Hedonist Looking for management, publishing and record company interest, Hedonist have been together for about a year and a half. Their first track, 'Obsession', suffers from what appears to be a muddy mix, but could have been a Dolby cassette incompatibility. Whatever the case, the compression and extra treble afforded by leaving the Dolby switch out improved the mixes a hundredfold. When revealed, most of the dark rock sounds of the band are well captured to tape, especially the guitars, well played by singer Rik Fisk. The drums are well balanced and mixed, with the exception of the snare which lacks upper mid. The vocals are also in need of some EQ, sounding a little harsh in places, but a few dBs cut at 3kHz and boost at 12kHz would sort them out. As demos of the songs, the tape will certainly allow record and publishing companies the chance to hear what the band are about, and perhaps draw someone out to a live gig.
Dayglo Fisherman The Dayglos' latest demo is entitled 'Painting Aliens', and the production sound is clear but lacking a bit of warmth on the first track. Some cut at 2kHz not only takes out some of the digital harshness, but also helps improve the vocal sound which is on the thin side, probably because of the (unnamed) microphone. The mix was also improved with a few dBs of boost at 10kHz, giving the sound more presence and, consequently, energy. Backing vocals would have helped to lift the choruses, and more experimentation with effects on the vocal, especially phase, would have made the mix more interesting. The second song is improved but still benefits from the above EQ settings. This time Ginny Owens's vocals sound better and benefit from a higher place in the mix, although they occasionally lapse during certain sections -- more care needs to be taken with the vocal production, and a compressor would not be a bad investment.
Richard Paul Kelly Richard's CD is a compilation of soundtrack material. It's a competitive business, and like many others, Richard would like to get professional work composing and scoring. The first track is an orchestrally textured synthesizer piece, and although Richard has obviously put in some effort here, the lack of depth and range in the sound source (a single Yamaha SY85) gives the piece a small sound when it aspires to grandeur. To some extent, this could have been helped by using a more expansive large hall sound on the Alesis Midiverb IV, in keeping with the orchestral compositional style. Later tracks where drum machine, guitar and synthesizer combine are far more successful, working to the strengths of the equipment as opposed to revealing the limitations. For example 'Mountain Wave' has a variety of interesting melodies and patch choices, from pan pipes to Eastern strings and some very well programmed drum parts. I also liked the combination of sax and electric guitar on 'Heli West', which could certainly have been used as music for a TV thriller.
Peter Verhulst Peter is from the Netherlands, and is inspired by artists like Pat Metheney, Keith Jarrett and Mike Stern. His CD is not unexpectedly, therefore, a demo of instrumentals. Most were recorded direct to disc, and the CD features a lot of unedited real-time playing, because he prefers to capture a 'performance'. Overall, the sound is a little thin even though Peter has eliminated the middle mastering machine (a Minidisc recorder) and gone straight to CD. However, a 2dB cut at 4kHz helps, and a hefty 5dB boost at 350Hz gives the sound a lot more warmth and depth. Peter's compositions are very strong and his piano playing, general choice of sounds and reverb (even given the equipment limitations) are good. I particularly liked the room reverberation on the drum track for the third track 'Last Day Of Summer', and the bass voices on every track were well chosen and phrased.
Shock After seven years of gigging other people's material, Shock decided to sit down and write some of their own. Their final mix was mastered at RPM in London, so they are clearly quite serious about the recording process, even though they regard the whole enterprise as something of an experiment. The whole mix is well balanced and the production style is simple and uncluttered, with a natural-sounding drum kit and minimal use of effects. Using preamps to record guitars can be a bit hit-or-miss, but their Sansamp has delivered a good basic sound, which could have been improved with some EQ in the lower mid area. A couple of dBs of boost at 200Hz would have helped the guitar sit better with the bass guitar in the mix, and also filled up a bit of a hole in the lower-mid frequency area of the mix. Other than this, it's a good demo of what the band can do, with some nice playing from all the band and a warm, gritty vocal delivery from singer Roy Ponti.
Jera Featuring members of the sadly defunct Cybermonkey (whose demo was reviewed here in August 1998), Jera take up the musical challenge, beginning with a track entitled 'Nothing'. This is a fusion of folk vocals and trip-hop, in which the vocals are set a bit low in the mix but treated to a tasteful delay. Boosting the high-frequency area of the mix above 10kHz leads to a big improvement, and also brings out the latent energy in the song. Jera are particularly good at sound texturing using delay, slow attack sounds and drones. This is all in evidence on the second mix which also features male vocalist Tin on semi-spoken lead, with Bec singing the backing part. This proves to be a particularly good combination, with presence from Tin's voice and a slightly harder edge from Bec. The vocal level and timbre of Bec's voice is better handled on the third track than the first, and in general the high-frequency area of the mix sounds more complete. Moving quickly on to the final track I listened to -- a reworking of the Godfather theme -- a mandolin leads us into the reworked theme on synthesizers. Well put together and quite moody, although verging towards the Russian mafia in places!
