#they truly are incredible and the way they continue to produce new music and unashamedly play them in their sets is something ive always -

[rebellionbeach]

Seeing Deep Purple for the last time this weekend...i don't know how I'll survive without seeing them anymore :'(

[all-brown-everything]

My favourite Indian films of 2018

Sorry for the wait this year. 2018 in the movies mirrored my own life a lot; the films on the list are films to love, make you feel something human, and they force you to take their characters and hold them close to your chest as if they were your own. While the most interesting mainstream movies from South Asia over previous years on this blog have excelled when they chose to experiment with the language of cinema itself, the 10 I’ve written about here have, similar to great literature, embraced pain, longing, love and everything else that comes with being alive.

10. Theevandi

I’ve seen this film being described as an “anti-smoking movie.” I couldn’t disagree more. It’s a story about the nature of habit (rather than the disease of ‘addiction’), of locating the source of your personality, your soul, and trying to change it against the will of nature. During my time in India this year, nothing brought more joy than an ice burst and cutting tea at the side of the road, perching on the side of the pavement and watching life carry on around you. And while this is a film with a main character who wants to quit smoking, it isn’t about cancer. It isn’t about that horrible sooty smell at the end of your fingers, or yellowing teeth or a decreased sperm count. It’s about how something as innocuous as a tube of rolled up tobacco hanging out of your mouth can act as a fragile crutch for the entire weight of the world.

9. Laila Majnu

Like many of my favourites this year (and every year), this re-telling of one of South Asia’s most important romances wants to know what love is. Here, we see love not as a generous, giving emotion, but as pure greed. With one of Bollywood’s most gorgeous soundtracks, that bleeds furiously out of every frame, and a constant sparkling gleam of glamour over these gorgeous young actors and the Kashmiri hills they prance around in, I enjoyed this enough just based on the commercial tropes it toys with for fun. But its real beauty lies in its brave and painful final declaration; that the most divine love may connect you to God and remove your soul from your body, but it will destroy you and your connections to the Earth, as the cruelest form of asceticism.

8. Cake

I’m including a Pakistani movie (again) because our film industries were birthed under one national identity, and I don’t see the studios of Karachi as any more culturally distant from Mumbai’s Film City than Kodambakkam. Moving to Cake, this stunning portrait of a dysfunctional family surprised me against all my instincts that it was a Western-facing production clearly aimed at piercing its way into festivals and a patronising ‘World Cinema’ bracket. It is in fact, a study of shifting societal politics in an increasingly extreme and polarised World, of figuring out where your values stand in the midst of religion, feudalism and globalisation, and accepting that when these heavy, abstract concepts weigh down on your shoulders, it is the human beings around you who will feel the strain first.

7. Golak, Bugni, Bank Te Batua

I really love Punjabi cinema. Seeing it come into its own and reclaim its cultural narratives and aesthetics from bastardizing Bollywood (where now even a film set in rural Gujarat will feature a Punjabi language song) has brought a lot of joy. Now here comes a  happy little film not set on preaching the glory of Sikkhi or telling an epic tale of brave warriors or earnest farmers, but on bringing us into the lives of a middle class Hindu Punjabi family in a small mohalla of a tier 2 city. And these aren’t the Hindu “Punjabis” of a Bollywood movie set in Chandni Chowk, who might throw in a “tussi” or “tuadi” here and there at the most. These are real people with a real culture, as intertwined with Punjab and their Sikh neighbours as they are separate. The film doesn’t patronise them by drawing humour from their novel identity; the situational character-based slapstick and witty back-and-forth theatrical dialogues exist in a warm parallel with the “World” of the movie. And then the lives of these people change in one instant as demonetisation hits, and we are hilariously reminded that whether you’re Hindu or Sikh, Northern or Southern, you are (unfortunately) still in India.

6. C/o Kancharapalem

I won't say this film stood out as a "Telugu movie", as such slight, subtle films are an anomaly no matter what language they're made in or how brash those other films produced in the same mother tongue may be. These small and quiet tales, with their shy characters who live at the fringes of society, whether that mean they are Muslim prostitutes or simple middle class teachers carving out a living in a small village, are special because they manage to transmit such humanity without stirring from the dark alleyways or shaded courtyards where they take place. Not every film needs to stand tall like an intimdsting Tolstoy tome; some can be as unassuming as an RK Narayan novella and still make us feel like they're an epic.

