Saturday, February 27, 2010

"IL MIO VIAGGIO NON SI FERMERA" by Martino Vergnaghi

02/27/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"IL MIO VIAGGIO NON SI FERMERA"
Artist:Martino Vergnaghi
Genre:New Age / Easy Listening / Instrumental


Martino has only published a few of his compositions so far. This beautiful soulful score is a clear indication he has already hit the ground running and is destined to compose some fantastic music in the future. The gentle fantasia style opening leads into an atmosphere style synth guitar accompaniment, and then that wonderful synth pan pipe kicks in with warm harp arpeggios to back it up. All of this accompanied by wonderful scenic photography makes for a very soothing, relaxing piece of music.

Friday, February 26, 2010

"Truus' Theme" by Colin Mitchell

02/26/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Truus' Theme"
Artist:Colin Mitchell
Genre:Easy Listening / Piano Solo


Every once in a great while comes a person who is so thoughtful and thankful for the friends they have that they dedicate a piece of themselves to their friend. This is exactly what Colin has done with this piano solo dedicated to Truus. Truus is a wonderful person and anyone who has the pleasure of knowing her and talking to her already knows this. She spends seemly endless amounts of times promoting the music of people she barely knows on YouTube be creating wonderful new video images to accompany the music. Colin has repaid Truus in kind by writing this soft, relaxing, and heartfelt piano solo for Truus and dedicating it to her. Relax and enjoy the wonderful music. When you are done listening please be sure to pay tribute to Truus as well by visiting her YouTube channel, the link can be found to the right under "Sites and Sounds (Blogroll)"

Thursday, February 25, 2010

"After All These Years" cover by David Castagna

02/25/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"After All These Years"
Artist:David Castagna (Originally by Journey)
Genre:Easy Listening / Instrumental


David Castagna is a great musician! Whether he is playing classical, current, or original music his work is always awe inspiring and beautiful. His transcript of "After All These Years" by Journey is a fantastic example of this. All the beautiful chord changes and sweeping piano / strings melody to wash over your soul. Keep in mind he is playing this all live, nothing is recorded before the video itself.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

"Run" by Chantelle Redman

02/23/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Run"
Artist:Chantelle Redman
Genre:Pop


Chantelle had an opportunity to visit a true recording studio to see what it is all about. When she was asked if she would like to record a song while she was there she rightfully said yes. This is the result of that one take recording session. A little bit of tom foolery at the beginning, but once this girl starts to sing it becomes immediately obvious she has what it takes! Absolutely beautiful vocals that will blow the mind. Nice and soothing with amazing control.

Monday, February 22, 2010

"Digital Revolutions" by Roman Klunder

02/22/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Digital Revolutions"
Artist:Roman Klunder
Genre:New Age / Electronic


Roman Klunder brings us "Digital Revolutions", refreshing upbeat electronic new age music. With a light beat, strong bass, and a moving sequence of pads, synths, strings, and choruses, this enlightening music is almost like a fusion of sequence and ambient turned up a notch.

Audio production is perfectly clear and resolute. The video features an awesome array of visualizer images that follow the music.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

"Eye to Eye" by Eye Sound Project

02/21/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Eye to Eye"
Artist:Eye Sound Project
Genre:Sequence / New Age / Electronic


Good old classic sequence style music track with a steady build in. Very good production all the way through. Eye Sound Project has done a great job with this sequence. The video features beautiful images of various eyes that relate well to the name of the song and the project overall.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

"Temporary Home" by Annie Pattison

02/20/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Temporary Home"
Artist:Annie Pattison
Genre:Pop / Country


Okay, I sat down really late today to create today's review after slacking an missing doing one yesterday. I try not to get too personal in these reviews in order to be completely objective, but this girl and this song really touched my heart and blew my mind all at the same time! So on with the review.

Temporary Home is a soft pop song sung by the absolutely remarkable 11 year old Annie Pattison. Her sweet clear vocals drive this heartfelt song right into the heart of the listener. Once in a while we see a very young singer shoot into the stars at a very young age. Annie is going to be one of them! Absolutely stunning and beautiful in every way. A new star has already been born and is shining as brightly as any star could.

The lyrics, the story of this song is very heart breaking and heart warming at the same time. Far too many children live in orphanages and halfway homes and all they all wish for is a caring loving home to call their own. The story focuses on a 6 year old boy who never knew his own parents and has been living in an orphan house, but the boy knows this is his temporary home, only a stop on his way to where he truly belongs. The on to a single mom with no money who has to live in a halfway house, but looks forward to a brighter future. A very heart warming and tear jerking story filled with hope.

The production is flawless. Crystal clear studio audio for both the vocals and the backing instruments with perfect levels throughout. The video features Annie singing against a gorgeous sunset backdrop and an inset video in the upper right corner to convey the story of the song to the viewer. Top notch all the way! Wow, just wow.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

"When Love Leaves" by Earthonika

02/18/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"When Love Leaves"
Artist:Earthonika (CJ Williams)
Genre:Instrumental New Age / Easy Listening


This very relaxing new age score begins gently with soft string pads and progressively builds throughout the entire song. CJ creates a very warm atmosphere first with an amazing oboe melody and then kicks it up a notch by adding some gentle percussion and fantastic choir backing to accent the overall feel of the score. The score climaxes very close to the end, leaving the listener yearning for more. Replay is a wonderful thing!

The samples used to produce the music are pretty good. The productions quality and audio levels are great throughout. The video starts with a Poem written by CJ followed by nice scenes of water, nature, and some abstract transitions.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

"Addicting" by Shawn Megofna

02/17/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Addicting"
Artist:Shawn Megofna
Genre:Pop


Shawn Megofna has gentle soothing vocals which combine well with his guitar playing to create a very mellow and enjoyable song to listen to. He has a fun personality that really shines through in his music. From beginning to end his vocal performance is spot on and of course his guitar playing is wonderful.

The lyrics pretty obviously depict a story of addiction to another person, an addiction beyond simple infatuation. Love and desire are weird emotions and can be very difficult to tell apart.

Production is as good as can be for a video camera on a tripod recording a live performance. This vocals and guitar both come through loud and clear and the overall quality is good. The video features Shawn playing the guitar with a friend next time him lip syncing and air drumming along. Kind of distracting, but hey, they're having fun! After the song ends Shawn and his buddy goof around a little singing together and chatting.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

"Days Rush By" by Eric and Ellie

02/16/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Days Rush By"
Artist:Eric & Ellie (Eric John & Ellie J)
Genre:Alternative Rock / Pop


Eric and Ellie collaborated to create this unique and rather awesome modern alternative song. Both singers have good steady vocals throughout the song and the instrumental backing is amazing. An interesting touch is the addition of live sounds recorded on the platforms of Toronto's subway system both as the song begins and as it ends. An interesting an unique flare which really helps to accentuate what this song is all about. Both artists have done a spectacular job in putting this song together and the video is pretty good too.

The lyrics depict the story of the every day grind to survive in the modern concrete jungle. From morning until night everything is a rush and it is all we can do to stay on top of things and avoid becoming overwhelmed. A very realistic view of our strongly business oriented world today.

The audio production is excellent with good levels between the vocalists and the instruments throughout the song. The addition of real live world sounds is a nice touch. The video featuring both artists, videos shot in Toronto's subway stations, and various still images to convey the story, is well assembled and adds greatly to the music.

Monday, February 15, 2010

"Future Dreams" by Awesome

02/15/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Future Dreams"
Artist:AWESOME (Victor Vergara)
Genre:Electronic / New Age / Demo


Through the later part of the 1980's and pretty much all the way through the 1990's artists like Awesome of Wildbits used a music production tool called Screamtracker to create fantastic synthesized music like "Future Dreams". The format originated on the Amiga computer system as a 4 channel audio format called MOD. This unique new format was revolutionary for its time as it contained both the music sequence information, much like a MIDI file, and all of the samples required to play the sequence all within one file. As the format and the Amiga platform became better the complexity of these files grew threw formats such as S3M and finally ended at the grand-daddy of MOD files called XM or XMod files. These files allowed for a CD quality presentation of music in a file size between 1/10th and 1/100th the size of WAV file, which is still the standard format for CDs to this day. XM met a sudden and abrupt decline in popularity with the release of a revolutionary audio compression codec called MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly known today as MP3.

Awesome was among the best and brightest of the Screamtracker composers out there. He created hundreds of scores with Ancient Stories probably being his most popular. Future Dreams is a very intriguing and beautiful sequence in itself and really quite enjoyable to listen to.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

"Dream Girl" by Jessica Kobe Feat. Blayze

02/13/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Dream Girl"
Artist:Jessica Kobe Feat. Blayze
Genre:Alternative Pop / Rhythm & Blues


Another amazing work by the wonderful Jessica Kobe. I'm sorry I didn't have a huge amount of time to create an extended review today.

I ask all of my blog followers to do Jessica and myself a huge favor today: Please click through to the video page of this video by clicking the video player above 2 times and rate this video 5 stars. Some seedy operation attempting to tarnish Jessica's name and image fed hundreds of haters to this video to rate it down. Now we have to return her shining stars to her. Rate it 5 and ask your friends to do the same please. I would personally appreciate your help with this and Jessica will be overjoyed to see your support for her fantastic work. Thank you so much my friends.

This is the "Dream Girl" Official Music Video by Jessica Kobe Feat. Blayze.

The production is professional from start to finish. The audio recording levels are perfect in every way. The video images feature Jessica and Blayze singing the song. Like the audio, the video is very well done. It is sharp and clear exhibiting the talent of Jessica and all involved to create a fantastic motion picture.

Friday, February 12, 2010

"Charlie" by Mark Galloway

02/12/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Charlie"
Artist:Mark Galloway
Genre:Instrumental Easy Listening / New Age


This instrumental guitar song is riveting right from the beginning! Mark has multi-tracked himself playing the guitar and layered them all together to create this beautiful and refreshing piece of music. He handles the guitar with precision creating a fantastic memorable sound which is easy to listen to over and over again. His finger movement creates nice twangy chord changes and notes with lots of vibrato and character. With guitar work this incredible no vocals are required to convey the song to the listener. Just hit play, sit back, relax, and let this wonderful song wash over you.

Production is great! Mark recorded and multi-tracked his work on several audio channels and panned them in a way that gives the song a wonderful stereo effect. The recording levels are spot on with crisp clear sound quality. His video production is equally great. He has recorded himself playing the main melody and converted it to black and white to give it a good feel which fits the music nicely.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

"Dolmen Ridge" by GNOMUSY

02/11/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Dolmen Ridge"
Artist:GNOMUSY (David Caballero)
Genre:World / New Age


David Caballero first released his music to the public in 1999 on the classic MP3c site under the artist name "Gnomusy", meaning the Gnome of Music. His music is bright and full of optimism in so many ways. David has always been influenced by nature and beauty, influences which show up quite readily in very deep detail embedded in his music. It is no wonder that those who have come upon his music fall so madly in love with it and cherish it as a part of their music collections. Dolmen Ridge starts off with an almost ethereal pad and piano introduction soon followed by a hauntingly beautiful reverberated flute which penetrates all the way into the soul. There is absolutely no denying that this is one of the most captivating pieces of music in existence. Listen through as the melody continues to be carried by those fantastic pads and the percussion kicks in.

David is very keen about his production. He always felt very limited by the MP3 file format but still managed to record his work in stunning 24-bit and downsample it to the 16-bit required to create MP3 files without losing very much audio quality. His pride in production shines through his music as the levels are completely flawless in every way and the music is as crystal clear and sharp as is technically possible from an MP3 file.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

"Loaded Gun" by Jerry Dowell Band

02/10/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Loaded Gun"
Band:Jerry Dowell Band
Genre:Soft Rock / Country



Jerry Dowell Band brings us "Loaded Gun", a modern soft rock / country tune with excellent vocals backed by an amazing band. Jerry has performed in the Kansas City area and already has released 3 CDs through his own private label. He touts himself as more of a poet who happens to be able to play guitar, sing, and write music rather than a song writer or musician, but based on this performance and talent it is obvious he is quite capable.

Jerry has created a video to bring to light the horrors and nightmares faced by innocent children every day who have to endure the hardships of abusive parents or guardians. They live in constant fear and Jerry does a superb job in shedding light on this growing problem in the USA and beyond. This video is heartbreaking but it spreads the word and people have to try and help in any way they can. This is one of those ways. This is the premise and story behind the lyrics in the song as well as the disturbing video images.

The production of the audio is studio quality with absolutely flawless levels across the board from vocals to instruments. The video is clear and sharp helping to convey this sad story to everyone. Please be sure to spread the word about this wonderful and talented man.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

"Grid ]|[ (Trance Mix)" by The Cynic Project

02/09/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Grid ]|[ (Trance Mix)"
Artist:The Cynic Project (Alex Smith)
Genre:Melodic Trance


Alex Smith started The Cynic Project in the 1990's after being influenced by modern trance greats such as Robert Miles. This song, Grid ]|[ started in the early days as a tune called Matrix on the classic MP3c website. After overly strict naming policies were implemented by the MP3c staff, Alex was forced to rename this song because of the popular movie by the same name, even though this song came out before the movie and had nothing to do with it. Since a matrix is also a grid Alex chose to call the song Grid ][, which became a very popular piece on MP3c before it was shut down.

Grid ]|[ is a wonderful remix of his original Grid ][ with fantastic samples creating a very refreshing melodic trance song which is very addictive to listen to. The wonderful bright bass, the upbeat perky percussion, and of course those wonderful sweet pads and synths make this one a necessary addition to any melodic trance lover's library. This is a real winner for parties, chilling out, going to sleep, or any other activity.

Alex has great production skill. As with all of his work, this song is produced and recorded without flaw. The sound is clean and sharp with absolutely no noise or distortion. There is no video with this song, just a unique still image.

Monday, February 8, 2010

"Tonight I Set Your Soul Free" by Demoman

02/08/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Tonight I Set Your Soul Free"
Artist:Demoman
Genre:Modern Rock / Pop


Demoman brings us this modern upbeat rock tune "Tonight I Set Your Soul Free". The instrumental accompaniment is absolutely amazing. Those drum beats are well assembled and that guitar is just plain awesome. Demoman's vocals are gentle but assertive throughout the song. Overall this is a great song, a real pleasure to listen to.

The lyrics are a well written piece of poetry telling the story of letting a love go even though it burns to the very core of the heart. A very noble and selfless gesture of realizing that sometimes love is not always a 2 way street.

The audio production is good. The multi tracking quality of the instruments is amazing and the vocal recording is spot on with no distortion. The levels are always close to in balance, occasionally the vocals seem a little low, but nothing so out of balance that it takes away from the awesomeness of the song as a whole. The video is quite fitting to the song and lyrics. The video segments come from a movie called Knowing, however like has been said before and will be said again, these reviews are of the music, not the videos.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

"One Heart" by the b.a.s.i.c. band

02/07/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"One Heart"
Band:the b.a.s.i.c. band
Genre:Rhythm & Blues / Gospel


The Brothers and Sisters in Christ Band created this original masterpiece. Lead vocalist Tracy Glenn does a superb job of singing her heart out while backed by the band. These talented musicians and singers combine all of their skill and knowledge to bring us a new song filled with love and hope through belief in Christ. Tracy's vocals are light and quite soothing with a unique feeling. Of course the bluesy feel of the accompanying music is soothing to the soul too.

The lyrics express a heart that is always missing something, no matter how busy or occupied that soul is, the heart is missing a piece. Then the refrain states that there is one heart that always remains constant, and that is that Jesus' love will always be there.

The production of the music is good. The vocals are clear and the levels of the combined instruments are all well recorded. The video features various images helping to convey the feeling of loneliness and emptiness combined with images featuring various lyrics throughout the song all done in a retro sepia sort of way with old style film shake and shudder.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

"Dolomite Alps - South Tyrol" by Frank Zetmen

02/06/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Dolomite Alps - South Tyrol"
Artist:Frank Zetmen
Genre:New Age


Frank Zetmen has created a beautiful little new age tune inspired by his trip to and photographs of the Dolomite Alps in South Tyrol. This perky, positive, and upbeat score features synth bells, strings, choirs, and orchestral sounds very reminiscent of some of work of new age great Mike Oldfield. This is a very relaxing piece and a wonderful introduction of Frank's talent to arrange, compose, and produce his own brand of music.

The video features several wonderful photographs taken by frank on his trip to South Tyrol. Wow, what a beautiful area. Listening to the music while viewing all of these spectacular photographs really allows the audience to let it all go and travel to another place if not just for a few moments. Absolutely stunning in every way.

The audio production is crisp and crystal clear. Definitely a pleasure to listen to on any audio system at any volume level.

Friday, February 5, 2010

"The Time is Now" by ScribbleTunes

02/05/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"The Time is Now"
Artist:ScribbleTunes (Lene)
Genre:Pop


These amazing vocals come to us from Denmark. Lene displays an amazing talent to play the guitar while singing her heart out. Her voice is clean and crisp while her vocals are simply stunning to listen to. One of the most remarkable things I've noticed by reading her background is that she is self taught! She picked up a guitar and started singing 12 years ago and hasn't looked back since. By listening to and repeating the work of her favorite singers she has honed her skills to a fine art without the intervention of professional help. I find this quite amazing personally. "The Time is Now" showcases her awesome talent and her ability to write and create original music with flare and edge.

The lyrics express as story of freedom and liberation from our own inner demons. If we were to let all of our desires and creativity flow forth, how different would our world be? A very good question, one people the world over really need to consider. Everyone is so worried about events around them. Every now and then everyone needs to forget about their worries and enjoy the wonderful life we have all around us. Great lyrics with a subtle yet powerful story.

The video and audio production are average. The song has been recorded by a personal video camera pointing at Lene while she performed, so there is nothing exceptional about the audio. This really has little impact on the beauty of the guitar playing or the singing though. Lene doesn't need expensive microphones or fancy studio effects to exhibit how wonderful her singing ability is.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

"Kronik Assassin" by WezBolton

02/04/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Kronik Assassin"
Artist:WezBolton
Genre:Progressive Trance


This is the result of an amazing talented musician and good use of Reason 4.o. Wez uses superb high quality samples to create this stunning and relaxing masterpiece. Kronik Assassin features everything we listen for in this style of trance from the awesome percussion to the build in of amazing sounding basses, pads, and synths. The fantastic break about one third of the way into the track left me in awe. I love the sound of synths and pads alone without heavy percussion just about as much as I love them with the percussion. It is always nice to be treated to both within the same track.

The video visual is still picture of what appears to be a computer rendered graphic containing information about WezBolton and the track. Nothing exciting or special. Even though I will review pictures and motion videos, it is never my intent to review anything based on the video content.

The samples WezBolton uses are top notch and this shows throughout the entire track. The audio quality is flawless with perfect levels across all spectrums in this nice medium energy work. Definitely a winner for relaxing, sleeping, or those special night party occasions, whatever those might be.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

"Ghost Love" by Jessica Kobe

02/03/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Ghost Love"
Artist:Jessica Kobe
Genre:Alternative Pop


This talented young singer blew my mind the first time I was invited to listen to her work by none other than her grandmother, Joyce. Joyce works with Jessica as her manager while her mother Debbie works as her agent. This strong family trio has built a perfect team to launch this young singer to the stars. After several failed attempts to obtain a good vocal instructor they finally really lucked out and had a chance to present Jessica to Robert Becker at The Baldwin Wallace Music Conservatory. Robert was immediately impressed; and much to everyone's relief took Jessica under his wing to help her become the stunning singer she is today. This song exhibits their amazing ability to produce top notch quality music and a deep meaningful music video featuring Jessica herself singing. Her voice is incredible and her music undeniably amazing! A simple piano accompaniment begins the song as Jessica starts to sing. The accompaniment builds through strings and guitars as the song climaxes and then fades into silence.

The story is a haunting tale of a love thought gone forever creeping back into the heart undetected until it is too late. The lyrics are deeply heartfelt in an eerie sort of way and I am sure they strike close to home for a lot of people out there. Do you lust for more or does it strike fear into your very being? A powerful message to be certain.

The production is professional from start to finish. The audio recording levels are perfect in every way. Videoworks Multimedia did a fantastic job producing the final video. The video images are gray scale giving them a wonderful fit to the lyrics and creating a very moving production. Like the audio, the video is very well done. It is sharp and clear exhibiting the talent of Jessica and all involved to create a fantastic motion picture.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

"Into The Sky" by Earthonika

02/02/2010 Random Music Review
Song:"Into The Sky"
Artist:Earthonika (CJ Williams)
Genre:New Age



What a refreshing young artist! Earthonika combines layers of his own vocals with instrumental arrangements to create a fun and refreshing new sound. His newest creation, "Into The Sky" demonstrates this perfectly. This relaxing new age production features smooth acoustic instrumentals samples while showcasing his exemplary ability to record multiple instances of his own vocals and then layer them together many times to create a harmonizing style of music reminiscent of Enya.

The lyrics leave the listening audience with the feeling the story is about a broken love, a love the story teller refuses to let go of in his own heart. Was it a breakup? Maybe he is just dreaming of a love he's never had. Is he pining? Is he dreaming? Has he passed on into another existence leaving her behind? The story leaves a lot to the imagination.

The video visuals are borrowed from someone else. Even though they are not his own, the imagery is very fitting for the song and is a perfect match.

The composition and arrangement of the music is great with lots of variety, yet it is always gentle and relaxed throughout the entire work. The production is superb with sharp crystal clear sound and absolutely no distortion or clipping.