#and genius that i am i wrote the majority of the melody at the very tippy top of my range because i wanted to do that whisper-singing thing
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So I was reading @crimetimesteadicam 's Supermassive Retinol Overdose, as you do, and upon reaching the Concert-Hole-Goemon-Winter-Soldier-Yata-do-you-want-a-snowcone scene in Chapter 3 I thought it would make an excellent movie scene. And then I thought "Wait, I can do (something like) that"
So I studied up on gauze pop, missed the point of gauze pop, wrote a gauze-y electro pop song, watched & sampled a bunch of clips of Lupin III, threw everything into a blender, aaaaand made. sort of a. soundtrack? for the chapter?
I call it "Vitamin A." Here it is.
[CW for canon-typical gunshots, unspecified loud-ish noises, lyrics about getting high, and extremely amateur mixing]
Anyway, @crimetimesteadicam , I hope this brings you half as much joy as your fic has brought me! The flier for Da Concert Hole makes me laugh every time I read it :)
[Lyrics under cut]
I need you to stay with me, baby
Little confused, the memory's fading
Can't remember if we fucked
Lube up, slip your knuckles through the handcuffs
Take me down slowly, watch the smoke rise
Serpentine as seconds swim by
Roll the papers, dodge the curveball
Tonight, we're smoking retinol
Talk me down, talk me down, talk me down
Take me out, take me out, take me out
I don't know, I don't know, I don't who
Who I am, who I am, who I am
Watch your back and trip down the staircase
Matcha swirl, laced something I can't taste
Open wide and catch the ashfall
Tonight, we're huffing retinol
[Instrumental]
"Goemon, what are you—?"
Talk me down, talk me down, talk me down
Take me out, take me out, take me out
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know
Who I am, who I am, who I am
#okay to rb#this was my first time writing lyrics and im so nervous aaaaaaaa#lupin iii#supermassive retinol overdose#pls don't try to get high off face cream idk what it'll do to you but im sure it won't be pleasant#delphi washington#anyway here's where i will ramble about production. i had to record the vocals in my car for lack of anywhere else.#and genius that i am i wrote the majority of the melody at the very tippy top of my range because i wanted to do that whisper-singing thing#yk like Glass Animals#it didnt work and i think the autotune really pushed it over into electropop therapy but ah well what can you do#it's a decent electropop song haha#NOT THERAPY. I meant 'territory'#wow im really nervous hahahaha#anyway pls resd the fic!!! it's seriously so good!!!!! if i knew anything about fic binding i would totally bind it
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OK my top 10 niche interests
I forget who all tagged me in this but I think it was @alienfuckeronmain and maybe @progmetallesbian who started this thing? Sorry it has taken me so long that I forgot who tagged me! If you see this and would like to do it too, consider yourself tagged! And feel free to send me/tag me in yours; I love knowing fun things like this about people! For “niche” here I went with “I have never or very rarely talked to someone who can keep up with me on these subjects”
1. Saturns. The cars. The perfect little 90s cars that are pretty much the only American-made early 90s sedans that you still see running on the road today. They’re such good cars. I get excited every time I see one. I am NOT a car guy but I can talk shop about Saturns exclusively.
2. Gerard Manley Hopkins-- like, yes, his poetry, for sure, I am obsessed. I may have his handwritten poetry tattooed on my body. But also his repressed gay SELF. I went through a phase of reading every biography (all two of them) written about him. I had the British Library send me the unpublished poems of the boy (Digby Dolben) who GM Hopkins had a crush on in his youth. He was largely my inspiration for writing Constant Debauchery, actually. I love his sad gay ass very much.
3. Whistle Down the Wind-- because @alienfuckeronmain and I can have hers and little-hers matching obscure Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals. I was so deeply into this musical (which never made it to Broadway btw) when I was 15 and I still know it STUPIDLY well and know the casts and everything. It’s basically Phantom of the Opera but the teenage girl is even younger and there’s SO MUCH JESUS IMAGERY and James Dean references, and there’s really bad race politics going on because it’s supposed to take place in the south but the London cast recording has so few American actors so it’s full of small children doing horrible Louisiana accents, which is amazing. The lyrics were done by Jim Steinman which is EXCELLENT because he’s the genius behind Meat Loaf’s good records and also the classic hits “Making Love out of Nothing at All,” “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” and most importantly the often forgotten amazing 80s girl group Pandora’s Box. He’s amazing because if some lyric or melody (or entire song!) he wrote didn’t get enough attention, he just REUSES IT and puts it in another project. So there are entire verses in WDTW that are just straight up lifted from Pandora’s Box’s album. I just love it all so much, it’s so bad.
4. Lar Lubovitch’s Othello-- this is the gayest ballet I’ve personally ever seen done by a major ballet company. I know there are probably gayer ones. But god do I love Iago/Othello on ANY given day, let alone when these amazing dancers are doing an incredible intense homoerotic m/m ballet pas de deus about it. I can hardly find ANY pictures or videos of it online, but the whole ballet is on Youtube (and features Yuan Yuan Tan, who is a treasure.)
5. Celia Johnson-- Maybe she’s not really obscure or anything but the level to which I think she’s the most beautiful actress and went out of my way to track down all her movies is probably unusual. I have a big problem about Sagitarrians with beautiful brown eyes.
6. I don’t know what to call this one and it’s definitely weird and appropriative, but it’s like, creepy sounding choral music? Usually some kind of Christian? and very old/traditional? Preferably with single-gendered choirs? Let’s just say the Russian Patriarchate Choir is in my top 10 most listened to artists on Spotify and I am NOT proud of it lmao.
7. The Puzzle Place-- I don’t think enough people watched this show in the 90s. It had great songs that still get stuck in my head. It was also so much about the one white guy in this friend group of POC (puppets of color) learning about privilege and sensitivity, but without him becoming the main character or the center of the show (like at all).
8. 1980s Washington DC hardcore-- If Dischord released it in the 80s, I listened to it at some point. And I especially listened to the early projects of Guy Picciotto from Fugzai. I don’t love how much I know about these white suburban boys, but I do know a lot, so there we are.
9. Early Elton John-- his first albums, BEFORE Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Maybe this isn’t niche after that movie came out last year, but I can talk about different demo recordings of songs and stuff, and when Skyline Pigeon started at the credits of The Favourite I flatlined a little.
10. Psychobiddy movies-- I do have a blog dedicated to them that I never get around to actually doing anything about. So mostly we just watch them and collect the DVDs. But if anyone wants to chat about the lesbianism in What’s the Matter with Helen? or Who Slew Auntie Roo?, I’m down!
I can’t believe I didn’t even talk about Banjo Kazooie...
#the puzzle place#psychobiddy#dischord#Celia johnson#lar lubovitch's othello#sf ballet#saturns#gm hopkins#Gerard Manley hopkins#whistle down the wind#wdtw#jim steinman
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August 16th 1766 saw the birth of Carolina Oliphant (Lady Nairne), poet and author of many Jacobite songs.
Carolina Oliphant was born into an aristocratic family at the” ‘Auld Hoose’ of Gask, Perthshire, the daughter of Laird Laurence Oliphant who with Prince Charles fought during the Jacobite uprisings, and Margret Struan. Her father gave her the name of Carolina as a tribute to Prince Charles Edward Stuart
Carolina married her second cousin Major William Murray Nairne at her family home in Gask in Perthshire. Marrying a second cousin was very common in these days especially in aristocratic families to keep the blood lines as ‘pure’ as possible. After getting married, Lady Nairne and her husband William settled in Duddingston near Edinburgh where they lived in Caroline Cottage. This particular cottage that Lady Nairne and her husband were living in was built and helped funded for by her uncle Chief of Strowan a notable Jacobite.
In her younger years, she was pretty, energetic, and had a keen fondness for dancing. Niel Gow, the famous fiddler, was a contemporary, and they no doubt crossed paths. It was at this time that she adapted popular melodies with new lyrics. The original lyrics would have been considered much too crude for society folk. These included The Laird o' Cockpen, The County Meeting, and The Pleughman.
It was upon settling in Edinburgh that she became involved in her lifelong project to preserve and foster the songs of Scotland. In those days, it was not considered proper for ladies of her place in society to dabble in what she herself called "this queer trade of song-writing". Her attempts at keeping her hobby a secret included not telling her husband, publishing her books anonymously, or under the nom-de-plume: Mrs. Bogan of Bogan. Much of her work was contributed in this form, to Robert Purdie's The Scottish Minstrel, 1821-24, in six volumes. When she went to visit him, she would wear an old, veiled cloak, in the hopes she would not be recognized.
In 1824, part due to Walter Scott's endless petitioning, Parliament restored the forfeited Jacobite peerages and Major Nairne regained the family Barony, and she and her husband became Baron and Baroness Nairne.
Baron Nairne died in 1830, and from then on, she travelled quite extensively with her invalid son, who was born in 1808, and her great niece. Her son died in Brussels in 1837, and she finally relented to her relatives' pleas to return to Scotland in 1845. Tired and sick, she came back to her home in Gask to die on October 26, 1845, at age 79. She was buried within the new chapel which had been completed only days earlier.
Two years after her death, a posthumous collection of verse, Lays of Strathearn, was prepared by her sister, but this time her name subscribed to the book. A granite cross was erected to her memory in the grounds of Gask House.
Altogether, she wrote or adapted nearly 100 songs and poems in her lifelong endeavor. Lady Carolina Nairne deserves recognition today, because not only did she help to preserve many Scottish tunes, but also, at a time when women's talents were expected to be merely domestic, she managed to do her own thing.
Her creative ability, the secret part of her life, never interfered with her position as a society lady. Lady Carolina Nairne has been sadly neglected, but to her we owe immense gratitude, for, without her, much of the Scottish musical heritage would have been lost.
Lady Nairne was an astute collector of song and wrote some of Scotland's best-known songs, yet today there are few people that are familiar with her work. It doesn't help that some of her songs and prose have have been attributed to Robert Burns, James Hogg or Walter Scott.
The late great Jean Redpath recorded an album of Lady Nairn songs, I have chose one for you to listen to, I am sure you will know it weel.
I Normally post the lyrics to the song I post but on this occasion I am posting a poem that I have used wee bits from over the years I have been doing this. Being an Edinburgh man I'm unashamedly bias in this choice.
Fareweel, Edinburgh.
Fareweel, Edinburgh, where happy we hae been,
Fareweel, Edinburgh, Caledonia's Queen!
Auld Reekie, fare-ye-weel, and Reekie New beside,
Ye're like a chieftain grim and gray, wi' a young bonny bride.
Fareweel, Edinburgh, and your trsty Volunteers,
Your Council a' sae circumspect, your Provost without peers,
Your stately College stuff'd wi' lear, your rantin' High-Schule yard;
The jib, the lick, the roguish trick, the ghaists o' th' auld toun-guard.
Fareweel, Edinburgh, your philosophic men;
Your scribes that set you a' to richts, and weidld the golden pen;
The Session-court, your thrang resort, bigwigs and lang gowns a';
And if ye dinna keep the peace, it's no for want o' law.
Farweel, Edinburgh, and a' your glittering wealth;
Your Bernard's Well, your Calton Hill, where every breeze is health;
An' spite o' a' your fresh sea-gales, should ony chance to dee,
It's no for want o' recipe, the doctor, or the fee.
Fareweel, Edinburgh, your hospitals and ha's,
The rich man's friend, the Cross lang ken'd, auld Ports, and city wa's;
The Kirks that grace their honoured place, now peacefu' as they stand,
Where'er they're found, on Scottish ground, the bulwarks of the land.
Fareweel, Edinburgh, your sons o' genius fine,
That send your name on wings o' fame beyond the burnin' line;
A name that's stood maist since the flood, and just when it's forgot,
Your bard will be forgotten too, your ain Sir Walter Scott.
Fareweel, Edinburgh, and a' your daughters fair;
Your Palace in the sheltered glen, your Castle in the air;
Your rocky brows, your grassy knowes, and eke your mountain bauld;
Were I to tell your beauties a', my take would ne'er be tauld;
Now, fareweel, Edinburgh, where happy we hae been;
Fareweel, Edinburgh, Caledonia's Queen!
Prosperity to Edinburgh wi' every risin' sun,
And blessin's be on Edinburgh till time his race has run!
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The Yardbirds - Yardbirds’ Greatest Hits
As the mid-sixties were in full-swing I was paying more and more attention to the music of the day, and rock music was winning me over. 1966 was the year I fully turned the corner and The Yardbirds’ Shapes of Things definitely was a major factor. I was aware of their other songs that had been playing on the radio. I spent a lot of time looking at records in stores when I’d be with my mom while she was shopping for other things. I rarely bought anything though. I would look at the Yardbird albums but I was weary of what the other songs were like and didn’t bite the bullet.
When Epic Records decided to do an anthology of The Yardbirds in the U.S., it gave me an opportunity to get what mostly I wanted, those songs I had been hearing and especially Shapes of Things. I can clearly remember standing in an aisle at Gemco in Palo Alto one evening. I was near the record section and there was music being played on the store system. Shapes of Things came on, and while I am not exactly sure it was the first time I ever heard it, I do remember standing there in awe. I recall thinking to myself that it was one the most amazing things I’d ever heard and I knew I would get it someday. Just not that day, or anytime too soon because I was only thinking LPs at the time and it was not on any of the Yardbirds current albums. As it turns out the Greatest Hits album was to be its’ first time on LP, and it never came out on a Yardbirds studio album, in England or the United States. Their other U.S. hits up to that time are also on the Greatest Hits album, along with other songs that will be noted later.
The original Yardbird members were Keith Relf on lead vocals and harmonica, Jim McCarty on drums, Chris Dreja on rhythm guitar and later bass, Paul Samwell-Smith on bass and also producer, and Anthony “Top” Topham on lead guitar. Topham left the same year the band formed in 1963. Following that The Yardbirds became known for having three lead guitarists that are all ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone Magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitarists list, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Beck and Page played with the band at the same time for a period of time, but little was recorded with the two of them together in the studio or live. They first received notice when they replaced The Rolling Stones as the house band at the Crawdaddy Club in the suburban town of Richmond.
The first hit record for The Yardbirds was For Your Love which was written by Graham Gouldman when he was eighteen years old. He was influenced by The Beatles to give songwriting a try. He was with a band called The Mockingbirds and they were with a record company. He had two songs that he had written and submitted to the company for use, but the one they rejected was For Your Love. The Yardbirds picked it up and it became a smash hit. This was actually the bands’ third single effort, the first two being primarily blues-based. One had failed to chart and the other, only issued as a single in England reached No. 49 on the UK Singles Chart. For Your Love, recorded in February 1965 and issued in March in the UK, and April in the U.S on Epic Records, reached No. 3 on the UK chart and No. 6 on the Billboard Top 100. This was the only hit single that Eric Clapton played on. He was a blues purist and had expressed his displeasure with this more commercial venture. For that, and other reasons as well, he suddenly quit the band the day the single was released in England. As it is, he and Chris Dreja only performed during the double-time middle break section. The rest of the piece was performed by Keith Relf, Jim McCarty and added musicians Ron Prentice on double-bass, Denny Piercy on bongos, and Brian Auger on Harpsichord.
On the heels of the hit single For Your Love, the eponymous album was an American release on Epic records in July 1965. Three of the cuts were recorded in March and April shortly after Clapton had departed and Jeff Beck had come on board. The balance of the album contained recordings from as far back as March 1964, while Clapton was the lead guitarist. It included all three singles plus their B-side tracks. Producer Giorgio Gomelsky selected all the numbers. Group chronicler Gregg Russo notes, "The cover was somewhat of a joke, as Jeff Beck was humorously seated in front of a keyboard that he did not play on the album.” Eric Clapton was not included on the cover, nor was he mentioned anywhere on the album. It was The Yardbirds first album to chart on the Billboard Top 100 at No. 96.
