Dibs..

But the download is taking ages. My connection here is awful any time after midday. I'll leave it going, but it could take a long while, so anyone else feel free to step in.

I've heard of the Chieftains, via Elvis Costello actually, but I'm yet to hear anything by them. I rather expect to like them, though.
[b]Chieftains and Sting - Mo Ghile Mear[/b] - 3:25

Starts off with a solo voice, singing in Gaelic. Good language, pretty good voice, plenty of echo, good start. Joined by several other voices for some nice harmonising and such, before a single voice starts singing in English, over some light guitar and a good flute. Chorus is back in the original language again, which is a satisfying little pattern.

The drums keep picking up (during the choruses, I think) to some quite dramatic parts, though they sound quite distantly in the background. I love the parts, after several voices at once, where one (probably two actually, I think, but I like thinking it's one) voice rings out, and it's really clear and fresh-sounding..that's awesome.

Getting perilously close to the end of the song now, and I haven't written much, which is a shame. I really like the song, it's just unfortunate that there's not much variation or anything to comment on. Thankfully, the thing on which there is no variation, doesn't really require any variation, so it doesn't hurt the final score. I just can't write much about it.

9/10

[b]Songs;[/b]
Alabama 3 - Too Sick To Pray (Acid House Country Gospel)
Volto Do Mar - On a Hand Held Sky (er. Indie?)
Sufjan Stevens - Decatur, or, Round of Applause For Your Stepmother (folky indie)
Melvins - Joan of Arc (sludge)
David Byrne - Twistin' in the Wind (post-Talking Heads)

Links can be found [url=http://mxforums2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=RM&action=display&thread=1132227174]here[/url]

[QUOTE=Bartender]Can anyone explain why the scorpion will also die, when he kills the frog?[/QUOTE]Because the frog is half way across the river when he is killed, and the scorpion can't swim.

Drribs

[b]Sufjan Stevens - Decatur[/b]

Everyone seems to like this guy, so I need to hear this guy.

Oh. Banjo and accordion, no guitar? Maybe there is some if it's very quiet? It's got this slow country/folk sound. Soft harmonised vocals start and there is lots of rhyming, it sounds all nonsensical and I can't make out lots of the lyrics.

There's some guitar after the verse, just playing some twangy high notes in a sparse fashion. Sounds like Broken Social Scene in more ways than one, but I'm not finding it all that interesting like I do with BSS. Obviously song for mellow moods, I musn't be in that mood.

For quite a while it's just these verses with instrumantal guitar, then about 2/3 of through, a more chorusy part starts. A change is good, but I still haven't been taken in by this song.

In this chorusbit, the vocals are higher and theres some soft backing vocals. The music is just as it was before, banjo and accordion, some guitar, no drums. There's a short pause.. but back to the chorus another couple of times, and then finally some applause to end it.


So, it wasn't bad, but it didn't grab my attention at all. I don't know if I'd listen to things like this very often, I've made it this far without it. 5/10

_______________________________________

[b][url=www.comcen.com.au/~caracarol/Custard - Ladies And Gentlemen.mp3]Custard - Ladies And Gentlemen[/url][/b] - contemporary indie pop
[b]Anathema - Shroud Of Frost[/b] - doom metal (7:30)
[b]Death Cab For Cutie - Summer Skin[/b] - soft indie
[b]Broken Social Scene - Looks Just Like The Sun[/b] - laid back, lo-fi indie (after 3:40 is part of the next song)
[b]Decoder Ring - Music Box[/b] - soft Bjork-like... snow music
[b]Conjure One - Pilgrimage[/b] - instrumental trip hop/dance/journey thing (7 mins)
[b]Bush - Swallowed[/b] - grunge/pop
[b]The Dresden Dolls - Truce[/b] - dramatic piano stuff (8 mins)

Er... no dibs, my internet is acting ****ty.

