Conference napalm::commusic_v1

	Hat's off to Dave Blickstein for another successful compilation!
When are we going to hear more of your own stuff, Dave?  Too busy compiling 
everyone else's?



Paul Kent

        "It's all a game"

	I've enjoyed hearing the succession of pieces Paul has entered into the
COMMUSIC tapes.  Paul has a very distinct voice.  Although at first I didn't 
care for it, I have grown to appreciate it.  By this tape, it has become a 
favorite.

	This piece first of all strikes me as being quite clean.  The 
arrangement seems to use a lot of different patches from time to time, but it is
never cluttered.  I like the choice of timbres.  The organ patch that jumps in
every now and again was particularly nice.  Nice guitar solo - simple, but it
fits.  The backup vocals may be slightly overcrowded...  Perhaps it's because 
they all sound like the lead vocal (which, I understand, they are).  Backup
vocals should be a little less colorful than the lead.
        
        "It's because of you"

	I like the concept of the bass string rattle, but my tape gets a bit 
oversaturated with it.  That may be due to the copying processes...  I like the
clav comp, real nice texture.  Here the backup vocal is much more pleasant, 
probably because it is not as multi-layered.  Oh, and the sampled backup vocals
('dit, dit') were excellent.
        
        "The instrumental"

	Funny, when I got this tape, there wasn't any published liner notes 
available.  My first thought on this piece was - 'Alright, analog!'  Today, I
am surprised to find that this piece was FM synthesis!  All I can say is an
excellent job!  This one's my favorite of the three P.K. pieces.  I wouldn't
change a thing.
        


Dave Bottom

	"Ain't Found nothin'"

	Of all the pieces I've heard from Dave B., I think this one will become 
my favorite.

	It is somewhat overdriven on my copy, but not so much so that I can't 
appreciate the musicianship that went into it.  Nice ambience on the vocals.
Good use of lead guitar fills.  Not much more to say...



Event Horizon 

	"Beyond The Event Horizon"

	It's going to be difficult for me to make any comment on this piece 
until I hear a better version of it.  I can just barely hear some movement in
it that I'm sure should be more audible.  All that I can hear, really, is some
sustained chording on a PWM patch, with an occasional 'falling star' filter
resonance patch.  If I'm wrong about the underlying parts, then sorry, I just 
don't care for it.



John Williams

	"Rule of Thumb"

	Well, all I can say is I've never heard counterpoint sound so 
contemporary.  The lead patch reminds me of an ESQ-1.  The piece is somewhat
uneventful, but not so much so that I want to fast forward.  I would have
probably pursued some kind of long sustained counter-lead to pull the piece
together and make it more of a unit, rather than a series of chord progressions.

	"Games From the Void"

	I like this piece more than the first of John's submissions.  The drums 
are simple, but fit quite well.  There's more going on here, therefore I want to
listen more.  Nice ending.

	"Caught Between Hemispheres"

	The chord progression here sounds so similar to the previous piece that 
I thought it was another section to the same piece.  I like the choice of timbre
 - the vibes sound.  There's obviously some thought put into the integration of
drums with the lead line, especially on the accented anticipated downbeats.  
Good work.  I'd say here, as in all john's pieces, there needs to be some 
variety brought in to play.



Peter LaQuerre

	"No One's Paying Attention"

	Good use of alternate drum sounds (i.e., non-bass-snare-hihat sounds).  
That bass patch is excellent, I like it a lot - makes me forget it's coming from
a CZ!  Very pleasing acoustic guitar solo.  Oh, that occasional crash cymbal
hit sounds out of place to me at times.  The backup vocals were very well done.
Overall, apart from the crash seeming out of place at times, I wouldn't have
changed it a bit.

	"A State of Mind"

	Good job programming the CZ!  The background pad part on the CZ 
(strings?) could use some more reverb to round them out, but I don't think you 
could get the kind of reverb I'm thinking of by simply programming - needs an 
external help (i.e. microverb-type?).  The backup vocals may be a tad too up 
front in the mix.  I enjoyed it.



Steve Sherman

	"No Excuses"

	I didn't care for the dist. guitar patch.  Most everything else was very
pleasing to my ears.  Again, the over-driving of my copy made it at times less 
than enjoyable.

	I REALLY liked the change of pace in the middle, with that shared 
drum/brass kick.  What was the bass coming from? - nice patch.  I didn't care 
for the sudden imposing change to the power chord (dist. guitar).  Also, I was
less than comfortable with the use of pitch-bend wheel.

	All in all, though, this was a piece one I enjoyed coming back to.



Karl Moeller

	"Easter Morning"  

	Karl's pieces are among the few that I consistently call my wife in to 
hear.  My wife's tastes are considerably more conservative than my own (if you 
can believe that!).  I was extremely pleased with Easter Morning, and applaud
Karl's handling of the guitar genre on keyboard.  The only suggestions I would 
make would be to watch the rapid sections, as the sample starts to sound a 
little less like a guitar at those times.  Still, if I didn't know it was 
recorded by a keyboardist, I'd probably never have guessed.  Oh, the other thing
was to add squea - oh, never mind...

	"Suite Pt.I: The Procession"  

	This piece was beautiful and mystifying.  Part of the chord progression 
reminded me of the song 'Inch-worm' from the movie "Hans Christian Anderson", 
starring Danny Kaye.  That was a childhood favorite, so this piece had built-in
acceptance right from the start, at least for me.  It needed no help, though, it
is an enchanting piece.

	A little problem with over-driving, though, as in other places on the 
tape.  The timbres were all well-chosen and the samples were excellent.

	"Suite Pt.II: The Minefield"

	As you expected in your lining notes, this one was not as pretty as the 
others.  Not that all music has to be pretty...

	The piano and strings were very well performed and layered.  I really 
don't have much more to say on this one.  It is a very good piece of work, both
on the performance end and on the technical.



Dan Eaton

	"He Is A Rock"

	I was a bit disenheartened to find my piece sandwiched in between Karl's
and Dave Dreher's.  It seemed to draw out ever more painfully my ammatuer status
as both a musician and as a recording enthusiast.  Ah, well, such is life.

	The first thing I noticed here that I didn't catch at home was that my 
vocals were too loud in the beginning, but leveled off from the middle to the 
end.  This is the deciding factor in my going out and purchasing a compressor/
limiter the other day.  Hopefully that'll help take care of the problem.

    

Dave Dreher

	"One Good Dream"

	These pieces immediately hit me as those containing all the flair of
a professional.  That snare drum is incredibly good!  It's amazing how one drum 
can make such a difference.  On the down side, I don't care much for the 
vocalist's sound, but as someone who used his own admittedly poor quality voice
on the same tape, you can consider the source.

	Most everything was well mixed, the arrangement was very well thought 
out.  I might have brought the "ahh..." down a bit in the mix, but that's just 
a nit.  What was the piano part?  the TX7, perhaps?

	"Seasons"

	Was the hi-hat in the beginning there as a time-keeper?  If so, I think
I'd prefer it taken out of the final mix.  Nice mood created here.  I liked the
electric piano and the guitar parts in this piece.  There is a real atmosphere
in this piece.  Planning on making a video?  8^)

	"Need You Tonight"

	Excellent brass!  Good tone on the bass.  Good back-up vocals.  I didn't
care for the lyrical content.  The cutoff was a bit abrupt (i.e., I could hear 
the tape cutoff).  Is that in the original or something from the copying 
process?


