Friday, October 27, 2006

Alderman - Dreamtime Drums

Hear The Track Here

Although I have been on Soundclick for over four years I came across a review where I ranted (ooo, that's unusual) about other websites (and one in particular), newbies and things in general. The artist who happened to bear the brunt of this verbal diatribe was - as if you hadn't already guessed - one Lief Erikson. No. Wait, that's another guy! THIS Lief is Liljeqvist and (as I mentioned in that long ago review) 'someone to keep an eye on'. Since then he has shown that his initial promise really had weight, and the list of Alderman keepers gets longer as time goes on. That track record is exemplified in the really creative collaboration with Jim-n-Lisa in the Pond Surfers personna, any of whose tracks can be checked out here.

Dreamtime Drums is inspired in part by the Australian Aboriginal dreamtime mythic tradition. It is, as you might imagine, a bit Australian in sound, but not African, and Indian and native American Indian and and and... Aahh, you may be thinking, this is stepping right into your arena isn't it Gilmore? Yep, sure is - in fact judging by this we've both got the same samples at least a couple of times. Tell ya what, the boy did good. Sonically this is ace, especially the opening drum section. The vocals add tremendously to the tracks build and all in all I really enjoyed listening to this track - as I would.

However, continued plays brought a couple of things to light but only, of course, in my opinion. I felt that as good as each little section was, there didn't seem to be a lot holding all those disparate parts together - and that is definitely something I know about. For my money, for a track of this type to work, it has to contain more than an element of cohesion. This does, as I say, in the individual sections, but not when taken as a whole. However, there is a definite art in making seamless tracks, especially of this type and that art come with experimentation and - on that score - Alderman has come up holding all aces. Most people will either like this eclectic mix of instruments and sounds or not, and my judgement won't matter much either way. Personally, I'd say if you like what I do musically, you will find much to like in this track too.

Excellent world collection.

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