Hear The Track Here
Behind the shiny new name is Ricky Mancini, a name we are well familiar with now. I've reviewed three of his tracks so far and - to be honest - the jury is still out, if you know what I mean. I did kinda take to Use Your Noodle (January 2006) and - as usual - cut him a bit of slack because he was new. Mind you, if the track didn't stand up on its own it wouldn't have made any difference whether I cut him some slack or not. If it doesn't do it, it doesn't do it. Luckily, though, that track was worthwhile. Area 39 (February 2006) was a much better proposition and got a Highly Recommended from me because of it's dance moves - and y'all KNOW how much I hate that stuff...You get the feeling I'm building up to something?
Jelly Baby (April 2006) was - again, lets be honest - a severe disappointment - at least in my very humble opinion. After a good start, I kinda thought this was a bit of a fumble for him OR it was just me not understanding what he was trying to do. Certainly it looked like other members of MP3 Unsigned thought the exact opposite and I guess that is what reviewing is all about: one man's opinion. I face the same dilemma when I have to describe/criticise this track because as I see from some VERY favourable comments, I am likely to be Billy No Mates yet again. The real OBVIOUS truth I have to face is that I am either finally losing my touch, or I may know what I am talking about. See, I like drums and bass. I like breakbeats and I love dabbling in weird and wonderful sounds, and I like - as you all know - some pretty weird s***. If I had to place this track anywhere I'd have to say it more weird s*** than anything else.
Now weirdness and general dissonance in todays music and rightly so, but there is something about this track I found off-putting from the get go. Mind you, for a track called The Fear, you would think it was made to scare the crap out of you, and it may well do that at ear blistering volume but not to someone who isn't really into the genre. Taken on that level, The Fear, has a couple of other problems - and that's a bit more technical. Considering this is pure DnB at heart, scant attention has been paid to the lower registers, making the whole track middle/top heavy. More to the point, there are some quite noticeable volume changes, almost - in the intro anyway - as if the noise on top was more important that the rhythm machine. Several of the noiser passages walked all over the backing track and so on. There isn't really much definition between each of the sounds so what happens is that you get slammed by a wall of sound for about four and a half minutes. Which may well be the point. As I say, I am only voicing what I think about this track, not what you will. Credit where credit is due, I can HEAR the amount of work that went into the making of this track, what I am very unsure about is it's presentation; overall sound, all-in-your-ears-at-once mix and a marked tendency to clip (ed: he means they must have recorded it at number 11) in the louder passages.
And then they wonder why I have no friends.....sheesh...
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