As my track of the week was from Boards of Canada I thought it would be perfect to add their new track to my blog. As I have waxed lyrical about them in my previous post I will keep this one short.
This is their first release from one of my most eagerly anticipated albums Tomorrows Harvest. The 5th of June can’t come soon enough:
Since the teasing and then the announcement of a new Boards of Canada album over the past few months, my feelings of excitement and anticipation have been growing.
I came to Boards of Canada fairly late in their history, around the release of the album “the Campfire Headphase”, but the sound of this album had something unique with its sampled guitars and vast collection of different soundscapes it was unlike anything I had heard before. This convinced me to go through their back catalogue (the stuff that was easily accessible, anyway) and I slowly came to like all of it.
I find it hard to put my finger on why I like it. It’s hard to explain anything about Boards of Canada’s music in a way that makes it understandable. I can tell you their music is made from a collection of synths, naturalistic samples and depending on the album progressively more traditional instruments but I can’t explain how these fit together to create the music they do. Or why they are so distinctive, that a single note from their record store day sampler is enough to know they are responsible. The closest description I could put to how it makes me feel is like waking from a dream that you can’t quite remember. You get the feeling that something profound and maybe even sinister happened that caused you to wake, but the more you think about it the patchier it becomes, evading your thoughts and burying itself in your subconscious.
The music doesn’t seem to have a time or a place and almost feels like an alien language, a puzzle you don’t even understand the conventions to. In different emotional states the same song can make me feel uneasy, uplifted or relaxed. It seems to connect to a fundamental part of myself the same way as looking up at the stars or out on a scene of natural beauty can make you feel both inspired and insignificant.
I know this may sound like hyperbole; maybe others won’t get the same feelings I do. But for me Boards of Canada evoke these emotions unlike any other band. And it’s this uncertainty of their work that keeps me coming back. It makes you feel and think the way great philosophical questions do, it’s unsolvable and fragmented but it doesn’t stop you trying:
I have just noticed that I haven’t put any music by Apparat as my track of the week and after listening to his most recent album I thought it was about time I should give him some credit for his solo work outside of Moderat.
For me Apparat is one of the most interesting electronica producers working today, managing to create his own sound with a heavy use of strings its beautiful stuff indeed.
I’m a huge fan of all of his work and although this track wouldn’t have been the first one I would usually play people as its less accessible than some of his other work. It is my favourite track from his most recent album and therefore the one I’m listening to the most which makes it take pride of place as my track of the week.
His current album is actually edited versions of his music for a play of war and peace and strips away a lot of his usual electronic sounds for classical instrumentation. PV develops slowly with an ominous opening of what sounds like a mix between a broken squeezebox and audio static. Slowly elements of strings, woodwind, vocal samples and finally piano are added before it breaks into a driving drumbeat at 3:50. It’s this driving line that really makes the track stand out and become something to anticipate on repeat listens. I highly recommend it:
Modern Hiphop and R&B have definitely been things that I’ve had to grow into. As a teenager the thought that i would pay attention to the genres would have probably made me shake my head at my future self with a scowl of disappointment, thankfully I have grown up.
I have battled long and hard over what has caused this shift in myself from hater to a lover and I think it’s mostly because this area of current popular music is one of the more varied and fastly developing genres. Rock may not have run out of ideas but it’s certainly winding down. Bands currently try to spice things up by adding synths and replicating sounds that other genres have done before, better. The main reason for this is a lot of rock has a real respect for its influences.
Hiphop on the other hand has always been a twisted bastard demon child of a genre. Mugging what it wants from other areas of music and stripping it away, till its lean with none of the fat. Add to that the chace of the American Dream, where money is the very definition of success and your left with this arrogance in the bigger artists. It makes them try bombastic ideas above their station and amazingly more often than not pull it off.
The polar opposite is successful modern artists in rock. As their releases increase they “hone their sound” but rather than making it edgy they aim for blandness, Mass appeal, untill they’re the equivalent of audio wallpaper, songs under 5 mins long that will get airplay with lyrics simple enough for a load of people in a field to sing along to. The only adverse reaction received will be a shrug of the shoulders and the thought that at least it will be easy to forget.
