Monday 9 November 1998

Here I am, in one of my most worn (and so, most comfortable) cord trousers and a fairly inexpensive yet comfortable shirt, Creem Comp. The jeans substitute is called ... let me see ... "Cotton Polyester". Heh, actually it was my first Marlboro Classics, earning me the dubious nickname of Marlboro Man. The thing is, these clothes get more and more comfortable and keep their shape and look fairly well as years go by. Recommended.
Mitch has arrived. The hurricane, that is, except that it has days ago been downgraded to a tropical depression. Now, arriving Norway, it is no longer quite tropical, but it's still quite depressing. Slamming into the West coast, it has cut off communications both out to sea and across the mountains. Here on the south coast, we're on the fringe of it, but it still pours water down on us ceaselessly. Not only down either, but across. Oh well. Good thing we didn't meet this thing when it was young and strong.
On a much less depressing note, I've bought a new double CD. I was out in the soaking rain and wind, watching someone changing windows decorations. From a nearby shop I heard this cutiful music. I walked up and asked if the CD was for sale. It was. It's called "Trancemaster 19 ... the reference" and seems to originate with Vision Soundcarriers. As usual, the quality varies, but several of the tracks are in my taste.
I guess Trance is a descendant of Techno music, augmented by modern brain research and thousands of years of Shamanistic music tradition. With good sound equipment it is varied enough to keep your attention, and monotonous enough to induce a slight trancelike state. And best of all, it's not destroyed by people trying to show off their voices ("singing"). Though some of the tracks are marred by small pieces of narration or comment. A good track is the last on CD 1, "karmasutra". All in my horribly subjective opinion. I am not very advanced in the ways of millenial music, actually. Nor could I afford to be, the production rate in these genres is breathtaking.