At long last the fantastic Hiroyuki Iwatsuki tribute album IWADON, spearheaded by Jeriaska, who runs nobuooo.com amoungst other things in the video game music world, has been released as a free download. The 40 track compilation features a massive variety of arrangers and a multitude of genres, tricks and twists throughout and is a fantastic body of work.
Grab your copy by popping over to http://iwadon.bandcamp.com/album/iwadon-hiroyuki-iwatsuki-tribute-album
Lisa Piccirillo is a singer songwriter from America (Vermont) and has a perfectly whimiscal intimate voice that still has a certain smile to it in its darkest depths. Here is a beautiful live performance of “You Never Say” from her album Momentum which we’ll be reviewing soon!
Anything with Melanie Garside in it is generally rather fantastic however I absolutely adore this music video for the song “No Place”. There’s just a gently simplicity and innocence about it that strikes me!
Alan Wake has been a game so long in production, it could have been called Alan Will Be Awake Shortly and no one would have batted an eyelid. The score however is something a lot of people have been anticipating for a while and with Petri Alanko it looked set to be a stonker.
Opening with the title track, mysterious keyboard synths and lonely piano plinks introduce you to the isolated side of the cd. A lone string filters through the haze before the piano’s main melody picks up and leads you through the track which is particularly dark.
“A Writer’s Dream” has a falling grace quality to it. It’s very orchestral and grande with its sweeping cymbals and strings with light piano scatterings. It leds perfectly into “Welcome to Bright Falls” which follows a similar pattern. The orchestra is very sincere in its tone, and the music reminds me very much of Heavy Rain’s score, if not a bit more thriller filmic. You can almost see a candlelight voyage through an empty house, or someone rummaging through old antique chests or something. “Vacation” follows the same premise with echoing high register piano however here you can hear various layers of dulled out piano underneath it. It makes for very solomn track especially coupled with the understated string section.
“Cross That River” is more dramatic and fast paced than the previous tracks. Low brooding strings and lots of tom drum slapping and cymbal smashing as the tension is cranked up. It soon dissipates into an ambient brood before returning at full pelt for its finale. “Waking Up to a Nightmare” sounds a bit like how I’d imagine a stringed Silent Hill track to sound like, it has a certain haunted Victorian feel to it without being cheesy. “The Clicker” is haunting but because it sounds so beautiful with such delicate playing and when its playing downcast chords and is surrounded by all the other music on the soundtrack you get suspicious of its sweetness. “Deerfest” which deserves a track name award is actually a delicate aural piece of shimmering underplayed strings and minimal harp plucks. Very ambient but quite invitingly cold at the same time. It sounds almost Enya or Elvish like!
Sitting in the middle of the soundtrack is the almost 11 minute epic “Taken by the Night”. The track itself goes through several movements. One is a quiet piano/string section which quickly descends into a distorted twisted tone with lots of pulsing ambient percussive beats and swishing metalic noises. What does strike me here, as with most of the soundtrack, is that its a very quiet soundtrack. It’s quite introspective. Even the more dramatic tense moments are still not rip roaringly nutty. This is all about mood setting and lulling you into exactly where Petri Alanko wants to take you.
“On the Run” is a six minute track that is more rousing than the previous epic as its more orchestral and intricate. It follows a pattern of building up lots of stabbing and chord raising only to lead to empty swishes. Towards the end things get a bit more frought and tense and Petri does well to keep the tension rising step by step for six minutes! “Mirror Peak” is another track with different movements in it too – switching without warning between murmuring ambience to full on drama which works well but as with some of the these tracks, sometimes it works better having played the game to associate the changes with something.
“Tom the Diver” is a lovely track returning to the piano/string ensemble that is the core heart of the soundtrack and its where the strengths lie. Ever changing and evolving, its a joy to listen to. “The Night it All Began” starts off with dragged strings being pulled up and up to tense vibrato strings and eerie piano as each time the track goes round a new layer is added. “Bright Falls Light & Power” is another beautiful track that holds a certain tragic beauty that the vast majority of the CD possesses.
