Popular art is becoming more blatant. Rather than subtly directing the viewers/listeners/readers through the film/song/book/whatever, artists are choosing to smash them over the head with obvious symbolism, metaphor, et cetera. I don’t care whether we should blame the artists or the people who need things to be obvious for them to make an impact at all; fact is, it’s a shame.

Click through to see the rest of my griping. Read the rest of this entry »

Roman Jakobson, the Russian formalist linguist, said that

“the poetic function projects the principle of equivalence from the axis of selection into the axis of combination.”

What he meant has had many books written about it and I’ll never do it justice, but for my purposes here could be simplified to the intersection of a writer’s choice in word with the writer’s choice in word placement; essentially, I end up thinking about “why did he or she choose that word, and why did he or she put that word next to these other words?”

I think of music writing in a similar way. A musician has an enormous range of notes to choose from in any given musical situation; of course only certain notes will make sense in a particular musical situation, just as certain words or types of words will make sense in a given textual situation. Not only that, but the emphases and the notes that the musician’s present note is surrounded by will change the value of that note. Both art forms can create harmony, dissonance, senselessness, and a huge range of emotion–purposely or otherwise–with word/note selection and word/note combination.

I try to make sense of all this crap plus some videos and stuff after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m thoroughly tired of dubstep. Listening to wobbly basslines just makes me nauseous, and honestly I have no idea how Skream ever became popular. Anyway, a friend and I were nerding about why dubstep has exploded these last few years, and he was saying it is the whole element of fear. Anyway, tonight my goddamn iTunes Genius mix decided I wanted to hear Skream – Midnight Request Line, but it just made me start searching frantically for other music. So, here is some music with lots of fear.

(♪) Ralph Towner – Oceanus
The album Oceanus is on may be my favourite album of all time. I’ll say more on that another time. I can’t tell if there’s a phantom rhythm being implied here or if it is supposed to be free playing; either way, this song freaks me right out. It is the perfect way to start an album, and it even sort of resolves all its tension as it ends.

(♪) Christopher Spendel Group – Morning In The City
This track continues the tense aspect of the last one, but in a more blatant way. It’s basically proggy fusion with lots of 9ths that has a really rushed, hyper feel. Some nice melodies, and nothing too dramatic. Also, I got this track from the always excellent My Jazz World. Everyone should keep an eye on that site, so many amazing albums that are out of print.

(♪) John Williams – Concerto De Toronto: Moderato (Leo Brouwer)
This piece, written by Leo Brouwer, takes fear to epic places. I hate to make the connection, but it is like the score of a strange, terrifying, dream-like art film. Turn it up, it is very moving. John Williams (the guitarist) isn’t my favourite guitarist, but he does an amazing job here. He lets the song breathe.

(♪) John Williams – Hika – “In Memoriam Toru Takemitsu” (Leo Brouwer)
After those last three tracks, you’ll be glad this one takes it down a notch. This is off the same album as the last song (it is called The Black Decameron, quite fitting). Leo Brouwer wrote it after the death of the composer Toru Takemitsu, his close friend. The emotions are more restrained, but this is one of the most terrifyingly intense songs of all time. Pour a glass of scotch, turn it up, and close your eyes.