Wednesday 15 April 2015

Hero - Frank Ocean + Mick Jones + Paul Simonon + Diplo

Rusty's waltz wednesday presents: Hero, by Frank Ocean, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Diplo


I had a few good ideas lined up for today's post, but then I stumbled upon Frank Ocean's tumbler, got myself into a click hole, and found this song.

Frank Ocean + Mick Jones + Paul Simonon + Diplo:

I won't make this too extensive. Frank Ocean is a great modern RnB singer. His vocals don't have the over-the-top quality like - say - the recently deceased and previously profiled Percy Sledge, and are usually pretty understated. His debut album was called Channel Orange and was very good; his fans have been waiting on 3 years now for a new album, which I hear is being released in July.

Mick Jones are from the legendary band The Clash, just a couple rockin' guys whos songs are more or less ubiquetous today.

Diplo is a producer whom I best know from his work as Major Lazer, which is a pretty fun project.

Finally, shoe brand Converse appears to have put this project together. I like that a lot Converse, but your shoes still aren't my style...God bless.

The song:

This is the second song that I would qualify as coming (in part, at least) from the hip-hop sphere, the first being Alicia Keys' "Fallin'" .

The song starts off with a 60s sound - reverb heavy and base driven sets of two-triplets, laying down the 6/8 rhythm (I call that 2xWaltz). But by 1:08 we get a change in dynamics: the tone of the guitar changes to much more Punky (Clash members sgning in?), and we get an electronic-sounding rapid base-drum up-front - I assume that's Diplo talking. Then at 1:30 the dynamics break again, soften, as a children's choir chimes in. By 1:55 we return to the original sound, and then seconds later, back again to punk-electro, and then by 2:20 back to the original 60s vibe for the fadeout.

This is a great example of a dynamic take on the 3/4-family of rhythm. It's at times tender, sometimes punk, sometimes fast-paced, and it's all good. Thanks converse!