#that little alternating chord guitar riff under the chorus…

[northwestofinsanity]

“…I ain’t got no control, when my heart’s in flames…”

[cozysroom]

Creative Work #3 - Miles

Process Diary

Summary

With miles, I wanted to capture this precise feeling of happiness in giving up and defeat. Where it is more common to explore sorrowful themes in this part of life, I sought to encapsulate the idea of joy in not caring and running away. I was inspired by a scene in ‘Breaking Bad’, where main character Walter White is under the floorboards of his house and laughing hysterically after finding out the last of his stash of money that he toiled to the bone for was gone. There is a degree of incredulity and absurdity to that notion that I found intriguing. As such, I sought to tell a narrative with the track structure and sonic influences. The first portion of the track - hip-hop oriented - sounds jubilant and free, whereas the second portion - ambient and alternative - is more reflective and longing, and the final portion - rock and shoe-gaze inspired - provides the catharsis needed.

Creating this track was an extraordinarily difficult undertaking for me. I had bold and ambitious visions - to blend physical and lo-fi and contrasting sounds together in this genre-bending, dense, and large body of work. 

Track Background - Composition

The foundation of the track was a riff I heard in my head while on a walk, and subsequently replicated in MIDI. It’s a riff that climbs and falls, and gives me a sense of exasperation and energetic weariness. Around this, I built chords and a bass line to match, creating the first version of the chorus in part 1. Through trial and error, I also worked out a  melody line for the vocals - a bit of melodic rapping for the pre-chorus and then strong belted delivery on the main part of the chorus. My vision was to contrast with the uplifting, bright nature of the tune with the darker, sorrowful narrative told by the lyrics. It’s a technique I’ve seen used by artists before, and I thought it’d be an interesting idea to explore.

The post chorus slows down from the more explosive textures in the main chorus, and it’s here I establish a motif - ‘Count on me, I’ll just let you down…’ - that is repeated throughout the song. It’s the narrator’s admittance of failure and self doubt that is the foundation of the major themes present. 

After the second chorus, we hear the guitar riff I developed in its full glory, providing a sense of closure for this section of the song, and helping transition into part 2. This section underwent the most structural changes in the track - at first, I planned for it to be a indie pop ballad-esque singing portion, and then I experimented with some glitchy, experimental electronic vocals with plenty of manipulation. Ultimately, it became a rap/spoken word section with an emotional crescendo towards the end. It’s here that the narrator reflects on his journey as he embarks in search of those ‘miles’; my intent was to highlight his understanding of himself and what brought him here, thus closing emotions off. I also play with the idea that ‘thieves think everyone steals’ - the idea that his animosity towards other people stems from his distrust of himself; for example in the lyric ‘Evil lies in all I meet, for I see mirrors..’. Despite understanding this, he cannot heal, and further dives into his fantasy.

I knew that a softly strummed guitar was the right choice for this section, juxtaposed against the loud and bright sounds of the first part. I lay the groundwork for the chords with a clean tone electric guitar, envisioning this to be replaced eventually with acoustic guitar, but regrettably I had no time in the end. Over the top of the guitar, I improvised little ornamentations. At the end, I felt it needed something to help underpin the emotion towards the second half, and ended up adding a string portion to accompany the guitar, which I really liked. 

The final section of the track is a shoe-gaze inspired, cathartic send off. I knew after the second section that we needed to bring it home with a big finish, but going back to section A didn’t feel natural. As such, I developed a chord progression that I felt seesawed with the feelings of home and the unknown, which I thought was a fitting ending. Admittedly, this was the most difficult part, as I had ambitions probably far too high for what I could possibly do, and ended up cutting a lot of ideas I had. I felt it was right to have the ‘Count on me’ motif return. I also loved the sound of the guitar riff from the earlier parts placed here but with new chords to underpin it, giving it new life and emotion. 

Track Background - Production (Challenges and Solutions)

One of the challenges I made for myself was to incorporate more ‘real’ elements in this track and bring more dirt into the tracks, spending less time in my DAW and more time playing instruments and recording real sound. As such, it was my first time recording real guitar, and trying to properly record vocals. This proved the biggest struggle for me, as I was adjusting to new gear and fighting a battle with the DAW and plugins to get the sound I wanted. For the vocals, one of the major things I learned from this task was developing a vocal chain. Definitely not perfect, but I went from really flat sounding vocals to warmer, more present ones by learning to use compressors, reverb, delay, saturation, panning and layering. 

In order to thicken the vocals, I used a few techniques. The first was to record multiple takes and stack them under each other, EQing them a bit differently. I used different reverbs and enhanced different frequencies in the takes to give the vocal more body; I used this technique a lot in the verses of the song. I also mixed in a pitched down version of the vocals with the dry sound to give them more depth and brevity. For certain sections, I used the technique of using multiple layers and panning on L and R to create a wider image.

To make them more interesting, I really adored pitch shifting and using a phaser to create a really cool, trippy sound and supplemented my vocals with these layers. The use of autotune is also very prevalent in this track, particularly the first part. I like the sound of my voice with and without autotune, but in certain sections the electronic, bright and glimmering sound lent itself well to the hiphop influences I was after. I also liked the idea of the autotune being strong in the first section, where the narrator is closed off and putting up a pretence, and the ‘mask’ shedding off in the second section, with the natural vocals reflecting a more naked insight into their stream of consciousness. 

Throughout the song, I leaned heavily into the use of delays - I felt that this effect helped fill out the track and was sonically apt. These techniques gave the song some psychedelic colours. I used a few different kinds - a slap delay to widen vocals, lo-fi delays to give the spoken word sections more colour, and stereo delays to help make elements sound more grand. 

In the first part of the song, I focused heavily on layer-cake orchestration to create a rich, satisfying sound. I layered a more textured synth bass with a deeper sub bass to give it more body, and had different instrumentation filing out the middle and top end.

A major change that shifted the scope of the track was removing the guitar riff that was playing during the chorus in an earlier draft. After showing the track to Damian, his feedback was that there was too much happening and that there cannot be two foreground elements. I went back to the track and removed it and though it sounded less busy, it was also empty-sounding. I was able to find a middle ground by creating a simplified version of the riff and placing it an octave lower, to maintain the same cross-melody and rhythm I desired but without getting in the way of the vocals. From this point on, I went forward thinking more about foreground, middle ground and background elements rather than just throwing everything I could in, which made the end result sound more polished. 

The most difficult section of the song to produce was the outro towards the back end. I love shoegaze and rock music but to produce it was a different beast to me. This was definitely the biggest creative risk I felt I took and in the end, I am far from nailing it but I am happy with what I’ve produced as a learning experience for me. It was difficult not only finding the right combination of compression/delay/reverb to achieve that distorted sound but also making it fit with the much more ambient vibe of the section that came before. On top of this, I found great difficulty in finding space for the choral singing portion - when mixed too low, it faded too far into the track, and when mixed too high, it sounded jarring and out of place. 

Reflection - What I Learned

Working on this track was an adventure into undiscovered terrain for me, and I learned so much about different mixing techniques, composition and structure, and improving my workflow. I’ve never worked with vocals on this scale, and as such forcing myself to learn how to bus was crucial in handling such a high amount of different tracks. Learning to automate and dive deeper into fundamental effects such as EQ, reverb, compression and when and where to use them was a huge step forward for me. I also gained a deeper insight into layering; I improved in highlighting foreground and background elements as I made major changes throughout, and learning to cut things I didn’t want to in order to simplify the mix. Furthermore, playing real instruments and recording sound that didn’t come from presets or loops was a huge jump for me and I’m excited to see how I can grow in this area. For my next projects, I hope to continue holding those key concepts strong in my mind and getting better at recording and performing. I’d also love to look into other modulation techniques, like granular synthesis and incorporating more non-musical elements, which I felt were a bit lacking in this track.

This is by far my most ambitious track yet and very far out of my comfort zone production-wise. I do believe the track needs a great deal more work, tuning and adjustment, but perhaps with skills I will further develop I can come back and perfect it. All in all, I’m proud of what I’ve done - it moves me emotionally and is a true reflection of who I am as an artist right now, and though certainly imperfect, I hope listeners can see the merit in my ambition and my venturing into this unknown territory of sound.

[newmusickarl]

Album & EP Recommendations

As there is a HUGE amount to cover this week, I’m trying something a bit different with some slightly snappier reviews and a genre inclusion so you can head straight for the recommendation that matches your musical preference. There’s at least one album from all the key genres this week too, so hopefully a little something for everyone. Without any further ado then, here’s what’s good:

Album of the Week: Comfort To Me by Amyl & The Sniffers (Punk/Rock)

My personal preference from this week is the rip-roaring sophomore album from Australia’s own Amyl & The Sniffers. Although I was already vaguely familiar with the band’s previous work, I was still not prepared for the full throttle, smashmouth, rifftastic contents of this utterly brilliant record. As a result, this one hit me like a lightning bolt, thanks to the furious energy of frontwoman Amy Taylor and the mind-melting guitar work throughout.

From the off, absolutely nothing is held back here, as Taylor’s punk vocals and razor-sharp lyrics hit you in the ear like haymakers. What’s most surprising though is how the shredding guitar riffs that are littered across this record manage to sound so astonishing and impressive, yet at the same time as if the band are not even trying at all. It’s completely hypnotising yet everything is made to sound so easy and natural thanks to the sheer rawness of the music.

This one also already plays out like a greatest hits record too, with Guided By Angels, Security, Hertz, Maggot and Capital five of the best pure punk rock tracks to emerge in the last five years. Concise, in-your-face and no moment spared, this is a rock record the kind of which rarely gets made anymore. Without a doubt, one of the best of the year for its genre.

