hey everyone thank you so much for
checking out my second episode of ixypix
where I just share my favorite songs
with you and what I like about them in
this episode I'm going to share with you
three tracks that I love that have an
amazing build and then one bonus track
and it's not an accident that all of
these tracks are at least nine minutes
long the first track I want to share
with you is called burnt by chiasmos
they're a Fairways and Icelandic Duo
Olaf Arnold and Janus Rasmussen and this
is an instrumental it is so cool and all
of the tracks on this album are past
tense verbs lit held looped suede thrown
dragged bent and burnt I'd actually
Hazard to say this is one of my favorite
tracks in the entire universe and it is
such a powerful experience listening to
it every single time
[Music]
thank you
foreign
[Applause]
first of all I love the groove of this
song it's got both up-tempo and half
time elements so there's this incredible
conflict all the time between tempos
essentially the hi-hats are Up Tempo and
the claps are half time and by the way
there are two different types of claps
that alternate such a great production
Choice and then the kick is like it's so
Primal and pulsating the entire time
foreign
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
foreign
[Applause]
after this initial build there's this
breakdown and then that starts the big
big build and it starts with piano
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
minor chords have this inherent
heaviness and fragility to them I think
and this whole song makes me think of
like ice slowly growing over something
and like overtaking it and I think part
of that has to do with the icy cold
sound of these minor chords A sharp
minor
and C sharp minor
the star of this build I think is the
base it's just so delicious and I think
it's probably the use of filters various
filters that has that Baseline sort of
start very small and kind of contained
and then it grows into something you
could never imagine and I also think one
of the things about it that works so
well is that it has these deep Dives
down
I think they are tenths or something
hmm
all the way to
[Music]
do
even here it's even bigger I think it
goes
Pat
um
the top note is the third of the chord
which is minor so it's like exposing the
like bleeding heart of the cord to the
very top and then down down below is the
root of the chord the bottom of the
chord so just very satisfying it's a
great way to voice notes in chords
spread them out like that a great Rhythm
too Dad
foreign syncopated the phrasing of the
song also is a part of the build and
what kind of sets it apart so what I
mean by phrasing is usually songs no
matter what time signature they're in
whether it's one two three four which is
four four or one two three one two three
three four or six eight one two and one
and two and etc etc usually there are
four or eight or maybe 16 of them before
a musical statement concludes and then
you repeat that but in this case there's
five measures or five bars in the
musical phrase so that there's like one
extra so that automatically makes the
Cadence of the song rhythmically sort of
lopsided and I think whenever you have
that kind of lopsided Cadence it sort of
feels like it's tumbling forwards all
the time it has momentum behind it one
foreign
two
three four
five one
how do you start over again sometimes
when things don't change for a while in
music sometimes when things don't change
for a while in music it can result in
lack of interest but if it's done right
I think it does the opposite I think it
leads to excitement because you're
starting to expect a change like surely
there must be a change coming so this
one chord and this bass on it
it starts to increase the anticipation
so there are pads like this
[Music]
and probably scent strings and sampled
strings that contribute to the build
they get louder and louder and there's
more dissonance in between like when it
does this
[Music]
[Applause]
that creates tension and excitement so
those get louder and louder as the build
gets bigger and bigger and bigger what I
love about builds like this is you just
really don't know how many times this
will repeat before there's relief so not
knowing that I think also adds to the
excitement but also the like
timelessness how you can get really lost
in a song like this it's very hypnotic
right
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
but then when it does finally break
it breaks into this kind of piano and
Pad solo where it feels like you either
have fallen from the edge of a cliff and
landed in like water or clouds or
electricity or something and you're
being held and cradled this is how I
feel it's a very like calm and still
it could also be like death but there's
some sort of level of acceptance to this
moment so it feels like you're being
taken care of after what you just went
through in this song
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
foreign
I'm going to talk about I'm so excited
to tell you about I've been dying to
probably for years now and this is
collider by John Hopkins in case you
don't know John well I'm excited for you
for one but he's an English musician he
started out uh learning piano
classically switched to electronic music
I think he did keyboards for Imogen Heap
for a bit and he scored the 2010 film
monsters and I think he won an award for
that score it's so so good very
inspiring collider is also an
instrumental it's from his 2013 LP
immunity and I was looking at the
artwork and realizing all the
connections between the artwork and
maybe the meaning of of the lp and the
song titles
and apparently this artwork was created
by a biochemist who turned into an
artist I'll put a link down below if you
want to read more about it but it sounds
like it's food dyed crystallization like
microscopic crystallization so when I
listened to this song before I knew that
I really thought of this as like a song
moving through
space it felt Galactic like I was
traveling you know like beyond the
limits of my capacity through outer
space but now I'm like maybe it's Inner
Space it's cool to think about this
because when you're listening to minimal
music like this your scope has to change
you have to zoom in to the details to
appreciate what's going on
foreign
[Applause]
foreign
what do I love about this song Oh man
once again I love the drums drums are so
so important and these drums and often
other elements of his music in general
remind me of what fungus and Moss making
electronic music would sound like
something very biological and organic
about the way that his production
elements are modulated and how they
evolve when things kind of come in and
out and really sort of random
unpredictable ways and the way you know
he doesn't just start a new element like
on the downbeat usually he does
sometimes but often they kind of grow
like things kind of grow into existence
in his music and even just the quality
of of his drum sounds like they've been
they're kind of fuzzy and highly
textured and distorted in a way that
makes me think of moss I don't know how
else to put it this drum Groove has a
four on the floor kick but it feels like
it's rushing the entire time I think
it's because the snare hit is like kind
of a little early or a little late it
kind of depends on how you think about
it but it's sort of in between the lines
of the grid and it it makes it feel like
