Innovation in Music Final by Ed Cole

SA 1: 14th April

eddywooder3 — 2022-03-22 19:08:45 UTC

Present recorded versions of 2 complete songs/instrumentals or several shorter songs or instrumentals. The total performance length of the musical examples should be between 7 and ten minutes. The material must be presented as follows:

1 Authentic (unchanged) cover & 1 creative re-working/arrangement of a cover
OR
1 Authentic (unchanged) cover and 1 original
OR
1 Creative re-working/arrangement of a cover and 1 original

The 2 tracks must be presented as follows:

2 x live performances (0 studio recordings)
2 x studio recordings (0 live performances)
1 x live performance AND 1 x track studio recording

SA 2: 14th April

eddywooder3 — 2022-03-22 19:14:40 UTC

Programme Notes (Innovation Pitch) (1,000 words)

i) Produce programme notes to accompany both tracks with appropriate credits showing original source (artist), composer, year of release(s), record label and publisher for each example as appropriate.

ii) Pitch and explain in your own words why this music exemplifies innovation, and briefly explain the context of the work (era, genre, and audience) in a way that would be understood by a non-specialist (non-musician or someone who has little knowledge of a particular scene or genre). Ensure creative collaboration is appropriately credited and acknowledged, justified and explained. Who did what, where and why?

Explain how you have shown innovation within your own contribution to the tracks submitted for this module. What innovative techniques, ideas and concepts have you researched and implemented and to what effect? How have these ideas complemented and supported others creative work in the music produced?

Justify your choice of musical works be they covers, original or inventive reworkings of cover material. Argue the case for their inclusion in your performance on the grounds of innovation and expanding the range and vocabulary of the musician.

Critically comment on how this work has informed your own music. Examine each of the concepts that you have presented and analyse the underlying principles that make the ideas work. Explain how you have taken and developed these ideas and how you have used this to inspire your own innovative output.

Argue the case for their validity, and inclusion in your performance and make recommendations for your own future development. (LO2 LO3 LO5). Text and sources should be appropriately referenced.

Press Release (500 words)

iii) Produce a Press Release to accompany the hypothetical release of one of the tracks for this module and to support your pitch. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your own innovative approach to promotion, a working knowledge of your target audience, and an understanding of the purpose of the Press Release within the bigger picture of a full PR Campaign.

This is an individual submission whereby you are to present your own approach and unique interpretation to this component of the assignment.

Submission Requirements:

Wav (audio) and /or MP4 (video) via Studio in Canvas – S1
Link to Appendix – S1
PDF or Video (Programme Notes/Innovation Pitch) – S2
PDF (Press Release) – S2

Evidencing Professionalism (Assessment Criteria - Process)

Within this assignment, you will be credited for demonstrating and evidencing consistency in professionalism. This includes commitment to your craft, approach to study and your work ethics and ethos in the form of your ongoing communication, attendance and engagement.

Evidence attendance under 50% for the Study Block or no evidence of attendance = -5% overall grade for this S1 assignment
Evidence attendance for the Study Block between 51% - 79% = no change to overall grade for this S1 assignment
Evidence attendance for the Study Block over 80% = +5% overall grade for this S1 assignment

Notes on innovation & Areas to research as we develop the songs

eddywooder3 — 2022-03-22 19:58:47 UTC

Innovation in the drums and rhythm.
Limiting myself by playing with a minimalist approach (encouraging thinking outside of box, expand the sounds i can achieve: Mallets, percussive stacks, use chains on cymbals)

Reaching out to Vera and incorporating her on the djembe into the sound - tribal & nomadic

Avoiding typical 'play styles' when writing the drum parts e.g. avoiding backbeat, using repeating patterns, call and response between percussion and keys.

