Reviews: Vol1 Part1

I'm going to try to get through all of Volume 1 today, but I'm going to have to take a break to go meet with an artist I'm going to be working with to produce an album.

So here goes!

Andrew Miller--The orchestration is great. Hacking the Mainframe has a lot of great ideas in it and I love the electronics thrown in there. There were only a few things that I would change though. The constant 16th notes in the beginning are cool, but I got a little tired of them around the last minute of the piece. I'm not sure what instrument you were using, sounded a little like the side of a snare maybe. I also really like the section at 1:53 with the guitar and the strings. Gives it a cool delay feel. A Peculiar Afternoon was a nice change of pace from HtM. I felt it was a little long and could have ended about a minute or so before it did. Intermission had a nice driving feel to it. The glock sound (or crotales) got a little annoying after a while though. Limbo of Infants was by far my favorite. I absolutely loved the wind/noise that ou used and how you covered it up with the acoustic instruments and brought it in and out. It started to remind me of John Adam's Transmigration of Souls (a little...) around the 5:15 mark. Loved it, especially when the boys choir came in with the call and response with the orchestra.

Overall, I enjoyed this. The production, orchestration, and sound quality was terrific.

Big Sholders--First, I love the concept for this album; going out and recording street musicians in Chicago. Awesome!
1. Great Plans: I love the opening piano and what sounds like a sitar strum. Absolutely love the lyrics. It has a real melancholy yet uplifting feel to it. Great.
2. The Harvest is Great: I would have liked to see more done with this sample. Maybe something along the lines of Steve Reich's "Come out to show them."
3. For the Love: I love the distorted drums. I'm not really a fan of rap, so I couldn't really get into it for that.
4. A CBS Newsroom Drama: I love the instrumentation and all of the musical ideas. It really reminds me of the Beatles. The only thing that took away from it were the vocals. A little pitchy.
5. Sounds like I'm Hearing Chords...: Again, like in 2, I would have liked to see more done with the field recording. BUT, I like how you went into...
6. Waiting for your Call: I got a couple really good chuckles out of this.
7. I heard it from back there!: It's a good sample, but again, I wish something had been done with it.
8. It's a Chi-town thing: Great sound. Again, I'm not a big rap fan, but this was well produced. A much different sound than the other songs on the album.
9. Welcome to the Subway: Nice field recording, I wish something had been done to it though.

Overall, I really liked the songs on the album. However, I guess I had thought the sounds from Chicago were going to be used in the songs as opposed to being between the songs.

Luxi--I absolutely loved the sounds you got from the synths. Also, your vocals fit really well within the mix. I wish I had the lyrics though because sometimes the words were a little hard to understand.
1. Moonday: I like the slow tempo and the kind of dubstep feel to it.
2. Alchemy: I love the instrumentation and your vocals. The asian feel is great. I'm not really a fan of rap or hip hop generally, so when A.T. came in I kind of started to space. I liked the trance-like feel of the song in general though. Could have done without the autotune.
3. Coral Castle: Same story as the last two, I love the instruments and the downtempo feel. Vocals are great. The distorted instruments are great.
4. Wrecktronix: Kind of reminded me of Ke$ha... but not horrible. The autotune on this one really blew it for me. I like how you played with the panning on the vocals.
5. Spirographik: Basically the same comments as above.

Overall, I really liked the feel of the album as a whole. There was enough variety that it kept me interested which is good because I don't usually listen to rap/hip-hop.

Rob Fisher-- Years to Remember: I really, really enjoyed this. Simple instrumentation plus great vocals and great lyrics. I love the backing vocals too. Terrific. I only wish you had done more. Would love to hear more from you in the future.

Osmin-- It's all very raw. I couldn't really get into the first track on the album Que te Ha Dado esa Mujer. Run was interesting. The mixing could be better. It all feels very raw. Macario en Macondo was fun to listen to. I've always been a fan of spanish guitar. But, again it felt very raw and a little sloppy. La Caida de Tleyotl was a refreshing change of pace from MeM. I love everything that flows perked my ears up right away with the glockenspiel. Definitely my favorite piece on the album. (it's the avant-garde in me) I really liked the vocal in the left speaker. I wish it traveled between the channels though. I think more dynamic panning would have made this a lot better. Definitely interesting and it has a point. In Your Head returns to the style of Run. The random screaming kind of turned me off though. It didn't really serve any artistic point IMHO.

Reality Calls--
1. Endless Night: Guitars sound great, as do the vocals. The hi-hat sound is really distracting though. Most of the drums just don't really work. Good vocals and harmony though. I'm not really sure what happened at 2:45. The eq changes abruptly and it's a little unnerving.
2. History with no Beginning: The acoustic guitar in the beginning sounds really good. Drums sound better in this song. Vocals and harmonies are good. There are some chords that sound way too metal/rocky for the subject matter.
3. Bloody Rags: I was expecting something more along the lines of a song about menstruation by looking at the title and not the lyrics. Not the case. The guitars sound good, but I felt like the bass didn't quite fit. Might be better down an octave.
4. Monotony: Guitars sound good. I'm sure if it was supposed to make me laugh, but laugh I did at the Beastie Boys sound.

Strange Battery--First, I must preface this by saying that I laughed out loud on more than one occasion. It reminds me of a more edgy version of this childrens band I used to listen to while I was growing up in Albuquerque, NM, the Green Chile Jam Band.
1. Brushy Blues: The lyrics cracked me up, seriously. The only thing I found distracting were the toms. They were a little too ring-y for my taste.
2. Flossy Funk: Not much to say about this one. It's Funky, it's Flossy. I think I'm going to play the last 2 songs while I'm brushing my teeth and flossing.
3. Ready to Dance: I was totally thrown off when the chicken dance came in. I almost fell out of my chair laughing. I'm imagining these kids at like a middle school dance and this metal band playing and they're all like "um... what" and then they're all like chicken dance! YEAH! Then... Mosh to the chicken dance! Epic.
4. Bath Time: Definitely a change from RtD. I think you could make a living making children albums.
5. Clean it Up: The quintessential clean your room song. I think my mother sounded like this on more than one occasion while I was growing up.
6. Monster: I love the bandoneon sound. I'm going to play this for my children (when I have them) while dressed in armor and wielding a large ax when they tell me to look for monsters.
7. Everybody Poops (And Everybody Pees): The only thing I would change would be the eq on the toms. It's a little boom-y again.
8. Orlok's Vowel Tango: I absolutely love this. (Minus the missing vowel)
9. Saturday: This reminded me of System of a Down. Loved it. The vocals were a little phasey though. Also, wish the spoken words were a little more understandable over the instruments. They get covered a little.
10. Bonus Track: I love the variation within all of your songs, but especially like the use of the electric piano.
11. Be Yourself: Uplifting. Good production.
12. Finally: Nice little piano finish to an epic album.

I would have liked the vocals on a lot of the tracks to be more understandable and more up in the mix, but over all I thoroughly enjoyed this. Congrats.


Good job to everyone!