In this sound analysis I will be looking at a piece of music called violent fluid taken from the EP, GenreMorphic Collective also known as D.T.I + Hypercube.
The track violent
fluid 6. 36
mins
DTI+HYPERCUBE Lastest Chart release are Located HERE
Introduction
In this analysis I will be looking at a piece of
sound and
connecting theories to the sonic aspects of this track. I will also be
investigating the theoretical underpinning behind this track by
examining as
kodwo eshun puts it (the psychoacoustic
fictional spaces of interludes and intros”). This does not mean
taking the
approach of a music review but a form of reduced listening, were
abstraction of
sound and listening to the very sonic matter is investigated. The music
title I have selected is different from
most
mainstream music; the band is composed of D.T.I Divide to Infinity,
real name
Adam Jocepos Stass and Rodrigo Passananti (Hypercube). There sound is
peculiar
in terms of traditional heavy metal/hard electronic music, in that they
attempt
to amalgamate the dark driven and essentially masculine energy of heavy
metal
music to a feminine rhizoid of gear shifted plateaus of electronic
break beat.
This genre amalgamation or networking of musical styles is not to be
confused
with “fusion.” But with a new trend in current electronic music, that’s
appropriated from many different sample sources, being modelled
together but
still being run from standardised rhythm structures.
Violent fluid
The track begins with the First 30 seconds as a pre warm up to the beginning verse of layered synth pads with a hollow choir. This essentially feels like a dark cyber/ industrial alter but in a powerful masculine way. Flushing dribbling fuss noise descends in a hard Bass beat squirming in and out of phase. Setting the tempo of the track, the thumping bass is sirened out by mangled slithers of sound dancing around and hoping in and around the main rhythm trajectory. From the first 30 seconds to 1min 29. This is the phase in the song as it’s just beginning to warm up, like petrol driven chainsaws, that chugs and buzz spins, this space is the beginning of the rhythm structure setting in and grasping the sounds in line and order. At 1min 29 Divide to infinity (Adam) begins singing or should I say shouting/chanting, the lyrical content is a aggressive power which pushes through to add a layer to the rolling snowball that is the song (as an analogy), as it begins to gather speed and more snow. Sparkling shards of electronic mistakes and scratches pan left and right giving a twisting feeling with the verse, as it flushes down into shifting forward hard sonic space.
This crescendo of chaotic shifting to plateau is aggressive gendered movement, sounds trembling and locking in audible sliding forward space, remains feminine in structure, the gearing movement of sound is organised compositionally in and around a stepped build up in phases, pulling the male destructive force of the sound into the structure of feminine. The feminine aspect or influence of this track is an organisational/ordering force which feels on the ear as a building up or series of gradual build-ups. Its function is to distribute the organisational make up of the track in a gradual lead up total destruction sonically; this structure is described by Deleuze below.
(There exist tree root structures in rhizome. The coordinates are determined not by theoretical analysis implying universals but by pragmatics composing multiplicities or aggregate of intensities) A thousand plateaus Gilles and Deleuze p14
By
honey pouring the sound in layers though tempo
change and
fluxing sounds, noise or impure signal of individual instruments or
loops
become ordered in the time stream of moving sound, thus merging as a
single
path of sound moving along a trajectory of rhythm. At 2min the first
gear kicks in for the song, this
is were
full strength of the sound begins. The hard bass beat with the tams
plus the
dropping metal in wide halls begins the journey, and a glimpse of a
full view,
of the music’s entire sonic sphere. The stratified texture of the tempo
begins
construction as extra sounds are added to build rhythm, increasing with
the
lyrical release, finishing with a robotic cut up scream.
At exactly 3mins the pace of the song finishes,
releasing
the full groove of the melody and tempo. Signalled with the deep sound
of the
vocals chant and a warble of rolling sonic space coming in and fading
out,
there’s still the punching of full powered rhythm tempo. The use of
this
section of the song with phases of introduction creates an open ground
acoustically, the idea of release and tension sonically such as fluxes
of
disjointed noise with intermittent drum breaks or pauses cause a
confused state
of chaos for the listener. This acts to break the overwhelming
dominance of the
masculine potential of the sounds used.
