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Harder Better Faster Stronger by Daft Punk vs. Stronger by Kanye West (which samples the former). Both songs sound similar in parts and I much prefer the original, but keep getting bamboozled when hearing it on the radio or on shuffle.

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Album Thoughts - #2

This is a bit of an odd one that I didn’t deliberately look for but am very glad Spotify brought to my attention! This is...

Invitation - Art Van Damme & The Singers Unlimited (1974 album, accordion/vocal jazz)

Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/album/2HrswosQZJdZln7ER4DgyZ?si=Wxu8_xy1RSi0SwVtTHO6VQ

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nBH_G2N7RaUY58CCHO2ZulPb6_7RyUR2g

Invitation is a delicious 11 piece, 36 minute long album from the 70s featuring the four-part jazz vocal group “The Singers Unlimited” (Gene Puerling, Len Dresslar, Bonnie Herman and Don Shelton) and the American jazz accordionist Art Van Damme. I would imagine most people’s first question is: “what is accordion and vocal jazz?” Well, that’s a difficult question as this is really my first introduction to a genre that you don’t see much nowadays. What I can say is the traditional double bass and brushed drums are there for all of the album, as well as an occasionally vibraphone - so it has that easy-jazz, elevator music-esque sound.

In a sense, Art Van Damme plays the accordion like you would for trumpet jazz in some songs, while in others like piano jazz - frequently swapping between long held notes and rapid hopping around a scale along with the extended chords jazz is known for. It’s quite a versatile and unique sound. Frank Morocco is another famous jazz accordionist if you’d like more. The other major part to this album, vocal jazz, can be summed up as using an instrumental approach to the voice; choir-like with “oohs”, ”aahs” and some wonderful harmonisation. Scat singing is another big part of vocal jazz, although that features rarely in this particular album.

This album in one word is: lovely. When listening to it, I picture myself sitting outside a French café in the sun, sipping a coffee, just enjoying life.

It is gentle and incredibly smooth in parts while also having more exciting higher-tempo parts, with incredibly impressive finger work on the accordion. I find it very relaxing to listen to, The Singers Unlimited producing an entrancing and extended range of sound with the relative delicateness of a paintbrush stroke. It’s lullaby-like in sections, I could quite easily drift off into a nap with the beautiful harmonies and heavy reverb whisking me to dreamland. It has that indescribable “niceness” to it that just calls to you to take a deep breath and slow down for a moment, and listen to some lovely accordion/vocal jazz.

That’s not to say it’s not an interesting album at all though. If you listen to it closely there’s a whole lot to pick out. If you have the ear for it you can focus on particular voices or just the bass for example, and in higher-tempo songs the speed that notes fly at you warrants at least a second listen to take it in properly. An example of the former includes “Wave”, where it’s entirely a cappella for the first 45 seconds before the simple drum beat comes in with Art Van damme weaving his way up and down all sorts of broken chords on top of it. On the other hand “Let There Be Love”, is a sublime example of speedier toe-tapping swing-jazz for the second half of the song.

All in all, if you’re looking for something chill, jazzy and a bit different then I can certainly recommend Invitation. Or if you just want some background music to your afternoon tea, I can’t think of much better.

Cool artist fact: From 1945 to 1960 he worked for NBC, performing on The Dinah Shore Show, Tonight, The Dave Garroway Show and other radio and TV shows with Garroway. He recorded 130 episodes of the 15-minute The Art Van Damme Show for NBC Radio. He once said he did so many performances on a continual basis he never needed to practice.

Further reading:

Art Van Damme - Wikipedia

The Singers Unlimited - Wikipedia

Accordion Music Genres - Wikipedia

Vocal Jazz - Wikipedia

Thanks for joining me today, see you soon.

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Smol little caterpillar clinging on a branch at dusk.

Captured on a Samsung Galaxy S9, 29/06/2019.

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I finished learning the Wii Shop Channel Theme recently and filmed myself playing it, check it out! If you liked that I also previously filmed the Mii Channel Theme which is on my YouTube.

Why the Wii Shop Channel Theme you ask? I dunno. It’s catchy and fun I guess.

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Adorable birbs, if I remember correctly they’re a type of finch. This was a little sanctuary with many other birbs.

Captured on a Samsung Galaxy S9, 16/06/2019.

