KVG_DC Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Go easy, Tobias is on a bitter streak tonight. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobias Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Go easy, Tobias is on a bitter streak tonight.Lol. I have a soft spot for Bluecoats.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwillis35 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 And BTW -- I'm not one of those "everybody wins and gets a trophy" types, but I would hardly consider finishing second to a #### near perfect performance as "losing." Totally agree. Nobody loses in DCI. Even though there are winners, at the end of the day every corps has a heck of a lot to be proud of. Funny how competition and anger can get the best of some folks. Bluecoats were nothing short of amazing last year, and I believe they will be even better come this year's finals. Placement doesn't matter. It's fun, and we all root, but in the end I know they will "light it up" on finals night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superOOk Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Great feedback, and I agree with many of you. There is something to be said for developing a "story", whether that story has characters or not. Either way you slice it, I love the differing opinions on the matter. It's what makes this a fun "sport". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek.smith Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 BLUECOATS KINETIC NOISE - DESIGN REVIEW Techno music always induces a state of imagination when you listen to it-- a kind of music limbo where your mind is free to wander. Bluecoats' Kinetic Noise is a pure and fearless visual interpretation of techno music, a brave departure into the realm of electronic and brass fusion. The show has almost no narrative encumbrance, no historical context to weigh it down, very little outward expressed emotion by the guard, only a single character, and no forced dramatic conflict. Kinetic Noise is a state of natural grace, without explanation, apology or guilt-driven objectivity-- just music and movement and we don't know what the atom balls mean and we don't care. Do we? LOW STAKES Let's face it, these low stakes present a problem. We can't tell what's going to happen next, and rely solely on the structure of the music to lead us to the next movement and emotion. We're not desperate to know what happens next, we have no specific point of focus. Naturally, the viewer disengages. We're not holding our breath or anxiously awaiting a resolution of some kind, musically or otherwise, because there's no tension built up over the twelve minutes here. There's no conflict or understructure or game that resolves by the end of the piece. There's no point of focus. The bubbles don't change or morph in any way from their first appearance in the beginning. THE CHORALE - AND…? The centerpiece at the 9:30 mark is a percussion-free brass chorale Up in the Woods by Bon Iver that is stirring and robust. It has only the meaning that you apply to it, and as a result, the emotion is fleeting. Exciting to listen to first, like the way cotton candy feels in your mouth, and then the sensation dissipates when you realize it's just sugar with no flavoring other than a slight hint of chemical coloring. The music throughout the production has a manufactured structure, with fabricated hit points and almost canned chord progressions which stirs a Pavlovian response by drum corps audiences who clap at the loud parts. But we need more under-structure to attach our emotions to. If the music isn't a strong enough game, then we need some other hint of real-world relatability. GIRL AT THE END - A STORY ELEMENT REVEAL At the end, we see a girl, presumably a character who is reacting to the music, or possibly whose hallucination we've just been witnessing as she tries to shake it off. Who is she? Is she a raver? Is she one of us? Did she intentionally create this hallucination for our enjoyment? Is her vision an accident? Does she represent a techno concert goer? A drum corps audience member? A girl who just tasted spicy hot Cheetos for the first time? MORE EXPOSITION? I hate to force a narrative element into this piece, but I think it's pretty clear that we need to see this ending girl once earlier, perhaps stuck in one of the bubbles. Feature her trying to get out, or trying to get in, or unable to move, or finally escaping from, or drawn into, or chased by someone inside, or chased by all the other balls, or perfectly content while in. You chose the game. This simple 10 second addition to the middle of the show featuring this girl physically dealing with the bubble in some way would give a subtle understructure to the entire piece and give depth and breadth to the ending where she shakes off the hallucination at the end, outside the bubble. Without this added understructure, without this element, the show will fizzle as it reaches August because the meaning is too thin, the intent is too vague, and the show is too reliant on the music as its understructure, and the music is just not high stakes enough or patterned enough to maintain dramatic intensity. Without some added subtle narrative element, without some hint of meaning, the show floats away like a soap bubble without leaving a real-world impact. Again, if the show refused to cowtow to any narrative element, it would be a brilliant, but double edged sword. The purity of a hallucination without any expository element would then be reliant on the music to provide the range of emotion, reliant on set pieces to maintain visual interest. But Bluecoats added the girl at the end, and now they must develop her further so it makes some logical sense and hell, it could provide some desperately needed narrative understructure for the piece. The bluecoats have not used narratives in their past shows and myself and plenty others find them entertaining. Its all about what the design staff is shooting for. Do you want a stage production or a marching show? I think marching arts should be about looking a the corps/marching band and guard as a whole. Not the act of a single performer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxfreq1128 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 (edited) PS: Bloo's 2014 show proved that no one gives a #### whether the show has "thematic resonance" or not.Well, no, it kinda proved the opposite: what a kick it was to see the corps milk a clever visual/thematic concept for all of its entertainment value. It would've been a fun, energetic show either way, but the added pleasure of seeing them do clever things with the tilt, from the skewed field right up to the lean at the very end, put that show over the top, no? It's all about the "Aha!" moments: keeping the audience engaged. Kinda meh to see people to reduce themes to explicit "storylines," though. That's one way to go about it, but it's clearly not the only way. Edited