Here's the stories behind the songs on the
Shinjuku Zulu and
K.I.A. CDs; many more and weekly updates at
http://mog.com/Shinjuku_Zulu
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SINGING PI...and MASSIVE BALLERINA
So I made the mistake of mentioning the idea for a song to Sinead O'Connor, and Kate Bush ended up stealing it.
Really.
Well, maybe. A few years ago (when I was writing for the music mag, see other posts below) I was interviewing Sinead O'Connor, and we were talking about how songs originate, and I mentioned that I'd had a dream where a person was singing the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard... the song was perfect, it was mysterious, and it was endless.
It was the number pi.
But in the dream the song didn't feel dry, abstract or mathematical; it was very emotional and meaningful and passionate... and you weren't even really able to hear the numbers, it was more a connection to the energy conveyed through the syllables of the words of the numbers... sort of like how Elizabeth Fraser chooses her words for the beauty of how they sound (including taking words from foreign dictionaries) not for any literal meaning (i.e. "Frou Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires" by the Cocteau Twins.)
So I didn't record the song, but I did write a story in which the main character is a performer and she sings the song Pi. She sings it as a love song to her husband. (She is married to a visual artist who exhibits his work in his stomach. As far as I know there haven't actually been any artists who use their belly as an exhibition hall... but hey now that I've mentioned it... please don't do it. It's a (purposely) bad idea.)
I'm not sure if you
can ever claim an idea, or if you even should. I do believe in the collective unconscious, and that certain ideas are maybe 'out there' in the ether and can be thought of or discovered simultaneously in different locations (a la the product nylon, discovered in New York and London at the same time). And anyway music, maybe more than the other arts, (writing, sculpture) is all about building and evolving on ideas, like say the tradition of when you write a 'new' traditional Irish song that at least one third of it should be taken from previous songs as an ode/recognition... or like say sampling, building from sounds or components lifted from songs, or mashups where whole chunks of two or more songs are spliced together.
So back to Kate Bush, song-stealer. Did Sinead talk to Kate at a music festival, or talk to someone about the song idea who knew someone who knew Kate, or did someone read the magazine interview who passed along the idea who... well in a six-degrees-of world, maybe. It
is a very very specific and unsual idea for a song. But who cares? Really, the idea sucked- the song would come across as very cold and abstract and well, mathematical, unless you had an extraordinary singer to give the number lyrics a haunting, ethereal, transcendence, a singer like, say, Kate Bush...
So I'm reading CD reviews about Kate Bush's newest (this was in late 2005) because I've always been a fan, and every interview and review mentions this particular song Kate sings called, you guessed it, Pi, where she sings 3.14...
At first I'm a little bugged, but then upon hearing it I'm immediately glad she did it (hey, she walked it, I'd just talked it); her voice makes the dry numbers sing, and she leavened the numerical with the lyrical- the verses are all words -and, here's the best part, the song is a love song... to (or about) her husband.
Her song is much better than I would ever have been able to do anyway- I mean, she's Kate Bush. When the genesis of a song is an idea (rather than an emotion) the whole point is to bring it back to the level of feeling... otherwise the song is just sound... and of course Kate "Wuthering Heights" Bush is an expert at emoting.
A lot of electronic artists like Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, and countless artists from Berlin have songs that are head-based, but unfortunately they often seem to remain there, never moving down the heart. So wheras BoC's "In A Beautiful Place Out In the Country" is emotionally transcendent, they have a lot of songs like "Music Is Math" which have a certain intellectual appeal but leave me cold. So what if you use Fibonacci sequences, or use medical equipment (Matmos) to make a song if it doesn't make you feel anything? And where I appreciate Aphex Twin, records like "Drukqs" are hard to listen to more than once (if even that). Even Kraftwerk, those Teutonic geniuses, often fail to do engage more than the grey matter- I far prefer "Hall of Mirrors", a very moving song, or even "The Model", to "Numbers" or "Pocket Calculator" or "Autobahn" or or or... all of which I suppose are meant to be empty. (however, I do love the sounds in all of them).
So the genesis for the song "Massive Ballerina (Pirouettes For Millenia)" from the "Various Chimeras" CD by Shinjuku Zulu was primarily to see if an obvious computer-generated voice could sing an emotionally transcendent song. (A few artists have used that Mac robo-voice... I think Radiohead used it in "Fitter Happier " -a song that's basically a list, which reads well but doesn't listen-well).
Massive Ballerina (Pirouettes For Millenia), for those of you who don't bother listening to lyrics, is not about an overweight dance in a tutu. (However, if you do a google on "Massive Ballerina" all sorts of weird sex stuff comes up related to just that. Who knew?) As to what the title imagery is about, here's a hint: the lyrics start off small and close, but end very huge and very far away.
