This is just a small little blip in continuation with our coverage of the new Garbage album Not Your Kind Of People (expected release: 5/15/2012 on the band’s own STUNVOLUME record label) and a small look at the marketing plan behind the band and the record.
“Battle In Me” was uploaded to Garbage’s official YouTube account on the 20th of March with a title confirming that it’s the official single for United Kingdom listeners in regards to the initial promotion for their upcoming release.
Considering that Garbage has their own record label, it’s a bit surprising that they’re releasing different singles in different countries as opposed to going for the worldwide appeal that Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and countless other bands without major label support usually use to their advantage. In fact, the campaign they seem to be embarking on is a nice infusion of traditional marketing means mixed flawlessly with 21st century social media tools. Not a bad way for these veterans to start spreading the word out there.
The song itself is great, but so far only a YouTube version of the track can be officially heard, so an in depth review will be saved for a later date. 2020k does really like the song structure, especially the pauses during the song, which are semi-reminiscant of “Supervixen” off of their debut album, don’t you think?
Iamamiwhoami seem to be on a roll with the promotional campaign surrounding their debut album Kin (slated for a June 2012 release via Cooperative Records). It’s almost as if they’ve planned something little to happen just before the release of a new song and this time it’s the announcement of their spot at the 2012 Stockholm Music & Arts Festival, held in Sweden from August 3rd-5th. The band’ll be performing a set on the last day and have been put on a bill with Buffy Sante-Marie and legendary Icelandic artist Bjork. Not a bad gang of artists to be affiliated with, Huh?
Best of luck to the band and we hope they knock it out of the park just as they did during their live debut at Sweden’s 2011 Way Out West festival. (Click here to watch the entire 45 minute show via YouTube..It’s amature camera work, so it’s even filled with some great “Oh my God! Oh my God! JONNA!!” moments).
While we’re all anticipating Iamamiwhoami to play their second official show, we’re also busy chilling out to their highly infectious, March 28th 2012 released single “Play”. Move over Toro y Moi, shut up Neon Indian, and step aside Alternative Hip-Hop producers because “Play” has continued their approach to coming completely out of left field. The song is debatably their most pop influenced track to date, complete with urban, ethereal, and glorious Chillwave influences.
The first thirty five seconds of the track contain an eerie, ambient beginning that flourishes into a noisy, industrial build up. It’s full of panned beeps, effects, and heavily equalized effects to distinguish low-end sounds from high synth-rhythms that setup a start that sounds like it may clear into another densely layered epic like “; John” or the dark Electro territory covered by “T”. But, instead “Play” completely drops off it’s appendage.
After the introduction, the sonic landscape is left with not one instrument from the first segment of the track, but a completely new set of them and luscious step into the world of chillwave! The band has been experimenting with more of a trance/electro sound recently, so it becomes another breath of fresh air that this new magnificent direction has been thrusted full forced upon us like those amazing pelvic movements and booty shaking featured in the unforgettable “; John” video.
One main melodic synthesizer repeats it’s phrase through the first verse while a trickling drop-synth that pans occasionally left and right and record crackling quietly creates a life-like vibe in the background. A minimal Hop-Hop percussion track accompanies the relaxing production and succeeds in creating a lazy rhythm that compliments the tripped out vibe chillwave and Alternative EDM strive for. It starts sparse, builds into a euphoric world, and flips back and forth between them for the song’s 5+ minute duration.
Lyrical content is simplified glory and hits the aurally emotional spot just right. “Take off your hat and pull a rabbit out for me” Jonna sings through thick reverberation implying that though someone or something has grabbed ahold of her, she still expects a lot more from it if it wants to completely win her over her mind, body, and spirit. It’s one of the only inklings of confidence because though the track is strangely optimistic sounding, the track itself puts together a folklore and mass conglomeration of emotions. “I’m like a lion now, I play on my back and on my knees” is the follow up line that elegantly implies vulnerability, strength, and weakness all in one bold statement.
“But I can dance tonight and make up songs for us to sing/You hold my heart because it’s cheap and to your rhythm I will shout “my love for play!”
The oppression and fight to break free from it is becoming overwhelmingly crucial to the Iamamiwhoami concept and is a heartbreaking subject that’s being vastly and accurately explored visually, aurally, figuratively, and literally.
