Favorite Moments (1): Glimpsing the circuitry

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Does anyone remember in the old "Six Million Dollar Man" and "Bionic Woman" shows, how just about every episode has this moment where bionic-person has been injured and suddenly their companion freaks out when they discover that the person they thought they knew is actually ... bionic!

So, I’m noticing how something that really excites me in a lot of music right now is analogous to that -- those moments when the "sound of technology" intervenes into a musical world you’ve perceived as human/acoustic/natural.

One way this happens is when a tune transitions from the feel of a conventional "song" into the feel of a techno/house track, and the vocal track gets caught in a loop, precipating the change: My Computer, "For Somebody Else"; Chemical Brothers w/Beth Orton, "Where Do I Begin".

Other times, you only get a glimpse and then it’s gone, like the suddenly-chopped-up and/or pitch-bent acoustic guitar strums in "Yoshimi battles ... Pt. 1" and Madonna’s "Don’t Tell Me" -- although this last one’s a constant thing more than a moment. And in The Delgado’s "Woke from Dreaming," when the bottom drops out at the end of the piano intro. Even the vocoder/pitch-correction "interventions" in tracks like Cher’s "Believe" probably count, although I can’t say they really "excite" me...

Anyway, I really like these moments, so tell me about more of them.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Thursday, 3 April 2003 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I think a corollary is when characters break into song during a musical. The verisimillitude is broken and things go all hyper-real.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 3 April 2003 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

or when you see a bit of the boom in a porno.

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 3 April 2003 23:13 (twenty-two years ago)

this is actually a good thread. i just.can't.think.of.anything.right.now

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 3 April 2003 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

How about this? I like it in "Lick Shots" when the guitar/bass/kick stuff gets broken into by all that ominous arpeggiated synthesizer action, it's like something's going to take over. But it doesn't: eventually the original shuffly stuff settles into a slightly competitive alliance with the tech noises, as if they're having a dance contest or something, and as the song ends I kind of wonder what will happen, after their ship's passed over the horizon—what will happen between them AFTER the song ends.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 3 April 2003 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes!

And MBGATE by Max Tundra is another that shifts course -- the backup vocals that arrive shortly before this change are kind of chopped up already but they really change character once the transition occurs.

And a totally different kind of example: Mario Davidovksy's Synchonisms 11 for Guitar and Computer-generated sound, where the guitar plays unaccompanied for maybe three minutes and then you don't notice the first entry of the computer part until you start realizing that a few of the guitar notes are sustaining for way too long...

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Thursday, 3 April 2003 23:29 (twenty-two years ago)

hahaha speaking of which, Axl's voice at the end of "Don't Cry"!!

S Reynolds played a particularly funky record at Bar Below recently where a saxophone seamlessly turned into something else (and poss. went back into being a sax?). Maybe he could pop in and tell us what it was.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 3 April 2003 23:35 (twenty-two years ago)

(at first I thought gaz was using some unfamiliar euphemism for naughty bits -- like, "she got all drunk and flashed me a bit of the boom last night" -- but if it's porn you're bound to see more than just a bit...)

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Thursday, 3 April 2003 23:51 (twenty-two years ago)

"Fancy a bit of the boom?"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 3 April 2003 23:53 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc500/c533/c53342u878r.jpg

Tbe opening sound on the track "Mask" on this album (Babyland's criminally unsung and brilliantly titled You Suck Crap) is the sound of a MacIntosh "Mac Classic" power up: "pa-DING!"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 3 April 2003 23:54 (twenty-two years ago)

not only was there a huge boom in shot, the clapper and best boy were also exposed.

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 4 April 2003 00:05 (twenty-two years ago)

as its on my mind at the moment: i like the bit in the Terry Riley thing with Chet Baker when it first starts to slip and you realise it isn't just a jazz quartet playing live.

