Warning: Contains minor spoilers!  It’s been two weeks since I’ve seen the film, and one week since I’ve seen the film again, and I can’t get the music out of my head.  Ludwig Göransson‘s Sinners may not only be the best film score of the year, but the best film score of many years.  To play the score (and soundtrack) again is to relive the experience of the film; but to hear the music separately is to appreciate its genius even more.

Göransson is Ryan Coogler‘s go-to composer (Black Panther, Creed), and has also scored for Christopher Nolan, most notably Oppenheimer.  In television, his most famous score is The Mandalorian.  But Sinners is a different beast, as the film is about music, with some vampires thrown in; the vampires are attracted to the music, which “pierces the veil between life and death.”  If Sammie (newcomer Miles Caton) were not so good at playing guitar, it’s possible no one would have died.

The film’s main genre is the blues, but Göransson uses this as a starting point, expanding outward like spikes on a wheel.  The key scene, represented by “I Lied to You” on the soundtrack and “Magic What We Do (Surreal Montage)” on the score, revisits the movie’s opening line, which is repeated by the narrator: “There are legends of people with a gift of making music so true, it can conjure spirits from the past and the future.”  The scene contains African dancing, Asian instrumentation, Jimi Hendrix guitar, a DJ, an MC, a breakdancer and a twerker.  But this isn’t the only place in the film where genres mix; right from the start, Göransson shifts from blues to modern composition to electronics, sometimes only for a few notes.  In the film (and soundtrack), the vampires adapt an old blues song, turning it into a sinister Appalachian fiddle number.  In perhaps the second-most audacious musical scene, Black and white dance an Irish jig to “Rocky Road to Dublin.”

Many of the tracks are injected with multiple moods; “Why You Here” is mournful and sad, but also celebratory.  Sammie (played later in the film by Buddy Guy) first strums, then attacks the guitar, then begins to sing without words; meanwhile, the strings convey a sense of foreboding that is heightened in the second viewing, as one knows what is coming.  “Not What He Seems/Sé Abú” sneaks in “Rocky Road to Dublin” so subtly that one hardly notices the first time; then the cello enters, conveying a deep sense of menace.  At the end of the track, the massive final theme is previewed, the drama pushed to the nth degree; and all this just before “Music What We Do.”

In one of the film’s greatest scenes, Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), relates the tale of an old friend who almost escaped the Deep South, only to be lynched, castrated and murdered.  Words give way to a deep, heartrending, repeated cry, and then he starts to stomp and sing: the genesis of the blues, all in one scene.  “Mount Bayou” continues this tragic sub-theme, which extends throughout the film; sadly, vampires are not the worst enemy.  Their offer of true equality is more insidious because it is tempting: not the false promise of a Klansman who is now himself a vampire.  (As an aside, one wonders if the director was tempted to call the film Klanpires, but we’re glad he didn’t.)

The score is 71 minutes long, the soundtrack 72.  Music permeates the film to the extent that one might consider it to be the main character.  As Göransson mixes genres, Coogler mixes emotions: one of the most horrifying scenes in the film is offset by corresponding music on the stage: Jayme Lawson leading the entire party, stomping on wood, belting out the chorus of “Pale Pale Moon,” hearkening back to Delta Slim’s signature scene.

Toward the end, themes that were once intimate grow increasingly dramatic, especially the five-note motif.  Choirs and drums up the ante, making “Thy Kingdom Come” one of the scariest pieces; even here, Göransson momentarily relents, injecting a sorrowful interlude.  In “Grand Closin’ (feat. Gales, Eric),” descending string scales are met by raucous guitar, connecting back to “Magic What We Do,” and one realizes that it may be hard for Sammie to “bury that guitar.”  And then (spoiler alert for sure!), in the first post-credit scene, a surprise guest, deep in the future, admits to Buddy Guy that he prefers “the real,” leading to yet another revelatory number.  But the final post-credit scene takes place before the film’s first scene, toying once again with the “spirits from the past and the future.”  The soundtrack”s only misstep is to embed this music in the opening track instead of saving it for the bitter yet transcendent end.  In contrast, the score ends perfectly, with Caton on “Free For A Day,” all things drawn to completion.

