Can you do it all with the voice?

1. Instrumental music

2. Music where the lyrics are totally unintelligible (i.e. death metal grunting)

3. Music in a language I don't speak

well, instruments are divine tools.

Haven't heard of Sainkho Namtchylak tho

actually, bimble started a thread for me once (i think it was bimble?) about monk. sounds like really interesting work - i have to give it a shot soon.

i am very unfamiliar with her, but i worry that she won't have enough of that for me. could be way off.

i mean, imagine taking a really beautiful and intricate choral piece and layering it with some synths and beats. i know that is different from my original post, but wouldn't that be neat??

i know this might seem ridiculous, but i would love to take that piece, layer it with some synths, beats and like a new mother's cooing voice

BUT, like you said, it depends. a more tasteful interpretation of that could be really great.

"the principle of lust... is hard to understand"

it might be time to dig through my cassettes

I've got a nice album of a mass by Arvo Part round here somewhere. I think that's all choral too.

i do think Enigma's beats undermine the grandeur of the chants. but maybe some slight percussion, or very subtle synth work

might enhance them. maybe. but there is something about that kind of vocal work that demands the sensuality of a silent canvas.

as for people who orchestrate using overdubs to build something that sounds like more like an ensemble than just a chorus, here's a short list:

luciano berio / cathy berberian - omaggio a joyce
joan labarbra - voice is the original instrument
phil minton - a doughnut in both hands
david moss - my favorite things
fatima miranda - concierto en canto
demetrio stratos - cantare la voce
maja ratkje - voice
ami yoshida - tiger thrush
dokaka - online mp3s

apart from dokaka, who covers pop songs & replicates every drum fill & guitar part using his voice, most of those people are exploring explicitly vocal techniques, not emulative, they're taking the voice further out.

lately, my fave vocals records are just straight vocals: eva quartet, suden aika, gesualdo choral stuff, varttina vocal stuff, charming hostess vocal stuff

y'know what's super, super good --- paul van nevel's recording of brumel: http://www.amazon.com/Brumel-terrae-Sequentia-Huelgas-Ensemble/dp/B00006GO7C

there's this really beautiful imogen heap song, i don't know what it's called - it starts, "what the hell is going on." all vocal, all harmonies - really, really beautiful. i don't know anything else by her, but that song sold me right away.

I've wanted to get this for a while now, but 24 bucks is a bit much for something I've not heard a single note of.

rather, i'm interested in songs that make use of the voice, and only the voice, in whatever way - digital included, perhaps even especially. i love special effects on vocals, it just seems so resourceful to me.

yes.

'hide and seek' is indeed amazing but sadly the rest of heap's songs are mostly rather mediocre trip-hop which makes her voice sound a lot more insipid than it actually is.

milton, do you know the Five Men Singing album?

yes.

i wonder when i'll figure out how to post images.

I just mean the kind of chants that have synthesizers all over them. Yeah.

By the way, to post images, just type in IMG="linktoimagehere.jpg", with a less-than sign to the left, and a greater-than sign to the right.

again it all depends though. subtle synths underlining chant *could* be nice, if done tastefully.

IMG SRC="linktoimagehere.jpg", with the less-than and greater-than signs on the ends.

a question: why is some vocal manipulation considered respectable and experimental (ie what's already been mentioned) and other vocal manipulation disdained (eg...protools! britney!)?

LOL britney... you mean like on "stronger"? i think it's just cuz the compositions are godawful

Sainkho Namtchylak, some doo-wop stuff, Cage's Sixty-Two Mesostics Re Merce Cunningham, Pigmeat Markham, Jaap Blonk, stuff from the Hollerin' comp, the Beach Boys "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring", a Gregory Whitehead radio play, Inuit field recordings, Ligeti's vocal works, Mike Patton, Bobby McFerrin, Masonna, Kurt Schwitters, Hugo Ball, stuff from Alan Lomax's Sounds of the South comp ... probably my fave radio show of any I ever did...

in that case, I think the issue would be over manipulating Britney's vocals to be in tune *because she can't otherwise do it herself* -- an argument being that were she a better singer, they wouldn't have to "correct" her. alternatively, manipulating someone's voice because the sound you want is fundamentally *not* the natural singing voice is different; not a matter of covering one's tracks, but of forging completely different ones as a matter of concept

but then again, a lot of it is a matter of taste -- and better to hear a bad singer sing in tune than not, right?

britney's recorded voice is hardly a natural singing voice! it's in tune, and it's a radio-friendly sound, but it doesn't sound particularly human.

LOL britney... you mean like on "stronger"? i think it's just cuz the compositions are godawful

this is bullshit! you mention medúlla in your first post, and i really like medúlla, but if you're going to big up an album which has three strong compositions max on it, you can't slate 'stronger' which is a pretty massive tune.

the synths in it sound like R2D2 on ecstasy.

when i say composition, i don't mean just the melody. there's also the instrumentation, the lyrics, bla bla bla. i'd rather hear bjork moan than britney yelp about how much stronger she is

ANY day. and don't get me wrong, i'm not a pop hater. i love pop music. i do love christina aguilera, mariah carey, madonna. and i have to tell you, i just bought britney spears' first album because it kinda rocks. sad truth is, she plummeted downhill from there.

oh and plus? she doesn't write *crap*. even if all bjork can come up with is her and her friends making puke noises, at least it's hers.

is not even that great. i mean it's like catchy, and it sounds kinda empowered and all that. but she should have left it to cher in the '80s. nothing innovative.

if this is your idea of a bad thing...

i could easily call a massive tune. and video. hehe

in my mind, the opposite is true: someone who likes Medulla probably won't like Stronger too much

yes also to Diamanda! Do you actually like/listen to any of her work, Lex?

I think we are hardwired to respond to voice stimuli to a certain degree. The overtones have power.

had never heard of it -- it looks promising, those are good vocalists

would love to hear that radio show of yours, stormy

and Tim, I actually can't remember if FFJ recorded an a capella piece or not ... I grabbed that from my list of notes and not the final playlist..

Did Scatman Crowthers ever Scat? I only know him from his safe presence in the Shining...