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Review Summary: Despite standing under 5 minutes in length and with only 2 songs, Sophie still manages to make a lasting statement with this EP. It's always been difficult to make first impressions on people, especially in music. Normally, something familiar to the ears is the easiest to grasp and that light bulb moment soon follows but what about something completely different? Something that is perplexing as it is puzzling to the general listener? Well, meet British electronica producer, Sophie. His style is essentially straightforward synth pop and this is exemplified in his first two EPs, with streamlined songwriting and catchy, upbeat melodies above some pretty uninspired beats. However, Lemonade/Hard is an entirely different piece of meat. Whilst the synth pop moments still make a prominent appearance, such as possibly the most cheerful chorus of all time on "Lemonade", Sophie does plenty of experimentation to create a sound that is on a completely different playing field to his previous work. All this is heard immediately on the first track, "Lemonade", which starts off with noises that resemble popping popcorn before vocals come crashing in, backed up with some rather infectiously bouncy synth melodies. The electronics begin to build in the lower region before the song bursts to life with an oddly out of place chorus to make the song even more bewildering. The next and final track is a different beast in its own right. Whilst "Lemonade" took a slow approach to surprise unsuspecting listeners, "Hard" wastes no time in immediately revealing its plethora of clashing ideas. After a brief introduction, vocals begin with a talk/rap approach that barely make any sense, yet is still intriguing nevertheless. This vocal approach practically continues throughout the track, with various vocal manipulation samples seemingly popping up every now and then and ends up being a fairly catchy affair. Possibly the best feature of this track would most certainly go to the beats. A disorientating, bizarre and honestly sublime mix of glitched out drums and electronics that are constantly changing but still remain captivating. Despite the lack of cohesion in this EP as a whole, the final result is a devilishly catchy experience. Both tracks may not have the same effect as your typical Top 40 hit, but these pop songs are at least as thought-provoking as it will get and will certainly leave some feeling aghast.
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Album Rating: 4.0
Single is ridiculous and wonderful
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
2 songs, less than 5 minutes, thought it would be an easy review. Boy was i wrong; couldn't have chosen an EP that was more difficult to describe. Also, 5 minute EPs? So this is what I've reduced myself to.
Constructive criticism would be heavily appreciated.
Stream "Lemonade": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdLvp630plc
Stream "Hard": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8fwWZD159k
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cool review!
(for anyone further interested in this sound):
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/nonochanel/320_kbps__a_guide_to_bubblegum_bass___pc_music_/
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
Also, can anyone describe to me what the hell "Wonky" is?
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
anyway here's that criticism!
one thing to note: Sophie is male. the videos show him looking vaguely female but he's a guy. just fyi
this is a pretty good review. I might say that it's a good idea to make your thing less of a behemoth by splitting it up into paragraphs, but that's more a personal thing than anything.
although with a sentence like "Sophie begins with a talk/rap approach that barely makes any sense, yet is still intriguing nevertheless.": you can definitely avoid the "yet is still intriguing nevertheless" bit since that doesn't really work quite as well in terms of flow. something like "is intriguing in spite of how nonsensical it is" would work better probably.
also, you say "rather infectiously bouncy" at one point, and an adverb modifying an adverb is usually a bit too convoluted for my liking. more of a personal thing though
one thing that must have struck me differently is that I definitely thought Bipp wasn't very conventional in the way you imply. I thought the absolutely insane bass movement was way different than most other stuff out there, and Lemonade seemed like a logical progression from there on out. just my thoughts though
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this is a decent review, but the way it's written makes it sound like you're out of your comfort zone trying to describe it. idk if you are
or not, it just kinda feels like that when I read this.
then again, it was probably hard as hell trying to describe this, so idk.
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Nice review, Choccy. I'll take Will's word for this and give it a shot.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
@brostep Seriously... the man is a guy? i tried doing as much research on him as possible and there wasn't anything about that. I'll have to change a fair amount then but thanks for the feedback and I'll fix out those problems in a bit.
@johnny Fair enough, I have to agree with you there but if you've heard either of these songs you'd understand why I struggled to describe them. it sadly wasn't to be the easy EP review I was hoping for
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
Cheers Oranges. It's definitely worth a couple of listens but it's not the easiest thing to swallow but who knows. You might like it ;)
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
http://pitchfork.com/features/rising/9237-sophie/
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Page Not Found?
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Other than the cool drumming section in the second song, this is terrible lol
However, your review isn't Choccy ;)
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
Damn, he really is a guy then. Also, @Brostep, I simply thought that this was far more experimental than Bipp and I agree when you say that Lemonade is a natural progression but hard is something that isn't remotely like Bipp.
Cheers mongi, still not at your level though ;)
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yesssssss lmao great job man
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http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=26127
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Also, can anyone describe to me what the hell "Wonky" is?
It's an offshoot of dubstep and hip hop beats that's based around glitched-out time signatures and unstable "weepy" synthesizers. Early Joker, Ikonika, HudMo and Rustie tunes are a prime example
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
So would Aidy's Girl's a Computer be considered wonky?
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i don't like it that much but it's cool that it's getting some attention here
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Should check this. Posd
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So would Aidy's Girl's a Computer be considered wonky?
Kind of, though the track's beat is quite formulaic. It's not really based in either hip hop or grime
Also, I'm not suggesting that wonky is a genre per se, more just a particular sound/offshoot of the dubstep movement. Basically, the sound got dissolved into funky for a time, before going the way of the dodo (much like funky in hindsight)
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