The Rock Out There...

Texas Hardcore

   

  
  Growing up in central Texas, just west of Austin, the self proclaimed “Live Music Capital of the World”, seeing live music shows was often what me and my friends did for entertainment on the weekends. Thank god our parents were ok with us at only 14-18 going to the city by ourselves night after night to go to these shows or I don’t know what we would have done. The main genre that we went to see, and one that was very dominant in the area, were those of Post-Hardcore and Metal as well as all of their constantly emerging subgenres. The best part about these shows was the variation of bands that played in a single concert, the first usually a local artist that was trying to make it big. Many of my friends were in groups like this, so when we weren’t at big shows, we were watching them play.
  The scene in Texas has evolved to produce just about every subgenre of post-hardcore and metal, such as Pantera, Scale the Summit, Juggernaut, and Helstar, who is considered influential in the evolution of Power Metal, for metal bands and it’s sub-genres. Then there is Texas in July, At the Drive in, Flyleaf, and Upon A Burning Body for Post-Hardcore, all of which are from Texas and most of which are from central Texas, such as San Antonio and Austin. Many of the groups of today coming from the area are somewhat of a mix of these two genres in one way or another. Metalcore, death metal, grindcore, Technical death metal, Melodic death metal, Melodic hardcore, Progressive hardcore, progressive death metal, screamo, Thrash metal, and others are all represented. Over the years, these genres have all evolved from hardcore punk bands like Scratch Aid, who was one of the original hardcore punk bands that sprouted up in Austin and was a vital part of the push forward to create post-hardcore that we hear today.
   Many people think that as punk artist’s such as Scratch Aid, moved forward in their career’s, they wanted to advance their music as well, adding more technical aspects and styles from other genres for more of a challenge as well as to create sonic elements that broke the rules of what was expected of them, an idea that lied at the core of the entire punk culture. They often times booked their own shows, acted as their own management, paid for their own recordings, and did everything themselves. This explains why they worked so hard to keep making music that was essentially unique to that group, because they wanted to stay away from that “generic” sound that comes with an official labeling of a particular genre, such as the umbrella-like-genre that post-hardcore has become, encompassing so many different sounds.
   This broad labeling of sounds has led to lots of controversy among the bands themselves and how they are labeled. Many of them hate the way that they’re labeled or just don’t give a shit. This fact and the similarities between sub-genres make it almost impossible to truly label a group under one title, and causes lots of arguments throughout the fans, especially region to region. For example, areas such as Chicago, D.C., and San Diego all underwent a movement that was considered a major step forward for the genre overall. The most recent of which was the San Diego Sound movement that contributed to making post-hardcore sound the way that it does today, or so the media thinks.
   Metal music is similar to many post-hardcore but can be identified by the low, deep growls and gory lyrics, as well as socially aware lyrical subjects, which is the issue of some philosophical debate that is for another discussion, as well as occasional high screams, mixed with fast-paced, technical guitar pieces, and deep heavy bass. Like I mentioned, some of these traits, such as fast, technical guitar rifts, are shared with post-hardcore, causing some confusion about where to place most groups and has thus furthered the controversial debate about the sub-genres of this style of music. 

longevity

     De la soul has had a seemingly impossible career in hip-hop.  Spanning 25 years now, they have not only been successful in an industry that has one hit wonders and flashes in the pan a'plenty, but in a genre of that industry that once was considered simply a fad and soon to be replaced by a more respectable and regarded musical iteration such as jazz or punk rock.  The most interesting thing about the span of their career, is that although they have adjusted to the times in order to maintain relevance, the core of their messaging as been the same.  One does not have to conform or bend to societies popular tropes and memes, one can simply convey what they feel and who they are, from the soul.

New Generations of Producers

     

           The development of Web 2.0 has created a digital audio platform for producers to reach large audiences across the world from the comfort of home studios. Producers are also making all different types of music that can't possibly be categorized in traditional genre platforms. Much of the music is a reflection of the continued profound impact of technology on 21st century artists.

