[video] The Death of Melody

An exploration of what is melody and how it has gone out of fashion, resulting in most modern music lacking melody used as an “expressive tool”. The video also exposes some events that could have driven the death of melody over the years such as the discover of “the hook” in popular songs and the rise of electronic music.

This made me think about the kind of music that I like and what auditory experiences I could be missing due to the kind of music I’m exposed to.

[video] What Makes Good Melody

A continuation of The Death of Melody. This video dives deeper into what a melody is, how humans perceive music and what effect different qualities of music have in us.

[music] [youtube] [bandcamp] Dan Mason ダン·メイソン : Memory

With just over 20 minutes this album is a quick listen but a really good one.

The first and last songs are primarily vocal sample songs, Losing you being the more smooth, melancholic type, while Better than life ends the album with a hopeful sound.

Lonely nighs feels just like its name implies, a sexy saxo accompanying you through a night walk reflecting about life. Take a walk has a similar vibe to it, but the saxo is more repetitive, a very nice sample nevertheless, Dan Mason knows how to make some smooth songs.

But is the second song, Getting Dark, the highlight of the album for me; with a dark, hypnotic saxo sample, jazzy percussion and some quick voice sample dropped here and there over the track. A voice loop at the middle ties the song up, avoiding being overly monotonous. Easily became a favourite of mine.