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As a consistent, long-standing, albeit irregular contributor to Rocknerd, it is to my shame that I have not contributed anything since February (March Violets, Crocodile Promises). The stack of things that I should review has grown, and, having decided to take a day of rest from work, study, and politics, I turned my attention to art and worked my way through four reviews with an electronica focus:
* Rüfüs Du Sol, Inhale / Exhale (2025). Australia's most successful contemporary electronica-dance band for 15 years, this late review of their latest album notes mostly consistent positive tempo, coupled with a tale from euphoria to loss.
* Basement Jaxx, Sidney Myer Music Bowl. A live review of one of the biggest names in UK garage electronica, known for maximalist performances with high-tempo anthems. Great sounds, albeit with hefty ticket prices and sometimes questionable sound quality.
* Leftfield, Botanical Gardens. Previously reviewed on Rocknerd 15 years ago, Leftfield are an example of beauty in music: "Leftfield are the music of passionate defiance from people who have nothing but each other". Very loud and very clear, the concert would have been improved with length.
* Cut Copy, Botanical Gardens. Unpretentious, often understated, Melbourne's Cut Copy provided a good selection of the past and their most recent album, "Moments". Rather than dancefloor bangers, they provide a continuous joyful vibe.
Now for a brain-dump of some hypotheses on the music of physics, as speculated by a non-physicist. Following Louis de Broglie's hypothesis and Quantum Field Theory, it is fair to say that everything is a wave. From de Broglie was the hypothesis that what we think of as matter has wave-like properties, which has been confirmed through electron diffraction experiments (apropos, waves also exhibit particle-like behaviour). This is accepted as mainstream quantum mechanics; particles are described by a wavefunction, ψ. In Quantum Field Theory (QFT), the fundamental entities of the universe are quantum fields (e.g., electron fields, quark fields, photon fields, etc), and particles themselves are excitations in those fields. Unlike an "everyday wave", like a wave on the ocean, there is no external cause for this it's the fundamental force and motion from the universe.
When a quantum state occurs periodically in time, it can be associated with a frequency. A frequency measured over equal intervals is essentially an oscillation, or, in musical terms, a beat. For a state with definite energy E, the wavefunction evolves as: f=E/H, the Planck-Einstein relation, where a particle of energy E has an associated oscillation frequency, f. Now, when there is a single eigenstate, a quantum oscillation is more like a single tone. However, the universe has multiple quantum states superimposed with interference, and from that beat frequencies appear. If everything is ultimately oscillating quantum fields, then the universe is an ensemble of coupled rhythms. How far I can push these hypotheses will be explored on another day; however, I am tempted to also map this to the insights between the relationship between music and psychology and the philosophical concept of harmony. But all that's for another day; two paragraphs on quantum mechanics and music is enough for today.
* Rüfüs Du Sol, Inhale / Exhale (2025). Australia's most successful contemporary electronica-dance band for 15 years, this late review of their latest album notes mostly consistent positive tempo, coupled with a tale from euphoria to loss.
* Basement Jaxx, Sidney Myer Music Bowl. A live review of one of the biggest names in UK garage electronica, known for maximalist performances with high-tempo anthems. Great sounds, albeit with hefty ticket prices and sometimes questionable sound quality.
* Leftfield, Botanical Gardens. Previously reviewed on Rocknerd 15 years ago, Leftfield are an example of beauty in music: "Leftfield are the music of passionate defiance from people who have nothing but each other". Very loud and very clear, the concert would have been improved with length.
* Cut Copy, Botanical Gardens. Unpretentious, often understated, Melbourne's Cut Copy provided a good selection of the past and their most recent album, "Moments". Rather than dancefloor bangers, they provide a continuous joyful vibe.
Now for a brain-dump of some hypotheses on the music of physics, as speculated by a non-physicist. Following Louis de Broglie's hypothesis and Quantum Field Theory, it is fair to say that everything is a wave. From de Broglie was the hypothesis that what we think of as matter has wave-like properties, which has been confirmed through electron diffraction experiments (apropos, waves also exhibit particle-like behaviour). This is accepted as mainstream quantum mechanics; particles are described by a wavefunction, ψ. In Quantum Field Theory (QFT), the fundamental entities of the universe are quantum fields (e.g., electron fields, quark fields, photon fields, etc), and particles themselves are excitations in those fields. Unlike an "everyday wave", like a wave on the ocean, there is no external cause for this it's the fundamental force and motion from the universe.
When a quantum state occurs periodically in time, it can be associated with a frequency. A frequency measured over equal intervals is essentially an oscillation, or, in musical terms, a beat. For a state with definite energy E, the wavefunction evolves as: f=E/H, the Planck-Einstein relation, where a particle of energy E has an associated oscillation frequency, f. Now, when there is a single eigenstate, a quantum oscillation is more like a single tone. However, the universe has multiple quantum states superimposed with interference, and from that beat frequencies appear. If everything is ultimately oscillating quantum fields, then the universe is an ensemble of coupled rhythms. How far I can push these hypotheses will be explored on another day; however, I am tempted to also map this to the insights between the relationship between music and psychology and the philosophical concept of harmony. But all that's for another day; two paragraphs on quantum mechanics and music is enough for today.