FACT Magazine Swans’ Norman Westberg to release MRI on Room40 @ Musique Non Stop |  |
- Swans’ Norman Westberg to release MRI on Room40
- Kelela previews new material as she preps debut album
- White Lung release Amber Tamblyn-starring video for ‘Hungry’
- Rome Fortune on his debut album, dinner with Oprah and life after rap
- Miguel announces ‘waves’ remixes featuring Travis Scott, Tame Impala, Kacey Musgraves and RAC
- New Beyoncé album expected in April
- Animal Collective’s Deakin shares update on solo album, hints at potential cover and title
- A guide to Pierre Schaeffer, the godfather of sampling
- Katy B teams with Craig David for dramatic ‘Who Am I’ video
- Massive Attack takeover launches The Vinyl Factory Soundsystem
|
Posted: 23 Feb 2016 05:22 PM PST
The limited 2012 release is reborn on the Australian label.
While Swans gear up for their upcoming final album, Lawrence English’s label Room40 have put a spotlight on the solo work of longtime guitarist Norman Westberg. Last year, they released the new 13 and this April they’ll reissue Westberg’s MRI. Initially self-released in 2012, the album has been remastered and expanded with the addition of the nearly 20-minute ‘Lost Mine’. Look for the album April 1, pre-order from Room40 and revisit last year’s ‘Frostbite Falls’ below. [via TinyMixTapes] The post Swans’ Norman Westberg to release MRI on Room40 appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..  |
|
Posted: 23 Feb 2016 02:13 PM PST
|
The piece comes in conjunction with a video called ‘Interlude’ directed by Cieron Magat and previews new music from Kelela. She also reveals that she was a cheerleader her senior year of high school. Watch below.
Read more: Kelela's Hallucinogen is a brilliant telegraph of imperfect romance
The post Kelela previews new material as she preps debut album appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Posted: 23 Feb 2016 11:56 AM PST
The first single from their second Domino release.
Canadian punk band White Lung have will release Paradise the follow-up to their excellent 2014 LP Deep Fantasy on May 6 via Domino. The announcement comes with a video for lead single ‘Hungry’, which features actress Amber Tambyln clinging to youth and beauty through a number of unconventional methods — like rubbing Bible pages on her face. The clip also features a cameo from Deafheaven lead singer George Clarke.
The post White Lung release Amber Tamblyn-starring video for ‘Hungry’ appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Canadian punk band White Lung have will release Paradise the follow-up to their excellent 2014 LP Deep Fantasy on May 6 via Domino. The announcement comes with a video for lead single ‘Hungry’, which features actress Amber Tambyln clinging to youth and beauty through a number of unconventional methods — like rubbing Bible pages on her face. The clip also features a cameo from Deafheaven lead singer George Clarke.
The post White Lung release Amber Tamblyn-starring video for ‘Hungry’ appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Posted: 23 Feb 2016 11:48 AM PST
On his debut album, Rome Fortune raps that he refuses to be pigeonholed.
It's a straightforward message, but also something that has been evident in his ever-growing body of work. When he broke through in 2013 with Beautiful Pimp, Fortune unspooled his laidback lyricism over beats by Atlanta's then-dominant Hoodrich Production Group (Dun Deal, Childish Major, DJ Spinz, C4) and established himself as part of the "New Atlanta" wave that was redefining the city's rap scene. And while he's at ease collaborating with the likes of Young Thug, iLoveMakonnen and OG Maco, he's consistently looked outside of his city — and rap entirely — for collaborators, recording with Four Tet, Toro y Moi, Suicideyear and others.
He brought both threads together on 2014's excellent Small VVorld, but each successive release was further and further away from even rap's expansive mainstream. That was especially clear on the lead single from his new album Jerome Raheem Fortune, 'Dance' — a true-to-its-title track that balances Fortune's triplets and cooing with Kaytranada's four-on-the-floor production.
'Dance' serves as a preview of the album in style more than sound, in that hip-hop is only part of the picture throughout: there are jazz accents, an electronic sheen and haunting melodies from the various corners of the pop world. Apart from the single, Jerome Raheem Fortune is produced entirely by Cubby — like the CitoOnTheBeat-produced Beautiful Pimp 2, the album is cohesive while also experimental.
With Jerome Raheem Fortune due out on February 26 via Fool's Gold, we caught up with Fortune about the album, his unique relationship with his fans and his plans for a life after rap.
I think with this album, especially with having a label with me, and extra resources that I haven't had prior to this, it's going get to more people and introduce myself as a real musician, a real artist. It's no "this is an Atlanta wave". You listen to it, it's just good ass music, you know what I mean?
How did you get from your blog post about finding a good label to signing to Fool's Gold?
