Nur Ein III Round Three "The Blitz"

[frankie big face]

Okay, I'm back.

Ken - Nice stereo separation with the acoustic guitars. They sound good too. I don't really liek the song (except the bridge with the "choral voices") but it sure has a catchy chorus. I can easily imagine a LOT of people singing along with you in a bar.

# - What can I say? I know there are people who like this, but I don't understand them and they probably wouldn't understand me.

Paco - That's some good guitarring! It kind of sounds like you're not exactly sure what melody you want to be singing. By the third verse, it seems clearer. Your choral voices remind me of the 70s prog rock band Focus, especially their Hamburger Concerto. Ooh, the rock section was a nice surprise. I want more of that.

Ross - Mr. Immunity. What a difference 3 points can make. You're all relaxed and I'm all tense. This is a nice little mid-tempo rocker. Heh. I like the choral break. Great guitar solo, but twice as long as it needs to be, imo. This is not one of my preferred styles of music, but I enjoyed song this very much.

Starfinger - I like this all right, but it's not as engaging as so much of your music. I don't really have any criticisms, just that statement.

Tex - I think this is great. Great ambiance, good lyrics. Simple and effective.

TWSA - I think you guys are super-awesome, but these lyrics are pretty weak. Beautiful chorus (the first one--maybe it wasn't a chorus, but it was between the verses). I'm going to have to call this one a rare miss for you guys. All the fancy stuff (you know, the musicianship) seems to be designed to cover up a less than stellar song. Nice "choral vocals." I hope you get through regardless because you guys write and record some pretty awesome stuff.

Okay, I wondered if I could review all the songs before the results materialized and apparently, I could.

[Spud]

You know, it's funny watching all the sharks swimming around, waiting for dead bodies. Well, all you us sharks and one judge...

SPUD

p.s. Look, JB, I used them both.

[Ross]

Heeeeeere fishy fishy fishy

Edit: I'm not looking for a dead body - I'm looking for a live title!

[Billy's Little Trip]

Crap! I knew I shouldn't have worn my chum cologne today.

Glennny, you have too many "eNz" in your name
Frankie, you have a big face!
I insist that you two get out of your caskets and get your groove on.

[Niveous]

Oh where, oh where has our little judge gone. Oh where, oh where can he be? We want to move on to Round 4. Oh where, oh where can he be?

[Niveous]

He's been found! Scores are being tabulated.

[glennny]

Adam Adamant- I love this song. I think I’ve always liked your songs, I seem to like each one more than the previous. Yeah I have to say I don’t think you met the challenge. Good song however!

ADD- Sounds like choral vocals sampled and used for a large body of the music. Pretty cool sound. I think it’s weak from a challenge perspective, but pretty awesome from a pure song listening enjoyment perspective. I never like guide vocal lines, there’s a keyboard line that does that a lot in this song. None the less great song!

BLT- The lyric clichés are killing me. Yeah, I hate the lyrics. Production is fantastic! Riffs are rockin! I guess there are a lot of vocals in there, but it doesn’t strike me as choral vocals.

BK- Absolutely beautiful! Great take on the challenge! I could totally hear Damien Rice doing this song. You’re not going anywhere, possible winner, though I really don’t get the judges.

Frankie- Always a well written song. I was hoping for a chorus of several Frankies with counter point and fancy singing. I don’t much care for the choral voices patch. That’s a long fade out. Good song, not your best.

Glenn and Rachel- I love this song for the diminished chord. Nice meeting of the challenge! Wild bass line for such a breezy song.

Jim Tyrell- Wow you have a good voice! All the harmonies sound parallel. They’re beautifully in key and pitch, but I wish they had different lines.

JBB- I agree with Frankie, this challenge was made for you. This is wonderful. Great singing. Nice melodies. I think the ¾ is perfect for this, I’m a little shocked, I thought you once said you had a disdain for ¾.

Ken- Another great song! This is one of my favorite vocal performances from you. There’s a little more grrrrr than usual.

