Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2019 April 29 • Monday

For the 567th Soundtrack of the Week we listened to Aaron Drake's music for The Godfathers of Hardcore: on grim grey vinyl!

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Side A begins with "Vinnie", a soundscape of arpeggiated electronic notes with some lower pitches calmly guiding the piece through different chords. It might remind you a bit of Bach.

"Kids Raising a Kid" has a combination of sustained and rapidly repeated high notes that form a ceiling under which some bass notes and other tones come and go, staying for various lengths of time. Hypnotic but not completely tranquil, it has an undercurrent of tension and suspense.

A fast repeating three-note pattern in the bass that occasionally modulates down while plaintive higher notes stretch above it and create a Blade Runnerish mood is what you'll hear on "LES".

"For What It’s Worth" has meditative long notes with very gradual changes and entrances and exits.

After this comes "Ignore It", which sounds like it could be using electric guitar though everything could also be done on a keyboard, I’m sure. The main line has the quality of plucked strings and some of the longer notes sound a lot like a guitar played with an EBow. This piece feels heavier than most of the others.

"Mamá", the last piece on this side of the record, starts out as the most “songlike” cue so far, with a gentle, pretty and familiar harmonic structure that calls back to “Vinnie”. Then an insistent pulse appears, changing the feel of the tune.

The B side has more cues, and they're all shorter.

"Family Man" has a slight edge of urgent menace and is reminiscent of some of the music from Portal 2. It’s also similar to "Vinnie" and "Mamá".

"Boiling Point" is a delicate piece with a few notes bouncing around while a few atmospheric textures surround them

Rapidly pulsating notes are eventually joined by long tones to create an otherworldly sort of sonic environment, called "Edge of Martyrdom".

After this comes "Something New", a combination of sprightly and perky staccato notes with a more melancholy voice of floating long tones. Really nice short cue.

"Complete Passion" is another one that sounds like it could be an electric guitar, though the effect is closer to a cymbalom in its echoey resonance. There’s a steady pulse which is similar to what we’ve heard in many of the other cues and once again long, drawn-out tones add texture and solidity.

Perhaps the most spacious cue is "Writing the Future", with pizzicato-like notes against a background of almost angelic-sounding long notes.

Another Portal-sounding track is "Friends", an insistently pulsating piece that builds suspense while also being quite pretty. Maybe this is kind of like Philip Glass?

"Genuine Justice" sounds kind of ominous, with some slight distortion effect on some of the notes. The pace is slow and the mood heavy.

The record ends with "Till the Day I Die", a restrained and cloudy piece, with celestial-sounding synth lines weaving in and out of graver, more somber low tones.