011.5 - The Deep Dive - ll nøthing ll - Death 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.

Notes

Wounds - If the title of the album didn't give you an idea that this was going to be dark then the first notes of wounds will.  The beat is erratic and the synth used is very eerie and foreign.  It doesn't sound like it has anything to do with humanity.  There is a weird groove to be had in this though, through the gravel, the distortion… it does lend itself to some tentative head bobbing to be had.  
Right around 2 minutes the song shifts dramatically and it sounds like some crazy pop song maybe out of an anime.  Everything is distorted but there are some voices that kind of call to the listener. The song is moving pretty fast here and really is erratic.  The whole thing almost sounds like a radio switching station; it changes so frequently and on the drop of a dime.  It's almost as if nothing wants us to be uncomfortable listening to this.  It's a great opener and gives the listener a good idea of what is going to be going on during the album.  

Patient - Again things are disjointed... the samples are everywhere.  They start out with a warm tone and just as quickly switch into something sounding like an EKG and then back to the original warm tone. The song has two to three phases that it cycles through in the same type of meter.  Each pass gives the listener a little more to grasp onto, another layer.
After a minute thirty there's enough to create a song out of everything and just when you think you have everything figured out we’re thrown another curve ball. A beat comes in and the song takes on a very strong musical quality.  This sounds like late 90’s jungle with more than just ambient synth pads going on over top.  An instrument that I can’t quite place, a guitar, a piano? I don't know but it plays a very simple but very effective melody over the frantic music that is going on below it.  This is really well done and one of my favorite tracks on the album.  

Death - Ok this sounds like a combination of the first two tracks.  There are disjointed bits stitched together but there is enough structure that everything is held together by threads and it lends to a very nice atmosphere.  I envision the anime woman on the cover delivering the vocals for some reason.
The way that the tones work together here almost makes the title seem paradoxical.  The song is almost happy compared to the first two tracks.  Being the title track I was expecting this to have a much more sombre and dark tone to it.  Instead we get almost an angelic tone with the main melody as it chimes the song forward.  The accompanying synths really just add to this effect and tie the song together between the disjointed vocal samples.  Unlike the other two tracks to this point though this one stays with a singular focus.   Another really well done track.

Please god - Sometimes on albums there are songs that make you just stop everything that you are doing and pay attention.  They stand above everything else on the album and just speak to your very soul.  Please god is one of those tracks for me.  It has such a sorrowful and almost mournful tone that it just cries out ‘help me - someone, anyone.’  This is my favorite track from anything that nothing has ever recorded.  
The slow pace, the deliberate placement of the female vocals, the piano, the reverb.  Everything just seems like it speaks directly to me.  It’s insanely well written and the way that everything is put together is just on another level.  Picture someone sitting on a bench, their life stripped from them.  Everything they have ever loved is gone.  They have nothing left.  This song is that person’s cry out to whoever will listen, any being however small… please listen to this cry for help.  This is the cry of someone who is a rock bottom and is wailing from their very essence. This is the perfect ending to side A.

Hopeless - Wow what a contrast to please god.  The song sounds like the start of a happy hardcore song with the vocals used but its considerably darker.  The synth tones contrast heavily to the vocals giving it a much more ominous tone than one would originally think.  The vocals pick up a little bit and a beat is added in to give the song a little bit of structure.  There are some echo’s used on the vocals that really give this an ethereal feel similar to the previous track.
After the first few tracks the songs really have a lot more focus and this gives them a very different feel.  Instead of disjointed chaos we now have focused darkness, sorrow, and despair.  It's a very cool change, I wonder if there is a larger story going on here or if this is a collection of songs.

Black - Ok this one starts off a bit different.  The melody starts off right away with no vocals at all, beat is right in your face too.  This almost has a like a parasite eve feel to it, familiar but ominous and dangerous at the same time.
The way that everything is structured takes the original theme of the song and plays around with it.  Different effects are brought in and out as well as different parts of the songs.  It reminds me a bit of the title track where its way happier than the song title would ever suggest.  It's almost playful in the execution.  Still has a bit of that eeriness to it that is so prevalent in the album.  

Dazed - The song starts off wit a lo-fi effect on the percussion on this one.  It sounds like its being played through some old speakers, or slowed down classic vapor style.  Fortunately it doesn't stay that way.  The filter is removed and the song settles into a nice groove that involves a piano playing some chords, slowed male vocals and some synths playing the lead melody.
This is probably the grooviest song on the album to this point and if I ever found myself getting into classic vaporwave this is probably the way that it would happen.  (Not a huge fan of the classic vapor sound)

Cancer - A pan flute and angelic synths start the song off… everything in this song has a huge far eastern feel.  I think there's an erhu playing as well for part of the melody.  Everything blends together and as desperate as please god was this one has the opposite effect.  This one feels like hope… maybe for the first time there is something positive happening in the album?
I really like the effect that is on the piano.  The effect gives it almost a raining feeling.  A beat comes in right at two minutes and shifts the tone from hope back to that parasite eve type feeling.  I really love the shift as now we’re dealing with urgency and a bit of danger rather than hope.  Another really strong track and a great way to close out the album.  

