Music

Well, i wouldn't suggest listening to a song by will.i.am and Britney Spears normally, but this version by UMC is really fscking awesome:


(click here to view)

Don't know if djent is really an own music genre or if it is just a special technique of playing an instrument in Progressive Metal. I just think that this is an awesome piece of music. I want to recommend the song "Concealing Fate" of the british band Tesseract. Almost 30 minutes of really great music played by awesome musicians.

I know 95% of the people reading this blog will just switch it off after 10 seconds. But from my point of few it's really great music. A few months ago i found this band from switzerland by listening to a great remix of a Conjure One (Like Ice (Drop's Distorted Implant) ... i'm using the part between 3:29 and 4:14 as my ringtone ) title made by Thomas Betrisey, which in turn is the guitarist and programmer of Sybreed. What is Sybreed? A band from Switzerland, Geneva to be exact. A wild mixture of Death Metal, Industrial and electronica. With "God is an automaton" they recently released a new album. I can just recommend it .. okay ... for people liking this kind of music. Right mixture of growling and singing, right mixture of guitars and electronics. The most accessible parts of the album are "Line of least resistance" and "Destruction and Bliss" as well as "Challenger".

Anfang dieses Jahrhunderts kam eine CD auf den Markt, die für persönlich sehr wichtig war, obwohl ich Künstler und dessen Musik eigentlich nicht so sehr mag. Aber ich erinnere mich an viele Fahrten von Hamburg nach Oldenburg in einer längst vergangen scheinenden Zeit, auf denen mich diese Musik begleitet hat. Ich erinnere mich an viele Fahrten, in denen ich wohl mehr mit meinen Gedanken denn mit der Strasse verbracht habe, denn öfters konnte ich mich nicht so wirklich erinnern konnte, wie ich von Buchholz nach Delmenhorst gekommen war. Oder eben die umgekehrte Strecke mitten in der Nacht, um Montags rechtzeitig wieder in Hamburg zu sein. Ein Lied dieses Albums war damals sehr bedeutsam für mich "Uns trennt das Leben", ein Lied, das in einer seltsamen Genauigkeit auf mein damaliges Leben passte, auch wenn ich für jeden Tag im Himmel 6 Tage in der Hölle bekam. Ich denke es ist jetzt klar, welche CD jetzt meine. "Lektionen in Demut" von Thomas D. 2001 erschienen.

Fast Forward. 10 Jahre später. Die Welt hat sich weitergedreht. Die Welt ist eine andere. Die Welt ist im und am A… . Thomas D hat nun sein Album neu aufgenommen und nennt es einer Software gleich "Lektionen in Demut 11.0". Die Texte sind die alten. Die Musik ist eine andere. Es ist kein Remastering, es sind nicht blosse Remixe. Es ist ein komplett neues Album. Und es ist die bessere Version. Wobei das auch an mir und einem veränderten Hörempfinden und Geschmack liegen kann, denn auch ich bin nach 10 Jahren jemand anderes. Es ist elektronischer, die Beats sind treibender ... bestimmter. Die Arrangements komplexer.

Eigentlich möchte ich keine Hörempfehlung aussprechen, das Album ist in Gänze sehr gut. Wenn ich aber einen Einstieg in das Album vorschlagen sollte, ist dies eindeutig "Uns trennt das leben 11.0". Aber auch das titelgebende "Lektionen in Demut 11.0" sowie "Auf dem Planeten des ewigen Regens 11.0" und "Gebet an de Planet 11.0" gefällt mir sehr gut. Einfach mal reinhören. Sprechgesang muss man allerdings schon mögen.

This one is easy, too: "Careless Whisper" from Sether. When i drove through California with my brother while having the greatest vacation i had so far, this song was on heavy rotation on almost all radio station playing such music. So this song is connected to California in my mind ...

There are many songs connected to persons in my life. So it's not hard to find such a song, but it's hard to choose one of them: After thinking for quite a time about it, my decision is "I grieve" from Peter Gabriel from his 2002 album "Up". It's not one of his best pieces (albeit it's a good one), however this piece always remembers me of the important persons in my life that passed away. I'm glad that i had just to grieve about my grandparents so far. In a strange way, this song is connected with the death in my life, however it's not a song that i would like on a funeral, it's the song for the people that survives a beloved person:

The news that truly shocks
Is the empty, empty page
While the final rattle rocks
It's empty, empty cage
And I can't handle this

This is an easy one ... there is one song that makes me smile whenever i hear it. It's Sebastian Telliers "La Ritournelle":

Oh nothing’s gonna change my love for you
I wanna spend my life with you
So we make love on the grass under the moon
No one can tell, damned if I do
Forever journeys on golden avenues
I drift in your eyes since I love you
I got that beat in my veins for only rule
Love is to share, mine is for you

But it's not just the lyrics ... it the driving rhythm ... it's the easyness of the melody ... this song is like walking at the Elbe at a nice spring afternoon.

