Does Hip Hop Music Really Makes Aging Cheese Taste Better?

Even though “older” music critics who are paid to do reviews might classify hip-hop and electronic dance music as “cheesy”, but does playing hip hop music to cheese as it ages really make them taste better?

By: Ringo Bones

When I read about a recently conducted experiment whose results show that hip-hop music actually makes cheese taste better, memories of anecdotes that dates back from the 1970s about saxophone-based Jazz music are supposedly good for flowering plants spring to mind. But given that the news story about some types of music supposedly makes cheese taste better was published in a number of reputable news outlets, my “musical curiosity” immediately got the better of me. The news states that a recent experiment conducted in Switzerland called Cheese in Surround Sound has found out that exposing aging cheese to certain types of music makes it taste better.

The study was put together in order to investigate how the microorganisms that give cheese its flavor might react to various types of sound waves. During the experiment, nine identical 22-pound wheels of Emmental cheese were placed in individual wooden crates and exposed to five different genres of music and three different sine wave frequencies (high, mid, low) for 24 hours a day over six months. One of the cheese was designated as a control cheese – depriving it of music altogether.

Each wheel of cheese was assigned a song that would play on a loop for 24-hours during the maturation process. Some of the music tracks used included W.A. Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven and A Tribe Called Quest’s Jazz (We’ve Got). There was also a Techno wheel of cheese that was subjected to Vril’s 2011 track UV off the Ostgut Ton compilation Berghain 05.

After the duration of the musical listening sessions, these so-called acoustic cheese wheels were then subjected to taste tests by food technologists from the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences. In their findings, these food technologists that the “cheeses exposed to music has a generally mild flavor compared to the control test sample”. The taste testers also concluded that the wheel of cheese exposed to six straight months of the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest had “a distinctly stronger smell and stronger, fruitier taste than the other test samples”. These amazing results show us how the bio-acoustic impact of sound waves affect the metabolic processes of bacteria responsible in cheese making. Which makes me wonder if those 1970s era experiments of various genres of music being studied on their effects of the growth of garden plants really do have scientific merit.

In further taste tests, the music exposed cheeses were presented to a panel of highly qualified culinary jurors in a blind taste test, all of whom noticeably favored the Emmental cheese that was exposed to the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest. The culinary panel also found that the cheeses that were exposed to low-frequency sound waves were sweeter than the rest. But during a chat with NPR, cheese enthusiast and experiment organizer Beat Wampfler states that there was “not such a big difference” between Rock ‘n’ Roll cheese and the Techno music cheese. Maybe the Swiss scientists should try exposing a new cheese batch to Primus’ Sailing The Seas of Cheese album. 

World Heavy Metal Music Congress For A Half Century Of Heavy Metal?

Some may say that Heavy Metal Music is in gradual decline since 1989, but does the first ever “World Metal Congress” in celebration of heavy metal music’s 50^th anniversary proof that metal is still a significant cultural tour-de-force?

By: Ringo Bones 

When the world’s first ever World Metal Congress kicked off in London, England back in March 22 and 23, 2019, it was largely seen as a celebration of half a century of heavy metal music. And given that it got the blessing of Black Sabbath guitarist Toni Iommi, many still saw it as the celebration of Black Sabbath virtually inventing heavy metal music during their first ever gigs in Birmingham, England back in 1969. Unfortunately, a significant number of heavy metal music fans harbor the perception that heavy metal music was already in gradual decline since 1989 and has since superseded by forms of music deemed for friendly to the so-called millennials. But are there any truths to this?

Even though there are still kids as young as eight who are becoming dedicated heavy metal music fans once they are exposed to it, the median age of a typical heavy metal music fan that can be found in most concerts are typically around 45 years old and the women in their 20s who are there are usually spoken for by guys in their 50s, although there are exceptions. More often than not, as heavy metal music celebrates its 50^th birthday, it often reminds me of the 1990s era Classical Music scene where most of the enthusiasts are made up of middle-age guys.

Is heavy metal music still a significant global cultural force 50 years after its inception? Well, the first ever World Metal Congress says it still is. Although it might be up to us “middle-aged-metal-heads” to recruit new initiates into our so-called “hobby” given that it is the young bloods are the ones who’s been keeping heavy metal music fresh since 1989.

DNA: Music Recording And Playback Format Of The Future?

With traditional independent record stores now closing and malls no longer selling Red Book Compact Discs, will DNA prove to be the “future-proof” music format of the future?

By: Ringo Bones

With traditional independent music stores – ones that sell vinyl LPs and Redbook 16-bit 44.1 KHz sampled compact discs closing and big malls no longer selling Redbook CDs, it seems that it would only be a matter of time that every Generation-Xers music collection could be consigned to the dustbin of history much sooner than expected. Thankfully, to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the release of their most successful album, UK based electronic music group Massive Attack released their Mezzanine album on DNA back in October 2018.

