Owner: Singing Pi, Collapsing Time, The Xenophile Wildstyle, and Other Song Stories URL:http://mog.com/Shinjuku_Zulu Join Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:47:43 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Stories behind & around the songs, with streaming posts, including "Speed Tribes & Slow Is the New Fast", "Repainting Mona Lisa & Scarborough Fair", "I (Large Hear) Music & Mrs. Major Tom", "Badminton &am Site statistics:Click here
Someone Great...and Tuktuyuktuk to Timbuktu 2007-03-25 04:33:20 I think figure-skating rules have been applied to the new release by LCD Soundsystem.
That is, the judges (critics) were so pre-disposed to love it that they graded it higher than it actually should have been. Unlike a lot of music writers, overall I think the CD is a disappointment, and it leaves me a bit flat.
But having said that, is does have one fantastic song: "Someone Great
". It really is terrific, and here's why: it's not ironic, humorous, or self-deprecrating, like most of the other songs on "The Sound of Silver". And as a result you can really feel the emotion of the singer directly... there's no filter, or veil, of wit, and it has more impact. (But of course I'm a sucker for sad songs; see Mrs. Major Tom )
The good thing about digital distribution is that you can buy
Music Is My Hot Hot Sex, Music Is My Radar...and Music Is My DNA 2007-03-18 11:32:38 I was dreaming, and I heard a very beautiful sound, familiar, like it had always been in the background, but strange, like I'd never heard it before.
As I concentrated on it, more distinct parts became audible. It was, in fact, a song-- and it was coming from my body. Specifically, my DNA . Each strand was vibrating, like a harp or violin or guitar string, and emitting its own melodic sound, and the combination of the melodies created a song...
At that moment in the dream someone passed by, and I heard the song specific to her resonating DNA . Next to her was a man, and he had his own song... and a child near them, who had his own song... in the dream I then had an aural birds-eye-perspective... I heard all the songs from all the people in the plaza, and how together, they formed a Read more:Music
, Radar
Singing Pi... and Massive Ballerina 2007-03-11 09:33:11 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 Elizabet Read more:Singing
, Ballerina
Long Songs...and Coal Coal Black 2007-03-05 07:52:44 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 Read more:Black
Banjos and electronica... and Dirty Liar 2007-03-01 08:08:41 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).
Sufjan Stevens, All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands
Soggy Bottom Boys, I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow
Air, Alpha Beta Gaga
K.I.A., Box the Gnat
Four Tet, She Moves She
The Grid, Swamp Thing
Shinjuku Zulu, Dirty Liar
Acapellas... and Sweetness Likes the Reverb 2007-02-26 14:20:13 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 s Read more:Sweetness
Sound Art... and Large Slow River 2007-02-25 02:52:09 Addendum to the below Micro-poems post: my one and only own foray into spoken-word-over-music realm is the song "Large Slow River
" from the "Sonorous Susurrus" CD by K.I.A., where I use (an officially approved) sample of the sound artwork "A Large Slow River" by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. More on it in a moment.
Spoken word is so tricky-- it often comes off as pretentious/artsy/faux-poetic, boring, or worse, in some cases, funny. Good funny is bad; it's like a joke, and once you get it, why hear it again? (Never understood why people buy comedy albums, however brilliant, for this reason.) Bad funny is bad, because... well, that's self-explanatory.
There are so many examples of bad spoke-word-over-music, from the William Shatner stuff (bad funny) to the tracks on the "De Read more:Sound
Micro-poems, John Lily... and Dubmarine 2007-02-23 03:26:09 I've always been a fan of e.e. cummings, because his poetry is so song-like; you can hear the music in this quote from his poem "somewhere i have never traveled":
(i do not know what it is about you that closesand opens; only something in me understandsthe voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
Generally, I'm not a big fan of spoken-word, or poetry with music... except for Laurie Anderson's work, because she's so good at it. Of course as in the song "O Superman, but for me especially in the song "John Lilly", where in a micro-poem, she manages to compress more meaning and emotion than there is in many a novel. Here's the lyrics, but go listen to the song:
John Lilly, the guy who says he can talk to dolphins, said he was in an
The Wheels of Steel and Da Riddm Griffin 2007-02-20 05:56:25 Collage songs and chimerical music; I've always loved 'em (which is why I also make 'em.) Like poetry, it is a powerful way of combining a multitude of things; emotions, eras, information, cultures, even architectural spaces (because different songs were recorded in different 'rooms') in a very, very condensed way.
