Category: Music

REVIEW: Kill the Noise

Gabriella
Kill the Noise’s latest album cover

Last night at Necto, Kill the Noise ignited the stage for an electrifying set to a crowd of several hundred patrons. While I rolled up a little later than normal because my pre-concert nap went longer than I expected, I was greeted with pounding drum n’ bass as I walked up the steps to the dance floor. In the back were the usual kids who wear gloves with glow-lit fingers, the guys with hats that resembled bears, and the folks who think it’s a good idea to wear other group’s merchandise at a show that someone else headlines. Nevertheless, I was ready to get into the groove and have a good time.

As the night went on, I routinely became most energized with throwbacks that were then remixed into new material by the experienced DJ. Taking cues from the crowd of what college kids would go wild for, he played the main line to Snoop Dogg’s “The Next Episode” followed by a distorted second half that incorporated in his own style. Additionally, he played “Hold On” (Sub Focus remix) that used the acapella vocals of legendary “All I Do Is Win” by DJ Khaled.

The most hilarious part of the night was when he announced he was going to play something we’ve never heard before, and then started playing the build up for DJ Snake’s and Lil Jon’s “Turn Down for What.” I laughed pretty hard, and then some when he played Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” to effectively Rick Roll his entire audience. The crowd bursted out shouting the lyrics to this extremely odd break from the norm at a club. But, as a 33-year old producer, Kill the Noise, or Jake Stanczak, likes to play around with the younger kids by mixing the unexpected outside the heavy dubstep and drum n’ bass influenced tracks.

My favorite part of the night is where he played some of his own original music, like his “Talk to Me” remix of Brillz’s track. By drawing out the sound of a man saying “talk to me,” he was able to create an eerie and creepy feeling that only added to the anticipation of the drop.

While he does have major collaborations with artists such as Flux Pavillion and Feed Me, it is always a treat to see a producer showcase his own talent at the stand. Especially for a devoted audience who will be able to recognize earlier tracks, it only adds to the overall concert experience. For example, when he played his track titled “Kill the Noise Pt. 1” the audience went into a “Kill the Noise” chant to root for the man at the top of the stage. “Kill the Noise Pt. 2” had elements of a choir in the background, which is part of his style to include traditional vocals (that get distorted) with more heavy beats.

By the end of the night, Mr. Stanczak was getting tired and hopped off the stage at 1:30 a.m. to let the openers close out the show. Openers Two Fresh and Botnek started with The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” from the 1970s that features heavy arpeggio and was featured on my 1970s listening exam in my electronic music class with the RC. At this point, my friend and I knew that the core part of the night was over and that they would try to bring the energy down by the end of the show, which they did.

Overall, it was a great experience to hear some of the innovative ways in which producers like Kill the Noise try to keep their shows interesting and not just the same tracks you can get on Soundcloud performed live.

 

PREVIEW: University of Michigan Women’s Glee Club Fall Concert

Chelsea Zabel

Who: The University of Michigan Women’s Glee Club and Midnight Blue

What: Fall Concert: Celebrating Sisterhood, Song, and Strength

When: Saturday, November 8 at 8:00pm

Where: Hill Auditorium

Why: Why? Because the Women’s Glee Club is a fantastic group of talented women. Their fall concert is sure to be an impressive mix of styles and sounds: something for everyone who wants to support this group. I am excited to hear what they have in store on Saturday.

How: This event is on this week’s Passport to the Arts, so be sure to pick one up for a free ticket if you can. If not, student tickets are only $5 and available at the door.

PREVIEW: Kill the Noise

Gabriella
Kill the Noise’s promotional poster!

Who: Kill the Noise
What: Concert!
Where: Necto
When: November 5, 9 p.m.
Tickets: $17.50, plus $5.50 in service fees for $23 total each

Kill the Noise is headlining Necto this Wednesday night for a show that will be sure to get our minds off the upcoming snow and instead turn up the heat on the dance floor. Known for dubstep and drum and bass, he’s collaborated with big names like Skrillex and deadmau5, and lesser known Feed Me and Botnek. I’m excited for the show because the next time he’ll be around it’ll likely be at a larger venue with him gaining fame in the coming months and definitely in 2015. His sound is electrifying and unique, and he’ll be on full display to showcase his talents to the Necto faithful.

To get hyped for the show, listen to his Soundcloud and like him on Facebook.

Tickets are available here.

