tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88741951832404824952024-02-18T19:34:56.524-08:0069dB ProductionsThe blog of everything that happens under the 69dB Productions umbrella, mostly related to Pierre's various projects.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-9147203750353724162012-08-13T11:25:00.001-07:002012-08-13T11:25:19.650-07:00A New Way Forward<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So it happens, in life. About halfway through a rather enjoyable month of July in this year 2012 by the common Gregorian calendar, I spilled a rather tasteless Corona right over the keyboard of my MacBook - just about where the motherboard resides. After a few days of hoping for some technological miracle, it became quite clear that the thing was dead. Along with my plans for having my album finished production by the end of the summer, because needless to say I wasn't about to go shell out on an MBP until I really needed it, which would be for the start of term in early September. So that sucked. At least we were playing with The Final Year, preparing for a couple gigs, including one this coming Thursday August 16th at the Bovine Sex Club.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And thus I am left with having to devise a new way forward to completing this album. I had made the extremely wise choice of keeping everything music-related on my external, so all I need is a new computer and I can get started right away. As stated above, I'll be getting an MBP for the start of term, in a couple weeks. At that point I'll start being very busy with school and it's going to be my #1 priority; however, I will be taking a digital recording course that could very well help me in my endeavours, and I'll have some free time on weekends to work on finishing the production of this thing. Basically the album will be my #2 priority, just below school.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Progress will be a lot slower than if I had been able to work intensively on production for the last month-and-a-half of summer, but recklessness and stupidity made things work out quite differently. I guess this is the best I can offer, which according to my calculations brings us towards a late December/early January release. I hope to find ears for this project then, considering how much work I have and will have put into it and how much of an adventure it will have been to get it to you. But mostly I just hope it will find ears that will genuinely enjoy my creative explorations and experiments - it's all I really want as an artist.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-73016154864941439582012-05-07T21:19:00.000-07:002012-05-07T21:21:43.146-07:00An Early May Update<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I've just snuck past the half-way point in the completion of the new album, having finished tracking the sixth song out of eleven at the end of last week. The album has a name I'm not going to reveal yet (read: until I can launch a full-blown teaser promo campaign with it) and it's sounding like an eclectic yet coherent project that mixes many of my influences in a way I'm happy to hear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The studio is my room, or rather my room is the studio, or rather the line is quite blurred but I somehow survive and the album progresses. I've also come up with an idea for an EP entitled "Epitomes" that will feature nine short pieces created with an experimental mindset, poetry, and a vintage reel-to-reel tape recorder. Parallel to these solo projects, <a href="http://thefinalyear.bandcamp.com/">The Final Year</a> has started practicing again, this time in a trio configuration that features Alex on guitar and vocals, myself on bass and vocals, and Marco on drums. We hope to play some shows around Toronto this summer, which is something we really miss and would be tons of fun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm also creating a 69dB Productions website that will hopefully go live sometime this month, which will be a nice central point for all things connected to the 69dB appellation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So yeah, stay tuned through the usual channels as things move forward and get more and more exciting!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pierre.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-24429655678208263472012-04-10T20:27:00.001-07:002012-04-10T20:29:04.521-07:00.<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">C’est l’histoire d’un point d’exclamation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">En fait, c’est l’histoire d’un point.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mais, contraint à son environnement comme chacun de nous, il se retrouve sous barres.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sous une barre.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Une seule, svelte, verticale, qui lui pendouille au-dessus comme un nuage orageux qui ne se précipite pas à se dégager, ceux qui arrivent au milieu du mois d’aout et se plantent sur nos vies pour des semaines entières.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sauf que notre petit point, il est coincé à vie sous cette barre.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Et ce n’est pas que cette barre n’est point intéressante ; en effet, une multitude de symboles apparaît en la visionnant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Une flèche, une lance, une matraque.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Elle lui montre au doigt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pauvre petit con, putain de point.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mais ce n’était pas toujours le cas. Au début, cette barre était un index, montrant au loin les merveilles de ce monde, emmenant notre point à découvrir toute une vie. C’était un bâton de marche pendant de longs kilomètres, un grand mat quand la tempête était rude, une allumette quand il n’y avait plus de feu ; bref, un tronc épais comme la vie, fort comme un père, doux comme une mère.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Aujourd’hui, elle nargue. Elle le met en avant-plan. Elle le fait ressortir avec des moyens autres que ceux qu’il souhaiterait.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">! ! ! !</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">C’est tellement vulgaire. C’est tellement in your fucking face.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lui, il rêve que d’une chose : un point final.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Libre.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">En vie sans en avoir envie, mais par conséquence d’exister naturellement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Être différent, être bizarre même, mais être comme tout le monde en même temps.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Un ciel bleu, le mois de juin.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Un point, c’est tout.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-674458962802932762012-02-18T14:27:00.000-08:002012-02-18T14:32:07.382-08:00Sounds from the Cornerstone: Episode 1 - Best of 2011<center><div>
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<a href="http://www.mixcloud.com/pierrotechnique/sounds-from-the-cornerstone-episode-1-best-of-2011/?utm_source=widget&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=base_links&utm_term=resource_link" style="color: #02a0c7; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Sounds from the Cornerstone: Episode 1 - Best of 2011</a> by <a href="http://www.mixcloud.com/pierrotechnique/?utm_source=widget&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=base_links&utm_term=profile_link" style="color: #02a0c7; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Pierre Massé</a> on <a href="http://www.mixcloud.com/?utm_source=widget&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=base_links&utm_term=homepage_link" style="color: #02a0c7; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank"> Mixcloud</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Welcome to Episode 1 of the <i>Sounds from the Cornerstone</i> podcast! For this opening episode I decided to run through my Best of 2011 – one song from each of the 12 albums I had ranked on my <a href="http://69dbproductions.blogspot.com/2012/01/this-is-post-attempting-to-sort-and.html">Best of 2011</a> blog post. Here is the track listing with links to each band's music. (Note: song titles link to YouTube videos [of either album versions or particularly awesome live versions] or other streams of the songs, band names link to official band websites or most prominent social network page, and album titles link to online stores where you can buy the album in either high-quality lossless or CD format.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuyY0gzrtqU">Monday Morning</a>" – <a href="http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/">Death Cab for Cutie</a> (<i><a href="http://store.deathcabforcutie.com/artist/48271">Codes and Keys</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=861UW3tH6qc">The Attic</a>" – <a href="http://www.inflames.com/">In Flames</a> (<i><a href="http://www.cmdistro.com/Item/In_Flames_-_Sounds_Of_A_Playground_Fading/37721">Sounds of a Playground Fading</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVSxhG7myyk">Töck's Taunt - Loke's Treachery Part II</a>" – <a href="http://www.amonamarth.com/">Amon Amarth</a> (<i><a href="http://www.indiemerchstore.com/item/11748/">Surtur Rising</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n69-F-dyoU">Reunion</a>" – <a href="http://ilovem83.com/">M83</a> (<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HS00NW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mutereco-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005HS00NW">Hurry Up, We're Dreaming</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://music.stevelawson.net/track/a-year-afloat">A Year Afloat</a>" – <a href="http://www.stevelawson.net/">Steve Lawson</a> (<i><a href="http://music.stevelawson.net/album/11-reasons-why-3-is-greater-than-everything">11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything Else</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://mattstevens.bandcamp.com/track/rushden-fair">Rushden Fair</a>" – <a href="http://mattstevensguitar.com/">Matt Stevens</a> (<i><a href="http://mattstevens.bandcamp.com/album/relic">Relic</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nut2_1M-jWA">Morning Mr. Magpie</a>" – <a href="http://radiohead.com/">Radiohead</a> (<i><a href="http://www.thekingoflimbs.com/Store/DII-92-5-the+king+of+limbs(digital+only+wav).html">The King of Limbs</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUmgNyLai9g">10x10</a>" – <a href="http://www.fierceandthedead.com/">The Fierce and The Dead</a> (<i><a href="http://thefierceandthedead.bandcamp.com/album/if-it-carries-on-like-this-we-are-moving-to-morecambe">If It Carries On Like This We're Moving to Morecambe</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ldB7ltkYo">Taken for a Fool</a>" – <a href="http://www.thestrokes.com/us/home">The Strokes</a> (<i><a href="http://www.thestrokes.com/us/music/angles">Angles</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Waz7PMZHeg">Rox in the Box</a>" – <a href="http://decemberists.com/news/">The Decemberists</a> (<i><a href="http://www.decemberistsshop.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=233">The King Is Dead</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcTStCOKXGI">Canon</a>" – <a href="http://www.facebook.com/etjusticepourtous?sk=info">Justice</a> (<i><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Audio-Video-Disco-Justice/dp/B005LB1MY6">Audio, Video, Disco</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi4SgLKaCHo&feature=fvst">The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala</a>" – <a href="http://arcticmonkeys.com/">Arctic Monkeys</a> (<i><a href="http://www.arcticmonkeys-store.com/amus/albums/25-04-11/suck-it-and-see/">Suck It and See</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So there you have it. If you liked some, a lot of, or everything you heard in the podcast, go check out those awesome bands and support them!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-83458047273150992882012-01-18T20:29:00.001-08:002012-01-30T08:13:27.083-08:00A Few Thoughts on SOPA and the General Fight Against Piracy<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I was just thinking about SOPA and its consequences, and I started thinking about it the way I've viewed the numerous attempts to fight Internet piracy over the years. The conclusion I've come to, every time, is that it doesn't matter. No legislation, no control mechanism, no technology can take down the online piracy network that has been around, growing, and consolidating itself since the very start of the Internet. And that's a good thing. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Why? Because it means that whatever they try, the MPAA, the RIAA, and those other vestiges of an industry whose methodology is quickly fading into history will not find a way to circumvent the "problem" of online piracy. This will lead to the self-collapse of </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">their</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> industry and the further development of the new, Internet- and sharing-based entertainment industry of tomorrow (well, actually, today too). (<i>Note</i>: For argument's sake, I'm going to use the music industry as a specific case because it is the one I know best.) And gloriously, this new industry has the capacity to bring back the music </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">culture</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> of yesteryear - yes, the one the Big 4 and the RIAA have been moaning about: how concert attendance is down, how no one pays for tickets anymore... This might seem strange, but follow my logic for a bit.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">In the "Golden Age" of the dying mainstream music industry, people bought vinyls which enticed them to go to concerts, get high, hook up, and buy merch. The dinosaur music industry made money from three of those activities: the "purchase of music", or rather the purchase of vinyl discs (and then cassettes and then CDs) containing music, the concert tickets, and the merch. The artist would make a (horribly small) percentage of each revenue stream. But it didn't matter because the industry paid for them to live like rockstars, which they gladly did. The problem was, the industry started realizing that very quickly, the largest and most lucrative revenue stream was the sale of vinyls/cassettes/CDs. So that became the main product. The entire focus of the industry fell on marketing these objects that contained the music. David Byrne once said in an extremely good article: "Calling the product music is like selling a shopping cart and calling it groceries." The point is that the music was no longer the central aspect of the entire </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">music</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> industry! The industry assumed that people would buy these music containers and they assumed this would lead to concert attendance. Which it did...</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Until the Internet arrived. At first, the industry struggled to comprehend what had just landed. And with good reason: it's extremely hard to forecast how new technologies are going to affect things. But it has to be said that the music industry didn't exactly handle it well. As soon as it became practical to do so, people started copying CDs and sharing them, online as well as offline, </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">for free</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">! The established industry didn't know what was happening and decided to continue their same old business model online. Thus was born the iTunes Store - the single biggest disgrace in the entire history of the music industry. The industry thought that since people had moved from vinyls to cassettes to CDs so easily, they could just move to this new digital format without any problem. But they could not have been more wrong.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">As illustrated in the brief CD sharing example above, the music had suddenly re-become the focus of the consumer's attention. Not the vinyl/cassette/CD, but the music itself. And an industry that for 50 years had been selling products containing music were suddenly trying to sell pure music. Because that's what a digital song file is: nothing tangible, just 100% audio. But when something becomes the focus of the consumer's attention, any successful industry needs to make </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">that</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> its focus as well. Yet the old music industry kept trying to sell us (shitty quality) files. However, the true music consumers were having none of it - they turned first to Napster, then to true piracy.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">This all naturally coincided with the rise of the indie musician: home recording was becoming cheap and high-quality enough to seriously contend with the "professional" stuff. And with indie musicians came indie thinking: </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">what if we didn't need the old-style music industry?</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> These visionaries realized that if the people wanted music - well then, we should give them music. So they started sharing their work for free. Nada! You could get a professional-sounding album of amazing music for absolutely nothing, and the artist was totally OK with it! What?!