Anyway, because the lyrics only appear briefly in the mostly-instrumental song, below are the lyrics to Massive Ballerina (Pirouettes For Millenia). The track is available worldwide at iTunes here: "Massive Ballerina":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=154068465&s=143441&i=154068612]
intimately, beneath a digital moon,
fractal flowers, in full bloom,
sway back and forth as one...
infinitely dreaming of the analog sun
massive ballerina
on a dark stage, pirouettes for millenia;
starred arms out, awaiting a hero...
only to embrace endless night, and absolute zero
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LONG SONGS...and COAL COAL BLACK
I understand short attention spans and all that, but I do like the idea of slow being the new fast. Or rather, long being the new short.
There's a company that provides a service to radio stations of cropping down songs to just the 'best' parts, i.e. the hooks, and will chop out, say, that unecessary third chorus, or that outro, or that bridge, so that all songs fit into a two-minute format, on the theory that people really only want the good parts anyway and don't have time for more. (In fact record companies have also sliced up songs into ring-tone portions; you pay more for the chorus than you do for the verse.)
I'm not a big fan of nostalgia (hate it, in fact) but when the odd mood strikes me I'll go on iTunes and listen to thirty-second clips of old favorites. Of course you don't get the full emotional arc of the song or have time to get into the groove... but in my head I already know the song so that's enough for me, so I kinda get the evil reasoning...
I also used to be the music editor for a music mag, and would get, sometimes, 100s of CDs a month. I could only review a handful, and set up a couple of interviews. Now these were all CDs that had the weight (that is, finances) of a large corporation behind them, so you knew that at least the production quality was going to be pretty good, and that enough people had to like the music for it to even get released (in fact it's how I first heard "Dubnobasswithmyheadman" by Underworld, and fell in love with a certain "Cowgirl",) unlike the ocean of Myspace artists. So to give everything a fair chance, I'd fall into the trap of listening to the first 45 seconds or so of the first three songs, fast forwarding through a song, or skipping ahead a few tracks to maybe listen to one more. If something caught my attention, I'd listen to the whole thing, and if it was good and I really liked it, I'd study it and set up an interview or do a review. Now this was a small magazine... I can't imagine the volume of material the New York Times must get. I empathize, with you Jon Pareles. You must have a lot of coasters at your place.
If you read music reviews, one thing critics hate (for the above reasons) is a long recording. The words 'bloated' or 'self-indulgent' will inevitably be used. And to be sure, that is sometimes the case, but not always; however you will very rarely read a review that says something like 'at 24 songs, this cd is just the right length'. I have noticed that there is a correlaton between better reviews and shorter discs. Through a very unscientific study, according to my observations, most good reviews are for CDs under 38 minutes, which means most songs in the 2 to 3 minute zone. For writers on a deadline, I get it. For civilians (music lovers) though I hope this isn't the case.
Dangermouse (of Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley, The Grey Album fame, etc) said something like all he needs for a song is about two minutes. Iggy Pop gave an interview recently (the Stooges have a new disc out, "The Weirdness") where he said that when they were originally putting out albums they only had to have 6 to 8 songs, and songs back then were barely three minutes... and that making an album these days requires at least twice that effort. (So their new single is about 2:30, so 12 songs at that length still put the new full-length at only about half-an-hour. My guess is the CD'll come in around 38 minutes. I also suspect that it'll get 3 star reviews, because it won't be very good but there will be the nostalgia factor giving it that extras-star. I will listen to it on iTunes in 30s clips for this reason.)
This isn't a quantity/quality argument, what I'm saying is I like
good long songs. And I'm not talking about remixes, just the original versions. One factor is that the experience of the song is like that of reading a really, really good novel versus the Coles-notes or Reader's Digest version; you get more involved intellectually and emotionally, and want that feeling sustained. (An shorter analogy: sex). Longer songs are harder to make captivating. They have to evolve, not just repeat elements in a familar pattern.
I don't think any musician sets out with the motiviation of specifically wanting to write a long song (well, not me anyway) because they aren't so easy to write, they do take 3 or 4 times the effort...but they just happen, and if in the re-writes and edits they don't get cropped down because all the elements truly remain necessary, they can be just as precise and impactful as a shorter song.
So having said all that, here's just a few of my favorite long songs. (The two at the end being from my "
Various Chimeras" CD by Shinjuku Zulu; the heartbreaking vocal on Coal Coal Black is by Shankhini, and the mournful, bluesy vocal on My Man Amen is by Sydney White:
Trentemoller "Take Me Into Your Skin":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=198723009&s=143441&i=198723109
Massive Attack "Angel":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=9688045&s=143441&i=9685924
Underworld "Dark and Long":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=42027216&s=143441&i=42027133<br><br>Simon & Garfunkel "Canticle/Scarborough Fair":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=1160580&s=143441&i=1463982
Shinjuku Zulu "My Man Amen":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=154068465&s=143441&i=154068609
Shinjuku Zulu "Coal Coal Black":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=154068465&s=143441&i=154068615
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BANJOS AND ELECTRONICA ... and DIRTY LIAR
Banjos (or is that Banjoes? Dan Quayle, I feel your pain) and pop music are great, especially in electronica. Yes, you heard me,
electronica.
