Reading Room / Cerberus Vol.3(19)

Inbox ‘Zine covering adventurous music (and occasionally other goodies)

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A couple of months ago, I began the cull of my “collections”. I hesitate to say I’m a collector, because in my heart of hearts, I’m a minimalist. I like things to be clean, organized, and as uncluttered by trinkets, objects, and physical presences as possible. But I have a modest vinyl/tapes/CDs and board games collection that goes with the territory of being someone who covers these releases on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, I’ve recently fallen down the jazz hole — both modern as well as “the classics”. So now I find myself drifting in and out of holes in the wall, looking for clean copies of great Blue Note, Impulse, Riverside, and Verve titles. I have discovered the jazz Renaissance that is griping audiophiles and has been part of driving secondary prices through the roof and pushing timetables for pressing plants to 12–15 mos. for new albums. Thankfully, my budget means I don’t chase these out of print represses from high-end audiophile labels and nor should I.

All of this to say: you can never really cut loose of a love of music. I mean, Bandcamp Fridays (and other non-Bandcamp buying days) have always provided an avenue to satiate my need for an uncluttered physical life but I’m also happy to see contemporary musicians continue to support tapes and vinyl (and even CDs are coming back into favor). Turns out the cycle of culling what you love but may no longer listen to on the regular for the new things you will is just part of the music-loving cycle.

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