Innovation in Genre ________
talk about limitations that we've put on ourselves

Research
Roots of tribal music and how the rhythm was moved by the drums
Music of the European traveller communities.
Folk - Sarah Hopkins, Altin Gun (turkish)

Who did what?

eddywooder3 — 2022-03-29 09:48:53 UTC

Talk about royalties and how we're going to split credit (%)
When crediting it's important to credit properly, look on google and spotify to see how this is done

Press Release

eddywooder3 — 2022-03-29 10:05:05 UTC

(500 words individual submission)
consider doing the press release as a music video.
Check out willfull publicity for examples of press releases.
Show innovation within promotion

Week 1

eddywooder3 — 2022-04-07 17:07:12 UTC

Week 2

eddywooder3 — 2022-04-07 17:07:16 UTC

Week 3

eddywooder3 — 2022-04-07 17:07:21 UTC

Week 4

eddywooder3 — 2022-04-07 17:07:24 UTC

Week 5

eddywooder3 — 2022-04-07 17:07:28 UTC

Week 6

eddywooder3 — 2022-04-07 17:07:37 UTC

Programme Notes

eddywooder3 — 2022-04-07 17:10:40 UTC

Collaboration between me and Erin

Arrangement

Rhythm Section

Drum Specific Patterns and displays of Techniques

Context and Background Info

Credits

Innovation Pitch

eddywooder3 — 2022-04-07 17:10:50 UTC

Explain the innovation within the songs.
- Who did what, when & where? Ref video timings

-What techniques did you use?

Avoiding typical 'play styles' when writing the drum parts e.g. avoiding backbeat, using repeating patterns, call and response between percussion and keys.

Justify your research
-What ideas/concepts did you research and how are they implemented? show examples & say why it's relevant

Explain our choice of songs & expand on the innovation within the tracks as a whole
-Talk about the songwriting, genre invention/amalgamation, instrumentation, presentation & aesthetic

-How is this work relevant to my music?

Press Release & Performance Videos - FOLLOW THE LINK FOR THE PERFORMANCE SUBMISSIONS

erinmay — 2022-06-03 20:00:32 UTC

https://contact914894.wixsite.com/my-site-3

Programme Notes

erinmay — 2022-06-03 20:10:41 UTC

INTRO

For this project I've decided to team up with Erin May, my classmate and local musician who specialises in alternative music.

Our brand new collective currently consists of four members.

We have Erin on vocals and synths - On their synths a piano/harpsichord combo, representing the folk side of things and on their vocals, a combo of ethereal and distorted techniques, demonstrating an innovative blend between folk and grunge.

Jacob Clark is our bass

Vera on djembe

and myself on drums.

Each member just as talented and unique as the last, joining efforts to create a genre you have never heard of before - Traveller Grunge.

THE SONGS

Wheel Of Misfortune
The first song, "Wheel Of Misfortune", is an original of Erin's and a song they wrote when they were only 15!
Quoting Erin, "It is a song of fate and choosing your path correctly, otherwise you may find yourself intertwined with the most unfortunate of outcomes."
A folky acoustic track that together we have transformed into an epically dark, witchy ballad.

Rasputin
Secondly, is our innovative cover of the famous "Rasputin" by Boney M (Released in 1978 and featured on the album "Nightlight To Venus") - Later on re-worked by Aurora in her acoustic performance in NRK studios, September 2021.

Both versions of the song (Especially Aurora's cover in terms of structure), played an enormous part in the inspiration for our final rendition.
A musical concoction of Tribal, Romani, Folk and Alt-Rock, carefully welded together to create what we define as Traveller Grunge.

08.02.2022

erinmay — 2022-06-03 20:58:23 UTC

Today was my first rehearsal with Erin.

Overall it was more of a warm-up rehearsal, getting to know each other and figuring out where we want to take this project.

We decided on one song for now, which is Erin's original called Wheel Of Misfortune.

