LogFAQs > #964348030

15st
Game: NaissancE
Title: Les Louves
Composer: Patricia Dallio
Nominator: @Simoun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dILdZbKkCVM

so i've alluded to this "rio/avant-prog" (rock in opposition) category of music in which i am so fond of, very particular odd category of prog that i am quite attached to. i will talk a bit more about that here and why that is important to me:

often times, there is this frustrating artificial divide created which works from the assumption that prog is the opposite of punk, and that the two things are entirely incompatible---i see this as very false, and the whole 'rock in opposition' subgenre of prog is a big part of why.

rio largely started when a bunch of people got rejected by record labels because their music was too weird and so they all banded together to say "fuck you; we do what we want aint no one gona tell us what 2 do" and they made music that just kept getting weirder and weirder on purpose (and very coupled with punk-like messages, and a more grotty raw diy energy than typical prog). and no one could tell them no because they all had each other and they beat up everyone who said that they should be more normal. had crazy concerts and stuff. (this isn't actually what happened but it's largely the basis of the movement...and then it turned into like 5 other things depending on who you ask and half the people don't like the name of it and don't want to be associated with it

the POINT is "rio/avant-prog" is when your method of saying "fuck you authority" is done thru furious pissing in the face of musical rules by amplifying your complexity and strangeness to abnormal extremes. it's the opposite approach of getting to the same place that punk sends the same message with (which usually avoids perceived 'complexity' at all costs). but imo they are two sides of the same coin, that treat each other as enemies for no reason. "mainstream" position does not want either of these things, they want something that either conventionally impresses, or exudes a polished aura, or whatever. the extreme diy end and extreme technical end don't have to be enemies, as they both share the same enemy: people who don't want them because they are the embodiment of some form of strange extreme from their vantage point. both can reject mainstream polished conventionally appealing virtuosity together

there is actually a lot of post-punk crossover with rio/avant-prog [great examples are This Heat or Cardiacs]. but to me it makes the entire divide of these two 'opposites' one of the most irritating battles, because imo they're one in the same in this area, and imo they are maybe even /best/ to me when they're working together as partners spitting in the face of everyone in this way)

I'm especially passionate about this topic because it makes me so sad that my favorite category of music (prog) is treated as the enemy to something I identify with so strongly ideologically (punk)---as in. "fuck virtuoisity, i'm going to make pointlessly incomprehensibly complex stuff that impresses no one, on purpose" is about as punk as you can get in many senses. as far as musical representation of opposition, i find it to moreso work for that for me than the more wide-appealing digestibility of normal punk. and that's what RIO is!!! but with the broad strokes people speak in, it winds up instead as "oh, prog. the bad thing for people who think they are too smart. the opposite of rebellion" FUCK off. nothing is more rebellions than rio. PRONK forever (to be clear, i like normal punk rock a lot more than i used to too; which only makes me more passionate about the frustration these two things are made out as in conflict with one another)

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anyway.... this song has barely anything to do with that (tho i will bring this category up again...later so i thought i'd say it on something as direct as this scenario BECAUSE): Patricia Dallio. PATRICIA DALLIO. i literally never thought in my life i would see that name on a "vgm song" (i was VERY shocked when i realized who the composer was here). she's a member of one of the formative bands of the rock in opposition scene (Art Zoyd), which i always felt stood out within RIO because it had a lot of strange electronic effects injected into their stuff. sometimes art zoyd is considered to double as an experimental electronic band, and they just happen to also make weird rock music, or "experimental electronic music" or BOTH at once. one of my favorites by them's this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS7Sn_gycd8

i...could go on about why i like "Sleep no more" so much...i love it so much. but just using it as an example here to explain---THIS is what i associate patricia dallio with.

it's kind of funny with her, she actually got rejected from one group because she was so insistent on wanting to play acoustic piano rather than any electronic keyboard...but the irony is NOW she is MORE THNA ANYTHINg probably known for bringing electronic elements to Art Zoyd and her solo work! well...this NaissancE track is certainly an example of her solo work! as far as i understand it wasn't really even written for this game, but originates from one of her albums, from 2003? it's not a track by her that i was familiar with beforehand (honestly i'm not nearly as familiar with her solo work as i should be)

I definitely very specifically enjoy it, maybe even more than average for her stuff. it's hard to talk about ,because i mean this is the sorta music that's so abstract that there's not even words for it, but one of the big things i like is that it conjures imagery of a cycling machine for me. I see these rotating fans and gears and computer circuit electricity patterns cycling in a loop.. What's AMAZING to me, is i actually looked up footage of this game out of curiosity for the context, and that actually isn't far off? this plays in some area with a bunch of like rotating fans? iirc? wow. well i can see why they chose this track to represent the exact thing in the game they did!

once this amazing rotating groove of that looping sequence and bouncy mechanical click has settled itself; i can focus a bit more on other aspects of the sound design. the vocal manipulation is one of the highlights for sure, i've realized on this current listen that i actually don't pay enough attention to that layer. The really short bits getting cut out and repeated are some of the best, and sharp totally unnatural cuts to the voice are just really great... I guess a lot of why vocal manipulation is powerful is because it's the most often heard "instrument" technically, you hear voices all the time, they're one of the most natural things you can hear, so when it gets manipulated in strange glitchy ways, it's such a contrast of elements that it creates a totally new universe of possibilities

OH MY GOD i love those voice chords at like 3:04, it's where i start to lose ability to tell the difference between the voice manipulation and whether it's potentially some other instrument or not. and then the strings start to come in and it gets a lot of the same emotional power as that "sleep no more" song i linked above. This track could be a totally structureless experimental track and i would still respect and love it just great. but a big strength of this is the structure, exact space and timing of transitions between these sections, being so repetitive makes new ideas powerful. especially when those new ideas are things like "Actually having normal notes in the song sort of", i get chills when actual tonal strings come in at 3:16.

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