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Then came services like Bandcamp, which offered artists their own online store and complete control over how to charge (or not) for their work. And it quickly became apparent that the real winners were the artists who weren't afraid to let their audience pay whatever they wanted (or could afford) for their music. </span><span class="proflinkWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Matt Stevens</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> and </span><span class="proflinkWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Steve Lawson</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">, I'm looking at you. Obviously physical CDs need a minimum price to pay for the manufacturing and distribution costs - but that's exactly the point (again): with vinyls/cassettes/CDs, the music industry had led us to believe that the $14 we were paying was for "music", but it wasn't. It was for a disc which contained music on it. The Internet made us re-discover the fact that pure music is hard to charge for.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The music industry kept a watchful eye on all of this, and got seriously freaked out. So they (logically?) decided to fight back. They saw Napster and managed to shut it down. They even managed to shut down Limewire (thankfully - that thing was horrible). But they could not shut down the pirates. They could not shut down YouTube. They could not shut down all the places where you can get or stream stuff "illegally". They could not shut down the mighty </span><span class="proflinkWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Google</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> that gives access to all these things. They could not shut down the piracy of the intangible digital files that have become our focus as consumers. And they kept thinking about it in terms of a product whose theft goes against copyright.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The copyright discussion is for another time and place, but the main idea is that copyright was originally meant to protect the intellectual property of the content creator (hence the name of the Protect IP Act). But you are in absolutely no way harming the IP of a content creator when you pirate their work for private purposes. This was true even before the Internet. When you steal a physical CD, it's not the music on it whose "copyright you are violating". It is the fact that you wrongfully stole an object with a set monetary value that is wrong. The IP of the musician(s) whose music is on that CD would be intact whether you paid for it or not. The Internet has simply exposed this side of it all.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I'm a content creator, and I have no problem giving my music away for free. As long as others don't make money from it, and as long as it is properly and correctly credited as mine, my IP is intact. The same goes for every single band and musician and filmmaker and photographer in the world. And this is why </span><span class="proflinkWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Creative Commons</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> is the answer.</span><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">How in the hell does this bring back the music culture?</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> you might rightfully ask at this point. Well, here's my theory. As musicians, we can no longer count on the "sale of music" (whatever that means) as a reliable revenue stream. We can sell CDs to the passionate few, we can sell vinyls to the hipsters, and we'll get nice people who will drop a few bucks for an album download. On the other side, consumers aren't going crazy over </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">having</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> a certain piece of music - it's so easy to get when it's free, it's not special anymore. Having a vinyl or a CD is special - having a downloaded folder isn't. But what is special?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">A fucking insane live show. Concert attendance in the alternative groups I have mingled with, who have no problem downloading music for free, is through the roof. While Lady Gaga might have trouble selling out a stadium now, Eluveitie has no problem filling the Opera House in Toronto. They know most of their audience listens to pirated copies of their music. So their live show is awesome and people go to it.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Other special things? Merch. Doing exclusive things with the band. Anything else that is physical and/or tangible. These can all be monetized by musicians. And that's the way the new music industry is going to work. And that's how it's going to bring back the music culture that is apparently being lost.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">So back to SOPA, shall we? If it goes through, it would suck. Majorly. They could take down countless websites. But as long as they keep thinking of digital files in terms of a product whose theft constitutes copyright violation, they will not win. They will slowly collapse (as they are already doing), and a new industry will be already there, thriving, ready to pick up the pieces. I hope to be a part of that industry, even if it isn't full time. I just know how awesome it's going to be and how cool the future looks. And there's absolutely nothing SOPA, or any other form of legislation, can do about that.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-49055547051331130222012-01-07T10:56:00.000-08:002012-01-07T11:05:08.110-08:00Best of 2011<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">This is a post attempting to sort and describe my 12 favourite albums released this year. This was extremely hard, because it’s been such an amazing year. Let’s just recap it, shall we? It started in royal fashion, with the January 14th release of </span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">The Decemberists</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">’ </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">The King is Dead</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">, followed by </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">The King of Limbs</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> by </span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Radiohead</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> on February 18th. The indie vibe continued one month later with the release of </span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">The Strokes</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">’ first album in 5 years, </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Angles</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">, on the 18th of March. </span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Amon Amarth</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> also released their latest viking-metal epic, </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Surtur Rising</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">, on March 29th. April was quieter, but only to make way for an amazing month of May (any reference to a 2010 Arcade Fire song is purely coincidental here), which saw </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">If It Carries on Like This We’re Moving to Morecambe</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> by </span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">The Fierce and The Dead</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> on the 16th, </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">by </span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Steve Lawson</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> on the 18th, and finally </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Codes and Keys</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> by </span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Death Cab for Cutie</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> on the 31st. A few days later, on June 7th, we were blessed to receive the </span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Arctic Monkeys</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">’ latest masterpiece, </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Suck It and See</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">, before </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Sounds of a Playground Fading</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> came to us from </span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">In Flames</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> on June 15th. It was a quiet summer, which allowed us to digest all these amazing albums and ready for the fall, which started with the September 26th release of </span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Matt Stevens</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">’ (supposedly) final “acoustic” album, </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Relic</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">. October brought </span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">M83</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">’s </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> on the 18th and</span><strong style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Justice</strong><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">’s long-awaited, highly-anticipated second album, </span><em style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Audio, Video, Disco</em><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> on the 24th to close out a year of truly awesome releases (and probably a host of others I never got a chance to discover).</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, here goes the ranking…</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">12. Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I only recently got into Death Cab, but I enjoyed them enough to be excited for the release of their new record. My favourite of theirs was their latest album, <em>Narrow Stairs</em> (2008), so I naturally thought that I’d continue enjoying their slow but steady evolution as a band. And I did, but not as much as I thought I would. The problem is, I don’t think they evolved enough, so everything still sounds like <em>Narrow Stairs -</em> which is hardly a problem, but it’s just disappointing in a weird way. I expected something new and didn’t get it. Instead we got an amazing album from a great band which sounds just like their last amazing album.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11. In Flames - Sounds of a Playground Fading</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Flames has been going through quite a bit recently. 2008’s <em>A Sense of Purpose</em> had already signaled a strong departure from the melodic death-metal sound these guys had pioneered with fellow Gothenburg natives Dark Tranquillity. But last year they also permanently lost Jesper Strömblad, one of their guitarists and main creative forces. They got a solid replacement in Niclas Engelin (Gardenian, Passenger), but losing Jesper was still a big deal. Nevertheless, Björn Gelotte promised he would step into the creative gap left by Jesper and the band got to work.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fast forward to June 15th of this year and we get to hear what they’ve come up with. From the opening title track, a few things immediately became clear. First, this was a logical evolution from the sound of <em>ASoP</em>. Second, Björn had done an amazing job as In Flames’ main creative guitar force. The signature IF melodeath sound was still there, manipulated like they’d done in <em>ASoP</em> but with different flavours - departures in style I credit to Björn. <em>SoaPF</em> is a much more rich and interesting album than <em>ASoP</em>, although it is modelled in the same way and based off the same general sound. As great an album as it is, however, it is not an In Flames masterpiece of the grandeur of 2002’s<em>Reroute to Remain</em>. And somehow I get the sad feeling that those days are long gone… Yet <em>SoaPF</em> remains a splendid album by a band who keeps making solid, interesting, and daring records.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. Amon Amarth - Surtur Rising</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amon Amarth is one of those bands who barely evolve, if at all, and yet keep making interesting albums you can’t stop listening to. This year’s release, <em>Surtur Rising</em>, is no exception. Although one can point out a few stylistic departures from 2008’s <em>Twilight of the Thunder God</em>, it’s essentially the same brand of epic viking metal that these crazy Swedes have been making forever, it seems. It’s beautiful, it’s powerful, it’s epic, it’s full of doom and blood and guts and sweat and tears. Somehow, though, I think <em>Surtur Rising</em> is a touch better than <em>Twilight of the Thunder God</em> - it seems they’ve done a couple more interesting things, but that might just be me. It’s a great album and if you like Amon Amarth you should get it.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To me, M83 set the bar so incredibly high with 2008’s<em>Saturdays=Youth</em> that it would be almost impossible for their follow-up to be anywhere near as good. When they revealed it was going to be a double-album, however, I gave it some hope. And I’m glad I did, because I think <em>Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming</em> is now my second-favourite M83, after<em>Saturdays=Youth</em>, of course. It’s long, so you supporters of the 30-minute album can go buzz off somewhere while I talk about this. It’s like other M83 albums in that it’s a voyage through different atmospheres, but it’s fresh because they’re using some new sounds and new arrangements. M83 has always been able to create these albums that all have the same overall feel and sound but are all incredibly different somehow, and this album keeps that going. So if you could get through <em>The Wall</em>, then boldly pop this on and enjoy the ride.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. Steve Lawson - 11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I find everything about this album brilliant, from the cryptic title (think 11 tracks and “everything” < 3) to the content. So why isn’t it number 1 on this list? Because there are seven other albums I liked better… But this is truly a piece of genius. I’d downloaded some of Steve’s stuff before but hadn’t really gotten into it, but after listening through<em>11RW3IGTE</em> (that’s an amazing acronym - better than In Flames’!) I went on and rediscovered everything else. It’s solo bass stuff, looped and arranged and improvised and awesome. It’s for everyone from serious musos to people who just like chilled out background music. It should definitely be in your music library.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Matt Stevens - Relic</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matt Stevens is one of the first musicians who I saw harnessing the awesome power of the Internet and using it in ways I just thought were brilliant. This was around the time of his first album <em>Echo</em>, in or just after 2008. Not only was his social networking avant-garde to me, but so was his playing - looping himself and building these awesome instrumental tracks filled with sheer greatness. I followed his evolution through<em>Ghost</em> in 2010 and finally <em>Relic</em> this year, and saw as he started adding different instrumentations and more careful production. <em>Relic</em> is the amazing pinnacle of all this work, and although I think it’s his most creative album, I don’t think it’s my favourite. I seem to prefer <em>Echo</em> and<em>Ghost</em> but there’s no denying that <em>Relic</em> is another work of genius and should be treated as such (by going and getting it, for example).</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Radiohead - The King of Limbs</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We’re getting to the part where it was really hard to separate these albums and give them an order. It pains me to see Radiohead’s latest gem “so far down” at number 6, but the truth is there are five other albums that I enjoyed more. Even though I think <em>The King of Limbs</em> is a brilliant continuation of Radiohead’s work on <em>In Rainbows</em> (2007) and should be in everyone’s music library. Even though I will argue passionately and endlessly with anyone who tries to say that Radiohead’s best material is behind them and that their new stuff is just “too weird”. Even though everything about this album is beautiful and simply phenomenal. I just wish there was a way to make “number 6” look way more badass.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. The Fierce and The Dead - If It Carries on Like This We’re Moving to Morecambe</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matt Stevens shouldn’t be too disappointed that I didn’t like <em>Relic</em> as much as his earlier albums, because I certainly loved the full-length he finally put out with his band The Fierce and The Dead. (Warning: acronyms beyond Steve Lawson’s level are forthcoming.) TFATD came out last year with an EP and a single that whetted my appetite for their amazing instrumental rock sound and left me begging for a full length which 2011 finally delivered in the shape of <em>IICOLTWMTM</em> (see, I told you). This is some of the finest and weirdest instrumental rock around and I absolutely love. And you should absolutely have a listen.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. The Strokes - Angles</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Boy did we wait for this one. I discovered The Strokes a few years ago and didn’t go through the wait other fans did after 2006’s two-faced <em>First Impressions of Earth</em> (which has to be one of the most brilliant album titles ever - too bad only the first half is good), but the hype was still enormous surrounding the release of this year’s <em>Angles</em>. Then it finally dropped, and the Internet came alive - with disappointed fans. And I couldn’t understand. I’d been listening to <em>Angles </em>almost constantly after its release and I saw these fans complaining about “the sound” or how it “wasn’t as good as their old stuff” - and I just didn’t get it. Sure, it’s no game changer like <em>Is This It</em> was in 2001, and it doesn’t have the same sound as 2003’s <em>Room on Fire</em>, but <em>Angles</em> is one bloody amazing album. It’s interesting, polished yet raw, driving yet atmospheric, popular yet indie and still very much The Strokes. It’s not a “sellout” album, it’s an amazing work of music from a band that is showing us how great they still are and will (hopefully) continue to be.