One of The Yardbirds most popular songs, Heart Full of Soul, which was another Graham Gouldman composition, was recorded in April 1965. Gouldman had followed his first success with the band with another demo that they immediately picked up. Music critic Richie Unterberger described Gouldman as "a genius at effectively alternating tempos and major/minor modes”. Martin Power noted that the tempo shifts and use of double-time, as in Heart Full of Soul, was a feature of Yardbirds live performances and became known as a “rave up”. This was the first hit with Jeff Beck on lead guitar, a guitarist who had more varied style influences. He experimented with guitar effects such as feedback, and the fuzz box that he used to create a sound that, as described by music writers Pete Lavezzoli, Alan di Perna, and Martin Power, introduced Indian influenced guitar style to rock music. This occurred after it was originally attempted to have an Indian sitarist play that part. The band didn’t feel it worked and Beck tried out a new fuzz box that was a prototype developed by Jimmy Page. It has been indicated by Alan di Perna that Beck's playing helped introduce "the psychedelic sub-genre known as raga rock’”, which became popular over the next two years. It was released in the U.K. in June and cresting on UK Singles at No. 2, and the U.S. in July reaching No. 9 on Billboard Top 100.
Heart Full of Soul was included on the American album Having A Rave Up (with The Yardbirds). The A-side of this album contained more studio material recorded in 1965 while the B-side had live recordings from 1964 with Eric Clapton on lead. Giorgio Gomelsky was once again the producer. I’m A Man, their third single, was recorded in September and released in November. It peaked on the Billboard Top 100 at No. 17. The B-side cut was Still I’m Sad which was part of a double-side hit with Evil Hearted You in the U.K. neither song of which was released as a single in the U.S. Still I’m Sad and the live Smokestack Lightning from the Rave Up. album are on the Greatest Hits album as well as I’m Not Talking, which was from For Your Love.
I’m A Man was written by Ellas McDaniel aka Bo Diddley and was a hit for him in 1955. The Yardbirds had recorded a live version for their first album in the U.K., and it is included on the B-side of the Rave Up album. I’m A Man as a single is definitely one of the songs that got me very excited about the band. Beck played a percussive effect on his guitar, termed “scratch-picking” by Gene Santora, which provided the double time beat and the instrumentation (“that builds to a crescendo“) climax on the studio version. I’m A Man is “perhaps the most famous Yardbirds rave-up of all” according to critic Cub Koda. Later versions of the song by bands like Chicago and The Coffis Brothers have paid great homage to that rave up style. It is also felt to be an early example of both psychedelic and hard rock styles.
The aforementioned Shapes of Things was called by Jeff Beck “the pinnacle of The Yardbirds”. It was the first recording in which he incorporated sustain, and guitar feedback which he had discovered through experimentation and began using in his playing. Producer Giorgio Gomelsky arranged for recording to be done while The Yardbirds were in the U.S. on tour at Chess Records Chicago studio in December 1965. Beck was not completely satisfied with the guitar solos he did at Chess so they did the finishing recording at Columbia studios in Hollywood in January 1966. It was simultaneously released in both countries near the end of February topping out on the UK Singles Chart at No. 3 and at No. 11 on the Billboard Top 100 on May 14. It appeared in the U.K. on a various artists collection in September ’66, while its’ first album appearance in the U.S. was Greatest Hits. The concept and development of the song is at least partially summarized by what Jim McCarty had to say. “We were really coming from not trying to create a sort of a 3-minute piece of music, it was just something that seemed natural to us. We started with the rhythm, we used a bass riff that came from a jazz record, got a groove going with that and then added a few other bits from elsewhere, other ideas that we'd had. And I think it was a great success for us, it was a good hit record that wasn't really selling out. And it was original.” With Beck’s ground-breaking techniques,, Paul Samwell Smith’s desire to use a bass line idea from jazz icon Dave Brubeck’s song Pick Up Sticks, and Keith Relf’s lyrics and melody the song for many, as Cub Koda wrote, “represents the Yardbirds' creative peak”. Relf’s lyrics were described by Beck biographer Martin Power as pro-environmental or anti-war. Jim McCarty felt that it more reflected opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Those words seem timely from an environmental point-of view, even more so today:
“Now the trees are almost green, but will they still be seen, when time and tide have been
Fall into your passing hands, please don't destroy these lands, don't make them desert sands”
They will always be timely from an anti-war perspective as well.
Over Under Sideways Down, the next hit single and was inspired by “Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets. Recorded in April 1966 in May in both in the U.K. and U.S, t peaked at No.10 and No. 13 respectively. Jeff Beck played both the guitar and bass on the record. It was the only single on the album that followed, and was backed by, the instrumental, Beck’s Boogie. That album, called The Yardbirds, was recorded in England in April and May and released on Columbia in the U.K. on May 14 It was produced by Paul Samwell-Smith and Simon Napier-Bell. It was the only album in which Jeff Beck was lead guitar on all tracks. All songs in the album were written by all five band members. It became known semi-officially as Roger the Engineer based on Chris Dreja’s cover drawing of audio engineer Roger Cameron. It was their only studio album released in the U.K. and the only one on the UK Album Chart, reaching No. 20. Meanwhile the American version of the album was titled Over Under Sideways Down. Released on Epic three days after the U.K. version, it reached No. 52 on Billboard Top 200. Two of the songs were omitted and there was slightly different placement on the record for the rest. While the album wasn’t among the best at the time, American music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that it was "the Yardbirds' best individual studio album, offering some of their very best psychedelia”.
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago was recorded following the Yardbirds/OUSD release in July, September and October, and after the departure of Paul Samwell-Smith, who became a producer on other projects. Jimmy Page had come aboard, first filling Samwell-Smith’s bass role, and then as an additional lead guitarist when Chris Dreja moved to bass. In the recording however, John Paul Jones was on bass. Happenings took a deep dive into psychedelia and this description in an AllMusic review by Matthew Greenwald sheds light on it: “Led by a dark, Middle Eastern/psychedelic guitar riff, the song is quickly transformed into a frenetic, almost psychopathic rhythm, giving the whole affair a weird and powerful atmosphere. The idea of going back and forwards into time is paramount here, and was certainly one with the overall psychedelic ambience of the time”. Released as a single in October in the U.K. and November in the U.S., it failed to rise to the level of the previous six (including Evil Hearted You/Still I’m Sad released only in the U.K.) top 20 singles. It crested at only No. 43 on UK Singles Chart and No. 30 on Billboard Top 100. Happenings Ten Years Time Ago made its’ album appearance on the Greatest Hits Album.
It wasn’t until some years later that I learned more about The Yardbirds roots in blues music. Of course the Greatest Hits album had a few blues tunes on it, including the Bo Diddley’s blues-rocker I’m a Man. Primarily though they started to become more mainstream in an attempt to be commercial. Along the way they became cutting edge in other recording and performance styles. What attracted me to their music in particular was that it had a harder edge to it than most of the songs on the air. That rave up factor I suppose. In fact, the Yardbird sound was a conduit to yet-to-come Hard Rock music. Also, they started experimenting, particularly with Jeff Beck and later Jimmy Page, with different instrumentation and techniques. Shapes of Things, and the later hit single Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, are now considered important examples of the psychedelic music that became a primary form of music in the rock scene for the next few years. Shapes of Things, says Richie Unterberger "can justifiably be classified as the first psychedelic rock classic”.
I have never seen The Yardbirds, although the opportunity to see the recent group reformed with new players by Jim McCarty and Chris Dreja (who had to drop out due to health issues) was available to me in the past few years, but I was unable to do so. Of course I have had the honor of seeing Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page in some of their other reincarnations. Guitar rock at its’ best.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yardbirds#Discography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yardbirds_discography
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-yardbirds-mn0000489303/biography
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/yardbirds-band-history/
Shapes of Things https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OjcB-D5Yy4
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MY EXPERIENCE AT EXO’RODIUM!!!
I CANT BELIEVE I GOT TO SEE MY KINGS AGAIN TT IM SO EMOTIONAL EVEN THOUGH ITS BEEN 2 DAYS SINCE THE CONCERT - EVERY TIME I THINK ABOUT IT I JUST GET ALL GIDDY AND EXCITED AGAIN :D Here is my post on my experience at exo’rdium last night (fyi I wrote this on the night when i came back at like 2am LOL) its HECKA long post.... without further ado, here is MY EXPERIENCE AT EXORDIUM ^^
EXO’RDIUM 02.11.17
TODAY WAS FKING EXO’RDIUM HK AHHHHHHHHHHHH IM SO SHOOK HOLY I CAN NOT EVEN. WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN OMFG I- I can barely wrap my head around the fact that (YET AGAIN) EXO was in the same building as me, less than 10m away, LIVING, BREATHING IN THE FLESH EXO. LIKE THEY’RE REAL. NOT JUST PIXELS ON MY LAPTOP SCREEN- I JUST CANT. I STILL CANT. okok so to start, for this EXO concert, I wasn’t able to get standing tickets like I did for EXO’LUXION (when i was lucky enough to have FRONT ROW JEAAAASUUSS), but I was HUGELY and pleasantly surprised that our seats (Block 5, Row 6) WAS ACTUALLY SO CLOSE TO THE STAGE. LIKE I COULD SEE THE ENTIRE STAGE + EXTENDED STAGE, AND IF I USED MY CAMERA TO FILM, I COULD SEE THEIR FACES. So that was a huge plus as soon as we got into the arena. When the concert started, a VCR was shown - about how EXO was the saviours of the world (when are they not tho tbvh HAHA) from danger and etc. the screaming was seriously unreal - like when every member came up on the VCR… #impressed. Then, they started the concert with MAMA and can we just- MAJOR THROWBACK TO FETUS EXO DAYS??? LIKE THIS SONG TRIGGERS SO MANY MEMORIES IM NOT EVEN OKAY RN. also can we just - can SM please release the remix version of MAMA CUZ I WOULD GET IT IN A HEARTBEAT <3 Then without giving our poor hearts a second to rest, they jumped right into mONSTER!!!! IM WAS NOT READY FOR IT AND THEY JUST THREW IT AT ME WHAT. It was amazing as expected, the choreo and everything omfg.. it was LEGIT like copy and paste… AND CAN WE TAKE A MOMENTbc JONGDAE FREAKING BLEW THAT HIGH NOTE AWAY. wait where was that high note? BLEW AWAY BY JONGDAE’S GORGEOUS VOCALS THATS WHERE.
THEN yet another throwback, they performed wolf :’) it been so long since they performed it and omg It was beautiful. The tree added with projections, and it was a remix version which meant DANCE BREAK!!!!! Seriously it was SO SO GOOD like they added projections so that it seemed like they were entering and exiting the tree behind (LOOK IDK IF THAT MAKES SENSE BUT THATS WHAT HAPPENED OK). and it was just so perfect… perfect way to bring back the song.
THEN they finally took a break and did their first ment. can i just pause for a sec and mention how much i freaking love their black blouses? like the ones with the cuts. THEY’RE GORGEOUS AND THEY WEAR THEM SO WELL TT… Kyungsoo, suho and baek all mentioned that they’re going to comeback soon so to give them lots and lots of support (YES BC EXOLS PULL THRU). Sehun and his mandarin came through as expected HAHA and it was so cute - cuz he kept saying things like “are you enjoying yourselves?” “Did you miss us?” my hubby you go! Yixing greeted us in cantonese and it was so cute XD his voice when he speaks canto is the cUTEST THING EVER. i wanna wrap him up and bring him back home.. he started talking in canto about wanting us to support his film, but then paused to think - then after like 5 seconds, gave up and spoke in mandarin instead AHAHA XINGXING YOU CUTIE OMG. SPEAKING OF YIXING THO — Originally I didn’t know if he was going to attend this concert or not, because he’s been away for filming at guangzhou for the past couple of weeks, there’s hardly been any news of him so i wasn’t sure… BUT I WAS SO FLIPPIN HAPPY WHEN I SAW HIM COME OUT. FIRST THOUGHTS: DAMN SON YOU SLAY EVERYTHING. SECOND THOUGHT: his hair was really long HAHAHAH XD STILL SLAYING THE HANDSOME GAME THO. Suho kept mentioning that coming to HK always leaves good memories for him, and mentioned the EXO daesang win during MAMA AND THE CROWD WENT WILD ;D You know how much we support y’all.
Afterwards, they performed WHITE NOISE AND I WAS SO SURPRISED BC I HAD NO IDEA THEY WERE GONNA DO THIS SONG — i made myself not watch any prior concert vids bc i wanted this to be complete surprise and HECK YEAH I WAS SURPRISED. It was a new dance and everything it was so fresh :’))) there were some body rolls here and there, and overall it was a lot more toned down than artificial love oH GOD ARTIFICIAL LOVE JUST WAIT HOLY. Middle of white noise they went to the centre hexagon and danced, but then out of nowhere WATER START POURING FROM THE TOP DOWN LIKE WHATTTTT THEN THEY STARTED DANCING IN THE POURING WATER LIKE ALL WET AND EVERYTHING X_X i was so so so happy bc sehun was always on my side of the stage so i was able to see and film him well <3 his dancing is en pointe as usual heh #proudwifey
THEN JESUS SAVE ME THEY PERFORMED THUNDER <3 <3 <3 AND SEHUN OWNED THAT STAGE LIKE IT WAS NOBODY’S BUSINESS He was on the center extended part, and damn like the stage should have been called FIRE, CUZ IT WAS LIT. Yixing and Jongin as always slayed the game too and the VOCALS FOR THIS WAS SO GREAT OMG LIKE IT WAS LIKE PERFECT :’)) also. jongin was being a huge TEASE bc he kept smirking and smiling while dancing :((( HAHA but it was lovely and made my heart thump <3
then they did playboy. rmb when playboy used to be the most sexual dance in their concert? YEAH NO JUST WATCH ARTIFICIAL LOVE HOLY i need to cleanse my eyes…. ANYWAY BEFORE THAT— this time playboy was done a bit differently, sekai wasn’t paired tgt, as pcy and osh were tgt, and kai had his own rising stage fanncaayy B) OH AND SIDE NOTE: I LOVE their laced up pants too..its very pretty and... its very tight LMAO gives me pirate vibes lol. i loved it bc the boys were all just having a TON of fun - like they came in yesterday night, and performed today thats just amazing if i compare that to the amount of energy they had today. THEY WERE LIKE HIGH OR SMTH SO CRAZY XD AND HYPER <3 but it was like a giant party so WOO!! Suho and chen went out to the farthest extended stage which meant I could see their features and OMG PRINCE SUHO ATTACKS AGAIN BC HE NEVER FAILS TO FAZE ME AT HOW BEAUTIFUL HE IS IRL. He’s like a LEGIT god descending from heaven…. <3 Chanyeol went to the hexagonal extended stage and did a solo dance there - it was beautiful :’) and YIXING was in the center extended just having a blast body rolling, pelvis thrusting JEEEEZ i need holy water.
