Speedbath
I love to watch musical passages in a song diverge. When the down beat of a melodic phrase falls on a different chord each time it comes around or when listening to the drum pattern and guitar part together feels like doingtwo math problems in your head at once.
This song is all about half steps and rhythmic skips. It was crazy/exhilarating to play and is crazy/exhilarating to listen to -- at least for me. It's a nice little "yay!" and "f*ck you!" when music shouldn't work but does anyway.
"Speedbath" is the title of one of my son Wyatt's comics. It seemed to fit this song, which has the word "speed" in it (that counts, right?). Both Wyatt and the song are equally wacky, anyway.
Love,
Kristin
posted by Kristin at 12:21 PM
7 Comments:
Hi K.
I listen to (and also, of less moment, make) a lot of CC electronic music with a more ambient or chill bent, not because instrumental ambience is some "one true church", but because I love the way that treating sound-as-sound can allow one to explore different constructs than traditional melody and harmony structures.
I like the way that a software synthesizer can give one a non-keyboard/non-guitar way of interfacing with the music, as in the case of the freeware from IXI Software called Slicer, a sample slicer that permits one the synaesthetic experience of "graphing" the song components on a visual, and to hear the morph of the music in real time. I read a passage this week in Aaron Copland's essay on early American music in which he praised the work of an early self-taught composer, but intimated that his harmonics "did not work".
I love Aaron Copland's music, and respect that he understood and embraced serialism before he carved out his own style (and thus was not some stereotypic stick-in-the-mud). Yet my heart always cheers for the musician who works in the half-steps the music theory teacher might discourage.
"Speedbath" starts from a more traditonal place than some electronic music, but it is not wedded to the boundaries which can sometimes limit rock music. Instead, it's got a blend of the traditional and the "clash of formulae" that makes "rock theory" a bit more fun as a class than "music theory".
I really like the way that the first 1.50 explores in half-steps a lot of ideas, not with a test-tube isolation, but in an organic and working song. Then when it resumes after the change-of-pace interlude,
it all feels less like an experiment than like a return to a charming bit of "home". It's a great thing when a song establishes a sense of "place" that makes a thematic return after a break seem like a welcome reunion.
I'm very pleased that I've happened upon your music, and that you're continuing with your CC project and mix stems. I always like the Dream Syndicate line about how "I thought I knew the answer--but no question was posed", and yet perhaps this song hints at the question, just a bit, whatever the question may be. The best thing about the question--and the answer--is that one finds it in the half-steps; indeed, in ambient music, it is buried in the DNA of the spaces in between.
On to April, and Spring.
best, r.
Hey :-)
I missed your gig last night in London, so bummed out about it. I've got a streaming headcold & decided rather than cough & splutter & sneeze my way through your performance I'd stay in my hotel with lemsips & vicks. Hope it went well anyway.
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I'm not a big commenter/poster type, but I have to say that Speedbath is just incredible. I can't stop listening to it.
Thank you for sharing this great music with the world!
KL
Did you see Wyatt's comic? So Funny. This has got to be a Tshirt.
Very cool part at the end with the two guitar parts lining up on their last notes. Very neat!
peace
Hi Kristin,
Your music is for me a great source of inspiration. (sorry for my english, i'm just...french)
Here you can find the link to my blog, my little but growing drawings and paintings museum.
Thanks a lot for your great music, I love the latest songs (particulary the Work in progress versions of slippershell and morning birds, so melodic, pure...wonderfull!!)
I just can't wait for the next album.
ced
www.cedvasseur.blogspot.com
Thank you all for your comments...I'm sorry I haven't been around here lately. Hard at work on the rest of this stuff, I guess.
gurdonark...as usual, very eloquent and thoughtful post (and review). I'M happy you happened upon my music too, it needs good people like you.
Love,
K
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