The true meanings of the lyrics and themes are still extremely clouded in wonderment, but though all of these Iamamiwhoami video theories continue to thrive throughout the comments section of their YouTube videos, Iambountyfan’s discussion chat room (pictures in this piece are credited to them), and other various outlets – oppression seems to directly, or indirectly relate to the majority of the inquiries fans and critics seem to be fighting to find answers to.
Play’s video is obviously a continuation of all of the short films we’ve seen from Kin so far, but seems to be one of the most boggling videos of all. Loads of theories surround it, and of course everything ForsakenOrder types up makes for a fascinating read (a tip of the fedora for his David Lynch quote). It’s the overall feel direction of it that makes this music video one of the more captivating watches from the band yet! Jonna Lee’s facial expressions continue to send us into fits of giggles (this time, at 0:59-1:03 where she gives a cheekily cocky expression before getting struck by lightening), the bird’s nest of a hairstyle quirkily works, expressive dances with oversized mop looking clumps wind up cinematic charm, and the warm colors are faded throughout the video to seem cold which lends emotional depth in regard to the entirety of the shockingly catchy visual experience.
The most shocking aspect of all is how pop sounding the song actually is. In fact, the “Play” structure seems to be the band’s most straight forward, simplified production to date. If the experimental vocal production wasn’t present, you could hand this to nearly any Electronic or daring Dream Pop artist, ask them to sing it, and it would come out just as lovely as the version our ears are currently listening to.
But, this is not an M83 Dream Pop production and as much as Jonna reminds us of something Alison Goldfrapp would visually put together and melodically cook up, it’s not her either. “Play” is pure Iamamiwhoami. The experiments are there, they’re present, and they truly make the track one of a kind amongst the critically branded Hipster genre of chillwave. This creative twist in “Play” most certainly proves that this project is not shy about broadening a horizon of any aspect involving their motives, which makes them all the more nobel and more inspiring than any of us could have ever imagined they would become.
While you’re waiting for our review on pop queen Madonna’s latest record MDNA, we thought we’d share the latest on an interesting 24 hour feud between Ms. Ciccone and dance music’s Deadmau5.
It all started when Madonna made a surprise appearance at the Ultra Music Festival to introduce Swedish house artist Avicii‘s headlining set. Starting out, she gave a nice speech about electronic music always being a part of her career and that she can say “A DJ quite literally saved my life.”
Then, she said she had a few questions for the audience. The first inquiry?
“How many of you have seen Molly?” (If you don’t know what Molly is, take a look at this informative article).
Afterward, fans who attended the show and watched from YouTube’s exclusive stream seemed to be on two sides of the spectrum: either rather enthused about the appearance, or a bit let down that she chose to dance about the stage to an Avicii remix to her second single “Girl Gone Wild” instead of giving a bit of a performance. Regardless, the same played out, but playful joke caroused the internet on every news site available with journalists, fans, and bloggers stating “Madonna’s looking for Molly and Britney Spears is still seeking Amy.” (Admit it, you giggled).
Cue Deadmau5, who has had his fingers busy lately updating his Tumblr with little mouse squeaks of entries (one of which we retweeted because we agreed with). An article entitled Responsibility basically slammed Madonna for using drugs to market her way into the Electronic Dance Music community and sell more copies of her already drug related record title MDNA.
Joel Zimmerman stated: “still, we have, and will always have personal choice. Thats how our lives are shaped… through the good or bad choices we make. we learn every day from them… but theyre ours to make, and its our responsibility to make the right ones for each of ourselves.Not to be pandered down to us in metaphorical pill form from BIG voices as a marketing scheme to “fit in” with todays young and “hip” crowd to sell a fuckin CD.”
In the same night, Madonna took to Twitter for one night to answer questions that the fans would Tweet to her throughout a two hour rapid fire, witty, insightful, and wonderful un-filtered Q&A session.
The following pictures demonstrate the exchanges made:
And then all was calm, while some interesting tweets from mau5 toKaskade remained and Kaskade’s tweets backing Zimmerman still stands. (Though the tweet is most likely because of Joel’s own difficulties with the Ustream service).
2020k’s review on Madonna’s MDNA to be posted in a few days after a few more listens. Post your thoughts on this small feud and your thoughts on the album in the comments section below! Don’t be scared to follow us on Twitter and like our Facebok page. We’re 2 away from 100 fans!!!!!
