#killer sax solo

[rafikny]

"I don't separate one era of jazz from another, because I listen to everybody... Everybody takes from everybody else and adds their own thing and goes on from there."

~Sonny Criss

[coolfireguy73]

Saxophone

Like I said, here is the finished version.

And, It does make a pretty good phone wallpaper, trust me, I tasted it X) (And a friend)

Also, why are saxophones so hard to draw ? What is this mess of tubes ?!

[a-bready-music-blog]

I fucking love that Careless Whisper is considered a love song cuz like,, listen to the lyrics

It’s not something I would sing to a romantic partner, but it is 100% something I’d sing to someone I’m boutta friendzone

[enthesea]

the horns in this song are so crazy good if u only ever listen to one song link i post. listen to this one

[happymetalgirl]

Ghost - Impera

I should have done this months ago. I mean this album is over a year old now, but better late than never. I don't really feel a need to get too deep into the details on this album; it's been out for 15 months and has been discussed extensively. It feels weird to be writing about an album this late in the game. This isn't meant to relitigate old discourse about it that's basically finished at this point, I basically just want to add my two cents about why I feel the way I do about it and why I still want to talk about it. But anyway...

It was no accident that Impera, came at the end of the longest gap between full-length releases for the Ghost, specifically well after the COVID-19 pandemic took its stranglehold off live music. The band was on a holistically upward trajectory for the past decade, bigger sales, bigger sound, and, critically, bigger crowds. 2015's grand Meliora was already such a practically unrecognizable size-up from the spooky retro rock of their debut just 5 years earlier, and the band made their aspirations clear with each release LP and EP afterwards. Popestar introduced for the first time in the band's self-aware campy lore a new frontman not tethered to the mic stand by the excessive garments of the satanic pope, but rather youthful, limber, and lively, more mobile and able to herd and rally the band's increasingly larger crowds. And the subsequent full-length, Prequelle, committed to this new turn fully. If you thought Opus Eponymous was too silly and over-the-top, then you weren't prepared for the full-on arena rock parade that was Prequelle. Prequelle was and still is the campiest album Ghost has ever released. The band was fully aware, and it was on purpose. Soaring group choruses, lighter-waving power ballads, swinging dance numbers, sax solos. Ghost were making a B-line for the arenas, with the big songs to handle the crowds of those magnitudes. And it worked; it worked because Ghost's songwriting masterminds put in the work.

Pop songwriting is both easy and hard. The tried and true format is and simpler is usually better. It's not rocket science. The challenge, however, is not just writing a pop song, it's writing a great pop song. And Ghost applied a perfectionist approach to chiseling out killer hooks and sing-along melodies from the brilliantly simple fun arena rock anthems of Prequelle, and the results spoke for themselves. And then 2 years later it all stopped.

It stopped for everyone. And going off their consistent release schedule up to that point, Ghost probably would have had the follow-up to Prequelle out a year earlier, but there was no way they were going to put out an album in the height of the pandemic because Impera was absolutely made for the stadiums. When the touring industry rebooted and Impera dropped a year later though, it was clear that Ghost had made the most of their indoor time.

A natural continuation from and combination of the previous two albums, Impera harnessed the grandeur and bombast of Meliora and the infectious campy fun of Prequelle into the most arena-ready batch of songs the band has ever put forward. I got the sense that this album completely achieved Ghost's artistic goal that they've been building toward for the past 10+ years, and by the end of the year, with my numerous replays of it, I couldn't help but concede that Ghost had outdone themselves. Impera is their best work. Ironic that the band reaching a new summit would be with an album about the precarious rise and fall of empires.

Hard to say now if that theme foreshadows a fall from grace for Ghost, obviously I hope not. For as much as they play into their gimmicky image, Ghost are not in danger of losing their throne due to fans tiring of their goofy novelty. No, the image is the icing on top of the solid compositional foundation and not the other way around. It will take actual creative fatigue, a major misstep, or series of missteps to derail the Ghost train. Not to say a band nosediving from their peak isn't a tale at least as old as Metallica, but maybe that's why Ghost picked the theme for their magnum opus, to remind themselves to not go the way of the Roman empire, or Coldplay. And hey, it's not like anyone would say no to the job security of a career like Metallica's or Coldplay's either, however undeserved it may be. But more likely is that the lyrical content was inspired by the present moment. I don't think anyone would argue against the current times being historic to say the least.

