STACK #138 Apr 2016

FEATURE MUSIC

Restrung’s Orchestra Breakdown

tracks – which have been plucked from the Hoods’ last two albums, aside from a couple of newies – proved to be a giant undertaking, involving the better part of a year of collaboration with composer Jamie Messenger sending simple MIDI files back and forth (because it’s “not cheap” to have an orchestra play every single demo you’ve envisioned, Pressure explains). “Some of the tracks are quite full,” he says. “When you’re adding a 32-piece orchestra and a 20-piece chamber choir to a song that’s already a complete song, with so many instruments and sounds going on, things can get lost. That was one of the hardest parts of the project: figuring out what we could and couldn’t get rid of in the original song. Sometimes you’d strip everything out and just have the drums and orchestral part and you’d lost the groove of the song, the heart was gone. In others it was fine, it worked perfectly.” In taking these songs on tour, the Hilltops have a very short amount of time to rehearse with each orchestra before game day. They meet the choir and instrumentalists 24 hours before the show, and there’s a lot of mutual trust involved. Pressure acknowledges the intensely professional approach of these musicians, and dovetails into an extended explanation of the set-up: “To get a seat in one of these orchestras you have to be exceptionally talented,” he says. “They’re used to playing the sort of conditions where they’ll get the sheet music that week, learn it at home, then go over their parts so they’re not playing it super cold, and they’ve got their part down before the dress rehearsal. Then they’ll hear it in the context of the other music and the other players in the orchestra. Then there’s the conductor and the live drums – we’ve got Plutonic Lab on drumkit as well as Debris spinning a backing track – and we’ve got a live piano on top of the orchestra. So, there’s so much going on on stage. You’re making me nervous talking about it.” He laughs roundly and concludes: “It’s going to be amazing – we’ve put months of preparation into it.”

the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Adelaide (with whom Drinking From The Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung was recorded, along with the Adelaide Chamber Singers Choir), the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Melbourne, and so on. The noticeable difference between the group's previous Restrung project – 2012’s The Hard Road: Restrung – and the new release is the inclusion of short reprises, which are solely orchestral reinterpretations of particular tunes. “At some point in the record we wanted the orchestra to just have their moment, where it wasn’t layered with rap, hip hop drums and basslines, and existing elements of the song already there,” Pressure says. “It was just a really nice chance to have some of our music played just by the orchestra without all the back tracks.” You hear the horn section, a gang of them together, and that's where the balls and the power is There was no solidified plan to spotlight different parts of the orchestra for different tracks; Pressure says everything blossomed outward naturally as the orchestra’s unique properties were spitballed around with each song. “I love it all,” Pressure says. “I dig a lot of funk and jazz and that sort of thing. So you hear the horn section, a gang of them together, and that’s where the balls and the power is. And the strings are where the emotivism is, it’s like the heart of the orchestra. You’ve got all these crazy things – like a French horn, there’s nothing that sounds like that. And the glockenspiel. I just think the glockenspiel adds such a crazy vibe to a song that no other instrument can, in that realm of sound. They’re all such unique sounds, that you don’t get to put into music unless you work with an orchestra.” Separating the layers of the original

Glockenspiel – I Love It

Part of the tuned percussion section, the glockenspiel is a cute little metal

xylophone; you probably thrashed a rainbow Fisher-Price version in the doctor’s waiting room a few years ago. Through The Dark Reprise features the glock, but it best matches Sia’s wicked lead vocals and the bold trumpet in I Love It . Timpani – Speaking In Tongues Four big-bootied drums, sat on the floor in a semi-circle – but unlike your regular drums (such as bass and snare), these ones can be tuned. The player uses soft-headed mallets and usually performs rolls to build the note, or occasionally bangs them dramatically, George of the Jungle  style. You’ll recognise that bashing effect as Charli 2na begins his verse in Speaking In Tongues – the player is knocking out the bass notes, in time with the bass drum. They’re also isolated right at the start of Cosby Sweater , matching the syncopated beat.

MUSIC

Vibraphone – Shredding The Balloon

Basically a xylophone, but with metal bars instead of wooden. Aside from

giving a softer sound, the vibes player also has a sustain pedal under the instrument’s stand. It’s very pretty but, like the xylophone, is a royal pain to move anywhere (don’t try busking with one). You can hear its sweet, subtle sounds right at the beginning of Shredding The Balloon , before those eerie vocals kick in.

Flute – Cosby Sweater

We know the Hoods love flute (see their break-out hit The Nosebleed Section ),

and they use the wind instrument to awesome, cheeky effect where it carries that little lead melody lick across Cosby Sweater .

Piccolo – Lights Out The piccolo is the flute’s little bro: tiny and agile and twirly, like it’s being

played by Mr Tumnus. In Lights Out , it balances out the super low, heavy piano and the haunting choral descant beautifully.

Drinking From The Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung by Hilltop Hoods is out now.

Cello – Won’t Let You Down

Size-wise, the cello sits between the viola and the double bass. Hot tip: just

envision that part in School Of Rock where Jack Black spins the cello to the side and says “CELLO, you’ve got a bass!” In addition to its gorgeously rolling, marching snare drums, Won’t Let You Down gives the cellos and violas a good work out.

Hilltop Hoods are touring this month; see hilltophoods.com/hth/shows for full details. Sydney: 02/04/16 Brisbane: 08/04/16 Adelaide: 16/04/16 Melbourne: 23/04/16 Perth: 30/04/16

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