Kasimiruslav & Talvin Jones »Reigned by a machine«

[kasimiruslav]

Hi folks
this is a Web-Coop, we have never seen us ...
...Once the KRAFTWERK-boys said "Die Maschinen spielen uns (The machines play us)!"
...and we made a little song about this theme...
have fun
http://www.zeichenundgefunkel.de/loads/reigned.mp3

greets
Kasim & Talvin

[emdot_ambient]

Well, since there haven't been any reviews and I downloaded it and then listened to it, guess I should review this and give you a bit of a bump.

Pretty straight ahead old school rock with a bit o' something new. It actually reminds me of something a friend of mine is currently in the process of releasing under the name Granville, though his has a touch more country influence. It even has a touch of old Jethro Tull in it. Don't know if that's conscious or not. It seems like a lot of people are coming back to that kind of sound . . .

Anyway, production wise this is pretty solid. Some of the sounds, like the kind of orchestral synth sound in the intro are a bit dicey. Lyrically it's a bit too contrived for my tastes and a touch lightweight in concept. I don't particularly care for the interview section--cute, but it's too self-conciously so.

Now, the good part . . . the instrumental performances are impressive. The ending rocks. And I do love the chord changes in the chorus. Actually the last 20 seconds of the song or so is very much in the old Tull style with a touch of 80's hair guitar riffing thrown in. I'd like to hear more instrumental and less voice throughout the song.

Pretty well done, even if it doesn't cater to my normal listening style.

[kasimiruslav]

Well, since there haven't been any reviews and I downloaded it and then listened to it, guess I should review this and give you a bit of a bump.

Pretty straight ahead old school rock with a bit o' something new. It actually reminds me of something a friend of mine is currently in the process of releasing under the name Granville, though his has a touch more country influence. It even has a touch of old Jethro Tull in it. Don't know if that's conscious or not. It seems like a lot of people are coming back to that kind of sound . . .

Anyway, production wise this is pretty solid. Some of the sounds, like the kind of orchestral synth sound in the intro are a bit dicey. Lyrically it's a bit too contrived for my tastes and a touch lightweight in concept. I don't particularly care for the interview section--cute, but it's too self-conciously so.

Now, the good part . . . the instrumental performances are impressive. The ending rocks. And I do love the chord changes in the chorus. Actually the last 20 seconds of the song or so is very much in the old Tull style with a touch of 80's hair guitar riffing thrown in. I'd like to hear more instrumental and less voice throughout the song.

Pretty well done, even if it doesn't cater to my normal listening style.

many thanx
great analysis

greets, kasim

[knockman]

hi,

as emdot_ambient (the king of insightful comments) has pretty much laid it out above, i'll merely reiterate how sonically nice the instrumentation sounds there're some great subtleties going on working superbly with the chord structure. and the stripped back/build back layering gives it a sound approaching prince . and the ending is exquisitely done.

with regards to the lyrics, well, this is a highly emotive area, simply there is no accounting for taste - i prefer abstraction, nonsense or some kind of magical realism, or better still a language i don't understand, over a tangible story or message (unless it's someone like tom waits, or prince for that matter). BUT that's me and in no way should this be taken as criticism, rather that for me the words can put me elsewhere other than the writer's intention, and is probably the reason why i can't listen to most commercial music. sorry still, i'm not necessarily your target audience, so my comments on this point are more a statement of personal choice.

regards

[emdot_ambient]

...emdot_ambient (the king of insightful comments)...

Can I put that on my resume'?

[knockman]

...emdot_ambient (the king of insightful comments)...

Can I put that on my resume'?

only if you credit the source

sorry, let's give the thread back to its originators

regards

[Talvin]

I guess it's really hard to write a lyrically beautiful track for non-native speakers. But I guess since Kraftwerk is a German band with ...let's call them superficial...lyrics (if there are any at all) the words do the song justice .

[knockman]

hi talvin,

i think it's hard, and extremely rare for a native speaker to do so also, i know i never have! my lyrics avoid direct reference for that exact reason, and honestly speaking i'm hiding my inability behind them somewhat, but i've learnt to appreciate happenstance in order to write. by the way i'm british, but living here in tokyo for 7 years i'm still confounded by nuance and hidden meaning on a daily basis.

anyway, i hope you don't take my comments too much to heart, i merely wished to express a matter of taste and chose to do so only after having commented on how much i appreciate the track for the musicianship, composition and production which were so great.

as for kraftwerk, their lyrics are uniquely beguiling, perhaps as a result of language limitations, though i suspect they were being very clever and subtly ironic, they always sounded not as non-native speakers but rather machines with a modicum of artificial intelligence

regards

[Talvin]

I don't feel insulted by any means. We did the lyrics together by sending us some thoughts and it wasn't meant to be a song which is very profound in meaning. It rather was meant to be a kind of fun song.
Anyway, you have to give most of the credits to Kasim 'cause he came up with the melody and did a great job on the guitar. I only did the arrangement and the vocal parts (the higher one) and added the background vocals in the chorus...
But I know what you mean...Singing in German would sound strange to me so I do it in English. Even if you sing crap...most people don't mind that much or don't understand the lyrics anyway.
If you sing in your mother tongue every single word must be considered carefully as people understand what you are singing.

[emdot_ambient]

I don't feel insulted by any means. We did the lyrics together by sending us some thoughts and it wasn't meant to be a song which is very profound in meaning. It rather was meant to be a kind of fun song...

And a lot of this comes down to a matter of taste. You should take all comments on your work, especially ones wrapped in an air of assuredness, with a grain of salt. Art criticism is always subjective at best, emotionally reactionary at worst.

As for Kraftwerk, my favorite lyrical work by them has always been when they worked in a multilingual fashion. Like in Radioactivity. That blend of German and English was wonderful. And their latest Tour de France work is really nice. I wouldn't really call their lyrics superficial . . . intentionally minimal is more like it. Economic. Its genius is to make their points in as few words as possible, and lyrically it ends up expressing a mood more than a thought. If they had expounded on their themes any further, then it truly would have become superficial. "Ohm, sweat ohm." How much more need they say?