Bump

[QUOTE=blueyxd][b][url=www.comcen.com.au/~caracarol/Custard - Ladies And Gentlemen.mp3]Custard - Ladies And Gentlemen[/url][/b] - contemporary indie pop
[b]Anathema - Shroud Of Frost[/b] - doom metal (7:30)
[b]Death Cab For Cutie - Summer Skin[/b] - soft indie
[b]Broken Social Scene - Looks Just Like The Sun[/b] - laid back, lo-fi indie (after 3:40 is part of the next song)
[b]Decoder Ring - Music Box[/b] - soft Bjork-like... snow music
[b]Conjure One - Pilgrimage[/b] - instrumental trip hop/dance/journey thing (7 mins)
[b]Bush - Swallowed[/b] - grunge/pop
[b]The Dresden Dolls - Truce[/b] - dramatic piano stuff (8 mins)[/QUOTE]

bump 2

dibs

[B][I]Ladies and Gentlemen[/I] - Custard[/B]

The song opens up with a little curly guitar piece, and a bum bum bum. The first section proper begins and it's pretty nifty, it's got a kinda laid back in a motivated way and happy thing about it which I quite like.

When the vocals come in after the like transition sorta piece (which was pretty darn well done) I feel unimpressed. They feel sorta flat and don't share the same happiness factor that the music has. The verse is pretty standard, a bit of a drop in greatness when compared to the intro part.

The 'build-up' section is also pretty standard and I'm a bit upset that the song has started to rest on it laurels. Just noticed how much I do like the quaint lyrics though.

A dual solo-y piece comes in at 1:25 and now I'm starting to get back into this song, especially when a third instrument joins in (a violin type thing).

The song goes into another 'build-up' section and again I'm not lovin' it. But the extra 'build-up' section when the drummer lets loose, there's a yelp from the singer and some shred from the violin is a getting this song back on form, or promises to, as once again the song in the ending part leaves me feeling underwhelmed, not even the high pitched violins could rouse much of an emotional response.

Overall, interesting song, and I would like to hear more from these guys as I think this song showed promise.

I give it a strong 6/10.

[b]Forced Listening[/b]

[url=http://www.marmadukeduke.com/themagnificentduke/duke.htm]Marmaduke Duke - The False and the Cinematic (Stream track 2)[/url] - Noisey Rock from a band with jagged edges.

[url=http://mp3.insound.com/download.cfm?mp3id=2388]Cex - Your Handwriting When You Were A Child In The Winter[/url] - Electronic Stuff

[url=http://www.beeandflower.com/sounds/05_Wounded_Walking.mp3]Bee & Flower - Wounded Walking[/url] - Creepy darkness

Deebs.

Never heard/of before. Not the one I initially wanted to do either, but it ended up being the easiest.
[b]Bee and Flower - Wounded Walking[/b] - 4:18

Starts off quiet. Vague twiddlings. Sets a bit of a mood nicely. Other instruments come in fairly soon, while the twiddlings continue in the background (perhaps getting slightly louder, as other stuff comes in). Even a piano appears now and then. All sounding very solemn.

Female voice, making no attempt to sing, comes in shortly. Sounds relatively low, would be breathy if it..wasn't. That doesn't make sense, but I know what I mean, I think. Some violins, playing edgily, rather than flowing the way violins often do, come in in the background.

I'm not sure whether I like this or not so far. I don't especially like the vocals, and although I like many of the individual bits of music, the way it's all being put together doesn't seem particularly attractive. I'm not sure why. It surely does sound dark, though. So I suppose I can't fault them on execution of intent.

Vocalist starts singing when what I would assume is the chorus starts. She sounds slightly better now, but still not all that great. I like the violins more now, though. They're being used quite effectively, providing stabs of sound behind the vocals, and on top of everything else.

The whole song kind of mellows out around three minutes in. Everything sort of imperceptibly changes, and it sounds happier, for a short while at least. It's near the end now anyway, and end it does, with some chinking piano and some vocals.

Strange. It didn't really move me (positively or negatively), or affect me at all. Realistically the vocalist was probably the biggest obstacle to my liking it, but not much else seemed to stand out anyway. Underwhelming would probably be a word I'd use to describe it.

