Monday, August 4, 2008
at
10:26 PM
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Download the third track from e' TZAINTES OST online release here:
www.inristudio.com/writing/eTzaintes-ep-Streaks.mp3
STREAKS | UBERMENSCH
feat. Wesley Choo of E.P.I.C
Music and lyrics by Armen Rizal Rahman
+ LYRICS +
Suddenly, it seemed that you're the victim,
But I don't mind.
Found that eyes are wide, when we are just
Doing fine.
Hearing whispers on the train, on the bus,
And on the street.
Telling me I'm criminal when love is all
That I speak.
So they made you popular
So they made you perfect
Worship
CHORUS
Streaks of numbness; heal me, I implore you
Streaks of numbness brings me down again
Streaks of numbness; heal me, I implore you
Streaks so volatile erupts within me
Hear my laughter, see my tears.
Feel me liqour, glazened eyes.
High on you, high on I, and high in every
Cigarette light (or is it 'lies'?)
Feel the capture, feel the pain. And the rapture
In my veins.
Let the day be leading you, cos when its over
It's the same.
(A fuckin' shame.)
So they made you popular
So they made you perfect
Worship
CHORUS
So they made you popular
So they made me wretched
Bastard
Bless be
Tell me
CHORUS
Streaks of numbness; heal me, I implore you
Streaks of numbness holds me down again
Streaks of numbness; heal me, I implore you
Streaks of numbness makes me blind again
Whatcha lookin at?
Whatcha lookin at?
(Armen)
Posted by
INRI STUDIO
Labels:
e' Tzaintes music,
Streaks
Sunday, August 3, 2008
at
10:39 PM
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INRI studio's original tracks for e' Tzaintes, "Catastrophe" and "Streaks", was done exactly the way the "Another Brick on the Wall" cover was done; everything was produced, sequenced, layered and mixed via very simple, download-for-free softwares.
Even vocal recording set up was simple ie cheap karaoke mic straight to the computer' on-board sound device (in other words, BUDGET). The only other live instrument being the guitars, contributed by Wesley Choo of E.P.I.C, played through a multi-fx rack device of which details were not available to me.
What makes "Catastrophe" and "Streaks" different, and even MORE difficult to do is that both songs were made to replace two popular and well recognised tracks. These two songs were used in two very significant scenes, which pretty much sets the tone and direction for the film. The two songs are:
1) "Bullet in Your Head" by Rage Against the Machine, and
2) "Sweet Dreams", Marilyn Manson's cover of the classic Eurythmic track.
(Btw, both these tracks appear in the extremely rare director's cut VCD. Less than 100 of these are made, so if you are one of the lucky few to own it, you have a very priced possession ;-))
One of the biggest issues that we encountered is the fact that reediting the sequence of the shots has become a non-option; by the time we had finished our director's cut version of the film, the system we used for editing is no longer available to us. Putting in a totally different track would endanger the scenes by rendering them grotesque; the music would have the danger of not matching the visuals, and vice versa.
That puts us into very tight constraints and options. Basically, to replace the above mentioned tracks, the new tracks have to meet the following criteria:
1) They had to encapsulate the same spirit and sound that the other two songs had.
2) They had to have the same (or almost similar) musical structure: same length for intro, verse, chorus etc, same climatic peaks, same sound dynamics, and even the same length of songs.
3) They have to be songs that are easy to get copyrights (the reason for replacing the mentioned songs in the first place), or,
4) If composed from scratch, they basically have to sound similar, yet original enough for them to stand on their own and give us the least amount of trouble (if any). 
It took us an extra year to have both tracks completed and added to the final version of e' Tzaintes, which we consider as a miracle owing to the fact that we, being complete amateurs in film and music, had to contend with really huge obstacles. However, all that effort was worth the resultant euphoria that we experienced when we watch the finished product.
You might be wondering right now, why so much thought and effort and stress, not to mention the time "wasted", in trying to fit in something as simple as music? Plenty of royalty free music/sound banks are available at affordable cost even back then. It would have been much simpler, wouldn't it?
The answer: Because we love music.
It is really simple to articulate, but very difficult to elaborate. Suffice to say that as how it is a certain piece of art, photography and film can evoke the responses it wants out of its audience, so can a piece of music.
In this case, that ability to evoke response has become a MUST. e' Tzaintes is a raw, brash and rebellious film, hence sounds that sits in the background is just not an option. Instead, the music had to be just as raw, brash and rebellious and it has to be able to take the front seat, yet compliments the film well enough so as to not overshadow it.
(In fact, our philosophy on the importance of sound and music in our film spills over to our post-Tzaintes project, "A Wicked Tale", which hopefully will be addressed in a future blog entry.)
Even now, with almost 10 years after INRI studio was first formed, somethings really haven't changed. We still make or plan to make not-so-Singapore projects, we still love our music, we still find ways to provoke your senses and open your mind. With the upcoming double screening in less than 2 weeks away, we are about to fill our mighty pens again to scribe the another chapter.
To you, it might be just another event. To us, it's another conquest.
See you at Sinema Old School. (Armen)
Saturday, July 26, 2008
at
10:21 PM
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Download the second track from e' TZAINTES OST online release here:
www.inristudio.com/writing/eTzaintes-ep-Catastrophe.mp3
CATASTROPHE | UBERMENSCH
feat. Wesley Choo of E.P.I.C
Music and lyrics by Armen Rizal Rahman
+ LYRICS +
Like this yall! Yeah. Stop.
