thevoid99's Instrumental Thoughts Vol. 1 Aug 27 '04    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line A Collection of Instrumentals & Thoughts from thevoid99. With the musical climate becoming both exciting and frustrating, where does one go to just stand out? While I admit, my output in the music category has been sporadic as of late with more emphasis towards cinema. Yet, I found myself becoming more and more out of touch with the current climate of mainstream music. Now I don’t like to compare myself to anyone but if I would compare myself to someone in the music category, I would be Jean-Luc Godard. Well, Godard started out making these fascinating films that had wide appeal starting with “A Bout de Souffle” back in 1960. Then after 1967’s “Weekend”, he strayed away from commercial films and became more and more radical with some success and an uncompromising vision. I look at the past few years as a music critic and noticed that while I had some degree of popularity, it didn’t seem enough. I became frustrated and wanting to grow more as a writer. Now that I’m working on my first screenplay, there doesn’t seem to be much time for me to write any more music reviews at the moment. Plus, I’m not interested in writing reviews of current hit albums, even if it will give me some kind of commercial success. It doesn’t matter to me any more. I found myself baffled with everyone reviewing and praising the likes of Ashlee Simpson, Maroon 5, and Los Lonely Boys. For me, there’s no point in doing reviews of their records. It would be easier for me to simply say, “they suck” rather than write a review with 1000 words and more. I would pretty much say that I’m becoming out of touch with what’s popular. I’m more interested in depth and right now as I’m working on my screenplay, I’m starting lean towards instrumental compositions. Instrumentals are great since it emphasizes a lot on the music but sometimes, they can get very pretentious. What I’m trying to find is a piece of melody, a mood, or some kind of note that I can relate to emotionally. Even if it’s on display in cinema, which has become an inspiration of sorts, notably the score works of Ed Tomney, Avro Part, Angelo Badalamenti, Phillip Glass, Craig Wedren, and the late Elmer Bernstein. In tribute to that and how music has been used in music, I offer up twelve instrumental compositions that I’m enjoying at this moment with an explanation on why I chose these tracks and such. 1. Avro Part-“Spiegel im Spiegel” Classical music is something I’m fond of but I wouldn’t call myself a casual fan but rather an admirer. This simplistic, melancholic piece by Estonian composer Avro Part is a very hypnotic one, notably for its disenchanting melody that just conveys a sense of loss and with its high-pitch and low-pitch notes as it is accompanied by a mournful violin that just soothes the tone while the piano keeps on play with its notes. No flourishes, bangs, or any kind of theatrics. It’s just a simple melody that keeps on playing repetitively throughout the piece but doesn’t lose its drive or emotional resonance. I first heard this piece in a very misguided presentation in Guy Ritchie’s bloody awful remake of Lina Wertmueller’s “Swept Away” starring his dinosaur wife Madonna. It was used twice, one for a boring sex scene and another for the film’s ending which made the whole movie pointless to begin with. I liked the piece but felt Ritchie used it for the wrong reasons. I would later hear that piece again but in an entirely different film from an entirely different filmmaker in Gus Van Sant’s 2002 film “Gerry”. While I was one of the few people that liked the film for what it was, many people didn’t since they found the film’s plot and improvisatory dialogue to be boring and self-indulgent. I was drawn to it because of simplicity and since it was Van Sant’s return to making small films, he did it in a European style and the way he opened it, was just mesmerizing and made the entire film easier to watch by using Avro Part’s music. He began the movie with “Spiegel im Spiegel” in a scene where you see a car driving through desert and in that car were Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. The piece since then was stuck in my head and I think Van Sant found a better way to present that piece since it conveys something simpler. It’s a wonderful piece of music that I think everyone should hear. 2. Brian Eno-“An Ending (Ascent)” The Godfather of Ambient Music clearly has to be in this list because who better to bring out great instrumentals than Brian Eno. From his 1983 album “Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks” with brother Roger and longtime collaborator Daniel Lanois, the album was made for a soundtrack on a documentary on the Apollo Moon landings back in the late 1960s/early 1970s. I bought the album because of the track “Deep Blue Day” which appeared in the soundtrack to “Trainspotting” where I ended up being in love with this album. One track that stood out for me was “An Ending (Ascent)”, because it had this lovely, spacey, atmospheric sound through its synthesizers. It wasn’t too boring or too pretentious, it had a hypnotic quality through