#(example being like Aqua queen of diamonds

[hitinmiss]

💛 King(s) of Hearts ❤️

[grimelords]

My September playlist is here, 37 songs from opera to bossa nova to a song about marrying Tom Collins to thank him for the sips. I’m hopeful there’ll be at least one thing in here you’ll enjoy

Been Drinkin’ Water Out Of Hollow Log - Mississippi Fred McDowell: I love this song because every other version I’ve ever heard sings it as ‘I’ve been drinking muddy water, sleeping in a hollow log’, but straight up drinking out of the log sounds so much better. Also I just found out that this version I’ve loved for years was the original Alan Lomax recording and not a later one like I’d assumed, which is nice!

Tom Collins - The Sloppy Boys: I have not been able to get this song out of my head since I heard it. “I sent an edible arrangement to my travel agent because they had free booze on the carnival cruise” is a masterpiece of rhyme and the way he screams “hold him in my grips!” is just perfect.

What Means Of Witchery - Gospel: This is a perfect song. I think it’s criminal that Gospel aren’t more widely known and I think I’ve decided to make it my life mission to spread the word. The gospel of Gospel if you will. You don’t have to. I had a long daydream a little while ago about transcribing the drums in this song, which feels like an unresolved brain problem but exemplifies just how much I love it.

A Saint Among Madmen - Helen Of Troy: This is the band the drummer from Gospel was in before Gospel and they’re really really good. This sort of spoken word song is hard to pull off without sounding totally corny and I think him being so low in the mix really helps. It reminds me of some early At The Drive-In instrumental wise. The way it finally kicks off, and the sort of yelping desperate tone to the screams in the second half is just so satisfying.

shimripl casual - Autechre: Another cut I enjoyed from Autechre’s immense new album as I work on comprehending it. I like this song because it sounds like a field recording of a prototype mechanical swamp.

New Rules - Dua Lipa: This song feels like it deserves a marching band. There's just so much going on rhythmically, the dancehall rhythm at the centre of it is constantly augmented by all sorts of other percussion, the great snare work throughout, the perfectly formed tiny fill that introduces the chorus, it's just an absolute feast. I only found out the other day that the guy who produced this, Ian Kirkpatrick, also did Bad Liar - what a year for Ian!

My Girls - Tears For Fears: Hey Tears For Fears did a cover of My Girls by Animal Collective and this might be controversial but I think it's better than the original. It tightens up the structure and differentiates the sections a bit, so that it changes from a slow building jam into an odd pop song. They also draw out the harmonies more so that you really notice how funny it is to sing 'my father's graaave' over and over in a big bass under everything.

Crosses - Zero 7 and Jose Gonzales: Sia's career from before she was world-famous Sia is so interesting because she had like a full 15 years of being notable around the world in a bunch of different ways before it all coalesced into Big Sia. She was a backing vocalist in Jamiraquai's band for god's sake. She also was the de facto vocalist of this downtempo band Zero 7 for three albums, but she's not on this song but Jose Gonzales also sang on about half the songs on this album is! This is a remix/cover of his solo song Crosses but this version really shows the song in a whole different light to the original.

Napoleon Solo - At The Drive-In: Years ago in high school one of about 5 videos I had on my iPod was this version of Napoleon Solo from 2001 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nlfmqsx1r0 and I would watch it over and over and over. It's also a good example of why Cedric's lyrics are like they are. He just talks like that. He says things like 'they had the acme weight dropped on them' to describe his friends who died in a car crash and you just have to go along with it.

Act Three: No. 27 - A Real Slow Drag - Scott Joplin: Did you know Scott Joplin, the man behind everyone's favourite song The Entertainer, wrote TWO operas?? Because I didn't. One of them is unfairly lost to history but the other, Treemonisha, was written in 1911 but not properly performed until the Joplin renaissance in 1972. This is the big finale and it's partly because of the performance but partly because of the way he wrote it but it feels a lot more modern than any other operas I've heard from the era. Even though it is mostly a march, it feels like melodically and structurally he's drawing on pre-blues and gospel music in a way that presages rock and roll and the influence it's had on all music since - it feels more like a musical than an opera.

Celia - Cults: Cults have a new EP and it's an entirely different sound for them. Pounding, dark, Ochestral Manouveurs In The Dark type synths under their best lyrics in a long time.

