The three r’s as Mark E. Smith of the fall once sang, repetition, repetition, repetition. Whenever I’ve thought I’m missing the point of a song or a band or a genre, I’ve leaned back on it and how. Whether you like the music or not repetition will teach ya how to hear it: it’ll show you what they the musician is doing: it is unlike anything, it’s not like doing your job over and over again till you’re good at it (or writing a thousand post), the revelation is not so you get better at listening but so the musicians clues to the listener becomes apparent.
For instance, many years after I first heard the beatles “I Dig A Pony” I becan to zone in on McCartney’s back-up vocals. They are truly superb and they are also almost invisible -unless youre listening for em (or looking at the movie) you could convince yourself they don’t exist.
It was a different time of course… now we’ve gone from four track to infinity track and any musician with half a brain will be salting the mine; putting little kernels of sound like gold nuggets to push the pleasure quota. This comes to mind because I was listening to Shinobi Ninja’s new song “Brooklyn To Babylon”. A sound almost voluptous in its fullness. Is it dance? Pop? Hip Hop? Yup. This song is so smart it opens with the chorus.
And it keeps on getting better -the more I listen to it the more I love it. The double down on the rhythm is addictive and the remix is good but somebody else should get their hands on this and burst the bass through the roof.
I am going to see em on Saturday and will have more to say then.
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