Imperfect Sound Forever

An interesting article (if a little lengthy for the point being made) over at Stylus magazine, addressing the issue of excessive compression in recording, which is something I have noticed without any understanding of the reasons for it. I suppose one reason it's less evident to me is that the music I listen to where it's most apparent is music like the Psychic Paramount or Boris where it's a deliberate aesthetic choice, where the aim is to make the music sound overwhelmingly loud and distorted at low volumes. By contrast, Sunn 0))) albums must be recorded with much less compression - ordinarily I only have the volume on the amplifier turned that high when I'm listening to early Nightmares On Wax or LFO and really want to hear the sub-bass.

Of course I was sucked in from paragraph one when he mentions listening to Spirit Of Eden (Talk Talk) on the very same headphones that I own....