7. Release by Afro Celt Sound System - BASICS

Styles fused together

African, Celtic (Irish) and EDM music styles

Pad

Synthesizer sound designed to be used in sustained chords

Drone

Continuously held or repeated note

Build

The gradual introduction of more instruments

Metre

Free at first, then 4/4 metre established after Bodhrán entry

Rhythms

Mostly straight semiquavers, some syncopation, triplet semiquavers and sextuplets.

Repetitive

28 loops

Main texture

Multi-tracked, layered and constantly changing

Structure

Intro-V1-Break-V2-Solos-V3-Build-Outro

Female vocal melody (verses 1+3)

limited range, repetitive, glissando and ornamentation.

Male vocal melody (verses 2+3)

wider range in verse 2 (10th)

Instrumentals

Solo melodies based on folk tunes

African instruments (summary)

Kora, Talking drum and Djembe

Celtic instruments (summary)

Uilleann pipes, Bodhrán, Whistles, Fiddle, Accordion and Hurdy-Gurdy

EDM instruments (summary)

Synths, bass guitar, drum machine and sequencing software

Tonality

Modal and diatonic

Harmony

Slow-changing harmony with repetitive chord sequences

Vocal melody (general)

Based on opening motif with some vocables

Breath samples

Unusual sonority used in break 1

Studio effects

reverb, delay, panning and EQ