5. Pyaar Prema Kaadhal

Let's be honest. Casting two leads from a reality show, putting heart shaped balloons in your posters and deciding on the title "Love, Love, Love" pretty much screams "trash" doesn't it? But here was a humbling reminder that Indian popular culture can surprise you in the most pleasant of ways. These two good-looking young wannabe-stars and their social media followings represent so much about the "new India", a steadfastly singular culture (or cultures) whizzing through the fiery hoops of globalisation at breakneck speed, coming to terms with a mixed up value system, raging sexual frustration and an ever widening class gap, all of which have left a generation feeling more connected yet more alienated than ever before. This is 'Pyaar, Prema, Kaadhal', a flawed and horny love story, sweating with tension and all the repulsive angst of human emotion, yet with the glamorous musical heart of Indian cinema still beating loudly underneath.

4. Manmarziyaan

There was as much to love about 'Manmarziyaan' as there was to hate. The age-old filmi love triangle rears its head again, only this time with characters who are more manipulative and frustrating than any you've seen in a "mainstream" movie before. But while the film never forces you to judge (at times leaving you confused about whether you're actually supposed to like any of these people) it demands that you engage. It's encouraged some of the finest writing on cinema I've seen in recent years, and such an unashamedly "Bollywood" film inspiring this thrilling thought and analysis from our finest critics (whether their judgement is kind or not) warrants its inclusion on this list alone. Then there's the way its incredible soundtrack weaves in and out of scenes like the characters own breaths, the way life changing moments are obscured from the script by deafening silences and acutely observed minutiae, and of course THAT lead performance. I'm not sure if I "liked" it or not, but I sure as hell can't wait to watch it again.

3. Pari

The better the film, the harder it is to write about. 'Pari' is rich with metaphor. While being a ghost story (and a damn good one) merely on the surface, it has plenty to say about the way our society treats women, poses the question of if we can truly be born evil, and even critiques our savage treatment of "the other" in a global society where more of us are on the run than settled in our homes. But I think its biggest strength is that while it challenges you to reach into the very centre of your being and take a look at yourself and the World around you, its craft and screenwriting is so good that not at any moment does it give you a second to realise that's what you're doing.

2. Rangasthalam

'Rangasthalam' is so great. Like really really great. Once an innocuous muscle man, Ram Charan has channelled his inner Dhanush and located his physicality, writhing and slanging his way into the mind and body of the quintessential South Indian rural hero, hoisting his lungi and flicking his beedi into one of the most visceral and truly cinematic masala movies in living memory. The thumping pace and kinetic choreography (both of the rousing song sequences and the busy, lived-in frames of the rest of the movie) evoke a dusty, violent world with the same panache of Ameer in 'Paruthiveeran' or Sasikumar in 'Subramaniyapuram', while the moustache twirling dialogues and meticulous emotional beats offer as much pure fun as a "Dabangg" or a "Khakee" or any classic Hindi masala movie. I've read pieces linking the cinema of 'Rangasthalam' to film noir traditions, but to me it simply proved that the masala genre still has as much excitement to offer as any other.

1. Mukkabaaz

I'll remember 2018 as the year that Anurag Kashyap, previously India's frontrunner in the realm of "interesting" (but more often headscatching) cinema, stopped thinking with his very big brain and instead used his even bigger heart. His most straightforward film is undoubtedly his best, Hollywood-esque in its writing but firmly Indian in its sentiment. The scale is small - empty boxing arenas, bleak winding village paths and a cast plucked from the TV screen - but its emotions are pure opera. This is a timeless film, and though it laughs at the ridiculousness of modern India, poking a nasty smug finger at caste oppression, petty politics and the bureaucratic nightmare of simply trying to stay alive, it defies analysis. Much like the song at the centre of the story, the violently stunning 'Paintra', it only asks that you feel. And what more could we want from cinema?

