The TV Tropes Album Exchange Club

I'm not really interested in theory. What I'm concerned with is how the music makes me feel. Which I guess would fall under music psychology.

edited 15th Nov '10 11:30:12 AM by Zudak

Theory is much more useful than you might think. For most people their exposure to theory is the analysis of chords and harmonic structure, which in itself is rather useless. However, if you combine it with real analysis you can reveal moments and ideas that find the true build of a work, and it often shows things that you can hear and perceive subconsciously, but are actively aware of. These things are incredibly important in figuring out why music might resonate with people.

I understand that. I don't hate theory. My parents are musicians, and I took a guitar class way back so I know a bit of it. I don't deny it's a useful tool.

It's like... a map. Good for finding your way around, but nothing like actually being there.

Man, I'm here all weekend and hardly anyone says anything; I go to work for a day and there's two pages worth of posts in my absence.

As for music enjoyment, I find myself liking music because of any of those elements, I think. I guess in general it's either hooks or interesting arrangement of instruments that makes me interested in a song upon first listen, but something underlying that that makes me really fall in love with a song after five or a dozen listens.

Dunno if I'm explaining myself very well. Maybe if I talked about why I like Mosaic so much:

1. Breathing Bull: It's an album intro. Honestly, sometimes I have a hard time remembering that this is a separate song.

2. Winter Shaker: The real of hook this song is the chorus and the hurdy-gurdy melody immediately afterwards. Which is same melody that the "Eh, Alle, Allelujah" bit follows near the end of the song. Something about those vocals right there, singing that melody, makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I love that.
   Speaking of that hurdy-gurdy, I thought it was some kind of bagpipes on my first listen. Either's cool in my book; I'm almost always a fan of unusual instruments.

3. Swedish Purse: It's the contrast between the musical elements that makes me love this song. Half the song is an organ melody just sounds ancient... [rechecks album liner notes] It is ancient: the liner notes say "based on a Medieval melody". And the other half of the song is that banjola, a distinctly American instrument. Time-space anomaly!

4. Twig: More of that time-warping: DEE excerpted these lyrics from "Eternal Creator of the World" by St. Ambrose (340-397 A.C.E.). But the music itself is kind of tuneless, but the track is over soon enough that it doesn't become annoying.

5. Whistling Girl: I do like the bass and the piano in this arrangement, but I've also heard DEE perform this song with just the banjola and his own voice, and it's just as compelling in its stripped-down form. Something about the chord progression in the chorus.

6. Elktooth: The soundscape is interesting here (I think this is the only song on the album with those hard-rock guitar crunches) but it's very repetitive and not a repetition I'm terribly interested in listening to for three minutes.

7. Bible and Bird: A nice interlude. I remember liking it when I first heard it, but it hasn't grown on me like some of the other tracks have.
   I remember reading somewhere that DEE chose to make this instrumental because he wanted to have a happy song on this album; he didn't think it was possible to make a song with his singing still be cheerful.

8. Dirty Blue: Love this song. In fact, this was the very first song I heard from this album—on the record label's website—and it convinced me to check this one out. The rhythm guitar dominates this song and it's pretty repetitive, but I'd call this interesting repetition, and the strings building on it absolutely make the song.
   Sometimes I really like the simple wordplay: "There is a sorrow to be desired. / To be sorrow's desire." Dang, that's succinct.

9. Slota Prow / Full Armor: I guess I'm just a sucker for strange instrumentation, because even though "Slota Prow" is meandering and has an irregular beat, I like it for the nickel harp vs. drones & static. Also, the distortion on DEE's glossolalia makes it all sound creepy in a good way. And then, wonder of wonders, it turns into "Full Armor" which is the catchiest darn thing on the whole album. With another hurdy-gurdy hook, of all things.

10. Truly Golden: Another slow track where not much happens, but I've grown to like this one regardless.
    Now that I think about it, this song sounds the most like something by 16 Horsepower of anything on this album. Even that bit where the melody stops and those industrial-ish drones fill the gap; 16HP did that in "Wayfaring Stranger". Except the music on this one was by Peter Van Laerhoven, who never was a member of 16HP. Odd.

11. Deerskin Doll: Wait, I stand corrected, this song also uses that hard-rock guitar crunch. But there's so much else going on, with the violins and the tempo change for the chorus; this is the just about the most dynamic song on the whole album.

12. Little Raven: Nothing great, but nothing wrong with it, either. I wouldn't have minded ending on this song.
    
    Shun: Ugh. I think this song on its own would have been fine, but having "Little Raven", and then 30 seconds of silence, and then this song, is just too much time spent "out there" and then the album's over and I couldn't tell when it stopped.
    And for the record, DEE pulls more or less the same thing on the next album Ten Stones, but there, it's a single, nearly-four-minute drone song, without words and without any excessive delay between the penultimate track and it. I like that song, it works much better as an album-closer.

edited 15th Nov '10 7:17:18 PM by MetaFour

@arks: I like the line too, which is demonstrated by this song I linked earlier.

Massive Attack is all about the line, actually. Just take this as an example. The video is pure genius too.

@arks:

Since you're mostly versed in metalcore and prog-metal, Between the Buried and Me, who play a fusion of both, sound like exactly your type of thing. The only physical release I have from them is Colors, so if I choose BTBAM, it'll be that album.

I don't consider Nine Inch Nails and Evanescence to be metal, but for vaguely similar/related music, I've got some industrial metal and female-fronted stuff in my collection; for industrial metal there's Ministry, Godflesh, Rammstein, Strapping Young Lad and Fear Factory, and for female-fronted stuff there's Theatre of Tragedy and The Gathering.
I would recommend Nightwish for female-fronted metal as well, but I feel weird choosing one of their albums for the club. I have a rather strange relationship with Nightwish's music.

