This Is The Universe Singing To Itself

At the end of a job interview once, I was asked to choose between Star Wars and Star Trek. I made a favourable impression when, instead, I replied, "Dune".

Because the Dune Universe is as emotional as it is scheming and so deep in human accomplishments and  shortcomings as it is rich in mythos. 

The lyrics of this song are written in Chakobsa, the language of the Fremen, the desert people moulded upon the Arab nations and their control over the Spice that allows the world to function. 

Do yourself a favour and pick all six of the original Dune books. Try to steer clear of the latest fun-exploitation novels churned out every year in the name of Frank Herbert. They do little more than soil Frank's vision. 

And even thought the 1984 David Lynch's Dune film is considered canon, do not overlook the Dune (2000) and Children of Dune (2003) Mini Series. This where this magical music comes from.  

The Most Touching Ballads By The Most Haunting Voice You Will Ever Hear

Compared to its population, Canada is blessed with a disproportionate great number of talented performance artists - and Sarah McLachlan is one of the best examples.

Maybe they are inspired by the endless expanses of the Great North and the blandness of the Toronto sprawl; maybe it is the English and French cultures creating unique sparks as they reluctantly merge; maybe it is living in Vancouver, one of the most ephemerally beautiful cities of the world, set on the ridge of the Pacific ring of fire; or maybe it is the eternal adolescence of the Canadian psyche or the freshly disillusioned naiveté of a nation of great poets and dreamers in the shadow of the bordering militaristic giant. Who knows.

Sarah McLachlan is a great Singer - and this is her very best album! I have Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (together with all her albums) since my university years - God bless the Due South TV Series that exposed me to her absolutely haunting voice! I have been playing it numerous times over the years, one could not get tired of this collection. The pieces are all gems, from start to finish! The music speaks directly to the soul, such poetic lyrics are so hard to find any more.

And, I promise you, Sarah's voice will haunt you forever.

Deceptive Kaleidoscopic Views & Sharp Morality Shards

The Ice Storm is one of the best films ever released. Ang Lee proved to be one of our great contemporary film directors and he sure did justice to Rick Moody's novel. In fact, most people who enjoyed both will tell you that, surprisingly, they prefer the film over the book. One of the main reasons (besides great directing and solid acting) is the unforgettable music of  its SoundTrack..

From the opening titles, Mychael Danna's hypnotic melodies take you effortlessly two generations back, in affluent yet creepy American Suburbia. Unfortunately, the opening titles theme is not included in this release (my only complain). I would have loved to be able to listen to it while driving without Paul's (Tobey Maguire) monologue on top but no luck.

The same is also true for a number of memorable instrumental pieces. In fact, Mychael Danna's pieces on this soundtrack are limited only to Tracks 1-3. The rest are songs from the era that make a small or greater appearance in the movie.

Nevertheless, Danna's composition and execution are so powerful that this soundtrack deserves a place in your life.

Indeed, "family is the void we emerge from. And the place we go to when we die". 

Everything in between is music.

Liquid Velvet

Christmas break of 1998, second floor living-room of a New Jersey Victorian house, visiting friends; the snow started falling at dusk and now it was well underway, the generous flakes absorbing any sound in the atmosphere. The fireplace radiates a soft glow and the sweet scent of burning pine wood. Tucked in the couch, I am reading a good spy novel. And on the Stereo, Sade's Love Deluxe is playing over and over, making the evening unforgettable, etching every detail to my memory.

Since then the deep, magic voice of Sade provided the soundtrack of many evenings of my life. However, Love Deluxe remained unsurpassed. Soldier of Love though came close, closer than  any other album.

Soldier of Love is a masterpiece. Every single song is wonderful and yet Long Hard Road and In Another Time are the ones I feel longing for. Both of these songs remind of Sade's signature sounds. The rest of the album though takes well studied steps, dancing around her previous works.

Fans will find this album comfortable like an old favorite sweater and fresh like untouched morning snow. If you do not know Sade, this is one of her albums that you must have.

What Comes Around, Comes Around

For more than two generations the music industry behaved as if they had us all by the short and curly. They controlled the source, the prices and the demand. Then all hell broke loose. And they are running around, chasing their tails, ever since.

Dirty Little Secrets of the Record Business will help you substantiate everything you suspected for so long. Yes, it was always easier and more profitable to promote untalented signers or groups bootstrapped together with a lot of image and little else than having to deal with really talented artists. Real artists last long enough to start making demands and if they are not met they can always take their talent elsewhere. In contrast, untalented posers are a dime a dozen. And are all willing to waste their lives for fame, maybe some drugs and some short-lived adoration (p.237).

Promoting far lesser talents was never a problem as the music industry has always been hand-in-hand with most radio producers. Payola-and-plugola scandals never seem to go out of fashion, from the 1960's in California to some years ago with SONY-BMG in New York. Ever wondered why most radio stations play the same drivel over and over and ignore both indie groups and older songs? And how exactly did you think "hits" are made? Not ..."listeners' requests" I hope! (p.105)

It was like the Cola Company controlling both our taste-buds and our thirst center - and then going on selling watered-down soft drinks for the price of a four-course meal.

So, the geniuses running the music industry kept picking stars-to-be from the lazy-yet-ambitious crowd and paid them close to nothing ("sure, you bring in millions son, but all that money goes to production and promotion expenses, see. I hardly break even myself"). When their shooting stardom faded, they simply discarded them and moved on to the next star-system victim. It was a well-oiled machine. It made billions - just not for the people we thought it did (p.259).

