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elevenwav · 1 year

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Shin Megami Tensei IV has my favorite videogame soundtrack of all time

Heavy Spoilers for Shin Megami Tensei IV ahead, proceed only if you have beat the game.

"hi! this essay was in my draft for almost an year left unfinished so......I decided to post it without finishing it completely because I think it's pretty good and I want people to see it already lol. I may write a continuation for this analysis in the future bc I still want to conclude my thoughts but for now I hope u like it!" -elise realizing she left this in her drafts

It was long overdue that I wanted to talk about the music in this game.

Shin Megami Tensei IV’s soundtrack was a huge surprise to me – such as the game itself. It is initially presented as a more medieval-like world, set in the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, which it didn’t bother me initially, just didn’t surprised me at first glance – but when its true colors started to show up – I realized it was something special. It borrows from my particular impressions, I didn’t pay attention to the music initially, such as the ‘Main Theme’, and ‘Premonition’, only noticing about the more fitting tracks for the medieval world, such as ‘Aquila Statue Plaza’ and ‘K’s Tavern’. Although ‘Self’ was able to make me immersed on the intro sequence, but not exactly foreshadowing the iconic and unique mixture of futuristic technology with the occult aesthetic that the series is known for – and what I would find out about just later. My experience with the MegaTen series until that point was Persona 3, Persona 4, and a little bit of Devil Survivor – and as much as these games has some of its dark moments – Shin Megami Tensei IV surprised me, because I honestly didn’t knew anything about that game and mainline SMT in general, I wasn’t that much aware about the setting and aesthetic – I only knew about the Order and Chaos philosophical conflict. I was initially playing the game as just one more regular medieval RPG – that unawareness really helped me to being immersed on what would come after.

The musical tension of facing a Boss

The end of the first chapter with Issachar and the Minotaur shown me the first impression of one of its unique aspects; the Boss Themes. Both Battle B1, the Mid-Boss Theme, and Battle B2, the Major-Boss Theme, just caught me completely off-guard, feeling dangerous, futuristic sounding-like, and at first glance; uncomfortable. Most things until that point presented the game with a specific aesthetic, and then had a tonal shift for me. As much as the game foreshadowed its more futuristic tech-based stuff, such as the AI Burroughs, I didn’t actually realized it, the game still didn’t caught my attention that much yet. When I listened to Battle B1 – I was, no joke – SUPER scared, as much as this sounds funny. The tone of the story at this point was already making me realize its true colors, I was completely set on the mood, so when the revelation of Issachar happened, I was feeling so, SO uncomfortable, and I loved it. At the time, I was playing the game on my Nintendo 3DS at a bus trip, at 3AM with everyone sleeping, everything but my 3DS’ screen was pitch black, and my headphones on a fairly good volume.

As much as I liked the regular battle themes, Battle B1 had a lot of elements that were able to perfectly fit the atmosphere of facing a demonic entity, and, in that specifically on that moment, someone that was once your best friend. The song is composed on a minor key, associated with melancholy, sorrow, but in that case, danger and urgency. The instrument that composes the melody on the intro is a Chime, in a fairly low octave, which is something not expected when using this instrument, making it sound eerie and uncanny. Right after followed by a saw-wave synthesizer on the main melody, the synth itself isn’t uncanny, but yet fierce, the melody itself ends up takes the role on making it sound imposing and eerie. Then a 303 sounding-like Synth steals the show on the main melody, people often call it ‘boing-boing’, which is quite fitting for how it sounds, that sound makes the song feel otherworldly, and again, really uncanny. The very last section takes everything back to the saw-wave synth, but now on a very slow, but imposing chord. Then the loop ends.

It has lots of things that I love about music, such as heavily Synth-based instruments, evoking both a retro style and a really amazing ambience to the streets of that post-apocalyptic Tokyo. With that said, what I loved the most about that soundtrack is that it had such a consistent identity of its own, with at the same time being so diverse, it manages to be both catchy, and musically complex in a way that I really admire, with simple compositions, but really creative and unique arrangements, made with a very wide range of different Synths and electronic instruments in general.

CONTINUES IN PART 2.......SOMEDAY........I GUESS...........SORRY

#shin megami tensei #smt iv #musical analysis #music analysis #essay #from my drafts #trans musician #trans artist #japanese music #videogame music #vgm #ost #music breakdown #shin megami tensei iv #elevenwav #ryota kozuka #music #gaming #smt

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atwas-gaming · 2 months

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I've been thinking about this for quite a while and worried about saying this and coming across like some crazy UTDR fan (which I will readily admit to be guilty of, anyway, lol), but the OST's for both Undertale and Axiom Verge have some similar leitmotifs.

First off, I AM NOT SUGGESTING ANY CONNECTION BETWEEN THE TWO SOUNDTRACKS, MUCH LESS THE TWO GAMES. To my knowledge, Tom Happ and Toby Fox may never have even met. They may not have even played each other's games. I'm 99% certain they had no influence on each other.

But I do have a conclusion that I will get to at the end (and yes, a lot of you will probably think it's crazy), so please keep reading.

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Undertale fans will probably notice a familiar 3-note arpeggio in Apocalypse. It's the one we call "Gaster's Theme." It's not exactly the same, but it's similar enough to make a UT fan rewind and re-listen.

This 3-note arpeggio appears in other tracks in both AV games, it's just most noticeable in Apocalypse.

The other one I noticed is a little easier to miss. It's at the very end of Inexorable:

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Listen closely and you can hear the intro to Another Medium. Listen even more closely, and you realize that this leitmotif is just The Axiom, slightly rearranged.

But what's interesting is, there's no connection between Axiom Verge and Undertale! At least, none that I can imagine (and I have quite the imagination). Axiom Verge was released on March 31, 2015; Undertale was released on September 15, 2015- the same year, but almost 9 months apart. Since AV came out first, there's no way Tom Happ was borrowing ideas from Toby Fox, unless the 2 men actually have met IRL- I don't know, but I kinda doubt it, as Toby was nothing but a ROM-hacking, clickbait-posting, Homestuck composer working on Undertale at the time of AV's release. And I highly doubt Toby was stealing anything from Axiom Verge- Toby's a highly prolific musical composer in his own right, and while he's not above taking inspiration from others, he's always been open about where he got his ideas. So far, none of my research is indicating that he took inspiration from Tom Happ. And we know how Toby feels about giving credit where it's due:

So, if there's no connection between the two, and no known crossover of ideas, what point am I trying to make?

That this is evidence of God's presence in the creative community. Disbelieve that if you want, but that's the hill I'm standing on. God is everywhere, and He doesn't just favor the "good little Christians" with wisdom. He gives ideas to everyone. And it seems to me that, in 2015 and the years leading up to it, He decided to give 2 different men the same 2 prominent leitmotifs for their games.

And if that's not enough, let me also remind you that both games have a similar core theme of being stranded in some alternate universe (which may or may not be just a dream, in both AV and UTDR); AND both Tom Happ and Toby Fox have made statements that suggest the possibility of divine inspiration. Tom Happ's statement can be found here; and while I can't find the post anymore, I do remember Toby saying at one point that he has been surprised by the number of connections that fans have found in Undertale that even he himself didn't notice.

If this isn't God's hand at work, then I don't know what to call it, because it's just plain awesome.

#axiom verge #undertale #tom happ #toby fox #God's will #divine inspiration #call it crazy if you want but this is what i believe #God. is. EVERYwhere.#play both games yourself #listen to both soundtracks yourself #read and listen to interviews with the creators yourself #you can't tell me you don't see any similarities at all #i'm convinced that God is in this #in both of these

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rolandrockover · 5 months

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I Wanna Confess All Nite and Help Myself Every Day

I can remember well how I held Carnival of Souls in my hands for the first time (1), and put it on the turntable just very few moments later. And on the first greedy listen, impressions of klassik Kiss sound literally flew around my ears from all directions. Or rather, impressions that seemed familiar to me. And that's exactly what I want to bring to I Confess today. Then, as now, I associate this song very strongly with The Elder. But not only. But at the time, I thought I could pin this feeling down to the vocal chorus and cello breaks in the chorus, which contrast starkly in tonal range. Today I see something more than just that, but more on that in a moment.

Let's just start with the something tangible, to which I am immediately struck by the intro to I Confess, with its descending, ominous and repetitive theme of regret that runs through all the verses. I think I can say unequivocally that this is the end of Not For the Innocent (2). Or is it not?

And then there's this mini-intermezzo (3) from Paralyzed, which forms the fading final part behind a dark veil of suggestively leading cellos (4).

And in the quiet verses Gene sounds confusingly similar to John Lennon, and in the loud choruses, well, I already take a step into the fog of ambiguity and associations of the chorus of Only You and the verse of Parasite awaken in me. What I mean by that is, it doesn't sound directly like one or the other, but both together. But that's just my intuition, anyway, and coincidentally what I consider to be a pretty good vibe.

But there is this one little thing what kept me going for a while and by that i mean this Elder-esqe feeling. And I'll tell you something, that's not just the cello breaks I was referring to, or the chorus. That's also A World Without Heroes somewhere in there. Buried. I think that isolated nuances of both verse and chorus of A World Without Heroes are also contained in verse and chorus of I Confess, just rising out of the darkness every now and then, making itself known for little moments, only to merge back again with those John Lennon impressions in the verses (5). I could be just as wrong, of course, but I fully trust my intuition, which leads me to see another indication that Gene's old songs that were experiencing a renaissance live at the time, or those especially that were dug out of the mothballs and played unplugged for the Konventions, had no small influence on his then current songwriting (6).

Side Notes:

(1) It was the Promo Picture LP, which was declared with the original name Head. I even had to borrow a record player from an old comrade, to be able to listen to it, because mine was a mess. And of course, you could see the so-called Zipperhead on the A-side, which really surprised me, because I had actually expected this ultra-sado-maso Flamehead, which was previously presented in the Kiss My Ass home video. Why did I sell it back then, idiot me! It had the rough mixes on it, and the guitars were a fair bit rougher and louder than on the Final Sessions mix. They broke out of the loudspeaker boxes like huge, dusty blocks. Imagine my face putting the Final Sessions into the CD player for the first time.

(2) Gene's suffering Oh! Oohh!!! Oooo-oooh's.

(3) Or is it a thematic break? A guitar pad? I have no idea how to call it.

(4) In the demo it forms the intro and the outro - and even rocks a little more.

(5) I cannot define it clearly anyway, not without putting in half a dozen more links, and I think even then I could barely get that across. So I better leave it alone.

(6) I am talking about Childhood's End and in this context Goin'Blind, and even God Gave Rock n' Roll to You II.

I put highlights on all those links. I only left the last two, A World Without Heroes and I Confess (3), in their entirety:

I Confess (1) (1997)

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Not For the Innocent (1983)

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Paralyzed (1992)

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I Confess (Demo) (1993)

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I Confess (2) (1997)

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Parasite (1974)

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Only You (1981)

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A World Without Heroes (1981)

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I Confess (3) (1997)

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adhd-adept · 3 years

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I have self diagnosed adhd and i was wondering if you could provide some advice regarding reading. I used to be able to just pick up a book and read when i was younger, but now that I'm older it's a bit difficult to just pick up a book and read for the sake of reading. I love reading, but i just can't seem to motivate myself to.

Any advice? I'd really love to get back into reading, but I'm trying to find a way to do it easier

Hello! I’m sorry this took me so long to answer, I’ve been mostly off Tumblr for a little while. I saw this some time ago at 3AM and thought “this deserves a more coherent response than I can give right now” and then forgot that this blog existed for several days.

That said, I absolutely have some advice for reading! I was a big reader as a kid, too, and I’ve recently had to re-discover reading after a long gap in any time spent sitting down with an honest-to-goodness book. There are a number of things you might consider!

DISTRACTIONS

First and foremost, recognize the reason it is difficult to read! For me, it is because reading isn’t the most interesting thing available. That doesn’t mean I don’t love reading! If I can manage to sit down and read a book, it is immensely satisfying - but it’s the satisfaction of the effort you put into something paying off. My favorite hobbies - drawing, writing, reading - are my favorite because of that sense of accomplishment that they give me.

I love the feeling of holding a book and watching my bookmark move through the pages each time I set it down. However, it doesn’t give me the same instant gratification of reading wikipedia, or tvtropes, or scrolling Tumblr, or checking notifications on social media; even when I am unsatisfied, or even frustrated, with the internet, it can be very hard to put down. I know that people will tell you all the time “You need to put your phone down more!!” It gets old. But they have a point. What people don’t tell you is how to do that.

For me, that tends to be about making it inconvenient for myself to get online, or do whatever is distracting me. This doesn’t necessarily mean making it completely unavailable. The distraction just needs to be less available than the task I want to do. I am the kind of person who gets online out of muscle memory, and then gets stuck there. Thus, many of my tricks rely on disrupting the muscle memory that lets you pick up distractions. I will put my laptop charger in another room, so that my screen time is limited to its battery life. I might tie a string around my laptop, or tape it closed, so when I go to open it I will be reminded “Oh yeah, I don’t want to do this right now.” I will occasionally rearrange the apps on my phone, so when I try to open Instagram and end up with the weather app instead, the thought of “wait, how did i get here” will snap me out of the thoughtless habits that led me to pick up my phone in the first place. I’ve even gone so far as to tape my phone to the ceiling. Whatever works.

If the weather permits, I might also walk a little ways down the block and find somewhere to sit and read. This can come with its own distractions, but it gets me away from my laptop, and I get a tiny bit more exercise and sunshine than I would have otherwise! This depends, of course, on whether you have transportation and whether you feel safe. But getting yourself out of the house can be a great way to get away from the things that would otherwise draw you away from reading. If you have a local cafe or library that permits you to sit and stay, those are also great options! I will bring my phone when I leave the house, but I might put it at the bottom of my bag, or put a bit of scotch tape over the power button, so that I have my phone in case of emergency but it’s just slightly inconvenient to get to without thinking about it.

It may not be the internet distracting you. But whatever the distraction is, it doesn’t need to be less compelling than reading. It just needs to be less readily available than your book is!

ENTHUSIASM

Another thing that prevents me from reading is that it often doesn’t have the same sense of urgency that other tasks might, whether that urgency is real or not. Give yourself a time limit! I may own books I haven’t read yet, but I will get to a book sooner if I have borrowed it from the library, because I know there is a deadline to return it!

You can also get other people involved. If you have a friend who wants to read the same book, commit to a chapter or two a week and then call to discuss it.

Or, if you have a friend who would be interested, and you are comfortable with your reading voice, you could read to someone! It might feel weird to offer, but you’d be surprised how many people really do enjoy being read to. If you both have time in your schedules, you could try to set up a regular call to get through a few chapters at a time.

