What do you guys think the sound at the beginning is? What do you believe it to mean?
Personally, to me it sounds like a machine of some sort starting up. Much like a dentist's drill. No idea what bearing that could have on a meaning, other than the fact that the grudge in general has a much more 'mechanical' sound than a lot of the other songs.
No bearing on what any of this means whatsoever, a pointless thread indeed.
i always thought it sounded like an elevator...but is it going down or going up? i can't imagine the grudge w/out it actually...it's just something that fits...i can't really describe how it makesme feel...i guess maybe it's the anticipation that always gets me
i always thought it sounded like an elevator...but is it going down or going up? i can't imagine the grudge w/out it actually...it's just something that fits...i can't really describe how it makesme feel...i guess maybe it's the anticipation that always gets me
i thought it was the cd spinning at rist... but no. hahahahahaha then i thought it was a electric toothbrush... who knows... who cares... its the same person!
the sound leading the intro to 'the Grudge' at the beginning of 'Lateralus' is one of a brainwave frequenc-y(ies)
i cannot tell the actual Hz frequencies, although I know because I have found software which generates these frequencies. I do know it is a high frequency though, with alot of cycling, can you tell?
the soft ware i found you can but from the internet, and you can actually create your own frequencies with it- the brainwave generator is one of them you can search for and try out for a free trial
the software can be programed with different frequencies to produce a number of desired effects in order to relax you, aid you in meditation, or just stimulate different areas of activity in your brain experimentally
you can learn about brainwave frequencies and the Hz if you just search the internet with the key words brainwave frequencies and Hz
an example of a brainwave frequency that you can hear noramlly would be the schuman resonance, named after the scientist who discovered it, which is thought to be similar to the sound some crickets, or cicadas make, and is the Hz frequency of the earth's rotation
another tool track on undertow, the hidden track, is lead up to through a series of crickets, or cicadas chirping, and I think could be considered partial to a certain brainwave 'awareness', or 'intention' of hearing, or listening to the frequencies of nature, quite possibly the schuman resonance i have no idea how it was done
until then,
*-*
Last edited by talks in the clouds; 11-17-2003 at 01:51 AM..
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Re: sound at the beginning?
My first interpretation of this sound gave me a feeling of sinking, meaning the sound goes from high to low, it sounds like a futuristic platform sinking below the Earth. In the back of my head for some reason I have a feeling that at some point on the cd this platform will rise again, I can't recall if it does.
To me this sounds like an elevator...going up. The click at the start.. can you explain that if it is a brainwave freqency?
If it is an elevator.. take it as a metaphor: This album, through the usual leanring and discovery, will elevate your mind or knowldge.
Also, if this song, or indeed the album, is about or one of its themes is alchemy, perhaps it's the sond of the magus returning to the above, or the austomaner going to the above for the first time.
Prehap someone with a decent audio levels equipment or software package, could study the entire album for a freqency such as this, or one going in the opersite direction (down for me), occuring again, in or at the start or end of other tracks, maybe out of human hearing.
Also, if this is a noise, at the Hz of a brainfrequency, we shouldn't hear it, or else we'd have a rather bad headache all of the time
The sound is obviously a machine but to me it is irrelevant what type of machine it is, it just symbolizes the starting up of a great song/album.
Also the interesting mechanical noises in the final seconds of Faaip De Oiad.
Could this be representing a cycle of some sort?
i bought Alex Grey's book Transfigurations. This is the artist that designed the cover for Lateralus. The book has pictures of his design and a brief commentary on it. Here's what he says:
"Adam Jones, from the rock group Tool, approached me with a concept about anatomically based art on acetate overlays. I'm a fan of Tool's intense music so I agreed. AS I WAS SKETCHING, THE "SAW BLADE" DESIGN EMERGED. THE "SAW BLADE" REPRESENTS THE PRIMORDIAL SPIRIT OF EMPTINESS AND AWARENESS. The next layer was a vajra emitting energy, the subtle essence of soul around which the physical body coagulates. The vajra is placed at the sonic power center through which the voice emanates. The next several layers detail the physical systems of viscera, skeletal, muscular, nervous, and cardiovascular systems. Weaving through the physical layers are symbols of the subtle life-energy bodies and centers of awareness."
take your cd out of the cd player for once and check out the saw blade on it.
it reminds me of an old projector machine starting up for some reason. but i agree with the high frequency post. it makes sense....
but it also sounds like any random machine starting up.
__________________ and in the end.
the love you make
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I think the most plausible theory about what this is its the brainwave frequency, especially since the frequency is a high one. I think it means its the start of this album, which is an experience which stimulates the brain??? (or moreso the unconsciousness). Also, the sound comes and fades away again in Ticks and Leeches, in the soft bit. This could be that its the start of the last part of the album, where things get really in overdrive. Overall, its really the symbolism. The 'starting up' of the experience. Why always seems better that what!!! THOUGHTS??????
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Last edited by whalethesecond; 01-13-2004 at 04:06 AM..
I agree with the "random machine spinning [spiralling] up" theory.
