I am looking into one of my favourite bands, The Wombats. They are a British Indie band that first got me intrigued with their cover of Postman Pat in Norweigan and have kept me entertained since. The song I’m looking further into today is Tokyo (vampires and wolves). It’s from their second studio album in C Major at a BPM of 146 and produced by Eric Valentine.
The element of this song that makes me love it so much is the synths that create a unique sound for the band at the time ad in fact was the learning base of synth creation and programming that continued into the subsequent albums. This song strayed from their normal and used no guitars. Instead they used a large collection of synthesisers to create the chord progression and main melody.
The synths are mostly virtual instruments. They used the Arturia’s V2 collection as well as, Air’s Hybrid and Virus’ Indigo. They also used two vintage synthesisers, the Roland JX-3P and the Moog Lil’ Phatty.
The V2 collection consists of recreations of multiple analog synthesisers and instruments. Whilst the Hybrid is a synthesiser plugin that consists of two seperate 3-part oscillators that can be manipulated with filters and envelopes. The Indigo type was not specified by Valentine but could have either been a plugin or analogue. The Roland JX-3P allows for the analog filters and VCAs with a digitally controlled oscillators. Finally the Lil’ Phatty consists of 2 oscillators, the first which sets the key and the second used to find the relative 5th both which have identical envelopes to the filter.
Although I am unaware of what exactly was used and how you can see by using frequency analysers that the filter used is a High Pass Filter at 220Hz which allows all the space for the bass and kick drum. In this track the synth essentially creates the filler sound as well as the hook melody.
They use a variation of a higher frequency synth for the melody that has a more ringing sound to it. They also use a chorus synth in the chorus for the chord progression to bring the synth back in after dropping it for the verses; the release of the synth being around 1.2 seconds. A completely different synth comes into the song at the bridge that brings in the more electronic sound mainly playing in the 200Hz to 500 Hz range. This creates the variation of the bridge compared to the rest of the song.
This song is incredibly interesting due to no guitars being used. The variation that can be created in the song by the blending of synthesisers. It shows how experimentation of new ideas can create a new sound.
References
AIR Music Technology Hybrid 3. (2019). Retrieved 16 August 2019, from https://www.airmusictech.com/product/hybrid-3#.XVZVW-gzZPZ
Arturia - V Collection 7 Overview. (2019). Retrieved 16 August 2019, from https://www.arturia.com/products/analog-classics/v-collection/overview#en
Eberhart, L. (2015). Getting Geeky: The Wombats Talk Their Musical Evolution. Nothing But Hope And Passion. Retrieved from https://nbhap.com/people/the-wombats
Key & BPM for Tokyo - Vampires & Wolves by The Wombats | Tunebat. (2010). Retrieved 16 August 2019, from https://tunebat.com/Info/Tokyo-Vampires-Wolves-The-Wombats/5o2UsVpnpQcDDRcuEPzGIm
Roland JX-3P | Vintage Synth Explorer. Retrieved 16 August 2019, from http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/jx3p.php
Stewart, D. (2006). Little Phatty by Bob Moog Programmable Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer. Sound On Sound. Retrieved from https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/little-phatty-bob-moog
The Wombats. (2010). The Wombats - Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves) [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRhUIJextp8
Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves) by The Wombats. (2010). Retrieved 16 August 2019, from https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-wombats/tokyo-vampires-wolves
Valentine, E. (2011). The Wombats - Gearslutz. Retrieved 16 August 2019, from https://www.gearslutz.com/board/q-a-with-eric-valentine/637604-wombats.html
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