Minimalism

min·i·mal·ism [min-uh-muh-liz-uhm] noun

1. Music . a reductive style or school of modern music utilizing only simple sonorities, rhythms, and patterns, with minimal embellishment or orchestrational complexity, and characterized by protracted repetition of figurations, obsessive structural rigor, and often a pulsing, hypnotic effect.

As the final blog assignment for my current music history class, I have been asked to write about a composer, producer, or innovation of the past that has had a major impact on the popular music of today.  While looking for a good subject for my post, I came across a two-part snippet of video (on our Music History references page) from a BBC documentary on Modern Minimalism, hosted by Bjork.  In the film, we are introduced to a number of innovators in music who are on a quest for a pure and minimalistic experience of sound and musical expression.

Whether it is the “Glass Harmonica” of Alasdair Malloy, the custom-built “Cigar Box” of Mika Vainio (reminiscent of Kraftwerk’s custom synths), the “living” room-sound of Tommi Gronlund, or the ephemeral voicing of Arvo Part… one can’t help but to be in awe of the way each person feels and views their creation and experience of music.  It gives a true sense of just how much Minimalism itself, is an innovation in music.

Minimalism has permeated almost every form and genre since the very first musical note was ever enjoyed or created.  It seems as if we have always been in the process of bringing this concept full-circle, only to find that a new cycle of creation has begun and we have no choice, except to follow its lead.  

In the "Downtown Scene" of the experimental music scene, discussed in prior posts of my blog, we talked about a number of heavy influences in music which can be traced back to that particular time and place.  This movement, called Minimalist Music or Minimalism is no different.

The composers most commonly mentioned when referring to minimalist music are; Terry Riley, John Adams, La Monte Young, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass.  The music tends to be very tonal, non-discordant, and lacking in direction.  The music of which I am most passionate about, Goa Psy and Ambient, owe their existence to this experimental musical expression.  Every form of electronic dance music (EDM) stems from this starting point in music history.

Play a single chord on a wine glass and suddenly something as simple as a single chord becomes very complicated to be played by one’s-self.  Yet, artists such as Michael Cretu, Kitaro, and Trent Reznor can compose, perform, and record entire musical compositions utilizing hundreds, if not thousands of instruments with a single computer.  I suppose even these complex compositions on a computer can be broken down into a bunch of binary digits at their simplest form.

It has been said that there isn’t a lot of complexity in the music we listen to today, especially from the standpoint of its chord structure, scale, or theory.  So, the minimalists of the past were wielders of sonic complexity while we will find the most complex ways of creating the simplest of sonorities.  Ethan Hein, a music producer and teacher of music in New York has said, “There are very few chords and scales in use right now that would have shocked Debussy or Wagner.”

As technology advances along side the human spirit and our drive to create, Minimalism will always force us to strive for new experiences in our quest for a more unique sonic soundscape.

Electronic Music Innovations

Today, I am going to talk about an innovation of electronic music that has been around for over 30 years.  It might come as a surprise to some of my readers but I’m betting for most of you, it won’t be.

I’m enamored, at the moment, by the turntable, to be more specific, the SL-1200 MKII.  That’s right, the turntable.  I recently learned that some turntables back in the 1970’s were actually capable of reproducing a four-channel sound much like our modern surround sound.

It is still one of the biggest selling mediums for audiophiles today.  The quality of a recording on vinyl placed on a solid turntable is almost undeniably the best reproduction available to some. Tons of indie artists will still only release their music on vinyl, including most DJ’s and Turtablists across the globe.  In 1979, Technics added speed control to their turntable, which made it the most sought after and used DJ tool ever.  So much so, it now has a street name of “The Wheels of Steel”.  Its durability has yet to be surpassed.

It was this added functionality to an already amazing piece of machinery that eventually led to the rise of the “lowly” turntable being recognized as a musical instrument.  The National Association of Music Merchandisers even made it official in 2001.

