Music reviews

[Blubber]

well yeah, bad luck in this case

your review standards may be counterproductive sometimes

so once again, think about starting simple, you may always edit if you feel like

[Blair Thaumic]

I'm going to be brutally honest here. Some people may be upset by this, and that's fine. Feel free to tell me I'm completely wrong.

 

I think there's a narrowness of taste on this forum. A lot of recent reviews, by T2MU and others who follow his lead, follow the pattern of "this is great because it's banging Goa" or "this is weak because it isn't banging Goa". Music is deeply subjective, and I don't expect that everything I like will get positive reviews, but I'd like to see more appreciation for the less 'hard' styles of psy music.

 

Fr'ex, Total Eclipse - Delta Aquarids is a well written, well produced album by any metric. Yes, it doesn't sound like Etnica or Transwave. It doesn't have hard kick drums or screaming acid. It belongs to the more synth rock/synth pop influenced school of Goa trance. That doesn't make it a weak album. If anything I prefer it to Etnica and (most) Transwave, but I don't go around calling Etnica "weaksauce" or compare it to eating broccoli. Those comments show a lack of perspective.

 

The same goes for more tribal, hypnotic trance music like Lumukanda, Masaray, ect. If it doesn't work for you, fair play. But if you don't understand what the music is trying to do and are comparing it to music with a completely different aim, then your review misses the point.

 

As a positive counterexample to my whinge: I don't know if you follow djsolitare.com, but you should. He has a deep understanding of this genre, and a skill at articulating what makes a track work.

 

EDIT: also Psytrance University. https://www.facebook.com/psyuniversity/?fref=ts

[Blair Thaumic]

I'd also like to see more negative reviews/comments that go in depth about what the person didn't like. Not just "this is boring, avoid it." Explain why an album is boring. That way we get a sense of where the reviewer is coming from and whether or not we're likely to feel the same way.

[the goa constrictor]

I'm going to be brutally honest here. Some people may be upset by this, and that's fine. Feel free to tell me I'm completely wrong.

 

I think there's a narrowness of taste on this forum. A lot of recent reviews, by T2MU and others who follow his lead, follow the pattern of "this is great because it's banging Goa" or "this is weak because it isn't banging Goa". Music is deeply subjective, and I don't expect that everything I like will get positive reviews, but I'd like to see more appreciation for the less 'hard' styles of psy music.

 

Fr'ex, Total Eclipse - Delta Aquarids is a well written, well produced album by any metric. Yes, it doesn't sound like Etnica or Transwave. It doesn't have hard kick drums or screaming acid. It belongs to the more synth rock/synth pop influenced school of Goa trance. That doesn't make it a weak album. If anything I prefer it to Etnica and (most) Transwave, but I don't go around calling Etnica "weaksauce" or compare it to eating broccoli. Those comments show a lack of perspective.

 

The same goes for more tribal, hypnotic trance music like Lumukanda, Masaray, ect. If it doesn't work for you, fair play. But if you don't understand what the music is trying to do and are comparing it to music with a completely different aim, then your review misses the point.

 

As a positive counterexample to my whinge: I don't know if you follow djsolitare.com, but you should. He has a deep understanding of this genre, and a skill at articulating what makes a track work.

 

EDIT: also Psytrance University. https://www.facebook.com/psyuniversity/?fref=ts

 

 

This is exactly why I made it a point to not write bad reviews.

Why should I shit on someone else's tastes?

 

The idea of a review, to me, is to share why I love something and think other people would want to listen to it.

[DeathPosture]

I used to write a ton of reviews because I had a lot of free time on my hands.

I don't any more.

Major showstoppers for me: Social media (really took of in 2007 and onwards, meaning much less review/forum-activity) + full-time job (I was a student back when I reviewed 2-3 CDs a week) + getting a wife & kids (kids are great, but they will change your life 100% and eat up all your free time and money).

But I'd love to get back to reviewing again. Maybe one day.