Sometimes it can feel like the music world is just treading water between Radiohead releases. Yes, we’ll listen to tons of other bands and fully enjoy many of them, but Radiohead remains one of the only groups that can still stop everyone dead in their tracks, getting them to drop what they’re doing and run to their computers, scrambling to frantically download the band’s newest offering. Perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit here, but I’m certainly not the first person to posit that Thom Yorke and the boys really do seem to be our modern-day version of The Clash – The Only Band That Matters.

Radiohead makes it easy to be a fan of their music, because there’s so many facets to what they do: Their songs are sonically complicated, but still often melodic enough to get stuck in your head for days. Their lyrics are notoriously indecipherable, and even when revealed, seem to ask more questions than they answer. Each member of the band is highly proficient at his instrument, with madcap tinkerer Jonny Greenwood proving himself adept at gadgets a lot of us don’t even recognize. Yes, they’re the sort of band that bridges the gap between snobby musicians, music nerds, and passive fans who just like a good tune.

I was right there with all these folks in February, eagerly anticipating the release of the band’s eighth album, The King of Limbs. I’m having to restrain myself from diving into a full-on review of the record, because I could ramble on about it for a while. But I’ll keep it short, for our purposes here: at first, I wasn’t sure what to make of the LP. But after repeated listens, I’ve grown to love it. And one of my favorite tunes from the record is one of the more stark, airy compositions, and one that certainly didn’t click with me right away: “Give Up the Ghost.”

Give Up the Ghost

It was only when I watched a YouTube video of Thom Yorke performing the song solo that I put together its minimalist origins and its heavy use of looping. There’s one loop that runs throughout the entire song (the “Don’t hurt me” line), and even after I had listened to the track probably thirty times (before I had watched the vid), it never occurred to me that that part remained static throughout the course of entire five minutes. In the live version, it’s obviously tough to miss this – you can watch Yorke initializing that loop, as well as the others that chime in towards the end of the song. But on the album version, the band builds the composition so gradually and carefully that you never have a chance to get bogged down in any repetition. It’s really impressive.

The song starts with Click to read the rest…

I recently heard about an very interesting musical event – a concert in aid of Link Emergency Aid & Development of Burma, which brings young Western composers and classical musicians together to play traditional music, and music inspired by Burma.

Burma (officially now called Myanmar) is a country of about 50 million people, bordering China to the North and Thailand to the East. It has an ancient musical tradition, which in recent years has been adapted to accommodate first Western classical music, then rock, and most recently hip-hop and rap.

The concert, “Musical Bridge”, is the brainchild of Zaw Lu Aung, a Londoner who was born and raised in Burma and has been speaking and writing on Burmese issues for several years. I won’t attempt to address the political and social situation in Burma here – but please follow some of the links at the bottom of this post to read more about it, and learn how some young people in Burma are speaking out through music.

A brief audio glimpse

I was intrigued by the concert’s concept, and not knowing much about the music of Myanmar, I set out to explore – with Spotify as my atlas. Click to read the rest…

This Friday marks the premier of Sabrina Peña Young’s new work, ‘Creation’, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Decatur, Illinois.

Open Your Ears

This is the first post in a new series, “Open Your Ears”, which will highlight interesting and exciting music which will stretch your ears and expand your musical horizons.

We’ve all had the experience: we hear a new song or piece of music and our initial reaction is confusion – “what is this?! “. It’s easy to switch off, skip the song, change the station.

But, if you’re patient and listen actively, you find the real value in the music, which was initially hidden to you, begin to emerge.

“I used to hate this track. But now I think it’s really cool!”
“I didn’t really get jazz before, but after listening to Kind of Blue for the 5th time…”
“Lately I’ve realised that there’s much more to 80s pop than just cheese!”

As your ears develop this new appreciation, you find it empowers you to hear new things in other music too. So the benefits of experiencing new sounds and musical genres really aren’t to be underestimated – opening your ears should be a key part of your ear training!

The ‘Open Your Ears’ series aims to bring you new music of all kinds to help you stretch your ears in different directions and fill your world with a greater variety of wonderful sounds.

Creation

‘Creation’ is not your typical concert piece. Commissioned by Millikin State University, and to be performed in its premier by their 60-member-strong Women’s Chorale and Percussion Ensemble, the multimedia oratorio is a “celebration of culture, life, humanity, and the female body” which features computer animated video illustration, created by the composer.

Speaking of the composer – she may be familiar to you! Sabrina has been writing articles here at EasyEarTraining.com since its launch and we’re delighted to have this chance to highlight her musical talent. Her creative works know no bounds, as evidenced by over 100 compositions for all manner of instrument and technology, and her recent album ‘Origins’.

You can find out more about Creation, and this Friday’s premier here:

The performance is free to attend, with donations taken afterwards. Don’t miss this chance to attend the premier of an exciting new musical work!

Be sure to let us know if you attend the concert. If you have suggestions for future ‘Open Your Ears’ posts, drop us a line at openyourears@EasyEarTraining.com!