More Heima
Mar 9, 2008 Uncategorized
One of the things I wanted to talk about with Heima but forgot to in my last post:
Watching the DVD brings home the bravery of the performers, I think. They all talk in the interviews about entering a mode where they’re not even really self-aware per se while performing, but nonetheless, I find it impressive. Their song structures frequently set up these huge, reverent sonic spaces and build up enormous cachets of anticipation, and then as opposed to many acts who will burst forth onto such a space in unison, they often have just one member emerge. Maybe the experience is not like this for them, but to me, I’m struck by the incredible bravery it must require to set up such a space and then step out into it as a single performer.
It impresses me most with the drummer, I think, because it seems that so often he’s carrying the song entirely on his own, and with grace and power, and yet in the interviews he’s such a small, almost timid guy. I really love this dichotomy, this transformation.
Heima
Mar 8, 2008 Uncategorized
Sarah and I just finished watching Heima. I think this is my third time watching it since I got the DVD. It is and remains a lovely, moving experience.
I don’t know if I could readily say that Sigur Ros is my favourite band, far less my favourite artistic unit operating. There are certainly measures by which that’s not the case. However, I can say that of any artist or artists that I know of currently operating save perhaps Amina, who are in their own way kind of a part of Sigur Ros (or were in the era in which Heima was produced), they most consistently produce work of startling beauty.
The world is a fascinating place
Mar 2, 2008 Uncategorized
I really like the beginning of this song (“Less Talk More Rokk” by Freezepop). It seems like something I could learn from. On the one hand, I’m curious about the way the sound changes through the sequences. Did they layer two patches and crossfade between them, or is it some sort of waveshaping, or did they just stack a bunch of waves and slowly decrease the offsets, or did they use some sort of distortion filter and pull it back, or…? So many possibilities.
The other thing about it that I could use from is that starting an album this way is incredibly bold. I mean, you’re really starting things full-on. Can you live up to that for a whole album? I do like subtle introductions, but maybe just jumping in with both feet would be fun to try next time. I may have to ponder this.
I found myself pondering a concept I heard in a Barenaked Ladies song that came on in the car last night, where they established a certain pattern and then in one iteration they jumped back in with the vocals on the first beat and then all the instruments come in with a big punctuating crash on the second beat, and the way that worked was really interesting.
And then there’s the astoundingly dynamic and organic bar structure in Alexander Hacke’s “Sister,” which I don’t think I’ve really explored. There was a bit toward the end of working on Little Eschaton where I accidentally did something in Logic through a simple mouse slip that made me think, “Hey, that’s how I could work with that idea.”
Didn’t I decide to take a hiatus to work on the mundane parts of this?