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The 1975 – Head.Cars.Bending

Monday, March 25, 2013

For the life of me I can’t figure out why these guys would go with The 1975 for the name of their band.

I’m not a music historian by any means, but I can’t think of one antecedent from that year or any other in the decade it’s smack dab in the middle of that this act harkens back to. No, these guys are thoroughly modern in sound and sensibility. Like so many young men from this generation – my generation, and probably your generation as well = they’re equally obsessed with matters of the body, the mind, and the heart. The former is represented by their sonics and their catalog of releases. (I found over the course my of research I was doing to prep for this writeup that the first two releases from the band were the Facedown EP and Sex EP. They don’t mince their words.) The latter is evidenced in their words and vocals.

Let me break it down. An almost too pretty organ sounding line opens the thing up before it reveals itself to be a tone prone to manipulation. The programmed dum beats tread in lightly, clapping and tapping in more as a textrual element of the sound than as any kind of guiding rhythmic element. Then the primary motive, a distorted synth line, rolls in. The contour of the track is gently parabolic. Gentle curves up and down suggest movement while the sounds and instruments impart some physicality. These guys are having fun with their compositions too. The bass tones are positively buoyant and the group have a tendency for deployin unorthodox samples. The sounds of breaking glass, bubbles busting,

And the vocals! Singer Matthew Healy cribs from M83’s playbook in the choruses, really straining for those emotional highs. But he’s smart enough to use this sparingly, utilizing a more conversational style and letting the charm of his English-accented intonations do a lot of the heavy lifting in the verses.

Can we hold on?
Can we stay till the end?
Forgone.
Write another song about your friends.”

The whole thing is wonderfully atmospheric and it has the potential to soundtrack nearly any mood or scenario. Perfect for post-young adulthood.

The 1975 – Head.Cars.Bending


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Fine Times – Hey Judas

Sunday, March 24, 2013

fine times hey judas

Youth is a precious commodity. I’m sorry, not a commodity. It’s not something you can really barter or buy, contrary to reams upon reams of glossy magazines and make up companies whose existence is predicated on a belief to the contrary.

Age is beyond appearance. It’s even beyond your feelings; you might be young at heart but that carries the implication that a whole lotta you ain’t. No, it’s the mind that makes us young. During our formative years, we simply don’t have a particularly deep well of experience to draw from.  More importantly, our brains simply aren’t that developed. At that precarious age, caught teetering on the precipice between our impending adulthood and having just shaken off the bonds of our salad days, most people simply don’t have the capacity for maturity. This lasts for a lot longer than one would figure, with people not realizing full mental maturity (in the physical sense) until their mid twenties. After that point, those that act childish are just that; acting.

I’ll get to the point. Fine Times aren’t role-playing with their rollicking, sweet single Hey Judas. This isn’t a lark back through their wilder years but a celebration of what they are – a epoch of good times and bad instincts. Jammed out major key harmonies coupled with some glistening synths keep this thing bubbling along while vocalist Matthew Moldwan sings paeans to being young and dumb.

You and me, deviants?
Possibly.
Talk me up, talk me up.
Cop a feel.
You and me,
We double-cross instinctively, but we don’t stop here.
Don’t stop it here.”

The chug-chug guitars harkens back to pop-punk, a genre that has engendered more anthems for the “I’ll need to see an ID” set. But Fine Times deftly mix their animated compositions with some adult sensibilities. The rhythms have more in common with the pop of the 60s and 70s than anything from today and the “Woah Woah”s have crossover generational appeal.

This is carrying me a couple of places. Forward, to somewhere sunny; backward, to my younger years; and to the all too present, to some less than admirable decisions. Ah well, good art is supposed to be complicated, right?

Fine Times – Hey Judas


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Gypsy & The Cat — Sorry

Saturday, March 23, 2013

ess, oh, double-R, why?”

“Sorry”, is the scientific collaboration between Melbourne DJ’s Xavier Bacash and Lionel Towers, aka: Gypsy & The Cat.  These two sound masters know things about music and sounds that maybe 1% of the music world understands, and even less of a percentage of the world will ever.  I have described a golden octave once or twice in my writings, so if you are paying attention, then you kind of know what I’m talking about, but, it goes beyond that.

In order to perfect a song one would have to know where things should sit for nearly the entire world.  By things, I’m referring to individual sounds like a Hi-hat, a snare, and most importantly: a vocal.

