Polyrhythms

Avid music bloggers and Strokes fans have been in a tizzy lately trying to figure out how Julian Casablancas actually feels about brunch after crass comments regarding the culture surrounding this union of two meals.He has finally put the controversy at bay, saying that he’s “not against the concept of weekend late breakfast, which people of all freedoms and hues should enjoy." He dodged a bullet with that one.

Okay, now that that’s off my chest, let me tell you what I’m really thinking about…

While social media surfing the other day, I came across a video that a musician friend of mine posted of a recording session in a hotel room in which he is taping himself biting into a purple cabbage to put the sound on a track of his music. I couldn’t quite figure out what time signature it was, but I still enjoyed it.

I started thinking of various sounds that have yet to be recorded and incorporated into music. When The Beatles released “Revolution 9” (1968) it reimagined many sounds that were typically found in popular music. It included talking, the screeching of a car, various loops and sound effects. This created a transfixing cacophony expanding the confines of what was considered "music." Some people thought it was pretty cool and others took a more intense approach, like Charles Manson misconstruing Lennon’s shouting of “right!” as a call to “rise” up in revolt -- yet another cautionary example of the need for careful listening.

Bob Dylan’s use of a police car siren in “Highway 61 Revisited" (1965), the Pixies’ use of synthesizers in “Velouria” (1990) and the instrumentalism of rubber ducks, chains and aerosol cans in Nirvana’s “Drain You” (2011) provide new and challenging experiences for the listener. Or, in the same vein as my cabbage eating friend, Paul McCartney chomps on celery in “Vegetables” (1967) by the Beach Boys and Scott Walker plays a slab of pork like a conga drum in “Clara” (2006).

A slightly more polished and cliché spinoff of the understated and profound “Once” (2006), the film “Begin Again”(2013) centers around the making of an album in different corners of New York City, with the urban sounds boldly incorporated into each track. Cars honking, people talking, children playing and water running create an interesting background track that adds a lively pulse unlike music recorded in the vacuum of a studio.

It's thought provoking to see how the incorporation of sounds from different cultures has evolved. Starting with artists like Herbie Hancock and Paul Simon, these marriages of sound have found themselves along a spectrum ranging everywhere from groundbreaking creativity to bordering on cultural appropriation. These mergers have greatly changed what we consider to be familiar sounds, scales and tempos.

A cultural collaboration that I found enthralling from a young age was captured thoughtfully in the film “Genghis Blues” (1999), in which Paul Pena, a blind blues musician, travels to the Russian state of Tuva and learns traditional Tuvan throat singing. Simply put, Tuvan throat singing incorporates the singing of two notes at once, creating an interesting and mesmerizing frequency. A more contemporary example is psych-folk singer Joanna Newsom, whose music incorporates the influence of polyrhythms, two or more conflicting rhythms that are simultaneously used in a composition. This, incorporated with her untrained and child-like voice, creates a soulful and oftentimes eerie combination.

All this points to the diverse sounds that can be created by the human voice. Whether Tuvan throat singing, Yoko Ono’s wailing or the languid and surprisingly operatic riff at the end of “Fantasy” (1977) by Earth, Wind & Fire, the possibilities within our very vocal chords are endless.

Sometimes we don’t dare disturb the limits of what we conventionally consider musical. But in the words of Oscar Hammerstein, “all sounds of the earth are like music."