Top Artist of the Week: Death Cab for Cutie

Does anyone else pay attention to who produces records? I tend to be somewhat obsessive about who contributes to the creation of a piece of music. Obviously, the main songwriter and singer/band have the greatest impact on the sound of any given album. Generally speaking, the producer stands next in line.

What is a producer? It's a generally vague term, and different producers serve different roles. Some producers started their careers as excellent engineers who focus on making an album sound polished and professional. Other producers are musicians/songwriters who grew into the role by overseeing the production of their own albums and then grew into helming other projects.

Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla fits into the latter category. Over the course of the past few years he has grown into one of the most creative and sought after producers in indie-rock. In addition to producing the past few DCFC records as well as his own excellent solo album, he has manned the mixing board on recent outings by The Decemberists and Tegan and Sara.

His most recent effort is the latest release by Death Cab for Cutie. Narrow Stairs is the band's most confident and complete musical statement to date. Walla's contributions to this record cannot be overlooked. From the epic feel of the I Will Possess Your Heart to the Beach Boys-esque structure of You Can Do Better Than Me, Walla's production manages to be both varied and cohesive.

Precise, reverberated guitars, interlocking bass and drum parts, soaring analog synths, and warm electric piano underpin Benjamin Gibbard's impassioned wail throughout.

Who is your favorite producer? Has their work led you to check out another artist's album who you may not have looked at otherwise?

John

Neal Stephenson’s Anathem and Music

Here is an exciting bit of news about Neal Stephenson's upcoming novel from arcanology.com

The book came with a CD of music, which I must say was surprising. It says it is “IOLET: Music from the World of Anathem.” There are seven tracks:

1. Aproximating Pi
2. Thousander Chant
3. Proof Using Finite Projective Geometry
4. Cellular Automata
5. Quantum Spin Network
6. Sixteen Color Prime Generating Automation
7. Deriving the Quadratic Equation

Each of these is between four and eleven and a half minutes long. There is a note with it stating that “In order to conform to the practices of the avout, this disc contains music composed for and performed by voices alone.”
I’ve just listened to several of the songs on this CD and, frankly, this is some weird shit. I say this without reservation. The musical styles are all over the map except that they all only use human voices (and occasionally hands). Some of it is similar to Western, Christian, styles of chanting. Other tracks are more Classical vocal arrangements with singing. The rest of the tracks seem to be heavily influenced by Eastern, Buddhist, styles of chanting, especially Tibetan Buddhism with its use of harmonics and overlaying voices. It varies quite a bit from song to song. Additionally, when there are recognizable words, they are not in English (nor in any language that I recognize). “Celluar Automata” is the weirdest track of this sort with multiple voices weaving in and out, along with some clapping and exclamations in an unknown language. “Thousander Chant” would be at home on some of the collections of Tibetan chanting that I have and whoever is performing it is obviously trained in the throat chanting used by Tibetans and others in Asia.

This is an intriguing concept. I’m a fan of Stephenson’s work, particularly Quicksilver. I’d love to see more music incorporated into literature in this way. So many great fantasy works, like Lord of the Rings and Elizabeth Haydon’s Rhapsody books, have great songs in them. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hear the music to go along with the lyrics? I almost always listen to music while reading, so having an album’s worth of music written as a score for the book would be welcome. The desire to see music incorporated into sci-fi and fantasy literature is what led me to start this blog.

What do you think? Would you be interested in hearing music composed for a literary work?

Top Artist of the Week: Boys Like Girls

Have you ever found yourself getting swept up in a record that probably wasn't aimed at your age demographic? I'm 34, and I'm sure that the debut album from Boy Like Girls wasn't created with me in mind. This is a band that I would have never heard of if it weren't for a few of my younger guitar students who wanted to learn some of their songs.

I'm always a sucker for this sort of well produced, energetic, emo-pop. That being said, there are a few attributes that I find to be quite compelling and that lift this record above the average genre release. Even though the tempos are up and the choruses are catchy, there is a surprising sense of melancholy that pervades these songs.

The lyrics cover well-trodden themes, albeit with greater depth and a more well defined sense of craft and internal rhyme. When you combine this with a nice use of counter-melody in the vocals, tight guitar arrangements, and a subtle use of electronic sequencing, you are left with a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience.

What was the last album that ignited your imagination that was probably aimed at a different age group?