Introduction

One of my most active intellectual interests is the presence of music. It began as a child of age 3, as many things do. I was handed a small violin and was taught how to hold a bow. I have never really known the first name of the Japanese musician whose philosophy of musical teaching I was raised with, but I definitely know his last: Suzuki. In the Suzuki style, smaller instruments are made so that a child can be taught the mechanics of the instrument as young as possible. Everything in the child's life is to be associated with music, from their summer camps to their schools. It is his belief that with complete musical immersion comes a stronger musician. It is likely the result of such an upbringing that when I hear the request of a journal, I think of music. The writing herein contained is the particular responses and comments respecting songs that I feel are meaningful, from one perspective or another. The music has been provided, and it is at your leisure that you may listen to these songs. It is with hope that I demand: enjoy!

1. Robert Johnson - Hellhound On My Trail

I speak with particular affection towards this song as a man who has had a lifelong struggle with depression. Hellhound on My Trail is a song with a very clear meaning, with a very clear effect. While I don't intend to speak to much of the complex movement of the Blues, there are certain historical effects particular to Robert Johnson that require comment. Robert Johnson recorded between 1936 and 1937. His songs were successful, and his skills were apparent. He mysteriously died in 1938. His story, coupled with his use of demonic themes in his most popular songs, has fueled a legend. Part of this legend is the belief that Johnson sold his soul to the devil, an event often depicted as taking place at the Crossroads he speaks about in his Crossroad Blues. This is one of the many fantastic reasons why the Blues influenced Rock and Roll is often defamed as "devil music." Johnson's Hellhound on My Trail fuels this notion. While clear in its emotion, the Blues style of singing does not lend itself to clarity of diction. For this reason, I have provided lyrics:

I gotta keep movin
I gotta keep movin
Blues fallin down like hail
Blues fallin down like hail
Umm mmmm mmm mmmmmm
Blues fallin down like hail
Blues fallin down like hail
And the days keeps on worryin me
theres a hellhound on my trail
hellhound on my trail
hellhound on my trail

If today was Christmas Eve
If today was Christmas Eve
and tommorow was Christmas Day
spoken : Aow wouldn't we have a time baby

All I would need my little sweet rider just
to pass the time away huh huh
to pass the time away
You sprinkled hot foot powder mmmm
mmm around my door
all around my door
You sprinkled hot foot powder
all around your daddy's door hmm hmm hmm
It keep me with ramblin mind rider
every old place I go
every old place I go
I can tell the wind is risin
the leaves tremblin on the tree
tremblin on the tree
hmmm hmmm hmm mmm
All I needs is my sweet woman
and to keep my company hey hey hey hey
my company

As I understand, there was something of a trend of Robert Johnson analysis in the 50s and 60s. I do not pretend to have a thorough analysis of this work. However, what I can say is what I believe with confidence. To me, this is a song that poetically expresses a life stricken with depression. Part of living with depression is the constant sucking of a void. When its present, you feel its strength, and you struggle. Depression is the Hellhound, and its on your trail. A lot of the song narrates what Johnson has done to work off the demon. To keep moving is a technique to not let sadness take you. In the reference to Christmas Eve, Johnson fantasizes a time that he would surely be happy. In his depressive storm he depends on his 'little sweet rider', his 'sweet woman', to help him get through the time. The trembling leaves on the tree represent his recognition of the storm coming in. It is in this sense that Hellhound on My Trail is a song detailing a life of depression.

2. Fanu ft. Gigi - Semena-Worck.

I could try to introduce Drum and Bass as a genre, but I really don't think it would really mean anything when referring to Semena-Worck. Fanu is a Finnish Drum and Bass artist, however his style is incredibly flexible. What Drum and Bass as a whole represents is music with, often incredibly complex, percussive elements at its center and with bass producing most of what is classically referred to as a melody. Gigi is one of the world's most famous Ethiopian singers. Together, Fanu and Gigi have collaborated to produce a few tracks together. Semena-Worck uses Gigi's smooth voice in a very unusual way. Throughout the song, there is a sense of mystery, and hence intrigued. The percussion changes on a dramatic skip at around 3:40 from thin, accenting tones, to large collapsing crashes that, in a sense, assert the existence of the atmosphere. A percussive element I feel is worth noting is the use of claps to end a percussive loop. I don't think an English translation of the lyrics exists, else I would provide them.