It was just super cool because I didn't want to be tied down to anything for a long time, and they weren't trying to, so doing the one album thing, just seeing how things go from there was super cool. It's a team, a partnership — I don't feel that I can't call somebody up and say "we need to change this" or "we need to add this to the plan" or whatever. That's important, because you don't want whoever you're working with from the label standpoint to be somebody you feel has a sense of authority over you, you want it to feel like you have equal input, and that's what it's been like. It's helped me make this body of work that's better than anything that I've made.
With this album, you worked almost exclusively with one producer and no other rappers. Why was that?
When I'm with one producer for the majority of a project, it's easier for me to go in-depth and tell a story. It's more difficult to tell a cohesive story if you have twelve different producers — it's a clean slate every song. With this, I was able to say which way the album should go, it was way easier, input-wise.
It was a story that I needed to be telling. Cubby got it, he understood where I wanted to go, that I wanted people to take me seriously as a musician. He gave it a lot of attention and pre-production, post-production, a lot of changes. I felt like that's the type of attention I needed from the producer. I don't think I would have been able to get that from multiple producers in the timeframe that I made the album. We had that good ass chemistry, I ain't wanna break it up. We have so much music, it's crazy.
Bookending it with 'All the Way' and 'Find My Way', it seems like the album is about your journey, about putting yourself out there. Is there a story you’re trying to tell?
I've been making music for so long… I would have a show or something, talking to a fan and I'd say something about my kids, and they'd say, "Oh, you have kids?" And I thought everybody knew that, you know what I'm saying? I've really been making music for so long but I haven't been giving enough of me and my opinion.
When I was on tour last year with IamSu!, a lot of the kids that were coming for me would ask "Why don't you perform 'Suitcase'?" or all these songs that I get personal on. They would say, "When I wanted to drop out of school last semester, I would drive every fucking morning to class and listen to this song." That's the shit that means more to me, I don't care about some shit that is gonna pop off or sounds good right now or is the wave, and everybody's gonna play it at their parties and shit. I'm trying to touch people when they feel like quitting their jobs or dropping out of school or don't know what to do, when they need somebody to relate to.
I hear people say "You should do more Beautiful Pimp shit," and I love that type of music, I do, but I don't feel like the depth was there. With this new stuff, people can relate to it and get to know who I am. That's the goal of the album: to get people to understand, this is Rome, this is who he is.
It gives me a lot of focus. I can wile out a little bit, but I'm not one of these young artists out here that can fuck around. I have two people — they're seven and three — to provide for and make sure they're good. It's kind of a checks and balances system. And I go hard with the music because I want to provide for them and hang with them. It's beneficial, because to be honest, I don't really know how focused I would be or how many late nights I would be putting in if they weren't existing.
On 'Pay Back Loans', you seem to be concerned with separating business from real life. Do you think about how much time you've got to do what you're doing now?
I'm just trying to make as big an impact as quick as I can, that's really all I'm thinking about now, and making sure my sons is right. I don't think I'm going to be doing this in my forties and all of that shit, I just don't think so. Right now, there are so many new acts popping up, getting better and better – the evolution is becoming quicker, you know what I mean? One thing you can't fight is age. I'm not saying I'm getting old, but I am being realistic.
I'm not gonna be like, "Oh man, I'm doing this shit forever because I'm gonna be the hottest!" Nah, man. Maybe do some shit like Andre 3000 – make a crazy classic and be out, and then when I'm 40, be like, "Maybe… maybe I'll give you motherfuckers an album." It's cool to see everybody get shine, because if the ratchet shit didn't exist, we wouldn't appreciate the deep music, and vice versa. Everything needs its time to shine.
There's definitely that musicality, those jazz and electronic touches, on this album. It seems like there's been more of a return to that in rap…
Yeah, because it's so easy to cook up some shit in [Fruity Loops]! I know so many people who can make amazing music like that. I was doing support for this jam band Lettuce, and [my manager Mike Boyd] overheard someone saying, "That's really good stuff, but it's like karaoke." People don't respect rap, because it doesn't take a lot of skill sets to make a song or a body of work. A lot of artists, especially the ones I run into, say there's too much [of one type of rap]. And it's fun, man, you can hear so many fun little things – "Oh, that's an open hi-hat, that's a closed hi-hat." Everything has its place, but I feel like that's becoming a thing because people want to impress.
I fuck with Kendrick, and I don't like To Pimp A Butterfly too much as far as replay value — I just want to listen to something and move on — but that album took so much time and effort and care. That's gonna separate what we do from the other shit. It's coming back, man. It took me a minute to respect it, too. It's just the evolution — you grow, you want to be better, and have a bigger impact.
I know you have jazz musicians in your family – was that something that you thought they did and you didn't?
No, it was more I think rap is the cool thing. It had nothing to do with the musicality, just all the people that I think are cool rap [laughs]. Now as I get older, I get to see and learn more about music and why the greats were the greats and it inspires me to be mentioned with them.
Hell yeah! I wanted you to talk to me about that shit.
With most artists you see a lot of retweets and whatnot, but you really get into it with people. What is that like?
It's crazy. It takes away a lot of the wondering what my music does for people, because I'm becoming close to a lot of them. A lot of my fans can text me or FaceTime me. Yesterday, one of my fans FaceTimed me — he makes clothes, I told him his shit was dope, and he brought me some clothes. It's cool to connect and inspire kids. Everybody has aspirations, it's cool to really inspire people and see that inspiration and let them know I'm a human being too, there's no cool shit here, it's all love.
Going to a city and knowing kids to hit up in each city is cool, because you know who really cares. I don't care if a million people buy the album. If 100 people bought it and they were dedicated to it and it moved them in some capacity, that's what I'm about. If you're making quality shit, and not doing dumb career moves, the numbers will grow and give you longevity. That what will have people begging for an album when you're 40.
It's so funny, these artists want to get popular so fast, they imitate what's good or what's popular right now, and they just don't know. The kids who are the artists that pop up out of nowhere and have all of the Vines and all of that stuff, they disappear so quick. We've seen it — we can name ten artists in the last year. Do something that's worthwhile. I can't say timeless, but just worthwhile.
What do you see for yourself, after rap?
I definitely want to do performing art schools for kids who can't afford it, that just have raw talent and drive and dedication. I got some homies in New York who have been putting me on to what matters — this material shit, it doesn't matter. That's such a popular theme in rap and hip-hop, what you have constitutes how much worth you have. Whatever I can do to make rap not so cliche, to have people respecting it and respecting me for changing it. I've been getting a lot of DMs and Snapchat from kids saying, "I appreciate what you're doing for hip-hop" and that's dope, that's really cool for me. Everything man, I'm trying to be philanthropist Rome, doing dinner with Oprah.
The post Rome Fortune on his debut album, dinner with Oprah and life after rap appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
It's a straightforward message, but also something that has been evident in his ever-growing body of work. When he broke through in 2013 with Beautiful Pimp, Fortune unspooled his laidback lyricism over beats by Atlanta's then-dominant Hoodrich Production Group (Dun Deal, Childish Major, DJ Spinz, C4) and established himself as part of the "New Atlanta" wave that was redefining the city's rap scene. And while he's at ease collaborating with the likes of Young Thug, iLoveMakonnen and OG Maco, he's consistently looked outside of his city — and rap entirely — for collaborators, recording with Four Tet, Toro y Moi, Suicideyear and others.
He brought both threads together on 2014's excellent Small VVorld, but each successive release was further and further away from even rap's expansive mainstream. That was especially clear on the lead single from his new album Jerome Raheem Fortune, 'Dance' — a true-to-its-title track that balances Fortune's triplets and cooing with Kaytranada's four-on-the-floor production.
'Dance' serves as a preview of the album in style more than sound, in that hip-hop is only part of the picture throughout: there are jazz accents, an electronic sheen and haunting melodies from the various corners of the pop world. Apart from the single, Jerome Raheem Fortune is produced entirely by Cubby — like the CitoOnTheBeat-produced Beautiful Pimp 2, the album is cohesive while also experimental.
With Jerome Raheem Fortune due out on February 26 via Fool's Gold, we caught up with Fortune about the album, his unique relationship with his fans and his plans for a life after rap.
“It's more difficult to tell a cohesive story if you have twelve different producers”On 'Blicka Blicka', you rap "I shouldn't be pigeon-holed," which is definitely in line with what you've said and done these past few years. How do you feel this album deals with that issue?
I think with this album, especially with having a label with me, and extra resources that I haven't had prior to this, it's going get to more people and introduce myself as a real musician, a real artist. It's no "this is an Atlanta wave". You listen to it, it's just good ass music, you know what I mean?
How did you get from your blog post about finding a good label to signing to Fool's Gold?
It was just super cool because I didn't want to be tied down to anything for a long time, and they weren't trying to, so doing the one album thing, just seeing how things go from there was super cool. It's a team, a partnership — I don't feel that I can't call somebody up and say "we need to change this" or "we need to add this to the plan" or whatever. That's important, because you don't want whoever you're working with from the label standpoint to be somebody you feel has a sense of authority over you, you want it to feel like you have equal input, and that's what it's been like. It's helped me make this body of work that's better than anything that I've made.
With this album, you worked almost exclusively with one producer and no other rappers. Why was that?
