colors in music

[taiyed]

I used to think i was crazy when I'd see and associate colors with songs. But, then I read somewhere that many musicians like Jimi Hendrix did and do the same. I was just wondering what colors do everyone think of when they hear the songs of this album. I almost see a predominant blue throughout this album. Here's what I think/see in detail:

The Grudge: To me I almost see a flame with this song, a dominant red with whisps of yellow and orange. The yellow and orange becomes more vibrant during the part where Maynard begins to sing, "Defining, confining..."

Eon Blue Apocalypse: I see a cold blue over a background of black emptiness.

The Patient: Light Blue with minor shades of green now and then.

Mantra: Gray. Almost like cement.

Schism: Blue and Gray with the occassional yellow in electric bursts.

Parabol: The same thing Eon Blue Apocalypse.

Parabola: A more royal blue with flowing beams of electrical red, yellow, and orange that are especially apparent during Adam's solos.

Ticks & Leeches: Flowing Black.

Lateralus: Blue and Gold. Almost like a royal song.

Disposition: Sky blue and white...very nice.

Reflection: Mostly black with the occasional whisp of red or yellow.

Triad: Red and Black

Faaip De Oiad: Static! AHHH!


Taiyed'

[paraflux]

I see colors sometimes, but dont necessarily see them constantly. I tend to see more images than colors.

and i like your name. grassroots.

[royc]

DMT...when ingested and allowed to come to rest in the synapses of the brain, allows one to see sound, so that one can use the voice to produce, not musical compositions, but pictoral and visual compositions. This, to my mind, indicates that we're on the cusp of some kind of evolutionary transition in the language-forming area, we are going to go from a language that is heard, to a language that is seen, through a shift in interior processing. The language will still be made of sound, but it will be processed as the carrier of the visual impression. This is actually being done by shamans in the Amazon. The songs they sing sound as they do in order to look a certain way. They are not musical compositions as we're used to thinking of them. They are pictoral art created by audio signals.
interview with terence mckenna
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[a_divine_martyr]

Your descriptions are amzing... better than that one thread where people just said, blue.... red..... yellow...


Boring as fuck... PUT SOME EFFORT SOMETIMES PEOPLE!

Am I a hypocrite for saying this, yet probably not doing it?

Maybe....

[J1516]

I don't really have many specific colors that always occur for most songs. But I have a few. During The Grudge from the scream to the end I usually see an incredible clash of reds, yellows, and oranges. The red I see mostly though is pink in the backdrop while all the colors crash into my mind. During Parabola I just see yellows and blacks swimming and spiraling all around eachother.

For Lateralus I see black and red during the verse-chorus-verse part, then during the quite section I see mostly black and a lighter shade of yellow and red and grey. During the end it's an explosion of a darker brighter blue yellow and red. For disposition I see teal, and I'm glad that's the color they used in concert.

Though with every listen the colors change a whole lot.

[the reverend]

I think the colours also change according to the mood your in.
Its also interesting to see colours in albums as a whole.

[Shadowfax]

I do see colours in music a lot while im just zoning out and listening, but I would say that in this album as a whole, each colour of the spectrum is hit, if you would like to tie colours to emotions. I would say though that the main colours of a few choice songs, that I see, would be: The Grudge: Red,
Eon Blue Apoc: Blueish-Black, Parabol/a: Purplish-Blue. I'd also say that in Lateralus, if I just close my eyes, I can see the entire specrum just dancing, it's amazing....the emotions given off by that song are phenomenal, and I get chills every time I listen to it....

[paraflux]

Once again, we have the shortcut of high-powered dissociative drugs brought up. Yes, we can take DMT and Special K, and I'm not saying no one should try it. The question is, as I related to my post "For Dissociation" in the socialize section, do we smash down the doors that are locked before us and therefore disturb and disrespect what is inside, or do we do it the long-proven way of learning and finding the key with the use of our natural mind? Or does it matter anymore how we get behind the door at all? I just say this because my personal intuition throws up a flag when I hear of people relying on these pharmaceuticals in order to get where they want to be. Doesnt that leave you depressed and discouraged when you come down? I am a heavy supporter of LSD, but once in a while, not every week, or two weeks, or even every two months. There is only so much you can learn from LSD, and even though it is a lot, your inside influence should tell you when you have had enough for a while, to try and get back to that point without ingesting acid. Because that is the point, isnt it? to feel great and have all these brilliant thoughts and visions on your own, without a crutch? People even use Tool as a crutch of sorts, think highly of the members, pedestalize them, look to them for answers. Do we not see that the first thing they teach is for us to teach ourselves?

