Forum Member Album Reviews

~~MicShazam~~ · 12-22-2018, 10:09 PM

^^^Cool review! short or not, I'll take it!

I think some of the lo-fi qualities of the sound comes from it being written in the ancient program I used (Reality Adlib Tracker), and part of it from it having been exported through DosBox a very long time ago, on a computer where I remember having some sound issues. One of the songs has clashing between tracks, even, where some of the channels dip in and out in volume during some extra busy sections. I fixed this in a version I put on a later album, but I want to keep the tracks on this album like they were when I first assembled the album.
Last, but not least, I didn't know what the hell I was doing with Audacity back then, so all the tracks are in 128kbps...

I think one thing that my more chip tune like music has that sets it apart, is how low and rumbly the bass is. You just don't see that in similar music. At least I never saw that, and I've downloaded hundreds of tracks from The Mod Archive.

My review is coming, but I've been swamped with work and christmas stuff recently, so I'll try to get to that and other loose ends when things quiet down a bit after the first few christmas days.

Mondo Bungle · 12-30-2018, 02:27 PM

my album got you like

~~MicShazam~~ · 12-30-2018, 02:35 PM

Haven't listened yet. I got back from Copenhagen an hour ago and haven't had much time to play around on the internet for a week. I'm gonna get around to it now that I have the time.

~~MicShazam~~ · 01-02-2019, 11:23 AM

I said I would, so I have to, but I don't want to...
Apologies in advance, but honesty is necessary if this isn't just to be some lame circle jerk thread.

Trouble Salad - The Red Candle Fiasco

https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/al...-candle-fiasco

An album made by none other than Mondo Bungle in 2018. I don't pretend to get the title. Maybe he was in a christmas mood.

So the album is an assemblage of generally pretty neat sounding beats, synths and various bleeps and bloops and other noises. As such, you could zoom in at almost any given moment on the album and it would sound fine, but I've got to take this from my personal perspective, so here's where this album does not work for me:

It's all down to the structure of these musical pieces, really. The general formula is that a beat is toyed around with for a minute or so, then modified a lot or a little for another segment, but eventually entirely discarded for a totally unrelated musical idea. This means that there is precious little that holds each individual track together as any kind of unified musical idea. The album basically plays like a very long ramble of very short segments that mostly have little to nothing to do with each other. There's no riffs, chord progressions or melodic or even rhythmic themes that are held onto enough to constitute some sort of backbone for any of the tracks. Ideas are introduced and entirely discarded at a fast pace and as a result, each track doesn't really feel like a finished piece of music, but like a sort of demo tape full of randomly paired ideas in varying stages of completion.

YMMW

But this lack of any real long form development of ideas makes the album a chore to sit through for me. Expertly assembled sounds as always, but in terms of the actual compositions, this album doesn't hold my interest at all.

Sorry for being rude

But I know you don't want be to lie and kiss your ass either.

Mondo Bungle · 01-02-2019, 02:22 PM

oh well

~~MicShazam~~ · 01-02-2019, 02:25 PM

Everyone else in here would disagree with my take, so you can always warm yourself by that thought.

I hate everything.

Mondo Bungle · 01-02-2019, 02:42 PM

I really thought you would like it. It's probably the most cohesive and structurally sound and easily the most thoughtful thing I've put together but I guess that isn't saying much.

~~MicShazam~~ · 01-02-2019, 02:48 PM

I think I'm particularly difficult when it comes to that.
Like I said though, there's lots of really well made individual segments.

Mondo Bungle · 01-02-2019, 02:54 PM

well what if it was just those separated into like 60 tracks

~~MicShazam~~ · 01-02-2019, 03:00 PM

lol

well, at least then I'd complain less about it not making any sense.

12-22-2018, 10:09 PM	#1 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	^^^Cool review! short or not, I'll take it! I think some of the lo-fi qualities of the sound comes from it being written in the ancient program I used (Reality Adlib Tracker), and part of it from it having been exported through DosBox a very long time ago, on a computer where I remember having some sound issues. One of the songs has clashing between tracks, even, where some of the channels dip in and out in volume during some extra busy sections. I fixed this in a version I put on a later album, but I want to keep the tracks on this album like they were when I first assembled the album. Last, but not least, I didn't know what the hell I was doing with Audacity back then, so all the tracks are in 128kbps... I think one thing that my more chip tune like music has that sets it apart, is how low and rumbly the bass is. You just don't see that in similar music. At least I never saw that, and I've downloaded hundreds of tracks from The Mod Archive. My review is coming, but I've been swamped with work and christmas stuff recently, so I'll try to get to that and other loose ends when things quiet down a bit after the first few christmas days.

12-30-2018, 02:35 PM	#3 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Haven't listened yet. I got back from Copenhagen an hour ago and haven't had much time to play around on the internet for a week. I'm gonna get around to it now that I have the time.

01-02-2019, 11:23 AM	#4 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	I said I would, so I have to, but I don't want to... Apologies in advance, but honesty is necessary if this isn't just to be some lame circle jerk thread. Trouble Salad - The Red Candle Fiasco https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/al...-candle-fiasco An album made by none other than Mondo Bungle in 2018. I don't pretend to get the title. Maybe he was in a christmas mood. So the album is an assemblage of generally pretty neat sounding beats, synths and various bleeps and bloops and other noises. As such, you could zoom in at almost any given moment on the album and it would sound fine, but I've got to take this from my personal perspective, so here's where this album does not work for me: It's all down to the structure of these musical pieces, really. The general formula is that a beat is toyed around with for a minute or so, then modified a lot or a little for another segment, but eventually entirely discarded for a totally unrelated musical idea. This means that there is precious little that holds each individual track together as any kind of unified musical idea. The album basically plays like a very long ramble of very short segments that mostly have little to nothing to do with each other. There's no riffs, chord progressions or melodic or even rhythmic themes that are held onto enough to constitute some sort of backbone for any of the tracks. Ideas are introduced and entirely discarded at a fast pace and as a result, each track doesn't really feel like a finished piece of music, but like a sort of demo tape full of randomly paired ideas in varying stages of completion. YMMW But this lack of any real long form development of ideas makes the album a chore to sit through for me. Expertly assembled sounds as always, but in terms of the actual compositions, this album doesn't hold my interest at all. Sorry for being rude But I know you don't want be to lie and kiss your ass either.

01-02-2019, 02:25 PM	#6 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Everyone else in here would disagree with my take, so you can always warm yourself by that thought. I hate everything.

01-02-2019, 02:48 PM	#8 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	I think I'm particularly difficult when it comes to that. Like I said though, there's lots of really well made individual segments.

01-02-2019, 03:00 PM	#10 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	lol well, at least then I'd complain less about it not making any sense.