The Philosophy of Velocity
Encyclopedia
The Philosophy of Velocity is a 2006 concept album
by the rock
band Brazil. Many of the songs on the album are lyrical short stories and vignettes, focusing on themes of isolation
, paranoia
, anxiety
, and the supernatural
with an emphasis on absurdity
, dark humor, and camp. It has been recently hailed by critics as a crucial maturation and vital realization of Brazil’s vision and artistic approach, which combines a variety of genres, eras, and sound sources into a unique but recognizably signature style. It is the first Brazil record listing the band as a co-producer.
. The author eventually falls into bouts of paranoia and delusional psychoses, episodes of which are illustrated in several places on the album including the backwards speech between The Vapours and Cameo, the haunting whispers and absurd lyricism of Strange Days, and the disconcerting sub-harmonic frequencies used in The Remarkable Cholmondley Chute System. The second layer focuses on the songs as individual short stories or small vignettes, the subjects of which form various fragments of the author’s reality. The album ends as it starts, with the nameless author continuing to type away at his novel that will never be completed. Singer and lyricist Jonathon Newby said his major influences on the album were Nick Cave
, Tom Waits
, Mark Smith
, Captain Beefheart
, Bob Dylan
, and the poetry of Edward Gorey
.
Musically, Brazil strove to create a sound as haunting and ethereal as the lyrics and purposefully blurred the edges of the sonics to create an aural tapestry that would envelope the listener in colors and volume. Fridmann was instrumental in helping the band achieve the spacious and expansive sound on the album, borrowing from production values not in mainstream use since the sixties and seventies to create a warm bed of sonics reminiscent of cassette tape hiss, and pushing the EQ levels far above normal to harness a level of volume not heard in most current music.
(Sleater-Kinney, Blood Brothers) in January 2006, but due to problems with their former record label they were forced to postpone recording the album until the following May. The Philosophy sessions with Fridmann were scheduled only one week prior to entering the studio. Many of the songs on the album were recorded in pre-production up to three separate times in separate sessions over the course of eleven months leading up to the Tarbox sessions.
The album was tracked in May 2006 and mixed the following July at Tarbox Road Studio in Cassadaga, NY. Along with traditional rock instrumentation, the band used a wide array of non-traditional instruments, including grand piano, upright piano, Rhodes electric keyboard
, Wurlitzer electric keyboard, Hammond B3 organ, timpani
, concert chimes, glockenspiel
, and Latin percussion
. During the tracking sessions, the band would record with Fridmann for twelve hours, followed by another five or six hours of self-tracking. Guitarist Aaron Smith acted as second engineer, recording extra tracks of guitar, keyboard, percussion, and vocals until daybreak. A few inventive mic techniques were used on the album, such as a taxi dispatch microphone on the vocals, the use of Leslie on the keyboards and vocals, and the recording of certain guitar parts using a cigarette pack-sized practice amplifier.
The bubbling water and submarine sounds on Captain Mainwaring were produced entirely by guitar and effects pedals. Guitarist Aaron Smith employed up to three guitars looping simultaneous delays. There are nearly forty vocal tracks on certain sections of Au Revoir, Mr. Mercury. The backwards talking effect between The Vapours and Cameo was achieved with a taxi dispatch mike. The words being spoken are the children’s fable “The Magic Fish.” In keeping with his tradition of mispronouncing foreign and obscure words and phrases, Jonathon Newby pronounced the actress's name “Cap-oo-shee-nay” instead of the correct pronunciation of “Cap-oo-SEEN” in the song A Year In Heaven.
says “even name-dropping…their peers can’t contain or adequately describe what they have crafted for their follow-up to 2004’s A Hostage and the Meaning of Life
.”
No known meaning. Jon Newby has hinted in at least one interview that the fact that the typewriter chimes five times may be an important hint.
Crime (and the Antique Solution)
The story of a man who discovers a rip in the continuum of time in his antique duvet. He exploits this discovery to change regrettable facets of his past, only to find himself fading away in the process. References Houbigant’s Chantilly
perfume, a popular antique fragrance of yesteryear for women.
You Never Know
The story of a man who finds a mysterious business card in his jacket pocket. When he calls the number, he finds himself rendezvousing with strange characters of dubious existence. The phrase “Rappelez-vous?” is purposefully poor French for “Will you remember?”
The Vapours
No known story, but the song illustrates intense feelings of paranoia and neuroses. In regards to turn-of-the-century psychology, vapours was a colloquial way of referring to depression.
Cameo
A brief story in which the narrator feels he is being followed by characters in the films he watches.
Candles (Cast Long Shadows)
The story of a man who falls in love with a ghost named Adelaide that haunts his apartment.
