Reaction-Analysis to "Pisces" by Jinjer
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- Опубліковано 28 тра 2024
- This is my reaction to and analysis of "Pisces" by Jinjer. To the best of my knowledge, the song was written by the band.
Original Video: • JINJER - Pisces (Live ...
Jinjer channel: @JinjerMetalBand
Napalm Records channel: @napalmrecords
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00:00 Intro
03:31 Reaction watch
12:06 Analysis watch
Finally. This is not a reaction, it's a downright dissection and I freakin LOVE it!! It's what this piece of art deserved, anyway. Thank you.
This is one of my favourite comments! Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed the video. :-)
Yes, this rules, super thanks.
Good next song might be Judgement and Punishment One Take Vocal Performance. There is a version of Pisces with the previous drummer but it's not a real music video just the audio from the album and a picture of the album cover. The version of Pisces that is on Spotify is that version. That whole album is great. There are two songs off that album that very few channels react to. Each is only about 2 and a half minutes long, they have the same lyrics and the lyrics are lines pulled from every other song on the album including Pisces. Each of those two songs are done in a completely different style. If that's of interest the songs are Beggars Dance and Prologue.
yes
I would recommend Jinjer's song "Who's going to be the one" live. There are a lot of Jinjer gems out there. Jinjer does a lot of songs using a jazz foundation.
27:40 Tati saves flipping the double-bird for the track 'Wallflower'😃
*Always fun to see first time reactors to Jinjer. LOL*
Outstanding R&A dude. One of if not the best dissections yet of this song. It's precisely the kind of musicianly analysis I do myself.
Vlad is extraordinarily expressive here, like Picasso at his easel. He is using ghost notes on the snare, and switching from the ride cymbal in one part to the hi-hat in another with the other hand. In the ride part, notice how he uses the ride bell to throw "ding" sounds into the rhythm. Subtle and lovely.
Yes that chorus has 20 beats. I had a moment of mind-blowing clarity when I realized it was 4/4. It's just the emphasis is all over the place. And the phrase covers 20 beats. It's super fun and interesting. All unison between guitar and bass, when the verse is all rhythmic counterpoint.
And that's the key with this song. Duality. Contrast. They are heightening the contrast with every single thing they do. Including the visuals. Every artistic choice is in absolute service to the theme of the song.
Wait until you analyze the lyrics! This song is nothing short of a masterpiece. The band themselves, in their humility, don't consider it their best song, or even a good representation of their sound. I respectfully disagree!
The lyrics are all about the duality of the two fish swimming in opposite directions, the sign of Pisces. Yin and yang. Dark and light. Soft and hard. Scale armor blaze/Virgin innocence. One being brings life, another runs for death. In the verse she's soft, deliberately breathy, skittish. In the chorus, the false folds in her throat extend straight down to the depths of hell. And she expresses the relationship paradox of being vulnerable and wary of the hooks and nets, while part of her is actually searching for a hook to catch on, so the fish can see the sunbeam--even though the air might kill it. It's pretty multi-layered and sublime, actually. And the guys in the band perfectly augment every dynamic shift. The beautiful liquid arpeggiated guitar even seems to ebb and flow like water as it interweaves with the tapped bass line in the verse. And that sepia or amber tone you noted feels like being underwater to me. Every aspect in service to the tone and feeling of the song.
I feel it's something that sets Jinjer apart. Their lack of ego as players. They act as an ensemble always. Never soloing. In fact the moments are rare in their music where only one of the instruments is playing (or singing--Tatiana's voice is absolutely an instrument--a Stradivarius).
There is so much to appreciate here. Jinjer is such a deep band. I'm glad you're taking this time to break it down--it fully rewards this level of analysis. I know you'll find their entire catalog worthy of minute dissection. I might suggest Vortex and I Speak Astronomy as particularly satisfying and progressive songs for your consideration. Both are masterpieces. Vortex has no traditional pop/rock song structure, no verse or chorus, no repetition of parts at all. Just a swirl of parts around a central gravity well. It's like metal jazz, or like a classical minuet with screaming. Musically challenging, exciting, diverse, surprising. Never predictable. In fact I'd say that's a hallmark of Jinjer. They're almost predictably unpredictable. The only constant is change. Reminds me of the lyrics of a Rush song. And in fact, Jinjer is my favorite band since Rush retired. I think you'll enjoy them too. They're worthy. It's kind of a paragon of a band.
Welcome to the Jinjer Army! Slava Ukraine!
Congrats on crossing 3K! I really appreciate you breaking down the rhythm(s), as that is always been something that's hard for me to hear on my own.
It is double trackking, which I assume is what the reference to backing vocals.
🔥Welcome (back) to Jinjer, David! I just found your channel, watched your Perennial dissection and this one: both are easily the best of the hundreds of reactions I've seen, but these are far more than just reactions so it doesn't even seem fair to compare them. Subbed! Thank you for bringing the fantastic genre twisting music of Jinjer to more people! I love their energy, how tight they are, the heaviness mixed with complexity and groove, beautiful singing and growling and especially Tatiana's lyrics!
The first time I heard Pisces in 2019 I hadn't liked any metal with growling and it took me a few listens to start liking it, but now Tatiana is my favorite vocalist and Jinjer my favorite band (Pisces has been my wake up alarm for a few years and I still love it more every time I hear it).
TLDR: skip to the last paragraph 😂
Sorry for the long comment, I just love Jinjer too much and love seeing people discover (and usually fall in love with) them and each of their songs!
My three favorite comments about Jinjer that I've seen, "terrifying levels of talent", "I hate it when a Jinjer song ends", and "that was more unexpected than my first child" 🤣
I like to share some things I learned about Jinjer, most of which you sound like you may have already read, so apologies for that!
All four current members of Jinjer have essentially no formal musical training except Vlad the drummer who studied classical piano. For most of their songs, the three guys write most of the instrument music, then Tatiana writes most of the lyrics and melodies (she gets tons of well deserved credit hfor her vocal and stage performance abilities, but maybe not quite enough for her lyrical and musical composition abilities). Roman the guitarist has written a lot of the instrument music in the past, so he's a huge part of the beautiful sound of Jinjer, but Vlad the drummer (who also plays guitar and classical piano, but so far not in most Jinjer songs - I think he played piano in lainnereP) has been writing more of it and wrote nine of the eleven songs for the latest album Wallflowers. Eugene composes some - he wrote the instrument music for one song on Wallflowers and a few songs on other albums, and I know that apart from his amazing work on the bass, he adds riffs and has written lyrics for a few Jinjer songs.
Jinjer has been a tour-heavy band, touring almost nonstop from 2013 to 2020 and much of the time since then (with interruptions by covid and the US backed coup/proxy war), hard work that has made them fantastic live performers. The band (all members have been Ukrainian, with Russian their first language) started in eastern Ukraine in 2009 as a group of three (then five) with none of the current members (they consider the official start of the band when Tatiana replaced the male vocalist and Roman joined as lead guitar 2009/2010), Vlad is the fifth drummer (joined in 2016) and it's been a group of four since 2015 (though they consider their road sound engineer Sasha to be a fifth member). I think they're still friends with all the former members and you can see their former guitarist turned actor, Dmitry Oksen, in older videos on guitar and a more recent video (Disclosure) playing an interrogator.
One of the things I love most about Jinjer is the messages in Tatiana's lyrics and the way she combines growling and beautiful singing with Jinjer's fantastic instrumentals to be so powerful for expressing the anger and pain in those messages: the anti-war message in Home Back, the anti-greed in On The Top, Mediator and No Hoard Of Value (also the horror of the coal mining industry in their home Ukraine), the protest song Who Is Gonna Be The One, the anti-fascism of Sit Stay Roll Over, the anger at people being narrow minded in Teacher Teacher and Judgment & Punishment, the struggles with mental health in Pit Of Consciousness, Vortex, Wallflower and Perennial, the giving voice to mother nature angry at humanity for letting capitalism destroy her in a bunch of songs like Ape, The Prophecy, Cloud Factory, Noah, Outlander and Bad Water. Other favorites are I Speak Astronomy, Retrospection, Words of Wisdom, Just Another, Captain Clock, Scissors, Exposed As A Liar, I Want It I'll Get It, A Plus Or A Minus, Dip A Sail, When Two Empires Collide, lainnereP, Prologue and Beggar's Dance (those last two are short album bookends that could do well together in one reaction if you're so inclined).