Sharp Dressed Man - Xiu Xiu: Xiu Xiu did this ZZ Top cover for The AV club and I absolutely love it. It sounds like Queens Of The Stone Age if Josh Homme’s charisma stat overflowed and reset back to 0. This recording they did later is is great but the original video is even better https://youtu.be/0SG6yDSbtxULazy 

Nina - Greg Phillinganes: This was a recommendation from my friend and yours @megapope and thank god he did because I've had it stuck in my head all month. Written by Donald Fagen from Steely Dan for Michael Jackson's keyboard player's solo album, a true behind-the-scenes hit.

Gobbledigook - Sigur Ros: I was thinking about how after Takk Sigur Ros got so big and famous and rich off advertising money for their beautiful music and then made the best move possible and pivoted abruptly away from ethereal graceful floating melodies hung from the moon by a gossamer string to good old fashioned stompers made of wood. This is another in my very short playlist of songs like this and The Dodos first album where the driving rhythm plus acoustic guitars are the centre of it all. A little genre that I think has a lot left in it to explore.

Betty Dreams Of Green Men - Guerilla Toss: This feels like the energy drink version of Aqua by Eurythmics from last month's playlist. This sounds like BATS to me and I'm excited because there's not enough music like this around. Extremely energetic power music about some kind of 1950s alien invasion.

#NeverUseTheInternetAgain - Homeboy Sandman and Edan: I love this song. It starts out with a sentiment everyone can agree on (facebook sucks, the internet is bad) and quickly veers into 50 year old man gripes (GPS has ruined everyone's sense of direction? you should order pizza over the phone? match.com??) but it's got such conviction in the hook that I'm sold anyway and have pledged to #neverusetheinternetagain.

Vanishing Hour - Helen Of Troy: This is another Helen Of Troy song but it basically sounds like an unheard Gospel song, which is incredible new for me; the guy who will never stop tracking down every cassette and live recording they ever did. I don't know how the membership of Helen Of Troy went beyond sharing a drummer but the vocalist of Gospel is unmistakably in the mix here and it sounds fantastic.

Canon x Love S.O.S. - Justice: Another great cut from Justice's new sort of live album. This whole album has really made me appreciate Love S.O.S. a lot more. It comes back two or three times and I'm grateful every time. It's a perfect glam rock sentiment. Sending a love ambulance because there's a love emergency happening.

Mariners Apartment Complex - Lana Del Rey: I feel like we don't deserve new Lana yet. I'm so grateful but I'm still getting over Lust For Life and she's going to do this to me? Amazing.

I Got Cash - Brooklyn Funk Essentials: Another @megapope find. Perhaps the most powerful song I've ever heard, in the sense that I feel like I'm being personally admonished throughout. The power structures at play here are towering and the beat.. it's funky.

Pray - Jungle: Jungle flat out released five (5) singles before their album came out and they were all so amazing that I was worried they wouldn't have anything left for the actual album but guess what: the whole thing is absolutely gold, and especially this last song Pray. The feeling I get from the hook into the big drop feels like being dropped bodily into a big tub of honey, if there was a way that that could feel good instead of terrifying. It’s just luscious.

Sad Rude Future Dude - Ball Park Music: I googled “haven’t had a friend in years” trying to remember what this song was called and became instantly suicidal at the sheer amount of reddit threads that phrase returned. Which is I suppose exactly what this song’s about: posting on reddit about how the internet has ruined my relationships and brain, but in a very upbeat, singalong way. This song is a good example of how a dynamic drummer can completely elevate a song to another level.

Knuck If You Buck - Crime Mobb: Knuckle up if you're buck wild it's Crime Mobb. The best named crew since Ruff Sqwad. The two women in this (Princess and Diamond) absolutely carry the whole song. Everyone else has got such a mopey boring flow but they both come in so lively and so aggressive you cannot get away from it. Is there a more powerful opener than "I come in the club, shaking my dreads, throwing these bows and busting these heads"? Is there a better line in general than "Crime Mob, it ain't no stopping, it be like Saddam Hussein, Hitler and Osama Bin Laden"?

Deixa - Toquinho: I'm quickly becoming one of these 'the end is near' sandwich board guys grabbing people on the street and yelling at them except about bossa nova. It is criminal how much this whole genre has been reduced to funny elevator music or The Girl From Ipanema as ironic intermission music when it has stuff like this to offer us. I really recommend this whole album, I've been obsessed with it over the last couple weeks and it's just breathtaking start to finish.