So below are some are some fantastic banjo tracks, (that's not an oxymoron) arranged in order from more tradtional to more radical genres, from singer/songwriter (Sufjan Stevens) to Old Tyme/Bluegrass/Country (O Brother) to dance/electronic (The Grid) to folk/electronic (Four Tet) to country/electronic (K.I.A.) to ambient electronic (Air) and finally, rap/dance/blues/electronic (Shinjuku Zulu).<br><br>Sufjan Stevens, "All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=179550383&s=143441&i=179550425
Soggy Bottom Boys, "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=2356345&s=143441&i=2356335
Air, "Alpha Beta Gaga":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=5790752&s=143441&i=5790736
K.I.A., "Box the Gnat":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=5126742&s=143441&i=5126724
Four Tet, "She Moves She":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=50065416&s=143441&i=50065388
The Grid, "Swamp Thing":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=240123&s=143441&i=240061
Shinjuku Zulu, "Dirty Liar":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=154068465&s=143441&i=154068518
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ACAPPELLAS...and SWEETNESS LIKES THE REVERB
I was in Istanbul, it was twilight, and it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard...
Even though I make 'electronic' music, or at least make music with electronic devices, and love love love cool production (shoutouts to Timbaland and William Orbit and The Neptunes and Flood and Mad Professor and...) there is, of course, no better thing than to hear an unaccompanied human voice in a song. (Unless it's mine, that is; I have a terrible voice, which is why I've worked with a multitude of vocalists, from rappers and toasters to opera, blues, soul, choral, pop and folk singers.) And I always include an acapella or two on my releases...
So back to Istanbul... sitting on a rooftop, overlooking the Bosporus, moments away from the Blue Mosque, sun setting, and the first call to prayer starts, and then a few moments later, another one from a mosque slightly further away, in a different voice, and then another one, still further away, another voice... and then more, and the echoes overlap and the shadows are lengthening and the sky and the sea and the East and the West and such a feeling of timelessness... and it's kinda like the first time I heard Violin Phase by Steven Reich. (A solo violin playing a repeating motif, with tape recorders playing the same motif, but slighty later, so the music overlaps and phases and new melodies spring into existence.) It's extaordinarily simple and complex, and very beautiful. It's like the aural equivalent of looking into a pond, dropping a rock, and then another one, in a slightly different place, and another, and watching the shapes formed by the overlapping wavelets. The fact that the call to prayer was not in English also allowed it to bypass my logical thought and go straight to my emotional core (maybe one of the reasons I also use chants in many songs.)
A fantastic example of the above is the call to prayer featured on the "Powaqqatsi" soundtrack by Phillip Glass-- it's called "From Egypt" (but listen the "Mr. Suso #1" and "Mr. Suso #2" which are sequenced just before and after it for the full effect).
So that was probably the genesis of the song "Sweetness Likes The Reverb" from the first Shinjuku Zulu CD, "Shinjuku Zulu". It's a haunting vocal (once again by Larissa Gomes) and layers of reverb, each 'verb with different settings, so spatially you'll feel like you are simultaneously in different rooms (a church, a living room, a cavern). The lyrics use the analogy of a reverb, ... oh, well, forget explaining, here's the lyrics:
sweetness
oh love
the reverb
love
my sweetness likes the verb
the action word, the reaction word
the reverb
coming back at her
love
my sweetnees likes the noun
ecstacy found
the profound happiness
gently rocking her
so gently rocking her
love
my sweetness likes motion<br>the deep feeling
the revealing emotion
overwhelming her
oh overwhelming her
sweetness
So here are some of my favorite acapellas (or nearly... certainly a bare minimum of instrumentation, like a drone...) or anyway, songs that focus mostly on the voice:
Sheila Chandra, anything from her "A Bone Drone Crone" release, but you must hear "A Sailor's Life":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=73442709&s=143441&i=73442345 from the Zen Kiss CD. Extra-ordinary.
Imogen Heap, "Hide and Seek":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=83486513&s=143441&i=83486130 (But everybody knows this one)
Bjork, "Mouth's Cradle":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=21393649&s=143441&i=21393734 Didn't really like her all-vocal CD "Medulla", but this track from it was great.
Don McLean, "Babylon":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=489600&s=143441&i=489562 from the "American Pie" release.
And here's some Shinjuku Zulu / K.I.A. acapellas... some melodic, others rhythmic:
"Sweetness Likes the Reverb at iTunes":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=7899232&s=143441&i=7898129 From the Shinjuku Zulu CD
"Goa-di":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=30919350&s=143441&i=30919336 by K.I.A., from the "Sonorous Susurrus" CD. Ambient.
"Shinjuku Zulu":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=7899232&s=143441&i=7897615 from Shinjuku Zulu. Beatbox drum'n'bass.
"Bedouin Engine":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=5126742&s=143441&i=5126738 from the "Adieu Shinjuku Zulu" CD by K.I.A. Rhythmic chants.
"My Man Amen":
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=154068465&s=143441&i=154068609 the intro, anyway, from the "Various Chimeras" CD by Shinjuku Zulu.
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and more... check out the blog:
http://mog.com/Shinjuku_Zulu
Sheila Chandra
