From A to Z

You may remember that a couple of years ago I decided to undertake this endeavour. Now, finally, at long long last, I have acquired some shelving for my CDs and for the first time in 7 years can access them all with ease. Expect to hear periodic selections pulled from the shelves over the coming months as I reacquaint myself with a few old favourites, but for now here's a tune each from the top and the tail of the alphabetised collection.

The Accidental was a one-off side project featuring members of The Bicycle Thieves, Tunng and The Memory Band, who put out an album, 'There Were Wolves', on Thrill Jockey in 2008. If you're partial to the gentler side of Tunng, it'll be right up your street.

'Odessey and Oracle', the classic 1968 album by The Zombies will be familiar to most. My copy is the 1998 30th Anniversary Edition containing both Mono and Stereo versions. It's essential stuff, whatever version you can lay your hands on.

The Accidental - Knock Knock 

The Zombies - This Will Be Our Year (Mono Version)

Too Much Space

It seems I struck a chord of recognition with a few blogging chums in my last post. Space - not just the final frontier, but also the arch enemy of the record and CD collector. I had a massive clear-out in 2011 prior to our move, but the quantity of physical product I own is still fairly substantial. About a year ago I bought a 6tb external hard-drive and started ripping all the CDs that were within easy reach and also moved a great deal of my downloaded music onto it from my laptop. Then the hard-drive crashed and I lost a ton of stuff. Until that point I'd had vague thoughts of getting rid of all the actual CDs, but losing so much so quickly, changed my mind. Hence my current attempt at reducing volume.

Here's how slim an unjewelcased CD in a cellobag is.

What I've done so far. A dozen boxes cut down to six. In alphabetical order, natch.

And this is how much more there is to do, another 25 or so boxes.

I'm listening to stuff as I go too. Wondering why I ever bought this, finding I own two copies of that and generally chipping away at the chaff. I'm also reacquainting myself with a few choice nuggets, some of which will find their way onto these pages in the coming months I've no doubt. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Here's one such old favourite I rediscovered yesterday, French combo Hey Hey My My with the title track of their 2007 EP 'Too Much Space', a state of affairs we'll never suffer from here at Swede Towers.

Out of Space

You join me here at Swede Towers as a major, long-delayed project gets underway. After nearly 5 years of being boxed up and beyond reach, I've begun the process of dragging my CDs, blinking and spluttering, back into the light. While the collection is nowhere near the size it once was, the space that the CDs take up in the house is far more than we have to spare. I've mused on the various options open to me for too long, now, to quote Secret Affair, it's time for action. Step one, dispatch jewel cases. Step two, put each booklet, disc and back cover into resealable cellobags. Step three, repeat process throughout entire collection. Step four, assess how much space I've saved. Step five.....more musing.

This could take some time.