New Music III

      Right now I'm listening to this girl play a version of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) on an ancient Korean instrument. It sounds so good! One of my guitar friends from Facebook shared it. She does justice to the tune and makes it sound original.
      But lately the main music I've been listening to is video game remixes done in a dubstep and trap style. I've gotten super into it. I listen to it when I'm just chilling late at night, relaxing, and working on the blog. The music is simple and is basically just patterns of electronic noise organized into a rhythm. I would like to learn how to use Pro Tools so I could make some sick remixes like some of the stuff I've been hearing. Check out this version of Sonic's Green Hill Zone by DreMcCloud (Green Hill Zone by DreMcCloud) That beat is so infectious. This is what they call in rap music candy beats. You got a simple melody going on and underneath it is a crispy beat. Everything about this just oozes chill. It reminds me of playing Sonic when I was a kid. But nostalgia aside this is a great remix.
     Another one I've really liked is this one (Mario and Luigi Victory remix by Raisi K) This tune is another super chill tune with a some more candy beats. Once you start to hear one of these tunes you tend to kind of hear them all because they all sound similar. They're all electronic stuff made on computers by synthetic instruments. But I've come to really enjoy this stuff. I've still been listening to jazz here and there as well. Today I re-listened to Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch, something I do quite often.
      Lastly, its always cool to find new music that appeals to you. The music I've listened to has always changed over time. Let me just leave you with this gem I heard the other day. Melee Where you at remix by HuggerMugger What do you think of vgm (video game music). Would you even consider this stuff video game music or is it more dubstep/trap/edm. I consider this stuff video game music but I think it also stands high next to any kind of modern dubstep out there. It's been a blast looking up these tunes on YouTube. The search for good music continues! I've been trying to get back into buying new jazz albums and doing reviews for them but I've just been so side-tracked and haven't gotten to listening to all the latest jazz musos. I will get to it at some point, and then I'll blog about it. Until then, stay classy readers!