Sony may have been caught off guard by the popularity of the music, as these records won’t drop until September 26.  Download them now, buy them then, spin them forever.  (Richard Allen)

Daft Punk have used a wide variety of vocal effects in their songs. A May 2001 interview in Remix magazine provided a rare insight from Daft Punk themselves on the topic.

“People always ask us what vocoder we use, but every one of our vocal tracks uses a different vocoder effect. We have the old Roland one [an SVC-350], Auto-Tune, and a DigiTech Vocalist.”

The quote delivers some vital clues, but it’s incomplete, covering only their first two albums. There’s no mention of using a talk box, despite Around The World almost certainly using one. The quote makes it sound like the DigiTech Vocalist is a vocoder, but it’s not. And for that matter, which DigiTech Vocalist model? There’s around 30 pieces of hardware in DigiTech’s Vocalist series, and quite a few of them were around before Discovery’s release in 2001.

I’ve read comments suggesting the DigiTech Vocalist models with the “EX” suffix are special, but nobody seems to know why, and nobody has published a direct comparison to prove or disprove the theory. I decided to take on the challenge, and run the tests myself. Here’s a fraction of the Vocalist units I ended up buying.

Why are there duplicates of the same model? Why is there a Korg ih in that photo? Before this article gets sidetracked with tests and some honestly quite interesting corporate partnerships, mergers, and lawsuits, here is a list of every Daft Punk album song containing robot-like vocal effects, and my guess on which piece of kit was used for the vocals.

Homework notes (20 January 1997)

There aren’t many robot vocal effects on Homework, but there is a lot of pitch shifting, likely provided by Daft Punk’s Ensoniq DP/4+, a digital multi-effects units that can do a variety of things. I don’t believe Daft Punk used the vocoder on the Ensoniq DP/4+ for Homework or any of their other albums. The Remix magazine quote says Ensoniq DP/4, but a gear list in another interview says DP/4+. It doesn’t matter which model was used, as the pitch shifting and vocoder sound the same on both units.

Discovery notes (12 March 2001)

One More Time sounds like Auto-Tune in combination with a Mu-Tron Phasor or Moogerfooger. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger uses a DigiTech Talker vocoder. Given the DigiTech Talker was used extensively for Human After All, maybe it was one of the last songs recorded for Discovery? The DigiTech Talker wasn’t mentioned in the May 2001 interview, despite its use on Discovery.

Human After All notes (14 March 2005)

DigiTech Talker and DigiTech Synth Wah are all over the entire album. But, did they use a DigiTech Synth Wah, or DigiTech Bass Synth Wah? They’re very similar pedals. The tremolo effect on The Brainwasher could have been done many ways. Maybe it was just an LFO modulating the amplitude on their Roland S-760 sampler? Maybe it was a guitar pedal? It’s an easy effect that can be achieved many different ways.

Random Access Memories notes (17 May 2013)

In Lose Yourself To Dance, the “everybody’s dancing on the floor” vocals sound very crunchy and DigiTech Talker-like. The vocodeded vocals in Touch sound like a Sennheiser VSM201 switched to unvoiced, or using white noise as the vocoder’s carrier. Instant Crush could be Auto-Tune or some other kind of harmoniser. It sounds like Instant Crush constains some Sennheiser VSM201 chord layers in places.

Talk boxes

Daft Punk’s vocal effects can be broadly split into three categories: Talk boxes, vocoders, and harmonisers. They all sound vaguely similar and robot-like, and you could be forgiven for confusing them, but they’re extremely different techniques and technologies.

Talk boxes are relatively simple devices — they’re a speaker in a sealed box with a small opening. One end of a hose is fitted to the opening, and the other end is placed into the performer’s mouth, blasting noise towards their throat. The performer can pretend to speak, shaping and filtering the sound coming out of the tube with their vocal tract. A microphone is then needed to record the resulting sound. A keyboard or guitar is typically connected to the talk box unit as the sound source for the speaker. This lets the keyboard or guitar sound like it’s singing. If you’ve heard Chromeo, 2Pac’s California Love, or Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer before, you’ve heard a talk box.

I can confirm firing loud sounds into your mouth while holding a tube with your teeth is a bit uncomfortable. In terms of vocal effects used by Daft Punk, I think talk box might be the least used and least interesting, in terms of hunting down the exact hardware used. Talk boxes are simple devices and typically all sound similar. The sound source and performance play a bigger role in the result than the hardware itself.

