Archive for the ‘KEY IDEAS to plunder’ Category

At War With Walls And Mazes (2008) – Son Lux

  • conventional pop elements mixed with experimental electronica
  • low register vocals
  • simple, repeating lyrics

01 ‘Prologue’ – At War With Walls And Mazes (2008) – Son Lux

  1. opening prologue states theme and lyric
  2. vox focus, minimal inst. backing (breath based inst ie harmonica, recorder etc)
  1. rattling drum chaos with melodic chords
  2. vox harmonies out of time with lead vox

03 ‘Weapons’ – At War With Walls And Mazes (2008) – Son Lux

  1. dropped pitch vox as texture
  2. choral vox with shimmering volume effect

04 ‘Betray’ – At War With Walls And Mazes (2008) – Son Lux

  1. half time beginning
  2. half time drums only, harmonic progression stays the same tempo

05 ‘Stay’ – At War With Walls And Mazes (2008) – Son Lux

  1. piano line (verbed) hitting only key notes of the vocal melody as it is sung
  2. sung ‘stay’ sustained and morphed/merged into strings
  1. same vocal line repeated over the changing instrumental sections
  2. cymbal-less drums
  1. lonely vox (EQ effect)
  2. distortion sliding in and out – sounds like speaker distortion …
  1. rattling effected snare roll mirrored by tremelo effect on synth chords
  2. drum machine slows as a bridge into final section
09 ‘Stand’ – At War With Walls And Mazes (2008) – Son Lux

  1. poly rhythms – 3/4 against 4/4
  2. operatic vox – typically lead inst as background harmony
10 ‘War’ – At War With Walls And Mazes (2008) – Son Lux

  1. jittering strings enter, panning rapidly – serves as rhythm, instead of perc
  2. dbl and triple vox, hard panned – out of time with each other slightly

11 ‘Epilogue’ – At War With Walls And Mazes (2008) – Son Lux

  1. harmonica!
  2. processed vox as texture

In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead

  • richly melodic
  • seemingly banal lyrics but they are powerfully ‘meaningful’ when sung in this melodic emotive way
  • lyrics in present tense
  • lyrics sung slowly, drawing out notes, focus on the melodic progression rather than the lyrical statement
  • intricate rhythms and parts interwined (most would be uninteresting on their own)
  • odd beats and sometimes time sigs but always dancy and toe tappin

01 ’15 Step’ – In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead

  1. 5/4
  2. recognisable sound effect playing typical musical role (ie. children cheering as’ cymbal splash’)

02 ‘Bodysnatchers’ – In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead

  1. fast track with a funky riff
  2. twin gtrs, hard panned, complimenting parts (a la AC/DC ‘long way to the top’)
  1. wordless falsetto backing vocal
  2. backwards sounds as rhythm
  1. (one note picked out of an arpeggio) – maybe use delays
  2. fast percussion contrasted with slow feel of track

05 ‘All I Need’ – In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead

  1. very dry percussion contrasted against slow decaying ‘strings’ and synths
  2. one note piano climax (a la Police’s ‘every breath you take’)

06 ‘Faust Arp’ – In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead

  1. changes from 4/4 to 3/4 multiple times
    1234 1234 123 123 123 1234 1234 1234
  2. doubles vox at odd times, not the obvious chorus emphasis

07 ‘Reckoner’ – In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead

  1. falsetto as lead/top, chest vox as backing
  2. using familiar sounding non-musical objects eg. vibrating mobile

08 – ‘House of Cards’ – In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead

  1. unusual strumming pattern. emphasizing up strokes
  2. dub gestures at the ends of vocal lines ie verbed percussion, underneath very dry drums

09 ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’ – In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead

  1. fast, busy bass line & gtr arpeggios (no polyphonic playing)
  2. lyric: unresolved sentence beginnings “just as you …. before the ….
10 ‘Videotape’ – In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead

  1. (slight edit pop simulates soft kik)
  2. &1 drum beat; & = rim shot, 1 = kik (simulates backwards sound)

The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  • concept album
  • heavy, industrial sounds combined with melodic material
  • process: generating raw material (eg. 20 minutes improvised gtr) then cutting out interesting bits to sample and loop

01 ‘Mr Self Destruct’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. extreme contrast – very loud to very quiet, very full to very sparse
  2. call and response verses (‘and i control you’) – response heavily filtered

02 ‘Piggy’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. lyric recurring as theme/chant throughout several songs
  2. drum loops made from different spaced drum recordings; both at a micro hit-by-hit level and at a macro part-by-part level

03 ‘Heresy’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. vox layering
  2. sfx (marching boots, machines) become percussion

04 ‘March Of The Pigs’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. switch from heavy to acoustic and clean ‘now, doesn’t that make you feel better?’
  2. significant moment of silence mid song

05 ‘Closer’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. piano melody from previous tracks – establishing itself as the album theme melody
  2. extreme, uncompromising lyric

06 ‘Ruiner’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. pre chorus bridge vox unintelligible – dimly audible vocal production
  2. final line ‘nothing can stop me now’ – hard cut right on the word ‘stop’ – prosody