Au Revoir, Mr. Mercury
The story of three steam robots facing an existential crisis after all humans mysteriously disappear. Ultimately unable to find purpose, all three machines shut themselves off at the end of the story. The lyrics reference several everyday facets of yesteryear, including runabouts (automobiles), steam technology, and tea rituals. Also referenced are the L. Frank Baum
(Return to Oz) characters Smythe and Tinker, of whom it is implied were the creators of Mr. Mercury.
A Year in Heaven
A lyrical three-part drama involving three nameless characters in their own pursuit of happiness and their inevitable discoveries at the end of the chase. The mysterious bridge in the song’s middle section contains several references to both serious and comical subject. Forsyth and Zebulon (the purported intersection where Duane Allman
died), Earhart and Komarov
(the legendary missing female aviator, and a cosmonaut who perished during re-entry), Capucine
(a French model and actress who suffered severe mental disorders before committing suicide by jumping off a building, leaving her three cats), and the passengers of the Sultana
(a steam ship that exploded killing over 1700 civilians and soldiers returning home from the Civil War, resulting in one of the United State’s worst naval disasters) are all referenced.
The Remarkable Cholmondley Chute System
No story, but borrows musically from parts of Crime (and the Antique Solution).
Breathe
No known story, but the song possibly follows a last-ditch resort by the author to overcome the demons that plague him.
Strange Days
No linear story, as the song illustrates the author’s final descent into dementia. The lyrics reference Shel Silverstein (“…a place the sidewalks don’t go”), the Marquis de Sade and Rene Magritte (both of whom titled one of their works “Philosophy in the Boudoir”), the esoteric guild of Rosicrucians, and Brazil’s own secretive Ministry society.
Nic Newby – keyboards
Aaron Smith – electric guitar, engineering
Eric Johnson – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, classical guitar, 12-string guitar
James Sefchek – drums, timpani, chimes
Philip Williams – bass
With
Dave Fridmann – co-producer, engineer
Greg Calbi - mastering
Jason Markey – Immortal A & R
Matt Miller – pre-production
Brand Smith – pre-production
David Schrott – album photography
Sons of Nero
– sleeve art
-Jonathon Newby, August 2006 Interview
“After more or less nine years of living out of a suitcase I started to become enamored with the concept of absurdity because I had seen and experienced so much of it in my life already. Absurdity became the order of the day in writing and recording the new record. Absurd subject matter, absurd lyrics, absurd volume.”
-Jonathon Newby August 2006 Interview
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
by the rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Brazil. Many of the songs on the album are lyrical short stories and vignettes, focusing on themes of isolation
Solitude
Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation, i.e., lack of contact with people. It may stem from bad relationships, deliberate choice, infectious disease, mental disorders, neurological disorders or circumstances of employment or situation .Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one...
, paranoia
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
, anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
, and the supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
with an emphasis on absurdity
Absurdity
An absurdity is a thing that is extremely unreasonable, so as to be foolish or not taken seriously, or the state of being so. "Absurd" is an adjective used to describe an absurdity, e.g., “this encyclopedia article is absurd”. It derives from the Latin absurdusm meaning "out of tune", hence...
, dark humor, and camp. It has been recently hailed by critics as a crucial maturation and vital realization of Brazil’s vision and artistic approach, which combines a variety of genres, eras, and sound sources into a unique but recognizably signature style. It is the first Brazil record listing the band as a co-producer.
Concept
The Philosophy of Velocity is conceptually a two-layered work. The meta-layer focuses on an unnamed author trying to write a novel but suffering a severe mental block. This is alluded to in the opening sequence with the sound of typing over a delicate piano etudeÉtude
An étude , is an instrumental musical composition, most commonly of considerable difficulty, usually designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular technical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the piano...
. The author eventually falls into bouts of paranoia and delusional psychoses, episodes of which are illustrated in several places on the album including the backwards speech between The Vapours and Cameo, the haunting whispers and absurd lyricism of Strange Days, and the disconcerting sub-harmonic frequencies used in The Remarkable Cholmondley Chute System. The second layer focuses on the songs as individual short stories or small vignettes, the subjects of which form various fragments of the author’s reality. The album ends as it starts, with the nameless author continuing to type away at his novel that will never be completed. Singer and lyricist Jonathon Newby said his major influences on the album were Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
, Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, Mark Smith
Mark Smith
Mark Smith may refer to:*Mark A. Smith, professor of pathology at Case Western Reserve University*Mark S. Smith, American biblical scholar, professor at NYU*Mark Smith , designer of radio-controlled model airplanes...
, Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, and the poetry of Edward Gorey
Edward Gorey
Edward St. John Gorey was an American writer and artist noted for his macabre illustrated books.-Early life:...
.
