Inside Nokia Music

I came across a nice little website for the band Labuat, a Spanish group that play a fusion of styles. The website is an interactive one that allows you to draw or trace a pattern in time with the music that’s playing. It plays out a story with the inky style and the various animations which I think is quite relaxing.

http://soytuaire.labuat.com/

Appears (although my Spanish is rubbish) that you can record the traces you make and replay them.

Inevitably had to go onto YouTube and check out what their other stuff is like. Have to say, I think they’re rather good. Definitely will be adding to my collection! They apparently supported Beyonce when she played in Barcelona in 2009 and were the first act onstage.

Here’s another track – a good slide into the weekend methinks.

You can download Labuat’s album ‘Labuat’  from the Nokia Music Store - if you’ve got  ‘Comes With Music’, it’s completely free!

Adverts, especially TV ones, are usually a great source of frustration for me.

The reason?

Music.

You’re sitting through the commercial break, usually bored out of your mind. For some reason British TV seems to be full of ads for heartburn or constipation drugs, gold companies wanting to buy for less than market rates or dating websites. So would that make me a single, overweight, bunged up, junk food eating couch potato, with enough bling that would make even BA Baracus from the A-Team take notice?

Music is always a good hook for me; if I like a song I’ve heard then I usually attempt to find it. There are dedicated websites (do a search on Google for ‘advert music’ and you’ll get a whole raft of them) which can help you find the tunes in commercials, although it can be a challenge sometimes.

It’s a great way to extend to expand your music tastes. Without TV adverts I probably wouldn’t have discovered tunes from Boss Hog, a punk blues group, which featured in a Levi’s ad with their song Itchy & Scratchy. I only discovered Goldfrapp, one of my favourite groups,through a few adverts, with Ooh La La appearing recently.

Sometimes you run into a brick wall or discover that the tune was written specifically for the ad.

The latest tool in my arsenal is Shazam. A phone app that records the tune and matches it up to a database of songs. In the UK you can also phone up a number which listens to the tune and sends you a text message if they work out the song title.

My recent discovery was the song used in the demonstration video from HP.

After drawing a blank or two with searches on the Web, I was able to use Shazam to work out what the song was.

At first I thought it sounded like Goldfrapp, who have a new album turning up in the next few weeks. But turns out it’s the song “Ooh Yeah” by Moby.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe8mM2obFws

In a sense, the advert has done its job. My active involvement in finding the song will probably mean I’ll also remember the product as well.

Memorable Tune = Halo Effect For Brand = Awareness = Consumer Mindshare = $$$

Simples…

So, where’s my wallet so I can buy that computer…?

I’m a big fan of Shakira, she has a great voice and well, certainly rates highly on the hotness factor!

But, I actually don’t think her voice is great in English and personally prefer a lot of her Spanish language songs instead.

Even her English hits like “Whenever, Wherever” I think sound much better in the Spanish version.  Perhaps it’s because Spanish is a rather deeper and seductive language that suits her very unique voice.

If you listen to the two versions, then I do think the Spanish version feels a lot better! (Must apologise for the lack of embedding capabilities for the below YouTube video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKS7QkYvum0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_LkjpYx8do

It does make me think about the culture around music and the subtle differences that I think exist when it comes to regional tastes. I’m bit of a fan of the Latin genres of music. Perhaps it’s the romance and passion - the perfect antidote to the Stiff Upper Lip and British sensibilities?

As an example, I recently picked up, what is in my view, one of the definitive versions of the folk song Guantanamera which is sung by Joan Baez.

In any case, here are a few of Shakira’s other Spanish language tunes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyXTMjF7cWU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-Se_oeyLw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LznYGrYSVG4

Breakups are a bummer no? Any way I was discussing the new Beach House record Teen Dream with the gf. “Used to Be” was in the background and she noted that the new album sounds “more epic” than their previous works. I nodded in agreement. We sat in silence listening to the song fade out and then we made out… then we broke up, then we made out again… then I woke up naked 2 days later laying next to her on a bed made of cotton candy while black rose petals fell from the skies… I dunno either but… dang, WHAT A RECORD. Happy frickin Valentine’s Day. Meh…

Beach House – Better Times

So, I was having a debate about music.

It centred on why bands like the Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and countless others are great to listen to. These are the kind of bands who, if X-Factor existed then as now, would have been given the Simon Cowell Scowl.

