Angus McMahan<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Content Block” _builder_version=”4.3.4″ background_image=”https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/autumn-2020-issue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/paper-texture.png” custom_margin=”0px||0px||true|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” saved_tabs=”all”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_5,3_5,1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.7″][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/autumn-2020-issue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Cat-with-Moth-by-Carly-J.J.-Turner-Autumn-2020.png” _builder_version=”4.3.2″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.3.2″ custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px|||”]<\/p>\n
The guitarist in my old blues band, Quazimojo, was very clear about the distinction between Scoring, Arranging, and the Song. We\u2019d finish the first (successful) run-through of one of his compositions, bashing away on our electric guitars, synthesizers and drum kit, and we\u2019d say \u201cDon! What a great song!\u201d<\/p>\n
And he\u2019d always correct us, waving a professorial finger, that what we\u2019d heard was our Arrangement, that we had Scored, for these particular instruments. One night, after band practice, I asked him what is the Song then, if we hadn\u2019t just spent 3 hours playing it?<\/p>\n
Don smiled big, carefully put away his Stratocaster, and took me into his studio apartment next door. Once settled, he carefully pulled out an ancient (but meticulously cared-for) acoustic guitar, and without a word began playing and singing the same title that we had just been romping and crashing through.<\/p>\n
It was a revelation. Once you stripped away all of the overdubs and dynamics, the layers and the stacks of cleverness, the harmonies and the harmonics \u2013 what you were left with was the blueprint, the floor map, the skeletal foundation of the tune: The chords, meter and melody. The Song.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see.\u201d I said with a smile. He nodded and lifted the professorial finger again. \u201cAnd all of the best Scoring and Arranging in the world don\u2019t mean shit if the song\u201d (he lifted his acoustic to show me where the song lived) \u201caint worth a damn.\u201d<\/p>\n
In doing so, much is lost – but something precious is gained. Kate\u2019s Scores are usually a luxurious deep-pile carpet of keyboards, electronic percussion and \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d levels of vocal harmonies, all having a spa day in a warm bath of reverb. Her Arrangements are baroque in their complexity with whisper-to-a-shout singing and towering dynamics that ebb and flow in shifting layers. A Kate Bush track is a cerebral headtrip that results in a lovely hearttrip by the time the final lush chord finally gives up its perfectly resolving ghost.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s grand and all, but is there a Song in there somewhere?<\/p>\n Valentina O, (aka Nymphya) must have spent some serious time knee-deep in the Bush oeuvre, drilling and stripping and discarding and diggingdiggingdigging for the There that we always knew was there. The deep-pile carpet of emotion has been lovingly pulled up here, leaving behind the beautiful hardwood of connection.<\/p>\n Nymphya\u2019s re-arrangement of Bush\u2019s \u201cBreathing\u201d doesn\u2019t remove layers of music as much as it polishes the rough edges off of the original. 22 year old Kate\u2019s \u2018Little Symphony\u2019 features washes of synthesizers, backing vocals from Roy Harper, a bridge of disconnected musical fragments adrift inside of a fretless bass, and a \u2018rock\u2019 finale with the more screechy end of Kate\u2019s maturing vocal range. It\u2019s an amazing track, simultaneously dreamy and nightmarish.<\/p>\n But is there a song in there, somewhere?<\/p>\n Yes! Nymphya\u2019s re-working relies on a single, intriguing guitar line for the verses and chorus, a few glissando runs and finger taps for the brief non-time section (which also omits the extensive spoken word section) and just one of the many vocal lines for the outro. In trimming the excesses, this arrangement allows the simple, tragic story room to\u2026\u2026breathe.<\/p>\n Often the changes to the songs are subtle and one can see the towering respect that Valentina has for her musical goddessmother. The version of \u2018Don\u2019t Give Up\u2019 from \u201cNaked Kate\u201d is noticeably slower than the original, and the echoes of the thick syncopated synths are evident in the subtle, finger-picking acoustic guitar lines, one of which comes courtesy of Alex McMurray, who also provides earthy vocals for the Peter Gabriel part.<\/p>\n McMurray is a talented performer from New Orleans, and this bluesy duet of a ballad is the perfect re-imagining for a song that Gabriel first offered to Dolly Parton.<\/p>\n Those of you who got seriously sweaty in the late 80\u2019s dancing to Bush\u2019s \u2018Running up That Hill\u2019 will be quite surprised to hear it without the galloping drum machine accompaniment. Nymphya\u2019s deep dive on Kate\u2019s most-well known U.S. hit calms the song down and returns it closer to its original title \u2018A Deal with God\u2019 (which was squelched by the BBC). The song imagines what it would be like if a man and a woman were able \u2013 with the Lord\u2019s help \u2013 to switch places, and the lyrics do not shy away from how awkward and painful these uncovered truths would be. It\u2019s a great song, but the guts of it were drowned out by kitschy synth squiggles, Kate\u2019s oh-so-dramatic alto bombast, and that relentless drum machine.