Minimal Wave

The year is 1980 a steady pulse from an analog drum machine beats hard and slow... analog synthesizers appear from the dark shadows dancing over the drum machines. Minimal Wave electronic music is being born. With many musicians being inspired by Kraftwerk and John Fox.

Mainly characterized by minimal musical structures, the sound of Minimal Wave was hallmarked by the use of the analog synthesizers and drum machines that were manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s by Roland, Korg, Yamaha, ARP, Linn, Oberheim, Moog and Sequential Circuits. Bed room producers recording electronic music to cassette tape is happening in France, The Netherlands, Germany, North America and Japan.

There is also a resurgence in this genre happening across the world at this time. Many people are wanting to return to a more pure, older way of writing and recording music. Music can be made so easily through a computer using ableton or garageband. The return to analog machines is a nod to the past and in some way tougher, harder way of writing and producing.

Many of the Minimal Wave bands recorded in their home studios and created their own album artwork, which naturally paved the way for a D.I.Y. aesthetic to emerge. At this time DIY meant something different than it does now. Information was harder to come by and word of mouth was how things would spread. The musicians were influenced by avant-garde movements such as futurism and constructivism as well as by the literature of science fiction and existentialism. They had an innovative, unique approach to music-making, which was less polished than the music that appeared on mainstream charts during the same time period.

https://soundcloud.com/mariozoots/minimal-wave

Storytelling

Human beings are unique in the versatility and creativity with which we communicate ideas to each other. One of the most basic and fundamental techniques of sharing ideas is through the telling of stories. Telling our stories to each other is our way of connecting to other human beings by sharing our experiences. Over the centuries the platforms through which we tell our stories has changed, and recently new platforms have opened up thanks to the Internet, providing new opportunities for people to share their stories. Here I will highlight two such programs: The Moth and StoryCorps. I will also be sharing my ideas on what makes storytelling so fundamentally important to human lives.

Captured Emotion:The Digital Age and Authentic Music

A brief introduction to the importance of recording and listening technology, its role in the evolution of a variety of vocal styles, and the universally sought experience of emotionally authentic music.

Hundreds of years ago, judging the quality of a musician or vocalist depended upon how easily and accurately they could reproduce a piece by Bach or Handel. Whether playing or singing, it was expected that “good” meant proficient at hitting the right notes at the right times. But then some incredible advances in recording technology came about, that completely revolutionized the way artist and audience interacted. Introducing the microphone, a tool that has become as key to the musical artist as a paintbrush is to a painter. Enabling the recording of both extremely loud and extremely soft sounds, microphones allowed singers a much greater range of emotions (particularly more’ vulnerable’, quiet emotions) and encouraged heavy creative exploitation of the device, as individual artists sought to carve out new and unique niches in the sound world. This, in combination with the simultaneous evolution of listening technology into similarly intimate zones (the home & even the listener’s own headspace) has increased our emphasis, as a society, on emotional authenticity in a performance; We want to get inside the artists’ headspace the same way they are in ours, sharing an authentic expression of emotion borne of the artists’ desire to draw us into view of the humbling sphere of the human experience.

For Sound Cultures 2014.

The Evolution of Music Accessibility

This podcast is about the evolution of music accessibility described through three interviews conducted with my (1982) mother (1954), sister (1972), and brother (1983). The interviews begin with memories of my mother telling me stories about her records; the memories of listening to music in my sister's car; the memories my brother and I shared when music became available over the internet. Music accessibility goes hand-in-hand with technology and it is apparent that in a few short decades from my mother's generation to my own, technology became faster and music became easier to get thus creating turmoil within the music industry. Despite technology and music license limitations, people are able to choose their favorite way to get and listen to music. The demand for music will always be present and as long as their is a desire for music, there will be people willing to find a new way to get it be it experiencing records or mP3s for the first time or discovering a yet to be invented way.

