred; one is let loose, another imprisoned; one purchaseth, another breaketh; he thrives, his neighbour turns bankrupt; now plenty, then again dearth and famine; one runs, another rides, wrangles, laughs, weeps, &c. Thus I daily hear, and such like, both private and public news, amidst the gallantry and misery of the world—
Anatomy of Melancholy
Espers – “Sightings”
III
While I doubt Espers will ever again attain the heights they reached with their debut album, tracks like this one at least keep me occupied while I hope against hope. Most of this album seems to show too much of how the band works, like a magician explaining his tricks, but a few tracks, like “Sightings,” manage to be as mysterious and beautiful as any they’ve ever made. (insound)
Kircher’s Tower of Babel (view large)
Four Tet – “Angel Echoes”
There Is Love In You
Four Tet has moved away from the magical, Fridge-esque organic electronica and towards a more beat-oriented sound, but that’s not all bad. And of course we’ll always have Pause. And there’s something about the disjointed sampling on this and other tracks from this album that catches my ear. There’s a lot of variety, but early Manitoba is the best reference point I can think of.
Blind fury, or error, or rashness, or what it is that eggs them, I know not; I am sure many times, which Austin perceived long since, tempestate contentionis, serenitas caritatis obnubilatur [with this tempest of contention the serenity of charity is overclouded], and there be too many spirits conjured up already in this kind in all sciences, and more than we can tell how to lay, which do so furiously rage, and keep such a racket, that as Fabius said, “It had been much better for some of them to have been born dumb, and altogether illiterate, than so far to dote to their own destruction.”
Anatomy of Melancholy
Benny Goodman – “Sing Sing Sing (With A Swing)”
Live At Carnegie Hall
I came across this track completely by accident while looking for the more conventional dance hall version of this song, but after putting it on, sat in shocked rapture for the entire 12 minutes. The breakdowns and rebuilds, the departures and returns to the original melodies, the unbelievable playing. I wish I could hear what he says that makes the audience laugh nine minutes in, though. And man do I wish I was there that night in 1938.
Have I so much leisure, or little business of my own, as to look after other men’s matters which concern me not?
Anatomy of Melancholy