3. Issa Bagayogo - Diarabi

Issa Bagayogo, often called Techno Issa in home country of Mali, merges his small town style with electronic beats to produce a sound that is rather unique. Until he met French DJ Yves Wernert, Issa just played the kamele n’goni, a Malian guitar, and sang. His failures to succeed before this meeting motivated a drug habit that motivated his wife to leave him. Shocked into action, he cleaned up and Yves Wernert taught him how to produce electronic music. Diarabi describes his pain without his wife in a way that I have almost crashed my car twice while singing along to. The child chorus in the song sings the lyrics

Oh my love when I slept without you
I knew that your company is happiness.

Well, that's what the lyrics are when they are awkwardly translated into English.

4. Tru Fam - Reminisce (Z-Trip Rmx)

Here is another song that is considered Underground Hip-hop. While there are many songs that catalogue the hardships of inner city life, I feel Tru Fam does it with particular clarity. Z-Trip's remix adds some crisp beats and some rather sentimental horns into the mix, giving it a sort of 70s throwback atmosphere. In this song, Tru Fam laments about how he has to raise his son on ghetto streets. It evolves into commentary on the cyclic nature of poverty from an immensely personal perspective. There are a few lines that move me particularly.

1: "reminding you of the kings we evolved from, we didn't start out slaves you got it all wrong."
2: "Its hard enough to survive
when all the rest of them died
before they even reached their prime,
they fall a victim."
3: "I said what up to this kid, the nigga bein' mugged,
It wasn't nothin' I did, he just bein' a thug.
Brothers out here hatin' life cause they fiendin' for love
the last generation's likely if we don't wake up."

I feel that these three excerpts are particular significant and self-explanatory.

5. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass

Aesop Rock, or Ian Bavitz, is a New York City emcee and a large figure of Underground Hip-hop. Underground Hip-hop refers to hip-hop that is, simply, not represented by a major record label. It can be thought of as analogous to an independent film, in that an independent film is generally understood to be both not produced by a major studio, and for some reason. In general, independent films can employ themes, exercises, and styles that are not ordinary. For example, the film 'Memento' is an independent drama that uses its main character's amnesia to be able to present the plot in day to day episodes in reverse order. While there is nothing, besides production association, directly implied by trait of 'independent', there are things that are indirectly implied. For instance, it could be said---rather loosely---that independent films tend to be more artistic. For Underground Hip-hop, a similar statement could be made. Underground Hip-hop tends to be more artistic than hip-hop that is not considered Underground Hip-hop. Artistic doesn't necessarily mean better, but, depending on your preferences, it can. None Shall Pass has many qualities. There is something really unique, poetically, about the emcee medium. The speaker controls, and even micromanages, timing between words in order to manipulate the texture and feel of the verse. Aesop, in particular, arranges his lyrical flow in a way that is much like a stream. The barrage is inconsistent, yet constant. Imagine poetry that is viewed only through a CNN headline news crawler. The emcee is able to change the speed and size of the font in order to control how much is available in thought. Often, the poetic meaning behind the flow is dependent on what is immediately visible in the crawler. Because of this arrangement, the lyrics represent a constant flow of ideas. This, I feel, is particularly true in None Shall Pass. Here are the lyrics:

Flash that buttery gold, jittery zeitgeist
Wither by the watering hole, border patrol
What are we to heart huckabee art fuckery suddenly?
Not enough young in his lung for the waterwing
Colorfully vulgar poacher outta mulch
Like "i'm 'a pull the pulse out a soldier and bolt"
Fine.
Sign of the time we elapse
When a primate climb up a spine and attach
Eye for an eye by the bog like swamps and vines
They get a rise out of frogs and flies
So when a dog-fight's hog-tied prize sorta costs a life
Their mouths water on a fork and knife
And the allure isn't right, no score on a war torn beach
Where the cash cow's actually beef
Blood turns wine when it leak for police
Like "that's not a riot it's a feast, let's eat!"