Octothorpe- You make me miss Dr. Demento. The mix is all over the place. Silly and fun. Not as funny as the music presents it to be, but amusing.

Paco del Stinko- Beautiful guitar playing! The chorus of Muppets and Mothers of Invention is really cool. Yeah, I love this song!

Ross Durand- I like when you get all Warren Zevon! Turn up the solo! Put on your flannel, go to the pub, crank it up over a game of pool.

Starfinger- The 1984 rocker in me has a knee-jerk aversion to this blatant 1984 new wave. However, having moved beyond my metal years, I really like this. Vocals are very well done. Again, I’d much rather hear a chorus of Starfingers rather than a choral voices synth patch.

Tex- That reminds me, I need to get the new Portishead. Music is very cool. Choral voices sound good. There’s something I don’t like about the melody scooping. This is very cool.

WSA- Every song we do is my new favorite. I was the most worried about the challenge but those guys knocked it out of the park. I got to play bass and lead guitar on this track. Pete’s the catalyst for this track, and it’s got everything I love about his writing with the through composed structure to the rockin change and the stutters. Melvin continues to blow my mind as a producer and phenomenal singer. (his drums are slutty but I like them). Frisbee has my favorite singing voice. I think the Ross criticism is valid about the British voice suddenly becoming American when Frisbee enters. I never considered that.

Excluding Immune Ross and my band my rankings would be:
1- JBB
2- Ken
3- BK
4- PDS
5- ADD
6- Adam Adamant
7- Tex
8- G & R
9- FBF
10- Starfinger
11- Jim Tyrell
12- Octothorpe
13- BLT

However I think if I were a judge I would keep Starfinger, and cut Adam Adamant on the basis of the challenge.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

TWSA: When the snare comes in as a driving force, it's really... ringy... and distracts/overwhelms from/the interesting change-up. I was mentally reaching for my duct tape every time I heard it (to slap on the snare's head and lessen the ringy, as it was the right sound for the song/story/gestalt, but way too much of it). That said, I enjoyed/appreciated/approved of this song much more than others of yours. Maybe someday I'll figure out why.

JBB: Damn. That was what I pictured for the challenge, that wall of voices shimmering, shaking the windows & trees.

More to come...

[adamadamant]

I guess it doesn't matter now, the votes are in and everything, but I'm slightly worried that everyone says I haven't met the challenge, with glennny moving me from 6 to 10 because of it. I'd like anyone to point to a reliable reference that says choral means more than 3 or 5 or 10 or however many voices, that it must contain different layered parts and not just multiple voices singing the same thing. Even compared to some of the other entrants (and I am not knocking these, I am trying to provide contrast) Add, from my recollection has hardly any voices and his 'choir' is a synth that sounds like a voice, Octothorpe have a one line 'choral' voice, I haven't got all the tracks with me but it struck me that very few (no) people managed to gather 100 gospel singers to complete their song. The challenge is not a hard and definite thing, I felt that by organising for 4 people to sing on my track (5 including me) I was making an effort to get the effect, and I think it dramatically affected how the song sounded. I am sorry if I'm getting a bit annoyed but there were so many other bad things about my song it's infuriating to see everyone say I flaked on the challenge, to me that was the one thing I didn't think I did badly.

[jb]

there were so many other bad things about my song it's infuriating to see everyone say I flaked on the challenge, to me that was the one thing I didn't think I did badly.

Hahaha. Adam, I like your song a lot. Next time you try for a choral effect (and you should, because they're fun), have all your folks sing their parts a few times and use all the takes together. Even better, have them all sing at the same time in harmony, and put several takes of *that* together. Instant choir.

I will never forget seeing a short film on "3-2-1 Contact" about how their theme song was recorded. They used only three singers, and yet it sounded like it was full of voices. That's the first time I ever saw a recording session, and the overdubbing was a revelation. I think I was like, 12 or something.

