In our third friday class of the term, we looked into how songs can drastically change from their demos to the fully fledged studio recording. We looked at a select few tracks and were asked to discuss their sound, instrumentation and overall audio spectrum. For our blog this week we were tasked with choosing any song of our choice and completing an analysis.
I have decided to go with the song ‘Orange Peeler’ by the American slowcore band Horse Jumper Of Love, who I recently saw in concert. I chose this song because even though it only has 3 main instruments, the sound that is created is absolutely massive.
The song starts out with this heavy reverb drenched chord progression from the guitar player that sounds almost synth like before the laid back vocals come in as if he is telling us a story, quoting a girl in his lyrics singing “She said ‘Baby, don’t be so down on yourself. At least not tonight please”. Following on from the first verse the instrumentation stays the exact came but the tone is completely changed. Instead of this reverb heavy synth guitar we are instead greeted with a very overdriven sound before the instrumental outro of the track.
What I adore about this song is the switch up tone wise hits you right in the face and brings the energy of the song way up. Comparing this with the demo version which does not have this, you can really hear the difference in what it accomplishes for the song.
With the over 2 and a half minute outro to this song, they ramp up the distortion with multiple overdubbed guitars all playing the same thing creating this wall of noise that sounds like it’s coming at you from all angles. Accompanied with the post-punk esque drums and low rumbling bass line it really makes you feel like you are in a room right next to them.
I have linked each version of the track, including an epic nine minute live version (linked below) with some crazy sample loops and even fatter sounding fuzzed out guitars than the original studio recording. What I love most about this version is Dimitri’s use of his pog 2 octave pedal in combination with a roland space echo creating these huge soundscapes that encompass all of your ears hearing frequencies.