French Electronic trio Télépopmusik, known for their 2001 undergound hit “Breathe” (YouTube) have been pretty dormant since the release of their 2005 critically acclaimed downtempo masterpiece Angel Milk. Sure, two years ago saw the digital release of “Ghost Girl” (Myspace) featuring Kim Wayman and a bunch of remixes to go along with it and a resurface of revisited versions of their songs posted to the official MySpace profile, but beyond promises of a new album year after year after year, the horizon of which we waited for an announcement of some new tunes seemed hopelessly bleak..until now.
On December 7th, 2011 Telepopmusik broke their silence with a 41 second clip of new music called “Try Me Anyway” that’s featured in an advertisement to promote an upcoming TV series called Heels. Sylvia Black can be heard delivering vocals on top of a gloriously lush half acoustic, half electronic beat.
Subtle atmospherics, lush guitars, and one banging sounding percussion section hint at the evolving style the untitled, mysterious third record will sound like. And from what we can tell from this way too short of a clip, it’s going to be absolutely amazing!
On October 17th, an announcement was posted to the band’s Facebook page which read “as you might have noticed, we’re always late on schedule!
apologies….we’re finishing 17 songs…it’s a long process..and it’s almost done!” and is the only inkling of information we have beyond various other videos that feature returning vocalists Mau and the stunning Angela McCluskey. But, if it’s any indication Mai, Deborah Anderson (who provided vocals for the majority of Angel Milk, including the stunning “Into Everything“) and Juice Aleem are amongst the artists listed on Telepop’s Myspace alongside all of the aforementioned individuals in this article.
TRUST US – You’re going to want to be liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter because 2020k will be covering everything going on with this band as we’ve been big fans since their debut full length release Genetic World. It’s great to see Fabrice Dumont, Stephan Haeri, and Christophe Hetier finally bringing this album to a close and we look forward to the release of yet another sure to be flawless recording from the band!
For now, let’s take a blast to the past and enjoy the 2nd video version of the song that started it all, “Breathe”. After all, it was hard to keep from hyperventilating upon hearing this news!
Goldfrapp has delivered some of the most original music seen in the Electronic music scene over the past 12 years and what a better way to celebrate, 5 albums, 5 EPs, and 1 remix album later than a best of collection, properly titled The Singles?
The release compiles 14 (out of 21 official releases) of the band’s biggest hits, plus includes two new songs, “Melancholy Sky” and the brilliantly composed “Yellow Halo” which was unveiled to the masses today via a music video released through their YouTube/VEVO account.
“Yellow Halo” is a throwback to Alison & Co.’s 2008 downtempo release Seventh Tree and includes layers of euphoric flowing strings and pads, with a synth bass driving the rhythmic sections of the track and a marching-drum esque snare a bit further back in the mix to give the track an extra driving force, but pulled back enough not to have the song sounding rushed along.
Perhaps the greatest part of the track is the chorus. There’s something absolutely beautiful about the simplistic vocal melody and the complimentary notes that are featured through it. We here at 2020k are not very good at musical notation, but we know the song is in the key of D♭ (correct us if we’re wrong) and below we’ve mapped out the notes to the chorus so you can sit down at the piano and bang them out a few times for yourself:
F – Yel
G♭ – low
B♭ – ha
A♭ – lo
F – On
G♭ – your
B♭ – cos
B♭ – mic
D♭ – queen
F – Yel
F – low
F – ha
D♭ – lo
Pretty emotional sounding, right?
The video, put together by Lisa Gunning was shot entirely on an iPhone while Goldfrapp visited South America and has some awesome shots of the band setting up for a concert. Cables, faders, meters, drum sets, wires, water bottles and a legendary group of artists – who could ask for more!?
The Singles will be released on Feburary 6th, 2012 . Check out Goldfrapp.com for the track listing and more information.
(No lossless file available for this track yet, so we’ve saved the techie stuff. But, we’ll rate it a 5/5 because it’s an absolutely gorgeous song).
“I know I will always pay great attention to the lyrics. I want my record to be a record that you can listen to the club but also at your house because you’ll love the lyrics. I want my songs to resist time.” – Ilia Darlin
Newly EMI signed Ilia Darlin isn’t on much of the mainstream’s radar as of yet, but if her early releases of various songs on YouTube and official website are enough for us to go off of, we think it’s pretty safe to say she’ll be creating a lot of attention and buzz for herself once her debut record releases in 2012. “Car Crash,” noted for it’s stripped down, but extremely melodic and simplistic mixing techniques has become a Pop favorite for 2020k and different explorations of pop outlets, such as the stripped down “Sin,” which sounds like something straight out of a David Lynch movie all show the beginnings of a pop star blossoming before our eyes.
Speaking of David Lynch, we talk about him in this interview! We also discuss the current state of pop music, how traveling keeps Ms. Darlin creative, what we can expect from her untitled debut record, and how to make an artist comfortable while in the studio with her.
It’s a nice, serious chat and look into the current life of an ambitious artist who’s filled up with countless amounts of emotion needed to be expressed and about to be unloaded upon the public in glorious pop form. Oh, and the pictures you see in this entry? New press pictures. They’ve made their debut on our blog and we love them!
Without further ado, we present to you: Ilia Darlin.
Hello! How are you?
Hello, RJ. I’m very good thank you.
You’ve been recording in lots of interesting places. From Los Angeles and New York City in the United States, to Greece and other places across Europe. What have you taken in from all of the different cultures you’ve experienced since all of the traveling?
