Forum Member Album Reviews

[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]

Originally Posted by Lucem Ferre

And MicShazam's album sounded like a dope ass Snes game.

I was always more of a DOS kid, but I appreciate this comment very much all the same.

PS: Can't give a time horizon for my review of your stuff. Hopefully within a couple days, but it depends what happens.

[MicShazam]

Lucem Ferre - Something sick Is In Me
-------------------------------------
Links to both tracks:
https://soundcloud.com/lucem-ferre17...-sick-is-in-me
https://soundcloud.com/lucem-ferre17/nightmares

That was intense! Rap isn't my usual ballpark, but this has some real energy to it.
The vocals are interesting and theres a bit more flair to the delivery than I expected there to be.
That bone chilling scream later in the track completely caught me off guard!
The lyrics aren't bad either and the line that is repeated most often hits pretty hard:
"Something sick/is in me/it hopes I die/all alone".
Whoa there! That's going to some dark places!

The backing music is pretty neat too. Has a sort of 90's gangsta rap vibe to it (or maybe I'm specifically thinking
of Coolio?), but without in any way sounding like a rip-off. There's a constant feeling of mild distortion. Something that sounds
like an electronic organ sound pops up here and there, sounding really great. Generally, the sounds and samples used here
are crisp and full of expression. Definetely not boring!

I could live without the slight touch of auto-tune. Even more raw vocals would fit better - especially considering the lyrical themes.

Forget about that though - this was excellent.

Lucem Ferre - Nightmares
-------------------------
Auto tune again... which I'm not a huge fan of. What I really like is the rumbling, ebbing and flowing bass in the background.
There's also some good sounding samples, but were definetely in way less in-your-face territory than the previous track.
The part that starts at 3:42 is really great, but the auto-tuned hook is not all that strong.

Final thoughts
--------------
The second track was pretty well made and I liked parts of it, but the first track is vastly, vastly better.
Actually downright great. I can't think of much hip hop I've enjoyed as much as this track. Keep in mind I don't listen to rap, so what do I know?
For what it's worth, I think it's as good as most of the stuff people have tried to convince me is good hip hop.

As a last point, I'll say that the sheer energy of the vocals is a standout element here. Vocal variety is also good and worth focusing on in the future.

[Mondo Bungle]

check this, I think you'd actually liike it https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/al...age-satellites

[MicShazam]

Originally Posted by Mondo Bungle

check this, I think you'd actually liike it https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/al...age-satellites

Great album cover! I'll take a listen later today or over the next few days.

[Lucem Ferre]

Originally Posted by MicShazam

Lucem Ferre - Something sick Is In Me
-------------------------------------

That was intense! Rap isn't my usual ballpark, but this has some real energy to it.
The vocals are interesting and theres a bit more flair to the delivery than I expected there to be.
That bone chilling scream later in the track completely caught me off guard!
The lyrics aren't bad either and the line that is repeated most often hits pretty hard:
"Something sick/is in me/it hopes I die/all alone".
Whoa there! That's going to some dark places!

The backing music is pretty neat too. Has a sort of 90's gangsta rap vibe to it (or maybe I'm specifically thinking
of Coolio?), but without in any way sounding like a rip-off. There's a constant feeling of mild distortion. Something that sounds
like an electronic organ sound pops up here and there, sounding really great. Generally, the sounds and samples used here
are crisp and full of expression. Definetely not boring!

I could live without the slight touch of auto-tune. Even more raw vocals would fit better - especially considering the lyrical themes.

Forget about that though - this was excellent.

Lucem Ferre - Nightmares
-------------------------
Auto tune again... which I'm not a huge fan of. What I really like is the rumbling, ebbing and flowing bass in the background.
There's also some good sounding samples, but were definetely in way less in-your-face territory than the previous track.
The part that starts at 3:42 is really great, but the auto-tuned hook is not all that strong.

Final thoughts
--------------
The second track was pretty well made and I liked parts of it, but the first track is vastly, vastly better.
Actually downright great. I can't think of much hip hop I've enjoyed as much as this track. Keep in mind I don't listen to rap, so what do I know?
For what it's worth, I think it's as good as most of the stuff people have tried to convince me is good hip hop.

As a last point, I'll say that the sheer energy of the vocals is a standout element here. Vocal variety is also good and worth focusing on in the future.

