Slow Reads: 5

Apologies for the silence. Illnesses got in the way of our regular musings here. Anyway, it is great to be back!

Here are a few things worth sharing:

1. Big smiles lit up our office when we spotted our friend and collaborator Nick Dwyer in the latest issue of Popeye Magazine. Nick has dedicated 8 years to visiting record cafés and bars across Japan. We think he’s warmed a bar stool in 250-300 of them! Some of which have grown dear to his heart as friendships formed with the owners. Nick, knows his stuff and his guide is pure soulful gold.

2. Here’s a question for you…

   “Should a recording document reality as faithfully as possible, or should it improve upon or somehow transcend the music it records?”.

   If you are familiar with this question, you will know that we are referencing Greg Milner’s ambitious book; Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music. What-a-book! Illuminating the history of recorded music through the human and tech developments of its past.

   

3. Let’s (re)visit the Loudness War.

4. Remember our co-founder Russell Elevado’s conversation with Eric Lau? Itmakes for an interesting read.

   “It’s a thing that’s missing a lot these days, an apprenticeship –– learning from a master. So yeah, I just started from the bottom and just worked my way up to assistant. I assisted for about 5 years before I started getting engineering gigs, and took me about another year before I really transitioned into being an engineer and, you know, I just got to the point where I was assisting engineers I knew I was better than, you know, and I just wasn’t learning anything anymore. So one day I just said ok even if I go hungry which I did (laughs) I’m not going to assist anybody anymore because I just wasn’t getting fulfilled. “

Cover image artwork by: Yasumi Toyoda (pencil, typewriter, and collage on washi).