Old Composer REACTS to Animals As Leaders CAFO | The Decomposers Lounge
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 16. 02. 2021
- Animals as Leaders ABSOLUT composition, musicianship, and performance!
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Having the best time doing the video reactions especially to the band Tool. Thank all of you for your comments and suggestions!
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Animals As Leaders CAFO Reaction and Breakdown | The Decomposer Point of View
I agree, this music is not for the masses. This is basically music for musicians, it showcases the insane level of talent but most people will just hear noise.
My first thought was "I'm not a musician though", then I remembered that I'm a singer. Lol.
You're right on with this comment.
I'm a air drummer / air guitarist....does that count?
Well, I technically am a very basic musician "noodling" on the guitar, but I have no idea how they perform at such high technicity, speed, quality..., yet I do enjoy it A LOT! ^^
I'm not a musician at all, but i freaking love this song.
I'm no musician but most of my close friends are.
'Woven Web' by Animals as Leaders is an easy recommendation.
Ooooofffffff
YES
I remember Woven Web was the first song of theirs I listened to. I didn't bother listening to anything else from them for a while because I didn't think there would be anything as good as Woven Web. I was wrong
definitely one of their most fully realized tunes
Also Tooth and claw and brain dance.
Tosin really is that guy that makes you want to buy an 8 string guitar, lock the door and spend the next 8 years practicing 24/7 and just open the window and throw all your gear out because you know you'll live the rest of your days frustrated there's no chance to get on his level at the same time.
I'd never heard AAL when I saw them with the Devin Townsend Project. Three songs in I turned to the guy next to me and said, "I'm done. I'm selling my gear and taking up golf."
@@nickbarrett3163 ...but what he didn't know was that Tosin plays in the masters every year.
I think playing golf while listening to AAL is the way to do it
Never with that attitude.
Amen
Abasi is probably the first guy since EVH to revolutionize guitar playing techniques to this level. The guy is just head and shoulders above all of his contemporaries. Selective picking/thumping/tapping who thinks of that and how???
Yeah this isn't hyperbole. He does something completely different with the instrument.
You ever see him play? Itâs like he can play this while talking about metaphysics. Effortless playing.
@@brandonmalone5758 It's a great example of mastery
@@brandonmalone5758 yeah him just noodling while talking with Rick Beato is madness
Apart from his otherworldly talent and musical intelligence, he's a testament to effective and dedicated practice. You can tell the guy plays for hours upon hours, but to effective purpose, perfecting techniques and ideas and using those hours and hours to continue to improve.
Never clicked so fast in my life after the first post teaser
Was about to say the same !
same
Hey Gang - The first upload got partially blocked on a copyright claim by WMG so I had to re-render with a static pic and not the original music vid. - watch gonna do. So hopefully this one won't get C-Blocked - Awwwwwwright!
Thumbnail only seems like the right way to go about this Geebz, I would stick to this as standard for these breakdowns, definitely don't want to see you get copyright striked off the platform!
Videos are a distraction anyway :-)
This sucks to hear. I do wonder how some channels manage to do it and continue. But hey, you do what you can and the important part is we hear you and get your perspective and knowledge. Anyone can watch the music video and listen to the song. It's about see what you have to say, at the end of the day.
Iâd love to be a student of yours. And Iâd love to hear you jam some originals you wrote. Iâve heard some and itâs really good. You got a cool personality and maybe we could get a jam session vid? Iâm freezing here with no power in Texas and this video made my night. Keep up the good work Geebz! Aloha
I'm just happy to see that so many of us enjoy such a wide variety of music collectively. A lot of the songs you've decomposed have a deep, unique and often very personal meaning to us on the individual level. Your reactions help us to find even more meaning, strengthening our bond to a song even more. Thank you for that. Still here, not leaving.
Animals as Leaders is a 3-men band. No bass, no vocals. just 2 8strings guitar players and the drummer.
sometimes they record with a bass added tho, like with this song
@@Koivisto147 there is always recorded bass. the recorded bass track is used in the live backing track. On this album it was actually recorded with a guitar and pitched down though.
