Overkill

It's 11 minutes until the deadline has officially passed. With my dissertation in this Wednesday just gone (yesterday), this Independent project in today, and all of the rewriting/finetuning I have had to endure (plus three hours sleep over the course of 4 days) I can officially say thank God the ordeal is over.

I have been working absolutely nonstop for the last week, no exaggeration, and whilst I wish I could have rewritten and added a couple more things to this blog for a start, I am so glad to be able to finish writing this post, shut my eyes and sleep without the feeling of impending doom washing over me. Now all I have to hope for is that my work is good enough to be a part of the exhibition - I think after far too much to-ing and fro-ing, I got there in the end, and I'm rather proud of it all. So yeah. UWE, it's been fun.

My image so far

Here is my image for the reinterpretation of my review. I was inspired by the original Loveless artwork, as seen here:

But in order to correspond with my 'vision' of the album, I tried to enforce more of a feeling of the album being a dreamworld, so I merged the original photograph I took with another image I have taken of clouds. The original shots I took for editing when creating this image were this:

(Yes, I'm left handed!) and the following, which is the image that ended up being the one in my final piece;

I felt the image already shared a few of the same qualities that were brought to my attention through Loveless' artwork. For me, it was important to signify the blurring of sound, the ambiguity and indistinguishability. I feel that the image turned out pretty well, definitely capturing some of the same emotions I would get from reading rhe piece.

EDIT: Bugger, far too small for the Sideways Looks website.

Works in progress: Kezzia

Works in progress: Eilish

Here are some closeups of Eilish's painting. I really love the blend of colours in the sky and the sand;

Works in progress: Debbie

Works in progress: Steve

These are work in progress shots of Steve's drawing. Considering he claims he can't draw, I was very impressed! Neither of us can read music, so we are awaiting laughter from those who can, but it's very much a metaphorical representation of music progressing from quietness to loudness, as far as I understand it.

Creation

Tonight, I have been really pressing on with getting everyone's contributions submitted for website formatting. Everyone's had their colouring pencils, paints and Google on standby. It's a bit of a shame that my brother, Josh, didn't have the time to contribute a piece of his own. He's been on standby for much needed web coding advice though.

Review

Here is the final draft of my review of the website;

Two decades since their latest release in 1991, shoegaze pioneers My Bloody Valentine have finally decided to stun fans and release a remastered reissue collection containing their Creation Records back catalogue – with an EP collection, 1988’s full-length debut ‘Isn’t Anything’ and, most notably, their breakthrough album Loveless. This set has been in the making since 2004, and after years of setbacks and delays, is finally hitting shelves on 7^th May.

Since forming in Dublin in 1984, My Bloody Valentine have endured a number of image, sound and line-up changes. The band started off as a gloomy, gothic Birthday Party homage, fronted by ex-vocalist Dave Conway. Soon after, bassist Bilinda Butcher joined the band, Conway left, and the Valentines signed for Alan McGee’s Creation, drastically changing their sound from the aforementioned whimsical fuzz-punk to the blissed out, tremolo arm-bending sound the band are critically acclaimed for creating today – exemplified in their 1991 masterpiece Loveless.

Frontman Kevin Shields, when approached about what it is Loveless is attempting to achieve, often urges listeners to disregard what it is about popular music that draws them to it – whether it’s lyrics, vocal strength, typical song structures or anything else, and appreciate Loveless for what it is – a sonic soundscape, like an orchestra decked out with Fender Jazzmaster guitars documenting a dream sequence. But the album does not become lethargic, despite all of this. There are moments that grab the listener by the throat and force them onto the dancefloor all the same.

Opening with ‘Only Shallow,’ in which the guitars see-saw their way in and out of focus before settling down into clean, jangly strums and Butcher’s sleepily hazy vocals, Loveless relies heavily on this idea of blending textures, layers of soaring guitars and making instrumentation and voice indistinguishable, which it does to great effect.

Follow up ‘Loomer’ assumes the same sort of recipe; overdriven guitars in the foreground, layered in textural guitars in behind – which gives their aesthetically simple pop songs a dynamism that hasn’t been replicated since. Sure, bands have tried, with Americans Fleeting Joys’ 2006 album Despondent Transponder being branded as nothing more than a pastiche by some, but the gulf in song-writing quality, stemming from Shields’ rumoured Brian Wilson style perfectionism (Shields was declared clinically insane at one stage, and the album took two years in the studio to record, costing at least £300,000 of Creation’s funds to produce, almost bankrupting the label) is plain to see.

