On his latest album Migration, Bonobo has created some brilliantly well constructed dance tracks that manage to blend great melodies with interesting instrumentation, funky bass lines and unique percussion. It really gets going in the second half where stronger club elements come out to drive the album to its conclusion.
7th Sevens is the penultimate track and exemplifies what Bonobo does best. Mix world music instrumentation (especially percussion) with the more organic sounds of electronic music. The track goes for a subtle approach as the music builds, deconstructs and re-builds several times to its conclusion. It demonstrates my favourite parts of modern electronic music and had to be my Track of the week:
The Flaming Lips latest album opens with an instrumental track of the same name Oczy Mlody.
A bitter-sweet synth lead provides focus for the other drifting instrumentals which vary from the traditional Bass Guitar, to the surreal warping guitars and tape echo. Which is used more as an instrument than an effect as it creates time warping ping pong style percussive delays.
When I first started to listen to the Flaming lips they portrayed this world of vibrant Joy. Even in their darker moments the tracks always felt as sweet as candy canes, a bright kaleidoscope of colours and imagery. It’s still there but muted now, The sun is setting on a world where anything fantastical could and would happen and with it comes the shadows. There is hope in the music but with all hope there is doubt. A doubt that the sun will come up again.
This is what always excites me about a new release from The Flaming Lips. They have created their own style and sound over years and are so comfortable with it that no matter which direction they take it in to reflect their current situation it still stays iconic to them. Oczy Mlody is another step in their journey and well worth your time:
I have thought long and hard over the ultimate song for a DJ. A song that will get people up on the dance floor no matter what age or environment and I can’t think of any that has the same affect as Ike & Tina Turners cover of Proud Mary. It has a rare vibrancy, an energy that is so addictive it gets anyone dancing.
The long build before before the track gets “rough” correlates quite closely to the “drop” found in most modern dance music and has the same affect on people. This infectious Joy is rarely caught in a recording and gives the track the same power as it did 40 years ago. Making it a classic that will continue to have the same affects on people for years to come:
I have all ready given Danny Brown a lot of praise for his most recent album Atrocity City putting it as one of my favourite albums from 2016. But on first listen Tell Me What I Don’t Know was the first track that made me sit up and take notice.
Unlike his higher pitched rapping found on most of his most recent works, This track goes to the earlier more natural sound for his delivery and subject matter. As he unravels a detailed description of a section of his younger life. Story’s of dealing drugs at school to the death of his friend are delivered with both an honesty and a poetry that really makes them sink home. Add to that interesting instrumentation and drum patterns that you would never expect to hear on rap music and we’re on to a real winner of a track:
I was recently recommended the new Netfilx show Dirk Gently Holistic Detective agency. The first thing that grabbed me was the soundtrack because it could have been only made by one composer, Cristobal Tapia De Veer.
His sound is unique and often features the warping and shifting of vocals to create instruments that manage to blend the organic and electronic. It’s a sound that has been used by more experimental artists before, however the off kilter style and sound design would be difficult to employ inside a soundtrack scenario unless the script would support it.
Utopia on Channel 4 achieved just that, a series that blended the thriller genre with absurdist comic book style characters, over saturated visuals and interesting shot composition. It was a show that stood out as something completely different and this soundtrack became a key element in its identity.
This style of composition especially its sound design is only possible in recent years due to the development of more advanced time warping and pitch shifting algorithms and their integration into Digital audio editing workstations (D.A.W). Some composers and musicians have taken D.A.W and turned them from a composition and mixing tool to an instrument in its own right. This is something that is prevalent throughout the history of electronic music where whole genre have been created by people who have pushed equipment in directions the original creature had no intention to. It’s the main reason that electronic music is so close to my heart and Cristobal Tapie De Veer has proved yet again that with creative artists and the constant development of technologies electronic music will continue to push the boundaries of music as we know it.
Electronic music is now the main stream and although it is all consuming at the moment overpowering older genre, we are starting to see its use more subtly as its ideas and designs are implemented into other genre. Its the seed of development for the future of music as a whole and will continue to lead the way in its development for years to come. The Utopia soundtrack demonstrates this. Although several years old now it still feels unique and fresh with the “Utopia Finale” track from season one highlighting a large collection of the style, strengths and talents of Cristobal Tapia De Veer:
The new Run The Jewels album RTJ 3 feels like a story of two halves. It opens with the usual all out furore that we expect from their previous two albums. But on its second half we get a new side to the group. One that features a different take on the production and lyrics. Tracks that feel more like well planned attacks that the instinctive raw anger we get from their previous work on the first half of this record.
