About the review

Title: we're gonna take over the world together (sunfruit)
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Artist: 8bitstrawberry
Genre: Electronica: Trip Hop/Acid Jazz
Reviewed by: Spectra on October 08, 2007 (All reviews by Spectra)

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1Overall Description
Very Bjork-esque tune...a collage of sound with an interesting instrumental arrangement and a slow evolution/progressive feel (typical of Orbital).
At 13:19 it does some impressive experimentation with moods but winds up feeling too sleepy to keep attention as a song. ...it's actually more a piece of art than of music, so to speak, and as such it reads more like a good book than an excellent song.
 
2Creativity Description
On one hand, the foundations, such as the standard trip-hop beat are in fact very cookie-cutter "pop avant-garde". On the other hand the drum that kicks in at about 20 in place of the snare and the claps at 2:25 that take the place of snare echoes give the song strong stylistic depth as does the bassline's creeping in at 3:15. The real killer technique in this song is the end is completely different that the beginning, the mood of the lead at 6:50 leads in a brighter mood that seems to say "I've got an idea" and comes back around 11:00 doing a different melody that says "the idea has worked"...the emotional dynamics are very unique that way.

The flip side is, most music is expected to "read" more like a TV show and not a book far as attention span...and this one reads more like a book.
 
3Artistic License Description
No questions here, due to the progression of avant-garde elements over a pop-foundation (described in 2) this track is very easily recognizable as a 8-bit Strawberry track.
 
4Arrangement Description
On the bad side, the minimalism combined with the length of the track and melodic simplicity seems a bit sleep-inducing.
On the other hand the pad that comes in from the beginning, interchanging of cymbals and other instruments' being used to substitute for snares, and the trancey lead at 6:50 adding a feel that says "there's a solution" among the rest of the darkness...all create a very unique/odd feel and yet come across very confidently.
 
5Sound Quality Description
No gripes here...very polished especially as the claps, cymbals, and pads fill up the highs and mid highs without sounding forced or killing the effortless, surreal feel of the song.
 
6Does it work as a piece of music Description
Musically, far as both musical theory and arrangement, this sounds very sound. The flip side is it works in the same way modern art works...you may get a kick of seeing it in a museum or working your mind around how/why it manages to fit together but, on the other hand, it's fairly tough to find a practical use for or keep interest in outside of analysis.

In short this is a song that reads more like a book than a song, and while I'd give it a 4.5 as a work of art it simply has a bit too much of a drawn back, overly long, sleepy feel to work as music or make me want to re-listen.

If there were a way to accelerate how this progresses to, say, 5-5.5 minutes and add some subtle changes in the main beat (say between trip-hop and big-beat bass-kick patterns)...it could well work...but at 13:19 it's just not quite listen-able enough to hold attention, or at least mine.
 
Comments
Nov 11 2007 4:08 pm
by Spectra
Bizarre, I believe you as, in fact, I just listened to the song without staring at the "time played" in my mp3 player...my apologies, though. You're probably right though, there's one other song I have noticed, I believe it's by the artist "Beehunter" that's about 6:30 long yet reads about 17-18 minutes long on both media player and my sansa portable player (I didn't make it up just as an excuse, it actually does that). Oddly enough I just use microsoft media player 2 for mp3's...if you repost the song though, for example, I'll gladly re-review it without the funny times reported.



Nov 11 2007 9:25 am
by 8bitstrawberry
Nothing else to note about, but what's up with the times you've typed up? The song's just 4:55 long, I have no idea where you got the over 13 minutes thing. Might want to check your mp3 player for bugs.