Bob Dylan - Hurricane

8:33 long track. 
This is from Dylan's 1976 album, Desire. I don't remember it being such a massively long track before, I probably heard some radio edits and 'best of' cuts. There's a big story to tell in this song, so Bob Dylan must have been determined to get the several verses included. Thinking about most Bob Dylan work, the storytelling is king and will come before all other considerations. There's actually a long fade for the finish of this track so I wonder how long they actually went for!

Orchestration: 
I quite like the orchestration of this track. There's a nice mix of instruments working together in ways that I don't hear all too often. We've got a rhythm section consisting of drum kit, congas, guitar and bass. On the melodic side is male lead vocals, female backing and the amazing violin. My opinion is that the violin adds a huge portion of interest to this track. It's much more effective at carrying the melody than a second guitar part would be.

Mix: 
It sounds balanced the way I would like this track. Above all, Bob's vocals must be clear and comprehensible. The violin gets a bit too loud at points but holds a good spot in the instrumental sections above everything else. The harmonica solo 8 minutes in clashes with the violin a little bit in parts. It wouldn't be Dylan without a good harmonica solo to end the piece with.

Brand New - Archers

Opening:
This track opens with drum kit - focussed on snare, this sets up the pace and feel for the rest of the track. Layered on this after the short intro is electric lead guitar and bass.

Vocals:
Following this is the vocals, there is a backing vocal for each word sung. This is unlike much of the other music I've covered where the backing is used to accentuate either a specific word or just the second half of the phrase. I also thought it was a bit unusual for the backing to take the lower harmony rather than the higher. In the context of a verse and the consistency of it, perhaps the lower harmony helps it thicken the sound without taking too much attention. Additionally, the upper harmony is taken in the chorus so maybe it's for extra impact in that case.

Groove and drums: 
The tempo of the track is slightly 'pushing' 147bpm in 4/4. A feature that adds a lot of the momentum we experience in the chorus is the tambourine. Along with this is the '4 on the floor' style kick drum. At 2:43 there is a change to this; the drums take a more conventional position with that 'kick, snare' groove. The snare sounds to me like a fairly loose tuned, singly ply drum head. There's not much 'ping' to be heard and the stick definition is fairly minimal. I would suggest that part of this choice might be the need for the snare to blend rather than cut. Because its active role is to 'roll' underneath the rest of the mix, the looser tuning and thinner ply helps the drummer play softer with ease. A tighter drum is too responsive for a lot of the quiet strokes needed here.

Closing feedback: 
The ending of this track was pretty interesting too I thought. The feedback effect has been used a lot but there's some interesting characteristics in this one. I can hear a lot of delay (just at the end) as well as some modulation effects really taking that feedback into a new alien sound.

Scribe - Not Many

Time for another back-in-the-day favourite! It's a slower beat at 70bpm grooving a fairly syncopated drum pattern. The pattern works on three long notes followed by three shorter pairs of notes. The two bar loop takes a while to come back each time so it doesn't get too tedious.

I should focus on the hyper-important vocal element of this track. Here's some broad observations:

• Doubled and tripled vocal in chorus sections. It sounds to me like the main vocal is doubled at one pitch and there's another voice taking an upper harmony. Three vocals at the same pitch would be very thick and possibly very messy sounding. Listen to 1:58 and you can hear one really high voice blended in. 
• Group vocals on the "Canterbury shout-outs" make the audience involvement vibe that I feel makes an exciting impact on most studio recordings. 
• Use of human voice for effects like howling wolves, nitrous gas. These are really cool, there's a bit of beat boxer aesthetic in this I believe. 
• Backing vocal inserted to accentuated particular words. There's use of effects like delay to help them fit behind the main vocal and fade without sounding too much like cutting/butting in. 
• Call and response "Check it out" etc fits convention and style. 

More on the beat:, it sounds sample based with some synth mixed in for solidarity. Interestingly, the only indicator of this for me on first listen was the audio tail at the end of the song. It sounds like a string synth or something similar. There is possibly also some extra software bass blended into the baritone brass instrument that leads most of the beat. I only suspect this because of the consistency of the sound and the extreme sustain that would leave many players out of breath or in the position to waver the notes a bit.  

Scribe is for me my marker for the New Zealand rap sound. This album came out in 2003 on Dirty Records and was produced by P-Money.

Eric Lau - Nadir

This track beings with little warm up. There's a long, delay heavy sample to set the mood and then the groove drops in. It's quite fast for something in this genre at 98bpm, but the loose shuffle nudges it into comfort with this style. The shuffle is 'wonky' with a slightly early snare and 'rocking chair' eighth note shuffle on the hats. Aside from the main sample mentioned one can hear a trumpet make its way into the mix. In between is a light and sustained synth accenting the start of each bar. That bass melody is quite simple and dual toned (back and forth between two chords). The focus is more the sweeping in and out of other variegated sounds. Use of panning and effects are done in an un-structured manner as there is little arrangement present in this piece. It's somewhat like being given a time limit for the track and a challenge to keep a certain 3-5 musical elements interesting for that time. There's some culture around this music for making the beat live and straight out of the drum machine. That's what this reminds me of quite a bit; It's a song idea that is put on the album as just a snippet of creativity that could be used in a larger arrangement.

Heart In Hand - Tunnels

This track features some of my favourites in the tool-kit of the hardcore and metal producer. We've got distorted over-loud vocal screams, gang vocals and the obligatory 'gut-busting' breakdown. Some other overall observations: Tasteful use of double-kick drums (sometimes very overused), the long buildup makes use of a small break of silence (to drop harder), use of some odd-time signatures.

The large buildup section of this track features some production I thought noteworthy. It's 16 bars in length which means an effort to maintain interest and build intensity.
-Doubled vocals panned alternately left and right (in second 8 bars).
-Changing in subdivision halfway through by the drums.

It's all about breakdown rhythm supremacy! 
Let's begin at the end for once; with that complicated 'breakdown' outro. It's cued up (very important in this music) with a short soloing of the guitar part. Essentially this cue acts as a call to action as well as a point for contrast when second guitar, bass, and drums drop in on top of it.  The rhythm is actually a mirror of the introduction but not identified on the first listen as the washy melody is absent. I count the opening two measures in 7/4 but the short breaks of silence don't comply with that. Traditionally, the breakdown has been a fairly simple section (rhythmically speaking). However, in the inherent culture of one-upmanship this has become an opportunity for bands to outdo others with increasingly complex rhythmic arrangements. We've seen loudness, speed and low-tuning as competitive elements of the genre, historically. And now, writing breakdowns as if they were a challenge for a snare drummer is a current trend, I believe. With that, Heart In Hand have done very well in this case. Leaving this section until the end is a wise choice as it would too severely interrupt the flow of the song placed anywhere else.