Cigarettes after sex

We are going to stay in a sleepy/dreamy state for a while longer, meet: Cigarettes after sex.

I already introduced you a bit to dream pop in my blog entry about Beach House, so let’s skip right to the band.

CAS play together since 2008, initially it was a solo project, but currently there are three members involved : Greg Gonzalez (founder, leading vocals, guitar), Randall Miller (bass) and Jacob Tomsky (drums).

Essentially, the dream pop genre is pretty hypnotic and abstract in itself and CAS also play by those rules, but what I really like about them in particular is how minimalistic they are in their approach both to music and lyrics. One may say that their sound is too repetitive, plain, the songs are too similar, you cannot distinguish them altogether, but personnally I don’t mind.

On the contrary, I kind of like them more for that. It just makes their music one big epic journey, interconnected by the exploration of concepts such as love, lust, longing. Because that’s what they put their focus on, mostly. Depending on the idea, it could be a very erotic and sensual record with some crude lyrics, or a melancholic and nostalgic one with some sadness to it. Complimented by the wispy and satine-like voice of Greg, it creates a wonderful ambiance. That’s just another distinctive trait of theirs, I guess.

Interesting fact :

In one of the interviews, Greg Gonzalez asked about his cinematic approach to music and creative process of writing, confessed that The Double Life of Veronique by Kieslowski and L’Avventura by Antonioni are the movies which inspired him and the sound of CAS the most.

I definitely see what they are going for, and I admire them for their consistency and their sort of black-and-white aesthetics.

Here’s a cover of theirs of Neon Moon by Brooks and Dunn , released about 2 months ago, I really like their touch on it :

TwoSet Violin

Hello everyone and welcome one again on the musical journey!

Today is going to be a slightly different blog entry (though related to music nonetheless), about a youtube channel I’m subscribed to, that is called: TwoSet Violin.

As you can easily assume, it’s a musical duo that professionally plays the violin. Eddy Chen and Brett Yang come from Australia and they created their youtube channel in 2014. Right from the beginning their goal was to make classical music relevant to the modern generation through fun, humour andsimplicity. 

That’s exactly what made me watch them in the first place. Their content on youtube is really witty, funny and at the same time very insightful and informative. If you think that classical music may not be your cup of tea, that’s alright, because it’s not the genre that counts in here, it’s the music in its pure form and definition and passion for learning how to play musical instruments. Besides, Eddy and Brett are very creative and easy-going guys, their videos are neither condescending, preaching nor overbearing. Quite the opposite, actually. Very often, they, create humourous content, do challenges, play charades, share their opinions on the authenticity of playing violin in movies with music themes, etc. I really like the way they promote classical music, pretty clever isn’t?

One of my favourite parts about their channel is that they are genuinely showing how much work one needs to put to be able to play at a very advanced/concertmaster/professional level. If you have a talent (at no matter what), of course it might be easier for you to do something, but without dedication, hard-work and practise you’ll never fully succeed, not in the long term anyway. For there to be any good outcome, there has to be made an effort first, and that’s something many people forget about. We’re in a constant progress of self-improvement.

Interesting fact :

One of the main and very present jokes in the TwoSet Violin community is the Ling Ling joke. Brett and Eddy came up with this fictional character called Ling Ling, a prodigy, who kind of defies logic by being the best at everything. For example : Ling Ling practices for 40 hours a day; you will never achieve what he has at 5 years old.