Iambountyfan.com is arguably the biggest gathering of fans and driving force of user generated content and insightful information in regards to the ongoing Iamamiwhoami saga. So, it’s no surprise that an unknown member of the band dropped by the website’s chat room to leave a few cryptic messages for the individuals who happened to be logged on to the website at the time. There’s not really that much that was said beyond “we monitor everything” and the final message “and don’t forget to live…”
While it’s nice that we now have this chat room encounter and the Bullett Media interview, it seems that a bit of how they are interacting with the fans is coming across as crass. We’d like some insight into the music, into the band mates, or into something. Optimistically, this sort of interaction is a unique way of keeping their faces out of the music and allowing the art to speak entirely for itself.
Regardless, they’re good workers and the third installment since the announcement of their slated June 2012 Kin album release is appropriately titled “Good Worker”. Released March 14th, along with a video 24 hours beforehand, we find the song exploring unique vocal mixing techniques, while thriving off huge synthesizer melodies and a a quick kick-snare dance vibe that helps fuse together the electronic and pop inspired production.
Lyrically, this is one of the more straightforward songs the band has released to date with it’s focus being on the same sort of subject as “O” from the BOUNTY series. On the second verse, Jonna poses a statement and question stance: “I made a good and steady friend, a companion through life. But who am I when all I am is your designated wife?” The composition is filled with bold-confident statements and teeters upon the subject of staying with a good worker because it’s a comfortable situation (“you make a neat and tidy house, a good worker does..”) but wanting to break out and find something more (“Locking out your little mind, recognizing time as passed, ready for some further use”) and struggling with the decision on which way to move (“denial is a virtue”).
It’s easy to relate to, as the words could be applied to simply wanting to get out of any sort of situation to better oneself. Alternatively, it could be about an internal struggle as well and this also follows along with the speculation of the tracks on Kin being about separation between the imaginative and reality. Maturity, growth, and internal conflict. They’re all pointing back to some sort of sociology and also pointing right at some wonderful poetic and deeper meanings.
Melodically the track is one of the strongest. It begins with a sequenced electronic melody, oscillating pad drone, the sound of a drop in pitch that sounds like a dog’s mournful howl, and stereo main melody lines that continue to build the track before it’s break into the first verse.
Reverberation on the remainder of the track gives “Good Worker” a larger than life feel and creates the illusion, as Iamamiwhoami normally does, that there are more tracks and layers than meets the eye. Verse sections are comprised mainly of a kick, snare, synth-line, and a small supporting percussive section, which build slightly during the chorus with mid-range and high-octave melodic lines and eventually break down to a post-chorus in half-time, filled with adlibs by front woman Jonna Lee and more oscillating synthesizers.
Also, like most Iamamiwhoami tracks, the song progressively builds and breaks down, especially at the end of the track, until it leads off with an even sparser, bare bones fade out than it’s introduction’s fade in approach.
What makes “Good Worker” drive as much as it does is that the track is so melodic, and the percussion section is so simple that it’s a complex simplicity composition that compliments each other through the entire five minute duration.
To thrive off the high-energy of the track, interesting mixing techniques in the vocals. There seems to be some flange effects going on in the background vocals and it also includes a security-esque sound effect that’s present on Burial productions and the previously released “Drops” that, when combined with Jonna’s vocals, creates an extremely creative blur of frequencies. It’s a tripped-out aural scribble of sorts that is truly an awe-inspiring moment within the song.
Only one complaint comes to mind on this track is that the vocals on this track are indeed mixed at the very front of “Good Worker”. It gives the song a more pop feel, but they’re pushed so far to the front of the song that if you want to turn the song up to a high volume, the higher frequencies of all of the vocal effects and layers literally pierce the eardrums and force a hand reaching for the volume button to decrease the amplitude a little.
It seems as though Iam attempted to quickly remedy this in the second verse. If you listen closely, just as Jonna sings the line “but who am I..,” bits of the mix seem to be automated (or side-chain compressed, we’re unsure) down slightly so that frequencies don’t become muddy and distortion is avoided. It’s not the most effective approach to this sort of thing. Perhaps automating Jonna’s vocals a bit more when she’s hitting the higher notes would help to control and balance the song a little bit better.
Also, the vocals seem to be a bit heavily compressed. It’s not horrible, but again, it adds to the loudness in the mix. According to the TT Loudness Offline Meter, the iTunes download (yes, yes we know, it’s lossy format) sits at about an average of DR6. It’s not terrible for electronic music, but if just a tiny bit more care was taken into the mix – we think it could benefit “Good Worker” greatly.
