The Head and the Heart - Cats and Dogs

A friend of mine suggested this album to me and I'm on the first track ready to write about it! And also, that's some bizarre album art right there. The thing that drew me to this track was it's groove and percussive layering. We begin with some double-tracked stick clicking and a shaker accompanied by the drone of a single guitar chord. Above this is the vocal which sets us up for the next section where the groove comes in.

I'll start with the vocals; I quite like use of harmonies. They enter in on the second half of each phrase which creates an excellent call/response dynamic. It's used to add emphasis to some words as well as just for variation and build. In addition is the 'oooh' of backing vocals that intertwine a leading melody into what is largely a rhythmically driven track I feel. However, I might say that it acts as the melody lead when the piano is absent.

Looking at the length of each track on the album, at 1.56 this is the shortest. It acts as a good introduction track. It contains quite a mix sounds and combinations that are quick changing (almost like a trailer for the album). At one point there's even a time signature change from the 4/4 in to a 6/8 (ballad feel). This seems like a pretty bold move but it's the feel of the backing vocals and piano that make the juxtaposition somehow quite comfortable. Again, it's another way that this track 'comments' on what's to come.

The Avalanches - A Cowboy Overflow of the Heart (feat. David Berman)

I've been keenly awaiting the new Avalanches album for quite a while now and yet for a long time I didn't know there was going to be one. There's some news from last year but now with this YouTube preview uploaded on August 22 this year I thought I'd do some listening. This is a spoken word piece with an underlying musical backing that never quite comes to the forefront. The voice occupies my focus whilst I'm still quite interested in what the music is doing.

The voice we listen to is quite husky, 'close' and centre with an audible 'breathiness'. There are no points where the voice is lost in the backing, its volume is quite consistent. There are only a few words that sink into the background. The length of each group of words is not rigid or set, however not to the point that it sounds merely like conversation.

The musical elements of this piece are centered around the melodies of flutes and the rhythms of acoustic guitar-like sounds. The pulse of the music is quite easy going, I can imagine drums any louder than what just lightly taps in the background would put too much pressure on the other elements. Instead, there are some off-beat tambourines that provide a lighter pulse in parts.

After a few listens I've noticed how much the level of the music fluctuates. I can imagine using a volume automation envelope would be an easy way to do this. It's interesting how I didn't notice this to the same degree on my first listen. Whenever the music is brought up at the end of a vocal phrase it works quite well to hold my attention between lines and anticipate the next sentence... Just as I anticipate the new album!

Radical Face - Let The River In

Let the river in has caught my ear while I listen to this album for the first time. I think the combination of soundscape elements like children's voices and strings which are often associated with the cinema have helped paint a picture in my imagination. The track opens with these voices and their footsteps as they run around the stereo field whilst the piano opens the simplistic element of the track that is built on by bells and guitar (or perhaps lute). With a short pause, the strings make their entrance under a whispering vocal. There continues an interplay between vocals/strings with piano and lute in a call and response relationship that builds until all elements come together with the drums. I particularly like this call and response dynamic as the pairing of similar voices offset each other very nicely. The vocals and the strings support each other with flowing and swelling textures while the bells and guitar/lute are delicate yet staccato in comparison.

Juxtaposing the flow of the other elements in this track is the highly syncopated and complex rhythms of the drums and percussion. I count the groove in 3/4 with snare anchored to beat 3 and the metronome says it's 95bpm. There is an emphasis on the pairing of odd rhythms rather than a 'danceable' back beat. The rhythms of the bells I heard just before the drums enter lines up pretty well with the drums' pattern. As for the tone of the drums, it's quite variegated with many 'voices' utilized. In the second installment of drums the use of 'rim-knocks' are quite prevalent. It's these rim-knocks that make a strong impression for the reverb and delay that puts them in quite a large space. Additionally, there are two simultaneous 'performances' of the rim-knock with one panned to the left and the other to the right. The small differences in timing between them creates a nice natural texture to the sound whilst supporting the width of the stereo image.

There's so much to write about in this track, however I'm going to move on for now and maybe come back to it later.

Newton Faulkner - Clouds

This track is a 4/4 track at 84bpm powered with a 'stomp and clap' type of pulse that supports layers of acoustic guitar, vocals and some synths. The dynamics between sections are my focus for this entry as they quite impressive to me. In addition there are some heavily layered sounds in here that i'd like 'unpack'.

The first thing that impresses me in this track is the great impact that comes with each chorus. Listening at 1:43 (just before the second chorus) we can hear a subtle sweep of sounds that drop much heavier than expected. The reason I believe this works so well is the drop off in volume at the end of the verse which makes the next swell of volume build higher than expected. On my second listen I've noticed that the swell before the first chorus is far less intense. It consists of what sounds like a reverse cymbal where the second one holds the reverse cymbal and bass. The extra detail that goes into making the second chorus more powerful and impacting than the first is indeed very well executed. Jumping to 3 minutes in there's a massive snare drum accent that builds the third chorus to the maximum.

Listening to the 'snare' on beats two and four I feel I can hear three clap sounds above a tight snare that occasionally plays around the clap's back beat. This around the beat snare often acts as a drum fill that in other productions would be played around tom toms. The reason I've described this sound as the 'stomp and clap' is probably because of some other famous tracks that have used this sound and the fact that it is usually an audience participation thing so we hear many overlapping layers. As for vocals, they are clearly double-tracked and supported by backing vocals which are layered in the distance.

Bon Iver - Blood Bank

Taking a step in the direction of less 'extreme' forms of music, I've decided to talk about a track by Bon Iver. This track instantly satisfies my need for a smoother texture in music after listening to more of the 'hard' sounds in previous entries, The 'smoothness' comes from a clean guitar that washes over nothing more than a simple kick drum pulse. This provides the canvas for the vocals with nothing uncomfortable or distracting to compromise them. The overall effect is an extremely 'intimate' feeling piece of music.

There are certainly many layers activating at particular points in the track to frame the vocal lead. Backing vocals make their support throughout and the sound of guitar feedback takes the drone element of the music to the forefront in the conclusion. The drums are a subtle contributor to this piece, however, I feel like the choice to have the light touch of ride cymbal and pat of snare move in and out whilst not attracting too much attention adds an excellent element of additional intricacy. Without a doubt, this song is a 'grower' and makes excellent use of dynamics to build towards its conclusion.

A note should be made on the layering of vocals on this track. I feel like I'm always hearing at least two vocal tracks and at times, as many as three. Listening at 3:08, I particularly like the panning effect that differentiates these 'instances' of the vocal. You can hear the beginning and end of each voice separately, however each one occupies a different space in the stereo field also. They pan across your ears as they come in in harmony with each other. There's always a bit of distancing effect on the vocals (sounds like subtle reverb) but overall, the vocals are designed for multiplicity and intimacy.

And there's my thoughts for this track! Very refreshing sound for me to listen to. Here's some extra details for this entry. This was released on the Blood Bank EP in 2009 it was produced by Justin Vernon on the Jagjaguwar label.