Something New

By now most people have see this little gem that has been floating around for a while. This group "Walk off the Earth" are Canadian! Great work. Their other videos are pretty good to, but this one is particularly great, simply due to the genius of the gimmick they created. From here on out, anytime someone covers a tune and is playing multiple instruments, or multiple people are playing one instrument, they will probably be referred to. Great PR.

So being the nerd I am, I started listening to this and then looked for the original version. Here it is

After listening to this for a bit I then decided that more research was necessary on this dude "Gotye"  Turns out he is a Belgian/Australian recording artist how has a few albums our already. This track is from his latest offering entitled "Making Mirrors". You can check out his website just by searching for Gotye. That is not his real name by the by, real name is Wally De Backer, I think I would go with the stage name as well, no offence Wally. So after listening to all the previews for the songs on iTunes I decided to take the plunge with an unknown artist. After I hit the purchase button I thought to myself "What are you doing?  You don't even have the assurance that a least a few of the other tracks are great. Those 30 second clips where nothing to go off of!" I could make some analogy to a one night stand here, all about diving in without knowing much about the person, but we all know it will end up being awkward, both the situation and my intended joke. So when I put the disc into the player in my car for the drive work I waited with baited breath for Mr. De Backer to impress me. Well, I can safely say he did. Beyond the attraction to the haunting, by very real "Somebody I used to Know" (man had this come out in high school when I was dating, this would have been my go to song!) the rest of the disc is pretty good. A bit artsy at times (what can you expect from a solo european musician), but overall refreshing.

What does that mean? Refreshing! It is said so much in reviews or comments. Well, for me, not only were the songs crafted well enough to spend $9.99 on, but the musicality of it all was a nice change from what is around right now. The biggest aspect of the music that I noticed was the blatant use of dynamics. Amazing, something I harp on my high school band students to work on in their playing, is something, that I think, is so rare in regular pop music. Maybe that is why they have such a struggle with it. Back to Gotye, the first track and a half of the album are very soft tracks. Not just that he is signing softly, but the mix of the music is quiet. At first I thought it must just be the mastering of the CD, but then about half way through the second song on the disc, the guitars and synths kick in and the chorus to the tune is up at a louder level, then coming down again to this novel idea of a soft dynamic!
Amazing how much more engaging the music can be when the artist is inviting you to pay closer attention to their music, rather than just crank it up and shove it down you ear canal.

Using dynamics can evoke so much more in us a listeners. When you turn on the regular top 40 radio station, all the tracks sound the same and are at the same level. It's like eating the same thing for lunch every day; after a while you stop caring about it and see it just as a regular, unvalued, expereience. Maybe that is, albeit in a small part, why people seem to not value music as much any more.  Perhaps if artists and labels started actually treating the listeners as the mindful, intelligent people they are, and not catering to the music in the clubs, the music industry would not be going down the tubes right now.

Anyway, rant is over for now. Do yourself a favour and check this guy Gotye out and if you are further interested have a look at this link from Alan Cross's website about "The Loudness Wars." This pertains more to the mastering of CDs and tracks at a louder volume, but I think it all plays into what I was ranting about before.
More on the Loudness Wars