Also, there aren’t many talk boxes on the market. Daft Punk may have used a Heil Talk Box, a Rocktron Banshee, a home made talk box, or something else. The MXR M222 Talk Box is probably the best option if you’re looking to buy a talk box today, because it has a built in amplifier. The MXR wasn’t around when Around The World was created though, so that’s not the unit they used.

Daft Punk’s early albums extensively used a Roland Juno-106, so it’s likely that was the sound source for the talk box used on Around The World. It sounds like a sawtooth wave with the filters open.

Even though they’ve been around in a commercial form since the mid 70s, talk boxes aren’t the first device to use human vocal tracts to create robotic sounds — the Sonovox from 1939 takes that prize.

Vocoders

Vocoders are a bit like an electronic version of a talk box. Vocoders take two audio inputs — often a voice and a synth — and combine them by filtering the synth with the voice’s frequency response. The filtering is usually done by splitting the signal into frequency bands. The volume of each voice band sets the volume of the repective synth band. More bands usually means a higher quality and more intelligible result. I’ve been calling the inputs “voice” and “synth”, but they’re often referred to as the modulator and carrier. The modulator filters the carrier.

Vocoders can be analogue or digital. Good analogue vocoders are physically big and very expensive, due to their complexity, especially if they have lots of frequency bands. They’re also a specialty effect, and therefore usually not mass produced.

The peak for high-end analogue vocoders was the 1970s — the EMS Vocoder 5000 was released in 1976, the Bode/Moog Vocoder in 1977, and the Sennheiser VSM201 in 1977. It’s hard to know exactly how many Sennheiser VSM201s were built, but the highest serial number I’ve seen is 40. The photo below is of the unit with serial number 21. Why should we care about that serial number? It’s the exact unit Daft Punk used on Random Access Memories, rented from Audio Rents in Los Angeles for the sessions. Serial number 21 was sold, but Audio Rents have another VSM201, if you’re keen on renting one.

The best modern analogue vocoder I’ve heard, by far, is the Dromedary Modular Ultimate VoIS. It shares a lot of similarities with the Sennheiser VSM201, including accurate voiced/unvoiced detection, silence bridging, and other features. It’s a fraction of the price of a vintage vocoder, and still in production. If you’re looking for a high-end vocoder, it is the one to get.

What about vocoders used by Daft Punk prior to Random Access Memories? It’s incredibly likely Daft Punk used a DigiTech Talker on Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger and many of the songs on Human After All. The DigiTech Talker is a digital vocoder, sold as a guitar pedal.

I said “incredibly likely”, because there’s another vocoder that sounds eerily similar. That’s no coincidence — even though the Talker has DigiTech’s name on the front of the pedal, it was designed and manufactured by IVL Technologies in Canada. IVL also teamed up with Electrix to build the Warp Factory vocoder, which sounds very similar, but not identical. It’s pretty clear they’re running the same algorithm.

IVL specialises in vocal effects and voice processing. They’re still around, but known under a different name — in 2000, TC Helicon was formed as a joint venture between TC Electronic and IVL Technologies. TC Group, the parent company of TC Electronic, took full ownership of TC Helicon in 2005. And finally, Music Tribe (Behringer) purchased TC Group in 2015.

TC Helicon still make a vocoder guitar pedal called the Talkbox Synth. Sadly, it sounds nothing like the DigiTech Talker. It’s pretty good, but it doesn’t have the crunchy Daft Punk sound. Also, it has a terrible name. It’s not a talk box at all. It’s a vocoder. The DigiTech Talker has a similar naming issue — one of the settings is called “talk box”, and it’s also a vocoder. The recurring theme when researching this article was finding out about IVL/TC Helicon’s incorrectly named products and features.

Here’s a list of some vocoders, including the models being discussed. Many of these vocoders were used on well known songs. A MAM VF-11 was used on Intergalactic by Beastie Boys. Roland VP-330s were used on In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins, Radio Ga Ga by Queen, and I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder. A Korg DVP-1 was used by Air for lots of their songs, including Kelly Watch The Stars. As well as being used by Daft Punk, Sennheiser VSM201s have been used by Herbie Hancock, Giorgio Moroder, and Aphex Twin.

Having more filter bands typically increases the quality of the results, but I wouldn’t consider the Metavox or V256 to be anywhere near the best in terms of intelligibility. The EMS Vocoder 5000 and Sennheiser VSM201 are often considered to be the best vocoders ever made.

