The Heavy

[pattycakes_]

@linebaugh did you ever see this thread?

The Depths

'Deep' means different things to different people. Let's have a thread where we post a piece of deep music and talk a bit about what makes it deep to you and why you like it. I'll start with one of my favourite recordings of all time Found this on a La Monte Young themed post back in the...

www.dissensus.com

Some crossover potential imo

 

[thirdform]

the stress/heavy movement relaxation dialectic united in dancehall.

 

[thirdform]

 

[woops]

Do not post videos with no explanation please

I think this should be permanently posted at the top of every single dissensus thread

 

[thirdform]

I think this should be permanently posted at the top of every single dissensus thread

no. no explanations until he stops slating our choices.that's how it goes.

 

[thirdform]

robo skank through the chest clinical minimal bassline. untold carnage.

 

[linebaugh]

no. no explanations until he stops slating our choices.that's how it goes.

you started the slating! thats most of your posts!

 

[thirdform]

you started the slating! thats most of your posts!

Well, Kate Bush is a tory, so alls fair in love and war.

 

[thirdform]

i mean imagine going on a forum of reggae heads and telling us to pimp catherine's m.f bass

 

[thirdform]

not sure if risible really covers it.

 

[thirdform]

What I think is interesting about the heavy is how immediate it is; immediate in the same way the emotional impact of a pop song is but typically left out of pop music. I think the bassline of this kate bush song is traditionally heavy but I cant think of many examples

why would you post that when you can post this. stick up for your own music dawg, stop fiddling with british perverts.


fucking fan-tas-tic, much better than that stupid warbling degenerate who can't hold a tune to save this pitiful islands life.

 

[shakahislop]

pre-lightning bolt, more diffuse, but that also means a greater focus on mutant punk-funk on crystal meth. corrigated blocks smashing into your chest.

i had no idea mindflayer involved the lightning bolt geezer, though its obvious now that you mention it. love this one. which i think while not a perfect example, at least not as dead on as the metal stuff (its no surprise that the metal stuff is the easiest example since i'd hazard a guess that this is where the term heavy comes from in the first place), it still does still have the heaviness in that shuddering bass and drum groove thing i think

 

[woops]

 

[thirdform]

i had no idea mindflayer involved the lightning bolt geezer, though its obvious now that you mention it. love this one. which i think while not a perfect example, at least not as dead on as the metal stuff (its no surprise that the metal stuff is the easiest example since i'd hazard a guess that this is where the term heavy comes from in the first place), it still does still have the heaviness in that shuddering bass and drum groove thing i think

i mean eyehategod of course, but i just cba with the vocals. Which is of course what you were saying upthread. As a black pop music fan its borderline impossible to take metal vocals seriously. when I was listening to metal in uni i would convince myself they were just texture/another instrument. Which is disingenuous really.

 

[thirdform]

I tend to detest this division between clever/intellectual music and gut level music. I think this is a middle class self-loathing coping mechanism. All music can be intellectual and visceral, well, maybe not serialism, but those lads wanted to escape any kind of repetition.

 

[shakahislop]

This is like extreme doom but with all the distortion replaced by blank, ringing space:

yeah i hadn't made that connection. if you took away the singing and ran those guitars through a few more pedals it would sound a lot like doom. there is something about slowness i think that creates that heavy feeling. probably not a coincidence that both doom and slowcore came around at the same time given that they both involve lads with guitars and increasingly plentiful pedals in - i think i'm right in saying - places far away from capital cities

on a geographical note to add to the historical, all of this does seem to be quite an anglo thing, certainly for the originators. it's hard to think of african or south asia south america, which are places which really have done modern-era musical innovation in my book, equivalents of the heavy thing. though obviously if you try to talk about the entire planet you're bound to have blind spots.

i don't think this counts as heavy though, if we are trying to find its boundaries.

 

[mvuent]

Im not talking about genres I literally am just talking about when songs use loud bass tones with the mids turned down and the treble turned up in conjunction with a certain set of usually lurching rhythms. I didnt want to say that because now the mystique is gone.

this is very reductive, but...

sound with bass frequencies = weighty object
loud sound with bass frequencies = weighty object imposing its weightiness on you: crushing, or comfortingly enveloping like a weighted blanket
taking out the distracting obfuscation of midrange and adding a sense of slowness or encumberedness of motion are ways to suppliment and intensify this quality, approaching the ideal of The Heavy

 

[thirdform]

this is very reductive, but...

sound with bass frequencies = weighty object
loud sound with bass frequencies = weighty object imposing its weightiness on you: crushing, or enveloping like a weighted blanket
taking out the distracting obfuscation of midrange and adding a sense of slowness or encumberedness of motion are ways to suppliment and intensify this quality, approaching the ideal of The Heavy

But metal is all midrange! Or to be more correct, it is the midrange frequencies that give the illusion of heaviness. You also have this in a lot of early 90s hardcore techno. There is bass, but it augments blaring midrange.

 

[shakahislop]

i mean eyehategod of course, but i just cba with the vocals. Which is of course what you were saying upthread. As a black pop music fan its borderline impossible to take metal vocals seriously. when I was listening to metal in uni i would convince myself they were just texture/another instrument. Which is disingenuous really.

i think we've talked about eyehategod before. for whatever reason i find his screaming convincing most of the time. it sounds a bit like he's being sick.

 

[thirdform]

But metal is all midrange! Or to be more correct, it is the midrange frequencies that give the illusion of heaviness. You also have this in a lot of early 90s hardcore techno. There is bass, but it augments blaring midrange.

a handy way to view the transition from 91-92-93 is to see the reintroduction of bass as the predominating element, hence it running at half time.