After eight years as a band and three album releases, Electronic group Late Night Alumni have officially announced their first tour date ever! The event will take place at a venue called The Salt Lake Masonic Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah on January 12th, 2012 and will be visually and sonically recorded.
Band mate Kaskade has been announced to be performing at the event (but not all of them due to scheduling conflicts, after all he did just release a gorgeous solo album entitled Fire & Ice) as well as a string section and various other musicians that have been pulled in to play a part in interpreting some of the band’s best songs in a live setting.
The doors open for the $25 general admission ticket holders at 7PM with the show starting at 8. However, if you purchase the $100 VIP tickets, you’re allowed into the venue a half hour early to “mix and mingle” with the band. Not bad prices if you ask us!
There is absolutely no word on where the band will travel to for the next few dates, but it’s in the works and it’s obvious by all of the enthusiasm and work putting all of this together that the band is excited to finally be out on the road. Check out Becky Jean Williams exciting video below announcing the date and get your tickets here!
Alternative Hip-Hop veterans The Roots gear up for the December 6th, 2011 release of their thirteenth overall recording and first concept album Undun. A ton of press regarding the release has been circulating over at Okayplayer, and we have an explanation of what the record is about and how The Roots have taken hold of their career and changed it to better suit an overall thematic experience for the listener.
?uestlovestates, “At this point in our career we’d like for our work to have a unifying theme, and an experiential quality. We’ve been intentionally making our albums shorter in length so that they can be experienced as a continuous work. The music is band-oriented with an eye on the moody cinematic. As a DJ, I am the King of playlists, but I don’t want our albums to feel like a playlist or a mixtape for that matter. We want to tell stories that work within the album format and we want the stories to be nuanced and useful to people. Undun is the story of this kid who becomes criminal, but he wasn’t born criminal. He’s not the nouveau exotic primitive bug-eyed gunrunner like Tupac’s character Bishop in Juice… he’s actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment… At the end of the day… isn’t that what we all do?”
With the release of twoout of the four videos slated for release by the band, we get a full taste of what’s in store for us when the ten track disc drops and if it’s anything like what we hear on the debut single “Make My” featuring Big K.R.I.T., 2020k is fully ready for Undun as it sounds like a conceptual advancement from the gorgeously mature 2010 release How I Got Over.
Coldplay seem to have taken a leap while standing still on the band’s fifth record, Mylo Xyloto. It’s a little bit pop, it’s a little bit rock, but it’s infused in a way that provides an interesting cohesion of all of the records released by the band, while mixing in a more assertive manner almost as if determined to somehow find the link between combining the genres they cross and it’s done with an inclusively positive outcome on this release. Opening sales of 400,000 in the United States alone show that Coldplay’s artistic growth is still appealing enough to captivate audiences and take them along a ride toward the expansion of their catalog of music.
Mylo Xyloto’s opening track “Hurts Like Heaven” intertwines the overview and mood of complete record by incorporating an eclectic soundscape that both breathes the fresh, more pop sounding atmosphere presented throughout most of the disc, while maintaining the warm, layered and euphoric package Coldplay has been noted for since the release of 2002’s A Rush of Blood to the Head. A full production, comprised of the band’s signature melodically reverberated Electronic guitar leads, combined with acoustic guitars, a piano line, several Electronic glimmers, and an extremely aurally pleasing rhythmic section containing a surprisingly upbeat percussion section and a warm underlying bass presentation all make up the blood and guts of one of the album’s more memorable tracks. Frontman Chris Martin’s vocal production on this track is one of the more complicated and elaborate productions on the record as well with the most impressive aspect of their mix process being a Vocoder technique that assists certain sections of the song rather than giving it a cheap stand out gimmick. In the second verse, during one of the song’s more quiet moments, there is a vocal doubling technique used during the phrases “Yes, I feel a little bit nervous. Yes, I feel nervous and I cannot relax,” as well as additional harmonic layers that also embody a creative niche and come together with the aforementioned elements to allow “Hurts Like Heaven” to be one of the more comprehensive and astonishing uptempo works in Coldplay’s archive of released music.
It’s lines like the ones in “Hurts Like Heaven” that continue to leave outstanding marks upon the band’s career and there is absolutely no exception to any of the lyrical content on Mylo Xyloto. While the first single off the album “Every Tear Drop Is a Waterfall” (YouTube) interpolates a full melodic sample from “Ritmo De La Noche” by The Sacados & “I Go to Rio” by Peter Allen, it’s the sheer lyrical optimism of the Coldplay track that stands out and allows the sampled melody to take on a different form than what is presented in it’s original songs. “I’d rather be a comma than a full stop” sings Martin and as the song progresses with additional lines in the same vein as that one it’s a feel good arrangement that can be considered a chameleon amongst the Top 40 self-esteem boosters like “Firework” by Katy Perry or “Fuckin’ Perfect” by P!nk, digs in a different direction while presenting the subject in an Alternative Rock infused Pop track that comes across more dignified because of it’s cohesive and melodic song structure. Synthesizers and a four-to-the-floor kick are predominant throughout the bulk of the track that help aide Coldplay’s move into a more pop mood, but still contains influences from their origins that give way to a more clear focus and refreshing listen that all gels together to present a genuine product, as opposed to a quick pop track.
