Sorry, presumed readers - bar exam consumed much time of late, but I'm ready to get writing again.
Way Out West is a bit enigmatic of a band. This is in large part because they ply their trade primarily in trance and its environs. When people know how to do trance, it is very, very good, among the best music around. But finding that quality trance is very difficult and can make you give up on the genre if you don't find it. When Way Out West is on their game, they make incredible stuff; otherwise, it's just sort of there. As a result, I don't listen to them much aside from their top songs, so in terms of career/band analysis, this one's a bit more down on the group than I'd like for it to be. They've been ahead of the electronica curve several times, and there's no reason to think it won't keep happening; it's just that the results are less than stellar when they're not on their A-game.
WOW is a Bristol, UK duo comprising Nick Warren and Jody Wisternoff. Both are well-known in the electronica scene, the former for all sorts of things (the first mix CD of the Back to Mine series and other similar works) and the latter for a recent string of dancefloor hits with retro vibes ("Cold Drink, Hot Girl" and "Starstrings" being the main ones). Their busy schedules elsewhere have held them to only three albums in 13 years, but there's a fourth coming soon.
Their relevant works are:
Way Out West (1997) - With songs like "The Gift" and "Domination," the debut album established what makes WOW so great; melodic trance productions with rhythms rarely matched in the genre. This is one of those classic "next level" albums; if you like trance and have gotten all the seminal works, this one gives your collection the extra bit of depth and variety needed to make it a vital collection.
Intensify (2001) - Moving more towards a more streamlined trance but leaving room for some vocal numbers, I rate this one higher than many (Allmusic gives it only 3 stars and I have no clue why). In terms of completeness as an album, this is one of the best trance albums out there. Some moves are obvious (like building opener "The Fall" around Mixmaster Morris's version of "Autumn Leaves"), but there's still plenty of material to separate them from the pack.
Don't Look Now (2005) - As some of you may know, the early-to-mid-'00s were not kind to electronica in general. BT's noted (I believe in a live Twitter-fueled interview this summer) that he felt completely uninspired by what was going on in the scene for a number of years. He hadn't done any dance stuff since his album in 2003, choosing instead to make the dramatic electroniscore This Binary Universe in the interim, and it's only this year that he's returned to dance. The gap really was that big, and this album is one of the albums from an innovative artist that failed to innovate.
The problem plagued the genre at large as mainstream audiences were embracing electronica; increasing vocal turns and a move toward pop may have gotten songs on Dawson's Creek or some similar show, but it weakened the music. This is especially so with WOW, who slowed down their songs to pop tempo for their vocalist, leaving no space for the rhythmic detail that is usually their over-the-top strength. When they left the pop alone, such as on "Anything But You," the results with vocals were brilliant. To be fair, there was a lot of average-to-above-average material on the album, but the clunkers drag them down significantly, as the album generates no momentum. Of all artists who could make the transition to vocal electronic pop for an album, this isn't one of them, sad to say.
Spaceman single (2008) - Vocals are out, rhythm's back in, song is a return to form. The band says their next album is a bunch of "cosmic disco" stuff, which from what I've heard loses the beat again. But appreciate this gem of a song for all its awesomeness.
Nine-point analysis:
1) Chord sequences. For the most part, WOW avoids the most cliched of its genre, and it doesn't have one song that makes you think of another automatically on that front. From a trance group, this is about all you can hope for. Fair enough.
2) Song structure. They shine here, especially relative to trance. What WOW does that I haven't heard from any other trance artist is what I like to call the "late break"; i.e. they'll take a mood that's been going for the whole song and bring in new instruments and usually a new chord sequence. On "Domination," which Warren considers the quintessential Way Out West song, you get new chords for the first time around the 6-minute mark, when most songs would consider it too late to introduce something new like that. "Hypnotise," another personal favorite, has a fairly standard trance motif until the middle, where it breaks down and comes back with this 2-step type rhythm that reintroduces the vocal sample saying "Hypnotise" but with more of the sample, as in you get more lyrics suddenly. For a genre like trance that tends to get repetitive quickly, that they're able to introduce these twists so late in the game, in a way saving the best for last, makes them singular. They don't have to be big twists, but they're always effective due to genre. Points here.
3) Mood. They don't really ply their trade here. Though songs like "The Gift" have a solid mood to them, usually they're just trying to get people to dance. Their short ambient pieces that show up every now and again aren't that effective, either.
4) Layers. These primarily serve song structure and rhythm and don't have independent value in this case. Their songs always sound sufficiently fleshed out, which, like most things, isn't standard for trance. (There's some cheap trance out there, people. Stay away from it. It's poison.)
5) Genre-bending. They've only really been in this area twice, once with "The Gift" and arguably a second time with "Hypnotise." On the latter, it's what I already mentioned, that a trance song went straight into a 2-step shuffle without blinking. Given that the producers of each came from very different assumptions on how to go about making a song, that WOW put them together as though this happened all the time is a special thing indeed.
But it's "The Gift" that really shines on this front. Nick Warren admits that the idea was just to slow down a drum'n'bass/jungle vibe, but that allows for completely different instrumentation and mood. "The Gift" isn't trance and it isn't jungle; it's jungle at trance speed with ambient soundscape, and the song feels like it knows it's unique. If you're a genre omnivore (genrevore?) like me, you're incomplete without giving this song a spin. WOW as a group doesn't always care about fusing things, but they're absolutely brilliant when they do.
6) Innovation. For "The Gift" and for ratcheting up the rhythmic complexity of trance in an era when that wasn't really the thing to do, they get some points here, but it's not its own category for the group. Certainly it's not a weakness, though.
7) Rhythm. The other major point-grabber here, as their best work is full of rhythmic elements all over the place, and not just on the drums either. They're also adept at hitting the off-sixteenth note in a natural-sounding way. One of the early elements of "Domination" has them introducing an Ab sound at the 9, 10, 12, 14, and 16 of the 16 notes in the bar, which is extremely difficult to pull off when your hi-hats are at 3 and 10 and your snare's at 5 and 13. It's pulling in a different direction, but they work it all in. "Activity" puts a closed hi-hat at the off-sixteenths as well while making it sound house, which it clearly isn't. Normally, when I hear someone use off-beat syncopation that way, I think Gloria Estefan or someone similar, which isn't helpful. It is next to impossible to syncopate house or trance in a non-annoying, cohesive way, but WOW's ace at this. Their sense of rhythm is nearly unmatched by their peers, and it's their calling card for sure. This is why I can't get into Don't Look Now; they traded in a lot of that complexity to put vocals in, and they like Samson seemed shorn to weakness.
8) Production. They glue their elements well and always sound full, but that doesn't make it an over-the-top point like it was for the Doves. It's good production, but it's not surprising production. Solid, but not a strength or anything.
9) Album construction. Way Out West and Intensify both had solid construction, particularly the latter. Don't Look Now had awful sequencing, but this was mainly from the confused nature of the songs themselves. They could have taken the instrumentals + a couple vocal songs, added a few others, and made it sound like a successor to Intensify if they had wanted to. Overall, I'll call this a strength, at least when they have the songs to support it.
Overall strengths: 2,5,7,8,9. So with only five strengths, how did they get above two bands with six? Basically, WOW is so good when they play to their strengths that they outshine almost everyone when they're on. Very few artists can fill the rhythmic element as well as they can, particularly in trance; even BT, who's a rhythm master, rarely pushes the beat in his trance, preferring to make breakbeat/nu-skool numbers for that urge instead. WOW makes the best rhythms in trance, period. I hope they continue to care about that, but for now they've left a great legacy in what trance can be at its top end.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Entering the Decagon: Doves at #9
A very different sort of band from the previous entry, the Doves are one of the best Brit alternative bands out there these days. After a dance incarnation as Sub Sub and a fire to their studio that forced them to start afresh, they've put out four albums since 2000, all worth having. They draw comparisons to Elbow frequently, but there are some key differences:
1) We get two vocalists here, bassist Jimi Goodwin (75% of the time) and drummer Andy Williams (the other 25%), both generally easier to listen to than Guy Garvey's full-of-marbles delivery; and
2) The secondary influences are more from electronica, which was what the Doves used to do way back in the day, than from prog.
But other than that, the comparisons work well enough. The Doves make serious, moody rock that keeps them distanced from most of their twee contemporaries; they're too grounded to bear even a resemblance to Coldplay or their ilk, although both peddle grandeur. You can't use a Doves song to make the girls swoon; there's no "The Scientist" in the oeuvre or any "I'm a sensitive guy; love me" trick in the bag.
