Category: Music

The 30Hz music-related ramblings

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Taming the Morass: Organize Your Digital Music

**like any good recipe, please read through the entire article before taking any drastic steps**

How to Organize Your Digital Music

I acquire a lot of music. This may come as no surprise. All of it ends up in files on my computer. CDs get ripped into iTunes, vinyl records come with download codes. Emusic and Amazon offer their own headaches. No matter how meticulous I might be about maintaining my files, it all ends up in one big clusterfuck. There are no happy endings in the curation of digital media.

…but it might be time to rewrite the narrative.

Finally growing fed up with my old systems of digital acquisition, organization and storage, I went on a manhunt for a system that will:

A) keep my files in the right place;

B) store them efficiently;

C) keep my laptop hard drive unclogged.

I also have certain particular needs that stem from my own compulsive disorders. But we’ll get to those as I detail the methods I’ve uncovered in good time. First I must dispel a few assumptions about how this process will go. If you want this to be an easy process, it will not be free of financial investment. If you have a small collection or have unlimited time you can organize your entire collection without incurring any charges. When I learned what I’d have to do to avoid paying, I gladly donated $30. This process also requires some patience, thinking a step ahead. This is something at which I’m not necessary very good. I will explain my stumbling points so you do not succumb to the same pitfalls.

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30Hz Bl-g 30Hz Recommended Music

30Hz Top 100 Songs of 2013

I’m only one dude. I essentially have four jobs. I have no idea when I find the time to listen to enough music to come up with 100 favorite tracks. My 2013 playlist contains more than 7 days worth of music. And that doesn’t even count all the stuff I check out on Spotify and dismiss. But even with all that listening, it’s blind, dumb, stupid luck when a certain song catches my fancy. On some occasions, a song is thrust in my face with the force of the 800 lb. mainstream music machine and those songs must endure hundreds of listens. Staying power, m’f’ers. See: Arcade Fire, Daft Punk. Other times I fall instantly in love with a record. The songs grab me immediately. Those are the easy ones. The bands and the songs I control. See: Frightened Rabbit, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Polica. And then there’s that final category. Hearing a song, being in the right frame of mind to accept its advances. You might hear a song a dozen times before it catches you at just the right moment. See: half the songs on this list. For every great song on this list, there are hundreds of equally worthy songs that I just didn’t hear or didn’t hear at the right time in the right place. And to those songs, my apologies. Try harder next time. Everyone else, enjoy the list. Find some new music. Support great artists and music worth listening to and so on and so forth. And keep in mind that the ranking system is just for fun. Any of these songs could movie ten spots in either direction given my mood…

The 30Hz Top 100 Songs of 2013

30Hz Best Songs of 2013

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30Hz Recommended Music

30Hz Top 25 Albums of 2013

I never get to experience the broadest variety of music. There are only so many hours in the day. I don’t dabble as much as I’d like. 2013 in particular saw me stick pretty close to my favorite genres, micro-genres and retro-notions. And I have to say that for similar minded fans of music, 2013 was a very good year.

The comeback had been festering, just beneath the surface, for a number of years now, but 2013 may finally have brought about a pop music renaissance. I’m not talking about Top 40 – the days that permitted consistently “good” music on the Top 40 charts have long since disappeared. The term “pop music” doesn’t need to be derogatory – it should imply a level of accessibility, not the derivative and over-produced slush we’ve come to associate with the term. The new wave has been inspired by the deep wellspring of 1980’s pop sensibilities. Hall & Oates. Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks. Tears for Fears. The Pet Shop Boys. New Order. Bands that crafted killer jams. Lyrics. A catchy hook. A solid beat.

When I think back to my favorite bands and tracks of 2013 the list is dominated by bands who sought inspiration from the pop music of their youth. 2013 was the year that put craftsmanship back into pop music. In most circles the bands still fall under the indie umbrella, but that term lost most of its luster long ago. It’s been distilled to dozens upon dozens of micro-genres. Indie isn’t so much a style of music as it is an identity. You either listen to “indie” or “Top 40,” but ever so slowly the gap between the two seems to be lessening. So-called indie bands are winning Grammies, topping sales charts and pulling requests on FM radio.

The 30Hz Top 25 Albums of 2013

Top 25 Records of 2013

The Almost Rans:

Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold, Arcade Fire – Reflektor, Blood Orange – Cupid Deluxe, Danny Michel with The Garifuna Collective – Black Birds are Dancing Over Me, Depeche Mode – Delta Machine, Disclosure – Settle, Grey Reverend – A Hero’s Lie, Grouper – The Man Who Died in His Boat, Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle, Local Natives – Hummingbird, Mount Kimbie – Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, We/Or/Me – The Walking Hour

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