    
Tom Janzen
    
	I'm only guessing, but i suspect that the first and last pieces of Tom's
three were in reverse order from what was described in the liner notes.  Please
pardon my ignorance if I'm wrong.

	"Bach: Goldberg Variations: Aria."

	As a fan of Tom's other computer-generated entries in a previous tape, I
was looking forward to this one.  I wasn't disappointed, though I think I liked 
the previous entries more.

	There doesn't seem to be much of a problem porting over the PDP stuff 
over to the amiga, at least in the final output.  I liked the first piece the 
best.  	There were times in this piece I wondered if the instrument choices 
reflected a sense of humor - particularly in the use of a 'wood block' sound.  
I liked it.

	"Janzen: Caterpillar Blews"

	This is from the Amiga?  If so, it sure puts out a good piano sound!
Apart from the repetitive nature of this piece, which caused my mind to wander
a bit, this one was fun to listen to.  I think I'd enjoy this one more on
computer than I would on real piano.  The attacks/sustains had an interesting
quality about them, especially on syncopated parts.

	"Stravinsky: Le Sacre de Printemps, opening of Prelude."

	This piece was cut off on my version before I was really able to 
evaluate it.  Any explanation?  Dave?  Tom?



Tom Benson

	"Jingle Jangle Jingle"

	One of the unfortunate details of getting one of the first copies was
that this piece was absent.  I hope to get to hear it sometime.



	Without trying to sound trite, cliche or otherwise redundant, I'd have
to say that COMMUSIC tapes just get better and better.  People that are regular
contributors show marked improvement.  The tape quality was good except for that
persistent over-driving.

	Keep up the good work, folks!

    My version of sacre here was only a few measure.  I ran out of time.
    It was late night & I thought we'd do a comparison with the PDP.
    Tom

Well, I made it through what seemed to be a recreation of the great flood 
and arrived at the office of Mr. Edd Cote who graciously had picked up a 
copy of the Commusic V tape.  I returned thoroughly drenched to my car and 
popped it into the old Rat Shack player, only to hear...

Well, Paul, it's nice to hear you again, it's been a long time.  Do you 
always sound like Mark Knopfler doing Bob Dylan?  Not a bad vocal sound, 
and "It'a All A Game" was a nice bit of work. "It's Because of You" by 
comparison slipped by without leaving much impression...only on the second 
listen did I notice that there were vocals (gulp), and as for "The 
Instrumental", well, nice but also slipping by without any great 
impression.  So Paul, you're one for three.

Then we hear Dave Bottom who is turning Down East into the Southern rock 
capitol of the world.  The guitars reminded me of the Allmans, and the 
vocal, despite your disclaimer, was very good.  Of all your stuff I've heard 
so far, this is my favorite to date.  Very tasty. Batting 100, Dave.

Event Horizon was unfortunately a yawn, sounding like Tangerine Dream 
without the mellotron.  On a bad day yet. Sorry...also like on their last 
entry I don't see where all that gear gets used much (still trying to hear 
that bassist, no wonder he wanted to play keyboards!).  Seriously, the piece 
simply didn't go anywhere.  I'd like to hear a less minimal piece next 
time.

On to John Williams, composer of the Star Wars theme...no the famed 
classical guitarist...no the Dec employee?  Very nice stuff for a first 
effort, *very* nice bass lines on all three pieces.  Overall, they were 
lightweight, but the bass lines hooked my ear.  Three for three.  Get your 
titles from Marvel comic books???

Pete Laquerre had me thinking he sounded like Nils Lofgren when everyone 
else thought he was James Taylor.  I changed my mind, he sounds like Andy 
Pratt.  Both tunes here are much improved over his Commusic III entries, 
the lyrics sound less forced, the singing is better and the recording is 
*much* better.  Shows what a little practice can do.  "No One's Paying 
Attention" docked for going on too long.

With a blistering fuzz guitar chord, Steve Sherman proceeds to blow me away 
with an arrangement right out of Miami Vice.  I can almost smell the ocean 
air in the sweltering heat...oh yeah, this one cooks right along.  Like Mr. 
Willams, it's lightweight but *unlike* his Commusic III stuff, this one has 
nice hooks and I really like it.  

Then along comes Karl Moeller with his solo guitar debut...and I love it.  I 
wish I could play guitar like this let alone keyboards sounding like a 
guitar.  The two-part "Suite" was fascinating.  I'm a sucker for intricate 
synth orchestrations like in the Procession and this one kicks butt.  As 
does "The Minefield" which sounds kind of like Cecil Taylor in a mellow 
mood, very nice.  If this an improv, let's hear more, more, more....Three 
for three.

Now we have Dan "Mr. Consignment" Eaton and a fine entry which shows 
considerable progress over Commusic III (seems a common theme here).  Also, 
the fact that the arrangement is really very spartan impressed me.  Nice 
pop songwriting sensibility.

As for Dave Dreher with Wockin Won, Ellen and assorted others, this is not 
my cup of tea at all, *but* it is excellent for music in this genre both in 
composition and execution.  A cassette may mask some faults but this sounds 
like master quality to me.  Excellent job.  With reservations 
stylistically, three for three and pick of the litter.

Now off from high-tech to low-tech with Tom Janzen.  I'm not sure what the 
gains are to producing music directly form the computer, but the Amiga 
sounds a lot better than the old PDP.  I particularly liked "Caterpillar 
Blews" and it makes me want to meet Tom as I'm getting the feeling he's a 
bit like Groucho Marx.  Plus I like his taste in music.  Now plug in that
SPX-90 and let's hear a piece that exceeds 2:15....

Ending up on a comic note is Tom Benson who does as nice a job on this as 
he did on his "Boingers" tune from Commusic III.  I wondered then, and 
still do, does this guy play stuff that *isn't* novelty music?  His 
novelties are so good I want to hear something else.  Now, the real 
question, Tom....are the original lyrics better than yours???

OK, let's talk technical here...actually everything sounded very good
(audio wise). John Williams' stuff was the most muddled on my tape but
still good.  Seems like everybody is getting exponentially better at their
engineering.  I was kind of surprised at Commusic III's low-grade sound
overall and this one is so much better it's ridiculous.  

On drum machines: I think the MT-32 is vastly underrated and in fact, the
drums on John's entry sound real good and had *the* best ride cymbals on
the tape...rides in general spoiled the drum illusion on most of the
entries, particularly Dave Dreher's otherwise immaculate three.  And after
hearing Steve Sherman's lead guitar and Karl Moeller's classical guitar and
piano, I guess I gotta say that there is a place in this world for
samplers. 

Last but not least: although I have offered my criticisms, I would like to 
say that the reason I have not submitted anything for a tape yet is because 
nothing that I do at home approaches even the mediocre stuff I hear on 
these tapes.  I am *not* a songwriter, I am *not* a good singer, etc.  and 
I respect all of the contributors for putting their work out there to 
receive whatever praise or ridicule it may receive.  Waiting for VI.


     						Brian

    I listened to the tape once a week ago, so I'm in a good position
    to comment on it now.  
    I can't comment on the rock stuff because I never listen to rock.
    All rock stinks, so never mind.
    My submissions are kind of a novelty.  I have never submitted my
    important works because, when I still cared about music (up to last
    January) I was concerned about undermining my own copyrights with
    a private publication.  Since I've given up music, I no longer care
    and might submit old good pieces for the next one.  
    I will however, comment on a few submissions that are nearly identical
    to the way I improvised as a teenager, before my theoretical education
    in music.
    
