Animation, Art, and Other Shiny Things
Quality animation and electronica!
Caffeine by Brandt Brauer Frick
As readers of this blog know I’ve eschewed cable tv in favor of online content. One of my main suppliers is Hulu.com and last week I came across a documentary called Reformat the Planet about the popularity and culture of “Chiptunes“. It’s a thoroughly entertaining look into the music and worth the watch.
Remember those songs and sound effects your Nintendo made? Use those sounds, and even the console itself, and make music. That pretty much kicked off the genre in the late 70’s.
While it won’t land on my regular playlist (often), it is well done stuff and is a pretty deep genre. For a quick listen:
Being an old computer geek most of my computer music has been the sound of the hardware. Who hasn’t drummed a beat along with the impact printer? Early scanners and floppy drives had great rhythm too. Someone got creative old school in this next video:
There is yet to be a version of Windows released that I truly liked (w2k wasn’t too bad, I guess…) but if nothing else, the sound files can be useful:
You don’t think I’d pass up even the flimsiest of excuses to drop a Daft Punk video in, do you?
…and merely an honorary digression.
A rock tossed into the pond to break up the lack of posts for a few days. With apologies. Well, ok, not really.
In any event, I was hoping to finish a post tonite but it decided to get all idea-ful or something and it wants another page or so. Sucks for me too…
In the mean time, a video from a new fave band of mine – Ra
In honor of Dave Brubeck’s 90th birthday today his most notable work; “Take Five”. The tune was actually written by Paul Desmond, saxophonist and long-time band mate. (playing the sax in this clip, as a matter of fact)
Brubeck has been a prolific composer over the years and played alot with odd time signatures in his music. Don’t worry if you don’t know the term, you’ll recognize it when you hear it. “Time Out” is a record full of examples.
I’m kinda partial to his Late Night’s at the Blue Note albums and the Charlie Brown tunes, but his 60-some year career has gems buried all the way through it.
He almost became a Veterinarian…
…but transferred on the urging of the head of zoology, Dr Arnold, who told him “Brubeck, your mind’s not here. It’s across the lawn in the conservatory. Please go there. Stop wasting my time and yours.” Later, Brubeck was nearly expelled when one of his professors discovered that he could not read music. Several of his professors came forward, arguing that his ability with counterpoint and harmony more than compensated. The college was still afraid that it would cause a scandal, and agreed to let Brubeck graduate only after he promised never to teach piano.
I certainly hope the irony was not lost on his professors as Brubeck’s career progressed…
Dave Brubeck also stood up for his fellow musicians. The Dave Brubeck Quartet was integrated and some clubs owners didn’t like it. (this was back before the civil rights laws of 1964) He canceled his concerts at their clubs, as well as a TV appearance when he found out the black musicians in his band would be left off-camera.
Go here for a great article on a concert he did just last week at the Blue Note, then pop on over to Youtube and watch some great videos of one of the great musicians of all time.
There’s a series of CDs that have been coming into the library over the past while that caught my attention with the sheer incongruity of the juxtaposition of elements.
The Rockabye Baby! series of lullaby renditions of heavy metal artists. Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Tool, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith – the list goes on.
It’s tough to wrap my mind around the thought of my infant drifting off to sleep to the soft strains of “Pet” (…counting bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums…) or “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails (I won’t be quoting those lyrics, thankyouverymuch), and the Sabbath song “Fairies Wear Boots” seems particularly cruel as a lullaby.
I did grab the ‘Renditions of Tool’ CD and gave it a bit of a listen and I do have to admit that I didn’t howl in pain after the first 3 notes, but I can’t say it’ll get into my play-list rotation.
Truth be told, even if they had been around when The Z was a wee one they wouldn’t have hit the cassette player. He got the full dose of Aerosmith and Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Also quite alot of Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, and Steve Khan, as well as a good helping of fusion jazz. In a range like that you can always find something the kid’ll like whatever his toddler-muddied mood. You gotta work with what you got.
I guess on one level I can understand the proud parent wanting to create that special ‘connection through generational-spanning music’ or some sort of rationale for subjecting their spawn to syrupy covers of perfectly good music. No elevator required! Bonus!
On the other hand I can’t see a reason to potentially stunt or delay the sprout’s burgeoning music appreciation abilities. I wasn’t one to talk baby-talk to The Z for much the same reason. You aren’t surprised, I’d imagine. In any event, The Z did turn out with a pretty varied taste in tunage and I didn’t end up with a box of tapes to dispose of along the way.
Now, I’m not one to try and talk you out of picking up one of these fabulous tinkly re-treads, in fact let me be the first to suggest you also pick up a copy of Pat Boone’s “In a Metal Mood”. You’ll love it.
While you wait for the next post… 🙂
There is a completely awesome Wiki entry for this song too!
I’ll leave it for you to decide…
A most excellent video for my first successful embed. Wore out a few tapes of this when it was new…
(My original post is at shelftalk.spl.org)
Bombay Dub Orchestra – Take a fully orchestrated Bollywood soundtrack, chop it up, chill it down and this is what you get. A 2-disc set, the second disc is remixes of disc 1. A very well done mix of base genres.
Mocean Worker is worth mentioning again. And again. A New York club DJ, Adam Dorn combines swing and jazz samples in a pure funk sauce. Portions of his stuff have been used in Lincoln car commercials. Cinco de Mowo is one of his best. You will not want to get between me and a record store when he releases a new album…
I hesitate to lump Enigma and Delerium together, but if you ever decide to have one of those “lost weekends” these two bands are the ready soundtrack for it. Delerium is generally a bit more ambient and can lean pretty far into trance, whereas Enigma is a bit more funky and likes to toss in a Gregorian Chant now and again and who doesn’t enjoy a good Gregorian Chant?
The Brit band Massive Attack pretty much defined the term “trip hop”, a neo-soul dub sound. Their Mezzanine album put them on the map here in the US. Having gone through a half dozen or so evolutions since their debut in the late 80’s there is some speculation as to whether they’ll be able to release a new album (due later this year) in full rather than a smattering of singles.
Orbital is a pair of British brothers that were big drivers of the acid house and ambient trance scene in the early 90’s. Mean beats, heavy synth, and a bit of Middle Eastern influence marks this band. Though they broke up in 2004 (rumors abound, however) they were pretty prolific, releasing 13 albums.
It’s impossible to even think about electronica without the duo Crystal Method coming to mind. CM makes it clear what “big beat” electronica is all about and beats you bigly with it. While many equate the band’s name with certain illegal, and downright scary, substances, the actual reference is to a girl. (Scarier by far, in my opinion…) Both guys had a crush on the same girl, Crystal coincidently, and after bemoaning the fact to a producer they were working with the producer blurted out the money quote “Ah, the Crystal method…” Take any of their albums and you might as well superglue your CD player’s door closed as it will be all you ever need. If you absolutely must make a choice try Legion of Boom or Vegas.
Finally, if you just want to stick a digital digit into the mix and sample some samplers a couple compilation albums that are well worth a listen are the Hackers soundtrack volume 1 and 2 – Stereo MC’s, Underworld, Carl Cox, Orbital, Moby, and Empiron are on these albums. ‘nuff said…
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