Friday semi-random ten

As you probably know, a lot of bloggers post a list of 10 songs chosen at random from their iPods (by that device's random playlist function). And they do this on Fridays; thus, many posts, naturally enough, are called "Friday random ten." This provides a snapshot of the blogger's taste (or at least her music collection). Some of it will be what's in "current rotation," so to speak, but some will be dredged up from who knows where, forgotten and for some reason not yet deleted. The results can force some red-faced exculpations (or indignant pre-emptive defenses) as guilty pleasures are revealed to all in the harsh light of day; or, on the other hand, one's coolness can be proven beyond doubt in the same manner. Thus the appeal of this practice – what will we learn about ourselves, and in public yet?

Unfortunately, for various reasons, what's on my iPod, or even my computer, is entirely uncharacteristic both of my music collection (which is mostly in somewhat less virtual form, i.e. as encoded on various physical objects, disk-shaped or otherwise), and of my listening habits. This makes it hard for me to play along. So you'll have to trust me (that is, my own "randomization" by hand).

Here's what I'll do: I'll choose things semi-randomly from the immediate vicinity (most vinyl is in the basement, and I'm not going down there just to do this). This means the item will probably be an album rather than a track. Some things I will indeed have been listening to lately, but I'll try not to hide or even downplay the lamer or, well, random items (most of the lameness has been purged; but of course you may disagree!), or for that matter things I haven't really listened to at all yet. And I don't really care what day it is.

So here we go (reaching to my right), starting with what I'm listening to right now:

1. David Toop – black chamber (Sub Rosa)

2. Bowery Electric – Lushlife (Beggar's Banquet)

3. Sickness – i have become the disease that made me (Ground Fault)

4. Robert Rich – open window (soundscape productions)

5. Steve Hillage – For To Next/And Not Or (Virgin)

6. Cul de Sac – Death of the Sun (Strange Attractors Audio House)

7. Jgrzinich – insular regions (sirr)

8. [something with only Chinese writing on it]

9. Boards of Canada – geogaddi (Warp)

10. Comae – s/t (Rhiz)

Phew, that was hard! I can see why it works better if you can just press a button and let the iPod do it. (Trust me, that really wouldn't work in my case.)

Now a few comments (this is allowed, I take it). I have some earlier Bowery Electric that I like; I don't remember if I've even listened to this one (dated 1999). Sickness is noise (great name). The Robert Rich disc is atypical – acoustic piano improvs. The Chinese thing is something Rabbit got me when he went to China (duh). I haven't listened to it so I don't have the slightest idea what it is. BoC's earlier disc Music has the Right to Children is a classic. Comae is Robert Hampson (Main) and Janek Schaefer, and sounds like it.