I worked at the Pop for close to two years (I think… those days are a bit hazy) back in 2003 to the summer of 2005. At the time, I was studying Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics at UVM as well as being the lone student tech in the Votey engineering machine shop. It was quite possibly the busiest period of my life; I was either studying or on the clock at one of my two jobs. I didn’t sleep much and I think I weighed a whopping 119 pounds when I graduated.
I felt like Christian Bale in The Machinist and Pure Pop was my Jennifer Jason Leigh, though I never flipped out and accused the Pop of sleeping with my imaginary arch enemy. But the Pop was the one place I could go and finally feel like I was getting to take a break. I don’t mean to imply that working at the Pop is not work, rather that it was always a great time and I was always surrounded by awesome people.
Every now and then, Michael would contract me to stay overnight and build new display racks or a small portable stage for an upcoming in-store performance. Ultimately, the stage completely lacked portability and it’s probably still in the boiler room taking up way too much space. In any case, the Pop gave me a very positive outlet for my sometimes completely unreasonable OCD and I found myself volunteering for back room duty a lot; filing back stock, organizing outdated merchandise and generally feeling like I was adding my own little bit of logical efficiency to the Pure Pop machine. (I wonder how the back room is looking these days, maybe I could pick up some hours…) Anyway, although I miss those days, fortunately I’ve found another positive outlet for my “attention to detail.”
I still live in Burlington and work at an amazing local company called SoundToys. We develop software based creative music production tools for use in any music/audio production environment. Check us out, we rock. (had to stick in one shameless plug). Most of my day consists of sitting at a computer writing code or analyzing vintage recording gear. I get a lot of time to put on a pair of headphones and rock out while I work, which brings us to the topic of my list: the top seven albums to geek out to while writing computer code.
The albums that work best tend to be on the instrumental side (or at least vocally sparse), a bit dark, and sometimes very repetitive. Ultimately, it’s all about that point when you stop listening to the music and begin feeling the music and you find yourself completely in the zone and all of sudden you realize that four hours have passed and one album has been on repeat the whole time. Now that’s what I call productivity.
Pink Floyd – Animals
This is normally reserved for lead off. It’s like running the test sequence in your shuttle before launching into outer space. It’s the unnerving calm before the storm. It lays the foundation for the skyscraper of work you have in front of you. When I hear this, I know I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.
Shpongle – Tales of the Inexpressible
Goa psy-trance at its best, done by Simon Posford and the Raja Ram himself. If I’m not feeling it already, at 4:05 into the second track, StarShpongled Banner, my mind takes over and I’m a goddamn horse with blinders on. All I see are 1s and 0s.
Boards of Canada – Music has the Right to Children
I’m not really sure what to say about this one, nothing I can say will really do it justice. Easily one of greatest electronic albums ever, I’d like to think most Pure Poppers and Poppettes are familiar, if not, do yourself (and the Pop) a favor and buy it (from the Pop).
Kinski – Airs above your Station
Listen to this cranked with headphones on. Great example of use of rhythmic tremolo. It makes my brain oscillate at an entirely new frequency, which feels great. You should try it sometime.
Kraftwerk – Autobahn
no speed limits here. just put it on and drive.
Portished – Dummy
Dark, brooding, beautiful. I almost consider this an instrumental album. I’ve listened to it hundreds of times and know almost none of the lyrics. Beth Gibbons’ voice makes me feel like I’m watching myself fall forever alongside a million blood red feathers. It’s a strange sensation and yet very conducive to getting serious work done. Plus it makes me feel like a secret agent, which is always a plus.
Telefon Tel Aviv – Fahrenheit Fair Enough
Talk about attention to detail. This album is so meticulously constructed, it’s absurd. Plus the production is impeccable, definitely a benchmark to strive for in electronic music production. It feels best right at the end of or even right after a long coding session. Sleep appears on the horizon, you can finally see it, and this album is there to shuttle you the rest of the way in. Sweet dreams.
