How the music for this exhibition was created

The music created for this exhibition follows into two categories 1) one minute long special interest pieces and 2) a full length centre piece that repeats between each one minute special interest piece. Both of these types of pieces were originally intended to be ambient music pieces, some have strayed from this intention but all pieces have a complimentary feel and sound.

The idea behind the special interest pieces was that each SACAR member’s special interest was represented by the music. This was achieved using both field recordings sourced from freesound.org and music software including Ableton Live and Cubase SX 2 (both of which are music sequencer programs) and a selection of VST (Virtual Studio) instruments including synthesizers, samplers and a myriad of effects. What follows are brief descriptions of how each piece of music was created.

Andrew, Special Interests = Computer Aided Design. Graphic Design and Model Making

Andrew’s Special Interest piece was one of the hardest to conceptualize and create as his interests are so abstract. I got around this problem by using a piece of software called Coagula which allowed me to turn pictures of Andrew’s designs, models and him working on them into sounds which provided the basis for the piece. The remainder of the track is made up of VST instruments including a cello and piano emulations, which were chosen as Andrew is learning to play piano (the piano mimics one of his favourite pieces) and because he likes classical music.

Daniel, Special Interest = Scuba Diving

Daniel’s piece utilised field recordings to create the story of Daniel going Scuba diving, the first recording is the sound of someone diving into water, the second a diver recording the bubbles from another diver’s breathing equipment underwater and the final recording is someone splashing out of the water. These were combined with reverb heavy watery synth sounds and a synthetic electric piano emulation all to evoke the sound of the sea and the beach.

Harriet, Special Interest = RPG’s (Role Playing Video Games)

The idea behind Harriet’s piece came quite quickly as I had a lot of video game style samples in my sample library and was quickly able to narrow it down to the few sounds I wanted to use. The sample heard at the start and end of the piece were chosen because they sounded like the sound retro video games make when a level starts and when a level ends or character runs out of lives. The sounds in between fitted with both the video game idea and the 808 hip-hop drum beats and string stabs that I used underneath the video game sounds.

Jack, Special Interest = Trains, Clocks and Time

Jack’s was the first of the Special Interest pieces I composed. The first thing I did was preview and download a selection of field recordings of trains and clocks to use as part of the piece. I used a recording of a passing train to create atmosphere a part of the rhythm of the track. I used a recording of digital clock ticking put through a delay to provide another part of the track’s rhythm. The rhythm was completed using a bell sound that simply rings out every 10 seconds. The melody also used a bell sound; I chose bell sounds as Jack had told me he enjoyed the sound of bells chiming on grandfather clocks and York Minster.

Jake, Special Interest = Reading

After some consideration I decided that I was unable to create a piece of music that represented reading so I created a very simple piece using two field recordings, 1) a recording of someone turning the pages of a book and 2) the sound of someone closing a book to end the track. These samples were then simply compressed and exported as a final mixdown.

Nick, Special Interest = Football

Initially Nick’s piece posed a problem and I wasn’t sure exactly how I’d be able to represent football and integrate musical sounds into the piece. After searching though the field recordings in my own sample archive and on Freesound.org I managed to find a loop of crowd noise that suggested a hip-hop rhythm and two samples of ball bouncing, one that I layered with a bass drum and one of a football bouncing that I used as a spotlight effect that appears sporadically throughout the track. After finding an Ambient beat loop to start off the track I layered it with a beat I programmed with the Battery 3 sampler to give the track some dynamics and a little more drive. Then I used the sound of pages being turned to compliment the rhythm but also to represent someone reading a match day programme. I add a lo-fi synth bass loop from my sample archive and then added a synth lead sound and pad sound (the presets was chosen for their names High Spirits and Glimmer of Hope another nod to football).

