PRETEND [natkingcole]
Here’s a song I like very much for it’s earnestness and simplicity. I took a break from recording my own stuff to produce this modern take. Picking apart the original arrangement was a lot of fun, and I tried to throw in as many of those melodic lines as I could.
You can download the audio here: http://music.sleepcomabath.com/track/pretend-nat-king-cole
Enjoy!
Vlog #10: Thaipusam 2012
Join us on our journey to Thaipusam 2012, Malaysia’s biggest Hindu pilgrimage. It is all out bombardment of the senses as we make our way through the sweaty crowds up into the mouth of Batu cave to give offerings to Lord Murugan.
Every year Malaysian Hindus (and anyone else who wants to join) make the journey up the 272 steps, some carrying canisters of milk, and others carrying the ‘kevadi’- a large, burdensome float sometimes adorned with peacock feathers, harnessed to the carrier and meant to show their devotion. Some go into trance chanting “vel vel” in endless repetition. Some pierce themselves with large skewers through the cheeks and line their backs with hooks. A strong tobacco cigar takes the edge off. Amazingly, no blood is spilled.
The atmosphere is decidedly festive as the great mass of people moves slowly into the cave to make their offerings. The ‘Kavadi’ carriers have it the hardest, though each of them is escorted by trained staff to make the journey bearable.
I shot this film on a Zoom HDQ3, collecting high quality audio from the event. The soundtrack is composed entirely of sounds taken from the source material, stylized and re-sequenced in post.
Reznor discusses his work with David Fincher, his and his partner Atticus Ross’s process, and how the aesthetic of their film scores come together.
Vlog #9: Bali, Indonesia
Being the iconoclast I pretend to be, I came to Bali thoroughly prepared to shun any romantic notions of the place (such as may be found in Elizabeth Gilbert’s novel ‘Eat, Pray, Love’). I hate smugness in travelers and the last thing I wanted to achieve in Bali was some feigned enlightenment on a yoga mat in Ubud.
But trying to remain detached in Bali is like trying to stay peaceable on Malaysian roads. The beaches are long, wide and gorgeous. And as soon as you head north past Denpasar the land extends up the gentle volcanic slopes like an enormous Zen garden. Everywhere you look there’s a Hindu shrine, an offering, a temple, a water-feature, and that majestic Balinese architecture which has become famous the world over.
In other parts of Southeast Asia the rice paddies are arranged much like the fields of central California; orderly, but not elegant. In Bali, the rice terrace is an art form. There is a symmetry and a balance in how the earth has been sculpted. Water is channeled to and fro in a way that’s pleasing to both the eyes and the ears. Flocks of geese are often kept to provide natural fertilizer, and the scarecrows have that added advantage of having been fashioned by artists, as most of the local people in Bali are.
As we traveled north up to the volcanic region of the island we caught a live gamelan performance by the roadside (seen at the very end). After sipping some civet-coffee (beans are digested by the civet and made into a hot crap and then a hot cup … mmm) we fed the fruit bats and headed to Mt. Batur.
Mt. Batur is a barren, beautiful place. And home to some tenacious hawkers. It’s a wonderful view if you don’t mind, “Sir, sir, sir, you want postcards, sir, sir, sir, 5 for 1 dollar, sir, sir, sir ….” Later at the temple, Pura Ulun Banu Batur, we were hit with a scheming sarong hustler insisting we buy new sarongs (usually they’re provided) so she could make an extra buck. Luckily, the beauty and serenity of the place all but erased the frustrating experience.
The highlight of the trip were the rice terraces around the Ubud area - Jatiluweh and Tagallalang. I think the steep terraces at Tagallalang were featured in the film, ‘The Fall.’ The agro-architecture (if that’s a word) is unbelievably sophisticated. If there was anywhere I had an enlightened moment, it was here; the same place I accidentally spurted mud onto my rear trying to get all native climbing down into those rice terraces (last shot). Enlightened lesson: Don’t get native on rice terraces.
I recorded a handful of arpeggios with the ukulele this trip. I wanted to blend the sounds of Bali with a few pieces recorded live in the rice fields. The opening sequence features the gamelan orchestra sped up to twice its normal speed. I got some awesome bamboo xylophone samples for my album too. Absent from the video, however, are the clips of us around the monkeys. Those buggers decided to give us love bites and RM2000 worth of rabies shots ensued. I was bitter, so I cut them out of the film.
Enjoy!
*Disclaimer: Sync issues due to YOUTUBE!
