Ahh, now this is my kind of thing. The song opens with some really nice pads and some nice chiming sounds with some heavy reverb. The track seems to revolve around bell-sounding instruments passed through plenty of reverb, which works very nicely here. Definitely has a certain metallic-theme going on, but it does sound very nice and at times even a little chaotic, but in the best possible way. While I would hardly describe the track as epic, it sounds magnificent. Nothing clashes, and everything sounds perfectly in place and to be perfectly honest I can't fault the song itself, except for that it's too short! Curse you and your short tracks! I'd love to hear an extended version of this track open up into something bigger, but for what it is it works very well.

Production-wise there is this annoying hiss that underlies the track, but that's easily dismissed and the whole track has a nice warm and friendly sound to it that appeals to me. As I said, everything fits and nothing sounded out of place. I must admit I was surprised when I looked at the year this song was originally made - I was expecting it to more recent than 1994 in any case.

In short this is a great ambient track that I would recommend people listen to. It's certainly short and sweet and is a nice example of a certain area of the genre. Maybe some more background pads and some choirs and... no, sorry, I must resist the urge to let my own tastes get in the way! Certainly a very good track, and well recommended.
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Adam Fielding
http://www.adamfielding.com

In my Stevie's thread (he means his picks for 2004, ignore the delusions of grandeur) I paid a tribute to certain Soundclick artists who are 'difficult', 'odd' or just plain nutso. I call them Left Field artists because I've never really liked that whole avant-garde mumbo jumbo and booooyyy do some of them come from outta that damn left field. Soundclick has a growing Left Field scene, many of which I mentioned as part of my tribute to what I had heard throughout 2004. The top contenders for that title, Burp, Refrag, et al all have challenging and infinitely musical visions but the connecting link is that these are electronic musicians as opposed to someone like - say - Pilesar.

Richard Dunlap is going to slot in amongst them as if to the manner born, judging by this incredibly diverse and often surprising electronic musical journey of some nine minutes. Aaaarrrrggghhh, you scream, NINE fekkin minutes? Why I could be dead by then! If that is the way you feel you probably would be best to give this track a pass. Like a lot of good things, September Cycle takes a bit of work from you too. Give it that attention and you'll be rewarded with a soundscape so studded with little musical forays and ideas by the bucketload it'll have your head spinning. There's an almost classical, orchestral feel about it that you only begin to notice after a few plays and there was a point where I could swear I actually heard an orchestra tuning up in the background.

Soundscapes, especially of the electronic variety, have to have something going for them other than a mashup of interesting sounds. I have only ever come across a couple of people who do them well; Deek and Jon Bushaway of The Dead Company in the past 5 years of reviewing internet music - and now I've got Richard Dunlap to keep them company. Although I didn't get the same mental kick from September Cycle as I would from Deek's immortal Somme Respite (winner: most harrowing track in the world) there's an inner beauty and structure to this track that takes some careful prising out. In other words, give this track a bit more of your time than usual and you might find you get what you need.

A class act modern electronic composer. Well worth the listen.

Steve Gilmore

structure: 7/10
different band, same guy as dadala: richard dunlap!
an ARTIST you should definitely check out if you havent yet.
very differnet sounding from "ghost grinder", which i greatly enjoyed, this piece is more of a meditational track.
layered ambient soundscapes, at 9:20 maybe a bit on the longish end considering we don't get a lot of variation, but then that's what meditation is about unmoving fixation of your conscious focus.

instrumentation: 7.5/10
colourful, top notch, spacially rich soundscapes. not sure though how much of this was actually original sound design.
my guess would be a lot of this is spectrasonics presets, but then who knows
all fitting very well. not altogether convinced by the drums entering the scene around 5:50 though, snare felt a bit out of place.

emotional climate: 8/10
meditational, soothing, colourful

originality: 6.5/10
soundscapes used did sound somewhat familiar

production: 9/10
very professional job here

overall: 7.5/10
a convincing track showing a new angle on richard dunlop.
since my profession for the past 15 years has primarily been that of a painter and designer and not a musician, i am a fan of colour. this piece has a great deal of it, which i liked, though i found it not as original as "ghost rider".

anyways a good job, and definitely deserving a listen
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RD: I should mention that 'Autumn Segues' was recorded in 1995. No computer, all done on hardware: Proteus 1 and 2 sound modules, a couple synths, stand-alone hardware MIDI sequencer, one effects unit and 8-track cassette (used only for effects tracks).
Other than the conventional instrument sounds (like percussion and piano), no presets were used, I did my own patch programming.
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emetrics: ok, ok, apologies for that, richard. well, i did say i was just guessing
apparently i was quite mistaken. considering it was done in 1995 and all on hardware the track is an excellent piece of electronica, but you know how it is nowadays: you get software romplers like atmosphere with around 10 million patches delivering top-notch recordings of something like the complete encyclopedia of hardware known to mankind, which has most people doing very little of their own sound design.
anyways great job there!

Autumn Segues

What a great soundscape, this is real Ambient music and spooks me out in a good way, I find myself staring at the floor and thinking of stuff that never happen to me, this is a real treat and I love it to bits, it’s a track you need to sit down and have a cup of tea with,
I can see myself listening to this one a lot but not at night.

Nice one

Ridd