LithoJazzoSphere Roulette V1: Variety & Reciprocity (Post-Roulette Playlist)

[Elite]

off to a great start 

You and me both

[Sacul]

off to a great start 

You and me both

Count me in

Gazpacho have some great albums and a varied sound, sometimes they fuse traditional music from certain European countries with their style and end up with some wonderful stuff. If you ever warm up to his vocals, you're in for a treat overall. I can recommend you the first song on their last album, which is among their very best tunes.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Here are the mystery songs for round 2:

Send back something reminiscent of any of these tracks.  Doesn't necessarily have to be the same genre, I know some of you probably don't have a lot resembling these styles.  That's the creative part, to see what everyone comes up with.  Send to lithojazzosphere@outlook.com.  Youtube links are preferred, but I'll accept pretty much anything. 

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - "New Baku" - from Generations, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtXXreKcnU8

Shakti - "Face To Face" - from Natural Elements, 1977
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzzkNfBRHnk

Sara Gazarek - "Lonely Hours" - from Thirsty Ghost, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_KVI1uoHyM

[TAC]

TAC - Lost Domain - "In the Waiting Room of Death"

Early Impression - "This might be the most impressive blending of some of the unique features of my two songs, but it also goes beyond them in other ways."

I could swear I commented on this band in 425's roulette, but I went back and could find no evidence of it, so maybe I just didn't get to it.  Anyway, I had listened to the two songs you sent in that round a couple times, and they were one of the better bands I've sampled in his roulette so far, but I don't think there was any way for you to know that unless I just missed a comment I made elsewhere.  Well, now we have a third song from them, and my interest is really piqued. 

Now this is a curious case study.  I talked with regards to Knight Area how for some reason bands from the Netherlands and Sweden tend to create more appealing melodies to me on average.  Well, here we have a band from Sweden, but it's not so much the melodies that I cherish.  I wish I could have had a camera on my face when I heard the intro, because it definitely has some uncanny resemblances to "To Turn the Tables".  And then the riff at 9:12 has some of the flavor of the riffing in "Amon-Ra", with the phrygian dominant scale. 

The powerful and rich vocals elevate the song right away, though the chorus melody doesn't stick with me like it should.  Given how long the tune is, I was wondering where it was going to go, and it was absolutely worth the travel.  The changeup to acoustic guitars and Mellotron at 6:59 was good for a change of pace, but it was 8:01 that really capped things off, right out of the Opeth playbook.  The filter sweep at 8:20 sets up the monster riffs after remarkably well, and I was not expecting the harsh vocals.  Is she performing them as well?  No other vocalists are listed in the online credits.  Too small a sample of them to really say if I like them on their own, but they definitely kicked things into overdrive and made this one of the most spellbinding songs of the round. 

There are lots of other satisfying moments, like the early synth solo, and the bits of piano and organ.  The two tremolo-picked counterpoint guitar lines at 6:11 panned to either side are delectable.  At first I didn't like the fuzz tone of the guitar solo at 7:33, but it grew on me, and it adds some diversity to the textures, as does the brief modulation-effected one at 10:04.  The descending and slowing pitch of the ending is also snazzy.  And no, the song is not in one of my "magic keys", but it didn't need to be. 

Score:  8.25/10


---


Stadler - Saga - "Wind Him Up"

Early Impression - "You took a big risk, but it might pay off, this is more fun than I remembered."

So I don't know if you looked at my RYM ratings, but even though Saga wasn't on the soft ban list, I had heard the album this song came from and rated it 3.5.  Which, given that my ratings are more generous than RYM's in general, usually means I found something interesting about the album, but it didn't totally resonate with me.  It's more or less my default rating for new music I hear and neither overtly like nor dislike.  So this was definitely a risk.  Well, oh boy did it pay off. I've known of Saga for a long time, but that's the only album I'd managed to get to at this point, so I'm glad to have them brought back to my attention, because I was clearly missing something, and you've helped me find it. 

If you'd told me ahead of time that several 70s and 80s songs would be ranking near the top I'd have been surprised.  And not that this tune is in this genre, but one of the fascinating things I find about the synthwave movement in the past dozen years or so is that the artists tend to pluck components from the 80s that have dated well, and jettison the ones that don't.  What this effectively has done is to just get that balance right in the first place in the decade itself.  No benefit of decades of perspective needed for them, they were Nostradamian.  The synth patches all definitely feel of that time period, but I really like almost all of them.  The funky synth bass, the ambient pads, the fizzy pads, the arpeggiations, all very nice.  The most fun one might be that FM synthesis-derived ring-modulated patch around 3:00.  4:13 has a cool instrumental restatement of the chorus melody in a different key, which I didn't catch the first couple times, and then snuck up on me, Doug Helvering I am not. 

Another impression I had when I first heard this but didn't put in the snippet, was that I felt this song ended too soon.  It felt as if it was building up to something even bigger and grander, and then was done before it quite got there.  Well, as it turns out, the payoff I was looking for is that chorus.  It didn't stand out so much on the first or second play (which I suppose was technically the third or fourth), but by the third or so, wow, it really started to hit.  So the buildup paid off both in just making me want to hear the whole song again, and in that addictive chorus, which has been stuck in my head quite a bit in the past week.  And it's built over a chromatic chord progression, which makes it even more of a marvel how they constructed the rising tension and release of each cycle of it.  The vocalist didn't really appeal to me at first, and I'm still not sure how other songs would sit with me, but the chorus is so infectious that I just don't care. 

