007.5 - The Deep Dive - Goamae - Planet Mansion Notes and Interview

 

The deep dive is for readers who want to dig further into the album by reading the notes and pre-review interview that is done with each artist.  It is best read after the review.

You mentioned briefly that you are a duo that composes the songs.  How does your songwriting process look?
As friends and musicians we go way back, my background is in electronic music and my friend comes from more of a live band based background.
Our songwriting process is swapping files and talking thru internet but we also live roughly a 30 min drive away from each other (my friend in the big city & me in the countryside near the city) so we also jam & chill at my place as I have a studio/workroom here (which is also Goamae HQ). We both play different instruments from hard/software synths to guitars and bass among other exotic instruments and I also use my voice for vocals.

On the tags for this album is mentioned its plunderphonics.  How much of the album was sampled and how much of it was composed by you two?
Our music is original compositions of us messing around with everything we got mixed with processed, warped sampling of found sounds around the internet & our own field recordings mixed with careful listening and layering. I particularly am obsessed with messing around with samples to make them as unrecognisable as possible, creating something new and fresh out of the constant stream of sounds around us. We also have a history in making different kinds of music so we sample ourselves too. Everything is put together with computers and tape recorders with time and patience.


Is there a narrative that is being told on the album? The bandcamp mentions a deity type figure who makes a planet for his lover and puts a mansion on it.  Is that the story of the album or just the title track.
I usually have a certain theme/concept in mind before we start working on an album or ep, which usually gets stronger the further we work on it. We like to consider our albums/EPs as movies or short films that everyone can interpret differently. That’s why we don’t like to give away too much on the theme or the concept, just tease a bit with album/track titles, gfx or a prologue story (Like in “Planet Mansion, which is a prologue to whole album, not just a track”) to get the listener to a dream state of sort. We want our music to be part of the listeners’ experience. Not just our own.

Some thoughts on Planet Mansion:

We wanted to make a cosmic album. Living in isolation on your own planet can be high energy, joyous and celebratory but also not good for your mental health in the long run :) So that’s why the album shifts in tone a bit after the beginning but comes back a little bit to the beginning in the last track. But clearly something dark & manic has happened so there’s a new kind of existence, though darker, more somber one. “Planet Mansion” could also be a state of mind where you can escape the present harsh reality to be on your own, dream on… So it’s partly intentional and partly happy accidents. When you are deep into making an album, ideas circling around, things tend to eventually fall in place without forcing. We are natural composers after all.
Dreampunk was originally the genre that brought us to the scene. We like the open-minded quality, sort of anarchist, punk/opposition to mainstream music consumer culture vibe (at least to us) of the genre. There’s lots of room to explore. To us, dreampunk is def more than just another rain sample or Blade Runner/dystopian reference. Tho we love them too.


What type of equipment was used to make this album? (if you want to keep this a trade secret by all means do not answer)
Tho I have the gear I need to make music, I’m not much into gear myself, more like inspired by imaginative ideas, interplay of different sounds, collecting sounds everywhere to my tape recorder or phone, playing some guitar/bass, singing and hitting some hard/software synths that i have. Also inspired by outdoor life, movies, games, and the scene in general.


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Notes

Shadows of the Evening Sun - The song begins with a quiet song of birds chirping that is suddenly interrupted by a pan flute and a simple synth melody.  The melody repeats several times and really sets the tone for what is to come in the song, highly riverbed synths with a strong ethnic focus on the track.  Some sparse vocals join briefly before the main melody returns with a beat.  This time the melody has a very nice interaction with a synth flute that gives it a point counter point type feel.  The song interlaces different sections with the female vocals and the flute section all leading into a very nice opener for the album... lets us know what the tone of the album is and largely how many of the songs are going to be composed from this point forward.  The outro begins around 3:30 and transitions us directly into heartbeat as each element of the song begins to fade out leaving only the birds and some wind at the very end.

Heartbeat - As the opener fades out elements of heartbeat fade in just as readily.  A very chill beat accompanies a distant flute (?) and slowly lulls us in until a man tells us "For the Universe."  The song then explodes with a passionate flute melody and female vocals. Like the opener there are two distinct sections to the song, the flute/female vocal section and a more ambient section.  About 2 minutes in the song shifts focus a bit and adds a sitar to the main flute section.  This works extremely well and brings the song to the next level.  As quickly as it builds it breaks down into the sounds of a rainstorm in the distance, only to tease the sitar riff once again and then burst in again with the passionate flute/vocal/sitar section.  I could really listen to this song all day, it's so well constructed.

