Artificial Wonders - Asylum of Wonderful People I

Hear The Track Here

A lot of people first got involved in the online music scene after being tipped off by their mates and - it seems - Artificial Wonders is no exception to that rule. He started making music digitally about three years ago and, judging by the tracks I have reviewed seems to know what he is doing. As you are no doubt aware, there is a conversational elephant in the tone of my voice; the all consuming but...? What causes this particular ennui in me? Well, lets see, film and game soundtracks usually do that and hey, hey, that is where you will find Artificial Wonders. Now considering my utter ambivalence to the genre, I'd say out of three tracks, he's pretty well by me; a ho-hum, a recommended and a highly recommended in that order.

Getting better all the time?

Well Parker Files (aka Artificial Wonders) doesn't seem to think so judging by the comments about production which I noticed while downloading this track. Can't say I had noticed a 'muddiness of sound' but I was now on the lookout. Damn, I should avoid reading beforehand.... Wait though, it gets worse. 'This track was made with one goal in mind : "MOTHA EFFIN CATCHIEST TRACK EVER' the song comments boldly stated. Fearless or foolish? Well, at under two minutes, its a quick listen regardless of quality and - while it is every bit as muddy as already commented - it's actually quite inventive and yes a decent listen. 'Damnit,' AW goes on, 'it still turned out muddy. Let's try this again' and points us towards Asylum of Wonderful People II as a step in the right direction...

Well you would, wouldn't you? Listen, that is.

Asylum of Wonderful People II isn't to my ears anything like as catchy (if such a word can be applied to the genre) as its predecessor and - much more to the point - is a totally different sound. Nope, the reason the first part worked so well was the way the sounds rubbed together, creating overwhelming resonances. Imagine being surrounded by musical cicadas with the odd other sound thrown in and you'll get the basics of the track. I personally think the track is fine and the (alleged) muddiness is easily fixed by running the original track through a touch of EQ; especially important with the buzzsaw/guitar chugging effect.

Interesting, if flawed electronica. Recommended all the same if you like the genre.