07 ‘The Becoming’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. unusual rhythm – makes it hard to dance/tap foot to
  2. hard panned crossfade into next track

08 ‘I Do Not Want This’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. great beat
  2. contrast of plaintive acst elements (piano) with hard industrial elements (drums and noises)

09 ‘Big Man With A Gun’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. rapid fire drumming contrasted with relatively slow gtr chords
  2. return of key line ‘nothing can stop me now’

10 ‘A Warm Place’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. pretty, almost sickly so, melodic/harmonic content made interesting through textural production
  2. descending chord progression against ascending melody / track in 2 halves, same progression but in different keys

11 ‘ Eraser’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. long instrumental build
  2. when vox enter it is sudden and everything changes – like 2 tracks stitched together

12 – ‘Reptile’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. bass enter – bass is just one long note hold/throb/hum
  2. middle section features loop of ambient ‘other place’ sound (from film strk)
13 ‘The Downward Spiral’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. muffled, like a bad demo tape – as effect when contrasted either with previous section or with instrument on top
  2. sudden cuts and edits between sections and sudden ending

14 ‘ Hurt’ – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Nine Inch Nails

  1. one note riff – simple beat 1234 – changes texture (ie., becomes low note/chord)
  2. loop final note/chord and sustain for a long time

Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  • baritone vocals, overall ‘low sound’: two string slide bass, baritone sax, drums
  • simple elements
  • some lyric ideas; ‘Thursday’, ‘Sheila’

01 ‘ Dawna’ – Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  1. instrumental aside/intro to album, sets the mood/tone

02 ‘Buena’ – Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  1. simple elements
  2. monophonic inst. only (vox, sax, bass – well, maybe some polyphony with 2 strings being played at once)

03 ‘I’m Free Now’ – Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  1. lyric echoes of other tracks on the album
  2. vocal and other monophonic instrument doubling ’cause you pain, ohhhhhh’

04 ‘All Wrong’ – Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  1. chorus; no instruments except rim shot ticking like a clock, and vox (harmonies) and sax doubling melody line
  2. background gurgling atmosphere in chorus, audible because the other instruments drop out

05 ‘Candy’ – Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  1. verse and chorus are same chords but chorus is led into by a bridge
  2. hard panned monophonic instruments to create chords

06 ‘A Head With Wings’ – Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  1. main lyrics line inserted in pause.
  2. breakdown section; no bass, sax stabs at riff, drums focus on toms

07 ‘In Spite Of Me’ – Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  1. complete break in style from previous (and later) tracks
  2. radio effect (EQ) on whispered vox

08 ‘Thursday’ – Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  1. vox and inst. call and response
  2. monophonic instr. harmonised riff, hard panned

09 ‘Cure For Pain’ – Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  1. song title sung in inst. pauses
  2. vox doubling/chorusing increases throughout track
10 ‘Mary Won’t You Call My Name’ – Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  1. chorus; title repeated. hi hat only, vox harmonies. hats stop for delivery of title vox
  2. ending; vox only, slows down

11 ‘Let’s Take A Trip Together’ – Cure For Pain (1993) – Morphine

  1. vox harmonies; high is distant (with delay/echo) low is close
  2. strange ending … just peters out

Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  • catchy melodies with dark cryptic lyrics
  • dense production but clear mixes
  • simple 3 chord progressions but cycling through many layers of melodies, instrumentation etc

01 ‘Animal’ – Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  1. layering at the start
  2. reggae offbeat

02 ‘Burial’ – Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  1. different vox production for each melody 1. radio 2. reverbed 3. doubled
  2. tumbling, rolling snare

03 ‘Silvia’ – Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  1. vocal sample as lead solo line “tell me … ah ah ah ah”
  2. EQ sweeps as progression and build, instead of chord changes

04 ‘Song For No One’ – Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  1. lead gtr call and response melody with vox lines
  2. distant chords stabs (organ) slapback delayed, up close dinky lead gtr melody line

05 ‘Black & Blue’ – Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  1. timings of chords changes against solid backbeat
  2. chorus; burbling synth, peaks in between vox lines, call and response

06 ‘Sans Soleil’ – Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  1. 3 major chords
  2. false ending in the middle, then into refrain

07 ‘A Horse Is Not A Home’ – Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  1. late chord change timing
  2. matched with delays providing a steady pulse

08 ‘Cult Logic’ – Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  1. strange animal cries in the background, tonally sliding
  2. 1 & – & 3 jittering one note rhythm

09 ‘Plastic Jungle’ – Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  1. electrical hum, used tonally
  2. giant hand clap, offbeat (4&) – like a big exclamation mark

10 ‘In Search Of’ – Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  1. reverse sucking chords, ducked on the kik – like nosaj thing does
  2. fuzzed out slabs cutting in and out 4 1 / / / / /  – 4 1 / / / / / – 4
11 ‘Faker’ – Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

  1. piano chords 1 2 3 4 while bass line skips along
  2. added chords on the 2 and 4 + horn section on the 1s
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