    On Sixty Minutes about a year ago, there was a story about an
    idiot-savant, a young man, who could play piano by ear.  The 60
    minutes people played a tape for the young man of a Debussy piano
    piece called "La Soiree dans Grenade"

    They then asked him to play it.  He began the first couple bars
    well enough, bless his heart, but after a few bars, he began to
    do what I would have done, fumble, make up the next thing, and deviate
    from the score.  I couldn't have done better.  Anyway, they reported
    that he had repeated it exactly.  He hadn't.  He had lost the melody
    and wandered around.  SHould teach him jazz, he might be able to
    improvise.  They point is, his memory failed him except for overall
    harmonies and general features.
    
    In the late last century, Gertrude Stein under her mentor Dr. James,
    experimented with automatic writing.  The researchers discovered
    that writing too quickly too think (you know, like noting) produced
    regurgitations of half-digested nursery rhymes heard as a child,
    and bits of whatever the subject had read since learning to read,
    but incomplete and out of context.
    
    If I had not grown out of my cheap phase at 17, I might still be
    producing half-remembered television movie scores from the early
    70's, and if I had never studied theory, I might still be producing
    melody-less formless vacuous pap, veritable musical wallpaper, grafitti
    for the ears.  But I did grow up and I did study.
    
	But since no one likes any of my music and I quit writing it
    to pursue electronic engineering and performance art, I should talk.
    Was is pretty charms the ear for the moment, but does not move the
    soul or call for long rememberance.  What promises a destination
    but offers only pretty scenery postcards is a disappointment, but
    only when it comes from one with natural gifts undeveloped, as it
    does here.
    Tom

    
    I tried a different style of review; I put aside the liner notes
    (since I really _shouldn't_ read while driving), and listened 
    to the tape as though it was a single (nominally unified) work.
    
    Side one was; well, there.  The one piece that I _know_ how it was
    supposed to sound sounded dead, muffled, lowpass-filtered.  Possibly
    a side effect of the car sound system, but I doubt it (it sounded
    like it had been lowpass filtered at around 8KHz).
    
    Fortunately, the other pieces on side 1 still had the high-frequency
    sparkle (could it be that that piece could have been master-recorded on
    a recorder whose dolby-B was _out of calibration_?  Poppycock! :-)
    
    Other than that, side 1 sounded at least "decent", with occasional
    lapses into brilliancy.
    
    Side two sounded even better than side one, it actually hung together
    as well as a typical mass-market commercial album.  Bravo! (okay,
    at times you could tell it was a sampler album, but on the whole it really
    did hold together! )   
    
    Let me be more specific; if I walked into a radio station, pulled
    (at random) a disk from the "new bin", and played a random cut,
    I honestly believe that the average cut on COMMUSIC V could stand
    well against the average cut on an average commercial album.
    
    -----
    
    Gentlemen, I do believe we've arrived.  Now that we're here, where
    are we?
    	
    	-Bill
    

    RE: .4
    
    Bravo! Jack Benny couldn't have done better. 
    
    I think COMMUSIC noters should set up a fund to which disgruntled
    members could apply for airline tickets. No nose would be safe.
    
    Richard.

    re: the last few
    
    I love it!  The worst thing anybody can say about your music is
    that they don't care.  It is far better that they LOVE it or HATE
    it.  With Tom's stuff, I find there's a mixture of love AND hate.
    Certainly there is no apathy.  Y'all are GREAT!  Keep these reviews
    blistering 'cause it really helps ...
    
    Steve

              
                               C O M M U S I C   V

              
              General Comments
              
              This tape was, with a few significant exceptions, a
              "yawner" for me.  No surprises.  More of the same.
              Only three of the submissions merited inclusion in my
              "top five" list for the tape.
              
              Equipment quality (recording gear, not synths) and
              production chops clearly show.  The 4-track cassette
              stuff sounds "grungy" compared to the 8-track reel to
              reel stuff.  Mastering the compilation to cassette
              (rather than reel to reel or HiFi VCR) makes it worse;
              the reel to reel stuff seems to survive ok, but the
              cassette stuff suffers another generation's worth of
              noise and distortion.  I don't know how much difference
              mixing down directly from the multitrack master to the
              compilation master (which was, I believe, done in the case 
              of at least Dave Dreher's submissions) made in this regard.
              
              
              
	Side A

	    o Paul Kent

		- It's All a Game      (4:15)
		- It's Because of You  (4:30)
		- The Instrumental     (4:00)

              Off to a good start.  I really liked the rhythm parts.
              There's a sort of tinkly synth part that didn't fit very 
              well to my ears, and that I felt could have been omitted 
              with no loss.  Also, on the line "you know she's better off 
              with me ee ee", I'm not sure if the lyric is "...me-ee-ee"
              or "...me, hee hee", as in "ha ha, take that you bozo".
              But I'm complaining about freckles.  A top fiver.
              
              The second song fared less well for me.  This had a more 
              resigned and gloomy ambience, compared to the first's
              simple "I been hurt".  Beyond that, no real impression. 
              
              The instrumental was interesting, but I confess that my 
              disaffection for "whee-oooo" style bender manipulations
              tainted my enjoyment of it.
              
              All these songs get extra points for having real endings.
              
              
	    o Dave Bottom

		- Ain't Found Nothin'	(4:35)

              Another good tune, but the cymbals (crash and open hihat) 
              sent me up the wall.  The crash is just too frequent 
              (especially the offbeat ones), and the open hihat sounds
              like escaping steam.  Maybe it's because it's held open
              for a whole beat.  This song needs a less busy/intrusive
              drum part.  Extra points for a real ending.
              
              
	    o Event Horizon (submitted by Bob Yerazunis)

		- Beyond the Event Horizon

              "Oh, what a mess", indeed.
              
              This was an utter "fast forward" for me.  The bass part was 
              only occasionally just barely audible.  The recurring chord
              progression rapidly lost interest, and the synth patch was
              one of the most obnoxious I've heard in a while.  I do not 
              consider this a "rich" patch, and nothing else could be 
              heard, except the descending warble that gratuitously 
              appeared now and then.  A convincing demonstration that a
              lot of oscillators is just a lot of oscillators.  The
              repetition was boring, I repeat boring, and if you didn't
              hear me, it was boring.  The drum part ("lub dub, lub dub")
              was a cruel joke.  I have no idea what took so much 
              equipment or what required all the running around alluded to
              in the notes; I can detect almost no variation of any kind 
              anywhere.  Did db perhaps leave out one or more channels while 
              dubbing the submission?
              
              This was a repeat disappointment given the equipment 
              roster and the overly precious liner notes, especially in
              view of the expectations set by reactions to Event Horizon's
              last (and equally vapid) appearance.  A "real record company"
              expressed interest in this drivel?  There ain't no justice.
              
               
	    o John Williams

		- Rule of Thumb (3:05)
		- Games from the Void (3:00)
		- Caught Between Hemispheres (4:10)

              Interesting though very low key.  The four bar structural
              unit of all these pieces is a little too obvious, and the
              similarities between the last two make them seem like
              sections of the same piece (despite the timbral changes)
              rather than distinct pieces.  Still, I find myself humming
              these riffs a lot.
              
