Tuesday Tunes

I like Space. I find the whole thing fascinating. Anyone who has enjoyed Star ‘x’ (where ‘x’ is could be Wars, Trek, or Lord), probably likes Space too, at least a little. Douglas Adams described Space best as “really big”, and Carl Sagan revelled in the fact we’d started to explore it. But when you compare how much Space we know there is against how much we’ve explored, it’s not even a contest. Space is too big. Similarly, when you compare how much I know about Space against how much I don’t, ignorance wins. I like Space, but I don’t know her personally.

Space and I are casual acquaintances.

There is one thing I found out about Space once, I can’t remember how. Something from a half-remembered conversation whilst glancing at Space across a crowded lounge at a house party in South Auckland, probably. It’s one of those facts that makes you go “huh. cool.” and then promptly disappears into the back of your mind like it’s being sucked into a Black Hole. But the fact waited, biding it’s time until it could use this song as a fuel source and propell itself onto a collision course with my chest.

The Song(s)
Song: Redshift
Artist: Darwin Deez
Album: Songs for Imaginative People - 2013 - Lucky Number
Method of discovery: Spotify Discover

Research: Darwin Deez is the name of The Band. Darwin Smith is the name of The Man. The Band is from New York City. The Man is from North Carolina. Darwin, the Australian city, does not feature further in this article. The self titled debut album was released in 2010 and initially gained attention in the UK. The band was featured on NME’s “Cool List” in the same year. Songs for Imaginative People was released in 2013. Between the two albums The Man also mixed together a full rap album from sampling 1971’s Gene Wilder lead “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” called ‘Wonky Beats’. Link Below.

Redshift’s lyrics talk of a breaking relationship using the metaphors and language of space and some more general scientific terms. The guitar during the verse orbits the binary system of IV6 and V6, serving to keep the song in motion and without resolution. It’s only when the ‘Big Bang’ of the chorus hits that we hear the solid I, IV & V carry the lines. But The Man, or The Band, made the decision to utilise the dual wormholes, iii & vi to navigate between the more stable (read: Major) chords.

Personal thoughts: This song was an Asteroid that I never saw coming. I initially was turned off by the 90’s modem-esque beginning. But the first lines hooked me with galaxies and science, prepped me just right with that small pause before the chorus. ‘Was there a big …’ Bang. Suddenly a wall of sound. The music echoes the lyrics. It also cleverly puts you into the protagonist shoes, after all who hasn’t looked back on a break-up and been able to now realise what the signs were. “How could you miss something so obvious?” But the real heartache is in the next line.

‘Did some explosion cause a Redshift?’

Redsfiht, or Redshift when I can type it correctly, is a phenomenon where light waves move to the red end of the visible spectrum when you observe an object which is either further away, or is moving further away. Please, correct my science if I’ve gotten it wrong. If the distance between our Sun and Earth was to increase, the Sun would ‘shift’ to the red end of light with that increase.

‘I would try anything this side of the milkyway,
To figure out why in the world you’re drifting away’

“HEADLINE: Man’s heart sniped by Asteroid.”
Who hurt you, Darwin? Do you need a hug? If anyone see’s Darwin from 2013, hug him.

Give it a go: If you are picked up by songs that make you feel down

Give it a miss: If there’s already too much science in your indie.

[links]
Websites: DarwinDeez.com, Wonky Beats
Spotify: Redshift
Wikipedia: Redshift, Darwin Deez