January Contest: Gossip

Share your music, collaborate, and partake in monthly music contests.
Post Reply New Topic
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

thanks alot for your points, peppy and clarago!!
:hug:

Post

folderol wrote:Thanks for taking the trouble over the reviews guys - points noted for future reference.
SAme here
Thanks to the ones that do reviews, otherwise, I would not really know how my cheap crap is fooling you all, no thats not it..its how my genius is blinding you so bad you think Im crap, or worse, think Im cool :hihi:

Oh whatever...

If not for the reviewers a lot would be missing
Heinrich Heine wrote: "Nothing is more futile than theorizing about music."
Me write: "I have no talent and regularly prove it in the Music Cafe contests"

Post

folderol wrote:Thanks for taking the trouble over the reviews guys
Feel free to post your own. Some tracks I found so meh that I couldn't say much or anything about them, but since they feature in other people's top 10 clearly that's just me. The more reviews are posted, the more points of view you get.

Victor.

Post

Thanks very much klawire and ClaRago for your comments. And thanks VicDiesel for your non-review review. :wink:

Nothing in depth, just some quick thoughts on the tracks:

broodkillphill - Land of Trees
Great intro the way it kicks right in and very interesting texture and atmosphere. Percussion very well done, really like the contrast and emotion of the strings.

Emerald Tablet - The Promise
Great plucking pattern and love those roomy claps. Beautiful melodies and pads. Really enjoy the overall pacing and relaxed feel.

kryptonaut - Retrospective 2012
Lots of cerebral complexity going on. Very interesting concept that's fun to listen to like a puzzle - but it has a nice groove to it as well.

spirulence - Space Explorer
Really like the way the pads are connected to and play off of the lead sound. The quantized feel is a bit stiff for my tastes, but still an enjoyable track.

ClaRago - Roundabout-Waltz
Nice lightness to this. Really evokes some great carnival-like imagery. I wanted to play it again as soon as it ended as I think the development and arrangement of the track is extremely interesting.

Soughtafter Sounds - Mystic Chaos
Very nice orchestral arranging, especially like the pizzicato change and piano flourishes around halfway through. Perhaps could use some stronger melodic lines to make it stand out more.

Hellfog - Back And Forth
Nice composition and playing. The pads and piano tracks were very well done in staying subtle and not taking the spotlight from where it belonged, that beautiful nylon string guitar. The intro and outro parts are great. A few slight timing issues were a bit distracting for me, but really enjoyed the piece overall.

Mister Natural - Your Moon is but a Sliver
Big fan of your strat playing. Great style and sound. Would have liked if it had been featured a bit more. Not crazy about the loud synth bursts, but very much enjoy the quirky melodies and unique percussion.

Zabrilla - 1000 Voices
Really nice atmospherics and cool arps. Love the feel of the track when the drums come in.

folderol - The Sparkling Brook
Nice blend of instruments. Easy calm pace as evoked by the title. Pleasant, but not a lot for me to focus on.

spirulence - The Glass Mountain
Good progression. Would have liked a more organic percussive sound. The melodies and arrangement are well done but don't really hit me on an emotional level.

slartibartfast - HNY
Cool lead melody and classic synth sounds. The track stays very true to itself throughout while still managing some interesting changes and variations.

VicDiesel - Third Candle
Some interesting harmonies. Seems like more of a musical exercise than complete song to me, but can certainly appreciate the uniqueness of the piece.

bzur - La prima cosa che mi viene in mente (Morning Bells)
Fantastic composition and piano playing. Love how the bells are integrated. Great string parts. The snare rolls are unexpected but work wonderfully.

Laguna Rising - SteamWhat?!
Love the live drum sound and the cymbal ring on the snare. Very neat throwback mix sound with the wide panning choices. Great sense of freedom.

beanpole - Bedroom Angst
Like the open guitar sound and progression. Very catchy song, especially like the verse melody and the transition after the chorus. Production could be tighter, but definitely a charming indie quality to the looseness.

klawire - One Way Out
Nice tension building below the surface, while offering cool contrast with the melodic strings. Really like how it intensifies from beginning to end.