I've had so much fun at the movies this year. From dancing to Dilbar in the cheap seats of G7 in Bandra to reciting Dhanush's Maari 2 dialogues at the bus stop outside Ilford Cineworld, Indian movies have continued to punctuate my life and bring me more joy than they have any right to. I can't wait to do this all again this year. What were the films that stirred you over the last 12 months? Let me know. Xx

[floofsta-x]

I Stan Monsta X, Part One of a Series

A rather detailed and insightful guide as to why a music major in college might listen to Monsta X 24/7 instead of classical or Jazz, like she “should”, and justifiably defends it

Under the cut, one shall find the detailed transcriptions, points of awe, and cold, hard facts (not to mention gushing, but that’s uh not important) as to why Monsta X keeps my brain engaged and ears happy.

All logic and transcriptions presented in this are mine! I henceforth give monbebe permission to use these in their own defense! (Like we’d ever need to produce musical reasons to stan our seven beautiful, handsome boys though, amirite?)

Without further ado!

In this post: An Introduction to me, plus reasons why I love the rap line

♪ #00: Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Bryony, and I am a twenty year old girl from the midwest USA, Colorado and Nebraska to be more exact. Really, I’m just another young woman trying to make her way through school and one day, hold a steady paying job and make something of her life.

I decided quite early on that when I graduated High School and went on to post-secondary (college or university), I would pursue a degree in music. I’ve always absolutely adored making others happy via the performing arts; I stood on stage with elite children’s choirs in elementary school, and later started doing local theater productions and joined my small town’s Master Chorale. I only found my true love, however, when I entered fifth grade and picked up a clarinet for the first time. It wasn’t long before I was fully involved in musical activities all around, playing in band and singing in choir. I even learned saxophone so I could start playing Jazz. To boot, I was good at it. The pinnacle of my high school career was being selected to Colorado All-State Band and Colorado All-State Choir in the same year, and attending both.

However, what I thought I knew in high school came nowhere near what awaited me in college. I chose my undergraduate school because of the stellar teaching and strong faculty mentor and leadership at a particularly low cost, and I am confident that this was the correct move. I have been loving it, as much as before, but also found myself constantly challenged. I have been slowly engraining and applying my new understanding of music theory, structure, and harmony.

As a music major, I have been finding that even in my arbitrary, everyday listening, I actively seek out the elements that intrigue me in the genres I love. This includes one of my biggest, Korean Pop. Ever since becoming a full time lover and fan of it last November, questions have been floating around in my head, musings related to if the music itself, meaning notes, rhythms, harmony, melody, etc. of these beloved groups plays a major part in their popularity. Also, how the music industry over in South Korea affects the basic elements, and what gives each group their distinctive sound.

I’m not the type to have a favorite K-Pop group just because, and also, not just on the basis of the members or popularity. Yes, I giggle over the boys and their antics just like any other crazy kpop stan, and I’m always pressing for more recognition for my under-appreciated faves, but that is only a small part. I focus on the music itself a lot. I’ve never called myself an analyst, but as I said before, when you’re immersed in music like I am, you start to pick apart what you listen to.

I’ve explored the discography of many, many groups. All of them thus far have intrigued me, and I love them to a greater or lesser extent. This includes smaller groups like Boys Republic, 24K, BOYFRIEND, and Cross Gene, as well as ones with bigger fanbases like Super Junior, BTS (Bangtan Boys), EXO, and VIXX. However, there is one group whose music gets stuck in my head more than the rest, one group whose discography is stellar in every way.

That group is Monsta X.

They may be my bias group, but they weren’t my first exposure. Before I even was truly interested in K-Pop, I listened to BIGBANG. Also, I heard a few of EXO and BTS’s songs via my little sister. Today, I still often listen to them, but I keep going back to Starship’s premier hip-hop group. Time and again, Monsta X has proven themselves a cut above the rest.

I want to take a series of posts like this to talk about why, musically, this is. My intention is not to put any other groups down; I love them for different, individual reasons. Instead, I want to lay out things I’ve come to love and appreciate about the seven talented young men whom STARSHIP chose above the rest, in the brutal survival show NO.MERCY. These boys have, over the last two years, fused into the close-knit and hardworking group we know them as today. 

Son Hyunwoo | Shownu, Leader, dancer, vocalist, variety show king.