Listen here

Hey What by Low (Experimental/Alternative)

They may be 13 albums and nearly 30 years into their career at this point, but American experimental rockers Low show no sign of slowing down at this point. Still relatively fresh off the back of their hugely acclaimed album Double Negative, which was widely seen as the Album of the Year in 2018, Low are back yet again with another sonic trip into the weird and wonderful.

Now I must admit although a lot of people adored Double Negative, I personally was always a bit indifferent towards it. I appreciated the sonic textures and the heartfelt moments, but it never completely resonated with me like I know it did for others – one that fell into the “easy to admire, hard to love” category. That is not the case with this new album however, as with Hey What they seem to have further refined what they started on that record, creating an album that’s just as impressive but possibly more accessible than its predecessor.

Opener White Horses picks up pretty much where they left off under a tidal wave of soaring vocals and stunning yet unsettling distortion. From there you’ll once again be checking your audio equipment hasn’t broken, as Low playfully mess around with musical conventions and gargantuan glitchy soundscapes to great effect. This also allows the slightly sparser tracks like All Night, Don’t Walk Away and particularly Days Like These, to emerge out of this masterfully produced cacophony as some of the most haunting and stirring moments.

They may not have won me over with the last one, but they certainly have now – an outstanding album that leaves a lasting impression.

Listen here

Star-crossed by Kacey Musgraves (Country/Pop)

Golden Hour was another hit with the critics in 2018 that, much like the Low album, didn’t quite capture me. But again, just like Low, I prefer this latest work from country-turned-pop singer, Kacey Musgraves. With Star-crossed, Musgraves aims to craft her own Shakespearean tragedy, with all the theatre and the drama that goes with it.

The title track opener perfectly sets the stage as the gentle plucking of the acoustic guitar is suddenly surrounded by soaring, multi-layered instrumentation. It is all hugely cinematic and from there on in, Musgraves weaves her tale of heartbreak with plenty of catchy hooks, polished production and solid, heartfelt songwriting. However, the best moments are arguably when Musgraves keeps it raw, such as on camera roll where she takes something as simple as finding old photos of a lost lover on a phone and relaying back to the listener the pain that moment can bring.

In a year that’s already seen some brilliant pop albums, Musgraves stakes her claim with a well-crafted record built on a tried and tested concept. It’s a successful outing with more than enough great tunes and interesting instrumentation (see the jazz flute on there is a light in particular) to keep you interested from beginning to end.

Listen here

Enjoy The View by We Were Promised Jetpacks (Alternative)

Scottish indie rockers We Were Promised Jetpacks also released their stunning fifth album this week. This one pulls at the heartstrings from the get-go as the gentle waltz of reflective opener that’s Not Me Anymore immediately locks you into the record and refuses to loosen its grip until the very last note. There’s plenty of spine-tingling moments throughout too, such as the melancholic riffs of All That Glittered, the haunting sparseness of What I Know Now and the uplifting melody of I Wish You Well.

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Back In Love City by The Vaccines (Indie)

A band well adept at writing killer hooks at this point, indie rockers The Vaccines have also returned with their fun fifth album this week. Not too much to say about this one other than if you are a fan of their previous efforts the chances are you’ll adore this one too, as their music continues to deliver big riffs and anthemic choruses aplenty, but with more refinement and polished craftmanship at this veteran stage in their career. Highlights include the ultra-catchy title-track and the galloping, Western-stylings of Paranormal Romance, which comes across a bit like their own version of Muse’s Knights of Cydonia.

Listen here

Mother by Cleo Sol (R&B/Soul)

Fresh off her high-profile collaborations with Little Simz and Sault, singer-songwriter Cleo Sol has once again stepped out on her own, this time exploring themes of motherhood. Gracious, compassionate and quite moving, it’s a stirring soul record where Cleo’s soft yet powerful vocals take centre stage against a backdrop of minimal instrumentation. If you need something peaceful and easy listening, you won’t go wrong with this one as Don’t Let Me Fall, Promises and We Need You offer up the most beautiful moments here.

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The Melodic Blue by Baby Keem (Hip Hop/Rap)

There is a lot of pressure that comes with being Kendrick Lamar’s cousin, however you wouldn’t know it listening to Baby Keem’s assured debut album. Although it is admittedly quite hit and miss (first two tracks trademark usa and pink panties ironically leave a lot to be desired), there are enough high points here to make this record worth your time. The collaborations with Kendrick (range brothers and family ties) both strike a chord while the Don Toliver (cocoa) and Travis Scott (durag activity) featuring tracks also dazzle. That said Keem is arguably at his best when he’s riding solo, such as on the heartfelt issues and the Kanye West Love Lockdown sampling, scars.

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I’ve Been Trying To Tell You by Saint Etienne (Ambient/Electronic)

Crafted over lockdown, this tenth studio album from the London trio is a gloriously understated dive into modern British history, 1997-2001 to be precise. By using evocative imagery and samples from the turn of the millennium, where R&B and bubblegum pop dominated the musical landscape, they have forged quite a dreamy ambient record. Wonderfully creative and a fairly chill listen, it’s a fascinating reflection on a time when the world seemed a lot less complex than it does today.

Listen here

The Blacklist by Metallica (Metal/Various)

And lastly on the albums front this week, I have been promoting the various Metallica covers released as part of the The Blacklist project for several weeks now, but now finally the full album has been revealed along with all the covers yet to be shared as individual releases.

At 53 songs long, the tribute to Metallica’s classic Black Album is certainly not one to run through in a single sitting, however there is plenty of fun covers here to dip into and explore. In case you haven’t seen, amongst those offering their own versions of these classic tracks are: Miley Cyrus & Elton John, Phoebe Bridgers, Dermot Kennedy, Weezer, Biffy Clyro, St. Vincent, Rina Sawayama, Sam Fender, Flatbush Zombies, Portugal The Man, IDLES, Cherry Glazerr and many, many more.

Listen here

Tracks of the Week

Beautiful James by Placebo

I’m also over the moon to say Placebo finally released their new single this week, their first since 2016’s Jesus’ Son. Beautiful James shows that Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal haven’t missed a step in their five-year hiatus, with this one centred on a typically instant chorus and some neon-soaked synths. A big welcome back to one of my all-time favourites!

Listen here

I Don’t Live Here Anymore by The War On Drugs

Although the first single from their forthcoming new album may have been more understated than normal, on this title track Adam Granduciel & Co. return to the soaring stadium-sized rock for which they are known. Undoubtedly one of their finest tracks to date, you’ll want to stick this one on repeat just so you can keep getting lost in those wonderfully atmospheric guitar riffs.

Listen here

Arcadia by Lana Del Rey

And finally, Lana continues the build towards her second album of 2021, Blue Banisters, with this latest single seeing her on typically vintage form as the song sounds as if it was pulled from another time. With distant horns and a gentle piano, it’s as stunning as any of her best recent work.

Listen here

[coolmarriagerecords]

On Chronophage

By Zachary Lipez

https://zacharylipez.substack.com/p/notes-on-the-mekons-chronophage-and

Chronophage are a band from Texas. They have been around for three years. Chronophage consists of Parker Allen (they/them) guitar and vox, Sarah Beames (she/her) bass and vox, and Cody Phifer (he/him) drums. For the new record, Parker’s brother, Casey Allen (he/him) plays synth. That’s all I know about Chronophage. The internet shows no interviews and, besides punk zines I don’t own (and presumably critics on Terminal-Boredom forums), the music press outside of Austin has ignored them. I first heard about the band from MaximumRnR, which listed their debut, Prolog for Tomorrow, released in December of 2018, as one of the best albums of 2019 (you can do stuff like that when you’re a revered punk zine). Because MRR is famously *cough* averse to cover any band that even flirts with problematicism, I don’t have to worry about my ignorance of Chronophage’s individual members potentially allowing me to big up fascists. Maybe it’ll turn out they’re Maoists (an ideology MRR is less worried about) but I guess we’ll cross that bridge when/if we come to it. Anyway, I had never even heard of Chronophage (a small miracle unto itself considering the underground’s ready access to publicists and music writers- such as myself- who love few things more than being the first to “discover” a band.). But, even while my sense of aural adventure is a bit rusty since the days of having to risk $8.99 on albums based solely on cover art and/or vibes in the air, I just knew Prolog for Tomorrow was going to scratch an itch. Maybe not an immediate itch but, when you keep as many itches on file as I do, you can afford to trust your instincts. Especially when those instincts have already been validated by some punk weirdo in Oakland who’s probably still mad at the Go-Go’s for firing Margot Olavarria fifteen years before they were born. My instincts served me well because that hypothetical punk weirdo was right! (About both things.)

I’m not sure how to describe Chronophage. I’m not a major fan of the comparisons, to Swell Maps or the Messthetics comps, that the punks made. I don’t dislike either point of reference but knowing Chronophage supposedly sounds like both doesn’t affect how I hear the band. Prolog for Tomorrow’s inner sleeve art has “Curse of Chronophage” scrawled, which may be a reference to The Curse of The Mekons. Or maybe not. I’m trying not to project my bullshit on the band. Matter of fact, Chronophage don’t sound anything like the honky-tonkin’-Mekons. Not because Chronophage aren’t honkys tonkin’ but because, historically speaking, American bands aren’t as hung up on sounding American as English bands are. The album art for Prolog is reminiscent of much of the (actually) cut and (actually) pasted Pavementisms of the ‘90s, which in turn was lifted directly from The Fall and all that band’s adherents. Like early Pavement and The Fall, Chronophage are full of hooks, some overt and many buried under transient skronk. But, unlike all the obscurist indie Chronophage shares a typewriter with, the basic template on the album, if there’s one at all, is “folk punk.” I suppose? At least the sense of that genre is present, if dependent on an expansive notion of both “folk” and “punk.” Minus any busking grotesqueries in the “Wagon Wheel” vein, there’s the strum and twang of barely distorted guitars, every string visible in the mind’s eye, maybe in need of tuning or maybe just playing those jazz chords I hear so much about at music critic parties. While only three musicians play on Prolog, horns and keys go in and out of the songs like a C Squat marching band showing up to support the potluck. Adding to the offhand spontaneity of the proceedings, there’s intermittent cowpoke yowlings, some very live sounding drums, and at least one poetry reading. There’s a real anarchist house party vibe but just when it feels like Chronophage are going to lose their train of thought or, worse, ask to borrow the touring band’s kick drum pedal, another fragile and plaintive power pop chorus arrives in time to keep me from retreating to the kitchen to bum beer off strangers.