JESUS NO ITS HERE. I CANT. IT WAS ARTIFICIAL LOVE NOW. omg i can’t even bare to talk about it I WAS SO….AHHHHH I CANT EXPLAIN OMG. i felt strange LMAO ok so right after playboy WHICH WAS ALREADY MILDY SEXY, they grabbed the canes from the side of the stage and as soon as the music came up i was like UH OH HERE IT COMES… and KAI WAS ON THE HEXAGONAL STAGE (yes im referring to him as kAI BECAUSE BABY NINI WOULD NEVER DO THAT)- AND OH JESUS IT WAS SUCH A SHOCKING MOMENT WHEN HE… UM.. GRINDED ON THE CANE?? GOSH EVEN TYPING IT MAKES ME FEEL DIRTY LMFAO I couldn’t even bring myself to film it bc i jUST CANT???? then, when switched positions, baekhyun was now where kai was, and another chorus came along which meant another grinding session (pls save me). When I watched baekhyun’s one i was ready to keep my eyes closed bc puppy baek grinding? it would destroy my image of him forever… BUT!! he was actually very reserved HAHAH XD i think it was just yixing, and kai who like 150% WENT FOR IT. ground like there was no tomorrow LMAO. so yeah long song short, KAI’S SEX APPEAL BROKE THE ROOF, and baekhyun was still a cutie BAHAHA XDD and then it was KAIXING duet dance break during artificial love with the BLINDFOLDS OMG SO SEXY HOLYY my poor heart :((
OMG AND UNFAIR!!!! I love the stage for unfair its so cute and unique, squishy kyungsoo popped out of a tv and a chair (oh i wish that were reality), just the entire performance aspect of it was top notch and so cute. After unfair, it was a short ment where exo all sat on the steps of the stage, and yixing and pcy sat on both ends holding guitars. WHICH MEANT ACOUSTIC MEDLEY TIME!!!! Yixing gave a short introduction about the medley (it was so nice to hear his voice after such a long time not hearing it) and then demo-ed the guitar by playing a little impromptu melody — reminds me of just how much of a genius zhang yixing is *heart eyes*. Chanyeol also did a quick demo and same thing goes for him.. how do they self learn things so well :((the first song that they sang in the acoustic medley was My Lady and I FLIPPED OUT BC IT WAS KYUNGSOO AND IT WAS R&B MY TWO FAV COMBOS <3 It was so nice to just sit and listen to their live vocals - and this really goes to show how much talent there is in exo. whoever disagrees should sit in one concert and just LISTEN TO THEIR FLAWLESS VOCALS. like seriously, there was no out of pitch moments (- wAIT AHHA THIS REMINDS ME OF SOMETHING FUNNY PCY DID). OKOK SO BASICALLY near the end of the medley, (I CANT RMB WHICH ACOUSTIC IT WAS RN BUT-) it was supposed to be baekhyun’s line but kyungsoo held his mic towards Chanyeol’s mouth (he was preoccupied with guitar playing) to prompt him to sing. PCY did sing baek’s line, but his voice cracked BAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH XD AND THE FUNNIEST THING WAS: HE MADE THIS REALLY CUTE SHOCKED FACE WHEN IT HAPPENED AND TOUCHED HIS THROAT THEN SHOOK HIS HEAD. NAWWWWWWW <3 adorbs… in the acoustic, they covered so many songs - CMB (WHICH JONGIN SANG BEAUTIFULLY OMG), My turn to cry, lady luck… just some i could rmb off the top of my head rn at 2:17 am HAHA.. then at the very end, yixing sang an acoustic version of Monodrama - and the lyrics were on the screen so the entire crowd sang along-it was beautiful <3 <3 <3 - at the end, yixing looked really sheepish, and grabbed the mic saying, “i’m so sorry, i sang the demo version’s lyrics so I didn’t sing the right words heh” and then pcy BEING THE MEDIATOR HE IS, was like “eyyyyy they probably didn’t even hear the difference- did you guys hear the difference???” and obvs we screamed NO!!!! and then that made xingxing look even more sheepish SO SO CUTE X) the entire thing just sounded and felt like a warm campfire get together with exo ls and exo <3 it was heartwarming and beautiful and I’m so glad that they added this segment.
and then they did lady luck again- this time not acoustic, but the dance and song version and kyungsoo. just. his voice. like. it melted the entire arena down. his projections were all so stable it sounded like the studio recorded version :’))) they danced on rising stages and everything was just so aesthetically perfect.. If i’m being completely honest, this time around, I was putting my focus deliberately more on sehun because i remember last year during exoluxion when i was front row, i could only really focus on whoever was in front of my area of the stage, which meant i missed a lot of sehun when he performed :( so i made the decision to FEED MY EYES AND HEART fully of sehun this time as last time, i was kyungsoo came to the front a lot and i kyungsoo’s vocals and dance fed me fully hehe (ohhh good times :’)) so yeah i wanted to say that kyungsoo’s vocals blew me away here because his LIVES ARE ACTUALLY PERFECT???how. haha bc his voice is made of honey chocolate <3
they performed TENDER LOVE next and I got shook all together again because THEY ALL INTERACTED WITH THE FANS THROUGH THE LIGHTSTICK :’D THEY each grabbed a lightstick and as soon as the song started baekhyun yelled “PUT YOUR HANDS UP!” :D yixing walked to the center extended stage and the next thing i knew, the STAGE WAS RISING UP LIKE A RAMP AND MY QUOTED WORDS AT THAT TIME CAUGHT ON VIDEO WAS “WOAH LOOK AT THAT STAGE” i was so surprised IT LOOKED LIKE A COMPLETE FUN HOUSE :DD All the members were just having a ton of silly fun during the song by just jumping :D during the chorus they would direct the crowd into little movements sequences we could do with the lightsticks and it was so nice bc it was like a little dance party - and they all looked so proud haha like we were all together - WE ARE ONE!! hehe Sehun came up to the farthest extended stage and danced on the stage closer to my side which was AMAZING <3 which meant that he was directing my block in the light stick moves ^^ i just thought it was super nice that they were able to interact with all of us in that way, include us all in that way it was very heartwarming <3
then LMR came up!! a lot earlier than last year’s one actually. fun and quirky as usual, BAEK’S VOCALS YES. they all danced so energetically and so hyped up, it was so so so AMAZING TO SEE THAT <3 esp sehun bc he’s usually the type that dances to the extent that is enough to show that he’s doing the moves, but this time he added so many more little side moves of his that spiced things up a lot hehe..
During One and Only, i think someone that stood out the most for me was def jongin. his vocals during the song was just something straight from all things good in the world. it was so good :’))) I’m so impressed by how much he has improved his vocal abilities over the years and is truly developing his own distinctive voice <3 OH AND the official HK exo fan club organized an event where during performance of One and Only, representatives in the crowd would hold up letters that spelt “EXO You Are My One and Only”.
omg and possibly my favorite part of the concert….. kai x sehun x lay WATER DANCE WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I am not at all exagerating when i say that every millisecond of what i saw looked like something out of a painting. IT WAS GORGEOUS AND BEAUTIFUL (how many times have i said beautiful omg). they were all so in sync, and everyone gave it their all and it shows <3 THEN CAME THE MOMENT THE WATER STARTED FILLING THE GROND AND WHERE ALL 3 OF THEM JUST DROPPED TO THE GROUND (how do they not break their knees is my question) IT WAS SO SO *fight the urge to say beauti—* BEAUTIFUL <3 I’m sorry there are no other words to describe how amazingly godlike the entire performance was.. then when the water started pouring from the top OH DAMN THAT WAS THE CLIMAX. so they danced in the water with water pouring all over their heads and bodies and THE EFFECT LOOKED SO ETHEREAL like aM I EVEN ALIVE? HAVE I GONE TO HEAVEN? BC THIS IS WHAT I THINK HEAVEN WILL LOOK LIKE TBH. 3 DANCING WATER ANGELS <3 ahHAHA so yeah and when it ended, they 3 were kneeling in the water, and jongin had to be all extra and stuff and run his hand through his hair, gazing dangerously sexily into the audience.. yep THERE GOES MY OVARIES BOOM. THANK YOU OSH, KAI AND YIXING.
AND THEN IT WAS VOCAL LINE TIME TO SHINE!!! Stronger was performed, and it was all i could ask for to have all four of them, kyungsoo, baek, chen, and suho sing this song… esp during stressful times THANK YOU <3 also the vocals were just off the charts at 200% today like they even said themselves that they’re feeling great today WHICH MAKES ME SO DAMN HAPPY :’’)))) oMG THEN THEY PLAYED THE REALLY CUTE VCR OF EXO AS NOMES (??) HAHA dancing and stuff, then they came out of the back wearing the cute af pointy hats and elf shoes XDDD CUTENESS OVERLOAD!! they sang HEAVEN as they came out and it was SO CUTE and also the way that kyungsoo wears his pointy hat, OVER HIS FOREHEAD AND TOUCHING HIS EYES IS SO DAMN SQUISHY OF HIM AHHH :3 he’s so adorable CAN I TAKE HIM HOME PLS along with the rest of exo!!!!! Then they took off their costumes to sing Girl x Friend and it was honestly so great.. xingxing was dancing and pointing out to the audience to guide them in singing the song, sehun came out again to the middle to just enjoy the stage, and kyungsoo was sining happily waving a nightstick around ^^ WAIT OMG ALMOST FORGOT — SEHUN WAS WEARING SPECS DURING THIS AHAHAH HE LOOKED SO DAMN HOT I CANNOT EVEN. SEHUN IN SPECS MAKES ME REEVALUATE MY LIFE. <3 hot hubby hehe
Then 3.5.6 WAS LITTTTTTT haha everyone was dancing and as EXPECTED!!! they did the weird “ooh ooh” sounds in between the 3.6.5 chorus lines xDD HAH now it sounds weird to listen to the studio version one cuz it doesn’t have those sounds LMAO. THEN EXO BECAME A BUNCH OF MEANIES BC THEY FINISHED THE SONG AND as soon as the lights turned up, they were like, “okay, bye! Thank you for coming!” “See you tomorrow” (BISH LIKE WE HAVE MONEY TO SEE U 2 CONSECUTIVE DAYS IN A ROW ALTHOUGH ID VERY MUCH LOVE TO), and the entire crowd AWW’ed and whined like NO! you can’t leave us like this :((( they were so mean…
BUT THEN THEY CAME OUT WEARING THOSE COPPERY COLORED JACKETS and performed TRANSFORMER like in MAMA but EVEN BETTER <3 <3 <3 I really love the part where they all come together and do the roboty like thing. i think i have a new found love for transformer OOPS x) it was so cool like the choreo too!! it was so sharp and just overall. ANNND THEN THEY DID LIGHTSABER~~~ everything was lit. DANCE WAS LIT, SONG WAS LIT, RAP WAS LIT, ALLLSO there was a special dance part near the end where everyone got ‘lightsabers’ and STARTED SWINGING THE CRAP OUT OF IT HAHAHA. and as to no surprise. MORE WATER!! haha water started pouring again (honestly I’ve lost count HAHA) they’re so obsessed with water… or they just want the wet clothes to stICK TO THEIR ABS? x_X
then they took a break and did another ment - which was good cuz i needed that break HAHAHA xD sehun, pcy, yixing and minseok went backstage first to change out of their wet clothes, while baek, suho, kai, chen, kyungsoo, stayed behind to talk. They talked about how nice it was that Jongin was muscular bc he was good at exercising which made nini really embarrassed HAHA.. then joonmyeon turned to kyungsoo and was like, “what about you?” and squishy soo didn’t say anything and just bowed. NAW ITS OK PENGUIN SOO I LIKE IT BETTER WHEN YOU DONT HAVE RIPPED MUSCLES :D Then, Baekhyun said in the ment that, “During One and Only you guys held some letters up, but I couldn’t really see them as I was dancing, what did it say again? Could you raise it again so I could read?” so the representatives in the crowd did, and Baekhyun, Chanyeol read it out. THEN HAHA WHATS FUNNY IS baekhyun then said, “oh! i see now. But you know it’s not because we don’t know how to read english, we do- its because you guys held one letter upside down so we couldn’t read” UHMM SAVAGE BAEK ???!?!!? HAHAHA BUT IT WAS SUPER FUNNY XD. Then joonmyeon pitched in and said he thought that the M and Y were going to spell MYEON, which made him suspect that “oh? maybe they’re preparing something for my birthday……?” HAHAH NEXT TIME JOONMYEON NEXT TIME WE PROMISE <3 such a cutie.
AHAH ANOTHER FUNNY PART!! Baekhyun wanted us all to be quiet for a bit bc he wanted to say something but the crowd didn’t stay quiet for long, so he kept shushing us, like “sh! sh! SHHH!” and then he started saying SH in a really fast and abrupt way, IT SOUNDED LIKE HE SWORE AND SAID SH*T XD AND EVERYONE STARTED LAUGHING HAHAHAHAH don’t think he noticed but oh well baaha cute. baek went on to say how hard they’ve been preparing for their new album, so requested for us to show it lots of love when it comes out (OF COURSE!!! ITS A GIVEN1!!)
AHH ok so those 5 went backstage to change and now pcy, sehun, yixing, minseok came out to ment. During the ment, minseok said that he felt sorry because he messed up during the lightsaber perf. He said that it wasn’t because he forgot the moves, but because the water was pouring into his shirt, and it was so cold that he momentarily forgot what he was supposed to do (poor baby… please don’t get sick any of you :\\). Then PCY started going “沒關係” which is “no problem” in cantonese and got the entire crowd to repeat over and over until minseok told us to stop HAHA :3 then sehun decided to ment next, and he told a “funny” story - which really wasnt funny at all HAHA srsly no one understood what he was trying to say HAHAH or the purpose of the story he was telling - anyway at the end when he realized that no one understood what he was saying, he said, “i’m just trying to lighten up the mood from the sorry atmosphere minseok hyung set up just now..” then PCY again did the “no problem” chant and got the entire crowd in on it again x). Then to compensate, sehun asked us to all give a collective fake laugh AHHA AT HIS FAILED JOKE XD i can’t this boy is everything. then yixing went around giving a cantonese lesson for the other 3 boys, teaching them how to say thank you, hello, my name is___ except the fact that he forgot how to say the members names in canto xD
After the ment, yixing went back and pcy x sehun x minseok did a rap song that i believe is only exclusive to the concerts? its called “같이해” which means “do it together”. THIS. SONG. WAS. FREAKING. LIT. SEHUN FREAKING OWNED THAT STAGE LIKE IT WAS HIS AND NO ONE ELSES B) HE WAS IN CENTER STAGE MOST THE TIME, AND WENT ON THE RISING RAMP WHICH WAS SUUUUPER COOL. He was so full of charisma on stage i couldn’t take my eyes off him for even a second. he demanded attention in everything he did HAHAH THATS MY BOO then this lit rap transitioned into DROP THAT when all members joined them on stage, and IT WAS AS LIT AS IT WAS LAST YEAR WOO so so nice. “we say e-x, you say o! , e-x-“ “O!” so nice *sparkling eyes* OMG ALSO CHANYEOL DID AN ELECTRIC GUITAR COVER OF GROWL AND IT WAS FREAKING COOL AF
ooooohhhh then next they did the cool little Let Out the Beast remix starting with the lightstick part. It was a bit of a shame that they did not organize this concert to have the bluetooth setting so it lost a wow factor there, but STILL THE REMIX SONG WAS GREAT AND THEY DID A DANCE REMIX IT WAS SO EFFING COOL AND OLD SCHOOL I LOVE IT SO MUCH <3
Following that, they performed Lucky, where everyone LEGIT WENT CRAZY HYPER HAHA THEY DID RANDOM DANCES AND EVERYTHING speaking of random dances, CHANYEOL DABBED LIKE AT LEAST 10 TIMES HERE JEEEAASUS and did juju on the beat hAHAHA I WAS SHOOK lmao THEN they did RUN and yixing was near the part where i was at so I had a very clear view of him going CRAZYYY like actually CRAZY!! he was doing all sorts of random running moves, and just having a ton of fun :’)) this was so impactful on me because i rmb last year, they flew in to hk really early and at the same day they had to perform so lay was really really tired that day. but to see him so hyper and energetic was so refreshing and it made me really hyped up too :’) little xing bunny jumping for joy haha
GROWL MY FAV SONG came out and everything was SO PERFECT haha this time the members freely walked around first and interacted with fans. then park chanyeol. okay so um. this boy has a problem with chronic DABBING AND JUJU-ING. he DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO STOP LITERALLY DOES NOT STOP. HE DABBED LIKE AVERAGE EVERY 5 SECONDS NOT EXAGGERATING. And then baekhyun learned from him and started to dab and juju uncontrollably too ._. not you too baek AHAH but in all honesty it was so funny to watch XD pcy did so many dabs that sehun had to almost flying kick him to get him back to his regular mind haha. THEY WERE CRAZILY HYPER today and i LOVE IT SO MUCH <3 AHAH AND THEN YIXING WAS SO CUTE CUZ during the beginning of growl when everyone walked everywhere, he walked to the furthest extended stage, but during the bridge he was supposed to get back to the middle to do the dance part. He only remembered when the music turned and had to RUN FOR HIS LIFE back to the centre aND IT WAS SO CUTE CUZ I SAW THE LOOK ON HIS FACE WHEN HE REMEMBERED XD PRICELESS.
Lucky One was next, and similarly it was free-dance and walk around which was nice and chill for them ^^ but jongdae did not give up on the dance and still did it throughout ahah #dedication. near the end, suho was the only one dancing and pcy and sehun were both doing weird af gestures behind him LOL .. and then it was time for the last ment D: I’m sad just thinking about it again….
