Rainbow Grey
This is one of Plainview's projects so I'm excited to get around to reviewing one of our very own member's albums.
Track 1 Nice synthwork here at the beginning, backwards **** always freaks me out and this isn't an exception. Are you sampling a piano for the low noises? I wish the drums would very a little more than the loop being presented, but I do enjoy the ever evolving synth tones. Nice little opener, some synths could use some beefing up and the drum track needs some more variation, but not too shabby.
Track 2 I love the piano synth whatever that is in the front, but I'm not really into the drums timbre, sounds like a preset in FL Studio. Oh the beat changed up, now that I can get behind. Once again I feel like these synth tones, while pleasant, need some beefing up. There's not much low end to this album which makes me feel like a chunk of the sound is missing. More neutral about this one.
Track 3 Crazy samples right out of the gate. I can't help but feel like the organ sounds like a completely different song entirely. Now a trumpet choir? What the hell is going on with this song? Loving the quasi-trap feel that the drums have. Eh not sure about that one, too much going for its own good, a lot of it just didn't mesh well and sounded messy.
Track 4 The beginning sounds like an early Three 6 Mafia beat or something. Alright getting into some tribal drumming, oh this is real good. Not sure why those synths are coming in, the double bass and drum pattern needed some more time to breathe in my opinion. Whenever it gets to that groove in the song that's where it's the best. Don't like those sustained synths taking up the mix, they should be farther back letting the bass have more room to breathe because the way it is now the groove feels buried.
Track 5 I like the start, I assume that's a synth preset and a guitar maybe? The floating ambiance is complementing the jittery rhythms nicely. Beautiful string arrangement here. No complaints here at all, this is wonderful.
Track 6 Really nice beat, I'm really wondering how you got that guitar tone. Love love love that keyboard interlude. More trap influence, personally that's an up for me. Nice little outro, I can't really describe it, but I enjoy it a lot.
Track 7 Weird mix of backwards electronics and lo-fi guitar to make a really chilled out beat. Don't like the whole drum only bit there, the drums sound too sterile to get that much attention focused on them. Back to the beat, but with ambient electronics ahead of the mix? It would have sounded better if the beat instantly just cut out entirely for this whole section because when they came in it was total audio soup. This was good except for the one or two things I pointed out which I couldn't stand.
Track 8 Nice tone on the groove, almost industrial. This one has a really ****ing weird mix on it. Why is the melody all the way in the back, and the tambourine in the front? The melody has a nice Tortoise sound to it, but goddamn I wish I could hear it better over the drums. I like the new beat, crazy glitchy. Sorry, but the mix on that drove me ****ing crazy to the point where it was unenjoyable.
Track 9 Nice melody almost sounds like something I might hear in a commercial, but with some grit. That weird ass tone is great as well. Liking the breakbeat carrying the track. Once the piano kicks in full on it's just gorgeous.
Track 10 Didn't even realize the next track started. Nice chords, but I'm not sold on the all-over-the-place synth over it. Complete beat change up which moved straight back into the original beat, not sure why but I found that incredibly pleasing. Love the ambient wash over synth, but again I wish everything would just cut out when you do that. Like there should not be a beat around that at all.
Final Verdict: I see your talent Plainview and with some more work, which based on the fact that this is 6 months old I'm sure you've gotten, you could really make something incredible. The production sounds a little cheap at times, and occasionally the mix and placement of instruments is messy and claustrophobic; but you do have a penchant for experimentation that I love and a knack for a catchy line or melody. Keep at it, and don't take this personally I wanted to critique it as much as I could; a lot of this was very very nice, just some big things that need work in order to get something amazing. Based on the track you posted a few days ago I can see already you've improved tremendously.
6/10