generation in a deadline

FIRE NOMINATED AS "SONG OF THE WEEK" IN MUSIC SCENE INVESTIGATION


Last night I receive an e-mail about Fire was picked-up for review and nominated as Song of the Week by Music Scene Investigation. I'm not sure where the studio based at, if I give my attention to the podcast host's voice, it's possibly somewhere in USA.
Anyway, according to the website, MSI is a live broadcast & podcast, where the team, consist of industry experts (musicians, engineers, producers etc) investigate and analyze three random songs submitted by bands. After that, the song will have to pass through the appropriateness process. If selected, for an hour, they'll talk about and debate the music chosen, hopefully, by the end of the show they are able to all agree on a “Song of the Week”, which is featured on the website. I can tell you, the review is honest, if they dislike it, they'll say so. The best part for me is, they investigate in detail and the critics are constructiive.

This week, the songs are Attention by Galactaron, Fire by LunariaN and Point To Prove by Anton Chillington. And the reviewers are Tom Chianti (New York, US), Ian Husbands (London, UK) and Sam Kelly (London, UK).

After some chit-chat and reviewing the first song, they came up to Fire by LunariaN. For spoiler, I'll try to make summary of how's the review.

01. By Tom Chianti
Mix side: He really concerned about the mix (he's been an engineer for 25 years) and thrown many critics about it. He said it's too loud, the vocal is really below the level it should be, the drums were too upfront, to name a few.
Music side: He didn't felt he get what the music is about. Too many things happened. The vocal is actually good. He mentioned he caught british-invasion feeling and a very british-rock flow but overall there was too much mix at it while it's a miss-match.

02. By Ian Husbands
Mix side: Quite similar with Tom, he didn't felt really into the mix. The vocal could've been louder. The track needs to be remixed.
Music side: He liked it. It has the dynamics and movement. "maybe sounds a bit too clever for me", maybe it has to stop a while, giving people time to understand what's going on. It's a genre he just listened only 4 or 5 years ago. Only he thought it could've been "less clever". Overall he liked it.

03. By Sam Kelly
Mix side: Bad. The opinion he gave quite similar with both reviewer before. The mix was worn out. Conclusion is the track needs to be remixed.
Music side: Great. The arrangement was very clever, probably "too clever" -again-. Caught his attention from the start, he thought the song would be a perfect fit to put as a single. Very well done. The guitars & drums sounds awesome. Nice & shiny atmosphere.

Can I say the track is controversial on the arrangement side ??

In the end, we didn't get enough vote to be chosen as the Song of the Week though, but it's okay. Whatever their opinion, I do feel honored to be included and put in the nomination. Beside getting more news to spread (yeah, that's what being exist is all about eh ?), I got good inputs for Fire, hell maybe I could apply them to some of our other songs. And hey, not everyday you can get a review by experts freely in a 1-hour podcast.

Thank you very much MSI, hopefully Fire was only the first track from us.

Full podcast link 

Song of the week for May 15, 2011 link

Rivelino Ismaya