Voice leading is the relationship between the successive pitches of simultaneously moving parts or voices. For example, when moving from a C triad in the root position (a chordplayed, from the lowest pitch up: C–E–G) to an inverted F chord based on the same lowest pitch (C–F–A), one might say that the middle voice rises from E to F while the highest voice rises from G to A, this being a way to “lead” those voices. Instead of considering the two successive chords separately, one focuses on the “horizontal” (“temporal” or “linear”) continuity between notes in each voice. (Similar considerations apply to homophonic as well as polyphonic music.) When arranging in the Baroque, Bach-like style of harmony, the parallel movement of voices in octaves, in fifths, or in unison is to be avoided. However, popular and jazz music often contains voices moving in parallel octaves. A concern for easy voice-leading (easy, that is, for singers to read and follow) often leads to a predominance of stepwise motion and may assist or replace diatonic functionality.

Different cultures across the globe relate different sounds to their cultures.  African drums, Spanish guitars, French horns, the list is continuous.  The main reason for that is simply surroundings.  Now, let’s say we wanted to create the perfect song that the entire world could relate to.  Well, that feat would be nearly impossible because of all the different cultures and sounds.  How do you make the world like one song?  Balance.

Gypsy & The Cat have found that balance with Sorry.  It’s more mature than all of their other past records, and the tribal percussion undertone which sits perfectly positioned adds a signature touch of familiarity found in their native Australia that a lot of the rest of the planet will find just as moving.  The vocals, the ad libs and harmonies don’t compete for the same spaces, which is why each instrument and sound is so keenly heard.

‘This is only a very small piece of a giant rabbit hole.’

Excerpt from Marie Clarie Interview, October 11, 2010:

You’re classically trained? 

Yeah, I grew up playing a classical piano. If it wasn’t for Bach our music wouldn’t be where it is today. He sort of pioneered so many aspects of music. I could go into the technical jargon, but it would probably be above people’s heads.

Gypsy & The Cat — Sorry


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EMPT Presents Indaba Music Weekly: Iain Harper – Everybody Copes With

Friday, March 22, 2013

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Iain Harper is a Canadian producer, currently residing in the UK. Most of his productions center around American Hip-Hop, but the track “Everybody Copes With” breaks his usual mold and caught our ear. Owing an obvious debt to James Blake’s more dance oriented, shuffle hi-hatted productions ca. 2009, “Everybody Copes With” is an amazing collage of texture and rhythm. Smartly sampling a variety of different pieces (including D’Angelo’s opening a capella from his track “The Line”, perfectly placed), Iain shows off his ear for production.

You can find out more about Iain at his website and his Indaba profile.

Iain Harper-Everybody Copes With

Check out the other submissions from this month’s Et Musique Pour Tous feature submissions on Indaba Music here.


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Extraordinary Magnitude Vs. Blackstreet – No Diggity 2013

Friday, March 22, 2013

You’ve gotta have a grip of confidence if you think you can take on one of the great, enduring anthems of the 90s and actually elevate the proceedings, let along do it justice. I mean, come on! Outside of its chart and critical success, the legacy of No Diggity is largely a product of its crossover appeal. Doesn’t really matter what you’re into. Musically speaking, the track has something for you. Hard-nosed thuggery? Hey Dre. Deft lyricism? Queen Pen’s pretty nimble on the mic. Charm out the ying yang?

I like the way you work it
Trumped tight, all day, every day
You’re blowing my mind, maybe in time
Baby, I can get you in my ride.”

You tell me.

Which makes me a bit incredulous about how this mashup came to be. The way Extraordinary Magnitude, or Exmag depending on which URL corner you’re poking around, tells it, it was a happy accident. See, Exmag is a freshfaced young group who were hard at work on their upcoming album Proportions when they realized one of their instrumental tracks just so happened to mesh well with acapella track for the 90s R&B standard by Blackstreet. Convenient! Did I mention that Extraordinary Magnitude is the new side project from producer Gramatik and a few of his musically adept buddies?

No surprise then that this piece of audio populism works as well as it does. It sounds less like a “mashup” in the traditional sense and more like a jam session, where the original vocals are used as a frame upon which Exmag drape they funk fineries. The musicianship on display here is a bit staggering; every time I run though the track I catch another lick or bass line that I latch onto and nod along with, little marvels they are. And whenever the track reaches a bridge (or is it a second chorus?), the whole thing opens up in a full on funk explosion. Especially under Pen’s verse, that interplay between the clav and the guitar is butter smooth. A quick run up the keys here, a little nimble noodling there, light touches that make for quick counters and ripostes. That’s right. Real instruments, interacting with each other as though they were being played together live in the same room. Can you imagine?

Extraordinary Magnitude Vs. Blackstreet – No Diggity 2013


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Rhye – Open (WMNSTUDIES Bootleg)

Thursday, March 21, 2013

BreakThePattern

This has been one of those weeks where you don’t quite feel yourself, but you know that if you just change one thing about your day you’d be right on track. Changing that one thing, however, is one of the hardest things to do. If anything, your inability to activate change and prove mind over matter is highlighted during a week like this — and that can be quite shocking/illuminating/depressing. You know you want to be better, you wake up each morning thinking, “Today I will be better. I will do this. I will do that. I won’t do this. I won’t do that.” Yet, like clockwork you fall into a pattern. It’s in that moment just before your well-wishes from the morning disappear that you know you can’t shake your habits off. So you sleep, promising to yourself you’d be better tomorrow and the cycle begins again.

