Funny, after recording this I received a couple of messages on YouTube. The individual thought I deserved more subscribers and more views. Surprise surprise, they offered me a variety of deals. For £10 I could buy a thousand views for my video. Other deals included the ability to buy subscribers. See… I’m a cynic. These people on YouTube with thousands of subscribers? Can they all be trusted? Is there evidence of the multiple thousands? For some the answer is yes. But for others… hmmm….
Amount of subscribers doesn’t equal amount of views. It’s not so long ago I’ve seen Wyatt’s comment somewhere, where he appeared quite angry about the fact that he has about thousand subs but his videos get about hundered views each. Especialy if you’d buy subscribers they mostlikley won’t give a shit… bought views might be useful to crack YT’s “to promote already popular” principle, other than that it’s useless (at least to my knowledge). Anyway, is there place on the net where can I find that ( or something about it ) already out album, you did with with your murican buddy?
https://theeleventhhourinitiative.bandcamp.com/album/escapism
And there it is. The feedback review I said I’ll make.
objective part: There’s nothing wrong with it. Well done, industry standard, professional sounding if you don’t have alergy to buzzwords. Somehow I don’t see better way to express it, but there’s not much to judge objectively about music. Wait I think I have it… or not… well produced, competently mixed and mastered, come to mind as alternative to those buzzwords.
subjective part: I originaly wanted to listen to the album more times before writting this “review”, but after third or fourth time I figured out I’ll write another one, if my opinion changes. I have mixed feelings about it. It’s very solid album, but at same time I’m rarely in mood for it. I’ve tried to pinpoint down reasons for it and come up with several things that I’m not realy sure if they’re not masking something else. It feels little bit dry to me. I don’t mean like wet/dry knob on effect, but like steak which is more done than one is used to / prefers. Also I’m not talking about composition/musicality of songs, that is solid as it can be… and that is most likely the reason why I’m little bit confused about it. I have albums which are lacking in bottom frequencies or sport harshness in the top end, but none of it was obstacle in my way to get addicted to them. If I’d had to guess, I’d say combination of vocals (voice to be exact) and something missing in lower midrange (just earballing it, no spectrum analysers or similar used). So far I’ve found Pitfall, Ready set explode, Mean machines and Chaising chaos are … fuck, how to describe it… They’re not better than the rest… … They so far stuck in my head more than the rest, while Chaising chaos is my favorite, which would have potential to be hit, if general public cared about music which it doesn’t.
Thanks for the review!
Interesting stuff. I think I agree that we nailed the songs structurally. I had issues with the vocals and the novel way in which they were recorded but I’m sure Bill and I will touch upon that in a future video. And, I suppose, people will either like or dislike the actual ‘sound’ of Bill’s voice.
I appreciate your comments about what the album may ‘lack’ and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree. I am putting the finishing touches right now to our second album and I hope it will go some way to alleviating your concerns. I feel that ‘Escapism’ was quite a rigid, mechanical album. Not that that’s a bad thing – some of my favourite albums of all time have been really quite tight and claustrophobic. But our second album is already sounding more organic. Now, of course, Bill is still singing, and if you don’t like Bill’s vocal sound then that may continue to be an issue. But I think, overall, I learned a lot from creating ‘Escapism’ and the next TEHI album will reflect that. I hope you are still interested in hearing it?
Thanks again!
I’m definitely interested in hearing the follow up. That review might ending up looking harsher that it was intended. It also could be lot shorter… “It’s good, but something is missing for it to be realy good”… the rest is trying to figure out what that something is, and kinda failing at it 😀
Bill’s voice… I realy can’t tell at the moment, if that guess is in direction of that “something” or not. It was kind of early impression and it easily can case equivalent to “tone is in the mic placement”. I rushed the review a bit, because waiting to needed amount listening might take stupidly long time, due to rarity of “Escapist” mood on my end, which also may or may not change in the future. We’ll see. Sure things are: I’m curious about the second album and if I discover something new (to me) about “Escapist” I’ll tell you.
Deep thought
Why is it, when I watch your videos, we are both alone and drinking? …… ha!
Excellent video… enjoy your thought provoking insight and wit. You definitely make me think.
Thanks brother.
Drink brings us all together! Cheers for watching!