<p align="center"><em>
Artifact</em></p>
The album I chose to analyze is <em>Artifact </em>by Sound Tribe Sector 9. It was released on February 8, 2005. <em>Artifact </em>is a multi-genre electronic album. It was recorded without using a professional studio despite it; the album has excellent sound quality. Most of the recording took place in 2001 to 2004, the same time America entered war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also during this time, Sound Tribe was recording the documentary <em>Regeneration</em> with Ryan Gosling. The band played a major role in the film talking about the current young generation’s responsibility to change our cultures direction. I believe STS9’s Album artifact should be preserved because the album created a new style and manner of production which hadn’t been implemented successfully by any preceding bands and has an everlasting listening appeal.

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Try listening to songs from the album while reading this paper.  look for songs on youtube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrETc4XXNqN_w6t3nti9IcN5xDeA9ydq3">http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrETc4XXNqN_w6t3nti9IcN5xDeA9ydq3</a>

With the advent of electronics, and subsequently computers, musicians and engineers alike have been teaming up to combine music and technology. From the first Moog Synthesizers to the home based PC, musicians have been continuously adding more electronic elements into their live performances and productions. The band Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9) has continued with this idea to create an album, <em>Artifact,</em> which combines their ability to perform live jam styled music with synthesizers, samplers and sonic anomalies. This fusion captivates listeners with intricate melodies and rhythms that will surely please anyone from any musical taste or background.

Music from the 2000’s can most of the time be easily categorized since many artists and bands of this era played in their own respective genre. Some popular genres of this time include rap/post golden era hip-hop or “club” music, such as Ludacris, Kayne West, and Three 6 Mafia. Pop-rocks bands, such as Green Day, Simple Plan, and Blink-182 and various other permutations of rock music. And the endless subgenre’s of electronic dance music such as house, techno, trance, and down tempo. Most of these artists use cliché topics in their music like lost love and romance, getting money and living the hood life, or dealing with teenage angst.

Most artists during 2000’s began releasing their music online since most of their audiences would download music through iTunes to use with their iPods. This era had a rapid growth of technology and music fusing together to benefit from one another. Small time artists were able to develop fan bases from around the world through the World Wide Web without touring, something new to music history and that has changed popular music as well. Also, many pop bands began implementing a production technique known as Auto-tune or melodyne. This technology allows a singer to sing out of pitch but then later reconfigured to fit within the key and scale of a song so that it sounds in tune. This is used in most of the top songs throughout the era. STS9 mostly strayed from many of the practices and genres of the mainstream. However, they did begin releasing their music online through iTunes and their online label 1320 Records, which allowed digital downloads.

When compared to other records coming out in the 2000s, <em>Artifact </em>has many distinguishing features making it an innovative album. According to Billboards Top 100 Songs, <em>Artifact </em>is categorized as electronic music (allmusic), However, Chris Clark says in regards to STS9’s music that  “there is no one genre, or five at that, that can accurately define who they are, how they sound, or what they’re about;” so any attempts at classifying this album are futile (Clark). The band decided to tell a musical story with their album <em>Artifact</em> as noted by their first track, which is aptly titled “Music Story, Yes”. The first concept album was Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, but mainstream music emphasizes singles so concept albums have not been as common. The albums song’s seemingly melt and flow into one another, which makes it heard to pinpoint one single song that stands out. This is also how their live sets are played, one song fading into the next with no definitive beginning or end. In my opinion having a piece of music listen to as one single work of art, instead of many, is a much more artistic approach then the commercial albums that were meant to make record companies money.

STS9 also decided to start their own recording company so they could produce music they wanted instead of being slaves to the industry’s big wigs. This meant
they had to go without the help of sound engineers and big studio equipment. They ended up making the album over the course of 4 years in “bedrooms, hotels, moving vehicles, parking garages”, which required them to take any opportunity they had while on tour to make the album (Ross). STS9 also pioneered “livetronica,” which is said to be a “style or real time playing and electronic manipulation” and is very apparent throughout <em>Artifact</em> (Ross). <em>Artifact</em> also has many “found sounds,” which are when an artist records sounds in their day to day activities and incorporates into their music. The album is followed up by remix album <em>Artifact: Perspectives</em>, where the band asked their favorite musicians to do remix of songs from the original album. The remix provides a very interesting reinterpretation of many of the songs.

