Random HTDA thoughts

[BenAkenobi]

Where is everyone downloading it for free? I see the option to download it from their site for $5.00 but nothing for free.

streaming on soundcloud

[sheepdean]

No one said you can download it for free - but streaming it at WAV quality really should be enough

[M1ke]

I just listened to Ice Age for the first time, and I liked it, which surprised me, since the first bit of HTDA that I head (I can't remember what it was called, but it was from quite a while ago) didn't do anything for me.

This was good.

[botley]

So... just a couple of hours left for that "full-length LP in 2012" to not happen.

[sheepdean]

Pretty sure they said Spring 2013 last time we checked :P

[botley]

I'm referring to the sub-title of this forum...

[butter_hole]

No one said you can download it for free - but streaming it at WAV quality really should be enough

p sure soundcloud streams at 128k bro

[butter_hole]

just realized i think the drum machine in on the wing is the same preset/machine/whatever as the "hip hop" drums at the start of All the Love in the World?

[eversonpoe]

just realized i think the drum machine in on the wing is the same preset/machine/whatever as the "hip hop" drums at the start of All the Love in the World?

it does have an extremely similar timbre. you might be right.

[sheepdean]

Q posted on instagram a photo with the caption "the loop is closing". New video?
http://instagram.com/p/UEz3qAhuxU/

[gorast]

Not the song I would've pegged to be the next one to get a video. Hopefully it'll be an interesting one.

[sheepdean]

Nor I - would make an awesome beginning to a live set though

[my voice just]

[jessamineny]

Q posted on instagram a photo with the caption "the loop is closing". New video?
http://instagram.com/p/UEz3qAhuxU/

Or maybe each song on the album is getting its own image, a la The Slip?

[jmtd]

Despite EP1 having artist "How To Destroy Angels" and EP2 having "How to destroy angels_", Amazon cloud player correctly groups them together in the artist view. How about that.

[sheepdean]

Amazon knows better than to listen hipster bands and their avant-garde name changes.

[my voice just]

Or maybe each song on the album is getting its own image, a la The Slip?

no

[Eddie Diaz]

Is there a particular reason that Ice Age is their only video NOT available to download on Vimeo?

[butter_hole]

wonder what ever happened to The Bug's contribution

[sheepdean]

I guess that's on the LP?

[jessamineny]

Is there a particular reason that Ice Age is their only video NOT available to download on Vimeo?

Perhaps because "Keep it Together" and "The Loop Closes" were created by the band, while "Ice Age" was directed/produced/filmed/edited/etc. by an outside crew. I know "The Space in Between" was as well, but that video might be available for download because it was filmed before the band was on a label, or because they had a different contract with the director/crew.

[gorast]

A remix EP for Ice age in the same vein as the KIT one (featuring Soft Moon and Deadmau5) would be a glorious thing to have.

[my voice just]

correct me if i`m wrong, but the concept behind the loop closes is that if you play this song on repeat - you`ll get perfect, endless, seamless loop, wich this track is not, because the beginning isn`t the same as the end

[imail724]

I see the vimeo pages for The Loop Closes and Keep It Together both have links to download the videos, but Ice Age and How Long? do not. Does anyone know if there is anywhere to download these two without losing quality?

[jessamineny]

You could try this

[jessamineny]

The virus, apparently, is spreading

[kenthebear]

The virus, apparently, is spreading

i was going to make a comment about the guy responding being a massive wanker saying 'hipster bs' when he claims to listen to old jewish jazz (??). i had a big post typed up and all.

anyway, looks like he's on a sex offender list, which explains the fact that he's a brony.

e: Looks like he's a nin fan, which means he might be reading this: you're a massive prick, mate

[wizfan]

So, here's a part-personal, part-HDTA random thought:

I've been working on this weird little instrumental track lately. It's a mix of hip hop and some brass jazzy synths. I let my dad listen to a demo of the song, and he seemed to be uninterested to it. The reason, he said, was that he kept waiting for an "explosion" to happen, something like a crescendo, that my track felt like it was a bunch of intros. Now, here's the thing: I never intended for the song to have any crescendos, I just wanted it to be this smooth, background music, so while I appreciate his feedback, I felt he was criticizing me for not doing what I never wanted to do in the first place.

His response slightly reminded me of the criticism HTDA has been getting: I've been reading comments about how certain HTDA songs are all buildup and have no real payoff. I remember listening to Keep it Together along with my brother for the first time and we were both disappointed at how repetitive it felt. Ice Age can be really tiring if you listen to it this way, too; that is, if you keep waiting for that boom or something. I know I was tired the first time I heard it. However, once I realized its composition remains stagnant for all its seven minutes, I found myself enjoying it more and more. I learned not to just skip the first part as "just the intro to the big moment", but to appreciate the song as a whole.

I think that's what HTDA is trying to do. Not make songs based on the same old "loud-quiet-loud" dynamics of rock'n'roll, but lay somewhere in between them, in that "middle sound" that can be aggressive and haunting without being deafening or too discreet.

I've been used to Trent and Atticus's loop-based composition style since their soundtrack work, but it takes a while to get used to it when it is applied in a standard three-to-four minute pop song format. Enable a loop, disable a loop, replace it with another, disable them all and keep the beat, turn on the vocals, enable all loops again. While I'd like them to become a little bit more adventurous with the songwriting (which, in my opinion, is what made The Fragile such a compelling listen), I think this particular style has evolved well after listening to the recent HTDA tracks.

I'm hoping, though, that Welcome oblivion WILL have a big payoff; not in the form of a crescendo, but in terms of pure, avant-garde, totally fucked up songwriting that will break the mold of the loop-based structure that Trent has employed ever since Year Zero and will make our heads spinning.

[Collin]

I was bored so I ranked all the released HTDA's songs so far from best to worst:

1. How Long?
2. A Drowning
3. Ice Age
4. On The Wing
5. The Space In Between
6. Is Your Love Strong Enough?
7. The Loop Closes
8. Keep It Together
9. Parasite
10. Speaking In Tongues
11. BBB
12. Fur-Lined
13. The Believers
14. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

[staleincense]

The virus, apparently, is spreading

Just be thankful that they didn't start using gratuitous underscores.