Trapped at Berkeley

Being an avid fan of CSI w/o a television, I downloaded #BT’s HDTV rip of the latest episode, Butterflied. Near the beginning of the episode, a tune in the soundtrack caught my attention. I recognized the sound, but I couldn’t identify it…

I had to know what song it was!

I paused the episode and opened up XMMS. I quicked scrolled through my list of songs, stopping first at Depeche Mode. I felt that the sound I heard had an electronic, inorganic, atmosphere, and Depeche Mode was known for their unique electronic tones. However, after listening to a few Depeche Mode sound bites, I ruled them out. The sound wasn’t cheery, nor was it blended in the ’sad’ Depeche Mode way (I can’t think of a better description).

Next came Moby, another famous electronic artist. I took a lot longer to rule him out. Moby tends to use many different techniques and styles, so it was difficult to totally characterize the sound I heard as not Moby. Nevertheless, I ruled him out too, because, if it was him, it would have had to something he did in the 70’s, and in that case, I was already doomed.

I came upon Peter Gabriel, but I decided to ignore him. I had an hunch. I scrolled back up to Bjork.

The sound was definitely Bjork. Or was it. The sound I heard was melancholy. Bjork has tons of deep, dark, songs. And she oftens use electronic mixing. Nevertheless, even though I have EVERY SINGLE Bjork cd, I couldn’t find a match.

At this point, I normally would have given up. I was interrupting a good episode of CSI, and my search was going nowhere. But I came upon one last idea. Bjork had worked with many European bands, and one of bands closely associated with her music is Massive Attack. I remember this because I was talking to my high school friend Mina Hong the other day, and she had a Bjork buddy icon. I pointed it out, and she and I discussed Bjork’s music, and Massive Attack was brought up.

I was right! The song was Massive Attack’s Name Taken from their new album 100th Window. I took a few minutes to listen to the song in its unedited entirety, and then I finished enjoying the CSI episode.

After that episode, I’ve found myself listening to Massive Attack again. Emily’s gonna hate me for the next note: If anybody wants to buy me a gift, Massive Attack’s album Blue Lines would work very well =)