MGMT’s First album “Oracular Spectacular” is a weird and wonderful piece of work. On its incredibly catchy first half songs like “Kids” and “Electric Feel” blended psychedelic styles with a strong pop direction bringing many people to the record.
The records second half gets a little looser and spacey. The Influences that become prevalent in future MGMT releases start to show through a little more. But they don’t loose all of their pop sensibilities or play times. It’s in this space that one of my favorite tracks comes forth.
Of Moons Birds & Monsters mixes vocal verses with psychedelic space rock instrumentals, building to the halfway point that breaks into the guitar hook which gets me every time. Dave Friedmann produced this record and his unique ability to elevate lo-fi/garage rock elements into massive walls of sound shines through. It creates a soundscape that I have loved since the first time I heard it.
It’s a track that has stuck with me. It’s been there to pick me up in low moments and elevated the good to new heights. Of Moons Birds & Monsters pushes into territories outside of poplar music further that other tracks on this album but it reigns it in. It takes a track that could easily sprawl out into a self indulgent monster and confines it into a short and sweet playtime that keeps you coming back for more.
Tim Hecker has always had a strong focus on sound design in his works, with instrumentation characteristically heard in non traditional ways. On his album “Konoyo” he took this one step further by predominantly using instruments from the traditional Japanese form “Gagaku.”
Recording and processing these instruments in his usual way, Tim Hecker has added another level of abstraction for the western listener; you can hear the echoes of something organic, but with processing it has become a shadow of its former self. This hints at memories and emotions in the listener, without ever directly confronting them.
Although each track on “Knoyo” pulls different emotions I decided to pick “In Mother Earth Phase” as for me its the most positive track on the album. Instrumentation drifts in and out of the piece and sounds almost like an alternate orchestra tuning up. These sounds create a strong otherworldly mood, enveloping attentive listeners in a audio quilt of unique sound design and interesting instrumentation:
“Compro” made my album of the year list in 2018 by being greater then the sum of its parts. The album feels like a DJ set. It flows through a collection of different genres of dance music, with Skee Mask’s stripped down sound of Icy pads and complex drum patterns.
On “Soundboy ext.” Skee Mask applies his style to Drum And Bass, with the break being filtered and chopped to within an inch of its life. It is filterd to make it mostly snare and hi-hat, allowing a massive sub bass line to dominate the low end. It gives the track a feeling of building tension throughout, which is partially relieved at the halfway point when the drums are allowed more of the frequency range to dominate the track for a few bars.
For the last minute the drums fade away leaving an ambient soundscape, which provides some respite before the next dark driving track “Dial 247” kicks in.
“Soundboy ext.” is a great track on the album and in its own right and demonstrates the qualities of a rising star in the electronic music world:
The beginning of the year is always a time for musical reflection for me. After spending the last three months heavily listening to new albums for consideration on my albums of the year list, its good to go back to some of my favorite works and clear the mind. Classics that remain just as great today as when they were created.
Untrue by Burial is one of those classic albums. On it, William Emmanuel Bevan takes iconic dance music genres and tackles them with such a clarity of vision that in the process he seems to create an entirely new sonic landscape.
Electronic and sampled drumbeats shuffle their way through his work; never locking to the grid of perfection, but with a natural organic swing of a real drummer. It’s this blend of the electronic and the human that make his music still so relevant. It could be the soundtrack for a robot A.I. starting to gain emotions, or a human loosing theirs to become more robotic and fit themselves into the algorithms that now seem to run what has become our external social media selves.
It is a sound that is now regularly imitated but never matched, partly because copies never have the same emotional weight as Burial achieves. On the albums final track “Raver” Burial takes some of the most iconic sounds of the 90’s dance floor, namely the string pad sounds found on so many of the classic dance anthems, and distorts them into a mirage of their former selves. “Raver” becomes a nostalgic view of a hedonistic time that the world has now become too serious to exhibit. With time, that nostalgia grows, and so does the power of this album. It’s a prophecy for things that are now coming to pass. “Untrue” is an essential listen for anyone.
A sci-fi classic film with a now classic score to match. Vangelis used sequencing through many of his pieces, but probably the most iconic is the end titles of BladeRunner. The Sequencer drives the bass line and in turn the whole track. A powerful ending to a fantastic film, and a great piece of music in its own right:
A New Error by Moderat continues this month’s trend by featuring a wonky sequence that first leads and then underpins the majority of the track. As more instrumentation is added, it drives into the background, becoming a bed for the other instruments to play off. It’s removal halfway through the track creates a sparse void, which allows the aggressiveness of the base line to shine through.
