Thursday 24 February 2011

The Numbers. What Do They Mean?

Like it or not, numbers rule everything around you, everything from temperature to test scores is dictated by them. So I was looking through my record collection today and numbers are a consistent element in my music; a lot of tracks I have either have numbers in the title, or are simply named after the numbers themselves. And with that, here are a few choice cuts from my catalogue. Starting with the track that got me thinking about this post. Three is fittingly the third track on Massive Attack's sophomore effort Protection, The song itself has little to do with the number other than a brief mention in the opening verses and the sampled voice in the background that could be saying "Three" or "Free" depending on how much attention you're paying.



Boards Of Canada have always had a way with numbers, their own label Music70, Numbers Station samples on Geogaddi and finally: Twoism. Their first commercially available release, featuring remnants of their original techno stylings fused with the chilled out sounds they're now known for along with some pretty strange vintage samples.



Obligatory Danger track coming up, seeing as pretty much all his track names are numbers 'n letters combos. The best track he never released as well as the first I heard by him, the old but still fresh 13H12 ranks up there with my favourite electro tracks of all time. Pure dancefloor moving energy, 'nuff said.





One half of The Knife here with some of Karin Dreijer's solo project. Taking an upbeat turn compared to the rest of her solo album, Seven almost sounds like it could be a Knife track but has a much more... natural feel than the stuff from Silent Shout, Dreijer's distinct vocals and lyrical content being the only concrete similarities.



Alright, I'll admit I started struggling for ideas here so I came up with these. Years are still numbers right? right! Up first with 1983 from the album of the same name is Flying Lotus. This was before Warp signed him on and he was instead on L.A. based independant label Plug Research. While 1983 might not be his most popular album, it does have some great tunes on it. For example, if you ever wondered what 8-bit chiptune hip hop would sound like, 56 seconds in is where you wanna be.



Finally, Caspa. Yes, Caspa of "Where's My Money" fame. Only this time it's chilled out Drum 'N Bass, quite a bit different from the usual sound of the scene and more of the very early Dubstep, as in before it was even called Dubstep. He's done a few tracks like this and while it's not his best, and it might not be on par with some of Skream's tracks, it's still quite good and definitely worth a listen.



There were so many other tracks I wanted to post here but I either decided against it or it had been done already. The only one I really wish I could have put in here was Nine by Autechre, you should go check it out, it's in Part 3 of the warped posts!

11. 1. 5. 17. 5. 6,
-Claude Van Foxbat

2 comments:

Adam said...

I can't understand why danger never put out more material... he was always one of my favorites.

Jpeg91 said...

11. 1. 5. 17. 5. 6
Mr.Oizo's 'Minuteman's Pulse'. Check it.