              Sort of "cool jazz muzak".

                            
	    o Pete LaQuerre

		- No One's Paying Attention (4:55)
		- A State of Mind  (4:00)

              I couldn't make out most of the lyrics on either of these.
              The arrangements are more complex and interesting than Peter's
              earlier work, but the congas on the first tune dominate the
              mix - when I turned up the volume in order to hear the other
              parts, the congas were jarring.  Peter's lyrics (what I 
              could hear of them) remind me of Jonathan Richman's "anything
              can be a subject for a song" attitude.  I gather the first one
              is a comment on the current election campaign?  I don't know
              what the second one is about.  It's interesting to watch
              somebody's compositional, arranging and production style
              evolve over time.  Keep it up Peter, you're getting better 
              and better each time.
              
               
	Side B

	    o Steve Sherman

		- No Excuses
              
              The opening distorted guitar screams "SAMPLE".  No excuses,
              for sure.  This was somewhat different from Steve's past 
              submissions, but I still detected a bit of that Sherman
              brass sound.  And, like Steve's earlier submissions, I 
              expect this one to grow on me with time.  There's something
              to be said for subtlety.  For now, though, no overwhelming
              impressions, one way or the other.

              
            o Karl Moeller

		- Easter Morning (4:10)
		- Suite Pt. I: The Procession (4:50)
		- The Minefield (8:00)

              Well, Karl finally breaks out of his pianistic style, at 
              least for one number.  The guitar in "Easter Morning" is 
              almost too perfect.  The joke about "adding the squeaks"
              is all too apropos.  It's like the photorealist style
              of painting.  Maybe brushstrokes and a "painterly" style
              *do* add something?  Maybe we just need to get used to
              a new performance idiom?  Still, this is an incredible
              achievement, unquestionably the tour de force of COMMUSIC
              V.  A top fiver.  Maybe the best thing to show up on *any* 
              COMMUSIC compilation, ever.
              
              "Suite Pt. I:..." starts out in the "new Karl" style
              (a la "Walk In Music" from COMMUSIC IV) but then the piano 
              comes in and it's the "old Karl" again.  Paradiddle rhythm
              block chords.  The same progressions.  I think it's Karl's
              improvisational style that I'm hearing, something that was 
              kept under control (actually, in abeyance) by the explicit
              sequencing of "Easter Morning".
              
              Then "The Minefield".  This is Karl improvising a romantic
              era piano concerto, again.  Karl, why don't you just sit
              down and *write* one, and get it out of your system once
              and for all, instead of screwing around improvising the
              same pseudogenre time after time.  I say this out of 
              frustration with your "fiddling and diddling" around your
              substantial keyboard chops and tasty intuitions. 
              
              
	    o Dan Eaton

		- He is a Rock
              
              This just didn't work for me.  I couldn't make out some of 
              the words, but in general I react badly to being evangelized.
              This may be a consequence of my Evangelical Lutheran 
              upbringing ("thanks, I've already heard the spiel"), but I
              feel uncomfortably like I'm being unfair and unobjective.
              I'll also admit to being put off by militant Christian
              metaphors (of which "Onward Christian Soldiers" is probably
              the most obvious example).  I couldn't hear some of the 
              words well enough to tell if this was warranted, but some of
              my guesses ("spear", "shield") fit.
              
              This all says less about the music than it does about me,
              so this is not exactly helpful criticism.  But I couldn't
              get far enough past my biases, prejudices and blind spots
              to hear anything else well enough to comment usefully.
              Sorry, Dan (for whom and whose work I have the greatest
              respect), I owe you one.  

              
	    o Dave Dreher

		- One Good Dream
		- Seasons
		- Need You Tonite

              This is definitely the Drehers (I almost said "definitely
              Drehery", but for all its cleverness that would have been
              inaccurate).  Super well produced, but no surprises.
              Almost predictable.  A whole record of this stuff would be 
              like a ten course meal, with each course consisting of 
              Frosted Flakes and cream.  Now, I *like* Frosted Flakes and 
              cream (hey, you know the meaning of reckless self-indulgence?)
              but after a while you lose your frame of reference and it's
              just sweet glop.  Since I've done a lot of work with Dave 
              and Ellen and Ron, perhaps this is just a case of 
              "familiarity breeds contempt"?
              
              One of the tunes seemed to have some mic noises, as if 
              someone were bumping into the mic.  I only made one really 
              careful listen to the tape on my home system (the other 
              half dozen or so passes were in the car), so this may be
              an artifact of my ears/mind.

                            
	    o Tom Janzen

		- Goldberg Variations (Bach)
		- Caterpillar Blews
		- Sacre

              I know Tom's capable of more interesting music than rehashing
              timbrally minimal covers of classical excerpts.  Maybe
              comparison with the PDP-11 stuff is worthwhile, but I'm
              not likely to actually do the side-by-side, and I doubt 
              anyone else is.  I know Caterpillar Blews from a long time 
              ago.  The timbral changes in the Goldberg Variations are
              gratuitous at best, and occur on the bar lines rather than 
              on the phrase beginnings.  I can hear old JS rolling over 
              in his grave.
              
              An incredible disappointment, Tom.  You may disparage 
              everybody else's submissions to this compilation, but 
              they at least gave us something they felt was representative,
              not just throwaways.  You owe your audience (and we *are* 
              your audience, even if you'd rather a more "sophisticated"
              crowd) a little more respect.  This space on the tape 
              could have been put to better use.

                            
	    o Tom Benson

		- Jingle Jangle Jingle

              Another fave.  This had me laughing out loud (I hope you're 
              not insulted by that, Tom).  This struck me as a sort of 
              psychedelicized stereotypical cowboy song.  Great stuff,
              and unique too.  A top fiver.
              

    len.
    

    Here's a quick review based on only one listen:
    
    My favorites are Karl Moeller's first two pieces, Tom Janzen's pieces,
    Peter LaQuerre's first piece, and Tom Benson's wonderfully funny (and
    musical!) coda to the tape.  "The Minefield" would have been another
    favorite were it about half as long. 
    
    I cannot figure out what Event Horizon is trying to do.  I once went to
    a composer's seminar with Alan Hovhaness, and somebody criticized a
    student's piece for not going anywhere, and Hovhaness said "I like
    music that doesn't go anywhere."  Well, I can enjoy music that goes
    somewhere slowly, or that doesn't go anywhere, but the moments
    themselves need to be aurally interesting for it to work for me.  Both
    this and the earlier Event Horizon tape go somewhere very slowly, with
    what to me are uninteresting sounds.  Do the creators hear things in
    the sounds that I don't, or hear relationships that I don't?  Any
    suggestions for a way to get into this music?

    I wrote my review from memory, and posted it without first relistening
    to the tape to confirm my recollections.  I suspected there would
    be some mistakes, and there were.
    
    First, when I relistened to Steve Sherman's piece, it was clear
    that it was an overlooked top fiver.  And it gets extra points for
    having a real ending.  The sampled guitar is only obvious because
    of the descending sequence at the beginning - you can hear the internal
    details of the sample slowing down with the pitch.  This could easily
    be fixed by using multiple samples.  Ah, being glib comes so easy
    for us critics!
    
    I want to single out the nice drum machine programming in Steve
    Sherman's piece, and in the third Dreher tune.
    
