Words in the music

[vantheman]

Hello psynews forums! I joined this with one main purpose - to discuss a particular topic.

I am a DJ for myself. I mix stuff for myself with audacity, timeline editing and fades and such, and do it to simply enjoy listening to this music further. This stuff sounds better mixed. But I want to choose what I'm hearing. I have dance parties of one in my bedroom, and I don't even do drugs(anymore).

So maybe I'm different from the typical listener of this stuff. I'm not "for real", I'm not "part of the scene" or whatever, I'm just some douchebag in the corner, but I've been listening to psytrance about 90% of the time that I've spent listening to music in the past 5 or 6 years.

 

I have one big problem with the "psy trance" genre as a whole. Spoken words. Pieces of language floating in the sea of sound.

 

I don't fucking care. I don't care what terrence mckenna has to say about DMT. I don't care what some random scientist voice has to say about quantum theory or perception or ANYTHING. I don't want to hear Neo, Morpheus, or the Oracle. And I most definitely don't want to hear an accountant type of guy talking about net cash.

It stops my brain. It interrupts my thoughts. I don't tolerate it. If I hear it, that means the song is going to be left out of my listening space, if it's too far from the beginning or end to be cropped out with the mixing.

 

The sound communicates by itself. Words aren't needed.

Some chanting or sensual vocal sound is okay - nah, that type of thing makes it more enjoyable for me. I'll put up with some "om shanti shanti" if it's tastefully used(which is my opinion).

 

A lot of times I'm left feeling like I'm really listening to the wrong genre. I think psytrance sounds amazing - I don't want to listen to any other music because nothing else sounds like this - but when at the top of a buildup you have to slap in some "blah bluh blah" it ruins my whole world.

I'm a visual artist. I don't make psytrance. If I'm unhappy, my choices are change myself or change the world - unless I'm going to start making psytrance someday, I really don't have much choice but to eventually give up fighting through the sea of "ruined good music" to find the stuff I like. I'll go listen to jazz or something. At least there, when they use vocals, the people actually SING... instead of just non-musical talking.

 

Some of the artists I think are better seem to avoid that stuff. Anahata and Artha, for example. And Toward the Castle definitely doesn't center itself around a mckenna sample.

 

My elitism reminds me of typographers complaining about text that isn't kerned right. I'm absurd. I know.

Am I the only one that feels this way though?

 

Maybe it's a matter of taste. I think Explicit's album is really cool. Maybe it's the fact that most of psytrance out there is some terribly uncreative wank, and vocals themselves aren't a bad thing, it's just that they're tastelessly used across the board.

So says the douchebag in the corner - "you guys are doing it wrong!"

[Penzoline]

Most artist today just throw them in there. In old school it felt more natural. The real problem's are in full-on, even modern goatrance has a couple issues with using samples, but far less than what in full-on imo. The samples just get thrown in 'for good measure'. That's it.

 

I enjoy samples when they fit and flow with the rest of the track though.

[vantheman]

Fit and flow, yes. Sometimes I'm a total purist, but I can deal with all the iRobot samples in Life Style - High Technology. It probably even makes that song a bit better for me. Overlap - Lost Connection wouldn't be the song that it is without those vocals either.

 

Full-on, uplifting morning full-on, is what I enjoy most. And yet it's the genre most full of problems, like Quadra and Gataka and Ananda Shake that follow "the formula" to the point that it completely lacks enjoyability, and Electro Sun's Double Trouble with the speech in the middle of it(oh but how I love floating out and secret sequence).

 

Darkpsy has a lot of words I can't really deal with as well. Ork Monk's Speaking Stones release was an amazing listen, but turned out I only really enjoyed one of the tracks, because of the garbage floating at the top of rest of it.

 

"For good measure" most of the time, yet it's so whimsical and thoughtless that it's usually stupid, not creative.

It's clearly done because it's a trend - it's a meme of the genre - and not because it's a good addition to the music.

 

I really don't jizz over quantum physics either. I watched "what the bleep do we know" while getting stoned years and years ago, and I was quite fascinated by it, but by the next day I was over it.

 

Spoken words also create language barriers - Alternative Control's remix of "Breath" is a great sound, but I have to wonder what the goddess voice is chanting. Non-english speakers probably wonder about most of the crap in psytrance.

 

And social barriers - drugs are a lifestyle choice - Maybe the genre wants to be pushing out people who aren't into that sort of thing, it's a "counter culture" so I guess exclusivity is part of it, and it wants to stay out of mainstream eyes, but I can't help but think opium of the masses - freedom of mind would be enjoyable to a much wider audience if it didn't drop those words in the middle.