The SK-1200 MKII not only opened the doors for sampling, mixing, and creating new music, but also led to new discoveries of synchronicities between artists and their sound… old and new alike.  This same spirit and flexibility of sound heralded a new age of a kind of respect and unity of mind for some artists, while also inspiring rivalry and competition among the industry.  (Everyone remembers when sampling of other artists was big news... this turntable was a huge catalyst for that, and still works it's magic in pretty much the same way today.)  This proved to be, though arguable, very healthy in the evolution of music and reviving old sounds within the new genres being played around the world.

I have always known that the turntable served as a major conduit in the recycling of the old into the new… but, I never put much thought into its use as an instrument all its own.  There is a video here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0iZdggruFpY which has now caused me to give this instrument the respect it deserves… along with those who have the amazing talent needed to play it.

Kraftwerk

In the months surrounding 1968, two German men made each other’s acquaintance at a school of music named Akademie Remscheid.  Like the rest of Germany at the time, they were wrestling with their own identity and desperately longed to convey a message of openness, unity, and individuality in their life and their music.  Both of them having a slightly skewed musical vision from the norm and yet, classically trained musicians, their creative chemistry would soon grow into something so much more than they could have possibly ever imagined.  They formed a group called Organization as a part of the experimental, industrial, and psychedelic music scene going on in Germany at the time, called; Krautrock.  These two individuals were: Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider Esleben.

Ralf and Florian started a studio and called it Kling Klang Studio in Dusseldorf, Germany where they begin to combine their feelings about what it was to be German, how they felt as individuals, and the industrial environment in which they lived.  This new direction would be labeled as Kraftwerk, and would from that moment on, be the name that would carry their legacy for all time.

As experimentally rambunctious and striking as their music was in the years leading up to the release of Autobahn 1974, these two artists remained somewhat reclusive and hid their faces from the spotlight at every turn.  They rarely allowed themselves to be seen in their entirety.  Reputedly performing live on stage with their backs to their audience lending a somewhat mysterious air to their presence.  Their music generation was creatively, just as mysterious.  They rarely allowed visitors to their studio and often kept it’s location a secret.  Using “robots” as a sort of avatar for their presence on stage as well, made by mechanizing life-sized mannequins, they gained an almost “techno mage” sort of image that bled over into their music and the art often surrounding it.

Autobahn was released in 1974.  It would depart from the usually extreme experimentation heard in their work at this time.  They started to included hooks and melodies in the mix.  With the title track by the same name being somewhat inspired by The Beach Boys, we began to see Kraftwerk moving into a more broad audience.  This was important to their survival and longevity as they continued to grow and experiment with their musical ideas and concepts.

Now that they were using a somewhat “concept album” approach to their production efforts, their next three albums; Radioactive, Trans-Europe Express, and The Man Machine would help to peak their popularity and launch them to a transcontinental influence.

Once their sound began to spread and get heard by other musicians, in America and the rest of the world, artists struggled to recreate some of these unique soundscapes.  It proved to be more a daunting task for many, as Kraftwerk crafted their own machines and synthesizers to create the electronic sounds used in all of their music, never using any mass-produced machines.  This, to me is one of the main things that made their music so revolutionary.  It insured that you would hear sounds and nuances of electronically generated music that you had never heard before.  This led to an amazingly creative sweep of audio engineering that would herald the beginnings of the vast tree that electronic music is today.

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye can be described as many things; soul man, musical visionary, instrumentalist, authoritative, driven by a conviction for what is right in the world, and the vulnerability of his very soul that caused him to want to do something about what was wrong in the world in which we all live.  This contrite and spiritual man would infuse and mingle his love for mankind and his desire for equality into his music. 

During the Vietnam War, loved ones were being shipped away and killed on soil not native to our own, equality issues and racial tensions were high, and so many people strived to do something to ease one another’s pain.  Marvin was also striving to try to provide some ventilation for the thoughts and feelings so prevalent at the time.  The album What’s Going On was the product of that. 