The album came out in February of 2005 and ended up hitting the #12 on billboard’s top electronic albums of 2005 which shows the popularity extended beyond its former fan base (billboard).

Today Artifact remains an integral part of their live material. It is common for STS9 to play at least a few songs from it at each show. On a popular music site the 3 top most downloaded STS9 Live recordings, that collectively have over 250,000 downloads, all contain at least 2 songs from <em>artifact</em> (archive.org). The most recent live recording on the site is from a set played on October 30, 2012 and it contains “Tokyo” and “Somesing” from artifact. From the recording, one can hear the moment the intro melody of both songs are played the crowd goes wild showing that STS9’s dedicated fans are most familiar with <em>Artifact </em>(archive.org).

I find that this album constantly entertains me even though I have listened to it repeatedly many times. Even after all the times I have listened to it, I still notice subtle elements that I didn’t notice previously. I find that whatever the occasion may be one song, if not the whole album, can be appropriately played and perfectly accompany the given situation. I have seen STS9 play live 5 times in Austin and look forward to increasing that number and to see them in venues such as the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver. When I see them live I always look forward to hearing songs from <em>Artifact</em> since they extend certain themes from songs to fit their live play style(Greenhaus).I find that songs from the album are my top played songs, such as “Reemergence,” “Trinocular,” “Natives End”, “Vibyl,” “Today,” and “GLOgli.” The positions of all the sonic elements in the stereo field are what impress me most about this album. The sounds come in and out of awareness from different positions making it very aurally and pleasing to listen to with headphones on.

The music from <em>Artifact</em> also accompanies the incredible documentary <em>Regeneration</em> that STS9 helped produce and created the music score for (About/Trailer). For those who haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it since it talks about the current young generation and how the effects of the over exposure to the media. STS9’s social work goes far beyond this documentary. They often team up with the Conscious Alliance to offer one of the kind show posters for the exchange of canned food items that are donated to local food banks (Organization Overview). Also in 2009 after hurricane Katrina, The band released an album that 100% of the proceeds went to the Make It Right Foundation, which helped rebuild the lower 9<sup>th</sup> ward of New Orleans (STS9 : PEACEBLASTER : THE NEW ORLEANS MAKE IT RIGHT REMIXES). I believe musical activism is something that more artists should pursue, because it allows a message to carry over a greater network by incorporating the fans of the artist. Musical activism will also be accelerated by the increasing globalization of our society, and hopefully more people from other countries will begin to take notice of their deeds and music.

In February of 2005 when <em>Artifact</em> came out, the song “Let Me Love You” by the R&amp;B artist Mario was number 1 on the charts (Billboard top 200). The song is in a minor key and written in 4/4 time. This is similar to the song “Tokyo” on <em>Artifact</em> since it too is written in 4/4 time and goes through several key changes, one of them being a minor key during a portion of the song. Both songs incorporate synthesizers throughout the compositions and are based around a break beat for the kick/snare drum beat. However, Mario’s song contains lyrics about a woman and her love situation, which is stylistic of the R&amp;B genre. The song “Tokyo” contains no lyrics and is a completely instrumental piece. “Tokyo” contains samples of live instruments, including one that sounds like an ethnic string instrument originating from Asia. “Let Me Love You” has no live sampled instruments.

This album exemplifies a huge shift in music style, production, and distribution that goes against everything mainstream during the 2005 music era. Future generations can learn from STS9’s desire to keep their music original and breaking current music trends. They can also learn that if you have a musical idea, with enough focus and determination you can circumvent major record labels and self release your music. Also, the way STS9 fuses music genres will inspire future generation to follow in this technique to create new interesting musical idea’s and styles. And the acts of social activism is one that will be needed in a post apocalyptic world, since there would be lots of rebuilding to do, music could be a way of communicating what needs to be focused on.  One quote that sums up this album for future generations would be “<em>Artifact</em> is a worthwhile relic for future reference.”(Beres).