New Music II

     I've been listening to a lot of new music lately. Stuff that I don't normally listen to. This includes j-rock (Japanese rock music), edm (electronic dance music), dubstep, nu-metal, jazz (always listening to jazz), and video game music. As I'm writing this I'm listening to the new Dream Theater album. Let me say that this album is heavily orchestrated (even has symphony work), full of emotional ballads, technical (but soulful), and has so many unexpected twists and turns in the music. Its trademark DT but I can't say that its very good or enjoyable. It just sounds so generic, like they could've made this album at any time and didn't put too much work into it. Basically it sounds like all the other American metal music out there, it just sounds like the bands' same old tried and true musical sound and composition style. These guys aren't ever going to change their style and I think in the end that's going to ruin them because they've become boring and predictable. Kind of like Slayer and Megadeth (two of my favorite metal bands). Metal heads need to learn to adapt to change within their music. I like the direction where Opeth is going from their death metal roots into more of a 70s progressive rock style. It's awesome. 
     Anyways, I've gotten really into j-rock mostly because of anime. In the beginning of every anime episode there is an opening theme song and at the end there is a closing theme song. These songs are always sung in Japanese and usually have a female vocalist. The tunes are mostly uptempo, kinda punkish, and have a major key tonality. However, there are slow ballads as well that I like too.  I feel like Japanese rock music has certain rules and key changes that American rock music doesn't adhere to. Its like completely different worlds even though its all rock music. Japanese metal music is usually different as well. Usually the Japanese like their metal to be more on the melodic side and love to play ballads. I would say the main j-rock song that got me super into this genre is the One Punch Man opening theme. You can listen to it here-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPoVMwDjJCw. As you can see its melodic, catchy, and is uptempo. The guitar playing is excellent as well as the heavy metal drumming. Another great opening theme song that I love is this-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_t47BVtPuE, the Gurren Lagaan opening theme. This one is more my style. The guitar playing is top notch and super catchy, as are the vocals. The chorus just kicks so much ass! This is probably my favorite anime opening theme song although there are plenty of other great ones. There are times when an anime has such a good opening and closing theme that I have to watch it on every single episode. However, there are some themes that I prefer to skip because they aren't that good. Japanese music is so good! I can see why Marty Friedman(former guitarist from 90s era Megadeth) moved to Japan to play Japanese rock and pop music, its completely different there and more interesting than what the Americans are doing with music.
     In addition, I've been listening to a lot of edm music. I only listen to edm when I'm streaming on twitch because its one of the main genres that twitch will allow you to stream because there are strict rules on streaming music. You can check out my twitch here-twitch.tv/megaman1597. The main edm artists that the Twitch Music Library has on Soundcloud (what I'm using for streaming) is Monstercat. I feel like Monstercat is a great artist but his music is a little generic, like a lot of edm music really. I've never gotten super big into the genre because it all sounds cliche to me even super big artists like Skrillex and Diplo. A great edm song I like is Bangarang by Skrillex. I just like how catchy it is. It seems super easy to make a song like that. All you really need is a laptop and a basic music program and you're set to make it big. I am oversimplifying it a bit but creating edm or dubstep music isn't as complicated as playing a jazz standard or writing a metal tune. I could be wrong but that's what I feel to be the case.
     Also, when I stream there's also a metal channel on the Twitch Music Library. I would classify the metal they have on there to be indie metal but also nu-metal because it doesn't fit the generic metal-core sound that most popular American nu-metal bands sound like. I've heard some interesting tunes. A lot of the metal on there has rap mixed in with it so it usually reminds me of Linkin Park, which isn't a bad thing. I look forward to hearing more interesting metal music while streaming.
     I'm always listening to jazz in one form or another. Even when I listen to video game music, its usually based on jazz. A lot of video game music has jazz instrumentation or jazz harmonies, its actually pretty similar. Some video game music is technical and exciting to hear. Just the other day I was watching a Smash replay on Youtube and the person who made it had a great version of Fly me to the moon playing over the gameplay. It was amazing and inspired me to change my blog name to that song name. It's such a standard jazz tune that everybody that's anybody has heard it and if they don't know jazz they've probably still heard it. I've been also listening to the music on Smash 4 and I've been really feeling it! My favorite tune on Smash 4 is undoubtedly the Final Fantasy theme from the Midgar stage. The tune just brings my childhood to life because I played a lot of Final Fantasy 7 when I was in elementary school. I've also been checking out a lot of music streams on twitch and I've seen some great musicians who like to play video game music on piano and guitar. Rich Brown (pro Brawl/Smash 4 player) has a great twitch channel where he plays solo piano music. He focuses on playing video game tunes but he's also a talented jazz musician too. Check out his channel sometime http://www.twitch.tv/rich_brown/profile. And then there's the super guitar bros-http://www.twitch.tv/superguitarbros/profile. Those guys are great acoustic guitar players that focus on playing video game tunes. Its been great listening to new stuff lately. Sometimes jazz gets a little stale and I need to take a break and listen other stuff. I feel like jazz is America's greatest musical art form but sometimes its hard to find the best jazz because the whole scene is cluttered with crap (like smooth jazz). I guess its like that with all music though. You have to weed out the bad stuff to get to the great cutting edge music. In the end, even if you only find one artist that you like, it will always be worth it.