    The remark about "paradiddle rhythm block chords" in Karl Moeller's
    "Suite Pt. I" really belongs to "The Minefield".  And the concerto
    remark is a little inappropriate given the absence of any orchestral
    accompaniment, although I do seem to hear some occasional string
    bass like sounds.  Be that as it may, consider it an (over?)extended
    cadenza to the concerto I *know* (don't you just love it when other
    people *know* something about you) Karl really wants to write.
    
    Only a few of the timbral changes in Tom's cover of Bach's Goldberg
    Variations don't follow the phrasing, at least to my ears, but the
    timbres used are still a bit on the hokey side.  Still, do we really
    need expressively wooden covers of classics?  Getting the notes
    right and the sounds close is the easiest part of the challenge.
    If anybody else did something like this, Tom would tear them to
    shreds, uh, make that, uh, justifiably criticize their naivete.
    
    Lest the overall tone of my review be misinterpreted, let me remind
    people that most of this stuff was at least competent (Event Horizon
    being the most glaring exception), just unextraordinary.  Maybe it's
    unfair or unreasonable to expect more that, but it certainly speaks
    highly of earlier efforts if they set such expectations.
    
    And yes, I'm trying to get my act together and finish a few ongoing
    projects for COMMUSIC VI (sound familiar?) so you can all have a
    shot at me next time.  So as to set up some expectations for me
    to disappoint, I'll probably be submitting my (respectful) covers of
    two oldies classics ("Maybe" and "In the Still of the Night") featuring
    my mellifluous singing voice, as well as an original instrumental
    and a new constructivist work, "Night Shift at the Synth Factory".
    
    len.
    

Ok I'll jump in with a belated review, since my tape decks are all
non-functioning I used my wife's system for finishing the review. She had
some comments which, in the spirit of getting a wider review audience, I've
decided to add to mine.

Paul Kent

me: good stuff Knoffler-ish to some extent, good performance, decent recording
technique, minor nit too much compression, especially on the 2nd song.
(speaking of which was the 2nd one a cover, I know I've heard that bass
riff before)

wife: too much compression, dynamics similar to muzak (elevator music) too
bad as the songs themselves are worth a listen.

Dave Bottom: she hates the cymbals too, in agreement with Len....stuck
    her tounge out and said I told you so�

Event Horizon:

me: huh?
           m   m   m
her: Ohmmmm m m m m m
             m   m   m
                      m
                       m
John Williams:

me: obviously sequenced, not bad but felt incomplete to me, I guess I
eventually expected some words. Synth patches pretty good but a bit smooth
or over processed sounding to me (I like raw edges). production good, again
a bit too much compression or something took the punch out of it.

wife: is this just background music� Non-offensive but missing something.

Pete LaQuerre
      
me: I like this stuff, good synth line, good drums, good vocals, needs guitar
( chuckle:-) ) a steely dan style of player would do good with the material.
             
her: my favorite, good feeling, has personality, peaceful cruzin' music

Steve Sherman
        
me: this is a nice song dear listen up...thought the guitar sample (was
sample eh?) was well used, made me want to boogie

her: Oh this has pizzazz, punch sharp edges is good, sort of a detective
music kind of thing another fav

Karl Moeller: 

Easter Morning: 

me: nice job getting this to sound almost real, truly needs squeaks otherwise
I'd be convinced                 

her: best of the three
            
other two:

me: performance shows, as always, Karl is one of best musicians around but this
doesn't seem to go anywhere, go get a job playing for a real good band like Yes
or someone with class and stop fooling around, has no direction. 

her: Liked Still Life better. Are these experiments just to learn something?
Karl you're too good to continue to play with yourself like this. The high
strings in Suite pt. 1 drove me crazy, sounds like someone is torturing small
animals in the back room and it leaking onto tape...
                      

Dan Eaton

me: was impressed with piano line in particular. Drum program seemed good
to me. Not my style of music but good for it's genre. 

her: Not a bad song, not my style, but as good as anything else I've heard in
that style. Maybe cheer up god after listening to near infinite versions of
bringing in the sheaves etc. :-) Squeaky clean production. 

Dave Dreher

me: as always probably the most superior production, good vocals, good
performance, love that Linn sound, these covers are as good as the originals.

her: I've heard these before eh? (me yup covers) Is good.

Tom Janzen

me: I had no problem with the fact that Caterpillar Blews was on the tape,
although I had heard it before didn't have copy. Otherwise oscillator heaven
too undynamic, too computerized boring... Agree with Len, you owe your audience
some consideration, not throwaways, especially since you are so cavalier with
us. 

her: yawn...they teach children how to do stuff like this (C. Blews) in early
piano lessons...

Tom Benson 

me: best laugh on the tape...good production, think what he could have done
with Rawhide if didn't know words...

her: my fav (heard that before right) laughs, enjoyable

Generic comments: These are exclusively mine. I guess I'm turning into a snob
but the drum machines with very few exceptions left me cold, they sounded like
drum machines, not the programs but the sounds themselves were recognizably
drum machines, guess owning an HR has spoiled me. Sequenced stuff was in some
cases very sequenced and stiff sounding, is main reason why I resist the
temptation to buy a sequencer and a rack of synths...doubtful I could do
better. Exception is Moeller stuff, but that was played into sequencer if I
recall, not sequenced from scratch. 

Overall the sound of the tape was superior to all previous in terms of the
quality of the copying, good job db!                

Special thanks to Karl for sampling a guitar, the wife is now interested
in a sampler! Got her attention, it did. So we discussed how to build a
system the right way...she wants one them kurzweil things and a KX 88 and
a sampler and......I grinned and told her to get job :-) (Payback!)

Congrats to all contributors, tis a brave thing you do, I found the tape to be
very listenable. Looking forward to the next ten or so anyway. 
    
db of the north                                                

ps: Len we've heard this before, you got mucho toyz, get off yer backside
and contribute!
    

   Admitting the possibility that I hadn't given "Beyond the Event Horizon"
   a fair break, I went back and listened to it several (over a half
   dozen) times last night, back to back.  I listened to it at deafening
   levels just in case that was necessary.  I listened to it through 
   headphones, in case that was necessary.  I listened to it a lot.
   
   I didn't change my mind.
   
   Now, I'm sympathetic to the concept of apparently "static" music that 
   subtly changes over time.  I've written a few pieces based on that 
   idea myself.  And I've bored more than a few people with these 
   concept pieces.  So, it's not the concept of BtEH that offends me,
   but the flawed execution of the concept.  I remember some paintings
   done back in the '60s that appear on superficial examination to be one
   large field all the same color.  But after staring at the painting for
   a while, subtly different colored squares would appear.  The usual 
   reaction was, "Hey, that's a pretty neat trick".

   I'd expect BtEH to have the same effect.  But instead of a "Wow"
   response, it first evokes (for me, at least) a reaction of "when is
   this going to get interesting?", and shortly afterwards, "when is this 
   going to end?".  Yes, there are some "subtle" changes.  The internal
   voicing of the repeated until soporific chord progression does appear
   to change.  If you listen to BtEH at high enough levels long enough,
   the aural fatigue engendered by that obnoxious lead voice patch (which
   I could have gotten by letting my Super Jupiter drift out of tune, 
   and then applying too much chorus to its "cheesy synth" patch) makes
   the bass line a little more apparent, and you can hear that the bass
   part noodles around somewhat, sometimes following the chords, sometimes
   doing its own thing.  The bass patch, like the lead voice, is an 
   obnoxious sound, almost a raw square wave, that belies any 
   sophistication of programming.
  