I won't get into it too deeply because it's really not that complicated, but also I could spend a gratuitous amount of time going into every detail of why each song is so great. Impera really is the sum of a great many little details that show how much time and care was put into making every song complete on its own and within the context of the rest of the album. The whole album is a cohesive, fun, glorious exhibition of everything Ghost, and they made that clear from the soaring high note that Tobias Forge opens "Kaisarion" with. And like Prequelle, Impera runs the gamut of chugging metallic heaviness like on "Watcher in the Sky" to the soulful ballads and power ballads of "Darkness at the Heart of My Love" and "Respite on the Spitalfields", following a similar flow to the previous album that works as well here. Also, Prequelle may be the campiest album Ghost has ever released, but "Twenties" is definitely the most over-the-top cheesiest campiest theatrical-ist song the band has ever made, too cheesy for some fans even. Personally, I'm here for it, and I can't imagine being surprised by it either; I mean it's Ghost, a cartoonish horn section over chugging heavy metal grooves and comic book villain vocals isn't that giant of a step up from the corniness of "Kiss the Go-Goat", "Ghuleh / Zombie Queen", "Rats", or "Dance Macabre". The other singles, the marching "Hunter's Moon" and the snare-driven rhythmic "Call Me Little Sunshine", are also textbook arena rockers, and I personally love the throwback to the more retro staccato keyboard motifs of Opus Eponymous on "Griftwood".

I played the shit out of Impera all of last summer and I'll probably play it again this summer, it's that fun. Like I said, Ghost have topped themselves, and every band that reaches what feels like their likely peak has that existential crisis of where to go from there if the only way to go is down. A lot of bands, either due to the pressure of future expectations or not knowing what to do next, make a big leap of faith into the unknown. Or they try in vain to replicate the lightning in the bottle that propelled them to the top over the course of the rest of their comparatively stale career. Ghost may not have anywhere higher to climb on the mountain they've chosen to ascend, but I think they can maintain a longevity at this elite level if they maintain the focus on meticulous song-writing while ensuring not to fall into the trap of formulaicness. Like I said, Ghost is not built on the satanic pope outfits or the Papa Emeritus lore or on the anonymity they started with that the lawsuit from former members eliminated. Ghost is built on the song-craft, and that doesn't wear out. The question now is, will Ghost wear out or get lazy, or do they have the stamina to keep up this level of attention-to-detail and dominate another decade? I certainly hope they can muster the latter. Here's to another decade of Ghost, in the twenties!!!

Also yes, this was my favorite album of the year last year.

-

It kind of sucks to say that another band's bad album is partially what lit the fire under my ass to write this because it kind of implicitly takes away from the excellent work Ghost does, but a big part of why I'm writing this now is indeed because of the band that all the big online magazines that shill for major labels are hailing as the next Ghost this year: Sleep Token.

I already made my gripes with that band's latest album known in detail in a previous post about that album, but in short, I really don't like the push I've been seeing from a lot publications for this groveling adoption of the most fleeting of pop trends into metal in what feels like desperation for broader cultural prominence. There's nothing "innovative" or "forward-thinking" or "more mature" about whoring out to the whim of trends calculated to appeal to the lowest common denominator in a bid for a shortcut to relevance. I don't mind when bands incorporate pop elements into their sound to spice it up or even writing a more straight-up pop song; like I said, pop songwriting is a challenging art, and that's part of what Ghost does so well, and what many bands who metalheads probably don't consider "pop" at all also do. What I do mind is when bands like Bad Omens or Bring Me the Horizon or Wage War try their hand at the kind of mind-numbing, middling bullshit that Maroon 5 and Charlie Puth feed to inattentive half-listeners in grocery stores. It's even more offensive when these bands know they can do better, and Sleep Token is the worst offender as of late in this department. Sleep Token is the lazy, unsustainable shortcut via the hollow gimmick of referential pop trend-hopping within metal presented as "genre-bending" to broader relevance that Ghost, by contrast, have earned through tireless improvement of pop songcraft over the past decade.