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. The Decemberists - The King is Dead</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What a way to open the year. Not even halfway through January, the wannabe-East Coasters from Portland release an absolutely outstanding album. Recorded in a barn, just to add to their image of being the original pure hipsters. But yeah, it’s so good, and so different. They’ve almost gone country, but it’s so refreshing and so still The Decemberists. It’s very acoustic, much more “back to their roots” than their first album even is, if that makes sense. A huge change from 2009’s epic concept album <em>The Hazards of Love</em>. Changes and evolutions always make me happy, as you may have noticed. So it started the year as my favourite and only got bumped down twice - once in June and once in October. It’s just that awesome.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Justice - Audio, Video, Disco</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is one for which I’ve actually waited, because I’ve been a Justice fan since their first album, <em>†</em>, came out in 2007. Their concert at the Sound Academy in March 2008 was my first real “rock” style event, even though it was, y’know, electro. Whatever, it was awesome. And then we waited. <em>A Cross the Universe</em> dropped and we revisited <em>†</em> in a live setting, and hugely enjoyed the documentary. All the meanwhile, I grew disenchanted with the electronic music scene. House was doing alright - deadmau5 was absolutely killing it (in the best of ways) and I was discovering the older stuff (Jean-Michel Jarre, Laurent Garnier, St. Germain). But harsh, Justice-style electro was just full of wannabe Justice acts, copy-cats with little to no creativity and zero interest to me. I knew that whatever Justice were preparing would be amazing<em>and</em> would completely turn the electro world on its head. Again. And it did. Listening to <em>Audio, Video, Disco</em> completely blew me away. And it showed me how electro could be done in a completely new way. Again. Quite literally mind-blowing stuff.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Quite simply my favourite album of 2011. Partly because of the cheekiness (the title being a jab at everyone who complained about the “drastic” evolution in the band’s sound between 2007’s <em>Favourite Worst Nightmare</em> and 2006’s <em>Humbug</em>), but mostly because it’s a purely awesome evolution from <em>Humbug</em>. Everything the Arctic Monkeys have ever done well (which is, in my mind, quite a few things), is done better in this album. The interplay between the two guitars, the lyrics, the vocals, the interplay between the drums and bass, the dynamic range in the album - everything is simply beautiful and, well, ridiculously awesome. Phenomenal. Outstanding. Whatever. Make up words. This album deserves them.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-18309061242270344312011-05-31T21:39:00.000-07:002011-05-31T21:44:19.991-07:00Objective and Subjective Appreciation of Music<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All of us, albeit to varying degrees, enjoy listening to some type of music. We connect with it, we "like" it, and we develop a strange type of relationship with the creators/interpretators of it. We stick by our favourites, and when they're challenged, we clash with whoever said "Man, those guys suck!" or "Yeah, I don't really like them." And that's when things get interesting.<br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've had enough of these arguments to see that most people support either a completely subjective evaluation of musical quality, or a completely objective one. Funnily enough, it seems to be the subjective ones who are the most stubborn. For them, musical "quality" is a question of whether you like it or not - whether the music speaks to you, whether you feel connected to it in any way. A lot of people actually fit this bill. A smaller group are completely objective and think that all you need to do to get "into" a band is to see whether their music is of any objective quality. The truth is, however, appreciating music requires a bit of each, on some sort of scale.<br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, we can't deny that some bands just connect with us on a level that has nothing to do with the objective analysis of their music. The ones with which that connection is the deepest are usually our "favourite" bands - my top two are Muse and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That is not to say that I don't have that connection with other bands, but those are the strongest. However, we also can't ignore the fact that music has an objective side - there is such a thing as "good" and "bad" music, speaking from a completely objective, quality-wise point of view. I guess "good" and "bad" aren't exactly the best terms - rather, we should use something that alludes to the fact that music is created on a scale that goes from formulaic bubble-gum pop simplicity to inter-dimensional telekinetic jazz improv complexity. There's quite a bit in between there, and somewhere there is a line to be drawn - a line on which one side lies objectively good music and on the other is everything that isn't good. The placement of this line requires a whole other argument and quite a bit of research that I'm not gonna get into now, but I just may at some point...<br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, back to our studies. Let's say we've managed to place this line somewhere. Now we must bring into play the undeniable human aesthetic nature that drives us to like and dislike things. We must however, re-emphasize how different this is compared to the objective quality of music. Liking and/or disliking music does not have anything to do with whether music is good or bad. Which is why we can have those "guilty pleasures", where we very much like music that we know is objectively bad. Essentially, we need to understand that although music can be good or bad, the aesthetic attraction we feel towards the music can be in complete disregard of its objective quality. The combination of the strength of this attraction with the objective quality of the music is what has led me to declare Muse and RHCP as my favourites.<br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So then, how are we to go about evaluating music we come across so easily in this age of the Internet and social media - where bands (and my projects are no exception) pummel you with links to their material and demand that you give them plays so they may feel a little better about themselves. My basic strategy is this: first, begin with an objective evaluation of the music's quality. I know this is harsh, but if the music's truly bad, close the tab and move on. If the music's objectively of some quality, keep listening. If there's something that right away throws you off about the music - be it the guitarist's style, the vocalist's sound, or something else - then again, close the tab and move on. If not, keep listening. Listen to all the songs that they've put online through various social music networks. Once you've listened to everything, then you can decide whether you like it or not. And that's where the subjectivity kicks in. Did it elicit some sort of aesthetic reaction from you? Were you interested in the band? Did it just make you want to say "Awesome!"? From that, decide whether or not to like their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter, get their music, or whatever. But that's just how you're gonna have to survive here. To help everyone, we can't give crappy music a chance because you think the singer is cute or you like their happy-emo-contradictory genre. As mean as that sounds, I'm sorry but it's true. If I make something terrible, please ignore it and walk away. Or offer constructive criticism. Your choice.<br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But this discussion is not really about the Internet, so let's get back to the main point. Objective and subjective appreciation of music are not two concepts that are at odds with each other. They are two concepts that should be used together to determine whether an artist or band or composer's music is something that you would put in your music library. Think of it as a threshold above which music is good, and above that threshold you can separate music into stuff you like and stuff you don't like.<br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The final warning is to not confuse good music you don't like with bad music. It's easy to call music you don't like "bad", but is it truly bad? There are a lot of very talented bands whose music I cannot stand, but it's an insult to them to say they are bad - for they are not. I just don't like their music. This must be differentiated from truly bad music. Because the people who make truly bad music should not be allowed to "make it" in this new music industry, but people who make good music you don't like definitely deserve it.<br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wrote this little essay because I think this is a very important point to wrap our heads around - not only for ourselves but also because it can affect the way the new music industry is created, and who gets in (or doesn't). Although I know that the explanations I've provided here are not altogether complete, like the fact that the threshold where music stops being bad and starts being good is more like a grey area than a line, I hope this gives a basic overview of the ideas behind appreciating music this way. And I truly think this is the way we should be looking at music.<br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers,<br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pierre.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-38722379112494726922011-05-20T12:45:00.000-07:002011-05-20T12:45:27.911-07:00Oh Hello There, New Project<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well this week I revealed a new project by me and my good friend Chris Drexler-Lemire (bassist for <a href="http://facebook.com/thefinalyear">The Final Year</a>) called <a href="http://lupusmentem.blogspot.com/">Lupus Mentem</a>. So yeah, we're gonna be recording all summer (as well as working on new stuff with TFY!) and the best way to follow all that will be on <a href="http://lupusmentem.blogspot.com/">our blog</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lupus-Mentem/212797538741189?ref=ts">Facebook</a>, and <a href="http://twitter.com/lupusmentem">Twitter</a>. So stay tuned for developing awesomeness!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You will also want to stay tuned into <a href="http://facebook.com/thefinalyear">The Final Year</a>'s new stuff, with a high chance of shows in late July and August. Again, we'll be keeping <a href="http://thisisthefinalyear.blogspot.com/">a blog</a>, <a href="http://facebook.com/thefinalyear">Facebook</a>, and <a href="http://twitter.com/thefinalyear">Twitter</a> going for that.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All exciting stuff!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers,</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pierre.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-54265987588593237722011-03-28T20:54:00.000-07:002011-03-28T20:54:36.484-07:00The Decemberists: "The King Is Dead" - Album Review<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we last heard from The Decemberists, it was 2009 and they had just dropped their ridiculously epic concept-album folk-rock-opera <i>The Hazards of Love</i>. A lot of people had already labelled them as "sell-outs" for having signed to Capitol Records, thus losing their "indie" cred and blah blah blah... In any case, <i>The Hazards of Love</i> was and is amazing for what it is, although that is not what a lot of people expected from The Decemberists, as I discovered after falling in love with their indie debut album, <i>Castaways and Cutouts</i>. In any case, fast forward to December 2010 and we start hearing new stuff from these guys. Reportedly recorded in a barn on a farm somewhere in the middle of Nowhere, USA, the first sounds were a lot more pure folk-rock than the epic stuff from <i>The Hazards of Love</i>; much closer, indeed, to their first albums. But we could also notice some sleek production and different sounds - could it be, a little touch of country?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, when the album finally arrived in mid-January, most of my preconceptions were confirmed, but I also discovered a lot, and I really do mean a lot, of stuff I didn't expect. So let's work through it, shall we?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The King Is Dead</i> opens with a quite country-infused folk-rock ballad called "Don't Carry It All". In it, we find some signature Decemberists sounds, but twisted in a new way. Indeed, this opening track appropriately blends most of the atmospheres we'll be hearing in various degrees through the rest of the album. However, this is also a very good song by itself.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next we come across "Calamity Song", which is actually a really cool energized folk-rocker of a track. From the opening acoustic riff to the layered electrics, it's a great, almost epic work from a band who we know can make some very intense stuff (remember "The Infanta"?). This is more purely folk-rock than "Don't Carry It All", a lot more in the vein of their early albums. Which I really appreciated, and as I'm sure a lot of fans will. I'm just glad the entire album isn't a "let's go back to our roots" type thing.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next track, "Rise to Me", is very much a melancholic folk ballad in the style that we've come to expect from these guys. However, and a big however, they've managed to mix in some really awesome new sounds, like that haunting slide guitar that just seems to chill in the background most of the song. Still, we get that same emotion from Colin Meloy, and the mix between old feeling and new sounds is a joy to listen to.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Rox in the Box", the following track, is one of the songs on <i>The King Is Dead</i> which changes rather completely from The Decemberists' old material. Although the same instruments are there - acoustic guitar, accordeon, and perhaps a mandolin - the song is very different. The first noted change is the addition of a fiddle (calling it a violin would feel out of context here, as I'll explain). Secondly, the country-styled backing vocals were a surprise, and finally, the completely country/East Coast hybrid main riff is what really got me. It breaks fully into it at one point, the accordeon and fiddle transporting you to Nova Scotia for a few awesome moments. This is probably my favourite track on the album, just because of the combination of all these styles and sounds, without ever being overwhelmingly caught in one of them, is pure genius.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, we move on (too quickly) to "January Hymn", which is another beautiful melancholic ballad whose melodies envelop you like a little cocoon and don't let you go until the very ending, echoey back vocals. Not much to say other than enjoy, because this is a simple, beautiful piece of music.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those echoey vocals fade away and in comes the pulsing energy of the lead single, "Down by the Water". This is a fine folk-rock power track, destined to be a single; but that in no way means it's a lesser piece of music. The Decemberists have created here one of their classic power ballads but in a new sort of way. Call it more country-like if you want, but that would be limited only to the instrumentation because on top it is still Colin Meloy's awesome voice carrying everything swiftly and awesomely onwards.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next track, "All Arise!", is the most country of the whole album, and you can tell right from the first fiddle riff. It's probably my least favourite of the album but it's still quite a good song. Just feels like they're trying a bit too hard at that style. A shame, yet still very much enjoyable.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The following piece feels like a complimentary song to "January Hymn". Indeed, it's titled "June Hymn", and it's also a slow, melancholic ballad. Again, beautiful, enjoy and let yourself drift in the melodies and harmonies (which are truly amazing).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next we get what is probably the "hardest" or "heaviest" track on the album, because it's the only one that starts right with slightly distorted guitars. It's got a really cool riff, some good energy, and it's really driving. Oh yeah, it's called "This Is Why We Fight", which might help explain the high paced, energetic atmosphere created. I really like it, and, being the penultimate track, it's really the climax of the album.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which bring us to the final track of <i>The King Is Dead</i>. As we know by now, The Decemberists like to finish off with a little unwinding; some denouement to their albums. Usually it's a pretty long track (like "California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade" from <i>Castaways and Cutouts</i>), and in this case it's an almost five minute slow ballad called "Dear Avery" that leaves us in a very Decemberists melancholic mood at the end of everything. But it leaves us satisfied, knowing we just heard another solid work from the kings of modern folk-rock. And no, these kings are definitely not dead.