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 4 April 2003 00:08 (twenty-two years ago)

what album is that terry riley/ chet baker thing from?

i LOVE LOVE LOVE the "you're no good" album where he takes a soul track and warps the fuck out of it. too bad the cd is always 30$
http://aquariusrecords.org/images/rileyourcd.jpg
http://aquariusrecords.org/audio/rileynogood.rm

― JasonD (JasonD), Friday, 4 April 2003 00:18 (twenty-two years ago)

its on Music for the Gift. I dunno how hard it is to get. It also has Bird of Paradise on it which AMG describe as "an early example of "plunderphonics," with heavy R&B soul jams, pop tunes, classical music, and who knows what else cut and looped with noise and effects, making them nearly unrecognizable by playing with different speeds and sonorities" which might be right up your street too

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 4 April 2003 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Both records are available here:

http://www.cortical.org/

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 4 April 2003 00:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Processing vocal samples with granular synthesis definitely sounds somewhat bionic, although in alot of electronic music it is the other way around as one starts to sense audio glimpses of humanity in what seems as circuit.

An example I was listening to today at work is these weird breathy grainy samples on a Monolake track called "Bicom", at first it sounds almost like heavily treated sandpapery percussion and as it develops you start to hear whispers of words that cannot completely be comprehended, at least as words.

This kind of vocal processing is kind of a dsp version of what Reich does with tape on something like "It's Gonna Rain".

― earlnash, Friday, 4 April 2003 01:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I love it when you can hear the tape hiss before a song starts and after it finishes. Sometimes even during the song ready for an overdub then the extra hiss stops after the overdub. In Utero is brilliant for that.

― mei (mei), Friday, 4 April 2003 05:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Have I mentioned that I love fret noises? Tis a wonder to me
that engineers spent decades trying to eradicate fret noise -
and pick noise, for that matter, and other juicy glimpses of circuitry. I especially dig the fret noise of Paul Macca,
circa 1968.

Heavily distorted fret noise can be annoying, though.
And some guitarists take it all too far - they barely play
anything _but_.

Oh yeah, to those who don't know what "fret noise" is,
it's the sound of fingers sliding into position on a
guitar or base, prior to the sounding of a note.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Friday, 4 April 2003 05:35 (twenty-two years ago)

maintenant nous sommes tous IDM

― dave q, Friday, 4 April 2003 08:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Speaking of fret noises (which I also love) - I love the sound of a melodian - because you can hear the percussiveness of the keys being pressed - often times louder than the sound the instrument makes (Nico, Ivor Cutler)

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 4 April 2003 11:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Harmonium, rather.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 4 April 2003 11:20 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a part in Coldcut's 'ColdKrushCuts' mix where a flamenco guitar solo is digitally tweaked. I can't remember the artist or track name...anybody else no what I'm talking about?

― oops (Oops), Friday, 4 April 2003 13:48 (twenty-two years ago)

The big, glaring fret noises on Sade's "By Your Side" do a nice job of undercutting the "cold, sterile, perfume advertisement" quality for which her music is so often criticized.

― EC, Friday, 4 April 2003 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

The main reason that the Zombies' "She's Not There" is my second-favorite song of all time is the HUGE breath Colin Blunstone has to take in the second chorus. He's exhausted after that really long line ending in "the colour of her hair," but he's also just so incredibly sad and melancholy and bereft of hope that it's like a backwards sigh. That one breath turns a perfectly constructed pop song into a work of existential beauty.

I also like it when Ella Fitzgerald forgets the words to "Mack the Knife" on the Ella in Berlin album, so she makes up better ones...and they rhyme! (Probably contrived and planned in advance, but still kick-ass.)

― Neudonym, Friday, 4 April 2003 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I've got an awesome track by Max Tundra that starts off sounding like Shellac and ends up sounding like Matthew Herbert. Genius.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Friday, 4 April 2003 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

"Ain't Changing," the first track on Recloose's "Cardiology": the vocalist takes a huge, noisy breath as if were about to sing a really long note. Then he does sing such a note, but it's been electronically stretched & looped in a totally blatant fashion. It's a nice little bit of dry audio comedy.

― EC, Friday, 4 April 2003 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I meant Herbert. Who the fuck is Matthew Herbert? Must stop smoking lead.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Friday, 4 April 2003 14:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Matthew Herbert IS Herbert. Keep smoking dat lead!

