Bunraku-Arabian Nights

[Anu Katariina]

 

 

Tracklist:

1. Magic Lamp

2. Ja'far

3. Camel Ride

4. Dark Pyramids

5. Maharaja

6. Arabian Nights

 

Released March 7, 2017

Music written, composed, produced and mastered by Filipe Santos
Artwork by Mystical Arts

 

 

https://gooddancerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/arabian-nights

[Blair Thaumic]

I'll leave my impressions here.

 

Not bad. Some wicked melodies (especially Maharaja) and I liked that a couple of the tracks were a lower BPM than usual. The samples really got on my nerves though.

 

And as is typical for Filipe, the compositions don't go anywhere. They sound cool, but they don't tell a story or leave a lasting impression... they lack the rise and fall that makes a track a full journey. It's frustrating, because he has the musical chops to make a great Goa album, but he needs to start doing something different from putting in melody after melody in his tracks. That, or start collaborating with someone who does.

[Anu Katariina]

I'll leave my impressions here.

 

Not bad. Some wicked melodies (especially Maharaja) and I liked that a couple of the tracks were a lower BPM than usual. The samples really got on my nerves though.

 

And as is typical for Filipe, the compositions don't go anywhere. They sound cool, but they don't tell a story or leave a lasting impression... they lack the rise and fall that makes a track a full journey. It's frustrating, because he has the musical chops to make a great Goa album, but he needs to start doing something different from putting in melody after melody in his tracks. That, or start collaborating with someone who does.

Have you heard the album Angels Trumpets, released in 2015? It pretty much has all the elements you are referring to, storytelling etc., and I consider it Filipe's best album. Other than that I won't comment bc I am not a promoter, only an "independent messenger" posting stuff I feel has value to the community. This time the value imo are "rarely" seen lower BPM's, nicer cover than usually + that CD is cheap: 6 dollars + shipping. Thanks for answering the topic, tho, glad someone is.

[Malachyte]

he needs to start doing something different from putting in melody after melody in his tracks

I must say, complex and intricate melodies are exactly why I fell in love with Goa Trance in the first place, and I think Filipe did a phenomenal job with the melodies in this album. As far as my taste goes, this is his best Goa release since the Ba'al album and Angels Trumpets. The electronic music scene has no shortage of artists who spend 10% of their time on melodies and 90% on production... which is fine, don't get me wrong - I can appreciate a track with limited and repetitive melodies but tons of attention to detail with the mixing and flow of the track. For example, I know he's not considered "Goa" at all, but take John 00 Fleming for instance - when I listen to his tracks I can tell that he puts sooooo much work into the production side of things and making the tracks flow smoothly and flawlessly, while often-times the melodies he uses are short and repetitive. Arguably, for his music, this gives the tracks even more flow - letting the simple melodies phase in and out with various effects, etc. It totally works for his style. And it's definitely creative and brilliant in it's own way.

 

Filipe is the opposite end of the spectrum in my opinion - and obviously what works best for him is to let his creativity flow through "one melody after the next", and there's absolutely no shortage of brilliant and catchy Goa melodies in that brain of his! So when it comes to his music, that's exactly what I want to hear - classic old-school "Filipe-y" Goa melodies. And with this album I really think he has pulled it off in a great way. Melding his Japanese "Bunraku" style with eastern scales as Bunraku "takes a trip" to the middle-east resulted in some amazing tracks imho. And with a slower BPM song (Camel Ride) and a faster BPM song in 3/4 (Dark Pyramids), the album has a nice spectrum of variety as well. Literally all 6 tracks are 5/5 stars for me!

 

Now do I wonder what his music would sound like if he was more meticulous with his mixing and production? Sure! Back when I wrote electronic music myself I was a huge perfectionist with my mixing and would often spend an entire month on a single track until I thought it was perfect, so I totally get it. But that's just not Filipe's thing, and I respect that. Spending less time being meticulous with mixing gives him the time to produce much more music and bring many more musical ideas to light, and obviously that's what he's inspired to do. All artists are different! And in a sense it gives his music a much more organic, spontaneous, and off-the-cuff type of feel, which I've really learned to love.

 

Let's compare this to non-electronic music. A band that practices and rehearses constantly and spends months on end in the studio perfecting and fine-tuning an album can come out with something brilliant, absolutely! But on the other end of the spectrum, so-called "jam bands" that produce material much more quickly and spontaneously, like Clutch for example, can be brilliant in a completely different way. And heavily processed, meticulously crafted rock or metal music can never sound as spontaneous and organic as it does for a band that just hits record and lets their creativity flow. Again, I'm not saying one is better than the other - I'm saying it's apples and oranges!

 

And to me, Filipe is the "jam band" of Goa Trance. He seems to have a never-ending stream of musical ideas, and realistically, if he spent 6-12 months perfecting the mix of every last detail in a single album, 80% of his musical ideas would never see the light of day, and his music would start to lose that spontaneous and organic feel that it currently has. And just to stress a point - I'm not saying his mixing is "bad" - I'm just saying that clearly it's not a focal point for him and thus he chooses to not be as meticulous with it as other artists are, in favor of spending more time on the actual *musical* ideas themselves. And frankly, given the current climate of all electronic music, I find his approach to be a breath of fresh air... because there's absolutely no shortage of electronic music out there (Goa and other genres) where the production is flawless and fine-tuned but the actual melodies are simple, repetitive, and honestly feel pretty half-assed and boring to me in a lot of cases.

 

So in closing... Filipe putting "melody after melody" in his tracks and cranking out one release after another is exactly what I want to hear from him. Not only because it's clearly what he is inspired to produce, but also because there's already soooooo much electronic music out there with flawless production but simple, repetitive, and boring melodies. So in an environment obsessed with "production quality" over everything else, personally I think it's great that Filipe chooses to spend his time focusing much more on actual *musical* creativity!

[Blair Thaumic]

That "off-the-cuff" approach to production is something I like about Filipe too. At the same time, I wish his tracks were a little more memorable.

 

I've listened to all of his Goa albums. I barely remember a note of them. Tracks need hooks, something that makes them stay in the listener's head long after they're done playing. And by hooks, I don't just mean one sample repeating over and over.

 

I'm musically illiterate, but IMHO a good example of how to do complex melodies is the album Prana - Cyclone. Lots of melody, including a long keyboard "ride" (something unusual for Goa) on Indigo, but it never feels overdone.

[Starkraver]

Mana source - Kanji is quite memorable Blair. It keeps playing in my head.

[Psychannel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHcolsu6jOU

 

Arabian nights!