Listening Habits

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Scream & Writhe
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Listening Habits

Post by Scream & Writhe »

I'll get the ball rolling on this board with something that was touched on when speaking with Oskar this morning for the WCN podcast. We didn't go into this too much, so I don't feel like I'm spoiling any of the interview before it airs, but I mentioned that sometimes when listening at home my preferred approach is to pull out releases from one specific artist. Not necessarily to take a deep dive into a back catalog, but as more of a sure-fire way to satisfy a mood or a want. With new stuff passing in and out of these doors almost daily and a resulting lack of time able to be dedicated to listening to things as much as I might want to (a related point touched on in the interview), I can easily forget what sounds like what and pulling tapes at random to try and curate an evening's listening isn't always a fruitful endeavour (i.e. in the mood for quick ripping harsh noise and suddenly you're disrupted by an unexpected, lengthy album of quiet tape manipulation), sometimes there are surprises but often times it kills the mood.

Sticking with an artist for an evening, or even just a couple/few tapes, tends to scratch that itch with minimal risk. I mentioned Skin Graft in the interview, but I apply the same method to Wince, Bloomer, 90s Merzbow, etc. All artists with a certain level of consistency throughout the works, but each release diverse enough to allow for exclusive/extensive listening sessions.

I find that this approach will naturally produce thoughts, ideas, conclusions, understanding, etc. of the particular artist, but in a way that's merely a healthy byproduct of just getting some good solid listening in (or maybe it's the other way around). I guess the question, or basis for discussion, here is to see if anyone else adopts any similar listening methods or if people just "go for it."
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by New Forces »

I get forever stuck in a cycle of listening through the "new arrivals" pile, shelving stuff, then continuing to work on the "new arrivals" pile. So for awhile I was trying, every Friday, to pull a bunch of random older titles out to listen to. Need to get back to doing that...
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by Vast Field Magnetism »

I deal with pretty severe OCD (the real deal), and am constantly getting myself stuck within rigid listening guidelines that cause me to repeat the same handful of releases constantly (with new arrivals getting one listen before shelving).
I've since started listening through my collection alphabetically (while allowing myself deviations at will), and will cycle back through once I've finished the V/A comps that sit at the "end" of my collection. That way, I'm able to get a wider variety of stuff listened to while still taking in WHAT I'm hearing.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by MaldororEstMort »

New Forces wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:49 pm I get forever stuck in a cycle of listening through the "new arrivals" pile, shelving stuff, then continuing to work on the "new arrivals" pile...
i find myself getting stuck in this same rut.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by WCN »

I'm really not in a methodical place in my life at the moment, so my listening discipline is all over the board. Running a distro, it's a lot like Taylor has described: constant flow of new releases, so I spend most of my time trying to listen to new arrivals, often times only once. Not to mention files people send me that I try to check out, masters, etc. So it's often a huge pile of stuff next to my stereo, sometimes listening to one side of something, something else suddenly taking precedent and having to switch over, etc. which is not cool. Actually my "receiver" has been burnt out for the past couple months and a new one should be arriving within a few hours today, so I'm really excited to let it rip again and get back to listening physical formats, which has only been possible on headphones lately. I should try to force more of a methodology when that happens, because one change usually causes others to follow.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by Roger Kemper »

In the past I was like... choosing a project/band/something and listen methodically all his discography in order. But after creating a label and let's admit even because of internet and all the music of the world in my hand, the amount of music in my "playlist" is beyond the time I can use to listen it. So for now I'm like in my room, with a pile of cds and tapes that I listen randomly choosing them by following the mood of the moment, like... today I need something dark, today something more ambient, tomorrow I need to feel the bleed in my ears and so on. I listen a lot of metal and punk too, so it's very difficult sometime to me choice. In the past as I said I was more methodical, but now as a friend told me "I just put the cd in the player and click play".
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by adult human »

MaldororEstMort wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 10:26 pm
New Forces wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:49 pm I get forever stuck in a cycle of listening through the "new arrivals" pile, shelving stuff, then continuing to work on the "new arrivals" pile...
i find myself getting stuck in this same rut.
Yes this is an easy and absurd situation to get into unfortunately. I've been making more committed efforts to ensure I listen to stuff more than once before filing it away, especially since realising that myself and a few friends were all in this cycle of listening as a way to get through backlog rather than to absorb good records. It has been a rewarding thing to make sure I'm checking back in with newer releases of the last couple of years as well as revisiting older favourites/curiosities. I like to begin with a handful of things I feel like checking out but also leave a bit of room to be inspired by whatever was last playing. It's a lot of fun to say 'I'm going to catch up on these Worth albums then listen to some Merzbow' but eventually be moved to pull out some Francois Douris because the mucky, fucked sounds of Worth made me want to bask in some similar vibes to what I initially had planned.