15.02.2022

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:23:58 UTC

https://youtu.be/RrN9QnGbqBk

This week's rehearsal we started work on our creative cover and decided to do Rasputin by Boney M - re-inspired by Aurora's cover.
In this session we figured out the song's structure and a way to rearrange the song to show innovation.
We specifically worked on dynamics, vocals and a foundation of the drums.

After listening through Aurora's cover I took inspiration from the rhythm on the cajon and tried translate this to the drum kit. In order to keep a minimalist feel that I felt fit nicely in the song, not just rhythmically but also tonally, I focussed on these 3 areas:

Mallets - Although I didn't have any mallets for a while, I created the same effect by attaching cymbal felts on the bottom of my drum sticks. This allowed me to simulate the effect of mallets on the toms, snare and cymbals which I believe emulated a tribal sound, demonstrating innovation.

Chains - By adding chains to the cymbals I was able to create a 'sizzling' effect that added another percussive layer to the sound scape - Taking inspiration from tribal and Romani music in which metallic percussion sounds, such as the clinking of jewellery, are very prominent.

Rhythm - The choice of beat that I used is inspired by drum circles where the rhythm would be call and response and would have a lead drummer. Instead I tried simulate call and response from vocal to drums by creating space for the vocals when they're busy, and filling that space when they're not. I also avoided playing a typical rock/pop beat to break away from the western music feel, and instead reach towards a more innovative tribal feel.

22.02.2022

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:24:18 UTC

Reading Week

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:24:50 UTC

This week is spent time practicing the parts so that I was comfortable and wouldn't be improvising on the day - unless I wanted to.
If I was comfortable I could dedicate more time refining the finer details in the song.
I wanted to play around with the pace of track using my foot on the hi-hat pedal e.g. play a foot click on 1 and 3, in the
123 123 6/8 feel, to give an almost waltz like but 'pulsy' effect as well as allowing me to add in the 2nd note during the chorus's to have all three notes of the bar played with a high hat click, increasing the pace of those sections.

Week 8

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:25:34 UTC

Recording in the studio

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:25:44 UTC

TikTok In the Studio

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:26:00 UTC

Week 10

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:26:07 UTC

Week 11

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:26:37 UTC

Summative recordings

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:27:04 UTC

Our final submission videos can be found in the press release.

As it stands, I was very pleased with how the video recordings that we took of each track came out. We felt like our image was just as important to this new genre we are creating as the music is. As our point of innovation was to create a new genre by melding to very distinct and separate musical styles (Grunge & Alt rock fused with Tribal and Traveller/Romani cultural music) into a new blend, we felt that we had to represent this new genre (Traveller Grunge) with an appropriate aesthetic on stage. To this end, me and Erin spent a few weeks building a stage outfit and then coordinated this with Jacob & Vera, the 2 session musicians we had got involved for this project.

For the video's we hired a professional photographer/videographer named Josh, they did a fantastic job and provide us with multiple angles of the video shoot, which we had discussed before in the pre-production session.

I'm very happy with how the rhythm section developed through these 2 tracks. I feel like they had come along way from their humble beginnings and I'd managed to really meld the drums to support the musical elements. This is demonstrated in Wheel Of Misfortune, when you contrast the simple '4 to the floor' basic patterns we started with in the beginning, to complex and melodic Tom pattern used in the final video. This can also be seen by my introduction of the Djembe to create another rhythmic element and to support and enhance the tribal feel of the drums.

Similar development can be seen in Rasputin where I had used the building cymbal wash effect and then sudden choke to create suspense and tension before releasing it on the 3rd beat of the first bar in each chorus (coming backing in on the "Rasputin" lyric, after the initial "Ra Ra" lyric on Beats 1 and 2. This was an idea I was continually trying to develop and refine to find the best way to create this release and was really happy with the technique I ended up settling on, previous interpretations and ideas can be found throughout the development appendix.

