Review of Less Music Productions' First Music-Disk

Written by Makke

Facts

Less Music Productions is an international music group, and I was asked by Dr-Q-Cumber to review their first music-disk. I had never heard of LESS Music Productions before, except for some of the members (Dr-Q-Cumber and Future Raver). Anyway, the music-disk consists of seven XM-files, in many different styles. Though the styles are different, the genuine electronic sound spreads its wings over most of the songs.

I always like to know a little about the artist(s) I'm writing reviews for, and I wished LESS Music would get some more group info for their homepage (http://freespace.virgin.net/mark.dunn/index.htm). More history, more info about the members etc. Always nice to read.

So I downloaded the disk and unzipped it and found a thing that made me really happy. An interface!!! Cooooool!!! "Long time not see, cool music-disk interface!" I thought and fired it up.

What I found was a small but jolly interface made in Visual Basic v.5 (yes, not the most advanced interface, but it's more than most groups ever manage to produce) by SoLoRiZe.

If I'm not mistaken the music is played by a ModPlug-plug-in, which can be fatal to the quality of the music. But as long as the tracker keeps in mind which player will be used he can modify the track to the player. In this case I can't hear any greater difference between ModPlug and Fast Tracker. And I guess that is what counts in the end.

Ok, moving on to the music!

Breaking loose by SoLoRiZe (sol_brkl.xm)

This is a fairly nice breakbeat song, though I wouldn't call it true breakbeat. The beat isn't broken enough. No seriously, this song is cool. It may be basic in its appearance, but it does its job. Which is getting one to listen to it. As I always say to myself: "If the song doesn't force you to turn it of, there's something with it that is good!" And this song doesn't force me to turn it off. It may be a little boring in the end, but it's not too long, so you won't grow tired in the first place.

The song is mainly built up by drums (duh!), chord and piano and the melody is a bit catchy. One of the better songs on this disk.

Locked up in a tunnel by Future Raver (fr_locke.xm)

Hmm - well - yes - it is rave. :) I don't know what to say about this track really, it's a rave track and it's not the worst one I've heard, and yet not the best one I've heard either, so I guess it's an average rave-song.

But, then you take a look at who's done it, and you discover that Future Raver is only 14 years old, and I guess that makes the track a little better after all. I've heard a few of Future Raver's other songs, and I know that some day he'll be one of the best. Future Raver works mostly with panning and volume effects, and sometimes his tracks look "unclean". There are effects that don't "have to" be there, and this gives the track a "dirty" look. The panning for example is way too abused in this track (if you ask me). But, we are all different humans, and it would be boring if everyone used the same tracking technique, wouldn't it?

This song is a bit boring to listen to, but I guess rave was made to dance to. Maybe I should try to dance around a little to it. Hmm - I usually need a few beers before I dance but I'll make an exception today.

(Makke dances around his computer, and his mother looks at him and asks if he has been chewing on the poisonous plants she keeps in the window.)

Yes, you can dance to it, and so this song does what it's supposed to do as well.

Dreamless by Dr-Q-Cumber (drq_drml.xm)

As a great fan of Jarre I love slow melodic synthsongs, like this one by Dr-Q. This song reminds me of one of my early tracks called In the Wind, which I personally think is good, but no one else seems to agree. :)

The slow beat makes you lay back on your bed and close your eyes. I like the chords in this one A LOT. They're very cosy! One thing with this song that destroyed it in a way is the flute sample. It's not quite tuned with the rest of the song, and this makes the ears hurt a bit. But as I like this song, it's not worse than I can tune the flute myself, though Dr-Q-Cumber SHOULD have done that himself. :)

Great song!

Drowning (Femme version) by Exodus (e-down.xm)

Ok, some more breakbeat. This song I like partially. Some parts are really cool. Like the beginning is very nice, though the strings seem a little out of tune. The thing that makes me go puke with this song though is the "I'm drowning"-vocal sample. Jesus! Is that singing?! Wow! That must mean that I can sing as well!

The fact that this sample is repeated (and played backwards) too much makes me grow tired of it. And the vocal sample kind of makes me want to the song of. Which is very sad, because the main theme of this song is very cool while working with the beat. This is sadly enough, a good track that is drowning in a bad "I'm drowning"-vocal sample.

The silence of death by SCHUTZY (shz_sod.xm)

Pianoish synthsong … la Miles! Maybe not as catchy and bassy as a Miles song, but you get the idea of the style.

This is not a bad song, but it is a little boring and monotonous, kind of like a Miles song.

Otherwise this is a well-tracked song, perhaps turn the hi-hat down and put some reverb on the piano - and get a new crash sample, because the crash sample makes your brain bleed.

Otherwise a nice song. Not much more to say.

Kill da damn teachers, burn da fuk'n school by Dj Luna

Uhm - hello? Maybe we should rename to Dj "I don't like school"? This is a hard core track, and usually I don't listen to hard core so I don't have anything to compare with. But I don't like this track at all. Maybe it's because I don't like hard core, maybe it's because I think that the message of this song is a little childish. Or perhaps because it actually ain't that musically good.

I'm not ashamed of saying I don't like this track, if it's because I don't like this kind of music you'll have to excuse me.

Initial reject by RootUS 'n TiM (r-reject.xm)

At first I thought this was going to be another slow melodic synthsong, and that the bass-drum was way to strong for it, but after a minute it goes rave, so I guess I jumped to conclusions.

Ok, as this is rave I think I'll have to dance around some more. (Makke's mother looks at him and calls the doctor.)

Oh yeah! This sure is quite catchy. The melody is mainly built up by piano, and a nice ravy bass. The piano could have gotten a little more volume. It's a little bit too quiet.

This song is catchy, maybe a little too fast for me, but otherwise really cool. Too short though.

Ok ok!

If you like electronic music this is a good musicdisk, but if you're allergic to rave I don't recommend it.

The "mistakes" in the songs of this disk are mainly newbie-faults which often disappears with time. So look out for future LESS Music Productions!

- Makke / Comic Pirates / Hugi