by

Ingemar Marwin
(Marwin)

If there's one thing I like, and that's a smooth groove. This song had a good one. The artist used a good assortment of instruments that all supported each other well in creating a nice Jazzy feel. A few things the artist should be careful about though. When using several samples to support a lead like the sax, be careful that one of them doesn't come in suddenly louder than the others even if its for a real short period like it was in this song. It makes it lose it's realistic feel. The ending could have been better, but the piano and guitar were nicely done.

Those horn samples are a little muffled, and detract from the piece as a whole. I like the little guitar riff that echoes away--wish there were more of it. The piano isn't bad, but I wish the sample were a little brighter or something... It just needs a little more life to it (the sample, that is) to match the skill with which you're playing it. The muffled jazz guitar is also quite quite cool, But by about 2:20, I wish it played the same riff in another key or something. The sax is handled most excellently, but the same deal--I wish it would change key or something. The panning on the string hits is confusing... Orchestras generally don't move back and forth. :) The whistle at the ending is also kind of out-of-place... Anyway. A decent bassline throughout this song. The samples vary between very good (sax, guitars), and pretty bad (horns, flute)... The whole flow of the songs is excellent, though I wish there were a change in key somewhere (okay, I'll stop mentioning that now). You obviously have a very strong grasp of the tracker, and have quite a bit of musical tallent.

A rhodes/strings/horns smooth jazz kind of song. My main complaints with this song are 1. The mix seemed thin most of the way through, with only the rhodes as a background. The elecguitar samples are good and fit the style of this tune. 2. The singing sample is short and seemed unnecessary (btw I am not sure what that second phrase is ..?). The sax is great, even if it's repetitive and some of the loops on the samples are very noisy. 3. The brass is a little fake sounding. So with that out of the way, your form is great, not getting boring all the way through, and your samples are very good. I'd also rate you high for originality. The tech category is the only area where I'd really have to detract score, partly because I consider the overall mix to be included in this category, and because the samples are not always manipulated perfectly. Good work, this is probably my favorite of the 3 veteran tunes I've rated, but I think it still could use some work.

Thought the background effect was interesting, varied. Piano was nice, but much more could have been done with the saxaphone solo and the ending. Thought the overall effect was good but could have been improved vastly. Panning for the drums would have been appreciated.

I have to say, that ending is the best I've heard this year. The percussion just did it for me. But there were other parts which didn't. I suspect there are several of these semi-funky tunes out there this year, and if the general quality is as high as it was last year, I'm not sure if this one will really stand out in that crowd. I don't know, it just sounds kind of "tame" most of the time. The samples are slightly generic, and just when you expect a smoking guitar lead (pattern 3), the guitar player wimps out, packs his bags and heads out home. And the riff that starts at pattern 7 gets old quickly. On the other hand, the sax part starting at pattern 9 is pretty convincing, not that I know anything about the instrument, but anyway. We'll just have to see how this song does, I guess. I seriously have no idea. Not that I usually do.