Author Archives: The Music in My Ears (by Jamie Kyei)

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About The Music in My Ears (by Jamie Kyei)

Just one man who's making his way through life one day at a time writing about the songs he has on his phone. And other things at some points.

My iPod #349: Franz Ferdinand – Fade Together

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Nearing the end of Franz Ferdinand’s second album comes “Fade Together”, a forlorn piano-led track about the end of a relationship. You regularly get the ’emotional’ track near the end of any album, and this song is definitely one of those.

A single-tracked Alex Kapranos in the verses sighs into the microphone about plans to ‘get away’ with somebody which all seemed so real, until something of a flash-forward in time in the next verse reveals that those dreams are long gone. Now Kapranos only wishes to get over this person, no matter how hard it actually is to do so. In hope of ending this feeling he, along with himself as the haunting double-tracked vocal comes in for the chorus, calls out to all to ‘fade together/forever’.

A very good album track. One where the time signature is quite weird during the verses (goes from 3/4 to 5/4 and then switches back to 3/4), and includes great use of a piano, which has its own little solo for the last 30 seconds when the singing finishes and the bass and acoustic guitars disappear and you may also hear the sounds of bird tweeting throughout, adding to the track’s lonely atmosphere.

It’s all a bit of a downer. But at least the next track ends the album on more of a confident note.

My iPod #348: Daft Punk – Face to Face

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I have returned! What better way to start the month of October than with the start of this ‘series’ thing that most followers possibly look at my blog for.

This is “Face to Face”, the penultimate track from Daft Punk’s second album Discovery. If you are watching the album’s visual counterpart “Interstella 5555“, this is the point where – spoilers – Earth finds out the band are aliens and help them get back to their home planet. That’s the first time I heard the track, and I got very positive vibes from it. Watching the film at the same time, I was happy to see that the people of Earth were so adamant on helping the blue-skinned people. It was nice to see.

From looking at the lyrics, the track is from the perspective of someone who feels foolish for throwing their toys out of the pram in a fight, instead of just talking it out face to face, and finding sense in whatever the other person was saying. It may also be about Internet dating or something. But I personally think it’s the former.

The double-tracked vocals are done by Todd Edwards, who more recent Daft Punk fans may know from “Fragments of Time” from “Random Access Memories”. However, the majority of the track has no vocals at all and instead focuses on the different samples of older songs that are used but which Daft Punk never wanted to reveal. We all know that “Evil Woman” by ELO is in there….. but I still have no clue what the female vocal is saying or where it’s from. I’m convinced that it’s saying “-long…. Mr. Furlong” and then “good evening” at some parts too.

The music itself makes me feel good. Why? The positive message, the stomping 4-4 beat, or those cut/copy samples that work so well together. A song to lie back to and feel good about what you have is what this is.

Mash-Ups

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So as I was saying yesterday, 2009-2010 was my Beatles year. And because of my sudden interest in the group, I got “The Beatles Rock Band” as a present early in the first month of the new decade. Now I was able to play along with George, Ringo, John and Paul on 45 of their signature tracks (and three albums extra as DLC). Undeniable fun was had. Though once all the songs were there and I’d played them all that fun faded away. Hope that every Beatles song would be added to game was dashed as days passed.

But  buying the game led me to joining its official forum where I chatted to some cool people. They owned the game, and liked The Beatles as much as I did. What could go wrong? That’s when you expect the heel-turn. But nothing did go wrong. It was a good few months on there.

The best thing I did on there, was contribute to a ‘community mash-up’ album conceived by another member. It was meant to be in the style of the ‘LOVE’ album of 2006 made for the Cirque du Soleil show. Obviously, ours weren’t as professional or on the same level as those tracks. But the process of making it was one of the most exciting things, and the ending product was pretty well done. The album’s title? “Melodies of Memories”. Very nice.

You can follow the album’s making by clicking here. You can also watch each song’s video on YouTube via clicking on this whole sentence. I am the member named ‘JAMZFTW’. I have reasons behind the name, but I won’t tell them. I also made some extra songs that didn’t make it on there, either because they didn’t fit or because it was too late. That ended up being an “EP” which I appropriately named “PEACE”. ‘Cause ‘Peace and Love’, get it? Click on here to download it.

I got so hyped up over the ‘mash-up’ idea that I ended up making many more. A sequel to “Melodies of Memories” was initiated by another forum member literally days after the first. That member then disappeared, and didn’t log in for a long time. How did it end? Well, the sequel was released eventually entitled “All Things Must Return”. That album and the songs from “Peace” would be on YouTube had the company not terminated my account, which I’m still sad about to this day.

I was even determined to start a part 2 to *that* incorporating the use of Beatles solo material to do the mash-ups. That album died. No one cared. And to be honest, I didn’t either. Songs were made though. Those are all in my Mediafire account. I will share those below. A Green Day Mash-Up album was also started. That died too. As did a Pink Floyd/Beatles mash-up album.

But a huge shout-out goes to the members on those forums. Glad I got the chance to participate in something that was so fun, creative and very productive.

IN SUMMARY, CLICK ON THESE LINKS:

Melodies of Memories (April 2010 – May 2010): The Beatles Community Mash-Up Album and the aftermath of its ‘release’.

PEACE (May 2010): The above’s accompanying “EP”.