So at the start of the ment, when pcy was talking, jongin bent over and looked really tired, which is expected since he danced with so much energy during the entirety of the concert - but he suddenly ran off stage, and no one knew what was going on- i started to get really nervous because i didn’t know what happened, if he was sick or hurting and i felt really sad :( my heart hurt. But then when it got around to about fixing’s turn to ment, jongin finally came back and all the members were like, “kai-sshi where did you disappear off to just now?” and HAHA HE SAID, “i had to go to the bathroom really urgently i was very very urgent” HAHAHAHA XD NOT WHAT ANYONE OF US WERE EXPECTING LMAO IM DECEASED XDD Then the members teased him and were like, “Kai-sshi is your stomach not feeling well (aka do u have a stomach ache/diarrhoea)?” and he immediately denied it and said, “nO! I just went to the toilet to pee hahah i was so urgent.” Then he said, “You know, after coming back from the toilet, my mood is so much more relieved” BAHAHHAHAHA “RELIEVED?!?!” IM DEAD AGAIN.. then PCY started saying, “so did you go to the toilet to … number 2?” HAHAH and jongin said, “NO! I WENT TO DO A NUMBER 1” IT WAS SO FUNNY MY ABS HURT AHAHAHA THEY WERE ARGUING ABOUT THE TOILET ON STAGE I CANT WITH THESE BOYS.. XD
Channel kept dabbing and juju-ing still, which triggered baekhyun to do the same, AND I KID YOU NOT, they DID NOT STOP DOING THAT UNTIL THE ENTIRE MENT WAS OVER FOR EVERYONE XD THESE TWO PUPS.. baekhyun’s ment consisted of him teaching us how to dab LMAO he was like “i’ll teach you the easy one (the dab), bc the other one (the juju) is more complex” LOL THANKS TEACHER BAEK. so yeah long story short, he got the entire arena to dab. yup. EVERYONE. us all dabbing only exacerbated chanyeol’s chronic dabbing syndrome and he continued to do it, with baekhyun responding to him every single time. #CHANBAEK OTP FTW. throughout all the dabbing sehun was just judging and like “ai these hinges…” but then eventually he caved and also did dabs AHHAHA, yixing, chen were laughing so hard. the thing is, suho is trying to give his ment properly, and there you have chanyeol on one end, baekhyun on the other DABBING TOWARDS EACH OTHER OK LIKE THESE BOYS ARE NOT OK. WHAT DID THEY EAT BEFORE COMING OUT HERE?? Eventually suho gave up AHAH and dabbed too (…….) WHAT IS WITH ALL THIS DABBING….?!!??! also . baekhyun couldn’t help it and decided to teach us the juju too so. LMAO. AND THEN BAEK SAID, “the dab move i taught you! when we sing Angel for the last song, I want you to dab throughout the song!” THIS IS HOW OBSESSED THEY ARE OK. IM BEING HONEST, PCY AND BAEK added tgt for the entire concert prob dabbed and juju-ed like 50 times each . NOT. AN EXAGGERATION. Haha so yeah, fun times..
During Angel, fans threw stuff toys and animal hats on stage, and exo went around playing with them. Baekhyun found a pikachiu hat and chanyeol found a stuffed pokeball = chanyeol smashing the pokeball at poor baekhyun who ended up rolling on the stage xD. Sehun found a dinosaur hat and a snake that he wrapped around his neck (how exotic LOL), then he found a small stuffed white puppy that looked like Vivi. and he carried it all the way back to the stage where he said in chinese, “Vivi says, ‘see you tomorrow!’” (CAN HE GET ANY CUTER???). AND THEN omg the sweetest part was how yixing liteally went to every corner and crevice of the stage to bow and say goodbye and thankyou to the fans :’(((( IM CRYING HE’S LITERALLY THE SWEETEST BUNNY TT he was the last to return to the back part of the stage where baekhyun said they wanted to take a photo with all of us dabbing in the background (LMAO). it was so sad to see them all disappear behind the closing screens, how did time pass so quickly? it felt like we just came in to sit down..
it was an INSANE night. SO MUCH HYPE, SO LIT, SO FUN AND TRUELY showed the talents and nature of exo :’) they really had so much fun and as an EXO-L that is all I can ask for. Im so glad that they were able to get a nights rest before the concert this time unlike last year, because they were so much more awake and aware of the concert. they were all so into it and so CRAZY HYPER HAHA. Interestingly, baekhyun, suho both talked about how this Exo’rdium in HK was the VERY FIRST concert they held in the new year of 2017. WHICH WAS SUCH A HUGE THING!! they were all so energetic and excited about the concert that they asked for everyone in the crowd to dab while they took a group photo with us in the background - I AM OFFICIALLY SIGNING OFF. THEY ASKED US TO DAB FOR A PHOTO IM DONE. LMAO IM DOOONNEEE
So yeah…. that was a LONG ASS POST but it was worth staying up to 4am to write about <3 the best part was that when we looked at the time it was 10:32pm. we started at 7pm SHARP. which meant this concert went on for 3 and a half hours. 3 AND A HALF HOURS. THATS AMAZING AND GENEROUSLY LONG <3 This beautiful memory will stay with me forever and motivate me to do well in upcoming mocks and exams ^^ EXO SARANGHAJA!!!!! <3 WOOOOOO
#exordiumhk#exordium hong kong#exordium hk day 1#exo#021117#just rereading it and rewatching the videos makes me so emotional all over again#until next time that i see you my babies#<3
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ive got so much to say about rapline yall!!! 11!
ok. namjoon, yoongi and hoseok, THAT holy trinity. they aren’t just blatant idols AS YOU CAN SEE. they’ve been in this together way earlier than the others and they know each other better than anyone. even before debut, the three of them poured deep passion towards music into their hearts and created music at a young age. ups and downs, they trampled over them together, not letting anyone fall behind for the sake of their promise of being successful together. aren’t they amazing? they deserve the whole world and universe tbh. composing and writing lyrics, making melodies out of their pure dedication, everything original, this talent is sick. it’s insane. god took precious time and sent earth these three talented boys. bless these boys for continuously improving without fail, always looking at their flaws and accepting them as they are. seeing how much these three put into just one song, it’s more than a view from the top of the world. namjoon likes to produce music according to his mood, and yes he has mood swings. that is why his genre is diverse and has a range of different vibes in them. his lyrics are all philosophical in anyway possible, the amount of metaphors he could come out with will probably get all the poets shook. namjoon is so young but his mind probably lived more than a century or more to have these train of thoughts. yoongi, my boy. oh my. yoongi’s a genius. not being an elitist but im not exaggerating. he wanted to be an engineer when he was very much younger. he liked legos and building things. but ever since he went to skunk’s concert, he developed a passion for music. and that was when everything started, he wrote music and composed some songs. he loves to rap after seeing a few rappers perform on stage as well. but there’s a turn in his growing dream. his parents were an obstruction, unfortunately. but he conquered and battled his way out and away from daegu, his fucking hometown and came all the way without any money and food, to seoul for music. CAN YOU BELIEVE??? one more thing. he got casted into bighit and bang pd actually conned him to do dance and choreography instead of just making rap music for the company. he confessed that he got kinda upset with bangpd but then he introduced him to namjoon and everything went well and- im so overwhelmed when i heard this information i broke into tears right away. i love him for being him and i just am so in love with his way of explaining things and talking about music goddamn i love every inch and dot of min yoongi. ok hoseok. The King. his major is obviously dancing. literally a body made for any rhythm. originally hoseok wanted to just dance and sing i believe. he didn’t aim to become a rapper. but bighit wanted him to be and so he DID. when i first heard bts’ songs i was like “wait who’s this? his rap is so different and versatile. oh my god??” it isn’t anything like namjoon’s or yoongi’s rapgenre-wise. hoseok recently named this type of flow called the trap. its a rather slow and upbeat rap style, the ones where fans could chant along. from someone who doesn’t do rap from the bottom, i’m fucking impressed. like hella talented. salute. hoseok is a wonder as well. to conclude, this trio was brought together by fate and i gotta thank fate for doing the most. BLESS RAPLINE I APPRECIATE YOU GUYS SO MUCH. Amen.
a tracklist suggestion for this post : cypher pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4.
#방탄소년단#bts#김남준#민윤기#정호석#namjoon#yoongi#hoseok#bts rapline are legends#all hail rapline#im in too deep
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Shailendra’s Teesri Kasam: Sapne Jagaa Ke Tune Kaahe Ko De Di Judaai
August 30, 2019 | By Ratnottama Sengupta
Teesri Kasam was made in another age and time. But more than 50 years after it briefly lit up the screen before it was yanked off the majestic Apsara Cinema of Bombay, “the finest human document written on celluloid”— as one viewer describes it— continues to live in the heart of every single viewer. Ratnottama Sengupta pays a tribute to the man behind this ‘love-lyric on celluloid’ – Kaviraj Shailendra, with some untold stories about the making of the classic.
Was it 1966 or 1967? Radio was big then. There was no television, so cinema lived in the lives of us pre-teenagers only through the songs. There was this kid who was boasting to his friend— both about ten years old— that his father had bought a new car. This had raised the social status of his family, a fact both the kids were aware of even at that juvenile age. Just then, Mukesh’s voice rang out, Na haathi hai, na ghoda hai, wahaan paidal hi jana hai… Sajan re jhootth mat bolo…” As if on cue, the second child responded, “Heard that? We will all have to go to God on foot. So what good is your father’s car?”
Song link Sajan re jhooth mat bolo (Shankar-Jaikishan/ Shailendra/ Mukesh)
That was the impact of the enchanting combination of Shailendra’s words, Mukesh’s voice, and Shankar-Jaikishan’s melody. And the song got further etched in my consciousness once I saw the film – albeit long after its release in 1967. By then it had got the National Award for the Best Film of 1966. Shailendra had passed away. Waheeda Rehman was a major star for me after Guide. I had come to revere Subrato Mitra as a hero who had made Pather Panchali – in fact the Apu Trilogy – a lesson in cinematography. Phanishwar Nath Renu had come to our house in Malad, to discuss Maila Aanchalwith my father – Nabendu Ghosh – and I had learnt that Baba was a screenplay writer who was soon turning director with that novel. And what is screenplay? “It is direction on paper,” my mother Kanaklata had simply explained.
Got the hang of it? Teesri Kasamwas made in another age and time. But more than 50 years after it briefly lit up the screen before it was yanked off the majestic Apsara Cinema of Bombay, “the finest human document written on celluloid”— as one viewer describes it— continues to live in the heart of every single viewer. Yes, Raj Kapoor was somewhat flabby, and looked too sophisticated as a gaadiwaan. Yes, the film could have been edited more tightly. Yes, it was rooted in a region that was far, far away from the world of Sangam and Guide, Mamta and Teesri Manzil – the megahits of that time – so the average viewer had to recalibrate his sensitivity in order to relate to a Nautanki dancer in rural Bihar who leaves her company rather than crush the love of a naïve bullock cart driver who worships her as a goddess. Love stories such as Hiraman and Hirabai’s are the stuff of folklore.
song link Laali laali doliya mein (Shankar-Jaikishan/ Shailendra/ Asha Bhosle)
But let me today unfold the other loves that went into the making of Teesri Kasam. And, no two ways about it, I must begin with Shailendra. For, even today, people believe that the lyricist who was anointed Kaviraj by The Raj Kapoor died heartbroken because of the commercial failure of the film which was his first production and his last ‘child’, carrying forward his name in the world of moving images. The truth, his son asserts, is a long way away: “Shailendra was commanding a princely sum for writing songs like Wahaan kaun hai tera. So he would have certainly recovered his financial investment. He was shattered by the shards of his dream!”
Shailendra met Basu Bhattacharya, in all probability, during the making of Parakh. Bimal Roy was an icon for whom he had already written unforgettable songs for Do Bigha Zameen, Madhumati and Yahudi, which anointed him the Best Lyricist at the 6th Filmfare Awards. And Basu was a regular visitor to his house, along with the director’s daughter he would soon marry. Basu Bhattacharya had a striking ability to cast a spell when he spoke: every one from Shailendra to Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna to Sharmila Tagore, Sanjeev Kumar to Rekha— why, even Indira Gandhi!— was to come under his spell.
But, and perhaps more importantly, Shailendra was in love with the rustic simplicity of the two personas, Hiraman and Hirabai, who called each other Meeta. It was a love story rooted in the soil of Bihar, the land of his ancestors who had travelled all the way from Ara district to Rawalpindi where Shailendra was born, and then moved to Mathura. The song writer made up his mind to produce it, perhaps also because the short story had every possibility of becoming a musical masterpiece. Basu Da was to direct it; Mehmood was to be the gaadiwaan, and Nutan the dancer.
Song link Chalat musafir moh liyo re (Shankar-Jaikishan/ Shailendra/ Manna Dey)
The first roadblock came from the actress who had played Sujata. She was pregnant with Mohnish, and refused to shoot any film at that point. Waheeda Rehman was a natural choice, being a dancer and also having acted for Satyajit Ray’s Abhijaan. Subrata Mitra was already on board, remember? Even today we cannot imagine a better Hirabai. Just think Paan khaaye saiyyan hamaro, Laali laali doliya mein, or watch the Mahua ghatwarin sequence!
Song link Paan khaaye saiyyan hamaro (Shankar-Jaikishan/ Shailendra/ Asha Bhosle)
For the sake of realism, actors were picked up from theatre groups. And umpteen other roles were to be enacted by his own family of friends and mates. What a chest of delights the credit titles are! Nabendu Ghosh, who transcripted the short story into ‘a love-lyric on celluloid’ played a drunkard who gets beaten up by Hiraman for suggesting that he pimp on his behalf for the “nautanki ki bai”.
There was Kesto Mukherjee who would later get typed in the role of an alcoholic. It marked the debut of A K Hangal on screen. Iftekhar stepped into the role of the zamindar when a theatre actor from Bihar failed to deliver a single line. Dulari got under the skin of Hiraman’s bhaujai. Pacchi, who had produced Jaali Note in 1960 (directed by Shakti Samanta), was then directing Around the World(1966) pairing Raj Kapoor with Rajshri. And there was the Producer himself, playing a villager, who tries to peep in on the romantic couple when Hiraman and Hirabai are sitting in the open, eating curds and rice. Shailendra runs away when Raj Kapoor chases him. It was a fun role that got deleted in the final cut.
However I am more surprised to see that the credit titles attribute the lyrics to ‘Shailendra-Hasrat’. Why did the man who wrote O Sajna barkha bahar aayi, Yeh mera deewanapan hai, Mera joota hai Japani, among hundreds of other unforgettables, share the songs of his own film with a peer who one expects to be seen as a rival? My reading: The producer was perfecting the mood of the scene since Hasrat Jaipuri had penned the number, Maare gaye gulfaam. There’s another reason, says Dinesh. “Shailendra wanted the team of Shankar-Jaikishan, Hasrat Jaipuri and Shailendra to be together. That is why he shared the credit for lyrics with a peer.”
Song link Maare gaye gulfam (Shankar-Jaikishan/ Hasrat Jaipuri/ Lata Mangeshkar)
So, the unit was one big family of friends in an era of celluloid camaraderie. But that was to take its toll on the producer in terms of both, production cost and emotional turbulence. The first day Shailendra took Basu to meet Raj Kapoor, he hugged the lyricist of Awara hoon and said, “You’ve discovered a genius.” However, after the first day’s shoot, he took Kaviraj aside to say, “You are screwed. This gentleman is a novice in cinema.” This, by some accounts, was not off the mark as Basu had not graduated to be one of Roy’s trusted lieutenants. Later, “Subrata Mitra’s outbursts during the shooting would bear him out,” says Dinesh Shankar, the youngest son of Shailendra.
“The cinematographer, whom Kodak would send their newly developed raw stock for his approval, had startled Mumbai technicians by putting white paper on the walls to obtain ‘bounce light’. He was a very important person all through,” he adds, “as Basu Chatterjee, who was the chief assistant, left even his job as a cartoonist to pursue his own interest in direction. BR Ishara proved to be the only qualified man to shoot a film.” He is said to have written some of the dialogues too. Thus started the journey of a man (BR Ishara) who rose from being a Tea Boy serving on the sets to be a director who, at one point of time, was completing a film virtually every other month – including watershed titles like Chetana – and presenting talents like Rehana Sultan, Anil Dhawan, and Parveen Babi among others.
Another casualty of investing in friends was that a large chunk of the film was shot in Bina in Madhya Pradesh. I know for sure that the riveting last scene, where Hiraman glances back, to see Hirabai’s train recede into the horizon was shot in Borivali, close to Malad in Bombay, and no one can fault it for not being in Bihar. Much else could have easily been shot in some rural pocket outlying Bombay. Yet, the entire bullock cart journey was taken to a far-flung location, only to help the Production Controller Santosh— Shailendra’s wife’s brother— court a lady, later recognised as Nandita Thakur. Their romance had a happy ending when they got married. But in the process, the shooting of the entire film became a picnic for everyone, at the producer’s cost. So much so, that they would shoot during the day, and at night they would go hunting!
