Merzbow, Etc.

I don’t know if it was planned or not, but the readings from last week certainly seemed to tie in to each other very well.

The Noise/Music chapter, entitled Merzbow, explored even more the genre of Japanese noise music, in the form of the artist Masami Akita’s works under the name of Merzbow. In his pieces, Merzbow expands the possibilities the meaning of sound and noise exponentially, by using noise within noise, silence within sound, and a mixture of harsh and subtle transitions. He uses a variety of sources for sound, from traditional instruments to machinery and every-day objects. He even uses the release of his CD’s to call attention to how music does not necessarily need all the patterns and restrictions we place on it in order for it to have meaning. In fact, because so many of his releases are extremely limited in their quantity of cargo, the music contained becomes that much more important and precious, the less it adheres to social norms of mass production.

Chapter 35 of Sound Unbound was similar, in that it went into detail about how a lack of music or noise where it would be normally brings into sharper detail our surroundings, especially if the sound which is deleted belongs to a film of some sort. In this, silence just enhances any sounds that are heard, thus music and noise become more poignant when they are heard.

Playlist for the week:

I am currently listening to Limbe, from Putamayo’s World Groove Sampler. The artist is called “S-Tone Inc”.

I also listened to Enya, the soundtrack to the game Fable, as well as the soundtrack to an old strategy game called Lords of Magic.

Also, for the enjoyment of whoever happens to read this blog, another video of the artist featured previously, Lemon Demon.  Because he’s so awesome! 

Something Interesting

All right. This past week was extremely busy and stressful for me. At the top of the list, my computer finally became too dysfunctional for me to continue to ignore it, and I had to take it to the Computer Center to have it re-imaged. That process takes about two days, as everything must be backed up, erased, reset, and put back onto the computer. Of course, when they finally finished the process, the internet across a large portion of the state was down due to some rather hungry rodents gnawing on some rather important wires, so they couldn’t upload iTunes or even Firefox onto my computer, and I have been too busy since to go back and have them finish the job. Needless to say, I have not been able to listen to my own music this week, so my playlist is made up completely of Shared Music selections.

The good thing about relying on Shared Music is that I find some very interesting songs. My favorite of the week (or rather two weeks, since I didn’t manage to put a blog down last weekend either) was the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, by the illustrious Lemon Demon. (http://www.lemondemon.com)I have to say, if you have never heard of this amazing artist, you don’t surf the internet enough. He is responsible for a lot of the more hilarious internet-based legends, such as Potter Puppet Pals, Word Disassociation, and of course, the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.

What I love about Lemon Demon (his real name is Neil Cicierega) is that he really is a genre by himself, and has been described as both power pop and geek rock.  In addition to a real genius for coming up with song lyrics, he also makes remarkable flash videos (such as Potter Puppet Pals in Bothering Snape, and Trouble at Hogwarts).

Playlist

Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc.

They Might Be Giants – Birdhouse in Your Soul

They Might Be Giants – Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Hellogoodbye – All of Your Love

Princess Mononoke Soundtrack – Ashitaka and San

Lemon Demon – Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

A Day of Green

All right, I know it has been a while since I last wrote (about two weeks, actually… sorry! -.-’). I have been extremely busy, what with two jobs, my regular amount of homework for my three classes, and a twenty page paper on top of that. I will be writing two blogs today, so just pretend that this one was written last weekend, and we’ll call it good.

So I decided to finish the assessment of our classmates’ blogs, and went looking for some good blogs to critique from the class blogslist. I didn’t have to look very far. The first one I clicked on was David’s, and I was immediately blown away by not only how well he had researched his band of the week, Greenday, but also the number of other bands which were mentioned… some of which I have never even heard before.

First, the way he ties in pop-punk to our readings in Noise/Music really brings the rather intense, dense sections to a more manageable level. He relates what we have read to bands that we have actually heard and maybe even listened to, while at the same time including some less famous names, rather than referencing obscure names alone. His knowledge of all bands mentioned is admirable, and the way in which he incorporates that knowledge in his blog entry is very scholarly.

