This piece has chill written all over it. Indeed, a good thing. This piece is «Upside Dawn» (the site says Upside Down, but the codecs say otherwise), a Trip Hop entry from Dreamlin. Nice beats, smooth keys, and cosmic effects all serve you a frothy mug of plain chill.

The beat here is like hip-hop, just not so heavy. Seems more like jazz, actually, but whatever the beat really is doesn’t matter. It makes a nice first impression on you, to charm you a bit.

Tossed into this downtempo goodness are some soft and tender keys, holding up the melody end. These have a heavy jazz influence, no question. A lot that puts the smooth in smooth jazz is to be found here.

Another key element is the synth effects. Spacy melodies float around within this piece, giving it a «Lounge on Saturn» feel. Many different types are used, to add different dimensions all within the same plane. This is what seems to make the piece more like electronica, and less like jazz. Either way is fine with me, really.

Production quality is decent, and every entity within the piece blends extremely well. The only problem apparent is the lack of unique-ness. I can’t say this is something totally different and innovative. But whether a song is unique or not doesn’t make it good or bad.

This piece offers a good helping of laid-back groove. Sit back and give it a few listens. It goes down as smooth as molasses, and feels good all the way.

Hunter H.

Charisma: 9.00
Technical Skill: 8.00
Interest: 6.00
Recording Quality: 6.50
Long Term Appeal: 5.00
OVERALL: 6.90

Original text here: [ >>> ]