Music: Rate and Discuss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8UyMsDvy-0

Eluvium used to do strictly instrumental, ambient music (of the lush dreamy variety). He's added in some soft (somewhat monotonous) vocals now. I'm not sure how I feel about them... at the moment, they're alright. But the great thing about this song is still the pretty soundscape. I was sitting at my desk working today and listened to this for the first time, with headphones on. It was awesome.
 
Some funky electronica. I loves it.
1) Use of the most generic 'genre' term ever. How is electronica different from 'electronic music?' Should I call every rock song ever 'acoustica' because they use acoustic instruments?

2) Rate and discuss, guvnuh.
 
1) Use of the most generic 'genre' term ever. How is electronica different from 'electronic music?' Should I call every rock song ever 'acoustica' because they use acoustic instruments?

2) Rate and discuss, guvnuh.

1) Did I say they were different? If you want specifics then it's house.

2) You can't really have a go at me for not really elaborating on the song, I mean, look at everyone else!
 
2) You can't really have a go at me for not really elaborating on the song, I mean, look at everyone else!

Yeah, I think it's pretty ridiculous how people get randomly called out, out of the blue, for posting one-line reviews. A while back, I had one post that said "Is it possible not to like this?" that someone took issue with. But look at 80% of the posts on just this page!

By the way, I'm not meaning to criticize these posts because I personally don't give a crap and generally I don't do much better either; just pointing out some very odd double standards going on with people who actually seem to (inconsistently) care enough to point out other people's posts, without contributing anything themselves.

"Only reason I like them is because of this song. For some reason I think its awesome."

"****ing love this guys..cant wait for new album"

"Incubus fans listen to this. great stuff"

"So I asked myself last night "Just what has Amon Tobin been up to since the Infamous soundtrack"? Two Fingers is the answer."

"leaked crystalline fresh
cascading gamelan icicles
maybe its generative
indie is not an option"

Most of these are basically like "I like this" with no explanation as to why they like it. Some of them don't even say whether or not they like the song. And the last one is so vague that I have no idea what it means.
 
Well its not like I, and I'm assuming most of the people here, can either be arsed or have the time (well, maybe not that one) to delve into some philosophical jibberish behind their reasoning for the song choice.

And then theres the people that just post on threads like this to up their post count.

I find this thread a great way to get introduced into new music. Its a youtube dump, and people put something in writing as filler, else it would just be weird.

I do see your argument though, afterall, it does state rate and discuss.
 
"leaked crystalline fresh
cascading gamelan icicles
maybe its generative
indie is not an option"

And the last one is so vague that I have no idea what it means.
:trollface:

If you reallllly want me to explain it...

First line: It's a leak. Album's due out in March ('fresh'). 'Crystalline': It's not the fake leak, it's the real one, it's solid, it's pure Autechre. Also preps you for line two.

'Gamelan icicles': pulse wave synths with lots of delay that sound like they're bouncing around are often compared to sounding like ice (high pitch = cold). This song has a lot of them.

'Maybe it's generative': The group used laptops to make this album, after a four year hiatus of just using hardware synths and machines. The fans aren't entirely sure whether it's generative sequencing (Max/MSP) or not, but it's pretty likely.

'Indie is not an option': The old adage that Autechre's music contains no melodies has been so far shoved aside now that I almost want to wag my finger at those who prefer their more mopey musical preferences (Muse, Explosions, whateverindieatthemoment) because they contain 'real' emotion. If this hadn't been released by Ae no one would have guessed it and it would probably be receiving way more attention from non-geekfans.
 
^^^Thanks for that.. that was actually pretty interesting. I understood the leak part, but everything else you had written was just completely unfamiliar, probably because I like my music with mopey pretty melodies :).

Anyways, I really have no issue with one-line posts. I just find it mind-boggling on the rare occasion that single posts get called out at random when almost every other post on the page is structured in exactly the same, non-discussing way.

Might as well review something now...

Slowdive - Richard
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/s/Richard/7oriC

I'm not into shoegaze much (never quite got the appeal of My Bloody Valentine), but I'm a little partial to Slowdive. Maybe they're more mopey :p. Slowdive is one of those bands where their name is a pretty spot-on description of what their music is like -- slowdiving into a really dense bank of clouds, except instead of clouds it's sound, and that sound is swirly and mellow and beautiful. (Yes, I realize how stupid that sounds.) I could probably close my eyes and slow dance by myself to this song, or crawl under the covers and lie there staring off into space. It just puts me in a really chilled-out mood. I'm a sucker for the sad guitar melody and the kinda-scratchy texture of the recording (the song was never released on a proper album), and the soft vocals don't hurt either.
 
Heart - Dreamboat Annie

Classic Classic rock album../ I'm kind of loving this 70's era sound..would probably like more of this..
 
Mono - Burial at Sea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FplThE3o2Z0

Absolutely beautiful. Follows the typical Mono post-rock 10-minute-long song structure, but in this song it's executed so perfectly. First half starts off pretty slow, then around 6 minutes you get a nice buildup, and then from ~8 minutes onwards it's just pure chills-down-spine loudness.

They are touring Europe (I don't know who with), and North America with The Twilight Sad opening for them. I would recommend going to this, as both bands are pretty much headline-quality bands, and having seen Mono before, they are pretty great. Will likely be seeing them in May...
 
Cage The Elephant - Ain't No Rest For The Wicked

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5kbBxv9XPo

Ahhh Borderlands. Shame theres no music in-game.

Anyway, I quite like this tune. Always gets my feet moving.

But, Ive been finding it hard to put a genre on these guys. Western..new metal? Its such a weird combination of sounds.

And what a pretty rubbish video.
 
