Forum Member Album Reviews

[Frownland]

MicShazam - The Hunt [EP]

The Hunt: The MIDI is going to make this one hard tbh. I'd love to hear this in the context of a live band or some more focus on how your keyboard/launchpad/computer program/whatever you use sounds so that there's more dynamic and it sounds realistic. Definitely dug the keyboard lead at the end.

Connect the Dots: My same advice from earlier still applies, but it's certainly an improvement on the opener. You do have some cool melodic ideas in the middle of the song and I dig your structure, especially in the beginning of the track.

Tarot Card: The intro is kind of unnecessary imo, but once it takes off it goes to high places for sure. The first two tracks had me worried that this whole album would be formatted off of a base of very straightforward beats but this subverted that so good work. Definitely the highlight of the album so far.

Tigris & Euphrates - Ja this builds on the other track in that it's the best track on the album, but the drums to bring he plasticity back into the picture.

Final thoughts: At first I was pretty skeptical but it turned out quite well and if you formed a band to play this with you it would be pretty incredible, especially if you could expand on them. Great work for sure. 7/10

[MicShazam]

Firstly; thanks a bunch for the effort!

Originally Posted by Frownland

MicShazam - The Hunt [EP]

The Hunt: The MIDI is going to make this one hard tbh. I'd love to hear this in the context of a live band or some more focus on how your keyboard/launchpad/computer program/whatever you use sounds so that there's more dynamic and it sounds realistic. Definitely dug the keyboard lead at the end.

No doubt I'm holding myself back by still using OpenMPT (an old-school tracker type program, but for Windows) but I just love working in that program. Old habits die hard. Very hard.
It isn't MIDI per se but .WAV samples, although some of the drum/hihat/cymbal samples might originally have been sampled from MIDI or keyboard presets.
All non-percussion instruments are ADLIB sounds (pre-MIDI sound card technology) that I created myself in Reality Adlib Tracker for MS-DOS. So... yeah... real state-of-the-art tech!

Originally Posted by Frownland

Connect the Dots: My same advice from earlier still applies, but it's certainly an improvement on the opener. You do have some cool melodic ideas in the middle of the song and I dig your structure, especially in the beginning of the track.

I'm glad you liked the intro, because I almost cut it. I felt like it was maybe a bit of a non-sequitur, considering what goes on for the rest of the track.
I chose too keep it and feel like it was the right decision now

Originally Posted by Frownland

Tarot Card: The intro is kind of unnecessary imo, but once it takes off it goes to high places for sure. The first two tracks had me worried that this whole album would be formatted off of a base of very straightforward beats but this subverted that so good work. Definitely the highlight of the album so far.

I'll do more detailed drums on my next thing. I was kind of intentionally keeping things simple this time, with fewer layers, more looping drums, simpler structures, focus on hooks, etc. My own favorite part of this track is the lead harmony early in the track.

Originally Posted by Frownland

Tigris & Euphrates - Ja this builds on the other track in that it's the best track on the album, but the drums do bring he plasticity back into the picture.

Thanks! I wrote the tracks in the same order they appear in the playlist, so maybe I'd gathered some momentum for the final one. I wasn't sure if it would feel complete with such a simple structure, but again, the idea with this mini-project was to do something very straightforward.
Mixing is sort of bare bones. A bit of chorus effect and reverb, very little in the way of background tracks.

Originally Posted by Frownland

Final thoughts: At first I was pretty skeptical but it turned out quite well and if you formed a band to play this with you it would be pretty incredible, especially if you could expand on them. Great work for sure. 7/10

I'm totally happy with my 7/10. I'm only just starting on learning to play keyboard, so a band isn't gonna happen for the next couple decades. If someone else stole my music and played it live, that would be the coolest thing ever!
I will try to make something that feels more fleshed out next and see what I can do to make things sound nicer.

[MicShazam]

1. Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre 14:49
Ok, that was quite the journey... and it's only the second shortest track, so I'm gonna need some coffee or some heroin.
The first few minutes and the last few felt a bit repetitive, but I liked a lot of what goes on in the middle.
The mixing workss quite well, even though the guitars (assuming that's what it is) are quite low in the mix.
There's a bit of pseudo-operatic warbling late in the track, which caught me off guard.
This is a lot more varied than I expected it to be.


