The accepted definition of a cappella is singing without instrumental accompaniment. Here the instrumental accompanying tracks have been removed. There is only a vocal track. So I reckon we can indeed call this a cappella, even though the vocal track is layered 147 times.
They may be artefacts, but there are instruments in there, strings at the beginning, and some percussion later on - and they definitely contribute, in the layering, to the aural crescendo. posted by progosk at 3:16 AM on January 8 [2 favorites]
there are instruments in there
You're right. Fact is, I took the FPP text (which is taken directly from the website headline) at its word when it said "a cappella". My mistake. Should have known better! posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:21 AM on January 8
Would be nice to hear other earworms imp-/exploded like this. (There must be someone out there doing that right now...) posted by progosk at 3:26 AM on January 8
I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have.
Or in Texas. posted by item at 3:43 AM on January 8
Just to save anyone else from figuring it out, the comment was eponysterical in the North American eastern time zone, parts of South America (including Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Haiti and Cuba), a patch of Russia including both Tomsk and Omsk (and a couple other provinces), and a good chunk of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and the western chunk of Indonesia.
Also, I recently picked up Dan Deacon's 'America' and found it absolutely fantastic. Love the guy. posted by kaibutsu at 3:57 AM on January 8 [2 favorites]
Just last night my kindergardener was explaining the lyrics to this song to me. She said that the singer is giving the boy her number so that he can help her get "all the other boys" to stop chasing her. posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 4:12 AM on January 8 [14 favorites]
and the layered version was kinda cool...in the middle it started to get all sine-wavy and modem sounding posted by ShawnString at 5:52 AM on January 8
Dan Deacon did something like this on his previous album
Odd derail here, but when I was a college student in the summers I worked as a camp counselor at a camp in the mountains of east Tennessee. I usually had Sunday afternoons off, and I'd spend my time away from the campers at the ajacent conference center where we had a sort of hideaway office. Below the office was a small chapel that the camp rented out to a local church that did not have a building of its own. This was a very traditional mountain church with firey sermons, toung-speaking, occasional snake handling (seriously), and fantastic music. I would sneak down under the windows to listen to the music, traditional appalachian gospel songs accompanied sometimes by autoharps and dulcimers.
The beginning of the song you linked sounds a lot like these multi-part (five or more) rounds they would sing acapella that sort of decended into chaos for a bit and then came back into harmony much the way that song starts out and begins to build. posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 5:59 AM on January 8
At VIA festival in Pittsburgh a few months ago, Girltalk did a similarly layered Call Me Maybe while women in transparent masks threw hamburgers into the crowd.
Row, row, row your boat! Come on! Sing, dammit! Sing! posted by ShutterBun at 6:44 AM on January 8 [1 favorite]
How did you guys last more than 5 or 6 seconds into that? That was like ear-repellent to me.
The longer it runs, the weirder and better it gets. I like this far more than the original. posted by Foosnark at 6:45 AM on January 8
The longer it runs, the weirder and better it gets. I like this far more than the original.
Yeah, it's notably better as it goes on. At first it's just sort of sounds, but eventually it starts to sound like something. It's not really my cup of tea, but I can see someone enjoying that. posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:06 AM on January 8
Nice, once it really builds it starts to remind me of that weird instrument from Alien Nation jamming with some trains and someone playing a stereo too loud next door. posted by SharkParty at 7:51 AM on January 8
After about 3 minutes in, out sounds like the soundtrack to one of those oh-so-serious SF films from the 1970s, say a scene where they're exploring "inner space". Or maybe something Pink Floyd would do. posted by happyroach at 8:37 AM on January 8
I would have confessed to being a Nazi spy from the Moon if someone locked me in a room with that looping on the speakers.
How many layers of vocal track can one slather on before it loses all semblance of musicality and just becomes a jumble of incoherent noise?
I have friends that received a wedding gift of original artwork from a relative. It was entitled "Love is the sound of 1000 violins playing". Egads, no it is not. posted by mcstayinskool at 9:07 AM on January 8 [2 favorites]
Can't say I cared for it, but I don't like the song much.
This removes the best part of the song- when the string chords go "dan dan dan" in the chorus. Someone please layer that segment 147 times thanks in advance posted by Apocryphon at 10:05 AM on January 8
I had to turn it off half-way through because I was feeling increasingly certain that it was breaking my computer somehow. Like driving a car with no motor oil. posted by straight at 10:19 AM on January 8 [3 favorites]
Dan Deacon, my love for you knows no end. posted by Lutoslawski at 11:55 AM on January 8
I bought the track and mirrored it on itself so it plays through normally and then starts from the end playing backward back to the beginning. Maybe it is the coffee in my brain but the effect is similar to falling in to a well in the ground watching reality grow smaller and smaller and then falling through the center of the earth and back to the surface on the other side, where everything is backward.
Conceptually, it borrows heavily from early Reich tape works like Come Out, though it's somehow more depressing, even though the content is ostensibly much less depressing. posted by Lutoslawski at 12:03 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]
Where do the weird metallic sounds come from around 1:30? Is it clipping or something? posted by smackfu at 12:46 PM on January 8
You know what ... I was thinking "hey, I think I've heard this before ... is this a double post?"
And then I thought, "hey, didn't I post this before?! ..." and then I asked myself, "wait a minute. are you stoned?" and then I answered, "yes," and then I realized no, it wasn't me at all.
How funny that some people find this so unpleasant while others kinda dig it. I thought it was kind of soft and trancey and gentle, but my wife hated it so much she came in from two rooms away to ask me to turn it off. posted by Mars Saxman at 5:08 PM on January 8
I think this is what dying must be like, and not in a bad way. posted by whitneyarner at 10:37 PM on January 8
As Lutoslawski says, I think Dan Deacon has been listening to some Steve Reich. posted by exogenous at 5:14 AM on January 9
I know many people will disagree with me, but I file Steve Reich in the same category of a-musical noise made by people throwing tennis balls at disassembled pianos and that same sort of mid-20th century avant-gard wankery.
I know SR is going for evocation of trance-like experiences. For some of us, it just comes out as grating noise with elaborate syncopation. posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 11:00 AM on January 9
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posted by channey at 2:48 AM on January 8