Music Analysis and Decomposition - 1
Simplicity Breeds Filth
This is part 1 of a 7 part series in which I’ll be introducing one of my favorite things to do: musical analysis.
For those of you who don’t know me well, you may think that this seems a bit out of nowhere. Music has always been one of my first interests (I started playing piano at the age of 3) and for a (very, very brief) while was a thing I was considering pursuing professionally. It’s a hobby for me now, but one that I still enjoy quite a bit. Throughout this series, I’m gonna try to shed some light as to what I hear when I listen to music, as well as how I go about breaking it down to appreciate it even more. These posts will be fairly dense music theory wise, so if you’re unfamiliar with music theory these may be difficult to read. That said, I hope you stick with me through them cause there’s a lot of great music to unpack :)
Now, you’re probably looking at the subtitle and thinking something along the lines of hold on a sec, what exactly does “simplicity breeds filth” mean? Well, here’s the main point:
Sometimes, the simple things are what have the largest, funkiest effects
Let’s first start with an example of what I don’t mean. As a disclaimer, I do actually enjoy this band’s music, but I’m using them to illustrate a point. AJR, a NYC based modern alternative/indie band, is pretty renown for their large-scale, highly produced, self-described “wall of sound” style. But, catchy as songs like Karma or Three-Thirty are, one thing that many a old head musician will point out is that “it’s too processed”.
Now, don’t get me wrong: there’s nothing wrong with putting effects on your instruments/voice/whatever to aid in expressing yourself musically. That said, seeing drum kits like the one below does stop and make one think about just how complicated making music has become nowadays.
An over the top example of a modern drum set
As I’m sure you all know, there are various genres and subgenres of music that is made and consumed daily, from avant-garde rap and four minutes and 33 seconds of literal silence to Justin Timberlake’s soulful falsetto. But what happens when you try to strip it down? What can you end up with when you simplify your music?
Enter, Vulfpeck. They’re a modern “low volume” funk band who has mastered the art of simplicity, and they (along with their offshoot band The Fearless Flyers) are the topic of today’s decomposition. I’ll break down one song from The Fearless Flyers and one from Vulfpeck proper, then I’ll leave a few extras for your own enjoyment and analysis. With that said, let’s get right into it, shall we?
Song 1: Barbara - The Fearless Flyers
Barbara is a record from The Fearless Flyer’s second EP titled The Fearless Flyers II. It features Sandra Crouch on tambourine, but otherwise is the normal suspects for this group. It’s a fully instrumental track, and relatively short at 2 minutes, 49 seconds.
Before getting to the song, let’s first break down the band. The Fearless Flyers is a group composed of four members (with special guests making appearances in songs as well). Cory Wong is on guitar, Mark Letierri on baritone guitar (yes it’s a real instrument), Joe Dart on bass, and Nate Smith on drums. Their music generally has a “jam session” feel, where there tends not to be a super defined “soloist” with each member contributing more or less equally to the melody production.
One of the most impressive things about the group involves Nate Smith’s instrument of choice: the drums. If you watch any of their videos, you’ll see that their drum kit is easily the most stripped down it could possibly be. No ride symbals, crash symbals, splash symbals, floor toms, or mounted toms. The entire kit consists of a bass drum, a snare, and a high-hat, yet Nate Smith manages to pull of drumming feats that many others dream of with a full kit. But one stripped down instrument does not a stripped down song make.
Back to the song now. It is in the key of Eb minor, following mostly a blues scale (see above), with a time signature of 4/4. It begins with a percussion instrument introduction for the first 22 seconds of the song, before the two guitars come in with their parts.
Let’s first break down the beat: the high-hats mostly play closed 16th notes with occasional openings to add in a bit of flair and emphasis on off beats. The kick drum (mostly) follows a pattern where it plays on the last 16th note of the previous measure (the a of the pattern 1 e and a), the a of the first beat of the next measure, and three quick 16th notes starting from beat 3. It deviates slightly to add to some of the head-bobbing pulse, but mostly sticks to that. The snare drum hits the e of 1, two 8th notes from beat 2, then 3 e before repeating back, with ghost notes thrown in for flavor.
For my non-musician readers, that previous paragraph probably read like a load of gibberish. The less techincal explanation is that the drum beat is extremely syncopated; that is, a “shift of accent in a passage or composition that occurs when a normally weak beat is stressed”. Okay, but what does that mean? If we take the drum beat of a song like Billy Jean, we get a very familiar, unsyncopated drum beat. The kick drum plays on the strong beats (beats 1 and 3, the ones you’re probably bobbing your head to), while the snare fills in the gaps on the weak beats (beats 2 and 4). The Nate Smith drum beat switches this up; preferring to play off beat and off kilter to both keep the listener more engaged as well as provide a more loose, funky feel.