Evolution of Music Accessibility by Lx on Mixcloud

A Familiar Sound: Making sense of Tame Impala, Fleet Foxes, and the suprising revival of 60's and 70's influenced rock

           

During the last decade, there has been an emergence of independent rock bands that have adopted eerily similar sounds to bands of the 1960’s and 70’s.  The music featured throughout the podcast is by current artists that embody this nostalgic sound and the two bands analyzed during the piece are Fleet Foxes, a band from Seattle that plays predominantly folk-rock and Tame Impala, a psychedelic rock band from Australia.  The intrigue of this reversion to heavily influenced music of the proclaimed ‘golden era’ of rock is the question of why these young musicians have established a sound that so closely channels their predecessors.  Has it been caused by something as simple as a preference for this sound? Or can it be attributed to the advances in technology and the amount of both new and archival music that we are able to easily access? A Familiar Sound delves into these potential influences on the revival of classic sounding rock music and provides examples of this current yet nostalgic sounding music in independent rock, a surprising and thought provoking trend. 

Music Featured during podcast in order of appearance: 

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti- "Baby"

Real Estate - "Kinder Blumen"

Fleet Foxes- "He Doesn't KnowWhy"     

Tame Impala- "Be Above It" (Intro, record player rip)

Tame Impala- "Apocalypse Dreams" 

Tame Impala- " Feel Like We Only Go Backwards"

Girls- "Lust For Life"  

A Day to Remember and Post-Hardcore Fans

A Day to Remember is a post-hardcore band formerly under Victory Records. They formed in 2003 in Ocala, Florida. Due to a lawsuit and trouble with Victory Records’ owner they released their latest album independently. I wanted to look at what caused their fallout with Victory Records, and how their fan base enabled them to still release the album independently through technology and social media. I also wanted to look at some of the techniques used in popular post-hardcore music that I feel make their fan bases so dedicated.

The Seductive Force of the Record Store

I chose to review a podcast produced by Sounding Out called "The Record Shop".  This was released in celebration of record store day 2012.  The podcast on a technically level was not sleek, or finely edited in any way whatsoever, though that is totally fine by me.  The content was clearly the focus for this collection of pleasing anecdotes about the physical experience of the record hunt, not to mention the sensations received.

I deeply empathized with the podcast as I still find the experience of cruising around a record store, sifting through endless piles of dust, incredibly therapeutic.  Some of the people interviewed confessed that a lot of the time when they proceed on the journey to their local music shack they aren't even intending to purchase anything.  It is all about meeting cool people, being hazed by the employees, and drooling upon the bin labels.

Knowing that humans are willing to make the effort to transport themselves to a record store, even though they could easily obtain the music for free, or order it online for a discounted price makes me feel really good.  It means that people have realized that the experience is just as, if not more important than the object.  What you leave with at the end of your visit to the record store is truly the least significant portion of the overwhelming experience of discovering new music and freaks from similar spheres.

Radiolab's "Pop Music"

Radiolab's podcast, Pop Music*, is about songs - why some invade our mind, how someone creates a catchy tune, music that transcends stereotypical cultures, and the way tunes are recognizable to a worldwide audience even if there is no clear “original” artist. The podcast claims a song’s melody that stays in our head is vague one typically only one part or piece of the song is remembered over and over again; this happens to me quite often especially if it is a Gwen Stefani song.

   

Sometimes, for me, the song I have in head playing ad nauseam will not go away completely until I listen to the song from start to finish, but sometimes it takes a little more than that like maybe listening to something else for a while or simply turning my brain off. Sadly, this is not the case for some people.

For one man, Leo Rangell, the music does not stop no matter what he does, is doing, or where he is going. Leo began having music hallucinations after he woke up from surgery and has had music hallucinations ever since, more than a decade now. When Leo has a song in his head, it is often reflective of a memory that is maybe not fully known but is recalled once a certain piece of the song plays; however, there are times when a part of his memory recalls a situation, like driving home, and a song, suitable for Leo, will play in his head.