@@gus2n yeah, iirc the first album is just Tosin with Misha Mansoor of Periphery programming drums. Javier and Navene joined for touring.
These guys play chapman sticks?
@@juankshalonga7190 no. Previous Tosin had a signature Ibanez, he now uses his own brand of guitars! Abasi Guitars! Iâm not sure what Javier is playing these days.
fun fact, this track is from the first album, which was essentially a Tosin solo project produced by Misha Mansoor (the founder of Periphery). Drums were programmed.
This fact makes Garstka's drumming on this song when they play it live now even more impressive considering he's replacing programmed drums. :)
AND Garstka doesn't look like he almost dying while playing those songs, which is even more impressive. :D
I do find the drum timing very odd, thereâs some snare hits that seem off. A bit disconnected like three musicians playing their own song.
Misha programs his drums to be playable by a real drummer. He doesnât go crazy and write stuff thatâs impossible to play because itâs not tasteful in the majority of cases. Misha understands that a person only has four limbs to play with.
I didn't realize that. Even more impressive
You have to give their OG drummer credit. Navene Koperweis is another underrated monster drummer that played this shit live, and also helped write drums for their 2nd album
9:24 10 years later still getting goosebumps from that transition
For me it's 13:24. That drop into the solo G's me up so much
@@ConnorHammond 10000% that transition after the solo to that fucking riff he playsâŠ
I donât know about this bandâs intention but a CAFO (Kay-foe) in the ag industry is an acronym for âconfined animal feedlot operationâ.
Along with the band name, it makes sense to me. Orwells Animal Farm perhaps
â@@larryhaug71 from wikipedia: "The name Animals as Leaders was inspired by Daniel Quinn's 1992 novel Ishmael, which addresses anthropocentrism. Abasi coined the name as a reminder "that we're all essentially animals". I would have thought Animal Farm as well.
I love the way he tries to tell us stuff silently with gestures while he listens because he doesn't want to interrupt the song.
Fr even he didnât want to stop itâs so beautiful
Fun fact: the "bass" part and the lead tapping part you're talking about around the 4 minute mark is all the same guitarist at once. He's using an 8 string, using his left hand to tap the bass part, and playing the leading melody with his right.
Edit: here's a timestamped video of him doing it if you're interested: czcams.com/video/j20pULM1-x4/video.html
7 string
@@halsamuelson3820 Tosin primarily plays 8 strings. Although the original iteration of Cafo was played on a 7 string, so I'll give you that.
That blowed my mind. Dude those guys are completey insane. I just discovered them now, i regret i didnt it before.
@@samuelbalanin331 Enjoy man, I wish I could forget all about them just so I could listen to them for the first time again. Their stuff has radically changed how I look at music in general.
Don't forget to just listen to the drummer's right hand if you feel you're losing your place.
At least for the time when Matt wasn't in the band
Those are programmed drums on this album
@@cgafken I thought Navene Koperweis played drums on this album.
@@gielv97 Nah Navene didn't join until Weightless.
@@cgafken yes, but it seems dumb to say "listen to SD's right button" or some shit. Figure of speech.
Tosin Abasi is in a track of Tigran Hamasyan's new album! Check it out!
Totally . That whole album is amazing
The song is called "Vortex" and is really interesting just like the rest of Tigran's music.
@@redshift912Like all of them! ahah I love "Ara Ressurect"
Of particular note: the self titled AAL album is Tosin Abasi on all instruments, the drums are samples and programmed. This is literally more of a self recorded composition than a band playing the song.
Donât forget Bulbâs involvement.
Just wanted to say you're probably my favorite react channel and the amount of depth you go into is amazing.
me too. i'm not a musician, but it's so interesting to hear these songs being broken down into their bare essentials in such a clear and concise way. it's really great stuff.
I love how he reacts and breakdown the musics he reacted on
I have never enjoyed a reaction vid before. One day I was bored and decided to click on an Opeth reaction video. Well, I'm pretty sure I've seen every video since Harlequin Forest even if I didn't like a song or band you reacted to. Keep up the great work and thanks for all you do for the kids too!
