What's in a name?

Hello again.

So it occurs to me that last week I kinda launched straight into a fairly long album review without properly introducing the blog. I guess now is as good a time as any...

It's a blog.

About music.

Now that that's out of the way I thought I'd explain the nature of the blog's title. I nicked it from an album by noisy husband and wife duo Harry Pussy. In their case What Was Music? is a statement of anarchic destruction. Their blistering and abrasive 30 second "songs" aimed to take apart rock and roll with the very tools of its creation, leaving nothing in its wake. Incidentally What Was Music? (the album) is probably too anarchic - or at least anarchy manifested as crummy sound quality - for its own good. For the real phenomenal HP experience I really recommend the late period You'll Never Play This Town Again! compilation.

This title stuck with me though, like some breed of parasitic idea worm boring into my brain until it burst forth as a half-arsed idea to write a music blog. In the end I decided my interpretation of the eponymous question would be archival in nature. I want to record for history how truly inventive and amazing music can be, before it all melts into the homogeneous sludge of mainstream Western culture. Of course, I don't really believe this is happening - although the 2012 Olympic Closing ceremony didn't help - but its nice to think I'm railing against something.
There also seems to be this pervasive idea - at least among some of my friends and relatives - that everything has been done before and there is no new music anymore. Everybody is ripping each other off or gorging heavily on nostaliga. I guess this is something else I want to take a swipe at.

So historians of the future. This was music!

Oh, and there will be playlists. Lots of playlists and maybe a few more free albums. Music writing is essentially meaningless without the music itself. So each week I'll try my hardest to include something you can wrap your ears around. Most, if not all, of these playlists will be on Spotify, which, if you're not aware, is amazing! (and sort of free).