Travis – Beautiful guitars. Maybe leading to somewhere darker and nastier? They aren’t shying from some dissonance, so it could erupt into something heavy. Though maybe they just passed the opportunity in the song to do that? They keep adding more and more layers. Do we think three times through and then reveal? Yes, but the reveal is the voice, and a lovely one at that. Then a soprano creeps in, breathy and straining. Then the beat, which I anticipated the whole time, feels modern and metric. Really cool song with great development occurring. Black Country, New Road – “Nancy Tries to Take the Night” – I put a second live version of this song in the playlist because we were intrigued by the design, it’s composition and we wondered how it was performed.
Black Country, New Road is an interesting group from England, they are experimental in friendly ways and I feel like I’m finding a code in newer music, in that it is steeped in modern digital production, so the compositional layering reflects the modern process of recording, but is created live. Many new songs sound as if they were designed in the studio, but have been organized to be performed live. They have a metric quality and reflect other qualities of how we can shape music in the recording studio. But this song sounds pretty similar in both versions and after hearing the recording we thought the rhythmic mesh was something coaxed through the recording process, but it makes total sense watching them perform it live. Tricky piece though!
Bart – Some Pop Rock with congas and organ? In Spanish. Has a strings section too. But the organ sounds like the Furby Organ (@ the end of the playlist!).
I don’t know this, but I respect its cheese. I imagine a video where they are performing with clouds of soap bubbles blowing through the air. Los Van Van – “Que Voy a Hacer Si Tú Te Vas”. I know Los Van van but I think their career is so long that there are very different periods. I think I am familiar with more traditional periods and I believe this song captures them pulling more from modern pop influences. That’s always an interesting merging to me. This song is maybe a little dated sounding, but I have an interest in dated sounds too (The Cheese Factor!).
Dan – Billy Hart – “Layla (Joy)” – (@13:25) – A long simmering plan to play this at a Sesh is realized, it was looking for the right moment. This song is from a really great album Enchance. Drummers get less opportunities to record their music and Billy created a wonderfully experimental and conceptual album. It has a wide mix of players and goes from very Free blowing songs to dreamy sound collages. This song made it onto a few of my mix tapes back in the day. The album is recommended.
Found Sounds 