The piano chords grabbed me right from the beginning, the strings deepened my interest, the drums locked me in and then the synth took me to the edge of emotional turmoil.

Just when I thought it wasn't possible to wrench any more emotion out of me, the track went into this mad climax around the 3.00 min mark! Things got a bit broken up from there and I lost the sense of fluency to the piece, but the track faded to a close shortly after that, which ended my near 4.00 minutes of musical 'time-out' quite nicely ...

I felt a sense of returning to reality after listening to this piece. Quite amazing, really. Phew.

Track:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=667589&songID=5171116

This track has a really nice sense of building and layering - kind of reminiscent of the superb "Telegraph Road" by Dire Straits.

How would you describe it? Ambient synth, I guess.

There is a curious blend of electric piano and synthesized "acoustic" piano on this one - which works rather well as a featured instrument. I'm reminded of the old Arp 16 voice piano - but I doubt many here would remember that rare beast.

The digital seagulls and wind work well also - last time these featured was on Rick Wakeman's "King Arthur" epilogue. Nice to see someone trying to produce a soundscape with a little atmosphere.

At 2:50 This track takes off, and really lifts in intensity, and for the last 30 seconds of this four minute track, the atmospheric fade recapitulates nicely.

In terms of production values - the bass gets boomy in parts - so use my trick of running Windows Media Player across the track to check - use the Spectrum analyser visual setting - known as "Bars and Waves - Bars". A 3 dB drop over the bass, and it would have been perfectly EQ'd.

The string synth sounds were a little thin, but well executed just the same. Double track these (or use a delay) to add interest. Or else duplicate the synth part to a new track in your DAW package and slide it a few milliseconds to the right.

The appealing this about this track is its genuine level of well employed sounds, and its attention to detail in the arrangement. It could just have been a boring piano solo, but the composer has gone to great lengths to produce something special.

Nice work.

But given the artist is 14 years old, it's simply brilliant.

And with the following ingredients -

"My computer, a pair of active Behringer monitors, Edirol pcr-m50 MIDI keyboard, Cubase SE, a buttload of VST's and my mind"

Staggering.

Genre: Electronica/Electronica
Artist: Sonic Pulse
Song: Say You Love Me
Bottom Line: **4 Masks out of 5 **
Quick Link: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=297032
Have me review your Comedy, Parody, Electronic, Dance or World Song
Just reply to me or the primary thread of my reviews!
"This song was very ambient, very deep. The song represents a genre that rarely has meaning outside of moving your feet--that's one thing about this song that did shine, it's meaning. Very nice rhythm to this song, artistically-it's perfect. "

I'll start by saying that this song was definitely categorized correctly, I haven't gotten to say that much. That said though, it started up very akwardly, but slowly came together--the beat was very well done, and after awhile the vocals started to fit with the song, but at first the pacing was a little hard to follow.

Past that, the vocals were strong definitive, and much more frequent than most other Electronica songs I've heard. The name of the song became a little repetitive, but as I said in other reviews--that is typical of the genre. . .and thus is somewhat forgiveable.

All in all, this was a very interesting song. . .interesting in that, although I can't say I loved it, I really can't find much to say negative about it other than typical repetition and the intro--but all in all it was a decent song. There were a couple of spots that could use fine tuning, but I think that the artist quality is there, and shined through by the end.

The Big 5 (these may differ per genre)

1) Originality: The beat and vocals weren't terribly creative, but it was a good song. . .I did enjoy it, I won't say it was a cover or anything rediculous like that, it takes a lot of work to be original in the Electronic genre, and I can honestly say I've not heard anything quite like this in the past. (4 out of 5 Masks)

2) Transitions: The middle and end of this song blended very well, that intro just didn't seem to mesh quite right, the vocals matched up much better by mid-song and then by the end it was sounding like a really good tune. (4 out of 5 Masks)

3) Vocals: I replaced Danceability with Vocals because although it isn't one I usually use for Electronic Music, I didn't think it'd be fair to rate this song on a dance scale when it was a little deeper than that. The vocals were very strong and consistent. Keep this voice for your future work--it was refreshing. (5 out of 5 Masks)

4) Artistic: This song was very ambient, very deep. The song represents a genre that rarely has meaning outside of moving your feet--that's one thing about this song that did shine, it's meaning. Very nice rhythm to this song, artistically-it's perfect. (5 out of 5 Maks)

5) The B.A.D. Factor: Below Average Dave's bottom line: !4 Masks!
This song could use some polishing, but I think that it is still deserving of a very good rating. It does some things the Electronica Genre usually doesn't do. . .like put thought and put more than just cameo vocals throughout it. I hope to review more work in the future by you, as I respect your music as an artist and a vocal powerhouse.
_________________
Sincerely,
David http://www.soundclick.com/belowaveragedave