Chaos

“A Detailed Journey through the Inifinity of the Mandelbrot set, choreographed to an original musical score. “

This music set to fractals reminds me of the 10-minute long experimental (e.g. unfocused or tempered) sequenced, Jeskola Buzz music I used to make and watch to Milkdrop back in high school. And it recalls an era of music composition before I was seasoned and more effectively minimalist (it’s always about me, remember). For instance, listen here where as the song builds up at the end, instead of creating chordal arrangements or inversions under the main theme to give it color and contrast, the composer just adds more harmonized melodies on top of the main theme. Yet I kind of like it: raw and spiritual, forcing its way to the end with sheer brutality.

And hey, isn’t that what everyone likes about rock ‘n roll music to begin with? Its inability to expand beyond a limited dimensional frame of composition, which in turn makes the desire to communicate it even stronger and makes the music frenetic and emotional. In some ways the popularity of rock music is because it’s an atavistic return to the soul of the body, which seems to get lost in the intellectual wankery of academic music. For the very reason academic musicians are rarely the greatest artists is because academia rewards logical, hard-working, intellectual, visual-oriented genius. But the artist’s greatest ability usually comes from kinesthetic genius.

Here’s the third video that comes up when you search for “chaos” on Youtube.

Music Exorcism

Music therapy is a popular little number practiced by a handful in the soft sciences. Apparently someone, somewhere, is giving lots of money to people to prove music is good for your chronic back pain. Surely the great scientific breakthrough is right around the corner: the Jonas Brothers will fix your pinched lumbar! I knew it all along. But more seriously, as I’ve axed before: why is scientific research not interested in whether crappy music causes rapid onset of pre-disposed genetic illness due to aggravated stress levels? It’s so clearly what we should be researching with taxpayers’ money. E-mail your representative today!

“Hmph! Don’t be ridiculous!” you say. “Music is only for healing and all those happy things.” Well, yeah, I guess that’s what Coil has been doing all along now, isn’t it? *chuckle* Although, to be fair, it is not at all shocking to me that music is often synonymous with spiritual trance or religious ceremony. Music therapy for the soul: is there any other kind?

Truth: if infatuation with music is your strongest drive in life, you will end up doing something with it. Even if you suck. Which is inevitable — because 90% of the people who do anything, don’t do it seriously or just suck. But even still, of the higher echelon of musicians who take it seriously, still probably about 80% of musicians who play every single day of their lives, basically right out of the crib (or the puberty), never write anything worthwhile even once (so goes the cliche about western classical musicians). On top of that, who becomes technically good at music and who is predisposed for it is largely genetic (sometimes its lifestyle marketing — mainstream rockstar douchebaggery or subcultural vegan revolutionary DIY hero — be the [cool] you want to see in the world!). There probably aren’t “pure musician genes” but genius in any field comes from a mixture of emotional gifts and good genetic predisposition toward that particular field.

So don’t hit me with this nature vs. nurture garbage — I know the score! What this means is that really technically good musicians are often just genetic “naturals”. Not necessarily talented or “inspired” as far as composing goes, but a good number of them have the natural back-up, the prerequisite data in their DNA stream for a predisposition to their specific skill (in this case, music). And so it’s like this with lots of skill sets, especially artists, fighters, craftsmen, etc. I’m not saying it’s a class necessarily, and inspired artists are rare, but you get the picture: it often comes from their stock. It’s part of the reason why some huge music enthusiasts never can get good at playing.

If you don’t buy the genetic lineage thing, consider this complimentary analysis: Chinese and Japanese (and various other nations’) cultures have spiritual beliefs which involve ancestral veneration. The peace of an ancestor’s soul is deeply important to one’s own well-being as well as that of one’s family and community, without denigrating their actions in life as being good or bad. Everybody wins if an ancestor’s soul is able to find peace through ritual offerings. This is true in all religious beliefs, as is the idea that if we go far enough back, our ancestral lines reach the age of the gods, the gods being our original ancestors. Part of what makes you a real musician is playing to appease the gods, and to praise the god of music, the original ancestors of a musician. If our musical ancestors can be appeased through music, everybody in the world benefits.

But, whatever. The truth is, all people who are obsessed with music, require something besides music therapy: music exorcism. ‘Coz the more you do something, the more it becomes an addiction, a rhythm in your life, that begs to be continually renewed. Eventually the demons of practice become so great, each practice and performance becomes a personal exorcism. To call it ecstasy is a misinterpretation — great musicians are plagued by ideas, their desires downloaded from the muse herself. How bizarrely appropriate to the contradictory nature of the universe: the disease and the cure are the same thing.

