Pendulum - Immersion review

I've honestly never liked Pendulum's attempts at making drum'n'bass. To me, almost all of these early tracks sounded like somebody just said "ok, I think drum'n'bass is pretty cool, we should do something like that" - and that's actually pretty much how it was. While I would never dare question Rob Swire's creativity and originality, most of their early material just felt somehow forced, unnatural, un-drum'n'bass-y. Hold Your Colour is, I think, pretty good, but as I said: it feels forced. In Silico, released in 2008, is a source of much more hate from the DnB community, me included. In it, Pendulum have returned to their pre-Pendulum rock roots and it really showed. While the album did attract a fair number of new fans, for some of which it has been the "gateway drug" to "real" drum'n'bass, it mostly just shed bad light on the scene from which Pendulum's earlier sound grew.

Immersion, on the other hand, sees Pendulum as a much more mature musical project. It is evident that Rob Swire has finally begun to find his own style instead of just copying and trying to mimic something which wasn't made for him. You can hear both the DnB influence and the rock background in the sound of this album and, unlike In Silico, they have been made, surely through endless hours of toiling, to work extremely well together. As any album, though, it isn't uniform. It has its strong points and it has weak ones.

The opening track called Salt In The Wounds, which is preceded only by the - awkward at best - short fanfare Genesis, is one of these weak points. It tries to be Slam, but fails and it's more repetitive than any of their other songs have ever been. There isn't even the super-strong, massive melodic line that I've grown to expect from this kind of Pendulum track. It's not terrible, but it's most certainly not amazing.

Following that is Watercolour, which I'm pretty sure you've already heard by now. I actually don't really know what to say about this. While I definitely don't hate it, I think that the hype that was built around this track could've been better off directed elsewhere. The vocals are smooth and well-performed, which is a good thing. Everything fits together, so I can't really find anything to nitpick here. As a work of musical craftsmanship, Watercolour is of extraordinarily high quality, but it doesn't have much else aside from that.

Set Me On Fire is an experiment in an area where Pendulum have almost not set foot before - dubstep. It's extremely well-produced and generally very good. While both of the previous tracks were quite obvious attempts to remind the listener of Pendulum's previous works - Salt In The Wounds being, as mentioned, a bastardized clone of Slam and Watercolour being Propane Nightmares remade and refined - Set Me On Fire is certainly something completely, or at least mostly, new. And I like that. I really do. The bass is thick enough to slice and knead and everything else works together.

While I certainly enjoyed the beginning of the album, Crush is where it really begins to take off. The synths have been sent on vacation, appearing only as subtle support to the main instrument, which, here, is the guitar. The vocals are good, perhaps the best of the entire album and I generally don't have anything bad to say about it. Way to go, Pendulum. Or at least I would say that if it wasn't for...

Under The Waves. Let's face it, people, Under The Waves sucks donkey balls. High-pitched synths are playing a melody that sounds like Pendulum stole it from Ferry Corsten and I swear, Rob Swire's voice has never sounded this gay. The amen break that provides the backdrop has almost no variance throughout the whole song. Seriously. This track sounds like something made in Reason by a 13-year old who has just discovered John B. and desperately wants to be like him, only to fail terribly and - so to speak - epicly. I couldn't have imagined a worse letdown after something as good and as action-packed as Crush. For a moment, I seriously considered stopping the playback after this track ended.

In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't. The fact that the next song, Immunize, has Liam Howlett's name next to it, probably helped. I thought: "well, this better be good". If it wasn't good, I was, in all seriousness, going to turn it all off and just give up on Pendulum altogether. Thankfully, it is good. Oh yes. It is very good. If you've heard the Pendulum remix of Voodoo People, you might have some idea what Pendulum and The Prodigy sound like combined, but a remix is still worlds below a collaboration. And this is a collaboration. This is, actually, one of the best collaborations I've ever heard. This song takes the best out of both worlds and turns it into one massive, screaming and kicking mass of awesomeness. Pendulum always did borrow a little from the Prodigy - after all, who doesn't - but in here, it's taken to the next level. My will to live - and listen - on has been rekindled.