I have to say I feel really lucky I’ve been given these opportunities to travel around and collaborate with so many talented people. It’s interesting in how many different circumstances I’ve found myself in. I’ve recorded with underground artists in East London and Athens in home studios, but I have also recorded in the Universal studios in L.A and in Billy Mann’s house studio in Connecticut in the woods…What can I say, really? The colours are different, the energy is different, the language obviously, and that’s the beauty of it for me. I have to adapt myself each time and try to understand the perception of each culture of music. I think Europeans favour kind of unsettling sounds whereas Americans love and can create big sounds that more people can easily relate to and I think you need both, so that’s why I travel a lot.
How did you go about spreading your music to get the attention of record labels?
I started gigging a lot. I felt a genuine need to do it. It was the only way to connect with people and eventually the record labels. I’ve never said that before but in one of my biggest appearances I was actually not 100% invited. I had a friend who invited me to do this big gig, but when I arrived to the venue nobody else was informed I was supposed to sing. I didn’t back down though. Our show ended up being the best of the night and the other act hated us. [Laughs]
How does it feel to be signed to major record label EMI?
Oh, it feels like heaven, I’m not going to lie. I love my label, they’ve been unbelievably supportive and good to me. I have a very personal relationship with them and it feels good to be a team. I can’t thank them enough for the faith they’ve shown to me.
As I told you, I was gigging a lot and putting my work out there. My project caught their attention and it happened. Well, it wasn’t as easy as it sounds in two lines. I’ve worked a lot to evolve and make myself ready to be where I am right now. Three words if you really want something: work ,work, and work.
That songs we’ve heard from you so far have a very nice, stripped down, not overcomplicated electro-pop sound to them. Will you be maintaining those sort of sonics for your upcoming debut, or are you venturing into different, more exploratory territory?
Well, I’m still in the creative process so I can’t say anything final, but I know I will always pay great attention to the lyrics. I want my record to be a record that you can listen to the club but also at your house because you’ll love the lyrics. I want my songs to resist time.
Can we expect the album any time soon? Have you titled it yet or can give us any further details?
I’m quite positive the first single will be out very soon, but I can’t say more right now.
What was the first album that meant something to you?
It was the soundtrack of The Beach. I was so young and it felt so exciting. It sounded like an adventure. I remember listening to the “Beached” by Angelo Badalamenti, performed by Orbital, whom some years later I opened for. “Never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar…just keep your mind open and suck in the experience and if it hurts, you know what? It’s probably worth it”.
[Click here to listen to “Beached” by Orbital. A great track!]
If you could go back in time and tell yourself a lesson you know now that you didn’t know at the start of your career, what would you tell yourself and why?
Don’t waste time on other people’s insecurities.
When do you feel most creative?
When I travel. I have this curse that I’m very easily and quickly bored. Traveling keeps me alert and creative. Thank God our planet is big.
What’s your favorite David Lynch movie or project?
I’m obsessed with Lynch, how do you know? It’s hard to pick one out but I’ll say Mulholland Drive. I’ve watched this movie a thousand times. The scene where Rebekah del Rio sings “Llorando” will never leave me. I’ve sang this song acapella in a huge festival in Greece and it’s one of the happiest and most honest times of my life.
[2020k’s Note: If you haven’t seen the scene discussed above, we recommend taking a few minutes of your time to watch it here. It’s mesmerizing, haunting, tear jerking, and mesmerizing. And while you’re at it, check out Mulholland Drive..or anything by Lynch, for that matter. It’s our favorite David Lynch film. As you can see, Ilia’s got some great taste!]
Your projects have taken on a very visual element to them. How does combining fashion, videos, and personality all together help the music you put together? Or alternately, how do you come up with the ideas for how you’re going to present the art visually?
I vision my songs synesthetically. I listen to something and I see a story growing or the other way round. Everything I do I perceive it as a whole experience-everything is about an atmosphere. I always go in the studio with movies, pictures, clothes that would inspire the people I work with and will make them get the vision. Sometimes it’s too much but it’s fun…
Being a pop musician, how do you feel about the current state of pop music?
Firstly, I want to say that I believe pop music to be the most difficult genre to write. Wanting to write music to reach a big audience can be really tricky cause you may end up with something that you think people would like to listen instead of what you as an artist would like to put out there. Right now, I feel we’re going through a pretentious period not only in music and I’m trying to brake away from it. I’m trying to get closer to a raw state. A state of truth and immediacy, a stripped down version.
Being as though 2020k likes to focus on the more technical aspects of music, we’d like to know what makes you feel the most comfortable when you walk into the studio? What can a producer, engineer, studio manager, or intern do to ensure you keep a positive and creative vibe when recording a song?
Being open and communicative is all you need to make things work. Traveling so much and working with so many different people I learned discussion and patience to be the greatest means for wonders to happen.When I first started, I was impatient but I’ve been taught by great artists that art can’t be forced. It will show itself when you’re ready.
What do you hope your fans and listeners take away from the music you create?
Inspiration, strength, excitement. I hope my songs to leave a taste in their mouth, whether good or bad.
Do you have any announcements, closing comments or statements in general that you’d like to throw out into the world to the readers of 2020k?
Don’t let any fucker tell you what you can or can’t do.
We’re three days away from the release of Hip-Hop veterans The Roots 10th studio album and first full concept album, Undun. Right now, the full record is streaming on NPR’s website and the band has officially released an official App through the iTunes App Store in support of and as a companion to the record.
