Tedd-Z (Blasophora)

Reviewed by Andy Stokes on (Monday, February 25, 2008) Rated 8.3 / 10
Category Rating
Track Structure 9
Interest 7
Melody 10
Performance 7
Lyrics 0
Enjoyment 8
Recording Quality 9
Commercial Appeal 8
Overall 8.3

Up for my next review is Tedd-Z’s Electronica song, Blasophora. I woke up this morning feeling pretty good so I’m in a swell mood to do some writing! I’ve downloaded the song and I’m going to press play. Here we go, folks!

 

Two storming sounds coming from different directions accompanied with a nice fragrant saw synth noise begin the electronics. Very nice and deep sounding. I like how he brought in the beat with a great fill pause. The deep, dark piano does a lot of things to this beat. It makes it sound dark, dreary, and mystical. It makes me feel as if I’m in a dark land of wonder!

 

Now the synth line gets a little more detailed. A hint of hats occupy the nice flash of the snare, which is a very good choice by the way. Not too crunchy. Now we enter a breakdown in the mix here. I can hear what seems to be an “Ah” synth. Perhaps Delay Lama? It oddly harmonizes with the bass line and piano. Very nice work done there.

 

I’m at around 5 minutes when the dongy spacey noises come back in. I like the complexity of it’s pattern. It adds a bit of density to the music and gives it a more polished look. Then we end it with a snare fill and more stormy noises. Extremely imaginative.

 

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed that tune. When the hats first come in at a complicated pace along with the bass line, it definitely adds the dreary feeling to it. All the way through I couldn’t help but picture myself wondering around in a dark forest with things drifting by me within the mist lying upon the ground. The enjoyment gets an even 8. Although the atmosphere is very vibrant, more could have been done with it. Perhaps more effects, more stark detailed sounds, etc… The enjoyment is definitely linked strongly in part to the darkness of this dreary piece of music.

What remains remarkable is the structure. Every piece of the ensemble mixes extremely well. The timing for adding additional sounds is very well thought out. The fills are at just the right places, nothing comes in awkwardly and the flow of the song isn’t ever abruptly changed. A smooth arrangement for a very smooth, cool cat, song. The only deflection that stops me from giving it a 10 is perhaps the way the Delay Lama-ish “Ah” synth comes in. It is masterfully introduced and the ability to give it a voice cracking effect is amazing but I just didn’t get a solid impression of it. It slightly detoured me from everything else. Very bold attempt!

 

The performance of Blasophora is a steady one. The structure is well thought out but performance is a slightly different key to that subject. In sequencing, to me, performance is best left decided in how well the programming it’self is thought out to reveal it’s total listening worthiness. I feel that the performance in this computer generated sequence of darkness veers it’self strongly toward the interest of the song. Performance gets a 7 for this and I’ll explain why. In the beginning of the song, it sucked me in, giving me no choice but to feel interested. That was an impressive effect! Unfortunately down the line after the “Ah” synth, things just linger on and on with no interesting changes to add to the performance. The fills are there, the genius is still moving along but my interest depleted slightly. I will be honest and say that I am very picky with alterations and detail. There is a good deal of detail but not a lot of alterations. Because of this I’ll give the interest a 7 as well. Even though my score, it doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of thinking about myself wondering around in darkness! Mwuaahahahaaa!

I have to give a strong complement to the melody. How else could a dark piano give me that type of feeling without a nice downed melody? Harmonizing the piano with the bass line was superbly awesome. Making two low frequencies sound good together is very cool. This is a fine example of how doing that can make a song stand out! When the “ah” synth comes in, it’s odd at first but to me, this is a technique that psy-techno artists use to mesmerize and enchant the listener into thinking they themselves are going somewhere else along with the melody. I’m guilty of doing that as well! Melody gets a solid 10 because I can’t help but get excited over how much that piano adds to it!

 

As far as quality… Let me tell you guys. Tedd-Z knows how to make things sound good together. The production is top notch. Nothing is faded, too distorted, squelchy or crunchy and there is hardly no noise hiss. I would describe the display of sound as very clear. The final cut has a very sensible volume level and everything sounds good together. Awesome job on the mixing, which is very strong. Enough for a pat on the back! It’s not just the quality of the sound that gives this song quality, though. All the aspects of this song throw it’s weapons at the quality. I’ll give the recording aspect of it a 9. It was a nice, clear way to put the sound in the ears but I feel it needed a tiny smidge of brilliance and brightness. Good job done here!

 

Now when I hear things like, “commercial appeal” it kind of makes me feel like I have to tell the person whether or not they could put it on record and sell it to people. Or if it could be used in any way to influence the economy of the public while, at the same time, giving them the unique pleasure of listening to the song. That strongly depends on where you sell/play it. If I put this on an actual vinyl record and put it in say… an underground record store. Yes! People may pull it off that high wall of sounds and if they like it, chances are, I think they would buy it. I would! Same goes for a rave (if that’s what the pioneers still call it). If I heard Tedd-Z mixing this himself and there was a sound purchasing area offering it to the party. Heck smacking yea, I’m pulling my wallet out. Now if I took this song and put it out as a single in lets sayyy… a store selling music that’s played on MTV… I just don’t see it. No disrespect at all is intended. Just my pure honesty! So I’ll give commercial appeal an 8. It’s not going to change anything. But it won’t make things any less cooler. I can see this song and respect it as another contribution to the dark side of Electronica. Long live it!

To listen to the track Click Here