Skyhigh 10 ch22 Music Chapter
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music chapter
the party'93 music review
-------------------------
by pri/tia/oxyron.
hello everyone! in this article i will
be taking a close look at each of the
tunes which competed at the party, ex-
cept for the following ones: doh/crypto-
burners, which i was not able to get a
working version of, the fake tune by
"herr tie/mtv", and of course syndrom's
and mine. first i will analyse each tu-
ne, then display a survey of the results
and finally give a short comment on all
this.
i have made up my evaluations after the
following four main aspects:
1. ideas: does the composer have ideas
of his own or does he use rather com-
mon patterns? what is the quality of
the themes, melodies, rhythms,harmony
patterns, etc. he uses? do all these
components match?
2. structure: what is the order the com-
poser has put his ideas into, and how
convenient is it? are there things
such as intro, different recognizable
parts, breaks, soli, recurring parts/
themes, variations, end?
3. instruments: what is the quality of
the sounds used (e.g. pulse, vibrato,
filter, wave-sequence)? how well does
the composer handle the hard-restart
(which avoids having the typical his-
sing sound which can occur when using
an instrument with waveform $80 at
the beginning of the wave-sequence) ?
4. atmosphere: what kind of atmosphere
is generated by the three components
above altogether? what general impact
does the listener get; does the tune
affect him or is he rather bored?
the overall result equals the average of
the four components above. let's start!
1.ODY/EASTGANG:
the tune starts off with a quite short
intro (4 bars) after which already the
lead voice comes in. there is, however,
no explicit theme or anything else reco-
gnizable; it rather seems like some un-
coordinated variations over the chord
pattern f-c3-dm-c which ody sticks to
during the whole tune. only sometimes
there are little passages where there a-
re chords only. after some minor changes
and some more variations the tune is fi-
nally faded out.- there almost always is
the same simple bass/snaredrum-groove,
the bassdrum only comes in once during
a short interlude. ody uses only one
leadvoice which is a bit too static; ge-
nerally the pulse vibrato should have
been increased on most of the sounds.
furthermore, the hardrestart does not
work out too well. the mood of the tune
is quite happy, but because of its sim-
ple structure it gets boring easily.
ideas: 35% instruments: 48% OVERALL:
structure: 20% atmosphere: 25% 32%
2.RED DEVIL/FAIRLIGHT:
the intro of this one starts with a nice
melody,after which bass,drums and chords
come in after one another. the simple 2-
bar chord pattern c-f,a# is stuck to all
through the tune, over which some moti-
ves are introduced and varied in the le-
ad voice. there are some "question-ans-
wer"-sections where also ringmodulated
sounds are used. after a short tom-se-
quence there is a sudden end.- most of
the sounds are somewhat above the avera-
ge, only the bass does not appear too
clear. on the whole this tune is quite
powerful and happy, however, the chords
dominate over the lead voice action, and
as the chord pattern is so simple, it
gets boring later on.
ideas: 60% instruments: 66% OVERALL:
structure: 30% atmosphere: 45% 50%
AMADEUS/MEKA DESIGN:
this tune falls in two parts, namely one
main part and a kind of epilogue. the
main part is based on the harmony pat-
tern cm-g#m-fm-g.sus4,g. after the the-
me has been introduced and repeated (2nd
time some staccato fill-ins are added),
amadeus immediately comes over to a lar-
ge solo section where he regrettably
keeps on using the same leadsound. after
that follows the harmonically slightly
different epilogue, after which there is
a sudden end.- the theme itself and the
single motives used in the solo section
are not bad really, however, the solo
section bears the danger of getting on
the listener's nerves as it mostly con-
tains notes of the same (fast) value,but
no pauses for the listener to "breathe".
the hardrestart on both drums and bass
is not handled very well, which is quite
disturbing as the bass is quite loud
through the whole tune. furthermore the
bass drum lacks deep frequencies, and
there's too much pulse waveform on the
snare. there is no real intro or ending,
and the structure is quite linear with-
out any major changes, so i repeat my-
self: it can get boring later on.
ideas: 50% instruments: 37% OVERALL:
structure: 25% atmosphere: 35% 37%
ERIK AF EKHAGE:
this "technos/ambient" tune is restric-
ted to rhythm and percussion only,except
for some small melodical breaks. there
is a big variety of sounds,many of which
use sync or ring modulation, and also a
big amount of rhythm patterns which are
not structurized too badly.the bass drum
seems to have an unwanted "aftersound",
but there are many interesting effects,
although some can get on your nerves if
repeated too often. in comparison to the
unmelodical rest, the few melodical
breaks seem rather misfit.- the evalua-
tion of this tune is difficult as major
components such as harmonies, melodies
etc. are left out totally.