Wow, thank you!
Reaction videos are good when the one reacting is giving professional input, or breaking it down I feel
pretty sure this was recorded in an apartment with a line 6 pod on a gaming PC. lol
co-written with the main guitarist/songwriter of Periphery
Seriously? Source?
@@OvergrownWithTheMoss I remember hearing about the line 6 pod and gaming pc thing in an old interview with misha or tosin. AAL's Wikipedia says misha wrote some synth and overdubs and programmed some drum parts for the first album and produced it. Misha had a larger role in The Joy of Motion actually helped write a lot of the riffs and drum and synth parts, while Nolly helped write Tooth and Claw.
I was lucky enough to get to see these guys when they were still openers. My first thought was "Why do they need 8 strings?". I quickly found out when they started playing. Might have been 10 years ago, before 8 strings became kinda normal.
"Why do they need 8 strings?"
- Top 10 Anime Plot-Twists of All Time
A great testament to this first AAL album is that you can hardly tell the drums are programmed
4:27
Sir, that clean sound is all Tosin. He's playing it all at once.
Also, if you like this band, you should check out The Glass Bridge and Cylindrical Sea. They have some more of that incredible musicianship, and the latter has some more of those INSANE sweeps you mentioned in this video.
This. Tosin is a beast with a bugged thumb that nature didn't decide to patch because he uses it well.
@@JoshStobart I have a near 90° hitchhiker's thumb and people comment on it, but that man could teach 5th grade math with that thumb... The only acute angle hitchhiker's thumb I've seen, and you're very right when you say he puts it to good use. Man's whole technique in the picking hand revolves around it, even his normal picking posture is unattainable to 99.999% of the population.
@@robadobflob3405 I have a 90Âș hitchhiker's thumb aswell. I had a brazilian guitar teacher for about a year that had an acute-angle thumb, kind of like Tosin's, but the guy had hitchhiker's... Everything. Every single finger of his bent back significantly with his hands outstretched. It was freaky, but the guy was an absolute beast at guitar.
@@JoshStobart he literally invented a new technique itâs crazy shit
Oh by the way, when they play this live they usually end it by having their human dynamo, Matt Garstka, creating a percussive meteor storm while they loop the rhythm riff in the background. Usually at the end of the show too.
Front row viewers have been known to spontaneously combust.
Garstka is such a beast!
We gotta get a listen through of the brain dance by these guys. The mix on that is so damn good
"The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing" by Animals as Leaders is a great song.
Saw these guys open up for lamb of God and Killswitch.. I love all three but damn! Animals as leaders came to frigging destroy!! Everyone was frozen and mesmerized! My drummer and I saw it so many people even wearing lamb and Killswitch merch left early after hearing them before hand. They stole the entire show!!! Randy even said they were insane and next level and something that just blew there minds to see on tour! And uncomparible and gave them a huge shout out. Needles to say animals got the most cheers in the house. They were just next level wild. And they closed with this song. And that scale he fingertaps he def hit a boost pedal on it and that screamed!!!!
You should watch a live version of this. In that part where the "bass" part is in sync with the kick drum, the second guitar player (Javier Reyes) stops playing and gets the crowd to clap in unison to that part!
Tosin has literally changed the way some people play guitar. Hes inventive in ways that I'll never understand.
Buuut, as a drummer, my love falls with Matt and his polyrythmic beastness!
This is what I term "an accumulative track" In that its about the end riff , but that end riff is defined shaped and given context by how you get there (the rest of the track).
This is not to say its the only good bit of the track, but its for sure the stand out part. This band and Tool do this, you know its building to something, you are never sure what, but you know until that point you are receiving the foundation, or even something designed to juxtapose what is coming. Opeth also do that kind of thing. All 3 bands do it in different ways, but they all have that concept of building to a specific theme or riff that marks the climax of the track and it always feels like the destination (almost like root note in a scale) They create that tension across the track and resolve it with the final main theme. The main theme is always gold, but its made exceptional with the push pull tension release of journey, and it make the resolution so satisfying (sometimes they hint at the main theme, sometimes its played earlier in the track, sometimes not) I wish they had not faded the end
Awesome explanation bro
Great song! Tosin Abasi is on another level when it comes to guitar playing and song writing. Definitely come back to Gojira eventually. Just put out a new song today!
yeah! i watched the new video. it's sweet!