Their relevant works are:
Lost Souls (2000), a cloudy-day album that's one of the few where a band can play dilettante and have it sound better for it. This is probably still their most intriguing work and it's recommended without reservation. Getting this album the year it came out marked a turning point in my becoming serious about musical innovation, especially the production end, which this album forced me to notice (this might be my favorite album from a production standpoint).
The Last Broadcast (2002), a sunny-day album that was just as intriguingly produced as the first one and has the lion's share of the band's hits, including the band-defining "There Goes the Fear." This album is their best evidence of how they can turn out a killer single that's so good because it's innovative, not because it's a more mainstreamed version of what they're doing already. I kinda miss this those days for albums, where singles are now misleading in the case of several bands because they consciously write one. That's a different topic, though.
Some Cities (2005). This album is good, but not as good as the first two, for a couple of reasons. First, their general theme of satellite towns (city suburbs if you prefer) decaying calls for a more direct approach to the music. They pull this off well, but this album's more gut-punch than drowning, which is not my first choice for their style. Second, this album is primarily produced by Ben Hillier rather than the Doves by themselves. Hillier is one of the best producers in the business at the moment (his work the same year with Depeche Mode's Playing the Angel singlehandedly resurrected their competence), and his work here is spot-on; it's just not the Doves, who are some of my favorite producers ever. Still some great singles here, like "Black and White Town," but the album as a whole doesn't feel as essential as the last two. There's also a tendency here to repeat the four-on-the-snare beat that they used to great effect on earlier songs like "Pounding" (and Coldplay used all over the place for awhile). It works once an album or so, but not for too many songs. Also, "Walk in Fire," generally a fine song, uses the same structure, chord sequences, and drum ideas as "There Goes the Fear," and feels like a poor imitation every time. This is a rare misstep for them.
Kingdom of Rust (2009), sitting somewhere in between their directness and sprawl. The title track is one of their best ever, bearing a passing resemblance to "There Goes the Fear" but being built completely differently, with a '50s country motif (walking bass and all!) merging into their signature warm epic sound. On the whole, there are higher highs and more tepid lows (no true lows) than on Some Cities, although it's a more interesting album on the whole than its predecessor. There are purely "ok, that was a decent enough song" songs ("Winter Hill," "The Greatest Denier," "Spellbound," and "Lifelines"), more so than the other albums, but the rest feel vital. Still behind their earlier work a tad, but compensated for by the title track. It's really that good.
Nine qualities analysis:
1) Chord sequences. Lost Souls had plenty of odd ones, like on "Here It Comes," with different innovative ones for verse and chorus. Since then, they haven't been trying here, which is a right shame. It's close to a liability for them now, but you can always retreat to their earlier work if it irks you.
2) Song structure. They mess with this all the time, and it's a strong plus. This may be what they traded chord sequences in for, as their best surprises have been later on. "There Goes the Fear"'s snare doesn't come in for about 1:30, and when it does, it surprises with its outright ferocity, hogging the spotlight for the rest of the song. "Snowden" off Some Cities has several moving parts, including a surprise distortion-o-rama in the middle that crackles out just as suddenly but still moves the song forward and an increase in tempo afterwards. "10:03" off Kingdom of Rust is sold entirely off its structural surprise. They also have a knack for surprise instruments hijacking mood effectively. Points here.
3) Mood. It's their bread-and-butter; listen to "Kingdom of Rust" if you don't believe me. What sets them apart from their contemporaries is how they use their mood elements. They're explored more for their own sake than for any obvious references (which bothers me about many alternative/indie rockers. We get it; you like New Order and cheap vintage synthesizers. Homage is not innovation.) Plus, the choices for mood are integral fabric of the songs; the Doves are adept at taking textures that would be novelty, "look at what we did" items in the hands of others and turning them into mood setters. "Snowden"'s first important layer post acoustic-guitar is this strange warbly choir that would be more cheesy than affecting with everybody but them. The kitchen sink is loaded with mood tools, but they're used correctly every time. This gives them both uniqueness and appropriateness of mood, a potent combo anytime a band pulls it off.
4) Layers. I was ignorant of layers until Lost Souls hit my ears; in the ensuing 9 years, I've craved excellence of layers (this may have accelerated my foray into electronica, come to think of it). Not only are there plenty of things to follow, they're unusual choices. Probably aided by their earlier electronic days (or initially to hide the fact they weren't virtuosos), the Doves aren't afraid to sound unremotely like a live band; that "macho" factor has always been dumb if you're not an improv band, and they're right to abandon it. It sounds like there are always 10 times as many tracks are you're picking up in any of their songs. Great example for layers here is "Words," off The Last Broadcast. The first verse/chorus is built largely off a chiming guitar line; pleasant but nothing by itself. Second verse, it gets doubled up note-for-note, rhythm-for-rhythm with a glockenspiel. I kid you not. Third verse? They add a glockenspiel harmony atop the whole thing. And it never sounds pretentious or "cute," two of the normal uses of glockenspiel by their contemporaries. They legitimately thought glockenspiel was the necessary textural element to take the guitar line to the next level for impact. And they were right.
5) Genre-bending. They're more a song-to-song difference than within a song, but they've turned up with some surprises, like the acoustic guitar+woodwinds+strings pastoral scene of "Friday's Dust" (seriously, there are oboes and clarinets all over the place), the band-admitted Blade Runner-sounding "Jetstream," and "Compulsion," which has somewhat justifiably been compared negatively to Blondie's "Rapture" but has enough merit on its own. There's slap bass and all sorts of white-boy funk in it. They're also not glued to one strain of alternative rock, writing in several tempos and feels. A slight positive overall.
6) Innovation. They were one of the first prominent Britrock bands to establish this template, one that's neither the retromania of Oasis nor the overt oddity of Radiohead. That's not innovation per se, but depending on how many bands follow in the wake of Elbow the way Elbow's success can be partially traced to the Doves, this may prove a more enduring strain than their forebears.
7) Rhythm. Andy Williams is a fantastic Larry Mullen type drummer on his own, but their production sense gives layers and moods that most alternative bands wouldn't bother with. "There Goes the Fear" is an obvious masterpiece, but "Darker" with its loose groove shows there's more than one side to them, and "Kingdom of Rust"'s use of brushes for that '50s county feel is masterful in a tonal way rather than obvious competence. Very few bands in 2009 could pull off the shades necessary to pull the song off convincingly. Their rhythmic versatility is a major factor in their uniqueness, and is most certainly a strength.
8) Production. As my flagship song for it in my "Eight Qualities of Music" post, I don't need to say too much about it here, but they turned me on to how intriguing production is its own analytical category. Their production style, like on "Catch the Sun," "makes" their songs several times. Give the song to another band and it would be average; let the Doves multitrack it, and it becomes special. They seem to be precisely those chaps who say "oh we can fit in one more part" before finishing the track, relentless studio tinkerers in the positive sense. I know of very few producers who can hold a candle to them (BT and Steven Wilson are the only two in my collection who are in the same league). A Doves song is a production, and that's the key difference among peers.
9) Album construction. They always do well here, helped primarily by a variety of tempos and feels in the original material. Their singles are better highlights in their album context, a standard indicator of a good job on this element. It's usually more rewarding to listen to a Doves album than a Doves single.
So we have positives on 2,3,4,7,8,9. Blu Mar Ten was 3,5,6,7,8,9, so they're equal on overall strengths. Hopefully the contrast between styles but similarity of analysis shows how I view music generally and how liking different genres is pretty easy depending on your perspective. You the reader probably have a similar set of analytical categories, whether conscious or un-, that influence why you like the range of genres you do. Starting off with an alternative and a drum'n'bass/chillout band is a great primer into that range for me.
1) We get two vocalists here, bassist Jimi Goodwin (75% of the time) and drummer Andy Williams (the other 25%), both generally easier to listen to than Guy Garvey's full-of-marbles delivery; and
2) The secondary influences are more from electronica, which was what the Doves used to do way back in the day, than from prog.
But other than that, the comparisons work well enough. The Doves make serious, moody rock that keeps them distanced from most of their twee contemporaries; they're too grounded to bear even a resemblance to Coldplay or their ilk, although both peddle grandeur. You can't use a Doves song to make the girls swoon; there's no "The Scientist" in the oeuvre or any "I'm a sensitive guy; love me" trick in the bag.
Their relevant works are:
Lost Souls (2000), a cloudy-day album that's one of the few where a band can play dilettante and have it sound better for it. This is probably still their most intriguing work and it's recommended without reservation. Getting this album the year it came out marked a turning point in my becoming serious about musical innovation, especially the production end, which this album forced me to notice (this might be my favorite album from a production standpoint).