“Hunters” is the first track that enters in with a real bang with all kinds of percussion and bent string sections kicking off. Even in the bits when the percussion isn’t going hell for leather it still holds a menacing tone and underlaying evil and discomfort. “The Well-Lit Room” is adorable. There’s a warm to the piece that’s not shown in a lot of the soundtrack before this number and although it’s hardly a joyous track at all, to me this piece has more hope and potential for happiness in it than the rest put together.
The final two tracks are the dramatic “Water Pressure” which again shows of Alanko’s ability to write some really tense and dramatic scores to great effect, and “Departure” which is a slow and deliberate piano/ensemble piece.
“Alan Wake” is a soundtrack that is well constructed, underplayed and finds its beauty hidden in the quieter parts of its music. Petri Alanko has made a score that manages to keep a part of it hidden and that’s why on first play you might not really appreciate all it has to offer. This soundtrack is one that improves per listen and over time. You get used to feeling the depths and trodden paths its taken. Give it time and it will certainly reward you with some intimate music for you to feast on.
Huski, vocally fronted by the wonderful Maple Bee. released one single that contained two fantastic b-sides that I think everyone needs to know about – so here they are!
“Make Me Your Picture” is a great song, a stomping drum beat, strong hynpotic syntherizers and dreamy whispy vocal layers over the top. The song gives a great representation of the whole Huski sound as a whole and is great electro-pop rock with a twist.
The first of the two b-sides is “Interior Girl” which is catchy enough to be a single itself. It has a shimmy beat to it and a simple melody but with a chorus and great iteraction between three different vocal structures which when all working together in unison really push the song forward. There’s beauty sometimes in simplicity and this is a great example of it.
The second b-side is “Strange Love” which is a bit more 80′s experimental and showcase again how to make spangley explosive songs that still have a tinge of sadness and regret. I particuarly like how this track gathers pace without ever really having a proper drum track, its just lots of electronic pulses that push together. It makes for a refreshing sound.
You can pick up the single digitally still, and for any Huski or electro-pop music lovers, I heartily recommend it!
Two Lisa Gerrard albums in one year? They can’t both be fantastic surely? Well as a matter of fact, they’re both darn fantastic. “Departum” see’s Lisa collaborate with MArcello De Francisci after working together of a film (Tears of Gaza) and deciding they felt so at home together they wanted to have a seperate project to let themselves go on. This has resulted in a wonderful selection of some of the best music in Gerrard’s catalogue and the most instantly enjoyable album since “Duality”.
Opening with “Ex Nihilo Out of Nothingness” a soundscape is painted into the speakers with ambient swirls and distant echoing aural screams and chasms. There’s a lot of spoken dialogue overlapping eachother that creates a paniced confusion and the ambience swells and then fades away as we decend (or ascend) into our Departum. This is followed by the absolutely magical “In the Beginning Was The Word” which signals the return of the more tribal, eastern world of Lisa’s music that’s been absent for far too long. Sitar like changs, Eastern string bows and tribal percussion signal a march forward which then pulls away to a beautiful almost coming of age where the song rises into a momentous stride with Lisa’s voice and some lush tuned bell percussion pushed to the far. The drums continue to rise and rise, it’s such a burst of life, I actually found myself nodding and bowing my head on the first listen in general awe and approval!
“Hymns of a Promised Land” has a male (Marcello I presume) talking in the opening segment in distorted voices. Once his monologue finishes a sumptuous Lisa takes over with a very pure vocal / guitar track that is over far too quickly, almost like a healing chant. Simplistic but lovely. “Hidden Garden” see’s the return of the Yang Quin too, leading an instrumental as its echoes pulsate a lifeline through an Eden like ambience of animals and running water. Perfect for relaxation with an underlying murmer of pray it seems underneath. It’s quitely spiritual without pointing to a specific religion.