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Song Thoughts #1

I just have to talk about this brilliant song that’s been stuck in my head the last couple days, and that song is:

Pearly* - Radiohead (1997 song, alternative rock)

Spotify Link (Original): https://open.spotify.com/track/7qjeUic6NDsEudEKQ1Lo97?si=0QyoHbmPRViN4xbn5nJEJw

Spotify Link (Remastered): https://open.spotify.com/track/4ozum7awQLhJ6D6fQL5xPy?si=Broxkfc_QEO5GR7LxQc0dA

Live Performance Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuUWVXe90mg

Lyrics: https://genius.com/Radiohead-pearly-lyrics

Pearly* is an song by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, originally released as part of the B-Side on one of the versions of the “Paranoid Android” single (CD1, with CD2 being the other version) along with “Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)". It was also on the Japanese CD single with the aforementioned and the addition of “Let Down”. It can also be found on the Collector’s Edition of Radiohead’s studio album “OK Computer”, the remastered re-release “OK Computer OKNOTOK” and on the “Airbag/How Am I Driving EP” which is a collection of most of the B-Side songs from the “OK Computer” CD single releases. Got all that?

I love this song, all the distortion on the guitars and crashing symbols are so noisy and the thick bass underlining it all makes a delicious trifle of music. The what sounds like; “someone threw a feedbacking speaker down the stairs” intro, is different but wonderful, followed by the drums and lead guitar, then feeds into these brilliant harmonised almost choir-like vocals from Thom Yorke. Hanging onto the last note every line - it’s so strong and powerful and gives his voice good room. Particularly in the first part of the verses it works extra well: the first jump is a perfect fitfh ([van]-ill-aaaa) and the second one has the first note down just one semitone, making it a minor sixth (milk-shaaaakes) and as a musical device that works so well to convey the tone of the song. It’s dark, it’s dirty, it’s naughty in a way. After the first verse, the empty space Thom has on his long notes is filled with practically a second set of lyrics, in this call-and-response-esque exchange, but instead with the “second singer” doing their own thing like you’d see in a song from a musical where the two parts come together for the big finale. Works very well.

About half way into the 3 minute 38 second song, the tone shifts slightly. The drums fall away and just the guitars and echoed-to-the-max Thom are repeating this one line in preparation for the crescendo, which is introduced with this smooth as heck drum fill by Philip Selway along with some building sound effects. And here for the last third of the song is where it really cements as a favourite in my mind. There’s this twangy high-pitched low-attack sound (I’m guessing it’s a guitar) that delicately adds a final delicious layer to the organised chaos coming from the guitar, bass, drums, vocals and sound effects beneath. It plays a very simple tune, much like a slow trill but it is incredibly catchy when combined with the chord progression from the rest of the instrumentation and it adds so much to it for me. They need not end the song in my opinion, keep that last segment going for hours for all I care, it’s carrying on in my head once the song has finished regardless.

So in summary, really just a brilliant song. Everything blends together so nicely, and the band does some remarkable things with just guitars and a voice. The remastered version is a fair bit better mixed in my opinion so if you are going to listen to any version I’d say that one.

Cool song fact: Thom Yorke describes the song as a "dirty song for people who use sex for dirty things". The asterisk/star is part of the official title of the song and is intentional, the real reasoning unknown however. One common fan theory is that the star signifies pearly white teeth.

Thanks for reading, see you in the next post.

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I love Formula One and wish more people knew about or watched the sport! Great introductory guide, might use this to try and convert some of my friends haha. I will also add that the Netflix series filmed last year is rather welcoming for newcomers.

hi there ! i'd like to be an f1 stan but i,,,, dont know how.... can i get an intro to f1 post pls + the drivers to look out for and how f1 works,,, thank u

Okay I was going to make a funky cool guide but I just don’t have time right now, so I’ll try my best to explain for now 

The Basics

As of 2019 there are 10 teams and 20 drivers (2 drivers per team) and 21 races. Races vary in number of laps but generally work out to the same race distance (305km) - Races are also limited to being 2 hours long, so sometimes not all laps will be completed but this is rare. (Often due to weather or extended use of the safety car)

Over a race weekend there are: 3 Practice Sessions (2 on the Friday, 1 on Saturday), Qualifying (on Saturday, split into 3 sections), and the Race (Sunday)

The drivers who finish a race in the top 10 score points.  As of 2019, there is also a point for fastest lap

1st - 25 2nd - 18  3rd - 15 4th - 12  5th - 106th - 87th - 68th - 49th - 210th - 1Teams also score points, same system, add both their cars together (e.g. 1st & 2nd finish would score 43 points)

There are 3 different types of tyres (compounds): Soft (red), Medium (yellow), and Hard (white). Each car is allowed 13 sets of tyres for the full race, (There is also two different types of wet weather tyres that are not included in this allocation). During a race, drivers must use at least 2 different compounds (meaning at least 1 pit stop). 