This brings us to Pyramids by Frank Ocean and an example of why HipHop and R&B are a fantastic cure in the mainstream to this squalid stagnation of pop. Although the single version below is edited down by 2 minutes it still comes in at just under 8. You can hear it develop from a synth heavy almost rave style track into something far seedyer. Elements of artists like vangellis and tangerine dream in the synths make way to the use of sampled trumpets. These give the track a sence of tradition, providing a great contrast to the electronic drum sequence used. This then breaks into a gliding detuneing synth line for the chorus which adds to the tracks overall unnerving feel before it mellows into John Mayers lead guitar line, reminiscent of the smoothest 80’s guitar solo.
The amount of ideas throughout this track manage to keep you constantly guessing where its going to go and yet none of them feel out of place or tacked on. A great example of what this genre can do when done well.
I still don’t like all R&B or Hip Hop, in fact some of it I hate. But I would rather that be the case then a dull indifference I feel from a lot of modern popular rock bands that clog up the airwaves.
Charles Bradley is a blast from the past, His albums could have easily come out in any time period since the 60’s and done well.
Soul music has always seemed to have its hooks in popular music since the 60’s and I think its maintained popularity is due to the singer and their vocals. Ray Charles, Solomon Burke, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Marvin Gaye the list goes on. All are connected by having distinct vocals which manage to convey raw emotion from their tonality alone. Charles Bradley also matches this legacy, his rough brooding voice manages to say everything about loss and sadness in the first groan, powerful stuff indeed:
As you all know one of my passions is music, however I also have a soft spot for computer games.
It therefore makes perfect sense to on occasion, link my track of the week to video game music of note. I have always idolised people making music for games, It requires a fast turn around and a particular skill that is unique to the genre. Namely creating something that can be looped repeatedly without getting boring. After all games are ultimately controlled by the consumer. If they decide to spend 20 minutes in an area with a soundtrack that is only designed for 3 it has to avoid irritation.
A truly great game soundtrack will interweave with the game itself, adding its tones and textures into the very fabric of the game to the extent that they become one and the same. Representative of the scenarios and Worlds created by the designers a games music can be as varied and eclectic as computer games themselves.
Because of its close interweaving nature some music made for computer games won’t really work outside of the game itself. On occasion though you get something that can become its own thing, still attractive, irrelevant of weather you have played the game or not. This applies to the braid soundtrack with its beautiful use of strings, predominantly chello and otherworldly percussive sounds it is a wondrous creation.
Listen to one of the tracks Lullaby below and if you like it the album is available from Magatune.
Idiot Pilot create an interesting mix of electronica with heavy alternative rock. Les Lumieres from their first album is one of the more relaxed tracks, but it’s almost hypnotic qualities have made it a repeat listen for me over the years.
It has this insomnia like quality and is perfect to listen to late at night where tiredness has crept in and your mind is shutting down:
Trifonic are very much a producers act. Highly respected by many for their complexity of sound design which demonstrates a knowledge of synthesis way above most electronic artists. Listening to their music and watching the tutorial videos by Brian Trifon have really helped develop my knowledge of synthesis and gave me new ideas of production.
Strip away the personal interest in production and your still left with a unique sound for electronica done at an incredibly high standard. Have a listen to the track Emergence from their album parks on fire below:
Haim are an up and coming band, with heavy promotion by the BBC they are quickly becoming “The next big thing”. Although I don’t usually follow this as a sign of quality, or with more attention then a passing listen, I really like their Music and am interested in seeing where it will go in the future.
Have a listen to the single Falling below:
In the modern era of computer music limitations can be a good thing. You can now carry a laptop and have access to hundreds of gigabytes worth of sample librarys featuring thousands of instruments and synths that can realistically create almost any sound imaginable.
Although a blessing all this choice can leave you in a bit of a creative quagmire. You can spend so long tweaking the way a track sounds it never gets finished. That’s when limiting the equipment you use to a few things really speeds up workflow.
The OP1 is a small portable synthesiser by teenage engineering. Apart from looking really cool it has the tools to create full songs. To prove this a Cologne based electronic collective called Noorden released “Rumble when Bumble” a compilation album from different artists using purely the OP1.
And it’s from this album i found this track by Furry Hands. All i know is that they are “a group of musicians and photographers based in Helsingborg, Sweden” and that I like their music which is all made using the OP1.
There’s something about the way this track slowly develops that really gets to me. I have always been a fan of organ and pad sounds created by synthesisers and these slowly layer developing into something delicate and blissful before it turns into a more jagged percussive track that staggers and pops its way to its conclusion:
If you like what you hear Furry Hands have a collection of albums available to download from there bandcamp page available here: