Before I dig any deeper into this review, I want to start off by saying how I review. I follow the style that many ponies may know of if they've ever taken an IB or AP music class. It's called Me-Me-Ha-Me-Fo-Sty-Co. This is an acronym for Meter, Melody, Harmony, Form, Style and Context and I will apply this mainly to the songs individually but may not cover everything detail about each song. When it comes to the overall album however, I will cover it using the grounds of "How well does the songs match the theme of the album?", "How well do the songs match each other from a mixing/DJ standpoint?", "How well do the songs match as stand alone for the whole album", "How well does the album represent the character?" and then remarks that follow around this idea.
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| Cover to Team Twilight Spakles |
Alright, so seeing I'm needing to pick a way of going through these albums, let's stick to the MLP form and follow it in the way that we're introduced to the mane 6! "Team Twilight Spakles" consists of: 3MO DJ, Quix, Legion, Nota 999, and Kyderra; none of which I have heard before this. However, after listening to it I believe they have some good potential as musicians, but not as they were done. Let's start digging into this album, shall we?
First song on our list is "Watch in Awe" by 3MO DJ. The song begins with a somewhat "complex" chord progression (Good ol' "rock/pop standard" as I like to call it, or a I-V-VI-IV) using a synth that reminds me of what you'd hear in a Fashion Runway feel. By the end of the first cadence we here everyone's favorite villian, Trixie being a cocky as ever. Now that we have a premise to our song, lets continue on through the addition of the beat and go into listening to the development of the harmony, and the bass. Around a minute in (and after more Trixie) we hit the end of a rise to an arpeggio section, to which it adds a bass and eventually a small drop into a B section. This section takes up until about 3:30 which it then just dies. It simply runs with a bass kick, with a false sense of conclusion and dies from there until it ends at 4:15.
Now, honestly this isn't that bad. If I had to use this in a mix I would, but I would cut the ending off around 3:30. The ending is bland and honestly I would have liked it a lot better if 3MO had done it as an A-B-A then the fade. Form wise, that would make a lot more sense. I also couldn't help to notice that when we hit the B section, it wasn't really a "B section" it was more of a "let's change the key a little and keep the same idea". It would have helped if it was more original besides changing the feel. Variety is a key component of any music and if must fit the style you're trying to put it towards.
Next we have "Daze" by Quix and guess what? More Runway music! We have a swelled harmony behind something clicking the lead away until about 0:33 where we get a phase in, grow and drop. Our drop leads us into the where we started but the bass is kicking in the spaces of the clicking. We hear the addition of clapping on off beats and hi hats of those off beats before ending up... Back where we started. However, he varies it by double the clicks but he follows THE EXACT progression as the first time we heard it. It then leads into the same thing as before but starting with the bass and clapping, then adding in more synth in the harmony. We then wind up back where we started (again) to which it fades out except not ending on I... Which is odd in my opinion is rather odd.
There's not much to add about this song besides what I mentioned above. Not very original, pretty forgettable background music for a Twilight Runway. So then, let's just keep calm and carry on.
Third we have "Sprink Break" by Kyderra and I think we're in for a little surprise! It starts out with the bass kicking a little rhythm, then adding in some claps on the off beats until 0:28 we get a nice "cymbal roll" to fade us into our main beat with the harmony underneath the beat until it builds up again and we hit a sort of climax that introduces a guitar playing the harmony(I'll get into this in a minute). After the distorted guitar is well established and the rhythm it plays is introduced, we get a dose of variation and a good dose of Pinkie yelling about Pinkie Promising, we hit our first drop! However, we get a dose of some Mortal Kombat as well by using the beat of the main theme and the hearing of "Fatality" played every so often. It resolves back into what started before the drop with the use of guitar and synth in the background. I can't help but notice the guitar is being echoed this time, creating a sort of phase across my headphones. We then hear Pinkie again freaking out over her Pinkie Promises and we drop back into the dropped section. We end with a version of the original statement of this mix and fades out.
Now, this is something I will use later! This was a wonderfully made mix and really sticks out in my mind for this album. I will say though, I find the use of the Mortal Kombat reference rather odd but at the same time the mentioning of Pinkie and her Pinkie Promises before that has me thinking of a head cannon (This filly CRAY CRAY!!!). Also, as I noted above the use of the guitar was a little odd for me as well. It doesn't really serve to develop anything, but more like adds to it which I think was done well. That's a line that can be very thin but crucial line to note in a song, especially in Dubstep or Dubstep-styled music. I would have loved to have heard the introduction of a higher guitar part in the 2nd time through the "drop" but that's really a matter of debating.
Moving on we have "Let's Pretend" by Nota999. We start off with a little groove from some kind of synth that reminds me of a modified bongos. Soon after, we're met with a beat and an expansion of our "groove" by adding in the harmony in a couple of other synths. The beat mixes up and we head into a phase of our original "grove", to which it just keeps mixing around until finally we hit a dip to back where we started. Something tells me this DJ has had a conversation with Steve Reich or some compositional background, but I'll get into that in a bit. After we're reintroduced to the "bongos" we get a new synth adding in a melody with some percussion coming in to back up the new grove. Around 2:46 we are introduced to the phasing bass and what started our conversation into 20th century composing. We then end on that beat fading out.
Now, the reason I mentioned Steve Reich is I noticed (or at least I'm beginning to feel) that Nota used something Mr. Reich composed called "Clapping Music". Basic music history lesson for the day: Steve Reich is a famous Minimalist composer from New York. He was made famous for his art called "Phasing" which is taking a basic melody, doubling it (either electronically or with two voices) and having one either speed up or slow down constantly until they meet back up. When Reich was first developing this technique he created a piece called "Clapping Music". As the name implies, it's literally clapping but there's a lot more to it. He took a 12 measure rhythm that the people would clap and then have half of them shift the rhythm "up" each time. It would eventually lead up to a unison 144 measures later (12 measures X 12 variations). The reason I bring this up is I feel like that section represents that very well or from what I'm hearing. I haven't a clue if it is or not, but the way the beats sort of bounce off each other is very reminiscent of that. Ok, that's enough history for pony to Handel so let's get Bach on topic. ;) (*cough*) If you would like for me to dig deeper into this in a later episode, I'd love to so let me know in the comments! ^_^
The next song is "Pensive" by Quix... Now where have I heard that name before? Oh yes, the song I disliked the most so far is by him and this isn't much better so basically ditto what I said before. But I will add, this is much better than before. I hope to hear more from Quix in the future because this shows promise!
Our last song of this episode is "On a Cold Winter's Night" by Legion. We start out with an arpeggio of what sounds to be a I-IV-V^7-I chord progression using a synth with a very articulate punch to it, which (to me) gives it a very Wintery feel. This feeling and assumption of the chords is then confirmed with the addition of the harmony. All of this is happening while being filtered. We hear the addition of a nicely placed drum beat which cuts out as the melody enters. As we hear the melody and harmony interact it fades out into what we started off with. 1:49, we turn into a B section and face a key modulation to which it very subtly goes back to the home key and the melody is played. We hear what we heard in the intro and it leaves as it came.
Honestly, I don't have much of an opinion on this besides it's well written. It followed a basic form, and a simple chord progression and turned into a simple but very elegant piece. So, good job! *pats on back* Now, if anypony actually read through all of this then I thank you for the support! I will finish this up in the next post about the overall feel of the album and give it a score. I think this has been drug out long enough so I'll talk to you on the internets! Peace.
~Inferno
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