Gens
Database Moderator
Darude - Sandstorm, it's the only one that matters.
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Music Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Naga
- Start date
Darude - Sandstorm, it's the only one that matters.
ImmaToaster
New Member
i would have to disagree, but ok .3.
Naga
Well-Known Member
Sadly, I disliked most of EDM I've listened to.
IDM (although the name is pretentious as hell) clicks with me better - my favourite would probably be Oneohtrix Point Never. I like other forms of electronic music too, there's neo-classical electronic composers like Nicholas Jarr and Ryuichi Sakamoto, there's an amazing variety of plunderphonic releases since the 80s, including my favorite, Doopee Time.
But I really have no idea what's what when it comes to electronic - my biggest indication that something is brostep is annoying drops - and most of the time I really can't tell what's EDM, IDM (probably EDM that doesn't suck but I'm unsure), but I was familiar with Dubstep for a long time before it went to shit due to horrible influences that became synonymous with it.
__________
more importantly, new
A m e r i c
a n f o o t b a l l
hyped as fuck famalams! seminar math rock, emo godness return after 17 years, just in a proper time when I rediscovered my old love for emo. A m e r i c
a n f o o t b a l l
Grach
Well-Known Member
No EBM/dance industrial? Fo'shame
Lacimehc
Well-Known Member
Oh shit, the new Crystal Castles album just came out... and it sound so good~ I need that shit in my life! Actually, I keep forgetting to get the first one as well...
Honestly, I wouldn't even have been able to tell that Alice Glass is gone. The new singer sounds very similar.
Honestly, I wouldn't even have been able to tell that Alice Glass is gone. The new singer sounds very similar.
ZetsubouKaiji
Well-Known Member
Watching Stranger Things has made me think a lot about synthesizer and why they're so great for scifi and horror. I think it's because synthesizers are so good at conveying a sense of the unknown, both the wonderment of the unknown and the terror the unknown can inspire. Both sides on display in Stranger Things and the soundtrack is good at portraying both. When used well they can definitely inspire some unique feelings in me.
Naga
Well-Known Member
did someone say Traditional Synthesizer Music???? did I hear sci fi and horror esque undertones????
>inb4 it's not synths it's just breakcore wank on a modular
well that's what Stranger Things did and I think it's great
Taek
Well-Known Member
That's pretty awesome. Will definitely cop.
Great piece too, I'm digging more minimal stuff recently and this really fits in with that.
Taek
Well-Known Member
I need to have a relisten when my copy turns up, but the new Nick Cave album is probably going to be my AOTY. Crushing in its simplistic beauty, it's so rare to see this guy teetering right on the edge confronting such personal feelings of death and what it means to be alive. He suddenly seems so old to me.
Naga
Well-Known Member
It was almost the exact same feeling I got from listening to last Bowie. They're not too similar but they strike that similar tone in a sense that you're aware it's coming from personal experience.
Taek
Well-Known Member
My brother heard the song I Need You earlier today and realised he couldn't listen to the rest of the album yet as he can't deal with imagining the emotions of losing his 4 year old son.
Naga
Well-Known Member
Man, I tried to complete this for a while now and I only managed at the third attempt. It's by no means something I'd call "hard" to listen but you really need to be in a proper mood to take it completely. But do I like it? To be fair it's the strongest contender for AOTY out of all the albums I've heard this year, and there's a lot of competition - this is a pretty good year for music. It's not going to become my new Giles Corey or The Glow but that's really not relevant since there's so little chance that anything will, but there's a lot of new and different here to appreciate.
I like the motif of connections. Planetary interconnection "rings of Saturn", constant referencing to the world, calling from the phone, again wires, "Magneto", connections of nature - the guy is really building a picture of teleological world with meaningful and purposeful connections and somehow places himself so far out of the picture. It's like he's coping with how the world placed him in every of those situations, good and shitty ones, and what you're getting is the whole emotional process. The whole albums is a form of reflection and soul-searching for causes but all that's there is to find is bitterness. He blames everyone and everything including Jesus. He reflects on life, what mattered and what didn't. The more you get into it the more shitty you feel really. I personally feel terrible after I get too invested into sad life stories and this is a good example of it. It's really heartbreaking to see Nick feeling like nothing mattered compared to those few things he truly loved, and I probably agree with him. And losing those things put him where he is now, somewhere detached from the world order - it's an interesting way to portray the feeling of loss.
I'll have to listen to this more but shit I don't feel like it at all.
Funkgun
Forum Moderator
Being able to fabricate clicks and tones that are unnerving all the while a melodic tune dives into the mix, makes me think some of those synth heavy soundtracks were truly marvelous. Sure, some of this was because it was actually way cheaper to make a full soundtrack from 1 or 2 people and some variable instruments, but also creativity is almost at a high when you do not have a 91 piece orchestra at your disposal.
I know I am transported to a dystopic meropolitan future when I am trying to keep a beat to something like this:
*peeks around corner*
Are we still talking synths, modular or otherwise? I enjoy Aaron Funk's tune here with high regard.
It feels like he warped through to a dusty 70's studio lined to the walls in dials, switches, plugs and faders. In the corner is possibly Vangelis, asking, Modular, synthesizer, or both? Shall we go crazy with sequencing?
That tune recalls something like Spiral.