Next up is a two-part track called The Island. The first part is subtitled "Dawn" and is actually pretty generic. The melody is joyful and fills you (or it at least did that for me) with images of some kind of tropical paradise, palms included. It could've gone without the vocals this time, but that's really a hard thing to balance out. They aren't too bad, though. The second part, Dusk, is almost a minute shorter than the first and it's a shame, because it's way better. The funky, pumping rhythm is something I'd love to jump up and down to, even though I really didn't expect Pendulum, of all the bands out there, to put out something like this, even after Set Me On Fire. Where the first part soothed and smoothened, the second part breaks and corrupts, in the best way imaginable.

It almost prepares you for what awaits next. Comprachicos. A hissing, maleficient whisper sounds like it's been cropped out of some sort of nu-metal song, but it hasn't, because right after it follows something far more normal - Rob Swire's dashing approach to singing brings us a few lines, before it all breaks down into the most insane, broken beast of a drum'n'bass chorus ever. If I needed to compare this to something from the DnB scene, I'd say... Noisia. Pumping, fat... damn. It's good and it's Pendulum. It's over before it even properly begins, though. Really, it's the shortest song on the entire album, a honor I'd much rather hand to Salt In The Wounds, which is really the same bar set on repeat for six minutes straight anyway.

The Vulture is up next. While with Comprachicos, the influence of other artists has been pretty subtle, here I just can't not say it - this is Hadouken!, plain and simple. It's still very good, I just think it could use a little more originality.

Oh, Witchcraft. For a long time, I didn't know what to say about it. It opens almost like a rock ballad - hell, exactly like a rock ballad. After that, it changes to straight-up hard rock with hardly an ounce of drum'n'bass, or, well, anything else thrown in. I think Pendulum could make a pretty decent living making just songs like this, but thankfully they don't seem to be content with being stagnant.

Just as I was anxious to hear what Liam Howlett could bring to Pendulum, I was afraid of what In Flames could take away from them. And as far as I can tell, my worries were justified. Self vs. Self is, in my opinion, pretty bad. The vocals are partially done by the In Flames singer (well, that or Rob Swire can actually make his balls drop and then recall them back on command) and that sucks. The guitars are too distorted. I imagine Pendulum and In Flames must've had a lot of fun working on this, but since metal just isn't my cup of tea, I can't bring myself to enjoy this. But I guess it's actually genuinely good, just not what I like, so it's still far better than Under The Waves, which just sucks as a whole.

Aaaand... another "feat." thinger. The Fountain is its name and it would've been a fitting end to an album as awesome as this one. The melody is really fantastic and as I was listening, I saw a thousand AMV makers wake up and grab their tools, because this is just AMV material par excellence.  Other than that, it's just a really, really good song that works both in itself and in the context of the album. Good job, Pendulum. If I were to stop the album after The Fountain, I could go to sleep a happy man.

But there's this little disgrace at the end. It's called Encoder. I was initially reminded of the Chemical Brothers' Galvanize by the initial chords. But that ended soon. The rest of the song is cheap, sweet, dull and radiates a false aura of stupid niceness. Well, actually not the WHOLE rest of the song. Much like The Tempest, it ends with a part that's really a cut above the first part. So yeah, had the whole song been like its latter half, it would've been better.

And then, it all ends with sounds of someone swimming. Or something. I honestly don't know what it's supposed to symbolize.

All in all, I can safely say that this is the best Pendulum album yet. Pendulum have finally managed to break free from all of the chains that were holding them in place and have begun moving towards a better, brighter future for all of us - a future where Pendulum is no longer to drum'n'bass what Naruto is to anime - the bait that brings an awful lot of retards into the fanbase. I genuinely enjoy this album, because it no longer tries as hard as before to be DnB and that really helps it become actually good.

My English essay

Just to let you know how this wall of text was born: we had an assignment, an essay to write. We told the teacher our topics about two weeks ago and yesterday midnight (or two days ago, depending on where you are. Friday.) was the deadline. Well, you can guess when I started writing it- YES, if you said "at 11 PM because you are a lazy fuck", you are absolutely right and you win one Internet. So, I had to write 5400 words at least... I had one hour to do it... and my topic was "atheism". Well... I never had the time to re-read it before sending it to the teacher and I went to sleep right afterwards and now I really have no reason to fix the few grammar and punctuation errors I made, so here you go - my essay, written on-the-fly, without ever getting the proper correction it needed, raw and unrefined:

Atheism. A word that some find repulsive, maybe even disgusting due to the moral implications they hear in it, while others – to whose the very same moral implications mean their whole life philosophy – like it because it represents something they hold in high respect – the total and finite absence of God and their independence upon empty promises, ancient lies passed on throughout the aeons of human history and other things the mindless worship of a fake icon burdens their less fortunate fellow humans with.