One funny incident happened when Pachhi shot what he thought was a Neelgai – and it turned out to be a buffalo owned by the village Pradhan. As a result, the group of shooters were taken into custody and Shailendra had to pay a fine. But at the Police Station they were royally treated by the constables who stood at attention, with folded hands, before the ‘hunters’ as it included Raj Kapoor too! Funny? Yes, but would you like to know the cost of the entertainment? When all the arrangements were made for the outdoor shoot, the Distributor said he had no money to finance the film that was in the making from 1961 till 1966. Further, the leading lady could not be expected to join in until she was paid.
Naturally, the producer was dejected. Seeing his downcast chehra his wife asked him, “What’s the matter?” Once he confided in her, she opened her cupboard, took out her saris one by one, and shook them. As she did so, currency notes started falling on the floor like leaves in autumn. And by the time she touched the bottom of her pile of saris, Shailendra had enough to see him through the shoot – “and more,” Dinesh laughed as he narrated the incident during a screening at Nandan, in March 2016. It had marked the 50th year of Teesri Kasam; of Shailendra’s passing, and had also set off the Nabendu Ghosh Centenary Celebrations.
Song link Haaye gajab kahin taara toota (Shankar-Jaikishan/ Shailendra/ Asha Bhosle)
For those interested in saris, here’s a bit more. Mrs Shailendra, like you and I, was fond of saris and every now and then she would buy what caught her eye. But, instead of taking them home, she would give them for stitching falls and then drop it at the laundry. When the poet husband noticed his wife in a sari he had never seen before, he’d ask her if it was new. She’d point to the laundry tag and say, “This is what happens if one is married to a poet. He doesn’t even notice his wife is wearing only old saris!” What’s more, every day after he came home, the smart lady would siphon off the ‘small change’ he carried in his pocket and stow away the notes in the folds of her ‘fresh from the laundry’ drapes. That’s why she could rise to his assistance when he was let down by his investment in people.
The song book of Teesri Kasam— one of my prized possessions from my school days— opens a can of memories. I had not recognised Baba when I first saw the classic: A beggarly fella who’s beaten up not once but twice by the hero! Not surprisingly, an aunt of his had advised my mother, “Bouma (bahu), don’t you go to watch this movie. Mukul (Nabendu’s pet name) has got such a thrashing from that no-good gaadiwaan!”
My brother Subhankar, director of Woh Chhokri and of the teleserial Yugantar, adds another anecdote. “One night, Shailendra came to Baba accompanied by Renu. ‘Dada, I will trash what I have shot but I will not change the ending just because Raj Saab wants me to,’ he told Nabendu Da. ‘But why would he want that?’ Baba asked. ‘So that the film has a happy ending with Hiraman and Hirabai becoming man and wife. But that would kill the story!’ Renu joined in, ‘Dada you must explain this to Rajji.’ At midnight, they set out to meet the star who told the screenwriter, ‘You have the pen in your hand, you must change the ending.’ Nabendu Da said, ‘Certainly the ending can be changed but before that you must change the Title of the film.’ ‘Why?’ Raj Kapoor was startled. ‘Because, if they marry and settle down, why would he take the third vow and promise that – like smuggled goods and bamboo poles – he will never ferry a dancer in his cart?’ That settled it and— like Bandini— it went on to play out its inevitable resolution, flowing unabated like a river.
Song link Aa aa bhi ja (Shankar-Jaikishan/ Shailendra/ Lata Mangeshkar)
More than half a century ago, when Shailendra screened the completed film for his friends, he meticulously noted down the comments of all those present. While Trade Guide had ranked it as ‘Average’ and Bunny Ruben had written ‘Press report excellent but audience conflicting’, Hrishikesh Mukherjee had predicted, ‘Award film.’
Teesri Kasam remains one of the gems in the filmography of actor Raj Kapoor. The showman knew the potential of the character and had therefore bulldozed his way into the role that had not an iota of glamour about it. But, in return, he did not come forward to give financial tips when his trusted Kaviraj was in deep waters. The optimist that he was, Shailendra had jotted down in his diary, ‘It will be a hit.’ But he was shattered when, though he was too unwell to step out and his entire family was suffering in silence, his dream film was premiered in Delhi with celebrations in full swing.
Song link Sajanva bairi ho gaye hamaar (Shankar-Jaikishan/ Shailendra/ Mukesh)
Some listeners have pointed out that sifting through the songs he penned between 1961 and 1966 gives an insight into his dejection. Sample this: Dost dost na raha… Zindagi hamein tera aitbar na raha in Sangam. When friends offer ‘reasons’ for staying away, he says, Sajan re jhootth mat bolo, Khuda ke paas jaana hai. He questions himself, Tune toh sabko raah bataayi, Tu apni manzil kyoon bhoola (Guide). He concludes: Rula ke gaya sapna mera (Jewel Thief).
“Mukesh was the only one of his many ‘friends’ who had rushed to Northcote Nursing Home on December 14, 1966 when he heard Shailendra’s condition is worsening,” recounts Dinesh. Mukesh alone was let in, while Shailendra’s wife and children stood in the corridor outside the room and the hospital staff kept rushing in and out of the room. Alone, the Voice of Raj Kapoor watched the AwaraPoet give up his battle for life. Two days later, the creditors procured a court order and attached every piece of furniture in Rimjhim, the bungalow in Khar, that had been mortgaged to complete his Teesri Kasam.
But the story has a silver lining. Mukesh came forward to inform Mrs Shailendra that he had paid off the mortgage amount and the bungalow was free again. ”It’s not a favour,” he assured her. For, his company, Mukesh and Sons had acquired the distribution rights of Teesri Kasam for Bombay. That was Mukesh – not only a balmy voice but a friend indeed. The company ensured the film’s release in late 1967, but only for a week, as the theatre was pre-booked for Duniya.
Was it poetic justice that viewers of this film came out singing Hiraman’s lines –
Duniya bananewale, kya tere mann mein samaayi!
Kaahe ko ‘Duniya’ banaayi…?
Song link Duniya banane waale (Shankar-Jaikishan/ Hasrat Jaipuri/ Mukesh)
(The views expressed by the author are personal.)
Courtesy : https://learningandcreativity.com/silhouette/shailendra-teesri-kasam/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork&fbclid=IwAR1D5vibOMN2I2XzA9DR2kYCVeW-8TwMNdP0Gw7f_OnCPtsqtvN1Kob6uMc
#Teesri Kasam#Shailendra and shankar jaikishan#shankar jaikishan with shailendra#shailendra#hasrat jaipuri#mukesh
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The 405 meets SASAMI: "More than diary entries, a lot of the songs are lovers saying the lyrics to the other person."
Sasami Ashworth - SASAMI - is a Los Angeles native, and has become a crucial cog in the city's music scene since her return there after finishing studying classical French Horn in New York city; playing synths in Cherry Glazerr, contributing to albums by Wild Nothing, Curtis Harding and Avi Buffalo, to name a few. It shouldn't have come as a surprise then to discover the further talents of the young artist when speaking to her; writing, directing, editing, arranging - probably more - are all well within her grasp, and she seems to have a preternatural necessity to express herself through various media.
However - and crucially - SASAMI is humble, a word she used several times in our conversation, and a clear trait that she values above most others. She is still rightfully and resonantly confident, but doesn't use that status to exert dominance, but instead to make you feel comfortable and interesting. It's no wonder that during our chat she described herself as "fucking wholesome," and having a preference for being around beta-male energy.
We met on an unnaturally sunny day in London in February, for an enlivening chat shared over a Japanese breakfast (of course we noted the musical connection), all about her debut album SASAMI, which is out today via Domino.
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You've been part of releases for other acts for a long time, but when it came to releasing your own material was it a tough decision to go with your own name, rather than an artist name?
I think SASAMI all caps, stylised that way, is how I want to put out songs. I've put out music under my name for compositions, but I feel like SASAMI is the name of the "song"/"band" outlet of music, and if I compose or something it might be under Sasami Ashworth.
Have you done a lot of composition recently, even amidst all the album stuff?
Recently I did a podcast theme song and closing song, for 99% Invisible; it's a designer/architecture podcast.
You started writing the songs two years ago, what was the process from that point?
I started writing the songs when I was touring with Cherry Glazerr, so every couple of months I would go home to LA in between tours and I would record one song, and then two months later record one song, and then three months later record two songs, so it happened really intermittently. It wasn't that it took a lot of studio time, it was just spread out so much.
Is that how you end up with so many different people playing on each track?
Yeah, exactly, because different people would be in town, and I wanted to experiment with playing with different drummers or whatever.
It's nice to be able to call on all these people. But Joo Joo was the producer, he's your brother?
Yeah, he's my brother. I'm the oldest of four, he's the youngest. He has a band called Froth that are on Wichita. I went to school in New York for classical music for French Horn, and when I left he wasn't even playing music at all, but when I came back he was like "I live in Echo Park and I'm in a band now," and I'm like "what the fuck are you talking about?!" But he's like a genius, he's really really talented.
Do you have a good working relationship?
Yeah, he's my youngest brother, so I could just bribe him with pizza and beer to get him out of the house.
Does either of you boss the other around?
He's pretty humble in the studio. I wrote all the parts, he played them; he's a really good guitar player. I would write something that was kinda hard for me, because I was playing synths full time in Cherry Glazerr, so I wasn't spending a lot of time playing guitar. But when I write I don't really write to the guitar parts, I write the guitar parts to the chords and melodies I hear, so sometimes the chords are kinda hard to play. But because we're recording to tape you can't record a bunch and playlist it and copy and paste it, you have to do a good take all the way through, so I just kind of figured it would be easier to just have my brother play it, because he's just better at guitar than I am, and that would be faster instead of me having to do it 10 times.
And how about the actual production itself? Because the production is impeccable, when I listen to it I hear sounds coming from all over the place.
Yeah there's a lot of panning and stuff. Thomas [Dolan] who engineered the record and I and my brother were all obsessed with the Beatles-y production. Thomas is really obsessed with the 70s production on the drum sound, my brother's really into 90s guitars, and that's kind the sound world that I wanted on the record, so they were the obvious choice to have them work on the record with me.
Was it easy to explain to them what you wanted?
Yeah, they were super humble about doing whatever. They both have kinda beta-male energy; I don't like to work with alpha males, I like very calm energy. Like, they were almost too slow-paced for me, but it's good for me to slow down sometimes.
You've said it's not a concept album, but it could be said that it's a break-up album, as the majority of the songs deal with that.
But they're all about different people, and also half the songs are about platonic relationships that were not doing well. I think that the record's probably about five different people, it's not all about one person.
I feel like there's two parts of song writing; there's the emotional output of writing the song, and then there's the crafting of the arrangement and the production. I feel like the song writing part was very therapeutic for me, because I was singing about whatever I was feeling in the moment, and then the crafting of the song I was doing in the van on my iPad a lot. I just was writing because I needed to; I was feeling all emotional and I just started writing.
You don't feel awkward or vulnerable putting these out?
No, I'm staying at someone's house who half the songs are about at the moment. And we're still friends - it's not romantic at all.
The album starts with 'I Was A Window', which is quite a demure track, did you always know it would be first?
No! When I was making the record, I was recording songs really intermittently for a year, and I didn't even know I was making a record. I was just recording songs, and maybe about 6 songs in I was like "OK this is going to be an album." But that one I recorded later in the scheme of all the songs, but I just like how it starts, the sound of the guitars.
I think it's a good intro, even though it's relatively subdued, it kind of introduces you as the narrator of the record.
Yeah, for sure. I use the words "you" and "I" in the album's lyrics a lot because the songs are kind of like lovers in that way. More than diary entries, a lot of them are lovers saying the lyrics to the other person.
Interesting. And that track features Dustin Payseur [Beach Fossils]; with all the collaborations on the record was it a matter of just who happened to be around the studio?
No, it was planned. Like with Devendra and Soko I had them come in. I think the voice is kind of an instrument, and I had different friends come in to play instruments, so it made sense to have friends come in and sing.
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Devendra's feature on 'Free' is so perfect for that song.
He has such a great low voice, and he's singing down an octave from me. I already have a pretty low voice, and I needed someone that could sing down the octave.
Did you direct him on what you wanted?
Yeah. It's actually interesting because I've known Devendra's music for a super long time, but he was so humble in the studio. He just came in and was like "whatever you want, I'll do it." It was just a very pleasant experience.
And the result is devastating.
Yeah, but that's the thing, like I said there's the emotional part in writing but then there's the craftsmanship part of putting the arrangement together, getting all the tones right, having all the right voices on it - and that's so much less emotional. I do vocal takes super fast, because I sing really in pitch so it doesn't take me a long time, so they probably only take about an hour, but all the other parts take 50 hours, so you spend so much more time doing the non-lyric parts, and you don't really think about the lyrics as much when you're making the song.
When you're writing the guitar parts do you think about making the tone similar to the emotion?
I think it's a mixture of the tone of the guitars and also the voicing of the chord itself. But, when I'm writing the songs I'm generally writing the lyrics as well; I'm not the kind of person who makes the song and then tries to make the lyrics fit in it. I kind of improvise the lyrics on the spot and then usually I end up keeping them, because I feel like when you improvise music and words your mouth develops the words naturally. It's super weird to put lyrics afterwards to me, because it doesn't have the same cadence. Writing a song is like writing a poem, so it's kinda weird to assume that you would pick the pentameter or whatever and then have to put the words to it later.
But a lot of people do it that way.
Yeah a lot of people do it that way, especially with pop writing. And at the end of the day it's whatever it sounds like at the end is the only thing that matters, because that's the only thing that people hear. But for me, because the process of writing was so personal, I wanted it to be a more holistic process. But this record to me is such a guitar record, because I got obsessed with guitar-heavy bands like My Bloody Valentine and Stereolab right before I made it.
Especially coming out of playing synths in Cherry Glazerr.
Yeah, because I was playing synths so much in Cherry Glazerr, I needed to play guitar, I needed to write on guitar.
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Does LA have a big influence on your music?
Definitely being from LA and making the record there and being able to have a lot of different musicians in LA, it gave me access to having friends and awesome studio people on the record. So in a very technical way it was very influential.
But then 'At Hollywood' on the album is not a very great advertisement for LA.
[Laughs] That song is really sarcastic, because at that point in making the album I had been on tour with Cherry Glazerr for two years already, and LA was changing a lot; people were moving, the rent was going up a lot. So maybe I was having a cynical relationship with the city, But also the lyrics are kind of nonsense. If I didn't write a song on tour, then I wrote it at 3am before the studio day, procrastinating from finishing the next song. 'At Hollywood' was one of those songs; I think I was supposed to go in to mix 'Jealousy', but instead of mixing 'Jealousy' I was having pre-postpartum depression of finishing the songs, I was like "actually I wrote this song last night, can I try recording it?" Which we did over and over again until I had like 13 songs and I was like "OK I should stop now."
Any plans for the songs that didn't make the record?
I think they'll be released at some point this year. Maybe on a special edition of the album.
It's interesting that you referred to it as "postpartum depression," do you see the songs like children?
I kinda meant the mixing process; I probably like it more than most musicians. I feel like playing in an orchestra for so long really prepared me for producing and mixing, because when you're in an orchestra, no matter how good you are at your instrument, you're really humbled to the arrangement of the song. The same thing with mixing, you can't be too precious about the parts, it's really about how they fit into the betterment of the whole song. So I really like the mixing process, but it's scary because it's the last thing that you do before the song's done. It's easy to be nervous about finishing a mix because it doesn't matter how good that guitar tone is if it's in the same frequency as the vocal part then they cancel each other out, so the drama of a part can be met by another part overtaking it. So it can be super nerve-wracking and it's hard to know when a song is done.
Let's talk about 'Jealousy', which sounds slightly different to the rest of the tracks. Was it a different process?
'Morning Comes' is the first song I wrote, and 'Jealousy' is the second. I actually plagiarised a poem I had written. Those were the first songs I had ever written, so when I first started those 2 songs, I made up some of the lyrics on the spot but I also stole some words from a poem I had written a little earlier. So the lyrics are kind of more whimsical and poetic and less straightforward than a lot of the other songs, which are literally like "you made me sad."
That's kinda funny too, because 'Jealousy' was a hook that I had written to that melody, kind of expecting to replace it with different lyrics. I tried it with different words but... that happens to me a lot where I'll write something and then I'll try to change the words and I'll always end up keeping the original words because it fits around the rhythms the best.
Are you a jealous person?
