Ambition, failure and all thats in between

Theres something about static I love. Not just the generic TV static but I love the subtleties which it can create. For me static has become more of an instrument and tool than guitars have. Ive been listening alot of agalloch’s ashes against the grain album, mainly the epic “master piece” and boy, is it a masterpiece Our Fortress is Burning – The Grain. Now most people ive talked about this in particular song hate it, and they seem to find it overbearing, Pretentious and unnecessary. I however find that abit shallow minded and very short sighted. Music, especially post-rock, isn’t about what you hear anymore. Its grown and evolved and music that uses unconventional sounds, for me at least, tries harder to explore that “feeling” of love, hate, hope, hopelessness etc.

Its easy to say “I love you” because we all understand those words, we interpret them as we are trained to understand what those words mean and use those words with the music to get the feeling of love. If i wrote a song and played the chords Am, C, G and Em and said over that “I love you” its easy to understand that and you get the feeling of love. But i could quite happily turn that around and say “I miss you” with those same chords and the feelings have completely changed. The song has changed.The meaning of the song has changed but the musical structure and chords and notes have remained the same.

Now the same rules apply with music. If i played an E major, you instantly know that its bright and uplifting. This is me saying that the word “Happy” is that feeling you get when you see something you like and makes you smile and feel better. whereas a D minor chord brings the feeling of sadness and melancholy. Now for anyone thats played a musical instrument or knows anything about music composition what i just said was extremely basic. But its how musicians can tell the difference between happy song and a sad song without the use of any lyrics. That what, I think, on a very basic level reading music is about.

Now back to my point on static, and I don’t just mean “white” noise or droning, im talking about any kind of natural distorted or undistorted sound, played through a synth and tweaked. I find it quite amazing how you can manipulate the sound of wind to express an emotion. using no words. using no musical notes. It effectively noise. Yet that noise can make you feel alive and inspire you to do something. Think of many explosions in the sky songs or it can be the reverse, make you loose all hope and have that feeling of doom, such as A silver mount zion or The Agalloch Grain.

I listened to a song, which I have never heard before, by agalloch (i do realise ive mentioned them alot and would highly recommend anyone into intelligent music to check them out) called Scars of the shattered sky. And oh my fuck am i amazed. The song is shy of 20 minutes. There are no vocals, a progressive drum beat and a steady bass line. vague guitar sounds and strings. Now these 3 instruments are quite hollow but the use to unconventional sounds and layers and layers of that build this song up so much. Yes it has musical content. I’m not saying that its not musically based, These guys are professional musicians and have spent years of there life honing there skills to play the way that they do.

Its the way that [16.31] they distort the feedback from the instruments and have the guitar play afew notes to feed back on. Its amazing, I can’t ever describe what emotions i feel during this part of the song. and from a musical stand point they have made me feel this emotion through no words and no “chords” its all just feedback, distortion and synth. GAHH i fucking love it!

Thats what i love about the use of unconventional methods of writing music it makes me see the music, as a sound scape, rather than something i hear and comprehend as a song about love, loneliness or hope. It is an extreme for of expression. and I love extremes.

Go buy that album, download that song, stream it, whatever. I would like to hear your opinions about what emotions you feel when you listen to it. whether boredom, excitement, hope, love, ambition or Failure…