last week's jams:

email:
sanskrit at gmail dot com

Atom RSS feed

blogosphere:
NEW LINKS COMIN' SOON

Best Week Ever
Gizmodo
Brooklyn Vegan
You Ain't No Picasso
Music (For Robots)
videos.antville.org

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

the speed of boredom


Sunday, November 20, 2005

Final Fantasy - Has A Good Home


Everyone's first question when I reccomend they listen to Final Fantasy is met by the same answer: "No, not the video game soundtrack."
Final Fantasy is the stage name for Owen Pallett, most well-known as being the violinist for the aformentioned indie-rock powerhouse The Arcade Fire. He also arranges strings for many other bands, used to be a member of the sort-of-popular Les Mouches, and has become a popular remix and cover wizard (I particularly adore his remix of Grizzly Bear's "Don't Ask" on their new Horn of Plenty Remixes, but I have a feeling I'll get to that later.). Still, it is on this debut album, Has A Good Home, that Owen really shows us that he knows more than a thing or two about music. Like his astounding live show, the music on this album is primarily constructed of layers upon layers of violin played by Owen himself (in the live show he uses a loop pedal to nothing short of fantastic results), but does feature enough percussion, keys, and vocals to keep it from getting too monotonous for those of you unaccostomed to frequenting traditional concert halls.
The first track I'm sharing with you here is the first Final Fantasy song I ever heard, and the first one I thrust upon people unfamiliar with his work, the outrageously beautiful "The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead," which tells the story of, as you could guess from the title, hoards of undead creatures marching to the CN tower to reclaim it as their own, as it was built upon their graves. I use this song as an introduction to the man because I feel that the strings in this song give the tale both the epic cinematic quality it so demands as well as creating the sense of uncomfortable urgency during the bridge that you can only imagine feeling if you were confronted by legions of zombies. And its pretty.
And while there are plenty of other catchy tracks that would fit in well on the radio, given the opportunity ("This is the Dream of Win and Regine," "Please Please Please"), the next song I choose to share is the somewhat more subdued "Adventure.exe," in which Owen plucks his violin like a mondolin for a more folksy tune in which he is sickened by the routine of everyday life and wishes he were living a videogame so life would be more exciting and interesting. Particularly poigniant are the lyrics, where he laments "You make me wish for a more dangerous life so I could teach you about self-sacrifice."
Owen announced a while back that his upcoming second album will be titled He Poos Clouds will be all about Dungeons and Dragons. in fact, one of my favorite songs he's been playing live is titled "Many Live for 49 Mana Points"

The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead MP3
Adventure.exe MP3

4:39 PM
0 comments sanskrit

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

05/200306/200307/200308/200309/200310/200311/200312/200301/200402/200403/200404/200405/200406/200407/200408/200409/200410/200411/200412/200401/200502/200503/200504/200505/200506/200507/200508/200509/200510/200511/200512/200501/200602/200603/200604/200605/200606/200607/200608/200609/200612/200602/200703/200904/200905/200906/200907/200908/200910/200911/2009