Category: techno

this is new: Ultrasound by Johnny Massacre

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First off, music video: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Ultrasound/

Fun from the beginning. The effects on the voice and those phased percussion is just a tad bit amateurish/’default presets’ sounding, but that’s not so much a bad thing – makes me think of the streets, lends some character. And no, not just because of the accent.

If you like it, buy it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0033T0XXE/ref=dm_ty_adp_rd?ie=UTF8&parent=B0033T1BWQ

MIA – Bucky Done Gun (Arular, 2005)

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MIA is quite an artist – her music is strikingly simply, yet unavoidably catchy. There are hooks that are just impossible to ignore.

Take for instance Bucky Done Gun, a song about child soldiers. Right off the bat, you get slapped hard with snappy snares, rumbling bass, and spunky female vocals – and then that iconic horn sample.

Bucky Done Gun
What you want
The Fire Done Burn
What you want
Bucky Done Gun
Get Crackin’ Get Get Crackin’

The breaks are repetitive – tom, tom, glitchy kick, snare, horns – but so satisfying! The cut up and remixed version at 1:53 really milks it to get the most out of the sample and sequence. It’s simple, short, but man – oh so very satisfying. Good for blasting when you’re stuck in traffic.

Kanye West – Heartless (808s and Heartbreaks, 2008)

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This was one of the best albums to come out in 2008, and it was totally unexpected for me – I wasn’t really (and I’m still not I guess) a big Kanye fan, considering he’s acted like a jerk on several occasions, but this album knows exactly how to get to me – auto-tuned vocals, the 808 drum machine, hop-hop that swings more towards funk/soul and electronic music then rap… so tasty.

It starts out strong – just listen to that gut-rumbling kick, and Kanye’s slightly FX’d vocals:

In the night, I hear ‘em talk, 
the coldest story ever told 
Somewhere far along this road, he lost his soul to a woman so heartless…
How could you be so heartless? 

So the intro is the chorus, and all it takes is a clap and a caliope-sounding staccato chord line to moves us into the verse:

How could you be so, cold as the winter wind when it breeze, yo 
Just remember that you talkin’ to me though 
You need to watch the way you talkin’ to me, yo 
I mean after all the things that we’ve been through 
I mean after all the things we got into 
Hey yo, I know of some things that you ain’t told me 
Hey yo, I did some things but that’s the old me 

I’m not sure why the ‘street’ vocabulary doesn’t annoy me – normally a lot of that sort of slang turns me off, but in this context, “afta’ all da tings dat we been do, afta all da tings we got into” sounds… I don’t know, it sounds refined, almost cultured, like the narrator is trying to be reasonable with his girl, which I’m sure is exactly what it’s supposed to sound like. It works. The perky yet minimal hits that hit towards the end of the verse, into the chorus, keep with the ‘less is more’ approach that a lot of the tracks on this album take.

There’s more good lyrical candy in the second verse:

How could you be so Dr. Evil, you bringin’ out a side of me that I dont know… 
I decided we weren’t gon’ speak so 
Why we up 3 A.M. on the phone 
Why does she be so mad at me fo’ 
Homie I dont know, she’s hot and cold 

“How could you be so Doctor Evil?” Good stuff – and the short conversational “Why do she be so made at me fo? Homie I don’t know, she’s hot and cold,” line is so appealing, as far as the rythem and meaning goes.

And then there’s the bridge, where things get super grunged out for a second on the line, “and we jus’ gon’ be enemies.” It’s a nice quick break, before we get back to the chorus. That’s basicly all there is – no additional instrumentation, just some auto-tuned vocalizing.

I think a lot of my attraction to this song comes from its minimalism, and the fact that it’s telling a story. This is established in the first chorus right up front: “In the night, I hear ‘em talk, the coldest story ever told, somewhere far along this road, he lost his soul – to a woman so heartless…” It’s almost like a ghost story. This is good stuff.

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.