Experimentation in practice; Solo Bass and Vocals (Summertime by Nik West)

Only 30 seconds long, but quite amazing how it works so well with just vocals and an upright.
The phenomenal Nik West singing a personal favourite; Summertime from the classic Jazz Opera Porgy & Bess.

Movie Soundtracks; Frank (2014)

Frank- (L to R) Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Fassbender and Domhnall Gleeson.

 Frank (2014)

In the late 80s, welsh writer and journalist Jon Ronson replaced Mark Radcliffe as the keyboard player for the Frank Sidebottom band for a number of performances.
He was so intrigued and taken aback by Frank (whose real name is Chris; who’da thunk it?), his life, his music and his eccentricity that it lasted with him for years until he eventually co-wrote the screenplay for Frank, one of the surprisingly few semi-biographical movies to originally start life as an article for the Guardian newspaper.

Although the character of Frank looks quite unmistakeably like Frank Sidebottom (the head is a dead giveaway), there is more inspiration drawn from other eccentric artists in the movie to complete the characters of the Soronprfbs, whom are very much a group of misfits of society, with inspiration seemingly drawn from aforementioned Sidebottom, Captain Beefheart, Yoko Ono, David Bowie and Wilco.

The mysterious and enigmatic Frank takes musical inspiration out of virtually anything around him and has a profounding effect on anyone whom he passes.

Such is a unique trait in a master artist, fictional or otherwise.

Why The Soronprfbs are the best fictional band ever

Despite being primarily a comedy-drama, and focusing more on the topic of mental health and living with mental health; the music in it, written and composed by the genius of Stephen Rennicks, is often very mature and inspiring in a kind of weird and unexplainable way. The movie is just so weird it’s actually beautiful. And the Music reflects that.

Aside from the fact I’ve wanted to bring the Theremin back into music since I began life as a musician; Songs such as Tuft, Again, Broken, Secure the galactic perimeter, although incredibly eccentric are noticeably works of absolute musical mastery. The soundtrack also clearly has the best damn song titles in music history and I’m not shying away from admitting that I’m weird enough to love it.

The Sound of The Soronprfbs spans wildly and outrageously from having a very psychedelic, trippy, improvisational space-rock-meets-Mighty-Joe-Moon vibe to a balladous ambient sound and to acoustic folk.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character Clara even gets her moment in the movie with the intimate and haunting Lighthouse Keeper which is her emotionally numb, vacant and torn response to believing Frank has been extracted from her life due to conflicts with Jon.

It is fair to say that without that song, the character of Clara would not have cut so close to the bone (pun intended. Not even sorry) and is the reason Gyllenhaal was an excellent casting choice.

As deliberately weird as the Soronprfbs are and are supposed to be; Frank’s soundtrack is an album I’ve made it my business to save on Spotify and will listen to whenever the mood captivates me.

Movie Soundtracks; Inside Llewyn Davis

Oscar Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis

I first discovered this movie in early 2014 and it appealed to me instantly. Not only because of the subject matter, or the relateable characters, or the fact that it was written and directed by the Coen Brothers, but because one simple fact stood out more than anything else and I though "Oh hey.. that's clever";
This is a movie about the life of a folk singer, told like a folk song.

 Folkception

The movie begins with an initial event; Llewyn, a struggling folk singer from Greenwich Village in New York, finds himself being beaten up in an alleyway behind the Gaslight. Not to give too much specific detail on the events of the movie; we then back-track his story to tell of how he ended up in this situation and everything that happened in between. To find out what, well, you’re just going to have to watch the movie aren’t you?

The specific events are however interestingly mirrored by the pattern of a lot of folk songs, most notably; Hang me Oh Hang me, a traditional classic and covered by many big names such as Dave van Ronk. There are different variations on the song with different titles, such as I’ve Been All Around This World, The Gambler, Cape Girardeau, Up On The Blue Ridge Mountains and The New Railroad to name a few. The Grateful Dead used the variation I’ve Been All Around This World (below)

This song also begins with an initial event; the narrator or protagonist telling the story is to be hanged, but as of yet, we do not know why or how. The narrator then back tracks his story, to tell a tale of a great and tiresome travel to cape Girardeau, Arkansas until he reaches the Blue Ridge Mountains.
It is a story of poverty, hunger, despair and loneliness as the narrator struggles to find a way to cope with his sudden situation.
He then explains that upon reaching the Blue Ridge Mountains, he made a reckless stand and committed an unspecified crime involving a rifle and a dagger.
The final verse returns to the image of the execution, and thus makes the full loop.

