KC and the Sunshine Band - Shake, Shake, Shake

Artist: KC and the Sunshine Band 
Album: KC and the Sunshine Band Part 3 (1976)
Track: Shake, Shake, Shake 

Introduction: 
Here's another second hand record in my steadily growing collection. The track opens with drums, guitar, piano and bass. Initially the bass plays around the groove. As the first verse begins, the bass begins to emphasize beats 1 and 3 with the kick drum. The bass comes up in volume with this also. There is a piano slide that leads into the first verse that cannot be heard very easily which is unfortunate. 

Groove reinforcement:  The pace and groove is reinforced with a cowbell that plays each quarter note. The tone of snare drum is very much a 'pop'. It sounds quite unnatural for a snare drum. There is very little high frequency resonance in that snare, it also sounds dampened to reduce it's 'tail'.

The chorus and fade-out:  With the opening words a reverb can be heard on the vocals giving them some space and extra resonance. The chorus arrives quickly and with it the horn section is introduced playing a 'call and response' with the lead vocals. There are multiple vocalists in the chorus creating a big chorus sing-along effect. This element of production encourages a sing-along response from the audience and in that way adds a lot to this song. The horns however, sound quite dry - there is no unnatural sounding decay at the end of each phrase. Shake, Shake, Shake ends with a long fade on a repeating chorus. Something I have learned about fade-outs is that when you use them you want to make it sound like the band are at a peak in energy. As this song ends you can hear that energy peak and fade. 

Producers and writers: 
The album was produced by Casey / Finch for Sunshine Sound Enterprises.inc. 
All songs were written by Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch. 

Pablo Cruise - You Might Be Wrong

Artist: Pablo Cruise
Album: Out of Our Hands (1983)
Track: You Might Be Wrong (But It's Alright)

Bargain records: 
I made a trip to the second hand record store just recently and picked up a bunch of vinyls at $1 each. So here's something totally different to what I've written on so far in this diary.

Opening: 
The song "You Might Be Wrong" opens with bright synthesized keyboard. The drums drop in with the bass which also sounds synthesized.

Cutting bells: 
Cutting right through the high register are some bells which follow the main melody. These bells set up the first verse as the male vocal replaces the bells.

The vinyl sound: 
Something that I always notice immediately when listen to a vinyl record is the lack of bass that I'm used to with newer digital files. The sounds of high register percussion such as hi hats and the top end of the snare drum are much more piercing. This can be heard especially when the downbeat is accentuated with a crash cymbal hit.

Mixing: 
The mixing of this track works in well with the verse, chorus, verse structure. The vocals are brought up in volume and thickened with backing vocals as we enter the first chorus. Something that I noticed was that the vocals seem to be louder in the second verse - reducing them to the volume they were in the first verse would make for lost momentum in the song. Overall the vocals can be heard at the front of the mix. The vocals have had some reverb applied and in the first verse there is one line which ends with a delay tail.

Space solo: 
The guitar solo sections in this song are quite thick in texture with a strong backing from the synth keys. I was initially expecting the guitar solo to be panned to one side. After turning off one speaker while listening I found no difference in what I could hear. I had a look on the centre label to see if it said it was mono but I couldn't find any indication. So I have to conclude that it's a mono record.  

Production, writers and release: 
The album was produced by Pablo Cruise with Jim Gaines. 
The music was written by Cory Lerios, lyrics by Cory Lerios and Dave Jenkins. 
Out of Our Hands was released on A&M records.

Porcupine Tree - Trains

Artist: Porcupine Tree
Album: In Absentia (2003)
Track: Trains

Introduction:
The piece opens with acoustic guitar. I get the sense that there are two guitars playing at once. One is panned to the left speaker and the other to the right. I can hear small nuances between the playing in each side of the stereo image (strength of accent, string noise etc.).

Vocals:
After a short introduction, vocals enter the piece. He is singing quite softly - I can hear some of his breath with each lyric, the “ess” syllables are quite loud. As part of the build up a “feedback” type of noise filters its way into the mix. A fairly wet reverb is added to the vocals, the reverb and delay can clearly be heard with the “gel” in the lyric “sixty tonne anGEL”.

Drums:
Drums enter with a fill that compliments the rhythmic accents of the guitar’s strumming pattern. It is played between the kick drum and snare / crash cymbal. Note the groove in this song is slightly unusual. The downbeat for the most part is on the “four and” of the bar (one eighth note earlier than conventional rock). The drums in this song make use of many sounds within each loops of the pattern. There are many 1/16 note variations across open hi hats and rack toms filled in between the back beat. The “human element” of the drumming is quite relevant (varying strength strokes and seemingly improvised bars. The panning of the drums is set from the perspective of the drummer. The open hi hat is clearly heard on the left while the ride cymbal is heard mostly on the right. The kick drum, snare and rack toms are central. This panning helps the accents of those open hi hat notes cut through.