Although this small problem, “Good Worker” is our favorite Iamamiwhoami track since “; John” and considering “; John” was placed as the top song of 2011 on our website, we’d say that the band is on it’s way to releasing one of the best albums we’ve heard in a long time. The next song, “Play” will be released March 28th, and our excitement level continues to be raised.
Every two weeks is like Christmas! We get songs and videos. Also, as usual, check out ForsakenOrder’s video analysis! Again, we love the visuals Iam are putting out and specifically love the small bit of sass when she refuses to sing the words “your designated wife.”
A new Garbage album entitled Not Your Kind Of People is slated for a May 15th, 2012 release on their own record label STUNVOLUME. It’s been seven long years since the grungy, electronic-alternative rock veterans’ last record Bleed Like Me and on March 15th we got our first taste of the band’s record with a 100% free 320kbps MP3 download of the song “Blood For Poppies”.
The melodies are abundant, the writing is still top notch, and in true Garbage progression: it’s a million ways different than anything they’ve done, but are still keeping in the true signature sound of the record. A funk-esque guitar line opens up the track and plays through the majority of the track, while a driving percussive beat (we love Butch Vig to death) mixes in real drum recording with multiple percussion loops and effects. There’s a nice, bass/Electronic bridge breakdown as well.
“I don’t know why they are calling on the radio, they know I’m here just out of sight,” Shirley Manson calls through the chorus and is no doubt a nod to the listeners for waiting for so long for this new material from herself and the band.
Record executives basically destroyed any chance of us ever hearing Shirley’s solo album by trying to pop her up to be in the same vein as colleague Gwen Stefani and when she turned down that road, they dared to market her as the next Anne Lennox. Shirley is Shirley, so when the executives told her the album she was working on was too dark, the record eventually fizzled out [Check out her Facebook post about the incident here].
We’re glad to have new music in any way, shape, or form from any members of this fantastic foursome. Their entire discography contains flawless execution of blending genres of all kinds within the rock and pop world and with the freedom to do what they’d like this time around, we’ve seen some more personality from the group with the release of hysterical/informative YouTube videos (including this coffee video, which we all feel like sometimes), Tweets, FacebookUpdates, and of course, good honest music.
Download “Blood For Poppies” from Topspin by clicking here & stream the song below.
Mastering engineer Ian Shepard (Tricky, Deep Purple, The Orb) owns DynamicRangeDay.co.uk annually hosts and spreads an awareness day about the Loudness wars that have begun sweeping over the music industry. This year, it falls on March 16th, 2012 and since we here at 2020k spend time dissecting the engineering, mixing, and mastering techniques of some of today’s more interesting and anticipated records, we’ve decided to spread the word and inform readers why we place so much emphasis on dynamic range during some of our articles on the website.
For starters, we’ll break down the basics:
Dynamic Range is the measurement of of the maximum to minimum amplitude that a given device can record. On a record, we measure dynamic range by taking the loudest and quietest parts on the record and applying a RMS formula that determines the average decibel measurement of range between an audio signal.
Lately, record labels and industry executives have asked that records be produced at a rate that makes records appear to sound louder. To do this, compression is applied to a recording. Compression is a piece of outboard gear that is basically automation on steroids. It will turn down the louder parts of an audio signal, but it will also turn up the quieter parts of the signal as well.
A small bit of compression is fine for a record. It can be used as a way to keep spiking peak transients in control (like the fast transient of a snare drum) and also can be used in a creative way to balance out volume control. For example, if a vocal track seems to be higher in certain parts of the song and unnecessarily quieter in others, the compressor will smack down the bits of the vocal that are peaking too high, and turn up the transients that are peaking too low. This is controlled by several parameters on a compressor, including the threshold, ratio, attack, and release rates. (However, we’re just going over the basics here).
Record labels have found that if you apply mass levels of compression to a song or an album it creates a louder record. The problem is that since an audio level can only be recorded at such a certain rate, audio engineers have been mixing at such hot levels that the audio signal has literally been squashed to death, so that a healthy waveform now looks like a brick wall and all the quiet parts are just as loud as the loud parts.
This doesn’t sound so bad until you take it a step further. The records are also turned up so loud that they’re being distorted. Digital distortion is caused when an audio signal is being ran so hot that it reaches it’s peak on the digital meters (which read up to 0 Decibels Full Scale (or DbFS). This creates very unnatural sounds. You know them when you hear them as it sounds a bit like static or an unnatural, muffled or digital crackling noise.
