Long Arm - The Branches

I've just started listening quite a lot to Long Arm's The Branches album. Here's an artist I discovered through a long chain of music discoveries on Spotify whilst finding artists somewhat similar to The Avalanches. I greatly enjoy the type of 'journey' these big 'sound canvas' like albums create. The Branches is an avant-garde hip hop / jazz record released in 2011 on Project Mooncircle. The track that has interested me most to write is The Branches.

There's a really interesting combination of influences and sound sets incorporated in this six minute epic. There is a definite dubstep influence providing the beat below the first verse; You can hear it in the tempo, swelling sub bass and distant but humongous sounding snare 'impacts'. The most compelling element to my ear however is the emphasis on beat two following a gap where the beat 'hangs'. It's intended to have that rise and fall/drop every bar. With reference to the time of release, the dubstep combination with rap is extremely good in my opinion. I would have expected to hear more of this kind of sound hit mainstream. The hip hop influence can be heard in the rap vocals and to some degree the use of jazz samples.

The way in which Long Arm moves us between purely jazz sounding sections and thunderous sections is very impressive. I like to think of the bass as being slowly 'folded' in under the chopped up samples that introduce the track. As those samples are stripped away I find the snare drum brush pattern played above sub bass quite intriguing. It is certainly unlike other music that I have listened to in this way. That brush is soon interchanged for a thunderous snare drum. There's a long beat delay that trails each impact; It's a swung pattern that in its own way adds an interesting aspect to the groove.

Obviously, the vocals are positioned very centrally and heard clearly in this mix. Below this however, this piece changes focus many times throughout. In the introduction alone, instrumentally, there is piano, double bass, trumpet, drum kit(s) as well as vocal 'cuts'. As the piece progresses, the focus moves simply to drums, bass and vocals. Between verses and the ends of lines there are small spaces filled by piano licks, horns and vocal cuts.

I have so much that I would love to write about this track! However, I wanted to write a final note on Long Arm's impressive 'spaces' created in this track. There is a constant interplay of close and distant sounds in the 'landscape' created. Use of reverb and delay certainly helps build a sense of distance between sounds and shift the focus of our aural attention. It sounds to me like Long Arm wanted to keep the rap as dry and 'close and personal' sounding as possible while the instrumental 'story' was told as if projected on a wall behind him.      

Above: Long Arm performing (photo from his Facebook page)