With “Every Tear Drop…” being such a Pop/Rock crossover success in terms of song structure and composition, it’s unfortunate that “Paradise,” (YouTube) the track’s third song and current single falls completely flat and comes off as almost too big of an undertaking when it comes to making music that’s more pop oriented. It’s an extremely compressed track, made up of an extreme pop structure and while strings and live instrumentation strive to keep the track afloat, if it weren’t for the sophisticated and more stripped down verses, mainly verse one with it’s combination of nicely put together piano line and percussion, it’d be a dud. The chorus consists of one phrase: “Para-para-paradise” and offers no track excitement, just an oversynthesized 8-measure count of one word being repeated over loud, clashing synth work. While it works for pop radio, it’s a track that’s structure hardly works and becomes overbearingly unstable, moving from extremely lush to extremely stripped down with no warnings and no rhyme for reasoning amongst it’s direction.
While we’re on the subject of pop music, did somebody say Rihanna? No? Okay..let’s move on then. Wait, what? Oh, Rihanna is actually on a Coldplay album?! No way!!! Really??! 2020k believes all of the violence and problems of the world started and continue in this day and age because of the mass confusion created by this collaboration. Anxious doesn’t even begin to describe the reactions fans and the blogosphere began to spew on the internet in regards to the announcement of this collaboration, but while the “We Found Love” singer is nowhere mentioned on the physical version of the track listing for the record, she is indeed featured and shinning on “Princess of China” (YouTube) and surprisingly, the track is undeniably gorgeous. Simple, sampled percussion instrumentation provides the basis for a heavy blanket of melodic instrumentation and equally lush vocal melodies that include the most hysterical girl on Twitter lamenting “I could’ve been a princess, you’d be a king. I could’ve had a castle and wore a ring but no, you let me go”before launching into the somber and ironically catchy sounding “You stole my star, la la la la la la la..” In a world where these artists coming together to make a great song seems laughable, it’s pulled off and is easily the most repeatable track on the record.
Interestingly enough, there’s a production scar within the mentioned lines where it’s semi obvious there is some sort of crossfade technique gone wrong. During the first round of the castle line, there is a quick fade that almost sounds like a skip or a compressor trying to keep up with the changes within the tracks. It’s not a huge deal, it’s these glitches that sometimes make the Pro Tools Produced records sound humanized and even adds a little bit more excitement within the track with it’s unexpected turn. Also, within the lines, every time Rihanna says the word “I” it’s obviously cut and paste with a crossfade into the rest of the line. Her vocals were produced by someone not related to the Coldplay recording sessions (Kuk Harrell), so it’s possible the vocals were produced this way on purpose for the feeling of a more experimental, interestingly Glitchy and digitally grittier approach to Riri’s vocal styling. Regardless, flaws and all the track sounds great.
Outside of the pop productions, but still in the realm of new ground for the band, there are three shorter, interlude-esque tracks featured on the album that close one track and provide a mezzanine for us to cross into the next territory. It’s the first time the band has included these types of musical movements and are three short, atmospheric tracks that work well to give us an instrumentally cohesive feeling of traveling through the world of Mylo Xyloto.
These short tracks also give way to more Dynamic Range within the album. While the overall record scores an unimpressive DR7, it maintains it’s louder ground without distorting and has tracks like the shorter “A Hopeful Transmission” holding steady at a beautiful and pleasing DR12 (which is a number we hardly see in major releases).
Other pleasing tracks on Mylo.. include a throwback to the beginnings of the band’s career with “U.F.O.”, a more-so acoustic recording containing stereo recorded acoustic guitars, beautifully stereo panned string arrangements, and Chris Martin providing a delicate vocal performance that needs no specific or complex mixing. “Us Against The World” is soundly one of the more U2 influenced tracks on the album, with gorgeous pads, delayed guitar mixing techniques, Reverb techniques on almost every channel within the song (some subtle, some forward) and falls in line with the other acoustic-tinged recordings of Coldplay’s career.
Best summed up, Mylo Xyloto is an overall evolution of a sound that’s been put together by Coldplay since the beginning of their careers. Starting acoustically and working to incorporate elation and aggressive pop overtones into their pieces of art. It’s not particularly breaking any new ground, but it’s evident that the Pop influences on the band flourish more on this record than their previous releases and creates a sonic counterbalance that’s appropriately appealing. A solid release.