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-29037415444271075872011-03-21T11:58:00.000-07:002011-03-21T11:58:07.003-07:00The Album Quest, Part 5<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well it's been quite a while but to be fair, I have been quite busy with school and whatnot. In any case, I actually have time to write up this episode of the Album Quest. We continue in a metal-ish vein with the Deftones, Devin Townsend (of Dream Theater), The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Disarmonia Mundi, but move out of it at the end with DJ Champion's Chill 'Em All. Without wasting any more time, let's get down to it...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1. Deftones</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Diamond Eyes</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is only album I have by the Deftones at this point, although I'm definitely going to be hunting down the rest of their discography. This is their latest, and it's brilliant. The Deftones create an intense blend of nu-ish metal, punk, grunge, and alt-rock. It's interesting to say the least, but what makes it good is the way they blend and arrange sounds and moods to portray everything from pure anger to sadness and melancholy, anguish, and (sometimes) happiness and ecstasy. This album moves from the title track, which has a neatly polished chorus and heavy verses, through an overall intense first half which continues with tuned-down overdriven guitars and a lot of screamed (not growled) vocals interspersed with captivating melodies to a second part which introduces some clean sounds and more chilled parts amidst the continuing sonic carnage. An amazing album to listen to if you're up for some pure intensity and rage.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2. Devin Townsend</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Ziltoid The Omniscient</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I guess there comes a point, when you're the guitarist for an epic metal band such as Dream Theater (which I don't listen to, but they're apparently pretty good), when you just want to let loose and have some fun. And since you play epic metal, what better way to do so than to create a massive sci-fi epic metal rock opera about an omniscient alien being who comes to Earth looking for the universe's ultimate cup of coffee? Yeah, that's basically what Devin Townsend has made for us... It's hilarious, epic, and actually musically interesting. Long pieces are full of great arrangements and appropriately used themes. The narration is extremely funny and entertaining but still conveys the story efficiently. If you want to laugh your way through some great music, this is one of the best albums to do lose yourself in for an hour or so.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3. The Dillinger Escape Plan</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Option Paralysis</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As with the Deftones, this is the only Dillinger Escape Plan album I currently have in my library - but that is sure to change. The Dillinger Escape Plan make cacophonic prog metal that can be easily dismissed but must be lent a careful ear in order to understand the greatness inherent within. These guys manage to cover all the bases in this album, from pure melodic metal in parts to Radiohead-like keyboard-based falsetto atmospheres in others. Always possessing an intensity that acts as a constant reminder that this is indeed a metal band, the album moves across moods and sounds like a high-speed train in a rapidly changing landscape. If you can keep up, this album is certainly quite the musical ride. Very highly recommended. And the good news is, they're touring with the Deftones (in Toronto on May 3 at the Sound Academy).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4. Disarmonia Mundi</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Fragments of D-Generation</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With all the weird metal-ish genre-mixes that I was listening to and loving for this installement of the Album Quest, it was actually nice to come across some pure, classic melodic death metal. Such are Disarmonia Mundi - slightly electronica-infused, but basically traditional melodeath complete with riffs and growls and double kick. The album itself is quite a solid collection of the above. Never does one song stick out as weak or unfinished - they are all quite amazing. Sometimes reminiscent of Dark Tranquillity in the way they combine synthesizers with the guitar riffs, Disarmonia Mundi manage to create their own brand of melodeath while respecting the norms of the genre. Always intense, often time beautiful, this is exactly what you want when you're just looking for some great melodeath with its own flavour.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) The Restless Memoirs EP</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Slightly less produced that the full-length I talked about above, this EP contains some more adventurous arrangements and sounds, including weirder synths and some extended acoustic parts. Still the same flavour of melodeath, it's nice to see this is a band that isn't afraid to try things out. Fortunately everything they try more or less works out so the EP is a solid overall production, although the overall polish of the work could have been better. If you have a listen to <i>Fragments of D-Generation</i> and like it, make sure to check this out as well.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5. DJ Champion</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Chill 'Em All</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moving away from the metal in every way possible, I present you now one cool dude from Montreal - Maxime Morin a.k.a. DJ Champion. He made his money making jingles and soundtracks for advertising and such, and eventually grew tired of it. So he decided to go indie and make house/dance electronic music. <i>Chill 'Em All</i> is his debut, and since I couldn't find a torrent for his second album <i>Resistance</i>, I'm using this one to judge whether or not I should buy <i>Resistance</i>. If you want a simple judgement, let's just say that after listening to <i>Chill 'Em All</i>, I'm definitely putting both it and <i>Resistance</i> on my list of albums to buy. Now for the more complete review... <i>Chill 'Em All</i> is an album of guitar and bass-infused house music, where all the sounds and parts are arranged to work absolutely perfectly together. I can only imagine how many hours in the studio it must've taken to get all these to sit and work perfectly together. It's not about the technicalities of the music, it's about the atmospheres, the sounds, the way everything fits together. It makes you want to lose yourself and float at times, and bob your head and/or dance at others. It's everything house music is meant to be in a way I'd never heard it before. It's super refreshing and ridiculously awesome. Even if you don't like house music specifically, I dare you not to like this.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that's pretty much it for this time. In other news, I've been working more with Chris on the new project which keeps progressing towards something which we know nothing of as yet. We had our first show, playing covers of The Strokes' "Someday" and Muse's "Bliss" with Ableton Live-powered electronic backing tracks, and that was tons of fun. Still deciding on how to reveal and kick off the project but details should be coming in the not too distant future. In the meantime, keep track of the Album Quest! More will be coming soon with Tiësto's debut album (when he was still DJ Tiësto), Dropkick Murphys, Earth, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's Trio. Cheers,</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pierre.</span><br />
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</b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-74762374853141554632011-02-09T18:01:00.000-08:002011-02-09T18:01:45.958-08:00The Strokes Release First Single - For Free?!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well New York alt-garage-rockers The Strokes have finally given us a glimpse into their first album in five years, <i>Angles</i>, set to drop March 22nd, through the leading single "Under Cover of Darkness". At 2:35 pm EST they started giving it away on their website, for free, in exchange for a subscription to their newsletter/mailing list, and only for 48 hours. As soon as I got back from my physics lab I went and downloaded it and listened to it three times straight.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first time through I was disappointed because I heard a poppy-upbeat rhythm and a very "marketable" sound. However, I remembered Nick Valensi (one of The Strokes' guitarists) saying that it would be impossible for them to make music that would live up to the expectations that people had after five years of nothing. So I listened to it again and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. I heard a return back to the rhythms and moods of <i>Is This It</i> and I heard awesome guitar harmonies and layers. I heard Casablancas' voice in all its broken splendour and I heard solid riffs and a cool solo. By the third time through I was convinced this was good, and in a way it reminded me of recent stuff by Brand New, Breaking Benjamin, Arctic Monkeys, and Muse: it's become more "marketable" and "commercial" but it has retained all its originality and "alternativeness", the traits which attracted me to that music in the first place. And it's still quality music. A few minutes ago I listened to it again and decided I couldn't wait for the album to drop.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is, however, a second thing I would like to discuss about this release, and that is The Strokes' (or their manager's or label's) decision to release the single as a free download from their website for 48 hours. To me (and I'm willing to bet the others I know in the pay-what-you-want-or-free boat) this is a brilliant move by the guys. Not only does it reward the most loyal fans, it will also spread the song like wildfire and build massive buzz, more than a month away from release date. Some will say this is a strategy that only works if you're a band as big as The Strokes (or Radiohead, when they decided to let us download <i>In Rainbows</i> on a pay-what-you-want basis). But I think that smaller bands can draw inspiration from this and adapt it to their needs: say you're releasing an LP in a month or two. You spread one song for free across the Internet, as far as you can reach (and if it's any good, others will then spread it for you). Make sure you tell people that this is a single from an upcoming LP. You continue this effort with the same song for a week. Then you stop. You watch how it works, what the response to the track is. You wait another week. Then you release another track and do the same thing. If the response isn't as good as you'd like, delay the release a bit, and repeat with a third track. After another week's wait, promote the release of the album as ardently as you can for a week and release the LP at the end of said week.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have no idea if the strategy outlined above works or not, but I think I'll be experimenting with a variant of it in a few months' time. In the meantime, check out the above-mentioned single by The Strokes <a href="http://new.thestrokes.com/">here</a> and let me know what you think. I know there's gonna be positive and negative response, and I've already given my answer. I'd love to know what everyone thinks, though!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pierre.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-32070091019905230522011-01-20T19:39:00.000-08:002011-01-20T19:39:11.855-08:00The Album Quest, Part 4<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Welcome to the fourth installment of the Album Quest! This time around I've got a pretty big line-up because I've added some artists since starting this whole thing. I'll be covering three albums from Italian-wannabe-Russian melodic death metalists Dark Lunacy, the six albums by Göteborg (that's Gothenburg for us non-Swedish types) melodeath pioneers Dark Tranquillity that I'd never heard, the massive collaboration between ex-Talking Head David Byrne and Fatboy Slim featuring the same number of guest vocalists as tracks on the "album" (no less than 22), Death Cab for Cutie's three latest albums, and finally the two albums from The Decemberists I had never bothered listening to. Yeah, it's a lot of awesome music so I'll try not to say too much even though there is a lot to be said for each. Anyways, let's get down to it...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1. Dark Lunacy</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b></b><u>a.) Devoid</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u></u>From the first epic arrangements and carefully placed Eastern-European folk sounds, you get the feeling that these Italians wished they had been born elsewhere. If not, their music strongly suggests so. Considering the second song off this album is named "Stalingrad", I think I have a case. Anyways, this is epic folk-infused melodic death metal with amazing complex arrangements and masterful instrumentation. The only weak spot on Devoid are the vocals, which don't seem up to par with the awesomeness of the music. Thankfully, the creativity and originality in the overall music of the album makes this a solid album.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) The Diarist</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is, without doubt, Dark Lunacy's best album. Built on the same musical awesomeness as Devoid, the vocals have massively gained in quality, strength, and emotion, perfectly matching the music. The music is of the same high caliber as Devoid and in basically the same vein but with a slightly different sound - dare I say perhaps more polished. Whereas Devoid is still rough in its great arrangements, The Diarist is precise and smooth yet powerful and strong (like melodeath is supposed to be). Basically a must-have if unknown album for all those into melodic death or overall high quality metal in general. And the fact that it's a concept album with some great themes is also pretty cool.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>c.) Forget Me Not</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Forget Me Not, we find traces of the brilliance that make up Devoid and The Diarist, but unfortunately, these traces are scattered all over the place. Forget Me Not feels too busy and disorganized, and although you can tell the musicians are awesome and there is much greatness to be had, it never shows through because the arrangements are just not good enough for the album to come together as a whole. It's a shame, really, but the album is still enjoyable, just not one that I would regularly return to listen to in full.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2. Dark Tranquillity</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Character</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alphabetical order apparently decided I start with the best in this case. Character is simply a sublime album - although chronologically it suffers the fate of being right after what I consider to be DT's finest piece of work, Damage Done. However, I will admit that's a prejudice and after listening to this album I would have to say the title of "DT's Best Album" is now up for grabs. Perhaps a few more listens of each are in order to determine the winner... In any case, Character is a combination of all the elements which had made DT's earlier albums good, solid, experimental melodic death albums. Like Damage Done, Character is an almost perfect balance between the harsh, the soft, the weird, and the epic. If you like Damage Done or any other DT album, you need, and I repeat NEED, to have a listen to this one.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) Fiction</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fiction was the follow-up to Character, and unfortunately it doesn't quite live up to the standards set (to be fair, neither did last year's We Are the Void). Although still great in its own right, Fiction doesn't achieve that balance, and instead delves a little more into the weird and clean. What DT achieved on this album is amazing, but it is not that perfect equilibrium attained in Damage Done and Character, and so Fiction suffers that fate of being the "not-quite-so-perfect follow-up effort to their best albums". Still, you should probably listen to it.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>c.) The Gallery</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a very interesting album, and I only really recommended to the highly musically curious/interested or true DT/melodeath fans. The sole reason is that The Gallery is not as appealing or sublime as the albums mentioned above. However, the creativity and quality of the pure melodic death metal produced on this album is beyond criticism. It's truly amazing - I especially enjoyed the tasteful use of the bass guitar, too often forgotten or under-appreciated in metal, and clean/acoustic guitar, again a sound much too rare in modern heavy music. And all of this is very understandable since DT was basically, along with In Flames, pioneering the melodic death metal genre, and this was their second album. They'd laid down the foundations of the genre and were now expanding on it, so they created what is really, along with In Flames' The Jester Race, a classic awesome melodic death metal album. It is not, however, the great Dark Tranquillity sound we have come to love.