Tuesday Tunes

I Make Ear Movies. It’s a statement that, although ponderous, holds water. The information about this week’s recommendation is sparse, but it seems to be on purpose, and this sentence defintely stuck out. FYI: I’m building a playlist of all of these songs (or those that are on Spotify) and I’ll be linking to it in next week’s Tuesday Tunes. On with the songs.

The Song(s)
Song: Lovetop & Chinatown
Artist: Starcadian
Album: Sunset Blood - 2013 - No Label (As far as I can tell)
Method of discovery: Spotify Discover

Research: Starcadian has most of this info on their official website, so I won’t go into too much detail here. The artist’s video played at SXSW, and he released Sunset Blood on Halloween 2013. The most interesting thing is “I Make Ear Movies” which is around his YouTube Channel, Bandcamp, and the chief statement on the Press part of his website. There is a degree of anonymity in his material, like the Finnish ‘Lordi’, or the Canadian ‘TWRP’, there isn’t a name behind the artist. The artist, simply, is.

Personal thoughts: I really engage with this type of showmanship. Some people prefer not to compromise their personal identity. They wear a hood or a mask, demon makeup, or dress like robots. For some, like Lordi, it’s part of the aesthetic, and part of the band’s story or lore. For Starcadian though, I feel it’s a lot simpler: The music is the focus. Enjoy this Ear Movie.

When I first heard Lovetop, that’s exactly what I did. I was at work and had headphones in to drown out the rest of the team, listening to my weekly Discover Playlist. Then Lovetop came on. The gradual introduction of the intruments got me. I was tapping my feet already. I looked at who this was, didn’t recognise them, the picture looked like the poster for the original Thing movie, but the sound was more like Tron. I couldn’t do anything but listen to the song. The pause prepped me, and the drum fill and sliding bass rush back into the whole soundscape killed me. I was smiling from ear-to-ear. I found a post-it, wrote the song’s name and slapped it on my nieghbour’s screen. In a few minutes we were talking about how ludicrously good the sound was.

From there I had to listen to the album, where I discovered Chinatown. The synthesized vocals don’t mask simplicity in Lyrics, with words between the songs like ‘indelible’, ‘harrowing’, and ‘entoptic’. I had to look up that last one (it means occuring or originating inside the eye). They aren’t terribly scientific, but they are a step above you’re typical ‘I-heard-it-on-the-pop-radio’ word list. There is clearly a lot of thought behind the music. That’s also clear in the chords below.

Theory: (Note, both songs are more Aeolian, but I’ve noted their Numerals as if from the Ionian)
Chinatown is the second song from the album, and begins with it’s relentless 96bpm thump-thump, a heartbeat for the song. The intro steps through vi - IV - I - V - II. That final Major 2nd chord gives real movement back toward the vi, and lends a dreamlike quality to the soundscape. The verses alternate vi - V, ending with a I - II before repeating, or moving to the Pre Chorus: V - vi - II, V - vi - IV, V - vi - II - iii - bVII. The final flat Major VII sticks arround a serves as a raising, and raised platform from which to dive intot he standard-by-comparison Chorus, which plays around: IV - vi - I - V. The Bridge makes an appearance twiddling around the typical IV - vi - IV - I - V. The chord use is fairly typical, but the few chords that are outside the key centre serve to strengthen the feeling of the song. It’s good work.

Lovetop is quite similar, though with less varitation from the key centre: Verses vi - IV , Chorus I - V - III - vi -I - III - IV, Bridge V - I - V - I - bVI - bIII - V, those flat Major chords in the bridge are a mini-modulation to a seperate key, but with such a quick song at 112bpm, it more ‘borrows’ the chords for a bit, so you don’t notice.

Give it a go: If you want to hear some Ear Movies

Give it a miss: If Daft Punk and 80’s Nostalgia are the opposite of what you are into

[links]
Websites: Starcadian, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Twitter, Subreddit
Video: He^rt
Spotify: Chinatown, Lovetop