2. Cave of Blood 13:51
Old sci'fi b-movie vibes mesh with some pretty odd black metal. At times it feels a bit like some actual old Norwegian BM bands I've heard, especially because of the drum sounds, which are really quite spot-on for a BM feel.
We get some spots of pure noise manipulation, but there's ultimately a lot of sonic variety and development in the track.
The melody being played alongside some goofy ultra-guttural vocals around the 9:30 mark... really odd sounding combo!
Then a sound that reminds me of the opening to the Depeche Mode album Playing the Angel... alongside some more weird ass vocals.
The part from around 12:00 builds into some interesting sounds.
Still... I find it difficult so far to say much about each track. Picking apart all the little shifts in layering and other details would take ages, and these are some long tracks.

Anyway, next!


3. Jaya-Vijaya 15:27
Some creepy siren sounds along with some really nice, skittering drums. Then a reverby surfer rock guitar that doesn't fall into meter at all. We're VERY far away from any black metal feel now.
Then things get jazzy... in a drunken surfer rock sort of way.
Then we get some tribal drums and more guttural warbling in the background. Around 11:26 there's a guitar that sounds a lot like what a looped guitar sample could sound like in an old tracker program. Maybe it's actally being played live on a guitar, what do I know.
Things build to something a bit harder towards the ending, but it never really explodes.


4. Ndaxagua 24:15
Slow start, but I like the guitar coming ind around 3:00. I'm getting predictable: Someone breaks off the noise with some guitar plucking and I'm suddenly much more on board with it.
Nice drums, which has really been a tendency of this album so far.
I know everything really goes when you compose music, but when a fast paced, driving double bass drum beat pummels along the highway later in the track, I don't feel like any of the accompanying sounds really match the feel of the drums. It's not until around 8:20 mark things really click back together again.
After that, things do get quite interesting.
A sort of breakdown kicks in around 11:00. Then... weird noises with some neat sounding keyboard notes in the background. Now, being the boring square that I am, I would probably have put that up front but that's my problem.
Pleased to hear that we get to sit with those keyboard/synth notes for quite a while! I'd totally expected it to disappear as quickly as it appeared.
14:20-ish: Robot T rex. Then some cool guitar. Subtle drums... yeah, there's some neat things going on late in this track.
The voice after 15:00 somewhere reminds me of a ghost from the muppets rendition of Dicken's a Christmas Carol. I think.
A bit later, the drums sound kind of rumbly. I think it's a tom that has some distortion to it.
Oh lookie here - now it starts feeling modestly black metal again.
Several interesting changes and instruments saved for last.
The latter third of this track is probably the most interesting part of the album.

------

Ok... So, what to make of this whole thing?
Undeniably, not really my kind of thing. I'm a traditional songwriting/melodic construction kind of guy.
No doubt that a lot of work has been put into this and it is quite interesting at times.
If memory serves, there seems to be more work put into it than things from the same composer I've heard a long time ago.
Would I listen to it again? Probably not, but it was an interesting little journey/exercise in forced-open mindedness all the same.
Oh and one more time just to make it clear: The drums were generally really well handled on this album. Good job!

Final rating:
/10

[Mondo Bungle]

damn, that's not even the one I was thinkin

[MicShazam]

Originally Posted by Mondo Bungle

damn, that's not even the one I was thinkin

Maybe you meant to post this one: https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/album/clear-society ?
I can hear it's a lot more melodic.

[Mondo Bungle]

That was my first choice but I'ma release a cooler one as the same project. I just referred to the album you reviewed when i was talkin about like how magical it's all put together.

I did really want feedback for that one too though so I like it

[MicShazam]

Originally Posted by Mondo Bungle

That was my first choice but I'ma release a cooler one as the same project. I just referred to the album you reviewed when i was talkin about like how magical it's all put together.

I did really want feedback for that one too though so I like it

I'll do the one you're working on too when you're done.

[Mondo Bungle]

that's something a cool person would say

[Blank.]

Originally Posted by elphenor

can I just upload some demos for review

just isolated guitar stuff recorded on a $50 mic

recording is just like writing where it's really hard to gauge the quality of your own stuff if you put it down recently

I'll give it a review if I can play it on mobile.

[MicShazam]

If it's new music, it's allowed, right? Can't see why not.