Spoon and The Gladiator

Today I have music for you by a small scale band performing at ACL called Spoon. This band actually formed and started up in Austin (holla!) and I have to say that it is very different compared to a lot of the other live music groups we hear in Austin. This is their newest single after being together since 1993. Spoon has definitely experienced an evolution in their music and I really like where that evolution has them at today. Spoon has this ambient sound and synth oriented feel to it. This song in particular is definitely relying on the synth and keyboards to make the beats you hear. There is a kick drum involved for sure, but, there is also this really cool aspect of having a synth style beat as well. One of the things that makes this song so cool is the use of the harp in the music. It is not very often that we hear harps in music at all, but this song has a really beautiful harp solo and the harp serves almost as a harmonizing melody for the song. It is kind of weird because this song has the guitar take a huge step backwards and sit in the back seat. For a lot of bands, the guitar has such a huge impact and importance to the song. But in this case, the only guitar used is the bass guitar which serves almost as filler music. While it serves its purpose really well, I am not quite sure how much we would actually miss the guitar work. What is cool about this song is that everything seems to have a shimmery feel to it. There isn't a distinct set of notes being played out but rather all the notes shimmer together and run into one blend. This is a really dreamy song and the music conveys that psychedelic feel that comes with dreaming. It brings us that idea of being lost in imagination and floating on cloud 9 at the same time. But the cool thing is that this song still has a sort of electronic groove or deep rooted groove that provides somewhat of a boundary for the song. It is kind of like a coloring book. There are lines that provide a shape, but you sometimes weave a little in and out of the lines. The picture is never perfectly colored strictly inside the lines. Spoon is a band that never really disappoints and I really like the fact that despite some changes in musical style, this band still impresses. Spoon's new album is out so go check it out! Today's instrumental song is from the movie The Gladiator. This is actually one of my favorite movies of all time for reasons known to all those who have seen the movie. Hans Zimmer did an absolutely incredible job with this score. I would een go as far as to say that this is his best movie composition ever. Everything about this score is perfect and subtle when necessary and bombastic elsewhere. This score is one of the best of all time and this movie is unbelievable. I hope you enjoy the music and please feel free to comment!