Generally, having a friend who likes the book is great for maintaining enthusiasm, even if they’re not reading it with you - I get to books faster if someone with similar taste says “This is one of my favorites! You would love it!” If you have a friend who has read the book you plan on reading, announce to them that you intend on reading it. Their enthusiasm might help you feel more compelled to read it, and there’s a good chance that if you don’t sit down and read it, they will remind you by asking “Have you read it yet? What do you think?” the next time you talk to them.

PREPARATION

Another great way to make reading easier is to set up a reading space beforehand. It’s one thing to pick up a book and say “I’ve been meaning to read this.” It’s another thing to put on some pajama pants, make a cup of tea, and curl a soft blanket around your shoulders before you settle down to read. For one thing, it’s just nice. But more importantly, it can function as a signal that tells your brain “it is Reading Time now. We are in the Reading Zone.”

Do you ever watch a TV show or listen to a podcast, and you let the theme song play on the first episode, and then skip it for the rest? Even if I’ve watched a show before, I will play the theme song on the first episode I watch that day. It’s the same principle - it serves as a transition, an intro that says “this is where I am now, and this is what I’m doing.” Give yourself an intro for reading! Have a certain spot that you like to sit when you read. Have a certain snack you eat beforehand.

I have all kinds of tasks with little “rituals” before them that help me focus on that task, or certain items that I interact with which I associate with it. I call them “declarations of intent,” and once I’ve made a declaration it’s easier to commit to it. Sometimes that means simply saying out loud, “I am going to do the laundry now.” Sometimes it means I wear a certain shirt if I’m planning to go for a walk that day, or drink from a certain mug at breakfast if I want to get some homework done. I have a specific hat that I put on when I want to write a certain character. Try to find something you can do to act as a cue that says “When I do this, then I will read a book.” Because of this, it can help to really lean into whatever the “aesthetic” of reading is, in your mind. Embrace a reading atmosphere!

It may also help to recognize that reading is something you can work your way up to! There is no shame in being out of practice with a hobby. I took my reading proficiency for granted for a long time because it was just a part of my life. It may help to think of reading as a skill! Start with something smaller and work your way up. Pick up a book of short stories or folktales before you tackle that six-book series you’ve heard good things about! Set achievable goals for yourself when you’re setting out. An early success can make a huge difference to morale, and it’s much better to start “too easy” and accomplish something than to jump in at the deep end and be frustrated by an early setback.

FORGIVENESS

On the topic of working your way up to things, I would like to say a word about mindset. It is easy to feel self-critical about things. Things that you think should come more easily to you. Things that you feel like you have no reason not to be able to do. One of the biggest things I’ve done for my ADHD is recognizing that there is always a reason why I behave a certain way. Accepting that allows me to actually address my struggles, rather than just feeling ashamed of them. I’ve had to accept that I won’t always do things that I set out to do the way I set out to do them.

I bring this up because not all of my advice here may work for you. In fact, some of it doesn’t work for me every time - a technique may work once, but I might fail to make a regular habit of it. I may make a regular habit of something, only to have it become less effective as the novelty of it, or my enthusiasm for it, wears off. I may eventually talk myself out of implementing an effective strategy because there is some part of it that I find unpleasant; or an intentional unpleasantness I once found motivating may eventually become intolerable.

That’s okay. I’m telling you now, it’s okay if that happens. It’s okay if the first method you try doesn’t work. Don’t set yourself up to feel frustrated. If you become frustrated, take a step back. If you borrow a library book and you still haven’t read it by the due date, just give it back. If you don’t actually enjoy the first book you pick up, put it down and try a different one. If you feel badly about not reading something your friend wants you to read, be honest and tell them you have a hard time sitting down, and that you don’t want to disappoint them if they keep asking, but that you will let them know once you have started it!

It can be easy to convince myself that feeling badly about something means it’s important to me, and that maybe if I feel bad about not doing something, it motivate me to do it. There is a balance between making commitments, and not committing to anything that is just going to distress me. Sometimes there is a benefit to a sense of pressure, but I have to recognize when the pressure I create turns into frustration. That’s a fine line to walk! For all I speak of inconveniencing yourself, or holding yourself accountable, your strategies should ultimately feel satisfying, and show results fairly quickly! You may not see immediate results, but if it has been several days and your strategy isn’t working out, change tactics! And the moment you feel apologetic or ashamed about the thing you are trying to do, drop that strategy. Again, this can be easier said than done, but it is so worthwhile to learn how to allow yourself to “give up” on things that aren’t actually helping you, without feeling like you’re giving up entirely.

You want to get back into reading again because you want to enjoy reading again. If you set it up to feel like homework, or a chore, or an obligation, you may make it more difficult for yourself! Getting back into reading is about focusing on what you love about reading.

And hey, I’m always happy to help! I do only check Tumblr every couple weeks right now, but I’ll do what I can to be supportive. If you’ve tried these suggestions and they don’t work out, no worries! Everyone is different, and it’s no insult to me if things that work for me don’t work for you. But feel free to reach out again, let me know anything you have learned about how you function best in the meantime, and we can reevaluate your strategies!

I hope that helps! Happy reading!

#thanks for asking!!#nezjazz #let me know how this works out #a lot of the advice i have for reading is advice i have for Doing Tasks With ADHD in general to be honest #i use the same tricks i use to get myself to read sometimes to get myself to do things like wash dishes #it's about making yourself more interested in what you want yourself to do #and making it easier to do the important things relative to the ease of doing the less important things #i will just straight up delete apps off my phone if i spend too much time on them #most of the time i dont miss them #and tumblr i can access from my laptop it's just slightly more steps to actually log in and type in my password #(i ONLY use tumblr on incognito mode so it doesnt save my login and i have to actually enter my password every time)#(that way i know that if i actually take the steps to log on it's because i WANT to)#(because something about doing that is worth it to me)#(i did that today to come and answer this question lol)#(but that's also why it's taken me so long.)#(do let me know if you have any other questions! i'll be back eventually to help as best i can!)#(and i love feedback)#(if you discover something that works better for yourself let me know that too so i can share with everyone!)

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cbspams · 3 years

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ONF - New World (Performance MV)

The last one. Ahhh, when I first committed to watching RTK, I wasn't sure what to expect and I didn't know anything about the other groups. I'd seen TBZ's Reveal (Catching Fire) which lured me in and I'm grateful for it because I got to see all the other amazing performances everyone pulled off. Beyond just the performances, it was really heartwarming to get little glimpses of the hard work everyone puts into each stage and how they're always supporting each other, within their own teams and outside of it. I would definitely recommend watching RTK if you're interested in getting into any of the groups featured, and even if not I would still recommend watching the performances because they're all so unique in their arrangements and stages. It's the kind of thing that can only happen on a competition show.

Thanks for putting up with all my ranting and know that I love you if you've read all my different thought posts. I hope you all look forward to Kingdom: Legendary War as well, it's gonna be HYPE!

Alright dudes let's get down to it.

Admittedly I did not love ONF for a lot of RTK. They're a great group, but I felt like their stages didn't favor the same kind of theatricality other groups had. And when they were ranked highly for We Must Love + Moscow Moscow (2nd round, My Song) stage, I was frankly a little miffed.

I adored their stage for It's Raining though, and all throughout RTK even if I didn't love them I still thought they were wonderful. Their reactions were so entertaining to watch and their stages were all fun and well executed.

I struggled watching New World a bit because I couldn't get over the fact they went back to more simple performances when It's Raining had been so elaborate.

The performance MV for New World is amazing. I understand the live performance had to be filmed indoors and that because it's indoors and because the stage is black and the stairs are black and the bleachers are black, the impact is different. But I'm really sad about that because the open air film location they did for the performance MV fit the song's vibes so much better. The kind of controlled sunlight, the open air lattices of the building they were standing on, the contrast between the dark outfits the members had and the bright cream of the building's plaster. All of those contributed to such a different vibe for the song, which is so bright and fun.

The opening to the light performance is a short film, similar to ONEUS and Pentagon. I'm not too sure about this but it seems to start with fast cuts from their previous MVs? And then slows down marginally to give a bit of storyline that seems to be a combination of pre and post apocalypse/societal collapse in a fantasy/cyberpunk mix world? Yeah, I dunno I've watched it 4 times and that's the best I could come up with. Especially because the ending shot is several very large meteors crashing through the atmosphere and like, those are pretty deadly so...?

In the pre-performance bit with the ONF members, they had discussed a theme of Pandora's box. Most people know that Pandora's box is a symbol of curses and tragedy, often tied to themes of humanity's greed versus humanity's innocence in listening to the gods. On opening the box, all the diseases and negativity inside flooded out to torment humanity but Hope remains in the box to allow humanity to maintain light in the darkness, and only humanity can give up hope.

NGL I was really excited to see how they would execute that theme. But then?? They kind of treated the box as a time capsule? I could kind of see it like them put their hopes into the box, which is an interesting twist on the tale of Pandora's box but also Confusion because that's definitely not the theme of that story. I kind of let it go though, because maybe they were just borrowing inspiration from the story and not actually trying to represent it.

Moving onto the actual performance and song. The intro is so intense! It's a really interesting fit because the rest of the song is way more dance upbeat/electric. But as far as openings go, pretty impactful and very pleasing to watch the ripple effect with the backup dancers down the aisle.

Again with the colorful flashing lights. Cool? Yes. Contributing to the aesthetic? Not particularly. Productive to the storyline? No. Part of the performance? Yes. Shruggy on this one, I don't really have anything to add that I haven't mentioned in previous commentaries.

I do really like the song though. Just as a piece of music, it's so fun to listen to and has definitely joined the ranks of my usual kpop bops. The kind of light, fast electro beat is something to jam to. Wyatt's voice is just so good, especially as part of the pre-chorus. The contrast makes it delightful to go from verse one to chorus. The lyrics and message of the song are really well thought out and executed as well, talking about reaching a better world and turning away from hurting each other/the environment/generally being hurtful.

OKAY. So this part is actually something I really adored: the sort of robotic formation. Wherein the members stand in the center of several backup dancers who seem to place on pieces or armor or something onto the member's limbs. A very clean cut, fast paced dance sequence that really strongly reminded me of early iron man scenes in which the different parts of armor were installed on the body. Also lowkey reminiscent of magical girl transformation hahahaha. But it's done so cleanly and while the camera angles make it hard to focus, it's still such a treat to watch. AND THEN. The members come up to the shoulders of the backup dancers and for Wyatt's lines, they're just!! In control! If y'all have watched power rangers or Gundam or Aquarion or Neon Evangelion or like, any of those then you know what I'm talking about, in which the human character slides into some massive machine and controls them from the inside to fight monsters (kaiju) and stuff. And the next bit with J-US and the hands! Creative, interesting imagery, just a complete delight to watch. It's just sooooo fun and I love that for ONF, I really do.

I genuinely think that their theme doesn't make much sense without the context of the lyrics and even then it still feels clunky and sort of inspired by rather than actually embodying the concept. So I'd dock point for them for that personally because I think that when themes are introduced and performed, they should show up as more than just a simple prop. But also I acknowledge that dance and musical performances like this (not musicals) aren't necessarily intended to be storytelling, especially in 4th gen kpop. I do like their theme with the keys and opening, I feel like the performance would have been enhanced if instead of using pandora's box, they choose to use the gateway to the new world. A bit on the nose but a lot more impactful with the key turning bit after the second chorus.

On the key turning bit with the weird holographic box: Dude. Those backup dancers? So clean. Nice stiff steps that feel very robotic which goes wonderfully with the costumes. The keys they each take actually read RTK ONF if you go clockwise from the left (MK). Just a neato little fact. Attention to detail is so good. And the timing of the key turns, of course it was gonna be to the beat but like still! Satisfying af.

Why Wyatt grabs the box and slams it to the ground I don't know. Maybe it has to do with the line dive into new world.

The high notes. Again. Literally just. What the fuck guys, they're so good. I'm gonna cry. The stability, the pitch, just. (sobbing)

The LED screen in the back is interesting? Is it supposed to be a door into the new world? Probably?

Dance break!! Guitar solo!! The door tradition into the weird stripey LED screens that just feels so chaotic and kinda like I'm going through a movie warp portal. Somehow when combined together it all works lmao??

I love the bridge. There's no reason for it, I just love Wyatt's fast paced lines and the kind of dun dun dun fast tempo beat tapping.

The ending of running away from the camera, towards the little cliffs and the LED screen was a good choice because the last lines refer to how they'll never stop as long as they're alive. Not the most impactful ending but definitely satisfying given the song's lyrics and meaning. Again, that lack of pandora's box kind of haunts me?

Overall if I consider this ONF performance compared to their others it doesn't feel quite as thought out and executed. Similar to their We Must Love + Moscow Moscow performance where I couldn't really see the marionette theme, I couldn't really understand the idea of Pandora's box in this performance and I really wish they had chosen perhaps a gateway to the new world or some other theme instead because it would fit much better. It's also a little lackluster compared to the performance MV that had a lot of contrast which created more focus and contributed more to the atmosphere of the performance.

Still, as a performance on it's own, it does pretty well and I'm really happy for ONF to have performed it. Thank you RTK for introducing me to this song and to ONF in general, I hope they continue to release some really good stuff.

#admin talk #rtk commentary #rtk performance comments

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loquaciousquark · 5 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E73 (Aug. 6, 2019)

Gooooooood evening good evening good evening all! @eponymous-rose is off packing for a cross-country move (as if THAT’S an excuse), so here I am isntead to lay waste to all you love.

Tonight’s preroll: Sam’s costume from the liveshow getting dunked in acid.

Tonight’s guests: Laura Bailey & Sam Riegel, in a fully human and normal tshirt and jeans. Everyone oohs and ahs over Laura’s adorable live show outfit; Sam waits eagerly for equal attention. And waits, and waits...

Tonight’s announcements: Huge thanks to everyone who came out to the live show in Indy last weekend (I was there! It was great!). Laura talks about everyone singing the theme on the intro. Sam sent his entire costume back with Dani so he wouldn’t get stopped in the airport. Poor Dani! Season 3 of Between the Sheets, featuring Amanda Palmer, is up for Twitch subs now and will be up on YT on Wednesday. CR is headed to Austin, TX, for a live show on Sept. 23! Everyone talks about how Doty will definitely, definitely be in this show: The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade, ft. the return of Sam as Taryon. Sam says he already has something in mind for his costume; everyone else will be playing new characters. Laura’s got an idea for a backup character for Jester, but BWF advises her not to use this for the live show since Jester will def be dead in less than 20 episodes. Go to critrole.com/events for more.

Episode 73: Uthodurn, which is not spelled at all like I thought

CR Stats! Nott dealt 124 damage this episode, only 23 of which was friendly fire. Sam: “You know, he just needs to get out of the fucking way.” Nott rolled her 50th nat 20, resulting in a 43 stealth check. Laura and Sam quietly talk about Sam’s tendency to touch everyone else’s dice as opposed to his “playing fairly.” Sam also laments he’s lost his dustbuster in the studio somewhere after the last bit. Jester is tied with Beau at 9 for the most HDYWTDTs. Jester also played her 50th prank this episode: creating the ballpeen hammer as an offering to the Allhammer.