“Diary For the Fallen” reminds me slightly of Serpent and the Dove from The Black Opal with its gentle acoustic guitar initially leading the way over Lisa’s calming voice. Instead this track decides to build itself into an uplifting rousing tunnel of light for me in the choruses with its hugely panning tom drums and its warm keyboard work backing up Lisa as she soars and bellows for every piece of emotion. Think a slower Now We Are Free but with electric guitar at the end!
“Renunciation” is a short one minute track which carefully replays a string bending signiture that you’ll hear a few times in the album over sawing keyboard melodies while “Himalaya” is possibly the best 36 second track ever committed to CD! Why it wasn’t then extended into a full piece I’ve no idea, but we’ll have to live with what we have!
Title track “Departum” follows as the first solace moment really in its opening section, which mixes vocal traits from previous tracks with a new chord structure. Soon the keyboards and drums are bashing away with echoing Yang Quin and the whole thing sounds magical. It’s one of the most directly foot stomping, upbeat songs Lisa’s produced to date. As with a lot of “Departum”, it would work fantastically in any film montage or end credit sequence. “Maya’s Dream” is a short keyboard/distant vocal number that with its ever decreasing chords sink down sounds more haunting on each repeat.
“To Those Who Seek Forgiveness” is an epic piece. Lisa Gerrard sounds like she is channeling pain like a Japanese war crier weeping in desperation. It never ceases to amaze me how many forms and layers Lisa’s voice can take on. The woodwind and string samples in this track are particularly subdued to let the voice take absolute centre stage. “All Things Impermanent” is a short bowed string and mechanical noise piece that continues the same musical thread inbetween the full songs before the fantastic “River Dance” graces our ears. Nothing to do with Mr Flatley, this track sounds like an extra from Duality or the Baraka soundtrack. The drums, strings and tuned percussion make for a haunting and mysterious hypnotic dance. This is the track you hear in at the beginning of the albums trailer video. Lisa joins in at half way with lots of vocal ablibs as the song continues to build and build, a signiture of a lot of the songs on the album. Lisa here, and for a lot of the album sounds much more native and wild than she has done of late and it suits the music perfectly.
“Cor Nobilis The Gentle Ones” is more etheral with its guitars, higher and cleaner vocal delivery and dramatic strings. However it soon has the dramatic filmic drums added and develops into one of the best examples of why Lisa Gerrard is the pinnacle of what she does by being both everything and very fragile all at the same time. “Addagio for a Broken Promise” is the most sombre full length track on the album and it does sound like Lisa’s vocals have been given a bit of Cher’s Believe treatment! It’s very melodic and quite close in sound to Serpents Egg and sounds quite different to the rest of the album as a result. “Sacred Journey” takes the Yang Quin echoes from River Dance and overlays it onto a thunder storm and lots of paddling through water for an effective transitional track.
“The Secret Language of Angels” is the longest track on the album at over six minutes. Put simply the track encapsultes the whole albums essence in one track. From its hymn’s humming in the opening, slowly chant on chant, instrument on instrument build up layer on layer as you continue to rise to achieve a euphoric state of being. This song alone is worth the albums price and is along with a few other tracks on the album, competing for song of the year easily!
The CD album ends with “A Kingdom Now Forgotten” which is an aural treat almost like you’ve now reached your resting place and can now drift into the ether. It’s the most spiritual track with distant church bells and gentle sweeping choral melodies in the background.
If you have ordered the CD you’ll get two additional tracks in MP3 format however. “The Lost Star of Menelik” is a very Asian sounding track with a constant low sitaresque hum swirling around with Lisa freely singing over the top of it. It’s quite a spacious track that could pass as a morning raga perhaps and is very relaxing to listen to. The second track is “Let the Children Play” which sounds almost like its from a different album and session altogether with piano and samples guitar and sound loops of children as background noise. It’s a great little track and I wonder if maybe its actually from the Gaza project instead of Departum as there’s electronic synths running through the song too. However its melody is lushious and rewarding and the song structures great.