I haven't found a Jinjer song I don't love, so I think you can't go wrong if you choose any of them, but a few good choices might be Perennial (the live at Wacken 2019 performance of this is a must-see with high audio quality, but I understand if you don't want to do a second video for a song you already explored), Teacher Teacher (official), Judgement & Punishment (official and/or Tatiana's one take performance, again both must-see), Pit of Consciousness (official and/or live in Kiev/Kyiv, a third where both are absolutely must-see) or the heartwrenching plea against war in Home Back (official video).
Thank you, David! I know you'll keep trying out more Jinjer songs and enjoy! I can't wait! ❤🖤🤘
I agree with basically every part of your comment, but I find it hard not to respond to your characterisation of some major events in Ukrainian politics. I think that it's *accurate* but *mis-leading* to characterize the Maidan Revolution as a "US-backed coup" and the current war with Russia as a "proxy war". The fact is that although the US has taken various actions in support of closer ties between Ukraine and Western Europe / the US and correspondingly more distant ties between Ukraine and Russia, those actions match up with the overwhelming popular support among Ukrainians for democracy and sovereignty in the face of the Putin's desire to expand Russian dominance westward. Yanukovych was obviously Putin's man in Kyiv, and he was ousted through a popular uprising directly resulting from his pro-Russian decisions rather than through a US covert operation. Similarly, I agree that the US is providing military support to Ukraine's defense in order to weaken Russia, and it is in that sense accurate to call the war a "proxy war", but again, there is overwhelming popular support among Ukrainians to resist obvious Russian aggression. The fact is that Putin is an imperialist who wants to be surrounded by puppet regimes, but the countries on Russia's western frontier, including Ukraine, do not want him to succeed in those ambitions. This is one of those all too rare instances in which the US's imperial ambitions, which in this case are merely to *thwart* Russia's imperial ambitions, actually align with both the popular will in the subject country and with international law, so I'm in full support. The real failures of American foreign policy occurred during & shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Instead of working hand in hand with the willing reformer Gorbachev, the US chose instead to cheer and facilitate the USSR's descent into chaos, which is how Russia became the mafia state we see today.
Unfortunately, there's room in the world for more than one imperialist cunt, and in this case, the US is clearly on the right side and Russia is clearly on the wrong side. Fuck Putin. It's a completely unnecessary war that is 100% on Russia.
Having said that, Jinjer is freakin' awesome, they're my favourite band, and I agree with everything you said about them and their art.
Peace. ☮
Old drummer: I speak astronomy. Have fun.
Now you see why this is the perfect initiation for newbs to Jinjer. Thanks for doing this!!
first time seeing your channel .... holy f@ck, you're good
i shall be returning.
Finally took the time to listen through your R&A. Not my fabourite kind of music but I did want to hear what you would bring out of it. Admittedly you made me end up thinking more positively of it. That almost harplike guitarpicking get my approval.
Don't know what it says about our respective pets, but I had a snoring Hjördis on my lap all through the screaming notes and she is normally very shy of sudden loud sounds. Maybe dreaming of fishes?
love both your enthusiasm and insight. this reaction/analysis/commentary deserves more views.
Someone said my name? 😎
I'm glad you liked the song so much. And I really enjoyed your analysis.
And you know I have to mention Ayreon again now, don't you? 😛
I still suggest the official video for The Day That The World Breaks Down as a starting point because of the context you get.
If you don't mind being confused and want a live performance, look at the official video for The Sixth Extinction from the last live shows. They both have more than enough interesting bits to discuss.
