I haven’t had a chance to listen to them yet, but I have one suggestion: put some tags in your MP3s, please! The Title and Artist tags especially need something in there.
Now, I’m really looking forward to something Siouxie and the Pixies-ish. 
Wait. Whaddya mean? I’m pretty new to this Soundclick thing. What do you mean by putting tags in them?
Mp3s have what are called ID3 tagging - it allows you to mark individual mp3 files with virtually any information including artist, title, album name, track number, date published, lyrics, bassist’s neighbor’s mother’s roomate’s ASVAB scores, etc. Virtually every mp3 player in the history of mp3 will read and display these tags. If each file is properly tagged, then anyone in the world who downloaded your music will be able to tell who the artist is, etc. just by opening up their player.
None of the tags are mandatory, though usually Artist and Title are a good minimum. Most media players understand at least Artist, Title, Album, Track (i.e. track #) and Date.
(Note that this information is completely unrelated to the filename; so if you upload to a service that mangles filenames, the tags will still remain. Also when you transfer an mp3 to some players like an iPod, the filename is obliterated.)
Now, having said that, you can’t rule out the possibility that Soundclick will muck around with your ID3 tags after you upload the mp3 file. Most services don’t, but some (Myspace IIRC) will.
At any rate, I love this music! Please keep it up! And give the rest of the band high fives.
OK, awesome. I didn’t know. I’ve edited the tags, and I’m uploading as we speak. Thank you!
How did you download the mp3s? I was only able to listen to the songs with the web page’s built in music player.
ANyway…
“Shamille”, I liked a lot, it was very different than the others. In general, they were kind of trippy and nostalgic. I couldn’t really make out the lyrics. I love the instruments and general sound as well as the tunes. The mix came across as a little muddled to me though - things could have been a little sharper and more distinct. Things were a little too slow tempo and easy going as well, They were points where I felt myself getting close to musical climax but didn’t quite get brought over the edge. So really cool, great sound, great composition, but needs a little help in certain areas to make it truly excellent and mind blowing.
Thanks for the thoughts. Yeah, unfortunately, there was a lot of post-processing involved. And we didn’t have the foresight to play every song to a click track. So there is some inconsistency in the rhythm (made it a bitch to punch in and out). It’s a demo, really.
Also, if you go to the individual page for each song, there’s an option to download.
I didn’t notice the rhythm issues. It was more of a tempo thing, and some other musical term that I’m not smart enough to know. Maybe something like “emphasis”? Sort of like the musical equivalent of the difference between reading a speech outloud by MLK from a textbook, and performing the same speech playing him in a play.
As far as the muddle, to some extent it was expected as part of the ‘spacey’ quality you are going for. There’s a pleasant dreaminess to it that sounds great. I just think a few of the instruments could be a little sharper on top of that background of dreaminess. The vocals were somewhat indistinct (altho otherwise pleasant). It took me awhile to realize the songs were supposed to be in English. I never could quite make out everything that was being sung tho. In the case of the vocals you can definitely change the production to give them a resonant supernatural feel, without smearing them out. Given the feel of the music, I’d almost prefer that the songs weren’t in English tho lol.
But I definitely hope you put some more work into these. Make a few of the instruments and vocals a tad more distinct. Increase the tempo and make the performance a little more emphatic and tension/climax oriented. Maybe sing in a different language They are definitely right on the edge of being great.
Awesome!
I don’t know anything about music, really, so I can’t offer any critiques, but I love the music and downloaded all the files. Thanks for sharing, and good luck to you. You seem very talented to me.
Hey Ogre, how cool is that? As a player, Renee, I can tell you that there is something really nice about that type of compliment. Knowing your work is reaching listeners musically is a *good *thing.
Thanks for the critique. All this is good stuff. Helps me focus.
One note about the sound quality: keep in mind that I’m not a VIP member of Soundclick, therefore I can only upload mp3’s with a max bitrate of 128 kbps, which tends to “mush” the sound just a bit. There’s definitely an audible difference between that and, say, a 320 kbps file.
This is an immensely flattering post. Thanks very much. This is the nicest possible compliment to our music.
Whew, no kidding. It’s one thing if technically knowledgeable people pick the songs apart, but it’s altogether something else when somebody simply says “I like your music.” Totally, totally great.