Horizontal Paul Bedbound paraplegic Paul Simpson gained his nickname from Radio Derby presenter John Holmes, who has played some of his compositions, and the name seems to have stuck. Paul carries out recording by being raised and tilted to the right position in order to operate his VS1680-based system.
The music is mainstream pop, some of which — such as the straight disco of 'Gotta Move On' and the light country of 'I'm So Blue' or the dance sound of 'It Takes Two' — could easily be covered by other artists. Technically, the vocal sound is a bit muddy (check the tip on EQ for SM58s) but otherwise Paul keeps it simple and gets a punchy mix with a good programmed drum kit balance. In addition to his compositional skills Paul has also started a music project with the ultimate aim of personally funding medical treatment in America. Those interested in Paul and his music can make contact with him via his web site at www.horizontal-paul.com 
Smoking Dog With the aid of a phone line, Si and Ed set some poor unsuspecting victims up with inane queries and then record them. The recording quality is so clear that you can hear every word of both victim and torturer whether it's Stringfellows, Churchill Insurance, Robert the magician, or an assistant at a plastic surgery that's responding. I was extremely disappointed that they didn't tackle the big one for all musicians — ringing the record company. Still there's enough here to give most people a good laugh and possibly get Si and Ed a show on Channel Four.
The Nexus Effect It's been some time since we heard from Peter Michael Rosenberg of The Nexus Effect, Top Tape winner in September 1998. This might have something to do with his writing commitments but he's still fired up about his music as this demo proves. The energetic opening track 'Serengeti' is a hard, digital-sounding production with a heavy gate treatment on the drum track and an array of sounds from marimba and organ to industrial sound effects, which move around the stereo field well. The second mix is altogether more organic-sounding as Peter slips back into his Blade Runner mode. Slow-attack string swells and portamento synth melody (with echo) ebb together nicely like an otherworld oceanscape. If there's a criticism, it's that he's overfond of short reverbs, which in turn tend to emphasise the hardness of the digital sound sources and introduce early listener fatigue.
Sub:Station This Milton Keynes-based duo are into Bowie and Portishead and there's even a cover of 'Mysterons' by the latter. John handles the writing and recording and Gilly sings. The four-track CD opens with a moody song, 'Blue Glass', based around a piano figure and minimal drum track. During the mix some of the filtered strings or other instrumentation could have been lifted when the dominant vocal dropped in order to fill the space left in the mix. This atmospheric production has a rather thin sound and I recommend that John listens to his second song mix for reference because it's got a better overall balance. On the second song I particularly liked the use of a classical guitar sample playing arpeggios under Gilly's softly sung vocal, crying out for the backing vocal that duly arrives. This could have been made more of with some vocal multitracking.
D Bug Richard Stanley's hip-hop comes across well over my monitors, my only criticism being that there's too much reverb on the drum track. Its pre-delayed and high-bandwidth sizzle doesn't really suit hip-hop and I'd have kept it drier. Richard worries that he's overdone the mastering (achieved with T-Racks) to boost actual and perceived volume, but it sounds OK to me, although the second mix, which was mastered using Wavelab Peak Master, has a warmer sound. A third method of mastering using an Alesis Nanocompressor across the whole mix was also used in the third mix, but Richard thought this was too noisy, although at higher listening levels it was obvious that this added a bit more punch to the mix. There also didn't seem to be much in the way of noise to worry about on this track either.
Bill Chalmers Bill's compositions don't follow the usual rock/pop format of verse, chorus, middle eight but are dictated more by the mood of the lyric. Given that he's going for atmosphere some of the production dynamics could be handled better. One simple improvement — mixing the vocals lower — would certainly help in all but one case, notably a remix of an earlier song on the CD. The instruments, like sampled brass and acoustic guitar, would then play a more prominent part, coming to the fore when the vocal drops. At the moment they lack drive when they should be punchy. There are times when sounds work well set to the back of the mix, like the heavily reverbed wind instrument (a pipes voice?) at the beginning of the second song but again on this mix some of the sounds need to be lifted when the vocal drops out — notably the trombone. Bill's voice is at its best and most expressive on 'Birth' — a fine performance and a nice song too.