11:40 - The only thing I can tell you after watching your reaction to this version is: don't go listen to the original version, you'll be disappointed. But if you really want to, here's the link: ua-cam.com/video/0r8c69QcoNM/v-deo.html
36:43 - Yes, it's double-tracked. The vocal track in the audio of this video is basically the album track but with bits added in different parts and bits removed. In other words, they rearranged the original vocal track and added it, along with other guitar tracks from the album, to the drums, guitar and bass that were recorded in this live session (the guitar part in the break after the second chorus, at 39:52, was also done differently from what's in the album and the acoustic guitar part that was originally there was removed). The reason why they didn't use any of the vocal material they recorded here was because the point of this video was to showcase Vlad and not Tatiana but keeping the final product as close as possible to the album version, so the vocal part didn't matter that much. Well, the internet soon flipped the script and all the spotlights were turned to Tatiana.
44:10 - This here is the influence of the traditional Ukrainian folk music, much rooted in the eastern music tradition, in Tatiana's upbringing.
I loved every moment of this reaction & analysis - thank you!
I recommend a similar deep dive into Jinjer's Home Back OMV. The song and video are a brilliant and powerful response to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea & eastern Ukraine.
Very detailed analysis. I would add a couple of other issues that could be videos on their own- the first being how this video uses Tati's eyes- how your view of her changes from the beginning into the song and its end, and how her eyes are used to signal it. You first see her and she is lithe and small-ish and then she just blows your mind so when she returns to the verse you are not looking at the same person you were when you first began watching. You are correct on the white shirt; this focuses you on her. The second is just to focus on Vlad, which was the original intent of this video, as he uses ghost notes, and how he uses his cymbals to sync with the chord changes, and his uses of his bass drum at the end, the double and quadruple time that is subtly there. (PS. Relative to Tati's use of growl, Elizabeth Zharoff- @TheCharismaticVoice- does a great job of showing how Tati uses her false vocal folds for this, so never puts her real ones in risk- Elizabeth actually has a video with Will Ramos where he swallows a camera to demonstrate this!).
Thanks 😊
Thanks for your reaction. Subscribed .
Love your cat
hmmmm why do you remind me of Daniel Ings, The Gentlemen series. And i don't mean looks , like how he acts in the show. We may have an issue to solve. :D
Yeah "Pisces".. The two kind of opposing fish..
two opposing types of singing..
And she has a littlie fish in each of her ear spacers??
One on each side/ear = 2 ?
Go figure??
Oh my; what can it mean?
Do you suppose this could be a coincidence?
Not remotely - also not something I had considered at the time. A bit distracted with the music!
@@davidkreacts LOL okey dokey, There David K.
Agreed, The music is distracting.
But myself?
I couldn't take my eyes off the video.
I didn't just look, I watched.
Also I knew what "Pisces" was/is before I watched,
So I was looking for "Pisces" connections to the music; as well as lyrical.
Lol Jinjer is ukrainian proggy djent groove metal with complex time-signature maze, polyrhythms and multi-genre blending. They are one of the most talented 4-pieces ever. Tati is one of the best overall metal vocalists and lyricists in the business.
Jinjer - Pisces (Live Session)
Jinjer - Perennial (Live At Wacken 2019)
Jinjer - Pit of Consciousness (Live in Kiev)
Jinjer - On The Top (Live in Kiev)
Jinjer - Who Is Gonna Be The One (Official Live)
Jinjer - Judgement & Punishment (Tatiana One Take Vocal)
Jinjer - Teacher Teacher (Official Video)
Jinjer - Captain Clock (Live at Resurrection Fest 2018)
Jinjer - Cloud Factory (Official Video)
Jinjer - Outlander (failure .color Video)
Jinjer - No Hoard of Value (Official Lyrics Video)
Jinjer - I Speak Astronomy (Official Video)
Jinjer - Vortex (Official Video)
Jinjer - Wallflower (Official Video)
Jinjer - Mediator (Official Video)
Jinjer - Disclosure (Official Video)
Jinjer - Call Me A Symbol (Official Video)
Jinjer - Live At Wacken 2023