In this blog I will be analysing a song “Themes V” by Rashad Becker. It is the first track on his 2016 album called “Traditional Music of Notion Species Vol. II”. In my opinion the whole album and mostly all of the music that Rashad Becker produces has a very unique sound and approach to electronic music, and this specific song is a great example of that. When listening to this song the first thing that comes to my mind is the question of what inspired him to create it. There is not much information about this online, so I could onlym attempt to answer this question for myself.
I feel that the unusual use of synthesis on this track that has an output of sounds very unlike to classical instruments, both acoustic and electronic, is an imitation of the sounds of nature and creativity inside one’s mind. The performance on “Themes V” brings me to a cave like space, makes me think of nature’s different parts communicating with each other. It almost sounds like a Glass Armonica or a Hang, which are instruments that are rarely played on production of popular music, and are also sources of sounds associated with aliens in my mind.
The overall sound is quite chaotic which creates a feeling of lack of exploration combined with something very familiar to a human mind, bringing the listeners to thoughts about the world around us. By abandoning traditional norms of sound the track shifts the focus to the listening experience itself, inviting for exploration that is lacked. The artwork touches several aspects of human imagination and evokes the need of the viewer to feed them with interpretation.
My imagination interpretates this piece as a dialogue between elements of nature during a natural disaster, such as a storm or a hurricane. The track develops its speed and layers towards the end, with a very quick and sharp outro, where the sounds just “wrap up” unexpectedly, just like it would happen during abnormal weather. The wind in the shape of the lead synth that we hear from the very beginning that is talking to the carcasses of strong tress that become unsteady, as the wind builds up its power and intensity. The engagement between the layers of the song is very random and does not have a steady rhythm or pattern, which reminds of the lack of control that a human has over nature and the world around them in general, whether it is other living organisms around them or world-wide issues and patterns of life, economic, political, or phycological.
Becker’s approach in “Themes V” can be thought of as creating a new kind of language. Instead of relying on words or conventional musical structures, he communicates through texture, spatial placement, and pitch. The sounds interact with one another like elements in a conversation or a narrative, suggesting a form of communication without following familiar patterns.
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