Archive | June, 2013

Strumming Something New – Zan Strumfeld

17 Jun

Zan Strumfeld

 

While Zan Strumfeld carries her brand of stripped-down folk with her soft, Spektor-like voice, there is an endearing and subtle vexation on the horizon of her vocal that creeps through the sweetness of the piece and pulls the listener into her world of raw emotion. This quality is unique to Strumfeld, an Albany-based folky singer/songwriter.

Strumfeld – who has an excellent name for a person who plays the guitar – released her third EP, Someone New, back in April of this year. The album is a testament to simplicity. Strumfeld does not bedizen songs with electronics, pounding percussion, or superfluous instrumentals. Instead, she garners acoustic power with her multifaceted voice and some well-placed harmonies. The result is self-described “lullabies for the lonely lovers” and this one-sentence synopsis is quite apt.

 

Please excuse the contradictory nature of this description, but there is certainly a warm loneliness that penetrates the plucked strings of “Carry On,” a song that urges listeners to “learn to carry on.” Strumfeld’s piece is so intimate that it’s as if she is with you performing it live, and this local element adds to the songs potency.

“Someone New” puts Strumfeld’s voice on full display – abundant and delicate. The song may be a lullaby, but it carries a soothing ardor that keeps the listener hanging on each intonation.

Check out more about Strumfeld on her Bandcamp and Facebook.

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The Music of Grand Theft Auto

14 Jun

GTA_San_Andreas_Soundtrack
The soundtrack is a crucial part of any film, saying what the actors can’t, yet the use of music has largely been ignored by video games. There is one huge exception to this rule, and that is the Grand Theft Auto series. In terms of maturity, diversity and originality, it is actually putting most film soundtracks to shame.

Grand Theft Auto is one of the best selling game series of all time, and it’s impossible to deny that music is a huge part of its appeal. Every time you climb in a car in-game, you have a huge host of radio stations filled with real-life songs, immersing you in that world as if it were your own. Every player has a moment of epiphany when they first start playing the game: they can go anywhere, do anything, and crucially, can listen to exactly what they want. The music has a knack for complementing exactly what you’re doing at the time – there’s dark, gritty rock for performing getaways and soaring pop ballads as you’re coasting down the highways. There is also old school hip-hop for exploring the shadier neighbourhoods. What other game can claim that discovering and enjoying new songs is actually part of the experience?

Even more impressive is the range of genres offered. Take GTA: San Andreas, which was set in a parody of 90’s LA. It could easily have been filled with alternative rock and gangsta rap; instead there is also country music, classic rock, reggae, metal and funk. There are more than 150 songs, covering the full spectrum of musical tastes. Having music you like at your fingertips at all times goes a long way in making this world believable. You will drive around, completely ignoring the game because you just want to listen to the end of song.

GTA 4 went even further, encouraging users to purchase music they enjoyed. Players could use their in-game mobile to ‘mark’ a song, and they would then receive a real email with a direct link to the song on Amazon’s music store. Minutes after you first heard it on the game, you could download the song to your iPod.

The latest game in the series, GTA 5, is due to be released later this year and promises to be even larger and more diverse than usual. The trailers include music by Queen, rapper Jay Rock, and country singer Weylon Jennings, tailored to the different characters. Instead of simply signing the latest hit single, the developers Rockstar have a knack for picking music that says something about the characters and the world they inhabit.

It’s refreshing to have game producers take music seriously rather than as a marketing gimmick. The people responsible for sound tracking most films and TV shows would do well to take note.

Amanda Merdzan Redraws the Indie/Folk Map

12 Jun

Amanda Merdzan

When astronaut John Glenn orbited above Perth, Australia in 1962, people in the Western Australia capital city turned on all their lights so the city would become a sparkling lightbulb to the orbital viewer; Perth is aptly known as the “City of Light” because of this magnificent communal stunt.

Indie/Folk musician Amanda Merdzan is also from Perth, Australia. What do these two things have in common (despite the similarity of origin)? Merdzan, similar to her hometown, is a “city of light” for Indie/Folk music. Her music dazzles with a powerful edge that shines through her savvy vocals. While a troubadour with a sincere rawness to her tunes, Merdzan juxtaposes this denuded flavor with a striking maturity in her words and musicality. Put simply, Merdzan is a fluorescent light in an often lucifugous climate.

After the release of her debut album in 2010, Merdzan spent three months in the U.S. before going home in 2011 and gigging around Perth. She is now on the heels of her latest release, an EP called The Map Has Been Redrawn.

“Afraid” is the title track off of the 5-song EP. The song bounces with a Mumford and Sons rhythm at its entrance, combining Merdzan’s potent vocal with an excellent instrumental of echoed strings, plucked acoustic guitar, and heavy percussion. The inception of the piece latches on to the listener like a good book to an eager reader; once it pulls you in you cannot stop exploring the created world. And it is quite a world – one full of imagery-inducing harmonies and musical precision. Seriously, the song does not have a flaw.

This live acoustic version of “Each Day Like the First” (the 4th song on the EP) exposes the tenderness of Merdzan’s voice. The song flows with the subtle authority of Fleet Foxes or Tallest Man on Earth. While pastoral, the persistent rhythm maintains an urban quality – a contradiction that works well to create the wonderful aura that encompasses all of Merdzan’s songs.

Follow Merdzan on her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

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Airborne Toxic Event – Summerstage Preview

10 Jun

Airborne Toxic Event

There are many reasons to like Airborne Toxic Event. As I have written in the past, the band plays an infectious alt/rock style that pulls influences from the 80s and mixes these influences with theatrical vocals and riffs. This amalgamation creates an intriguing aura of orchestral sound that echoes and pulses.