Laura thinks part of Jester’s new anger in battle is part of losing Yasha, especially when she disappeared right in front of her and Jester wasn’t able to help her at all. “Jester mammoth-raged.” Laura raves about being a mammoth & talks about needing to work on her elephant noise. Both Laura and Sam fail miserably at making the noise.

Sam slowly drinks a shot. It’s... a thing.

We have a close-up of Sam’s nail polish, which was done for the live show. He doesn’t own nail polish remover, it turns out.

Nott will talk to Cad about the explosive arrow whenever Cad brings it up. First, Cad was invisible & therefore at fault because he couldn’t be seen; the second part of the blame goes to Laura Bailey, who leaned over and told Sam right before his turn he had to kill this thing right now. The explosive arrow was the best thing he had; Sam accepts one part of the blame for forgetting it would be fire. Sam & Laura agree the bolt should have had some thunder/force damage associated with it because of the concussive blast. (Hilariously, my father presented this precise argument to me with GREAT VIGOR right after this episode aired.)

Jester’s call to the Traveler was just in the heat of the moment. All of her power comes from him, so Jester calls out to him (and Laura thinks it cool) when she gets a big oomph. Sam wonders aloud if her powers genuinely come from the Traveler or not. Laura: “I mean...as far as she knows.” Sam’s also distracted that the question card had a straight-up name on it rather than a username.

Sam considers the outcome of the election a win, since he’s one of the bi-Presidents of D&D Beyond until further notice. “It doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you get there.” Laura asks if he thinks about it being a hollow win when he goes to sleep. Sam: “Do I look like the kind of person to have thoughts as I’m falling asleep?”

Nott’s usage of the pistol’s single shot was pure pettiness. Sam thought Nott had a shot because she’s acrobatic & fast & has some tricks, and he just didn’t want Beau to win. Making loud noises & drawing attention didn’t even cross my mind.

Jester was very proud of Fjord making those strength checks, but she wasn’t surprised. “He’s very strong, even though he looks like he’s not.” Laura thinks it’s funny and poetic that Travis rolled so well after ditching his sword/powers.

Travis has three sets of dice. Liam has a bunch of sets, but they’re all red (says Laura, offended). Laura only used purple dice at the live show because of how she was dressed.

Cosplay of the Week: a great Scanlan cosplay with Ioun’s third eye by @cxptaingrayson.

Sam realizes something that’s been holding back the Nott-Fjord relationship is that Nott has always been a little suspicious of Fjord. Now that he’s “talking like a real weirdo” and is still brave, braver than before, she can trust him more.

Laura’s asked about Jester’s conflict between healing & DPS. Laura: “Do you think Jester asked to be a fucking healer?” When they were deciding their characters, Laura was originally going to be a warlock with the Traveler as her patron; then Travis was like, warlock! What a cool class! Can I have it? And Laura said sure, she’ll be a cleric, that sounds cool. “And now he got rid of his fucking patron! Who knows if he’s going to be a warlock anymore? What a waste of a warlock!” She likes being a cleric--but even from Jester’s very first inception she’s always been a healer who hates healing. Brian: “She’s a battle Mercy.” She’s not regretful she healed Beau; the reason Laura didn’t immediately heal her is that she thought from Matt’s face that the remorhaz was very close to death, closer than it actually was. She confirms Jester is Chaotic Neutral.

Brian tells Laura he texted Travis to tell him Laura accused him of stealing the warlock class. Laura: “YOU DID NOT!” Brian: “You said it on the air!!”

Travis, via text to BWF, apparently in all caps: “I WAS CHANGING RONIN. YES I STOLE WARLOCK.”

Nott’s teasing of a powerless Fjord is 100% just because she thinks it’s funny. Sam: “There’s not really a deep reason to it. They tease each other all the time. Why would that change just because he tossed his sword in the lava?”

Laura needs to do research on other animals she can become since she enjoyed the mammoth (and giant eagle) so much. Sam keeps a list of flying creatures Laura can turn into because Laura struggles looking it up and often keys it into her D&D Beyond app before she’s even started. BWF: “This is uncharacteristically unselfish.” Sam: “Well, Laura is--I love her. Laura is pure harp music and I would do anything for her.”

Their environments are just getting better and better for Nott in terms of how goblins are seen. She’s given up the mask now, but it’s nice to have people look and not scream.

Both Sam & Laura pause to fan over the design of Uthodurn. It’s way cooler than either the Empire or Dynasty to them right now.

Laura points out that Nott has been fairly outgoing lately; it’s been a while since anyone said “you’re a goblin, stone her!” She’s beginning to come out of her shell as she gets used to her body (not that she likes it in any way), but it’s a development from Veth’s original shyness. She’s also drunk a lot; Sam says this will continue until he gets more Laura Bailey speeches.

BWF still has Laura’s copy of Game of Thrones, which he borrowed in 2011. Laura doesn’t listen to books on tape because she likes the inflections in her own head.

Fanart of the Week: a cool grouping of portraits of the M9 by @dylanbydoodles.

They apparently threw an election party after the D&D Beyond President reveal. Sam talks about convincing the Lyft driver on the way back that it was a swinger’s party in the most ridiculous way possible. Poor Indianapolis.

Nott & Veth’s relationship is getting very complicated. Sam says they’re beginning to blend a little together, but he’s now coming to realize there’s a part of Nott deep down that is deeply scared of going back to Veth & losing her rogue abilities, her adventuring; she wants to be herself again for sure, since her body is definitely wrong, but she’s beginning to fear the loss of some of what Nott is now.

BWF sincerely thanks Sam for the effort and thought he puts into his character. Sam sincerely thanks him. It’s a lovely moment.

Jester’s slip about Fjord’s powers was deliberate on Laura’s part but accidental on Jester’s. Everyone’s a little worried about Fjord without powers, even though he proved himself in the remorhaz fight. She thinks the slipup happened because Jester wasn’t on guard--because Fjord had done so well in the fight, she’d forgotten.

So far, Nott’s choice to leave the family behind in Nicodranus is worth it; no one’s died and they’re making headway on their goals.

BWF: “The Mighty Nein: no one’s died-ish.”

Apparently Matt owns the building they’re filming in? I missed part of this and genuinely can’t tell if it’s a joke.

BWF talks about how Liam, Matt, & Travis have all been genuinely mad at him before. Matt and Travis were mad; Liam was just disappointed.

How did Sam lose the election? He doesn’t think it’s because of him or anything he did. He thinks there’s a demographic shift in America; the electoral college hurt him; both he and Liam ran the campaigns they wanted. Liam’s was serious issues & serious passion, while Sam farted around for three months. BWF asked Adam Bradford at D&D Beyond, who’s the General Manager, about the results; apparently the pie chart was VASTLY in favor of Liam with only the tiniest sliver for Sam. Laura thinks it’s because Sam’s done nothing but troll Sam for five years and this was their chance to troll him back. Sam: “To that I say: good job.”

Dani & Max both voted for Sam. Laura didn’t vote. BWF voted for Liam. Chris forgot there was a vote. Zach voted for Liam.

Sam talks about the game they play, the app for D&D Beyond, and how the whole campaign allowed him to shine a spotlight on himself. “I didn’t get as many votes as Liam, but I got a lot of attention.”

Everyone loved this last live show. Laura legit loved wearing her dress; Travis & Liam looked great. Tal looked normal. Brian marvels at his own tattoos. He and Tal went through a lot of ideas before they committed to the bag situation--he sent it to Jaimie Alexander before the show happened so she could vet it. Ha! “Her response was 25 crying emojis and ‘please send this to my boyfriend.’“

Reminder: Mica Burton, Overwatch League host (and daughter of Levar Burton), will be guest-starring on Critical Role this coming Thursday.

And we’re out! Is it Thursday yet?

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long post for ts

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rivalsforlife · 5 years

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rank the prosecutor themes!!!

Okay!! I’ll do you one better and do all the main rival themes (meaning: I’m including Shi-Long Lang and Justine Courtney in here too. despite Lang probably being very displeased at being grouped in with prosecutors. sorry.) uuunfortunately I am going to get into spoilery territory with this one, but I’ll do this in reverse order, so you can skip the spoiler parts because they’re my favourite ones haha, and I will warn for them.

First, a disclaimer: All the prosecutor themes are fantastic. that is all.

12 - Great Revival - Franziska von Karma: I adore Franziska, but she needs her own leitmotif. This one is basically the same as Miles’ Great Revival, except higher and with a different intro, from what I could tell. and I’m not even sure if the sound gets revamped for the Investigation games…? I can’t quite remember. ANYWAYS, what really made this the lowest of the prosecutor themes for me is that they also use this theme for MANFRED VON KARMA in AAI2, because I guess they didn’t want to create a whole new theme for him when he only shows up for part of a flashback case. So they borrowed his daughter’s. This is a DISGRACE, because Miles Franziska and Manfred are all very different characters and deserve to have distinct leitmotifs. Especially since the whole idea of the Great Revival is that it’s them coming out from underneath Manfred’s shadow/unlearning his techniques, since this plays when Franziska comes in with the evidence to save everyone in Farewell, my Turnabout, I think. So having Manfred have the anti-MVK song is not good.

11- Zacharias Barnham - The Sword of Labyrinthia: things get difficult now because all the songs are good. I’m putting this one here for a couple of reasons, namely because I first listened to this song while going through PLvsAA on 2x speed on youtube because otherwise it would take too long, so I heard this song at 2x speed and now it just feels too slow to me. I said these rankings were going to be very subjective, right…? also it would have been great if they actually finished Barnham’s character arc, you know. Darklaw doesn’t really have a leitmotif so she’ll be missing from this list, by the way, I didn’t just forget that she existed.

10 - Nahyuta Sahdmadhi - The Last Rites Prosecutor: it’s a pretty song. I like how it actually uses what sounds like a human chorus in there, which is distinct from pretty much all AA music? I especially like the part near the end of the loop where it gets all kind of suspended in a sort of “floating in the void”-like feeling, at least to me. It’s down here though because I… don’t really get an “opponent” vibe from him. I don’t listen to this and think to myself “oh, this is the guy I’m going to fight”, you know what I mean?

9 - Barok van Zieks - Grim Reaper of the Old Bailey: I like how ominous and haunting this song is, pretty fitting for a “Grim Reaper”. It’s nice to listen to, too. It just didn’t really stand out for me above all the rest, so it’s here.

8 - Simon Blackquill - Distorted Swordsmanship: similarly to van Zieks’ theme, this has a very ominous vibe to it. It’s pretty subtle for a lot of it, and it’s way less “in-your-face” than a lot of the other prosecutor themes. It suggests an opponent that isn’t going to face you head on but kind of work in the shadows and take you down without you even realizing it… which is fitting, considering Blackquill’s whole “twisted samurai” motif and the idea of psychological manipulation being his main thing. I like this one, like all of the prosecutor themes, and it’s only here because I… liked others more.

7- Miles Edgeworth - Great Revival: “Grace why did you say both Great Revivals are practically the same thing but put Miles five places above Franziska” OKAY LISTEN. There is only one “Franziska von Karma- Great Revival”. There are multiple “Miles Edgeworth - Great Revival”s, and this is about where I’d average them out. Great Revival 2002 would be ranked about the same as Franziska’s because, yeah, they’re practically the same thing. Great Revival 2013, however, has an even prettier intro, is more orchestral and therefore sounds even more regal and fitting for DD-era Miles. I am seriously considering making this my alarm to wake up to in the mornings because… it’s so pretty?

BUT I have to mention the actual orchestral versions of Great Revival, because they are phenomenal. There’s one for every Gyakuten Saiban Orchestra. The 2016 one is the first one I listened to, but it was tragically taken down… so listen to the 2019 one. All the orchestral editions are pretty much the same… but the orchestral Great Revivals have a new part around 1:30 that is just GOREGOUS. I ADORE it. That would probably shoot this one up a few rankings if they were in the games. I gasped out loud in a dead silent library upon first hearing it, it was very embarrassing. Great Revival imo sounds much prettier the more genuinely an orchestra it is. I love this song? … moving on.

6 - Shi Long Lang- Speak up, Pup: I said that Blackquill’s theme was very subtle – this is the opposite, this is about as “in-your-face” as it gets. It also sounds very cool. It has a sort of… I’m hesitant to use this term, because of how people abused it when I was in junior high, but it definitely has a sort of swagger to it. It pretty well encapsulates Lang’s character and him just… barging onto the crime scene with all his people and making hasty arrests and taking bullets, like, all that stuff I can see coming from a person with this as their leitmotif. But I just like listening to it, it’s one of those songs that has a similar effect to caffeine on my brain. It’s just very loud and cool and I enjoy it.

5 - Justine Courtney - Goddess of Law: I also really love listening to this song. It’s very regal. This song is very good in contrast with Sebastian’s First Class Farewell… like, Sebastian spends most of the time as a bit of a joke, with his light and airy theme… and then Justine comes in with this theme and you kind of feel like “oh, crap, now things are serious.” I like the use of the organ, obviously, giving it kind of a churchy feel which makes sense as she is referring to and worshipping the Goddess of Law, but I also love the faster parts of it too. It shows off her quick wit and intelligence that makes her a pretty formidable opponent for Miles in AAI2. It’s the song of someone you definitely would not want to cross… and is very pretty.

4 - Godot - The Fragrance of Dark Coffee: my feelings about Godot are… complicated and not entirely positive… but I adore his theme. He’s the first prosecutor to really have a proper leitmotif that’s all his own… and even though it’s not a “I’m so ready to fight this person” leitmotif or even a “this person’s particularly intimidating” leitmotif, it’s very laidback and relaxed. Honestly what gets this one so many points is, guess what, once again, the orchestral songs! Part of this is a lot of bias, because they replace the piano parts with the flute in the orchestral editions of this song and I played the flute for six years so I am partial towards it. But also it just… sounds extremely pretty? It’s very relaxing and… it just sounds gorgeous in the orchestra editions. I haven’t listened to the jazz version yet but I bet that would be gorgeous as well. Here’s the most recent 2019 orchestra version of this song, but the 2008 and 2016 ones are good too (my favourite being the 2016 one, which again got taken down bc copyright :( rip)

3 - Klavier Gavin - Guilty Love: out of the mainline games, AA4 has the best soundtrack imo, which is justifiable considering who the prosecutor is. Okay, this one is a huge contrast from Godot’s theme… it’s actually a huge contrast from all the prosecutor themes. The only one who comes close to this level of Rock is Lang’s theme. It’s fun, it’s upbeat, it’s soooo much fun to listen to. It really does set Klavier apart from all the other prosecutors - this isn’t the song of your enemy, this is a song of a person who’s here to find the truth and have a good time doing it. You go into the courtroom getting ready to face off against the dreaded Second Case Prosecutor, the most insufferable version of every prosecutor until now, and you get ROCK MUSIC. … literally, he apparently actually plays it in the game. which, pun intended, rocks.

