Nope! The title is not clickbait and I'll explain to you why... It took me more than Three weeks to listen to a set recording of about 3 hours {can it be any slower?!} And it took me Eleven months and several external triggers to shift some of my time to the community I established when we created HIVE {holy moly!}
First things First...
A little more than a week ago mipiano published a lovely post writing about the first event since a long time she is rehearsing for. I know she is very much looking forward to this gig and is taking considerable time for rehearsals. She's a perfectionist which drives her to spend hours and hours, day in and day out, so she'll be flawless playing her piano. I may exaggerate a bit since she is also recording wonderful pieces for other HIVE posts whilst she has to work, teach music and enjoy her husband and son as well. What I do know, this is gonna be a memorable event for her. Not only because I think so, but also because she wrote it herself in the mentioned post.
A little less than a week ago deeanndmathews published a very special post. Knowing her from playing the piano and insightful and personal posts, I didn't realise she is such a good singer as well. When I finally dropped a comment yesterday, I learned from her she is not singing that often. "I hope, you'll be singing more often for us deeannmathews!" But not only that! Her post, her video, and her performance brought back to us a forgotten historical event. Definitely a memorable event... Well, more like a memorable period in US history.
And you Know What?
Both mipiano and deaanndmathews decided the community I established more than a year ago (and left for what it was soon afterwards) was the one to publish their wonderful contributions in. Though I was telling mipiano offline she shouldn't have done so since that community was inactive, it got me thinking: "Shall I try and revive what I was set out to do more than a year ago?" Several conversations down the road, and the great comment I got from deaanndmathews yesterday, made me decide I shall spend more time trying and convincing peeps at HIVE how nice it is to write about anything personal about music. Music can be wonderful by itself. But the feeling we have about some piece of music becomes much more alive and deeper because we have a memory associated with it, a story, or we have an opinion or thoughts about it. Isn't that what we like to write and read about instead of facts and figures, artist profiles we can find on the internet, impersonal reviews and what not? Back then, I thought the personal touch to music deserved its own community, hence I launched Qsounds.
Initially the community was named 'Q', but the Qanon peeps started to post in this community, so I had to take action. Not that I'm against free speech, their posts are far off from the intentions I had for Qsounds. Renaming and rebranding was in order 🙃
3 Hours and 3 Weeks
For quite some time, I'm not listening any music at home. Mostly because I can't seem to find the time. My employer is keeping me very busy. After 6 to 8 hours calls (audio and video), writing 10s of emails with post length content, and digesting and writing several documents a day, I'm drained. Added to that my daily HIVE curation: Something I love by the way, no matter what, tired or not, I don't care. And on top of that staying close to what is happening in the crypto universe through Twitter, Telegram and the necessary research on- and offline.
anyways...
When taking a walk, I usually put on my headphones and listen to some music. More than a month ago, my Soundcloud brought me from a piece I listen to quite often (here) to an interesting recording by Refracted. Quickly skipping through the recording, I was persuaded: "I need to listen the whole 3 hour thing!" Usually not that difficult when taking an hour long walk every day. However, due to my energy draining employer, no long walks anymore, just short ones.
Three weeks it took me to get through the 3 hours of recording: 5 minutes here (walk to the food market, and back), 10 minutes there (waiting time at the fish or coffee shop). But eventually, I heard everything, from second first to second last! And you know what? I re-listened the whole 3 hours yesterday using my Sennheiser headphones instead of my default phone thingies. WOW! Goosebumps showed its face! A sign I love what I was hearing!
I can try and describe why I love this recording, but I always think it's best to listen for yourself. But I also understand you may not hit the play button when I don't give a glimpse, so I'll try my best to summarise.
First of all, the recording is very dynamic in various aspects. For one, different kinds of techno are mixed, from tribal and offbeat, to atmospheric and powerful minimal techno. We can also hear a very nice buildup. I suspect the DJ (Refracted.) was playing an opening set, but am not sure. Wasn't able to conclude this from some research I carried out this morning.
Initially, I thought the last hour is a bit boring, but when re-listening with my Sennheiser headphones (while surfing my own couch at home) I came to a whole different realisation. I would go crazy when I hear such music in one of my most favourite clubs around! Real Rave and Mind Travelling material! It's not only just triggering me: My mind is sucked all the way into the pool of sounds, joining my soul with the massive fast pacing, minimal, hypnotic techno. While writing this, goosebumps are showing its face all over my body. Feeling so nice! 🙃
I'll have to adjust my comment I wrote to a Tweet by diabolika yesterday. Trying to give her some positivity, I shared the Refracted. set recording and mentioned the somewhat boring last hour. To be honest, I have no idea if she likes techno at all, but I do hope so. Otherwise, I hope she found other ways to try and get rid of the frustrations she has with her employer. Why not give her a little love, check her post (here) and send her a nice message?
Final Note
Am very interested in what you think of the music I shared. And I'm even more interested in your stories in combination with music. As mentioned before, why not write them down and share them with us? In case you don't know where to post them, know that we have a little corner named: Qsounds 😉
all images by edje unless stated otherwise
qsounds music & story library | A...K | L...Z |
hive curator with some curie superpowers