Rick Beato has interviewed Tosin Abasi at least a couple times on his channel. I could listen to him just talk music almost as much as I could listen to his playing. đ
Learning this on drums currently, great song!
Yes! Got my kit set up in garage and i wanna put my headphones with this track on and try to keep up.
Good luck
@@tcpowered13 emphasis on the word try
@@derricktipps9867 haha
I need myself an 8 string
On impulse- animals as leaders please. Itâs my stairway to heaven!!
I would love to see you breakdown more Animals. Check out Lippincott, The Brain Dance, and Tempting Time
Cool picks!
Tempting Time was my first exposure to AAL, I saw the performance Tosin did at Sweetwater some years back and I think that's an awesome way to introduce people to the band. When I first saw Tosin I had to pause it because I was laughing so hard, his fingers looked like spider legs or something, it was so unnaturally fast and fluid the way he moved around the fretboard was so unexpected that I had to pause it and regain my composure. To this day I've never seen any other musician be able to move their fingers the way he does. Everyone I've ever showed it to said something along the lines of "Wait, what!?". It's one thing to hear it but when you see the way he moves his fingers it's just...wow.
Animals As Leaders @ Brutal Assault live playing the Woven Web and CAFO is one of the best videos of them on CZcams. Matt playing CAFO on drums instantly improves this massively and they sound amazing live. Great react/review!!
Was waiting for that one!
Suggestions:
Unexpect - The Quantum Symphony
Diablo Swing Orchestra - Vodoo Mon Amour
Beyond Creation - Omnipresent Perception
Borknagar - Up North
Black Crown Initiate - Invitation
Native Construct - Mute
Kudos on Native Construct. Worst thing about that band is they only made 1 album
Oh man it's been a while since I saw Unexpected mentioned, god what a gem
My favourite AAL performance is CAFO and The Woven Web at Brutal Assault 21 metal festival
Dude, these videos have been such a pleasure. Please keep it up, i seriously get so excited whenever I see a new video is posted. Thank you for all the work youâre putting into these videos. Also, someone get this man some Scale the Summit, STAT
I've seen them live a couple of times over the years. A truly amazing experience.
I love how for most of this he just looks strained, like his brain is going to implode. You can see the universe behind those confused eyes.
LOL its true.
Love the analysis and excitement as usual!
Hey man, absolutely love your analysis of and appreciation for the finer details of music. You acknowledge that they're masters of their craft but you don't let yourself succumb to amazement. Pretty awesome man.
Just wanted to thank you on not only these outstanding reviews but your breakdowns really help me make and improve my own pieces as I'm quite inexperienced with it atm, thank you so much man
everything off this Animals as Leaders album is amazing! This band was my first introduction to this genre. Thank you a lot for the reaction.. We love you
been waiting on this one for a while!!! This is crazy.
I love you so much man, honestly, you are probably up there as one of the most personable and knowledgeable reactors out there.
Always humble, always attentive, always open minded. Itâs good to see this attitude twords a channel đđ»
Interestingly enough I believe that the drums for his album were actually programmed by Misha Mansoor, the guitar player from Periphery. They later found a drummer to join the band once they started touring.
Seeing them play this live was truly something else. Tosin (lead guitarist) uses a looper pedal to record the intro sweep arpeggios and continues playing double duty while pulling everything off flawlessly.
So glad you did this one! Love your work man x
Fun Fact: âŹïžâŹïžâŹïžâŹïž
Those are programmed drums on this album, created by Misha of Periphery.
Navene joined the band on drums after this album was finished.
Also their second album, âWeightlessâ, which is the only album Navene plays drums on is so so so underrated.
