Category: electronic

Shiny Toy Guns – Ghost Town (Season of Poison, 2008)

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things start off weird, with some almost wild-west theatrical vocals, which quickly transition into something that reminds me more of The Offpsring. Then, at :29, we get the female vocals:

everyone livin in ghost town
everyone buried in wasteland

we don’t want to we don’t have to
be like that livin in ghost town

all the boys shout it out loud now
all the girls scream it out loud uh,

we don’ t want to
we don’t have to
live like that.

pull me back you know
we’re never gonna back down

Like ‘When Did This Storm Begin’, once the female singer starts belting out those lyrics, time flies by – the backing instrumentation keeps things solid in the background, but it’s really all about the sound of her voice. The male singer jumps in to help out with the chorus: “we’re dead in this ghost town, you’re better than ghost oh, let go let go.”

A break at 2:32 returns to the brief intro, then moves into the bridge, with new lyrical melodies and additional accompaniment, and then a nice big break at 3:02, ending at 3:12 and jumping right back into the chorus. The synths bend around, the guitar jams, and everything stops suddenly as the track ends, leaving the two vocalists hanging in midair.

Shiny Toy Guns – When Did This Storm Begin? (Season of Poison, 2008)

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The nearly minute-long intro for this track sort of makes sense to me – it’s like a bridge from the previous album ‘We Are Pilots’ to this next one. The staccato bass line is joined by occasional bursts of vocal samples and spacey synth sound effects until a short burst of kicks at 1:09 heralds the arrival of the Muse-esque male vocals: ”Call my name, answer me where I stand.”

In the background of this plea, trance pads warm up, until – boom! angry female vocals at 1:34!

Here’s a story of the way I wasn’t meant to be raised,
bright yellow sun that fades away to black and blue every place
There’s a bottle in the shape of your love for me

A little more reasonably, she continues: “Now the clouds are racing higher, blinding arrows away. There’s in darkness off the streets that my electricitay,” before getting angry again:

Gold ( or God?) shatters the sky,
this is the first day of the rest of our lives,
’cause no one really lives or dies.

You can’t help getting caught up in the epic 3/3/2 drum line, the heavy pads and guitar, and the reverbed vocals – the next few minutes go by quickly, droning requests to “call my name, where I stand” are interrupted only once more by the angry girl from before:

Every night you drink the money left to pay all the bills.
No room for us, but there’s another fucking bottle of pills.
Here’s your trophy on my face, it’s just an eye anyway..

Now the clouds are racing higher, blinding arrows away.
There’s in darkness off the streets that my elec-tricity

This will go no further, I swear it dies today.
Your nights will stay forever if you dare once more touch me.

The ‘plot’ is fairly familiar – a girl with an abusive alcoholic of a lover/father finally getting the balls to stand up for herself. But the lyrics go so well with the vocal style, and the whole thing works incredibly well as an introduction to Shiny Toy Gun’s new musical direction on their new album. The track ends with a school bell, but it’s only there to set up the next song. Unfortunately the majority of the other tracks don’t live up to the expectations that this one suggests, with the exception of ‘Ghost Town’, and possibly ‘Ricochet’, both of which are in the same vein.

The Knife – Silent Shout (Silent Shout, 2007)

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Thing start out quiet – a bass line, a little bit of white noise shaking, a nice reverby kick, until something beautiful appears at :25… a cut-down trance lead with a little bit of echo to it, arpeggiates and dances its way around the chording, eventually leading into the vocals (accompanied by a nice splash of drum machine clapping)

I never knew this could happen to me
I know now fragility
I know there’s people who I haven’t told
I know of people who are getting old

The words are whispery with white noise, vocorded to a ‘singing robot’ degree, and as they finish up the trance synth gets expansive, brightening then filter-tweaking down to a muted sound, before bringing in the next verse. The second verse might as well be the first , and the third follows quickly after. Finally at 2:57 the instruments have had enough – they drop out for a second to give the vocals a chance to introduce the peak of the song, where the synth brightens up and starts rolling higher, accompanied by some additional percussion. This can’t keep up for too long, and relaxes at 3:45 to let the final verse have some breathing room, this one with less clutter then the others, allowing the depth of the vocal effects to be really appreciated. Things stay quiet for the rest of the song – the apex has come and gone, the song’s assets are played out, and it meekly returns to where it started – a bass line, and a kick drum.