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>d.) Haven</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So with Dark Tranquillity, we have three kinds of albums - the classic, awesome melodic death metal ones (the early ones, basically; The Gallery and Skydancer), the weird experimental ones, and the awesome combination of the two that led to the "classic" DT sound. Well Haven is definitely the weirdest of their experimental albums; it's obvious they wanted to push the electronic influences as far as they could. Sometimes it works really well ("The Wonders at Your Feet") but mostly it's just not as good as DT's other forays into different sounds. Overall, this is (in my mind, at least) one of the weakest DT album I've ever heard, and only because they experiment a little too much without overwhelming success (experimentation is extremely hard, and DT have succeeded at it - Projector being an example, but not this time). That being said, it's still a great work of music, and very interesting to listen to (especially when you compare with DT's other work and see where it fits). Recommended if you're a hardcore DT fan.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>e.) The Mind's I</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kind of like Haven, except this is more of an experiment in melodic death metal and less electronic. It feels like they tried to stretch the melodeath genre in a weird experimental way that didn't really succeed all that well. Again, that doesn't mean it's a bad album, it's just not amazing to the standard that we expect when encountering a Dark Tranquillity album. There are some tracks here that are sublime, and there rest are interestingly creative but not great. Again, recommended if you're a really big fan because it's interesting to listen to when you have prior DT knowledge.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>f.) Skydancer/Of Chaos and Eternal Night</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the reissue of Dark Tranquillity's first album Skydancer, combined with their later EP Of Chaos and Eternal Night. Now this is a truly interesting work of music, because the original Skydancer album has none other than Anders Frìden on vocals - yes, that Anders, the one who is now known all over the world as the lead singer of In Flames. Funnily enough, although I think Anders is one of, if not the, best vocalist I've ever heard, the vocals are not the best part of Skydancer. Perhaps it's because he hadn't yet found that "touch" that brings the magic to In Flames and culminated in the phenomenal work on Reroute to Remain, but in any case, the best part of Skydancer is the instrumentation. And it's seriously awesome. Imagine a band of young guys who are completely redefining a genre. It's brilliant. Of Chaos and Eternal Night, tagged on to the end in this reissue, keeps the awesomeness going, this time with early Mikael Stanne vocals that are also not quite what we expect of him but hey, they're all allowed to start out somewhere, aren't they?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3. David Byrne and Fatboy Slim</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Here Lies Love</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love massive concept albums by crazy/quirky/weird people with crazy/quirky/weird/epic/awesome music. Therefore I thoroughly enjoyed this collaboration by ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and veteran electro producer Fatboy Slim (a.k.a. Norman Cook). First of all, the thing IS massive - 22 solid length tracks, 90 minutes of music. Coincidentally (or not), there are also 22 guest vocalists on the album, plus Byrne himself on two tracks - that adds breaks down to 21 female vocalists (including Tori Amos, Martha Wainwright, Cindi Lauper, Santigold, Sharon Jones, and Camille) and 2 male ones. Secondly, this has an kick-ass story. The album follows the life of the former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, and the woman who raised her, Estrella Cumpas. I suggest you listen to the album to immerse yourself in the story, basically because I want you to listen to this awesome work. The music itself is a great blend of David Byrne's spotless musical arrangement and composing and Fatboy Slim's great electronic touch. So yeah, have a listen!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4. Death Cab for Cutie</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Narrow Stairs</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is Death Cab's latest album, and of the three I listened to, it's probably my favourite. This is awesome alternative rock with some cool experimental moments; really refreshing sounds and interesting arrangements that keep you hooked from start to finish. Musically, it's a lot of atmosphere building through arrangements, but also spotted with really great melodies and riffs so that you have something to catch on to and get stuck in your head (probably helps to sell the album to the general public, too... I don't know if they could get the 8-and-a-half minute epic "I Will Possess Your Heart" on radio but still). Str</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ongly recommended if you like anything by Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, The Black Keys, Radiohead, The Strokes, or Red Hot Chili Peppers. Alternative rock, what.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) Plans</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll say it right off the bat - this is my least favourite out of the three Death Cab albums I listened to. The songs are great ("Marching Bands of Manhattan", "Different Names for the Same Thing", "What Sarah Said" and "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" are highlights) but overall it's just a little too poppy and commercial for my taste. It feels like the songs were conceived to be catchy rather than be interesting, contrary to the awesome feeling you get from the material off Narrow Stairs. Still, a solid album that's worth checking out.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>c.) Transatlanticism</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After Narrow Stairs, this is my second favourite album of the three. More awesome arrangement atmospheres (although this album came before!) and more awesome melodies/riffs. The title track is simply sublime and yeah, there's not much more to say. Go have a listen.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Decemberists</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Her Majesty</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hmm... this is actually a very hard album to judge. I might have to have a few more listens before I can really understand my reaction to it, but for now I'll call it interestingly really good. It's classic, indie Decemberists and really high-quality stuff, but for now it hasn't struck my as "Oh my, how fucking awesome". If you already like The Decemberists, you'll definitely want to listen to this though.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) Picaresque</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This one, however, grabbed me by the epicness of the first track, "The Infanta", and never let me go. It is, simply said, fucking amazing. It's again, classic Decemberists sound but the songs/ballads are just so enthralling that you can never get your head out of this album. Even if you don't know The Decemberists, this is a great album to listen to.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that's finally it for this time! I'll promise to make it shorter last time, but I hope you got something out of this one. The next update will feature... Deftones, Devin Townsend, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Disarmonia Mundi, and DJ Champion.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other news, Chris and I are going to be playing live for the first time set up as a guitarist/singer, bass player, and MacBook running Ableton Live. We'll see how it goes and let you know!</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pierre.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-44930529594604175872011-01-01T17:03:00.000-08:002011-01-01T17:03:32.385-08:00Welcome to 2011<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No, not an Album Quest update quite yet, although I should be getting to that in the not so far future. However, I shall propose a little look back on 2010 and and a little look forward to the year ahead - MMXI or 2011.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First off, what the hell happened in 2010... I started off the year with the rhythm guitar and bass bedtracks of "<a href="http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com/album/situations">Situations</a>" on an external hard drive, the International Baccalaureate (IB) program taking up too much of my time to really be able to work on the project at all. Eventually, around March Break I managed to start working on the album and putting everything together. It was finally released in early April on <a href="http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com/">Bandcamp</a>, later appearing on iTunes and such online stores. It was a fun little project that has received a small yet overall positive response, so I'm pretty happy about that. There was also the amazing adventure with the guys from <a href="http://reverbnation.com/thefinalyear">The Final Year</a>, with who I had the chance to play gigs all over Toronto, which saw us improve greatly as a band and made me improve greatly as a stage performer. It culminated in our really awesome night at the Sound Academy and the perhaps rushed recording of our EP "<a href="http://thefinalyear.bandcamp.com/">Silence and Reflections</a>", which I am still happy we did.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the course of 2010 I took the chance to really expand my online presence as an artist and start networking with more people, meeting some really awesome individuals and connecting with some great communities (yes, <a href="http://cafenoodle.ning.com/">Café Noodle</a>, I'm mostly talking about you and the fun uStream gigs!). I found some amazing music made by the already mentioned awesome individuals, which I really enjoyed discovering (and some of which I still need to fully discover!). The latter part of the year was taken up by my first semester of University and collecting rough ideas for material to be developed on the upcoming project with Chris Drexler-Lemire...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which brings us to looking ahead to this new year ahead of us. This network I've built up and the amazing connections I've made bode well for the release of the various projects I know I'm going to be involved with this year, so I'm basically kind of excited. I've got that project I've talked about with Chris, which is going to be epic and awesome, but I'm not gonna talk too much about it right now - just know that there will be a work of music somewhere between an EP and an album that will come out sometime this year, produced by us two in... My room, which I will be soundproofing when I come home from University and transforming into a little sort of studio that we will be working in all summer. At some point we will be moving in the rest of The Final Year to record an epic idea generated by singer/keyboardist Alex Marsolais-Whicher, which I will also not tell you too much about - just know that we will also be releasing a work of music by The Final Year at some point this year, recorded over one week this summer, most likely in my room studio.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Otherwise, 2011 promises some awesome music by real artists - Matt Stevens is promising his third acoustic album, Steve Lawson is saying he's gonna be releasing some cool-sounding stuff, The Strokes are out of studio and mixing, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Mars Volta, and The Decemberists are all going to be releasing full-length albums, and there are even rumours of a Justice album coming out! I really can't wait for this new year, musically and otherwise... See you there!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pierre.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-57689442490939964742010-12-07T16:50:00.000-08:002010-12-07T16:50:39.245-08:00The Album Quest, Part 3<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today: Breaking Benjamin's debut album album Saturate, the Boris and Ian Astbury collaboration album BXI, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats and their two albums to date, French grunge-rockers Creep AC's Do the Humans Kill the Earth?, supergroup Crippled Black Phoenix's studio discography, and finally Cynic's original masterpiece Focus. Mostly highs and one low which I will talk about in more detail; it was, overall, another very enjoyable installement of the Album Quest.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1. Breaking Benjamin</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Saturate</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, it's the second time that I've overlooked an amazing band's debut album while having really enjoyed their later stuff (see The Album Quest, Part 1: the Arctic Monkeys section). In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed the raw power and omnipresent metal influences throughout Breaking Benjamin's first full-length production. When listening, it becomes very clear where the foundations for the band's later awesomeness were laid. The single "Polyamorous" is an instant hit, very catchy but also very well written/composed. "Natural Life" and "Next to Nothing" are equally solid tracks, and overall the album delivers with a force more violent than any other Breaking Benjamin productions - Ben Burnley's use of growled vocals is a lot more present here than in any later albums. This album is a must-listen if you came to Breaking Benjamin from the metal side of things.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2. BXI</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) BXI</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BXI is apparently one-off collaboration between Japanese noise-rockers Boris and former The Cult frontman Ian Astbury that for some reason deserved its own band name as well as album title. In any case, one listen to the short but extremely sweet piece of work tells you why it did indeed deserve its own band name. For this is a dimension of Boris we have seldom seen before. It's a sound we've been offered snippets of, most notable in Boris' collaboration with Michio Kurihara (Rainbow) and their album Soundtrack to the Film "Mabuta No Ura", but in fact it is an atmosphere very specific to this album. It seems almost as if Boris crafted this feel to go with Astbury's voice as much as they could, and in this aspect they most certainly succeeded for the two complement each other to perfection. One can actually easily say Boris and Astbury succeeded at basically everything in this album, from the three masterful original pieces to the fresh and intelligent cover of The Cult's own "Rain" with Boris' guitarist Wata providing very ethereal female vocals that just work for some reason. And when things "just work" with Boris, things are just awesome.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3. Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Meet the Meatbats</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We all know Chad Smith, if not by name. He's the guy who has so seamlessly accompanied Flea's phenomenal bass work at the root of the Red Hot Chili Peppers since he replaced D.H. Peligro circa Mother's Milk, so all of the classic Chili Peppers tracks (Under the Bridge, Scar Tissue, By the Way, Snow ((Hey Oh))...) have had him pumping out the rhythm. Anyways, through various side projects he met a few wonderfully talented players and ended founding the Bombastic Meatbats, a funk/jazz/rock fusion band of tremendous awesomeness. Their first album, Meet the Meatbats, is a perfect balance between the three genres, often blending all of them in a single piece. All instrumental, the four members of the Meatbats take turns in being awesome, each having their turn at some sort of blistering solo, funkadelic riff, or jazzy atmosphere. Makes for some great homework music!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) More Meat</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bombastic Meatbats' second album is slightly more on the rock side of things than the first one, but songs like "Shag" keep the chill jazz mood going. Although I enjoyed the first album slightly more than this, I think that is only personal preference, for musically both works are equally as solid. And if you ever wondered where one can find a crossover between jazz and metal guitar work, this album is a great place to look (or rather listen, I guess). Starting off with chill and intelligent jazz improv riffs, Jeff Kollman slowly builds up the intensity until he is fully shredding through jazz scales before coming back down to earth. Really cool and eye-opening stuff. So yeah, highly recommended.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4. Creep AC</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Do the Humans Kill the Earth?</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alright, I'll be straight up honest with this one: it was the definite "low" of this series of albums. A sort of grunge/punk/alt. rock group stuck somewhere between Boris and Nirvana, these French guys never really grabbed a hold of my attention. The guitars were loud and sure, there were some good riffs and rhythms at times, but the musically low-quality vocal work, cliché lyrics and overall over-reliance on pumping power chords as loud as possible ruined most of the experience. I think I'll be deleting this soon, to make way for the Tom Waits discography I just downloaded...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5. Crippled Black Phoenix</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) I, Vigilante</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a complete 180 degree turn in quality of music, we know find ourselves with what I would consider the finest piece in this entire series of albums. Post-rock supergroup Crippled Black Phoenix, composed of past members of bands including Mogwai, Iron Monkey, and Electric Wizard, have created here a WW2-themed mini-album/EP that simply blows one's mind far, far way. These long, epic tracks have a way of capturing the mind in their atmospheres and not letting go, making the 10-odd minutes seem like almost nothing, and sometimes almost too short. Although one senses a heaving Pink Floyd influence, you are never overwhelmed by it and always feel like this is something fresh and new. Very high quality music, very much recommended.