by Jeremey » Sat Feb 24, 2007 5:59 am
Thinking about that story made me wonder if there was any remnants of my earlier project from 1999 still online anywhere (a project called Madding Crowd)....I actually found this old review of my CD! Anyone wonder why I gave in and just decided to start a Journey tribute band need only read this review of my music which sounded NOTHING like Journey....I remember this review and at the time it pissed me off big time, but after 8 years (holy shit), I think the guy makes a lot of great points....Read on if you dare...
___________________________________________________________
madding crowd
genre: electronica
madding crowd describes themselves as "jane's addiction meets nine inch nails" yet i don't see this at all in the music - it's much more rock oriented than electronic and doesn't seem to contain many elements from either band. this actually is a good thing because i enjoy a fresh, new sound rather than something similar over and over - but personally, i do not particularly care for the rock/techno combination and i felt that madding crowd could use a bit more work on programming techniques and equalization.
these are the days contains some very nice guitar work- both rhythm and lead. the vocals remind me of journey, and the structure of the song is very predictable and rigid - almost as if they were scared to break out of a rock cliche. regardless, this song is techincally pretty good although the bass parts that arose during the choruses should have been toned way down, they were obviously much louder than anything else, including the vocals. alien bob begins with an old, hip-hop sounding breakbeat, with some nice acoustic melodies layed overtop. again, the bass in this song is too loud and should sit near the back of the spectrum, carrying the song along in a subtle manner - something you don't really notice unless you specifically try to find it. madding crowd needs a little more experience in equalizing their many different sounds. many people are fooled into thinking that they can merge guitars, vocals, and electronic elements without any problems... but it just doesn't work that way. it is much harder to achieve a balanced spectrum with so many different elements. again, this song is fairly rigid although noticeably better than the previous track. i must give props to the smooth guitar playing. here i am still is labelled as rock, and it is, no doubt, though it has many electronic elements. nice synth pads and the electronic drums give this song a darker and more varied feeling, something i found quite refreshing after the last two rigid tracks. once again some very nice guitar work is displayed, and i felt everything melded quite nicely in this piece. i am not really taken to the vocals, it sounds like a mix between journey and candlebox... yet the nice musical aspect of this song takes away from the somewhat outdated feeling of the vocals. one more is exactly like here i am still in that there are some very interesting things going on, but the vocals detract from the atmosphere. i felt if madding crowd wanted to make a techno song, or something atmospheric and electronic, they should have dropped the vocals, at least for one tune - and this would have been a great instrumental track. that said though, this song is solid and showcases some nice and promising talent. at least madding crowd is adventurous to involve several different musical elements into their product so i give them a lot of credit for that. the last track i reviewed, breaking the last line, begins with a nice background acoustic melody, with acoustic and electric leads layered over this. the drums are somewhat familiar (on the edge of breakbeat, had they been faster and more chopped up) and the same vocal techinques are used. but surprisingly, i was impressed by this song - i don't usually like rock music (as this was labelled), but the melody and structure to this song set it apart from normal rock musicians. again, the vocals were not too my liking, but a nice musical effort.
i have a very mixed impression of madding crowd after this review. they obviously have talent and could definitely get somewhere far with their mix of mainstream and unusual elements. i, personally, am not really drawn to the rock/techno crossover... it seems like just another style of music that is implementing electronics because "it's cool" or because it's just the modern thing to do. so, it was pretty hard for me to get into this music, but i can still respect the talent and potential involved here. solid effort and a very mixed approach to a relatively new style.
reviewed by fabrik nos on 1999-07-26
But I sure do appreciate listening to somebody that can! 
Crap?? 
Available @ 