Massive Attack worked with Andrew Melchior at the technology consultancy 3^rd Space Agency – the man who helped Bjӧrk convert her performance of “Stonemilker” into virtual reality for her 2015 MOMA show. According to Melchior: “The advantage with DNA is that our civilization could crash into dust and rebuild itself using entirely different technology, meaning they couldn’t access our computers or disks, since every human carries DNA, we can expect any future civilization to work out how to play back DNA-stored information. Which means the first thing a future civilization would learn about us might be Mezzanine.”

Using the DNA molecule to store vast amounts of digitally encoded information is more than just a science fiction pipe dream that was first popularly presented in the Superman movie franchise Man of Steel. The idea has first been published back in 1964 to 1965 when a Soviet era physicist named Mikhail Neiman published his work on the subject in the journal Radiotekhnika. But the first successful execution of encoding digital data onto a DNA molecule was back in 2012 when Harvard biologist George Church encoded one of his books onto a DNA molecule.

The electronic musicians Massive Attack worked with scientists at TurboBeads, a commercial spin-off from the Swiss science, engineering and mathematics university ETH Zurich, to adopt a technology pioneered by maverick US biotechnologists Craig Venter when he created a synthetic chromosome of a bacteria species in the laboratory with four “watermarks” written in the DNA. Robert Grass, professor at ETH Zurich’s Functional Materials Laboratory and his colleague Reinhard Heckel used similar chemical techniques to translate Mezzanine’s digital audio stream into genetic code. “We store digital information in a sequence of zeroes and ones, but biology stores genetic information using the four building blocks of DNA,” Grass explains. “We compressed Mezzanine’s digital audio then coded it as DNA molecules by converting the binary 0s and 1s into a quaternary code – with adenine representing 00, cytosine representing 01, guanine representing 10 and thymine representing 11. The resulting DNA resembles natural DNA in every way, although it contains no useful genetic information.”

According to Massive Attack band member Robert del Naja: “The storage potential of DNA is huge.” Indeed, one milligram of the DNA molecule could store the complete text of every book in the US Library of Congress and have room to spare. Del Naja also states: “If you think about DNA versus the ridiculous amounts of server farms that have got to be cooled 24/7 all around the world, this looks like a much better solution going forward. It allows us to archive music for hundreds of thousands of years.” Unfortunately as of late no word yet on the newfangled format’s sound quality.

Farewell Chester Bennington

With the untimely passing of their vocalist, will Linkin Park be able to maintain their previous worldwide success?

By: Ringo Bones 

With the untimely death of Linkin Park’s principal vocalist – Chester Bennington – of an apparent suicide back in July 20, 2017, many of their fans now wonder what direction will the band take or will the remaining members maintain their previous global success. But given the track record of the band’s propensity of overcoming challenges since the success of their Hybrid Theory major label debut album, it seems than Linkin Park could go on – more likely morphing into a very different band musically without Chester Bennington.

I’m probably not the only one wondering why Chester Bennington killed himself despite the success of Linking Park – i.e. successful enough to have founded the Music For Relief charity and being a recipient of the UN Global Leadership Award, not to mention a global success that include legions of headscarves-wearing Muslim teens from South-East Asia which used to be the domain of Metallica, Sepultura, Joe Satriani, Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Rammstein and this is probably all of 'em . It seems that Chester’s demons had become too intransigent for hi to deal alone. 

Being accused as a “manufactured boy band” during the runaway success of their Hybrid Theory album during the start of the 21^st Century – probably because of the execs at Warner Bros doing their part to make the band a runaway financial success despite of the Napster debacle depriving every signed hard rock acts at the time earning their financial dues – Linkin Park responded by sticking to their true selves and touring – which only resulted in legions of fans both in the United States and the rest of the world and two Grammy Awards. All earned before the end of the George Dubya Bush Administration – which is no mean feat indeed given that all of them were still under 30 when they took on the challenge. 

While a significant portion of Linkin Park’s fans view Chester Bennington as the voice of a new generation of hard rock enthusiasts ridiculed by conservatives for harboring “White Liberal Guilt” during the George Dubya Bush administration’s Post 9/11 jingoism, there’s no question of the vocal interplay between the melodic hard rock oriented singing of Chester Bennington and the skillful Rap oriented delivery of Mike Shinoda is the very aspect that marks the uniqueness of Linkin Park. It’s just too bad that Chester Bennington was fated to pass away before his time given that the band has yet a lot of artistic exploring to do.