All of this whilst trying to remain on top of all that jazz, fusion and prog sat in the shelves too :D

I recall Henry Rollins in some interview, possibly Joe Rogan (ugh, apologies on both counts) mentioning that he treats mon-fri as the time to catch up on new stuff and listen to recent projects while the weekend is a space to blast old favourites over and over. I don't really have the time or enthusiasm to listen so often as to require a regimen like that but I appreciate the time management and think it's a good way to think of stuff.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by AlexVirtues »

It seems pretty common these days, with new batches of multiple releases coming out every week, that everyone has ever-growing "new arrivals" pile stacking up on the shelf. While it is exciting to constantly get the dopamine rush of finding a parcel in your mailbox every other day, I am more and more fondly remembering back in my youth only having a few dozen CDs/tapes, and therefore gaining appreciation by being forced to listen to them on repeat and memorizing every second of them.
My listening habits have definitely become very schizo in the last few years. I do like listening in the car where there are less technological distractions.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by Remi »

I stopped caring anymore.

When I want to listen to something in particular, it's true that I'll take 3 or 4 tapes of the same artist off the drawers with the hope I'll be able to listen to them while the mood for them lasts. It's not often the case, sadly, because life gets in the way.

Also, I ultimately stopped caring about getting more new stuff and being on top of everything. I know what I like, I'm OK with the fact I can't check out everything I'd like to hear while allowing the necessary time to acquaint myself with releases I already own and don't feel like I spent enough time with. Random and excellent surprises happen at times of course (the last one being the last Cost tape on New Forces), and my curiosity and need to hear more good stuff never disappeared, but I can't "consume" music as much as I wish I did anymore.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by Remi »

AlexVirtues wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:49 am It seems pretty common these days, with new batches of multiple releases coming out every week, that everyone has ever-growing "new arrivals" pile stacking up on the shelf.
I do get the multiple advantages for a label to release batches of releases but it drives me nuts, still. Each release has to compete with the others in the batch to stand out and while every release may be excellent, no one will be able to give each of them the time or attention they deserve because there's only 24 hours in a day.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by 33033 »

I tend to just "go for it". I get the appeal of curating a listening list, but overall I tend to shift moods/feelings as albums end or progress so I'm kind of always in the moment. I'll do harsh noise for an album or two then mellow out with something else, or vice versa or all over. I've used the "shake" function on Discogs a fair bit recently and I find it can be pretty cool. Whoever came up with that is a genius.
Last edited by 33033 on Wed Jan 19, 2022 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by scumwalski »

I tend to be pretty methodical and often organize/schedule plenty of activities.
I've been working two jobs for the past couple of years. One of them is an office job where I deal with people on daily basis so I can't really listen to music while I'm on the clock.
I commute approx. an hour each way, I always make sure to read a book and listen to new music at the same time on my commutes. Spotify comes in handy.
I normally sleep between 6 pm - midnight/1 am and then I start my second, home office job. I listen to physical records during that time, like others have already said, I have a "new arrivals" stack ready for the nightly working/listening sessions.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by MiseryEngine »

New Forces wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:49 pm I get forever stuck in a cycle of listening through the "new arrivals" pile, shelving stuff, then continuing to work on the "new arrivals" pile. So for awhile I was trying, every Friday, to pull a bunch of random older titles out to listen to. Need to get back to doing that...
Very much my habits as well
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by totalblack »

In the fortunate situation to be able to listen to noise basically 60+ hours a week due to working in record shop. Spend Monday-Saturday working and mostly listening to new releases, and new arrivals. Generally speaking still too many things coming in to listen to all of it. With sheer volume of releases arriving, the things that make it home and into personal collection is limited, so evenings and days off listening is mostly reserved for classics\greatest hits. I no longer own headphones that work with my phone, so no listening on commute. I recently moved and now have a much more comfortable listening room, so have been enjoying the ritual of having friends over to listen to music over drinks again, after years of claustrophobic living.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by Scream & Writhe »

Remi wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 10:02 am Also, I ultimately stopped caring about getting more new stuff and being on top of everything. I know what I like, I'm OK with the fact I can't check out everything I'd like to hear while allowing the necessary time to acquaint myself with releases I already own and don't feel like I spent enough time with.
I wholeheartedly support the buy less, listen more motto. Even if it is perhaps contrary to my own business operations. On my end it's at the point where unless it's an artist I "collect" or know I'll enjoy I won't even set it aside for potential listening. If something sells before I have a chance to hear it, good. That means someone who wanted it has it. Often times I'll miss out on some things that I realize I would have liked to keep after the fact, but there isn't enough time in a day to dedicate to hearing everything that passes through the doors of a distro.
Remi wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 10:08 am I do get the multiple advantages for a label to release batches of releases but it drives me nuts, still. Each release has to compete with the others in the batch to stand out and while every release may be excellent, no one will be able to give each of them the time or attention they deserve because there's only 24 hours in a day.
I mostly agree, but batches are much more beneficial to simply getting the releases out there. As a distro it's much more cost effective when a label drops a batch vs. a single tape. International shipping rates can sometimes completely kill a potential deal. The more items that shipping cost can be spread over, the better.
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Re: Listening Habits - Noise meditation

