Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, I'm Lulu Miller.
Chapter 2: What is the significance of music in Radiolab?
So Radiolab, you know, we're a science show. Tell science-y stories, or stories that don't seem science-y at first, but then have a scientific question at their heart. But there's another element at the core of Radiolab, which is music. The creator of this whole operation and original host, Jad Abumrad, was a musician before he was a journalist.
And he took music and brought it into the DNA of the show. And that's still how we do it today. So this week, we're going to listen back to two pieces that Jad made about musicians, musicians he loves and uses on the show. These are both stories he made years ago. And what I really love about them is that they start deep in the music, purely about the music.
But then each one unfurls into something more philosophical about our relationships with technology, our relationships to ourselves. So here they are in an episode we are calling Music Hat. Hope you enjoy.
Wait, you're listening. Okay. All right. Okay. All right.
You're listening to Radiolab.
Radiolab. From WNYC.
WNYC.
Okay, so I'm going to put on my music hat for a couple of minutes. Okay. And then in two weeks we can put our other hats back on, whatever they're called.
Science, humanism, whatever.
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Chapter 3: Who are the musicians featured in this episode?
We are many people. I am a musician as well as a storyteller. You are a Broadway show tune singer as well as a radio raconteur.
I would like to have been a Broadway show.
No one has ever invited me to do that. Well, I'm going to invite you at least to listen to my version of that for just a few minutes. Okay. I'm going to tell you about a band that I just discovered. This may be the coolest thing I've heard in years. Actually, you know this band. I mean, maybe you don't know that you know them, but we've used them in a few shows.
Remember the piece we did in the Bliss show about the perfect snowflake? Yes. We used them there. Oh. Remember the story about the artist who weaponized his own blood? Yes, Barton Banish. We used them there, too. So in a subtle way, I have already been exposed to them. That's what I'm saying. Although I am quite certain you will hate their music. I could be wrong about that.
Well, I will be as generous as I know possibly how to be. The band is called Dawn of Midi. Dawn of what? Of Midi. M-I-D-I? Do you know what Midi is?
No.
It's sort of like a computer language for music. Like in my studio at home, I have a bunch of synthesizers and various things. They all talk to each other using Midi. Oh, the Dawn of Midi. Dawn of Midi.
It's one of those half and halves. Like Dawn suggests something pleasant, beautiful, and sort of movie-like. Midi, technological card cold.
Yeah, that's actually not a bad place to start. Okay, so the band is three guys. Akash is Ronnie. He plays the bass. Amino Belliani plays the piano. Qasim Naqvi plays the drums. They met in college at CalArts. Initially, though, their partnership was not about music. It was about tennis. began on the tennis courts. On the tennis courts.
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Chapter 4: How does Dawn of Midi blend acoustic and electronic sounds?
Okay. So this is how it starts with just a bass line.
Is it going to develop, or are we going to just hear this? No, it is. It is, but just slowly.
Just wait a minute. Hear that? Right. This is the pianist. He's playing it with his left hand on the strings, so he's kind of muting it to create a harmonic. I know a pod of whales who would go crazy for this. Just look. Okay, you hear the drums are coming. You hear that? Yes. Now, I don't know about you. Actually, maybe I do know about you.
But for me, right about now, I'm getting into a deep trance.
Don't say anything for a minute, and let's see what happens. All right.
Listen to that.
They're not playing a machine. They're playing traditional instruments.
No, this is all live. They're playing real instruments.
It's all performed.
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