We’re back with another Deconstruction from our Head of Education & Development and master of Deconstructions, Ski Oakenfull. This time, Ski unveils the magic behind Björk’s track ‘Venus As A Boy’ breaking down each of the track’s elements and carefully mapping them together. You can check out Ski’s catalogue of deconstructions on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to check out our production courses in London and Online for more in-depth tuition.
‘Venus As A Boy’ features on the Icelandic singer’s 1993 album, Debut, which was released on the independent record label, One Little Indian. It was produced by Nellee Hooper, a British producer, songwriter and remixer who produced six Grammy-Award winning albums for the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Soul II Soul and Sinead O’Connor. The track itself is a melting pot of genres with nods to dub, ambient and chillout and features enchanting Indian percussive elements as well as abstract Japanese samples. Jump into the deconstruction below.
In addition to being one of our deconstructions, exploring ‘Venus as a Boy’ was part of our Music Production & Sound Engineering Degree students’ termly project in which they recorded a live string ensemble from the Royal Academy of Music and collaborated with former pointblank student Glaiza de Castro who laid down the vocals. For the deconstruction, Ski uses Ableton Live 10 with an Ableton Push 2 to build the elements of the track. He begins by setting up the samples for the beat and runs through some of the song’s rhythmic patterns. Ski then delves into some of the music theory behind the song before dropping in the rest of the elements. Keep watching until the end of the video to see Glaiza laying down her incredible vocals.
These deconstructions are a tool we use frequently to teach elements of composition and arrangement but to get the full picture we recommend you study with us. The most comprehensive study we offer is our flagship degree programme, the BA (Hons) in Music Production and Sound Engineering (also available online). We’re also launching a brand new degree next semester, the BA (Hons) in Music Production and DJ Practice. Get in touch if you have any questions.
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