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Emika

Miracles Prelude

The third track of Emika's 2015 album DREI, a prelude of under two minutes that Spectrum Culture heard as a dissonant trip-hop duet, leading into the song Miracles that follows it.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Emika’s Miracles Prelude is a short piece of electronic music between trip-hop and the experimental. The feelings named here come from the reviews: Spectrum Culture heard a dissonant trip-hop duet, and Ibiza Spotlight, writing about Miracles, a haunting duet of Emika with her own lowered voice, on an album that same review heard as a dark and brooding world.

Song Summary

At 1:49 on Emika’s Bandcamp, Miracles Prelude is the third track of DREI and leads into the fourth, Miracles. Glamglare noted that Miracles is split in two parts and that the first includes a male voice Emika duets with; Ibiza Spotlight wrote that in Miracles she pitches her voice down for a duet with herself. Spectrum Culture heard in the prelude Emika pointing to freedom as a source of unexpected rewards. A fan on her Bandcamp page called it the darker prelude to Miracles. Emika wrote the words and the music, and she produced and mixed the album herself.

Musical Breakdown

No source describes the prelude bar by bar, and in under two minutes there is little room for sections. The reviews give its elements.

Intro

The album has just come out of My Heart Bleeds Melody. Listen to how quickly the prelude changes the mood.

Main Section

The duet is the heart of it: two voices, or one voice split in two, in what Spectrum Culture called dissonance. Listen to whether the lower voice answers the higher one or sings with it.

Outro

The prelude does not resolve on its own; it hands over to Miracles. Play the two tracks together, as the album does.

Concepts in Focus

An interlude is a short piece between an album’s main songs, and a prelude is one that announces what comes next. Here the announcement is literal: the next track carries the same name. Splitting Miracles in two lets Emika set up the mood before the song arrives.

The prelude also exists as an alternate version: MusicBrainz lists Miracles Prelude (instrumental) on Drei (Instrumentals & A Capellas), released in December 2017. Without the voices, what is left is the setting the duet was sung over.

Artistic Context

Emika is Ema Jolly, the Berlin-based producer and singer born in Milton Keynes. She announced DREI in March 2015 with a statement that it is ultimately about freedom and its limits, the madness of being alone and the shock of a miracle, and FACT reported that she wrote it in a single two-week period and produced and mixed it herself. It came out on her own label, Emika Records, on 4 May 2015, opening with Emika – Battles; the prelude leads into Emika – Miracles.

Impact and Reception

A prelude is rarely reviewed on its own, and only Spectrum Culture gave this one a sentence. It is here because the owner played it often enough for it to make a yearbook. Listen to it with the lights low, and let it run straight into Miracles.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Explain what a prelude or interlude does on an album, using the third track of DREI.
  • Hear how one singer can sound like two voices in a duet.
  • Tell an artist's own alternate version of a track, such as an instrumental, from the original.

Listening guide

  1. the voices Glamglare heard a male voice that Emika duets with in the first part of Miracles; Ibiza Spotlight heard her pitch her own voice down and duet with herself. Decide which you hear.
  2. the harmony Spectrum Culture called the prelude a dissonant trip-hop duet: listen for notes that rub against each other rather than settle.
  3. the hand-over Glamglare described Miracles as split in two parts: listen for the point where the prelude gives way to the fourth track.

Concepts in this track

interlude

6 tracks

A short piece placed between the main songs of an album or EP to connect them. It usually drops verses and choruses in favour of a mood or a single idea, and works as a pause that shapes how the songs around it are heard.

alternate version

58 tracks

A second finished recording of the same song by the same artist, with a different arrangement, tempo or sound rather than a reworking by another producer. Comparing two versions shows how much of a song's mood comes from production rather than from melody and words.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. Why would an artist split one song into a short prelude and a full track rather than release it as one piece?
  2. Emika's statement about DREI includes the words the shock of a miracle. What could a miracle mean on an album about freedom and being alone?
  3. Listen to the 2017 instrumental after the original. What is left of the duet without the voices?

References

  1. Spectrum Culture. Emika: DREI (2015). Review
  2. Glamglare. New album: Emika - DREI (2015). Review
  3. Ibiza Spotlight. Album of the week: Emika 'DREI' (2015). Review
  4. FACT. Emika unveils new album DREI (2015). Article
  5. Emika (Bandcamp). DREI (2015). Artist
  6. MusicBrainz. Miracles (prelude) (recording). Database
  7. MusicBrainz. Miracles Prelude (instrumental) (recording). Database
  8. Emika - Topic. Miracles Prelude (2017). Video
  9. Wikipedia. Emika. Encyclopedia

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