Leitmotif (album)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Leitmotif | ||
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| Studio album by dredg | ||
| Released | May 30, 1999 | |
| Recorded | Brilliant Studios, San Francisco, California | |
| Genre | Alternative rock | |
| Length | 54:00 | |
| Label | Universal | |
| Producer(s) | Travis Crenshaw and dredg | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| dredg chronology | ||
| Leitmotif (1999) |
El Cielo (2002) |
|
Leitmotif is dredg's first full-length album, originally released by dredg on May 30, 1999. The album was re-released by Universal, with different artwork, on September 11, 2001. A "leitmotif" is also a recurring musical theme associated within a particular piece of music with a particular person, place or idea.
[edit] About the album
Leitmotif was recorded in ten days, and is a concept album in which the songs revolve around a small story written by bassist Drew Roulette included in the album booklet. It should be noted that the lyrics to the songs are not identical to the words in the booklet, although some passages are quoted word for word. The story of Leitmotif is about a man with a "spiritual disease" who must seek out different cultures of the world to find a cure for his affliction.
Universal re-released Leitmotif unchanged from its original version, both in the recording and in the booklet's text, essentially duplicating the band's original, independently released demo. This is a very rare occurrence, and is a testament to dredg's vision for this album.
The newer case features the uniform brown paper package with white text as pictured, to the upper right, with only the phrase "We live like penguins in the desert. Why can't we live like tribes?" printed on the inner sleeve. The older case features the cover pictured, to the lower right, as well as more brown and blue topographical photos on the case and the booklet which are similar to the cover. Aside from the difference in artwork, the two versions of Leitmotif remain nearly identical.
Most of the lyrics can be found at www.traversing.net; the lyrics to parts of several verses (and most of one whole song) are unknown outside the band. All of the music on this album is created by dredg, there are no samples. As claimed in the booklet "all instruments and sounds are real. No samples."
Leitmotif was produced and engineered by dredg and Travis Crenshaw, and was recorded at Brilliant Studios in San Francisco, CA.
[edit] Track listing
- "易" (Also referred to as "Symbol Song")* – 4:23
- "Movement I: @45°N, 180°W" – 1:02
- "Lechium" – 6:25
- "Movement II: Crosswind Minuet" – 1:23
- "Traversing Through the Arctic Cold We Search for the Spirit of Yuta/Intermission" – 6:38
- "Movement III: Lyndon" – 3:08
- "Penguins in the Desert" – 4:13
- "Movement IV: RR" – 3:00
- "Yatahaze" – 3:45
- "Movement V: 90 Hour Sleep/Untitled" (secret track) – 20:21
- The tracklist on the back of the album simply lists the name of the first track as a variation of the Chinese character, 易, which means "change" or "chameleon." However, since it is not a character in the English language, most sources simply list it as "Symbol Song" (including the band's official website).
