#oz balls

REVIEW

- Musical Genre a.k.a. Stepping Into The EDM Realm

For those who've not read my Birdhouse review, Shadrow took an indefinite hiatus from his usual rock music production to experiment with more EDM (electronic dance music) approach.

& as a fellow musician who's had the honor, pleasure & privilege of witnessing various other music acts frequently experiment with new sounds, I was very supportive of Shadrow's ambitions to broaden his horizons. Plus, I've already established before that it's hard for anyone in the music industry to disappoint me since I love almost all kinds of music that's out there. Regardless of specific genres &/or eras.

Though it should be acknowledged that there are certain people who're quite picky when it comes to music tastes. & from my observations, they'd do whatever it takes to prevent further experimentation from happening by posting heavily under-analyzed comments rather than expressing concerns via constructive criticism. Luckily, no bigoted "trolls" are present as of this time.

That being said, Shadrow's definitely got a strong heart to take such a risk & I really appreciate his courageous efforts to defend & expand his artistic pursuits.

- Vibes

As the song title implies, it serves as a tribute to the vintage musical styles & compositions that were spread across the land of arcade gaming.

This entire concept seems as if Shadrow was really ambitious enough to resurrect the spirits of classical computerized musical production intended for video games.

Which really brought a huge nostalgic factor to me & made the minimalistic production strategy Shadrow used reasonable.

& another important factor that really made this song impressive from my point of view was the way he structured & composed it.

-  Musical Composition

So the overall song composition's simple & straightforward. Which is definitely enjoyable. But what's made this really unique & special about this song is that it isn't structured the way an arcade song would typically be structured.

As far as my musical knowledge & experiences have been, common song structures (e.g. choruses, breakdowns & verses) being aligned with a modern instrumentation that's reminiscent to the sounds from vintage gaming music, has never been done before.

& that's definitely something completely new & fresh Shadrow's brought to the musical table.

As far as Arcade Alley goes, the minor changes in the instrumentation Shadrow makes, via frequently adding new synth tracks throughout certain parts of the song, can really help listeners easily know what the verses & the choruses are. & the breakdown's a nice touch for bringing a difference in terms of compositional structure, instrumentation significance & maintaining better longevity within the song.

& even though Arcade Alley didn't frequently go through & experiment with many different varieties of instrumentation, that's rather very feasible considering the minimalistic atmosphere & vibe Shadrow was heavily targeting towards.

- Breaking Down The Instrumentation

This definitely took a lot of brainpower since I frequently had to reflect on & analyze my personal preferences on general music for about a week in order to really give convincing & valid praises towards this certain song.

That being said, I hope I did a good job on attempting to convince my fellow followers & readers to really consider enjoying this.

∆ Bass

The song starts off with a low synth line. Which is obviously a representation of a bass of the song. In addition, a live bass played by Shadrow is also implemented in the process. Which leads to a certain important topic I feel should be brought up. Also,YesI'mRetiringThePantyDroppingJoke SinceItGotOldFast2TimesIsEnoughTrustMe A3rdStrikeWillOnlyCauseBoredom

What's controversially unique about this concerns the bass' presence depending on what ear/headphones you have when listening to this particular song.

Whenever I put "bass-heavy" ear/headphones on, they really give the live bass better significance when compared to my cheap earphones.

As for my earphones, there's a fair amount of bass but it's not as significant as the overall instrumentation of this song. Admittedly, it's disappointing but not to an extent in which point deductions should be a concern.

'Cause as a musical analyst & fellow musician, I look for much more than just bass when it comes to judging music.

& the song's title really encouraged me to target towards the intended artistic pursuit rather than certain sounds.

∆ Drum Machine

This instrument was used in a particular way that really broke some ground I once assumed was never broken before. i.e. 'til Shadrow stepped in & took his rightful place 1 of the biggest thrones on the "innovation train".

As far as my listening ability has been able to detect in this song, the drum machine sounds frequently used contained authentic drum sounds commonly heard in rock music. While the artificial beats that're common in hip-hop & EDM were somewhat subtle.

Which can make listeners wonder ... Were the rocky drum sounds already programmed in the machine? Or did Shadrow actually make valiant efforts to record his own drums & put them into a sampler specifically for the use of this song & possible future productions?

That being said, most of drum rhythm was set at a nice fast tempo that wasn't overwhelming, save the breakdown.

In the breakdown's case, the drums became pretty slow at 1st but gradually got faster as the breakdown came to a close.

Speaking of the breakdown, it definitely gave the bass & drum machine some great spotlight since there was a very limited usage of synths at the start.

Overall, the drum machine sounds & rhythm were pleasantly overzealous & ambitious to an extent in which various forms of excitement & relaxation can be felt by listeners depending on certain time periods.

So to conclude this section, not only did Shadrow's implementations of rocky beats help him personalize this song to match his musical background, preferences & expectations, but they also helped take both himself & general music to a whole 'nother level.

I'll probably go a lil' bit more in detail with that proclamation in a future blog post before the end of the year. #Spoiler

∆ Synths

My analyzation of the most dominant instrument'll be rather summarized since analyzing each new synth track Shadrow puts in the song will definitely send me to a mental institution.

That being said, all the synth tracks frequently follow different melodies that go across or along the rhythm depending on certain time periods.

All of which can really give captivating feelings of emotional excitement & fascination.

∆ Overall Instrumentation

To be Captain Obvious, the overall instrumentation working in unity really encourages & allows listeners to really use their own imagination to obtain a relatable vision that fits well with the song's vibe & intended concept.

& the encouragement of imagination is provided by all the melodies & rhythm the instrumentation follows.

In summarization, it makes Arcade Alley much more ambiguous than expected.

- Underexposure

The only thing that disappoints me as far as this song goes ... To put it into a bit of an analogy, it's where it rightfully belongs & needs to be but it isn't exploring various other places where it can easily be welcomed with open arms.

The fact that this, along with another instrumental composition Spook, aren't being further contacted to be used by various independent film producers &/or game developers bothers me a bit.

'Cause as far as my experience with listening to these 2 songs have been, I believe they do have the righteous potential to be ...

in a trailer or soundtrack of a movie

songs to dance to in a flash mob

bgm of a game on Newgrounds &/or Steam

... to an extent in which they can really add more life, excitement, depth & authenticity to said experiences.

- In Summarization & Conclusion

Not only did Shadrow create a vintage arcade-era video game song, but he also took it to the next level by expanding the amount of segments & providing new instrumentation that a typical arcade-era video game song has never had before.

To an extent in which the final mix sounded very catchy, exciting, innovative & overall mind-blowingly special.

At 1st listen, this can either be interpreted simply as a '90s arcade song or a modern techno dance song. But after taking time to really get into every little detail, it's easy for me to say that it's a catchy & well-executed hybrid of both genres that really works.

It's safe to say that Shadrow really broke certain boundaries in general music that I've never seen broken before. & that's something that so revolutionarily special that really shouldn't be overlooked by the public eye.

PLUGS

Follow Shadrow via:

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SoundCloud

BandCamp

Buy his debut album:

Caught Off-Guard

& watch his comedically entertaining show alongside Fertro:

Oz Balls

OVERALL SCORE

5 / 5