The Last Broadcast (2002), a sunny-day album that was just as intriguingly produced as the first one and has the lion's share of the band's hits, including the band-defining "There Goes the Fear." This album is their best evidence of how they can turn out a killer single that's so good because it's innovative, not because it's a more mainstreamed version of what they're doing already. I kinda miss this those days for albums, where singles are now misleading in the case of several bands because they consciously write one. That's a different topic, though.
Some Cities (2005). This album is good, but not as good as the first two, for a couple of reasons. First, their general theme of satellite towns (city suburbs if you prefer) decaying calls for a more direct approach to the music. They pull this off well, but this album's more gut-punch than drowning, which is not my first choice for their style. Second, this album is primarily produced by Ben Hillier rather than the Doves by themselves. Hillier is one of the best producers in the business at the moment (his work the same year with Depeche Mode's Playing the Angel singlehandedly resurrected their competence), and his work here is spot-on; it's just not the Doves, who are some of my favorite producers ever. Still some great singles here, like "Black and White Town," but the album as a whole doesn't feel as essential as the last two. There's also a tendency here to repeat the four-on-the-snare beat that they used to great effect on earlier songs like "Pounding" (and Coldplay used all over the place for awhile). It works once an album or so, but not for too many songs. Also, "Walk in Fire," generally a fine song, uses the same structure, chord sequences, and drum ideas as "There Goes the Fear," and feels like a poor imitation every time. This is a rare misstep for them.
Kingdom of Rust (2009), sitting somewhere in between their directness and sprawl. The title track is one of their best ever, bearing a passing resemblance to "There Goes the Fear" but being built completely differently, with a '50s country motif (walking bass and all!) merging into their signature warm epic sound. On the whole, there are higher highs and more tepid lows (no true lows) than on Some Cities, although it's a more interesting album on the whole than its predecessor. There are purely "ok, that was a decent enough song" songs ("Winter Hill," "The Greatest Denier," "Spellbound," and "Lifelines"), more so than the other albums, but the rest feel vital. Still behind their earlier work a tad, but compensated for by the title track. It's really that good.
Nine qualities analysis:
1) Chord sequences. Lost Souls had plenty of odd ones, like on "Here It Comes," with different innovative ones for verse and chorus. Since then, they haven't been trying here, which is a right shame. It's close to a liability for them now, but you can always retreat to their earlier work if it irks you.
2) Song structure. They mess with this all the time, and it's a strong plus. This may be what they traded chord sequences in for, as their best surprises have been later on. "There Goes the Fear"'s snare doesn't come in for about 1:30, and when it does, it surprises with its outright ferocity, hogging the spotlight for the rest of the song. "Snowden" off Some Cities has several moving parts, including a surprise distortion-o-rama in the middle that crackles out just as suddenly but still moves the song forward and an increase in tempo afterwards. "10:03" off Kingdom of Rust is sold entirely off its structural surprise. They also have a knack for surprise instruments hijacking mood effectively. Points here.
3) Mood. It's their bread-and-butter; listen to "Kingdom of Rust" if you don't believe me. What sets them apart from their contemporaries is how they use their mood elements. They're explored more for their own sake than for any obvious references (which bothers me about many alternative/indie rockers. We get it; you like New Order and cheap vintage synthesizers. Homage is not innovation.) Plus, the choices for mood are integral fabric of the songs; the Doves are adept at taking textures that would be novelty, "look at what we did" items in the hands of others and turning them into mood setters. "Snowden"'s first important layer post acoustic-guitar is this strange warbly choir that would be more cheesy than affecting with everybody but them. The kitchen sink is loaded with mood tools, but they're used correctly every time. This gives them both uniqueness and appropriateness of mood, a potent combo anytime a band pulls it off.
4) Layers. I was ignorant of layers until Lost Souls hit my ears; in the ensuing 9 years, I've craved excellence of layers (this may have accelerated my foray into electronica, come to think of it). Not only are there plenty of things to follow, they're unusual choices. Probably aided by their earlier electronic days (or initially to hide the fact they weren't virtuosos), the Doves aren't afraid to sound unremotely like a live band; that "macho" factor has always been dumb if you're not an improv band, and they're right to abandon it. It sounds like there are always 10 times as many tracks are you're picking up in any of their songs. Great example for layers here is "Words," off The Last Broadcast. The first verse/chorus is built largely off a chiming guitar line; pleasant but nothing by itself. Second verse, it gets doubled up note-for-note, rhythm-for-rhythm with a glockenspiel. I kid you not. Third verse? They add a glockenspiel harmony atop the whole thing. And it never sounds pretentious or "cute," two of the normal uses of glockenspiel by their contemporaries. They legitimately thought glockenspiel was the necessary textural element to take the guitar line to the next level for impact. And they were right.
5) Genre-bending. They're more a song-to-song difference than within a song, but they've turned up with some surprises, like the acoustic guitar+woodwinds+strings pastoral scene of "Friday's Dust" (seriously, there are oboes and clarinets all over the place), the band-admitted Blade Runner-sounding "Jetstream," and "Compulsion," which has somewhat justifiably been compared negatively to Blondie's "Rapture" but has enough merit on its own. There's slap bass and all sorts of white-boy funk in it. They're also not glued to one strain of alternative rock, writing in several tempos and feels. A slight positive overall.
6) Innovation. They were one of the first prominent Britrock bands to establish this template, one that's neither the retromania of Oasis nor the overt oddity of Radiohead. That's not innovation per se, but depending on how many bands follow in the wake of Elbow the way Elbow's success can be partially traced to the Doves, this may prove a more enduring strain than their forebears.
7) Rhythm. Andy Williams is a fantastic Larry Mullen type drummer on his own, but their production sense gives layers and moods that most alternative bands wouldn't bother with. "There Goes the Fear" is an obvious masterpiece, but "Darker" with its loose groove shows there's more than one side to them, and "Kingdom of Rust"'s use of brushes for that '50s county feel is masterful in a tonal way rather than obvious competence. Very few bands in 2009 could pull off the shades necessary to pull the song off convincingly. Their rhythmic versatility is a major factor in their uniqueness, and is most certainly a strength.
8) Production. As my flagship song for it in my "Eight Qualities of Music" post, I don't need to say too much about it here, but they turned me on to how intriguing production is its own analytical category. Their production style, like on "Catch the Sun," "makes" their songs several times. Give the song to another band and it would be average; let the Doves multitrack it, and it becomes special. They seem to be precisely those chaps who say "oh we can fit in one more part" before finishing the track, relentless studio tinkerers in the positive sense. I know of very few producers who can hold a candle to them (BT and Steven Wilson are the only two in my collection who are in the same league). A Doves song is a production, and that's the key difference among peers.
9) Album construction. They always do well here, helped primarily by a variety of tempos and feels in the original material. Their singles are better highlights in their album context, a standard indicator of a good job on this element. It's usually more rewarding to listen to a Doves album than a Doves single.
So we have positives on 2,3,4,7,8,9. Blu Mar Ten was 3,5,6,7,8,9, so they're equal on overall strengths. Hopefully the contrast between styles but similarity of analysis shows how I view music generally and how liking different genres is pretty easy depending on your perspective. You the reader probably have a similar set of analytical categories, whether conscious or un-, that influence why you like the range of genres you do. Starting off with an alternative and a drum'n'bass/chillout band is a great primer into that range for me.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Entering the Decagon: Blu Mar Ten at #10
This will kick off an overall artist analysis for my 10 favorite artists. I'll judge them by the eight categories I listed in my relevant blog entry, with one addition: album construction. An artist who knows how to pace an album, give flow where it's necessary, and produce the album in a cohesive fashion can make the album greater than the sum of its parts. This criterion was inapplicable to just talking about songs, but it's a crucial ninth element in distinguishing the novelists from the article writers, so to speak.
Anyway, to Blu Mar Ten, coincidentally at #10 on my list. They're a trio of guys from England who work in the at-odds genres of drum'n'bass and chillout, but their overall style of songwriting suits both equally. More recently, they've started to fuse the two strains, and this year's results on the experiment are breathtaking. They were already great before, but the album due this year may put them over the top into greatness. They've had some underground success and got a song into the Dance Dance Revolution franchise, but chart success is still far away. Not that they seem to care as long as they make good music and continue to travel to places to play their stuff. For that matter, band member Chris Marigold is highly accessible on Facebook and even on AIM; this connection's only a small point in their favor, but it's still a point.
Their relevant works are:
Producer 03 (2003, unsurprisingly), a drum'n'bass work released without their permission but is still their only freestanding album in the genre.
