About the review

Title: Part-3
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Artist: Alizhen
Genre: World: Japanese
Reviewed by: thecanary on November 16, 2007 (All reviews by thecanary)

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1Overall Description
A mellow and grooving hip-hop track feautiring strong Japanese influences. The instrumentation and sound quality of this track is absolutely superb from start to finish. It quickly establishes a chill, Asiatic mood and sticks with it faithfully.
 
2Creativity Description
Great blend of East & West, something that you don't hear a lot of. I'm especially impressed by the lyrical content- coming from a man who claims to not have a good grasp of the English language, the lyrics are fantastic. Equally impressive is the message within the lyrics- not to get too political, but this speaks to me of an angst and dissatisfaction with government that I was not aware existed in the Japanese culture. It's always good to have your eyes opened.
 
3Artistic License Description
Arbitrary five stars for everyone on artistic license. I don't know how to interpret this category. The everything works well.
 
4Arrangement Description
The arrangement is a little helter skelter to my ears, a little bit disorganized, though not necessarily in a bad way. The intro is a little too brief- I was just starting to slip into the tune when the bass and drums kick in. I'd like to hear this mixed with a longer intro focusing on the stringed instrument (is that a koto or a shamisen? perhaps something else---?). Also, the vocal sections are kind of sparse for a hip hop tune; this could benefit from a more typical verse/chorus/verse type of structure.
 
5Sound Quality Description
Great sound quality- I like the standup-style bass sample and the old school drum samples; pure hip hop. The female vocals are beautiful as well. The only drawback here on sound quality is that the bass is a little bit on the weak side and I'm hearing a lot of extra air in the percussion. I'd suggest boosting a little bit of the low end on the bassline, then run a subtle low-pass filter over the percussion samples and re-EQ them accordingly.
 
6Vocals Description
Superb. If this were written by someone who spoke English as their first language, I'd give it four stars, but I know from discussions that the artist speaks English as their second language. I'm impressed by his ability to overcome the language barrier and state his message clearly. And also, those female vocal trills kick ass.
 
7Does it work as a piece of music Description
Aside from a few minor technical drawbacks, this is a perfect sample of what hip-hop is all about- chill, relaxed music with a message.
 
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