Review of Less Music Productions' "Aural Therapy"-Musicdisk

Written by Makke

Less Music Productions (LMP) has once again released a music-disk. The last one (which at least I heard of) was released about a year ago. Once again SoLoRiZe coded an interface for the disk. The interface itself isn't astonishing in any respect and is in fact a little ugly and buggy, but it does fill its purpose. Which is to give information about the songs, and... well... play the songs.

Dreamless 2: Beyond Consciousness by Dr-Q-Cumber

Dr-Q-Cumber is in my opinion the strongest tracker in LMP. And in this track I think he shows it. This track is a slow and melodic song, which makes me think of fantasy stories... and actually makes me a little eager to play some Dungeons & Dragons. The piano is used very carefully, and nothing is blown out of proportion volume wise. One thing that "bothers" me a little is the boring bass-line. Nothing really happens. It only marks the tune the song has at the moment. But it's nothing that makes the song go bad. It's just the fact that doesn't make it "perfect" for its style...

Fall of the Fall by Exodus

Calm house-track that isn't as pushy as house usually is. It's more careful and invites you to sit down and have a cup of tea, rather than jump up and dance. Nothing extravagant happens in it. It just keeps on going in, pretty much the same theme the whole song. But I guess house music is supposed to be a little monotonous. Good song nonetheless. Well tracked and mixed.

Old Mans Child by DJ Luna

Let's start with saying that this song is MUCH better than the one on LMP's first disk. The immature style that DJ Luna showed then seems to be more or less gone, and this track is both musically and technically better than "Kill da damn teachers, burn da fuk'n school" was. This is kind of a trance song, but a little harder than usual trance. It's both varied and pretty inviting to dance... uhm... okay. Gonna check the dance-factor of this one. It's a little too fast for me to dance well to, but thanks to some calm parts it works to listen to anyway. One thing to criticize is that the piano doesn't sound very real. I think a few more channels should've been used so that the piano would have a chance to finish before the next tone was played. But it's thumbs up anyway for DJ Luna. Keep this kind of work up... (BTW: I didn't get the "story" of this song... a nazi that adopts a Jewish boy when his son works at Auschwitz? Rhymes bad in my ears...)

Histeria Dance Mix by RootUS

As the readme file to this song says that it's a dance track I think I'll start with the dance-factor here. Not too bad. Though this song feels a little too nice to dance to. Not nice in a bad way, as you should know that I don't like dancing. This song, however, does feel more suited to write articles to. Which I'm doing right now... and it feels good. Yeah! Okay, enough shit. The theme of this song is very good, but the sound is a little thin sometimes. It would've been good to have some synth just marking the tone in the background to keep a good flow in the song.

Mystery of the Drum by Schm0

Ode to the drum I suppose? At first I thought the "there's always been a mystery about the drum"-vocal sample was overused, but I guess it fits into the song quite well now (a few listens later). This is quite an average hardcore tune, without the really HARD core. The song is pretty well made, but I don't really like this kind of music, and don't have that much to refer to... thus I can't give it a fair judgement.

Endless Dreaming by Schutzy

This ballad is a nice contrast to Mystery of the Drum. Not as well tracked as Dr. Qs song, but is touching the same style here, although with some war samples (close-combat gunfight) in the background at some points. The lead theme of the song is played by a flute and it's mainly accompanied by strings and a really realistic sounding guitar, I had to check to see that they weren't sampled riffs... good job with the guitar samples there. A little minus because of the "missed" samples in the "other bank" in FT2. If you switch sample banks you can read sample-text by Awesome... this shouldn't be there...

Doing it LMP Style by SoLoRiZe

This song could've been cool, but it isn't. Why? Because it sounds BETA. It lacks accompaniment, which makes it sound really thin. I guess this song shouldn't be taken too seriously, because of the funny themes in it. But it sounds a little lame... The lyrics are kind of nice though, but they are a little un-tight. They are off beat at some time when the "like that like that" is sung. SoLoRiZe, you're better than this!

A Trackers Life by SoLoRiZe

All right! This song sounds a lot better, and the lyrics in this song are also better. Nice idea with the "a trackers life"-theme. The lyrics are about the decease called FT2. You can really get trapped in it. I know the feeling. Though I didn't lose a girlfriend due to it, as SoLoRiZe did. I simply didn't have a girlfriend to lose. SoLoRiZe himself describes this song as a Humorous/Trance. But I think it's just simple synth-pop with a drum-loop. Don't get "simple synth-pop" wrong. Simple synth-pop is great. Not a perfect song, but the lyrics are always nice to hear...

Forever Dream by FutureRaver

This song totally crashed FT2, and made my computer re-boot. Why? The only way I can play it is with the LMP interface! Okay. If you've heard the other FutureRaver songs this one doesn't offer any news. The style is the same. Average trance song...

I guess on this new disk we see a more experimental LMP. Some things have stayed the same from last year's disk, but much has changed, and some of the members even developed a little along the way. Good disk that is worth getting (LMP homepage: http://freespace.virgin.net/mark.dunn/). Maybe nothing for the fastidious listener, but for you who like to listen to new groups and widen your range of music appreciation.

- Makke/Visuale/Hugi/Trebel