Welcome to 2020k’s fourth official edition of Infrasound: A word used to describe frequencies underneath the human hearing range. In this way, we hope to bring under the radar, unsigned, and independent music to your attention to get word out about those works of art that are needed to be heard among a larger group of people.
As a Western Pennsylvania based music blog, 2020k has watched the tight knit music scene slowly blossom over Pittsburgh’s gloomy skyline as Christina Aguilera, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, Girl Talk, and even that “cute little girl from America’s Got Talent,” Jackie Evancho tip their hats off to the Steel City for their upbringings before hitting it big. Underneath the surface of the rising stars from Pittsburgh lies a scene just like any other scene in a city smaller than the creative, cultural powerhouses (like New York, Los Angeles, or Atlanta). The scene is filled with marvelous talent, an underground charm, and we’d like to illuminate one of the city’s alluring Alternative Rock bands – Big Hurry.
With three EP releases under their belt and one Remix album, Big Hurry (comprised of Kelly Tobias, Lenny Flatley, Dani Buncher, and former guitarist Andy Wilkosz) have made quite an aural impact in just two years. Stylistically, they’ve set themselves apart from the Alt. Rock industry, striving for a minimalist Indie vibe, mixed with synthesized inklings and vocals (by Kelly Tobias) that rival a toned down, more honed version of Flyleaf’sLacey Sturm. Live shows have also been a constant with the band, bouncing back and forth between their hometown and New York.
Their sound goes for a more stripped down and standard form of engineering, mixing, and mastering – with a main focus on getting the tracking sessions right, later adding equalization, and mild compression that simply help the tracks have a bit more of an overall kick and punch. They’re smart decisions that stay true to the Rock genre and give the songs featured on their releases a precise, polished shine.
Their debut EP Silver Screens shows comparisons to the aformented information in that their debut gives just a small bit of what Big Hurry has to offer, with the band growing over their future releases, but still having the charm and signature sound that’s been constant with them since the beginning. In fact, the title track, “Silver Screens” (bandcamp) shows the bands full potential with stunning song composition, great cryptic lyrics, and one hell of a vocal performance. (Silver Screens Remixes was released here after and is an interesting dub Electronic twist on their debut, much like the Mad Professor released version of Massive Attack’sNo Protection).
“This In Between” (listen on Bandcamp.com) from the sophomore Gets Me Low – EP (iTunes) shows one of the more mature mid-tempos done by Big Hurry and utilizes a vocal doubling technique, along with harmonies, and a a cleverly amp’d up-crunchy mid-range sounding guitar, with subtle delays that gives a nod to production utilized on 1990’s recordings, but with more room to sonically breathe. Layers of guitars build a wall around the ongoing and transforming drum truck and has an overall generative sound to it that is a standout within the band’s increasing collection of songs.
On October 19th, the band released their third EP Sink or Swim and it’s their subtle infusion of rock music, mixed with clap samples and a snyth bass that give the Big Hurry their most well put together and pop sound to date. While it’s four songs in length, it’s an appropriate amount of mesmerizing music that’s quick to be put on repeat for a few good listens. The title track (bandcamp) states “I can’t help but think that something’s always keeping me down,” but there’s absolutely nothing stopping this band. They’re some of the most talented musicians in the industry and ones worthy of the success given to them thus far.
Make sure to follow Big Hurry on their website, Facebook, or Twitter for the latest happening of the band. They stay pretty active!
(Fun fact: My first interning gig was at one of the recording studios who worked with Big Hurry. One of the first songs I ever got my hands on properly giving a song a mixing opportunity as a learning experience was “Paper Trails” (bandcamp) off Silver Screens. Obviously, first mixes aren’t going to be good, so the studio’s engineer great mix is the version you hear on the record – but it’s one song I look back on and reflect on how far I’ve come as an engineer).
While there’s been a two month lack of new material from Iamamiwhoami, it’d been stated that the artists had been commissioned to remix “After” off of influential electronic music veteran Moby’s latest album Destroyed. After much anticipation from the community of fans, the remix has finally hit the internet via Moby’s official YouTube and a slew of confusion on it’s release (but we’ll get to that later).
“After (Iamamiwhoami Remix)” continues in more front froward phase the act has been going into and gives the impression of more streamlined Electro melodies that are both original and borrow from the original Moby track. The original Moby stems used the remix are used creatively, as the main eighth note-synth that drives the album version of is present throughout Iamami’s remix, however, each note is panned semi-hard to a different channel in the mix to give it a more stereo presentation amongst the rest of the track, which mostly lays dead center in the mix to give it a more direct and dance feel.