Centrepiece

This piece is the main piece made for the exhibition and plays between the Special Interest pieces. Unlike the other pieces the direction of this piece was directly dictated by the SACAR members. After playing the group members a couple of contrasting examples of what I could do we sat down and discussed what the group wanted and I wrote down a set of key words as guidelines to work from. The group chose to have a piece that used both acoustic/organic and electronic sounds, sat in the background and was in a major key with a upbeat relaxed and light feel. I started the piece off by choosing the sounds that I was going to use before laying down any musical parts. I used a previous track’s Ableton file as a template for this track keeping its effects units and settings and drum machine and beat intact before changing the bpm and deleting all of the remaining sounds. I then looked for a cello sound for the bassline but after trying out various sounds and making adjustments to them I discovered it can only make mournful or intense sounds. So instead I used a synth bass and string machine played in the bass octave to create a layered sound that roughly emulated a cello while sounding warm and retaining enough bass weight. Next up I worked out which piano sounds I was going to use and then combining an acoustic and Grand piano sound. Then I moved on to the three layers of pad sounds that appear on the track, one a sound that I designed myself and used a couple of time before and two presets 1) a Bell pad and 2) a synth pad called Cosy pad to add yet more warmth. Finally I delved into my sample archive and found three vocal samples I wanted to use in the piece, 1) a single hit of ‘yay’ 2) a complete abstract textural sound and 3) heavy processed sample that used made up words. Now I was ready for stage two which was creating the musical parts, I recorded the bass part and pads and set up the vocals and drums to be cued when I used Ableton’s keyboard commands and then I used these parts to the plot a simple two section arrangement. Then I played the piano part over the top of these. When I finished that I recorded a shaker loop to compliment the drums and duplicated it in the arrangement before writing the breakdown section of the track. Finally I copied and pasted the second section of the track, deleted the piano melody replacing it with some chords and added the zither melody that can be heard on the final section of the track. After this all the parts were mixed down and the piece was mixed in Cubase SX 2.

Credits:

All music composed, arranged and mixed by Liam Flanagan.

Samples provided by Cyclick, Groove Criminals and Rachmiel.

Field recordings via freesound.org – Mia Stodzwiekow, gyzhor, robin hood 76, Herbert Boland and acclivity.

Yellow Magic Orchestra was probably one of the most important pioneers of electronic music. Once people discovered the limitless possibilities of the synthesizer, the sequencer and the drum machine, the monopoly of American rock’n roll was destroyed. Three Japanese men, with their geeky devices,  formed a group that changed the understanding of popular music forever.

With their robotic looks and futuristic hairstyles, Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yukihiro Takahashi released their first album, “Yellow Magic Orchestra“ in 1978, heavily influenced by Kraftwerk‘s 1974 album, Autobahn. Their perfect union of man and machine meant that by the 1990s many dance and house producers were sampling YMO’s music.

YMO‘s success in computer-based music influenced many early British synthpop acts, including Depeche Mode, Duran Duran,  Visage, Art of Noise, and others. They also influenced many video game composers and had a major impact on the sounds used in much of the chiptune and video game music produced during the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.

I discovered YMO when I was doing my compulsory summer internship, and I remember listening to their Tong Poo (東風, ‘eastwind’) song over and over again all day. Their music reminds me of when we used to play with our Nintendos and spend hours(!) in games arcades in the summer.

Artist: Flairs

Album: Sweat Symphony

Song: Truckers Delight

Genre: Electronic, Indie, Dance

*Flairs Facebook, Twitter

The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra provided the simply divine musicality, with the London Voices the fantastic vocalisations. The Guest Vocalist was the fantastic Susan Calloway, and the orchestra was conducted by the ever fabulous Arnie Roth.

I can say nothing more than ‘this was one of the best nights of my life!’

SERIOUSLY!

It was absolutely phenomenal to hear Nobuo Uematsu’s absolutely amazeballs orchestrations coming from the RPCO, and the visualisations of the Final Fantasy games on the screens was fantastic. I frequently had goosebumps and was often moved slightly to tears!

Picture credit: http://www.facebook.com/ffdistantworlds

Computer game music is often under-rated in my opinion, however the scoring for the Final Fantasy series transcends most modern classical work for me, and is delightfully beautiful both in arrangement and in its ability to tell, and immerse you in, to a story.

