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Joining us, to Scaleter's Choice readers are the users of United Musicians mobile app. This is the opportunity to call all of you musicians for two actions. One is to download the app United Musicians and be the pioneers of this social interaction, made for you. Two is to Send us your new song, so we could hear and maybe write about and give you more exposure.
We got music lovers reading, musicians from all over, new and experienced, people from the music industry who want to see what's new and maybe learn a thing or two about the movements I'm showing here. Let's begin with it.

I have a band for you to discover. It's called Warhaus, they're from belgium and up to now they released two albums. The leader is the fascinating Maarten Devoldere and everywhere I search I see the band being described either as a one man band or a couple. However it seems that Warhaus is a consolidated quartet. Joining Devoldere are Silvie Kreusch (Vocals), Jasper Maekelberg (Guitar) and Michiel Balcaen (Drums).

On 2017, Warhaus got the 'number 1 album' on Belgium national charts with their debut album- 'We Fucked a Flame into Being'.
I am afraid to be wrong with their music genre describtion. People would say that Warhaus is in the circle of Indie Rock but it's a too abstract for me to use. I will give more specific style characters along the article.
Right now I want to take you to this dark enlightning beautiful song we're about to analyze here. It's called Machinery. Let's watch a spectacular performance published on Youtube and reveal later some differences from the original track.

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Warhaus has an addictive component. I was familiar with them by a berliner girl and while hanging around Berlin, I listened to their song Love's a Stranger for countless times. It gave me moments to remember.

The band delivers an attitude of outsiders, fronting the rest of the world and living their own lives. It's apparent in their videos, in the style of singing and in the beautiful dance moves of Silvie Kreusch. For a good metaphor, they are gathered in a circle in this performance. To strengthen that opinion, try watching their video clip of 'Mad World' song. I get naturally attracted to 'detached' personalities.

Maarten Devoldere has a deep low voice and sings in a very honest way. I get even more struck when Silvie Kreusch enters with her own voice. It fits so perfectly to his. I wouldn't tag her voice as thin, like others would suggest. It does have thickness but the frequencies, in general, seem to mix so naturally. I would say she has a perfect voice for that second vocals position. Together they made an original blend.
As musicians, they are such an interesting frame to their music, we almost forgot getting to the song. But we didn't. Let's mention a few worthy musical comments.

Instruments and sound

I implied earlier regarding the music style of Warhaus, well, I find originality in their making. Each of the band members is a kind of a multiplayer, playing numbers of instruments.
Michiel, The drummer, sings sometimes and plays sounds in the drum machine/sampler along his drums. Jasper, the guitarist, plays on a drum machine as well and a kind of a small clavier for piano/synth sounds. Maarten, the singer and bass player, plays also the trumpet in many songs, even though it's not apparent in this one. All that variety enriches the Warhaus sound in total. They produce a realistic sound for a quartet and still a rich one.

So, an Indie Rock band using many variations doesn't sound like the standard type and I will tell you what I noticed moreover. They embrace a bit of eastern/ african / asian sound sources. Quite original for a band coming from western europe (which brings me to the globalization subject but we won't discuss it now).
If you search for that you'd be able to find Congo african drums (also in Machinery), indian Sitar and other sorts of african/brazilian toms. I'm sure I missed some but I can definitely identify eastern and arabic touch!

A few more elements are contributing to their originality:
1) The use of snare drum - In a rock band it's usually used every 2nd bit in a measure and to intensify the atmosphere of the song. However, Warhaus drummer uses it differently in some songs, more for decorations and transitions between parts. Take for example their songs - 'Mad World' and 'Leave With Me'.
2) Reverb use - They like reverb on instrument and add it with a good taste. The ones on Silvie's vocals are accurate. On other songs you can hear Maarten's trumpet with a kind of reverb/delay, giving it a large dimention like a group of trumpets is playing. I love it.
3) Bass/Electric - If you haven't noticed yet, take a look at the video again and see Maarten's bass guitar. The first two strings are of an electric guitar, letting him the opportunity to play chords along the bass line. Brilliant. My first time seeing this.

Scale change

Here, on Scaleter.com, we like dealing with scales very much. Yes, there is a scale change in this songs but no, it's not on that version. Let me take you to the original track and try to absorb what's happening from 2:30.



The song is played in E minor scale. Then, at 2:14 begins a development which moves between the 6th and 5th (minor) chords of E minor (meaning chords C and Bm). At 2:34 come two notes together - G and D. G is included in E minor scale so we can think we're still on the same one. But something is definitely changing because D goes to D sharp and then to F and lastly to F sharp. This Chromatic walk gives us instability and the unexpected G minor scale is showing at 2:49. Allegedly, those previous movements were 1st and 7th degrees of G minor.
It is a smooth and wonderful bridge. An elegant move which belongs to the pro's.
Let me show it to you in a sketch:



So, if you're brave to follow me up till now, you can see that already in the development begins the new scale, G minor.
How is it so smooth you ask? Because the first two notes of the new scale don't give us the 3rd degree of the chord and therefore we cannot say whether this chord belongs to previous scale (E minor) or the new one (G minor)!

Next Scaleter's Choice is soon!