#if i get my hands on that otamatone i will perform the worlds first otamatone apology
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Note
u js said that u can't blow people up in peace which is insinuating that you WANT to blow up people... huh... you need something more than a ukelele
do u think an otamatone apology will be good enough
i dont own one yet but im on a quest... someday...
#ask box#i found one on facebook marketplace right#and i messaged the seller cause it was only 15 bucks#and it was sold immediately after#and THEN i looked again today and now its available again#sooo????#if i get my hands on that otamatone i will perform the worlds first otamatone apology#đĽđĽđĽ
15 notes
¡
View notes
Text
Mitch Tennantâs Track-by-Track Guide to Head Noiseâs Debut album, Ăber Fantastique
Mitch Tennant, singer/songwriter & keytarist with electro art-punks Head Noise, was kind enough to write this guide to the bandâs recently released debut album Ăber Fantastique, especially for redsoapbox.
1. KINGDOM OF CROOKED MIRRORS
We had a lively debate at Head Noise HQ over which song to open the album with, either this track or the one that follows. We eventually decided on âKingdom of Crooked Mirrorsâ to kick-start the debut as we think it encompasses all things Head Noise and has a great splattering of our influences in a catchy, oddball pop song. The title of the track comes from a 1963 Soviet fairy tale film and is loosely inspired by Lewis Carrollâs âThrough the Looking Glassâ. The song reflects our own mantra for creative passion and is also a look at an outsiderâs perspective for abstract art and trying to make sense of the senseless. Itâs like Alice In Wonderland without the drug references. Ignore the evils of the world and just let the childlike magic speak for itself.Â
2. 200,000 GALLONS OF OIL
I was on my lunch break one day surfing the web and a pop-up article came on-screen about fuel, oil refining and other industrial processes that I had very little interest in. However, the title of the piece âPipeline Spills 200,000 Gallons of Oilâ really jumped out at me. I wrote it down and put it aside with my collection of other alphabetical oddities that I type up on Notepad. A little while after, Wayne sent me an electropop demo with a bouncy, squelchy bassline which I felt matched up to this wording perfectly! The title of the song has some sort of political or eco-warrior ring to it but itâs always a surprise to people who question what the song is about, and we say âUhh⌠Itâs just about oil?â What kind of oil do you want it to be? Iâll leave that up to you, but here are some suggestions: vegetable oil, or maybe oil to slick back your hair.
3. JAPANESE BATTERIES
One Christmas, my partner gifted me an Otamatone, which is basically a screwed-up Theremin/Stylophone synth-like device that is in the shape of a musical note, however it looks more like a giant sperm! Itâs become a popular instrument on Youtube for fashioning unusual sounding covers of songs, such as Boney Mâs âRasputinâ and A-haâs âTake on Meâ. I was totally amazed by the packaging - it had a little Japanese man with fluffy hair, the inventor of the instrument, looking off into the distance, not unlike some surreal propaganda poster art. The song is, basically, a homage to this strange instrument, and itâs played on the track, not long after the first chorus, just to show off the unusual noises that it makes.
4. ANATOMICALLY CORRECT SHUFFLE
This is a song where I feel the bassline really helps to give the song a danceable bounce, thatâs why the title of the track has âShuffleâ at the end of it. This is the first of the collaborations that we have on the album. Wayne sent me a demo he was working on with some bass being played by his friend âMonkeyâ (who I still haven��t met yet) under the working title âMonkey Jamâ. When we started putting the album together, we were coming out of that mad scientist stage persona from the Microwave EP run of shows, so I had a whole lot of science stuck in my mind. I thought weâd go gung-ho as a farewell to the bygone days of false nerdy scholarship with a classic Head Noise sound to it. The lyrics for the song are like an amalgamation of a botched surgery, unusual ailments and chronic nightmares. Luckily, we have Brill onboard to give it that fun little jaunty undertone on the synth, to help keep us sane and avoid any potential lobotomies.