Shin Hoseok | Wonho, Sound engineer, composer, dancer, vocalist, visual.

Yoo Kihyun, Lead vocalist, savage squid, honorary mom.

Lee Minhyuk, Face of the group, vocalist, visual.

Chae Hyungwon, Model, vocalist, dancer, visual, actor.

Lee Jooheon, Rapper, marvelous singing voice, well-connected, cute off stage but fierce on it.

and finally, Im Changkyun | I.M, maknae, rapper, latecomer to No.Mercy but now loved by all.

These seven have captured my heart. So has their music. And without further ado and beating around the bush, here’s why.

♪ #01: The Rap Line

Ok, so I would like to start in a way that, if you know me, is no surprise. See, I am Jooheon biased (he’s also my ultimate, I will admit this quite unashamedly), and I adore his rap game. One of the few things I am not good at is rap, and I think that because I can’t identify, I admire him so much more.

It’s clear that Jooheon has an intense love for what he does. This plays directly into his famous ‘frightening on stage, adorable off of it’ personality. Performing really changes him. Jooheon is so heavily pushed and heaped responsibility upon, a fact that pains me every day. Any person with less of a love for the music, I imagine, would break under the strain. I can see no other motivation for him to continue than his passion for performing and making others happy with his raps. (He’s stated as much, in that last No.Exit broadcast we never mention because Matthew.)

I.M too, the younger one in the rapper line, has an obvious passion for it as well. Just the fact that he’s stayed on and become as beloved as he is among his hyungs is testament to that. He is just as talented a rapper as Jooheon is; I’ll even go out on a limb here and say that he might have more untapped potential.

I have been absolutely loving trying to work out the rhythms they use between the two of them in Monsta X’s tracks. Let’s break one down, how does that sound? We’ll analyze some of their best raps in the last two years. I’m going to start out intensely, at the beginning of MX’s latest title track, 아름다워 (Beautiful).

Of course Blue is Jooheon and Green is IM. Click here for a larger version. (I’ve also posted this as a separate post, I got a little impatient, admittedly, lmao.) It may have some errors, I believe at the very end of each’s phrases–depending on length of syllables, the eighth notes might not be quite on-dot, “straight”.

Now at first this doesn’t seem complicated, right? It’s just a whole bunch of eighth notes and some variations on sixteenths; admittedly, rhythm isn’t all that impressive written out on a staff.

But let’s consider some other factors here:

That the tempo is 150bpm. This is very quick, In classical terms, it’s called Presto or Vivace.

These boys are sometimes fitting SIX OR SEVEN SYLLABLES into a time span of ONE SECOND. (Here’s how I figured this out, in short: bpm=beats per minute. there are 60 seconds in a minute. 150/60=2.5. So, two and a half beats [a half note + an eighth note] is equivalent to one second.)

That they’re doing it clearly enough to be understood, the rhythm is pleasant to the ear, and a trained musician like myself can follow it. 

They wrote these lyrics themselves, and (I’m sure) painstakingly planned out where every syllable would be placed before stepping foot in the recording studio.

And then afterwards, they memorize and remember their raps for live performances.

This is, to me, what is truly impressive about that jumble of notes and colors up there. Any trained Kpop rapper is fully capable of it, but Jooheon and IM have taken this art to the next level. 

Last, but not least, their raps are coordinated not only in feel and sound, but also in lyric. Here are the English translations:

[Jooheon]

Why is it you? I’m going crazy What is this? I think I’ve fallen for you All day, in my head Round and round it goes A question mark, every day I know you have thorns But I want you, red rose

[I.M]

Because of the thorns A beautiful rose can bloom Dark red flowers, it means I love you Even if I bleed everywhere, I wanna know you Cause I think about you errday I’m already addicted to you

Jooheon sets up the opening idea that this song is about being madly in love, crazily in love–and then hits upon the idea of the object of his affections being like a rose.

Changkyun then takes Jooheon’s last two lines and runs away with them, connecting rose with red with blood and going back to the crazy idea–addiction, we consider addicts mentally ill. 