Echoes of Love (Started July 2010 – died): The Beatles/Pink Floyd Mash-up album that didn’t quite happen. Though here are two tracks I did for it. Download here and here.

Green Day Community Mash-Up Album (Started August 2010 – finished never): Started in dedication to the then new release of “Green Day: Rock Band”. Wasn’t finished. Good songs were made for it though. All download links are on that forum.

The Beatles Acoustic Medley Pt. 3 (October 2010): A little something something requested by a forum member which I was happy to do.

All Things Must Return (May 2010 – January 2011): The sequel to “Melodies of Memories”. The Beatles Community Mash-Up Album II and the aftermath of its ‘release’. As I already said it’s not on YouTube anymore. You can still download the album here though.

All Things Must Return II (Started 2010 – Never finished): I actually did the first song for the album in 2010, combining “How Do You Sleep” by Lennon, “Too Many People” by McCartney and “Wah-Wah” by Harrison to make the song “Thinking of You” – a phrase taken from the latter song. Fitting because all three songs were written with the other Beatles in mind. However, actual work on the album didn’t start until February 2011, when the first “All Things Must Return” was done. As you can see, nothing really came of it. The mash-up era was over.

Enjoy listening to whatever you can though. Hope you have as much fun listening as I did making them.

Five Years of Listening to The Beatles

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On the ninth of September 2009 after four years of arduous work using the latest technology available, The Beatles’ discography from “Please, Please Me” from ’63 to 1970’s “Let It Be” were released, remastered in both mono and stereo mixes. For what must have been a long wait for those who owned the last remasters from 1987, every snare hit, string pluck and glorious melody were now able to be heard in a revitalised condition. “The Beatles: Rock Band” game was also released on the same date, allowing the young and old to play along with the four guys through their journey from the Cavern Club to Abbey Road studios. It was a good day for Beatles fans…. though it wasn’t really for me.

It isn’t that something bad happened to me on that day. It was another day in the opening week of a new year at school as far as I was concerned. I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. I had never given the band a look before that month, but it was then that everything changed. Whilst casually browsing the Internet as you do, I noticed on the television that the now-defunct channel VH1 Classic was dedicating one half an hour slots everyday to The Beatles suitably titled “Beatlemania”. This was because of 09/09/09, but I didn’t know this so I assumed it was just a random move on their part to show The Beatles videos on music television.

Any of you who read my posts in the Blogger may remember a statement in my “Across the Universe” entry, where I controversially stated that when I was younger I didn’t actually think The Beatles existed. I say controversial – not a lot of people cared or probably even read the post in the first place – but I said that and then just moved on as if I hadn’t. I feel as if I should address this. To cut it short, the “Paul Is Dead” theories played a massive part, the supposed backward messages as well as the general consensus that The Beatles were ‘the greatest band of all time’ and Sgt. Pepper is the best album ever all threw me off a bit. They couldn’t be as good as everyone said they were. I bet I wouldn’t like them if I listened to their stuff. I listened to “Sgt. Pepper” to try and understand, and it still underwhelmed me. Maybe The Beatles just weren’t the band for me.

But I had to admit the sight of them together, laughing, joking and generally having a good time in videos such as “The Night Before“, “Penny Lane“, “Hey Bulldog“, “One After 909” on “Beatlemania” was honestly the first time I had watched the four men perform/mime their songs whilst being within the vicinity of each others’ personal space, which essentially nullified all prior thoughts I had about the group. The band actually had been on Earth for a period of time in the past. And the few of their songs that were shown on the programme I really got to like, especially “Penny Lane” I must have hummed that tune to myself as I was walking to school every day. Those were good days.

I felt as if I had missed out by listening to The Beatles at the age of fourteen. For some reason I thought that I should have known their songs for years by that time. But on the contrary there was so much to discover. I am just lucky that I started before it was too late. By the end of the year I had downloaded most of their albums and my obsession continued well into 2010, as I received “The Beatles: Rock Band” as a late Christmas present. Had a good time with that game, even if my interest in it faded as weeks went on. But its official forum was pretty cool. I was a member on there, and along with its community pulled off something of epic proportions. I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

The group were undeniably unique – the charisma and chemistry between all four members are qualities that arguably haven’t been matched – and their music was of such great quality that it continues to stand the test of time. From Key Stage 4 to the second year of university, The Beatles have been in my head. Here is to many more years.

Update.

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It is September. The sky gets more grey day after day, the temperature decreases, the leaves turn from a bright, tropical green to a rusty brown. The end of another year looms upon us. Change is coming, yet everything around us is changing as the clock ticks.

What am I talking about? I am not really sure myself. Some stream of consciousness for you right there.

Seriously though, how are you all doing? Hope you’ve all had a good summer. You followers may be wondering what I was doing in the month that I’ve been away from here. I can honestly say that I did not get up to anything much. Am I disappointed? Yeah. I saw my friends occasionally which was cool, but didn’t partake in anything that made me feel useful. Spent a lot of the holiday in my house listening to music, generally. But overall, I am well. That is really all that matters.

Blogs will start again soon, I promise you. Been thinking of doing one one the fifth year anniversary of The Beatles 09/09/09 remasters. Though I haven’t prepared for it, or started a draft. But that should be a good one. “My iPod” should follow soon after. How soon? I can’t answer that. But the F’s will come.

Cheers.

Jamie