Finally please react to âThe Brain Danceâ by the band. Its insane
I love Weightless, it was my favorite album of theirs for quite some time
might have been said already, but Tosin typically plays 8 string guitars , doing both bass and rhythm/lead parts. he also loops and plays over himself. The drummer that came in afterwards is an animal studio drummer basically kids a machine.
I am so utterly impressed at the various bands you have reviewed. I NEVER would have expected to see you dive into Animals As Leaders, Protest the Hero, etc. Seriously kickass. Keep doing a great job!
You just earned subscriber. Loved the fact that you actually gave in-depth opinions instead of just staring at the screen. Absolutely awesome!
You are the best reaction channel on here my guy. Being able to listen to a reaction like yours, referring to musician's trickery in playing halftime and such, keep it up! Also, haven't watched it yet but saw you uploaded a video on Danny Elfman. Yes. Absolute yes.
Believe it or not the lower notes that match the kick in the first section are from the lead guitar while also doing the tapping. Javier Reyes, the other guitar player, does a very subtle tremolo picking part during the second half of that section
The part you were talking about with the bass sound lining up with the kick. It was one guitar doing both the low and tapping the highs at the same time in a polymeter. The second guitar is doing ambient work along with the pads.
saw them once and had my eyes glued to matt garstka the entire time.
2 years late here but definitely enjoyed your reaction of this track. Animals As Leaders is one of my top favorite bands and I'm definitely in that small category of instrumental listeners. your knowledge of music helped me understand more about music just in this video alone, and just discovered you too! You've gained a new subscriber thank you for the video!
I have been discovering so much new music thanks to your channel!
This track is from the first album and it's actually just Tosin playing everything, with his friend Misha Mansoor (of Periphery) producing the album, tracking the drums, and helping with compositional arrangements. Javier Reyes (their other guitarist) joined in when they began touring, and their current drummer Matt Garstka came on during their 3rd album.
Yes! At it again! This will impressive you for sure! (Commenting before watching đ)
About time!â€â€
Was waiting for this one!
Great reaction, thanks! These guys are amazing on stage.
One of my favorite tracks of the past 10 or so years. Thank you for reacting!
Just so you get more amazed, during the tapping that matches the bass kick, is done by the lead guitarrist as well. Left hand plays those bass notes while the right plays the higher melody.
Aloha! Thanks for explaining thoroughly and clearly the components that go into this kind of technical group. I had no prior awareness to them the first time I saw them play during a live show. They completely killed it and perform their songs to perfection. It surely was a mind warping experience that unfolded the following evening, with Animals as Leaders and Intronaut opening up for Meshuggah.
Hey, I'm fairly new to this channel and just scratching the surface of you breakdown vids, and I'm loving your style and enthusiasm so far. It's cool to see an older generation with both experience in the music industry, and an appreciation for the art of heavy metal.
I think a band you might really enjoy is Mandroid Echostar. They're a newer group that only released their first full album a few years ago, but they are super talented and I can't wait to see more of them. A great song to start with from them is Ancient Arrows.
Keep on rocking dude!
Might I recommend reacting to After the Burial? They're pretty good.
YES!!!
I really wanna hear his opinion on Neo Seoul or Laurentian Ghosts
And or older Born of Osiris
Also, I just wanted to add...watching you try to figure out the first two minutes of this....the look on your face!!! It was like you were impressed, angry, confused, and amazed all at one time!
keep it up Geebz! We love you man! Aloha!
Great pick! Loved the mastodon video as well
You give new life to old music that wasn't fully understood. I love what you do and I wish your channel the best.
I'm glad you came back to this one in particular.
Opened the video, immediately hit like. The best reaction brah around
My man the utmost respect for you and the channel youÂŽre running here... Haken is also a band you could check, iÂŽd love to see that, gone through all your tools (die hard fan here) and now im checking the rest... Created a channel to give you this comment i love your honesty in the content. Covid free hug from islander to islander (Cuban here XD)
Perfect time for me to say check out some Intronaut!!
oh, i've been waiting for this :D
Thank you so much for listening to Animals As Leaders one of the most amazing Bands ever. You need to listen to more of them you won't be disappointed, the best Animals As Leaders songs to listen to is all of them they don't have any bad songs, but one I think you would really enjoy is Brain Dance from their album The Madness Of Many.