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) A Love of Shared Disasters</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not quite as purely awesome as I, Vigilante but yet still very very good, A Love of Shared Disasters goes for more of a slow, melancholy approach that seems very fitting for the subjects explored in the lyrics. The atmospheres are mostly gloomy and esoteric, sometimes getting heavier and feeling like humidity-saturated 40-degree summer air. The layers are always interesting and once again grab a steady hold on your musically-attentive mind.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>c.) 200 Tons of Bad Luck</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Similar to A Love of Shared Disasters, this album often goes even heavier and gloomier than the former. The atmospheres are saturated with melodies and harmonies that never seem to hit a positive note, and that's fine because they're so good you don't really want them to, as if that would ruin the whole feeling and it just wouldn't be the same; for some reason I think that's true. So it's not really depressing as much as just a natural melancholy mood, much like Jacques in Shakespeare's As You Like It: heavy, gloomy melancholy is the music's normal state of being, and that's just awesome. So if you're prepared to sit down and get lost in that world for some time, then go ahead and go through this album. If you only want a few minutes in it, then listen to a few tracks and you'll get a nice dose of it. In any case, it's highly recommended you try something with this awesomeness.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>6. Cynic</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Focus</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Focus is the original Cynic album. The band got together, recorded it, toured, then went their separate ways until just a few years ago when they decided to get back together and make an EP. In any case, Focus is genuinely great electro/jazz/death metal fusion. The riffs are powerful and very intelligent, as expected from any good death metal band, the drums rock with the riffs very well, and as to the rest... It's all in the song structure really. Tracks start in death metal, and then break into an electro-jazz fusion funnily reminiscent of the Bombastic Meatbats. The bass starts doing a lot more work than one would expect from a death metal band, or at least it's a lot more noticeable. A bit of tapping, some really cool intervals, all mixed with some great keyboard work and all under some really cool vocoded vocals. A good metal drum fill and we're back with the death metal riffs and growls. It's a great journey that is very nourishing to the music-thirsty mind, for one discovers many combinations of sounds that one is not very used to, and (hopefully) one finds this awesome. So if you're ready, take the plunge into the awesomely weird world of Cynic.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, that's it for now. Next time: it's all very dark and melodic-death-metal-ish with both Dark Lunacy and Dark Tranquillity. We then move on to David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's collaboration Here Lies Love, Death Cab for Cutie's Plans and Narrow Stairs, and finally we finish with the two Decemberists albums I have not checked out yet for some reason - Picaresque and Her Majesty.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other news, my upcoming project with Chris Drexler-Lemire now has a name which we will not reveal, and house music has a very exciting week: both deadmau5's new album 4x4=12 and Daft Punk's Tron Legacy Soundtrack come out. Get pumped (and by pumped, I mean side-chained)!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers, and sorry if you didn't get the ultra-nerdy house joke,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pierre.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-40718771136933292732010-11-22T20:11:00.000-08:002010-11-22T20:11:47.593-08:00The Album Quest, Part 2<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well it took me a while, but I finally got through all the artists I had planned on getting through for this blog post. I guess this is more or less the time it's gonna take for each post, although perhaps a bit faster because I will have less 1-hour long drone pieces that need to be slotted into one sitting, therefore extending the period of time before they are listened to (and hence delaying the writing of this blog post!). Anyways, this time I present you a whole variety of styles.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We start with Animal Collective, whose entire discography was unknown to me, and who were a pleasure to discover. We then move on to Japanese drone/noise-rock experimental trio Boris, whose albums (besides the tremendous Pink) I was discovering for the first time, and after a switch from noise-rock to ambient electro, we see Boards of Canada's entire discography. We finish off this time with a great album by American rockers Brand New. So without further commentary, here is, well, the commentary...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1. Animal Collective</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Campfire Songs</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starting with this album, which iTunes feeds me first because of alphabetical ordering, is a strange way to discover Animal Collective. Basically the story behind it is that they all sat around on a porch in November, in the cold, and recorded this very esoteric and purely strange piece of music. With acoustic guitars at the base, providing a sort of drone/trance-like constant harmonic feed in the background throughout the album, the two humans who make up Animal Collective layer minimalistic percussion and highly trance-y vocal harmonies over top. Most of the words are unintelligible, but that's really besides the point. You're just supposed to let yourself go and imagine yourself on that porch in November (the nature sounds in the background and occasional intruding wind gust help with that). Overall though, a great, if very weird, piece of work.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) Danse Manatee</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whereas Campfire Songs was very acoustic, Danse Manatee sees Animal Collective on a whole different level. On this album, the guys take a very low-fi electronic approach to the same kind of enchanting ambient psychedelic compositions, and the album leaves you with a whole different feeling. It's a great piece of work, although I would have to say their weakest, only because a lot of the time you feel that they are looking for their own sounds and feelings within the low-fi electronic framework, and only occasionally does it really sound like they found it them. Still, tracks like "Meet the Light Child" make it a great work of music.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>c.) Fall Be Kind</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This mini-album/EP was my first glimpse into the more mature Animal Collective sound, a warmer blend of acoustic guitars, complex percussive layering and vocal arrangements, and a touch of soft electro. I think it was the band's first foray into that sound as well, because, like Danse Manatee, it feels like a band searching for feelings, and sometimes finding them. Still, quite a good collection of tracks, and not a disappointment at all. Check out "What Would I Want? Sky" to see what I mean about it still being awesome.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>d.) Feels</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No pun intended, but Feels feels like the coming-of-age of the sound developed in Fall Be Kind. Better production certainly helps, but the arrangements and instrumentation are also a lot more precise and seemingly crafted with greater care. Overall, it's like a more awesome of Fall Be Kind. Definitely one of Animal Collective's best albums.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>e.) Here Comes the Indian</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This album sounds stuck halfway between Feels/Fall Be Kind and Danse Manatee. Whereas in Fall Be Kind and Feels, the electronic components were at a relative minimum, Here Comes the Indian brings back the synths and harsher noises from Danse Manatee and more or less applies to the atmospheres present in Feels. This makes for quite an interesting blend and resulting overall feel, that is nonetheless quite satisfying and enjoyable.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>f.) Merriweather Post Pavilion</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Animal Collective's latest work, Merriweather Post Pavilion is an even greater maturing of the components found in Feels and Here Comes the Indian, with greater/cleaner production, catchier melodies, more worked arrangements, and overall greater appeal. This is definitely a very good album that should and will be remembered for a long while. Within its sonic framework we find all the elements that AC has explored over the years, aged and matured to harmonic perfection. A must-have. Give "My Girls" a spin and you'll start to see why.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>g.) People and Prospect Hummer</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two EPs that I grouped together for their relative similarity. These two feel like experiments in style and sound construction, which is not to say they are not good, but they are definitely not at the level of full-out full-length Animal Collective productions. If you got into their albums, you'll want to give these a listen to fully appreciate where the albums come from.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>h.) Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Animal Collective debut album, before they were even known as such (they are still listed as Avey Tare and Panda Bear on the album cover). Really, really experimental stuff, but very, very interesting and a must-have if you liked their other weird stuff. Very enjoyable and really quite awesome, although lacking the production and arrangement finesse of their latest albums.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>i.) Strawberry Jam</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you had to consider any Animal Collective as a variant of punk, this would be it. Harsh sounds, greater percussion/drum presence, more weirdness, and you have an amazing combination that culminates in "For Reverend Green" and Avey Tare screaming his head off. An unbelievably amazing sonic experience that is also a must-listen. Along with Feels and Merriweather Post Pavilion, it rounds out AC's best albums list (at number 1 or 2 depending on my mood).</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>j.) Sung Tongs</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hard to place this one... Sounds somewhat like Feels but slightly harsher, perhaps somewhere between Feels and Strawberry Jam in the same way Here Comes the Indian was between Feels and Danse Manatee. In any case, another solid album with more great harmonies and arrangements, as one has come to expect after listening to so many Animal Collective albums!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>k.) Water Curses</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another mini-album that again shows off Animal Collective's more experimental side. Solid quality-wise, it will probably only interest those who have really gotten into AC, or are very musically curious, which is a shame because it deserves to be heard more than that.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2. Boris</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Absolutego</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One hour and five minutes of pure mind-blowing awesome. That seems to be the best way to describe this debut masterpiece by the Japanese noise-rockers. After around 15-20 minutes of drone build up with greatly interesting variations in feedback and static tones, the piece picks up like a classical symphony, incorporating first drums, then vocals in an experimental framework that builds and builds until it all dies out except for that huge drone guitar which brings us out to the end, slowly undergoing a great transformation until it is only a high-frequency screech that brings the opus to a close. If you are ready for something truly mind-blowing, this is it.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) Amplifier Worship</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first song on the album is called "Huge", and it is not only accurate for that particular track - it sets the mood for the entire album. This is Boris taking their drone debut, chopping it up and combining it with a raw noise-punk to create a combination rarely, if ever, heard before. It's a powerful sound that one must be ready to embrace and understand, but if one can, it is a great feeling to let that sound invade your ears and mind. A brilliant album.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>c.) Smile</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll have to admit being biased to this one because this is definitely my favourite Boris album, and I think it to be their best (although a lot would argue for Pink). Taking the drone-punk from Amplifier Worship and bringing out the most punk they can out of it, this is by far the most pure rock album that Boris has made. But it's really the combination of that rock with the drone sounds and atmospheres left over from Amplifier Worship that creates the awesomeness of the whole piece.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>d.) Soundtrack from the Film "Mabuta No Ura"</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's not that surprising to see a band doing the soundtrack to a movie. What's more surprising is seeing a band make the soundtrack to a movie that doesn't exist (then again, this is Boris). I guess Bowie sort of did it with Ziggy Stardust, but he didn't really call it a soundtrack. More than just a concept album, this work is a very chill and ambient piece (yes, even by normal people standards) that transports you from scene to scene, and if you just close your eyes to can almost see the whole movie play out in your mind. Quite psychedelic and sometimes haunting, it is truly a great work of music.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>e.) Sun Baked Snow Cave</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second hour-long masterpiece, this time in collaboration with Japanese experimental electro-noise artist Merzbow. It is therefore fitting that the piece opens up with a few minutes of complex and interesting interlacing static sounds and background feedback. Eventually it drops into some very minimalist, chill guitar, eventually building up and back down, Merzbow providing more static to bring the piece to a close. The absence of drums makes this quite a relaxing hour of awesome.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>f.) Rainbow</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This time in collaboration with Michio Kurihara, a Japanese guitarist, Boris brings us something more noise-rock than Mabuta No Ura but definitely not nearly as harsh as Smile or Pink, something in between that makes for some great musicianship and awesome tracks (like Sweet No. 1 or Rainbow). Definitely a great album.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3. Boards of Canada</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) The Campfire Headphase</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These two Scottish brothers who apparently wish they were Canadian make some of the best chill, ambient, downtempo electronic music I've ever heard. The Campfire Headphase is definitely a prime example of it. Super ambient synths built up awesome atmospheres that are then complimented by beats built from really interesting sounds. Never disappointing, the album grabs your mind at the get-go and, well, never lets it go.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) Geogaddi</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If the Campfire Headphase was impressive, I now know why this is THE Boards of Canada album to have and listen to. Like a slightly harsher and more sophisticated version of The Campfire Headphase, Geogaddi takes you on an amazing ambient ride that spans 22 tracks of varying length and styles. There's really not much more to say about it other than to recommend it and proclaim it as a must-have.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>c.) Music Has the Right to Children</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Slightly below Geogaddi in terms of pure quality, this album still shows that BoC are masters of their style. Kind of stuck between Campfire Headphase and Geogaddi in terms of style, it's slightly above Campfire Heaphase in terms of quality, which makes for a good listen and a solid album.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>d.) Trans-Canada Highway</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Damn, I guess they REALLY wanted to be Canadian. Tough luck, lads! Anyways, Trans-Canada Highway is a little BoC mini-album containing a track from The Campfire Headphase (Dayvan Cowboy) and some other tracks including a remix of the aforementioned piece. More awesome atmospheres and sounds, mostly keeping the feeling built in Campfire Headphase but with a bit more experimentation and exploration of sound.