The Quintessential – an introduction.
The Quintessential – an introduction.
With an already sizable personal record collection, demos flooding in and more than a little grey in my beard it is sometimes easy to forget that you, dear reader, won’t always understand the musical references that I (and the team) include in our articles. That’s on us! So we thought of shorthand way of getting listeners up to speed on any given band or artist.
In our Quintessential series we will attempt to distil any artist into just five songs – five key tracks that summarise their growth, their career or simply why we like them.
The word Quintessence comes from cosmology and refers to the mythical fifth element coming after the classical four of earth, water, air, and fire. The Void, or latterly the aether (ether) was added which was thought to be the material that fills the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere – or indeed the pure essence breathed by the Gods themselves. That sounds a lot like music to me!
The concept dates back to Aristotle. Don’t worry we won’t be going back that far! But we may go back to Puressence!
How it works?
We will choose a band or artist and pick five key songs that showcase their musical career. For example The Police could be represented by Roxanne, Message In A Bottle, Don’t Stand So Close To Me, Every Breath You Take, and King Of Pain.
Our selections wouldn’t necessarily have to be singles. It’ll depend on the artist featured. We will feature the songs, add a little bit of context and that’s pretty much it! You’ll just press play and enjoy.
If you’re already familiar with the band covered maybe you’ll let us know how idiotic we’ve been for omitting…x
Oh and yes, we will take requests. We will even consider reader contributions if you fancy getting in print yourself.
It’s going to be fun.
First up will be – The Afghan Whigs.