When I'm with one producer for the majority of a project, it's easier for me to go in-depth and tell a story. It's more difficult to tell a cohesive story if you have twelve different producers — it's a clean slate every song. With this, I was able to say which way the album should go, it was way easier, input-wise.
It was a story that I needed to be telling. Cubby got it, he understood where I wanted to go, that I wanted people to take me seriously as a musician. He gave it a lot of attention and pre-production, post-production, a lot of changes. I felt like that's the type of attention I needed from the producer. I don't think I would have been able to get that from multiple producers in the timeframe that I made the album. We had that good ass chemistry, I ain't wanna break it up. We have so much music, it's crazy.
Bookending it with 'All the Way' and 'Find My Way', it seems like the album is about your journey, about putting yourself out there. Is there a story you’re trying to tell?
I've been making music for so long… I would have a show or something, talking to a fan and I'd say something about my kids, and they'd say, "Oh, you have kids?" And I thought everybody knew that, you know what I'm saying? I've really been making music for so long but I haven't been giving enough of me and my opinion.
When I was on tour last year with IamSu!, a lot of the kids that were coming for me would ask "Why don't you perform 'Suitcase'?" or all these songs that I get personal on. They would say, "When I wanted to drop out of school last semester, I would drive every fucking morning to class and listen to this song." That's the shit that means more to me, I don't care about some shit that is gonna pop off or sounds good right now or is the wave, and everybody's gonna play it at their parties and shit. I'm trying to touch people when they feel like quitting their jobs or dropping out of school or don't know what to do, when they need somebody to relate to.
I hear people say "You should do more Beautiful Pimp shit," and I love that type of music, I do, but I don't feel like the depth was there. With this new stuff, people can relate to it and get to know who I am. That's the goal of the album: to get people to understand, this is Rome, this is who he is.
“If the ratchet shit didn't exist, we wouldn't appreciate the deep music, and vice versa”How has having children affected your music?
It gives me a lot of focus. I can wile out a little bit, but I'm not one of these young artists out here that can fuck around. I have two people — they're seven and three — to provide for and make sure they're good. It's kind of a checks and balances system. And I go hard with the music because I want to provide for them and hang with them. It's beneficial, because to be honest, I don't really know how focused I would be or how many late nights I would be putting in if they weren't existing.
On 'Pay Back Loans', you seem to be concerned with separating business from real life. Do you think about how much time you've got to do what you're doing now?
I'm just trying to make as big an impact as quick as I can, that's really all I'm thinking about now, and making sure my sons is right. I don't think I'm going to be doing this in my forties and all of that shit, I just don't think so. Right now, there are so many new acts popping up, getting better and better – the evolution is becoming quicker, you know what I mean? One thing you can't fight is age. I'm not saying I'm getting old, but I am being realistic.
I'm not gonna be like, "Oh man, I'm doing this shit forever because I'm gonna be the hottest!" Nah, man. Maybe do some shit like Andre 3000 – make a crazy classic and be out, and then when I'm 40, be like, "Maybe… maybe I'll give you motherfuckers an album." It's cool to see everybody get shine, because if the ratchet shit didn't exist, we wouldn't appreciate the deep music, and vice versa. Everything needs its time to shine.
There's definitely that musicality, those jazz and electronic touches, on this album. It seems like there's been more of a return to that in rap…
Yeah, because it's so easy to cook up some shit in [Fruity Loops]! I know so many people who can make amazing music like that. I was doing support for this jam band Lettuce, and [my manager Mike Boyd] overheard someone saying, "That's really good stuff, but it's like karaoke." People don't respect rap, because it doesn't take a lot of skill sets to make a song or a body of work. A lot of artists, especially the ones I run into, say there's too much [of one type of rap]. And it's fun, man, you can hear so many fun little things – "Oh, that's an open hi-hat, that's a closed hi-hat." Everything has its place, but I feel like that's becoming a thing because people want to impress.
I fuck with Kendrick, and I don't like To Pimp A Butterfly too much as far as replay value — I just want to listen to something and move on — but that album took so much time and effort and care. That's gonna separate what we do from the other shit. It's coming back, man. It took me a minute to respect it, too. It's just the evolution — you grow, you want to be better, and have a bigger impact.
I know you have jazz musicians in your family – was that something that you thought they did and you didn't?
No, it was more I think rap is the cool thing. It had nothing to do with the musicality, just all the people that I think are cool rap [laughs]. Now as I get older, I get to see and learn more about music and why the greats were the greats and it inspires me to be mentioned with them.
“This material shit, it doesn't matter”So, as far as your fans…
Hell yeah! I wanted you to talk to me about that shit.
With most artists you see a lot of retweets and whatnot, but you really get into it with people. What is that like?