5. MYSTERY LIQUID
This is another Notepad scribble title that I just had to make into a song! When you hear songs about drinking, itâs usually either a fun affair (a drunken pub singalong) or a dark, cautionary tale (alcoholism), so we were looking to meet in the middle between jolly and sombre. I was influenced by Spike Jones & His City Slickers and their song âClink! Clink! Another Drinkâ, especially for its humorous look at binge drinking from a 1940s perspective. It seems so harmless and funny, but itâs much more morally twisted if you look at it from the outside. With a bassline from our good friend Connor Llewellyn of Math Rock band âCommon Spitâ, the song turned into more of a fast-paced rocker with some added spoken word and Dada inspired lyrics from Cat Daczkowski who also plays in Rock band KASIA. I really liked her vocal style as it reminded me of Kim Gordon of Sonic Youthâs unique and unbothered singing approach, so we NEEDED it on the album somewhere.
6. AIRSTRIKE 4000
When I was young, I used to love my Sega Megadrive games console! I played games like Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and Desert Strike, but I got bored easily with Desert Strike because I wouldnât always know what to do. I wanted to write lyrics that broke the fourth wall too, so the song starts out as a homage to a made-up Sega game in the style of Desert Strike. Then I get bored about halfway through and changed the theme of the song, just like when I was 8 years old and trying to play the bloody game before turning it off to play Sonic & Knuckles instead. Itâs a Lo-fi retro Rock vs Synth song with some amazing guitar wobbles/shrieks from Brill and some wicked retro sounds darted across the duration of the track. Â
7. NITRO
When we were lucky enough to support âPublic Service Broadcastingâ last year at the Muni Arts Centre in Pontypridd, we wanted to go all out with a wacky elaborate stage show. We roped in our good friend Mark Strange to help us put together some surreal extras in the set such as a puppet show and a battle royale with Mark dressed up as a Ninja Turtle. We wanted to create our own little âintroduction songâ for this show for when we walked onstage akin to Devoâs âCorporate Anthemâ instrumental. So, Wayne put together our own track to help introduce the band as Mark walked out dressed in a lab-coat to inspect the equipment before we came on. There isnât much else I can say about this track really other than performance is key! We decided to give the song a promotion from introduction song to intermission song which now sits about halfway through the album. In fact, thatâs why it is called âNitroâ, itâs just an anagram of âintroâ but with some dynamite flair!Â
8. SHRUNKEN HEAD
We used to open the live set with this song. Itâs a song about idiocracy within the musical world, not too far off âCherub Rockâ by Smashing Pumpkins. The song is stacked with surreal imagery, which also includes a reworking of the âI Have No Mouth, and I Must Screamâ phrase from Science Fiction writer Harlan Ellison as a pre-chorus. I think itâs important to have passion in what you do creatively, and you shouldnât allow others to mistake that devotion for egotism. I went to âRipleyâs Believe it Or Notâ oddity museum in Blackpool a couple of times over the years and I got to see a real (or âreal fakeâ, you be the judge?) shrunken head in a glass case. Rhys Jones plays some cool guitar lines on this track which is like a mix between Egyptian rhumba and the live dissection of a squirrel. It is an interesting song and we like it very much.
9. INTRUDER-ESQUE
Have you ever had those nights when youâve gone to bed and looked over at the other side of the room in the dark to see the blurred black outline of a wardrobe or a hanging coat? In a sleep-addled state, this can be terrifying and can lead to âsleep paralysisâ. I thought it was an interesting subject to pick up on. We gave the outro to Lloyd Markham of Psych-Electro band Deep Hum to use as his personal synth playground and we love it! I think the entire track captures the vibe of uneasiness that you can get in a sleep-deprived state when you donât entirely feel safe, with an unknown threat lurking in the shadows. Â
10. I EAT CANNIBALS
An old friend of mine said the Toto Coelo song âI Eat Cannibalsâ sounds like something Head Noise would cover, so we just went off and covered it. I think it goes a little hand in hand with âShrunken Headâ and its voodoo vibe. The track features fantastic backing vocals by Miss Cat Southall, singer extraordinaire! Iâm a fan of bands who re-work covers to suit their own sound. We always have an unusual cover in our back pocket if things start to go pear-shaped! Weâve previously recorded songs by Sonic Youth and The Bangles.