This gets bonus points, of course, for being made into an actual song with lyrics that you could hypothetically sing, made by Shu Takumi. If you haven’t listened to this one yet you totally should, it’s a good time. listen to Klavier Gavin ditch his date to go to court. PARTICULARLY for the parts where Apollo’s theme gets in there. like, uh, Klavier. pining much?

– OKAY NOW SPOILER WARNING. I’m going to go into a bit of AAI2 spoilers here, nothing too major like the mastermind or anything, but if you don’t know what the deal is with Sebastian then I’d just recommend avoiding this for now. And then after that are major DGS2 spoilers, so if you haven’t played either of those games and don’t even want to look at anything remotely spoilery you can probably just skip out on the rest of this post.

2 - Sebastian Debeste’s Themes: okay, so. First Class Reasoning is just such a… light, airy, bouncy song. It sounds kind of absent, like it’s running off chasing butterflies instead of investigating a crime scene. It’s not the song of a formidable opponent (which makes the contrast with Justine Courtney’s leitmotif much better). This plays pretty notably in the one argument you have with him that’s so nonsensical it doesn’t even justify the traditional confrontation music, you have this instead.

And then in the final case you get First Class Farewell.

This sounds infinitely more mature than First Class Reasoning. The two instruments kind of do a… back and forth with each other. I think I read somewhere it’s like a tango? Whatever it is, it is something where you need to keep up with the argument and the logic, something Sebastian hasn’t been able to do… until now. It has him standing up to his father, standing on his own, and showing that he truly has the potential to be a great prosecutor. If we ever somehow see Sebastian as a prosecutor in future games, I want this to be his leitmotif. Individually these two songs wouldn’t take this spot, but put together and showcasing Sebastian’s character growth – and that First Class Farewell plays in one of the most emotional AAI2 scenes – is what brings it up here. It’s a really good use of leitmotifs.

Speaking of great use of leitmotifs…

1 - The Masked Disciple’s Leitmotif. I… cannot say anymore than this without spoiling the entirety of DGS2, so I’m actually going to put the rest under a “keep reading” if you’ve finished DGS2. So, uh, if you haven’t, just… when DGS2 is translated, play it, it’s really good. And this leitmotif might actually be my favourite song in the entire series, for reasons that are under the cut. I… really hope this works, if it doesn’t, scroll as fast as you can and don’t look back.

…

…….. so. Asougi, huh.

The Revived Prosecutor is! INCREDIBLE. At the time I’m writing this, the only way to really experience DGS2 as someone who does not know Japanese and only knows English is by watching these twitch streams, and you might notice that when this first starts playing the streamer actually pauses so we can listen to it. it’s that good.

It starts off as such an intimidating, imposing song. It’s a song of your enemy. It’s so strange, so different from the Asougi we’re used to, and you’ve really got to wonder if he’s the same person.

AND THEN SAMURAI WITH A MISSION KICKS IN. It felt like an actual, physical gut punch.

It has lacks that familiar, Japanese-y kind of feel to it, though. It’s Asougi, but it’s different. Asougi is the Samurai With A Mission, and he’s fulfilling his very murdery prosecute-y destructive mission, which is so different from the Asougi that Ryuunosuke idolized in DGS… and even though this person is so different from the Asougi we knew, it still is Asougi. It also has a few hints of the Professor’s Theme in there, which is also incredibly good considering… well.

Honestly, one of the reasons I’d want a remake of the original trilogy – like a full-on remake – is so that they’d do something like this with Miles’ themes. His “Great Revival” is good… but it doesn’t suit AA1 Miles. If we had an actual “Demon Prosecutor” theme, which was mostly replaced by DL-6 when talking about Miles’ trauma, and then get to something like Great Revival for his… well, Great Revival, that would be fantastic. That’s the one regret, that Miles came too early for ace attorney to get around to making proper leitmotifs like this.

Also again this song is just really fun to listen to. And that’s probably what’s most important here, right?

#asks #soundtrack rankings #prosecutor leitmotifs #(a separate tag so I can advertise it without adding the spoiler)#ace attorney

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antialiasis · 5 years

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Matilda

Matilda was one of my favorite books when I was little. I got it as a present, with a cover based on the 1996 movie, and immediately decided it looked stupid and I wasn't going to read it. Then one day I was sick with nothing to do, and I reluctantly reached for this book that I hadn't read yet, and whoops I loved it. (This was also my reaction to the first Harry Potter book, and to the Pokémon games. My actual tastes were not a great match for my stubborn contrarianness.)

So when I heard Tim Minchin was writing the songs for a musical based on the book, I thought that sounded pretty cool. I'm not sure I actually went and listened to the soundtrack until after I'd gotten into Groundhog Day, though. Either way, once I did a couple years back, the changes it implied from the book fascinated me, and I dug up my copy of the book and reread it. Later, I went on to see the musical in London, then the Icelandic production of it earlier this month, and finally the other day we watched the 1996 movie adaptation, the one piece missing from my Matilda experience before I could write a lengthy Tumblr ramble about this book and its adaptations, as one does.

It never occurred to me reading it as a child, but from an adult's perspective, and a writing perspective, I have a strong suspicion that it was written on the fly - that Roald Dahl did not know what would happen later when he was writing the earlier parts, and the draft was only minimally edited from there. I actually think that's kind of neat - it provides something of a raw window into the author's process. But it does lead to the book having some noticeable flaws that the adaptations try to fix.

Structurally, Matilda the book is split into distinct sections. It starts with a bit of an intro where the narrator vents their frustration with the way that parents are annoyingly convinced their children are perfect, adorable angels, even when they're actually total little shits - complete with hypothetical acidic reports with colorful metaphors that they'd love to give some children's parents if only they could. It's funny, and educational (this is where I first learned about cicadas), but undeniably kind of mean-spirited, and has very little to do with the rest of the book - from there, we just segue to introducing Matilda, the very opposite of these children, who is genuinely brilliant and delightful but treated with contempt and derision by her deeply unpleasant parents. She's left to fend for herself a lot of the time and becomes very independent, and she begins to visit the library to read books, starting with finishing all of the children's books and moving on from there, with the help of a kind librarian, to an extensive list of literary classics.

Here we start the first major section of the book, Matilda's efforts to strike back at her parents when they wrong her. For several chapters, we follow the Wormwoods (well, mostly Mr. Wormwood) being awful and abusive, followed by Matilda thinking up a prank to play in retaliation - the iconic superglue in the hat and bleach in the hair tonic, plus one involving borrowing a neighbor kid's parrot and stuffing its cage into a chimney that both adaptations leave out, probably wisely. Roald Dahl loves thinking up pranks and karmic punishments - this is a recurring theme in his children's books - and basically all of this section is extremely him, but doesn't have much of a sense of progression to it and isn't leading towards much of anything.

Then, we're quite abruptly off to the next section, where Matilda goes to school. She's enrolled in Miss Honey's class, Miss Honey recognizes her talents, and we follow Miss Honey's unsuccessful attempts to convince first Miss Trunchbull and then Matilda's parents that she should be moved straight up into sixth grade. Then we get back to full Roald Dahl form as for several chapters we see/learn about the various outrageous ways that Miss Trunchbull abuses students - Chokey, the hammer-throwing, the iconic Bruce Bogtrotter cake scene, lifting a boy by the ears, etc. - and how the students have tried to fight back. ...And then, as Matilda is being unfairly accused of something she didn't do, she tips over a glass with her eyes.

The story takes a sudden swerve away from being a series of inventive over-the-top pranks and punishments. Matilda confides in Miss Honey about her newly-discovered telekinetic powers, proves them to her by tipping the glass again, and comes with her to her house - which is a tiny cottage. Miss Honey reveals that she grew up with a horrifically abusive aunt after the death of her mother and later her father's suspicious apparent suicide, and that the aunt commandeers her wages, and that the aunt is Miss Trunchbull. We're the vast majority of the way through the book now and it just suddenly got real. Matilda formulates a plan; she painstakingly practices using her powers at home until she can levitate and precisely control one of her father's cigars telekinetically; and the next time Miss Trunchbull teaches their class, in the middle of her abusing the children further, Matilda telekinetically uses some chalk to write a threatening message from Miss Honey's late father on the blackboard, and Miss Trunchbull faints on the spot and is taken to the infirmary.

The next day, Miss Trunchbull gets out of town, and Miss Honey's father's will turns up unexpectedly, allowing Miss Honey to move back into her family's house. Matilda becomes a frequent guest, and reveals one day that she's no longer able to use her powers - which Miss Honey suggests might be because she's finally getting the mental stimulation that she needs. When Matilda heads home that day, though, her parents are in the process of packing everything for a move to Spain. When Matilda returns to Miss Honey, upset, Miss Honey reveals that it was well known her father was in with some shady people, selling stolen cars from all over the country, and they're probably moving to escape the police. Then they run back, Matilda asks her parents to please let her stay with Miss Honey, and they basically go "Whatever" and leave, leaving Matilda and Miss Honey to finally have found a loving family with each other.

It's a fantastic story and I love it, but there are definitely some noticeable oddities in how it plays out, likely thanks to being written on the fly, and the adaptations take a couple of different approaches to addressing these things.

First, structurally it's weird how long we spend on Matilda's library adventures and then the prank war with her parents, when the main plot turns out to revolve entirely around what happens at the school, and specifically the increasingly terrifying Miss Trunchbull, with the early stuff almost entirely irrelevant. In my Icelandic copy, we're a hundred pages in (out of 240) before we even properly begin to hear about Miss Trunchbull's atrocities. We learn late in the book that Miss Trunchbull is Miss Honey's aunt, who abused and terrorized her to the point where she meekly agreed to let Miss Trunchbull receive all her wages and leave her with pocket change - but in the early scene where Miss Honey goes to see Miss Trunchbull, it jarringly doesn't read like she's confronting someone with that sort of control over her: Miss Honey is stated to be kind of terrified of her, but it only sounds like it's in the way that anyone would be terrified of a person like this, and she's perfectly willing to argue with and object to her until she gives up, seemingly just because Miss Trunchbull is completely unreasonable and refuses to listen. Matilda's telekinetic powers come out of nowhere two thirds into the book, with nothing foreshadowing them even in hindsight; Miss Honey's explanation of the powers as having come about simply because Matilda wasn't using enough of her brain rang false and annoyed me even as a child, when her discovery of her powers had seemingly arisen specifically out of this intense justified rage at this person who was such an awful, despicable monster; and after Matilda's father had in the first half of the book been portrayed merely as a sleazy used car salesman who sells his cars as newer than they actually are, the sudden revelation a couple of pages before the end that actually he was involved with organized crime this whole time is quite jarring and feels distinctly pulled out to get rid of Matilda's awful parents for good and let her live with Miss Honey as they both so clearly deserve (and don’t get me wrong, that’s so satisfying that it’s hard to care that it took a weird asspull for it to happen).

The 1996 movie is really quite faithful to the book, more so than I expected, but makes some reasonable modifications. Some of the early stuff about Matilda's reading and so on gets told nicely in the form of montages, it cuts the parrot prank, and instead Matilda at one point remotely shuts off the TV after being forced to sit down and watch it - foreshadowing her telekinetic abilities early. There's also a scene at a restaurant that reads as simply wacky comedy logic as it's happening but is probably also foreshadowing her telekinesis, in hindsight. The cops are after Matilda's dad from the start, with scenes added where the cops are watching their house, trying to gather information, and one where Matilda, now in control of her powers, sabotages their warrantless search of the garage and sends them fleeing. The discovery of Matilda's telekinesis and Miss Honey's backstory happens significantly earlier in the runtime, relatively speaking; a subplot is added about Matilda and Miss Honey trying to retrieve some of Miss Honey's possessions from Miss Trunchbull's house following this, and Matilda then using her powers to scare Trunchbull in her house, setting up her belief that the ghost of Miss Honey's father is haunting her. Matilda's powers, which are considerably more potent than in the book, don't disappear at the end at all - but they're also clearly established as being linked to her sense of justice, with her needing to tap into that feeling specifically to activate them. The theme of her sense of justice is emphasized in general and works pretty well to tie the story together - a scene early on where her father offhandedly says "When a person is bad, that person has to be taught a lesson!" inspires her retaliation against her parents and then subsequently Trunchbull. And there's a really cute montage at the end where Matilda and Miss Honey goof around together and it's great because they're both basically getting to be children for the first time. Trunchbull is also more extensively humiliated before she bolts (in the book she only faints and a student dumps some water on her "to wake her up", but her real punishment is the conviction that she will be watched for the rest of her life by the vengeful ghost of the man she murdered, which I think is plenty, honestly). The tone of the film is largely pretty silly and goofy, similar to the tone of most of the book; the plummeting darkness of Miss Honey's story in the book is toned down, though we do learn in the movie that Trunchbull broke Miss Honey's arm when she was seven years old, so it’s not as if she gets off easy either.

The musical, on the other hand, has its own approach and takes more interesting liberties with the story; it allows itself more tonal range, ranging from extremely silly and over-the-top to some truly heartwrenching emotional moments, which I think may be easier to pull off in a musical than a regular movie.

The first time I listened to the musical soundtrack, I heard the first song, "Miracle", and realized that - oh, wow, they adapted the intro. In the opening number, spoiled, untalented children sing proudly of how their parents call them miracles and princes and princesses, while a hapless children's entertainer takes on the role of the book's narrator:

One can hardly move for beauty and brilliance these days It seems like there are millions of these one-in-a-millions these days Specialness seems de rigeur Above average is average, go figure Is it some modern miracle of calculus that such frequent miracles don't render each one unmiraculous?

Tim Minchin absolutely read the first chapter of the book and just straight-up adapted that irritated musing on how somehow every parent thinks their children are extraordinary into a song, and I love it.

What's even cooler about this, though, is that the musical actually goes on to deconstruct the mean-spiritedness of that intro. The children in this song are the same children who will end up being Matilda's classmates - where they're made likeable and sympathetic. Their parents may have pampered them, but they're just kids who don't deserve Trunchbull's abuses, and in the end they're brave and stand up for each other, in a Spartacus-like scene where every child stands up to deliberately misspell a word to force Trunchbull to punish them as well as the student who'd failed her spelling test. In "Revolting Children", their triumphant victory song after chasing Trunchbull away, we actually explicitly call back to "Miracle" and turn its cynically parodesque opening line into an empowering affirmation:

Never again will the Chokey door slam Never again will I be bullied and Never again will I doubt it when my mummy says I'm a miracle!

It's great and I think this is one of my favorite things in Matilda the musical. Maybe these children weren't as inherently special as their parents were convinced they were, but they aren't just props in Matilda's story; they're pretty cool in their own right, and maybe they actually deserve to be called miracles.