Quite frankly, when I heard The Black Opal, my review stated this was the album I’d been waiting from Lisa for years… I was wrong. “Departum” tops that album for me and is utterly mesmorising from start to finish. There is something about teamming up Lisa’s voice with world music that is built to explode for a finale and this album has worked that out a treat. Marcello has breathed new life into everything and now this is firm favourite to go head to head with Ark for my album of the year (and thus one of the best of the last 10!) Buy, buy, buy!
Cult shooter on the PS2 Rez now has its playthrough up on our sister site Higher Plain Games. The bonus features will be added, but this is the whole main game for now.
Something I’m trying to rectify is my lack of live concerts I’ve been to lately and so Tori Amos seemed the best place to start. Playing on the “Wicked” stage at the London Victoria Apollo, Tori as a solo artist is a lady that never falters live.
This is the fifth Tori Amos concert I’ve been to and this was possibly the most intense and enjoyable to date. With just a piano and a keyboard, she straddles her bench and plays both while howling her tunes with all the energy and empathy you could ask for.
Personal highlights included a haunting opening of “Bells For Her”, a very intense “Precious Things” a aching beautiful “Garlands”, the wails of “Hey Jupiter”, the foot stomping “Beauty of Speed” and a most fiery cover of “Personal Jesus”. However not one song went a miss and I was utterly captivated from start to finish.
If you ever want to see a singer/songwriter bare all on stage, take yourself to a solo Tori Amos concert and you will feel every minute of the road with her. Mesmerising.
A full festival concert is online from Imogen Heap which includes a fantastic crowd participartion version of Just For Now as my personal highlight. Sit back and enjoy an hour of Immi!
Sadly the only YouTube trailer has its audio removed (silly, silly companies) and so this fan made one will have to do!
While we’re having an audio DVD week here at Higher Plain Music, I thought actually posting the trailers to the films I’ve been reviewing might actually set you into the tonal moods of the art. If these trailers intrigue you, grab the film!
Powaqqatsi is the second of the qatsi trilogy and revolves pretty much around its tagline “Life in Transformation”. It once again follows the visions of Godffrey Reggio and the music of Philip Glass as the 96 minute audiovisual treat attempts to take you on a journey of experience, thought and emotion.
The biggest change for me was the general direction of the piece. Where as Koyanisqqatsi made more landscape and time lapse photography, Powaqqatsi is dominated by humans. This leaves us with a sizeable proportion of the film staring into the eyes and faces of various cultures and nameless people. This makes the film much less passive and I recommend you need to really be in a specific mood to watch the feature as if you aren’t ready to engage it full on, it will completely miss you.
Some of the footage however is mesmorising. The opening segment in a Brazilian gold mine is mind boggling, seeing thousands of people in ant lines working together for a common goal tolerating all kinds of conditions. There is also a segment where various media adverts for perfect living a hammered at you. The way how it jars you and almost repulses you is quite genius. There is also a great short scene where a small child stops and stands aimlessly infront of a pro-war graffiti.
The music has a recurring theme in amoungst some great world music compositions from Glass and while its more diverse than its predessor, its actually more seemless and drifting so it doesn’t pull you right up and scream at you.
From the interviews that are on the DVD, Powaqqatsi is all about the southern hemisphere that is being eaten alive by the efforts of the Northern hemisphere’s daily procession. I found that angle on the film really quite intriguing and upon a second watch now knowing that knowledge, different symbolisms take on a new meaning for me. Powaqqatsi is not going to be any more accessable than Koyanisqatsi. I actually didn’t take as much away from it as the original, but it still packs a punch and left me feeling a bit more dismayed with the world as a whole but with feeling a need to change burning in the forefront of my mind and for that, it’s certainly done its job.