The highlight of the evening was, of course, when Nobuo Uematsu took to the stage towards the end, the audience just exploded into applause! He is such a fantastically fab gentleman, and that really came across I thought – I want to be his best friend now!! heh.

CHOCOBO!!!!!! AND there was a solo on the Royal Albert Hall organ… AND it was one of the best things I've ever been to IN MY LIFE!!! #fb—
Gari Davies (@DarkAeon) November 05, 2011

Another highlight of the evening was when they played the Royal Albert Hall organ, it was stunning to hear it being played, having visited several times in the past and never before heard it.

For those who missed out, fear not – they will be back on 17th November 2012 as part of a 25th anniversary world tour (tickets on sale in December) and they’ve promised to do something special!

There is also the DVD and 2 CD box set that accompanies this concert (which I *really* want for Christmas incidentally, if anyone wants to chip in?? haha!). It is rather different to what was shown in London, but they do chop and change the songs to suit the audience.

Also, if you want to listen to the concert, you can do so online HERE - though it would be great if you bought it also

Speaking of merchandise, please don’t hate me, but I was the chap who bought the very last ‘small’ t-shirt after the show hehe! We honestly couldn’t believe how fast the merchandise was flying off the shelves… in all my years of concert going, I’ve never seen that before – they must have been taking a clear £250 a minute, and that was only limited by the amount of staff that they had to process card payments! Genuinely, it was insane!

Should you get chance to pick up Distant Worlds as it traverses the globe, I cannot implore you enough to do so. Even if you are not a fan of the series (it was fun to see all of the London Voices and RPCO members looking up at the screens in astonishment, ha!) I can absolutely hand-on-heart promise you that you will be absolutely blown away!

An apt way to close this review would seem to be:

Distant Worlds – Suteki Da Ne (Isn’t It Wonderful?).

Original sheet music edition of "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King" by Alfred Music Publishing

So last Saturday I was doing some shopping at one of the local sheet music outlets (Noteworthy Music) and I came across a piano/vocal score of “Wrath of the Lich King” from World of Warcraft.  For those of you who don’t know, World of Warcraft (aka WOW) is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game).  I’ve never played it and with only brief stints on Second life and some of the online browser games like Travian, I’ve only seen this played by some friends.

I do admit that I have played the computer game versions of Warcraft, however, so I’m not entirely immune from knowledge of the franchise!

So, as I said, I came across this piano/vocal reduction I just had to buy a copy.  I think it will be a perfect tune (or set of tunes) to do with the il Troubadore Klingon Music Project because.  Really, who wouldn’t want to see Klingons singing a World of Warcraft tune?

Even better would be Klingons dressed up as the undead–I wanna be Kel’Thuzad, though Arthas (in his Death Knight incarnation) would be a close second choice.

At times When Colours Flow sits on the harsh, experimental side of the fence, and at others, on the sublime and relaxing side, sometimes within the same track. This proves to be a less awkward juxtaposition than you might think, as seen in the best track on the album: Together We’re Alone. This track charmingly layers twinkling melodies over a booming bass line, once again treading earthy and urban boards simultaneously. If sweet lullabies and dark trip-hop were introduced and somehow hit it off, this would probably be the sonic outcome.

Djerzinci is the sweetest track on the album, with its tranquil childlike lullaby allure and playful xylophone melody, and The Relief of Shade is, as the name suggests, cool and calm and sublime. Jeej meanwhile, plods to a gentle dance beat, floating as if in space.

On the other side of the spectrum, sits Triptych. Robotic, scatty and mechanical, much like Portishead’s Machine Gun, and with the sporadicity of a retro computer game. Our Blue Opel Friend also carries this Nintendo vibe, flitting between this, and Moby style serenity. Tacheles, with its ping-pong noises, and harsh electro, layered under melodic guitars, shows Ambeson’s layering abilities and juxtaposition of the harsh with the sweet at its best.