The musical's solution to the Wormwoods' sudden move to Spain is to set up throughout the show that Mr. Wormwood is specifically trying to sell a bunch of cars to these particular Russians that he's swindling, and at the end the Russians turn out to be gangsters, who are all set to beat him to a pulp when Matilda impresses them by speaking perfect Russian and pleading for her father's freedom (well, saying that she's had enough of revenge) - leading to the Russians threatening Mr. Wormwood, and thus to the Wormwoods leaving to get away somewhere they'll never encounter them again. It's a pretty funny scene, and just by making Mr. Wormwood's customers throughout the story all be this same group of Russians, it becomes clear to the viewer that they're going to come back in some way, making it all work out pretty satisfyingly.

In the musical, Trunchbull being Miss Honey's abusive aunt is absolutely telegraphed. Miss Honey's first solo song is "Pathetic", where she brutally berates herself for the sheer panic she's feeling at the thought of facing Miss Trunchbull:

Look at you trying to hide, silly Standing outside the principal's office like a little girl, it's just pathetic!

Look at you hesitating, hands shaking You should be embarrassed You're not a little girl, it's just pathetic!

Not only is she clearly terrified out of her wits about this - she's clearly a victim of emotional abuse, someone who's been told over and over that she's pathetic. It's not obvious it's Miss Trunchbull herself, of course - that'd give the game away - but in hindsight you can clearly see it, in a way you couldn't in the book, and it's heartbreaking. Miss Honey also has a bit later in the song “When I Grow Up”, echoing some lines originally sung by the children, but they take on a new meaning when you know what the creature beneath her bed actually is:

When I grow up I will be brave enough to fight the creatures that you have to fight beneath the bed each night to be a grown-up

The first time I listened to the Matilda soundtrack (the original London version, nota bene), I noticed this better setup of Miss Honey’s past, and that was the first thing to make me really interested in how this adaptation was done - and then "I'm Here" started, and it just instantly punched me in the gut emotionally. I had no idea what on earth this song was on about - Matilda was telling some story about an escapologist's daughter, which sounded suspiciously like Miss Honey's story, and why was Matilda telling that??? - but man, I felt things.

What turned out to be going on was that the musical took a whole different approach to presenting Miss Honey's story. Throughout the story, the musical solves the structural problems by interleaving the parent stuff and the library trips with the school storyline - so at several different points, Matilda goes to the library, where she tells a serial story to the librarian, Mrs. Phelps. When Mrs. Phelps asks her about her parents, Matilda always maintains they're so wonderful and loving and they probably miss her so much while she's away - and the story, though kind of silly and over-the-top, is heartbreakingly clearly also a wish-fulfillment fantasy on Matilda's part: it's about this perfect, wonderful couple, an acrobat and an escapologist, who are the most wonderful people and the greatest circus performers in history, and all they've ever wanted is a child. Only then it takes a dark turn: when they're finally expecting a child, they're forced by the acrobat's sister to perform a horribly dangerous circus act, which fatally injures the acrobat so that she only lives just long enough to deliver their daughter, and from there the acrobat's sister begins to abuse the daughter when the escapologist is away. In "I'm Here", a distraught Matilda just out of an explosive confrontation with her father retreats to her room and then abruptly, without an audience, begins to tell the final part of the story, where the escapologist manages to come home early and find his daughter crying, locked in the cellar. He breaks the door open and tells her not to cry, apologizes tearfully for leaving her behind, and promises he'll spend the rest of his life making it up to her and they'll be together forever, while giving her a scarf that her mother used to own - and then she, softly echoing the same melody, tells him not to cry and starts apologizing to him, and guh I'm a blubbering mess what did you do to me Tim Minchin. When she's asleep, though, he's filled with righteous rage and goes to confront the aunt - and he's never seen again.

Later, when Matilda first discovers her powers, we get the song "Quiet", which is also excellent - Matilda just trying to explain what is happening to her in a way that's frantic and disorganized but plainly brilliant, talking about these ideas of philosophy and physics buzzing in her head all the time, and:

But I wonder if inside my head I'm not just a bit different from some of my friends These answers that come into my mind unbidden These stories delivered to me fully written

These aren't stories at all - it's her powers. She's not just telekinetic, she's telepathic - she picked up this story of the acrobat and escapologist in some paranormal way, and a little later, in the song "My House", Miss Honey turns out to own the scarf from the story, and her parents were an acrobat and escapologist (in the book her father was a doctor and her mother's line of work is never specified, I believe, but presumably they were given more extravagant, unique professions to add flair to the story and make it more unmistakable that this is no coincidence), and Matilda realizes it's Miss Honey's story she's been telling the librarian.

There's probably still a made-up element to it - Matilda's story as she tells it, especially the first couple of parts of it, is pretty over-the-top and ridiculous and hard to take entirely seriously. But I think the point is just that it was emotionally true. They were an acrobat and an escapologist, they desperately wanted a child, maybe the circus act didn't literally involve the acrobat being on fire with dynamite in her hair but it was still pretty dangerous - and the final part of the story, told in "I'm Here", is devoid of these over-the-top elements and was probably entirely literal.

This is a pretty brilliant adaptational choice, I think. In the book, we had to hear about Miss Honey's story in a big exposition dump where she told Matilda the story - it worked pretty well there, though it was very late in the book, but I doubt it would in the theater. This way, we get to hear this story pretty innocuously, get kind of invested in it as a fairy tale sort of thing, then get this incredibly emotional song that's simultaneously a reenactment of Miss Honey's past and a fantasy sequence where Matilda finally gets to be comforted by a real parental figure who cares about her - and then all we need once Matilda gets to Miss Honey's house is to link these things together. And once we do, we realize the story has been setup for her powers and for Miss Honey's story all along, tying everything together. It's beautiful and I'm really impressed they came up with this.

In the musical, Miss Honey's proposed explanation for Matilda's powers being lost becomes that she no longer needed them. Overall, with the telepathic element added, it gains a bit more of a feel of the universe granting Matilda these powers specifically so that she could set things right with Trunchbull and Miss Honey - less apparently connected to Matilda feeling righteous rage, as in the movie, and more about the intervention of greater powers. And I'm okay with that too. One might ask why a skeptic would feel that way - and to that I say, come on, we're talking about psychic powers, we're kind of beyond the scientific. Still, though, I did think the movie actively and explicitly making it about Matilda's justified fury was pretty powerful, and though she ultimately ended up being able to use her powers casually there, if I were adapting the story myself I think I’d go with her powers being driven by righteous fury but she hasn’t been able to use them since her life became normal and happy and she stopped feeling that way.

All in all, Matilda the musical is a super-interesting adaptation and I’m quite fond of it. There are definitely bits I like less, but the good bits are really good.

(One of the bits I like less: the musical adds a curious subplot that doesn’t quite go anywhere about Matilda's mom, who is very obviously cheating on Mr. Wormwood with her "part Italian" dance partner Rodolfo. In "Miracle", there's a silly bit with Matilda's birth, where when Mr. Wormwood comes along and sees Matilda, he's completely baffled that the baby doesn't have a "thingy". It's a ridiculous gag about how ignorant he is, but also sort of implies that Mr. Wormwood just doesn't understand human reproductive anatomy at all, and along with the way that Mrs. Wormwood is clearly having sex with Rodolfo but there's no sign of intimacy between her and her husband, it may be implied (for the adults in the theater) that they've just never actually done it and Rodolfo, or someone else, is the father of her children. Possibly the idea here is that Matilda's biological father was someone significantly smarter than Mr. Wormwood. I may be reading way too much into this, and I'm kind of iffy on the implications of this if it's actually the intention, but either way I think it's kind of a weird part of the show and wonder what lay behind it.)

#matilda #matilda the musical #adaptations #ramble #review #oh boy this is long #me and my musical rambles

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bensaundersfcp-blog · 5 years

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BeSaunders’ Final Composition Project Blog

Submission 01

For the first part of the portfolio our brief was to "undertake an independently organised collaborative project with an artist and devise/plan and produce an artefact." For this, I decided to record an indie-pop song with my longtime vocalist collaborator Mark Shankland. We got together over the course of a number of weeks and studio sessions in Glasgow during which we wrote and honed our piece. She’s Walking began life after I was playing around with the MIDI repeater delay effect in Logic following one week's lecture. I came up with a rhythm which delayed in a very interesting way, and started inputting notes purely naturally where I felt like they should go, with no thought as to time signature or any real structure. I ended up with some slightly obscure time signature like 15/16 or 17/16, which I felt worked pretty well on its own but found difficult to develop into a full section. Through some amount of trial and error I eventually settled on alternating 7/8 and 4/4. I then decided to let this build and act as a introduction to a song/EP, in the vein of Neighbors by Now, Now, with its slow crescendo and chopped vocals. I stuck with guitars and synth for my composition, and initially this section was a lot longer and more intricate, however I didn’t want to spent too much time on it out of fear of it becoming a bit stale, and once we got to adding vocals to it it took on a much more traditional structure. I played off how the delay effect operated, doubling parts of it with extra guitar tracks and letting it dictate the rhythm of the drums and the space left for the vocal, which I attempted to bury in a similar way to another Now, Now track by slathering it in some extremely wet reverb, eventually having to dial in more of the dry signal in order to make things more distinct and less of a total sonic mess. The B section of the song was a total change of style again similar to how Now, Now’s Neighbors EP transitions from the slow, open and building title track into the much more upbeat and in-your-face Giants. Stylistically this works because it grabs the attention of the listener and I felt like the song needed to become more interesting and direct after the moody and atmospheric intro. I seem to recall being inspired by a pop-punk song from the Burnout Paradise soundtrack for the B section, but I cannot remember which, exactly. Initially the chord progression for this section was a strictly diatonic D-Em7-Bm-A, but eventually I decided to replace the A chord with a C major borrowed from the Mixolydian mode, which serves a similar tension-release purpose but is a little more harmonically interesting. Layering a few guitar parts on top of each other again for interest, I simply repeated this section four times as a sort of chorus with differing lyrics, before deciding to switch things up slightly for a bridge section. I used my ear over theory here and just decided on a whim to go from C major to Cm-Am-Bm, which I thought sounded nice and dark in relation to the upbeat chorus, so stuck with it. I’m not sure how to analyse this section harmonically, but I noticed if I changed the B minor to B7 on the last repeat of the bridge progression I could modulate up a step from D to E major, which would be more interesting than just going back to D again. I then decided to go for one more and just keep repeating the chorus section in yet another key, changing the final chord of this ‘new’ E-F#m7-C#m-D progression into a D7 and modulating up a minor third to G major. Also in the bridge, I played about with the timing and made the the second bar of every four into a bar of 2/4 because I thought it sounded good and helped keep up the energy of the song. On the last time ‘round I made this a bar of 3/4 to subvert the expectation set up by the previous repetitions and to add to the surprise of the new flavour of B7 instead of B minor in this instance. Logic’s Drummer AI kept up with the changes and really helped save the moment, and I threw in a final bar of 5/4 at the end of the bridge to delay the gratification of the key change just a little longer. At this point I thought we were required by the brief to make one song of a 5 minute length, and so I was stuck at around four minutes and needed to add a new section. I decided to pull a Jesus of Suburbia and radically change up the style for another differing section, inspired by the fact that the song had already pretty radically switched up between the existing sections. I made this next part slower and full of major seventh chords for a more reserved, introspective feeling, a time to pause and reflect, and to contrast the upbeat and in-your-face chorus you were just barraged with. It is harmonically pretty simple with a nice I-IV and a couple of relative minors and slight alterations for emotional impact and colour.

Submission 02

For the second part of the portfolio, our brief was: "Students will undertake an individual composition project according to an agreed idea, this may include devising the idea and project scope. Students are required in composition, to explore a theme, concept or aesthetic ideal." I decided to change style pretty radically and do an EP of dark, noisy punk music with my band Skellys. We write music that is intended to sound “spooky”, and all of our lyrics have to do with skeletons, zombies, goblins and the like. We use as many minor chords and tritones as possible, with lots of chromatic movement and many non-functional progressions, although we’ve found that even outside the world of diatonicism, music still wants to go to places, and we’ve sort of established our own vocabulary for how to properly utilise these sounds. We all got together for weekly band practices over the course of several months, crafting and perfecting our songs together, then booked studio time with a local professional whose work we admired and whom we felt would be a good fit for us, and got to recording. Our influences include ska bands such as Reel Big Fish and Suburban Legends, black metal acts like Mayhem and Burzum, and punk bands including Misfits and Suicidal Tendencies.

For Zombie Massacre, decided to start the EP off on a relatively quick burst of pure noise, slowly building in pitch and dissonance before going into a sort of EDM “drop” where we play a hardcore punk riff based on the harmonic minor scale, with power chords built from the root, leading tone, minor third and flat sixth of the scale. We then have a little break where we expand the power chords into full minor chords with just one guitar playing, a moment of slight respite, before we all join in with a brief fast ska-punk section followed by the first hardcore punk riff again. After that, we decided not to repeat ourselves and to go into a different but similar ska section, again based on the harmonic minor scale and using all minor chords, but utilising a different progression and rhythm. After this we went into a sort of thrash-metal-into-black-metal riff, with palm-muted triplets followed by tremolo picking. Here I add a little bit of melody and do some diminished stuff aiming for the minor thirds of some of the power chords, to give things a little more tension. Next, we go into a fast reggae section again a different completely minor, harmonic minor progression, this time with minor add9 chords built off of the natural sixth and minor sixth one after the other to create some very interesting colour. This is followed by the trash metal section again with the formerly black metal second half of every repeat this time played in a ska style, before ending the song with another, much slower thrash-y riff where me and the other guitarists, accidentally at first, play different chords. I thought the progression was Ab5-D5-F#5, but it was actually Ab5-D5-B5, meaning that together we ended up playing a Bsus2 for the final chord, which I actually really liked and decided to keep.

Brush Your Teeth was an attempt to write a “big, dirty, stinking riff” with some real groove while maintaining our dissonance-laden sound, and as such it is slow and punishing and full of power chords based off of the sharp four and the leading tone. It is a very deliberately one-riff based song, with a short break for a “chorus” which only happens once, as we repeat the riff in different styles - open and groovy, ska followed by noisier double-time ska, palm-muted and cocky, and finally with a solo on top, before ending with the “brush your teeth” mantra from the chorus repeated over the intro chords. The solo is interesting because it actually starts on the flat second degree of the first chord, bending up and down to and from the natural two, which becomes the fifth and then the second of the next two chords, before accentuating the minor thirds of the rest of the chords. On the final repeat, I aim for the minor third of the second chord into the root of the chord after, and do a sort of bluesy trill here, essentially ignoring the changes before landing on the fifth of the one chord of the progression. Starting on the minor ninth and largely ignoring the changes was an attempt to be as dissonant as I could, and the cocky bends were a sort of half-parody of the machismo rock acts who would go for such a sound unironically. The overall shape of the solo was inspired by Jess Abbot’s work on Tancred’s Out of the Garden, specifically on The Glow.