ideas: 43% instruments: 50% OVERALL:
structure: 28% atmosphere: 30% 38%
ECHO/COMIC PIRATES:
this tune is one of the more alternate
ones. it is structured clearly and made
up of a nice variety of chord/bass pat-
terns, rhythms, tempi, themes and melo-
dies. using 3 different filtered melody
sounds, echo does some nice moivical-
thematical work, furthermore rhythmical
and also stylistic variations (when
switching over to the techno part in the
middle of the tune). the different parts
are well separated by breaks. only in
the slow b-part the composer shows some
insecurity concerning the usage of sca-
les (d# over a#/5-harmony doesn't match)
except for the techno-part, a delay-ef-
fect is used constantly in the lead voi-
ce, which sounds nice but can "lull" the
listener "asleep" if used too often. an-
other characteristic is the bass' actave
glide down and up again. only the intro
which is only half a bar long seems to
be a bit fucked up?- the instruments are
definately above the average, the bass
sound only lacks deep frequencies which
would have given the tune more power.
ideas: 74% instruments: 71% OVERALL:
structure: 79% atmosphere: 66% 72%
ZYRON/ANTIC:
the intro starts with an accelerando of
arpeggio-like chords (mpf, technical
terms in foreign languages..) which form
the basis for the following nice melody.
after that the chords come in,and final-
ly a short cool break leads over to the
main part. the quite overused harmony
pattern 1-6-7-1 is varied to the good
here (cm-g#-a#-d#/c). in the melody zy-
ron does some nice thematical work which
regrettably is not always congruent to
the current scales. later on he varies
the bassline and also comes over to a
rhythm part with some cool trioles play-
ed by tom-like sounds which, however,
could sound better.at the end the sounds
and the structure of the intro are taken
up again,and the tune ends with a decce-
lerando - neat idea! - regrettably, in
the main part there is not too much ac-
tion concerning variation of harmonies
and grove, also the hardrestart of the
octave-lead doesn't work out very well.
the rest of the instruments, however,
sounds nice.
ideas: 79% instruments: 69% OVERALL:
structure: 65% atmosphere: 70% 71%
TRIDENT+DANE/TRIAD:
this tune uses the unvaried harmony pat-
tern mentioned above (1-6-7-1) which is
slightly varied to 1-7-6 in the b-part -
not very inventive. the groove is always
the same, the quiet chord layers only
form the background over which the melo-
dy does some motivical work. some trans-
pose up, some transpose down, and no
real intro or ending.- the non-working
hardrestart in the bass is quite incon-
venient, the rest of the instruments is
average.
ideas: 45% instruments: 52% OVERALL:
structure: 35% atmosphere: 50% 45%
BLUES/LIGHT:
this is probably the most weird, or bet-
ter, individual tune after the one by e-
rik af ekhage. when listening to it for
the first time it seems quite confusing,
but soon one recognizes that it is made
up of many little parts which are struc-
turized to some different sections with
different tempo, feeling, mood, instru-
ments. these sections, however, do not
have any relation to each other. finally
there is a short percussion-"epilogue",
followed by a strange dissonant ending.
- sometimes there are strange doublings
of tempo or melody licks which, however,
always correctly go along with the sca-
les. some of the sounds are quite indi-
vidual, but mostly good, although the
hardrestart does not always work out
100%. i am not sure if this tune is to
be taken fully seriously or if it has
some wanted irony (caused by the weird
licks and the strange ending) in it. by
the way, the four sections are indepen-
dent modules (entitled: 1001 ride - x2 -
explotion - jungle fever) which are
switched "manually" (=everytime the ras-
ter bar flickers). this also explains
why the tune occupies so much memory.
ideas: 68% instruments: 72% OVERALL:
structure: 57% atmosphere: 55% 63%
MAGNAR HARESTAD/MOZ(IC)ART:
this one combines good instruments, cool
grove and nice structure. there are dif-
ferent parts containing melody and soli
as well as varied moods, drum/bass pat-
terns and harmonies, separated by vari-
ous breaks. like the first melody, al-
most the whole tune is of quite happy
character. there is some nice thematical
work to be found, and also the soli are
built up well. at the end (cm-f/c-a#/c-
f/c) a harmonical relation to the intro
(c-f/c-a#/c-f/c) is established. the
instruments sound rather good (very con-
venient: a combined bass/drum-sound),
and the happy mood and the nice structu-
re never allow the listener to get bo-
red.
ideas: 84% instruments: 87% OVERALL:
structure: 75% atmosphere: 87% 82%
EMAX/TRSI:
after the intro, formed by two voices u-
sing a delay effect,some powerful chords
come in. after that the theme is intro-
duced, which, however, does not appear
too clearly as the delay-effect here is
squeezed into one voice. there is not
much action in the bassline; emax mostly
sticks to the current keynote here. the
end is formed by a sudden stop.- on the
whole the tune is not bad, but there are
no extraordinary things to be mentioned,
either. i repeat myself - the tune ap-
pears too uniform and lacks changes!
