January's Hunt For Inspiration
13 / 01 / 2021
Tweeting Blindboy (music afficionado and hot take extraordinaire) to ask for music recommendations counts as research, right?
On the off chance that he doesn’t get back to me, perhaps I should have a look into this myself. It’s at this point, finally sitting down to do some project research, that I realise I’m not quite sure what I’m looking for. Oh, there goes my phone again… the Pomodoro technique only works when I don’t have my distraction box sitting right beside me, I’ve discovered. One little ‘ping’ to tell me that lilmamaaaa recently updated their Instagram story and boom I lose 30 minutes to the doom scroll.
Anyway, research - what am I looking for? I’m struggling to pin-point exactly where this project falls on the spectrum of poetry, music and sound design. The vague notion I have in my head of the final product is a beautifully balanced and intricate combination of all three. The beginning feels murky and uncertain; I don’t know where to look.
Ok, google, show me ‘poetry and music’.
...That didn't help, surprisingly.
After a couple of hours, I found something!
NME made a subjective list of spoken word intros to songs, so I’m going to listen to those and write my thoughts in real-time.
Anthony & the Johnsons’ Fistful of Love is peaceful and dreamlike. The deep husk of Lou Reed’s vocals ground the distant kit and soulful instrumentation. I like the position of the kit here, and the use of very light percussion to maintain rhythm without intruding or feeling too energetic.
In Johnny Cash’s The Man Comes Around, there is no music to accompany the intro, but I like the processing; maybe there will be an appropriate moment to use it as a reference during the mixing process.
It’s not often that I hear a conversation opening a song, so Leader of the Pack by the Shangri La’s is interesting to listen to; the use of humming to accompany the vocals is a nice idea as well.
The White Stripes Little Acorns uses a clip from a radio show, so it’s more of a sample than a vocal introduction, but it’s cool. Maybe not super relevant for this project, which will be tailored for children, but I love the juxtaposition between the intro and first verse.
The opening vocals in Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy are processed to filth, dramatically accompanied by warbling, bendy synths and upbeat (808?) drums. Not exactly what I’m looking for but hey, any excuse to listen to Prince. That! Half! Time! Outro!
Ok so I’m not expecting to get much toddler-friendly content from Alice Cooper, but at least I’m figuring out what I don’t want? The Black Widow is more spoken word than sung lyrics actually, and as I listen, I think what will identify this project as poems with music rather than just, spoken word songs, will have a lot to do with how it’s mixed. Music will play much more of a background role than it would in a typical song. Also, how great are those backing vocals by what I’m assuming are a group of children? I wonder if crowd vocals could be incorporated to this project in some way…
Love’s Sweet Exile by Manic Street Preachers opens with a poem called ‘the Eloquence in the Screaming’. It’s very earnest and I don’t dislike it, although it doesn’t segue into the rest of the song in the way I want it to or juxtapose in any desirable way. However, if I record acoustic guitar, I’ll come back here for a reference because it sounds delicious.
I’m interrupting this list to tell you that ‘JunkDrawerBand’ responded to my tweet. They’ve recommended Damon Krukowski’s ‘Ways of Hearing’– a 6-part podcast about hearing and sound. Gonna wrap up warm and take my lovely big headphones for a long dander.
HALF MOON LAKE
I went on a big walk today around Suffolk, where my girlfriend lives and where I am currently staying with her four pet rats, her housemate, and her housemate's pet cockateel. It's a busy home.
Here’s some nice pictures I took on my dander around Half Moon Lake while listening to Ways of Hearing; the podcast series I was recommended yesterday.
Damion Krukowski: Ways of Hearing
Thursday 14th January
Damon Krukowski’s Ways of Hearing is produced by Krukowski, Max Larkin and Ian Coss, with sound design by Ian Coss. It is, for lack of a better description, exactly my kinda shit. Without turning today’s blog into an irrelevant and rambling review, it has given me SO much food for thought. Each episode explores different ways in which the shift from analogue to digital has impacted the way we listen – “Time”, “Space”, “Love”, “Money” and “Power”. Ways of Hearing incorporates clips of music, street noise and field recordings, including a conversation with Emily Thompson recorded at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
LISTEN 07:47 - 09:00
Listening to Ways of Hearing also reminded me of another podcast that I really enjoy called Mandatory Redistribution Party, hosted by comedians Jack Evans and Sean Morley. They incorporate music and sound design in a way that helps embellish and dramatise their content. The excerpt from episode 051, The Boomer Radicalisation Pipeline, although unrelated topically to what I'm creating, demonstrates the effectiveness of sound design, music and field recordings in helping to better tell a story.
Further Listening
Soak, Vivid Dreamer and ISAN
Next on the list to check out is a band I used to listen to during my first year of Level 3 Music Technology: ISAN. I should also get back to that list I found on NME. There’s so much! I haven’t even had a chance to think about the harrowing opening vocals on Soak’s Grim Town; or Vivid Dreamer’s Count to Ten.
I know that not all of this is going to directly influence this project, but it’s a fun niche to explore and there is literally nothing else I could be doing. Having more free time to actively listen to music is one of the few positives of being a student and a self-employed musician during a pandemic.
Vivid Dreamer’s Count to Ten is absolutely gorgeous. A floaty, transcendent return to childlike innocence, with the voice of a 3-year-old child counting to ten layered amongst dreamy synths and a sampled speech about ‘phantom vibration syndrome’. The pulsing rhythms nearly have me nodding off to sleep as it fades to crackling white noise. If there are elements of this project that evolve to become more musical than vocal, which I’m expecting they will, this is the effect I want them to have.