Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • The Inner Road – Visions (progressive rock)

    The Inner Road – Visions (progressive rock)

    Rock music is such an integral part of our audio culture that it has almost become invisible as a thing in itself: it doesn’t sound like rock music to many ears, in many contexts, but just like music. Furthermore, because of the way in which it is usually experienced, as a currency of mass culture,… Read more

  • Various Artists – Singles & EPs

    Various Artists – Singles & EPs

    I’m not sure what Marie Craven is sorry about. Without overcoming my innate laziness and conducting a proper analysis of the lyrics, it’s hard to say whether she’s expressing regret, making an apology, or meditating on the nature of transgression. In fact the title is a little ambiguous itself: does it refer to a transcendence… Read more

  • Dementio13 – The Hobbyist (electronic post-rock)

    Dementio13 – The Hobbyist (electronic post-rock)

    ‘Style’ is frequently contested territory in popular music. Widely circulating ideas of authenticity have it that for a creative musician to think about style is to privilege the superficial surface of their work over the deep substance. Musicians are supposed to just be ‘true to themselves’, and the music that comes out will come out,… Read more

  • Various Artists – Album Roundup

    Various Artists – Album Roundup

    Heavy rock music of various sorts has a long standing relationship with the avant-garde, and the more ‘serious’ end of ‘popular’ music (I may put a lot of ‘things’ in quote marks, but it’s not my ‘fault’ if every term in ‘music’ means something other than its ‘literal’ definition!). Metal’s most fertile ongoing point of… Read more

  • Monday Musing: Musical Experience and And The Location Of Meaning

    Monday Musing: Musical Experience and And The Location Of Meaning

    I often mention in the reviews I write, that I locate musical meaning in the experience of listening. This is in contrast to linguistic meanings, which are located somewhere other than the sound of the language, which points you at ideas to which it is only arbitrarily connected. This can be a difficult thing to… Read more

  • Neil Cousin – Bonfire (folksong/ roots rock)

    Neil Cousin – Bonfire (folksong/ roots rock)

    Specifics are important. Little details are the warp and weft of life. Neil Cousin knows this: he knows that a hole in a jumper, a night-time swim in the sea, a man with painted toenails and hair worn in plaits are all important. Not important as in important to someone, or important in respect of… Read more