Six Million Names of God (2003), an instrumental chillout work that, while suffering occasionally from lack of melody, nonetheless has a fantastic flow, competent mood-setting, and a leftfield cover of The Cars' "Drive" that must be heard to believed.
Black Water (2007), another chillout album but one more determined to bring the beats and the occasional club/vocal track. This album is an all-time great and my recommended entry point, as it's lush, colorful, inviting, and engaging enough to be far more than background. Best album of 2007, all things considered.
Close EP (2009), only three tracks but a prelude to a single coming out this month and the album later this year. The title track is bland, but the other two tracks, "Above Words" and "If I Could Tell You," are chillout produced with a drum'n'bass vibe and at that tempo, which makes for propulsive chillout, if that can even happen. Both the tracks I mentioned have YouTube videos up from the band, so go check them out.
(This is a great opportunity to state my linking policy. A, I'm lazy. B, You know to how use the Internet as well as I do if you've come across my obscure blog. C, I run the risk of making my posts outdated if I link. D, It just doesn't accomplish much for the work I'd have to put into it. The Facebook reprint served a different purpose initially; it's aberrational re: this policy.)
Back to the discography for a second...for some odd reason, Blu Mar Ten has a bunch of random singles available on ITunes, even sometimes just one song for .99. I have them all, and on the whole they're just not worth getting compared to the albums. The primary exceptions are "Starting Over" from the Weapons of Mass Creation 3 compilation (although Chris Marigold has told me that he doesn't like it, which is strange) and the Clarky Cats/Untitled No. 1 single. If you buy "Mace" from Beatport, it has a skip in it that they haven't fixed for me after over a year. Just random warnings there.
On to the nine qualities of an artist:
1) Chord sequences. This isn't a strength, but it's not a weakness, and in a lot of electronic music that's as good as you're gonna get. You're not going to get sudden key changes or chords leading into another scale, but you're not going to suffer through overused chord progressions or the group's using a chord progression they always use. Since, with the exception of their worst pieces on the d'n'b side, they keep their pieces short relative to electronica, they can get away with a more standard batch of chords anyway.
2) Song structure. Most of the time, BMT sets a mood early and develops it in normal ways; again, the brevity of their pieces leans towards this. But they can pull out the oddball, which is especially true on the cymbal'n'bass style they toyed with on two Black Water songs, "Brother" and "The Feeling (Remix)." (The original "The Feeling" is awful. Do not buy.) On the former, cymbals of various sorts (kinda sounds like a Duke-era Phil Collins pattern, to be honest) propel a clean electric guitar/bass/ambience mix along until halfway through the song, where the cymbals drop out, a major synth at half-speed overpowers the mix, and the song continues at the synth's pace with a dub beat and the guitar/bass/ambience still intact. It blew me away the first time I heard it, and it still does. So they don't normally try for points here, but they score majorly when they try.
3) Mood. An A on mood for sure. Their soundscapes are rich and never off-putting even when they're experimental, and they insert mood everywhere they can; even their drum'n'bass pieces tend to be high on mood factor, which is rare for beat-heavy entries in the genre. Especially on Six Million Names, the mood is established so well that the album's lack of melody doesn't kill it, and that's rare in my estimation. These guys know how to set a mood, and they know how to change it from song to song. They're not stuck in one mood, as contrasted with Moby's style of ambience.
4) Layers. The songs are well-layered, but they primarily serve the mood rather than add a countermelody or anything this separate category is looking for. I will say that the group seems inclined towards natural instrument samples; there's guitar and even electric bass all over Black Water, and Producer 03 and Six Million Names are heavy on saxophones. Real instruments add to the warmth of the sound, and by having a definite goal for their layers they use them more effectively than many.
5) Genre-bending. They write equally well in two genres, so they get high marks here. Rarely have they put them together in the same song, but they're consciously moving in this direction, which to me was the missing piece to conquering all they survey.
6) Innovation. For fusing chillout and drum'n'bass together in the first place, they get some innovation points. How many they get depends on how much they set the bar on this fusion. I have high hopes that they out of all similarly situated artists will do just that - "If I Could Tell You" bleeds innovation - but there's a time element involved here.
7) Rhythm. Their chillout rhythms are fairly unobtrusive but appropriate, and their d'n'b rhythms are intricate enough to avoid growing stale, even if their version of it has no jungle or breakbeat influence. The genre fusing of late has showed up primarily in how they handle a beat, so they're growing in this area.
8) Production. They're not pushing the envelope in this area, but they're highly skilled in it and have no trouble creating the mood they want. A definite plus.
9) Album construction. Black Water was intended to have "clubby" singles and Producer 03 wasn't put together by them, but they each flow well given the constraints. Six Million flows excellently, its continuous mix making sense given the brevity of pieces and attempted mood, and that flow is a key component to that album working on any level.
Bottom line is that these guys manage to pour just about everything into mood creation, whether or not that should bring a beat along with it (and they know when that is). But their versatility, fed by a wide range of influences, is what makes them such a vital listen since Black Water came out and especially with the upcoming material.
The band is friendly to YouTube posters, so a decent portion of their songs in my top 200 should be up there. As a newer entry to my Decagon and one whose strength is based off basically 1.5 albums, these guys are only going up, and I strongly recommend ascending with them.
Anyway, to Blu Mar Ten, coincidentally at #10 on my list. They're a trio of guys from England who work in the at-odds genres of drum'n'bass and chillout, but their overall style of songwriting suits both equally. More recently, they've started to fuse the two strains, and this year's results on the experiment are breathtaking. They were already great before, but the album due this year may put them over the top into greatness. They've had some underground success and got a song into the Dance Dance Revolution franchise, but chart success is still far away. Not that they seem to care as long as they make good music and continue to travel to places to play their stuff. For that matter, band member Chris Marigold is highly accessible on Facebook and even on AIM; this connection's only a small point in their favor, but it's still a point.
Their relevant works are:
Producer 03 (2003, unsurprisingly), a drum'n'bass work released without their permission but is still their only freestanding album in the genre.
Six Million Names of God (2003), an instrumental chillout work that, while suffering occasionally from lack of melody, nonetheless has a fantastic flow, competent mood-setting, and a leftfield cover of The Cars' "Drive" that must be heard to believed.
Black Water (2007), another chillout album but one more determined to bring the beats and the occasional club/vocal track. This album is an all-time great and my recommended entry point, as it's lush, colorful, inviting, and engaging enough to be far more than background. Best album of 2007, all things considered.
Close EP (2009), only three tracks but a prelude to a single coming out this month and the album later this year. The title track is bland, but the other two tracks, "Above Words" and "If I Could Tell You," are chillout produced with a drum'n'bass vibe and at that tempo, which makes for propulsive chillout, if that can even happen. Both the tracks I mentioned have YouTube videos up from the band, so go check them out.
(This is a great opportunity to state my linking policy. A, I'm lazy. B, You know to how use the Internet as well as I do if you've come across my obscure blog. C, I run the risk of making my posts outdated if I link. D, It just doesn't accomplish much for the work I'd have to put into it. The Facebook reprint served a different purpose initially; it's aberrational re: this policy.)
Back to the discography for a second...for some odd reason, Blu Mar Ten has a bunch of random singles available on ITunes, even sometimes just one song for .99. I have them all, and on the whole they're just not worth getting compared to the albums. The primary exceptions are "Starting Over" from the Weapons of Mass Creation 3 compilation (although Chris Marigold has told me that he doesn't like it, which is strange) and the Clarky Cats/Untitled No. 1 single. If you buy "Mace" from Beatport, it has a skip in it that they haven't fixed for me after over a year. Just random warnings there.
On to the nine qualities of an artist:
1) Chord sequences. This isn't a strength, but it's not a weakness, and in a lot of electronic music that's as good as you're gonna get. You're not going to get sudden key changes or chords leading into another scale, but you're not going to suffer through overused chord progressions or the group's using a chord progression they always use. Since, with the exception of their worst pieces on the d'n'b side, they keep their pieces short relative to electronica, they can get away with a more standard batch of chords anyway.
2) Song structure. Most of the time, BMT sets a mood early and develops it in normal ways; again, the brevity of their pieces leans towards this. But they can pull out the oddball, which is especially true on the cymbal'n'bass style they toyed with on two Black Water songs, "Brother" and "The Feeling (Remix)." (The original "The Feeling" is awful. Do not buy.) On the former, cymbals of various sorts (kinda sounds like a Duke-era Phil Collins pattern, to be honest) propel a clean electric guitar/bass/ambience mix along until halfway through the song, where the cymbals drop out, a major synth at half-speed overpowers the mix, and the song continues at the synth's pace with a dub beat and the guitar/bass/ambience still intact. It blew me away the first time I heard it, and it still does. So they don't normally try for points here, but they score majorly when they try.
