I do like it but I'm thinking it's a little too busy and over the top. Not sure. Might get it, I can still imagine this being an awesome end of the night track and would love to have the opportunity to play it in that context.
Wouldn't be surprised if anyone says it's decent at best either. I'm that on the fence about it.
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Levels is...decent...damn better than a lot of the shite dominating the charts at the moment. It sounds absolutely nothing like...a billion and one similar tracks in this big-room style. I always had a soft spot.
Dec-30-2012 03:24
sicc
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Dec 2010
Location: Seattle, Washington
ehh, like the first half, then it just kind of turns into a bland loop of that first half xD. I could dance my ass off to this in a dance floor setting though, maybe mix it out a bit early instead of playing the entire track.
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Dec-30-2012 04:55
Looney4Clooney
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Apr 2010
Location:
Assuming the intention was to sound like a track made in the 90s, i find it lacks a few things that would make it a miss for me.
The kick and bass are poorly defined which kills the rhythmic foundation upon which those piano stabs syncopations would of grooved. About the groove, it ain't there. The quantized drums overpower any soft of tension that could of been created by the bass and piano.
The form is modern in some ways as it gives you the payoff right away which is somewhat anachronistic in that everything else is referencing a style from decades ago. No time to establish the foundation letting people groove a bit before going somewhere. And because you get the main theme in full , the track is rather redundant. You already have everything by the time the kick and bass come in. So the form is completely static which would not really be something i would want for a closing track.
Poorly mixed with no groove trying to recreate something from another era and failing. I just don't see the point of this track. It uses every cliche , the 909 drums, the m1 piano, the 106 bassline but just sounds like a poor attempt to recreate something without adding anything new and doing it very poorly.
Why not just play a classic instead of this anachronistic attempt to sound like a classic. I would be shaking my head if someone played this to end their set. Why not treat your audience to a classic instead of this bullshit.
My attempt at doing looney4clooney style criticism/analysis of the track:
First off, the groove is a bit broken. I can't quite describe what it is about it, but it doesn't fit properly and it seems too complicated for something this melody driven (is it house, or is it techno? the track can't decide).
2 minutes in and i feel like it's already lost energy... that bassline is awful and doesn't fit with the rest of the track. That bassline that doesn't fit with the groove plus such a hard mid heavy kick... ouch. Does not fit at all.
The melody has changed to a late stage of a melody... it's a 7 minute track and it feels like the track is about to finish already. Wtf?
3:33 track suddenly became a whole lot harder and very muddy. How energetic is this track supposed to be? It can go for high energy if it wants but if it does; it's gonna need much better execution and flow.
~4:05 what's with the bassline randomly dropping out here? This sounds like a live version of a track done really badly. I'd feel awkward hearing this out anywhere if I wasn't going to see the artist play a live set
4:30 The progression of the supporting melody just doesn't work, it feels artificially extended. You can't whip a 7 minute track out of thin air, if the producer can't make one properly he should stick to shorter tracks until he can.
5:05 The melody that comes in here is reasonable for finishing up the track, but even still... it just feels like it doesn't mesh with the rest of the track and totally changes the mood of the track. I guess maybe that's where you got the idea for it being a finishing track from. I don't think it's strong enough to be a finishing track... it could be if it was more well executed but it isn't.
~6:45 The outro is well executed; the bassline is still poor and doesn't mesh with the rest of the song though which is obvious in this part
quote:
Originally posted by Looney4Clooney
Poorly mixed with no groove trying to recreate something from another era and failing. I just don't see the point of this track. It uses every cliche , the 909 drums, the m1 piano, the 106 bassline but just sounds like a poor attempt to recreate something without adding anything new and doing it very poorly.
It feels so hollow that the mood almost becomes dark. This would be a great finisher to a nice hard and long (2 hour plus) industrial techno set because it's just an awkward tune... but I have a feeling that wasn't the intention of the producer somehow.
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Levels is...decent...damn better than a lot of the shite dominating the charts at the moment. It sounds absolutely nothing like...a billion and one similar tracks in this big-room style. I always had a soft spot.
Dec-30-2012 23:11
Looney4Clooney
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Apr 2010
Location:
the logistics of being the last track. That would make it hard to play both. I think it is a poor grooveless track regardless of were you place it and feel for the crowd that has to suffer the dj that plays it deserve better. It sounds old. So play something old that is better. I just don't understand the point of playing something trying to be something else when you can just play what it tries to be.
Its like you have a flac version of the track but go with the 96 k mp3 because 96 happens to be your favourite number.
