Thursday 26 April 2012

You And What Army EP Album Review


YAWA's third Ep is a self titled epic blend of metal, D'n'B, house and dubstep. It can be split into two parts: the songs and the remixes, thanks to competitions run on Dave's (the producer/songwriter/rapper) website, boy in a band. Also the EP is free on noisetrade, which is awesome. So let's play track one!

Into Your Eyes

The track almost immediately drops into a brilliant instrumental, full of massive guitar riffs that are complemented well by the drums and synths. THe verses are quite laid back (well, in comparison to the choruses). The best bit of the track, however, is the epic dubstep metal bridge! You have to hear this to experience it, because there is honestly no way to describe it. It's up at the top.


Ludicity


It starts off quite quiet, lulling you into false sense of security before the massive guitars hit and the chanting starts. The chorus itself is a bit boyband-y, but has a great high ptiched lead with a another square lead thrown in that's heard throughout the whole song. The bridge, like most of YAWA's music is the best bit, with distorted vocals and sweet guitar. GIve it listen.


Skyline


The intro is very misleading, making you think that they've finally got rock. It soon gets its act together though, dropping into a really sweet chorus (however a bit like the two tracks before). The rapping verses are really sweet, with a really niace bass hook. The verse singing is nice realease from the other elements of the track, before the epic chorus. As per usual the bridge and outro are superb.


Take The World By Storm


If you thought it was getting a bit samey by now, here's a spanner in the works. With full on screaming and shouting, there litterally no quiet moment since the start. It's such a heavy song, so heavy I can't properly decide if I like or not. Anyway it's there if you want to listen to it.


Visionary


Now here's a good song. Really, really nice liquid drum and bass. Just liquid, nothing else, just a nice track. It's really nice and emotional, chilled, with some sweet vocodered rapping and some nice singing. I just really, really liked it. Anyway, let's move on.


The Remixes


I really hate it when bands almost pad out an EP with remixes done by other people. I mean the BIAB remix is good because that's sort of his song, but getting other people to write 4 songs for you to shove on your album is not really my cup of tea. I think the main thing is that fans have waited for the EP for about a year now and there's only really 3 more completly new songs on it. Having said that I love all the remixes (apart from rmonik's, which sucks) and I'm probably going to review Mizuki's Last Chance, who remixed Nebula. 


Conclusion


So yeah. Great EP but let down by the remixes. 8/10. If anyone has any recomendations, let me know in the comments and I'll see you next time.

Do you want to see a hypocrite?

Well then feast your eyes on this:

 

This one made my blood boil. Electronic musicians get a lot of stick, but this guy really does it. And the worst thing is, he's fundementally wrong in 3 ways: 

1) Most rock music is based on the same, fundementally easy chord progression (CCCC FFCC GFCC) with a very simple structure (verse, chorus) and alot of repition. The tune and lyrics are simple: this makes it easy to remember. You can draw alot parallels with this and house/dubstep (same deal: simplicity is the key). Also when rock music came into the world, alot of the older generation hated it, thought the instruments weren't instruments (electric guitar) and the songs weren't songs, they were just really fast shouting. It's the same deal, he just grew up with one, and saw the other with detatched eyes because he didn't experience it first hand.

2) HE HATED THE PEOPLE LIKE HIM IN HIS DAY, but now expects us to listen to his rants without judging him like an idiot. When he was young parents probably joked about his taste in music, just because he listen to some slightly different stuff. And know he's doing it to us. Thanks mate.

3) All music of the day is just drivel. Very few pieces are saved by the human race past a hundred years, and that was because the people who wrote them were musical geniuses. The rest of us are just OK. His music is OK, our music is OK (I love how I'm talking; I say our because I think someone might actually read this). It's just what you experience.

So yeah, you're wrong, Harry Rollins.


Wednesday 25 April 2012

Who I am, why I'm here and what I want to do.

Hi. I'm Dave, and my producer-y name is Davalar. I'm 13 years old and I write music. I love all types of music, but at the moment I'm into house, dubstep and metal. My favourite bands are you and what army and blood stain child and my favourite producers are Skrillex and Steve Aoki. I love music and want to do it as a future job, so please help me achieve my dream by reading my blogs and listening to my songs. You're my path to fame. You're the ground I walk on. The pavement I spit on. Wait is that a bit arrogant? I think it might be... Anyway onto why I'm here.
Every Sunday night at nine o'clock I look over what I've achieved over the week. And sometimes it's been a week barren of inspiration, and full of evils like stick rpg 2. So I need something where I can say "Wait, I haven't written any songs, but I have kept up with my blogging quota. Maybe tonight I shouldn't grouchy and difficult like I usually am. That'll give my poor mother a break from my angst." And so I'm basically here to have a continual sense of achievment that motivates me to write more crap music. So what do I want to do?
I want to write 3 blogs a week. Ambitious, but do-able. Tuesday - Talk about production related interesting-ness! (Like a tutorial or a new technique) Thursday - Album review! I'll download a new album every week, listen through it a few times and say why I like/hate it. Sunday - My week, sumurised into a blog post. Everything I've achieved, in one place. (I fear this blog my lack subject matter)! So yeah. Should be fun. Let's see how it goes!