What are you listening to?

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What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

A heap of years ago I went through a musical identity crisis. During that time shit like Britney Spears was on the rise, and I was getting completely fed up with music in general. I am of the opinion that the best era for pop/rock music was the 90's, up until her first single came out, but I also loved 80's and 70's stuff too. Anyway, I started focusing on family and stopped listening even to the radio, and one day in a fit of rage I sold every single CD I had. Now that I have kids I find that I am drawn back to music, and goddam if they are not making some great stuff right now. Though I'd start a(nother) thread on this, just to see what you all have on the ear buds.

Lately I've been enthralled by The Decemberists new album The King is Dead. Excellent folk/rock.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

I went through a similar thing, for years I stopped listening to all "pro" music (years), no radio, very little for CDs, I was only interested in local bands - there's just so much more passion when you know the people and see them build it themselves - note that video I just posted at Jacurutu. If you just heard it, then it;s just some neat progressive hardcore/metal, but I was there when the car crash happened, I went around my school pulling people out of classrooms to tell them their friends had died... that kind of shit adds an experience to the music that is on another PLANET compared to most of my other experiences. Even without super serious shit like that I've always been more into local bands.

Then at some point it got worse, I stopped being in a band myself and went through a year or so of basically not listening to music. I knew I liked metal, but it was all junk, the same shit over and over and over. Then my friend gave me back my faith in heavy music with 2 bands. Arsis and Between the Buried and Me. Arsis is basically deathmetal-ish (I normally hate all things deathmetal) but very very prog, very catchy too, they actually have hooks in their songs. BtBaM is serious prog fair, more or less the best of the best of prog. Those 2 bands brought me back to life.

I've always enjoyed a lot of rock too though, I just never seem to buy it and listen to it, I just serious dig it when it comes on the radio. Stuff like Moist (David is killer), more recently Matthew Good (wonderful, wonderful)... and I've really just started liking a lot of this "indie" stuff (not really independant but whatever, genres have dumb names). I really like the production in indie music, the tones they use are great, I'd love to bring indie rock sounds to metal recordings.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Serkanner »

I "rediscovered" a seventies Dutch prog band ... this is my favourite song by Earth and Fire with lead singer Jerney Kaagman .. she is HOT!!!

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Is that a Bosch painting in the background?
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

...Between the Buried and Me...
I just listened to the first 10 minutes of Colors (Arggh!!! They spelt it wrong! :wink: )

:shock=:

Why have I not heard these guys before ?!?

I guess you could call this prog, but I'm not totally certain of the genre, Gavin Harrison and 05Ric:

Unsettled (requires QuickTime)

Here's a lower quality version on YouTube:

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Ampoliros »

I've had Velvet Underground on all day to get the taste of Imelda May out of my mind. My boss has shit taste in music, preferring bubblegum pop or fake jazz crooners. Everyone mocks him for it and it seems to genuinely offend him that people make fun of a 52 year old man who listens to tween rock.

I mistakenly downloaded the free "Beady Eye" single off of itunes. Someone needs to beat the Gallagher bros to death with a sock full of rusty nails, just so Lennon and Harrison can beat them back to life again. I couldn't listen to more than about 20 seconds of it before I deleted it off my hard drive. They have actually managed to capture the sound of a grown man's desperation to be an artistic legend by replication of a dead music legend's sound.

It sounded exactly like KJA's soul.

Another band I've recently discovered is Hockey. Their debut albums is pretty darn good imho.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Robspierre »

Right now I've been listening to:

Sons & Daughters
Dropkick Murphy's: Going Out In Style
Satyrian: Eternitas
Jpop from the original Bubblegum Crisis/Crash/AD Police soundtracks from the 80's.


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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Listening to Noel Gallagher's live solo album The Dreams We Have As Children. Paul Weller sings a few on that one.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Forgot to mention, I found my old copy of When I Was Born For The Seventh Time by Cornershop a few weeks ago when I started reconstructing everything that had been languishing on my hard drive. Man I love that album. Good To Be On The Road Back Home Again. Brimful of Asha. Indian Tobacco. Excellent album.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Serkanner »

Omphalos wrote:Is that a Bosch painting in the background?
I have honestly no idea.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

SadisticCynic wrote:
...Between the Buried and Me...
I just listened to the first 10 minutes of Colors (Arggh!!! They spelt it wrong! :wink: )

:shock=:

Why have I not heard these guys before ?!?
That was exactly my reaction man, listen to that whole album end to end (since every song blends into the next one it's really just one big hour and seventeen minute "piece") and you'll want to cry you'll be so happy. You can see how they pretty much singlehandedly restored my faith in heavy music.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Ampoliros »

Has anyone here had an actual physical reaction to music? Bad music sets off my temper, so much so that I get headaches. With as much crap music as I here from day to day I'm actually starting to get worried about it.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Ampoliros wrote:Has anyone here had an actual physical reaction to music? Bad music sets off my temper, so much so that I get headaches. With as much crap music as I here from day to day I'm actually starting to get worried about it.
I stop listening before it gets that bad, but like I said above, a near decade of shit did really piss me off one day.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

I don't think I've ever had those experiences. I don't listen to music at all unless it's what I own, has been recommended or when I'm exploring for a new band. I gave up on any kind of popular music after I heard metal. I've gotten headaches from bad music being played too loud though, e.g. at a gym. But that probably would've happened regardless of the music. Occasionally some music is so embarrassingly bad I cringe - Shakira's voice is a good example.

On the other side, sometimes I get shivers down my back from particularly beautiful pieces of music.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Oh a place to rant about music.... good, I need to let loose a good music rant!

I've been having some friction at work lately due to the fact that most of my co-workers are slaves to the corporate American music machine that inundates us with the most inane, artless, dumbed-down garbage imaginable. I think these people have been listening to this shit for so long their senses have been deadened and they no longer even have the capacity to make a distinction between good and bad music. Their attitude seems to be, if it's on the radio it must be good. While my attitude is, just about everything on the radio these days is utterly worthless. And I get seriously offended when I have to listen to other people's crap music; really, there's very little in life that pisses me off more. I can't tune it out, my brain just doesn't work that way. And we're not allowed to use headphones at work, but certain people in certain areas are allowed the use of radios, so it sucks.

And what's with these radio stations that play a bunch of different styles all mixed up? Have you heard these? We've got a few around here. You'll hear a rock song, followed by a rap "song," followed by a pop song, followed by maybe a heavier rock song, followed by a hip hip song, etc etc. I can't tell you how much this attempt at political correctness disgusts me. It's as if we're being told that to be "open-minded" we must listen to and enjoy all kinds of music. Fuck that. And I truly can't stand people who say they can "listen to anything." Damn it, have some opinions; you're defined both by your likes and your dislikes. I don't care if your tastes match mine, but if you say there's no music you dislike, I reserve the right to believe you're a robot, not a human being.

Now where was I......

I went through one of those musical crises too, a number of years ago. Somewhere around the mid-90's it seems like music went off the rails. Instead of going where it should have gone, instead it went off into some alternate bizarro universe. I don't know how else to describe it. Music (American popular music) just made no sense any more, had no creativity any more, had no balls any more. By the end of the 90's I had pretty much stopped listening to music altogether. I hadn't bought a CD in years, and many of those I had bought years before I got bored with and sold. By the way, I've known numerous other people around my age who had this same kind of reaction to music in the mid-to-late 90's. It's not just me, there was a serious disturbance in the Force going on there.

I think it was somewhere around 2003 when I became seriously fed up with this state of affairs. I had an idea that there just had to be great music out there, somewhere, hiding in the shadows of the big record companies and their servants, the radio stations. I decided to use this wonderful tool I'm using right now -- the internet -- to do some research. And you know what? I found a few great bands I had never heard of before. And those few led me to more, and on and on. And suddenly I was really in love with music again.

So I listen to a lot of music these days. But I listen to very little American music. I think American society is very arrogant in viewing other societies as inferior; for Americans, pop culture is to be exported, not imported. Oh well, those who see it that way are missing out on a lot of great stuff. In particular, what passes for metal in modern America is truly sad, just a bunch of guys grunting and trying so hard to sound badass (and failing); the center of the metal world is definitely in Europe now, especially in Scandinavia. Probably 90% of what I listen to nowadays comes out of Europe (this being primarily rock and metal, though I like some other stuff too).

Ok, I guess that's enough ranting for now.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Himachil »

I don't think mixed up radio is driven by political correctness, I'd guess they'd market it as "we don't just play the same old shit" - go beyond a restrictive genre/company playlist. TBH, if you're forcing me to listen to your shit radio, something that doesn't repeat the same songs every hour is welcome in my book.

At work we have a dedicated Spotify computer hooked up to some speakers in the main workshop - because it's not actually someone's personal computer you get lots of different people putting on all sorts of bizarre shit. If anything too awful gets put on you can sneakily change the playlist - there's no hierarchy to it. It's a pretty good system :)

It's funny what you said about the 90s - I didn't listen to any music from the early 90s to around 2000, when I downloaded my first mp3 :) The internet, and podcasts are awesome music tools.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

I think he's got a point, though the impetus is probably not to be politically correct per se, but rather to appeal to those who are; guilty enough by association, I suppose. Now that being said, last night I ripped some Oasis, some Wayne Newton, and Stankonia, by OutKast. I am of the opinion that despite corporate bullshit some good stuff does come out of those folks who work with/for them. I'm also very sensitive to production values. If a piece of music has low production values, I usually stay away even if it's otherwise good, or has something interesting to say.
At work we have a dedicated Spotify computer hooked up to some speakers in the main workshop - because it's not actually someone's personal computer you get lots of different people putting on all sorts of bizarre shit. If anything too awful gets put on you can sneakily change the playlist - there's no hierarchy to it. It's a pretty good system
Raggy runs one of those too over the internet. Something like 8 jillion songs and counting.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

I don't think it has anything at all to do with being PC, it's the same as junk fiction, junk TV, junk food. Most people want simple entertainment, not real art - supply and demand for the masses.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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Omphalos wrote: If a piece of music has low production values, I usually stay away even if it's otherwise good, or has something interesting to say.
Really? I know we have different tastes but some of the best records in my collection have less than stellar production. Raw production sometimes works very well with some heavy music. I do find that music which has been over-produced can be harder to listen to though.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Eyes High »

It actually depends on what mood I'm in at the time.

I would say mostly 'old school' stuff in the majority of the genres but I have heard some of the newer stuff that I liked.

The main things about a song that would turn me off from it would be the lyrics. If there is an excessive amount of cursing or degrading of women (or any group) I change the channel.

If the music is good but the lyrics are trash, then just give me the instrumental version of the song.
If the lyrics are good but the music suck, well the lyrics might make a nice poem.
However, if both are decent but the artist/band can sing/play worth a lick, then there 'another one bites the dust.'

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

SadisticCynic wrote:
Omphalos wrote: If a piece of music has low production values, I usually stay away even if it's otherwise good, or has something interesting to say.
Really? I know we have different tastes but some of the best records in my collection have less than stellar production. Raw production sometimes works very well with some heavy music. I do find that music which has been over-produced can be harder to listen to though.
I really listen for nuance, subtlety, understated elements. It's just kind of what I vector in on. Realizing that there is something special about a piece of music that not many other people hear or notice gets me excited about new music. I think that's just something in my personality, because I do it with a lot of other things too, and I've always been like that. So if the production values are low, I've realized that I usually cannot hear those kinds of things and I get turned off quick.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Himachil »

Omphalos wrote:
SadisticCynic wrote:
Omphalos wrote: If a piece of music has low production values, I usually stay away even if it's otherwise good, or has something interesting to say.
Really? I know we have different tastes but some of the best records in my collection have less than stellar production. Raw production sometimes works very well with some heavy music. I do find that music which has been over-produced can be harder to listen to though.
I really listen for nuance, subtlety, understated elements. It's just kind of what I vector in on. Realizing that there is something special about a piece of music that not many other people hear or notice gets me excited about new music. I think that's just something in my personality, because I do it with a lot of other things too, and I've always been like that. So if the production values are low, I've realized that I usually cannot hear those kinds of things and I get turned off quick.
Skill and inspiration can shine in a track really basic production values, but get lost in something that's been mucked about with or over thought.