It's crazy. It takes away a lot of the wondering what my music does for people, because I'm becoming close to a lot of them. A lot of my fans can text me or FaceTime me. Yesterday, one of my fans FaceTimed me — he makes clothes, I told him his shit was dope, and he brought me some clothes. It's cool to connect and inspire kids. Everybody has aspirations, it's cool to really inspire people and see that inspiration and let them know I'm a human being too, there's no cool shit here, it's all love.
Going to a city and knowing kids to hit up in each city is cool, because you know who really cares. I don't care if a million people buy the album. If 100 people bought it and they were dedicated to it and it moved them in some capacity, that's what I'm about. If you're making quality shit, and not doing dumb career moves, the numbers will grow and give you longevity. That what will have people begging for an album when you're 40.
It's so funny, these artists want to get popular so fast, they imitate what's good or what's popular right now, and they just don't know. The kids who are the artists that pop up out of nowhere and have all of the Vines and all of that stuff, they disappear so quick. We've seen it — we can name ten artists in the last year. Do something that's worthwhile. I can't say timeless, but just worthwhile.
What do you see for yourself, after rap?
I definitely want to do performing art schools for kids who can't afford it, that just have raw talent and drive and dedication. I got some homies in New York who have been putting me on to what matters — this material shit, it doesn't matter. That's such a popular theme in rap and hip-hop, what you have constitutes how much worth you have. Whatever I can do to make rap not so cliche, to have people respecting it and respecting me for changing it. I've been getting a lot of DMs and Snapchat from kids saying, "I appreciate what you're doing for hip-hop" and that's dope, that's really cool for me. Everything man, I'm trying to be philanthropist Rome, doing dinner with Oprah.
The post Rome Fortune on his debut album, dinner with Oprah and life after rap appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Posted: 23 Feb 2016 11:43 AM PST
The singer will also perform with Musgraves tomorrow on television.
Miguel and country singer Kacey Musgraves recently hinted at a collaboration on Instagram and now it looks like even more will be involved.
The R&B star announced today that he will release a remix collection for his Wildheart track ‘waves’ featuring the wildly diverse roster of Musgraves, Travis Scott, Tame Impala and RAC. It’s out this week on February 26 and you can catch Musgraves and Miguel performing on The Late Late Show With James Corden tomorrow. Revisit the original ‘waves’ below.
The post Miguel announces ‘waves’ remixes featuring Travis Scott, Tame Impala, Kacey Musgraves and RAC appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Miguel and country singer Kacey Musgraves recently hinted at a collaboration on Instagram and now it looks like even more will be involved.
The R&B star announced today that he will release a remix collection for his Wildheart track ‘waves’ featuring the wildly diverse roster of Musgraves, Travis Scott, Tame Impala and RAC. It’s out this week on February 26 and you can catch Musgraves and Miguel performing on The Late Late Show With James Corden tomorrow. Revisit the original ‘waves’ below.
The post Miguel announces ‘waves’ remixes featuring Travis Scott, Tame Impala, Kacey Musgraves and RAC appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Posted: 23 Feb 2016 11:17 AM PST
Coinciding with the kick-off of her sold out Formation Tour.
Beyoncé
's final album under current Columbia deal is allegedly set for an April release. According to Hits Daily Double, the singer will release the new record — which her stylist Ty Hunter says is “beyond awesome” — before inking a new deal with Columbia’s parent company Sony Music.Beyoncé
This time last year, ‘Drunk in Love’ producer Detail
hinted that Beyoncé and husband Jay Z were working on a collaborative project together. HDD also reports that this could also be on the table for a 2016 release.
[via Idolator]
The post New Beyoncé album expected in April appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Posted: 23 Feb 2016 10:55 AM PST
After a few delays, the Animal Collective guitarist’s album should be out in March.
While Animal Collective fans are currently soaking in the recent Painting With, they already have an upcoming release to get excited for. As previously reported, Animal Collective guitarist Deakin (aka Josh Dibb) sat out on recording the band’s new album so he could finish his own solo debut — a release that’s been patiently awaited since last decade. Though he initially promised a February release, Deakin has share a new message to fans on the Collected Animals message board explaining that it has been pushed to mid-March.
The delay is primarily due to a change from CD to cassette tape, which Deakin explains was done simply because he “doesn't feel like CDs are exciting physical objects anymore”. He also promised that the album will be released digitally on iTunes after an initial period where it will only be available to original backers.
“Pushing myself through this process that I had been avoiding so that I could finish the recordings that you will soon be hearing has been such a profoundly meaningful step in my life,” he said. “I have been holding back from this for longer than the six years that you have been waiting. Now that it is finished and I am close to delivering it to you guys, I feel an excitement and movement in myself to make more music as soon as possible”.