Hey man, thanks for the review. I think my biggest problem personally with my music (other than I can't sing) is just how horribly I articulate what I'm trying to say. My lyrics are very blunt and immature, and even though I can work on finding better ways to express myself, I'm not sure if I can do anything to mature the lyrics until I myself mature. But at the same time I still enjoy musicians that are blunt and immature so maybe it's not that big of an issue.

[Plainview]

https://thecartridgefamily1.bandcamp...omes-everybody

My latest. Pretty proud of it - check it out.

[Plankton]

Be kind and post a link to the work when doing a review of said work. It sucks trying to find what the hell you're talking about.

Just an observation.

[MicShazam]

Originally Posted by Plankton

Be kind and post a link to the work when doing a review of said work. It sucks trying to find what the hell you're talking about.

Just an observation.

Oops... Pretty dumb mistake on my part. I put the links in my previous review now.

For easy reference now that the review is a few pages back, the links are:

https://soundcloud.com/lucem-ferre17...-sick-is-in-me
https://soundcloud.com/lucem-ferre17/nightmares

Originally Posted by Lucem Ferre

Hey man, thanks for the review. I think my biggest problem personally with my music (other than I can't sing) is just how horribly I articulate what I'm trying to say. My lyrics are very blunt and immature, and even though I can work on finding better ways to express myself, I'm not sure if I can do anything to mature the lyrics until I myself mature. But at the same time I still enjoy musicians that are blunt and immature so maybe it's not that big of an issue.

Honestly, I think the bluntness works quite well in the first of the two tracks. Subtlety isn't always the answer.

[MicShazam]

And now, for a very belated forum member album review:

Trouble Salad(Mondo Bungle) - New Age Satellites



Album link: https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/al...age-satellites

8 tracks, ~47 minutes of music.

I've listened to several of Mondo Bungle's albums over the last couple years and it's usually some pretty spooky sounding material with a lot of sound manipulation and noise. I'm more of a structured songs guy, so I was hopeful about this album, since Mondo himself assured me it was going to be a bit more my speed.

This album has plenty of an electronic music vibe going on, with beats and synthesizer lines. There is still an amount of droning noise and stretches of sample layering going on, so it still feels very much like what I would expect from the artist in question. Something old, something new. A pretty interesting progression. Contrast the end of track two with much of track 3, for example, and I feel like you've got a pretty good outline of what I've heard from Mondo Bungle before, and what this album has to offer in contrast.

As to what kind of electronic music, we're talking more a mix of 90's dance music and Kraftwerk than Apex Twin or Skrillex. I'm getting all manner of associations, but I'm not well versed enough in electronic music myself to really come up with much in the way of stylistic comparisons. I listen to Depeche Mode, but I can't keep comparing everyone to that band.

Our old friend, the voice sample, also makes it's appearance all over this album. It all sounds like clips from movies, but I don't recognize any of them.

There's good sonic variation across the album. There's a sort of Netherland nighclub trance vibe going on on track 3, "Being an Apparatus", along with what probably isn't record scratches, but sounds a lot like it.

I'm not going to talk about every track one by one this time, so I'll just throw around some scattered observations:

Track 4, "Please, Remember", has something really interesting going on at the 4 minute mark and onwards. Those are some seriously clashing rhythms, but it's interesting.

Track 5, "Thought Manifestation" gets really badass from 1:42 and onwards. Sounds like I should be playing System Shock while listening to this! Some pretty interesting lead melodies come in after a while. Also interesting about this track is how it goes completely nuts at the 4:11 mark. Ear rape!

Track 6, "Hired Sanity has a pretty chill beat sometimes".

Track 7, "Strange Beacon" neat bassline. Really! There's some pretty good thing going on in this track. Very good layering of sounds, but it does end pretty abruptly. Track 8 also some basslines going on with the same instrument, by the way. That track is significantly more loaded up on the voice samples and such, though.

Overall, I think this is some pretty damn well produced music. The sound quality is through the roof and there's a lot of variation and dynamic song structures. Those circa 47 minutes do not feel like a drag. It's hard for me to name any particular favorite tracks, due to their somewhat scatterbrained structures and thematic incohesion (something I feel is entirely intentional and simply a result of the style of music), but several tracks did have really good parts. Most of them, really. Track 5 (see above) probably had the coolest sections. The part around 2:05 or so in track 2 also deserves special mention.

Rating: 7/10 - Which, in my book, is good. If I feel like someone has the potential do do significantly better, I don't want to set the score too high. A 7 out of ten is solid, but leaves good room for growth. Maybe we'll see some more curveballs from Mr. Bungle in the future?