3) Mood. An A on mood for sure. Their soundscapes are rich and never off-putting even when they're experimental, and they insert mood everywhere they can; even their drum'n'bass pieces tend to be high on mood factor, which is rare for beat-heavy entries in the genre. Especially on Six Million Names, the mood is established so well that the album's lack of melody doesn't kill it, and that's rare in my estimation. These guys know how to set a mood, and they know how to change it from song to song. They're not stuck in one mood, as contrasted with Moby's style of ambience.
4) Layers. The songs are well-layered, but they primarily serve the mood rather than add a countermelody or anything this separate category is looking for. I will say that the group seems inclined towards natural instrument samples; there's guitar and even electric bass all over Black Water, and Producer 03 and Six Million Names are heavy on saxophones. Real instruments add to the warmth of the sound, and by having a definite goal for their layers they use them more effectively than many.
5) Genre-bending. They write equally well in two genres, so they get high marks here. Rarely have they put them together in the same song, but they're consciously moving in this direction, which to me was the missing piece to conquering all they survey.
6) Innovation. For fusing chillout and drum'n'bass together in the first place, they get some innovation points. How many they get depends on how much they set the bar on this fusion. I have high hopes that they out of all similarly situated artists will do just that - "If I Could Tell You" bleeds innovation - but there's a time element involved here.
7) Rhythm. Their chillout rhythms are fairly unobtrusive but appropriate, and their d'n'b rhythms are intricate enough to avoid growing stale, even if their version of it has no jungle or breakbeat influence. The genre fusing of late has showed up primarily in how they handle a beat, so they're growing in this area.
8) Production. They're not pushing the envelope in this area, but they're highly skilled in it and have no trouble creating the mood they want. A definite plus.
9) Album construction. Black Water was intended to have "clubby" singles and Producer 03 wasn't put together by them, but they each flow well given the constraints. Six Million flows excellently, its continuous mix making sense given the brevity of pieces and attempted mood, and that flow is a key component to that album working on any level.
Bottom line is that these guys manage to pour just about everything into mood creation, whether or not that should bring a beat along with it (and they know when that is). But their versatility, fed by a wide range of influences, is what makes them such a vital listen since Black Water came out and especially with the upcoming material.
The band is friendly to YouTube posters, so a decent portion of their songs in my top 200 should be up there. As a newer entry to my Decagon and one whose strength is based off basically 1.5 albums, these guys are only going up, and I strongly recommend ascending with them.
What do YOU want?
As mentioned in the "About Me" section, there are a number of ways I can go with reviews and analysis. If any of you readers want me to go a certain direction for awhile, I'll honor that. This is all about developing and communicating why we like music and what makes it good, so any developing and communicating is productive. If it's a direction I don't have listed, suggest a new one. I'm open.
Eight Qualities of Good Music: An Analysis - Reprinted from Facebook
I find about eight qualities in good music, regardless of their genre. It helps explain my disparate tastes to know that I have analytical categories for what makes good music. (Welcome to the world of an INTP.) As a general matter, if I haven’t been able to break down the components of the song in the time it takes me to listen to it, it’s got me hooked. Here are eight things that matter.
Note: I make no warranty as to the visual content of these YouTube links; some of them are fan made and awful to look at, some are suggestive, etc. I’m referring to the songs only. Put them up and go check your e-mail or something.
1) Chord sequences. In most songwriting, everything works off chords, and the more innovative the sequence, the more innovative everything else has to be. You can’t take a lazy way out on making something sound good when you’ve started off on a unique template.
“Blood on the Rooftops” by Genesis (performed here by Steve Hackett’s band) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO_CX3ytvd4
Ignore that the dude he has can’t sing; I wouldn’t like this song if that guy sang all the time (Phil Collins did the vox in the original). Listen to the verses: there’s NO song in the universe that sounds like that. And it all feeds off the chords.
2) Song structure. Surprise me with where the song goes, but organically. Sure, you can splice jams together (Yes is guilty of this a lot), but does one part naturally go with the other? At the same time, though, the direction ought to be novel and unexpected. Underworld were absolute masters of this concept, with Orbital managing to a decent job of it as well. For trance artists, Way Out West do extraordinarily well at putting late-breaking developments in their songs. Asymmetrical (not odd – to me, they’re normal) time signatures go here too, and I’m particularly a sucker for asymmetrical electronica. Hard to explain perhaps w/o a song, so…
“Song of Life” by Leftfield
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F58AjZY892E
It goes along just fine as its own thing…and then at 3:29, the piece starts morphing into something else entirely. Two song halves that are decent by themselves, by being linked in surprising ways, go over the top to greatness.
3) Mood. And this isn’t just whether it’s cinematic or not – there are a number of movie soundtracks that sound soundtracky but set no mood because the parts themselves aren’t evocative. But if music is a language, then songs ought to say something definite. In a lot of ways, mood is the articulation of precise musical language. This can range from the cinematically evocative to an artist that sets a unique mood, one that makes sense only within the rules of the artist (again, Underworld and Orbital ruled this category). Mood and song structure are why I like Genesis and Porcupine Tree but not Yes or The Flower Kings; Yes songs often say no more than “we’re really, really good on our instruments,” while Porcupine Tree’s are an artistic statement, a fragile and beautiful delicacy. Aphex Twin was so good at mood that his Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II is a success musically even though almost nothing’s there.
“Blackout” by Hybrid (feat. Kirsty Hawkshaw)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FElGUGqnOXM
Especially as the closer of an album that was incredibly tech-oriented/heavily dependent on electricity, a song that’s primarily orchestra, percussion, and vocals is an incredible mood setter. As Kirsty sings “no electricity” repeatedly, it feels like she may be the only person or even living being around. Absorbing in every way, which is to say it nails mood.
4) Layers. Although layers is normally just a method of changing mood and structure in unexpected ways, it deserves its own mention. If mood is articulation, then layers are an expanded vocabulary. Poetry is favored over prose in several settings in large part because of the vocabulary and structure difference, and well-orchestrated layers do about the same thing in turning prosaic music into poetry, if that makes any sense at all. This is also somewhat the same as just good production, although that can have its own importance. Countermelodies and the like fall here too, and they’re vital to most good songs.
“Dirty Epic” by Underworld
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hikzB892adc
This one’s also about mood and structure, sure, but the use of layers is perhaps the most brilliant part of it. Drum loops add and drop from the texture at unusual times (esp. notice 1:13-1:14 v. 1:15-1:16 – even the drop of the kick beat for one measure can matter! Also check out some of the hi-hats disappearing around 2:16-2:24 and the denouement around 2:45 after a measure of full drums from 2:41-2:44), giving the whole piece an unsettled feel that matches the stream-of-consciousness lyrics perfectly. The mood is created by the layering on this one, and it’s genius.
5) Genre-bending. Many an artist becomes confined by its genre, unable to reach out and incorporate something different into their aesthetic. This is one reason pop bands don’t usually last long; there’s nothing they can work into the formula. Obviously, this isn’t always true; Blondie and Queen were able to get just about anything into their sound, and they are all the more enduring for it. Knowledge of genre is important as a way to play with it. This is particularly important with tempo; several disparate genres reside at the same tempo, and a lot of innovative music can happen when you mix-and-match at that tempo. Generally speaking, Tortoise’s stew of genres takes this into account best of anyone I’ve ever heard, though the Flaming Lips aren’t bad at it. This one gets two songs:
“Sleepy Maggie” by Ashley MacIsaac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoApELfgWcg
The album from whence this came was all about genre-bending, taking traditional Celtic fiddle tunes (plus Gaelic vocals in this case) and ‘90sifying them, with this being the easy standout example. It takes deep knowledge of each genre you’re blending together to be able to do it effectively; you can’t just graft house onto Celtic or Celtic onto house without sounding hokey (see, for example, the Rednex version of “Cotton Eye Joe” that’s popular because it blends genres, even though it does so horrifically and makes both genres sound worse in the process).
“The Gift” by Way Out West
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIkuduk0JMM
Nick Warren has admitted that this song essentially was birthed as what happens when you slow down drum’n’bass/jungle rhythms. But that slowing down gives opportunity for a completely different arrangement around those rhythms, with ethereal stretched-out pads, seemingly infinite echo, and a calm vocal sample to create a half-chilled, half-beat-heavy atmosphere that stands out even 12 years later.