By connecting the songs rhythm structure into phases or gears, the sounds used or noises can be pulled into a reterritorialisation were the tempo aligns discord and creates a new aesthetic. The songs industrial cybernetic feel is a side effect from the very sounds used, metallic clashes of spliced up shards of fizzing noise in wide reverb space are pulsed at the listener in controlled bursts. This pushing through of sound, loosens the listeners sense of were there body is in space through displacing and bombarding the listener with sonic matter. The very sounds used ranging from loops to the vocals are all evident of electronic manipulation, this use of effects, kodwo eshun puts it as
(Electronic effects are destratifiers because they dissolve the organisation of the instrument; liquefy the stratification of sound) more brilliant than the sun, kodwo eshun.
By liquefy and destroying signal from instruments or loops, electronic Fx whether they be reverb or the latest plug in for your pc offer the ability to modify the existing palette of sounds known, often music or songs from an era are defined by the sound by which they make, the electronic medium offers the ability to make any sound available leaving the minds imagination to stop new sounds being made. A classic example of the way in which technology allows access to new sounds is….
(The Roland TB 303 bass line rhythm engineers its own audiomatter, in 87 the 303 discovers acid on its own) P19 Kodwo eshun,
What eshun is referring to is when a rather simple device came in the early 80s, it was when DJ’s started adding the acid squirming bass sound from the Roland 303 and started mixing it with house to form “acid house”, not only did this new sound which before not considered music had pushed the line forward, making a new style of music and genre, namely “Acid house” but it revised conceptions of noise and sound and pushed forward what is to be considered music. Moving swiftly back to the track at 4.46 there begins a hammering of a jack hammer building up to destructive guitar break riding on a hammering crescendo of white noise, the smashing cymbals lurch over and an unearthly deep scream jarring into a new tempo. This new tempo which is recognised by the shift in feel and timing is an evident aspect of the rhizome’s structure in this track, by moving from the main tempo across to a next phase brings about a genre change. This change in genre is another aspect of the rhizome in action, its wide open networked configuration acts as a stabiliser to the rhythm texture of the track, it hangs over the main velocity of the sound and groups the modules of separate phases within the song to structure and provide framework.
(To these centred systems, the authors contrast acentered systems, finite networks of automata in which communication runs from any neighbours to any other, the stems or channels do not pre-exist, and all individuals are interchangeable, defined only by their state at a given moment) Deleuze p17
At 5.50 the second shift occurs when this part of
the song
thrusts into chaotic smashing and zapping of guitar, this is the ever
changing
masculine potential that is the sound within this music, it forever
pervades
throughout the verses and drifting middle eights, this is the dark
energy
released at the end and unleashed by the feminine ordered structure
that grips
the squirming lizard of raw male energy. The song finish’s with an
explosion of acoustic
energy
fading into silence.
Conclusion
In surmise the track “violent fluid” is structured
in a
networked fashion similar to Deleuze’s rhizamone, this configuration is
betrayed by the masculine energy of the sounds used and compositional
layout,
but organised in strata or layered build-ups. In terms of whether noise
and signal clarity are
to be
considered within this track to be a technological evolution of sound
compared
to Eshun’s idea of electronic self conception of new sounds, I feel
machines
don’t invent new sounds humans do, like a child that plays with a toy,
a child
may break that toy as it explore’s it through its senses, this is also
parallel
with music and sound making, some things need to be played with until
they show
something new. This is the case with the Roland 303 and other
technologies
weather their software or hardware. Mistakes are not to be considered
mistakes
just new methods within a devices potentiality.
I agree with Deleuze with the notion of the Rhizome, in that an inherently networked and organic continuality of deterritorialisation exists within sonic culture, that can be appropriated to, art and music as well as other field, however its structure of organisation mirrors a network without a hieratical centre, this also is a information pattern seen within chaos theory, information theory, fractal geometry and a snow flake. These factors only serve to highlight the notion of gendered Sonics and sexuality within music. Is there a balance between the sexuality within music and sound? Is there supposed to be balance? I feel that these questions are only to be answered by the people who really make sound/music.
More brilliant than the sun, by kodwo Eshun, quartet books limited 1998(p4)
A
Thousand Plateaus, Capitalism and Schizophrenia,
Gilles Felix, Deleuze Guattari, Athlone press Ltd 1