Next, the questions raised at the end of the blog entry are well thought-out, and are very thought-provoking. It made me realize that part of the reason I don’t like listening to the radio these days is because I don’t recognize most of the artists and songs that are being played. The reason I don’t recognize them is because the bands of my teen years, such as Greenday, Blink 182, Fall Out Boy, etc., have gone their separate ways, either pursuing new lines of work or making new lines of work to pursue. The new bands which have popped up in their place are what I don’t recognize, and the fact that there is a new generation of music of which I am not privy to makes me look at myself and recognize the changes I have gone through since my high school days.

Inspiration

Eureka!

After reading one of this week’s assigned readings, I think I actually have an idea of what I will be working on for the next couple of weeks. Yay!

The reading I am referring to is Chapter 5 of Sound Unbound, “‘Roots and Wires’ Remix: Polyrhythmic Tricks and the Black Electronic”. It was almost entirely (if not all) based on around the idea of rhythm.

Rhythm, of course, is essential to any musical piece. Noise, too, has rhythm, and it could be seen that it is the Noise without rhythm that is so controversial today – if a song does not have rhythm, is there any substance to it? It is rhythm, after all, that holds everything together… “‘The drum is the beat of the heart’” (p. 62). Without it, everything else tends to fall apart into chaos.

I wanted to get a better understanding of the African polyrhythmic style that was mentioned in the reading, so I looked up a man named Babatunde Olatunji on first Wikipedia, then Youtube, then Google. He was quite the accomplished drummer, and the video I found of him really demonstrates how the lead drummer can build and work from the drummings of the others in the group, while at the same time each drummer has two different rhythms going at once. It really is amazing. Babatunde Olatunji won a Grammy in 1991 for his work with Mickey Hart drummer of the Grateful Dead. He also wrote the song played by Santana known as Jingo Lo Ba. He has also written some scores for movies and plays of Hollywood and Broadway.

Because of this, I am looking into making an entire song out of nothing but the rhythms available in Garageband. I may even make some of my own (something I’ve never done before when working with Garageband). I am really looking forward to seeing where this goes… I’m still going to incorporate into it my original concentration of how music influences emotion.

For my playlist, I have been listening to the soundtrack from the video game Halo 3, which is by far the best game in the world.

Ratatat/Angels & Airwaves

For this week’s blog, I decided to continue with the reviewing of other blogs of people in our class.  I settled on Chantal’s because both of her entries introduced a new band that I might be interested in looking into.  Ratatat I would love to be able to hear, because from the description it sounds like they put their songs together the same way that I do.  They also are completely instrumental, which is my preferred genre of music.

Meanwhile, the band Angels & Airwaves is composed of the cast-off members of other bands.  Although many of the members once belonged to punk bands, this new creation is more alternative-rock than anything.  They also put a lot of effort into making their music for their fans.

The Next Movement

Well, here we are halfway through the semester, and I have less idea of what I am doing than I did at the beginning of the schoolyear. It is all well and good to say “I want to explore how music evokes peoples’ emotions”, but it is another thing entirely to decide where to go from there.

I am currently working on a piece in garageband that involves more sounds than actual music (although there is some very soft and subtle music in there at places), and I am trying to evoke a sense of either sadness or fear, I’m not sure which yet.

I have pretty much given up on figuring out how to use minor keyes, as they are all major. I would have to fiddle around with the relative keyes to make a song minor, but I don’t know how I would do that without it ending up sounding major anyway. So for now, I’m sticking to major to try and find a way to make that work.

As for what’s next, I really have no idea. I might try to make a song for some of the major emotions (anger, sadness, happiness, etc), and I think I might want to continue using sounds as well as music to make my pieces (I’m really liking the one I’m doing right now). Other than that, I’m not really sure where to take my topic.

