In this first edition of Ear Candy and to embrace the approach of summer, I thought I’d share three pieces of music that I regularly use for testing different earphones. These a great pieces of music in their own right, and are all very different in style – something for everyone.
The discovery of new music and artists to listen to always makes me excited. These are three artists that aren’t particularly well known, and I think will expose you to something a little different to the style(s) of music that you normally listen to.
Have a listen and let us know what you think in the comment section at the bottom of the page.
The Finn Brothers – Only Talking Sense
Neil Finn along with his brother Tim formed renamed themselves the Finn Brothers after their previous incarnations as Split Enz and the better known Crowded House. This album is a great example of song writing, musicianship and engineering (thanks to sound engineer Tchad Blake). Recorded in 1995, this album still manages to sound both current and timeless. Only Talking Sense has a great sense of space and depth with really warm sounding bass. If you have a good set of earphones, the mid range will have a crisp punch that really brings the song to life.
The album should be considered a classic and has plenty more songs of the same calibre on it – one of my all time favorites and great for testing earphones.
View the full album, Finn by The Finn Brothers.
Le Trio Joubran – Masar
Le Trio Joubran are 3 brothers, originally from Nazareth and play a style of traditional Palestinian music. There music is entirely acoustic, and is quite simple in nature – but with it comes a great mood and atmosphere. Masar in particular has an amazing sense of space around it with little percussive details coming and going. This is a great track to test the amount of detail that your earphones can pick out thanks to the many layers of subtlety that build up throughout the track
Recorded in 2007, this is some of their better known work and is well worth a listen even if you don’t think you like ‘world music’.
View the full album, Majaz by Le Trio Joubran.
Liquid Stranger – Molecule Man
A solo electronica artist, commonly tucked into the dubstep genre – while partly correct, its not what I would commonly refer to as dubstep myself. Molecule Man is the first track that I always play on any of the earphones that we test. The track as a whole has lots of space, depth, crisp detail…and a low bass. This track is particularly good for testing how the bass sounds on your earphones. If the bass (instrument) sounds too loud, you probably need to turn down your EQ a little at around 400Hz – this will leave you plenty of depth, but make it more controlled. If you have a good treble response, you will hear loads of detail in the many layers of spacious background effects.
The album varies quite a bit in style track to track, but is a great all round listen – its one that I keep coming back to on a regular basis.
View the full album, Arcane Terrain by Liquid Stranger.
