Et ils pissent comme je pleure (Amsterdam Reviews)

[JonPorobil]

I'm sure there is a plug-in somewhere for winamp at least that could achieve that. I'd probably just open the mp3 in one of my many different music software and flip it...

I'm pretty sure the last few versions of Windows Media Player have had this... At least, there's a button to affect playback speed; maybe it doesn't go in reverse.

Last time I needed to check on something backwards, I just imported it into Audition, selected the part I wanted to hear backwards (in this case, the whole track), and double-clicked "Apply reverse."

[mrbeany]

I'm sure there is a plug-in somewhere for winamp at least that could achieve that. I'd probably just open the mp3 in one of my many different music software and flip it...

It is nicer when you can listen to the whole playlist backwards. You know, by pressing the "play backwards" button, or moving the "speed" slider to -100%.

It would be nice to think that in 10+ years time Winamp could have caught up.

[Teplin]

IRC BFF
+2 big ominous pipe organ
There's an instrument you don't hear everyday. Well, a sample of an instrument, at least. Kinda funny tossing the pan flute in there with it. Actually, the whole instrumentation is the only thing about this song that feels off.

In case you're curious, the "pipe organ" was built from two samples of me blowing into a folded aspen leaf, and even we were surprised at how close it sounds to the real thing. The instrument that plays the solo was based on the same two samples. I had a lot of fun working on this with my fellow BFFs.

[Ross]

Well, I was gonna post a backwards version of my song - but it sounds terrible backwards. I guess that's one vote I can be sure I won't get.

[Authors Of]

I've been listening to some of the Amsterdam tracks by various artists. I'll have more time when I'm at work on a faster connection but in the meantime I'm really pleasantly surprised at the variation in solutions for this song fight. This is my first fight so I'm going to be very experimental; I think this is the place for experimentation but at the moment I feel rather restricted to what I can pull off and hopefully make it work.

At the moment I can't critique anybody's work; it's all very new to me and I find music to be so subjective. At any rate I do value everybody's critique and I find it very helpful.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Paco! Wonderful!

Rabid Mullet: I'm having trouble thinking of something to say. I'm having trouble deciding whether I like it or not. It kind of reminds me of The Ramones.

Especially the last line of the chorus(es)... It just done snuck in there.

[reve]

I WAS PART OF :

IRC BFF - I did the percussion. I sampled melons, carrots, lotus root and some sort of japanese radish that wasn't daikon. And then lined up about 70 samples of the above vegetables pretty like. Then signboy affected it.

Jon Eric and friends - I was a friend. I played the drumseses.

VOTE POUCH:
Balance Lost.
Deetak.
Ice Weasels.
Kokiri Warriors.
Old Man Grumpus.
Paco.
R. Durand.
S. Durand.
unhipbattleship.

ONLY WEED SONG THAT DIDN'T SUXXOR:
kokiriwarriors.

AWESOME ALMOST.
unhipbattleship.
Rabid Mullet.
roymond.

[Spud]

I watched The Prestige five times in a row without a break.

[Caravan Ray]

Apologies for drawing attention away from reviews - but just to continue from the beginning of this thread and the excellent Jacque Brel cover presented - but Jesus H Tap Dancing Christ, I had never actually seem M. Brel perform - get a load of this::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZFr2Fh6 ... re=related


that, kiddies - is how to sing a song!

[furrypedro]

Appel Zeven: The lyrics are a wee bit patchy and it feels like your trying to use lots of different sounds to justify the length rather than having any kind of progression of dynamic changes. That said, I kinda like the song, the fundamental tune is okay and there's something about the relentless pound of the drums that's cool.

Authors of: Interesting track. The violin seems to add fidelity but the vox and bongos detract from that a bit. This song totally sounds like an incidental track in an album, kind of a fade between two "proper" songs, except that it's a bit too long to be incidental. Rustic charm but song doesn't grab me.

The Weakest Suit: Ooh, bandstyle. Short and sss.....hmmmm, salty. I disagree that Thailand is a poor man's Amsterdam. I like the line about hanging by it's balls, the way you sing it. The rest of your vocal delivery has regular patchy bits, like you're unsure how you want to sing it. I find when I do that it helps to do a guide vocal at the beginning of the week, get the melody etched in my head and then go back and redo it with more confidence, belt it out properly.

