Music Blogs (1,258)

Although made (mostly) from BRASS the saxophone is in the family of woodwind instruments. Driven by a single (cane) reed the saxophone is made in 8 different sizes ranging from the smallest Sopranino to the largest Subcontrabass.

Depending on your perspective, the saxophone emits a loud sound perfect for marching bands and in jazz music. Toned down with less 'bark' the saxophone is often associated with many soundtracks of sexy/sultry parts of movies.

Smooth Jazz? If you don't like the sound of a saxophone, I suggest you avoid that style of music!

In recent years, musical instrument companies have perfected digital versions of saxophones as MIDI controllers. Without this blog getting into the 'electronic' part of the controller, MIDI is a language that allows devices to 'talk' to computers and sound modules, giving the user an unlimited palette of sounds and coloration that an analog instrument couldn't accomplish.

MIDI wind controller can be described simply as playing a device with the feel of a saxophone that gives the musician sounds never heard before... in this case a saxophone that could sound like a pipe organ, electric guitar, trumpet, synthesizer and human voice.



Thanks for listening to my blog... !!

In my previous blog, I introduced you to Meshuggah. Now it's time for an introduction to another, technical band called Gojira.

They were formed in 1996, in the French town of Bayonne. The band consists of 4 people: Joe Duplantier on lead vocals and rythm guitar, Mario Duplantier on drums, Jean-Michel Labadie on bass and Christian Andreu on lead guitar, whom I blogged about one month ago. It was the guy who got a face full of fire at a show in the US.

Anyway, this is a post dedicated to the band, and not the guitarplayer.

The lineup has remained unchanged since 1998, and they have released six albums, the latest one is called Magma. How do Gojira sound like? Like this:



Their music is VERY technical, and Mario is widely considered one of the best drummers in modern metal, which is fully deserved. The guy is a machine, and he is extremely powerful live.

I have seen Gojira live twice - once at Download Festival and then once in Copenhagen, on their Magma headline tour. Let me tell you: They are VERY loud! They also care about the world. One of the organizations they support, is the Sea Shepherd Whaling Group. Gojira's sound is not easily classifiable as they blend several styles. They are a technical death metal band that blends death metal, groove metal, and progressive metal. Gojira have been influenced by heavy metal artists such as Godflesh, Slayer, Sepultura, Death, Morbid Angel, Meshuggah, Tool, Metallica, Pantera, and Neurosis.

They play a technical and rhythmic style of heavy metal with precision drumming along with blast beats, unusual rhythm patterns, and start-and-stop riffs. The band have also been known to incorporate textured atmospheric elements and instrumental songs into their music. Their songs have progressive and uncommon song structures, rarely using the standard verse-chorus songwriting. The vocal style is varied, using the screamed style often employed in extreme metal, with the death growl style predominantly used in death metal, in addition to clean vocals and higher screams. At times, death metal growls and clean vocals are mixed to create an aggressive but melodic effect.

The lyrics that Joe writes, tackle themes of life, death, rebirth, spirituality, and nature. In particular, their 2005 album From Mars to Sirius is a concept album tackling environmental issues and broader themes of life, death, and rebirth.

They really are a fantastic live band, that anyone should see in concert. I met them once, at Download Festival, and they are all fantastic humans! I really am a fan of them!

Meshugaas, also Mishegaas or Mishegoss: Crazy or senseless activity or behavior; craziness, meshugaas, from Hebrew:, m?šugga‘ath, a form of the above; OED, AHD)

It is therefore perfect for this band I am about to introduce you to!

This is the band Meshuggah


They were formed in 1987 in Umeå, Sweden. The band consists of Jens Kidman, Fredrik Thordendal, Tomas Haake, Mårten Hagström and D ick Lövgren.

Their style of music is a mix between extreme metal, progressive metal and avant-garde metal. Other people say, that the lead guitar player, Fredrik Thordendal, is the creator of the djent genre, which is a subgenre of progressive metal, named for an onomatopoeia for the distinctive high-gain, distorted, palm-muted, low-pitch guitar sound. Fredrik has been on a hiatus from the band since 2017, and in true Swedish fashion, they broke the news like this:

"So...we had to send our interdimensional Kazoospecialist Dr Thordendal on a mission to explore some interesting stuff. He's been asking for this assignment for quite a while and it seems now is the time to realize his aspirations. This would however leave the rest of us unable to deliver our usual tonal obscenities for quite some time... and obviously we can't have that!
So we put our five blocks of wood together and came up with a brilliant plan that we thought would be productive, intelligent and artistically mature.
We took some rolls of duct tape, a black hood, a sock with a cue ball and some rope and drove north from Stockholm in a sketchy van to fetch ourselves the prey we wanted, to fill the Kazoospot for a while. We won't get into the messy details but we can now proudly present our interim Lead Kazooist for the duration of "The Thords" hiatus: PER NILSSON!!
MAN he knows how to Kazoo!! You will meet him first time on our summer run in North America with Megadeth and be all the better for it!! Honestly, we could just send Per by himself but we decided the rest of us will tag along for moral support
*End of transmission*"

I love these guys, man!

