Less than 3 weeks less of school, the pressure is on! Despite the tremendous amount of work I have to do I was able to find these gems at the last second(read: this weekend) and put together a semi-decent post. Check back in the week for a special weekday post of some of my favorite hip-hop performances as well!
Pazes - Evaporar (Aether Remix) by Aether
Based out of San Antonio, Texas, Diego Chavez is a multi-talented artist, painter, producer, and professional daydreamer with a knack for innovation. Whether on the canvas or through speakers Chavez has been creating works of art aurally and visually for several years and shows no signs of stopping. I was excited this weekend to finally discover Aether after several months of inactivity from his other moniker, A.M. Architect, and, honestly, have been having a hard time trying to find just a few songs to show off his talent.
In a style all his own Chavez wields his songs like fine-crafted weapons of aural bliss. Complex, rolling beats that thrum and waver in a perfectly choreographed dance with the floating, wild melodies of synths, vocal samples, and subtle chord progressions only begin to characterize the musical landscape Chavez paints. With a good pair of headphones and several minutes of closed-eye listening it's nearly impossible not to fall in to the mysterious, broiling ocean of sound Chavez manages to churn together in each new track.
The first track brought to you today is a remix of Evaporar by Pazes, an incredible acoustic performer that meshes post-rock, folk, and latin influences in to his sound. A listen to Aether's remix will have you wondering if it's even the same song at all, with fast-paced maraca rhythms, deep bass beats, and a out-of-tune music box sound that transform the track in to a creation of jerking melodies and sampled vocals far from the original.
Leavin' On Your Mind by Aether
This second track embodies a sound more akin to A.M. Architect, complete with a deftly sampled piano loop and the unique, rolling beats signature to Aether's sound. To me, the sound Aether so perfectly emulates in his rhythms and tracks is a feeling of "falling" over the beats continuously, almost as if he is urging his listener to press forward in to the story the song is unfolding. With perfectly tuned, aching chords and a dreamscape of sound unraveling as the song progresses Leavin' On Your Mind is one you won't want to be have missing from your collection.
Following suite is ETHEREA, a relatively new and unknown electronica producer from New York. Despite having released an absolutely brilliant free album aptly named FREE ETHEREA, not much is known about the artist behind the name.
With a style that draws from influences like Animal Collective and other noise-pop bands, Etherea exhibits a strong use of repetition, sampling, and electronica elements. However, his sound is not generic: with melodies that hang in the air sounding like they are ready to explode and 8-bit components accompanied by hip-hop influenced beat progressions his style is a commendable mix of modern genres with a new twist.
Etherea - WAVVES vs. DOOM by vanilla_face
In this second song Etherea creates a mashup of lo-fi band Wavves and MF DOOM, a rapper and producer, to create a pleasing, chilled out throw down of clashing genres that fit together like puzzle pieces. This track reveals the true talent of Etherea and leaves me wondering who this mystery artist is and when I can hear more of him...
Na Na Ni by Fredrik (the band)
Switching gears to a more organic theme, Fredrik is on the top of my list for this week. An ensemble band from Sweden, Fredrik combines rich acoustic guitar, natural percussion, and smoky vocals in to a medley of haunting, folk-influenced sounds that emanate across their first album, Na-Na-Ni. Building on layers of sound, this experimental band from up north has been conjuring achingly beautiful compositions across the folk and indie genre since 2008.
Na Na Ni, the track, is a ghostly, trance-inducing instrumental creation that speaks only of musical feeling, as if the repetition throughout the song is more a mantra that the musicians use to bring out the true meaning of the song than just a compositional device. This song will have you hooked by the first regression back to the simple, hypnotic voice of the guitar.
On a final note, I bring you an even more hypnotic piece. Composed by model, songwriter, and composer superstar, Eric Whitacre, Sleep is an original(and somewhat older) choral piece for SATB choirs. With its melancholy, slowly moving, powerful chords and poetic lyrics Sleep is a massive favorite among traditional choirs. As a former chorus student myself having sung Whitacre pieces and seen Sleep live, I have to say it is a deeply moving and powerful piece of music. This rendition, however, is unlike any other as it contains over 1700 performers from 58 countries performing "virtually" through youtube. Though the dynamics of the piece are not as strong as you might find in a "real" choir, the end result is still magnificent.
NOTE: You may have to visit the youtube channel in order to listen.
okay, i'm a little inebriated after the 4 glasses of wine at the seder so bear with me.
ReplyDeletethe first track mesmerizes me in a weird way. i usually hate (audial not data) compression, but the way in which it is used here creates a weird closed room feeling, when the bass comes in the other instruments fall away. kind of hypnotizing.
second track has less of this and more of these aural artifacts you don't hear much anymore. i don't know if you ever had a lot of experience with cassette tapes and 8 tracks, VHS tapes and whatnot, but this really reminds me of that, in a pitch-bending kind of odd way. i dig it.
the third song, i kid you not, sounds like a song i made up in the shower the other day— which is not an insult. i take long showers so it took me a while to come up with the odd vocal style i was looking for. i love that squeaky kind of weak voice. makes me remember the old south, for some extremely bizarre reason.
third track, keyboard magic reminds me of a track by the gorillaz— track 7 off of 'plastic beach'. heard it? i command you to. beautiful with vocals added by little dragon.
next track from fredrik reminds me of radiohead, but the constant beat is much more folkish. everyone's talking about this band from scotland called mumford and sons... i think they suck. if they were good, they would sound like this, if that makes the least bit of sense. also, check out coyote run. they're an interesting band i've seen a couple of times live in their home town of williamsburg virginia. they kind of fuse folk with pop. the music isn't *too* serious so don't expect a life-changing experience, but they're certainly a lot of fun with a celtic flair to it.
the only one i've heard of here is eric whitacre. to me soundtracks are either hit or miss. since this is a longer track i'll have to let you know later.
thanks!
listened to the choir— very pretty. it sounds like the stuff they play on NPR from the cathedrals in town. are you catholic?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous #1: I have Plastic Beach but not have listened to that song yet! I will check it out soon.
ReplyDeleteI am also looking at coyote run!
Eric Whitacre is not a soundtrack composer, he writes choral music on for chorus performances. But yeah, I could see how it would be hit or miss. I'm probably bias as I've sung/read the music before. Still though, it is quite the virtual technological achievement!
Anonymous #2: I am not catholic, I sang in my high school choir, which is why I gained all my experience in choir music.