It is also worth mentioning, that the album carries a real cinematic quality. Album opener A Window To Look Through is a beautifully orchestrated, earthy piece, shimmering and twinkling like an enchanting film score.  Atmospheric, and with a Four Tet-esque air of mystique, but sweetened by a relaxing serenity. Finally, the album ends on a brilliant Capac remix of Djerzinski. All in all, certainly  an album well worth checking out, and a great way to soundtrack a lazy Sunday afternoon.

The album is out now, and can be ordered here.

I was hooked before I even started listening to it. See, the album artwork is so good, that I already felt satisfied before hearing any of the tracks. I haven’t been this excited about album artwork since Cassadaga by Bright Eyes came out (if you have it, you’ll know what I mean, if you don’t- get it). The limited edition comes with a holographic casing, with a youtube based front cover, and itunes based back cover. Each track inside the sleeve notes has a fantastically modern page of artwork, with accompanying lyrics. The whole album (artwork included) vents a large amount of frustration towards the internet. Possibly aided by the fact that the much talked about video for single Born Free was banned on youtube.

I was a little worried that since the phenomenal success of Paper Planes, that M.I.A. might ‘go all mainstream’ on us. But the truth is, she actually does ‘mainstream’ very well. XXXO is a gloriously catchy pop song, and It Takes A Muscle is a relatively mild and nice reggae twinged song where M.I.A. leaves the rapping/shouting for an attempt at singing. She’s far from Aretha Franklin in the vocal stakes, but it kinda works.

The album as a whole though, steers largely away from ear-pleasing pop. Most of the time, M.I.A.’s music is both lyrically and sonically challenging. But that’s what makes her so brilliant. She has remained, I’m glad to see, fiercely controversial. More than ever in fact. The whole album is one big glorious headache, and at times horrifying on the ears. Which is all good of course. The album opens with a harsher take on Grandmaster Flash’s The Message, suggesting that we are all, by way of Google- ‘connected to the government’. And one of the best tracks on the album, Lovalot, which features the line ‘I fight the ones that fight me’ repeatedly, leaves you with feelings of paranoid ambiguity… Is she saying ‘I really love a lot’? or ‘I really love Allah’? Paranoia on our part, and (sometimes excessive) cynical suspicion on her part are the key ingredients to this album. But, actually, that’s why it’s an album that should be thoroughly celebrated in this age, because much unlike too many solo female solo artists which surround her, she cares. ‘I just give a damn’, as she quite rightly claims in the fantastically thumping rock track Meds + Feds.

The Blaqstarr and Rusko production is more than apparent on many of the tracks, in particular in the suitably drunk Teqkila, and in dubstep flavoured Steppin’ Up, which is typical of the M.I.A. material we’ve heard before: note the chainsaw backing track and identifiably cool rapping.

Other highlights include the futuristic Space, which sees a new, more mellow offering from M.I.A., and bonus track Internet Connection, which features a sample from TV show Fonejacker, which sounds like, and is as fun as a retro computer game. And of course, the excellent Born Free- the hyperactive punk single release.

15 years ago, you could give this album to someone, as an artefact from the future. Actually, you could use this album as an example of the future today. I’m now saving up my excitement for when she tours with it.

Highlights

Gorillaz

Gorillaz are just about  my favourite band around at the moment. Their latest offering Plastic Beach is a triumphant album of truly forward-thinking, genre-defying music, and so I was really excited to see it, along with their earlier material live. They certainly didn’t disappoint my expectations, and the set definitely confirmed that Damon Albarn is pretty much the best human ever. A multimedia spectacle of beautifully played orchestral music, backed by vibrant animations. Impressively, the last-minute headliners managed to build up an array of special guests (on top of already recruiting Mick Jones and Paul Simonon into the band!), including De La Soul, Bobby Womack, Mark E. Smith, Little Dragon (she’s really flippin’ cool, check her out on the album), and Shaun Ryder. Most excitingly, Lou Reed came on for Some Kind Of Nature, the appearance of whom resulted in my friend having to repeatedly check I was okay because I was that darn excited. Highlights of the set included the exciting opening of Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach featuring visuals and vocals from Snoop Dogg, Clint Eastwood featuring actual live Snoop Dogg, the wonderfully atmospheric Empire Ants and a touching tribute to Dennis Hopper during Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey’s Head, which of course featured his vocals. A really exciting headline set.

