Songs to Look At

The image above comes from a music video by Brian Jin, called Memories of a Song. You can see the whole thing here.

I am old enough to remember when MTV was new. It first went on the air in cities, and I didn’t see it until two years later, when my local cable system finally picked it up. I can’t remember the first video I saw, but I remember the excitement I felt. I was thrilled that artists and bands who would have been unknowns only a few years earlier were getting their music heard, and the best videos were also an amazing new form of artistic expression.

Of course, things are different now. MTV hasn’t been music television in many years. The big budgets that major labels once gave artists for their videos are long gone, and they wouldn’t make business sense now. So, that means that the artistry of music videos is gone forever, right? Actually, no. Budgets are much tighter now, but creativity still thrives. In fact, it may be that tight budgets are forcing artists who want to make artistic videos to be more creative than ever. This is the first time I have ever shared music videos on Oliver di Place, and I probably won’t do it often. But these five examples of the art demanded to be shared. Each shows a different way of marrying sound and vision. The music is quite a mix of styles. But the visuals, or visualizations if you like, are the point this time out. Let’s take a look.

Hilary Grist - Tall Buildings



Hilary Grist: Tall Buildings

[purchase]

I never thought I would be posting any videos here, and I don’t think this one had been released yet when I posted the song Tall Buildings before. But you can see why I had to repeat myself. Grist got some friends together, and built a miniature city out of recycled cardboard. The amount of detail is truly astounding, with cardboard people in at least some of the windows who can move by means of stop-motion animation. This city is such an astounding creation that it is being displayed this month at the Beaumont Gallery in Vancouver.

dogbrain - My Reprieve

My Reprieve from Jason Kessler on Vimeo.

dogbrain: My Reprieve

[purchase]

The video for dogbrain’s song My Reprieve is a short film, directed by Jason Kessler. I hadn’t heard of Kessler before, but he is apparently well known in the world of independent film. My Reprieve has the quality of an old Twilight Zone episode. This perfectly fits the song, about a man about to be executed, who is hoping for a last-minute phone bringing his pardon. The music has a woozy, disoriented feel, which is perfectly mirrored by the quick cuts in the film. The song comes from the album Nest, which includes a remarkable mix of musical moods, from classic R&B to songs that hint at Delta Blues. There are also a few more unclassifiable songs like this one. I will have more to say about this album in a future post.

Christine Leaky - Lovely



Christine Leakey: Lovely

[Not yet released, preorder here]

The video for Lovely shows a different approach to matching visuals to music. This one has images that are recognizable, people, flowers, and such, but there is no attempt to tell a story. Instead, what you get is a perfect matching of visual and musical mood. Christine Leakey’s songs have a breezy feel and a Brazilian lilt. The gauzy and sometimes abstract look of the video works perfectly.

Danaher and Cloud - Hey Banker, Hey Banker



Danaher and Cloud: Hey Banker, Hey Banker

[purchase new album here when released]

Hey Banker, Hey Banker is a protest song. Where a well wrought political song will tell a story to make a point to someone who may not have seen it that way, protest songs are written to energize a crowd that shares your position. The video is a slide show. The pictures do not move, but their sequence is brilliant and powerful. Images from the Great Depression, in black and white, alternate with color images of the here and now. The result is an statement of greater eloquence than even words and music can achieve. The song is a worthy accompaniment. It will be found on Danaher and Cloud’s forthcoming album Late Bloomers, which I will also have more to say about in a future post.

Drew Smith - Love Teeth



Drew Smith: Love Teeth

[purchase Fossils as a download]

I love well done animation, and Love Teeth, while clearly not made on a big budget, is a fine example. The video is the work of Korean animator Sohee Jeon, who I hadn’t heard of before. But, based on this example, I want to know more. Love Teeth, both visually and in the story it tells, has a marvelous fairy tale quality to it. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but this one needs to be watched all the way through. Drew Smith’s album The Secret Languages is due out early next year. Love Teeth represents the quieter side of Smith’s music. Based on a few advance tracks and what I have heard of Smith’s previous album Fossils, this will be one to keep an eye out for.

