Music

Welcome to my music section. Here you can read reviews of my favourite albums, see my instruments and read about my music recording. Hopefully, one day, I'll have some tracks to download.

Random album review

Low by David Bowie

David Bowie

Low (1977)

Rock, Electronic, Ambient

Low is the first in the "Berlin Triology", three albums that Bowie made with Brian Eno (in Berlin...) during a period of attempting to get clean from drugs. The result was three albums that stand out among Bowie's mostly illustrious career. Low is an unusual mix of electronica, rock and ambient vocals, combined with some of the most perfect song writing possible. "Sound And Vision" is definitely the most well known of all the tracks on the album, quite possibly since it's the most palatable, but personally I think that the real gold lies in tracks such as "A New Career In A New Town", and "Art Decade". The album can be (and was, in the day of records) split in to two parts, with the first half containing songs with a more obvious structure and the second half containing more lengthy, generally instrumental tracks. This album proved that Bowie knew how to do "avant-garde", and how to do it well.

Track list

  • 1. Speed Of Life 2:46
  • 2. Breaking Glass 1:52
  • 3. What In The World 2:23
  • 4. Sound And Vision 3:05
  • 5. Always Crashing In The Same Car 3:33
  • 6. Be My Wife 2:58
  • 7. A New Career In A New Town 2:53
  • 8. Warszawa 6:23
  • 9. Art Decade 3:46
  • 10. Weeping Wall 3:28
  • 11. Subterraneans 5:39

Featured instrument

Taylor 310CE electroacoustic

Taylor 310CE electro-acoustic

I didn't expect to buy this. I naively thought I could go into "Sound Control" (now out of business) in Birmingham, try a few guitars in a detatched fashion, and leave safely. I failed, miserably. The main problem was that the salesman was brilliant: I told him the kind of price-bracket I was interested in, and he knew EXACTLY what I needed. And he was right, as I fell in love with the Taylor 310CE straight away. My innocent trip to Birmingham turned out to be the most extravagant shopping fling I've ever done, but, if you'll excuse the ridiculous Americanism, it was SOOOOOOO worth it. Every time I play this guitar I'm amazed by it, which is how it should be. When I plug it in I'm even more amazed. I love Taylor for creating this guitar just for me, which they quite clearly did.

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Hi, I'm Jon Cairns

I'm a web designer and graphic designer who likes to create good-looking, accessible websites with XHTML, CSS, AJAX and PHP. I'm also a musician, photographer and student, and I live in Durham, up north in the UK. Use the links at the top of the page or just above to navigate my site, or read my blog to find out what's going on in my life.

Updates

  • 22nd Aug Added a new blog, "The Great Synchronisation". It seems that all of my updates are blogs these days!
  • 21st July Added a new blog entry, the first in two and a half months! Join me in the celebration of this momentous occasion by reading it.

From the blog

28th Aug 09

The Great Synchronisation

A few minutes ago I was sitting on a sofa with nothing to do, thinking, "maybe it's time for my annual blog entry". You may be wondering whether you should bother reading something that's been created simply because I had nothing better to do, but I submit to you that all good things are created that way. Think about it.

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