What are you Listening to?

[innerspaceboy]

Music From the Penguin Cafe might be their most consistently strong album, but each release features some delightful highlights.

I recommend approaching their catalog (as well as the transition from PCO to The Penguin Cafe after Jeffes' passing), chronologically if you have the time. Put it on as incidental/background music to a quiet day at home.

I hope you enjoy them!

[DJChameleon]

Needs more "brother ew" but I'll take it.

[innerspaceboy]

@Guybrush

I forgot to mention what is likely PCO's best-known song, "Perpetuum Mobile."

The time signature for "Perpetuum Mobile" is 15/8. This gives the melody the impression of ending and repeating one beat early, which creates a sense of perpetual motion. It appears often in video media.

[Guybrush]

Thanks @innerspaceboy 🙂 I'll check that out!

As a fan of Hatfield and the North, I'm quite familiar with music in 15/8. As Pip Pyle laments through his lyrics:

Riffs in 15/8 a la Hatfield and the North
Clever rythmic signatures, tricky dicky chords
Rehearsing for a week, bloody middle eight

I'm not quite sure what the bloody middle eight is, but as 15/8 may be a simpler way of writing 8/8 followed by 7/8 (or vice versa), maybe a middle eight refers to an annoying or unexpected 8/8.

[Lisnaholic]

^ Haha! Clever lyrics from Hatfield and The North!
This is "the Middle Eight":
In a song with a conventional Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus structure, the Middle Eight is eight bars in the middle of the song where the singer and band vary things a little bit. It's easy to identify, even by just looking at lyrics on a page, and easy to hear in any Elvis or early Beatles song I should think. "Bloody middle eight" tells us the Mr. Pyle didn't like writing or playing it.

I forgot to mention what is likely PCO's best-known song, "Perpetuum Mobile."

The time signature for "Perpetuum Mobile" is 15/8. This gives the melody the impression of ending and repeating one beat early, which creates a sense of perpetual motion. It appears often in video media.

^ Yes, that's one of their most likable tunes! I didn't know that about the time signature.

[Guybrush]

Hey, @Lisnaholic! That's very informative 🙂 thank you so much!

I love lyrics that give a little insight into the artists' process, even if it's just a taste - like Pyle finding the rehearsal a bit tedious.

In Licks for the Ladies, Richard Sinclair sings about how while harmonies may sound twee, they're really what his lady friend can relate to. Then he goes on to sing:

In the end, choosing notes to see if they make friends
A D-sharp minor flattened 5th will go to C,
dotted crotchets usually divide by three
We don't really know now exactly what we mean,
still we had the gist of it till the chords changed
Unexpectedly

I've always loved those lyrics 🙂

[Lisnaholic]

^ Yes, those are good lyrics. I particularly like the first line.

Perhaps Middle Eights aren't quite as common as I thought, but here's a clear example:-

Middle Eight:-

A love like ours
Could never die
As long as I
Have you near me

As for what I'm listening to: Alphabet Boy, as recommended to me by a student:-

[Zikanes]

[Saulaac]

[TheBig3]

This is really great and I'm glad I found her. Check this out.

[Lucem Ferre]

I'm about to get into the KMFDM catalog.

From what I heard skimming through it, I feel like it's going to be real hit or miss for me.

[Meatwad]

Smile - Butterfly

[Meatwad]

Throbbing Gristle - E-Coli

[Meatwad]

Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang

[Saulaac]

ZAO - Metatron