What about live albums? (Proper ones, not the ones where the latest flavour just sings their chart hits badly)
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Himachil wrote:
Omphalos wrote:
SadisticCynic wrote:
Omphalos wrote: If a piece of music has low production values, I usually stay away even if it's otherwise good, or has something interesting to say.
Really? I know we have different tastes but some of the best records in my collection have less than stellar production. Raw production sometimes works very well with some heavy music. I do find that music which has been over-produced can be harder to listen to though.
I really listen for nuance, subtlety, understated elements. It's just kind of what I vector in on. Realizing that there is something special about a piece of music that not many other people hear or notice gets me excited about new music. I think that's just something in my personality, because I do it with a lot of other things too, and I've always been like that. So if the production values are low, I've realized that I usually cannot hear those kinds of things and I get turned off quick.
Skill and inspiration can shine in a track really basic production values, but get lost in something that's been mucked about with or over thought.
True. And I'm not denying that. I've got some 4-track, band produced shit in my collection, and some of my favorite albums of all times are Leadbelly's Folkways recordings. I also tend to stay away from the "newest thing" not only because I'm too old for those kids (one exception is Pink; love her voice, but hate her rap-inspired stuff), but because I think that real mass-market, label-created bands are usually shit. But I still gotta believe that you know what I'm talking about, even if you don't necessarially agree. Right?
Himachil wrote:What about live albums? (Proper ones, not the ones where the latest flavour just sings their chart hits badly)
Again, depends on the production values, recording quality, etc. Can't listen to a Grateful Dead bootleg without wanting to vomit. And that ain't because I hate China Cat. One of the albums I'm into right now is Noel Gallagher's The Dreams We Have As Children. Excellent album. The guitar work is sometimes subtle, but lghtly jangly, like fireflies and in perfect harmony, IIRC, with his voice. The audience's contribution is held back but never understated too much, never as glaring as it is on Familiar To Millions. Paul Weller's contribution steps things up a notch or two too high, IIRC, but other than that, that's about as perfect an album as I've heard in a long time. And I'm not saying all low value recordings are "bad." Back in the Day I loved Cheap Trick Live At Budokahn (sp?). And back then I absolutely LOVED the Scorpions, but hated Tokyo Tapes. So really, it depends.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

Tangerine Dream
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Primus
Big Black
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Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

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Re: What are you listening to?

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I like Primus.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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Freakzilla wrote:I like Primus.
Especially this one:



and of course:

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Re: What are you listening to?

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I love their writing.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Robspierre »

Listening to Footstompin.com Scottish Music podcast

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Himachil »

Robspierre wrote:Listening to Footstompin.com Scottish Music podcast

Rob
Subscribed! I quite enjoyed that :)

A nice change from The Psychobilly Garden Party which has been my podcast of choice recently.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Omphalos wrote:I am of the opinion that despite corporate bullshit some good stuff does come out of those folks who work with/for them.
Well sure. As with everything else, Sturgeon's Law applies. (But the figure might be significantly higher than 90% in the case of current mainstream entertainment.)
Eyes High wrote:If the music is good but the lyrics are trash, then just give me the instrumental version of the song.
I think I'm different from most people in that lyrics aren't really that important to me. I mean, sure, intelligent lyrics are always a big plus, and especially crude or ignorant lyrics will turn me off. But just as a general rule, they're not as important to me as to most others. Hell, I don't even need to have lyrics I can understand. I don't necessarily have to know what a song is "about" or what the artist intended it to mean. If it sounds poetic, if I can take pieces of it and work out my own meaning for them, that's fine with me. What's far more important for me is the way the lyrics are sung, the vocal melodies, the quality of musicianship, and just the way it all fits together.
Eyes High wrote:If the lyrics are good but the music suck, well the lyrics might make a nice poem.
That's sort of what I always say about rap. Not like many rap lyrics are good, of course. But even if they were, what's the point of vocalizing them in such a droning, monotonous, headache-inducing manner accompanied by noises not even remotely musical? Why not just write it as a poem?
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Re: What are you listening to?

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Re: What are you listening to?

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Liege-Killer wrote:
Eyes High wrote:If the music is good but the lyrics are trash, then just give me the instrumental version of the song.
I think I'm different from most people in that lyrics aren't really that important to me. I mean, sure, intelligent lyrics are always a big plus, and especially crude or ignorant lyrics will turn me off. But just as a general rule, they're not as important to me as to most others. Hell, I don't even need to have lyrics I can understand. I don't necessarily have to know what a song is "about" or what the artist intended it to mean. If it sounds poetic, if I can take pieces of it and work out my own meaning for them, that's fine with me. What's far more important for me is the way the lyrics are sung, the vocal melodies, the quality of musicianship, and just the way it all fits together.
I've heard (not really well verified though) that typically women are more critical of lyrics than men are. Not sure how accurate that is. I can ignore dumb lyrics to a certain point, but at some point it will ruin music for me (especially lyrics that attempt to be deep/intelligent but are in fact mindless drivel).
That's sort of what I always say about rap. Not like many rap lyrics are good, of course. But even if they were, what's the point of vocalizing them in such a droning, monotonous, headache-inducing manner accompanied by noises not even remotely musical? Why not just write it as a poem?
Actually I'll defend rap on this one. Though many of us don't find it musical that doesn't actually diminish it's musicality. "Classically" music is defined by melody and rhythm, and rap vocals take advantage mainly of rhythm rather than melody. Metal screaming/growling/singing and hardcore punk do the same thing, gone is the melody and harmony, replaced entirely by rhythm and non-harmonious (dissonant) manipulation of the tonal content. (Also there's some great rap out there, Rage Against the Machine comes to mind, I love me some Beastie Boys as well).

In a modern context music is nearly impossible to define other than "sound organized and intended to be music". I have a friend who has won great acclaim for his nearly-abstract electronic music, and frankly, once you wrap your mind around it and stop expecting something you've heard before it does in fact become very musical to listen to.

Another example would be music from ethnicities we're not used to hearing - sounds like garbage at first, but that doesn't make it non-musical.

Being a fan of metal I've had to accept that a lot of people find my music to be simple noise - but that's what my grandparents thought of stuff like the the Beatles and Hendrix, to them it was shock-value garbage, but hardly anyone born after their time would agree.

Context is everything.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Speaking of rhythm, I've been getting into a lot of old ambient rhythmless stuff I had on my hard drive, like Stars of the Lid. That stuff makes it easy for me to work. Don't know why, but it does the trick everytime I start feeling groggy or tired at work. Plus I love their song and album titles. Their Refinement of the Decline, Dopamine Clouds over Craven Cottage, December Hunting for Vegetarian Fuckface, That Finger on Your Temple is the Barrel of my Raygun. Music for Nitrous Oxide, Tape Hiss Makes Me Happy.

Not great, but very interesting stuff, but fantastic background noise.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

My buddy who does the minimalist music (and he's also becoming known for his new seriously groundbreaking visual/audio art, hard to explain, I'll try later though, it's amazing) are going to be doing a project together that I've had in my head for a long time.

I don't consider myself a musician any more. I can still play guitar well, but I don't play much, and certainly haven't written anything in years. But, I am a producer/audio engineer, and that lets me get out most of my creative art side.

But one thing I've wanted to work with for years is sympathetic resonance, and eventually, after ages of searching online, I've realised that no one else has done what I want to do, even though it seems fairly obvious to me.

When you play a note, physical bodies that have a musical mathmatical relationship to that note will start to vibrate sympathetically on their own (for example if you pluck the open low-E on a guitar, the high-E string will light up with motion. This doesn't just work for octaves either, there are lots of harmonies that can cause it). The one culture that makes massive use of this is Indian classical music, sitars and so forth have tons of strings that are never struck, they just vibrate along with the notes being played (they also use a special kind of bridge called a Jiwari which causes the strings to buzz as they oscellate creating complex harmonic overtones that are rapidly shifting - this is that classic droning sound heard in the background of indian music).


So what I'm experimenting with perfecting is recording ONLY the sympathetic resonance. This can only be done with magnetic pickups, as they will not "hear" the original audio which is being used to excite the string/body, they only "hear" the magnetic fluctuations caused by the metal string moving. I will be doing a whole series of pieces in this series, which will be called "...untouched" and the first one will be a song that my artist friend will sing (excellent singer, he can even do overtone singing). I will play his vocal track at a wide range of instruments, from grand pianos, guitars, basses, mandolins, banjos (all one string at a time to see how each string responds to different "trigger" noters) and I will be recording each string to it's own track. Note: each instrument will be tuned to the notes of the song only (in the case of the paino, only notes in the scale will be depressed, other strings will be dampened), and because he will only be singing in a relatively limited range, I will also be recording take after take with his vocal track pitchshifted up or down by octaves at a time, so that I can get the high strings to sing high notes, and low to sing low.

Then, when it's all recorded the fun begins. I will delete all his original vocals, so the only thing you'll hear is what the strings did sympathetically. I will have HUNDREDS of tracks going at once, and I will be bringing them up and down in volume to create a whole new piece of music.

The amazing thing is just how well the strings will copy what they hear. I've done tests, and if I sing "hey how are you, test, test" into an acoustic guitar - the strings won't just resonante the same notes I sang but sound like a guitar, they actually copy all the overtones and amplitude envelopes too which create the various consanants and vowels! So If I seeing "eeee" the string goes "eeeeeeeee", it will even clearly reproduce words themselves, but with a haunting sustaining ring.

The potential here is nearly limitless I think, and I look forward to years of blowing my time on this series.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:Actually I'll defend rap on this one. Though many of us don't find it musical that doesn't actually diminish it's musicality. "Classically" music is defined by melody and rhythm, and rap vocals take advantage mainly of rhythm rather than melody. Metal screaming/growling/singing and hardcore punk do the same thing, gone is the melody and harmony, replaced entirely by rhythm and non-harmonious (dissonant) manipulation of the tonal content. (Also there's some great rap out there, Rage Against the Machine comes to mind, I love me some Beastie Boys as well).
Oh sure, I'm aware of all that, and I'm not trying to make any sort of objective argument because I know music is almost entirely subjective. All I can do is just be honest and say I despise rap to the core of my being, for my own subjective and no doubt biased reasons. :P There are, of course, exceptions to any rule. Even I have heard a couple (literally, just a couple) of rap songs that I could give some grudging respect to, for their lyrics and for trying to incorporate some music beyond just a repetitive beat. I can't recall the artists or titles, some underground stuff someone sent me, but I can guarantee you they were nowhere near the mainstream "gangsta" rap end of the spectrum. And hey, Beastie Boys.... yeah, I'm a child of the 80's, I know how to fight for my right to party! :mrgreen:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:Being a fan of metal I've had to accept that a lot of people find my music to be simple noise...
What kind of metal do you like?

Actually I'm one of those people who thinks most of it is just noise. On the other hand, I'm a metal fan, I'm just very picky about it (Sturgeon's Law, again -- 90% of everything is crap). I love heavy-sounding music, it's what I listen to most, but it still has to have lots of melody. A good example is the last couple of albums by Rapture (Finnish melodic death metal band, not to be confused with several other bands by that name). Here, take a listen:

"Misery 24/7" from Silent Stage


"Enveloped" from the fantastic Songs for the Withering


And Danish band Mercenary goes along similar lines:

"Screaming from the Heavens"
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Freakzilla wrote:
Interesting.

Not something I'd usually listen to, but I can, at least temporarily, expand my horizons enough to kinda sorta get into it. Sounds like it should be on the soundtrack for some high-octane martial arts action movie. Or some kind of movie.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Freakzilla »

I just thought the video was cool.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Liege-Killer wrote: Oh sure, I'm aware of all that, and I'm not trying to make any sort of objective argument because I know music is almost entirely subjective. All I can do is just be honest and say I despise rap to the core of my being, for my own subjective and no doubt biased reasons. :P There are, of course, exceptions to any rule. Even I have heard a couple (literally, just a couple) of rap songs that I could give some grudging respect to, for their lyrics and for trying to incorporate some music beyond just a repetitive beat. I can't recall the artists or titles, some underground stuff someone sent me, but I can guarantee you they were nowhere near the mainstream "gangsta" rap end of the spectrum. And hey, Beastie Boys.... yeah, I'm a child of the 80's, I know how to fight for my right to party! :mrgreen:
Oh I'm with you, 99% of it is garbage (I think that more than 95% of every genre is junk though). I feel the same way about most country. I know they sing that way on purpose, but it's just so anti-musical and gods-awful I can't wrap my head around it, it's like someone sampled nails on chalkboard and layered that in, that's how much I hate it. :D
A Thing of Eternity wrote:Being a fan of metal I've had to accept that a lot of people find my music to be simple noise...[/quote

What kind of metal do you like?

Actually I'm one of those people who thinks most of it is just noise. On the other hand, I'm a metal fan, I'm just very picky about it (Sturgeon's Law, again -- 90% of everything is crap). I love heavy-sounding music, it's what I listen to most, but it still has to have lots of melody. A good example is the last couple of albums by Rapture (Finnish melodic death metal band, not to be confused with several other bands by that name). Here, take a listen:
[/quote]

While metal is my favourite genre (by far) the vast majority of it is the same old shit junk. But, there's some goodies in there. Thanks for turning me on to that first band in your list, right up my alley (little too grunting death-metal on the growled vocals for myself, but I can tell what he's saying and it's quite nice to listen too, just not my fav style). Melodic deathmetal is probably my favourite sub-genre of metal, since I've been a young teen my favourite band has been In Flames, good old Swedish goodness!

I really love a lot of prog-metal too though. Right now my main thing is Between the Buried and me (they do a lot of really "noisy" stuff to balance against the really melodic stuff, so be aware you have to listen to at least 1 whole song to "get" what they're doing).