 

REVIEW: Ryoji Ikeda’s superposition

Tsukumo

Ryoji Ikeda’s superposition made me think about being human in a technology-heavy and science-driven world. And no, you don’t have to be a physics nerd to appreciate this performance (because I certainly am not). In fact, I’m going to focus on the non-scientific aspects of this performance.

The stage set-up was pretty simple: 10 Mac screens in the very front, 10 slightly bigger screens a few feet back, and 2 big screens behind them all. In between, there was a table of equipments set up for the two human performers to add life to the work — playing morse code at each other, experimenting with different tuning forks, solving cryptic crossword puzzles, and so on.

The two human performers typed out messages that were impossible to process real-time, because multiple screens showed totally different messages. We can only focus visually on one aspect — what the performer is doing, what one (not both) of them is typing, or what is on the front screens. That’s human. As humans, we can’t do everything.

As humans, we sometimes find discomfort in scientifically-produced “music”. superposition explored the effects of using booming bass, almost inaudible low-frequency drones, piercing high pitch, clashing near-frequency notes. These cause mild physical pain and discomfort. Sharing these emotions make us human, too.

Another aspect of human-ness was in the pitch forks. In this segment, the two performers each took a pitch fork tuned to “A” — but with different frequencies, used in orchestras worldwide. The U.S. American standard is often A=440Hz, but in other countries, any frequencies from A=419.9Hz to 454.7Hz are possible (source: 10 small screens in the performance). And indeed, they sound different. The performers played two of these 10 differently-pitched tuning forks at a time, which cause the vibrations to clash against each other. This reminded me of how much tuning A can be a source of conflict between musicians. Even the difference between using A=440Hz or A=442Hz to tune can cause problems to orchestral musicians that are expected to play perfectly in tune all the time. These cultural differences and conflicts are very much human — computers can’t feel the anger and frustration that come with them.

But, in the end, what is the significance of this human-ness in today’s world?

The fun part of this performance was my attempt to figure out what the performance actually means. There is no definite answer. superposition asked me a very vague, open-ended question — what’s the humans’ role in a society where technology and science replaces a lot of our roles? Hashtag: food for thought.

REVIEW: Band-O-Rama: Let’s Go BOO!

Acrimonious Funk

 

The School of Music, Theatre, and Dance here at Michigan is renown for their fantastic faculty and wonderful performing ensembles. Band-O-Rama, an annual showcase of the School’s wind ensembles gave us a mouthful of praise for these ensembles.

The night started off with the University Concert Band, led by Courtney Snyder, as they played a Sousa-esque march in ‘Michigan on Parade,’ ‘Blues for a Killed Kat,’ and Mackey’s Redline Tango.’ The University Symphony Band soon took over. Under the direction of longtime Director of Bands, Michael Haithcock, The Symphony Band played a few excerpts from works such as Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Snow Maiden,’ and Puccini’s ‘LeVilli.’ To finish it off, they played a rousing rendition of the great ‘Victor’s Valiant.’

Intermission

The crowd came to a hush as the drumline entered the stage. They were standing in their traditional set when the lead snare started giving taps, signaling that the band was about to enter.

The MMB onstage at Hill Auditorium
The MMB onstage at Hill Auditorium, Courtesy of the MMB

Soon after, around 300 disciplined Michigan Marching band men and women rushed onto the stage from the aisles, in a style in which their thighs were parallel with the ground (this style is usually referred to as ‘entries’).  The aerobic exercise these people were getting could be deduced from the visible sweat pouring from their faces. It was impressive to say the least. A seemingly grueling two and a half minutes went by, as all of the members made their way onstage. After everyone was in their calculated spot, director John Pasquale gave a large motion downbeat, signaling the band to play the M Fanfare. Audience members that were aware of the tradition associated with the playing of the M Fanfare raised their right fist in a reverent salute, while the unaware soon followed suit. The culmination of the last fermata led right into a playing of The Victors, thus fully grabbing and engaging the audience for the rest of the night. Over the course of the MMB’s performance, they played songs from their recent halftime shows, such as Kesha’s ‘Timber,’ Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory,’ swing tunes such as Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman,” Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812 Overture’ (yes, that one!), and the traditional ‘Little Brown Jug.’ A real treat, as always, was when the Drumline came center stage to play their cadences and specific repertoire. In addition to giving the brass a break for their embouchure’s sake, the Drumline cranked out highly impressive performances of their parade cadence and step show, showcasing their high level of talent and expertise to an eager audience. The event then closed off with the standard combination of ‘Temptation’ and ‘Hawaiian War Chant,’ “because you can’t have one without the other,”  and a beautiful rendition of the Alma Mater followed by ‘The Victors.’

