Music doesn’t have to be complicated to be good. You asked me to look at a song by Afix Twin called “IZUS” so I pop the hood to look inside and see what’s going on and the answer is not much. That doesn’t mean it’s not compelling.
The song sits in the minor key, it’s Aeolian, so it’s I, V, IV, about five chords minor. Melodically there’s very little motion. I think we’re being asked to sit back, relax, and bask in these beautiful chords that serve as a delivery platform for the sound design that happens inside.
There is a twist in the second section of the song where we go from a five chord to a one and back again. This time the five chord is major, it’s a dominant chord, and I suspect our listener was compelled by that change of scenery. But this really raises the question, how can something with so few moving parts be so moving?
And the answer brings us back full circle. It doesn’t have to be complicated to be good. Music
