Intro :

For my first case study I have chosen the track Nangs by Tame Impala. The main reason I chose this track was the nostalgia it gives me. Listening to the song gives me goosebumps, I can imagine myself sitting on the beach, watching the sunrise,having a good time. I’m happiest when I’ve got the ocean closeby, and for me personally, the sea and the whole ‘psychedelic vibe’ go very well together.

Nangs – Info

Key – C major

Bpm – 160 – Allegro

Released on – 17/07/2015

Genre – Psychedelic Rock

Time Signature – 4/4

Song Structure :

Intro

Verse

Breakdown

Background to Tame Impala

Tame Impala is Psychedelic Rock/Psychedelic pop/Neo Psychedelia band based in West Australia. The group was founded in 2007 by music producer Kevin Parker also known as KayKay sorbet. Kevin Parker originally began the group as a home project. Pretty much everything that is heard on the singles and albums is done by Kevin Parker, whereas when the group’s touring the other members get involved. They basically replicate what’s done by Kevin in the studio, and while playing live the group has more opportunity to experiment and try new things out. As a duo/touring act,Tame Impala consists of Kevin, who plays the guitar and sings, Jay Watson who plays the synthesizer and sometime sings and plays the guitar alongside Kevin, Domnic Simper, on the guitar and synths as well, Cam Avery on the bass and finally Julien Barbagallo on the drums. They’re currently signed to Interscope Records and Fiction Records.

Lyrics :

‘But is there something more than that’

I see a deeper meaning in these lyrics. I personally believe that Kevin is referring to life itself. I think he’s asking if there’s more to life than just a boring 9-5 job. I personally despise the whole ‘system’ and would rather travel and explore than live a materialistic life.Through Nangs I can feel Kevins emotions and the message he’s trying to convey. I think he’s trying to tell us that we’re all artists in a sense and we need to find our artistic side and embrace it.

Equipment :

The video above gives a rough idea on the equipment used to produce Nangs –

Ableton Live

Roland Juno – 106

Dbx 160

Drum set

Bass guitar (not too sure which one exactly)

Technical stuff :

Spectral balance

The first thing I notice here is the heavy Lfo, which builds up slowly. By using the Auto filter plugin in Ableton, I separated the bass frequencies and noticed that they were unaffected by the filter modulation giving the song more volume and depth. I noticed many interesting things while analyzing the frequencies in Nangs. The first one was that all the sub bass frequencies lay around 50 hz. The second, during the intro there’s high resonance across the spectrum, though it starts dissipating from 1k till about 10k. The vocals lie at 500 hz. The hook of the song, a stabbing synth lies in between 2.6khz and 15khz having a fundamental presence with a running melody at the back helping with the flow. Another interesting thing I noticed while analyzing the frequencies on Spectrum in Ableton was that the whole track was cut at 15khz using a low pass filter, nothing goes beyond that. I’ve never seen anything like this honestly but I understand why he’s done it. The big cut gives the track a sort of lo- fi feeling, not making it to bright but not to dark either and giving it that clean edge.

2) Panning

The whole song moves like a wave, something I find to be very appropriate for this specific song. The space created in this song is very interesting. The lighter bit of the higher frequencies lie on the left while the warmer bit lie on the right. Personally the whole wavy effect makes me feel as if I were near the sea. The kick and bass are bang in the centre while the stabbing synth which has a lot of the higher frequencies lies in the left and the running melody lies on the left as well leaving the pads on right, giving us quite an interesting space. The drums seem like they’re not close but not far either, somewhere in between, fitting just perfectly in the mix.

3)Dynamics

Like most tracks these days, Nangs peaks at 0db. The stabbing synth, the main hook of the song is perfectly layered with the rest of the synths and sits well in the mix. The vocals sound as if the singers a bit away from the mic and there’s a somewhat spacey effect, used with a lot of reverb and maybe a bit of delay . Unlike many songs where the vocals are the star of the mix, the vocals here are there but not in your face. The rest of the synths do a perfect job by giving an ambient atmosphere. The drums and bass compliment eachother very well, the drums complementing the mid frequencies. The bass giving the warmth and the rest of the layered synths with all that reverb really gives a sense of space.

4)Effects

After watching the video titled, ‘currents in the making’ and by listening to Nangs I can positively say that real drums were used in the track. By the sound of it though, the drums don’t sound very wide.The drums sound very minimal but real. They’ve achieved that ‘vintage sound’ by placing a cloth on the drums. It sounds like Kevin used a large frame condenser and mono on the overheads and the video, currents in the making confirms part of that. The bass guitar and synth melody add to the layers and textures to the overall mix, while the Lfo builds up with high rate and then slows down and then acts like a big synth. During the breakdown there’s a lot of pitch bend going on with the lead synth in sync with another layer of vocals which comes in every 4 bars, this layer sits right below the lead synth, giving it some spark using the slide.

https://ask.audio/articles/review-waves-audio-dbx-160-compressor

In conclusion :

The track nangs has got some nostalgia to it. Rather than dealing with it like ‘a track’,Kevin’s gone with how his surroundings made him feel and that comes out beautifully through Nangs. This track has got some very interesting features and has helped in my active listening skills.

References :

https://ask.audio/articles/review-waves-audio-dbx-160-compressor

https://reverbmachine.com/2017/03/27/tame-impala-synth-sounds/

https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tm7h3dawygyobkqu4nhr6pmkinu?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics&u=0#

https://beatportcharts.com/track/6869644/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Parker_(musician)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tame_Impala

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfmJilbZCas