'You have my soul to guard'

Today I took a chance at searching for 'Experimental' on Purevolume. Now this, I can imagine, is quite risky because i'm sure i could have easily end up with a band consisting of a man playing the spoons while his brother yodels in background that could have easily named themselves as 'Experimental' Luckily i didn't fall victim to any of that, and what actually came out of the search is, yes something pretty unsusual, but also something that's actually listenable. And we like that.

ANDY ZIPF

German maybe? Who cares, Zipf is a pretty enjoyable name whatever the origin. Labelling himself as Rock/Pop/Experimental lets me breath a huge sigh of relief. I was honestly expecting Bluegrass/Frog Chorus/Experimental or something of the sort. 
So the first track we find on the playlist plays out a bit like something from Moby, with that minimalist instrumental backing to kind of long, mellow lyrics and immediatly i see this as something you might listen to in the background rather than giving it your full attention (which is precisely what Moby is anyway, so good comparison there.) But as we move through the tracks, things seem to pick up nicely and soon he's got this whole The Feeling vibe going on, which amount to giving his songs a lot more attitude that comes from that step up of beat and tempo. 
I should probably just up and say it at this point: I am not so sure about the talent that drives the instruments in this band. At a passing glance you see pretty strong guitar and the occassional nice drum fill, but ultimately it's just power chords and overdrive. Which is a pitty because just like yesterday's band, and a couple more before that, this band is definately driven by its singer and while i agree that the singer is generally the most important member of any band (come on the talent behind the instruments could be incredible but if the guy at the front can't sing, then it just doesn't work) you need a strong band behind you. What i will say is that in the track 'Nothing's wrong' the picking of the guitar is nice. Nothing amazing, but it fits really well with the singing and in a slow song like that you don't particularly want to be drowned out by thrashing solos etc. In fact there are a few of the slower songs on the playlist which also have that nice picking.



Something i've noticed about this guy is that his is the kind of music i'd quite like to learn to play acoustically. The songs i like to play are those with relatively simple strumming or picking melodies, but ranged vocals that i can actually have fun singing. And for me, tracks like 'Keep your body broken' are pretty much perfect for that. And that point leads me on to something that i haven't noticed until i started this blog, and that is the context the music that you're listening to is in as a major factor in whether you'll enjoy listening. Right now, for example, I'm very heavily into The Mars Volta - a progressive rock band that has the tendancy to go mental from time to time - but i'm never going to be able to play any of their music on my acoustic guitar. Something like Andy Zipf here, for example, i couldn't really imagine listening to a great deal, but when it comes to playing his music, I'm pretty sure i could have some great fun doing so. And that is a bizarre thing for me to realise i think i find it pretty much physically impossible to find a context, or a situation, or a setting for any band of any genre to be liked. 

And I consider myself pretty lucky for that; the fact that i can enjoy any music at all (genre, not specific band) just at the right time and the right place. And that honestly makes this blog slightly easier to bare.