Both comforting to some and nerve racking for others, music hallucinations specific to the songs people hallucinate are subjective for each listener, meaning what Leo would hear and what I would hear would most likely be two very different things. After all, Leo probably wouldn’t hallucinate Gwen Stefani but it is possible that I might hear “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”  Why? I speculate it is because I have heard both songs before.

Songs are more than the lyrics. Personally, the melody is more important. I have heard some songs that have terrible lyrics but the melody is simply fantastic. Perhaps it is because I cannot sing but I can hum to my heart’s desire and someone can turn and say, “Hey, I love that song!” This podcast raised me to ask: “Well, what song do you think it is?”

This podcast demonstrated that one melody can fit many different songs and sometimes those different songs can be overlayed with one another and there is hardly a difference. With these minute differences in song tunes, it is evident that many different cultures could communicate over these similarities if they could communicate about little else. Thankfully, technology is able to illustrate comparable works for other to hear. How else might someone listen to The Elvis of Afghanistan, Ahmad Zahir?

The podcast’s was done in a manner that is reminiscent of motion pictures in that the music does not overpower the commentary but instead strengthens what is said. The interplay between the two is familiar to me yet discomforting if I am the one to do it; however, a podcast is a personal reflection on a particular subject and this is something that Radiolab exhibits well and is something I would like to emulate. Yet, I would forgo the sudden jumps from one subject to the next and concentrate on making something close to a concept album where the podcast tells a story, not necessarily linear, but something that does not feel like the podcast should be separate tracks.

The podcast intertwines point-of-view and concrete, scientific evidence. It is almost as if someone asks why the sky is blue and gives both opinion and objective evaluation providing stories on different sides of the same coin.

Perhaps this podcast is less about how a song gets stuck in our head, which to me conveys a negative connotation, but rather how music stays in our head, how music communicates strongly to us regardless of culture or nationality, and how music can be with us even when we are alone.

*For more on this Radiolab's podcast, please visit http://www.radiolab.org/story/91629-pop-music/ 

 

The Record Store

The podcast that I selected to listen to was Sounding Out! Episode #6: Spaces of Listening/The record Shop.  I have written a feature story about the resurgence of record stores over the past several years so I was immediately drawn to the topic to hear what the contributors in the podcast had to say about the current state of the record store.  After listening to the piece I have developed some conclusions on what it was about.  I believe that it is mainly about those featured in the story (record store owners, patrons, academics, musicians etc.) telling their favorite stories about growing up going to record stores and how that shaped their music taste by being suggested different pieces of music, hearing the music in the store or even just stumbling upon a physical copy while in the store that appeared to be intruiging that they eventually bought.  They touch upon the ritual of the moment of exchange in the record store i.e. exchanging money for something physical tangible, a vinyl record or CD.  This is something that for those that do not collect physical copies of music, especially in my genereation, do not experience, which truly makes a piece of music that much more special to an individual.

It can be inferred that those featured in the podcast are of an older generation when everyone went to the record store and that is where they discovered new music primarily.  Something that is stated by several of the contributors is that today with the disconnect that the internet has brought to the music industry and music culture, the younger generation is perhaps missing out on a large part of their music development because they are not going to record stores and asking the clerk or store owner what they suggest or even debate against their taste.  In part I think this argument is true.  Although I collect vinyl myself, I generally have an idea of what I am going to buy before I go into the store because it is something I have discovered and believe that it will sound good on vinyl, I almsot have never asked the record store clerk a music specific question I mostly just ask them if they have the record I am looking for.

As for the podcast itself and the production elements implemented, the structure was very effective and the plethora of contributors made it extremely intruiging because you were not hearing the same voice the entire time.  One particular element that I doubt was intentional but provoked my thoughts was that I was very drawn to the song that played at the beginning and end of the podcast but the song was never identified by the main narrator or in the description of the podcast.  I thought that related nicely to what a lot of the people in the podcast were talking about when they were in a record store and heard something playing and were drawn to the sound and asked the clerk, hey what is that? There is such an information overload on the internet that even though we can find almost any recorded music ever, it is not as authentic as hearing something in a physical space, it feels much more processed.  If this were my podcast I would have probably included more music throughout the piece perhaps as an example of the sounds that the contributors in the podcast remember hearing in the record store.  Other than that it was very well executed and engaging, bringing to attention a topic that I am incredibly drawn to.