its synthesizers as it features these angelic, vocal-like voices in the track. It’s a cut that I really loved since it had that feeling of something amiss and I would hear that track again, one in some commercial recently and the other was in Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic” right at the end where Benicio del Toro is watching a ball game with his child in Mexico through that grainy, handheld camera look Soderbergh had as a director and cinematographer in his Peter Andrews alias. It’s one of my favorite cuts from Eno and also, the most haunting of them all. 3. Air-“La Femme D’Argent” We go from ambient to ambient-pop from France’s Air. Air was a group I always loved, especially how they’ve managed to push themselves forward with each album. From their 1998 debut, “Moon Safari”, the opening cut of “La Femme D’Argent” I would say is the most accessible cut in this compilation I’m making. Notably for the fact that it has a nice, jazz vibe and a swooning ambient tone that is very seductive. The track has a spacey feel and a groove that is very entrancing and I think I chose this cut because it’s something I like to chill out to. It’s just a cool, sexy cut from one of France’s greatest musical compatriots. 4. Primal Scream-“Inner Flight” Primal Scream has become one of my favorite acts in the past few years; especially since they’ve made two albums that I really love. One that is more in tune with the times now, politically while the other is more diverse in social aspects and emotional climates. With this screenplay that I’m working on right now, one of the cuts that drove me into writing was “Inner Flight” in which I named one of the chapters of my first act after. The track does have swooning vocals but I loved it more for its ominous synthesizer notes that just build up this tension and drama with each descending note. The track even features a whistling, airy melody that comes in but the track still includes a dark tone with a saxophone and final vocal coda of a female voice singing. From the 1991 album “Screamadelica”, it’s a cut that I think people should pay more attention to and I hope that once my script is finished, I can use it for the film’s soundtrack if the band will let me. 5. Nine Inch Nails-“A Warm Place” Now I’ve stated for years that “The Fragile” is and always will be my favorite Nine Inch Nails album of all-time but the album that I’m starting to feel more drawn to now lately have been “The Downward Spiral”. I think it’s because I found some strange narratives on some of the cuts from that album and it’s basically one of the main inspirations for my script and I named the script after one of the songs from that album entitled “the becoming”. “A Warm Place” was always a piece that I love but recently when I watched “Closure”, it’s a track that keeps on getting new to me, especially with its hypnotic, shimmering layers of synthesizers, melodies, and despairing notes. It’s another cut I hope to use or try to create similar to as far as mood and tone is concerned. 10 years since I’ve bought that album last summer and it’s hasn’t aged since and I’m glad it hasn’t. 6. David Bowie-“Neukoln” We now go from NIN to one of its influences, David Bowie. From his 1977 album “Heroes”, the second part of his Berlin trilogy, I could’ve chosen any cut from that and “Low”. I chose “Neukoln” notably for its European feel, because the track features Bowie playing saxophone but in a more abstract accompaniment by just playing small notes, not even in a free-jazz or traditional style. With Brian Eno on keyboards bringing out ominous, synthesizer textures and discordant melodies, Robert Fripp joins in to play descending, droning guitar riffs and not in the style that he often plays. Whenever I hear this, I just think of Europe and how un-American it is, especially at night where everything is dark and intriguing. This idea of course was directly inspired by Bowie’s compilation of instrumentals called “All Saints” but my approach is just to compile it periodically and if I had a CD burner and access to all sorts of music, I would release this to anyone interested in this. 7. Squarepusher-“Tommib” The first of four cuts from my favorite album of the year and maybe my favorite soundtrack of all-time for Sofia Coppola’s 2003 masterpiece, “Lost in Translation”. The first is from Tom Jenkins and his Squarepusher alias entitled “Tommib”. Probably next to the tracks by Kevin Shields, my favorite cut of the soundtrack. It’s the one track that’s grabbed me emotionally, especially on film when Coppola and cinematographer captures that breathtaking shot of Scarlett Johansson’s Charlotte watching Tokyo up in her hotel room as her photographer husband left her alone for his job. It’s a piece that I feel emotionally connected with, especially how Jenkins convey that simple melody with these robotic but human-like notes from a synthesizer and it only lasted a few minutes. It’s one of the most emotional pieces I’ve heard and even without watching the movie or listening to the soundtrack, I can hear it in my head and I would like it to stay in my head. 8. Death in Vegas-“Girls” Another cut from the soundtrack, “Girls” serves as an opener of sorts for the film as Bill Murray’s Bob Harris arrives to Tokyo, feeling tired and is in awe of this strange world he’s in. With just a melodic guitar track, vocals, and dreamy textures, it’s a cut that I feel is more of an opening to a new world that is arising. In my opinion, “Lost in Translation” is a new world of cinema and that track I think really just blossoms through its distortions and crashing momentum as says “Welcome, welcome to the new world”. It’s a track that I feel conveys openness and I would like to present myself once I become a writer and hope to make a few good movies. 