For the most part, Iamami’s mix plays out like any remix meant for a major single project. It’s a track with several transitions that make it easy for a DJ to slip in a transition to loop or switch in different improvisations to their liking while providing a gorgeous soundscape for listeners of the song to enjoy. The best thing about the transitions provided within this remix however is that halfway through the track the original elements start to fade, a more emotional and simplified version of twists itself to life and before we know it, Jonna Lee is providing us with a vocal performance of the song, helping herself to commanding the vocal melody a bit differently, providing more of a staccato approach to the lyrics.
The only problem the remix suffers is extreme clipping on both Moby’s and Jonna’s vocals. It seems to be in part of the version of the song that was posted, but seeing as though the unwanted distortion only happens on the vocal portions of the song, it’s very possible this was a recording technique utilized for the remix. Regardless, we hope it wasn’t as it takes away from the rest of the track and we’ll see when the final version is released online.
In a sort of funny and ironic way Jonna Lee & co. are keeping us guessing with release dates even when it’s not their own project at hand. In an interesting way of releasing singles Moby decided to liberate the remixes in different packages over an extended period of time, so while the first set of mixes have been released in an exclusive bundle at Beatport, with another dropping on Monday, a November 14th release of more on Amazon.com, and a double A-side single “After/The Right Thing” digitally due out December 9th we are a bit confused on the official release and purchase of the Iamamiwhoami Remix, but please keep an eye out on this post and our Twitter where we’ll inform you as soon as it’s made available.
Edit: The remix was released exclusively on Beatport.com in conjunction with The Right Thing Remixes bundle. Click here to be taken to the page where you can download the songs in MP3, WAV, or AIFF formats. There are no accidental clipping on the vocals and was most likely put into place on the YouTube page due to their converters or as a purposelly creative way to stop listeners from pirating the song.
Remixes are also slowly making their way onto Moby’s Soundcloud page.
Welcome to 2020k’s third official edition of Infrasound: A word used to describe frequencies underneath the human hearing range. In this way, we hope to bring under the radar, unsigned, and independent music to your attention to get word out about those works of art that are needed to be heard among a larger group of people.
On October 18th, 2011 California based Electronic musician Carl Madison Burgin, better known by the pseudonym Sahy Uhns released a exceptionally personal and musically complex debut album, An Intolerant Disdain of Underlings. Elements of Hip-Hop create the basis of an lavish and Electronically fundamental disc, fueled by field recordings, manipulated recordings & samples, that bring together a musically generative and genuinely emotional infusion of inspirations that weave together an extraordinary sound that could sit well when mixed in conjunction to any artist on Warp Records.
The Proximal Records (which Uhns co-founded) released album is a joy because of it’s unique approach to song structure. There isn’t any time during a track where one element is the most important key, but it’s an infestation of harmonics, melodies, heavy rhythmic composition, and subtle but effective mixing techniques that bring together each piece as a whole, providing each track as an ever evolving mixture of greatness. “War Song” (YouTube Stream) begins using several well placed rhythmic instrumentation that quickly starts distorting at the start of the song before collapsing upon heavily compressed low-end & punchy kick sounds. It does a fine job at morphing through every few measures or so, showing interest in becoming more aggressive before settling down to a comfort feeling of using broken-sounding in thought but beautiful synthesizers and construction that Warp artist Clark included on the majority of his Body Riddle album. It’s a track that shows an electronic battle – the aggressive, the soft, the emotional, the hard times: it’s the most triumphant metamorphosed song on the record , but hardly the only track worth checking out.
“Montebello Postpartum,” the opening track on Underlings starts off almost a fourth of the track with layered field recordings before breaking off into a Toro y Moi–esque, abstractly Hip-Hopped, but chilled articulation of ever-changing programmed percussion, melodic breaks, and at time, time stretched sounds upon a catching sounding whistle synthesizer.
Checking out Sahy perform these tracks live sounds like an awe-inspiring experience as well. Ableton Live is used as the main software program for the productions, using Reaktor as a VST within the program. Uhns also built his own custom instrument called The Castro, equipped with 8 touch faders and 16 buttons. A press release sent to us explains, “Within Sahy Uhns’ custom Reaktor patch there’s a granular engine where he can do realtime time and pitch manipulation, Karplus-Strong physical modeling, and many other methods of manipulating the sound. The Reaktor patch also utilizes generative components which allows for a part of his set to be different every time.” An un-quantized Akai MPD is also utilized for performances, and isn’t quantized so Uhns has the ability to mess up. An extremely humanistic and honest Electronic performance? Count 2020k in!
Uhn’s album and music isn’t only exceptionally amazing because of it’s musical factor, but the overall presentation of the product, which comes housed in a gorgeous 5×5 hardcover mini-booklet. It contains an opening paragraph explaining the Californian influence on Sahy’s image and sound; the success with failure, abandoned shacks compared to the vast cityscape Los Angeles is known for, are all cited as the motivation behind the record. “Each piece was written about isolated incidents” the page on sound begins, “relationships, my choices, and the choices of those in my life, bookended with the celebration of the new life Ian Gael, and mourning the loss of my friend, Steve Pitts. The music was created with the goal of helping me find my scars.”
The musical scars of The Intolerant Disdain Of Underlings are heard loud and clear on Sahy Uhn’s album and not one lyric or vocal needs to be present to be felt. It’s a musical exploration of an artist’s ever-transforming life and a sonic autobiography worth taking the time out to purchase and attach ones self to.
How about you check out the music video for “Montebello Postpartum” below and snag a free remix of the song by Tenterhookhere. For more on Sahy Uhns, check out his official website, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and be sure to bookmark 2020k as we’ll be sure to keep you posted on all the happenings of this exquisite artist!
A personal message from Sahy states, “The video imagines a future memory of a mother and interprets how that day was perceived through the eyes of her child. It begins in the early morning, a time of peace preceding the chaos of the rest of the mother’s day. Throughout the video, the point of view switches between first-person accounts of the memory from the perspective of the mother and the child and my own reflection on their relationship. The middle section of the video attempts to depict the kind of over-saturation of information and concepts that a child is flooded with and how it must feel to make sense of them. An inundation of images that super-impose and intersect, revealing their similarities and differences, becomes a visualization of the child’s analytical process. The closing segment of the video takes us back to the perspective of the mother, watching her child until his image is the last thing she sees as she fades into sleep.
The video was shot using an iPhone and Sony Digital8 Handycam. Much of the footage was then transferred to VHS tape and then digitized. The video was edited using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. I decided to shoot portions on Digital8 and transfer to VHS because those are the mediums for me that represent nostalgia – I even used the same Digital8 camera I filmed with growing up. Other portions of the video were shot on an iPhone because I imagine that the camera phone is a format that will become nostalgic for the young boy depicted in the video.”
Intolerant Disdain of Underlings was released October 18th, 2011 and is available as a digital package (with digital booklet) from iTunes or get the beautiful physical copy from Amazon.
It was announced on Nine Inch Nails’ website in early October that Q magazine planned an exclusive release of an all- star U2 cover album of their twenty year old release Achtung Baby. Garbage, Depeche Mode, The Killers, and Jack White are a amongst some of the elite group of musicians featured on the record, which comes free with the purchase of the November 2011 edition of Q Magazine (which you can get more information about here). It’s a project put out to commemorate the groundbreaking album that spawned the United States top 10 hits “Mysterious Ways” & “One”. It’s also a project accompanying a Showtime documentary From The Sky Down (airing October 29th, 2011) and reissue of the original Achtung Baby album that comes in a variety of stunning (and expensive) Deluxeeditions out November 1st.
Nine Inch Nails’ cover of “Zoo Station” uses drones of guitar & synth work, plus programmed beats where the original members of U2 bashed it all out live. Trent continues down their more Electronically paved path that’s been evident through the entirety of his career, but more recently so with the release of The Slip and side-project How To Destroy Angels (with long time NIN collaborator Atticus Ross and wife Mariqueen Maandig). Like a hybrid between the NIN/HTDA brand and an inkling of the soundtrack work Trent and Atticus put together for The Social Network, the “Zoo Station” cover plays like a densely layered and extremely cohesive, laid back track while staying true to the original form and magic originally put together by U2.
It’s not a lossless version of the track 2020k has received, so as usual, we stay away from commenting on the mix, but the compressed version that you can stream at this Tumblr sounds quite nice.
While it’s a project most definitely worth checking out as a whole, whether it be from the purchase of one of the reissued albums, a glance at the documentary, or the five Euros or more you spend picking up the Q Magazine issue – it’s Nine Inch Nails’ contribution to the opening track of the U2 90’s staple album that is not something fans of either artist want to pass up.
Take a listen to the NIN cover of “Zoo Station” over at FuckyeahatticusRoss.
Biophilia brings a crossroads among Icelandic sensation Bjork’s fans: either stay in the semi-safe Electronic lands of “Hyperballad” or continue on the ever evolving Electronic/Organic hybrid, experimental and thought provoking recordings that Bjork has been slowly assembling and striving a bit closer toward with every new release.
On a surface level listening, Biophilia seemingly clings tight to it’s experimentation often sending the listener into spirals of strange time signatures, repetitious melodic content akin to Trance (if Trance was sedated 25 beats per minute slower and transformed into an overall more organic and more unpredictable form), and lyrical musings that are packaged together in an overly artistic disc that strikes as a bit overly ambitious. It’s a uniquely creative album could quite possibly be collecting dust on record store shelves, overlooked with a quick eye roll if it were to be released by an artist of any other name. In a world where we can so easily reach for the more universally renowned albums Post and Homogenic, relax to the micro-recording and detailed chill-out Vespertine, or half-and-half our way through the brilliantly composed vocal-only tracks of Medulla, it’s no wonder that this October released album has separated those who would rather blare the newly re-discovered “Army Of Me” (off Post and a Skunk Anansie Remix revival from the Suckerpunch soundtrack) out of the rolled down windows of their car, than the more rigorous and stripped recordings of those included on the loosely conceptual and unorthodox musings on Biophilia.