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<p align="center">Work Cited</p>
"About / Trailer." <em>#regeneration</em>. Engine 7 Films, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012.

<a href="http://www.regeneration-themovie.com/ABOUT-TRAILER">http://www.regeneration-themovie.com/ABOUT-TRAILER</a>

<em>This is the Documentary STS9 helped make and wrote the musical score for. The opening song and the song from the trailer are both from Artifact</em>

Allmusic. "Charts and Awards for Sound Tribe Sector 9 on AllMusic." <em>AllMusic</em>. N.p., n.d. Web.

25 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.allmusic.com/artist/sound-tribe-sector-9-

mn0000668431/awards&gt;.

<em>This chart was quoted to show the position on the billboard charts.</em>

Beres, Derek. "Artifact." <em>XLR8R</em>. XLR8R Magazine, 1 Mar. 2005. Web. 25 Nov. 2012.

&lt;http://www.xlr8r.com/reviews/sound-tribe-sector-9/artifact&gt;.

<em>This citation is a brief review from a very prominent electronic music magazine based out of San Francisco. I’ve been a reader of it for a while and found a quote that resonated with me.</em>

"Billboard Top 200." <em>Billboard</em>. Rovi Corporation, 28 Feb. 2005. Web. 25 Nov. 2012.

&lt;http://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200&gt;.

<em>This is where I found out that “Let Me Love You” was the top song in Feb. 2005</em>

Clark, Chris. "Sound Tribe Sector 9: Modern Artifact." <em>Glide Magazine</em>. Glide Publishing LLC,

22 Feb. 2005. Web. 25 Nov. 2012.&lt;http://www.glidemagazine.com/articles/47732/sound-

tribe-sector-9-modern-artifact.html&gt;.

<em>This is another interview I used which I quoted when talking about the genres. </em>

Greenhaus, Mike. "Sound Tribe Sector 9: From Crystals to Computers." <em>Jambands.com</em>. Relix

Media Group, LLC, 4 May 2005. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.jambands.com/features/2005/04/05/sound-tribe-sector-9-from-crystals-to-computers&gt;.

<em>This is the interview that Michael Ross was citing, I read through it but found nothing that specifically helped me in writing the paper, but it gave me a better picture of the process of making the album and transitioning into a live production.</em>

<em>Let Me Love You (Official Video)</em>. Dir. Juannelizabeth. Perf. Mario. <em>YouTube</em>. YouTube, 17 Dec.

2008. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NARjr3fMMvY&gt;.

<em>This is the song I was comparing Tokyo to.</em>

"Organization Overview." <em>Conscious Alliance</em>. Conscious Alliance, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012.

&lt;https://www.consciousalliance.org/about/overview/&gt;.

<em>This is the organization that STS9 teams up with. This is where I found out where the canned food goes.</em>

Ross, Michael. "Sound Tribe Sector Nine (STS9)." <em>Pure Music</em>. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012.

&lt;http://www.puremusic.com/48sts9.html&gt;.

<em>This was an interview that I found that had a quote about how they recorded this album. He was summarizing many interview found on jambands.com</em>

STS9. <em>Listen to Audio</em>. Rec. 30 Oct. 2012. Todd Titotito@gmail.com, 2012. <em>Archive.org</em>. The

Internet Archive, 30 Oct. 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://archive.org/details/sts92012-

10-30.mk41.flac16&gt;.

<em>This provided a recent recording from a live show. The crowd’s reaction to the two songs from Artifact is apparent and shows that the album is still a favorite to many of their fans.</em>

"STS9 : PEACEBLASTER : THE NEW ORLEANS MAKE IT RIGHT REMIXES." <em>STS9 Make </em>

<em>It Right</em>. 1320 Records, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://sts9.com/makeitright/&gt;.

<em>This is the website for there album that helped out with hurricane Katrina. The website had background info as well clips of the songs on it.</em>

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