‘Loomer’ brings the pace of the hard-hitting opener down to a steady, yet guitar-laden lullaby. The thing with Loveless is that none of the songs are overbearingly ‘heavy,’ per se. The songs just almost use the layers of guitar to blanket the listener, making for the more upbeat songs like ‘Only Shallow’ quite a claustrophobic feeling, with nowhere to escape. The densest of songs coming in the form of ‘Touched,’ which is a short keyboard driven instrumental piece bridging ‘Loomer’ with album high point ‘To Here Knows When,’ that could almost accompany a 1950s silent cowboy film. Cinematic in one of the truest senses of the word, you have to hear it to believe it.

‘To Here Knows When,’ arguably one of the album’s defining moments, pitches Butcher’s soft vocals soaring over the gentle roar of Shields’ guitar, characteristically bending in and out of key, backed with a beat that wouldn’t be out of place in a Happy Mondays song. Before launching into ‘When You Sleep,’ which slaps the listener back into focus, there is one of a number of codas placed between each song, which helps to set Loveless apart from most of its peers. The one following ‘To Here Knows When’ is similar in atmosphere and feeling to ‘Touched,’ which really, in truth, serves as not much more than an extended coda itself.

Off the top of my head, it is difficult to really think of any other rock albums from the early 90s that try to redefine sound and structure in music in a similar way to how Loveless does. There is always talk of genre-defining records; Nirvana’s Nevermind defining grunge, The Beatles defining pop music, Elvis Presley with rock ‘n’ roll, The Stone Roses synonymous with Madchester and so forth; My Bloody Valentine sound nothing alike their ‘shoegaze’ peers – bands such as Ride, Lush, Chapterhouse – but Loveless is still regarded as the sound of the genre ‘that celebrates itself.’ Something that the band themselves weren’t too keen on.

Following on from ‘To Here Knows When,’ the album starts to take more of a grip on traditional rock music. Enter ‘When You Sleep.’ Don’t get me wrong, all of the My Bloody Valentine traits are there; Shields’ indistinguishable vocals blending with the music, the recognisable drum machine that adds to Loveless’ charm, but this time there is more of a verse/chorus/verse style dynamic. Well, not really a ‘chorus.’ More of an instrumental break­­­­­. But the thought is there.

‘When You Sleep’ ends in a crescendo of energy, culminating in yet another coda, shimmering its way into ‘I Only Said’ like the sun ducking into the ocean’s horizon. The next song maintains the energy that its predecessor musters up; the guitars bending in and out of pitch more so than ever, again creating that feeling of being blanketed by the guitars, as they blend and once again, use the same verse/instrumental break/verse structure introduced in ‘When You Sleep.’ ‘Come In Alone’ follows this surge in energy, keeping steady but hitting hard, maintaining the dissonance and swooping guitars that make the band who they are.

‘Sometimes,’ featured in Sofia Copolla’s 2003 film Lost in Translation, breaks the mould that the preceding tracks have built up; an acoustic song drowned in thick, warm feedback, defining the very heartbeat of the album, complimented by Shields’ hushed vocals. The song builds up to a climax that ends with a driving keyboard accompaniment that really sums up the diversity the album has to offer.

Culminating in ‘Soon,’ via ‘Blown a Wish’ – the album at its most airy and shimmering, and ‘What You Want’ crashing its way like waves against the shore, highlighted by more synthesized lead melodies, the album builds into what is arguably the highest point of the band’s entire output, let alone this album. Enter ‘Soon,’ a seven minute dance inspired track with a hip hop drum sample. The song starts off with guitar feedback lingering, its ghostly trails leading into a slick drum sample, before the rest of the instruments kick in. The bass line bounces chirpily before Shields’ ethereal guitar shrieks and squallers, layering the song with that signature MBV sound without detracting from its edgy and unique dance floor filling capabilities. Perfection.