Back to the guitars. Cory plays a more rhythmic, backup groove which syncs up nicely with the drum beats (pay attention to how smoothly Cory’s strumming syncs up with Nate’s snare drum) while Mark plays a melody line/backup line that lays down a bit of a foundation for the song. Both aren’t shredding like they’re playing this Guitar Hero monstrosity, but their parts still are extremely important nonetheless.
Now, the melody. Joe and Mark play in unison, one octave apart, playing a riff which completely centers on the Eb blues scale and gives them both a bit of room on each end to noodle a little.
At the 1:25 mark, we reach a “bridge” of sorts. Nate plays the same beat, Joe’s part simplifies to octave Ebs, and both Cory and Mark jump up the necks of their guitars to play parts that, while not unison, move in stepwise motion. This provides a bit of relief from the driving melody of before, while still maintaining the funky feel due to the harmonies between the guitars. Plus, Joe’s head bobbing gets turned all the way to 11 here. Interestingly, we also can see that to build intensity, Nate starts opening the high hat more often to let it ring more, giving a slightly muddier sound than the crispness we head during the main hook and signifying to us that the crescendo we’ve been hearing is getting closer to a climax (though in this style, it tends to be anti-climax).
We get a brief release from the song’s driving beat with a short Cory Wong interlude, then it’s right back into the main riff full speed ahead. This time though, there’s even more improvisation from Mark and Joe, leading to the the song coming full circle at around the 2:29 mark where it ends the way it started: a percussion section solo. I’d be remiss though if I didn’t mention the subtle brilliance and mastery of drums exhibited by Nate Smith at around the end of the phrase that we hear at the 2:15 mark. The control he shows over his drumsticks to precisely hit the high hat in those sextuplets is, frankly, insane. Just replay that part over and over and over and over and…
Song 2: The Cup Stacker - Vulfpeck
The Cup Stacker is a track from the Vulfpeck album “Hill Climber”. It features drums (same setup of kick, snare, high hat), masking tape piano (a piano with some masking tape put on parts to change the sound), a wurtlizer (a type of synthesizer), guitar, and bass being played by Jack Stratton/Theo Katzman, Joey Dosik, Woody Goss, Cory Wong, and Joe Dart, respectively. The song is in 4/4, in the key of F major.
Like the previous song, this one also starts with a solo (this time a bass solo). This groove played by Joe quite literally does not change for the entire piece, and is extremely basic. However, the point isn’t to wow us with crazy slapping or funk techniques like this song does, but rather to lay down a laid back feel that continues through the rest of the song.
Next up, the drums. Ignoring the fact that they’re being played by two people, the drums have a simple beat here. Starting with high hat, we have the pattern “1 and 2 and a 3 and 4 and a” repeating consistently (think “tap tap ta ta tap”) with a snare drum hit on beats 2, the and of 3, and 4 (with ghost notes mixed in for flavor). The bass drum hits mostly beats 1 and 3 with smaller “flavor beats” thrown in to add a bit more groove, and that’s really it.
Next, Cory. He plays a very syncopated guitar groove that is reminiscent of stuff played by Jeff Porcaro (the drummer for the rock band Toto). Like the rest of the band, his part is very set in stone and not flashy, but it adds another layer of sound and rhythm to an already funky base layer which helps to grow the head bobbing you’re inevitably doing.
Vulfpeck’s music tends to have this effect on people
Lastly, the pianos. They are the focus of this piece; playing parts that have the most movement. That said though, both parts are quite simple; the wurlitzer part stays in the background compared to the piano and mostly adds emphasis to the piano’s lines, while the piano plays a sequence of F blues scale style descending runs. They play off of each other in a sort of conversation that lasts the entire tune, save for the clap breakdown that happens around the 1:10 mark and for the guitar breakdown at around 1:59.
The last thing of note in this piece is the piano breakdown (you may have noticed a theme here). Occurring at the 2:41 mark, we get both keyboards playing their parts in isolation, which really accentuates the interplay between the two and how deceptively intricate the parts are while still being lowkey enough to mesh with the rest of the low volume, high head bobbing funk. On their own, these parts are pretty insignificant (though they still sound cool), but combined, they create a truly blissful listening experience worth replaying.
Does this mean that all music should be like this? Of course not! Rather, this just shows that it is indeed possible to create music that isn’t hyperactive and yet still showcases your creativity. Hopefully, this post serves as an introduction to the world of simple, low-volume funk, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it.
Additional songs
If you liked the songs you heard, here are some more in this same genre that you may enjoy:
- Watermelon Man, by Herbie Hancock. Specifically, there’s a SUPER sick drum fill at around the 3:07 mark or so.
- Simon F15, by The Fearless Flyers
- Half of the Way, by Vulfpeck
- Disco Ulysses, by Vulfpeck
- Really, every Vulfpeck song.
Next time, I’ll be writing about what happens when your music breaks the mould of 4/4 time signatures and ventures into the land of the odd…
tags: music - music-theory - music-analysis - decomposition