The Next Track

Classic rock is back. Its influence is extending, in part because of its presence in movies and TV shows. It is the lingua franca of popular music. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Rock’s Resurgence Fred Jacobs Simon Reynolds's Notes on the noughties: The musically fragmented decade Yacht Rock Our next tracks: Eraldo Bennochi & Harold Budd: Music for "Fragments from the Inside" Apple Music Alternative - Post-Punk Deep Cuts If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

Live albums are very different from studio albums, but also sound very different than what we hear when we attend concerts. We talk about how live albums work, what sort of artist makes live albums, and whether anyone would want to hear a Taylor Swift live album. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Episode #19 – Live Recordings and Studio Recordings Rolling Stones: Four Flicks Bob Dylan: Supper Club, 1993 Our next tracks: Grateful Dead: Here Comes Sunshine Frank Zappa: You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol.2: The Helsinki Concert If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

It's summer, and there are music festivals. We discuss the Glastonbury Festival, attending live concerts, and more. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival on the BBC iPlayer MUBI Annette Our next tracks: Pat Metheny: Dream Box Beck, Bogert & Appice: Live 1973 & 1974 If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

Doug and Kirk don't know a lot about opera, but they discuss it anyway. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV Mezzo Carnegie Hall+ Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall OperaVision Audience member banned from Royal Opera House after he loudly booed child singer during aria Our next tracks: Lully: Atys Motorbike: Motorbike If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

We discuss home automation and using music listening music devices around the home. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: FreeForm OmniGraffle Philips Hue light bulbs Eve Energy Our next tracks: Succession Curved Air: Air Conditioning If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

Doug re-watched the Woodstock movie. He'll never have to watch it again. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Woodstock - Director's cut Episode #254: Remastering, Re-Recording, and Standards Woodstock – Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive Boston Calling Our next tracks: Manchester Gamba Book Eli "Paperboy" Reed: Come and Get It If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

Composer pianist Timo Andres joins us to discuss the Apple Music Classical app and Kirk's article about classical music that doesn't sound like classical music. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Guest: Timo Andres ‌Show notes: Timo Andres on Wikipedia Apple Music Classical (Mostly) Plays the Right Chords - TidBITS The Next Track: Episode #253: Apple Music Classical Classical music recommendations for people who want to discover classical music that doesn’t sound like classical music Takemitsu: Spectral Canticle Merlin Bird ID Terry Riley: In C, Shanghai Film Orchestra Timo Andres: Shy and Mighty - Brian Eno: Everything Merges With The Night — Timo Andres Sufjan Stevens: Reflections The music Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians This 1976 work is one of the foundational works of minimalism. Its driving beat, or pulse, as Reich calls it, makes it a toe-tapper. This recording, on the ECM label in 1978, is the first recording by Steve Reich and Musicians. There have been many recordings since then by Reich and by other ensembles. John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano You can't talk about 20th-century classical music without mentioning John Cage. His music, mostly created using chance operations, was revolutionary. The pieces on this recording were composed between 1946 and 1948, before Cage adopted his Yi Jing influenced compositional approach. The revolution here is the "prepared" piano, in which screws and bolts, pieces of plastic and rubber were wedged between the piano strings, turning into a percussion ensemble. Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet Morton Feldman was a close friend of John Cage, but his music was very different. Many of his pieces are long - this one lasts 79 minutes - and quite. His music has slow, soft, slowly morphing phrases, and you can get lost in his sound world. Toru Takemitsu: From Me Flows What You Call Time Strongly influenced by western classical music, notably Debussy, Tour Takemitsu created unique music that doesn't fit easily in any boxes. This 1990 work is a concerto for five percussionists and orchestra, and lasts about 36 minutes. Philip Glass: Einstein on the Beach Philip Glass is one of the foundational composers of New York minimalism, and is well known for his operas and film scores. His first "opera," Einstein on the Beach, lasts about five hours, and is a summation of his various composing styles in the 1970s. This recording is from the 1984 revival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which I attended, and which has left its mark on me. If you like this, you may want to see the opera staged, and this Blu-Ray of a 2014 production in Paris is excellent. Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue d’Oiseaux My only atonal selection is this group of works by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. He lived in the French Alps for many years, and in this series of piano pieces, Catalogue of birds, he presents his take on songs of the different birds heard around France. Much of Messiaen's music is "difficult," but if you take the time to get into this recording, you may find it enjoyable. Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa Estonian composer Arvo Pärt was "discovered" in the west in 1984 when ECM released this album. The title work, from 1977, is an example of music that deconstructs, and other works on the album are also fascinating. Terry Riley: In C One of the first true minimalist works, In C "consists of 53 short numbered musical phrases, lasting from half a beat to 32 beats; each phrase may be repeated an arbitrary number of times at the discretion of each musician in the ensemble. Each musician thus has control over which phrase they play, and players are encouraged to play the phrases starting at different times, even if they are playing the same phrase." (Wikipedia) This is the first recording, from 1968, led by the composer, but it has been recorded many times since. Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Divided This work consists of 36 variations on a Chilean protest song ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! which is both highly musical and extremely difficult to perform. Timo Andres: Home Stretch Timo Andres is a young composer living in New York City. This recording is probably the most classical sounding of my selection. At its center is a "reconstruction" of an incomplete Mozart piano concerto, which is "an almost entirely new-sounding piece, which I hope will be an antidote to the studied blandness of most existing completions." This is bookended by Home Stretch, a piece "in three large sections which gradually accelerate: beginning in almost total stasis, working up to an off-kilter dance with stabbing accents, and ushering in a sturm-und-drang cadenza which riles itself up into a perpetual-motion race to the finish," and Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno, where Andres orchestrates some of Brian Eno's songs from Before and After Science and Another Green World. (Notes from Timo Andres's website.) If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

We discuss whether remastering albums is worthwhile, why some artists re-record their albums, and how there seem to be no more standards. Support The Next Track. ‌Show notes: Steely Dan Reissuing Countdown to Ecstasy on Vinyl Jonathan Franzen: The End of the End of the Earth: Essays Episode #219 - Reissues, Remixes, and Remasters T.J. Clark: If These Apples Should Fall: Cézanne and the Present Reel Big Fish Bob Dylan: Truckin' (4/20/23, Nagoya, Japan) Bob Dylan: Not Fade Away (4/15/23, Tokyo, Japan) Brad Mehldau Trio: Blues and Ballads Brad Mehldau Trio: Jacob’s Ladder John Coltrane: Ballads John Coltrane: My Favorite Things Our next tracks: Jorma Kaukonen: Quah David Johansen: David Johansen If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

Apple has released its Apple Music Classical app for iPhone, and it's pretty good. Not perfect, but it's a big step forward. We discuss this new app and how it can be improved. Support The Next Track. ‌Show notes: Apple Music Classical (Mostly) Plays the Right Chords OmniDiskSweeper Daisy Disk macOS Power Hound Universal Music Group Announces Acquisition of Legendary Classical Label Hyperion Records Ember Mug 2 Our next tracks: The White Stripes - Elephant If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

Episode #252: Imprinting and Dilution Creative content we discover at certain times of our lives imprints on our brains, and we forever compare other music, movies, and books to those we discovered at the right time. Support The Next Track. ‌Show notes: Andrey Tarkovsky: Stalker Geoff Dyer, Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room Wim Wenders: Kings of the Road John Ford: Searchers Xbox Series X The Long Dark Our next tracks: W.A. Mozart: String Quintets K.515 & K. 516 Johnny Thunders: Finally Alone - The Stick & Stones Tapes If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track