Doubletalk?

While I'm all for using outside references to describe music (an inherently difficult thing to do), I might draw the line when your description of a band tells your average music lover absolutely nothing.

This is taken from Sergio Elmir's article in Exclaim! on Global Propaganda. I know I don't know anything about reggae or world music, but shouldn't I at least be able to get the picture?

"Caballo's third album is an extension of a uniquely global drum & bass sound that Caballo's been developing over time."

Okay, you think..."global"...cool adjective. I thinkI get it. \frown

"His ragga-heavy, politically charged rhymes travel across borders on the back of dubby bass lines while bouncing along to Balkan beats and cumbia riddims."

... So... ?

"The album ranges from glitch-y Balkan dub to dark dub-step to old school drum & bass flavour."

Now, if I want to know anything about this music, I have to go look up all of these terms, which completely defeats the purpose of reading an article. How about shortening the whole thing to "Do you like political world music you've never heard of? Check this band out!"

I get a very pretentious vibe from this write-up. Unless "Balkan beats" are a sound everyone knows about I just don't...

Holy Fuck at Harbourfront

Date: July 10th 2009
Location: Harbourfront Centre, Sirius Stage
Event: Beat, Breaks + Culture - Holy Fuck w/ Winter Gloves

God bless Holy Fuck and the controversy their name has created. After being caught up in the government-funding debate last year, having been cited by the government as an example of the kind of thing that Canadians shouldn't be supporting, the band was caught up in yet another scandal when their names were removed from posters advertising Calgary's Sled Island festival. I can't help but think that this is yet another Barenaked Ladies phenomenon and it brings up some great questions about the ethical implications of words. The MC at Friday's concert at Harbourfront stumbled when he went to announce the band as if he had just been handed the lineup as he was coming on stage. You'd think the MC for a show would remember the name of the headlining band; I hope they didn't pay him.

I digress. What we're here to talk about is music.

With Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh at the helm of a rats nest of cables and keys, (and what Wikipedia says is a 35 mm Film Synchronizer), this band's sound is nothing that can be reproduced. had them running across stage swapping gear, unplugging cables and even changing batteries between songs. You could tell the two were working hard up there, piling on effects in just the right order to bring out a tune's mind-blowing climax just as you thought it get get no higher. However, the complicated setup got them into a bit of trouble during the last (pre-encore) song, when Borcherdt had a hardware malfunction and spent the length of the song trying to sort it out but bassist Matt McQuaid and drummer Matt Schultz held it together and gave the crowd something to move to.

This little mishap was very revealing. What other band could just vamp for five minutes and create music that wouldn't result in booing and civil unrest? In their best songs, the whole thing seemed almost spontaneous, as if the band was just vamping on a set of changes that got going whenever they telepathically decided it was time. It also revealed how much this music relies on its rhythm section. The subconscious interplay between McQuaid and Schultz really held the whole thing together. Yet Holy Fuck shows depth in their music too, proving that their performance isn't just a well-rehearsed jam-session. This comes via some very effective and often very elaborate changes that the band members had to coordinate, including a tasteful number of coordinated stops (what academics would call stoptime) that really hit you in the face with the silence they created. It's no wonder the band won a CBC Radio 3 Bucky award for Best Live show and was shortlisted for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize. If you've never seen Holy Fuck play, I would suggest getting yourself to their next tour date in your area.

Openers Winter Gloves from Montreal deserves no small amount of praise for a fun, high-energy set. Unfortunately, they won't get it here. Check out the track "Party People" for a good sample.

The magic of music

I can't decide whether fourth year is inherently interesting or whether because I'm in fourth year, I find fourth year interesting, if you know what I mean. In any case, doing an assignment today for my Psychology of Music Education class completely blew my mind. The task seemed simple:

Pick a song/piece and describe it (in words) avoiding the use of musical terminology (i.e. find ways other than through musical terms to describe the piece).

No problem, you may be inclined to think as I was. And yet, an hour after beginning my description of Phages by The Most Serene Republic, I had succeeded only in describing, in general, the ways that music can be considered interesting without capturing any of the essence of the song. As someone whose current aspirations for the future depend heavily upon the ability to write about what is being heard, this was obviously distressing. And so my heart rate picked up a little and I tried even harder to capture the essence of that orchestrated noise being played through my speakers. But I could no more translate what I was hearing into words than I could translate the English language into units of cheese (i.e. The sound of a keyboard playing three notes is to _________ as the word "excellence" is to Havarti).

Now I realize that even had I been able to use musical terms, I wouldn't fully be able to describe what I was hearing. What about the timbres of the instruments combined to evoke the sense of urgency I was feeling? Why did it matter if the texture thinned? Even if I described, second by second, what was happening with the rhythm, melody, harmony and instrumentation, I still wouldn't have captured the essence of the song.

I don't even know if I'm fully communicating how blown away I was, or if it's another thing that must just be experienced (in which case, I highly suggest that you try it so that you will understand what I mean). Try. Try really hard to describe your favourite song in written prose and come out of it with a paragraph that, when taken as a whole, means that same thing as the song.

In the end, I did find a way to describe it. Listen to the song and have a read (not too quickly). This is what I hear. What do you hear?

"Phages"

Waking up before your alarm clock and watching the sun rise while still in your bed.
Your alarm clock goes off so you jump out of bed into the shower.
You go through your morning routine.
The smell of bacon cooking already; your housemate is awesome.
Seconds pass slower as you look up and see dark clouds in the sky as you step out the door.
A cyclist passes outside your house. You recognize them.
You head off to work on your own bike.
You blow past people sitting in traffic thinking about how lucky you are to be alive.
You get caught at a light; you look around at the zombies around you: people in their cars completely zoned out in their morning commute, people with briefcases staring at their feet.
You feel an overwhelming sense of empowerment. You want to change things. You want to grab people by the wrists and dance in the street.
You imagine everyone getting out of their cars and dancing with you in the middle of the intersection.
You come back to reality.
The light turns green.