Atheism is a philosophy I have been defending and trying to spread my entire life. I say with pride that not once have I dwindled, not once have I thought: „Hey, maybe there is a God after all.“ Know, though, that I of course have contemplated God's existence. I have countless times imagined not only what life would be like in a world where God obviously did exist, but also what life is like for a believer in a world where He so obviously doesn't. There have been many moments in my life when I either suddenly or over the course of several days or weeks changed my view of God's absence in the universe. Despite all that, I have always stood firm and never backed one step from the one thing, the one point I like to call a fact, yet some still claim is a theory at best: God does not exist. There is no higher being watching us all go around our daily lives. God is not the Beginning, the Path or the End. He is neither a means nor and end to strive for.

For this I am grateful to my father. He hasn't taught me the importance of critical thinking or any other of the mental techniques required to fully understand why God does not – and can not – exist such as it is and I would not be so bold as to say that I have fully understood it to this day, or that I ever will, for that matter. He has, however, told me the one important thing. Despite being a very vulgar and primitive atheist (and, to a limited extent, a vulgar and primitive human being, but that is neither here nor there), he carried on and lit in me the shining beacon that burns in every atheist, regardless of the conclusions they deduce from it. I am grateful to him because what he taught me gave me time to think. I shudder whenever I imagine someone of a different belief might have infected my young, unprotected and unformed mind with it at any time during my early childhood, because even now I have the benefit of being able to choose freely, which is something not all of religious people have. Not that I hope to ever use that benefit, of course.

As I have already said, for me the belief came first and only after that were the pillars supporting it built. This sometimes puts me in a position I really do not like to be in – conflicted with my own beliefs, unable to reason my way out of something I have brought upon myself. But how else could I have had the choice? It saddens me to know that most of a human being's beliefs are formed during their early childhood. No matter what influences a human later in his life, all his decisions will always be biased by the first thing that was told to him enough times for him to remember it. Only the strongest minds amongst those on either side of the metaphysical spectrum are able to rise above the ultimately utterly pointless argument and give each one the same chance without giving either one an advantage based on their own belief. I would even go so far as to say that such a person does not, never did and never will exist. A perfect opposite of an agnostic, willing to accept either one of the apparent truths at the same time, each with its own consequences... is a dream.

Atheism, such as I view it, is not very comfortable or comforting. If we believe that the universe was not created by an intelligent being and is currently not being maintained by the very same entity (now might be a little too late to define God, oh well: the existence of nigh physical gods of Nordic or Egyptian mythology is no longer a matter of belief. As most of my arguments are against Christianity and its precursors and derivates (probably because of those being the closest to me and easiest to fight against), I will therefore define God as such: a being that did, is doing or will at one point in the future or past do one or more of the following: create the universe, take care of the universe because it just damned can't do so itself, give the Jews laws very closely defining and restraining their lifestyle, exist without actually doing anything despite being omnipotent, not have a physical body. It is (in regard to the hour at which I am writing this) very possible and hopefully understandable that I might have omitted some other defining characteristing of a God. If that is indeed the case, please consider any property you think a deity might have as if it was in the list, thank you very much), then we will eventually get to the realization that our (or the universe)'s existence ultimately has no real meaning other than to simply exist. That can – and usually is – very depressing. If I might add something from my personal experiences again... I have more than once spent minutes or hours crying quietly to myself because of my own beliefs and the simple knowledge that since there is nothing I can change about the absence of a meaning for my life to have I can just go on living was not enough to offer me solace. Believers, on the other hand – or at least the most vulgar ones, the mentally inferior sheepeople that love Jesus more than themselves because he died for their sins which apparently somehow gives them the obligation to give their money to opportunistic, if talented, speechmakers – don't need to cry at night, at least not for the same reasons I do. Why should they worry about the huge space that is beyond the protective bubble of our atmosphere? God created it, he knows what its purpose is and if he wanted us to know more, he would have told us.