5/10. At least it suceeded in making me feel slightly uneasy, which I think is what they were going for.

[b]Songs;[/b]
Alabama 3 - Too Sick to Pray (acid house-country-gospel-etc)
Silver Apples - You And I (60s rock/proto-electronica)
Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek (just Imogen singing, with the assistance of a vocoder. Does that count as a capella?)
Volto Do Mar - A Hand Held Sky (indie?)
Solomon Burke - Sit This One Out (Southern soul)
Baby Huey - Hard Times (Northern soul, I suppose)

Links can again be found [url=http://mxforums2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=RM&action=display&thread=1132227174]here[/url]

dibs

[B]Alabama 3 - [I]Too Sick to Pray[/I][/B]

Had to go with these guys with that sort of genre/description.

The song opens with some spacey kinda sounds and up through this comes a folky guitar piece and I have to say it creates a strange impression in me. This is blurring genres I would never have thought would be blurred, sounds good, lets see if the rest of the song wins me over to this new (to me) fusion.

The vocals come in around about the minute mark and are pretty decent, not detracting from the song at all. Drums and backing vocals come in and it's all pleasant, meshes relatively well. The song rests back into a very short verse section and goes back to previous section for a little jaunt until it goes into a 'breakdown'/'rap' piece. Very strange, not that great but not awful.

In fact the song pretty much goes with the same bass line, lyrics and vocal style until the end of the song...I could probably write more minute details over the song but there are no super noticeable parts where the song differs drastically.

So, in conclusion, I would say it was good, it brings together Country and these electronics sounds together pretty well. There were some things about it which I think didn't fit together too well, like the effects at 1:30.

Would give it a 7.5/10 and will try and get other stuff of theirs' to make a decision on the band.

EDIT: Just read over what I've put, that's a pretty god awful write up.

[b]Forced Listening[/b]

[URL="http://www.65daysofstatic.com/index3.html"]65daysofstatic - Await Rescue[/URL] - Post-Rock/Electronica (Media loads at the top of the page (not one of my favourite songs of theirs' but can't find any links to other media from them)).

[url=http://www.marmadukeduke.com/themagnificentduke/duke.htm]Marmaduke Duke - The False and the Cinematic (Stream track 2)[/url] - Noisy Rock from a band with jagged edges.

[url=http://mp3.insound.com/download.cfm?mp3id=2388]Cex - Your Handwriting When You Were A Child In The Winter[/url] - Electronic Stuff

[URL="http://www.betterpropaganda.com/artist_page.asp?id=1149"]Jackson and His Computer Band - Utopia[/URL] - Electronic Stuff (over on the right under "Selected MP3s", click listen and you're away)

get 'em while they're hot

boimp

Dibs

bump

bump

[b]Cex - Your Handwriting When You Were A Child In The Winter[/b]

It starts with a drum machine doing stronger beat than I was expecting. There's a lot of mouth noises as well. The Bjork sounding song title does translate into some Bjork-ish sounding music. Theres glitchy drum programming as well as the simple bass/snare/hihat.

Ok now something melodic is starting, it's soft electric piano, very melodic and ambient at the same time ala Aphex Twin or The Album Leaf. In the headphones it's a bit of a trip, lots of sudden panning bits which are cool.

It's growing, there's plenty of different bits, all with fairly soft, happy melodies and the constant drums/glitch. This sounds like Múm but all synthesised.

Towards the end it's settled on a catchy melody that repeats for a while. Then it all stops but for some ambience, the percussion comes back slightly but it ends. The last 2% of the file wouldnt download so I might have missed something cool in the final seconds.


