Transcribed and briefly edited listen-along reviews using the voice recorder on my car during my commute. I listened to each track 3 or 4 times before recording my thoughts.
Berkeley Social Scene:
Transcript failed here, but I had some thoughts, cool guitarmonies to start things off, nice attitude in the vocal take.
Comments mainly on the vocal, sounds unsure and/or awkward in places, a bit too upfront in the verse, and buried in the noisier part for the bridge the point that I can't really understand the vocals anymore. I know you guys record live, so I'm not sure what is on what channel, but if the vocal is isolated on its own channel, could be worth it to either ride the fader down in the verses, and up for the bridge, and/or use some vocal compression to level out the levels. If it's all live, a vocal compressor pedal might be a nice piece of kit to consider to even things out for your live vocal stuff; just throwing that out there. The vocal delivery in the 2nd verse sounds a little stilted, like it could have used another take or two to get comfortable with the words that were going to be talk-sung; there are a few trips that feel like the singer was surprised by the next line.
Anything with more than 3 parts is prog, right? RIGHT????? So this must be prog at 4 parts minimum, when that fourth part and solo kick in. Bitcrushed distorted solo is cool, my attention span is squirrel so at about halfway through this solo my brain kept checking out on repeated listens, so at least worth a potential consideration on shortening this section. Chorus is catchy and well done, great guitar work as usual.
DC Prox:
Right now, we got DC Prox. I'm a creator starting with some Vibe uke, and this one quickly takes a turn into wild electronic stuff from there. Does some organic to inorganic. It's interesting, I don't know if I like or dislike it. I think I'm leaning towards like. Then sort of happy hardcore Electronica. Upbeat, I'm here for that. All right, I'm excited for what's coming here. Ah, yes, this one.
Okay, so, uh, the vocal double with the overdriven vocal? I think this really needs to be cleaned up because I have no clue what is being sung. I can kind of catch bits and snatches of the lyrics, but there's just too much overdrive on the vocal, and it's doubled, so I would suggest not doing a double, because that just adds to the things that make it hard to understand, or scale back on the overdrive or, maybe use a parallel overdrive, so that you can blend more of a clean track in there for intelligibility, so we have a hope of understanding what you are saying, because to me, all the verses other than like the chorus "I'm a Creator" I have no clue what this song is saying in the verses.
The music I like, you know, it's more upbeat electronic. Um, the vocal sounds a little pitchy in a few places, but? The double and the overdrive sort of cover that stuff up so it's more of a minor point.
Yeah, and the attitude's nice and the vocal, too. I just feel like the effect makes it impossible to understand what the song is about and takes a lot of notches down for me anyway in terms of my enjoyment of the song, from what is otherwise pretty interesting musically.Yeah, and I do find it a little bit odd and jarring that it starts with the uke and then goes ends with the uke, like, it's a nice sort of bookend thing, but it just feels sort of out of place, cuz the whole rest of the song is electronic. Um, not, the hardcore, upbeat, kind of thing. And again, I apologize if I don't have the genre, right. But, you know, it's got that vibe to it, and the uke just feels a little out of place and almost unnecessary because you're going to come in without it, and it doesn't show up anywhere else. Maybe the uke is relevant to the lyrics, but again, I don't know what the lyrics are because of all the effects on the vocal, so. If it is relevant, scratch that comment, but it just seems a little incongruous.
I think that's about it though.The music was good. I enjoyed that a fair bit, and more on repeat listens. On the vocal. Again, the take itself will seem like it was fine, and the doubling seemed fine, and it was just, uh, the effect that really I didn't enjoy on that. And that's about it from me for DC Prox.
Guy and Guitar:
Right now, we got chumpy guy and guitar. Some nice jaunty picking here. I really like that. No, no, no, no, no, nowhere. It's nice.
Yeah, I like the bedroom jerkatoriator line as well. It's fun. I also like the word crowing because I don't hear it that often along with the growing in arrears rhyme. It's a nice suspended there without coming back to the root on the na na na na nowhere the second time.
A lot of, create and perform and create and recreate and forms there in the rhymes; I'm not sure if it works here as it's a bit repetitive and less strong than the rest of the lyrics. I didn't think you were a neural net until you suggested it, now, I'll have to question.
It's funny, it's kind of interesting because this guy seems like he would not know how la la la la lovely he sounds or doesn't, this might be the only part that I found a bit incongruous in the lyric, as this guy is aware they are going na na na na nowhere, they're crowing etc., would expect them to think they must sound less than lovely.
I like the rhymes of stoner ideation. There's a lot of nice rhymes here in this song. And I think that was supposed to be a growing in arrears instead of going for the last prechorus there, but I do like it. My favorite part of this song is the na na na na nowhere, the whole song has a nice energy.
Also, I know it's supposed to be guy on guitar, but I think you could have gotten away with it and I would have really liked it with some opportunities for subtle backing harmony voices poking through here or there, I can imagine them in my head as I listen to the song.
Madame Breathehard:
All right. I think this is Madam breathe hard, which I think is Pig farmer. Slash TC Elliott. And right off the bat. This is one that I think it has to do more with the shape of my ears than the song, but the cymbal bell hit. That's sort of clanking sound and hits right in the frequencies that drive me batty. I know this doesn't bug everyone, but it fatigues my ears a lot and makes me clench my teeth a little. As I do more reviews I have learned this is not everyone and more of a me thing, but for the folks with similarly shaped ears, either a different patch or taking some out of the high frequencies would be much appreciated. It's hard for me to get past that issue for me to appreciate too much of the song, as it's sort of pounding the whole time on that simple Bell, or, you know, sort of building/creating sound.
