/Let's leave the yelling to Jamie Stewart
Remember when I mentioned that Final Fantasy had worked with Bloc Party? Gleaned from Shugobot, here's a video of Owen Pallett's rendition of "This Modern Love," played at The Great Hall in Toronto.
Part of what I really like about ambient music, and, to a lesser extent, hip-hop, is the way each seemingly-unrelated layer builds on those preceding it to build a sort of wall of sound (I'm looking at you, Album Leaf, Daft Punk, Air ...). It's almost like a musical puzzle: you start with a basic line -- in some cases, it couldn't even really be called a melody -- and then throw another layer on top of it, ad infinitum, until you've got a really full sound that's greater than the sum of it's meager parts. I like Final Fantasy's version of "This Modern Love" precisely for this reason.
On the other hand, the vocal harmonies from the original are gone (and are missed), and some drums would've been nice to keep things sounding a little tighter. Worst of all is Pallett's "Jump left!" which totally shatters any semblance of the whole ambiance-thing he had going on. That may be the point -- it's certainly unsettling, but unpleasantly so.
Nevertheless, the skill with which Pallet constructs each layer (on the fly, I might add) more than makes up for these relatively minor shortcomings (except the yelling -- I can't get over that). Seriously, though, check out Pallett's digital shenanigans -- he plays a layer, records it, and then loops it as he moves on to the next line of music. It's really quite genius and brings a really ... organic feel to his music.
In the meantime, check out Xiu Xiu's "I Luv the Valley, OH!" for a more effective, and chilling, use of screaming at inappropriate times.
Part of what I really like about ambient music, and, to a lesser extent, hip-hop, is the way each seemingly-unrelated layer builds on those preceding it to build a sort of wall of sound (I'm looking at you, Album Leaf, Daft Punk, Air ...). It's almost like a musical puzzle: you start with a basic line -- in some cases, it couldn't even really be called a melody -- and then throw another layer on top of it, ad infinitum, until you've got a really full sound that's greater than the sum of it's meager parts. I like Final Fantasy's version of "This Modern Love" precisely for this reason.
On the other hand, the vocal harmonies from the original are gone (and are missed), and some drums would've been nice to keep things sounding a little tighter. Worst of all is Pallett's "Jump left!" which totally shatters any semblance of the whole ambiance-thing he had going on. That may be the point -- it's certainly unsettling, but unpleasantly so.
Nevertheless, the skill with which Pallet constructs each layer (on the fly, I might add) more than makes up for these relatively minor shortcomings (except the yelling -- I can't get over that). Seriously, though, check out Pallett's digital shenanigans -- he plays a layer, records it, and then loops it as he moves on to the next line of music. It's really quite genius and brings a really ... organic feel to his music.
In the meantime, check out Xiu Xiu's "I Luv the Valley, OH!" for a more effective, and chilling, use of screaming at inappropriate times.
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