The Ariana Grande Manchester Arena Concert Terror Attack: A New Low For Terrorism?

Even though radicalized religious extremist have targeted groups of children before – i.e. the Beslan School Siege back in 2004 – does the recent Ariana Grande Manchester concert attack represent a new low for such terror attacks? 

By: Ringo Bones 

The tragic May 22, 2017 suicide bombing of Ariana Grande’s Manchester Arena concert by a 22-year-old British Muslim named Salman Abedi who detonated a shrapnel-laden improvised explosive device (IED) at the exit of the arena after the event. The brazen attack had resulted in the deaths of 23 adults and children, including Abedi and 116 were injured, some critically. At the latest stage of the ongoing investigation, Abedi was suspected of working within a terrorist network and 16 people so far were arrested in connection with the incident, two of which are released without charge. 

Even though Abedi has been under surveillance by the UK’s anti terror intelligence agencies since 2015 after he threatened a local imam for preaching against the so-called Islamic State, he managed to “flew under the radar” so to speak and managed not to raise red flags. Hours after the suicide bombing, initial investigations suggests that Abedi might be self-radicalized. A few days ago, critical evidence has been uncovered that Abedi could be part of a still unidentified terror network following the furor over vital forensic photos that were leaked to the New York Times that angered Home Secretary Amber Rudd that resulted in a temporary halt of intelligence sharing by the UK’s intelligence services and the US government. 

A tribute concert by Ariana Grande has already been scheduled later for the benefit of the victims and the families of the tragic Manchester Arena attack. And as a sign of resilience, concert events and a marathon scheduled after the Ariana Grande concert were allowed to proceed albeit under heightened security.

Farewell Chris Cornell….

As one of the musicians credited for making the “angst-ridden” Seattle Grunge into the musical mainstream during the early 1990s, will the music world be poorer with the untimely passing of Chris Cornell?

By: Ringo Bones 

Besides Kurt Cobain and the rest of Nirvana, it seems that Chris Cornell and his fellow musicians of Soundgarden were absolutely pivotal in thrusting the so-called “Seattle Grunge” into the musical mainstream during the early 1990s. Even though no self-respecting music lover associates the great city of Seattle, Washington with Jazz clarinetist Kenny G, the so-called Seattle Grunge movement of the early 1990s will forever be associated with Nirvana and Soundgarden, in which Chris Cornell has since become an indispensable frontman since they gained fame during the late 1980s with their Loud Love album. 

It was reported that Chris Cornell died of an apparent suicide according to his representative, Brian Bumbery announced to the press on May 17, 2017. Cornell was said to have been found dead in the bathroom of his room at the MGM Grand Detroit hotel after Cornell’s wife asked a family friend to check up on him. Detroit police spokesman Michael Woody told Associated Press that the death was being treated as a possible suicide. 

Cornell’s biggest mainstream hit was probably the soundtrack to the 2006 James Bond movie Casino Royal titled You Know My Name which he wrote with Independence Day composer David Arnold. This was also the first Bond movie of actor Daniel Craig. Chris Cornell also earned kudos with the plane-watching community when in a Soundgarden video Burden in my Hand they used a Swedish Saab 35 Draken to flyby 4-minutes 4-seconds into the music video. Non-plane-watching enthusiasts often mistake the Swedish Saab 35 Draken flyby as a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. The music world could be a lot sadder without him and his still untapped potential.

 

Farewell Chuck Berry

Passed away at 90, would popular music - as we know it – even exist without Chuck Berry? 

By: Ringo Bones 

March 18, 2017 would probably be remembered as the saddest day for Rock n’ Roll as one of the music’s founding fathers passed away aged 90. Born Charles Edward Anderson Berry, is better known to the music world as Chuck Berry was born in October 18, 1926 and became well known back in the 1950s as one of the pioneers of Rock n’ Roll music. Even though he is no longer the “undisputed king of Rock n’ Roll”, Chuck Berry, nevertheless managed to make early African American Blues, R&B and Rock n’ Roll music not only accessible to white European Americans but also to rock music enthusiasts from the rest of the world. Not only that, he also regularly been playing live and touring since the mid 1950s well into his 80s. 

Chuck Berry’s iconic hit Johnny B. Goode was introduced to a new generation of fans during the mid 1980s when accidental time-traveler Marty McFly (played by actor Michael J. Fox) played his own rendition of Johnny B. Goode in the movie Back to the Future. Another version of Johnny B. Goode by the heavy metal band Judas Priest also managed to introduce young 1980s era metal-heads to the musical genius of Chuck Berry. And both versions were probably instrumental in the induction of Chuck Berry into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame back in 1986. Before he passed away, Chuck Berry was currently working on a new album after his previous one was released 35 years ago.