Graverobber was again an exploration of chromaticism in the context of punk, with another riff based on just the root and the two semitones surrounding it. Next we have another little thrash/black metal section, before the intro riff is repeated again, this time with my guitar part bending the root notes of the chords up and down in a deliberately out-of-key fashion. The black metal section repeats and we go into another fast reggae part, again based around those same three semitones. I wanted an interesting chord to punctuate the end of every repeat of this section, and found by playing the D minor shape I landed on at that point anyway with the first and fifth strings left open, I got an interesting Ab5sus4 with an added sharp five, more easily notated as Dbmadd9/A. On every second repeat of the progression here I decided to occasionally play minor shapes in the same position but up a fourth, inspired by the soundtrack to the videogame Doom. With the bass still playing the same three semitones as before, these are heard as more interesting colours of the established chords. I also threw in some triplet-y rhythms here to keep things interesting. After the reggae section we go back into the original progression played in a fast ska style, before going back into the power chord riff with my tremolo-picked octave melody on top. Here I am just using the harmonic minor scale to create a catchy kind of melody, aiming for the root, minor third, second and leading tone of the first chord and the fifth of the last chord. On a whim I decided to aim for the minor sixth of the last chord on one repeat just to see what it sounded like, and I thought it sounded great. I ended this section with a minor ninth interval of both the fifth and minor sixth degrees of the final chord, an attempt to be as dissonant as I could. After this, we quieten down and let the bass introduce another section just as you think it’s all over, and go into an incredible slow, punishing and chromatic arpeggiated, doom metal sort of ending.

Recreational Activities was intended to be a more straightforward punk song, featuring a verse which holds one power chord which is bent up to the flat second degree at the end of every line, before moving down to the leading tone, giving us a very chromatic progression, the roots of the chords only spanning three semitones in total. The song also utilises noise not only at the ending, but also before the reggae section, where Liam holds one chord while I climb up the scale before landing on a minor ninth interval based off of the flat fifth of the underlying chord, a sound I was aiming to make as disgusting as possible, to generate great tension before going into the release of the reggae section (in a rather similar way to Graverobber).

Looking back on my work, I think for the first song I definitely should have read the brief more carefully or asked about it, as I think stretching the song out to five minutes had a negative impact on it, and it sounds a little bit stitched together, because in all actuality it is just that. I think more work could have gone into making the transitions more natural and in making the production in general smoother and more professional. I didn’t know how to achieve the buried-in-reverb vocal effect I was going for in the A section, so the results are a bit iffy, and the vocals were recorded in two different environments with two different microphones over the course of two different days, and it really shows with the character and base volume of the individual lines fluctuating wildly. Perhaps this could have been fixed with more EQ and compression, but I had neither the time nor the skill to patch it all up. We were really late to record for that song, and I should have timetabled things better and been more organised, setting things in motion much earlier than I did, in order to be able to leave myself the time to fix or even re-record the issues that cropped up in mixing. Disaster struck towards the end of the song when I somehow lost one of the vocal lines and had to hastily replace it with a MIDI horn section. It almost sounds deliberate but to me it really just sounds like we didn’t have a line to put there. I also rushed the notation aspect of the work and had to botch it all together in photoshop because I couldn’t get Sibelius to work and had to do it in the less-than-ideal Guitar Pro, and I was doing it all the night before which I really shouldn’t have done.

With the EP, I think it sounds pretty great overall, with a few criticisms of the mixing and one or two little things I would maybe like to fix. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we had to hand in the unfinished pre-mixes of all of the tracks. Everything was booked well in advance and we left plenty of time to have everything ready for the deadline, but due to the renovation that was going on at Glasgow Queen Street Station, across from the studio we were recording at, as well as the engineer falling ill, we had to reschedule the mixing date for our EP, to a full month after the hand-in deadline for this module. Because of this, the mix is lacking high end, punch, clarity etc and has a few issues which we will be fixing in time. One comment I received from my lecturer was that we change up style very often and very suddenly, and we could work on the transitions between different musical sections more. However, this is an intentional effect designed to keep the listener on their toes and constantly throw curveballs at them that keep things interesting and occasionally throw you off. We actually were complimented on this aspect by an ecstatic and appreciative fan after a show, and started to deliberately incorporate it more and more into our “sound”. We go from rockabilly to hardcore punk to reggae to noise all within the space of three minutes, and we think it is a very interesting mix. It is a criticism I will take on board going forward, though, and we did work on one or two little sections in light of it, for example extending a couple of sections which were so short and so different to what surrounded them that they really did feel a little tacked on and stop-start, making them longer made them feel more like they belonged.

I think we work together very well as a band and each bring our own influences and unique aspects to our music, Liam (the guitarist) loves speed and noise and fast solos, Jack (the bassists) has quite a grimy sound and adds a lot of interest to the rhythm section, Jake (the drummer) is exceptional and always comes up with really creative and effective beats, and I’m much more of a songwriter than the rest and can help in the crafting and arrangement of the tunes, while me and Liam’s guitar playing and tones work off of each other very well. I am also very well-versed in the ska and reggae aspects of our music while Liam is well-versed in the punk and hardcore and black metal etc.

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dustedmagazine · 2 years

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Listed: Partner Look

Partner Look are a Melbourne-based band made up of German sisters Ambrin (Cool Sounds) and Anila Hasnain (Studio Magic) and their partners Dainis Lacey (Cool Sounds) and Lachlan Denton (The Ocean Party). Their debut, By the Book, was recorded during a brief window between lockdowns in Melbourne in May 2020. We’ll have a review a bit closer to the February 4th release date, but meanwhile, here are some items that make the band’s members happy.

THEME: 10 things that got us through Melbourne’s lockdown.

The Wire (TV Series)

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Anila and I watched all five seasons of The Wire in lockdown. After seeing David Simon interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now a few years back, I was convinced he does what he does for the right reasons. The Wire is an exploration of the corruption of power at every level of a deteriorating society, and yet he manages to show this with empathy for the characters and without a simple good vs. evil narrative. (Lachie)

Tony Birch — The White Girl

I didn’t really like fiction until I discovered Tony Birch, and I still find it hard to think of Tony Birch’s writing as fiction. His characters have a depth that I haven’t personally read in another author. The White Girl is his newest book, and it’s up there with his best. (Lachie)

Molly Sarlé — Human

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I first heard this song on RRR, one of our community radio stations here in Melbourne. The song’s bass-line immediately hooked me. It sounds warm, is catchy and confident at the same time, really driving the song, so I wanted to listen to it over and over again. In fact, I did listen to it over and over again. I also love Molly Sarlé’s beautiful voice and lyrics to the track. I think it’s a pretty perfect song! (Anila)

Peter Schilling — Major Tom & Deutschland 83

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Lachie and I had just moved into a house with one of Lachie’s best friends, Curtis, at the beginning of what was to be a long lockdown. We installed a projector screen and binge watched a number of shows. One of the most notable ones was Deutschland 83, which depicts the GDR and a young spy in the midst of the Cold War of the early 1980s. Peter Schilling’s "Major Tom" is featured in the show’s intro and it’s such a euphoric, exciting, nostalgic track, we ended up listening to it on repeat. (Anila)

Good Morning — You Up?

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When I first put The Option record on our record player, I accidentally played it on the slower speed before I realized how fast the track actually was. I think Good Morning really captures the spirit of the Melbourne music community, which I am feeling so proud and privileged to be a part of. It is fun, doesn’t take itself too seriously, but is yet sincere, original, energetic and big-hearted. (Anila)

Snowy Band — Audio Commentary & Alternate Endings

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I don't think any band wants to be associated with lockdown, but both of Snowy Band's recent albums were my most played lockdown records — one in 2020 and the other in 2021. Bad timing for the band (as they are also from Melbourne), good timing for the rest of us. The quietness of the instrumentation, the vocal harmonies, and the imagery evoked by Snowy make you feel happy in a sentimental way, a perfect lockdown feeling. (Ambrin)

Madeleine Ryan — A Room Called Earth

There was a time period in lockdown in which I deleted all of my social media and whenever I would have picked up my phone, I picked up a book (ok, or I watched TV). I read a random selection of books from our bookshelf or stuff I had borrowed, but one book that I really enjoyed was A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan. It takes place within 24 hours in Melbourne. A girl gets ready for a party, walks around town, meets some people. It left me feeling like I had a night out with a new friend. (Ambrin)

TOPS — I Feel Alive

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The 2020 TOPS album is another of my most listened to albums of the last year. I was working a job that involved a lot of driving and it was just a great feeling to get into the car at the end of the day and turn up the title track “I Feel Alive.” It has a perfect disco vibe that instantly puts you in that fun weekend mood, even if it's Wednesday. (Ambrin)

Dad Rock

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It’s been a good time to listen to old dudes noodling on the guitar. Steve Gunn’s album, Other You, was a particular highlight. It’s calm, sprawling, unorthodox songs are the perfect vessel for his most vibey guitar playing yet. Grateful Dead’s The Closing of Winterland: December 31, 1978 is kind of good too. (Dainis)

Lime Cordials

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My housemate Izzy’s mum’s lime cordial — She is located in a pocket of Melbourne known for its lime trees. On the coast but on the bay side, the limes take on a slightly salty flavour profile. She keeps her recipe secret and only gives it to friends and family. I became addicted to the cordial, consuming it in many forms, each one tastier than the last; old-school (just add water), on the rocks with soda water and mint, mixed with a yerba mate tea concentrate and soda, or even with Strega liqueur. When the weather was right it was possible to consume a cordial drink in the backyard. On these days I found the perfect accompaniment to be chili roasted corn nuts and Geoffrey O’Connor’s album For As Long As I Can Remember. (Dainis)

#dusted magazine #listed #partner look #ambrin hasnain #anila hasnain #dainis lacey #lachlan denton #the wire #tony birch #molly sarlé #peter schilling #good morning #snowy band #madeleine ryan #tops #dad rock #steve gunn #lime cordial #geoffrey o’connor

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metalshea · 6 years

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Guys and gals, let’s talk about nü metal.

Are you still reading?

Great! Because I’m about to take a very unpopular position: I think nü metal has some value as a genre and is surprisingly influential.

Are you STILL reading?

Nü metal is probably the most maligned sub genre in all of metal. So much so that I would hazard to say that more people dislike it than hair metal. There are still people walking around that appreciate bands like Poison, Ratt, or Mötley Crüe, after all. I don’t know of anyone that still says: “Limp Bizkit, that’s my jam”.

But there was a time when people did say that. Limp Bizkit are multi-platinum selling artists, after all. They were one of the top draws in all of music, headlined Woodstock ‘99, and even toured with Metallica. People loved Limp Bizkit.

I’ll let that sink in a moment.

It wasn’t just Durst et. al. that filled arenas around the world: Korn, Linkin Park, Mudvayne, POD, Godsmack, Static-X, System of a Down, Disturbed, all were, and in some cases still are, huge concert draws. Just look up some of the pictures of System of Down’s show in Yerevan, Armenia, back in 2015. Something, something, a joke about crowd sizes, amiright?! Does anyone have any doubt that if SOAD announced a tour tomorrow that it wouldn’t sell out? (Before we get too far away from Limp Bizkit, I should probably mention that Wes Borland is actually pretty popular in Indonesia)

I’d even go so far as to argue that most metalheads that lived through the nü metal years actually like at least one band from those times. Sound crazy? How do you feel about, say, Mudvayne (Dig)? Static-X (Push It, I’m With Stupid), Slipknot (Wait and Bleed), System of a Down (any song)? Maybe nü metal isn’t so bad.

Obligatory disclaimer: that all being said there’s a ton of Nü Metal that is just awful. Back to Limp Bizkit: Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water hasn’t aged well at all. POD. Papa Roach. Freaking Crazy Town.

There’s a lot of bad nü metal out there.

But we’ve gotten off topic. The whole point of this article is to talk about nü metal as still remaining valid and influential to modern metal, after all, so let’s explore that. Let’s start with definitions.

Quick: if I asked you “what is it that musically differentiates nü metal from other types of metal,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Probably rapping, right? But not all nü metal acts rap. Korn doesn’t. Orgy doesn’t. So what else?

I think there are 4 major descriptors—aside from rapping—that we can use to define the genre: heavily syncopated riffs, song structure/length borrowed from pop, angsty or self-reflective song lyrics, vocal centric while musically riff- and beat-driven.

Let’s break this down a bit starting with syncopation.

Syncopation is a musical term that refers to emphasizing the off beats in a piece of music. Most music emphasizes what are known as downbeats. When you hear a song and start tapping along, your usually counting out groups 4 taps and hitting a little bit harder on the first beat. That first beat is a downbeat. The groups of 4 tell us the song is written in 4/4 time. Sometimes in addition to the hard beat on the 1, you’ll also do a hard beat on the 3. This is still considered a “normal” or conventional beat.

In a syncopated song, the downbeats are played on the 2nd and 4th beats instead of the 1st and 3rd. This gives the song a bit of a bouncy feel. And syncopation is all over nü metal. Check out Linkin Park’s “Crawling” and Static-X’s “I Want to Break It” in the linked playlist to really hear this at work.

Let’s talk song structure: nü metal typically borrows a really basic song structure that comes straight out of pop that is known as AABABCBB. If you break a typical pop song down into different parts and assign those parts a letter, you get this formula. Essentially “A” are the verses, “B” the chorus, and “C” the bridge or breakdown. Many pop songs will set their songs up to have do an extra long first verse, a quick and catchy chorus, a shorter second verse, a quick and catchy chorus, a bridge, and then back to the chorus (sometime played twice) to close out the song. It’s an easy formula that makes songs pretty memorable. Especially if you have a catchy chorus.

Let’s take Korn’s “Freak on a Leash” as an example. We have the intro riff which rolls right into the first verse (8 lines). After a short prechorus (“sometimes...”), it rolls into the chorus (something takes a part of me), right into a short second verse (4 lines), prechorus, chorus, a two-part bridge with Jonathan Davis scatting, followed by a variation on a double long chorus to close out the song. Formulaically, the song goes: AAABCABCDECF, which is really, really close to the pop song formula.

Most other nü metal acts tend to follow the same basic song pattern with some variations. Mudvayne’s “Determined” front loads the chorus at the very beginning of the song. So does Slipknot’s “Wait and Bleed”. But they all tend to at least superficially follow the same pattern that artists from The Beatles to Ariana Grande have utilized for decades.

Next are the lyrics. Nü metal borrows it’s angst directly from grunge. Lyrically, the genre is very inwardly focused, often touching on depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress, and in the moment emotions. Now this is certainly not unique to nü metal compared to other genres of metal, but let’s be honest: nü metal takes it to a whole different level of superficiality. While there are countless songs about being angry, Linkin Park will often dive into the underlying emotions driving that anger. It’s an extremely self-reflective genre that was perfect for the postmodernist late-90’s.