The Teams and Drivers 2019

Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton (#44) & Valtteri Bottas (#77)Ferrari - Sebastian Vettel (#5) & Charles Leclerc (#16)Red Bull - Max Verstappen (#33) & Pierre Gasly (#10)McLaren - Carlos Sainz Jr (#55) & Lando Norris (#4)Renault - Nico Hulkenberg (#27) & Daniel Ricciardo (#3)Racing Point - Sergio Perez (#11) & Lance Stroll (#18)Toro Rosso - Alex Albon (#23) & Daniil Kvyat (#26)Alfa Romeo - Kimi Raikkonen (#7) & Antonio Giovinazzi (#99)Haas - Kevin Magnussen (#20) & Romain Grosjean (#8)Williams - Robert Kubica (#88) & George Russell (#63)

Lewis Hamilton is the current World Champion, having won his 5th title last year. Mercedes are current Teams Champions having dominated the grid since 2014.

Realistically, as it stands, the only teams likely to win a race are Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull. The midfield is super close but the gap between those 3 teams and the rest of the grid is crazy big.

In terms of drivers to look out for: Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen, Kevin Magnussen, Alex Albon. There’s a lot of variety amongst them; very different racing styles. As it currently stands, I’d argue that they are the future of the sport, Especially Charles Leclerc who has done nothing but impress since his debut last year. 

Obviously Hamilton and Vettel are both talented drivers, having 9 World Championships between them, but both of them are at the tail ends of their careers, all eyes are on the younger racers. 

How to watch it really depends on where you live. In the UK every session of a race weekend is shown live on Sky Sports F1, with Qualifying and Race highlights shown on Channel 4 later. This link may be useful to find out how to watch. 

I hope this was at least somewhat helpful anon! I’ll try and crack out a much better driver/team guide when I have time. Any questions, just ask!

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Here’s one more, look at this very hard-working bumblebee. Go little buzzy friend, pollinate those flowers!

Captured on a Samsung Galaxy S9, 16/06/2019.

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Who says I can’t post random pictures of animals? Everyone likes cute birbs. This one wanted some chocolate muffin.

Captured on a Samsung Galaxy S9, 17/06/2019.

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Olympics, Music, Broadcasting And A Sense Of British Pride

This will be a bit different from previous posts, but it’s something I’ve wanted to talk about for a while. This is a story set in the Summer of 2012, and focuses on music, animation and technology used by the BBC in their television programming for the London Olympics.

A Mammoth Preparation

(photo courtesy of LOCOG, photographer unknown)

Let me set the scene - it’s a cold wet Winter in the British Isles, preparations are well under way for the Games of the XXX Olympiad and the XIV Paralympics, more commonly known as the London 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games happening the following year in July. Venues are having their finishing touches added to them, the London Mayor’s office is planning transport links for the huge surge in visitors, athletes are training in their home countries to get ready for the Games and the BBC are laying out their plans for television and radio coverage. Before anything kicked off, the hype was big enough in the UK that they even made a mockumentary about organising the Games.

I don’t work in media (yet), I certainly don’t work in the BBC but I can have an idea about the huge undertaking that broadcasting the Olympic Games (in the British Broadcasting Corporation’s home country and city) must be. And for 2012, the BBC were going full out; they planned to broadcast all 5000 hours of sport across 27 channels including the red button, Sky, Freeview, Freesat and online.

There’s a lot to prepare like: what programming they’re going to have and what features they want to produce and what filming locations they will be at and which presenters and commentators they want and what additional visual and audio equipment they’ll need and all the hundreds of behind the scenes crew that come with that as well as additional systems they need to set up to facilitate such a large amount of television being sent over the airways. And a big chunk of the BBC’s coverage is live which adds a whole layer of complexities.

I could quite easily nerd-out on the audio-visual and broadcasting technicalities the BBC/OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Services) set up for the 2012 Olympics like suspending the BBC Parliament channel to make room for more sport and how the Games were broadcast in 3D across the world but that’s not the main focus of this post today.

