Synaesthesia: A Critique in 20 Pages/Tracks

Well, not really synaesthesia. Synaesthesia is, for those who aren't up to date on weird, esoteric, hippie-descriptors, is what is described as substituting one sense for another. While certain fungi may cause said effects to occur, some people stumble upon it even more naturally. Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin, is a so-called synaesthete. He "hears" color hues in sound, etc. Other well known artists are also reported to be synaesthetes, although their particular traits vary.

Regardless what you think about this interesting concept, it's not what I'm talking about, so forget it. I'm merely discussing how it's nice to listen to music while writing. Yeah, that is nice. Listening, writing, reading, all at the same time. Sounds/looks/writes nice.

Since it's the end of the academic year and there are folks out there struggling to write papers, I thought I would share my paper writing mix. It got me through the seventy pages of my Master's Thesis.

The songs are almost entirely lyric-less. They are quite airy and ambient, although there are some electronic songs in there too. Can't have you falling asleep on your keyboard, now can we? But don't worry, it's not going to make you get up and dance. You'll just peck keys with authority. All in all I think it is best for blanketing out background noise (like idiots talking on cellphones in the library) but not distracting from the task at hand.

The whole thing runs just under two hours. My first try at podcasting! No microphone though, so I guess it's just a mixcast. Whatever.

Writing Mix (password: writing)
Salt of the Sea - The Gentleman Losers
Julie and Candy - Boards of Canada
Call Me - Marsmobil
Weathered Stone - Aphex Twin
Six Pack - Tortoise
White Light Of - Do Make Say Think
Hexagon - Aphex Twin
Eleventh! - Arovane
Sing - Slowdive
Maps - Ada
Everything Merges with the Night - Brian Eno
Morning Passages - Philip Glass/Michael Riesman
Cliffs - Aphex Twin
Historics Repeating as One Thousand Hearts Mend - Esmerine
Open the Light - Boards of Canada
I'll Come Running - Brian Eno
Guilty Cubicles - Broken Social Scene
Scoop - The Notwist
Laureline - The Gentleman Losers
Alpha and Omega - Boards of Canada

This is not a Mp3 Blog

I'm not in the business of posting music, but if I'm digging something I might just re-post a link to it. And so, since it made my morning:

Electro/Techno/Dance listeners: Jam out at work right now with this XLR8R dance mix (DJ Star Eyes). You'll like it, trust me. My morning was so slow, but 45 on the train with this and I was back on top of my game, and ready to spreadsheet. Its generally a pretty good podcast, but this one has some classic tracks. The previous link gets you directly to the cast in question, the entire feed is here.

ps. Does anyone know what the track that samples the Superman theme about an hour in is?