Owen Pallett - Heartland

"The Great Elsewhere" is the furthest I went with the look-at-me aspect of looping that I'm trying to remove myself from. Glad you like it, I like it too, and I'm determined to write at least one maximalist song a year-- I feel embarrassed by songs like those but I recognize that they're kind of necessary, I guess

The rhythmic pattern was recently discussed on a music podcast out of Spain, and I posted the solution to the rhythm (it's 11/16 + 11/16 + 10/16, which adds up to 32/16 = 2x 4/4).

pic.twitter.com/I5btfAFGdp

— sea turt (@owenpallett) December 10, 2017

There's a new one on Island called "A Bloody Morning" which is kind of the same nautical theme and musical cleverness and wordy lyrics, Greg Fox is drumming on it and just sounding like a genius

I got him to do a bunch of stuff in studio but I only ended up keeping him on one song. I had the idea that I could treat his blast-beat and make it sound like "the weather" but it just sounded like blast-beat and I'm not ready to make that record yet lol

Also, the beach scene in "The Great Elsewhere" is maybe-obviously inspired by Pigafetti's account of Magellan's death on the island of Mactan:

So we continued to retire for more than a good crossbow flight from the shore always fighting up to our knees in the water. The natives continued to pursue us, and picking up the same spear four or six times, hurled it at us again and again. Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice, but he always stood firmly like a good knight, together with some others. Thus did we fight for more than one hour, refusing to retire farther. An Indian hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the Indian's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off."

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/magellan.htm

Oh cool, you restored the Greg Fox track!

Greg Fox! That's awesome.

Yeah, there were three with Greg. I was always gonna keep that one, but I nixed the drums on "Perseverance Of The Saints" and took "Oh Bishop" off the record.

I deleted the entire 3rd side of the original album, three songs got cut. Partially because they weren't fitting the mood of the rest of the record, partially because those three songs were written during a really shitty period of my life that I didn't want to memorialize, partially because the album was working better at 50 minutes instead of 70, and partially to reduce the overall cost of my orchestral session which was already "an insane thing to spend money on in 2017"

All fair! Oh so is Oh Bishop the one you said I'd freak out over? I'll wait for the special edition ;)

lol we had this exact conversation on the In Conflict thread

Ah really? lol. Yeah, "Oh Bishop" was the one. I did track the orchestra on it, rather loosely, but usably, just like "OK we'll run it a couple times before the time's up", but it's just not fitting the rest of the record. I might finish it, I probably should

Could always submit it to the next ILX comp haha

Would like to make abundantly clear that I am also stoked for the tracks that don't have Greg Fox on them

And a shout-out for the arrangement on that Kiran Callinan song, not least as it brought you together with Weyes Blood who is just the best. Can't wait for any future mingling of ways there...

I admire Fox for branching out, he seems adventurous. Which is also why it sounds cool that he's on your record obv, but it doesn't give away - for me - what his drumming sounds like :) His solo record from this year was pretty good (even though I admit to not having given it enough time).

LJ otm about the Callinan song. Also, the Sarahbeth Tomberlin EP fucking rocks. She's great. I don't mean to pry, but did she just out of the blue ask you: could you produce this? As it seems a really good match, but I don't know how these things come about.

Sarahbeth came to my shows, we became Facebook friends, and then one day she sent me an iPhone demo of "Tornado" and I was blown away. She kept sending more songs and they were awesome. I spoke to somebody else about recording her, but that person fell through, so I offered to do it myself. She came down and we recorded it in two-and-a-half days. She's amazing and she just signed a contract with a larger indie for three more records, and she wants me to keep working with her, which rules.

Awesome hearing about the making of Island, can't wait to hear tracks with or without crazy time-signature drumming

re "The Great Elsewhere": thanks for the explainer, Owen! It's still crazy to me that the whole thing works.

need to listen to the Sarah-Beth Tomberlin record - I keep forgetting to check it out.

fascinating to hear about how The Great Elsewhere works, it's my absolute favourite. still very excited for Island

I don't know a lot about time signatures, but is "The Riverbed" doing the same thing rhythmically? I once tried to cut off the start and end of that song so that it would loop (it is so awesome that I could listen to it all day - and I have), but I could never get the edit points right.

Threw on the A Swedish Love Story EP (which I'd forgotten I'd purchased on vinyl until I spotted it among my records earlier today) while doing some writing this afternoon and was reminded what a lovely little collection of songs it is. Understandably overshadowed by his other 2010 release, I still think that "A Man With No Ankles" might be my favourite OP song of this era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUeynkQPg8s

Just want to chime in to say ‘me too!’ - I recently rediscovered this EP and have been enjoying it very much. Played that exact song on the radio a couple weeks ago!