The un(dun) app is a companion piece to the The Roots 2011 release Undun. Through the use of photos, lyrics, a series of interviews and music video vignettes, the app provides an immersive experience that elucidates the life and times of one Redford Stephens (1974-1999), a complex youth who struggles to define himself within a troubled inner city milieu and dies in the process. – Official Description.
While it’s not the most interactive app, it’s neat to have some sort of back story as to how the protagonist in the album’s history was like. Pictures of Redford and his environment, interviews with teachers, friends, and family members, and all of the lyrics for the album are housed in an application almost half a Gigabyte in size and presented in a clean, streamline fashion. Six months from now, this is likely to be one of the apps you delete as a means to make space on your little 16GB iPhone 4S, but one you’ll keep in your memories after you hear the stories and struggles that caused Redford Stephens to walk down the path of life illustrated through The Roots’ record.
FYI – The app is free (for now).
Also, for those that have listened to the album – we hear it’s remarkable, but tend to stay away from low quality streams and leaks. Once 2020k has the lossless copy of the record in our hands, there’s no doubt we’ll be spinning it until we can’t bare it anymore.
We haven’t met a Roots album we don’t like & “Make My” gets us misty eyed every time.
Two days ago, we put up a blog entry elaborating on a tweet Nine Inch Nails’ mastermind Trent Reznor put up about working with Neil Kellerhouse and art director Rob Sheridan on the artwork to the six vinyl package of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Soundtrack, a score in collaboration with long term musical partner Atticus Ross. Today, we learn that the mini-site launch for the soundtrack has gone live and pre-orders are being taken in a variety of formats for the record.
Noticeably absent is the option to buy the soundtrack on Bluray this time around, whereas it was offered and is still being offered as a purchase option on their previous (and debut) movie scoring effort for David Fincher’sThe Social Network. The bluray option offered lossless stereo and 5.1 surround sound versions of the tracks, but when asked by @hastily on twitter why it wasn’t a choice this time around, @Trent_Reznor responded with “long story..” We’re sure three hours worth of music would have been hard to put together in a surround sound format, so perhaps there just wasn’t enough time?
Then again, on NIN.com, a small blurp from the guys quote “For the last fourteen months Atticus and I have been hard at work on David Fincher’s “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”. We laughed, we cried, we lost our minds and in the process made some of the most beautiful and disturbing music of our careers.” However, when scoring a film, a lot of work goes into creating the mood and sending tracks to and from the director and audio/musical supervisors, so it’s safe to stick with the story of there wasn’t enough time.
“The result is a sprawling three-hour opus that I am happy to announce is available for pre-order right now for as low as $11.99. The full release will be available in one week – December 9th..” continues the press release and upon visiting the Null Corporation website for the soundtrack, you’ll find a variety of prices and choices to pick from.
The $11.99 option is actually an iTunes pre-order, not affiliated with the Null website and upon purchasing the soundtrack from the Apple program, you receive an instant free download of Trent & Atticus’ cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” with vocals from Yeah Yeah Yeah’s front woman Karen O.
Instant downloads are a great thing and if you’re not ready to purchase the soundtrack just yet, there’s a FREE six song, thirty minute plus sampler download on the soundtrack website. When 2020k tells you that regardless of whether you’re going to purchase the soundtrack or not, that you NEED to download this sampler…you NEED to download this sampler. This is some of the best mixing, best use of stereo imaging, and some of the most The Fragile-esque production from Reznor & Ross that’s been heard in a very long time. The ambient soundscapes are dense, nervously anxious, frightening, and will make the hair on your arms actually stand up. It’s no surprise though, this duo knows how to make music and make it well.
Oh, and the six vinyl set? Only 3,000 have been pressed. Each signed by Trent and Atticus and contain several bonuses, featuring a razor blade USB-stick with the digital version of the soundtrack on it, and a deluxe book package. It’s $300 though, so if that’s not your cup of tea we recommend purchasing the CD version of the album, which is $14 (comes to a little over $19 when you add in the shipping) or the lossless digital files, which come to the same price and obviously don’t have shipping charges tacked on to them.
“People Lie All The Time”,” but we aren’t lying when we say you won’t be disappointed. Especially if you listen to that song. Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross have done it again. Bravo, guys. Can’t wait to hear the rest!
We here at 2020k have a confession to make: we’re the biggest fans of R&B/Pop legends TLC. They’ve released four of the most honest, appealing albums of the last twenty years, complete with great sounding productions with extremely respectable mixing, mastering, and songwriting features. So, when it was announced on December 1st, 2011 that VH1 will be releasing a string of music based biopics, with T-Boz, Chilli, and the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes being the first feature to make it’s way into production, we smiled from ear to ear like a little kid who’s just been told Santa Clause brought them a new, shiny bicycle.
The two surviving members of the group that brought us the pop standards “Creep” and “Waterfalls,” Tionne Watkins and Rozonda Thomas will be executive producing the film along with their Maggie Malina and long time manager Bill Diggins with VH1’s EVP Original Programming & Production Jeff Olde. Kate Lanier of Set It Off, Beauty Shop, and What’s Love Got To Do With It fame who has signed on to write the script.
From the press release, we have quotes from both girls, with Chilli stating, “The reality of this brings me to tears because I am seeing one of my dreams come to life. I always felt our story had to be told. What makes it even more amazing is having Kate Lanier on board. I remember watching ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ with Lisa, and I knew then whoever wrote that story had to write ours. I will forever be thankful to Jeff Olde for believing in our story and going the extra mile to make it happen.”
