Mr Plow released an album on September 11, 2026 called "At One With Nature". Brace yourself. Mr Plow has gone electric. Well, Mr Plow has always been electric, but Mr Plow pull out all the stops on the new album. The 12 songs are dominated by squealing and larming guitars. The guitars are definitely more aggressive than on previous albums. "At One With Nature" has a distinct gothic vibe. At moments, Mr Plow sounds like a British version of Link Wray or Hank Ray. At the same time, playful and melodic. Well, gothic country and its subgenres thrives in all time and climate zones. Mr Plow posseses a dark and euphonic voice, which he knows how to adjust and vary. The interplay between vocals and guitars is perfect, allowing both to excel on the album. The lyrics are dark and witty. The best songs are "The Great Dismal Swamp", "Every Loser Loses Again", "Find Joy", "Village Of The Damned" and "300 lbs". Two of the songs ("Every Loser Loses Again" and "300 lbs") were included on Mr Plow's 2022's album "Legendary Super Hits", but in slightly different versions. Executive summary: this is a great album from Mr Plow. The approach is laidback, yet focused and to the point. The buying signal is strong. You can listen to "At One With Nature" and buy it in the format of your choice at Bandcamp, just click here (opens in a new window). There's even a limited cd run (50 copies). You know what to do.

The heading is misleading. It's certainly not the most wonderful time of the year. And, it's not every year. It's every four year. General election is coming up. What can I say? The general communication climate is beyond salvation. Yapping, whataboutism, constant interrupting, willful misconception, guilt by association, half-truth, semi-lies and wrongful use of statistics are so common that everything else feels strange. Adding to this, the stiff media training and robot-like repeating of talking points. The negative campaigning has become worse than ever in our political culture. Social media has amplified this trend. And then we have the trolls and haters. They struggle with their spelling, punctuation and syntax. Random people in hideous wind jackets are trying convince me to vote for their party. Political advertising still exists in Sweden and so does vandalizing campaigning posters. Why do I suffer? My demands are too high. I expect more. I miss the dull, but serious old-school politicians. The competition for political office has always been fierce. Nowadays, the requirements for political office seems to attract people who have difficulties making a career elsewhere. I'm interested in politics. I like to listen to political podcasts with their insightful analysis and commentaries. On Sunday, September 13 2026 it will all be over. The winners will try to form a government and the losers will initiate a performance review. And everything will return to normalcy.

A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of affinity with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest differentiating them from those with only a casual interest. In the episode Song 184: The Captain’s Fat Theresa Shoes by the GTOs in the podcast "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs", read more here (opens in a new window) creator, writer, researcher, host, and editor Andrew Hickey apply another layer to the subject, namely gendering. The masculine way is called curatorial fandom. This involves extreme detail-orientation, collecting, learning everything. It tends to attach to objects rather than to people. The feminine way is called transformative fandom. This involves using the original work as inspiration for creative work of one’s own — fanfiction, fan art, cosplay and the like. It tends to attach to people rather than to objects. According to Andrew Hickey (who is definitely a curatorial fan himself) neither of these two ways of doing fandom is superior or inferior to the other. However, these two ways of fandom have a problem when it comes to communicating. Imagine a male completist meeting a female music lover. He: "What, you don't have any physical media at all and cannot or will not rank your favourite albums with the artist!" She: "I don't know. I guess I like them all." The key to true understanding is active listening, keeping an open mind, and asking the right questions. It requires setting aside your own personal bias to truly see things from another perspective or context. However, the curatorial and transformative fandom will never meet or even acknowledge each other's existence. 

Is this album an underappreciated masterpiece or just plain garbage? Well, music has the ability to unite or divide. Captain Beefheart's avant-garde double album "Trout Mask Replica" is definitely a divider. It was released in 1969 with Frank Zappa as producer. The album is often included on lists like "1000 albums You Must Hear Before You Die", which adds to its aura of mystique. What also adds to the aura of mystique is the severe psychological and physical abuse, cult-like control, and extreme deprivation during an eight-month rehearsal period. The abuse was exerted by Captain Beefheart on the members of his backing group, The Magic Band. The controversies are covered elsewhere. Captain Beefheart a.k.a. Don Van Vliet didn't seem to reflect much over it then or later. What can possibly excuse this kind of behavior? The end justifies the means? Artistic sacrifice? Genius at work? A lion does not concern himself with the opinions of a sheep? There are many questions. Frank Zappa gave total artistic freedom, funded and oversaw the recording sessions (which in contrast to the rehearsal were done in no time) and released it on his own record label Straight Records. Why is "Trout Mask Replica" such a divider. It has become a status marker in certain circles. Some say it's an aquired taste. It takes effort to appreciate the work since there's a lot of complexity to it. You have to overcome the initial repulsion and develop your sense of hearing. That takes a lot of work, but then the doors will open to a new world. What do I think? I have twice listened to the album in its entirety. When I bought the album and now before I wrote this blog post. I thought it was listenable the first time. But, not the second time. "Trout Mask Replica" definitely has it's glimpses and moments. But, glimpses and moments pass by fast. I find it hard to embrace this kind of music. It's too cacophonic. However, the album cover is pretty cool. 

Most people believe that digital sound is about 1's and 0's. To a certain extent, it is. But, the sound quality can vary. I did considerable amount of research before I rebought Black Sabbath's first six albums on cd. I was looking for a raw, yet dynamic sound. The crucial choice fell on the Castle Communications releases from the 1980s. Wow! These releases blows you away. I have one negative remark. The ugly blob on the cover showing that a live track is included. It contaminates the stylish artwork. I'm not an expert on audio, but this what I know. The sound quality follow the 80-15-5 rule. 80 percent can be attributed to the actual recording. Not only the spatial conditions, the recording gear used and the placement of microphones. The performance and interplay between the musicians are equally important. That's why AI-generated music fail to be beat humans. AI can steal and imitate, but never create. The next step is mixing. Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more audio channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. The last step is mastering. Audio mastering is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication). It's an important stage. Things can go wrong here. The mastering is the icing of the cake. It goes without saying that if the underlying recording has major flaws there's not much you can do in the mixing and mastering stages. Other than putting lipstick on the corpse. It doesn't matter whether or not you are a proficient and skilled mixing or mastering engineer. If you doubt me, listen to the original tracks and then to the added live track on these albums. Shit in, shit out. It's a vulgar restatement of "garbage in, garbage out". Vulgar, but nonetheless true.