Bramajam - "Get on your feet"

Poor quality midi demo (1/10) It's just a poor quality midi demo. These are not even full tracks, just short excerpts. There is no mastering at all, there are different volume levels, analog noises. Samples sound terrible. Maybe melodies as such would deserve a better rating than 1/10, but in its current state this "album" is unlistenable. Stay away, people. The album has been released on Jamendo and is available for downloading in mp3 format.

Silence Industry, the - "Edge Of Illusion, the"

Songwriting skills vs production skills (7/10) The 4th release from The Silence Industry. This time The Silence Industry can be heard refining their unique sound which combines elements of post-punk, industrial, noise, dream-pop, psychedelia and goth-rock. "The Edge of Illusion" is a reference to our dispossession and our struggles to overcome it: a theme that runs throughout the release. It is sad and frustrating. Because this band truly knows how to write great gothic rock/metal songs. Even if they borrow heavily from Fields of the Nephilim, these tunes are so good that it would not be a problem. So why is it sad? The reason is all the work and talent they put into songwriting is wasted because of lack of production skills and/or equipment. This album sounds like recorded in a bucket full of water, but with the mikes placed not only outside the bucket, but also in another room. The mix is flat, with all the instruments forming an undistinctive mass of dull sound. The vocals are particularly awful, unintelligible and buried deep in the background. Yuck. I pondered how to rate this work and I am giving it 7/10, but only because the songs themselves deserve 9 or even 10. The quality of sound deserves 2 or 3. One could say it should not matter - Jamendo is not for professionals and I should rate only the quality of songwriting. But what if poor production makes the recording almost unlistenable? Should I award 5 stars to the album that I can barely listen without my ears aching? No way. That is not going to happen. Re-record this album, guys, and I will be happy to give it full 10 points. The album has been released on Jamendo as well as by the now-defunct netlabel Ekleipsi and is available for downloading at the following locations in mp3 and ogg formats: Jamendo / Jamendo mirror at archive.org / Ekleipsi mirror at archive.org You can also download it directly from the artist at Bandcamp in a variety of formats, including a lossless FLAC version. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation at Jamendo or Bandcamp. I would choose Bandcamp to support sharing lossless music.

[Artist's Myspace]

Xenophobe - "Episode 2"

One of the best bands you have never heard of (8/10)

2nd CD of 4 track recordings mastered to digital compact cassette. Transfered to CD by Brian Lipski in 1997 Very interesting recording supposedly featuring electronic reworking of music by Warfare, a metal band from the 80-ties, completely unknown to general public. Warfare's Myspace profile (yes, they have one!) says they were: "Thrash band from the Jersey shore in the mid 80's. All songs recorded live at band practices through headphones onto cassette..."

If this is true, it is another proof that talent hunters at the record labels are deaf and you need just a massive luck to be accepted. Why? Because these songs are great.

Of course even in these reworked versions you can hear the limitation of the poor equipment and recording conditions. But what counts is that they are catchy and energetic and if these guys were given a chance, they could easily turn them into metal masterpieces.

OK, but what about these updated versions? Well, they are still merely of a demo quality, because they were recorded in the nineties on cheap analog equipment. Yet these tunes are so well crafted that I enjoyed them very much despite their extremely lo-fi sound. The album starts with an earthquake - an industrial metal riff of the first track "Mad". Equally powerful is the third track "Dawn Of Time". No. 4 is a little slower, as to make some room for handful of strange samples. No. 5 "Phat and Funky" seems to contain a vocal line by Les Claypool of Primus, although the album's description does not mention that. Maybe it's someone else perfectly imitating his voice, though it feels unlikely, when you know how distinct Claypool's voice is. So anyone thinking of using this music commercially, should take double care, because it may contain some copyrighted material.

From the track no. 6 the arrangements change from industrial metal into synthpop / new wave, but keeping their main feature - catchiness. Another stylistic change comes in track no. 9, where we meet hip hop, followed by rap metal in the next tune. In track 11 we go back to metal. The album ends with two crazy renditions of "Wild Thing" (probably still copyrighted too!).

The only weak track is no. 2 "Acoustic Song" - with a primitive melody, and low quality plastic-sounding samples (not that electronic sounds in other tracks are of exceptional quality, but in this one they are truly terrible).

To summarize - this album is a true gem and I recommend it to anyone ready to listen to very good music in not so good quality.

The album has been released by the NoiseCollector netlabel and is available for downloading at archive.org in mp3 and ogg format.

Orchid - "Takk!_Soundsampler"

