{"id":58338,"date":"2017-04-26T10:56:08","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T15:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=58338"},"modified":"2017-04-26T10:56:08","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T15:56:08","slug":"wax-wednesday-6-spiral-by-vangelis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2017\/04\/26\/wax-wednesday-6-spiral-by-vangelis\/","title":{"rendered":"Wax Wednesday #6: \u201cSpiral\u201d by Vangelis"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is Wax Wednesday? Who are you? Where’s the Billy Joel record review I never asked for? All that and more,\u00a0here<\/a>
\n\"\"Those of you who read my Record Store Day special last Wednesday will have noted that I mentioned wanting to get a copy of the special edition \u201cBlade Runner\u201d soundtrack that was released for RSD 2017 (you can find that article\u00a0here<\/a>). I\u2019m happy to say I got a copy, but as much as I want to write about the dystopian synth filled wonder that is that record, it was never released when the film came out, and I\u2019m not about to break the parameters of my column by talking about a $35 exclusive pressing. Luckily for me, the composer Vangelis has another fantastic record in his discography for me to discuss, his 1977 classic \u201cSpiral\u201d.<\/p>\n

Right away, the album comes across with a signature sound that\u2019s never been truly replicated except by Vangelis himself. It\u2019s always interesting to come across an album where the synthesizer is the main focus, especially in the late 70\u2019s when all synth\u2019s still had that dated, yet timeless sound. Sure, there are some flute and drums here and there, but don\u2019t be confused, this album is 95% early electronic. And to tell the truth? It\u2019s as awesome as the concept sounds.<\/p>\n

Vangelis tackles all genres on \u201cSpiral\u201d, from the floating grandeur on the album\u2019s title track reminiscent of many pieces of classical music to funk, rock, and world influences on \u201cDervish D\u201d.\u00a0 Each of the extensive five tracks takes it\u2019s time to develop it\u2019s rhythm, then systematically adds more and more until the song becomes a huge mass of sound, all being done through the synthesized brass sounds of Vangelis’s Yamaha CS-80.<\/p>\n

This is enhanced by the conscious choice not to use almost any vocals on the entire record (with the minor exception of some heavily distorted vocals on \u201cBallad\u201d done by Vangelis himself). I believe this helps the listener by not telling them what to think of the album. It seems so easy to digest the lyrics of a song these days to find out the meaning behind a track. On \u201cSpiral\u201d, there is almost nothing to go on. The listener must interpret the songs and place their own meaning upon them. I think this works to the albums benefit as the dreamy, at times dystopian-sounding synths create a sound and meaning all their own to each person who comes into contact with the album.<\/p>\n

This brings me to possibly my favorite part about the album. I\u2019m not sure what it is about Vangelis and album covers, but boy does he know how to do them right. I\u2019m not sure what it is about the cover for \u201cSpiral\u201d that fascinates me, but something about the clouds and the snaking cable mix perfectly with the ethereal yet electronic sound of the album. There seems just enough implied by the art to get the listener to think, but it still leaves enough to the imagination that I\u2019ve found myself staring at the cover for over 10 minutes at a time. Maybe it\u2019s just me, but to me, the artwork is one of the most important things about \u201cSpiral\u201d.<\/p>\n

That being said, if you aren\u2019t a fan of synthesizers, this album is definitely not for you. I also can\u2019t really recommend it if you like your songs short and to the point. The average length of a song on the album is somewhere around the 8-minute mark, which can be off putting to some. But if you\u2019re willing to stomach either of those things, \u201cSpiral\u201d is a fantastic record with its own distinct character that I\u2019m proud to house in my record collection.<\/p>\n

Next week: A country album done by the man who \u201ckilled folk music\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is Wax Wednesday? Who are you? Where’s the Billy Joel record review I never asked for? All that and more,\u00a0here Those of you who read my Record Store Day special last Wednesday will have noted that I mentioned wanting to get a copy of the special edition \u201cBlade Runner\u201d soundtrack that was released for RSD 2017 (you can find that article\u00a0here). I\u2019m happy to say I got a copy, but as much as I want to write about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17009,"featured_media":58339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,4,3268],"tags":[6885,6065,7340,7051,7387,7386,1749,6882],"class_list":["post-58338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-on-kjhk","category-music","category-music-articles","tag-dollar-bin","tag-kyle-wernimont","tag-record-store-day","tag-records","tag-spiral","tag-vangelis","tag-vinyl","tag-wax-wednesday"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/vangelis.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}