Hello, good friends – join me for another premiere presented by Everything Is Noise! This premiere brings us a full album and a music video from our good pals and once Weekly Featured Artist: Zeitgeber! Everyone here at EIN have been waiting very anxiously to hear the full album, titled Transforming The Random Crushing Forces Of The Universe Into Manageable Patterns. Evan McGregor’s latest piece of art comes to us via Art As Catharsis and Upcycled Sounds on August 1, 2019. But enough with the introductions, let’s jump into the music!
First off, let’s take a look at the music video. But before we do, I would be remiss not to jump into some of the philosophy the album draws inspiration from. This ideology comes from the famous Alan Watts. Mr. Watts was known for finding the humour which exists throughout the universe and how we shouldn’t take life too seriously (I’m paraphrasing quite a bit here). A quote by Alan Watts I want to leave before we view the video of “1010110 – {Self}” is this: ‘This is the real secret of life — To be completely engaged in what you are doing in the here and now.’
The video shows us lo-fi, ’70s inspired clips of diverse objects which exist around the universe. There are focuses on drops of water down to bacteria and all the way up to stars across the vastness of space. The combination of the world music and tribal-esque drumming combines brilliantly with the images in the video. It brings a closeness to the variously scaled objects. The psychedelic aspect of the song also pairs well with the super trippy images which begin to present themselves throughout.
Those of you following closely will note that the song above has already been premiered by us. Now, however, we get to listen to the rest of the album Transforming The Random Crushing Forces Of The Universe Into Manageable Patterns. We got a small taste on what to expect and now we get the full course meal. As mentioned before the music consists of world mixed with psychedelic, pop, funk, and the ’70s. Each instrument is played by Mr. McGregor with a few guest artists to lending their helping hand. The instrument list here is immense, including *ahem*: handpan, guitar, bass, harmonium, didgeridoo, whirly tube, clarinet, viola, bass clarinet, krakebs, and much more.
One of interesting things I took from listening to Transforming The Random Crushing Forces Of The Universe Into Manageable Patterns was that the titles, which are in binary, were the codes for syncopated odd time patterns. So basically the limitation Evan put on himself was to work within the parameters of the binary rhythms – with a few artistic exceptions of course. If, like me, you didn’t realise that while listening then go back and listen again, it makes for a bit of fun trying to count it out.
Zeitgeber manage to make a tremendous amount of work of recording all of those instruments sound like everything belongs. The songs lull you into a trance-like state with its unhurried feel to reach the end. But the goal here isn’t simply to reach the end of each track – the intention is to listen, to feel, and to be in the moment. Backing the music with the rapture inducing drumming helps achieve this quiescence. Remember, as Alan Watts says, ‘You are the Universe experiencing itself’ so enjoy Transforming The Random Crushing Forces Of The Universe Into Manageable Patterns.
Zeitgeber might create music that takes a bit to get used to, but I feel like it does exactly what it needs to – it helps us slow down and be in the moment. Transforming The Random Crushing Forces Of The Universe Into Manageable Patterns comes out August 1 via Art As Catharsis and Upcycled Sounds. You can find the album on Bandcamp and be sure to check out their (his) Facebook as well.
‘The meaning of life is just to be alive. It’s so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic, as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.’ – Alan Watts.