The format of the movie is quite cleverly done, and really makes it stand out. As if having an insanely relatable character wasn’t intriguing enough.

I mean, the Coen brothers have taken a man who has hit hard times, struggles to catch a break with his much beloved music and thus ends up wandering the city with his guitar and a stray cat, and sleeping on the sofas of acquaintances.

Llewyn Davis was the me of 1961.

The Dead Weather [Live]

That's my night sorted folks. 59 minutes of The Dead Weather

Ocean - John Butler

Such an intricate piece. depicting the life of the ocean in the way only an Australian could.

Movie Soundtracks; Hanna (2011)

Escape wavefold - Chemical Brothers

The entire score of this movie was composed by the British big beat duo The Chemical Brothers. Given how intricate it must be to compose electronic music to an already existing story and plot, whilst remaining true to the movie's themes and motifs, and being in charge of an element that will ultimately make or break a movie; I widely regard it as their best work.
In fact, I widely regard this movie as the best work of most of the cast and crew involved.

Hanna tells the story of Hanna Heller, a 16 year old lab-created assassin raised by her father, an Ex-CIA agent, in a secluded forest in northern Finland. Hanna is trained from a young age to be a master assassin but it is evident she has missed out on a lot due to her upbringing.
As Hanna is dispatched on a deadly mission which takes place in Europe, she is bewildered and intrigued by the life she has missed out on.

Hanna differs quite significantly to many action thrillers. The most important point being the themes and motifs.
The role of music, stories, innocence, childhood and fairytales are recurring themes throughout the movie. 

• Hanna's favourite book is a child's fairytale book. Part of the mission in europe is the arrangement for Hanna to meet her father at Mr.Grimm's house.
• Hanna tries to convince her father Erik to explain music, but is later unimpressed by his objective dictionary explanation because she wishes to experience this life first hand.
• Throughout the movie, she is intrigued and bewildered by music and by people singing and dancing, which is something she has never had growing up in Northern Finland. 

It is this intrigued innocence, which contrasts the genre and mood of the movie which is most striking in Hanna's character, portrayed by the brilliant, beautiful, and irish Saoirse Ronan.

This is reflected in the score with such themes as The Devil is in the Beats and The Devil is in the Details as well as Hanna's theme.  The musical motifs used by the chemical brothers link in and remain consistent with the fairy tale theme of childhood innocence confronting the modern loud, electronic and ‘synthetic’ world.

Having re-watched this movie recently, it only suddenly dawned on me how important this movie is to me, even from a musical perspective.
Between February and June this year, I actively set out to completely rejuvenate my old setup into something completely different, something raw and action packed which would tie together quite contrasting motifs within my own musical tastes.

One of the most experimental being the incorporation of Digitech Bass Synth Wah which mimics the Basslines signature to those of British big beat.
It has long since been known that Hanna is one of my favourite movies and movie soundtracks and I went out of my way to find something that would sound like this soundtrack.something raw and action packed which would tie together quite contrasting motifs and themes.

Without knowing, I was looking for something a bit more Hanna.

Music Culture & Society; Part 2

(The following is an essay originally submitted as an assignment on 22nd of February, 2013)

Bach: The Goldberg Variations. 

Glenn Gould; a born eccentric, Gould used to slouch awkwardly over his piano and hum whilst playing

The recording I have chosen to study in depth for this essay is Glenn Gould’s 1955 performance of the Goldberg Variations, Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (1741).

Recorded in Columbia Records 30^th street studios in New York  just after Gould had signed a recording contract with Columbia Masterworks, It was the Canadian pianist’s first breakthrough success as an artist, and is the work with which Gould is most frequently associated. Its immediate selling success, becoming a best seller worldwide, and its renowned critical acclaim listed Gould, although just 22 at this time, as a mature international artist and secured him an enthusiastic audience for years to come.