Metal doesn't have to be necessarily very melodic for me in regards to the vocals, I can do completely without easily (love melodic vocals, just also love dissonant) but I like interesting instrumentation to be happening as well.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

I wish youtube didn't have such poor quality audio on most videos, but for those who haven't heard:

In Flames (Swedish band, one of the main pioneers of the subgenre of Melodic Deathmetal (a genre that seems to have almost nothing to do with deathmetal oddly enough, they must have just been hanging around with a bunch of deathmetalheads at the time or something...). Too many absolutely iconic songs to choose from over a long carreer, but this is one of my all time favourites:



And here we have: Between the Buried and Me - newer prog-metal band that is... how do I say this... they're hope for the future of music. Period. Absolute genius. Here's some live stuff because they don't have a lot of videos to go with the actual studio recordings. Note that they actually pull off all this stuff live, stuff that is at the absolute cusp of what is possible for musicians to do at all. (this song is in two parts, don't worry, it's only like 14 minutes long or something! If you want melody part II is for you, if you want the full package listen to it all)





Man they rock so hard. If you only listened to some of part 1 then gave up, give part 2 a try, there's a LOT you won't be expecting to happen at all!
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Also, a band with a Dune inspired name, Shai Hulud. Not really metal, more of a hardcore band... genres get blurry. I think this album of theirs is really on the cutting edge of what heavy music can be too.

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Freakzilla wrote:I just thought the video was cool.
I liked the part where the body parts fell down onto the spiky tree and formed into a guy playing guitar. :)=
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:Thanks for turning me on to that first band in your list, right up my alley...
Awesome.

I remember hearing In Flames before, but not really caring much for them. However, that song above sounds pretty good, actually. Especially the music; some of the vocals I could do without. I'm really iffy on rough death metal-style vocals. In one band I might like them a lot, in another band I might utterly hate them, and I'm at a loss to explain why. It's not whether I can understand them or not, I think it has something to do with the emotions they convey, I don't know.

Between the Buried and Me.... cool name. Strange music. Parts of it are interesting, others not so much. Kinda reminds me of Opeth, a little (as far as I recall, it's been years), which is another band where I can appreciate what they're trying to do, while still not being able to fully integrate them into my comfort zone, if you know what I mean.

Shai-Hulud: heard the name before, but never heard the music. NOT for me. My opinion of hardcore is similar to that of rap, if that tells you anything. :lol=:

As to prog metal, my attitude is the same as it is towards prog rock. Which is that I like some of it, but a lot of it is just too meandering and pretentious. My favorite prog metal ever has to be Dream Theater's Images and Words album; don't care so much for their later work.

It's more accurate to say I don't like true prog bands, but I like bands with a little bit of prog flavoring. Just as I don't like full-on death metal, but like some heavy bands with a bit of death metal influence.

One of my very favorite bands in recent years is Evergrey, who have some prog-ness about them (more so in their earlier work), but it's not over the top, it's very tightly controlled. I think Tom Englund has one of the best voices in metal, with a sort of emotional rawness about it. Here's something from their album In Search of Truth, which is a concept album about a guy whose life is ruined by either real or imagined alien abductions. These two songs go together, the first is a little ballad-like piece that blends right into the next song, which gives you a good idea of the band's range. Make sure you click on the second one as soon as the first one ends.

State of Paralysis


The Encounter


And, for good measure, here's Mark of the Triangle:


Pure metal bliss. :dance:
Last edited by Liege-Killer on Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:23 am, edited 6 times in total.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Eyes High »

I had never heard of Amanda Marshall before last week but since finding her videos on YouTube I have heard a nice range of her music.

This is the one haunting my soul this morning.


This is one of those with a "message"


And I have a sneaky suspicion that some of you might can relate to this one. :wink:
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

On a different track, does anyone like any kind of electronic music? That's a broad term, I know, but take it as whatever it means to you.

I came across this one on random shuffle on my mp3 player last night, hadn't heard it in a long time. I think a lot of electronic music of this type is rather cold and mechanical, but this song is so emotional. In certain depressive moods, and if I really let myself get lost in it, this one can bring tears to my eyes.

VNV Nation, "Forsaken (Vocal Version)"
It won't let me embed this one, here's the YouTube link.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

Disclaimer: I have really specific music tastes, so that sometimes even bands that sound similar will result in me loving one and hating the other. I'm still exploring understanding this part of me.
Metal screaming/growling/singing and hardcore punk do the same thing, gone is the melody and harmony, replaced entirely by rhythm and non-harmonious (dissonant) manipulation of the tonal content.
I thought of that before without really knowing much about how music works. Glad to find that I wasn't thinking nonsense. :)=

As to lyrics I guess I would describe myself in a similar way to Liege-Killer. If they're intelligent then that's good. If not, I don't mind, as long as they aren't too dumb.
This is harder to explain but I like it when music carries a sinister feel rather than being outright 'evil'. Sometimes this leads to lyrics that don't really mean anything but sound sick on the record. Example:

We have all lost it now
Catching the flakes of dismay
Born the travesty of man
Regular pulse midst pandemonium
You're plucked to the mass
Parched with thirst for the wicked

Sick liasons raised this monumental mark
The sun sets forever over Blackwater Park


...from Opeth's Blackwater Park.

Moving on...

Personally I find melodic death metal to be rather repetitive. All the songs sound the same to me after awhile.

I prefer the deeper growl of death metal. Some of the better vocalists are Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth) and Dan Swano (Edge of Sanity). Actually I don't listen to much Edge of Sanity, but I have one album called Crimson, which consists entirely of one 40-min track. It manages to hold my attention throughout the entire song, exactly what I expect of an album. Records should not be a random collection of songs, there should be a theme (I don't necessarily mean a concept, or connected lyrics) throughout them that holds the thing together. Here is the first part of it:



Those voices sound powerful to me, not just someone screaming or grunting. A comparative example would be Sauron's voice in the LOTR movies. Strange, no?

I don't really like the hardcore type vocals, I must admit. That is the main thing that stops me from enjoying Between the Buried and Me too much after I've listened to a full song.

Regardless of general tastes I usually try to give music a chance. If you looked at my meagre collection of records it would probably be difficult to say anything more than that I listen to metal (and that's not completely accurate either, although I do tend towards progressive and/or death metal and very rarely some black metal.) :)=

I haven't listened to much Dream Theater, their vocalist annoyed me too much, but I did listen to Liquid Tension Experiment 1 & 2, which is basically Dream Theater without that atrocious singer.

(That's two of you that can't get into Opeth; what's wrong with the world? :angry-screaming: )

Listening to Evergrey now, and no I don't like electronic music...

(One more thing, if my posts sound disjointed, it's usually because I've written part of it, then had more ideas on what to write, but they are more relevant to earlier parts of the post, or else you have been posting too fast for me)
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

SadisticCynic wrote:Disclaimer: I have really specific music tastes, so that sometimes even bands that sound similar will result in me loving one and hating the other.
I know exactly what you mean, I get that too.
SadisticCynic wrote:This is harder to explain but I like it when music carries a sinister feel rather than being outright 'evil'.
I'm with you there, too. A lot of bands that try to sound evil end up just sounding laughable. A lot of music I like has a dark feel to it, but pointless attempts to sound all evil or violent are ridiculous.
SadisticCynic wrote:Sometimes this leads to lyrics that don't really mean anything but sound sick on the record.
Man, we're on the same wavelength.

I have a special fondness for this line from one of Amaran's songs:

Maybe we have forgotten
Or maybe it has always been like this
Maybe we have forgotten
That this machine kills


I don't even know what machine they're talking about, but it sounds awesome.
SadisticCynic wrote:Personally I find melodic death metal to be rather repetitive. All the songs sound the same to me after awhile.
But really you could say the same about any genre. I'm not criticizing though, because I often say the same about many other genres.
SadisticCynic wrote:(That's two of you that can't get into Opeth; what's wrong with the world? :angry-screaming: )
I know, it sucks when other people don't worship our favorite bands, doesn't it? :lol=:

I haven't heard Edge of Sanity before, but I remember Dan Swano contributed some vocals to Arjen Lucassen's Star One Space Metal album (another good one for SF fans!). That song you posted has some cool music, although I'm not sure I can take the vocals.
SadisticCynic wrote:...which consists entirely of one 40-min track.
I got you one better. Green Carnation (another prog-metal band) has an album, Light of Day, Day of Darkness, that consists of a single 60-minute song. And it's damn good, too. Whoah... someone's actually got the whole thing up on YT, although the sound quality leaves much to be desired. Got an hour to spare?



This album also has some of the most beautiful cover art:

Image
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Liege-Killer wrote:On a different track, does anyone like any kind of electronic music? That's a broad term, I know, but take it as whatever it means to you.

I came across this one on random shuffle on my mp3 player last night, hadn't heard it in a long time. I think a lot of electronic music of this type is rather cold and mechanical, but this song is so emotional. In certain depressive moods, and if I really let myself get lost in it, this one can bring tears to my eyes.

VNV Nation, "Forsaken (Vocal Version)"
It won't let me embed this one, here's the YouTube link.
I like a lot of electronic music. I think I've already mentioned Stars of the Lid. Ive also been listening lately to The Avalanches and Boards of Canada, but I have a ton of stuff.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

Omphalos wrote:I like a lot of electronic music. I think I've already mentioned Stars of the Lid. Ive also been listening lately to The Avalanches and Boards of Canada, but I have a ton of stuff.
Omph, if you like that you'll love these.

Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

I don't really get into ambient music, for some reason, even though a lot of it sounds very nice, like those posted above. Guess it's just the way my brain's wired.

I've heard Boards of Canada before. It was recommended by someone, one of those "if you like X you'll like Y" deals, but for the life of me I can't remember what the X was. :think:

The Avalanches...... checked out some of their YT songs/videos, such as "Frontier Psychiatrist." Omph, I fear for your sanity. :lol:
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

Liege-Killer wrote:But really you could say the same about any genre. I'm not criticizing though, because I often say the same about many other genres.

...

I know, it sucks when other people don't worship our favorite bands, doesn't it? :lol=:
Both true. :)=
Liege-Killer wrote:Got an hour to spare?
Far too many, actually. I listened to the whole thing in one go just now. First impressions are: :o :D
I'll have to leave it awhile and then listen to it again before I fully decide. That's my usual process, to make sure my enjoyment wasn't just a one off thing. I'm liking it though, it could use more growls. :wink: It's a good sign that I didn't find myself getting disinterested, despite the formless structure (sorry, oxymoron) they seem to have given it. (Or I just haven't wrapped my head around it yet!)
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Liege-Killer wrote:The Avalanches...... checked out some of their YT songs/videos, such as "Frontier Psychiatrist." Omph, I fear for your sanity. :lol:
That's not the first time I've heard those words from you. :wink:

I have never seen any of their videos. I just dig their music.

One band that I fell in love with based entirely on how I felt about another was Muse. I heard a bunch of stuff on their Absolution album and thought of Thom Yorke.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Wasn't familiar with Muse, but after a little investigation, I'm really digging this song.

Sounds like U2 mixed with..... I don't know what. Good stuff.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Love this song.

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Himachil »

Liege-Killer wrote:Wasn't familiar with Muse, but after a little investigation, I'm really digging this song.
Muse is brilliant - I heartily recommend their earlier stuff (and their later stuff for that matter :P )
Liege-Killer wrote:Love this song.
Reminds me a little bit of one of my favouritest bands ever which I recently discovered had released two more albums that I had never heard before :D
(... so have been caining a bit recently :P)





(They're Russian btw ... )
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Liege-Killer wrote: Between the Buried and Me.... cool name. Strange music. Parts of it are interesting, others not so much. Kinda reminds me of Opeth, a little (as far as I recall, it's been years), which is another band where I can appreciate what they're trying to do, while still not being able to fully integrate them into my comfort zone, if you know what I mean.
They're seriously off the beaten path, not just prog, but they've got a heavy dose of whatever the hell genre The Dillenger Escape Plan is (I'd call it noise-prog if I had to come up with a goofy name for it).
One of my very favorite bands in recent years is Evergrey, who have some prog-ness about them (more so in their earlier work), but it's not over the top, it's very tightly controlled.
Great band, I love how their prog parts are actually very prog, then they scale it back. Funnily enough, can't really stand the vocalist! I love how we all love/hate different things though.
SadisticCynic wrote: I don't really like the hardcore type vocals, I must admit. That is the main thing that stops me from enjoying Between the Buried and Me too much after I've listened to a full song.
Was I the other one that didn't like them? I think I remember them being too slow for my personal tastes.

It's funny you say that about BTBAM, I don't think the vocals have very much to do with hardcore vocals at all, in fact they spend way too much time in death-metal town for my personaly tastes (but that ugliness helps balance the beauty). And even when not death-metaling, he's definitely doing a mostly metal style of vocal as compared to say Shai Hulud or Comeback Kid style hardcore vox.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Liege-Killer wrote:On a different track, does anyone like any kind of electronic music? That's a broad term, I know, but take it as whatever it means to you.

I came across this one on random shuffle on my mp3 player last night, hadn't heard it in a long time. I think a lot of electronic music of this type is rather cold and mechanical, but this song is so emotional. In certain depressive moods, and if I really let myself get lost in it, this one can bring tears to my eyes.

