Evening all!

Last Sunday I shared two pieces that represented my teenage musical influences – the first was a nod to my love of classical music… However once I commenced uni studies I was introduced to Drum and Bass, Trip Hop & Hip Hop…

Common Tones in Simple Time – by John Adams:

1. What do you find (musically) interesting? > textures, shimmering & transcendental effect. The lack of melodic line does not alter from a great listening experience.
2. What do you think this piece is about? > Flight
3. How does the composer develop the material > Gradual shifts from one chord to the next but in subtle ways.

I wanted to share some Drum and Bass – so found Prelude and Slam by Pendulum, an Ozzie rock/DnB band:

1. What do you find (musically) interesting? > Narrative, textures provided via the music tech synths.
2. What do you think this piece is about? > Landing on a planet and dancing with aliens.
3. How does the composer develop the material > Treats the material like song structure, intro section, then verse, chorus, bridge.

However, back in the day this is the sort of DnB I was dancing around to… Ronnie Size album was ‘the one’.

Here are some more tunes…. hope you enjoy the selections. Music is music. Regardless of what genre you listen to there is always something you can learn from the way the sounds are put together.

I was definitely partial to a bit of Arvo Part as a moody teenager:

I also recommend you listen to some JDilla, I love the way he remixes and samples jazz/orchestral sounds and fuses them with Hip Hop beats.

Sadly he died in during his mid thirties, and this performance is a tribute to his work via orchestral arrangements of his music.