A Song For The Olympics

The BBC isn’t new to this shindig - they’ve broadcast live coverage of every Summer Olympic Games since 1960. A small but significant part of this coverage is a theme tune and a title sequence, and that’s actually what this post is about.

In November 2011, it was announced that Elbow, an English alternative/indie rock band would compose the soundtrack for the BBC’s Olympic coverage. This is on the back of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, in which Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn (the musicians behind the British virtual band Gorillaz) produced music and animation for the opening titles.

"This builds on our recent tradition of using great British contemporary artists to deliver our music, as we did with Damon Albarn in 2008; and we reckon Elbow have a unique combination of credibility - hence their Mercury Prize - with a style that can be enjoyed by people of all ages." - Roger Mosely, BBC's Director of London 2012. [source]

"For our music to be sound-tracking it, there was a big feeling of responsibility but also we're just dead proud to be doing it. And strange as well with none of us really being athletic." - Guy Garvey, lead singer of Elbow. [source]

The BBC asked Elbow to come in and consult on composing the soundtrack. It’s reported they said: “if we asked you to do the Olympic theme, what would you do?” Garvey was told he had been invited along because of Elbow's 2008 single One Day Like This (an epic, anthemic, art-rocky track), which has been used on countless sport montages. Garvey replied: “Well, we can give you something similarly rousing. Something anthemic and bold. And we'd put lots of different parts in it for different parts of the coverage.”

And that is just what they did.

First Steps - Elbow (A.K.A. BBC London 2012 Summer Olympics Theme)

(First Steps cover art courtesy of Elbow and the BBC, artist unknown)

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj3_3vvHDwE

Lyrics: https://genius.com/Elbow-first-steps-lyrics

The track isn’t available on Spotify or officially from Elbow due to it being a commission by the BBC (of which royalties were waived in support for charity). Additionally, it was only released as a digital-download through selected retailers, none of which still seem to be selling it. So unfortunately this YouTube rip is the best quality I could find.

“First Steps” by Elbow is an epic 6 minute 21 second lasting tidal wave of sound that hits you with incredible emotion. The anthem was composed in secret by Elbow in Salford over the 2011-2012 Winter and recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the NovaVox gospel choir in Spring. Although the full version lasts more than six minutes, it was intentionally composed to allow different clips of one or two minutes to be played during montages of winners or losers. Additionally 40, 30 and five second edits along with a title sequence were used throughout the BBC’s London 2012 campaign.

The first bars of it would be aired around the time of the torch relay beginning in May 2012, with the full work revealed near to the Olympic Games opening ceremony. A one-minute edit of the track, accompanied with video sequence (more on that later) was first shown on BBC One during half-time of the UEFA Euro 2012 final on Sunday 1 July 2012. A four-minute edit of the track was premiered on Chris Evans' Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 on Friday 27 July 2012 (the morning of the opening ceremony). It was used in the opening and closing title sequences of BBC Sport’s Olympics coverage on the first and final days of the Olympics as well as throughout the Games.

"It should be just about the most heard piece of music in 2012." - Roger Mosely, BBC's Director of London 2012. [source]

"I've written something called First Steps. The song can be parents looking with pride at their kid walking for the first time, but also those hopes and aspirations - marvelling at what's going on, the human element of it - translates quite well to watching your finest athletes doing their very best." - Guy Garvey, lead singer of Elbow. [source]

It is in my opinion the perfect backdrop to an incredible event and an important time for the country as a whole. It’s so jaw-droppingly powerful and inspiring, it gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it and I have to commend everyone who worked on the track for such an accomplishment of music. Furthermore, Elbow are such nice chaps that they even waived all fees and royalites from digital downloads of the track in support of Children In Need (a BBC charity and annual fundraising telethon).

But this is only half the story, as while the music is incredible and served as brilliant theme/incidental/identity music for BBC Sport throughout their Olympic coverage - they still needed a title sequence.

Stadium UK - Red Bee Media (A.K.A. BBC London 2012 Summer Olympics Title Sequence)

(BBC Olympics 2012 wallpaper courtesy of BBC Sport, artist unknown)

Full Sequence (YouTube rip): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cVrjFlt4hI

Shortened Trailer (original quality): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ViLiXA0E70

“Stadium UK”, named for the concept (seen in the sequence) of a giant stadium encircling the UK with athletes preparing and competing in a variety of landscapes, was devised by creative agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe Y&R. The animation was created by Passion Pictures and it was produced by Red Bee Media in conjunction with the BBC and Elbow.

