I originally intended to do a regular column on my picks for good tracks, albums, and artists. I’ve been a little negligent in my responsibilities so here is the first issue of Brian’s Music Picks.
The picks this week are focused on EDM (electronic dance music). I have 3 tracks I found particularly appealing, one which has been very recently released and should not be a surprise and another which I found by happenstance which I also found to be a good tune. See the reviews and comments below and follow the links to Beatport to listen to a sample.
Eric Prydz - Pjanoo - Original Mix
This track is a recent release and it should be no surprise that it will be a hit. It is Eric Prydz. I love the repeating lead and how the bass line acoustically changes the feel and cadence of the lead. It may not be groundbreaking, but it is sure to be a club hit and has a great drive to it. Below is a youtube video of the song.
Oliver Klein and Martin Eyerer - Babylon
A great techno track, this song has a minimal feel to it, but doesn’t carry the occasionally overly simplistic monotonous sounds that many other minimal tracks have (that sound where you think a ten year old could have created that). It take something special to take a minimal tack from mediocre to quality. The xylophone like lead has a varying beat that is ever changing but at the same time not grating or unsettling.
Hybrid - Finished Symphony - Deadmau5 Remix
This track is from 2007 so it is far from new, but it still has been flowing through my playlist and I had to throw it in there. I usually loathe strings, synthesized or real in EDM tracks, but somehow Hybrid does it with ease and Deadmau5 applies its characteristic sound in surprisingly effective fashion. Warning: It still sounds like Deadmau5 once things get rolling, so if you suffer from Deadmau5 repetition headaches you may want to avoid this track.
This post is inspired by a posting that was made on a media newsgroup. It described the new Unofficial Ron Paul “Revolution” video by Aimee Allen (already has a song that many probably know titled Revolution) as a response to the will.i.am “Yes We Can” video made in support of Obama. Both are embedded below. I don’t believe the Ron Paul video matches Yes We Can in message, impact, or effectiveness.
The Ron Paul video (embedded above) is slick, well produced and appeals to our pop sensibilities. But that’s exactly the problem. It is a pop video that utilizes a political message. The message is token, the depth lacking, and the lasting power or internet phenomenon potential limited since in reality its just a music video. I must caveat this by saying that who knows what Aimee Allen’s true intent was. Maybe she wasn’t looking for the same respond will.i.am’s video received and maybe the Ron Paul campaign is just losing steam. It is definitely more engaging to the eye than the “Yes we can” video due to the visual content (looking at celebrities over and over gets old after the first minute or two). BUT, I think the Ron Paul video triggers the pop culture part of our minds more than the political side. The message gets lost in the glossy packaging. It is ineffective as a political rallying cry since the minute they throw in the Suicide Girls, people will be thinking about them and what will come next visually rather than any message that is in there. They might pull in a few young eyes who think Aimee Allen is hot, but I’m not sure how SGs translate into revolution or Ron Paul. Not to mention
half the time they yell Ron Paul it could just as easily be Run Pull. More pop using a little political messaging rather than political messaging utilizing a pop medium. Don’t see the emotional tug that will.i.am’s originally had.
More “that was cool” than “what a great message”
The Obama video (embedded above) on the contrary is minimalistic, almost reminiscent of the NBC public service announcement ads. The Message is political, the format is political and it uses a pop medium to that end. The celebrities are almost inconsequential, as most B and C celebs are anyways. Its the words and message that gets all the focus, as its repeated over and over again. Yes it helps that its a very well crafted tag line, its tough to beat “Yes we can”, but as with the adoption of “change” by every candidate the message is also in the packaging. I believe Obama’s unofficial ad really found a balance between pop and politics
Share your comments below.
Update: As you can see from one of the comments below, the Aimee Allen video is actually not an official video, but was an early version that was prematurely leaked. I think the analysis still stands as when, what, how, or why it was released is not as important as what is on the web now. Maybe the official video will have a completely different feel to it, but this is the content we have to consider for the moment. I look forward to the official version. At a minimum the original video had a lot of potential, so in the end it could blow the Obama ad out of the water. I hope they still complete it and post it even though Ron Paul has now discontinued his campaign activities.
