Dave Peckdavepeck.org

(Why the Dangercast?)

September 24, 2009

A lot of friends are curious about my quarterly music podcast, the dangercast. I’ve been asked more than once:

  1. Why are you doing this?

  2. Why the specific music you choose?

I realize now I never gave much of an explanation; it didn’t seem necessary at the time. So, for the record:

I’m doing this because I love music and, in particular, I love discovering new music. The dangercast is my excuse and my forcing function. With the exception of my recent “edge jazz” mix, when I first start building a mix I typically don’t know much about the genre in question. New sounds are intriguing to me and I enjoy the process of digging deep enough to discover good artists for my mixes.

Why I choose the specific genres is another matter. Sometimes I just want to have fun, so — as in my most recent mix — I pick music that passes from one ear direct to the other. But when I’m listening to music for myself, I often do a lot of analysis on both the composition and its place in the larger body of music I know. My mixes serve a little bit like waypoints for me. It’s safe to say that as the dangercast moves forward, you can expect more mixes in the vein of my jazz mix and fewer in the vein of disposable (but entertaining) electropop.