Understanding Algorhythm and contextualizing Gambino’s 3.15.20 [04-07-20]

Algorhythm is the second track off of Childish Gambino’s most recent music project release. It is one of two songs that actually has a track title, with the rest of the songs having titles like “19.10”, “35.31”, etc.

*Gambino performing Algorhythm live in 2018 (song starts at 2:58). “Mastered” versions are available on all streaming platforms

Algorhythm is a play on words, a combination of algorithm and rhythm, underscoring the weird combination of a groovy beat that is layered with seemingly monotone/robotic verses. Gambino, a multi-talented artist who has worked as an actor, producer, writer, director, stand-up comedian, and musician, is known for having an incredible vocal register that fit his earlier projects “Awaken, My Love!” and “Because the Internet” (most notably). He dabbles in pop and funk but in this song, Gambino saves his voice only for the chorus. In his verses, he speaks about technology in a way that is far from hopeful. With lines like “Everyone is an addict… What was the motivation… Made us the guinea pig and did it with no permission… So very scary, so binary, zero or one”, Gambino presents us his view of an increasingly technology-dependent society. The first verse ends with “Life, is it really worth it? The algorhythm is perfect, mmh”.

*Edit: Fast forward to the end of the track, Algorhythm‘s groovy and melodic tunes break down into a cacophany of sounds, turning itself almost into an auditory representation of the original album art (included below). Slowly, this mesh of sounds becomes slower and loses instruments until the only audible sound is a repetitive bass beat, mimicking the rhythmic beating of a heart, before fading to silence.

In order to understand some of the tones of Algorhythm, it’s important to contextualize 3.15.20 as a project. The 12-song project was originally uploaded for streaming on a website called donaldgloverpresents.com. After 12 hours, Glover took down the stream only to release the project officially a week later. The title of the album 3.15.20 reflects the date that it was placed for streaming originally, with the majority of song names like “19.10” being the time-stamp that the song appears if the album were streamed continuously.

The album was uploaded to the website originally with this album art:

which people have noted has several hidden meanings. For one, the scene of disarray could be a reflection of the current state of disorder going on due to the coronavirus pandemic. It can also be a reflection of Gambino’s state of mind (these ideas are not mutually exclusive).

Gambino’s father died in 2018, while he was on his “This is America” tour. Since then, this letter by Gambino has circulated and people believe that this entry reflects some of the inner turmoil that he has dealt with since his father’s passing. The note is here:

*(https://www.reddit.com/r/donaldglover/comments/fmvtcf/donalds_message_full_resolution/)

This album, a surprise release with what many music critics deem to be shoddy production and a lack of overarching message, may be intentionally chaotic and experimental in its own way. One thing that came to mind while thinking about all of this was the reactions and responses to the late Mac Miller’s last two albums Circles and Swimming. Miller’s albums were also pretty distinct from his previous work, a reflection of the inner mess that followed the breakup with his girlfriend Ariana Grande. I along with others saw his final works as part of his coping process, the creative process giving him the space to gain clarity from the pain.

Official cover art for 3.15.20, as seen on Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms

So, what’s so special about Gambino’s album? The fact that it was originally made available only as a stream, and that the song titles exist as timestamps, could be a message to the changing priorities of society. Gambino doesn’t even list prominent features, like Ariana Grande or 21 Savage, in the song titles, showing a move away from popular tradition. Additionally, the fact that each song is so distinct and seemingly disconnected from the album as a whole makes each song function as a standalone moment, an emotion captured in the moment of the stream. 3.15.20 has bits and pieces of Gambino from throughout the years, from the cheesy play on words that marked his early mixtapes to the soulful and absolutely astounding notes and melodies that made “Awaken, My Love” an instant classic. To me, the themes that he explores, both musically with the deviations from “pop” music and instrumentally, with a mix of synthetic and almost industrial sounds, make this a very engaging and topical project, certainly one of my favorites for the year.

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Giving Life to Sound– Hans Zimmer’s process in creating an organ-based score with Director Christopher Nolan in Interstellar (2014) [02-26-20]

One of my favorite directors is Christopher Nolan and one of my favorite film composers is Hans Zimmer. Their combined genius came together in the 2014 masterpiece Interstellar. My post will be heavily based on the following Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_8t2VlwK4w&t=189s

When watching the movie, I felt that there was real emotion in the soundtrack, something that complemented the feelings of the movie perfectly. Although the film is sci-fi in its depictions of time travel, it tries very hard to appear realistic by changing very few other elements of life. The score itself is emotional in nature and sets the scenes but does not feature any bizarre or other-wordly noises. After watching the video and hearing that Hans Zimmer was not told about the premise of the movie, only that it was a film about a father and a son, it makes sense that the score seems so rooted in emotion.

So, the emotion and passion can be understood to be pure, since Hans Zimmer wrote the score to reflect the crux of the movie [the relationship between a father and his kids] without being influenced by the speculative and sci-fi aspects of the movie. The movie score prominently features a lot of organ and piano sounds. In the video above, both Zimmer and Nolan describe that the pipe organ is a special instrument for 2 big reasons:

1) the pipe organ produces noise through the pipes, but it requires air to make noise. In a way, it can only speak when it breathes, which is a very anthropomorphic [& very sci-fi] way to view an instrument. But imagining the organ giving sound as its way of speaking and communicating through music just makes it that much more special.