Now, what I will say it's my favorite part of the song is verse two when this really sweet sort of walking bassline comes in. The noise guitars are gone. It's just bass and the clanging. I like that vibe a lot, it's a good combo on verse two. I kind of wish there had been more of that and less of the bell in the first verse? Chorus is pretty solid, just I'm a creator, just fine as it's supposed to be.
Yeah, and some really nice guitar picking here in the bridge. A little odd on the electronic affected vocal. You know, like a robot, and it's a little hot there.
Guitar work is fine, the progression is simiple, and you know, it's kind of kind of a punk feel to it. It's not doing a lot, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. That's it!
Pigfarmer Jr:
All right. This is the first one I had to turn up the volume. I'm not sure who this is. Oh, this is also a Pig farmer, Junior, or maybe that last one was not. So, for this one, the vocals are pretty loud compared to the guitars, um. Actually, can't hear the guitars all that well either.
They're sort of Muddy and mushy and all slammed together where they're just a little too quiet relative to the vocal, as the vocal is cutting through just fine, I really enjoy the vocal trill on the Creator Part. That vibrato is really nice. It's got that sort of punk in your face Vibe.
Similar comments to the last one. It's got that sort of progression. You know, just Punk, or you know, a B-side on Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 soundtrack, in a good way.
I like the lines forge my own manacles, sow my own Discord It's a nice line. Yeah, I'm here for the chorus. I like the chorus of that trill. But again, it's like the guitars are just quiet. Like, there's a nice solo in there, but I can barely pick it out.
Being. Like everything on the guitarist, it used to come up maybe three, four, or five DB even. Um, and then maybe there'd be some more EQ to do, after that, not sure. but to my ear most of the instruments just sound sort of pushed to the back. So, maybe everything in the back that used to come up or the both of them used to come down. All told, though I'd say it's more of a medium issue; maybe I just need to listen LOUDER. To my ears at least, the mix just feels a little off balance, Otherwise, the song is just fine, a punk romp.
Piss Enema:
Yeah, I don't really have a lot to say here. Pretty sure Phlub is Piss Enema here. I don't have much to say, but a little bit more musical this time than the last time, but it's still just tough to get through for me in this genre of sludge or whatever it might be called. There's some interesting rhythmic things going on in terms of patterns and changeups and tempo on timing and delivery, but you know, this stuff is just not for me. It's a little bit more intelligible this time, uh, but it just sounds like it's just saying, piss, piss, piss, piss, dick, piss pissmus list, perhaps? Like Merry Pissmas? Uh, it's just really. Really tough to get into, uh, this stuff's not for me, sorry man.
Siebass:
I had one night to do vocals before leaving for a weekend vacation to NYC. I wanted that percussive hit pattern from Closer by NIN as my musical inspiration, but rap over a beat lended itself well to a short vocal session and longer mix on the train from DC to NYC while my kids played my Nintendo switch 2. I know some folks round here don't love my cheesy raps, but I was pleased with this one enough to relisten to it a bunch. Hope you enjoyed it. My MIL was in town a few weeks ago and forced me to listen to some of her AI created songs, so the first verse here may or may not be backlash for that.
WreckdoM:
Next, we got Wreckdom. This one. I wasn't sure about the vocal, because, uh, it sounds TOO GOOD. So, you know, I guess, take it as a compliment if I think it's AI on the vox here; Sounds like exactly like you'd expect from like a Cheesy 50s or 60s Dracula.
Mad scientist Vibe. I also enjoy that rhyme of green tomater.
Yeah, I do like how the, vocal drawl sort of drags over when you'd expect the vocal to finish, like on morgue and corpse.
Music is very organy spooky Carnival Halloween Vibe, which was nice given the timing in reality. Everything is just sort of dragged out affected vocal, and again, I like it. It sounds really polished, and it's one of the only songs that made me question whether it was live or whether it was Clips or something because it sounds so professional.
So, take it as a compliment or a backhanded compliment that I considered it as soon might be ai, just because the vocal sounds that good
I found myself surprised to be saying almost everything I liked in the first verse started to wear on me a little in the second. the all you'll do is cry in the second verse Doesn't hit me as well as it does in the first verse with the second verse repeats line ending repeated. It's a little boring, I guess, and the second time around.
Similarly, that dragging over the end of the line starts to feel a little bit like it's recorded separately. You know, like, it's not really listening to the music in the same way as you would expect because it's dragging so far over the line endgins
The bridge I liked a lot, it was funny and I chuckled.
Yeah, I thought this whole song was pretty polished, too, so I don't know. Not too many notes, the music was a little quiet relative to the vocal. But other than that. You know, again, it's like another, my questioning whether it's a human or not doing the, uh, the main vocal takes. It sounded like a normal person doing the bridge, so I'm just gonna give the benefit of the doubt and assume you're really good at that creepy doctor voice.
Um, yeah, I guess. My main note is, like, the dragging lines I really enjoyed in the first verse similar, with all you'll do is cry, and by the second verse, though, when it was repeating, it started to drag a little bit for me. Um, where I felt like it was a little repetitive and.
I kind of wish that the vocal was a little tighter with the music by the second verse. It started to feel so far off that it felt a little disjointed or disconnected, if that makes any sense. Um, with the lines and dragged over.
Otherwise, like, really cool take and really cool, spooky stuff, and maybe the instruments have come up. Very solid song
That's all I got.
Noticeably missing is guitar, it just wasn't really in the cards at the time, but to make up for it, I wanted to put some visceral noises in the tune, and also have a lotta fun with synths. I tried a lot of things turning-knobs-wise.
Had a lot of fun with it and this is part of an exploration of synth sounds I've been embarking on. It's been a strange year healthwise, at one point I couldn't sing, and right now dexterity is an issue, so finding new ways to make music has been my goal. Thankfully I think it's been leading me into new territory.