Unhip battleship: That intro would've sounded badass on real drums. I can imagine Russian Circles or someone playing it. Cool arpeggiating and I like the changes in the song, the vocals are a bit, well, I was gonna say emo, but I think you're trying to sound like Matt Bellamy and his style/lyrics have never done anything for me (talented though he is). Not bad but I can't see myself listening back to it.

Berkeley Social Scrubbers: I like when people use words I don't know and I'm trying to figure out what it is you're singing (thankyou for the helpful lyric notes), might not mean a whole lot but it sounds cool. I though Martin was singing "central Mamsterdam", and was like, what? It's kind of ploddy and slow but on this occasion I dig it, like Pavement rather than Travis. I'm not sure if it reminds me of a specific song, but anyway I can see the chorus sticking in my brain and probably singing it to myself over the next week.

Steve Durex: One day I'm gonna make a mixtape of songs that are less than a minute long. It'll have CCS' "Clip Art" and "Nabbo" by Plans & Apologies, and I think you just found your way on to it. Nice. Now I'm going to look up Mary Tyler-Moore on wikipedia....

deetak: major 7th-a-riffic. Okay, so you're obsessed with either Buckley or Antony*, I'm guessing the former. This is pretty good actually (I say "actually", I'm not really a fan of either). *ooh, or Scott Walker. hmmmm...... yeah, like. the more I think about it the more I think I might vote for it.

Roymondinio: How long have you been recording? like a million years? and you've still not got a pop-shield. amateur (rolls eyes). This song's alright, nice fade out.

Flxxvm florvum: You managed to find a way to make your guitars sound like guitars and not farts. Good job. Shame about that parping bass. Yeah, that's what amsterdam needs, someone to go around doing heroin and stealing bicycles...oh "whores", I thought you said "do all the horse", whoops. haha. I love the synth break.

Ross Durand (which kind of sounds like "restaurant" when you say it really quickly): Schmooove. I like the way this is really clean all the way through and then the solo sort of falls apart with that muted scraping at the end. I've never seen the film "Before Sunrise" but this sounds like it would be a good theme song for it.

Ice Weasels: Straight off, I think I'd prefer this recording if you'd used a drum pattern that didn't have that shuffle in it. Programmed rock beats aren't ideal but I think they're more effective when they're jsut played straight (imho). That bit when it changes at the end of the chorus and you play on the toms is cool though. Not a bad song, 90's-tastic.

Rone: yup, you sure made that song. Right, there's this thing called "Equalisation", or EQ for short. What you do is you can turn down the level of some frequencies while turning up (or leaving alone) other frequencies. It's like magic, but I assure you it's all based in real science and electronics. What you should do is get hold of one of these "Equalisers" and then reduce the level of the low frequencies (say, below 600Hz) on your vocals, that way your voice might stand out in the mix more, sound clearer, less muffled. That way if I wanted to know what you were singing I wouldn't need to go to the lyric thread. I'll leave it at that for now.

IRC BFF: Idle Rapists Consortium, erm...International Rodeo Clowns. I have no idea what BFF could mean. Some cool prgramming here, not bad words. Song doesn't grab me much. Nothing really sticking in my head, making me laugh/smile. Got a bit of foot-tapping going on, that's about it.

Rabid Mullet: With a name like that why has this collab not happened before? What is Mark contributing here? Sounds like straight up Rabid to me. Is that his guitar solo? backing vocals? This review is solely made up of questions. Apart from that sentence, shit.

Jorenic & freeeeends: Nice lyrics. Cool rap, Glenn right? I shouldn't have to ask but you americans all sound the same : )) fun. the cowbell nudges this into vote territory. and the speaking at the end reminds me of the Cow Exchange which is awesome and makes me want the Cow Exchange back, I might start a Come Back Plat campaign. Whos' with me?

Pathetic Wannerbees: Arse

Kokiri Warriors: STOP SAYING "LIKE".

Paco: Struggling to make it all the way through some of these songs. Need some Paco to bring my attention back. And he's in full on Rocky Horror theatrical mode. Honestly, not much I can say here. If I'd been alive in the 70's I'd probably be more in to this, but alas.

