New Kanye West album and 3 feet of snow…in Utah
December 29th, 2008
I’m here in Utah, on my way to Wyoming for some skiing in Jackson Hole. The snow has been amazing. Spent a night in Brian Head, UT. It snowed three feet and it took 3+ hours to drive up the ten-mile access road to the ski lodge at 1am. Unbelievable
On the road trip, I’ve been listening to the first song off the new Kanye West album 808s & Heartbreak. It’s called “Say You Will”. Amazing song. he used lots of pitch correction or “auto-tune”. It’s the same vocal effect that Cher made famous a few years ago. In reading an interview with Kanye, he says he really wanted to use auto-tune throughout the record and have there be more singing and less rapping. This is an interesting departure from what he’s done with huge success in the past. For this, he suffered more than a few poor reviews, but that has hardly hampered his sales or success on the Billboard charts. Bottom line, I recommend giving it a listen. He’s doing his own thing, and it really comes through.
After listening for a while and reading a bit about his production techniques, it’s not surprising to discover that he made extensive use of a Roland TR-808. These drum machines (that don’t actually sound much like real drums) are in such demand…bands have named themselves after the 808, the Beasty Boys mention them now and again in their songs. This machine is everywhere. This is the year 1980 at its best, or worst, depending on how you look at it.
Check out “Say You Will” here. It will grow on you 
-z