D.H. Miltz - Drift
The field sounds and ambient percussive textures work so well with the prepared guitar part. Very transporting and cinematic.

Shangsean - PAIN
Love the intensity and originality. Very cool sound design. The various pieces fit great together, everything seems to belong exactly where it is.

Aziraphal - Triskaidekaphobia
Awesome title and song concept. The lead guitar melody is great - love how it repeats at the end. Unreal vocal arrangement and blending. Love the operatic rock style. Classic.

Irion Da Ronin - Back to Childhood
So many interesting things going on in this track. Love the reversed bits, really add a cool texture. Percussion is great as well. It's not a fair complaint due to the rules of the contest, but this really needs to be longer than 3 minutes. Please make an extended version if you get a chance.

peppy197 - Quantum Entanglement
This track is full of interesting surprises. Delightfully unpredictable. Lots of songs in one. Great guitar parts. And the vocals made me grin ear to ear.

nikp2000 - Stella Road
Cool double-time feel. Love the bass guitar. Nice expressive synth soloing. Very fun and groovy track.

GMoneh - The Darkness Before Dawn
Excellent composition. Nice deep soulful feel to the piano. I like the feel of the drums, but thought they were a little heavy for the instrumentation. Lots of great memorable melodic hooks in this piece.

forw - The Elvis Moon
Some cool production techniques. Nice collection of sounds, and great when they are all grooving together.

mutt_davvg - J Creamy Dougie
A unique creation. Interesting twist on the blues. Some catchy riffs and percussion, but I would have liked more dynamic variation.

Peterhud - January Funk
Great arrangement keeps this fresh throughout. Nice instrumental interplay. Horns are really well done. Really like the flute intro foreshadowing the theme. My personal taste leans more towards a grittier funk production style, but still really enjoyed this.

Post

Thanks VicDiesel, klawire and evo2slo for the comments/reviews - I appreciate you all taking the time to do this.
Time is an illusion - lunchtime doubly so.

Post

Final batch of reviews...once again, these are all just personal opinions.

evo2slo - Closer to the Sun Part II
The vocal didn't quite fit with the heavy rocking opening, but once the track gets into full swing from about 0:30 onwards, it sits much better in the mix. Great vocal harmonies, although I did find the hard panned falsetto vocal somewhat distracting (on headphones) and can't help feeling it would have sat more comfortably panned centre. Very well executed track with great variety - I enjoyed both the quieter/slower and the heavier more up tempo parts.

Peterhud - January Funk
Always nice to hear a little funk. The opening is almost tribal in feel, before we launch into the funk. Those brass stabs are excellent, as is the closing section where each instrument "signs off" one at a time. The instrumental samples sound excellent - if there is a weakness in this track it is with the synth lead, which probably needed a little more complexity and harmonics when played solo - although it fits nicely when in the mix with the other instruments. More like this please (could Funk be another future contest possibility?)!

Mutt_dawg - J Creammy Douggie
Cool groove in this track. Too melodic to be the type of track that my teenage kids would listen and dance to, (and not enough doof-doof!) but simple and enjoyable nonetheless.

Irion da Ronin - Back to Childhood
Lovely, luscious instrumentation with some wonderfully silky lead lines, and judicious use of reversed samples. A lot of ideas in this track all trying to grab attention and so it didn't quite hang together for me as a complete, structured track. In particular, the section from about 0:48 to 1:04 seemed not quite to fit with the remainder of the track IMHO. I would have loved to hear more of the sections that featured the synth lead - e.g. 0:26 to 0:46.

Peppy197 - Quantum Entanglement
This is certainly eccentric, as promised - but not so eccentric as not to be enjoyable. Nice full mix, with the guitar and piano playing nicely off one another, and the drums holding it all together. Good stuff.

nikp2000 - Stella Road
Most unusual drum groove in this track which, in combination with the bass riff gives the whole track a slightly uncomfortable feel. Some interesting synth sounds, but the whole track is dominated by the rhythm of the drums and bass, which do tend to become somewhat repetitive by the end.

