About the review

Title: Thief Tan
Artist: TanTo
Genre: Other: Other
Reviewed by: Warrior Bob on October 27, 2008 (All reviews by Warrior Bob)

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1Overall Description
This is a fun, dance-able track that is decent background music, but ultimately is kept back by some inconsistencies and production choices that stop it from really making the impact I think it could, especially considering how creatively the different sections fit together. There's a lot to like compositionally, but there's just as much that I think gets in the way. I would love to hear this re-done, especially with what the artist has learned since it was written - I believe I heard an XM or IT version of this song almost ten years ago, and if I'm right, then I bet the artist(s?) could make something really stellar out of this.
 
2Creativity Description
This section is the highlight. With the exception of an overly long fade-in at the beginning, this piece has all the right elements to keep it interesting. There is no shortage of transitions, and it feels like there is always some new element coming in or changing. It's really quite a study in writing interesting music out of what so many people make sterile and repetitive. As an example, take the pitch-bending that goes on around 1:03. It's timed to make sense with the chords at play, but it adds a completely new foundation to the existing part which is looping underneath it. And right afterwards? A new instrument enters. Meanwhile, there's this marching-style snare that's keeping the rhythm interesting, and just as this composition as a whole is pretty well fully explored, there's a breakdown, a refrain, and then the pianos come in and the piece takes on the identity that will be varied upon for the remainder of the song. It works quite well, and this kind of thing is easily my favorite element of this work.
 
3Artistic License Description
Unfortunately, I do not think the choice of samples was entirely appropriate to the mood. Until the pianos come in (with all their reverb and such), the song feels somewhat flat and dry. This isn't entirely bad, and is indeed a mood that a lot of tracker songs have, and some musicians specifically strive to create, but it sets up such a negative contrast against the very well-engineered piano that I feel it's detrimental to the piece as a whole and certainly distracted me quite a bit. As I hinted at earlier, I would love to hear these same notes and transitions done up on differently engineered or chosen samples/instruments. If I thought my musicianship were up to the task, I'd ask TanTo if I could remix it myself.
 
4Arrangement Description
There isn't much I can add here that I didn't already cover under "Creativity." The tonal and rhythmic structure is excellent and well thought out. There are a lot of details that were put in such as extra accents and notes that keep things alive and sound quite good. I would like to mention though that I thought the fade-in at the beginning outstayed its welcome by quite a lot, and I regularly was fiddling with the volume dials on my various music playing devices making sure I had them turned on or turned up enough whenever I started playing this one. A fade-in is fine but I think it should be much shorter. I feel somewhat the same way about the ending in that it is somewhat anticlimactic, but the simplification down to bass and drums worked well and besides, this kind of music isn't about the endings, it's about the six and a half minutes leading up to it.
 
5Sound Quality Description
The piano, and the sections that focus on it, sound very good indeed. The first couple of minutes sounded much more dead and sparse and thin - not really good for dancing, and not rich enough for listening. I believe this is entirely related to the choice of instrument, and could be fixed either by replacing the instruments with ones with more body to fill the frequency range out a bit, or by carefully post-producing the existing sound to sound full even if there isn't much going on.
 
6Does it work as a piece of music Description
While I feel like this work is not nearly as good as it could be, the fact stands that it's still good, and I'd recommend at least a listen to anyone who's come across TanTo's page and is reading this review. It took me several listens to get around my initial reactions to the early instruments but it did grow on me over time, and of course I immediately loved the piano and all the accenting instruments and the structure. In particular, I'd recommend it to anyone who really likes tracker dance music from near the turn of the millennium, since this one definitely has that vibe going for it.
 
Comments
Dec 25 2008 3:11 am
by TanTo
U R right my friend :-) This is the same song, same version , XM ;-)