⧼ w w w . e y e s o f a d . a m ⧽
[ July 2025. ]
02072025 // a.
a. king george's park. used to sit on this bench after finishing runs in 2020-21. would call my grandma. i moved, so my 5k route changed. happened on it today since i'm walking to work again. i thought about the journey i've been on in those five years and where i might be in 2030. i got promoted today. dumbified my phone also -- to escape the lights & algo's. this involves downloading mp3s again. want to acquaint myself with music like me in the pre-smartphone era. started with arcologies. no doubt will prefer this to last year's spotify-nuking with the apple music & gospel-tunes-only bomb...
p.s. pocket notebooks ordered to journal about algorithms, nostalgia, unplugging // marathon training planned // french trip to be booked.
05072025 // a.
a. g-man. music project revival & our coming up with the GOAT anniversary gift idea: 90/4 -- i.e., dubbing a 4-minute love song to tape every year for 22 years.
18072025 // a.
a. noughties indie singalong.
24072025 // a.
a. auspicious start to summer break. this little fucker (i.e., the phone) turned up. i'd driven myself mental, wracking my mind, working out where i'd stashed this. i'd legit resigned to its being lost forever, but post noughties indie singalong, i, quite thoughtlessly, ordered a chess set from john lewis at some godless hour. today, i picked it up. but where should i stash these chess pieces? i had to ask myself -- a brief pondering later, i opened up my checkers set for prime stashing &... BOOM! hello old boy!
much mirth had when i recalled placing it there because i was concerned "robbers" might find it in my usual old-tech spot...i realise that the few photos i had on the thing i do actually treasure.
26072025 // a.
a. tam in the dark post pad thai. starting the summer as i mean to go on: eating outside at little local restaurants.
29072025 // a + b + c.
a. went cd shopping today. nearly bailed on soho & went to guildford, but i goggins'd it. semi-embraced the chaos that is real life crate-digging -- it's not like spotify where you can sample whatever you're browsing. it's more suck it & see. for some total unknowns i did just quietly sneak my buds in and load the track on my phone... picked up fela-kuti, thomas mapfumo & sizzla records.
b. in sister ray's some of the cds are reissues -- not just secondhand. here, the music pumping from the speakers sounded phenomenal. this prompted two later reflections:
1. cds have been given an unfair press from muso-purists. as a medium, they're not too "pristine" or "cold". this perception came about since the music burned to them in their early days was being produced digitally for the first time. there was a lack of analog equipment adding warmth to the music in the production phase. if a recording's original tape masters were used for cd reissues, then this cd reissue would contain all the original analog character that comes from the tape -- albeit reproduced perfectly every time. what we have today are digital recordings pressed to vinyl, which doesn't make a lot of sense. a vinyl pressing brings about some analog character -- but most of this character should come from how the record was produced. i would only buy vinyl if it was produced in the era when records were produced analog-only.
2. mixing and mastering engineers in the analog era had a much better understanding of eq. this is because they were mixing with hi-fi listeners in mind. hi-fi systems in the 70s had equalisers. so the engineers mixed and mastered for them -- not phones or laptops. for example, when i crank the bass eq on my hi-fi system on a 70s track, it really is just the bass that seems to inflate, adding real depth to the music. if i try that with a modern record, where all the frequencies are limited, it just sounds like a mess -- they're better listened to flat.
c. i finally connected to wifi in a cafe, warranting a photo. of course, no coffee shop trip of mine is without its woes. attempting to compose the perfect scene for said celebratory photo: i set the laptop, re-positioned the plants, moved the drink &... spilled matcha all over my machine. fuck sake! thankfully the lenovo is a trojan. it lives to type another day.
30072025 // a + b + c.
a. finally started recording with grant today. new project is called busts.
b. gone full DIY in pirate's cheapest rehearsal space to record drums with my 19-year-old mic & old laptop -- that's now running linux & a foss daw. new-age lo-fi.
c. who's that bald king behind the kit? tracks are sounding great so far. g-man & i have hit on a workflow that works for us & our preferred autistic hyperfoci. martin newell methodology in full flow: no overthinking.