ZetsubouKaiji
Well-Known Member
Over produced is a pretty vague term that can mean a lot of things and it means something different today than it has in the past. However, if I had to put it simply then I'd say over production is not knowing when to leave well enough alone.
One part of it is adding in different elements to a song can make it a richer experience, but often elements are just thrown in with little thought for what they add to the song or how they change the song. Not every song needs a thudding electric drum track, different sound effects or vocal effects, background choruses or a lot of other things. In a lot of instances these extras don't add anything to the song, but just make it feel cluttered and confused.
Another part of it is overuse of autotune on both the music and the vocals can quickly strangle all of the personality out of a song. A little bit of autotune can go a long way because vocals and instruments don't have to be perfect to evoke an emotional response, but on the production side of things there's a drive to make everything sound perfect. However, we all know that too much autotune just makes the vocals emotionless robot noises.
On the autotune side of things I don't think that many examples are needed because we've all heard that. Just pick any Ke$ha song.
As for an example of adding in too much taking away from the song I'd go with his Disturbed's cover of the Sound of Silence.
The original version:
The Disturbed version:
Now this one starts out okay. When it's just Draiman and the piano it's not really horrendous. I don't care for his voice and don't think it has the same emotion as the original, but it's still pretty simple and clean, but then the song goes on and it throws in some orchestral stuff, bombastic drums. an acoustic guitar and Draiman starts belting out the lyrics in that deep growley voice and the song looses all the understated fragility of the original. It feels like a confused mess of too many different elements and it completely loses the feeling the original had.
There's also Sia's song Cheap Thrills. The song is pretty generic pop stuff about partying on the cheap. It's already got lots of effects bells and whistles, but I think for the most part it works.
Then here's the version they play on the radio:
Naga
Well-Known Member
For the most part, I'd say it describes when there's been too much meddling with album to the point where too much of it feels artificial. Too many parts were added and changed and it hurt the coherence of the album for the sake of something like pretentiousness, or very poor concept idea when you're forced to add filler and artificially prolong the songs. So the most major reasons for album feeling "overproduced"I can think of are something like this, I think:
1,) Inherently bad idea, but tons of money. You have no idea what you're going for but as long as you can keep producing and adding onto it it should be decent by the end? Wrong in almost all cases, best example -> Kid Cudi - Bullet 2 Heaven
2.) Solid/good idea but too much money makes you feel extra ambitious. You have a project that seems kinda decent and you think by adding just a little bit of this, reversing that you'll strike gold standard and... and it ends up worse than it actually was. Basically almost everything recent from Kanye, but he's lit af live. Although he's good at producing most of the time.
3.) Money; but Zetsu covered that one with Sia.
"We want the """"""""urban""""""" audience"
-c.e.o.-s of gibmoreshekelsdiscog
4.) Having no idea what you're doing but you want to be deep af so you start "fixing it" and end up making some of the worst pretentious trash. Miley Cyrus... Lana Del Ray comes to me despite me liking her a bit. Most of those deep pop songs with a lot of saved-my-life related you tube comments.
Taek
Well-Known Member
Good replies guys, I don't disagree with any of you at all.
For me, overproduced has a certain sound, which is best to show rather than tell.
Many of you probably don't like Kings of Leon, which is fine, but for the purposes of making a point, they are a pretty big extreme. Take this from their second album...
And their brand new single
There is a noticeable difference in the actual production values of the songs. Despite the fact that the second song posted is far more poppy and designed to be radio friendly, the production is altogether cleaner, nothing really stands out too much after that bass in the intro, it's like someone has taken to the whole song with an entire can of polish, there are no imperfections, there's nothing that could possibly be considered grating or noisy, it's all very safe.
It's also a certain way of using reverb for me, it very rarely needs to be on a song unless you're trying to create a feeling of big, open space, but usually it's just used on songs as something to make the vocals more interesting. For instance, lets compare the above song, to Sisters of Mercy - Dominion/Mother Russia
Pretty much everything that can have reverb, does have reverb in that song. But it gives the feeling that it's been recorded in a warehouse in the middle of Battersea or something, it gives the opposite feeling of that KoL song, it adds to the music and gives it a sense of place and atmosphere.
So yeah, it's that overly polished sound, that nonsensically reverby kind of sound that just feels safe and dull.
For me, overproduced has a certain sound, which is best to show rather than tell.
Many of you probably don't like Kings of Leon, which is fine, but for the purposes of making a point, they are a pretty big extreme. Take this from their second album...
And their brand new single
There is a noticeable difference in the actual production values of the songs. Despite the fact that the second song posted is far more poppy and designed to be radio friendly, the production is altogether cleaner, nothing really stands out too much after that bass in the intro, it's like someone has taken to the whole song with an entire can of polish, there are no imperfections, there's nothing that could possibly be considered grating or noisy, it's all very safe.
It's also a certain way of using reverb for me, it very rarely needs to be on a song unless you're trying to create a feeling of big, open space, but usually it's just used on songs as something to make the vocals more interesting. For instance, lets compare the above song, to Sisters of Mercy - Dominion/Mother Russia
Pretty much everything that can have reverb, does have reverb in that song. But it gives the feeling that it's been recorded in a warehouse in the middle of Battersea or something, it gives the opposite feeling of that KoL song, it adds to the music and gives it a sense of place and atmosphere.
So yeah, it's that overly polished sound, that nonsensically reverby kind of sound that just feels safe and dull.