Whether it's her left hand playing the bass notes on piano, or the double bass player thumpingly walking through chords, I absolutely love the mixture of her vocals with bass. Their disparity provides perfect separation, and yet it is surprisingly easy for the song to coalesce into one sound. Instead of a rich sound-scape, I'm able to appreciate the song as a whole, simultaneously hearing and enjoying each element. She speeds through lyrics, stopping frequently to add a tasteful vibrato in line with the jumpy piano. And when she stops singing, she can let loose with a flurry of piano notes as you will see in Jump Monk (it's also quite a showcase for the bassist Matt Wigton). This quote describes her better than I could ever hope to do so: “"Ella Fitzgerald on speed beating the shit out of Regina Spektor" – Rolling Stone
Should anyone care to delve into the world of physics this is the book to start with. Brian Greene covers the foundations of 'strange' physics - everything that seems either outside the realm of possibility or beyond the scope of common sense. From the distortion of time and space, to the intricacies of quantum mechanics he holds the reader with spectacular analogies. I had prior knowledge of almost everything that he covered, but the way he sets the up the examples afforded an even greater understanding. This book is for layman and physicist alike. With assurance it will grip you from the first oddity and give your brain some exercise.
In general I tend to stay away catchy, repetitive music. In a sense blues is supposed to be bare and stripped down to just a singer and guitar, which translates to repetitive licks and lyrics. But in the midst of all the traditional straightforward blues there is always room for improvisation and passion. Many hail Samuel James as one of the most authentic contemporary blues artists, and yet his music is such a breath of fresh air. He incorporates many traditional blues methods but he has managed to define a sound unlike anyone else I've ever heard.
I actually sat right next to this guy at a small blues concert in Manitou Springs. He was headlining but during the opening act he sat in the back row with a hoodie drawn over his face. I didn't realize that this hooded fellow was Samuel until he took the stage. He has quite a presence, both during songs and between, filled to the brim with witty jokes and a zeal for playing his guitar. His set was almost entirely covers, yet each new inception of the songs produced something completely new; his style reworked even Michael Jackson's Billie Jean into a virtuosic blues piece. His meandering tempo changes brought us at one moment to melodic contemplation, at others to a foot stopping frenzy. His intricate fingerstyle strumming was mesmerizing, and the archaic slide work brings out the soul of an acoustic guitar.
Try these songs out, 2 are instrumentals and 2 highlight his lovely growling voice. (Albums: For Rosa, Maeve and Noreen; Songs Famed for Sorrow and Joy)
Unfortunately my mother tongue lacks the phonetic beauty that others posses. Still, I don’t need to understand the song in order to appreciate it. Here are a couple of examples of exemplary language beauty.
Samba Vexillographica
Devendra Banhart
Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
Regardless of the language Devendra Banhart sings in, his air vibrations feel like silk flowing through my ear. Devendra produces one of the prettiest vibratos I know of in the male populace. It's all so damn playful. He grew up in Venezuela, and as such has hold of both Spanish and English. The album is definitely worth checking out, its an odd mix of genres all held together by this man's voice.
The Rímur album is a tad different from the rest of Sigur Rós’ albums in the fact that they utilize the voice of Steindór Andersen instead of Jónsi Birgisson's ambient focetto. I seem to like the rolling R and flow to the language, especially when using slight vibrato to glide over the syllables. Steindór's voice allows for the listener to better grasp the Icelandic language, both because he is saying real words (unlike the Hopelandish-Icelandic phonetic gibberish- of Jónsi) and his full, rich voice prominently holds center stage in these songs.