11. MR. EVERYWHERE
This is a Rocker Wayne had been working on for a little while until we decided to give it more context and âbeefâ so to speak. Itâs basically a punk song thatâs been shaved down to a shouty rock song, with a little bit of synth here and there. The songâs lyrics simply reflect how busy we felt after we released the Special Effects EP and how being in a band can be a lot of stress as much as a lot of fun.Â
12. NO PHOTO | NO FILM | NO TELEPHONE
On a trip to Venice, I stopped by St Markâs Basilica to see the famed âHorses of Saint Markâ. There was a sign near them saying âNo Photo, No Film, No Telephoneâ which made me laugh. Anyway, the track was inspired by a warning sign, but is about the overuse of modern communication technology and the brief escape that we get from these devices. Itâs crazy to see how much the world has changed in 20 years, so we summed it up quickly with a fully Electronic Pop song featuring a fun shout-a-long chorus.
13. COMPLY
Someone said to me recently âmusic has been intrinsically linked to politics since like forever!â and even though there is some truth in that statement, I refuse to believe that it is the most important reason for someone to enjoy listening to music. This is my own attack against people who like to moan and whine until they get what they want, whether it is logical or not. Itâs our own protest song which protests protest songs. Weâve made sure the song is happy and upbeat, because ignorance is bliss, eh?Â
14. GAMMA GUTS
The spiritual successor to our single âMicrowaveâ, in fact, itâs a loose sequel of sorts. I have a fear that there isnât enough science behind the use of microwaves. I imagine that there are some harmful side effects, but it scares me to think that we might not have a clue. The song is split into two parts - the first is a goofy little Electro Rock song about the digestion of nuclear materials and then the second part is an electronic instrumental, orchestrated by the band Massa Circles. There are some beats donated by John Barnes and some shouts by Anthony Price too. The song reminds me of Eric Claptonâs âLaylaâ because it starts off as a fun Rocker and ends with an emotional instrumental akin to side 2 of David Bowieâs Low album. This is one of our favourite songs to play live at the moment because it gives us free rein to experiment musically.
youtube
Visit the archives section to read the album review.
0 notes
Text
Head Noise / Uber - Fantastique
For the best part of 18 months Aberdareâs Electro Art-Punks Head Noise (Mitch Tennant Vocals & Keytar), Wayne Basset (Synths & Guitar) and Jordan Brill (Synths & Guitar) have been working away on their debut album Ăber-Fantastique, a record which they describe, in typical Head Noise fashion, as a âbombastic, electropop fever dreamâ. In a detailed, track-by-track guide, Mitch Tennant talked to Kevin McGrath about the record they are about to unleash on an unsuspecting Welsh public.
1. KINGDOM OF CROOKED MIRRORS
We had a lively debate at Head Noise HQ over which song to open the album with, either this track or the one that follows. We eventually decided on âKingdom of Crooked Mirrorsâ to kick-start the debut as we think it encompasses all things Head Noise and has a great splattering of our influences in a catchy, oddball pop song. The title of the track comes from a 1963 Soviet fairy tale film and is loosely inspired by Lewis Carrollâs âThrough the Looking Glassâ. The song reflects our own mantra for creative passion and is also a look at an outsiderâs perspective for abstract art and trying to make sense of the senseless. Itâs like Alice In Wonderland without the drug references. Ignore the evils of the world and just let the childlike magic speak for itself.Â
2. 200,000 GALLONS OF OIL
I was on my lunch break one day surfing the web and a pop-up article came on-screen about fuel, oil refining and other industrial processes that I had very little interest in. However, the title of the piece "Pipeline Spills 200,000 Gallons of Oil" really jumped out at me. I wrote it down and put it aside with my collection of other alphabetical oddities that I type up on Notepad. A little while after, Wayne sent me an electropop demo with a bouncy, squelchy bass line which I felt matched up to this wording perfectly! The title of the song has some sort of political or eco-warrior ring to it but it's always a surprise to people who question what the song is about, and we say "Uhh... It's just about oil?" What kind of oil do you want it to be? I'll leave that up to you, but here are some suggestions: vegetable oil, or maybe oil to slick back your hair.