I regret not being able to get a feel for the lyrics in the original language–this to me is part of the problem of being an international fan, no matter how hard I try to learn the language, both spoken and written, I will probably never be able to think entirely in Korean. I will always be trying to connect back to English, my primary language.

Then there’s the second break, which goes something like this:

(full resolution.) It’s only eight measures, but just look at that relentless rhythm. Any normal person would trip over their own tongue; I know I do. The sheer clarity of everything at this incredible speed is breathtaking.

The lyrics line up too:

[I.M]

Two fingers thumbs up You make me say words of awe, You take away my right mind I think I’ll go crazy When I smell your scent

[Jooheon]

It spreads, it grows I’m addicted I’m prickled, hurt It’s between love and pain You’re so awesome

If I hadn’t separated their lines, I could believe that they were written by the same person; again, we have the concurring themes of deep, “crazy” love, and the rose (Changkyun’s ‘scent’ and Jooheon’s ‘prickled’).

It seems hard to believe that two years ago there was hostility between these two. Monbebe know the story–the show that made them a group, No.Mercy, was very high stakes. In a spur-of-the-moment decision, after a round of especially tough elimination, Starship Entertainment authority decided to throw I.M into the show and among the trainees. He was new, unfamiliar, and to boot, the youngest of them all. This situation was not good for anyone. However Changkyun was clearly destined to be there, and he had a good heart and persevered. 

Anything could have gone wrong–but once the two boys started talking to each other and got their initial feelings out of the way, magic happened. Now Changkyun and Jooheon are best friends, to the point that they’re not afraid to play off each other in the recording studio and in the planning stages of a song, working as a rapper line instead of just two talented rappers.

They’re also growing as artists and musicians, something that becomes very clear when one listens to Changkyun’s rapping at debut / during No.Mercy compared to now. It’s obvious that he’s put a lot of himself into it, and has promised to continue to do so. I am truly excited to see more from him in the future.

The close lyric coordination is a fairly recent development, but the fast rapping isn’t! I’m going to continue really intensely with another very impressive track, 네게만 집착해, Stuck (Focus on You), from The Clan Pt. 1.

(full resolution.) Alright, trust me guys when I say that transcribing this took absolutely FOREVER. I literally went on Youtube, tried it at full speed, and gave up after like five bars. So I slowed it down by a quarter. Still gave up. So I went down to half speed and finally felt comfortable there. Now that I have it all written out it makes sense, but at first I was floundering for rhythm. I will admit that I’m not very experienced yet, so some trouble was because of that. However also this part goes by so fast! Even after something like 45-50 times listening to Changkyun’s part on slow speed, I had to physically direct and place downbeats (the first beat of every measure) to piece everything together. Anyways,

If you thought that the rhythm before was relentless? Well feast your eyes on this one. (Also! Listen to Changkyun’s huge catch-breath in the last couple bars, on the quarter rest!) Stuck is right around the same speed as Beautiful, perhaps a little slower, but the subdivisions that Jooheon and IM use are smaller. Good God, they are both fitting ten syllables into a scant second at the beginning of their breaks, using running sixteenth notes and also, in Jooheon’s case, triplets. Honestly, I believe that triplets are not used enough in rap. The MX rap line actually break into them a lot; that’s one of the things that I love about them.

This section provides a nice contrast to the almost laid-back feel of the chorus. Also I think that Jooheon and Changkyun’s quick rapping is a great amplifier to Hyungwon’s part in the verse before, which is really half sung, half rapped. 

I never really realized exactly how fast this was until the other day, I was listening to a YouTube compilation of favorite parts from Kpop boy band songs. The video was a good fifteen to twenty minutes long, and Stuck was right in the middle. They had picked the rap part (who wouldn’t, honestly?) and it caught me off-guard. Compared to Stuck, everything before and after seemed so slow. For the rest of the night, I paid close attention to the rapping in things I watched. Nothing was as quick. Certain things might have had beats close to 145, but no one used sixteenth note subdivision, with the exception of TOP’s Doom Dada (a legendary rap track, honestly) and a few of G-Dragon’s singles.

