Fatboy Slim - Right Here, Right Now

Artist: Fatboy Slim
Album: You've Come A Long Way, Baby (1998)
Track: Right Here, Right Now (6:28)

Extended buildup: 
The track builds from the beginning with with a bass line and then expands slowly. Layers of melody are applied on top of a bass line. This melody is supplied from a string sample - details on this sample are at the bottom of this entry. There is also a guitar strumming away (interesting combination of electric and acoustic sounds). This makes for an interesting texture. Another factor to think about in the opening section is the high pass filter that is slowly removed to open up the sound. The definition and 'sparkle' in the sound becomes louder until a climax which brings about the first vocals. Soon after, the main beat drops.

That kick drum: 
The kick drum sound in this track is unmistakable and unique. There are also some interesting elements to it that I would not expect in much of the music I listen to. I think of it as a kick drum melody (there is tonal variation) - to my knowledge this is pretty unusual. The last kick in the sequence is pitched lower than the others. So among all the simultaneous melody lines in this piece, even the kick drum has its contribution.

Panning out the breakdown: 
The panorama of this piece reveals itself more clearly at some times than others. All through you can hear some auxiliary percussion sounds panned to the left speaker. The most important moment for panning however, is at the breakdown (about halfway through the song). We have drums panned hard to the left with a vocal glitch loop in the centre. A second collection of glitchy bleeps can be heard entering from the right. Finally, the full drum sound comes into the centre also. This panning makes the entrance of each new sonic element more noticeable or dramatic if you like.

The drums are up: 
A few final notes on the mix of this track: The drums are definitely the loudest element in this mix. A lot of the synths that I mentioned in the beginning become somewhat a 'soup'. For this reason it's most important for the dance friendly elements to cut whilst letting the other drones create a trance state of sound.

Time and rhythm: 
It's at 125 beats per minute in a 4/4 time signature. The groove is heavily driven by the kick drum. It plays on 8th note subdivisions and is extremely active. In this way there's very little space in the groove - it's saturated by kick power.

Tonality: 
The melody is driven by strings but overall the track is extremely multi-layered. Beneath the strings is a collection of synthesized sounds. They are pretty coarse and have quite a bit of modulation applied to them through a flanging effect. Upward and download sweeps are used to transition most sections of the track. There's use of some pure white noise splashes around 2:53 on the back beat. This is panned hard left and also helps the next transition.

Dynamics:
The track is full of long buildups (crescendo). However, when dropping in intensity the transitions are comparatively very sudden.

Space: 
The space of the track overall is extremely full and thick. This is due to the heavy layering of samples and a compression that keeps a lot of similar dynamics stuck together in the background. That's okay because the focus is the beat (this is the 'big beat' genre). Because this track is very sample heavy, transitions can feel too sudden. The addition of synthesized sounds has been pretty helpful in this track to ease transitions.

Additional details: 
Right Here, Right Now was written by Fatboy Slim, Dale Peters and Joe Walsh. There are some samples credited also: "Ashes, the Rain and I" by James Gang. Dialogue by Angela Bassett from the film Strange Days. And of course, here's the WhoSampled link for this song. Brilliant! The album was released on Skint in the United Kingdom and Astralwerks in the United States. The producer was of course is Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) and Simon Thornton was involved as engineer, mixer and photographer.

Pete Rock - For The People

Artist: Pete Rock  
Album: Petestrumentals (2001)
Track: For The People (4:33)

Cutting in: 
The beginning of this track is unusual although common with Pete's productions. You hear two seconds of a totally different beat or sample before getting into song. From what I've read on this, it's Pete's way of communicating the enormity of his record collection and beat repertoire.

The elements of the beat: 
The main beat drops in with a snare layered on top of kick and a few uneasy sounding syncopations. Grooving begins in the next bar. We have punchy drums beneath layers of modulated guitar and swirling piano. After a few vocal stabs, we drop back down to just guitar and drums.

Where'd that sample come from? 
That odd vocal "woa woa woa" is from a track by Albino Gorilla called "Psychedelic Shack". Once again, WhoSampled.com has helped me find the origin of particular sounds in music.

Structure and space: 
The track is instrumental but still follows a verse and chorus structure. The simple guitar and drums for verses and the heavily layered sections for choruses. It's a rather long track and so these variations are quite helpful in keeping it interesting. Another element of variation in this is when the bass line drops (it's at the start of each verse). I didn't "feel" that is was missing but then when it comes back in to build the verse it's very effective. I believe the reason I don't realise it's presence is gone is because we already feel a lot of layers drop out after the chorus. You expect a thinner sound at the beginning of the verse and so removing one extra element makes the build up more effective.

Time and rhythm: 
The groove of this beat is at a steady 89 beats per minute. It makes lots of use of 16th note triplets rounding out the end of each bar and dropping into the next. That's the little ("da-boom") you hear with the kick drum.

Release: 
Petestrumentals was released on BBE (Barely Breaking Even) Records.
Also find on this label:
2001: J Dilla - Welcome 2 Detroit
2003: Pete Rock - Lost & Found: Hip Hop Underground Soul Classics

2002: DJ Jazzy Jeff - The Magnificent 

2006: J Dilla - The Shining

Pat Metheny - Song For The Boys

Artist: Pat Metheny 
Album: One Quiet Night (2003)
Track: Song For The Boys (4:30)

Time and introduction: 
This is a solo acoustic guitar piece. It's played in the time signature of 6/8 with rhythmic accent on beat one of each bar. A fade in is used to introduce the song. Gradually, more picking definition can be heard as the sound thickens.