All in the Mind - Hearing Voices

The podcast episode of All In the Mind titled “Hearing Voices – The Invisible Intruders,” presented by Lynne Malcolm, discusses the phenomena of hearing voices when no one is around speaking. Often categorized as an auditory hallucination, this phenomena raises questions of where these voices come from, why they are heard, and whether or not they can be considered “real.”

There is a great deal of stigma both cultural and historical associated with hearing of voices, both positive and negative. In the Western world, the hearing of voices that seem to come from outside of one’s head is linked to prophets and religious icons, and was generally seen as the mark of a holy figure, full of knowledge and power. Still today, others link the hearing of voices with a positive, spiritual experience, relating to God or some higher power. But more often than not, like the experiences with the voices themselves, the association is negative. There are countless stories of people feeling compelled to either harm themselves or others because voices told them to do so, to the point where it’s become a stereotype of “crazy” characters in popular media. The immediate association with someone who hears voices is that of someone violent, shut-in, delusional and often, beyond hope. But of course, there’s a lot more to it.

In addition to presenting recent scientific studies made on the topic of hearing voices, the podcast provides interviews with several people who claim to hear voices and who have struggled with it. While some describe pleasant experiences with voices, most often they are malicious. One woman describes the voices as coming from outside and into her own head, telling her things about what is happening around her, such as warning her that someone is about to attack or telling her to jump off of a bridge. Conversely, for another man, the voices are like echoes of people he has known returning to haunt him, like a priest who sexually abused him in childhood or a former lover who committed suicide. Some scientists believe that these phenomena of voices are not unlike phantom limb syndrome, in which the brain—deprived of sensory input due to a loss of tissue—will imagine or recall that sensory input from memory, giving the feeling that the limb still exists. These voices may exist in a similar manner, a brain falsely recalling memories of sounds when no one is around to cause them.

The cause of this is unclear. Because the human brain is a complex organ that we have very little understanding of still, there is a variety of potential sources: childhood trauma, chemical imbalance, all of which are too vague to really offer any specific diagnostics, much less actual solutions.

However, those interviewed in the podcast attest to the positive results of sharing their hearing experiences. The international Hearing Voices Network is a strong advocate of the idea that acceptance of the voices as real experiences—instead of unreal phenomena meant only to be ignored—gives those who suffer from such experiences a sense of power and greater ability to cope with their voices. Some even come to find their voices more enjoyable—one man discusses “the teacher,” a voice he consults when he has difficult decisions to make, claiming it is not all that different from the sort of dialogue people have with themselves in their own heads. People share coping mechanisms and find others who share in a phenomena that most other people would struggle to relate to, and may even be frightened by. The power of sharing the experience of hearing and categorizing it as a real experience helps normalize the experience, helping people to feel less alone more in control of themselves.

The podcast itself is nicely put together, providing a range of interview subjects from acclaimed scientists in the field to everyday people who experience the phenomena, and is punctuated by poetry written by and about someone who hears voices. I think it could have been made more powerful if it had included a section where a series of unrelated, often degrading voices, begin to talk over the podcast, to give the listener a sense of what that experience is like. This could even be done multiple times, before the podcast reaches the point where it discusses the Hearing Voices Network and its positive techniques. Still, the episode was well put together, interesting, with a positive outlook and a lot left to wonder about the nature of what is real and what isn’t.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/hearing-voices---the-invisible-intruders/3321982

