{"id":190,"date":"2007-04-24T12:46:16","date_gmt":"2007-04-24T12:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/macphoenix.com\/?p=190"},"modified":"2007-04-24T12:46:16","modified_gmt":"2007-04-24T12:46:16","slug":"tmx-music-is-math-v-starship-trooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/2007\/04\/tmx-music-is-math-v-starship-trooper\/","title":{"rendered":"TMX: Music Is Math v. Starship Trooper"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Tomorrow][1] sometimes seems like a week away. Anyway, this time Rich and I are exchanging “Ready Lets Go\/Music Is Math,” by the **Boards of Canada**, and “Starship Trooper,” by **Yes**.
\nRich offered this bit for me before I listened to BoC<\/acronym>:
\n> Artist: Boards of Canada
\n> Album: [Geogaddi][3]
\n> Tracks: Ready Lets Go \/ Music Is Math
\n> Label: Warp Records
\n> Released: 2002
\n>
\n> Within the first few minutes of listening to this album, Boards of Canada had established themselves, without question, as one of my top 5 favorite bands.
\n>
\n> Quite simply, the music is audio psychedelia–rich in sonic depth and texture, and emotionally evocative. It is completely electronic, and yet altogether human.
\n>
\n> I don’t want to spoil the experience with too much hype, so relax, sit back, close your eyes and take the ride.
\nAnd this is how I introduced “Starship Trooper”:
\n> Okay, rich(e)rich, my next song is “Starship Trooper,” by Yes. This came out in 1970 off *The Yes Album*, which contains the wildly overplayed “I’ve Seen All Good People.” If I had to choose a favorite Yes album, it would tough to decide between this one and *Close to the Edge*.
\n>
\n> I like prog rock. What can I say? Yes is one of those divisive bands–most of my friends really don’t like them, or, worse, confuse them with **Rush**. My parents, who, in all honesty, shaped my musical tastes from an early age, don’t like Yes, since bands like them and **ELP** represent the [downfall of album format rock-and-roll][2]. I dug Yes before **Pink Floyd**, before **Led Zeppelin**. It’s just one of those things that appealed to me as a kid, and still does.
\n>
\n> Now, why “Starship Trooper”? Well, your [first song][1] was 8 minutes long, so I figured that all time restraints were off. ;) Next, this song has what I consider to be a perfect build. Starting at about 5:36, there’s just a guitar playing a lick, it’s subtly joined in by organ and drum, then bass, and it just builds from this one riff. It grips me every time I hear it. It goes on *forevah!*, but it holds me for every second. There’s a false crescendo two minutes in, and it still goes on. There’s this wall of sound that just grows and grows. When it finally does peak, at about 8:25, I get all wobbly. Seriously. That’s what music does to me. If I’m listening through headphones, I’ll tear up when that peak hits from the release of the tension.
\n>
\n> I’m not expecting the same visceral reaction from you, of course.
\nAfter we listen to the tracks, I’ll post our reactions and set up next week’s exchange.
\n[2]: http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Prog_rock#Rise_and_fall
\n[1]: http:\/\/www.macphoenix.com\/creative\/blog\/archives\/2007\/04\/tmx_reactions_to_pretzel_logic_v_cowgirl.html
\n[3]: http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Geogaddi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Tomorrow][1] sometimes seems like a week away. Anyway, this time Rich and I are exchanging “Ready Lets Go\/Music Is Math,” by the **Boards of Canada**, and “Starship Trooper,” by **Yes**. Rich offered this bit for me before I listened to BoC: > Artist: Boards of Canada > Album: [Geogaddi][3] > Tracks: Ready Lets Go \/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tmx"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nj3d-34","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}