About the review

Title: Hip Pop :D
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Artist: Alk
Genre: Other: Instrumental
Reviewed by: Spectra on November 02, 2007 (All reviews by Spectra)

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1Overall Description
One-theme pan-flute led hip-hop track saved by spiraling layers and very progressive break-beats much in the lieu of the classic rapper LL Cool J's early tracks, but with more more modern touches.
 
2Creativity Description
Kind of bridges between LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" and RUN DMC's tracks. The evolving bassline gives the 4 chord theme a more 6 chord feel. Some of the drum glitches, for example at 1:00, 1:08, and 2:20-2:23 are purely brilliant, switching over the beat without losing any of the flow or momentum of it...no cheezy drum drop-out transitions here. The theme is very catchy, about as catchy as Poolside's tracks but its those little touches above, plus the ambient trance breakdown at 1:37 (before the cleverly placed "that's very interesting" lyrics that take this track to another level.

The only reason I didn't give a 5 here is the track revolves around one theme, and by the third time I listened to it, it was beginning to sound a bit old. I'd strongly suggest changing the chord progression when the breakdown starts...if you need a good example of the kind of mood changes that would work look at the change around 2:00 in any of Keith 303's last 2-3 tracks on this site.
 
3Artistic License Description
The theme, while brilliantly elaborated on, still kills this part a bit...while limits are pushed in the beats, vocal samples, and the ambient outro part and second theme/mood/melody is much needed to keep this from sounding too "pop" and make it memorable for decades rather than a few weeks.
 
4Arrangement Description
Really hits the spot, no complaints, the combination of the ambient trancey elements with the raw feeling yet almost liquid d&b-smooth production gives this song a classic flow to it.
 
5Sound Quality Description
No complaints, the strings fill the mid/highs, the orchestral bass gets the lows, the kick takes the very lows and clicks clearly at the 5khz mark...sounds very major label and has a laid back "sparse" clarity despite having more layers and thicker elements than most hip-hop.
 
6Does it work as a piece of music Description
It really needs a second chord progression part/mood change to sound 100% complete, but this is still a superb example of how to do original sounding hip-hop music, a genre that 98% sounds unoriginal to me but, when done well, can have some of the most clever beat and mood work of any genre of music.
If these guys are truly 13 and can do live acts (even if this involves pitch-shifting their voices down an octave or two) they need to audition for the "Great American Band" show in the US...they just might win. :-)
 
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