Artist: Spielplatz der Bösewichte
WTF Album: Samples of Human Feelings
Tags: Lo-Fi, Experimental, Rock, Folk, DIY, Freak-Collaboration
WTF Quality: Home recorded songs that follow no convention but to tread into unhinged creativity and candid insanity
Lifespan: 2010
Country: Eart / There
Link: http://www.lastfm.de/music/Spielplatz+der+B%C3%B6sewichte
Spielplatz der Bösewichte is made up of two members from this community, Richard There and Joewl Levis, and "Samples of Human Feelings" is their much anticipated debut.
The two learned of each other's similar musical oddities and decided to collaborate on an album of unheard of WTF proportions.
They have entered the rarely treaded realm of strangers in musical collaboration.
A realm that has been diminishing for a while but is showing promise of coming back to life.
Just maybe the age of artists and bands separating themselves from the public eye behind a thick curtain of secrecy is coming to a close.
With the advancement of social networking many musicians have stepped out into the open welcoming fans and fellow musicians into their personal lives.
Some have even gone further by deciding to collaborate and work with those connected to them through online networking communities.
Of course open musical collaboration is anything but new. It has been with us this whole time from faithful religious followers worshipping together through song at their place of worship, laborers working together while entranced in song such as african call and response and deep ocean sea shanties, even sports game chanting by spectators in the heat of excitement to cheer on the playing teams.
Of course it doesn't stop there. Children and even babies participate in spontaneous sound bonding as do animals of all kinds. Try to walk outside during a beautiful spring day without hearing the musical participation of singing birds.
So, when did musicians decide to restrict themselves with who they create music with?
When was it considered acceptable for "high art" and "low art" to stay separated? Or for the professional musician to shudder at the thought of working with an amateur?
When did the idea of "the band" become the norm of musical expression? - "This is my band and these are the only people I'm allowed to play with. Unless, of course, I declare a side-project."
Not only did Richard There and Joewl Levis collaborate from different areas of the world but they also dug deep into time and recreated musical moments from each other's past.
The album opens up with Joewl Levis's take on a Richard There WTFM favorite, "I Like Colours!".
Very sincere and innocent yet full of that weirdness that steams off of Richard There's music.
This song is almost made to be covered. There should be a day where everyone in the world creates their own version of "I Like Colours".
I know I'll start working on my version soon.
The next song is a rotation of personalities.
Richard There does his own arrangement of an old Joewl Levis anthem, "Eart is for Eartman".
This was the song that introduced me to Joewl Levis's world of Eart, which of course parallels Richard There's nation of There.
A wonderful arrangement considerably different than the original.
With the title sticking to it's promise the album travels through a surprising array of human feelings from the frighteningly sorrowful, "All Alone by Myself", to the cute, Richard and Joewl's duet on "Every Day Tomorrow".
The lo-fi is up on full throttle throughout with a deteriorating recording quality, to the mic knocks and out of focus mixing, to the decision of not even using instruments, besides the voice, in most of the songs.
All of these are qualities both artists used in their music long before they were aware of each other. Qualities they both saw each other shared.
Their inner creative child shines throughout the whole album.
Like children they both work with colorful worlds of fantasy - From There to Eart, they both play with simple and puerile ideas and tackle them like it was the only thing that mattered, and most importantly, like children, they effortlessly and shamelessly collaborated with each other simply because that's what living beings are supposed to do.
I hope that every exceptional and honest collaborative effort inspires more people to swallow their pride, or make time in their busy schedules, to musically collaborate with as many people as they can.
They way I see it - if you don't, that makes you less of a musician.
Break out of your restrictive mold and explore the possibilities of various collaboration.
Thanks Richard There and Joewl Levis, this is such a fun and playful album that will continuously help me to see the importance of those around me.
The album can be downloaded for free here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H69WA5Y3
Further discussion of this artist and album can be found here:
http://wtfmusic.org/#topic/1273239096
-OnionPalac
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