If we’re going to (re)subscribe to my initial thesis that there are certain sounds made by certain bands that provide a messily alluring alternative to the pat and disingenuous cleanliness of overculture, therefore making a prickly honesty worth striving for (even if that striving lends itself to either self delusion or a romanticizing of failure), then Chronophage are what we’re talking about. Even if on their new album, The Pig Kiss’d (out on November 23), they kind of fuck a significant amount of my thesis over by showing that they do, in fact, know what they’re doing. Whatever. I deserve it. The whole mythology around The Mekons as a band finding dignity in the face of drunken ineptitude was a fib. While not having the chops of The Texas Playboys, and certainly often drunk, The Mekons, by the mid-’80s, were writing and performing songs as subtle and dynamic as any non-boring rock and roll, not to mention post-punk, band could aspire to. Because perfection is so oppressive, its absence will always be its own inherent virtue. But even better than not being able to play your instruments is being able to play them real pretty, but throwing some ugly in anyway. Just to show all the aesthetic bible thumpers that heaven isn’t always the hot shit it purports to be.  

The Pig Kiss’d is a sharper, more streamlined, proposition than Chronophages’s first record. The guitars, thankfully still mainly free of any distortion mush, ring out as cohesive riffs. Even while the lite-funk chunka-chunkas still occasionally approximate Desperate Bicycles covering Steely Dan (an under-appreciated subculture band influence… a lot of people don’t know that Big Black’s name was short for “Big Black Cow”), and the snare underpinning gives them a decidedly peace punk punchiness, the riffs now transform into razor-like, no wave leads instead of the decays into noise (or just silence) prevalent on Prolog. While the previous album positioned voices as hesitant souls in conversation, Chronophage’s dual singing is now consistently commanding. Not to say that either Allen or Beames are preoccupied with auditioning for American Idle anytime soon, but they both have cool, heavy-on-personality punk voices, ranging from conversating chill to accusatory growl, which the mix now accentuates. I’m not going to pretend that I don’t miss the feeling of a sinking ship, barely kept afloat by the bodies of oogles under the hull, but I’m also glad for a recording that doesn’t sound like the studio engineer is holding a personal grudge against the drummer. Of course, in no longer sounding a mess, Chronophage runs the risk of just sounding like, you know, a rock band. Of which there are plenty. Luckily this ain’t the case. The desperate, weird energy of Prolog for Tomorrow is still abundant. It’s just put in the service of songcraft more than ADD-infused mood. If there’s a newfound, almost psych, expansiveness in the songwriting, it’s a psych fueled by strychnine over any slouching towards bliss. And when the songwriting contracts, we get instant classics like the album closer, “Name Story,” which could be an undiscovered New Model Army a-side. So much does “Name Story” sound like a lost hit that I had to write the band and ask if it was a cover. (They responded that the aim was to sound like New Order… which is amazing.) Still, by contemporary indie standards, Chronophage sound like countrified First Wave of Black Metal-ers running through the American songbook. By contemporary post-punk standards, which can be applied now that New Order are on the table, Chronophage don’t sound contemporary at all. They sound out of the timeline; Richard Lloyd skipping post-punk entirely to jump headfirst into college rock, making that nerd rock hip, and vice versa. Lightning striking itself. In the face. Repeatedly. And by folk punk standards, if we’re bothering to still apply it, Chronophage continue to sound like the only true freaks in a field of future beer reps.Like I said, I don’t know much about Chronophage. While writing this, I exchanged emails with Parker but, preferring the mystery, I only asked about pronouns and whatnot. Maybe they’re apolitical. Maybe they are Maoists. Maybe they’re neither but still find my chronic naysaying abhorrent and dull. For all I know, they all campaigned hard for Pete Buttigieg and all the proceeds from The Pig Kiss’d are going towards having Chronophage Brand hostile architecture benches placed near the homeless encampments in Austin. Guess we won’t know for sure till the album comes out. But this feels like opposition music, and, more importantly (to me) it feels like music that speaks to a refusal to simply be grateful for the crumbs handed to us. Nit picking, as it were. If not exactly “dignity in the face of drunken ineptitude” then, in the face of endless war and empire and an oligarchal insistence to smile more, Chronophage make a sound that- equal parts sweet fury and sweaty sweetness and spilling over with a feisty, chaotic grace- approaches dignity. If the next few years are great, then great. We can play Chronophage at the cookout we’re all invited to. And if the next four years are instead a happy faced atrocity exhibition, at best a grinding exercise in defending cops, creeps, and landlords for the sole reason of the other side’s cops and creeps and landlords being so much worse? Then Chronophage’s sound will prove to be the kind of correct that’s too sloppy to be smug. Even under austerity, the anarcho-freak punx got bops. So even as COVID, the ice caps, or capital’s poptimist truncheon bear down on us, threatening to tickles our little chins, let us, at least, enjoy this thing.

https://zacharylipez.substack.com/p/notes-on-the-mekons-chronophage-and

* The cassette version of Th’Pig’Kiss’d Album will be available soon on Cool Marriage. Check this blog for updates. 

[thesunlounge]

Reviews 355: Maxado & Alex Figueira

In describing Maxado’s & Alex Figueira’s Quando Será 7”, Music With Soul posits an alternate history where Lee Perry and The Wailers recorded their sun-baked jams not in Kingston, Jamaica, but instead in Belém, Brazil and the heart of the Amazon jungle. And I must say, this imagined mash-up of old skool reggae and Brazilian tropicalia sets the stage perfectly for the intoxicating grooves woven by Maxado and Figueria across both sides of this 7”. Indeed, Quando Será sees the two musicians, Maxado a São Paulo-based songwriter, singer, and composer and Figueira a practioneer of tropical dance psychedelia based out of Amersterdam, deftly combining their interests in the varied yet surprisingly sympathetic forms of reggae, Carimbó, and Siriá into an intoxicating potion of equatorial sunshine and paradise melancholia. 

Across both takes of “Quando Será,” Amazonion jungle rhythms and snaking dub basslines evoke rainforest ceremonials and desert caravan processionals while rocksteady guitar riffs skank over mesmerizing e-piano murmurations. However, the two versions diverge by way of their lead instruments, with the original version featuring a vocal performance from Maxado that is at once breathtakingly beautiful and overwhelmed by sorrow, while the flute version omits the vocals, leaving space for multi-instrumentalist and longtime Figueira collaborator Gabriel Milliet to explore realms of mystical fantasy and twilight wonderment via a spellbinding woodwind performance. And tying it all together, at least for the hand-numbered edition, are Figueira’s wonderful sketches of birds and flowers, as well as his loving portrait of Milliet. 

Maxado & Alex Figueira - Quando Será (Music With Soul, 2020) A log drum pounds at the beginning of “Quando Serà” until the groove finally drops, with pandeiro jingles sketching out hallucinogenic patterns and hands popping against drumheads under thick swaths of spring reverb. Maxado’s solar reggae guitars riff on the beat and Figueira’s subsonic basslines execute feverish rainforest dances, with the duo’s Carimbó and Siriá influenced melodies and rhythms also carrying vague airs of Arabian and Mediterranean exotica. The chorus sees Maxado’s multi-layered songs of melancholy melting over the tropical riddims…the pleading repetitions of “quando será / que eu vou te ver?”, which translates to “when will I see you?”, forming a sort of sorrowful anthem for these current times of pandemic-induced separation. And beneath the vocals sit e-piano starscapes, with muted chords dropping like a warm whisper on the back of the neck. Elsewhere, we move into verse, with the background reduced to muted world percussions, walking basslines, smearing keys, and rocksteady riffing while Maxado overflows the heart with haunting lyricisms and soulful turns of phrase. Moving towards the end, we are treated to a dazzling, if understated e-piano solo, bringing cinematic vibes of seaside saloons and western ghost towns before the keys lock into climbing sunshine cycles that are paralleled by the bass, with the Brazilian dub percussion growing ever more urgent and huge bursts of black smoke reverb radiating off of certain hits. 

As discussed, the “Flute Version” sees Maxado and Figueira making the inspired decision to excise the vocals completely in favor of Gabriel Milliet’s flute. And though the rest of the groove proceeds undisturbed, with the mystical Amazonian cumaco and pandeiro rhythms still guiding the body beneath riffing textures of Jamaican sunshine, the vocal-woodwind swap has a profound effect on the track’s vibe. There are still irresistible atmospheres of melancholy and sorrow, but these are countered by glowing threads of fantasy magic flowing forth from Milliet’s aerophone. His playing is brilliantly understated and keeps to a warming woodwind coo, with little in the way of overblowing or free jazz-style bombast. Instead, the multi-instrumentalist executes silky smooth dances through paradisiacal environments…as if some elven spirit of the rainforest has emerged onto a beautiful sunset panorama, his esoteric flute incantations helping the golden orb settle towards the horizon while calming grooves of Brazilian dance and reggae rock suffuse the coastal air. At the track’s conclusion, when the pianos and bass lock into their narcotizing cycles, the flute playing grows ever more sprightly and whimsical, as Milliet darts and dashes around the rhythmic elements with joyous abandon. Best of all, there are tasteful overdubs of fluttering flute psychedelia…these echo-soaked panoramas of dream magic that billow in from the edges of the mix.