One of the main journeys I felt that we undertook was finding a balance between the 2 main aspects of our new genre. The blend between Traveller and Grunge was hard to achieve but overall I feel like we did a great job. The grunge/alt-rock effect was achieved with having our bassist create a very crunchy '16 bit' feel with his tones to give a driving and dirty sounding bass line, in contrast to the harpsichord sound from the keys. I also feel like my drumming and use of rhythm brought these two aspects together and helped to create harmony between them. I believe I achieved this by creating a driving pulse that was steered away from typical western style rhythmic structure, as mentioned before.

I firmly believe that our innovation was a success and we've gone onto to create something to be proud of with the creation of a new genre.

Change of plan, from San to Jacob

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:27:19 UTC

During the last couple of weeks we'd experienced some issues with our guitarist/bassist. Some of these included musical issues, such as struggling to commit to a tone or instrument, and some of these were of a more professional nature, such as being inconsistent with turning up to rehearsals, and when turning up not knowing the parts or playing them correctly. This would slow us down so we decided to get a new bassist and were fortunate that my friend and flatmate Jacob was able to step up last minute and after a couple of rehearsals he recorded the tracks for our final hand in with us.

project plan

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:30:28 UTC

My initial plan for this project before I started working with anyone was to explore different areas of the drum kit and expand upon my creative skillset when writing new rhythms and beats for songs. I had felt that I was struggling to write drum parts that had a definitive character and were represented of myself, instead I was just playing beats I was comfortable with and I knew worked for certain styles of music. This frustrated me as I became bored with my parts and felt like I'd hit a wall and wasn't able to develop.

My main goal for this project was to break out of this repetitive cycle and to really try and think about what I could do to write more unique sounding drum parts that actually represented my own passion for playing drums.

Wheel Of Misfortune - Lyrics, Chords and Structure

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:31:27 UTC

Key:

Tempo:

Verse 1 - Em G F#

Walking down the aisle of black babe

Is this really what you’ve bargained for?

Your tale was written in one way

But it’s your choice to walk through the door

The rivers flowing wild and deep

In the forest that you weep

Prechorus - Am Em C B Am B

And I see you

Here

And I feel you

Your presence is clear

Chorus - A# A Am A# C A

Come and join

Spin the wheel of misfortune

Flip the coin

Gamble on your very future

Verse 2 - Em G F#
Conjouring the thoughts that misguided you
Im marking you as my pray
I see it laid out before you
This path will lead you astray
The river's dried
The forest has died
I know the secrets you keep

Prechorus - Am Em C B Am B

And I see you

Here

And I feel you

Your presence is clear

Chorus - A# A Am A# C A

Come and join

Spin the wheel of misfortune

Flip the coin

Gamble on your very future

Erin's demo of Wheel Of Misfortune

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:40:54 UTC

What I did

erinmay — 2022-06-13 17:42:47 UTC

Seeing as our first rehearsal was more of run-through, I didn't have a chance to fully work on my innovation, so Erin sent me a demo to work on from home.

In this recording I begin to introduce some elements of tribal/Romani by sticking to a more minimal, tom-based beat.
I also delved into something a little more innovative by introducing layers to my kit, through adding things such as necklaces and chains to my cymbals to add a new percussive element and to simulate the metallic/shaker effect commonly found in Romani/traveller music [As mentioned in research].

One of the challenges that I found that I had was trying to identify and establish a sound on the drums that had a place within the arrangement and fit sonically, rather than being too harsh and cutting; especially in reference to the high-end frequencies from the cymbal wash. I felt that when I was using regular drum sticks to play the parts, the overall sound of the drums had too much attack as well as being too loud, this didn't compliment the track.

I overcame this by 'jury-rigging' together my own pair of "mallets" using cymbal felts.

My DIY mallets

erinmay — 2022-06-15 09:02:59 UTC

22.02.2022

erinmay — 2022-06-15 09:09:01 UTC

erinmay — 2022-06-15 14:05:58 UTC

erinmay — 2022-06-15 14:06:23 UTC

erinmay — 2022-06-15 14:37:11 UTC

In week 5 we were all fairly familiar with both songs, and used this session to polish them up.

