[LAU] My second album is done!

[Julien Claassen]

Hello Gabbe!
   Before I begin to say any word about the music you made, I will say: thank 
you for all the troubles you got up to to give me a chance to listen to it. 
This is very kind of you and - be assured - very much appreciated!
   As a whole, I very much agree with Dave's vote of the clear sound and good 
mix. The mixes have power, sound well balanced to me. What's even better, is 
that they fall on willing ears. In recent weeks I've turned more and more 
towards electronic music.
   the intro is a good introduction to the sonic world of your album. Slowly 
taking me in, preparing for the Skandinavian sound and feel. The width and 
openness. Only to surprise me later on. there is that Skandinavian feel poking 
through, but not as obvious as before. I like the bassdrum of the intro. It 
appears later on again. It has bite and pumps a little, not in a compression 
artefact way. It's somewhere between an edited acoustic bassdrum and something 
purely electronic. It might even fill the four-to-the-floor niche.
   It is alive is the nice four-to-the-floor piece. And it already shows 
something, which characterises the whole album. The tracks flow seemlessly 
from one into the other. Not only by ambient sounds, but by concept. If it had 
been me, I'd have mixed the snare louder. But that way it keeps the attention, 
while still deliviering. I can't completely let go with that, because, there 
is that small bit, which seems so uncharacteristic. I also love the somehow 
oneiric harmonies. Tending towards minor, yet rarely pure minor chords. While 
having a touch of 90s nostalgia about it, the mix sounds very much like the 
current decade. Do you use "overcompression" to get this slightly pumping 
effect? I noticed that throughout the album and had been wondering. If so: how 
do you compress? The whole song or only certain groups of instruments? - Again 
the bassdrum is nice, crisp and very well defined. Ha! The blend to Still is 
lovely. I recognise the sound and I must admit, that I never dreamt it could 
be used in such a place. Well sed.
   Still: I think here the bassdrum is a little too loud in the mix, but not so 
loud as to bannish the thought of enjoyment. :-) And so we have turned to a 
more hiphop styled track. And it still keeps in the spirit of the earlier 
tracks. As I said: it's a sonic world, this album. Listening to it again, I 
feel, that so far, it appears more like a change in arrangement and style than 
in harmony. It's bordering on my threshhold of boredom. If it wasn't for the 
very nice mixes and well executed styles and the morphing of one into the 
other... but there is that and it holds me. You know, that my threshhold of 
boredom is quite low. Since I'm still more of a prog and baroque listener than 
electronica.
   Come and play; why not. I'm game. :-) This sets a much lighter tone. I love 
the slight touch of breakbeat in this piece. Also the main instrument is 
interesting. the way the piece changes from almost elevator music into almost 
dubstep is great. The way the movement picks up and the arrangement fills up 
from almost meditative spheric guitar to the full beat. Teh effects you used, 
the well-placed delay and how you managed to use that to instantly isolate the 
main "lead" and the rhythm in places. Well done. good trick!
   Full Moon baffled me at first. Perhaps because I approached it with 
preformed notions, of what it should have been. That way it's the piece, that 
I still perceive as the weakest piece on this album. It sounds to common place 
for me. To worldly. The introduction and the "bridge" are the best bits. They 
talk to me of a full moon and the quiet night. The rest is more of the beach 
party next door with its drinking, barbecuing crowd. At least it's a Swedish 
party and not one of those Mallorca crimes, that they probably call "a beach 
happening" or "afterwork holiday". :-) Get out the "let oel" and let's say 
"skol" (sorry can't spell it and didn't find it quickly :-) ).
   I wonder, what you thought, when you called the next composition "Touchdown 
Germany"? Was it the ambient sound from the lecture hall at my uni? Or is it 
the plump beat? That beat, which makes me think of Flaubert, who said 
something about music of the heavens, that we hear, but only produce 
something, which sounds like it's being played on rusting tin drums, written 
for crippled bears. :-) It has a very raw edge this piece, while keeping with 
the flow of the dreamy melodies.
   the Circus reminds me even more of dubstep. Not really, but the stuttering 
rhythm and this change from third notes in a quarter beat. Only your version 
of it is like Debusy's sweet juicy apple eaten with knife and fork in 
comparison to Gershwin. Neither is wrong or right, but one is more tamed than 
the other. Rhythmic acrobatics in pensive music. A circus indeed. :-)
   Have you ever been to Korea? If my quick look at google didn't lead me 
astray completely, it should be somewhere in South Korea. Whereever Kojan is, 
we have returned to the good, old idiom of hiphop with the drumkit from the 
first track. If I were to analyse this piece, I'd say the instrument 
reminiscent of an electric piano in the middle has a slight touch of typica 
Asian harmony and the sawtoothy synth almost gives an impression of chiptunes 
synthesis. With the impressions we get, I might suggest, that this is to 
conjure up an idea of all those game consoles, that the youngsters over there 
love so much or at least use so much. One of my old classmates would at least 
agree with the interest in game consoles, if not wioth my implications on this 
piece. :-) In a way it's a good song to lead me out. It seems so much more 
worldly. The applause, the crowd, the rest of the world, that stands so far 
removed from the images of moonlit nights - parties or no parties - and the 
still, windy atmosphere of the album. You worked a great deal with white 
noise, which gives one the feeling of wind in the dunes. It's a sound I heard 
a lot in radioplays and this white noise patch - or patches - are close to 
that sound. Somewhere between wind and waves or the mixture of the two?
   All in all, it's a good album and I will be sure to listen to it again. 
Perhaps not in one go, as I did today, but now I've taken in teh atmosphere, I 
can quickly travel back there. It's a good piece of work Always slightly 
dreamy, dark, depressive and still with a consoling lightness behind the 
pregnant beats and occasional distorted synths. A good balance between the 
single mindedness of centre beats and basses and parnoramic harmonies and 
effects. I like it. And I hope, that you will get a whole load of feedback and 
a couple of new listeners.
   What will you give us next time? Perhaps once more something with the 
occasional lyrics? Some Swedish hiphop or some English song of longing? Or 
something different?
   Warm regards and thanks for sharing
          Julien

----------------------------------------
http://juliencoder.de/nama/music.html