A good artist summons — or more accurately, channels the “dionysian” ecstasy for everybody. A great talent is not afraid to relinquish their talent because they realize it is a responsibility. Meanwhile, the rest of us sit around thumbing our noses, writing reviews of whether musicians’ extra-terrestrial contributions pass the test, or just wishing we were famous while hating famous people. Fair enough. What can you do in life except argue for your own existence? Opinions, man!

So while music is important to me, how important is it really in the scheme of other things, or in lieu of the desire of another? The strange contradiction of the world is that I have no choice but to obey my own truth, which is only more valid than the truth of another simply because it’s mine. Yet I feel fortunate, that at least the gods I feed are not the gods of violence, sex and lust, politics and power, wealth and prestige — all those tacky things.

It seems the primary message any individual, organization or group has, at the end of the day, is one of self-propagation. All organisms seek to survive and extend their legacy — which is obvious. And this is most apparent in the reviewer and cultural critic — seeking to spread their veil of opinion over others. Presumably in a soft, artistic field like music this is okay — no one is provably getting hurt. However, it does bother me that music therapy researchers still haven’t proven the intuitively obvious empirical fact: Miley Cyrus’ singing gives people herniated lumbar discs.

Oh well. Less headaches, more headbanging, amirite?

Ihsahn’s newest: “Frozen Lakes on Mars”

The new single, “Frozen Lakes on Mars” from Ihsahn’s newest album, Next, is up on Youtube. This is Ihsahn’s third album in 4 years. He is one of the most prolific artists of our generation (pumping out those releases before the apocalypse — only 2 years, brotha!) and also one of the most inspired. This album sounds like it will be a divergence from the sound he honed on his first two solo releases (The Adversary and Angl — both of which sounded like… “Emperor++” or something). This time he’s using 8-string guitars, layering more guitar tracks than usual, and using new lyrical approaches.

There’s even some sort of grungy metal vibe going on, really interesting clean melodies, etc. He’s already an internationally recognized underground music icon, but if promoted heavily like Meshuggah, this album will make him a hipster darling. If so be his desire!

Looks like it drops at the end of next January.

Great Moment’s in Synth: Faltermeyer’s “Top Gun”

Holy shit, if there’s a film with US military propaganda more blatant than the likes of Top Gun, show it to me, because I haven’t seen it. I have distinct childhood memories of watching this movie and immediately thinking, “being a fighter pilot would be cool; where’s the Air Force Academy?”. If that’s not successful marketing and branding, there’s no such thing! This movie is the standard.

And don’t be fooled. I am not criticizing the film-makers and producers at all. Their influential messages betray an admirable skill! They zapped me good. And it was hard to convince me in those days (let alone today, muahaha), because I was so independently driven to purchase commercial toys and movies and video games, that clearly they had to use wily box office schemes to get past my…. parents’ limited income critical consumer taste.

But again, I’m sure you’re asking yourself why THIS movie, why not 300 or Rambo 200x or Transformers or whatever other great US comrade-based stuff has been piped down the Holywood tubes as of late. And what “scheme” am I even talking about? Simple — this movie is still effectively manipulative now (despite being unbelievably terrible in a non-appealing way — whereas terrible-but-appealing would be, say… Weekend at Bernie’s or maybe Steven Seagal movies), due to the music. Don’t you think the catchy pop single on the soundtrack, “Highway to the Danger Zone”, is supremely rocking? Ahaha, well I sure hope not — because then you’d be a complete and utter tool! No, it’s a successfully evocative film because of Harold Faltermeyer’s keyboard score. And Tom Skerritt’s mustache.

As example, take any one of these brilliant score pieces, like say… oh I don’t know, “Memories”. With this masterwork, does Faltermeyer not prove himself to be the J.S. Bach of the mid-late 1980s? I mean, the synthesizer is like the organ or clavier of the latter half of the 20th century, is it not? Now sure, calling someone the J.S. Bach of the ’80s may not actually mean anything at all, in a scholarly musical sense. Nay, all I meant is that this song kinda can remind you of a Bach piece. AGAIN, BY NO ACADEMIC ASSESSMENT, or even fine musical taste, but simply by virtue of the emotional engagement. It sounds like church music, from when church involved tangible spiritual experience — and was gothic and frightening. *

And hey, really, it’s kind of chuckle-worthy ironic that Faltermeyer had to write intense musical propaganda for the Reagan war machine, whereas Bach had to write intense musical propaganda for the Church… and…

*sigh* Okay, look, I’m obviously not an academic or objective scholar by any stretch. I’m here for one reason, and one reason only: to plug military films!