Today I woke up after my alarms, missed the time to go the gym, and normally that would bring me down, but I woke up with a different goal. I woke up wondering what a day would be like if I didn’t beat myself up over things I didn’t get done or should have been doing, and instead put my full focus on what’s before me and working until I feel in my gut that I can confidently stop and move on. Instead of thinking, “I will be best,” I’m opting to repeat, “I will be.” It’s open-ended for sure, but it has a more hopeful sound to it (and an oddly more pronounced presence than the former).

Rhye has been on my music loop for the past couple of weeks (to be honest, it was after this post). Their whole aesthetic is everything I love; black and white art, clean sans-serif text, hyper-sexual-yet-tasteful photos, and music that’s poppy, has its roots in electronica, and slips perfectly between tracks from The Weeknd and Cyril Hahn on a bedroom playlist. “Open” is their confessional. Repeating “I’m a fool for…” over and over again can quickly become cliche and clingy, but they manage to do it right. They manage to convey the foolishness in a way that’s wholeheartedly relatable. It’s like their feelings are too much to bottle up and rather than explode, they open the cap slowly and let them seep out.

WMNSTUDIES comes in and spins the track over a neo-disco beat complete with strings. Synths bounce and a pan-flute of all things floats through the sonic waves. There’s a moment from 2:20 – 2:30 where the synths descend into the depths of the track and Mike Milosh’s vocals are chopped up for a brief moment before the track resumes. It’s really magical — it’s a moment that makes you want to close your eyes and do whatever dance comes to mind.

If anything, this remix is not so much about getting the audience to feel for Milosh as it is getting the audience to open up with themselves and their environment. The beat is infectious and dance-y but not in an intimidating way. It’s a groove that anyone can easily get down to if they allow themselves. It’s a track about simply being present in the moment, in the sound. It’s not about being the best, it’s about being.

And that’s enough motivation to make today different than the others.

Rhye – Open (WMNSTUDIES Bootleg)

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Ginger & The Ghost – One Type Of Dark (Ta Ku Remix)

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Well, I’m in the spirit of summer right now regardless as to whether or not the temperature decides to remain neutral for the rest of the week. With the discovery of this song, my mind immediately goes to a warm place where there’s outdoor music and brews on hand. I’d love to know what kind of imagination and thought process went into the creation of this remix, because the biography for Ginger & The Ghost appears genuine and thought out. That is, their attention to their audience is inherent in the fact that imagination and spontaneity are taken into consideration during the song writing process. And we hope that this is the case all of the time, but it’s nice to hear artist(s) bring that to our attention.With that in mind, Ta Ku seemed to approach the earthy song with precision and sex appeal. I mean come on. You can’t doubt that this is the type of song you want to make space age babies to.

The strings are outlined with a heavy beat. If I were to draw the feeling out on paper, it would translate to the vocal samples spelled out in letters, drawn in black ink, with a neon blue highlighter colored over them. That’s how it feels in my head, with a strong underlying line of orchestral sound and rhythm that is constantly being counteracted by something beautifully fresh. The original song is a sonic and mysteriously delicate work. The voice itself is so strange and fragile, but beautiful, and makes for a great vocal sample in this remix. The strings you’ll hear in the beginning are taken from just one less noticeable part of the original, marking an excellent attention to detail from Ta Ku.

Is there just one type of dark?”

A question on darkness that lingers in the shadows of my mind, I’m left haunted and entranced after this song completes. It’s similar to the Jamie Woon remix that Hayden talked about a couple of weeks ago, where the combination of vocals and music end and leave us in a room with sound that was once bouncing off the walls. You already know you’re going to have this song on repeat, much like I have over the past couple of hours. And the best part is probably the body’s natural reaction, particularly if you’re alone. You may end up dancing the type of dance that makes you wish people could see you do all the time. It’s that body movement that you know only happens when you’re alone because it’s so uninhibited. It’s amazing but unfortunately, it only happens because you are alone. It probably won’t happen when you’re out with your homies this weekend. It’s okay, those moments are for you and they need to happen. So let this song be that moment.

Ginger & The Ghost – One Type Of Ghost (Ta Ku Remix)


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Purity Ring — Grammy (Soulja Boy Cover)

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

We don’t follow your norms.  We could care less what the rest of the world is “on” to, or even doing for that matter.  We control our own world, and you, are, a part of it.