No, I'm totally not! I'm really really not a jealous person. That's super triggering to me when people are competitive and jealous. I'm a cancer, which is a very sensitive paternal sign.
So is the song written to disparage jealous people?
A little bit. 'Morning Comes' and 'Jealousy' were both written when I was newly single and about to go on tour forever, and I was just like "jealous people suck, being single and free is the best forever!" When we started doing well people would get jealous about it. You have to work hard to get where you want, but it's also so toxic and useless to be jealous of other people for glowing up, for finding their flow. It was at a time that I was learning that you can't make everyone happy. Also Clem and Taber, who I played in Cherry Glazerr, are super free and confident people, and I think I learned a lot from being in a band with them.
Cool. We have to mention the video for 'Jealousy', which looked like a lot of fun. That was your concept?
The 'Jealousy' and 'Not The Time' videos, I wrote and directed those, and then 'Free' I kinda wrote it and someone else directed it.
The idea of 'Jealousy' video is about the seven deadly sins?
No, not at all, it was not even that literal. It kind of reflected in that a little bit. But I had just made the 'Not The Time' video, which is super wholesome and has a bunch of kids in it, it's very supportive, positive video. So I wanted to make something that was super gruesome to contrast it, and I got really obsessed with the scene in Matilda where this kid Bruce steals some cake from Trunchbull, so she forces him to eat this giant slice of cake in front of the entire school, and when he finishes it she pulls out the rest of the cake and he has to eat the whole entire cake while the whole school is cheering him on. So I was like "I want to make a video where someone eats a bunch of cake," so we made a giant cake, it was insane.
That was the basis, and then I started thinking about different types of societal pressures that people get really toxically obsessed with, like youth and thinness and being straight-laced and not being weird. Even though I didn't want it to be wholesome, it ended up being this wholesome thing where I cast a spell on them and they're free of their obsessive behaviour. I'm just a wholesome person, I can't fucking help myself.
Was it fun to direct?
It was really fun; I had these crazy prosthetics, I had a 7 year old girl with old goblin man prosthetics, she had to sit for like 2 hours to get all her prosthetics on and then an hour to get it all removed. It was crazy but it was fun. And it was all on 60mm film, which was really fun to shoot. It's the same with recording on tape, you have so much less space to work with, so you have to be really thoughtful about how you use the space. We only had 30 minutes of film that we could shoot, so we only shot 10 seconds at a time. Then you don't have to think about it as much, you just capture it and then you have to use exactly what you captured. I kinda like the philosophy behind using it.
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And did you have anything to do with the edit?
Yeah I edited it myself too. 'Jealousy', 'Not the Time' and ‘Free’ I edited.
Did you study editing or film at all?
No. That's the thing, because we did it on film, when it came down to it we only had about 20 minutes of film so it was just cutting it down, I wasn't using effects or anything, so it wasn't anything crazy. But I am particular about where things line up.
Is film something you might pursue in the future?
No, I don't think so. I remember watching this Grimes video and at the end it was like "directed and edited by Grimes" and I was like "if Grimes can do it, I can do it."
I'm curious about the line "Too cold to realize that the heat is something that we grew" from 'Adult Contemporary'.
This song is about Trump, basically. I wrote the song right after Trump was elected. The lyric in the first part is "What a time to be alive and believe in something so untrue," is kinda like about what a crazy time to be alive when people are voting for Trump. I think all the lyrics have open-ended meanings; that could be about a relationship or it could be about global warming - I don't know. Those lyrics were all pretty improvised.
Like the part where you mention Sheridan Riley.
Yeah, she's the drummer on the song! She was literally in the room and I was just like "singing words, Sheridan Riley" - totally improvised. That was another one where I wrote lyrics to replace it, and I was like "no"; nothing sounds as good as the first improvised lyric, personally.
The album ends with 'Turned Out I Was Everyone', which does feel like an epilogue.
That was the last song I recorded, and it was another one where I was supposed to be going into the studio to mix another song, but at 3am I was on my Yamaha keyboard I wrote that song, and then exactly replicated it except with better tones and stuff. I went into the studio and was like "I actually wrote a new song"; it was a joke that I would go in and say that - it happened like 4 times on the record. I wrote that just before the last recording session.
So it was a natural fit for the end of the record.
Yeah, it was kinda when I was coming to a lot of personal understandings about my emotions. The song is essentially about how we all feel lonely, no matter what our relationship status is. It's an empowering realisation. There's so much pressure put on finding your soulmate when it doesn't really matter if you've found that person or not, you have to be really grounded with yourself to truly feel peace.
Have you already started writing for the next album?
Yeah. I have a couple of songs already. We'll probably record this year. I write pretty quickly. It's funny because everyone thinks the songs are pretty well arranged, but for me I feel like it was all so fast, and I want to make them grander. But in a way there's something really special about how intimate and not overly produced they are.
Do you ever think about putting French Horn on them?
There's a little bit of French Horn on 'Pacify', but already one of the songs I've got for the next thing has French Horn on it, so I'll do some more.
What do you do when you're not doing music? Do you escape into anything else?
I'm reading a bell hooks book right now called All About Love. It's really good. Especially having written essentially a heartbreak album, it's kinda nice to be in a place where I feel less sad. I'm trying to write happy songs... we'll see.
Any other books you would recommend to people?
When I first started making the record I was writing a lot of poems and I was really into David Sedaris; I was reading Naked, which is so good - highly recommended. He has a really good way of poetically and comically doing prose, and I feel like that got me into writing poems at the time.
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SASAMI’s debut album SASAMI is out today on Domino Records.
from The 405 https://ift.tt/2EKXoQX
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Alex Band
Interview by Alicia : Nov 04, 2008
Some of you may remember Alex Band as the lead singer of The Calling. He has since moved on to a solo career launching his first solo EP in early 2008. Over the last few years he has developed his own record label, been hard at work in the studio and continued his support of Donate Life. Pick up a copy of Alex's EP available on his MYSPACEand WEBSITE.
Having signed with RCA records at 15, do you ever regret getting into the industry so soon? Do you wish you had lived more of a childhood?
Sometimes I wish I would have finished high school with my friends instead of home schooling, but I definitely don't regret getting into the business at such a young age. I always knew this is what I wanted to do and I was blessed to get a head start.
You started your career performing with The Calling and you were very successful, why did you decide to do a solo project?
After two records with The Calling, I felt it was time to go it alone. My partner in The Calling, Aaron Kamin and I had very different views of what we wanted and it seemed logical to take the next step and make my own record.
What makes your solo music different from what people heard from The Calling?
I would say the biggest difference is that the music is more grown up, since I have grown up a lot since recording the first Calling record at age 19. The themes of the song now are more worldly after all the international touring I've done. But any Calling fan won't have a hard time relating to this music or seeing the similarities to what I was writing with The Calling.
You released an EP of your solo music in early 2008, do you have any idea when the full length album will be out?
It has been a very long journey to get this solo album out, mostly due to the fact that I was stuck at Universal records with a finished record for so long since they just wouldn't release it. Now that I am free and own the album, I am putting together a plan to release the album worldwide independently and the first single should be released beginning of next year. I made the recent EP of 5 new songs to have something to put out there to the fans in the meantime. You can buy a hard copy of it on alexmaxband.com or download the EP at alternativeaddiction.com. I'm really proud of the way it turned out.
What has been the inspiration behind the songs on the new album?
There is a lot of inspiration behind these songs. Starting from what I experienced touring the world on the last Calling album in 2004, the illness of my wife, the decision to go solo, my falling out with my Calling partner Aaron, a crumbling music business, my frustration of being caught in that failing business, the amazing continual support from my fans, recent touring I've done this year, etc. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this album and I believe everyone will be able to hear that once they get their hands on it.
Are you constantly writings songs or do certain events in your life encourage the writing process?
I do write a lot, but since finishing the album, I only write when I have a song brewing in my head that I've got to get out. I was pushed by my past label and management so much during the course of the album, that after writing 200+ songs for it, I'm pretty burned out these days! I just want to get out there and perform them.
What song have you written or co-written that you are most proud of?
I'm obviously most proud of The Calling songs I wrote that had worldwide success and now of my newer material...but I have also been writing for newer artists. One of which has a record and single out now in the US that is doing great. His name is Jon Mclaughlin and the track on his record that I wrote with him is called “Always On My Mind”. There will be more to come with other newer artists scheduled to release next year.
Throughout a song, the musician must harness the emotions of the listener in order to deliver the desired experience of the song, what techniques do you use to achieve such an effect and make it unique?
I couldn't say I use a technique to achieve that, I just write from the heart and it always seems to stick with my fans around the world, even if they don't speak English! I guess I do subliminally think about the fact that I'm writing for an international fan base when I pick up a guitar, but I don't think it influences what I write too much...I just do what I've always done, and it works.
Over the past 50 years or so millions of songs have been written and performed, how are you able to come up with new melodies and lyrics that don't sound like someone else's music?
Good question! There have been plenty of times when I'm writing a new song and I think it's genius and then I'll play it for someone and they'll point out the fact that it sounds exactly like some other random song of the past, and I'm like...damn! But there are so many possible ways to arrange notes and words and syncopations that I can't imagine every song possible has already been written.
You are a big supporter of Donate Life. You hold a concert each year to help raise money and awareness. Why did you decide to use your music as a way of helping raise awareness for this organization and have you seen it make a difference?
We've definitely seen it make a difference. Along with the help of my fans, I've raised over $100,000 for Donate Life and they have had more hits on their site (donatelife.net) due to my fans than ever before. I decided to help Donate Life when my wife became ill 4 years back and was in need of a liver transplant. Once I learned that 80,000 people a year in the US need organs donated to live and only half of them get them, I knew I had to help in any way I can. Eventually we came up with the yearly concert series called “Alex Band Rocks” as an additional way to gain awareness and so far it's been a great success.
For more information on Donate Life go to their website HERE.
You were shown on an episode of MTV's The Real World Hollywood. They were documenting one of your Donate Life shows and one of the cast members, Brianna ended up singing with you. What is your overall impression of that situation?
I found it to be a great way to advertise Donate Life to the younger population and took the opportunity. But after watching the show and seeing how people and topics were portrayed on the show, and especially how Brianna herself acts, I was a little dismayed. With that being said, she did do me a great favor by having Donate Life be part of the show and I thank her for that.
If you could put a dream tour together, living artists only, who would be included? Why?
I am a massive U2 fan, and Coldplay as well. The two of them together with let's say...me as an opener would be amazing!
What would you consider your greatest achievement as a musician?
Reaching so many people worldwide and changing their lives with my music is by far my greatest achievement.
What other interests do you have outside of music and do you get to partake in them often?
Music is my life and soul, but just like anyone else, I do enjoy having fun. I love to golf and I am a helicopter pilot, so getting out every once and a while to take the helicopter up is like a dream. I'm not much of a partier and don't drink, so on my off time I enjoy the simple things...eating a nice dinner at my favorite restaurant, going to see a movie, spending time with my family and wife.
In your opinion, what are the most common mistakes aspiring musicians seem to make?
These days the most common mistake is thinking that signing a record deal is the end all be all of “making it” in the business. If anything, a record deal could possibly end your career or make you crazy! There are so many ways to promote yourself and your music online these days that there really isn't a need for a label. You finally have a chance to actually make money on record sales, which is a new idea! Also, I think aspiring musicians seem to think it's easy to achieve success or that the business is just about the music, when it fact it is very, very political and difficult. There really is no such thing as an overnight success. You have to work extremely hard at it...and it never gets easier.
Is there any advice you can pass on to aspiring musicians?
Only to believe in yourself and never stop trying. Don't listen to one single person's advice, whether good or bad...it's about the majority.
Where do you hope to see your career in 10 years?
I'd love to be in control of my career, releasing new albums every year, or maybe even new songs each month instead of a typical “album”, which I think is where we're headed in this new world. I'd love to continue touring the world consistently as well, as that is where I feel most at home, with my fans.
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Mendelssohn’s Sechs Sprüche, Op. 79
Choral music in the nineteenth century was mostly a form of looking back to music of the past, such as Palestrina’s music for the Catholic church, the oratorios of Händel and Haydn, and the motets and works of Schütz. This is not to say that Romantic era composers wrote choral music that resembled music of the past eras (which was mostly vocal music); instead, such a “looking back” shows how Romantic era composers were inspired by the compositional techniques used by the composers of the past, and how they sought to emulate that kind of music, while still having their own sound. Indeed, it is a “Romantic” attribute to look back and long for things in the past.
Felix Mendelssohn is a prime example of a Romantic composer who looked back, and brought forth music that preserved the beauty and intricacy of the works of the past, while still producing his own distinct sound--especially in the realm of choral music.
Portrait of Mendelssohn by James Warren Childe, 1839
Mendelssohn is credited with the revival of the choral music of Johann Sebastian Bach, who today, remains an inescapable figure for any classically trained musician. Indeed, Mendelssohn’s recognition of JS Bach’s genius made Bach’s works more accessible to the wider public, beginning with a very well-received performance of Bach’s monumental St. Matthew Passion with the Berlin Singakademie in 1829. Mendelssohn’s reverence for Bach is worth mentioning, because Bach’s influences remain very much evident in Mendelssohn’s works for choir, such as his Sechs Sprüche, Op. 79.
Sechs Sprüche (Six Sayings), Op. 79 is a collection of 6 liturgical works which follow the church year, written for an 8-part mixed chorus (SSAATTBB). The composition of the work follows the reforms of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, wherein the singing of the verse before the Alleluia in the liturgy was enforced. Each movement is short, with only twenty to forty measures, and all ending with an Alleluia. The movements are as follows:
Im Advent (In Advent)
Weihnachten (Christmas)
Am Neujahrstage (On New Year’s)
In der Passionszeit (At Passiontide)
Am Karfreitage (On Good Friday)
Am Himmelfahrstage (On Ascension Day)
*Although it was published with a different order of movements (movements were alternated according to their key, major-minor-major-minor...), the intent of the collection was to follow the church year.
In Sechs Sprüche, Mendelssohn returns to Bach’s choral writing style, with a healthy mix of chorale-like homophony, alongside masterful counterpoint, while at the same time, painting the text and music with chromatic harmonies, stretched-out dynamics, extended chords, and different overlaping textures. To illustrate this, let’s turn to the New Year reading--Am Neujahrstage.
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Am Neujahrstage is on 23:08-26:00
A master of melodies, Mendelssohn opens this movement with a haunting melody based on a D minor triad, with an appogiatura on the note Bb, sung by all voices in unison. “Herr Gott, du bist...” (Lord God, You are), as if in singular proclamation of God, who is the I AM.
As the choir continues with “unsre Zuflucht für und für...” (our refuge for evermore), the choir suddenly splits, first conservatively on the word “unsre” (our)--as if illustrating a multitude of people whom God has been a refuge to--and into an even more open chord on the word “Zuflucht” (refuge)--painting the image of a strong and mighty tower, where God’s people may seek their refuge. The first phrase ends in a hopeful A major chord--the dominant of the piece, which is in D minor, somehow signalling that there is more to come--on the expression “für und für” (forever and ever), expressing the hope one has in God who is the everlasting refuge.
The opening passage in clear homophonic style, characteristic of Bach’s chorales.
The opening phrase is followed by a series of imitative entrances. The use of imitation in the next phrases reflect the nature of the piece--New Year, alluding to the Creation, where God weaves the world from nothing, strand-by-strand. Mendelssohn uses it to paint the text, “Ehe denn die Berge worden, und die Erde und die Welt erschaffen worden...” (Before the mountains were made, and the earth and the world created...), creating an illusion of emptiness and nothingness, in which there is only God.
A series of imitative entrances building up to a grand forte, illustrating the Creation
Then, in completing the phrase, “Ehe denn die Berge worden, und die Erde und die Welt erschaffen worden bist du Gott von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit.” (Before the mountains were made, and the earth and the world created, You are God from eternity to eternity.), the choir suddenly sings a beautiful F major chord in first inversion, in pianissimo. Mendelssohn paints such a picture of God’s nature--comforting, awesome, and fearful. It is as if the choir, after building up with a gradual and grand crescendo full of harmonic tension, falls awestruck at the thought of God’s eternal, ever-present nature, as with man who is truly inferior when thought of in the context of God’s greatness and vastness.
