Written by: Thomas Merriden-Colman

ID: 25102186

Research, analyse, and critically discuss how “A Great Chaos” by Ken Carson utilises creative music technology to shape sound:

In this essay I want to discus how Ken Carson’s “A great Chaos” released in 2023 on October 13th, utilises creative music technology to shape sound. Firstly, il want to give a brief introduction to Ken Carson as a artist, and what kind of music he makes. Ken Carson, real name “Kenyatta Lee Frazier Jr” is an American rap artist heavily inspired by rapper “Playboi Carti” and rock punk bands such as Nirvana and Green Day. Carson makes aggressive rap rage music with his trademark being his aggressive beats and mumble rap style. This is most evident in his second most recent album “A great Chaos” in which I can only describe as a masterpiece among modern day rage rap music. This album made a huge impact on me as a late teenager when it was released, inspiring me to make similar music of my own. I also want to discuss synth sounds and how specific sounds help to make the desired sound that Carson and his producers are trying to portray. Another point to discuss is how creatively his songs are mixed, with very specific techniques used to complete his sound. In this album there are a lot of techniques used that he has ultimately popularised with many other artists taking inspiration from it.

The first song on “A great Chaos” is called “Green Room” and is produced by “F1lthy”, “Lukrative”, and “Lucian”. F1lthy and Lukrative have been known to commonly collaborate on tracks such as “Karma TV – LUCKI”, “Bad day – Osamason” and “Sci Fi – Yung Kayo”, and even again with Lucian on the track “Let it glo – Bear1boss.” All of these artists and songs mentioned are similar to Carsons style, especially artist “Osamason.” Back to the track Green room, it was produced on “FL Studio” (also known as “Fruityloops”) which is notoriously known for being good for producing beats as its lay out is made for it and thanks to the community on FL, there are now plenty of custom synth packs producers make for people to download. In a lot of Carson’s beats, there tends to be a lot of synth layers used in his beats, and this song especially is no different. A synth commonly used in this song and in the whole album in general is a synth called “Syrum.” Syrum can be used to create a wide variety of synths sounds but in this case, is used to sound atmospheric. The beat used 4 pads in syrum to create a atmospheric sound all following the same chord progression of; Eb5 – Db5 – Ab5 – Db5 in G Major (or E Minor) with one “Sky Padbrass” following the same chord progression but also following the synth lead line made in the synth “Twin 2” called “Webber BM.” All these synth lines put together with more string lines and synth pads create a big, wholesome sound in the track. However, there is a common debate heard among listeners where a lot of people say that it is better for songs in this style to have simpler synth lines where there aren’t as many layers. People online on various social media platforms say things like “I miss the old Ken” or “Old Ken is so much better.” This shows that although this album was ground breaking for Carsons reputation, success and popularity, some people still prefer his old style in previous albums where things weren’t so buys and when he didn’t mumble rap as much as he does in some songs on this album. These people online refer to albums such as “X” and “Project X” which if you listen you can see where this opinion comes from and why people might have this opinion as the change between “X” and then 3 years later “A great Chaos” was quit vast. Ken Carson’s albums changed a lot over the past few years with some changing his styles for the better and some people thinking for the worse.