CHORUS:
And I will remember your name and face
on the day you are judged by the funhouse cast
And I will rejoice in your fall from grace
with a cane through the sky like "none shall pass."

Aah, let me in!
None shall pass.
Aah, let me in!
None shall pass.

If you never had a day a snow cone couldn't fix
You wouldn't relate to the rogue vocoder blitz
How he spoke through a no-doz motor on the fritz
Cause he wouldn't play roll over fetch like a bitch
And express no regrets, though he isn't worth a homeowner's piss
To the jokers who pose by the glitz.
Fine.
Sign of the swine in the swarm
When a king is a whore who comply and conform
Miles outside of the eye of the storm
With a siphon to lure out a prize and award
While avoiding the vile and bazaar that is violence and war
True blue triumph is more
Like wait, let it snake up outta the centerfold
Let it break the walls of jericho
Ready? Go! Sat where the old cardboard city folk
Swap tales with heads like every other penny throw

Chorus

"You tried to trick me.
You've gotta lot of nerve."
"I'm not trying to trick you
I'm-trust me-I'm-trust me-I'm trying to help."

Okay, woke to a grocery list
Goes like this: duty and death.
Honey, when a jet comes stand in the way
You could be my little snake river canyon today
And I ran with a chain of commands
And a jet pack strap where the back-stab lands if it can
Fine.
Sign of the vibe in the crowd
When I cut her belly open to find what climb out
What a bit of gusto he muster up
To make a dark horse rush like enough is enough
It musta struck a nerve so they huff and puff
'Til all the king's men fluster and clusterfuck
And it's a beautiful thing
To my people who keep an impressive wingspan
Even when the cubicle shrink
You gotta pull up the intruder by the root of the weed
NY chew through the machine.

6. Ratatat - Shempi

Pretty much the college artist to listen to right now is Ratatat. Things that you can do while listening to Ratatat: hang out, read, study, and smoke weed. Number of people that Ratatat offends: zero. Number of people that get up mid-Ratatat and request a song change: zero. I feel that, for a lot of people, a montage of their college career would sync very well with a Ratatat song. Ratatat isn't the most popular at UC Merced, but then again, UC Merced is still building its college atmosphere. At most other campuses, Ratatat is undoubtedly a phenomena. I battled over which Ratatat song to place here, but I decided to put on Shempi. Shempi is off Ratatat's newest album, LP3, and is often the track people skip to first. Ratatat's more popular songs are Wildcat, and Seventeen Years, both songs that are likely to have been heard before, in some avenue, much in the way that its difficult to say you haven't heard Felix da Housecat's remix of Nina Simone's Sinnerman.

7. Photophob - Her Sexy Circuits

This is a song that illustrates what is really special about electronic sounds in music. This is to say, I do not feel that this song could have possibly been written without electronic sounds. Photophob, aka Herwig Holzmann, is an Austrian IDM artist, and he's pretty fucking good at what he does. The best way to introduce his music is probably the title on the Photophob homepage, "Soundtracks for movies that have never been filmed." IDM is an acronym for (I)ntelligent (D)ance (M)usic, a genre that has an ironic name. The only way I can imagine the genre name makes any sense is if you were to imagine music that your brain could dance to. While there is a clear structural rhythm, the percussive elements are expressive of sounds that are not involved in rhythmic timing in any real form. Initially, the rhythms do not make much sense. By the end of the song, they make sense. If there is a moment in the song that the percussion's form is the most understood, it is at 2:54. The song is titled Her Sexy Circuits, and that is exactly what it describes. The song begins with sounds that smooth the grace and form of the female. As song progresses, we see it with greater clarity. Once the final melody is introduced at 1:55, we are completely aware of its form. The sounds from this melody are heavy and unrelenting, producing a dense description that completes a body, and hence, Her Sexy Circuits.