This is the song that got me into animals as leaders. Such amazing musicians, Tosin is a god!
Just pulled this video up and I'm excited for how you interpreted it
Letâs thumb this up!!! This instrumental series is a great idea!
The Falling Veil by Elder! You'll love it, a lot to unpack.
The band is Tosin Abasi Lead and Rhythm Guitars, Javier Reyes Rhythm Guitar, Matt Garstka on Drums.
Wow what a fun react channel. Love your stuff, happy to see you do Snarky Puppy and animals as leaders.
I discovered your channel like yesterday and have already watched all your videos! I love hearing your professional perspective on some of my fav songs and you're hella fun to watch. You seem like a genuinely clutch dude and have gained a superfan đđ
Awesome! Thank you AJ!
@@KeyOfGeebz absolutely!!!
Also, you should check out Chromatic Aberration by Native Construct if you get a chance! An absolute sonic Rollercoaster
I'm still here! haha Keep up the great content Geebz!
AAL is one of my fave djent/ prog bands. They are insanely talented. Yes they have 2 guitarists playing two EIGHT STRING guitars. Tosin Abasi ( lead) is one of the ultimate talents in modern metal. Hands down top notch. It's amazing the HUGE sound they get with only 3 guys like Rush did back in the day. Keep it up Geebz. Check out Modem Day Babylon and Distant Dream and Widek for some other great bands
4:38 If you're curious, Animals As Leaders alternates between using 7 and 8-string guitars (this song is a 7-string song). They have no dedicated bassist, however, they always have some kind of bass track going on in the background, sometime played by an actual bassist.
AAL have so many great compositions. "Lippincott" comes to mind immediately - they have such a knack for establishing a killer motif and developing it over time. Definitely one of the most creative bands ever.
Best live show I've ever seen. They're spot on.
Love Animals as Leaders, these guys are great! Thank you for continuing to post awesome videos!
I've suggested Into the Painted Grey by Agalloch before, and I'd like to add one from another band I've been listening to recently. A bit different from most of what you've been listening to for these, but I find Tengger Cavalry to be really interesting, Lone Wolf is a song you should check out. Even if not for a video.
Saw them live!!!! AMAZING!!!!
This is one of those songs where all of us remember the first time we heard this. We also remember introducing all of our friends to this. This the THE intro song to the progressive metal genre. Tosin is a freaking genius.
Love your videos...... I like seeing musically educated people critique the style of music I love. Also wanted to just add a comment.
YUSSSSS PLEEEEEASE LOVE THIS BAND SO MUCH
About bass in Animals As Leaders, on their first album (which CAFO is from) they used pitch-shifted single guitar notes. Their second album Weightless was exclusively synth bass. The Joy of Motion, their third, has mixed synth bass and sometimes bass guitar (f.e. Lippincott, Tooth and Claw & Para Mexer - were played by their producer, Nolly). And The Madness of Many, their most recent work, I believe has both bass guitar and synth bass again, though fully played by Tosin/Javier (the guitar players)
Yeah! These guys are so good, this song is nuts!
Love starting the day off with some CAFO, gets the brain juice flowin
Suggestions:
Slice The Cake - Stone And Silver Part 1 - The Mountains of Man
Textures - Awake
Slice The Cake - Unending Waltz
Slice The Cake - Westward Bound Part I - The Lantern
Dance Gavin Dance - Blue Dream
Emarosa - The Past Should Stay Dead
Slipknot - Vermilion
Imagine switching radio stations and having this come out of your car stereo đ
I was introduced to these guys at a live show in Boulder, CO. About half way through the show I turned around and saw the crowd. Nothing but musicians, standing perfectly still just watching every movement. Well, except those two girlfriends that were dragged to the show. Those two looked quite confused.
This is probably mentioned elsewhere in the comments but at the time of recording this track (and the whole first album) 'the band' was just Tosin composing guitar & bass and the producer (Misha of Periphery) programmed the drums and additional arrangements.