People writing songs that voices never share...

picture: nevermore

London is bleak. After the colour and noise of December, the street are thin and silent. Who wants music in January? Not me. Everything sounds perky, gauche and too loud.

Listening again/iPlayer-ing again to Rob Da Bank's The Sound Of Slience, I was hoping for a nihilistic journey into beautiful nothingness. Two hours of dead air. Instead it was just some guy playing records. Vangelis, Debussy, Harold Budd, Aphex and Cage.

Silence is a contentious issue. A few years ago, Mike Batt - the Womble-bothering Frankenstein to Katie Melua's jerking, revolting monster - got into trouble when he credited a one-minute long silent "track" to Batt/Cage. Cage's publishers were up in arms crying plagarism of the composer's 4'33''. The dispute went to court. Cage's men even hired a clarinettist to (not) perform it.

London is cancelled till February. Don't exert yourself. Don't join in. Better to keep still and not make a sound. Just don't mention Cage.