The Way - Friends: This band's spotify page is good because it's full of absolutely no-name recordings of Blank And Friends that have fucked up their tagging. Anyway I have never heard a song like this, and I didn't think it was possible to use big 80s pinch harmonic guitars like this but they pulled it off in an absolutely beautiful way.

Mass Grave - Health and Soccer Mommy: Corrin Roddick of Purity Ring produced this new Health song which brings the degrees of separation between Health and Katy Perry down to a thrilling 1 since Purity Ring did two songs on her new album. This really does sound like Health covering a Purity Ring song and that's excellent news in my book. I don't know much about Soccer Mommy but this song has definitely inspired me to check her out so I'll undoubtedly report back on that next month.

(two circles) - Boredoms: I only just made the connection that Yamantaka Eye from Boredoms is the same Eye from from Hanatarash who famously drove a bulldozer through the back wall of a venue as part of a performance. Which I mention only because it really exemplifies just how much of a change of direction Vision Creation Newsun is from all that, just ten years later he's in a totally different direction of building something beautiful instead of tearing music (and buildings) apart at the seams. Nobody knows how to describe this album, it's space rock it's post rock it's experimental but it has something that a lot of that music doesn't - positivity. This whole album is a sun-worshipping positive fever without ever feeling lost or meandering.

Centreline - Ava Luna: I'm mad at this song. At about 1:15 they do an extremely satisfying thing sing the 'line' in 'centre line' in a deep bass and it sounds great. Then every other time that section comes around they either don't sing it or there's something else going on that obscures it and it blueballs you for the whole rest of the song. Other than that it's good, but i'm at war with this song.

Venice Bitch - Lana Del Rey: I am so excited that Lana Del Rey is finally embracing the most often ignored part of americana and facilitating a jam band. This is the last thing I would expect from Jack Antonoff but he did amazingly. It sounds closer to Ultraviolence era than anything else she's done and I'm just plain excited to see what the album is going to be like if this is any indication.

Act 1 Scene 4: This Is Monstrous, Wozzeck! - Alban Berg: I found an english version of Wozzeck and it's one of the best opera recordings I've ever heard. It's just plain mixed and recorded well, which is a rarity when a lot of opera recordings seem like they just hung a single mic somewhere at the back of the theatre and pressed the button. Anyway here's the good bit from Wozzeck where Wozzeck goes to the doctor and the doctor yells at him for "Pissing! Pissing there on the pavement!" See, opera’s fun!

Pop Roll Flow - Clypso: I heard this song on Unearthed when they had Nick Littlemore from Pnau guest programming and I love it. It feels brand new and very familiar at the same time, every sound in it is in absolute hypercolour, and the verse vocal sounds like a cool insect is singing at me. What's not to love!

I Might Survive - Architecture In Helsinki: I always feel like Arcitechture In Helsinki are poised to make like Portugal The Man and have an international superhit off their seventh album. They have been consistently reinventing their brain of weirdo-pop every single album for 15 years now and it feels like they've still got so much more to give. This song especially deserved to be a hit in my opinion, it's pop perfection and I've come around from hating to completely loving the little 'than alive baby!' adlib near the end.

Angels - The xx: My two best friends got married to each other this month and it was beautiful. What's more, she picked the perfect song to walk down the aisle to. I'm so happy to see two of the people I love the most in love with each other, and also when I drove them to their suite after the reception my phone accidentally started playing Merzbow's new album which was good.

Jesus Was A Cross Maker - Judee Sill: I'm so glad I found out about this album. Judee Sill had a crazy life, and her wiki page is a ride but unlike a lot of musicians with a back story her music stand alone - unique, rich and beautiful. Tightly structured and thoughtfully composed for such hippy-dippy christian mythology themes, and melodically beautiful even when her voice isn't quite up to the task. It really does feel like the spirit was moving through her. This song in particular is amazing I have been straight up listening to it on repeat. The phrasing is insane, the self-harmonised vocals sound like they're phasing in a very cool way, the violins break into a Bach figure halfway through - it's just amazing. I cannot stop listening. I've also started a playlist of this, Jesus Is A Dying Bedmaker by John Fahey and Jesus Came To My Brithday Party by The Middle East so I'm absolutely 'on one' as the kids say.