It also distorts the signal in ways such as the soft sounds being turned up so high that they too, sound unnatural and distorted.
Why is this done? All for the sake of hoping that a song grabs the listeners attention more than the last song they’ve heard on a radio station or jukebox (old school). It’s been happening since the compressor but lately it’s completely sucked over the entire market place.
On Kelly Clarkson‘s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” (Youtube), you can hear the noise floor of her vocal tracks being compressed up so loudly that it literally sounds like ocean waves in the background of the music.
“Americano” by Lady Gaga is one big distorted mess. (YouTube)
PROFESSIONAL, AUDIO RECORDINGS are being distorted both during the recording, mixing, and mastering processes of an album because of the need for loudness. We’ve mentioned this on the likes of 4 by Beyonce (review) and have even noticed it on Iamamiwhoami‘s latest release “Good Worker” (but Iam’s has more to do with a clipping signal than a dynamic range issue. We will have an article about in a day).
Also, we do not have to get into the no headroom, brick wall, balls to the wall limiting and mastering techniques of Californiacation by Red Hot Chili Peppers and Death Magnetic by Metallica. We even slammed into Emika for it during our review of her debut album last year, despite actually loving the record’s content.
It’s repulsive, really.
The whole point of music is to be heard so why do we have to compress, limit, and master everything to the point of where everything is at the same volume and everything is clipping? It causes frequency issues, it causes quick ear fatigue, and it overall does not sound good. As a matter of fact, there is a law called the CALM Act that was put into place in the world of Broadcasting that legally capped commercials off at the high volume. Most TV commercials have a dynamic range of 3db, which is why they sound so much louder than when a TV show or movie (especially older ones) are being broadcasted.
The reason we use the TT Offline Loudness Meter and the DR Database so much in our reviews is that it’s a subtle critique or hat-tip to the engineer who produced a certain record. Tracks with more dynamic range are not always good, as creative distortion can be used on songs like “Doe Deer” by Crystal Castles (YouTube) but when you’re Skrillex (YouTube), there’s no need to have your entire EP falling at an average 3dB of dynamic range throughout your entire recording.
If it’s used for creativity? Great. If it’s used to balance out part of a mix or for volume control? Lovely. If it’s used for the sole purpose of being loud? It’s engineering and audio signal neglect and we will not stand for it. Especially since it’s been proven that a louder song doesn’t even effect how you’re perceived on a radio signal.
Example: If you compare the original release of Nirvana’s Nevermind to the recent remastered version of Nevermind the dynamic range is considerably lost on the remastered version of the record.
Dynamic Range Day doesn’t start until tomorrow, but we wanted to get this up early. What will we be doing to celebrate the day? Nothing. We’ll be chilling to Aja by Steely Dan. One of the most beautifully put together records and holds a DR rating of DR14.
As if our last entry on Peter Serafinowicz announcing a double album wasn’t exciting enough..
While it’s just a little blurp on the announcement side of things, we now have official news from whoever manages Boards of Canada’sFacebook page that a new album is in the works!
Unfortunately, The Devil Is In The Details because there are no details beyond a “yes,” but we here at 2020k and fans across the internet are officially putting our Chromakey Dreamcoat and can officially feel the sky lightening up a bit in regards to hearing some new music from the band!
Pitchfork.com has also spoken to Warp, telling us not to get excited, stating: “They are definitely working on new material, but there is nothing in the cards at the moment in terms of a scheduled release.”
We’ve posted this song for a reason, as we’re still leery. We know it could still be a while, but thought it’d be nice to pass along this small message. Thank you to bocpages.org for bringing it to our attention.
In 1997, Keely Hawkes, Eric Pressly, and Gary Clark banded together to release Transister by Transister. Originally gaining momentum in 1996 after being featured on KCRW’s renowned Morning Becomes Eclectic and reaching a modest #56 on the UK Singles Chart, it’s one of the more rare and hidden gems within the alternative rock & downtempo genres. Songs from the record have been featured in movies of the likes of Jawbreaker (“Flow”) and Never Been Kissed (“Look Who’s Perfect Now”), but all that seems to be left of the group is a Wikipedia page (which we basically restated in the this paragraph) and an unofficial Geocities website that is only traceable when using web.archive.org. It’s a strange absence considering their album is quite astonishing.
