| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Track Structure | 9 |
| Interest | 8 |
| Melody | 8 |
| Performance | 6 |
| Lyrics | 0 |
| Enjoyment | 7 |
| Recording Quality | 9 |
| Commercial Appeal | 7 |
| Overall | 7.7 |
When I saw that Dirk Siemer had “blues” listed out beside his name and the song title I wasn’t sure what to expect. The blues are a well-traveled path that has a well established set of rules, structure, style, and heritage. I received two surprises when I listened to this track. One-it’s NOT blues by any stretch of the imagination; Two-I liked it a great deal.
The first part of this song has a 60’s or 70’s R&B; feel to it, light and lilting that is in stark contrast to the strange, sampled rap line that occurs throughout. It’s an interesting counterpoint. Then comes a bridge section with some nice looped acoustic guitar and piano with some interesting wah’d effects flitting in and out. Enter the panned Rhodes piano tones. Nice transition throughout. Then, the final section with the heavily distorted and flanged guitar lines appears. I have to assume that these are all samples because that’s what Dirk says on his site. Whatever they are, they are darned good and pack a punch. The production values in the whole piece are top notch.
This is an unusual song. It has a lot of movement and parts to it. It reminds me of some of Mike Oldfield’s work, if you’re familiar with the cd “Tubular Bells”. It’s a cool piece. And therein lies the problem for me. I wasn’t quite sure how to review it. Just taken as a piece of music, I think it’s a really good piece. Now here is where I’m sure the artillery shells will start falling in my direction. As a blues piece, it’s awful, but only because it’s NOT blues. Just saying something is blues doesn’t make it so. I read the comments on the site and many people commented about how much they like it because it is such a refreshing take on the blues. They probably like it because they don’t like the blues. I will stop beating this dead horse now. I think Dirk is a very good arranger and producer. I think “Bloody Funny Day” is really funky, interesting tune. I like his work regardless of the label and I will leave it at that.
To listen to the track Click Here