By Juan C. Ayllon With many of us under "Stay at Home" orders, it's hard not to get down. So, we stay busy, doing what work we can from home; we clean, organize, exercise, and tackle long put off projects and chores. We also distract, watching TV, listening to music, tinkering with our audio systems, reading, emailing, and playing on social media. And, of course, with so much time on our hands, we get introspective -- which can be good or bad. Working on our shortcomings, baggage and self-improvement can be a lot of work, even overwhelming at times. Amongst other things, that's an opportunity to connect -- or reconnect -- with God (or our Higher Power) and get the help and grounding that we need. Towards that end yesterday, while cleaning and reorganizing our storage space yesterday, I streamed worship music and was reacquainted with a long forgotten favorite album, Rachel Lampa's upbeat Live for You, which ROON rendered as it went into Radio mode. Listening to that play over my Usher speakers was incredibly gratifying and centering. However, this morning as I pondered the day ahead, I recalled another catchy album; it's one that I used to mix into my playlist when I DJ'ed the social hour following Young Adult Ministry meetings circa 2000. I couldn't quite remember its title, so I searched for it on the web this morning (I've looked for it periodically for years in vain). To my surprise, I found it! It's called Bar Grooves Al Fresco. While it's not uplifting in the religious sense, it's very upbeat, ambient and fun electronic music. Some of it is instrumental, while others incorporate vocals.
One of my favorite cuts, Niquid's "Italian Summer", is the second song on CD1 (it starts at 9:19 minutes into it on the Youtube video) and falls in the former category. Centering around a sole keyboard and featuring electric guitar, drums, and a thumping house music beat, it splashes the room with an infectious summer vibe as the sounds of waves washing ashore usher in this jazzy treat. There are other gems peppered in this mix, but I'll leave it up to you to discover them. Now, some people don't care for dance electronic music and, if that's you, I get it. However, if you keep an open mind, you just may find your toe tapping to this two CD set and a smile creasing your face. So, if you're at home suffering the blahs, why not give it a spin? Like a fragrant cup of java, it just might jump start your day. Cheers!
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Juan C. AyllonA writer, artist, educator and owner of Prairie Audio Man Cave, he lives with his wife, Isabel (AKA Belle), and their Goldendoodle, Liam, enjoys listening to high fidelity music and all things hi-fi at their home in the greater Chicagoland area.. Archives
March 2024
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