   BtEH fails miserably at what has been, and will continue to be, a
   valid conceptual basis for music.
    
   So what I hear remains little more than ugly sounds played in 
   uninteresting ways for far too long (I clocked BtEH at 7:06).  I've
   done (I'm not so presumptuous as to assert there was any "writing"
   involved) a three minute piece that consists solely of a pure C major
   chord, whose voicing shifts among various sounds, with some rhythmic
   punctuation supplied by a tam-tam.  I find it far more interesting than
   BtEH, but I suppose BtEH's perpetrators themselves find their musical
   afflatus interesting too.  This is the phenomenon of self-indulgence,
   and I have to consider BtEH an example of the sort of "oh wow" self
   indulgence that was common during the recreational drug induced 
   stupor of the '60s.
   
   I'm a little distressed that more than a few COMMUSIC noters who 
   share this opinion have limited their support of my position to behind
   the scenes "awright, len, that's telling it like it is". 
   
   Enough on BtEH.
   
   
   Dan Eaton asked me to reconsider "He Is a Rock", at least the drums.
   So I did.  I have two observations about the drum programming:
   
   	1) it is superbly well integrated into the song, in terms of
   	   "ensemble" playing.  The drums, while elaborate (see next 
   	   point), never draw attention to themselves.
   
   	2) it exploits an enormously broad palette of drumming "spice",
   	   little things that drummers do to avoid boredom while playing
   	   or to make a song less mundane.  There must be literally dozens
   	   of these scattered throughout the song.  Were it not for the
   	   effective ensemble integration, this variety would be 
   	   intrusive and annoying.  As it is, it works quite well, but I
   	   wonder if Dan hasn't "used up" all his spices now! 

   Beyond the drums, I had a few other observations.  I thought the bridge
   (I think the lyrics of the first bridge go something like "I called 
   out for my God, I cried unto my Lord"?) was a little weak, timbre-wise.
   In the second bridge, the brass hits just don't work and are 
   distracting.  Overall, there's a lot of (but apparently not "too much")
   verse to verse variation.  Catching all the "one shots" is an 
   interesting exercise.
   
    len (who has a lot of rough mixes and "almost" finished stuff but
    will make the old college try to get some stuff on COMMUSIC VI so
    you can all get even).
   

Paul Kent.  Great songs. I like PK's stuff alot. Great songwriter.
      Some of the bass patches were a bit too buzzy for me here and there.
      In fact, I would have prefered some different patches for some of
      the parts, but still like the songs very much.
      The Instrumental is my favorite piece on the entire tape.
      I will listen to it over and over again.

Dave Bottom. Sounds great for the genre. As far as I can tell, you're a
      pro at this type stuff. I won't listen to it much though, since it's
      just not my style.

BtEH. Minimalism is my style, so I might have liked this one alot if it
      were not for the overly bright patches in the front of the mix.
      I won't be listening to this song anymore, though I would have
      if that patch (or set of patches) were out of there.

John Williams. Overall, this music is too "playful" fo me. I like most
      of the melodies. The bass is usually too "busy" for me, and the
      drums too plain. Overall mechanical feel. The keyboard patch on
      Games From The Void had too much sustain for me. I will occasionally
      listen to these pieces when listening to the tape again in the future.

Peter LaQuerre.  First song is too mellow for me, as is much of Peter's
      music. But the second song I like alot - best PL yet. I especially
      liked the vocals.

Steve Sherman. Good variety of changes, good dynamics, lot's of
      expression. I like the melodies/harmonies very much. Good implementation
      too. I will listen to this whenever I pop the tape in.
      I thought the "bottom distorted" guitar was great, especially the
      way you used it (that is when your phrases "fall into" it), but
      I didn't like the lead guitar type stuff or when you used the
      pitch bend.

Karl Moeller. Easter certainly shows your excellent technique.
      I prefer more structure (or a more simplified structure) though.
      Same goes for the Suite.
      Of the three, I liked the Procession the best. Those soundtrack
      strings keep my attention. I liked the Minefield mostly because
      I like tense music alot, and this one offers long periods of tension.
      The Minefield could have been shorter for me. I will probably
      pass on Easter, but continue to listen to the Suite in the future.

Dan Eaton. The music is great. From what I can hear behind the vocals,
      this sounds like a really good song. I like
      the progressions. The vocals don't do anything for me. In fact,
      the vocals are distracting. I won't be listening to this piece
      in the future.

Dave Dreher/Ron Ross. Great songwriting. Great production. Almost perfect
      pop tunes. Keys, guitar, drum programming are great. Some of the
      cymbal sounds are iffy. Vocals are very good. I'll listen to these
      pieces over and over again.

Tom Janzen.  Interesting. I will only listen to the Blews in the future,
      even though it has what sounds to me like a cliche left hand.

Tom Benson. Great production. I won't listen to this piece in the future
      only because it's not my style.

/Mitch

ps. I would love to hear more pieces like those
    by Rob Davis on COMMUSIC II.

	I got my tape on Monday at the special addition LERDS-BIM.
I've listened to the tape several times.  Some general comments:
Side A suffers from a case of the "wimpy" drums.  I liked side B
better.  I'm going to approach my review from the stand point of a
producer.


Paul Kent

    1)	Snare way back in mix, hi-hat also buried.  Good song writing.
	Guitar sounds a little out of tune.  Lead guitar too loud, need
	more bottom on bass.  Mix doesn't have much 'depth'.

    2)  Funny Buzz on high bass note.  Good tune.  Potential for a
	*GREAT* groove.  Snare better than first tune.  Where's the kick?
	Needs a pad, too many "tinny" timbers.

    3)  Best mix of the three, nice drum programming.  Kick too "clicky" -
	needs more bottom.  Pad smooths this one out.  Cheesy guitar sample.
	Paul, you have great song writing but need to work on your production.

Dave Bottom

    1)  Sounds a little like "Eat a Peach" era Allman Bros.  Lead guitar too
	loud, drums too far back in mix.  Too much crash and open hi-hat.
	Great vocal - right on key, and great guitar playing.  Weak snare.

Event Horizon

    1)  This is a joke, right?  Layered lead synth patches too loud, synths out
	of tune, really obnoxious.  Tune goes nowhere.  When is this going to
	end?  Later on, sounds like something interesting (guitar) going on
	but it's too far back in that synth drone.  You guys got signed?  No
	wonder the record company went under after signing stuff like this.

John Williams

    1)  More reverb than Brian Adams.  Is that the Grand Canyon program?
	Lead line too up front in mix.  Bass and drums buried.  Where's the
	kick?  Don't put reverb on bass like that, a touch is okay.  Way 
	too much reverb. 

    2)  Same as above.  Midi pad over-riding piano.

    3)  Bass and drums buried, all I hear is the vibraphone patch.


Peter Laquerre

    1)  Wimpy drums, too far back in mix.  Crash cymbal hits out of nowhere.
	Sparse arrangement,  nice guitar in middle.  A little too light for my
	taste.

    2)  Hi-hat sounds like a steam valve opening and closing.  Both these tunes
	sound dry and flat.  They need more "depth".  Some reverb would help.
	Vocal has character and is in key.


