Saturday, January 08, 2011

Song of the Day 26: 'Arc Audible' by Outspoken

This post is technically a "Song of the Day", but it's not there's going to be another huge sequence of reviews in a row. Mainly I'm writing this because of my stupidity; I was completely clueless that Met had one more song of his that needed to be reviewed, and I was informed very recently that I was supposed to post today when I thought I was going to have the weekend off. Unfortunately I've been having a very bad day today, and I'm not exactly in the mood to post. However, just for the sake of avoiding the yelling I could get if I didn't post, I'm going to write something up anyway. So instead of doing the review that's for next week, I decided to finally finish the last Song of the Day that was supposed to be posted last month. Took me long enough, but here's the final SotD: 'Arc Audible'.

The beginning starts out with a very light beat playing in a small rhythm. At 0:08 the beat gets much louder, and now plays in the simple rhythm of one hit per beat. At 0:14 there's a very brief pause, and the song continues at 0:16. Here, playing alongside the beat, is a medium-high sound (that I've never heard before). It plays in a two note rhythm, with the second note higher in pitch. After these rhythms a faint percussion hit can be heard. There's more percussion heard at 0:22 though. After that little ditty of percussion at 0:22, that funky two-note rhythm ceases to play. The beat continues until some soft background effects can be heard at about 0:27. At 0:31 there's another brief pause until a loud percussion hit continues the song at 0:32. This percussion hit can now be heard once every four beats. At 0:36 a suspended symbol-like effect can be heard, which will crescendo until the end of 0:39. Here that effect literally was sucked out of the song. Now it goes back into the beat with the percussion hits (from 0:32). There's a slight change in beat at 0:47, which will then add some more elements into the beat. It's not heard very clearly, but it's there. This continues until about 0:56. Here the main part of the beat will gradually get louder, transitioning into the next section at 1:04. In this new section there's a three-note melody composed of a semi-low synth. The beat is back to it's 'one hit per beat' thing, and the song continues. At around 1:13 there's some light percussion mixed in to add just a little more to the song. This continues all the way until 2:00; there's also that symbol-like effect that transitions into yet another new section. Here there is a lot more percussion, the synth is a little bit faster and more meshed, and there are some cool background effects heard as well. This doesn't really change until about 2:32, where there's a change in beat and a background synth is added. At 2:49 that synth drops, and the melody synth, beat, and the occasional percussion hit are all that's playing at the moment. At 3:00 there's another transition, leading into a section where there's a lot more percussion and a new rhythm for the melody. This continues until 3:37, and most of the percussion now drop from the scene. At 3:44 there's a new melody that comes in which is a soft and higher synth than the last. At 4:02 a small counter-melody appears that is much lower (similar in pitch to the one that appeared at 1:04). That counter-melody will soon become the regular melody, and at 4:16 it's completely on its own. It's not on its own for long, because a soft but still audible beat will come in at 4:25 to back it up. At 4:32 there's a small section composed of both low and high synths, and with a short transition at 4:40, the song goes into another new section. This has all synths still. Another synth is added at 4:57 that sort of acts as somewhat of a bass (I think...). At 5:12 there's yet another synth added; this time it's extremely low. That one acts more of a bass than the other one that appeared at 4:57 (that one is already gone, by the way). There are some higher synths placed in at 5:25, playing a three note ditty and then dropping in pitch for another three notes. At 5:45 I'm starting to hear more of a beat come in, and then as the song progresses I start to hear more percussion as well. The song becomes more simplified at 5:55, although the new bit of percussion stays with the incredibly low synth which was the bass and also a slightly higher (and softer) synth which is more of a melody. At 6:08 it goes back into a section similar to the section at 5:45 (although with changes in overall rhythm and pitch). At 6:24 I can hear the low bass and the high melody playing practically the same thing, or the bass is acting like a harmony to the melody. At 6:40 the melody now focuses more on a medium-low synth that is now starting to play. There's a transition at 6:56, and there's now a change in percussion as well as melody (it's now in a much higher synth). The percussion will drop eventually at 7:14, leaving only the synth doing it's thing. At 7:34 that drops, and the song ends after a couple of echoing notes.

Pros: The synths were pretty good, and some of the harmonies were good as well. I would say that my favorite section was the one at 3:00, for I believe that it had the most atmosphere. I also liked the percussion, as well as that cool symbol-effect...thing.

Cons: Again, it's the lack of overall elements and atmosphere. Some sections of the song seemed way to quiet also. It was also a little bit too lengthy.

Overall: There were some sections that actually sounded really good. These songs are making a lot of progress, I think. There can always be stuff to improve on though. I don't have all that much to say other than that though.

Rating: 7.1...ish/10

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