Old man Humpus: Fighting the urge to skip forward and see if it's gonna go anywhere. 1 minute in I failed, if you had a beautiful voice I might be more captivated by the sparse arrangement but like me, you don't.

Lord please do up your Flies: Oh aye this has got something in it. Or.....Motherfucker amsterdam shit uh yeah bitches. Just do a bigger guitar solo to compensate for your tiny penis.

MC Headshot: badass. watch out for those ride-bys.

Balance Lost (feat. Chimpo): I'm a dirty thief. You listen to "Salt, Pepper & Spinderella" by Johnny Foreigner and you be the judge. I got my friend Chris to shout on it for me. I forget when recording lyrics for my songfight entries that most of the people who will be listening to them are parents.

I'm digging the BSS, the Steves, the Jons, the friends and the votes
maybe the deetaks

[JonPorobil]

IRC BFF: Idle Rapists Consortium, erm...International Rodeo Clowns. I have no idea what BFF could mean. Some cool prgramming here, not bad words. Song doesn't grab me much. Nothing really sticking in my head, making me laugh/smile. Got a bit of foot-tapping going on, that's about it.

IRC = Internet Relay Chat, the system that the Songfight Chat Room. BFF is fairly standard slang for Best Friends Forever. I would simply assume that that particular bit of parlance hasn't made it across the pond, but I believe the name was suggested by our local German guy.

Gotta say, I'm kind of with you on this. I heard an earlier version of this song which had a lot more punch and immediacy to it. *shrug*

Rabid Mullet: With a name like that why has this collab not happened before? What is Mark contributing here? Sounds like straight up Rabid to me. Is that his guitar solo? backing vocals? This review is solely made up of questions. Apart from that sentence, shit.

Mark posted a complete instrumental track with lyrics to the collaboration thread. I believe Rabid's only contribution is the vocals.

Jorenic & freeeeends: Nice lyrics. Cool rap, Glenn right? I shouldn't have to ask but you americans all sound the same : )) fun. the cowbell nudges this into vote territory. and the speaking at the end reminds me of the Cow Exchange which is awesome and makes me want the Cow Exchange back, I might start a Come Back Plat campaign. Whos' with me?

Plat did a FAWM this year; did you hear it?
(Ohh, the tracks aren't online anymore. Shucks.)
Yeah, he should Songfight more.

Anyway, WOW. Thanks for the kind review! A good review—from you, especially—really makes my day.

Yes, the rapping is Glenn; not sure what to make of the reviewers who seem to have thought it was me.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

JonEric's correct. I just yelped into a mike and sent it to the Great White North. Everything else is Märk's excellent work.

[reve]

Apologies for drawing attention away from reviews - but just to continue from the beginning of this thread and the excellent Jacque Brel cover presented - but Jesus H Tap Dancing Christ, I had never actually seem M. Brel perform - get a load of this::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZFr2Fh6 ... re=related
that, kiddies - is how to sing a song!

You know, I was watching an excellent Scott Walker documentary (30 Century Man -- available on Netflix as a watch now) the other week and one of the interviewees pointed out when American singers said they were influenced by Brel, they more often meant that they were influenced by Walker's interpretation of Brel. In those pre-youtube days, they hadn't _seen_ Brel, and didn't realize that while intense, he a super sweaty rodenty-looking dude. Unlike the suave and hansome Scott....

[Märk]

Terse, unapologetic reviews.

Appel Zeven: What does this remind me of? Huh. The singin' and playin' is pretty good, the production is nice, but that drum is boring and the the weowweow synth or guitar or whatever it is bugs me. Also, the feeling that you're directly ripping another song off re:melody bugs me, but I can't place what song it is...

Authors of: No thank you, sir. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Balance Lost: Wasn't loving this, but then it started growing on me, then it blasted into the fast part, and I think I'ma vote for it.

BSS: Is this the Cure? Sorry, this just sounds pretentious. The bass is good and solid, though.

deetak: Creepy and good! Probable vote.

flvxxvm florvm: Nice! Your lyrics are almost the same as mine this week! I like the stoned vibe, vox, and guitar. The synth thing is maybe mixed a bit too loud? Vote, anyway.