Purity Ring dropped this crazy Soulja Boy cover of Grammy during the actual Grammy Week 2013.  Yea we heard it, and yea we’ve had it in our stash, but like most of the music we write about, we had to sit back and meditate on it for a second, let the sheep run around and post frantically in thoughtless form, as usual, and then come in and clean up the way we normally do, as expected.  So here you have it, as mentioned before: a crazy cover of Soulja Boy’s Grammy song that just flat out ROCKS!

Covers are a dime a dozen these days and it’s so hard to get one noticed unless you’re a hot chick with a video of yourself, and a guitar, strumming it along sensually via our youtube feeds, but Purity Ring approached this one exactly the way we did: they watched, they assessed, and then they filled a void rather than appeasing the peasants, providing our exquisite sonic palates with delicious boom baps that will make your mind blow; if not from the non-traditional approach of which song to cover, then from an outstanding vocal performance that leaves us feeling a multitude of emotions, and finds us chanting right along with our fists high up in the air a la The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) style.

Party like a rockstar

Hit em with the hot bars

Fast like a nascar”

Purity Ring — Grammy (Soulja Boy Cover)


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Enerate – Unstoppable

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Australia’s brought us another lovely acoustic synth pop group that caters to the bounce and cheer that we all need. This song is their pre-release single and the colors of the above image match the way the tune plasters itself to the walls of your brain. It’s hard to not love.

With a futuristic sound and spacey vocals, one might feel as if human flight is in fact possible. Maybe it is, just for today. I’m drawn to the breakdown actually which happens around the two minute mark. The bass, the synths that climb up and down, the zoom to the finish line where the vocals re-enter the picture. It makes for such happy music.

I guess I talk about happy music a lot, and I can’t help it. I think we all turn to music for different reasons, mostly for comfort and knowledge that someone else is creating something that is potentially fueled by an emotion that you are currently experiencing. And that’s great, for them and for us, because we can take solace in knowing that we are not alone. Our emotions are valid and justified, especially if someone else created a song that really truly embodies that emotion for us. It’s like poetry in the most sonic sense, because even if a song is absent of lyrics, we still get a certain mood from it. And you can’t help but imagine that the creator had that in mind — channeling your mood, as if moods were types of audiences that could be accessed. Some are better accessed than others. For me, happy songs resonate quickly, but sometimes it’s the sad songs that resonate longer. Actually, all the time. I rarely write about sad songs though. They’re just harder to talk about, because they’re different from person to person and case to case.

Let’s all just take this one and be happy about it, yeah? Enjoy.

Enerate – Unstoppable


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Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Waulking Song

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Oh man oh man oh man I’m so stoked about this track. I don’t know when I first heard it, I think it was New Years Eve to the credit of one of my favorite people. But it also might not have been New Years Eve, all I know is that someone played this song at some point in my apartment and I got really excited about it and then forgot all about it until last week. It came up on Spotify somehow and now I’m a pool of happy. Not only is it the perfect song to start your day in a really happy and positive way, sounds wise, but it’s just fantastic when you’re walking in New York City. You know one of those days where all you want to do is smile comfortably at everyone that walks by you because the music in your ears is working so well with the thoughts and feelings of your current body, and for whatever reason, you know that this song will hold a special place in your heart whenever it comes on your headphones next. I feel that way about very specific songs, this being one of them. Rilo Kiley’s, Silver Lining, also has a similar affect on me. Pata Pata by Miriam Makeba is another one. You probably get it by now.

I had this really lovely moment the other day while listening to this song on the subway. Mind you, the subway car I’d chosen to take reeked of feet the entire ride, but besides that, there were some really beautiful people seated on either side of me. This is one of those moments where you’re really thankful to be a blogger because when else would you get to write about beautiful people and have others read about it? There was a beautiful man with green eyes and silver-black dark hair, taller, in a clean cut creative professional outfit. A woman sat beside me with dreads down to her knees, lighter eyes, and rings on every single finger.  Although no missed connections happened, a smile glued to my face as I exited the train car. Walking through Brooklyn felt like a floating on a cloud, and I mean that in the most literal way. I kept getting distracted and then when I would return to the moment, it just made me happy and further encouraged the goofy smiling. I haven’t been that inexplicably happy in a while. I mean, I like to think of myself as a generally happy person, but I guess it had something to do with the energy of the people that surrounded me, and the energy that I was putting out, because everything felt in sync.

I know that’s silly to say, but how can you not acknowledge when a moment like that happens? And furthermore, when it happens while TEED is playing in your ears? I hope this happens for you, too. I know the weather’s been lousy, it’s not what we want or expect right now in this city. But here’s the thing: you have so much more to be happy about! So be happy about it. You guys are incredible.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Waulking Song


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