Snoop Dogg

When the line up for this year’s Glastonbury was announced, I almost surprised myself with just how excited how I was about seeing this man. In fact, my friend and I could not have been more hyped about seeing the ridiculous hair and lyrics in action. Nor could, it seemed the rest of the (predominately white middle-class) crowd that gathered to see him. He wasted no time getting stuck into the hits and kept a beaming smile on my face with The Next Episode, What’s My Name, Beautiful, Drop It Like It’s Hot, and Gin & Juice. A brilliant showman who dedicated almost the entirety of his set to ‘the laydeeeez’, in particular Sensual Seduction- which was as hilarious as I’d hoped for it to be.

Micro-Rave

My favourite non-performance moment of the festival happened on the Thursday afternoon in Shangri-La. What we witnessed I think, was a one-off moment of pure magic, that we luckily happened to stumble into at the right time. A small shack called the ‘Micro-Rave’ playing computer game music  to which we couldn’t help but pull some serious shapes. Not quite as serious as those being pulled by the participants in the dance-off, narrated from the DJ booth. My favourite dancers by far, were the two girls dressed all in glitter and sparkle, who had some of the best moves I have ever seen (mostly insane thrusting). We had to vote for who we wanted to win by dancing with them (obviously the glitter girls) who screamed that they loved us when we chose them. Their prize for winning was the chance to defeat the robot who was going to invade us. An actual robot (well, a man in a tin-foil and cardboard type costume) did indeed invade, and was beaten to the ground by the dancers. Everyone cheered. I nearly laughed my internal organs out. Believe me, this was better than it sounds, and admit it, it sounds pretty amazing doesn’t it?

Devendra Banhart

I’d seen Devendra a few years back, but I absolutely adore his music and so I didn’t hesitate in seeing him again. He played on the West Holts (formerly Jazz World) stage in the sunshine, which was just the perfect setting. He gathered a relatively intimate crowd, which was lovely but it did make me suspect that he’s been hugely underrated. But then I realised that Florence & The Machine was playing at the same time, and so it all made sense. The last time I saw him he was cool, calm, almost shy, and long-haired & bearded. This year, I hardly recognised him, looking hip-hot in a MC Hammer T-shirt, skinny jeans, Ray Bans, short hair and sans beard. This time around he also seemed to have consumed a large amount of sweets and was jolting around the stage like a hyperactive child with some fairly brilliant dance moves. Like a completely different person, but still with the same wonderful music, putting everyone in a ruddy good mood with tunes such as I Feel Just Like A Child and Baby. An absolute joy to watch, with the possible highlight of the set being an unlikely cover of 1980s pop classic Tell It To My Heart by Taylor Dane, which he dedicated to his ‘mom’. Aww.

Shakira

One of the most fun moments of Glastonbury this year, Shakira had the entire crowd swooning throughout her set. Whenever Wherever and She Wolf singalongs were the highlights, as was the surprise cover of the xx’s Islands.

BBC Introducing

The BBC Introducing tent is probably the best place at Glastonbury to check out new music and upcoming talent. Jesca Hoop and Broadcast 2000 both played lovely little sets here, and prompted me to check them out further on return. Jesca Hoop gave  us gorgeous vocals, sweet songs and charming banter, and Broadcast 2000 gave us a perfect antidote to the simultaneous football game, and quickly became my new favourite band. Check them out. Laura Marling also played a couple of songs for the Live Lounge in here, which was delightful, as was her beautiful set at The Park on Saturday night.

