Cranial Overgrowth (cranial.it)

Posted by Kruser on Fri 25th Jul 2003, rated 6 / 10.

Synthpop is probably not the best description of this song's genre, since it contains a lot of variation in its melody. The rhythm is dance-like and that is the only thing that does not change significantly throughout the song's duration and spans all its 3 parts: 1) The beginning and middle part, based on a rather hyped octave bass progression that spans 5 octaves (!!!). The melody revolves around this fast-paced bass and develops seemingly spontaneously, even though it may appear at times that sounds are randomly placed; at a whole, it works out quite nicely and there is enough variation. 2) The transition, that is a sort of a drum solo. It is rather short, but serves well to prepare the listener for the last part. 3) The last part does not provide a lot of variation with different sounds, but rather with key changes, as the melody progression variates through several modulations. The ending could have been worked on a bit more, since it is rather sudden. This song is tracked in .IT format, but it could really have been an .S3M: it uses no instruments and all the samples are 8-bit. The samples are well chosen and variable enough, though the loops could be improved. There is a good choice of effects used, especially in the first part, though it appears as if the effect values have been chosen in a more experimental way than anything; it still works out, though, and sounds well enough. All in all, this is a song that sticks to a certain form throughout its entire length, with a bit of technical experimenting and a fair amount of melodical vatiation, which gives a good overall sound.