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>e.) Twoism</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Boards of Canada debut album, hence quite lo-fi but also very successful at what it attempts, that being the establishment of a sound and a mood, atmospheres that can be background or can invade your mind depending on the volume and presence of the music. As any good debut album, it lays the foundations of the awesomeness to follow in the form of Geogaddi. If you get into Geogaddi and The Campfire Headphase, you'll want to check this one out for sure.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4. Brand New</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Deja Entendu</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The album brings one's attention to the apparent Brand New signature moves which involves giving albums and songs very weird titles (one look at the album track list and one is confused). However, the mystery built by the song titles makes one very curious as to what the songs may contain, and upon discovery, one is most pleasantly surprised. Deja Entendu begins with a very alternative/psychedelic rock sounding intro called "Tautou", which, once ended, immediately launches into a parody of modern pop-rock called "Sic transit gloria... Glory Fades", which is truly genius. Upon first listen, that's what got me into this band - their ability to sound like pop-rock but in fact make complete fun of it in a very alternative and psychedelic, oft-punkish ambience. The entire album is great and deserves to be better known.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There you have it, this installment of the Album Quest has now come to a close. Hope you liked it, and if you've never heard of the bands and/or albums mentioned but my words strike curiosity into your heart, remember, YouTube and The Pirate Bay are your best friends until you decide you want to buy the album 'cause it's just that awesome! Stay tuned for next time, with Breaking Benjamin, BXI, Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats, Crippled Black Phoenix, and Cynic.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pierre.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">P.S. Abney Park's newest album The End of Days is now out, and it's friggin' awesome. Also recommended!</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-40321320110793258622010-09-30T09:11:00.000-07:002010-09-30T09:11:23.717-07:00The Album Quest, Part 1<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alright, so having recently acquired quite a lot of new music, I decided to stop acquiring new music and instead go through my music library alphabetically and listen to every album I had never listened to the whole way through. This started a few days ago, and so far I have gone through Arcade Fire's Funeral and Neon Bible, Arctic Monkeys' Humbug and Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, The Black Keys' Attack & Release and Brothers, and finally Black Sun Empire's Cruel and Unusual and Driving Insane. What I've realized is that all this is amazing music, so I thank all the people who have suggested I get such and such an artist's such and such album. You guys have really helped me build up my music collection. Obviously, it's not done, but I'm taking a hiatus until I've gone through all these albums. After that, I think I'm going to take more time when I get new music and listen to every album I download at least once through before getting new stuff. Anyways, here's a little report of The Album Quest, Part 1.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1. Arcade Fire</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Funeral</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Funeral is a very interesting album. It's one of those albums that you don't really get into until you really start appreciating the composition and songwriting behind it. That's simply because it doesn't really have any tracks that hook you in right off the bat, nothing truly "catchy". However, I realized upon completion of the album, that is an amazing quality for an album to possess. It means it forces the listener to delve into the music and truly understand what's going on in there. And although it might alienate some listeners and not be too commercially successful, it must not be underrated.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) Neon Bible</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is similar to Funeral in some senses, because many songs are not very catchy and force you to really listen, but it is a lot closer to Arcade Fire's new awesome album The Suburbs in that many songs hook you in and also force you to listen. The problem with being slightly catchier is that you can more easily listen to the album only on the surface without ever needing to delve headfirst into the atmospheres of the pieces. However, it is still a very artistically successful album, albeit just a little less that Funeral or The Suburbs, even though I think I enjoyed it just a touch more than Funeral.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2. Arctic Monkeys</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Humbug</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everything I've ever read about this album has told me it was a huge disappointment and that everyone thinks the Arctic Monkeys should never do anything like it ever again. I had it in my library, though, so I had to give it a spin. And lo and behold, everything I'd ever read about it was dead wrong. This is not a disappointment, and the Monkeys should pursue this direction if it pleases them. Although it is not as awesome as Favorite Worst Nightmare, the record is a very refreshing and creative blend of the Arctic Monkey's trademark Brit-garage sound and more complex arrangement and songwriting that creates a sound unlike any I'd heard (someone perhaps might prove me wrong, but in the roughly 7000 songs in my library, I can't think of any that matches this genre). I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this album and discovering a facet to the Arctic Monkeys that I had never bothered looking for.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ah, the Arctic Monkeys' debut album which I had never bothered to listen to all the way through. Well, now I can definitely understand where Favorite Worst Nightmare comes from and how it is so awesome. Because when a band such as the Monkeys builds on a debut such as theirs, the second album has got to be fantastic. Whatever People Say I Am is a true debut album, with the band exploring a bunch of directions but definitely maintaining a constant sound. I enjoyed, yet probably not quite as much as Humbug, funnily enough. Perhaps it's just a bit too rough and rugged. Still, bloody brilliant.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3. The Black Keys</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Attack & Release</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Black Keys are awesome, let me just make that clear. Attack & Release is as well. Rough sounds carefully arranged into complex pieces that just sweep you off your feet is their trademark, and I have to say it's a good one to have. Attack & Release does just as its name suggests - it dives into your mind, spins in around and through its tracks, and releases you with the last notes of Things Ain't Like They Used to Be. There's not much more to say other than the fact that this is one solid record.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) Brothers</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay, I know I make Attack & Release sound godly, but it in fact gets shadowed by the quality of Brothers, if that is possibl<u>.)</u>e. And it is, because Brothers is Attack & Release, but better. The sounds are still rough but now they are warmer, and the pieces are arranged even better than in Attack & Release. The Black Keys is all about how all those sounds play together, and with Brothers they've found almost the perfect mix.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4. Black Sun Empire</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>a.) Cruel and Unusual</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't know much about Black Sun Empire - in fact, I've only started listening to their music. This is the first time I listen to their albums straight through. But my, what at experience going through Cruel and Unusual is. Another fitting album title, really. Drum n' bass unlike any other drum and bass I've heard, sort of a mix between Pendulum and The Prodigy with influences from a whole whack of other electronic artists. The only things that bring this album down in places are the vocalists, but I guess everyone's doing that these days.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>b.) Driving Insane</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I just finished this one and it's like Black Sun Empire heard or read what I have just written above - even more polished than Cruel and Unusual, Driving Insane is the awesome BSE drum n' bass without the vocalists, just pure electro to pump through your mind while you're working away on something. Great, great stuff.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, that's it for now, but another update will come when I've gone through another four artists I guess. If anyone has any good music to suggest to me, please feel free, I'm always on the lookout. Especially if they're tiny little underground or alternative bands no one has heard of - yet.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pierre.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-271427489470938282010-08-22T06:16:00.000-07:002010-08-22T06:16:06.057-07:00Top 5 Electro Albums<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So I was highly bored yet still thinking a few minutes ago, and considering I haven't posted anything in a while (all summer, actually) I decided I would do a quick little post with my top 5 electro albums. This may become a series across genres, we'll just have to see... Anyways, here we go.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>5. Daft Punk - Discovery</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b> </b> </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaf9Syt6WielG32EQnF4O-yejzbIJhIwITHVLNH57qFMaeer6sUirFwAye7GiAgRCakFxNUxND6OSKfOIykRB5G5H2zjRvAXePznpsNpW1RGQEI_3VBxrRUUiMHW4tHb34HOY9arpBfBA/s1600/Discovery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaf9Syt6WielG32EQnF4O-yejzbIJhIwITHVLNH57qFMaeer6sUirFwAye7GiAgRCakFxNUxND6OSKfOIykRB5G5H2zjRvAXePznpsNpW1RGQEI_3VBxrRUUiMHW4tHb34HOY9arpBfBA/s200/Discovery.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How could I not start this top 5 without the electro album that, among a few others, really pioneered house music? Discovery is an electro album that introduced us all to the concept of using sounds that were not necessarily considered "electronic" (a.k.a. not created by a synthesizer) in an electronic music structure and environment. The result is an album that goes from club classics such as "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" to true electronica immersions such as "Veridis Quo", meanwhile paving the way for electro producers all over the world...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>4. The Chemical Brothers - Surrender </b></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6afq1N8_dPjtz2ndYeFq0oR8qt8gtZaEYUaTK-uOYUewidd90HIKHHJNkC_77p_VIQEQShyphenhyphenpBnZyqzyMMizZkj3KTgcrVk_9RSgRnL7HKMj-DLV7FE5lbjUVinfdyh_hZNuNQClIgg2o/s1600/surrender.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6afq1N8_dPjtz2ndYeFq0oR8qt8gtZaEYUaTK-uOYUewidd90HIKHHJNkC_77p_VIQEQShyphenhyphenpBnZyqzyMMizZkj3KTgcrVk_9RSgRnL7HKMj-DLV7FE5lbjUVinfdyh_hZNuNQClIgg2o/s200/surrender.jpeg" width="200" /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I</span></span></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This album, which I only recently discovered, is a true marvel of electronic production. Combining punchy and driving beats and synths in some tracks with soft pads and chill atmospheres (even an acoustic guitar!) in others, the Bros really cover the entire spectrum of electro, and yet they don't do it half-heartedly. Each piece delves fully into the atmosphere it builds and you completely experience so many facets of this genre.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>3. Deadmau5 - For Lack of a Better Name</b></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ4MZN_46gRl3lXeQPGwRYhV-a78RmnExq4b6kCl3mwrJsG3N5Ix5qylRIKivalWF-iYxMtALFng7yzeVVa_wCDUoWwmqijAB8HSCQGRuzWKMPMXDyScbz0kPybvSwvcGp8ywNK6D5jus/s1600/ForLackOfABetterName.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ4MZN_46gRl3lXeQPGwRYhV-a78RmnExq4b6kCl3mwrJsG3N5Ix5qylRIKivalWF-iYxMtALFng7yzeVVa_wCDUoWwmqijAB8HSCQGRuzWKMPMXDyScbz0kPybvSwvcGp8ywNK6D5jus/s200/ForLackOfABetterName.jpg" width="200" /><b>T</b></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The second full-length album from the Canadian guy is a deep house masterpiece. Taking the moods and atmospheres from his first album in a new and more musically interesting direction, Deadmau5 plunges you headfirst into an environment where big kicks, intelligent percussion, and a whole plethora of synth sounds co-exist in perfect harmony, and you come out of it, at the end of the 10-minute masterpiece "Strobe" with an entirely new vision of what house music can be. Powerful yet composed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>2. Laurent Garnier - Shot in the Dark</b></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv0m9pccdTFO9G1zFP232pjGsA4tQsmtVuzCWl8NZszbP65krzCmHHSocBznETguZKkAyNRmE0edmWinT7f_tNLGdERfYcPx4QmeO-yzycu6Olrjte7jYeR4iHmY2EsNa9vAGKAOmRgA0/s1600/shotinthedark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv0m9pccdTFO9G1zFP232pjGsA4tQsmtVuzCWl8NZszbP65krzCmHHSocBznETguZKkAyNRmE0edmWinT7f_tNLGdERfYcPx4QmeO-yzycu6Olrjte7jYeR4iHmY2EsNa9vAGKAOmRgA0/s200/shotinthedark.jpg" width="200" /><b>L</b></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Like Daft Punk's Discovery, this is ana album that truly pioneered house music. But whereas the guys with the helmets where making dance and almost-pop tracks with electrified "natural" sounds, Laurent Garnier took the plunges with acid, minimalist, entirely synth-based sounds. The atmospheres he manages to build are phenomenal, and each track is a work of art, thoroughly crafted from start to finish, just like the album, in fact. A masterpiece.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>1. Justice - </b></span></span><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">†</span></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnEZU8g77pjpwfww4Bz25LNGqZzspuLC_QeTW0-FMo2i9aTzSpMM0CnuslF1kR21KoIVKl-bziS7MEDsfC8qZBTpKYbL86Qh0y1mqQtAkAMlS6JWkD8KKC17bJ4ibNGTSqY7qeKwyI0M/s1600/cross_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnEZU8g77pjpwfww4Bz25LNGqZzspuLC_QeTW0-FMo2i9aTzSpMM0CnuslF1kR21KoIVKl-bziS7MEDsfC8qZBTpKYbL86Qh0y1mqQtAkAMlS6JWkD8KKC17bJ4ibNGTSqY7qeKwyI0M/s200/cross_cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How can I not top this list off with the album that turned me onto electro? After all, this is still my favorite one. From the glorious opening of "Genesis" to the last strokes of "One Minute to Midnight", Justice take us on a journey from the ridiculously acid and harsh ("Let There Be Light", "Phantom Pt. II", "Stress", "Waters of Nazareth") to the trash-poppy ("D.A.N.C.E.", "The Party") and through the carefully constructed and outright beautiful ("Valentine", "Phantom Pt. I"). No wonder it has become the reference point for electro.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There you have it, my top 5 electro albums. Obviously this is up for discussion, and obviously there are so many more that could have been on here, like The Prodigy's latest album Invaders Must Die or The Chemical Brothers' We Are the Night, but for me, these are truly the top 5. Cheers,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pierre.</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-13970923508405480802010-05-16T10:38:00.000-07:002010-05-16T10:41:33.318-07:00"Situations" Down to Free Minimum<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lately I've been reading some very interesting blog posts by very interesting people, musicians and non-musicians alike, talking mostly about the future of music marketing in the age of the Internet (check out Steve Lawson's amazing post "<a href="http://www.stevelawson.net/2010/05/sharing-is-not-stealing-cost-value-and-the-desire-to-share/">Sharing Is Not Stealing</a>"). I realized that it doesn't really make sense for me to force people to pay for "<a href="http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com/">Situations</a>". What I really want out of this project is to spread my music around; have as many people listen to it as possible. I want people to have my music and show it to their friends, for that is really why we make music, isn't it? On top of that, when you get my music online, you're only downloading the sound files - you don't get all of the packaging and art that give CDs and vinyls their monetary value.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Anyways, all of this to say that "<a href="http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com/">Situations</a>" is now going to be available on a pay-what-you-want basis with no minimum - for ever! If you don't have the album already, why not go ahead and get it? If you like it, why not tell your friends to do the same? You don't have to pay anything - although small contributions to the furthering of my musical ambitions are greatly appreciated!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Enjoy my work,</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pierre.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">P.S. My musical tidbit/recommendation this time around is <a href="http://www.vitalic.org/">Vitalic</a>'s latest album "<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/fr/album/flashmob/id329484983">Flashmob</a>" - an awesome electro-house work that blends dance beats, house atmospheres, and heavy electro synths. Check it out!</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/fr/album/flashmob/id329484983"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBxvwuNX3ioZx3arfxdK_Ol_KXPUp84WW6fUkLXcT8IASWW-R0LqthobzNzJA2eQv0WlLshNWAZ8xtveM7l0S4sk60ABAxfEGPZ-VoaqIjhJFYfJuyfofmD7S1IT8_iqalDpvCMCsu8Gs/s1600/flashmob.