Stevie Wonder

Undoubtedly the big highlight of the festival was seeing this Motown legend. Amazingly, we managed to get our whole group together with minimal mobile phone usage and so created a nice dancing round handbags type circle for Stevie’s set. Nicely merry as the sun went down, I watched and wooped as he played all my favourite hits including If You Really Love Me and Superstition. There was also a emotional tribute to Michael Jackson with a cover of Human Nature. A fantastically joyful set from beginning to end, ending with Happy Birthday featuring special guest Michael Eavis! A perfect end to a wonderful weekend. Happy Birthday Glastonbury!

Sunrise

For the first time I actually managed to catch the sunrise at Stone Circle, which absolutely beautiful.

Disappointments

The crowd for Gorillaz

I’ve been a little bemused by the negative reviews of the Gorillaz headline slot, what more do you want from a set?! Although I do have to say that the crowd was massively disappointing. I was, for the first half, sandwiched between a couple who’d rather selfishly  decided that sitting in their chairs in a massive crowd of people would be a good idea, only to fall asleep in the set anyway; and a group of annoyingly gobby screaming glowstick types who decided that their inane conversation was more important that the set. It seemed not many of the crowd had actually heard the new album, and were just lingering around in the hope of catching a glimpse of Shaun Ryder. Or maybe they were all angry U2 fans.

The Drums

I’d heard a mixed bag of live reviews of The Drums ranging from awful to brilliant, so I was really intrigued to check them out myself. I have to say that they were neither of these two extremes, but just disappointingly average. I love their debut album, and they are one of my favourite bands of the year, but this didn’t translate too well in their live show. The lead singer did have some kind of charisma, but half of the band looked bored throughout the set and they certainly sound better on record.

Kelis

The biggest disappointment of the festival. We were all pretty excited about seeing Kelis, only to end up waiting half an hour for her to turn up late, and to perform a set with a severe lack of effort or passion. Milkshake was quickly touched upon over a backing of Madonna’s Holiday, and the rest of the set was sadly, very boring, and, just to make it worse, the levels were all wrong and it was a struggle to even hear her vocals.

The weather

I feel it’s tradition to complain about the weather at Glastonbury. Not a drop of rain, which was really unusual, setting up a dusty and humid weekend, with the sun sweltering hot and nowhere to hide. It was nice to have sunshine and no mud but it was a little too much of a good thing which was energy draining and mostly unbearable.

Coming home

I always hate leaving Glastonbury, it’s the place I feel most at home and it always seems to go by so fast. I’m still suffering a fairly serious case of the post-festival blues. Until next year Glastonbury, it was wonderful this year!

The only reason I haven’t been spending my time playing Tyrian instead of constantly refreshing my own blog, is because the original game doesn’t run in XP. Don’t even ask about Vista, ’cause that jazz ain’t for humans. Fortunately for all of us who don’t still have a real MS-DOS emulator, there are now Tyrian remakes that allow it to run on XP with all the original game facets still intact. I guess I can say good-bye to the old days of blog refreshment. That’s up to you guys now. Punish that F5 key for me, will ya?

The music in Tyrian was done by Alexander Brandon, who is well-known for his work on Epic/Megagames’ products. You’ve heard his jams if you’ve played any Unreal Tournament. Tyrian’s music hit me right from the first time I fired up the demo. In fact, the music stood out more than the gameplay. It has that awesome early-mid ’90s Sound Blaster 16 sound. The sounds used here are, to me, an epitomy of chiptunes. It’s like a more mature Genesis sound board. It takes a pretty talented composer to stick songs in your memory after hearing them only once.

Alexander Brandon – Asteroid Dance Part 1 – Tyrian OST
Alexander Brandon – Buy & Sell Music – Tyrian OST
Alexander Brandon – The Final Edge – Tyrian OST
Alexander Brandon – Tunneling Trolls – Tyrian OST
Alexander Brandon – Tyrian (the level) – Tyrian OST

This game has so many hot jams I wish I could post them all. This soundtrack was ripped by Rimo but I don’t see any downloads on his site, which looks like a geocities mirror or something.