Stop. Coz, I'll be coming up and go.
Hell of a fury. In this one man show.
My inside's playing more possum than the dead.
My microphone's untouchable like Elliot Ness.
The irony kills me. Now with a gun to my head.
Try to pull the trigger but the chamber is dead.
I'm regreting my life and all that's past.
The future is here, but it's going too fast!
Inches by inches. Inches grow to a mile.
A mile down the road and you can rest for a while.
But inches by inches are inches off course.
Try to rally like an unstoppable force!
And I take the backseat while my driver is blind.
On a one way street, we cross the middle line.
Crash at the junction with mere inches to go.
The fury's building up and then you explode!
Catastrophe!
Mistakes! Mistakes!
I free myself!
Wait. Wait for the next catastrophe to come.
To place to hide. We die so come and get some.
Belong to a unit. A place you call home.
Belong to another, or walk on alone.
Down the streets in an alley or up the avenue.
And regret your inability to start something new.
So you thought you could take it.
But you kept your head down.
Walking alone and find yourself amidst a ghost town.
Curiosity be killed by the light.
So quench your thirst, while there is still a night life.
Drunk in the back seat while your driver is blind.
On a one way street forget the middle line.
Your headlights are fading. You can't see in the dark.
Your taillights are faulty. And now you're throwing sparks.
Crash at the junction with mere inches to go.
The fury's building up and then you explode!
Catastrophe!
Mistakes! Mistakes!
I free myself!
Catastrophe!
Mistakes! Mistakes!
I free myself!
Catastrophe!
Mistakes! Mistakes!
I free myself!
(Armen)
Posted by
INRI STUDIO
Labels:
Catastrophe,
e' Tzaintes music
Friday, July 18, 2008
at
11:01 AM
|
 Download the first track of e' Tzaintes soundtrack online release here:
http://www.inristudio.com/writing/anotherbrickinthewall.mp3
The unadulterated version of Another Brick on the Wall, a Pink Floyd cover by Ubermench (now known as The House of Anonymous) featuring Wesley Choo and Bernie Chia (E.P.I.C.).
-------------------------------
I remembered back in 1997, a lecturer of mine gave a comment to the class about the MTV culture:
"The eyes are the windows to the soul. Music soothes the savage beast. MTV combines these two philosophies as a package for the senses".
It is with this philosophical culture that we created what we created: Tzang serves his pallette of artistry through his stories, told through the visual/verbal canvas that is his films. As the music producer of INRI Studio, I support his art through my own form of expression: music. You can see (or in this case, hear) my contributions in the two films of INRI Studio, in which I was the executive music producer for both films.
Apart from that, I founded and spearheads my own personal musical/artistic front: The House of anonymous, which gave me a chance to express myself through my art, and the opportunity to work with some of the most talented individuals in the local music scene.
But as with any story, there is always the humble beginning.
It was at a time when we were neck deep in the editing for e' Tzaintes. It was also the time that I had only started dabbling into audio editing, prior to shooting the film, so my knowledge and skills with music was amateur at best. It was then that Tzang introduced me the song that sets the direction to the music of e' Tzaintes: Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall.
The ambient-like instrumental soundscape, as well as the lyrical words of rebel energy, and the massive chant of children singing, "We don't need no education" truly captured the essence of what we wanted Tzaintes to be. I was inspired. I started working on something, mucking about through trial and error, using softwares that are freely available over the net. I didn't quite know what to make of it at first (again, I had never actually produced an actual musical track before), but I knew at the back of my mind I had one purpose: to make a cover of this, or perhaps pull of something similar.
Through that trial and error method, I managed to create a synth based loop, and started building up layers from there, adding synth drum tracks to the synth loop and laying a rough vocal recording on top of it. But it still had missing ingredients in it, so Tzang introduced me to Wesley Teo, former bassist for the band Optical Brothers/current E.P.I.C.
Fast forward a weeks later, and Wesley and I were laying down the bass and guitar tracks for our Pink Floyd cover. We also enlisted the help of Optical Brothers/E.P.I.C's lead guitarist, Bernie, for all the driven guitar and lead guitar works. After which I had the separate tracks remixed again, which saw the finished production of our cover of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).
It was never put into the actual film, of course, because of copyrights, but it did set off a momentum for the next two tracks that will become the first original tracks by INRI studio: Catastrophe and Streaks.
What made this track an important part of the whole scheme of things was that it is produced in the same vibe as e'Tzaintes (as how Catastrophe and Streaks was done): without technical knowledge, without experience, without budget, but with a whole lot of spirit.
And today... INRI Studio is sharing this experience with you.
We have decided to have an online release the three tracks of e'Tzaintes to commemorate the upcoming double-screening on August 16 at Sinema Old School. These tracks will be release one by one, over the period leading up to the screening. We decided not to clean up the mixing for the tracks, because that would only destroy the character that makes these tracks special to us, so we are presenting them to you in their unadulterated form.
For those who have been there since day one, this is our way to thank you for your support.
For those who just knew about us, welcome to the madness and magic that is INRI.
Yours truly,
Armen
Co-founder, music and audio experimentalist
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e'TZAINTES and A WICKED TALE: TM & 2007 INRI studio. All Rights Reserved.
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