Musically, Brazil strove to create a sound as haunting and ethereal as the lyrics and purposefully blurred the edges of the sonics to create an aural tapestry that would envelope the listener in colors and volume. Fridmann was instrumental in helping the band achieve the spacious and expansive sound on the album, borrowing from production values not in mainstream use since the sixties and seventies to create a warm bed of sonics reminiscent of cassette tape hiss, and pushing the EQ levels far above normal to harness a level of volume not heard in most current music.
Recording
Brazil was actually scheduled to go into the studio with John GoodmansonJohn Goodmanson
John Goodmanson is an American recording engineer and indie rock record producer.-Selected discography:*Aiden "Conviction " *Simple Plan "Crash and Burn"...
(Sleater-Kinney, Blood Brothers) in January 2006, but due to problems with their former record label they were forced to postpone recording the album until the following May. The Philosophy sessions with Fridmann were scheduled only one week prior to entering the studio. Many of the songs on the album were recorded in pre-production up to three separate times in separate sessions over the course of eleven months leading up to the Tarbox sessions.
The album was tracked in May 2006 and mixed the following July at Tarbox Road Studio in Cassadaga, NY. Along with traditional rock instrumentation, the band used a wide array of non-traditional instruments, including grand piano, upright piano, Rhodes electric keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, Wurlitzer electric keyboard, Hammond B3 organ, timpani
Timpani
Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
, concert chimes, glockenspiel
Glockenspiel
A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, and Latin percussion
Latin percussion
The term Latin percussion refers to any number of a large family of musical percussion instruments used in Latin music, which in turn is a very loosely related group of musical styles, mainly from the Latin American region, and ultimately having roots or influences in African tribal...
. During the tracking sessions, the band would record with Fridmann for twelve hours, followed by another five or six hours of self-tracking. Guitarist Aaron Smith acted as second engineer, recording extra tracks of guitar, keyboard, percussion, and vocals until daybreak. A few inventive mic techniques were used on the album, such as a taxi dispatch microphone on the vocals, the use of Leslie on the keyboards and vocals, and the recording of certain guitar parts using a cigarette pack-sized practice amplifier.
The bubbling water and submarine sounds on Captain Mainwaring were produced entirely by guitar and effects pedals. Guitarist Aaron Smith employed up to three guitars looping simultaneous delays. There are nearly forty vocal tracks on certain sections of Au Revoir, Mr. Mercury. The backwards talking effect between The Vapours and Cameo was achieved with a taxi dispatch mike. The words being spoken are the children’s fable “The Magic Fish.” In keeping with his tradition of mispronouncing foreign and obscure words and phrases, Jonathon Newby pronounced the actress's name “Cap-oo-shee-nay” instead of the correct pronunciation of “Cap-oo-SEEN” in the song A Year In Heaven.
Reception
The Philosophy of Velocity has been met with critical acclaim from many national print and online publications. Allmusic called it “a natural extension of all that has come before, yet a giant step forward for the band.” Alternative PressAlternative Press (music magazine)
Alternative Press is an American music magazine based in Cleveland, Ohio. It generally provides readers with band interviews, photos, information on upcoming releases, and music charts. It was founded in 1985 by Mike Shea, who is the current president....
says “even name-dropping…their peers can’t contain or adequately describe what they have crafted for their follow-up to 2004’s A Hostage and the Meaning of Life
A Hostage and the Meaning of Life
A Hostage and the Meaning of Life is an album by the rock band Brazil that deals with themes of technology, dehumanization, and frustration. Musically, it borrows from complex genres such as progressive rock and classical music, as well as the abrasive aesthetic of punk, and the ethereal guitar...
.”
Track listing
- "On Safe-Cracking and Rubella" - 1:16
- "Crime (and the Antique Solution)" - 3:15
- "You Never Know" - 3:49
- "The Vapours" - 2:50
- "Cameo" - 3:21
- "Candles (Cast Long Shadows)" - 5:09
- "Au, Revoir, Mr. Mercury" - 6:20
- "Captain Mainwaring" - 5:50
- "A Year In Heaven" - 5:12
- "The Remarkable Cholmondley Chute System" - 0:49
- "Breathe" - 3:47
- "Strange Days" - 6:29
The Songs as Short Stories (and reported meanings)
On Safe-Cracking and RubellaNo known meaning. Jon Newby has hinted in at least one interview that the fact that the typewriter chimes five times may be an important hint.
Crime (and the Antique Solution)
The story of a man who discovers a rip in the continuum of time in his antique duvet. He exploits this discovery to change regrettable facets of his past, only to find himself fading away in the process. References Houbigant’s Chantilly
Chantilly (fragrance)
Chantilly is a fragrance that was introduced in 1941 by Houbigant. It is currently produced by Dana.-Usage:It is for women. This fragrance mainly made of bergamot, lemon, spices, carnation, jasmine, ylang-ylang, rose, orange blossom, tonka bean, musk, benzoin, oakmoss, vanilla and sandalwood....
perfume, a popular antique fragrance of yesteryear for women.
You Never Know
The story of a man who finds a mysterious business card in his jacket pocket. When he calls the number, he finds himself rendezvousing with strange characters of dubious existence. The phrase “Rappelez-vous?” is purposefully poor French for “Will you remember?”
The Vapours
No known story, but the song illustrates intense feelings of paranoia and neuroses. In regards to turn-of-the-century psychology, vapours was a colloquial way of referring to depression.
Cameo
A brief story in which the narrator feels he is being followed by characters in the films he watches.
Candles (Cast Long Shadows)
The story of a man who falls in love with a ghost named Adelaide that haunts his apartment.
Au Revoir, Mr. Mercury
The story of three steam robots facing an existential crisis after all humans mysteriously disappear. Ultimately unable to find purpose, all three machines shut themselves off at the end of the story. The lyrics reference several everyday facets of yesteryear, including runabouts (automobiles), steam technology, and tea rituals. Also referenced are the L. Frank Baum
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
(Return to Oz) characters Smythe and Tinker, of whom it is implied were the creators of Mr. Mercury.
A Year in Heaven
A lyrical three-part drama involving three nameless characters in their own pursuit of happiness and their inevitable discoveries at the end of the chase. The mysterious bridge in the song’s middle section contains several references to both serious and comical subject. Forsyth and Zebulon (the purported intersection where Duane Allman
Duane Allman
Howard Duane Allman was an American guitarist, session musician and the primary co-founder of the southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band...
died), Earhart and Komarov
Komarov
-People:*Aleksander Komarov , Soviet Hall of Fame retired ice hockey player*Aleksei Komarov , Russian Olympic rower*Dmitry Komarov , Soviet army officer and Hero of the Soviet Union...
(the legendary missing female aviator, and a cosmonaut who perished during re-entry), Capucine
Capucine
Capucine was a French actress and fashion model best known for her comedic roles in The Pink Panther and What's New Pussycat? . She appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990...
(a French model and actress who suffered severe mental disorders before committing suicide by jumping off a building, leaving her three cats), and the passengers of the Sultana
Sultana (steamboat)
The SS Sultana was a Mississippi River steamboat paddlewheeler whose destruction in an explosion on April 27, 1865 was the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. An estimated 1,800 of the Sultanas 2,400 passengers were killed when three of the ship's four boilers exploded and the...
(a steam ship that exploded killing over 1700 civilians and soldiers returning home from the Civil War, resulting in one of the United State’s worst naval disasters) are all referenced.
The Remarkable Cholmondley Chute System
No story, but borrows musically from parts of Crime (and the Antique Solution).
Breathe
No known story, but the song possibly follows a last-ditch resort by the author to overcome the demons that plague him.
Strange Days
No linear story, as the song illustrates the author’s final descent into dementia. The lyrics reference Shel Silverstein (“…a place the sidewalks don’t go”), the Marquis de Sade and Rene Magritte (both of whom titled one of their works “Philosophy in the Boudoir”), the esoteric guild of Rosicrucians, and Brazil’s own secretive Ministry society.
Credits
Jonathon Newby – Vocals, keyboards, timpani, chimes, glockenspiel, tambourineNic Newby – keyboards
Aaron Smith – electric guitar, engineering
Eric Johnson – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, classical guitar, 12-string guitar
James Sefchek – drums, timpani, chimes
Philip Williams – bass
With
Dave Fridmann – co-producer, engineer
Greg Calbi - mastering
Jason Markey – Immortal A & R
Matt Miller – pre-production
Brand Smith – pre-production
David Schrott – album photography
Sons of Nero
Sons of Nero
Sons of Nero is a graphic design group that was formed in 2000 by Matthew "Portland" Hay of the metalcore group Nora. It consists of four artists who primarily design artwork and packaging for bands and musical ensembles, but also design t-shirts and websites...
– sleeve art
Quotes
“PoV has a lot more pure noise. We pleaded and pleaded with our label to let us release the album on 8 track format, but due to fears of poor sales to a music-buying public that had moved on into the digital era, they wouldn’t budge. So we recorded it to sound like an 8 track in all its hissy, tapy glory.”-Jonathon Newby, August 2006 Interview
“After more or less nine years of living out of a suitcase I started to become enamored with the concept of absurdity because I had seen and experienced so much of it in my life already. Absurdity became the order of the day in writing and recording the new record. Absurd subject matter, absurd lyrics, absurd volume.”
-Jonathon Newby August 2006 Interview