Layers: 
Entering with the drums is an electric acoustic guitar and electric bass. The string noise and strumming of the acoustic guitar still cuts through the mix making an interesting texture. In the climax before the break, I can hear multiple vocal overlaps (overdubbing). A new set of percussion is introduced in this break. I can hear a shaker and some other “clip clap clop” (a programmed sound of some sort).

Pan solo: 
The guitar solo during this section is panned to a large degree on to the right side. In a build and lead out of this section a synthesized or sampled sweep can be heard. It grows in volume and lifts in pitch until it is broken by the other instruments. 

Release: 
In Absentia was released on Lava Records (a sub label of UMG). It was produced by Steven Wilson, the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter for Porcupine Tree.

B. Lewis - Lavacorn

Artist: B.Lewis Album: Plug EP (2011)
Track: Lavacorn

Choppy intro: 
The music opens with some chopped vinyl samples. I can hear some strings and an indistinguishable male vocal. Along with this is a modulating synth sliding between two mid range pitches. A female vocal sample is added at the end of every second measure.

Percussion: 
There is some percussion which sounds like a dampened or choked crash cymbal that comes in with each male vocal. After this four bar introduction a heavy kick drum leads into the next section. There is a heavy side chain compression applied to the strings which keys from the kick drum. Joining the kick drum is a slightly open sounding hi hat and a snap/crack snare drum.

Crooked / wonky groove: 
The drum groove “crooked” sounding - typical of this genre. A ¼ cycle swing is applied to the hi hat and the snare (on beats two and four) is played just in front (early) of the beat. As well as another female vocal, two synth lines are soon added playing on a 1/32 note subdivision. The second of these plays a higher octave creating a “sparkly” tone.

Bass: 
The bassline drops in with this second “sparkly” synth. The bass makes heavy use of the subwoofer with powerful low frequencies. The thickness of the sound and the fact that I can hear some higher frequencies in the bass suggests to me a doubling of the bass on a higher octave.

Breakdown: 
After 4 bars of this section, the mix drops down into another section free of the samples that emphasizes the kick drum and a large lo-fi bass swell. A different more organic marching drum type of snare fills through beats 3 and 4. The swelling bass has a long attack creating the effect of it growing out of the kick. It is highly distorted and has the warm but rough texture of a square wave. In the second half of this breakdown, it is doubled with the second playing a higher register. In between each kick there is a “bloop” and “blop” type of sound. I’m not sure what techniques are needed to make this sound. After the breakdown the previous melody returns led by another female vocal (more coarse sounding than the last). Above this are sample cuts of applause. The arrangement continues in this pattern ending with the lo-fi bass breakdown.

It's on Bandcamp: 
This EP is a free download. Thanks to Bandcamp you can even download it in FLAC quality!

J Dilla - Nothing Like This

Artist: J Dilla
Album: Ruff Draft (2003)

Track: Nothing Like This

Time and drums: 
The first thing I hear in this piece of music is the drums. They set the tempo at 100bpm approx. and make up a two beat loop. I can hear a solid punchy kick with lots of low end alternating with a snare drum. The snare lacks some of the “snap” I normally hear and instead has a very heavy bottom-end. I believe some EQ’ing has been used to create this drum sound. Following each snare drum stroke is a faint repeat stroke. This may have occurred in the original performance however, I believe it was created using a short delay effect. Normally with a ghost-stroke or grace-note you can hear the stick definition of the second stroke. In this case, the sound of the second stroke sounds like a repeat of the tail/decay of the first stroke.

Vinyl cutting: 
Additionally, it can be heard that these drum sounds have been sampled from a vinyl recording. The crackle that fills the negative space in the sound is indicative of this. The drums are the centerpiece of the mix - they punch through as the loudest element of the music. After a 7 beat intro (unusual meter [the track begins with a snare stroke]) the other sounds come in. I can hear electric guitar and a male vocalist. The guitar sample has been reversed, you hear the decay of the sound build up to the attack. The best point of reference for this is the reverse crash cymbal at the end of each 2 bar loop. You can hear a metallic “suck” from beat 4 leading to beat 1 of the next measure.

Saturated vocal: 
The vocal is saturated with a filter which creates a lo-fi effect. In parts it sounds like the vocal has been duplicated to create a thicker sound. There are also sections of delay applied to the vocal. In some instances it is repeated in such a way that creates a “glitch” sound similar to that of a scratched CD. In some sections two voices overlap each other. This suggests that some of the vocals are also cut samples. Also note the over-compressed effect. After each word you can hear some noise being “pushed up” in the mix. Where the vocals stop briefly at 1:33 a modulating soft pad synth fills in. 

Reverse sample: 

At 2:30 Dilla reveals the fundamental melody sample used in this piece. The sample is flipped out of reverse momentarily. Having heard this I can now also deduce that the bassline heard through the track was played in by Dilla. I’m going to see what the track sounds like as a whole when I reverse it.