Radiolab's Musical Language

My first impressions of this podcast were that it was very well put together, both in terms of discussion content and the way creative editing was used to provoke interest, illustrate and enhance key points of discussion (since much of the discussion was about sonorous objects, many of them were played as examples to the listener; the sounds are powerful when presented in a before-and-after format, which allows the listener to draw their own conclusions, before those conclusions are eerily and accurately expounded upon by the commentators). The topic was intriguing in and of itself - the oddity and wonder of how and why sonorous objects make us feel things: from comprehensibly spoken language to incomprehensible (linguistically) spoken language, and the universally understood melodies embedded within; the way these melodies act as 'touches' because of their ability to incite emotion without higher comprehension; the natural adaptation of the ear to dissonant sounds (in an attempt to discern patterns and 'hear' a more pleasing sound, or rather a more patterned collection of electrical impulses, because unpleasant sounds actually incite unpleasant emotions!); and how past famous composers' unique riffs and compositional tendencies can be analyzed, restructured, and re-composed into a brand new compositionally sound piece.

Wow! That's a lot of stuff to discuss, and I didn't even mention half of the snippets of research discussed - such as Diana Deutch's perfect pitch study with tonal languages, and the grand implications that has for potentially unlocking remarkable musical ability within the human mind. Over the course of an hour, 5 or 6 interesting topics were touched upon, all relating to the musicality of language and how/why sound has the ability to make us feel so many things so strongly. There was heavy layering of sonorous objects, from music, to sound effects, to overdubbed voices playing out a second scene framed around the central discussion (ie the 'neurons' trying to decipher a dissonant sound); what stood out to me was that the sonorous backdrop for the entire podcast was very rich and varied, but at the same time nearly always felt meaningful and related to the actual discussion. In some cases the illustrations were vivid and straightforward, as in the telling/playing of Stravinsky's first performance of Rite of Spring (the screaming and crashing effects during the 'riot' bit was particularly humorous and effective). In other cases, the effects were more subtle and served as a sort of auditory 'filling' that kept the listener active, bouncing between speakers, looping and echoing a statement or sound in unexpected places, providing just enough "background noise" in between more purposeful conceptual illustrations to keep the listener's attention.

Overall I think the quality of sound, the cleanliness and creativity of the editing, the calm demeanor and genuinely thoughtful back-and-forth of the commentators, the way each topic being discussed was illustrated by a wide variety of interesting auditory examples, sometimes in the form of specific samples and sometimes by way of clever editing techniques and effects (looping, layering, sound effects) - all of this, combined with the high quality of the information presented (both in content and form - the content is interesting, credible, and presented by easy-to-listen-to guys in a concise and satisfying fashion), leads me to consider this a pretty darn good example of what a podcast can, and perhaps should, be. In any case, I think it is an excellent example of how to produce a polished, informative, and entertaining product.

Musical Language (59 min)
Radiolab.org
http://www.radiolab.org/story/91512-musical-language/

Buffalo Gals by Malcolm McLaren & The World's Famous Supreme Team

The intro of the song is an announcement of the supreme team radio show, with multiple shout outs to various dj's and people who have called in to the show, and thusly have become affiliated with this recording. After a sampled and repeated piece of the intro vocals, specifically the word brownsville in reference to the city, and then what sounds like a tribal yell that has been echoed to infinity, a minimal beat begins, and then there are multiple samples of audio that are introduced as a layer of sonic information on top of the beat. I hear scratches of small synths, the words "three buffalo girls". scratches of the word "the beat". Then Malcolm's voice is introduced with his "three buffalo girls" square dance rap. Next there are more vocal scratches and synth stabs. An MC starts rapping and singing about midway through with a very melodic synthesizer playing behind it, almost giving a feeling of a bridge or hook. Malcom's voice returns, along with a female "uh huh" sample, and the synth hits and stabs continue. The song is concluded with a climactic repetition of the scratched "buffalo" and "dancing like a hobo" audio and a crescendo of synth sounds. This song was very nostalgic, but much of the magic from my youth has been removed and hearing the song now left me wanting that old feeling back, and strangely disappointed.