REVIEW: Michigan Sahana’s “Rachana”

camsterdam
Image of the Final Piece provided by Esha Biswas

“Jugalbandi” : the most beautiful word you’ve never heard of. The term is used most commonly to describe the tradition in Carnatic and Hindustani styles of Classical music in which two musicians perform together. But, on Friday night, the talented students of Michigan Sahana took “jugalbandi” to the next level. They extended the metaphor to include dichotomies of music and dance, show and tell, performance and education, and Indian and American, to create a unique cultural experience.

In order to replicate the authentic experience of a true Classical Indian concert which last up to 4 hours, the performance followed a carefully chosen eight-piece repertoire that interweaved both music and dance pieces by Sahana members, and demonstrate a specific role of a true Classical Indian concert. First, a Varnam, a traditional raga, was performed in its ceremonial performance-initial position. Ragas are like the structured jazz of the Americas, in that they are the melodic framework for improvisation and composition. Sitting comfortably cross-legged on cubes, the four performers began the “alaap.”

This ‘alaap’ allows the musicians to warm-up their fingers, play with the notes and rhythms within the determined pitch, and introduces the central themes of the raga. I very much enjoyed this part, especially since I knew that it was so authentic to a real classical concert, but without structure or a full ensemble playing at the given time, I felt that the warm-up went on a bit too long, as it sometimes was longer than the raga itself!

The performers throughout the show took turns teaching the audience about their style of music, which was fantastic! They shared musical terms in the original Sanskrit, counted out tricky rhythms. It was almost like we had been invited to a guest lecture, taught to us by the students themselves! It was exciting to see them talk about something that they are so passsionate about. Also, I never realized how different Eastern music theory is from the Western theory that I’ve learned in my own violin lessons.

After an impressive second act of spinning and syncopated footwork by a dancing duo, the next act was a classical interpretive dance. Dressed in traditional saris, the three young women transformed into storytellers, regaling the audience with a spiritual story involving Ganesha and Nataraja, the Lord of Dancers. Thankfully, they told us the story before the dance. Each character had a specific action or pose associated with it (just like in one of those interactive stories you might have participated in as a child, where the king is identified by his crown and you clap your hands like a gallup when the horse is mentioned). There was so much to look at – so many details that the dancers had to control. Every eyebrow raise, eye dart, neck bob, finger undulation had a meaning, and added to the character development in the dance. They moved with a floating grace about the stage. I could imagine a story unfolding in front of me.

After an hour and a half (and a ten minute intermission), the second half kicked off with another alaap to another raga. The groups maintained variety to keep the audience interested. This time, two singers were accompanied by a tabla drum and a harmonium, a portable hand-pumped organ which sounds similar to an accordion. Give a listen here to The Best Harmonium Player on YouTube!

Followed by another storytelling dance, this time about the legend of Rama and Krishna. Almost balletic in feel, each dancer poured the emotion and devotion of the story out of every hand movement and neck oscillation.

The finale was by far worth waiting for in order to see so much color, so much energy and cultural pride on that stage. Both parts of Sahana, the music and dance portions, came together to accompany each other and create a complete picture of Classical India.

This unique educating type of performance got me thinking about what a musician needs from its audience. A performer really desires an audience full of people who either really understand the depth of the music and share the love and passion of the art form, and those who may have limited exposure, but come with support and a blooming curiosity. Michigan Sahana took a very bold move and used their concert as a tool to train their audience on how to enjoy the performance, and even went so far as to further the enjoyment factor by revealing the patterns and stories behind the music and dance pieces. How many times have you been to a Shakespeare play or a band concert, and wished that you had read the summary or knew the thematic layers that structured the Sousa Symphony?

By the end, I came away with a new understanding of Sanskrit, a better idea of various Indian instruments (other than the stereotypical tabla drum and flute), and a deep appreciation for the small details that the musicians and dancers pay attention to in order to convey their cultural stories. Also, I now realized that a true Classical Indian concert was a long event – up to 3 or 4 hours. I cheer Sahana’s authenticity, but I do believe that perhaps the concert could have been a bit shorter for this present day audience who is unaccustomed to long amounts of sitting. In the future, maybe they could include an optional “educational talk” before or after the show to discuss rhythms and Classical Indian terminology to those who are truly interested. Sometimes, after a long day, patrons just want to have a good listen, be entertained, and then, go on their merry way.