|
The American Adventure (album)
''The American Adventure'' is the second album by UK prog-pop duo The Electric Soft Parade, released in 2003 on BMG UK & Ireland. The album was seen as a departure from their previous effort ''Holes in the Wall'' (DB Records, 2002) and paved the way for their third full-length LP, ''No Need To Be Down-Hearted''. Critical reception ''The American Adventure'' received mixed reviews upon release. Jack Rabid of Allmusic noted a distinct change of sound from that of the band's debut album, ''Holes in the Wall'', but it was a change that he felt worked to good effect; "They abandon any semblance of their first LP's clockwork consistency for a bumpy ride of an LP that shifts gears from song to song, or mid-song abruptly but successfully throughout". He went on to draw comparisons with the baroque music of The Beach Boys and "'70s Pink Floyd comfortable numbness". Andrew McGregor writing for the BBC praised the uniqueness of The Electric Soft Parade sound, but found fault with the albu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Electric Soft Parade
The Electric Soft Parade are an English psychedelic pop band from Brighton, comprising brothers Alex and Thomas White, the creative core of the band, as well as a number of other musicians with whom they record and perform live, most recently including Andrew Mitchell (of Dundee-based group The Hazey Janes) and Damo Waters, as well as long-standing bass/keyboard player, Matthew Twaites. Career Alex and Thomas originally formed Fixed Ascent (later The Feltro Media) with schoolfriends Alistair Gavan and Russell Gleason in around 1997. Whilst ostensibly a formulaic indie outfit, there were flashes of the more complex symphonic arrangements and varied production values that would characterise later Electric Soft Parade releases, and over three self-released albums the band cultivated a (relatively) original sound, not unlike that of ''Holes in the Wall''. Following interest in their 1999 LP, ''The Wonderful World of the Feltro Media'', the band were offered a deal with DB Records ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stylus Magazine (magazine)
''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Additionally, ''Stylus'' had daily features like "The Singles Jukebox", which looked at pop singles from around the globe, and "Soulseeking", a column focused on personal responses in listening. Even though they never reached the readership of other music magazines such as PopMatters or Pitchfork, they still had a very consistent and fired-up audience. In 2006, the site was chosen by the ''Observer Music Monthly'' as one of the Internet's 25 most essential music websites. ''Stylus'' closed as a business on 31 October 2007. The site remained online for several years, but did not publish any new content. On 4 January 2010, with the blessing of former editor Todd Burns, ''Stylus'' senior writer Nick Southall launched ''The Stylus Decade'', a web ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spoken Word
Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of recitation and word play, such as the performer's live intonation and voice inflection. Spoken word is a "catchall" term that includes any kind of poetry recited aloud, including poetry readings, poetry slams, jazz poetry, and hip hop music, and can include comedy routines and prose monologues. Unlike written poetry, the poetic text takes its quality less from the visual aesthetics on a page, but depends more on phonaesthetics, or the aesthetics of sound. History Spoken word has existed for many years; long before writing, through a cycle of practicing, listening and memorizing, each language drew on its resources of sound structure for aural patterns that made spoken poetry very different from ordinary discourse and easier to commit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cornet
The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a soprano cornet in E and cornets in A and C. All are unrelated to the Renaissance and early Baroque cornett. History The cornet was derived from the posthorn by applying rotary valves to it in the 1820s, in France. However, by the 1830s, Parisian makers were using piston valves. Cornets first appeared as separate instrumental parts in 19th-century French compositions.''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Micropedia, Volume III, William Benton, Chicago Illinois, 1974, p. 156 The instrument could not have been developed without the improvement of piston valves by Silesian horn players Friedrich Blühmel (or Blümel) and Heinrich Stölzel, in the early 19th century. These two instrument makers almost simultaneously invented valves, though it is likely th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Groovebox
A groovebox is a self-contained electronic or digital musical instrument for the production of live, loop-based electronic music with a high degree of user control facilitating improvisation. The term "Groovebox" was originally used by Roland Corporation to refer to its MC-303, released in 1996. The term has since entered general use, and the concept dates back to the Movement Computer Systems Drum Computer in 1981. A groovebox consists of three integrated elements. * One or more sound sources, such as a drum machine, a synthesizer, or a sampler * A music sequencer * A control surface that is a combination of knobs (potentiometers or rotary encoders), sliders, buttons, and display elements (LEDs and/or an LCD screen) The integration of these elements into a single system allows the musician to rapidly construct and control a pattern-based sequence, often with multiple instrumental or percussion voices playing simultaneously. These sequences may also be quickly chained to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monster Bobby