Mostly teetering the sonic realm of early Hooverphonic and sprinkles of grunge icons Garbage, Transister creates a perfect hybrid of moody electronic loops, trippy delays, creative panning, and uniquely combines it all with melodic vocal and guitar lines that make up the majority of the self-titled record.
“Weather Boy” distinguishes each of these qualities best. It’s beginning points out a despondent vocal mixing technique that focuses on stereo delays to create a sort of whirling effect, having Keely’s voice floating in and out of the left and right channels at timed increments. It’s at the bridge when the vocals moderately change to harmonized layers and a slight reverb, allowing the stereo paired/effected guitar track and supporting percussive elements to brighten up the track before the song is drastically altered at the chorus. When this portion of “Weather Boy” kicks in, distorted/sliding guitar drones fill the mix, while filtered vocals and drum samples support and drive the final swing home.
It’s such an evolving song that it would be hard to pull off if it weren’t for the light mixing that the debut album was accustomed to. According to the TT DR Offline meter, the debut itself sits at a not-so safe average dynamic range level of about 6dB, so it’s decently loud. However, none of the songs clip. As a matter of fact, there is sometimes as much as a full decibel of headroom as far as the peak of the tracks are concerned. We understand they’re two completely separate entities, but in listening to the process, it’s clear that mastering engineer Steve Marcussen (Smashing Pumpkins, Paul McCartney, Prince) took great respect with Transonic’s original production/mixes of the record and ensured that nothing, sonically, or emotionally got lost in translation.
(Contrary to popular belief, Transonic is not Robert Musso in this case, but is actually Eric and Gary’s production name on the album. Thank you to Gary for clearing up this issue!)
In regards to emotions, it’s “Stars Collide” that truly brings the shining light and emotional grip on Transister. It’s a light, fluffy downtempo recording, driven by flugelhorn and trombone recordings by Damon Brown and Paul Taylor. They bring a true jazzy feeling amongst the light whole note pads, eighth note rhodes, left panned light drumming, and warm bass. Hawkes seductively brings along nostalgic love notes, lamenting “I can’t have you the way I used to, but I still love you.”
Underneath and panned to the left, a pitched down male vocalist starts “stars collide and the rivers run dry/and everything grows, and everything dies/the people we love get locked inside..forever.” The changes continue throughout the song, with a pad build up that’s broken down by a crunchy, panned distortion sample and a calm, soothing DJ-scratch solo that brings the song back it’s original core.
“I never ever thought that I’d forget your face. I’ve been trying to get through but I can’t quite see you. I know you’re laughing in some other place and the stars laugh with you and I forgive you.” It’s an upfront tale of loss and one can even equate it to death. The great thing about “Stars Collide” is that it’s one of those songs that can truly take on multiple meanings and is so musically well put together that it’s melodic and percussive compliments are of the most impressive. At the end of the track, Keely lets out euphoric ad-libs while the entirety of the songs elements come together with the help of a string line to create one large atmosphere that plays off of the timbre of each instrument lined up and recorded into the track. To bring you down, the DJ samples play out looped, as if they’re breaking down and leave off in crackling silence.
The last of the cracking bleeds into the next track, “Day #1,” but is a quick segue that drops within the first second of the track. Once again, a nice mastering touch by Marcussen.
In complete opposition of the aforementioned tracks, there are more synth-trance influences and and grunge tinged songs such as “Head”. It’s a minimal and slowly progressing movement that recalls something of a the early days of Shirley Mansonand co, but has it’s unique twist in featuring a phone call style break, complete with outside field recordings to aid to the ambiance of the song and rid of it sounding sterile. “Love me when I’m tender inside my..head” Hawkes playfully sings, before the track returns to it’s micro-chorus, followed by whole note pads that make their way into the midway section of the track, to bridge song back to it’s drive.”Falling Off The World” also falls in line within the same sorts of “Head”, but is more rock infused.
The most layered track comes toward the later half of the track and is also one of the more pop features on the track. “What You Are” begins strongly, with strong, confident and chorus vocals, that quickly lead into an explosion of polished melodic guitar lines, that fade off into panned pop melodies that flow out and into each other.
It’s “Flow,” however, that packs yet another emotional punch on Transister and plays out as the last song on the album. The track fades in and contains relaxed, delayed, and stereo imaged guitars that make up the bulk of the song. “I’m always swimming against the flow of the tide. Kissing the life into something that’s already died” is sung against delayed-electronic bloops that are reminiscent of sonic air bubbles. While the song writing on the record isn’t of the most in depth and metaphoric, it balances the line between being cliche and frank effortlessly, and all in all, compliments the entirety of the record’s musical playing great.