At first I thought the drums were too hard, but upon reaching to the end they sound fine. It's nice music, seems to be a bit of stuff like this around now. I didn't hear anything in here that really stood out from the other similar songs I've heard. Still, nice to listen to and all that.
7.5/10


___________________________
[b][url=http://users.beagle.com.au/caracarol/George - Breathe In Now.mp3]George - Breathe In Now[/url][/b] - really nice soft rock

[b][url=http://users.beagle.com.au/caracarol/5spc.mp3]Five Star Prison Cell - Ballad Of The Cheated[/url][/b] - avant gardecore

[b]Goldie Lookin' Chain - You Knows I Loves You[/b] - sexy rnb/pop parody, UH!

bump with a trolley

dibs

George - Breathe In Now
 

This is my first one so feel free to correct me if I eff up...



Starts out with a noise that I can only compare to chipmunks at night. It's just this whispery chittering sound they do in the evening. Maybe you have to have lived in the suburbs... It's accompanied by a soft, echo-y keyboard. A woman's voice starts after a bit. It's very soft and whispery, matches the present atmosphere. There's a bit of guitar & cymbals in the background so soft that you could almost miss it, which happens to fit perfectly.

About 45 seconds in the drums pick up but the guitar stays in the background. The chorus begins shortly afterward accompanied by somewhat inappropriate organ music. It just doesn't mesh well enough. It only last through the chorus though.

Towards mid song the vocalist asserts herself a bit more and the louder she is, the less I like her voice. She seems to be trying a little too hard to impress and her high notes sound "off." Had she stayed in her range it would've been better.

After the second chorus there's a climax where the guitar picks up but sounds tuneless and forced, someone is just plucking the same string over & over in a failed attempt to add something to this part. More significantly though, are some flutes that cut in here, which are an unexpected and pleasant addition. The vocalist gets even louder here but it sounds good because she doesn't try for anymore high notes.

The flute section ends with the vocalist harmonizing over the drums, which have gotten louder with her, and the guitar, which someone is now actually playing. They're followed shortly by the organ, which isn't as intrusive this time since the whispery aspect of the song is long gone by now and all the other aspects (guitar, drums, vocals) are finally asserting themselves. This continues to the end. Also towards the end, the vocalist is still trying for those high notes she can’t quite hit and I finally realize why her voice has been irking me -- she sounds like Kelly Clarkson.

The song ends almost abruptly but I’m glad to see it go. There was just something dull and uninspired about it, like a song you’d hear playing in a department store. In retrospect though, I think that may be the point of soft rock so I guess it's not that bad a thing.

5/10 (was that too long??)

[URL="http://mp3download.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=bandprofile.downloadSong&bsid=1489046&song_name=Dollar&fid=22499304"]Steve Spacek - Dollar[/URL] (soul)

[URL="http://mp3download.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=bandprofile.downloadSong&bsid=2495041&song_name=BOOMSHAKE&fid=2874597"]Far*East Movement - Boom Shake[/URL] (hip hop)

[URL="http://www.myspace.com/arrogantsonsofbitches"]Arrogant Sons Of Bitches - I've Got Enemies In High Places[/URL] (ska)

The last link is just to the band's MySpace page but you can hear it there.

Bump, because I have a question for blue and I assume this is the equivalent of shining a bat signal onto the clouds.

Are Salmonella Dub any good in albums, or is Push On Through just their one good song?

[QUOTE=Bartender]Bump, because I have a question for blue and I assume this is the equivalent of shining a bat signal onto the clouds.[/QUOTE]
hahaha, yes, it was :p

[QUOTE]Are Salmonella Dub any good in albums, or is Push On Through just their one good song?[/QUOTE]
I really don't know, as I don't have any albums. But, I do have a few random songs and most of them are good. Push On Through would still be my favourite of the songs I have.


I'd dibs if the myspace downloads got past 5% on dialup

[QUOTE=blueyxd]
I really don't know, as I don't have any albums. But, I do have a few random songs and most of them are good. Push On Through would still be my favourite of the songs I have.[/QUOTE]

Cool. Maybe I'll try and get the album that that's on, then.

