other people's vacations

A recent visit to the discount bin of one of my "record stores" (an archaic term that shows my age, but what am I supposed to call it? A "music store"? A "cd store"? No one seems to know) led to the adventurous purchase of The Rough Guide to the Asian Underground. With over 77 minutes of music, I believe got my money's worth, but what a long, strange collection of noises. My first reaction was somewhere in between liking it and not knowing what to think; then L said she liked it, which is a considerable hoop to pass through. Now that I've spun the disc half a dozen times, its peculiar sound has entered my bloodstream, and is strangely familiar. The only cut that was familiar to me before hearing this collection is Fun-Da-Mental's Ja Sha Teen; the rest of the fifteen tracks have a similar feel, and remind me a little bit of Eno's Nerve Net, an album I always liked, an album that made me feel like I was on vacation, or better yet on Brian Eno's vacation. Now there's a commodity worth buying and selling: other people's vacations.