Back Towards Normal

Having just spent a week immersed in the music of Mikel Rouse, I find that I need to readjust how I hear music. This will not permanently change the music I present here, but it may have affected my selections for this post. We are back to the traditional verse-chorus song structure, but I still hear interlocking patterns of rhythm and harmony. And the songs that appealed to me this week all have unusual instruments or combinations of instruments. Still, in a way, what Rouse does is to strip down the pop song form to its most basic elements; here are five artists who build that form back up, each in their own way.

Liam Singer (with Wendy Allen): The Brief Encounter

[listen to samples of more songs and purchase here]

The Brief Encounter has piano, hammered dulcimer, and fiddle. I believe there are also some electronically processed sounds, but if so, that is done with great subtlety. The song tells the story of a man who has an encounter with a ghost, and the song itself floats along, wrapped in beauty. The arrangement has hardly any low end, so the sense of floating described in the lyric is perfectly stated musically. But the ghost wants to show the narrator something, and suddenly the music becomes briefly dissonant. The moment is gently jarring, and the narrator floats back to himself, somewhat shaken. It’s subtle but powerful, and that could also describe the rest of the music on this album. Liam Singer presents a mix of vocal and instrumental songs here. The textures vary just enough to make the album as a whole a wonderful listen. The album was produced by Scott Solter, and the female vocalist is Wendy Allen; both are from the group Boxharp. It looks like I need to know more about them as well.

F&M: I Tripped, You Smiled

[purchase]

F&M is the duo of Rebecca and Ryan C Anderson, plus a shifting cast of supporting players. Their last album featured subdued vocal performances which suited the meditative quality of the songs. But Sincerely, F&M is a set of more emotional songs, and so the Andersons really cut loose here in their vocal performances. I was already impressed with Rebecca’s voice last time, but in this new setting, Ryan’s voice is a revelation. I Tripped, You Smiled features both of their voices, with different musical settings when he sings and when she does. The song depicts an argument between lovers, and this musical device puts a distance between them that helps to put across the uncertainty and yearning of the situation. The substance of the argument is not important here, but the conflicting emotions of the situation come through perfectly.

Hilary Grist: Tall Buildings

[purchase]

Tall Buildings is based on a chiming figure on the piano, plus an interesting rhythm in hand claps. In the course of the song, Hilary Grist will take this basic figure, and change the arrangement in various ways, enhancing it with additional instruments. But that simple figure never quite goes away, although it sometimes exists as a mere shadow. It gives the song an insistent power. Elsewhere on this album, Grist switches up the arrangements considerably, even using a small marching band on one song. It all holds together beautifully, and shows Grist to be a wonderfully passionate and imaginative musician.

Robert Steel: Goodnight to My Childhood

[purchase]

Robert Steel’s album The Calm Waters of Youth is probably as close to being folk as the music in this post gets, but there is still a ways to go. The title of the album is meant ironically, as the emotions here are quite turbulent. In the song Goodnight to My Childhood, the narrator finds himself in the neighborhood where he grew up. He finds his old house, and sees that all traces that he and his family ever lived there are gone. This causes him to experience a flood of memories of his lost childhood. This is rendered completely without cliché, and with a specificity that makes the song powerful indeed. The music is based around Steel’s acoustic guitar, and has a tolling quality that only enhances the mood. The song is good taste of what to expect from the album as a whole. Calm Waters feels like the work of a man who is exorcising some personal demons. The musicianship is high throughout, making this one of the most emotional albums I expect to hear this year.

Bekah Kelso: Bang Bang

[purchase]

Bekah Kelso has the talent to go in many different musical directions. Bang Bang is a soulful folk-jazz piece that also puts me in mind of Fiona Apple. Elsewhere on this album, Kelso sings quieter ballads, and invests them with a full range of emotion. The album concludes with a spoken word piece that suggests that Kelso could also make it as a rapper if she wanted to.

Mud Blossom was Kelso’s debut album two years ago. Her next one will be called Departures, and for good reason. This time, Kelso says she will be emphasizing her “hip hop/ world music flavor”. That is how she described it to me. So Bang Bang doesn’t give an accurate taste of what Kelso is up to now. But the song is a blast. Kelso is doing a fund drive on her own to get Departures made. She is raising the money in stages. I will have a formal post about the drive as soon as I have new music from the album to share. For now, you can get more details and donate here. As always, thank you for whatever you can do to help.