Rasputin
We really needed to address timings, starts and stops and dynamics in order to make the song more interesting and innovative - As well as addressing the clash between Erin's keys and Hassan's guitar.
Their unsynchronised chords created a dissonant sound and obvious clash when we came into the chorus - It's something we worked through by isolating all the instruments and figuring out what sounded wrong.
Aside from that the two main aspects of this rehearsal focused on drum beat development and our awesome Boney M/Maneskin mashup.

Drum Development - This recording has a more refined drum part than the previous one, some of the changes I've made include switching from the "4 on the floor" rhythm at the beginning of the track to a more restrained beat that has an accent on every other quarter note. I did this to create space that allows the vocals to shine through. I've also given more thought on how I'm using the cymbal washes to add atmosphere and tension. I also changed the pattern I played in the chorus. Before I had an off-beat hi-hat click but decided that this contradicted the flow of the rhythm and of the song. Instead I moved the click to the beat continued to develop and refine the pattern on the snare, although it is worth mentioning the snares are not engaged on the drum.

Rasputin/IWANNABEYOURSLAVE - This week we also decided to take our innovation to the next level by mashing up these two songs.
They were already in the same tempo so we just changed the key from Em to Bm.
This mashup perfectly resembles 'Traveller Grunge' for us, as its a blend of traveller/Romani influences (Heard in Rasputin), with the alt-rock/grunge tones heard in the Maneskin track.
This as well as the contrast between the soft and airy sounds in Rasputin and then to the driving and punchy aggressive sounds in the Maneskin track, I felt gave a massive, theatrical impact - Especially live.

Wheel Of Misfortune

Similarly to the first - Me and Erin felt quite comfortable with this song by now, we just needed to work on dynamics and synchronising the keys and guitar, as the guitar could be rather sporadic at times, causing a clash.
One of the main changes I made was adding a foot click which I think added pace to the track. I also changed the beat I played in the verses , adding more ghost notes to accompany the guitar part. in the pre-choruses I also changed the beat by adding in some accents for tension and moving around the toms a bit more, I felt that this really helped separate and distinguish the sections and add more impact. As we were aiming to make the choruses an anti chorus I was trying to play less, but I decided to add some ride in and switched the stick around so I could use the wooden tip to get a more traditional ride sound.
We also overcame a big issue, which was miscounting the pre-chorus by a bar, instead of counting a bar of 5, we were counting a bar of 4.

erinmay — 2022-06-15 22:28:38 UTC

In the next slide you can see all of our stems from the recording studio.
We recorded both songs in full with the addition of our friend Vera on djembe.

In the weeks running up to the studio session I had wanted to implement more layers of percussion by getting a djembe player in, I thought that the blend between the tom heavy drum beats I used in both tracks, as well as the other techniques I've mentioned, and the Djembe rhythm would create a massive sounding, tribal feeling drum section. I showed innovation by exploring different areas of percussion and by writing parts which tied in strongly to my instrument as well as to our Romani and tribal influences, helping to try and set ourselves apart and reinforce this new genre we're pioneering, Traveller Grunge.

Innovation Pitch & Research

erinmay — 2022-06-18 12:06:59 UTC

Development Appendix

erinmay — 2022-06-18 12:07:20 UTC

Bibliography & References

erinmay — 2022-06-18 12:07:37 UTC

2013. Algir- Tolgnatale. Available at: [Accessed 18 June 2022].

Horseman, B., Mitchel, A. and Johnson, E., 2022. California. Available at: [Accessed 18 June 2022].

Morris, T., 2013. North Sea Storm. Available at: [Accessed 18 June 2022].

Nutini, P., 2022. Through The Echoes. Available at: [Accessed 18 June 2022].

