Owen Pallett “Midnight Directives”

This is a brilliant composition, the sort of piece that is urgent in tone, yet reveals itself upon repeated listening. The melody swoops and soars, but its a rather chilly sort of bombast — it’s a drama of intense thought, not physicality. I find myself often rewinding and going back over that final climax in the vocal section, just before the instrumental resolution: “For a man can be bought, and a man can be sold / and the price of a hundred thousand unwatered souls…” In context, that bit sounds defiant, thrilling, and terrifying all at once.

Owen Pallett “Midnight Directives” (Max Tundra remix)

Max Tundra’s arrangement of “Midnight Directives” brings in standard Tundra elements — a frenetic pace, extremely bright synth tones, a nerdy sort of funk — but does little to alter the main vocal part, which carries the essence of the tune. In this way, it’s a matter of dressing up the song in a new outfit. This is a more relaxed “Midnight Directives,” a version that tosses out the drama that makes the original so compelling, but focuses on flattering the song’s truly exceptional melody.

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The volumes of great music that artists and bands have been sending in over the past few months is impressive, and taking time to get through – literally hundreds. And so we have to keep slimming down the list to make it realistic. Today we are adding five more  bands to watch in 2010. A couple [...] Related posts:Band to Watch: Chicago’s Glitter Bones Bands That Rock! Vol. II: Brooklyn’s A Place to Bury Strangers and Stockholm’s The Legends Bands to Watch: Double-Shots on the Rocks from Scotland Yard Gospel Choir and Fool’s Gold

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