Forty-Eight For Work

Ever since my said we couldn't bring mp3 players to work (regardless of the security issue, I'm still horribly unhappy with this decision), I've been lugging my 48-CD Case Logic with me every day. Well, it's not hard to carry it with me, since 48 isn't a lot, but that was sort of the issue, I felt, that I can only bring less than 10% of my CD collection. Of course, the last few years, I've tended to listen to a small handful of albums at any given time over and over again, so at least theoretically, I'm able to bring what I want to listen to. The stickiest issue is that last part: what I want to listen to.

I have a hard time anticipating what I'd be in the mood for, so I ended up going with a fairly safe if not exactly wide range of my albums. I don't want anything particularly difficult or something that absorbs or envelopes my attention to the point I can't work, and, through my listening neuroses (alas, I haven't brought my Neurosis), hardly anything I'd consider an all-time favorite (which I tend to "retire" from my personal rotation -- that's another topic altogether). For instance, no Cocteau Twins, because their music is to me intensely intimate and personal; same with Mogwai and Labradford. Similarly, I don't bring my metal or punk, because at work, I rarely want to rock out, much less with my cock out, meaning barely any Boris (certainly not Pink) and barely any Sleater-Kinney. Strangely enough, though, I've brought my Fennesz, whose dissonance hardly qualifies him for easy-listening but is sufficiently ambient to maybe get by. But then, I've included a number of CD-Rs that breach the above rules -- they are utterly beautiful (Colleen!) or are face-melting skronk (Bardo Pond) -- simply because I have no other place to put them.

1. Ellen Allien, Berlinette
2. Aphex Twin, Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2 CD2
3. Aphex Twin, Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2 CD1
4. Bardo Pond, Volume I
5. Bardo Pond, Live 2003/07/12
6. Bardo Pond, Terrastock 6
7. Vapour Theories/Prairie Dog Theories, Live
8. Lightning Bolt, Wonderful Rainbow
9. Colleen, Mort Aux Vaches
10. Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn and Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Songs from the Black Mountain Music Project
11. Nelly Furtado, Loose
12. Fennesz, Venice
13. Electrelane, Axes
14. Sneaker Pimps, Becoming X
15. Boris, Akuma No Uta
16. Paula Frazer, A Place Where I Know: 4-Track Songs 1992-2002
17. The Knife, Silent Shout
18. Yann Tiersen, Amélie Original Soundtrack
19. The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band with Choir, "This Is Our Punk-Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing
20. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, Horses In The Sky
21. The Mountain Goats, The Sunset Tree
22. Fuck Buttons, Street Horrrsing
23. The Raveonettes, Lust Lust Lust
24. The Raveonettes, Pretty In Black
25. Sleater-Kinney, The Woods
26. Stereolab, Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements
27. Stereolab, Mars Audiac Quintet
28. Stereolab, Emperor Tomato Ketchup
29. Stereolab, ABC Music CD1
30. Stereolab, ABC Music CD2
31. Gescom, Keynell
32. Cat Power, You Are Free
33. Yann Tiersen, Les Retrouvailles
34. Camera Obscura, Let's Get Out Of This Country
35. Slowdive, Just For A Day
36. Can, Tago Mago
37. Ladytron, Witching Hour
38. Ladytron, Velocifero
39. Can, Soundtracks
40. Can, Monster Movie
41. Sleater-Kinney, Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC, 2000/09/02
42. Yann Tiersen, La Valse Des Monstres
43. Flying Saucer Attack, Further
44. The Ronettes, Greatest Hits
45. Massive Attack, Collected CD2
46. Fennesz, Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56' 37" Minus Sixteen Degrees 51' 08"
47. Dusty Springfield, Dusty In Memphis
48. Various Artists, Best of Irish Folk Music

Seems that lush noise and work is a good mix, actually. And Can is great coding music, too. Viva le krautrock, or something!

Indie rating: Flying Saucer Attack - "Here Am I"