radio_80hd epitome of incomprehensibility Once I overheard a slightly funny conversation in the staircase of the Concordia music building. Since this was a long, dry, impersonal staircase, it occurred during 2011, my last year there, after the music department was moved downtown to the 8th floor of the business building. What were you thinking, Concordia? Admittedly the new classrooms have high-tech sound systems. But the Oscar Peterson concert hall is at the Loyola campus, and in the old building the Virgin Mary was there to stare at you sternly as you walked down the steps at the end of the second-floor hall. Which leads me, circumambiently, to the conversation: Student one doesn't like it that so much music he has to sing is religious music. He doesn't believe in God and doesn't think religion should be forced down his throat, or rather out of his throat. Student two says it doesn't matter what you sing if it's in Latin. In that spirit I offer you a unique, possibly overhyped recording of Lux Arumque. I sang the piece when I was with a larger choir than I am now. The lush harmonies, I think, benefit from a large choir, and it was the first thing I tested my headphones on (the second was Talk_Talk album Laughing_Stock, via a recommendation by raze; thank you!) Both are surprisingly nice things for ears to encounter. Here is Lux Arumque: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs 140101 ... raze wow. c'est très joli. 140102 ... e_o_i On répond! Et en français même! Alors, on écoutera (si on le veut, bien sur) Je voudrais voir la mer, par Michel Rivard. Michel Rivard is a Montrealian who started recording with Beau Dommage in the 1970s. I used to think "beau dommage" meant "oh well" or some other shoulder-shrugging expression of disappointment, but Wikipedia tells me it's sort of like "damn right." This song's from his 1987 solo album Un trou dans les nuages. Simple French chanson, but quite beautiful lyrics. I particularly like the indictment of nationalism in the second verse. I'm all about indictments of nationalism in second verses: Je voudrais voir la mer Avaler un navire Son or et ses canons Pour entendre le rire De cent millions d'enfants Qui n'ont pas peur de l'eau Qui ont envie de vivre Sans tenir un drapeau... Damn right! Those kids seem rather evil, though, laughing at sinking ships because they'll get to live without compulsory flag-waving. And how do they make that leap of logic, anyway? But the whole song has a surreal sort of image-base, evocative of the sea rather than merely descriptive. I do admit I've heard a performance I liked better, with piano instead of synth and drums. But this recorded version has the advantage of the echoing choir at the end, and Michel Rivard looks so hang-doggedly serious that it makes me smile and sing "I want to see the sea! I want to see the sea!" which sounds Englishly silly. Or would it be "I'd like to see the sea?" Either way, vive la mer libre! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcCZsLgh5Ks 140105 ... e_o_i spell check Grr. It's spelled "Lux Aurumque." And "bien sûr" with the little hat-shaped accent, or else it'd mean "well on" instead of "of course" and that wouldn't really make sense now, would it? 140106 ... e_o_i So so so. I'm on a nostalgia kick, and it's pure coincidence the next thing's Canadian. Here's one I forgot to mention in the mixed_tape I wrote about, "The Art Teacher" by Rufus Wainwright. Most of my classmate's songs were classic rock, tending to a morbid-humour metallic edge; this was something right out of the cloudy blue. ...Hee hee. Wikipedia says about "critical reception" for the album: "In his review for Salon.com, Thomas Bartlett called 'Gay Messiah' boring and criticized the 'clumsy, literal-minded' lyrics in 'The Art Teacher'." I AM clumsy and literal-minded, Bartlett is a kind of pear, and the casual slang-talk of the lyrics, e.g. "Here I am in this uniformish, pant-suit sort of thing" is exactly what I like about the song. Not to mention the unconventional and melancholy-fun accompaniment. Listen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tFu12JGXO8 140114 ... e_o_i In my neck of the woods, a provincial election is happening on Monday. So, more indictments of nationalism! And not just in second verses! Since I'm a tray sofisteekay world traveler who's been to a total of five countries (Canaduckia, that random blob to the south of it, Italia, Pope City, and The Independent Airport of Zurich), here's a German band singing about America. I read in Rammstein a hard-rockingly surreal sense of humour, though if I consider them somewhat exotic, it's probably because I don't understand much German. So here's a song with an English chorus that'll probably get stuck in your head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAM3rIBG5k 140402 ... e_o_i For some reason, when I'm tired I find it easy to imagine music in my head. And walking back from the store a few weeks ago, I kept imagining a metal version of the Japanese song "Sakura" and how that would be funny. Well, I found it. In the middle of this song. It's all kind of silly, but I couldn't help smiling at the Sakura tune smack dab in the middle of "Megitsune" by BabyMetal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK3NMZAUKGw 140409 ... e_o_i I love Philip Glass's Music in Twelve Parts, but it's about three hours long. So I decided to pick a favourite movement, and I chose the last one. It has a slightly Asian rhythm, albeit North-American-sounding-vaguely-Asian. It's lively, which you can't say about all of Glass's oeuvre. It makes me want to dance. It switches unexpectedly between arpeggio'd chords (some with vocals), all with a driving rhythm. A strong beat doesn't always go with an element of surprise, but here it does. The unexpectedly vibrant tone of this