The DigiTech Talker and Eletrix Warp Factory use linear predictive coding (LPC), rather than bandpass filters. The value shown in the bands column for those models is the LPC order.

Vocoder comparison

If you’d like to hear many of these vocoders in action, I’ve created a vocoder comparison video. The comparison includes a Sennheiser VSM201, DigiTech Talker, the XILS 201 plugin, a Dromedary Modular Ultimate VoIS, and many other vododers. It compares the actual models used by Daft Punk as well as software clones, and the best modern analogue vocoder.

Harmonisers

Harmonisers are very different to talk boxes and vocoders. There’s no filtering involved, and they don’t require two audio sources — they work directly with one audio signal, often a vocal, altering its pitch. Harmonisers are a digital effect.

There’s two main parts to the digital algorithm used by harmonisers — pitch detection, and pitch shifting. Pitch detection figures out the fundamental frequency of the signal. Once the pitch is known, lots of possibilities open up.

If the pitch is rapidly shifted to a nearby note in the song’s key, the result sounds like One More Time or Instant Crush. Using Auto-Tune with extreme settings is one way to achieve this effect, but it can be done with most harmonisers and is often called “hard tune”.

Some harmonisers can have keyboards connected to them, and use the notes played on the keyboard to determine which note to shift the vocal to. Holding multiple keys can create harmonies. Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap is a great example of this effect in action. In Hide and Seek, the original main vocal can also be heard, blended in with the harmonies.

Digital Love and Something About Us were created using the same technique, where a MIDI keyboard or sequencer was used to control the pitch of the vocal. Daft Punk have said they used a DigiTech Vocalist, which is a strong indication that’s what was used for those two tracks. Both songs were released on 12 March 2001, as part of the Discovery album. Given the time required for mixing, mastering, and physical media production, I’d guess they must have used a model from before late 2000. There’s 7 DigiTech Vocalist models with MIDI pitch control that were released before then.

The earlier models incorrectly call the MIDI control feature “vocoder”, and later models call it “MIDI notes mode” or “notes harmony mode”. The list below shows all the DigiTech Vocalist models with MIDI notes mode. There’s another 20 or so models that can’t be controlled via a keyboard.

Interestingly, Imogen Heap also used a DigiTech Vocalist to record Hide and Seek, and has used a TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 when performing the song live. Which DigiTech Vocalist? I emailed Imogen’s team and to my surprise, they responded, confirming a DigiTech Vocalist Workstation EX was used for recording Hide and Seek.

Remember IVL Technologies from earlier in the article? Their logo is on all those Vocalist models, except the Vocalist Live Pro. Yes, IVL also designed and built almost all the DigiTech Vocalist units. The Vocalist Live Pro has a different logo on the back — 3db Research. And, the Vocalist VL3D has IVL and 3db Research’s logos on it. I don’t fully understand what went down, but 3db Research was created by ex-IVL staff, and Harman International accused TC Helicon of infringing patents relating to harmonisers. TC Helicon counter sued, and won.

Hold up. Why is Harman involved? While IVL were busy merging with TC Group, forming TC Helicon, and being sold to Behringer, DigiTech were experiencing their own dramas — DigiTech sold to Harman International in 1990, then Samsung bought Harman in 2017. After a restructure, DigiTech ceased to exist in mid 2018. In 2022, DigiTech was purchased and revived by Cor-Tek, who seem to be doing a great job. That’s why it’s possible to buy DigiTech pedals today. Unfortunately, they don’t currently sell any DigiTech Vocalists or Talkers, so you’ll have to hit the second hand market if you’re after either. This JHS Pedals video has a full recap of the DOD and DigiTech history.

IVL partnered with other companies, including Korg. The Korg ih Interactive Vocal Harmony appears to run the same algorithm as the DigiTech Vocalist series, so I purchased one of those to add to the tests. I also purchased a TC Helicon Perform VE and TC Helicon VoiceWorks. As noted above, TC Helicon is the modern incarnation of IVL, so maybe their harmonisers sound the same as the older DigiTech ones?