It’s kind of like a sudden rainstorm, with hand clap clashes of thunder and lightning, washes of wind-swept rain, whispery streams suddenly engorged by an extra payload… not a very complicated song, or a very in-depth one, although it manages to run nearly 5 minutes without getting too repetitive. The excellent use of splashy hand claps, vocorded lyrics, and that trance synth line are what make this song irresistible to me. The “me/fragility” rhyme works really well too.

David Bowie – Hallo Spaceboy (Outside, 1995)

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My other favorite track from Bowie’s ‘Outside’ album, ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ starts out heavy and barely lets up – the crunchy synth line at the beginning keep things on-track while various ambient vocal samples swirl around (similar to the intro to The Heart’s Filthy Lesson), until the percussion hits hard at :25. This relentless pounding lets up just as it edges on annoying, making room for the vocals:

Spaceboy, you’re sleepy now,
Your silhouette is so stationary
You’re released but your custody calls
And I want to be free
Don’t you want to be free?
Do you like girls or boys?
It’s confusing these days
But Moondust will cover you, cover you
This chaos is killing me

At the mention of the murderous chaos, the percussion slams back into the track, along with some more guitar and subtle synths in the background, spreading out into a sort of industrial soundscape, which boils around for a bit until a short break at 2:20. The berse repeats, but this time along with the pounding percussion, which intensifies as the lyrics wrap up, ending in another short break at 3:02 (filled by mutterings about moon dust), immediately stepping back up into the familiar pounding rhythm and guitar exploration. This time things break off at 3:34, as brass stings and spiraling electric piano spread out for a bit, before collapsing back to the default lineup. At this point, the song has given all it has to offer – it continues to rage for another minute or so, ultimately fading out.

The repeated return to the slamming ‘kick and snare on every beat’ pattern doesn’t ever really get annoying, since it’s broken often enough to give the listener time to rest, and the lyrics are obscure enough to catch your attention – is this song about drugs? about sex? about rock’n'roll? Anyway, played through headphones at full volume, it’s inescapably catchy.

David Bowie – The Heart’s Filthy Lesson (Outside, 1995)

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Bowie’s ‘Outside’ album is an entire trip in itself, but a couple of track stand out, mixing the abraisive experimental sound of the project as a whole with an accessible sort of heavy industrial pop. As soon as The Heart’s Filthy Lesson begins, there’s a sort of harsh droning line, maybe an organ, accompnied by some ambient sounds, creating the tensions that’s broken as the instrumentation enters at :24. The sporadic overdriven electric guitar and Bowie’s vocals trade off over a quieter rythem guitar, bass, occasional piano arpeggios, and a consistent drum line.

Things get weird for a moment – “Paddy? Who’s been wearing Miranda’s clothes?” – before featuring a frantic piano break, and surfacing back into the main theme. This is good enough to be a sort of interstitial, but the song continues to progress after a quick break and vocal sigh at 3:21. The bridge sounds the same, but changes things up enough to keep the song interesting, and adds more guitar, building tension until the peak of the song at 3:59: “Oh Paddy… I think I’ve lost my way…”

The rest of the sound is a devolving outro. Through the song, Bowie doesn’t really identify what filthy lesson the heart has to offer:

There’s always the diamond friendly
Sitting in the Laugh Hotel
The heart’s filthy lesson
With her hundred miles to hell

Oh, Ramona, if there was only something between us
If there was only something between us
Other than our clothes

Paddy will you carry me, I think I’ve lost my way
I’m already five years older I’m already in my grave

Will you carry me?
Oh Paddy, I think I’ve lost my way

The line “I’m already five years older, I’m already in my grave” is great, and Bowie’s repeated cryptic remarks during the outro, “Paddy, what a fantastic death abyss! Tell the others.” is full of suggestion as well. Other then those lines and the interstitial ‘quotes’ throughout the song, I think the vocals work better as instruments themselves then as communicating any concrete idea.