Laminar This South London-based project have sent in a CD of music written over the past five years. Described as "a hybrid of electronic dance and upbeat ambient with a hint of more ambitious rhythms and tones", the sounds are well chosen and very electronic in style. In-your-face, semi-industrial tones with little or no effects are supported by warmer, wide-stereo string tones, as on the second track 'E Mundo' -- and isn't that an electronic screamer toy I hear with lots of echo applied to it? 'Eutrophia', by contrast, features seemingly random sequenced patterns sitting atop a reverbed drum break. In this instance the drums are too divorced from the analogue loops for my taste, and would have been better dry with some effects on the synths. However I do appreciate the minimalism of using modulation and detuned oscillators as opposed to effects in this piece. My favourite was 'Chemics', with its sprightly high snare pattern and rolling fat bass intro leading to lush pad chords and filter-modulated chordal loop, before finally breaking into the main groove. Of all the tracks, this seemed the best thought-out and arranged.
Flip Top Head This Milton Keynes-based duo have chosen a peculiar name, but they describe their CD as very 'tongue-in-cheek', and hopefully entertaining. It kicks off with a bang, moving from U2-style guitar directly into what I can only describe as a modern version of Ian Dury's New Boots And Panties -- modern because of the techno backing, while the vocal style remains faithful to Dury! 'Jungle Stomper' makes full use of gated reverb to create the 'stomp' of the title using a kick drum, swinging the effect around marvellously with the aid of modulation. By the third track the duo are giving away some of their rock background with echoed and modulated lead guitar, yet this slips effortlessly into a sort of ambient drum & bass. I particularly liked the use of backwards reverb on Julie Chaudhari's voice in this mix. If you're going to use an effect like this which takes up so much of the frequency space, you may as well mix it loud -- and that's just what the Flip Tops have done! Good fun with occasional serious moments.
Hedonist Looking for management, publishing and record company interest, Hedonist have been together for about a year and a half. Their first track, 'Obsession', suffers from what appears to be a muddy mix, but could have been a Dolby cassette incompatibility. Whatever the case, the compression and extra treble afforded by leaving the Dolby switch out improved the mixes a hundredfold. When revealed, most of the dark rock sounds of the band are well captured to tape, especially the guitars, well played by singer Rik Fisk. The drums are well balanced and mixed, with the exception of the snare which lacks upper mid. The vocals are also in need of some EQ, sounding a little harsh in places, but a few dBs cut at 3kHz and boost at 12kHz would sort them out. As demos of the songs, the tape will certainly allow record and publishing companies the chance to hear what the band are about, and perhaps draw someone out to a live gig. 
Dayglo Fisherman The Dayglos' latest demo is entitled 'Painting Aliens', and the production sound is clear but lacking a bit of warmth on the first track. Some cut at 2kHz not only takes out some of the digital harshness, but also helps improve the vocal sound which is on the thin side, probably because of the (unnamed) microphone. The mix was also improved with a few dBs of boost at 10kHz, giving the sound more presence and, consequently, energy. Backing vocals would have helped to lift the choruses, and more experimentation with effects on the vocal, especially phase, would have made the mix more interesting. The second song is improved but still benefits from the above EQ settings. This time Ginny Owens's vocals sound better and benefit from a higher place in the mix, although they occasionally lapse during certain sections -- more care needs to be taken with the vocal production, and a compressor would not be a bad investment. 
Richard Paul Kelly Richard's CD is a compilation of soundtrack material. It's a competitive business, and like many others, Richard would like to get professional work composing and scoring. The first track is an orchestrally textured synthesizer piece, and although Richard has obviously put in some effort here, the lack of depth and range in the sound source (a single Yamaha SY85) gives the piece a small sound when it aspires to grandeur. To some extent, this could have been helped by using a more expansive large hall sound on the Alesis Midiverb IV, in keeping with the orchestral compositional style. Later tracks where drum machine, guitar and synthesizer combine are far more successful, working to the strengths of the equipment as opposed to revealing the limitations. For example 'Mountain Wave' has a variety of interesting melodies and patch choices, from pan pipes to Eastern strings and some very well programmed drum parts. I also liked the combination of sax and electric guitar on 'Heli West', which could certainly have been used as music for a TV thriller. 