The anthemic composition and the accompanying visuals were intended to sum up the achievement of reaching the Olympics, the emotions of those who win and those who do not, and the coming together of the whole country to support the event. The title was inspired by a child of one of the band members of Elbow learning to walk during the composition of the song, symbolising the hope and achievement of the moment.

As previously mentioned, this “trailer for the Olympics” was first shown during the Euro 2012 final and many more times leading up to the Opening Ceremony. It’s hard to get across the collective hype that was being experienced in Britain before the start of the London Olympics, because for a lot of people it would be a once in a lifetime event that simply couldn’t be missed. Olympic fever was really was everywhere you went. In the news, on signposts, in casual workplace conversation, on banners in pubs. To be fair though, us Brits love a big ol’ national celebration, we’d done the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee just a month prior.

“Across the 17 days of the Games, some 24 million viewers watched at least 15 minutes of our Red Button service - and what was particularly gratifying is that all the different sports proved to be a draw for the audience, with each of those 24 'channels' receiving at least 100,000 viewers at some point.” -  Ben Gallop, BBC Sport Editor. [source]

I can say with some degree of certainty that this Summer in 2012 was one of the biggest, and uncharacteristically, happiest moments for the country in many years. Many people were still reeling from the 2008 recession, the coalition government was struggling to co-operate following the 2010 general election and resulting hung-parliament and just a year ago many major English towns were something akin to a war-zone during the 2011 riots. The Olympics were a distraction, and the relative importance of sporting contests can be argued, but what can’t be is how much of a mood-lifter it was for much of the population. This title sequence got people excited - it had a major impact as it showcased the best of Britain. It not only reminded people that some of our own athletes are some of the best in the whole world, but that the upcoming Games would be a chance to show the world all of the wonderful, impressive and sometimes strange things about the United Kingdom. And that was something to look forward to.

A Legacy For Decades

(Ellie Simmonds’ golden postbox photo courtsey of Express and Star news)

The impact of the 2012 Olympics continues to this day, mainly in the form of sport centres with signs that say “home of the 2012 Olympic [sport] events” and golden postboxes on the sides of streets emblazoned with the names of winning athletes. The BBC have long since scaled back their broadcasting following the conclusion of the Games although due to the huge and somewhat slightly unexpected huge popularity of their coverage, many features of those Games’ coverage that were being trialled for the first time were implemented in wider usage must faster than they would have been without the Games. Notably; Twitter and social media interaction, live-blogs on the BBC Sport website and additional Red Button live broadcasting, which has been re-used for basically every Wimbledon tennis tournament since.

Elbow’s music hasn’t been entirely forgotten either (I hope this post proves that). I heard it recently during the BBC’s coverage of the annual London Marathon, they’re certainly getting mileage out of it. And why not re-use it for future sporting events, the track’s emotion and feeling is just as applicable to something like the London Marathon as it is to the Olympics. Not mentioned up until now but there was actually an official song for the London 2012 Olympic Games called “Survival”, by another English rock band: Muse. It does deserve a very honourable mention as Muse are a great band and it’s a brilliant song, but it’s very different in style and I would argue is not what people think of when you ask the question “what was the music for the 2012 Olympics?”. There were also two soundtrack albums for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but these are mainly live cover performances from those ceremonies.

To conclude, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were incredible, and I get rather patriotic when talking about them. Bar a few controversies it was largely a huge success. Millions of people who were not able to attend events in person were able to be part of the action thanks to the impeccable British Broadcasting Corporation. Fantastic programming and coverage, great features and analysis and one stellar title sequence and music track. We all know the on-screen presenters but I don’t think the behind-the-scenes crew get nearly enough praise - so personally I would like to say thank you to those hundreds upon hundreds of people who worked thankless tasks so people like me could be a part of one of the greatest events this country’s ever hosted. And thanks to Elbow, for a work of musical genius, that continues to inspire and send chills down the spine of every hopeful athlete or just plain old regular person to this day.

Further Reading

A couple more things to mention before I close out this mammoth of a blog post (not many I promise). The BBC and Elbow produced a 10-minute behind the scenes video outlining the process of creating “First Steps”, which I highly recommend watching.

