Choosing music with a Tarot deck
If you are as suspicious of our reviewers' judgements as we are, we invite you to choose your music by using this far more reliable method.
First, get hold of a pack of tarot cards. Take out the court cards - that is, the king, queen, knight and page of each suit - and set the rest aside. Put the court cards face-down and shuffle them, using whatever method suits you best. Pick out a card and then look at the guide below to find out what kind of music corresponds to your selection. I've chosen music that matches (loosely, at least) common interpretations of the cards.
If you can't find a tarot, use the equivalent cards from a normal playing deck.
The Suit of Wands
The Page -
The Wands are a fire suit, full of energy, and its Page is an enthusiastic, positive child eager to start new projects. She likes Scandinavian fiddle music for its dancing brightness. This Page is particularly fond of Finnish groups such as Troka, JPP and Värttinä, which take folk songs and make them skip about with a modern energy without losing their characteristic Finnishness. The variety in the Nordic Roots compilations appeals to her.
The Knight -
The Knight of Wands is an active traveller who enjoys change. He likes Brazilian music of a hedonistic, restless kind - samba, for instance - with its dance-floor pace, drums, soccer whistles and carnival vitality. He's currently listening to Jorge Ben and Agepê and he thinks that starting the Luaka Bop label is the best thing David Byrne ever did. This Knight urges all Rod Stewart fans to find themselves a copy of Ben's Brazilian Hits and Funky Classics, or any similar compilation, and find out where 'Do You Think I'm Sexy?" came from.
The Queen -
The Queen of Wands is forthright, independent and emotional. The active sensuality of tango suits her well. It rose from the city and the brothels on the wings of a thousand accordions and came to her with a somewhat stereotypical red rose between its teeth. She points out that there are so many tango compilations around that she doesn't know where to start, but the Hemisphere midprice disc The Story of Tango might not be a bad idea.
The King -
The King of Wands is a leader who likes his actions to produce results. Afrobeat is his music of choice. "Plenty of percussion and the singers aren't afraid to tell the crowd what's right and what's wrong," he thinks. "An unstoppable music!" He appreciates the forceful personality of its pioneer, Fela Kuti, even though Fela's scorn doesn't always agree with his characteristically positive attitude toward life. It seems to him that the pioneer's son, Femi Kuti, is coming along nicely in his father's footsteps.
The Suit of Cups
The Page -
The Cups is a water-based suit of love, imagination and harmony. The Page of Cups is a reflective thinker who sits still and considers his feelings, accompanied by the slowly rhythmic voices of Armenian women singing in a medieval churchly style. They drift and sail through the ether, never touching the earth, never violent, lost in an extended emotional dream. "Volume Two of the six-part Music of Armenia," he thinks, "is the best CD in the set."
The Knight -
The Knight of Cups also likes to feel out his emotions but he's more active than the Page. Gamelan music from both Bali and Java has enough of a gonging, repetitive quality to keep his meditative side happy, along with a bounciness that satisfies his need for action.
The Queen -
The Queen of Cups is an effective combination of intuitive dreaming and action. Music from the South Pacific appeals to her, partly because she admires the creativity the islanders demonstrate when they find ways of making music from limited natural resources and also because she appreciates the way one group of singers will work harmoniously together, unaccompanied, to reach the song which is their common goal. David Fanshawe's field recordings leave her feeling impressed.
The King -
The King of Cups is a sensitive, disciplined man. He likes Tuvinian chöömej for the creativity of the singers' control over their overtones. "Flexible and simple," he thinks. "It has a shamanistic quality, it suggests natural cycles and deep emotions." He listens to World Network's chöömej compilation, Throat Singing from the Centre of Asia, although the Genghis Blues soundtrack also intrigues him.
The Suit of Swords
The Page -
The Swords represent air, the intellect, and the Page of Swords is full of ideas but also detatched from reality. He feels at home with klezmer, that style with one foot in the old world and the other in the new world and the rest of it flying about in between trying on influences as it goes. He can probably whistle selections from The Klezmatics' repertoire.
The Knight -
The Knight of Swords is a restless being who throws himself forward, eager to put his ideas into action. He rides to the tune of the great calypso singers of Trinidad who spent their careers giving out opinions to everyone who listened to them. Their sexism disturbs him (he's a Sensitive New-Age Knight) but he is seduced by their wit, fearlessness and vigour. Mighty Sparrow and the Roaring Lion make him hum. When he's in a modern mood he listens to reggae.
The Queen -
The Queen is a rational and wise thinker. She favours the intelligently sinuous melodies of Cuban son. There is pleasure for her in the way the different instruments neatly curl themselves together to produce a slow, well-judged stream of rhythm. Her fondness extends even to non-Cuban son-inspired bands such as Orchestra Baobab and their Specialist in all styles CD.
The King -
The King of Swords thinks intelligently and clearly. Classical Japanese music such as gagaku, noh, and even, sometimes, kabuki satisfy his need for intellectually polished sounds that give him areas of peace in which to settle his thoughts. The spaciousness of the music (like a cool, empty room in pale colours, he thinks) feels like a generous gift. The atonality other people might find alienating appeals to him. He sees it as an example of rational thought and tradition harnessing mere noise into the yoke of Musick. With polite restraint he advises interested parties to search the Nonesuch label for appropriate albums.
The Suit of Pentacles (or Coins)
The Page -
The Pentacles are an earthy, materialistic suit and the Page is committing himself to a course of steady action (such as study) which will bring him the results he wants. He listens to Indian raaga, which build unhurriedly toward a distant goal, sometimes taking several hours to get there but always trusting that no matter how many improvisations the musicians perform on the chosen theme they will manage to reach the end as they planned, in triumph.
The Knight -
This Knight is a hard worker, an ambitious person, serious and practical. The Zulu style of a capella singing known as iscathamiya speaks to his heart with its moderate pace and deliberately-placed harmonies. "This music is a piece of square and honest craftsmanship," he thinks as he buys yet another Ladysmith Black Mambezo album. "If I were a musician instead of a highly professional businessman, I would be Joseph Shabalala." Ladysmith Black Mambezo are the world's most popular iscathamiya group, and consequently the easiest to find in the shops.
The Queen -
This is a strong, patient Queen who knows how to enjoy her work. She listens to English roots music, preferring singing over instrumentation. Fiddling and piping on their own seem too frivolous. She likes to hear sincere voices telling her about their lives in a language she understands. Rory McLeod, The Watersons and Coope, Boyes and Simpson all appeal to her.
The King -
The King of Pentacles is reliable, balanced and successful. He listens to the steady drone of a didjeridu, which anchors him to the earth and provides him with a music he can predict, which seems to him to him be a basic comfort.
