About the review

Title: Echo
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Artist: Output Jack
Genre: Electronica: Progressive
Reviewed by: thecanary on December 15, 2008 (All reviews by thecanary)

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1Overall Description
A light, airy tribal-style trance tune with some interesting organic elements and a good high-drama main section. The high points of the tune are its top-notch sound quality and production values. The only drawbacks to the song are a couple of arrangement issues that leave this listener wanting a little bit more, and an overall lack of new ground being forged in the chosen genre. Nothing here has really never been done before- though what is here is done fairly well.
 
2Creativity Description
I say this so much with trance, but unfortunately it fits and I have to say it again: There's obviously a creative mind at work here, with a great sense of melody and a perfect ear for the technical aspects of music production- but the chosen genre is extremely confining. To forge new ground in the genre of trance, you really have to pull out all the stops, and only a couple are pulled out for this piece. I like that the song is kept relatively short- it hurts it in some ways, but it keeps it from dragging on and keeps it fresh throughout. Some of the creative chances that are taken narrowly miss their mark (see the "Arrangement" section), but overall it's still an eminently listenable piece of music.
 
3Arrangement Description
The upbuilding melodic swell that comes in around 1:26 clashes with the bassline and foreground melody- I appreciate the inventiveness, but it lends a bit of unwanted dissonance to that little drop. The little filter-sweep drop at 2:06 sounds a little too sudden, and a little too quick as it sweeps out and then back in for just a couple beats- it's a nice way to introduce the upcoming melodic line, but maybe a more subtle approach could work more effectively- perhaps a low-resonance low-pass filter that just sweeps down quickly? I love the synth that comes in after this part- nice dramatic sound to it; I would like to see this section expanded on- it could work very well as the crux of the piece, though it could do with maybe a little more excitation in the percussion. When the beat drops out at 3:04 and then comes back in, perhaps instead of the piece drifting off to its finish from here, you could work in another section that jumps up just a little bit from the section just before it. I like the effect of the end, with the filter sweep and then one final hit, but again, it just seems to come a little too suddenly.
 
4Sound Quality Description
Sound quality is absolutely gorgeous- I listened to the track about seven times in a row; twice on decent speakers, the rest on bad-ass headphones- couldn't find a single flaw in the sound. Perfect EQ, nice use of panning- top notch.
 
5Does it work as a piece of music Description
Absolutely works as a piece of music. It's a little rough on some points, but none of them are enough to drag the track down.
 
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