...2023... This will be such a wonderful year. Why? Well, because of the 23 in the number of years. What? 23? Good question. Donno, to be honest 🙃 Can you find us a reason why 23 is such a magic number? The one with the best reason gets an HP. Really? Yes, honestly 🤥
...what was I writing... ah yah...
...2023... Since we concluded this year will be wonderful, I thought the HIVE community could do with some extra Vibes. Therefore, I write these words and share the music below to serve as a new contribution to the 'Spread the Vibes: challenge not challenge'.
Just yet I finished listening to this album that turned out to be the first ever album of this Mexican artist/band aiming to ... Well? ... Donno no ... Am Completely Puzzled! ... What did they aim for? I really don't know. For some reason, I pushed this album into my TBD folder in my Spotify app. TBD as in 'To Be Discovered.' Honestly? I wish I never Discovered this one. I must have been in a state where I can't be held responsible for my actions when labelling this album as TBD.
Though the intro and some parts of some tracks are promising, 'Childs' (yea, the name of the 'band') managed to turn any interesting sound into this modern elevator-like music. Some of the interesting elements are in no particular order... The mix of acoustic instruments with electronics... The choir-like sounds... The melodies: some are kinda okay-ish. The natural sounds such as a laptop keyboard, a school playground, traffic, wind cather, and some of the intro/outros of some of the tracks.
But but but...WHY!? WHY!? ...create such plain easy listening music?
Did you ever have goosebumps?
I almost had them when listening to the album: Inversed! Almost a gazillion tiny goosepotholes all over 😂
Sorry...
Sorry for making you listen to the album from A to Z. Since that is required to be able to answer my question: Am I wrong? Am I too critical? Am I a brainless music consumer? Am I simply not seeing the art? You tell me. I throw in an HP for your honest words 😉 By now I got the feeling I'm bribing you to leave a kinda thoughtful comment down below this post 😱
Back to Childs
Nothing to add to Childs, its debut album, and all...
Orrrrrr?
It was a few weeks ago I listened to this Childs album for the first time. It was just after that first listening round, I wrote what I wrote above. Since then I re-listened another 3 times and came to quite a different conclusion.
Before getting excited, this album will never become part of my collection of favourite albums. The main reason for this is the lack of expression in the tracks. I believe whenever the synths take the foreground, all the interesting and more expressive sounds are pushed way to the back, almost out of the entire 'room'... oops... 'composition' I mean.
That said, must admit the album and most of the tracks are far from simple 'elevator' like music. I can imagine this album does well for me when working, pushing the status of this album into background music. Owww that sounds pretty horrible, or? And it isn't the entire truth. Four times I listened to this album. The first time on headphones (the good type, not those phone earplugs) and disqualified the album. Then I tested on my HIFI system with a pretty ok speakers set. That round and my third round, on the same HIFI setup, made me listen again through headphones. This time around I didn't disqualify the album. Somehow I had pleasure in listening. Truth be told, I was executing some other tasks as well at certain stages of the listening session. But not more than 25% of the total time. I think I'll be listening to this album more often from now on. That said, likely not too often, and likely not any time soon 😉
But but but
If not done already, I urge you to give this album a go. Regardless of my own opinion, my initial reaction and all that. You'll be in for something interesting. Opening with a full-on ambient track without any supporting drums, children in the background (sounding a little like seagulls), and synths with long breaths (ie stretched sounds), sometimes in the background, mostly at the forefront.
This track moves over into a complex piece of music. I would've thought this album is more on the chill side of things, but this 2nd track marks for me something different. Though ambient with slow pace bass rhythms (drum, bass guitar and whatnot), the synths with their stretched sounds overshadowing the rest (most of the time) don't give me a relaxed feeling. Quite the contrary. It gets me slightly irritated.
The fourth track (S.A.D) proves the recording isn't all that flat or compressed. Deep basses, similar to the drums in the second track. It is also the track I may like the most, due to being the most expressive of all. Fewer synths. Nice electronic guitar.
The last track, a combination of several tracks I suppose, is one that I give a high rank as well. The leading instrument is the piano. As far as I can tell, an acoustic version. But could also be a synth with the 'acoustic piano' mode enabled. Who knows. I don't 😂 Similar to other tracks, a busy one, although one that has more variations. Not sure, but seems to me like some compilation of special sounds from previous tracks, like the children, the traffic, the instruments and all. Of course, the synths are here as well. And then... large break at around the 10-minute mark... But not finished at all... Rounding up the track with all the natural sounds we heard before and some being new, but now fully in our hearing spectrum, without synths to overshadow them. The wind catcher, The birds, The children, The grown-ups, The traffic, the guitar, and yes, also the piano.
What do you make of the resonating sounds in some of the tracks? Almost as if my speakers (and headphones) and ears were totally async to a particular frequency. Disturbing to me. But am not sure if it is to blame my systems or if it's the music recording itself.
Continuing...
Before I started writing this post, I planned to add a track by an Italian electronic producer to show you how one of the elements used by Childs can also be used to create something truly powerful, something truly inspiring, something truly admirable.
And then I decided I will not include this track. It's like the focus we keep when talking about something fantastic, to not distract the reader from the core of the story. It's that focus I try to give you. I don't want you to be distracted. Plus I have something to write about in my next Spread the Vibes post 😂
Uhm: StV?
'Spread the Vibes' (aka StV) posts are usually positive. I can't remember I wasn't positive myself in any of my StV posts. Can't even remember I wasn't positive or at worst, neutral, about any music I shared in the HIVE community. I suppose I broke with that habit. Doesn't 'bad' music deserve an article? Isn't 'bad' music contributing to Vibes spreading? Isn't 'Vibes' not allowed for 'bad' music? Vibes are Vibes 😂
Added to the words above, written weeks ago, by now I can safely say: The post wasn't to negative anymore. Needless to say that I still believe truly bad music can be the subject for a StV entry, no doubt about that. However, this album isn't that bad after all. Ok, it took some extra effort for me to change my initial opinion, but in the end, energy and time worth spending 🙇
Challenge not Challenge...
...the tagline of StV (aka Spread the Vibes). It's for a reason. The tagline I mean. StV isn't a normal challenge. What is it in fact? Well, check it out for yourselves. I believe most of the StV posts are under the tag #spreadthevibes. Started this whole thingy something like two years ago. Owwww, here is the launch post: please clikerdeeclick me.
In short: No rules. Only guidelines. Some musts... Music share of any kind. Words about or around your share. Your reaction to a previous HIVE post (a music-related post of any kind). Your brains. Your hands. The latter two show us they made an effort. You define what effort is. I'll do that as well when reading and digesting your contributions 😎 Those that made my marks, will get some love in the vote section as a minimum.
But but but...
Rules can always be bent. Maybe rules are there to be bent. Same for Guidelines. Same for 'Musts'. Soooooo, I bent one right here. I regard this StV post as the first of a new StV chain of posts-in-the-making. In this edition, no previous post I'll be reacting to, not this time at least. But who knows? Maybe? Maybe I'll spend some time finding myself such post I'll react to. When I do, I'll post my reaction in the comment section. Or I simply enjoy the post EDIT function we got from our developers some years ago. But first things first 😉
Playtime! 😍
ALL : all of you aka everybody 😉
Join in. Read. Listen. Digest. React. Select. Write. Send. It's that easy 🙃
Endnote
Perseverance and an open mind are key when we like to discover beauty. That! and the 'focus' on the little things 😉
a HIVE original
all images by edje unless stated otherwise