Monster Bobby (born Robert William Barry, 1981) is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the creator of and guitarist for the indie pop girl group The Pipettes. Overview In 2001, when Monster Bobby was just Bobby Barry, he starred in ''Weirdsister College'', the spin-off series of ''The Worst Witch'', in which he played the mysterious Nick Hobbes. Prior to that he starred in the film ''New Year's Day'' as Stephen, written by Ralph Brown and directed by Suri Krushnamma and released in 2001. Monster Bobby is most well known as being guitarist for The Cassette(s), The Pipettes' all-male backing band. He is frequently credited by The Pipettes both with developing the idea of a modern girl group, and with introducing the members of The Pipettes to one another. He has been described as the group's "Svengali", but rejects any notion of "individual genius" in his role with The Pipettes, stating that "most of the most interesting music is made in such a collective fashion that it i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Large
Stephen Large is an English, London-based keyboard player, composer, arranger, and long-term member of UK band Squeeze. Biography As well as his work with Squeeze, Stephen Large is Musical Director (touring keyboard player and arranger) for Caro Emerald. He was previously Musical Director for pop artists Rebecca Ferguson and Duffy. As a keyboard player, Large has worked with Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott, most recently contributing keyboards for their Number One album ''Manchester Calling''. Other keyboard work includes Paloma Faith, Rumer, Pete Doherty, Babyshambles, the Noisettes, Johnny Depp, cabaret with Alan Carr, music hall with Colin Firth, and others, as well as being a founder member of jazz outfits The Rag 'n' Bone Club and Ronnie Scott's Rejects. Large received web notoriety after an appearance with Squeeze on the US '' Jimmy Fallon Show'' on 13 July 2010, during which he played a keyboard solo on the new Apple iPad for the song "Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celesta
The celesta or celeste , also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five-octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music box (three-octave). The keys connect to hammers that strike a graduated set of metal (usually steel) plates or bars suspended over wooden resonators. Four- or five-octave models usually have a damper pedal that sustains or damps the sound. The three-octave instruments do not have a pedal because of their small "table-top" design. One of the best-known works that uses the celesta is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from ''The Nutcracker''. The sound of the celesta is similar to that of the glockenspiel, but with a much softer and more subtle timbre. This quality gave the instrument its name, ''celeste'', meaning "heavenly" in French. The celesta is often used to enhance a melody line played by another instrument or sect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hammond Organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated sound by creating an electric current from rotating a metal tonewheel near an electromagnetic pickup, and then strengthening the signal with an amplifier to drive a speaker cabinet. The organ is commonly used with the Leslie speaker. Around two million Hammond organs have been manufactured. The organ was originally marketed by the Hammond Organ Company to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, or instead of a piano. It quickly became popular with professional jazz musicians in organ trios—small groups centered on the Hammond organ. Jazz club owners found that organ trios were cheaper than hiring a big band. Jimmy Smith's use of the Hammond B-3, with its additional harmonic percussion feature, inspired a g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Handclaps
A clap is the percussive sound made by striking together two flat surfaces, as in the body parts of humans or animals. Humans clap with the palms of their hands, often quickly and repeatedly to express appreciation or approval (see applause), but also in rhythm as a form of body percussion to match the sounds in music, dance, chants, hand games, and clapping games. Some people slap the back of one hand into the palm of the other hand to signify urgency or enthusiasm. This act may be considered uncouth by others. Clapping is used in many forms of music. In American music, clapping is popular in Gospel, Doo-wop and early Pop. In flamenco and sevillanas, two Spanish musical genres, clapping is called '' palmas'' and often sets the rhythm and is an integral part of the songs. A sampled or synthesized clap is also a staple of electronic and pop music. Musical works that include clapping Classical works performed entirely by clapping * Steve Reich, ''Clapping Music'' (1972) * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Synth Bass
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be altered by components such as filters, which cut or boost frequencies; envelopes, which control articulation, or how notes begin and end; and low-frequency oscillators, which modulate parameters such as pitch, volume, or filter characteristics affecting timbre. Synthesizers are typically played with keyboards or controlled by sequencers, software or other instruments, and may be synchronized to other equipment via MIDI. Synthesizer-like instruments emerged in the United States in the mid-20th century with instruments such as the RCA Mark II, which was controlled with punch cards and used hundreds of vacuum tubes. The Moog synthesizer, developed by Robert Moog and first sold in 1964, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by their vocal harmony, vocal harmonies, adolescent-themed lyrics, and musical ingenuity, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. They drew on the music of traditional pop, older pop vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black R&B to create their unique sound. Under Brian's direction, they often incorporated classical music, classical or jazz elements and Recording studio as an instrument, unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways. The Beach Boys began as a garage band, managed by the Wilsons' father Murry Wilson, Murry, with Brian serving as composer, arranger, producer, and ''de facto'' leader. In 1963, they enjoyed their first national hit with "Surfin' U.S.A.", beginning a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Hammond Organ")
.jpg "Click for more on -> Handclaps")
