DistantJ returns to AR with another hard hitting dance song. Straight off the bat, I can hear a great improvement in his sounds. I know he's been working on mastering techniques and it really shows here - compared to his older songs and WIPS. The track is tight, refined, clean.
I'm going to get all my gripes out of the way now.
- Being a big fan of the sounds of the Enigma flute myself, I love hearing it out of the usual context (ie: ethnic music) and it really compliments the track at points in this mix. However, the faster eigth note riff (the end of the second measure of the Shakuhachi sections, ie: :43) comes off as unnatural and artificial and it really showcase the sample's limitations. I know, given the nature of the track, realistic sounding samples aren't generally a must, but in this case the other sections all utilize the sample naturally and quite beautifully, and to hear it used in such an unnatural way for that one point seems a bit out of place.
- 3:01 comes out of nowhere. As a stand alone piece, it's a cool little breakbeat joint, but in the middle of all this upbeat dance, it seems a tad forced and stands out like a shark on a highway. I'm not going to hold it too harshly though.
On the positive side
+ Loving the upbeat ethnic dance feel. When it's not riffing fast all over the place, I love the way the Shakuhachi fits into the track.
+ The track sounds excellent. Very clean, professional sounding. Great synth usage.
+ The breakdown at 2:30 works well to change up the pace of the track. Maybe a little bit more attention to velocities in the piano, but not a very important gripe.
Good to hear a new DistantJ anime remix. It's been too long.
-Mythril Nazgul