The album is often accused of a high degree of studio trickery, and whilst the band strongly denies there is anything in the rumours, it’s no wonder that the average listener would make the mistake. Loveless does not sound like a cheap production by any means. It is the sound of an unstable perfectionist on the cusp of a breakdown, entranced and determined to achieve this elaborate musical vision, no matter the cost. Like Brian Wilson and Syd Barratt before him, Shields provides all of the elusiveness and mystique needed to be deemed an eccentric and reclusive genius; but Loveless definitely proves that Shields knew best.

Hans Belting

One of the key points from talking to Michelle was Hans Belting and his book 'An Anthropology of Images: Picture, Medium, Body.' - Michelle thought some of his ideas were inkeeping with my plans, and as it turns out, his theories could be key in defining what it is I'm trying to achieve. Michelle pointed out two passages in particular that were of great help;

Human perception has repeatedly accommodated itself to new pictorial technologies, but in keeping with its nature it transcends such medial boundaries.
Like perception, images too are inherently intermedial. They transcend the various historical media that are invented for them, pitching their tent in one new medium after another and then moving on to the next. It would be a mistake to confuse the image with these media. For a medium is but an archive of dead images until we animate the images with our gaze.

And the last phrase is the key one. Music reviews don't come 'alive' until the reader takes all of the imagery and creates a vision of it. When I began this project, my original idea stemmed around the idea of cutting out the middle man, so to speak, and aiming straight for that vision. But of course, there are complications; the vision will then be reanimated in its own right, with the cycle never ending.

Belting goes on to discuss how we "conceal a photograph's existence as thought we wanted to make them immaterial images dwelling in our imagination." That's what my project is; a construction of these visual images and an analysis of the response.

Redrafting

Ok, so now my project will consist of a 'gallery' format rather than being a mocked up news site. I have struggled all throughout this project with my approach, and now, after meeting with Michelle and talking over my ideas and where to go with them, I have decided to do a sort of case study of my family and see how different perspectives play a role on how we interpret creative writing. Music itself is known for being open to different interpretations, but when it comes to writing a review, the process is very similar. I am going to write a review - and I have a few records in mind - and I will have my own sources for inspiration in how I want to frame the album in question, which will be dissected and re-interpreted much in the same way the music itself is once I've written the review.

I've started looking in to writings by Hans Belting, as well as Nigel Holmes, Peter Wiebel and Bruno Latour, Komar and Melamid. Michelle's input has helped greatly. We discussed giving each subject a set of strange rules to undertake when approaching their pieces, but since the majority of my subjects don't recognise themselves as 'artists,' this may not be the best route to take.

SHIFT IN APPROACH

Ok, so I've finally realised my original idea was too subjective; to really gauge whether or not my original proposal of whether images can replace text in reviews, I need a wider spectrum of views. Be that in varying artistic skill, different tastes in music by the interpreter etc. - I think it would be more interesting to analyse how different people 'visualise' music in their own ways.

Exhibition Ideas

Sideways Looks, the exhibition featuring students from my course's work, is coming up on May 15th. I was just thinking about how I'd like to display my work (in mid-panic over impending essay deadlines - 4000 words in 2 weeks, and I'd totally forgotten!) and thought that it might be nice to have a monitor with the images in rotation, as well as an audio dictation of the original text. Then I was thinking that this could apply to my website as well. I could have a clickable link to a popup of the original text, but have the audio reading playing by default (unless switched off.)

I was thinking of asking my brother's advice on how to lay the website out, as he is a graphic designer and may suggest things I haven't considered. A fresh perspective would be nice.

Sleigh Bells Review - Wordled

Lots of demonic imagery. I can't imagine it stems much more from the album's title alone, 'Reign of Terror,' but that's the entire point of this project. To see whether or not the images/words are actually that relevant to the piece.

I have had an idea - on the completion of the collaborative experiment, I may try and find a way of getting users of the website I create to determine which image corresponds best with the text/makes most sense of the actual audio itself. I am conscious of overdoing the whole survey thing though, and asking too much of my Facebook friends. I will select a few closer friends to 'BETA test' the website, perhaps, so I can disguise the fact that really, it's just another survey. Haha!

Experiment Correspondence Update

Pretty self explanatory. I just chose one of the newest reviews on NME.com's reviews page. As with the others so far, I haven't actually heard the record. I decided on choosing this review because I know it would have been one of the highest featured on the website. The writing, thankfully, is full of strong visuals and should provide a nice variety of work in response. I am particularly looking forward to Eilish and Alex's hand-rendered pieces. I plan on spending all weekend working on my image and giving the website a complete overhaul, converting it into a Flash format, hopefully.