Don't (Vessel Ripley) by John Oswald

It begins in the middle of a soft, soulful croon, with a thrum of bass and gentle plinking of piano--even an angelic background chorus. Gradually, the voice begins to sing over itself, eventually coming to simply repeat “don’t” over and over in the background. The crooner continues, but his voice becomes disjointed, echoing itself. The chorus grows louder, he grows louder, unnaturally so, until there’s a cacophony as the piano goes mad. A moment of silence. The song returns, but everything is different. The crooner’s voice changes pitch, distending. All of the sounds have remained in tempo but are deeper, almost unearthly. There’s a madman on the piano, and it plays frantically, without rhythm, banging on keys louder and louder. The crooner presses on through the noise despite the fact that the pitch of his voice continues unnaturally deep, but as the piano rages at last his voice disappears and all the noise fades, in the way of piano strings’ fading vibrations after the fingers that were pounding the keys are suddenly gone. How is it that such an old, simple, soulful tune can so simply be turned into something so wholly disturbing?

Jukebox Capriccio by Christian Marclay

A needle drops onto a spinning record and someone begins to fiddle with the vinyl as it spins. The sound of sped up tape can be heard playing some sort of jazz piece. A strange ticking sound appears on the right channel of my speakers, builds, then fades out to the left channel. The screeches and scratches of the needle on vinyl and the tape running across a tape head continue as an drum beat is introduced. The drums fade out and the jazz returns. Eventually it’s a full ensemble, but it suddenly cuts out and replaced by a techno beat out of the ‘80’s. The Jazz resumes, followed by some more scratching and drumming. The song slows to the end and new sounds are introduced. A final jazz riff occurs right before an abrupt end to the piece. I sat there wondering why this strange combination of sounds had just entered my ears.

Jukebox Capriccio by Christian Marclay

The barrage of record scratching signifies each new piece in Christian Marclay’s sound collage, Jukebox Capriccio. The beginning of the track starts with the needle dropping on the record, and a few sped up records on different turntables playing simultaneously, some tracks of voices, others of musical instruments such as trumpets and saxophones. When one record ends, another begins. The record scratching being more than the glue melding the pieces of the composition together but more about finding the correct placement for the mixmaster to choose what the listener hears next. The initial speediness in the beginning of the track is brought to a comfortable listening speed, where most of us typically listen to music. While it seemed the record scratching were the only constant in Jukebox, once the record speed normalizes, there are a few tracks that noticeably repeat, such as 1980’s synth pop hit “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell. The record speed slows on approach to the track’s end. The closing of the track, while cut short, plays the iconic notes to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In sketch comedy program. Where I have noticed the bits and pieces of the track that is familiar to me, I wonder: would another listener notice every piece to Jukebox Capriccio’s song melange?

Buffalo Gals by Malcolm McLaren & the World's Famous Supreme Team

The listener is dropped out of nowhere into the World Famous Supreme Team radio show, our DJ scratches and rattles off the radio station, 105.9 FM. We are next introduced to the Supreme Team, we hear a list of names. Then another DJ chimes in and says he has the first call of the night, its a female and he mentions her high school and in the background there is a divine soulful chant happening. The DJ continues to give shout-outs to the listeners, the last shout out is for a listener in Brownsville (Brooklyn). Then what sounds like a digital sampler comes in, cutting and repeating 'Brownsville' about 20 times, while some sort of tribal chant heavily reverbed comes in underneath and ends just before a very straight forward break beat is introduced. On top of this simple beat is the scratching of a female almost crying out a orgasm juxtaposed with a male voice sample. A female saying 'all this scratching is making me itch' sample is dropped on top of the beat a few times then an 1980's drum roll. Out of nowhere a dorky voice of what sounds like an older caucasian male comes in saying "first buffalo gal goes round the out side, round the outside" then 2, then 3 and finally 4 'buffalo gals go round the outside' ending with "dosey doe your partners". Yet another sample is introduced to the listener, this sample is of a female saying "She's looking like a hobo." We have the combination of hip-hop scratching and the doesy doe (the square dancing maneuver) and females looking like hobo's which seems odd at first, tension builds... but to the rescue a bass line drops, theres a breakdown and a smooth voiced rapper starts rhyming. The track returns briefly in the end to the line of describing the buffalo dance, but this time the nerd voice says, 'buffalo boys'. At the end of the track there is layered scratching, male and female voices, the track is coming close to ending, the beat stops and we end with the female sample: 'dancing like a hobo'.