[Valkyrie]

Originally posted by J1516
I don't really have many specific colors that always occur for most songs. But I have a few. During The Grudge from the scream to the end I usually see an incredible clash of reds, yellows, and oranges. [...]

I don't know about anyone else, but I don't necessarily..."see" the colours...I feel them. The feeling inside that I get from seeing a certain colour with my eyes is the same I get when listening to certain songs. I can also feel structure when I listen, but...it all feels rather vague and I doubt it is true synaesthesia (sp?)

Still... A lot of it is more than likely influenced by my environment. For example, whether I like it or not, when I hear "Schism" I can feel square edges. But that's probably from associating the video with the song, and subconciously it resurfaces ( I haven't watched the video in a LONG time). I also associate it with crosshatched spikes, much like those found on industrial files.

With the title track I associate a slippery texture...likened to riding a tube with criss-crossing, stretching luminous curves...it's metallic but almost liquid similar to T-1000 from the Terminator 2 movie.

The grudge feels "bludgeony"...like a dull hammer or steel bat. I seem to feel craggy, rock-like textures from it. But that could be word association (give away the stone).

I don't notice it unless I really sit and feel.

Oh...and when the originator of this post mentioned utter blacks for "Ticks and Leeches", that was the immediate 'colour' I was thinking of.

[drum_dood]

i see some colors when i listen to. here's what i feel:
the grudge - i feel a green, and i don't know why. everyone else feels fire and such, but i don't feel that till the end of the song when it's going crazy. maybe i'm just weird, but during the first 5 mins or so i feel green.

eon blue apocalypse - "I see a cold blue over a background of black emptiness." (quote from taiyed--oh and i like 311 too)

the patient - i feel red throughout the song. maybe it's because of the part, "and i'm still right here giving BLOOD". i just feel a predominant red here.

mantra - i don't know why, but violet comes to mind...

schism - in the beginning i feel a grayish/blueish. then as the song gets going i feel black a little bit. on the part where maynard says "Between supposed lovers/brothers" right after the calm part, i feel lightning coming down and a black night with rain image. then as the song ends i feel like i'm falling into depths of fire and such as the drums start kicking ass...

parabol - i feel red for no apparent reason.

parabola - i feel green in this song. maybe it's because this song is about love and such. love, to me, is a natural feeling. i think green is the most natural color, so i guess the pieces fit...

ticks and leeches - i feel a brown coming through at the beginning of the song (with the drums). then as the song ends i feel a black (probably because of the rage in the song)

lateralus - in the beginning i feel black because the guitar is all singled out, then deeply and darkly (is that a word?) in the background the drums and bass come in. then througout the verse i feel a black also, probably because maynard sings "BLACK and white are all i see..." then the "chorus" part gives me a white or yellowish feel. on the "i embrace my desire to..." part i feel a strong blue coming through. as the song ends with "spiral out!" i just see the back of my tool t-shirt (it's got an eye in the middle of the back with some background stuff behind it. then there are spirals going out to other eye's...you'd probably know if if you saw it)

disposition - black

reflection - i feel a black when the drums start playing, but then as everything comes in i feel a gray, like the aftermath of a huge fire or something...

triad - i feel a green for no reason really. just a green

and faaip de oiad...nothing

[royc]

Originally posted by paraflux
do we smash down the doors that are locked before us and therefore disturb and disrespect what is inside, or do we do it the long-proven way of learning and finding the key with the use of our natural mind?.....There is only so much you can learn from LSD

i agree that lsd has limited potential, its neat and all but the doors it opens i feel really are only recreational. mushrooms seem to reveal much more, they dont smash anything except your ego. So far as the long proven way goes it seems to have failed thus far in all but building it (ego) up. Crutches allow cripples to walk properly so that they don't need to drag themselves around on their bellys. Human consciousness is crippled, before that humans ate psychoactive drugs. would you mock a war amp with no legs for using a wheelchair, more rellevent; for getting his own real living legs back.
eat shrooms.... more

[demiurge]

It's nice to finally see some discussion of psychoactive drugs here. I'm new to this board and I was surprised to find such little discussion of the topic for a band whose music has been so heavily influenced by mind altering substances.

[Metatron's Cube]

For me its more of feelings than colors, more images and mood I guess. I agree with many of the color schemes though, they feel those colors to me too, I have never given it much thought in the past though.