It's a shame that this is one of Capercaillie's few songs that has their lively celtic flair with Karen Matheson's Gaelic. I love her voice but they frequently loose the celtic instruments and take a downbeat approach to any lyrical songs. Nevertheless this song incorporates the best of the groups potential without much compromise. Gaelic and Icelandic exude utterly angelic phonetic beauty; I suppose they are indeed geographically neighbors. It requires little effort for a singer of these languages to capture my heart, unlike singers of coarse languages who must truly excel in their singing skill. Karen certainly possess both elements.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/22/copenhagen-climate-change-mark-lynas I once coupled the climate problem and alternative energies into my main focus for pursuing science. This has since changed in the wake of more interesting subjects, but the fate of Earth still yearns for discussion. Regardless of if humans are causing climate change, or whether there is a global climate transition, it is manifesting world tensions. Industrialized countries wish to continue their prosperity and developing countries wish to reach prosperity. Both camps want to throw responsibility on the other, but to no avail. The only countries for which the issue seems awfully apparent are the islands facing flooding in the future. It may be the case that Earth is going through a climate change stage in her life. If this is the case then we do not have the means to reverse warming. However with all climate predictions, chaos inherently trifles with the results, so preventive measures are always called for. We may not make an impact, but then again we could, and should attempt to do so. I don't see any fair way to go about placing responsibility, discussion...?
A large amount of my music is purely instrumental, and hopefully I can bring more people into the fold of enjoying it. Yann Tiersen has been an integral part of my music experience ever since I was introduced. I couldn't remember his name for the longest time so he was 'that French Accordionist.' I’ll start off with 3 songs which highlight separate instruments. I will feign saying that these are my favorite songs of their respective instruments because from artist to artist, song to song, music is often incomparable for me, much like taste. I like sweet and tart and spicy, but they are entirely different concepts and so lack a common element for proper comparison. Music consists of so many elements that to take it apart and say this part is better than anything else doesn’t make sense because; one element depends on the rest of the song and they cannot be viewed independently. However these are in the ranks of songs which I herald as perfect. Not that they are actually perfect but I cannot think of any criticism or faults. Each and every time I listen to them I in total amazement of what music can be. They are all from his 2001 album L'absente.
Qu’en Reste-t-Il :
It is an absolutely gorgeous violin song. As with many Yann Tiersen tracks, he starts off relatively slow paced, flowing through the song until he brings it to a climax. But in this song you may not even realize that the climax is looming. It hits at 2:52, and in true Yann fashion he slows down, almost making us think the song is over and then bam, he pulls out a defibrillator, yells clear and in an explosion of notes resuscitates a still living being into pure bliss. The sound of the violin is so rich, it whimpers and moans as Yann makes each pass of his bow. More than just creating sounds, Yann brings the violin to life, letting it sing its little heart out.
http://www.divshare.com/download/9898317-dff
L’absente:
In the same fashion as Qu’en Reste-t-Il the listener is given a beautifully melodic couple of minutes and then Yann picks up the pace and rips it up on the piano. 2:19 his hands start a-flying and then soon after the bass notes form the cohesiveness of the speed. At one point in my listening to Yann I would skip through most of the piano songs because they were too slow paced for me. I had done that several times with this song but one time I let it play through and it taught me that Yann's fingers can caress the music out of any instrument.
http://www.divshare.com/download/9898315-5a7
Le Jour d’Avant:
I have an inherent love for the accordion because it combines rhythm and melody unlike any instrument. This song isn’t just about the accordion though, he brings out cello, xylophone, horns and percussion all into harmony. This is a great example of the layering that Yann can put together. Sometimes I will get lost in the song listening to one instrument and then zone out of it and let them all meld together into harmony.
Before you start listening to music you are going to need a means of doing so. There are a lot of sites and programs to choose from so in case you haven’t looked around I’ll introduce you to a couple of good ones.
Grooveshark.com will most likely have whatever song you are looking for to stream for free. Just type, and listen. It is certainly the best site I know of to stream music online.
Pandora.com will broaden your music horizons. If I'm feeling like stretching out I'll pop in an artist, bookmark a few songs and listen to more from those artists. Or if I don't feel like making a playlist Pandora will brilliantly offer one.
Songbird is the firefox of music players. You can download addons for it such as a scrolling lyrics tab or to change the color… The most useful part of it is its ability to open up a blog in its firefox browser and it will list all the songs on the site that you can download. Just type in the address and click download in songbird and it will save the files to you music folder. I don’t use it as my main music player because it does have glitches, but it is the easiest process of getting music from blogs.
