This is something what I often have talked about. Listening noise can certainly be awkward if you need really reason to trust your instinct. Then suddenly the bold certainty of your tastes and knowledge seems untrustworthy, hah... Seen many times when band someone was supposed to "hate" was really good when didn't know what it was. And also situations when good thing appears worthless, until one was told who did it.
I was slightly surprised to see the list of names I had been listening from blog, and realizing that I could have written pretty much exact same thing if knowing who they actually are. ( Maybe I would have toned down E.K. comments by saying the project has actually done much much better stuff too! )
It gives me little confidence that the gut feeling you have, can be accurate. It's not all tainted by obligations to like or dislike certain names and some stubborn prejudices. If this was game of "name the artists", I wouldn't have known anyone, though ;)
I think this would be good thing for any noise reviewer to take part. Way to know tastes and see what element they notice and how they describe them. To know how to relate their usual writing...
Looking forward more postings on blog. Remember to post news here!
