I was out doing my last bout of Christmas shopping yesterday in London's Oxford Street (a man walked out of the tube at the same time as me, took one look at the crowds, announced "fuck" to no-one in particular, and went back inside).

Obviously, I was bombarded with festive tunes both good (anything by Phil Spector) and bad (anything by Macy Gray). But The Gap had a great CD on, with a peculiarly yule-some version of Blur's Tender.

After a bit of poking around on the internet, I discovered it was a remix by Japanese fader fiddler Cornelius. It's available on Blur's 10 Year Box Set, but I've stuck an MP3 below to get you in the festive spirit.

Note that this version is sadly lacking in the sleigh bells that The Gap sellotaped all over the song like a badly wrapped Christmas parcel.


Blur - Tender (Cornelius remix)

Labels: blur, MP3

In Quantum Physics, there is a theory that the act of observing something happening causes a change in the thing being observed. "A watched kettle never boils" is probably not an example - but you get the idea.

So, what happens when you point a microphone at, say, Coldplay and start to record what they're doing? Ignoring the fact that Chris Martin isn't a quantum particle (although I'd bet he'd like to be), are you changing the very nature of what they do by observing/recording their music?

Funnily enough, there's an article in the New Yorker suggesting that this is exactly what happens.

Over the last 100 years, for example, violinists have increasingly used vibrato. The reason the technique came to prominence is that it gave the instrument a fuller sound amongst the crackly grooves of vinyl. These days, vibrato is ubiquitous, even outside the recording studio.

Pop music fares a little better, as it uses the techniques of the studio to keep it fresh -- although we've all heard amazing live acts sound flat and lifeless on CD.

Perhaps the biggest danger for pop is when bands get more interested in the studio than they do in playing together.

Blur's "13" is a case in point - most of the songs on that album are patchwork recordings pieced together in ProTools by William Orbit. It's an interesting piece of art - at the expense of having actual songs.

So, there you have it, a link between pop music and quantum physics.

But where's Dean Stockwell to make it all better?

Oh boy.

The New Yorker: THE RECORD EFFECT by ALEX ROSS

Labels: blur, coldplay, Music