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Instrumentals, Good or Bad?

UnTaMeD

12:29 / 19.12.03

personally i find instrumentals quite riveting
i was just wondering whether anyone else thought the same way

lord nuneaton savage

12:34 / 19.12.03

Yup love em...Acid Mothers, Jackie o Motherfucker, Blind Idiot God, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp. Actually I really like jazz so it kinda' goes along that I love a good instrumental.

rizla mission

13:46 / 19.12.03

Well,er..

good instrumentals = good.

bad instrumentals = bad.

Bit of a no-brainer.

But then really the term "intrumental" only really applies to popular (or, I suppose, folk or blues) music. Doesn't have much meaning in the realms of classical or jazz where the whole damn thing is "instrumental".

lord nuneaton savage

15:10 / 19.12.03

Umm...I would'nt call Sarah Vaughn or Billie Holliday instrumental. Not to their faces anyway.

Jack The Bodiless

16:26 / 19.12.03

...'instrumental' as in 'vital' or 'seminal' though...

gergsnickle

16:34 / 19.12.03

Instrumentals are great because you can put them on for people without telling them who it is and force them to evaluate it on the music alone rather than letting the Identity of the SInger get in the way and ruin their objectivity.

Jack Fear

17:06 / 19.12.03

You don't think there are instrumentalists who have (a) a distinctive and immediately identifiable "voice," and (b) enough celebrity status ("identity," to use your term) to skew someone's objectivity?

Thus do I refute thee: I can identify Kenny G within three notes on that soprano sax of his--and no matter how well he's playing, I'm gonna hate it.

Other instantly-identifiable instrumentalists: Chet Baker, John Coltrane, Zamfir, The Edge, Carlos Santana...

The thing about the best instrumental groups or artists is exactly that they do have a strong identity: whether it's the Ventures, the Miles Davis Quintet, or the Afro-Celt Sound System, there's no one else who sounds exactly like them.

40%

17:29 / 19.12.03

To me, the lyrics are (or should be) a commentary to what's happening in the music. So an instrumental is like watching a football game without the commentary. It's still all there to be seen, you just have to work harder to interpret it properly. Or perhaps less hard than if the lyrics are conflicting with the music, as is frequently the case IMHO.

gergsnickle

18:36 / 19.12.03

Of course there are instrumentalists with a distinctive identity, but that in no way invalidates my idea that they can be used to get people to appreciate certain music that they might otherwise not because of the "Identity of the Singer" (to use my phrase). For example, friends who hate the Wedding Present because of their singer will gladly admit that "Dandare" is a pretty nifty song. Ditto the instrumentals off Nick Drake's "Bryter Layter" or Joy Division's "Incubation". With the vocals (for many the 'center' of the song) removed, many people, are forced to listen to the music (immediately identifiable or not as the case may be) in a different way, one concerned less with the vocal identity or lyrics than with the instruments, the 'music' so to speak. Hence my appreciation of this type of instrumentals.

Jack Fear

19:34 / 19.12.03

Ah, okay. It wasn't clear from your original post that you were talking about instrumentals by bands that usually employ vocals, as opposed to purely instrumental bands.

In that case, I agree with you. For primo examples, see REM (especially "White Tornado" and "Rotary Ten"), Simple Minds ("Shake Off The Ghosts," "Theme For Great Cities"), Bruce Cockburn ("Actions Speak Louder").

I'm trying to think of a band whose best-known output is split pretty evenly between vocal and instrumental cuts, and who remain recognizable in each genre. The only example I'm coming up with is Not Drowning, Waving; I knew them from their instrumental soundtrack to Proof before I ever heard David Bridie sing, and the keyboard/guitar interplay seems as distinctively theirs as his voice.

rizla mission

13:31 / 21.12.03

I'm trying to think of a band whose best-known output is split pretty evenly between vocal and instrumental cuts, and who remain recognizable in each genre.

The Meat Puppets. Their best albums are split really nicely between fantastic 'singing' songs and nifty little guitar instrumentals.

at the scarwash

00:52 / 22.12.03

Hello ladies and jennimun, Mogwai anyone? Or perhaps Another Green World-period Eno? Instantly recognizeable with or without the use of the vocal instruments. My Bloody Valentine? No one else can get that guitar wooshing like Kevin Shields. It's indubidably him, with or without singsonging.

William Sack

09:18 / 22.12.03

Don't know whether this is either relevant or interesting, but I have always felt that Jack Teagarden's trombone playing and style of singing are very similar - languid, louche and boozy. Incidentally, I have been looking for his vocal version of "Peg o' my Heart" for over a decade; I only have his orchestral version, which is great, but the vocal version is something else. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. On a seasonal (though off-topic) note, Jack Teagarden's version of "Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire etc etc") is a wonderful interpretation of that tired old song. I may well have said this before here, but it's like a pissed-up department store Santa breathing whisky fumes in your face with a rheumy twinkle in his eye.

Sax

10:19 / 22.12.03

The Charlatans always used to do a nice bouncy instrumental on every album.

But my favourite ever in the entire universe ever ever has to be YYZ by Rush.

More than 89 hours of Neal Peart banging his enormous drumkit.

Magic.

belvedere

13:48 / 22.12.03

why has no one mentioned hip-hop?

Dj Shadow, Dj Krush, Dan the Automator, to say the least. Many instrumental versions of great hip-hop records are out there. Cannibal Ox's 'The Cold Vein' (Cannibal Oxstrumentals, by El-P), Dr. Octagon came out with an instrumental version where Dj Q-Bert added in more scratching, etc.. Wu-Tang usually comes out with a singles record with instrumental versions on it. a _lot_ of great hip-hop instrumentals.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:15 / 22.12.03

But belvedere, were any of those tracks - the ones where the original version featured vocals - improved by a lack of them? Bear in mind that the reason instrumental versions of hip-hop tracks are released is usually so that other people can rap over them...

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