The reason for me is imperfection and I’m going to bring some Zen into this, so make sure your Feng Shui and Chakra’s are aligned…

The reason I think is Wabi-sabi, and no that’s not Wasabi, the green hot stuff you put on your sushi. Wabi-sabi is a Japanese philosophy about the beauty of imperfection (well it’s more complicated then that but it seems hard to explain to Gaijin like me).

The music these bands played sounded very much on the “edge”, ready to fall apart at a moments notice. It’s a bit like running down a hill and building up so much speed that eventually you can’t move your legs fast enough and you just trip over (which I suspect is a good tactic for the great British tradition of cheese rolling).

Jimi’s song Killing Floor is a great example:

The “edge” creates magic. Like the beauty of chaos theory in the fractal form.
One thing it reminds me was some of the musical history that I had in music classes at school. My biggest memory of music class was plinking out bad tunes on the keyboard. Especially after discovering the “drum beats and backing rhythms you could play with one key” mode. But the one thing that stuck in my mind was the history of the Blues sound, which was apparently derived from the instruments being used, which were so battered and beaten they were naturally flat and not in tune. Wabi-sabi at work again.

So in the spirit of Wabi-sabi:

Here is a band from Japan that sums it all up (slightly poor quality as it is a live recording)…

A tune from a one album wonder from the 70s that sounds like Steppenwolf (the band now has a limited edition CD of the original release, if you can find it!)…

And a 60s Garage Band. Enjoy!

Long before the NME, Nick Grimshaw or Zane Lowe started sniffing around and putting their grubby mitts all over him, Darwin Deez was sat in a small Brooklyn bar called Pete’s Candy Store, waiting in line to share a few songs with the back room’s weekly open mic night crowd.

It’s April 2008. I’m in America with life-long friend Chris Taylor, at the start of a dream that we’d shared since we were kids to travel across the country. Three nights into our trip and we find ourselves in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn. As Chris wanted to play a few open mic nights while we were in the country, we sought one out at Pete’s Candy Store, and signed up. Our host was this guy who reminded me of Kurt Russell, and introduced Chris as ‘Chaz Taylor’, which broke the mellow vibe of the candle lit red room when ‘Mr Russell’ was corrected, much to the amusement of all in the room who later on went to dedicate songs to ‘Chaz’.

Everyone took their turn, everything was nice and everyone was pleasant with their appreciation of each other’s music; until Darwin Deez took to the tiny old fashioned theatre looking stage, which was now lit up like a dressing room mirror. Gently introducing himself with a soft, effeminate voice, he starts playing Deep Sea Divers. As soon as the opening lines leave his lips the room is transfixed, “You and I are deep sea divers on a task; little bubbles rising from your scuba mask”. What a wonderful picture to create, and delivered so delicately, but just as everyone settles into the idea of two underwater lovers, friends, or foes; Deez crushes our pretty little picture with his melancholic chorus of “You’re bringing me down, now I’m blue, now I’m in deeper too”. It felt like I was watching a revised incarnation of Prince, this guy was incredible. After just 3 songs played on an electric guitar strung with only 4 strings in his own invented, secret tuning (Deep Sea Divers, Radar Detector, and Constellations – ), the whole room is in love; everyone parting with $5 in exchange for a homemade 5 track Darwin Deez CD, straight from the man’s hands.

The night came to an end at Pete’s Candy Store and we were told of another open mic night a few blocks over at a bar called Matchless, where Darwin Deez was again waiting in line to steal the show. It seemed we were about to witness a whole new level of musical celebration rarely seen at your typical open mic night. Deez decided to demo a new song he’d been working on by plugging his iPod into a guitar amp and dancing his way through the track (he’s known to often do similar with custom pop mash-ups). I’m not just talking about a little bop either, it was a full on choreographed routine which also saw him behind the drum kit for a few bars. You had to be there to fully appreciate the raw showmanship that was taking place in front of next to nobody in two small Brooklyn bars on a Sunday night…but it kinda went something similar to this:

After he played, I bought him a pint and he came and sat with me and Chris in a booth, asking questions about Coldplay and Foals, talking enthusiastically about England and how he’d like to visit someday.

Darwin Deez ended up soundtracking our drunken first night in Philadelphia, our flight to Austin, our 8 hour Greyhound ride from San Francisco to L.A., and the sad return to England. We must have quoted Deez lyrics every hour of everyday for the rest of the trip, most often to remind each other that we were in fact “a radar detector”.