Jukebox Capriccio by Christian Marclay

Starts with an ear-splitting scratching, like a record disc being dropped onto a player roughly and slid around. Music begins, a swinging beat with jazzy horns, but which quickly is shredded by static and screeching. The 'underlying' music ceases abruptly and is replaced by a hyper-speed (sounds like it has been sped up at least) drum groove, plowing through underneath a near-constant assault of sharp, gritty scratches. Split second cut ups of saxophone honks, jazzy horn trills, the rapid pitch changes of the scratches - then a lull of ordinary music, mysterious and coy, before furious disc scratching, blaring from all the horns and clanging from all the drums, a cacophony of instrumental sounds - sounds seeming inherently musical and harmonic in quality, but mishmashed together like this, create a bewildering soundscape that brings strong negative imagery to mind. Suddenly the track calms, a modulated, softer, less aggressive static slipping in and blending with a slow big band swing; but in a matter of seconds, just as the mind begins to accept this new direction, the disc scratching returns, literally tearing the music asunder and jarring the listener for a few more precious seconds before the track suddenly cuts off, with no pretense of conclusion. Is this a carefully composed critique of traditional music, the jukebox, or the society which flocks around it? Or is it a frantic and spontaneous assault? What sort of effect, one must wonder, was this piece intended to produce in the listener, if anything was intended at all?

The Night That John Lennon Died by Unknown

A muffled yet familiar organ sound begins to play and is almost immediately scratched to the next station. With each station after, it is easily recognizable that the Beatles are for some reason playing on each of the stations until a voice emerges. The man briefly encapsulates John Lennon's life after The Beatles for no more than 30 seconds before announcing that he is dead at the age of 40. Stations switch playing more of his masterpieces drawing us to another voice, one that is more somber and human saying John will always be with us.  The timeless songs continue and we are reminded of his life feeling that this is happening in the moment when it was really decades ago. A last voice reminds us that he never wanted to be worshipped, only remembered. How can a man that always worked for peace have died in the most un-peaceful of ways?

The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five

Sounds like rhythmic scratching as the words “ya say” of the song Rapper’s Delight  repeat before the vocalist is permitted to move past the two syllables by Grandmaster Flash. The tune quickly escalates into a new groove after a sharp whistle and continues to shuffle through a variety of samples during the piece. The quick cuts are manipulated by quick chops and scratches that sound similar to what Oswald describes as an “electric washboard with a phonographic needle as a plectrum”. The words of the first two vocalists rhyme with each other and are very even in rhyming each time on the 4 count before the female vocalist starts speaking a different language for one of two bars that have a different rhyme. The cutting and restructuring of each record restructures the role of the rhythm and performance of each piece to create a fluid movement that combines many segments of different songs into one cohesive song. The melody from the song Another One Bites The Dust plays a central role in the record along with the constant presence of drums and various percussion (bongos , congas, clapping, etc).Cut up vocal samples  layer over much of the piece especially the call and response referring to the Grandmaster himself. The various vocal samples are taken from 1980’s Hip Hop club crowds and the original masters of ceremony (or MC’s) that  are pieced into a collage of vocals that dictate the Furious Fives anthem  and cheer Grandmaster Flash on from a party or club setting. The vocal samples are manipulated by spinning records against the needle (commonly counterclockwise) that can loop small sections of songs to create repetition along with specific cuts that don’t repeat. The end of the song samples a call and response asking everyone to scream before cutting to choice words from Cheech and Chong then back to the crowd. The layers of music increase towards the end of the song (including layers of crowd cheers)  before a quick fade out brings the tune to a close.  The song shocks the ear with quick, graceful transitions between vastly different sounds while maintaining a constant beat thus combining the unexpected with the expected. Who ever would have thought that so many different songs from different eras and genres could come together without ever meeting each other to create one cohesive song?