Iceweasels: Nice song, hooky. Not really my thing though.

ircbff: That casio-ish synth is making me feel sick. This is completely lacking in testosterone, like it was written and performed by eunuchs.

Jon Eric+friends: It plays about 20 seconds then goes to buffering and never resumes...

kokiriwarrior: This is not music. It's blippy noises with a narrative. Try spokenwordfight! Thanks for playing.

Lordz of the Fly: Funky!

MC Headshot: Well produced. But it's rap. And not very good rap.

Oldmangrumpus: Oh great, a history lesson sung to syrupy piano chords.

Paco: Bizarre vibe! Reminds me almost of old SOAD without distortion guitar. Vote.

Pathetic Wannabes: Is this recorded on a portable tape recorder? Hilarious and good, in a Cheech and Chong way.

Rabid Mullet: Happy punk. RG did vocals for my song, and it reminds me of the B52 guy. Ujn Hunter also did vox for me, and I couldn't figure out how to get his tracks until it was too late, but I love his version, so Here is his version.

Rone: Mumbly and bad!

Ross Durand: Beautiful. Vote.

Roymond: Almost early Beatles-ish. That final guitar fart rules.

Steve Durand: Horntastic.

Unhip Battleship: Robots singing!

Weakest Suit: I think I've liked every song I've ever heard from you, and this is no exception. Sounds kind of half-baked, though, it just gets started and ends.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Heyyy... nice Buzzcocks vibe there, Ujn! Way more in the feel's pocket than my Jello Ramone takes, heh.

Good stuff!

Reviews, maybe later. Wasn't too thrilled with this fight, for the most part.

[Authors Of]

The violin seems to add fidelity but the vox and bongos detract from that a bit

Pedro, thanks for the review and the critique. It's going to be interesting to try more things and different styles. At the time of this recording I was working with the bare minimum of what I had. Bongos and the limitations of my voice and a bit of a sense of humor.

[roymond]

Roymondinio: How long have you been recording? like a million years? and you've still not got a pop-shield. amateur (rolls eyes). This song's alright, nice fade out.

Ha! I knew I'd get zinged on that. Yes, I didn't use the pop-shield that I have. But in my defense, this was started an hour before the deadline, but I thought I had yet another hour and was planning on re-doing the vocals (hand-held first take). And the drums. And the mix. And the mastering. Then I realized what time it really was...so there you have it. First takes for the most part, and written on the fly to boot. It was fun, and might even make the Rock&Rocker set list.

[ice weasel]

sorry if these are grumpier reviews than normal. i think a few of them were just plain bad, and that put me off.

appel zeven: the vox bother me. i was kinda bored till the keyboard came in. for the last 1:30 i liked it more and i'm not sure why. i think adding more stuff made it more interesting, cuz the generic guitar + bass of the beginning wasn't doing it for me.

authors of: violins yay! pot song, yawn. less "doot dee doo" please. otherwise, musically, this was pleasing me.

balance lost: there doesn't seem to really be a vocal melody. the chorus would have rocked with one. wow, it really would have! so catchy! i would've liked this one in karaoke but (obviously) the tuneless thing is distracting me too much.

berkeley social scene: i usually like your stuff but not this time. it's played well but the song isn't interesting to me. that singing style is not doing it for me either. rats. i had high hopes on this one and i can't really pin down why i didn't like it.

deetak: you're a busker and i'm fleeing to the other platform just to get away.

fluxxum florum: pot song, yawn. the frank zappa sound is cool, though. synth instrumental is the best part.

irc bff: i like the haunty feeling but this is otherwise all over the place. click-clack drums are too loud. kinda like this one. it's just sloppy tho.

jon eric & friends: ooh i like this one right away. normally i don't like nerd rap but it works, and then it gets better at the end! yay! my only criticism is that the lyrics are kinda silly.

kokiri warriors: pot song, yawn. i don't care if i never hear another king-missile-style song ever again. three minutes have passed and i can't have them back.

lordz of the fly: i think you accomplished what you set out to do, but it's not my style. oh wow, it's two minutes longer than the concept really allows, assuming the electric mayhem thing is intentional.

