We’re putting Stirling University’s tutors under examination as we ask them what their favourite eight songs are. This week, we’re exploring the musical history of Journalism’s Eddy Borges-Rey.

NAME: Dr Eddy Borges-Rey

DEPARTMENT: Journalism

I’M THE ONE WHO: Created a Stirling Tab Spotify playlist, just for this interview!

THE FIRST RECORD I BOUGHT WAS: The Terminator 2: Judgement Day Soundtrack, pretty much because it had “You Could Be Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. During that period I was really into the heavy, glam metal of the 80s. It was nice – a big long play vinyl that had Arnold Schwarzenegger on the front with his glowing red eye. I remember I had to save a lot of money to buy that one.

MY FAVOURITE EIGHT PIECES OF MUSIC ARE:

“XYZ” – Hiromi

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWwe9BslaUQ[/youtube]

Hiromi is a Japanese piano virtuoso and she’s great. This is a jazz piece, but it’s a really strange kind of jazz, because it’s more fusion jazz. The tune is quite intense and as you can hear it’s not a standard sort of jazz – it has a lot of alternate signatures. I really like this kind of music because it makes me realise that music is not just a 4 by 4 signature and a boring pop progression. This has much more than that. I also really like alternate signatures in jazz and harmonically this is quite complex.

 “The Big Wave” – Tribal Tech

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CjUnO14kuk[/youtube]

Tribal Tech are a jazz fusion band from the 90s. This song in particular is quite intense as well. It starts with a kind of elevator tune and then progresses to something really intense and complex. What really kills me is the riff. The lead guitar is… oh god, that’s killer. Then you have the drummer on top of that riff doing something that is really out of this world.

“Big Country” – Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbGsiuZ3L6o[/youtube]

Béla Fleck is one of the biggest names in banjo playing. He has this very particular band made up of two brothers – Victor Wooten and Future Man. Victor Wooten is one of the best bass players in the world, and his brother Future Man created an instrument called a drumitar. So he plays this thing, which is bizarre if you see it, and it actually sounds like a jazz drum. So they play this beautiful tune called Big Country which is just a breath of fresh air in the countryside. It’s a really beautiful melody which has small complexities in the rhythmic sections. It’s something which is really evocative and just transports you to another world.

 “Home” – Sevendust

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi89ilPBuI8[/youtube]

Sevendust are a power heavy metal band that go right back to my roots. When I started to consider music more seriously I was in a band; a heavy metal band. I used to have very long hair and a beard and I played guitar. But anyway, Sevendust are a really interesting band because they were one of the first bands, in the 90s, to introduce alternate signatures in the drums. This song in particular talks about home and the notion of self-security. I really like the distortion and the effect they use on the distortion.

 “Zambra” – Ojo de Brujo

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1bmN4kBYPI[/youtube]

Now, of course, we have a little bit of my Spanish roots. My mother is from Tenerife so I have that kind of flamenco thing going. So this is a band from Spain that play a kind of flamenco fusion. They are called Ojo de Brujo which means “The Eye of the Wizard”. These guys have introduced more instruments which form a more complex picture of different parts of the world. This particular one I really like because it has a section where a guy just plays an Indian bowl, a tabla, and sings. I think it’s a really good statement on how music is a universal language and that you can find different traces of different cultures in the music.

“Primogenio” – Rubén Blades

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-1KmhvrB1M[/youtube]

The same ideas are included in this song. Rubén Blades is really interesting because from the 70s he was one of the most well known salsa players in Latin America. He actually has a degree from Harvard in law and ran as president of Panama, so he’s a real intellectual. He created this album called Mundo, which means world. So what happened was, he decided to do this album which is a really solid statement about the roots of the world. So this guy merges different kind of styles in music, and Primogenio starts with bagpipes. They sound quite traditional and suddenly, remember we’re talking about a guy from Panama here, the song just changes to be a conga with all these traditional Latin American instruments doing a percussive progression. So it’s a really interesting tune.

 “Word to Herb” – Screaming Headless Torsos

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilTAvvbflkk[/youtube]

This is going back to the first songs in that it’s really a kind of acid jazz. They start with a really strange riff. The interesting thing about this band is they have a singer, and the guy has a lot of feeling and follows all the jazzy, melodic lines which are really hard to follow with your voice. In the end it becomes quite intense. I’ve never seen them live, because they don’t play together anymore, but when this song progresses towards the end it really becomes the sort of thing I’d like to see live. It’s the kind of vibe and energy you really want in a live concert.

 “Atlantis Part 1 – Apocalypse 1470 B.C.” – Derek Sherinian

Derek Sherinian – Atlantis Part 1. – Apocalypse 1470 B.C.

This is the first part of a series of three songs. They are an interesting band who became known as Planet X. The band was created by the keyboardist Derek Sherinian after being kicked out of Dream Theater. He found a jewel, an actual jewel, of the best drummer in the world. He’s an Australian guy called Virgil Donati. The notion of rhythm this guy has is out of this world. This guy can actually play with one hand and another rhythm with the other, and the same with his legs. So, they created this beautiful album and this is one of the best songs they have. It’s really jazzy but at the same time progressive. It has a section where they all play in unison. The guy on the drums follows the same pattern of the riff with double bass, and does the same with the hi-hat, but does something with the snare that is completely unnatural. It’s the kind of thing that actually twists your brain. That music is just genius, it’s out of the equation, it’s breaking the mould.