My big metal mood from last month has faded some. On Friday I took my big 10% CDs coupon to Best Buy and walked off with two King Crimson discs: Heavy Construkction, which is a limited-edition 3-disc set from the European leg of their Contrukction of Light tour, and Discipline, which is arguably the band's best 80s album, and of their best albums over all. So far I've rambled through the Heavy set a couple of times, and it's a truly amazing hybrid of virutuosity and noise, with improvs scattering off from far corners -- very much like I remembered it when I saw them in Chicago last Halloween. The last disc is all improv, and in many ways a much more coherent, listenable compilation of their experiments than the Thrakattak CD from several years ago.
Oh, and I've also finally started listening to Radiohead, several eons behind the curve. My friend let me copy her OK Computer CD, and I'm enjoying it.... partially because it reminds me of King Crimson. Yes, I am a prog rock geek.
Holy High Fidelity -- The University of Washington (U-Dub to Seattlites and those who've watched Singles) radio station KEXP broadcasts over the 'net in very high fidelity, if you've got the bandwidth. They claim to be the first on-line station to stream uncompressed CD-quality audio at 1.4 Mbps (yes, MEGAbits), which, depending on your computer audio setup, is higher quality than what FM listeners get. The downside to that stream is that even here on the high-bandwidth University network I have trouble keeping the 1.4 Mbps stream solid, and I can just barely get it at home on the cable modem. Luckily, the station also serves out RealAudio 8 in bitrates all the way up to 352 Kbps. Since RealAudio is a better codec than mp3, its performance at 352 Kbps is so darn close to CD quality as to be better than what most people hear on FM under real listening circumstances. Now, if only that kind of major bandwidth were easy to get a hold of off a University campus.