The instrumentation is quite enthralling as well, with all of the unison lines between the guitars and synths, which have this perky rhythmic vivaciousness.  If I have to nitpick a tad, the muted guitar part around 2:30 has a more brittle tone than I'd prefer, like I've discussed in some earlier entries, but again, this song is too thrilling for me to worry about it, and in fact, around 2:45 where it's starting to become less of just repeating a note and more of a DiMeola impression, the tone actually kind of works for that bit.  I also like the volume swells around 3:14. 

This is probably the most meteoric graph line of my opinion of a song in this round.  It went from me being worried because I know you sometimes send unusual choices (which I'm more than happy to continue to receive), and I'd already heard and given a just ok score to this track, to thinking maybe it'll be competitive in the middle of the pack, to pondering, "is this my favorite song in the round?"  Well, not quite, but it came awfully close. 

Score:  8.5/10

I definitely wasn't aware of any comment you did or didn't make about Lost Domain. I've used them before in roulettes, and they generally score pretty well. This was the title track of their debut album. They released a follow up in 2022, which is definitely good, but not nearly as powerful as their debut.

I thought of it as soon as I heard the Kingfisher Sky song (which I listened to first). I immediately decided I was going with female vocals.


I'll check out the Mystery Tracks tonight, and send something, likely tomorrow.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

They have songs that are a bit more extensive with more elaborate arrangements, but this is the one that connected with me the most. Glad you liked it!

Yeah, I've already listened to both of those albums now, and look forward to further plays.  The first one has a different vocalist, I suppose I'll have to check it out as well out of curiosity. 

When I heard your songs, the vocals and the melody lines took me to Saga immediately.

Yeah, I hardly heard anything in common between them, but I guess that's the "secret sauce".  As long as it results occasionally in songs like that I think we're good.   

But I watched some live videos, and why does Ian Crichton look like Lars? 

[TAC]

Here's my gifpressions of the Mystery Songs..

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Yeah, the last one is going to be the most of an acquired taste for people not used to it.  I'm pretty picky about that type of vocal, but I dunno, it just works when she does it (and there are plenty of ones where she doesn't).  Plenty else to mine in that song besides it though. 

[TAC]

Who says I was talking about the vocals? 

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Do you have allergies to saxophone? 

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Do you have allergies to saxophone? 

He has allergies to good music

[TAC]

Do you have allergies to saxophone? 

He has allergies to good music

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Do you have allergies to saxophone? 

He has allergies to good music

Tim when asked who that is in the gif he just posted...

[TAC]

I know who that is...

It's the guy from Battlestar Galactica!

[LithoJazzoSphere]

[LithoJazzoSphere]

BTW, I appreciate people mentioning other material afterwards for their artists.  The ones with the highest scores I am more likely to investigate full albums sooner, but the ones that didn't perform as well I'm willing to listen to another song or two at a later point, I have a section for it in my constantly updated music listening queue. 

I checked out all three Far Meadow albums, and Marguerita is a massive improvement upon their original vocalist, they struck gold there. 

[HOF]

BTW, I appreciate people mentioning other material afterwards for their artists.  The ones with the highest scores I am more likely to investigate full albums sooner, but the ones that didn't perform as well I'm willing to listen to another song or two at a later point, I have a section for it in my constantly updated music listening queue. 

I checked out all three Far Meadow albums, and Marguerita is a massive improvement upon their original vocalist, they struck gold there.

What’s funny is that I didn’t even know they had a third album (with a different singer) before now. You’re further into them than I was already!

[Lethean]

Sent.

[HOF]

Sent!

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Sent

[ariich]

Got a few options for this round, think I know what I want to go for but will mull it over today and probably send this evening.

[TAC]

Oh boy.. There's really nothing in my music universe that remotely blends those three songs together.

I'm trying to decide if I prioritize the female vocal, or the musical feel (as best as I can).

[twosuitsluke]

OK, sooner or later I end up asking this in every roulette, but what is your view on video game music?

Also, Elite in this round...

[TAC]

I think it blows..  Oh you're asking Litho..



Elite may actually send before me this round.

[twosuitsluke]

I think it blows..  Oh you're asking Litho..



Elite may actually send before me this round.

What if I told you we're in a simulation and it's all technically video game music?

[jingle.boy]

Those were some big fucking writeups.  Pace yourself dude.

[Tomislav95]

Those were some big fucking writeups.  Pace yourself dude.

Did you expect less

[SoundscapeMN]

Sent.

Like the last round, there were definitely a few ways to go with this one. I had 2 artists that came to mind right off the bat. The 1 that didn't get picked might find their way into a later round however depending on how things go.

[twosuitsluke]

Those were some big fucking writeups.  Pace yourself dude.

Did you expect less

And I have zero doubt he'll keep it up! Might ask if he wants to be my ghost writer 

[TAC]

I had 2 artists that came to mind right off the bat.

I have zero artists that come to mind.

[twosuitsluke]

I had 2 artists that came to mind right off the bat.

I have zero artists that come to mind.

UFO never released a jazz album?

[TAC]

I had 2 artists that came to mind right off the bat.

I have zero artists that come to mind.

UFO never released a jazz album?

I would've sent it last night if they had!

Actually, I had an intro stuck in my mind trying to come up with something, and I couldn't place it.
Finally it hit me...it was actually UFO.


I really had nowhere to turn. I almost just picked some random song off the Sara Gazarek Radio Spotify playlist.

[Lethean]

Oh boy.. There's really nothing in my music universe that remotely blends those three songs together.

You don't have to blend them together - just pick one of the 3:

Here are the mystery songs for round 2:

Send back something reminiscent of any of these tracks.

[Sacul]

Sent

[ariich]

Sent. Once hangman's up, it may be fairly obvious which one's me...

[Elite]

Also, Elite in this round...

Well, yes