William - Elvin and Me (WIP)

Hear The Track Here

William, you may wail, who defuck he? Well, if you think you know the indie scene well, you should by now be hanging your head real low because William is one well known, and connected dude. I first came across him through my old Soundclick mate Dave Allen (aka dcallen) on an absolutely rocking Bad Karma Gonna Get You (July 2005), a classic dcallen track from an artist that I always assumed to be an electronica nut. Bad Karma soon put paid to that assumption but also introduced me to names that have become incredibly familiar to me since that time, including William. This being the second time I have reviewed him in his own right.

I reviewed Lonely Street (April 2008) and liked what I heard, even though it obviously failed to strike me that deeply - at least re-reading the review of it I was probably damning with faint praise. The WIP designation in the title denotes a work in progress, and I think its a good description because it doesn't exactly do very much. William purchased a Arp Pro Soloist from the worlds most famous music store (Ed: This may be sarcasm because he's actually referring to Ebay) and this was his first attempt at putting a track together with it. Don't get me wrong, this is a good peice of work; he's obviously a competent, experienced keyboard player.

The shortcomings though, are obvious. Pretty much factory sounds from the outset and considering this is a whisker shy of six minutes long, that can be a problem if you can't stay basic synth demos. Actually I'm being well unfair there because synth demos most definitely do not sound this good. See what William does with it sees no fault with me. This is a clean, straightforward - if slightly dated - sound and some good keyboard licks into the bargain. I'm certain that this isn't going to appeal to anyone outside of other ivory plinkers but if you like analog synths and someone who can actually use them, then this is the track for you.

Reasonable analog instrumental but, to be blunt, nothing special.