Kevin Richard Martin – Black

An ambient album by The Bug that is an eulogy to Amy Winehouse—such a fascinating concept that I would have never seen coming. It comes with probably the best liner notes I have ever read on Bandcamp. Not because it’s a whole lot but it gives such a personal perspective to such an unexpected record.

Also, using the word “muse” just opens up this whole realm of thoughts how muses work for artists, which I’ve always found interesting. When a muse is depicted in a movie they tend to be this groupie that hangs with the rock band, but how a muse as a person and personality inspires art is rarely seen. Funny thing that Californication comes to mind where the muse is an interesting character. And recently I read about the life of Daphne Guinness who is also cited as being the muse for fashion designers like Alexander McQueen and Karl Lagerfeld. Just reading her bio, seeing her style of photos, and listening to her records makes me go “oh yes, I can see that”.

So, to get back to Black, it’s interesting how inspiration can come from such random places, and how a muse can find you even when you’re not searching.

LukHash – Virtual Burnout

8bit video game music. Takes me places. Last time listening it took me to researching how to build a bluetooth adapter into an original MiniDisc player, and then to the local retro game store fishing for Game Boy cartridges.

Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a room7 F760

This is a very nice IDM record. Other than that, my relationship to this is quite neutral, and saying that as a long time Aphex Twin fan. It just doesn’t have any specificity to this time and place, and it also doesn’t invoke memories strongly enough so it would be clearly on the nostalgia side. It’s like the B sides collection of records from twenty years back. It’s… fine.