But consider the other generic electronic whirring sounds in The Grudge, which can be heard throughout the album, on Schism, Parabol, Ticks And Leeches, Triad, and the end of Faaip De Oiad.
Here's a thought.
Maybe the music in Lateralus depicts the universe as a machine, which is switched on in The Grudge (hence the tribal, summoning-ish drumming - the birth of civillisation?), and cataclysmically breaks down in Triad/Faaip.
Not that it's alluded to in the lyrics, or anything, but I always found it fascinating that although Ænima is the more industrial album, Lateralus sounds more machine-like (actually, it's paradoxically organic and mechanical at the exact same time).
The universe-as-a-machine thing is just what I always hear whenever I hear some sort of machine-like sample in Lateralus, which is crazy considering the lyrics point to something entirely different.
That exact sample/sound was included in a sound effects collection
in my engineering school. I actually used it in a radio commercial I had to do.
It was called "elevator shaft"
I've heard it countless times in movies and TV shows.......it's kind of generic
The effects collection I was using was made in the late 80's too.....
I highly doubt it's any kind of bio electrical sound...if you listen closely you can hear the
metal clacking as it starts up. But if thats what you hear....go with it.
Personally, I dont think it has any deeper meaning than
Tool saying "here we go"
Yeah, l agree, l really don't think it's more than a machine either. Brainwave sounds cool...but afraid, probably not.
__________________ l don't want to be alone again today...
Hold me close and together we'll pray
That this moment never fades away...
Fade away, fade away, like any other day.
it reminds me of an old projector machine starting up for some reason. but i agree with the high frequency post. it makes sense....
but it also sounds like any random machine starting up.
Yeah I've always thought that. When you start the cd, just picture a movie theatre projector starting up, with the film winding and all. Gives even more foundation to the 'Laterals/movie synchronization' theory, I say. The sound comes in right when "in a film by darron aronofsky'' comes onto the screen. At least, thats how I do it, with the original track listing, of course.
Yeah im pretty certain its a circular saw. It would make sense in relation to the song as well, with the destructive nature of hatred and grudges. Well at least more sense than an elevator.
I don't really know what it is, just kinda sounds like a machine starting up. I think it's really cool though, as I always thought of it as the signal that the giant musical machine that is Lateralus is being awoken. The we get pounded by the Grudge. Pretty cool.
It is an elevator. One of those old ones with the gate you have to pull. A table saw is too hihg. I dont'think it has much meaning beyond the fact that it sounds cool.
You know those little subliminal mental pictures you get in your head when you see something for the first time and you seem to think of that everytime you see or hear that thing?
everytime i hear that noise i see the picture in the undertow booklet with the fat dildo, i somehow always think of that thing starting up....
....anyway thats just my opinion, but seriously when you see something for the first time probe your mind and think about what you first thought about its kinda screwed what your mind thinks sometimes.
Some pretty interesting thoughts... I do like the elevator thing, and the brain wave thing is innovative, to say something... But, if something resonates with your brain waves, something bad is bound to happen... My favorite, but maybe not the most accurate has to be the saw thing. I haven't given this topic/subject much thought, so this is all I can/will say about it. That kinda makes me wonder 'what was the point of even writing this then?'
__________________ "A humanist is anyone who rejects the attempt to describe or account for man wholly on the basis of physics, chemistry or animal behaviour." ~Joseph R. Krutch
Listen the start of the grudge (machine on...)
Listen the last seconds of Faaip de Oiad (machine off)
!! you took what i wanted to say :( hehe, yeah i think its no more than the begining of the cd, and at the end of Faaip de oiad its the end..no brainwaves or anything just a sound to make it cooler.
Its most definately an alien space ship
Honestly, i did think that, after watching many X files and similar programmes/films that it was a landed spacecraft. The door mechanism opening outwards, what u see in the doorway was up to the listeners imagination, then the eerie music starts up.
I think it's an elevator. Whenever I hear the beginning of the song I always think of some guy in some futuristic building running into an elevator, pushing the button, and then the soun starts and as the walls pass below him he looks up at his destination and the song starts... even thought that has nothing to do with the song, that's just what I thought of.
Well, i would have to say the sound is an elevator. I'm sure i've heard it in a video game before, maybe half-life? that being said, i think tool may have used the sound to make lateralus sound like a machine. We had the machine on, machine off post already, but what if the machine was running, then malfunctioned, resulting in triad and faaip. Or, maybe it is supposed to be like one of those spinning sphere dillys, like in the movie xmen, or contact. The machine revs up, and faaip is like, the reason for the machine, the message. Firing up a high-powered radio receiver. Just thoughts
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A lot of posts have been made about Buddism, Zen and what not on this album. It seems to me as if a lot of the Grudge has to do with letting go of personal judgments of people. I guess my interpretation of the "elevator noise" would be to stop looking up and for better things, and simply just exist as a human; return to earth and just exist, much like Zen doctrine. Judgement is the ultimate crime, who's to say what is right and wrong - who is to condemn. Freedom becomes lost the moment judgements start to be thrown around.
"defining, confining, controlling, and we're sinking deeper. "
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