I remember hearing "The Wheels
of Steel
" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five for the first time and being electrified... Chic/Queen/Blondie and and and...all in one song.
So here's a list of fave 'meta-music' songs to check out, with a list of some Shinjuku Zulu and K.I.A. songs at the end...
"Duck Rock" by Malcolm McLaren, a major influence. Hip hop, Juju, double dutch, merengue -- the song "Buffalo Gals" of course, but also the track "Punk It Up": African singe Read more:Griffin
I (large heart) music... and Mrs. Major Tom 2007-02-16 03:01:53 I love music-- I make it, I buy it (yes, buy!), I read about it, I analyze how it's made, I wonder who likes what and why... I like to hear how songs came about, the history of music, and what the next development is; I read the credits on CD covers, I know the names of critics; I'm curious about new technology related to it (hello iPhone!), and blah blah blog.
So I'm happy mog came along, because I can now put down some thoughts. (Though not always coherent nor carefully-edited, due to time constraints). So I'll be putting out some anecdotes, thoughts, lyrics, stories behind songs (mine and other people's), etc. for anyone else who happens to (large
heart) music.
So... first anecdote:
When I bought the album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) by David Bowie back in the day I thoug Read more:Major
Stars, Satellites, and Black Hole Songs... & Massive Ballerina (Pirouettes for Millennia) 2008-06-25 20:33:37 I've always like songs about the stars and galaxies... and loneliness... and loneliness... and loneliness....
Thus "Massive Ballerina
(Pirouttes for Millennia)" -- track 12 on the "Various Chimeras" CD-- but see also Mrs. Major Tom by K.I.A., from the "DXLR8" release...
Anyway here's the lyrics to Massive Ballerina:
Intimately,
beneath a digital moon,
fractal flowers,
in full Read more:Black
, Satellites
"We Do Supersonic" by Shinjuku Zulu (the go-go global video) 2008-07-31 11:43:07 Unslow-mo global video
for the song "We Do Supersonic" by Shinjuku Zulu (MP3 at iTUNES HERE ) feat. Dubai, Shanghai, and, er, Flin Flon.
"Ya ya to fast! No no to slow!"
From the 19-track "Various Chimeras" release, which also feat. the songs "Make Me Shake", "Da Riddim Griffin", and "Scarborough Fair (A True Dub of Mine)"
Shinjuku Zulu MYSPACE
Shinjuku Zulu on Facebook... and other links 2008-08-18 19:09:56 Here's the link to the Shinjuku Zulu group page on Facebook
And the link to the regular Shinjuku Zulu / K.I.A page on Facebook
And the link for all the Shinjuku Zulu videos at Youtube, including Broken, SXYLV, Shanghai Masai, Slow Is the New Fast, We Do Supersonic, DXLR8 Read more:links
Broken by K.I.A. & Shinjuku Zulu (liquid'd limbs and hurricane'd faces...) 2008-08-09 14:26:02 Here's the new video for "Broken
" by K.I.A. & Shinjuku Zulu, from the "DXLR8 - Downtempo 'Best Of' K.I.A. & Shinjuku Zulu 13-track release... (at iTunes HERE )
The video features liquid body morphing, color fields and hurricane
d faces
...
Hear more cuts from the release at THIS POST
"DXLR8" Tracklisting:
01 "Scarborough Fair -A Tr
Various Chimeras by Shinjuku Zulu (19-song sampler video) 2008-09-07 10:14:45 "Various Chimeras" is a 19-track release of cross-genre dance and downtempo pop electronica by Shinjuku Zulu, with 12 contributing vocalists (rappers, toasters, and singers: pop, blues, jazz, choral, chanters, etc.) The below video
sampler features sexy body morphing, unsexy speed reading, speed collages, Dubai, Tuktuyuktuk and Taiwan; lyrics, lies and reviews; falling fashion models and music, m
"Sonorous Susurrus": Susurrus (downtempo) video song-sampler 2008-09-16 09:17:38 "Sonorous Susurrus" is a 22-track release by K.I.A. ( MP3s at iTUNES HERE )Songs 1-10 are uptempo/dance, songs 12-22 are downtempo/chillout.
Below is a video
compilation with samples of the downtempo tracks...
"Sonorous Susurrus" by K.I.A. tracklisting:
01 "Be My DJ" f. Caryn Green (dance)02 "Freedom" f. Shawn Skeir (bluestronica) Read more:video song
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