Archive for December, 2011

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

  • short (34 secs)
  • vox dbled and slightly distorted
  • lyric: excerpt from later song (weapons)
  • minimal instrumentation – harmonica, bass strings

KEY IDEAS to plunder

  1. opening prologue states theme and lyric
  2. vox focus, minimal inst. backing (breath based inst ie harmonica, recorder etc)

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

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

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

At War With Walls and Mazes is a stunning debut wrung from classical precision and good old human gut-wrench. Son Lux’s first is a heady collection of songs breathing the same air and sharing the same space; painted from the same palette but set apart still–each is a distinct region of one broad, heaving sonic landscape. From afar, it’s an environment characterized by would-be contradictions: the austere grandness of chamber music undercut by undulating electronica; the intricately orchestral assembled via Hip-Hop collage; a day-plain Pop ease silhouetted by Deep Soul. Up close, it’s clear that these contradictions are what hold the entire work together. Anticon Records. 2008.

10 ‘Videotape’ – In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead

  • piano chords 1234 beat
  • vox joins, close small booth sound
  • bass enters on 1s (slight edit pop simulates soft kik)
  • 1234 beat contrasts with previous/other album tracks
  • &1 drum beat; & = rim shot, 1 = kik (simulates backwards sound)
  • bvs; oohs
  • stuttering delays leading into beat (simulates backwards sound)
  • stuttering hi hat enters, more drums join in outro

KEY IDEAS to plunder

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

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

KEY IDEAS to plunder

  1. fast, busy bass line & gtr arpeggios (no polyphonic playing)
  2. lyric: unresolved sentence beginnings “just as you …. before the ….
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