11.06.07
The Periodic Table of the Groove
OK, here’s the first real article on the making of La vie sous la mer, my latest Jamendo album.
It took me months to record this album. However, most of the songs on this album started in a single experiment, which I called “The Periodic Table of the Groove.”
My first Jamendo album, evolution, featured a lot of music with odd time signatures. This time, I wanted to create an album without any 4/4 tunes at all. However, one of the challenges I gave to myself was to make the odd meter songs sound completely smooth — I wanted the meter to surprise people when they figured it out, not demand attention through some lopsided set of riffs. I wanted the sound to glide along — not stagger, not stumble.
With that in mind, I began a series of musical experiments. I took a variety of beats, recorded a basic drum machine track, then found all the possible bass grooves that occurred to me. For the bass beats that worked, I then recorded some sort of accompaniment — generally, organ, because a keyboard affords a lot of opportunity to build unusual, jazzy chords.
The results are listed below. If you want to find them, have a look at my “Inyuk Chuk” page on DMusic. The experiments are only about 90 seconds long each (except for set00).
| set | date | description | eventually became |
| set00 | 070706 | Unusual guitar line | |
| set01 | 070721 | 3/4 str 8 T112 | |
| set02 | 070721 | 3/4 swing T112 | |
| set03 | 070721 | 5/4 3:2 str 8 T128 | Werewolf |
| set04 | 070722 | 5/4 3:2 swing T128 | La vie sous la mer, 150 Years Later |
| set05 | 070722 | 5/4 2:3 str 8 T128 | The Illusion of Warmth |
| set06 | 070722 | 5/4 2:3 swing T128 | |
| set07 | 070723 | 7/4 4:3 str 8 T139 | The Strange Lady I Met on the Shore |
| set08 | 070723 | 7/4 4:3 swing T139 | It’s Always Raining Somewhere |
| set09 | 070723 | 7/4 3:4 str 8 T139 | |
| set10 | 070723 | 7/4 3:4 swing T139 | |
| set11 | 070724 | 6/8 4on3 str 8 T126 | |
| set12 | 070724 | 6/8 4on3 str 8 T126 | The Night Jenny Saved the Sailors |
| set13 | 070724 | 6/8 3on4 str 8 T126 | Hypothermia |
| set14 | 070724 | 6/8 3on4 str 8 T126 |
Notice these ideas were mostly completed in a single, short period of four days, from July 21 to July 24, 2007. Some of them led to final songs; others, well . . . were interesting, but never “clicked.” I had no idea what these songs meant at the time. I had some ideas. But there is a process I follow: I play with the tune, become familiar with it, and eventually hear it sort of “speaking” to me, telling me which direction it should go to next, filling in with new ideas and new structures.
So this is our starting point. From here, I’ll follow each of the songs from beginning to end.
Stay tuned.
John said,
December 26, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Bruce,
I happened to be listening to your song The Night Jenny Saved the Sailors, and I realized that the main riff you used was very similar to that used by Rage Against the Machine in their song Born of a Broken Man. Thought you might be interested in hearing how your riff was used in a song by a very different kind of band.
bmccosar said,
December 27, 2007 at 6:49 am
Well, that’s kind of cool — I had no idea. I’m mostly a jazz head, although I do stray out into the mainstream every once in a while. The “Jenny” chorus riff was actually a reharmonization of the original line, which sounded terrible when it ran through the guitar distortion.
The original bass line went like this: E was the constant tone, and in each bar, the lower note descended a half step, making the units (B-E) (Bb-E) (A-E) (Ab-E). I harmonized these as the jazz chords Bsus9, Bb7b5, A7, and Ab7#9#5. It worked on organ, but by the time I finished the song, the organ part didn’t fit anymore — guitar felt right. Problem was, the chords had too many tensions to work with the crunch sound without sounding like mud.
So I changed the harmonization. The new guitar part became a series a double stops (and later, their inversions): (E-B) (E-Bb) (E-C#) (E-B). The first two units make a power-chord-to-power-tritone shift, fairly common in heavy metal; the last two, against the bass line, spell out a simple A triad . . . and E triad in 1st inversion (E / G#). I didn’t actually plan these out — I kept pounding away one evening until I found the riff that fit, and suggested a thought process (situation — consideration of the problem — resolution — complication and a bit of suspense).
Anyway, thanks for the listen and the comment — I’ve been away from the internet for most of this past month, trying to get over a series of ear infections and bouts of bronchitis. I focused most of my time and energy on practicing and writing new material. I’m glad La vie is still getting some play.