Themes VII is a track from Rashad Becker’s Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol II.
The track can best be described as a sonic collage, which is very rich in a variety of different tones, textures, and types of sounds – using Schaeferian sound analysis, almost none of the elements are the same.
The way in which these sounds are used, i.e, in varying intensities and for varying purposes, ties in to the concept of signification. On one hand, listeners derive significance from familiar sounds and are able to contextualise Becker’s work in a wider frame of music. I would assert that the beginning of the track is an attempt to create a contextual landscape within which significance can be deconstructed:
- The introductory quick-attack pluck is reminiscent of a faux-steel-string and contains a lot of harmonic tones (the ‘body’, in Schaeferian analysis, consists of more than one tone). Its repetition actually sets a semi-recognisable tempo and gives the impression of a groove.
- A slower-attack metallic squeak conducts a call-and-response with the pluck. Over time the squeak is manipulated so the decay is longer, and so that the decay fluctuates between different notes, creating different moments of harmony with the pluck, developing a recognisable sonority.
As these elements lose, in a sense, their ‘recognisability’ (the plucks become more off-kilter, and the decay of the squeak traverses through disharmonic frequencies), it seems like a commentary on the instability of signification. New elements like a low horn, discernibly a sine wave where an LFO is mapped to its amplitude, as well as a glitchy top line consisting of a triangular wave with unpredictable decay times, show the instability of signification. It seems to me almost as though their ‘weirdness’ happens as a natural result of the increasing ‘weirdness’ of the previously ‘traceable’ sounds a) and b). It appears as a commentary on non-linear signification. This is strengthened by the fact that there is an intentional sonic ambiguity throughout the track – sparing a few elements, there is a constant upheaval of different sounds and textures which interact with each other in different ways. All this while, pluck a) tries to maintain a discernible tempo.
In Becker’s exploration of sonic signification, no element is really more significant than the other. There is a tangible circularity to sound selection; each sound has a moment of significance, but when this moment is over, it fades back into the textural complexity of the soundscape. This is a useful way to analyse the structure of the track – meaning is not centralised, through a hook or refrain, but rather distributed through the various interactions between elements at different points of the track.
As the track concludes, the aforementioned horn also varies in frequency, seemingly an LFO is mapped to fine-tuning within a semitone of the original pitch. A square metallic sound with a quick-attack, multi-harmonic and dense body, and a short decay, sporadically interjects the drone. The intensity and variety of sonic elements increases over time. This leads me to believe that the point of the track is to assert that signification is inherently contextual and not inherent. There is no prominent sonic hero, but Becker still manages to craft a narrative through the manipulation of timing and texture. Pitchfork’s review also captures this hypothesis, “Whenever Becker conjures a familiar sound, he quickly husks history, meaning and expectations from it so that it might quiver in space all on its own, like a cell under a microscope. A mental picture that forms at the beginning of a piece will lose its meaning by the end.” (Beta, 2016).
In conclusion, Themes VII appeared to me as an exploration of how sound creates meaning, and it seems that Rashad Becker derives meaning from context. By balancing elements of familiar and strange natures, and seeking deliberately to manipulate all parameters within these elements, Becker creates a circular sonic collage that asserts signification is non-linear in itself.