VNV Nation, "Forsaken (Vocal Version)"
It won't let me embed this one, here's the YouTube link.
I love VNV Nation, used to listen to them at a goth club I hung out at. Big fan of industrial/all the other weird ass shit goths listen to. What they lack in taste when it comes to apearace they more than make up for with taste in music!
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:Big fan of industrial/all the other weird ass shit goths listen to.
Last night I was listening to a bunch of Switchblade Symphony, which I adore and which definitely qualifies as weird ass goth shit! Yeah, I like a fair amount of stuff in that range. As well as a lot of what people call goth metal, although I think it's basically a useless term because it's so broadly applied.
A Thing of Eternity wrote:(but that ugliness helps balance the beauty)
Funny you should put it that way, because one of my favorite vocal styles does the same thing. See, I really love female vocals (probably accounts for 2/3 of what I listen to), but one of my very favorite styles is what some refer to as BNB (Beauty-and-Beast vocals). Lovely female voice, often soprano, paired with a male voice singing in that rough growling manner. As evidenced in bands like Tristania, Sirenia, older Theatre of Tragedy, Epica, Penumbra, etc.
SadisticCynic wrote:I listened to the whole thing in one go just now. First impressions are: :o :D
Yeah, it kinda does that to you. :wink:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:I feel the same way about most country. I know they sing that way on purpose, but it's just so anti-musical and gods-awful I can't wrap my head around it, it's like someone sampled nails on chalkboard and layered that in, that's how much I hate it. :D
It almost makes me ashamed, that other countries might see it as representative of the average American. I think the steel guitar is one of the dumbest sounds in all of music, and well, you've already covered the singing (every time I hear Randy Travis I just wanna strangle him). And then there's the lyrics..... hehehe... oh yes, the lyrics. I heard a song the other night someone was playing on the radio, the chorus was "God is great, beer is good." One of my favorite examples of how country music puts out the most ridiculous lyrics with a straight face is: "Now I'm messed up in Mexico, living on refried dreams." :mrgreen: It's as if country music's secret goal is to parody itself, but it's totally unaware of that fact.

And going way back to the opening post...
Omphalos wrote:just to see what you all have on the ear buds.
Just curious.... do you all actually use earbuds? Can't stand the things myself. Aside from the poor sound quality, and that they're more damaging to your hearing (or so I've read), I just hate the way they feel in my ear. They're very uncomfortable, for me at least. I think the young people these days think I'm bizarre for using traditional headphones, I've gotten some funny looks a few times. I ask because it's so rare to see anyone using anything but earbuds these days.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Anyone that loves headphone listening should head to a pro-audio store (NOT a "pro-sumer" audio store, a real one, that sells instruments and PAs and recording hear) and spend whatever they're comfortable spending on some studio headphones. They rock. They're big and annoying, and awesome.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:Was I the other one that didn't like them? I think I remember them being too slow for my personal tastes.
Yeah, that was you. Actually a common Opeth insult is Slowpeth, so you're not alone. :wink:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:It's funny you say that about BTBAM, I don't think the vocals have very much to do with hardcore vocals at all
Maybe hardcore isn't the word I'm looking for, in any case whatever that style is I find it hard to listen to for long. You're gonna laugh considering what I usually listen to, but I find it monotonous (see my disclaimer). :)=

Listening again, I can hear more death metal; it might just be a particular style I don't connect with. Shame 'cause their music is quite remarkable. This might actually be one of those bands I'll keep going back and forwards with. *sigh* Stupid broken aesthetic sense...
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

SadisticCynic wrote:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:It's funny you say that about BTBAM, I don't think the vocals have very much to do with hardcore vocals at all
Maybe hardcore isn't the word I'm looking for, in any case whatever that style is I find it hard to listen to for long. You're gonna laugh considering what I usually listen to, but I find it monotonous (see my disclaimer). :)=

Listening again, I can hear more death metal; it might just be a particular style I don't connect with. Shame 'cause their music is quite remarkable. This might actually be one of those bands I'll keep going back and forwards with. *sigh* Stupid broken aesthetic sense...
I originally really didn't like their more noise-prog (I like that term I made up) parts with the death vocals, definitely has some monotony in it... eventually I came to like it more because without it the rest wouldn't work, they'd just be another power-metal style prog band (dream theatre) and that gets boring. I wish they had a little more beauty in with the ugly personally, but hey, it's their art, not mine!

Speaking of noise and ugly music that incorperates moments of breathtaking beauty, I feel I must post something by the leaders (in my opinion) of the super-fucked-noise-prog-no-name-for-it-really genre, Dillenger Escape Plan. I used to hate this kind of music, but now I accept it as essentially the metal version of jazz. Outside the box, with occasional references to stuff that's inside the box.

More conventional "music": (another one where you have to at least give it until the pretty part to judge it, takes about 2 minutes)



Here's one that shows the "noise" genre at it's best (if you survive more than 30 seconds it will start to make sense... or make less sense, depending on how you look at it):



And here's one that's softer, almost a balad for these guys (I don't know if he even screams a sing line), absolutely stunning song:



These guys also did one album with the great Mike Patton on vocals (from Faith No More).
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Himachil »

Liege-Killer wrote:Just curious.... do you all actually use earbuds? Can't stand the things myself. Aside from the poor sound quality, and that they're more damaging to your hearing (or so I've read), I just hate the way they feel in my ear. They're very uncomfortable, for me at least. I think the young people these days think I'm bizarre for using traditional headphones, I've gotten some funny looks a few times. I ask because it's so rare to see anyone using anything but earbuds these days.
I use memory-foam type earbuds - I hate the rubber type ones. Pocket stuffability and only being allowed one ear at work are deciding factors. :)
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

I think people call The Dillinger Escape Plan 'mathcore', whatever that means...

I'll try and listen to them now, if my Internet is feeling generous with its loading times. :)=
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by lotek »

Dillinger as in Oz ?

other than that, I am going back in time through Johnny Cash, I'm even listening to some Neil Diamond would you believe it :)
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Dillinger was a gangster and back robber back in the day.

Mathcore works, but the problem to me is that "math___" (be it metal or "core") doesn't cover the noise aspect, which in my opinion does more to set Dillinger style stuff apart than their use of time signatures does. Fuck, maybe I should just call it distorted-yelling-jazz and call it a day...

The who subgenre thing drives me nuts, it gets ridiculous very quickly when almost every band seems to need it's own genre, but without the subgenre terms we would never be able to explain even remotely what a heavy band sounds like, because it has become so insanely diverse.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

A Thing of Eternity wrote: The who subgenre thing drives me nuts, it gets ridiculous very quickly when almost every band seems to need it's own genre, but without the subgenre terms we would never be able to explain even remotely what a heavy band sounds like, because it has become so insanely diverse.
Yeah, I have a similar view on subgenres. It makes for entertaining reading though whenever some people decide to press the point and argue about it, say, on YouTube for example. :)=
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Liege-Killer wrote:And going way back to the opening post...
Omphalos wrote:just to see what you all have on the ear buds.
Just curious.... do you all actually use earbuds? Can't stand the things myself. Aside from the poor sound quality, and that they're more damaging to your hearing (or so I've read), I just hate the way they feel in my ear. They're very uncomfortable, for me at least. I think the young people these days think I'm bizarre for using traditional headphones, I've gotten some funny looks a few times. I ask because it's so rare to see anyone using anything but earbuds these days.
Actually I was just trying to be flippant, but yes, I do use them. It's taken some getting used to, and the only reason I took the time was because I was afraid I'd crush my big earphones in my bag. I do a ton of flying, and am always stuffing my carry-on bag under the seat in front of me. In it I have my work laptop, my cell phone, my iPad, sometimes my iPod, and usually a bunch of papers. I just worry that my nice earphones won't survive. The type that I use are those ones that have cones that shoot the noise right into your head

Image

Not the ones that are broad and circular with a buncha little holes:

Image

I hate those kind. They are too big and are always falling out. The top ones - the ones I do like - are not the most comfortable, but I have learned to ignore them and just listen, plus they are not constantly falling out.

Plus, I get to feel like a trendy yout when I wear them.

SadisticCynic wrote:I think people call The Dillinger Escape Plan 'mathcore', whatever that means...

I'll try and listen to them now, if my Internet is feeling generous with its loading times. :)=
Not a big fan of mathcore, but I had always thought that mathcore was instrumental only; no vocals like in that video above. And while I liked the stylishness of that video, I get really turned off by themes of sexual humiliation and sexism, of which that video is full. Just my own little thing.

The first two I'm not too much into either. My friend calls that stuff Cookie Monster music. It's just not possible for me to see something beautiful in that, even if it is front and center, when a polar opposite is also so obvious. I remember when I started hearing that stuff in the 80's I was pretty shocked. I was a head-banger back in the day, then metal turned all pansy and pussy. "Woe to You Oh Earth and Sea for the Devil sends the beast with wrath ..." somehow turned into Dr. Fucking Feelgood (I know, I'm mixing my bands, but you know what I mean), then all of a sudden scream-metal was everywhere. I retreated into classic rock for about a decade after that, pissed off at what metal and punk had become.

EDIT: Just listened again, and I can deal with that first song. Not the second though.

Lotek: Monsieur Depp made a movie about Dillinger a few years ago. Heard it was pretty good.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

I prefer headphones of the second kind, as you've listed them. The ones that stick in your ear go in a little too far for my comfort.

Anything bigger than that size is going to be a problem for my pockets.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Man, I'm not going to fault anyone for not digging the heavier Dillinger, that is some seriously aquired taste (which video was the sexist one? I didn't really watch them to be honest). I've been listening to screaming/dissonantvocal metal since I was 13 and I'm only now in the last few years being able to enjoy Dillinger, for the first 8 years I heard them or so I thought they were weird for the sake of weird, just noise frankly.

We still say "cookie monster" in reference to vocals - but it refers specifically to the low, generally almost unitelligable grunting of death metal, where it often sounds like the vocalist is trying to do an impression of an upset bear or something (not to be confused with "melodic" death metal which has almost zero to do with the death metal genre for some weird reason).

I should post some of the less weird shit I listen to, all this Dillinger and Between the Buried and Me must be making me look a little masochistic or something!
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

As far as earbuds go I can tell you where it's at - get some live in-ear monitors. They have limiter protection to help guard your safety, and some of them have multiple drivers, even 3 drivers (bass/mids/highs) all somehow crammed into the bud (practically fucking nanotech!) and sound awesome. Also, they're generally much more comfortable (I'm with Omph though, out of the two he posted the first are comfortable, the second hurt like hell - also, the second one doesn't conform well, so a larger amount of the audio leaks out, forcing you to turn it up higher, which is no safe) and are very well made.

Not cheap. Good ones from Shure for example can run you anywhere from $99 to several hundred dollars, which is a lot to spend on something if you're worried about wrecking them (many come with replaceable cables though, so the most likely part to break is feild-replaceable, very very nice).
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:I should post some of the less weird shit I listen to, all this Dillinger and Between the Buried and Me must be making me look a little masochistic or something!
At this point I have a hard time telling which is the weird and which is the 'normal'. (For my own tastes, I mean). :)=
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

SadisticCynic wrote:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:I should post some of the less weird shit I listen to, all this Dillinger and Between the Buried and Me must be making me look a little masochistic or something!
At this point I have a hard time telling which is the weird and which is the 'normal'. (For my own tastes, I mean). :)=
True enough... maybe Children of Bodom is normal? Hmmm... I also like some crazy alternate-intonation music that I could post...
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Ok, here's something mellow. I have this guy's CD, it's bloody incredible. This guy has rigged a 5 string upright bass with a pile of sympathetic strings (running over Jiwari bridges to make them buzz Indian style).

Here's my favourite song (if you get bored fast forward it, it's amazing and it does pick up the pace eventually).



And here's a mini-documentary (like 10 minutes) on how he created it, and he explains it really well:

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

I think I remember you talking about this before actually. Will certainly give it a listen, but I just got a new Bolt Thrower album, and it has my attention. Kind of like groovy death metal.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Interesting Thing. Not something I would want to have in my car's tape deck, lest I accidentally drive into the Ethereal Plane, but it is interesting.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

Liege-Killer wrote:I got you one better.
I know it's a little late for a one-up move ( :)= ) but I completely forgot, since I have yet to hear it, that Edge of Sanity actually released a sequel to Crimson entitled (guess?) Crimson II. It's also 40 mins long!

Thing: That bazantar thing is cool; he gets quite a range of sounds out of that thing! Especially since it's based on a bass.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Yeah, I like that bazantar too, very cool. I'm a big fan of classical-sounding instruments being used in a wide variety of music. Even a good deal of metal I like uses violins, string quartets, etc.

Time for something mellow, is it? Well I'm sitting here by the window looking out on a fine mellow morning after a long mellow rainy night, and I'm off for the weekend, so yeah, I'm feeling very very mellow. 8-)

I'm kind of in a Gathering mood at the moment, so here are a couple of favorites of theirs which are also among their more mellow tunes:

"Saturnine" (semi-acoustic version from the live Sleepy Buildings album)


"Souvenirs" (title track from album of same name)


Can you believe this band started their career, over 20 years ago, as an atmospheric death/doom metal band (without the female vocals)? That's quite an evolution, huh?
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Re: What are you listening to?

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Re: What are you listening to?