It’s a ride worth taking, but one that is disclaimed with caution and solicits patience. Any preconceived notions of the more Dance oriented, mainstream and accessible previous releases from the Icelandic artist but be void upon a first listen to Biophilia because of an overall departure of sound, a different approach to mixing, and a complete reinvention of the world that is Bjork. A world that is forever exploring different themes, different advances, and a world consisting of a consistent expansion and limit pushing forces that make up the risks that maintains an artist’s creative spark.
The best description and chief icebreaker into the world of Biophilia is the song featured heaviest in the early promotional period of the record, “Cosmogony,” which headlined as a song in the Solar System For iPad app and free app that comes compiled in the official Biophilia mother app (both available from the Apple App Store). Equipped with a brass section arranged by Bjork herself and transcribed for studio musicians by Matt Robertson (who played the overall musical director on Bjork’s Biophilia Tour) and an accompanying choir, it’s a smartly atmospheric and charmingly warm track that creates an optimistic and noble musical mood that goes hand in hand with the lyrical subject matter of The Music of Spheres (the thought that the celestial bodies have their own harmonic, mathematical, or religious bond – an inaudible musical relation of sorts). It’s composition is one of the more simplistic flowing tracks of the album and one that predictably plays with the coming and going of different instrumental elements within the realm of the track. Choirs and brass sometimes stand on their own, but also come together and develop harmonies with each other to bring a sense of a unified foundation between it all. Beautifully programmed beats by Bjork and Damian Taylor provide a rhythmic space to help bring a subtle lift and new-school feel throughout the song – bringing together a meaning of past and present coming together through the creation of the universe.
Another comfort ease into Biophilia’s core is the more lyrically emotional and socially relative “Virus”. It’s built in the same way the majority of the album is created in that it’s an extremely complicated song structure, but generative in that it’s forever changing, comprised of a mostly 3/4 time signature, in D flat major made up mostly of sixteenth and eight notes, filled with quick rests during the middle of phrases and complicated melodic content that seems effortlessly and seamlessly simple when presented in it’s final aural form. A demonstrative feeling of the way love (whether un-reciprocated or sometimes, even reciprocated) can grab hold of another human being completely, becoming immersed within one another and creating an unhealthy environment where you become the virus that deteriorates the cell that holds the binds of love together. Eventually, the virus spreads out and takes over the entire body, in search of more hosts and is shown in an extremely clever, melodic way by having the custom built Gameleste immerse the entire mix by the tracks end and have a purposefully, overwhelmingly daunting, but beautifully broken down and cunningly crystalline appeal to it, creating the confusion and complications that love seems to have when delivering it’s burdens.
Speaking of crystalline, “Crystalline,” the lead single comes closest when hitting home with signature sound of organic and Electronic instrumentation Bjork has become known throughout her entire reign through the music industry thus far. The also gameleste makes it’s appearance throughout the entirety of this track and creates the perfect shining, metallic, and at times anxiously moody backdrop for the song that has a double meaning of structures, tunnels, bridges, and crystals themselves growing and coming to life, compared to the humanistic emotions of overcoming anxiety to let your true self be crystalline. “It’s the sparkle you become when you conquer anxiety,” Bjork sings over a mind blowing, sped up, Come To Daddy-esque Aphex Twin break-beat – which utilizes one of the most common drum breaks in all of recent musical history, the Amen break (watch an interesting and noteworthy 20 minute documentary on YouTube about it here). While the Serban Ghenea Mix version of the 16-bit produced track was reviewed on our website a few months ago, the album version ends with a few alterations to the song’s final break, and a lack of vocal manipulations on it’s final few phrases. Again, the record is going for a more organic feel and while the drums don’t pound nearly as hard in the mix on the album version of the track, it helps maintain the consistent Alternative and musically daring push Biophilia is made up of.
Part of the reason “Crystalline” doesn’t pump as hard as the Serban Ghenea mixed version of the track is because the overall compression of Biophilia is light. Instead, an extreme emphasis on fader riding when recording Bjork’s vocals is consistent and at times next to no compression was applied to her vocal tracks as a ways to preserve the outstanding dynamic range Bjork naturally has on her vocal performances. In fact, Damian Taylor, who mixed and recorded the bulk of Biophilia (a departure from world renowned mix engineer Mark “Spike” Stent whom has mixed Bjork records since Post) explained to Sonicscoop.com,“We wound up mixing the album together because Björk didn’t want to end up in a situation where her hands were off the project and someone else starts compressing stuff and changing the whole sound. It was a running joke that anytime I tried to do anything while we were mixing she’d whack me with a stick and tell me to turn it off. She was definitely trying to keep it as raw as possible.”