Rappers Convention - Harlem World Crew: another thanks to @megapope for bringing this incredible moment to my attention. A very early rap song that was recorded in the middle of the Iranian hostage crisis and helpfully gives a complete breakdown of the situation in the opening verse before getting back to basics and detailing how much they love partying for the remaining 5 minutes. Music is truly incredible. 

I Need A Lover - John Mellencamp: I'm learning a lot about John Mellencamp this week. Apparently this song was originally on the album 'A Biography' in 78 that didn't get a release in the US because his first album did so badly, but I Need A Lover was a top ten hit here in Australia and was thusly included on his next album a year later and blew up in the US. The other surprising thing is the album version, this version, has a fully two minute long intro before it gets to the song.

High (feat. Elton John) - Young Thug: The Lil' Nutsack song that makes Dewey Cox famous again in Walk Hard is real now and it's good as fuck.​

listen here

[bellawinterperformingarts]

Royal Ballet Analysis

Name of piece: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Company: The Royal Ballet, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon.

Style: Ballet

As a company, the Royal Ballet is made up of approximately 100 dancers, so there are around 100 performers in this show. The roles of each cast member vary from principles, such as Alice, the white rabbit and the Hatter, to ensemble roles, for example different types of flowers, playing cards and wildlife such as birds and hedgehogs.

Use of space

I feel that this show used spacing in a way that was effective in helping to tell the story of Alice in Wonderland. The amount of space in which the dancers would use changed for specific parts of the show to help communicate meaning. For example, once Alice has fallen down the rabbit hole and was faced with a tiny door, a small rectangular frame of wood appeared in the center of the stage to show the contrast in size between Alice and the size of the door. The character of Alice then began trying to squeeze herself through the frame by putting the top half of her body through it whilst her legs were spread either side of the frame behind her. By using only a small amount of stage space here, it successfully created the illusion that Alice was too big for the room she was in.  

Dynamics

The dynamics applied in this show were a vital part in portraying the mood and emotions of different scenes and characters - different characters used contrasting dynamics. For example, the character of Alice danced at a regular pace with a sense of fluidity for most of the performance to represent her youth and curiosity, however in contrast to Alice’s dynamics, the Mad Hatter moves to more of a staccato rhythm. He uses lots of sharp movements, such as pointing his finger and gesturing with his hands to represent the difference between Alice’s normality and his madness. The Hatter also dances a different style of dance to Alice – he dances tap. The dissimilarity between Alice’s ballet dancing and the Hatter’s tap dancing is significant in portraying the madness of the Hatter’s personality and Alice’s confusion.

Another example of differing dynamic between characters is the difference between the Red Queen and the cards that act as her servants. Where the Red Queen glides across the stage, the characters of the cards and queen’s men move quickly and cautiously. The difference in this dynamic helps to emphasize the relationship between the queen and the cards – the queen is the boss and the cards are scared of putting a foot out of line for fear of getting punished, so it shows the element of power that the Red Queen.  

Timing

I observed that all the performers had good musicality – they were able to successfully execute routines in time with each other and the music during group numbers, such as the flower section where the dancers were performing duets before they transitioned into a group number. The timing of the dancers is important because it means that they are all in the right place at the right time, potentially preventing any collisions with each other on stage or with any set pieces that might move during scene changes.  

Costume

The costumes in this production were immensely vibrant and detailed and, in my opinion, added so much to the piece. Each character’s costume was different yet exciting. For example, the character of Alice wore a purple dress that came just below the knee with pale pink tights and ballet shoes. This costume is different to what Alice wears in different version of the story, for example in the classic Disney film she wears a blue dress with a white apron, white tights and black shoes, and in the Tim Burton film, Alice wears a long blue dress. The choice to dress Alice in purple for this production is interesting as it is different to what has been done before, but the costume designer Bob Crawley may have done it to represent Alice’s social status. For centuries, the colour purple has been linked with power and wealth because purple dye used to be very rare and expensive, and in the book by Lewis Carroll that this production is based on, Alice is portrayed to be a middle-class Victorian girl, so the purple colour of her dress could be to represent her wealth.  