3. JAPANESE BATTERIES
One Christmas, my partner gifted me an Otamatone, which is basically a screwed-up Theremin/Stylophone synth-like device that is in the shape of a musical note, however it looks more like a giant sperm! Itâs become a popular instrument on Youtube for fashioning unusual sounding covers of songs, such as Boney Mâs âRasputinâ and A-haâs âTake on Meâ. I was totally amazed by the packaging - it had a little Japanese man with fluffy hair, the inventor of the instrument, looking off into the distance, not unlike some surreal propaganda poster art. The song is, basically, a homage to this strange instrument, and itâs played on the track, not long after the first chorus, just to show off the unusual noises that it makes.
4. ANATOMICALLY CORRECT SHUFFLE
This is a song where I feel the bassline really helps to give the song a danceable bounce, thatâs why the title of the track has "Shuffle" at the end of it. This is the first of the collaborations that we have on the album. Wayne sent me a demo he was working on with some bass being played by his friend "Monkey" (who I still haven't met yet) under the working title "Monkey Jam". When we started putting the album together, we were coming out of that mad scientist stage persona from the Microwave EP run of shows, so I had a whole lot of science stuck in my mind. I thought we'd go gung-ho as a farewell to the bygone days of false nerdy scholarship with a classic Head Noise sound to it. The lyrics for the song are like an amalgamation of a botched surgery, unusual ailments and chronic nightmares. Luckily, we have Brill onboard to give it that fun little jaunty undertone on the synth, to help keep us sane and avoid any potential lobotomies.
5. MYSTERY LIQUID
This is another Notepad scribble title that I just had to make into a song! When you hear songs about drinking, itâs usually either a fun affair (a drunken pub singalong) or a dark, cautionary tale (alcoholism), so we were looking to meet in the middle between jolly and sombre. I was influenced by Spike Jones & His City Slickers and their song âClink! Clink! Another Drinkâ, especially for its humorous look at binge drinking from a 1940s perspective. It seems so harmless and funny, but itâs much more morally twisted if you look at it from the outside. With a bassline from our good friend Connor Llewellyn of Math Rock band "Common Spit", the song turned into more of a fast-paced rocker with some added spoken word and Dada inspired lyrics from Cat Daczkowski who also plays in Rock band KASIA. I really liked her vocal style as it reminded me of Kim Gordon of Sonic Youthâs unique and unbothered singing approach, so we NEEDED it on the album somewhere.
6. AIRSTRIKE 4000
When I was young, I used to love my Sega Megadrive games console! I played games like Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and Desert Strike, but I got bored easily with Desert Strike because I wouldnât always know what to do. I wanted to write lyrics that broke the fourth wall too, so the song starts out as a homage to a made-up Sega game in the style of Desert Strike. Then I get bored about halfway through and changed the theme of the song, just like when I was 8 years old and trying to play the bloody game before turning it off to play Sonic & Knuckles instead. Itâs a Lo-fi retro Rock vs Synth song with some amazing guitar wobbles/shrieks from Brill and some wicked retro sounds darted across the duration of the track. Â
7. NITRO
When we were lucky enough to support âPublic Service Broadcastingâ last year at the Muni Arts Centre in Pontypridd, we wanted to go all out with a wacky elaborate stage show. We roped in our good friend Mark Strange to help us put together some surreal extras in the set such as a puppet show and a battle royale with Mark dressed up as a Ninja Turtle. We wanted to create our own little âintroduction songâ for this show for when we walked onstage akin to Devoâs âCorporate Anthemâ instrumental. So, Wayne put together our own track to help introduce the band as Mark walked out dressed in a lab-coat to inspect the equipment before we came on. There isnât much else I can say about this track really other than performance is key! We decided to give the song a promotion from introduction song to intermission song which now sits about halfway through the album. In fact, thatâs why it is called âNitroâ, itâs just an anagram of âintroâ but with some dynamite flair!Â
8. SHRUNKEN HEAD
We used to open the live set with this song. Itâs a song about idiocracy within the musical world, not too far off âCherub Rockâ by Smashing Pumpkins. The song is stacked with surreal imagery, which also includes a reworking of the âI Have No Mouth, and I Must Screamâ phrase from Science Fiction writer Harlan Ellison as a pre-chorus. I think itâs important to have passion in what you do creatively, and you shouldnât allow others to mistake that devotion for egotism. I went to âRipleyâs Believe it Or Notâ oddity museum in Blackpool a couple of times over the years and I got to see a real (or âreal fakeâ, you be the judge?) shrunken head in a glass case. Rhys Jones plays some cool guitar lines on this track which is like a mix between Egyptian rhumba and the live dissection of a squirrel. It is an interesting song and we like it very much.