6) Innovation. This may seem like a noncategory given what’s stated above, but it’s an important point all its own. The first few to figure out (and yes, to me songwriting is in large part a matter of figuring out how pieces can fit together in new ways) how to make something work get extra credit. Susumu Yokota made consecutive albums of electronica all in 3/4 time. This, my friends, is HARD.
“If I Could Tell You” by Blu Mar Ten
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fenSc2Aj_Zg
Finally learning how to combine their chill and drum’n’bass sides is resulting in some heady stuff from Blu Mar Ten, this being foremost among them. This came out a few months ago and is just brilliant.
7) Rhythm. A good understanding of how to move a song along is important. Yes, a four-on-the-floor can stick just about anywhere, but good rhythm adds vibrancy and can be the backdrop for an entire mood, particularly hypnotic pieces, for which I’m a sucker. Detail is important here too, as is rhythmic interplay between drums and instruments.
“La Ritournelle” by Sebastian Tellier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu1fTcGdS8A
This song would go nowhere without that super-funky beat carrying it.
“Squance” by Plaid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u_83y75ZG0
Several likable elements here (the synth hook is to die for) but the way the rhythm treats the song as 2/4 rather than 4/4 is a crucial element, along with the seemingly random rhythmic interludes (check 1:55-1:59). The rhythm allows everything else to bounce seemingly randomly off it.
“Growls Garden” by Clark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMS3gqc7eRs
The synths contribute so much rhythmic interplay to an already strange 808 drum pattern that it’s sick. Biggest track of 2009 for sure.
8) Production. Skills here are about layers and mood, sure, but being able to spruce up your content with nuance is critical. The best current rock band on this one (and I’m choosing rock here in part because I’ve been putting a lot of electronica on this list so far) is very easily the Doves.
“Catch the Sun” by the Doves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqlIFLb6jU0
This song’s made entirely off its production, as they fit a TON of distortion in the background, and my favorite part, the twin leads in the chorus that go perfectly together (one’s a warm, mid-heavy bit, while the other’s trebly). You don’t notice how much they’re synergizing until the warm one leaves; contrast the chorus at 3:20-3:35 with any other chorus and you notice it (it doesn’t hurt that they also raised the volume for the trebly part in the chorus where it’s by itself). The track is massive in every way, and that massiveness is what carries the song to greatness. But it took some killer production skills to fit it all in.
“Tremelo Song” by the Charlatans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNdrXNFiSSA
Though this single mix adds too many parts around it to get the full effect, that piano dink in the center of the mix propels the song far more than you’d think it could. Check the verse around 0:37 – it’s drums, a bass part that’s not easily scrutinized, and the piano dink supporting the vocals. That’s it. Producer Flood makes it a focal point of the song even though it’s not much by itself, and that gives it a refreshing singularity.
These 8 elements explain the bulk of why I like what I like. A song may have pedestrian chords but have mood and production and layers, like “Dirty Epic,” and become a favorite. A song may have tame production but a great rhythm and mood, like “La Ritournelle,” and become a favorite. The more of these elements are present, the more I’m likely to be hooked.
Note: I make no warranty as to the visual content of these YouTube links; some of them are fan made and awful to look at, some are suggestive, etc. I’m referring to the songs only. Put them up and go check your e-mail or something.
1) Chord sequences. In most songwriting, everything works off chords, and the more innovative the sequence, the more innovative everything else has to be. You can’t take a lazy way out on making something sound good when you’ve started off on a unique template.
“Blood on the Rooftops” by Genesis (performed here by Steve Hackett’s band) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO_CX3ytvd4
Ignore that the dude he has can’t sing; I wouldn’t like this song if that guy sang all the time (Phil Collins did the vox in the original). Listen to the verses: there’s NO song in the universe that sounds like that. And it all feeds off the chords.
2) Song structure. Surprise me with where the song goes, but organically. Sure, you can splice jams together (Yes is guilty of this a lot), but does one part naturally go with the other? At the same time, though, the direction ought to be novel and unexpected. Underworld were absolute masters of this concept, with Orbital managing to a decent job of it as well. For trance artists, Way Out West do extraordinarily well at putting late-breaking developments in their songs. Asymmetrical (not odd – to me, they’re normal) time signatures go here too, and I’m particularly a sucker for asymmetrical electronica. Hard to explain perhaps w/o a song, so…
“Song of Life” by Leftfield
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F58AjZY892E
It goes along just fine as its own thing…and then at 3:29, the piece starts morphing into something else entirely. Two song halves that are decent by themselves, by being linked in surprising ways, go over the top to greatness.
3) Mood. And this isn’t just whether it’s cinematic or not – there are a number of movie soundtracks that sound soundtracky but set no mood because the parts themselves aren’t evocative. But if music is a language, then songs ought to say something definite. In a lot of ways, mood is the articulation of precise musical language. This can range from the cinematically evocative to an artist that sets a unique mood, one that makes sense only within the rules of the artist (again, Underworld and Orbital ruled this category). Mood and song structure are why I like Genesis and Porcupine Tree but not Yes or The Flower Kings; Yes songs often say no more than “we’re really, really good on our instruments,” while Porcupine Tree’s are an artistic statement, a fragile and beautiful delicacy. Aphex Twin was so good at mood that his Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II is a success musically even though almost nothing’s there.
“Blackout” by Hybrid (feat. Kirsty Hawkshaw)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FElGUGqnOXM
Especially as the closer of an album that was incredibly tech-oriented/heavily dependent on electricity, a song that’s primarily orchestra, percussion, and vocals is an incredible mood setter. As Kirsty sings “no electricity” repeatedly, it feels like she may be the only person or even living being around. Absorbing in every way, which is to say it nails mood.
4) Layers. Although layers is normally just a method of changing mood and structure in unexpected ways, it deserves its own mention. If mood is articulation, then layers are an expanded vocabulary. Poetry is favored over prose in several settings in large part because of the vocabulary and structure difference, and well-orchestrated layers do about the same thing in turning prosaic music into poetry, if that makes any sense at all. This is also somewhat the same as just good production, although that can have its own importance. Countermelodies and the like fall here too, and they’re vital to most good songs.
“Dirty Epic” by Underworld
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hikzB892adc
This one’s also about mood and structure, sure, but the use of layers is perhaps the most brilliant part of it. Drum loops add and drop from the texture at unusual times (esp. notice 1:13-1:14 v. 1:15-1:16 – even the drop of the kick beat for one measure can matter! Also check out some of the hi-hats disappearing around 2:16-2:24 and the denouement around 2:45 after a measure of full drums from 2:41-2:44), giving the whole piece an unsettled feel that matches the stream-of-consciousness lyrics perfectly. The mood is created by the layering on this one, and it’s genius.
5) Genre-bending. Many an artist becomes confined by its genre, unable to reach out and incorporate something different into their aesthetic. This is one reason pop bands don’t usually last long; there’s nothing they can work into the formula. Obviously, this isn’t always true; Blondie and Queen were able to get just about anything into their sound, and they are all the more enduring for it. Knowledge of genre is important as a way to play with it. This is particularly important with tempo; several disparate genres reside at the same tempo, and a lot of innovative music can happen when you mix-and-match at that tempo. Generally speaking, Tortoise’s stew of genres takes this into account best of anyone I’ve ever heard, though the Flaming Lips aren’t bad at it. This one gets two songs:
“Sleepy Maggie” by Ashley MacIsaac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoApELfgWcg
The album from whence this came was all about genre-bending, taking traditional Celtic fiddle tunes (plus Gaelic vocals in this case) and ‘90sifying them, with this being the easy standout example. It takes deep knowledge of each genre you’re blending together to be able to do it effectively; you can’t just graft house onto Celtic or Celtic onto house without sounding hokey (see, for example, the Rednex version of “Cotton Eye Joe” that’s popular because it blends genres, even though it does so horrifically and makes both genres sound worse in the process).
“The Gift” by Way Out West
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIkuduk0JMM
Nick Warren has admitted that this song essentially was birthed as what happens when you slow down drum’n’bass/jungle rhythms. But that slowing down gives opportunity for a completely different arrangement around those rhythms, with ethereal stretched-out pads, seemingly infinite echo, and a calm vocal sample to create a half-chilled, half-beat-heavy atmosphere that stands out even 12 years later.
6) Innovation. This may seem like a noncategory given what’s stated above, but it’s an important point all its own. The first few to figure out (and yes, to me songwriting is in large part a matter of figuring out how pieces can fit together in new ways) how to make something work get extra credit. Susumu Yokota made consecutive albums of electronica all in 3/4 time. This, my friends, is HARD.