ideas: 61% instruments: 68% OVERALL:
structure: 53% atmosphere: 60% 60%
SHARK/REGINA:
this tune includes some quite different
parts of mood, sound, rhythm, harmonies,
melodies etc. the intro, consisting of
bass and chords only, is maybe a bit
long; shark also does not always seem
certain using scales, but there are also
some real good passages to be found. re-
grettably the bass sound lacks hardre-
start, the rest of the instruments is
ok.
ideas: 78% instruments: 71% OVERALL:
structure: 70% atmosphere: 70% 73%
LICKET/NOICE:
in the intro, the fifth-interval (g-c)
is played constantly, which gets on the
listener's nerves from the start. also
in the main part licket uses almost only
the keynote as ending for his licks, and
the motive g-c is much too dominant. the
ending is formed by a final chord.- the
melodical action is not very good, there
are no recognizable themes; the spectrum
of notes licket uses is too small. again
the harmony pattern is 6-7-1; the sounds
are not too good, either, especially the
drumsounds and the bass, where the fil-
ter always jumps over.
ideas: 28% instruments: 40% OVERALL:
structure: 24% atmosphere: 30% 30%
THOR/EXTEND:
the intro features a filter-lead perfor-
ming some quarts downwards,which regret-
tably do not always match to the harmo-
nies; also the melody in the a-part is
not too convenient. the following b-part
is better there, also in the harmoniza-
tion. slowly the pace is quickened up to
double-time feeling and returns to half-
time again, when the intro-sequence co-
mes in once more to end the tune. an-
other good point is the recurring chord
passages representing something recogni-
zable for the listener. regrettably the
filter-lead used in the intro lacks
hardrestart, which would have been quite
important there as these hissing sounds
always become most obvious in a lead
sound. the rest of the instruments is a-
verage.
ideas: 50% instruments: 45% OVERALL:
structure: 52% atmosphere: 45% 48%
BLEED INTO ONE/CREATURES:
b.i.o. uses an asymmetrical double play-
er which he manages to create some real-
ly neat sounds with. the intro contains
a percussion grove, after which a cool
"question-answer" part of bass and
chords follows. after that a neat melody
is performed by a good lead-sound; the
bassline is very dynamic. some more
parts follow and recur, and suddenly the
tune ends.- b.i.o. has put some really
cool ideas into a very good structure,
in which most parts recur and so find a
better access to the listener's ear. in
most tunes bass, drums and chords only
serve as background for the melody, whi-
le here all components are equal. also
the instruments are rather good. perhaps
b.i.o. could also have included some mo-
re (different) harmony patterns or an-
other lead sound, and, to round things
up, a real ending.
ideas: 80% instruments: 81% OVERALL:
structure: 80% atmosphere: 77% 79%
DANKO/CENSOR:
danko uses three samples - bass drum,
snare drum and a minor-chord (inversion:
1-3-5) - which he combines in a reggae
style (bass-chord-snare-chord). further-
more he uses two more sid-generated ins-
truments: one bass and one lead. the a-
fore mentioned reggae pattern runs all
the way through the tune, which already
makes the structure somewhat static.
the motivical work in the melody is not
bad, but the melodical action generally
lacks variety. later on there's a part
where the bass dominates, and after that
again a melody part which kind of forms
an "answer" to the first one: there the
harmony pattern was "1,7", while on the
second one it is "6,7,1" and so leads
back to the tonic again. so here we have
again that overused harmony scheme, how-
ever, in a more variative form. finally,
there is no ending, but a loop which
leads over to the start.- in fact, not
only the samples but also the rest of
the instruments have already been used
a while ago, namely in a tune which was
included in the second part of wonder-
land 10.
ideas: 62% instruments: 69% OVERALL:
structure: 55% atmosphere: 62% 62%
TANGO/TRIAD:
in the intro tango uses a nice octave
arpeggio bass with a closing filter,how-
ever, the constantly played sus4-riff is
too dominant. also the following melody
uses almost only note material out of
sus4. after a chord-sequence, a diffe-
rent lead performs a somewhat better me-
lody. finally, the intro riff recurs,
and the tune ends in a loop.- the lead
sounds tango uses sound nice, the rest
of the instruments is mostly average.
there is, however, nothing really spe-
cial to be found; the overall melody ac-
tion i not too goo, and there is always
the same harmony pattern.
