Centuries of Sound

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free. MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud … 1924 Read More »

I’ve been in a couple of pub quizzes over Zoom recently, and have put together a round of my own to share with friends & family. Now I’ve done it a couple of times, I thought I might as well share it for anyone to use. Feel free to adapt to suit, or just play … The Centuries of Sound Pub Quiz Round Read More »

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free. MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud … 1923 Read More »

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free. MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud … 1922 Read More »

MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS “The parties were bigger. The pace was faster, the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser, the liquor was cheaper.” F. Scott Fitzgerald If you could chose any era to live in, the decades between … 1921 Read More »

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free.   MP3 download | Apple | … 2018 Read More »

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free. MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud … 1920 Read More »

MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS The original version of 2017 came out very sweary indeed, and I promised to immediately upload a clean version, suitable for listening with children, with all the swears removed. Ten months later, here it finally is. Tracklist Godspeed You … 2017 – The Clean Version Rea...

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free. MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud … 1919 Read More »

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free. MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud … 1918 Read More »

“The music is a matter of the ear and not of technique. None of us knows music. One carries the melody and others do what they please. Some play counter melodies, some play freak noises, and some just play. I can’t tell you how. You “got to feel” Jass. The time is syncopated. Jass I … 1917 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) The story of recorded must prior to 1917 has been, on a personal level, a juggle with two opposing narratives. First there is of course the convoluted journey towards the explosion in jazz and blues of the late 1910s and 1920. Then there’s the other … 1916 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) “Looking back in hindsight, 1915 appears to be a saga of such horrors, of such mismanagement and muddle, that it is easy to see why it coloured the views of succeeding generations and gave rise to prejudices and myths that have been applied to the … 1915 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) Those long uneven lines Standing as patiently As if they were stretched outside The Oval or Villa Park, The crowns of hats, the sun On moustached archaic faces Grinning as if it were all An August Bank Holiday lark; And the shut shops, the bleached … 1914 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) “How can we regard this invasion of vulgarity in music other than as a national calamity, in so far as the mental attainments of the nation are concerned? This cheap, trashy stuff could not elevate even the most degraded minds, nor could it possibly urge … 1913 Read More »

  MP3 direct download | Itunes | YouTube | Mixcloud Sound is the name we give to certain frequencies of fluctuating pressure waves which resonate the human eardrum and are able to be perceived by the human brain. Waves fitting this description have existed since the big bang, all of them dissipating forever into space … 1853-1860 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) “Why was the phonograph valued so highly as a means of musical progress? To answer this question we must recognise two perceptions widely held in early twentieth-century America: that classical music was a powerful cultural and musical force to which Americans sadly lacked exposure, and … 1912 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) Listening chronologically to music in this way, one of the things I have noticed is that there are sudden lurches forward in certain years. 1911, for all its quality, is not one of those years. Most of what you can hear in this mix sounds … 1911 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) “On or around December 1910, human character changed. I am not saying that one went out, as one might into a garden, and there saw that a rose had flowered or a hen had laid an egg. The change was not sudden and definite like … 1910 Read More »

MP3 (full mix) | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) So, were you expecting 1910? Well the bad news is that it’s going to be another month until that’s ready. The good news is that I have finally finished this mix for 2017. It has been a bit of a monster, or a menace, is … 2017 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) | MP3 pack Many people have observed that as we get older, time seems to pass more quickly – and it seems natural to apply this to civilization in general. But while it’s true that technology has had some disorientating lurches forward over the last … 1909 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) | MP3 pack I’ve lived through a couple of decades of recorded sound now — perhaps you have too — and as a result the world of 1908 seems almost entirely alien from the perspective of 1888. Recording technology has improved a great deal of … 1908 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) | MP3 pack This week has seen the passing of Geoff Emerick, who served as sound engineer on The Beatles’ Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road albums, starting at the age of just 20. His death hasn’t generated as much interest as those of George … 1907 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) | MP3 pack Williams & Walker are a great deal to blame for being the originators and establishing the name “coon” upon our race. They met a white man in San Francisco by the name of McConnell, who put them on the circuit. In order … 1906 Read More »

MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) | MP3 pack When people imagine the future, we often imagine new technologies, but we rarely take the time to consider how those technologies will change how we live our lives, or how we see the world. When the internet started becoming popular towards the … 1905 Read More »