VNV Nation – Testament (Judgement, 2007)

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Alright, you’re in for a treat. VNV’s latest album boasts the ruthless lyrical social critique and driving instrumentation that I love them for. This whole song is more or less a rant about how much we’re fucking things up:

Procrastinating, pretending to worry
Solving problems by pushing them aside
Wasting time like we’ve all the time in the world

Deliberation instead of solution
Another term for blatant lies
Biding time like we’ve all the time in the world

What a way to start things off! You kind of suspect you’re in for a treat as soon as the song starts – the quiet little pad at the beginning, then the synth that bubbles up into a relentless percussion + crunchy synth line combo that easily carries you through the rest of the song, and doesn’t distract at all from the bold lyrics:

We conquer paradise just to burn it to the ground
And we build a future to honour pasts we left behind
We bring destruction, we bring war without an end
And then we live in hope that tomorrow never comes

Everything there is totally right, and something that everyone should think about – we’re making a total mess of a lot of things right now, and we always have. We become stronger then anything else on the planet, able to weather nearly any disaster, and what do we do with that power?

And if you think we’re the future, that we build tomorrow
When was the last day without war?
We speak of greatness we have never been

When was the last day without a war? The delivery there is a little spine-tingling, the slight quaver in his voice as he asks the question – and think about it, when was the last day without a war? Can you remember? We’ve been in the middle east for 6 years or so now, and that’s just the ‘current’ conflict – we were there, and all over before, and if it wasn’t us it was someone else. Humans like to mess things up.

Finally, towards 4:00, things drop off, and we get a weird little reflective section…

It’s just you and me now
It’s just you and me against the world

Sort of an odd way to end things, I think, enough of a departure from the previous feel that it feels off when that sound returns at 5:18. I kind of want that part cut off – so that the song barrels along, heaping scorn on humanity, and then just stops abruptly. Maybe I should try that and see what it looks like – that’s essentially what happens already at the end, but with that middle part cut out it might be better… although I will say that the departure does lend itself well to leading into a few other songs I can think of if one were so mixtape/mashup inclined.

This album, Judgement, is great, as is a compilation called Burning Empires - if you like this song, grab the others and give ‘em a listen, you’re sure to be satisfied.

Röyksopp – Remind Me (Someone Else’s Club Mix) music video

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This edit of the song isn’t readily available, and the music video is so good that I figured I’d ust post if off of youtube. From the outset, the track has a sense of forward motion – the tweaky synth squelch at the beginning, followed by the solid almost plodding coupling of catchy percussion and bouncy techno bassline.

The lyrics are interesting melancholy, and fit with the chording – a sort of quiet reflection on things, set to driving music:

It’s only been a week

the rush of being home and rapid fading

Failing to recall

What I was missing all that time in England

This is a great block of lyrics – “It’s only been a week, the rush of being home rapid fading.” It’s immediately accessible, since nearly anyone could immediately empathize with the sentiment of not being able to wait to get back home, and eventually realizing that home just isn’t what you remember it was. In this case, the narrator was on a trip to England, but now that he’s home, he can’t help thinking about leaving again.

brave men tell the truth

the wise man’s tools are analogies and puzzles

a woman holds her tongue

knowing silence will speak for her

There’s neat juxtaposition here – “brave men… wise men… a woman… speak for her…” the first to lines are male, the second two are female. “A woman holds her tongue, knowing silence will speak for her,” is another incredibly invocation line, conjuring an easily imaginable scene for the listener.