SIDE B


Steve Sherman

    1)  Great tune and sequence, grooves right along.  Great bass line.
	I'd love to replace that sampled guitar with a real one.  Good
	programming all the way around, nice mix.

Karl Moeller

    1)  I always like Karl's stuff.  This piece is a departure.  Almost
	convincing.  A couple of phrases in the middle are impossible on
	guitar and give it away as a keyboard.  Great clean sound, reverb gives
	it "air".

    2)  Dark and Moody, sound track type stuff.  Love those string samples.
	Mood of impending Doom.  Could use some more ochestration.

    3)  Great piano technique.  I like this also.  A little too long.
	Very easy to listen too.  Karl, use more variety of timbers.
	What you do sounds great, but it is only part of what it can be.

Dan Eatond

    1)  Sounds like a nice tune under there but I agree with Len and Mitch
	that the out of tune, too upfront vocal is very distracting.
	Find a real singer.  Drums are too far back in the mix.  Wimpy
	snare.

Drehers,Ron Ross

	These tunes are a collaborative effort of Ron, Ellen and myself.
	They are not just my tunes.  Davo contributed to "Season" and
	Angel Chime was a co-writer and singer on "Need You Tonight".

    One Good Dream
        Hmmmm, a review of one's self?  I would like to start this one
	differently, more of an intro of piano with the drums and bass
	doing something before settling into the groove.  Tune needs more
	embellishments.  Engineering screw up - vocal has no chorus effect
	and is not loud enough after break but does recover.  Should have
	solo guitar in background at end.  Great chords by Rock'n'Ron.

    Seasons
        Snare too loud when drums kick in, lead at end sloppy.	
	I like the beginning of this one the best.

    Need You Tonight
	Crankin' intro by Ron. There are some engineering screw ups.  The
	abrupt cutoff is cause by a Gate left on.  This is not intentional.
	Ellen and Angel Chimes belt this one.

Tom Janzen 

    Caterpillar blews
	A boogie woogie bass line with a syncopated seventh chord.
	Big deal...Karl did this when he was 7....	

    Bach and Stravinski
	Len said it best - "wooden sequences and hokey timbres of classics"
	I agree 100% with Lens review.  I'll take it a step further, though.
	This stuff was done by programmers 20 yrs ago when I was 11.
	Tom, you're phony.  I don't think you have *any* music worthwhile
	and your whole act as the eccentric, disillusioned, elitist artist is
	a gimmick for attention, your "performance art".  At least Karl
	produces product and makes no excuses.

Tom Benson

	This tune is perfect for Doctor Demento's radio hour.  Well produced
	and original percussion.  Not my cup of tea.


Dave
              

I don't go out of my way to listen to rock, but I found this an interesting
exercise.  Many of the things on this tape are up to the same quality
(including production) as what can be heard on MTV.  Not that MTV is
necessarily great; just that this stuff is not any worse.  You could be getting
money for this.  The only thing you lack is the thing that makes the music
business go: promotion.

I did not have the liner notes or previous reviews in mind as I wrote this. My
comments are mostly about the musical forms rather than the technical
execution. 

It's all a game (Kent) -------------------------------------------
The vocal sounds like it was telephoned in.  Possibly a chorus unit doing this?
Very ssssibilant esses. Guitar solo a little too loud.  Drum level good, but
cymbal is monotonous and not very realistic. Accompaniment gets monotonous;
there could be a piano break.  The guitar solo seemed a bit loud in proportion
to the rest. The song itself is nice.  Good lyric/melody match. No ending,
though. 

It's because of you (Kent)  -------------------------------------------
Doesn't really get going until after I expected it to.  The 4 measures just
before the entrance of the voice seemed extraneous to me. Bass guitar part is a
little too forward.  The warbling voice reminds me of Greg Brown. 
Accompaniment is monotonous here, too.  And no ending on this one, either.

The Instrumental  (Kent) -----------------------------------------------
Another boring accompaniment, this time without a melody in front of it.
It does have a second theme (the slow part), but then it suddenly stops.

Ain't found nothing (Bottom) ------------------------------------------
Vocal slightly distorted.  My wife made me turn this off.  Distorted guitars
and ungrammatical lyrics are not things we usually listen to.  Another
unexpected sudden ending.

Beyond the event Horizon (Yerazunis et al) -----------------------------
Did you guys make this up as you went along?  Goes absolutely noplace. A lot of
equipment used to no effect. Sonically more boring than any "space music" I've
ever heard.  For something to listen to while lying on your back with your head
between the speakers, I suggest "The Procession" on side B. 

Rule of Thumb (Williams) -----------------------------------------------
Interesting bass line, but it gets muddy and hard to follow.  Is this a
variation on the theme from "St. Elsewhere"?  The Electric Piano sound gets
tiring after a while.  Another sudden ending.

Games from the Void (Williams) -----------------------------------------
Monotonous drums.  Muddy acompaniment instrumentation makes it difficult to
follow the melody.  The bell-like sound gets tiring fast in a very repetitive
6-note pattern.  No ending on this one.

Caught between Hemispheres (Williams) ---------------------------------
The first 16 measures are an awfully monotonous introduction.  Dull-sounding
electronic drums. Uh oh. It turns out that that that boring "introduction" was
in fact a statement of the theme.  Some later elaboration starts to sound
interesting, then it lapses back to the basic theme. Then comes a pattern that
sounds like it is working up to an ending, repeats several times, then goes off
somewhere else.  Then, at the real ending, it just stops.  I'd suggest using
that buried ending sequence at the real ending. 

No one's paying attention (LaQuerre) -----------------------------------
The conga part is a bit loud.  The vocal part is way too low, and when you
strain to listen to that, the drum really assaults your ears.  The loudest
part of this is the percussion; everything else is too soft.

A state of mind (LaQuerre) ------------------------------------------------
Drum part too loud here, too.  But at least you can hear the other parts. Nice
solo/chorus alternation.  Pleasant to listen to. The solo vocal is swallowing
the ends of the lines so it is hard to make out the words.  A fade-out ending,
but better than nothing. 

No excuses (Sherman)  ----------------------------------------------------
Opening is awfully distorted.  A brass chorus that does pitch bends?  Or
a chorus of anything that does *synchonized* pitch bends?  The drum part
on this is a lot more interesting than the A-side pieces.

Easter Morning (Moeller) -----------------------------------------
Although some of this, particular toward the middle, could not be played
on a real guitar, it might be possible on a harp guitar.  (See latest issue
of Frets.)  What spoiled the effect for me was not the lack of squeeks,
but the clunky attacks.  It sounds like somebody using a pick made out of
quarter-inch plywood.  Some trills are a little too fast, I think.

I played this for my wife without telling her what it was.  It was while we
were doing the dishes, so any sonic clues as to its origin were masked. She
loved it.  Asked if it was Liona Boyd.  When I told her it was a guy at work,
she was dissapointed, but still liked it.  When I told her it was a synthesizer
being played from a keyboard, she said "that's not fair". 

The Procession (Moeller)  --------------------------------------------
I envision this as the opening title theme to the movie version of Michael
Crichton's recent novel "Sphere". Kind of frustrating, because when you hear
the piano enter you expect it to go somewhere, but then it soon lapses back
into the two-chord pattern. The orchestration is very clear; you can hear all
the parts.  Good low strings.  Very good use of dynamics.  You can tell when
the ending is coming in this one.  Well done.