I speculated at the end of my post that this fawning over Sleep Token might come from an anxiety over metal as a genre not having anything left to offer broader culture. And I think the short-term focus inherent within capitalism that all these publications (which are basically marketing wings of labels) are beholden to is what makes the possibility of a drought so scary for them. The driving forces behind Loudwire and Metal Injection don't exactly permit the patience for what is likely just a natural lull in creativity, because to them that's a loss in productivity, and that's next to sacrilege. I also speculated on my own anxiety about metal as a genre running out of steam, but taking a step back and looking at the broader history of any genre existing longer than 10 years, there are waves, peaks and valleys, times of plenty and times of want, drop-offs and revivals. It's the circle of life, and we've seen it with metal already, and with subgenres within metal. And also, if the time is near for when metal bottoms out in a way it doesn't come back from and effectively "dies" (as much as any genre in the internet age can die), so what? If metal dies, it will not go into the ground with any unused potential, it will be because the very active and passionate community will have completed music, gotten all the achievements, and exhausted everything possible to with the genre except retread old ground. But I know that it won't be brought back or kept from the brink by bands writing songs for car insurance commercials.

This got a little tangential at the end here, but I think it's worth distinguishing (since so many people draw parallels between them lately) the genuine pop appeal of Ghost that Impera embodies so excellently and the cynical pop appeal of Sleep Token. Leaving aside the riveting discourse about whether Ghost qualify as a "metal band" or not, they unquestionably represent the genre to the unfamiliar, and I don't think metal needs the kind of submissive pop crossover appeal of Sleep Token when it has the emphatic pop crossover appeal of Ghost at their creative peak.

Anyway, Impera is a masterpiece, thank you Ghost!

9/10: AOTY 2022

[beezonia]

Guess who’s slowly getting into genshin again and stuck in idol au brainrot

So you get this

———

Sooo

La Signora, Childe and Scaramouche (now known as Kuni a solo artist) were like triple H and had a good 3 year run before they disbanded because of a very bad scandal between childe/Scaramouche and their company sort of going bust

La signora was the main vocal and centre

Childe was the visual and lead vocal

Scaramouche was main rapper and the leader

—

La Signora is now a popular soloist (think hyo or taeyeon) under the name Rosalyn

Her company is called Harbinger‘co and her manager is Pantalone

Childe is obviously with DCKZ and is hoping to make his first solo album soon working with some other idols (cough Lumine cough)

Now Kuni in my version is a solo artist under a unknown company named Riverbend because he wanted a fresh start

But he obviously got very popular not only because of his past but because of his singing voice because oh boi his voice is just as good as his raps

And yeah his career as a soloist shot up from there and he is also working on a full album

—-

Now Yunjin is another soloist (think kwon eunbi because glitch is definitely one of yunjin’s songs)

She was an opera singer and trained most of her teen years on her voice and dance.

She was in a gg with Barbara and Xinyan for an experiment trying to merge idols from different companies, they were pretty popular but then Xinyan announced she was leaving the group due to personal reasons and the other two got split (Barbara had her growing popularity and yunjin wanted to work on her own projects)

They still keep in touch (they are besties) and rumour has it they may or may not be having a reunion concert soon.

Yunjin likes to mix classical music with her samples and then her manager will bop their head along with the beats.

She really wants to work with Ayaka due to their sounds being so similar but so different at the same time and their concepts are very similar.

They both have a sort of princess vibe and are the pride and joy of their company.

Yunjin is working on a mini album trying to figure out a new but familiar sound for her fans, she’s hoping to collaborate with xinyan for this and also a member of a small trio named Mona who is more of a classic/hyperpop producer.