As raw as the album may be, it has it’s times where the record plays more timid than should be. “Hollow,” one of Bjork’s most atmospheric songs to date ironically sounds expressionless among the midst of a recording that sounds quite rhythmically classical in it’s purest sense. While it’s an obvious attempt at transcribing the song sonically just as well as it originated in it’s musical form, it falls flat and even suffers the wrath of a mix that relies on a significant amount on reverb to try and hollow-up the track. It’s an interesting attempt and one that is respected for it’s endeavor into trying, but would sound better if it were mixed in the same realms as the more ambient “Thunderbolt” or the even more atmospheric “Dark Matter” track – a song that features vocals which have no meaning to them, providing an eerie backing to a track that deals with dark matter itself and finds Bjork teaming up with long time production collaborator Mark Bell who has lent his mind to songs that display their message extremely properly (“Who Is It? (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right) [Bell Choir Remix]” and Immature).
It’s the constant melodic sequences and complexities of them all that give this album it’s absolute musical charm and brilliant framework. It’s the opening track “Moon” that gives Biophilia an overall radiant and killer performance of all of the elements and fragments that went into the record. It’s repeated harp melodies that remain constant through the majority of the song, the scattered bass scraps and choir come together and form the foundation for one of Bjork’s best and most honest sounding vocal performances on record to date. Ranging from quiet whispers, to breathy phrases, and extremely eye opening, bone chilling, and breath taking full voice expressions, it’s an extremely strong and gleaming vocal delivery that more than makes up for that ugly low frequency, unwanted distortion that kicks in during one of the minimal breaks during the song.
There are also several other instances throughout the record where the album clips, most likely due to the source recording as opposed to a lack of care during the mixing and mastering process, which tend to go easy on Biophilia as a whole, save for “Sacrifice” which has a DR rating of 4 according to the TT Loudness Offline Scale.
Back to “Moon,” in the same line as “Crystalline,” “Moon’s” lyrical content is made up of a double meaning describing lunar eclipses and equating them to starting over or commencing a new beginning all together. “The best way to start anew is to fail miserably. Fail at loving and fail at giving. Fail at creating a flow then realing the whole and kick into the start hole.”
“To risk all is the end all and the beginning all” ends “Moon” and Bjork has definitely risked all on every album she’s released thus far, but she keeps defying the odds and unleashing outstanding new material from album, upon album, upon album, upon album. While they become conceptually harder to understand, sonically denser, and depart further and further from the pure Electronics, sometimes the best pills are the ones that are a bit harder to swallow at first. Or better yet, it’s best to take no pills at all and have this album hit you in it’s raw biological form that it’s meant to.
Imogen Heap has done more than keep her promise of releasing one song every three months for the next three years by giving us quite a fantastic surprise: two new songs! “Neglected Space” aka #heapsong3 & “Minds Without Fear” (apparently #heapsong4, as she’s already tweeting about work on #heapsong5 – but don’t quote us on that).
“Neglected Space” – Rating: 4.5/5
“Neglected Space” is one of Imogen’s most atmospheric and sonically evolving track to date. Song elements and structure change every few measures, ranging from distorted ambient bass pulses, beautiful pads and background vocals that range anywhere from straightforward signature Imogen Heap style vocal phrasing, to some instances of vocal stuttering that are just prominent enough to be some of the stand out creative moments of the track (hear the word “wait” at 2 minutes and 8 seconds into the track).
Whether it be an empty abandoned home as the video demonstrates, a Georgian walled garden spoken about on the mini-site of #heapsong3, or just a human being feeling unrecognized, it’s all beautifully chronicled through a moody undercurrent and layers of spoken word. Imogen’s harmonizer also makes it’s return in this track, contributing an eerie lower pitched vocal double effect distinguished through well over half of the track.
“But I’m peeling paint, I’m a sunken ceiling, I’m cracking up and can seem threatening. I’m falling apart. I’m scary at night. Taped up, forbidden” Heap whispers during the tracks most sparse moments and is where the track sits the nicest – a build up of Imogen harmonies before several instruments and panned pad transitions in a small reverberated piano.
The thing that makes this track work out so well is it’s subtleties. While there are bass-like sounds that weave in and out of the mix, it’s not until the song’s final climax that a synth-bass takes hold and hits nicely in the mix, creating a temperamental state and nurturing the moments where Heap breaks out of speaking, into multiple channels of vocals and harmonies that blanket and bring together the entire mix.
