Category: Article
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Understating the Problem: The Case for Restraint in Music in Advertising
We all know that today’s currency is resonance. So why are we still shouting at our audiences with music and sound? In this post, Head Composer Paul Sumpter aims to tackle the default position that audience impact is always best achieved by being big or forceful and how we can achieve it through poise and…
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Back in your Box: How Pigeonholing is Killing the Creative Industries
Pigeon-holing. Whether you deal with the visual arts, the word on the page, or with sound and music, it’s likely that at some point your career will have been hamstrung by its insidious fist. The ever-lingering, cursory discrimination of your skills or character that traps you in a box often entirely not of your own…
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In the Pocket: What is Musical Feel?
We go behind the curtain to offer thoughts on specifically how the notes are played in the moment influence the way music delivers emotion.
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6 Song Series: Women In Punk
We’re pleased to launch our brand new 6 Song Series, where each month we attempt to introduce you to a scene, style or sound through six key records that define it. In our inaugural post, in conjunction with International Women’s Day, we outline six seminal records from cult figures that have come to personify the…
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Death of ‘Scene’ Culture
“People put too much emphasis on scenes. Just because there happens to be a town with a few really good bands in it, I mean… big deal! It’s happened all over the place. I don’t understand this community patriotism that everyone’s boasting about in Seattle. They all say ‘we finally put Seattle on the map,’…
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What is Mastering?
Mastering is one of those jargon phrases that gets bandied around by musos but is often misunderstood by those outside of mixing and engineering. So we thought we’d attempt to demystify the art in straightforward lay terms, to show it’s not so complicated. But also why it’s so important. Let’s start by understanding the journey…
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The 10 Most Unique Voices In Music
We’ve just wrapped a really interesting project researching and developing a branded voice for a new European project launching next year. As we always do, we made a point of pressing to the client the importance of making the voice itself what we call ‘ownable’. Non-generic or bland. Instead, make it distinct. Make it synonymous.…
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6 Song Series: Big Band Bandleaders
Every month, our 6 Song Series introduces you to a scene or genre niche through six key records that have come to define it. In honour of Jazz Appreciation Month, we’re celebrating some of the legendary bandleaders who have been instrumental in taking the now-beloved big band sound from sweaty jive joints to refined concert…
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Top 15 Albums of 2018
Connan Mockasin, Jassbusters (Mexican Summer) No stranger to shapeshifting as an artist, Connan Mockasin has made something of a name for himself since his first release, Forever Debut back in 2015. With collaborations alongside James Blake, MGMT and Charlotte Gainsbourg safely under his belt, it seems Mockasin has spent some time expanding his creative visions and delivered Jassbusters. The record…
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2018, The Year That Was…
As the mistletoe goes up and the mulled wine starts to brew, we take stock on what’s been a fascinating year in our industry. From fake news, fragmented states (Brexit zzzz) and whether or not it’s possible to buy space on Gareth Southgate’s waistcoat, it’s been a tumultuous ride for us all. But a new…