(images from my personal copy)

[thats-the-teen-spirit]

Bring Me The Horizon - amo album review

I’ve been a fan of BMTH since the late-There is a hell era and obviously they surprised me once again. I’m gonna go song by song on the album because each of the songs have something in them that differs from the one before.

i apologize if you feel something, the first track is already a lot more different than the previous BMTH albums. It begins as a typical intro with long silences between the melody. Then Oli starts to sing on a really high pitched poppy autotuned voice. You can hear no instruments whatsoever except the synth that plays the melody. Then it changes to this ambient style that somehow suits the band’s music but feels awkward without the guitar and drums. When I first heard this song I already realized it was nothing special, just a little intro that might hype up the crowd before they start performing.

MANTRA, the first single of the album is a little less heavy than the That’s The Spirit era songs. A lot less heavy if you think about how Oli’s vocal style changed since 2015. It finally has drums and heavily distorted low tuned guitar and even screams in the background but it still feels like an alternative rock song just because of the verses and the high pitched bridge. The guitar riff is banging, the chorus is catchy, not a bad song afterall but it will still disappoint the old fans of the band.

nihilist blues is definitely the weirdest song on the record. It’s basically a trance/europop song that divides the listeners to two types: the first one would say: what the fuck is this shit, i’m not listening to this album anymore, and the second one would be: wow they’re brave as hell for doing this, I’m looking forward for the rest. I’m not a big expert on europop or trance or whatever electronic music genres there are but it really reminded me of an Armin van Buuren beat and apparently they copied a little from a relatively new Evanescence song as well. Grimes is featured in the song and her vocal style fits it really well. It has a creepy feeling that makes the song feel like you’re in a club full of drug addicts and the only thing left for you to survive is becoming an addict (for the music). Personally I think probably something like this was on the band’s mind when they wrote this. You definitely won’t like this one unless you like electronic music. You can hear the drums and guitars in it (they’re playing the electronic distorted thing with a tremolo pedal probably) but it’s barely recognizable.

in the dark, the next song has a really strange feeling. It sounds like a pop song because of the samples it uses but it still has the guitar (both clean and distorted) that reminded me of Doomed from the previous album. Both the guitars and the vocals are catchy as hell and after the first few listens you can hear what was the point of writing this song, here that “gateway band” thing begins that Oli mentions in a lot of his recent interviews. They want to be a gateway band that shows people the grand spectrum of music from electronic to heavy metal (or metalcore if you’re a genre-nazi) and do the same thing that Linkin Park or Limp Bizkit did for popularizing the crossover of rap and hip-hop and screamy, heavy rock music. It has the same experiencing feeling that got me into Linkin Park and even tho the song and its lyrics are kinda forgettable, the intention is clear and I personally like it a lot.

wonderful life, the second single of the album is without a doubt one of the heaviest ones on it. The intro seems like a classic BMTH style guitar intro with a little less distortion and a really weird, progressive time signature (for my ear at least). The main riff is simple, heavy and you can definitely bang you head to it. The chorus is catchy, the lyrics are relatable for the emo kids, it has a squealing scream from Dani Filth, which makes it seem like the metalcore days are creeping on the band. The outro chorus reminded me of their song ‘Oh No” from the previous record just because it’s so monumental but maybe that’s just me.

ouch is a cheap interlude in my opinion. It’s not even 2 minutes, the samples get boring in the end. It has a drum and bass kind of feeling to it. It reminded me of Cure For The Itch by Linkin Park, just because of the placement and the “drum” beats on it. The nanana thing that goes on in the chorus also gets boring really quickly. The lyrics are about Oli’s ex-wife Hannah Snowdon and it has a nice throwback to their 2015 song, Follow You with the “under your spell” lines, and it’s clear that he left that time behind with this song.

medicine, the song with the weird-ass video is the next one on the album. If you haven’t heard a single BMTH song in your life and you’re into the more pop-ish side of alternative you’ll probably say: holy shit this is a banger. The first couple of lines in the chorus are really far-fetched in my opinion, it’s the “we’re edgy and cool kids” vibe that is either cringy or makes you feel like the band got old and they still want to appeal to teenagers and young adults. The message of the song is the same as the previous one. The melody of the chorus and the vocals overall are not that bad, they’re catchy, but just like the intro of the album, it still misses the guitars, although this one has some really quiet clean guitars in the background. It’s clear that the vocals are in the focus and it’s stressed by shoving autotuned Oli’s voice down our throat.

sugar, honey, ice and tea is one of my favorites off the album without a doubt. The riff is heavy, the song still feels like an alternative rock song but this time the guitar tone for me seemed like an old HIM song that’s mixed with a That’s the spirit era beat, lyrics and melody. It has the same feeling when I heard Happy Song for the first time but this one has a Throne-like chorus with the samples going instead of Oli’s voice. In the outro Oli goes crazy and lets out Count Your Blessings-era styled screams which definitely help the song appeal to older fans. It’s gonna be played at concerts for sure.

why you gotta kick me when i’m down, oh boy where do i begin. Imagine Post Malone writing a song for a no name alternative rock band. Add overdistorted guitars and a mumble rap beat and lyrics. You’re done, you get this song. It shifts genres so fast that it seems like Oli went from ‘Lil Sykes’ and back to himself a couple times in just 4 minutes. It’s not a terrible song but if you don’t like the style of modern soundcloud rappers and the whole mumble rap mixed with guitars thing you’re gonna hate this one. 

fresh bruises, after the mumble rap song the boys in the band were probably like: hmmm what’s the next popular thing in 2019 that has nothing to do with rock. That’s right:”lo-fi hiphop for sleeping and studying” radios. The lyrics are only 2 lines, the beat gets faster but it’s still boring, even for an interlude. Definitely the most forgettable song in the album.

mother tongue, is the last single before the album came out. It’s the most honest love song from Oli that he’s probably ever gonna write. For personal reasons right now I can relate to it but if you can’t, you’re gonna forget this song even after a couple of listens. It has a powerful chorus, a radio friendly pop beat, cute ass lyrics and the most important thing: it has the potential to infect the radio stations and get the band even more recognition. The chord progression is really popular, (has the same chords as Africa by Toto), the vocals (with the help of autotune) are great. It has the Follow You vibes all over again but here you get an impression of a happy Oli Sykes that is in a fulfilling relationship and has a stable mental state. This progression is really respectable even if you don’t like the song itself.

heavy metal is my most favorite track from the record. It’s basically a huge “fuck you” to the oldest fans who only play Medusa and Pray for Plagues on repeat to this day, 13 years after their release. It’s got that middle finger in the lyrics that makes you think: damn this band really wanted a change and nothing can stop them. The song made me feel like Meteora days Linkin Park once again because of its beatbox styled bridge and the dropped, heavy guitars. This song shows the new direction of the band once and for all: they wanna make all types of music for both new AND old fans (listen to the last couple of seconds for the Pray for Plagues style vocals from Oli) but still says that nope we’re not gonna change, we grew up, we still like our old songs but you’re not gonna hear them from us because we’re different people now. Big props to the band to be this brave and say: this shit ain’t heavy metal.

i don’t know what to say, the last song on the record for me seemed really off topic from the album until I read what it’s written about. It’s about a friend of Oli who passed away from cancer. Oli didn’t write a song posthomously but the lyrics make it seem like he did. The song itself would sound like an 80′s power ballad from a classic rock band for me if I wouldn’t notice Oli’s vocals and the modern drum beat at some places. It even has a damned guitar solo, an acoustic guitar throughout, and orchestra. (which again reminded me Oh No, the closing track of That’s The Spirit) The song is forgettable for me, even though the message is really touching and meaningful. For a closing track it’s good but since it’s really different from the rest of the album it seems that they only put this song on just to honor that friend that it’s written about.

The album is one of the weirdest concepts I’ve heard from any rock band since A Thousand Suns by Linkin Park. The band put their heart and soul in it, you can tell by the level of production. On some songs it’s really well executed, others seem cheap and boring. My summary is that old BMTH is dead, they’re still gonna play rock music as they did with their previous records but they’re gonna expand and experiment to other directions, making it as progressive as possible just to keep the music entertaining.

[thejamzine-blog]

JOYCE MANOR ALBUMS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST

In honor of the 7th anniversary of Joyce Manor’s debut album, here are The Jam’s hot takes on the band’s four full-lengths.

1. Joyce Manor

Though sometimes remembered as little more than the “Constant Headache” album by much of the band’s fanbase, which has grown astronomically since this album’s release, the 18 minutes of blistering, hook-filled basement punk on Joyce Manor’s full-length debut set the stage for hordes of indie-inspired, emo borrowing punk bands to come (whether they were directly pulling from Joyce Manor or not) but has rarely been matched since. In 2011, emo had converted to a mainstream sect with Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, and the like preaching the adapted gospel. Guitar-based indie rock that spawned in the early 2000s had given way to a major label rebranding of ‘indie’ that bared few resemblances. Joyce Manor harkened back to the college rock and DIY punk ethos of late ‘80s and early ‘90s acts that now define ‘classic indie.’

By the time the California quartet recorded this album they’d mastered simplicity, ferocious energy, and sentimentality. The blink-of-an-eye songs meet somewhere between The Ramones and early Violent Femmes, cutting songwriting down to the hooks and nothing but. Melodies are simple and instrumental breaks are really just melodies without words. “Constant Headache” takes the structure to a fully realized pop song, while others avoid explicitly playing melodies but outline it with quick changing power chords, like the pleading “Leather Jacket”—which eventually gives way to a melody-as-solo finale. Front man Barry Johnson’s lyrics read with just the right amounts of gentle emotion and youthful angst to appeal to the punk kids without alienating the melancholic ones.

