Essence Remix Compo: reviews by Mista Rilla

Embers (Synrgy's Sundown Mix) by Synrgy: You suck!  Man, if you

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Submitted by Mista Rilla on Thu, 2006-07-06 11:36.

You suck!  Man, if you don't win this I'll eat my hat  Smiling
If I had to make one criticism it would be that the bottom end seems a little weak?  Or is that my setup and/or ears? 
Seriously... teasing the floor through the intro, sucking back to nothing then  letting 'em have it in some dirty glide chaos - the tried and true put to work.  There's no empty promise like I often find with so many tracks, you know what I mean - a "gotcha" intro then the track burns out halfway through - this one delivers from start to finish.  Arrangement: phat.  Beats: phat.  Variation: phat.  Champion!  Tweak up the subs for a perfect 10 


Embers - Tubeman edit 006 by Drainage: The intro to this tune

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Submitted by Mista Rilla on Thu, 2006-07-06 05:24.

The intro to this tune grabbed me, a full atmosphere with a downbeat niceness.  I enjoyed the musical adaptation and think everything fits really well other than the vox timing (but only just.)  I think I know what you were going for and imo it would work really well with the dry vocals but with Virus's outstanding vox processing they don't gel so well.  Being a noob it may not mean much but I couldn't fault the production quality, good effort! 


Embers - Melody Stalker Spaced Out Remix by Melody Stalker: As much as I don't like

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Submitted by Mista Rilla on Thu, 2006-07-06 05:33.

As much as I don't like house styles this track has a cool groove, I could listen to it sitting in the background quite happily... problem is, I'm not feeling that vocal timing mate.  The "chorus," intro and outro vox work pretty well for the most part but the verse timing feels all kindsa wrong.  Apart from that I think the track's pretty tight, nice atmospheric elements and a sweet bass "pop" line.  It'd score higher with me if the vocals fit better though


embers (remix) by ici aussi: Nice mellow track.  Seems

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Submitted by Mista Rilla on Thu, 2006-07-06 12:04.

Nice mellow track.  Seems to just amble along quite happily with nothing that really jumps out and grabs ya but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  Nothing offensive about it, it's really just "nice" (don't take that as an insult, it's not meant as one.)  Musically I think everything worked well together and sat comfortably with the vocals.  There was the odd effect/element that I thought the levels were a bit off though.  
On the production side what stood out to me most was a bit of a compression issue?  Is there some heavy-handed ducking going on or something?  The overall sound was a little noisy/murky... needs a bit of tidying up imo. 


embers (obscure remix) by dj obscure: Intro got the head nodding

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Submitted by Mista Rilla on Thu, 2006-07-06 11:48.

Intro got the head nodding but the transition into the first verse didn't seem to work so well imo.  Wasn't into the choppy synths either I'm afraid.  And really not sure about the use of the vox, couldn't find the common beat... found this track to be a bit grating overall.  The theme's got potential I think but could be implemented better.  Got some pretty handy beats in there too but the arrangement and mixing didn't do it for me. Sorry mate, not my bag...