What music to play over the PA in our waiting room???
Of course, being a place of warmth, healing and relaxation, one cannot possibly play Metal - but why not? Of course this genre is not being to everyone's taste. Granted - not everyone can melt into bliss to 'Hammer Smashed Face' - but there are those of us who wish to bathe in a place of quiet nihilism, aggressive-passivity. Metal can do this. But...
Can it live in the vestiges of the spa milieu...?
My teeth ache when I am expected to relax to Generic Movie soundtracks - They are what they say on the tin: Soundtracks - if I wanted Ennio Morricone's The Mission playing in my ears while havin a massage, I'd have brought my iPod Touch and watch the film. As for 'whale music', and singing dolphins, leave it to Saga Holidays. Mysticeti and krill, and other assorted crustaceans, may love the sound of breaking waves against a pebbled shore, but I dounbt they've really sampled the hauntingly soothing sounds of Nine Inch Nails' 'Hurt' or Aphex Twin's 'Avril 14'...
I remember when I was 23, and dislocated my hip in a rugby match back in East London ''N'ah'mean?" Of course I am walking, nay, skip that... Hobbling for weeks until my MRI. Sitting in the magnet, I was handed earphones by the lovely Daphne, and a selection of 'Easy Listening' tracks to "soothe and comfort." Celine - I love you, but not while being electronically magnetized in a giant tin can - no. So, I took out my ear thingies, and zoned into the hammering sound of the MRI machine - loud like a jack hammer, but rythmic, mesmerizing - like a Coil recording, or Industrial throngs of Ministry - I fell into a light daze. Blood pressure dropped, and a heatbeat racing on nerves, began to regulate. Stop pounding, and fall into unison with the steady beat of the MRI. And so it remained until the end of the scan...
Yes - it is a matter of taste, but who says metal has to be ALL about thrashing and crashing. We have bands, not so much asociated with 'Healing', but noise mungering and aggression. Although many hardcore bands/artists intersect their records with haunting sounscapes, ballads, instrumental pools - Alec Empire, Twin Zero, Muse, Earthtone9 (RIP), Deep Purple to name but a few. Oh, and of course; NIN! I will always be a champion on Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor's baby has continuingly challenged hegemonic notions of metal and industrial music; seamlessly crossing from one to the other, and loved by listeners across multi-spectral music genres: dance, Drum n Bass, new rave, pop, metal...
What i am searching for, in essence, is music with soul, passion, power - something that can be played to relax, emote, nurture - to create people's own 'tin can' when they wait for their treatment at London Healing Center. Music isn't just for listening. You gotta feel it - with you mind, body, and soul. No more whale music, or pygmies with pan pipes at LHC...
Bring on the Metal!!!
Follow LHC's musical dealings on Blip.fm - Whippet
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