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBxvwuNX3ioZx3arfxdK_Ol_KXPUp84WW6fUkLXcT8IASWW-R0LqthobzNzJA2eQv0WlLshNWAZ8xtveM7l0S4sk60ABAxfEGPZ-VoaqIjhJFYfJuyfofmD7S1IT8_iqalDpvCMCsu8Gs/s320/flashmob.jpg" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-64298150963426166642010-05-02T07:47:00.000-07:002010-05-02T07:52:14.889-07:00On the Horizon...<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So I guess this is a post about the future. Half concrete plans, half speculation - I'm just gonna talk about what's next with my musical career (dare I call it so?). First up, I'm concentrating on finishing my 12th and final year of school on a high note, with International Baccalaureate exams coming up and the final show of our band <a href="http://www.myspace.com/thisisthefinalyear">The Final Year</a>, on the weekend of June 18th-19th at the Sound Academy in (relatively) downtown Toronto. This is going to be an amazing show, I can promise you that, and we will rock anyone who comes to the ground. We're trying to sell at least 100 tickets for this thing, a feat which would win us a fair cut of the ticket sales. More info over at <a href="http://thefinalyearmusic.blogspot.com/">The Final Year's blog</a>... As well, we're planning on recording a little EP before I head on over to France for the summer, as a way to celebrate these two years of merry music making. We've got some songs done and some songs in the work - hopefully it will prove to be quite a gem of a piece of music.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">More personally... I mentioned heading over to France for the summer. I will take that opportunity to shoot and produce some videos for a few of the songs from "<a href="http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com/">Situations</a>" in hopes to get more exposure, and also for creative amusement and advancement. I'm also probably going to end up writing many songs and discovering new sounds and rhythms, new tips and tricks, new trial and tribulations... all of which will (hopefully) enhance my music-making.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Next year is the big U - University. To be precise, the University of Waterloo, Physical Sciences - Chemistry major, co-op program. With a music course as an elective, of course. This will be an exciting, and I probably won't have time in the few first weeks to months to work on a lot of music, but, as things get settled down, I will start producing a new EP/album - we'll see, depending on my material and production capabilities, what the length of the production will be. I will be getting a <a href="http://www.gretschguitars.com/gear/index.php?product=G5122DC&cat1=&cat2=&q=&st=1">Gretsch Electromatic G5122</a> sometime very soon, so my next piece of work will be more electric - and more eclectic! I am seriously considering doing some heavy alternative rock experimentation, which should be fun. I am learning a lot by writing songs with the band, influenced by various alternative and experimental bands (a'tris, Muse, the Mars Volta, Meshuggah, and others...).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I have also lowered the price of "<a href="http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com/">Situations</a>" to a more modest $5. If you haven't already, go get it now. If you have it, tell all your friends and help spread the word!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So stay tuned, because the coming months and years are sure to be exciting, and I would love to have you all along for the ride.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cheers,</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pierre.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">P.S. For all you fans of harder electronic music - or Electro House - I highly recommend checking out <a href="http://theprodigy.com/">The Prodigy</a>'s latest release <a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=20810650&s=143444">Invaders Must Die</a>.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP_IVLrr_SLF-1A5qQexVtKEYF37Djd9_GTgHUIHZGCCF8LDuYSQ12p0q8-rAEGzBp0TygzvShvTikafKUk5K27MhFcA-S6GPeaO_z8IjwWziTSVullM6oSvwBFVXjiSsNg_iDqAUXIQ4/s1600/invadersmustdie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP_IVLrr_SLF-1A5qQexVtKEYF37Djd9_GTgHUIHZGCCF8LDuYSQ12p0q8-rAEGzBp0TygzvShvTikafKUk5K27MhFcA-S6GPeaO_z8IjwWziTSVullM6oSvwBFVXjiSsNg_iDqAUXIQ4/s320/invadersmustdie.jpg" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-78982317415457238532010-04-10T12:13:00.000-07:002010-04-10T12:36:09.221-07:00Last Week of Free Minimum on "Situations"!<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Alright, so this post is basically to remind everyone that this is the last week that my debut album/EP "<a href="http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com/">Situations</a>" will be available on a name-your-price basis with no minimum. One week today, that is the 17th of April, the minimum will jump to $10. The album is also available at my <a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/store/artist_499286">ReverbNation store</a> for $9.99. In a few months, the album will be available for about $10 on iTunes and other stores (more updates as I get more info). But yeah, I suggest getting it now for whatever price you want!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As well, Peter Kearns from <a href="http://www.snobsmusic.net/">Snob's Music</a> gave me <a href="http://www.snobsmusic.net/2010/04/introducing-pierre-masse.html">a little shout-out</a> in support of the album, which is really quite appreciated!</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">P.S.: For those of you who have learned to appreciate melodic death metal, I strongly recommend French metalheads <a href="http://www.gojira-music.com/">Gojira</a>'s latest piece of awesome: "The Way of All Flesh", containing the amazing songs "The Art of Dying", "Esoteric Surgery", and "Vacuity". </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://shop.listenable.net/img/p/136-186-thickbox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://shop.listenable.net/img/p/136-186-thickbox.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-10002511903612029842010-04-03T02:44:00.000-07:002010-04-03T02:44:27.889-07:00"Situations" out now!<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today is the big day! Today is the release of my debut alternative folk-rock album, "Situations", available now at <a href="http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com/">pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com</a>. For the next two weeks, the album will be available on a name-your-price basis with no minimum. On April 17, however, it will go to a $10 minimum. It will also be available for purchase on my <a href="http://www.lafamillemasse.com/massemusic/pierremasse">personal website</a>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I am insanely relieved that this project has finally come to fruition. I have put so much effort, over the pas few months, to bring this to life that I cannot help but feel a little proud of what I have accomplished. It may not be much, it may not get noticed, it may not be great, but I managed to bring it from scratch to this finished product.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">There are, of course, many people to thank for the completion of this adventure. First, my main inspiration, the lovely Karina Visser, who also did all the photography for the project (more pictures to come!). After her, there are all the guys I worked with one this: Olivier Ruel, who brought us into the studios at Sheridan College, Christopher Drexler-Lemire, who lent me his wonderful bass skills to round out the sound of each track, and of course, my father, <a href="http://eugenegustave.blogspot.com/">Xavier Massé</a>, for being an exemplary hard worker and for having done all the graphics and designs linked to this project. I'd also like to thanks all my friends and family for support and inspiration - without all these people, this album would probably have never seen the light of day. Go get it, and enjoy it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Cheers,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Pierre.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5170/situationscover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5170/situationscover.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-32806227798367865602010-03-29T20:21:00.000-07:002010-03-29T20:21:00.450-07:00Less Than a Week to Release!<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hello everyone!</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm getting super excited here getting everything ready for the Situations album release which is THIS <span _fcktemp="1"></span>SATURDAY!!! I just gave the pictures my awesome girlfriend photographer took to my awesome graphic designer father for album cover, promo graphics, headers, etc. Anyways, I thought I would just let you guys know that there is a lot you can do to help me in this glorious endeavour (or something of the like). First off, tell all your friends and family that there is this guy somewhere in Canada who's just self-produced his debut album and they might want to check it out if they are interested in any of the following genres of music (choose all that apply): folk and folk rock, acoustic and acoustic rock, alternative and alternative rock, indie and indie rock, gypsy jazz, blues, and world music. Send them over to the following link, which will be very important on Saturday: <a href="http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com/">http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com</a>. That's where you'll be able to download/buy the album!</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Once you acquire said album on said fast approaching Saturday, you can still help me (if you are so inclined) by playing my music to all your friends and family and encouraging them to go download/buy the thing themselves (or just let them copy your copy if they're really to lazy to go download it). But most important of all, remind them that they have only until the 17th of April to get the album for free. On the 17th, it will go up to a $10 flat rate, and will probably remain that way until I get something new out.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Anyways, that was a lot of potentially useless writing, but all to say that the release is coming really fast and you guys can all help support my first venture into the world of recorded music. In return, I promise to provide any support you guys should need.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">That is all, for now at least,</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pierre.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">P.S. Steampunk pirates Abney Park are an amazing band, and their latest work, Æther Shanties, is a testament to their awesomeness. Very strongly highly recommended!</span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4teKduZmStN4QnpA_u9jaoWZu2B0FYl2mykGqOUwDAd4bI_wZ2LyvGKl7pm5_n09hbxfT08KgfVpfTj0AJcaoRdg63I-xE-0N33h1qUOO_A-yggxkzwakz-syPzkLbE0Whc1SUh_NZrk/s1600/aethershanties-Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4teKduZmStN4QnpA_u9jaoWZu2B0FYl2mykGqOUwDAd4bI_wZ2LyvGKl7pm5_n09hbxfT08KgfVpfTj0AJcaoRdg63I-xE-0N33h1qUOO_A-yggxkzwakz-syPzkLbE0Whc1SUh_NZrk/s320/aethershanties-Cover.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-33240986273495441682010-03-21T21:05:00.000-07:002010-03-21T21:06:10.366-07:00The Masters are Done... and the Release Date is Set!<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">THE MASTERS ARE DONE!!! WOO!!! Alright... no, but seriously, the masters are done, the album is complete, down the last lingering detail, and I have to admit I am satisfied and proud of my work. Having said that, you, the audience, are the ones who will have the final word. But when? Well, THE ALBUM'S RELEASE DATE IS APRIL 3d!!! </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What does that mean? That means that on Saturday April 3d you will be able to head over to <a href="http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com/">http://pierrotechnique.bandcamp.com</a> and grab a copy of "Situations" for whatever price you choose to pay - yes, that means you can have it for free. HOWEVER, this will only be for the FIRST TWO WEEKS, that is, until Saturday, April 17th. On that date, the album will go to a $10 flat rate on Bandcamp.com, and within a few weeks of April 3d it will be available across the Internet, from iTunes to AmazonMP3 to ReverbNation.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This also means my next two weeks are gonna be really intense... I have a lot to do to make sure that the polished, finished product you receive is the best I can give you. Now, having a father who is a graphic designer and a girlfriend who is a photographer, I am a bit lucky on the album cover and promotion graphics front. But there is still a lot of setup to do, and I'm going to be spending my next weeks doing just that... to make sure you guys have no trouble getting your very own copy of "Situations".</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I will be updating you guys as we get closer to April 3d, but in the meantime, mark that date on your calendars and prepare yourselves!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cheers,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pierre.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">P.S. For a true lesson on how to use classical music in alternative progressive rock, check out Muse's track "United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage)" off their new album "The Resistance". Sublime, even integrating Chopin's "Nocturne in E Flat Major".</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3YexW1zHtZGgNYP3xxVgA9fHCzlTFZC_8j1Q4PYi9gC0k0TIXubN3bPAYu64gZ0PijGmTLqCJlgjjfEIro17rXk6x-6wMd5FPuFcUcVkXVPyyDn8RAfItCGhfABnwYZwFZPaEIQoYo8/s1600-h/muse__united_states_of_eurasia_by_pherk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3YexW1zHtZGgNYP3xxVgA9fHCzlTFZC_8j1Q4PYi9gC0k0TIXubN3bPAYu64gZ0PijGmTLqCJlgjjfEIro17rXk6x-6wMd5FPuFcUcVkXVPyyDn8RAfItCGhfABnwYZwFZPaEIQoYo8/s320/muse__united_states_of_eurasia_by_pherk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-84701691974019147042010-03-18T16:29:00.000-07:002010-03-18T16:29:02.485-07:00Today's Mixing Update<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today I finished another two songs for the album, so now I only have two more to do! I'm feeling really good about this whole thing, the way it's sounding, the feeling it has, the work I've put into it finally coming to fruition. Plus I'm really excited by the fact that I'm gonna be able to announce a release date this weekend, as I'll be finishing the masters and getting ready to set up distribution and sales (all online, for now at least). So stay tuned, subscribe to the <a href="http://massemusic.blogspot.com/">blog</a>, follow me on <a href="http://twitter.com/pierrotechnique">Twitter</a>, do something to be one of the first to hear about the release (it will be name-your-price for the first two weeks, so you won't want to miss that!).</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Stay healthy so you can listen to the album in good spirits when it comes out!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pierre.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">P.S. I bought Gorillaz' new album Plastic Beach today, and it's awesome - I strongly recommend it!</span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdDgbk24HZNqTJWQRQphA-WilrkqkOuw1Y1lbK0YackSnqvDfnhQnh3rDzdqWE8_irEsrV8Uo5E1jVCcGrutteEO534zEssLBbtIQGM1eySBkHjhqycGb-gNOc9PKK_PnGFgwZyx9pC2k/s1600-h/gorillaz-plastic-beach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdDgbk24HZNqTJWQRQphA-WilrkqkOuw1Y1lbK0YackSnqvDfnhQnh3rDzdqWE8_irEsrV8Uo5E1jVCcGrutteEO534zEssLBbtIQGM1eySBkHjhqycGb-gNOc9PKK_PnGFgwZyx9pC2k/s320/gorillaz-plastic-beach.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874195183240482495.post-65442296508841092072010-03-17T18:50:00.000-07:002010-03-17T18:50:15.680-07:00Start Getting Excited...<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'm getting sort of excited here behind my screen, because today I finished mixing two of the six songs on the album, and I realized that if I continue like this, I'll be finished by the end of the week! Final mastering will hopefully take place this weekend, and at that time I will finally be able to announce an accurate release date (depending on what I hear from the distributors). So get ready, stay tuned, and spread the word around, because for the first two weeks only the album will be on Bandcamp.com for a name-your-price special promo!</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I have also been playing around on my guitar this week off school, and I've considered eventually doing a little cover EP; nothing major, just me and my guitar, doing acoustic covers of the music I love (Muse, Chili Peppers, Francis Cabrel, etc.). I might do this during the summer, in France, or whenever I find the time. Whatever happens, it should be fun.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I hope you guys are as excited as I am, and I hope you will enjoy my music when I can finally release it to the world - I certainly enjoy making it for you.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cheers, and here's another awesome pic taken by my awesome girlfriend,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pierre.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4nYe255mES0yY1zHibyHgD87zEdl9wTOP3X1gFa0xYsHFHl8cdWgRTx6Zi4wxS7cqgSYIQlzsdXXH0x0chp_2_jSgQpQv_4F4qHaILGbou2djbnZytAI62Sa13cuGG7HKMQvlGy0Dxfw/s1600-h/blogpicmarch17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4nYe255mES0yY1zHibyHgD87zEdl9wTOP3X1gFa0xYsHFHl8cdWgRTx6Zi4wxS7cqgSYIQlzsdXXH0x0chp_2_jSgQpQv_4F4qHaILGbou2djbnZytAI62Sa13cuGG7HKMQvlGy0Dxfw/s320/blogpicmarch17.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14305079678638593697noreply@blogger.com0