mc headshot: i like "amsterdam's got a lot of ching-ching" but not much else.

old man grumpus: okay, going for the piano bar thing but the singing isn't quite up to it. i almost like the chorus.

paco del stinko: you kept it interesting musically. it's recorded well, and kinda haunting. it didn't grab me though.

pathetic wannabes: pot song, yawn. hate it.

rabid mullet: this made me smile. yeah! nothing else to say. it's great.

rone rivendale: really? another two minutes i can't have back.

ross durand: great intro. i was afraid the whole thing was gonna be intro but then wow, i love it! the ending kinda peters out weirdly. but this is my favorite so far.

roymond: cool. aw, a great start and then it falls apart. still pretty good, though.

steve durand: well, it's short. heh, actually, i like it. it's just short enough that it doesn't overstay its welcome.

unhip battleship: hey i like the music. the singing is a bit distorted but also nice. you wrote a good song. sad that that's very notable in this fight. i feel like i'll like this one more with later listens (also unusual in this fight). the bells at the end sold me. very nice.

weakest suit: i like it right out of the gate. oh, it's over. that was a good half song.

[JonPorobil]

jon eric & friends: ooh i like this one right away. normally i don't like nerd rap but it works, and then it gets better at the end! yay! my only criticism is that the lyrics are kinda silly.

Yes, I'm a bit surprised that the lyrics have been getting compliments. Thanks for the review! I guess I ought to do my reviews tomorrow, as I've got little else to do.

Gosh, Ice Weasel. I remember your first Songfight entry. I believe I voted for it, in fact. Good to see you're still around.

[mrbeany]

At the moment I can't critique anybody's work; it's all very new to me and I find music to be so subjective. At any rate I do value everybody's critique and I find it very helpful.

Take a closer look at all of the reviews. While some folks can reliably offer really helpful advice, a lot of time you get perfectly reasonable reviews that are mostly subjective. "I really like this part"; "How did you do that part?"; "Your songs reminds me of some artist, particularly that part." These may not be the sorts of critiques you'd expect from a classroom setting, but these sorts of reviews can be quite useful.

[martyr]

Balance Lost I love this. The intro sounds like a postal service song but two octaves lower. The electro clash stylings are perfect. The classic Pete vocal tones are lovely. The at-the-drive-in screams about saliva excite. I love this.

Berkeley Social Scene I wrote the progression based on Ken's suggestion of making the song in A minor, and having the chords spell Am-st-E-r-Dam as much as possible. I'm happy with the verse lyrics, but sort of bummed I botched the chorus vocal performance on the take we kept. We cut this live keeping the 3rd take with no modifications or overdubs. Our configuration was non-standard with Sam and I switching our normal roles -- he played Bass (that's why it's so dead on) and I played guitar. Didn't really tweak the tones ahead of time, so the result of my playing Sam's guitar sounded really sharp and over-treble -- I think Ken sort of fixed that in the mix -- but could have been better through a tube amp with hot pre setting. On drums I think Ken nailed it, and with a touch more time Glennny could have polished his ebo composition or rather added some nice melodic texture overdubs. All in all, the result is pretty good for having put even less time on this than perhaps any of our other tracks. All done in an hour!

Pako del Stinko The intro is great -- kind of like wading through a mosquito ridden swamp. Harmonized ominous guitar preluding doom. Like the vocal harmonies on "Bugging Eyes". This feels like the Amsterdam after the dams break and it turns into a bog of rotting tulips. Tight ending. Sweet!

The Weakest Suit Is this about Thailand or Amsterdam? Nice contained phat compressed guitar tones. I think Amsterdam is too rad a place to switch this to a song about Thailand. The abrupt ending sort of sabotages the seriousness of this effort. Okay.

Flvxxvm Florvm Heavy stoner rock. Cuts to the chase about weed smoking right at the beginning then holds down instrumental for awhile -- working so far. The bass lick flourish is definitely cool. Sort of 70s Creamy pot rock thing. The whores line is too blunt I think, but I guess that's the design. I'm not disney, but I prefer subtle art. Okay.

roymond Rich blues progression in rock style. For all the instruments going, seems like the mix could be improved -- guitar is upfront, but keys are too suppressed and drums sound sort of distorted. If there is bass, it could come up and beef up things. Okay.

deetak Nice acoustic indie intro. Gets sparse and falsetto operatic vox enter. Not sure how I feel about this. Sorta get the impression I'm listening to a distressed drag queen that has been eaten up and spit out by the Amsterdam night and am disturbed by that. It's pretty, but sorta weird. When the harmonies come in it gets better.

rone rivendale Harsh wall of sound with monotone vox droning over. Not doin it.