IVL also worked with DigiTech to create the Whammy WH-1, Whammy II, and Bass Whammy pedals, which makes sense, given the Whammy is a harmoniser. Those models likely shared code and algorithms with the Vocalist line. Later versions of the DigiTech Whammy weren’t built in collaboration with IVL. The earlier IVL Whammy models are held in high regard and their prices on the used market reflect that. However, the latest model, the Whammy V, does have a “classic” mode that is supposed to replicate the earler models.

EX models

Now we have the full history of DigiTech and IVL covered, we can talk about how the “EX” models fit into the timeline. In 1998, the Studio Vocalist EX was released, becoming the new flagship Vocalist model. The main upgrades were more patch storage, more presets, and an updated algorithm with better pitch recognition.

For the effect used on Digital Love and Something About Us, the improved pitch recognition would make an audible difference. But, in my tests, the difference between the non-EX and EX models is fairly subtle. Audible and better, but subtle. If I had to guess which unit Daft Punk used, my money would be on the Studio Vocalist EX, but a Vocalist Workstation or one of the other earlier models could have also been used.

To confuse things even further, the Vocalist Workstation can run the EX firmware, and I was able to upgrade one of my own units from firmware 1.02 to 2.02 (2.02 is the EX version, with additional presets and patch storage). A Vocalist Workstation running firmware 2.02 sounds identical to a Vocalist Workstation EX to me. The internals to the Vocalist Workstation EX are a bit different to the Vocalist Workstation, but I don’t think any of the differences relate to the audio path. The EX is also heavier, at 840 grams vs the non-EX’s 700 grams. The weight difference is due to a useless strip of metal in the EX. No, I’m not kidding.

Without more evidence, it seems impossible to know which model Daft Punk used. They may have used a Vocalist VHM5, Studio Vocalist, Vocalist II, MIDI Vocalist, Vocalist Workstation, Vocalist Access, Studio Vocalist EX, or Vocalist VR. I’m not sure it matters, given how similar they all sound.

If you are looking for a device to replicate the effect, a Studio Vocalist EX, Vocalist Workstation EX, or Vocalist Workstation with the EX firmware are good choices. Some of the newer TC Helicon devices, like the VoiceLive 3 Extreme, Perform VE, and Perform VG are great, too. Just be aware that only specific TC Helicon vocal effect models have MIDI notes mode. Also, the Perform VE and Perform VG have been discontinued.

I would recommend against the Vocalist Live Pro or Vocalist VL3D. They don’t run IVL’s algorithm and they sound terrible. I would also recommend against getting a Korg ih — it does use IVL’s algorithm and sounds like a Vocalist Workstation, but there is a permanent chorus effect that can not be disabled.

Pitch shifting

The pitch shifting effect used on Teachers, Oh Yeah, and Technologic is similar to the harmoniser effect we’ve been discussing, but there’s no pitch detection involved — the audio is just shifted without trying to make it match any specific note. It’s highly likely Daft Punk used their Ensoniq DP/4+ to achieve the pitch shifting on Homework and Discovery.

Harmoniser comparison

If you’d like to hear many of these harmonisers in action, I’ve created a harmoniser comparison video, which also covers some of the modern TC Helicon models. Another interesting fact is that all the harmonisers tested use last note priority when more than one note is played at a time via MIDI.

Synth Wah vs Bass Synth Wah

Human After All sounds like Human After All because of yet another DigiTech product — a digital envelope filter guitar pedal called the Synth Wah. Or, the Bass Synth Wah. It’s unclear which pedal was used, because they’re incredibly similar. Strangely, the Bass Synth Wah weights a lot more (340 vs 635 grams). I didn’t open the pedals up to find out why, but that’s a huge difference, given how alike they are. It might just be an internal metal weight, like the Vocalist Workstation EX has.

There’s 7 effect types on each pedal, selected via the rightmost knob. Daft Punk favoured “filter 1” and “filter 2”. Here’s a list of the songs on Human After All, and the effect they probably used.

If Television Rules The Nation does in fact use “env down”, then that’s a vital clue — the Synth Wah has “env down”, but the Bass Synth Wah does not. The pedals share effect types 3, 4, 5, and 6, but 1, 2, and 7 are different. It was the Synth Wah after all.

Credits

These amazing people helped make this article and the related videos a reality: Vocals performed by Solohead. Sennheiser VSM201 vocoder recording by Talha Vocoding. Ensoniq DP/4+ vocoder recording by @_floeter. DigiTech Studio Vocalist recording by Spencer D. Carson. Technical guidance, repairs, and EPROM programming by Cam Sanderson.

