Word: drums
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...self-titled debut, Beach House instantly established one of the more recognizable sounds in indie rock, equal parts breathy and slightly bruised, with Nico-like vocals from singer Victoria Legrand and atmospheric instrumentals by bandmate Alex Scally. Each song was wrapped in a thick, dark haze, all lazy drum-machine beats, ghostly organs and retro synth lines. If you were ever to hear one in a movie, it would be as background music to a mysterious woman dancing in the twilight. By album No. 2, Devotion, that sound was so rigidly set that it seemed...
Most significant, though, is Scally's move from a drum machine to what appears to be actual percussion. It helps Beach House sound like a real band instead of just a couple of talented people making music together. "Used to Be," with its crashing cymbals and plinking piano, builds to a series of crescendos unlike anything the duo has done before. And though the two never spell out what's meant by the titular teen dream, you can imagine it to be that elusive high school crush who draws you in while somehow keeping you at arm's length. That...
...record opens with “Pray for Rain,” a song composed with such a hypnotic vigor that it risks eclipsing most of the tracks to come. A seething piano loop winds its way through cascading drum fills while Tunde Adebimpe (of TV on the Radio fame) warbles chilling lyrics laced with somber imagery—“Dull residue of what once was / A shattered cloud of swirling doves.” The song also has a more distinct arc than any other on the album. It’s the only track with...
...Bluegrass, whose instrumentation includes guitar, banjo, mandolin, double bass, and fiddle, emerged as a kind of commercially disseminated folk music a decade later. It then began to permeate early rock music in unexpected ways: the offbeat mandolin chop characteristic of bluegrass music, for example, eventually evolved into the snare-drum offbeat in rock and roll...
...comes as a shock that on his newest album, “Rebirth,” Wayne leaves rap music behind altogether in favor of an as-yet uncharted genre: rock. In this latest effort, Wayne abandons rap’s sampled beats for a bass, drum set, and electric guitar. Power ballads of unrequited love replace tales of street violence and self-promotion, and the dissing and calling out of other rappers is tossed out in favor of punk-inspired castigation of society and nameless enemies. This bold step, however admirable it might be in theory, comes nowhere near...