2016. Odal. Available at: [Accessed 18 June 2022].

Peasantartcraft, 2016. Romanian Traditional Dance. [video] Available at: [Accessed 18 June 2022].

Watkins, J., 2019. History of the Gypsies. [online] Owlcation. Available at: [Accessed 18 June 2022].

Youtube.com. 2011. 06 Romanian Wind - Hans Zimmer - Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows Score. [online] Available at: [Accessed 20 June 2022].

Youtube.com. 2015. Sabian 14" AAX Stage Hi Hat Cymbals (21402X-1042215F). [online] Available at: [Accessed 19 June 2022].

Youtube.com. 2017. Zildjian 14" K Custom Special Dry FX Hi Hat Cymbal - Top - 868g (K1411-1011617D). [online] Available at: [Accessed 19 June 2022].

Youtube.com. 2008. Zorba The Greek. [online] Available at: [Accessed 19 June 2022].

Innovation Pitch in Audio format

erinmay — 2022-06-18 12:11:13 UTC

Points of innovation/Research

erinmay — 2022-06-18 12:14:26 UTC

1. Innovation on the drums

2. The "Traveller" influences

3. The "Grunge" influences

4. Conclusion

Rhythmic Roots of Tribal Music

erinmay — 2022-06-18 12:14:42 UTC

Due to the nomadic nature of traveller communities, most Eastern European and Traditional Romani traveller peoples from pre 18th century era, would typically end up 'wearing their wealth' through the accumulation of bracelets and trinkets etc. "In Switzerland, it was noted that Gypsies wore rags that resembled blankets but were bedecked in gold and silver jewellery." (Watkins, J., 2019.) Because of this when these groups would set up camp, singing and dancing the nights away, the trinkets would end up hitting together and would create an entire percussive element made up of the jingles of bracelet. This has become synonymous with traveller styled music and can be found recreated in the percussion of this video of traditional Romani dance (Peasantartcraft, 2016. Romanian Traditional Dance.)

I tried to be innovative by bringing this element into our music by using necklaces on the cymbals to create a sizzling effect as well as using my hi-hat pedal to create a sense of rhythm and pace. I wanted to recreate this sound and translate it to a modern drum kit, I felt the best way to do that was to use the hi-hat foot click musically rather than for time-keeping (the way it's predominantly used), using it to create pace and tension. I chose to use a specific hi-hat for this, the Zildjian K Custom Special Dry Fx Hat Top. This cymbal has a sandy and dark tone that stands out from the usual, bright and crisp sounding hi-hats found in alt rock, such as Sabian aax; the difference can be seen clearly in these 2 videos (Youtube.com. 2017.)(Youtube.com. 2015.) I thought these tones specifically complimented the sound I was looking to achieve, and well represented the percussive elements from traveller and Romani music.

One of the main elements I wanted to explore was how I could avoid what I've come to dub as the 'western backbeat' meaning the 2/4 structure in the 4/4 time signature (meaning the backbeat lands on the 2nd and 4th beats in the bar) (Horseman, B., Mitchel, A. and Johnson, E., 2022.)(Nutini, P., 2022.) Through The Echoes. or indeed on the 4th note when playing 6/8; examples of this can be found in the bibliography. I feel that this style of rhythm has been so inherently wrapped into western folk that it has caused 2 main flaws when writing rhythmic parts. The first being that when writing drum parts, using this style automatically places your groove within a westernised group of music regardless of the genre you're playing. The 2nd flaw being that if you've only or predominantly been exposed to this style of groove, you will be inhibited when it comes to trying to be creative and move away from that structure, as it is so dominant in the western folk scene. I demonstrated innovation here by spending time writing parts that typically avoided this back and forth pulse effect because I felt that it made the rhythm too similar throughout and wanted instead to focus on bringing a more tribal feel and theatrical development. I was heavily influenced by the band Wardruna with their style of Viking/Icelandic folk, as the songs had a very tribal feel and their rhythm would progress and develop throughout the track. (Algir- Tolgnatale, 2013)

Intro

erinmay — 2022-06-18 12:17:05 UTC

What is our innovation?
In these next 4 sections I will be covering in detail the different elements of innovation within our project.