Excellent dreamy pop rock (9/10) Orchid was founded in January 2006, in Poznan - a city in a mid way between Warsaw and Berlin. After we have made our debut as a part of a nationwide charity action known as Wielka Orkiestra Swiatecznej Pomocy we played several gigs in Poland. Our music goes easy with the rockandroll. It is mostly simple, melodic, sometimes schmaltzy. It meets the electronics, but not very modern, rather vintage. We do rockandrol, special FX included. Contact: (cell) +48 510 549 762 orchidtheband@gmail.com Excellent dreamy pop rock. And I don't say that because I'm the Pole myself, but because of the quality of this recording. I'm the last person to praise work of others, if it's not really worth it. So my rating doesn't mean "9, because they come from Poland and they're young" but "9, because you can put it right beside Portishead's or The Cardigans' albums". Pros: - catchy melodies (but not primitively commercial), - great dreamy atmosphere, - beautiful female voice, - not bad English accent. Cons: - production. The voice is without any sense hidden in the background. Sometimes it's even hard to hear the lyrics (especially on "Moreless"). - drums. Monotonous cymbals, which in addition are louder than the vocals ("Moreless" again), distract attention from otherwise great tunes and after a while become really tiring. Overall, the pros seriously outweigh the cons. Despite the small drawbacks, this is the finest pop rock album I heard in months. And it is infinitely better than everything that Polish branches of the majors excreted from their rotting bowels and labeled as Polish pop rock, in years. The highlights: 1 moreless - catchy, sexy melody, great piano. 2 call to the past - the best on this album. Smash hit. Beautiful melody sang beautifully. 5 mess - starts surprisingly with an old-fashioned keyboard but then contemporary guitars join with a nice melody. But it is a chorus that is really mesmerizing with a haunting vocalise. It reminds me of the great vocalise from the Polish classic movie "Pociag". Finally, anyone wanting more from Orchid may wish to visit their website. You can find several bonus tracks there - each worth checking out. And you can now buy their debut album in mp3 for 3,5 euro (!) and on CD for 12 euros. I highly recommend it, because it is as great as this demo.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Website / Myspace]

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation.

Mihkay - "Everything Changes" [demo]

Everything changes but Lenin lives forever (4/10) OK chaps. Here is my final demo for this year. Everthing changes- This song was conceived while standing on a pile of rubble on the South end of the Forth Bridge in Scotland. The rubble was the remains of a hotel built in the 1960's. Now, 30 years later it was gone. No bad thing, but made me think, especially as there was one of those wonderful Scotish summer sunsets at the time. 30 minutes later I wrote most of what became "Future shines" (On Mihkay Demos). It was a good day for me. And on a more recent, personal note.... and not such a good day........ ." .......there was a paper mill at Guardbridge until July 2008" Dress to kill - While working,I ended up becalmed fot a few days on Ibiza! Not my natural habitat. Too hot too dusty and full of drunk Brits! lol. I don't dance so I was a fish out of water. This song is the result. The cover is a photo shot by my girlfriend Sue, in Podolsk, just outside Moscow earlier this year. I'm sorry the title of the review is a comment on the cover, not music, but I just couldn't resist. As for the music. I know it's just a demo, but still, I listened to some demo albums made by other artists, which were so good I kept them in my collection and listen with pleasure. Unfortunately, that's not the case here. Both songs are simple pop rock played by a one-man orchestra on guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and vocals of course. I guess that already puts him out of the crowd and requires quite a talent, but I won't raise my points because of that. I rate general listenability, which for me is limited. On my scale good recording starts at 7/10. The main problem for me here are uninteresting melodies, which lower the rating to 5/10. Production or technical issues lower it one point more. What issues? Firstly, the drums. They are monotonous and overwhelm the rest of instruments. And their sound is very flat. All of this makes for a really tiring effect. I think they would be tiring even if they were exceptionally good, but they are weak. Use and placement of guitar, bass and keyboard is much better, maybe except for the "piano" sound on the second track, which is quite artificial. I also didn't like the guitar effect at 2:53 of the first song. It is out-of-place there, doesn't fit in this song. Finally, the vocals. The artist should work on his voice, because now it just lacks power and confidence. But it is not a disaster either and definitely there is a room for improvement. Don't get me wrong. This is not a bad album. My main problem with it are boring melodies and this is a very subjective issue. What's boring for one is great for the others. There are many top pop rock bands, which for me have only boring tunes. Yet they are still on top and many people love their songs. So for someone else technical issues could mean lowering the rating not from 5/10, but from 10/10. If you like pop rock and have free 8 minutes, you might check this out and who knows...? Moreover, it is clear the artist is still learning (and eager to learn). So with better production skills, slightly better equipment, some singing lessons and a bit of luck in composing catchy tunes, he might come up with a real blockbuster. Again - who knows...? So a pop rock fan could keep him on a watchlist, just it case "everything changed". By the way, I briefly listened also to "Mihkay Demos", just to have some comparison and my first impression was that those songs were better. Maybe they were worse produced (as the artist wrote himself in the album's description) but they were much more diverse with regard to accompaniment. The melodies didn't catch my ear either, but because of the interesting arrangement, my attention was more focused.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Myspace]

k.ROCKSHIRE - "Foamy Leather [doggyBag music for hardcore fans]"

For hardcore fans indeed (4/10) Album of middle-aged, closing The Doggystyle and announcing the Dark Side of the Bone at a time, Foamy Leather is an album of b-sides, remixes and live performances to fans addressing the most hardened and incorrigible of k. Rockshire. If you are not willing to sell your mother to break your arm or the tecktonik for k. Rockshire, go your way. Others may enjoy 38 minutes of happiness. K.Rockshire fans may be surprised by the decidedly ponk and experimental album. Ingredients: acoustic and electric ukulele, harmonica, double griddle music (regular pocket maniaxRule & LM), organ of potatoes, broken vinyl, synthesizers & sequencers virtual samples, electric bass, trumpet hunting casio toy synth, electro-magnetic sensor , vocoder, kazoo, barking, Jew electric accordion, guitar and electric PopSet ™: Banana music, guitar and microphones popMusic Smurf Music. This is truly a material for hardcore fans only. Apart from tracks 01 & 03, this album contains poorly recorded fragments of jam sessions. You can listen to this out of curiousity, but that's all. Tracks 01 & 03 are better recorded and they are variations on themes that can be heard on "the doggystyle EP". Only for hardcore fans as well.