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SadisticCynic wrote:I think I remember you talking about this before actually. Will certainly give it a listen, but I just got a new Bolt Thrower album, and it has my attention. Kind of like groovy death metal.
Is that new avatar the thing from Hyperion?
Omphalos wrote:Interesting Thing. Not something I would want to have in my car's tape deck, lest I accidentally drive into the Ethereal Plane, but it is interesting.
Not something I'd drive to either! It's definitely a sit back and get lost kind of thing. Did you listen to the later 3rd of the song where it picks up pace?

I like stuff like this because it's not just really good music, it's also a departure from our western 12TET intonation system, and from an instrument building point of view it is really inspiring to me.

I've tried getting a hold of him to see if he'd sell me one of the conversion modules, but he never got back to me. I could build my own, but if I ever try to sell anything I play on it (assuming I ever learned to play the damned thing) then I'd owe this guy patent money probably.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:
Is that new avatar the thing from Hyperion?
Yes. I just typed 'Hyperion shrike' into Google Images to see what would come up.

Edit to add: Mellow it is then, here is Hope Leaves from Opeth's Damnation:



(Please ignore the dumb guy screaming like a little girl near the start :? )

Trains from Porcupine Tree's In Absentia:

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

I like both of those ones. I have a weird thing where I like a lot of really soft music and a lot of really hard music, and the stuff in the middle I don't like most of (but not all, there is plenty of just "rock" that I like). A bigger thing than hard or soft to me is faster versus slower (or if slower, busier works too), most of the time really slow stuff makes me lose interest. I think that says more about myself than it does about the quality of the music to be totally honest though.

Check this guy out, Micheal Harrison. He experiments with really "odd" just intonation systems. It takes a while to accept the aesthetic, it sounds really alien at first, lots of notes out of tune in ways we're not used to hearing, and some notes more in tune with eachother than we're used to hearing. I'd hate to be involved in re-tuning a piano for this piece.

This is just a small part, it's a very long piece, over an hour I think.


Man, I'd forgotten how much I love his work.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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I wonder how the acoustics in that auto-shop bay he is playing in were?

I can see the attraction of that, but I don't get it myself. He emotional impact is screwed up by too much dissonance.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

I don't think that dissonance is coming from the accoustics, that's from his tuning, he's not in our note system, not even close, So he plays a lot with a contrast between weird dissonant beating tones, and very harmonious stuff.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:I don't think that dissonance is coming from the accoustics, that's from his tuning, he's not in our note system, not even close, So he plays a lot with a contrast between weird dissonant beating tones, and very harmonious stuff.
I was saying two different things. I didn't think the accoustics made it sound dissonant.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Nice tunes, Cynic. I've heard some of Porcupine Tree's stuff before, years ago, but much like Opeth they didn't stick with me very well. That one's quite nice though.

Thing, your mention of non-Western music styles reminded me of something. A few months ago I watched a music documentary; I can't recall the title, but it was supposed to be about "the science of music" or about the neurological basis for our sense of music, something along those lines, even though there was very little science and it was mostly just musicians musing about their own views. Anyway, at one point there was a group of four musicians/singers from various parts of the world with different musical scales or intonations, and one by one they joined in together, each in their own style, and somehow it all blended together into something resembling a cohesive whole. I guess the point was that music is universal and we can always find a way to communicate musically. I thought it was pretty interesting.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

Found this courtesy of Things 5stringbasssitarthing, thanks, It one of the most beautiful songs i have heard in a long time.
Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

-Rimmer’s farewell speech
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

Just found out that Mick Karn died this year, :(= .


Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

-Rimmer’s farewell speech
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Sev »

Thanks for that, Imhuien, I heard a couple of months ago, a sad loss. Great bass player, and though Japan were tagged with the New Romantic genre, they made some good stuff back in the day. 'Sons of Pioneers' still is a great favourite of mine, and here's an odd version that Mick played with Japanese guitarist Sugizo.

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Omphalos wrote:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:I don't think that dissonance is coming from the accoustics, that's from his tuning, he's not in our note system, not even close, So he plays a lot with a contrast between weird dissonant beating tones, and very harmonious stuff.
I was saying two different things. I didn't think the accoustics made it sound dissonant.
Ah, I missunderstood what the "that" was, I thought you were referring to the space he was playing in, not the music - now I understand!

The dissonance is what makes it work in my opinion, but it definitely takes getting used to (we're already used to hearing dissonance, our entire note system is dissonant other than octaves and 5ths/4ths (which are still out of tune, but just barely) - the difference is what kind of dissonance we're used to) before it can be enjoyed.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

inhuien wrote:Found this courtesy of Things 5stringbasssitarthing, thanks, It one of the most beautiful songs i have heard in a long time.
Thanks Inhuien, this is awesome. The music is great, and the absolutely flawless reverb on the vocals really transports it to another level entirely.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Liege-Killer wrote: Thing, your mention of non-Western music styles reminded me of something. A few months ago I watched a music documentary; I can't recall the title, but it was supposed to be about "the science of music" or about the neurological basis for our sense of music, something along those lines, even though there was very little science and it was mostly just musicians musing about their own views. Anyway, at one point there was a group of four musicians/singers from various parts of the world with different musical scales or intonations, and one by one they joined in together, each in their own style, and somehow it all blended together into something resembling a cohesive whole. I guess the point was that music is universal and we can always find a way to communicate musically. I thought it was pretty interesting.
The interesting thing is that humans didn't really invent the major scale, we just found it. If you pluck a string it will vibrate at it's fundamental and octaves, but also a pile of other mathmatically related frequencies - some of the loudest of those frequencies, when compared to the root note, make up the major scale (that's the short version... lots of other shit going on obviously). Some instruments have strong harmonious overtones (strings, winds) and some do not, they are mainly dissonant (most drums are inbetween, snare would be an example of mainly dissonant - this is part of whhy drummers don't have to worry about only hitting "notes" that work with the song, their "notes" are such gibberish that they cannot easily be perceived as in or out of tune).

The science of music is pretty amazing stuff, as is the realization that the western note system is actually less scientifically in-tune than say Indian music (sorta...kinda...).

If you want to hear something really alien you need to dig around in Africa's music, some of it sounds really normal, and some of it sounds like something that's barely even music (to us). I wish I could track down an example of what I'm talking about.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

I hava several African radio stations programmed on my iPod radio apps. Some of it is very different.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

One of the things I'd love to do is documentary recording of various indiginous musics from around the world, stuff that's really different from what we're used to, and also in danger of being forgotten. I want to do in-depth analysis to try to understand the intonation/note systems, scales, rhythms, you name it, in the hopes of preserving some of it (not just to listen to, but to come back to life perhaps one day) for the future descendants of those people, who may want some of their culture back, like our First Nations are trying to do right now.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

If you dig up any examples of weird African music, that would be interesting to hear. The only things I can think of that I've heard have been highly westernized versions, such as the African chants and music samples used by Deep Forest in their so-called "ethnic electronica."

I'm not familiar with much non-western music, actually, not in any sort of undiluted form. But I do love it when western bands flavor their music with influences from other areas; especially a middle eastern/arabic influence.

Dead Can Dance is an obvious example. One of my favorites, with the eastern-style vocals starting at 2:20


Wow, I always used to love that album, Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, used to almost wear out my cd, I don't know why I haven't listened to it for so long. (On a side note, there's supposedly a death metal band that did a cover of this song, which I've never heard and which I find painful to try to imagine!) (On another side note, Paradise Lost did a cover of "Xavier" that is actually pretty decent.)

Also love the sound of this one, this is Israeli-born singer Chemda working with Rhys Fulber (of Front Line Assembly and Delerium) on his Conjure One project (sorry, no cool video or graphics). Damn, I would kill to find more music like this:
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

After listening to this song for almost 30 years it still scares me, the musicianship and rehearsal required to be this tight is, and here's that word again, Awesome.
Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Sev »

I've loved Dead Can Dance since early 1984, and was lucky enough to see them in London in 2005 - 'Rakim' and 'Desert Song' are two more that are heavily Middle-Eastern in influence.

Also from 1984, a German band called Dissidenten collaborated with several Moroccan musicians to make the album 'Sahara Elektrik' - a wonderful fusion of Western dance rhythms and Moroccan tribal music. Here's my favourite: "Fata Morgana"

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

LK, I like both of those.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

I found an old classic in my CD pile, Megadeth's Rust in Peace, been listening to it a lot lately. I'm got to get that itunes thingy and go buy all their old albums again, I forgot how much I loved them.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Oh yeah, good ol' Rust in Peace. Haven't listened to it in ages, but I still think "Hangar 18" is one of the best metal songs ever. And "Tornado of Souls" is freakin' awesome too.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Tornado's my favourite from that album personally, but Hanger is killer too.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

New Order, Power, Corruption & Lies. Great album.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

Liege-Killer wrote:On a different track, does anyone like any kind of electronic music? That's a broad term, I know, but take it as whatever it means to you.
One band I listen to, Ulver, began their career with extreme metal, then without warning abruptly changed to electronic music. I can't judge whether it's good for that genre since I don't really appreciate any of it, but I have heard it praised in other places.



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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Anyone into the Red Sparrowes? I just got a few of their albums and I'm digging them.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

Never heard of them, what are they like?
Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

They're like robins, only red all over.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

SadisticCynic wrote:They're like robins, only red all over.
Proggy, heavy. Mythological themes and epic sound. Great use of a slide guitar in hard rock

here to the clickness

And regardless of what that says, I always thought the plural form of sparrow had two r's in it. Oh well.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Omph, man, buddy, gooooood call. I just listened to a pile of these guys while doing data entry - they're pretty seriously awesome. A lot of the recordings sound low budget, but very well done low budget (it's the drums that tip me off, the cymbals sound a bit cardboard-y on some of the tracks in a way that definitely is not a deliberate low-fi effect or anything... but it actually works for the music well, gives it some character so it doesn't sound too polished).
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

Okay guys, I'm listening to a few tracks on youtube at the mo, they're nice. It's a pleasant change for the bass to be playing a more subversive role rather than root, 5th, death, that was always the approach I took.
Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

Play loud on your Grandpa's gramophone, 7 watt valve amp through horn loaded speakers and die.

Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Was just listening to the Cocteau Twins BBC Sessions album last weekend. I like them enough, but I've never found anything by the that I'd call "standout".
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Re: What are you listening to?

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A Thing of Eternity wrote:Omph, man, buddy, gooooood call. I just listened to a pile of these guys while doing data entry - they're pretty seriously awesome. A lot of the recordings sound low budget, but very well done low budget (it's the drums that tip me off, the cymbals sound a bit cardboard-y on some of the tracks in a way that definitely is not a deliberate low-fi effect or anything... but it actually works for the music well, gives it some character so it doesn't sound too polished).
Hard to believe that there's a band that we both really dig, what with you being all heavy metal, pierced nipples and body tats and me being all professional career, baby carriages and Volvos. :D

I love their logo and song titles too.

Can anyone explain this whole "post rock" thing they've got going? Don't understand that at all. They sound rock to me.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Omphalos wrote: Hard to believe that there's a band that we both really dig, what with you being all heavy metal, pierced nipples and body tats and me being all professional career, baby carriages and Volvos. :D
Hey, I haven't pierced my nipples! Just giant 1 inch holes through my earlobes! :lol=:

I like a lot of spacey stuff, especially without vocals.
Can anyone explain this whole "post rock" thing they've got going? Don't understand that at all. They sound rock to me.
It's basically a way to say that they're "prog" without making people assume that they're also "fast" or "disjointed" or "metal" or "shred" or any of the other stuff that's commonly associated with prog.

It all fits under the umberella of "rock", but post-rock is probably more art, less "entertainment". Bands like these guys spend too much time outside the box (the box of rock anyways) to be totally defined as rock, I guess that's how I'd say it.

Pretty much every genre has a "post" version (which are often prog-ish), it's just easier than making up a whole new genre name everytime someone departs enough from the previous one that it stops applying properly.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

Omphalos wrote:Was just listening to the Cocteau Twins BBC Sessions album last weekend. I like them enough, but I've never found anything by the that I'd call "standout".
Listen to Truesure, it is the very definition of standout.
Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

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Re: What are you listening to?

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A Thing of Eternity wrote:Omph, man, buddy, gooooood call. I just listened to a pile of these guys while doing data entry - they're pretty seriously awesome. A lot of the recordings sound low budget, but very well done low budget (it's the drums that tip me off, the cymbals sound a bit cardboard-y on some of the tracks in a way that definitely is not a deliberate low-fi effect or anything... but it actually works for the music well, gives it some character so it doesn't sound too polished).
I meant to post something about these guys as well. I have listened to We Stood Transfixed... so far and it more or less had that effect.

(Did you notice that the drummer does some interesting things with the hi-hats? As in, he puts accents in odd places to make a kind of meta-rhythm, so to speak. Or maybe it was just that song.)