Godspeed You Black Emperor - Moya - 10/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vRrGCVlMHk
This song is all about buildup and release of tension. So much so, that I could imagine it being something like a textbook example on tension, where you go to music class, and they teach it to you. Every single element of this song matches perfectly together: exposition-> buildup -> explosive climax -> denouement; quiet->loud->quiet; slow->fast->slow; sparse->full->sparse. There's this very cool part where they've got two lines of three note arpeggios running parallel, first both ascending, then in opposite directions simultaneously. Man, this song is just plain awesome. It's so perfect it's a little bit scary.
 
Godspeed You Black Emperor - Moya - 10/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vRrGCVlMHk
This song is all about buildup and release of tension. So much so, that I could imagine it being something like a textbook example on tension, where you go to music class, and they teach it to you. Every single element of this song matches perfectly together: exposition-> buildup -> explosive climax -> denouement; quiet->loud->quiet; slow->fast->slow; sparse->full->sparse. There's this very cool part where they've got two lines of three note arpeggios running parallel, first both ascending, then in opposite directions simultaneously. Man, this song is just plain awesome. It's so perfect it's a little bit scary.

Funny, I didn't have the EP this song is from. Thanks for reminding me :D
 
Funny, I didn't have the EP this song is from. Thanks for reminding me :D

Honestly I don't even know off the top of my head how the other song on that EP (Blaise Bailey Finnegan III) goes. I just listen to Moya and it's awesome, and then BBF3 starts off with a recording of some dude rambling about random stuff on the street. So underwhelming. It's like, man, I can go to the grocery store and listen to dudes on the street talking nonsense any day.
 
Primus - My Name is Mud

Les Claypool is a bass virtuoso. Need I say more?
 
Jack W. Stamps - Dispatches from Unnoted Stations, Book 1: MICROCHIP-ÉCLAIR

Oh my gosh. I was just thinking back on this student composer concert I went to three years ago for music class. This is literally the only memorable piece from that concert. I thought he might've posted it online, so I searched -- he did!

Imagine that you are going to a concert where you have no idea what the pieces are. You are sitting in a concert hall. You look at the program: one of the songs is inspired by shortwave radio. You think, "Pfft, they're not going to play shortwave radio." You sit through some weird modern plainchant song. You sit through some guy singing poetry in baritone. Then you get to the shortwave song. They turn off all the lights. You start to hear this. Halfway through the piece, this older guy two rows in front of you starts laughing. He never stops laughing.

Yeah..... man this song is awesome.
 
Honestly I don't even know off the top of my head how the other song on that EP (Blaise Bailey Finnegan III) goes. I just listen to Moya and it's awesome, and then BBF3 starts off with a recording of some dude rambling about random stuff on the street. So underwhelming. It's like, man, I can go to the grocery store and listen to dudes on the street talking nonsense any day.

best part of their albums i thought
 
Gustav Holst - The Planets

Not too long ago, listened to this for maybe the second time ever. I was trying to decide whether I want to go see a performance of this (I'm leaning toward no). Some interesting things about The Planets: Mars and Mercury seem to have been switched in order. There is no Pluto movement since Pluto wasn't discovered at the time (although now it's not a planet anymore so I guess Holst gets the last laugh there). There is no Earth movement (what the heck?).

My favorite parts are the two most popular -- Mars and Jupiter. Mars is pretty much a stripped down predecessor to the battle theme in Gladiator, since Hans Zimmer essentially ripped off the melody line from Mars (although people tend to refer to his blatant plagiarism as "borrowing"). Jupiter walks a weird line between awesome and frustrating. It starts off with this happy tune, then out of nowhere dives into this absolutely beautiful, majestic melody... possibly one of the most beautiful in classical music. The kind of stuff that could (and probably does) make grown men weep. And then they get to the biggest, most sweeping iteration -- the strings are swelling, the horns have fully come in -- and they're about to hit that last note, and..... IT NEVER COMES. He immediately reverts back to happy tune. And I'm sitting here like, "Noooooooooooo!" There is this brief reappearance of that melody like 10 seconds from the end, but it's so unfulfilling. Argh!

Check out this guy conducting. He seriously looks like he's about to cry during that section starting at 3:07. At one point he's not even conducting so much as making facial expressions. And then at 5:00, he makes this funny :O face except with googly eyes and it's a complete turnaround. I don't see how he can stand to go on past five minutes. I would just throw down that baton and be like "Screw it guys, the rest of this song is nothing."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B49N46I39Y

Apparently Holst took that tune and made it into some British hymn called "I Vow to Thee, My Country" so technically I can just listen to that. But I'm not British...
 
Jupiter is easily my favorite piece of classical music. Holst is amazing.
 
Metric - Gold Guns Girls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCkWTpjLvWU

I really like their style. This song is ridiculously catchy whilst, I feel, steering away from the typical mainstream crap you hear on the radio these days...well, Radio 1 anyway.

Theyve got a great electronic rock feel which can be felt from the main rift throughout the song.

This is the kind of music that puts a smile on my face when it comes on my iPod when its in shuffle.

For some reason I can see myself loving a drive whilst listening to this.
 
Just catching up on the last Pain of Salvation EP, apparently has a few tracks from their upcoming album, so it should be a decent indication of where they're going with that. Took me a few listens to get into, at first I thought it was going to be another "grower" until I realised just how similar it is to Scarsick (which was a HUGE grower for me, I really couldn't stand it at first). All in all, nothing really spectacular here, besides a pretty well done Yellow Raven (Scorpions) cover.

But seriously, one could surely be forgiven for watching this and thinking "wait did I just accidentally click a Kings of Leon video or something."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbgITz_KVY
 
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