I refuse to believe that. I think – I believe – that every religion that worships a God according to the above definition is a fraud. I believe, firmly and I hope permanently, that religion and mindless worship of a replacement for common sense is the root of all evil. Really.

Christmas, The New Year... you know the drill

Oh hello there. I guess I should wish you all (has anyone ever really read this crap? How the heck do I find out? I'm too lazy to figure it out myself. Not that I couldn't, I just can't be bothered to. Well, if anyone tells me, I'll know I've had at least one visitor.) merry Christmas and a very happy (also very drunk or otherwise incapacitated) New Year. You should all go and listen to Drum'n'Bass to celebrate whatever you believe in, because that is what I am doing riiiight now and I am an example to follow, obviously.

Myself, well... I've been working on a new track called Blood Plasma (if you can guess what it's going to be inspired by, I officially consider you not totally clueless). I appear to have hit a brick wall and am unable to advance further with all the tunes and drums (basses also), but you will be the first to know should I ever finish it.

Oh and... you should totally follow me on Twitter.

Lizardance

Ok, so this is probably the first of many "amazing creations" to come. It's not that amazing, but it's definitely a creation. It's called Lizardance and it's a drum'n'bass (I guess) track. Allow me to look at it back in retrospect and name some of the mistakes I've made while making it - and continue to make right now, in tracks I am working on. Also described will be my general shortcomings and stuff I just can't seem to get right - not really mistakes, just areas I'm not good at.

The first mistake I make is... I don't use enough pads. Pads are these fantasy-humming-ish sounds you hear most of the time, but often don't realize it. Sometimes, they sound like flutes, just more subtle. (Warning: please do realize that everything after this is my opinion. Feel free to correct me.) As far as I know, they are supposed to have a very similar role to quiet subbass - you can't really hear them, but they serve to make a track much more awesome, passively, subconsciously. Yep. They're good. I don't use them. I also have no idea why. They are one area of the plugin library I just have yet to explore.

Another thing... I just can't make my own DNB drumloops and breaks. The sample I used to make Lizardance is from Renard's (yeah, the guy from the first post) producer pack, which contains some drumloops and synths. I used one of the drumloops and it sounds good, but I just want to make my own. I want to be able to tweak and change the flow (whatever that is) and delete or mute any sounds I don't want there. The problem, as I see it, is not entirely caused by my incompetence, it's somewhere deeper. If I manage to make a good drumloop, I'll definitely let you know, because you are my imaginary readers and I love you more than... huh. Dunno.

I use too much EUROGATE. Eurogate is that chopped-up, duh-duh-duuuh sound, it was made for trance and trance is where it should stay. It should, but I use it because I like it and that's bad, because it shouldn't be used in drum'n'bass. Bad, bad me.

In related good news, I've finally discovered the correct way to use effects and now I will utilise them in some really good ways. Stay tuned.

That's all for today, I'll see you in a week or so.

First!

I won't write an introduction post. It's useless.

What I will write, though, is a de-facto advertisement for an amazing artist I found on YouTube some time ago. As you will surely find out in no more than a few blogposts, I enjoy electronic music of almost any kind. What started out as simply enjoying retarded anthem trance (read: Ferry Corsten. I still like him, but that doesn't stop his music from being retarded anthem trance. Neither does you liking him.) went on to become something of an obsession. I don't let the music I listen to affect my choice of clothes. Other than that? I'd kill you (or at least delete your comment) if you said anything even closely resembling the old stupid statement that "electronic music is not music at all". It is and it is (in my opinion) one of the best kinds of music (fighting the urge to put OF ALL TIME here) ever created. It is variable, enjoyable, creative (the amount of creativity often varies - from simple copying Daft Punk-style, to remixing, to actually creating new and undiscovered compositions) and above all, perfect. While some argue that it lacks the humanity and the living feeling of music performed by human artists on physical instruments (which is probably true), it also lacks the imperfections created thusly. It is the pinnacle of musical evolution.

Simply put, I just love electronic music. That's it and I doubt it's ever going to change. You'll know it has if you come back in half a year and find me filling this blog with photos of Eminem.

