Menomena - Mines
MMMM1/2
Menomena is a unique band for multiple reasons, but what’s yielded a fair amount of press over their past few albums has been the band’s use of a particular piece of computer equipment. Instead of simply sitting down in a room with their instruments to work out songs, Menomena uses a computer program called the Digital Looping Recorder, or Deeler, programmed by band member Brent Knopf while he was in college. Deeler uses Max, a visual programming language for music and multimedia. For their new album,
Mines, the band continued this creative trend, jamming and recording hundreds of ideas with Deeler that were later arranged to form songs.
Programming, or simply computer language in general, is rather analytical – the sort of thing that originates in the right side of the brain. The polar opposite, of course, is the creative, left side of the brain. And while Deeler seems rather analytical – mathematical even – it never hinders Menomena’s creative output. In fact, Deeler is more like the band’s color palette, providing them an opportunity to imagine possibilities they might otherwise miss, amplifying the creative power of that left side of the brain. It’s this mathematical approach that results in songs such as “TAOS” and “Tithe” that take advantage of open space, adding small but important details, such as that of a quick guitar string bend or an introductory symphony of thumb pianos.
