Archive for November, 2011

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

  • almost the same formula as ‘Animal’; 3 chord progression (Ax4, Bx4, Cx8)
  • in fact it’s almost the same chords; E, F#m, D (I / / / IIm / / / VII / / / / / / /)
    or is it V / / / VIm / / / IV / / / / / / /
  • different vox production for each melody 1. radio 2. reverbed 3. doubled
  • tumbling, rolling snare

KEY IDEAS to plunder

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

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

  • layering at the start (build 3 chord progression)
  • reggae offbeat beat
  • the initial chord stabs are off beat (on the ands) but this is not revealed until the kik comes in (9th bar)
  • pulsing (kik, synth chord, kik, synth chord – 1 and 2 and 3 and etc) consistent throughout track
  • chords and the melody (and chorus lyric) repeat yet the layers are different everytime
  • I / / / IIm / / / VIm / / / / / / / – that’s it! for the whole song ! … E / / / F#m / / / C#m / / / / / / /

KEY IDEAS to plunder

  1. layering at the start
  2. reggae offbeat

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

Miike Snow (2009) – Miike Snow

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

10 ‘Sad Song’ – Berlin (1973) – Lou Reed

  • slight crossfade with discordant choir
  • flutes phrase repeating as intro
  • doubled bass joins, + reed woodwind
  • strings and vox
  • drums and horns come in in chorus (B)
  • searing lead elct gtr outros chorus and into ‘sad song’
  • lou vox choir sing ‘sad song’ + lead vox spoken over top
  • final ‘sad song’ section: starts with only strings and vox
  • drums, elect gtr and bass join
  • sliding elect gtr (or synth?) moments
  • final few bars; just flutes and reed woodwind

KEY IDEAS to plunder

  1. lyric: (1. location 2. her 3. him 4. he says/she says 5. drug paranoia 6. hate 7. numb 8. loss 9. the final act) 10. AFTER
  2. lyric structure; A B C A B C
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