[art rock] All She Knows (mp3)

[uncloned]

http://clones.soonlabel.com/hat/all-she-knows.mp3

Year: 1999

Album:
Half a Thought

Artist's description:
A song from hell's marriage - it needs work - that will be done - now 10 years later my singing can be corrected (though the parallel minors 2nds ARE intentional) and I have better sounding keys available.



All She Knows

All she knows
Is what she feels
And she feels it
So deep

Dark in the corners
Her aching soul
Cluttered with things
No one should keep

Tangible traces
Of ugly faces (x4)

Bewitched is memory
Pain is memory
Hate is memory
Kill the memories

Before they murder again

Someone speaks
She turns around
A flower vase
And a smile

And no one knows
No one knows

[Sam_Zen]

Cool. Arrangement is Zappa-like. And that's a compliment.

[uncloned]

thank you very much!

Singing the minor seconds was not too easy to do. I recorded the vocal line as piano (I think) at both pitches and sang along with each in two different takes.

[apple-joe]

The intro is based on a i - VII - VI movement I think. Initially I thought you soon after switched to a relative chord sequence, but after listening again I'm quite sure you actually switched key? Maybe it is the same chord relation, but with the second degree of the scale as a base, so you only had to include one new note that was not present in the first movement (the fifth of the second degree, I think, for instance A if Cm is the tonal center)?

There are two negative factors I noticed immediately, but these may be trivial. The most obvious one is the volume of the vocals, which strikes me as somewhat excessive. On the other hand, it does fit the song (it is not 100 % conventional, to put it that way). Also, I've only listened with earplugs. The other thing is the sound of the... some kind of harpischord? I've always liked the sound of that type of instrument, but this instance had a tame sound in my opinion. I don't know how adjustable its sound is, so it's difficult to know where to direct the criticism.

The composition itself is rather interestng. I'm of the impression that it's under continual development all the way through, it's certainly not boring. Except for the volume issue, the vocals are good. A little unexpected, creates a nice contrast to the more traditional intro. Around 1:05: dissonance, good move. Then it builds down a bit, before an intro-like sequence is introduced. Finally, the song ends with a melody played with an instrument which, as far as I recall, was not used at an earlier point in the song.

So, very enjoyable composition, but a few sound issues (which I assume to some extent is not your fault, e.g. the intro instrument).

[uncloned]

Hi Apple Joe

The piece modulates through 3 keys (harpsichord) before the main section of the song starts. Though this is kind of stretching things here. The harmonic thinking is I guess modal if anything. I avoid the relationship of a fifth for the most part and instead substitute minor 3rds and 4th relationships. The dissonance <=> consonance exists and of course is used to drive the song.

It is hard to describe in "common practice" things like moving a fifth against a pedal point to exchange an open 5th with two stacked fifths. However, such a device is common in contemporary classical... and art rock of the 70's though less intentional there... and is one of the harmonic techniques I use a lot.

Chris