Survey Update

It's been a hectic couple of weeks. I have had to work on my dissertation for a meeting this Thursday, work on a group presentation for Games, Simulation and Media, and there has been a death in the family over the weekend. Endless distractions. I have managed to gather up 31 responses to my survey so far though; the results are as follows...

Questionnaire Summary Progress Report #1

I only put the questionnaire up last night, and have only had 5 responses so far, but I thought I would post the progress of it so far. Here are some screen grabs of an analysis page;

As you can see, question 2 and question 5's answers are varying quite a lot so far. It seems that before things have even started, people only 'sometimes' read music publications in the first place, which puts into doubt whether or not the industry could afford to take such a big risk in propelling image reviews over text ones. At the moment it seems the two could go hand in hand. I think I should have posted a question about whether users would prefer an indexical or creative approach, however. If it isn't too late, I could add this question into it for future participants.

Design Revamp

Just realised I have never posted a screen shot of my reviews site for my pilot. Revisiting it has made me even more aware of how basic and unimpressive it is. I want to revamp everything to include more graphical buttons at the very least. It's too plain and boring at the moment. As well as working on my Isotype index, I will get to work on Photoshop, Dreamweaver and possibly Flash to give the site the update it sorely needs.

I am gravitating towards scrapping the 'music news' site approach entirely in favour of a simplistic linear, chronologically listed gallery approach, in order to maintain the 'up to the minute' aspect that music news websites incorporate. I want to avoid it being a static gallery such as that of an artist, because the entire nature of music reviews is its interchangability, with new releases achieving top spot within layouts etc.

I am kind of glad I revisited this work today, as I feel a lot more inspired to update it now, because it's a little embarrassing. I know I wanted to go for 'simplistic,' but there's that and then what I created. It belittles my skill as a web designer, really. I don't think I'm fantastic by any means, but looking back, this is a little embarrassing.

I still like the idea of a plain white background and basic black text, but something a little more dynamic and interactive would be preferable, such as the websites I mentioned previously. Kill Pixie's gallery amongst others. This past week has been very much research and background focused. Now I need to put all of the theory into practice.

Hmm

Have noticed a lot of traffic from a Russian/Ukrainian meme site today, very strange. Hello to my 13 Ukranian readers, I guess. And hello to Germany and the United States. No idea what is interesting to people who aren't involved in this project, but yeah.

Isotype Index

I thought I would post a few pre-existing Isotype images to see if anything currently existing could correspond with reviews I could translate. This is mostly for reference and to avoid cross-referencing.

As you can tell, the images seem to serve a very different purpose to what it is I'd use them for. Mine would cover far less propagandist imagery, and would serve more as an image-dictionary. Here are a couple of pieces I put together for my pilot;

The images are fairly crude and didn't take long to make, but as of today I plan on making at least 25 different images for a small index in time for next week's lecture.

Review Ideas - Maribel

Just come across a review for Maribel - Reveries. Whilst the text shows room for creativity, this word cloud I've made shows that most of the key words are just band-related and aren't really about the music. An interesting turn this has shown is that if you cut out all of the background information, it doesn't leave the review with much to 'visualise.' It's more a biographical review and that takes away from the image potential and highlights how much some reviews rely on the text element of their message.

Without all of the key words related to the band (i.e. Maribel, Reveries, Record, Aesthetics (the name of their first release)) and all of the words needed structurally (i.e. 'although,' 'much' etc.) all there really is is 'dreamy, stensil, radiantly, haunting' and so forth, which are very vague terms and almost rely on the text for a context, as I also noticed 'danger' on there, and I believe the review references a lack thereof, rather than saying the record sounds 'dangerous.' With a review like this, I think it would be much more interesting to create some original artwork which depicts the tone and mood of the album rather than try to simply replicate certain quotes, which may have been the case with my M83 review.

I was considering using this review for my experiment, but I don't think it's written well enough from a creative perspective - but then again, my project is designed to highlight this, rather than rely on something that translates well. Whether it works as a medium of replacement is what I'm trying to discover; but on first glance, I would say this particular review won't have much resemblance to the original text.