About the review

Title: untethered
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Artist: dj io
Genre: Other: Instrumental
Reviewed by: Spectra on October 22, 2007 (All reviews by Spectra)

Review Feedback: 
dj io gave Spectra positive feedback for this review.
Spectra responded: As long as you keep breaking ground so "wrecklessly" I should be thanking you! :-)

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Review

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1Overall Description
Yet another successful creation of a new genre by DJ IO (the other song he made that reaches that pinnacle is Antegrade)...
Falls between the orchestral open-ness and splendor of Space-Walk's ambient work, the beat-savvy-ness of modern hip-hop, the catchy-ness of pop, and crazy drum rotations that, quite frankly, form their own genre/style.
 
2Creativity Description
This is one of those rare songs that utterly and completely trumps my ability as a reviewer to describe it's beauty in full. Just a few examples, the snares rotate completely onto offbeats as if the beat signature is constantly switching throughout the song, the intro sounds like well done "latin orchestral" (another genre that doesn't exist), by 0:25 it bops around like a Britney Spears backup beat yet leads you further into the orchestral chaos (and I mean chaos in a playful way, not an un-confident/confused way), by 1:05 it some very very demo-style jazzy variation enters the picture...and that's just touching the surface. My only gripe is the beat seems a bit rushed instead of flowing due to high attack drums (which can't seem to decide if they are going for blunt but minimal hip-hop style or smooth massive orchestral style)...my opinion at least is, if you're going for maximal feel you have to down the attack on the drums and increase the flow (think d&b with several break-beats at once, but each drum with very low attack creating a liquid feel). Then again I realize, it's questionable exactly how much of that opinion is shared among listeners.
 
3Artistic License Description
>Does the artist push the limits of the piece?
Duh... :-)
>Do the samples, taken as a whole, work well together?
Far as their styles: absolutely, and considering how many separate genre influences are combined it's somewhat miraculous.
 
4Arrangement Description
This is almost a recap on what I said about creativity, this song successfully transcends into several different moods, genre influences, beat styles/signatures...0:27-0:34 has a particularly smooth beat
 
5Sound Quality Description
At about 1:00 the flute seems to take up too much harmonic space vis-a-vis the airy drums and they end up fighting for frequency space, at 1:30 a cymbal comes in and takes up far too much frequency room, and at 3:21 the high lead goes so high it fights with the overtones of the low lead...
On the other hand, what's being attempted here, combining so many individually creative layers/harmonies, is recognizably a downright monster of a task...and I'd much rather have those extra layers (understanding they may have some harmonic conflicts) than not have them at all for clarity's sake...on the other hand these issues will likely have to be fixed if this song is to hold its own on the charts.
 
6Does it work as a piece of music Description
Moreover work as music it furthers music. Even those who consider the style a bit obstructed/chaotic can learn a lot from it and, moreover, it's still a downright blast to listen to as it would likely take over 7 "normal" high-rated songs to encompass the emotional and technical intricacies of this piece. Yet another reason I no longer use the "preview" button for this artist and instead jump straight to downloading.
 
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