This week’s Dirty Monday playlist from Fiona Brice offers her favourite orchestrations with tracks by Beck, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Issac Hayes and more.
A Royal Academy of Music graduate, Dirty Soup's orchestral arranger has worked with artists such as Jay-Z & Beyonce, Mark Ronson, John Grant, Anna Calvi, and Florence and the Machine.
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1. Scott Walker “It’s Raining Today” (1969. Arranger: Wally Stott)
The sustained string dissonance creates a real sense of psychological unease, offsetting the rich velvet of Walker’s voice, before delving into a dense, dark arrangement. This is brave, experimental writing.
As an arranger I have often been given this track as a reference, notably for “One Breath” by Anna Calvi.
2. Nick Drake “Riverman” (1969. Arranger: Harry Robertson aka Robinson)
Another classic that artists often refer to when asking for strings! There is an easy pastoral quality to the playing, but the disjunct melodic motion and cross-rhythms mean this arrangement wouldn’t be out of place on a Radiohead tune. Inspired.
3. Bjork “Joga” (2004. Arranger: Bjork/The Icelandic String Octet)
One of many stunning orchestral tracks by Bjork, this one is sheer beauty. The counter-melody cascades and cycles around her main vocal, and there’s a perfect balance of emotion and restraint in the string playing. String octet is a really great ensemble to write for because it can easily carry a whole song harmonically and rhythmically (octet is also the line-up used by the Beatles for “Eleanor Rigby”).
4. Serge Gainsbourg “L’hotel Particulier BOF Melody Nelson” (1971. Arranger: Jean-Claude Vannier)
I am a huge fan of Vannier’s arrangements and he was clearly the perfect collaborator for Gainsbourg. The strings on this track are pure filth. String porn. They drive the tension of the song, they bring tenderness in places, brute force in others. My french session player colleagues believe the strings were always recorded muted for these arrangements. I need to try that.
5. Led Zeppelin “Kashmir” (1975. Arranger: John Paul Jones)
What happens if you let the bass player write the orchestration? Massive prog riffs, that’s what. Hard to argue with this epic rock track. I can’t tell you how many times over the years I have been playing violin in a string quartet at a wedding when some drunk guest rolls up and shouts “Oi oi, can you play Kashmir? Ha ha ha ha”. Yes. I can.
6. John Grant "Pale Green Ghosts” (2013. Arranger: Fiona Brice)
And this is one of mine and it is my favourite collaboration with John Grant to date. He asked me to re-work the theme from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Prelude in C sharp minor and combine it with menacing brass stabs to create the cinematic feel for this title track. The drama builds throughout and is spine-tingling when performed live with an orchestra (so far we have done this with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony Orchestra).
7. Beck “Paper Tiger” (2002. Arranger: David Campbell)
Lucky Beck, having an amazing orchestral arranger for a father.. they worked together on this track and to my mind this arrangement is clearly influenced by Vannier/Gainsbourg. The strings rif in unison and octaves, something also found in Indian classical music, but although it wears its influences on its sleeve, this track goes way beyond pastiche and is genius in its own right. The production on the whole “Sea Change” album is incredible and is regularly used by Front of House sound engineers to test their PA sound.
8. Massive Attack “Unfinished Sympathy” (1991. Arranger: Will Malone)
A hugely iconic arrangement which many people have tried to copy since. From a one note start, the harmony develops beautifully, becoming progressively more angular, climbing up the register of the string ensemble and getting more rhythmic as it grows. Sophisticated, elegant writing.
9. Yma Sumac “Bo Mambo” (1954. Arranger: Billy May)
This is specifically a brass track but the writing and performance takes my breath away. The arrangement frames her incredible voice beautifully. Billy May was a legendary composer, arranger and trumpet player, writing for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald and many other greats. I could easily create a Top 50 of his arrangements alone. Stunning.
10. Isaac Hayes “Walk On By” (1969. Arranger: Johnny Allen)
One of my all time favourite recordings. Perfect for watching the sun come up. The orchestration is anthemic, expansive, with broad sweeping counter melodies and heavy rhythmic interjections paced beautifully over 12 minutes. There are a couple of dodgy moments in the string performance, which would be tidied up by a drop-in to meet today’s squeaky clean digital standards, but it’s all part of its analogue gorgeousness.