Music is an important part of my life. And i'm really interested in the music other people are listening. I think it's really a window to the soul of other people, because music is emotion in a small dose and thus they express emotions of the people listening the music and using the shot of emotion. Thus i really like the idea of the 30-day Song challenge i found in blog of Mrs. Local. Thirty days and each day gives some answers about the music some likes to listen ... or not. When you want to know the answers of this challenges beforehand, just look in the blog article of Mrs. Local

But the answer to the first question is the hardest one of all questions in that challenge ... the favorite song. The answer to this question is a function of t. But at the moment i would answer with "Arcadia (Telefon Tel Aviv Remix)" played by Apparat , you will find on the "Things to be frickled" album. It's a really beautiful song that is deeply moving me.

What's the point of waiting
For life to come
I could go further
And no one's surprised
Your plans collapse, run off or fall apart...

I would really like to know the answers to the challenges ... feel free to put your answer in the comment section

I wasn't in cinema for the whole year. I will watch only one movie. And this movie will be this one: "TRON: Legacy". I'm a child of the eighties and the original Tron was a very important movie for me as it was Strange Days for the nineties. However i still have to wait. Can't wait.

That said, the soundtrack is already available. And as some people said and wrote, there isn't a more obvious, a more cogent choice than Daft Punk for the soundtrack.

And it's really great. However it's not the kind of music you expect, when you listened to earlier works of Mr. Thomas Bangalter and Mr. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Nothing like "Harder,better, faster, stronger". It's music for a movie, not for the dancefloor. It's a fusion of classical music - of monumentally orchestrated soundtracks - with electronic.

As long as i wasn't able to see Tron Legacy, it had to pass the other test: And yes, i'm able to imagine the Tron of the eighties with this music.

From my point of view it's a great piece of music. Recommended listening: "Solar Sailer", obviously "The game has changed" and "Disc Wars".

I was able to leave a shop this afternoon before i had to hear it. Otherwise it would be the shortest competition between me and this awful piece of music. Only a second later and this %$§!%§$ song "Last Christmas" would have reached my ears. Starting in November with this horrible perspiration of a really sick mind? Damned ... let's play fair! Where is censorship when you need it?

You can smile about the sterotypical weirdnesses of Japan as much as you want (like the rumour, that they just get into other countries to carry around their camera and make vacation at home by looking at the images they made), but when they do something, they do it right. One example: One would consider that that an 10 minute film music would be edited down in length and complexity to play it live. Well ... not really. Just listen to the studio version and the live version of Kenji Kawais "Kugutsuuta kagirohi ha yomi ni matamu to" from the "GitS2 - Innocence" soundtrack. They simply played the studio version - live. Virtually identical. Awesome.

The musician Apparat is known for his soundscapes, he is able to paint landscapes with melodies. Modeselector on the the other side is a band known for their beats. Now mix both up, and you have great electronic music and the band "Moderat".

At the moment their eponymous album "Moderat" is a heavy rotating guest on my MP3 player. It's electronic music, so it may not hit everyones taste of music. I would suggest to "Rusty Nails" and "Slow Match" as some easy starter, try "Les grandes marches" and "A New Error" just to approach the rest of the album afterwards.

So ... you may think that Jörg got totally insane given that his taste of music gone totally haywire now. But i want to remember you, that i flew once to London to hear the massive choir with hundreds voices in the Requiem of Hector Berlioz. Okay, this music is made by a choir, that isn't that large, but the repertoire is much more modern.

By pure luck i found the music of the danish a cappella choir "Vocal Line" in iTunes today. Their version of Peter Gabriel's "Mercy Street" is just awesome. The acappella interpretation of Tori Amos "Crucify" is excellent as well. And i'm surely prefer their version of "Jóga" as i don't like the voice of Bjork. Another recommended tracks is the a cappella version of "Don't give up". Just give it a try

PS: Remember that choir music just works with good speakers and a lot of volume

The days gets longer, the nights shorter, but my taste of music didn't move out of the shadows so far. I've found an interesting album by accident yesterday while searching for the song from the end credits of "Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex".

I wasn't able to find it, but i stubled about this music: It's "Shape a new sharp" by Act noir. These guys from Italy seem to be influenced from a lot of groups and created an interesting combination out of it. At some times the music remembers me of Nine Inch Nails, sometimes of Tool. The last track of album could count as Prog, except it isn't 20 minutes long Not the worst inspriations.

Of course i want to recommend some songs here: "The Higher I went, The Deeper I fell" is a good piece of music, "2008" is at heavy rotation today. Another track worth of listening is "Shape A New Start".

PS: Despite of being in business since the nineties of last century, they just published two albums. Their debut long player "Automatisme psychique" is worth listening as well..

It's just a single track i want to recommend today: It's Animal Collective's "My Girls" from their album "Merriweather Post Pavillion". I heard this track yesterday while watching a documentary about the free solo base jumper (climbing hills without ropes and doing a base jump instead of falling to death) Dean Potter. Somewhat strange music, but i like it ... especially the second half.