Peter Verhulst Peter is from the Netherlands, and is inspired by artists like Pat Metheney, Keith Jarrett and Mike Stern. His CD is not unexpectedly, therefore, a demo of instrumentals. Most were recorded direct to disc, and the CD features a lot of unedited real-time playing, because he prefers to capture a 'performance'. Overall, the sound is a little thin even though Peter has eliminated the middle mastering machine (a Minidisc recorder) and gone straight to CD. However, a 2dB cut at 4kHz helps, and a hefty 5dB boost at 350Hz gives the sound a lot more warmth and depth. Peter's compositions are very strong and his piano playing, general choice of sounds and reverb (even given the equipment limitations) are good. I particularly liked the room reverberation on the drum track for the third track 'Last Day Of Summer', and the bass voices on every track were well chosen and phrased. 
Shock After seven years of gigging other people's material, Shock decided to sit down and write some of their own. Their final mix was mastered at RPM in London, so they are clearly quite serious about the recording process, even though they regard the whole enterprise as something of an experiment. The whole mix is well balanced and the production style is simple and uncluttered, with a natural-sounding drum kit and minimal use of effects. Using preamps to record guitars can be a bit hit-or-miss, but their Sansamp has delivered a good basic sound, which could have been improved with some EQ in the lower mid area. A couple of dBs of boost at 200Hz would have helped the guitar sit better with the bass guitar in the mix, and also filled up a bit of a hole in the lower-mid frequency area of the mix. Other than this, it's a good demo of what the band can do, with some nice playing from all the band and a warm, gritty vocal delivery from singer Roy Ponti. 
Jera Featuring members of the sadly defunct Cybermonkey (whose demo was reviewed here in August 1998), Jera take up the musical challenge, beginning with a track entitled 'Nothing'. This is a fusion of folk vocals and trip-hop, in which the vocals are set a bit low in the mix but treated to a tasteful delay. Boosting the high-frequency area of the mix above 10kHz leads to a big improvement, and also brings out the latent energy in the song. Jera are particularly good at sound texturing using delay, slow attack sounds and drones. This is all in evidence on the second mix which also features male vocalist Tin on semi-spoken lead, with Bec singing the backing part. This proves to be a particularly good combination, with presence from Tin's voice and a slightly harder edge from Bec. The vocal level and timbre of Bec's voice is better handled on the third track than the first, and in general the high-frequency area of the mix sounds more complete. Moving quickly on to the final track I listened to -- a reworking of the Godfather theme -- a mandolin leads us into the reworked theme on synthesizers. Well put together and quite moody, although verging towards the Russian mafia in places! 
Laminar This South London-based project have sent in a CD of music written over the past five years. Described as "a hybrid of electronic dance and upbeat ambient with a hint of more ambitious rhythms and tones", the sounds are well chosen and very electronic in style. In-your-face, semi-industrial tones with little or no effects are supported by warmer, wide-stereo string tones, as on the second track 'E Mundo' -- and isn't that an electronic screamer toy I hear with lots of echo applied to it? 'Eutrophia', by contrast, features seemingly random sequenced patterns sitting atop a reverbed drum break. In this instance the drums are too divorced from the analogue loops for my taste, and would have been better dry with some effects on the synths. However I do appreciate the minimalism of using modulation and detuned oscillators as opposed to effects in this piece. My favourite was 'Chemics', with its sprightly high snare pattern and rolling fat bass intro leading to lush pad chords and filter-modulated chordal loop, before finally breaking into the main groove. Of all the tracks, this seemed the best thought-out and arranged. 
Flip Top Head This Milton Keynes-based duo have chosen a peculiar name, but they describe their CD as very 'tongue-in-cheek', and hopefully entertaining. It kicks off with a bang, moving from U2-style guitar directly into what I can only describe as a modern version of Ian Dury's New Boots And Panties -- modern because of the techno backing, while the vocal style remains faithful to Dury! 'Jungle Stomper' makes full use of gated reverb to create the 'stomp' of the title using a kick drum, swinging the effect around marvellously with the aid of modulation. By the third track the duo are giving away some of their rock background with echoed and modulated lead guitar, yet this slips effortlessly into a sort of ambient drum & bass. I particularly liked the use of backwards reverb on Julie Chaudhari's voice in this mix. If you're going to use an effect like this which takes up so much of the frequency space, you may as well mix it loud -- and that's just what the Flip Tops have done! Good fun with occasional serious moments.