The Beatles- When I’m Sixty-Four

Over the course of their musical career, The Beatles have embraced a vast variety of sounds, created many musical projects, and have evolved tremendously. Perhaps one of their most noted albums Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club, is also one which embodies their signature sound. The track When I’m Sixty-Four is featured on this album, and although it sounds very much like something that would be produced by The Beatles, it is very unusual in the world of popular music. Instead of calling upon the instrumentation of your typical pop or rock band—guitars, drums, keyboards, etc.—this song is composed for clarinet trio. It was also included in Yellow Submarine, an animated film starring The Beatles. Below you will find a video segment from the movie highlighting this track.



Sources:

Beatles, The (n.d.). Discogs. Retrieved from http://www.discogs.com/artist/Beatles%2C+The.

Beats Antique- Nesatavo

Fairly new and highly explosive on the electronic music scene is San Francisco based music trio Beats Antique. Their sound offers a very unique blend of electronic and hip-hop beats infused with Middle Eastern ethnic melodies. Similar to Calle 13, the clarinet sound used by Beats Antique is very wild and unrefined, and capitalizes on its ethnic qualities. The group uses clarinet extensively on each of their albums, much to the same effect as in the example featured below. In fact, they have so many tracks prominently featuring the clarinet that it was extremely difficult for me to pick just one!



Sources: About Beats Antique (n.d.). beatsantique.com. Retrieved from http://beatsantique.com/bio/.

Calle 13- Atreve Te, Te

Native to Puerto Rico, Calle 13 uses the clarinet in this composition, hearkening to their Latin roots. Their music is a contemporary blend of mariachi, reggae, Latin, and Caribbean music, commonly labeled as Reggaeton. The featured clarinet has a very peculiar tone color, sounding as if it almost could be a soprano saxophone. As we know, the clarinet has a wide range of possible sounds and colors, and often serves different purposes in multicultural music. In Latin music, clarinetists are much more wild with their sound, and create a very spread tone quality. In typical Western performance, however, we prefer a clarinet sound that is concentrated and highly controlled. This sound is achieved my raising the tongue in the mouth, creating a concentrated pathway for the air to travel from the mouth to the instrument. But the clarinetist performing in this piece sounds as if his tongue and jaw a dropped very low, thus producing a wider sound.

This video contains explicit lyrics and visual content:



Sources:

Calle 13 (n.d.). LastFM. Retrieved from http://www.last.fm/music/Calle+13.

Aesop Rock- Forest Crunk

Producing an artistic form of hip-hop music knows as conscious rap, Aesop Rock takes many liberties in his music. Because he is not weighed down by commercial and popular burdens, Aesop gets to break away from traditional rap beats, sounds, and subject matter. He is known for intense, rapid lyrical rapping, which, unfortunately, we will not hear in this song. Forest Crunk is very different than many of the other tunes by this artist due to the fact that it is purely instrumental. There are only brief uses to the clarinet in this track, and they are very subtle, but as in many of the other songs that have been evaluated here, these subtleties add a lot to the sonic value. Listen for the low tremolos that take place between phrases, almost as bookends between musical ideas.

This track contains explicit content:



Sources:

Aesop Rock (n.d.). Discogs. Retrieved from http://www.discogs.com/artist/Aesop+Rock.

Fantastic Plastic Machine- Black Dada

DJ and Producer Tanaka Tomoyuki, otherwise knows as Fantastic Plastic Machine was a forerunner in the Japanese pop Shibuya-Kei movement of the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Shibuya-Kei is noted for it’s kitschy pop quality, infused with electronic sounds, hip-hop beats, and many lounge and bossa nova samples. If you have never heard Shibuya-Kei before, I can think of no other song that perfectly embodies the genre. Fantastic Plastic Machine uses the Bb clarinet in this recording, to produce a lounge-jazz sound. Throughout this piece, the clarinet plays mostly in the chalumeau and low clarion registers, with a very velvety tone. Interspersed are blips of higher clarinet tones that add a sense of J-pop quirkiness. There are many different sonic layers to this track that build as it progresses. Listen carefully andyou can hear the smooth sound of the clarinet the entire way through.



Sources:

Fantastic Plastic Machine. (n.d.). Discogs. Retrieved from http://www.discogs.com/artist/Fantastic+Plastic+Machine.

Fantastic Plastic Machine. (n.d.). LastFM. Retrieved from http://www.last.fm/music/Fantastic+Plastic+Machine.

P:ano- Foot Hills

Foot Hills by P:ano is another example of bass clarinet in popular music, although it is used much differently that in the previous post. Whereas before, the clarinet sound was smooth and ghastly, here it is very upbeat and bouncy. In this track, the clarinet is the only source of bass, so it is integral to the instrumentation, and offers the tune a very distinct quality. P:ano, a Canadian based pop band, uses both clarinet and bass clarinet in many of their tracks, and it is this diverse use of instruments that gives them their edge.

Follow this link to online streaming audio of Foot Hills by P:ano: http://radio3.cbc.ca/play/band/PAno/Foothills. You will be redirected to CBC Radio.


Sources:

P:ano. (n.d.). Discogs. Retrieved from http://www.last.fm/music/P%3Aano.

Gorillaz- Intro

The Gorillaz used this electronic and bass clarinet infused track as the introduction to their second album Demon Days. The track is very short, and portrays a very eerie quality that sets the listener up for an album full of subdued, dreary, hip hop and electronic beats. There are no other notable uses of clarinet throughout the album, but the ominous loop included in this first track greatly adds to it’s ghastly quality. It gives the song a since of waiting or suspension through frequent repetitions, and a clock-like, ticking quality.



Sources:

Gorillaz, The. (n.d.). Discogs. Retrieved from http://www.discogs.com/artist/Gorillaz?anv=Gorillaz%2C+The.