Bon Iver, Pitchshifter and Breathmints

Let's have a lesson in Vocoders and Pitch Shifters....

I was never a fan of a heavily processed voice. As a rule I like it raw. The voice is a beautiful thing. Why wreck it with a machine?

I think Cher's Pitch Shifted song "believe" (click links if you wanna here it, i certainly ain't putting it on my website though) was the first time I became aware of such an effect. And it totally ruined it for me.
That said, I think Cher may have ruined me full stop. Man... I still shudder at this film clip. It destroyed me. (click links if you wanna SEE it, i certainly ain't putting it on my website either)
Freud would have a f*cking field day. The combination of so much, sorry many, semen, sorry seamen... and the phallus to end all phalli. (yes, that plural is too good to be true. "The Dubai skyline just looks like a bunch of phalli". Use it, it's fun.)

Anyway, Radiohead did a cool thing with fitter, happier (beautiful clip) and Tomahawk did an even cooler thing with aktion f1413 (scary song). They both used computers or computer generated vocoder voice manipulation to sound futuristic, cold and detached.. nice

Then Kanye sampled Daft Punk and I lost my shit... It can sound funky too! (forget the fact that Daft Punk did it first. They're a bunch of overrated robots anyway... Seriously.)

You know what they say about Kanye yeah?

If it's cool enough for Kanye, It's cool enough for everybody!

Anyway... Earlier this year I heard this INCREDIBLE song.



The music is by Bon Iver. Who played possibly the best gig I've seen in the last 12 months. And the album was one of the best albums released last year. (ask anyone, they all think the same!) People were in tears around me. Heart wrenching beautiful stuff.

This is a newer song for Bon Iver. Normally he's so stripped back... Just bare emotion ya know? This time it's his layered voice with pitch shifter and reverb. It starts of makin me feel uncomfortable but ends up sounding so lush and rich and beautiful. The orchestra of layered vocals is pretty breathtaking. Bon must have had fun making this.

It's like nothing I've ever heard. What a simple and original way to use the pitch shifter! I'd never seen it before... or again... I'd never liked pitchshifter so much.


until...


this add...






Dammit! Advertising f*cks up everything!

Either Bon Iver isn't hip at all. Or Eclipse are the Freshest! of all Mints... Even more so than Mentos.