Brass interments are another creative sound used in this album with a good example being in the song “ss”, or also knows as “Sydney Sweeney.” This song was obviously names after the famous American actress Sydney Sweeney, who had no influence on how the song was made or sounds, but just was a inspiration for Carsons lyrics. Commonly Brass instrument’s are associated and used in Jazz music and also pop music. Brass instrument’s are known to be quit hard to replicate in various DAWS because they rely on complex physical air-driven interactions that are hard to model or sample completely, as well as this, the dynamic range of brass instruments are also hard to replicate because its not a case of just playing louder and quitter, its more plating soft and harder. So more like its hard to replace the velocity of the instrument and how the note evolves into its natural sound through airflow. In this song “ss” produced by bart how, Lil 88, 1kyl, and Mnclzy, there are yet again many layers of different sounds, but this time there is a new set of instruments and different sounds used. The main components of this song are brass and string instruments. Its quit unique how this song is put together with there being very similar sounds playing very similar things, with a total of 10 different melody lines all together. The song is also split into 2 different parts but for this analysis, I only want to focus on the first part of the song, 0:00 – 1:35 . The song starts with a very impactful horn line accompanied by strings and a organ with some dark synths in the background. If you actually breakdown these specific lines, you find more than just 1 or 2 horn and string lines. For example the main brass line playing in B Major can be heard throughout the whole first part of the song, but to make it sound much fuller, a string line is added playing the same lead melody on top. This is a good technique to make melodies sound bigger and much richer for the listener. These notes played on the first string and brass line are what I can only describe to sound arpeggiated with the notes playing a 3 part chord (C#5 G#, C#4) on every 4th beat of a bar. These melodies aren’t the only melodies to have this double tracked technique used, for example the next part I want to talk about is the high pitched brass lines. These lines are also double tracked with one having more range (C#5 – C#8) and the other having less range but still playing the same thing (C#5 – C#6.) The second melody is then copied again using a different brass instrument adding even more texture to the sound. This is then followed by some low strings (C#4) accompanying the brass lines with base arpeggiated chords. An organ is then added into the mix playing a chord lasting only 1 beat on every off beat (the 2nd and 4th beat of a bar.) The chord is a C# Major triad. This is where synths are now added mixing it up a bit. These 2 synths sound very aggressive and to be honest, don’t really add too much to the song in my opinion. The first synth seems to just be a saw wave synth with some effects added on to make it sound slightly distorted and winey. The second synth adds more being a pad. The sound is a lot softer and ascends upwards for 2 bars then repeats its self for another 2 bars sort of contrasting the first descending synth that plays for a full 4 bars.

Another debatable topic that’s utilised in this album is the use of distortion on the 808s and the master track. The 808 came from the “Roland TR-808 drum machine” made in the 1980s which was a synth drum machine used to make deep kick sounds but has now evolved into a common synth used to create low frequency bass kind of sounds. The 808 synth is used in pretty much every modern day rap or hip hop track to fill the low frequency bracket and add that dirty bass sound rap fans such as myself love to hear. 808s can be used in many ways however in “A Great Chaos”, they are used in such a unique way to fit in with Carson’s style that its hard not to pass up. Carson uses a lot of distortion on his 808s to create a more aggressive sounding style and this is interesting because not many artists before him have used this technique to the extreme point that he has. You can hear this used in all songs on the album but a good example where it sounds good, and is extreme is on the track “Lose it”. The thing is, you can only alter a 808 so much to the point where it will sound unproportionate to the rest of the synth/instruments used in the rest of the track. So to counter this, and to make it sound proportionate and stylistic, they put a distortion pre-set onto the master track. Its a technique that’s used in this album throughout and popularised by Carson’s music. Distortion is created by altering a sounds waveform and digital signal. This also changes its shape to add harmonics, and reduces its digital quality. A lot of people are a fan of this effect with loads of listeners including myself giving positive feedback on social media music sites such as Soundcloud. Some people argue that there is too much distortion on the same sights, such as “Anthony Fantano” who states “Having these songs be so distorted adds nothing to the track” In his review on YouTube. Fantano is a experienced music analyser and reviews a lot of albums, singles and EPs. However this opinion is subjective and many people like myself prefer it rather than hate it. However this debate turns out between modern rap fans, it cant be ignored that many rappers have taken inspiration from Carson’s techniques and have developed their own style through it. Carson has changed a lot of what modern rap is today.

Overall, A Great Chaos shows how music technology can be used to affect the mood and atmosphere in rap music. Through the creative manipulation of synthesizer sounds and the use of production techniques like distortion, A Great Chaos is a chaotic and interesting album that has become a poster for rage rap music. Not only do the influences seen in Carson’s music reveal much about his background and interests in rap and punk music, but the innovative aspects of production used throughout the album have made the project a powerful source of inspiration to those who listen to it and will influence many future artists to come and has already influenced many artists already.

Thanks for reading!

Green Room breakdown – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mU7vqOniOA

AGC Review Anthony – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmkmOMwCyeI

ss Breakdown – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y0HTEbAp4c

SoundCloud AGC – https://soundcloud.com/kencarson/sets/a-great-chaos-deluxe-1