Why are some of the words underlined in red? Well my lovely reader, those are combination syllables, meaning that Jooheon or IM have combined two separate syllabic sounds from two different words into one. Choral music often does this in order to make a pre-existing text fit a rhythm. It's not just because, or at random, though. The audience must still be able to understand, and the choice must make sense in the context of the rhythm and lyrics. Combination syllables tend to work better on longer notes, or nestled between longer notes. 

That said, I find it interesting that Jooheon tends to use the former technique. The first time that he twists syllables together, his chosen rhythm ties across the barline. This is a common occurrence, even in the music I sing in English, and if one considers that the fundamental sounds of language are common between many people and cultures, it makes perfect sense. The second time (the quarter note) he carries over the t in the last triplet. So it’s more like he’s saying ‘teois’ than anything else.

This is actually also common choral practice. It’s bad form to change to a consonant (or change vowel shape) in the middle of a note, so we often delay it until the next one. It’s generally more clear that way. So if one’s supposed to sing ‘bitten’ on two notes, for example, we prefer ‘bi-tten’ over ‘bit-ten’. (This happens quite a few times during the duration of this rap. I got some of them, but others (like what I just mentioned) I didn’t quite catch.)

Changkyun, on the other hand, likes to combine on the sixteenths. His ‘yoeop’ could almost be transcribed as two notes. ‘eoan’, by contrast is very quick. I have to purposefully listen for it.

I often wonder what the creation process is like with Jooheon and Changkyun. Do they write something and fit all the words in their allotted time? Or do they construct a rhythm from the beat and write lyrics over it? If I had a little while with these two (which would be heaven on Earth, honestly) I would have so many questions to ask! As a classical musician, this genuinely intrigues me. 

That said, the stage is a whole different ballgame than the recording booth. Of course, during promotions and performances and things like that, the boys are doing music that they’ve rehearsed hundreds of times, poured their entire heart and soul into, and they know like the back of their hand. I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both the boys rap lyrics to Beautiful, Ready or Not, or Hero in their sleep, lmao. But when it comes to special performances, to be able to do them in a classy way is quite hard. 

And at this, too, Jooheon and I.M succeed with flying colors.

How about we take their collaboration with Soyou and Hyolyn of SISTAR from last year’s MBC Music Festival? 섹시한 남자 (Sexy Guy), wasn’t it? Their rap break right after Soyou’s slow intro is pretty impressive to me. 

Since I don’t have reliable romanizations and I don’t trust myself to do my own, I’ll just present the rhythm as I hear it. 

(full resolution.) As always, Jooheon is blue, I.M is green. There’s a blue-green color too, I’m not sure how well you’ll be able to see it but that is the two of them together. Notice that this isn’t any less amazing than the raps they do over recording. Every time I listen to one of these one-shots (which they are!), I’m truly impressed at the level of detail in every word, every sound that comes out of their mouth. 

This time, it’s Changkyun doing the triplets! And Jooheon has a thirty-secondth note in his part. If you notice the tempo, we’re a little slower here than in Beautiful and Stuck, so it gives him room to do that. Still, it’s very impressive. Most classical musicians would balk at the thirty-secondth.

I don’t believe that they’ve performed this rap since the 31st of December (last year, 2016). They must have planned it out beforehand, however, considering what I said before, that Jooheon and I.M have phrases together, especially the last four syllables at the end. I wonder how many hours they spent on it. 

Things get even more crazy when one starts to think about how they also had to learn and perfect choreography along with the backup dancers, Hyolyn, and Soyou. They really must know how to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of a day. I am, admittedly, envious. 

Alright! Well, I could honestly go on all day. Transcribing raps is one of the most entertaining things I’ve ever done (even if I do have to listen to Jooheon and Changkyun at half speed for an hour or more) and it really gives me heart eyes for my boys. I think that you’ve had about enough of my rambling though, right? 

I really hope that you enjoyed this. If there’s something you would like to add, correct, or request of me (as I start doing transpositions of entire MX songs ahhhh) don’t be afraid to drop into my ask box! Really, I’m down to gush over things like this anytime. My love of music runs so deep and I am really excited to connect it back to another one of my passions, Monsta X (and also kpop in general). 

Until next time! 

–Bryony ( @floofta-x )

Next: The wonderful that is the Monsta X Vocal Line (and not-so-vocal but vocal nonetheless line)