However, while subtleties work through most of the track, there’s a small lack of stimulant that sometimes causes “Neglected Space” to fall flat upon it’s full aggressive potential, especially upon the percussion that comes in toward the end of the track. It’s a mixing technique not surprising, as Imogen has gone for a more organic and natural feel for the sonics within her records since Ellipse, and while the song sits at a standard dynamic range of 8db with a bit of headroom left to spare throughout the bulk of the track, it’d be nice to hear a bit more of a competitive punch, something to instantly grab the ear and tell it to tell your body to move instead of sway.
“Neglected Space” can be purchased via Imogen’s official website in MP3 or lossless format, as well as a package deal equipped with a music video, 3DiCD, and video demonstrating the recording process for her previous release, #heapsong2, 3D-song “Propeller Seeds”.
“Minds Without Fear” – Rating: 4/5 In an interesting turn of events for apparent #heapsong4, Imogen turned to collaborate with an India based webisode series called Dewartists which brings together groundbreaking artists from different backgrounds and parts of the world to work on one solid project. In it’s premiere episode, Imogen Heap teams up with Vishal-Shekhar an Indian Rock/Pop musician, for a song inspired by the Tagore poem, “Where The Mind Is Without Fear”.
The track itself is a wonderful mix of Pop music, incorporating live instruments native to the middle eastern country and sequenced MIDI bass lines and percussion samples. It’s extremely fascinating watching the entire recording process and time spent in India go down through the documentary below and we recommend a viewing of it, as we watched in awe.
The only problem with this track lie within Imogen’s recorded vocals. The song was all done in a 475-year-old Samode Palace on the outskirts of Jaipur in Rajasthan and it’s evident that sound wave reflections were recorded during the process. Imogen’s & Vishal’s vocals sometimes sound cluttered and un-wantingly doubled, but it’s nicely dodged as being a horrible mixing disaster by placing most of the instrumentation at the front line of the mix, leaving vocals on a bit of a lower plateau – becoming the glue that melodically brings the busy mix together and gives it it’s ultimate direction.
“Minds Without Fear” can be purchased through Imogen Heap’s Official Website.
All in All
While both songs have their technical mishaps, they’re sewn together nicely and as we spoke about with our “Propeller Seeds” review, as long as a song is taken in with respect and sonic care, it’s ultimately up to the artists and engineers as to how they’d like to present the sounds and track to the public – which, in Imogen’s case, is a beautiful display of layers and layers of frequencies, all seamlessly connecting through more stripped down means of mixing, like vast automation, as opposed to crushing frequencies with compression and causing them to sound more like her competitors.
While it makes her songs a bit less eye opening to the hardcore pop fans that are still clinging on to their Speak For Yourself and Frou Frou’sDetails release for dear life, they’re records with sonic clarity that make it easier for the repeat button to be abused and tracks to be less fatiguing to the ear over long periods of time. Not wanting to fatigue may be in part to why Imogen prefers to mix this way. After all, she does write, play, record, program, and mix all of her records. The last thing wanted while being immersed within your own song during every single process possible (including listening to several masters) is wanting a dynamically crushed mix that wears your ears out faster than the dozens upon dozens of hours spent putting together a track you’d like to call your own.
All in all it’s a respectful mix and two gorgeous songs. We’re eagerly anticipating more.
Looks like Sweden singer/songwriter Jonna Lee, better known these days as Electronic music pioneer and 2020k favorite Iamamiwhoami (aka Tree Licker, Toilet Paper Dancer, or “didn’t everyone think she was Christina Aguilera?”) has closed up shop on her official website.
The webpage, that once hosted musical samples, promotional photos, and a link to her Wikipedia page has now been replaced with the elegant and simple photo you see above, centered upon a black background.
Dressed warmly on a rocky beach, staring into the sea or the unknown with nothing on her but a bag seems like the perfect way to signify the end of an era. The end of the Alternative Pop/Rock tinged sounds that Jonna’s three absolutely flawless releases brought to us and a sense of bravery and confidence toward the future.
Although a different genre than the experimental Electronic act we’ve all become accustomed to, Jonna Lee’s previous releases are to be cherished as some of the most well put together and mixed releases in recent time, as well as noted for containing the lyrical honesty and hints of vocal phrasing that are still prominent on her releases today.
Check out some of the songs listed below this YouTube video, taken from the CD release of This Is Jonna Lee on the making of the record. A fantastic insight into the mind and work of Jonna and fantastic look at producer/fiance/possible Iamamiwhoami collaborator Claes Björklund collaborating on the recording process.
Coldplay seem to have taken a leap while standing still on the band’s fifth record, Mylo Xyloto. It’s a little bit pop, it’s a little bit rock, but it’s infused in a way that provides an interesting cohesion of all of the records released by the band, while mixing in a more assertive manner almost as if determined to somehow find the link between combining the genres they cross and it’s done with an inclusively positive outcome on this release. Opening sales of 400,000 in the United States alone show that Coldplay’s artistic growth is still appealing enough to captivate audiences and take them along a ride toward the expansion of their catalog of music.
2020k 