Post by Xpat »

Once in a while I do my noise meditation with a few playlists that I create with The Rita, Vomir, Merzbow, Sunno))), the vomit arsonist, Daniel Menche, Francisco Lopez, Dave Phillips and others.
Stare at the wall for 20 solid minutes and let go. Very good sonic experience.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by Helvitis »

These days with a one year old running around I don´t get the chance to listen to too much noise around the house so most of my listening is done on headphones. I play cd´s and tapes in my home office while doing work and I tend to walk everywhere which gives me extra time to listen to noise and catch up on podcasts. I play plenty of music for the little one on the stereo but that tends to be not noise stuff (a lot of Leonard Cohen, John Coltrane, ambient music for example). Hoping in the summer/fall I´ll be able to get a proper office outside the home where I´ll be able to set up a stereo and play the noisy stuff.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by thedemonfeedback666 »

I have no rhyme or reason to how I listen to stuff. My preferred method is in my car, loudly. 90% of what I listen to is noise, so even though I buy noise and PE often, very little falls through the cracks. Maybe the one constant is I listen to more “subdued” stuff late at night. Lately it’s been Navicon, early Atrax Morgue, Thin Mountain, and Commuter. You can see why I put quotation marks around subdued lol
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by chryptusrecords »

lots of stuff from early 00s, when people did larger CD editions, , still available on secondhand market or in many cases still from label! steinklang, galakthorrö, malignant, it's worth looking back especially if you're into power electronics
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by Tinnitustimulus »

By the time I discovered soulseek when i was 14 until I was about 33, I listened to something new to me every single day. I dont mean I only listen to files or just noise but they certainly helped when I was broke or on a binge of rare old stuff. Covid, being in a committed relationship and just covering so much ground already has gotten me to slow down over the years, but have been listening to more noise out of what I listen to, as I am not asked to dj as often.

When I was younger listening to noise in the car very distracting and stressful, but now its a nice catharsis while dealing with traffic on the commute hone. I dont if its that i gotten used to driving or gotten used to noise or if its the only time in the day Im really alone. Been meaning to bring walkman to aux to play tapes but it certainly wont be as good as a deck, so cds and bandcamp have been the thing for that.

As for selection Idk, Im currently playing Futures by Dead Machines, but have no pin point of why.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by Scream & Writhe »

I also often find myself in these weird lulls that I absolutely hate, but don't even realize they're happening until I'm hours deep into listening to... nothing. It often happens at work where I'll put an album on to start the day and then for some reason never follow it up with another album. Taking a listening "break" is a natural thing, I think, but this is a weird subconscious habit that happens too frequently and I just feel like I'm wasting the time that could be spent listening to, literally, anything.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by killhippies »

I usually grab 1-2 new releases, and pair them with some favorites or ones I haven’t listened to in a while. I try not to let stuff sit on the shelves too long
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by adult human »

screamandwrithe wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 4:41 pm I also often find myself in these weird lulls that I absolutely hate, but don't even realize they're happening until I'm hours deep into listening to... nothing. It often happens at work where I'll put an album on to start the day and then for some reason never follow it up with another album. Taking a listening "break" is a natural thing, I think, but this is a weird subconscious habit that happens too frequently and I just feel like I'm wasting the time that could be spent listening to, literally, anything.
I've felt like this before but tend to appreciate the lulls now. Never underestimate the power of giving your ears a good rest. Sometimes I feel that I'm just not that bothered with listening to anything that much or content myself with playing stuff on YouTube via rubbish work PC speakers to wile the professional hours away. I always find, however, that these times really allow me to come back swinging by the time the next phase of audio obsession inevitably rolls around. Consequently, listening to music in these times feels much more gratifying. I find it much better to have lulls followed by active periods than to be in a continued state of pushing myself to be enthusiastic about listening when I'm just not feeling it. Aural fatigue is a real thing, for me at least.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by violentgrief »

I try to take some time every day to sit down with headphones on and play a whole album at least. Sometimes it's the same album for a few days running.
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Re: Listening Habits

Post by Exclusionzonedayton »

I tend to listen to new arrivals a lot. I only listen in my car or in my basement. In the car I listen to a lot of old favorites with some new stuff mixed in. At home it’s the opposite. Mostly new stuff with some old favorites thrown in and the “I remember liking that but I don’t remember what it sounds like” I usually don’t binge listen to projects.
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