8. Roger Eno and Plumbline - Siren 890

It feels strange to introduce Roger Eno. There is a form of electronic music that has never really required a genre name. Some call it Ambient, some call it Atmospheric. In a record shop, you'd probably find it in Electronic. Roger Eno has, for almost 20 years, been a defining figure when it comes to this music. It's something to appreciate, but not really talk about. I, personally, do not listen to Roger Eno. I don't really like most of his work. I am, however, a Plumbline listener. Plumbline, a.k.a. Will Thomas, is more of an "artist" than a "musician." This is said in the sense that music is used as a medium--a means, not an end. His 2005 release, Pin Points, is an attempt to capture sounds of New York City intersections. Thomas will spend hours with a microphone, recording sounds from the intersections. Then, through digital manipulate, he produces a song from those sounds. His first album, Circles, is a musical documentation of the landscape observed during a trip from LA to New York. Siren 890 is from Transparencies, a collab album with Roger Eno, that uses recordings from churches and buildings in East Anglia, England. The immersion that this song offers is priceless. While anything is good while staring out a window with headphones on, this is pretty fuckin' up there. Favorite sound: the rhythm that peaks its wave first at 0:40. I think of the rest of the song as a rolling blanket that on each iteration of this particular sound, is blown, ripped away.

9. Nalepa - Monday (Glitch Mob remix)

Even though this Glitch Mob remix, it has been so transformed by Glitch Mob it is no longer a Nelepa song. The Glitch Mob is a collection of four electronic musicians, spanning several genres and cities. In a Glitch Mob set, music from all four the artists are mixed together. Some songs all four worked on, others just individuals. The music spans from Dubstep, to Electro, to Glitch Hop, to IDM. Glitch Hop mixes the beats of IDM and hip-hop together to form Glitch Hop. Even more specifically, it merges Glitch and hip-hop, but Glitch is pretty easily contained by IDM. Even though some people would have issues with this claim, they can go fuck themselves. Moral of the story is, Glitch Mob is pretty bumpin'.

So Fresh and So Clean

This is the beginning of a series of songs that simply represent some new songs I have come across in the last few days. I can't say much about their longevity, but I thought it might be interesting to present some sounds that are absolutely fresh and untested by time.

10. The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose To Give It (Boy 8 Bit Mix)

I swear, I've become addicted to listening to this guy slur. That fuckin' englishman sounds like he spent much of his youth dodging speech therapy appointments. Besides The Black Ghosts, Boy 8-bit has a particular style. He merges two genres, 8-bit and electro house. Apply this style to sloppy electro and this is what you get. A little note, a electro, as a genre, is much different than electro house, even though often electro house is shortened to just electro. Electro, by itself, is a sort of electronic indie music. A title that roughly applies to The Black Ghosts. I'm not a huge Indie guy, so I can't really voice so much on that. The Black Ghosts are pretty trendy, I guess. Trendy in the sense that I wouldn't be surprised to hear them on a pop radio station in a few months. Trendy in that the dude who wears jeans, scientifically formulated in a northern european lab to look as tight as possible could probably be expected to list them in their Myspace Music page pretty soon. For this reason, I am whole heartedly afraid to place this song anywhere besides in a section for songs completely untested by time, because damnit, I don't want to be caught on tape claiming Rick Astley is a profound, life changing artist, even though it was said when he was just a drummer in a 1985 soul band.