Anyway thanks, Omph, for the recommendation.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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SadisticCynic wrote:(Did you notice that the drummer does some interesting things with the hi-hats? As in, he puts accents in odd places to make a kind of meta-rhythm, so to speak. Or maybe it was just that song.)
"Poly rhythm" is the usual term, and no, I did not notice that, I'll have to listen for it next time! Playing poly rhythms is something I find pretty easy over another musician, assuming that we're both playing in time signatures that are divisible by 1/4 notes (for example, I play in 3/4 but the drummer is in 4/4 = easy. But, if the drummer is in 4/4 and I'm in 7/8 (or any odd number over 8) and that is NOT easy!!) - but a drummer playing poly rhythms with him/herself is no easy feat.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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A Thing of Eternity wrote:
SadisticCynic wrote:(Did you notice that the drummer does some interesting things with the hi-hats? As in, he puts accents in odd places to make a kind of meta-rhythm, so to speak. Or maybe it was just that song.)
"Poly rhythm" is the usual term, and no, I did not notice that, I'll have to listen for it next time! Playing poly rhythms is something I find pretty easy over another musician, assuming that we're both playing in time signatures that are divisible by 1/4 notes (for example, I play in 3/4 but the drummer is in 4/4 = easy. But, if the drummer is in 4/4 and I'm in 7/8 (or any odd number over 8) and that is NOT easy!!) - but a drummer playing poly rhythms with him/herself is no easy feat.
I've tried to learn some simple polyrhythms before; they completely destroy me. :)=
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Re: What are you listening to?

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SadisticCynic wrote: I've tried to learn some simple polyrhythms before; they completely destroy me. :)=
Start with this: listen to some music with an easy and steady 4/4 rhythm, like the classic drum bead: 1HAT 2HAT 3SNARE 4HAT (kick pattern varies of course). Then drum with your hands on a surface a simple 3/4 rhythm. Anything will do, a good starting beat would be a six beat long one like this: (small x means 1 hand (don't alternate hands, this hand will go steady without change or pause the whole time) and big X means hit with your other hand at the same time) 1x 2x 3x 1X 2x 3x. Kind of a waltz feel: one two three ONE two three.

This is the simplest way to start because every beat you hit will line up with every beat the drummer hits (you are not trying to play 3 even beats between each of the drummer's beats, that's called compound time and isn't really polyrhythm in my opinion). The way to do it is this: stop listening to the drummer as being 4/4! Think of the drummer's time signature as 1/1, so their rhythm is just 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1. Ignore the drummer's accents. Every time he hits a beat, you hit a beat, and every 6 beats you hit one accent in the middle on the second "1" of the 6 beat run. If you ignore his accents then it becomes easier. Then, after this becomes comfortable, start making your 3/4 beat more complex.

Try that out. If it doesn't work come back to me and try to explain why and I'll help you. Polyrhythms are a passion of mine, and they aren't really that difficult - the key is to stop thinking in ANY time signature (at least in regards to the other musicians), everything is just 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ! This helps.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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inhuien wrote:
Omphalos wrote:Was just listening to the Cocteau Twins BBC Sessions album last weekend. I like them enough, but I've never found anything by the that I'd call "standout".
Listen to Truesure, it is the very definition of standout.
Got it, and like it.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

cough, cough, that should be Treasure. And drumming monkey is happy :)
Image
Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

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Re: What are you listening to?

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A Thing of Eternity wrote:
SadisticCynic wrote: I've tried to learn some simple polyrhythms before; they completely destroy me. :)=
Start with this: listen to some music with an easy and steady 4/4 rhythm, like the classic drum bead: 1HAT 2HAT 3SNARE 4HAT (kick pattern varies of course). Then drum with your hands on a surface a simple 3/4 rhythm. Anything will do, a good starting beat would be a six beat long one like this: (small x means 1 hand (don't alternate hands, this hand will go steady without change or pause the whole time) and big X means hit with your other hand at the same time) 1x 2x 3x 1X 2x 3x. Kind of a waltz feel: one two three ONE two three.

This is the simplest way to start because every beat you hit will line up with every beat the drummer hits (you are not trying to play 3 even beats between each of the drummer's beats, that's called compound time and isn't really polyrhythm in my opinion). The way to do it is this: stop listening to the drummer as being 4/4! Think of the drummer's time signature as 1/1, so their rhythm is just 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1. Ignore the drummer's accents. Every time he hits a beat, you hit a beat, and every 6 beats you hit one accent in the middle on the second "1" of the 6 beat run. If you ignore his accents then it becomes easier. Then, after this becomes comfortable, start making your 3/4 beat more complex.

Try that out. If it doesn't work come back to me and try to explain why and I'll help you. Polyrhythms are a passion of mine, and they aren't really that difficult - the key is to stop thinking in ANY time signature (at least in regards to the other musicians), everything is just 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ! This helps.
I will try that.

So, let each of my bars be three beats. Then it will take me four bars and him three bars to get back in the same position time-wise. That is, my first bar will start on his one, then my second on the four of his first bar, then my third on the three of his second bar etc.
Is that the sort of thing that's going on?

I think what I was trying must have been compound time then. The one I started with was to play a 3/4 beat over a 4/4 beat. Basically I played three 'hits' with my left hand and four 'hits' with my right hand so that they took up the same time. That one I found impossible, but doing it with 3 and 2 was OK, since it actually is very similar (if I've got it right) to a type of shuffle pattern.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

SadisticCynic wrote:
I will try that.

So, let each of my bars be three beats. Then it will take me four bars and him three bars to get back in the same position time-wise. That is, my first bar will start on his one, then my second on the four of his first bar, then my third on the three of his second bar etc.
Is that the sort of thing that's going on?
That is absolutely correct. You'll find you won't even have to think about how many times around it'll take for both of your "1"s to line up again, as it will just feel natural there.

You can see why this is much easier playing 2 timesigs that are divisible by 1/4 notes than it would be if only one of them were and the other was an odd-over-8th note signature! Because let's say then that it was 7/8 timing being played over 4/4 (best to think of as 8/8 in this situation) - this means that your second bar would start on beat 3.5 of the drummer's bar, and so forth and so on. The first time you play your riff everything sounds normal, then all of a sudden your accents and his are syncopated/on the off beats of eachother (think I used that term right...), then for your 3rd time you're back on the same accents, then back on the offbeat. Very very tricky, but sounds flipping awesome if pulled off!
I think what I was trying must have been compound time then. The one I started with was to play a 3/4 beat over a 4/4 beat. Basically I played three 'hits' with my left hand and four 'hits' with my right hand so that they took up the same time. That one I found impossible, but doing it with 3 and 2 was OK, since it actually is very similar (if I've got it right) to a type of shuffle pattern.
This isn't actually either compound or polyrhythm - it's something more or less impossible, which explains why it was so hard! Compound is if the drummer is playing 1 2 3 4 with his hands, and then 2 beats between each beat with his feet (this is extremely common in metal druming), so it's not 3 and 4 taking up the same time, it's basically just really fast 3/4 time, so fast that it feels like 4/4 (example: (x=kick drum, and also assume there is an x hidden under each number, numbers representing what his hands are doing) 1xx2xx3xx4xx, so as you can see, it is really 3/4, but the way the hands play make it feel more like 4/4, this is compound time).

What you were attempting was some kind of ultra-polyrhythm. I used to toy with the idea of employing these, but it's basically impossible unless you're a computer!
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

A good example of how to play a 4/4 or evenovereven time sig over an oddover8 sig would be tapping your hand along with Tool's Schism. It's actually in a bunch of different alternating time sigs, but most bars are 5/8 or 7/8 so it works for our purposes. A lot of people stay away from riff written in oddover8 because it's hard to bob your head along, every bar you'll get lost. But, if you just tap your hand in a steady pace on the 1/4 beats along with the song you'll notice that for the first bar you're tapping along with the riff, then the second bar you're tapping on all the off-beats, and so forth and so on.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

I see what you mean by compound time, in fact I use that formulation quite often, with my feet or in fills. My concept of a polyrhythm comes from this video:



This guy is pretty ridiculous, and I can't even follow most of what he does, but he plays the sort of things I'm talking about e.g. the 3 over 4 rhythm.
so it's not 3 and 4 taking up the same time, it's basically just really fast 3/4 time, so fast that it feels like 4/4
This is where time signatures get a little philosphical for me. From one point of view, the example you gave (the one common in metal) is indeed really fast 3/4, with the kick on the 1, 2 and 3 and the hands on the 1 of every bar. Alternatively, one could 'zoom out' so to speak, and see each hit with the hands as the beat of a 4/4 pattern, while playing 12th notes with the kick underneath it. At least, that's how I think about it. :)=
A lot of people stay away from riff written in oddover8 because it's hard to bob your head along, every bar you'll get lost.


Whenever I'm playing in an odd time, I (almost) always play a one-two pattern on top of it, say hitting an accent on the hi-hat every other beat or alternating on the ride or the bell. This means that you keep an even pulse throughout the pattern, and in fact makes the pattern longer since you need two bars to come around again. It also means that if I come up with a cool pattern in an odd time, I automatically gain about four more, since I can emphasize 1 2 3 4 or 1 2 3 4. Then I can branch out by, say, only playing the full quarter notes in a a 7/8 pattern, which has a similar effect, but with silence as the alternate beat, whether it's the 1 or the 2.

As to bobbing your head along (I nearly misspelt that as 'boobing' :shock=: ), there is a guy who deliberately does the things I've mentioned above. He's says he loves to see people dancing to the music when it's in an odd time, and it being due to him keeping a solid pulse through the music.

He does it in 7/8 in this one from the start:



(There used to be a great HQ one of that, but it seems to have disappeared. :(= )

And then in 9/8 in this one at about 2:26:



(Sorry, I seem to be inundating you with videos.)
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

SadisticCynic wrote:I see what you mean by compound time, in fact I use that formulation quite often, with my feet or in fills. My concept of a polyrhythm comes from this video:

[youtube]snip, some crazy drummer[/youtube]

This guy is pretty ridiculous, and I can't even follow most of what he does, but he plays the sort of things I'm talking about e.g. the 3 over 4 rhythm.
As and aside: Sorry, didn't realize you were a drummer. I'd been talking to you like you were a guitarist, pretty dumbed down... sorry about that.

Now, back to business:

Well what the FUCK? My mind just hit a brick wall running at full speed. WTF?!?!? Godsdamnit, I'm starting to think my definition of polyrhythm was all wrong. In my version it's different time signatures laid over each other so that if counted on the 1/4 notes or the 1/8th notes etc the meter is the same, thus the two (or more) time signatures seem to rotate/move around each other, each starting over at different times....

This definition (and from what I can understand wiki's explanation, I can't read music so I can't tell for sure) is totally different. This matches what you were attempting, different time signatures played over each other so that the 1 of each always occurs at the same time, so if counting the whole notes the meter is the same (rather than my version, mine makes more sense to say "the meter is the same" in my opinion, because nobody counts meter based on whole notes, it's always on 1/4 from my experience... fuckit, maybe I'm wrong about that too...). So they say their definition makes the meters the same, I dissagree and say they're playing in 2 different meters at once and MY way is the way where the meters stay the same! Philosophical difference I suppose, counting meter on the space between 1's or the space between the divisions.

This is WAY fucking harder than what I do. I didn't actually think anyone other than tribal Africans could actually pull this shit off (I've been listening that stuff for a while trying to grasp the polyrhythms, NOW I understand, they're playing this "other" kind of polyrhythm).

This kind of begs the question: what the hell is what I was talking about called if it isn't called polyrhythm????????
so it's not 3 and 4 taking up the same time, it's basically just really fast 3/4 time, so fast that it feels like 4/4
This is where time signatures get a little philosphical for me. From one point of view, the example you gave (the one common in metal) is indeed really fast 3/4, with the kick on the 1, 2 and 3 and the hands on the 1 of every bar. Alternatively, one could 'zoom out' so to speak, and see each hit with the hands as the beat of a 4/4 pattern, while playing 12th notes with the kick underneath it. At least, that's how I think about it.
That's exactly how I think of it too. Typically I would regard it as a 4/4 time signature over 12th notes rather than really fast 3/4, because what a time signature "is" is what it "feels" like in my opinion.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

This kind of begs the question: what the hell is what I was talking about called if it isn't called polyrhythm????????
There is mention on Wiki of this thing called polymeter. But they call a polyrhythm two different patterns which may be in the same time-signature playing over each other, whereas I would always have considered a polyrhythm as having at least two separate times. :?:

But maybe polymeter is what you're talking about?

(I just love how complicated music can really get, even if I can't hear it all the time myself. Conceptually it's pretty amazing.)
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Re: What are you listening to?

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I'da never 'a believed it if I hadn't 'a saw it: A music thread actually hijacked by talk about music. :lol=:
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

:lol=: Well, being that it's us lot doing the posting we all knew it would derail sooner or later, I'm surprised it derailed so gracefully!

I think you could happily split everything after we start talking about time signatures into it's own thread called "music discussion" or something, preserve both conversations that way.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Nah! Doesn't bother me. Just joking.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

SadisticCynic wrote:One band I listen to, Ulver, began their career with extreme metal, then without warning abruptly changed to electronic music. I can't judge whether it's good for that genre since I don't really appreciate any of it, but I have heard it praised in other places.
I've heard some of their metal stuff, didn't care much for it. Had no idea they'd gone electronic. Sounds much better than their metal!
Omphalos wrote:Anyone into the Red Sparrowes? I just got a few of their albums and I'm digging them.
Never heard of 'em, but wow.... sounds great. Upon listening to "We Stood Transfixed" my first thought was that they reminded me of Isis. And then I found out why. Wikipedia says the guitarist from Isis is one of the members of Red Sparowes. Thanks Omph, this is the best new music I've been turned onto in this thread so far. Gotta hear some more!