——-

Mona, Fischl and Kuki are a trio named Amethyst Dreams (probably will change)

They are a mix of hyperpop and rock music with a dash of that girl crush vibe

Mona is their producer she works her ass of for her two friends and their success because they are from a very small company.

She’s also the main vocalist along with the centre/visual she can play the violin

Fischl loves the hyperpop concept the group has along with the little bits of rock they try to add cause of the sort of gothic concept of the group

She’s the lead vocal and the maknae of the group who plays the electric guitar and the sax for some reason (kuki has tried to get her to do a solo for their upcoming album)

Kuki is a punk rock fan, she plays drums and has a killer voice also her raps slap so hard that people have taken to call her the rap goddess (think Youngji)

Like she spits fire and on variety shows she is not afraid to diss the hosts

Main rapper and also centre (her and Mona share the role)

They are coming out with their first full album soon

——

Nilou is still a sort of trainee but is probably gonna debut with a new group with Layla and Candace maybe faruzan idk

They are called Lotus Paradise or Waves of harmony (probably gonna change)

They are a girl crush sort of group but do experiment with the concepts

Nilou is the lead dancer and centre

Layla is lead vocalist and maknae (I think not sure about that yet)

Candace is lead rapper and leader of the group

They have a very large fanbase fro a group who hasn’t debuted yet due to Nilou/Candace and them being popular in past survival show and gaining fans from that

Their first mini album has like an oasis theme and some of the songs are about their struggles trying to debut hence the theme of oasis

Candace is also a producer but not many know about that

—-

That’s pretty much all I have for now! Lmk if you want anymore of my ideas!

[mywifeleftme]

353: Digable Planets // Blowout Comb

Blowout Comb Digable Planet 1994, Capitol

Blowout Comb is the best rap album ever made, and I’ve listened to it hundreds of times, but I’d be lying if I told you I knew the name of every track as it comes on. It’s not that the tracks are same-y, so much as that the record has such an endless, unified groove. No matter how great an individual song is, no matter how much I’d like to hear it again immediately, I never want to disrupt the record’s flow—and besides, there are no skips on Blowout Comb. How do I get at the particular magic at work here? It’s something like this: most everything is so laid back, from the mix tucking the three emcees’ vocals under the frequently analog bass to the way its classic soul and jazz samples are used for texture rather than hooks, that you could loop almost any single track for an hour without it becoming grating. It’s not an album of standout quotables or an iconic persona or killer hooks—it’s one that makes life feel alright, beautiful, and connected to an ancient cool.

Which isn’t to say that it doesn’t knock: the production on “Dog It,” “Jettin’,” “Agent 7,” “Blowing Down” and “9th Wonder” kicks like a rhino’s subwoofer heartbeat, and even the chillest parts feel like floating in a funky aquarium. But the song that has always stood out to me is “Black Ego,” a blissed out seven-minute dream boldly placed at track two. Built on a fluttering sample from jazz guitarist Grant Green’s “Luanna’s Theme” and a Meters’ breakbeat, producers Ish Butler and Dave Darlington layer on live bass, vibraphone, and whispered backing vocals that match the exact hiss of the cymbal hits. The seams between the sampled and live instrumentation disappear, creating a track that feels like it is improvising right alongside the emcees, riding out with a tasty two-minute long jazz guitar solo. Even at seven-minutes, I’d happily play it over—but then the enticing sax loop that opens “Dog It” hits, and Blowout Comb keeps the party rolling on to the next one.

Way back on episode #13 of this series, I covered Black Up, Ish’s 2011 comeback record as Shabazz Palaces. A strange, futuristic album that delves so deeply into glitchy electronic production that it often barely scans as a rap album at all, Black Up is nonetheless a continuation of Blowout Comb’s vision of Black pride and the historical continuum of African American music. If Blowout Comb drew that history into one time-spanning Brooklyn block party, Black Up feels a bit like that party being recalled by a cyborg from an unimaginably advanced Afrofuturist timeline. Between the two, Ish Butler created two of the freshest and most original rap records ever made. He (and his colleagues in both Digable Planets and Shabazz) deserve more mention in any conversation about hip-hop’s all-time greatest visionaries.