<3

New album will be out this year, and I’m going in to get the Final Fantasy albums remastered and repackaged with bonus stuff, the Totally Legal edition

yayyyyyyyyy

Huzzah! <3

a welcome recess from hyperreality <3

listened to in conflict this morning, one of my favorite parts of the album is the piano break between the verses of “i’m not afraid” that sounds like an rpg save point

also realizing how grateful i am that this album exists

that sounds like an rpg save point

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jEYv97CMwc4/UjC2_hJSBBI/AAAAAAAAADk/dh2bvdLLWUY/s1600/save+point.png

Probably not unrelated to the fact that that moment is taken from the Ryuchi Sakamoto cookbook, as is lots of JRPG music

this is wonderful news, owen.

cool, looking forward to new stuff

this is good news.

Very glad to hear this!!!

same :)

Happy belated birthday to this achievement of a record--and to ten more years of being in my music rotation.

New live versions of some Heartland tracks have been periodically finding their way onto YouTube, and they're wonderful to listen to.

Cheers!

How in hell is this a decade old.

It came out 10 years ago

proof?

It's a decade old

owen-pallett-cooleth-story-brethren.jpg

"And from my ginger chest, there
came the sound of thunder"

Blasting this tonight in honor of its anniversary. An album so unique and with a truly transformative power I did not think I'd come across after my 30s any more. Shame the "life altering" cliche, but alter my life, it did. Up yours.

<3 :) thank you guys

starting this thread prob in my top 5 moments on ilx.

My album of the decade no contest (and maybe song of the decade too for "The Great Elsewhere").

i remember this being the first record i bought after deciding i'd never buy a CD again!

the synth of lewis takes off his shirt is still one of my favourite musical things ever

new OP album announced soon surely?

It’s a wonderful record, Owen.

I need to listen to this record again asap. The problem with having a mental list of albums you love is that the list keeps getting longer and longer, so it's nice to be reminded of a record you love that you haven't listened to lately, for no particularly good reason!

idk if this was really "public knowledge", but there was a re-issue of this album back in 2014 or so that included a number of bonus tracks. I know the "Deluxe Edition" is available on the iTunes store (and on CD format); I don't know about streaming services, because I don't use them. (I do use Tidal but I think it's bad luck to search for your own music on streaming services for some reason.)

The "Deluxe Edition" includes an instrumental b-side from the "Lewis Takes Action" single ("A Watery Day"), and then the entirety of the "Export EP". "Export" was a bit of a weird thing. I originally had this idea that I might record re-imagined versions of Heartland's songs that were stripped down and sung by other singers. I recorded beds for them, and started soliciting certain friends of mine to sing them. The wrangling process was more than I'd bargained for, and I got impatient. Fall 2010 was a frustrating bit of time for me. My guitarist (the brilliant Thom Gill) abruptly left, which was for the best (on a global level, he's a genius and should be doing his own thing). I had been in talks with new management, which made me optimistic for 'what would happen in the 2010s', and those talks abruptly fell through. There was some other stuff going on at the time, I can't remember what.

At the time, I'd only experienced one episode of adult depression (Spring 2007)-- funny to think about it now that depression/anxiety have become such a defining feature of my personality/existence. But in December 2010 I fell into a depression. I began cobbling together some unreleased stuff, including the instrumentals to this "Heartland reimagined" EP, and other fragments of things, to put together what would become the "Export EP". Prior to a set I played in Osaka, my last set of the year, I started sobbing desperately in front of my friend who worked at P-Vine. The year had been overwhelming and I was just exhausted. That night, in a daze, I uploaded "Export EP" to Soundcloud instead of bothering to consult anybody about a proper release for it. It was ignored. (The depression lifted a few days later and I had a really happy and healthy few years; 2011 especially was a really great one.)

Anyway you might be interested to try and track down the deluxe edition of Heartland for that EP. The best track on it is a really fucking good version of "The Great Elsewhere" from that Heartland Reimagined thing. Shara Nova (fka Shara Worden aka My Brightest Diamond) was the first and only person I solicited to record their vocals, and she... absolutely slayed it. The version has Shahzad Ismaily on drums and Thom Gill on guitar, I'm playing Rhodes, and three NYC string player luminaries (Rob Moose violin, Nadia Sirota viola, Clarice Jensen cello). Here it is if you're interested. The version began as a joke that Thom and I used to play at sound check but we decided it was actually amazing and recorded it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuQKPjaP08

I saw the songs from this album live every night for the better part of a month and "lewis takes off his shirt" just fuckin killed me every time

Holy shit, she did slay it. That was awesome.

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

i have always loved loved loved that Export Elsewhere

<3 that version of TGE (which I think I first heard on saidthegramophone!).

Yeah it's superb.

Love Shara's cover sooooo much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7WxTP3ger8

this performance <3 <3 <3 <3 <3