To coincide with the update he also shared a new picture on Instagram with the caption ‘Speakmemory’, hinting at a potential title and album cover. Take a look at it below and revisit our recent interview with Animal Collective.
The post Animal Collective’s Deakin shares update on solo album, hints at potential cover and title appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
While Animal Collective fans are currently soaking in the recent Painting With, they already have an upcoming release to get excited for. As previously reported, Animal Collective guitarist Deakin (aka Josh Dibb) sat out on recording the band’s new album so he could finish his own solo debut — a release that’s been patiently awaited since last decade. Though he initially promised a February release, Deakin has share a new message to fans on the Collected Animals message board explaining that it has been pushed to mid-March.
The delay is primarily due to a change from CD to cassette tape, which Deakin explains was done simply because he “doesn't feel like CDs are exciting physical objects anymore”. He also promised that the album will be released digitally on iTunes after an initial period where it will only be available to original backers.
“Pushing myself through this process that I had been avoiding so that I could finish the recordings that you will soon be hearing has been such a profoundly meaningful step in my life,” he said. “I have been holding back from this for longer than the six years that you have been waiting. Now that it is finished and I am close to delivering it to you guys, I feel an excitement and movement in myself to make more music as soon as possible”.
To coincide with the update he also shared a new picture on Instagram with the caption ‘Speakmemory’, hinting at a potential title and album cover. Take a look at it below and revisit our recent interview with Animal Collective.
The post Animal Collective’s Deakin shares update on solo album, hints at potential cover and title appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Posted: 23 Feb 2016 09:56 AM PST
Nearly 50 years before DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing was hailed as the first album made entirely of samples, a French broadcaster envisioned a music made solely from pre-recorded loops.
Sampling, and even to an extent turntablism, can be traced back to the recording experiments of Pierre Schaeffer. An engineer, writer, composer, philosopher, musicologist, educator and acoustician, Schaeffer is one of the most influential figures in modern music, known for pioneering a radical innovation in 20th century music: musique concrète.
After receiving a degree in radio broadcasting, the young Schaeffer began working as an engineer at France’s public broadcaster Radiodiffusion française (RDF) in 1936. Soon after, sparked by an interest in radio art, the theories of Italian Futurist thinker Luigi Russolo, and the use of recorded sound in cinema, Schaeffer convinced the RDF to grant him permission to begin experiments in music research and technology (formally called "research into noises").
In 1942, Schaeffer officially founded his first studio at the RDF, the Studio d’Essai, later renamed Club d’Essai. It was here, equipped with mixers, a direct disc cutting lathe, and a library of sound effects, that the composer lay the groundwork for what would later be termed musique concrète. The most pivotal moment in Schaeffer’s career, however, came in 1949 when he met Pierre Henry, a classically trained composer with whom he would go on to co-found the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC, later GRM), the first studio designed specifically for electroacoustic music.
Over the next 10 years, the two composers would change the face of music forever. Apart from their countless aesthetic innovations, they achieved many technical successes, pioneering the use of magnetic tape by splicing and looping, and introducing several new inventions: a three-track tape recorder, a 10-head delay and loop machine (the morphophone), a keyboard-controlled device capable of replaying loops at various speeds (the phonogene), and several amplification systems used for spatial experimentation with sound.
One of the more profound consequences of Schaeffer’s inversion of the compositional process was that composers would no longer be bound to written scores and notation. Their music could exist solely as recordings, without need for players or instruments to actualize them. Even among other experimental and avant-garde musics of the time, notably the “elektronische Musik” being produced by Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne, Schaeffer’s approach represented a radical shift. Because any sound could now be repurposed for the sake of music-making, the possible combinations of timbres, rhythms, instruments, voices and harmonies became virtually infinite.
"After the war, in the '45 to '48 period, we had driven back the German invasion but we hadn't driven back the invasion of Austrian music, 12-tone music,” reflected Schaeffer, who had participated in the French resistance. “We had liberated ourselves politically, but music was still under an occupying foreign power, the music of the Vienna school."
Dissatisfied with the state of music at the time, Schaeffer sought to create a new musical language which divorced sounds from their sources, thereby reducing music to the act of hearing alone — what he called "reduced listening." Take, for example, a field recording of a train moving along its tracks. At face value you’d simply note the sound of a train; beyond that realization, listeners wouldn’t give it much more thought. Schaeffer, however, realized that there was a rich vein of musicality hidden within such seemingly mundane sounds: snippets of complex rhythms, unique timbral characteristics, tonal peculiarities, strange and interesting textures. Our perception of these qualities, he recognized, was hindered by the associations and references that sounds carry. The trick was to find a way to hide the associations in order to bring the musical qualities of those sounds to the forefront.
As Jean-Michel Jarre, a former student of Schaeffer’s, put it in 2007: "Back in the '40s, Schaeffer invented the sample, the locked groove — in other words, the loop […] It was Schaeffer who experimented with distorting sounds, playing them backwards, speeding them up and slowing them down. He was the one who invented the entire way music is made these days."
Schaeffer’s influence stretched far beyond his contemporaries (Olivier Messiaen, Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez all drew inspiration from his theories), and today it’s hard to find recorded music in any genre, on any continent, that his ideas and methods haven’t touched. Emphasizing texture and juxtaposition over traditional elements like melody, harmony and rhythm, Schaeffer’s collage-like works anticipated everything from the patchwork physicality of The Bomb Squad to the archival impulses of hauntology and vaporwave.
Schaeffer’s work was initially met with considerable hostility; the first musique concrète broadcasts pieces were criticized as un-musical, unlistenable—just “noise”. Even today, nearly 70 years later, his music can feels challenging, disorienting, even threatening. Presented in chronological order, the 10 compositions in this guide offer an introduction to the theories, techniques and ideas Schaeffer developed over his lifetime. Listeners can derive much pleasure from zooming in on the fine details, but in many respects Schaeffer’s work is at its most compelling when viewed as a system of interlocking components.
The post A guide to Pierre Schaeffer, the godfather of sampling appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Sampling, and even to an extent turntablism, can be traced back to the recording experiments of Pierre Schaeffer. An engineer, writer, composer, philosopher, musicologist, educator and acoustician, Schaeffer is one of the most influential figures in modern music, known for pioneering a radical innovation in 20th century music: musique concrète.
After receiving a degree in radio broadcasting, the young Schaeffer began working as an engineer at France’s public broadcaster Radiodiffusion française (RDF) in 1936. Soon after, sparked by an interest in radio art, the theories of Italian Futurist thinker Luigi Russolo, and the use of recorded sound in cinema, Schaeffer convinced the RDF to grant him permission to begin experiments in music research and technology (formally called "research into noises").
In 1942, Schaeffer officially founded his first studio at the RDF, the Studio d’Essai, later renamed Club d’Essai. It was here, equipped with mixers, a direct disc cutting lathe, and a library of sound effects, that the composer lay the groundwork for what would later be termed musique concrète. The most pivotal moment in Schaeffer’s career, however, came in 1949 when he met Pierre Henry, a classically trained composer with whom he would go on to co-found the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC, later GRM), the first studio designed specifically for electroacoustic music.
Over the next 10 years, the two composers would change the face of music forever. Apart from their countless aesthetic innovations, they achieved many technical successes, pioneering the use of magnetic tape by splicing and looping, and introducing several new inventions: a three-track tape recorder, a 10-head delay and loop machine (the morphophone), a keyboard-controlled device capable of replaying loops at various speeds (the phonogene), and several amplification systems used for spatial experimentation with sound.
François Bayle, Pierre Schaeffer and Bernard Parmegiani at GRM in 1972
Composers would no longer be bound to written scores and notation – their music could exist solely as recordingsSchaeffer, who was an outspoken anti-nuclear activist, once asked, "Why should a civilization which so misuses its power have, or deserve, a normal music?" By rethinking the foundations of music-making, he produced an art form that was anything but normal — a music that aimed to merge art with science, composition with engineering. His ideas turned conventional music theory on its head. Traditionally, composition moved from the abstract to the concrete — from concept and written notes to actual sounds. Schaeffer’s approach reversed the process, beginning instead with fragments of sound—field recordings of both natural and mechanical origin—which were then manipulated using studio techniques.
One of the more profound consequences of Schaeffer’s inversion of the compositional process was that composers would no longer be bound to written scores and notation. Their music could exist solely as recordings, without need for players or instruments to actualize them. Even among other experimental and avant-garde musics of the time, notably the “elektronische Musik” being produced by Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne, Schaeffer’s approach represented a radical shift. Because any sound could now be repurposed for the sake of music-making, the possible combinations of timbres, rhythms, instruments, voices and harmonies became virtually infinite.
"After the war, in the '45 to '48 period, we had driven back the German invasion but we hadn't driven back the invasion of Austrian music, 12-tone music,” reflected Schaeffer, who had participated in the French resistance. “We had liberated ourselves politically, but music was still under an occupying foreign power, the music of the Vienna school."
Dissatisfied with the state of music at the time, Schaeffer sought to create a new musical language which divorced sounds from their sources, thereby reducing music to the act of hearing alone — what he called "reduced listening." Take, for example, a field recording of a train moving along its tracks. At face value you’d simply note the sound of a train; beyond that realization, listeners wouldn’t give it much more thought. Schaeffer, however, realized that there was a rich vein of musicality hidden within such seemingly mundane sounds: snippets of complex rhythms, unique timbral characteristics, tonal peculiarities, strange and interesting textures. Our perception of these qualities, he recognized, was hindered by the associations and references that sounds carry. The trick was to find a way to hide the associations in order to bring the musical qualities of those sounds to the forefront.