Of the bands you listed that you're looking into, I've got physical releases from At the Gates, Blind Guardian and Electric Wizard, so that's a few more albums I could recommend. I'm especially tempted to go with Electric Wizard's Dopethrone, since it's one of my all-time favourite albums, but it's not very accessible for people just getting into metal.

I'll choose an album for the second rotation later today based on what you've told me.

Recommend what you like. I have a paucity of other genres mostly because I don't know who to go after. I don't want you to think you have to cater specifically to my tastes.

edited 16th Nov '10 1:02:30 PM by arks

Does everyone agree we waited a reasonable amount of time for Saeglopur's response? I want to go on to the next album.

As do I.

We've been on this album for a week, right?

edited 17th Nov '10 7:40:41 AM by Solstace

Yeah, I'd like it if we moved on.

I haven't been able to get to hearing Mosaic at all...

Sure, let's move on.

Okay. Random number generator says "7" which is Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame. This was suggested by Wicked, so here's his chance to say what he wants.

edited 8th Jan '12 7:51:19 PM by MetaFour

As for things to say, I don't really have much to say.

edited 8th Jan '12 7:51:27 PM by MetaFour

Hopping back on the train with this one.

Sorry I haven't been around! Life sucks sometimes.

Pretty good album overall. There were a couple of problems (the guitar almost seems like an instrument equivalent of an Attention Whore, just when something else comes in it's all "NO ME") but a solid effort overall. I like.

8/10

Once again, I won't be able to get to this album until Sunday

^Guitar's pretty much are attention whores.

edited 18th Nov '10 9:57:20 PM by Solstace

Hmm. So far it's very 70s, and very nice.

Spain is kind of right about the ridiculous guitar pyrotechnics, though. Sounds Hendrix-y. And apparently they were influenced by him, so there you go.

edited 18th Nov '10 10:01:33 PM by Zudak

Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame

Track 1 - Starts out interesting, but loses it quickly. Overall not enough to hold my attention. Nice instrumental soundscape though.

Track 2 - Insane guitar overload, nice but in itself, does not make a good track in my book. Actually this is a nice listen because of the things going on in the background. Creates a weird atmosphere, and I like weird music.

Track 3 - Even more weird - but now, this is not a good thing... Eventually becomes chaotic and lacking any characteristics.

Track 4 - Mellow and melodic, and feels like it does not belong here. Too mellow for me, at least.

Track 5 - Upbeat and almost catchy! I like it.

Track 6 - Nice, never becomes chaotic, actually. Weird and instrumentally impressive.

Track 7 - I can't really rate the first part, since it's almost inaudible. The second part is pretty weak. Nothing grabbed my attention...

Track 8 - Upbeat and well thought out track with some crazy drums. It has a great beat, and I like it.

There were points throughout the album where the guitar sounded like a violin, and I liked those parts. Overall though I would not say I want to listen to this band any more or this genre from this era. Sure, give me an instrumental album from somewhere after 1995, and I'll most likely like it. But I don't really like the 60-70-80s era sounds...

I had to get that off my chest, even if it makes me somewhat unpopular in this thread

Mahavishnu Orchestra now has a place in my permanent collection, I burned the album to CD, and it now rests between Matisyahu and...I forget who the other one is, but you get the point.

Hmm. So far it's very 70s, and very nice.

I'm curious as to what you mean by that, what with this band being a jazz-fusion band, not rock.

There were points throughout the album where the guitar sounded like a violin, and I liked those parts.

Err, that probably was an actual violin.

edited 19th Nov '10 7:01:34 PM by Wicked223

^There was at least one instance (the second track, I believe) where the guitar and violin were playing in sync. Unfortunately, to me that made a sound like an out of tune fiddle rather than a guitar-violin duet.

I don't really have a per-track writeup, but I did enjoy the album as a whole. I don't necessarily agree that there was too much guitar, but I would have loved to hear some other instruments like some brass or an electric organ take prominence.

^^I dunno. Just sounds like it was made in the 70s.

edited 19th Nov '10 7:35:59 PM by Zudak

Can please to has nu album nao?

Also, I sampled Mahavishnu Orchestra. Because it was THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

So, I'm not really enjoying the Mahavishnu Orchestra. I mean, harmonically it sounds like the kind of stuff I'd normally like, but the effects and processing on all of it irks me, and sounds hollow.

Really, it all cancels out and I'm left feeling "meh".

EDIT: For those not in the know, I am Solstace and this is my alt-account.

edited 21st Nov '10 4:17:28 PM by xeniera

Regarding the guitar hogging the spotlight: The album cover lists them as "The Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin", so I think they were pretty much admitting that John and his guitar work are in charge.

Oh man, this is awesome:

The intro for "The Noonward Race" was written for the full band and not just as a guitar-and-drums duet as heard on the album. During the recording of the piece, a long-standing tension between Rick Laird and Jerry Goodman boiled over into a full brawl, with the two of them knocking Jan Hammer and his keyboards over during the struggle. Mc Laughlin and Cobham continued to play at full volume during the entire altercation, and Mc Laughlin liked the effect so much he instructed Laird, Goodman, and Hammer to sit out while he comped behind Cobham's solo later in the song.

Anyway, I really like this album, but I can certainly see why others wouldn't like it. Jazz fusion can get just as wanky as the craziest prog rock—and without any expectation of choruses or lyrics. Even though I find this hard to follow—and the instant I stop actively trying to follow it, it just washes over me, and the song ends and I'm wondering where the last five minutes went—I really do like the soundscapes.

But I really prefer the album Live: Friday Night in San Francisco album that John McLaughlin did with Al di Meola and Paco de Lucia.