OK, now that everyone has got their copy of IKE and has been listening to it non-stop for many days, I'll once again ask the question I posed early on:
Does it sound to anyone else like there’s a dropped beat at 2:44 in Airplane/Primitive? Not a musical error – a disc problem. I’ve gone over this spot dozens and dozens of times and done the counting and it sounds like my disc just skips a beat. It's actually in time, but it sounds like that's just a matter of luck. Something is missing. If any of you could listen carefully from 2:30 - 2:50 and tell me what you find, I’d appreciate it. If my disc is defective, I may just have to fly out west to a gig and demand a replacement.
actually i think i hear what you mean. i really don't know if this is an error or not because mine is in perfect time too. that's really strange and really subtle. good ears.
definitely on purpose. filling out that whole measure would make the song boring. you have to drop a beat every now and then. This is how they do it live isn't it?
Sun beams down on to the Sandsean reigns
Caravan migrates through deep sandscape
Lungsmen unearth the creed of Hasheeshian
Procession of the Weed-Priests to cross the sands
Yes, it's definitely on purpose, I just couldn't figure out what it was about rhythmically until I sat down with it again tonight.
My music theory knowledge being as weak as it is, I know I won't explain this as well as I could if we were sitting and listening together, but here's what it sounds like to me:
In the other (previous) lines of the chorus, Brad is singing the line so that it starts or there's an accent on the "3" of the bar, so the vocal "hits' come on "3" and "4." On that one line, it comes on the "2" (hits therefore being on "2" and "3") and of course, Andrew and Marc adjust accordingly, giving the "illusion" that something is amiss at the end of the bar when it's the temporal sleight-of-hand earlier in the bar that causes the hitch for the complacent ear that is expecting the same pattern as in previous lines.
It seems like something similar happens in the very next run-through of the chorus, but the "hitch" is eased by the doubled lead guitar figure that announces the start of the "stately procession" movement. The guitar actually comes in on the "4" of that bar instead of the "1" of the next bar.
Like I said, I'm sure someone with a better grasp of theory could explain this much more clearly, but I at least understand it for myself.
A small example of how this band and this music is much deeper than the radio-friendliness of this album might suggest to the uninitiated. They make ya work and it's worth it.
