Category Archives: Music

Danse Manatee, Some Thoughts

I’ve been listening to some of the earlier Animal Collective albums, as I’ve never explored them more fully. I’m enjoying this one, Danse Manatee, although it borders more on melodic sound or noise rather than song or music. Some of the tracks involve different noises that sometimes collide, other times interact and synchronize. I can’t say it’s always pleasant to listen to though, if thats what you’re in the mood for. “The Living Toys” involves barely audible vocals that seem mostly disconnected with the instrumentals but somehow still seem to guide the song along. “Bad Crumb” involves a kind of warbled vocalization which is cool, along with an off beat dissonance. There is a kind of sparseness to this album in general: even with the more song-like songs, there’s a minimalist interest in individual sounds as they interact with or distract from one another, often with only the most basic semblance of a beat or melody.

On J Cage

Another composer I enjoy is John Cage. He experimented a lot with indeterminacy, chance and unconventional musical modes. Some of his music is so dissonant it’s a little hard to listen to.

I particularly like his composition “In a Landscape” though: it’s very pretty.

One of his pieces, 4:33 is just 4 minutes and 33 minutes of silence, which is kind of ridiculous on the one hand but also makes us think about music as being a play of sound and silence, presence and absence.

On P Glass

Love Philip Glass, and this particular song has a beautifully-deep melancholic feel.

A lot of music bores me: the same chords, the same cliched lyrics. But a few composers keep my interest.

(Oddly, he’s done a few film soundtracks, including some songs for the Truman show)