GMoneh - The Darkness Before Dawn
Lovely piano playing, particularly in the opening section. An uplifting track which belies its title. I think the very emotive opening section is stronger than the second section. Although the second section is still very good, IMHO it would be stronger with something other than the piano taking the melodic lead line to offer a bigger contrast. Most enjoyable.

forw - The Elvis Moon
This is a hypnotic track that rewards total immersion. Interesting panning effect on the drums in the early sections. The repetive nature of the drums and bass line has just enough variation to avoid boredom while still inducing that hypnotic feel, which is only encouraged by the long flute-ish notes mid-track. Some very interesting distortion on the drums in the later section of the track.
Time is an illusion - lunchtime doubly so.

Post

Thanks for the reviews, VicDiesel and evo2slo and ClaRago.

@VicDiesel: I wasn't really going for anything, I just liked the sounds. It might have been a stronger piece if I'd had something in mind from the start, but it basically went like this: 1) a much longer session making noises with the guitar using RP-Delay as a looper, then 2) arranging just by trial and error bits I'd cut/salvaged from that session, then after quickly abandoning the idea of lead guitar or synth parts, 3) poking around in folders of field recordings, saying, Hm, let's try that. When I tried the dog/neighborhood noise recordings, they fit (to my ear) despite the barking being a bit annoying, so it felt done.
No longer a moderator.

Post

slartibartfast wrote:could Funk be another future contest possibility?
Added to the list. It might have been done (I haven't looked), but if it has it was more than four years ago (i.e., before my time).
No longer a moderator.

Post

evo2slo wrote:GMoneh - The Darkness Before Dawn
Excellent composition. Nice deep soulful feel to the piano. I like the feel of the drums, but thought they were a little heavy for the instrumentation. Lots of great memorable melodic hooks in this piece.
Thanks so much for your nice review.
slartibartfast wrote:GMoneh - The Darkness Before Dawn
Lovely piano playing, particularly in the opening section. An uplifting track which belies its title. I think the very emotive opening section is stronger than the second section. Although the second section is still very good, IMHO it would be stronger with something other than the piano taking the melodic lead line to offer a bigger contrast. Most enjoyable.
Thanks for your words (and the vote). And great suggestion there. If I do a longer version of this piece I'll definitely take it into account, as I happen to agree with it.

Post

Thanks for writing reviews, guys ! That's much appreciated :)

Post

I would write reviews except I find my knowledge base is limited so I'd only be able to say things like "cool dude....eh, what was dat?....great stuff man !!" And, I hate saying nice things about what I feel is not very good. I guess a bit of psychology would help,
maybe a little schitzoid hannibal maniac sociopath :cry: terminology

So I've declined so far except a couple times in the past.

Maybe I will try again, it does add a lot the benifits of participating. We need feedback. :shock:
Heinrich Heine wrote: "Nothing is more futile than theorizing about music."
Me write: "I have no talent and regularly prove it in the Music Cafe contests"

Post

thanks alot for the detailed reviews!!

:tu:

Post

Are crap reviews better than nothing?


beanpole - Bedroom Angst
Very enjoyable Dylanesque entry, guitar beautifully executed and the backgrounds are lovely. The only downside is that recurring string scratch - is the strumming bar copy pasted?

Broodkillphill - Land of Trees
Creepy, oppressive atmosphere with mournful cellos. Not a romantic treescape this, more like something of a Tim Burton poster.

bzur - La prima cosa che mi viene in mente (Morning bells)
Wonderfully evolving warm piano and sparkling bells, truly feels like a city waking up.

ClaRago - Roundabout Waltz
Jazz waltz bit works great for me, but the sweeped synth lead seems out of place. Ending sounds more like a crossfade into another style than a part of the song.