Wheel Of Misfortune

erinmay — 2022-06-18 13:57:15 UTC

One of my main inspirations for Wheel Of Misfortune was the image of a drummer sat in the galley of a ship driving a crew or rowers as they work. As I was writing the drum parts, this mental image was at the front of my mind - I tried to recreate the same feel with my tom pattern. The driving pulse with an accent on each quarter note really resembles this rhythmic work song, this can be heard from 0:24. (Odal, 2006.)(Morris, T., 2013.)

The approach to this was to recreate a mental image that would be conjured in peoples imaginations when listening to the song. In order to try and recreate this, I listened to a number of different tracks inspired by Icelandic folk and Viking motifs.(Odal, 2006.)(Morris, T., 2013.)
I demonstrate innovation by introducing these elements and motifs and then blending them with the modern rock sounds a drum kit provides, creating the driving pulse on the toms that's so prominent in the verses and pre-chorus sections (e.g. at 0.54)- Taking the influences away from their roots and converting it to an acoustic drum kit.

Another point of innovation was to simulate the metallic percussive elements found in Romani music - traditionally from the jingling of bracelets and trinkets. I did this by playing a hi-hat foot click on the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th beat of the 6/8 bar, similar to a slow shuffle groove, during the 2nd verse (this can be heard at 1:31). I then increased the foot click as the section progresses to try and increase the pace of that part of the track (as demonstrated at 1:39 onwards). This was inspired by a certain feature of Traveler and Romani styled music that I came across in my research, when the track increases in pace throughout the whole song to a crescendo by either directly increasing the bpm (Youtube.com. 2011) or by doubling the time continuously (Youtube.com. 2008.).

I tried to innovate further by stacking 2 cymbals on top of each other to give a dark and sandy crash sound that wasn't too cutting, this really helped to add the metallic clutter to the track that I was looking for and which I believe helped to give a rustic and traveler sounding atmosphere (this is demonstrated at 1:45 onwards).

Rasputin

erinmay — 2022-06-18 14:17:36 UTC

So where my innovation for Wheel of Misfortune stemmed from more of a primal, tribal feel, I had a different inspiration for our Rasputin cover. I wanted to try and harken more to traditional eastern European and medieval nomadic traveler atmosphere. This meant having a different approach to the pace of the track as well as the tonality in the sense of what sounds I wanted to cut through and be more prominent, and then sounds I wanted to avoid.

The first inspiration was the travelers bedecked in jewelry and how I tried to bring that inspiration into the track. I feel like I achieved this through a number of techniques. The first was to use a tambourine stacked on top of the Hi-hat to simulate the effect of metal jewelry jingling in time with the music, this can be heard at 0:11. Another technique I used to achieve this was using necklaces on the cymbals to create a sizzling, atmospheric sound that would add another metallic layer onto the percussion. Although in the videos it can be hard to make out, the effect live was very powerful. If we could re-record the videos I would try to find a way to remedy this. This effect can still be heard however at the end of the first chorus at 1:00 as a faint sizzle in the background.

Another point of innovation for me in this track was combining the djembe into the written drum parts. When I was writing the djembe parts I tried to get them to compliment each other, and rather than just playing in perfect synchrony I wanted us to allow space for each other to drift in and out and shine through at certain moments. This can be heard at 1:21.

Conclusion

eddywooder3 — 2022-06-23 13:32:40 UTC

Through the research that I have done (see Rhythmic Roots of Tribal Music) I believe that I was able to capture the elements of Romani and Tribal music, and to then meld them together into a grunge and modern rock setting. I think that this is created a unique rhythmic style and has helped to pioneer the birth of a new genre, Traveler Grunge.