The music is also “smart” rock. It’s a neoteric genre. Let’s be honest; a lot of music today is, well, nescient – intellectually dumbed down for an audience that just wants to hear a consistent beat. That is not to say that the producers and creators of the music are unintelligent – they are simply playing to what will make money. But Airborne Toxic Event is different. The band is made up of uber-talented musicians who understand how to mix “smart” rock with infectious rhythms.

I initially became interested in the band because of lead vocalist Mikel Jollett. Jollett, a fiction and freelance writer, began seriously writing songs after a string of moribund events in his life. He named the band after a tremendous section of my favorite Don DeLillo book “White Noise.” The life-altering events that engendered the band’s creation are similar to “The Airborne Toxic Event” portrayed in DeLillo’s masterpiece. Thus, as a writer, Jollett’s lyrics are laden with symbolism and passion.

The Airborne Toxic Event, fresh off the release of its new album Such Hot Blood, will join a large Summerstage crowd in Central Park (5th Avenue and 72nd Street entrance) on June 18. Best of all – the concert is FREE. Yes, free as in no money. The band will be joined by The Calder Quartet, a LA-based string quartet, who have been called “outstanding” and “superb” by the New York Times. So, yeah, free Airborne Toxic Event show with The Calder Quartet in Central Park – you should probably come.

“The Fifth Day” is one of my favorite songs off of the new album. The song features one of my favorite Airborne Toxic Event elements. The music is almost subtle. While you can drown in the elaborate instrumentals and production, the music progressively rises and falls like waves before ultimately crescendoing. In this case, the music perfectly matches the melancholic lyric.

Check out more about the Airborne Toxic Event and don’t forget to keep track of the diverse Summerstage schedule!

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Album Preview – YEEZUS by Kanye West

7 Jun

Before you read on let me introduce you to the author of this post and new Music Court contributor, Jamie Waller. We are excited to have him on board. Jamie will cover the rap and indie rock beat. Keep an eye out for his posts every Friday. Check out Jamie’s bio:

“I’m from Mansfield in UK, and am studying Journalism and History at the University of Lincoln. I’m a keen marathon runner and often write about running on my blog – http://feetfailmenot2.wordpress.com/. I’m a big fan of both rock and rap – my favourite bands are Arctic Monkeys and Gaslight Anthem, and I also enjoy rappers like Eminem, Nas and Kendrick Lamar.”

 

Kanye West

Whether you are rap fan or not, you won’t be able to avoid hearing about Kanye West’s new album YEEZUS for the next few months. Kanye announced its entrance into the world by projecting the lead single on the side of 66 buildings across America. Here is what we do and don’t know about one of the most anticipated albums of the year.

What we do know

Kanye’s god complex hasn’t gotten any smaller. Kanye has always been one of the most eccentric (some would say arrogant) character in the world of rap, but he seems to be now taking it to new heights. Yeezus is a combination of his nickname, Yeezy, and Jesus. After his smash hit song New God Flow last year, he has now developed a god complex of his own.

The Dropout Bear isn’t back. The adorable bear from his first three album covers still isn’t back – instead he has opted for a minimalistic cover that mimics bootlegged CDs, complete with a handwritten sticker saying ‘YEEZUS.’ Perhaps the moral is ‘Don’t judge a CD by its cover?’

The guest list will be as huge as usual. The list of people he has worked with in the studio just keeps growing, from regular collaborators like Frank Ocean, John Legend and Pusha T, to some people you might not expect – Skrillex and Daft Punk, for example. The French duo reportedly produced the single ‘Black Skinhead’ while Skrillex’s role is still a mystery. Jay-Z will almost certainly have a guest verse too as usual.

It won’t be like anything we’ve heard before. If there’s one thing you can rely on Kanye for, it’s to constantly reinvent his musical style. From the slowed-down horns of his debut to autotune, there’s little telling what he will do next. People who have worked with him have hinted towards the album being ‘dark’, ‘primal’ and ‘tribal’, whatever that means.

It will be released on 18th June. That is, if you believe Kanye’s mysterious tweets.

What we don’t know

What’s actually going to be on the CD. Kanye may be very ostentatious but he can keep a secret when he needs to; there have been almost no leaks about YEEZUS. Going against the current trend, the album won’t be streamed before release either. Kanye has performed the songs New Slaves and Black Skinhead live, but besides that everything else is under wraps.

Whether his rapping has improved. Without being disrespectful, Kanye has never been the most gifted lyricist. His talents lie in producing songs and getting the best out of other rappers, but he constantly gets outshined by them. He has definitely made strides in recent albums – for example, take lines like “They say I’m the abomination of Obama’s nation/ Well that’s a pretty bad way to start a conversation.”  It will be interesting to see whether he can actually hold his own now.

Is he really going political? The first single from the album touches on themes about how consumerism is used to keep black people down, while the word Skinhead has strong political connotations. While he’s never been afraid to touch on struggles black people face before, this is the first time he’s placed them as the centre piece of his album.

Whether it will live up to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Nightmare. Kanye’s last solo album wowed critics and the buying public alike back in 2010. Looking at fame through the prism fairy tales, it dove into the grimy heart of celebrity, winning the Grammy for Best Rap Album. There was an outcry when it was snubbed by the main award in favour of more commercial albums. The question now – and the only one that will really matter to listeners – is if whether Kanye can return to the heights of his masterpiece.

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