“If I Could Tell You” by Blu Mar Ten
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fenSc2Aj_Zg
Finally learning how to combine their chill and drum’n’bass sides is resulting in some heady stuff from Blu Mar Ten, this being foremost among them. This came out a few months ago and is just brilliant.
7) Rhythm. A good understanding of how to move a song along is important. Yes, a four-on-the-floor can stick just about anywhere, but good rhythm adds vibrancy and can be the backdrop for an entire mood, particularly hypnotic pieces, for which I’m a sucker. Detail is important here too, as is rhythmic interplay between drums and instruments.
“La Ritournelle” by Sebastian Tellier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu1fTcGdS8A
This song would go nowhere without that super-funky beat carrying it.
“Squance” by Plaid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u_83y75ZG0
Several likable elements here (the synth hook is to die for) but the way the rhythm treats the song as 2/4 rather than 4/4 is a crucial element, along with the seemingly random rhythmic interludes (check 1:55-1:59). The rhythm allows everything else to bounce seemingly randomly off it.
“Growls Garden” by Clark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMS3gqc7eRs
The synths contribute so much rhythmic interplay to an already strange 808 drum pattern that it’s sick. Biggest track of 2009 for sure.
8) Production. Skills here are about layers and mood, sure, but being able to spruce up your content with nuance is critical. The best current rock band on this one (and I’m choosing rock here in part because I’ve been putting a lot of electronica on this list so far) is very easily the Doves.
“Catch the Sun” by the Doves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqlIFLb6jU0
This song’s made entirely off its production, as they fit a TON of distortion in the background, and my favorite part, the twin leads in the chorus that go perfectly together (one’s a warm, mid-heavy bit, while the other’s trebly). You don’t notice how much they’re synergizing until the warm one leaves; contrast the chorus at 3:20-3:35 with any other chorus and you notice it (it doesn’t hurt that they also raised the volume for the trebly part in the chorus where it’s by itself). The track is massive in every way, and that massiveness is what carries the song to greatness. But it took some killer production skills to fit it all in.
“Tremelo Song” by the Charlatans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNdrXNFiSSA
Though this single mix adds too many parts around it to get the full effect, that piano dink in the center of the mix propels the song far more than you’d think it could. Check the verse around 0:37 – it’s drums, a bass part that’s not easily scrutinized, and the piano dink supporting the vocals. That’s it. Producer Flood makes it a focal point of the song even though it’s not much by itself, and that gives it a refreshing singularity.
These 8 elements explain the bulk of why I like what I like. A song may have pedestrian chords but have mood and production and layers, like “Dirty Epic,” and become a favorite. A song may have tame production but a great rhythm and mood, like “La Ritournelle,” and become a favorite. The more of these elements are present, the more I’m likely to be hooked.
My top 200 songs
This has been updated on Facebook for years now, but here's a more detailed version of my favorite 200 songs. This gets updated whenever a song deserves to go there. It's always 100 rock and 100 electronic songs. I've listed them here in alphabetical order of genre (I have 10 genres into which I break my favorite music).
ALTERNATIVE (26) - Primarily early '90s college rock, the stuff that Nirvana stepped on.
Charlatans - Tremelo Song
- Weirdo
Crowded House - Kare Kare
- Distant Sun
Depeche Mode - In Your Room
Doves - Catch the Sun
- Crunch
- Your Shadow Lay Across My Life
- There Goes the Fear
- Kingdom of Rust
Flaming Lips - One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21
Jars of Clay - Flood
Matthew Sweet - Don't Go
- Devil with the Green Eyes (Remix)
- Thunderstorm
- Sunlight
Modern English - Face of Wood
- Dawn Chorus
New Order - Someone Like You
Peter Gabriel - Steam
Sarah McLachlan - Possession
Smashing Pumpkins - Untitled
Tasmin Archer - Sleeping Satellite
Tears for Fears - Break It Down Again
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fly From Heaven
Tori Amos - Bliss
10,000 Maniacs - These Are Days
AMBIENT/CHILLOUT (24) - Moody soundscapes intended for contemplation. Hard to find sort through the genre, but the good stuff is great.
Aphex Twin - Blue Calx
- Hexagon
Bassic - Seduction
- Any Minute Now
bLiNd - Blue Vision (arrangement from Donkey Kong Country)
Blu Mar Ten - Black Water
- Brother
- The Feeling (Remix)
Dead Can Dance - Anywhere Out of the World
- Cantara
- How Fortunate the Man with None
Future Sound of London - Dead Skin Cells
Hybrid - Blackout
Mystical Sun - Blue Magnetic Ocean
Opus III - Stars in My Pocket
- Cozyland
Orb - Star 6 & 7 8 9
- Oxbow Lakes
Ozric Tentacles - Crackerblocks
- Spyroid
Spooky - Belong
Underworld - Winjer
VNV Nation - Distant (Rubicon II)
Xerxes - Angelina
BREAKS/D'N'B (17) - Complexity of beat makes for some heady mixes.
Blu Mar Ten - Starting Over
- By the Time My Light Reaches You I'll Be Gone
- If I Could Tell You
- Nobody Here
BT - Orbitus Teranium
- Running Down the Way Up
- Love in the Time of Thieves
Cardamar - Tears of a Man Who Never Cried
Hybrid - If I Survive
- Snyper
- Just for Today
- Can You Hear Me
Susumu Yokota - The Scream of a Sage Who Lost Freedom and Love Taken for Granted Before
Underworld - Pearls Girl
Way Out West - The Gift
- Anything but You
- Spaceman
ELECTRONIC (20) - A catchall genre, or leftover bin for songs that relative to my collection are ungenred.
As One - Contours
Banco de Gaia - Creme Egg
- How Much Reality Can You Take?
Bassic - Instigator
BT - Suddenly
Craig David - Fill Me In
Culprit 1 - Hollow
- Tell Me It Isn't True
David Gray - Please Forgive Me
Depeche Mode - Policy of Truth
Easily Embarrassed - Little Trees and Mysteries
Hybrid - Until Tomorrow
- Break My Soul
Massive Attack - Angel
Orbital - The Girl with the Sun in Her Head
Ozric Tentacles - Ghedengi
- Wob Glass
Peter Gabriel - Growing Up
Primal Scream - Don't Fight It, Feel It
Underworld - Cups
EXPERIMENTAL (27) - IDM, post-rock, etc. fall here. Sounds like a catchall, but it's one of my favorite genre listings.
Autechre - Foil
- Eutow
B12 - Interim
The Black Dog - Virtual
- Seers and Sages
- Squelch
- 4.7.8.
- UV Sine
Cardamar - Capacity (How Much Can You Take?)
Clark - Growls Garden
Durutti Column - Lisboa
- Otis
- Meschugana
- No More Hurt
Eltro - Storm Cloud of the Century
Eskmo - Moving Glowstream
Jaga Jazzist - Animal Chin
- All I Know Is Tonight
- One-Armed Bandit
- Toccata
- Music! Dance! Drama!
Plaid - Squance
Susumu Yokota - A Slowly Fainting Memory of Love and Respect, and Hatred
Tortoise - Djed
- In Sarah, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Women and Men
- Monica
Underworld - Banstyle/Sappys Curry
FUNK/JAZZ (12) - Largely fusions of all sorts.
Brand X - Nuclear Burn
Deadly Avenger - Day One
Jazzanova - The One-Tet
- Hanazono
- Another New Day
- Soon
Lo-Fidelity Allstars - Battleflag
Massive Attack - Safe from Harm
Orbital - Know Where to Run
Phil Collins - The West Side
Sebastian Tellier - La Ritournelle
Soulstice - Lovely
HOUSE (16) - The midtempo dance genre. Not pursued at large anymore, but some gems still come out every once and again.
Ashley MacIsaac - Sleepy Maggie
As One - Theme from Op-Art
BT - Rose of Jericho
Everything but the Girl - Wrong
Future Sound of London - Papua New Guinea
Jamiroquai - Supersonic
Leftfield - Song of Life
Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
Samantha James - Waves of Change
Susumu Yokota - Soft Tone
Underworld - Dirty Epic
- M.E.
- Luetin
- Beautiful Burnout
Way Out West - Activity
PROGRESSIVE ROCK (31) - The most complex rock in the universe, but prone to pointless jams. Not on this list.