As he struggled to record and release this album, he found that its concept and outspoken delivery of the subject matter would impose difficulties of its own.  People desperately needed this album, yet were necessarily ready to receive it.  Barry Gordy has even been quoted as asking him, “Marvin, why do you want to ruin your career?”

Marvin eventually posed a, now famous, ultimatum… let him record and release this album, or he wouldn’t ever record another thing.  The record company found out later how serious this was when Marvin Gaye began training for professional football as a sideline, just in case this album never got released.

Marvin Gaye’s idea behind an album was, simply put, an album should be a cohesive whole telling a broader picture of what’s going on, as opposed to a handful of single, unrelated songs put onto a petroleum disk conglomerate.  This meant that What’s Going On would be a concept album.  It contained a very compelling, gritty, soulful, rhythm and blues sound that would draw you in and not let you go until its tender sonic fingers had somehow touched your very own soul. The lyrics told the tale of war, anguish, sex, pain, deliverance, and equality.

I always thought folks liked Marvin Gaye for his sultry and masculine sound and his distinguished good looks.  Now, I realize, there is so much more to love.  

The Velvet Underground and Nico

Not long after The Beach Boys’ release of Pet Sounds in 1966, the west coast was enjoying a fun-in-the-sun discovery of new music.  Smiley Smile was on the verge of being printed for release, and yet another band was set to explode into a new scene on the east coast.  The year is 1967.  This new scene was an avant-garde art scene, almost single-handedly ushered into being by one Andy Warhol, who was not only instrumental in the launch and production of this new band but was also the driving force behind its exposure in this new and rich environment.

Two individuals bore the inception of the band, John Cale and Lou Reed.  John Cale, a child prodigy of amazing musical talent, would eventually find his compositional skills and his virtuosity in piano and viola, becoming a huge player in the molding of the music and sound behind this band.  Lou Reed, also a well seasoned songwriter and guitar player, was just as experimentally minded as his counterpart Cale.  These two became almost enamored with one another’s approach to music.  Sterling Morrison, a friend of Lou Reed’s, and later, drummer femme fatal Maureen Tucker would soon join the band.

A merging of music, movies, art, laser light shows, projection peddled political statements, fashion moguls, and super models was the recipe for this new social gathering melting pot.  The musicians in its epicenter were a band called The Velvet Underground.

David N. Howard describes their music best in his book, “Sonic Alchemy”.  He stated it like this, “…an aggressive blend of studious minimalism, off-kilter R&B, and primal rock ‘n’ roll.”  He also mentions the “orchestral chaos” that so many others used to describe their very unique sound.  When people heard their music wherever they played, they were not only dazed, but also confused all together, and at the very least blown away by the harsh yet harmonious and experimental sound.

Andy Warhol would eventually add to the mix a staunch German female fashion model by the name of Nico.  She would quickly become a very prominent vocal collaborator with the band.  The bands name would be changed, as a reflection of her undeniable contribution to their sound, to The Velvet Underground and Nico.

The beat of their music was a driving force, the pounding basic and almost tribal rhythms rolling over and over throughout each song as if looped from beginning to chaotic end.  The drummer, Maureen Tucker, claims she never had any training on drums at all and her only mission was to provide an unmistakable marker for the other members of the band to return to after their departure from the known structure of each song, as they so often did.

Tribal, Indian, and other “psychedelic” elements traipsed across their music just as flippantly as did the distorted electric guitars.  Drones of various types were ushered into almost every piece, whether a 30-minute starting set or a 30-second tangent.  Their lyrics told stories of every kith and kin, from drug dealers and transvestites, to politics and love.  I can’t believe I never took the time to pay attention.  There are a number of artists today who are heavily influenced by this body of work… no matter how small it may be.  It is almost impossible to believe that they never really saw any success with any of their album releases.  Very disappointing.  I can only be thankful, I guess, that somebody finally brought them to my attention.