Born in Canada, in the year 1932, Glenn Gould was one of the most well known, influential and most widely celebrated classical pianists of his time. Although known widely for his natural ability and technical proficiency, Gould was often known for his many quirks and eccentricities, which often bewildered his audiences, outline his uniqueness as more than just an average interpreter of keyboard music. Some of the eccentricities Gould displayed during performances include his preferred use of an unusual and remarkably low folding chair which accompanied him in every performance instead of a common piano stool, his unbreakable and notorious habit of humming along to the music he was playing, swaying with quite peculiar body movements whilst playing and sitting quite awkwardly and restricting with his legs crossed. In various interviews, Gould has often displayed a somewhat annoyance towards his audience’s bewilderment of such eccentricities. To many listeners, these eccentricities are important aspects of his work, as they bring the performer’s own personality into the performance.

As well as these obvious eccentricities in the artist’s performances, Gould often chose unusual pieces to perform, often to the dismay of the record producers. In 1955, when Gould chose to record Bach’s Goldberg Variations the record producers often queried his decision, unsure of how well the final product would sell, since works of Bach had declined significantly in popularity previous to this time. Gould also rejected a lot of Romantic era compositions such as the works of Chopin, Brahms and Strauss, being more interested in a diverse repertoire containing works of Baroque and pre-baroque era composers. Through decisions like these, Gould comes across as an artist who values the road less travelled by. This unusual viewpoint of Gould’s is doubtlessly what influenced him to favour studio recordings over that of a live performance, thus his decision to retire from live performances in 1963, at the age of 31.

In contrast to the beliefs of other live performers of his time, Gould disagreed largely and strongly with audience interaction during live performances. Gould often found having a live audience distracting from the music itself, which he discussed in depth in his Article entitled Let’s ban Applause which he wrote the year previous to his retirement as a live performer.

“The purpose of art is not the release of momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, life-long construction of a state of wonder and serenity.” (Gould, 1962)

This shows that Gould was more inclined to create music in isolation, free from the distractions of a live audience. In the same Article, Gould praises the new developments in technology which allow the artist to focus on and perfect the performance as a whole. Gould understood the advantages of recording and often predicted that through advancements of technology, public performances would ultimately cease to exist and be ultimately replaced by the recorded electronic media. 

“the habit of concertgoing and concert giving both as a social institution and a chief institution of musical mercantilism, will be as dormant  in the 21^st century as, with luck, will Tristan de Cunha’s volcano.” (Gould, 1966)

In this article, The Prospects of Recording, Gould outlined his views and explained how “because of its [public performance] extinction, music will be able to provide a more cogent experience than is now possible.”

It was because of Gould’s awareness of the advantages of recording that he was motivated into re-recording Bach’s Goldberg Variations a work he had become very closely identified, 26 years after the first recording, in the same studio in New York. The technological advancements that had happened in the recording industry within the 25 years prior to 1981, such as Dolby Stereo, were not all that motivated Gould into making this decision. Since the recording of 1955, Gould had developed a different interpretation of the variations, not as separate exercises but instead as the one whole unit, with one rhythmic pulse throughout. Gould also disagreed with the faster paced playing of his younger counterpart, and slowed the pace of his performance in the 1981 recording. Gould saw the advances in recording as a way of understanding further the original purpose and message of the Goldberg Variations, the origin of which has since become shrouded in myths and legends.

Although it can neither be proven nor disproven, Johann Nikolaus Forkel’s Biography of Bach explains the well known story of the origin of Bach’s Composition of the work in 1741.

