Hi all! Hopefully you are getting through the week in one piece, or fairly close to it. I’m on a bit of a retrospective mood at the moment, and thinking a bit about the music that I was listening to quite a lot right before that fateful summer day in early to mid September 2001 that would change us in ways we’re still trying to sort out. This is a track by Matthew Shipp. This is a nice one to showcase what he could do as a pianist at the time (and he continues to get better with age), and was one of the last pieces he’d record before being tapped to curate the Thirsty Ear Blue Series, a task he still manages. Pastoral Composure, as an LP, was certainly a prelude to what would come next.

To say that my tastes are eclectic is, I suppose, an understatement. At the time, I was listening to a lot of jazz, ambient, EDM, and some underground hip-hop. These days, I will still make time for that, and delve into my more distant past (hard rock, prog rock, punk, postpunk, minimalism) and exploring work of newer artists who are carrying the torch of those who still want to be creatively dangerous.

Cheers!