Ornament is Faun’s second live DVD that once again encompasses the tour de force that is Faun. It covers two festival gigs, an unplugged improptu concert in a garden and a quite revealing interview and its all, all kinds of fantastic.
Starting off with the Paganfolk 2006 concert, we get a cameo from fellow styled band Omnia on the didgeridoo (plus Faun and Omnia teamming up for a bonus track which is fantastic) and some real feet stopping, atmosphere tingling performances, especially “Pungara” which is a personal favourite. What really stands out is just how multi talented all the band members are as they swap instruments, sing and bash their way through their songs to absolute note precision. The sound is of very high quality too which must have been a task recording all these live instruments. Also big thumbs up the stage design!
The Totem 2007 tour is the larger 50 minute concert and this allows the band to play a broader spectrum of their tracks. The fabulously empowering “Andro” is a powerhouse, as is the mesmorising “2 Falken” which blasts the speakers as sounds from past and present converge. “Rosmarin” has a slightly apocalyptic tinge to it with its extended closing melodies which are Faun’s equivilent of going mad for an encore. By the end of the song I was actually clapping and cheering in my own living room, having forgotten I was never there! Old favourite “Wind & Giege” is perfectly executed too.
The unplugged section is achingly beautiful. “November” sounds extra lonely when its stripped to just guitar, harmonium and voice, gently played under a tree. “KaRuna” is just pure melodic bliss and “2 Falken” stripped down to guitar/vocal is actually quite haunting and transforms the song into something completely different.
The interview is quite interesting, dealing with their fame, their motivations, how they found eachother and how things have changed over time. English subtitles are available thankfully if you don’t speak German!
“Ornament” is a fantastic live DVD. It’s individual segments combine to show you the in’s and out’s of Faun and I defy anyone not to listen to their music and fail to be swept away. Magic!
Shiina Ringo throws herself from pure rock to jazz and back again at the flick of a switch and this live vault is “Papaya Mango” from her jazz side. It’s such a cute showy song, one to kick your legs too with big feathers on!
Somewhat a formative band for me when I first found the internet and discovered oversee’s music, Tadpole were a superb Kiwi band. This was their first single “Blind” which is a low budget simple music video but still a good riot!
Koyaanisqatsi is the first of a trilogy of -qatsi movies (qatsi meaning life in another language) and is an audio/visual treat. With all these films, the emphasis is on taking you on a journey through music and the images on your screen.
This film deals with “life out of balance” as is starts off showing various landscapes in awesome detail, cloudscapes rolling by and not a single human in sight. It then abruptly cuts to massive tractors upheaving the ground and large land explosions for oil and ore. The films relatively dream like for the first half hour as slowly more human contact comes into play and the film takes a more sinister turn of beauty.
Time lapse photography was new when this was originally released but you still haven’t seen some of the sheer beauty in the shots. The DVD cover shot of the moon rising is jaw dropping, the way how the world is almost ant-like in its daily precession is quite humourous and thought provoking at the same time and some of the people who are caught on camera just at certain points reveal in their face a certain freezeframe of their life in just a few seconds.
All of this is completely overscored by Philip Glass who’s music is every bit as important as the visuals on screen. The two melt into eachother perfectly, its really quite something. Some of the music is hypnotic, some of it grand in scale, some of it utterly maddening.
The final part of the movie which shows the Atlas-Centaur rocket exploding and falling to the ground is such a poignant section and really is the perfect part of the movie to assess exactly how open ended the film can be for people. Some people would be saddened, others strangely transfixed on the flaming beauty of it and others maybe proud of humanities attempts.
Koyaanisqatsi is designed to evoke, but never really tell you what to evoke and how and for that its one of the most personal and inspiring films to be seen and heard.
Whilst I know I said I wouldn’t actively promote myself, I think this vblog from myself (Sitorimon) is actually quite interesting for those who like to delve into random instruments! Welcome to my world of percussion!