2) the pipe organ is an instrument that is most well known for being used in churches. However, the origin of this is really not well known, since early religious beliefs saw instruments as secular objects (the only instrument allowed during religious services was the human voice). However, it is believed that in years 800-900, monks in monasteries, who had considerable time to learn and master many different hobbies, began to play instruments to accompany religious events (source: https://www.mixtuur.com/en/why-is-an-organ-used-in-churches/). Well, knowing this context around the pipe organ, Zimmer and Nolan believed that using an instrument that has a religious connotation would evoke a feeling of mysticism, of something meta-physical.

 

It is truly astounding to me to see the creative process of two geniuses at work. From starting off with the idea of a “genre-less” musical score that evokes pure passion and emotion to the final product of a grammy-nominated and critically acclaimed movie score that seems to perfectly captures what it would be like to be at the edge of space, in the frontier of the unknown, the journey that this musical score has taken me, both in watching the movie and in researching the making of it, is one that I won’t soon forget.

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Understanding Music: SF Video Game Series Fallout [02-18-20]

Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4OY0WX6ACnUSBWqn2fS8Jt?si=Q8SAtP4hRu6WuznGBgPa_Q

Fallout is a video game series started in 1997 by Bethesda Softworks video game company. The game is a post-apocalyptic first-person role playing game with an old-timey soundtrack. The setting of Fallout is an an alternate history following World War 2. Set in the 2070’s, Fallout presents a weird dichotomy in the technology presented, with old technology being represented through the 50’s age music, TV sets, and radios and newer technology in the household robots and computers capable of artificial intelligence. The context is that a Great War broke out which ended in nuclear destruction of the world, save a few dozen vaults/underground bunkers. Now you, the protagonist, is the lead for your bunker and you set out on missions that test your strength, loyalty, and commitment to your bunker mates.

The game has had widespread success and, although I’ve never had a chance to play, I became a fan of the concept and soundtrack recently. In my brief search for why the game developers chose 50’s music as their theme, I’ve come upon the following theories from various sources on the internet (some of more renown than others):

1. Political Censorship: The political context of the game is that a very dictatorial, Communist-hating US government is in control. People have stipulated that music of the 50’s represented the American Dream and ideal. Music from other time periods or new music could be seen disapprovingly as critiquing society and American ideals.
2. Only Surviving media: Another non-mutually exclusive idea is that in the context of a nuclear fallout, few personal electronics survived (this includes computers, processors, etc.) so the only music to survive was music from an older age, perhaps music that existed more commonly in physical medias like cassettes, vinyls, and CDs (versus music now that is much more commonly in digital form)
3. Consequence of an Alternate Universe: An alternative to 2 that is similar is that there was a cultural stagnation following World War II in this parallel universe so the technology and creativity that is required for new music movements was never present. Thus, 50’s music and some 50’s aged technology is the only choice for people, there is no alternative.
4. Aesthetic & Easier to License: Finally, there are a number of theories that deal more practically, outside of the game universe. Bethesda Software company had to make a selection for the soundtrack and the choice for music in a game is a big decision, since music can really set the tone for a player’s experience. Using happy, nostalgic 50’s music helps to establish the aesthetic of the game in a past time, despite being set in the future (strictly speaking from a time point of view, the game is set 50+ years in the future). Also, any song used in a video game needs to be cleared by the current proprietor of the music. Using old songs makes it more likely that the rates will be cheaper and licensing might be easier (since most of the music would otherwise not be heard and the creators are probably deceased by now, making it more likely that the music would be more publicly accessible)

There may be many more reasons and I will analyze other reasons to select certain music styles over others when I do analyses on SF movie soundtracks. For me, the most interesting part of the Fallout music analysis was realizing how you could “appropriate” music that has already been made, not add or alter it in any way, and somehow (successfully) incorporate it into a game whose reality is based on a history/timeline that is wildly different from our own.

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Hypermisophoniac by Jack White (Boarding House Reach, 2018) [02-12-2020]

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykzun_8eZ0E

This is a stretch so bear with me. Hypermisophoniac is not sci-fi by definition (and was not marketed as sci-fi). It is a song from the experimental rock album Boarding House Reach by the artist Jack White (formerly 1/2 of the White Stripes).

The following are just some of the sounds included: synthetic noises, piano riffs, beeping (reminiscent of a robot?), wind-up noises, distorted vocal samples, clicking of a spray paint can (?), and Jack White’s voice. The song’s title, hypermisophoniac, is in reference to misophonia, which is a condition whose sufferers are adversely affected by what might otherwise be mildly annoying noises, like the sound of someone else chewing (definition from https://www.spin.com/2018/03/jack-white-hypermisophonaic-fidget-cube/). White wanted to combine a number of [annoying] noises from household items, like his son’s toys, and create a beautiful song out of it.

When I first heard the song and when I listen to it now, the repetitive synth and robot-like noises place me sometime in the future. This is probably my favorite song off of this album.

Edit: In hindsight, this song is probably more experimental rock than sci-fi based on the lyrics… Still a great song though.