Monday, October 29, 2007

Superbron - Beneath A Burning Sun

Hear The Track Here

When I reviewed Superbron's Time Flies When You're Having Funk (July 2007) I wasn't very nice about it. Not because of anything wrong with the content but the way it was presented; always a big problem area. No matter how much you may like what the musicians are about, something really special is a combination of sound, performance and the structure of a good track/song/whatever; and that only comes with an all round performance - infinitely harder to achieve in an electronic medium regardless of how proficient you are musically. Getting that music to render to soundfiles that everyone can listen to is always the deciding factor. Shame too because I like to funk about a bit, but not like this...

Oh well, on to another one...

Beneath The Burning Sun from the outset is a much more promising track in every way, especially showing this artists penchant for strings, plucked or otherwise. Something kept nagging at me as I listened through the track a time or two, couldn't put my finger on it but it reminded me strongly of something in my long distant past. I've heard this style before. Took me a while to pin it down and I finally plumped in favour of Andreas Vollenweider but a lot spacier than that, especially in the use of echo notes. I like pretty much everything about this track and considering I was/am a big Vollenweider fan, I'd say that was a compliment to Superbron. To be sure, I have never been a fan of this style (with the noticable exception of Vollenweider) but on this count, this is a track I'll be listening to for a while.

It's an absolute given that it will not appeal outside of its Acoustic Guitar setting, except as a nice interlude between headbanging, but if you like the softer side of life, Beneath The Burning Sun will put a flush in your cheeks. The more I played it, the more the kinda/sorta factory sounds wore on me but I doubt that your average listener would even be giving it a passing thought. They would either think it was a very neat (clever even) instrumental that would be well worth a download or they would be gone before you could blink - having caught sight of the 'acoustic' tag, no doubt. That would be a shame because this is an excellent instrumental that does deserve a wider audience than the acoustic labelling may afford it. Still, considering the carnage I inflicted on him last time, Superbron has come through superbly.

Clever instrumental. Recommended.

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