From the simplicity of the dress that Alice wears, the costumes vary into more extravagant pieces, such as the Mad Hatter’s outfit. The Hatter is dressed in a pale green shirt, a light blue waistcoat with floral detail embroidered onto it, a long pink dinner jacket with more floral embroidery on the panels, tight fitting, aqua with dark blue striped trousers that flare at the bottom and pink and black tap shoes with a green top-hat. The eclectic colours of the Hatter’s costume symbolise the Hatter’s madness and frivolous personality.  

The ensemble costumes were just as interesting as the principal roles. For example, the characters of the flowers weren’t dressed as literal flowers, they were dressed as people, but their costumes helped to portray the idea that they were flowers. The women were dressed in white dresses with different coloured tutus with white tights and a headpiece that matched the colour of their tutu. The different colours of tutu produced the idea of flower heads, and each colour represented a different flower. The men wore a white shirt and a long white coat with coloured ties and waistcoats that matched their duet partner’s tutu.  

I particularly liked the female cards’ costumes; they were simple yet effective. They wore a white leotard and tights with white ballet shoes, but their tutu was in the shape of one of the four playing card suits, (black club and spade, red heart and diamond) and their headpiece was their card number.  

Lighting

The lighting changed with every scene in the show, for instance, for the scenes with the caterpillar there would be a wash of blue light with spotlights on Alice and the head of the caterpillar. The blue light worked with the caterpillar scenes because the caterpillar was blue, so it helped to emphasise the character’s presence. In contrast to this idea, the lighting for the Red Queen’s scenes was a harsh white. This could be to contrast the Queen’s personality – white is generally seen as a colour of purity and innocence; however, the Red Queen is mean and selfish, punishing people for not doing things her way. During the flower scenes, the lighting has a gentle yellow tone to it, which could be to represent the glow of the sunshine. Most of the show is brightly lit, but the Cheshire Cat scenes only have a dim spotlight on Alice and the Cheshire Cat puppet. I think the lack of lighting here is effective because not being able to see the rest of the stage symbolises the mystery and wonder that the cat leaves Alice with every time they disappear.  

Accompaniment

This production is accompanied by the Orchestra of The Royal Opera House. I liked the orchestra as an accompaniment because it was able to change its sound to fit around different scenes. For example, for the gentle scenes such as the flower garden, there was soft, gentle strings, but for one of the Red Queen scenes there was a sharp string section with woodwind and drums to create an intense, dramatic sound to represent what was happening in the scene.  

Performer Relationships

The performer-to-performer relationships were strong as they were all aware of where they were in relation to others on stage, meaning that they didn’t collide with each other. This links with the performer/space relationship as the performers had to be aware of their spacing, both where they are on the stage and what’s around them, as when they are dancing and extending through their arms and legs they need to be aware of any set and other cast members that are around them. The relationship between audience and performer wasn’t really there, the performers looked out into the audience but there was no breaking of the 4th wall. The performers’ relationship with the accompaniment meant that they were all in time with each other and the orchestra as they knew their musical cues and timing for movements.  

Themes

One of the main themes in this production was politics. This was shown particularly during the trial scene, where the Red Queen is trying to decide who stole the tarts. It shows the power that the Queen has over everybody else in Wonderland and the divide between those that have power and those that don’t. In this scene everyone is trying to prove themselves to the queen so that they can protect themselves and stay alive, making the power that the queen holds over the people seem very intense.  

This production is based on the original book, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ written by Lewis Carroll. I feel that there are many similarities between the show and the book, such as when Alice falls down the hole and has to drink the potion and eat the cake. I like that it isn't too far-fetched from the classic story that everyone knows because it makes the performance easy to follow and enjoyable to watch.  

In summary, I enjoyed the Royal Ballet’s production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I thought that the vibrant costumes made it interesting and engaging because they really helped to tell the story by making it easy to distinguish between characters. The orchestra was a good accompaniment to the piece because it fit the style of the dance and the story. The different sections of the orchestra, such as the strings and woodwind, were able to create a sound that fit the fantasy element of Alice in Wonderland. The set and lighting design also played a crucial part in creating the fantasy, dreamlike atmosphere by being abstract and non-naturalistic; there was lot of brightly coloured lighting and set pieces, such as a giant house of cards, which helped to portray the contrast between real life and wonderland because it was so out of the ordinary. In my opinion, I would rate this performance an 8/10.