353/365

[go-go-devil]

I was tagged by @silenthillmutual to think up 5 songs not from any horror movies that I would include in a horror movie!

1: "Man-Erg" - Van Der Graaf Generator. The 70's (and Mandy) had the right idea to put prog rock into their horror film scores, and this song is about a person struggling with the "killer inside them" so the subject matter itself fits the genre to a T (though "Pioneers Over C" is a close runner up for a sci-fi horror film concept if not only for that really unnerving sax "solo" near the end of the song).

2: "The Hollows" - Laura Spiegel. Always been a fan of her work as a pioneer of electronic music, a genre that has also merged well with various horror soundtracks, and this piece perfectly captures the feeling of slowly building dread. It would be PERFECT as a track to play when a character walks into a dangerous environment, letting the fear of the place sink in before something terrible happens.

3: "Square Hammer" - Ghost. Main reason I put this on here is because I've had several daydreams of fictitious tv shows/movies having scenes with this song playing in the background (and the lyrics subtly matching the meaning and/or plot related point of such scenes). Sure a horror film of any kind can utilize this!

4: "The Width of a Room" - Japan. Another instrumental track that feels like it would fit right into a good classic horror film; most especially one about gothic vampires living in the 20th/21st century.

5: Any song from Ruth White's album Flowers of Evil. I don't need to explain myself. If you've heard any of those song you'd understand what I mean by this.

Hmmmmmmm... I'll tag @pinkiepiebones @cloudyishdays @illusionaryneil and @ratmonsterz for this one. I cannot wait to hear your choices >:-)

[huxloween]

We’ve Got Spirit (Bonfire)

Abrams High School’s homecoming kickoff week started with a bonfire, which seemed to fit with the 1950s theme of the whole extravaganza. A lot of alumni were thrilled by it, and showed up in droves to attend the rally and game. This also meant that the school’s football team, cheerleaders, and marching band were going to wear suitable uniforms for the event.

Kylo Ren, the Star quarterback, looked really good in his vintage letterman sweater- meanwhile Armitage Hux, his boyfriend, felt a bit ridiculous wearing the uniform the band director gave him.

“I look like the village idiot,” Hux muttered, clipping his alto sax to the neck strap. Kylo, on the other hand, looked stunning. “White is not my color.”

“Don’t say that, Hux, you look handsome in that hat,” Kylo joked. Hux rolled his eyes and flipped him off- but with a playful smirk. “Besides, it wouldn’t be a pep rally without making out under the bleachers and going to the drive-in,” he added, making Hux laugh. The band director said something indistinct and the drums began to play as Hux stole a quick kiss from Kylo.

“Earth to Hux!” a voice called out, and was then revealed to belong to Charlotte Phasma, the captain of the cheer squad and one of the team’s best stuntwomen. “Kiss later, bonfire now!” She and the other cheerleaders bounded out onto the field, whooping and turning cartwheels. Hux got in line and began to play his saxophone with the rest of the band. Finally, the football team came running out in a blaze of glory, making the stands roar with excitement. The bonfire crackled in the giant fire pit that the school had built specifically for the big event, blazing away with spirit.

The rally was fairly exciting, even if it was a bit long. It started off with Principal Calrissian saying a few words, before Kylo was going to speak about how, win or lose, Abrams High’s team would continue a legacy of football. The cheerleaders did a routine that combined modern cheer with routines from the 50s, and the marching band performed a show called “Fabulous 50s,” and Hux got to play a killer solo in one of the sections! Finally, the evening wound down and the fans left the stadium. Pretty soon, only two people were still in the stadium- the quarterback and the band geek. Kylo and Hux just sat out on the quiet field, looking at the stars and basking in the warmth of the bonfire’s glow.