Hearing double? 
When I first listened to this I had the feeling that is was played by two simultaneous guitars. However, I've found a video of Pat performing this piece.

Dynamics: 
The dynamic range in this music is quite large, after building up to some intensity, the guitar drops back to a very gentle position. These dynamic shifts are often accompanied with a change from either picking to strumming. So dynamics are not just caused by playing intensity buy by technique also.

Tonality: 
The tone and texture of the guitar is (to my ear) quite coarse and quite warm, The best way for me to describe this is by pointing out the loudness of string noise as well as the large swells bass produced under the guiding rhythm. The guitar is a full range sound (as we should expect on a solo track).

Two sided guitar: 
I can hear a slight difference in texture between the left and right speakers. On the right side of the panorama contains more the sound of strumming. Where the left carries more of the guitar's resonance. I would expect that the guitar has been recorded with two microphones; one at the body, the other up the neck. It's hard to judge this one, but the sound is so thick that perhaps there is a room mic also, playing a big part in filling space.

How it came to be: 
I have no source on this other than Wikipedia but "The album was recorded in one night and provides a raw sample of Metheny's skill on acoustic and baritone guitars". It was released on the Warner Bros. label and produced by both Pat Metheny and Steve Rodby.

Gang Starr - Moment of Truth

Artist: Gang Starr 
Album: Moment of Truth (1998)
Track: Moment of Truth (4:07)

Setting up and cutting up: 
The track is set up by a vocal sample (possibly from a film) telling us that we'll all find our "moment of truth". Fading in from this is cut up sample containing strings and bells. It sounds cohesive enough to be a straight sample. However you can hear the cut just before the last two notes. The previous sound doesn't blend into the next. In this genre this poses no problem. Guru's vocals come in one rotation before the bass and drums.

Vocals: 
The vocals on the track are quite dry. However, there is a short and soft delay I can hear. Because it's most prevalent on "S" syllables it occasionally clashes with the hi hat sound. At the end of each verse, an extended delay tail is added to help transition into the short instrumental sections. The focus is on Guru's voice as if you were just in a room with him. You can hear quite a bit of his breath and hear that he's quite close to the microphone.

Structure and instrumentation: 
The string sample DJ Premier used in this beat doesn't change throughout this track. It follows the same two bar loop from beginning to finish. This is okay, there is enough variation in the vocals big verses. The drums are fairly straight forward other than some layering on the snare. I can hear a clap with each snare stroke. The groove itself has quite a bit of space to let the string sample shine. The bass follows the drums, again creating space. There's a good sense of tension and release with each two bar loop on the drums and bass. The first bar contains the gap between beats two and four. The second bar fills this gap with an extra kick stroke and a higher bass variation.

Origin of samples: 
These are the sample credits for this track are as follows:
"Let's Fall in Love All Over" by Billy Paul
"Who's Gonna Take the Weight" by Gang Starr
Head over to WhoSampled and have a listen to how the sample was chopped and looped.

The team: 

The album was produced by DJ Premier and co-produced by Guru. It was recorded at D&D Studios in New York.

TesseracT - April

Artist: TesseracT
Album: One (2011)
Track: April 

Enter the TesseracT: 
The track begins with clean electric guitar saturated with a washy delay. The drums and bass guitar enter together sitting a great deal louder in the mix. The effect of this is a fairly dramatic entry both volume wise and rhythm wise. Only drums and bass are heard for eight bars before the lead vocal enters with the return of the guitar.

Engine room: 
The rhythmic base is broken into two layers. The first is the china crash playing quarter notes. This is mixed relatively loud - it stands out against all other sounds. Under this straight rhythm is a syncopated groove powered by the kick drum and bass guitar. In between these layers is the back beat provided by the snare.

Slappin' da bass, mon: 
The performance technique applied to the bass guitar in the opening section is called slap. It creates short stabs of bass with quieter reflex sounds in between. This is similar to and compliments the ghost notes (soft strokes) played between the snare accents. The roll of the bass in this track is linked tightly to the kick drum. The short, sharp and odd rhythms are driven take priority over melodic purpose for the most part.

Space: 
This song is quite thick in sound - it has the 'wall of sound' created by many saturated simultaneous sounds. All the vocals are fitted out with long tailed delays and 'ghostly' reverb. At times I have a strong feeling that they are double tracked also.

Two guitars: 
There are two guitar parts to be heard in most sections. One plays a long and high melody over each four bars whilst the other plays a short and lower pattern. The second has a close relationship with the bass in some parts of the arrangement.

Pounding low, washing high: 
The way I think best describes the sound structure of this track is rhythmic lows and washy highs. In the higher register there is a wash of cymbals, guitars and vocals. Each of these sounds have long tails and mix into each other quite a bit. Beneath is the rhythm provided by the kick, snare and bass guitar. Due to the rhythmic complexity of their parts the snappiness of sound is highly important. We are faced with a wall of sound through which the low end rhythm punches through to our chest.

Production and release: 
The producers of One were Acle Kahney and Amos Williams. It was released on Century Media.