Meshuggah is one of those bands, where the drummer constantly amazes you. Tomas Haake, is the guy. They made an album called obZen, and on that album was a song called Bleed


The thing about this song in particular, is that it took Tomas SIX months to learn. He had to invent a completely new style of play, that really took dedication from him. The entire band in general is extremely talented.

Jens Kidman is the lead singer of the band, and his style of singing is extremely challenging, namely because his voice is so high when he sings. I have never had the pleasure of seeing the band live, but I have met the drummer, Tomas. He is a super down to earth guy, who loves to talk to his fans.

I know there are some out there, who are going "Raaaaaa metal is just noise and shouting and evil stuff and no talent and just strumming some instruments"

Not Meshuggah! Their music have so many layers, that you can spend a week analyzing Bleed and still find new stuff in the song.

If you want to check out Meshuggah for yourself, their music is on YouTube and Spotify, and on tour in the US and in Europe.

Up early, at 4.45 am. Not my preferred time to get up, but I made the best of it.

I was meeting up with a friend, who is also a fan. We made it to the tv studio on time, got some breakfast and then got mic'ed up. Then it was time for the 8 minute segment on the band Slipknot, who is headlining Copenhell this year. We went through what song we preferred, what mask we both liked and what the band meant to us.

I named this mask as my favourite

When I was asked why, I said it was because it just looks creepy! Like a mix between Leatherface and an axemurderer. That comment made everyone laugh, which made me feel good. But the entire thing went off without a hitch.

Well.. There was ONE thing.. Remember when I told in my previous blog, that I would try not to make a fool out of myself? Well, someone managed to screenshot this of me



..at least I look passionate about the band, which is exactly what I wanted to achieve!

The first time I heard about this band, was when they set the internet on fire with their song Pisces. If I am completely honest, I wasn't blown away when I finally heard it, so I kind of put the band aside, and listened to other stuff.

But then I started listening to it again, and again, and again, and again. For good measure, I listened to it once more. I came to realize, that Jinjer is one of those bands that slowly creep up on you. You need at LEAST five listens before you go "Yeah, this is good!"

But who are Jinjer?



It's them on the picture, and they are a Ukranian metalcore/progressive metal/death metal/groove metal/djent band from Horlivka. The members are Tatiana Shmailyuk on vocals, Roman Ibramkhalilov on guitar, Eugene Abdiukhanov on bass and Vladislav Ulasevich on the drums. Many of the male metalheads mainly listen to the band because of the way that Tatiana looks. She's a good looking woman, but that doesn't have to be the ONLY reason why you like the band. Granted, she does a mean growl, and she switches from sounding like an angel to an absolute demon.

Jinjer released the 5-track EP called Micro earlier this year, and I have only just gotten around to hearing it now. So, how is it? Is it terrible or is it brilliant?

I liked it a lot, actually. I didn't really expect it, since I haven't been a fan of their older stuff. A welcome surprise in an otherwise stagnant world of metal!

9/10

Bob Seger is on his final few weeks of his farewell tour and is still playing one of his first classics 'Ramblin' Gamblin' Man'

Only Chubby Checker had a single that sold more copies. This song enabled Santana to win 3 Grammys and is now frequently played at weddings and still gets air play on the radio 20 years later.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the song, is the story behind the scenes of how it almost didn't happen and how it came together.
The original inspiration was Santana's small children who stated wonder why the only song they ever heard from their father on the radio was 'Black Magic Woman'. So, Carlos sought out an old connection in the music business to create an updated collaboration.

The music beat was written by one person not connected to the band, based on old Santana successes, and later the lyrics, while not written by Santana, were inspired by Santana being "smooth" and also by the writer's girlfriend. Naturally, Santana then improvised guitar licks.

First here's the official video of the song;



and now here's the long, but worth it story, 'Man, It's a Hot One'

*al-history-841189/