― oops (Oops), Friday, 4 April 2003 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Can't . . . . . breathe . . . . firey . . . . . pipes. . . . making my throat . . . . implode . . . . must . . . .

No hang on this is so bad for my health it's ridiculous. Think'll move on to tin. No, wait. Asbestos. Nice, creamy high off asbestos.

Did I mention I like Hermann and Dorfmeister? Why am I such a forgetful bishop?

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Matthew Herbert is NOT Herbert. Matthew Herbert is a DJ. Herbert is a producer and musician. They do happen to share the same body.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Now I'm confused. Should I move on to plutonium? Mmm. Flavour.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Friday, 4 April 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

i can't believe no one's mentioned miles davis yet

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 4 April 2003 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Would you like to?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 4 April 2003 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

i believe i shall.

i was listening to on the corner yesterday - it makes for uncomfortable bicycle riding listening, take it from me, royce mccutchen - and there was this moment somewhere within the first track when the whole thing seemed to shudder, the sitar-drone stayed constant across both channels and the bass/drums seemed to skip-click between my ears. or maybe vice versa. 70s miles is full of wonderful moments like this. also, can, although their edits were a lot more purposefully "seamless."

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 4 April 2003 16:32 (twenty-two years ago)

one of the things i love most about 70s miles - its also among its claims to "revolutionary" or "ahead of its time" status, which makes me suspicious - is how miles got these obv virtuoso musicians to play purposefully non-virtuoso music, INCLUDING teo macero...here's a man who's whole professional life had been devoted to (not lost) art of magnetic tape editing, who was liberated (or liberated himself...teo obv deserves as much credit for 70s miles as miles himself) by allowing the rough edges, the split ends to show, drawing attention to magicians tricks, the physical quality of the tape itself. (see also: richard maxfield, employed at similar - editing hundreds of takes of orchestral performances into one seamless whole - which allowed him to get all grimey on his own shit without looking like amateur hour with the push-button pauses.)

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 4 April 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

well you all can kiss my grits

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 4 April 2003 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

It just occurred to me that there's a whole genre composed of virtually nothing but these moments: DUB

― oops (Oops), Friday, 4 April 2003 21:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Lynskey, I think the Max Tundra track you're talking about might be MBGATE (latest album's title track, if you you unpack the abbreviation) -- that's the one I mentioned up thread

I'd be even more confident about this if I knew what Shellac sounds like (MBGATE starts out really sparse, lots of empty space with heavy drums and brief electric guitar gestures -- and the bridge into the house-y part involves a momentary synthbrass fanfare)

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Saturday, 5 April 2003 04:25 (twenty-two years ago)

jess: I posit that Miles' mid-to-late-60s quintet was like this too, to a certain extent, even though it's clear that they were recording these records all together instead of piecemeal. He pushed Williams and Hancock so hard on E.S.P. and Miles Smiles that they started to crack--tons of "extra" noises and "accidents" left in. Ornette probably showed him the way (his protestations to the contrary) but he was able to make these really professional musicians play as grimily as they were capable of, and then gave up to start all over with "rock" instrumentation. Get Up With It might be as out of control as On the Corner.
Henry Threadgill is all over here too.

― Neudonym, Saturday, 5 April 2003 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

yr right of course: i had a whole post here which gotten eaten by evil ilx gremlins, but basically it was that my knowledge of miles pre-in a silent way is patchy at best but someone needs to do a critical-redo of the mid-late 60s stuff to get it out of the clammy, mannered hands of k degiorgio types.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 5 April 2003 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

f*ck i'm not sure...extra noises, accidents, grimy playing? maybe i'm listening too hard for the actual compositions on those second quintet records. they baffle me and i love them. or maybe Tony Williams is a genius or something. that shit *sounds* complex, like you need a phd in the musical equivalent of quantum physics to play it.

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, 6 April 2003 09:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I think sun ra could be an answer to this.

when he gets the band playing a tune and they start improvising on that then he does cut in with synthesizer/moog sounds and alomsot disrupting things, almost like being an annoyance to the other musicians but i suspect it keeps them on their toes.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 6 April 2003 11:04 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.