<\/p>\n So, is there a song in there, somewhere?<\/p>\n Yes! Stripped of its embarrassing 80\u2019s-ness \u2018Running up That Hill (A Deal With God)\u2019 \u2013 the proper title \u2013 is still a show-stopper. Scored for two guitars, one strumming and one finger-picking, the simple beauty of its few chords (Cm, Ab, Bb for the most part) Where did this crazy idea of an album come from? Well, according to Valentina herself, it sprang out fully formed, like Athena from the forehead of Zeus: \u201cI had come across a signed copy of Kate’s book of lyrics \u2018How to Be Invisible\u2019, on eBay. I found myself really wanting to acquire it as a talisman for my studio, so that I could use the energy of her signature to inspire, inform and improve my own work. I managed to win the bidding for this book! I placed it in a spot of high honor in my studio and absorbed the energy of her signature into my hands. Two months later, I find myself having the vision, with a spoken directive, to \u2018make an album of all acoustic, stripped down Kate Bush covers and call it Naked Kate\u2019. And so I did! Later I recognized that my talisman had worked so well, that rather than be inspired by her muse for my own music, I ended up recording an entire album<\/i> of her music!\u201d<\/p>\n The results are revelatory. Naked Kate isn\u2019t a simple album; even at their most skeletal Bush\u2019s chords, meters and melodies are still head-spinning (Even the sheet music for a Kate Bush song is downright frightening for a novice musician), but what Nymphya brings out in this audacious album is the essential heart <\/i>of Kate\u2019s music.<\/p>\n Using only the tools familiar to a folk singer from 100 years ago \u2013 and a voice like your six favorite singers combined into one incredibly tall package \u2013 Valentina O in her guise as Nymphya has triumphed in her loving quest to unearth the quintessence of Kate Bush\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n You can read fan reviews and listen to highlights from the entire album here. https:\/\/shop.nymphya.com\/products\/naked-kate-signed-cd-deluxe-limited-special-edition<\/a><\/p>\n The results are glorious. Reducing these titles to their irreducible Song-ness only elevates and amplifies their beauty and strength.<\/p>\n This is now my favorite Kate Bush album.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.3.4″ background_image=”https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/autumn-2020-issue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/paper-texture.png” custom_padding=”0px|||||” saved_tabs=”all”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.27.3″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.26.7″][et_pb_divider color=”#37712d” divider_weight=”3px” _builder_version=”4.3.2″ width=”60%” module_alignment=”center” height=”5px”][\/et_pb_divider][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_4,1_2,1_4″ _builder_version=”3.27.2″][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”3.27.2″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.27.2″][et_pb_text module_class=”noindent” _builder_version=”4.3.2″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”3.27.2″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Music Review: Naked Kate by Nymphya Angus McMahanThe guitarist in my old blues band, Quazimojo, was very clear about the distinction between Scoring, Arranging, and the Song. We\u2019d finish the first (successful) run-through of one of his compositions, bashing away on our electric guitars, synthesizers and drum kit, and we\u2019d say \u201cDon! What a great […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1070","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/autumn-2020-issue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Naked-Kate-front-cover-300x300-1.jpg\")
<\/a>This precious memory was returned to me after listening to Nymphya\u2019s revelatory new album \u201cNaked Kate\u201d, in which the clever and eclectic solo artist takes 15 of Kate Bush\u2019s best compositions (hits, deep cuts and rarities) and strips them all the way down to their base elements.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/autumn-2020-issue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/music-notation-sm.png\")
<\/a>comes to the fore, and the breathless vision of the vocal melody finds new space to thrive in. Tellingly, Nymphya\u2019s arrangement begins with a hushed chorus and concludes likewise, giving the arrangement a sinuous, mobius feel, as if this subconscious tension between men and women is not going to be resolved anytime soon.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/autumn-2020-issue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/captgeneralside-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Angus McMahan<\/strong> is a gregarious Solitary who lives on the Central Coast. Drummer, sculptor, crop circle inspiration, tarot wizard, High Priest, breathtakingly slow triathlete, writer of both the spiritual and the silly – check Angus out at: Patreon.com\/AngusMcMahan<\/a><\/p>\n