By way of comparison:



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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

Liege-Killer about Ulver wrote:I've heard some of their metal stuff, didn't care much for it. Had no idea they'd gone electronic. Sounds much better than their metal!
Depends on which metal album you heard. Bergtatt is the one I own, and I love it, but the other is Nattens Madrigal, which has such lo-fi recording that it will literally make you're ears bleed.

Curiously, between those records they released a folk album entitled Kveldssanger. I've been planning on getting that one sometime.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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Isis are very, very nice. :clap:
Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

SadisticCynic wrote:Depends on which metal album you heard. Bergtatt is the one I own, and I love it, but the other is Nattens Madrigal, which has such lo-fi recording that it will literally make you're ears bleed.

Curiously, between those records they released a folk album entitled Kveldssanger. I've been planning on getting that one sometime.
I couldn't even tell you, it's been quite a few years ago. And actually it was just one song I heard, on a mix cd someone made for me in one of those mix cd trade thingies on some music forum a long time ago. All I remember is that it was sorta experimental-sounding, and weird.

However, you just sent my mind off on a strange chain of connections (or maybe not so strange). I was looking up some info on Ulver and saw they're from Norway (which I suspected from the album titles you mentioned). You also mentioned they did a folk album. And this reminded me of another band I was going to mention a while back but then forgot to. Is anyone here familiar with Gåte? Very interesting band that mixes traditional Norwegian folk music with modern rock, with stunning results (at least as far as the one album I'm familiar with, Iselilja). The vocals are quite unique, and that guy is just amazing with the fiddle:



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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Gåte's pretty good stuff man. To my ear (fairly untrained in European folk) the folk aspect of that bears a lot of resemblence to classic Gaelic/Celtic music, even down to the way the language sounds (when sung anyways).
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Re: What are you listening to?

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Been listening to a lot of old Tom Waits lately, mostly stuff before Swordfishtrombone. I have a lot of his albums and I generally like them all, but I prefer the very old stuff from the 70's; his tipys sounding stuff, like Closing Time.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Robspierre »

I've been on an audiobook kick lately.

Just finished "Medium Raw" by Anthony Bourdain.

The Heinlein radio play adaptions.

Methusalah's Children.

Might do "Double Star" or a Sharpe novel next. Or a history of the Crusades.

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Re: What are you listening to?

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This has some slightly stupid editing, but it's still a fun watch. I don't know if it's technically proficient, but it sure sounds good to me.

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Been too busy to listen much lately, but I keep going back to (and geting stuck on) one or two of Wilco's albums. What I need to do is get an adapter so I can listed to shit in my car from my ipod.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Wilco's a great band, I should buy some of their stuff, it's some of the rare non-metal that I might actually listen to on a regular basis.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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Ulver while in a folk music mood:

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

Hey Thing, I recently found out that I can film myself drumming using my phone, so I recorded myself trying out a polyrhythmic idea - I explain how I'm thinking about it in the description. It's not particularly great quality, I'm not sure that I play everything in time and it's only 8 seconds long, but hopefully it's worth a look. :)=

Enjoy (and sorry about the weird faces): http://youtu.be/KiZQaN3WvDM
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Funny faces? Can't be a drummer without a funny face! I used to even have one for playing guitar, everyone called it the upsidedownfrown, which made no sense because it was just a regular frown...

Cool, so this is the "true polyrhythm" we'd discussed before, a two simultainous petterns of 1/8ths or 14th or whatever with accents in different places (what I've grown up calling polyrhythm) but 2 bars simultainiously of exactly the same length (in time) but divided by 3s/6s/12s or 2s/4s/8s right? Unfortunately the video audio is mostly just kicks and snare with a washing high pitched drone overtop, I can't actually pick out what the hat is doing. But looking at your hands, yes, it looks freaky!
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Eyes High »

Cool Cyn.!!!
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:Funny faces? Can't be a drummer without a funny face! I used to even have one for playing guitar, everyone called it the upsidedownfrown, which made no sense because it was just a regular frown...

Cool, so this is the "true polyrhythm" we'd discussed before, a two simultainous petterns of 1/8ths or 14th or whatever with accents in different places (what I've grown up calling polyrhythm) but 2 bars simultainiously of exactly the same length (in time) but divided by 3s/6s/12s or 2s/4s/8s right? Unfortunately the video audio is mostly just kicks and snare with a washing high pitched drone overtop, I can't actually pick out what the hat is doing. But looking at your hands, yes, it looks freaky!
Yeah, the sound is pretty bad; this is recorded on a mobile phone so it's as expected I guess.

I should try again but without double pedals, since they will drown out everything else. I have a feeling cymbals are notorious for recording badly though. At least on some records I own which have less than stellar production, 'watery' cymbals are a common element.

Alternatively, if I get a better angle the hats might come through better, being closer to the camera.
Eyes High wrote:Cool Cyn.!!!
Thank you! :D
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Cutting the kicks would certainly help. Cymbals are actually not hard to record, the main problem is A: bad production, many metal producers cut all the low-mids and mids from cymbals, resulting in thin weak sound - and B: they do not take well to MP3 compression, the high frequencies get really digital sounding at higher compression rates.

If recording yourself is something you want to play with, check out some of the handheld recorders on the market like the Zoom H2/H4 etc, they're really very impressive sounding for the price.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Thats kind of beyond me, but it looks cool!

My daughter made me download the Phineas & Ferb soundtrack album, so I've been inadvertantly listening to that lately. Actually more her singing along with it, which is kinda nice.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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A Thing of Eternity wrote:Wilco's a great band, I should buy some of their stuff, it's some of the rare non-metal that I might actually listen to on a regular basis.
Meh. Tweedy was far better in his original band. There are a handful of excellent Wilco songs, but I much prefer Farrar's work in Uncle Tupelo. Wilco sounds like a Dave Matthews wannabe band. I'm surprised anybody can hear anything at their shows over the frat boy cell phone noise. Being There and Summerteeth was the band's zenith, imo.

Currently very into The Decemberists. They're just the right amount of off center.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Star Dust wrote:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:Wilco's a great band, I should buy some of their stuff, it's some of the rare non-metal that I might actually listen to on a regular basis.
Meh. Tweedy was far better in his original band. There are a handful of excellent Wilco songs, but I much prefer Farrar's work in Uncle Tupelo. Wilco sounds like a Dave Matthews wannabe band. I'm surprised anybody can hear anything at their shows over the frat boy cell phone noise. Being There and Summerteeth was the band's zenith, imo.

Currently very into The Decemberists. They're just the right amount of off center.
Ha, well I haven't heard any of that other stuff! The Wilco album my ex had seemed perfectly good, but what do I know about Rock, it all sounds pretty close to the same to me anyways! I would have said they sound more like Matt Good than Dave Matthews though.

Another band I like that's kinda Rock is The Constantiens (spelling?), they're good stuff.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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Star Dust wrote:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:Wilco's a great band, I should buy some of their stuff, it's some of the rare non-metal that I might actually listen to on a regular basis.
Meh. Tweedy was far better in his original band. There are a handful of excellent Wilco songs, but I much prefer Farrar's work in Uncle Tupelo. Wilco sounds like a Dave Matthews wannabe band. I'm surprised anybody can hear anything at their shows over the frat boy cell phone noise. Being There and Summerteeth was the band's zenith, imo.

Currently very into The Decemberists. They're just the right amount of off center.
Dave Matthews? First time I've ever heard that.

I love the most recent Decemberists album. Rox in the Box is my current favorite song, but it changes pretty frequently.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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Omphalos wrote:Dave Matthews? First time I've ever heard that.

I love the most recent Decemberists album. Rox in the Box is my current favorite song, but it changes pretty frequently.
I know the feeling; I've given up trying to maintain a favourite song, or even a favourite album for that matter.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

SadisticCynic wrote:
Omphalos wrote:Dave Matthews? First time I've ever heard that.

I love the most recent Decemberists album. Rox in the Box is my current favorite song, but it changes pretty frequently.
I know the feeling; I've given up trying to maintain a favourite song, or even a favourite album for that matter.
Me too, but eventually it was whittled down to a couple In Flames songs, I think Trigger and some other one, I'm horrible with song names, never remember them.
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Re: What are you listening to?

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Makes me feel good:

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Re: What are you listening to?

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They were destroyed because they lied pretentiously. Have no fear that my wrath
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Re: What are you listening to?

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Seriously... two worlds collided when I saw that. :pray:
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SandChigger »

:shock:
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

:shock=:

:D

:lol=:

That is AWESOME! :clap:
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Some of you guys might like my old buddy's record label. Check it out

http://www.underdogma.com/
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

I like the one band Crom, simply because any metal that is so metal that they just accept that they're best off writing about something ridiculous like orcs, or in this case, Conan the Barbarian, gets thumbs up in my books! Also a fairly cool thrashy rock kinda band. The most rest is this odd kinda genre I hear often but I don't know what to call, basically metal-inspired stuff with radio-rock style vocals, odd though, most of that stuff happened more in the later 90s to early turn of the century.

What's the label's business model, are they a distribution company, management/tour booking, merch, that kinda stuff, or is it also a recording studio?
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

They do it all. Used to be a bunch of classic rockers back when we were in college.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

I can't even begin to describe how incredible this is.

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Omphalos wrote:They do it all. Used to be a bunch of classic rockers back when we were in college.
Cool, it definitely all sounded like it was recorded by the same person so I had a hunch!
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

SadisticCynic wrote:I can't even begin to describe how incredible this is.
Well. Shit!

What amazes me is three drummers of that calibre playing at once, and NEVER was is too much at once or each masking each other except for those 2 crescendos at the end, which were on purpose.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Was looking for some new music the other day, here are a few things I found to my liking:


Actually I had heard this band before, years ago, but couldn't really get into them much. I think they've improved some, gotten a little bit harder edge.



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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

That last one reminds me alot of Tarja Turunen (ex-Nightwish).
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Here's another band I discovered literally five minutes ago.... ooh yeah..... this is some good stuff....

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Liege-Killer wrote:Here's another band I discovered literally five minutes ago.... ooh yeah..... this is some good stuff....

Damnit, they had me right up to that "this is who I am, this is how I feel" chorus bit, up till that I was thinking, ehy, this is basically just like In Flames from 3 or 4 albums ago, awesome, female vocalist, cool, then it got weird on me. :(=

EDIT: Man, listening to it all it really is great and just like In Flames except for that chorus, which just kills me. Seriously, if they just ditched that part this is right up alley, especially since In Flames has changed style a fair bit recently.

I'm going to go look up more shit from this band.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Damn, looked up more and that song is about the peak. If I could just erase the male melodic singer and make the lyrics different I'd have orders in right now for every CD they've made. Darn.

Oh well, I'll keep searching, sucks being so picky... wish I could turn it off sometimes!
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

I know what you mean, that is definitely the low point of the song. I do like the 3-way vocal structure of rough male, melodic male, and female vocals, but that one part does sound a little silly. Maybe it's more the lyrics for me than the vocal style.

I heard a couple of their other songs that were ok, but this is the best I found so far.

I might have to take another look at In Flames. I didn't like any of their stuff that I heard five or six or so years ago, but my tastes have changed since then, so who knows?

I'm curious, have you ever heard of Summoner? I think they only had one album, and as far as I know aren't together anymore; it's a shame, since they had a style I really liked. No male clean vocals, just a standard Mr. Growly and a lady. I don't know if it's something you'd like, but this is a particular favorite of mine, let me know what you think (on most of their songs the female vocals aren't quite so syrupy-sweet, but I love it):

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Liege-Killer wrote:I know what you mean, that is definitely the low point of the song. I do like the 3-way vocal structure of rough male, melodic male, and female vocals, but that one part does sound a little silly. Maybe it's more the lyrics for me than the vocal style.
It's the combo of the lyrics there and the vocal style that kill it for me - if it was exactly the same but with better lyrics it would be way better. "This is how I feel, this is who I am, it's all about me" sounds like something someone like Taylor Swift would have written! Horrible. AND as a metalhead I am very used too ignoring bad lyrics, so if I say it's bad then that means it's really off the charts bad!
I might have to take another look at In Flames. I didn't like any of their stuff that I heard five or six or so years ago, but my tastes have changed since then, so who knows?
Check some of this shit out and see if you dig it:

One of my top 2 favourite songs, this is their mid-old stuff, few albums back.