Keep living the gold and the silver dream.

Last Tuesday, I gave a talk to over 300 developers at Deep Dish Swift about Apple Intelligence, where I made the following claim:

Apple will win the AI race

I’m an expert on App Intents, the API that powers the yet-to-be-seen features of Apple Intelligence – Actions and Personal Context. After designing implementations with my clients, and seeing the trends around AI-assisted coding, hearing rumors of an iOS 19 redesign, and seeing the acceleration effects of artificial intelligence, I believe Apple is skating to where the puck will be, rather than where it is now.

I’ll leave the thesis for the talk – but if you’re building for any Apple devices, you’ll want to understand how important App Intents is to the future of the platform:

Watch the 54-minute talk from Deep Dish Swift on YouTube Live.

The post BeatMirror’s New “Targetless” Mode appeared first on Ten Kettles.

Love, Death & Robots is an animated anthology series on Netflix. Each episode is a standalone story, though there is the barest of cross-season continuity in the form of one story featuring characters from a past season.

I love animation, but I’m hesitant to recommend Love, Death & Robots to casual viewers for a couple of reasons. First, this show is not for kids. It features a lot of violence, gore, nudity, and sex. That’s not what most people expect from animation.

Second, the quality is uneven. I don’t mean the quality of the animation, which is usually excellent. I mean how well they work as stories. Each episode has only a ten- to fifteen-minute runtime, during which it has to introduce its characters, its (usually sci-fi) setting, and then tell a satisfying story. It’s a challenging format.

Three seasons of Love, Death & Robots have been released since 2019. With season four set to debut in May, I thought I’d take a shot at convincing more people to give this show a chance. This is a rare case where I don’t recommend starting with season 1, episode 1 and viewing in order. The not-so-great episodes will surely drive most people away. Instead, I’m going to tell you where the gems are.

Here’s my list of the very best episodes of Love, Death & Robots in seasons 1–3. They’re standalone stories, so you can watch them in any order, but (back on brand) I do recommend that you watch them in the order listed below.

One last warning: Though not every episode is filled with gore and violence, most of them are—often including sexual violence. If this is not something you want to see, then I still recommend watching the handful of episodes that avoid these things. Remember, each episode is a standalone story, so watching even just one is fine.

• Sonnie’s Edge (Season 1, Episode 1) - This is a perfect introduction to the series. It’s grim, violent, gory, beautifully animated, but with some unexpected emotional resonance.

• Three Robots (Season 1, Episode 2) - The characters introduced in this story have become the unofficial mascots of the series. You’ll be seeing them again. The episode is lighthearted, cute, and undercut by a decidedly grim setting.

• Good Hunting (Season 1, Episode 8) - Yes, traditional 2D animation is still a thing! But don’t expect something Disney-like. This story combines fantasy, myth, sci-fi, sex, love, death, and…well, cyborgs, at least.

• Lucky 13 (Season 1, Episode 13) - If you like sci-fi action as seen in movies like Aliens and Edge of Tomorrow, this is the episode for you. As expected for this series, there’s a bit of a cerebral and emotional accent added to the stock sci-fi action.

• Zima Blue (Season 1, Episode 14) - This is my favorite episode of the series, but it’s a weird one. I’m sure it doesn’t work at all for some people, but it got me. There’s no violence, sex, or gore—just a single, simple idea artfully realized.

• Snow in the Desert (Season 2, Episode 4) - There’s a full movie’s worth of story crammed into this 18-minute episode, including some nice world-building and a lot of familiar themes and story beats. There’s nothing unexpected, but the level of execution is very high.

• Three Robots: Exit Strategies (Season 3, Episode 1) - Our lovable robot friends are at it again, with an extra dose of black humor.

• Bad Travelling (Season 3, Episode 2) - Lovecraftian horror on the high seas. It’s extremely dark and extremely gross.

• The Very Pulse of the Machine (Season 3, Episode 3) - I guess I like the sappy, weird ones the best, because this is my second-favorite episode. It combines the kind of sci-fi ideas usually only encountered in novels with an emotional core. The animation is a beautiful blend of 3D modeling and cel shading. (As seen in Frame Game #75)

• Swarm (Season 3, Episode 6) - I’ll see your Aliens-style sci-fi and raise you one pile of entomophobia and body horror. Upsetting and creepy.