BBC Article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-18960004/london-2012-how-bbc-olympics-theme-tune-first-steps-was-made

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5WfsWF4dfE

Additionally I do recommend this short VT featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, which was used to open BBC Sport’s Olympic coverage. He quite succinctly sums up many of my feelings towards the Games.

RadioTimes has a very lengthy article where they talk to Guy Harvey about First Steps and his Olympic thoughts, which you can read here.

BBC Sport Editor, Ben Gallop talks in-depth about the preparation and technology of broadcasting the Olympic Games in a blog post, which you can read here.

BBC Director Of London 2012, Roger Mosely, lists in detail the staggering TV output and staffing amounts for the summer Games in a blog post, which you can read here.

You may also want to the read the Wikipedia articles for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games and the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games for more information than just the broadcasting and BBC music I’ve talked about here.

Final note, I’ve only talked about the BBC’s Olympic broadcasting in this post. In the UK, Channel 4 (that’s the name of the organisation) have held the rights to Paralympic Games broadcasting for however many years and had their own idents and music.

Finally, if you did make it through to the end, thank you very much for reading. This took several days to put together and a lot of research (very easy to start going down rabbit holes), so I hope you learnt something and liked what I wrote. Comments appreciated. 

See you soon :).

[sarcastic--fantastic]

Music Thoughts #1

A look into a piece of music I listened to for the first time recently. Here’s what I thought about…

Music for 18 Musicians - Steve Reich (1978 musical work, minimalism)

Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/6DfT97NBB9xy0J40eJEU1j?si=QP7m0zWTRhWxjaryGaJTEw

YouTube Link (including live performance): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApnbymNz9dE

Music for 18 Musicians is... hard to describe. It’s a 56 minute and 31 second long musical work by Steve Reich with an introductory segment, 11 sections, and an ending segment with fade out. It’s part of a genre called Minimalism, a kind of experimental, mathematical, repetitive, simplistic approach to music. Music for 18 Musicians isn’t a pop/rock song, but it’s also not a classical symphony nor an improvised jazz session. It’s not really like much I’ve heard before and I absolutely loved it.

The piece starts off with what I believe is a xylophone playing the same note for the same duration at the same intervals at the same speed for a dozen seconds or so - simply put, a pulse. Then comes in a marimba, strings, piano, voices and woodwinds all adding layers to this very simple pulse. They’re not all doing the exact same crotchet notes though, each musician and instrument have their own variations and stylisations that builds this surreal beating heart of a sound. It’s kind of like if an orchestra were tuning before a performance but then just kept that flowing, breath of sound going, with the addition of a ticking clock.

The first part of the piece is called Pulses and this introduces the main body of the sound to the listener. This is more or less how the entirety of the music continues, with Sections I through Sections XI and then cycling back to the beginning with Pulses II at the very end. Each section is just one chord and a phrase of music being built around that chord and the notes it comprises. Slightly repetitive, even monotonous? Yes but, that’s the point, I think. There’s just enough variation and layering to keep it engaging. Even in a part where it’s just the pulsing, with a good ear you can pick out each instrument and what it’s doing. It’s remarkable because many a time have I gotten bored of a disco instrumental bridge that lasts way longer than it needs to.

Music for 18 Musicians is really beautiful to me for a number of reasons. It’s elegant in its simplicity, its pure and resolute, its organic with the musicians natural breathing and fatigue, its...I suppose this is the best way I could describe it:

Music for 18 Musicians is Steve Reich picking a bunch of beautiful natural instruments, introducing a pulse and a set of frequencies and then telling the musicians that “this is it, this is what you have to work with - make something wonderful”.

(Obviously that’s not entirely true as Steve Reich meticulously composed the whole piece before it was performed, but it’s a metaphor.)

There’s not much more I can say apart from urging you to give it a listen, if just one section (Section VII, 7, is my favourite). It makes great studying/concentration music as well as (and this is a bit of a niche usage) “getting ready for/travelling to an event you’re late for” music, what with the constant tick-tock like pulsing.

Cool music fact: In his introduction to the score, Reich mentions that although the piece is named Music for 18 Musicians, it is not necessarily advisable to perform the piece with that few players due to the extensive doubling it requires.

Further reading:

Music publisher entry with insightful composer notes from Steve Reich.

Wikipedia article.

Additional performance of the piece.

Thanks for reading, more to come soon.

[sarcastic--fantastic]

lmao ain’t that the guy from star wars?

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Album Thoughts - #1

A ramble, kind of review, on an album I listened to for the first time recently. Here’s what I thought about...

