The Power Of Sound - Post #28
Here, I share with you the music I've come across that has a certain quality to it, rare and elusive. The kind of music that moves you so deeply in a way that you can't understand or describe. The lyrics or music or video may make no sense to your brain, but it does to your soul. It's beautifully cathartic and inspiring.
Previous posts:
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Artist: millicow
Song: Mortality
https://millicow.bandcamp.com/track/mortality
!FREE DOWNLOAD! - download codes below
Okay, I admit it, this is self-promotion, but I share this for more reasons than that. First, this song fits the definition (see top of page) of what I call "The Power Of Sound". It just happens that I was the person lucky enough to receive the ideas and bring this song into existence. Second, after 27 posts sharing other people's music, I'd like a chance to be featured as well. Third, with 28 being the day of the month I was born on, I really like the number and I've decided that this is the post I finally share a little bit of my own music.
That said, click play and let the music take you away! Headphones recommended for the best experience, but not required :)
I really feel like I struck gold with this song. The melody it is built around and the sounds used to express it perfectly capture a feeling more abstract than cannot be easily described with words; hence why sound is the medium being used. As the title suggests, death and grief are a part of this melancholic, depressive feeling.
A fuzzy static effect permeates the song, creating a feeling of decay. The song opens with the melody obscured by random pitch shifts, which gradually subside to reveal the beauty hidden within the initial wave of dysphoria.
The piano is given a moment to reflect in solitude before empty space is filled with smooth pads that swirl and massage your ears with a cold warmth. Drums boost the energy a little, but not too much, while bell-like plucks top off the mix with complementary melodies.
Finally, the song closes with a faded, crackly outro reminiscent of a very old vinyl record; much like life, the music ages and dissolves as quickly as it formed.
If you've made it this far, thank you very much! If you've enjoyed it, I'm happy to have infected another pair of ears with some of the music that means so much to me, and suggest that you listen to the whole album, Clouded Light, available pretty much everywhere. Links can be found here, although I recommend Bandcamp over any other service for several reasons which I will explain shortly.
The album, or EP if you prefer, is only 4 songs, each one strong in its own way and complementing the others without any filler. It is available for free download and provided under a very open CC-BY license, which means you can do whatever the fuck you want with it for free as long as you give me credit!
Now, why am I so fond of Bandcamp? I promise you I am not being paid to write this; I'm simply very passionate about music and see Bandcamp as a huge gift to the world:
No ads. Nope. Never. Not a single one.
No constant begging for you to buy premium. In fact, as far as I can tell there is no premium except for artists, which does not lock away necessary features but unlock extras that benefit larger artists.
No need to make an account to stream music. The only exception to this is that music has a stream limit before Bandcamp will restrict your IP address (or your account, if you are logged in) from streaming a particular song until you buy it. After all, the platform is built for supporting artists. The number of free streams allowed for a song is determined by the artist in their settings. I have my music set to the maximum value of 99 free plays, and free to download. To continue streaming after the limit, a minimum of 50 cents or a dollar (I don't remember) (or more if the artists doesn't set their music to Name Your Price) must be paid to add the track/album to your collection (you need to make a free account for this). But you'll probably never reach the limit :)
You can stream any song you want to, any time, without paying for a premium account. Spotify, unless you are on the web version or have premium in the app, will force you to shuffle mode if you try to play a song. I don't want any AI or popular opinion to tell me what to listen to. I want to listen to the song I choose, when I choose it.
You can easily play an album from beginning to end. This is important to me because often with the music I listen to, each song is part of a greater whole, and just as each song is a piece of music, the album forms a continuous piece of music.
You can directly support artists you like. Spotify streams add up to very little unless you're pretty popular. A person I know gets about a dollar for every 250 streams. If I use Spotify, my favorite artists will get cents, if not fractions of cents from me. I want a way to support them in a more direct and substantial way without feeding some rich corporate assholes, so I use Bandcamp where I can give that artist a few dollars, and maybe even buy a shirt or a CD.
Uploading your own music is free, easy, and unlimited. Unlike Soundcloud, you don't have to pay to upload more than a few songs. Publishing music on Bandcamp is an easy and streamlined process; wonderful tools are provided, and no feature is left out. You can customize the look of your artist page with hex colors and images, and if you're brave, you can use your own CSS code. You can add lyrics, credits, tags, UPC/EAN codes, ISRC codes, release dates, set bonus tracks, add music videos, write album descriptions and track descriptions, upload individual track art along with album art, and much more.
A small portion of Bandcamp sales are claimed by Bandcamp to maintain the platform. Remember how I said no ads, no premium, and no upload limits? This is why. When you support artists you also support Bandcamp, and Bandcamp gives back with a very well-made and no-bullshit way to enjoy and collect music, support artists, stream music, download music (not just to be played in the app, it gives you actual audio files), and even upload your own music!
Oh yeah, did I mention no ads? Seriously! Where else on the internet can you find such an oasis? It's a rare and beautiful thing.
During this COVID-19 madness, Bandcamp waived their royalty for a day, and they are about to do it again. Bandcamp usually takes a small amount of all music and merch sales, however, to support artists during the lockdown, for one Friday last month Bandcamp gave all sales directly to artists, which caused such a boom in sales ($4.3 million) that the servers had trouble keeping up. I'm all for supporting artists; the majority of them are just regular people, and they actually need the money, unlike the corporate people and advertisers behind services like Spotify and YouTube, who make insane profit off of billions of streams every day. Anyway, Bandcamp has announced they will do it again on May 1st.
You can create codes to give away your music for free. These codes can be redeemed at https://bandcamp.com/yum and give you a free download of the album or track, and if you have an account on Bandcamp, you can also add the music to your collection for unlimited streaming. And guess what? For reading this far, I'm sharing a few codes. They go quickly so get a copy while you can, and I ask that you comment with the code you used so others know it's no longer available (each code can only be redeemed once) and so I can cross it off the list:
cmha-bb3p
cber-xxln
px7w-e55e
r454-7r23
as7q-5l44
jjev-caha
7b77-xbpb
vdld-ec7w
fjpp-uwa4
lbfb-ex3a
Thank you so much for reading! If you like what you see and hear, please consider upvoting and resteeming; it helps a lot! Thank you for your support on my previous posts! It really means a lot to know that you all appreciate my writing and the music I share.
Stay tuned for more deeply moving music in a week or two!
Thank you for the interesting text and the music. Bandcamp is the best place for any music lover.