Mentions of sentiment throughout Transister take on an interesting twist as of late. Unfortunately, one third of the band, Eric Pressly passed away recently. This brings the feelings of the record to become a bit more mournful, but overall it still holds an extreme feeling of unity throughout it. The band, Transister, even though we will probably not hear another record from them in this form, put out on solid of a debut album and is one that should be celebrated for years to come.
It’s hard to come by, but the album can currently be obtained on Amazon when you’re looking in the Marketplace. (As a matter of fact we actually obtained a beat up, used copy from the Amazon marketplace years ago, which you can see here and just ordered the “Look Who’s Perfect Now” & “Dizzy Moon” singles, which have popped up on the website). We ask that you dig and find anything you can. Dig passed the countless mentions of the KoRn song and dig through Google constantly wanting to correct the spelling of the band to “Transistor”.
We’re telling you, they’re worth it.
Editor’s Fun fact: I discovered Transister while listening to a radio station VH1/MTV had on their website called The Blue Room. It’s unfortunately gone now, but it was a Downtempo radio station. I discovered a lot of music through it, but would always skip until I found “Stars Collide”. It’s one of my top songs of all time.
As of now, the remaining members are still very active in the music industry. Gary has worked with LizPhair, NatalieImbruglia, while Keely has provided background vocals for pop star Hilary Duff, T.a.T.u., as well as written for Jordin Sparks.
You can catch Gary Clark on Twitter and see Keely Hawkes logging into her Myspace from time to time.
Speaking of social media, keep checking our Facebook and Twitter because we’ll be asking Gary a few questions regarding the record in an exclusive extended look back at the stunning record!
Well…were you honestly expecting something short!?
Fiona Apple updated her Facebook status yesterday with the title of her album and once again today, with a piece of paper that his the upcoming fourth album’s name conveniently scratched on crinkled paper.
The Idler Wheel is wiser
than the Driver of the Screw,
and Whipping Cords will serve you more
than Ropes will ever do.
We’ve waited seven years for this release, so why don’t we just make everything long while we’re at it? Just kidding.
Fiona is no stranger to long album titles. Her 1999 sophomore album is shortened to the three word title When The Pawn.. but held the world record for longest album title for seven years, with 90 words (Soulwax later took her place).
We quite like the poetic, non-restrictive approach taken toward the name of the record, which is slated for a June release (according to Billboard). Anticipation is high and we still know nothing about it!
Below, check out the dates for a mini-tour across the United States (good luck getting tickets..we tried for the Brooklyn date for hours) and “Sleep To Dream” from her acclaimed debut album Tidal.
03/15 – Austin, TX @ Central Presbyterian Church (SXSW)
03/19 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
03/21 – Washington, DC @ Sixth and I
03/23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
03/24 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Music Box
03/26 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
03/27 – Boston, MA @ Royale
Fun fact: Did you know “Sleep To Dream” samples “Overcome” by Tricky? (Youtube)
While Telepopmusik are finishing up the 17 songs for their new album (reportedly out this year), they’re sometimes posting bootleg remixes and snippets of old and new tracks for us to check out. We’re all patient waiters here, after all, it’s been seven years since the trio and guest vocalists blessed us with the perfect 2005 release, Angel Milk and we’re happy to hear that the song “The World Can Be Yours” will be featured on the new untitled record!
“The World Can Be Yours” is an unreleased minimal chillout electronic track from the group that was given to the leading aircraft manufacturer Airbus for use in promotion of their company. Apparently, it’s also the boarding and landing music for Air France travelers. While the version used on the advertizements is lovely, Telepopmusik confirmed that the version on the album will be a completely new version.
“Say it out loud, what’s on your mind today.
Sing me a song, give it a try right now.
Look how it’s bright, open your door to see.
The world can be yours, something to keep in mind.
Follow my steps, I’ll help you to find your way.
There’s always a choice, you’ll know deep inside. Just wait, just wait.”
Well, I consider myself to be a huge Telepopmusik enthusiast and even I didn’t know about this track. Hope I opened some new eyes to it as well. There’s a few downloads of it sprinkled throughout the internet if you look hard enough and a million streams available, including the one below.
Enjoy and click here to be directed to the 40 second preview of another track off the anticipated release, a track called “Try Me Anyway”.
2020k 