Origin Of Symmetry - Muse (2001 album, alternative rock)

Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/album/1Dh27pjT3IEdiRG9Se5uQn?si=PgDCRZT6REWlcRCyj1drMQ

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mNOSUMs1h21shjLqMMs2wi1iutWQK_hxE

The second studio album by English rock band Muse was released on 18 June 2001 by Mushroom Records and Taste Media. It’s 11/12 (depending how you count) tracks of lovely 00s British rock clocking in at 51 minutes and 41 seconds that ranges from hard and distorted rock to light orchestral-instrumental rock. Apparently the correct term is “space rock”. Muse is a band I really should have listened more to before now, but nonetheless, I discovered this album after hearing one of the singles from it, “Plug In Baby”, on Absolute Radio. The track “Feeling Good” is also notable for being recorded by Nina Simone in 1965 and being covered by many, many artists including Muse in this album.

Matt Bellamy leads the album with his strong weaving-in-and-out high-vibrato vocals. Not a bad thing in my opinion, does however mean he priorities the perfectly pitched oohs and ahhs over lyric enunciation. I noticed it’s quite similar in style to the way lead-singer Thom Yorke from Radiohead performs some of their songs. Another prominent feature is the “can’t quite tell if it’s a super distorted bass guitar or high-attack bass synth” in many of the songs. Haven’t had an opportunity yet but I feel like I need to listen to this with proper speakers and subwoofers.

I really liked this album because of a couple reasons. First being, in many of the songs the powerful drums and heavy bass make this great toe-tapping, head-banging music (often in the car I found). The drums and in particular the backbeat is strong throughout all the songs and Matt’s passionate vocals actively urge you to belt it out with him. Secondly some of the hooks/riffs are absolutely brilliant, the ones from “Hyper Music” and “Plug In Baby” have been stuck in my head for days, makes you wonder how they came up with them and when they did, if all the band members collectively went “holy **** that’s it”. Additionally in a couple songs “Screenager” and “Darkshines”, the band are deliberately dissonant to drive home feelings of confusion in the first and anger in the second, but that’s just my interpretation, and I bring it up because it’s just a personal star-point from me when composers aren’t afraid to play the wrong notes. I like that little rebellion. Don’t know what that says about me.

Some songs are a little bit skippable, and the lyrics are a little bit confusing. According to Wikipedia, the album is about a book by a theoretical physicist discussing supersymmetry and the “geometry of the universe”. Might have just gone over my head to be fair. The two previously mentioned songs plus “Bliss”, “Newborn” and “Feeling Good” (the five singles) are definitely the highlights of the album. But that’s not to say the rest are trash, absolutely not, they just don’t have as strong of a pull as the others songs do with their riffs or punchy basses. To conclude I would definitely recommend this to nearly all rock fans - it might be a bit “too hard” for some people in some bits with the distortion (in particular “Darkshines” encroaches on metal) but I still like it a lot.

Cool album fact: “Matt Bellamy also used an organ at St Mary the Virgin's Church, Bathwick to record "Megalomania". Because of the requirement of the pipe organ, this song is rarely played live by Muse, perhaps the most notable occasion being at Muse's charity gig at the Royal Albert Hall.” - courtesy of Wikipedia.

Thanks for reading, see you in another post soon.

[sarcastic--fantastic]

Trying something new.

I haven’t used Tumblr before but I see a lot of screenshots and memes taken from the website which are funny or thought-provoking enough (however dumb the subject) for me to randomly remember them sometimes. I have heard it has a nice community also so felt like jumping in and seeing what it’s got to offer.

Additionally I’ve had this idea floating in my head for a while about posting some of my ramblings on here, which too-often my friends are subjected to. These will probably be mostly music, television and film related but might also be life stuff, I don’t know yet. Memes too, I have a lot (and make a lot) of memes.

Not that this is directed to anyone or any group of people in particular; if anything I think a blog would be a nice method for myself to put my own thoughts in my head to pen and paper (or to keyboard and screen). You can read it if you want, don’t expect a consistent posting schedule or much quality though.

If you don’t know me and want to get to know me a little more, here’s some of my other online profiles you can stalk:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVsBmy1yA2bRmKaUWaE0n1g

Reddit Account: https://www.reddit.com/user/Sarcastic-Fantastic/

Steam Account: https://steamcommunity.com/id/sarcastic_fantastic/