Pedal points!

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Length of Love. Length of fucking Love. Guitar on pedal point, motorik Stereolab beat, Duran Duran bassline.

Just take me, I am yours, guitar pedal points.

*flails helplessly*

Bipolar Sumner (Branwell Bell), Saturday, 22 February 2014 18:57 (ten years ago) link

TS: pedal point on the tonic vs. pedal point on the fifth

death and darkness and other night kinda shit (crüt), Saturday, 22 February 2014 19:02 (ten years ago) link

xp I mentioned something I think is similar what's going on in that Interpol song upthread and learned that in jazz circles it has the wonderfully scientific name of 'Contrapuntal Elaboration of Static Harmony', or, if you're a real head, simply CESH.

Merdeyeux, Saturday, 22 February 2014 19:08 (ten years ago) link

Oh god I am such a sucker for this, and I've realised that every single one of the Interpol songs I really love and carolanne on is just a giant gleeful pedal point love-in. Like, I am so predictable in my musical loves, but also slightly relieved that there is a reason that there is a reason for me finding this stuff such musical catnip. Sure, 'Contrapuntal Elaboration of Static Harmony' sounds better than "fingerbanging guitar solo" but that's exactly what it was on The New, just this long, hanging pedal point in the form of this endless one-note guitar riff that the rest of the band kind of revolves around.

Mammoth has one, too. It's so fucking obvious now I'm hearing it for the... 18th time or whatever. The whole song is based around this blang-blang-blang-blang guitar pedal point, and then the bass goes into a glam descend - SORRY! I learned the fancy pants word for "glam descend" it is apparently, an ~"Andalusian cadence"~ - and that is just one of those musical manoeuvres I am completely helpless in the face of. And then for the middle 8, they switch, and the guitar takes the glam descend the bass goes on the pedal point and it's just... oooh magic.

It's really super super obvious stuff, and I kinda hate myself a little for falling for it. But yeah. Kessler seems to be all about pedal points and that's what scratches my musical itch in this otherwise terrible, terrible band. yes.

Bipolar Sumner (Branwell Bell), Saturday, 22 February 2014 19:31 (ten years ago) link

i think 80% of any music i have ever made falls into this category. no shame.

rhyme heals all goons (m bison), Saturday, 22 February 2014 19:49 (ten years ago) link

Oh. I just gave in and watched a live video because I was so curious about that "fingerbanging guitar solo" and oh. Oh oh oh. First, I'm glad that my ears for production are accurate, and the guitar is doubled. But mostly oh. Oh oh oh. The ~secret~ to that sound and it is not a tremolo arm either it is oh it is oh oh oh ooohhh. That is very clever, very very clever, oh.

But really, I cannot wait until this obsession ends because spewing this obsession over every thread is really getting silly now.

But still. Oh.

Bipolar Sumner (Branwell Bell), Sunday, 23 February 2014 01:00 (ten years ago) link

two years pass...

"Surrender"

timellison, Saturday, 9 April 2016 01:47 (eight years ago) link

one month passes...

The Who - "The Real Me"

timellison, Monday, 6 June 2016 17:50 (seven years ago) link

Styx - "Fooling Yourself"

timellison, Friday, 10 June 2016 03:18 (seven years ago) link

every Hüsker Dü song

flappy bird, Friday, 10 June 2016 03:22 (seven years ago) link

three weeks pass...

The "California Girls" one where it goes from a tonic major chord to a minor five chord at the beginning of the verse.

timellison, Monday, 4 July 2016 20:28 (seven years ago) link

That's a good chord change.

socka flocka-jones (man alive), Tuesday, 5 July 2016 00:31 (seven years ago) link

one year passes...

"Darling Be Home Soon"

timellison, Sunday, 23 July 2017 01:56 (six years ago) link

Hm. Will have to listen to again

Under Heaviside Manners (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 23 July 2017 01:57 (six years ago) link

five months pass...

"Detroit Rock City"

timellison, Saturday, 20 January 2018 07:54 (six years ago) link

five months pass...

Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Love or Confusion"

timellison, Wednesday, 27 June 2018 17:34 (five years ago) link

two weeks pass...

"Got to Get You into My Life"

timellison, Thursday, 12 July 2018 19:22 (five years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp1HWhnpfvs

timellison, Monday, 16 July 2018 18:55 (five years ago) link

every Hüsker Dü song

― flappy bird, Thursday, June 9, 2016 11:22 PM (two years ago)

flappy bird, Monday, 16 July 2018 18:56 (five years ago) link

Really?

timellison, Monday, 16 July 2018 20:49 (five years ago) link

somebody pointed it out upthread--joni mitchell is the queen of pedal points

ant banks and wasp (voodoo chili), Monday, 16 July 2018 20:53 (five years ago) link

Pavement - "We Dance" almost qualifies, there's a brief A-major containing a C# but all other chords in the song pedal around the D on the b-string.

Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 16 July 2018 22:27 (five years ago) link

Your Song (the intro)
Maybe I'm Amazed ("maybe i'm a man")

ant banks and wasp (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 18 July 2018 01:30 (five years ago) link

"Xanadu"

timellison, Saturday, 21 July 2018 01:35 (five years ago) link

"Even in the Quietest Moments" by Supertramp wins this - the backdrop of a constant D in the bass throughout the entire song underlies a shifting palette of major, minor, dominant, and diminished chords, often with 7ths atop them. There's at least seven different chords in the verses and chorus, more if inversions are counted separately. très cool

Lee626, Saturday, 21 July 2018 03:39 (five years ago) link

Opening riff and chorus to Cliff Richard, "We Don't Talk Anymore"

timellison, Saturday, 21 July 2018 16:51 (five years ago) link

three months pass...

"Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies"

timellison, Saturday, 3 November 2018 06:22 (five years ago) link

ooh i like that this thing i like has a name. is there a name for its kind of opposite, e.g. when a bassline changes under a repeating melody (if that makes sense)?

My favorite example of this is Peter Gabriel's "It Is Accomplished" (from Passion). The whole song is one four-note sequence (A-G#-F#-E) while the bass creates new chords each measure (A B F#m C#m A B E). The bridge is the same four-note sequence with the bass adding a new chord and sequence (D E, repeated).

SlimAndSlam, Sunday, 4 November 2018 02:27 (five years ago) link

There are so many Genesis and Phil Collins tracks that make use of this.

Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 4 November 2018 19:41 (five years ago) link

Holger Czukay to thread.

Alma Kirby (Tom D.), Sunday, 4 November 2018 19:45 (five years ago) link

four weeks pass...

"If I Needed Someone"

timellison, Monday, 3 December 2018 03:53 (five years ago) link

one month passes...

The Human League - "Mirror Man"

timellison, Monday, 7 January 2019 20:45 (five years ago) link

two months pass...

"Love American Style" (on the "By the dawn's early light, my love" section).

timellison, Sunday, 10 March 2019 20:54 (five years ago) link

ooo nice one

flappy bird, Sunday, 10 March 2019 20:56 (five years ago) link

one year passes...

"A Groovy Kind of Love"

timellison, Sunday, 5 April 2020 23:25 (four years ago) link

A pedal on 5 when it goes to the ii chord!

timellison, Sunday, 5 April 2020 23:30 (four years ago) link


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