DHMiltz - Drift
It's got a Hare Krishna feel - a sort of an acoustic mantra. I like the Bits of paper description better (bloody Cage)

EmeraldTablet - thepromise
Very retro synth feel, could have been a Forbidden planet or black & white Doctor Who soundtrack. Perhaps a sad love story between an alien and Earthling?

evo2slo - Closer to the Sun Part II - The Mission of Today
The songwriting and arrangement here is top notch, but the mix sounds drunk and fuzzy, I'd prefer a cleaner feel but maybe you were going after the LSD laden psychedelic feel on purpose.

forw - TheElvis Moon
Hmm. timelapse video of a computer factory? Liked the reverb-ed part towards the end

GMoneh - TheDarknessBeforeDawn
Very lovely piano and effective a-b-a form, could wish for more harmonic development at the beginning but overal I love it. A lot.

hellfog - Back And Forth
Cool virtuoso spanish guitar. That and the bossa feel makes it a very unique track in today's collection

Irion Da Ronin - Back to Childhood
As always, your sound is crisp and detailed like an enormous expensive LCD TV. Although a wonderful and multicolored collection of sounds, I somehow missed a bit more drama in the middle

klawire - onewayout
This definitely sounds like an overture to a major battle in an upcoming Hobbit sequel. Swell choir, what is it?

kryptonaut - Retrospective2012
Exciting and jumpy funk track, feels like Disney mice playing on the instruments. Cute song. Must have been an itchy year..

... scuse me while I get my gin n tonic ... bloody hellfire, no more tonic. Just gin then. And some late night snacks. Who wants to be thin anyway.

LagunaRising - SteamWhat
Loved the improvisation guitar jam, somehow less the synth parts. Has a greasy sausage fullness to the sound.

mr natural - Your Moon is but a Sliver
Strange in the extreme! Constantly surprising, making the style impossible to pin down. The guitar strums are not quite in tempo I think

mutt davvg - JCreamydougie
Hmm what to make of this .. underwater blues? I think it should develop some more on the gamelan front

nikp2000 - stella road
What weird rhythm is this in the first part, 17/18 or such? The synths seem to sit on the floor and complain when they should be punching some faces ...

Norf n Souf - The Sparkling Brook
Heavenly lead and pads .. as always! The guitars make more and more appearances in your songs but the strummed part was somehow lost in the spectrum

Peppy197 - QuantumEntanglement
Strange, outlandish, like a Monty Python animation. High points are the piano bass line and the ending.

Peterhud - January Funk
Funky yet (except a small bit before the end) feels minimalist and somehow thin intimate, a surprising - but not a bad - thing for the genre.

shangsean - pain
Interesting experimental symphony of heavy machinery, with a merciless rhythm to it.

slartibartfast - HNY
Pads and arps of distilled loveliness, like Italian pop production of 80's with a hint of Jean Michel. Highly enjoyable.

SoughtafterSounds - MysticChaos
Composition is just fantastic, but the arrangement is unfortunately somehow flat lacking the dinamics of an orchestra

spirulence folderol - TheGlassMountain
That was a swell collab! Lovely synpop tune. Got both the softness and the digital edge.

spirulence - SpaceExplorer
All the trademark sounds of space travel indeed. I wish I could play the old Elite game to this for a few hours.

vicdiesel - thirdcandle
This was an unexpected thing in the playlist! A flute trio for a shaman's funeral? Loved it.

Zabrilla - 1000Voices
Yup, good job bringing the everpresent noise of modern city life to music .. sounds like proper techno demons all right.


Cheers Matt
Every time you use autotune, God kills a kitten.
Please, think of the kittens.

Post

Thanks for the reviews slartibartfast and Aziraphal. Very helpful constructive feedback. :)
Aziraphal wrote:evo2slo - Closer to the Sun Part II - The Mission of Today
The songwriting and arrangement here is top notch, but the mix sounds drunk and fuzzy, I'd prefer a cleaner feel but maybe you were going after the LSD laden psychedelic feel on purpose.

[... scuse me while I get my gin n tonic ... bloody hellfire, no more tonic. Just gin then. And some late night snacks. Who wants to be thin anyway. ]
Well I guess either I could clean up my mix… or next time just listen to my track after your gin break. It'll sound crystal clear! :lol:

Post

Thanks for the reviews everyone!
Aziraphal wrote:klawire - onewayout
This definitely sounds like an overture to a major battle in an upcoming Hobbit sequel. Swell choir, what is it?
The choir is all EWQL Symphonic Choirs. Sometimes a pain in the ass to use, but it sounds great.

Post Reply

Return to “Music Cafe”