Awestruck. Mendelssohn contrasts the imitative build-up with a sudden homophonic quiet at the words “...bist du Gott von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit.” (...You are God from eternity to eternity)
Mendelssohn then revisits his contrasting imitation and homophony, and his contrasting use of dynamics, but at a faster pace and with more harmonic tension (through the use of secondary chords, and a French sixth, among others), painting a more vivid image of the same text mentioned above.
Note the secondary dominant chord established in the second measure of the excerpt (F#-A-C-D) leading to the G minor chord in the third measure.
Mendelssohn uses a French sixth chord in leading us back to the secondary tonal level of G minor, as the choir once again sings “...bist du Gott...” (You are God...” The Fr6 chord in the context of G minor can be seen in the second half of the first measure in the excerpt (Eb-G-A-C#).
In concluding the piece, Mendelssohn once again writes the first “Hallelujah” in forte and in unison, mimicking jubilant praises from an awestruck congregation, and follows it with another chordal “Hallelujah,” but this time, in piano, mimicking the quiet, wordless praise offered by a heart that is awestruck by God.
The concluding Hallelujah of Am Neujahrstage.
Throughout the piece, we see Mendelssohn’s continual use of contrast to reflect the text--contrast in color (unison vs. chordal singing), in dynamics, and in vocal texture. The influence of Bach is evident as well, in Mendelssohn’s word-painting, text-setting, and use of homophony and imitation. Sechs Sprüche without a doubt reflects Mendelssohn’s own genius, with its haunting melodies and beautiful extended harmonies. It is no wonder why Mendelssohn remains a staple in the choral repertoire up to this day!
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On “Alcohol”
This is a 2017 adaptation of an introductory essay I wrote in 2015 for a digital publication produced in response to the song “Alcohol” by the trio Sisyphus, and its accompanying music video.
It is significant enough for a song to accomplish all that rhythm, melody, words, and performance can attain when employed together; for a companion video to lend further artistic merit is a triumph of its own. “Alcohol”—the concluding song on Sisyphus, the self-titled LP by the über-collaboration formerly known as s / s / s—is a force, and quite possibly the fiercest piece that David Cohn (as Serengeti), Ryan Lott (of Son Lux), and Sufjan Stevens have made together in their sporadic encounters. By pairing a disturbing electronic sonic palette and relentlessly vulnerable lyrics with an engaging animation of the human experience, Sisyphus achieves an audio and visual construction in “Alcohol” that is uniquely powerful among their respective eclectic catalogues.
Examining the song’s aural makings is a useful place to start. The lyrics contain a deeply distressing admission by the narrator of the trauma he’s endured with his lips at the glass—“The message in question/ Disease in my knees/ Was it alcohol alcohol alcohol alcohol”—especially due to his parents’ tendencies for drinking and addiction (“They were divisible/ Living invisible/ Clinical/ Pivotal/ Biblical/ Medical pinnacle/ Criminal/ Difficult miracle/ Fucking embarrassing”). Phallic bottles churn poison throughout his body, warp his mind, and twist his soul, yet the chronicler can’t resist the resulting comforts, even as he treads the wake of the terrors his family left him in: “I can feel you beside me/ I feel you around me/ Equation is algebra lesson/
Confession/ I need you/ Be near me/ I kill you/ … I want your protection/ ... I wanted to like you.” The music itself is aggressive for the majority of the track: a robotic beat and a dark, descending bass line grip at the listener’s attention, as Serengeti raps a highly in-rhyming ramble, each line punctuated by the repetition of a single word (e.g. “Tylenol,” “Al-Anon,” “protocol,” etc.). Barely a moment is spared from the spoken triplet eighth-note words for the first quarter, but eventually a more charming progression lightens the drum-and-bass pattern for a while and, bookends a smaller pause of static that ends with an amusing “fuck this shit!” by ‘Geti. Indeed, humor is at times the only balm for processing lasting trauma, which Cohn is especially adept at in his previous releases.
And then, abruptly following the final official lyric, “I’ll suck out your soul with the Devil’s integrity/ I’ll suck at your dick with the Devil’s integrity,” the looping beat takes hold again for just over two whole, stubborn minutes—only to bloom into an incredibly cosmic climax. The soundscape flowing around the drums lands somewhere between the glistening piano-pop of Coldplay’s X&Y and Stevens’ and Son Lux’s electro-symphonic albums The Age of Adz and Lanterns, respectively. Stevens begins to sing with an indiscernible, haunting wail, perhaps the subconscious voice behind the narrator’s monologue at an instant of momentous clarity: “I am not my father/ I am not my mother/ You have to discover/
We are sisters, brothers.”* And then, as suddenly as it started, “Alcohol” concludes with a sustained, synthetic tone, ending the album hesitantly.
Yet the song’s life is two-fold, for the companion lyric video made by John Beeler of Asthmatic Kitty Records, with help from John Gilpin, Grey Gordon, and Hannah Riffe, not only stands for itself for its tantalizing power, but amplifies the evocations already generated by the content and nature of the recording. While trimmed somewhat from the album recording—the isolated beat mid-video doesn’t simmer quite as long—the format is simple: for every beat of the meter, a new image is displayed, for about one third of a second each, in continuous succession. It views like a child swiping through an entire photo library as fast as she can, or a lagging, dissonant animation by someone who stumbled upon leftover prints at a one-hour photo department. The images vary widely in quality and content—some are finely rendered photographs, many appear to be pixelated screenshots of online media or scanned prints from family and friends, and a few fall into far less natural categories. There are three images that are sustained for longer than a beat, including the red-on-white all-caps lyrics, frozen TV static, and melting SMPTE color bars. There is but one duplicate image—curiously, a gas-masked protestor with a smoke canister—though it is cropped slightly closer for its second appearance. In all, there are 619 images presented in the “Alcohol” video.
On the one hand, the onslaught of pictures seems random, as if made using automation of some sort; on the other hand, each image had to come from somewhere, ripped from its context, much like a search engine’s results list. Even still, certain themes do appear: glistening newborns, vomiting partiers, portraits with disconcerting facial expressions, Sisyphus paraphernalia, and (most predictably) those engaged in drinking the many forms of the song’s namesake—everyone from animals, to college kids, to the famous actors, presidents, and Internet memes of the modern world, all engaged in toasting, drinking, or making a mess of alcoholic beverages. Despite these few commonalities, the variety of imagery presented throughout the video is overwhelming, to say the least, and part of its emotional impact derives from that pictorial enormity.
Not much is clear about the film’s genesis, what motivated its form and content, or why perennial fashion magazine Vogue debuted the off-putting video on Valentine’s Day, 2014. But most mysterious is the way it manages to produce both immense anxiety and peace during a screening, all at once. The formation of the Sisyphus trio and their work hints at a model they have perfected, with Stevens describing that “the attribution gets blurry from the start. You might think I wrote the hook, but I probably stole it from ’Geti. And you might think ’Geti wrote the rap, but he probably stole it from Ryan.” The filmmakers took perhaps a similar approach, trawling social media or Google. The multi-dimensional nausea and tranquility the film provides with each viewing is real, and it feels original each time—a result of its visual structure.
The video for “Alcohol” is a curated stream, but not an overthought one. It is impulsive, and paced like the memory reel one experiences while drunk: half-second glances, ideas, and feelings flow with less and less connection (or a diminishing willingness to bother connecting) with every additional sip. In both visual and aural forms, the work acknowledges that in these extreme states—depression, drunkenness, euphoria, mania—you may uncover certain truths, some simple and some life altering, but all long sought after. The only risk is that by the time you balance out, sober up, or “calm it down,” you just may not remember them anymore, having slipped through them so freely.
Perhaps that’s where Sisyphus comes in—as “three friends in a room having fun and permitting one another the freedom to get smart and get stupid”: “Alcohol” is their reminder that everyone has to learn these truths for themselves: none of us are our fathers or mothers, who even with the best intentions or resources cannot pass all lessons on to us. Nor can our siblings, lovers, friends, mentors, or passing acquaintances, though they too can be potent sources. That the images embody such a thorough chunk of the human condition and creation is significant in showing how we discover the same truths over and over as the centuries roll on. And in a perfect paradox, these truths both weigh each of us down as heavy stones to hold up unaided, yet strengthen us on our very own feet—all at once.
*The final lyrics presented here are guesswork: nowhere on video, LP print media, nor the wide trove of information that is the Internet was anything other than the suggestion that the ending lyric is “I am not my father” repeated over and over—which is clearly not true, though the third line is indeed far from clear. In any case, these were determined from limited consonant clarity, and slight intuition.
Works Cited
“Alcohol Lyrics.” Genius, 15 Feb. 2014, www.genius.com/Sisyphus-alcohol-lyrics/. Accessed 9 Aug. 2016.
La Force, Thessaly. “Artist Jim Hodges Collaborates with Musicians Sisyphus for His New Survey at the Walker Art Center.” Vogue, 14 Feb. 2014, www.vogue.com/872645/artist-jim-hodges-collaborates-with-musicians-sisyphus-for-his-new-survey-at-the-walker-art-center/. Accessed 13 May 2015.
Lott, Ryan. Interview by Andrew Hannah. “Son Lux on Sisyphus.” The Line of Best Fit. 7 Apr. 2014, www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/lists/son-lux-on-sisyphus-it-sounds-to-me-like-three-friends-in-a-room-having-fun-and-permitting-one-other-the-freedom-to-get-smart-and-get-stupid-148788/. Accessed 13 May 2015.
“Sisyphus - Alcohol (Lyric Video).” Vimeo, uploaded by Sisyphus, 5 Feb. 2014, www.vimeo.com/85938454/. Accessed 13 May 2015.
“Sisyphus - Calm It Down (Lyric Video).” YouTube. uploaded by SisyphusVEVO, 19 Dec. 2013, https://youtu.be/dVVvgFWn14c/. Accessed 13 May 2015.
Stevens, Sufjan. Interview by Dan Johnson, Paul Schmelzer. “On Sisyphus: Sufjan Stevens discusses Jim Hodges’ art and the new name for his S/S/S trio.” Walker Magazine, Walker Art Museum, 19 Dec. 2013, www.walkerart.org/magazine/2013/sufjan-stevens-sisyphus-jim-hodges/. Accessed 13 May 2015.
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Text
History of Songs
The earliest varieties of music have been probably drum-based, percussion instruments staying the most available within the time (i.e. rocks, sticks). These easiest of easy instruments are believed to get been employed in spiritual ceremonies as representations of animals.
There was no notation or writing of this variety of "music" and its appears can only be extrapolated in the music of (South) American Indians and African natives who nonetheless adhere to several of the historic religious techniques.
As for that far more state-of-the-art devices, their evolution was slow and continual. It is actually recognized that by 4000 BCE the Egyptians had created harps and flutes, and by 3500 BCE lyres and double-reeded clarinets had been designed.
In Denmark, by 2500 BCE an early type of the trumpet experienced been produced. This trumpet is exactly what is now generally known as a "natural trumpet." It really is valveless, and depends entirely on manipulation from the lips to vary pitch.
One among probably the most common instruments now was designed in 1500 BCE with the Hittites. I am discussing the guitar. This was an incredible stage; the use of frets to change the pitch of the vibrating string would result in afterwards devices like the violin and harpsichord.
In 800 BCE the very first recovered piece of recorded new music was identified. It absolutely was written in cuneiform and was a non secular hymn. It should be noted that cuneiform is just not a kind of musical notation.
By seven hundred BCE there are information of songs which include vocals with instrumentals. This additional a whole new dimension to audio: accompaniment.
New music in Ancient Rome and Greece
Greece was the foundation of all Classical artwork, so it's no coincidence that Classical songs is rooted in Grecian innovations. In 600 BCE, famed mathematician Pythagorus dissected music as a science and formulated the keystone of contemporary music: the octave scale. The significance of this occasion is apparent. Tunes was a passion from the Greeks. With their surplus of leisure time (because of slave labor) they were able to cultivate excellent artistic competencies. Trumpet competitions have been prevalent spectator gatherings in Greece by four hundred BCE. It had been in Greece the first bricks in new music theory's foundation were layed. Aristotle wrote on audio concept scientifically, and brought a few system of notation in 350 BCE. The work of that genius remains to be examined these days.
Another major action in music's evolution was by Boethius. In 521 CE he brought the Greek system of notation to Western Europe, permitting the musicians there to scribe correctly the people songs in their lands. Incidentally, it had been Boethius who to start with wrote on the notion with the opera.
Music from the Middle Ages
The vast majority of songs created soon after Rome fell was commissioned via the church. The Catholic faith contains a long record of involvement (for greater or worse) with all the musical arts. In 600 CE Pope Gregory had the Schola Cantarum built. This was the initial tunes college in Europe.
Meanwhile in China, new music was progressing also: it absolutely was noted that in 612 CE there were orchestras with hundreds of musicians undertaking to the assorted dynasties. Even though the distinct audio from this period in China is unknown, the distinctive style intended to obtain created you can find mirrored even in modern orchestral Asiatic items.
In 650 CE a brand new technique of crafting music was designed using "neumes" to be a notation for groups of notes in new music.
144 several years following the Schola Cantarum was designed, a singing university opened while in the Monastery of Fuda, fueling the interest in musical vocation. And by 790 CE, there were splinters of your Schola Cantarum in Paris, Cologne and Metz. In 800 CE the good unifier Charlemagne had poems and psalms set to audio. In 850 CE Catholic musicians had a breakthrough by inventing the church "modes." These modes would later metamorphose into today's major and minimal scales. In 855 CE, the first polyphonic (2 unrelated melodies/voices at the same time) piece was recorded, and by 1056 this polyphonic style replaced Gregorian chants as being the audio of option (even once the Church manufactured polyphonic new music "illegal"; this ban was later lifted). In 980 CE, the good tome Antiphononium Codex Montpellier was scribed.
In one thousand CE Guido D'Arezzo created numerous enhancements in music idea. He 1st enhanced and reworked common notation for being much more user-friendly by including time signatures. Then he invented solfege. This is actually the vocal observe scale: do, re, mi, fa, so, la ,ti, do. This innovation has influenced virtually every fashionable vocalist.
In 1100 CE, a different secular movement started. This separation of Church from tunes was a straddling one particular, and soon this new "folk" new music was appeared down upon as pagan and borderline blasphemous.
The Renaissance
Within the dawn with the Renaissance in 1465 the printing press was very first applied to print music. By making use of a press a composer could organize his items and earnings from them with wonderful relieve. In 1490 Boethius's writings on opera ended up republished in Italian.
Along with the onset of the Renaissance, the rules of songs ended up about to modify considerably. This was the beginning of a new enlightened age that will showcase many of the biggest musical minds at any time manufactured.
The record of songs at this time is finest explained to through the variations that emerged as well as composers who lived after the Renaissance.
aulas musica crianças
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Text
Heritage of Audio
The earliest sorts of music have been almost certainly drum-based, percussion instruments remaining by far the most available in the time (i.e. rocks, sticks). These most basic of straightforward devices are considered to obtain been used in religious ceremonies as representations of animals.
There was no notation or writing of this kind of "music" and its appears can only be extrapolated from the tunes of (South) American Indians and African natives who nevertheless adhere to a few of the historical religious techniques.
As to the extra innovative instruments, their evolution was gradual and constant. It truly is recognised that by 4000 BCE the Egyptians experienced designed harps and flutes, and by 3500 BCE lyres and double-reeded clarinets had been developed.
In Denmark, by 2500 BCE an early type of the trumpet had been designed. This trumpet is what has become known as a "natural trumpet." It really is valveless, and is dependent fully on manipulation of your lips to alter pitch.
Among probably the most common devices today was established in 1500 BCE because of the Hittites. I am discussing the guitar. This was an excellent move; using frets to change the pitch of a vibrating string would lead to later on instruments including the violin and harpsichord.
In 800 BCE the primary recovered bit of recorded audio was uncovered. It had been created in cuneiform and was a spiritual hymn. It should be observed that cuneiform is just not a kind of musical notation.
By 700 BCE you'll find records of songs which include vocals with instrumentals. This added a complete new dimension to audio: accompaniment.
Music in Historic Rome and Greece
Greece was the basis of all Classical art, so it is really no coincidence that Classical songs is rooted in Grecian improvements. In 600 BCE, famed mathematician Pythagorus dissected music for a science and developed the keystone of modern tunes: the octave scale. The significance of this event is apparent. New music was a enthusiasm of your Greeks. With their surplus of leisure time (due to slave labor) they ended up capable to cultivate great creative skills. Trumpet competitions were widespread spectator situations in Greece by 400 BCE. It was in Greece the to start with bricks in new music theory's foundation were layed. Aristotle wrote on songs principle scientifically, and brought about a technique of notation in 350 BCE. The function of that genius remains to be studied right now.