[eurovision-del]

5. Malta – Dance (Our Own Party)

Man, I love this one! Everything about this works so well for me, from the story told in the lyrics, to the vibe of the music, to the singer’s slightly awkward charisma, to the killer sax solo! It’s an introvert’s anthem – I definitely vibe with the mood of anxiety at big parties but still wanting to party, so let’s take it home and have some fun! This song is packed full of hooks – ‘I feel better in my sweater’ is ridiculously catchy and also called me out personally, the pauses on ‘hey – wait – what ’cha say’ combined with the instantly recognisable hand movement make it really stick out, and then there’s the sax itself – all the little moments it has throughout add so much to the song, and I think the solo is brilliant. Sure, it comes around a fair bit, but I don’t care at all, I love it every time! The music is the perfect blend of laid back chill and funky beat that you could dance too, it encapsulates the tone of the lyrics perfectly! I love what The Busker did with their staging in the MESC final, and even without it on the pre-party tour they’ve been so fun to watch. This song is so easy to enjoy and I can’t help but love it!

[smorzinc]

theres like 10 unlistened songs in my ask box at the moment but im in the mood for a killer sax solo send me sax solos

[caffeinatedrat]

Matty Healy in interviews abt his music: yeah you know, I was really dissecting sexuality in our culture and how the internet has skewed our idea of love and intimacy

his music: *10 minute slow build guitar part* "everyone thinks I'm gay but I have seeeex with womennnnn boob boob I am fundamentally unlovable" *KILLER sax solo*

[thenewlimits]

Gearing up for more recording and spring gigs! While you wait for new music, revisit our 2017 self-titled album that’s loaded with killer sax solos by @baze.blackwood! 🎷 (at The Record Co.) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYHdEDODMJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[weekend-whip]

Angel Eyes by Matt Dennis for Olivia. Killer sax solo and slight ominous vibe, though I might try to find something more high energy for her too.

Nono, I actually like this fit quite a bit :o

[xcziel]

you know he put that sax solo in there just for me, right?

he read my manifesto about the saxophone being the the defining marker of a killer 80s song and my plea for modern musicians to bring the live horns back on pop music tracks

i just know it ok

[daggerzine]

REZN- Burden (Sargent House)

Chicago’s REZN’s fifth release was recorded during the same session as their previous album, Solace, back in 2021. Burden has seven songs of heavy psych filled with darker themes that take the listener around the world. Solid production of doom and gloom metal from Matt Russell (of Mortal Void) at Matt Talbot’s (of Hum) Earth Analog Studios in Tolono, IL. The band features Rob McWilliams on guitar and vocals; Phil Cangelosi playing bass and rainstick; Patrick Dunn on drums and percussion; and Spencer Ouellette adds synths, sax, lap steel, flute, and piano. The album kicks off with “Indigo.” It’s an explosive wall of sound capturing many metal genres in one song, which actually sets the tone for the rest of the album. “Instinct” has a creepy, eerie intro with a wobbling bass line that builds up to a sonic sludgefest with swirling guitars and throbbing bass. “Descent of Sinuous Corridors” is a short, a little over a minute, siren-like echoing keyboard-y instrumental piece that transitions well into the next song. “Bleak Patterns” comes in with a bang as a Spanish (or Egyptian?) sounding melody that eventually resorts back to the sludge of REZN. Egyptian guitar with power chord bass makes this a unique escape to another world. With “Collapse,” trickling echoing guitar work begins this one. Another jam that builds and builds to sonic distortion bliss. Here’s the video:   

 “Soft Prey” has a slower, softer, James Bond theme (or spaghetti western?) sound to it. It eventually turns into a mass of swirling guitars and an amazing saxophone solo that creates a beautiful escape. Saving the best for last, the album ends with “Chasm,” possibly my favorite. Mike Sullivan (of Russian Circles) adds a killer guitar solo as well. It’s another massive sludgefest pushing my woofers to the limit from start to finish. (And the finish made me wonder if I actually blew my speakers!) Check out the video here:

Not usually my cup of tea, but now I’m going to have to check out Solace to compare the two albums. Looks like they tour extensively, so maybe I’ll catch them soon. ERIC EGGLESON

(Photo: Alexa Viscius)

https://www.rezn.band/

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/rezn/1441800527