Tionne also followed with, “I’m just overjoyed. I appreciate Jeff Olde and everyone on staff at VH1 that took interest in us, thank you. Kate Lanier is amazing. I’m honored to work with her I love her art. Well here we go on another TLC ride and I can’t wait. Like Biggie said ‘Now if ya don’t know, now ya know.'”
For those that don’t know, for every million records TLC’s four records have sold (an estimated 36 million) they’ve had about triple the problems. From signing a recording contract so corrupt they had to file for bankruptcy 1995, to problems with the recording of their third album Fanmail when producer Dallas Austin tried to charge outrageous prices during for studio time with him, and issues of disease, arson, and ultimately the untimely death of Left Eye. Combine these public issues with other professional and personal complications and you have one hell of an interesting topic of discussion on it’s own, so it’s no wonder the television station picked this group as their first specimens.
VH1 has also constantly shown TLC massive support. They’ve been given three Behind The Music specials and picked up Chilli’s reality TV show What Chilli Wants. It was specifically no secret that the girls were in the works with something special when VH1 announced their Behind The Music: Remastered edition, which combined the first two installments of their contributions of the show and ended on an updated note which was mostly comprised of individuals in the industry giving the group mass praise and hopeful statements of a return of these three girls to the music scene.
There is no set date on when this biopic will premiere or who the artists that follow this film are.
“It’s like Whitney, but imagine if Bruce Springsteen had a baby with Whitney Houston — that’s what it is,” she said. “And that was it! We made a baby. Finally. After all that fornication, miserably long and tedious, Fernando and I finally conceived.” — Lady Gaga on “Marry the Night” to MTV News
It’s inspiring to see a pop artist like Lady Gaga work so relentless and be so dedicated to her work that calling what she does commendable would be an understatement. In 2011 alone, we’ve seen an album, a DVD,a remix album, a book, collaboration with Tony Bennett, a Thanksgiving special (complete with a digitally released EP), and 1, 2, 3, 4 stunning videos to compliment the singles released from the May released album Born This Way. So many well executed, acclaimed, and highly anticipated projects in just under six months and with the release of her fifth single “Marry The Night,” Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta keeps cementing in the fact that her blossoming and ever evolving career will keep rolling on strong, looking promising to go on longer than her real name.
Before we get into the music video for “Marry The Night,” 2020k would like to take a look back at the consumption of this track, mixing approaches to the song, and the interviews, equipped with live performances that all merge together to make up the larger musical and entertainment marketing intellect that this song has taken upon itself.
I. The Recording Process & Mixing
Like much of the recording of Born This Way, “Marry The Night” was recorded on the tour bus during The Monster Ball tour, which spanned from 2009-2011. Producer Fernando Garibay, who toured with Gaga to record the album, reportedly began working on the musical composition of the song as a ways to top their previous collaboration “Dance In The Dark” and beat out the outstanding energy that song brought to The Fame Monster and opening number in The Monster Ball tour. Gaga spoke to MTV about this feeling, “I remember being backstage and hearing the concert start, so I go out there and hear ‘Dance in the Dark’ open up the whole concert, and I wanted to outdo that feeling. I wanted to outdo that moment that opens up the show.”
Fernando stated in the same interview that when he played the song for Lady Gaga, she changed a few chords, took a few moments to compose herself (through meditation), asked him to make a mic track and recorded it right after a show, translating the energy from the crowd and production of the concert into the song. All programming was done by Garibay except for additional percussion which was provided by DJ White Shadow, with the vocals being recorded (which are all, lead and background done by the artist herself) by Dave Russel and assistant Eric Morris.
Fernando Garibay in the studio
2020k is unsure of the conditions of the tour bus or just how they blocked out all of the sounds that had to have been going on inside and outside of the environment the live vocals were recorded in, but the end result sounds like an extremely clean recording, free of any sort of noise, which is most likely in part by Dave Russel, who also mixed the track with assistance from Paul Pavao. Noise reduction is almost a must when recording in a setting like a tour bus that is very un-suitable for noise blockage and considering that the vocal is extremely compressed and up front in the mix and it still maintains a perfectly polished sound, it’s almost a guarantee some sort of noise reduction plug-in or outboard method was utilized.
Beyond the technicalities of the initial vocal recording, the mixing is quite aggressive on all layers of vocals accounted for within “Marry The Night”. A small reverb runs through the majority of the lead layers of the vocals and delays that do not sound synced to tempo and are more often than not presented in stereo with delays quickly spinning off of the original vocal to the left and the right channel a few samples ahead and behind of each other to give the impression of a more tripped-out, dense vibe and panned more to the left channel at the end of phrases to conclude lines, rather than give them an on going, echoed feel (these panned delays sound like 8th note delays, mapped to tempo).
Subtle distortion, most likely creating such a sound using extreme measures compression, paired with layers of background vocals panned different directions, with some vocal tracks possibly treated with very small levels of distortion outboard gear or plugins are also wildy featured on the track, practically taking over the chorus during the initial “I’m gonna marry…the night!” lines.
The last, more obvious vocal mixing effect is some sort of pitch correction that is also mixed subtly in the track and is used as a guide to ensure an even more varnished sound. No Autotune/Melodyne digital artifacts can be heard throughout the track and 97% of pop music (and music in general) bring pitch correction into play during the mixing of their records, that it’s become a standard and nothing to be alarmed about if it’s used in delicate moderation, which this track makes well use of.