• In Vaulted Halls Entombed (Season 3, Episode 8) - “Space marines” meets Cthulhu. It goes about as well as you’d expect for our heroes.

• Jibaro (Season 3, Episode 9) - The animation style in this episode is bonkers. I have never seen anything like it. The story, such as it is, is slight. This episode makes the list entirely based on its visuals, which are upsetting and baffling and amazing in equal measure. I’m not sure I even “like” this episode, but man, is it something.

If you’ve read all this and still can’t tell which are the “safest” episodes for those who want to avoid gore, sex, and violence, I’d recommend Three Robots (S1E2), Zima Blue (S1E14), Three Robots: Exit Strategies (S3E1), and The Very Pulse of the Machine (S3E3). But remember, none of these episodes are really suitable for children.

If you watch and enjoy any of these, then check out the rest of the episodes in the series. You may find some that you like more than any of my favorites.

Also, if you see these episodes in a different order in your Netflix client, the explanation is that Netflix rearranges episodes based on your viewing habits and history. Each person may see a different episode order within Netflix. Since viewing order doesn’t really matter in an anthology series, this doesn’t change much, but it is unexpected and, I think, ill-advised. Regardless, the links above should take you directly to each episode.

I’m so excited that a series like this even exists. It reminds me of Liquid Television from my teen years: a secret cache of odd, often willfully transgressive animation hiding in plain sight on a mainstream media platform. They’re not all winners, but I treasure the ones that succeed on their own terms.

Here’s a curious sonic nugget from Estonia’s Hidden Harmony Recordings: a beat tape on wax from an established artist operating under a pseudonym.  In light of this knowledge, we can’t call it an intriguing debut album; we just don’t know how many albums the artist has under their belt.  Muddying the water, TEKAMOLO is a technique for recalling the word order of a German sentence.  When applied to the music, it may refer to the ordering of memories or placement of samples, each aspect related to the nostalgia inherent in these grooves.

“How much void can a song endure while still remaining a song?” Tekamolo asks.  These nine “dissembled songs” are meant to reflect loneliness, yearning for connection and completion.  This does not, however, prevent them from being fun.  A pleasant haze descends in the opening seconds of “Oh No,” and we are already guessing (though we are not supposed to guess); might this be Eric Hilton?  The mood shifts upon hearing a fuller sample:  “You can be broken, it doesn’t make you useless, oh no.”  “Fail” muses on a broken relationship with narrator and Shakespearean chorus: “This song was made for you, but you never listen to it.”

While considering the minimum requirements for a song, one might also consider the effects of layering.  Each track is an amalgamation of pre-existing tracks and TV episodes, pitch-shifted and pasted, imitating the manner in which the memory conflates events. When we view a photo album, we reconstruct stories, but the only reliable frames are those that we can see.  Most tracks sport an obvious theme: “How might I survive in this gentle world?”, “Your love never failed me yet” ~ but rumination is a constant sub-theme.  Vinyl crackle runs throughout like mist.

The very title is retro: best tunes for your answering machine.  Prior to the advent of ringtones, those of a certain age and interest chose songs to accompany their messages: songs that could be changed at the press of a button, or perhaps two buttons: answering machine and cassette player.  It is difficult to imagine any of these tunes as being the best for this purpose, although they recall the primary feature of such messages: each involved only a snippet of a song standing in for the whole.  The person recording would add their own voice, a rudimentary remix.  In the words of “Nothing,” “I’m thrilled to announce that nothing is going on with me.”

Tekamolo calls the album “An Audio Diary of a Lonely Soul.”  Each snippet seems to have personal meaning for the artist: “Everything I touch, I break.”  These may have been earworms for the artist, or in recovery terms, the self-deprecating repetitions of (literal) “old tapes.”  Yet there is also a life-affirming tone to these sonic collages, which defang even the toughest sentences through a process of recontextualization.  “This song would be your home,” a voice sings, pitched and re-pitched, atop bright choirs.  The music wants to draw one in, like the radio in Helen Reddy’s “Angie Baby.”

The question of how much a song can be deconstructed while still remaining a song may not have been answered, but perhaps the point is that a fraction is all one needs.  (Richard Allen)