it's always a little ahead and like
you're just so that in and of itself
creates a build there's some really cool
vocal samples vocal chops there's an
exhale and that just like pings the
nervous system right it makes you it's
it's relatable to our biology so that's
just the beginning and you start to hear
like the shimmery note come in that's
like just a little premonition of what's
coming because it gets really Lush and
beautiful it almost reminds me a little
bit of Adagio for Strings by Samuel
Barber it has this deeply emotional
drawn out cinematic uh lushness to it
the base doesn't move from that note for
a long time I haven't timed it but I'm
gonna guess four minutes maybe five
minutes even
and it's like this tether for everything
else and it keeps us feeling waste me
feeling sort of stuck I love the way
there's this like cyclical
never-ending almost wave-like motion
that the melody and kind of this other
line are doing together there's sort of
this rise up and sinking back down
feeling and it's partly because of the
actual notes themselves like their
relationships to each other so initially
when it goes up it's going to go up this
scale called lydian which is a very
bright light upward pointing kind of
curious almost disconnected sounding
scale it's used a lot in scores that are
describing outer space
and then minor on the way down which is
very heavy so there's just this like
again very biological cycle going on
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
it feels like this melody is reaching up
it's like trying to escape like break
through some sort of
ceiling and it just can't do it and this
this disappointment happens so many
times
[Music]
foreign
the base moves and it's like everything
all the pieces finally fall into place
it is one of the most incredible
feelings ever
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
thank you
[Music]
also of note is the way that that will
lead
is swelling and it's on the offbeat
which makes me think that there's
probably a side chain compressor on the
kick so basically when the kick hits
then the volume of that uh signal goes
down another thing that makes it sound
so biological and organic because that
kind of swell I think is um it's kind of
like an inhale and an exhale I hope you
will listen to the whole album because
it's really really great but on to my
final track for this episode which is
how do you sleep by LCD sound system
so this is going to be a little bit
different than the others it has vocals
and it has like a disco Groove and it's
it's a very different kind of song LCD
sound system is an American group they
have a lot of really talented members
for the pleasure of seeing them live it
was a really fun show also I had the
pleasure of seeing John Hopkins live and
that was a very cool dance party how do
you sleep is my favorite track from the
album and I remember listening to this
non-stop on a road trip back home I was
sick and I was alone and I went through
Glenwood Canyon on I-70 in Colorado
which if you've driven it you know how
beautiful that is listening to this song
on repeat the intro is really
interesting it takes a little bit to get
into there's like this Tom with a really
significant delay on it and very pingy
and very strange sounding and a
beautiful synth kind of atmosphere and
hits and it's very evocative and then
James Murphy standing on the shore
Facing East
yeah standing on the shore Facing East I
don't hear you I don't hear you anymore
I can't see you I can't see you anymore
things like that so it's like analogy of
the ocean separating these friends
and then this fat
fat juicy mono synth I think it's a
square wave mostly just comes in and
dominates it just like
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
foreign
so first it's these three notes I know
it doesn't sound anything like it I
didn't have time to but
what's up DC and these are the roots of
chords that we're going to hear later on
when things are building
so D Minor C major and G major and these
three chords cycle with equal duration
which means the phrase is in three or
six basically so one two three four
that starts over again so that's another
one of those lopsided phrases that
propels things forward when he starts
singing there's more for you there's
more for you there's more for you
the space basically this bass line
starts to get more complex and they add
a lot of higher notes every time they
add these extra notes to that figure
it's different every single time there's
not a single measure that repeats in the
in that synth line I just think that is
so cool and pretty rare
drinking
I love this part
[Music]
it's like drawn out
[Music]
the part of the song that gets me the
most though is when he starts to sing
and if I see you it's like nothing is
wrong if we meet again tomorrow like
nothing went wrong but there I go
erasing our chances just by asking how
do you sleep
and when he sings there I go he goes
really high higher than he ever has
before and he leaves you on this sort of
melodic cliffhanger
and it feels so right and speaking of
right when he says wrong just like
nothing went wrong this wrong note like
just swells in so let me play you what
I'm talking about
foreign
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
so the Cliffhanger I'm talking about is
when he goes there I go so he goes
but this
[Laughter]
and why this feels like a cliffhanger is
because he's almost to the octave
which would be
that's like the end like
but he just leaves you here
[Music]
I just gets
I just realized that my keyboard wasn't
recording what I was doing so let me
just do it for you really quick again so
I was going
[Music]
and then I start playing
[Music]
thank you
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
thank you
something like that so that's how do you
sleep and oh in the ending the ending is
really cool too
might as well show you that it's like a
little out of tune
I love that
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
and the bonus track is lateralis by Tool
I mean I just have to I do have an
hour-long analysis like a live analysis
of that track if you want to hear more
about what I think about it and how I
think it works so well but the build I'm
talking about is that last section that
makes you go
you know the one I think the reason this
is so satisfying is because the Baseline
which is incredible that big plunging
down there
right amazing gets doubled up like a
couple times with another instrument or
a synth just like you know there's like
level one and then like level two and
then level three and I think the drums
also get kind of wetter and even this
sort of polyrhythm of the donut done
that sort of unevenness I think also
kind of creates momentum but let's just
listen to a little bit of it together
and go ah
[Music]
[Applause]
only one
now
[Music]
[Applause]
imagine
[Music]
that's it for this video thank you so
much for watching and as always many
many thanks to my amazing patrons for
supporting this channel if you want to
check it out link is in the description
we do listening parties and other cool
stuff I always feel so awkward telling
you about this but I need to do it and
if you have some tracks that have
amazing build please share them with the
rest of the class I'll put a comment
down below that you can add them to and
we can all mooch off of that list
together because build
until next time