I assume this track is titled, “Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooose!”

_______

*Going by the choral music they composed for church in Bach’s lifetime time, we can assume it was a melancholy, slightly macabre era, but the graceful bloodlust found in the works of Palestrina and Byrd is a whole ‘nother realm of sadness.

Nowhere, grrr….

*sigh* The world is a lonely place sometimes all the time. Because… why? I don’t know… intentional or otherwise: no matter where you look, there you are — and there true love is not.

<Enter early 80s cult dance/New Wave hit, “Nowhere Girl” by B Movie.>

Ahaha, Nowhere Girl, that’s such a good title! A good microcosm of the emotional feedback good dance music triggers. My friend DJ Jigglez, high-quality dance/electro/house/rap/fusion DJ of the DC music sphere, pointed me towards this one. A fine number to be sure. The original hit is concise, but I actually prefer and recommend the extended B-side version. The vocals aren’t anything to write home about, but I care more about emotion than technical skill, ya dig?

If you want the good stuff on Amazon… go with Forever Running or Remembrance Days.

Carpe Diem

Great Moments in Synth: Days of Thunder

It’s sad how predictable this blog has become, eh? What was once a powerful conduit of the labyrinth of forgotten videogame music lore has become just another YouTube middle-man. O! the humanitee! But maybe things will change around here for the better soon. *wink*

Ah, but Synth music! Yes, I seem to be bridging some sort of gap between cheesy-but-endearing, well-crafted catchy movie soundtracks from the 70s-90s and video game music from said same period. I’m sure there’s a scholarly analysis of it to be found in there somewhere, but don’t expect me to find it. Who the heck has that kind of time? What do I look like to you — some sort of trustafarian Portland grad-student in tight jeans and dyed hair, moving to Portland and inviting you to visit so I can string you along for a relationship that will never happen?!? *froth*

(Ahem…)

In the early ’90s, Jerry Bruckheimer and co. made the supremely awful film, Days of Thunder, the target of the later terrible spoof, Talladega Nights. But from all this badness came some fun music from Hans Zimmer, with the help of Jeff Beck. Unfortunately, the two only do a handful of soundtrack score pieces — the majority of the soundtrack being top-40 major label swill. So it goes.

I usually give Hans Zimmer a lot of guff. But he’s better than John Williams (Hollywood composer) realistically. I can jive with some of Hans Zimmer’s stuff, but he’s no traditional western musical-academic master. He’s not exactly a maestro of the modernist compositional school. He’s more like an epic rocker who has a good sense of scoring. Why, this is the difference between a good metal guitarist and Hans Zimmer: Hans Zimmer can score his music on a grand staff.

As I said, this music is a lot of fun. And it is yet more endearing when you realize it’s for a supremely douchey movie starring Tom Cruise, Lizardman, Esq. Really, this music is way too minimalistically epic to accomodate such a profoundly mundane and shitty story. I would almost call this music unintentionally ironic.* This music should accompany some kind of soul-changing mystical endeavor. But coming back from defeat to win a big redneck car race and finally impress all the shallow, macho assholes you surrounded yourself with in the first place? WAIT A MINUTE, THAT’S WHAT I CALL A STORY! (maybe you guys could ghost-write my bio-pic?!)

But check out Jeff Beck on the guitar, baby! Cool stuff, esp. since he’s using that over-the-top ’80s saturated guitar tone, and with tube amp to boot! No joking around here — none of that dialed-in, direct-in crap found in modern movies and videogames. And Beck is a tasteful little puppy, too. He can play some fun notes and uses his Stratocaster whammy bar for good measure and in good stead.

Anyway, just something to brighten up your otherwise mundane day in which you go through an estranged world interacting with a variety of products and establishments that bear none of your craftsmanship or personal imprints whatsoever. No biggie.

Great Moments in Synth (sorta): Barry Goldberg’s “Best of the Best 3″

As you may have surmised from the recent post on King of the Kickboxers, I’ve been wading through tons of B-movies from the ’80s and ’90s as of late. There are actually some real gems in there if you know where to look. One well known B-movie action series is the Tae Kwon Do propaganda vehicle, Best of the Best. The original starred James Earl Jones, Philip Rhee, Chris Penn and Julia Roberts’ brother. But by the third and fourth movies, the only remaining character was Rhee (it was his showcase all along, after all). It is worth mentioning that Philip Rhee is/was actually Loren Avedon’s martial arts instructor in real life (Avedon being the star of the aforementioned King of the Kickboxers).

