MBC 08 Blake Market (aka Dad Rush) FINAL JUDGEMENT'S'

FIRST PASS

1 - Industrial amens compete w/ bad saddo vox at the beginning. And dsp wank..bullfrog bass...would sound right at home in a Screwhead Mix. Good chops but a lotta wank.

2 - Ragga vibes with rave. Good drums. Tight programming with actual phrasing. It goes on a bit, too dense, no breakdown - like all my early stuff. Oh ok, gabber interlude. Early contender for top 5. (2)

3 - Funky breaks. Not too much wank, eerie synth. Don't mind this. Well, it gets repetitive; not enough beat variation. Some points for the breakdowns where there's pure silence. This would work at an underground cement bunker party, but I suspect you're a novice. We all were.(3)

4 - Dark dnb....male producer vocal sample does nothing for me. This isn't that well done I'm afraid. HATE the Im to iiim chord progression with the rave stabs! What is this 95? (ps I know it's easy and tempting to do that clich in trackers....but it sounds like trackers!)

5 - Disjointed disto-drumfunk...w/ recognizable samples from the ragga cannon. I like it cos it's different. This is an experimental track. Now there's a child-melody and less dense drums, cool. This one is chill to me. Goes places...Oh, upright bass and ethnic instrument? You sir are a post-modern man with a broad range of influences! (1)

6 - I love Orbital! Do you know them? This takes a while to get going for a 4 minute tune. I don't mind the vibe at all, but it's quite derivative of good old P&P Hartnoll. Very repetitive too.

7 - A sad Eyore bass does counterpoint with apache breaks in this off kilter intro. Then lowpassed amens and the wrong synth sound, through your big muff pedal, enter the picture. It's mercifully short, and ok mood wise. Ok...(5)

8 - 303, early Tom Jenkinson drums, Biggie Smalls sample (respect). Reminds me of Lone Raver (Live at Chelmsford). Like the halftime breakbeat in the breakdown. After the breakdown is really good...you got the dotted quarter-note down eh! Deece, dude. (3-4)

9 - Good idm hiphop, all original, but the kicks kill it for me cos there's a click on every single one. Heavy drums Autechre - good. But the click drums need revision.

10 - Glitch. A transposed chord melody (tracker sound!). Never really Drops. Works as an ambient piece...ok.

11 - Nice amen workout, no real soul despite the James Brown sample. Decent glitchcore, but no bassline whatsoever? Maybe you thought this was just a break-cutting contest. I don't know what the guidelines were and I'm not looking into it.

SECOND PASS

2 You got stylecarnival rave not so much my thing, but this shit is sounding good. There are tracker-style transposed rave stabs, but they aren't all static. The sine tone bass line is very musical too. Please continue sir. I restate my claim of (2,3)

3 Yeah this is good underground weird rave. Unlike the other ones that were also too repetitive, this one has a good mood that I can get behind. More breakbeat fuckery would make this an off-kilter winner (to ME!). (4,3)

5 I kind of think this one is the winner. Just that very first sound-design sound at the very beginning that fades in - shows craft. It's ragga-core but more on a slow dancehall vibe. Care has been taken here.lotta good sound design. Second half goes out of Black Jamaica into Sheffield white guys classic Warp sorta. Yeah I'm typing a lot so I think I like this (1).

7 Eyore! Good to see you again! Yeah see, that intro was nice but the lowpassed amens and bad synth. I mean this in the best possible way.(5) (actually this kind of sucks. There's a hissy noise throughout. Mind your EQs in the future, because for now you're disqualified!)

8 Perfectly Serviceable. Lone Raver. Good chops. Nice shout-out to Happy Hardcore. I respect that for some reason. I think this is 3 or 4. The (AGAIN WITH THE FUCKING TRACKER CHORD) melodies sound like Axel's Theme from Beverly Hills Cop. Points deducted accordingly.

THIRD PASS (not documented)

AND THE WINNERS ARE (THERE ARE NO LOSERS HERE (except for track 7))

1. FIVE (certainly the best)

2. THREE (I like the vibe, I would DJ this track at the right party, and the right people would dance)

3. TWO (good work, would listen again)

4. EIGHT (very good but too old sounding)

Sincerely,

Blake L. Markle