The Minefield (Moeller) ----------------------------------------------
Hard to listen to.  Some parts reminded me of Gershwin.  Some tantalizing
string parts here and there, suggesting the piano concerto that might be.

He is a rock (Eaton) --------------------------------------------------
Good piano part.  Musically, I found this piece to never be dull.  Nice key
change at 0:52 in. The lyrics go well with the melody.  Good song form.  But
you should get someone else to sing for you.  You can really hear the ending
coming in this one, with an excellent build to a climax (1:55 to 2:13). But the
subsequent twenty-two measures of cymbal eighth notes got a little tiring.
(Does it count as "Christian Rock" when the text is from the Old Testament?) 

One good dream (Dreher) --------------------------------------------
I thought disco was dead.  Very professional sound, though.

Seasons (Dreher) ----------------------------------------------------------
A pretty song for the first 60 seconds, then the kind of drumming that will
drive me out of a room.  Like being hit in the forehead with a two-by-four
every other beat.  Snares aside, I like this one the best of the three Dreher
contributions.  One of the best songs on the tape.

Need you tonight (Dreher) -----------------------------------------------
More discoish than One Good Dream.  Cut off at the end on my copy. Still, a
very professional sound. I just prefer dance music that doesn't have any drums
at all. 

Goldberg variations (Janzen) ----------------------------------------------
Mildly interesting voicing changes at the end, but not worth it.

Caterpillar Blews (Janzen) ---------------------------------------------
Ok idea for elaboration, but only a sketch in this form.

Sacre (Janzen) --------------------------------------------------------
If you ran out of time entering this, then you shouldn't have bothered to send
it in.  I feel like I'm trying to grade the penmanship of a typed manuscript.
All I can say is that your typewriter has good penmanship, but you aren't
saying anything with it.  In the meantime, please spare us your typing
exercises. 

Jingle Jangle Jingle (Benson) ------------------------------------------
This just shows how much fun you can have playing "cover tunes." The kitchen
utensil percussion was a nice touch.  My wife objects to goofy arrangements of
"classics", but they are my passion. 

This tape was not nearly as fun as Commusic IV's fusion feel...
IV was in my car player for weeks... I had to push myself to listen 
enough to do this review.. now I understand.  We can do better.  
Steve Sherman and Tom Benson were the notable exceptions.  

	It's all a game (Kent) -------------------------
Something's out of tune here. Midtempo, kind of dull.

	It's because of you (Kent)-------------------------
'Poor me, it's all YOUR fault' lyric. Midtempo, ditto.

	The Instrumental  (Kent) -------------------------
Smooth.  Fb01 'fingered portamento' lead works well. The breakdown in 
timing at the end doesn't work for me.  There's a synth pattern that is
slightly out of tune.  

Overall, these pieces were very similar, in that they're midtempo and 
return to a 2-chord progression.  Un-exciting.  Not Paul's best.

	Ain't found nothing (Bottom)-------------------------
Big, over-reverbed 12string guitar bed. Satisfying lead tracks. A nice
departure from da blooze.  Liked the verses, but the deliberately
ungrammatical chorus doesn't work for me.  Very bright and clean 
recording.  No distortion evident.

	Beyond the event Horizon (Yerazunis et al) ----------------
Grim.  These guys are still yelling at each other and haven't learned 
a thing. New Age Nightmare. Literally, not metaphorically, <FF> material.  

	Rule of Thumb (Williams) -------------------------
Pleasant progression in search of a melody.

	Games from the Void (Williams) -------------------------
Better, more imaginative arrangement and timbres.  The bassline uses a
motif from 'Rule of Thumb'.  Actually sounds like a rearrangement or 
continuation of 'Rule of Thumb'. I like the section where a bright 
patch plays 12/8 over the 4/4 background.  Dislike the 'swing' drums.

        Caught between Hemispheres (Williams) -------------------------
Better drum programming.  Dropping unison riff seems to have one too
many notes.  (yeah,yeah, cheap Mozart jokes..) This is the most successful 
of the three pieces.  Try to expand your arrangements; each piece has 
three parts, drums, bass and a single keyboard part.

	No one's paying attention (LaQuerre) -------------------------
Pleasant harmonies, what else.. kind of tortured rhymes, 'contention' 
and 'attention', repeatedly.  Interesting concept for lyrics, anyhow.

	A state of mind (LaQuerre) -------------------------
Dread 'swing' beat. Enjoyed the 'call & response' lyric.  Pleasant 
'marimba' playing.  Enjoyable. The arrangements are a quantum leap 
forward from the last material of Peter's we heard.  

	No excuses (Sherman)  -------------------------
I remember reading a Freff article in Keyboard where he discussed surprises
in arrangements, and gave an example of having a hole in the music suddenly 
reveal a sampled guitar power chord.  Moves into a dynamite groove.
Very good drum programming.  Good use of abrupt stops.. good timbre 
choices.  Really sounds alive.  Excellent 'floater' ending. One of the
top two on the tape for me.

	Easter Morning (Moeller) -------------------------
ee-eeek   scrawwwwwwkk - kkk  vvvvvttt-!  I found the missing squeaks.
If I was less honest I'd have edited OUT the non-guitar-like parts. As
if that was the only goal of the piece...

	The Procession (Moeller) -------------------------
This piece was essentially a test-bed for some string arranging. 
I have a lot to learn.

	The Minefield (Moeller) -------------------------
I'm kind of sorry I put this one on.. it hasn't aged well.  I like the
last third of the piece.  Too tense overall.  As an experiment, I 
used Performer's own editing capabilities to create the string tracks
from the piano part. Strings are sweetener at best.  

	He is a rock (Eaton) -------------------------
Minor theme verses work well, nice synth swirls on top. Chorus is
predictable.  Needs some reverb to give some space.  

	One good dream (Drehers/Ross)   -------------------------
	Seasons (Drehers/Ross)          -------------------------
	Need you tonight (Drehers/Ross) -------------------------
Good grooves, need more keys.  Excellent production values, playing and 
singing. These pieces have very lightweight lyrics; Stacey Q meets Saga.
Ron/Dave play well off each other, Ellen excellent as usual. I now know 
what Dave Bottom meant by 'covers': this material is so relentlessly 
radio-ready that some of the fun seems ironed out of it.  

	Goldberg variations (Janzen) -----------------------
The musical equivalent of Paint-By-Numbers.  <FF>

	Caterpillar Blews (Janzen) -------------------------
Null idea. Basically bankrupt. Clean recording.  <FF>.  

	Jingle Jangle Jingle (Benson) -------------------------
Cowboys on psilocybin.  Wonderful !  Delirious.  Tight, clean production.
The frenzied power-chord guitar lead was perfect.  Had me laughing..
Comedy cowboy rock, what a concept.  More !

  I have listened to the tape many times now and must admit that the only
  things I still listen to are Steve Sherman's, Dan Eatons, and Tom Benson's
  pieces.  Dave Dreher et al. are very good and well produced, just not my 
  style.  They still get a little bit of an ear now and then.

  Currently my good friend has the tape.  His first hearing said good things
  about Steve Sherman's pieces, Dave Drehers (compared it to Alan Parsons sound)
  and he really liked Tom Bensons.

  Chad