Dolls and Dragons

All right. I am glad that we were given this assignment for several reasons. First and foremost, it gives me a good idea when I look at the blogs written by other people of what I should be writing. I have been a bit too structured, I think, in my own writings, giving the information needed and not much else. I’ll have you know now, though, that this has come to an end. I will now have fun with this particular part of the class, rather than view it as a necessity. Second, this assignment gives me an idea on what kinds of artists and bands other people are looking into. I thought, with the class’s focus on Noise, that we were supposed to also concentrate on bands that were more Noise than Music. Looking through other blogs, however, I see that this is not the case. People have been choosing artists that are weird, to say the least, but the artists also make music that actually sounds good. The two artists I chose before this assignment were both largely Noise-based; the first uses found-sounds exclusively, while the other draws what he wants for music. These are both very interesting, but I have to say right now (and I’m sure you agree, if you’ve watched the videos) their “music” sounds absolutely atrocious. So this stops now. I give myself permission to look up bands that I have actually heard of before, but never really listened to their music.

Anyway, for the actual assignment, I have to say right now that I looked at more than two other blogs. Shame on me. I couldn’t help it, though! All the other blogs seem so natural, like they are people holding a conversation. I especially like Mara’s anime-based blog (btw, I love your playlist! I love Fullmetal Alchemist, I have all four soundtracks, so I was really happy to see you had Ready Steady Go – brings back memories of season 2 – and also I love anything and everything by Nobou Uematsu. You also have a really good version of Butterfly – better than mine, which comes straight from the DDR website. I’ll definitely be coming back to listen to all that you have!).

The two blogs that I will critique for the assignment are Melissa’s and Joanna’s. Hence the title of my own blog. I thought Melissa’s two entries, one on Jefree Star and the other on the Dresden Dolls, were absolutely fascinating. Before I read the entry, I thought Jefree was a woman! Anyway, I don’t know if it was her intention, but both entries really call into question gender and its role in music. Is there a difference in the types of music men and women create? Can we tell what that difference is? Why can we tell whether a man or a woman composed a piece?

Joanna’s blog was also interesting, and I noticed that it tied in with what a few other people had mentioned, and that was the way the Lucky Dragons, as well as other bands, seem to promote, even thrive on, audience participation at their concerts. Why is it that CD’s with live music on them seem to be more – for lack of a better term – “alive”? Sure, the artists are putting more of themselves into the music, and that could be the answer – but why are they putting so much into the music? Why couldn’t they just do that during a regular recording session? It is the audience that sets the line – if you go to a favorite band’s concert, you don’t go to listen to the same old music. You could do that at home, without paying 50$ for tickets. People go to concerts with a high expectation, and the band has to push themselves to reach it. Having an audience participate gets them even more excited, and makes the concert stand out as something memorable.

Ok, that’s all for now. Until Tuesday!

Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis was an architect, an engineer, a mathematician, and first and foremost a composer. With this particular combination of both music and math, Xenakis was able to concentrate on crossing the two fields into each other. He created a computer program called UPIC that was able to render drawings into music. The drawing is interepreted by the program as different sounds, depending on the lines and curves of the drawing itself. The first of Xenakis’ compositions was called Mycenae-Alpha.

Theatre of Eternal Music

The Theatre of Eternal Music, also known as The Dream Syndicate, is a collection of minimalist drone music that was done in the 1960’s. The group is comprised of several artists, including La Monte Young, John Cale, and Tony Conrad. It is very difficult to find any of this music recorded (only the third album, “Inside the Dream Syndicate: Stainless Steel Gamelan, Volume III” is available on iTunes), due to copyright issues amongst the various artists. The music itself uses a mix of both instruments and found sounds to make drone music, which is sometimes broken up with the inclusion of other sounds played ofer the drone. Some of their songs include taking the sounds made by many different air conditioners and blending them together to make a very ethereal sound.

Updates

I have begun the construction of my first song for this class, and things are not going as smoothly as I had hoped. I want to incorporate a small amount of “noise” into my piece, to really contrast with the overall mood that I work for. I was thinking of maybe having children laughing, while the mood of the piece was what might be considered sad. Another thought was to maybe have the sound of heavy rain, with some lively dance music going on at the same time. I tired finding ways to bring noise and music together, but to me it just sounds jumpy and unfinished. I think that with more time I will be able to accomplish what I have set out to do, but it will require a lot of tweaking.