Tosh Berman's Music Collection

For the past few months I have been obsessively going over my music collection and documenting it.  Both vinyl and CD's.  At the moment I am concentrating on actual music that is in my collection, both the good and the bad.

What I do is write a brief commentary on each album.  I go by each artist in alphabetical order, and strange enough another version of a memoir comes up.  As I write, I know I'll change things as I get to the finish.  I have 1,250 albums, so it will take me awhile to finish up this little side project.

I made a special blog for this project.  Do visit it time-to-time.  I try to add something everyday.  You can find it here:  http://toshberman.blogspot.com

My Favorite Music That I have Found on the Internet Part One

What is fascinating to me are music blogs. These are all curated sites with particular albums or songs on them. I think people are missing the point about getting music for free or not - the bigger picture is people's taste and how they expose that specific taste. Part of the great fun is researching this by yourself and finding new discoveries. Due to the newish technology I have discovered a lot of new music. For instance:

Patrick Vian's "Bruits et Temps Analogues"



Boris Vian's son was (still is?) a prog rock figure in Paris 1970's. This is a very difficult album to find. I found it once in Tokyo but the price was way too much for me. It's an album that doesn't have that great critical response, but on the other hand it is a work of great interest. One he's the son of Boris. Two, it is an album that was important when it came out. People who are interested in Electronica will find it interesting. Personally I like it. It's a very warm album.


Patrick Vian (back cover of the album)

Pierre Schaeffer's "Parole et Musique"



In two words: Musique Concrete. Masterpiece album. Found sounds, dialogues, snips of melody, coughing, explosions, jets going off - its basically an aural portrait of the 20th Century.


Pierre Schaeffer

Rolling Stones' "Each and Every Day of the Year"



This song makes me tearful. The tragedy of it all. Andrew Loog Oldham's brilliant production and the arrangement are just top notch. It doesn't get better then this. Listen to the song down below.



Part Two later...