Finally, at 3:50, we think the song is over… and then, bam, a couple seconds later they can’t resist throwing us back into that acidy synth effect, for a brief encore before stopping for real – which sort of works with the forward-motion feeling of the song – like it might stop, for a second, but then it keeps driving forward.

Obviously, the music video is fantastic – the isometric motion design is by a French group called H5, who are good at what they do.

Covenant – Bullet (Northorn Light, 2002)

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This one is all about what happens at 1:34 – you think you’re done with the chorus, there’s the little bass break, and then it throws you into the bridge:

as the water grinds the stone
we rise and fall
as our ashes turn to dust
we shine like stars

“As the water grinds the stone, we rise and fall” is a fantastic line. There are some other good ones in here – “kisses on the dancefloor” and “we are the only ones who are dying”. It’s interesting too, the song seems to be split between two ideas: entropy, the inevitable passage of time and the weathering effect it has on existence; and a sort of stoic optimism in the face of that reality:

drowning in the flood of morning light
I’m only human just like you
do you hear the city waking up
I will survive and so will you

As usualy, Covenant’s synths feel like they’re rolling along, carrying the song and you with them, and the drums are precise, breaking things up into bite-sized peices. The piano line is a much appreciated accent to the afore-mentioned “water grinds the stone” section.

The Faint – Forever Growing Centipedes (Fasciination, 2008)

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Every time I move I’m in another dimension
Everything I do changes what I want
I see a choice I make explode in thousands of pieces 
Every time I choose I become a shard

I could step outside and walk in any direction
Everything I choose erases ghosts of potential 
But it makes some new ghosts that I can fill
I can just choose one as far as I can tell 

Forever growing centipedes
Forever growing centipedes, you and I

If you take the 1980 Atari Centipede arcade game and mix it with some thoughts on destiny/fate, you’ve got this song: until he reaches the point of decision, there are two equally viable futures that exist, and once he’s chosen, he lives on, while the other disapears. The little arcade SFX arpeggio (first instance at 0:14) that follows each ‘forever growing centipedes’ line is like the perfect little bit that ties this all together. The interplay between the vocals and instruments is precisely engineered, trading off back and forth as the song skips along. There’s also a sort an element of companionship in the lyrics:

You and me eating mushrooms together 
We’ll stretch out so long, and hope we don’t sever 

We could both grow up to be a hundred and fifty
But for now we are children together 

The verse at 2:14 is a great little quirky break, and the words continue to refer to the game. This song is just lots of fun to listen to.

The Faint – A Battle Hymn for Children (Fasciinatiion, 2008)

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As usual, The Faint are addressing a social issue: whether we’re ‘teaching’ or ‘training’ our children.

Teacher, bring me to heaven or leave me alone
Why make me work so hard when you know I work slow
Don’t make us watch you scrape more powder on the walls 
Show us a laser, take to space, or let us go 
We got violent games on pause at home

I love the wording, too – “show us a laser, take us to space – we’ve got violent games on pause at home,” that’s what kids want. While the instrumentation is great on this track, it’s the words that really matter:

Sergeant, I don’t remember how you said to deal with guilt 
I’m haunted by families, even ghosts of soldiers’ kids
Is it god against god and the pawns are people?
If they’re both the same god then the battle’s over

You gave us guns for toys
Imposed beliefs then pride 
We were taught that God prefers the U.S.A. 
Just like the billboard sign: “This is God’s country”
If it’s true that God roots for the U.S.A. 
Is every bomb we drop in God’s name?

The peppy drums and occasionally blippy snap-crackle-pop sound effect accent the accusations, and the whole thing ends up feeling pretty heavy in subject, but almost light musically.

Preacher, am I going to make it? Am I going up?
Am I forgiven for the humans I dropped?
It’s not like a game once the guilt piles up

All in all, it’s a beutiful song, probably my favorite (or tied-for-favorite) song on the album.