Not an original idea by a long way but my son asked me what music I was listening yo when I was younger and it reminded me of that old feature from somewhere.
15 (1994)
I didn’t really listen to music until I turned 15. Before that it was whatever was on at friend’s houses or parties but I genuinely had no desire to find out what anything was called until my older sister introduced me to a late night radio show by Cleone Cassidy who had just returned from the UK and had found hardcore/jungle/drum ‘n bass and was playing it to the masses. Immediately it clicked and I was all over the LTJ Bukem, Peshay, Doc Scott, Photek, etc of this world. My first nervous steps into a local record shop followed and 14 records in I got my first DJ gig. This was a record I played and still love. Had no idea it was a sample till years later.
20 (1999)
By now I was in art school and surrounded by people who all listened to different types of music and who were all hellbent on sharing it all. Started a party called Mr Pickle that one week had live bands, the next DJ’s, sometimes both and we’d all be highly refreshed and having the time of our lives. The party ended at 1am and the whole place en masse would go to other clubs in the city which in those days had 24 hour licenses. I remember stumbling across BT and 50 hours into a weekend sesh with the sun rising over beautiful lions head this always sounded amazing. Don’t remember it being this fast though.
25 (2004)
By now I was living in Taiwan and spending ridiculous sums of money importing records from the UK and going on regular jaunts to Japan and Singapore to fuel the fire. Zouk was particularly influential and Jeremy Boon and Brandon P were on fire at this point and playing everything from soul to broken beat to house and techno. Loads of sounds that were so fresh at the time. Zouk had an incredible system and this tune used to sound incredible.
30 (2009)
Was living in California now and had just left the UK after living in Manchester for 20 of the best months of my life. I was pretty isolated living in the San Bernardino mountains so I got into albums and buying soul records that were very cheap at the time. I really loved the big American sounds and it made sense living on a mountain.
35 (2014)
By now I was living in New England and really getting into music from all over the musical shop. I was spending 3 hours a day in my car driving to work and I have the attention span of a goldfish so I had to find all sorts of music from everywhere to make my journeys palatable. This seemed like the perfect marriage of all of the sounds I was exploring,
40 (2019)
By now I was taking 100+ flights a year and being quite privileged to get to stores at closing times all over North America and Europe. When you only have 30 minutes you tend to ask for suggestions and it really opened my collection up. Miami was always good for finding things nowhere else had. Things like this:
45 (2024)
Not buying records anymore but still with an insatiable appetite for music. This forum obviously being a huge reason. Found that I’m as happy listening to Cleo Sol as I am listening to Regis and I think that comes from just being open to all things. My most played song this year is not even a new record even though I probably split new/old 80/20 but every time this comes on, it just makes me smile.
