Here, There and Everywhere
Anne Grethe Danielsen · 2016
This chapter discusses aspects of microrhythm in the song 'Left and Right' from the album Voodoo by the American singer, composer and musician D'Angelo. The album was co-produced by D'Angelo and Questlove from the Soulquarian Collective and has become a neo-soul classic, due in part to its experimental grooves. The idea of the internal beat as isochronous pulsation is, moreover, visualized in the notational system and in the grid of a sequencer program. The metronome model presupposes that there is one dominant or correct placement of the internal beat and, moreover, that the beats should be equally spaced. The experience of a local time shift requires that the listener understands it as such, and not as an adjustment in the global tempo. The relative resolution of pulse-related unease in S3 of 'Left and Right' thus might arise from an increase in the listener's rhythmic tolerance.