tunequest

So I was itching for something to do this evening, and inspired by WFMU's recent 10 Albums in 10 Minutes contest, I decided to cram the 45 minutes of Ratatat's self-titled debut album into a 60 second playing time. Here's the result. It's a pretty smooth overview: [audio:070329Ratatatin60secs.mp3]

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Yes, after nearly two months offline, Star Trek is back on the iTunes Store. The store has separated the newly remastered episodes from the original broadcast versions. Still, only episodes from the first season are available. iTunes remains the only source to buy and download the original series remastered in the uncut versions. The first season of Enterprise has also returned. City on the Edge of Forever (remastered) City on ...

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This article is also a guest post for Webomatica, who asked me to fill in for a day while he's in Japan. Appropriately, I think, I dove through my library and pulled out some of my favorite Japanese albums. Enjoy... :: Susumu Yokota - Symbol (2005) Yokota is a musician of the sonic contortionist variety, meticulously sculpting sounds and bending them to his will. Symbol features some delicately constructed ...

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Yeah, What They Said is a new feature on tunequest. Some people call it "link sharing." These links won't necessarily be music or iTunes related, but I'll try not to stray too far from the topics on this site. Mostly though, it'll be stuff that's cool, but that I don't have time to write about. Behind the Mario Maestro's Music: Koji Kondo was in his mid-20s when he ...

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Growing up, my parents had (and still have actually) an old Victrola record player. It was completely machine operated; no electronics whatsoever. To use it, you had to wind a handle, which tightened a spring. Flipping a switch unwound the spring and started the disc spinning. A needle, of course, translated the record into sounds. Volume was controlled by opening and closing two doors on the ...

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Yesterday, I wrote a detailed article about the new formula I'm using to quantify the overall quality of albums in my iTunes library. It's been working for me, but I realized that everyone rates their music differently. Webomatica, for example, explains in the comments that his song ratings are relative to other songs by the same artist. So I'd like to explain the thought process that goes ...

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When it comes to my iTunes library, I'm a regular statistics nut. Sure, my library exists primarily for my own enjoyment, but it contains so much organically-compiled data about my habits and tastes that I can't help but want to take a look at it and find out what the data says about my interests. But for a while now, I've struggled to quantify, tabulate and analyze ...

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For these past couple weeks, tunequest has been counting down to Air's fifth full-length record, Pocket Symphony, which was finally released a few days ago. I've had it long enough to give it a handful of thorough listens and I can tell you that this thing oozes craftsmanship. The numbers don't lie and after rating all the songs on the album, I'll confirm that this ...

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After being somewhat let down by 10000 Hz Legend, I'd have thought that my interest in Air would had wained, but when Talkie Walkie was released in 2004 I was surprised by how eager I was to get a hold of it. When I did, my surprising anticipation was validated, in spades. I'll just come out and say it: Talkie Walkie is a beautiful record. In direct ...

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