June 28, 2015 by saxfreq1128 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxfreq1128 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 BLUECOATS KINETIC NOISE - DESIGN REVIEW Techno music always induces a state of imagination when you listen to it-- a kind of music limbo where your mind is free to wander. Bluecoats' Kinetic Noise is a pure and fearless visual interpretation of techno music, a brave departure into the realm of electronic and brass fusion. The show has almost no narrative encumbrance, no historical context to weigh it down, very little outward expressed emotion by the guard, only a single character, and no forced dramatic conflict. Kinetic Noise is a state of natural grace, without explanation, apology or guilt-driven objectivity-- just music and movement and we don't know what the atom balls mean and we don't care. Do we? LOW STAKES Let's face it, these low stakes present a problem. We can't tell what's going to happen next, and rely solely on the structure of the music to lead us to the next movement and emotion. We're not desperate to know what happens next, we have no specific point of focus. Naturally, the viewer disengages. We're not holding our breath or anxiously awaiting a resolution of some kind, musically or otherwise, because there's no tension built up over the twelve minutes here. There's no conflict or understructure or game that resolves by the end of the piece. There's no point of focus. The bubbles don't change or morph in any way from their first appearance in the beginning. THE CHORALE - AND…? The centerpiece at the 9:30 mark is a percussion-free brass chorale Up in the Woods by Bon Iver that is stirring and robust. It has only the meaning that you apply to it, and as a result, the emotion is fleeting. Exciting to listen to first, like the way cotton candy feels in your mouth, and then the sensation dissipates when you realize it's just sugar with no flavoring other than a slight hint of chemical coloring. The music throughout the production has a manufactured structure, with fabricated hit points and almost canned chord progressions which stirs a Pavlovian response by drum corps audiences who clap at the loud parts. But we need more under-structure to attach our emotions to. If the music isn't a strong enough game, then we need some other hint of real-world relatability. GIRL AT THE END - A STORY ELEMENT REVEAL At the end, we see a girl, presumably a character who is reacting to the music, or possibly whose hallucination we've just been witnessing as she tries to shake it off. Who is she? Is she a raver? Is she one of us? Did she intentionally create this hallucination for our enjoyment? Is her vision an accident? Does she represent a techno concert goer? A drum corps audience member? A girl who just tasted spicy hot Cheetos for the first time? MORE EXPOSITION? I hate to force a narrative element into this piece, but I think it's pretty clear that we need to see this ending girl once earlier, perhaps stuck in one of the bubbles. Feature her trying to get out, or trying to get in, or unable to move, or finally escaping from, or drawn into, or chased by someone inside, or chased by all the other balls, or perfectly content while in. You chose the game. This simple 10 second addition to the middle of the show featuring this girl physically dealing with the bubble in some way would give a subtle understructure to the entire piece and give depth and breadth to the ending where she shakes off the hallucination at the end, outside the bubble. Without this added understructure, without this element, the show will fizzle as it reaches August because the meaning is too thin, the intent is too vague, and the show is too reliant on the music as its understructure, and the music is just not high stakes enough or patterned enough to maintain dramatic intensity. Without some added subtle narrative element, without some hint of meaning, the show floats away like a soap bubble without leaving a real-world impact. Again, if the show refused to cowtow to any narrative element, it would be a brilliant, but double edged sword. The purity of a hallucination without any expository element would then be reliant on the music to provide the range of emotion, reliant on set pieces to maintain visual interest. But Bluecoats added the girl at the end, and now they must develop her further so it makes some logical sense and hell, it could provide some desperately needed narrative understructure for the piece. Dude, chill. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMcomguy Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 I like raves. I'm watching one on Channel 3 right now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drumcorpsfever Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Why so many "BC" refererences? We don't refer to them as BC! Signed, Blue Coats alum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwillis35 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Techno music always induces a state of imagination when you listen to it... It's not techno music, it's minimalist music. The Bluecoats are using technology brilliantly to fuse atmospheric elements to the main themes and rhythms generated by this music. LOW STAKES Let's face it, these low stakes present a problem. We can't tell what's going to happen next... Low stakes...what? I don't think people care what's going to happen next. In fact, at most DCI shows I prefer to be surprised by where a show takes me, or at least I want a show like this to not be predictable. If you ask me, this was a high-risk program to tackle. ...brass chorale Up in the Woods by Bon Iver... [snipped for brevity] But we need more under-structure to attach our emotions to. If the music isn't a strong enough game, then we need some other hint of real-world relatability. I believe the piece is called "Woods." The music does a fine job of grabbing our emotions. Not sure what an under-structure is. GIRL AT THE END - A STORY ELEMENT REVEAL At the end, we see a girl, presumably a character who is reacting to the music, or possibly whose hallucination we've just been witnessing as she tries to shake it off. No, Blooo is not going to play "Shake It Off." Ok, that was a joke. :) ...Without some added subtle narrative element, without some hint of meaning, the show floats away like a soap bubble without leaving a real-world impact. No narrative, and music doesn't need a "hint" of meaning. Music alone can bring plenty of meaning to each of us without boxing-in our thoughts. The viewer of a Bluecoats show is drawn into the minimalist music, the atmospheric effects, the fabulous brass and drums, the beautiful staging, and the exceptional and modern show design, and they are allowed the freedom to connect with Kinetic Noise in a way that suits their imagination. That's the beauty of this program. Everyone will grab onto different aspects. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.