Schaeffer’s work anticipated everything from The Bomb Squad to hauntology and vaporwaveAfter considerable struggle, the details of which Schaeffer documented in a series of journals, published in English as In Search of a Concrete Music, he discovered that he could modify and transform his field recordings through the manipulation of turntables, acetate records, filters and magnetic tape, thereby rendering their original context, form, and ultimately their source unrecognizable. Without these techniques the history of music production — particularly hip-hop and electronic music — would look very different.
As Jean-Michel Jarre, a former student of Schaeffer’s, put it in 2007: "Back in the '40s, Schaeffer invented the sample, the locked groove — in other words, the loop […] It was Schaeffer who experimented with distorting sounds, playing them backwards, speeding them up and slowing them down. He was the one who invented the entire way music is made these days."
Schaeffer’s influence stretched far beyond his contemporaries (Olivier Messiaen, Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez all drew inspiration from his theories), and today it’s hard to find recorded music in any genre, on any continent, that his ideas and methods haven’t touched. Emphasizing texture and juxtaposition over traditional elements like melody, harmony and rhythm, Schaeffer’s collage-like works anticipated everything from the patchwork physicality of The Bomb Squad to the archival impulses of hauntology and vaporwave.
Schaeffer’s work was initially met with considerable hostility; the first musique concrète broadcasts pieces were criticized as un-musical, unlistenable—just “noise”. Even today, nearly 70 years later, his music can feels challenging, disorienting, even threatening. Presented in chronological order, the 10 compositions in this guide offer an introduction to the theories, techniques and ideas Schaeffer developed over his lifetime. Listeners can derive much pleasure from zooming in on the fine details, but in many respects Schaeffer’s work is at its most compelling when viewed as a system of interlocking components.
The post A guide to Pierre Schaeffer, the godfather of sampling appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Posted: 23 Feb 2016 09:34 AM PST
The recent Honey single gets a video highlighting Miami at night.
Katy B is finally gearing up for the follow-up to Little Red with the guest-heavy new album Honey. Today she’s shared a video for her recent Major Lazer-produced duet with Craig David, ‘Who Am I’. Set in Miami, the track features the pair singing over some visually impressive set pieces including neon-lit streets and thunder storms. Watch it below and look for Honey April 29 via Virgin/EMI.
The post Katy B teams with Craig David for dramatic ‘Who Am I’ video appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Katy B is finally gearing up for the follow-up to Little Red with the guest-heavy new album Honey. Today she’s shared a video for her recent Major Lazer-produced duet with Craig David, ‘Who Am I’. Set in Miami, the track features the pair singing over some visually impressive set pieces including neon-lit streets and thunder storms. Watch it below and look for Honey April 29 via Virgin/EMI.
The post Katy B teams with Craig David for dramatic ‘Who Am I’ video appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Posted: 23 Feb 2016 09:19 AM PST
Last week saw the launch of a new space operated by FACT’s sister site, The Vinyl Factory.
Located underneath The Store in Berlin, The Vinyl Factory Soundsystem features eight Funktion One speakers wired for 3D sound. To celebrate the opening of the space, The Store held a vinyl pop-up with limited edition copies of Massive Attack’s new EP Ritual Spirit on sale.
After an audio-visual performance by Massive Attack at Berlin’s Tempodrom, The Vinyl Factory Soundsystem was put through its paces for the first time by Henrik Schwarz and Phonica Records’ Simon Rigg.
Check out pictures from the launch taken by Michael Wilkin and Lisa Khanna below, and keep up to date with the new space through The Vinyl Factory Instagram.
The post Massive Attack takeover launches The Vinyl Factory Soundsystem appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
Located underneath The Store in Berlin, The Vinyl Factory Soundsystem features eight Funktion One speakers wired for 3D sound. To celebrate the opening of the space, The Store held a vinyl pop-up with limited edition copies of Massive Attack’s new EP Ritual Spirit on sale.
After an audio-visual performance by Massive Attack at Berlin’s Tempodrom, The Vinyl Factory Soundsystem was put through its paces for the first time by Henrik Schwarz and Phonica Records’ Simon Rigg.
Check out pictures from the launch taken by Michael Wilkin and Lisa Khanna below, and keep up to date with the new space through The Vinyl Factory Instagram.
The post Massive Attack takeover launches The Vinyl Factory Soundsystem appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..
No comments:
Post a Comment