The next substantial step in music's evolution was by Boethius. In 521 CE he introduced the Greek method of notation to Western Europe, allowing the musicians there to scribe accurately the people tunes of their lands. By the way, it was Boethius who very first wrote about the thought in the opera.
New music from the Middle Ages
The vast majority of songs produced immediately after Rome fell was commissioned through the church. The Catholic religion provides a extensive history of involvement (for better or even worse) with all the musical arts. In 600 CE Pope Gregory experienced the Schola Cantarum crafted. This was the very first new music school in Europe.
Meanwhile in China, tunes was progressing also: it was claimed that in 612 CE there were orchestras with a huge selection of musicians doing for your assorted dynasties. Although the distinct tunes from this era in China is unidentified, the unique model supposed to own made there exists mirrored even in latest orchestral Asiatic pieces.
In 650 CE a brand new system of producing tunes was created employing "neumes" like a notation for teams of notes in audio.
144 many years once the Schola Cantarum was built, a singing faculty opened within the Monastery of Fuda, fueling the interest in musical vocation. And by 790 CE, there were splinters of the Schola Cantarum in Paris, Cologne and Metz. In 800 CE the good unifier Charlemagne experienced poems and psalms set to songs. In 850 CE Catholic musicians had a breakthrough by inventing the church "modes." These modes would afterwards metamorphose into present day significant and small scales. In 855 CE, the primary polyphonic (2 unrelated melodies/voices directly) piece was recorded, and by 1056 this polyphonic style replaced Gregorian chants because the songs of alternative (even following the Church built polyphonic tunes "illegal"; this ban was afterwards lifted). In 980 CE, the great tome Antiphononium Codex Montpellier was scribed.
In one thousand CE Guido D'Arezzo manufactured several advancements in new music theory. He to start with enhanced and reworked normal notation to get additional user-friendly by adding time signatures. Then he invented solfege. This is the vocal be aware scale: do, re, mi, fa, so, la ,ti, do. This innovation has impacted nearly every contemporary vocalist.
In 1100 CE, a whole new secular movement began. This separation of Church from songs was a straddling a person, and soon this new "folk" tunes was looked down on as pagan and borderline blasphemous.
The Renaissance
To the dawn of the Renaissance in 1465 the printing push was initially used to print music. By making use of a press a composer could arrange his parts and earnings from them with fantastic relieve. In 1490 Boethius's writings on opera had been republished in Italian.
With the onset with the Renaissance, the foundations of songs have been about to improve significantly. This was the start of the new enlightened age that may showcase some of the greatest musical minds ever made.
The background of music at this time is very best advised from the styles that emerged plus the composers who lived following the Renaissance.
oficina de musica
0 notes
Text
Historical past of Tunes
The earliest forms of new music ended up possibly drum-based, percussion instruments being the most available within the time (i.e. rocks, sticks). These most basic of easy instruments are imagined to acquire been utilized in religious ceremonies as representations of animals.
There was no notation or crafting of the kind of "music" and its appears can only be extrapolated from the audio of (South) American Indians and African natives who nevertheless adhere to some of the historical spiritual practices.
As for that a lot more highly developed instruments, their evolution was sluggish and continuous. It can be recognized that by 4000 BCE the Egyptians had produced harps and flutes, and by 3500 BCE lyres and double-reeded clarinets had been produced.
In Denmark, by 2500 BCE an early form of the trumpet had been created. This trumpet is exactly what is currently referred to as a "natural trumpet." It's valveless, and relies upon wholly on manipulation in the lips to alter pitch.
Amongst the most popular instruments these days was produced in 1500 BCE through the Hittites. I am discussing the guitar. This was an awesome phase; using frets to vary the pitch of a vibrating string would lead to later instruments including the violin and harpsichord.
In 800 BCE the very first recovered bit of recorded music was observed. It had been written in cuneiform and was a religious hymn. It should be observed that cuneiform is not really a sort of musical notation.
By seven hundred BCE there are actually data of music that come with vocals with instrumentals. This extra a whole new dimension to songs: accompaniment.
Tunes in Ancient Rome and Greece
Greece was the foundation of all Classical art, so it's no coincidence that Classical tunes is rooted in Grecian improvements. In 600 BCE, famed mathematician Pythagorus dissected audio being a science and produced the keystone of modern tunes: the octave scale. The significance of this event is clear. Tunes was a enthusiasm of the Greeks. With their surplus of leisure time (thanks to slave labor) they had been able to cultivate terrific artistic abilities. Trumpet competitions ended up common spectator activities in Greece by four hundred BCE. It absolutely was in Greece that the 1st bricks in songs theory's foundation had been layed. Aristotle wrote on music concept scientifically, and introduced a couple of system of notation in 350 BCE. The function of that genius remains studied now.
The subsequent major step in music's evolution was by Boethius. In 521 CE he brought the Greek program of notation to Western Europe, allowing for the musicians there to scribe precisely the folk tunes in their lands. By the way, it was Boethius who to start with wrote over the concept of the opera.
Music within the Middle Ages
Most of the tunes designed soon after Rome fell was commissioned via the church. The Catholic faith features a extensive heritage of involvement (for greater or worse) while using the musical arts. In 600 CE Pope Gregory experienced the Schola Cantarum built. This was the primary tunes university in Europe.
Meanwhile in China, new music was progressing also: it absolutely was reported that in 612 CE there have been orchestras with hundreds of musicians executing with the assorted dynasties. Even though the distinct tunes from this era in China is unknown, the distinctive model meant to get produced there exists mirrored even in new orchestral Asiatic parts.
In 650 CE a completely new process of creating new music was created utilizing "neumes" for a notation for teams of notes in audio.
144 years following the Schola Cantarum was built, a singing school opened within the Monastery of Fuda, fueling the curiosity in musical vocation. And by 790 CE, there were splinters in the Schola Cantarum in Paris, Cologne and Metz. In 800 CE the great unifier Charlemagne had poems and psalms set to audio. In 850 CE Catholic musicians experienced a breakthrough by inventing the church "modes." These modes would later metamorphose into modern significant and insignificant scales. In 855 CE, the main polyphonic (two unrelated melodies/voices at once) piece was recorded, and by 1056 this polyphonic type changed Gregorian chants given that the songs of option (even once the Church built polyphonic audio "illegal"; this ban was later lifted). In 980 CE, the nice tome Antiphononium Codex Montpellier was scribed.
In a thousand CE Guido D'Arezzo made quite a few advancements in songs idea. He initial improved and reworked standard notation to generally be more user-friendly by adding time signatures. Then he invented solfege. Here is the vocal take note scale: do, re, mi, fa, so, la ,ti, do. This innovation has impacted virtually every modern day vocalist.
In 1100 CE, a brand new secular movement commenced. This separation of Church from new music was a straddling just one, and shortly this new "folk" new music was seemed down upon as pagan and borderline blasphemous.
The Renaissance
To the dawn in the Renaissance in 1465 the printing push was first utilized to print music. By using a press a composer could manage his pieces and profit from them with good simplicity. In 1490 Boethius's writings on opera were being republished in Italian.
Along with the onset on the Renaissance, the foundations of new music were about to adjust substantially. This was the start of a new enlightened age that may showcase a few of the biggest musical minds at any time produced.
The background of audio at this point is very best told through the designs that emerged as well as composers who lived once the Renaissance.
musica para crianças
0 notes
Text
History of New music
The earliest kinds of tunes ended up almost certainly drum-based, percussion instruments staying by far the most readily available within the time (i.e. rocks, sticks). These most straightforward of easy instruments are imagined to possess been utilized in religious ceremonies as representations of animals.
There was no notation or writing of the type of "music" and its appears can only be extrapolated within the songs of (South) American Indians and African natives who still adhere to a number of the historic religious techniques.
As for the much more advanced devices, their evolution was gradual and continuous. It really is recognized that by 4000 BCE the Egyptians experienced established harps and flutes, and by 3500 BCE lyres and double-reeded clarinets experienced been produced.
In Denmark, by 2500 BCE an early method of the trumpet had been formulated. This trumpet is exactly what is currently referred to as a "natural trumpet." It is valveless, and relies upon completely on manipulation on the lips to change pitch.
One of quite possibly the most well-liked devices right now was developed in 1500 BCE because of the Hittites. I am discussing the guitar. This was an excellent phase; the usage of frets to alter the pitch of the vibrating string would cause later instruments like the violin and harpsichord.
In 800 BCE the initial recovered bit of recorded songs was discovered. It was created in cuneiform and was a non secular hymn. It ought to be observed that cuneiform isn't a sort of musical notation.
By seven hundred BCE there are actually records of tracks that include vocals with instrumentals. This additional a whole new dimension to audio: accompaniment.
Tunes in Ancient Rome and Greece
Greece was the basis of all Classical artwork, so it is really no coincidence that Classical new music is rooted in Grecian improvements. In 600 BCE, famed mathematician Pythagorus dissected new music like a science and made the keystone of modern tunes: the octave scale. The importance of this party is obvious. Tunes was a enthusiasm with the Greeks. With their surplus of leisure time (as a result of slave labor) they were being able to cultivate terrific artistic techniques. Trumpet competitions were being common spectator occasions in Greece by 400 BCE. It had been in Greece the to start with bricks in tunes theory's foundation had been layed. Aristotle wrote on new music theory scientifically, and brought about a method of notation in 350 BCE. The perform of that genius continues to be examined these days.
The following sizeable action in music's evolution was by Boethius. In 521 CE he introduced the Greek process of notation to Western Europe, permitting the musicians there to scribe correctly the folk tracks of their lands. By the way, it was Boethius who initial wrote about the concept in the opera.
Tunes in the Middle Ages
Almost all of the songs produced just after Rome fell was commissioned with the church. The Catholic faith provides a lengthy background of involvement (for much better or even worse) together with the musical arts. In 600 CE Pope Gregory had the Schola Cantarum crafted. This was the 1st songs university in Europe.
In the meantime in China, tunes was progressing also: it absolutely was documented that in 612 CE there have been orchestras with hundreds of musicians executing with the assorted dynasties. Even though the certain tunes from this period in China is unfamiliar, the distinctive model supposed to acquire created there's reflected even in current orchestral Asiatic parts.
In 650 CE a completely new process of writing tunes was created using "neumes" being a notation for teams of notes in tunes.
a hundred and forty four decades following the Schola Cantarum was built, a singing school opened within the Monastery of Fuda, fueling the interest in musical vocation. And by 790 CE, there have been splinters on the Schola Cantarum in Paris, Cologne and Metz. In 800 CE the good unifier Charlemagne had poems and psalms established to tunes. In 850 CE Catholic musicians had a breakthrough by inventing the church "modes." These modes would afterwards metamorphose into today's major and insignificant scales. In 855 CE, the first polyphonic (two unrelated melodies/voices at once) piece was recorded, and by 1056 this polyphonic design and style changed Gregorian chants as the tunes of option (even following the Church created polyphonic tunes "illegal"; this ban was later on lifted). In 980 CE, the nice tome Antiphononium Codex Montpellier was scribed.
In 1000 CE Guido D'Arezzo created a lot of improvements in new music concept. He very first enhanced and reworked conventional notation to get a lot more user-friendly by introducing time signatures. Then he invented solfege. This is actually the vocal be aware scale: do, re, mi, fa, so, la ,ti, do. This innovation has afflicted virtually every present day vocalist.
In 1100 CE, a new secular movement commenced. This separation of Church from new music was a straddling just one, and shortly this new "folk" audio was looked down upon as pagan and borderline blasphemous.
The Renaissance
About the dawn of your Renaissance in 1465 the printing press was initial used to print audio. Through the use of a push a composer could manage his parts and earnings from them with terrific simplicity. In 1490 Boethius's writings on opera were republished in Italian.
With all the onset with the Renaissance, the principles of new music had been about to adjust considerably. This was the beginning of the new enlightened age that could showcase some of the finest musical minds at any time created.
The heritage of tunes at this stage is very best instructed from the variations that emerged as well as the composers who lived after the Renaissance.
musica educação infantil
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Text
WOMEN MAKE BEATS TOO!
I grew up watching my dad make beats. I was probably around 13 or 14 when I took a major interest in it. Something just felt so freeing to create a sound that played over and over in my head and finally put it on a drawing board with instruments and so many pretty colors. I guess thats the girl in me.
As a young artist at the time, I fucking HATED when producers gave me their beats. There was always some bullshit string attached and also the almighty “im taking my beat back” pettiness. I got so tired of being swindled on tracks. I would write to beats GIVEN to me just to be told before recording that initial song that
HEY, SOME DUMB R&B BITCH WHO CANT WRITE FOR SHIT HAS EXCELLENT VOCALS AND THE LYRICS YOU WROTE FOR MY BEAT, SHE SHOULD USE THEM BECAUSE SHE HAS A BETTER VOICE THAN YOU.
Okay, okay that’s basically how I heard it in my head. I would feel so disrespected and hurt that I would just tell the producer to go fuck them self and keep it moving. That was the day I said to myself, i’m going to start making my own beats.
Until this very day, I still have the first beat I ever made. I downloaded Fruity Loops and used all the stock sounds and created melodies from the stock plugins, didn’t know what the hell reverb was or panning was but I was gonna make my beat. (haha). That was 12 years ago.
Today, i’m sampling, i’m using boards, i’m using midi keyboards, I’m chopping and screwing, I have my own kits...it took a long time for me to get to this point and I am proud. I am proud to say that I make my own beats.
HOWEVER,
Now that we are in the day and age of social media and everybody and their fucking MOTHER is making beats...nothing fascinating or different because they all sound like the same shit in my opinion...(I mean fact) I always seem to have to pass fucking quizzes and pop up questions to PROVE I made a beat.
So a male producer will always ask me the following:
What program are you using to make beats?
What version?
What plugins do you have?
What kind of preamp do you use?
How long have you been making music?
And my answer is usually, why the FUCK does it matter? Look, I get the whole telling each other your lab specs because you wanna see who’s got the bigger fucking balls, but when you fellas do that to us FEMALE producers, it’s like you’re trying to see if we are just talking out of our ass.
The same way bitches go crazy over makeup tutorials, kits, and basically turning their entire paycheck over to Sephora, is kind of the same for us female producers when we discuss music and the electronics that surround building our dream lab. WE KNOW OUR SHIT TOO.
I argue with male producers more than I do the females. For instance, I don’t believe in making a beat similar to an existent beat and titling it a well known artist name and calling it a TYPE BEAT. I got backlash for saying that, then I was told that because i’m a woman I probably make trash beats.
Well fellas, the fact of the matter is I don’t make trash beats. I don’t even have to showcase my beats. See, the difference between ME and YOU is that I don’t have to put together an online store and beg for people to buy my shit. I’m way too smart. I don’t put my beats online just for artists to steal my shit and use my shit and I don’t get paid for it. Y’all do that shit. Stupidly.
I look for the artist. I don’t let the artist look for me.
When I find THAT artist that fulfills their duty to slay my fucking beat lyrically or vocally, I’ve created a CLIENT. That CLIENT then tells their friends and then I have more clients. But you keep putting up your beats online with your crappy tags thinking that a motherfucker wont rap or sing over those tags like they stepped of the dead body of your so called “career.”
And when in doubt, be sure to call me emotional and ugly because you cant hack the fact that you have to share the producer pool with sharks like me.
Last but not least, my favorite
Producer (knocking mad hard): “WHO MADE THIS BEAT?”
Me: I DID
Producer (stops banging his head) “ID TWEAK THE KICK A LITTLE, TAKE THE REVERB OFF THAT SECOND HIGH HAT, ID SLOW DOWN THE TEMPO A BIT, ETC
But you were totally just knocking hella hard to my shit....
I guess men seem to think women are supposed to be the writers and only the writers. That we can’t create a song where even the hardest rapper can spit to. That we can’t operate equipment. We are just supposed to ask “what’s that button do” and not actually press the shit.
And I hate the term FEMALE PRODUCER because it’s so fucking sexist and rude and creates an overall stigma that whatever beat we make is incorrect, soft, and garbage. Automatically.
It’s all good. None of these niggas could ever sit up in the lab with me and watch me create. They would think im a fucking GENIUS.
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