july contest ... GOSSIP

[astanine]

Astanine, Halothane: watch your weapon

Thanks for the advice Wopelka, I shall start watching now.

[rsmus7]

Rsmus7, Poddies Dance: we're going to crush our wood

better not

[tuz]

Tuz, Eyenipplevoidoid: Madness, which is fun. I wouldn’t dance to this, but then I don’t do drugs. Very entertaining piece. Some production issues perhaps, but who cares. This got attitude.

drugs have nothing to do with it . you just don't know how to dance. thank you for the kind comments. i still don't know how to properly produce and master a track. in time it shall come.

[tuz]

Tuz, Eyenipplevoidoid: nobody won't escape his warmth

warmth of my nipple very creative to do it with xoxos lyrics program btw. i knew you had it in you.

[knockman]

Knockman - Harimogura

Another attention grabber by knockman, and yes, I can imagine dancing to it.

cheers rockstar_not

knockman-harimogura-cool!!! you're in tokyo. sweet!!! i love this tune man!!! you're one twisted mofo!!! not much to say but perfect. a video clip to this would definetely involve a graceful geisha dancing with silver stag beetle earrings at a bar while you sing this live with a band.

my best review ever! thanks tuz

Knockman, Harimogura: Well the soft spoken Knockman sounds like a scary ninja or something in his native tongue. Intriguing, would like to hear you sing more in Japanese. Not so sure about the sampled brass. But otherwise top, top piece as always. Dance? Nah.

thanks thomas - my native language is actually english, i just reside in japan. luckily there seem to be few japanese native speakers here so i can get away with the hack job on the grammer the sampled brass is the weak point for sure - one day, one day... it's your sample work that i look to for possibilities.

regards

[AndreasE]

AndreasE, "Dance of the Animals":
Mix a few dogs, good waltz time, children, chickens, accordion, banjo and distorted guitar and you have a good tune apparently. Could very well dance to this. As for the harmonic aspect and composition, I have to say that it does feel coherent, but in a very subreal type of way. I'm not sure what I mean by that, except that it's a jumble, a mess, that works.
[<<<<<<<===]

Thanks much for the review, Shuzhen.

[rockstar_not]

I'll finish off the rest of my reviews after the submissions thread closes, but I have to just immediately give title of current

Purple Prince of KVR

to bitshift for his "Controversy" submission.

Minneapolis funk is THE funk and you did a great job in your submission.

-Scott

[Techbot]

Sorry Guys but I won't be able to finsh my reviews this month. First time since I started posting.
So I just Put what I had so far.
Hate to bring this up (again), but If I got more permissions to play the tunes on the show then it would be easier for me to review, eventually maybe even on air!!!!.

Second batch of reviews

Deik Cool Dub track especially liked the panned background vocal effects

Respirator: An anti waltz. I haven't read any posts since my last but I'm gonna assume those bass noises are deliberate. And that this tune is meant to show that 3/4 timing is NOT in fact perfect timing. But that 3/4 can be as disorientating as any other meter. Reminds me of those old things before gramophones with the little spikes, not little music boxes now but bigger eh , things.

SoftEgg: Cool Tribal stuff.Loads of interesting sounds to keep the attention. Theres a gutteral vox way back in the mix I had to strain to hear it, if it was there at all, and I like that (though that could of course be my speakers) but it was the type of tune that encouraged that kind of pscho acoustic meanderings.

NikP2000: Another great take on the dance theme. Had a very Led Zeppelin undertone (but that could be just my odd .

Pepelogu: Superbly mixed, niced vocoder effects. Drums are perfect. One of the vocals samples stands out a bit andcould be lowere methinks.

Tuz: Big Sound Great fun Mashup with style. The sounds are great and its a very witty take on the dance theme. Top notch

Katanaman: Wow Really impressed with this. Love the keys and the wah wah. The mix of funk and cut beatz is odd but works really really well.

Col G. Welcome back I really notived your absence from the last comp. I loved it, great Vocals As I said before You're quite Mad. Now I must check out your site tonight.

Glooper Great use of vocal samples man! And a top tune. This has total Big Bad Major Label potential but has the added advantage of being really really good.

Yours etc
Rob

[Markleford]

Getting some bad links:

http://www.mp3host.info/uploads/others/ ... Jeanne.mp3

http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/401aaf51/bc ... CB6bpCNIYs

http://www.funender.com/music/download. ... =song_hifi

Have these changed, or are they just temporarily down?

- m

[Guitarjeff]

My track is now up for your listening pleasure/displeasure.

Jeff

[Markleford]

I'm going to be away from home to Summer NAMM tomorrow. As such, I won't have the opportunity to add any last-minute entries to the contest listing and radio page before voting begins. I'll add them when I get back on Sunday, though.

- m

[rockstar_not]

Next batch of reviews:

softegg - passage

some don't like panning delays, I myself am a fan and appreciate it in your track in several flavors. I would have liked a more distinct melody - but I'm a traditionalist that way. Danceable, yes. Oh, your track is coded 0606 in the title as well.


