Review of [C]lef's Musicdisk Perciano

Written by Makke

[C]lef sent me an e-mail right after Hugi #15 was released and asked me to review his first musicdisk Percaino. Now it's the 21st of July and I still haven't reviewed it, so sorry for the delay [C]lef. I've been a little lazy about you, but the most important thing is that it makes it into the new Hugi issue right?

So, as I said, Perciano is [C]lef's first musicdisk. And as [C]lef says in the info-file to this disk, "If you don't like music without speed and hard basses, you don't like my musicdisk". All songs are based on strings and piano, and thus don't vary much in sound, and almost nothing in style.

City at night (CITYNIGH.XM) - duration: 1:42

This song tries to reflect the feeling in a picture of a city at night (the picture is of course included in the disk). It's not impossible that you one night while walking through the city hear this song play from nowhere. [C]lef has captured the feeling quite well in this song, although it sounds a little strange sometimes. I think it's the synth-saxophone that doesn't really fit the song 100%. But, as Smash once said, the only way to get good saxophone sound is to sample whole riffs. And he was right. But not all are able to play the saxophone.

Good bye my friend (GOODBYE.XM) - duration: 3:26

The song starts with rain falling and a car starting. This song is dedicated to Jonathan Rahn (Rhytman), a friend of [C]lef's from school. This is a really sad song. It doesn't vary much in sound from City at Night, but this song sounds more completed and whole. The sound is kind of like a "sad lover"-theme from an 80's movie. The melody in this one gets a little boring towards the end though. It doesn't change much during the song. Still it's a pretty good song.

Harmony (HARMONY.XM) - duration: 3:50

Pretty nice melody here, but the song sounds rather stale. There's not much feeling in it. It also sounds thin. There's really nothing that backs up the piano. The bass sounds weird in this one too. This is probably the worst song on the disk, so to speak. It has no feeling, and sounds rather incomplete. The piano plays a little unrealistic as well.

Hidden love (HIDDLOVE.XM) - duration: 3:08

This song begins with a lonely piano, and I was afraid that it would turn into another "Harmony", hehe. But it didn't. This song takes of when a rather synthetic guitar sample kicks in and does some riffing. Rather weird but nice melody, however all the songs so far on the disk have been quite like. Both in sound and style. All the samples have sounded the same, and it's time to change a little sound here.

Lover's grief (LOVEGRIE.XM) - duration: 3:05

In my opinion the absolutely best sounding song on this disk. With very realistic piano sound. This is what a piano/strings-balad sounds like. The sound may not be 100% polished, and [C]lef might need some more training with the tracker before making a perfect track, but this one is as close to it as this disk comes. I really like this song. It has a power in it that no other song on the disk has. And I think it's much thanks to the "reverb"-sound in this song. The other songs had almost no echo or reverb which this one has. The flute sample isn't really in tune at some times though.

Strive for eternity (STRIVE.XM) - duration: 3:45

This song is also very well mixed compared to the other songs. A little [C]lef goes Vangelis perhaps. The sound of this one is different from the others, because in this one [C]lef has used a few more synth-sounds than just piano and strings which makes it sound much more like a "real" song.

Well, to sum it up [C]lef has got good ears for chords and piano-melody. But the sound is very newbie and unrealistic. A little training with the tracker and listening much to this sort of music should do the trick. This disk is better than many musicdisks I've heard, but it's far from perfect. But I say [C]lef, if you train more and try to mix the sound of your songs with a little more self-criticism I think you could make very good songs.

You can get the disk at: http://members.xoom.com/bubblesoft/perciano.zip

- Makke/Visuale/Hugi/Trebel