Blog #4

Blog #4:

I know this blog is primarily the review of a fellow student's project, but I found this recently and wanted to take this opportunity to share it. It's a great documentary (there are many parts, I'm merely posting the first one) on remix culture - very new/relevant, and featuring popular DJ Girl Talk who will be performing at Spring Fling this year. This clip is only 2:30 long, and it's definitely worth a watch.

What's really cool about the project is that the producers of the documentary have asked others to literally "remix" their film and turn it into something new - much as its subjects remix music.

Check it out, and find the rest of it here:



In any event, on to Jeff's tour-de-force: the House Training Montage

After listening to this song I had a number of reactions:
1st. I had some difficulty hearing the best of the three samples (Joe Esposito - You're the Best Around) in Jeff's piece. I had the sense that maybe it had been sped up to fit with the tempo and to sound a little more tech-y. The effect was good, even if I'm partial to this original sequence:



If that doesn't make you want to kick some ass and get huge, I don't know what will.

2nd. It was a high energy piece - a little to hype for me, but it comes with the genre (Jeff choose House). The tempo was quicker than the 120 I used in mine, but I can appreciate how it adds to Jeff's mission for the track - to pump. it. up.

3rd. The first 20 seconds have a different feel than the rest of the piece. I cant exactly figure out what's going on or why it seems so different, but it definitely feels a bit disjoint. The bass line seems to be reworked, and the change in texture threw me off a bit. I liked the building effect right before the "real" song begins, as the beat quickens and he adds layers to the sound, but otherwise I'm left a bit confused.

4th. I really like the use of the samples in an almost percussive way - maybe I'm hearing it wrong, but they seem to add emphasis to the underlying bass line/beat. Also, whereas I tried to keep the sample as pure as possible, I like how Jeff works to make something almost completely new out of his samples, with effects and changes of the amplitude envelope.

5th. It was my impression, in listening to the piece, that Jeff could have definitely benifitted from more time - not more time in creating the piece (it is very complex, and clearly required a lot of effort to get the effects etc), but more time over which to stretch the piece. One minute is not a long time to really develop a song, and I felt as though the song would have turned out even better had it been given a chance to progress more slowly. When crunched together, it sounded a bit choppy, but if each section were given a chance to really build/transition, I think it would have been great.

Taking the piece as a whole, I'm not sure that I'd choose it over any of the individual samples for a real workout piece, but it's certainly more club-worthy. An noble effort.

With regards to my final project, I would really like to develop a trance song. I've been listening to a lot of Armen van Buuren lately, and especially after the readings on Trance I feel like this would be a cool genre in which to create a piece. I especially enjoy the building melodies of pads, and in trying to create my last proejct, I realized this was where I wanted to go with my final piece. Away from the four-on-the-floor emphasis of house and into the building, shifting harmonies of trance. This would be the primary focus of the final project. Also, Brendan and I had been talking (he's my roomate), and wanted to develop a rap song. This would certainly be secondary, but we thought it might be fun. (Disclaimer: we were inspired by our watching of the movie Hustle & Flow - a true classic).

Also, before I go, this is really cool. I had been fooling around on some online drum kits, and this one is pretty sick. Remake Daft Punk however you like...
http://www.najle.com/idaft/