[b]Far East Movement - [i]Boom Shake[/i][/b]

The beat starts out with some airy sounding scratches played over the top of some light tapping on a cymbal. There's a sample with eith a delay/echo kind of effect, creating a fast "Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey" sound. The drums then enter, forming the basis for the beat througout the rest of the song. It's kind of tribal sounding, with a lack of stringed Bass because the Drums give off a full sounding beat anyway. There's also a clapping kind of noise, but it's not conventional clapping style. Itstead, it reminds me of Aboriginal Clap Sticks, although they aren't quite the same. The chorus is also set up here, with "Boom" & "Shake" spoken throughout.

"Kevin" then enters with vocals. His accent makes it quite obvious that he is an African American. Pretty typical sounding really. Lyrically the message is to get everybody grooving. The chorus comes around again at around 1:20, except this time a xylaphone sounding instrument can be heard playing falling notes in the background, making things slightly more interesting.

The songs all pretty repetitive from there on in. The second vocalist has a higher sounding voice, and then there is another guy after that, who finishes his verse at around 3:10. The chorus plays out a couple of times, and then the song fades to an end.

Overall, it was all pretty repetitive. There wasn't really anything bad about it, but there was no real spark that caught my attention. I won't be giving them a further listen.

6/10

[size=1]Go easy on me, it was my first go at one of these[/size]

[b]Songs[/b]
[url=http://media.putfile.com/Clandestien---Eye-For-An-Eye]Clandestien - Eye For An Eye[/url] (Hip Hop)
[url=http://media.putfile.com/John-Farnham---Your-The-Voice]John Farnham - Your The Voice[/url] (80's Pop)
[url=http://media.putfile.com/Fagan---Centred]Fagan - Centred[/url] (Trip Hop)

[B]John Farnham - Your the Voice[/B], just wondering, should it be "you're"?

Absolute midi heaven opening in the form of a hand clapped rhythm, which is added to by some pretty cheesy piano, a synth piece and this bass line coming on every now and again. It is sounding pretty 80's so far, that feel is compacted by the vocals that come in around the half minute mark. The lyrics are all happy, fight the system stuff, that does the job. All in all it's pretty good, although not being the most catchy pop song intro I've heard.

The piano changes at the 50 second mark, and gets really 'make a fist/close your eyes/sing along'y, which I find pretty ace. The chourus is pure bad assness, and with it I begin to recognise the song, so I don't know if the rules of Forced Listening have been breached. Meh.

After the chorus, you begin to get the feel this is gonna be text book 80's pop, of course that's not a bad thing, but leaves not a lot to be said. It kinda repeats the same Verse/Chorus structure, with an added measure thrown in I believe.

You get a bit of stand out bag pipe madness which just plays the chorus melody but does sound pretty radical. More verse, drum fill, more sing along moments. In the one part near the end some guy busts out a guitar solo with some shred which is really quite low in the mix; so I almost missed it but does sound pretty cool. Vocal harmony and more solo and fade out.

hum, to conclude, I liked it, there wasn't really a lot to write about, as much of it felt very standard pop music. However, as a secret lover of 80's pop I did find myself enjoying the song a lot (even if my review seemed to describe it as lackluster) and can quite happily give the song a [B]7/10[/B].

[b]Recomooonded Forced Listening[/b]

[URL="http://www.65daysofstatic.com/index3.html"]65daysofstatic - Await Rescue[/URL] - Post-Rock/Electronica (Media loads at the top of the page (not one of my favourite songs of theirs' but can't find any links to other media from them)).

[url=http://www.marmadukeduke.com/themagnificentduke/duke.htm]Marmaduke Duke - The False and the Cinematic (Stream track 2)[/url] - Noisy Rock from a band with jagged edges.

[URL="http://www.betterpropaganda.com/artist_page.asp?id=1149"]Jackson and His Computer Band - Utopia[/URL] - Electronic Stuff (over on the right under "Selected MP3s", click listen and you're away)

Oh and is that putfile site legal for this thread? 'cause I may upload some other ch00ns if so.