movement plus the prominent soprano makes me want to compare it to the last part of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. I guess why I feel like I "shouldn't" do that is because, in the broad skyline of music that is called classical, Beethoven's Ninth sparkles like a particularly impressive star that's actually a planet, say Venus or Mars. And Beethoven was near the end of his career, while Glass in the early 70s was in the late beginning of his. Besides, as for the inclusion of voice, it's not as if there hasn't been any singing in the other movements. But I, stubbornly, think this is sort of like the last movement of the Ninth. Do I actually have any reason for doing so? In Twelve Parts, there's no hummable-but-irritating tune to extract and set as a farewell song for your retiring fourth grade teacher: Come let's sing a song of joy And peace to Madame [Melody], She has taught us very much And made us all so happy... (etc.) Anyway, I should say something about the way Music in Twelve Parts was composed. As the story goes, Philip Glass wrote a shortish piece for "twelve parts" (eleven instruments and one soprano voice) and played it for a friend. When it was done, she asked him something like, "But where are the other eleven parts?" ...So the original became the first movement, and eleven other parts were written. Part 12: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeiomsYOPvo 140423 ... e_o_i "Signal Fire" by Vienna Teng. Unlike some other things here, I don't have much history with this song, but I listened to it a few times and I like the versatility of the singer's voice - what a range! and not merely a "pretty" voice either but one that can do interesting things. Piano and singing - things I can do, but here's better, and that's good. (One of the chorus-like parts rhymes "fire" with "desire," which is supposed to be one of those annoying rhymes, but it doesn't happen repeatedly.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSK3DRVEqBE 140612 ... e_o_i There's a bit of a stereotype about what kinds of music you expect East Asian girls to play. Classical music, mostly. On flute. Or clarinet. Or violin. Maybe piano, like above. But what about jazz, both vocal and alto saxophone? Yes, yes, not completely original in the history of originality, but it's a preamble to my recommendation - "Eggshells" by the Grace Kelly Quartet. I saw them yesterday at the Montreal jazz festival. 'Twas a paid inside concert, at 10:30 after a long day, and I was nodding off at points, despite being enthralled by a variety of songs, including an on-the-spot improvisation between her and their drummer, a swinging cover of Amazing Grace (it's in her name, she has to) and several original pieces where she both sings and plays sax. Her singing is good, but not generally as impressive as the saxophone... but this little song she wrote captured my metaphorical heart. I don't know what it is exactly, the bouncy piano part or the rising line ending sort of off the beat - or the fact that it involves DANCING over eggshells, not merely walking on them. The pianist, bassist, and drummer aren't too shabby here either. A good audio version is here (though you can also find a rather basic music video and a couple of live performances): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR3igCaAwCc 140704 ... e_o_i Today I seem to find Vangelis too predictable. I don't know why. I also seem to be spending too much time on the Internet avoiding other things, but this song made me feel better: "Higgs Boson Blues" by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (not to be confused with John Cage, or even John Cale). In some parts I found the lyrics laugh-out-loud funny, though scrolling through the latest YouTube comments I "should" think it gothic or soulful or even a little scary. But you can't trust YouTube comments. Half of them are, like, "Israel and Palestine... still a better love story than Twilight!" Possibly that one's true. There IS a lot of unresolved sexual tension between Israel and Palestine. I guess it's no surprise I find the lyrics funny? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GWsdqCYvgw 141007 ... TK Attention Deficit Disorder Thoughts are incredibly ADD tonight. Having difficulty even getting halfway though a thought let alo ...Too/(so) many connections Far Unending Fractal Synapses in need of molasses . 141007 ... Typoist TK fuk'd up ur blath space EOI sorry. 141007 ... e_o_i No problem! Ne worriez pas. The ADHD thing was part of the alleged joke anyway. (My other slight disabilities wouldn't work as the name of a radio station; who'd want to listen to Radio Tinnitus?) 141008 ... e_o_i I am trying to find out the name of the song that I heard that day on Studio Q and "freely transcribed" - it ISN'T closer_by_the_tiny; that one's completely different. I don't think it's "Taking Chances" by Sharon Van Etten either, although I liked discovering that too. My methodology right now is to find what day I helped my mother with the Samaritan's Purse shoeboxes, which was sometime in October or November 2014, then look up the Studio Q playlist for that day. (This is not very useful, but it's fun.) 160102 ... e_o_i No. That isn't fast. The fast thing to do is to google a phrase of the next song, "Stab my eyes so I can't see" which I believe is correctly transcribed. So. It seems to be Sharon van Etten after all. Oct. 8, 2014. The interviewer's name is spelled Piya Chattopadhyay, not Pia Chattapadday (so much for knowing how to spell things I hear). 