Labrinth

T

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
But I mean most of the music we like on this forum doesn't base itself on climax but pulse, groove.

how about


Not saying I'd ever play this, mind. But its tendencially interesting.
 
mixed_biscuits

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
linebaugh said:
I dont always like turning suspended's music threads into a 'why this music is bad' thread but its legitimately how I feel so here goes.


I had a thought recently about 'special Fx music,' Im not sold on the name as its confusing, but my point is that tons of modern music has these extraneous, non musical ideas sprinkled in that function a lot like certain special effects do in movies- they don't exactly add anything to the plot, character building, cinematography or etc., the 'pure' aspects of cinema for lack of a better phrase, they only exist as ways to manufacture a feeling of excitement, its manipulation essentially. The most obvious example I can think of is when a rock song, just before the final chorus, will cut away all the instruments and then the singer will whisper the final lines through a telephone filter voice effect right before the song explodes again for the climactic chorus part. its not really a 'musical' idea you see.

When I listen to that labrinth song thats all I hear. The song sounds like an advertisement for itself. Little musical accoutrements that got popular over the past 10 years slapped atop of a song that has no real ideas beyond 'what if a song sounded tense and triumphant.' the clean grand piano over a trap beat, the loungey, too cool to care delivery of the singer, distorted soul samples swith hard chops, a vaguely dubstep outro, it even has those same articicial volume dynamics akin to what I described in that first paragragh. It sounds like a movie trailer feels and not in a good way
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Finneas' production tutorials have him use lots of these little tricks but in his case he generally tries to make them thematically and musically apt.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
thirdform said:
But I mean most of the music we like on this forum doesn't base itself on climax but pulse, groove.

how about


Not saying I'd ever play this, mind. But its tendencially interesting.
Click to expand...
this is absolutely brilliant. btw wtf is 'tendencially'????
 
T

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
luka said:
this is absolutely brilliant. btw wtf is 'tendencially'????
Click to expand...

I'm curious as to your hatred for edging.

That was introduced to me by my fellow blind mate in British Colombia (vancouver) when we used to chat on msn messenger in year 10.

I don't know much about this stuff @Pearsall is probably your go to person for that. I know about some of the 90s stuff, but not the ultra modern, pristine poppers every 16 bars gear.

I tried to distort it for one of my mixes so that it served as a kind of ghostmemory amongst the noise but it's just far too cleanly produced, as is most hard trance/hard style/whatever they fucking call it these days.
 
M

mvuent

Void Dweller
linebaugh said:
I dont always like turning suspended's music threads into a 'why this music is bad' thread but its legitimately how I feel so here goes.


I had a thought recently about 'special Fx music,' Im not sold on the name as its confusing, but my point is that tons of modern music has these extraneous, non musical ideas sprinkled in that function a lot like certain special effects do in movies- they don't exactly add anything to the plot, character building, cinematography or etc., the 'pure' aspects of cinema for lack of a better phrase, they only exist as ways to manufacture a feeling of excitement, its manipulation essentially. The most obvious example I can think of is when a rock song, just before the final chorus, will cut away all the instruments and then the singer will whisper the final lines through a telephone filter voice effect right before the song explodes again for the climactic chorus part. its not really a 'musical' idea you see.

When I listen to that labrinth song thats all I hear. The song sounds like an advertisement for itself. Little musical accoutrements that got popular over the past 10 years slapped atop of a song that has no real ideas beyond 'what if a song sounded tense and triumphant.' the clean grand piano over a trap beat, the loungey, too cool to care delivery of the singer, distorted soul samples swith hard chops, a vaguely dubstep outro, it even has those same articicial volume dynamics akin to what I described in that first paragragh. It sounds like a movie trailer feels and not in a good way
Click to expand...
unfortunately we live in an awkward transitional phase in the history of western music. to put it very very crudely, timbre (“production quality”) is increasingly important whereas harmony (“music theory”) is increasingly unimportant. but arriving at, say, wagner's understanding of harmony took at least a millennium and in the west we’ve only really started to explore timbre within the last 50-70. to the frustration of pierre schaeffer, no one's yet been able to tame these possibilities into a coherent musical language. it may take thousands of years.

given how unknown the territory is, it’s no surprise that most pop musicians fumble with the new timbral options in a very tepid and superficial way. resulting in special fx music. unable or unwilling to extrapolate beyond their immediate cultural surroundings, they confusedly cling to an unexamined, increasingly vestigial division between “music” and “sound effects”—one which no doubt appeared quite clear cut back when daniel burnham ruled your city and “after the ball” was the most popular song in the world. but these categories are wildly inadequate tools in the contemporary musical landscape.
 
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