Micshazam's album and song picks

~~MicShazam~~ · 12-12-2018, 02:59 PM

After uploading the last of my albums to Youtube earlier today, I started listening through my own albums chronologically. I had all sorts of mixed feelings listening to these again, so I wanted to write a sort of mini review for each album.

Spoiler for Planetary - Distant Stars (2009):

My first album! All written in Reality Adlib Tracker in MS-DOS over a range of many years. This means that the album is very varied in style. This one still holds up for me, plus the personal nostalgia factor is huge.
100%
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Spoiler for Music In Green (2011):

Tried to get used to Open MPT, which would become my preferred music tracker moving forward. I think there's a weird sort of thrash metal influence here, but the songs are basic electronic wank that is mostly interesting in the more busy mid sections. Those opening groovy segments of each song... kinda dull. But I love those crazy mid sections.
50%
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Spoiler for Stray (2012):

Like a second try on an album like the one before, but this time it's got more atmosphere, sounds less derpy and the 6 tracks are very different from each other. One of my personal faves.
90%
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Spoiler for Sanguine (2013):

Pretty varied. Jumps wildly up and down in quality over 11 tracks or so. Some favorites
here and some cringey stuff.
70%
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Spoiler for Elusive Memories (2013):

Really tried to do something new here. The middle of the three tracks is kinda nicely atmospheric, although very long. Took inspiration from Twin Peaks and the Type O Negative album October Rust for some of the aesthetic elements.
70%
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Spoiler for Creative Suicide part 1: The End (2013):

A mess of tracks from all sorts of time periods. Some are remixes. Some fun stuff, some crap.
70%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler for Paralysis (2014):

At least I really tried to write more complex music. Some of these tracks are the most involved I've ever done in terms of complexity, but oh how I hate this album. A couple tracks or so that I kinda like, but it's overall tepid and turgid and drab and I hate it.
10%
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Spoiler for Creative Suicide part 2: GRIM (2014):

In trying to wash the bad vibes of that prior album off my mind, I went back to some very old unfinished tracks and wrapped them up for a short 4 track thingy. Simple groove oriented stuff that I kinda find fun, but overly simplistic.
60%
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Spoiler for Autumn Pyre (2014):

5 tracks from that old DOS program. Old tracks that I went back to and finished up. One new
track written in OpenMPT, plus some old tracks written by my brother in that DOS program.
I have fun with this one.
80%
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Spoiler for Mythology (2015):

Ugh... yet another drab attempt at writing more complex music. There's one track named "Nebulae" that's one of my favorites and another called "Second Guessing" that hides a mean synth solo, but overall, this is dull as dishwater.
25%
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Spoiler for Creative Suicide part 3: Leakage (2015):

Yet another short compilation of odds and ends. All over the place. Most of it is ****, but this time it was intentional. I finished up some of those tracks whether they were deserving or not. Guess I was desperate to wash another drab way-too-long-in-the-making-album off my mind for the second time.
25%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler for Dream Inertia (2016):

Total reset of my style! In my opinion, this is the first album I've done where the music starts being pretty polished and sophisticated in how it's structured. A personal favorite and I'm super happy that I made it. I had a unique approach this time where I wrote the tracks like pretty fleshed out demos, one at a time. After a demo was done, I wasn't allowed to listen to it anymore and would move on to the next. When I had 9 tracks, I went back over them and polished them up. Somehow that approach really seemed to work for me. Almost every track has a cool synth solo. That's another thing I like about this.
100%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler for Linear Path (2016):

Basically more in the same style as the previous one, but with more piano and more layers. It was hard to avoid all sorts of clashing with all of those layers of open notes, but I made it work eventually and learned a lot. The fourth and last track is kinda weird in that it sounds very different from the other three and is sort of a ramble of ideas, written in a linear fashion like pearls on a string.
100%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler for The Hunt (2017):

Tried to do something with more of an electronic style of beats than the previous two. Also tried to strip it down since I couldn't bear dealing with all those layers like I did on the previous one. It's ok. Feels a bit simple sometimes.
80%
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Spoiler for Persona (2017):

Working title was "AOR". That makes sense when you look at how these songs are put together. This is by far the tracks I've written that are closest to being structured like melodic pop/rock songs. I basically aimed to write something melodically driven with a very conservative songwriter approach to chord progressions. Learned a lot by doing this. It's only 3 tracks, but it took forever to put together. There's a fourth track after one minute of silence at the end, but it was a failed attempt at writing more in the same style. I gave up the idea of making a long album, and probably for the better.
100%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler for Past & Present (2018):

Weak attempt at evolving the style of the previous project. Track one is decent but sounds flat. Track two is messy and feels lazy in it's structure. The third track is track one with Chula Vista soloing over it. Yeah... I'm not crazy about this thing, honestly. Have felt creatively stuck since.
60%

Unitron · 12-14-2018, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MicShazam

Spoiler for Planetary - Distant Stars (2009):

My first album! All written in Reality Adlib Tracker in MS-DOS over a range of many years. This means that the album is very varied in style. This one still holds up for me, plus the personal nostalgia factor is huge.
100%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler for Music In Green (2011):

Tried to get used to Open MPT, which would become my preferred music tracker moving forward. I think there's a weird sort of thrash metal influence here, but the songs are basic electronic wank that is mostly interesting in the more busy mid sections. Those opening groovy segments of each song... kinda dull. But I love those crazy mid sections.
50%

Didn't listen to all of these, but sounded really good from what I heard. If I knew how to put custom midi's in Doom, I'd use some of these in my maps (with your permission of course).