The movies are cheesy, weirdly paced, and full of violent action scenes. Rhee’s pants are consistently too tight and his shirt is always tucked in, further accentuating his obscene T-shaped body (guy looks like a filet mignon, ya dig?). He’s just too hunky to be true. As per usual, the themes are the crazy action baloney of a ridiculously good-natured person with killing and maiming techniques taking out scores of one-dimensional hate-mongers (wouldn’t a malicious person inspired to learn killing techniques be more effective than a moral person? Hrmm, I wondaz…).

But, in bizarre B-movie fashion, there is a pretty rockin’ soundtrack! I sometimes wonder if I’m not just some B-movie weirdo who likes crappy low-budget stuff like some snobby lo-fi indie rock twerp, or a creepy giallo horror buff. But I have bigger philosophical quandaries to solve, so I pay little attention.

The theme song this time around is by Barry Goldberg, infusing some swaggering Nashville country rock with a smoky blues vibe. Nice! I thought the soundtrack it was so cheesy and intolerable the first time I saw this movie a number of years back, but I think the aesthetic is really cool now. The movie still sucks unbelievably hard, but hey — almost every movie does that and has nothing admirable to show for it.

Great Moments in Synth: Richard Yuen’s “King of the Kickboxers”

Today’s endearing, lesser-known music track is from the late ’80s-early ’90s cheeseball martial arts extravaganza, King of the Kickboxers (starring none other than ingenious Tae Bo creator, Billy Blanks, as the villain!). The choreography is tight and outrageous, and the expressions, script and acting are beyond terrible. Seriously, this last fight scene is so precious, an extreme blend of acrobatic and choreographic talent as well as utterly tacky film cliches.

The music is fun, reminiscent of classic ’80s fare, like John Woo’s The Killer. It was composed by Richard Yuen, a Taiwanese (?) composer, who scores soundtracks and writes for pop musicians in East Asia. Or something. I don’t know, really, as I didn’t find this song because I was listening to Richard Yuen’s back-catalog of nuanced synth-wind/reed instrument-laden work. No! I was searching for the ultimate in martial arts foolhardiness and exciting cornball bravado.

I think the film had a Asian production staff, not to mention the choreography was done by Tony Leung Siu Hung, whom did several other movies in kickboxing’s hey-day, including the boldly cheesy but impressive, No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers. That one also starred Loren Avedon (from King of the Kickboxers) and had supreme, in-house, synth music — since it seemed to be produced by the same film firm.

Why the rights to the lousy Double Dragon movie weren’t handed over to this production crew and staff is completely beyond me. This stuff is basically Double Dragon live-action, only more rad (and it’s also unnecessarily violent).

Anyway, enjoy the ending titles. Somehow, really soft, explicitly melancholy ending themes on studio keyboards set against obnoxiously violent stories with minimal character development always really tickle my heart-strings. I’m no stranger to good taste, it’s true!

Generation gap: Jake Sheffer on Guitar

I was poking around YouTube and I found a video interview with a really great local DC guitar teacher, Jake Sheffer. Jake’s a seasoned player whom I had the privilege of taking classical and jazz guitar lessons from for a couple of years. I keep meaning to hit the dude up again these days, and see if he has time to show me some more tricks for a few bucks (maybe he’d be interested to hear that I’m now a guitar teacher myself!)! Unfortunately I’ve been in and out of financial straits and different time-consuming music projects since I last saw him a couple of years ago. Hence I keep putting it on the back-burner. But life is short, so I’m gonna do it soon.

Anyway, Jake showed me music by a lot of different cool musicians in the time I practiced with him, and he is a pretty mean and seasoned guitar player in his own right. Besides this, he is a ridiculously friendly, nice guy. I know people casually describe each other that way these days; rest assured that with Jake, it’s a legit personal description. He is a truly cool dude, through and through — doesn’t have a single touch of egotism, cynicism or pretense, but has also been around the block and loves the instrument and is always finding new stuff to play and share. If you’re looking for a sick jazz or classical guitarist to study with, you might go see if you can’t register for some private lessons over at Montgomery College in Maryland, where he’s been the primary guitar chair-in-residence for a while. At the very least you might be able to get a good recommendation on where to study in your area.

In the coming posts I’ll probably link to a bunch of mean guitar players that Jake inspired me to take influence from. But today, see for yourself what he’s about:!