Animals as Leaders - The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing
Dream Theater - Stream of Consciousness
- Panic Attack
Frost* - Hyperventilate
- Black Light Machine
- Welcome to Nowhere
- Pocket Sun
- Dear Dead Days
Genesis - Firth of Fifth
- Dance on a Volcano
- Entangled
- Ripples
- Blood on the Rooftops
- Down and Out
- Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea
- Fading Lights
Neal Morse - Author of Confusion
Ozric Tentacles - Oakum
- San Pedro
Porcupine Tree - Signify
- Don't Hate Me
- Where We Would Be
- Lips of Ashes
- Gravity Eyelids
- The Creator Has a Mastertape
- Anesthetize
- Way Out of Here
- Cheating the Polygraph
Riverside - 02 Panic Room
Spock's Beard - In the Mouth of Madness
- The Great Nothing
ROCK (16) - The catchall counterpart to Electronic.
Genesis - Man of Our Times
- Turn It On Again
- No Reply at All
- Mama
- Taking It All Too Hard
- On the Shoreline
Peter Gabriel - No Self-Control
- The Rhythm of the Heat
- Red Rain
Phil Collins - I Cannot Believe It's True
Robbie Robertson - Fallen Angel
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Buster Voodoo
- Hora Zero
Squeeze - Another Nail in My Heart
Sting - Russians
Stone Temple Pilots - Sour Girl
TRANCE (11) - The difference between bad and good in this genre is huge. Never enter this genre without a guide.
BT - Flaming June
- Remember
- Godspeed
Sasha - Boileroom
- Wavy Gravy
Underworld - Pearls Girl (Tin There)
- Two Months Off
VNV Nation - Rubicon
Way Out West - Domination
- Hypnotise
Xq28 - Wake Up
ALTERNATIVE (26) - Primarily early '90s college rock, the stuff that Nirvana stepped on.
Charlatans - Tremelo Song
- Weirdo
Crowded House - Kare Kare
- Distant Sun
Depeche Mode - In Your Room
Doves - Catch the Sun
- Crunch
- Your Shadow Lay Across My Life
- There Goes the Fear
- Kingdom of Rust
Flaming Lips - One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21
Jars of Clay - Flood
Matthew Sweet - Don't Go
- Devil with the Green Eyes (Remix)
- Thunderstorm
- Sunlight
Modern English - Face of Wood
- Dawn Chorus
New Order - Someone Like You
Peter Gabriel - Steam
Sarah McLachlan - Possession
Smashing Pumpkins - Untitled
Tasmin Archer - Sleeping Satellite
Tears for Fears - Break It Down Again
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fly From Heaven
Tori Amos - Bliss
10,000 Maniacs - These Are Days
AMBIENT/CHILLOUT (24) - Moody soundscapes intended for contemplation. Hard to find sort through the genre, but the good stuff is great.
Aphex Twin - Blue Calx
- Hexagon
Bassic - Seduction
- Any Minute Now
bLiNd - Blue Vision (arrangement from Donkey Kong Country)
Blu Mar Ten - Black Water
- Brother
- The Feeling (Remix)
Dead Can Dance - Anywhere Out of the World
- Cantara
- How Fortunate the Man with None
Future Sound of London - Dead Skin Cells
Hybrid - Blackout
Mystical Sun - Blue Magnetic Ocean
Opus III - Stars in My Pocket
- Cozyland
Orb - Star 6 & 7 8 9
- Oxbow Lakes
Ozric Tentacles - Crackerblocks
- Spyroid
Spooky - Belong
Underworld - Winjer
VNV Nation - Distant (Rubicon II)
Xerxes - Angelina
BREAKS/D'N'B (17) - Complexity of beat makes for some heady mixes.
Blu Mar Ten - Starting Over
- By the Time My Light Reaches You I'll Be Gone
- If I Could Tell You
- Nobody Here
BT - Orbitus Teranium
- Running Down the Way Up
- Love in the Time of Thieves
Cardamar - Tears of a Man Who Never Cried
Hybrid - If I Survive
- Snyper
- Just for Today
- Can You Hear Me
Susumu Yokota - The Scream of a Sage Who Lost Freedom and Love Taken for Granted Before
Underworld - Pearls Girl
Way Out West - The Gift
- Anything but You
- Spaceman
ELECTRONIC (20) - A catchall genre, or leftover bin for songs that relative to my collection are ungenred.
As One - Contours
Banco de Gaia - Creme Egg
- How Much Reality Can You Take?
Bassic - Instigator
BT - Suddenly
Craig David - Fill Me In
Culprit 1 - Hollow
- Tell Me It Isn't True
David Gray - Please Forgive Me
Depeche Mode - Policy of Truth
Easily Embarrassed - Little Trees and Mysteries
Hybrid - Until Tomorrow
- Break My Soul
Massive Attack - Angel
Orbital - The Girl with the Sun in Her Head
Ozric Tentacles - Ghedengi
- Wob Glass
Peter Gabriel - Growing Up
Primal Scream - Don't Fight It, Feel It
Underworld - Cups
EXPERIMENTAL (27) - IDM, post-rock, etc. fall here. Sounds like a catchall, but it's one of my favorite genre listings.
Autechre - Foil
- Eutow
B12 - Interim
The Black Dog - Virtual
- Seers and Sages
- Squelch
- 4.7.8.
- UV Sine
Cardamar - Capacity (How Much Can You Take?)
Clark - Growls Garden
Durutti Column - Lisboa
- Otis
- Meschugana
- No More Hurt
Eltro - Storm Cloud of the Century
Eskmo - Moving Glowstream
Jaga Jazzist - Animal Chin
- All I Know Is Tonight
- One-Armed Bandit
- Toccata
- Music! Dance! Drama!
Plaid - Squance
Susumu Yokota - A Slowly Fainting Memory of Love and Respect, and Hatred
Tortoise - Djed
- In Sarah, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Women and Men
- Monica
Underworld - Banstyle/Sappys Curry
FUNK/JAZZ (12) - Largely fusions of all sorts.
Brand X - Nuclear Burn
Deadly Avenger - Day One
Jazzanova - The One-Tet
- Hanazono
- Another New Day
- Soon
Lo-Fidelity Allstars - Battleflag
Massive Attack - Safe from Harm
Orbital - Know Where to Run
Phil Collins - The West Side
Sebastian Tellier - La Ritournelle
Soulstice - Lovely
HOUSE (16) - The midtempo dance genre. Not pursued at large anymore, but some gems still come out every once and again.
Ashley MacIsaac - Sleepy Maggie
As One - Theme from Op-Art
BT - Rose of Jericho
Everything but the Girl - Wrong
Future Sound of London - Papua New Guinea
Jamiroquai - Supersonic
Leftfield - Song of Life
Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
Samantha James - Waves of Change
Susumu Yokota - Soft Tone
Underworld - Dirty Epic
- M.E.
- Luetin
- Beautiful Burnout
Way Out West - Activity
PROGRESSIVE ROCK (31) - The most complex rock in the universe, but prone to pointless jams. Not on this list.
Animals as Leaders - The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing
Dream Theater - Stream of Consciousness
- Panic Attack
Frost* - Hyperventilate
- Black Light Machine
- Welcome to Nowhere
- Pocket Sun
- Dear Dead Days
Genesis - Firth of Fifth
- Dance on a Volcano
- Entangled
- Ripples
- Blood on the Rooftops
- Down and Out
- Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea
- Fading Lights
Neal Morse - Author of Confusion
Ozric Tentacles - Oakum
- San Pedro
Porcupine Tree - Signify
- Don't Hate Me
- Where We Would Be
- Lips of Ashes
- Gravity Eyelids
- The Creator Has a Mastertape
- Anesthetize
- Way Out of Here
- Cheating the Polygraph
Riverside - 02 Panic Room
Spock's Beard - In the Mouth of Madness
- The Great Nothing
ROCK (16) - The catchall counterpart to Electronic.
Genesis - Man of Our Times
- Turn It On Again
- No Reply at All
- Mama
- Taking It All Too Hard
- On the Shoreline
Peter Gabriel - No Self-Control
- The Rhythm of the Heat
- Red Rain
Phil Collins - I Cannot Believe It's True
Robbie Robertson - Fallen Angel
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Buster Voodoo
- Hora Zero
Squeeze - Another Nail in My Heart
Sting - Russians
Stone Temple Pilots - Sour Girl
TRANCE (11) - The difference between bad and good in this genre is huge. Never enter this genre without a guide.
BT - Flaming June
- Remember
- Godspeed
Sasha - Boileroom
- Wavy Gravy
Underworld - Pearls Girl (Tin There)
- Two Months Off
VNV Nation - Rubicon
Way Out West - Domination
- Hypnotise
Xq28 - Wake Up
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