Apple Zeven Faked Euro accent vocals singing about the plight of Muslim immigrants to Netherlands? I'm confused by the message here. The guitar and progression seem alright. The drum machine is sort of basic, but works. Too long. The key solo is actually cool -- should have happened earlier. This is way long. Cut, refine, focus.

[2dogs]

Wow, large crowd at the border of the red light district...

Jon Eric et al; Good use of multiple voices, nice melody, good vocals (this style suits your voice bro)More of this please. Good mix, Good story!!! Vote

Paco; The usual high quality sound we expect from you. Bowie style vocals, points for Coolness !!! Vote

Roymond; Nice melody, very stylish tune, Best hook placement mate. Only thing I'd like to axe from this tune is the vocal part before the guitar solo. That would make it a A+ fro me. Vote

MC ; As far as this style goes its borderline for me but your kick ass original story got me hooked. Vote

Apple; Bro that was a nice tune. I like the style. The out of synch percussion were cool no doubt, the monotone/slightly off pitch vocals even worked for it. Giving that guitar some humpf in the last minute would have won me over and it would kick butt.

Berkeley; Good mix, cool vocal style, original vocal delivery. It could have used some follow through on the vocal release time, great guitar. Nice work.

Mullet man; Interesting tune. Ramonish, B52ish with a metal feel. Great guitar playing. Neat tune.

Lordz: Mmmm, well you made me laugh my ass off. Thanks bro that was fun. Shit I'm still laughing.

Kokiri; Pretty gutsy submission. This had to take a fair bit of work to get the style right or a shit load of drugs to get it just right. I don't know squat about this style so I can't really provide any useful feedback but it was fun.

Weakest Suit; That was an original way of using the hook while taking the focus somewhere else on the map completely. The melody is good, harmony good, vocal good, a bit short and the ending could have been more polished. Overall I liked it.

IRC; Interesting tune. Airy sound, sort of semi drug state inducing. Made me float from Amsterdam to India and back. Cool tune man

Authors; Another interesting tune.

BalanceLost; I like the sound mix, the melody is good, nice use of the guitar, vocal automation was very nice. Nice transition to the chorus, great beat,head bopping..... wehoo wehoo wehoo wehoo. Cool tune mate, thanks.

Pathetic Wannabees; Sorry fellas the sound quality was lacking for me unless that was the intent of course to give it style. Kinda of a cool live jamming thing going on though. I like listening to you guys, you're always having fun. Good job.

Ross Durand; Beautiful sounding mix !!!!! Solid instrumentation, nice melody. The Pink Floyd feel had me listening. I might pick up my sax and play to it to see what happens with a sax solo. I think that puppy would kick ass.

Flkjhgg Florum; I can never pronounce this F'n name 60's feel for those of us who remember. Good musicianship, nice harmonization, semi 60's Floyd feel. I like it.

Deetak; Nice guitar melody, I'd really like to hear you belt it out someday to see what would happen with that voice of yours. Or a mix of the voice you've created for yourself and belting it out. Just for fun, humor me. You got some 60 hertz hum in the background mate. Might want to chop that out. Harmonies were very good. This is by far my favorite of all of your tunes. Interesting effects added to the vocals as the tune progressed and it really carried this song with some shine. I liked that. More please.

Rone: This reminded of... Mmm... not quite sure.

Steve Durand; Brief, to the point. Neat tune, interesting genre.

Unhip ; Cool dreamy music, slight Alternative stance to the vocals which I liked. I look forward to hearing more.

Ice Weasels; Nice tune. I liked it. Good phrasing on the vocals, cool lyrics, cool bridge. thanks.

Congratulations everyone. Lots of great tunes this week.
Cheers,

www.myspace.com/incredibleunknown