[QUOTE=3rdplanet]Oh and is that putfile site legal for this thread? 'cause I may upload some other ch00ns if so.[/QUOTE]

People are allowed to use it everywhere else around the forum, I don't see why we can't here. I think the mods allow it because you can only stream the songs, and not actually download them.

[b]Jackson And His Computer Band - Utopia[/b]

I like how you say "electronic stuff" and it's not dance.

A collage of short voice cuts from a pop song makes for an intro.. which doesn't seem to fit once the the deep ambient music fades in, which quite I like. The bass drum is powerful and as with these Warp Label artists, snare drums often seem to be replaced by reverb filled clicks or clappy sounds. Lots of glithcy percussive things happen, never to be repeated throughout the song.

The pop cuts return over the top of the ambience. The guy did the same thing as Teschnik where the individual syllable sounds are cut and spliced in rhythmic fashion. Sounds ok, but I think Teschnik do it better. If I hadn't heard something like this before, I might be more impressed. The ambient base is out competed by the vocal splicings, which is a bit of a shame.

In the middle, the music drops right back to a few sparse ambient harps and stuff. Now the female vocals are let to run naturally, she sings "have you really thought about Utopia?"... No, I haven't. The vocal harmonies are so sour, it makes me prefer the cut up version of the line. Luckily it does go back that way for most of the remainder of the song. Still going with the once-off glitches and background noises. It feels like it's getting more random and I'm starting to feel a bit lost. Time to end it.... and it ends well by falling back to an ambient voice harmony.


The following 40 seconds are silly random things, but as far as I'm concerned, the song already finished.


Not as good as others I've reviewed. The ambience at the start gave me high hopes but the rest of the song didn't stay like that too much, or at least keep the ambience in more focus. I couldn't keep interested in it and I can't see myself listening to this all that much.
5/10

________________________
[url=http://www.bandaloop.de/bandaloopmp3/NEW%20TRACKS/travelmovie.mp3]Bandaloop - Travel (Movie Mix) [/url]... trip hop
Bush - Swallowed ... indie/grunge/pop
Katatonia - Evidence ... catchy depressing rock
Anathema - Shroud Of Frost ... doom metal (7:30)
Broken Social Scene - Cranley's Gonna Make It ... feel-good instrumental indie
[url=http://www.clannzu.com/media/baddubh.mp3]Clann Zú - An Bád Dubh[/url] ... celtic/post-rock
Natalie Imbruglia - That Day ... chaos pop

This is my first attempt at doing something like this, so please correct me if I'm not doing this correctly.

[B]Bandaloop - Travel[/B]

This song starts off with some soothing piano chords and bubbly electronic effects. Shortly after this a gentle female voice comes in, it is very relaxing and fits in good with the piano chords and electronic effects. Everything is ambient and very relaxing. Things start to open up when some soft dynamic parts come in, the bubbly effects start to overshadow the piano chords.

Spacey keyboard synths come in as the lyric "Come on and travel with me" is spoken. The female vocalist remains ultra soothing and nothing has really altered much since the song started.

Things slow down, and "Come on and travel" is spoken again only this time over a laser type sounding electronic effect. Now we go back to how the song began at the start, slow piano chords over bubbly effects. The song remains soothing and very ambient.

As the song sort of comes to an end "Come on and travel with me" is repeated over and over again. A beat comes in over the piano chords and the song really starts to put you into a trance. Various electronic effects are being played keeping the song ambient, and very warm sounding. Things finally come to an end with soothing effects.

I enjoyed this song, although nothing much really happened throughout most of it. It served it's purpose as a warm ambient electronic tune but didn't really do much else. I enjoyed the female vocalist, her voice mixed in nice with the piano chords. [B]7/10[/B]

[B]Recomended Forced listening [/B]

The Aquabats - Giant Robot Birdhead

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Turtle Rock

Tortoise - The Equator [url]http://www.thrilljockey.com/catalog/index.html?id=100045[/url]

Mercury Rev - Trickle Down

that was pretty good for your first go