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Left of the Dial #19 - Beach House

A. Davey
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If you're like me, you saw that someone slowed down the music of The Chipmunksand immediately thought that your imagination of what that would sound like was sufficient, and then didn't bother listening to it. I relented when a friend sent me the link to it, and I was blown away. It pretty much sounded like I thought it would, doomy and dirge-like versions of old pop songs, but I was also so delighted by how some of the instruments retained their bright sounds, and some of the vocals sounded unmistakably female, even at that speed. I'm going to have to be obvious here and note that music works best when it's listened to. 

I think The Chipmunks records are fascinating ones to slow down because of the studio trickery that was used to achieve that hyper-pitched effect. The vocals on those records are recorded at half-speed, then doubled to achieve a standard tempo and voices that are pitched up a full octave.So in a way, this project is reverse engineering that process, albeit in an analog and imprecise way. 

This week's show only plays enough of this music to draw people's attention to it, as a complete listen of "You Keep Me Hanging On" like this would be enough time to witness an entire funeral procession going by. Instead we're going to stick with the tried and true routine of playing music back at its originally intended speed. Beach House put out two albums this year, and I love them for that. When Depression Cherry was released we weren't yet on the air, so this week is our chance to play that record, as well as their latest, Thank Your Lucky Stars

We're also playing the latest from Grimes, which is perhaps her most pop-album to date, Art Angels. I think a lot of reviewers can't help but talk about her music in the context of mainstream top-40 music, but I personally think artists like Grimes are being met half-way by the creep of experimental sounds in the mainstream. 

Check out the Spotify playlist of most of this week's songs. I'll be on the radio Friday night from 9-11 and Saturday from noon to 2, so you'll know where I'll be. 

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