Production wise, it’s basically comprised of percussion samples and synthesizers that are probably ITB virtual instruments that are made up to emulate guitar and church bells. ADSR envelopes are for the most part set to moderate levels, with the attack of the synths either being very quick or a bit later as ways to let the kick drum have the initial on-the-beat-four-to-the-floor attack with the synth leading in a few milliseconds afterward. It’s a standard dance music feel that’s normally associated with a parallel compression technique, but the kick doesn’t seem to be linked to the synth in the slightest in this song so that doesn’t seem to be the case.
A small gliding synth helps the church bell synth at the beginning of the track before launching into what was stated in the previous paragraph and all synths are pretty much compressed in some sort of fashion to give a more powerful feeling. Interestingly enough, during the post chorus it’s the slow-attack synthesizers that take the lead in the mix as opposed to the catchy “Ma-ma-ma-marry” line – which isn’t something that happens in radio pop music that often. There are several times where Gaga’s vocals are distinctly lower and less powerful than the musical atmospheres on the track and adds to the diversity of the track.
It’s a given, through all of the compression talk of this track that headroom isn’t in this song that often as the song peaks at a -0.01 reading on the digital TT Loudness meter and reads out a Dynamic Range reading of 5db. In a track that blends pop, dance, distorted industrial inklings, and soul yellings that are reminiscent of past pop powerhouse divas, it’s an acceptable rating and one that commands attention but gives room for a few aural breaths here and there.
Some of those breaths come from the synth samples and loops that are more mid-high range rather than full frequency assaults on us and carves out it’s own frequency trenches so that they don’t muddy the bass frequencies or overpower the high EQ boosts of Lady Gaga’s vocals.
It’s interesting to note that the song doesn’t clip off at 0.00, which states that a limiter may have been used during the mixing of the track, then applied again when Gene Grimaldi mastered the track for the album, which means that some of the distortion heard on the record could actually be a product of original clipping that’s happening in the recording and processing of certain aspects of the track that are brought out more prominently once it reached the mastering chain. Regardless, it adds to the overall industrial-esque feeling of the track and does nothing to hinder the unstoppable power of “Marry The Night”.
II. The Remixes
Two remixes of “Marry the Night” have been released thus far, the first being the Zedd Remix featured on the Special Edition release of Born This Way that stays true to the original feel of the track by utilizing piano synths and a four-to-the-floor kick and snare combination, while using filtered synths, powerful upfront pads, and sweeping transition synthesizers. There aren’t many layers in the song, so the track is able to be mixed extra loud and has an average dynamic range rating of 2db. Horrid, right? But, with such an originally sparse track being commissioned by the record label, it’s a smart decision to mix a track slated to be a single off the record at some point (“Marry The Night” was supposed to be the lead before they settled on the title track) so that it’s more eye and ear catching when during DJ set lists. Interestingly enough, there is a lot more headroom in this track than there is on the album version of the track, probably to compensate for the overly compressed track so that it’s easy to mix in with other records during a set.
The second remix, done by the explosive viral, Drake aided, and 2020k favorite sensation The Weeknd & his producer Illangelo take the track to a dark and broken place with a downtempo, dark R&B/pop infused twist on the track, filled with percussion samples and background vocals by The Weeknd himself. Crazily distorted and at times even more vocally pitch corrected than the original (but pitch incorrected as this song is meant to sound broken, out of town, and show the darker side of marrying the night) giving the overall appeal of this song an overall signature Weeknd touch. Percussion, keyboards, and other ambient atmospheres in the song are pitch bent, lo-fi’ed, and have other various gritty techniques applied to them to give a depressive and mournful feel to the song. A dynamic range of 8dB is the average for this song, giving it more of a replay factor and not tiring ears out after a few listens at a bit louder levels. An A+ interpretation of the song, for sure.
Other remixes are to be released through the “Marry The Night” single just like all of the Lady Gaga singles get and while we’re unsure of the full tracklisting, Amazon.de has a 2-track single listing up with a David Jost & Twin Radio Mix present and Universal music store has a Picture-disc single up with a Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs ‘Marry Me’ Remix up.
We’re anxious for the full digital release, due out December 4th, possibly. Especially after that remix that’s used in the beginning of the “Marry The Night” video. More on that later…
III. Marketing: The Interviews & Performances “Marry The Night” has been brought up in interviews since the beginning of the Born This Way era. From the Monster Ball Tour HBO Special, to the MTV special, magazines, and other aspects of the journalism world – it’s all documented as a song about marrying your problems and not giving up on your life, striving toward something better. To Lady Gaga, she stated to NME that “this song is about me going back to New York. I wrote this about the courage it took for me to say ‘I hate Hollywood, I just wanna live in Brooklyn and make music.'”
“I know how rejection feels in the business. I got signed, I got dropped, I got signed again. That’s actually what the ‘Marry the Night’ video is about. It’s about one of the most horrible days of my life when I got dropped from my first record label and it’s the story of what happened that day.” and according to Vanity Fair, the video is “autobiographical” and illustrates “the worst day of my life.”
And after all of the interview babble, we have brilliant live performances from MTV EMA, Children in Need Benefit, The Bambi Awards, X-Factor, A Very Gaga Thanksgiving, and most recently a performance at the Grammy Nominations that all present the true liveliness of the record, combining gorgeously sung live vocals with various set changes and choreography from the music video. They’re the way performances should be presented: Authentic, with backing vocals and most of the time a backing track, but presented only as a means to beef up the production and performance aspect, to be aesthetically pleasing and to be vocally live. But, it’s the interview and performance on Andy Carr’s Chatty Man show that truly takes the cake and shows the essence of where Gaga is at both in live and talent.
