RoboArmor

What better way to impress your friends than by getting an robotic exoskeleton?

Math humor

Imogen Heap

This one is definitely interesting. Imogen Heap, 29, from England, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and overall performer. She makes heavy used of electronica elements, such as vocoders and voice-overs. "Hide and seek" is the name of her first single from "Speak for Yourself". The track is completely vocal, i.e. no instruments are present. When I first heard it I thought the track was going to incrementally build up, i.e. adding a drum loop or something, but nay. Instead, Heap goes for an intimate, private yet surgical feel. The sound of the track is so crisp and clean that you can really immerse yourself into the different vocal lines created by the vocoder which is what the whole song revolves around. You can even hear the vocal click at the end of the word "seek", this adds to the intimate feel. The song also contains a more rhythmically inclined part ("mmm..whachah say?...") which adds to the song coolness factor.

Another track I love is "Just for now". The leitmotif here is building up by dubbing tracks over and over. I find the live version much more interesting than the album version, I guess you really see the artisanship of the artist shine through here

Keane - Under the Iron Sea - Atlantic

So I've been listening to Keane's latest album, "Under the Iron Sea". I must say...wow :), there are some remarkable tracks here, the first one that pops to mind is "Atlantic"

Let's see; when I first heard Atlantic, I thought "hmm, this is weird...I could swear I've already heard something like it". And it was true, the fact being that the 4/4 metric played in sextuplets by the drums, which gives the sort of pushing-back feel to the beat of the song, since every repetition of the intro pattern falls on a different beat each time (believe me, it's easier to understand this by listening to the song :) but it's like having to wheels of different radii turning against each other. At a certain point, they meet again.)
Aside from the not-so-weird metric effect, there is a very nice and abrupt change in the first part of the song. The song goes Bmaj7 - Emaj7 - Bb7 - Ebm/Gb. The change from Emaj7 to Bb7 is very strong (a tritone change), which is enhanced as the song grows by ethereal electronic sounds and a strings base. Very Radiohead-y.

There's a part where the song changes direction "and if I need anything at all". This sounds more like it could be something from U2.
The last part worth mentioning musically is "sing you to your sleep". There's a very classical "Disney"-like passage by going to that diminished chord, something nostalgic, pure, almost epiphanic, with the ending "the day's beginning".

The lyrics are on a league of their own. They are so dark and depressing it's brilliant :D They transmit fear, despair, but at the same time, hope and expectation.

The vocals float very nicely as in most Keane tracks, almost cherub-like. I like the distorted sound of the bassline, reminiscent of Bjork's Army of Me, or even some of Skunk Anansie's stuff, sans the violence :). The Wurlitzer piano sound choice is golden, a surgical sound, filled with angst. Luvvv it :)

Here's the music video. Enjoy.



The music video is somewhat related conceptually at least to "Tz!" a short film by my good friend Shay Levert: