Ash and Dan

I am, at the end of the day, perfectly happy with stereo. The whole 'surround sound' phenomenon has never really interested me that much.

Steve, my colleague at work, has a set up designed for getting the most out of films, and that is a 5.1 arrangement, which consists of 5 speakers - left, centre, and right speakers at the front, plus two 'surround' speakers, one on each side - plus a sub-woofer. 

But this is a common audio set up, too, and, if you look for it, you will see albums with '5.1 mixes'. 

Ash has gone a step further. Well, more than one step, actually; his set up is a 7.1.4, where the '4' refers to additional speakers at ceiling height, two in front and two behind. This gives him full enjoyment of 'atmos' mixes.

As a result of this investment, he has bought, and continues to buy, pretty much any album released with an atmos mix, including those by many artists that he might not normally listen to. I rather like that as a project. 

He said to me a few months ago that I ought to go and listen to 'Autobahn' in atmos and today the opportunity arrived, as we were going to see Dan playing, this evening. 

Ash warmed me up with a few other tracks and I must say that it was interesting to hear some of the instruments suspended in a more three dimensional space. 

And, as Ash had promised, 'Autobahn' did sound absolutely incredible. And I think it's fair to say that I don't have many chums who would have sat with me in a companionable silence for the full twenty-two minutes and forty-six seconds. 

After that, we did indeed go see Dan playing with Running Standard. Normally, there are five of them on stage, but this evening I think there were nine. And, as it happened, this boost in membership coincided with a gig in an intimate little venue called MAP café in Kentish Town. 

But it was very good. Excellent, in fact. Some wonderful moments of quiet that erupted into an organised chaos that reminded me of the Bad Seeds at their very best. My kind of surround sound!