About the review

Title: A Bridged Divide
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Artist: slammy
Genre: Rock/Pop: Ballad/Easy Listening
Reviewed by: roncli on July 16, 2007 (All reviews by roncli)

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1Overall Description
This new age ballad is an epic. Weighing in at 18 minutes and 36 seconds, and a whopping 21.27 megabytes, one thing a potential downloader must be thinking, is this worth it? Well, it's most definitely worth it, as slammy, the king of epics (sorry, Azo!) lays down another large track with all of the quality and creativy you have come to expect from his tracks. Synths comibne with a piano and sound effects that are ever-present yet lurking in the background as to not disrupt the song, and they all come together to bring a pleasant, laid-back listening experience. This song is more proof that you don't have to overload your song with lots of instrumentation and harmonization to make a classic.
 
2Creativity Description
It is hard to work through 18 minutes of music and be creative throughout. Fortunately, the artist does have some experience in this area, and I dare say he's an expert in such matters. Unlike his other epic, Reflections, this song sticks to its themes. This can be dangerous, because of the temptation to keep repeating the same parts over and over, but the artist has successfully infused changes into these themes to keep them entertaining.
 
3Arrangement Description
The parts of this song are clearly outlined, and in the song they are clearly identifiable as well, to the point you really don't need to look at the elapsed time to find out where you are in the song. This is attributed to a solid arrangement with perfect transitions that bring you from one part to the next smoothly, and still have the ability to let you identify when you're in a new part. The only complaint I have with the arrangement is with the rushed synth at the end of the song, starting at 17:22. It's not bad that it has a sense of accomplishment, an "I won!" sort of happy ending, but it seems rushed into the production, and not as polished as the rest of the song.
 
4Sound Quality Description
Only nitpicky things here. First, the percussion is weak in places. The only powerful percussion is the hit that comes in on the beat before things "get going", which occurs a number of times, and along with the melody is a great identifier of this song. It just seems that during some of the more uptempo parts that the drums should have more power to them. Also, the synth at 17:22 seems to have its vibrato out of control, which is probably an errant LFO control in Reason. It slides up and down in pitch too slowly, resulting in a really unprofessional "this synth is broken" sound, which totally doesn't fit this song. Aside from that, you can't complain much about the sound quality at all. The samples are crisp, you can hear everything that goes on, and the balance is very nice.
 
5Does it work as a piece of music Description
Yes, and it works as one complete piece of music. You could take the individual parts of the song and work them as singles, but why? This song tells the story much better when it's all together.
 
Comments
Aug 27 2007 3:15 pm
by TwiTerror replying to roncli
I of course remember "One Scotch Long" and boy I wish he'd start writing more. /kick



Aug 06 2007 12:53 pm
by roncli replying to TwiTerror
http://www.jesseworley.com He's still alive and kicking, although not making as much music as he used to. Which, having seen his equipment first hand, and knowing what he is capable of producing, is a shame. The reference, of course is to "One Scotch Long", the one co-op he did with some guy whose name I can't recall that turned out to be, I think, over 30 minutes long.



Aug 05 2007 1:28 pm
by TwiTerror
I think I most enjoyed the reference to Azo. I think he was my first true inspiration in tracking. Wow, memories.



Jul 16 2007 4:39 pm
by slammy
Thanks! :D



Jul 16 2007 4:39 pm
by slammy
Great read!