Business End

Business End enables you to have your demo reviewed by a panel of producers, songwriters, musicians and managers. If you want your demo to be heard by them then please mark it 'Business End' and write on the outside of the package the style of music that best describes your work. This month's industry panel is drawn from the MPG (Music Producer's Guild).

	'Track 01' (1.4Mb)		MP3
	'Track 02' (1.4Mb)		MP3
	'Track 03' (1.4Mb)		MP3
	'Track 04' (1.4Mb)		MP3

John Leckie (J Leckie): "It is a standard kind of demo really. The singing was a bit timid and the drum machine was a little standard but I enjoyed the guitar playing and I thought it was quite fun. The mix is clean, punchy, balanced and the vocals sit well — in fact I can't imagine getting a better sound even if we mixed it in here. They clearly had a good time making this recording but it says in their letter that they've done it for themselves and they don't expect anyone to hear it other than their mates so they probably don't want to take it much further."

"Unfortunately, there is not enough going on in the arrangement to make it a big commercial venture. It would certainly benefit from some better drums. Their gear list includes an Alesis DR16 for drums, but they write 'if anyone wants to know' and I wonder if that shows a slight resentment. It did sound dated and they should have redone the drums — particularly on the 10th track 'The Funeral Groove' which already seemed to offer a little bit more than the other songs. They say that this CD is a collection of their tracks from the last 20 years, but they should have worked on them instead of just bringing them all together."

Felix Cemmell (FC): "It's good that they are doing it for their friends and family because as it stands it wouldn't get a commercial release, but they have done well with the production. It's quite naive but it works. The vocals and song content aren't to my taste, but it's reminded me of The Beautiful South, and there is a huge audience for that style of music. Their influences include king Crimson and you get a sense of that from their tongue-in-cheek delivery."

Jo Harrison (JH): "The vocals are weak and poorly mixed. The first track sounded very '80s, and very much in the vein of Dire Straits. The second one, and even more so, the third track were more like world music, and I think that is an area they could do really well in if they worked with the right musicians. 'The Funeral Groove' track reminded me of the band Hootie & The Blowfish, so I think this might also work in the American market."

	'Track 01' (1.4Mb)		MP3
	'Track 02' (1.4Mb)		MP3
	'Track 03' (1.4Mb)		MP3
	'Track 04' (1.4Mb)		MP3

FC: "I'm not sure if they were being really ironic calling the CD The Jungle Bungalo, the band Sondance together with that terribly weird artwork, but I think they are being serious. The artwork has a jungle theme to it and there is a cannabis plant hidden in one of the pictures, but, in contrast, there are loads of pastel pictures of them on the back page — which is stylistically odd. I couldn't really tell if they were trying to be weird or not. The second song 'Holiday' was so similar to 'Up Up And Away' that I almost expected to hear them start singing 'in my beautiful balloon' at one point. Singing about holidays so earnestly was too overtly cheery for my tastes. In their press release it says they have a Spanish, Mexican, jazz and swing feel, but I thought that if they had tried to be more tongue-in-cheek they could become a contemporary pop band. The singer had strange Beta Band-style lyrics which sounded really good. But the titles, like 'Beautiful Rain' and 'Take My Time' are too cheesy for the British market. I'm still not sure how this would go down in a foreign market."

JH: "I agree with John about the quality of the music. They seem to have gone to a lot of time and trouble with the artwork and it looks quite professional, but unfortunately the music is not. To my ears, track one seemed like a bad impression of Santana. Track two started well but it didn't carry the ideas through. Generally the vocals were atrocious and they didn't mix with the music at all. More specifically the vocals were not strong enough and not bluesy enough. Sondance sounded like great musicians on the title track 'The Jungle Bungalo', but once again vocals did not match and ultimately it sounded like Showaddywaddy gone wrong."

J Lewie: "The four portraits of the musicians inside is quite an arresting image, which just goes to show that presentation isn't everything. They've spent time and money on the artwork but the music lets it down and they have to have the music to back up the image. Being a live band is a plus point but there is not a great deal of chart music that sounds live these days. Instead, today's music sounds produced and they don't seem produced whatsoever.

"I quite like the lyrics in the first track but they fell flat in the mix. Track two supplied a grain of interest when the instrumentation took over but unfortunately they didn't develop that part particularly well. 'The Jungle Bungalo' theme was an interesting departure from the rest of the tracks but it also seemed to fall flat because the vocals were too low in the mix. "

This Month's MPG Panel     John Leckie began his career as tape-op at Abbey Road Studios in 1970 and soon found himself working under Phil Spector on high-profile projects like George Harrison's All Things Must Pass and John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band albums. After graduating to engineer, he worked on classics such as Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish you Were Here, before leaving to become a freelance producer in the late '70s. In that capacity he has been responsible for some of the most influential releases of the last 20 years, including albums by The Stone Roses, Radiohead, and Muse. Award-winning songwriter, musician and producer Jona Lewie began his career back in the late '60s, when he played with Arthur Cudup during the British blues boom. He has had numerous solo worldwide hits, most notably with 'You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At parties', 'Seaside Shuffle' and the perennial Christmas favourite, 'Stop the Cavalry', for which he won an Ivor Novello Award. Jona operates his own studio facility and is a member of the MPG and BACS. Felix Cemmell is a graduate in Music Industry Management and Studio Production from the Buckinghamshire Chilterns University. She is also a mentee in the new Music Industry Mentoring Scheme. As an active MPG member, Felix is involved in expanding the membership and contributing to the website. She is currently a reviewer and contributor to The Wire magazine. Jo Harrison entered the industry as fundraising manager for The Market Theatre Foundation in Johannesburg. Having gone on to study music administration in New York, she began working for artist and producer Alan Parsons as his company and studio manager. Her varied role included album project and tour co-ordination. More recently Jo joined Abbey Road as PA to the directors to coordinate industry events including the BBC's Music Live and the Brits Awards Nominations. Jo now works as sales and marketing manager for DAT Productions. Many thanks to DAT Productions who hosted the session. The MPG's web site is at www.mpg.org.uk