Then, in the early-90's a group of inventive Germans came up with the mp3 sound-compression and the sky fell in. Even with the first slow internet connections, downloading a song of quality comparable to that of a CD took about 10 minutes. Sure, it was not exactly kosher but what was worse: downloading a song you could hear on the radio for free or asking half a day's wages for a CD that was not only half empty but it also contained only a single good song - the rest was known as filler? Napster, Grockster, KazaA and then torrents - there was simply no closing the flood-gates once they had burst open.

So what did the music industry do? First thing they came up with was the "let's make our customers pay for the same music again and again" policy. They lobbied for (and, being a wealthy industry, of course got) draconian "intellectual property rights" that make any form of sharing or reselling illegal. The long arm of RIAA in effect, is run just like a shakedown (p.277).

Now, try to imagine Chrysler getting second-hand car sales to be illegal only to enhance its own sales - would that make any (legal or moral) sense?

They also discovered TV talent Shows. Enter the clowns. And make them run faster. Talent shows not only equate "success" with slave-labor contracts but they also provide the music industry with numerous fresh pools of semi-trained singers. No more need for the Milli-Vanillis of the world to lip-sing. Their new boys and girls may still be ephemeral but they can more or less sing by themselves.

But it's a battle already lost. When an industry makes more money from suing its former customers than from selling its product (that becomes more irrelevant every day), you just know they are way past the point of no return.

Intrigued? Well, this book tells the whole story with far more details and far juicer tidbits. The writer is a music industry insider and has no qualms backing his claims with a lot of inside information. It is an easy read and it even has a chapter on Amazon.

A must read for any music buyer!

(and any PC Gamer I am afraid, as the Gaming industry is following in exactly the same footsteps)

A Deeper, More Mature Sarah

That was some Sabbatical! It has been 7 years since Afterglow, and I for one was starting to demonstrate some pretty pronounced withdrawal symptoms. But I always respect an artist who, having nothing new to add, will refrain from printing and marketing ...proof of this fact.

Sarah McLachlan's strong point has always been her mesmerizing voice and the beautiful poetry of her songs. That is why in this album instrumental accompaniment is kept to a minimum. Laws of Illusion is not a pop album. It deserves to do well because, although personal it is far from esoteric. Sarah sings about universal feelings of a human getting older, surviving heartaches, overcoming adversities and finding happiness once more.

If Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was the voice of a young couple in love about to start off their blissful life, Laws of Illusion is the voice of the same couple reaching maturity, whether they are still together or not.

Sarah is back. And, if you let her, she will take you deep into Dreamland.

Water For Your Soul

Soundtracks are the evolutionary heirs to the symphonies and operas of the past centuries. Some are good, others are bad, a rare few are timeless masterpieces. Water for Elephants is one of those rare cases when the music that accompanies and compliments a movie manages to escape the silver screen and stand on its own.

James Newton Howard manages to capture an era and an atmosphere; the desire and the desperation; the hope and the apprehension. I have not seen the movie yet (I will definitely do so now) but this mesmerizing music is able to create an endless imagery in my mind, an imagery composed from a full set of emotional colors.

The album sets off with the romantic Did I miss it which defines the theme and the pace. In between, the instrumental pieces pay around the theme, using it as a spring board to complete their own dive into our soul.

I disagree with the notion that the five Big Band and Gospel period songs are out of place. I found most of them to fit nicely and give a reprise from the instrumental narration.

The very last track, The Stampede - I 'm coming home, ends in a majestic note.

This is one of the best soundtracks I have ever owned - and that is neither an exaggeration nor a small feat.

The Dream Will Be Collapsing. Again and Again

Dive into Nolan's labyrinthine worlds-within-worlds with only music as your guiding thread. You will get lost - and you will love every second of it. The Inception SoundTrack is an extreme musical trip into the unknowable.

To anyone who has not yet seen this epic movie I would strongly recommend to do so. Nevertheless, the soundtrack stands on its own. Zimmer only had the script to go by so his compositions reflect his own take on the characters and events of the movie and are not simply there to complement the pictures.

The album starts off ominously with the short Half-Remembered Dream, reaches an early peak with The Dream Is Collapsing, turns playfully threatening with One Simple Idea to end with my favorite, Time, a majestic closing piece, full of new found hope and open sunbathed vistas.

If you think of buying this because you were blown away by the trailer music keep in mind that it is not included. That piece is called Mind Heist and it was actually composed by Zack Hemsey, not Hans Zimmer.

This is the music of the worlds within, the sound of our subconscious fears and most secret dreams; the sound of the pulsating thread that connects us with the Universe.

Epic!

The Definition Of Epic

Inception's trailer on YouTube by now has almost 15 million views. And for good reason. The movie was absolutely unforgetable. The selected scenes have been beautifully edited. However, what makes that trailer irresistible is the music. Because this is one of the most epic pieces of music ever composed.

As numerous spoofs have already shown, practically anything (from walking down the street to making a sandwich) can be turned into an epic moment with this music.

Contrary to what most people think, though, this is not included in the Hans Zimmer movie soundtrack (which is exceptional in its own right). This was composed by Zack Hemsey and you can find it here.

Make sure not to leave it out of your life's soundtrack!

"We are are the things you see out of the corner of your eye..."

 Call it Progressive Rock or Gothic Metal, it matters not: this is the music dreams of all ages are made of.

Whether you are a teenager bursting with energy to burn or a former hand-banging middle-aged professor, you will find Within Temptation's Faster to be a classic Rock song you will catch yourself air-guitaring to. Great melodies, catchy lyrics, memorable guitar riffs and a very uplifting beat.

The perfect song to run on your treadmill to. Definitely NOT recommended while driving though. Speeding tickets can get really expensive...

    A great moment for one of my favorite bands!