Markleford - Rio Azul

Ah yes, now here is the spirit of the competition!!! This is some great stuff. I hope you had as many smiles putting it together as I am having listening to it.


Bastien - Nacht

I like the track, but the quiet sections would make it a bit difficult to dance to.


bitcrusher/art gillespie - controversy

Yeah it's a re-make, but very well done. bitcrusher gets Purple Prince of KVR award for this entry.


chooch - rough music

I like it; can't dance to it, but saving it for my mp3 playlist regardless.


guitarjeff - Catch the buzz

Philip Bailey guest stars as vocalist in guitarjeff's entry. I better not let my wife hear your track. She loves EWF and she'll ask me "Why can't you make music like that?" It's all authentic EWF except for the bass, which needs more booty and movement/variation.


Diek - Respect

Some reggae w/dub delays, original in this competition. 'Respect' for finding an unused niche in this month's competition, minus points for the abrupt fade.



That's the end of reviews for me for now - doesn't this close soon?

[knoob]

Hi guys, i posted my last pop shity.

Can someone tell me how you hide the link adress to show only the name of the song ?!

[Khepira]

Hi guys, i posted my last pop shity.

Can someone tell me how you hide the link adress to show only the name of the song ?!

When you compose or edit the post, put your mouse over the "URL" button, and use the second method listed after "Insert URL."

[Barnadine]

It's about now that reviewer's fatigue sets in, and I start wondering what the hell I'm doing making all these sweeping comments about other people's music. It's a fine line between well-meaning criticism and patronising bullshit, and I'm crossing it all the time. I only do this reviewing lark because I appreciate it when people criticise my own stuff, not because I think I have anything really useful to say. I'd rather shut up and listen.

Enough of that. On with the blather...

tuz/eyenipplevoidoid - Yes! Now this is dance. I like that panned PM-sounding tinkly hammered thing, that'd be the Steampipe? Great momentum here. Old folk in a circle, toothless grins, clapping, willing the young maniacs in the middle to spontaneously combust. Or one of those vicious old fairy tales with the cursed shoes that make you dance till you die. Excellent. Opa!

thomekk/lalala - Sort of a compressed musical history, squeezing about 12 types of music into 2 minutes. There's a bit of everything here - a few bars of shoegaze, a few bars of funk, a few bars of Nine Inch Nails - but it all hangs together very well, with clever segues between moods. There's a natural flow to the song that probably took a bit of work, given the shifts of tone. Nice opening. The whine lead gets a little piercing, but doesn't overstay its welcome. There are some sections it'd be great to expand, but I can see what you're going for here. Exploring genres without being derivative. Nice.

softegg/Passage - This is an interesting area of dance music for me. Where techno starts to bleed into early idm. For people who like a bit of texture and mood along with their beats. Some excellent sounds here, little background noises suggesting a cavernous space. I like the low metallic throaty sounds that come in around the minute mark. Might be good to give a few elements a rest from time to time, tension and release, cut out the echoing hi-hats for a little while and develop the deeper sounds. But this is very well done.

Markleford/Rio Azul - Heh. Clever. Try waltzing to this, bastards. The drums have a bit of a cardboard flavour, a recorded-in-the-next-room vibe, which is most obvious when the electric guitar takes a rest at 0:34 - the mix suddenly sounds flat and exposed. Great brass, though. And the way you've swung the final phrase of the melody (at 0:14 et al.) is incredibly catchy, justifies price of admission by itself. Johann would approve.

Diek/Respect - It's a bit disorienting at first hearing an accent like yours in this genre, and the mostly a capella section at the start has a kind of charming clumsiness. The mix is odd and wavery, perhaps through overcompression, doesn't let the music breathe as much as it could. Very well-constructed song though, excellent guitar work, and obviously born out of love for this music. But... the song's too long by 2 minutes! Maybe it's a corrupt download, but I've tried twice, and both times I got a 4 minute song. Even stranger, the second half is just a repeat of the first, but with ugly glitches that sound like bad encoding. I'm guessing this is just some technical mix-up, so I'll be judging the song as if it ended at the two minute mark.

bastien/Nacht - Some great sounds here, but you seem a bit trapped by the 8 bar tyranny, which gives a formulaic feel to a lot of dance. 8 bars airy synth, then 8 bars synth + arp (same chord pattern), then then beats come in (same chord pattern). And after 16 bars of nice heavy beats, you don't quite seem to know where to go with it, so you switch to a synth break almost by default (same chord pattern), when the dancers really need the percussion, or at least the bass, to keep going. Maybe introducing some new chord changes at 0:51 would be a better way to keep things developing than the current stop/start structure. You do use the break for some nice synth filtering, though. No problem with your sound choices here, but a more imaginative structure would really lift this track, I reckon.

Art Gillespie/Controversy - Return of the artist formerly known as bitshift. Top class recreation. You've distilled all the best bits of the original, the expressive synth twirls, the tight beat. In fact, from memory, this is pretty close to an exact facsimile. Part of me is blown away by the skill involved, part of me wonders why the hell you'd bother. Good to see you back in the comps.