Skrillex, Bangarang

     This is an album I didn't pay for. Just listened to on YouTube. Not sure if I would ever be down to buy electronic dance music (edm) or dub-step stuff. Anyways, I first heard about Skrillex because they're super popular on video gaming streams on Twitch.tv. So I heard about this music through video games! Pretty cool. I'm not a raver or anything like that but I do have some friends on Facebook that post this kind of music and go to edm shows and stuff. Because of my exposure to this music I would be so down to go to a rave. The reason why I looked this album up online is because I really like the song 'Bangarang', its just a super catchy song with cool bass drops and very minimal lyrics. In fact, the whole album has lyrics here and there but its just a catch phrase here or maybe a few words there.
     The two songs with vocalists are 'Kyoto' featuring Sira and 'Summit' featuring Ellie Goulding. Sira is a female rapper and singer who is based in Los Angeles. And Ellie Goulding is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. The last track contains an orchestral suite called 'Skrillex Orchestral Suite by Varien'. It's a bonus track on the album, the only bonus track. Someone mentioned in the comments that this orchestral track could be in the video game Starbound, an open world space sandbox game that came out recently. It really could! It's so video-gamish in its theme and variations.
     "Musically, Bangarang has multiple influences of electro house, dubstep and progressive house, while also incorporating elements of trance, drum and bass, rap rock, experimental rock and ska. It features syncopated rhythmic build-ups, technical breakdowns and "chopped-up" vocal hooks, as well as multiple vocal samples. Its lead single, "Bangarang", charted in multiple countries worldwide and reached the top ten in Australia and Belgium."(Wiki)
      The first tune 'Right In' is a quick little number with synthesizer keyboard jabs as a robotic kind of voice is saying "Right. Right in."
     My favorite song on the album is the second song, its called Bangarang. I don't really know why this song is so great to me. It just has great bass drops and the lyrics "Bangarang" just sounds so sick as the bass drops and there's all these crazy sounds going off man it's totally cool! Some of the sounds go high pitched, kind of reminds me of an alarm on a car. Then there's a cool chord change in the middle of it, and an interesting bridge with nice guitar lines playing. Bass! This song makes me want to dance, and I don't even know how to dance. This sounds like this would be a good song in a club.
     Next, is 'Breakin' a Sweat', which is a collaboration with the Doors. I think the collaboration part is the fact that they used some old Ray Manzarek keyboard parts in the song to give it some extra flair. Musically, this song is more of the same formula from the first songs. There's a short lyric, 'Breakin' a Sweat', 'that's good', and then there's bass drops and lots of choruses. Oh yeah, they use like a Jim Morrison interview talking about how in the future they'd be using machines to make music and stuff. So that's the Doors' input on the song. "Ok, play that beat again" is another cool line from this tune. After a while the bass drops start to get gimmicky, like is that all this guy can do? But they're so cool at the same time!
     Next is 'The Devil's Den'. This is another tune I heard from twitch.tv and its another favorite of mine from Skrillex. It starts off with this really cool simple melody before breaking off into bass drops and synthesizer and drum stuff. This song has some interesting chords in the middle of the tune, really making the song climax, and then the bass drops. This tune just has the lyrics "the devil's den" and "devil". Then there's like a robotic voice doing wub wub wubs. Then the original melody comes in and puts everything in perspective and bringing it full circle.
     'Right on Time' starts off with the simple statement "Right on time". This one kind of sounds more like a progressive tune because it relies less on bass drops than the previous tunes and more on creating interesting music with the drums and bass. And they do a great job with it. This song was a collaboration with other progressive house and edm producers 12th Planet and Kill the Noise. This song I could definitely see being heard to at a club. Whereas with the other songs I don't see them as being played at a club. I see it more as something you'd just play chilling at your house, like I am right now.
     'Kyoto' has some cool guitar power chords. And the rap elements of it is actually pretty good. I'm not usually a fan of rap, especially female rap artists but the music here is actually cool. The fact that there's a dedicated vocalist means that they keep the song simple but the lyrics add more flavor than just a cool catch phrase that is being said over and over again throughout the song.
     The last song is 'Summit', the most relaxed and chill song of the album. But the vocals here give it that extra edge, that great sound. Ellie Goulding's vocals remind me of a lonely night looking up at the stars. The song give off that kind of vibe. There's more chord changes and melodies and synthesizers and drum stuff going on in this song than in the other tunes.
     Lastly, I didn't think Skrillex was all that great because I'm not generally a fan of edm or dubstep. However, the music is very catchy and it grows on you fairly easily! Especially after you've heard the songs a couple times. I read in LA Record magazine about how Todd Rungren was praising Skrillex and that's kind of what got me to listen to a whole album of them. Before I just heard a couple songs and there and just thought they were super popular and stuff. I like how Todd said that you really can't sing Skrillex, that it's really just catch phrases and sounds. It's cool like the guy from Skrillex, Sonny John Moore, is from LA. It's also cool how before he was doing solo albums like this on his own, he was the singer of post-hardcore band called From First to Last. I'll definitely try to find some of their work. When people think of this music, they think it takes no talent and that the creators just made it using simple bass drop patterns on music software on their PC. But listening to this I think it takes a lot of skill to write something that will keep people engaged and listening without getting bored of the patterns. Some say the bass drops get old and formulaic. But this album won the Best Dance/Electronica Album award at the 55th Grammy Awards, as well as the Best Dance Recording award for the title track.In addition, Rolling Stone named Bangarang the fourteenth best EDM album of all time. I feel like we live in a time period where it's better to have a solo career rather than playing in a band. Rather, I think it's better to produce your own music, use music software on your PC, and try to distribute your music online. People like Skrillex have been doing these types of music for a long time but I feel like we live in the time period where edm and dub-step has really come into its own. It's all the rage and all the kids love it. It's super popular. I feel like this kind of stuff might be the future of pop music, because all you need is to learn how to make music on a laptop and just go from there. That would create a lot of musician, even if the term musician would be used rather loosely. Also, might I add that I think Skrillex's haircut is just super cool. Nowadays I see men and women both have his style of haircut. I know its not really a 'Skrillex' haircut but I hadn't seen anyone wearing their hair long with sides shaved off until Skrillex became super popular. But I know really its more of a punk kind of hair style. Anyways, its pretty cool.