Finally, nü metal is vocal centric and riff and beat driven. We already talked beats so let’s leave that aside. As for riffs, the songs are constructed usually around 1 distinctive riff. While a lot of metal will try to use multiple riffs in a song (ahem, Between the Buried and Me). Nü metal keeps it simple, using 1 riff and several variations to drive the music. We’ll use Sevendust’s “Praise” as the example here. We’re hit with the main riff right at the very beginning of the song. From there we hear constant variations pop up throughout the rest of the tune. It’s under the verses. It is the riff the makes up first prechorus. A third variation is under the second prechorus. Over and over: variations on a theme. I should say that Sevendust are really good at squeezing everything they can out of riff to pull off a catchy song. But it underscores the point, the songs are constructed around 1 catchy riff.

As for the vocals: they’re front and center. In Death metal, the vocals often compliment the instrumentation. The growled vocals mimic the distortion of the guitars. In nü metal, the vocals are brought up in the mix. You hear every word.

All these thing combine to make nü metal. Compared to other parts of metal one thing is really, really clear: nü metal borrows a TON from pop, grunge, and hip hop. In fact, it borrows the best parts of all 3. It is a genre that is distinctly ripe for commercialization. And woooo boy was it commercialized. Which, let’s be honest, is probably why most metalheads hate it: it pays lip service to “heaviness” while throwing in with pop sensibilities. It feels artificial and at times frankly juvenile. And sometimes, the bands themselves are just awful and untalented: looking at you again, Crazy Town.

But! Nü metal has a legacy, and it’s not all bad. There are still acts that are selling out arenas and inspiring the next generation of musicians. Slipknot is probably THE gateway band for heavy music today, and their music still sells. Their 2014 release, “.5: The Gray Chapter” was rock solid. System of a Down are in limbo pending the return of Serj Tankian, but let’s be honest, they are one of the most beloved and respected bands in heavy music in the world, even though they haven’t released a record in 13 years. Linkin Park we’re past their heyday when Chester Bennington sadly took his own life, but they were still actively writing new music and regularly touring (and say what you want about LP, they put on a great live show). Finally, most metalheads like to forget Machine Head’s foray into nü metal, but no one can argue their importance to metal today, especially following 2007’s “The Blackening”.

We like to think of all these bands as somehow being separated from the utter nonsense of other nü metal acts—a friend used the term nü metal-adjacent. But they built their fan bases from among the angsty kids of the late 90’s early 00’s. They drove record sales in the days before Napster and file sharing. They kept MTV musically-relevant for years longer than it probably otherwise would have been. And they introduced a new generation to heavy music. I’ll put it out here: I listened to Korn and Slipknot well before I listened to In Flames, let alone any black metal. I’ve covered System of Down songs in my own bands and I still jam out to Static-X.

Nü metal is a lot of things to a lot of different people. It’s divisive, juvenile, self-absorbed, and often superficial in its song writing and lyrics. It reeks of consumerism. But it also birthed some of the most influential artists in heavy music and left an important mark on the history of metal. Maybe we can redirect the hate that we would normally throw at the genre as a whole back to where it belongs: at Fred Durst.

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radramblog · 3 years

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Album Discussion- Nonagon Infinity

Last week I said I was going to do the next album discussion on something I unequivocally liked. This might have been a comment made in haste, seeing as I know gushing isn’t the easiest thing in the world for me, but I’m going to commit to that.

When I was looking through albums I’m super in to, I kept finding ones where it was like…oh I’d want to go through all of that artist’s work. Despite the fact that I absolutely will not be able to do that in a reasonable time frame. But when I came across King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard again, I realised that this was the one group that there was absolutely no way I could cover all the material. If only because by the time I finished they’d have three more albums out.

Thus, we’re going to talk about their incredible 2016 album, Nonagon Infinity. The album’s title refers to its nature, as it’s a 9-track album in which every single song flows into each other- and the final track leads back into the first. Thus, the songs are like a nonagon…that goes infinitely…

…look it’s a banger, okay?

The first track, Robot Stop, opens with the album title. It opens the door. Wait for the answer that opens the door. Et cetera.

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YEEWWWWWWWW

Robot Stop was the first King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard song I ever listened to. And it’s a hell of an opening statement, especially considering I was almost entirely unfamiliar with psychedelic rock in general. This track is fuzzier than a kiwi and about twice as confusing on first listen- there’s so much going on here. The vocals are a word salad, there’s like a dozen guitar lines and drum bits (this is a good time to mention that the band has two drummers), there’s like a harmonica or something blaring in the background…if you’re an ADHD person like me, then trust me- this is going to hold your attention. It is kind of impressive how, even with the conceit of the album, that they were able to make a track that works so well as an opener. Even as the track gets to some of its later points and calms down a bit, there’s still a bunch of playing around with different melodies and beats. It’s an excellent setter for the album as a whole, basically, because this doesn’t stop having things happen.

At a point that might be imperceptible to first-time listeners or those not paying super close attention, we shift into track number 2: Big Fig Wasp. You may notice that the riff that opens the song was in fact present as part of Robot Stop- this is something about the album’s theme that I didn’t mention in the intro- songs will share or borrow melodies or sometimes entire sections from other tracks on the album, making the whole feel even more cohesive and fluid. Indeed, Big Fig Wasp repeats an entire chunk of Robot Stop wholesale later on in the song. This does, however, have the issue where some of the tracks end up being hard to talk about individually, and in some cases, hard to appreciate individually. What I’m basically saying is that, as much as I like Big Fig Wasp, it’s kind of just Robot Stop Part Two. It has a similar energy and tempo, and is built around a very similar riff, structure, and sound. If you like Robot Stop, you’ll probably like Big Fig Wasp! But I can’t imagine preferring this of the two, if only because it’s the one you hear second.

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Gamma Knife, on the other hand, has a very distinct transition into what could arguably be called a more standardly structured song. However, if you thought you were escaping the madness and word salad of the previous tracks, you’d be wrong- this is a theme that will be continuing for the whole album. This track has a very great moment when you realize that the bar that’s been repeating for a bit, oh they are just going to keep doing that, and letting the drummers solo over that shit, hell yeah, and it stops right before the point where it would overstay its welcome to let the track get back to its roots before it finishes. Gamma Knife could be considered one of the better tracks on the album, actually, and I’m not sure if I’ve managed to communicate that properly… but it’s quite good!

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And we get a very menacing transition into our fourth song, People-Vultures. The song sounds much darker than the rest of the album, with a very subtle background organ adding this eerie edge to the whole thing, and the more grotesque lyrics. There’s some real gripping riffs in this track, with the instrumentation having this one-two-one-two in some places that just keeps the whole thing going throughout the way. I don’t have much to say about People-Vultures, but it’s just a very good track from this album. Enough that they chose to, erm, use its opening again two albums later. But with Vulture noises over it. Murder of the Universe was weird.

And then we get to…Mr Beat. I’m going to be honest, this track is kinda the black sheep of the album. It has none of the energy or vibe carried by the rest of the songs, it doesn’t carry or borrow much in the lyrics or tone, and it’s largely just…boring. It has a fun time signature, I suppose, giving it this off-kilter feel, but it’s just so bleh. I think if this song was independent of the album I wouldn’t be so harsh on it, but it’s a weird break in the middle of what is a real rush of a ride, so it feels very awkward here.

Things pick back up with Evil Death Roll, our sixth song on the list and by far the longest. This is owing to a huge section with the instrumental leading into the chorus of the next track, as well as the Nonagon Infinity…chorus…mantra…thing. The majority of the track, however, is instrumental, and it’s a quite solid instrumental overall- it has a bit where all but one of the instruments (no I don’t fucking know what it is) fades out and just that one little riff loops for a while, and its surprisingly serene, before eeeeverything fades back in and all the energy returns, but it’s with this almost calm undertone, as the song shifts into a more normal time signature. And then Stu screams.

Invisible Face is our next track that got its thunder stolen a bit by Evil Death Roll. Fortunately, that chorus is surprisingly not the majority of the track- instead, like that song, it has a lot of instrumental, though in this case it’s a surprisingly quiet, almost jazzy section, with light cymbals and meandering melodies. By this point, the sizzling energy of the early album has vanished, but unlike with Mr. Beat, it feels earned here. Without that track, it would be a steady slow to this point, a smooth transition from track to track that decelerates almost imperceptibly over 30-ish minutes. Alas. Invisible Face is the low point of the album- not in quality, obviously, but in energy, and it does represent both sides of that parabola- its leadin to the next track the beginning of the final tracks’ reacceleration.

Penultimately, we have Wah Wah. I kinda always forget this track exists, but to be fair, it’s the shortest song on the album. Where many of the other songs were steadily falling, Wah Wah is an upwards motion in pitch and tempo, and features this very interesting swaying sort of vocal style in the verses as a result of the funky time signature being used. Like with Evil Death Roll, it does pinch the final track’s instrumentation briefly, but it’s at least quick about it. Wah Wah feels kind of like a transition song, but that’s okay, and what it does have to offer is quite pleasant- I always forget just how great that third verse sounds.

Finally, we have Road Train, potentially the grittiest track on the album. True to its name, the song’s instrumentation sounds like a locomotive, drums rhythmically pounding like the wheels, and guitar chugging along with the engine. It’s also quick for how quiet it is relative to the first couple songs, with the dark instrumentation making the whole thing some kind of distantly disquieting feel. I get the feeling we aren’t supposed to feel like we’re on the train, rather that it’s bearing down on us. Or that it’s just kind of abstractly there in some sort of hellish environment. Road Train is extremely hella, but of course, it doesn’t quire end there- after effectively saying its piece, the song starts to build slowly (enough that it still feels natural) until it’s quick enough and loud enough to break into the instrumentation from Robot Stop. Because the album isn’t over! It goes on and on and on and on and on….

That (technically) concludes Nonagon Infinity. The album is probably my favourite of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s offerings, which are all very solid (at least, all the ones I’ve heard), and has the acclaim and awards to prove it. It’s kind of the logical conclusion of an album album, as opposed to a singles album, such that it’s difficult to reasonably separate any of the songs from the whole. Like, there’s a lot of albums that people will tell you that you can’t take a song out of context from, but the fluid nature of Nonagon makes it stick together in a way that you really can’t effectively separate them. Which does give it a disadvantage in the long run, because it’s not every day you want to sit down and listen to a full album, especially when you have so many good ones you like.

On the other hand, for me, Nonagon Infinity opened the door to not just King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, but aussie psych-rock as a whole. It was basically a gateway drug vis-à-vis hard rock, being arguably the band’s heaviest album (at the time, obviously Infest the Rat’s Nest exists). And I’m always going to remember it for that.

#ramble #music #king gizzard and the lizard wizard #kgatlw #nonagon infinity

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aja154ever · 7 years

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Miyano Mamoru「THE LOVE」12 Songs Self-Liner

The first album released in 2 years, 6th album「THE LOVE」

12 songs facing the big theme of love head-on

My attempt on translation. Interview article from Anican Vol. 184

1. EVER LOVE

First of all, I told the composer Jin Nakamura-san the feelings that I wanted to put into this album, and that I wanted to begin it with a suitably happy one. I also told him things like the brightness of the melody, the tempo that I wanted for the rhythm, and so on. I wanted to personally convey my feelings of gratitude so I wrote the lyrics myself but when I met with Jin-san, it wasn’t in the precise form yet. So when I listened to the finished song, I felt that I was able to take it from the things we have discussed together.

2. SHOUT!

This song involves sighs, breaths, and the like, which were done when I was preparing and checking the condition of my voice for the recording. I have worked with STY-san regularly and this is not to say that this was done secretly (laughs), but there are times when the recorded sounds are later used in impressive parts. So when I first heard the finished work, I still get surprised saying, “So this one was used on this part.”

3. 恋されガール

Singing about the blossoming of love, it turned out to be a very pure and lovely dance number. This is a really cute song so I want to make it feel like a world in a shoujo manga. The story goes like, because I love that girl so much, even if the people around say things like “Why that girl?”, I know that this girl is lovely more than anyone else.

4. Now and Forever

I worked on a dance sound that I have never done before. I created this one while thinking how nice it would be for this to be a song that can be expressed coolly in a live. The theme is “Believing is love.” Freeing oneself from the darkness, precisely because there is someone who believes, and heading towards the light – it’s that kind of outlook.

5. Uhh

The title may be unique but this “uhh” expresses the youthful and quite festive vibe of summer. This album was released in time for summer so I wanted to put in a fittingly refreshing song. In addition, from the moment I got this song, I thought, “This is a song in celebration of getting a driver’s license” (laughs). I have also wanted a drive song so I’m glad that I was able to do it this time.

6. HOW CLOSE YOU ARE

This is the ED song of the TV series “Ajin”, but under the「THE LOVE」theme, when you hear this song you would think, “Ah, this is a song about love” and I felt like hearing another good aspect of it. At first, when this song was being composed, I was conflicted if the word “love” should be put in it. After all, in the series, the aspect of friendship was prominent. But then I thought that the relationship between friends, the involvement with the people within your circle, is also love. When I realized that, I no longer got conflicted with putting a strong word such as love in the song. Now when this song got included in this album and as I listened to it again, I was convinced once more that putting the word love was a good thing.

7. Space Travellers

It may sound intense with the speed, but during live performances, this kind of songs becomes important. “That’s really cool!” was my reaction when I first heard this. It’s like… it makes you think that something unexpected will happen as the intro gets your ears captivated. According to DJ first, he composed this song with the grandeur of game music in mind.

8. テンペスト

As the OP song of the anime Uta no Prince Sama Maji Love Legend Star, I wrote this while thinking of the important people involved in the series. Now that I think about it, that is precisely love. This was written in collaboration with Agematsu Noriyasu-san. While my style is to put bold feelings as is into words, Agematsu-san’s words add to the poetic element. To do that and create one musical piece together is a relationship of trust, and I think that is also love.

9. 僕のマニュアル

Up to now, the songs I have produced with Ishikawa-san have an inclination to jazz. In line with that, this time we have created a number with a Showa-like mood, but actually has a black music feel in it. The result was a song with a nostalgic and gorgeous feel in it.

10. 愛溢れる

With the theme of unconditional love, this was actually made in time when the lyricist and composer Yushio-san was carrying a child in her womb. I really wanted to sing a song on family love on this album, and while also borrowing Yushio-san’s feelings, this song was created. It is precisely because of that time that the irreplaceable feelings could be felt, and the overflowing love was made into a song.

11. The Birth

This is the theme song of Ajin’s final movie. In the album, I felt how this one is overflowing with energy and resonated as a very powerful song. Though this is about liberation from suppression, I think that one can never arrive there without love. This song was put on the 11th so that as the end of the album nears, the rising feeling of wanting to love more could be felt.