During Andy’s interview, we see a delighted Gaga stating that the only thing she does straight is her whiskey and talking about living in the vessel during the 2011 Grammy Award ceremony toward the beginning of the Born This Way era, “I was texting and I was looking at the tweets, it was quite fun for me, you know? I was inside, I had my oxygen on and I walked down the red carpet and I saw all of the fans going ‘what the fuck is she doing?’ It was exciting” she stated and eventually letting out “it was realistic, but it was a performance piece” when playfully asked how she went to the bathroom.
After the interview is a “Cooking With Gaga” segment where she cooks an Italian meal while Andy Carr tries to bait Gaga by creating puns such as picking up an egg and asking “Is that an egg or a vessel?” and presenting “Lazy Gaga” in which he goes on to say “this is a sauce you can use for any occasion and you actually..um, you actually use this yourself, don’t you, Lady Gaga”?
“No.” she replies straight poker faced and attempting to ignore the jab and continuing on cooking. But, the most hysterical laugh-until-you-cry portion of the segment comes when Gaga starts attacking the chicken with a pan. Finally, a stripped down performance of “Marry The Night” follows and concludes a humorous and creative outlook on the pop artist.
IV. The Video
“I know how rejection feels in the business. I got signed, I got dropped, I got signed again. That’s actually what the ‘Marry the Night’ video is about. It’s about one of the most horrible days of my life when I got dropped from my first record label and it’s the story of what happened that day.” She stated on Andy Carr’s television show and again to Vanity Fair that the video is “autobiographical” and illustrates “the worst day of my life.”
Snippets of the video were uploaded onto Lady Gaga’s YouTube channel on November 17th, 2011 after several tweets from Gaga posting a video still, dialog from the music video, and finally breaking down (read: “my teaser is ready”) and tweeting that she would post a clip Children In Need Rocks Manchester, which she did. It ignited over 5 million views by the full video’s release date, tonight, December 1st, 2011 and with the full video now out and in the hands of all of the Little Monsters across the planet Earth, we’re shown that at her longest video to date, just a little over thirteen minutes long, Lady Gaga is still on the path to making extremely symbolic music videos that seem to be getting more complicated, more abstract in meaning, while remaining true to a transparent view to the visual atmospheres as well.
Destruction is clear through the video’s length as Lady Gaga becomes a patient in a mental hospital after she lives through the horrific news that a record label does not want to sign her. She trashes her apartment, throws vinyl records throughout it, douses her naked body in Cheerios (nice subtle product placement, along with the Calvin Cline and spring mint fashion droppings..a step up from the clear Miracle Whip promotion featured in the “Telephone (Featuring Beyonce)” video), and paints her hair a bright turquoise in the bathtub (looking like a completely stripped down human compared to the mermaid in the previous video release “You and I”) and brings it all together in one scene as a means of expressing the negative feelings equated with that phone call and the association of destroying as a means of creative reinvention.
There’s small hints of Madonna from the early days and Madonna from the “Hung Up” video within the beginning of the video, most notably the first dance sequence and the small bit before it, but that’s to be expected as these two women will inevitably be wrongly (and rightly, no one can deny that “Born This Way” doesn’t sound like “Express Yourself” infused with TLC’s “Waterfalls” all harnessed under a 21st century pop umbrella beat) compared to each other for the rest of their careers, lives, and beyond for being two strong, boundary pushing, mainstream pop queens. But, it’s the spirit breaking and humbled NYC hustle that’s present within both of these artist’s beginnings that’s genuinely the same and it’s almost common sense that these visual similarities and artistic visions cross each others paths and create some sort of unique pop unification. This time, unlike the “Born
This Way” fiasco, it’s a legitimate homage.
V. Conclusion
The video also leaked a few hours before it’s scheduled premiere at 8PM on E! and it’s refreshing to see the Lady herself have a somewhat sense of humor about it all. Shetweets, “You know its bad when Haus of Gaga is downloading ILLEGAL video torrents on their cellphones. Thanks guys. Although I do appreciate that really sneaky monsters are flipping out :)”
This song is one of pop’s most gorgeously put together pieces of mainstream art, from start to finish. From it’s conception, it’s constantly pushed back released (it was supposed to be the first and third single from Born This Way), to a full throttle release, a promotional campaign that’s gone stronger than most artist’s album promotion runs, growing radio support (currently sitting at #53 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, jumping up from last week’s #93), and stunning music video it’s been one bloody battle for it’s voice to be heard on it’s own instead of an album track. Born This Way is a very honest album, and “Marry The Night” holds it’s core: a song about failure and trying times, but refusing to give up on anything that means something to yourself – marrying everything about your life, your problems, where you live, your career setbacks and advancements, everything.
It’s one of the songs that epitomizes what it is to be Lady Gaga in 2011 and what it was beforehand: an authentic piece of pop history. Don’t you agree?
(Oh, and here’s a present. It has nothing to do with “Marry The Night” but I completed a mash up of “Bad Romance” & The Glitch Mob Remix of Daft Punk’s “Derezzed” a week or so ago. It’s uploaded on soundcloud and is available as a free download. 2020k’s first remix on the blog! Yeeeahhh! Click here to get it: http://soundcloud.com/twenty20k/derezzed-bad-romance-2020k-mashup)
UPDATE: CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN TO WHAT THE ANNOUNCEMENT WAS!