[deepXcode]

I do extremely rarely reply here, but now, especially after listening yesterday to latest Ektoplazm's submission Celestial Consciousness – Spiritual Antidote, I would post here some certain words of mine.

 

I do not also use drugs anymore (including beer and cigaters and many other things which may even not be considered as drugs by the majority) and I'm also really trying to be an absolute purist. And it all comes to the point, where satisfaction and pleasure should be achieved and flow absolutely naturally.

 

"For good measure" most of the time, yet it's so whimsical and thoughtless that it's usually stupid, not creative.

Most of the time, not creative. Really unfortunately, but absolutely true for me.

 

While music seems to be really the helpiest thing to get to the satisfaction state, its ruined so much by human intervention or interpretation of what music should be like for them. And vocals are one of the best example of how you can ruin something that might have been really good and worhily. When I hear the samples talking about drugs or science or things like that in 100%(!) cases of >2000 releases it ruins the song for me! When I hear a track containing that I immidiately throw the track into a trash can withing of my mind, like with that "Celestial Consciousness – Spiritual Antidote" case.

 

I do also like and appreciate morning full on music. It is a very light and yet strong one. And its being ruined (for me) by vocals so much, that for many times I couldnt listen to it for long which I really liked to..

Like with albums "Dynamo - The Acid Daze" or "Eskimo - Take a look out there". Absolutely brilliant music! And ruined by nothing but vocals intervention. Sometimes they are somewhat ok.. but it would be MUCH better to have them replaced by something more appropriate and creative!

 

Lets now take "Transwave - Phototropic" album. 10 tracks and not a SINGLE word! But HOW MUCH have have been said by it, how much of NON STOP really uplifting satisfaction could be achieved with its aid! It sounds so unique by its driving energy and so similar to other representatives of the genrge because of the sounds and patterns used. Unfortunately, again.

 

Then, "Paradise Connection - Paradise Connection". 7 tracks and we can do hear some human words in only 1 track - Portamento. But what words! Spoken by the author itself (I believe so) and they only make this track even better, a complete and decent thing. One of that few most enjoyable tracks of the whole genre!

 

Back to full on side, "Astral Projection - Amen". This is one of the most strong music ever made (for me)! It uses samples a lot but in brilliant, absolutely creative way which only make it a complete piece!

 

Afterall, this situation makes me really to do nothing but listen to other genres, dont listen at all - all to fill the gaps and restore what has been ruined and finally, produce my own music.

[CosmoNaughty]

Everyone has their own thing that they're not too keen on, with me I love psy trance but I've never understood why it has to keep stopping so often in every track, you'd have thought by now you'd have at least one or two tracks that broke this cliche'. Spoken word samples for me rarely make a track fantastic but they can all too often just spoil a track in a second, I don't mind so much the drug guru's and philosophers, but over the last few years the trend of just sticking in wacky samples can have disapointing results, and I hate when you get just some dumb voice going "Bass" or some other dumbfuck thing off the cheapest mainstream dance sample cd.

Oh and while I'm getting this off my chest Eminem samples, I've bought a couple of cd's lately with samples of Eminem on them why anyone would want to listen to his awful records in the first place is something that I can never understand, but why why why would anyone want to put him in a psy trance track. One of the offenders of putting Eminem in a track was Bionix on his album, such a hit and miss recording there are 2 good tracks on the whole album the rest of it, it's not that the tunes are awful but it is spoilt by rubbish 'Wacky' samples.

[Ormion]

A bad sample can ruin a good track.

A great sample can make a great track even better.

 

I try to imagine AP-People Can Fly without the sample. Yes the music would still be godly, but that sample really boosts the experience.

There's the sample, the build up and when the climax ends People Can Fly!. And you do fly. Perfection.

Or how Crop Circles-Lunar Civiliation would be without the classic Clark sample?

 

What I hate the most is not the random samples artists use. It's when an artist uses a funny sample in a serious track or an artist uses a serious sample in an unserious track.

There's nothing worse than listen to a great darkpsy track, dark and spacey and suddenly a simpsons sample pops up.

Or listen to a clubby full on and a 'Eat their souls' sample ruin your experience.

[Guest antic]

A bad sample can ruin a good track.

A great sample can make a great track even better.

 

What I hate the most is (...) when an artist uses a funny sample in a serious track or an artist uses a serious sample in an unserious track.

 

+1, you saved me few minutes of my time

[vantheman]

a bad sample can ruin a good track

a great sample can make a great track even better

 

 

but... we've also mentioned through the posts in the topic

 

a great sample does what to a bad track? it doesn't save it

a terrible sample can ruin even the best of tracks, and it's heartbreaking

 

edit(hopefully before anyone has read the post) : And even more on the line of ambiguity, what does a mediocre sample do for a mediocre track? Your answer to that shows how you feel about samples