9. Roger Joseph Manning Jr. & Brian Reitzell-“Shibuya” This is a cut where in my view, I don’t need to watch the film or even think about it. With an ambient-like synthesizer and pulsating melody, the track really conveys that world of mystery. It’s probably the most ominous cut from the film, especially where we see people in Tokyo crossing that cross walk where it’s so famous. I think the cut represents more of an outsider entering the world that no one has ever been to with people that are so different. I want to see the world and all of its mysteries. Maybe I hope to do that in the years to come. 10. Kevin Shields-“Ikebana” When I first heard this cut on the film’s website, just before it was released, I was amazed at how simple it was. Even though it had been twelve years since Kevin Shields released any new material, “Ikebana” sounded as if he never did go away and time was on his side. Just a shimmering, soft synthesizer in the background accompanying a simple, chiming melodic guitar riff was the key to Shields’ approach. Whenever I hear the song without thinking of the movie, I just think of soft raindrops falling on water to the tune of that melody. It had an ambient tone and just a gentle quality that it had, even in “Lost in Translation” when Charlotte discovered the Japanese flower exhibit. I was hoping this track would go on for like ten-twenty minutes but it came only at a minute. It’s just one of those pieces that just leaves you wanting more. 11. Radiohead-“Meeting In The Aisle” Radiohead always breaks ground one way or the other with an array of anthem-driven, kaleidoscopic guitar textures or just working with synthesizers and obscure electronic gadgets. “Meeting In The Aisle” is an instrumental B-side that appeared in Radiohead’s “Airbag/How Am I Driving” U.S. EP. With just dreamy, washy guitar riffs, electronic drumbeats, and atmospheric, ambient synthesizer, it was a precursor of what was to come from the band back in 1997 and an ode to the brilliance that was in “OK Computer”. I chose this instrumental merely for its spacey textures, hypnotic tone, and feeling of post-human existence driven by fear. Radiohead doesn’t come up with many instrumentals in their already-11 year existence of recording but when they do, they bring everything to the table. 12. Frank Zappa-“Watermelon In Easter Hay” We now close this compilation with a serving of some great guitar work by the late, great Frank Zappa. Now the name Zappa was always a weird guy who made really weird records and compositions. While I respected him, I still felt a bit scared when approaching to his music but then when I first saw Alfonso Cuaron’s sexually-charged masterpiece “Y Tu Mama Tambien”, coming at the end of the film credits was this beautiful, evocative track entitled “Watermelon In Easter Hay” and it was from none other than Frank Zappa. This of course, made me want to discover more of Zappa’s work as a guitarist and though I only heard a few cuts of his guitar playing, I began to understand how underrated he was in that field. Yet, “Watermelon In Easter Hay” remains my favorite of Zappa’s compositions, notably for its presentation in guitar playing and how Zappa brought a poetic, expressive approach to his playing whether it would be in something, simply melodic or just a wailing solo with riffs that come out of nowhere. I wanted to hear that so many times that I would rewind on my blank tape of “Y Tu Mama Tambien” just to the end of the credits just to hear that track. It is mind-blowing guitar work. The way Zappa just brought a note with such passion as if he was a modern day classical composer and in tune with the film’s dreamy, sexual, political climate, it worked. Cuaron really chose the right closing track at the right time as I have images of two people just making love, flesh against flesh, and lips touching lips. It’s one of the sexiest form of playing I’ve heard although I’m not sure if that what was Zappa’s intentions but his family at least felt Cuaron used it in a lovely way. Plus, it’s a great excuse to play air guitar with just gazing at your shoes and holding that note for so long. It’s still indescribable, I can’t say anymore. That’s pretty much it for now. I’m not sure if this will continue but I hope does since I plan on trying to discover more as I can. In the meantime, I just hope you can find something in these gems as diverse and as poetic as they are. Until then, I’ll try and come up with a second compilation of this, very soon.

Read all comments (2)|Write your own comment

Write an essay on this topic.