This is really new stuff:

Faster and also mid-old, this one doesn't really get awesome till about 1:30



And here's some older In Flames from back in the day, one of my fav oldschool In Flames songs:

I'm curious, have you ever heard of Summoner? I think they only had one album, and as far as I know aren't together anymore; it's a shame, since they had a style I really liked. No male clean vocals, just a standard Mr. Growly and a lady. I don't know if it's something you'd like, but this is a particular favorite of mine, let me know what you think (on most of their songs the female vocals aren't quite so syrupy-sweet, but I love it):
This is pretty cool, I like it. Very down tempo and doom-y, oh wait it just went up tempo... either way this is pretty cool. I do appreciate how the female vocalist didn't go for pop-vocals. I wish more bands with female singers would get them screaming/whateveryouwanttocall"dissonant"singing - girls can do totally bad ass screaming/growling that you'd never even know was a girl.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »



Like Angela Gossow? :drool:
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

SadisticCynic wrote:

Like Angela Gossow? :drool:
Yup. They're awesome.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:Check some of this shit out and see if you dig it:
Hey, I dig it! The first three songs for sure, they could seriously grow on me. I'm gonna have to hit Amazon and do some mp3 shopping. That last song, the older one, doesn't fare so well against my musical sensibilities. It does get into a pretty cool groove from right about 2:12 to 3:00 or so; the rest of it though, not for me. Sounds like I need to check out more of their mid- to late-career stuff.
A Thing of Eternity wrote:This is pretty cool, I like it. Very down tempo and doom-y, oh wait it just went up tempo... either way this is pretty cool.
Glad you like; here's a slightly more up-tempo one:



Another now-defunct band in a somewhat similar vein is Evenfall (Italians, like Summoner). Here's one of their songs (although somebody matched it to video from that silly James Woods vampire movie):


A Thing of Eternity wrote:I wish more bands with female singers would get them screaming/whateveryouwanttocall"dissonant"singing - girls can do totally bad ass screaming/growling that you'd never even know was a girl.
If you can't tell it's a girl, what's the point!? :P

I like a wide range of female vocal styles, but I can't stand Angela Gossow (sorry, Cynic!). I still want them to sound feminine (not to mention human!), even if the music is very heavy or aggressive. My ideal of a female vocalist who has a powerful voice that's a good match for heavy music but still sounds female would be Johanna DePierre of Amaran:



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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Liege-Killer wrote:
A Thing of Eternity wrote:Check some of this shit out and see if you dig it:
Hey, I dig it! The first three songs for sure, they could seriously grow on me. I'm gonna have to hit Amazon and do some mp3 shopping. That last song, the older one, doesn't fare so well against my musical sensibilities. It does get into a pretty cool groove from right about 2:12 to 3:00 or so; the rest of it though, not for me. Sounds like I need to check out more of their mid- to late-career stuff.
Their mid-career is the real golden stuff, it's my favourite. The new stuff is good too, but I'll take the older stuff over the new, and the mid stuff over both.
Another now-defunct band in a somewhat similar vein is Evenfall (Italians, like Summoner). Here's one of their songs (although somebody matched it to video from that silly James Woods vampire movie):
This is pretty cool, I like the extra soft vocal style, not top of her lungs the whole time.
A Thing of Eternity wrote:I wish more bands with female singers would get them screaming/whateveryouwanttocall"dissonant"singing - girls can do totally bad ass screaming/growling that you'd never even know was a girl.
If you can't tell it's a girl, what's the point!? :P
Ha, you can still totally tell it's a girl, doesn't really sound like a guy's dissonant singing. She's about as masculine as it gets though, I'll find some other bands with girl-screamers that sound more like girls.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Liege-Killer wrote: I like a wide range of female vocal styles, but I can't stand Angela Gossow (sorry, Cynic!). I still want them to sound feminine (not to mention human!), even if the music is very heavy or aggressive. My ideal of a female vocalist who has a powerful voice that's a good match for heavy music but still sounds female would be Johanna DePierre of Amaran:
Hey, that's pretty cool stuff. I like how she sounds like a rock singer, not a pop singer. One of my beefs with a lot of female vocalists in heavy bands is that they just go full blast the whole bloody time (like Evanescence or whatever they're called, horribly over-produced). This Johanna actually has dynamics though, sometimes softer sometimes louder, nicely done.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Hmmm, having trouble finding some of the bands I used to listen to with girls singing. Here's one example (Walls of Jerico)that still sounds very much like a girl to me, but not quite as much as what I'm looking for in this conversation:

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

I don't listen to their music but there is a band called Otep with a female death-metal vocalist. Still not as good as Angela though.

This is just the first one that came up on YouTube:



Not for me, really...
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Been checking out more In Flames tunes, found a lot I don't like, and some that I do. Some songs I thought were cool on an initial listen: The Quiet Place, Colony, Where the Dead Ships Dwell, Ropes.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Quite a variety there, covers a lot of time (Colony is early-ish). There's 2 albums in particular that are my favourites, which are Reroute to Remain and Soundtrack to your Escape.

Judging by the other stuff you've psoted, you might find your favourite stuff from them to be their most recent albums though.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:Judging by the other stuff you've psoted, you might find your favourite stuff from them to be their most recent albums though.
Right, after some more listening, three of my faves are right off their latest album (Ropes, Dead Ships, Liberation). But also a few others scattered over the years, including Colony and Trigger. Those songs from Playground Fading have a sort of progressive feel to them, which is cool; progressive melodic death metal, yeah I can roll with that.

Back to the screaming lady singers topic, here's one I just found that actually kinda works for me, probably because the screaming only makes up 1/4 to 1/3 of the total vocals:



I gotta wonder how she can scream like that and still keep her vocal chords intact for her regular singing voice.

Hmmm, I'm seeing this band described as metalcore (not sure how accurate that is), which I wouldn't ordinarily think of as "my thing." But hey, it's working for me. Here, this one sounds pretty good too:



If you do an image search for this singer, Maria Brink, you'll see about her interesting fashion sense. She's like a metal version of Pink.

EDIT: you should check out their cover of Blondie's "Call Me." :lol=:

EDIT AGAIN: Funny thing about searching out new music: one band leads to another, which leads to another, which leads to another..... so that one above led me to this one, check it out:



And:



These youngsters are barely out of their teens, and they're making kick-ass sound like that? Awesome.

Those two bands are from California and Arizona; if I keep finding more such, I might have to re-think my past comments about there being no good American bands these days. Why can't we hear anything this good on the radio? There's a program called Hard Drive that supposedly plays metal, but you'll never hear anything on there with any balls, nothing like this.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Liege-Killer wrote: I gotta wonder how she can scream like that and still keep her vocal chords intact for her regular singing voice.
Actually screaming is typically way easier on your vocal chords as long as you do it right (ie: not full volume. Most metal/hardcore dissonant singers are singing much quieter than you'd imagine). I hear of melodic singers damaging their vocal chords all the time, but dissonant singers almost never have this problem (I say almost never because it must happen from time to time, but I've never actually heard of a single case).
Hmmm, I'm seeing this band described as metalcore (not sure how accurate that is), which I wouldn't ordinarily think of as "my thing." But hey, it's working for me.


Yeah, metalcore works for them, not 100% typical of the style but pretty close. Far too break-down ridden (and epic strumming extended major/minor chord sections - and also, the screaming style is straight up modern hardcore or maybe screamo) to be just metal, and far too many speed-metal riffs and too much lead playing for it to be modern hardcore - therefor: metalcore. :D
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

Probably 'cause I'm a drummer, but that first song had a really nice blastbeat section in it. A lot of bands either have a drummer who can't do them tight, or heavily overuse them where they don't need them. Nice to see someone using them tastefully.

I have heard of people getting damage from dissonant singing; usually it's due to bad technique, although I think most of these types of singers will lose their screaming ability as they get older long before they lose their natural singing voice.

Interesting to know that dissonant singers aren't singing full volume. I suspected as much, plus in the liner notes of a Katatonia album the main man describes his experience recording vocals with Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth) and said in the recording room he sounds almost like he's whispering. But at full volume he's got a pretty scary roar.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

"Hardcore" vocalists can be fairly loud, and hardcore-punk style screaming (actually screaming) is loud, but yeah, the "metal" style of "screaming" dissonant singing is often very very quiet.

I mean much quieter than a normal singing voice. Someone like the singer from Lamb of God for example is probably just barely above a whisper, you couldn't hear him from 20 feet away without a PA system. Most of the best sounding dissonant singers are around or just above talking level though, and some of the really good ones are quite loud, but it's not common. (Really low death metal style cookie monster vox can sometimes be fairly loud, simply because it's hard to produce those super-low frequencies at a quieter volume).
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Yeah, interesting info on the vocal styles and voice levels. You learn something new every day, as the saying goes.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Eyes High »

Amanda Marshall

I like her variety of music. Here are three samples.

This one reminds me of Freak and maybe Rob.
[YouTube] http://youtu.be/9seZeFc6ms0 [/YouTube]


I've downloaded this one for a ring tone.
http://youtu.be/l5Qf0-zBmkE

And to me this one is so calming. I know I've posted this one on Facebook, just can't recall if I've placed this one on here or Jacarutu.
Just don't worry about the video. Couldn't find a music video of this song.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Eyes High »

I've put this up on Facebook and Jac, but just incase he comes here first. For some reason this reminded my of you Chig. Wonder why :think: :whistle:

http://youtu.be/haZ2bNNxdJo
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Robspierre »

[quote="Eyes High"]Amanda Marshall

I like her variety of music. Here are three samples.

This one reminds me of Freak and maybe Rob.
[YouTube] http://youtu.be/9seZeFc6ms0 [/YouTube]


[quote]

Not really me, I'm a long haul partier, not one of those binge, get it over in under four hours, type ;).

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Eyes High »

Just couldn't remember if you sometimes partied so hard you couldn't remember it. Hehehehehe.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

Here a nice Prog Rock docu that never got released. http://vimeo.com/21318405
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Hey Thing, I'm still listening to In Flames and I gotta give thanks for you turning me on to them. I found a few more Reroute songs I like -- Free Fall, Cloud Connected. And still loving the hell outta some of those Playground songs.

Guess that got me in the mood for some heavier music, I keep trying to find some new stuff. How does this strike you?

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by lotek »

doesn't sound very hard to me ;)
sounds more like avril lavigne doing metal if you ask me

might as well listen to the last album from Beirut(it's everything but hard)

http://grooveshark.com/#/search?q=beirut+the+rip+tide
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Liege-Killer wrote:Hey Thing, I'm still listening to In Flames and I gotta give thanks for you turning me on to them. I found a few more Reroute songs I like -- Free Fall, Cloud Connected. And still loving the hell outta some of those Playground songs.
I actually haven't even really checked out the new album yet, I need to buy that!
How does this strike you?

Well first off, DeadLock was the name of my very first band, so they get points right there!

The girl singing actually doesn't bug me in this one, though yes she is a little like Avril! This is great, this sounds straight up like older In Flames, I love it. If you replaced the vocalists you could litterally put this song onto an In Flames album and nobody would bat an eye. Works for me!
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Liege-Killer »

Ha, they stole your band name, Thing! :lol=:

So hey, what else you got that's heavy + melodic?
lotek wrote:doesn't sound very hard to me ;)
I'm guessing that what you consider hard would make my ears bleed. I hate it when my ears bleed, it makes such a mess. :crying-green:
lotek wrote:sounds more like avril lavigne doing metal if you ask me
If she did, and it sounded like that, I'd be one of her fans. :music-rockon:

Although, it would certainly be an improvement if that chorus was a little less pop-like. But hey, I still like it.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

This is cool:

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

:shock=:





:?





:shock:
:clap:







Well, the quest to see how far guitar can be taken seems to be over. Dear fucking gods.

EDIT: what makes it is the extra vibrato and such, and all the tapped harmonics.

EDIT2: Ok, on a second watch it's not quite as insane as I'd thought at first. It's extremely insane, it's just not quiiiite maximum insane. The quest can continue now...
I deleted some of your posts because they were derailing the topic and not focusing on the issues asked, and instead going after the authors or their material. That's why. ~ BM
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

His technique and showmanship are superb. Damn shame the result sounds like every other shit-ass new age soft/modern jazz tune out there. I hate that style of music.
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

Omphalos wrote:His technique and showmanship are superb. Damn shame the result sounds like every other shit-ass new age soft/modern jazz tune out there. I hate that style of music.
Really? I thought it sounded great. Different strokes for different sorts? Or maybe I just haven't been over-exposed to this kind of stuff so it's all still fresh for me.
I deleted some of your posts because they were derailing the topic and not focusing on the issues asked, and instead going after the authors or their material. That's why. ~ BM
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by Omphalos »

Listen to a light jazz station for a few hours. Pretty soon it'll start sounding like there is but one single light jazz song in the universe that is infinitely long, and has been broken up arbitrarially into many three to four minute "songs".
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!

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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

It's just weird, I don't get "jazz" from that clip at all, just sounds like typical techy acoustic playing but really good! I hate light jazz, I like spastic angry jazz.
I deleted some of your posts because they were derailing the topic and not focusing on the issues asked, and instead going after the authors or their material. That's why. ~ BM
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by SadisticCynic »

The lead single from Opeth's Heritage: The Devil's Orchard.



Not the greatest music video, but you can sit back and enjoy the psychedelic 'Bond girl' while listening to the music.
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Re: What are you listening to?

Post by inhuien »

Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with, and I know, that given the choice, I wouldn't have chosen you as friends, but I just want to say, that over the years, I have come to regard you as people I met.

-Rimmer’s farewell speech
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