9. INTRUDER-ESQUE
Have you ever had those nights when youâve gone to bed and looked over at the other side of the room in the dark to see the blurred black outline of a wardrobe or a hanging coat? In a sleep-addled state, this can be terrifying and can lead to âsleep paralysisâ. I thought it was an interesting subject to pick up on. We gave the outro to Lloyd Markham of Psych-Electro band Deep Hum to use as his personal synth playground and we love it! I think the entire track captures the vibe of uneasiness that you can get in a sleep-deprived state when you donât entirely feel safe, with an unknown threat lurking in the shadows. Â
10. I EAT CANNIBALS
An old friend of mine said the Toto Coelo song âI Eat Cannibalsâ sounds like something Head Noise would cover, so we just went off and covered it. I think it goes a little hand in hand with âShrunken Headâ and its voodoo vibe. The track features fantastic backing vocals by Miss Cat Southall, singer extraordinaire! Iâm a fan of bands who re-work covers to suit their own sound. We always have an unusual cover in our back pocket if things start to go pear-shaped! Weâve previously recorded songs by Sonic Youth and The Bangles.
11. MR. EVERYWHERE
This is a Rocker Wayne had been working on for a little while until we decided to give it more context and âbeefâ so to speak. Itâs basically a punk song thatâs been shaved down to a shouty rock song, with a little bit of synth here and there. The songâs lyrics simply reflect how busy we felt after we released the Special Effects EP and how being in a band can be a lot of stress as much as a lot of fun.Â
12. NO PHOTO | NO FILM | NO TELEPHONE
On a trip to Venice, I stopped by St Mark's Basilica to see the famed âHorses of Saint Markâ. There was a sign near them saying âNo Photo, No Film, No Telephoneâ which made me laugh. Anyway, the track was inspired by a warning sign, but is about the overuse of modern communication technology and the brief escape that we get from these devices. Itâs crazy to see how much the world has changed in 20 years, so we summed it up quickly with a fully Electronic Pop song featuring a fun shout-a-long chorus.
13. COMPLY
Someone said to me recently âmusic has been intrinsically linked to politics since like forever!â and even though there is some truth in that statement, I refuse to believe that it is the most important reason for someone to enjoy listening to music. This is my own attack against people who like to moan and whine until they get what they want, whether it is logical or not. Itâs our own protest song which protests protest songs. Weâve made sure the song is happy and upbeat, because ignorance is bliss, eh?Â
14. GAMMA GUTS
The spiritual successor to our single âMicrowaveâ, in fact, itâs a loose sequel of sorts. I have a fear that there isnât enough science behind the use of microwaves. I imagine that there are some harmful side effects, but it scares me to think that we might not have a clue. The song is split into two parts - the first is a goofy little Electro Rock song about the digestion of nuclear materials and then the second part is an electronic instrumental, orchestrated by the band Massa Circles. There are some beats donated by John Barnes and some shouts by Anthony Price too. The song reminds me of Eric Claptonâs âLaylaâ because it starts off as a fun Rocker and ends with an emotional instrumental akin to side 2 of David Bowieâs Low album. This is one of our favourite songs to play live at the moment because it gives us free rein to experiment musically.
1 note
¡
View note