Pod-heads

6,971,963,078.

According to the website I just checked, that is the current world population. Plenty of strangers, that is. Or, hereby referring to Will Rogers' famous words "A stranger is a friend you haven't met yet", plenty of future friend requests to be confirmed. Which brings us to a tricky point: how many friends do we ideally need? Too few, and people might think you're a loser. Too many, and you might look like a social tramp.

As opposed to the other Fred, I don't believe in numbers. Especially not the ones published in scientific papers. I believe in personal criteria. And although I have more than one entry on my checklist - ranging from the number of poems you know by heart to your ability to turn four random ingredients into a meal, there are two criteria that play a crucial role. Books, and music. So the first thing I usually do when someone invites me to his or her place, is to have a peek into my host's record collection and personal library.

"I don't buy CD's, I usually just listen to the radio."

Killer number one.

"I don't like reading, I prefer watching the movie."

Killer number two.

As we are constantly trying to share our thoughts with you, let me use this occasion to let you peek into Fred and Fred's record collection. Because, after all, we are both Pod-heads.

Venetian snares: "Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding" (2004)

Electronic music in its purest form. This album, one of Aaron Funk's less aggressive-sounding breakcore releases, sounds more or less like a soundtrack from a different planet. One housing a highly advanced technology, because the fourteen tracks on this masterpiece often make me think of a manual for a machine we don't know, in a language we don't understand. They are not meant to be digested on a lazy sunday afternoon, quoi. Employing unorthodox time signatures, switching back and forth between emotional outbursts and rhythmical eruptions, ignoring standard song patterns and structures, yet leaving you behind with a strange feeling of melancholy.

Google is one of your friends, "Vida" by Venetian Snares the stranger you are looking for. Enjoy.