About the review

Title: Shadow (Tiny Emerald City)
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Artist: orkabot
Genre: Electronica: Trip Hop/Acid Jazz
Reviewed by: grip on July 16, 2007 (All reviews by grip)

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1Overall Description
This tune has a menacing edge to it - eerie piano chords, subtle windlike effects and a nice female voice combined with breaks that syncopate to keep this rhythmically interesting. However - and this is just my opinion - I feel that it lacks that something to make it really stand out. Perhaps some variation in the main theme, rhythm section etc, for I feel that with the elements it contains, it doesn't seem to go anywhere and sounds a tad repetitive at times. But, alas, I have listened to trip-hop music perhaps a bit too much lately, especially Massive Attack's Mezzanine, so perhaps for someone else this'll sound really fresh.
 
2Creativity Description
The vocals blend well with the other elements, and the drums give nice variation with the at-the-end-of-the-pattern fills and rattles. The piano melody is good, but not very original sounding - perhaps that is where you could've taken it a bit further? After the second chorus I was expecting a breakdown or some other element to take the tune somewhere else.. But that is just my opinion. Again :D
 
3Arrangement Description
Flows well from the beginning to the end. This would probably work quite well as a soundtrack for a demo/short movie etc.
 
4Sound Quality Description
Everything sounds very well balanced, perhaps except the singing, which could be a bit more present in the mix - but then again, that would affect the mood the artist achives here, so it's hard to say. The drums could be more present too, but that's just a matter of taste as they work very well as they are atm.
 
5Vocals Description
Well, I like the vocals soundwise, but it's hard to make out what they really say since they are mixed quite low, and after listening to this three times in the row they still didn't make really any sense to me. But since for me a trip-hop tune at it's best (almost) always has vocals, I like them anyway. They add an organic feel, a very important element, for this song.
 
6Does it work as a piece of music Description
Yes. Solid song structure and you have a good sense of style samplewise. The only thing missing is that final something, but I can't really pinpoint it to anything certain. Perhaps this would've rocked with more compressed drums and bass, perhaps not.. or more fx, synths etc. The basicness of the few elements is, on the other hand, a solution that works very well with this piece.
 
Comments
Jul 17 2007 2:54 pm
by roncli
I definitely believe that the lyrics could be brought up in the mix without ruining the mood. It is extremely difficult to make out what is being said because it's so soft, and that's unfortunate. All in all, a good review.