A New Error demonstrates the versatility of a looping sequence when used creatively. Once it’s in the listeners head, it can stay the driving force of a track even if its removed completely:
Orbital have been around since the 90s rave scene, and still create fresh music to this day. Continuing our month of tracks featuring step sequencers, ‘Tiny Foldable Cities’ is made up of several synth sequences that are mixed together to create a more complicated composition.
The sequencing forces a rigidity and lends dynamics that most instruments don’t have, but it allows for adjusting other settings in a synthesizer to morph the sound or individual notes over time. In this way, elements of randomness are created, keeping the track feeling organic:
A fairly minimal track; ‘Keeping Txme’ focuses on a looping sequencer which drives a collection of synthesisers. The piece develops by changing and replacing the sound design of the synthesisers, whilst maintaining it’s melodic structure.
This track also demonstrates another trait of sequencing; the ability to create a ratcheting effect by playing the same note multiple times in its space within the sequence. This adds a rhythmic element to the melody that keeps the listener intrigued.
As someone who likes to play instruments and build patches with synthesisers, you realise with more clarity over time something that should be obvious. Namely an instrument’s input method is the majority of its sound.
As someone who likes to play instruments and build patches with synthesizer, you realise with more clarity over time something that should be obvious. Namely an instrument’s input method is the majority of its sound.
An instrument forces its player to relate to it in a particular way. It sends its player down a path, making certain notes or chords easier to replicate then others. It is this, mixed with the way that the sounds are generated, that creates each and every instrument’s characteristics. Often, just by interacting with an instrument in a way that feels natural for you, it results in its iconic sound.
This leads us to Step Sequencers. Step sequencers and synthesizers have developed in tandem since their creation. Used together they have become the backbone of many genre of music, creating lead melodies, base lines and even drum patterns that have re-defined music. Although the synthesizer can be played with every other form of input method at this point, the Step sequencer is still a method that is synonymous with synthesis. It’s an input method, just like a keyboard or a string, and its design creates its own rigid timbre that, when married with electronics, has resulted in some incredible music.
Throughout December I decided to dedicate my TOTW to the sequencer. Highlighting some great tracks that use it as a primary feature and where else to start than ‘I Feel Love’ by Donna Summer.
For many, this will be the first time the step sequencer and synthesizer would have been heard. Giorgio Moroders synth programming brought this sound to the main stream and in turn started dance music as we now know it. Listening to this at 3 and 5:30 marks where Donna summer’s vocals are removed allowing a driving kick drum in a four on the floor pattern to really drive home the sequenced line sounds epitomising Dance music to this day. Not only iconic, but hugely influential, ‘I Feel Love’ demonstrated the potential of electronic music and the sequencer to artists, and proved that it could be successful commercially.
As someone who likes to play instruments and build patches with synthesisers, you realise with more clarity over time something that should be obvious. Namely an instrument’s input method is the majority of its sound.
An instrument forces its player to relate to it in a particular way. It sends its player down a path, making certain notes or chords easier to replicate then others. It is this, mixed with the way that the sounds are generated, that creates each and every instrument’s characteristics. Often, just by interacting with an instrument in a way that feels natural for you, it results in its iconic sound.
This leads us to Step Sequencers. Step sequencers and synthesizers have developed in tandem since their creation. Used together they have become the backbone of many genre of music, creating lead melodies, base lines and even drum patterns that have re-defined music. Although the synthesizer can be played with every other form of input method at this point, the Step sequencer is still a method that is synonymous with synthesis. It’s an input method, just like a keyboard or a string, and its design creates its own rigid timbre that, when married with electronics, has resulted in some incredible music.
Throughout December I decided to dedicate my TOTW to the sequencer. Highlighting some great tracks that use it as a primary feature and where else to start than ‘I Feel Love’ by Donna Summer.
For many, this will be the first time the step sequencer and synthesizer would have been heard. Giorgio Moroder synth programming brought this sound to the main stream and in turn started dance music as we now know it. Listening to this at 3 and 5:30 marks where Donna summer’s vocals are removed allowing a driving kick drum in a four on the floor pattern to really drive home the sequenced line sounds epitomising Dance music to this day. Not only iconic, but hugely influential, ‘I Feel Love’ demonstrated the potential of electronic music and the sequencer to artists, and proved that it could be successful commercially:
Spotify:
TOTW Playlist:
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