hey everybody i'm ixi and i'm going to
be analyzing the performance of reptile
that has peter murphy featured on vocals
jordy white on guitar trent reznor on
bass guitar
and atticus frost doing the programming
this is a really really different
performance
than any other version of reptile i've
heard
they had to really change things to make
it appropriate for
this sort of small intimate setting i
don't know where they are if they're in
a studio or if they're in a little
rehearsal space but people are sitting
on blankets on the floor
and it's just it's a completely
different vibe i have watched this a
couple times but it's been a little bit
so i'm going to watch the whole thing
again and then we're going to pick it
apart a little bit and
try to understand why they made those
changes and
also i don't know who peter murphy is i
read that he was the singer of bauhaus
um who i haven't heard um
so but i do remember his performance
being very theatrical
kind of in the spirit of david bowie
actually so i'm looking forward to
seeing that again
let's go
[Music]
she spreads herself wide open
[Music]
to show me where she's been
[Music]
from within
[Music]
i am
give it
[Music]
manifested
[Music]
and
to contaminate to alleviate
this loneliness
[Music]
limitless
[Music]
season
[Music]
my disease
[Music]
ah
[Music]
cool
[Music]
is
[Music]
um
[Music]
is
[Music]
strike
[Music]
oh
[Music]
sorry i'm a child
[Music]
wow
[Music]
oh
hmm
[Applause]
wow look at that there's like 20 people
there
how did those lucky people end up in
this room
okay well anyway that's
that is so so different
the first thing that i'm thinking is
this is like
the good soldier from year zero
the drums the tempo sort of the sparse
arrangement the way even the baseline
it just sounds like the good reptile
doesn't it yeah really interesting um
i wouldn't say that this interpretation
of reptiles is exactly my cup of tea
but i do really appreciate how they were
able to adapt it for an intimate space
the only time where i felt like i would
if i were sitting there i would be like
whoa
is when peter murphy was he was doing
something with his vocals he was
screaming maybe
um i mean it was is awesome no criticism
there but like
other than that like they kind of like
matched
their space and their mood they didn't
go bigger
than the room you know um so
yeah i mean that's that's probably not a
very easy song to adapt for
an intimate setting um so other than the
sort of like
slow kind of relaxed almost low-fi
sounding beats with like the bongos um
we also so we don't have the mechanized
drum beat at all
um we also don't have the gong
sound or the bowed metal sound that uh
mike and i were talking about in the
sound design
analysis video the one that goes
[Music]
um no servo sounds right
no taser sounds um
no choking girl sounds there's
uh and not even the
like trent could have just dum dum dum
dum
i do have to say i love the tone on his
bass guitar here that was really well
done
it's very textured and gritty and bassy
and it sounds amazing
at least in these headphones it's like
amazing i
really appreciated the guitar work by
jordy as well
especially at the end with the ebo which
i learned about when i was doing my uh
the great destroyer analysis
um and yeah just the sound of a
guitar resonating like that for forever
it's just like
like i want a guitar and an ebo just to
do that
if i could just do that um anyway but
yeah trent could have like dumbed um
uh the whole time and then for the
course you could have just gone
[Music]
but they chose to actually craft a bass
line that implies
a chord progression in the verse
so in the studio version it's just d the
whole time
but this time they're like
[Music]
i think see if i can find
[Music]
[Applause]
so approximately that so that would
actually imply some kind of harmonic
movement
and it it adds a little bit more
you know harmonic complexity a little
more tension it it makes the melody
not quite as showcased especially that
last part
um so now that i'm saying that maybe
that just
that d zoom zoom zoom really allows
the melody of transvocals to be
the only real focal point during that
part
so this is like
[Music]
so yeah there's like some cords she
spreads itself wide open
to let the insects
in it's gorgeous
oh i love that
[Music]
yeah that's great um but we don't get
like those chords
it's just the root of the chord that
trend is playing
um but yeah it gives a little more of a
funky bluesy kind of
quality to it i guess so that would be
like one three seven four
um peter murphy's vocals
so i don't know what he normally sounds
like if that is his sound
but i think it was perfect that i
watched uh the david bowie performance
and then this one because it felt like
that
david bowie was like a gateway uh to
peter murphy
like yeah like like if if if
david bowie became even more david bowie
he might sound
a little bit like peter murphy just you
know from within
sounded so good when he got really close
on the mic in his lower range
uh i really really like that it also
sounded like he kind of
took off the cozy almost like out of
place major third that trent sings
that sort of tenderness he was just like
she
hat spreads herself wide open
to let the insects in
in so now it's just like that
that minor third in the blood of reptile
up there too underneath the skin
uh i did miss that major third it's
because without it everything is just
kind of in a minor key
um and with the major third it becomes
modal it takes on a whole
new world and that resolution to the
major third
is is significant um
but yeah it's still cool it's still very
cool
what other things that i want to comment
on um i think i actually heard some
chords in this second half where they're
singing haunted
as the minutes drag is that what they're
saying
um i don't know where that came from it
was cool it almost felt like
i mean i know that they had planned it
but that whole section it was just like
looping and looping and they kind of got
to like try different things and it felt
almost
improvisational like they were just kind
of jamming
i guess is what i'm trying to say which
i think is perfect for this atmosphere
um jordy got to do some really cool
stuff with the ebo and peter murphy was
doing all sorts of things he had two
mics
you know he was doing kind of you know
haunted haunted
and then he had the other mic and then
you go
which was cool the other one had um
some crazy reverb on it maybe or
something and he was doing those like
kind of creepy ghostly noises
uh very cool um
oh my oh yeah he was also doing a vocal
harmony so
peter murphy was he was doing um
oh my beautiful liar
on top of oh my beautiful
so that would sound like um
[Music]
maybe he did this i don't know
did he really just do that parallel
force the whole way or was that those
fifths
fifths i heard a lot of like yeah
fifths um i mentioned in my david bowie
video because david bowie is harmonizing
with him
a third above so he's going oh my
beautiful liar and not that part here
peter murphy was trying
he was picking another note in the chord
that's implied
uh so david bowie's going
peter murphy was going and then he was
following trent's contour
uh with his vocal harmony it actually
sounded really good
i personally like parallel fours and
fifths in harmony
but a lot of people don't like it it
doesn't sound right to them
um but it sounds right to me here
especially that was really cool
and also it was it was quieter you know
it wasn't like competing at all with the
main melody
um what else
yeah that was cool um i imagine if
you're a peter murphy fan this was
probably extremely exciting
right to get this sort of combo
um but if if you're not familiar i mean
what did you think of this
uh it's very different like i said you
know we're missing we're missing a lot
of
key elements that make reptiles sound
the way it does this is obviously
reptile like you wouldn't
mistake it for any other song
but it doesn't have the reptile feel to
me
but you know then again maybe my piano
interpretations don't have the reptile
feel either because simply it is a piano
or because i approach something more
gently than in the original version
um but yeah it's it's a really different
i guess it still has some kind of sleazy
slitheriness to it because of peter
murphy without his vocals
maybe it would have not been quite as
dynamic and in fact this whole song
doesn't really have dynamic changes
except for his vocals it was just kind
of it started
and it layered a little bit the ending
kind of tapered off just left
left us with trent in the base um but it
kind of just starts and goes
until it just stops you know so there's
not a lot of this
reptile you know not a lot of this
um and yeah it was a little strange
hearing some of the mixolydian flat six
qualities sort of removed which is just
one of the best scales if you're writing
music and you haven't tried the scale
yet
try it mixolydian flat six is mixolydian
flat
sick all right bye everybody
you