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Sunbuster:   Bad

What can I say... it's somehow a sneaky track. I somehow got his feeling that
somebody/something was sneaking up on someone else :)
Minimalistic, chilled, lounge, with a groovy beat attached.
Got this image of a lake with a sandy beach, at red sunset, clear skies,
calm waters...This track is the type of music you'd find on a Cafe del mar compilation, I think.

Hard as I tried, I couldn't find any technical misses on this track. The beat is varied and good, the effects are used with care and are routed when possible/needed. The melody is nice (and sneaky =D), the mix is good, gives the track space...okay, the only miss, which isn't actually a miss, is that I would have liked to hear more of those great "piano" chords used in the end.
On the other hand, it finishes of the track so nicely and gives this final image of a calm beach, somehow. So let it be :)

Instrument 01 seems to have a bit of noise on it. But with everything else so well done, I'm wondering if that's
not intentional.

If you only download one track this month, then this one should definetly be considered. It's very fresh from what you usually hear in tracked music.

-Sunbuster

Inge:   Bad

Qbical - Left In The Rain

I can be rather short about this one: it's a must have. Again.

Left In The Rain offers the listener an intelligent and well-chosen architecture of original samples, a diversity in melodies and a strong main theme. While trying to define the exact associations it creates in my head, I would say it's a hybrid of Red Snapper, Chemical Brothers, Royksopp, and the Qbical-alike sound.

While standing outside my room having a cigarette and listening it for the fifth time, I actually was imagining how nice it would be to have a complete album of Qbical songs that are styled in this type of soundscapes. A movie clip would also be nice. I can see an Ewok-alike character standing in a dark street, surrounded by houses of which the lights are on, but who are all closed for him. Rain is pouring down silently. Street lights giving a hard, white light on the concrete pavement. He starts walking down the street, filmed from behind. Total movie clip is being interrupted by his own memories of when he was younger and used to be part of such a household that he now sees from the outside.
Weird idea? Maybe. But the mere fact that this song can make me think things like this is already a proof of quality. There isn't much music that can do these things in my head.

There is one thing that I really miss, and that is the existence of a bridge in the shape of a changing middle part. The components (=melodies of which this song is build up) are introduced in the beginning of the song, and their appearance or absence is the only 'true' diversity. A bridge with the same instruments but with changing melodies would be very nice to keep the listener interested throughout the song. I was hoping that you would use the low synth from track 4 as the foundation of such a bridge, with a new melody (maybe made with a new sample) layered on top of that.

Furthermore, to keep the atmosphere going, you could consider not completely fading out, but to keep the drums from track 10 ongoing for another pattern or two. It would be nice to hear everything fade away except these drums, which would still be fading out later on. I love stepwise decrease in volumes and samples, instead of total decrease of the volume of everything.

Minor points about a major song: 'very good' is all that can be said about this little gem. I really feel sorry for the Ewok. Qbical, can your next song be called 'the fireplace', in which the Ewok has found his own family again and is sitting in front of a fireplace, telling what he has done the last years while traveling through the cold and harsh world? It would sooth my mind to know that he's going to be okay.