160102 ... e_o_i I'm listening to the CBC thing right now. "It is a disarmingly beautiful record" called Are we There that Chattapadday is talking about. And yes, the song is "Taking Chances." I don't know how I heard anything about Celsius being precious. But fuzzy car radios and silly imaginations can do that. Here is the song on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80-_CpH07QQ 160102 ... e_o_i "I just stole your iPad, and I'ma sell it to buy MORE live chickens!" Not obvious jokiness like Jon Lajoie, so I don't know why she reminds me of him, but a powerful mix of place-based beats surreal humour. Song is "NYC Bitche$" by Awkwafina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-taYShNaPU 180314 ... e_o_i I don't know if you need to get shot at to achieve this level of surreal transcendence. Let's hope not. But it seems that Ariana Grande has produced something I don't feel guilty liking. Ah yes, she had the benefit of a big budget, lots of producers, etc. But this song - and video - actually does something with the money thrown at it. Forgive the lyrical cliches, the trite "turning it up," vague "vibing," and childish "shut your mouth." The attitude is fun, and the video is all, "O death, where is thy sting? O gravity, where is thy centre? Fuck it, I'ma live it up. And down. And sideways." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffxKSjUwKdU 181002 ... e_o_i Some singers construct a persona that's more compelling than their actual music. I've thought that about Lana del Rey. Her persona is fascinating: retro-contemporary all-American rebel? Something like that. Take the name of her latest album, Norman Fucking Rockwell. Doesn't that just scream retro-contemporary all-American rebel? It should, if you write it in all caps. But then I heard this song and loved it. It could easily be a stand-alone thing, with or without this persona. Maybe I'm just attracted by the Sylvia Plath reference because I put her in one of my songs? And then made it too high for me to comfortably sing at the end, yay me. And made it so that it'd be better as a kind of metal thing. Or at least with guitar. So, Lana del Rey, "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY2LUmLw_DQ 200329 ... e_o_itne "Winged Hussars" by Sabaton, or WHEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED! It starts with those lyrics, a fragment of the chorus (although elsewhere it's usually "Then the winged hussars arrived"). A bit of an unusual beginning, but it makes the thing work. Sets up the scene. The other thing that makes it work is the riff in the chorus' background - an overlapping counter-melody that gets its own lyrics in the last chorus. And the mood is high-energy as hell, the tempo/instrumentation somewhere between bouncy and epic. Aside: if tempo names were decided in the 21st century, would "vivace" be "bouncy" and "adagio" be "epic"? People like to assign moods to tempos. I wonder how much that's natural and how much cultural. Probably a mix. Maybe more "natural" than the "major key = happy, minor key = sad" idea of western music. The tempo's about 98, or 196, depending on how you count. I was trying to figure it out just now with the metronome and Mom, lying half-napping in the other room because of the heat, called out, "How much longer are you going to use that thing?" ANYWAY. The song also carries nostalgia because my brother, in his impressionable youth, was a fan of Polish king Jan Sobieski who led the aforementioned winged hussars (cavalry fighters with wing-like things attached to their armor) in the 1683 Battle of Vienna. But because this battle was mostly European Christians against Middle Eastern Muslims (Ottoman Turks) (also, not completely so because the Muslim Tatars from Lithuania fought on the European coalition's side), there's a spattering of Islamophobic YouTube comments. Any excuse...but not near the top, at least in this video; instead there's something a tad cuter: subtitles are czech in a song by a swedish band with english lyrics about polish soldiers fighting a battle in austria against turks dafuq Le song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcYhYO02f98 200621 ... e_o_i How did e_o_i turn into e_o_itne? Je ne comprends pas. 200621 ... e_o_i Just after watching Adam Neely's video about how the tritone was NOT banned by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages for being "devilish" (it was called so in the 1700s, but metaphorically, as in "difficult"), I discovered this tritone-heavy song. Write while you can, is maybe the message. Murder mystery imagery, but also plain aging. A bit like the one I was writing, "Death of the Author," but without the zombie Sylvia Plath. "Write with Blood" by Tardigrade Inferno - lyric video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbyaCInNiRA 210805 ... raze this is so different from anything i'm used to hearing, but fascinating. maybe i've just got blather on the brain, but "put your blood inside the story" strikes me as a very red_blather sentiment. like, "flay the skin from yer bones, me matey, and let loose with yer deepest innards, smearing them on the page. proverbially speaking, of course." (not sure why i became a pirate there for a second, but it's been known to happen sometimes.) 210805 ... e_o_i Blather red: where every day is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Well, it should be. I guess I like non-conventional metal? You know, like cadmium. And now for something completely different: "Is It Cold In The Water?" by SOPHIE. Sadly, she died the beginning of this year in an accident. I was in cold water recently - literally - more to the point, I love the build-up, the layering of sounds. And it's great for listening while writing; it doesn't have the harshness "Faceshopping," another on that album. That one's worth hearing too, it sets up a totally different atmosphere, but I'm feeling like something mellower tonight. Anyway, song: https://soundcloud.com/msmsmsm/is-it-cold-in-the-water-1 210814 ... e_o_i corrects *the harshness of 210814 what's it to you? who go blather from