Kosmische Fire - Distorted male vocals begin the next song followed by some reverberated synth leads.  The percussion also follows along with the main melody, those also have a heavy amount of reverb on them.  The vocals join in again briefly and transition the song into the real meat of the composition.  The main synth lead is joined by some deep synths really rounding out the sound, this really sounds like later period dead can dance (spiritfarer) and it's done very well.  2 minutes in the song breaks down into an ambient vocal driven part before slowly adding in different elements to the main synth melody.  A sitar riff is played below along with a beautiful male vocal line.  Around 3:40 the song briefly goes off key and adds just a bit of unease to the entire composition.  At this point in the album the songs seem to have a very consistent composition to them.  They begin with a simple structure/melody and that melody is then altered by a secondary one, and the remainder of the song is playing around with interactions of those sounds while sometimes adding an additional element or two.
Around 5 minutes in the song takes a drastic turn and blows everything that was described above out of the water. The song now sounds much more focused and contained.  The reverb is toned down on the percussion a little bit and on the bass line.  It gives the feeling of being in an unexplored cave and while there are some very wonderous parts (the main synth still has that "shiny" feeling) there are elements of caution.  An interesting song and a good change of pace.

Good Death - This song starts with vocoded vocals that seem almost like a chant.  A chime begins the melody of the song and it is quickly met by a beat and bass line.  There is a second slower melody that begins to play above it and adds a level of tension.  The vocals rejoin the other instruments and at this point there is a very drastic difference in feel and tone of this song compared to the other songs at this point in the album.  The overall song structure and composition is the same as the other songs, but the atmosphere on this one is quite a bit more tense.  
Much like the third track the song undergoes a huge stylistic change about 4 minutes in.  This has a male voice singing single notes over what sounds like a grand piano and a synth choir.  The entire affair escalates at 5 minutes to become more grandiose.  The affair repeats several times and seems to keep upping the anti each time, it's an interesting dichotomy from the first half.  I'm curious as to why it was placed here and what the reason is for the huge difference in the first and second half.

Master's Request - This song feels more like an interlude than anything.  It's got a simple synth lead that compared to the remainder of the album doesn't have nearly the depth of character.  The melody is repeated several times with different accompaniments.  Very similar to the other tracks but stripped down.  Again an interesting choice.

Planet Mansion - The title track is minimal in its composition.  A simple trap beat is the constant factor on this one.  It seems like as the album keeps going the structure of the songs gets more and more minimal in their execution.  This is far away from the passion of heartbeat, with much more of a restrained... even a fragile tone.  4 minutes in the track gets a beep sound followed by near silence.  At this point there has to be a point to this... three tracks all around the same time having a huge style difference? I doubt that's a coincidence.  

愛陶酔 (love euphoria) - A harp (?) plays an eastern themed melody to start the closing track.  It's simple, but shows a passion and depth even by itself that was not present really since the first half of good death.  A saxophone is also used in several different pitches and adds another layer to the song that I would not have thought of that pairing.  Ethnic vocals join in shortly after and really bring back the whole passion and feel that I love from the first few tracks.  Half way through we have a complete break and a short "oh my god" sample before a very reverbed melody is in the background.  It is then rejoined by the vocals and harkens back to the structure of the first few tracks.  This track brings together the whole album so well and the sombre tone of it just ties it all together so well.  Its like there is something lost, or missing.  Great closer.

Overall - The first three songs and the last song all are very similar stylistically and the central three songs also share similar traits.  I'm curious how they were composed and if they were placed in the album in order to evoke a specific feeling from the listener or some other reason?  I'm also curious how much of the album is sampled and how much is composed, either way the way the songs are put together it's really well done.  The second half also seems to be a bit more sombre (?) than the first half.  The first half is full of life and the second half is more disjointed and contained.  The bandcamp description puts forward a story of some divine being making a planet for his lover with a mansion on it, I'm wondering if that is the story of just the title track or the whole album?  If it's not the overarching story then what story is this album trying to tell, if any?  I'll have to formulate all this into more complete questions.