[Spud]

Octothorpe have a one line 'choral' voice

Just to clarify, we always try to meet the challenge in an integral way. Also, with multiple interpretations of the challenge, if possible. The "coral voices" informs the story line, but the "choral voices" in the bridge are the more substantive challenge response. There are multiple voices singing different harmonies, which was my interpretation of the more technical side of the challenge.

SPUD

[adamadamant]

Without wanting to be rude I know that I could have got multiple recordings of the same people for the illusion of a larger group (well actually I probably couldn't have, but that's not the point). I was trying to point out that the challenge was not "give the impression that 20+ people are singing your song" or something like that and only personal opinion can decide that choral voices means that. To me that's a strange opinion to have and it's even more harsh to say people should be put out of the competition because you have that view.

I could go on all day about this but I'll stop. It is only the internet and that.

Edit: Sorry Spud, I thought I would probably come a foul when I started talking about songs from memory. I guess my point really is that there are different ways and different degrees in each to meet the challenge.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I'd like to go back and try the choir voices again. I know I could get it right if I try harder. I just screwed up with too much reverb and multiplied them too much. I think it would have sounded better to just have 4 or 5 voices and a smidgen of ambiance. For some reason I felt the need to make some huge choir, which just sounds like a bunch of voices in a tunnel.
But that is what Nur Ein is all about. Getting us to try new things that we may not normally do and push ourselves for better, or in my case, worse.

[jb]

Nice work WSA!

[glennny]

Wow! thank you judges! We worked really really really hard on this track, I'm so tickled it worked for you.

Lunkhead, when this is all over I'm dying to talk some guitar/ slide, lap steel technique with you.

Mr Adamant- I'm stoked you're still around, I'm loving the music you're making! I think everyone technically met the challenge, but your track just didn't sound like it was embracing the title. It was a trap I was very fearful we might fall into. Although I didn't sing on the track , every iteration of it during the writing process I was asking for more vocals and more lines, they kept assuring me not to worry about it, but I wasn't really happy with the challenge aspect until the very end, where I think Melvin in particular did a stellar job!

I'm bummed to see those cuts go, it was a great fight!

[Billy's Little Trip]

I'd like to make it official, I totally want to do Judge #5!

....oh, and Frankie, you don't have enough eNz in your name.
Glennny, you have a big face.
Doin' muh thing is what I duz.

Congrats WSA!
NUR EIN!

[adamadamant]

I feel like I should be out already, I don't feel like I'm up to the calibre of the other artists still around. I'm shocked my song made it through, it was simple, repetitive and badly produced, but hurrah. Also sorry everyone for throwing a hissy fit.

[Spud]

Boo Hoo. Now I see the inadequacies in the voting system. Only two judges voted us in the bottom four, and yet we are out. At least I can feel cheated!*

*not to be taken seriously. Well, not TOO seriously.

Good luck to the remaining competitors.

SPUD

[Ross]

Wow - interesting results.

Congrats WSA - a round too late but deserved (and now I don't have to try to beat you in round 4 )

Soory bout the jinx Bryan

Donde esta Round 4?

[melvin]

A few salient points:

- Thank you judges! Based on the largely lukewarm reviews of our peers, I really wasn't expecting a high ranking.
- I think it's hilarious that Glennny calls my drum sound "slutty"
- But seriously, just before we started recording this song, I was flipping the switch on my snare drum that pulls the snares into place, and a piece of the metal mechanism snapped off! So what you're hearing is the snares as tight as I could make them by twisting a secondary threaded adjustment knob-thingy with my fingertips (no jokes, BLT, thanks). Duct tape might reduce the ringing, but what I really need is a drum doctor!

[Paco Del Stinko]

Cheers to the WSA, and sorry to those who got cut, you all had good tunes. I am shocked I made it through. Seriously. When I first listened to the fight the other day and my song came up after not hearing it for a couple of days, I was stunned at how much I didn't like it, and I felt kind of embarrassed. Anyway, onward and upwards! Nur Ein!

[starfinger]

goodbye music, hello real world!