~~MicShazam~~ · 12-14-2018, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unitron

Didn't listen to all of these, but sounded really good from what I heard. If I knew how to put custom midi's in Doom, I'd use some of these in my maps (with your permission of course).

You can do whatever you want with my stuff, that's totally cool. But they're in IT format, which contains custom samples that MIDI can't immediately understand. There's a way to convert into MIDI though, even if it isn't perfect and requires some hands-on decisions. Not sure if this makes sense to you, but I can explain if needed

12-12-2018, 02:59 PM	#1 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Reviewing my own complete discography... After uploading the last of my albums to Youtube earlier today, I started listening through my own albums chronologically. I had all sorts of mixed feelings listening to these again, so I wanted to write a sort of mini review for each album. Spoiler for Planetary - Distant Stars (2009): My first album! All written in Reality Adlib Tracker in MS-DOS over a range of many years. This means that the album is very varied in style. This one still holds up for me, plus the personal nostalgia factor is huge. 100% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Music In Green (2011): Tried to get used to Open MPT, which would become my preferred music tracker moving forward. I think there's a weird sort of thrash metal influence here, but the songs are basic electronic wank that is mostly interesting in the more busy mid sections. Those opening groovy segments of each song... kinda dull. But I love those crazy mid sections. 50% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Stray (2012): Like a second try on an album like the one before, but this time it's got more atmosphere, sounds less derpy and the 6 tracks are very different from each other. One of my personal faves. 90% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Sanguine (2013): Pretty varied. Jumps wildly up and down in quality over 11 tracks or so. Some favorites here and some cringey stuff. 70% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Elusive Memories (2013): Really tried to do something new here. The middle of the three tracks is kinda nicely atmospheric, although very long. Took inspiration from Twin Peaks and the Type O Negative album October Rust for some of the aesthetic elements. 70% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Creative Suicide part 1: The End (2013): A mess of tracks from all sorts of time periods. Some are remixes. Some fun stuff, some crap. 70% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Paralysis (2014): At least I really tried to write more complex music. Some of these tracks are the most involved I've ever done in terms of complexity, but oh how I hate this album. A couple tracks or so that I kinda like, but it's overall tepid and turgid and drab and I hate it. 10% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Creative Suicide part 2: GRIM (2014): In trying to wash the bad vibes of that prior album off my mind, I went back to some very old unfinished tracks and wrapped them up for a short 4 track thingy. Simple groove oriented stuff that I kinda find fun, but overly simplistic. 60% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Autumn Pyre (2014): 5 tracks from that old DOS program. Old tracks that I went back to and finished up. One new track written in OpenMPT, plus some old tracks written by my brother in that DOS program. I have fun with this one. 80% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Mythology (2015): Ugh... yet another drab attempt at writing more complex music. There's one track named "Nebulae" that's one of my favorites and another called "Second Guessing" that hides a mean synth solo, but overall, this is dull as dishwater. 25% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Creative Suicide part 3: Leakage (2015): Yet another short compilation of odds and ends. All over the place. Most of it is **, but this time it was intentional. I finished up some of those tracks whether they were deserving or not. Guess I was desperate to wash another drab way-too-long-in-the-making-album off my mind for the second time. 25% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler** for Dream Inertia (2016): Total reset of my style! In my opinion, this is the first album I've done where the music starts being pretty polished and sophisticated in how it's structured. A personal favorite and I'm super happy that I made it. I had a unique approach this time where I wrote the tracks like pretty fleshed out demos, one at a time. After a demo was done, I wasn't allowed to listen to it anymore and would move on to the next. When I had 9 tracks, I went back over them and polished them up. Somehow that approach really seemed to work for me. Almost every track has a cool synth solo. That's another thing I like about this. 100% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Linear Path (2016): Basically more in the same style as the previous one, but with more piano and more layers. It was hard to avoid all sorts of clashing with all of those layers of open notes, but I made it work eventually and learned a lot. The fourth and last track is kinda weird in that it sounds very different from the other three and is sort of a ramble of ideas, written in a linear fashion like pearls on a string. 100% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for The Hunt (2017): Tried to do something with more of an electronic style of beats than the previous two. Also tried to strip it down since I couldn't bear dealing with all those layers like I did on the previous one. It's ok. Feels a bit simple sometimes. 80% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Persona (2017): Working title was "AOR". That makes sense when you look at how these songs are put together. This is by far the tracks I've written that are closest to being structured like melodic pop/rock songs. I basically aimed to write something melodically driven with a very conservative songwriter approach to chord progressions. Learned a lot by doing this. It's only 3 tracks, but it took forever to put together. There's a fourth track after one minute of silence at the end, but it was a failed attempt at writing more in the same style. I gave up the idea of making a long album, and probably for the better. 100% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler for Past & Present (2018): Weak attempt at evolving the style of the previous project. Track one is decent but sounds flat. Track two is messy and feels lazy in it's structure. The third track is track one with Chula Vista soloing over it. Yeah... I'm not crazy about this thing, honestly. Have felt creatively stuck since. 60% Last edited by MicShazam; 12-15-2018 at 01:49 AM.