But I digress.

The amazing artist that I found on YouTube is Renard. He is from Canada, he creates his music (which is extremely diverse and dabbles into many genres from drum'n'bass to synthpop and tekno) using an (in my humble and uneducated opinion) outdated and primitive program called OpenMPT and... he's a furry. Not ashamed of it, too. Somehow, that seems to put a lot of people off. While it is probably true that sometimes it would just be better for him to stop "representing" the furry community and just... you know... make music, it in no way taints the music itself. Renard is creative, extremely productive and apparently makes his living only with the music he creates. His bandcamp page (which allows you to buy his albums for any prize you wish - as long as it isn't smaller than a given minimum, usually $4) is here. There are some amazing tracks on his albums and you can usually find the most awesome ones on the YouTube page I linked to earlier in this paragraph, but today, I'd also like to interest you in some tracks he just offers for free download - those either didn't fit on any album or were just - in his opinion - too bad to be sold. He may have other reasons, I don't know. Before I begin, I'd like to point out that he likes to use a different moniker for every genre, thus the differing artist names.

The first one of those is Renard - Flamingo (link to MP3, completely legal AFAIK). You might find it weird, even... repulsive on the first few listens, but give it a try. While obviously a remix/ripoff of Sub Focus' Flamenco, it just has this lovely chopped-up, teared-apart, broken-down feeling to it, especially in the beginning. In some respects and in my opinion, it is even better than the original. If I'm right, just let that thought roll over a few times in your head - this guy is improving upon Sub motherfucking Focus. That alone is an impressive feat. Moving on.

The second one, again from the dreamy realm that is drum'n'bass... Jackal Queenston - Rewind Rolla (link to MP3, see above). It is an original work and bears a certain resemblance to the repetitiveness and addictiveness of Pendulum. Pendulum are not good drum'n'bass and this probably isn't, either, but hell... it's just good. It's pretty lightweight, fast, relaxing and enjoyable. The tune is... Pendulum-grade sick, for lack of a better term.

The third and maybe my personal favorite is Azrael - Powerhaus (link to bandcamp page, you'll have to pay to download this one). It is quite (quite) different from other stuff Renard has created under the pseudonym Azrael (mostly heavy tekno or somesuch). Of all the tracks here, liking this one is the most individual thing. It has this mad beat, the interesting tune, the weird recitative, the aggressive screams... the awesomeness. Yep, it has all it needs as far as I'm concerned.

Fourth. Kors K feat. Rie - Rising in the Sun (FIAB Remix) (link to MP3). Almost unbelievably superior to the original, this one is a piece of melodic, cheerful, upbeat hardcore. It's beautiful and I can't do anything than recommend it to you. It will not be over too quickly. You are going to enjoy it.

Fifth is the shark-made synthopoppy-thingy called Mayhem - Dum Dum Diday (link to bandcamp). I'm running out of descriptions now, so I'll just say it's happy and very well made and leave it at that.

Sixth and - for today at least - last is Renard feat. Adraen - Terminal (link to bandcamp, this one - and the EP it is on - is free, but you have to download it using the retarded flash downloader anyway). Like an Anonymous user of 4chan's /mu/ put it (and I really didn't expect that, considering the average /mu/ user is an artsy, preppy, hipster faggot or a metalhead - sometimes both) "It's like trance and drum'n'bass had sex and made a non-retarded baby!". I couldn't possibly describe it any better. It rivals Powerhaus in the position of my mostest favoritest Renard track ever - and it's doing well.

Should you consider buying any of his albums, I'd recommend those. Listen to them first, it is fully possible:

Azrael - Overdead - repetitive, heavy and great as a torture instrument for the uninitiated

Jackal Queenston - Smal Nästa - musically original, fresh

Renard & V.A. (which means he worked as more of his pseudonyms AT THE SAME TIME) - NO - diverse (the V.A. actually is there for a kind of a reason), enjoyable, interesting

Renard - Killer Bee Attack Force - I never heard raggacore before, but I sure as hell like hearing it

Now go on and explore further. If you can look past the fact that he's a proud furry (or if you are a furry yourself), you will discover that he is a creative genius not rivaled by many, at least as far as YouTube goes.