Joyce Manor is a pop album in disguise. The production is indisputably lo-fi and the influence of punk and hardcore can understandably deceive on first listen but the taste for melodies and fearless editing make it one of the catchiest punk albums of the last decade. Despite the shameless pop aspects, it’s also one of the quirkiest and most idiosyncratic albums to come from the indie-punk-emo boom of that period (rivaling even The Front Bottoms at times). The lyrics are quotable by being effortlessly odd and unusual: “when you make a decent living will you buy me a train set and a hat so that I can sit alone in my room sending people away from the ones they love or crash them into buildings explosions derailments and screaming children oh my god I think I’m in love,” Johnson sings on “Derailed.” The album is a gem, and one that rarely gets the credit it deserves.

2. Never Hungover Again

Never Hungover Again is probably the best starting point for Joyce Manor. In contrast to the self-titled debut, the band’s third album has finely crafted production, less aggressive instrumentals, and a far clearer pop influence. In an early feature on Joyce Manor in the artists to watch section of Alternative Press, the band cited Green Day and Weezer as influences. Though the fast tempos and relentless drums of the first couple albums threw listeners off the trail, Never Hungover Again delivered on the promise of those references with an accessible and refined sound.

Still clocking in under 20 minutes, Never Hungover Again could again be summarized as quick punk takes on squeezed down pop songs, but the emphasizing and diminishing of certain aspects distinguishes the album. The tempos lean a tad slower, or at least the drums clear up space by tending towards steady beats over rapid-fire endurance tests. The added space makes melodies more easily recognizable and Johnson’s songwriting finds new ways to squish pop songs to half the length. “Victoria” overlaps verses and choruses to cut a straightforward pop song, with bridge and all, in less than two minutes. The lyrics, while still charmingly unusual, have largely traded out stream of consciousness run-on sentences for quirky tidbits with (at least vaguely) more relatable subjects. “Like old friends who’d never ask ‘how can you be happy when you wear all black?’ And they care, because they wanna” Johnson quips on “Schley,” a highlight track that boils the chorus down to one line that eventually explodes in a garage rock ending section.

The touching up of Joyce Manor’s sound is almost flawless. The polished recordings make the music joyfully clear and Johnson’s songwriting is aging beautifully. But there are occasional missteps. “Heart Tattoo,” while a fine hit for many of the mainstream-leaning pop-punkers new to the band, sacrifices Joyce Manor’s tact with cheesy, Tumblr post-begging metaphors that pull the refining process into question. Still, elsewhere the band more explicitly states influences only hinted at before, producing some of their most interesting material: the new wavey “Falling In Love Again” and Smith’s-esque “Heated Swimming Pool” as examples.

3. Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired

If Joyce Manor is under credited, Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired is forgotten. Not present on the band’s Bandcamp or Spotify pages, it’s unclear if the band wants their second album to disappear or some sort of contract technicality has led to its obscurity. When I saw the band less than two weeks after the album’s release in April of 2012, they refused to play almost any songs from the album despite audience requests—my memory leads me to believe they played only “If I Needed You There” and “Violent Inside,” but I’m far from certain. They’ve also reworked “See How Tame I Can Be” and “Bride of Usher,” the two most new wave leaning tracks, as more traditional garage-punk Joyce Manor tunes for a split with Toys That Kill (in my opinion, the reworkings only prove how great the songs were to begin with, despite not fitting the band’s usual style).

Whatever the reason for OATIWSGT’s uncertain legacy, it’s a great album worth seeking out (it’s available on UK label Big Scary Monster’s Bandcamp, iTunes, and in physical formats if you look around). It’s possibly the band’s most diverse collection of songs, though that fact is obscured by the lo-fi glossing that covers all the tracks. “See How Tame I Can Be” and “Bride of Usher” borrow melodic and rhythmic tricks from ‘80s new wave and post-punk, the former featuring a drum machine sound and prickly guitar and the later featuring acoustic guitar and tambourine recalling The Smiths. Explicitly stating some influence or at least awareness of the ‘80s culture, Joyce Manor knocks out a speedy punk cover of The Buggles “Video Killed The Radio Star.” And, alluding to the softer tracks on the band’s most recent album, “Drainage” and “I’m Always Tired” give brief—even by Joyce Manor standards—tape hissing acoustic numbers to the already varied album.

Even with more stylistic variety the band’s standard quick paces, short durations, peppy punk drumming, and Johnson’s signature throaty yelp are all there; it’s actually somewhat misleading to describe the tracks as diverse. “Violent Inside” delivers an easy Joyce Manor hit that never was and opening track “These Kinds of Ice Skates” has all the lyrical peculiarity that one might expect pairing lines like “you can’t make a mistake on these kinds of ice skates” with “don’t you be my black plastic case for your glasses.” Though it could be seen as a collection of miscellaneous tracks and experimentations OATIWSGT actually plays as a surprisingly cohesive whole.

4. Cody

Perhaps it’s their most successful album yet, perhaps it’s their most critically acclaimed, though I’d guess Never Hungover Again takes that title, but Cody is their least endearing work. On their fourth album, Joyce Manor falls victim to many of the common failures of an indie or punk act moving to a major label—except, they’re signed to Epitaph and it’s their second album with the generally reliable punk label. More likely, the group saw the success of the more polished and refined Never Hungover Again (that could be success critically, financially, or personally) and attempted to expand upon it.

Cody combines elements of the band’s second and third albums while continuing to move more into mainstream pop-punk territory. It’s even brighter than Never Hungover Again with even more simplified and relatable lines but it follows less genre constraints, as OATIWSGT did. On “Fake I.D.” Johnson offers witty quips about what seems to be a Kanye West debate following a hook-up, before reducing the death of a friend to “I feel sad, I miss him he was rad.” The songwriting simplicity walks a dangerous line between purposeful and poorly thought out often losing balance and allowing cheap rhymes and easy teenage cool kid references (fake I.D.s, smoking weed, etc.) to slip in.

To the band’s credit, their pop-punk often veers away from the tropes of a genre plagued by stereotypes and clichés. While there is a pitch-corrected tone to the vocals and the music has a certain I-could-spend-hours-debating-which-Weezer-album-is-best sense to it, Joyce Manor opts for less nasally singing and chugging chords leaning instead towards power pop chunky riffs and jangling guitars. Tracks like “Last You Heard of Me” and “Stairs” even nod briefly toward the shoegaze revival and “Do You Really Want to Not Get Better” makes a surprisingly sincere attempt at Tumblr-era sentimentality. Though it’s a definite weak spot in Joyce Manor’s discography, Cody opens up the band’s music to a much larger audience without totally betraying older fans expectations. And, to be honest, if you’re just being introduced to the indie and punk genres now, it’s probably an excellent gateway. –CC

Only full-length (if you can call these 20-minute little spurts “full-length”) albums are included in this list. ‘Collection’ isn’t included because it is a compilation of other releases, mainly ‘Constant Headache’ which isn’t included because it’s just an EP and some of the material appears on ‘Joyce Manor.’ They also have some splits, earlier demo-type releases, and do a great cover of The 6ths “Falling Out of Love With You.” You’re all big kids, use the internet and look ‘em up. If you’re not a big kid, my apologies. Send me a message with a parent or guardian’s signature and I will attempt to guide you through the internet. Also, how the heck did you get here if you don’t know how to use the internet?

[dailyonionsite-blog]