So, Darwin Deez faded into obscurity since April 2008, right? Well, not exactly. The very clever and insightful people at Lucky Number recently released Deez’s first 7” – the painfully catchy Constellations – on a limited run of 500 copies. And on top of that, he’s due to make his First UK appearances in March with 3 shows in London:

9th March 2010 – White heat @ Madam JoJo’s
11th March 2010 – XFM X:Posure @ The Barfly
13th March – Westminster Reference Library

When I fall in love with a new band or an artist that I know very few have heard of, I find myself stuck in a strange mode of selfishness. I want to keep what I’ve just found under wraps, to keep it exclusively mine. I want to have my moment with them; I don’t want the world to be exposed. I get that “she only has eyes for me, hands off my girl!” kind of teenage crush feeling. Well, it’s time to let my ‘girl’ grow. If you love someone, you’ll set them free. Go and fall in love with his infectious creation of – in his own words – “happy music for sad people / white music for black people”.

Enjoy Darwin Deez.

Ok so the new Hot Chip album One Life Stand sounds a tad more accessible than previous efforts. And honestly, that’s cool. I almost WANT them to truely crossover at this point cause really, the music is still GOOD. Take the song I Feel Better from said new album… It’s like a 120 bpms shot to the arm of fist-pumping-gonna-make-you-sweat-in-your-biker-shorts pop indulgence. But then the auto-tune kicks in and I start to question whether I should like this song as much as I do… Seriously, dudes: “I only want one night, together in our arms”??? Right, well it’s still pretty fun and I definitely can’t wait to see them play this one live. Which reminds me: EMI, HOLLER AT ME TO GET ME INTO THE NY SHOW , YEA?

To say things are going well for Justin Bieber would be the biggest understatement of 2010 so far. His debut album, My World, has gone platinum in Canada and the US. He is the only artist in US Billboard history to have four songs from a debut album chart in the Top 40 of the Hot 100 before the album’s release. When My World was released, it debuted at number one on the Canadian albums chart. It’s an impressive start to anyone’s career, but what’s truly impressive is that he’s only 15.

I managed to catch up with him in the middle of his huge promotional tour of the UK, full of TV appearances, interviews and shows. It seems I can’t even turn on the TV or pick up a magazine without seeing an interview or feature on him. It’s certainly been hectic for Justin. “This week I’ve been too busy to listen to music,” he says pragmatically. “I’ve been everywhere. I’ve been all over the UK, I’ve just been to Manchester and Glasgow and I performed at Wembley arena. Today I’m on my way to Bedford to meet some girls and sing some songs.”

It’s a life at odds with his beginnings. Justin has spent most of his life in Ontario, Canada, and according to his MySpace page, below the poverty line. However modest his upbringing, though, he was fortunate enough to be introduced to music as soon as he could pick up an instrument. “I started music roughly at 2. My mum played at little guitar and sang, my dad played guitar and sang a little bit too and played piano.”

After entering a local singing competition in Canada, he posted the footage online just for family and friends. “My parents are always encouraging me,” Justin remembers. “I posted some videos on YouTube and a lot of people started viewing it. Then I got found by a manager named Scooter Braun who flew me to Atlanta where I got to meet Usher. Then I was flown to meet Justin Timberlake a week later and they both wanted to sign me.”

“I ended up signing with Usher over at Island Def Jam and I put out My World in America and Canada.” Not only did Usher sign Justin to Island/Def Jam, he also makes an appearance in Justin’s video for One Time and lends his vocals to First Dance. The album is the kind of R&B Pop you would associate with Usher, which is nothing new for Justin – the cover versions in his early YouTube footage are almost exclusively R&B. Even then his voice was impressive and reminiscent of childhood footage of Justin Timberlake and other child prodigies. It comes as no surprise when Justin admits that “I listen a lot to Michael Jackson… It would have been cool to meet him but it was sad he had to go so early. The Thriller album was really good.”

Justin’s eyes are fixed firmly on the future, though. “I’d like to work with Beyoncé, I think that’d be fun. And maybe Little Wayne,” he adds. Given his track record, we wouldn’t bet against him.

Justin’s debut album, My World, is available to download at Nokia Music Store.  Please open this link in IE.

