If you haven’t heard of Snarky Puppy before, you’ve been missing out! They’re one hell of a group of musicians. Glad to finally see them play a Tiny Desk concert. And an added bonus, there’s a mini-lesson on polyrhythms at 8m20s.
If it looks like I went on a bit of a Radiohead binge in May... You are very much correct! I hadn't listened to them in ages and I'd definitely forgotten how good they are. So I made amends in spectacular style!
Jonas Bonnetta is the only new discovery to crack my Top 10 lists from May. His album All This Here is excellent.
In total, I listened to music from 197 albums and by 149 different artists.
If you are so inclined, follow me on last.fm or Spotify, and if you have any album recommendations please send them my way. Happy listening! 👋
A great video explaining the "hidden" syncopation in one of my favourite Radiohead songs. I forget just how good Radiohead are at times.
If you have the patience to watch a 38-minute video, the video that inspired the Vox one is also very good.
A Shepard tone is a sound illusion that gives the impression of a continually ascending (or descending) tone. The video above has some great examples of why they are so great for building suspense and tension.
Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…
If you find yourself in London with some time to kill I recommend visiting the Hope To Nope exhibition at the Design Museum. It's one of the best I've been to in ages. (The photo above is one I took at the exhibition).
A great video from Vox on Why More Pop Songs Should End With A Fade Out. I was initially a fade out skeptic, but I think I've now been convinced of their merit.
What do you hear, Yanny or Laurel? I'm firmly in the "Laurel" camp and the fact that others are hearing "Yanny" is leaving me questioning reality. 🤨
Boston Public Library have put high resolution scans of their collection of Escher prints online. The quality of the scans is really something. You can zoom and zoom and zoom.
Watching the video for Childish Gambino's new song This Is America left me a little speechless. It's powerful and dark — you've been warned! There is a lot going on in the video so it's worth watching a few times.
That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.