Concert Review: Foo Fighters - Live At Madison Square Garden

Ok, so I'm an 80’s metal guy, through and through. I grew up on bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Anthrax, Guns N Roses, Skid Row, Motley Crue, KISS, Stryper, Queensryche..I could go on and on, but you get the point. I became a full-fledged “metal head” around 1988, and never looked back, embracing the music, the look and the lifestyle at the ripe young age of 14. I was the guy in high school with long hair, ripped jeans and concert t-shirts, sporting a denim jacket with the band patch on the back and buttons on the front, and wearing skull and cross earrings. It was a look I wore with pride, and I was pretty much the last of my friends to cut their hair (my one buddy did it about 10 years ago, and it was literally just a pony tail with short hair all the way around, so I don't count that), and I didn’t do so until 1993, when I was 19, and I did so very begrudgingly. From pretty much the moment it first exploded on the scene with Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", opening the floodgates, alternative rock and grunge were the enemy for me, as it killed all of the bands I listened to, and the music I loved. The bands that I had seen in concert filling 18,000 seat arenas and selling millions of albums in 1991, suddenly could barely fill 1,000 seat clubs by the fall of 1992, and as a loyal metal head, that made me angry, and I refused to embrace the music. In fact, it took a good 5 years before I finally started to appreciate and like alternative rock. Finally around 1997, I started to venture outside my comfort zone. And now years later, I like a variety of grunge and alternative bands. But for whatever reason, I never paid much attention to the Foo Fighters. That all changed in 2011 when I started listening to a local rock station on a regular basis, and pretty much heard them every day. They have since become one of my favorite bands, and a bucket list band for me to see live. I had 2 opportunities to see them on previous tours, and struck out both times. Well, the check mark finally went next to their name this past Monday, July 16th as I finally saw them at Madison Square Garden. One thing I was very curious about, was how the Foo's would open the show, as I have seen everything from Iron Maiden using video intros with Ed Force One, to the dramatic build ups that KISS would use when the house lights would drop, and you would hear a low humming bass before that familiar, gruff voice would scream, "YOU WANTED THE BEST? YOU GOT THE BEST!", and the band would hit the stage with a flurry of pyrotechnics and smoke bombs. There was none of that here. The house lights dropped and the 20,000 fans in the jam packed Garden barely had a chance to let that first roar out before the band came running on to the stage playing loud power cords on their instruments and drummer Taylor Hawkins banging away on his set. This lasted about 45 seconds before Dave Grohl let loose with a few of his trademark ear-piercing screams (RAAAAAHHHH!!!!"), before asking the crowd 3 times, "ARE YOU READY?!?!", and immediately ripping into the opening chords of, "All My Life". This set the pace for a high energy show filled with many of those same screams, that I honestly don't how he was still doing (with relative ease I might add) 2 and half hours later, plus singing great and running all over the stage like a maniac. The band went right into the "Learn To Fly", which by that point the scent of a certain herbal "element" had permeated the air, prompting Grohl to say into the microphone mid-song,"Ooh it smells good in here right now!" "Pretender" was next, which was extended into the first of many improvisational jams, and lots of audience participation, as Dave asked the crowd a few times, "Do you love Rock N Roll?" even doing a tribute to Chuck Berry's trademark duck-walk. Newer songs, "The Sky Is a Neighborhood", and "Rope" followed, along with a great drum solo by Taylor Hawkins which featured his drum kit rising into the air on hydraulic lifts (no doubt a tribute to one of the band's biggest influences, KISS). Another new song, "Sunday Rain" followed after that, and then Dave formally said hello to the sold out Garden crowd (with a couple of ear piercing screams to start), asking not only how many people had seen the Foo Fighters before, but how many had not. And I almost felt as if Dave was speaking directly to me when he said, "We're gonna show you why it was a good thing that you waited almost 23 f***ing years to see our band!”. What followed next was one of the highlights of the night, an epic performance of, "My Hero" which started off with Dave softly strumming the main riff on guitar and singing it slowly, before the full band kicked in, with breakdowns at various points to allow the crowd to sing acapella in unison, "Theeeere gooooes my hero". That lead into "One Of These Days" which was almost as epic, and slowed things down just a bit, but not much, as the chorus was still full bore, and heavy, but the beauty of the slow parts and the way he held the audience spellbound and in the palm of his hand must have moved Dave, because at one point during a stoppage in the song, he simply looked at the crowd and said to them, "I can't believe this is my f***ing job!" prompting both a roar and laughter.  At this point we were only a quarter of a way through the set, and this was already one of the best shows I had ever seen. After picking the pace back up with an old time Foo's classic, "Walk", the band loosened up a little (as if they weren't already) and had some fun with band intros, and a bluesy jam that included a bit from Queen's, "Another One Bites The Dust", and then segued into "La Dee Da" off the new album, and featuring guest saxophonist Dave Koz. At this point, Dave decided that the audience needed to be brought together with a song of "love and hope". That song humorously turned out to be Van Halen's, "Jump" sang to the melody of John Lennon's, "Imagine" with Hawkins joining in on backing vocals. This was another highlight of the night as the band really proved that beyond the loud guitars and thundering drums, they truly were just enjoying themselves up there. The band then ripped into a cover of the Ramones, "Blitzkrieg Bop" with guitarist, Pat Smear showing his former Nirvana roots and opening with a riff that had just a touch of "Breed" to it . The fun continued with Hawkins coming out from behind his kit to join Luke Spiller, lead vocalist of opening act, the Struts (who were really good in their own set, by the way) for a cover of Queen's, "Under Pressure". Dave Grohl took his old spot behind the drums for this song. That concluded the covers and goofing around (for the most part), as the latter part of the show picked back up the ferocious pace and kept it up for the rest of the night. The band started that pace with “Monkey Wrench”, and continued with new song, “Run” and then my second favorite song from the band, “Breakout”. This featured another extended jam by the band, and a particular concentration on Hawkins’ drumming, before breaking down into a quiet, eery strumming of the guitar, with the entire stage going dark, and a few cellphone flashlights coming out, prompting Dave to encourage everyone to, “be my light show”. The audience gladly complied making the pitch black Garden look like an old school metal show during a power ballad, before the band put the finishing touches on the song, ending with a fury and more trademark screams from Grohl. “Dirty Water” from the new album followed next, featuring Dave Grohl’s daughter, Violet and 3 other girls on backing vocals. And then came the moment that I had been waiting for all night, which was my favorite Foo Fighters song, “Best Of You” to close the first set. Not surprisingly, this was another highlight of the show as the band extended it out to almost 12 minutes, breaking it down 3 minutes in to just Dave’s light strumming, compelling the entire audience to spontaneously sing the trade mark “woohh ooh oh..woohh ooh oh..”part of the song as the band went into a melodic, jazz influenced jam. This continued for a few minutes until another breakdown that brought back the audience participation sing along. This was probably the most beautiful part of the night. So much so that at one point the band just stopped playing and let the crowd sing accapella, prompting Dave to say, “That’s some real s*** right there!”, and then after a minute or so, jokingly saying, “Can we finish the rest of the f***ing song??”, which they did, ending it with a fury, as the band left the stage to let anticipation build towards the final encore. As that anticipation built for a few minutes, Dave finally appeared on the big screen backstage to tease the crowd, holding up various finger combinations to ask how many songs they wanted to hear. The crowd booed at 1 and 2, cheered for 3, but thanks to previous set lists being online knew they were getting 4, despite Dave stubbornly insisting, “Alright ..3 more!” before jokingly relenting, “We’ll see what happens…let’s ease into this.”. The band then went old school with “Big Me” off the first album, which admittedly is probably my least favorite song from the band, but they did a good job with it, doing a slower version with mostly just guitar and minimal bass and drums. “Times Like These” picked the pace back up next, followed by “This Is A Call”, with Dave reminding everyone halfway through, "I said 3 songs, right?". With the crowd voicing their disapproval, he defiantly said, "F*** you, I said 3!", and then went right back into the song, before finishing it with some playful jamming with Pat Smear, showing the obvious chemistry between the 2 long time friends and former Nirvana bandmates. Dave then addressed the crowd one more time saying, "I said 3 songs..but I think I love you, so we might do one more!". And then after thanking the old school fans for sticking with them for 23 years, and the newer fans for coming out, and promising to come back to the Garden if they would, said, "This one's for you!", the band finished with the epic, "Everlong" which is probably the most popular of all Foo Fighter songs, and had the entire place on their feet singing it word for word. This was by far one of, if not, THE BEST concerts I have ever attended, and I have seen many great bands and artists over the years. From the fun, club atmosphere of Stryper, to the over the top, bombastic and make-up laden shows of KISS, to the various Eddie themed shows of the mighty Iron Maiden, to the thrashy assault of Metallica, to the theatrical performances of Queensryche, and the near album sounding perfection of the Eagles, the Foo Fighters got up on the stage of the fabled Madison Square Garden, with no pyro, no make-up, no theatrics…and levitating drum riser, and killer light show aside, no other real props, and quite simply kicked a** for 3 hours of fun, good old fashioned Rock-N-Roll. This was a throwback show for the ages, to a time when artists simply relied on their talent as musicians, and connected with the audience in a way very few bands can do these days. I highly recommend you catch this show if they are in your neighborhood anytime soon. You will NOT be disappointed. SETLIST: All My Life Learn to Fly The Pretender The Sky Is a Neighborhood Rope / Drum Solo Sunday Rain My Hero These Days Walk Lead Guitar solo Another One Bites the Dust La Dee Da Keyboard Solo Imagine / Jump Blitzkrieg Bop Under Pressure Monkey Wrench Run Breakout Dirty Water Best of You ENCORE: Big Me Times Like These This Is a Call Everlong https://youtu.be/X_0TnXUXSwM https://youtu.be/waawJNfS-Hs https://youtu.be/vvLkyYdZnqQ https://youtu.be/8F322atx46M https://youtu.be/XWxfSmwYiAs https://youtu.be/DWPViHyGdE4 Read the full article

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Pearl Jam - Backspacer - Album Review

Backspacer is the ninth studio album from Seattle’s greatest alternative rock band, Pearl Jam. The band returned to their famed producer Brendan O‘Brien. Despite Brendan O’Brien mixing their recent record, this would be the first record to be produced by O’Brien since 1998′s Yield. Backspacer also is the most glossy, produced, accessible and dare i say poppiest record since Yield and even more so than that record and most successful record since No Code. Its the shortest, most upbeat and lyrically optimistic record in their entire discography especially compared to the preceded Riot Act and self titled records, which was due to the recent election of President Barack Obama and singer Eddie Vedder becoming a family man, raising two daughters now. This record is the first record to be released independently under their own label Monkeywrench Records with physical copies of the record sold exclusively at Target and some independent record stores. The bands music video for “The Fixer” was used on a Target commercial promoting the record. This lead to a bit of controversy within the fan base where the band was called “sellouts” for working exclusively with a major retail corporation. To be honest the choice didnt sit well with me either not to mention the bands promotional deal with Verizon especially when similar companies like AT&T have censored their music. This is the same band who wrote songs like “Blood”, “Not For You”, “Do The Evolution”, “Soon Forget”, “Ghost” and “Green Disease”; but its like singer Eddie Vedder said about The Who offering their music to commercials and tv shows, the band uses their profits to donate to non profit charities. They arent like some artists out their pimping their music for another lambo or yacht. Pearl Jam is the same way and now Eddie has two daughter’s futures to think about not to mention the other band members and their children. Backspacer was the first record from the band to receive an exceptional amount of promotion and a TV spot. Its the first time since Vitalogy or No Code that the band made a huge directional shift, but quite the opposite shift this time. Gossard said that Backspacer is “what we could have done for the last five records, in terms of re-engaging with the roots of why this band works”, and that “there’s plenty of ballads, too… and there’s some shifts in how Jeff and Matt and I are all relating—I think this record’s got a chance to sound significantly different.” Pearl Jam is now a band kind, peaceful, love seeking, and eco friendly family men and those traits play huge part in Backspacer’s direction.