The tale documents Count Kaiserling, the Russian amabassador to the electoral court of Saxony, who became ill on a visit to Leipzig and suffered sleepless nights. A student of Bach’s named Goldberg often accompanied the Count in an antechamber, and would play for him during his sleepless nights. The Count mentioned in Bach's presence that he would like to have a certain piece composed for Goldberg, which he specified should be of such a smooth and yet lively character that he might feel comforted by them in his sleepless nights. Bach then fulfilled the Count’s wish by means of Variations, the writing of which he had until then considered a tedious and somewhat ungrateful task on account of the repeatedly similar harmonic foundation. But since at this time all his works were already models of art, such also these variations became under his hand. Yet he produced only a single work of this kind. (Forkel, 1802)

Although Bach only produced a single work of Variations, it has long since remained one of the most influential pieces of keyboard music of the Baroque period, and has earned Bach universal attention as a master of keyboard music. It seems, bearing this fact in mind, that it is no wonder Gould chose to study the work quite deeply and record it twice in his sadly short lifetime.

In conclusion, it can be said that both Gould’s input and interpretation is almost as influential as Bach’s composition. Gould brings his personality into the performance which labels him as more of an artist than a mere interpreter. His eccentricities, which have more than often intrigued his audiences greatly, somehow reflect the eccentricities of the work itself. It is unusual in the fact that Bach considered the composition of Variations to be a tedious task, and even more so unusual and bewildering is the story of its origin. Audiences have long since discussed the reason behind the composition of the Goldberg Variations, which strikes me as an intriguingly unusual subject, just as much as Glenn Gould’s preferred use of an unusual and remarkably low folding chair, which is so closely identified with the artist, it now resides in the National Library of Canada in his honour.

Bibliography

Bach, Johann Sebastian. The Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould. CBS. 1955
Forkel, Johann. Johann Sebastian Bach, trans. C.Sanford Terry (Harcourt, Brace and Howe, New York, 1920)
Gould, Glenn. ‘Let’s Ban Applause’. Musical America (1962)
Gould, Glenn. ‘The Prospects of Recording’. High Fidelity Magazine. Vol. 16 (1966)
Williams, Peter. Bach, The Goldberg Variations, (Cambridge University Press, 2001)

Music Culture & Society; Part 1

(The following is an essay originally submitted as an assignment on 23rd of May, 2013
The end result of which was a B-)

There’s a Riot Goin’ On – Sly and The Family Stone

Recorded in the aftermath of the 1960s, There’s a Riot Goin’ On is unmistakeably one of the most influential albums both for its musical experimentation and its rich socio-cultural significance. As an answer to political developments of its time, surrounding the African American civil rights movement, and the Vietnam war and also to the radical changes in the music industry, increasingly demanding more artistically driven popular music, Sly and the Family Stone created a sound that shaped the idea of Black music forever and gave a voice to a new generation.

One of the most prominent features of There’s a Riot Goin’ On and of course, the overall sound associated with Sly and the Family Stone is that, as a multi-cultural band consisting of members of mixed races, the resulting sound clearly reflects a certain unity to all the individual elements, an serves as answer to the previously separated genres of white and black music.
The Funk sound, as a whole, immediately resembles the soul and groove of a distinctly black music scene and Sly and the Family Stone are in no way an exception to this. Their sound, right down to the very instruments which are used, reflect the R&B scene of the late 1950s and 1960s. The Percussive Slap Bass of Larry Graham is often quite reminiscent of the bass lines used in James Brown songs and its prominence reminds the listener of the warm prominent bass tones of Motown recordings such as ‘My Girl’ by the Temptations or  ‘Mustang Sally’ by Wilson Pickett. The Drums are Rhythmic and consistent throughout the song, rarely straying or changing, it keeps the beat consistent which again is an important feature in a lot of black American R&B music.

As well as the bass lines and the drum beat, the backing vocals and melodic harmonies provided by Little Sister, the backing harmony group of Sly and The Family Stone are often reminiscent of Motown acts such as Diana Ross and the Supremes, or Aretha Franklin’s backing group the Sweet Inspirations.  The soulful harmonies are an important factor of a lot of R&B Music which finds its roots in gospel music.

The sound also resembles soul of the 1960s in ways such as its little to no harmonic complexity, and the overlapping layers of sound that fit together to complete the ‘groove’ of the final song. In songs such as ‘Family Affair’ the lyrical content consists of rather James Brown-like vocal phrases, short in length with lots of repetition. Whilst Funk as a genre consists of various elements of Soul and R&B, There’s a Riot Goin’ On shows various signs of being influenced by very distinctly British music. More specifically, The White British Working class Music.