EXCUSE ME?!
We don’t know what this is about, but Massive Attack have literally just posted a Facebook update stating nothing but the word “Tomorrow” with two dots after it. …And their official website is running a bit slow.
Guesses are completely up in the air from the awaited digital release of the “Four Walls/Paradise Circus” project the band worked on with dubstep pioneer Burial, an official release of the demo 3D & Vermona mysteriously uploaded to a Soundcloud account under the user name Euan Me, or completely new material. Our hope is for option 3 or something equally as awesome. 24 hours later.. can’t get here fast enough.
Who do these guys think they are by keeping us mysteriously in the dark and anxiously awaiting new material by announcing things like this!? Nine Inch Nails!?
Follow 2020k on our Facebook or Twitter to be alerted as soon as this announcement is made!
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross have been putting together the soundtrack for David Fincher’s U.S. remake of the astounding Swedish film (and book) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. We’ve heard musical snippets through the teaser and full length trailers, on the official website and through various viral websites that promote the film in the same vein Reznor used to market Nine Inch Nails’ 2008 release Year Zero.
Today, we get a tweet that further describes how the soundtrack is coming along with Trent sitting down with NIN’s art director Rob Sheridan, as well as Neil Kellerhouse to work on a package to house the album’s six vinyls. (Originally, we thought this meant that only six vinyls were going to be pressed. But, who would do that? Of course they’re talking about six vinyls per set to allow room for all of the audio tracks that are featured on the record).
Just from the little bits and pieces we’ve seen and heard from this soundtrack it looks as if Trent & Atticus have made another mesmerizing work of art to aide another sure-to-be-amazing work by filmmaker David Fincher. Considering their score for The Social Network received won nine major awards, including the 2010 Academy Award for Best Original Score and was released in a slew of different formats to choose from, it’s a safe bet that this project is another one that is going to knock our socks off.
Trent & Atticus’ side project with Reznor’s wife Mariqueen Maandig, downtempo electronic How To Destroy Angels will also be featured on the record, with their twitter stating “Yes, David Fincher asked us to do a cover of Bryan Ferry’s “Is Your Love Strong Enough?” for Dragon Tattoo. It will be on the soundtrack.”
How to Destroy Angels have also been working on their first full length album to follow up on their 2009 released EP. The band’s tumblr and twitter are sporadically updated with words, pictures, and images of Maandig’s feet.
We’ll update you on these projects as more information comes rolling in.
Ceremonials, the October 28th, 2011 release by Florence + The Machine is an album that continues on the ethereal rock infused atmospheric pop formula the band uniquely carved out for themselves. Lyrical concepts remain cryptic and Gothic, heavily focusing on the subjects of drowning, the devil, and love despair complete with compositions that are still mainly directed to a wide pop audience spanning across Top 40 Pop, Adult Contemporary, Rock listeners and beyond. These aspects of music have earned the Florence projects mass critical acclaim and commercial success while staying true to an artistry that holds a blueprint gifted a breath of fresh air in a mainstream world that is currently dominated with tight, outboard dry production.
What sets this sophomore project apart from Florence’s humble 2009 Lungs debut is its dive into a sonic world that’s more soulful while offering more of a Baroque pop feel than it’s 2009 predecessor Lungs, filling the tracks with even more viola, cello, violin, and other various string instruments that give delicate compliments to the heavily reverberated percussion sections and unbelievably strong, talented vocal style of English singer Florence Welch.
In fact, a constant on this record, minus the signature sound of the band, is the high attention surrounding Welch’s vocals on this record. There are layers and layers of them on each song, treated with exuberant amounts of reverb, heavily compressed to add extra strength to them, and set at the front of the mixes to enforce a clear, powerful narrative.
Upon first impression, it’s the Ceremonials’ fifth track “Breaking Down” that holds the subtleties that come together to form a bigger picture to provide the best understanding of the album. The happy driving of the beat, the cutesy melodic keyboards, and quick string stabs paint happy irony across the sonic landscape about being self-aware of an oncoming emotional downward spiral in true Baroque pop flavor. Equipped with bright EQ boosts on the majority of the melodic instrumentation on the song, it relays a slap-back tape-esque delay that playfully chugs along the kick, snare, and main vocal lead – giving the track even more of a pep in it’s step and using extremely elongated reverbs (hall verbs?) on the “ah’s” of the chorus to provide an eerie darkness to aide the pessimistic, almost sarcastically numb, and frightful delivery of the soft, whispering vocals. It’s a song that’s most skillful in expressing it’s emotional discourse through unexpected light, happy sounding song composition combined with an even more high-spirited mixing tongue in cheek expression of sentiment.
Sentiment is not to be confused with sentimental, as declaration of forlorn consciousness is what the sophomore album is comprised of. “And now all your love will be exorcised, and we will find your sayings to be paradox, and it’s an even sum, it’s a melody, it’s a final cry, it’s a symphony,” Florence laments on the album’s most paralyzing track, “Seven Devils”. A quickly delayed synth coming in at the end of certain bars during the track creates the only bit of hope within the track that combines huge violin and cello sections laying down for the mysterious production, layered with track upon track upon track, all probably strung together through an auxiliary track to create the reverberated sound that gives the song it’s atmospheric chill. It’s darker than dark and is yet another track that transcribes hopelessness and love lost in a way that exists in almost a Horror-esque, almost Halloween style fashion, perfect for the late October release of the record.
