December

I recently found myself answering the question I had presented to myself earlier, “No, music isn’t the most important thing in the world, though it’s certainly one of the most vital.” This is because there are other supremely important things in life. Take, for instance, those mornings when my dogs leap onto the bed, staring at me with hungry, expectant eyes, seemingly trying to send desperate telepathic messages about breakfast and such. You know, dogs do have their own set of priorities.

But indeed, music is crucial, both listening to and creating it. A few days ago, I stumbled upon a band online called Cardiacs and their manic pronk track titled ‘Tarred and Feathered‘ (see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dodxYkBEyV8) I’ve had to listen to this song dozens of times, and yet, it amuses and haunts me in equal measure. Quite bizarre.

And this term ‘pronk’, it’s an odd one. I’ve always had mixed feelings about categorising music: on one hand, it fascinates me; on the other, it seems entirely unnecessary. ‘Pronk’ presumably stands for progressive punk rock, pro(gressive) + (pu)nk. But in practice, it’s not quite that, though it owes debts to both prog and punk. It’s similar to how melodic death metal doesn’t precisely sound like old school death metal with just added melodies. If that were the case, Pestilence‘s third album ‘Testimony of the Ancients‘ would be one of the first melodic death metal albums ever. Maybe it should be considered as such, after all, who knows…

Anyway, this weekend, the planning and writing of new music continues, once again. Sometimes things just progress slowly, no matter who you’re creating for. And I predict that the Cardiacs’ track will sooner or later influence my own compositions. In fact, I already know how and what that piece might be like.

Wishing everyone a great continuation of December.