Overall - This album is crazy good.  I’m not sure how much of it is sampled and how much is original but the effect is very unique.  There are some hugely contrasting styles that are stitched together in a way where the album not only stands on its own but nothing is onto something pretty special with this sound.  The combination of chopped vocals along with the dark tone make this the album that I keep coming back to.  The album length is just about perfect too, I go right back to listening to it, wanting more.  

Interview

Compared to the remainder of the album the first two songs are segmented and a lot more chaotic in their structure.  How did the songwriting process differ for these tracks if at all?  Is there any reason for their positioning at the beginning of the album rather than spaced apart?

1. The process didn’t really change to be honest. You can say i put them two first to grasp the listeners attention so they could stay for the rest of the album.

Throughout the album there seems to be a consistent female voice that is manipulated to the point where the listener can’t understand what is being said.  This is central to the sound found on Death.  Can you go into some detail on its inclusion, how the sound was achieved, and  any meaning it may have (i.e. is this a character or something similar that we are following).

2. In all honesty I just thought it sounded cool. Just sped up/slowed down and chopped up the vocals to achieve that sound.

The album seems to be structured in such a way that there are two halves.  The first arc being more disjointed and chaotic and ending with please god.  That track in particular has a ‘rock bottom’ type feel to it.  While the second half of the album has a much more cohesive feel leading up to cancer.  Is there a musical narrative that is going on with the album?  If so - in whatever level of detail you want - could you please describe what is going on in the album?

3. The album DEATH is my experience of losing a family member i was close to due to cancer. My grandpa the be specific, he had passed away one day before my highschool graduation back in 2017. The track numbers are not in order to how one would expect it to be because i wanted it to feel like my mind was racing. I wanted to give it this Tarantino Esque look to it when you just read the tracks itself. Track 1 wounds,  seeing the physical/ emotional wounds inflicted on my loved ones because of the cancer. Patient, me visiting them in the hospital. Sitting in their room and the lobby with family just waiting for any news from doctors, patience. The word works both ways here. Death, pretty self explanatory. I wanted to give this a track an almost “out of this world” feeling. Like the world is spinning around you, being punched in the face. I don’t know, i can't really describe the feeling I felt once we had got the news he had passed away. Please God is sorta like a cry for a help, a prayer. I remember going to church with my family and praying for him to get better. Me not being into religion that much, i was really reaching and apologizing to God in prayer for not believing. Asking for anything at that point. Hopeless was just me beating myself up because I had no one to blame for all the things that were happening at that time. Me not believing in God really made me feel like shit, made me hopeless. Black represents the depression i was in that point in time, it was probably the worst i’ve ever felt in life to be honest. Dazed is my mind just racing. Don't know what to do, don’t know what to think. Feeling weightless, flowing through time before and after the passing. Cancer represent s the feeling/ reaction i felt when i had got the news he had cancer, the beginning of narrative chronologically. The quote “Can you hear me? I’m sorry I couldn’t see you. I’m sorry.” was the exact thing I said to myself as i was in tears in the student lounge in the community college I was attending. I dropped out. The stress of school and dealing with his passing was just making me feel like shit all day. I busted my ass to graduate highschool so I could have him see me walk across the stage. But hearing and seeing that he had passed away just one day before has left a scar on me mentally. It was too much. I didn't even attend his burial because i was off doing stuff to get ready for college, we already know how that ends. Thats why I said that. “Im sorry I couldn’t see you”, i was crying out to him. Apologizing for not being there at the funeral, apologizing for not going through college. And yea. This album means a lot to me.

What type of equipment did you use on the album? (you don’t have to answer this if you prefer not to)

4. Equipment wise all I used was FL Studio 12. The whole is sample based. I didn’t know this album was gonna be popular. I was just making it for myself really, like a musical journal.

Are there any details you would like to give about this album or your musical career?

5. I like to consider DEATH my breaking away from vaporwave. I want to make music that screams what I'm feeling. I want people to hear the stories i want to tell. I feel like i couldn’t do that by sticking to vaporwave/ classic wave.I’ll still make it here and there for fun when I'm in a good mood and to satisfy the 90% of my fanbase (i hate saying i have fans bc it makes feel like an asshole but i don't know what to call it at this point). I feel like I'm gonna continue going down the sampling/ Plunderphonics route just because it will be a lot more fun. Mixing and matching different sounds together to make a whole new thing is just really satisfying to me.