ideas: 40% instruments: 51% OVERALL:
structure: 40% atmosphere: 32% 41%
MORBID&RRR/SHAZAM&WOM:
here we have the second tune using sam-
ples, namely bass-drum, snare,a scratch,
and the words "one-two-three-yeah". the
intro is formed by rhythm only, after
which bass and chords come in. there are
different parts where melody, chords,
bass and rhythm have different proiri-
ties. also the tempo is varied now and
then, and in between parts sometimes the
"1-2-3-yeah"-sample is filled in - neat
idea. the tune ends in a pentatonical
lick downwards.- regrettably, morbid al-
so used the harmony pattern 1-6-7-1,how-
ever, he varied the chord voicings by
inversion. for my taste the chord passa-
ges sometimes are too long, the melodi-
cal action should have been given some
more space instead. in contrast to the
tune by danko, the balance between sam-
ples and the rest of the sounds here is
shifted on new sid-chips, so the samples
sound much too low. the sid-instruments
are somewhat above the average.
ideas: 72% instruments: 65% OVERALL:
structure: 68% atmosphere: 63% 67%
THE ALIEN/BCD:
right from the start a not too good
sound keeps playing sequenced chords o-
ver the not very convenient harmonies
d#-dm-f-gm. as this runs all through the
tune,it really can get on the listener's
nerves. after that, drums and bass come
in, and finally the melody starts. again
there are no major changes to be found
to keep the listener entertained, and
what is more, the alien totally fails in
using scales, so the melody is totally
unsuitable to the harmonies. the instru-
ments are not too good, either, so there
are not much points to be given here...
ideas: 18% instruments: 42% OVERALL:
structure: 20% atmosphere: 15% 24%
YOKO/FICTION:
the intro features a nice quart-fifth-
sixth-lick. the vibrato of the leadsound
used in the main part does not sound too
good, and the snaredrum sounds rather
bad as well. also the hardrestart does
not always seem to work. later on yoko
leaves out drums or bass, and at the end
elody and the afore mentioned riff play
at the same time. again, there's nothing
that really keeps the listener entertai-
ned, and the tune also lacks power.
ideas: 32% instruments: 30% OVERALL:
structure: 29% atmosphere: 20% 28%
over to the next point: to sum every-
thing up, here is a survey of all the
results. id.=ideas, st.=structure, in.=
instruments, at.=atmosphere, ov.=overall
pl. composer. id. st. in. at. ov.
1. MH/MOZ(IC)ART 84 75 87 87 82
2. BIO/CREATURES 80 80 81 77 79
3. SHARK/REGINA 78 70 71 74 73
4. echo/cp. 74 79 71 66 72
5. zyron/antic 79 65 69 70 71
6. morbid&rrr 72 68 65 63 67
7. blues/light 68 57 72 55 63
8. danko/censor 62 55 69 62 62
9. emax/trsi 61 53 68 60 60
10. red devil/flt 60 30 66 45 50
11. thor/extend 50 52 45 45 48
12. trident&dane 45 35 52 50 45
13. tango/triad 40 40 51 32 41
14. erik af ekhage 43 28 50 30 38
15. amadeus/meka 50 25 37 35 37
16. ody/eastgang 35 20 48 25 32
17. licket/noice 28 24 40 30 30
18. yoko/fiction 32 29 30 20 28
19. the alien/bcd 18 20 42 15 24
these results of course are absolutely
subjective, and they also differ totally
from the "official" competition results
(which i doubt to be correct anyway).
but this is the difference you get when
analysing every single tune very closely
instead of listening to them only once
at a competition show.
what stroke me in the negative sense du-
ring reviewing were the many similari-
ties especially between tunes at the lo-
wer places. it seems most common to use
that harmony pattern 6-7-1 and then to
find a melody over this which mostly
ends up in totally uncoordinated impro-
visation. furthermore, the structure
mostly is much too simple. many compo-
sers tend to build a whole tune on one
single pattern which they hardly vary at
all. this is of course very easy for the
composer himself, but the result mostly
is rather poor.
so what i am trying to say is: be more
inventive and individual! don't always
do these these "cm-g#-a#-cm-speed1-dur03
-jam"-tunes; try to vary the structure,
include intro, breaks, endings,different
parts and let them recur so the listener
really remembers something about the tu-
ne. vary and enlarge your harmonical
sources by using seventh-, ninth-, ele-
venth,- (etc.) or alterated chords. use
slower and faster tempi than 1/8 note=
duration.06, do shuffles or even 5/4 or
7/4 bars. don't always base your tunes
on harmonies only, but on definite mo-
tives and themes. etc!
maybe i will do a kind of music workshop
in the future issues of skyhigh in which
i will give some detailed hints and in-
fos about the subjects above and more,
for those who are interested and perhaps
don't know too much about it yet.
anyway, thank you for reading this arti-
cle. i hope you enjoyed it, perhaps even
as much as i enjoyed writing it.
yours,
pri/tia/oxyron.