Prior to Beatle-mania and the British invasion, It was common for black R&B acts such as the Motown artists to sing onstage, either as part of a group or with a backing group consisting of four of five black men or women in matching outfits moving and dancing in a synchronised order to the music being performed. The best examples of this are The Temptations, The Four Tops or The Supremes. It was another important part of the unique style that had been adopted by the Motown Record Company. This all changed radically when the so called British invasion and Beatle-mania era started. Then, with bands such as the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and the Yardbirds, the ‘stars’ were suddenly taking a more active role in the instrument playing part of the music too. Sly and The Family Stone, shaped around this and stood as an answer to these radical changes. When they emerged, they had rejected the old ways of Black R&B Music and the style coined by Motown for a more active, instrument playing style, which was an important and interesting advancement at the time.

As well as this, There’s a Riot Goin’ On uses a lot of Distortion and Modulation effects such as added distortion on the guitars and Vocals, and a Wahwah pedal being used quite prominently on the guitar parts. These effects had been used before, by various bands such as Led Zeppelin or The Who but never to the extent that Sly Stone had used them in the Album. The Wahwah sound more or less dominates the guitar parts throughout the album, which eventually became an important defining feature in a lot of funk music, and Sly Stone’s vocals are drenched in a distortion effect that creates a distinct raspy, gritty sound as it begins to peak which at some instances makes it almost difficult to hear what is being said, but in general, adds a certain raw tone to the overall sound. Such features as these originated from White musicians and the band bringing them together and incorporating the elements of Soul and R&B is a key to the more artistic driven popular music sound that Sly Stone was aiming towards.

The Album also includes various elements in the instrumentation and playing style which show it is a response to the influence of the British invasion for example, the Bass played by Larry Graham becomes more of a lead instrument, similar to the style in which John Entwistle of The Who or John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin played the Bass. Prior to the 1960s it would have mainly been used to thicken up the bottom end and leave more of the freedom to the soloist, but during the 60s, the progressive rock style bass would provide the melody line or would often take improvised solos. The Organ also features quite heavily in There’s a Riot Goin’ On; the organ was quite frequently used in songs by The Doors and became a unique part of their sound. The main theme and Ideas of There’s a Riot Goin’ On is prominent throughout the album, making it a Concept album. Like Tommy by The Who and Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, the whole Album tells its story as a whole unit, although different songs tend to introduce different Ideas, the Concept remains consistent throughout. The Concept album was, at the time, becoming increasingly popular as the music industry drifted towards finding a more deeply artistic driven side to popular music.

The fact that Sly and The Family Stone had brought together the influence of both white and Black Music, gave a voice to the new developments in society as well as the music industry. The unity of elements taken from both white and black music reflected and supported the idea of unity and equality in which the African American Civil rights movement were fighting for during the Mid to Late 1950s and 1960s. Since There’s a Riot Goin’ On was recorded between 1970 and 1971, not long after the events of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jnr., it is obvious that it stood for and supported the civil rights movement.  The concept of family and unity is even obvious from the band’s choice of name; Sly and the Family Stone.

As well as the African American Civil rights movement, at the time of recording There’s a Riot Goin’ On America was fighting in the Vietnam War. The very title of the album suggests that there were poor relations between the US and the communist forces in Vietnam which had effectively started the ‘riot’ of the war. There’s a Riot Goin’ On is also a response to Marvin Gaye’s Vietnam fuelled concept album What’s going on.

In conclusion, There’s a Riot Goin’ On stands as one of the most culturally significant and influential albums because of how it reacted to such strong political developments of its time, such as America’s involvement in the war in Vietnam, the various achievements of the African American civil rights movement, to the ever changing face of the music industry, increasingly demanding more artistically driven popular music, and also because it successfully brought together elements of musical styles that had previously been separated by racial segregation. Sly and the Family Stone gave a voice to a new generation; the new family.

Experimentation in practice; Percussive upright Bass (Can't Stop Running by Adam Ben Ezra)

This though.....