The final tracks “A Report to the Shareholders/Kill Your Masters” are mixed together and provide a perfect example of this new direction. The music still has the heavy production El-P is known for but its more stripped back, with the percussion mixed into the instrumentation so it isn’t the harsh force it usually is. Together they provide a mournful bed for the delivery on the vocals which deal with the fears both Rappers have for the future due to recent events.
It’s this contemplative and weighted approach that really adds something new to their commentary on society. In the past, Run The Jewels have always sounded like a prize fighter in the first round. The energy is flowing and the punches are landing with style and flair. A Report to the Shareholders/Kill Your Masters shows a group who have been through one too many fights. With more experience and influence but feeling weaker than ever, beaten but not defeated. It’s a reflection of the artists feelings themselves and also a reflection of our society at large and its worth your time:
I’ve been listening to a lot of music as I research for my albums of the year list and was impressed instantly by the album Centers by Ian William Craig. The album spans several genre whilst also having its own strong identity.
Although surrounded by harsh tracks inspired by elements of Noise music the track purpose (is no country) adds contrast and a sweet release with the layering of his vocals exclusively to create a choral piece with heaps of ambiance. It’s a lovely track which suits this time of year perfectly:
Nick Cave has always emoted a strong style in all his works. Where living is hard and hard living intertwine and form lyrics which are delivered practically or poetically to create a world that is both bitter and beautiful, harsh but honest.
On his album Skeleton Tree these lyrics are accompanied by stripped down instrumentation which adds a veil of darkness and occasional disorientation to the songs with great effect. It’s in its most experimental and exiting on the track Anthrocene.
The Vocals are very much the forefront of the track but the instrumentation mixes a collection of textures together to both contradict and compliment them.
Elements of the instrumentation also oppose each other, a regimented short low fidelity drum sample loops in intervals fading in and out providing a structure that is challenged by the other live organic improvised percussion. The traditional chord structures on the piano is blended with the warping pitch from guitar and synth sounds. These clashes connect with the vocals tale of isolation, they add a weariness to the cryptic lyrics. What are we supposed to make of them? Are they words of comfort or something far more sinister?
“The dark force that shifts the edge of the tree” may be lyrics in this song but they also summarise what Nick Cave does best. Reflect the side of life we try to ignore. In songs like Anthrocene the music and the lyrics combine and enhance this ideology, taking it from the material to the mythological. The dirt under humanities fingernails is exposed and expressed by a man who’s never shied away from staring. It’s what Nick Cave does best and why you should listen:
From 1996s album Beautiful freak to 2001s Souljacker Eels didn’t put a foot wrong. The four albums over those six years manage to portray a diverse and vibrant collection of musical styles with heartfelt lyrics that portray a vast collection of the human experience.
Daisies Of The Galaxy as an album provides a lighter more joyous instrumentation than its predecessor Electro Shock Blues with traditional orchestration as a driving force. However the lyrics still reflect a soul searching darkness, the driving factors On Electro Shock Blues. This time they are more abstract, from a raw pain they have developed into a mature one. Emotions with hindsight and experience, The bitter-sweet feelings on Electro Shock Blues were divided on a track by track basis but by Daisys Of The Galaxy they are ingrained as one and this is exemplified by the title song from the album.
Wrapped in both a sweet nostalgia and a bitter loneliness the song starts with isolated guitar and vocals but soon blossoms into exquisite instrumentation from brass and strings, the track drifts away to its conclusion as the vocals blend with more layers of instrumentation including woodwind and fade into obscurity leaving both a feeling of joy and uncertainty.
It’s rare for a track to have so much power for me but Eels manage to achieve it many times throughout their works. Daisys Of the Galaxy is an album and a track that I will continue to return to for years to come:
Watching the second season of planet earth made me think about and go back to the first Sigur Ros album I ever heard and pick out this track for the week.
The whole of the album Takk… is really beautiful. Well rounded in its construction with tracks flowing between one another wonderfully. It feels at times almost entirely organic in its structure as if parts from the previous track form the inspiration for the next one until its conclusion. This makes hearing it as a whole a real pleasure, a journey into their unique style condensed into its sweetest form over the albums eleven tracks.
Gong is one of the more forward facing tracks, focusing on stronger percussive elements and a swing that really brings a swagger to the piece as it transitions from darker elements of instrumentation to a piano which leads a euphoric key change for the tracks conclusion.
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TOTW Playlist:
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