‘Foreground Noise’ is the personal music blog of Sidney Franklyn.
Its name hails from one of the radio shows he ran at university, which centered around ambient music and its sub-genres. Listeners were encouraged to be more than just satellites to the soft buzz radiating from the far corner, satisfied with ambient as synonymous with waiting room muzak, shopping centre jingles or smooth jazz canned inside a lift.
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Instead, they were asked to embrace ambient in the macro, to fully submerge themselves within its noise, rendering it impossible to consign to the background.
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This approach, along with the name, has been carried over into this blog, and applies to all of the music criticism you will find here, ambient or otherwise. Not that there's anything wrong with being a satellite from time to time; this is no home for elitist muscle-flexing. This little corner of the internet is rather a space to shine a light upon music that requires your attention, as well as that which seizes it. Music whose intricacies appear to those who wait.
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Despite its accessibility and format constantly shifting, for many there still persists something undeniable in the value of an ‘album’ as a cohesive artistic statement; the reviews here seek to celebrate that, whilst interviews and opinion pieces colour and complement their reception.
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Sidney currently resides in London. If you wish to be interviewed, want to submit something to this blog, or anything else at all, feel free to get in touch via the contact information at the top of the page.
