Daft Punk Think Auto-Tune Ruins Music
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Collaborations, Gossip, Electronic, Pop, New Releases,
Daft Punk thinks Auto-Tune is ruining pop music. Though the duo - Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter - like experimenting with the vocal-tweaking software in a "fun" way, they think it is over-relied on to make a singer's voice sound perfect.
"Pop music is into the uncanny valley. For example, take Auto-Tune. Auto-Tune as an effect is very fun. We put it in the same category as the wah-wah pedal. It's pleasing to the ear and creates those funky artefacts, a bit like the clavinet in Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition.' The other use of Auto-Tune is the invisible one, where you put the voices of the performers in and you set the thresholds so you can't hear the Auto-Tune is there. It makes the voice 'perfect.' If you're using it to solve small imperfections, you're creating something that isn't human. Would you Auto-Tune Roger Daltrey on 'Tommy'? Or Simon & Garfunkel? It stops being a fun effect and becomes like a clone from a terrifying sci-fi movie," Thomas said.
Despite their success as dance music pioneers, the "Get Lucky" duo admit they have always secretly wanted to be like The Strokes, whose frontman Julian Casablancas is one of their collaborators on new album Random Access Memories.
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The Strokes Clean Up For Their New Album
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gossip, Upcoming Releases, Rock,
The "Last Night" band are recording their fifth album in New York, and have cleaned up their act so they can concentrate on the new material, according to guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.'s father.
"They're back, strong and mature, a lot of them have quit smoking and drinking and all the good things that come with rock 'n' roll, or whatever people think comes with rock 'n' roll," Albert senior said.
Albert also acknowledged the band almost split when they were recording last album Angles - with singer Julian Casablancas taking himself out of sessions at one point - but relations between the group are now better than ever: "Fortunately they do love each other, and they have people around them who love them. Obviously we all take the wrong roads at times, especially when you're young. And some of us never come out of that road and end up in another world. The good thing about them is that, as I said, all these people that loved them and they loved each other and they finally realized that they had something going that was good."
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The Strokes Start a New Album
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Upcoming Releases, Rock,
The Strokes have started work on their next album.
The New York band are in the studio in New York working on the follow up to last years Angles, with producer Gus Oberg. Gus worked on some of the tracks on Angles - which was largely self produced - and has previously worked with guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. on his solo material.
The "Hard to Explain" band - which also includes Nick Valensi, Fabrizio Moretti, Julian Casablancas and Nikolai Fraiture - have previously said they wanted to record a quick follow up to their fourth album. "We have songs that you can tell are gonna be good ones that we're all excited to play," Albert said.
The group took a long break between third album First Impressions of Earth in 2006 and Angles and Nikolai admitted there was a strange feeling when they first met up to record . "When you get back together there was a lot of weird energy flowing around. There are different dynamics in the group in different ways," he said.
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The Strokes’ Future in Doubt
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Gossip, Rock,
Julian Casablancas has hinted The Strokes won’t work together again.
The singer - who recently released critically-acclaimed solo album Phrazes for the Yong during the band’s hiatus - is delighted that his group’s debut LP Is This It? has been featured heavily in album of the decade polls. Unfortunately, he doesn’t believe it will be enough to get the “Last Nite” hitmakers to make another record.
“I really dig people are remembering our first album and it’s figuring in these best-of-decade polls, but sadly that’s not going to get us back into the studio,” Casablancas said.
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| Scotsman
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The Strokes’ Album of the Decade
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Awards, Rock,
The Strokes’ Is This It has been named album of the decade.
The American rockers’ 2001 debut LP topped a list compiled by British music magazine NME made up of votes from record producers, label bosses and musicians, including members of Radiohead and Arctic Monkeys who both rank highly.
NME Editor Krissi Murison said: “This is the definitive word on the greatest albums of the ‘00s - as voted for by everyone who helped make music brilliant this decade.”
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