I just read that the main guitarist(Ola Frenning) of Soilwork is leaving the band. The official release can be read on their website Soilwork.org. This would be a sizable loss to Soilwork since they lost former guitarist Peter Wichers to a career in production after that last album Stabbing the Drama. They are going to continue touring and I’ll be going to see them play in Seattle in late March, so I’ll see how they sound after this change.
I have to say I was pretty disappointed by their last album Sworn to a Great Divide. It left much to be desired, but still had a lot of the elements from previous albums. It is not clear if they hit a wall creatively, with the label or are just milking the cow. We’ll have to see what the future rings since it seems like they have a full year of touring planned. stay tuned! The full quote from the band website is included below:
SOILWORK, who recently completed the Lamb Of God/Killswitch Engage U.S. tour in support of their new album Sworn To A Great Divide, have decided to part ways with guitarist Ola Frenning.
It was felt that Ola resisted the demands of the road and found it difficult to come to terms with the amount of touring scheduled.
Sworn To A Great Divide is SOILWORK’s fastest seller and the live demand for the band is growing. They intend to play everywhere and fulfill the album’s potential.
Vocalist Björn “Speed” Strid says: ‘It was a very difficult decision to make because Ola has been our friend and bandmate for a very long time’.
The decision will not affect any of SOILWORK’s plans. Guitarist David Andersson will fill in on their upcoming Finnish/Baltic tour as well as the “Scum Of The Earth” U.S. tour with Throwdown. The band will then tour Australia, Japan and South-East Asia before returning to Europe for festivals and a headlining U.S. tour in the Fall.
Ola Frenning comments: ‘After 10 years, 7 albums and several world wide tours, we’ve realised that we have developed in different directions and have a different set of values, profession wise. The disagreements have reached their peak and it has become an untenable situation. The band’s solution is that I part ways with them so that I won’t be in the way for the future plans of SOILWORK.
However, since I’m not gonna be on the road (at least for a while), I will now be able to continue with my songwriting and producing at another level. For further information, visit www.myspace.com/olafrenning. The page will be updated in the near future.
Cheers to ya all… And thanks for making these 10 years with the band memorable’.
There is a great new audio editing product on the market right now. It is called Reaper and it is a competitor to Cubase, Sonar, Logic, etc. One of the reasons it is a great product is because it is being constantly updated in response to user needs, not to mention instead of a piece of bloatware like many of the editing suites out there it is relatively compact. You can run it off a USB drive if you want.
Reaper is a cross between donation-ware and shareware. There are no iLok keys or fancy anti-piracy controls, instead you can download the fully functional suite for a month after which time it will ask you to pay for it, as you should if you’re still using it. However it will still function normally minus a delayed startup screen. I think this is great because I know I may download software and play with it for a day get distracted and return to it a month later to make the purchasing decision. You’re screwed if you happen to be trying out many of the “commercial” products out there. Not to mention to register for non-commercial use it is only $50 and for a commercial license only $225.
There is a great user community and the developer(s) are easily accessible compared to those at Digidesign/Steinberg who won’t answer a phone without a credit card. Often feature requests by customers will be integrated into the next release which is always right around the corner. It isn’t a perfect production suite, as few are, but it is definitely worth checking out, especially for those home studio folk (like myself). Reaper.fm
This thing is big pimpin’, at least for me that is. This is a Alesis Ion Virtual Analogue Synthesizer. They are now discontinued, but you can still find them on Ebay rather easily. Seeing as this is my first hardware synthesizer, the multitude of sounds you can make are just unbelievable. There is something about being able to touch the knobs on the keyboard while playing rather than simply tweaking a parameter in anSoftware Synth that makes this more rewarding. I chose this one because of its flexibility and because it allows you easy access to many of the parameters right at your finger tips rather than going through an endless number of menus. Look for some new BaseWest tracks in the near future, I’m just starting to see just the basics of what I can do with this.
You can check out some of my current music at my Myspace page.
I just read that the main guitarist(Ola Frenning) of Soilwork is leaving the band. The official release can be read on their website 