12. POWER OF LOVE

As a song to embellish the end of the album, I wanted it to be one where bond can be felt. Sound-wise, I wanted it to have a gospel tune. I also have the thought that in the live, everyone would join their voices and sing together. I think that because of the connections I have with the people I meet during live performances, and those who have been supporting me, I have been able to do all these things. And so I want us to sing together as “Love becomes power.” Through soulful and powerful singing, I would be glad if the feelings would reach you.

Billboard at Takadanobaba station, Tokyo

Translation and photos mine. For similar original posts, you may follow me or track the #my original content or #my works tag on my blog.

#miyano mamoru #seiyuu #the love #anican #seiyuu translation #my original content #my works

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jentehj · 7 years

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On Lorde, Green Light and how I refound my love for pop music

I’m in love with Lorde’s new single. I’m in love with Lorde herself, really. To me, she’s an immensely strong wave of fresh air bursting through the pop genre. A genre that, if we’re honest, we all adore, but are too afraid to admit. We call Britney’s Toxic a guilty pleasure, but really, do we actually feel guilty? No. We know it’s an anthem, it’s a legendary song and we all love it and we all know it.

But somewhere around age 13, when the hormones started kicking in and we wanted to impress the boys in 9th grade, we felt the pressure to be different. Different from other girls, because girls are superficial creatures obsessed with fake things like makeup and Lady GaGa. We weren’t allowed to like pop music, because it wasn’t real music. And so we all went through a post-punk or emo or grunge phase, because those bands had men in them, and men made real music about deep stuff - not to discredit that phase, the bands I listened to around age 14 shaped me in ways I will never forget.

And then we were shamed for that too - because we didn’t like that music for the music, we were just in love with the singer with the incredibly sharp jawline or the bassist with the huge arms. Personally, I felt like I wasn’t allowed to just be passionate about music, because my passion would never seem real to the scrawny, penis-bearing, acne-struck creatures that were always a little too loud in class.

Then I heard a song on the radio. It was definitely pop music, but it was different, the kind of different I’d been looking for since I found out my taste in things wasn’t good enough. Through Royals, I found out that pop music wasn’t a defined genre, it didn’t have to be “fake” or “superficial”, it was something able to engage with other genres and create something new. And it could be about real things - it didn’t have to be about trashing hotelrooms, diamond watches and jet planes. Rowan Blanchard put it into words perfectly last week: it was when I realized pop music could be poetry too. There’s always the Art Bros telling girls that pop music isn’t real, but Lorde’s music made us feel like this was for us. It was made for us to enjoy and not be shamed for.

This made me fall in love with pop music and female musicians all over again. I discovered a few things during this phase. First, pop music is art. Pop songs are incredibly well-constructed works of art that appeal to people because of their universal meaning. While the Art Bros in 9th grade thought this to be superficial, I think it’s brilliant. When someone writes something that manages to speak to people of all ages and cultures, they’ve made something very special. Second of all, genres are bullshit. I found out that every artists is influenced by dozens of different bands and artists, even by art that isn’t music. I found out that within pop, there were tons of artists who borrowed from the other genres and artists that I liked and they all had a tiny part of me in their music, it seemed. Because of Lorde, I discovered artists like Grimes, HAIM, Chet Faker, Troye Sivan, Sky Ferreira, MO, James Blake, Banks, London Grammar, Empress Of, Florence + The Machine, and many, many more. The third thing I realized was that female musicians were badass. I fell in love with them like the 13 year old me fell in love with Alex Turner’s skilled hands. I fell in love with Alana Haim, Florence Welch, Jenny Lee Lindberg, and Ellie Rowsell, because they brought a female perspective to their music, which I connected to on a way higher level than I ever did to lyrics by male artists.

Lastly, I refound my love for pop music. I found out that all the artists I loved when I was 11 had worked with producers and songwriters that my favorite indie hipster bands worked with as well, and vice versa. I learned about all the samples from 80s pop that were used in contemporary music and I learned that the instrumental to Rihanna’s Drunk On Love was actually The XX’s hipster-anthem Intro. Lorde’s music had reconnected me to pop music, and I wasn’t gonna call it my guilty pleasure anymore - Nelly Furtado’s Loose was just as much art as alt-J’s An Awesome Wave. I went into kind of a nostalgic phase (during this time, I also watched an extensive amount of Gossip Girl): I dug up songs that had memories attached to them, by Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears, Shakira, The Pussycat Dolls, Katy Perry, Flo-Rida, Timbaland, Beyoncé, Fergie, Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, and all the other stuff I knew by heart when I was 8, 9, or 10. I now feel like it doesn’t matter whether a song is real or not, whether a team of professional songwriters, producers and someone who’s very skilled at autotuning were behind it or if it was written by a guy with a guitar in a basement. All that matters is that you connect to it, or that you can have fun while listening to it, that you can dance like crazy to it and make memories to the sound of that song.

I became obsessed with Lorde and listened to her EP on repeat in class and on the bus and at home and I saw myself in her, in her words and sounds. And that was so important to me, because until then, the pop songs I knew were about long lost love, about sex, big parties - great songs, but it was all about stuff that I didn’t relate to at all at age 14. Lorde’s music was about friends, fun, finding romance in the little things. Pure Heroine was the ultimate ode to my life, to being bored, to observing the world around you and to laughing until your ribs get tough. While 5 Seconds Of Summer was singing about how “she looks so perfect”, Lorde told me about her friends with “their skin in craters, like the moon”. It was so refreshing to hear a peer collecting the moments that were pivotal to my childhood and express them in a way I’d never heard before.

I’ve listened to Pure Heroine so much since then, mostly while travelling or doing nothing, and it still sounds as fresh and exciting as it did in 2013. Now that Green Light has come out, I feel like I’m growing up alongside her. I was 14, she was 17 when she released Pure Heroine. It was an album about teenagers and the life they lived, a life I was only just starting to get familiar with. Now I’m 17, and Ella is 21. I moved out of my parents’ house to the biggest city in my country, I’m going to college now, I’m drinking alcohol more often than once a year on NYE, and I’m growing up. Meanwhile, Ella has travelled around the world, became besties with Taylor Swift and was crowned “The Future of Music” by none other than the late David Bowie. It’s a different kind of growing up, but it’s growing nonetheless.

She wrote in a very impressive Facebook post that she “started to discover in a profound, scary, blood-aching way who I was when I was alone, what I did when I did things only for myself. I was reckless and graceless and terrifying and tender. I threw sprawling parties and sat in restaurants until the early hours, learning what it’s like to be an adult, even talking like one sometimes.” Again, I relate to her situation so much, even though we are in completely different situations. I, and I think many people of my age, spend much more time alone than we did in our teenage years. It’s scary and at the same time amazing to discover who you are when you’re like that. And I still feel like Lorde has this amazing connection to her generation, we all have the same feelings of fear and loneliness and euphoria sometimes, and she puts them into music.

So when I heard Green Light, again, it felt like it was about me, like it was written for me. Sure, it’s a song about heartbreak and lost love, but for me, it’s also about letting go who you were, about finding out your true self and not wanting to leave the other you behind just yet. Because it’s scary. She manages to make a song with a theme that’s been a pop cliché since forever feel relatable, accessible, comfortable, which is the biggest strength in her songwriting. Her mind has evolved when it comes to both sound and lyrics, but that essential part of her music has stayed. I can’t wait to hear more.

@lordemusic if you ever read this, thank you so much.

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729renegades · 5 years

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UP CLOSE & PERSONAL – TOM DEAN

Hello and welcome to another edition of Up Close & Personal for the Renegade magazine. I think it’s fair to say that we have a bit of a young superstar with us today. It’s not all stale and grey here in Renegades. I first met this guy about 12 months ago and was super impressed with his thinking and maturity. He’s truly a great guy and normally whatever comes out of his mouth makes perfect sense. So, let’s hope that happens today. . . From a very profitable paper round to a manufacturing apprenticeship, he’s lived the story from shop floor to boardroom. He’s had a rental property from the age of 21 and he just got married this year, so it’s been a big year for him. I think it’s fair to say, he’s the youngest old bloke I know. He has the level of thinking and experience of a 50-year-old but he’s only 26. He’s the Managing Director of Screentec, a screen and digital print company employing 26 staff in the back end of the Rhondda Valley, in Ferndale. Where men are men, women are men and sheep are scared. I’m allowed to say that obviously because I’m Welsh. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to the Prince of Print, Tom Dean. How’s tricks Tom?

Tom Dean: Yea, not bad buddy. As busy as ever.

Steve Matthews: How’d you like my intro?

TD: That was the best intro… In fact, I might borrow this recording just to play it for my Mrs.

SM: Yea, get a bit of kudos in the house. Put it on your Facebook profile… Listen to this, it’s all true. So, come on, normally in these interviews we have 30 years of job experience to go through before we get to anything decent and why your part of Renegades. But you’ve got about 8, so we should be done in about 10 minutes. So, tell us how it all started, tell us about that paper round. Where did it all begin for you Tom?

TD: It all began in school. I never really had a firm idea of exactly what I wanted to do through school. My thoughts and opinions changed like the weather. . . I wanted to be a firefighter because I liked the athleticism of that and I thought they earned good money.

SM: Nothing to do with all the girls screaming when they turned up?

TD: No, I get that anyway! Then I wanted to be a plumber, because again I thought they earned good money. You’ll notice a theme, whatever career I wanted to do, it had to revolve around money. But my opinion changed a lot and so whilst I realised I had to do well at school, or I thought I had to do well at school and get good grades; it was more because I wanted my options to be open than to have any particular passions, other than sport. The sad realisation that I wasn’t going to make it as a professional football player came at the age of 13, so I knew I was going to have to find a proper job.

SM: So, you’re not playing for Liverpool this year?

TD: No, unfortunately not.

SM: Let’s not talk about Liverpool or we’ll fill a whole hour with Liverpool. So, no professional sports then?

TD: No, the closest I ever got was trials with Cardiff. I remember my Dad sitting me down and saying, ” Look, if you want to make it as a footballer and you want to play for Cardiff, you’re going to have to dedicate your time to them. They do training courses 3 or 4 times a week and I’ll happily take you to them”. This was when I was about 10 or 11 but I just wanted to be out playing with the boys, so I passed on the opportunity to do that. Growing up I never wanted for anything, I was quite fortunate on that regard. If I had a football under my arm, that’s all I needed, I’d be out for the day. But one thing I did always have, was an interest in money. I always wanted my own money and to save. So, when a friend of mine, who was a year older, got a job in the local newsagents, I was fascinated by it. He was bringing home his own money, he never had to worry or ask Mam or Dad for it. So, from the age of 12 I knew I wanted to be a paper boy and went to the local newsagents. He was great, as soon as you were 13 he gave you the opportunity to work and he’d let you work whatever hours you wanted. So, for the most money you’d actually have to be in the shop by 4:45 am to start writing the addresses on the papers. There were maybe only 5 or 6 boys willing to wake up that early. So, I was up at 4:30 am.

SM: Most people that age don’t even know there are two half fours in the day.

TD: Tell me about it. I had a twin brother sleeping in the same room and my alarm was going off at 4:30 am. He absolutely despised me for that for about 3 years. But it was great. This owner must have had 20-25 kids on the books, he paid well, he appreciated hard work and the longer you were there, the more you were paid. When I started I was earning about £40 a week, but I was doing 3 hours a day, 7 days a week. By the time I finished, for the same amount of hours, I was earning over £100 a week. I pulled my weight and if any of the boys had any questions, they came and asked me. So, that was my paper round and I loved it. It was a hard slog, especially with the bad weather in Wales but I loved the fact that I never had to ask anyone for money. I had a little pot of savings because as I said, I never wanted for anything, so I never really used to spend it. I used to have a £100 a week that went straight in the bank.

SM: You were probably too tired to, in bed by 6 every night after Blue Peter.

TD: I think only one day my parents didn’t let me go to school, because I came in from my paper round in the snow, absolutely knackered and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. They were red raw, and my Mother said, “I can’t send you into school like that”. But it was a great opportunity. Loved the fact that I could work and earn a living and then I never really looked back. I knew I’d have that job for as long as I wanted it. Then when I was 16, I was just taking my A levels. This will show you that I didn’t know what I really wanted to do. I took biology, maths, law and business studies, which was quite a spread-out mix. I enjoyed maths because I never really had to work particularly hard at it and I was good at it. Business just interested me in general, law was one of those that you can make a good career out of, and biology, just because of the element of sport and athleticism that went with it. But at that time, Dave and Darren who were running Screentec, realised that they had a load of other irons in the fire and they wanted to build a succession plan. Essentially work their way out of Screentec so they could focus on their other business interests. I was about 4 or 5 months into my A levels I think and wasn’t particularly enjoying it, but because I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do, I stuck it out. And when that opportunity came up, Dave asked if it would be something I’d be interested in, I said, “yes, definitely”. It was a step in the right direction of being a senior manager in a company, and that really interested and excited me. Unfortunately, the conditions were, that you had to work from the bottom up. So, it was sweeping the floors and general lacky. I can’t tell you the amount of times I was sent to get a glass hammer or a tin of tartan paint, but it was good. It was great for me and I think it set me up really well because other employees had respect for me. It wasn’t as if I was going in as a manager straight away, I didn’t have a clue. I knew I had to move between each aspect of the business… Digital print, screen print, pvc welding, print finishing.

SM: We’ll come onto Screentec in a sec but there’s a couple of things I want to talk about. . . For a start, people who are listening around the globe at this, don’t understand the perils of being a paperboy in Ferndale for a start.

TD: Porth actually.

SM: Even worse. Obviously, you had to carry a weapon with you… A rolled-up newspaper in your case. But for me, I think people will marvel at the fact, a young guy getting up at 4:30 in the morning, 7 days a week. It shows a massive independence and a work ethic. Do you think that stood you apart from the rest of the guys?

TD: Yea, I think so. A lot of my mates used to think I was crazy but then the minute we go out and I buy a pair of trainers or something, they wanted to know where I got the money from. Many of them had the opportunity and got a job within the company but only lasted a couple of months. Two of my close friends lasted as long as I did, but they were willing to work at it.

SM: It’s amazing though isn’t it. I wonder if we could get away with that now? Everything is so politically correct now. Like you said, you were working 3 hours a day, 7 days a week and getting paid £40. I wonder if they could do that now?

TD: Yea… I don’t actually know what the rules were.

SM: I think that’s sad though isn’t it, it must teach you so much but how many perspective employers are put off from doing that because of bureaucracy legislation.

TD: It is. I remember having to fight for that job. Not with the employer, he was happy to hire me. But I had to fight with my Mam and Dad. My Dad was an easier sell than my Mother, but they didn’t want me to wake up at 4:30 in the morning because it would affect my schooling. And they thought I wouldn’t make the money I said I would. So, I said, “let me try it for a month and if I’m coming home tired and not making the money, I’ll stop”. And it was fine, but I had to put some work in for my parents to allow me to have that job. . .

To listen to article… http://bit.ly/2PGCRSF

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