1 – The first picture you took shows an awesome set of cassettes. There’s really none I could barely know or recognize, especially those with Arabic (?) names. In my (maybe pathetic) attempts of guessing from where they come from, I saw dates (I guess): “95 Plus”, “Latest 96” (twice). It’s funny as, if I…
Tag: industrial
Nigel Ayers – “You don’t have to learn anything to do art or music. You learn by doing them. They are the most natural things to do in the world”
I must admit it’s hard to avoid to ask “what the hell is this?” for most of the pictures you sent. But I’ll try. What the hell is this sort of robot made with (I suppose) effects? I was really fascinated by the ‘gadgets‘ on your website, especially “The Exterminator” and “Ideal Husband Ideal Wife”…
Paolo Bertoni – “It seems to me very wise to be afraid of happiness, in fact romantic soul prevails over every other aspect, obscure and catastrophic too, of myself”
What is “Scared to Get Happy”? It’s funny, as it somehow fits with the (most probably stereotyped) image I’ve got of you: as a journalist, I see that 90% of the stuff you write about is not really considered ‘happy music’: industrial, gothic, dark, experimental, isolationism, concrete… I often asked myself if you – like…
Record Store Day 2019 – Concrete Shelves’ 10 + 1 Consumer Advises
The Record Store Day takes place on April the 13th this year 2019, and we at Concrete Shelves decided to create a special post for it, collecting a set of suggestions from some of the artists and friends that featured on our blog, plus some anticipation on future articles. These are far from being the…
Stefano Pifferi – “Writing about music was a sort of teenage desire I satisfied later in my life: it allowed me to discover everyday a new part of this huge mosaic scattered all around”
It looks like a ‘listening studio’: there are nothing but records, a table and a laptop in this room! I guess you take listening very seriously, and as far as I know you didn’t give up yet in writing about music (as for instance Davide Montoro recently did). What is still pushing you to do…
Robin Storey/Rapoon – “I used to listen to films through the hi-fi and not watch the TV. I didn’t have one!”
So, here is the way this interview started… Hi Matteo,I have a feeling you might be disappointed.I actually have very few CD’s and Vinyls. My collection(s) got stolen twice, and i don’t listen to much other things… a couple of these have never even been played, whereas others are old friends.I have a ton of…
Sea Wanton – “In 1980 we paid a visit to a Throbbing Gristle concert. This kind of provocation seemed to be strong enough to fight against every attempt of submission”
Eric Clapton “Unplugged” and Nitzer Ebb “That Total Age” are two of my favourite albums ever. The only thing I may find in common is some sort of minimalism in the music, very ‘bare’ somehow. By the way, I’m always extremely happy when I find such eclectic sets of records… I suppose your tastes are…
Simon Balestrazzi – “When it comes to experimental, obscure and unconventional music, Italian musicians were and still are among the most interesting in the world”
Well, you told me that you ran out of space for records and… they look really packed, I must admit. How are they organized? Or disorganized? In strict alphabetical order. But with a few twists… being a potentially compulsive record buyer I forced myself to a rule: no record can be placed in the “archive”…
Cassette Hoarders United – “Everyone needs a friend who uses cassette tapes. I’m happy to be that friend for you”
It happens sometimes to find, by chance, a group of enthusiast people that, when they discover Concrete Shelves, they just fall in love with the idea of sharing some photo of the records they own. It just happened with the Cassette Hoarders United, a Facebook group devoted to this hissing media. Here are some of…
Marc Urselli – “I used to tell the guy ‘I like this and this, what do you have that sounds similar?’ The good old day of human record store clerk recommendations!”
A tribe of turtles dominates over the wooden shelves full of the dubbed cassettes. A telephone cable adaptor underneath it all, the kind of object that tells me that technology has got a hard road to get into this house. An impressive image, at least to my eyes. Can you comment on that, please? Well that’s…
Robin Rimbaud / Scanner – “I also collected a host of reel-to-reel players, video editors and projectors. Don’t worry I don’t invite friends round to show them my holiday slides though”
Those metal stylish shelves are amazing, I think you’ll get some message after this post from people that will ask “where did you buy them?” The one with castors is somehow mysterious, as I see a sort of grey curtain behind it… and bricks on the wall on the upper left. What’s behind that?…
Patrick McGinley – “I like to hear spring sounds in winter. I like accidental melodies…”
Cool! the pictures are perfect. Maybe just please take a few close-ups so I can see some more titles (I’ve seen Mogwai, Tortoise, Modest Mouse… I didn’t expect!). Haha! You can only read the titles on the ‘pop music’ shelf, because that’s where the lamp is. I’ll try to get close-ups of some other things….
Dmitry Vasiliev – “My mother told me that when I was less than two years old, my favourite toy was the old radio, a big box with loudspeakers inside, table size”
The pictures you took are very very dark, and in one of them I see what I guess are the (still sealed) releases of Monochrome Vision. I know you since a long time now, and I’m always impressed by the immense culture you have about anything VERY experimental in music, VERY dark, harsh, somehow difficult…
Paolo Bandera – “Whatever sound I am listening to, I really like it LOUD”
It’s absolutely impressive, but it does not surprise me, I knew that you’re a heavy collector. And, as expected, I see a lot of what I can call ‘heavy’ stuff, things like Swans, Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, Boris, New Blockaders… you with Sigillum S and maybe even more with SSHE RETINA STIMULANS are known for having…
Paul Lemos – “Like some hoarder, I am a slave to this CD collection”
“Here is a pic of the sun pourch: a total horrific mess! Like some hoarder, I am a slave to this CD collection… after my last move, years ago, everything was left unorganized…and it never changed. So, I will get rid of about 75% of what you see in that picture. I just will put…
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