About the review

Title: Dirty Pieces Of Meat
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Artist: John Marwin
Genre: Other: Other
Reviewed by: Tympanic on July 24, 2007 (All reviews by Tympanic)

Review Feedback: 
John Marwin gave Tympanic positive feedback for this review.
Tympanic responded: Hehe, thanks man!

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1Overall Description
Well I'm no expert on house music, but this song reminds me of a very gritty experimental house song, probably because of the initial buildup of layering new instruments as the song progresses. The song sounds very clicky and grindy, and there is no melody to speak of...But I am very surprised that I find myself liking this song because I feel like I should hate it! Well I am glad that I took a week to review this song, because had I gone with a shallow first impression type of review, without analyzing the song in depth, I would have given it a lower rating. But now that I've taken the time to immerse myself in the song, I definitely appreciate the artistic quality and creativity of the song. Overall a good song, and creative, with good sample quality, but it does suffer from some volume and panning issues in places, as well as a minor flaw in the arrangement. Hahaha, I still can't believe I'm rating this song four stars...but I must, it is a song that grows on me the more I listen to it!
 
2Creativity Description
Hey, hey, this song is very creative! I haven't heard anything like this one before! Electronica house anyone? By some standards it is not a song I'm sure, and some would call it just a bunch of noise making, but really it is not. It is organized chaos man! The very gritty clicks and grinds with the the bouncy beat all work together well. Lots of variation throughout the song as well. Specific examples of creativity: the 'dragging' of the sample at 0:16 is pretty cool. I especially like the sections 1:41-2:00, and 2:12-2:44, as these sections are very raw and envelope the listener in a special way (there even is the faintest hint of a house-like melody in the background of the latter section!).
 
3Artistic License Description
The raw samples work very well together. In this piece, there are no limits to push, as there is nothing to compare it to. So in fact, the piece itself is a limit pusher.
 
4Arrangement Description
This is where the song needs some improvement. Although the transitions are good (the only transition that I found was a bit jarring was at 1:18, with the fast beats), I noticed some discrepancies with the volume and panning for some samples. What I noticed: 1) Panning is lost for the 'damped chirps' from 0:23-0:31, in favor of the tapping snare, but I think the panning should have been maintained. 2) Snare becomes noticeably quieter at 0:32. Perhaps it is too loud to begin with?
3) Kick drum at 1:40 is too quiet. I think it should be at the forefront, signaling the transition.
Finally, one last issue I have is with the rather late introduction of the 'drill sample' at 2:28. I think it would have been beneficial to have introduced this sample earlier in the song (it sounds similar to the tapping snare, perhaps it would have went well with this in the beginning of the song?), so when played again at 2:28-3:04, it wouldn't seem out of place.
 
5Sound Quality Description
Hehe, sample blending is an interesting description for the sound quality of this song :0--This song reminds me of a blender :) Yes, the samples blend well together and sample quality is good. The only sample that irks me is the bouncy drum, because it sounds a wee bit dated and hissy. Now there are some *really good*-sounding samples, most notably the 'drill' starting from 1:34-2:00.
 
6Does it work as a piece of music Description
You bet it does! (Experimental, remember??? Although like I said before, I'm sure many would not consider this music, depending on personal tastes).
 
Comments
Jul 26 2007 10:09 pm
by Tympanic replying to John Marwin
You're very welcome, and thank you for teaching me about retrig :)



Jul 25 2007 1:07 am
by John Marwin
The arrangement issues are well known to me, I got lazy and thus introduced some inconsistencies in the drumming later on (which I'm thrilled that you noticed!) And oh yeah, the drill sample isn't a sample, it's generated via using the snare and an effect known as retrig :) (so that means that it has the same sample rate as the snare, however.. ironically enough, it DOES sound better retrigged!) same deal goes for the dragging samples at 0:16 and later on, they're all generated live the same way, but this time at a higher/lower octave :) And of course, you're spot on about the drilling drowning out the bassdrum over at 1:40, I learned later on that you shouldn't mix and match bassdrums and lower octave noises like that :P But overall, I'd say (like in the feedback) that this review is spot on in all of it's accounts and it points out some of my former issues I had with music, namely keeping certain aspects consistent! So thanks Tympanic! *bows*