Sonically the songs, as I said, are more accessible with their shorter and upbeat poppy structures, similar to early Devo, Buzzcocks, The Rolling Stones, The Police, X, R.E.M., The Kinks, The Knack, Split Enz, Guided By Voices, U2, and Oasis. This is due to producer Brendan O’Brien having a bigger hand and voice on the direction of the records sound. Guitarist Mike McCready said “It’s a really quick record, but I like that element to it. I like the sparseness of the songs and the way that Brendan pulled us together and made us play as good as we could.“ Frontman Eddie Vedder said “At this point, I think we’re willing to let somebody cut the songs up a little bit… In the past, Brendan would say, ‘It’s a great song, but I think you should do it in a different key’, and we’d say no, but now that we’ve heard Bruce [Springsteen] has listened to his suggestions, I think we will too.” Bassist Jeff Ament said this about O’Brien “He brings a brutally honest approach to what he thinks is working and what isn’t, and it really moves things along… We don’t get weighted down with ideas that maybe aren’t even that good. He’s one of the few people outside of the band that we trust with our music, and we’re really, really looking forward to making this record.” The band even left Seattle for extensive amounts of time to work with Brendan O’Brien at his studio in Los Angeles. McCready said, “We got together with Ed and it really started getting more cohesive, we took that momentum down to Los Angeles with Brendan… It was a great idea to get us out of Seattle. You’ve gotta get out [of] your comfort zone, and we’ve talked about doing that for the past ten years and kind of haven’t, so we trusted Brendan’s judgment.” Backspacer sounds like a record written with touring and live performances in mind. The uptempo song structures seem to really draw a lot of crowd participation with the claps and “yeah yeah yeahs” especially on the lead single “The Fixer” a song that has an energy to that of Split Enz’s “I See Red” and The Police’s “Truth Hits Everybody.”and “De Do De Da” on the tracks riff and rhythm. Its easily the bands most poppy and most accessible song even more so than “Better Man.” Gossard said “At one of our gigs, without flashpots and electricity, there’s only so much room for those difficult listening songs. That’s one reason we kept the arrangements lean.” This song was written by drummer Matt Cameron, which explains the odd timing. The song starts in 5/4, then switches to 6/4 for the verse, while the chorus and bridge are both in 4/4. Gossard stated, “It’s relatively straightforward, but it has Matt’s love of odd time. It also breaks back down to something very three-chord and fun. We need that. If Pearl Jam is thinking too much, we’re not very good. We’re much better when we’re not thinking.” The band treads in new waters, shifting musical direction. Even organist Boom Gasper starts playing more keyboards rather than just the Hammond organ like his piano parts on “The Fixer”.

Backspacer is a bit of contrast from their previous work that doesnt sit well with longtime old school Pearl Jam fans, with its glossy production, accessible upbeat song writing and promo use. In the bands defense though, they served this movement well and retained many of their core values. The sound comes off more natural and showcases the band simply have fun and reminding people that they are still here. This shift is quite similar to indie rock band Guided By Voices’ Do the Collapse record. some of the bands side work brought new colors to the Pearl Jam palette. Stone Gossard said “There’s a couple of great things that Ed brought in that could be real departures for us.” One of those songs is “Just Breathe” a song that is what you might call a “cliche love song” or the bands first love song. While Pearl Jam have written unique and sparse love songs like “Oceans” and “Thin Air” this song is a bit more direct, less ambiguous and more sappy. Eddie’s folky, acoustic, arpeggio riff in the song resembles the same pattern played in “Dust In The Wind” by Kansas and is very similar to “Tuolumne,” a song off Vedder’s Into The Wild record and features some sweet violin and Boom playing a tonal key melody. “Whatever wave Ed caught with Into the Wild has taken him to different places,” Gossard stated. Other acoustic songs are “The End”, a somber but beautiful melody that features for the first time an orchestration and “Speed of Sound” the albums downbeat that was released in its early demo acoustic form before the record dropped and I have to say how much more timeless and more beautiful it is when compared to the recorded Backspacer version. Some of the faster songs like “Gonna See My Friend” and “Supersonic” are possible B side tracks from the self titled record that sound like Chuck Berry meets Ramones, while “Got Some” has an early period of Devo’s “Gut Feeling” meets The Police’s “Its Alright For You”. Matt Cameron is at his best on this record with his Stewart Copeland like energy barrelling through the songs meshing Jazz beats with punk speed and intesity controlling every start and every stop and every tempo shift. Many songs on the record like “Johnny Guitar”, sound like something from The Knack’s debut record and find the independent and free band just having fun. “Amongst the Waves” and “Unthought Known” are great mid tempo tracks with the band shifting into half time on the first track and building with a climactic crescendo in the second. Pearl Jam sounds tighter and more professional than ever before and its not just the production. Backspacer is the first time the band had rehearsed pre written songs before going into recording since Ten. The song writing process was quite similar to their debut record too and like Ten, Vedder wrote all the lyrics.

“The Fixer” is a song that Vedder calls “a reminder song to me, to stop fixing.“ It seems to be written in result to Vedder’s feelings as hes become both a father and a husband with feeling the need to fix or correct things. Vedder said, “Men, we all think we can fix anything. It’s not necessarily a good thing. In a relationship, a woman will say ‘This is wrong,’ and we’re like, ‘I’ll fix that, don’t worry about it, we can fix it.’“ Gossard stated, “There’s some retrospective moods on this record, where Ed is looking at both his past and his future.” Lyrically Pearl Jam approached Backspacer with a positive outlook rather than the moody political angst that the band had become known for. We’ve made a couple of political and pointed records, the last two in particular, and just to move away from that is great, because it allows you to go back to that when you need to and it refreshes everybody, and it comes down to a beat and a melody and your friends and a lyric and a poem and something that’s important to you.” Many songs seem to have an underlying theme of drug use. The song “Gonna See My Friend” is about recovery, while “Got Some” is presented in a way that suggest dealing some kind of drug but like the concept used on “Spin The Black Circle” that drug again here is Rock n Roll. Like a drug, music can energize you lifting you up when you are low. Both “Got Some” and “Supersonic” are a reminder to live life to the full and are simply Vedder again expressing his love for music and needing to turn it up loud. Vedder said, “It’s a tangible thing that gives you as much energy as a drug. It can change the shape of your mood" “Just Breathe” is about taking a moment to appreciate love and life and “Amongst The Waves” marries love and surfing and again mentions feeling high (almost like a drug) on life while surfing. “Unthought Known” uses some fantastic imagry and is a simple but beautiful and philosophical song that reminds me of “Wishlist” that, also like that song, has Eddie stuck in his mind pondering and thinking. Its sort of the feeling you might have while day dreaming on the west coast after the sun has set and youre the last one on the beach. The song “Force of Nature” is my favorite song on the record about being a rock in a relationship. Vedder said,  "The person in the song is the lighthouse for the other person caught in the storm.“ “Speed of Sound” and the last song on the record “The End” are the more deeper and sadder songs on the record. The first being about regrets and living so long in the past that you neglect the present and forget to care about your future. The closing track is the darker love song on the record and is a final goodbye message from someone who has made mistakes in his life. 

Backspacer was named after the historical name of the backspace key on typewriters that went out of use in the 1950s. The title may represent deleting a previous error, ethos, opposition or formula, to reword or rewrite it over again. Vedder said, “Backspacer [means] actually you kind of have to go back and look at your mistake.” The art work on Backspacer was done by underground, political, editorial cartoonist, Tom Tomorrow and features 9 otherworldy, comic-esque, reimagined images inspired from pop culture and history. Images of Vern running from the train in the film “Stand by Me,” Guilligan’s Island meets Lost In Space, Johnny Guitar Watson, Evelyn McHale from the historical photo known as “the most beautiful suicide”, Ed White in space on the Gemini 4 flight playing Keith Moon’s drumset, the great magician Howard Thurston, a mannequin of the human anatomy, the brain of Morbius from Dr Who, and Esther Williams in a Seattle aquarium. On the limited edition vinyl the typewriter keys, that spell out BACKSPACER, glow in the dark. On the exclusive target CD the outer sleeve pulls out revealing the single brain in a jar to be connected to each of the band members. Not sure what the cover art represents but it definitely represents something. There are 9 pictures and this is the bands 9th studio album. Each image could possibly represent a record in some way. The astronaut would be a good place to start its clearly Binaural. The rest is up to you to figure out. I think thats what I like most about this artwork unlike the record its much more complex and ambiguous or it could be as simple as inspirations for each member in the band. Its a colorful bright record like the record itself.

Critically, Backspacer lacks some depth present on their previous records, its got personality but not much depth. It also offers more strained vocals from Vedder who sounds like hes struggling within the key of the heavier tracks. The strain plays off well at times and at others not so much. The drums and rhythm section sound better than ever but the guitar parts, licks and leads probably lack the most creativity here and not in the intentional way that was present on Vitalogy or No Code. Backspacer is admittedly the first Pearl Jam record that has a couple tracks that still have not grown on me and that id skip over, such as “Johnny Guitar,” the bands weakest song lyrically stealing The Who’s “Pictures of Lilly” concept. Backspacer is simple upbeat record, but provides some of the best melodic rock in their entire catalog. I have many memories of taking trips to the beach in San Diego and Huntington while listening to it. The record itself has a very bright and sunny oceanic sound. At the time I was in a place where I probably would have related more to broken hearted music but I think the optimism of this record was what I needed. I certainly wasnt in love with anyone but I loved Pearl Jam, I loved my friends and family and I loved the air i was breathing and ocean i was swimming in. I think there was plenty in life to still be thankful for and I think thats what this record is about and it helped remind me of that. I think the record sounds great, at times i think a little too good, but even punk rock bands like Ramones had their glossy pop driven records. With the band now approaching 20 years together, Pearl Jam have definitely established their name as an experienced band that lives for their fans and their live shows. Like their self titled record, not much is known of the tracks that were left off the record other than at least 6 songs were not included on Backspacer. At least one of those songs was included on the bands next record. Other known songs are “Santa Cruz”, “Santa God”, and the McCready sung “Turning Mist”. Hmm.. Seems the band is saving these tracks for something My favorite tracks are “Gonna See My Friend”, “The Fixer”, “Amongst The Waves”, “Unthought Known”, “Force of Nature”, “The End”. If you like Ben Harper, Mad Season, Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden, Brad, X, Foo Fighters, Candlebox, Hater, The Rockfords, U2, The Knack, Guided By Voices, The Police, Buzzcocks, Bruce Springsteen, The Kinks, R.E.M., Split Enz, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, Skin Yard, Ramones, Joe Strummer, The Rolling Stones, Oasis, Buffalo Tom, Devo, Temple of the Dog, My Morning Jacket, Neil Young, Counting Crows, Soul Asylum, Our Lady Peace, The Who, Kansas, Van Halen, John Doe, Three Fish, or Wellwater Conspiracy you will love this record.

