January 23 2009
Video: MGMT – Electric Feel – live on Abbey Road
Tagged Under : Electric Feel, live, MGMT, Oracular Spectacular, Time to Pretend, video
My bro sent me this video of MGMT live on Abbey Road. Electric Feel is just a killer song and this is a killer performance. Skip to 1:30 to get to the music. This video has been tripping out a bit showing “unavailable” randomly. So if you first don’t succeed, try try again.
Another great tune of theirs live, Time to Pretend. Skip to 1:00 for the music.
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This performance by of “Electric Feel” by MGMT is quite interesting from many different musical perspectives, some in which expand beyond the actual composition of the song itself. MGMT’s live recording at Abby Road studios in London is a prime example of how current pop and rock music integrates both early electronic instruments and modern digital technology into a new unique sound.
As seen in this film, MGMT is composed of five musicians. The two guitarists, bassist, and the drummer form the four core elements of the band, like many rock and roll bands between the 60’s and present time. These four particular elements of MGMT each have a rather traditional roll—the first guitarist plays chords and follows the rhythm of the timekeeper (drummer), while the bassist and lead guitar add the melodic, undertones, overtones, riffs and arpeggios that often make popular music recognizable. However especially for this band, the keyboardist plays an integral part in this composition, maximizing his use of modern synthesizers (three in particular for this performance) to supplement the traditional parts of his band mates.
For me, the instruments and setting of this live film recording make this performance especially unique. The two guitarists play on Gibson Les Pauls, arguably one of the most influential symbols of early rock and roll music. Les Pauls exhibit warm sounds through their solid wood bodies, enabling for the high sustain of the music notes being played. The bassist uses a very classic Rickenbacker, one of the earlier instruments to be popularized by bands such as the Beatles. However, while all of these classical rock instruments are used in the performance, the keyboardist supplements the composition with modern synthesizers, bridging the gap between old and new sounds. However, amongst these modern instruments, the keyboardist uses a Moog in his three-synthesizer rig, indicative of the old voltage-controlled analog sounds of early electronic music. Not only are the synthesizers digital, but the same time, the sounds of the guitars and bass are modernized with effects processers converting their sounds into digital signals through the use of digital echo, delays, and a Wah effect. The vocals in this recording are also altered digitally by a phase vocoder, essentially supplying a digital talk-box effect to the singing portion of the composition.
The setting of this performance underlines the type of sound MGMT wants to produce for its listeners. The band played in the same Abby Road studio that the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and many other influential music groups recorded some of the most important records of all time. The sounds of these bands were incredibly revolutionary for the time, and MGMT’s performance in that same studio highlights their respect for classical rock and roll and the evolution of the genre into a modern sound.
Overall. MGMT’s live video recording acts as an example of how the old and new can mix to form a progressive sound. Taking the classic essence of early electronic instruments and combining them with modern digital elements brings a retro-flare to the new psychedelic rock that has made MGMT a success.