‍Crumb are four Brooklyn-based musicians. Ramani, Brotter, Aronow, and Gilad met at Tufts University, often living and playing together until 2016, when they developed and recorded a collection of songs Ramani had started writing in high school and college.

After releasing two EPs of the songs they recorded in college (2016’s Crumb and 2017’s Locket), the subsequent critical buzz led to a short DIY tour (“like house basement shows, really low key… down the east coast”). Three years later they are still touring, having supported bedroom-rock musician Alex G. Crumb dropped their first album ‘Jinx’ in 2019, a strangely delicate psych-rock and jazz inflected record that has already been bewitching audiences at their live shows.

I decided to do a remake of one of their most listened songs, which gives its name to his second EP 'Locket'. You can listen to it here, and below you can read about the entire deconstruction of it.

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MUSIC THEORY

I am going to discuss some concepts of music theory about this song, with the collaboration of Rodrigo Arribas.

First, we need to find out the chords and structure of the song:

Analyzing the chords, the song is on the Gb lydian scale. However, for those unfamiliar with the music modes, and to further simplify the discussion, we are going to analyze this song as if it were on the Db major scale (Gb Lydian is the IV degree of the Db major scale).

How has this correlation been made?

To learn how to build any mode it is necessary to know the order number of the mode, and simply count backwards to the main scale to determine the structure of the mode. For example, in our case it is Gb Lydian. Gb Lydian is the 4th mode. Of what major scale is Gb the 4th degree?

Exactly, it's Db. Therefore Gb Lydian is simply the 8 note scale that begins and ends in Db with the same formula as Db-Major. If you want more information, in this article you can find a very graphic and practical summary to understand the modes in music.

In the chorus we find the dominant chords Eb7 and C7. For this, it is necessary to know that the dominant chord is called the V degree of a scale, being chords with a lot of tension that resolve on the I degree (the tonic). Therefore the dominant chord of our Db scale would be its V degree: an Ab7. This chord does not appear in this case, but Eb7 and C7. So what happens when other dominant chords appear that are not necessarily the V degree, as is the case with this song? In these situations they are called secondary dominants.

Eb7 functions as a secondary dominant of the 5th degree of our Db major scale. The V degree of Db is an Ab, and in turn the V degree of Ab is Eb7, therefore Eb7 is the dominant of Ab, (the secondary dominant of the V degree of Db).

The C7 chord is also a secondary dominant, in this case of the III degree. Again, the III degree of the Db scale is an Fm, and the V degree of Fm is C7. Therefore, C7 is dominant of Fm (secondary dominant of III degree of Db).

This can be confusing the first time you read it, but drawing a sketch helps a lot to understand things.

The most special thing about the song is the diminished chord Edim. Diminished chords have a very similar function to dominant chords. The Edim chord is not in the Db scale of the song, and to understand it you have to take a look at the notes that make up this chord.

The Edim chord is very similar to a C7, but without the C note. So Edim understood as a C7 (with one less note) can act as a secondary dominant of the III degree of Db (Fm), without resolving on it.

The Edim chord can also be understood as a chromaticism within the scale. By analyzing its notes, we see that they are very close to the notes of Gbmaj7, most being at a semitone interval.

Despite the fact that several secondary dominants have been discussed, this is a special case since all these secondary dominants do not end up resolving in their I degree, so they would be deceptive dominants.

SYNTHS

The song begins with a rhodes, making slightly upward arpeggiated chords. At the same time, some notes complements the melody of voice. I used the Soundtoys Autopan to give it movement in stereo and the Goodhertz Vulfcompressor to make it sound tight. You can listen to it below.

Main Rhodes

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Once the rhodes part ends, other keys appear with a fast modulation with vibrato effect, which I managed to emulate using the Soundtoys Phasemistress. I have also put another autopan with enough width to occupy the entire stereo. Below you can listen to this keyboard without any effect, and with these effects. As you can see, the base sound is nothing like the final result until these effects are applied.

‍TAL-U-NO without effects

TAL-U-NO with effects

In the chorus, there are some background keys that make the same melody as the voice and creates an ethereal atmosphere. To recreate them I used the same rhodes preset as before, and I added the ValhallaShimmer to give it that spaciousness and reverb. Listen to it below.

Solo Rhodes

Finally and barely audible, in the second chorus there is a pad that merges with the bridge once this part is finished. I have recreated it with the Solina synth with a viola and human timbre. These types of string sounds help to reinforce this last part when the song gets louder.

Solina

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DRUMS

The drums of this song follow a straight rhythm in the verses with a kick that overlaps with the bass. In the chorus there are ride hits and cymbals giving more space, and some kick drum hits also disappear to let the rest of the instruments breathe and give prominence. I have recreated the drums with the VST Addictive Drums, starting from the Modern Soul R&B preset and changing the kick to a Sonor Phonic and the snare to a Pearl, which have more similar tones to the original.

I've run the entire drum kit through the RC-20 Retro Color to give it some saturation and warmth, and an EQ lowering the treble from 2k Hz to get that more lofi and muted touch that the original drum kit has, with a killed sound feeling. It is important to vary the intensity of each hit when drawing the midi, and try not to fit 100% to the grid to achieve a more natural and less robotic sound.

The tempo of the song varies from 90 to 100 BPM, slowing down in the chorus and giving a more natural feeling.

Drums

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BASS

In the verses, the bass follows a hypnotic pattern following the kick drum while in the chorus it follows a more melodic pattern. It doesn't sound very special, so in this case I haven't used any amp simulation VSTs. I have only run the bass through the following line of effects, where the Waves Bass Rider helps to control the volume, the CLA-76 compressor to unify dynamics, and then a couple of EQs to highlight and clear some frequencies.

Bass

In the second verse and second chorus there are some fragments where the bass is distorted. To give it this overdrive, I have used the Guitar Rig 5 with the Skream Bass preset which has a knob to adjust the distortion we want to apply. You can listen to these more saturated parts below.

Distorted Bass

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GUITAR

Guitars on this track don't take a lot of processing and sound pretty clean. In the first verse there is a small guitar solo, and in the chorus there are some chord strums. I've used the Guitar Rig 5 with the Jazz Reverb preset and ran it through the RC-20 Retro Color playing with the wobble parameter for a more lofi touch.

Guitar Solo

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That was all, I hope you enjoyed it! Remember that in my Patreon you can support my work and download the Ableton project with all the tracks and presets that I have used in this remake. See you in the next one!

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