Good marketing has become business critical in the world of music today. That’s why tonnes of money is poured into making music videos, but this doesn’t necessarily make them good. In most cases you will find the scantily clad artist in question aggressively gyrating in your face, in a dangerously flashy room, whilst an onlooking horde of baggy-clothed groupies egg them on. You don’t need a million pounds to make an awe-inspiring video, an interesting and original concept will do. OK Go got it right in 2006 with the video for Here It Goes Again, which is a continuous single take of the band performing an elaborate dance routine on treadmills. This video was responsible for the song’s top 40 chart success in both the US & the UK. To date it has received over 49 million views on YouTube and was awarded a Grammy for the Best Short Form Music Video in 2007.

Now OK Go have set the bar, will they attempt to match their own success with another awe-inspiring video? Yes…

Here’s the video for the new single This Too Shall Pass:

I enjoy a good music video when it’s done properly; here are 5 great videos I have recently rediscovered:

Oren Lavie – Her Morning Elegance

Jape – Floating

Björk – All Is Full of Love

The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist

Fujiya & Miyagi – Ankle Injuries

I’ve always been intrigued by one of the human body’s strangest physiological responses: Goosebumps. Not of its visible similarity to that of a deplumed chicken, no; more specifically I have a fascination with how occasionally whilst listening to music we are overcome by the uncontrollable, spine-chilling sensation that prevails.

My walk to work this morning couldn’t have been accompanied by a more appropriate soundtrack. The soothing, warm tones of Sigur Rós and their melodic Icelandic soundscape, complimented the physical, snowy city streets that I crunched across. Admittedly it was a cold morning, but it wasn’t the pinch of the cold morning air that gave me the chills… Also in my playlist: the talented, multi-instrumentalist Cathy Davey’s Overblown Love Song ‘bumped my goose’ at the pinnacle point of the track, where her soft sweet voice becomes a choir of Cathys.

It’s common knowledge that when its chilly our skin often develops a goose flesh resemblance, but what is it in music that induces this phenomenon? Is there a formula shared by particularly chill-evoking tracks? I was interested to find out which songs affected people, so I decided to ask around on various internet forums and social networking sites: “What songs give you Goosebumps?” The respondents quickly produced a vast array of artists and an eclectic palette of music. Amidst the broad spectrum of musical styles and some of the most obscure titles I have never heard of, a number of repetitions began emerging…

The table below shows the outcome of my survey:

Songs that evoke such a response are often massively successful, but what is it about these tracks that give them their skin-bubble-inducing qualities? For me there appears to be two distinct categories for reasoning behind why a song might give us Goosebumps: Musical and Subjective. Based on my own experience there are specific technical aspects of a song that I recognize as a trigger, such as harmonic contrast (minor to major, key change), dynamic contrast (loud to quiet, unexpected crescendo), timbre (combination of specific voices or sounds), production (instrumentation, sonic image), lyric content etc. However, I understand that some people may have emotional connections to certain songs which may prompt memories. Also the environment in which the music is heard may affect the listener’s response. In other words, the experience of a song may differ greatly from one person to another but there are particular traits we can find in a goosebumpy song.

You could argue that many of the songs in the table above feature elements from both categories. Run by Leona Lewis is a song which features heavy dynamic contrast, girthy production, including a large gospel choir and is also performed by the talented X-Factor winner, who for most of our nation is a walking, heart-tugging success story. Coldplay’s Fix You, features many of the musical elements mentioned before. The song is widely associated with the devastating Hurricane Katrina, which hit the United States a couple of weeks before its release. The track was used in a benefit TV concert to raise money for the rescue efforts required in the aftermath. It was also played over the trailer for the Oliver Stone film World Trade Centre. There’s plenty of scope there for emotional connection. The haunting Street Spirit (Fade Out) by Radiohead interestingly uses a chord progression that doesn’t allow the song to resolve (hence the fade out), the track is noted by lead singer Thom Yorke as being “One of [the band’s] saddest songs”. Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap is at the top spot, a track which goosed me the first time I heard it. Aside from becoming a fast spreading internet phenomenon when used over a parody of the final scene of The OC (Series 2), the track was also heard on many TV dramas and films. Imogen sings a capella with the addition of a Digital Harmonizer. This powerful piece features contrast in harmony and dynamics; the performance uses a wide vocal range and the lyrics stir up colourful mental imagery. There is an enormous sense of clarity and space in the production, and the timbre is somewhat unworldly.

So if these various elements are the cause of this phenomenon then I guess you could construct a song with the intention of inducing goosebumps, but bear in mind it’s not going to affect everyone in the same way! I’ll let you know if I come up with something!

I’d like to know what songs give you Goosebumps, why not have a listen to my Goosebumpulous playlist and see if you get a response?!