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Task 1 Overview: ‘Create a contrasting section for an existing song, such as a bridge’  25/09/2017

 hWe had to form groups of a minimum of 4 people and a maximum of five. I was working in a group of five, Tilly Stanton, Leigh Wyatt, Aaron Eagles, Flora Oakwood and myself, Bridget Holmes.

In our groups, we could either pick our own choice of song that we knew in two versions, or we could use examples given in our lecture. The song had to be interesting to re-arrange and reinvent.   Some of the lecture examples were, 

Otis Redding, “The dock of the bay”. 

This was a good example because it has a very simple structure of verse and chorus alternating with not much of a variation in melody between them. When the bridge section begins there is a lyrical change of focus and a new sense of movement in the song. This is seen in how the verse and chorus  lyrics are very stationary, he is still observing a scene, “Sitting on the dock of the bay”, 

This is a direct contrast to the lyrical focus and melody in the bridge section.

“ Look like nothing's gonna change Everything still remains the same I can't do what ten people tell me to do So I guess I'll remain the same, yes “

Suddenly you can hear frustration rather than passivity in the lyrics. The persona seems to be fed up of this stationary constant we hear about in the verse and chorus. The more decorated melody and stronger singing style in this section also enhances the frustration in the lyrics.

I feel this is a very good use of a contrasting section in a song, it offers a new perspective and melodic excitement. Despite the difference in the bridge section, the song is still very simple and there would be some good opportunities to add new sections and ideas into the song.

Some other good examples shown to us in our lecture were,

Rhianna, Featuring Calvin Harris “We Found love”

The bridge section in “We Found Love” has a similar new musical impact and emotional perspective as seen in “Sitting on the dock of the bay”, despite being an entirely different genre. 

The example in our lecture my group decided to work on was The Animals “House of the rising sun”, however, my group decided that we should adapt the Bob Dylan version instead. 

My group began this task by discussing the instrumentation we could use.  Tilly Stanton knew the song the most, so put forward being lead vocal. We had three guitar players in our group (Tilly Stanton, Leigh Wyatt and Flora Oakwood) so Tilly played bass because there would be a better differentiation of sound in our recording.  Leigh Wyatt played lead guitar on an electric, Flora Oakwood played acoustic rhythm guitar and I played keyboard and flute.

We decided to learn the song in its original entirety first. Not all of us had heard the song before, so this was a chance to get to know it better before we worked on our new section. 

The chords and structure of Bob Dylan's version are: 

Intro: Am C D F Am E Am Am        C              D        F       Am        C     E   There is a house down in New Orleans they call the rising sun         Am      C        D           F        Am   E        Am And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl and me, oh God, I'm one. My mother was a tailor, she sowed these new blue jeans My sweetheart was a gambler, Lord, down in New Orleans. Now the only thing a gambler needs is a suitcase and a trunk And the only time when he's satisfied is when he's on a drunk. He fills his glasses up to the brim and he'll pass the cards around And the only pleasure he gets out of life is rambling from town to town Oh tell my baby sister not to do what I have done But shun that house in New Orleans they call the rising sun. Well with one foot on the platform and the other foot on the train I'm going back to New Orleans to wear that ball and chain. I'm going back to New Orleans, my race is almost run I'm going back to end my life down in the rising sun. There is a house in New Orleans they call the rising sun And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl and me, oh God, I'm one.

There is no specific chorus, but the title lyric “ house of the rising sun” is repeated in most verses. However, every verse is sung a little differently to keep up interest. The rather repetitive structure in this version gave us a lot of scope to add a new section/sections to this piece.

Our final structure of the piece is a mix of Bob Dylan, The Animals and of course our own version-

Intro (Amin, C, D, F, Amin, E, Amin, E) 

Verse one ( Amin, C, D, F, Amin, C, E, C, D, F, Amin, E, Amin, E)

verse two ( same progression as verse one)

Link into new section ( Amin, E, A min, E,)

New section/flute solo (Amin, C, D, F, Dmin, Emin F, Dmin, Emin, F) 

New section/guitar solo (Amin, C, D, F, Amin, E, Amin, E)

New section/ new lyrics/ verse three (same as other verses)

Outro/ (Amin, E, Amin-, Amin, E, F- , Dmin, Emin, F-, Dmin, Emin F-

New sections

We added a flute solo at the end of verse two, which plays a folky rendition of the verse melody with some improvisation also. The chords underneath the flute solo change from the original ones. (Dmin, Emin, F x2) 

This section is followed by a guitar solo, which removes the listener from the folky sound and brings in a more modern perspective to the piece. We used the music and orchestration to give a change of focus, rather than the lyrics initially. 

Verse 3- Aaron Eagles’ wrote some new lyrics for our 3rd and final verse. This final verse has a pulled back feel after the guitar solo. The guitar solo pulls with the timing ever so slightly, which I feel is very effective in making this verse stand out as a new idea. I feel Aarons lyrics create a new perspective in this section, with his use of the first-person narrative “I'm addicted”, “i can't hide”. These are the first lyrics in our version of the song that are directly about the main persona, “i”. These lyrics show the most extreme sense of helplessness and frustration so far in the song i feel. This is similar to the example used in “ sitting on the dock of the bay”. Both songs save the new development sections to show the personas most raw emotions, both lyrically and vocally. Tilly sings in a far more raspy voice by the end, which is very successful in bringing the lyrics to life and making them sound believable. 

(A picture of our new chord progression and Aarons’ verse 3 lyrics) 

The 3rd verse is brought to an outro, which is made up of the repetition of the line “house of the rising sun” with slight different melodic ideas under new changing chords. This effectively gives a very big ending, which is in contrast with the rest of the piece which flows into itself throughout the verses.

Our orchestration -

Flora’s acoustic guitar was used to add more texture to the existing chordal instruments. She wasn't originally going to play, but we decided to add her acoustic guitar when the piano drops out when the flute section begins ( this is because i play both instruments and could do so at the same time). Flora’s guitar enhances the richness of the piece and disguises the keyboard part dropping out. On my keyboard, we decided to use a synth sound rather than the traditional piano. This was because it helped blend into the other instruments better than the sound of a piano. It also added to the bass part by creating a fuller sound. For the flute solo, I used different timbre and octaves on the flute to deliver more interest in the solo. Following the flute solo, there is the electric guitar solo, which consists of an arpeggiated ostinato riff being played using the chords of the intro. This is effective because it adds a modern timbre after the more traditional, folk flute solo. After the guitar solo, all the instruments are back in for one final verse. 

Our recording process -

 We didn't have enough time in our rehearsal to complete the final recording, so we decided to record what we had done so far t the end of our rehearsal to show evidence of our process. Leigh Wyatt said instead of us trying to record live, we should record ourselves individually and send the parts to him so he could create a final mix of the piece by using Cubase, Garageband and Pod farm. This helped to tighten up the structure and enhance the sounds of each instrumental part.

Cubase was used for the general mixing and construction of the song, allowing Leigh to add effects, eq, vst instruments, adjust levels and edit stem files. Leigh also used automation to change the time signature from 3/4 to 4/4 common time.

Leigh creatively added to the peice using Garageband. This was done with his use of vst instruments which changed the sounds and by adding effects.  

He used podfarm for recording guitar parts. He was able to change the tone of the guitar by adjusting settings on a digital amp or by add effects like reverb and delay. Then he concluded by recording this directly into Cubase for later mixing. 

Here are some photos for evidence of Leigh's mixing process using the three different music software.

The first 4 images show Leigh’s work and progress on Cubase. He is adding and building up the samples. Also the 4th picture shows Leigh editing the guitar sounds in the recording. 

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The next picture shows Leigh’s work on Garage band. He is applying the vst sounds, creating a richer sounding instrumentation. 

Finally evidence of Leigh using Pod farm. He is selecting the amp he wants to use in the final recording.

To conclude I feel we completed the task well considering the short time frame. The final comments we received from Chloe and the class implied maybe the flute wasn't the most fitting sound. Normally flutes are associated with happy or feminine things. However I liked the irony of using the flute, I feel high sounds can add a sense of heightened emotional and make you potentially feel uncomfortable. I felt it tied in well in that respect. 

I feel the flute was more appropriate in our first live recording. We were developing the Bob Dylan version, which is folk, so I thought the flute would be fitting. 

Since the final mix, I do see how the flute doesn't sit with the genre so well, The final mix is very modern and digital sounding. I personally like the mix of genres especially commencing the flute solo, in the very edited guitar solo. Chloe said the piece needs developing further, possibly another flute section at the end and more verses.

Another criticism was that the final verse we wrote the lyrics to, could have had more variation from the original tune. This is something as a group we could expand on.