11. Jamie Lidell - Little Bit of Feel Good (Boreta remix)

This song is really addicting. It definitely gains from blasting, and singing along. The remix itself is done by Boreta, a member of The Glitch Mob described in another entry. The most unusual aspect of the song is how quiet it gets between beats. Maybe that's why the song blasts so well. Some songs when you hear them really, really loud, you just adjust to the new volume. When it comes to this track, the quietness really lets you know how loud you've got it set. Every beat slams down with the same oomph as when you first turned up the volume. JUST A LOOOOK. OF THOSE EYYYESS...CUUTTIN THROUGH MY SMOKEY SKIES.. Honestly, When I first heard the song, I didn't really like it. Then I sang a long. Lives change, and this song reminds you of that.

12. Kid Cudi - Day 'N' Nite (Crookers Remix)

This is what one would refer to as a "bomb." It receives such a title because when its sound hits the dance floor, the what occurs, mayhem, is best described by a sudden explosion. The Crookers are a duo out of the Baltimore club scene who feature the introduction of Fidget House, a sub genre of Electro House. Most of what makes Fidget House actually Fidget House isn't really represented in this track, but its worth mentioning none the less. Fidget House sees a particular abuse of sample manipulation. Actually, an example of its ravaging is visible in this song at 0:27 in the song. The rapid, almost confusing, clips of the vocal sample are used to produce unusual rhythms. I think what lends most directly to this song's destructive force is the way it keeps you entertained in its verses, but contrasts so extremely with the chorus. Also, the alarm sirens that signal the dropping of the beat allow for a build up that doesn't require a change in the way the vocal loop is being presented.

An Introduction to Dubstep: Trilogy of Beatz

Dubstep was accepted as a genre around 2002. While there are many available descriptions, its only real requisite for sound is half-time drums and some semblance of bass. It first spawned out of east London in the Forward>> club, and was popularized by the London radio station Rinse FM. Right now, Dubstep is in a paculiar stage. Its hot, really hot. However, it is difficult to obtain. Most of the material is exclusively on vinyl, which has the effect of primarily influencing DJs. Hence, a new Dubstep scene has sprung in California... yay. Well, by California, I mean the SF-Bay area and San Diego/LA. I am certainly no expert on Dubstep, but I do groove on it. If there is anyone I know that would be a said expert, it would be my brother, who operates as Dubstep and Drum and Bass DJ in and around San Diego. At any rate, what I'm attempting here is a sort of trilogy of Dubstep songs that exhibit the range that the genre has.

13. Roguestar - Come Around (Dubstep Remix)

This is an example of a dubstep 'banger'. It utilizes a lot of the techniques and styles developed in dubstep and electro house in order to produce an incredibly danceable, slammable, RRRRIKIuhMIXable track. I provide this track with caution, as the head bobbin' that may and must commence is outright damaging. As many of these fellows have strong reggae influences, you can hear a lot of those classic triplet rhythms in dubstep. Not to mention, the MC provides a lot of that feel. Hm. Man. I often forget where I'm going and what I'm doing when I'm listening to this song. For this reason, it is both good and bad for driving.

14. Kid Sister - Pro Nails (Rusko Remix)

Here, we have a dubstep song that informs us that really what makes up dubstep is the half-time drums that really make this beat massive. A paculiar aspect about dubstep is that in order for the halftime drums not to seem completely outrageous the rest of the song is actually pretty fast, around 140 beats per minute. This puts the half time drums operating around 70 peats per minute, a little slower than a Bette Midler love ballad. While not necessary, the wobbly bass is certain common in the Dubsteppers repertoire. This track certainly exercises the wobbly bass technique pretty well, making its first wobbly bass debut around 0:27.

15. Ruckspin and Quantum Soul - Atomise

Atomise is a prime example of why dubstep is so exciting. Since the genre is so new, people really have no prejudices against any divergence in dubstep style. Ruckspin and Quantum Soul use no sounds that are characteristic of Reggae, or really any other dubstep artist. While it is clearly electronic music it uses sounds that have been recorded, and with little modification. Unlike the other dubstep tracks presented, it has an entirely natural bass line. Even still, the song is clearly Dubstep.