In a completely separate direction, the debut single “What The Water Gave Me” gives way to a post-dance temperament that was a no brainer for release under the impression of it’s potential impact with what modern music sounds like. Kick and chain-like sounding snare samples, polished with a distant guitar line driving the faint melodic content of the track are the standout portions of the song that wades along the line between dance and pop to deliver a song that never explodes toward a synth-heavy expression of melodically driven poly-rhythms, nor the gloomy productions normally associated with alternative dance genres, but stays too stagnant to be considered taken a full pop route – creating yet another interestingly difficult, un-catagorizable artistic document that gives Florence + The Machine the undeniably sophisticated approach to being unable to be placed neatly into a one-tricky pony sort of boxed production.
There is also a demo version of “What the Water Gave Me” on the Deluxe Edition of the album that is a more stripped down, synth/dance-esque theoretic track, made up almost entirely of sampled sound packs that give an eye opener to what the rough version of the mood of the track and what it was originally conceptually supposed to be. A nice gem, filled with interesting synth envelops, compression techniques, automation oscillation, and raw, un-layered vocals.
“Remain Nameless” is another Deluxe Edition track, more Electronic and sample based in nature that is a flawless Downtempo, Trip-Hop inspired, sparse track stays dormant in it’s composition but is so moody and effective that not much needs to be done to it by the time the percussion explodes into it’s simplistic programmed loops that come together to recall something Emilie Autumn would string together for one of her records.. Sonically, it’s a disgusting mess with low frequencies clashing and trying to cancel each other out due to a lack of equalizing and giving certain portions of the bass and kicks to have their own sonic wholes, instead, all combining to muddy up everything. This disaster best describes every single imperfection present throughout this Florence + The Machine presentation.
Although Ceremonials musicianship, lyrical standpoint, and interesting creativity on the mixing portions of the songs are all present, there’s extreme engineering flaws throughout the full run of the record and is an extreme disappointment to what could have been one of the most well put together album’s of the year. “Shake It Out” epitomizes the essence of what Ceremonials sounds like. The kick and snare command awareness as they drive the uptempo’s organ and bass oriented composition while Florence’s vocals are mixed in a way in which the lead vocal is clear, but the backgrounds fall buried underneath the prominent mix, sounding less compressed and at times so low in the mix that it’s tone is disjointed in combination with the rest of the details going on in the song. This is mostly due to the fact that compression and loudness is such a factor in the two releases Welch has released so far that if an element of a song is not treated as if it’s aggressively attempting to reach an eardrum then it’s not meant to be. In fact, “Shake It Out” falls under a Dynamic Range 4 rating, with peaks being controlled by a limiter most likely applied both in the mixing and mastering stages of production to save from track from distorting.
Sadly, when mixing in a fashion that’s presented toward a more thunderous and demanding approach, limiting a sound wave in such a way will completely destroy harmonic content, leaving what would normally be a beautiful melodic performance, crushed instead, resulting in an unpleasing end product. Ceremonials is filled with examples of this and is devastatingly heartbreaking within the already heartbroken songs. Any time Ms. Welch reaches a louder volume of sound in voice, the compressors and limiters run so hot on her vocal tracks that the presentation of the sung notes come off at a a constant harmonic level and by the end come off actually sounding distorted at times. “Only If For A Night” is a prime culprit of this happening, specifically at the b-section of the song where every single one of the layers ends in a note sung out and loud with absolutely no harmonic content inside of it and instead comes out sounding like loud, distorted, un-humanistic, and while it makes way for an interesting listen the first couple of times around, eventually leads to ear fatigue because of it’s completely relentless power.
Whether it was the over-eagerness of mix engineers Tom Elmhirst, Craig Silvey, Mark Rankin, Mark “Spike” Stent, producer Paul Epworth, mastering engineer Ted Jensen, or the demands from Universal Republic Records who are to blame for it’s flaws, the engineering assessment could be filled with critique for pages upon pages, but interestingly enough all of the downfalls could be looked at in a more obscure fashion, trading in the abrasive mixing techniques at face value, instead thinking of them as telling the story of an album on a deeper, sonic level. Florence Welch stated being obsessed with drowning and it’s apparent just reading through the lyrics of the record. “I was obsessed with drowning. It’s about succumbing and being completely overwhelmed by something that’s bigger than everything” stated Welch during an interview and it’s crystal clear that the sonics of this album completely immerse your ears and if listening through headphones at a decent volume, it’s easy to get lost in the loudness and allow the noise from the record to in an essence, actually drown the outside noise toxins around you and drown you in it’s own pollutions. It’s a stretch, but one valid and artistically interesting if correct.
If it’s any consolation, in the liner notes of the disc there is a short essay by British journalist Emma Forrest that recalls her memories and feelings upon listening to Ceremonials and reminds us that underneath all of the engineering mishaps of the technical side of the album, it’s still an emotional rollercoaster. An album to be placed next to the angst Alternative singer/songwriter chicks and Rock albums alike. “You may, right now, be nursing a broken heart” she writes in the final paragraph, “Friends will say ‘well aren’t you glad you had the experience anyway?’ and you may even say ‘No.’ Eventually, unbelievably, you may not even remember the boy or girl that triggered it all. You’ll recall all the places you visited, but now how you got there. You’ll remember the songs that you listened to.”
Album rating: 2.5/5
[We would gladly give it a 4 if the end product was better sonically]
2020k 