Skip to main content

John Oswald's “Dab”

The first ten seconds of “Dab” feel like the start of a typical percussion-heavy song. I think a lot of 80s pop music songs start that way. But this is not done by percussions, of course. It just reminds me of those. Phil Collins/Genesis comes to mind. Then the anticipation is squashed because the next ten or so seconds reminds me forcefully of the “It's Gonna Rain” track done by Steve Reich. At least on the first hearing. On the second hearing I realised that it is not “rain” but “bad”. It feels as if a coal-powered train is on the move. It gives that sound and vibe at the beginning, the first 30 seconds or so. And only then I realise that it is Michael Jackson's “Bad”. The sequences when there is not the Michael Jackson song playing feel like the medium (disc or cassette) is broken, and as if the music is on a broken loop. Also, the volume is turning down slowly, then the piece takes up both  pace and volume, and there he is, Michael is back in action. This is my impression on the first listening but when I listen again, I realise that that only happens at the very end, not throughout the piece.

The bits with Michael Jackson's song seem like being played on a turntable. This is my initial thought. The more I listen, the more I feel like it is a combination of broken turntable, broken medium, and poor radio reception. You know when you would travel in a car and once leaving the radio station's main area and the music would become distored and other radio stations would jump into the reception area and you would only get bits and pieces of the song you were listening to. It would be broken into by talk radio or other, awful music you would never willingly listen to. Making the experience, well, bad. So much so that you would have to change the station, and find something more enjoyable. This feels like that on my second and third listenings. But then I realise that I still like it. It has something fascinating to it because this is not the product of bad airwaves, this is done deliberately. On the – oh, I do not know what number – time of listening, I realise that the non-Michael Jackson bits are complementing and completing the “Bad” bits. What is that sound anyway? I cannot tell, is it some sort of electronic music? Great, now that I have this question, I cannot stop thinking about it. What kind of music is this?  I do not go for the typical electro music – if that is even a genre.
What I cannot tell is: is “Bad” played faster or maybe slower than the original? Maybe a bit of both.
The ending sounds as if a Wheel of Fortune is coming to the end of its cycle. Mixed with a few beats of “Bad. It is my favourite bit – not because the 7'13'' has finally come to an end but because I very much appreciate this Wheel of Fortune/”Bad “ combination at the end. I really enjoyed this. Every time I listened to, I enjoyed it a bit more.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure

 Sarah Kumar Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath The Future of (American) Music 06 Mar. 2023 Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure According to John Oswald, “[a] plunderphone is a recognizable sonic quote, using the actual sound of something familiar which has already been recorded” (Lecture Slides 18). However, only if the source stays recognizable can it be called plunderphonics. In his album Plexure , several songs are played back and mixed together, thus creating a new sound. This is interesting because while the excerpts of songs that are used are recognizable or at least sound familiar to some degree, played backwards and mashed up as they are in Plexure , they create a new sound. Like on the cover of the album, on which a collage making up a man can be seen, the mixing of different songs played backwards gives a new feeling to something known. The way the songs are mixed makes them unintelligible. The meaning of the words of the original recordings are not able to be compr...
Post a Comment
Read more

William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops III

  The Disintegration Loops is a quartet of albums published in 2002 and 2003 by American avant-garde composer William Basinski. The pieces are made up of tape loop recordings that were played over time, with noise and crackles rising as the tape deteriorated. Basinski noticed this effect when attempting to convert his older recordings to digital format. The completion of the recordings coincided with the September 11, 2001 events, which Basinski witnessed and adds a deeper meaning to the composition. The composition is fascinating in many ways and makes the listener lose track of time. The tape loop recording had a very calming effect on me and put me in a trance-like state when I listened to it in its entirety. The tape loop is really soothing, so much so that I didn't even notice the loss of quality when I first listened to it. It makes you forget about time and allows you to really get into the piece capturing the calmness it exudes. You forget or don't really notice how i...
Post a Comment
Read more

John Cage – Inlets

  This does not sound like music to me. Depending on the interpretation of different players or performers, this piece will always sound different. In this case, it sounds to me like someone is walking through a cave with water at the bottom, dragging their feet through it. Sometimes it sounds like water in a toilet bowl, especially when we hear the water in a bigger shell being swished around. These sounds are relaxing in the background, it is like a gentle stream of water. I just wonder what went through the head of the composer while writing this piece. But I guess he had some experimental ideas that are interesting to try out. Those shells are quite pretty, I have never seen such big ones that are not broken. I was surprised when something else happened towards the end of the piece. That tone which came out of the one shell was so clear, it sounded like a trumpet. I didn’t know that shells can sound like that. It was quite beautiful. It was a nice way to end the piece. I di...
Post a Comment
Read more